Tuesday Tallies: Primal Menus and Movement

Once again, my infrequent answer to the frequently asked questions: "What do you eat?" and "How do you work out?," with notes following.

Thursday's Food as Fuel

Breakfast: Two eggs over easy with chile verde and sour cream. Coffee.

Lunch: Chicken curry clafouti. Garlic-seasoned kale chips.

Dinner: Steamed kohlrabi and carrots with butter. Blackberries with coconut milk. Iced tea.

Thursday's Workout

Several hours of horse training, riding, and farm chores.


Saturday's Food as Fuel

Breakfast: Two savory egg muffins. Ground beef, carrot, kohlrabi, and spaghetti squash hash. Blueberries and mango. Coffee.

Snack: Half a banana with coconut cream concentrate.

Lunch: Organic greens salad with black olives and guacamole. Sardines.

Post-workout: 100 grams plain, full-fat Greek yogurt.

Dinner: Beef potroast. Roasted brussels sprouts. Raspberries. Gin.


Saturday's Workout

Several hours of farm work in sweltering heat. 4x rotation of pushups, pistols, pullups, and weighted HLRs.


Sunday's Food as Fuel

Breakfast: Two eggs over easy with spaghetti squash "hash browns" and bacon.

Snack: Half a banana with coconut cream concentrate

Lunch: Organic greens salad with black olives and guacamole. Kippered herring.

Pre-workout: Raspberries. 1/4 cup coconut milk with cocoa powder and cinnamon.

Post-workout: 100 grams plain, full-fat Greek yogurt.

Dinner: Beef potroast. Roasted brussels sprouts. Small baked sweet potato with butter and potassium salt.

Sunday's Workout

5 hours of hoof trimming, training, riding, and farm chores. 5x rotation of backsquats, military presses, and bent-over barbell rows.


Monday's Food as Fuel

Breakfast: Beef potroast. Steamed beets and kohlrabi with butter. Blackberries.

Lunch: Office barbecue! Chicken breast, hamburger patty, salad, and kale chips.

Pre-workout: Half a banana with coconut cream.

Dinner: Green salad with eggs, olives, sundried tomatoes, and guacamole. Almond butter and chocolate.

Monday's Workout

Unloaded and stacked 1 ton of hay in 100 lb bales.


Notes

Last Tuesday, I remarked in the notes that due to stress at work, I was making a temporary shift away from my usual habit of frequent intermittent fasting during the week. As you can see, I've not only continued that trend, but have been experimenting with pre- and post-workout fuel as well.

In the past, I've often worked out fasted and/or gone two or more hours after a workout without refueling. These are good leaning-out tactics, but I'm quite lean now and want to focus on building strength. I've cycled toward more farm work and fewer formal workouts, which remains appropriate while I have plenty of daylight to spend getting things done outdoors, but I've lost more on my lifts than I'm happy with, so I'm kicking things up a notch. Not three notches, but a notch.

I've added Greek yogurt post-workout despite my general avoidance of dairy partly for the growth benefits it offers in the wake of strength training, as well as for its probiotic content. I find that I feel better with an occasional probiotic supplement, particularly on those weeks when my stomach feels somehow less lean (more bulky, I suppose) though fat percentage remains low and digestion good. So, I thought I'd try some regular probiotic food consumption and see how it goes.

I bought a canister of potassium salt and have been using about 1/4 tsp per day in salad dressing and on food, not because I'm concerned about sodium intake, but because it's an easy way to supplement potassium. (I got the idea from this post by Astrogirl.)

Finally, you can't tell from the tallies above, but I'm making an effort to finish meals at least an hour (preferably two) prior to bed. This is tough, particularly in summer when farm work fills my evenings, but I'm hoping it will improve my sleep quality and increase the HGH release that occurs early in nighttime slumber.