New Routine for March

Got my blood work back from my physical and numbers are still good, TC-187, LDL-108, HDL-65, TriG-77 (lowest it has been).  Similar to where they were last September, which was a step change down of almost 40 on total C, down 30 on LDL and up 10 on HDL.  I've done some research now for the AMPK cycle and basically it is the longevity energy cycle.  It lets the body flush out the old junk and kind of helps it repair.  Over the next 4 weeks I have a similar schedule as far as down days and days I can be active.  I'm going to use this month to try and schedule a couple of days of AMPK a week where I focus mainly on recovery.  It will require me to switch things up a bit as far as my morning routine, but I maybe able to parlay it into more sleep.  We'll see how it goes, the future maybe AMPK days combined, but for now we'll see how this works.  Generated with the help of AI:

MONDAY (LIFTING/mTOR FOCUS) Eating Window: 12pm-9pm

• 12pm: Break fast - CoQ10 (200mg) + Resveratrol (500mg)
• 12pm-4pm: Main nutrition
• 6:30-7:30pm: Lifting
• 8pm-9pm: Post-workout meal
• 9pm: Begin fast (No berberine - protect mTOR activation)

TUESDAY (FLEX DAY) Option A - AMPK Focus: Eating Window: 10am-6pm

• Morning: CoQ10 (200mg)
• 9:30am: Berberine (500mg)
• 10am: Break fast
• 1pm: Resveratrol (500mg) + Berberine (500mg)
• 5pm: Berberine (500mg)
• 6pm: End eating window

Option B - If Training: Follow Monday or Wednesday schedule based on activity type

WEDNESDAY (EVENING CARDIO) Eating Window: 11am-8:30pm

• Morning: Resveratrol (500mg) + CoQ10 (200mg)
• 10:30am: Berberine (500mg)
• 11am: First meal
• 2pm: Berberine (500mg) [removed this one because the first run felt sluggish]
  
• 4pm: Light meal/snack
• 6-6:30pm: Cardio session
• 7:30-8:30pm: Post-cardio meal (no berberine)
• 8:30pm: Begin fast

THURSDAY (LIFTING) Same as Monday schedule

FRIDAY (CARDIO or REST) If Cardio: Follow Wednesday schedule If Rest: Follow Tuesday Option A

SATURDAY (FLEX DAY) Eating Window: 7am-6pm Option A - AMPK Focus:

• 6:30am: CoQ10 (200mg)
• 6:45am: Berberine (500mg)
• 7am: First meal
• 10am: Resveratrol (500mg)
• 2pm: Berberine (500mg)
• 5:30pm: Final meal + Berberine (500mg)
• 6pm: Begin fast

Option B - If Training:

• 6:30am: CoQ10 (200mg)
• 7am: First meal
• 10am: Resveratrol (500mg)
• Mid-day: Training if planned
• 5:30pm: Final meal
• 6pm: Begin fast (Skip berberine if training)

SUNDAY (CARDIO) Eating Window: 10am-7:30pm

• Morning (fasted): Resveratrol (500mg) + CoQ10 (200mg)
• 9:30am: Single Berberine (500mg)
• 10am: Break fast/First meal
• 2-4pm: Light meal/snack
• 6-6:30pm: Cardio session
• 7-7:30pm: Post-cardio meal
• 7:30pm: Begin fast

Key Features:

• Lifting days protected from AMPK activation
• Flexible windows for required schedules
• Strategic berberine timing
• Post-workout nutrition windows
• Appropriate fasting periods
• Sunday setup for Monday lifting
• Two flex days for adaptation

Key Features:

• Two strong AMPK focus days (Tuesday/Saturday)
• Two mTOR-dominant lifting days (Monday/Thursday)
• Three cardio/moderate days
• Dihydroberberine maximized on rest days
• Lifting days protected from AMPK activation
• Shorter eating windows on rest days
• Longer eating windows on training days

 

2025 Stack and Current State - January 2025

I'll just start with a disclaimer that I am not a doctor or medical professional and anything I have done is merely a test of n=1, and I'm not suggestion anyone do what I do or take what I take.

Now on to what I am doing.  So last year, I got into the longevity space a little bit listening to podcasts and youtube videos on how to extend life or at least make life more enjoyable / easier.  The biggest things from the longevity sphere are eat right, exercise and get enough sleep.  Those are the major tenets, I know real ground breaking stuff.  But as these companies keep growing and expanding there is more product that is put out there for consumption as well.  Novos was kind of the leader in daily mixes, and now Blue Print has joined the market fully (the had a couple of products at the beginning of last year, but now have basically your full diet covered if you want).  The price for these supplements can be in the hundreds of dollars a month, which seems high, but how much are you spending on groceries and food and drink.  I have focused my diet mostly around eggs and sausage on the morning on the weekend, a bowl of oatmeal during the week before work (low sugar variety of instant), after that it could be anything.  During the week it is usually a package of peanut butter crackers and a muscle milk (my first bottle of water has 10 g of collagen peptides), followed by a half a sandwich with non-white bread, and a protein bar (at least 16g protein).  Then a banana, raisins and an apple most days.  For dinner it depends, but something healthy if possible.  If I do an activity, I will have a protein shake with casein, peanut butter powder, chocolate, collagen, and milk.  

