I truthfully just plain don’t like carrots, and since tomatoes are on the Deep Water approved list while only raw carrots are allowed there vs cooked, I go with that. I threw the bit in on the blog more to be eye opening, as lots of folks will gravitate toward “sweeter” veggies when given the choice.
Although I consider tomatoes a fruit when I include them in a meal rather than a veggie. They don’t tick in my mental count of “did I eat my veggies today”.
Same for me ahahah I eat so much tomato, cucumber and even zuchini that I don’t count them as my required veggies
Similar experience in that my wife has Asian heritage and insists that she needs rice with pretty much every meal. To the extent that, if she is feeling unwell, she often cites rice as the cure.
I can eat meat all day and in quantities that regularly get comments out here; meanwhile, my wife fills up exceptionally quickly on meat.
This may or may not fall into the superstition category, but this is exactly why I prefer to lose weight on higher carbs than fats - it’s easier for me to control my total calories. I can eat as much fatty meat/ eggs/ etc. as I can find, but I don’t want the starches to the same degree. Toss in an apple, and I’m full for the day. On top of that, lower fat proteins tend to be drier, so they take me longer to eat and I get bored before I go over the top.
Wasn’t there a theory than people from certain origin have developped a better digestion or resistance to certain aliments? Has it been debunked? Like asian with rice, scandinavians with fish and meat, caucasian with wheat etc
Yer and Aussies with meet pies 
Definitely true for some stuff. 65% of the world’s population is lactose intolerant as adults, which is the default for mammals. About 8000 years ago some euopean that could easily digest large quantities of dairy started spreading his genes in Europe.
Sounds like me
Probably, but I’m only a second generation immigrant and 99% of my family still lives in China. We even moved/lived there before college and COVID-19
Culturally speaking, I’m far more Chinese than “western” compared to my brother, but his tastebuds are as about Chinese as it gets (minus the penchant for eating anything remotely edible- I got that trait 
)
Yes, I can relate to this. The same can be said about their soy consumption, not to mention MSG and all sorts of other crap. This may come back to the whole CICO debate.
Regardless, on this subject, I personally underwent something of a body comp transformation this year on carnivore. Given the absence of carbs, I should not have had the energy to train 7 days a week, or a sufficient rise in insulin to ward off potential catabolism, drive down cortisol, etc. I believe the upshot is, with enough good quality protein, i.e. beef, liver and eggs (no canned chicken in sight!), carbs are surplus to requirement.
What about programming, or medium term or long term planning for training?
I like the 3 week chunk or mesocycle from conjugate, Olympic lifting and 5/3/1. Build up for 3 weeks, then crank it back to just a little more intense than you started and do it again. And again.
I like to cycle through rep ranges (or weights, or lifts or whatever) so I get a couple weeks before I have to do the same thing again. I Feel like it takes longer than a week to get stronger. By going through different, effective workouts I give myself that extra time to improve before I try to “beat the log book,” without taking time off from training.
It also allows for Testing within the Training. If I haven’t done Overhead Press (in the smith machine) for a max set of 6 in a month, and when I do I beat last month, I know my training is working. That goes along with what other guys have already said about Keeping a Positive Attitude. When you can make steady progress and little PRs, you’re always happy and feeling good about training and confident in the program.
Strongly concur with all of this. I’m pretty sure I remember you summarizing 5/3/1 to someone as having 3 different chances to succeed in a month, which is a great way to look at it, and one of the reasons I’m a big fan of it.
Similarly, when using the Max Effort method, I like 2 weeks on the same movement. THe first week I spend re-learning the movement and establishing a baseline, and the second week I spend seeing how far I can go with the movement re-learned. I pretty much always beat my previous week’s effort in some manner with that approach.
5/3/1 is great because there is so much great stuff built into it. For awhile I wasn’t thinking too deeply about training, or talking to people on the internet about it, and I forgot some important concepts. I really caught up in the idea that training was working up to a 5 rep max then beating it next week. I was trying to use the reps as the consistent “tracker” variable, and I was stuck and frustrated.
Just a couple cycles of 5/3/1, and I remembered that reps or weight could be all over the place as long as the effort was consistent week to week. It really helped me understand loading, and how other programs worked too. Louie’s stuff started making way more sense after Wendler’s stuff.
It’s also a great tool to evaluate all kinds of exercise variations, assistance lifts, sets/reps, etc, etc. If you see something interesting you can work it into 5/3/1 and see what effect it has on your main sets. Without having to program hop or change everything about your routine.
I like the idea that you can relearn to be strong or make fast neurological gains, or “Newbie Gains” even as a veteran lifter. It really feels different than getting stronger in the other rep or weight ranges. It’s like “Tricking the heavy weights,” like Kaz talked about.
It makes me believe that it may be OK to keep a rep or two in the tank when training for strength. If you can stay in that area between “baseline” “max weight possible” you can do productive work.
•As of recent I’ve been combining my strength training with sprinting, and I have also let my husband introduce me to mountain biking (I don’t think I’ve ever been so horrible at something such as the last thing.) I used to be someone that was strictly Strength, Strength, and more Strength.
• However, I’m finding that getting good at other things other than strictly strength sports, creates an environment with my body that is constantly having to adapt, to some degree. I never knew how much fire power I had in my lower body until I started sprinting, and it’s done wonders concerning strength, body composition, etc.
