Can good productivity habits contribute to other good habits, like eating well and getting outdoors?
Today, we have a special bonus episode for you. In this surprise livestream Q&A, you folks asked me whatever you wanted related to health, music, and even virtual reality.
I’m your Huckleberry.
And in today’s show, I’ll be sharing one of my favorite tools that has helped me since I was an overachieving pre-teen, and continues to pay big dividends in productivity and in art to this day.
Since we finally have internet again up here in the mountains, hopefully I’ll be streaming quite a few more of these live Q&A sessions in the months ahead.
In this Q&A livestream, you’ll learn about:
- The biggest mistakes in the “Keto” craze
- How to get quality sleep each night
- Getting your energy back if you’re feeling exhausted or stressed out
- If it’s ok to drink beer when you’re following the Wild Diet
- How to setup good eating habits and avoid raiding the fridge at the end of a long day, if you’re stressed
- Why technology may be more of a threat to our health than eating poorly is
- And tons more.
Alright, you ready? Let’s head in and see what questions you folks have.
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Live Q&A with Abel James
Ron says, “Discuss some best practices for sleep strategy, trying to get back on track.”
Hi Ron, let’s talk about sleep.
It’s different if you’re trying to work the night shift and sleep all day versus just having a little bit of trouble staying asleep, for example.
One thing that really helps me is, yes, I’m drinking caffeine right now. I like to give myself lots of freedom to do that on interview days, especially in front of the camera. But what I don’t do is drink caffeine after three o’clock.
I usually taper off around 12 noon-ish.
And for some people, they can be hypersensitive to caffeine. For me, I’m not quite as sensitive. But historically, I haven’t been an excellent sleeper. The past few years, I’ve gotten a lot better.
There are a number of things that you can try.
Caffeine is one, but just make sure that you’re staying away from stimulants. Certain pharmaceutical drugs, even certain nasal decongestants, can keep people up. So make sure that you’re not taking in anything to your body, especially later in the day, that might keep you hyped-up.
Drinking alcohol might seem like it puts you to sleep. It certainly feels like that for me, but there’s a big difference between having a glass of wine or two with dinner, and going out, drinking and passing out.
Because when you drink too much, especially over one or two drinks, it’s going to really harm your sleep, especially staying asleep. It’s not one of those things that’s going to help you.
You can also try taking a little bit of melatonin at 5:00 PM.
But I would say, especially as the seasons are starting to change, one thing that really helps me is waking up before sunrise in the morning.
It sounds really early to a lot of people, but I enjoy waking up early in the morning, with some exceptions, than staying up late at night. Because generally speaking, I’m not getting that much done late at night, and I’m not in the best state. I’m kinda tired at the end of the day.
Whereas if you wake-up in the morning, it really opens up this nice little bubble in your day to put in some real quality uninterrupted work.
So, I’ll do a lot of writing in the morning, but that doesn’t totally wake me up. The thing that really wakes me up, is actually right over here.
We live up in the mountains of Colorado now, up at 8,000 feet, and the sun comes in the morning right over there, and so, I climb up a little bit on the mountain to where it’s sunny and I let the sunrise hit my eyes and my body.
Fortunately, it’s quite sunny here, but getting sun really early in the morning helps adjust your body to getting on the timeline of the sun. So, when it goes down, just like you’re camping, you start to get sleepy.
For me, I know I would have been completely embarrassed, especially in my 20’s or earlier in my life, to admit that I tend to go to sleep by nine o’clock these days, unless I’m staying out, or unless I have a show at night, which I try not to do anymore.
But the biggest thing for getting quality sleep is setting up a routine where you’re not confusing yourself every few nights or every weekend by staying up really late.
And I don’t want to say that, “You can never party again, or never have any fun or never stay up late.” It’s not like that at all.
But the things that really add up over time are what you’re doing every day in a invisible way.
So if you have the habit of being good during the week, going to bed relatively early, and then on a weekend staying out until midnight, or 2am, or something like that, for a night or two. That’s coming from a musician who played professionally for many years, over two hundred shows a year, often at night time. That is just the worst possible thing that could ever happen for your sleep and for your overall lifestyle.
We all know it makes us comfy and sleepy and a lot of that is conditioning.
If you go and you brush your teeth and then you hop into bed, your body kind of knows it’s time to go to sleep. So try to do that around the same time every day and that could definitely help.
