The Miraculous Blog of Abe L.

About 22 years ago, I just so happened to appear into existence. I was born and raised in a pretty small town, Greenville, TX. and also spent a few years in Mexico, before moving back and staying here in Texas. 

Growing up I was always a pretty quiet kid in school, but although I’d describe myself as someone who isn’t too outgoing, I’d still say I had a significant amount of friends and knew a lot of people. I was always just an extremely relaxed, calm, cool, and collective individual, so maybe that played a role as to why I had a fairly good social life. When I walked the stage finishing high school, I stepped into the real world not too sure what I wanted to do in life, but I knew I had to do something and the pressure was quickly building.

Some years went by and I picked up a few gigs. When I was 20, I was working in construction, building the bridges and highways in Dallas. It was great money at the time, but having to work out in the heat for 10+ hours a day, nah, fuck that. After I left the construction company I started getting into barbering. I currently go to barber school as well and hope to get my license soon, so I can really start bringing in some money as I finish college.

My first year at Texas State didn’t necessarily go as planned. I started out majoring in art because well, art does fascinate me. But then I just started to feel like going into that field just wasn’t going to be able to do it for me. I am pretty talented at drawing, painting, and whatnot but slowly I started creeping into wanting to make videos and films. I changed my major to film and decided this is what I should get myself into. 

I feel that the best way to describe myself is as a Jack of all Trades, because well, as you can see, I’ve been involved in multiple different gigs and skill sets in my lifetime. I’ll get into doing something and then once I get pretty decent at it I’ll get bored of doing it and decide it’s time to try something new and refreshing. But in the end, I hope that one day all of my experiences and different skills come together to land me where I want to be in life, and that, is to just be happy.~

-Abe Loredo

 

 

 

What better way to cap off our journey of blog posts than what we have here? Some delicious, creamy, and vibrant brown coffee that’ll keep our brains stimulated! Can’t you just smell the scent of this photo? Because I know I can. (Not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing….)

My relationship with coffee has been a rather, let’s say toxic one, it’s safe to say that no matter the circumstances, I’ll always come back to my daily doses of coffee because it’s just that GOOD. I have already managed to completely give up soda a long time ago, though soda is just pure sugar and caffeine, it’s completely bad for your health. Coffee however, is a beverage you can make, (assuming you’re not going to Starbucks everyday) you can control how much sugar, cream and coffee you put into your cup. This makes it much more viable for me to drink everyday. I’ve had my periods where I’ve stopped drinking coffee for a few months or so, not for my body’s health, but because I got so much anxiety when I learned what coffee and soda can do to your precious white teeth. Yea, it’s one of the fastest ways to rot your teeth overly consuming this stuff, luckily though, I have managed to keep mines in tact with a new Colgate mouthwash, which seems to be doing the trick. Anyways, no matter how hard I’ll try to abandon coffee, I’ll come to my senses to realize it’s actually one of the things that’s keeping me happy when it comes to my diet, it does call for some caffeine here and there. (though I drink a cup everyday, so keep it down a bit, my doctor might hear this….)

Once the apocalypse starts, one of the first things I’ll heavily stock up on is coffee beans, powder, cream, just about anything that has caffeine written on its label! Coffee is an essential to life, nothing else matters and nobody can tell me otherwise!

#core2SP22

Post #9

Ah yes, some more food onto this blog! The classic chicken and rice dish, also with a side of bread and some Chick Fil A sauce. YUM!

Now Abe, what in the world has gone in your mind to put THIS ON A BLOG POST?!?!? Well allow me to elaborate. This is what I try and eat everyday, for obvious reasons. Chicken and rice! The most famous meal for gaining muscle and losing fat ay? Although chicken is a fascinating protein source, we have the side of the dish, the rice, not so much. Chicken tends to have roughly 21-26 grams of protein per 4 oz. or one serving, which is how much we have here in this photo. One whole cup of cooked rice however, only has about 4-5 grams. It’s a shame that the rice nutrition facts lies to us, because it states in a cup of rice there is over 600 calories and about 12 grams of protein, but that’s only if you eat it raw. (I know right, like who’ll eat it raw???) Unfortunately, once it’s cooked, the rice actually loses lots of these nutritional values,  therefore I’m losing gains. Like come on man! I’m putting in all this work at the gym for this nonsense?!?!? Inadequate.

