You’re an animal!
Enjoy the cruise mate
1 Like
Some travel day wins. Got an airport lunch a side of Steak at Baja Fresh and a steak and eggs breakfast by way of a breakfast burrito at a local mexican spot at the pier
5 Likes
I am back in the states. Lots of stories to tell when I have access to a full keyboard, but I averaged 21 eggs per morning for breakfast and my wife decided to snap this photo of me because it was too perfect
On the plate is 4 steamed eggs, 3 poached (ala eggs Benedict, I tossed the bread), a 2 egg omelet and about 4-5 eggs scrambled, and then that number to the side of me is for my order of 2 sunny side up eggs. And after this plate I got 3 more steamed eggs and another plate of scrambled. (There is also so salmon and trout on the small plate next to it, but we’ll just pretend I was eating Ariel’s friends there)
The morning they had steak and eggs, I had 6 sirloin steaks (about 5oz each) alongside a similar amount of eggs as above.
And once again, by day 5 the Mrs asked “How can you eat so much and look so good”.
No better way to vacation and feast my dudes.
14 Likes
@alex_uk I had this rattling around in my brain all week and can finally write it out, haha. Something else I forgot to mention regarding the “why” behind feasting and famine: I’m a fan of implementing it because I feel it more naturally fits our ancestral way of eating. Our current situation of perpetual abundance is VERY alien to our species, and responsible for SO much of the metabolic issues we see with the populace. The body simply does not react well when it’s subjected to a perpetual state of abundance, and it’s “coping” mechanisms boil down to diabetes and heart disease. Historically, we frequently experienced lean times and fat times, and during the fat times we made them QUITE fat (as I detail below) and during the lean times we could get quite lean, often going through multiple days/weeks without nourishment. Because I’m a meathead, I prefer not to go QUITE that far, and opt for the protein sparing modified fast, but I feel like engaging in this approach to nutrition in a general sense already aids in lifestyle improvements, irrespective of it if includes the “meat and eggs” approach.
Alrighty, time to update for real. This is gonna be stream of consciousness so bear with me.
Travel Days/Pre-Cruise
I departed on 26 Dec for my cruise, which left out of Galveston TX on 27 Dec and returned on 2 Jan. I kicked off the travel day with that set of 85x185lb squats because I’m a psycho and apparently don’t care about being comfortable while flying. I had a side of steak from a Baja Fresh in an airport for lunch. Our connecting flight had significant delays and we didn’t get to our hotel until about 2130. We were on the pier and there were limited food options and we were exhausted, so we hit up a Jimmy Johns and I got a double roastbeef sub with extra roast beef and some provolone cheese, and then a rotisserie chicken and cheddar sub. Threw out the bread on both and just ate the meat. Less than ideal, but still “on the plan”.
Next day, woke up, went on a long walk while I waiting for a pharmacy to open to pick up some last minute travel supplies, and during that walk stumbled across a legit burrito shop and got a steak and egg breakfast burrito. Always an awesome morning when you can get steak and eggs. Walked around more and eventually boarded the cruise ship, and that’s where all manner of feasting totally kicked off.
Cruise feasting
I had a 3 week famine leading up to this, to absolutely and totally prime myself for being able to totally feast. There was a “practice” feast a few days beforehand at Texas de Brazil, but now I arrived at the “big game”. I had no intentions of going “off carnivore”, but, in turn, I was NOT denying myself anything. Meat and eggs are what I genuinely enjoy eating, and there are SO many options for that on a cruise that I was set. My only “restrictions” were on cheese. I’d eat it if it came with a meal, but I didn’t go out of my way to acquire it, because it was always available at every meal and the option was there for it, but I know for myself that I can pretty much eat a near unlimited amount of cheese and never really get a satisfying/full feeling from it compared to meat and eggs.
