Never understood the urge to shove everything into a uniform slurry of shit. Peanut butter in oatmeal, protein powder on your eggs, fish oil in your blueberries. Whatever happened to eating food by itself, like a normal human being?
But seriously, smoothies are incredibly convenient if you're on the go, very easy to make and if you won't have access to a fridge you can just keep it in a thermos. Plus they taste good.
Reading that ingredient list you couldn't pay me to eat that. That said, I have a pound of bison I'm going to eat for dinner and I'm ridiculously excited.
Speaking of fasting, has anyone experimented with a long term fasting approach like the Warrior Diet or the Lean Gains 8 hours on, 16 hours off deal?
I'm doing LeanGains right now. It's worked wonders for keeping my strength up while I lose fat. Berkhan knows his shit. I wouldn't try to gain mass on it, though. <a class="postlink" href="http://rippedbody.jp/2011/10/08/leangains-intermittent-fasting-guide-how-to-do-it-by-yourself/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://rippedbody.jp/2011/10/08/leangai ... -yourself/</a>
I've experimented with the 18 hours off intermittent fasting and settled into just eating when hungry. If I have dinner at 6pm and wake up not hungry I don't eat. Mostly happens on Friday's when I have a half day or during the weekend when I don't normally eat until after lunch. Won't be doing this before a game of hockey anymore though, woke up not hungry and was fine all day then went to play and had absolutely no drive in my legs when I tried to sprint but otherwise it's been fine.
Now I kind of want to try it. That sounds amusing. For the Leangains folks, is there any sort of adjustment period? Do you feel insanely hungry the first week? Do you feel/look bloated from not spreading out your meals? Just curious.
For you paleo types - grab a copy of It Starts With Food. It's by the Whole30 folks and a really good read.
The fasting period is probably where you'll have to adjust the most, but it's not that bad at all. You soon realize that you don't die if you ignore the hunger for a bit. The first hunger pang is in your head, not your body, and it gets really easy to ignore. You should generally time it so that your sleep coincides with your fasting period. As far as bloating, I really don't worry or care about it. It's nothing special, you just look/feel full for a couple of hours. Even before I'd ever heard of Leangains, I'd regularly forget to eat, and I'm on a cut, so YMMV. (As I mentioned, while I'll probably continue IF indefinitely, I wouldn't do the LeanGains-style bulk - eating at a deficit, even if it's only on your rest days, just strikes me as counter-productive.) Berkhan generally advises carbs before training. If you absolutely can't, he advises you take branched-chain amino acids to slow muscle breakdown. Here's an article: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.leangains.com/2010/05/early-morning-fasted-training.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.leangains.com/2010/05/early- ... ining.html</a> Personally, I just do a light meal of carbs a couple hours before, because fuck paying through the nose for BCAA powder. I think the most important bits are: 1) Carb cycling - high carb on training days, high fat on rest days. (high carb may be "anti-paleo" but I don't really care about that) 2) Calorie cycling - higher on training days, lower on rest days, exact numbers depend on your goal (bulk/cut/body recomp) 3) 16 hr fast, 8 hr feed 4) Obviously, lots of water, lots of sleep, compound lifting.
Has anyone successfully squared the Paleo-Leangains circle? According to the Leangains math, I need to eat 390 grams worth of carbs on my workout days, which I can't figure out how to do Paleo-style; that's 8 cups of brown rice, e.g.
