Daily Good Moodivation #16 - Take Charge

You are responsible for your life. The minute you start truly realizing this, is the minute you begin to change everything about your reality. Everything you experience, feel, think, and accomplish, is a result of the mindset you have.

To change the world you must first change yourself.

And by doing so, you set yourself firmly in the driver's seat of today, of tomorrow, and of the rest of your life.

What does this mean? Avoid passing judgment. Avoid placing blame. Take responsibility. Do not accept self-defeating thoughts. When a negative emotion or idea enters your head, question that thought vigorously. Ask yourself - is there any real, rational reason for this thought? Many times we find ourselves scared of things that have never even happened! We are paralyzed by the thought of "what if?" This removes all presence that we strive to maintain.

The state of being 'present', and awareness, is by definition a mindset that removes the barriers of worry, anxiety, and fear. Focus on being present. See things as they truly are, and experience the world for each moment as it presents itself. I promise that once you start paying close attention to your behaviors, what you see, what you hear, and how you act - you will find yourself appreciating more and enjoying everything to a higher degree. All of a sudden you notice the beauty of mother nature that you've only fleetingly seen before. You start to see the beautiful and intricate patterns of the universe; from the complex relationships you maintain with other interconnected beings in this world to the basic sights and smells of our mother Earth, you recognize what a blessing it is to be alive and be able to perceive all that is happening.

So - take charge of your life. Decide today, right now, that you will be solely responsible for everything that happens to you. You determine how you feel, what you think, how your day goes and what you wish for. You don't necessarily have to change anything physically in the actual sense of changing your surroundings or environment, but by changing your mindset you will automatically have a different perception of what is going on around you.

To change your world you must first change yourself.

Think of the world 'responsible' - it literally means response-able, or rather your ability to produce a response. For every action there is a reaction. 'We' are the sum total of all of our reactions to life's experiences up until this point. Have you reacted favorably or negatively? Have you ever thought about this? What was the last fight you got into, disagreement you had, or negative behavior you exhibited? Was that truly 'you'? Perhaps in that particular moment it was, because the true 'you' became unhinged and you lost your ability to maintain control. Make up your mind to have the goal of eliminating these incidents.

All humans possess an innate desire to feel and be loved. We all want to be a part of something - a community, a relationship, or some other connection. What can you do to help the people around you to feel that love? You have a massive role to play in the lives of every single being you've ever interacted with. You have the ability to change the life of the person at the grocery story having a bad day, simply by smiling. You contain the courage to stand up for what you believe in because you know that it is right and just and will support others who may not have found that courage yet.

You can change the world. You must first change yourself. 

What will you do differently today? Have you made up your mind to take yourself where your heart desires? If you aren't sure where that is, a simple solution to this is to start helping others get what they desire first. There is something magical about the act of servitude. Become a steward for the world and sooner or later you will be struck by the realization of your ultimate purpose in life. You will see the signs. You will discover what your true purpose is. It is through this true purpose that brings you closer to the infinite energy source of the Universe.

You are changing the world as you are already changing yourself. 

Thanks for reading. Have a great day everyone.

Nutrition #7 - Become a Student of the Body

Your mind. Your body. Your soul. These three things are responsible for everything you are ever going to experience in life. This is such an important thing to be aware of because by realizing this – by realizing that you are the sum of three simple, yet enormously complex parts, you can begin to shape your life the way you want it.

You must also understand that our physical body is also where the mind and soul are housed. Our physical being is simply the vessel by which we transport our consciousness and spirit around this physical plane of existence. It stands to reason that the physical body is the root of nearly all ailments. This is an empowering belief, as through this realization, we can banish so much poor health, negative thought, depressed emotion, and self-defeating mentality by altering how we treat and understand our bodies.

Our body is an intricately designed piece of biological machinery. The product that we are experiencing today is the result of a billion trial-and-error experiments up the evolutionary biology tree – in order to very precisely fine tune a vehicle called the human. We are the ultimate pinnacle of biological achievement. Mother nature has succeeded in creating an organism with a level of consciousness high enough to simultaneously experience both itself, and the world it traverses. This is another extremely empowering belief – to understand that we have succeeded at the biological level in evolving to this level of higher consciousness.

So – what am I trying to say? Why am I rambling about all this evolutionary biology and the interconnectedness between the body, mind, and soul? It is my belief that thinking about these concepts is an important step in understanding our importance in this world, and also why we ought to treat our bodies as a holy place. When one begins to pay attention to their body, and they start to listen to the internal processes that are constantly happening, their heart and mind begin to open up.

THE ANALOGY

Think about this analogy. What if it took you over 3 BILLION years to come up with the designs to build a Ferrari. Then, it took you 250 million workers multiple tries to actually build that Ferrari, and 249,999,999 of those workers died in order to succeed with its construction. From there, you have a Ferrari – your human body. In case you didn't get the reference, the origin of life on Earth began about 3.5 billion years ago based on varying accounts, and there is 250 million sperm in each male ejaculation.

Anyways – you have your Ferrari, and you have a choice how to drive it. You can choose to drive it primarily on a bumpy dirt road with lots of cracks and potholes which will totally ruin its suspension, so when you go to drive it on a paved road it is jerky and has terrible handling and difficult to accelerate, break, or turn. This is the equivalent of you living a lifestyle and performing exercises which wreck your joint mobility, tissue quality, and muscle integrity. You sit at a desk all day for work and run sprints for the first time in over a year without stretching properly and all of a sudden your hamstring hurts incredibly bad. Weird. Or, maybe you choose to drive your Ferrari on a speed track all the time at top speeds, burning down the tires, and eventually you lose all traction and crash and burn – literally. This is the equivalent to you being on the go nonstop, fueled by Starbucks, Rockstars and take-out without ever pausing for reflection, stress management, and some basic mental and physical maintenance.

Or how deciding to save some money and fill up on unleaded fuel and extend your oil changes, because you’d rather put that money towards something ‘meaningful’, and you drive relatively normally with no problems for years and years. All of a sudden your engine seizes up, and you have to take it into the shop every 3 to 6 months for routine maintenance that could have been completely avoided had you filled up with premium and changed the oil as often as you should. This is exactly what most of us are experiencing today – consuming pesticide laden produce, antibiotic and hormone treated animal products, and preservative laced packaged goods which are toxic to our health, although we do not see immediate negative effects. All for the sake of saving a bit of money so we can get more for our dime.

We might eat like this for years and years and visit the doctor once in a blue moon when we are sick, get some lab tests done and everything comes back “in range”. We get a thumbs up from an overworked Doc who sends us home with a script for some antibiotics that will wreak havoc on our gut bacteria which we don’t even THINK about or are aware of, causing us even more problems down the line that we don’t know about, but we feel better from the drugs and the blood work shows that everything is fine and dandy so we continue living our lives exactly as we have been.

By the time we are in our forties and fifties we are wondering why we libido is nonexistent, we wonder why our backs hurt, why we are tired all the time, why exercising gives us massive fatigue; basically, we wonder why our lives suck. And for the most part, no one ever tells us we weren't supposed to feel this way. The breakdown of the body is common with age, right? We need to wake UP people! No one is going to help you truly understand your body except yourself. No matter how much you learn and see or experience, until you apply it upon yourself and truly understand it, looking within at how the body receives and processes outside stimuli ESPECIALLY the nutrition aspect of it, your ultimate progress will be hindered. There is absolutely no reason why you cannot be playing tag with your grandkids and kicking ass at 60+ (hopefully not their ass).

BECOME A STUDENT OF THE BODY

This is exactly why I do not advocate the typical bodybuilder meal plan, the contest prep meal plan, the fitness competitor meal plan, or the basic healthy gym goer ‘meal plan’. I do not believe in customized meal plans, either. People who sell these products typically are selling the results portrayed by their bodies. I definitely give them massive credit for their discipline, although I am not sure that many of these online personal trainers and dieticians truly understand the body. A lot of times we simply see regurgitated meal plans which have been around for decades. Chicken broccoli and rice anyone? Then on the flip side, we have ‘flexible dieters’ and the IIFYM crew which makes nearly very little sense if you have any value in your human system. I do not blame any of these folks for their beliefs, I just think that they have been misled by media, marketing, and the entire fitness industry. The real science lies with the biochemists, the immunologists, and the metabolic biologists. Not the dude at the gym who is 250 lbs and 6% body fat who has spent years grinding away, acquiring nuggets of useful information but never truly, truly understanding the body.

