Diet and recipes (there's more to this post than that)

I know, sarcastically, I've been asked about my diet a few times this week. It's the LRB diet and has been for a while.  However I will actually go over it, and some of the changes I have made.

There have been a few modifications because, as much as I dog out all the scientific bullshit, I still read a lot and am always open to incorporating things into my diet I feel may help.

A few things that have been added -

Organic Butter

Coconut Oil

Probiotics

Free Range Eggs

When I have beef now, it's grass fed

Some of the things I have added I read from John Meadows, some of it came from Kiefer, and some from IF.

I'll go over some of these -

Organic Butter - Butter has totally made a comeback and now people realize, it's actually a very healthy food. Butter has perfect ratio of Omega 3 to 6, and well, it makes shit taste better.

Coconut Oil - This shit is the bomb. I will be adding some recipes but let me say, coconut oil makes me feel like I am cheating with food. Shit makes everything taste delicious. I never liked it in the coffee as Kiefer suggested but cooking with it is beyond great. Here is a great article on how coconut oil makes you into a healthy bitch....with citations (nerds). Make sure you buy a quality coconut oil. Do not ask me what that means. Do some research and find out what brands you can purchase locally, or look online. I go to Whole Foods and get the XXX-Virgin. I have no idea if it's really triple-x but that sounds sexy.

Free Range Eggs - Go buy some, and see if the yolk doesn't look completely different than your usual store bought eggs. More vitamin A, E, and omega-3's.

Beef - I have mostly cut beef out of my diet. I know and understand all of the benefits of beef, however I noticed that beef bloats the living shit out of me, and that I tend to not stay lean, or get leaner, when I am eating a lot of beef now. I know this used to not be the case, however I really gain weight fast now if I up my beef consumption. When I do eat beef, it is rare, so I actually have changed over to the grass fed beef. If you didn't listen to the podcast with Kiefer, he confirmed that regular beef is like, not even comparable to grass fed beef. Especially in terms of fatty acids. It's an almost miracle like food, so I go with grass fed ribeye or sirloin.

Carb-cycling and backloading -

I still do carb backloading. I have really figured out how to make that work for me. I do not do it on a training day. I do it BEFORE a training day, based on how I feel. I'll get to that.

I do not really do "low carb". I eat oatmeal and brown rice almost every day. I cannot do "no carb" or super low carb shit. I can't. Just like Jamie has adapted to his keto stuff, I've given that shit a go many times and it's flat out NOT for me. This is why I don't put so much stock into "research" because "research" says that you will become more efficient in this state or that state ketosis blah blah fucking blah, but I find over and over again when I cut carbs out all together, I never get that "rebound" of energy a lot of people talk about. I just drag ass constantly, have shitty workouts, get smaller and weaker.

Also, as I noted in the podcase (which Kiefer agreed, outside of Dave Polumbu) he couldn't name anyone that got massive and strong on no carbs. 99% of guys lifting heavy need carbs. If you wanna grow and you want to get strong, you can't low carb it. If you can, you're an anomaly, not the norm.

This is generally how I work carbs.

If I am feeling tired and flat one evening and craving carbs, I let myself eat. I don't go crazy. Generally, it's been a couple of bags of M&M's and/or ice cream. A fave lately has also been burgers and sweet potato fries, but I tend to go nuts with the ketchup so that kinda counts as simple carbs. I will still generally follow that meal up with some M&M's or ice cream.





The next day, I will cut carbs most of the day. So no oatmeal at breakfast or brown rice at lunch. I know that my glycogen stores are already probably full because of the carb load the night before, and I will wake up feeling "pumped". So in order to keep fat accumulation to a minimum, I just cut carbs on that day, and generally train without my Ezekiel bread and cottage cheese.

I don't eat carbs post workout anymore. Actually I haven't for some time. I never noticed a big difference with them.

So if you wanted to see an overview of what this looked like with training and backloading here it is......

Normal day of eating -

Breakfast -

7-8 egg whites and 2 whole eggs cooked in butter or coconut oil
1 cup of oatmeal


Lunch -

8-10 ounces of chicken or turkey
1 cup of brown rice
asparagus or broccoli (generally as much as I want)

Afternoon -
Shake

Pre-Training (optional) -
1-2 slices of Ezekiel bread
1 cup cottage cheese
2-3 tbs of organic jelly

Dinner -
Same as lunch without the brown rice

Before bed -
1 cup cottage cheese
2 tbs peanut butter


Backloading day - always on a non training day but before a training day IF I am going to do it.

Dinner -
2 hamburgers 90% lean grass fed beef
sweet potato fries
many bags of M&M's

no cottage cheese and peanut butter before bed. So I generally cut off eating at 7:30-8:00


Day AFTER backloading - 

No oatmeal
No brown rice

Afternoon shake
No pre-workout
No carbs at dinner


Recipes -

Eating chicken and turkey can be tiresome. Here are some ways we mix that shit up.

Turkey Burgers:
1 lb. ground turkey breast
1 pkg. onion soup mix
1 egg
Mix ingredients together and form patties. Grill outside or inside with a tsp. coconut oil.

lemon grilled chicken breasts:
3-4 chicken breasts
1 ziplock bag
2 tbsp. Olive Oil
1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
place chicken breasts and all ingredients in the ziplock bag. Let it marinate over night or at least an hour. The longer it sits the juicer your chicken will be. Then grill.


Buffalo grilled chicken breasts:
3-4 Chicken breasts
1 ziplock bag
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup hot sauce
1 tbsp. melted butter
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 cup water
place chicken breasts and all ingredients in the ziplock bag. Let it marinate over night. Then grill.


Coconut Oil Chicken breasts that are good as a mugh -
3-4 Chicken Breasts
1/2 cup teriyaki marinade
1/8 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/8 tsp. garlic powder
dash red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1 tbsp. coconut oil

Slice chicken breasts into strips, sprinkle with spices, pour marinade over chicken. Marinate for 30 minutes. Then Melt coconut oil in a large skillet or indoor grill. Cook chicken for about 10 minutes.