Feasting highlights
-
The staff eventually grew to understand my voracious appetite, and was more than willing to cater to it. One of the best quotes from the cruise was a waiter asking me “Mr. Jared, before I bring out dessert, could I interest you in a steak?” I informed him that he read my mind, and he absolutely COULD interest me in that. This was at a brunch, at which point I had already consumed a seafood sampler platter (of which he brought me an extra serving of salmon), a ham and cheese frittata, a 3 cheese omelet, an itallian sausage soup, an entrée of veal and an entrée of parmesan crusted chicken. And prior to this brunch, I DID have breakfast. On a different day’s dinner, the waiter brought out an EXTRA rack of lamb, after I had already consumed 3 appetizers (escargot, pulled duck leg, and a shrimp and lobster platter…which he brought me a second one of because he felt like one wasn’t enough), French onion soup with gruyere cheese “croutons” (I ordered it just for the croutons), and the aforementioned 1 rack of lamb entrée’ along with a crispy duck breast/leg entrée’.
-
According to my kiddo, I was averaging 21 eggs per breakfast, and that wasn’t ALL I was eating at breakfast: that was just the egg count. I would also have salmon, trout, and on the day they did steak and eggs, I had 6 sirloin steaks (about 5-6oz each). I tended to employ butter pretty judiciously on my eggs as well.
-
The majority of dinners, I’d have at least 2 of each course (appetizer and entrée), but sometimes triples, and I would finish off whatever my wife/kiddo couldn’t. I was proud of my kiddo in that regard as well: they went after steaks quite frequently and tried out a bunch of new cuts.
-
Lunch was always at the buffet for me, although I’d sometimes make it a “progressive lunch” and do rounds at the buffet and finish off poolside at the burger and shawrma stations. As a cruising pro, I’d always grab my plate and head STRAIGHT to the carving station first and THEN get to the start of the buffet. I was able to convince them to give me the drumsticks and thighs whenever they were cutting into a bird, and otherwise wasn’t shy to ask for 3-4 slices at a time of whatever they were carving off of. Also helped myself to 7 steaks at one lunch alongside a barrage of other meaty goodies (all manner of fish, fowl, pork, lamb, etc).
-
I became pretty skilled at learning where my “too much” point was and knowing to back off from that. I basically abiding by the principle of “eat until food no longer sounds good”. There was only one lunch where, after finishing, I felt uncomfortably full and needed to take a nap and let my digestion sort itself out, but even then, by the time dinner rolled around, I was ready to eat again. But otherwise, I’d walk away from every meal feeling happy and full but not uncomfortable. There was no binging: I was enjoying every single bite. And the fattier the cut, the better.
Cruise physical activity
-
I’d start every morning off with 50 prisoner squats and 50 push ups. I’d do this by doing 2 rounds of Dan John’s ladder (2-3-5-10), and then finish up with 10 reps of prisoner squat to push up, similar to a burpee. This was basically just a morning mobility routine, and helped me get loose and limber and “awake” before I headed off to conquer breakfast.
-
My wife and I have a rule to NEVER take the elevators on a cruise, so we were always going up and down stairs. Beyond that, whenever we have downtime, we walk around the ship and explore or walk around on the sundeck and get some Vitamin D. 10k steps was always a goal, and on New Year’s Eve we managed 24k from a combination of walking and dancing.
-
When my wife would shower before our dinners, I’d take it upon myself to get in a 10-15 minute bodyweight workout on our veranda. This would be more prisoner squats and push ups, but there was also an I-beam that I could do pull ups on. Which, by the way, my wife has seen me deadlift cars, load stones, press logs, etc, but when I just busted out 8 deadhang pull ups on the I-beam after my morning routine, I turned around and saw her jaw on the floor. Some things just speak to us on a primal level.
-
I came up with a few winners for workouts. One was EMOM do 8 squats, 8 push ups and 5 burpees for 10 minutes. I did another that was 6-6-5 and then 2 pull ups. Also one where I did 10 tabata rounds of burpees on the 20 and 2 pull ups on the 10, then 10 rounds of prisoner squats or push ups on the 20 and 2 pull ups on the 10, then 5 rounds of burpees/pull ups and 5 rounds of squats/push ups and pull ups.
