For the brodyssey, I needed a diet that would a) get me in the happy place as far as my nutrition is concerned. I need huge amounts of protein and huger amounts of fat, with only a minimum amount of carbohydrate through good vegetables to keep my body nutritioned and energetic. That would b) be a challenging change to my norm, c) bring with it other good habits and benefits into my lifestyle.
Nothing jumps into your head, does it? Yeah, me neither.
But when I read Jamie Lewis' blog about stew being the reason that the western world gets their asses kicked at weight lifting events, I... laughed.
And he expected that, he needed to add, "no, I'm not joking," to the sentence in which he reveals his theory. I read it, because the guy is funny as shit and teaches me things, but admittedly, I skimmed it over and kept on reading through his other posts.
But the idea stewed in my brain for a while, (see what I did there?) and I found myself returning to feed my curiosity.
As Jamie explains, the process of stewing cooks the fat off the meat and into the surrounding broth, which is either absorbed back into the meat or can be drank with the meal, thus keeping more of the nutrition and fat of the meat than in any other form of cooking. Also, since the stew needs thickeners and flavors, you will consume many more vegetables eating meals of stew than not.
The more I thought about it, the more and more excited I became about it. It met all of my criteria; I would have absolute control over the macros that went in to my body, I would be solving my dilemma with AP and AD (apex predator and atkins diet, respectively) by increasing my vegetable intake and ensuring a complete nutrient profile, I would be following Tom Naughton's advice and eating enough saturated fat for my brain and endocrine system, AND I would have the added benefit of saving a buttload of cash on food as well as LEARNING THE BASICS OF COOKING.
This was obviously going to be the strict diet that I followed on the brodyssey because of the multitudinous benefits peripheral to just nutrition.
I admittedly got kind of excited building a little nest in the kitchen of my apartment, which, honestly, hadn't gotten a lot of use in the half a year or so that I lived there.
I bought the basics, a slow-cooker, a ladle, a cutting board, a knife, and a plethora of my favorite spices. When it came time to select foods, I got really high-fat meats, several pounds at a time, of beef or lamb/mutton, and then vegetables that naturally cooked sweetly like onions or peppers, and a few thickeners like sweet potatoes or rutabagas.
As of today, on day 9, I have not made the same stew twice. I am currently eating a spicy stew with roasted chipotle peppers and tony chachere's cajun seasoned beef, and the day before I had a sweet stew in which I cooked the sweet potatoes with ginger, cinnamon and a bit of honey.
Until day 30, I will at eat, AT LEAST 2 of my 3 daily meals as nothing but stew, and the other meal, if I'm out of the house will fit my macros at 40-40-20, p-f-c.
Jamie's stew blogs have recipes from all over the world. I'll be working my way through those. And I bought a stew cookbook, "Real Stew" by Clifford A Wright.
So far, I've become a much more confident cook, and the amount of fat in my diet is keeping me so satisfied that I am rarely ever hungry.
More updates to come.
Tomorrow: breaking down the science of hypertrophy - muscle building
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