Hey, what's up?
John Sonmez here from simpleprogrammer.com.
I got a fitness question for you today, but not the kind that you might think.
Tired of pushy recruiters sending you LinkedIn requests for jobs you have no interest in?
Tired of blasting out resumes into the dark?
If so, you should check out Hired.com.
Hired.com flips job searching on its head by having top employers like Facebook come
to you after you fill out one simple application.
You also get your own job coach to help you on your next job search.
If you haven't checked it out, I highly recommend you at least fill out the application.
Just go to Hired.com/simpleprogrammer.
When you get hired with Hired, you'll get double the normal sign-on bonus for using
that link.
I got this question about the best diet and fitness routine for energy and mental clarity.
This is from Dirk and he says, "I've been trying to find a successful diet, fitness
and morning routine to have the most energy and mental clarity to put into my business.
I don't care for 10% bodyfat or running a sub 20 5K or benching 315."
What?
You don't care about that so important stuff?
Man!
I guess I'm the only vain person here on YouTube.
Anyway.
He says, "I just want to have the best amount of energy levels and mental clarity to devote
to my business.
Additional info: Also does meditation and caffeine help with mental clarity and improve
energy levels?"
So, I would say that this is—I am not optimizing for this at this time because I am optimizing
for the sub 10% bodyfat and 315 bench press.
That's what I'm going for.
I've definitely been on both sides of this and I've tried all kinds of things so I can
give yo a pretty decent idea of at least what my opinion is on this if you're trying to
optimize—for what you're trying to optimize which is to have the most energy and clarity
and focus in your business.
Now, I'll tell you, those of you that have been watching this channel for a while, you
know that I eat one meal a day.
I'll fast until 5:00 PM every day.
Just to clarify, I drink water or coffee.
I have zero calories until 5 PM every day.
Yes, I don't snack on anything, and yes, I do just eat that one meal at 5:00, yes.
If you want to know why I do it, you can check out the playlist on my One Meal a Day or my
fitness stuff here for sure.
I'm not going to get into the details here.
But, I will say that it is not, it is not optimal for energy level and for focus, especially
not for focus.
For energy level, it actually might be better than you think.
I'm able to run 10 miles.
I've run 20 miles, I've run 26 miles completely fasted, I haven't eaten for 24 hours and I
had a lot of energy.
I lift weights for 2 hours and do the heavy lifting and stuff, so energy wise I feel I've
got a decent amount of energy, but focus and clarity definitely takes—it suffers from
that.
Around 3:00 is when I do my workout.
The reason why I do my workouts at 3:00 that's about where my brain starts to go "uhh" and
I start to go into zombie mode, so I basically do physical exercise during that time so I
can make it until my meal and that makes sense.
I just wanted to give you that—like what I'm doing and the way that I'm being in the
calorie deficit is horrible for mental clarity.
You're going to feel hungry.
You're not going to be focused.
You're not going to be thinking as much as possible or as best as possible.
Your energy levels are probably going to be lower.
Also, exhausting yourself, doing the kind of workouts that I do, running 10 miles 4
times a week or doing these heavy lifting, you feel it the next day.
Your legs are sore, your arms are sore, you feel tired, you want to sit down, you want
to sleep, you don't want to devote your time to your business or to work.
Not that I don't—I still get that stuff done, but it's harder.
I'm not optimizing for that.
I'm telling you what not to do first.
Now, I'll tell you what I would do if I were going to focus on this based on what I know.
I would eat a calorie surplus.
I would make sure that I'm eating and I would make sure I'm eating regularly.
I would eat a good breakfast.
I would probably have a snack halfway between breakfast and lunch.
I would probably have another snack.
I would probably be eating 6 or 7 meals a day just in order to keep the hunger at bay
and to keep my energy levels as high as possible.
I would be trying to eat complex carbohydrates.
A lot of carbohydrates but complex carbohydrates.
I would be avoiding things like sugars.
I would be trying to eat sweet potatoes, brown rice, broccoli, vegetables, the kind of stuff
that a bodybuilder would eat.
Honestly, a good bodybuilding diet that you've seen.
I would probably take some supplementation.
I would make sure that I'm definitely taking a good multivitamin.
I would take some—I would experiment with different nootropics.
Nootropics I suppose is how it's called.
I've tried a few of them and think some of them work but I haven't really experimented
that much with them because I don't really care that much.
I'm more focused on, like I said, the fitness side of it.
I would definitely say that caffeine does help.
It definitely helps with energy levels so I would be either drinking a lot of coffee
or taking caffeine pills.
Some of the nootropics are going to have that in them, but I would not neglect fitness totally.
I would be trying to do some kind of run.
I think that if you do physical exercise but it's not to the point of exhaustion and you
do that first thing in the morning or maybe something at lunch time that it is actually
going to give you more energy.
Before I was running crazy miles when I was just running 5K, just like a half hour run
in the morning, I would feel more energized and more ready and focused and ready to hit
the day.
After running 10 miles, I don't feel that way, not at all.
I'll tell you that.
Or if I would lift in the morning and i would just do a quick 45-minute lifting routine,
I would feel good and have a lot of energy levels.
If I were optimizing, this is what I would do.
Like I said, I'd eat plenty of calories.
I would high glycemic index or good quality carbohydrates and make sure that I wasn't
skimping on that.
I would supplement as best as possible an experiment with a few different supplements
and definitely take caffeine and some nootropics and I would do some kind of brief exercise,
calisthenics in the morning, possibly a second session in the afternoon and I would try and
stay in pretty decent physical shape.
I would not be trying to lose any kind of weight during that time.
I wouldn't be trying to do any kind of intense kind of training that's going to wear you
out.
The last thing I would do is I would get plenty of sleep.
I would try and get 9 hours of sleep a day if that's what you want.
The more sleep that you have, the better off that you're going to be.
I'd use blackout curtains.
I'd make sure that my sleep is as good as possible.
Possibly take some melatonin at night to make that happen even better.
That's what I would do.
That's how I would optimize for that.
I can't think of anything else that I would do besides drinking plenty of water, but yeah.
I'm not optimizing for that.
Like I said, if you're doing the fasting, if you're doing ketogenic diet, I think all
of those things are likely to wear on you.
Some people do claim that they get more energy when they are keto adapted and they're in
the ketogenic diet.
I would agree that their energy levels are probably more level, but I would say that
if you eat 6 or 7 meals a day it's going to be—your sugar level is going to be level
especially if you're eating complex carbohydrates.
That's probably going to be better overall than doing anything kind of crazy diet.
Definitely don't fast.
Fasting is going to distract you mentally, it really will.
Just so you know, that's what I do.
I've gotten used to eat and I'm able to operate, but it's not optimal at all.
Well, good question.
I think this is something that I haven't really talked about much.
I hope that this is helpful to you.
Let me know actually, because I'm curious about this, because I honestly have never
optimized for this.
Send me—or leave a comment below if you have optimized for the mental clarity, focus
and energy for your business.
If you don't care about the 6 pack abs and all that stuff but you do care about optimizing
for just mental performance, I would love to know what you've got to say and get your
input so leave a comment below.
If you haven't subscribed already, click that Subscribe button and I will talk to you next
time.
Take care.