Stupid diet update. Stupid because it’s questionable I’m doing this in the first place.
I’m down 4.1 pounds from the beginning of the month as of this morning. I still have a few pounds to go if I actually want that “chiseled abs” look of a physique competitor or model. That’s kind of surprised me (I mentioned this the other day). I didn’t realize I had that much subcutaneous fat on me.
My calculated net maintenance calories, via two different methods, is sitting right around 2300-2400 a day. This is a pretty useful thing to know for the future if I want to “lean bulk”.
I’m probably going to bump things up a notch for the last week, just to see how close I can really get in that time frame. In other words, just more cardio, and thermogenic 2x daily instead of just in the morning. Also shift carbs more to workouts and replace with fats throughout the day. My [pure] water intake is at least half a gallon daily, and then a fair amount of other drinks on top of that.
Strength has actually gone up, energy is better (since I’m sleeping better), and mood has been pretty stable. Some of the massage stuff and the related bruising has had me a bit irritated at times though. Psychologically I actually like being leaner, since it feels like a more true reflection of how much/little muscle I have and how it’s distributed. In clothes though, I AM smaller. But it’s more inspiration to maintain leanness and put on the size.
Food-wise, I’ve eaten a lot of salmon recently. The grocery store was selling some wild-caught Alaskan Sockeye for 60% of its original price (normally $16.99/lb) so I picked up all of that. I also grabbed some swordfish on sale too. Something like .8lbs of that salmon is equivalent to 30 of my fish oil pills in Omega 3 content. Not necessarily cheaper, but definitely tastier. Salmon with an herb, wine, butter reduction sauce was really really good.
Basic salmon recipe: take a chunk of salmon with skin still on (my pieces were .4 to .5 lbs apiece). Rinse and dry. Generously salt and pepper the fleshy side. Preheat oven to 400. Heat olive oil in a cast iron pan until hot and just starting to smoke (this is just under medium on my stove, but ymmv). Place salmon flesh side down for 3 minutes. Flip and put in oven for 3 minutes. Remove and let it rest for 5 minutes (you can cover with foil if you want). Then eat.
You can cook swordfish pretty much the same way, just use some lemon juice and rosemary too.
Bullet proof coffee… I’m having some right now with some Kerrygold instead of LoL butter, and it is a smoother flavor. I’ve actually made homemade butter on a few occasions too, just never used it for the coffee. (Actually, I last used homemade butter when I made homemade puff pastry. That was pretty involved.)
