JeffC the extreme ninja warrior

[JeffC]

Hmm, you like extremes, dont you?

I suppose I do. Wai draws people who aim for the optimal. It's like betting on the roll of a die that has 4 green sides and 2 red sides. Optimal strategy is to take the 'extreme' of betting on green 100% of the time instead of 66.67% of the time.

So, a year has passed since I had my excess sugar problem (viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3373). I restored my health using a Weston Price/Wai hybrid diet. I split my calories approximately so:

70% fat (coconut oil, butter, animal fat)
20% protein (chicken liver, beef, yolks, fish)
10% carb (tomato, strawberries, maybe a banana)
Water instead of OJ. I live in a desert.

I've made it back to where I historically have been in terms of weight/body. My stats are 31, male, 67.5 inches (172 cm), 128 lb (58 kg). But now I'm looking to shake things up in an effort to further improve health, get abs/less body fat, and gain more strength. Ideally I want to weight 144 lb (65 kg). The warrior diet would fit in with my schedule nicely. I'm beginning the transition slowly. I've started with moving my morning snack to the evening and making sure to work out at night. Next will be to move breakfast to late night.

I'll note here that I have a very physically intense job during the afternoon. I expend about 2800 calories per day, it seems. I also have an exercise routine that goes like so:

Monday: rest
Tuesday: chest/triceps
Wednesday: intense cardio (running or jump rope)
Thursday: shoulders
Friday: legs
Saturday: back/biceps
Sunday: cycling

My job consists of many hours of walking and lifting. It ends around 18:30 at night. Ultimately, I'm considering a daily eating schedule that looks like so:

06:00: awaken
18:30-19:15: (right after work) banana, strawberries w/coconut oil, fish, tomato (~500 calories)
19:30: workout
20:00-20:45: (right after workout) massive meal of beef, liver, yolks, butter, tomato
21:00-21:30: shave/shower
22:30 sleep

And so it would be a 2-3 hour eating window at night.

[JeffC]

Today I'm starting the move of breakfast to "late dinner." And so at the moment my eating schedule will be lunch, snacks 1 & 2, dinner, late-dinner.

I want to log a few other things here at the start, for comparison in the future.

Morning CP today was about 25 (I haven't been focused on improving it lately).

Pic of my bare chest: http://imgur.com/3tF7EAF

Measurements in inches (and ideal goals):
Neck: 13.25" (16.5")
Biceps: 12.75" (16.5")
Waist: 30" (26.5")
Chest: 35.75" (43")
Calves: 13" (16.5")
Thighs: 20.5" (26.5")

[RRM]

Measurements in inches (and ideal goals):

Your ideal goals are absolutely doable.
Its good that these foods are easy to digest (very low fibre) and nutrient dense.
Maybe you could juice the tomatoes, banana and strawberries? (masticating juicer)

[JeffC]

Your ideal goals are absolutely doable.

That's encouraging to hear, thank you.

Its good that these foods are easy to digest (very low fibre) and nutrient dense.

I looked at my nutrition spreadsheet this weekend, and I noticed that I was a little low in thiamin, magnesium, copper, and manganese—sounds like I could use a nut. And so when my supply of butter runs out, I'm going to switch to macadamia nuts. I'm also going to use prunes instead of bananas because they're less of a hassle. Although I may later decide to drink a cup of OJ instead. And so my 9 foods, in order of importance, will be...

fish (unique properties)
coconut oil (unique properties)
tomatoes (unique properties)
chicken livers (nutrient rich)
egg yolks (nutrient rich)
beef (best meat)
macadamias (best nut)
strawberries (good fruit)
prunes (good fruit)

The calorie split is still 70(F)-20(P)-10(C). And the total comes to only 11 g of fiber. I'll add that the omega ratio is 1.8-to-1.

I believe that they supply everything needed...

Omega-3 (fish)
Vitamin A (liver)
Vitamin C (strawberries)
Vitamin D (sunlight/animals)
Vitamin E (animals)
Vitamin K2 (animals)
Thiamin (B1) (macadamias)
Riboflavin (B2) (animals)
Niacin (B3) (animals)
P. Acid (B5) (animals)
Pyridoxine (B6) (animals)
Folate (B9) (liver)
Cobalamin (B12) (animals)
Calcium (everything has a little)
Iron (animals)
Magnesium... almost impossible no matter what you do
Phosphorus (animals)
Potassium (everything)
Sodium (animals)
Zinc (beef)
Copper (everything)
Manganese (macadamias)
Selenium (animals)

Maybe you could juice the tomatoes, banana and strawberries? (masticating juicer)

That sounds pretty tasty. But I have some combinations right now that I like as well. I like strawberries with coconut oil, and I really like tomatoes with fish or beef. I'm also planning to eat the prunes and macadamias together because of their portability. I can eat them immediately after work (before I go home).

