I eat one BIG salad each day — usually my largest feed of the day — BIG = 3 heaping cups or more salad greens ( usually romaine or kale and spinach ) most days I add few slices of onions and handful broccoli

Inspired mostly from Mark Sisson’s ‘Fat Ass Salad’ – google it (I can’t be saying ‘ass’ in front if my kids so I changed the name of my salads!).

My Big FAT Salad has ~75% fat from olive oil, sour cream or cheese ; depending on my other meals of the day I may include 30 gram protein from eggs or meat.

Here is taco meat recipe given to me by a friend that I use to make my Big FAT Taco Salad.

2 pound 70 or 80% ground beef
2 tablespoon paprika
4 teaspoon cumin.
2 teaspoon salt.
2 teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons onion flakes.
2 teaspoon oregano.
1 tablespoon chili pepper flakes.

2 bags romaine lettuce (6 cup)
1 bag spinach 5 ounce

1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup salsa
1 cup cheese Monterey Jack
2 tablespoon lime juice

My wife and usually split this so we each get a pound of beef in the meal.

Remember do not drain the fat from beef; when using grass feed beef I start the skillet with finely chopped bacon to add fat.

This is the perfect pre or post fasting meal ; perfect meal for after heavy lifting.

An ongoing, personal experiment the past year or more, I blend several expert’s recommendations to get strong and burn fat while minimizing trips to gym and minimize time in gym:

1. Mark Sisson’s Primal Blueprint Fitness
2. Rippetoe’s Starting Strength powerlifting
3. Body by Science by McGuff and Little
4. my upper body physical therapy regimen to avoid further injury and to heal my arm and shoulder injuries.
5. The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance by Phinney and Volek

workout A: squat, deadlift, cable pull down, cable row, bicep dumbbell curl

workout B: squat, rotator cuff lateral rotation, shoulder front raise, Arnold press, tricep extensions, bench press, Tabata Squat

go to gym three times a week : M W F

Alternate : A-B-A first week then B-A-B the following week

summary:

• Everyday is a Squat day !
• Deadlifts are every other workout
• Deads and squats are heavy, linear progression; weight and warmup per SS book / iPhone app
• 48 – 72 hour rest for Squats; longer rest periods for Deads
• everything but squats and deads are considered accessory / physical therapy movements, low weight, high rep, SuperSlow / BBS — ok to skip if time short or do on a day off
• in place of sprinting or cardio I will do Tabata Squats everyother workout (8 – 16 minutes per week)
• OFF days : move slowly — 3 or 4 walks per day…at work the goal will be 25 flights of stairs during several 5 minute breaks
• fast 8 to 24 hours prior to workout, but take ~20gram protein / 5-10 gram branched chain amino acids right before workout
• 2 or 3 cups coffee prior to workout; 16 ounce water
• 2 – 12 hour post workout : goal ~150 gram protein; small window of time to ‘cheat’ with a few extra carbs over normal 20-40 gram daily goal: sweet potato fries, berries, honey in whipped cream, dark chocolate, almonds, macadamias, brazil nuts
• Slo-Mag magnesium replacement tablets 2 or 3 times per day every day
• Add salt to Big Fat Salad each day; eat salty things due to sodium losses during exercise

as with anything I have been doing lately, this will be an ongoing experiment to efficiently get strong and burn fat while only scheduling 3 trips to the gym per week and minimizing the minutes spent in the gym each time…testing hypotheses…will modify accordingly every 3 -4 months if needed

part of my fall and winter work out plan is to minimize cardio to only High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) in the form of tabata back squats ( I will do these last, every other workout = non deadlift days)

• only 2 to 4 times a week (8 to 16 minutes cardio per week — that’s it!
• one 4 minute round of empty bar (45 pounds); goal 10-12 reps per 20 seconds, and depending on how I feel, I will do the empty bar again …or add weight to bar:
• one 4 minute round of 95 pounds; goal 8 or more reps per 20 seconds all 8 rounds

other goals:

• push through the 20 second intensity phase as hard as possible / never stop till 10 second rest period starts
• push to breathlessness — explore / redefine anaerobic max — shock mitochondria
• avoid fainting or vomiting

this is a great example of amazing Tabata back squats

My cousin Danika Portz has released her single Greatest Show On Earth to country radio. Simply FANTASTIC.

Even if you don’t need to lose weight — read more and see if it will help you sleep better, feel better or increase athletic performance.

When others ask me, these are my highlights of why I will continue a Primal, nutritional ketosis lifestyle, and why I recommend others try it:

• Incredible, deep, restful sleep – my sleep improved early on before I lost much weight; now I usually get up without an alarm and I feel great.
• Constant stream of energy throughout the day, regardless of the timing of my last meal…I usually fast 12 – 20 hours several times a week, usually before exercise – Now I easily do three hours of powerlifting and bicycling after a 20 hour fast…just to see if I can – I felt great.
• Mental focus consistent through entire day regardless of meal timing.
• I lost 115 pounds on the scale in about a year, but more importantly, I have lost over 12 inches off my waist size; I am back to the same college and high school clothing size.
• My headaches/migraines are gone! I’m off medicines for them. The relief of living without headaches makes everything better and this alone would be enough for me to recommend Primal.
• I can still enjoy wine with friends – I stopped drinking beer and mixed drinks with carbs, but continued red wine with meals and whisky or wine on social occasions.
• Neck, ankle, hip, and knee joint pains have disappeared – they went away rapidly, before most of the weight loss – makes me think that the inflammation was due to diet more than wear and tear from carrying extra weight.
• Acne and oily skin has decreased 95% – never this close to normal skin ever in my life.
• Years of scaly, cracked feet have completely resolved spontaneously; a massage therapist noted I have the best feet she has seen on a 40 year old man
• My shoe size has decreased – I was size 11eee or 12 all my adult life. Now I’m 11 regular.
• Two golf ball size sebaceous cysts on my back spontaneously dissolved in a few weeks.
• Triglycerides lowered from very high levels down to 50 now.
• LDL and small LDL particle size falling from very high to normal.
• HDL from 30s to the 60s with low amount of exercise.
• Fasting glucose from high 90s (pre-diabetes) down to low 80s (normal).
• I had elevated ALT and AST most of my adult life – now liver function tests are normal.
• For over 15 years I had episodic gastric reflux, stomach distention and constipation – this has completely resolved.

The majority of my 100 pound weight loss occurred while I was not exercising at all. I started exercising recently in the fall of 2012 (AFTER most of my weight loss). Despite plateaus of staying at the same weight for many weeks at a time, I have continually decreased my clothing size each month – I continue to gain strength, vascularity and muscular definition.

Read more: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/healthier-at-age-44-than-24-how-i-lost-115-pounds-and-turned-my-life-around/#ixzz37MtGqShz

It has been a busy spring and summer for my family and I — I seemed to have lost my blog and have to start from scratch here.

www.garytaubes.com — read his books – that is where I started

www.marksdailyapple.com — lots of info here, lots to read, great books also – Food and exercise plans

www.eatingacademy.com — further support and understanding of Nutritional Ketosis and high performance exercise

NUSI.org more info to pass the message on

books by Phinney and Volek on Low Carbohydrate living and Low Carbohydrate Perfomance