Training Log: Entry 3146
Training from this morning: 21-15-9 of 225lb squats and 20kg KB snatch
Some cruise feasting
And here is a post cruise physique update
Alrighty, time to update for real. This is gonna be stream of consciousness so bear with me.
**Travel Days/Pre-Cruise**
I departed on 26 Dec for my cruise, which left out of Galveston TX on 27 Dec and returned on 2 Jan. I kicked off the travel day with that set of 85x185lb squats because I’m a psycho and apparently don’t care about being comfortable while flying. I had a side of steak from a Baja Fresh in an airport for lunch. Our connecting flight had significant delays and we didn’t get to our hotel until about 2130. We were on the pier and there were limited food options and we were exhausted, so we hit up a Jimmy Johns and I got a double roastbeef sub with extra roast beef and some provolone cheese, and then a rotisserie chicken and cheddar sub. Threw out the bread on both and just ate the meat. Less than ideal, but still “on the plan”.
Next day, woke up, went on a long walk while I waiting for a pharmacy to open to pick up some last minute travel supplies, and during that walk stumbled across a legit burrito shop and got a steak and egg breakfast burrito. Always an awesome morning when you can get steak and eggs. Walked around more and eventually boarded the cruise ship, and that’s where all manner of feasting totally kicked off.
**Cruise feasting**
I had a 3 week famine leading up to this, to absolutely and totally prime myself for being able to totally feast. There was a “practice” feast a few days beforehand at Texas de Brazil, but now I arrived at the “big game”. I had no intentions of going “off carnivore”, but, in turn, I was NOT denying myself anything. Meat and eggs are what I genuinely enjoy eating, and there are SO many options for that on a cruise that I was set. My only “restrictions” were on cheese. I’d eat it if it came with a meal, but I didn’t go out of my way to acquire it, because it was always available at every meal and the option was there for it, but I know for myself that I can pretty much eat a near unlimited amount of cheese and never really get a satisfying/full feeling from it compared to meat and eggs.
*Feasting highlights*
* The staff eventually grew to understand my voracious appetite, and was more than willing to cater to it. One of the best quotes from the cruise was a waiter asking me “Mr. Jared, before I bring out dessert, could I interest you in a steak?” I informed him that he read my mind, and he absolutely COULD interest me in that. This was at a brunch, at which point I had already consumed a seafood sampler platter (of which he brought me an extra serving of salmon), a ham and cheese frittata, a 3 cheese omelet, an itallian sausage soup, an entrée of veal and an entrée of parmesan crusted chicken. And prior to this brunch, I DID have breakfast. On a different day’s dinner, the waiter brought out an EXTRA rack of lamb, after I had already consumed 3 appetizers (escargot, pulled duck leg, and a shrimp and lobster platter…which he brought me a second one of because he felt like one wasn’t enough), French onion soup with gruyere cheese “croutons” (I ordered it just for the croutons), and the aforementioned 1 rack of lamb entrée’ along with a crispy duck breast/leg entrée’.
* According to my kiddo, I was averaging 21 eggs per breakfast, and that wasn’t ALL I was eating at breakfast: that was just the egg count. I would also have salmon, trout, and on the day they did steak and eggs, I had 6 sirloin steaks (about 5-6oz each). I tended to employ butter pretty judiciously on my eggs as well.
* The majority of dinners, I’d have at least 2 of each course (appetizer and entrée), but sometimes triples, and I would finish off whatever my wife/kiddo couldn’t. I was proud of my kiddo in that regard as well: they went after steaks quite frequently and tried out a bunch of new cuts.
* Lunch was always at the buffet for me, although I’d sometimes make it a “progressive lunch” and do rounds at the buffet and finish off poolside at the burger and shawrma stations. As a cruising pro, I’d always grab my plate and head STRAIGHT to the carving station first and THEN get to the start of the buffet. I was able to convince them to give me the drumsticks and thighs whenever they were cutting into a bird, and otherwise wasn’t shy to ask for 3-4 slices at a time of whatever they were carving off of. Also helped myself to 7 steaks at one lunch alongside a barrage of other meaty goodies (all manner of fish, fowl, pork, lamb, etc).
* I became pretty skilled at learning where my “too much” point was and knowing to back off from that. I basically abiding by the principle of “eat until food no longer sounds good”. There was only one lunch where, after finishing, I felt uncomfortably full and needed to take a nap and let my digestion sort itself out, but even then, by the time dinner rolled around, I was ready to eat again. But otherwise, I’d walk away from every meal feeling happy and full but not uncomfortable. There was no binging: I was enjoying every single bite. And the fattier the cut, the better.
**Cruise physical activity**
* I’d start every morning off with 50 prisoner squats and 50 push ups. I’d do this by doing 2 rounds of Dan John’s ladder (2-3-5-10), and then finish up with 10 reps of prisoner squat to push up, similar to a burpee. This was basically just a morning mobility routine, and helped me get loose and limber and “awake” before I headed off to conquer breakfast.
