Topically enough, here is the recap
Breakfast is unchanged. And dinner is…breakfast! I had a rough day at work and asked the Valkyrie to make some comfort food. All 3 omelets are 3 pastured eggs, with some sirloin steak, a slice of Sargento thin sliced clobyjack (deviation), and some grassfed tallow, and topped with grassfed ghee and salt, alongside beef bacon and a piedmontese grassfed junior hot dog.
The misery in here is staggering sir. Noting I only have so many likes I can give in a day, so have been liking the workout posts and not the food posts. But I do enjoy the return of more eggs and steak pics in this thread… torn between which ones to ‘like’.
If I’m ever in in the US of A, I would be keen on a 4.30am catchup in the basement… but can’t see us travelling that far anytime soon.
That is frustrating.
@raven78 Very much appreciate that dude! My house/garage is always open, and I’ll always throw some meat on the smoker for us.
OPERATION PLANET MONGO
AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm)
Tactical Barbell Operator Cycle 1, Week 4, Workout 5
MAIN WORK
Buffalo Bar Squat (low bar)
3x5x295
ALTERNATE w/
Axle strict press from rack
3x5x153+1 push press rep per set
ASSISTANCE/CONDITIONING
Crossfit “CINDY” WOD
20 rounds of
w/15lb vest
Time: 21:52
5x20 band pull aparts
8 minutes of low intensity rowing
Notes:
I am quite sore. I think all the Tang Soo Do “Wildcard Cardio Classes” compounded with the regular training I’m doing and the reduced food intake is starting to show itself. My ability to perform isn’t compromised, but my ability to bounce back appears to be.
I set the bar low on my back again today. With 300 squats waiting for me after the squat workout, I decided it was the right call for sparing my knee. I went a little higher up on my back for the final set.
I was FLYING through Cindy at the start. Almost a full round ahead of the EMOM pace. I added about 10 seconds compared to last week, with a 5lb heavier load. I’m pleased with that. Part of me is legit thinking about keeping this even post Murph, because it’s certainly keeping me fit and getting in my volume, but we’ll see. Definitely wouldn’t want to keep scaling up the weight: hold it at 20lbs. But we’ll see: ultimately that cycle is going to be about getting ready for the competition.
Like last week, once Cindy was done, I was done. All I had in me was some pull aparts and light rower. Second week where I cut out the ab work, and I’m totally fine with that, as we’re doing a ton of that in Tang Soo Do, plus all the push ups with the vest are essentially weighted planks.
I got in my daily sandbag today, and actually tried it a little different. I started with a bear hug carry, rather than the horizontal carry. I think I might continue to do that, as it spares my elbows, and that position will allow me even longer on the max distance carry.
Maximum Definition Diet recap
Last day of chuck roast for breakfast, unless I find another good deal on that. Dinner was me celebrating national BBQ day with a full rack of ribs and some brisket.
Lot going on: wavetops.
Sandbag yesterday. 200+lbs, EMOM for 10 minutes over 50" bar. Doubles until I couldn’t, finished with a triple.
For lunch that day, we visited friends at a burger joint. I got 3 patties with 2 fried eggs.
For dinner, I had 30 smoked wings at Buffalo Wings and Rings. I actually brought some butter packets to add some flavor
And Costco had a great deal on grassfed lamb: $6 off at the register. I bought 6 of them, averaging about 4lbs each, dropping the total to $4.50 a pound. Absolute steal
OPERATION PLANET MONGO
AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm, rough night of sleep due to storms, was awake at 0315 and just dozed)
Tactical Barbell Operator Cycle 1, Week 5, Workout 1
MAIN WORK
Buffalo bar squat (low bar)
3x5x335
ALTERNATE w/
Axle strict press from rack
4x173
5x173
4x173
+1 push press per set
Sets of 6 chins between sets (total of 65 reps before moving on to EMOM)
ASSISTANCE
20 minute EMOM
Lateral raise dropset (35x10, 35x5, 35x2.5, 35xEmpty Hands)
CONDITIONING
Rower intervals (30 seconds max intensity/60 seconds rest)
7 rounds
2 minute cooldown
Notes:
With the squats being a 50lb jump from last week, I set the bar silly low on my back. Elbows felt fantastic though, so that’s a positive. I was doing sets of 7 chins during my warm-ups to get 35 before moving on to main work. And the squats themselves felt find. Heavy, sure, but not world ending, and my right knee was very game to play.