Jeremy says, “I’m very thankful you’ve decided to do what you do. I lost 40 pounds and my wife lost almost 60 pounds. Thank you.”
Thank you, Jeremy and your wife for listening.
I consider what I do, what we do, as basically teaching people how to do nutritional and health self defense.
We have been conditioned to accept realities about health and fitness that are simply untrue. And so I try to reach out to as many people as I can who have something to say about health, who know a lot more than I do about one particular subject to come on my show and help teach some of you guys about that.
So, some of the interviews I’m doing today… I already did one with the CEO of Butcher Box, Mike. Really great guy. Another one with Gary Collins this morning who is a special investigator for military intelligence and the Food and Drug Administration. So he always has a really interesting perspective on how the whole health system works.
But suffice it to say, I’m very happy to help other people with their health this way, because I certainly was on the wrong end of that suffering when I was in my early 20’s, being overweight on prescription drugs, and thinking that this is just the way it was and how it was going to stay.
And I feel so much better now than I did 10 years ago.
So I’m very happy about how this is all going and all the people who I’ve been able to meet, as well as the community that Alyson, my wife, and I have been able to build virtually.
Some of you are joining from Sweden, and Germany, and Australia. I’m doing another interview right after this, over across the pond in Australia. So that’s really cool.
Alright, let’s see what other questions you have.
Glen says, “I need to find my way to getting my energy back. I work a lot and feel exhausted. I don’t know where to start. Give a tip or two, please.”
One thing that, especially in the Western world, we don’t do enough of, is taking a deep breath and just chilling out for a second.
So, Glen, if you haven’t experimented with meditation, deep breathing, Yoga, Tai Chi, taking a bath, giving yourself a little bit of me time, whatever your thing is. If you’re strung out, taking a break will help.
You know, for me it’s doing the Fat-Burning Man show, being on the TV shows and doing all the other things, running businesses. Doing all these things really adds up. And so if you don’t take a step back, you’re going to go insane no matter what you do with your life.
Especially these days when technology is basically designed to string us out.
So to the extent that you can, I know it sounds a little trite, but take a step back from whatever is stressing you out. If it’s your job, adjust your habits and change things. Take that little vacation, even if it’s just for a couple of hours.
For me, I used to race mountain bikes when I was a teenager. I loved it. And every so often I go more than a month or so without riding my bike or without going on a run. I might be going on hikes and doing other stuff, but I forget the things that I really love the most if I don’t keep doing them.
So, find your hobby again.
Find one and then get into it and that will actually refresh you. Sometimes, expending energy on something recreational will really help you out.
Another thing, if you’re feeling tired and stressed out, light exercise really works wonders. Going for a quick walk without technology.
Make sure you don’t have your phone or any technology in the bedroom is extremely important. No TV, no technology whatsoever is allowed to distract you while you’re sleeping, or trying to go to sleep.
There are so many things that you can do.
Melissa says, “I can eat well all day, but come evening I’m raiding the fridge constantly. Any ideas?”
Melissa, this happens to a lot of people. If you’re eating well all day, and then in the evening you’re having trouble, it’s probably a combination of physical exhaustion and mental exhaustion.
I’ve told this story on the podcast before, but I remember years ago when there was Ben & Jerry’s in my fridge and I knew it was there. I knew there was a jar of something so delicious and sweet and just waiting for me after a hard day.
One way to get around that is by being one step ahead of yourself.
If you’re at home, when you’re having trouble in the evening by raiding the fridge and all of that, then do your best to not keep food around. Or if you live in a place with other people, you have roommates or a family and they eat differently than you do, then just make sure you’re going into the right place in the fridge to eat from.
Be one step ahead of yourself and make sure that you have a healthy snack there.
One thing that Alyson does that I really love, is in the fridge we have this big old thing of GORP. And if you don’t know what GORP is, it’s basically like trail mix.
But she’ll take these different bags, usually just leftover nuts, and usually they’re lightly salted. It will be like macadamia nuts, cashew, pine nuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, Brazil nuts, sometimes peanuts, combined with a few dried berries.
And if you just have a handful of that it’s not really going to set you back, especially compared to Ben & Jerry’s.
You want to also leave yourself a little room to have treats.
I love eating treats in the evening, but I’m not generally raiding the fridge. And so if you can prepare… let’s say you make a batch of the choconut cookies, a lot of people really love that recipe and we do as well.
