Yesterday was my first Father’s Day, and it was absolutely wonderful. The weather was just perfect, and even though my team lost in our family softball game, I did hit two homeruns!
My wonderful wife bought me Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters, a book that a reader suggested a while ago. I am looking forward to reading that for sure.
One night last week, I can’t remember which, my wife and I watched the Best Picture winner The King’s Speech, and I must say I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Colin Firth most certainly deserved the Oscar, as he was abolutely tremendous. The back and forth dialogue between he and Geoffrey Rush was fantastic, and personally, I think Rush was every bit as good as Firth. In many ways he made the movie.
While many might think this is a stuffy period piece, it was actually quite funny as I found myself laughing out load repeatedly throughout the movie. While some contend that some of the historical elements of this movie were not perfectly accurate, I do have to point out that it is not a documentary, it is a movie. Complete historical accuracy is not required.
Overall I found the direction to be excellent, the feel of the period to be spot on and the acting to be absolutely superb. This was a highly enjoyable and uplifting movie and definitely deserves to be seen.
Well we are back from our little get-away to California. I must say if it wasn’t for the traffic and $4.20/gal for gas, I think I would love to live near the San Diego area. It is absolutely beautiful, and I could definitely get used to 60-75 degrees year round! Especially since it is actually snowing in Maine right now!
While out relaxing in CA I was able to get some sunshine and catch up on some reading that I have wanted to do for months and months. I was pumped about that.
What was also cool was on the flight out there, they showed True Grit on the plane. While I haven’t taken a flight where a movie was provided in a long time, somehow I don’t remember them playing recent Oscar nominees!
John Forestell is one of my best friends and is an absolute movie fanatic, even more so than I am. He compiled a list of his Oscar predictions that I thought were rather interesting, so I thought I would share them with you guys. Unfortunately I haven’t seen many of the movies or performances nominated, so it is hard to give an accurate assessment myself.
John is one of three people who’s movie opinions I trust whole-heartedly, along with my cousin Nicholas and Tony Gentilcore, so he does have excellent taste. On to the predictions.
Best Picture
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King’s Speech
127 Hours
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter’s Bone
Who the Academy will choose: “The King’s Speech”. The Academy absolutely adores films such as “The King’s Speech”, an endearing British political drama based on the relationship between the stuttering King George VI and his speech therapist, Lionel Lague, who helped the King overcome his public speech impediment.
Who I think deserves to win: While the Academy, for whatever mind boggling reason, decided to leave “Blue Valentine” off it’s nominations list, the only other film that could contest with the “The King’s Speech” this year was “The Social Network.” “The Social Network” was an exceptionally well done film, but, “The King’s Speech” is the Academy’s bread and butter and I don’t believe they will be buttering a different type of loaf this year. With “Blue Valentine” (my favorite film of the year) not being on this list, my oscar goes to: “The King’s Speech.”
I am very pleased to announce the newly available BSP Training & Nutrition Newsletter!
To sign up simply fill in the info on your right, and you will have immediate access to some cool stuff. I plan on this newsletter functioning as my RSS feed, as at the end of each week I will provide a small recap and link to each blog post so you can catch up on anything that you may have missed. This will also allow me to see which content and blog posts people read the most, and the least, allowing me to greatly improve what I write and cater the content better to you guys!
It will also provide exclusive content and cool new updates that may not appear on the blog itself. In addition by signing up I will send you my 20-page report “The Truth About Saturated Fat & Cholesterol.” In this report I really dig into the data and showcase how off-base the mainstream recommendations truly are.
All of that combined will clearly make you so much more awesome, how could you not sign up! This is a completely FREE service, and you can unsubscribe at any time if you wish (though who would want to?), so feel free.
If you have any questions at all, don’t hesitate to shoot me an email. Enjoy!
Yup it’s true, I could hold out no longer. I resisted for as long as I could, but I finally signed up for a Twitter account. After being encouraged by a lot of people, I mean a lot of people, I resigned myself to the fact that it was probably a good idea.
