And to all a good night

Merry Christmas guys!

So, I know this blog is usually about the joy of excess, and I mean, obviously, Christmas feasting is a gainer or encourager's societally indulged wet dream. I personally have a whole tin of Christmas cookies a dear friend sent to me to stuff the BF but, in this time of happiness and excess, I just wanted to mention to remember to, if you can (and don't feel bad if you can't, it happens to the best of us), try and donate to someone less fortunate than you. I did a lot of donating this season with Heifer.org, an organization that donates animals to families in developing nations to help them eat and be financially self sufficient and successful.

You can see their whole catalogue of ways to donate here.

I am so blessed to be able to give to others, and I hope you all are too. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, and it leads into a prosperous, exciting, healthful and healing 2011. Thanks for reading.

Have the merriest of Christmases.

Lots To Be Thankful For

Happy Thanksgiving guys! In the spirit of thankfully reflecting, I'd just love to say that I am super thankful for everyone who reads my blog, and the really thoughtful comments I've been getting lately. You're all awesome. And remember, Thanksgiving is the one day a year where it's practically a law that you should go and get stuffed (at least in the US) so don't skimp on the stuffing! To show just how thankful I am, here's a sweet, little Thanksgiving fantasy that hopefully will inspire you all to eat huge today (and tomorrow, and the next day, and the -you get the idea).

 Lots To Be Thankful For

     James was excited. For the first time in the three years they'd been together, he and Rory were having Thanksgiving on their own. Although he was a little bummed that Rory's work obligations had made it wildly impractical for them to fly back to their families' in the North-East, he was totally thrilled at the idea that they got to spend a quiet, romantic Thanksgiving together. 


     James had lots to be thankful for; the past year had been one of the most successful of his and Rory's life. Both were doing spectacularly well professionally, they had moved into a beautiful new house in LA, and life was generally awesome. Their relationship was stronger than ever, and Sean had never been happier. Or bigger for that matter.


     Over the span of their three years together, Rory had lovingly packed more than a hundred pounds onto James, and they had both enjoyed ever second of it. 


     Rory had been working for days to make the the perfect Thanksgiving feast for Sean. 


"It's my fault we can't go back East honey," Rory said with a smile, "The least I can do is cook dinner for you!"


   All week the refrigerator and the pantry had been filling up with ingredients for the big day. Rory had kept the exact menu a secret, but James was sure that it was going to be as calorie packed a Thanksgiving feast as possible. James loved when Rory cooked for him, cause Rory was the king of sneaking extra calories into recipes, and it always got James going when after he finished eating something, Rory would casually inform him that there had been a few thousand more calories in the dish that anyone would think.


   When James woke up on Thanksgiving morning, the house was already full of the smell of wonderful smelling food. Just as James was about to heave his 290 some odd pound frame out of bed, Rory appeared in the door of the bedroom carrying a tray laden with all of Jame's favorite breakfast foods.


"Breakfast in bed for the most adorable boyfriend in the world."


"Aw, you didn't have to honey..."


"Of course I did" Rory smirked, "I need something to keep you busy while I cook. You hang out here, watch TV or read or whatever you want to do to relax, and dinner will be ready in a few hours."


The day crawled on, and James ate and relaxed. When Rory told him dinner would be ready in an hour, he hopped into the shower. The warm water felt good rushing over his broad shoulders and down his thick back. He soaped up his belly and took a second to revel in just how big he had become. As is felt the size of his gut, he thought about how anyone looking at him would have a hard time believing that a few short years ago, he had been a densely muscled, lean college middleweight wrestler. He caught himself in the mirror as he stepped out of the shower and chuckled to himself that he looked much more like he had been a linebacker, not someone who would starve himself to make weight.


James squeezed himself into a french cuffed button down and a snug pair of size 42 dress pants and spritzed himself with cologne. The shirt was was too tight, with football shaped gaps forming between the strained buttons and revealing little slits of belly, but James knew Rory would love it, and since it was just the two of them for dinner, he figured he'd play up just how snug his dress clothes had become. 


As he entered the dining room, James immediadly realized that Rory had outdone himself. There in the candlelight was a table positively creaking with the weight of all the food Rory had lovingly prepared. The turkey was rubbed with herbs and butter and had been roasted with strips of bacon on top of it. There was a small mountain of mashed potatoes. Every kind of side dish you could possibly imagine. and then, almost comic in comparison, were the two placesettings for Rory and himself.


"Wow honey, I can't believe you cooked all this! How I am ever going to eat it all?"


