One of the most common excuses people use to justify a poor diet is that they don't have time to cook healthy things. A lot of people are misguided about what's "healthy," but I've already laid that out for you as simply as possible - plants, animals, a few select oils, the end. Per a fan's request (shout out to my man Spo out in sweet C-A), I'm going to talk a bit about how to make quick and easy for you as well.
Perhaps the most significant adjustment you can make to save time is implementing an intermittent fasting protocol. There are a few ways you can go about this, and I promise it's not as hard as it sounds. It's actually not hard at all. Check out www.leangains.com for a much better explanation of fasting benefits and implementation than I could ever give. Boom, right there you've taken care of breakfast and lunch. From someone who is overly concerned with when and where the next meal is coming from: this takes a HUGE amount of stress away. Other tips:
- Make a list of meals before grocery shopping and get what you need for the week. Having the materials on-hand is a huge time saver.
- Depending on where you shop, you may be able to buy some things that require little to no prep:
- Eggs - 5 minute scramble. Some places even sell them hard-boiled.
- Canned tuna/salmon/chicken/etc. (read ingredients. Don't buy if it includes anything other than the animal itself, water, and salt)
- Nitrate/nitrite free deli meats
- Raw fruits and vegetables
- Frozen (steamable!)/canned fruits and vegetables (watch for added sugar/salt)
- Greek yogurt/low-sodium cottage cheese/quality hard cheeses (if you're fine with dairy)
- Raw nuts (in moderation! but a decent snack in a pinch)
- Set aside a few hours for prep-time on Sundays, and perhaps on a rest day in the middle of the week. Throw a roast into the crockpot, boil some eggs, grill a pack of chicken, and chop a bunch of veggies - put half into a salad and sautee the other half in coconut oil or bacon grease (yep, you read that right). All of these can be refrigerated and eliminate 90% of prep time when you need to refuel!
That ain't no restaurant chef! It's just me on a Sunday afternoon.
I know some of you are going to be adamantly against fasting. I wholeheartedly believe you're making a mistake by not trying it (yeah I drank the Kool-aid, and that shit is mad good), but I'm going to provide a few lunchtime tips for the knuckleheads because I'm a stand-up dude. There are always times when you have to eat away from home, so this really applies to everyone.
- The easiest thing is to keep a cruet of your favorite olive oil and vinegar at your desk or even in your car or purse. You can get a grilled chicken salad pretty much anywhere, but the dressings are usually made of cheap vegetable oils. No atherosclerosis for me, thanks!
- At a sit-down restaurant, be "that guy" who orders grain-free, with sauce on the side.
- Most restaurants have vegetables and will be happy to substitute for menu sides (if the server says they don't have vegetables it's probably best to just get out of there).
- Restaurants generally don't take offense if you skip the "special sauce" (it saves them time and money anyway!), and, no guarantees but, if you're friendly they will probably not spit in your food. Here's an example:
- You say: "May I have a double-hamburger, medium, with no bun and mustard only please?"
Server says: "French fries okay?"
You say: "Actually I would like a side of steamed vegetables/salad with no dressing instead. Thank you." - At a deli, ask for a sub between two lettuce leaves (again, be wary of dressings).
- If you absolutely have to eat fast-food - on a road trip, for example, just order a burger or sandwich and skip out on the bun. You'll more-than-likely be consuming vegetable oil in some capacity, but just up your fish oil to balance your n-6:n-3 ratio.
- Occasionally, order what you really want! You should always be somewhat sensible but if you're serious about getting healthier, your "diet" is a life-long thing. If you're on point the majority of the time, filling your craving for pizza every once in a while ain't gonna kill ya so don't beat yourself up for a moment of weakness. Stressing over it will probably be more harmful than what you actually ate.
- If the restaurant your friends chose is vegetarian/vegan, pick new friends.
Now on to the business. Monday's workout included moderate-heavy loads at high speed and quite a bit of volume; couple that with the running on Tuesday morning, and that's a textbook recipe for DOMS. Is it weird to enjoy being this sore? I wanted to really pile it on so Tuesday's workout went like this:
- Strict overhead press RPT (+1 indicates spotter assistance for one rep)
- 165 x 2 + 1
- 155 x 3 + 1
- 145 x 4 + 1
- 135 x 6 + 1
- Ring dips - 3 x max reps
- 21
- 18
- 14 and 3/4
- Metcon - my two partners joined me again today so we took turns with this one. After each round, we jumped rope during the next person's turn and then rested during the third turn. I finished my 4th round of jumprope at 12:20.
- 10 kipping pullup > toes to bar (20 swings total)
- 15 pushups
- 10 overhead tire slams (lift OH and throw down)
Ninja Mays demonstrating proper form.
Any time you work with heavy loads with the press, it seems the first rep is harder than the second because you don't have the benefit of that eccentric load (similar to the concentric-only squats, only we worked M.E. today). Think of your muscles as a rubber band - the more you stretch them eccentrically, the stronger the concentric contraction. The first rep of the press abandons that stretch-shorten reflex and over time, the muscles will become more efficient in producing force without it. That's why heavy presses and deadlifts reign king in my book; screw your 400 pound bench press, you rubber-band cheater! The auxilary ring dips were pretty tough, especially after pre-fatiguing triceps and shoulders with the press. Ring dips are extremely taxing on the core stabilizers, and therefore this entry's title is appropriate. It's one of those exercises in which you hit a wall and there's pretty much no chance you can complete another rep, because you can't take attention away from stability unless you want to fall on your face.
I switched up the post-workout snack today and went with 1/4 lb. of all-natural roast beef and 2 kiwis. I felt sluggishness setting in on the way home and decided to up the PWO carbs a bit. Here's the result:
7:30PM - I chopped a 5 oz. porkchop and threw it into a pan with some coconut oil and about a cup of frozen berries. I let the pork cook a bit and then added 6 egg whites and scrambled the whole mess. I upped the dosage to 3 sweet potatoes (about 1 lb.) - steamed them and used 'em as a pedestal purple pork pleasure. The right dish contains some unexciting steamed broccoli and spinach with salt free mustard.
At 9:15 I had an spring mix salad with 1/2 lb. 99% fat-free ground turkey fried in coconut oil with a handful of grape tomatoes, 1/2 an avocado, about 1/3 of a gala apple, and some balsamic vinegar, along with a can of beets. Couldn't locate my phone at the moment so there's no photo evidence.
I fell asleep around 11 but still had trouble getting out of bed at 7:20. I'll get to bed relatively early tonight and rest up for another double session tomorrow. Go 'CUSE!
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