* My wife and I have a rule to NEVER take the elevators on a cruise, so we were always going up and down stairs. Beyond that, whenever we have downtime, we walk around the ship and explore or walk around on the sundeck and get some Vitamin D. 10k steps was always a goal, and on New Year’s Eve we managed 24k from a combination of walking and dancing.
* When my wife would shower before our dinners, I’d take it upon myself to get in a 10-15 minute bodyweight workout on our veranda. This would be more prisoner squats and push ups, but there was also an I-beam that I could do pull ups on. Which, by the way, my wife has seen me deadlift cars, load stones, press logs, etc, but when I just busted out 8 deadhang pull ups on the I-beam after my morning routine, I turned around and saw her jaw on the floor. Some things just speak to us on a primal level.
* I came up with a few winners for workouts. One was EMOM do 8 squats, 8 push ups and 5 burpees for 10 minutes. I did another that was 6-6-5 and then 2 pull ups. Also one where I did 10 tabata rounds of burpees on the 20 and 2 pull ups on the 10, then 10 rounds of prisoner squats or push ups on the 20 and 2 pull ups on the 10, then 5 rounds of burpees/pull ups and 5 rounds of squats/push ups and pull ups.
* I managed to get to the fitness center twice on the trip. I had no plans to do so, but in one case the Mrs was needed a nap and the kiddo was away, and in another the wife and kiddo had an activity booked for just the two of them. For one workout, I took 2 45lb dumbbells and did a circuit of 5 devil presses-5 DB front squats-5 (each arm) alternating DB snatch, then 4s, 3s, down to 1, back up to 5, back down to 1. The first 2 rounds didn’t seem awful, but at the halfway point I knew I found magic. The second workout, I did a heavily modified version of Linda, took 2 75lb DBs and did 10 goblet squats with 1 DB, then incline benched for max reps (10 was the goal, but I got 8), then DB SLDL for 10, then 9s, 8s, etc down to 1. I lowered the incline each round until I was eventually flat benching, and at that point I was able to make the reps match up. THAT workout was really pretty clutch, although by the time you hit the 4s the magic tends to fade a little. Probably a Juarez Valley approach would really clinch it.
* Also, I got to swim with dolphins and a manatee, and got to explore some Mayan Ruins. In the case of the former, we were in the ocean in a pen, so we were getting rocked by the waves the entire time (it was stormy/choppy out). When it was done, my appetite was through the roof. There’s definitely something to be said about cold water and waves.
**Takeaways**
* Despite eating my face off, I gained no noticeable fat during my feasting. I’ve discovered dietary cheat codes. I know I’m annoying with how much I beat the drum about my nutritional approach, but I genuinely hope others can benefit from it if they decide to try it themselves. T-Nation has a ton of articles about how you can’t overeat protein and how it won’t lead to fat gain, and I’m definitely feeling that. And I am more than confident that if anyone ran the numbers, I was taking in over 6k calories a day. Again, just in eggs alone at breakfast, with 21 eggs, that’s nearly 1.5k calories. To say nothing of the butter used to cook the eggs, or the extra butter I was throwing on it.
* In regards to the above, I believe that I may be famine-ing too hard and feasting too light in my day to day living. THIS was a week of REAL feasting, and I absolutely experienced the benefits of it. As I said, just like my last cruise, right around day 5 my Mrs made the observation of “how can you eat so much and look so good?” I genuinely feel like I got leaner over this time frame. Now, that said, I was frequently not LOOKING my leannest, but that was because my stomach was so full of food that it was pushing out, swollen and bloated. And THAT is the downfall of so many trainees that NEED to eat to gain: they’ll freak out as soon as their abs get blurry and think they’re putting on SO much fat. If you’re eating big, your guts are gonna get big. Now, that said, I CAN see carbs making things even trickier, because you’ll hold onto more water and really get that bloat experience. With me eating just meat and eggs, I was effectively just a bowel movement away from being “lean” again.
* The other benefit of feasting this way? I am SO over food. I am absolutely looking forward to this famine. I enjoyed every meal, don’t get me wrong, but by the end of the cruise I noticed a reduction in intake at meals. It wasn’t a conscious decision, I wasn’t “reining it in”: I was just satiated. Being able to his this reset will be great, ESPECIALLY when you consider that my body is so used to taking in 6k calories a day that a sharp reduction will be just the thing to throw it out of equilibrium and trigger some changes.
* I’ll most likely do some commentary on the state of people on the cruise at some point as well, but it’s so weird to be a “fellow glutton” on the cruise while also just shaking my head at the state physical state of humanity.
* Oh yeah, one more nutritional "win": on the way back home, there was a Jack in the Box at the airport, which was awesome. I had an Ultimate Cheeseburger, no ketchup, ate with a fork and knife. At my connecting flight, there was a Buffalo Wild Wings of all things, so I had 10 traditional bone in wings, naked, no sauce/rub. BWWs cooks their wings in beef tallow: how cool is that?
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Boy could I talk more and more about this, but if there’s no other takeaway, just remember the question “Before I bring out dessert, may I interest you in a steak?”
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