What’s the plan? Chaos, of course. But we’ll reign that in a bit and, perhaps, establish intent.
So with that: nutritional intent for Operation Conan.
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When I eat food, it will be carnivore. I phrase it like that, because I intend to still employ my protein sparing modified fasts during the weekday that are facilitated by Metabolic Drive. Why? Because it absolutely works. I’ve tried traditional fasting, and it’s a poor fit for me, and I feel like it’s a poor fit for most individuals actually interested in building/keeping muscle. Meanwhile, Metabolic Drive is an excellent product, and between the blended protein and my carnivore approach to eating I have zero issues staying satiated with this approach, to the point that it’s too easy to forget to eat these days. I actually really enjoy the Velocity Diet 4.0 approach of just one solid meal a day, except I definitely like to go beyond the realm of “healthy” as far as the calorie recommendations go, and instead use this as an opportunity to feast. I’ve heard of this approach referred to as “Intermittent Feasting”, and I think that’s absolutely the right mentality to have. Eat your fill, and then stay away from food until you’re hungry again.
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Already I’m rambling. When I eat food, it will be carnivore. When I eat carnivore, the majority of my intake will be ruminant animal meat and eggs (no, not ruminant animal eggs: don’t be stupid). These past few weeks have demonstrated to me that I look, feel and perform my best when the meat I eat comes from ruminant animals, whereas when I eat chicken I tend to feel bloated and inflamed. Certain cuts of pork seem to be the same, whereas others can be more benign, but I experience the actual positives of the food when it’s ruminant animals. This will include venison, bison, beef, lamb, and any others I manage to get access to.
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Again: why do I phrase it as I wrote above? Because I have a habit of increasing my intake of “carnivore treats” when I’m looking to gain. By that, I refer to dairy products (cheeses, ghee and sour cream) and pork rinds/cracklin. Though these qualify under carnivore, they need to be employed sparingly, to accent a meal, rather than take up an equal share of meal space. Meat and eggs are what will grow me: these other things are condiments. On a similar note, processed meats are “meat candy”: bacon, sausages and hot dogs can appear in the rotation, but they should not be the majority of what is on my plate. I’m even considering a policy of never having a plate that is absent of ruminant meat, meaning even if I’m eating chicken, there is some sort of beef alongside it, or at least some sort of eggs. We’ll see how that goes.
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A weekly meal containing carbs will (ideally) occur. This is a family meal, rather than a cheat/binge meal. Meaning: if the family doesn’t make it, I’m not going to go out of my way to eat some carbs. I’ve had enough experience to discover that I absolutely CAN go long stretches without this meal, but it seems my body responds to this regular harmony disrupter, judging based off of physical appearance in the 2 days post meal. I listened to a podcast today that made the statement “If I had to pick between seed oils and sugar, I’d eat the sugar. At least my body knows HOW to process that”, and it suddenly dawned on me why the family carb meal has worked out so well for me compared to when I’d used this as an opportunity to eat out somewhere else. We still eat “clean” when we eat carbs. We use real, limited ingredients and make real food, and my body doesn’t have to work hard to process it. And even Conan has been caught feasting in the halls of royalty when they’ll have him: I will absolutely enjoy an opportunity to feast among family.
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On weekdays, at least starting out, I’ll employ the protein sparing modified fast until either a mid day or end of day meal. In the case of the former, it means I’m having TWO solid meals that day (mid day AND end of day). I am finding I actually like linking 2 days of end of day meals together: one leading up to the family meal, and the day afterwards. It’s not “reactionary fasting” to undo the damage of the meal: I’m thinking that, by removing fat from the diet for those 48 hours, there is nothing to blunt the insulin response from the carbs, and all the protein I’m taking before and afterwards is able to get shuttled into my muscles. And that’s most likely alchemy, not even bro-science, but if I believed it hard enough, it will be true. Some of these solid meals will STILL be nearly pure protein meals in the form of egg whites and lean meats, but others will be very fatty, with meat on the bone being prioritized whenever possible.
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On weekends, I’ll have 2-3 solid meals. These will be proteins and fats.
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On all days, I’ll have 2 servings of Metabolic Drive before sleeping, and 1 in the middle of the night.
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There will continue to be no counting of calories or macros. I’m eating my fill, and perhaps moreso. Progress in the gym is the goal, and I will eat to support that goal.
I like where this is heading. I may flesh out (PUNS) a bit more in the future, but wanted to get these thoughts down while I had them.