For supplements:

1 cup of hydrogen water from water bottle machine

1 mutli vitamin,

3,000 iu vit D

Fish oil (key here is DHA and EPA levels ~1,000 total)

Helio care

zinc

tumeric and curcumin

6 oz of V8

15 mL of EVOO

15 mL of apple cider vinegar

 

10g collagen peptides in water (on the weekend I will do this with my first protein shake of the day, mixed in my Ninja blender - 1 scoop Muscle milk, 2 tlbs of peanut butter mix, chocolate syrup and milk)

 

5g creatin in water (usually in the middle of the day)

At night

200 mg of magnesium glycinate w/ L-Theanine (just starting this)

500 mg of Ashwaganda 

Other interventions

Sauna - (as much as possible) 20-30 minutes per session, at least 4 times per week, 194°F set point.

cold shower - 2 minutes or so every morning. 26 push ups after the shower, continuous.

7 minute stretching routine + light weights

Wim Hof breathing - 3 sets of 30 + hold

3200 mg total of Beta Alanine - split into (2) 1600 mg doses, one before workout and one after

 

Exercise

Still trying to run, but weather in January makes it tough.  Been using the indoor track at the wellness center for now unless the weather breaks.  

Resistance training - aiming for 2X per week.  A basic 1x20 program with progressive overload. I started this is July of last year so about 6 months total.  Up about 50-100% in some of the weights from where I started.  Kind of crazy looking back at the progression.  

Status:

Feeling pretty good right now.  I think the collagen has helped with the joints and things feel like I can do activities pretty much anytime.  If I get tired I rest though, nothing wrong with taking a day off here or there, just can't let it lead to inactivity for long periods.  I feel like I can see a little definition in my arms which is new, and I feel probably stronger than I have at any point.  At this age the effort isn't the limiting factor, it's the recovery.  So most of my time is spent on things that will help me get back quick.  Big focus for 2025 is sleep and protein.  I think both will go a long way in helping manage weight.  Currently 6 or less hours of sleep per week day and listening to Dr. Erik Korem and his blue print podcast that is probably not good.  I also am in the social jet lag category because I sleep late on the weekend and throw my body out of whack.  Over the next nine days going to focus on 7 plus hours of sleep per night, forget socials or video games late at night for a while and really try and hit it.  As far as new interventions still looking at astrulagas and PQQ, and I still need to research the AMPK cycle.  I did try berberine some last year and it bascially take the glucose out of your blood and makes you tired as all get out.  Could be useful in a down cycle or when trying to lose weight. I think the dihydro version is more potent if available.  

Timeline with my Mom

Just wanted to get some dates and put some things together for the last few years with mom.  Some times I have trouble remembering exactly when things were going on, so I'll try and recap.

It started when mom had her first hip dislocation. January 15 2020.

She stayed with us until she went in the hospital for breathing issues. January 31st 2020.

Now if you follow the timeline of 2020 it is possible this is one of the early cases of Covid, but it was never diagnosed that way.  She was treated for pneumonia. She was released Feb 2nd and stayed with me again until Feb 5th, a Wednesday, and she went home to stay with Cindy.  This is the area of the stupid hip brace as well.

She dislocated the hip again on Feb 14th.

She made it back home, and dislocated the hip again on Saturday the 22nd of February.  This was a bad one, because I saw it first hand.  She had her coat on and was ready to leave and the hip just gave out, and she fell straight back wards into her wooden lighthouse.  Procedure one more time, but now she had to get a surgery to put the hip back in place for good.

First trip to Morgantown, February 27th for a consult.

Pre surgery trip to Morgantown March 10th.

May 14th, Dropped for surgery 

May 18th, went to pick up and they didn't release her.  I vaguely remember this.

Wed May 20th, Went to Morgantown after work to pick up Mom. This was a long day. One of many.

Tues. Jun 2nd, Trip to Morgantown.  Think this was a follow up.

June 8th, the maddest I ever was.  Mom went to Reynold because the girl in therapy had hurt leg and mom refused to walk.  No noticeable pain.  Had to have the squad take her because she couldn't make it down the steps.  She was at Reynold for 2 hours and they had me pick her up.  She couldn't walk still and I had no way to get her in the house.  We can home, grabbed some things and I drove straight to Morgantown.  We got there at 2:52 AM (from google maps). I stayed there another 2 hours until she could get admitted there. 

At some point between then and June 14th Mom was moved to Country Club in Bellaire.

She did rehab there until Sat August 8th.  Then she went home.  Rehab was during the height of Covid too, so there were no face-to-face visits, we could only see her through the window.  She seemed to manage ok, she still had her phone then too.

I stayed with her that first week, and I installed cameras at the house too to keep an eye on her.  The 11th we went back to Morgantown for another follow-up visit.  Every time we would go we would hit up the Chik-fil-a too.  After that first week, Mom was on her own again. Cindy came to stay again for a week or two later in the year, but she was having food delivered and I would try and stop and set up her medicine for the week.

