Day 31 and some more fantastic food to fix my broken back.

Day: 31 of 77
Date: 11/06/2013
Workout Day: Rest
Weight (lb): 165.4 (6.4 lb loss)
Body Fat %: 15.2 (1.4% loss)
Health: Sore traps, quads, hamstrings and hip 6/10

Having knackered my hip/back yesterday I was immensely grateful for a rest day, which would involve nothing more strenuous than 15 minutes of walking. Monday’s leg day has also given me sore quads and hamstrings, which has pleased me, since I had worried it didn’t feel that hard at the time. The same goes for Sunday’s shrugs which have given me continuously sore traps. These low rep, high sets, high weights really are tough on the body!

In the absence of any training thoughts, my mind was very much focussed on food, and I certainly made the most of the opportunity. Breakfast was smoked salmon and scrambled eggs. I’ve never been a fan of smoked salmon but after some recent forced feeding I’m now quite a fan. Later I had two chicken kebabs, which were actually just a load of grilled chicken breast, mushrooms, peppers and chilli sauce. And then for dinner I was invited to reputedly the best steak restaurant in London, Goodman.

Trying to keep it low calorie, low carb, high protein and still enjoy myself I opted for pork belly to start, followed by a 400g grass fed fillet steak, garlic mushrooms, garlic and chilli spinach and a whole lobster tail. It was VERY good. One of the best aspects of a meat + veg diet is you can really pig out (on lean meats) and not worry about any negative effects. In fact, if the food is high quality, e.g. grass fed, then it’s a great opportunity to fill up on some great nutrients.

As to whether Goodman is the best steak restaurant in London, I’m not so sure. Hawksmoor is amazing, and for me possibly still has the edge.  But let’s face it, whichever you go to you’ll no doubt have a great meal. Just ignore the small mortgage you’ll need to pay for it. (My main course was £68.50)

Goodman Pork Belly

Goodman Grass Fed Fillet + Lobster Tail

A quick note on my back. It’s definitely improving, more so than the delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) in my quads/hamstrings. A few extra calories will certainly help, as with recovery in general. I am finding that the recent increase in calories and protein has made me look a bit more muscly and pushed me up on the scales a bit. This all could be nonsense but I do feel a bit “bigger” with all this extra meat. That’s all well and good but I need to keep stripping off the fat so I’ll start to reduce the calories a bit more, lower the protein and maybe introduce some more fish.