I have been trying to find a way to fix my “diet” as of late as well (I just pestered you about calories) and stumbled upon the Vertical Diet 3.0 and finished it today!
I think its calling to me once I can lift heavy again (shoulder surgery 6 months ago). I like how simple it is and I think it would go really well with a 531 variant. Just funny you mentioned it today. I will let you tell us about it before I dive in which could be a few months yet (ugh!)
That said, I did get a little overwhelmed with all the materials in the book. The summary of the diet online seems so simple: Sleep good and eat these foods. Add a quick walk and done. But the book has much more than that and I may need to reread it to understand it all.
@dietdrfapper I just finished writing up a review that expressed a similar thought. LOTS of valuable information: I wish, at the very end, there was just a simple checklist that said “X many potatoes a day, Y carrots”, etc.
Breakfast was a 12oz black coffee with some electrolytes. Dinner was 3 servings of Tyson high protein chicken nuggets, one Don Lee Farm’s Chicken Breast patty, 3 whole eggs and 5 whites…so lotta different varieties of chicken.
Axle strict press from rack
3x5x151 w/1 push press per set
(6) Texas Deadlift Bar Mat Pulls
19!x3x4x425
ASSISTANCE (performed as a circuit)
Reverse hyper
3x15x360
Standing ab wheel
3x10
Band pull aparts
3x33
Notes:
First lifting workout back in quite a while. I was feeling a little rusty, but picked it up by the second and third set. Right arm kept cramping on the front squats: issue I’ve had for a while now. Forgot to tense my glutes on the first set of presses. Knee felt pretty decent throughout.
That set of mat pulls was incredible. Really felt like my old self. Got 9 reps in the first breath, and honestly could have reached that 20th rep, but I could feel myself struggling. I actually cut the follow up reps short, as I could feel something in my left hip not playing nice. It’s currently tight/achy, but it’s a familiar pain.
I like doing the pulls last vs first. Sucks trying to train after that effort.
Got my sandbag filled last night. Props to Rogue: they make a quality product. Filling a sandbag used to be an afternoon affair, but I got this done in about 15 minutes. Should be able to get in some regular touches now.
Had a 1:15 fat gripz hold last night. Time to bring it back.
Weighed 87.3kg this morning: a 1.8kg drop from yesterday. Weight is going to need to normalize post travel. Also be curious to see how this fasting protocol impacts things. Since today was a lifting day, I had breakfast. Tomorrow will be a no breakfast day.
Tang Soo Do was decently active last night. Kicks felt more fluid. Whole family got their third stripe. We’re 1 away from being eligible to test in the Spring, which was our goal. We have a longer class tonight, at 90 minutes.
EDIT
Just stumbled across this on youtube and it’s honestly just absolutely awesome. It repeats itself a bit over the 20 minutes, but it’s something I’ve been trying to express myself.
Breakfast was 1lb of air fried beef rib fingers, beef liver, 3 whole eggs and 5 whites. As part of trimming down, I do not top the eggs with butter, and I’ve reduced the amount of tallow I cook them in. I also do not spray the rib fingers with fat.
Dinner was a chuck roast that I pressure cooked and then finished in the air fryer, alongside the same assortment of eggs. It was a 2.6lb roast, we shared it as a family, but I had the vast majority of it.
Tomorrow will be another attempt at a coffee fast until dinner. I’ll see how it goes.
Is the full e-book worth it or do you think there’s enough info online to get by without it? I enjoy the vertical diet but I’m curious to know if the ebook is actually worth getting
I’m pretty much never going to tell someone not to buy a book. I feel like education is always valuable.
I just wrote up a review for it in my blog that I’ll be posting on Saturday, but the paperback is only $25, compared to the the $100 price tag for the e-book. I’ve definitely spent more money on worse books (Hello Josh Bryant’s “Tactical Strongman” book).
The biggest thing, for me, is that I retain information much better when I read it vs when I hear it. Stan gives away pretty much all this info for free, but I appreciated being able to read it.
@freshyfresh It’s why it ended up on my Christmas list! At that price, it’s quite reasonable.
AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm)
TACTICAL BARBELL OPERATOR Week 1, Workout 3
“GO RUCK YOURSELF”
Treadmill walk w/20.4lb tac carrier
Speed: 3.5mph
Incline: 4.0
Distance: 5 miles
Time: 1hr, 25min, 45sec
Notes:
Been a long time since I did a ruck, and with how banged up my hip was yesterday, I took this easy and settled in. Still dealing with some plantar fasciitis in the left foot: I am in desperate need of new running/walking shoes, especially since we’re signed up for our 10 mile race in Apr again.