I chose the user name of BSPNutrition, and you can follow me right HERE.
While I won’t be updating it 27 times per day, you can expect new blog updates, books I’m reading, quick movie reviews and some random thoughts on various topics. Pretty much it is going to be almost as awesome as this website. Almost.
Speaking of movie reviews, my wife bought me Inceptionand The Town on Blu Ray for Christmas. Yeah, she is awesome like that. While I saw Inception in theaters and it absolutely blew my mind, I had not yet seen The Town. Sacrilege I know.
I gotta say, Ben Affleck has to direct more movies. And if his acting here is a sign of things to come, he could even act some more without me wanting gauge my eyes out. I will admit that his acting since about 2006 has been much improved, but this took it to a whole new level for me.
While Ben was very good, I thought Jeremy Renner was absolutely top-notch. I felt he was better in this than he was in The Hurt Locker, and that is definitely saying something. I think he might be one of those late-bloomers who comes into his own later in his career.
Overall I highly recommend The Town, it was incredibly well-written, well-acted and well-directed. Anyone who appreciates taut, well-made movies should make it a priority. And Ben Affleck needs to direct more movies. I know this might be a little premature, but is he the next Clint Eastwood?
This weekend my wife and I plan on seeing Black Swan and The Fighter. I have heard excellent things about both, and am pretty pumped about it.
So I know there has been a serious lack of blogging on here of late. I assure you that I am not a slacker, I have simply had a ton of things on my plate, not allowing me the time to write any quality content. For example it recently took me the better part of two months to finish an article I had started for t-nation, I just did not have the block of time I needed to wrap it up!
I figured that I would give you all a smorgasbord of stuff today, encompassing recent thoughts, nutrition, what I have been up to and more.
1. So while I have not had much time to blog, which is true, a small reason as to why I have been lacking in that department lately is that I was a little burnt out. If you look back over my blogging history my writing over the past few months far exceeded my normal output. While I did enjoy it, it also became more of an obligation rather than a fun exchange of information. So a small part of this hiatus was to refocus and recharge my batteries!
2. I have also been cranking out school work like a champ lately. I had to wrap up two huge projects last week as well as take a test and make a trip to the Blaine House with my classmates. For those of you not from Maine, the Blaine House is where the governor lives, as the Maine Dietetic Association honored the outgoing First Lady of Maine, Karen Baldacci. Karen is a Registered Dietitian and she worked hard to increase the recognition and credibility of our profession in this wonderful state. Below is a picture of my classmates and I with the First Lady.
3. I recently read a “nutrition expert” stating that it is going to be difficult to get Americans off the “meat and potatoes diet” and eating more veggies. They were basically asserting that eating meat and potatoes was a big part of the obesity and diabetes epidemic. This is absolutely absurd!
If more people actually ate meat and potatoes for dinner, we would be much better off. Instead people are eating more meals out of the home, are getting take-out chinese, deep-dish pizza and other calorically-dense over-processed “food”.
To me many people view the nutrition problems of this country through the wrong lens. The problem isn’t the meat, or the potatoes, or the butter or any other currently “evil” food. No, the problem is people eating far too many “edible food-like substances” and not enough actual food. It is definitely difficult to overconsume calories when eating mostly real, whole foods. It can be done, but it takes some serious effort!
Overeating man-made processed crap on the other hand is rather easy. It is specifically engineered to get you to eat more of it. It is designed to excite your brain and encourage you to indulge in overconsumption. Not only that, it is generally incredibly calorically dense, so eating the same volume will greatly increase your calorie intake compared to real food. It also tends to be nutrient-deficient, lacking in fat-soluble vitamins, phytonutrients and more.
We need to change our focus away from specific nutrients and creating new “foods”, and instead focus on teaching people how to get back to basics.
