And then Goliath crushed David 

If you value a thing it is important to have internal critique in order to maintain a high standard of quality and integrity. When people can't point out the problems with a company or product that company can sell all kinds of deception to the public. 

If you can't find one negative comment on the internet about the biggest companies then one has to wonder what type power those companies have to remove critique. 

What is worse a wolf or a wolf in sheeps clothing?....both are bad. 

I was given this product because I am very into intermittent fasting and the wide range of health benefits it gives including but not limited to fat loss (I am at my new low 177.8 today 35 pounds from the start crazy) So I love fasting and what it has done for me. 
This is what the company has to say and I'll high light the points that caught my attention. benaGene™ is a substance used to generate energy in the body. Specifically: it is 3-carboxy-3-oxopropanoic acid (3C3O) or oxaloacetate. This stabilized form of oxaloacetic acid is the world's first novel and natural Krebs cycle intermediate compound. benaGene™ promotes the expression of genes that favor youthful, healthy cells; meaning it keeps you feeling and looking younger. AOR's benaGene™ is a perfect partner for resveratrol supplementation for that one-two punch against aging.
benaGene™ increases conversion of the cellular factor of NADH to its oxidized form NAD. NAD is a niacin-derived coenzyme that is present in all living cells and is critical to the production of ATP, the bodies source of immediate energy. In short, NAD gives you more cellular energy and stimulates beneficial genes while NADH inhibits them. 
Caloric restriction is the only method proven to extend human lifespan and health span. Through a process that is similar to intermittent fasting, benaGene™ mimics caloric restriction in up to 98% of the changes in the genetic expression of over 350 genes. By doing so, AOR's benaGene™ appears to down-regulate pathways that create and store fat. At the same time, this miraculous product both protects and repairs Mitochondrial and cellular DNA damage that is also thought to exacerbate aging.
So the questions - is it beneficial for a person already fasting often? (which I do)
Is it beneficial if you are already supplementing NAD? (which I do) 

I started it yesterday so we'll see how it goes. Is there any way to get all the benefits of fasting without actually fasting....defiantly not but if fasting isn't part of your life this may be a good tool to try. I'll finish the bottle and let you know what I think. 

Keto - Vegan - Paleo and on and on 

Where and what time? Those should be the first two questions asked when talking about food. This is why identity diets are first world, out of touch with nature concepts that have never existed in history and are based on ego and not health.  I'll use two extremes to prove the point Eskimo and people at the equator. 
Eskimos need to be cold, ketogenic and eat large amounts of DHA from fish. Why because there isn't much light. The cold condenses the mitochondria for higher energy output, keto involves eating high fat which gives 9 cal per gram instead of 4 cal from a carb or protein plus no light means that carbs aren't growing on trees to eat. The dha from fish is concentrated in the eye and healps to convert sunlight to dc electric current in the body. 
The person at the equator, plenty of light, no need to be cold, keto or eat cold water fish.
Everyone between these two would be subject to seasons more keto in the winter more carbs in the fall harvest going into winter.
Paleo - where was the paleo person since all paleolithic humans ate based on season and location. 
Vegan- better not be an eskimo
Keto- year round only if you don't understand how to use carbs and insulin in the proper way to build muscle. Just because carbs have been misused doesn't mean they are the devil. 

Just because we now can eat summer time foods year round doesn't mean we should. I know it feels good to be "right" it feels good to connect and have a tribe but lets get real about food. It is intimately connected to light and if you give the Eskimo a banana in the dead of winter it the light contained in the banana from photosynthesis tells his body it is summer in the winter which causes a circadian glitch. 
Eat for you location and your time. Don't apply your situation to others. especially if what you do should be very different than what they need to do for health.    

I have found that people don't know why we eat when it comes to light. People in these diets don't know what their diet entails. The best example of this is how many people buy keto protein. (Keto Protein Scam Blog post)
Protein (especialy in powdered form) converts to glucose and is the opposite of ketones which come from fat. Adding fat toa a powdered protein that converts to glucose just meansd that the body uses the glucose and stores the fat. The ultimate scam on people part of an identity diet that is a great tool and shouldn't be used all the time. 

I was on a steady weight loss track but my loss motivated me to go even harder on my diet and workouts. I kind of crashed this week. Physically and mentally. I would expect this and It's why I have built a medium intensity week into the month on the high intensity protocol that I am on. I was pushing myself really hard. I have been really sore from the workouts and really hungry. I'm tearing my body down and need to make sure to get enough food in my window to recover. I have been letting myself eat more food, rest more and recover. Also it's clear that summer is over and now that its cold at night I sleep very deep. I feel like this week has been good for my sustainability and also my body composition. 
Tune in 
There is a place in between too much and too little find it and follow it. 