•You don’t have to go all out obviously, but I do think theres nothing wrong with being insanely strong, and a great swimmer, or being a hella fast sprinter, and able to Clean and Press like a beast, or being a Biker with a monster squat, deadlift, or bench press, etc.
•I say “Jack of all trades”, because it vaguely reminds me of Crossfitters, and I read an article somewhere on here that really pointed out something useful, (how a lot of crossfitters get really good as displaying bouts of strength, endurance, speed, and power on various things) and I figured it could be extended to myself as well.
•I will say that I think it’s important to kind of “lean on” one or two things in particular. For me I’ll still always have a powerlifting/powerbuilding setup, simply because it’s my favorite, and it has driven me to do things I never thought possible some years ago. I think it’s also beneficial for folks who tend to be hitters and quitters. If you’ve got something you enjoy, you’ll most likely hang onto it for the long haul. Whatever “it” is.
•I wouldn’t really say this has anything to do with traditional notions of “going big”. What I mean by go big in this sense, is go big for your personal goals. This is more in line with “have your cake and eat it too”.
•Go home in a sense that you’ve at least learned something. Anything really. Be it physically, mentally, emotionally, etc.
•Take that time to learn your own ebb and flow. Be it deloads, switching up the program (at the right time), when to be patient, when to crank it up, add in things, take things out, beat your record book, healing from an injury, etc.
•”If it Ain’t Broke” could also be added to this.
•If it’s not for you, it’s just not. Find what is for you.
•If you’re injured, adjust.
•This one is kind of self explanatory. And Lots of folks have said it as well, but I think this principle has elements that vary according to the individual. Strength and size, bigger and stronger may or may not look different on an individual basis. Find yours, I find mine.
•From my own viewpoints, this is one thing in particular I don’t waver on anymore. We all have different viewpoints on this though.
•If you want to be leaner find a way
•If you want to get stronger find a way
•If you want to be faster, go harder, go longer, etc., find that way in. There is a way. Preferably a way that you can stick with for the long haul, and one that at least gives your body a sustainable means of stimulus/adaptation, but a way nonetheless.
•There’s nothing wrong with you. You’re capable.
•This is one geared towards the ladies more so.
•If your menstrual cycle is wreaking havoc on your training session, freaking adjust.
•Develop a training cycle that at least takes into account your hormonal cycle. (Ramp it up during Luteal phase, back off during Follicular phase, and so on.)
• Even if you feel like you’re not bothered, at least be vigilant. It’s easy to throw yourself out of whack from ignoring things.
• Paying mind to your periods isn’t showing weakness. It’s not gross, and it doesn’t make you less than. It’s something normal, important, and makes up your general health. So keep and eye on it.
• As for the guys, respect your hormones as well. If something’s not feeling right, look into it.
•Apologies for how odd this might seem, but due to personal issues, and just learning some things, I think this is quite important.
•It’s easy for a lot of us to…view food too far to the left, and too far to the right. What someone’s right or left looks like is different, but I think y’all get the idea.
•The In’s and Outs vary. They’re supposed to, I think. But I’ve been steadily teaching myself that food is or is not, what you deem it to be. It can be a crutch if you deem it to be, it can be a tool, nourishment, something enjoyable, fun, vital, something to work on, dreadful, hard to manage, etc., all if I deem it to be.
•So I say “mutual”, because there’s many aspects to simply eating, and how it does or doesn’t effect someone.
I have quite a few more, but these are the things I employ the most as of late.
Plenty of folks have gotten very strong just making the easy feel easier. The old: 315 is a weight I walk into the gym and I can do it no problem each and every time, so I’m going to aim to make that happen with 330.
This is my validation that I’ve conquered a weight. It’s really an ego or confidence boost knowing that you can now easily rep a weight you were having issues with.
I’m not sure if this would be regarded as a principle or more along the lines of voodoo (as people were talking about earlier) but doing overwarmup sets definitely seem to help me in making a heavier weight seem more manageable.
You can grease the light groove and use the over warm ups to grease the heavy groove too.
For me it is simple:
Listen to my body
If I feel good I train…
If not I train but maybe not as hard.
Hungry? Eat
Tired? Nap.
Sore? Stretch or massage…move some.
Treat each day as a new chance to get better
1-make compound movements the primary “meat” of the workout. Roughly 80% focus on compound movements.
2-listen to your body. If you are getting stronger/ bigger and feel good, don’t Change anything.
3-I use the max calculator to measure progress. Instead of constantly going for 1rm. Weightreps.0333+weight. It isn’t exact but it gives you feed back without killing yourself.
4-train to or close to failure at times. Intensity is important. Don’t go over board if you feel run down. Have a minimal amount of work you do on bad days. Get a pump or move something “heavyish” and go home.
5-move weight with meaning And poser and try to get stronger on the lightest weight possible.
6-Move heavy weight like it’s light and light weight like it’s heavy.
Nutrition
I’m the last one to give nutrition advice as it’s always been the bane of my existence. However I’ve been more in control of my weight over the last year.
1- eat low calorie dense foods. Foods that to over eat on you’d have to eat 4 lbs of it in one sitting. Hard to get fat that way.
2-count cals and protein. Don’t worry about other macros.
3- find alternatives to satisfy Your sweet tooth if you have one.
Edit: forgot to add that I stole all of these from different guys wendler, Tate, etc. also I agree that forever is an amazing book. Even if you hate the program it’s worth reading for the principles alone
These all make good sense. But if I listened to my body it would say eat chips and sleep on the couch !!