"The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook." -Julia Child
Haven't weighed yet, but estimate: 145 lbs.
Minimum daily Calorie target: (145+10)*20 = 3100 Calories
My housemate, Danny, has been laughing at me for a few days now. He can't wrap his head around how I can get by on fewer than 2000 Cal per day. Danny seems to be in the majority, but frankly 3100 seems like a damn huge number to me -- and that's my bare minimum.
Hopefully, by the end of this I'll be a blast furnace and 4000/day will only be inconvenient in a financial sense. If that happens, then Tim was right about everything, and I can just fall back on the book's plans for not getting fat while eating that much every day.
In any case, here are my guidelines:
- Eat like it's my job (I've made one bet so far, so this isn't just a figure of speech)
- Eat as much protein as possible, no less than 200g per day
- Much, but not all, of carbs should be slow (low glycemic index, see below)
- Eat within 30 minutes of waking up
- Eat no less than every 4 hours, but more often is better
None of these are optional. None of these can be suspended temporarily because of a lack of planning or time management on my part. It's this level of necessary self-discipline that I've always sucked at in the past, and it's partly that reason that resulted in this blog: private failure might be depressing, but public failure will make me look like a complete dumbass.
(That's right, spellcheck. "Dumbass" is a word. Don't look at me like that.)
Glycemic Index:
It turns out that not all carbohydrates are digested the same way. Some carbs take longer to make their way into your bloodstream, resulting in lower spikes in blood sugar and insulin. Evidently, these spikes are more or less what cause fat gain. Eliminate the peaks, smooth the curves out, and fat loss happens in nearly everyone.
I'm not worried about fat loss, but I am worried about fat gain, so I'll be eating a significant portion of my carbs as beans, lentils and quinoa -- all have low Glycemic Index.
The only problem with these foods is that their calorie density is very low. One cup of pinto beans has 30% fewer calories than 1 cup of white rice. That's why I'll be adding ordinary starches to my meals.
The Shake:
When I hit the snooze button every 10 minutes for an hour straight and finally get out of bed with 10 minutes until class, an omelet is not a practical or realistic meal expectation. I'll rely on this shake recipe:
- 2 cups Vitamin D Whole Milk
- 30 grams whey protein shake mix, vanilla (soy-free)
- 3 heaping tablespoons of almond butter (no additives, salt only)
- 1 whole banana
- 1/4-1/2 cup Egg Beaters
Composition: 820 Calories, 60g protein.
Soy-free everything because, as we all know, compounds in soy get metabolized into estrogen. When you're trying to push your hormone balance toward testosterone, eating foods that turn into estrogen is a little bit like eating your own finger to alleviate thirst.
I've never tried eggs in a shake, and I'm expecting to have the eggs result in a mucusy, gelatinous, undrinkable shake. But as the saying goes, no gross shakes, no sports movie training montage.On another note entirely, here's a fun fact (fact?): Aerobic system load is highest when recovering from lactic acidosis. Lemme say that again: when you're recovering from muscle burn caused by lactic acid, your cardiovascular system is working harder than it did when you were pedaling on the exercise bike. That's why (hopefully, and skepticism aside) this plan should increase cardio performance in addition to lifting strength.
Next post will have my starting weight, strength, and body fat percentage. I'll also talk about metrics to track progress on a daily basis, and about the information management messiah that is Wolfram|Alpha.
