This was lovingly written for you at 6:13 on Wednesday AM. I’ve been drinking electrolytes in my water in the AM, and that’s been one of my favorite upgrades to my routine that I’ve started recently.

As AZ finally transitions to REAL summer, we’re losing the biggest room in our house… our backyard, right as our 1 year old starts figuring out that walking is a much better means of transportation.

I might have to install a baby treadmill for him in the garage or something…

anyways..

3 Thoughts

1. Are You a Grabber??
   
   I’ve been doing keto for 9 days now.

   It’s been an interesting experiment, but the hardest thing has been not just “grabbing” up whatever food is left and finishing it.

   Normally I would finish the other half of the PB&J or eat a few chips or apple slices. This has forced me to abstain, which is tough…but also a stark reminder that I’m probably eating 300-500 calories per day mindlessly.

   Having the structure of “0 carbs allowed” has brought awareness to this for me.

   How about you?

2. Stop Doing “Big” Exercises First

   When I was in my 20’s, I thought you had to do your biggest exercises first when you were most fresh. Bench, Deadlift, Squat were all the #1 exercise on their respective days.

   I spent most of my 20’s hurt.

   Now I realize that not only is there no International Committee of Testicular Fortitude checking to see that you’re doing your back squats like a good little Soviet, it’s way better for most of us to do these exercise later in the workout.

   Spending our first few sets getting the muscles warmed up and nervous system turned on can be a much bigger benefit than being 1% fresher.

   It can also be the difference between your knees feeling great or cranky after the workout.

   this would look like: seated hamstring curls x 12, box jump x 5 for a few sets before you squat.
   

3. Shoutout to Salt!

   Since I’ve been basically 0 carb recently, I was expecting to be getting more lethargic or dealing with the “keto flu”.

   I have not experienced any of this, and I believe it’s because I have adequate sodium intake.

   Eating carbs stimulates a hormone called Aldosterone, which controls sodium levels in the body. When you ditch carbs, you will flush out a lot of stored salt. This is where the flu like symptoms come from.

   But by getting 4-5g of sodium per day, I’ve felt good, my workouts haven’t suffered, and I’ve been feeling good.

   Making sure you get enough salt is critical when you go low carb…if you’re interested in feeling awesome.

2 Resources

1. Here’s a sodium “recipe” you can make yourself, thanks to the good folks at LMNT.

   You want to make sure you’re getting potassium and magnesium at the same time, so before you go pounding table salt, check this out.

2. What happens when you take 60mg of Melatonin for 30 days straight?

   Tune in to this episode of the Low Carb Hustle for the results of the experiment.

Question

Are you a moderation person? Or are you a binary person?

What do you do better with? A measured approach or a hardcore black and white approach?

These black and white extreme approaches to fitness are sexy on paper (p90x, keto, 7-day juice fasts) but for the majority of us, are not the right choice

Knowing yourself and what stage of your life you’re in (got 5 kids under 5? Probably not time for a stressful diet) can help you stay productive and treat each new tactic as a step forward in your training journey, not the end all be all.