Enough of the rambling though, I guess for this blog post I really just wanted to emphasize the inconvenient obstacles you’ll face when you’re actually trying to take a diet and your body serious. It’s literally like a part time job, looking at the nutrition before you buy it at the store, measuring it, cooking it, then forcing it down your throat every 3 hours or so throughout the day. Maybe this is all just a sign from the the heavens to quit this whole diet thing and just go back to Dominoes pizza every other night…..

#core2SP22

Post #8

If I could give a beginning college student some advice on how to survive the 4+ years ahead of them, this picture right here is it. That’s right. Pasta!

Let’s break it down a bit. Pasta, is some of the cheapest food you can get on the market. I mean this whole pound of pasta here costs me around $1.32. So if you don’t eat it all like a complete maniac like I do (I tend to eat about half the box or more in one sitting, yeah, not too proud of that….) then this whole box could potentially be about 4-6 servings of food. All for just, hold on let me put my glasses back on to make sure I read it right, yup, $1.32!! Well you also might want to buy some sauce to go with it because let’s be real, who’d eat it plain? So if you also add some alfredo, pesto or tomato sauce to it, it’ll still only add about another $2-3 if you don’t buy none of those expensive sauces. It’s also really easy to make and not too time consuming, I mean all you really got to do is boil some water, poor it all into pot and add the sauce. (maybe even a little salt for extra flavor) Seriously, you don’t got to be a chef to make this, even my dog could cook some pasta! Another thing about it, is you’ll never really get tired of eating it, I mean who gets tired of eating pasta right? It’s awesome!

So there we have it folks, lets take the time to thank the Italians for this amazing and simple recipe of food that us college students can survive on the daily basis. That’s correct, no more Ramen noodles, matter of fact go ahead and throw those out the window and enjoy some real pasta.

#core2SP22

Post #7

Let’s start discussing a little bit more into the basics or how our body works and dive deeper into nutrition. (for diet purposes obviously) What’s the appropriate way to fuel our bodies after lifting some heavy weights you may ask? Well look no further than here! Protein!

Most food experts recommends a daily intake of 1 .1 grams of protein per pound of body weight if you’re looking to gain muscle efficiently. (which I struggle to accomplish, I’m working on it…) For example, I weigh around 161 lbs. so if we do some calculations, I should be consuming about 176 grams daily. Now for me, I’m not necessarily looking to see results as efficiently as possible. For me it’s more about as long as I get there, then I’LL GET THERE, so I’m not always too hard on myself when I weigh out every ounce of food or constantly check every nutrition label to make sure I’m getting the right amount of protein in. For the most part I’m already aware of how much protein is in most of my meals, considering I do eat the same things everyday. You can still see results without intaking the recommended amount every day, which for me I’d say I average around 120-130 grams everyday. So as long as I’m working out consistently, I can still manage on my diet. Protein powder definitely helps though, since you can turn it into a milkshake and just drink it within a few seconds and BOOM! That’s 30+ grams of protein in just one scoop!

Now lets not purely rely on just protein powder to get all of our protein in, eat other foods high in protein throughout the day to reach the recommended daily intake. It can be difficult, but once you start planning out your meals and get a hang of it, it’ll all be as easy as slicing through some butter.

 

#core2SP22

 

Post #6

Join me my lads! On this incredible journey I call a diet! Yes! Finally, with the help of drinking water, we can conquer all the lands and destroy any enemies that come across us!

Alright lets get a little serious here, a couple years ago before I decided to change my major to Fine Arts, I was actually studying to be a Nutritionist. (I know right, ME? a NUTRITIONIST??? Please) But really, I was always just interested by how our foods are processed and made. Therefore,  as a Non-certified, Dietary Nutritionist,  I can say that the best way to start your diet is with this stuff right here in this photo. Yup, an essential to all life on our beautiful planet. Water! If you begin by just consuming only water as your beverage throughout the day, try it for say, a week, you’ll realize how easy it can be to diet. You’ll set your mindset to where you’re only going to want to drink just pure water, and when you actually try and drink like a soda again, it’ll make you feel uneased about doing so. You can then build from here, starting to eat better and healthier. The whole diet thing is really just a mindset thing rather than a physical one!

This is how I managed to begin my diet, start simple just pure water and work your way up. You don’t got to instantly feel pressured to eat better right off the rip, rather take it one step at a time and slowly but surely you’ll see yourself making progress with your health.

