2019, on a trip to China:
today:
Still far from at my goal, but further along than I’d believed, apparently… I think part of my brain still thought I looked like the old pic. 
p.s. huge bonus points to anyone who recognizes the shirt reference without googling it. 
I feel like I’m getting less hungry - yesterday I only modified my lunch by a bit… I’ve been having a half avocado mixed with 3 hard-boiled eggs, some olive oil mayo and 1/3 cup black olives on romaine lettuce leaves. Yesterday I did a full avocado as it was getting rather soft and I didn’t want to waste it if it turned brown. That was tooooo much.
When dinner rolled around at 7:30 or so, it was all I could do to eat 3-4oz of roast chicken on a plate of greens. I did have a small piece of “keto fudge” around 9:30, which is a recipe I make by melting sugar-free chocolate chips and coconut oil 1:1, pouring into silicone molds, and refrigerating. This time I also added 1tsp of peppermint extract to make mint chocolate. Even that small amount felt like I’d overstuffed myself…
In the evening I was reading more of Jason Fung’s work, and am giving serious consideration to doing a multi-day fast.
Last night I slept really well. Very interesting dreams, all about discussing fat loss & muscle growth and whether they can indeed happen at the same time. There were other more nonsensical aspects to the dreams as usual, but the core of the “plot” seemed to be discussing health stuff. I took a while to fall asleep as my daughter started fussing shortly after I went to bed, and it took a few mins to get her back to sleep, but overall… I’m happy with my sleep stats.
On Saturday we went to the beach, and that was ~8 miles of walking, including the walking at the beach itself… which featured a very fun game of tag in the shallows, and I was not even remotely tired the whole time. My wife had wanted to bus back (since we’d walked, we didn’t have a car seat for an Uber/taxi/etc) but I was good to walk… was looking forward to it actually. When she found out it would take less time to walk than to bus, we decided to walk… (woohoo!)
Then yesterday, we were out for another walk, and I’d stopped to adjust something on my watch and the girls kept walking. They ended up getting about a half block ahead of me, so I ran to catch up… effortlessly… and I didn’t slow down when I reached them but kept going past. I did stop a few seconds later as the point was to go for a walk, not be running around near them, but… that was pretty cool.
TONS more energy than I’m used to.
edit: I also updated my stack with the new Emperor ZP Test this morning, nothing to report from that yet but I’ll keep watching.
I’m continuing to have an increased amount of energy, and my bodyfat % has dropped a bit (0.1% woo) more, and muscle has gone up 1lb… according to my fancy bioimpedance scale, at least. I’m not expecting it to be as accurate as a DEXA or anything, but it’s what I’ve been using. 
Aaaanyway.
I had a very interesting dream last night which might be EF related?
In this dream, I’d found a house for sale… for absolute peanuts… because nobody else wanted it. It looked amazing to me - needed tons of work, but had amazing potential. This is the closest example I could find from a quick google search, just for reference… the design seemed important.
There was a long cantilevered room, like a closed-in porch, attached to the front of the house. The floor was large planks with gaps between them, like a deck, except you could see down to a valley far below between each board. I recall thinking that I’d definitely need to fix that, but that the view from it afterward would be AWESOME. Maybe skip that if you’re afraid of heights though… it was as long as a shipping container, and just hanging out in space… actually, a bit phallic, now that I think of it… haha 
Attached to the back of the house was a huge barn, with big exposed rocks sticking out of the side of a hill, rather than a flat floor. This is the part that seemed most significant about the house… the fact that I could see the rocks and they were inside. The roof of the barn needed many repairs, but that’s just in keeping with the “fixer upper” state of the whole structure.
It seemed important that I convince my father that this was a good deal, but I was almost unable to speak, as my mouth was crammed full of hard candy. Gobstoppers or something similar. I was unable (or unwilling) to spit them out to speak clearly, despite there being some sort of deadline after which the deal was not available anymore.
VERY symbolic, but I feel I’ve just barely scratched the surface of what each element might mean.
I welcome any insights anyone might wish to share about symbolism etc.
The energy boost I’m feeling each day is NUTS. This morning we went for a walk around a nearby golf course, and instead of the stroller we took the wagon… 40lbs at least on its own, plus a 25lb toddler, our water bottles, etc. I had so much energy at several points I asked the kiddo “want to go fast?” and I just started running, awkwardly pulling the wagon behind/beside me. The major limiting factor was my sandals, which don’t flex nearly enough to run… they tend to “slap” the ground, which is uhh… inelegant. Not that my running ability or form is great either, but it was much more difficult than in running shoes.
