I Tried 30 Viral Health Trends For 30 Days to See What's Worth It

Summary

In a month-long experiment, creator Speeed tested 30 viral health trends to see which ones truly enhance life. From cold plunges to carnivore diets, the test aimed to separate practical advice from internet hype. Throughout the journey, various challenges like early wake-ups, no caffeine, and no shoes were tackled, pushing the boundaries of self-improvement while exploring the real benefits and potential pitfalls of each trend.

Highlights

• Cold plunging and running every day for 30 days was invigorating but challenging! ❄️
• Trying to balance 30 health practices including waking up at 5 AM was intense! 😅
• Found immense value in meditation, journaling, and gratitude practices for mental clarity. 🧘‍♂️
• A regimented skincare routine made surprisingly awesome improvements! 🧴
• No caffeine was a beast to tackle, but improved sleep quality. ☕️
• Social media detox proved beneficial—felt like gaining extra free brain space! 💡

Key Takeaways

• Cold plunges and running are great energizers; try them, but maybe not daily! 🏃‍♂️
• Journaling and gratitude practices uplift mental health and outlook—highly recommended! ✍️
• 10,000 steps a day? Easy peasy, lemon squeezy, and keeps you active. 🚶‍♂️
• No caffeine made for better sleep, but was a tough one to love. 😴
• Cut back on screens and social feeds—freedom from scrolling feels amazing! 📵
• Some trendy diets aren't as fun or beneficial as they seem—moderation is key! 🍏

Overview

For an entire month, Speeed embarked on a health odyssey, testing 30 trends that have taken the internet by storm. From the popular cold plunges to rigorous paleo diets, Speeed and his buddy pushed their bodies and minds to the limits. Each day added a new challenge, and by the final week, the routines were full-throttle. Balancing everything proved wild—especially while continuing usual life activities!

Health journeys are unique, filled with their own set of trials and successes. While cold plunges sparked invigoration, journaling brought introspection and calm. Diet shifts like keto and carnivore posed tougher trials—the commitment to no caffeine had its rewards though daunting. Through it all, the camaraderie and commitment to betterment steered the experiment, revealing much about realistic self-improvement.

