Rendered my first batch of beef tallow today.

It was so easy even a caveman could do it!

My butcher has a ton of beef suet (raw beef fat) in stock and I wanted to give it a shot so I bought a couple of lbs. for my first time. It was only .39 cents per lb.

I googled some info and found the easiest way to make it was the dry oven method - 2hrs. @ 250 degrees.

I took these two large slabs of frozen fat, sharpened up my butcher knife and cut it up into 1" pieces. I put a drop of water in a large oven proof pot, put the fat in there, and in the oven it went for two hours.

When it was finished, I let it cool for a bit then double filtered it through a mesh strainer lined with a triple layer of cheese cloth.

It came out perfect! Nice and clear, no odor at all (made sure to remove any traces of muscle or blood first) and the 2.25lbs. yielded exactly one pint of pure beef tallow.

Great stuff for cooking with - it's smoke point is super high @ 425 degrees and I plan on cooking some nice stir fry, all my pan seared steaks and a nice batch of seasoned chicken wings in it this week.

Ah... pure animal fat - the healthiest of them all and a fraction of the cost of buying any quality oil.

A lot of people seem to like to cook their eggs in tallow which I'll give a shot at tomorrow morning for breakfast but I might find that I like my ghee better for eggs - ya can't deny that natural butter taste with farm fresh organic eggs!

Working hard at upping my protein

I had a great workout tonight... up 5lbs. on all lifts and right on schedule! My body is absolutely beat to a bloody pulp at this point. This week has been, hands down, the toughest and most rigorous workout week I have ever done in my life. I am very much looking forward to resting the next couple of days. No weights, no sprints... nada - maybe a casual ride on my bike if I'm feeling up to it.

Workout B

Squats
Overhead Press
Deadlifts
Pull ups
Planks

Grub for the day:

1. 6 soft boiled cage free organic eggs with 2T melted ghee

2. 6 oz. grass fed burger patty and a salad with mixed organic veggies w/ evoo and fresh squeezed lemon juice

3. 3 scrambled cage free organic eggs cooked in 1T of ghee (pre workout)

Workout

4. 2 grass fed broiled lamb chops and a side of organic squash and wild mushrooms sauteed in ghee with some sea salt and fresh ground pepper

As always, a ton of water throughout the day.

So here I am, physically eating as much whole food as my body can handle while trying desperately to get my protein intake up to 200g per day. It's so hard to do with whole foods alone. My protein intake today was just under 150g. My body can't fit much more food. I'm going to try and do it slowly by adding an extra egg to my meals or an extra ounce or two of meat when I can. I think spreading my meals out further will help too. I am not going to reach the muscle gains I'm looking for if I can't get my protein up over at least 1g. per pound of body weight.

It's tough being a natural bodybuilder. Those guys who cheat and use performance enhancing drugs are doing serious damage to themselves in the years to come.