It’s basically just having your own homemade coconut maroon that’s made according to your taste, to your sweetness, without any nonsense ingredients that are going to keep you addicted and keep you eating.
The thing you want to avoid doing is eating something that’s really sugary and addictive and makes you hungrier and hungrier at the end of the day. Because being good all day is hard, for everybody it’s hard.
And so by the end of the day, you don’t want to just throw it all away, because you’re going to feel like that day was a failure, when in fact you were good for most of the day, or you were following your own goals.
So I’ll just, before I get to the next question, I’ll just say if you’re feeling really hungry and ravenous at the end of the day, you’re probably not eating enough during the day.
And so a lot of times the way that hunger works, especially if you’re craving things that are very sugary, very fatty, fried food—we all know when we’re creating the wrong stuff—that’s usually because you’re not filling up enough on the good stuff earlier in the day.
One final thing, sometimes I get really hungry later on in the evening, just randomly. You know what happened? Stress definitely causes that. When you’re tired, it causes that.
But make yourself a cup of tea or make yourself a whole pot of tea, non-caffeinated tea, in the evening.
The bedtime teas can be nice, but something that tastes good. Some of them taste nice, and sweet.
There’s one that I like, a gynostemma tea with herbs and adaptogens and things like that. And when you have that at the end of the day, it’s like a really nice, warming, calming food type thing. And you get a little bit of sweet, or you get that sweet flavor in your mouth and it can satisfy some of those cravings late night.
So that can be really helpful.
Glen asks, “Do you recommend any herbs.”
Yah, I like certain adaptogens. Like today, let’s see, I took a combo stack with Rhodiola. It’s been good to me over the years. I feel like it gives me a subtle boost. It’s not like taking me to above normal to having superpowers and being all upgrades or whatever. It’s more just like it spackles in the gaps if I’m feeling a little less than energetic.
Sometimes that can really help get things going.
Mario says, “Are you working on a new book? You look great, different, more joyful, great spirit.”
That’s a really nice comment, thank you for that.
Well, Mario, I think one of the things that happened is, I am kind of coming back from taking a big, long break with Alyson, from technology and social media for a while.
I’m not writing a new book, that might be a reason that I’m looking nice and joyful right now, because behind the scenes working with publishers, TV shows, and what have you, there’s a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes.
And one of the things that Alyson and I have been really happy to do in the past few months and years, is really double down on our own projects. Double down on being independent, and we feel like we, more than ever, have control of our own destiny. We can kind of take things in the directions that we want to go.
I’m also really happy because I’ve been able to play lots of music, I’m writing a lot more music.
And these days writing a book, having done or written a few of them, it takes a lot out of you. It takes a lot of very specific wordsmithing, and going back and forth to make sure there are no errors or what have you.
And the truth of the matter is, now with the technology that we have, I can talk to you right now. I am. You can ask me questions right now.
And so, it’s almost better to have the books that I’ve already written, and then be able to interact with you folks, with the other questions that come out.
Because I wanted to write The Wild Diet so there wouldn’t really be much left to write in other books after that.
I wanted it to be the basics with some more advanced stuff in there as well. But it’s a relatively big book, it’s got enough space for 50 plus recipes and a lot of explanation of how to eat, how to not eat, how to live, lifestyle factors, working out, things like that.
I don’t want to be publishing a new book every year and coming out with more things. The new shiny objects that you’re supposed to be buying or paying attention to so that you can have lifelong health. It doesn’t work like that.
It’s more about finding your own way of navigating this wacky, crazy world of eating right, of getting outside and exercising, keeping your head clear, all those things come from you. Not from books or anything else like that.
That said, I’m sure I’ll eat my words and write more books later.
But what I try not to do is re-tread on the same topics. I don’t want to be in the same place 10 years from now, saying the same things like, “Eat your vegetables everybody.”
I’d much rather evolve with the world.
It’s fascinating, now technology is more of a threat to our health than eating poorly is, or pharmaceutical drugs are.
Some of the things that have happened in the world recently, make it fresh again. And so, I really appreciate you folks listening and coming along for the ride, because I know I’m kind of all over the place sometimes. But I appreciate you saying that Mario.
Melissa says, “Definitely mentally and physically exhausted.”