Presses were too damn heavy. I’ve been playing with fire by upping the max while my bodyweight continues to slowly drops, and bodyweight tends to be the biggest driver for success with my pressing. That second set getting all 5 reps in leads to believe I’ve got this in me to finish the cycle though. May just need to increase rest periods a touch.
The assistance continues to get better. 190 dips total, and zero issues getting through the chins this time, which got me 145 total for the workout.
I cut off the rower intervals once I started slowing down. Feel that’s been a good metric on when to shut it off.
Yesterday I had the best daily sandbag workout ever. Bearhug carried it 4 lengths with no stop/rest/reset. And that was on top of walking over 26k steps between a 5 mile walk with the dog, 3 mile walk with the family, and general physical activity.
I weighed in at 80.8kg this morning, and that’s post carb up weigh in. We did a tuna casserole last night, and I had a biscuit alongside that and then 5 of the Valkyrie’s cookies (3 were oatmeal peanutbutter chocolate chip butterscotch, 2 were chocolate chip with caramel chips) with some raw honey from Catalina island and a mug of fairlife skim.
I looked over my data, and since starting the Maximum Definition Diet, I’ve lost 1.2kg in 5 weeks, which is a rate of .528lbs per week. And since starting Operator in general, I’ve lost 5.6kg over 18 weeks, a rate of .685 lbs per week. Once again: all of this without counting, measuring, or tracking calories or macros, aside from occasional bouts of interest. I’m right at the rate that many folks suggest to be ideal for weight loss while maintaining strength/size, and I’m definitely experiencing that in my training. Prior to the Maximum Definition Diet, I was effectively employing the Velocity Diet with a carnivore meal for my daily healty solid meal, and then weekends of just carnivore eating. Shows the viability of these approaches.
I’ve cut Stevia out of my diet. Currently using only non-flavored electrolytes.
I’m fasting through breakfast this morning, because my kid’s school is putting on a picnic event I can attend. I’ll post about my nutrition choice for that in a bit, because it’s actually pretty cool.
Alright, so check this out. Once again, I don’t make a practice of tracking calories or macros, so it’s always fascinating when I do.
I’m skipping my traditional breakfast this morning, because my kid’s school is doing a picnic event for lunch. We get to bring the food.
I’m making my kid’s day and bringing McDonalds. It’s the little things.
I wanted to see if I could replicate my breakfast with McDonalds. My regular readers will remember I did a similar experiment to this based on COST of the meal, in order to show what a value my breakfast was in terms of price AND nutrient value. Now I’m doing the opposite: let’s see if I can match my meal in terms of nutrients, disregarding costs.
I bought all those legs of lamb recently, and my breakfast serving during the fat loss phase has been 12.5 ounces.
Here is the nutrition info
So 12.5 ounces is 840 calories, 60g of fat (rounded) and 74g of protein (rounded)
I eat this alongside an omelet of 3 whole eggs, 5 whites, and 14g of grassfed beef tallow
3 eggs is 210 calories, 18g of fat and 21g of protein
5 whites is 125 calories, 0g of fat, 25g of protein (it dawns on me those calories and macros don’t add up, but I’m gonna assume that’s the trace gram of carbs showing up)
14g of beef tallow is 130 calories, 14g of fat
So breakfast is a total of
1305 calories
92g of fat
120g of protein
There’s some residuals there, as I put some tallow on the lamb before I air fry it, but let’s not get too silly.
At McDonalds, I’m going to order the quarter pounder beef patty. Here is the nutrition breakdown
Pretty sure the carbs come from the seasoning, which I’m going to hold. I’m actually going to hack this, because I have a coupon to buy 1 sandwich and get 1 free. So I’m going to order a double quarter pounder, plain, and add a patty, getting me a total of 6 patties.
That breaks down to
1320 calories
96g of fat
108g of protein
That is pretty goddamn close. And because of my cost saving hack, this will run me $9.45, which isn’t terrible, so I’m even coming in close to my breakfast cost.
