Upon Waking (6:30 am - 7:00/7:30 am)

Immediately Weigh-In
25 oz. Water, followed by 24 oz. blend of Ketones (we use the KetoLogic brand), Emergen-C, and Crystal Light).  Since Maria works out right after waking, and Jacqui and Amari both take take their supplements right before training (or playing a game), I give them Amino Acids and ketones (same) together.  For the amino acids, I give them the Xtend Brand, while I use the dotFit Brand (see below).

Before/During/Shortly After Workout (10:00 am - 12:00 pm)

24 oz. Blend of Amino Acids and Creatine.  When possible, I prefer to use products manufactured by dotFit, the company that sponsors me.  I trust their research more than any supplement company I've tried.  They are also one of the few companies who NFS certifies their products. That means they insure permissible use by collegiate and professional athletes.  Good enough for me.  I don't give the amino acids to the rest of the family...

Creatine is a natural substance found in commonly consumed foods like meat and fish.  It may very well be the most researched supplement on the planet; it may also be one of the most proven to be effective in helping both athletes and normal folks like you and me.

Creatine is a supplement that requires saturation.  It is a cumulative- rather than acute- supplement, meaning your body will respond to it if you allow it to "build up" in your body.  

Most of the creatine your body stores, is held directly in your muscle, making it readily available for energy and ATP production (used to contract muscles.

Creatine products vary in the their formulas and taste.  You can also buy creatine in either pill or capsule form.

Why Creatine?

Because your muscles use creatine to create muscle-contracting energy, using a creatine supplement can help develop strength and with recovery.  Recent studies also show a promising correlation between creatine supplementation and...

..from my upcoming book

Many young people, especially guys, date a lot. The excitement of a new relationship is mesmerizing and tantalizing. The euphoria of meeting and getting to know a new person can indeed be intoxicating. But as most of us can attest, this bliss eventually subsides. The relationship matures and, for the lucky ones, goes to the next level. But for many, this next level is simply no fun. So instead of settling into a relationship without the guise of perfection and perfect harmony, many people break ties, deciding instead to move on to a new relationship, only to begin the same process with the same eventuality.

The same is true for most of us when it comes to our fitness and health goals. Most of us have begun a relationship with our better selves at least once or twice. Some of us have begun this courtship dozens of times. But just like with literal relationships, this figurative relationship often times ends amidst boredom and faulty expectations. Sure, we get...

Most of you can certainly finish that sentence.  If you haven't actually acted out the funny- but true- reality of the craziness in sin city, than you certainly havce heard it.

Well, it's true.  What happens in Vegas does stay in Vegas.  Weight, that is. 

Let me explain.

Amari and I went to Vegas for a 7-on-7 football tournament.  Besides the weather being unexpectedly cold, and Amari hurting his foot to the point where we went to get X-Rays when we got back home (Thank God they were negative), I actually learned another lesson along my fitness journey.

Well, maybe "learned" is the wrong word.  Reaffirm is more suitably. 

You see, I've been tweaking and studying what I think is evolving quickly into the best way to manage your fitness, health, and confidence, for years.

A few of the things I teach now include:

• Intermittent Fasting
• Increased Permanent Fasting Windows
• Decreased Permanent Eating Windows
• Shorter, more Full-Body Workouts
• Continued...

My wife is always telling me that I’m smart. It makes me feel kind of, well, weird. I’m not sure why. I’ve accomplished too much academically to dismiss it altogether, but it’s hard to completely accept such praise. To tell you the truth, I don’t know what the heck it even means. To be smart, that is. I mean we all say it, referring to those around us as smart or bright. And I know there are tests that are supposed to effectively measure intelligence. But how many of us have actually taken one? And if we have, what exactly has it done to help us? Schools, of course, are notorious for using standardized testing to rank its pupils. But we’ve all heard about the biases inherent in some of these assessments. Furthermore, with more and more ways to prepare and study for these and similar tests, what does a good score on them really mean? That you are able to take a test and do well? That you have the means to afford private classes and tutors? Or...

