It took me a couple days to get back into ketosis, but stayed in it the past couple days. I do have some exogenous ketones, but I don’t want to rely on them too early in this process. I think fasting is probably the best way to get into it. I am finding that I don’t have to eat all that much. Kale is a great gut filler, and there is such a great amount of fiber in all the avocados,  cabbage, etc., that basically the fatty coffee and super salads are all I really need. I am definitely lacking some water intake so I’ll have to make a better effort on that end.

I am coming off 3 midnight shifts in a row (I typically just work 1). I’m loopy, tired, and I have a confession. I was grabbing some olives from the grocery store on my way home when a beautiful cherry pie caught my eye. I love pie. All kinds. I never really eat any, but they are everywhere during the holidays. I bought it. I haven’t eaten it. I might not, but it’s in the house. That’s the easiest thing to control when you are on any sort of diet is WHAT YOU BUY! I normally have an incredible will power, but the midnight brain got to me. Cherry pie is my favorite. Wait…blueberry. No, half apple, half blueberry, half cherry is my favorite pie.

OOH! Just had a great idea. I’ll kick myself out of ketosis, and then I’ll use my exogenous ketones to see if they really work! AND!!!! I get to use a cheesy ass line like, “now I have my pie and I can eat it too!”

Thanks for reading. Get Strong. Stay Strong.

I’ve been utilizing my social media outlets: FB: joshdoes.com Twitter & Instagram @Quests4josh

So the first 10 days of Ketogenic dieting was a little easier than I had thought. It’s really delicious. I love the fat-coffee, and the tasty dressings for the salads I’m eating on a daily basis. I’m still trying to figure out how to slowly eat the protein for the day, but that will come with a little practice.

Yesterday was Thanksgiving, and as I posted on the social medias, I did not restrict myself. It WAS a gluten free feast, but I hit the whole thing hard. Mimosas, sausage balls, mashed potatoes, stuffing, wine, and an awesome Chocolate Pie! Let me tell you; I had just enough consciousness to make it from the table to the couch. BOOM. Carb Coma. I was knocked the F out solid. It was a great nap, but man it really bogged me down. My blood sugar didn’t spike as much as I thought it was going to, but it was still as high as it has been since I started testing.

I felt like shit today as well. Could have been the mimosas, but my guts were squishy, and I went in and out of some headaches/pressure. I threw down some bacon and eggs, and got back on the fat train. I think I’m going to do a 24 hour fast just to get my blood sugar back down. All in all, I think the keto deal is going to be a great tool. I’ll get back to the blogging more regularly. I’m thinking I’ll throw in some of my recipes as I go along! I’ll be hitting the gym too next week. I’ll give you my 3 day full body plan too! Thanks for reading. Get Strong. Stay Strong!

So all of my measuring equipment hasn’t arrived, but that’s not that big of a deal. Amazon just told me that every thing will be here by tomorrow evening. So, I’ll have a last meal tomorrow afternoon. The trick here is to test my fasted blood glucose, blood ketones, and breath ketones for a baseline.

According to Dr. Mercola, doing an extended fast will only aid in getting into ketosis faster. I’ve gone as long as 15 days without eating before; so this won’t be that big of a deal. I’m going to fast for 3 full days. I’ll be keeping my blood glucose, ketones, and breath ketones logged, and I’ll give you guys some pics over on the FaceBook page. I’m not exactly thrilled about making myself bleed, but I guess for science sake, it has to be done.

I feel like the whole Ketogenic Diet/Ketosis is being plastered all over the place. I think it’s time that I give it a good go, and report my findings to you. Hopefully, I’ll get into ketosis fairly quickly, and I’ll be able to find a good carb range that won’t kick me out of ketosis for too long. The whole lifting some weights thing is going to be the hardest part of this diet. It’s going to be very challenging to get enough protein in my system while also maintaining ketosis. I think it’s possible, but I’ll have to be very diligent about my food planning and prepping. I’m not normally a ‘dieter’ per se, but I am going to try this out. Get used to seeing some pics of bloody fingers and avocados all over joshdoes.com social posts.

Thanks for reading. If you have any questions, please add a comment. Get Strong. Stay Strong.

Hello everyone,

I’m having a little bit of a tough time getting my body analysis scheduled, but I’ll get that done soon. I wanted to just give everyone a quick idea of what is coming up on joshdoes.com. I’ve gotten amazing results with my first session of my work out program. I’ve more than likely lost a little bit of muscle since I stopped hitting the gym so regularly, but the test will show what’s going on with that. I have stopped hitting the gym because I really needed my body to regulate itself with the excursion rate I was putting it through! It’s tough to lose weight continuously when you are doing 2-a-days because your body will adapt to the calorie burn, and it will get more efficient at utilizing what you give it to STAY THE SAME! I thought that I could ‘cardio’ the fat loss out of my body, but I completely neglected the first rule in health/wellness/fitness… you can’t out work a poor diet!

I eat a fairly healthy diet. I don’t eat fast food. I eat a lot of salads/greens, and I get grass-fed meats, and I eat wild caught seafood. I do consume my fair share of booze (probably some of your share too!). But I think I learned a few things that are going to help move my body to the composition that I want it to be. I am going to vary the rep ranges/weight that I am throwing up. I am also going to go on a ketogenic diet! I’ll be posting more on both of these in the up coming weeks, but for now, I’ve ordered a couple ketone testing devices, and I’m formulating my diet to give me enough FAT and Protein to burn FAT and utilize PROTEIN for muscle growth. I think there is a good balance of activity and calorie consumption that will really get me to where I want to be.

