1.  Wow – what a weekend!  As I noted on Friday this past weekend a bunch of us guys headed up to Maine (waaaaaaaaaaaaaay up in Maine. Like, middle of absolutely no where Maine. Like, 75 miles off the highway Maine.  Like, there’s no cell phone reception and OMGICANTCHECKMYEMAILSANDITSGLORIOUS Maine) to go white water rafting for Mr. Pete Dupuis’ bachelor party.

For those wondering who the hell Pete Dupuis is, he’s the business director at Cressey Performance.

I’m not going to go into too many of the details, because well, it WAS a bachelor party (and our significant others will be reading this post), but what I can divulge is this:

– The picture to the left is what the one and only George Abele showed up in as he walked into the office on Friday before we headed out.  Ladies, he’s single.

– I’m not one for the great outdoors. I used to go camping with my family every summer up in the Adirondack mountains when I was younger, but even then we had electricity (and there was a movie theater within ten miles).  Giving myself a little credit though, I was a Cub Scout back in the day  but failed miserably when it came to tying knots.  I mastered the Sailor’s knot, but the Slippery Hitch was a tough son-of-a-bitch to crack. And, just to throw it out there, starting a fire wasn’t (and still isn’t) my strong suit.

That said, being outside with nature isn’t necessarily my favorite thing to do in the world.  But holy balls, was this past weekend epic!  Being on the raft with all my boys conquering the Kennebec River was one of the funnest times I’ve ever had and

something I’d do again in a heartbeat.  The weather was perfect, the water was absolutely amazing, and maybe even most important of of all, NONE of us fell off the raft – which we were all pretty proud of.

– I think we gave our tour guide a run for her money once we all started “spearing” one another off the raft.  Think:  Terry Tate, but instead of tackling people in an office, you tackle someone off the side of a raft into Stage Two rapids. HA!

– Making Smores with Butterfinger candy is the bomb.

– There are some other things that I could say, but I plead the 5th.

2.  Needless to say, I ate like a champ this past weekend, and basically spent the entire day yesterday detoxing myself.  Now, I’m not one of those who goes out of his way to guilt himself into thinking that he has to not eat anything for an entire day.  I guess that’s one way to approach things, and if you read a lot into Intermittent Fasting, it makes some sense.

I just like to spend the day drinking some of my patented “Earth” shakes (s0 called because it’s not exactly the most enticing looking beverage you’ll ever see, but it has a lot of “good” stuff in it and tastes amazing):

Each one contains:

– 1/2 bag of baby spinach

– 1 scoop Superfood

– 1 scoop chia seeds (2-3 tbsp worth)

– 1/2-cup almond or coconut milk (or a mix of both, cause I’m cool like that)

– 1/2 cup frozen fruit (blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, cherries, etc)

– 1 scoop Grow (protein powder)

– a pinch or two of raw, unsweetened coconut flakes

– Optional:  1/4 cup rolled oats, cacao nibs, Unicorn tears (high in riboflavin).

I drink two or three of those in one day and I feel like my body is able detox itself from the insulin coma I put it through.

3.  I don’t consider myself a music junky or anything – I like my old school hip hop (Tribe Called Quest, The Roots, Wu-Tang, Biggie, Nas, etc) and I’ll throw in some techno, Norah Jones, and Ryan Montbleau for good measure – often opting for books on cd or news talk radio when I’m in my car. Truth be told, I can’t even remember the last time I put some new music on my iPod.

Anyways, I got home last night and Lisa had to show me this video her friend showed her while she was away in Europe last month.  I have to say, it’s pretty bad ass and makes me appreciate what a real musician sounds like. Too, I’m pretty sure Lisa is trying to send me some sort of subliminal message at the 1:35 mark.

Settle Down – Kimbra

4.  HERE’s a short and succinct “pictorial” I collaborated on in this month’s Men’s Health Magazine (pg. 50) discussing some of my favorite deadlift variations

Note: the link above links to the online version.

5. I had a few people send me a link to a recent study (and I use the word “study” loosely) which demonstrated that, in what could possibly be the worst analogy ever created in all of human history, eggs are as bad for your arteries as cigarettes.

You can click HERE for an abbreviated version of the story.

I’ll wait here for a few minutes while you read it/resist the urge to want to throw a brick into your face.

Seriously!  SERIOUSLY????  Eggs are now worse than cigarettes?  These guys are really trying to compare one of the most nutritious, NATURAL foods on earth to one of the most deadliest MAN-MADE substances?

Yep, that makes a lot of sense.

What’s next: comparing eggs to the Ebola virus?

I don’t quite understand why eggs are considered so evil and why so many people have a vendetta against them.

I asked my good friend Mark Young (who’s a ninja at dissecting research) for his opinion and here’s what he had to say:

I didn’t read the original article, but my understanding is that it is a purely correlational study showing a relationship between the amount of eggs that people remembered eating and artery wall thickness.  So there is no cause and effect relationship here…and there is the issue of dietary recall being pretty poor.

The authors are also apparently on the payroll from a company that makes a lipid lowering medication.

I don’t usually stress too much about funding source, but in this case I think it combines with the rest of the info to suggest this study is SHITE!

My sentiments exactly.

For those interested in a “response” article which basically pwns the original “study,” go HERE.

And that’s it.  I might be hit and miss the rest of the way with blogs since this is the week we’re making the BIG MOVE to the new facility.  I’ll try my best, but I can’t make any promises.

Word on the street is that I made some bet – which I have no recollection of doing – that I could farmer carry every DB we have in our facility to the new one (which is roughly 150 yds away).  Soooo, I may be spending my entire afternoon on Thursday hauling 4500+ lbs of DBs to the other end of the building.

I’m pretty sure there will be video evidence to follow. FML!