I think I’ve finally hit a good stride with the food required to take these last steps and get to my goal of leanness while not sacrificing lean muscle. Moreover, I’m beginning to get pretty strong. At about 175 now, 5’10, I can smell that 300# deadlift (conventional, I’m now at 250# for reps, where I was a while back on sumo). The back squat is progressing nicely too, though not quite as quickly. I’m up to 230# for reps there.
Most everything else, to me, is kind of a means to the end of getting into the 300s, maybe even 400s on those two exercises and not hurting myself doing it.
Of course I’ve been writing about some of this stuff for a while and have talked quite a bit about potatoes. And this isn’t my first post on Big Meals. Click on the photos in series for the hi-resolution versions.

Big Meal
But what I do find interesting is that I’m not the only one in my neck of the paleosphere talking about this. In mid-June, Mark Sisson broached the topic, as did the uber-strong Keith Norris. The general consensus seems to be:
- Use starchy tubers primarily.
- Do it in conjunction with a post-workout feeding or overfeeding
And that’s exactly what I’ve been doing.

Bigger Meal
So, essentially, I’ll try to get in 80% or so of my carbs for the day in one meal, post-workout. That’s three big carb meals per week and the rest are pretty conventional low-carb, high-fat & high-protein paleo.

Biggest Meal
Once I reach my goal I’ll then decide whether to continue the high carb meals but I’m leaning towards doing that. I also might ratchet down the protein but I’m not entirely sure about that, either.

Potato Pancakes – Leftover mash, two eggs and green onion, in butter
I guess I’m up in the air about that because I feel like I’ve really gotten myself into a good groove that works. I’m getting strong, slowly leaner, and so what’s not to like?

It was hard to wait until they were done
Initially I was sort of repulsed by the Big Meals, having gotten used to eating smaller ones, high in fat. But now I’m finding I really like it. Yesterday we were out running about to join up with family in the woods when my post-fast meal window opened and we found a perfect restaurant: Steve Medlen’s House of Beef in Oakdale, CA. I had a bowl of vegetable beef soup, a big green salad, about 10oz of tri-tip, mixed vegetables and the bowl of chili that came with it. I can just feel the furnace kicking on when eating a meal like that after an 18-hr fast. It just feels really good.

Of course this was only the first helping for the sake of taking a photo
So I guess we’ll see how it all turns out on the dietary front.
There is one more issue and you might think me crazy (others do) but I have been having great success the last three consecutive weeks doing all three workouts back-to-back, in three days, to be followed by a full four days of rest.

My favorite of the lot – a cup of cottage cheese, 4 eggs and a pound of potato fried in bacon drippings
Here’s what I’m seeing as the advantages of this:
- Mental boost. It’s like a 3-day work week and I get mentally up and stay up.
- Four days of rest in a row is fantastic.
- In terms of the diet, this gives me the post-workout overfeeds three days in a row, followed by four days of more pure low-carb paleo.
So, what do you think about all of that?