My gift from my parents for high school graduation was going to Shawn Ray's "muscle camp" in Las Vegas. That is a story in and of itself, but I remember one night while at the hotel, I was adding up my protein intake for the day. I had read many times in Flex that you need to consume at least 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight, and I followed that guideline like my life depended on it. Anyway, I realized that in the excitement of the day, I had somehow miscalculated my protein intake and was about 35 grams short. It was already around midnight and my parents were already asleep in their room, but I didn't have any money on me to buy food. So I pretty much started freaking out because I knew all of my hard earned gains would go right out the window if I didn't hit my required protein intake for the day. So I walked over to my parents room and started banging on their door like there was some major emergency going on. They woke up and I explained to them the situation and that I needed money to buy something with at least 35 grams of protein. I remember my mom looking at me like I was an idiot, and she told me to just eat more protein with breakfast the next morning. Then I looked at her like she was crazy and explained that by waiting I'd miss my anabolic window. So she ended up giving me her credit card and I went downstairs to the hotel gift shop and bought some beef jerky that would cover my protein needs for the day. As I swallowed down that last piece of beef jerky, I drew a sigh of relief....crisis averted!!
