From what I've learned, supplements are not necessary but there are some that definitely help for either general health or performance. Here is a list of what I currently take and why:

It will definitely shock you how bad this stuff tastes but you can't beat being able to get 3 cups of vegetables in 1 8oz glass. I made the mistake of thinking a serving was 1 tablespoon at first - which is a horrible mistake but also makes the teaspoon seem not nearly as bad.

This supplement is about $9 for 30 servings -- not bad at all, once again. If you've noticed, I try to look for quality, availability, and price.

I usually buy this at Wegmans.

https://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Grass-Organic-Smoothie-Booster/dp/B078GZ8Y66/ref=sr_1_50?crid=IK6BFMQ6EL0I&keywords=green%2Bsuperfood&qid=1561931588&s=gateway&sprefix=green%2Bsuper%2Caps%2C152&sr=8-50&th=1

Both Ben Greenfield and Michael Matthews recommend creatine for just about everyone. With over 3 decades of research, creatine has been shown to pretty dramatically increase power and muscle gain with very little risk. Ben Greenfield also states that there is science to show it benefits your brain, liver, and bones as well. He recommends 5-10g every day, even if you are not trying to build muscle. Both Ben and Michael are heavy researchers in the health and fitness space and actually formulate their own supplements, so I trust this input.

I'm not sure I personally would take this if I was not trying to gain muscle just because it is extra money but it is interesting to know all the benefits Creatine has and how low-risk it is to take.

That being said, if you are not active, I do not think you would get much benefit from taking this. But if you are... Get on it. Depending on where you go, this supplement is $10-$15 for 80 servings, which is not bad at all. I take at least 5g each morning, and if I am doing a workout, I have closer to 8-10g if you include this plus my Pre-workout.

I get this supplement at GNC.

This may seem like a lot but if you compare the benefits to the prices, it is worth it if you have a little extra cash. With everything, this adds up to about $100/month if I use all these regularly. Since I do not use the protein powder too regularly and I probably skip 7-10 days each month for pre-workout, I probably spend closer to $75/month.

For someone who does not work out but still is health conscious and at least somewhat active, I strongly suggest the first three supplements - Vitamin D3, fish oil, a green superfood blend to build a strong immune system and to increase heart and bone health. The other supplements I use - creatine, pre-workout, BCAAS, and protein powder I would only suggest if you work out every day or every other day.

I suggest a lot of these supplements mainly because of the suggestions by experts in the health and fitness field. For instance, here is a link to Ben Greenfield's suggestions - and some of the areas where I state "science has shown" or something like that, I referenced this article or have heard about studies from multiple experts in interviews --I don't get everything they recommend but if there is strong science behind it and I can find a good quality product for a reasonable price, I go for it.

Another supplement I have heard great things about from both Ben Greenfield, Shawn Stevenson, and other experts is Magnesium. This is a nutrient that almost everyone is deficient in and has been shown to be great for several things, especially your immune system and bone health. Shawn recommends a topical cream, Ease Magnesium, but I have also heard great things about a brand named Calm, which you can find in most grocery stores.

I've referenced information from a few experts on this blog so far and I've definitely referenced Ben Greenfield the most out of anybody. This is mostly because this is who I have been researching the most lately, reading his books like Beyond Training, listening to his podcast Ben Greenfield Fitness and interviews he has done for a lot of other podcasts, reading articles on his blog, etc.

Ben is a triathlon champion, bow hunter, spear fisher, ex-bodybuilder, CEO of his supplement company (Kion), self-experimenter, and was named top physical trainer in 2008 when he owned multiple advanced training gyms. He has many other titles and the knowledge he has in the health and fitness field from supplements to training/recovery techniques to longevity is insane.

Anyways, I just wanted to share this fantastic interview that gives a good look at just how fascinating this guy is and how much we can all learn from him. I'll share the Youtube, Spotify, and Apple podcast link so choose whichever works best for you.

The title of the podcast is "Ben Greenfield: The Ultimate Health Quest" from the Get Over Yourself podcast.

