Growing up in Oregon, Tritip was the steak we ate most growing up. Costco used to (maybe still does) sell them in long strips. My parents had 20 different ways they’d cook it. One of favorites was marinated in a balsamic dressing.
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@BrandonCrawford Appreciate you swinging by and the feedback. Both those posts were fun to write, and my reddit posts tend to be dog whistles for people with poor reading comprehension, haha. It’s amazing how everyone somehow concluded that I was saying to live off McFlurries when the example I provided was picking white rice over brown. But I dig the dissonance because it gets people thinking, which is ultimately my goal. I want things questioned, I want people to wonder “why”, because too many folks just blindly accept things because they’re the loudest thoughts out there.
John was such a master writer. Very intentional. Hooked you in, drug you along, and alluva sudden you’re educated and better.
@dchris I was a broke college kid when I lived in Portland, so the only meat I got was whatever was served in the college dinning hall AND me taking my future wife out on our first date at Carl’s Jr. We still laugh about that, haha. Woulda been interesting to get into the steak culture. I DO know there is a restaurant in Portland that does a 72oz steak challenge though…
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Sounds like a good appetizer!
I think my first meal with my wife was at Pablano’s. We weren’t even officially dating yet; just met for lunch. I was headed to my dad’s farm to work or play paintball with my friends (can’t remember which) and was wearing ripped jeans, a Mossy Oak t-shirt, and knock off timberland style boots (my work boots back then) from Wal Mart. And apparently she loved every bit of it. 
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We were in denial that we were dating. We were best friends and loved to hang out. I had been taking the Portland public transit system to Muay Thai classes, and I knew that there was a Carl’s Jr on the route I took. Our college dinning hall would often have really disappointing options, where there was just simply nothing we wanted to eat. After that happening 3 nights in a row, I told her “I know where we can go get some decent food”, and took her on a bus ride to Carl’s Jr in downtown Portland, where I proceeded to devour 1lbs of fast food meat in front of her via the Double Six Dollar burger (low carb, of course, with a lettuce wrap) before we rode the bus back to campus and caught the free movie that was playing in the auditorium.
Years later, we decided this was our first date: dinner AND a movie, haha.
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I just read through the " IF YOU WANT TO GAIN WEIGHT, EAT LIKE OBESE PEOPLE, NOT SKINNY PEOPLE". It’s always amazing to me how most the threads on reddit have to “min/max” gaining weight as opposed to just gaining some weight
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It’s always amazing to me how most the treads on reddit have to “min/max” gaining weight as opposed to just gaining some weight
It’s the demographic, sadly. The kind of people inclined to use reddit are going to be a lot of shut ins and video game nerds who see life like a big game of DnD where it’s simply a matter of minimizing inputs and maximizing output irrespective of the logistics. And don’t forget that they always need to latest study before you say ANYTHING, haha. But for every 500 knuckleheads you run into there, there will be 1 who “get it”, and they’re SO worth it.
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I did this for a while. Googling things in books to make sure I got it all (for recreational reading), finding the best SPECIAL perks in fallout, most time efficient set ups, etc. Then my GF got on my ass and I stopped. It makes life so much better to not do all that haha
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Art imitates life for me: these days, I go out of my way to make the most ridiculous and disadvantaged character just to PROVE that I can still win, haha. One of my favorites was a Fallout 1 character who only used brass knuckles that won by just relentlessly punching the Master.
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Nutrition Recap
Black coffee fast until evening, and then we did Taco Bowls for Taco Tuesday. I made mine a breakfast style, with an omelet of 3 whole eggs and 5 whites that I cut up into small pieces to form the base, and then some 93% lean piedmontese beef, colby jack cheese (a block I shredded myself, to avoid the added starches) and some sour cream. One of the things I dig about coffee fasting is I can eat until I’m done at dinner, because this is one of my favorite meals. I had 2 bowls like the one in the photo.
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AM WORKOUT (0358 natural wake up, 2 min snooze)
TACTICAL BARBELL OPERATOR Week 4, Workout 3
MAIN WORK
SSB front squat
3x5x230
ALTERNATE w/
Axle strict press from rack
3x5x161+1 push press rep per set
(3) Texas Deadlift Bar Mat Pulls
17x425
ASSISTANCE
Circuit of reverse hyper/standing ab wheel/band pull aparts
3x15x360/3x10/3x33
Axle curls
60 unbroken
Band pushdowns
60
5 minutes of pacing
Notes:
- This has become my favorite day of the program, simply because it’s so short and focused. It’s my reward for training Mon and Fri: I get to do just 3 sets for the squat and press, and 1 big deadlift set.
