Diet Update

These come along a bit more often than I'd like at this point.

I'm almost out of protein powder and ready to drop the PSMF layout in favor of something less stressful. I'm basically fully over to an IF approach (which, again, is mostly to facilitate the yohimbine). Things are back to a very Jamie Lewis-type CKD, with calorie cycling, fat loads, and a single carb refeed. For now I'm integrating a full fasting day (currently planned for Saturdays), though I'll be taking that out as I get leaner.

The weekly layout (disregarding this week and possibly next, as my training's gotten a bit thrown off and I'll be out of town from Sat to Sat):

Monday (Erg) - Low-Calorie
Tuesday (ME Bench) - Fat Load
Wednesday (Erg) - Low-Calorie
Thursday (Squat) - Medium
Friday (SE Bench) - Fat Load
Saturday (Low Intensity) - Fast
Sunday (Deadlift) - Carb Refeed

Outlines/Macros:

Low-Calorie:
160g Protein, max 25g Carb, 100g Fat for 1650kcal at roughly 40/5/55
Large (high protein, fat, fiber) breakfast; moderate meal pre-training, small (fruit and protein) post-training
Salad and leanish meats; fibrous fruit after training. Pork Chop with Apple stands as a good example.

Medium-Calorie:
160g protein, max 25g Carb, 150g Fat for 2100kcal at roughly 30/5/65
Large (high protein, fat, fiber) breakfast; large meal pre-training, small post-training
Salad and fattier meats, with a major emphasis on beef, pork, and fattier fish.

Fat Load:
160g protein, max 25g Carb, 200g Fat for 2600kcal at roughly 25/5/70
Large (high protein, fat, fiber) breakfast; large meal pre-training, small post-training
Salad and good fat sources (fattier meats, dairy, nuts). Slightly higher emphasis on saturates.

Refeed:
200g protein, 600g carb, 70g fat for 3800kcal at roughly 20/65/15
Small (protein, carb, fiber) breakfast, medium pre-training brunch. Medium (protein, carb, fiber) meals throughout the day following training.

I'm looking to up my intake of eggs and organ meats around this; I can get Calf Liver at Berkeley Bowl for about $4/lb. It's actually pretty low in fat, which could mean that Liver and Onions just hit the menu for refeed day. Macadamias and some form of coconut fat are also on the priorities list, though it'll be annoying to get these at a reasoanble price.

For some random weird stuff that I found reading Meadows' work, I'm going to try consuming cranberry and lemon juice; he suggests lemon in warm water early in the morning, and cranberry at 4oz in 28oz water at least once per day. Given the health benefits of green tea I'm inclined to just make some tea in the morning and squeeze in a lemon. The cranberry's a bit more frustrating, but I can always just eat the berries themselves.

Serrano and Mendelson suggest a 30:60:10 balance on Sat:Mono:Poly, but I'm not too stressed there.

The salad part is a big deal here; I need to make sure I'm getting in the fiber and the micronutrients, and some carb intake won't hurt. Fruit post-cardio should also be helpful. All days will have a reasonable intake of fish oil (ideally keeping the w6:w3 ratio roughly 1:1).

This will probably get thrown off again once I get my bike and start cycling everywhere, but that should be in a good way. I'll probably be riding at least an hour every day (excluding Saturday), which will make a strong contribution regardless of intensity (N.B.: Once I've got the erging up to an hour, that puts me at around 15-20 hours of exercise per week; pretty respectable). For the Yohimbine I'm currently at 10g on waking, 7.5g 1.5-2 hours before eating, and 5g every hour in between. This worked today.

Other general notes:
1) Hammer out a regular 8-hour sleep schedule. This should be easier now that lab's off-limits at night. I'm looking to hit 12-8.
2) Massage should be important for general maintenance and relieving stress. Fortunately I've got Jenny and Tammy to keep me going there.
3) Meditation should also help manage stress. I'll probably switch this to the evenings, and possibly add a second session after a while.
4) Somewhat further from the ordinary, but I'm going to make a concerted effort to limit my contact with Steph and Hannah. They're both negative influences on my mood, and are the only big emotional drains on my time in lab. Not screwing up is important; not letting them affect me is also very big.

I'm going to sleep early and long while in Washington to try to get things back under control.