The food I eat for breakfast is, of course, much better quality food (grassfed lamb, pastured eggs, grassfed tallow, etc), but as far as “get to yes” goes, I appreciate this.
I think this is the crucial part.
Meals were spread out, and total kalories did not add up either.
Ps. Oh, and people we’re much more active in general. There was a study that just a 10 min walk increases protein synthesis quite a bit. I reckon this goes with other health effects too.
Too bad you can’t get eggs at lunch at McD’s. I know it’s the steak and eggs diet, but what does Vince have against cheese? I had sirloin or flat iron steak with scrambled eggs at least once per day over the weekend and brought it again for lunch today. But I’ve shredded some sharp cheddar and topped my eggs. It’s delicious. The nutrition label shows <1g of carbs per ounce (and I don’t think I shredded that much); is that still too much for the true diet?
There is honestly a LOT to take in. As much as it’d be great to blame just one thing, our food environment and lives have “evolved” into such a terrible state.
Jon Andersen did a great job of summing up the trap that most Americans are stuck in.
We sleep until the last possible moment, because we’re perpetually exhausted (which will get covered through this), which means we either skip breakfast OR we go for whatever is convenient (packaged carbs and fats, or fast food). So then we get to work and of course slam a bunch of coffee or energy drinks because we’re still tired, so now we’re wired and starving. Because even if we DID eat “something” in the morning, it was just a boatload of simple carbs that spiked our blood sugar and then crashed it hard.
Because we didn’t pack a lunch (because we didn’t have time, of course), we go out to eat or order food, and since we’re starving, it’s a bad choice. We eat way too much of this bad food, and it, of course, spikes our blood sugar again, so we crash around 2:00pm and seek out MORE snacks and caffeine…which just repeats the whole cycle. We finish work EXHAUSTED from this nutritional roller coaster and caffeine crash, get home and either we grabbed fast food on the way home because we’re too exhausted to make dinner, or we throw in some freezer meal monstrosity or order uber eats. And ALL we can think about is food, because we’re starving, because nothing we’re eating actually has nutrients and just keeps spiking our blood sugar, so we gorge at dinner, feeling too uncomfortable and exhausted to do any physical activity afterwards, binge watch TV, and then give into that night time binge because our body is STILL starving for nutrients and we keep NOT feeding it any.
And then we go to bed and sleep until the last possible second, because we’re exhausted.
I DID consider a way to get eggs at McDonalds for lunch. I forget if they do breakfast all day. But for today’s purposes, this seemed good enough. I’ll make sure to get some eggs at dinner.
I don’t know he wrote specifically on the subject (I don’t remember it in my book), but I can attest that cheese does not trigger satiety like meat and eggs does. I find it actually has the opposite effect: you eat it, and it makes you want to eat MORE of it, and it’s rare that one ever has “enough” cheese. For a maximum definition diet, this isn’t a good idea, because it will compel you to overeat. Along with that, dairy can be inflammatory for many, which will work against maximum definition. Cheese can also be a carrier of carbs (granted, so can eggs, but to a lesser degree).
It’s delicious.
You’re seeing the issue here.
Here are my thoughts: if I have to “trick” myself into eating the food by making it MORE palatable, that means I’m not actually hungry for it. When I’m hungry, meat and eggs are DELICIOUS. They’re the best tasting food in the world. Once it stops tasting like that, it means I’m not hungry any more, and it’s time to shut down the meal.
I NEVER feel that way with cheese. I’m always game to eat more of it.
I sympathize with your position: I have to give up my precious sour cream with this diet. And gum. But it’s been well worth it. Why not give it a run exactly as laid out for like 28 days (same duration as the Velocity Diet), so how it goes, and then modify from there?
Your sessions continue to be a great motivator. I appreciate your posts. I do have question. I have never cooked lamb. How does one do that? Thank You.
Much appreciated @Friedrich !
For breakfast, I keep it simple: I cut the leg of lamb into steaks, slather some beef tallow on it, rub in some salt, and then air fry it at 450 degrees for 7 minutes. I legit pop it in the air fryer, go take my post workout shower, and come back to it ready to go.