I am a proponent of intuitive eating and learning what works best for your own biological system. Remember – nutrients are messages to cells. Each cell membrane has receptors on it which unlock or open that membrane to allow different nutrients, amino acids, vitamins, minerals, various chemicals and molecules into and out of it. How are you going to influence those receptors? How do you know which ones to influence at what times, how many, how often, and through what process? All I can say is – I don’t know, and I don’t believe anyone truly does. Although, there are many extremely bright minds hard at work, researching these variables, and I am doing as much as I can to learn from them and apply their knowledge. 

And that is precisely where YOU come into play. I want to empower as many people as I possibly can to become a student of their body. 

And that is where I come into play – I want to help you along this amazing, self-enriching journey.

As I mentioned earlier, no one is going to help you truly understand your body except yourself. So it is up to YOU to become a student of your body. Become a student of the vastly complex and interesting biology that occurs within your physical walls. Seek to understand what is happening on the inside. Give yourself time to grow and understand the inner workings of the body. Learn to appreciate and truly experience this spectacular phenomenon known as the human being.

Once this enlightenment occurs, everything else is easy. 

Nutrition #6 - How to Keep a Diet Interesting?

A friend came to me with this question.

I'm looking around for some information on how to keep a diet/meal plan interesting while still convenient. It's not like anyone wants to eat the same food over and over, so for some one in my position who finds themselves very busy day to day tends to eat out more. What would be an easy plan with a lot of variety that isn't hard to stick to?

I thought this was an excellent topic to write about. Many people struggle with this problem. We are too busy, we don't know where to start, we lack the skills and knowledge to structure something that would work with our schedule and specific tastes, online meal plans are boring or lack variety.... There are a wide range of problems and issues that prevent us from following a healthy plan.

We've all encountered the overwhelming feeling of not knowing where to start, but on the flip side I'm sure we've all felt the spark of motivation to begin. This is an important realization to have.

Allow me to outline some of my best tips on how to structure a sustainable diet, and make optimizing your health and your life a priority to you so that eating well becomes an easy habit.

First thing I think everyone should do is read the two posts on the importance of creating goals and then the 5 tips to stay on track with your diet. They are short, easy reads and will really help you create a firm system for adhering to a change in your food choices. By building the foundation in this way, it will pay off dividends to you long-term in your ability to sustain the diet. Without taking these steps, you might find yourself falling off the diet more often, despising your diet, reaching for the ice cream, or a whole host of other derailing behaviors.

Side-note:
My goal is to empower people to in a manner that is sustainable, transformational (not even a word but you get it), and charitable. I hope that people see and understand the difference between simply 'dieting' and a lifestyle change. Taking the right steps to change your life in this way is critical.

Anyways, after you've created your meaningful goals and understand the basics for staying on track, it is much easier to talk about the diet itself. Here are my top tips for being successful with your own nutrition

#1) Breakfast and Lunch 

Breakfast and lunch should be the same thing, at the same time, every day. That way you get very efficient at making or preparing these two meals. Don't think about it, just do it. These should be the fuel that gets you through the day, and allows you to perform and function at your peak. That means absolutely no sugar, no refined carbohydrate, nothing that will put you on a roller coaster of recovery after consuming it. Avoid packaged goods, avoid carbohydrates entirely, and avoid fruit. Stick to protein and fat. Now I know we talked about keeping the diet and meal plan interesting and convenient, so this is where you have the ability to customize to your preference. All that is required is that you get good at preparing two meals consisting of protein and fat. You can do bacon and eggs for breakfast, chicken breast and avocado for lunch. You can do steak for breakfast and steak for lunch. You can put 4 raw eggs + whey protein with some stevia in a shaker cup and shake it up for breakfast, then have a can of sardines for lunch (this is what I do). The point is you do the same thing every day and stick to it.

#2) Three Square Meals a day 

Once you get in the habit of having a high protein/ fat start to the day, it will be very easy not to snack and to stick to the three square meals a day routine. This is very important for consistency. Fat is an extremely caloric dense nutrient and will keep you satiated through the most grueling work hours. The reason we stick to fat in the first two meals is to regulate hunger and avoid snacking, so we can have three square meals a day. This is important for convenience.

So now that the convenience factor has been taken care of, knowing we have two meals down and only one to go, here we can talk about making it interesting.

#3) Cook dinner 

Seriously, sit down and cook yourself a nice dinner at the end of the day. Nothing is more reflective like preparing a meal for yourself, and nothing is more satisfying if you are joined by others. By cooking your own meal you control exactly what goes into it, and can limit all the additives, preservatives, vegetable oils, and other unhealthy junk that goes into food-to-order. This is where you get creative with your diet and have fun in the kitchen. You also can allow your meal plan to open up a bit, because you've had relatively few calories up until now through the day by virtue of only two meals so far. At the beginning of the week, pick out one or two recipes that are relatively easy to make, get the ingredients for them, and master your ability to cook and prepare those meals for dinner. You will get better and better at making that specific dinner, and once you master it you can move on to a different meal to prepare.

#4) Follow the 80/20 rule

80% of the time - eat clean. 20% of the time, allow yourself some treats. This is important for the psychological aspect of dieting to most people. By being entirely restrictive, you are constantly taxing your willpower reserves. Science has proven we have a finite amount of willpower each day. Use that willpower towards more important decisions than avoiding a candy bar. The best way to do this is to follow the steps outlined above and start with the foundation that we talked about at the top. I strongly recommend that during the week, you simply avoid junk entirely. The best practice here is abstinence. It can be tough at first, but eventually you mind simply says "no" instead of really putting up a fight. If it is a weekday, you avoid entirely. Period. If it is the weekend, that is when you can relax a bit and enjoy time out with friends, family, or a treat here or there.


If you follow these basic rules, dieting becomes easy and fun. You look forward to dinner each night as that is your chance to get creative. You become skilled at making a simple breakfast and lunch. And you bust your ass during the week at peak performance since you are functioning off of great food, then allow yourself to dig into some beer and ice cream on the weekend, satisfying that psychological urge before it becomes an overwhelming, diet-crushing binge.

Good luck good mood food dudes!

Nutrition #5 - Trust Your Gut

Sentences like "trust your gut" and "it made me sick" and "gut instinct" are all familiar to us. Have you ever thought about what they actually mean? Turns out there is a lot more science behind these sayings than you would ever guess.

Science proves that chronic diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, obesity, and even things like depression and other ailments are all linked to an unhealthy gut. More and more we are figuring out that creating a healthy gut environment is pivotal to our overall health and well-being. 

We have over 100 trillion micoorganisms residing inside of our guts. There is more bacteria in our body than our own cells. The human body is literally just a massive physical vehicle for gut bugs to traverse around the world in a symbiotic relationship, and based on modern day diet we continue feeding the bad guys while starving the good guys. 

What I mean by that is we have both healthy and benign bacteria in our bodies that contribute to proper neurotransmitter production (happiness, sleepiness), hormone creation, vitamin & mineral absorption, macronutrient breakdown, and other various but important enzymatic processes. And we have bad gut bacteria, which contribute to inflammation, block the absorption and assimilation of vitamins and nutrients, prevent the breakdown of nutrients in our gut, and are related to a series of other problems in the body that stem from the gut. 

It sounds scary to think about the fact that we have good and evil gut bugs inside our bodies, but this information should be empowering! It is important to know that we have a high degree of control over this population of bacteria - based on what we eat, how we sleep, our circadian rhythm, how we manage stress, and other lifestyle choices like drinking alcohol or smoking cigarettes, we can support either side of the inter-gut war of bacteria that is being waged within us every minute of every day. 

And by supporting the good guys through proper lifestyle choices, we can improve our moods, our sleep, our energy, our recovery, our mental acuity, even things like our sex drive and sense of well-being. 

It is important to realize this so that we can take steps to reclaim our health and win the battle against the bad gut bugs as opposed to letting them dictate how we are. 

