In The Kitchen: Bored with Breakfast?

I'll be the first one to admit...as a fitness competitor the same old foods just don't fly ALL the time. Now, don't get me wrong, I do like what I eat every day even though 99% of the time it's the same stuff over in over again, just slightly tweaked a bit here and there. Breakfast can be one of the most repetitive meals for me especially, reverting to the classic eggs and oatmeal, only putting hot sauce or sugar free ketchup on my eggs and cinnamon and maybe a small number of blueberries on my oatmeal. This does get pretty darn boring day in and day out...and sometimes it leaves me craving something like pancakes, but HEALTHY pancakes. So, therefore I leave you one of my favorite recipes that you can really play with to suit your favorite taste/flavor.

I just combine egg whites and wheat flour/oats in a blender...I use a high powered blender so it really blends together well. To make the pancake more moist...I like to add about half banana into the blender. Spray the pan/griddle and then let it heat on med-high heat. After, I top with some sugar free cool whip (I like to keep it frozen I don't know why) and then also some walden farms sugar free chocolate syrup. I use all the sugar free stuff sparingly as I don't like to have too many things like that in my diet...but I do use it on occassion especially when craving something while on a contest diet.

Try it out and let me know what you think. Get creative with it!

Don't be THAT guy! (or girl) Train your midsection PROPERLY!

I often am in the gym looking around, especially viewing things from a trainer's perspective...so many exercises for the core/midsection that people are doing TOTALLY wrong and can actually make the physique look worse. Here I am going to break down a few of the exercises that are commonly butchered at the gym, making me grimace and just shake my head in dissatisfaction.

In no specific order:

1) Hanging leg raises: Often I see people just see people hanging loosely from the ab straps or even if hanging on to bar with their hands they are simply hanging freely and then proceeding to swing. This, my friends, is only working your hip flexors more than anything believe it or not.

Correction: If in the ab straps, do what I like to call a "scapula pullup" (scapula being one of the 3 major shoulder movers) and hold that position while doing your knee ups/leg raises. This makes things a bit more difficult, however, eliminates the hip flexor essentially by limiting swinging if done under control, engaging your lower abs throughout the movement. Try about 12-15 of these and you definitely will feel it!

2) V-ups: Another term people might be more familiar with is "knee in's.." How many times do you see someone on a flat bench with their legs up just simply bringing their knee's into their chest and back in a super quick fashion? Again, NOT engaging your abs like it should. Hip flexors will give out way before your abs ever will.

Correction: With your butt/glutes (however you want to be politically correct) on the edge of a bench and slight bend in the knee's, bring your legs up and crunch with your abs at the same time, basically creating a "V" with your body. This will really hit the abs without a lot of hit flexor. Pointing the toes down also eliminates a lot of quad/hip flexor strain. If you get strong with this exercise try putting a small dumbell between the toes.

3) Side bends: This is probably my biggest pet peeve. I see guys doing these ALL the time with HEAVY weight! Dude, what are you doing? If you want the appearance of love handles with low bodyfat be my guest. What I mean here is that when you do those side bends with heavy weight...that is muscle you are working! You are essentially building the sides which creates the illusion of a thick waist. And aren't we going for a smaller waist/V taper look?

Correction: Just DON'T use weight and know what you are working! You can still do these without weight, there's just no need to bulk that area up!

There you have it...my top 3 abdominal/core mistakes I see people making in the gym. Let me know if you have any questions about anything!!!

Progress pictures: They REALLY are important!

WOW, just tonight I was on my computer after getting home from training & massage therapy clients and I sat down and was scrolling through old photos of me & also now the new photos. After looking at them, I cannot stress the importance of taking progress pictures and photos every 3 to 4 weeks to see the changes. Time goes SO FAST I feel like. Especially since I am in my late 20's now, I feel like the days just fly by sometimes. The scale does not tell us what we always want. You literally can stay the same weight but lose a few percentage points of bodyfat but you cannot tell BECAUSE you didn't take any pictures. These are the best judgement of if you are on the right track or not. Only here you can analyze if your hips got smaller, arms got more toned, etc. You get the point. Just look at the difference in me when I was 19-20. I'm glad I entered the bodybuilding.com teen of the week that year. Because if I hadn't I wouldn't have any pictures of me without my shirt on when I was 19. Almost 10 years ago! That's hard to believe. But look at my progress since. I'm not gonna lie. I'm proud of myself and who I've become. So why shouldn't you start changing the way you look at yourself and create YOUR TRANSFORMATION. Start taking pictures and hold yourself accountable!!!

DAIRY: IS IT REALLY NECESSARY???

IN THE KITCHEN w/ Dave Shutler:


I don’t know about all of you, but when I was younger we always had milk or
some sort of dairy in the house. “Milk is good for bones and teeth etc etc” mom used to
say. Well, as I’ve gotten older and wiser, milk, at least in my opinion has been WORSE
for my body than good for it. Milk and dairy from my experience has caused me bloating
and sometimes an upset stomach, along with an unnecessary amount of sugar
or “lactose.” I still am amazed when talking to someone when they tell me what they are
eating during the day and they are drinking tons of milk, wondering why they aren’t
dropping a significant amount more weight than they have been. People are often so
misconstrued about milk and how we need it to fight osteoporosis and have strong
healthy bones. HERE’S SOME NEWS. Asian countries, who drink little to NO milk at
all, have less osteoporosis rates than Americans who drink a TON of milk. Amazed?
Don’t be. Asian countries load up on their green veggies like Kale, packing a ton of
calcium and other nutrients that are much better than the ol’ milk and dairy. So to keep it
simple, try making small changes in regards to dairy products. Your body and gut will
thank you in the long run.

ARNOLD CLASSIC!!!

Headed to the arnold classic today through sunday! Make sure you stop by the CELLUCOR booth in the morning friday and all day Saturday and say hello! Looking forward to meeting a lot of great people! Until next week...

Dave

One more thing

I am now a model w/ Silver Model Management in NYC...so check out the link here. I am in both the fitness and commercial division.

http://www.silvermodels.com/artist.php?id=davids

Thanks!

Dave Shutler

Shoots

Hey everyone, this weekend I just had 2 shoots...one again with Muscle Art Studio and also Rick Day, both wonderful photographers around the New York Area. I will have pictures posted from both of these shoots hopefully within the coming weeks. Also look for a new video or 2 from me here on the site in the near future.

Next weekend I am traveling to Columbus, OH to network myself as a fitness model at the Arnold Classic Fitness Expo. I look forward to meeting and seeing a lot of you there..should be a great experience.

As always, sign up for one of my customized diet/training programs and get in the best shape of your life! Get results!

All the best

Dave Shutler