Men’s Health and Performance

  • Join our community of outdoor enthusiasts! Subscribe to Field Ethos Magazine to unlock full forum access and connect with fellow adventurers sharing their stories, tips, and experiences.

    If you are already a subscriber, log in here.
Jason Vincent

Jason Vincent

CEO
Staff member
FE Staff
Starting this thread to see where it goes and I’ll likely build out a bunch of sub threads later.

In late November 2024 I went carnivore. I’d just come back from doing the Australia film and I was way out of spec. My final year in LE I was 159 (too light from too much cardio and testing gluten free) and by the time I got back from Australia I was 208. A trainer buddy told me I looked like shit and I needed to start training for my 50’s if I wanted to enjoy that decade at all.

I knew I looked and felt like shit, but I’d never heard it framed quite like that. How would I be able to adventure in my 50’s if I didn’t change course?

I didn’t want to get on the trendy Ozempic type stuff and be reliant on any meds so I took what I already knew about carnivore and started researching more about the lifestyle and possible benefits -one of the most attractive benefits being reduced inflammation.

I have a plate and 11 screws in my left ankle from a compound fracture, broke L1 & T12 vertebrae years later, and was having cam impingement in my hip after both of those impact injuries. Inflammation was a problem.

So I started carnivore in conjunction with getting back in the gym.

Within 3 weeks of starting carnivore the cam impingement was completely gone, I was sleeping way better at night and I was focusing better. Combined with workouts the weight started to come off. I added in daily German creatine for recovery and really leaned into the protein and animal fat. The creatine really helped with my memory and I could see all the associated improvements within about 6 weeks.

Recently I started collagen peptides. The only supplements I take are collagen, creatine and Vitamin D. D has been the only thing to suffer with carnivore. I get quarterly labs and they’ve been coming back amazing. Just did lab work again yesterday and when the doc went over the previous results with me he repeated several times how good my labs look. Perfect blood pressure, resting heart rate, cholesterol and testosterone. 685 without any TRT and my free T was almost 15.

So I’m on course to having a great time in my 50’s (still 6 years away). I take rare departures from carnivore to have a beer or tequila night with the FE squad but that’s very infrequent as it takes almost a week to feel like I’m dialed back in.

I’m headed to Ways2Wellness in TX soon for a full in-depth analysis of my current baseline and a treatment plan to take things to the next level.

I’ll report back. Let me know if you have any questions.

Carnivore since Nov 2024. Healthier. Down from 208 to 168. Sleeping great. Feeling great. Fucking dialed in.
 
Last edited:
I've heard a lot about Ways2Wellness, including him being on the Cleared Hot podcast with Andy Stumpf. I'll be curious to follow along and hear your thoughts as I've been thinking about having them work me up as well. But before I do that, I need to handle some shit, see below.

I'm 57 and working on getting myself back into shape. I'm down 30 pounds from last year, solely based on portion control. I will admit I tried Ozempic but it made me wicked-nauseous so I stopped after two weeks.

I've decided to start rucking in earnest and get back to lifting weights. Today is the last day of the remodel on my house and I'm getting my garage gym back.

Biggest thing I need to do is cut back on the booze. Bourbon (and tequila) and I have become too good of friends. My job is very stressful, the negative kind, and I've been using bourbon to chill. Maybe this thread will be a place to be accountable for getting back in shape
 
I just turned 63, and I’m on a serious quest to get lighter, without giving up strength.

I started lifting regularly a little over a year ago and, according to DEXA scans 13 months apart, added 7.5 pounds of lean muscle. The downside: my weight also rose from 275 to 295. Training, it turns out, builds both muscle and appetite.

After research and some expert guidance, I shifted to body recomposition, losing fat while maintaining or building muscle. It’s slower than straight weight loss, so progress shows up more in how my clothes fit than on the scale. My goal is 240 pounds by late this year, then possibly 220. After heading in the wrong direction on my own, I added Wegovy. Six weeks in, I’m down 10–12 pounds, with noticeably looser clothes. Side effects have been mild and brief.

To gauge my muscle preservation, I aim for at least one or two lifting PRs each week. I track everything I eat, targeting 1,700–1,800 calories and 190–210 grams of protein daily. Hitting that protein level takes real discipline in a calorie deficit, so I track everything I eat. I also practice intermittent fasting, finishing dinner by early evening and eating again after noon the next day. I survive the mornings just fine on cold-brew coffee. My supplements are dialed and consistent.