Youtube:
https://youtu.be/P6PXhL4PmSU

Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6uNxu3oH3KNyRgc54QPap1?si=O3G3f_IXS--r9f9vUODG1Q

Apple:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ben-greenfield-the-ultimate-health-quest/id1430171257?i=1000424658709

You won't be disappointed.

I absolutely hate looking at labels and just the idea of "counting calories." That being said, it is still important to know what you're consuming. So since I'm trying to build muscle, I had an idea of what numbers I should be hitting and I wanted to see what adjustments I had to make to my diet, if any, to get enough calories and protein to gain some lean muscle mass.

From multiple sources like Ben Greenfield's Beyond Training and a couple of quick articles I found on Google, these were my calorie intake and protein goals:

• 3000 calories
• Protein (g) = Between 0.7 and 0.8 x body weight in lbs  = 0.8 x 155 = 124g of Protein 

I think I only need about 2300-2400 calories normally, but for muscle gain I should aim closer to 2800-2900. Another good note is not to go over 200g of Protein to because an overload (more around 250g) can cause ammonia toxicity in your body.

Here is the data that I got for tracking my calories and macro-nutrients for a month:

Even though I did not enjoy doing the counting, you can tell that tracking this helped me reach the numbers that I wanted. Each week I did it, my calorie and protein intake went up closer to an average of 3000 calories and 140g of protein. My numbers also had a tighter range each day and by Week 4 my calorie count never hit below 2535.

What I did to increase my calories to the range I wanted was add 2 daily snacks.

1. A Health Warrior Bar
2. Either celery w/ almond butter or carrots w/ ranch.

My girlfriend, Taylor, was nice enough to get my 23andme done a couple years ago. Back then, I wasn't anywhere as close to as interested in looking at all the health information you can find with your genes as I am now. 

I recently heard of the website Promethease.com from an interview with Ben Greenfield. Promethease is a website that you can import your "raw data" from 23andme and get a ton more information; relating your SNPs (or "snips"), which are some of your genetic variations, to scientific publications like those found in PubMed. It was $12 to do but it's well worth it because of the amount of information you get and I based my trust in the data on how many publications were related. Here are some examples of what it told me...

This data was linked to 232 different publications through Promethease which was more than any other data so I definitely think this is an important one. Folic acid is found in spinach and other green vegetables, bread, rice, beans, and citrus fruits. Deficiencies are connected to lacks of cognitive function, depression, and various cancers.

I plan on adding more spinach, rice, and beans to my diet daily to make up for this.

This is very interesting because I actually was given constructive criticism today that in meetings I am too analytical and straightforward and that I may have offended someone in our past construction meeting.  I 100% agree with, "When under stress you may have more difficulty recognizing emotional state of others"... I get nervous speaking at a table of over about 6-7 people (especially if I don't know them too well) and I get stressed out to the point where I derail myself and things don't come out the way I wish they did and I definitely come off as a bit of an ass... Taylor would probably say I always have lack of empathy...

When I was talking to my coworker, I was telling him something like Toastmasters would be great for me to get more comfortable with public speaking. I really should look into doing this. 

I have actually seen this first-hand with my blood/glucose monitor! I've wondered why when I wake up 10hrs fasted I'll be over 90 mg/dl on some days; when if I fast for 20 hours, I always get under 70 mg/dl. I'll have to check what it is when I fast 10hrs during the day and not overnight but I think it will be lower because my blood/glucose usually only reaches mid-90s or higher after I've eaten a meal with heavy carbohydrates.

What’s most incredible is that the three of us decided to take control of our health and fitness for totally different reasons - Mike: weight loss, me: strength and endurance training, and Kevin: overall self-improvement and fascination in what he heard from experts. In the end, we all now truly enjoy playing around with our diets, testing out new things, and learning what we can do to take control of our health.

Listening to these experts has sparked something way bigger than just a diet but for our whole lives we have way more awareness of what we can do by doing a little bit of research and letting go of processed foods and sugars.

I’m not saying low-carb is the only way to go - it’s not for everyone and you can definitely do it the wrong way. The three of us just all happen to go the low-carb route but I know there are similar stories from USDA MyPlate followers, vegans, vegetarians, etc. What's most important is to open your eyes to what health experts have been trying to tell us for years through podcasts and books and find out for yourself what works best for you.

