We came back to the dorms back in a time when our time away could still be called Christmas break without offending anyone. My buddy from the Coal Regions - all 5 feet, 7 inches and 135 pounds of him - came back with two black eyes, a bit of a limp, and ribs that kept him from laughing without pain.

“Don’t ask,” he said. But true to his capricious nature, two minutes later he shared the story from the weekend before.

As he approached the pool table in the bar he had frequented since high school, he heard a goon of a guy telling the other player in rather lurid terms about the “fun” he planned to have with a girl he heard was going to that night’s party. The goon was bent over the pool table with his head down, yet my buddy recognized him as the screws-loose linebacker who had lead the local public high school to a league title a few years ago.

As well as the girl’s name.

My buddy grabbed a pool stick by the cue end and waited until the guy straightened up. He then swung the pool stick like a baseball bat and with all his might whacked the goon across the back.

“Guess I should’ve gone for his head,” my buddy said.

Today’s column begins as it does not so you go barhopping tonight, bust some heads, and get beat up. It’s because my buddy was brought up to believe you don’t let anyone speak that way about your sister - even if you get the snot beat out of you in the process.

Recently, the same thing has happened to me. My beliefs have gotten the snot beat out of me repeatedly, albeit figuratively.

I’ve been listening to podcasts by health and fitness experts I esteem while I cook and clean. Some of the things they say are so contrary to my beliefs that it makes my brain hurt.

One example: That it’s better to eat two meals a day of whatever “whole foods” you want in reasonable amounts than seven or eight mini meals throughout the day featuring complex carbohydrates.

Years ago when he was such an elite endurance athlete that he not only finished in the top five at the 1980 U.S. National Marathon Championships but also came in fourth in the 1982 Ironman World Championships, Mark Sisson’s frequent meals also featured complex carbohydrates. “I never got fat” he writes in his most recent book, but “my hunger, appetite, and meal planning ran my life.”

As a result, he looked for another way and wound up doing a dietary 180.

After experimenting with the rudiments of the paleo diet, he created his own version of it, which became a popular book. “The Primal Blueprint” spawned four other books and an entire brand of health-conscious products under the Primal Kitchen trademark, the rights to which Kraft Heinz bought from Sisson in 2018.

For $200 million.

But even though he was 65 at the time, Sisson didn’t kick back and relax. He kept fine tuning his diet and recently published another book: “Two Meals a Day.”

You learn more from people who challenge your notions than support them, so as I await that book in the mail, I’ve been reading Sisson’s food blog, “Mark’s Daily Apple.”

In “The Definitive Guide to Metabolic Flexibility,” Sisson calls the “capacity to match fuel oxidation to fuel availability - or switch between burning carbs and burning fat” metabolic flexibility. He contends it can be created in four to six weeks by a mix of aerobic and anaerobic exercise, a low-carb diet, and the consumption of key nutrients, such as magnesium, polyphenols, and omega-3 fats.

After that, you’ll be able to “just eat” two meals a day and burn body fat between meals, whether those meals are mostly healthy starches or steak. Yet if need be, you’ll be able to skip meals “without issue.”

Moreover, you’ll snack less or not at all, have more energy, better workouts, and a better mood without needing to “micromanage” macronutrients and calories.

If all this sounds good and you want to buy the book and give Sisson’s diet a try, go right ahead. I won’t be changing my diet just yet, though.

I’ve come to realize the workouts I do combined with my diet and the timing of my meals create a type of metabolic flexibility.

My workouts begin in what most would consider a fasted state. In the 12 hours prior to, I usually have not consumed more than 200 calories, and those come three hours beforehand and are a combination of protein, complex carbs, and fiber.

As a result, I’m not only burning some stored fat even before exercise, but also a higher than normal amount during - whether it be 90 minutes of weightlifting, ab work, and stretching or a three-hour bike ride - and for a period of time after.