So be good to yourself, give yourself that time. You need to give yourself the permission to make that time for yourself.
It’s not that helpful when people say, “Oh, it must be easy for you because you work for yourself” or “you don’t have kids” or “you’re young” or “you’re old and you’re retired” or whatever.
Those excuses really don’t matter because it’s really all about priorities.
And life, if you let it, will drag you in all sorts of corners. Steal your energy. Make it so you are mentally and physically exhausted. That’s just kind of life. So you have to have your guard up.
One thing that really helps me, this is what I try to do every single morning, I’ve been doing this for years. This is my little to-do list. And notice how I say little. Ok, so that’s the size of my hand. This is the size of the notebook, pretty tiny.
These are the things that I promised myself to do today. I can read it to you if you like, but I write on this pretty much first thing in the morning.
I’ll make myself some coffee and I’ll write down on this piece of paper what I want my day to be.
If you write it down yourself, there’s something that happens. Where you’re like, “I meant to do this. Someone else didn’t trick me into doing this, so I’m not wasting my time.”
So far I can’t read what I scratched out. Okay, but it’s simple. So over here in the morning, I do Qigong exercises, which is like Tai Chi or Yoga, in the sunshine. So that was one, then meditation after that in the sunshine. I knock those out in the morning at the same time.
And then once I do, I scratch them out. It feels so good to scratch them out.
Because it’s yours, you feel like you accomplish something.
And then I wrote down… Okay, this is an interview day, right? So I’ve already done two interviews. I’m in between, and I got another one coming up in a few minutes. And then I’m talking to Shaun T later on, to have him back on the show to talk about #twinsanity. He adopted with his husband Scott, adorable twins.
So it’s going to be, even though it’s the same person coming back to the show, we’re going to be talking completely differently. Because before we were talking about starring on ABC Television, health competition shows, and now it’s going to be about real life family stuff. So I can’t wait to talk to him about that.
So that’s on there. I already talked about the two interviews that are on here, so actually I can scratch those out if I wanted to.
But before that, showering, shaving, setup studio, finish writing all the stuff I need to prepare for the interviews.
I know a lot of people don’t do this, but before I have someone on my show, I read their book. I put a lot of time and effort into trying to consider where they’re coming from, what they might have to contribute to you folks who are listening on the other end.
So yah, that was a part of what I did this morning. And then as the day goes on, so interviewed Gary Collins, interviewed Mike. Now I’m doing the livestream. There was a question mark, this is a bonus livestream everybody, it just kind of happened.
But after that, I have another interview over in Australia, and the interview with Shaun T.
And this goes along with the amp questions, I have a little bonus box here on my list for programming my Fender amp. It’s a tube amp, but it’s also got some abilities to add effects and things like that. So I want to make sure they’re just right for the silly videos I’ll be releasing soon.
I also put down “play guitar, play piano, and play djembe.” Even if it’s for 2 – 5 minutes, I can scratch this puppy off of there, I just know that I want to do it.
How many little hobbies do you have where it’s like, “Oh man, I really wish I’d been doing this thing every day.”
But as the days come and go, you don’t think of the thing at the right time, so you never do it. Whether it’s exercising, playing an instrument, drawing, whatever floats your boat.
Get a piece of paper, hopefully a little notebook like this. This is what it looks like when it’s blank. And these cost nothing. I’ve got bought them all over the place. I’ve got another one right here, that I write down lyrics on, sometimes I’ll just make little notes.
But it’s really important to have one thing, one little notebook that you treat differently. That you treat like it’s going to be the truth.
Every day we’re technically able to do whatever we want to do, if you don’t think about all of the responsibilities that we may or may not have. But ideally, every day you have 100% free agency in anything you do, and so it’s important to do the right things.
Or at least try the things that you think you might like. Because sometimes you’re wrong, you don’t like it, and it’s like, “Glad I crossed that one off, don’t need to write it down again.”
But other times, I mean, right now I’m doing my best to kind of chill out and relax, play music. Some of the performances are really over the top. I’m playing multiple instruments and looping them, being really silly, but most of the time I really enjoy meditative type music, whether I’m playing piano, guitar, drumming, singing.
Those things for me are more like a therapy and a meditation.
And in between interviews, that’s why I’m not going crazy. It’s because I’m going over here and playing my piano or I’m banging on a drum or playing guitar. And it’s just amazing how much that stuff helps.