If you haven't checked out My Search For Lions Mane 1 or 2 you should 
Here we go. 
First Here is my first harvest of Lions mane that I grew

Pretty awesome and very easy a few sprays of mist a day and they tasted great.  
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If you've been following the battle for the best Lions mane supplement then you know so far in last place with the highest number of ingredients and the worst product.

such good marketing so little actual truth...making the supplement industry look ridiculous. 
1525 mg of lions mane ....Blend. 
​Too bad we have no idea how much actual lions mane is in this product and definitely how much of the fruiting body might be all micillium since this is grown on substances that are not the natural medium for growth. 3 pills - that's a lot of ingredients. I can't find anything positive about their products. All marketing. Prove me wrong. 

Only take lions mane that is the fruiting body and not the micillium  no matter how many times its fermented...since that doesn't matter. 

The we have my winner so far 
Mushroom wisdom, whole fruiting body 1100 mg, only other ingredient is some citric acid. I asked why and it's to assist with the fast dissolving process. This product is legit and I feel it. 
Last time I introduced their patented product

This product has serious science behind it and is great but has differnt effects than the normal lions mane and as much as I like it if I had to pick (since I don't have the health issues that this assists with) I would pick the normal lions mane. 

I like Gaia as a brand ....unfortunately with this product there are some short comings.
250 mg blend of 3 mushrooms...and other blends. I like the idea of rosemary and some of the other ingredients but in a single capsule this is a tiny amount of lions mane. Still better than ancient because they exclusively use the fruiting body but still. Mushroom wisdom has 4 tablets that have some weight to them. This single capsule isn't condensed in that way and I have no idea how much actual lions mane but at 250mg with that many ingredients this a unfortunately a fail. 
Not the worst but far from the best. I would rather take one of the 4 tablets of mushroom wisdom lions mane and have the bottle last 4x as long than take this product. 

I'm excited I didn't think I would get down to the 170's. The amount has slowed which I would expect now just chipping away at my belly. 

Too bad they're whole sport is on steroids so they get no credit. 

First the bad news. The sport of body building involves steroids. So many people are on steroids in body building that they have to create separate divisions for natural body builders So it's pretty safe to assume everyone in the non natural scene is "enhanced".
Note that this doesn't bother me, because everyone is on steroids no one is. It is a level playing field unlike the other sports where most do what they can get away with. These (like many other drugs, in my opinion should be legal but that's another post)

So people from the outside think that body builders are just huge because they are on steroids and that is a half truth. It is a factor but not the only one. Personally I think body builders in general are much more healthy than obese people. Weight being fat or muscle in access will over work the heart. 

What people from the outside don't know is that body builders have mastered various strategies for muscle growth and fat loss. They understand cycles, they bulk and then they cut never at the same time. This alone is a massive piece of the puzzle as I think lots of normal people try to do both at the same time and just get fat.
They know how to use carbs. They use them to build and they remove them to cut fat. They us keto as a tool and not as a ridiculous group identity practice. 
A lifter goes into a bulk they are high carb post workout high protein and low fat because the fat in the presence of carbs will be stored as fat. They then go into a cut where they slowly decrease their carbs and use protein to maintain muscle. They may drop into keto 2 weeks before the contest to shed water and the last bit of fat. They don't consume lots of fat because they want to use body fat as fuel. The night before the show they carb up but keep low water so their muscles fill with glycogen and are full looking. They compete and then the go back into another bulk. 
We on the outside need to learn from this. Decide to bulk or cut, not both. Use carbs wisely after lifting. Keep protein high to maintain muscle, losing weight in muscle should never be the goal. 
Use protein shakes only after lifting. (see post Protein powders)
Don't mix fats and carbs and expect the body to not store the fat. consume enough fat to support the body needs but don't just go keto and believe the lie that fat in access the greatest thing ever. 
Creatine is a great thing for the brain and general muscle maintenance.  
I'm not on steroids and have no plans to be as I don't want to do anything I can't sustain and am doing this for health. I will say give body builders more credit. Steroids are just one part of the equation that makes them look like that. A proper strategy is another factor and that is the part we on the outside need to look at. 

The skinny (and the fat) on protein powder 
I'm going to try and break this down because me in the past and it seems lots of other people are using protein powder and it is having a negative effect on their health and fitness goals. 

Carbs and Protein both break down into glucose
​Fats break down into ketones ( so no such thing as keto protein see my - Keto protein Is Scam Post)

The more you refine a carb the faster it gets into the system and the higher an insulin spike you get form it. This means sugar it also means flour or any other powdered carb with the water, nutrition and fiber stripped out of it. 
So white sugar and an apple are both carbs but they are not processed in the body the same and cause a different reaction. 

On to the protein- Protein, like carbs, is broken down into glucose. Normally not as fast but normally it's not powdered. In the same way that powdering the apple into a sugar or wheat into flour if you powder protein it absorbs quick in the body and causes an insulin spike. 