​
If you have any questions on what experts I suggest to start with based on your goals, feel free to comment or email me @ [email protected]. Also, if you have a similar experience to the three of us, email me and you can possibly use this platform as a place to share your story!


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Recently, I was asked if I feel like I'm missing out/suffering at all by being health conscious. My answer is definitely not.. I eat just as much on a standard day as I did before I was health conscious, I just stay away from processed foods, sugar, and most high-carbohydrate foods. I used to drink juice instead of water and I didn't think much at all about what was good for me to eat.

Here's a sample of what goes in my lunchbox when I go to work - so everything up until around dinner time.

1 Cup of Mixed Nuts
1 Health Warrior Bar
Salad (2-3 cups spinach w/ 7oz Ribeye Steak & Caesar dressing)
Carrots w/ Ranch dressing

The Health Warrior bar and carrots w/ ranch are a new addition since I am trying to bulk up and added some calories to my diet. I may only include them on heavier workout days. These Health Warrior Bars are the only bars that I have found that appear to be all natural, grain-free, taste good, and don't have too many carbohydrates or protein.

I'm only showing all this to show how diverse your nutrition plan can still be when you avoid processed foods and sugars. The salad dressings are definitely the worst part of all this. Almost all salad dressings besides select brands are created with heavily processed oils like soybean oil, or even worse, vegetable oil. It's important to stay away from these as much as possible. If there is one thing I need to change about my diet is sauces and dressings - I eat a ton of extra virgin olive oil because I dilute my dressings with it but I need to learn how to create my own dressings.

I just want to share a really cool study done by UConn in 2015.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0026049515003340

If you don't want to geek out like me and actually look at the data and the results, I'll give a summary..

This study was named the FASTER study (Fat Adapted Substrate use in Trained Elite Runners) and was conducted by Jeff Volek, a physician who has a clinically proven method of reversing type 2 diabetes using the ketogenic diet alone (no medications or surgery).

Background Summary
They took 20 of America's top-performing ultra-marathoners (for instance, Ironman triathletes that are in the top 10%) between 21-45 years old, 10 were "high-carb" athletes who ate 59% carbs, 14% protein, and 25% fat while 10 were "low-carb" athletes who ate 10% carbs, 19% protein, and 70% fats. This study was well-controlled, well-monitored, and definitely very invasive with blood removed, fat removed, and even some muscle clipped and removed for testing. What makes this study unique is that all of the low-carb athletes were on this low-carb diet for an average of 20 months (ranging from 9 months to 36 months) so, in theory, they were fat-adapted. This study really shows what it means to be "fat-adapted" - you won't see these results in high-carb athletes who decide to try low-carb for a day, or even a couple months.

Results
The most significant result of this study is the amount of fat oxidation (or fat-burning) that was done by fat-adapted athletes versus the high-carb athletes.

This is the only workout I have not given my typical routine for that's part of my current Workout Plan.

For my core/lower body workout I do at least twice and also my HIIT Endurance workout I'll do once or twice a week, you can see that Here. Or my outdoor workout (which I use for an overall upper and lower body workout but can choose if I want to work on one more than the other), Here.

So here is a typical Upper Body workout for me, as of right now - this is what I did this morning:

4 sets of:

1. 25 Push-ups
2. Alternates between sets w/ 15 Hammer Curls or 12 Curls, using 35lb dumbbells
3. 25 Push-ups
4. 5 Clean and Jerks, doing 5 with left arm then 5 with right arm, using a 50lb kettlebell

Between each workout, I rest for 30 seconds and at the end of each set, I rest for 1 minute.
This workout took me around 34 minutes; which is longer than it usually takes me.
If I had equipment to do dips or pull-ups, I would swap one of the push-up workouts to either 20 dips or 10 pull-ups.

As you can see, I like to push my body to the max in a half hour right when I wake up; I'm not really one to spend 90-120 minutes in a gym taking my time. I enjoy these workouts and with a little bit of pre-workout before, it's not tough for me to get motivated and go. It also makes me feel much more alive and focused in the mornings.