Ok, we got some folks here from Florida, Georgia, Colorado, right on. Let’s see what else we got. Tips for women, have a bunch of that coming up in shows.
Gabriel asks, “How do you feel about extended fast?”
I guess that depends on your definition of extended. But for me, aside from the heavy cream in my coffee and a few small supplements, I’m fasting today. I generally fast until 3:00 PM, sometimes even later than that. Sometimes not, but usually around there.
So it’s somewhere around a 16-eight fast, sometimes a 24. It really doesn’t matter how exact it is, it more matters what you’re doing over time. But some of the extended fast would be like three plus days a week or 10 days with only water.
And to be perfectly honest, I’ve never done more than I think 48 hours. Maybe I didn’t even do that for the full 48. But for extended fasts, I know it has helped some people, some people really like it. Dr. Perlmutter said that he was doing three-day fasts, at least at the time—water fasts, I believe.
What I don’t want is for people to equate not eating or fasting with pain and hunger.
There are different ways of thinking about it, but for some people, including me, once you get past this threshold, it starts to hurt, it starts to not be cool anymore. You start to feel less than energetic. And my understanding is if you push through, and you keep fasting, then that might go away and you might not be hungry.
So I would encourage almost anyone to experiment with that, see how you feel. If you want to do an extended fast, then as long as you’re being good to yourself, and you promise that you’re going to drink enough water, and you promise that you’re going to, when you come back from the fast, eat well, not eat horribly.
Because some people do that. They fast for a long time, then they eat horribly. You don’t want that. You really, really don’t.
I take a more moderate way of thinking through fasting and lifestyle things for the most part. I think a dab will do ya. You kind of want to start slow, but at the same time, you want to be able to push it maybe a little bit too far, so that you can know that that’s too far. You don’t want to go there. You want to come back to the sweet spot again.
And so for me, the sweet spot is like the 16-eight fast. And also giving myself the freedom to, if we’re for example, on vacation with other people, we’re about to go on a big hike or something like that, and it’s the morning time, they’re making up a big breakfast with scrambled eggs, bacon, and other delicious things. Then I’m going to have the scrambled eggs and bacon in the morning and I might not eat that much later in the day.
Or maybe I will eat a lot because we’re going on a big hike. But you have to give yourself the freedom to eat intuitively.
Give yourself the freedom to eat intuitively. Click To Tweet
That’s what it’s all about. It’s not about this wonderful place that you arrive at when you figure out the perfect amount of time to fast. Fasting is not the answer. Eating vegetables is not the answer. Exercising all the time is not the answer. None of these are the answer.
They’re are a ton of tiny little answers that you need to balance over time, and it’s always going to be a moving target. Because time is going by, the world is changing, we’re all aging, our life circumstances change. So you need to be really patient with yourself and gentle with yourself.
So, more is not always better. Keep that in mind.
Alright, what else have we got?
Richard Louis says, “Hey, Abel, thanks for all your dedication and truth, love your work. When will we get a new album?”
So yah, Swamp Thing, the album I did with Denny Hemingson and some of the guys from the Tim McGraw band, that was in 2015, so that’s like three years ago. I guess some of you might not know that starting a couple of months ago, I’ve been releasing a new music video every day, and will continue to release a new video every day for the next year. So hopefully, I can pick some of those and put them together into some sort of album.
But also secretly, I have 200 songs recorded, from all the way back when I was like 14 or 15 years old. I just found some of this old footage that I was able to convert to digital. If I wanted to, and I’ve considered this, I might be able to release like a good half dozen albums of past work.
But I’ll definitely be releasing some new ones as well.
Now as far as making an album goes, it depends on how intense I want it to be. Because going into the studio with a bunch of people and all the post production can be a lot.
But recording live music—I’m an improv performer anyway, that’s kind of like what I love to do—and even when we’re in the studio that’s what I’m doing. I usually don’t do more than a take or two, or three tops. I really like that way of creating things. You can’t be perfect.
But if I’m in the studio or if I’m doing post production, then I will try to be perfect, and it’ll take forever, and I’ll drive myself nuts. But if I’m just on stage in front of a bunch of people, or live streaming, or recording, then I can almost like relax into it and feel more comfortable in all the mistakes that I’m making.
Which may or may not be that audible, I’m always surprised by like people who were listening.