She did good until July 18th 2021 and she fell and broke the other hip.  She had surgery in Wheeling that Monday.  The other hip surgery she had to jump through hoops to get, but not this one.  Right in and they did rods, not a replacement.  

By the 25th she was at Emerald Point in Barnesville for rehab.  She said she heard that place was nice.  She didn't like it, but she was stuck at that point.  

I think she stayed until Wed Sep 8th, according to maps.  When she came home, she had to use a walker and home health would come in.  I announced football that Friday, was out to see her first though.

Cindy came to stay with her again, but now safety was a concern with her being on her own.  Cindy took her to the doctor to try and convince her to go into independent living in Bellaire.  She had agreed and we were going to move in late October.

Tuesday October 19th. Mom can't do anything easy.  She has an episode of some sort, she basically goes the whole day without eating or drinking and is in a really dazed state.  They take her by squad to Barnesville.

She is in the hospital until, I think Wed Oct 27th, 2021 and she makes her way to Country Club in Bellaire in the nursing side to start.

She leaves every now and then for doctors, goes to the ER twice and passes away Jan 31, 2025. 2 months after she arrived, in January they move her to the Assisted living side, room 55.  She stays there until right before her birthday in 2024 and she is moved to the nursing side. 2 months later she is moved to a single room, 2 days later a different room, and 2 weeks later she is gone.

1/31/2025

Mom died on this day.  She was 95 years old.  It would have been her 49th anniversary with my Dad.

Death

I never thought of death as a weeks or months long process, but it can be. 

End-of-Life Timeline: Clinical Signs by Stage | VITAS Healthcare

Being near the end of the process is the worst.  I understand what will happen, I know what will not happen and every moment I think about it she is gone, but not gone, but will be gone.  And it is a constant cycle of emotions to not wish your mother dead, want her to be at peace and fill guilty for not stopping this even though it has been going on before you knew what it was.  It doesn't make it easier and this week is one of the worst of my life.  When my Dad died we brought in Hospice and I didn't know what that meant, but in 2 weeks he was gone.  I went away to school for 2 weeks, on crutches no less, and when I came back on Friday he could only say yes or no.  On Saturday he couldn't speak and by evening he was gone.  

Sleep is horrible now,  because every time I wake up I wonder if she is gone. I go to sleep exhausted and when I wake up in the middle of the night it is my first thought, and I don't go back to sleep easily. 

Life

Life's possessions shrink
Ten by ten, our final space
Six totes hold it all

Car Luck

Posting this because my daughter had some extremely bad luck last week when she was rear ended by another car and basically totaled her car.  She also received a concussion and is having back pains so, awesome time all around.  Yes it could have been worse and I am grateful that it was only as bad as it was, that she didn't have any major injuries, I just hope that the injuries she has are not long lasting or life altering.  That being said, it got me thinking about all of the car luck Sophie and I have had and how this fits right in.  You see we are not very good at the "art of the deal" [what up pres?], and with this car we felt we got a super good deal on because it was an older person's car that was going into assisted living, it was garage kept, and had a little over 30k miles for a car that was 14 years old was a really good deal.  Especially for a first car for my daughter.  And she loved it.  For about 6 months.  And that is the end of the "good luck" run.  Now I know what you are thinking - "surely at some point there have been some things break your way".  And the answer to that is - not really.  So let's just recap how we got here...

When I was 16 my parents got me a car.  I paid half and they paid half, but I didn't have any say in what the car was.  And it was a Chevy Celebrity.  Brown.  About 70k miles, but ran well, just didn't not look appealing to a kid that had Lamborghini's all over his wall.  I had it for about 3 years and traded it (Spring 1997) for a Hyundai Scoupe or S Coupe however that branding was supposed to work.  2 door, Red, sunroof, just a massive upgrade and I picked it out.  Right after I got it, I watched my best friend's Dad back right into the driver's side door.  I was in complete shock.  Granted in the 27 years since I can just bring it up and he feels bad, but honestly water under the bridge.  Got the door repaired and drove the car until I was out of college.  During our college years Sophie had her car she got with her graduation money.  A white Pontiac Lemans.  Good little car.  She blew the engine up outside of Barnesville, because she didn't realize the importance of oil changes.  She does now.  I think she just replaced the engine in that car and then eventually traded or sold it off and bought a Blue Ford Escort.  The Escort was super common back then, just a 2 door or 4 door work horse car to get from A to B.  So when we got married those were the 2 vehicles we had - the S Coupe, and the Es Cort.  Well we wanted to upgrade a little so we got a Chevy Prizm.  I know what you are thinking "wasn't that the Geo Prizm?"  And yes it was until the late 90's when Chevy bought Geo and just slapped the bad bow tie on literally the exact same car.  Fun fact the 1997 Prizm was the exact same body type, interior and engine as the Toyota Corolla.  We sold the Escort to her Mom and Dad for $1.  You might think such a gesture would put you on a path of increasingly good luck with vehicles but don't be fooled...