Rory came up behind James wrapped his arms around his boyfriend, and drummed his fingers on James' almost 300 pound belly.


"I imagine you're going to eat it all one plate at a time."


The two sat down, and James started in on his feast. Plateful after plateful slowly began to stretch his belly. Everything was heavenly, and with every course, Rory seemed to produce a new perfectly paired wine or excellently crafted cocktail that kept James' wondering if he felt tipsy because of the booze or of the massive amount of food he already consumed. Somewhere around the third plate Jame's undid his belt, and somewhere around the fifth plate, the button on his too tight slacks mercifully gave way. Rory was visibly excited by both events. Finally, after he had lost track of the number of plates of Thanksgiving bounty he had consumed, James declared himself full. Rory kissed him and informed him he had one final dessert, and then James could stop. James groaned with the thought of more food, but agreed to humor his boyfriend.


Rory vanished into the kitchen, and after a few minutes returned with a ramekin of creme brulee which he placed down in front of James.


"I know it's not very Thanksgiving, but I know it's your favorite."


James smiled at the thoughtful gesture and kissed Rory.


"I am very thankful for you honey. More than anything else in my life I am thankful for you."


James picked up his spook and started to chip through the burt sugar on the top of the dessert and then when when he did, a strange sound clinked out as his spoon hit something in the ramekin.


"Oh honey" James chuckled, "I think you dropped something into the brulee while you were making it."


James looked over at Rory and saw him down on one knee. He looked at his spoon and there it was, a band of gold gleaming out from the pudding. 


Rory looked up at James with his big, brown, puppy dog eyes and said "Will you do me the honor of being my husband?"

   James smiled and kissed Rory deeply on the lips. "Of course I will."

-fin-

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

350,000 Hits! Jesus that's a lot of horny people

I just got an email from my hit tracker service that I got my 350,000th hit for the blog! That means there have been 50,000 hits to this blog since the tail end of March -i.e. 50,000 hits in about 3 and a half months. This blows my mind. Thanks everyone!

-Get A. Snack

P.S. The above image of a hot bellied guy off the interwebs is totally unrelated to this post, I just thought you guys would like it!

Recipes for Summer Gaining: Cubanjew's Super Awesome Frittata

So, in my hunt for summery gainer friendly meals, I asked my pal Cubanjew if he had anything that was good for a breakfast or brunch type meal. He suggested his Super Awesome Fritatta recipe.

Cubanjew's Super Awesome Frittata Recipe

8-10 eggs (I prefer organic, cage free eggs -knowing the chickens are happy makes me happy)

2 or 3 not too small potatos, washed and sliced*

Shredded/grated cheese to taste*

Salt & Pepper to taste

Whole Milk (or for the adventurous, heavy cream or half and half)

Olive oil*

Butter*

*Organic if you can manage it

In his own, awesome words:

“First I cut one of my potatoes into thin slices and sauté them a little. Once the potatoes are decently soft, I mix in the salt, pepper and shredded cheese. Melt it down and mash it all up Don't use all of the cheese though! I generally do grated parmesan and then either a shredded cheddar or mexican mix and have it all combined. Trader Joe's has some really nice, organic pre-shredded cheese mixes, if you're too lazy to grate your own. Let it be a little lumpy! We like it like that!

Next, put your mixture aside and preheat the oven to 400. Wash your remaining potatoes and slice them fairly thin, but not transparent cause you want some substance to them, and microwave them submerged in water for a minute and 30 seconds to start their cooking process. Let them sit. Then, in a medium-large pan, combine your olive oil and butter and let it get hot, but don't burn the butter! I suggest medium heat on your range for this. Mix your potato cheese mixture up and cover the bottom of the pan in the mixture, and let it sit for a few minutes.

In a fairly large bowl, crack and combine your eggs as if you were making an omelette, and salt and pepper it to taste. Put that aside and look at your potatoes in the pan. Start flipping it over when it's brown on the bottom and add more of the mixture in. It's good when it's golden and crispy. When you have a little potato mixture left, remove it all and place it back in the bowl and mix it all together. Now you want to put more oil and butter in the pan, and arrange your potato slices in an even layer and let cook with a cover on the pan for 4-5 minutes. Put a thin layer of your grated cheese on top of that, and then your mixture of browned mashed potatoes and unbrowned mashed potatoes on a lumpy textural layer over that. You can toss in anything here; bacon, veggies, anything you have laying around, it'll taste good. I suggest if you add veggies to sauté them beforehand, and make sure that any meat you add is cooked through. Let it cook for another 3-4 minutes with a cover on it. Now you'll want to pour your eggs on top and then place a final layer of grated cheese and cook for 3 minutes with a cover on the pan.

