So I’ve been making a little tea at night that really calms me down, and it tastes pretty good.

I really like a lot of products from Four Sigmatic, and I just grabbed this Organic ashwagandha from Whole Foods. So this tea or ‘elixir’ from Four Sigmatic is made from Reishi. Reishi is a delicious little fungus that packs a punch when it comes to your health. Reishi mushrooms have adaptogenic substances that help us deal with the negative effects of stress, depleted energy levels, increased inflammation, damaged blood vessels and various types of hormonal imbalances. Studies show that reishi mushrooms have antioxidant capabilities that strengthen our body’s defenses against cancer, autoimmune diseases, heart disease, allergies, infections and more. Pretty crazy little ‘shroom…for non-college adults.

Ashwagandha is also an adaptogen that is used primarily for its ability to prevent anxiety. Ashwagandha’s anti-anxiety effect is actually synergistic with alcohol (which I haven’t exactly experimented with yet). Ashwagandha shows strong performance in relieving insomnia and stress-induced depression. Ashwagandha can significantly reduce cortisol concentrations and the immunosuppressive effect of stress.

My job has a fair amount of stress to it much like I believe everyone’s does. If you guys find yourself having a hard time winding down, and you don’t want to consume any alcohol before bed because it disrupts your sleep (much like I have found), try out this little concoction. I have tons of energy when I’m full blown ketogenic, and I’m trying not to move too much during this fast. This is the perfect way for me to shut it down for the night without consuming any calories. Full disclosure: This tea mix has 5 calories per serving. Not going to worry about it. Do you consider that cheating?

Let me know if you guys like this. Keep reading and following. I hope I’m helping some of you guys out, or at least being some what entertaining. I can definitely ratchet this thing up on the “R” rated scale if you guys would find that it makes this better to read! Leave me a comment.

Get Strong. Stay Strong.

So I like taking supplements. There’s no way that I can actually get everything that my body needs (micronutrient wise) with my typical diet. I love vegetables. Red, green, purple, orange, yellow, white…all of them. I eat grass-fed everything. Some of you might think that multivitamins are worthless, but if you want to geek out, here is a PubMed break down that reveals that the average American would have to eat 27,000 calories to get sufficient intake of the 27 FDA recommended micronutrients. That’s crazy! I can’t eat that much. I also don’t want to worry about fillers and additives. I don’t want some weird concoction for a capsule that won’t dissolve properly or at the right time. I want something that will give me the amount of all the good stuff that my body needs, and I want it to go into my body instead of the urinal! There are certain vitamins that won’t allow others to be absorbed. There are some that help others be absorbed better! I trust my boy Ben Greenfield when it comes to almost everything. Ben Greenfield went out on his own trek to find the best multivitamin on the planet. It’s a long read, but if you are going to spend you money on something, you should get the most out of it! I love this stuff. I even like the fact that there are morning and night pills. I like a schedule and a routine. These become part of my routine when I know that I’m not getting enough of what my body is craving!

I utilize a lot of Thorne’s products. I’ll be highlighting them as well over the next few days, but this is a cornerstone to anyone who is wanting to look, feel, and perform better. Check out Thorne Research right here.

I’m close to 36 hours fasted. It’s not hard for me to go this far, but I’ll keep you updated when it does get hard. I had some coffee and my mineral water so far. I’m going to get another bottle of water and some MUSHROOM Tea in me (more to come on that too!) I’m keeping my movement down slightly over the next little while. I don’t want to wreck my metabolism, and by that I mean I don’t want my body to adapt to a bunch of activity on no calories. This will help me to continue to burn fat when I do start to slowly add in some food!

Thanks for reading. Get Strong. Stay Strong.

 

Hey, All!

I am finally over my weird little nose/throat cold, and I’ve been hitting the gym. I noticed a lot of people on the social medias doing their 1-7 day fasts, and I hope they went well. Fasting does so many good things for your body. It eliminates inflammation. It allows the body to reset itself. It gives your digestive system a break and allows it to help regulate your hormones.

Every February for the last few years, I have embarked on my own fasting crusade. Last year I even did a full blown medical detox with Dr. Pompa (he’s pretty much the guru for detox). I think it is a worth while practice to challenge yourself to let your body lead itself to survive on its own energy stores. The human body has evolved over time to be able to handle long periods without food. We didn’t always have a grocery store nearby to get our next meal.

