No pretending to like tofu any more!: Eric's primal transformation page 2

[Metric]

I think if you are trying IF that it is important to eat a substantial meal at night and the handful of strawberries were definitely not that (like you said). I find that a meal with decent fat sustains me much longer. I generally have a meal right before bed (around 11pm-ish), then I IF until about 3pm the next day (or whenever I get hungry). Take it a bit at a time and make sure you have your prepared food handy because the unfortunate choices that you had to choose from and chocolate aren't going to be terribly sustainable in the long term. Better luck tomorrow!

[en2ec]

I think if you are trying IF that it is important to eat a substantial meal at night and the handful of strawberries were definitely not that (like you said). I find that a meal with decent fat sustains me much longer. I generally have a meal right before bed (around 11pm-ish), then I IF until about 3pm the next day (or whenever I get hungry). Take it a bit at a time and make sure you have your prepared food handy because the unfortunate choices that you had to choose from and chocolate aren't going to be terribly sustainable in the long term. Better luck tomorrow!

I think you may be right about having fat. I ate dinner last night around 8:30 pm, and I had a pretty large meal. Big portions of grass-fed roast beef and sauted bok choi (in ghee). I was still hungry and had 2 fried eggs and a tomato. Then I had a bowl of strawberries and coconut milk. Wow. Delicious. It is now 9:15 am, and I'm not hungry at all. I think that this will be a much better IF attempt today. Still forgot my lunch though. After years of never bringing a lunch, I'm finding it hard to get in the habbit of taking it out of the fridge.

[en2ec]

As part of the contract for the gym I joined, I have to have periodic coaching sessions. I had my first one yesterday (same guy who did my intro training session who convinced me to lift rather than only swim).

I went into it thinking it was going to be a waste of time. We talked about weightlifting for a long time, which I'll get to later, and then he asked about nutrition. I told him that I was eating paleo/primal. He didn't know what that was. I started to describe it, and he said he knows exactly what it is and that he's been eating this way for 3 years. I forgot to ask him what he calls it. He said he lost about 45 pounds of fat in 6 months when he started, and he is 100% convinced that it is the best way to eat. I thought that was cool.

That brings me to the weightlifting discussion. He thinks I'm doing it bass ackwards. He thinks that I should focus exclusively on hypertrophy for fat loss because 1) it builds muscle mass faster, which means that more muscle consumes more calories and 2) interval training for hypertrophy also burns a lot more calories than strength training. He also recommended periodiztion. Basically 4 - 6 weeks of hypertrophy first, then 4 - 6 weeks of strength, then a week off.

Then repeat. His advice contradicts the Starting Strength and Stronglifts communities. Now I'm conflicted. Do I focus on strength (I certainly have some hypertrophy from my strength training) or do I focus on building mass?

A lot of people in the paleo and primal communities do SL or SS. But is that because Crossfit promotes paleo, and Rippetoe, author of Starting Strength, used to be affiliated with Crossfit? Obviously, people have great results with strength training, but would they have had even better results with hypertrophy? By the way, another trainer at the gym, who I've chatted with and who has given me some tips on lifting form, also said that I should be doing lighter weights at higher volume. They've both said that what I'm doing isn't bad, but not as effective for fat loss.

[Metric]

I think you may be right about having fat. I ate dinner last night around 8:30 pm, and I had a pretty large meal. Big portions of grass-fed roast beef and sauted bok choi (in ghee). I was still hungry and had 2 fried eggs and a tomato. Then I had a bowl of strawberries and coconut milk. Wow. Delicious. It is now 9:15 am, and I'm not hungry at all. I think that this will be a much better IF attempt today. Still forgot my lunch though. After years of never bringing a lunch, I'm finding it hard to get in the habbit of taking it out of the fridge.

Do you have a phone that you can set an alarm on? If so, set an alarm to remind you to bring your lunch. I had to do this in the beginning. I found it VERY effective!!!

As for the training, I'm sorry, but I have no idea. I only concentrated on moving slowly for the first month and focusing on adding some body-weight movements this month: Pushups, Planks, Squats. Maybe some gym time, but I haven't read PB part on exercise yet.... Hopefully, someone else will be able to point you in the right direction. Have you searched PB for this info yet??

