6 Reasons Why I Won’t Be Eating Meat Till Easter – And Most Gym Rats Will Disagree

note: This was a lenten special post I wrote for 2017 ( https://aboutlifting.com/2017-lenten/ ) - but the principles still apply. Enjoy and have a meaningful lent!

Its #Lent and today is Good Friday. I am living up to Tradition (no perfectly per se) and I won’t be consuming any meat till the Lord is alive once again on Sunday..

Aw JEEZ! YES I know God is not Dead! Y’all so Scientific!

But I know most of you would disagree;

George, what about you GAINS?

George, Eating meat is VITAL – FORGET TRADITION!!

But What if I tell you there’s an advantage to following these religious Traditions like these whole “fasting” thing (Ramadan comes to mind) is great for your overall muscular development and I will talk about them shortly.

1. Traditions are great

This one isn’t related to Muscle gains but Traditions bond people and a civilization that lives up to tradition is a civilization that lasts. Observance of the holy ways is a great way to instilling discipline and morality to our youth. So in a smaller scale – observance of your culture’s ways is a great to keep one’s family in the right direction.

1. Shocking the Body

We talk about this before and why the body doesn’t love what it receives – taking in the same type of macros and micros for an extended period of time makes your body less sensitive to them. ( https://aboutlifting.com/the-body-doesnt-love-what-it-receives-how-to-shock-your-muscles-into-growth-with-diet-and-deprivation-periods/ )

Your body may be smarter than you are but it still possesses some characteristics that you do as a human being particularly the fact that “The body doesn’t count its blessings”. When the body receives a certain diet regimen meant for muscle growth or even fat loss for an extended period of time, sooner or later the body’s negative feedback mechanism kicks in and you will no longer derive a benefit from that said diet or supplementation.

Basically the body tends to neglect stuff that it is receiving too much. So tendency is that if you have been taking a certain supplement for quite a while (a few months or so – it varies from person to person) you would notice that after quite some time it loses its effect – the same thing with diet and exercise stimulus that has been taken consistently for a few months.

So how do you solve this?

SIMPLE

the same way you treat a person who doesn’t count his blessings:

“Shock deprivation”

Deprive her of what she is ignoring until she learns to appreciate what she possesses

It’s true; you’ll never know what you have until you lose it – or at least have experienced a “risk” of losing it. In the past discussion we have stated how to do this with exercise but I do admit that the diet part was left untouched.

In diet it is basically the same “shock” approach. That is why the term “intermittent fasting” is becoming more and more popular because it works. And the reason it works is simple; because the bottom line of that method is to “shock deprive” the body. Basically same as what you do with tweaking the intensity of your workouts from week to week, you can also tweak the intensity of your diet in a weekly basis or simply introduce a “fasting” day or simply a “deprivation” period which can last for even a day or two in a week or when you feel that your diet (or supplement) is starting to lose its desired effect.

So Practicing and observing the Lenten Meat Abstinence is a great way for you to make your body more sensitive to meat in the long run and thus help you grow muscle consistently.

1. You can still take in Other Protein sources

Its not much of a loss considering that Catholics are still allowed to consume fish and eggs, milk, etc. It’s not a “sacrifice” really.

This has got to do for now (veggies, rice and Calamari) – Still great for growth if you ask me:

1. For a Change

Lenten is not really about trying to suffer like what Christ did – which most Fanatics will tell you – its really about inner peace and meditating upon life and trying to live a little bit differently than how we always do.

Doing so we will find more value in life and if you consider reason #1 which is dealing with the body’s negative feedback for the things we do often – it starts to make more sense scientifically and practically. “Modern” pips and SWPs might shrug these kinds of observance as nonsensical religious crap but these small things really make sense in the end.

1. Fasting is Good for you

Even the most scientific guy I know P.D Mangan knows that fasting is good and can even be applied to bodybuilders. He wrote a post about this before here: https://aboutlifting.com/intermittent-fasting/

Fasting strongly up-regulates autophagy. The usual fast that most people do, which is overnight between dinner and breakfast, is enough to do this, such that autophagy is most strongly activated in the early morning hours. As we age, this process declines in amplitude, but fasting for longer than overnight can increase autophagy to youthful levels.

The physiological response to
fasting

Increasing the process of autophagy is one of the physiological responses to fasting. This makes sense, since when we go without food, our bodies need nourishment, and this is supplied through breaking down cellular elements. Those elements that are broken down are preferentially old organelles and misfolded proteins that have passed their expiration dates. Thus, autophagy breaks down old tissues and prepares the way for renewal with the building of new tissue.
Another response to fasting is the lowering of insulin levels. When this occurs, fat cells are allowed to break down triglycerides for release into the bloodstream. In this way, fat loss is sped up.

And needless to say that Christian lenten Observance doesn’t really go hardcore on “fasting” so really no reason for us to complain here. Which leads me to:

1. Its not really that HARD

Its not really that hard like what I mentioned in this post( https://aboutlifting.com/lenten/ ). But the long term benefits of observing abstinence (even once a year) is great even for someone who trains to gain muscle.

It won’t hurt a bodybuilder or a lifter to follow the Lenten abstinence protocol:

With that being said – it should not hurt a lifter to follow the Lenten protocol for meat abstinence. First off the protocol is quite lax to begin with and secondly it doesn’t forbid eggs, sea food, or dairy. A bodybuilder carefully counting his protein can easily supplement with whey protein at times like this.

this Lenten abstinence won’t really hinder lifters in their goals but it will actually help them. Yes we all agree that meat consumption is paramount to optimum nutrition but that sudden change in diet and macro-intake for a brief amount of time can positively re-boot your metabolism. Since like what we discussed earlier when you eat the same type of foods for a long time your body would tend to “get used” to it thus making your dietary regimen lose most of its desired effects.

THE WHOLE DAMN POINT OF LENT

The Point of observance of the traditions of Lent is NOT to help you get to the gates of “Heaven”.

The whole point of this Lenten season is to meditate upon our lives – therefore it makes sense to change our usual diet even for just one week to shock our system. It just feels damn good to do so.

However to make the most out of this period; really put an effort to eat the stuff that you really don’t get to eat under normal circumstances. It’s now a good chance to try and eat some exotic foods, and stuff you never tried before. You should try “Maitake” mushrooms; they are great protein source and have some great health benefits as well. You can even skip on all those capsulated vitamins this week and just stock up on lots of fruits and green leafy veggies. Snack on some citrus – my 4 year old daughter loves snacking on citrus, langsats, and rambutans – you should too.

Again, you should really try to focus and stack up on foods that you haven’t tried or rarely eat and make this whole meat abstinence practice worth your while. Anyways I hope you realize that Lenten is not just about Easter bunnies but looking into your life, how you’re living it and if there is anything or any ways you have been living it that you wish to change.

So I hope this clears things up – whether you are Catholic or not – there’s no doubt about it – lenten observance is good for lifters. Amen and have a peaceful Lent, A-Lifters!