We have been in a constant state of fed that never lets the body function the way it should. I’ve mentioned before that I’ve gone as long as 15 days without food. I will typically throw in a 3 day fast every few months, but I do like to go on an extended fast. I will obviously lose weight. I will more than likely lose most of that from my fat stores. I hope that my keto’ish diet over the last several months will help kick my body into full blown ketosis very quickly. I don’t know how long I’m going to go this time. What I do know is that I’m going to keep you guys up to date with how I’m feeling.

Now along with the fasting, I’m going to concentrate on getting my body some nutrients that I’ve been hoping my diet is doing. I’ll be focusing on getting plenty of mineral water with some really good salt in there (not that little yellow rain jacket stuff). I’ll be taking some other supplements that I’ll be doing a little article on every day. I’m going to hit the sauna for long sessions to really flush out my glands of any build up. I will be continuing with my lifting regimen, and along with that, I’ll be putting some amino acids into the system to help stave off any muscle loss (I don’t want to lose any muscle) as well as some creatine.

I will do a little coffee and green tea because they have some detoxing effects themselves. I’ll also be throwing some Apple Cider Vinegar and some of my homemade Kombucha down the gullet. I have some probiotics and some conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) that will help break down some fat stores a little faster.

Anyway, thanks for reading. I’ll keep you posted on here, Facebook, Instagram, and  Twitter.

Get Strong. Stay Strong.

Guys, I love doing the ketogenic diet. I feel GREAT! I have tons of energy. I do not need to eat as much. I have done my own little experiment this last week, and I have  to tell you…

I went deep dark keto the last few months without lifting heavy weights. The last two weeks, I lifted KETO and I felt really good. The last of this week I thought I would try ‘CARB FRONT LOADING’  which is a really cool term for EATING CARBS BEFORE YOU WORK OUT. Which may be dumb.

Yesterday, I was completing my sets and I hit a wall. It could have been the new regimen. It could have been lack of motivation. I will tell you that I had to mentally conquer myself after a huge ‘DUMP’ in ‘why the hell am I doing this’ MODE. Does that make sense?

I lift heavy weight a lot. I go hit golf balls to get better at golf. I train my team at ‘real work’, and I can’t remember a time over the last couple year where I literally/physically, lost will and motivation to accomplish a task.

I can only contribute this to the fact that I was ‘pumped’ by my own body using its fat stores as energy to BURN MORE FAT than burning my energy stores and getting to the end of them and my body wanting to hang on to what I had!

I’ll keep on trying these guys against each other. I do find it fascinating that I could “crash” after adding an influx of carbs!

I hope this changes your thinking about exercising.

Alright, JoshDoes’ers, this is what I’m doing in the gym. Like I said before, doing 2-a-days for months does nothing for weight loss. My program for gaining strength definitely works for adding more weight to the bars and dumbbells, but doing the early morning fasted cardio pretty much killed any real muscle growth and fat loss.

Now that I believe I’ve reset my metabolism, I’m going to do a slower approach to gain lean muscle mass and lose fat. I’m going to do 2 full body workouts a week, and I’m going to increase my NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis). NEAT is basically adding more movement to my day, i.e., less sitting more walking around. I was averaging about 7,000 steps a day. I’m going to try and get to 9-10k.

In the gym, I’m going to increase my sets for 3 weeks, and I’m going to add 2 more reps per lift each week. This will hopefully add more volume which will add to more muscle stimulation. After this 3 week process, I’m going to change the rep ranges. I’m doing heavy weights 1-4 reps for each exercise this round. Next round I’m going to work in the medium weight 8-12 rep range. I think this will help my Central Nervous System (CNS) to adapt in a way that will continually increase a muscle growing signal to my body. I think some people call this Muscle Confusion, but what I’m really trying to do is get more muscle stimulation in all the rep ranges so that I can continually increase strength and still add endurance.

When it comes to my diet, I’m going to stay ketogenic on every day I’m not lifting, but I’m going to throw in more carbs at the end of the training sessions. Hopefully, this will tell my body to throw these extra calories into my muscles instead of into my fat stores! With that said, yesterday I increased my carbs from 20g to 60g. I increased my protein from 46g to 132g. Fats: I fell a little short on those yesterday because I really was too full to get any extra in. I’ll get all this locked down soon enough.

