From Terry Sartin:

Your metabolism and the growth of your muscles has the snowball effect. Even after this many years, I can sit on the couch and watch TV for a month, find out that I’m going to Florida, and in three weeks I can look pretty much like Rambo. It’s easy. Or in two or three weeks, I can gain 10 or 15 pounds, swell up, and bench press an extra 50 pounds. But it wasn’t always like that. I remember when the gains were coming on the weights at 2 1/2 pounds and I’d write it in the book because it took two or three months to gain that in bench press. It starts off slow.

That being said, fitness is cumulative over your lifespan. It stays with us forever.

We don’t ever want your body to be hungry and we don’t want to cut your calories to where your body thinks it is starving. If that happens, your body will panic and go into starvation mode and it will store everything that you give it. It will live on the bare minimum.

If you overflow the body with good food and it knows another meal is coming, the body is going to be using the food it needs and discarding the rest because it knows another shipment is on the way.

Remember anything quick is not permanent. But your body has a good memory. Sometimes that works in your favor. If you’ve worked out for 10 years and something happens to make you miss six months, in just 30 days you’ll be back to where you were at your peak.

But by the same token, if you have a bad diet and poor fitness level, then work really hard for six months and go back to your old ways, your body remembers where it was really quickly and you lose all your gains.

Aim for five to six meals per day.

Here’s the initial metabolism re-set diet that is now my everyday plan —

Protein —
Chicken baked, broiled or grilled
Tuna in water, rinsed
Eggs (mostly egg whites)
Peanut butter with no sugar added
Red meat, grilled (once a week)
Protein powder

Complex Carbs —
Ezekiel Bread
Sweet Potatoes
Steel Cut Oats
Brown Rice
White potato, occasionally, with plain with salt and pepper

Vegetables —
Any vegetables are always good in any amounts as long as they are fresh or frozen. DO NOT EAT CANNED VEGETABLES

Beans —
Good to add as long as they are NOT CANNED

Fruit —
Fruit is good as long as it is fresh or frozen and eaten earlier in the day (and absolutely before 5PM)

Fats —
At this stage in the game, olive oil, coconut oil, avocados and nuts are fine.

Drinks —
Black coffee, unsweet tea, and lots of water are all fine. Nothing else is allowed.

Dairy —
Dairy is not your friend during your re-set. Keep your dairy allowance at 1/2 cup per week or less.

Sleep is your friend.