My body's trying to learn that it's not getting as much food in the morning now. I can hold out until about 9:30, then I'm pretty hungry. And so my eating schedule as of now looks like so:

(06:00 awaken)
09:30: liver, beef, yolk, butter, tomato
12:00: strawberries, coconut oil
14:00: strawberries, coconut oil
19:00: fish, tomato
(workout time)
21:00 beef, yolk, butter, tomato
(shower)
(22:30 sleep)

And the ultimate plan for the future looks like so:

(06:00 awaken)
18:30: prunes, macadamia nuts
19:00: strawberries, coconut oil
19:30: fish, tomato
(workout time)
21:00 liver, beef, yolks, tomato
(shower)
(22:30 sleep)

[RRM]

The reason I suggested the masticating juicer is because when you start to do Wai Warrior,
you will need to squeeze a lot of energy intake into just a few hours.
Fibre makes that a lot harder.
The less fibre, the more doable it will be.

[JeffC]

The fish is the only thing that makes it difficult for me to compress everything into a few hours. It's the most filling. And so it makes sense for me to shift fish to the end of the night. I also want to stretch the eating window out to 3.5 or 4 hours.

(06:00 awaken)
18:15: prunes, macadamia nuts
18:45: strawberries, coconut oil
(workout time)
20:30 liver, beef, yolks, tomato
(shower)
21:45: fish, tomato
(22:30 sleep)

I really enjoy the fact that the warrior way distinctly splits my day into 4 parts: morning free time, afternoon physical activity, evening feasting, and nighttime sleep.

[Dreamer]

Good luck bro, remember to keep your integrity no matter what !

[JeffC]

Thanks. I'm giving myself a hard deadline of one more week (9 April) to complete the transition to the 20/4 window. Right now, the only meal I eat before 18:00 is lunch. The problem is that lunch consists of about 900 calories. I used to take in most of my calories in the morning, and my body still is learning that the food is going to come at night now. But I'm gradually pushing lunch later each day.

I rearranged my eating plan a little bit after going over the numbers some more. I'm going to keep butter, and I'm going with OJ instead of prunes. I love the taste of prunes, but OJ is just superior.

(06:00: awaken)
18:15: macadamia nuts
18:45: OJ, strawberries, coconut oil (first half)
19:15: OJ, strawberries, coconut oil (second half)
(19:45: 10-15 mins for workout)
20:15: liver, beef, butter, yolks, tomato
(21:15: 20-30 mins for shower)
21:45: fish, tomato
(22:30: sleep)

I updated my measurements; I've gotten smaller:

Neck: 13.25" (16.5")
Biceps: 12.5" (16.5")
Waist: 29.5" (26.5")
Chest: 35.5" (43")
Calves: 12.75" (16.5")
Thighs: 20" (26.5")

10 weeks ago, I was 139 lb with a 32-33" waist. Now I'm at 128 lb, which was my target for 11 weeks. Now I want to gain muscle without getting fat. 144 lb is my target. I've also changed up my workout a little bit. It's like RRM's (viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1821), in which I pick basically one exercise, go all out with minimal breaks, then recover.

Tuesday - chest
Wednesday - side delts
Thursday - triceps
Friday - legs
Saturday - back/biceps (multiple chinup/pullup variations, my favorite)
Sunday - cardio

[JeffC]

I'm going to change the plan a little bit again. I'm going to try 17/7 at first instead of 20/4 and see how it goes. I'm trying to optimize when/how to take carbs/fats/protein relative to the workout schedule. The eating window is 13:00-20:00.

(06:00: awaken)
13:00: strawberries & coconut oil; OJ [carb+fat, 20% of daily calories]
(14:30-18:00: work=cardio)
18:30-19:30: macadamia nuts; fish & tomato [fat+protein, 20% of daily calories]
(19:30-19:45: muscle training)
20:00: liver, beef, butter, yolks, tomato [high protein, 60% of daily calories]
(21:15-21:45: shower)
(22:30: sleep)

[RRM]

I've gotten smaller:

It means that you don't eat enough.
That's the hardest in the beginning; to eat enough in this short time window.
You really need to stuff yourself beyond what you are used to.