After we finished the loop, I asked my wife if she wanted to go to Starbucks… which was another 20 minute walk, up and down several hills.
We ended up stopping to wait for my wife several times, as she couldn’t keep up with me power walking and pulling the kiddomobile.
According to my various tracking things (Oura ring and Pacer app on my phone) we walked just over 6.4 miles/10km. Now that we’re home, I’m eager to have some cold water… but other than that, I THINK I COULD DO IT AGAIN.
Not tired, no stiffness, no sore joints.
I am running some tech to boost mitochondrial energy but I’ve been running that for several weeks now, and this is new. EF and doing intermittent fasting (nominally keto) are the only real changes I’ve made… so either EF scripting, my body finally getting fat adapted, or some combination of them.
Either way, I love it…
edit: The diet changes and EF are the ONLY things I’ve done so far… no changes to my supplement stack, no chemical metabolic hacks, and no strength training (yet).
I’ve been thinking about how I want to celebrate after I reach my fitness goals, and I’ve settled on buying a new jacket.
I currently wear a leather jacket that I love, but it’s already too big on me… so I’ve been looking at replacements. That’s got me thinking about style in general, which is a topic I typically roll my eyes so hard at I need to run after them. Anyway…
I’m completely ignoring what’s “trendy” (which more often than not looks RIDICULOUS to me), and am looking only at what I like, and what I believe will give me the look I want.
Here’s the kind of clothes I wear on a regular basis now… a typical non-summer day might be relaxed jeans and a waffle henley:
I like it, it works for me. I will, of course, need smaller size versions…
Here’s the new jacket I’m looking at:
When I showed that to my wife she said “that wouldn’t work, your shoulders are too narrow…”
She’s not wrong, my shoulders are weak af. Back when I was going to the gym, I could barely do 30lbs for a couple of reps for the overhead press. So, I definitely need to work on those.
But overall, the more I focus on my health, the more I think I really want to “show it off” by how I dress. Baggy jeans and an Old Navy hoodie are fine for working in the garage etc, but I want to level up my game for when I’m out and about. Show off what a “dad bod” can be. 
I think I made a mistake on Saturday, and I’ve been trying to fix it ever since.
Saturday was the day I’ve felt the most energy in YEARS. I was literally running up hills, and my wife couldn’t keep up. She was ready to go home and rest, and I was ready to do the whole thing all over again. I also had a great mood and very clear thinking.
As far as I can tell (I have a KetoMojo tester now to actually track that, moving forward) I was in the ketogenic sweet spot, and was happily burning fat for energy. Then I broke it by eating lunch at 2pm and it went away… 
I did a 23h fast/OMAD yesterday and felt ok, but woke up with a headache this morning… may have been weather-related as I’m annoyingly sensitive to pressure changes, but with all the experimenting I’m doing, who knows.
@DarkPhilosopher I know you’ve done extended fasts before, does my theory re: ketosis on Saturday sound plausible?
Absolutely. I’ve often had those times when my brain started working several times faster, making me feel like the whole world was slow and I was full of energy. I got a lot done during those times, including rapidly annoying people operating at normal speed.
I do notice that as full of energy as I feel, even though I feel I could lift a car above my head, this is inadvisable. The brain operates faster, but the muscles still won’t have the power to hold that car there for very long. Low intensity stuff can be maintained for a long time though.
I expect a person who has become fully keto-adapted and can switch from glucosis to ketosis and back without noticing it would be operating slightly faster as well, but probably would no longer notice it. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten there completely. It’s why I want to convince myself to go OMAD+ADF so badly.
As far as the headache goes, it would be hard to pin it down. I have had them at times when trying something new, while the body is still figuring out what it is that I’m doing. Am I going to be consistent or is this a one-off? The headache feels similar to the dehydration one to me.
Yep I definitely annoyed my wife that day, though mostly because she was struggling to keep up whereas usually we’re walking at the same pace. (she has to walk faster, as I’m 14" taller than her lol)
Interesting; I do feel as though if I had been in the gym, I would have had some pretty decent strength gains. Instead we just walked fast for a few hours, with some running interspersed. No soreness the next day though, so I wonder how I would have felt if I had lifted.
That’s what I’m aiming for. The keto adaptation at least. I’m experimenting with OMAD, but I do enjoy occasionally having lunch with friends etc, and I would definitely miss that. I’m thinking that once I hit my fitness goals, I could maintain them with standard IF + periodic OMAD, and a clean diet, rather than going too hard on the fasting all the time.