Used this as an opportunity to continue to improve my walking mechanics with the right leg. This has gone a LONG way toward managing my knee pain. It was weird: I wasn’t limping because I was hurt, but instead I hurt because I was limping.
Tang Soo Do was tough last night, primarily because my hip was in agony for the majority of it. Hard to get my kicks where I wanted them to be. It was our first 90 minute class, and it was pretty active. Things should go a bit better tonight.
Weighed 86.0kg this morning. That’s a 3.1kg drop from Monday, but it’s also a weigh in after the walk, so there’s a hydration element at play. I’m coffee fasting until dinner again.
Got in a 60 second timed hold last night. Head wasn’t in the right spot: was rushing.
Black coffee for breakfast. Dinner was a really awesome audible. Valkyrie was feeling ill and not in the mood for a heavy/family dinner, so I threw some frozen flanken ribs in the sink with some water to thaw while I took the kiddo to an ortho appointment, and when I got home I got my cast iron pan smoking hot with some tallow and quickly seared them on either side while I fried some eggs. The whole thing took like 6 minutes, and they were delicious. I weighed the bones afterwards to determine that I had about 20.5 ounce of meat total.
I found myself asking a patient if she’d ever considered the carnivore diet yesterday, which surprised me (of myself). She works with a dietician, so it’s not really my wheelhouse, and typically I trust him and agree with his recommendations - we’ve had several shared patients - but in this particular case things just continue to go poorly, and my person is suffering mightily. She’s severely agoraphobic, so is not getting anywhere near enough exercise (won’t leave her yard, and the treadmill is buried under her father’s stuff). Her terror of other people’s judgment is not helped by increasingly morbid obesity. I’m sure the meds she’s taking are weight-gainers (this is such an issue for people with severe mental illness). I’ve begun to increasingly wonder about remedies for this. Keto diets are recommended for the management of both epilepsy and I think schizophrenia. She needs the meds - she would certainly become a suicide statistic without them - so eliminating them is a no-go.
Anyway, I wonder if in your readings or responses to your own writing whether maybe you’ve encountered anything about medication weight gain and the carnivore diet.
@EmilyQ It really means so much that you asked me the question. I’ve heard a bit about ketogenic diets being helpful in treating mental health disorders, and in that specific direction I’d look into the works of Dr Dominic D’Agostino, but as far as treating weight gain as it relates to medication, I don’t know if I’ve heard that specific instance. Most of what I’ve heard has related to just weight loss period, to include those suffering from severe edema. If you go to Revero Health, they have a testimonials section that is subdivided by category of ailment, and offers many anecdotes of people healing by means of carnivore/keto. There’s a chance that, if nothing else, transitioning to such an anti-inflammatory diet will help shed weight simply by means of reducing inflammation. I know that was my own initial response.
If I stumble across anything along the way, I’ll be sure to circle back to share.
AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm)
TACTICAL BARBELL OPERATOR Week 1, Workout 4
MAIN WORK
SSB Front squat
5x5x215
Axle strict press from rack
5x5x151+1 push press rep per set
Chins between sets
CONDITIONING
3 rounds of 150lb sandbag medley
Pick up bag, carry one length up and one down, drop bag, run 1 length up and down, repeat 2x times
ASSISTANCE
GHR sit ups
3x10
Band pull aparts
80
Notes:
This was an awesome workout. Very much what I’ve wanted out of Operator. Having the sandbag set up in my basement is a game changer: it’s so simple to set up and execute. I can see this becoming a regular feature/approach.
I got in a lot of chins during the warm up as well, and then sets of 5 for the main work. Still want to keep chins relevant, but right now strongman is driving the back training.
2 minutes of rest between sets of main work, a 2 minute and 3 minute rest on the carries, 1 minute on the GHRs. The carries were definitely taxing and my fingers need to get back into strongman shape.
Squats felt much smoother today. My hip is mostly recovered from deadlifts, and knee is feeling solid. I’m wearing my olympic shoes for these workouts, as they still feel good on the front squats.
Push press reps felt better today. Less painful on the knee.
Weighed 86.4kg this morning, which is a 2.7kg drop from Tuesday. Seem to be stabilizing. Also got in a 1:10 timed hold on the fat gripz last night. We skipped Tang Soo Do: Valkyrie is feeling ill.