Eventually the S Coupe would have some mechanical issues and then a weird braking problem and we traded it in for a Chevy Metro to be my work car.  And also just my car.  And also just an incredibly massive down grade.  We had or were in the process of having our first child and the Prizm was just not about that family life.  It ran fine, but we traded it for a minivan.  Initially we wanted a certain Ford Windstar and we were set to get it, but the dealership screwed up the tax information and the resulting payment so we settled for a slightly reduced price Windstar.  It was ok. Nothing to write home about so to speak, but this was our first "big" vehicle, so we were excited.  Unfortunately now we had entered into the dreaded 2 car payment zone.  The Metro sucked.  No cruise, we upgraded the radio, but the car was still the worst car I have ever had, sorry Metro. The back didn't even have rear defrost which is surprisingly not good when you live where we do in the winter.  After the Metro though anything is an upgrade and the Chevy Cavalier was definitely that.  Pretty sure I picked up two speeding tickets in that car as it either didn't have cruise control or I just didn't use it.  Somewhere around here we added to the family, maybe even before the Cavalier and had Peach.  Needless to say, any transport with the kids during this time was done with the van.  That is until around 2008 when we needed to go to Florida for a wedding and we were going to drive, but the Ford developed a cracked block.  Like the Friday before we were leaving.  Oh you could drive it and it may be fine or it could blow up after 10 miles - that is what we were told.  So, not going to try and take 2 kids and my 80 year old mother to Florida in that in the summer. We ended up trading in complete desperation for Dodge Caravan - white.  Hey it made it to Florida and back, so mission accomplished.  You know if we still didn't need a vehicle to last as long as possible.  And maybe "possible" is just a few years anyway as the Dodge seemed to develop some electrical issues that kept draining the battery and made starting the car an adventure every time.  So we had to get rid of that car.  Ironically we went back to A and B Kia that sold us the Caravan (they were the only place open that late on a Friday), and when the sales guy talked to us he told us how we needed to get out of that car.  Fun.  Of course we needed out of that car, we didn't know when it was going to start and it seemed to be draining batteries like it was it's job.  So since they helped us out before our trip, we wanted to do business with them again and they got us into a Kia Sedona mini van.  And it had the built-in TV, which was great, and individual seats for the kids so they didn't have to be next to each other. Alas it had a fatal flaw...

It turns out a very slight hill covered in snow would stop the Sedona.  This was unfortunate as we experienced this coming back from church one snowy morning trying to get into the garage.  Other than that the Sedona was great.  Great for driving, great for the kids, just not great in inclement weather.  So back to A and B we go and this time we upgraded to the Kia Sorento, sometime around 2014 / 2015, because it was a 2015 Sorento.  All wheel drive, full size SUV with a 3rd row of seating.  Surprising how often the 3rd row has actually come in handy for transporting the kids and their friends or larger groups going to an outing.  The seats also laid down so it provided decent capability for hauling stuff, pretty much anything but dirt.  Alright back to my cars...

Yes I call them "my cars" because I drive them to work and put a massive amount of miles on them.  The cavalier did good for about 4 / 5 years.  It had a leaking tire issue that was driving me nuts and I traded it in for a Subaru Impreza.  Now I reallly did some shopping this time, test drove about 9 cars to find something good for me and at a decent price.  The Impreza had all wheel drive, a moon roof and aux feed that I could plug my phone in, and didn't have a review below 3 stars.  Plus CDs were still around then so it had the CD player and was just probably the best car I have had and I should have driven this one into the ground, but I started to get gun shy when a car got to around 120k miles.  That's usually when they would turn into a pumpkin and I didn't want to get caught in a bad situation.  That was probably the wrong thinking with this car though. I thought I would trade it in on another Subaru,  a Legacy this time, but when we went to the dealership the car was out for the weekend by one of the people that worked there.  Patience should have prevailed here and I should have waited to get the car until after the weekend but sometimes I look at a situation and say "let fate decide" and I felt this was fate telling me not to get this car.  So we went up to Straub and I drove a Hyundai Tuscon.  Kind of an upgrade to a small SUV, car drove fine, had blue tooth, but started out with an air conditioner issue.  They were kind enough to let me drive the Impreza until it was fixed, but that probably should have been a sign.  the Tuscon did last until around February 2022, when the engine just took a dump and I couldn't keep oil in it.  I missed my daughter's basketball game and had to take a day off work to look for another car.  At this point the Sorento was paid off, the first time we had actually paid off a car.  So we looked for another "good car" and the Sorento would become my work car.  We ended up trading the Hyundai in for a Jeep Compass.  So we still had one full size SUV and one compact SUV.  This was during the pandemic so vehicle prices had jumped to astronomical levels and we were just kind of screwed.  The Sorento was the first fully new car we had owned and it seemed better that knowing everything the car had been through rather than getting a low mileage used car that could have really been put through it's paces by someone else, so we wanted to go the new car route again and unfortunately the Compass was about the only new car around.  Sophie hates it now.  That is about the long and short of it.  The front collision turned off about as soon as we drove it off the lot, and something has happened to the information center and the rear differential housing has had a leak.  The brakes always squeak when you back up and they have looked at them several times.  I like the heated steering wheel and remote start, but yeah kind of stuck on this one.  During the last 3 years we also got the car from my Mom for Sampson.  A 2003 Olds Alero.  I always liked those cars and was a little jealous when Mom got hers.  It had about 70k miles on when he got it, but it was waaaaaaay better looking than the Chevy Celebrity I had when I was 19.  Now we really need this thing to stay running.