[en2ec]

Have you searched PB for this info yet??

Only briefly. I'll try to look more in depth when I have time. I also posted under PB Fitness.

The alarm is a good idea, but I leave every day at a different time because my son wakes up randomly, and that means I'm up at random times and go ahead and get ready and leave soon after. But, I just had an idea to stick a post-it on the inside of my front door at night right after I prepare my lunch. I don't think I would have thought of it without your alarm idea, so thank you!

[Metric]

Only briefly. I'll try to look more in depth when I have time. I also posted under PB Fitness.

The alarm is a good idea, but I leave every day at a different time because my son wakes up randomly, and that means I'm up at random times and go ahead and get ready and leave soon after. But, I just had an idea to stick a post-it on the inside of my front door at night right after I prepare my lunch. I don't think I would have thought of it without your alarm idea, so thank you!

Whatever works. Good idea about the post-it note. Eventually it'll become habit and you won't need it anymore. If you get an answer to your question about workouts, let me know.

[en2ec]

Success! I did IF again today. As I mentioned earlier, I had a pretty big dinner with plenty of fat. I wasn't hungry, and I had a great workout.

I realized today that my squat weight is too low for 3 x 5. I did a couple of warmup sets and two 3 x 5 sets at my workout weight: currently 72.5 kg (~160 pounds). On the third set, I thought I'd try to do more reps. Got to 12. Could have done more, but thought I should stop. Not bad considering I was fasting.

But then I did bench press. I had to drop about 10 pounds from the last time and felt like 3 x 5 was all I could do. I think I've increased on BP too fast, which is part of the problem. The fast may have also contributed.

But then I did deadlifts and went up in weight on schedule -- about 10 pounds more than last time. No problem. I could have done more reps (I only do 1 set of 5 reps on DL).

As per the advice of the trainer I met with, I did only my warmup exercises before lifting and then did cardio afterwards. I had been doing cardio before as part of the warmup. Cardio in this case for me is doing some Uechi Ryu katas (a series of karate techniques for those not familiar with them). Katas are great because they are a combination of cardio and moving isometric exercises (even plyometrics depending on the kata and how you perform it). At least if you do them with the right focus and intensity. By the way, during the 5 years I trained in Uechi Ryu regularly, I had far more strength and muscle mass than I ever did with prior attempts at weightlifting. Here is a link to a true master I had the privilege of training with: Shinyu Gushi performs Sanchin - YouTube. What he's doing may look simple, but it isn't! He's at least 70, chain smokes marlboro reds, and is about 5 feet tall, but he is one of the toughest people I've ever met.

[Metric]

I agree, if you're going to do cardio in the same session, always after strength!!

[en2ec]

I had a really delicious meal yesterday. I was planning to make the Banh Mi recipe posted here on MDA, and I had the pork and cabbage for a few days, but hadn't gotten the carrots, nor did I feel like making the mayo, so I ended up getting inspired by the local cuisine here.

pork_cabbage_SP.jpg

I had pork medallions, some red cabbage cooked in bacon fat, and half a small sweet potato mashed with coconut milk, which was out of this world. Yeah, I had some carbs, but not a huge amount, and I had eaten hardly any during the day.

Today I had the leftover pork and cabbage (no sweet potato -- my wife had the other half last night) for lunch.

There is some random Austrian holiday today, which means that, on the one hand, the U-bahn was almost empty. Yay! On the other hand, the gym is closed. #%!^@#!! No swimming for me.

[Metric]

I had a really delicious meal yesterday. I was planning to make the Banh Mi recipe posted here on MDA, and I had the pork and cabbage for a few days, but hadn't gotten the carrots, nor did I feel like making the mayo, so I ended up getting inspired by the local cuisine here.

pork_cabbage_SP.jpg

I had pork medallions, some red cabbage cooked in bacon fat, and half a small sweet potato mashed with coconut milk, which was out of this world. Yeah, I had some carbs, but not a huge amount, and I had eaten hardly any during the day.

Today I had the leftover pork and cabbage (no sweet potato -- my wife had the other half last night) for lunch.

There is some random Austrian holiday today, which means that, on the one hand, the U-bahn was almost empty. Yay! On the other hand, the gym is closed. #%!^@#!! No swimming for me.

Looks wonderful!