My diet centers on lean, high-protein foods: chicken, fish, shellfish, turkey, nonfat Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, protein powders, and lean red meats like grass-fed beef, elk, and venison. I put organic frozen fruit in my shakes, and I'll eat green veggies salad or beans with my real meals.

Next up: a shake for lunch and a big bowl of elk and venison chili for dinner.
 
Jason Vincent said:
Starting this thread to see where it goes and I’ll likely build out a bunch of sub threads later.

In late November 2024 I went carnivore. I’d just come back from doing the Australia film and I was way out of spec. My final year in LE I was 159 (too light from too much cardio and testing gluten free) and by the time I got back from Australia I was 208. A trainer buddy told me I looked like shit and I needed to start training for my 50’s if I wanted to enjoy that decade at all.

I knew I looked and felt like shit, but I’d never heard it framed quite like that. How would I be able to adventure in my 50’s if I didn’t change course?

I didn’t want to get on the trendy Ozempic type stuff and be reliant on any meds so I took what I already knew about carnivore and started researching more about the lifestyle and possible benefits -one of the most attractive benefits being reduced inflammation.

I have a plate and 11 screws in my left ankle from a compound fracture, broke L1 & T12 vertebrae years later, and was having cam impingement in my hip after both of those impact injuries. Inflammation was a problem.

So I started carnivore in conjunction with getting back in the gym.

Within 3 weeks of starting carnivore the cam impingement was completely gone, I was sleeping way better at night and I was focusing better. Combined with workouts the weight started to come off. I added in daily German creatine for recovery and really leaned into the protein and animal fat. The creatine really helped with my memory and I could see all the associated improvements within about 6 weeks.

Recently I started collagen peptides. The only supplements I take are collagen, creatine and Vitamin D. D has been the only thing to suffer with carnivore. I get quarterly labs and they’ve been coming back amazing. Just did lab work again yesterday and when the doc went over the previous results with me he repeated several times how good my labs look. Perfect blood pressure, resting heart rate, cholesterol and testosterone. 685 without any TRT and my free T was almost 15.

So I’m on course to having a great time in my 50’s (still 6 years away). I take rare departures from carnivore to have a beer or tequila night with the FE squad but that’s very infrequent as it takes almost a week to feel like I’m dialed back in.

I’m headed to Ways2Wellness in TX soon for a full in-depth analysis of my current baseline and a treatment plan to take things to the next level.

I’ll report back. Let me know if you have any questions.

Carnivore since Nov 2024. Healthier. Down from 208 to 168. Sleeping great. Feeling great. Fucking dialed in.
Click to expand...
Love to hear it! I all but cut out carbs and processed foods about four years ago. Went from 220 down to 195. I lift five days a week — despite absolutely hating it — and haven't felt this good since my twenties.

I turn 51 at the end of the month and take zero meds or supplements, which feels like a major accomplishment these days.
Ditching booze was a big factor too. I save it for special occasions now, as opposed to not drinking on occasion.

Keep it up! 👍🏻
 
Great thread idea Jason. I will turn 64 at the end of May while on the way to Africa. I've trained pretty consistently for the last fourteen years, everything from distance running, CrossFit and weight training. Made a pretty big shift at the first of the year after fucking up my back in January and being way off the reservation over the holidays. Started Pilates and stretching daily. I ruck 4-5 times a week in the morning followed by 20-30 mobility work and then quick bodyweight WOD. I try to lift once on my own and work out with a trainer twice focusing on exercises geared toward me chasing my cigarette smoking PH and Terry up mountains. I try and eat healthy more chicken, fish and turkey but still splurge at least once a week. I've done TRT and had mixed results: increased strength and energy but tend to get bloated after 6-8 weeks so I would cycle off. Just started NAD+ and Sermorlin and have definitely seen benefits of leaning out and better sleep. All said my goal is to be able to do the things I love to do the way I want to do them.
 
An excellent thread! Tracking bloodwork is an excellent idea, maybe I'll start doing that someday. Consistent heavy weight training for the last 2 years has made a significant difference in how I feel and even a little in my physique. Probably would be better if I implement a better diet, but I do love me some snacks. We should put together a FE hangout, can have a shooting match, fitness challenge and BBQ. Then we can all make plans for improvement for the following years meetup!
 
I've tried all diets. Happy to offer any input, if you are curious. I stick to a modified "Slow Carb" diet. I supplement with creatine, aminos, tongkat ali, and fadogia agrestis.

Lift weights five times a week. Zone 2 cardio twice a week. My active resk is kicking boxing, hiking, or rucking.

