The updated "everything post"

I noticed recently, when checking out the stats from this blog, that, for whatever reason, more readers than usual have been checking out my so-called "everything post" from last July -- the one where I laid out every last little detail of my day-to-day food, etc. routine. Then I went back, for kicks, and read that post and I realized that a fair amount of stuff had changed.

Not that I am actually handing out life advice here; I am just telling you what *I* do, and you can figure out what works for you. But I hate to leave that old post up without an update, because, like I said, some things have changed. So.... read that one if you need to, because I am not going to bore you by re-explaining what *all* this stuff is about, and then come back here for the update, which goes like this:

Supplementation:

-- I am still taking Green Pastures fermented-cod-liver/butter oil blend. Vitamins A, E and K2 in a great balance? Yes, please. But, full disclosure: I use the pills, not the gel. I will not ingest rotting-fish gel in *any* flavor, and I don't care how much you or a smart cave girl might tell me that the Cinnamon Tingle flavor is delicious. <Shudder> Pill. Not gel. Understood?

-- I have upped my magnesium-citrate intake to 1200 mg/day. Remember to go slow with the magnesium, kids, or you'll be, er, setting up shop on the crapper for a while. But if you start slow and get the dosage right, it really helps sleep and everything else. I still take a One-a-Day multi-vitamin, but, no,  I still don't really know why.

-- If things get all whackadoodle and stressed -- work, life, whatever -- I will also start taking a B-complex pill once every couple days. But I try to make sure it isn't a crazy-high dosage, and I also only use it here and there, not every day.

-- Serrapeptase? I quit taking it, and I haven't felt a shred of a wisp of a difference. L-glutamine? Yeah, I am still taking that for gut healing/integrity, and I will continue to do so. And that's it for supplementation.

Food:

--Almost everything from that last post still holds true in the food department in terms of *what* I eat. . Grassfed beef and lamb is our main source of animal protein. Eggs every day. Veggies at every meal. Some "nasty stuff" (e.g., liver pate, sardines, organs) on a pretty regular basis. It's all going well, and *just* about the same (although see below regarding fruit and nuts). Never a shred of gluten.

--But the *way* I eat is a bit different. I love love love the delayed-breakfast thing that I started a few weeks back. A typical day is just coffee with coconut oil and unsalted grassfed butter until later in the morning when I eat a real breakfast.

-- I also love the ketogenic state that the delayed-breakfast routine keeps me in for much of the day. Partitioning my carbs into the post-5-pm window, after working out in the late afternoon, has been really really good to me. I get a load of work done. My energy is high. It's awesome. And it fuels my body well post-workout.

--I am not *quite* as in love with full-on post-workout carb-backloading. Emphasis on "full-on." As I said, I like partitioning my carbs into that late-afternoon/early-evening post-workout window, and that is a large part of backloading. That has been good. But when I really make a spectacle out of myself -- stuffing in carbs like there's no tomorrow, sometimes including some Ben & Jerry's in there --  I gotta say, I think I am fucking with my insulin regulation in a bad/not-so-great way. If I do that full-on crazy backload, I get a touch of Raynaud's numbness in my fingers and generally don't feel as good the next day as if I just partition a (still pretty) sizable portion of good carbs into that window, but don't act like I just got out of prison. In other words, sweet potatoes, white rice and ripe bananas? Sure. Ben & Jerry's in the protein shake, or maybe in a bowl the size of Texas? Not so much.

-- I also have cut back a lot on nuts, hardly eating them at all anymore, and I also don't have fruit and coconut milk on anything near the regular basis that I did before. The reason? Nuts are not really my friend when it comes to digestion, and if I eat too much fruit/coconut milk it's almost like I had too much ice cream. Insulin management isn't *everything*, but it sure is a big piece of the puzzle, and it is different for everyone.

--Snacks? Don't really happen. I usually eat enough at meals to stay full.

--Coffee? You may recall the vaunted caffeine experiment. That lasted a few weeks and I liked it okay, but I really do better with one cup in the morning. So I have my one cup and try to not let it get out of hand. So far this approach/self-discipline is working well, but, caffeine being a wily, addictive drug, I am aware that it could get crazy at any point.

Exercise/Sleep/Stress/etc.:

-- CrossFit 3x/week is still doing it for me. I still sometimes throw in another day of just lifting, and I also will just flat-out walk away from an overly-long metcon session. Heavy lifting and 12-minutes-or-fewer metcons float my boat. Stress, cortisol and over-long metcons do not. I am not trying to make the CrossFit Games. I just want to enjoy the ride.

--I am pretty much of a one-trick pony when it comes to stress management. Meditation. Do it, or don't, but I love it and don't know where my head would be without it. So I do it. Every day.

--Sleep is better when I meditate, and even better than that if I can just get eight glorious hours. I wrote in the older post that I always wanted to get seven hours of sleep. I find that life is just a giant fucking bowl of chocolates with eight. And chocolate (dark, please; really really dark) is a good thing. A giant fucking bowl of it is even better.

That's all I got, folks. Again, that's my recipe for now. Find your own way, as always.














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