You'll want to see it start to bubble. That's when you uncover and place in your preheated oven for 10-15 minutes, with you checking in 5 minute intervals by sticking a knife in. When the knife comes out clean, you're done and you can take it out of the oven. Let your frittata cool for a few minutes, then flip onto a plate and serve! When going to a party or somewhere I'm expected to bring a dish, my frittata never fails to impress! Or you could always, ya know, eat the whole thing yourself... lol”

And there you have it -a simple, fattening, versatile calorically gifted brunch recipe perfect for any growing gainer. Up next, DangerCocktail's summer dinner suggestion :)

Milestones

Today I received a cute email from my stat tracker service that The Encourager had just received it's 300,000th hit. Wow. This also happens to be my 100th post. I figured I should celebrate this amazing numerical synchronicity with a quick post.

I cannot begin to thank you guys for reading this blog. The kind emails, the friendly IMs, the comments on posts, it's been so rewarding to hear that people actually care about what I write. I started this blog with the intention of giving back to the gainer/encourager community, and I really feel like I actually have to some degree. It's an amazing feeling. I'll try not to go on, but, I really, deeply thankful for all of you guys, and the ways that writing this blog has made me grow as a person. I feel like I am a much better guy for having this outlet.

I really hope that anyone who needs it can take the stuff I write in this blog and use it as one more reason to be who they want to be. You guys are awesome. And you're not alone. Not alone x 300,000, just from this blog.

Eat big!

-The Encourager

New Study on Fatness and Fitness

I found this study on the relation of body compisition (how lean or fat a guy is) and fitness levels (thanks to sometimesgainer) and I figured I'd let you guys take a look at it.

The conclusions, as stated in the abstract, are that fit men have a lower mortality rate than either unfit lean men, or unfit fat men. They even go so far as to say "being fit may reduce the hazards of obesity." This speaks to the point that I've made in earlier posts that the perils of having a bigger body are much more complex than society generally believes, and that health conscious gainers are not necessarily as prone to the complications of being overweight as someone who is not as careful about exercise and what they put in their mouth.

Obviously it's one study, albiet a credible one, but, I was just heartened to see someone looking at obesity in a more complex way.

275,000 hits

So, in other news, I got a little email from my site tracker service today that informed me that this blog, since it's inception, had just over 275,000 hits. This kinda blew my mind, but I thought was best summed up by a little calculation performed by my friend Victor. He wrote:

"Congrats on 275,000 hits! Let's put it in context though. The average male erection is 6" long. Let's assume that every visitor to your site gets at least one boner per visit (I do). 275,000 x 6 = 1,650,000 inches of throbbing cock. We know that there are 5280 feet in a mile, or 63,360 inches. So, 1,650,000 / 63,360 = 26.04166667. Dude... Your blog has caused ~26 miles of erections. :D That's pretty cool when you do the math."

That is pretty cool when you do the math and I am super greatful to Victor for doing it for me. Makes my horny mind think, if the blog is responsible for around 26 miles of boners, how many lbs has it helped inspire? Thanks to everyone for reading. All of you are what makes keeping up this blog fun.

Goodbye to Roitbear's Blog :(

So, one of the fellow gainer blogs that I have most enjoyed over the past few years is Riotbear's blog. It's been eloquent, dynamic, hot, and genuinely interesting. He also has a fantastic, casually sexy YouTube. I was sad to read that he's shutting down the blog.


I get that his life is going in a different direction at the moment, and I respect that. Gaining is all about doing what feels good to you and making yourself happy.

But, haha, I am sure I am not the only one that would like to let Mr. Riotbear know that if at anytime he finds himself packing on a few pounds and has any desire at all to open up the blog again, the gainer & encourager community will be waiting here with open arms and a couple of pints of ice cream. :)

Until then Mr. Riotbear, I wish you the best.

I'll leave you guys with one of his low key, gainer eating vids.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I just wanted to take a sec, since it is Thanksgiving, and say how thankful I am for everyone who reads my blog, to all the people who have taken the time to say something kind to me about the blog, and for all of the really excellent guys I call my friends in the gainer/encourager community.

Happy Thanksgiving guys. Eat like champs. It's the only nationally sanctioned gainer holiday.

I found this pic, and thought that it might be motivating if you guys are full by the time pie comes along