4. One thing that I going to change in my diet is getting more green tea back into it. I used to consume 3-5 cups on a near-daily basis. These days I hardly manage one cup per day. I drink more coffee instead, which in and of itself isn’t a problem as coffee has plenty of antioxidant capacity and health benefits. However after one of my classmates gave a presentation on the health benefits of green tea, it reminded why I used to drink so much in the first place.
While I will still have my cup of coffee at breakfast because I simply enjoy it so much, and will still usually have some coffee before I train, I am going to make a concerted effort to increase my tea consumption during the course of the day. My goal will be to aim for 2-3 cups of a mixture of white, green and black tea per day.
5. While many people think of Tony Gentilcore as the resident Harry Potter and Star Wars expert in the fitness industry, Tony knows all too well that I would utterly destroy him in Star Wars knowledge, with Harry Potter probably being a toss up. For those of you who are not Harry Potter fans, you should be.
My wife and I went to see the latest Harry Potter movie last night, and I absolutely loved it. I think David Yates has been the perfect director for these last few. To me he has really captured the essence of the books, and I honestly felt that this was his best effort yet. While it is only half of a movie really, I think it set the stage beautifully for what will be an utterly epic finale next summer.
Just like with the Order of the Phoenix, I think Yates has made a better movie than the actual book itself. If you are even a moderate fan and you haven’t seen this movie yet, what are you waiting for?!?
Could there be a more appropriate picture?
6. I also want to note that I am very excited and relieved to know that my best friend has returned safe and sound from his tour in Afghanistan. We are happy to have you home Nicholas!
Over the past few weekends my wife and I have been quite busy. Fortunately we did take a little time to relax and veg out to one of our favorite past times, movies. We recently watched two good ones that I would definitely recommend.
Kick-Ass was pretty awesome. It is full of glorified violence and surprising language, but all in all I enjoyed it immensely. Think of it as sort of Kill Bill lite, if you are into that sort of thing. It is pretty much every teenage boys’ dream life: become a super-hero, kick some ass and get the girl.
We also watched How to Train Your Dragon. That too was very enjoyable, with a different story line than I was expecting, which was nice. It was just one of those animated movies that hit all the right notes. This is one of those movies that is sure to please just about anyone who watches it, regardless of their demographic.
Just a quick one today on my lunch break, I will return with some killer content tomorrow!
I have some neat stuff to blog about today. It isn’t in any particular order, just some interesting things that I wanted to tell you guys.
1. I am heading down to CP this coming Saturday. I will be there all day from 9-2, coaching and helping out. If you are in the area come get a lift in, it will be a good time.
2. I saw Inception this weekend. All I have to say is it was absolutely mind-blowing. The creativity of Chris Nolan is astounding. How do people come up with stories like that?
The story was fascinating, the acting excellent, the direction and visual effects spot on. It did drag just a little in a few spots for me, but overall an A.
On the same note my wife and I were talking about it after we saw it, and I mentioned how it was one of those rare movies that immediately after you see it you want to watch it again because you know there are so many more details you will pick up the second time around, and you will enjoy it just as much, like the first time I saw The Matrix or The Usual Suspects.
She mentioned that she had never seen The Matrix, which absolutely blew my mind. So of course we immediately sat down to watch it, and I must say as much as I love that movie, it is amazing how the its visual effects have aged.
I hope that the critical and commercial success of Inception causes Hollywood to start making more movies like this, creative thinking-man movies rather than recycling the same shit over and over again.
3. I had one of the best nights sleep of my life last night. Like I mentioned the other day I use a dawn simulator to wake up naturally. One of my readers mentioned that his favorite function of those clocks is the dusk simulator that will slowly darken the room, mimicking the sunset rather than the sunrise to help you fall asleep.
I had never used that function before, so I decided to give it a try. It was glorious. I passed out as the light decreased and when I woke with the light of the dawn simulation (before the alarm) I thought it was the sunset turning off! I had slept so soundly that I hadn’t moved an inch all night. I woke up fresh and rested.
