engrevo

My Summer Plans

June 4, 2011

First and foremost, I’ll be working as a mechanical design engineer this summer. The company I’m working for has a business casual dress code, which means sneakers (or sandals) get closeted in favor of loafers. All the loafers I currently own feel a lot like foot caskets (with hefty heels). I’m not interested in losing my hard-earned lower calf strength, so I’ll be giving the Sanuk Boardrooms a try. I have a pair of the standards, and love them, so I’m hoping the boardrooms offer a similar experience.

I’ll be living with my parents during my internship, which offers access to amenities I’ve never enjoyed in my own domiciles. They have a fancy fridge with a built-in water filter, so I’ll be able to ditch the plastic water bottles and obtain my hydration from a greener (and healthier) container. We’ll see if I notice any body composition changes or improved health as a result.

As regular readers know, I’ve become a bit of a gym-rat since my personal leangains trial began. My trial ends June 11th (look for a debrief post in the near future), which will be the last day I set foot in a gym for at least a few months. My workouts this summer will be a mixture of HIIT and MovNat, and I’ll be posting videos of each session. I’m guessing a full-time job will cut into my blogging a bit, but these videos will serve to keep content flow up. I’m thinking I’ll workout Monday, Wednesday, Saturday (look for videos the day after). Weekday workouts will be right before dinner, and Saturday workouts will fall before a late breakfast. Perhaps my favorite aspect of leangains is the clever placement of the majority of the day’s calories in the post-workout window. I’ll definitely keep that up.

On my leangains plan, I’ve had a fixed eating window and fasting period each day. This summer, I’ll still be going hungry regularly, but with an irregular schedule; I’ll skip different meals on different days. The only constant will be that I don’t ever go hungry post-workout.

As for food quality, I will of course be keeping it Paleo, but I won’t sweat food sourcing too much. When possible, my first choice will still be grass-fed beef, pastured eggs, and raw dairy, but I won’t beat myself up about it when that doesn’t work out. The fact of the matter is that I won’t have absolute authority over what food is available. As far as macronutrients are concerned, I’ll be generally low-carb, moderate-fat, high-protein, with higher-carb, lower-fat meals post-workout.

I’ve never been one for regular “cheats”, but I’m planning on incorporating them this summer. I’m thinking that I’ll allow a “cheat” once per weekend, keeping them gluten-free most of the time. On a two-week vacation late in the summer, I’ll be eating whatever, whenever.

All year, I’ve been enjoying 20-30 minute “Vitamin-D walks” around noon on most days. I’m hoping to keep that up at work, but it will be a bit of a hassle as I’ll want to change into shorts and Vibrams for the walks. Hopefully I can get in enough sun time to keep my Vitamin-D up and maybe even develop a nice tan (even if Andrew thinks it’s an “evolutionary misfire“).

This brings us to what will be a pretty big change for me. This will be a supplement-free summer. That means no supplemental Vit-D, cod-liver oil, ZMA, BCAAs, or stimulants. Not even a multivitamin. I’ll still keep some whey protein on hand for convenience.

The Bottom Line

• Barefoot-ish loafers at work
• No plastic water bottles
• 3 Workouts/week (with video), all gym-free
• Irregular Intermittent Fasting
• Paleo with less stress over food sourcing
• Weekly cheats
• Continuing daily walks
• Supplement-Free Summer

*The headaches issue will hopefully be cleared up shortly. If not, it may mess with the workouts. Fingers crossed.

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