So that kind of brings us to the "good deal" we got on a car.  It was a 2010 Volkswagen Jetta that had 33k miles, had been garage kept and actually had blue tooth and heated seats and we got what we thought was a very generous price.  We paid straight up for the car and had 3 vehicles that were paid off and one that wasn't.  Now the Jetta is totaled about 6 months later and the Sorento is fast approaching 160k miles.  Well over the limit of what I fell comfortable with.  Kind of feel like I'm on borrowed time with it, and I know there is some work that needs done to it, but it is still driveable right now.  The next step though is replacing my daughter's car and hopefully that is taken car of with the insurance money.  I'm more inclined to take a loan out on my 401k (pay back at 8% over 5 years, but it is my money not making the bank rich here) and go that route.  At any rate this kind of fit our luck better than just getting a super good deal and driving the car for 5 to 8 years and getting value out of it.  Nah that wouldn't be our luck...  But don't get things twisted, I am very grateful for all that we have had and continue to have and we have been very blessed and we are blessed that Peach wasn't hurt worse.  

Update, we are still looking for a car, but the Sorento is gone.  Traded in for a Sportage for Sophie and I'll take the Jeep for now.  Car rental runs out Saturday (may make a separate post on how horrible Nationwide Insurance was to deal with) so the clock is really ticking.

New 5k PR

Achieved this last month, but the new PR is 25:08.  Soooooo close to finally breaking 25, but more work to do apparently.  Got this at the last Mustache Dash in Moundsville.  A very flat course, which helped and the weather was really good.  I won't call it ideal, but it wasn't scorching hot for sure.  Normally this race isn't a true 5k.  It was about 2.4 one year and 3.6 last year.  Mostly due to the laps being 1.2 miles, but this year they moved the start and on the last lap had you reverse course.  My mentality coming in wasn't to set a PR because it was never a true 5k.  But I did take it easy the week before and was able to actually run the entire race, which was a first.  Anyway still work to do, need to lose about 15-20 pounds. I keep telling myself the diet will kick in this week, but stuff keeps happening so the diet hasn't happened yet.  I have been doing more resistance training, but I think I need to get back to doing some core specific work at least twice a week.  Still have a couple of shots at sub 25 this year, but it is going to take some luck and planning.

Stack Update for June - 2024

Just to update the stack for June, I have found some CoQ10 and started taking daily.  Found a bottle on sale for essentially $8 / month so that seemed like a good deal to start.  Early feed back seems pretty good.  I was taking separate in the afternoon, but decided to combine with my morning pills. I found out after getting it and doing a little more research that the -Xol version is the desired state versus the -none version of the chemical. 

Also I found some collagen peptides. Started with the Walgreens version and have been taking for about 4-5 day.  Found I could mix with my morning water and it was fine.  I tried to mix with V8 + EVOO and it did not mix at all.  I've also added it to my Casein shake at the end of the day.  A little early to tell if there are any benefits to the joints.  Dare I say pickleball and early morning push ups have taken a toll on the shoulder.  Trying to back down the effort on arms a little in the short term to help the recovery, but hopefully the work is strengthening things.

On a side note, I went with Sophie to the Sam's Club and they had a nice selection of CoQ10 and collegen peptides and at more favorable costs.  If this initial June run goes well, then Sam's could be the supplier of choice going forward.

 Forward looking, still eyeing PQQ and Astralagus to add.  The astralagus should be a telomere lengthener or telomerase activator.  Telomeres are essentially what determines how long we make it.  Every time a cell divides the chromosomes get a little shorter on the ends until there are just too many copies made and the cells stop dividing, then you die.  This is the Hayflick limit which is currently around 120 years, and this is based on no hard living or outside influences decreasing that number.  

Still not a doctor, so not advising anyone to do this.  Always seek professional medical advice😉

The Current Stack 5/2024

So I have been running for about 8 years now and I have gradually picked up things along the way.  The one constant is I have been taking a daily vitamin.  Yeah that is about it.  My Mom had a stack of supplements she took everyday, but I never really got into it until I came across Bryan Johnson and what he was doing and that lead me to Dr. Jeffrey Gladden and his podcast.  So I have been binging that series and listening to what the different supplement interactions are to increase longevity and general health and doing some research on my own.  Anyway at this point here is what I am doing on a daily basis.  (DISCLAIMER: I am not a medical professional and this is not medical advice, this is just a record in time of what I am doing and I hope to report later on the effects).  Current Age - 46.

1 tab molecular hydrogen - 1st thing in the morning at least 30 minutes before breakfast.

1 mutli vitamin - Still hanging in there

500 mg turmeric  - with black pepper included

4,000 iu Vit D

50 mg Zinc

300 mg ashwagandha or however you spell it - cycle 3 weeks on 1 week off, 300 mg at night too

1 Heliocare capsule - helps with sun, potential for DNA repair, made with plant extract from South America

1,600 mg Beta alanine X 2 - taken twice daily with meals during the week 

2g-3g Creatin - just started this

250 - 375 mg niacin - trying to get the flush effect 2x per week right now.

