For me nutrition has always been eat as much as possible and lift as heavy as possible. Recently I decided that I would try to go completely grain less. I've never been a big bread or pasta guy and I despise rice, well unless its around sushi, but my philosophy has been at the end of the day if I'm short on calories then a calorie is a calorie. This may mean grabbing 5 cheeseburgers or whatever I can get my hands on. Now going grain less doesn't mean I went "Paleo". I feel "Paleo" is a fad, which may have started out as great idea but has been bastardized. I mean come on a quick google search yields paleo cupcakes, cookie dough... I bet there is even paleo socks for your paleo feet.
So what did I eat? Basically I ate a high fat diet consisting of meat (beef, venison, pork, chicken, fish) and green vegetables (cabbages, kale, zucchini, avocados....) and some starches (butternut squash, spaghetti squash...). Timing wise I started basically everyday with a keto coffee (tablespoon butter + 2-3 tablespoons of heavy cream or coconut oil and a little cinnamon). I didn't intentionally intermittent fast but just ate when I was hungry or when my schedule allowed. My goals were to get a minimum of 4,000 calories and to remain grain free. I managed to keep my calories high by the addition of whole milk to my diet (almost 3/4 to 1 gallon a day). I know some people scoff at this especially you "paleo" people, but answer me this back in the day wasn't everyone breast fed at one time? It's my right as a mammal HAHA!!!
So after 4 easy weeks I decided to have a good cheat day. It started with doughnuts, then on to pizza, and some Girl Scout cookies. Everything tasted great but I felt like I was going to die. WHY??? Did my body make some kind of magical switch in four weeks? Did I just eat too much? Who really knows since this isn't some scientific study and just observations (which I think since this is on the internet counts as sound scientific fact that all must obey) how can I really say. What I did observe is that my recovery seemed quicker, but that could of been the extra calories. My sleep was better even with two small children. I was able to keep my weight up and did lose some body fat. So take it for what it is.
What did disappoint me was the reaction my body had to the cheat day. One of the perks of being in competitive lifting is the post weigh-in bloat. I have had some really impressive bloat days gaining 23 lb in as short as 8 hours. I did this by hydration and eating a personal pizza almost every hour on the hour plus several other bloat-tastic foods (damn!!!). I guess I'll have to adjust my bloat day to include other things. Oh well I'd take the added benefits of what I observed over the past four weeks and try to make adjustments to my bloat day.