The Gut-Brain Barrier

We are learning that the gut and brain are linked directly via something called the Gut-Brain barrier, which is connected to our Central Nervous System. When we are nervous and get a stomach ache, this explains why. Or if we are hungry and our mind loses focus.  Our gut bugs are the 'gatekeepers' to what comes into our bodies, and when we have unhealthy or improperly functioning gut bacteria, inflammation occurs in our gut which can travel upstream and cause brain fog, cognitive decline, hormone disruption, and depression. 

A great mind who has done a lot of research in this field, Chris Kresser, explains the gut-brain barrier very well:

"Now one of the earliest signs of the brain not firing well is poor vagal activity, which will manifest as decreased pancreatic enzyme secretion, poor gallbladder function, and poor gut function overall. And it basically works like this, you have decreased activity in the brain..... and that decreases the activation of the vagal motor nuclei, which in turns suppresses the intestinal immune system and decreases intestinal blood flow. And when that happens you get an increased growth in pathogenic yeast and bacteria, that cause intestinal permeability or leaky gut, which we’ve talked about a lot, and leaky gut causes a state of chronic low grade inflammation. Then the inflammatory cytokines produced in the gut travel through the blood and they cross the blood-brain barrier.....So your brain gets inflamed, you get a leaky brain and then you get inflamed brain."

 Basically what he is explaining is that the brain and the gut are linked via a cycle which contributes to a decline in the health of both if you do not take care of them!

Take Care of Your Gut

So where does that leave us? You are probably wondering how can I prevent this from happening or at the very least, improve my gut health?

I'll tell you how. Here are my top 5 tips to restoring the healthy gut bacteria and limiting the bad ones.

1) Reduce or eliminate your consumption of refined sugars, carbohydrates, and gluten. For many people, this is a quick win. Almost all breakfast food and supermarket aisle packaged goods contain these inflammatory ingredients which our bad gut bacteria love to eat. Cut it out of your diet and you will experience a rapid improvement in health and well-being.

2) Eat soluble fiber. This is another quick win for many - soluble fiber will feed the healthy bacteria in your gut and they will multiply. Soluble fiber also will draw water into your intestines and make you feel full and satisfied. It has also been shown to have a beneficial effect on insulin sensitivity, which will help prevent fat gain. You can find soluble fiber in starchy root vegetables like carrots, beets, squash, and sweet potatoes, which are my personal favorite source of this, but you can also get some in bananas, apples, strawberries, and various fruits and other sources.

3) Eat fermented foods.  Things like kefir, sauerkraut, plain yogurt (no added sugar!!!) and other fermented vegetables are great probiotic sources, which means they help contribute to the good guys population. Be sure to choose raw and organic sources of these in order to get the highest quality.

4) Consume bone broth. Bone broth is extremely rich in collagen, and specifically an amino acid called glycine which contributes to healing our gut lining by patching it up.  Bone broth is extremely rich in various other minerals and amino acids that are deficient in an average diet. I consider it a superfood and big win for almost everyone who consumes it regularly. A cheap way to get the benefits of bone broth without having to cook a crock pot every Sunday is to consume 10 grams of glutamine and 10 grams of collagen or gelatin protein powder from a quality source, which does not provide optimal benefits but still can help heal the gut. I prefer Upgraded Collagen from Bulletproof Executive, which is a bit higher quality than other collagens on the market due to it being enzymatically broken down into our precious amino acids as opposed to being subject to the high heat evaporation method.

5) Keep a food log. This is very important to understanding how different foods affect you. By keeping a journal and making entries around what you ate, after a couple weeks of doing this consistently you will have a much better understanding of how things make you feel. Be sure to make notes when you consume something like supermarket dairy and you break out with a pimple the next day. Or if you have regular potatoes and they cause you to have an upset stomach. Track your mood, your energy, your digestion, your overall feelings and satisfaction with a meal, and your sleep.



So there you have it. Hopefully this post has made you think about your gut health in a more critical fashion, and you start to take care of those good bugs! Always remember - YOU are in control of your health. Not your environment, not your genetics, YOU. Take advantage of your own ability to look within and begin to understand your body. Recognize the power you carry within yourself. And unleash that potential.

Daily Good Moodivation #15 - Find Your Passion

"She never had never dreams, so they never came true." 

A very strong quote that I heard on a podcast this morning. It really hit home with me. Wanted to write about it.

Here are some tips to help you find your passion. Give yourself time to think about these questions and answer them honestly. It helps if you write it out and let your thoughts and feelings flow on paper. Just allow your mind to open up see what comes out. I strongly suggest you grab a sheet of paper and pencil for this exercise.

1) Do you like what you are doing? 

Would you be happy doing what you are doing, right now, for the rest of your life? This is a tough question to ask for many. We are so caught up in convincing ourselves that we like our jobs or our careers that we lose sight of what we actually love. Why is it that way? I think it is because we are raised to live up to the expectations of others. This is no way to thrive. Detach yourself from these expectations and find what your soul truly desires.

2) What are you good at? 

What are the things that you feel confident doing? This is a bit easier to answer, but also takes some introspection.  Have you ever had a teacher who was really good at teaching, and made even the most boring subject interesting to learn about? Have you ever seen someone who is an expert in their craft, and been fascinated by their ability to do something? These skills come in all shapes and sizes. What do people come to you and ask you about? What can you speak with certainty about? On a sheet of paper, write down all the things you think you are good at, or even skills that people may notice in you. This is a great positive affirmation exercise as well as a  reflection on your natural talents.

3) What have you always wanted to do? 

What would you like to see yourself doing 5 years from now? What could you do, if money was not an issue? You know, Jim Rohn says something like "if you do more than you get paid for, eventually you'll get paid for more than you do." I think this is a great way to look at it. Nothing is off limits here. In fact, the more wild and crazy your dream, the more important it is that you pursue that! The world needs more people doing what they actually want to do, not what they think they ought to do! You are doing everyone a disservice by not following your dreams!

Once you have these questions answered, you should have a much more clear vision of what it is you truly want to do. When you establish that path, think about it often. Remind yourself of your heart's desire. Spend time every day moving toward that ultimate destination. Become an expert in your passion, read books on the subject and live your life in accordance with what it is you love to do. 

Ramblings #2 - Who am I?!

The Good Mood Food Dude

Who am I?

I am someone who loves great food, who is simultaneously interested in lifting heavy weights, being athletic and lean, improving my knowledge, helping others, and performing optimally. I want to live a life of the highest quality possible. Obviously, most of these goals cross-relate with each other. In my opinion, nutrition makes up 90% or more of what it takes to excel in all of these areas. 

My goal is provide my thoughts on these subjects, and help motivate others to be conscious about the nutritional choices that they make.

Why should you read this blog?

Through this blog and my daily interactions, I hope to inspire people to reclaim their health. By constantly providing tips and tricks I've learned along the way in optimizing my own lifestyle, you will learn from my mistakes and be able to pick my brain of the knowledge within through years of experience and my own search for answers. 

My history

I lifted my first weight just under 8 years ago, at the start of my Junior year of high school. I was 125 or 130 lbs, at 5'8". My daily diet consisted of two grilled stuffed burritos from Taco Bell, a few bowls of Reese's Puffs cereal or Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and Eggo Waffles drowned in syrup. I might have had a banana thrown in for good measure, because I used to get constant stomach aches, and the bananas seemed to help. My father told me that bad stomachs "ran in the family" and would talk constant medicine for that. I probably woke up with diarrhea a few times a week, on average. I thought this was normal. Who would have thought that eating processed cereals, wheat products and Taco Bell was responsible? 

Fast forward to graduating high school - I had bulked up to 160 or 165 lbs, still at 5'8". I started to resemble someone who actually lifted. It felt good. I was addicted to the weight training. The feeling of setting a PR was my new drug. I wanted to chase the heaviest weights possible. I remember being the smallest, weakest kid in the weight room that first day in weight training my junior year, and at by the time I was graduating a senior I could keep up with the biggest dudes in there. I had earned respect and it was extremely gratifying, although I was primarily concerned about doing it for myself.

