BJJ Caveman

Athletic Greens Review

Posted on September 29, 2014December 29, 2016 by BJJ Caveman

Introduction

I first learned about Athletic Greens when I read the 4 Hour Body by Tim Ferriss. I remember being so pumped after reading that book that I wanted to try everything he talked about, and one supplement that came up again and again was Athletic Greens. Here are a few direct quotes from the book:

My favorite greens supplement, “Athletic Greens” (mentioned in the schedule) doesn’t contain caffeine but will also help.
…
Prebiotics are fermentable substrates that help bacteria grow and thrive. In this category, I’ve experimented with organic inulin and fructo-oligosaccharides, commonly referred to as FOS.

Great Yahoo article on Lebron James’ low carb, ketogenic diet… except for the dietician that was interviewed

Posted on September 27, 2014February 18, 2015 by BJJ Caveman

It seems like every other day there’s a new article out discussing Lebron James’ low carb, ketogenic diet.

In this Yahoo article they interviewed a gentleman named Jim White, the official spokesman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

He had some quotes that I would like to address.

Problem is, ketones are nasty little buggars. They turn the blood acidic and cause horribly bad breath, nausea, and decreased appetite (which some people might see as a pro). Plus, if the body’s ketone levels get too high, they can prove toxic to the kidneys and liver, White says.

Does the new iOS 8 grayscale feature for the iPhone use blue light?

Posted on September 26, 2014October 9, 2014 by BJJ Caveman

The BJJ Cavewife and I recently updated our iPhones to the newly released operating system, iOS 8. One of the features that I was excited to make use of was the ability to change the display to grayscale, eliminating all the colors except for black and white.

Since one of the main reasons to avoid electronic displays (TVs, iPhones, iPads, computers, etc.) before going to bed is because the blue light emitted from those displays trick your body into thinking that the sun is still out, and causes suppression of melatonin release (the main sleep hormone), I reasoned that if my display was only black and white, there wouldn’t be any blue light emitted to screw things up!… Read More

The BJJ Caveman’s Random Reading: September 24, 2014

Posted on September 24, 2014October 9, 2014 by BJJ Caveman

While I wasn’t planning on it… it seems that ‘sleep’ has emerged as a theme in the past couple posts and what I’ve found my attention wandering to in my free moments. Could be because I’m in the middle of a tough series of overnight shifts and am feeling tired and sleep deprived and just plain exhausted and enervated.

Robb Wolf wrote a post about how important sleep is, and how he thinks it’s more important than both diet and exercise… something I agree 100% with.

Adrenal Fatigue vs Brain Fatigue

Posted on September 22, 2014October 9, 2014 by BJJ Caveman

Just watched this very interesting lecture by Nora Gedgaudas of Primal Body Primal Mind fame in which she explains that much of what the paleo community considers ‘adrenal fatigue’ is actually the result of central nervous system fatigue. There are quite a few moving parts before we get to the point where the adrenals secrete cortisol:

Hypothalamus secretes corticotropin releasing hormone which stimulates the pituitary
Pituitary secretes adrenocorticotropic hormone which then stimulates the adrenal glands to release cortisol.

And a whole bunch of inflammatory cascades and feedback loops act on these parts of the brain, which then determine what the adrenals do!… Read More

The BJJ Caveman Sleep Lab

Posted on September 18, 2014July 30, 2017 by BJJ Caveman

Over the past couple years, I’ve placed quite a bit of stress upon my circadian machinery, what with all the overnight shift work (either 7pm to 7am or 4pm to 4am) and all of the time spent traveling, that I’ve felt the need to explore supplemental support. These are the various supplements I’ve been experimenting with off and on.

Now I don’t take them all at once, and I don’t take any of them regularly, but I do have them in my toolbox. There are some that I’ve found more helpful than others and some that I’m still trying to decide whether or not I’ve just spent money on expensive urine. … Read More