[JeffC]

Yes. I've added more calories during this transition period in order to stop any more weight loss. I'll figure out my new caloric needs after I've been fully on the warrior program for a while. I'm assuming that it will be less than before warrior.

So I've been analyzing my eating plan some more. I still like the 17/7 system with an eating window of 13:00-20:00. But, after adding OJ instead of prunes, I realized that macadamias are serving as little more than a very expensive manganese supplement. They seem like they don't fit in, and so I'll replace them with OJ/coconut oil/strawberries for now. I also realized that it makes so much more sense to drink OJ during work, where it is very hot and intense. A coconut oil/fish "breakfast" also would help sustain me through the afternoon until the high-protein meal for dinner.

Macros now are 65% fat, 17% carb, 18% protein.

(06:00: awaken)
13:00: strawberries & coconut oil; fish & tomato [breakfast, 20% of daily calories]
14:30-18:30: (work=cardio): OJ; strawberries & coconut oil [lunch, 20% of daily calories]
(19:30-19:45: muscle training)
20:00: liver, beef, butter, yolks, tomato [dinner, 60% of daily calories]
(21:15-21:45: shower)
(22:30: sleep)

I also further simplified my workouts:

Tuesday: Chest
Thursday: Triceps
Friday: Legs
Sunday: Back/biceps/delts

Today's my last day of 'early' breakfast. Tomorrow I'm officially fully on the 17/7 warrior plan.

[JeffC]

I've been on it for a week now. I'm doing the 17/7 split like I planned, eating at 13:00-20:00. Around 12-14 hours into the fast, I may feel emptiness in the stomach, but usually only if I'm thinking about food. My day:

(06:00: awaken)
13:00: strawberries & coconut oil; fish & tomato [breakfast, 20% of daily calories]

15:00-18:00: (work=cardio): OJ while working
18:15: beef jerky immediately after work
18:45: strawberries & coconut oil [lunch, 20% of daily calories]

(19:30-19:45: muscle training)
20:00: liver, beef, butter, yolks, tomato [dinner, 60% of daily calories]
(21:15-21:45: shower)
(22:30: sleep)

I measure my waist daily. It's still 29.5 inches right now.

Most interesting is that when I did chinups on Sunday, I increased my record from 30 to 38. Three possible explanations:
1. I started chinups only 2 months ago. I typically improve a little each time.
2. I had very low carbs previously, but now I'm drinking OJ beforehand.
3. The results of the Warrior diet.

[RRM]

Interesting. Please keep posting.

[JeffC]

I'll update all of my numbers each week in order to identify any changes. Very scientific. Again, I'm trying to gain muscle mass/strength without adding belly fat.

Calories/day: 2520 (experimenting here, needed 2800 pre-Warrior)
Fat: 186 g (67%)
Carb: 102 g (16%)
Protein: 110 g (17%)

Weight: 128.5 lb / 58.3 kg

Chest: 35.5 in / 90.25 cm
Waist: 29.75 in / 75.5 cm
Thighs: 20 in / 50.75 cm
Biceps: 12.5 in / 31.75 cm
Neck: 13.25 in / 33.5 cm
Calves: 13 in / 34.25 cm

My measurements haven't changed. The goals that I listed before are based on Fibonacci ideals, starting from the wrist (6.25 inches). So I keep multiplying by 1.618 to get the numbers that I want. (10 inch forearms, 16.25 inch biceps/neck/calves, 26.5 inch waist/thighs, 42.75 inch chest.)

[JeffC]

Last week, my weight was pretty consistently 128.5 lb. This week, it has been in the 127-128 lb range. My waist is still 29.5 to 29.75 inches.

I tried 2600 calories per day this week, and I still feel like it isn't enough. I'm hungry. My maintenance level was about 2800 calories pre-Warrior, and it doesn't seem to have changed. I think that I have higher protein needs because of how extremely physically active I am. In the next few days, I'm going to increase the protein from 110 g/day to 122 g/day. And my calories will go up to 2750:

Calories/day: 2750
Fat: 206 g (67%)
Carb: 100 g (15%)
Protein: 122 g (18%)

For cheap calories, I prefer coconut oil instead of sugar.

My eating window is still 13:00-20:00.