My son Gabriel tested for his Advanced Purple Belt at CMA Martial Arts in Langley. He is halfway to getting his black belt now and has worked really hard over the past year and a half to get to where he is now. I am very proud of his hard work and dedication to the sport!
Testing involves demonstrating some punching and kicking combinations, breaking boards, sparring and grappling with opponents. It is really cool to see the boys putting everything together now when they spar and grapple together, it's really entertaining to watch :)
Sadly my $1200 Sony RX100 IV camera has been giving me some issues with the occasional video file and it corrupted the final video which was of the boys receiving their belts :(
Congratulations to all the boys for their hard work, commitment and for earning their new belts!
How I eat depends on what I am trying to achieve, I generally eat pretty much the same foods every day, just a little more or less depending on if I am maintaining, cutting or bulking, but my Macros stay pretty consistent. The only acceptation to this is when I do contest prep since I have to eat supper clean starting about 3 weeks out from competition day.
How many Calories I burn each day:
My base metabolic rate is around 2200-2300 calories per day, add in about 1000-1300 addition activity calories which includes my basic moving around and programmed workouts, and that give me about 3000-3500 calories per day that I burn.
My Macros each day:
I try to hit my body weight in grams of protein so around 200 grams of protein which equals 800 calories.
I set myself a base carbohydrate total of 150 grams of carbs and then top that up depending on how much exercise I do each day. So if I burn 1000 calories during my workouts then I eat back an additional 250 grams of carbs so in this example I would be eating 400 grams of carbs or 1600 calories worth of carbs based on 1000 calories of additional daily activity.
In terms of fats, I try to stay under 100 grams each day which will equals about 800 calories from fats.
So during a typical day I would eat around 3200 calories which is pretty close to what I burn most days.
At the end of the day I adjust my late night snack accordingly to count for any extra calories I need to eat and also change the food up to hit my target Macros. Generally a try to eat a lot of proteins in the evening and avoid loading up on carbs.
What works for me:
I like to start off the early part of my day fairly light or low in calories since I am not as hungry during Breakfast and Lunch eating times.
Breakfasts:
Breakfast can be as simple as a mixed protein shake (berries, 1/2 banana, low cal almond milk, peanut butter, protein powder, creatine) with an espresso. Usually around 400 calories.
I sometimes have a slice of low calories bread with a little bit of peanut butter and jam along with a simple protein drink and my espresso. Again usually around 400 calories.
Lunch:
Lunch will depend a lot on if I am maintaining, cutting or bulking. If I am cutting then lunch may be as simple as a protein bar and another espresso or perhaps a bowl of cottage cheese with a low calorie fruit cup added to it.
If I am maintaining, I will add in a bit more food at lunch. Sometimes a tuna or sardine sandwich with low calorie bread, or I will just add some items like turkey pepperoni or another quick protein drink.
Lunches can be anywhere from 200 calories up to 500 calories depending on how many calories I am shooting for that day.
Dinner:
Dinner is the hardest meal for me to control since I eat whatever the family is eating. But in general our dinners would go something like this. Chicken or fish of some sort, vegetables, rice, sweet potatoes or yams, and usually a salad. I might even have a low calorie beer with dinner. If we eat out I still do my best to eat responsibly or it will effect what I can eat for my evening snack and I enjoy that too much to completely blow my dinner macros and calorie allotment.
My dinners will generally be around 1000 calories.
Evening Snack:
I really enjoy evening snacks so no matter what I am eating for, I always leave at least 500 calories left over for a snack before bed. I will often have to top up by eating 1000+ calories in an evening snack especially if I did a lot of extra activities or I am bulking at that time.
Evening snacks usually consist of a healthy raisin bran cereal (1 cup) with low calorie almond milk, a cup of cottage cheese again with a low calorie fruit cup in it, possibly some protein powder mixed with water and then pretty much just about anything I feel like to top up my calories for the day as required for my current eating goals.
Some of my daily Supplements and Vitamins:
Protein powder, creatine powder, BCAA's, fish oil pills, joint support vitamins, calcium, magnesium, zinc, vitamin B and D, a multivitamin pack and some vitamin C and electrolyte tablets.
I work hard at the Gym, I stay true to my diet, I put the time and effort in that it takes to not only stay in shape pretty much all year round but also get into the kind of shape for my competitions that means my conditioning is simply better than all the rest. So how do I do this?
One key factor is knowing what is going on with my body and to know this it helps if you have a device that is less subjective then simply looking in the mirror and wondering just exactly where my body fat percentage is at. Having a device that can backup what you are thinking can help you reach your fitness goals.
Please keep in mind that my experience with pretty much every Body Composition Device has been far from perfect but I still feel they are a useful tool in helping me figure out what direction I need to take my training and eating in as I chip away at this never ending quest for strength, health and an esthetic balance.
Measures 7 different fitness indicators: body fat percentage, BMI, skeletal muscle, resting metabolism, visceral fat, body age, and weight
Accurately measures body fat percentage using proven bioelectrical impedance method.
Easy-to-read digital screen displays body weight up to 330 pounds in seconds.
Stores up to 4 individual profile settings so the whole family can track their progress with 180 days of memory.