Quick note insulin builds and retains and the absence of insulin allows the body to break down and shed. 

Note that none of this is good or bad, carbs aren't bad, insulin isn't bad, fats aren't bad, ketois isn't bad.......unless, yes all these things can be bad depending on time and your goal. 

If your insulin is spiked all the time good luck trying to loose fat. If your fully keto and have removed all carbs good luck trying to build muscle.
Strategy matters. 

Back to the protein powders. Why did they come out? Back in the day body builders (who have figured all this out but get a bad wrap because the entire sport is enhanced( On steroids) Lifters wanted more protein but they wanted protein that would spike the insulin and absorb fast top build muscle. This is exactly when you should drink a protein shake, after weight training to fuel the muscle. 
- Not to skip a meal 
-Not for breakfast
- Not to get more protein in the diet
-Not because they taste good
-Definitely not if you want to be in ketosis
(the body always uses glucose from protein or carbs before fat so adding fat to a protein powder just makes your body use the protein and store the fat. yes the companies selling this stuff Know this and love the $$$$$$ they make off ignorance )

When should I drink a protein shake?
After  weight training to spike insulin and feed the muscle. If you drink the protein shake at any other time it will spike the insulin and basically act like sugar, meaning it will convert to glucose fast. 
Eat protein the rest of the time. A streak is mixed with fat and breaks down slow....much too slow to spike insulin the way a powder does. Not all protein is the same. 
The protein powder industry is huge and they don't we want you to know that if you drink the protein powder at any other time than after weight training it will, to keep it simple, make you fat. 
What have we learned?
Protein powder like most things is a good tool if used in the right way.  This tool is getting marketed as a tool to be used at any time. 

Trying to loose fat stop the protein shakes. How many people do you know that won't drink sugar but always have a protein shake? Share the message.

Started at 212 now 180.6 - 32 pounds, 1/6 of my body gone - strength maintained.
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I'm happy with my progress. I'm supersized how much fat I have left at 180. I can't remember the last time I was in the 170's that will be exciting. 

I'm guessing I'll be done between 170-175 depending ion water ect. 

I'll keep you posted.

If you haven't read My Search For Lions Mane 
It will give some context 

I want all the benefits that lions mane mushroom delivers but mushrooms are tough to figure out. In my last mushroom post I showed why I am confused, form, sources, extractions. It's an unregulated industry so supplements are tricky. 

I had been taking a lions mane product for several months. No benefit, no effect. It was a product with both fruiting body and mycelium along with what looks like 1000 other filler ingredients in a proprietary blend so no way to know what's in it. 
As a review...thumbs down.   ​

The day after I did the last post I took action. I ordered a lion mane grow kit which arrived yesterday and it's super cool. I'll do a part 3 to show how they are coming along. 

I also ordered dried lions mane to eat. Wow, fry these things up in coconut oil and some sea salt ant they are amazingly good. I crave them. They are like healthy fat sponges. I'm going to keep eating them. It will be interesting to compare them to the fresh one's from my grow kit. 

So heres the tricky thing about mushrooms (and i'm no expert) when the mycelium (basically the roots) of the mushroom grow into whatever they grow on (like a tree in nature) at some point there is no separation between the tree and the mushroom. 
I'm not saying the mycelium don't have any health benefits but here is my thought. 
some supplement companies grow mushrooms on rice or other substances that are not what the mushroom grows on in nature. They then grind up the mycelium (mushroom roots) with the rice it was grown on fill a capsule 90% with this and add 10% of the fruiting body. You think your getting more but really your wasting your money. Far too common. 
-side note the fruiting body is the part we would call the mushroom itself. An example is my dried mushrooms. That is the fruiting body. 
If the dried mushrooms came with the root pack mycelium (which you can see in my grow kit) I wouldn't eat it. Historically that part of the lions mane wasn't eaten. 
People ask me why I'm not talking host defense because Paul Stamets is awesome. He is but I wanted a fruit body only supplement and sorry host defense isn't.

So here we go - I wanted a lions mane supplement grown on it's natural substance, with only the fruiting body.  
After the last post I started taking this product and it is legit! 
Granted I do all kinds of healthy things but I was doing them on the other product and no benefit. 
This product is a nootropic for sure. My brain has been clicking high speed but not like a stimulant. Very productive....I love this product. I was amazed. '
I wanted to know why it worked so well. 

The good people at Mushroom Wisdom sent me tons of true scientific articles and studies along with a book on lions mane. The info on this is amazing and I believe it based on the results I've had but guess what, they answered my questions and they have a patented product that I'm going to start taking today. It's next level lions mane and I can'r wait.  

Amyloban - fat soluble, must be the fruit body and alcohol extracted.

I don't know what's gonna happen. I might do the next post telepathically if this stuff gets any better. I'll let you know.