I've been curious about everything my whole life, and bringing fitness into the equation was like opening the door to a whole new world. Once I stepped through that door everything changed. I read up on everything I could regarding proper weight training, what to eat to get stronger, how to build muscle, what exercises were best for mass gain, what supplements to take, all of the basics. I became very knowledgeable in these areas, although I was only scratching the surface. 

I spent my entire 4 years at college in the back of the classroom reading through various textbooks and literature on physical fitness. I gained more of an education on the topics of weight lifting, strength training, athletic performance and nutrition than I did on my Bachelor's degree in Business Administration. 

Getting into the sport Olympic Weightlifting was another extremely valuable and educational experience for me. I learned about the importance of technique and flexibility, how to increase joint mobility the proper way and the painstaking process of patient self-coaching. I did this off and on for a couple years, with about a 10 month stretch where I was fully committed, then slowly retired from this weight lifting practice.

I graduated college with a bachelor's degree in business but an expert's knowledge in the field of strength sports and weight training, with years of personal anecdotal experience to back my knowledge. During this time I started to slowly move into the study of nutrition on human performance.

Now, my prior education of food was very basic. I understood what a protein/ carbs/ and fat were and their role, but I didn't REALLY know. I knew what vitamins and minerals were, but I didn't REALLY know. My insatiable curiosity took over and I wanted to know WHY. I wanted to know HOW. HOW did protein repair muscle tissue, physiologically? What occurred between the time you ate a steak, and that steak was broken down into amino acids and shuttled to the damaged muscle tissue to repair and create hypertrophy, or new muscle tissue? How could I eat to achieve higher testosterone levels and maximize protein synthesis to make the best recovery possible? 

What I learned along the way

This is where things took off. I learned how to get LEAN - getting down to a reading of 2.8% body fat on 11-point caliper test, with a bodyweight of 170 lbs. I was still pretty strong too. I learned how to get STRONG and CONDITIONED- working my way up to a single set of 20 reps with 345 lbs in the Back Squat, and single set of 50 reps with 225 lb. I did 30 reps with 308 lbs in the Deadlift. I've done 75 thrusters in under 10 minutes with 132 lbs.  I went from 170 lb at 3% body fat to 193 lb at 9.5% body fat within 8 months of each other, increasing my lean body mass by over 10 pounds. 

Through all this, I've experimented with different training methodologies including the Chinese and Russian methods for Olympic weightlifting, German Volume Training, super high volume full body training, low volume full body training, bodybuilding 'splits', push/pull routines, squatting to max everyday routines, squatting 10x a week routines, 20 rep squatting routines, low frequency training, Crossfit style training, conditioning work, sprints every day training, fasted cardio for over 60 minutes a day training, twice a day weight training, twice a day with cardio weight training, 10 sets of 10 training, sets of 20 every day training, training with no days off for a whole month.... It's safe to say I have had personal experience with a very wide variety of training methods and principles. 

Despite all that, the biggest thing I learned is that we can control who we are, what we do and how we perform through nutrition. Food is one of the single most effective tools we can apply to becoming optimal. It doesn't matter what you do in the gym - if you fail to refuel your body properly, you will never make the best gains. Food can be more effective than the most scientific and periodized weight training program, the most knowledgeable and motivating physical trainer, and even the most anabolic steroids. 

I found that food really f*cking matters. And modern nutrition knowledge, ESPECIALLY in the bodybuilding and strength sports side of things, is lacking science to back it. People still follow the advice of these gurus and competition prep coaches. People are in love with fads like 'IIFYM' and flexible dieting, the 'Paleo' (which I actually support, somewhat) and 'Primal' diet, or ancestral eating. Chicken, rice and broccoli is still a common staple. Farm raised tilapia is consumed by the pound by physique and bikini competitors. 

This is all due to a lack of information available to the general population. 

So that is who am I, what I've learned, and my direction.

Research has recently shown that by controlling and manipulating our environment (such as managing stress, emotions, sleep, and nutrition) we are able to influence the expression of our genes (i.e. epigenetics). We can literally change ourselves by changing what we put into our bodies and through our very thoughts. 

I want to become superhuman, and I want to blog about it along the way. I want to share my insights, thoughts, ideas, and various ramblings with the world while on my quest to optimize my life. I want to do all of this while eating GOOD FOOD. 

Let this place be a discussion of happy thoughts, great food, and good ideas. 

Good Food Recipe #2 - Strawberry Balsamic Salmon

A perfect summer dish. I whipped this up in less than 20 minutes with only a handful of solid ingredients. Was an exceptionally tasty blend of flavors with lush, ripe strawberries complimenting the salted pepper taste of oven roasted salmon, and a nice crunchy texture added from sweet onions and crushed walnuts. 

Here is what you'll need:

6 oz wild caught sockeye salmon filet

Two handfuls of roughly chopped baby spinach

1/2 a sweet onion, diced

2 TBSP roughly chopped walnuts or pecans

1 cup of fresh strawberries, sliced

1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar

Sea salt and fresh black pepper to taste

Step 1: Gather all the materials, set the oven to 350*.

Step 2: Salt and pepper the salmon filet on a oven pan, skin side down

Step 3: Slice a few strawberries and place them on top of the salmon filet, then drizzle a few tbsp of balsamic vinegar over the whole piece

Step 4: Place the salmon to roast in the oven for 10 minutes, while preparing the salad and dressing

Step 5: Bring a few tbsp of water to boil in a small sauce pan, then add the balsamic vinegar, 1 TSP of dijon mustard, a pinch of salt and 1/2 cup of the roughly chopped strawberries. You can also add honey or maple syrup for a bit more sweetness, although I omitted this. The strawberries and balsamic vinegar are plenty sweet for me. 

Step 6: Allow the balsamic strawberry sauce to boil while stirring often, it should thicken a bit. Once the salmon is done, remove pan from oven, and saucepan from heat. Allow to cool. 

Step 7: Throw roughly chopped baby spinach, diced sweet onion and nuts into a bowl, place salmon filet on top. Garnish with extra strawberry slices and drizzle strawberry balsamic reduction over top as dressing.

Step 8: ENJOY! 

Step 9: Eat ice cream if it is a cheat day 

Daily Good Moodivation #14 - Challenge yourself

Creating positive, forward momentum is one of the most powerful things you can do in your life. By building upon small wins and accomplishments, you push a tiny snowball down a massive mountain. As you proceed, you watch this snowball grow and grow until it becomes an avalanche of achievement.

How do we create this momentum? What can we do on a daily basis that will improve our chances of bigger success?

A couple things should be done on a consistent basis in order to keep that ball rolling. One of the most important is the regular act of challenging yourself.

Try to do something new everyday. By doing something new, you are challenging your mind and willpower to adapt to a new action, a new circumstance, a new situation or habit. As you get in the routine of doing something new, you acquire new knowledge and new strengths you never knew you had or were capable of.

An easy way to do this is simply ask yourself - what can I do today that I've never done before? 

It doesn't even have to be something hard! Just something different from what your normal habits are.

Go outside and take a 20 minute walk in the morning.
Cook yourself a new breakfast
Compliment a stranger sincerely
Do a workout you've never done before
Meditate for longer than you've ever meditated

By practicing these small acts of discipline, you are exercising your mind to take action on something new. The act of doing something new can also be seen as "the unknown". We are afraid of the unknown. Until we experience it for ourselves, not knowing the outcome of a particular action leads us to a fear of doing that one thing.

Break free of this stifling thought. Build your character by strengthening your mind. As you accomplish these smaller feats of seemingly unimportant and minor things, your ability to overcome bigger challenges and reach new heights will grow.

Apply this discipline that is learned on a daily basis towards other aspects of your life. Build upon your forward momentum like a freight train. As you celebrate your smaller wins in life, the train accelerates and builds inertia. Tough decisions are made easier as you grow confident in your ability to take action. Goals that were once too far off and too vague, materialize into clearly visible objectives. You start to see the steps necessary to take to get there.

Now go and try something new today. Challenge yourself. Build upon your successes. Develop your forward momentum and allow nothing to prevent you from reaching your goals. Share this with someone who would enjoy it and have a great day!