6 oz of V8 - yes the juice

15 ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil - Bryan Johnson special, but not his brand

15 ml Apple Cider Vinegar 

Also drinking 1 muscle milk per day and drinking a Casein protein shake at night on days where I did a physical activity to help recover.  I've been hitting the sauna as much as possible too, to help with recovery.  There have been some studies out of Finland that 20 minutes at ~180°F x 4 times per week would result in a large percent reduction in all cause mortality and heart related deaths.

I've been monitoring when I start certain things and how I have been feeling.  Just finished 4 weeks of activity over 500 minutes (counting vigorous activity as double effective using Garmin technology) and 5 out of the last 6 weeks with a week that was at 635 minutes of activity including everything from mowing grass to running to pickle ball and basketball and even swimming. The 635 week is probably the highest I have had in about 20 years, as is at least the highest I have had since getting the Garmin.  My physical state seems pretty good, but I may take a little time and recover some this week and keep activity down some, but still hit the sauna.

The things I'm looking at picking up are CoQ10 & PQQ and a detox / AMPK cycle.  The CoQ10 should help with ATP production and the PQQ helps to rebuild mitochondria.  For the detox cycle, looking at Spermidine, with rapamyacin, Fisetin and Dihydroberberine.  I think the Spermidine and Fisetin could almost be taken on a daily basis, but the rapamyacin and Dihydroberberine both should turn off mTOR and activate AMPK.  From what I understand mTOR is kind of a build up phase where cells and muscles are building, but the AMPk cycle is the end of cell lifetime and theoretically if you did a "clean out cycle" mTOR is off and this AMPk cycle runs to kind of clean the junk out.  I haven't tried this yet, but I think it would be bad to do during a muscle building or training cycle.  Maybe before you start a cycle of building or some type of weekly cycle where the AMPk is activated during a down period or at night after a lighter day or maybe the start of a fast.  Also on the radar is collagen peptides.  Seems like they are good for the skin and maybe some tissue issues like for ligaments or tendons.

Why has the gas gone out of the EV movement?

Fun with titles, huh? Turns out the EV movement is slowly losing steam.  In my opinion there are multiple reason for this.  Turns out the cost effectiveness of driving an EV is probably less than most people anticipate.  If you can't home charge, owning one is even more inconvenient.  It could take 15-45 minutes to fill up at a charging station and the price per mile is eerily close to regular combustion vehicles.  I think the early adopters were kind of sold on the idea that this was 100% the future and oil was going away, but here is the thing - oil and its derivatives are used in lots of stuff.  Most projections had the peak of oil productions hitting in 2027, but after Covid it looks like the peak may have gotten pushed back.  I guess at that point there would be some alternative technologies that had matured to the point they could compete economically with oil and eventually oil would be pushed back.  Here is the thing though, there are a lot of businesses that depend on oil for their success.  So as much as the EV cars wanted to end oil, turns out you need it for tires, plastics in the cars, roadways... and all the sudden the need for alternates beyond cars becomes a little more obvious.  Also the infrastructure of the country is not centered around EV's, so you have to change all that as well.  The early adopters were willing to fall on the sword so to speak to be at the tip of the spear and drive the change forward, but now the EV's look like more of a novelty act and less sustainable.  Part of this is due to the pandemic.  The inflation that happened during the pandemic and directly afterwards having driven (no pun intended) car prices through the roof and consequently insurance.  Insurance has gotten completely out of hand because people are driving around houses that you have to be insured against incase you get into an accident.  And if you have one of the cars that is priced like a house, your insurance is even higher.  So the EV's kind of fell into this trend, instead of being the new technology that weasels it's way into the market by being affordable and pulling the masses into the tech, they have been leading the charge (pun intended) in raising prices.  I think the legacy car makers in the U.S. kind of detected this market shift when they were jumping in with both feet and have quietly gone back to focusing on ICE based cars.  For makers like TESLA and Rivian and the like there is no other option.  They have to produce electric vehicles that can compete with ICE cars and be more affordable.  If they are just a niche in the luxury car market, which is kind of where they have ended up, there will be no wide spread acceptance.  The only way for electric car makers to push the issue in the future is to come up with an affordable version of there vehicles that can get in the market at less that $25k new.  If they can't touch that market then they are just a novelty at this point.  And novelties are not going to shape a movement. The 1st quarter of 2024 was the first quarter that Tesla had year on year quarterly sales decline.  Partly an indicator of the market, but also an indicator of how the love for EV's has waned in recent years.  Oh there are issues in cold weather, and charger accessibility, and range anxiety, but the pricing has now greatly outpaced the benefits of the car and the negatives of ownership are more pronounced.  It has resulted in a general feeling (imo) that the EV revolution won't be ready for 2027 and probably not 2028 either, at least not in the U.S. In the emerging markets of China and India the EV is almost more feasible because they don't have the existing infrastructure of combustion vehicles so no great change over.  