My first workout regimen really did put on some muscle, and I hope everyone gives it a try for a few cycles. I’m trying to get an app for it, and that is turning out to be a little more in-depth that I first thought, but I’ll get it out there!

Any way, josh does is going to be hitting your feeds more frequently so keep an eye out!

I was at a 74% Readiness this morning. I slept very well, but as you can see at the bottom, my HRV is at a 27. I think I’m going  to have to do some meditation, stretching, and some deep breathing exercises over the next few days to get this thing up!

I’m starting to miss the gym.

Alright everyone, I’m back. I played a whole lot of golf in a short period of time, and with the way I swing, I needed a day or so of rest. I’m going to closely track my HRV, and if I’m near a minimal ‘GO’ number tomorrow, I’m going to max out on the Bench Press. I’ll post it up, and maybe even get a video of it.

I feel like I’ve put on some good size here, and I have a better than goo idea of my ‘maintenance’ calorie amount is. I’ve put on a few pounds, and I think it’s been muscle. We’ll start a ‘shredding’ phase here in a couple weeks. Thanks for reading. I really appreciate all the comments and questions.

Get Strong. Stay Strong!

I’m in a huge hole, but I’m taking all this as a great teaching tool of what NOT to do to your body. My Oura ring’s a fantastic tool to let me know when I can hammer myself or dial it back. I have literally ignored all the information. I’ve known what I was doing from the start, but man it’s tough right now.

Today is chest day, and I didn’t want to skip any more workout. I dropped the weights down a little bit, and I did less exercises to help my body slowly recover without completely losing any muscle that I may have built over the last 3 months.

Drop Set Barbell press: 4 Sets, 6*6: 50/35, 50/35, 50/35, 50/35. This was surprisingly easy. I have definitely gained some long term strength.

Push Ups to failure: 3 sets. I forgot to write them down, and I really can’t remember what I did. It was not jaw dropping…

There was a guy in the gym utilizing the cable machine so I did another chest exercise that I haven’t done yet, but I knew it would get me a good pump quickly…

Plate Press: 35lb. plate. I’ve never done this before, but I know how good it is at really squeezing the pecs. I think you’re supposed to put 2 plates together, but my chest still got a good workout with just the one. So I did 3 sets; 3 reps/4 reps/5 reps. I did lifts in the middle of the chest, and then moved the plate to the outside of each pec and hit that angle. So: 3*3*3, 4*4*4, 5*5*5… I’m about an hour removed from the workout, and I can still feel the pump. This is a good one that I’ll be throwing this one in more often.

So, if you haven’t heard of Hear Rate Variability (HRV), here is a good link about what it is, and why you should track it. HRV w/ Ben Greenfield & Dr. James Heathers

I love Ben Greenfield. His podcasts, articles, and research have been extremely informational, entertaining, and a little life changing. I highly suggest you check him out. He has tons of content, and he is a very highly recognized and respected influence in the health and fitness world.

My HRV was slowly dipping during the second month, and then it just dropped sub40’s and has been there for weeks now. Yesterday when I woke up, it was 17! I took it easy, and I got nearly 12 hours of sleep yesterday, and this morning is was 37. So, it’s going to be an uphill battle to get this thing back in the 80-100 range. I’ve got a plan though!!!!

Thanks for reading. Get Strong. Stay Strong.

I ran my ass around the golf course this morning during a completely ridiculous tournament that we were hosting. All while completely fasted, and while having the lowest HRV rating my Oura ring has given me this entire endeavor. I do not need to lift heavy weight with my recruitment patterns as screwed up as they are. My legs are already pretty strong, and I can’t afford to hurt myself right now. I know that I need to really focus on my mobility after crushing myself over the last 3 months. Perhaps that’s what I’ll be doing for my next challenge…a mobility project! I had over 20k steps today, my legs are worked. I’m calling it good. Plus, my ass gets really big when I lift heavy, and I can barely fit into my pants!!!!!

 

Get Strong. Stay Strong!

So I am absolutely spent. I am throwing myself in a lot of different directions, and I am very upset that I am not able to stick to this thing 100%, but that’s life, right? What I’m trying to do now is get the major lifts in on the regimen I’ve prescribed so that I can give you guys a plan to get stronger in this essential strength lifts. I know it works. It will work for you. Here’s the proof for now…

I haven’t lost my continuity on the bench press. Today is the last round for that (I’m going to adapt the week I missed with the rest of  the workouts). I have a lot of time constraints going right now with starting a new business and helping some others.

Bench Press: 4 Sets, 10 Reps: 90/110/135/135. I wasn’t surprised at how easy this was, but I was really pumped today.

I didn’t have much time to be in the gym today. I have really tried to be a meat head for you guys being in the gym so much, but I have other shit going on. Today is basically shoulder day, so I’m going to hit them quickly.

Dumbbell shoulder press: 4 Sets, ALL to FAILURE W/40 lbs.: 14/10/8/8. I took a little extra rest before the last set.

Face Pulls: 4 Sets, ALL to FAILURE W/ 50lbs.: 16/12/12/9. I hate to be a pig, but a couple hot gym girls showed up so I had added motivation on the last two sets.

That’s all I had today. The plan for now is to get my ankle working correctly (it’s almost 92%), and hit some low heavy squats. I’m going to hammer these deadlifts over the next couple weeks because I know that I can make a huge progression at this point. I can completely feel that my body is extremely over worked, under nourished, and under rested. I try folks, but I ate 3k calories plus a few years ago, and it’s hard. I’m a small little dude, but I’m doing my best. I AM GETTING STRONGER THOUGH!

Hit me up. I’m coming to the end of this thing, and I want to know what you want to see me try next! I’m up for anything at this point!

Thanks for reading. Get Strong. Stay Strong!