Nutrition #4 - Five tips to stay on track with your diet

There is a ridiculous amount of information out there pertaining to nutrition. We are inundated through various  sources with products, schemes, diets, methods, and ideas. Oftentimes all it takes is a good writer or marketer to sell you on a product that sounds too good to be true. This is common. We are a society born around seeking the 'quick fix' and the easiest route to our destination. The reason this never works is because maintaining a proper diet is all about a balance of psychological and physiological responses over the long-term. No one could ever adhere to a 1200 calorie a day protein-sparing modified fasting diet for longer than a period of several weeks before they would crash and burn.

The goal of changing your diet should be to improve your health in the long-term, right? 

You should want to change your eating habits because you have a goal to look better, feel better, perform better, and all the other positive consequences of healthy eating. This desire of being optimized should not go away once you achieve your end result!

The fantastic thing is that once you feel the way you ought to feel - when you are literally functioning as a well-oiled machine as opposed to a poorly patched up, maintenance needed vehicle - you will see that this is a lifestyle change and slowly shift your thinking and habits this way. 

When you start to have whole eggs (with the yolks!) and bacon for breakfast as opposed to low-fat, whole grain cheerios with skim milk, and you start kicking ass at your job and are super productive and in a good mood with high energy levels that don't dip, you will realize that food plays a bigger role in who you are than you think.

So let me outline some the best tips I've found to get started and stay on track with your new diet.

It is a lifestyle

Think of your new diet as a lifestyle. The choices you make when it comes to putting food in your mouth are dictated by who you want to be. You no longer give in to short temptations like the donut at work or the candy bar in the vending machine. You know that these choices, when compounded over the years, create a different 'you' than you really want. You know the feeling of being on-top of the world and want to recreate that feeling as often as possible, and also know that by giving in to your temptations will never allow you to truly reach that full potential. You remember that one day that you felt totally awesome, super productive, great mood, high energy, and deep motivation.... and you want to feel like that everyday. Do it by making your 'diet' a 'lifestyle'. Feel that unlimited boundless energy. Feel your body functioning as mother nature designed. By giving it what mother nature intended - a plant filled with nutrients that sprang from our Earth, as opposed to a factory manufactured protein bar laden with an ingredient list so long your head will spin

Eat consistent meals

Eating the same or similar meals at similar times is a huge tip that I think should be followed by everyone until they have really acquired a deep understanding for their body. Eat several routine meals around the same time each day. This provides multiple benefits.

• #1, it regulates your circadian rhythm, which helps keep your entire body in tune with our world clock. Regulating your circadian rhythm has been shown to optimize hormone levels, reducing stress hormones like cortisol while also increasing sex and muscle building hormones like testosterone. 
• #2, eating consistent meals makes it simple to adhere to your new lifestyle. If you know that you pack a lunch every day of 3 soft-boiled eggs and an avocado and eat that at 12 PM, then you shouldn't be worried about what the vending machine at work will have today or where your co-workers are going for lunch. This also makes it much easier to exercise the finite amount of will-power you have per day, by making one less decision. You are on autopilot when preparing your food for the day, knowing that you will do the same as always - eggs and an avocado. This is very important! 
• #3, you become very good at preparing these meals. You will find that as you prepare the same thing day in and day out, you will start to get creative with your choice of herbs or seasonings, and spice it up a bit (pun intended). Have fun with it! 
• #4, you save money and feel better once you fall in line with the structure you've set for yourself. You start to think to yourself about how awesome it is, now that you no longer experience a post lunch energy crash. You start to kick more ass in the gym. Your dance moves improve. Momentum builds on momentum. Forward progress continues at an accelerated pace when you stick to a consistent meal timing schedule.

Allow yourself time to rest

If at first, you feel restricted and have feelings where you 'miss' certain foods and cravings haunt you, create what I call a structured cheat day. On this day, two things should happen. One - you should get your hardest workout of the week in, which will improve insulin sensitivity, meaning your muscles are much more likely to uptake glucose and nutrients from extra food you are about to consume. Two - don't turn this into a binge. Allow yourself a few treats that you would enjoy but don't stock up with cookies and oreos from the store in the days leading up to your cheat day, because this is a psychological problem! I love to cheat on ice cream almost exclusively, because ice cream contains zero gluten and I have no issues with dairy. I stick to organic ice cream, preferably from grass-fed cream if I can get it, and I will make a massive banana split or some other sort of ice cream treat. When you cheat on gluten containing items, after a week of especially clean eating where you've been avoiding it, a lot of people feel like total crap afterwards and see a dip in motivation. I think that this is counter productive. A structured cheat day should be a motivating, fulfilling, and beneficial day. Not only will it help restore leptin levels (a hormone responsible for hunger and fat storage), it will provide that small psychological boost that many people need when they feel like they are 'dieting' - which gives a sense of restriction/ limitation that CAN lead to binging and falling off the wagon, which is exactly what we DO NOT want! I also recommend this cheat day fall on a Saturday as this will allow you wiggle room if you want to go out with friends/ family and enjoy a treat there, but also give you Sunday to get back on track and get motivated for the week without having food haunt your mind. 

Keep a food log

Huge piece of advice. I think everyone should keep an on-going food log for a period of time, minimum three months. This will help people hold themselves accountable for what they are eating, and also be a big eye-opener to their intake. In my opinion the biggest benefit to be had from a food log is that daily entries you should make on how you felt/ look/ performed/ mood/ etc. You can look at yesterday's log and see that eating a brownie made you look bloated today/ sleep poorly/ have bags under your eyes, etc. The important thing here is that you begin to realize really how food affects you. Different food provides different responses to everyone. You may start to realize you have had a food allergy your whole life and never knew until now! No wonder you got a stuffy nose after having milk! Very important piece of advice. I recommend something like myfitnesspal or sparkpeople.com. Although Cronometer.com is also another excellent source, because you can track micronutrient content as well, the first two have a wide variety of food choices. All you do is search for your food item, select the portion, and add to your log. A basic entry could be under breakfast "eggs, whole, raw" - 4 servings, "avocado, large, hass" - 1 serving. Set a goal to track 30 straight days of food for yourself along with notes on your daily feelings and energy levels, etc. It helps to also use your food journal as an exercise journal. 

Be happy with your choice to eat better

People too often make the mistake of having constant feelings of limitation and restriction when dieting. This should not be the case! First things first is I suggest you eliminate the use of 'diet' from your vocabulary. When presented with a cookie or donut or slice of pizza at work, I never, ever say "I can't". I simply say "No thanks, I don't eat that". I just don't consider that stuff real food. Yes I know it would taste amazing, but I also know how much more I value my long term health and performance over such a short term, minimally satisfactory treat. I know that by making the conscious effort to abstain from those choices, I am improving myself. It is the combination of that pride in my own willpower and my own health, along with the mindset that I know what real, whole food looks like and how it makes me perform, that avoiding the crap is easy. I have said it before - I promise that once you have one day where you feel just outright amazing from the accumulated efforts of your healthy habits, you will never want to go back to functioning sub-optimally. 

I hope this helps guys. Now go out, and reclaim your health and vitality. Understand that your health is your priority. You have one body. Optimize your life. 

Rambling

Sitting here at the end of another week. Feeling very good about the month of July so far. Day 6 and we have been making great progress. I feel like I am finding a new path and direction in my life at a very rapid pace. The actual visualization and images of what my future looks like is taking form in my mind's eye. I am at peace with my inner self. The path I must follow is clear.

Moving into another week, I am looking forward to achieving progress towards the goals that I have set for my self.

I must help people through the use of food as medicine. I must empower the world to respect the health that mother nature has blessed us with. I will become an optimal health performance coach.

At breakfast today, I look over and I see a whole family served with four slices of whole grain toast each. It made me realize how misinformed the general public is regarding the state of modern nutrition. Why can we be raised, led to believe and trust the food pyramid our country has created for us, as the guidelines of healthy eating? Here in America we have the average household consuming boxes of cereal for breakfast because it is "low fat" and filled with "whole grains". At the same time we wonder why one out of three children or adolescents is overweight or obese, and why the rate of obesity has skyrocketed for our young population in recent years.

And almost no one questions this. We need to wake up people.