I’m like, “Oh, how did that show go? I felt like it was awful.”
And they’re just like, ” No, what are you talking about? I didn’t even notice that you were screwing up the whole time.”
Trust me, I was screwing up the whole time. But that’s all part of the fun. We all need our bit of humble pie and honestly, that’s how you grow, whether it’s as a performer, musician or as a person.
Oh, this is a great question, Gabriel asks, “How long on keto is too long?”
That all depends on your definition of keto, which is super messed up these days.
Paleo was not the perfect word or the perfect name for a movement. Ancestral Health would have been better.
But anyway, Paleo has been pushed way to the side, and keto is back, which is basically this thing that sounds cooler than Atkins, but the way that people are doing is the same way.
It’s like, “Might as well just go to McDonald’s and order a bunch of hamburgers without the buns and eat those, ’cause that’s so keto and so great for you, and you’re going to have a brain that works really well, and your whole body is going to be upgraded.”
That is not at all how it works.
Some weeks, Alyson and I probably get three to six various samples of new keto products, and there’ll be protein powders, fat bombs, coffee bombs, all these fatty things that are supposed to make your brain work better and make you skinny, and it’s ridiculous. It is ridiculous.
What is keto? Ketosis is a different thing than like slapping keto on a label of whatever. Coconut oil, butter, whatever fat it is, it’s just fat. It makes a lot of money for a lot of people.
But we’re all born in ketosis. If you fast for an extended period of time, you’re going to be in ketosis.
For me, I tried peeing on sticks to see what my ketones were like. And you know what? It wasn’t that insightful. It was a pain to keep track of all that stuff, but I figured with all the rage about it, and all the people who are super obsessed with keto, it begs the question, what is keto? What is everyone doing?
Because now keto is being replaced by the carnivore diet which sounds a lot like Atkins gone wrong.
In the original Atkins book, I read this long before I wrote my book, he said eat vegetables. The dude was a doctor.
And a lot of times when these things come out saying that carbs are bad, and fat is good, it’s just really not that simple.
What we’re all after, what we should be after, is balance.
What we should be after is balance. Click To Tweet
So how long on keto is too long? If you’re not feeling good, it’s too long, you’re not doing it right.
And it’s not about being keto. I don’t consider myself keto at all, which is a weird thing for Fat-Burning Man to say, I guess. But keto is not the answer. Ketosis, is something that your body enters from time to time.
Being fat-adapted, I prefer those words. Being able to go for several hours without being hangry, that’s a benefit. That is something that I think everyone should experience.
But being keto, and eating nothing but blocks of cream cheese and butter, and bacon, and meat all the time, I consider that a horrible idea.
I’ll entertain people. I’ve had some people on the podcast recently who are trying the carnivore diet thing, and it’s like, good on you trying things out, but I hope you don’t stay there.
I hope that this is a place that you can experiment with to see how your body does in the same way that I was vegan for a while, I was a vegetarian for a while. I’ve tried tons of things. Most of them did not work. What works is really honing your common sense, and keto has nothing to do with that.
I didn’t mean to make that a huge rant, but there’s just so much misinformation out there right now.
Any of you folks who are following me on Facebook might not know that people buy my name “Abel James” on Google, on Facebook, on pretty much all the platforms, so that they can advertise to you. It’s public knowledge on these platforms. They can buy you to advertise to you, to sell you all these keto things because if you like Fat-Burning Man, then you’re going to like keto.
I don’t like that one bit. I really, really don’t like that.
I wish that our names couldn’t be bought and sold. I’m not making money from that, not that I would even want to, but you shouldn’t be able to sell my name and sell the people, who are you folks, who were following me going after the truth.
So anyway, I could rant about that for a while, too. I’m sure I will.
Let’s see, we’re coming up on time.
Hi, Danielle. Yeah, I’ll say hi to Shaun T for you. Okay, this is a good question about beer from Jay.
“Hi, Abel, I have a question about beer. I have been on the wild diet for two years now. I love it, but is beer okay to drink within the wild diet?”
Well, I really never intended for people to say, “I’m following the wild diet.” The Wild Diet was the name of the book and it’s making fun of the word “diet” at the same time as it’s honoring its original definition, which is supposed to mean what an animal or a human habitually eats.