It could also have been dehydration, although I was rather congested this morning and felt almost instantly better after blowing my nose to clear my sinuses. I do need to get some more electrolytes… I have some LMNT packets here somewhere, but only a couple left.
Low intensity is relative based on your fitness level. If it didn’t take any effort before the fast, it won’t take any during the fast.
The fasted state is anti-inflammatory and tends to trigger less lactic acid. So you’ll feel less. Doesn’t mean your body doesn’t need to recover though. Or that there’s enough readily available energy present in the muscles for strenuous exercise.
There’s a world of difference between energy stored in the muscles and energy having to be delivered to them. In computer terms it’s like RAM vs L1 cache. With normal usage you don’t notice it, but when you tax the system, you’ll find out its limitations. I recommend against it.
Or at least have a spotter standing by. It’s no fun when the proprioceptive system concludes your body doesn’t have what it takes to do something without causing too much damage and simply turns off your ability to keep your arms or legs straight, making you spontaneously collapse with a hilarious WTF look on your face.
Unless I start dating a keto-cook I’ll stick to at least OMAD. In my case, I’ll miss the coffee-additives. Just don’t like black coffee.
Keto-adaptation can take a while to finally happen, I’ve heard of people where it took 6 months of 18:6 to OMAD to make it happen. All depends on how stuck in its ways the body is. If it’s been in near-constant glucosis for most of its life, it’ll be slow to respond. We would actually need to trigger an evolutionary response in the body by subjecting it to the constant stressors of having to switch. Which theoretically also afffects any future offspring, likely in a positive direction.
It’s why I want to hit that ADF + OMAD until I hit my target weight and then move towards OMAD with maybe a three-day (dry) fast once every three months. I’ve had a lot of successes with low calorie OMAD, like no more than 500 calories a day taken OMAD style. It did apparently cause an imbalance in my electrolytes, no idea why. Smart supplementation (timing) would be key.
It’s hard to imagine having so little excess body fat that I shouldn’t even do an extended fast any more.
I have all 4 of them in powder form. Mix with water and drink. Concentrated minerals taste funny though.
It was kind of interesting to learn that water can only hold so many of a given mineral before it becomes saturated. Some excess minerals end up floating on the water as little white specks. In my electrolyte mix I have to keep stirring because they don’t all absorb.
One question I still haven’t fully been able to answer is what the effect is of replenishing sodium while fasting. I got the feeling that it makes my fasts more difficult. But this is only for extended fasts, with IF/OMAD drinking some salty water is common practice.
Normally I’d have been flagging by that point, and definitely breathing heavy after running up several hills. This was unusual.
I have no way of testing the amount of glycogen in my muscles, and I’ve never experienced the “bonk” effect that runners talk about, so I don’t know if I depleted my glycogen or not. I need my body saturated with nanotech sensors lol.
I’m partial to machines anyway, so much less chance of getting pinned under a barbell. 
I can’t do black coffee either - 1-2tbsp each of MCT, grass-fed butter and heavy cream for me, as well as some Lakanto sweetener. (allegedly no glucose or insulin response)
That’s where metabolic adjuvants like C8 MCT oil, BHB, HMB (a leucine metabolite, for growing and preserving lean tissue), and Cardarine or Stenabolic come in… I have no interest in being a purist, I just want the results and I’ll do anything I am convinced is safe enough.
I’m targeting 10% BF at 180lbs, but as long as I get the look I want, I’m flexible on total body mass. lol.
191lbs @ 15.1% BF as of this morning… muscle mass has gone up 2lbs in the past 3 weeks, and fat percentage has gone down 0.3%… not sure at the moment what that converts to in lbs - the scale syncs to my wife’s phone, and she’s out with the kiddo at the moment.
I have reqs for a bunch of biomarker labs now, so I’ll go get those done sometime soon. Standard panel stuff only for now; I’ll get a hormone panel (free T etc) done before I start any metabolic supp cycles.
Replying to a related conversation on another thread.
I ate about 30 minutes ago, and even though it was a very low-carb meal that I don’t think anyone would consider “heavy”, I feel as though my brain has gone from 2x speed back down to 1x.
My brain, at the very least, feels much better when I’m in a fasted state. I just need the rest of my body to come to a consensus… lol.
Time to level this up.
Cardarine and Ostarine have been ordered for my lab rat… Hopefully, they’ll arrive in time for my next EF stack rotation… I, of course, listen to the subs where my lab rat can hear them too. 
