Jason Actualization

For folks seeking optimal health, the vegan diet is out of the question.

Correct, it's just that, as a vegan, it will require a heroic supplementation effort. Correct, he is chronically starving himself, which, unlike a seasoned bodybuilder, he has no intention to abort. Very nice. What is your supplement stack and current body fat percentage as well as height/weight?

Not bad man, nice work. There's definitely a lot of potential left physique-wise for you, but for general health, that's a good place to be.

Amazing my friend. The inter-individual variability of caffeine metabolism is also quite striking, meaning, the half-life varies greatly, and necessarily impacts your ability to get deep and restorative sleep. I am in bed for 9 hours consistently, like clock-work, and can count on one hand the number of minutes it takes me to fall asleep after my head hits the pillow. You are on the right track my friend.

Amazing man. What is your height, weight, and approximate body fat percentage currently?

What you resist, persists. That said, my philosophy is to put food first, really fix and optimize your physiology, and then often times, discomfort subsides and good mental health blossoms.

Meat is necessary for optimality, yes, it is an irreplaceable (Impossible burgers are toxic attempts) linchpin. Rare, indeed, aside from those using performance enhancing drugs.

Lol, that's right. It gets jacked because of the concentrated amounts of leucine (one of the BCAAs and rate-limiting steps to triggering muscle protein synthesis). A fruit diet will not render the same result(s), no.

Very good news. We love you Leo, we want you to be as healthy as a horse man!

Yes, and food cravings will eventually be a thing of the past. It only gets easier!

Coffee/caffeine is masking fatigue, but akin to how vitamin D is not a perfect sunlight substitute, coffee is not a sleep substitute. Being fatigued is a symptom, an invitation for exploration. The cure hides where the cause resides, and the cause is not a caffeine deficiency, and so, consuming such in an effort to resolve your lack of energy, is merely to take a chemical crutch. Crutches are okay to lean on in the short-term, but in the long-term, paradoxically, crutches actually cripple you, so proceed with caution when consuming caffeinated beverages of any variety.

I eat 1 pound of red meat daily.

The instant pot is the best way to cook/prepare meat at lower temperatures (~230F) and sidestep these problems.

What's the ask here?

Well said.

You can enter your zip code here to identify the local contaminants that you have to contend with: https://www.ewg.org/tapwater/ Tap water is absolutely unfit for human consumption, there are about 50 pharmaceuticals that are renally metabolized and, by extension, end up in the toxic water supply, ethinyl estradiol (birth control) not least of which. I use a countertop distiller to render molecularly pure H2O, which is effectively rainwater minus air pollution, i.e., the purest possible water on the planet: vapor distillation is the way to go. For folks concerned about the absence of minerals/electrolytes, the amount found in even the best spring water is still drops in the ocean compared to what a properly formulated, nutritious diet will confer one with. Long story short, relying on your drinking water to satisfactorily address your micronutrient needs is not well founded.

Many of his supplements are born out of necessity due to the absence of animal meat in his diet. He also has to take exogenous testosterone because his nutrition is ill-equipped to optimize his endocrine system.

Firsthand experience is very beneficial not just for assessing immediate reactions, but for everything, i.e., how you actually think and feel throughout your entire, conscious, waking life. This is not just a matter of using our experience to avoid obvious issues such as allergies, but to use it as a compass to seek and find optimality. Your firsthand experience is only subjective to others, but to you, it is objective, since you are the end user, you are the n=1 of your own life my friend. Your firsthand experience is literally the truthful territory, so if you are following a map (i.e., a particular nutritional philosophy) that doesn't satisfactorily reconcile the terrain, then don't interrogate the territory, rather, modify the map. One would hope they would be complementary, but nutritional science has an atrocious signal to noise ratio. But I'm with you, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and to not just go by "feel" but actually be hard-nosed and look at the numbers of comprehensive blood tests. What's fascinating about cigarettes is how doctors avidly promoted them because "the science" apparently supported this practice. Yikes... I wonder if there is possibly something analogous to cigarette smoking nowadays that is being promoted as heart-healthy. That said, your point is definitely well taken man, but it pertains to the cessation of something manmade, not the consumption of something already found in nature, so there's a bit of a disconnect. Is there a better analogy you could offer (to help me better understand) related to something rewarding when consumed in a natural form? How well do you feel you have balanced the two? Do you have any lab results you could share, such as FFMI, oxLDL, fasting glucose, A1c, total testosterone, HDL, and triglycerides? My most recent are 23, 44, 85, 4.8, 909, 54, and 32, respectively. My grip strength is 150 lbs which is the 100th percentile, and I'm roughly 12% body fat. You hit the nail on the head brother, I'm with you all the way. The cure hides where the cause resides.

The #1 source went without mention, but namely, it is the feedback you get from taking massive action and actually, honestly assessing what happens. How well are you sleeping? How is your libido? How are your major markers of endocrine function such as total and free testosterone, and estradiol? What is your fat free body mass index? What is your grip strength? What percent (approximately) body fat do you carry? What is your oxidized LDL level? What about HDL to triglyceride ratio, A1c, and fasting insulin? How is your erection quality? Are you sleeping like a rock and waking up as hard as one? In other words fellas, what is actually happening to you and your health qualitatively and quantitatively, in your direct experience? Leo's apt distinction of theory versus practice is of paramount importance to apply here. Never outsource your own intuition and firsthand experience gentlemen.