I have declared success for Phase I, the initial 60 days of Tim vs. Aging. I lost about 17 pounds, I feel very good. I’ve created some good habits, I’ve learned a great deal about myself, about the anti-aging industry, and about the science that supports it.
In case you missed it, the most important thing here is that I have created some good habits. I will continue to keep the spreadsheet of all of my activities.
And I created these habits with determination, and support from my audience, but it was not overly painful, and I did not sigh with relief when it was over. I consider this a major victory.
So I’m making some adjustments for the next 90 days.
Supplements
NMN -After having accidentally shorted my dose during the initial phase, I upped the dose by a factor of three to 1 gram per day.
Resveratrol – I’ve been a bit wishywashy on this. After reading a lot of science about this supplement, I’m thinking this is mostly good for people who are already overweight with plaque in their arteries. Since I am losing weight and intend to be in shape, it may be less necessary. Resveratrol is a SIRT1 activator. SIRT6 activators are all the rage now, I may attempt to find one.
I’ll be taking 1 gram of resveratrol 2-3 times per week. I won’t be taking it on workout days. And I will likely take it at lunch time so that it has some fat to dissolve in. I was using eggnog as a fatty substance for it to dissolve in, but my lunches usually have a certain amount of fat, which should serve.
AKG – Alpha Ketoglutaric Acid, 300 mg per day. All of the reviews of this have been positive, similar results of life extension in mice. Improves bone formation, anti-aging, possible turns gray hair back to its natural color.
Vitamin D – A number of studies have touted the benefits of large quantities of Vitamin D, including protection against certain diseases and conditions. Here is an example https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30611908/ My daily dose is 5000 IU, which is 125 micrograms, considered a moderately high dose.
DHEA – I am dipping my toe into the water with this one. While the benefits have been found to be raising of testosterone, and more mental focus. It is essentially a hormone that decreases as you get older. But if the quantity is too high, then you can get anxiety. We will see.
Apigenin – I will continue to use my homemade dried parsley pills to provide about 100 mg of apigenin. I’ll need to run a new patch soon.
Vitamins – I switched from the One-A-Day Men’s chewables, to the Centrum Fresh and Fruity chewables. Seems a lot more complete to me.
Sea Buckthorn – This is an amazing supplement. Used by the Chinese for thousands of years, recent lab tests have found that within two hours of taking it, your stem cell count increases dramatically. My own tests were pretty amazing, it reduced inflammation in my knee (which was chronic from the recent exercise regimen) to almost nothing. I’ll be taking this on exercise days.
Skin Cream – The White Tea skin cream from Elizabeth Arden appears to be working, so I will continue using it. I’ve also purchase a bottle of very expensive OneSkin lotion ($120 per bottle) that I will try on select body parts in addition to the White Tea cream.
Iron – I went to the plasma donation place and they said I my hematocrit (?) was low and might have an iron shortage (but we agreed it could also be because I had just completed a 36 hour fast). So I bought a bottle and will take this occasionally.
Diet
I’m keeping with the 2400 calorie limit per day, this seems to be working. With the added workouts and the fasting, my daily calorie average is effetively1500 calories. I am losing weight and not suffering overly much.
Fasting
My target day for fasting is Thursday, which means Wednesday after dinner to Friday morning. I’ve been doing some of my MMA workouts on fasting day, but I think I will try to avoid this. First, I feel a bit weak on fasting days and have noticed my endurance is not as good. Second, the exercise literature says that to support muscle development you need to eat something to have fuel, which I can’t get if I am not going to eat for another 16 hours.
Training
MMA – I will continue training with professional fighter Trisha Cicero for the foreseeable future. Its a great workout. However she is about 5 months pregnant, she may have to take a break soon.
Weights – I’ve joined a new gym, LA Fitness. The array of weight training equipment is much better, plus they have a basketball gym and some branches have saunas and other stuff. I’ll be doing a lot more in the free weight realm than I did before, which was just a machine circuit.
Stretching – Since the end of Phase I, I have been less diligent about the stretching. But this was actually one of the good surprises of Phase I, the beneficial effect. I firmly believe now that while the supplements may give you the potential for a better body, you have to stretch, stress and otherwise push it into better shape (it’s just easier). I will continue to do it.
Plasma – This is new. It appears from scientific research that plasma dilution is an effective anti-aging regimen. I will try giving plasma every other week. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrgOCq1MVQc
Weight Scale tests – I normally weigh myself after my fasting day (my lightest time of the week). This will continue. I also bought two new scales that measure a whole lot of things. I will test them for consistency, accuraccy and precision against each other. A poster in a Facebook group claimed that a scale told him he had about a 30% increase in muscle mass within a few months according to his scale. This just didn’t seem possible to me, which sparked my curiosity. I will eventually report on which features I believe are reals versus complete BS.
Hyperbaric Chamber
This is gone from this Phase. The result of this were inconclusive (and I am a bit pissed). This will be the subject of another article in a few days.
Goal
In my previous series I talked about challenging Former UFC Heavyweight Champion Andre Arlovsky to an MMA fight. Yes, I think I will eventually beat him in combat!!! (Grrrr…) But since I have made some progress and developed some good habits, my intermediate goal is an amateur MMA fight.
I found an MMA promotion called 305 Fights here in South Florida, and one of their fights (an exhibition) featured a 62 year old fighter. I’ll give it to the guy that he was in good shape https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFn6WkhEyK0. But these two fighters were terrible, I could beat both of them at the same time (I’m really not kidding in this case…). This leads me to believe that I can conceivably get a legitimate amateur fight through this promotion. Think how famous I will be! My nickname will be “Old Dog” (or perhaps “Crusty”?)
A realistic schedule will be about this time next year. If I continue to lose weight on schedule until January, I might have a shot at making 185 lbs or (in my dreams) 170 lbs. If at that time I believe I can be in decent shape, I will begin practicing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and do some more serious sparring. We will see.