For those of you who still eat corn fed beef, here's a little info: The term "corn fed is a little misleading. Cows are mostly fed silage, which is the entire corn plant, ground up and stored right before the ears have reached full maturity. Most cattle are fed a mixture of silage, hay (alfalfa and/or grass) and distillers' dry grains, which is a high-protein byproduct of ethanol production. So really, a corn fed cow's diet is mostly plant matter, although grains do make up a small percentage of it. Also, one thing most people don't realize is that corn is a grass. Corn fed beef does have higher levels of omega-6 fat in it, but I supplement it by taking fish oil and it seems to work pretty good. I get a side of beef every year from one of my neighbors, and it usually costs me about $600 with the processing and everything. I'm familiar with his farming practices so I know I'm getting some high quality shit. Someone earlier in this thread mentioned getting a side of grass fed beef for $2000. I hope the bones were made of fucking gold for that price. Grass fed beef tastes like shit compared to corn fed, the only way I'll buy it is if it's cheaper. Someone also mentioned buying grass fed chicken. Chickens eat seeds and bugs. If that chicken you bought was grass fed, they forced the grass down its throat. I was on a fairly strict paleo diet for a few months last winter, but then my dad died and I had to hit the ground running with work like nothing ever happened, so I said "fuck it" for a while. It was hard enough keeping myself together without having to worry about my diet. I've been feeling like shit lately and my chronic heartburn came back, so I'm thinking about going back on next week. Should be easier the second time, since I already have a good idea of what works best for me. I spend a lot of time working out in the middle of fucking nowhere, and I usually have to pack a lunch. Anyone have any ideas for paleo foods to bring along with me? I keep a little propane grill in my work truck, so I can cook/heat things up. Not being able to just make a sandwich kind of makes it a pain in the ass.
Just in case anyone is wondering, chili tastes better with fried eggs, bacon bits and cheese (I have been using the Kerrygold stuff) if you can tolerate it. For the bacon I cut the strips down to bits, cooked it separate and threw them in at the end to get some extra crunch. Shit is off the hook.
Last evening before kicking off another Whole30. I have no idea if this one will be easier or harder since I have been pretty damn paleo the last 3 months.
My weekend breakfast is a heap of bacon, capsicum(bell peppers), onion, mushrooms, bok choy, red cabbage, brussel sprouts, chillis, cherry tomatoes, some beef strips, haloumi cheese, salami and drop a couple of eggs in at the end. It's is fucking orgasmic.
Best chili recipe ever. 2lbs ground beef 1lb loose sausage 1/2lb bacon 1 28oz can of tomato sauce (if you can make your own sauce, it's even better) 1 8oz can of tomato paste 2 large onions minced 4-6 minced dried chipotle peppers 2 squares of dark chocolate (83% is the best) Johnny Walker Red (you don't cook with good scotch) A little bit of the following spices/liquids. I don't measure, feel free to add in the amounts you like. Cumin Black Pepper Garlic Powder Chili Powder Soy Sauce Dijon Mustard Honey Mix all the spices/liquids except for the honey together with the meat. Brown the meat and drain off all the oil. Cook bacon separately. When it's pretty crispy drain it on paper towels and crush it up by hand. Mix bacon and meat together, add tomato sauce, tomato paste and minced chipotles. Simmer for 1 hour. After the hour is up, saute the onions and once they start getting a nice brownish color, move them off the burner and add about 3 cap fulls worth of scotch. Be careful not to add too much too soon as it can flare up and you'll have a 4 foot flame coming out of your pan. Put them back on the burner and turn it to high and cook for about 2 minutes. Onions should then be mixed into your chili. Add 2 squares of dark chocolate Add a good squeeze of honey and let the chili simmer for another 15 minutes. Be content in the fact that you have unlocked the secret to the greatest chili ever made. If you saute onions regularly, scotch onions are good on just about anything.
Not saying you should change anything since I agree nicotine isn't as bad as people think, but you could probably get a very similar effect from 5htp and/or sulfur 30c with less chance of addiction.
Not sure if Amazon ships everywhere in Canada, but here's what I've used sulfur 30c and 5htp 5htp seems to have a greater effect on me, sometimes I'll take it during the day too instead of right before sleep. Only bummer is there is some rice flour in there but I think it's a fair trade. Edit- missed that you had depression in the first post, not sure this stuff would help with that, but definitely should for anxiety and sleep.