-
I managed to get to the fitness center twice on the trip. I had no plans to do so, but in one case the Mrs was needed a nap and the kiddo was away, and in another the wife and kiddo had an activity booked for just the two of them. For one workout, I took 2 45lb dumbbells and did a circuit of 5 devil presses-5 DB front squats-5 (each arm) alternating DB snatch, then 4s, 3s, down to 1, back up to 5, back down to 1. The first 2 rounds didn’t seem awful, but at the halfway point I knew I found magic. The second workout, I did a heavily modified version of Linda, took 2 75lb DBs and did 10 goblet squats with 1 DB, then incline benched for max reps (10 was the goal, but I got 8), then DB SLDL for 10, then 9s, 8s, etc down to 1. I lowered the incline each round until I was eventually flat benching, and at that point I was able to make the reps match up. THAT workout was really pretty clutch, although by the time you hit the 4s the magic tends to fade a little. Probably a Juarez Valley approach would really clinch it.
-
Also, I got to swim with dolphins and a manatee, and got to explore some Mayan Ruins. In the case of the former, we were in the ocean in a pen, so we were getting rocked by the waves the entire time (it was stormy/choppy out). When it was done, my appetite was through the roof. There’s definitely something to be said about cold water and waves.
Takeaways
-
Despite eating my face off, I gained no noticeable fat during my feasting. I’ve discovered dietary cheat codes. I know I’m annoying with how much I beat the drum about my nutritional approach, but I genuinely hope others can benefit from it if they decide to try it themselves. T-Nation has a ton of articles about how you can’t overeat protein and how it won’t lead to fat gain, and I’m definitely feeling that. And I am more than confident that if anyone ran the numbers, I was taking in over 6k calories a day. Again, just in eggs alone at breakfast, with 21 eggs, that’s nearly 1.5k calories. To say nothing of the butter used to cook the eggs, or the extra butter I was throwing on it.
-
In regards to the above, I believe that I may be famine-ing too hard and feasting too light in my day to day living. THIS was a week of REAL feasting, and I absolutely experienced the benefits of it. As I said, just like my last cruise, right around day 5 my Mrs made the observation of “how can you eat so much and look so good?” I genuinely feel like I got leaner over this time frame. Now, that said, I was frequently not LOOKING my leannest, but that was because my stomach was so full of food that it was pushing out, swollen and bloated. And THAT is the downfall of so many trainees that NEED to eat to gain: they’ll freak out as soon as their abs get blurry and think they’re putting on SO much fat. If you’re eating big, your guts are gonna get big. Now, that said, I CAN see carbs making things even trickier, because you’ll hold onto more water and really get that bloat experience. With me eating just meat and eggs, I was effectively just a bowel movement away from being “lean” again.
-
The other benefit of feasting this way? I am SO over food. I am absolutely looking forward to this famine. I enjoyed every meal, don’t get me wrong, but by the end of the cruise I noticed a reduction in intake at meals. It wasn’t a conscious decision, I wasn’t “reining it in”: I was just satiated. Being able to his this reset will be great, ESPECIALLY when you consider that my body is so used to taking in 6k calories a day that a sharp reduction will be just the thing to throw it out of equilibrium and trigger some changes.
-
I’ll most likely do some commentary on the state of people on the cruise at some point as well, but it’s so weird to be a “fellow glutton” on the cruise while also just shaking my head at the state physical state of humanity.
-
Oh yeah, one more nutritional “win”: on the way back home, there was a Jack in the Box at the airport, which was awesome. I had an Ultimate Cheeseburger, no ketchup, ate with a fork and knife. At my connecting flight, there was a Buffalo Wild Wings of all things, so I had 10 traditional bone in wings, naked, no sauce/rub. BWWs cooks their wings in beef tallow: how cool is that?
Boy could I talk more and more about this, but if there’s no other takeaway, just remember the question “Before I bring out dessert, may I interest you in a steak?”
14 Likes
I’m genuinely considering stealing this diet. I want to lean out for T-ransformation 2024 and I always fall for junk out of convenience. The low carb approach and your ability to binge is very familiar to me.
The tricky thing will be getting my spouse on side, she’s very “moderation is key”.
1 Like
I’d excited for you if you give it a try my dude. I will say, though, that I am explicitly NOT binging. I used to have that habit, and it was incredibly destructive. It was setting me back in terms of physique, quality of life, food relationship and mental health. Being in a place where I ENJOY food vs feeling some sort of compulsion to HAVE to eat it is so much better and healthier in so many ways.