It makes me love my dawn simulator even more, and I can’t recommend it enough to help you fall asleep and wake up as we were meant to.
So some random tidbits from my life, but I thought it was some pretty interesting stuff.
A lot of stuff rattling around the brain lately. Man it feels good to be blogging consistently again (knock on wood!). Now that my wife has started her residency we seem to have finally settled into a bit of a routine, which allows me to blog on a much more consistent basis.
1. Do as I say, not as I do. Right before I left CP I decided to try and trap bar deadlift a new PR of 620, even though only weeks before I had just pulled 615. I chose to pull it on a trap bar with a somewhat lower setting than the one below, just to be more of a man, or something like that. Testing deadlift PR’s within weeks of each other is something that I would probably never let a client do, but me, I’m the expert right? Well, I did complete the pull, but I believe it was the ugliest one in my lifting career and my back has been paying the price ever since. I just tried to pull 315 for speed the other day, about 2 full months since the 620 pull, and my back gave me the finger. Needless to say, don’t be a hero. To quote myself, train smart and hard, not one or the other.
2. I had the distinct displeasure of going to see that new Twilight movie, Eclipse, the other night with my wife. Now I make her watch all kinds of stuff that I love that she isn’t too fond of, so it is a compromise. Having said that, I should get 3 of my films in exchange for that horrible excuse for a movie. The best part was the trailer for the last Harry Potter. Holy shit did that look amazing. I bet Tony will destroy the back of his pants when he sees that for the first time.
3. Speaking of movies I’ve been meaning to discuss this one for a little while, I just haven’t gotten around to it. I watched State of Play the other day and I was impressed. I didn’t have incredibly high expectations for it, though I had heard it was worth watching. I would agree. While it has a few stumbles and mis-steps, when it hits it hits dead center. I would probably give it about an 80, and definitely say it is worth watching.
4. One thing I definitely miss about CP is the gym atmosphere. When I train now it is startling how much different it is when you have to provide all of your own motivation. My new gym is rather sterile and life-less, and has definitely affected my training. Do your best to find a gym that has an environment and atmosphere to help you reach your goals, not one that will actually slow you down.
5. On that same theme when I am at the gym the inner strength coach wants to come out very badly. I see people doing all kinds of stupid shit, but I also see people trying to train properly but maybe are not executing the exercise correctly or just a need a few pointers to clean it up. Thus far I have held my tongue unless I was spotting someone or something, but how do people feel about getting advice at the gym? Should I continue to keep my silence, or do you guys think it would be prudent to help people out from time to time? I would love to hear your feedback.
I teased on Friday that I would show the video evidence of me pulling 615, to stay ahead of Tony on the staff leaderboard (though still behind EC, who pulled 640). Well without further ado, here I am:
PS – I know it isn’t the world’s prettiest lift, it was a max effort, and it was 615lbs, it happens. I do not recommend training like that, but some thoracic rounding when maxing out is just fine.
PPS – Yes, that is Pearl Jam playing in the background, and they are the greatest America rock band of all time.
On a totally unrelated note, I watched two totally awesome movies this weekend. I finally got around to seeing the very charming and incredibly likable (500) Days of Summer, and the visually arresting Avatar.
(500) Days of Summer was very charming, as both leads were excellent. It will put a smile on your face for so many wonderfully touching parts, and yet it will break your heart at so many others, while making you chuckle throughout. In many ways it reminded of me of Garden State, in that it had a charming tone, two wonderful leads and a great story.
Avatar was just amazing to watch. The story is nothing new, but the visuals are on a level that has never been seen before, and I was absolutely blown away by it. Obviously I am like the last person in the country to have seen this movie, so I am hardly telling any of you something new, but if you have not seen it yet, do yourself a favor and find an IMAX 3-D to maximize the experience.
Posted on June 20th, 2011 by Brian St. Pierre
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