However, I’ve also smoked a whole leg of lamb before, and that was delicious. And I’ve air fried the entire roast before, rather than slicing it, and that’s super yummy as well.
Since lamb is a red meat, you can treat it like beef as far as temperature goes. It also means you can’t really undercook it, as long as you sear the outside, compared to poultry.
@Frank_C wanted to get you some more details. Vince isn’t opposed to cheese in general: it just doesn’t have a place on that specific diet. Here he mentions cheese in a more positive light.
And, much like I mentioned, he finds cheese useful for weight GAINING
@T3hPwnisher Thank you! I will give it a try. I have to to confess, other than fried chicken and mango/habanero wings, I despise poultry. Thank you for the tips!
Hah, I legit have a turkey thawing out right now for Memorial Day. I’m a big fan of chicken thighs, and can put away wings. But I’ll say that nothing beats ruminant animal ribs. Beef and rack of lamb are both just too amazing. Hope you enjoy!
Yeah, it seems to have that hold on me, too. I have found that if I buy extra sharp cheddar then I don’t eat as much. I’ll cut off ‘slices’ that are probably 1 to 1.5 ounces. Two of those with extra sharp is plenty. Just plain sharp cheddar, though - nope.
Proximity and preparation helps me with the cheese. For eggs, I scramble a dozen and shred the cheese over the top while everything is still in the pan. That’s plenty for anyone who eats the eggs. And shredding a block of cheese is much better than the shredded packs since you don’t get that waxy junk they put on it to prevent clumping. So with eggs, I seem to have some sort of control with cheese. …as long as I put the block back in the fridge immediately. 
Good question. The simple answer is willpower and discipline. And motivation. I’m not looking to get ripped. I think I just need to lose about 10 lbs and hang around 220-225 lbs. It’s a decent weight in terms of muscle mass and body fat and I think less weight will go a long ways to prolonging the life of my knees. I’ve been under 220 and I wasn’t very happy (I think you saw my 2019 journey down to 207 lbs from 250 lbs).
I wish I could say eating was a means to an end, but I enjoy food… a lot. I’ve never cut a macro out of my food even for a day. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to follow it perfectly, but I’m going to read up on it.
Thanks for sharing!
I’m going to assume that he’s talking about some big bodybuilders when he mentions all the things that can cause weight loss (like overeating and feeling bloated). I’ve definitely never lost weight accidentally while trying to gain.
It’s all of us. There’s actually casomorphins in cheese, and many argue that there is a propensity to get addicted to it. I know I was added that to EVERYTHING back in my dirty keto days. It’s a great weight gaining tool: calorically dense like a black hole, takes up not stomach space.
I wish I could say eating was a means to an end, but I enjoy food… a lot.
And if this is so, then meat and eggs are going to be quite enjoyable, no? I always bring up the “dog with kibble” analogy. You feed a dog kibble, and every meal, that dog is SO excited for kibble. It doesn’t eat it because it HAS to, or because it’s fuel: that dog is legit SO happy to get their kibble every day. I’m the same way with my breakfast every morning. Fatty lamb and eggs with tallow? This is the stuff of kings! Butter is permitted on the diet; might be worth the swap of cheese to butter on the eggs to still get in that decadence.
Never cutting out a macro per meal reminds me of a similar discussion you and I had way back regarding training, on how you wanted to include all sorts of movements (dumbbells and barbell lifts) into each training session and found it hard to fit it all in, and my solution was to do ALL those lifts: just not all in the same session. It’s how I look at the macro thing as well. You get ALL the macros, you never have to deny yourself: it just won’t be at the same meal.
I posted my carb meal earlier: that was stuff I NEVER ate before, and now I eat it every week, and I could technically eat it TWICE a week per Vince’s recommendations. I’d rather have a meal once where I’m eating casserole and cookies and honey than eat a potato with every meal.
I’m going to assume that he’s talking about some big bodybuilders when he mentions all the things that can cause weight loss (like overeating and feeling bloated). I’ve definitely never lost weight accidentally while trying to gain.
Actually, he tends to more focus on ectomorphic individuals there. People who don’t have a propensity to overeat. You gotta remember the era that Vince lived in.