Where is the person at the spearhead of the health movement? I know we have a variety of great minds and people in the new-age health arena, people like Robb Wolf, Dave Asprey, Jack Kruse, Chris Kresser. These men have really helped to change the way we look at nutrition, hormones, modern day ailments and toxins, stress, and the holistic health of the person.

But I can't really think of any one person who is taking this battle where it belongs - knocking on the door of our government. Why?

Perhaps there has been no one persistent enough, smart enough, or crazy enough to do so. Maybe people have tried and failed to accomplish any significant progress or change in the current system and gave up. I must do all that I can to acquire the knowledge and education necessary to spur changes in our current state. I must become a leading expert in this field while expanding circle of influence in order to create positive changes.

Daily Good Moodivation #13 - Keep it REAL

Keep it real. Be yourself. Stay true. Be present. 

All simple sayings that seem to span across the world in teachings on life lessons and morality.

Easy advice to follow, but sometimes we find ourselves not keeping it very real.

Don't hide who you really are. Align yourself with your deeply held, inner principles and ensure that your moral compass points due north, then live your life based on this map. Humans are not stupid. We can tell, whether we know it or not, when someone is misaligned or off base. We tend to get a strange feeling, or a sneaking suspicion, without even noticing it.

This is why we gravitate towards some people and reject others. Humans are naturally attracted to those who are congruent with their inner self, whose external image is a reflection of who they are inside. Their actions and words accurately represent their thoughts, feelings, and emotions. When this is the case, we usually will automatically like the person based on the simple fact of human nature. Our subconscious mind feels 'at ease' around this person - there are no underlying currents of deception that we must look out for or be aware of.

By being yourself, you maintain your integrity. You maintain a sense of trust with yourself and with others. When you put up a front, your mind experiences cognitive dissonance - the mental stress caused as a result of holding to contradicting beliefs in the brain. This is subtly visible even in the most skilled deceivers.

By being yourself, you have nothing to hide. You are you, and people who align with you by their overlapping interests and values are the ones who should naturally be around you. 

Have you ever met someone and automatically hit it off? Usually this person has clear values and principles that you agree with or possess as well. You could say that their soul vibrates on the same frequency as your own. The more of these types of people you have in your life, the more fulfilling and satisfying your life becomes. You become a happier, more positive, and more radiant person as your external reflection grows and develops in a way that benefits the world.

You will experience less stress and fewer mental roadblocks. You will be in harmony with your life. Your purpose becomes more and more clear as you continue to be yourself.

This is not something that happens overnight. This is something you must practice on a daily basis. We've grown to be so ingrained in our ways, following expectations of others and influenced by social media and other pressures, that we forget who we truly are.

Only through consistent and intentional habits do we start to keep it more real. Whenever you do or say something, ask yourself - does this reflect who I am, what I like, what I believe in? If the answer is no, or you hesitate.... you have just caught yourself failing to keep it real.

So - on this beautiful day, I urge you to go forward and keep it realer than ever before. Be so proud to be yourself that other people cannot help but love you for it. I promise that as you make these efforts day in and day out you will attract people in your life who should be there, you will acquire a new happiness and fulfillment with life, and you will have a new love for yourself and the world.

Daily Good Moodivation #12 - Three Tips to Start Living Your Life

What's up good mood foodies, hope you've been enjoying the posts so far. I am loving all the positive feedback and appreciate everyone for taking the time to read my ramblings. Today's post is near and dear to me, as it seems like we all come to crossroads from time to time and feel like we've become stagnant in our own personal growth or development, or that we aren't living up to our full potential, or thousands of other negative and self-defeating thoughts and feelings. 

It is very important that we overcome these temporary mental roadblocks as soon as possible lest we find ourselves in a downward spiral that is difficult to get out of. 

Oftentimes, the chain reaction result of having these thoughts will reverberate for months or even years, until one day we wake up and have a revelation or sudden epiphany. It is my belief that the more often we can have these sparks of enlightenment, the more aligned we become with our true purpose.... and with that, comes a deep sense of fulfillment, life satisfaction, and an increase in the natural love we want to share with the world.

How can we increase the frequency of these turning points in our life?

How can we stop fucking around and start actually living? 

Here are just a few tips I like to live by.....

1) CHANGE IT UP

Far to often, we fall into the trap of our everyday routine. This is usually successful for long periods of time, however we can become comfortable in the thought that we have a productive method of accomplishing things and we begin doing the same things day in and day out, while still achieving our goals and making forward progress. Obviously making forward progress is fantastic, but in order to find the spark of a new idea, a new relationship, a slightly altered path, or new adventure filled with character development and opportunities.... we must change it up. How do we change it up? One of the easiest ways is to go on a vacation to a place you've never been before. Some people don't always have the luxury to pack up and leave whenever, so try to take a weekend get-a-way if possible, preferably somewhere close to nature. You can also sign up for a class to learn about something you are passionate about, join a club, volunteer, rearrange your room or house. Go to bed earlier. Pick up a hobby. Hang out with a new group of friends.  Do something exciting that you've never done before. The important thing as that you change your environment. By giving way to new surroundings and changing it up, you stimulate your mind's creative thought processes and allow new, refreshing streams of ideas and innovation to flow through and clean out some of the stagnant thoughts that have become embedded in your brain.

2) BECOME GRATEFUL

By practicing gratitude for what you currently have, you will begin to attract what you actually want. One of the easiest ways to start living a more fulfilling and satisfying life is simply by giving thanks to your present existence. Remind yourself daily what it is your are thankful for. Write it down. Express sincere thanks where it is due. Tell your parents how appreciative you are of them and their support, even if your relationship hasn't been the best. I guarantee once people start to see the positive energy radiating from you they will be more likely to help you with your mission in life whether it be directly or indirectly. Think about how you feel when you do something for someone and they never actually thank you for your deed. In a way, they've made a withdrawal from your emotional bank account. Eventually, your balance will be zero and you will have no more funds to give to that person. However, when they thank you and you feel appreciated for your efforts, they just deposited money back into your bank account while also growing their own. The world works in the same way. If you are constantly practicing gratitude and appreciating all that you have, you are depositing money into everyone else's emotional bank accounts, improving your relationships, and growing your own emotional reserves at the same time. The world is not a give-take place. Once we can all realize that, we will make massive forward progress in terms of overall happiness. By becoming grateful, we improve our sense of well-being, happiness, mood, energy, and the positive impact we have on this world.

3) YOUR BODY IS A TEMPLE

Your body is a temple, a sacred place that houses your mind, body, and soul. How can you expect to live your life to your full potential if you are hiring poorly skilled workers and paying them terribly low wages to build this fortress? It's like putting unleaded fuel in a Ferrari. If you owned a Ferrari, you probably wouldn't do that - you'd obviously put premium. However, using that analogy, has anyone ever acquired a Ferrari through half-assed effort on their part? Maybe, but I guarantee that mostly people driving them have achieved success through daily and sustained efforts of commitments to excellence. Treat your body as if it is the same. Would you smoke a cigarette in the holiest temple in the world? How can you expect yourself to possess a pristine temple when you are rushing your meals, barely exerting yourself on the physical plane to transform your body, and never even giving yourself time to reflect within your mind? Practice daily habits that clear your mind, sculpt you body, and connect with your spirit. Make your external appearance a true reflection for your internal being, and vice versa. No one appreciates a super fit asshole, except maybe other super fit assholes. Interestingly enough, a person who is physically out of shape, but more in tune mentally and spiritually, someone who is positive and radiant with good energy - this person generally receives more respect and quality relationships in the world than the other guy. This is a good contrast and should be noted. Although we may be led to believe otherwise through media and social influence, I believe the world still puts emphasis on strong and positive mental health than physical fitness, whether we actually know it or not. I guess my point here is that train your mind as hard as you train your body - never neglect one or the other, because both of these things are the temple that houses your soul. By treating your body as the most sacred and holy temple known to man, and believing this philosophy, you will practice mastery of all your body's many facets, and start to truly live your life.


And there you have it... my ramblings on how to start actually living to our full potential. Hope you enjoyed the read ! Comment and leave feedback...

Have a wonderful day and live your life like you are meant to. 

