@punnyguy I had wanted to try this stuff for a while, but either I kept missing it or my Sam’s Club stopped carrying it. Saw it yesterday and finally had a chance. I may give the Superfoods a test too. Taste and texture aren’t terribly important to me as much as smell, since I bring my lunches to a work center and don’t want to be the co-worker that’s stinking up the joint, haha. Thankfully yesterday’s experiment was successful: no offensive odor. Still a little earthy. That said, it turns out the biggest culprit was the BBQ sauce I used. They ran out of the flavor I liked so I picked up what they had, which was maple brown sugar, and the sweetness of it’s odor and flavor about made me gag. I found that out because I made 2 batches of the meal: one with the greens and one without, and the flavor/smell that I THOUGHT was attributable to the greens was still present in the non-greened food.
I’m picking up a different bottle of sauce today, haha. Hopefully more experiments to come. Excited for my liquid egg whites too. Which is a convenient segue into…
Warning: Ranty non-training post ahead
While at Sam’s yesterday, along with that Greens supplement I found that beef had once again gone down in price, to include ribeye steaks, which I had been regularly consuming up until I was advised to stay away from red meat and saturated fats. I picked up a 3 pack of them, telling myself that I’d treat myself to one to celebrate a week of no red meat eaten. I honestly can’t think of the last time I’ve done that, to include periods of time where I was traveling in foreign and exotic countries. I got home, put them in the fridge, and then got ready to work.
While at work, I got bored and took to googling nutritional facts on those ribeyes I bought, just to see how much damage I’d be doing by having just 1 steak. They’re about 1lb each, which equates to 98 grams of fat total, 44 of which are saturated (220% of your daily recommended amount). Ever since I got the word to cut down on saturated fats and red meats, my daily saturated fat intake has been mostly single digit numbers, so there was definitely a bit of sticker shock there. This had me go further down the rabbit hole and start looking at other things I ate regularly before this, as the ribeyes were at LEAST a once a week thing, but frequently showed up twice a week. An omelette I used to eat at our local breakfast spot clocked in at 28 grams of saturated fat, primarily due to cheese and bacon content. On the subject of cheese, that was my go to snack on shift, where I was taking in 18 grams of saturated fat. It became clear to me that, on many days, I was most likely taking in triple digits of saturated fat.
Thinking of it, I realized I had gotten too comfortable with my nutrition. I was only looking at 2 macros when I looked at food: protein and carbs. If carbs were low and protein was high, it was a good food choice. I figured all fats, as long as they weren’t trans fats, were good for me. I’d even heard that saturated fats are good and necessary. I’m also sure that last sentence IS true, but the old adage about moderation is ALSO true, and I had completely blown through that.
There’s still a genetic component at play, absolutely, but there’s also things that ARE within my control, and that’s pretty cool. I was eating the way I was eating out of convenience and comfort. I was using the guiding principle that, if it only had 1 ingredient (steak, cheese, bacon, etc), it couldn’t be bad for me. That’s not an awful STARTING principle, but clearly more thought is needed. I was also living big, regularly eating the kind of meals that should be eaten in celebration only.
Now, that said, I’m happy that I was at least focusing on two macros rather than zero, because from everything I’ve read, my low-carb lifestyle HAS done my heart some good in keeping my HDL absurdly high and my triglycerides absurdly low. It means I’ve got 2/3 of the equation figured out. But it also means my diet has a bit of a Dr. Jeckel/Mr Hyde thing going on, because the good parts are REALLY good and the bad parts are REALLY bad.
I’m gonna keep things up, because honestly, this hasn’t been hard. I’m going to cut those ribeyes into quarters and start practicing red meat portion control during the times I eat it, as much as that offends me on a spiritual level.
On top of everything else though, some lab work came back and I had elevated creatinine and blood urea nitrogen levels. However, before that lab work I also had an elevated liver enzyme, which they said can sometimes show up if you’re dehydrated, so I spent the next day slamming liquids, came back and THAT went away. I have more tests ahead, but from what I can deduce, I’ve been chronically dehydrated as well. Which would explain why my abs have been cramping so bad. Once again: I’ve gotten too comfortable. Hydration used to be a big focus of mine, but since work started ramping up with COVID, I had settled on simply drinking a half gallon of water at work and calling it good. Was still drinking fluids, but not as much as I needed. So while I wait to get more lab work done, I’m also rededicating myself to proper hydration. My wife bought me a beast of a water container that’s going to become my new best friend.
Put next to a can of tomatoes for scale
I’d been talking about how I got burnt out on strongman and wanted some new challenge, and I think I may have found it. Once again, it’s the Rebirth of the Juggernaut.