In that regard, that’s ultimately why I took on this way of eating. It wasn’t ever about physique (I knew how to make that happen prior to this): it was about healing and simplifying. Food was consuming my life (pun partially intended), and I was constantly thinking about what I was going to eat, when I was going to eat it, and where I was going to get it. I had to shop at 3 different grocery stores to get all my whacky ingredients, and when I wasn’t shopping, I was cooking, eating, cleaning and voiding my bowels from all the food. I had like NO quality time with my family.
Cutting it down to the barest of basics of meat and eggs just streamlined everything, and then, from there, I discovered, as the Nine Inch Nails lyric “just how damaged have I become”. Because I started healing things I didn’t even know were issues. My digestion is FINALLY right after decades of thinking I had some form of IBS, I can actually sleep on my back for the first time in my life, my plantar warts all cleared up, I don’t sunburn any more, and my mood is the best it’s been in forever. And also, for the first time in my life: I’m not hungry all the time. I finally fed my body enough nutrients that it doesn’t cry out for more ALL the time. I have what’s been dubbed “food freedom”: I no longer need to think about food. I KNOW what I’m going to eat: meat and eggs. I KNOW when I’m going to eat it: when I’m hungry. I know to stop when I’m done. It’s just TOO simple, and it makes things so awesome.
And I get how much of a zealot I sound like, haha. @ChongLordUno and I discussed that at one point. Once you figure out this way of eating, you just want to share it with everyone, because it’s incredible.
And in that regard, that might be the way to sell it to the spouse. If you’re dealing with any of these issues, it may just help. Or, if nothing else, you can talk about how January is world carnivore month (legit, look it up) and you want to just give it a 30 day try and see how it goes. We all do crazy things for a new year!
5 Likes
Sorry, to be clear, i was referring to your old writings on your blog about your ability to binge on double cheeseburgers etc. - not your current diet.
As a meat lover i know how hard it is to truly binge on meat, your body says “enough” and you just dont want it.
I will try that “world carnivore”. Start with “V diet/famine” and go down the rabbithole from there.
1 Like
Ah, I get it now. In which case you’re spot on: the low carb/keto trap is real, haha. Kickstarting with the Velocity diet is a solid intro for sure. That helped break SO many of my paradigms about nutrition.
1 Like
I’m glad you brought that up man
I’ve made a couple of videos touching upon it and I’ve lost a few subs 
People seem to get quite triggered with this eating style.
2 Likes
Dude, no joke. My blog traffic is about a third of what it used to be ever since I started talking about eating this way. And it’s just so damn funny. If I say “If it fits your macros” or tell people to eat breakfast cereal post workout, no one bats an eye. Tell people to eat meat and eggs? You’re gonna die. Or how is it that it’s ok to eat meat and eggs as long as you’re also eating veggies, but once you take out the veggies NOW the meat and eggs are gonna kill you?
That said, it took me about 2 years to give myself “permission” to eat this way. But I was also in such a bad mental space at that time…but maybe I was also in such a bad mental space at that time BECAUSE I wasn’t eating this way. This cruise was just such a proof of concept for. On previous cruises, I was always denying myself at every meal. These past few (this last one especially)? The total opposite. I ate whatever I wanted, as much as I wanted; it just so happened that what I wanted was, in fact: meat and eggs, haha.
5 Likes
Wow man, really? Thats insane
If anything it makes me want to double down on this. I am genuinely thriving on this shit. I’ve never stuck to something this long in all my life
It took me 3/4 weeks to get to the same level of physique that going for 12 weeks calorie counting did.
I think peope fear this eating style tbh
3 Likes
@ChongLordUno That’s so awesome to hear! It’s really pretty magical. And that’s most likely what upsets people so much. Just like how the answer to fitness is so simple, it’s upsetting for people to think nutrition could also be so simple. Because if nutrition is simple and we’re fat, sick and out of shape…what does that mean about us? Haha.
2 Likes
Not really on point, but the only cruise I ever took, I gained eleven pounds in seven days.
Our waiter was a Balinese lad named Sugaraitha, but we knew him as Sugar.
Our first meal I was being dainty and asked to split an appetizer and he said “no! I will bring you both!”
I asked what do you recommend, the duck or the lobster?
“I will bring you both!”
Between that and the pizza bar (I wasn’t carnivore), the eleven pounds was easy.
