(Long post ahead. I didn’t think it would be, but eh. At least I tried to make it skimmable.)
Diet update.
Well, first, new restaurant. New-to-me restaurant. There’s a Bosnian restaurant that has basically meat, meat, and more meat. Which of the 6 or 7 kinds of grilled meat would you like?
We had 5 of them. They were all good, a few were better.
On Saturday I did a mostly-flat walk for ~20 minutes and my heartrate barely got above 90. So, not hitting that 120-130.
On both days I did a bunch of yardwork. I finally cleared out some areas that didn’t get mowed for over a year, so plenty of work, plenty of LISS.
We’re in the last week (or two) of the t-ransformation, and I’m nearly done leaning out where I want. So I’m upping the ante and getting stricter.
- daily fasted cardio (protein though)
- proper Rapid Fat Loss diet / old-school V-diet
The cardio is simple. Walked over to the hill and up it this morning while listening to a work presentation.
The diet is going to get harder.
I’m now in the Lyle’s “category 1”, under 12%, which has different rules.
My evening “healthy solid meal” is dropping carbs and most fats. No post-workout carbs with lunch. Possibly no carbs for 2 weeks (except training window).
My day will look like:
- wake up and start fast-digesting peptopro shake + caffeine
- get kids to school
- take a walk
- whey/casein shake + fish oil
… again and again …
repeat until evening - solid meal of vegetables + lean meat (or, a leaner salmon like sockeye) + fish oil
- bedtime shake + fish oil
Training gets Surge starting 15m before and during. Protein shake after.
The research paper shared the other day suggests you can get benefits from even more protein post-workout than previously thought, so I may cram a couple shakes here.
Many other diet things:
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Though PeptoPro is expensive, it seems you only need 1/3 to 1/2 for the same effects, so the cost isn’t really that bad per dose.
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@T3hPwnisher I tried MD chocolate as a pudding, and it was a no go. It’s still too sweet for me, but more significant is I still had that throat allergy/itchiness
. Interesting experiment though. -
New protein powders came in. It feels a bit like betrayal, and I feel bad about it, but I haven’t been able to make either MD flavor work.
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I did try mixing a gelatin supplement with one of the new proteins in a shake, and that was a really tasty idea. I’d already been working through a tub of the collagen TC recommended here. Adds good texture and makes the flavor richer.
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With the new proteins, I deliberately ordered the Stevia flavoring rather than sucralose. I had trouble with MD (which uses sucralose) but not Surge (which uses Stevia). With the new flavors, I don’t get the scratching, so it continues to reinforce the theory that my esophagus doesn’t like sucralose for some reason.
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I’d been trying out sugar-free energy drinks for the past couple weeks, after a lifetime of sugary ones. The erythritol sweetened ones agree with me, but the sucralose ones not so much. It’s super weird. Sucralose is tolerable, but it’s like “this is a bit uncomfortable vs this is not uncomfortable at all”.
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I ran out of ephedrine a couple weeks ago, so stopped doing EC stack. Just caffeine. Haven’t restocked.
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I got officially diagnosed with adult ADHD last week, so I’m trialing Vyvanse. Titrating on and no change yet. But I’m not going to mess with ephedrine until I know how this all plays out. I even backed my caffeine off.
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I got a blood pressure monitor, since they want me monitoring it with the Vyvanse. I bought the Omron Silver, and it syncs to my phone with Bluetooth, so that’s cool. BP and heartrate are still quite healthy: 106/66 at 54 bpm. Nice product, would recommend. $40 on Amazon.
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Also got a set of skinfold calipers. It’s more objective data point, and the sample of readings I did yesterday were all consistent.
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(Unlike photos or the mirror, where lighting, posing, flexing, food, hydration can change everything).
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The 3 site skinfold is 24mm which is supposedly 9%. Seems low. I don’t trust that number. But knowing that “this is what 24mm on me looks like” is useful. Precision, not accuracy.
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I found a good set of reference photos of bodyfat across many people who carry it somewhat differently. I’d guess I’m in that 10-11% rage.
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Either way, that puts me at 3-4 pounds of fat to lose to get into the 7-9% visual range. Seems pretty doable in the next week or so.
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Also glad the end is now in sight. Ready to go back to actually getting bigger/stronger.