Thanks for reading. I’m enjoying the feedback. Please, keep the comments and questions coming. Check me out on twitter and Instagram: @quests4josh and Facebook joshdoes.com! Get strong. Stay Strong!

I’ll figure this thing out yet. You can still zoom in and check it out. I needed just a little more protein today. My muscles were still sore from Wednesday’s workout so I added a piece of steak and a small red potato! delicious meal! I’ll throw in my workout tomorrow. Keep reading. I appreciate all the comments, and I’m more than willing to answer questions or research something you guys are wondering about! Get Strong. Stay Strong.

Now that ‘Carb-mas’ is over, I’m getting back on the KetoTrain. Started today off with some coconut oil coffee, bacon, and eggs. I’m going to do a better job at posting my macros at the end of the day. I’m trying to get to 80% fat, 15% protein, 5% carbs. Any time that I can get more fat than that, I’m calling that a victory. I’m going to hit the gym with a progressive volume overload in mind. I think that a few months off of crushing myself has help reset my metabolism, and I can once again start out at the friggin’ rock bottom! I should have maintained some strength, because like I said, that progressive body split I put myself through gets you strong and keeps you strong.

This year on joshdoes.com, I’m going to post or link to you guys what I read/learn/watch. I’m probably the most knowledgeable regular Joe when it comes to health and fitness that is also not healthy or fit. I drink a little too often, and I am completely inconsistent when it comes to exercise. I’m all in or all out! I will put less time under the bar, and I’m going to work on my flexibility for the first couple months. It’s G’off’season (golf’s off season), and this is where the swing is forged for the season.

I hope to get some more things going on here this year, and I need your participation. What would you like to know? What would you like me to try? I’ll be your guinea pig. I wish you all a great new year, and I hope you get strong and stay strong!

Hello All:

I think I made that rookie mistake…that I basically ignored. You have to drink plenty of fluids if you are going to do this Ketogenic Diet. I haven’t really been consistent in the gym, but I have been hitting the sauna, which is my favorite part of the gym. I guess I’ve been going at this for a little over a month, and it came crashing down a few days ago. Now, full disclosure, I’d been trying to get some booze into the diet trying to stay within the macros, but I cut that out for a few days to get back into ketosis. I did go to a whiskey tasting where I drank responsibly, and the next night I had 6 drinks at and following a holiday party. Nothing crazy. I didn’t wake up all hungover or anything, but around 2 in the afternoon, I got a ridiculous headache. I don’t get headaches. This thing just straight up murdered me. I was rubbing my hands to just give myself a little relief when I noticed how dry they were. Then it hit me. I’d play golf twice and hit the gym and sauna 3 times that week, and I had little more than 64oz. of water that did not include my coffee. Friggin’ dumbass. So. I’m eating some rice, and drinking lots of water, and I’ll go back to the 3-day fast to hammer the ketosis again.

Drink water. Lots of water. I’m going to uptick the sodium too with my new Thrive Market Himalayan salt. I failed here. We’ll try again.

So, this is the 3rd week into the ketosis diet. I wanted to see if I could just wing it. I’ll tell you that I find it just a little tedious to plan, track, and follow this thing. I pretty much figured that I had the idea of what I could eat and not eat to keep myself in the ranges I wanted. This was dumb. I was really only in ketosis for about 2 days. I do like to have a drink of wine or two; maybe a beer makes its way down, but YOU CAN’T DO THAT and follow this diet. I guess I don’t want to sound like an idiot. I pretty much knew that all those alcohols and carbs would be metabolized in the liver, and my liver enzymes are going to give me my ketones. I was very curious if I could just keep the carb/protein/fat ratio to the perfect level, but I think I underestimated one thing. It takes your body more time to for your body to metabolize alcohol than the rest of the macros. Ray Cronise really got me turned onto the whole “calorie in calorie out” mindset a few years ago. Metobolic Winter Hypothesis. Read this if you are trying to lose weight.

Any way, I’m going to get my shit together and take a loss here. I have to track. I have to eliminate the booze. I think after Thanksgiving, and my minimal amount of activity, I have yet to fully deplete my body from the glycogen stores I need to in order to get into deep ketosis. I think the easiest way here is to just do another 3 day fast, and start again. I do have a moderately big presentation next Thursday. This is on a professional level. I don’t get paid to write this blog. I’m going to go into this presentation fully fasted/fat driven, and I’ll let you know about it.

Thanks for reading. Get Strong. Stay Strong.