Nutrition #3 - Q&A with the Bodybuilding forums

"Ask me anything with respect to nutrition"

I decided to make a thread over on forum.bodybuilding.com, and some of the questions I got were great. 

Bulking on protein & fruit only:

Originally Posted by MalRhoden 

Can you bulk on ONLY protein & FRUITS (fructose-based carbohydrates)?

Poll: FRUIT & FRUCTOSE : Has anyone ever bulked eating protein & ONLY fruit?
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?t=162718441

Are you talking pure whey protein and fruit? Because you most definitely would gain weight based on your caloric intake, although you would wreak serious havoc on your liver. Fructose is very difficult for the liver to metabolize efficiently, especially if you taking in a diet very high in the combination of protein and fructose. 

You would also not be able to absorb and assimilate a wide variety of fat-soluble vitamins and nutrients considering you are consuming zero fat. This would lead to more health complications down the road, probably including but not limited to a hormonal crash/ circadian rhythm disruption/ broken metabolism.

Restricted dietary fat intake:

Originally Posted by BusterBluth 
What will happen if I only get ~50 g fat per day?

What kind of fat? Polyunsaturated? Saturated? Medium chain triglycerides? 

Likely scenario is you will be extremely deficient in a wide variety of vitamins and nutrients. Much of these are fat soluble, meaning they require fatty acids for proper absorption. Also, fat (ketone bodies, specifically) tends to be the preferred fuel source for the brain. Humans evolved to be humans by consuming more fat, which helped our brains develop. Specifically fatty acids such as DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) which is present in seafood, and sea plants.

tl;dr - you would feel pretty crappy, your brain would not function as optimally, your hormones would likely down-regulate, and fat burning pathways would shut down to conserve the fat you consume. 

The "Anabolic Window":

Originally Posted by PrehistoricUFO 

Is the anabolic window - the short window of time right after a workout to ingest your supplements - real? 
Some say it doesn't matter, others swear you must do it asap or lose some of your hard work.

Thanks.

A few trains of thought on this. 

1) No, your gains will not be lost provided you fuel your body with the sufficient sources necessary to promote tissue repair between weight training session 1 and session 2. 

2) No, your gains will not be lost provided proper refueling... except you could probably maximize your gains by an increased portion if you take advantage of the post workout window. Reason for this is that resistance training activates GLUT-4 receptors, which basically allow glucose uptake into the muscle cells independent of insulin. Although studies show that GLUT-4 activation with the combination of insulin, there is even better glucose uptake. Here are a few studies on this:
http://jp.physoc.org/content/469/1/615.short 
and
http://ajpheart.physiology.org/content/277/2/H643.short

3) When you are finished working out, your body has undergone a simulated physical stress. The brain is going to be competing with the muscles that have just been stressed. Glucose, your bodies stored simple sugar and energy, will be in high demand. If you don't eat or refuel properly post workout, you might find yourself under recovered through the rest of the day, and might feel a bit of brain fog or lack of clarity/ sharpness. 


I hope this is making sense. Please let me know if you are interested to get more science-y and pull out more studies.

Negative effects from bad diet/ caffeine:

Originally Posted by peppertitan 

I drink like 2-3 monsters a day for a good year now. and also almost only eat pizza on weekends 
for dinner from little ceasars for 2-3 days straight for the last couple weeks. 
but other then that I have a mostly fat and protien diet with little carbs, how will this effect my build 
energy in the day and gains as a whole

Over time, depending on your other lifestyle choices and how well you respond to stress, it is likely you will deplete your adrenal glands, which will also affect your hormone levels downstream. The pizza on the weekends as your only meal for the day will not help you recover in an optimal manner and will also cause problems. These are a combination of factors that will slowly deteriorate your health. I am sure if you kept it up for years you would not feel the signs of this until it is too late, and then you would be fighting an uphill battle. Preventative medicine is the best cure. 

As to your last question - how it effect your build, energy levels, etc - you will never see the actual gains your body is capable of if you are living a lifestyle like this. People are amazed by what they can do with proper nutrition and lifestyle changes. 

Creatine and milk:

Originally Posted by amostofi1999 

can i mix my creatine with milk?

Yes of course. Although most supermarket bought milk is less than good quality. That milk has been homogenized and pasteurized - pumped through tiny, super heated tubes and spun extremely rapidly, which will break the fat globules into small lipids that are less recognizable by the body, as they are no longer in their natural state. This heating and spinning process destroys all the beneficial bacteria and enzymes in the milk. 

Creatine is an excellent supplement and is one of the only sports supplements proven to be effective at what it says. 

Intermittent Fasting:

Originally Posted by BishopStriation 

How does IF work?

If I eat 2k cal on a cut with IF or without IF would there be a difference?

Intermittent Fasting, or IF, promotes autophagy and lipolysis in the body. Autophagy is the process of "cell clean out" or basically, cells eating the garbage and getting rid of the byproducts and other craps within and around cell membranes. Lipolysis is the breakdown of adipose tissue into free fatty acids (FFAs), and these FFAs get utilized for energy and fuel in the body. Both of these things happen when you go hours between meals, and in most sources over 12 hours postprandial (after feeding) is typically when this is really ramped up. 


So - to answer your question, it is likely (although yet exactly proven, to my knowledge) that a compressed eating window will promote a bit more lipid oxidation (fat burning) during fasting periods.

Originally Posted by rnod 

I am very interested in this thread.


What is your take on gluten? For someone without Celiac's disease, is it still worth avoiding?


Also, what about grass fed cow butter, and grass fed cow beef, are they better than grain fed?



Basically a more general question, what do you make of the "bulletproof" diet from the BulletproofExec guy?

Gluten

Great question. Gluten is the combination of a protein common in wheat: gliadin and glutenin. For all humans, gluten is indigestible. Think of a house as a food source. We chew up the house, and swallow brick walls. Brick walls then have their mortar dissolved by our stomach acid and the little bricks (individual nutrients) are easily absorbed through the intestine. When we try to digest gluten, we can break it down into little bricks so our body just tries to break the whole wall with a hammer into pieces. These pieces get stuck in the highly permeable intestinal membranes and prevent the absorption of other nutrients. Our body also does not recognize these chunks of foreign protein molecules and we create antibodies to attack it as if it is an invader. So our immune system is flaring up as a result of gluten creating a leaky gut. Gluten will also bind to opiate receptors in our brain, causing "feel good" chemicals like dopamine to be released similar to an actual drug high. This is also why we crave gluten containing products. 

So - in short, gluten is indigestible by ALL humans (even non-Celiacs), it prevents the absorption of other nutrients (Zinc is one example), it creates an immune response, and has an addictive response from the brain.
I think Dave Asprey is a very smart dude who puts out a lot of good information. The bulletproof diet is essentially a diet in as low of toxins/ inflammatory foods as possible, in order to optimize brain health and hormone development. Although, that being said - I think it is important to analyze diet in the context of the individual and believe that there is truly "no one size fits all" approach and our genes / ancestry play a big role in how our metabolism works. I also think that he does not know enough about the intense, physical fitness side of the coin and how it relates to nutrition which is a key component for people like us. 

Grass-fed beef/ butter:

Absolutely. Cows should be fed grass 100% - they are ruminants and have an extra stomach designed to digest grass. The problem with feeding them corn, soy, and other grains is that it fattens them up. Combined with the problem that the feed they get is laden with toxins and pesticides, and that these toxins and pesticides are STORED in adipose (fat) tissue, and we have a big issue on our hands. So, now we have fat cows fed crap they did not evolve to eat, storing more crap on the fat they are forced to put on, and now they are injected with antibiotics and hormones as a crutch because they've become so fat and weak that its difficult to sustain their poor cow lifestyles. When you eat pastured cows who are fed 100% grass, you can almost guarantee that they are living on free range ranches, eating food as nature intended, and living healthier cow lifestyles. In addition to these facts, there is a much more omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acid ratio is grassfed beef. Omega-3 = anti-inflammatory , Omega-6 = pro-inflammatory. We want more omega-3s in our diet. It is also higher in CLA (conjugated linoleic acid), which is a fatty acid highly prevalent in dairy and beef, and has been shown to decrease body fat. Not only that, but by supporting this CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) we are supporting massive corporations that lobby for their monopolized interests. Do you really think our individual health is in their best interest? I believe only to the degree that they can continue raking in profits. To that regard, by supporting your local grass-fed beef rancher and dairy, you can invest back into happy and healthy cows who help the environment and being natures "man-made" grass trimmers and fertilizers.