#core2SP22

Post #5

When I took a picture of this parking spot, it reminded me of a, interaction I had with some random salesman. He was selling crippled signs, like these, that people use to hang inside their cars so they can park in these parking spaces. I was just walking by and he stops me, tried to sell me one for $15. (a whole $15 for one?!?!?) I tell him, “Oh no, I’m not crippled.” He then explains to me, “Well don’t worry, non-crippled people buy these all the time off of me, so they can park in the handicap spots!” Of course, I still refused, and just continued on.

It’s kind of crazy to think what people sell nowadays to make money. I mean really? Handicap signs? I’ve got to give it to that guy, he’s pretty creative. But what really saddens me is how people actually do stuff like this.  They’ll do something as simple as buying these signs for their cars so they can get easy parking and then what for the actual handicapped? Yup, forget about them right.  Now every time I see someone parked in these spaces, it’ll have me questioning if they’re handicapped or not. But whatever, that’s just the way of life.

#core2SP22

 

Post #4

Ahh yes, I remember when I took this photo, had to flex on Snapchat that I was eating good after long days work at Walmart. (A reference from one of my previous blog posts) A steamy, hot and fresh gordita with some sweet tea. The perfect combo.

This photo reminded me of simpler times, an era in my life where I just ate whatever I wanted to and didn’t even think about going a diet within a few months after this picture.  A lot of people say to me, ‘Now Abe, why in the world would YOU go on a diet?!? You literally got such a nice, healthy body!’ Although people can tell us this, our conscious tells us otherwise when we look at ourselves in the mirror. For the most part, yes, I do agree that I do have a pretty nice body, but its far from perfect. I want to stay toned, but also lean while looking more muscular. I realized that the only way to achieve this starts with what you put into your body, therefore I’m not on this diet necessarily to lose weight (god, I’ve been trying for years to gain the weight I have, you think I’d want to lose it?!?) therefore I’m on this diet for what some may consider a summer body. I have to explain this to people, that pretty much my diet consists of me actually sustaining my weight, while progressing towards a leaner and more toned physique.

My entire family has diabetes, from my mom, dad, grandmothers/fathers and even my younger brother. Fortunately though I’m clean from it. This actually inspires me more to stay on this diet, for me to be the only in the family without diabetes? I must be the chosen one! Therefore I think this whole diet thing can have a bigger purpose in the long run, to prevent this generational curse being passed down to my descendants. (assuming I’ll have some…)

#core2SP22

 

Post #3

Now I’m no expert, but I do have a couple tips and tricks up my sleeve on how to lose some weight fairly effectively, while also for the most part still being able to enjoy the same foods you regularly eat. Now how could this be possible you may ask? Go ahead and whip a notebook, because you’re going to want to jot down what I have to say in this one my friends!

This strategy will require you to obviously weigh yourself out, but only do it once a week, because then you may get frustrated when you don’t see results quickly enough. This method can take you months to lose a valid amount of weight, but again, it’ll allow you to basically eat whatever you want still. Start by tracking the amount of calories you eat everyday for a week, add it up and divide that by 7. You’ll get an average of how much your consuming for your body weight. Now subtract 500 calories from that average and now aim to eat that many calories from now on. This is a method that’ll manipulate your body, because at first, yes you may feel more hungry at the end of each day, but your body will adjust to how much you’re now feeding it and eventually you won’t feel that hunger for another 500 calories. Realistically, you can try this without even working out also, you’ll see results, but very slowly. I want to emphasize that because like I mentioned, don’t get too irritated when you aren’t seeing results on that scale. You got to remember, this isn’t really a diet, it’s more like a calorie deficit, in which you’re still just eating normal. If you do workout as well, then you’re a step ahead of the curb, as this will also decrease the amount of time it’ll take to see results.

#core2SP22

Post #2

Way back in the days, and I mean way back like when dinosaurs still roamed the earth, I worked for this lovely company called Walmart. I was a stocker, therefore I was always out on the sales floor when everybody would be shopping. Every now and then, some kind customers would come around and give me some written bible verses or they’d hand me what it is seen in the picture above. Fake money. I remember the first time I received one, I had got so excited, (it was a fake $100) but of course that excitement was short lived, I was young. Although the money wasn’t real, they would still put an actual dollar or 2 within it and they’d give them to people folded in half. Usually on the back of the fake 1 million dollar bills there would be biblical terms that these people wanted to spread. Also note like in this photo, they wouldn’t just walk up to random people and give it to them. They’d also try and hide them all across the store and it gives the sense whoever found them was destined to be blessed by it and could potentially relate to the verse that it contains. Such nice people they are.

#coreS2P22