1 Like
@The_Myth I love that customer service “of course” attitude! It’s one of the many things I love about cruising: just being around people that are pleased to serve. And that pizza bar is always a treat! I indulged in the top of my kid’s leftover pizza: such cheesy goodness. And prior to my carnivory, I definitely partook in the full liberties, haha.
AM WORKOUT (0416 natural wake up, snoozed until 0425)
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 of
225lb buffalo bar squat
80lb dip
315lb deadlift
Notes:
-
Breaking myself back into lifting after the downtime, figured this would be a solid way to “remember”. Basically a powerlifting meet, except dips are more awesome than benching. The transition from the deadlift to the squat is the roughest part. Also, I was pulling in weightlifting shoes, because I didn’t want to deal with taking shoes off and putting them back on each round, nor did I want to squat flat soled. Deadlifting in the weightlifters tends to actually feel pretty “right”, I can get more leg drive that way, but it’s also more of a challenge and adds some ROM.
-
My lower back has really gone to crap. It was in agony through this all. The most obvious issue is I haven’t done any manner of reverse hyper in a LONG time. My core is strong, sure, but the lower back in particular is not near as bulletproof as it used to be. My next training phase needs to bring those back, along with GHRs. Basically, it’s time for some harmony disruption. I’ve been training what comes naturally for a long time, so now it’s time to be unnatural.
-
You can watch me get more and more limber as the workout goes on. Product of not warming up and training first thing upon waking. The first round of 10 was effectively the warm-up FOR the workout. Squatting in particular was feeling more natural toward the end, and I so rarely pull from the floor these days that it was good to get in some reps. I WAS using my deadlift bar, but the weight was light enough that I didn’t get much of a flex benefit from it. It was more like just choosing the right tool for the job.
-
No walk this morning. My in-laws depart today, and with that life will get back to a bit more normal. I have another cruise coming up in 64 days, which will impact plans. I have a 10 mile run coming up in Apr, and I’m looking at some possible strongman competitions. The sad reality of the latter is I’ve really just placed myself out of any decent weightclass. My walk around weight is in the low 170s, and though there is technically a 165lb class, I pretty much never see it at a comp. 181 is effectively a class for dudes that walk around at 200lbs, and though I CAN be that guy, I’m really at a point where I don’t want to be that guy. Or, more specifically, I don’t want to do what it takes to be that guy. I’m keeping my eyes open for more martial arts stuff, and we’ll have a local Tang Soo Do tournament this year, although that doesn’t do too much to excite me. But I suppose it’s a good sign I still want to go compete in something. But ultimately I wrote all this out to say that my training is going to be dictated by schedule and possibly by upcoming events. With the cruise in 64 days, I wanna try a similar approach of a hard famine leading up to it and then gigantic rebound/recomp. Right now, I’m looking at doing a 2 week famine coming back from the cruise, which I’ll officially start on Monday 8 Jan, which would mean 60 days remaining from there. 2 weeks of famine training would give me 46 days. If I do a 4 week feast after that, then I’ve got 18 days remaining for a famine, which works out pretty decent. I may just keep it simple and run Jamie’s Famine-Feast-Famine so I can shut off my brain, but perhaps something else will catch the attention of my squirrel brain.
-
I have Tang Soo Do tonight. The schedule has shifted this year: we do Tues and Thurs now vs Tues and Fri. I like that more.
9 Likes
Got a legit LOL out of this story. Sounds like a killer couple weeks since I last popped in here!
1 Like
@mr.v3lv3t It’s been amazing! And my wife and I have been quoting that back and forth to each other ever since the dude said it. He could definitely read my mind: I was having total “I should have ordered the steak” remorse, haha.
1 Like
Literally had the same realization today. My lower back was beat to shit from deadlifting but some reverse hypers in warmups got me right!
1 Like
Bummer about the back man however this intense training style is going to catch some blowback, pardon the pun.
chaos doesn’t have time for pain
We move on
1 Like
@freshyfresh Good to hear it man! I’ll never warm up, haha, but heavy reverse hypers are a godsend.
@ChongLordUno nothing to worry about dude: if the back wasn’t hurting, something else would be. There will always be a weak point: I just don’t want it to be there.
3 Likes