So what is the path forward?  Well people have to be interested in the EV.  This change can't be driven (pun also not intended) by the manufacturers or the government.  I mean if this is the future it would make sense if the government switched to EV's. State vehicles, maybe even cop cars and what not.  They could install charger stations at the base, save on fuel charges and help develop the market by being an advertisement everyday.  Unfortunately politics are at work here (not really a pun, but kind of) and the government will never adopted a non-union made vehicle even if it makes total sense and is for the betterment of society as a whole.  And that is the impasse we are currently at my friends. Either someone takes the hit to develop the infrastructure, lower the price of the vehicles, or makes the vehicles so mainstream they are unavoidable or the whole thing limps along at the 10-15% market share that it has until change is forced by a lack of oil.  But here is the kicker, as long as these other countries opt for electric, we can push out the combustion engine life and oil will still be needed for the other products. If we only had "flying EV's"...

Worst Coach of All-Time

I know what you are thinking and no, this is actually reserved for the coach that I had my senior year of high school.  I use the term senior year here loosely as I could only manage being part of the team for 4 games.  Gather around kids and hear the tales of de-motivation, lack of organization, general incompetency and nepotism.  So it started back in 8th grade when I experienced the worst teacher of my academic career (this dude flat out hated me from the jump for some reason, I mean I'm a likeable guy, right?) in industrial arts.  Industrial arts you say, that must have been a sleeper class for an A, huh?  Not exactly.  You basically had to copy drawings with an industrial layout, that had dimensions and different things, think your basic floor plan, and that was the class.  Literally nothing to this class, and I end up pulling a D.  No idea why, don't remember, just glad to be done with that class and this moron forever.  Well as luck would have it the head coach of the basketball team, decides that he is going to go to another school to coach one of the good players from our team that is transferring.  Don't blame him, he had made a really deep run into the playoffs before and Beallsville was about to experience a serious drought on talent.  So we get new coaches for Freshman year and guess who gets named to the reserve coach role... yep you guessed it the one guy I thought I would be done with.  Fortunately freshman rarely played JV and mostly just played Freshman team.  So that is what I did. Nothing spectacular about the year.  Sophomore season starts and reality hits home. Now that Freshman year is over the only option to play is varsity or JV.  Well the varsity team is pretty well set with seniors and juniors and maybe one guy from my class getting some reserve run and that is about it.  I'm buried deep on the JV bench and am not enjoying the game at all.  Now a little background here - my parents were waaaay older than most peoples parents, at this point 62 and 69 years old and they were not athletic and never really cared about sports, even when I played when I was younger.  My Dad did make a basket for me when I was in second grade though, and when I say "made" he literally went into the woods, cut down a tree, and built the backboard out of wood with home made supports and put it in the ground next to the car port.  This was awesome by my Dad and something I was shooting around on as much as 38 years later, but that was about all he could do for me, he couldn't teach me fundamentals, couldn't coach a team couldn't even play me one-on-one really.  So now that I'm deep on the bench with no way off and no real way to improve I faced a difficult decision.  You see I had always liked basketball, enjoyed playing with my friends, enjoyed shooting at home (because during the summer there was literally nothing else to do, I would just practice for an hour, come in the house to cool off, then go back out for another hour later), but now it was unenjoyable to do. I don't remember the specifics, but I would say I was pretty out of shape and about the height I was in 8th grade.  Side note: I was always tall for my age, but I hit that last growth spurt early and now everyone is catching up, also I was the youngest in my class, so even though I'm a Sophomore I started the year at 14.  That's right go ahead and project that out.  Side Side note: Mom started me in school early (I believe because she wanted me out of the house ;) j/k ). 

Ok, back to the story.  So I quit my Sophomore year.  I don't remember how many practices or games or if I played any games, but I remember coming out to the truck after practice one day and telling my Dad that I was going to quit.  He did not put up a fight.  Like I said my parents weren't into sports, so not having to pick me up every day was probably a blessing to the them.  Anyway I came back out for my junior year.  I broke my wrist fairly early in the season, running a sprint retreat.  A sprint retreat is one of the worst drills I have ever done and couple it with a dusty gym floor it is basically the perfect recipe for me to break something.  I was out for the requisite 6 weeks before returning to play JV. I don't remember much about this season other than at one point on the road at Hundred High School in WV (it's named Hundred because that's how many miles it feels like you drove to get there) at the end of the game we won and I asked how many a player from the other team had because I felt like I played good D.  The coach said 6, and that it was a good idea to keep track of who we played against to keep track of such things.  This was the coach I couldn't stand BTW, but that did seem like an obvious thing that a coach would do, foreshadowing perhaps. The rest of Junior year was uneventful until tourney time and the final varsity roster was put together, me being a junior I figure I would be added for deep bench duty, but was passed over for a freshman that at that point hadn't played a whole lot of varsity if any, but was a golfer so the JV coached liked him better automatically since he was also the golf coach.  Now to be perfectly fair, the kid was probably a better athlete, but that really stung.  I shouldn't have had any lofty goal of playing after that, but I was dumb and didn't understand the system, also no one told me anything to work on or what my game was lacking.  But that is likely due to them not knowing what my game lacked either.  