So - if that is not enough information on why to go grass-fed over grain-fed, then keep doing whatever you're doing. 

Top fat loss/ muscle retention tips:

Originally Posted by GooNBoT 

what is the best way to lose weight and retain muscle mass

If by 'lose weight' you mean LOSE FAT, then my top tips:

1. Get your micronutrient levels up to optimum amounts. Aim for over one pound of green veggies a day.
2. Sleep 8-9 hours a night and have a perfect circadian rhythm, in tune with the natural sunrise and sunset (bed no more than 3 hours after the sun goes down, preferably out of bed around the time that it comes up - depending on your location)
3.  Lift heavy weights with extreme intensity at least 3x a week, and sprint at least 1x a week. 
4. Eat in a small caloric deficit. 
5. Carbs ~100g a day, preferably at night time around dinner or after your workout. Zero carbs before training. Once a week consume 400g+ carbs

Eating candy and acute testosterone levels:

Originally Posted by smbrown3706 

what happens to test levels if you eat a jumbo bag of M&Ms in less than 30 minutes?

If you did it consistently, like on a daily basis, I am sure you would see your test levels fall over time. However acute symptoms would probably just be a short dip in test levels and massive increase in cortisol from a stress response because you would see insulin spike. Lots of fat storage. 

Excess calories before bed (especially carbs/ sugar):

Originally Posted by JagB247 

Any downsides to getting most macros in before bed (alot of carbs/sugar)

Disruption of the circadian rhythm is a big one. Do not underestimate your sleep quality. Improving sleep quality is one the biggest and fastest ways to hack the entire quality of your life - and has a huge impact on your bodies ability to synthesize new tissue and burn fat. I am not a fan, to say the least. Lately I've been experimenting with 5 hours between my last meal and bed-time, and it has shown significant improvements. I'm talking eyes snap open wide awake filled with energy at 530 AM every morning no alarm.

Ideal carbohydrate sources:

Originally Posted by BeastMode101 

What are you favorite carb sources?

From this thread-http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=162736301 wheat is apparently poison

not nutrition related, but what is your favorite prehab/rehab work for healthy shoulders/rotator cuffs?
My right shoulder makes a clicking sound whenever my arms are raised
doing an ohp, lateral raises, and throwing punches) .
I am going to see a pt sometime but I just want to improve my shoulder health in the mean time

Favorite carb sources - sweet potatoes, butternut squash, carrots, white rice, and berries (raspberries and blueberries specifically). These are all extremely nutrient dense carb sources and highest glucose content which means every cell in my body can benefit from the consumption. Glucose can be used as fuel everywhere in the body, stored in muscles, used as fuel immediately, whereas fructose can only be immediately used as fuel, stored in the liver, or stored in fat. These are also low toxin/ low inflammatory carb sources.

See my above post on gluten.

Shoulder prehab:
My favorite shoulder prehab ... Daily prescription of:
4 sets of 25 rep banded shoulder dislocation with a resistance band
4 sets of 25 rep 'scarecrows' with 2.5 lb or 5 lb dumbells or mini plates

Which semen is better?

Originally Posted by ftwrestler 

higher quality protein from blackbear or brownbear semen?





srs

If I could analyze the amino acid composition of both I could tell you (srs)

Originally Posted by theriftable 

How come mushrooms can be magic

The active component, psilocybin. 

Branch Chain Amino Acids:

Originally Posted by indatzone 

should i take bcaas? no keto, no IF

BCAAs have been shown to improve muscle protein synthesis during exercise, although if you have a complete diet filled with animal proteins you should have sufficient BCAAs circulating the blood from previous meals. If you were fasting or working out early morning it may be wise to take them. If you took an organic acid urinalysis test you would be able to determine your protein absorption as well from food sources, and this would help with making the right decision whether or not to supplement BCAAs, what amount, and what type.

Why fats are good:

Originally Posted by lukaku 

why are fats good?

Fats are essential to brain development in humans (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24975625) . They are also crucial for hormone regulation, vitamin absorption, providing clean and long last energy to the body. They help thousands of processes in the body with enzyme creation and transportation (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24976764). When you understand the biology of a cell, you start to see why fat is so important. Literally every cell in our body is structured with a phospholipid bilayer - this means that all of our cellular walls are made up from fat! Ever heard the phrase - we are what we eat? It is much more scientific truth than you think!

The Paleo Diet:

Originally Posted by American_Maniac 

I just started the Paleo diet. What is your opinion of this diet? and are there any things I should know?

The paleo diet is an excellent starting place. I advocate a whole food diet which more or less follows the same principles as 'paleo', although in my opinion the term has become so convoluted, as is expected when any new extreme methodology appears. 

The paleo diet pros:
- anti-inflammatory
- nutrient dense
- difficult to eat in excess
- excellent energy levels throughout the day
- helps regulate circadian rhythm, especially when eating in season fruits/ veggies from your area (very important)
- optimizes hormones and brain function

Cons
- May limit calories and food choices for some people
- Easy to get carried away in 'paleo' mindsight
- Some food that you avoid on paleo is not bad for all people - too general

Overall the pros far outweigh the cons. Just make sure you have a good idea of what you should be eating daily to satisfy all your needs. I recommend using cronometer.com to get an idea for what you are deficient in, and try to incorporate a variety of whole foods to satisfy those deficiencies. Tracking your food and how you feel/ perform is one of the best ways to hack your body.

Tracking Micronutrients - why or why not:

Originally Posted by accounts 

Just started utilizing your lower back rounding squat thread from 2011. Good **** man thanks.

What micros would you say are worth tracking.

So far I'm thinking cholesterol, sodium/potas ratio, zinc, sugar and not really a micro fiber. What else?

Ehhh.. tough question. IMO, no micros are really worth tracking... you should track them all holistically. All of these things function and interact with each other. While they do have their independent role, it is my belief that if you consume something rich in Vitamin A (for example), it is likely to contain other micronutrients that will not only help Vitamin A do it's job once in your body, but also function together synergistically to produce other affects. Does that makes sense? 

I guess if you really wanted to track, the most important ones would be:
- Zinc
- Vitamin D
- Magnesium
- DHA/ EPA
- Cholesterol 
- Omega 3 and Omega 6

That's just off the top of my head. Although, even though you are tracking these things you cannot be sure your body is actually utilizing and assimilating the nutrients properly, so I'd recommend and organic acid pee test which will test for many of these items and actually what % they are being absorbed by the body. I also recommend a Vitamin D blood test.

Was going to log out for the night but saw this and had to answer...

Why should you listen to me???

Originally Posted by amills2015 

Not challenging you but just for my own comfort at following your advice.. What are your credentials?

It seems every ~2 years something that is "research based" gets completely re-hauled with new 
evidence and changes what is ideal in-take/practices. 

Do you feel that research is becoming more consistent and its becoming less and less likely that 
"evidence" or "research" based practice will change?

My credentials:
- Lifting weights for 8 years, serious for 6. 
- Tried and applied almost every lifting/ fitness/ diet principle in the book during that time
- Thousands of dollars invested in bloodwork done through multiple labs, consulted with different experts on these results
- Interpreted my own results and successfully hacked different areas of my own health through applying principles I've researched
- Experimented on myself with all these different ideas and methods

- Believe in an individual-based plan when it comes to training/ nutrition. Everyone is different. We have to draw back on basic biochemical processes and reactions, and have a deeper understanding of how the body works and cellular metabolism etc to know what truly is efficient. Yes this is a learning process and no one way is the right way. I profess to having tried and failed many different ways, and also tried and succeeded many others. I've tweaked with and altered plans, adding my own twist, all based on science combined with the intuition that comes with the territory. I love this ****. I love learning about the body and how it works at the very basic level. And I'm excited to share what I've learned. Yes we will learn as we go but I think we should start questioning and learning now, and adjust course as time goes on. This is how success happens.