So anyway, I like beer, too. There are a lot of beers that make me feel terrible though. I don’t really get headaches, but I might get a mild one when I have the wrong alcoholic beverage, and I might get it the next day, too.
So the heavier your stouts, the really sugary beers, unless it’s a little sip here and there, I try to stay away from those.
I go in spurts. Right now, I’m not really drinking, but last week I was and the week before that I was, and when I go on a vacation, a lot of times I do.
The good news is that there are a lot more beer options now than there used to be, and I haven’t been able to find a solid organic beer that’s totally perfect or anything like that. But I like Omission beer, if you’ve been able to come across that. They’ve got a pale, a lager, and the ultimate light, and I like all of those.
But if I’m drinking normally, it’ll be on the light side, and that’s something where you’re not getting that much alcohol, you’re not getting that many carbs. And I can’t remember what it is, the light’s like five carbs or something like that, but also it’s not made by Michelob or these gigantic breweries or gigantic companies. I tend to like the little guys.
There’s some seltzer wine coolers that are coming on in the past couple of years and they’re pretty good, especially for day drinking or going out on a hike. There’s one that’s called Truly, and White Claw is another one. And those are basically seltzer with just a little bit of booze in it. So it’s like 4% or 5%.
If you’re out on a hike or it’s the end of the day and you drink 1 or 2 of those, really cool, no problem. But if you’re putting down a six-pack or a 12-pack in a night, then that will definitely set you back. Drinking more than a couple will set you back big time.
So the trick is, if you want your health, I’ve learned as you grow older, it’s instead of trying to get as buzzed as possible off of the six-pack or 12-pack like we used to do when we were younger, it’s more about enjoying your buzz from a beer or two, and be cool with that.
And if you can, which takes a little bit of an adjustment in our crazy, out of control society these days, but if you can do that, then you will be fine. And I wouldn’t worry about a beer or two. I wouldn’t worry about if it’s high quality wine, as well.
Dry Farm Wines, Todd has been on the podcast before, but check them out. We have been drinking Dry Farm Wines which are natural wines, wild fermentation and that sort of thing, without added nonsense, been having that on and off for years now, and really enjoyed that.
So, ooh, we got a question from Andy Miles. With fasting and more keto, it’s easy to get brain dead especially with mentally taxing work. Does timing factor into it?
Absolutely. You can over-fast, you can over-keto. They’re almost the same thing.
So if you notice you’re brain dead, give yourself a snack, give yourself a break, make sure you’re drinking plenty of water, try not to over-caffeinate, and all of that.
Amanda says, “My husband and I were watching one of your videos of you just improv composing some stuff and you’re pretty dang talented.”
Thanks, Amanda. Lots more to come.
Ok, Gabriel asks about keto.
Defining keto is less than 20 net grams of carbs. I could probably count the amount of days in my life that I’ve had fewer than than 20 grams of net carbs. I could count those days.
And you have to ask yourself why are you doing keto? Is it to feel better? Is it to lose weight? Is it to be healthy?
I would love, if possible, for people to focus more on, “How can I truly feel better?”
Not just like, how can I feel better for a second when I eat this Ben & Jerry’s. No. How can I feel better right now, 10 minutes from now, 10 hours from now, 10 days from now, 10 years from now.
What are the things that I can do to right the ship? To make sure that I’m on the right path?
And no matter what new name for a diet comes out, that won’t help you.
The things that will help you are the principles that are built into any diet that works.
And hopefully, over the course of time, by trying keto, by trying too hard, by fasting too long, you realize that more is not better, that it’s all about balance.
And that you have to treat yourself well and you have to give yourself permission to know more than your doctor, or to know more than the internet about whatever it is you’re eating or how you’re living.
You are the ultimate expert on your own body. No one else really can be.
You are the ultimate expert on your own body. No one else really can be. Click To Tweet
They can be experts on little pieces of it, but mostly you want to build your big old bag of tricks, and then use those to navigate this wild and crazy world that tries to make us ill, fat, sick, tired, desperate, exhausted. Because whenever that happens, it’s easier to sell you stuff and control you in some sort of capitalists society that we find ourselves in these days.
Not that that’s all bad, but it’s really easy for a meaningful and well-thought-out ideas and concepts to be taken advantage of by marketers to give you the wrong idea about whatever could have started off as right. Does that make sense?