Sensory deprivation tank one hour a week. Sauna and ice bath when I feel like it, which is anywhere between three times a week to one time a month. Just depends how I feel.

Sleep eight hours a night. I have a chili pad, which I highly recommend. I could write a whole post about how much that thing has improved my sleep.
 
Sean Molina said:
I've tried all diets. Happy to offer any input, if you are curious. I stick to a modified "Slow Carb" diet. I supplement with creatine, aminos, tongkat ali, and fadogia agrestis.

Lift weights five times a week. Zone 2 cardio twice a week. My active resk is kicking boxing, hiking, or rucking.

Sensory deprivation tank one hour a week. Sauna and ice bath when I feel like it, which is anywhere between three times a week to one time a month. Just depends how I feel.

Sleep eight hours a night. I have a chili pad, which I highly recommend. I could write a whole post about how much that thing has improved my sleep.
Click to expand...
What is a chili pad? That sounds like I might need one in my life
 
YETI said:
What is a chili pad? That sounds like I might need one in my life
Click to expand...

Check sleep.me

It's a cooling topper. I have it at 55 degrees. It keeps me ice cold. I don't wake up sweating. I don't wake up until morning.

I really needed it. I run hot. I pulled the trigger after I rolled out of a sweaty blanket at 2am.

A little expensive but worth it. Maintenance is easy. Change water once a month. Add a cleaning solution. Used distilled water.

Every time I sleep at a hotel or something, I notice how much I benefit from sleeping ice cold all night.
 
Not a guy obv, but big into health and wellness and staying active and would just suggest checking into what type of food/exercise is best for your blood type. “Eat Right 4 Your Type” is a great book and it goes back to the foundations and that certain types of people were genetically predisposed for certain types of disorders and diseases. It’s an interesting read, and I’ve found it to be pretty spot on. 🩸 🍲
 
Bear with me.This is going to be really really long but it might be beneficial and start several conversations.

Well, here’s my story. @Jason Vincent and I are the same age(44). Not creepin on ya JV, I’m just observant. In 2017, I hit the highest weight I’ve ever been and decided something had to change. I was rockin the dad bod and had hit 225 lbs. I’m 5’9 and have no business being that weight. I graduated high school at 145, hit 190 in college in the middle of baseball season my junior year and had maintained that weight until a bad lifestyle got in the way and I blew up. I decided to try the juice diet where I was running all kinds of vegetable and fruit concoctions through a juicer, pretending I was enjoying it. There’s nothing worse than drinking your meals. I did that for 10 straight days. Then, for about 3 months, I drank the juice for breakfast and lunch and ate a normal dinner. At about the 2 month mark, the weight began to melt off me. At the end of the 3rd month, I had lost 40 lbs. and felt really good. I was down to 185 and made a habit of getting up at 4 AM Monday-Friday and hitting the gym before going to school and educating the youth of America. The weight for the most part stayed off as long as I continued to workout, lay off the booze and eat healthy. I quit the juice after the initial three months and transitioned to more of a Keto diet. I will say this, if you aren’t disciplined enough to commit to the juice, don’t even try it. You’ll be wasting your time. In 2020 when Covid hit and the gyms shut down, I went carnivore and was doing mainly body weight workouts. Strictly carnivore messed with me a bit. I was getting headaches and not feeling the greatest. Could’ve been Keto flu, but back to a diet with a lot of meat and veggies, low carb. Things were good. Completed the Murph in under an hour.

Fast forward to the fall of 2024. Something was not right with my body. I felt stronger than ever and was in the best shape of my life during the summer. I was a lean 175 pounds and lifting more than I ever had in the gym. Late October-November it started to feel like my socks were bunched up between my toes, but they weren’t. Then this tingling numbness started traveling up my legs and settled in my hands over the period of a month or so. When I would walk, my eyes would dance when I began to exert myself. By Christmas break, the numbness in my hands made it difficult to button my shirt. I took Christmas break off from the gym. When I came back after the break, I could only max rep about 3 of what my normal warm up weight was.