- These were the best feeling front squats in a LONG time. Knees were just buttery smooth hitting depth: no 2-part squat. Just sink to the bottom.
- Major victory today is that I did NOT blow up my hip on the deadlift set. I don’t consider myself a pessimist, but I had basically made peace with the fact that I was going to do that EVERY deadlift day, and it was just a matter of recovering in time for the next one. I DID lose 2 reps, and I caught myself coming down uneven, but much better to be able to walk away than limp. And this was still a high effort set, because it was like getting hit with a bomb when it was over. I wheezed and staggered my way through the assistance work and used some extra time just to get in some pacing steps.
- We did a lot of jumping last night in Tang Soo Do and my knees felt awesome. My instructor is really taking note in how much better I’m moving now. Physical therapy really just changed the game for me. We have a 90 minute class tonight.
- Weighed in at 84.3kg this morning. I’m seeing similar trends from last week. Going to keep on with the protocol and not make any changes and see how next week goes. My weight belt continues to fit better, so I’m seeing changes irrespective of scale readings.
- Got in a 1:15 hold last night.
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I haven’t bothered to look at the nutritional side of this, but we started doing this last year out of necessity and haven’t looked back. The cheese is so much better without that waxy junk that keeps it from sticking together. I think it also helps me with portion control. If I shred the cheese over my food versus throwing a slice on there to melt, then I get more (or at least the same) coverage with less overall cheese.
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It’s such a simple thing to do to avoid so much unnecessary junk. The cheese melts better, tastes better, and has fewer ingredients. Cool piece of data with the portion control part there too. Barrier to entry as well: don’t just have shredded cheese ready to throw onto stuff.
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I’ve been cutting off a slice of sharp cheddar or extra sharp cheddar that I would normally just eat while preparing a meal and shredding that. It turns out that I only use about 40-50% of it and then I just eat the rest. It may not sound like much, but it’s better than me eating the whole piece and throwing sliced cheese or pre-shredded cheese on something.
I must admit my uneducated palate likes putting the cheap pre-sliced cheese (like for sandwiches) on my scrambled eggs when I make a breakfast burrito. It melts and gets a little bit of a creamy texture that shredded cheese doesn’t get for the same 70 calories.
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I must admit my uneducated palate likes putting the cheap pre-sliced cheese (like for sandwiches) on my scrambled eggs when I make a breakfast burrito. It melts and gets a little bit of a creamy texture that shredded cheese doesn’t get for the same 70 calories.
It’s the sodium citrate. If you’re really in the mood for some nutritional alchemy, you could buy some yourself and add it in to create the same effect.
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Pumped for this news sir. Awesome.
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@raven78 Thanks so much man! It feels good to feel good.
Nutrition Recap
Breakfast was 14.5oz of air fried grassfed lamb with beef liver, 3 whole eggs and 5 whites. Dinner was a leftovers night of beef cheek, pork chops and eggs.
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I wasn’t sure where to seek your consultation, but I have spent some time reading your recent writings as well as some various posts on Boring But Big, and I wanted to see if you would check out and comment on what I’m about to run?
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Hey dude, if you have a topic where you’re posting it, I can review it there. Otherwise, I can give some perspective here if you post it.
Thanks dude.
Hate to clutter your log but I don’t have a running thread atm.
A
- Incline press: 5’s pro w/ neck work
- Incline press/BB shrug: 5x10
- Triceps: 2-4 sets
- Walking lunges: 25 reps, probably 5x5
- Abs: 3-5 sets
B
- Back squat: 5’s pro w/ neck work
- Back squat/Pullover: 5x10
- Pull up: 25 reps
- Kroc row: 1-2 warm up/rhythm sets & 1x30
- 1A incline press: 1-2 min set per side, maybe 2 of these
C
- OHP: 5’s pro w/ neck work
- OHP/DB shrug: 5x10
- Triceps or Delts: 2-4 sets
- Walking lunge or hinge: 25 reps, probably 5x5
- Abs: 3-5 sets
D
- RDL: 5’s pro w/ neck work
- RDL/Pullover: 5x10
- Pull up: 25 reps
- T bar or Seal row: 3x15
- 1A OHP: 1-2 min set per side, maybe 2 of these sets
I might pair shrugs with triceps work and add light seal rows between sets of BBB OHP/Incline.