Was a bit of an ad hoc day. Between returning from vacation this week and the Valkyrie feeling ill, didn’t have anything planned prepped. So breakfast was 2 burger patties (85/15 grassfed, 6oz each), a can of salmon, some beef liver, 3 whole eggs and 5 whites.
Dinner was a combination of piemontese grassfed steak tips, Gary’s quick steak, 3 whole eggs and 5 whites. Was able to break it out from the freezer and cook it all up inside of 20 minutes: pretty happy with that.
Time: 3:57. A 28 second improvement from last time. Right knee is still a little fussy on the push presses and I biffed one clean, but this is a substantial improvement. Still an absolute and total lung breaker as well.
I like the schedule I’ve developed for this strongman training cycle. This falls in well for weekend training
I’m easing things down ever so slightly. Breakfast was 3 strips of beef bacon vs 4-5, and a piedmontese jr grassfed beef hot dog vs breakfast sausage. Omelets were 3 eggs, stuffed with piedmontese grassfed steak tips and .75 slices of gouda cheese, with some grassfed ghee. And black coffee.
Dinner was some gyro meat and chicken gyro meat alongside 4 scrambled eggs. And a decaf coffee.
Axle strict press from rack
5x5x173+1 push press per set
Chins between sets
CONDITIONING
3 rounds of 150lb sandbag carry medley
Carry bag there and back, set down, run there and back, repeat 3x. On the final round, the final lap was just 1 length rather than 2
ASSISTANCE
GHR sit ups
3x10
Notes:
Felt better than I deserved coming into this workout. Hip is still a little achy, but otherwise feeling good, and these front squats were the best squats 'I’ve had in probably a year. Zero pain in the right knee: it just felt like squatting again. Could really sink deep and bounce down.
Presses felt strong. Wanted to really try hard to get the leg drive in. That is still a source of some knee pain.
Conditioning was even harder than the first time. I imagine coming into it having done more work beforehand contributed to it. Getting better at the pick technique.
2 minutes of rest on the main work, 2 and 3 on the the conditioning, 1 on the GHRs.
Got 6 chins between sets on the main work, and a bunch of them during warm ups.
1:10 hold last night.
Weighed in at 86.4kg this morning. Had my first carby meal since Christmas Eve last night. Funny how it just gets away from you. I honestly just plain like eating carnivore, but I do find it’s beneficial to load up on occasion, as I was looking really washed out and already appearing tighter this morning. Kept it simple with some spaghetti with meat sauce, and I limited myself to just 3 of the Valkyrie’s oatmeal peanutbutter monster cookies with some local raw honey. Still trying to keep the goal the goal here.
Breakfast was 14.5oz of grassfed airfried lamb leg, 3 whole eggs, 5 whites and some liver. Slowly reducing intake.
Dinner was a 2lb tri tip roast that I cooked with sous vide for about 5.5 hours, then gave it a crust in a cast iron pan with some grassfed wagyu tallow and Amish butter. My whole family couldn’t stop eating it: I was happy. Served it alongside 3 whole eggs and 5 whites. Also split an avocado between me and the kiddo. It’s a Santa Maria thing.
I’d prefer it to be a little more rare, but this was the exact temp my Valkyrie and Kiddo love, so I was more than happy to take it to that temp. Really digging the sous vide.
I am still in awful rower shape. Not able to get the power output I’d like in the minute on the rower. But putting in the effort that I can, and feeling healthy. Hip is still a little buggy, but knee keeps having really good days.
Got in a 1:10 hold yesterday.
Woke up at 86.2kg this morning: .2kg drop from yesterday, and a 2.9kg drop from last week. Think I’ve stabilized. Another day of black coffee fasting until dinner. It’s honestly like a cheat code.
Tang Soo Do tonight. It’s “Wildcard Cardio”, so ideally pretty active. I’ll be skipping Wed to meet a friend for dinner, and will make that class up on Sat.
Breakfast was black coffee. For dinner, did a ham for the family and 3 whole eggs with 5 whites. Had a generous portion of ham.
Something I don’t ever detail is my evening Metabolic Drive shake, simply because it’s a constant and pretty insignificant (1 scoop of powder in water). However I WILL be changing this up, and opting for a scoop in a cup of full fat greek yogurt on these coffee fasting days. Stan Efferding has convinced me on the value of dairy, and this seems like a way to get in a little more substance without too much additional energy.