January 28, 2025- I went to the ER and forced their hand to get MRI’s of my spine and brain after some of my friends in the medical field were worried I had a tumor on my spine after I told them my symptoms. Turns out, I had Multiple Sclerosis. Gut check. Thankfully, I had another friend who is an orthopedic surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic who pulled some strings and had me in the Mellen Center 3 days after my diagnosis. The first few months were rough. I was a shell of myself. Shooting a shotgun and throwing a baseball, which were the same as breathing to me, were now a step by step process that I had to piece together. They told me the first treatment would be at its peak effectiveness at the 6 month mark. The guy who was pretty surgical with a shotgun could barely load one. The guy who played baseball for 21 years and pitched every game and batting practice of his son’s 8U team couldn’t even throw a baseball. The biggest thing I’ve learned about MS, which I imagine is like most setbacks, is you cannot just quit doing or attempting to do the things you love. MS treatments have come a long way. Six months after my diagnosis, I made myself do the Murph again. It wasn’t pretty, but I finished. Shooting a bow again was a big concern. I wasn’t sure I would be able to and was afraid to even try. By July, I was slinging arrows consistently at 70 yards with the PSE. Two weekends ago, I shot my one of my best rounds of sporting clays ever on a pretty tough course (37/50) against some of my best competitors. The next closest score was 27/50. Things are still nowhere near “normal,” but they are beginning to click again.I guess my point in this novel is, life is going to give you setbacks eventually. It’s how you respond to them that matters. So if you’re still reading this, now you know a lot about me. If you’re going through MS, weight problems, or any other challenges, you have a guy here who is willing to share his experiences and also has an open ear if you want to share. The FE Society has been an enjoyable ride so far. Keep being awesome everyone! God Bless
 
Im not full carnivore but had to really have adjustments to health conscious at the age of 23 after getting diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Almost 2 years later I got back up to a healthy weight while still having a protein based diet. Luckily it has stopped me from the massive weight gain most people get going into law school. Staying the course for the long run on this health consciousness, it's hard to stalk buffalo in the future missing phalanges and eye balls.
 
This topic hit me in the feels. Been there. Multiple times. Went straight carnivore the first time when I was living in NY. Long cold winter of being couched up, newborn twins screaming 24/7, some dude at work talking about going starch-free and dropping pounds. After two weeks the pounds started sloughing off.

Fast forward five years and a divorce later, I'm a tub o' goo contemplating ordering a pizza while looking at a freezer of game meat. WTAF am I doing, I think to myself. Around that same time Tim Ferriss finally published his 4 Hour Body book (if you know 4 Hour Work Week, same guy). I knew what I had to do but the book helped create a plan. Same result - two weeks after starting, I started dropping.

Five years after that I'd inched back up. I just got sick of it. Started walking every day, 10+ mile hikes on the weekend, eating only the game in the freezer and a vegetable. From Tim's book, I reserved one day each week for eating anything I wanted. By the fall I was in the best shape of my life, motoring the mountains in Colorado during elk season.

That was two years ago. There won't be another five year WTF conversation again.
 
Solid thread, @Jason Vincent.

I'll try to keep mine short...

I used to eat 95% meats, very little vegetables. Chicken, quail, pheasant, beef, pork, deer, antelope, moose, bear, anything that walked, flew, or swam, I ate. I used to say, "My animals eat all my vegetables for me". Drank whole milk, ate 4+ eggs per day, felt great, ran multiple half marathons, and thought I had zero health concerns...

Well, I went to get bloodwork done last December, and my cholesterol was 407, and my LDL was 323. High cholesterol and high blood pressure run in my dad's side of the family (two of my uncles passed away from heart attacks), and growing up, my dad ran every other day. On the days he didn't, he was on his road bike, logging miles. Whenever I'd ask him why he exercised so much, he'd say "to stay alive". Didn't understand what that meant until this past December, when my doctor told me the only reason why I haven't had a heart attack yet is because of how much I exercise.

I refuse to get on a statin because fuck that, so I completely changed my eating habits. Long and short, my cholesterol is at 190 and LDLs at 215. Doc couldn't believe it when I went for my 2-month checkup last month. I track my cholesterol weekly and will continue to eat this way in order to stay alive.

Dads - your kids are watching and learning from your eating and exercise habits. Don't be shitty - teach them to give a shit, because it will stick to them just like my dad's habits stuck with me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Tony Caggiano
OLD HUNTING PICS
2
Replies
34
Views
380
Doug Patteson
Doug Patteson
HowieR
I had to have one
Replies
8
Views
70
Ron Dan
Ron Dan
Jason Vincent
FE Vellies and prototype Ranger
2 3
Replies
42
Views
2K
Steven Donovan
Steven Donovan
Al "Shifty" Schultz
Knife and Saw Combo Kits for Hunting
Replies
0
Views
33
Al "Shifty" Schultz
Al "Shifty" Schultz
RWS
Gen 1 American!
Replies
10
Views
150
RWS
RWS
Back
Top