Things That Help:

 

Food:

Mastering the Grill:  By far the best and most useful grilling book ever devised.  Simply explained science helps you control and perfect the art of cooking with fire.  The authors won several awards for their cookbooks for these very reasons.

A Decent Knife: If you’re going to cook, leave the cheap blades behind.  This is a real workman’s knife.  Highly rated and dependable, I actually purchase these for my family so I don’t have to deal with inferior knives when I cook on the holidays.

Cutting Board:  Bamboo.  Cheap, effective, durable, and from a renewable resource (if you care about that sort of thing).  The best part about bamboo is that it’s lightweight so you can carry the cutting board one handed while going to and from the grill, or more easily hold it while cleaning.

Smoke Box:  The slow and even heating of this cast iron smoker box is all you need to start cranking out serious smoked meats on your grill.  The conventional wisdom that people need an entire smoker set up is being slowly turned on its head.  Simply put, most smoked meats are oversaturated in smoke to the point where they are at times unpleasant to eat.  With a small smoke box and low heat, a gas grill is entirely capable of putting out a properly smoky and nuanced meal.

 

 

Iron:

MP3 Player:  Probably the biggest impediment to working out is not having any music.  Find your rhythm.  The clip + is hands down the best MP3 player for lifting.  Excellent sound quality, unobtrusive, and simple to use.  The prepackaged headphones need to be replaced.

Workout Headphones:  These headphones are comfortable and stay put.  High quality also allows enough noise so oncoming cars are audible.

Whey Protein by Optimum Nutrition: The best price point for premium whey:  It mixes, tastes, and works the best, with absolutely no filler or gimmicks. 

Stainless Steel Protein Shaker: Anyone who knows whey knows this: cheap plastic shakers get awful smelly bacteria growing in them that makes them quite frankly disgusting to use.

 

Next Time:  Easy Smoked Brisket.