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Cycle 3 Phase 1 Famine Phase overall plan –

Run it ~ six days.
Planning to start at 80% and drop calories by about 10% per day for 4 days, emphasize liquids in the middle, then dehydrate and starve the final two days. Protein intake to drop much more precipitously. Also started a cleanse early last week that will last almost through whole phase – nothing fancy, just a VitShoppe brand AMPM formula.

Cycle 3 Phase 1 Day 1
Started Famine Phase Friday afternoon. Partied and stayed up late Friday night but just nibbled instead of pigging out like everybody else.

80% food calories Sat. Did fairly sweaty physical work for about 3 hours. Shared a good bottle of wine with my wife Sat night. (Haven’t been drinking alcohol much at all so it doesn’t take much. Not sure I like the getting drunk option of the BP famine phase though… ) Still curious about ways to find what foods are personally catabolic for these phases. Trying blueberries cause they’re coming in season and if that works can do frozen ones later...

Cycle 3 Phase 1 Day 2
~70% calories Sun. No protein foods at all. Long, high rep, short rest workout. So far not much movement on the test strips.

Am wondering if something like distance running or mountain bicycling would set up “the conditions” better for me than weights do ??

Hi Brain,

Glad to see your posts. Protein excretion for me always registers on day 3. Perhaps not coincidently, the mind starts rebelling at that point too. The weight training protocol laid out in The Blueprint certainly accomplishes the intended goal, but I do cite long distance cardio as a viable addition. Look at the physique of a long distance runner for example..

Now, as to specific catabolic foods recommendations..... it's largely a function of calories. There are a number though, that seem to accelerate such conditions. Belive I sketch out quite a few in The Blueprint and you may want to try some new ones.

Other than calories and the training protocol suggested - it's simply a matter of time. The catabolic switch will eventually be turned on and in nearly every single case it's "hit" by the 5 day mark. I have yet to hear from a BP user where it took more than 7.

Rob, re “fascia stretching as a means of improving growth” My emphasis is on “washing” myofascia / recovering from and preventing myofascia adhesions and blockages. I don't know but I suspect Parillo’s model for fascia stretching tore up more than it fixed…[/quote]

Yes, two different objectives for sure. Parillo's fascia stretching was absolutely the most painful thing I've ever done. Doesn't feel therapeutic in the least. The emphasis on stretch position movements I sketch out in The BP struck the perfect balance between discomfort and productive, loaded stretch. More importantly, they served a functional purpose: activation of the same growth pathway ecdysterone amplifies/accelerates. Combining the two is outstanding..

Cycle 3 Phase 1 Day 3
Less than 60% calories Mon. Almost two hours indoor tennis. Didn’t have much edge… the hunger crash is definitely starting. But so far CNS in pretty good shape…

BrainSquirt wrote:Cycle 3 Phase 1 Day 3
Less than 60% calories Mon. Almost two hours indoor tennis. Didn’t have much edge… the hunger crash is definitely starting. But so far CNS in pretty good shape…

Yep, right on schedule. Day 3 is where things start happening....

Cycle 3 Phase 1 Day 4
Less than 50% calories Tues. Didn’t have much nice to say so didn’t say anything at all yesterday… did a concentrated 35 minutes of light lifting with virtually no rest. Good portion of calories from fresh juices. Pretty miserable

Cycle 3 Phase 1 Day 5
Less than 10% calories Wed. and not much water. 1½ hours tennis. Will use water sips to make it the rest of the way. One more day…

WOW! You're really taking things down low this time, no?

Cycle 3 Phase 1 Day 6
Made it through the last day better than I had anticipated it would be. Body acclimated and CNS went peaceful. Spotted my wife’s workout then stayed and “got sore”.

Rob, re "WOW! You're really taking things down low this time, no?"
Not really. For one, the first 2 two days were hardly different subjectively. Also, I am learning some of what to expect during fasts. Really pushed the sweaty exhaustion this time. If I’m going to go through it anyway, it seems silly not to for sure go ahead and create all ‘the conditions’. Planning to do shorter, less sweaty fasts in cold weather months.

Cycle 3 Phase 2 Day 1
Ramping up the proportion of honey in my caloric goals recipes for Feast this time around. Playing around with additional enzymes this time too.

Had one question – are there any contra-indications to a googles of water melon with a lot of salt during this first feast time?

Also, may not get first workout in until Monday midday…hope that’s not a problem

BrainSquirt wrote:Cycle 3 Phase 2 Day 1
Ramping up the proportion of honey in my caloric goals recipes for Feast this time around. Playing around with additional enzymes this time too.

Had one question – are there any contra-indications to a googles of water melon with a lot of salt during this first feast time?

Also, may not get first workout in until Monday midday…hope that’s not a problem

Great to hear on the honey as it is among the best carb sources nature has to offer. Goes well at almost every meal too.. from breakfast right through dinner.

Watermelon is diuretic in nature and one of the highest glycemic index fruits. In practice, it seems to trump sodium where sodium is included in any reasonable amount in the diet. Laymen's terms: you'll still be in the bathroom.

Practically speaking, watermelon is an ideal pre workout food if looking to incorporate into The Blueprint. It has a pre-workout application due to the fact it's loaded with citrulline, which ultimately converts to arginine conveying a somewhat time-released mechanism.

This Feast Phase
Weight gain goals for this cycle are not ambitious. Am doing basically doing slow, heavy training twice a week. Emphasis is on back half of body. For upper body am putting extra focus on lats … still going for multiple slow one arm pull-ups. Glutes (and related) emphasis on lower body. The stretches are easy to ‘locate’ for all these areas ,but as usual am wondering if I’m missing something … starting to think my brains are loaded stretching ‘challenged’ (or worse… )

Doing KA day of workouts and tapering off on days after. Doing AN only on nights I would otherwise be sore or depleted. Not doing the heavy bcaa’s trick this feast… maybe next or one after next. Doing virtually no dairy ( except for whey) this time around… cheeses too acid forming, etc… and less meat too…
Just got in a shipment of Virgin Red Palm Oil …high tocotrienols

Appreciate the update Brain. Really do.

Now, your focus on KA around the workout is timely. John is currently working with such a protocol and has noted some interesting results. Maybe we'll look into it further but again, you're right on with this stuff.

Nice work.