Ok, Bobby says, “I’ve read The Wild Diet, subscribed to your cooking classes and also studied things about ketosis according to Thomas De Lauer. I prefer to follow a fasting schedule and eat wild. Some of them said fast three to five days a week. Others say every day. What are your thoughts on fasting amount once reaching your desired weight and composition?”
Awesome question, Bobby.
Once you’ve reached your desired weight and body composition, it’s much more about your energy levels. And it’s not always what you think, right?
If I eat a big breakfast in the morning, say I have all those scrambled eggs and some bacon, maybe a bit of coffee, maybe some fruit or some greens or what have you, and then I just go and do my normal thing, I’m going to be ravenously hungry for the rest of the day. I’m going to have less energy than if I hadn’t eaten that morning.
Yet, if I then after eating that breakfast went on a 10-mile hike or something, I would feel great. I think it would have been perfect. So you kind of have to look at the physical activity in your own life, look at what your body needs in terms of fuel.
Think of food, not as something that makes you fat. It’s a double-edged sword because that thinking might help you lose weight, but once you’re there, it can make you insane. And some of the people who were the skinniest and who are in the best shape, are in the worst mental shape. So you don’t want to be there. You want to be in balance.
It’s all about eating for the amount of energy that you want to have, and the only way to really know how your body works in that regard is to give it a shot.
So for me, having a salad, or a green smoothie, or something light. Or a lot of times I’ll just nibble on some raw veggies like carrots, or cucumbers, celery. Sometimes I’ll throw a green apple in there, something like that.
That’ll be the first thing that I eat, and it could be midday, more often, it’s later in the day. And so you kind of start slow.
Just to wrap this up on that great question, once you’ve reached your desired body composition and weight, then eat to make yourself feel good energy-wise.
Eat spiritually, eat in a communal way, eat with your friends, cook for your friends.
If you are already there, then try to be a beacon for other people. Not like you’re trying to convince them to be just like you, not at all, but just start to explore the other parts of this.
That can be really fun, like getting into cooking your own food now that you know what food you like to eat, or you need to eat every day.
Alright, I’ve got to run to go do some interviews. I’ll say hi to Shaun T for all of you, and in the meantime, be well.
And if you have any questions, then please drop a line on social media or drop a comment below.
Or you can go to the search bar at the top of the page, type in whatever into the search bar, something will pop up, whether it’s an interview that I’ve done that have all of the write-ups, all the transcripts. A lot of your questions have been answered already.
If you’re looking for more of the silly music stuff and later on some of my creative writing and poetry and art, and things like that, then check out abeljames.com. And if you want to support us, check out wildsuperfoods.com.
Thank you all so much for joining me on this.
I’ll also be able to livestream some music performances, so be sure to check those out in the months ahead.
You can follow me on social media under abeljames or fatburningman, and you can find all of the health-related content that we have at FatBurningMan.com, and all of the music, the virtual adventure tours, and much, much more at AbelJames.com.
Before You Go…
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Future Greens: It’s Like Vegetables From The Future
You may know that I’m not a big fan of most supplements. It’s hard to know if you’re getting what you paid for, and even worse, many supplements, juices, powders, and greens we’ve tried taste terrible.
For example, have you ever noticed that most powdered vegetable mixes taste like fish tank? Don’t even mention fish oil supplements. Once you’ve had fish burps, it’s hard to trust that brand again.
So, that’s why Alyson and I have spent the last 3+ years creating Wild Superfoods, and it’s our goal to give you the very best nutrition the world has to offer.
Now you can get the concentrated nutrition of 15 organic fruits and vegetables plus six other superfoods in one extremely convenient ready-to-go package.
We call it Future Greens, and if you’re looking to improve your health, performance, and well-being by doubling your intake of fruits and veggies without the sugar and carbs, you’re going to love it.
Future Greens: Making Fruits and Veggies Delicious Since 2018
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With a tasty wild berry flavor, you and your kids won’t even realize you’re eating broccoli and 20 plus powerhouse fruits, veggies, and adaptogens.
So if you want to try our brand new creation from Wild Superfoods called Future Greens, we have even better news for you.
As a thanks for being our reader and listener, you can get a 20% discount to try Future Greens yourself. Just head over to wildsuperfoods.com to get the scoop on Future Greens and you can save 20% when you select Subscribe and Save.
What did you think of this Q&A video? Let me know what you think in the comments below.