Thursday, October 27, 2011

Sample Primal Post Workout Meal

Health & Fitness with Berry is one of our Fierce FFF members. She sent me the link to this post for all of you out there who are dabbling in, or considering dabbling in, the Paleo lifestyle. The meal looks great but, at 480 cals, 30.9g f / 15.9g carbs / 32.8g p, it's way too light for a true LG PWO meal. I would suggest at least doubling the carbs and protein and having this as your largest meal of the day. 


She eats low carb every day, as noted in her blog post. If I were to use this as a PWO meal, I'd quadruple the carbs and triple the protein and cut the fat in half. This would comprise the majority of my macros for the day.

Friday, October 21, 2011

A difference of opinion



So, tonight I was doing my LISS (low intensity steady state) geriatric cardio on a treadmill at my gym. I was next to this guy who supposedly is a competitive bodybuilder who was also just walking (one point in his favor). We started chit-chatting about my daughter who was trucking away doing speed intervals and got to talking about Leangains (as I usually do in these situations). I told him if he's a competitor, he'd probably benefit from checking out Martin's blog, etc.


We got to talking about how I've been stuck in my efforts to lose fat. After briefly discussing my diet, we agreed it's probably the TYPES of carbs I'm eating PWO that are derailing my efforts combined with too loose of a diet (I wasn't counting macros for a long time and I was drinking alcohol too much and too often). While I agree with his point that cereal, even Total, is probably not the best choice for me at this point, he did say something I felt was pretty ridiculous.


We discussed my powerlifting-type of RPT training and he actually said, "You'll never change your body composition lifting that way. You need to do isolation exercises to get rid of the fat in those areas." WTF? Was he talking about spot-reduction? Then he said I would never see my muscles grow unless I used "volume to get the blood flowing." Again, W.T.F.? I suppose he was referring to the sarcoplasmic hypertrophy common among bodybuilders. They grow large muscles through high volume training, but may not necessarily be that functionally strong. I said I wasn't going to focus on any specific isolation exercises that I'm not already doing (leg extensions, overhead press) until I strip the fat and get a look at my muscle structure to see where I need more attention.


I'm not a bodybuilder, nor do I want to be. All I know is that I have gone down the road of high volume training and it got me nowhere. Perhaps if I had combined it with an LG style diet I would have had better results, but that's neither here nor there. I'm addicted to lifting heavy. I LOVE the feeling of ripping 215 lbs of dead weight off the floor with a 115 lb frame. I LOVE that I get stronger every week and my weight is holding steady and my pants are loose. And I KNOW that if I can keep my diet tight and clean, cut out the crap snacks and booze, I will get a nice 6-pack for Christmas this year.


'Tis the season to kick some ass.

Welcome to Fierce. Fit. Fearless. - The Blog


How fierce are you?
Hello Everybody! It is with great excitement that I am here today to launch Fierce. Fit. Fearless. - The Blog. Some of you may already be familiar with FFF from my personal blog as well as from the popular women's only Facebook group focused on Intermittent Fasting and heavy weight/low volume strength training.


Thanks to a very generous spotlight in his recent F*&^arounditis blog, Martin Berkhan propelled our little group of 95 women into a force of 638 FIERCE ladies - and we add more every day.


While this budding FB group has been a great way to share ideas with like-minded women around the world about using IF for fat loss and muscle gain, I thought the blog would be a great place to expand on some of the topics discussed. I'll try to cover popular topics as well as some of the more unusual things we're discovering and ask you, the general public (yes, men included) to weigh in. I would even like to welcome guest contributors who have experience in a certain area to send me your thoughts on various topics pertaining to INTERMITTENT FASTING and LIFTING HEAVY - particularly as they apply to those of us with XX chromosomes. I would be happy to post anything intelligent that fits with our purpose.


Whatever you do, please do not litter this blog with comments on your 298594724th round of P90X, bodypump, Insanity, Les Mills whatever, Swiss/Bosu Ball routines, TRX or whatever other types of training the trainer at your gym is pimping these days. This is about eating protein, cycling macros, fasting and lifting HEAVY to change body composition and win the war against the pink padded dumbbell crowd and waste-of-space fitness magazines that currently litter every gym in the world.


Women can lift heavy and still look like women if they do it naturally. Join us and let's change the perceptions of fitness enthusiasts globally - it's already happening, we just have to keep the momentum going!