Yogi's Random Training Thoughts

Yeah my diet has been squeaky clean and will be for at least another month. Luckily I love rice and red meat so have no problem dining almost exclusively on that!

I have no real desire to cheat on my diet as I know it’ll set me back and I really don’t want that.

Thanks for all the advice!

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Interesting! Something i’ll have to look into

Check " SEVEN BEST WAYS TO GET LEANER WITH NO EFFORT" on Christian Thibaudeau’s site. You might want to cut back a bit on the red meat after and replace it with white meat (or fish). Covering Your Nutritional Acids (and Bases) is also relevant. The 30-Day Bro Diet - Diet and Nutrition - COMMUNITY - T NATION will get you there without thinking

Aye, I do actually do that when I’m trying to get leaner. I stick to very lean meats. Right now I’m back into growth mode so red meat is back on the menu.

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Alright, you haven’t noticed a difference then with how your stomach feels I take it when you cut out red meat?

It has actually improved, but one thing I’ve noticed is that gras-fed, organic red meat seems to digest better.

There are a few confounding variables though; whenever I switch to better quality meat it’s always when I’m on a health kick so I’m doing other gut-friendly stuff at the same time.

Right now though I’m eating 2 steak meals a day and digesting it just fine, which is awesome as steak is pretty much my favourite thing in the world.

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Something about red meat, for me its the easiest food to absorb, lot of talk out there now about the carnivore diet that its healing people with gut and autoimmune issues, maybe its because they are eliminating all of the crap in there diet. Steak and white rice don’t reckon I would ever get sick of that.

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Yeah I totally agree with everything in your post. Feeling good is, in my experience, more about what you don’t eat than what you do.

I’m taking a yoga teacher training class and the guy running it insists on us eating together, vegan. Weird AF, but hey, it’s only two meals a month.

But, I find myself migrating more and more towards plant based food, eating for vitality rather than pleasure, and viewing food as medicine. I’ve noticed that my tastes are changing, that I actually am beginning to appreciate a green drink, and that I have a lot more energy.

I’m also down to 175 (I’m 6’1"), so that may not be a selling point.

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All that fibre; all that fructose. I’d shit out my spleen by the third day!

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So 1 week update on the new gut health protocol. It’s just a week, so what could realistically have impoved?

Oh, I dunno, just everything.

Literally every day I’ve been using betaine hcl and drinking bone broth, my GERD symptoms have decreased, until finally yesterday I had my first GERD-free day in years.

In a week! I have literally cured my GERD in a fucking week! I’ve had that shit for fucking decades and I got rid of it in a fucking week!

I don’t know if it was the betaine hcl, the bone broth, or a combination of the two, but this is the most significant benefit I’ve ever noticed from any supplement ever.

Good times. No bloating or anything either still so I think I’m going to give it a week then try and add in a vegetable. Avocados are first, and if I have a week where I tolerate that then I’ll add in spinach.

Exciting times!

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Thats awesome man

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Avocado is a fruit. Just saying.

#NotFlameFree

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You’re a fucking fruit. Just saying.

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Hey, I take offense to this. I am not a fruit . . . I’m a freak!

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So I’m about a month now into the new diet. Things are getting pretty interesting.

Spinach has been introduced, and so have avocados. This is significant as it essentially means I’m covering all of my bases, nutritionally. I’m eating the absolute bare minimum in terms of food choices that I can eat and be healthy.

And it seems to be working. Reintroducing the spinach and avocado didn’t cause any bloating or discomfort, so I know I can tolerate these two at a minimum. My diet now is composed entirely of:

-Steak
-Chicken or turkey
-White rice
-Spinach
-Avocado
-Butter
-Olive oil
-Fermented pickles

It’s obviously not perfect, as there are a few things lacking. No calcium source, for one, and not much dietary vitamin D or E. The D thing doesn’t phase me as I’ve been using 8000iu a day since forever, and calcium is easy enough to supplement, but the E thing is vexing me slightly. I’ll give it a couple of weeks eating as I am now just to get my system used to how I’m eating (I don’t want to add too much too quickly) and then I’ll think about vitamin E. The highest source of vitamin E I have found is almonds, and I’d only need like 15g to get the recommended daily dose, so I’ll give that a try next. Probably not until January though.

I’m still doing the broth thing, but have since dropped the betaine hCL and probiotics. It wasn’t really a conscious decision; I just kinda forgot to keep taking the betaine and, to be honest, I never really noticed much from the probiotic anyway so when I finished the packet I didn’t bother buying more. I’ll trust the fermented pickles to be giving me enough healthy gut bacteria for now. I still plan to make the switch to sauerkraut a little further down the line, but I have always struggled with it when I’ve tried it in the past so I’m not in any rush to do that. The pickles are a bitching source of sodium too, which I can’t really discount. I dunno - maybe I’ll just stick with the pickles.

Still drinking the bone broth. The plan is now to eat this way for another month while still drinking the broth, then to drop the broth and see if I stay healthy. I would love to be able to just drink the broth every day from now on but I can’t sustain a £200 a month broth habit. So, best case scenario, I drop the broth but don’t notice any negative effects so I can keep eating this way.

The other cool thing is that my physique is changing. I’ve lost a notch on my belt, and I just feel way drier and tighter. I guess this is from not holding water from not constantly having an inflammation response. It’s pretty cool. I’m also sleeping way better which is, apparently, another benefit of removing a food to which you are intolerant (food intolerances increase stress hormones which obviously affect sleep).

I worked out what I eat in a day now and have found out I’m only eating about 2800 calories. That’d explain the fat loss, but the cool thing is my strength is still going up in the gym, so I can’t really complain. I’ll keep eating like this until strength starts to plateau and then I’ll add in some more calories. I’ve LOADS of room for manoeuvre just now in terms of calories. I could add 300 more cals to the meals I eat at work without even trying, and I’m still using what I consider to be pretty minimal fats so I could effectively double my fat intake if I wanted.

So the long-term plan is:

-Continue eating the above diet plus broth for a month.
-Eat above diet without broth for a month.
-Introduce another food choice to cover vitamin E.
-Eat that way for a month.
-Start pushing the calories up.

And that should take me up until summer of next year, where I’ll assess how I’m doing in terms of body composition and adjust accordingly. It’s quite exciting, as if I get this shit really locked down then I’ll be in a really good position to make some serious gains next year.

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Good stuff. My advice though — keep the broth. It’s easy protein, an anti-inflammatory, and it tastes great.

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Oath man I’m glad everything is looking up
Have you stopped cycling aswell?
Curious as to if it is a possible reasoning to why your gut health has improved

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If you’re eating chicken anyway then just buy a few whole chickens (if you’re not doing so already) and make a bone broth at home? It’d be way cheaper.

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Yeah I love that shit, but it’s just too cost prohibitive. If I find a good one cheaper somewhere I’ll stick with it but it’s too much for now.

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