The breakthrough design is clinically proven to be just as accurate as much more expensive methods used by physicians and other health professionals.
By utilizing advanced sensors, you get a precise reading quickly in the comfort of your own home.
So does the Omron HBF-516B Full Body Composition Monitor and Sensor really deliver on these claims? The problem I have with devices like this is that I do not have your typical build for a 46 year old male. I am currently 6 feet tall at about 200 pounds and sitting right around 7-8% body fat with a lot of muscle mass not only for my age but for any age. Most of these body composition scales want to know information like your age, gender, height and of course they will read your body weight when you step on them. The reason they need this info is because they use this data in conjunction with the sensor readings to run a formula based on all of the information combined. Much of this information is based on database information they have already collected for people in your similar age group, height group, gender and even your body weight range. So in other words the scale is to some degree making some assumptions based on what it already knows to be true for the average person who matches your criteria. But what is true for the mass average may not be even remotely close to where I am at.
The problem I have is that I am not average, and so the scale will assume that since I am a 46 years old male that is 6 feet tall and 200 pounds, I must have a fair amount of body fat on me so my readings will be influenced by that assumption.
One big problem with the Omron HBF-516B Full Body Composition Monitor and Sensor is that it does not have an athletic mode setting. This setting would allow it to make the assumption that I have a more athletic build and therefore more muscle mass with less overall body fat and so the readings would be more accurate for someone like me.
I did play aorund with age setting on the Omron HBF-516B Full Body Composition Monitor and Sensor to see if that would give me a more accurate reading and it did help a little bit but at the end of the day I was scoring well between 14-15% body fat, and with a body age of somewhere between 50-60 years old! I am not even going to talk about BMI since BMI take virtually nothing into consideration other than gender, height and age.
Make sure to watch my Full review video below as I go into much more detail for the Omron HBF-516B Full Body Composition Monitor and Sensor and show you how to use it along with some comparisons to some similar devices I use to measure my body composition.
Enjoy my Preview Unboxing video for the JLAB EPIC Bluetooth Premium Wireless Earbuds! In this video I of course open the box and show you around what comes in the box with the JLAB EPIC Bluetooth Premium Wireless Earbuds. I don't talk about how they sound or perform at all since this is an unboxing video and I had not yet had the chance to try the JLAB EPIC Bluetooth Premium Wireless Earbuds out. Since making this video I have given them a quick test and I can say they do sound really amazing so make sure to checkout my update testing review for the JLAB EPIC Bluetooth Premium Wireless Earbuds shortly...
For now here are some techs, specs and a few photos!
Specs & Features:
Best in class Lithium Ion 10+ hour battery life.
C3 (Crystal Clear Clarity) with best in class 8mm drivers.
Bluetooth 4.0 with aptX Technology
Sweat & Waterproof IPX4 rating.
Built-in Memory Wire Earhooks for an unmatched epic fit.
In this GetFitOver40 - September 2015 Update Video I talk about some stuff going on in my life and how that is going to effect some of the content and videos for GetFitOver40.com.
I also feature some products and ideas that I will be making videos about in the near future...
Back to normal life again:
The good news is I am not really training for any fitness competitions at the moment, so that takes some stress off of me and allows me to focus on more content and videos for the channel and of course some time for myself to slowdown a bit and relax.
My next Men's Physique Fitness Contest will most likely be the BC’s next year in May 2016, then perhaps if I do well at the BC's, I will compete at the Nationals shortly thereafter?
Kids are back in school!!! Isn't that just wonderful! Again this will help me to focus on producing more content and videos for the channel since I work from home and there will be fewer interruptions.
I am back up to a more healthy body weight again, at least in terms of weight training. Being at 5% body fat is not the most conducive for getting strong and having energy in the gym. In about three weeks I went from a dry 185 pounds to a somewhat wet 200 pounds. Some of that is water weight but according to my Skulpt Aim I am around 7-8% Body Fat right now which is perfect for me. I feel really good!
Upcoming Videos:
I want to focus on quick training videos where I go over one muscle group at a time, showcasing different types of equipment that can be used from very basic to more advanced. I also want to expand on some Fitness Training techniques that have worked for me.
I plan to do more Diet/Nutritional Videos that will be useful for simply losing a few pounds and even some videos focussed on how to prep for a fitness contest, what's really involved!
EC Technologies External Battery Pack Product Review - Always have power for your USB devices!
SKULPT Aim Full Review - I have now had a lot of time to extensively test out my Skulpt Aim and I am glad I waited since getting to a really low in body fat did effect how the Skulpt Aim read my body fat percentages.
MOTO 360 Review, not sure how soon I want to do this one since I will be giving my personal thoughts as an iPhone user pairing Android Wear with an iPhone. Android Wear paired with an iPhone is all very new and limited to some degree right now but I am sure Google will be working on updates and bringing more features and functionality to Android Wear on iOS.
2UNDR Review - Just waiting for my 2UNDR undies to make it back through the wash so I can give you my thoughts on this super comfortable men's underwear.
Kinivo K300 HDMI Switch - I pretty much just show this product from Kinivo since it was kind of sent to me by mistake and is not something I personally can really use or think fits into the health and fitness spectrum.
Tuesday, September 29, 2015 at 1:17PM 
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