Keep pushing life's "boulders" and it'll pay off!

Bill Parcells, the soon-to-be Hall of Fame football coach had a saying for almost every occasion and circumstance.  He was as knowledgeable about life as football and never missed an opportunity to share his wisdom and charisma.  One of his favorite expressions was used to explain the emotional fragility of young players.  “Confidence is born from demonstrated ability,” he’d say.  Of course, the thought is not original.  You may, in fact, have heard other variations of it.  “Once you’ve done it once, you can do it again.”  Or “You don’t know you can do it until you do it.”  However stated, no matter who says it or in what context, it’s as true and real as the world is round.

Confidence comes from evidence.  That’s obvious.  Or is it?  Doesn’t it take some confidence to produce the evidence in the first...

Chop big or chop small. Chop quickly or chop slowly. But whatever you do, Keep Choppin’!

Not long ago I was going through one of my crazy circuit training routines when one of the employees at the gym looked at me with a peculiar, perplexed, almost confused face. She’s seen me there dozens of times—always friendly and conversant—so I was wondering why she was looking at me in such a manner. Her confused look was actually, well, confusing me a bit. Later she walked by and said “Why do you work so hard? Is it like your thing or something?” I didn’t really know how to respond. As odd as it sounds, I initially felt the way I did when I was in high school, the same way a lot of kids, struggling to find an identity, to fit in yet stand out, feel. I thought back to a time when doing the best you could in school meant you were being a “teacher’s pet”, “bookworm”, or worse yet, a “know-it-all”. I remember...

We spend Christmas Eve every year at my in-laws in Modesto, CA, a little over an hour drive from my hometown of San Jose. We always have a great time there during the Holidays. My children get to see and spend time with their cousins, whom they don’t see very often. My wife gets to hang out with her siblings, whom because of life’s commitments- kids and work just to name a couple- she also sees a lot less than she probably should. And I get a mini-vacation, a few days that, because there are more adult eyes to look after ours and the other children, I get to relax and unwind a little.

As the stoplight turned green and we proceeded through the last busy intersection on the final stretch of road before my in-laws’ home, I noticed a man standing in a used car lot, which because it was nearly nine pm on Christmas Eve, had been closed for several hours. He was bundled up next to a streetlight, smoking what I’d hoped was a cigarette. “Look at that...

Me: “Run it back!”
Him: “You want to switch the teams up a little?”
Me: “Run it back!” (this time throwing, the ball at–um, I mean toward–him)

Anyone who is a competitor, and we all have a little bit of that in us, can relate to that scenario.  You’ve just been whooped.  And at something about which you care at least a little bit (why else would you be playing the game?).  And rather than go home, or sit on the sidelines, or worse yet, take the easy way out and change your team, you want nothing more than to play again.  You want to start over, hit sport’s equivalent of a reset button.  You want to, as they say on the hoop courts, “run it back”.  

And the beauty of sports is that, even if you lose again, even if you lose AGAIN, it’s just one day.  You always have tomorrow to come back and compete again.  I had a coach that used to tell us after a particularly poor loss...

Whether you are a lion or a gazelle, you better wake up every morning RUNNING!

There is a famous quote, captured so beautifully in wall-mounted, framed photos in offices across America. The Successories brand of motivational and inspirational products has made a fortune over it and similar products and while many people think they are corny and stupid, I find these phrases captured in artistic photography have a way of capturing the strength and promise within all of us and the methods, sometimes reasons, which bring out that potential. I have not purchased any of these products but often find myself remembering the ones that I have seen and which have resonated with me. There is one phrase in particular that came to mind this week.

I am in the eye of what appears to be one of those few storms that happen in all of our lives. You know, those moments that we feel deep in our stomachs may change the course of our lives and the lives of our loved ones. The proverbial forks in the road...