I’ve got a wearable photobiomodulation device from ████████ on my upper left arm, and I thought something was wrong with it. But, the strap has just gotten too tight… somehow without doing anything, my biceps and triceps are larger…
My muscles feel WARM, as though I’ve been working out… but I’ve spent the last 8 hours at my desk.
Still working on getting that amazing energy back, but this is another interesting effect I’ve noticed.
1 day left on this rotation:
After next week’s washout, should I switch it up to EF2/EF3 or stick with EF1/EF2 for the next one?
I’m thinking there’s definitely some sort of self-image scripting in EF; last night I was showering before bed and looked in the mirror… usually, I see “fat guy”; but this time I saw “muscle, with some fat over top of it”… total perception change. I absolutely have a long way to go, but this feels like progress to me.
Today I’d planned to attempt to replicate the results from last Saturday, with the same walk around the same route. However, my wife changed her mind and decided we should go to a farmers market instead so that’s what we did.
But, I did a basic test and ran for a block on the way there and half a block on the way back. Tons of energy, though not really well utilized as the market was a lot of slow walking and stopping as the kiddo investigated each booth. Again, the biggest limitation was my footwear - my sandals simply don’t bend, and they “slap” the pavement which is not only super loud, it’s not comfortable at all.
So, tomorrow I’ll go look for some new running shoes. I’m still shocked at saying this, but footwear is the major limiting factor here, not my endurance!
I also managed to find some creatine (apparently there’s a shortage?) at a pharmacy, after being told by the guy at GNC that pretty much everywhere was having trouble keeping it in stock. Maybe I should go back and get another jar of it just in case.
My lab rat’s peptides order should be arriving next week, hopefully in time for the next stack rotation. I’ve got until then to decide between EF1/2 or EF2/3.
To anyone who has run an EF stack before, any thoughts? My goal is a body recomp, slanted more toward fat loss than muscle growth, but since I understand how much adding muscle contributes to raising BMR, adding some lean mass is definitely on my goal list.
Please don’t fall for the vegan agenda. Plants are missing so many key nutrients like Vitamin A, D3, K2, Creatine etc…
EDIT: Not even mentioning plant toxins or the fact that vegetarians are found to have much higher levels of Advanced Glycation End Products, which is more than concerning.
I’m beat (for today). Only walked 8 miles, albeit with some jogging in there too, but I did a resistance band workout this afternoon too, with what is allegedly 100lbs of resistance. I have major doubts lol… but it was good enough for what I’ve got at my house right now.
Looking forward:
The Beast Within:
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Using Beast Within, you will use your conscious mind in an extremely effective way to affect your subconscious mind, and help it manifest your ideal leaner, stronger, faster, healthier, better body, in a synergistic way with the Emperor Fitness multistage. You will unleash your mind and remove any blocks you might have that stop you from achieving your dream physical state.
I think this would make a better 3rd slot than Emperor at the moment, which would make my new stack:
Too much, or just right?
Maybe “too much” IS “just right”
Washout week. I think I overdid it yesterday, woke up a bit sore today, especially my neck and traps… gave me a headache this morning from the tightness, but it feels better now. I seem to have slept ok last night at least.
I’ve added 2 new supplements to my supp stack as well - I’ve added 4g of creatine monohydrate and 2.25g of L-carnitine tartrate each per day. No updates yet today on the peptides order, but hopefully that will be here in a couple of days.
No major updates yet, this week has been super busy with work and I’ve had my head wrapped around the details of a new patent application as well as financial projections for DAYS now.
I’ve been going for more walks, with interspersed jogging or sprinting… I’m still amazed that I can do this without getting winded now… 
I also tried to do a couple of pushups the other night, to see if I could… I’ve got rather little upper body strength and haven’t been able to do proper pushups in years so imagine my surprise when I was able to crank out 25 of them with barely any effort.
I’m excited to start my new stack on Monday… still really hoping my peptides will be here by then, but they’re still in transit.
I finally looked into something which had been nagging my brain, regarding therapeutic use of Metformin and exercise (both cardio and strength training) effects. If anyone else is interested, here is the relevant clip from Dr. Rhonda Patrick:
I still need to go get some labs done (fasting insulin, A1c, hormones, triglycerides etc) but based on this I think I will go off my metformin for a few weeks. I’m taking it for longevity reasons, as well as AMPK activation (and cancer prevention), but I want strength gains… so yeah, that’s my plan.
but…
Finally… no peptides yet, USPS says they’re still in transit…