On to Senior year and the redemption arc... or not. My high school was very limited in sports offerings for kids, for fall it was Football or Golf, Winter was Basketball or wrestling and Spring was Baseball although they did start a track team my Senior or Junior year.  Anyway since cross country didn't exist (I feel like I could have been decent at this in High School) my friend and I did some running before school a couple of times to get into shape for basketball since we didn't play fall sports.  Granted we played as much as possible for being in a rural area without a whole lot of opportunities to just go play, and in all honesty I was probably in the best shape of my life up to that point.  One other thing to note in this story is that I was 16 at the very beginning of my senior year of school, and there were actually about 3 other people that were in a similar situation, I turned 17 in the first month, but by Ohio rules I could have actually played high school sports for another 2 years.  Not that it makes a difference in coaching, but in the timeline of things, being a young senior isn't optimal for sports success.  So the season starts and I don't remember the exact time frame (sorry it's been 30 years), but me and another guy were brought into the coach's office.  He sits us down and proceeds to explain to us that we probably aren't going to play.  Actually matter-of-fact that we were not going to play.  Now this is a small school (~45 kids per class), so cutting kids is something that is almost unthinkable, but making it miserable enough for people to not want to play is completely an option.  Didn't say it was a good option, but yeah as a coach you could do that if you were so inclined, and this guy was definitely inclined.  Keep in mind, this is his first head coaching gig in basketball at the high school varsity level and there are no guarantees that this team is going to be great or how many games we should win, so why just tell 2 guys who have played basketball for 10 years and are hungry to get on the floor that you don't need them?  You don't know if you need me.  And that is the crux of the whole thing, a coach that comes in with that much hubris, with exactly 0 wins to his name is basically doomed to failure.  I realize this now, but it took a while then.  So even though I was told I wouldn't get in, I still remained optimistic that if I got in a game I could show something and then the PT would grow.  Well after 4 games I had gotten in about 2 minutes of a 40 point blow out (scored 2) and that would be the extent of my varsity basketball career.  "Okay", you say, no big deal, what was the record after 4 games...0-4.  At one point one of my buddies and a couple of football players got to be on the court together, as the "hustle team".  Unfortunately they never told the guys that was their job to run around and cause turn overs and run outs, so they didn't do that, they just played normal basketball.  It's one of those things you think back on and wonder why they even said that out loud after the fact it didn't work.  Would I have made a difference in those games... short answer is no.  I was no where near good enough to make up for the train wreck on the bench, but I could have at least had fun.  

 So after 4 games me and my other friend (not the one who was told he wouldn't play, one that actually played some) decided to quit.  This was actually the point were pay-to-play had to be paid, but since I wasn't actually playing and $45 seemed like a lot back then, it seemed like the perfect time to cut bait.  And since my friend was walking out at the same time it seemed right.  At that very moment when we walked out and declared to other people we were done, something happened that I'll never forget.  The head football coaches son told my friend that he should not quit, but that I - "Yeah you should quit". And the delivery was even more heartless than it reads.  Here was my interpretation of this exchange - here is someone who played wide receiver for his Dad and got all the recognition in football because he would run the deep patterns and my friend would run all the short patterns and take all the hits over the middle, and this coach's son who had been coddled in football, and given a starting spot in basketball was telling me I wasn't good enough.  GIVEN A STARTING ROLE.  Little emphasis there.  There was no try out for starters there was no shuffling the starters around to jump start the offense/defense - nothing, and this guy didn't have to earn anything.  It was disheartening to say the least but indicative of the kind of person he was and the kind of leader he was - aka not a leader.   Okay, so you had a coach that didn't like you, never gave you a shot and made you want to quit, that doesn't mean he is a bad coach.  No that alone would not him a horrible coach, the fact that he would not win a game the entire season (0-21) and lost to an 0-8 team at home kind of seals his fate as a horrible coach.  Needless to say this guy was one and done, but it just so happened that the one corresponded to the one year senior year that I had.  

It was incredibly disappointing from an athletic standpoint, but I have always enjoyed basketball, still do.  I fixed my shot after high school and have become pretty decent at diagnosing shot inefficiencies and how to correct them.  I also understand defensive positioning now and help coach in the church league for K-6.  Would I ever tell a kid "you can't play"? No.  One you never know what a kid is capable of truly until you put them in the game situation.  Two, that sucked horribly when I was in school.  I don't know if it was personal or not, but it became personal.  I would rather build a kid up and even if I thought someone was terrible at the sport and I eventually got them to the point they could play in a Varsity game, then I would have really thought I did a good job as a coach.  Not this guy though, oh and one time he brought in a rope that he used to string up deer (still had blood stains on it), to illustrate visually ball-rim-you principles and how it always made a triangle. I remember this because he put the rope through the hoop, but the concept makes no sense, which makes all the sense now.  The actual concept is called Ball-you-man for off ball defense, and positioning your self between the person you are guarding and the ball, while keeping your back to the basket, but that was well beyond this guy.  Think that's all for this one, hope you never run into anyone this bad both tactically and as a person.

20 Years Already

Hey, blog's been around for 20 years already, pretty sweet.  Be sure to like and subscribe.  Sorry wrong app.  Be sure to click on adds and leave comments 👍.