Will start the cycle with 3x10 and work up to 5x10.
Running this M/W/F, and performing weighted vest walks & tumbling for cardio on T/Th/Sat, then some daily mobility and feet exercises.
Was going to run regular BBB but seen you mention in a thread somewhere to try and add push/pull/single leg/core work to each day.
Objective is to use this as the first cycle building up to “BBB & Really Sore” (at which point I’ll just drop the RDL day) or Building the Monolith.
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@howie424 I’ll cage this the way I always do, by saying that I can only comment on training I’ve done myself, so I can’t vouch if what you’ve laid down will work or not, but here are some thoughts.
Was going to run regular BBB but seen you mention in a thread somewhere to try and add push/pull/single leg/core work to each day.
I want to clarify that this isn’t my unique recommendation: this is straight from Jim. This IS “regular BBB”, right out of 5/3/1 Forever. Every single program Jim has lays out the same assistance work: upper body push, upper body pull, and single leg/core. Sometimes, it’s 0-25 reps, or 25-50, or 0-50, but it’s all there…and the “0” means that, sometimes, you don’t do any of it. It’s up to the user to determine their needs, but fundamentally it’s there to build muscle.
Running this M/W/F, and performing weighted vest walks & tumbling for cardio on T/Th/Sat, then some daily mobility and feet exercises.
Since you have 4 workouts, is the intent to roll the 4th workout into the next week? And then proceed from there?
What drove the switch to incline bench and RDL?
I really don’t like walking lunges for low reps. I feel the intensity is too high for single leg work, and the potential for screwing up gets elevated.
By doing incline benching for your primary bench work, and then including incline benching for assistance work, and then doing pressing for main work AND including it in assistance work, your front delts are getting absolutely obliterated. To include them as assistance work on top is accomplishing something I can’t quite wrap my head around. Meanwhile, there’s nothing I would consider a traditional “horizontal press” here. For me, I’d make the assistance work more oriented around dips and push ups. Unless your intent is to use the pullover as some sort of chest builder.
Some thoughts there. If you can take on some of those questions, I can work a little more.
AM WORKOUT (0355 wake up via alarm)
TACTICAL BARBELL OPERATOR Week 4, Workout 4
“GO RUCK YOURSELF”
Treadmill walk w/45lb vest
Speed: 3.5 mph
Distance: 5 miles
Incline: 4.0
Time: 1hr 25min 40sec
Notes:
- Finally broke out the 45lb vest again. I’ve been hiding from it, but it honestly wasn’t terrible. Getting me in better shape for my 10 mile race in Apr.
- Left foot starts out upset but gets better as time goes on, which is the opposite of how it went in my old shoes, so that’s a good sign. Nose breathing the entire time. Have to make sure not to clench my jaw.
- In general, it wasn’t a terrible ruck, but I was pretty wiped out when it was done. I actually attribute it to Tang Soo Do last night. The 90 minute Wednesday classes are becoming wonderfully challenging. I actually get a taste of how I used to train in my 20s doing Muay Thai, as we can push the intensity a little more. But, in turn, I’m also now twice that age and don’t bounce back quite as well, and stacking that on top of the ruck seems to be interestingly exhausting. Still did a lot of jumps and my knees held up well, which is leading me to believe I should start including jumps in my training again.
- On the note of TSD stacked on the ruck, I weighed in at 81.4kg this morning, which is a substantial drop that I attribute primarily to water loss. All that said, on 6 Jan I weighed in at 89.1kg, so if I were to do an informercial for my “Red Meat and Black Coffee” protocol, I could claim that you can lose 7.7kg/17lbs in 23 days. Which also goes to show watery shenanigans, because my weight was artificially inflated from travel at the start and reduced from sweating here at the end.
- All THAT said, I’m going to keep an eye on things and be ready to pivot. I may reduce coffee fasting to 1 day per week, and this is making me think my timeline to begin gaining again has become accelerated and will start immediately post comp vs having a 3 week run of Operator Pro. As always: Chaos is the Plan.
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