In conclusion, not all trends lived up to their viral promises, but the foundational takeaways were clear. Simplicity and consistency trump all—walk, hydrate, care for the mind and skin, and infuse life with joy—not perfection. This grand challenge highlighted the vital need to discern what truly elevates health versus what merely buzzes online. Perfection isn’t the goal—authentic living is.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Intro and Goals The chapter introduces the idea of exploring various health trends that are popular online, such as ice baths, walking a significant number of steps daily, and adopting a carnivore diet. The narrator questions the efficacy of these trends, acknowledging the challenge of discerning which trends are beneficial and which are merely marketing tactics. The goal for the next 30 days is set to test and evaluate 30 viral health trends to determine their actual impact.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Cold Plunge Introduction The chapter "Cold Plunge Introduction" introduces a popular health trend, the daily cold plunge. It marks the first day and trend in a 30-day health practice challenge. The narrator indicates that each day will introduce a new healthy habit such as increasing physical activity, adopting a vegan diet, practicing meditation, engaging in running, performing hanging exercises, and eliminating sugar, gluten, and caffeine from the diet. By the end of the 30-day period, the goal is to incorporate all these health trends into the daily regimen.
• 01:30 - 02:00: Journaling The chapter titled 'Journaling' discusses a 30-day challenge focused on personal improvement through the integration of daily habits. Participants start with a quick activity (likely inspired by or including a 'cold plunge') aimed at boosting energy and vitality and are also expected to run at least one mile daily. The emphasis is on continuity and resilience as they commit to these practices over a month-long period.
• 02:00 - 03:00: Whole Food Diet The chapter titled 'Whole Food Diet' notes the author's daily routine involving physical and mental wellness activities such as running, cold plunges, and journaling. The emphasis is on how journaling can assist with emotional regulation and anxiety relief. On the fourth day, the 'Whole Food Diet' is introduced, which emphasizes consuming meals prepared with whole ingredients. This diet is portrayed as a natural progression of the author's wellness practice.
• 05:00 - 06:00: Feeling Sick and Meditation The chapter focuses on the benefits of a whole food diet, which involves consuming foods that haven't been heavily processed, aiming to boost energy levels and improve overall health. The speaker emphasizes their commitment to this way of eating, which consists solely of single-ingredient foods, highlighting the mental benefits expected and mentioning physical changes as a potential fast outcome given the short 30-day duration of the challenge. Initially, complete body scans were conducted to track any physical transformations over the month.
• 06:00 - 07:00: Hydration and Reading The chapter discusses the challenges faced on day five of a hydration and reading challenge. Participants express their difficulties with specific tasks, like cutting out caffeine and recalling the correct order of prior activities. There's a focus on an upcoming challenge that remains completely new to them, highlighting anticipation and uncertainty about recording the experience. Despite this, there is underlying optimism about reaching a successful milestone by day 30, mixed with self-confidence and a sense of competition among participants.
• 08:00 - 09:00: Gluten-Free and Sick Days In the chapter titled 'Gluten-Free and Sick Days,' the narrator describes the challenges of undertaking a difficult physical challenge. With the support of a teammate named Redpath, who has previously collaborated on videos, the narrator is attempting a series of 10 Ks (presumably 10-kilometer runs). The emotional and physical toll of the challenge is evident, as the narrator expresses exhaustion and a wish for the challenge to end. Despite this, there's a brief moment of respite during a meditation session on day six, which is described as easy. Overall, the chapter captures the themes of support, struggle, and brief relief amidst a demanding physical endeavor.
• 11:00 - 13:00: Skincare Routine In the chapter titled 'Skincare Routine,' the participants are on the sixth day of their routine and are experiencing positive results. They feel energized from activities like cold plunges and running, and find journaling to be beneficial for their mental state. After meditating, they notice a significant positive shift in their mindset. Although the whole food diet doesn't make them feel exceptionally amazing, it prevents them from feeling bad. Overall, they express excitement about their progress and the fact that these activities don't consume much time.
• 15:00 - 16:30: Stretching and No Sugar The chapter "Stretching and No Sugar" emphasizes the increasing time demands of challenges being worked on alongside other video content for the channel. It highlights day seven of a challenge focused on hydration by drinking one gallon of water daily. The importance of water is stressed for its numerous benefits, previously discussed in other videos. Hydration is portrayed as essential because the body comprises tubes filled with fluid that need to be kept moving and diluted to ensure optimal functioning.
• 18:00 - 20:00: No Caffeine and Running The chapter titled 'No Caffeine and Running' starts with an unusual phrase 'Flush the sea. Flush the sea stove' which seems metaphorical or symbolic of a cleansing or refreshing process. The speaker mentions adding this to their regimen, indicating a possible lifestyle or routine change that might include more exercise or detoxification.
• 22:30 - 27:00: Red Light Therapy and Dairy-Free The chapter titled 'Red Light Therapy and Dairy-Free' discusses the activities and reflections of a person on day eight of a routine that includes cold plunges, meditation, and journaling. The journaling session reveals a personal insight into procrastination being their ultimate form of self-sabotage. Additionally, they follow a whole food diet, mentioning that a person named Riley made some whole food muffins that turned out well.
• 40:30 - 43:00: Intermittent Fasting and Keto The chapter discusses the challenges and adjustments involved in adopting an intermittent fasting and ketogenic diet. It highlights the difficulty of maintaining a gluten-free lifestyle as part of whole food nutrition, noting that while gluten-free options are available, they may require more effort to integrate into daily routines. Additionally, the chapter touches on the convenience of certain food options, such as oatmeal, and mentions McDonald's as a relatively easy choice for managing dietary concerns. Overall, the focus is on balancing dietary goals with practical daily life adjustments.
• 45:00 - 46:30: Social Media Detox In this chapter, titled 'Social Media Detox,' the narrative follows the participants on the ninth day of a challenge. They discuss feeling unwell, which is not unexpected due to activities like running in the rain, diving into freezing water, and simultaneously managing poor sleep schedules. The chapter highlights the participants' commitment to various health trends, despite the onset of illness.
• 51:00 - 55:00: No Screens In the chapter titled 'No Screens', the discussion revolves around the practice of journaling for meditation. There's a brief mention of financial aspects indicating that while the resource might be free, wealthier individuals might have an easier access or experience. The chapter has a conversational tone with a focus on self-improvement and mindfulness.
• 55:30 - 65:00: Carnivore Diet and Barefoot The chapter discusses the progress of a challenge by day 10, where the speaker feels slightly ill and humorously suggests eating McDonald's and staying inactive as a remedy. It emphasizes the importance of a skincare routine, noting that it's often overlooked by men, highlighting the generational gap with a comment on fathers not following such routines, resulting in them looking older.
• 69:30 - 72:00: Conclusion and Reflections In the chapter titled 'Conclusion and Reflections,' the focus is on the intricacies of a comprehensive skincare routine. It highlights a robust regimen that includes both morning and evening steps to ensure optimal skin health. The morning routine consists of using a water-based cleanser to eliminate dirt and oils, followed by a toner to balance the skin's pH levels. This is complemented by a vitamin C serum to enhance skin brightness and collagen production, and finalized with a moisturizing sunscreen for protection. The evening routine involves an oil-based cleanser to remove residual sunscreen and impurities, followed by another application of toner. To maintain skin moisture, hyaluronic acid is applied, and a retinol is used to mitigate wrinkles. Additionally, an under-eye moisturizer and a nighttime moisturizer are incorporated to provide comprehensive care.

I Tried 30 Viral Health Trends For 30 Days to See What's Worth It Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 Ice baths will change your life. You should be walking 10 to 15,000 steps every single day. - If you just decide, I'm gonna go on a carnivore diet, you'll lose weight and you'll feel amazing. - But it's hard to know which ones will actually improve your life. Which ones are just click bait or even worse, which ones are just trying to sell you something that doesn't even work? So for the next 30 days, we are gonna be trying 30 viral health trends.
• 00:30 - 01:00 Starting right now with one of the most viral health practices in recent years, the daily cold plunge. This works day number one and health trend number one. Each day we'll be adding another healthy practice to our routine. We'll be getting our steps in going vegan, meditating, running, hanging from a bar, cutting out sugar, gluten, and caffeine. If you heard of a health trend, we're probably gonna do it until by the 30th day we're gonna be following all
• 01:00 - 01:30 30 trends. How long do we have to stay in here? Five minutes day, one down. See you tomorrow. Dude, I feel invigorated. So today we'll do the cold plunge from yesterday and run at least one mile. So for the next 28 days, we're gonna continue to cold plunge and run at least one mile in addition
• 01:30 - 02:00 to each subsequent trend. Day three, feeling good run, then cold plunge, then journaling. Journaling is supposed to help you deal with your emotions. Stay grounded and think about your day. It's supposed to be good for anxiety and help relax the mind. Day four, cold plunge, run, journaling and - Whole Food Diet. Aha basically just means whole ingredients and everything that you eat.
• 02:00 - 02:30 - Eating a whole food diet is supposed to give you more energy and better health by sticking to foods that haven't been heavily processed. I'm all about the whole food Diet Only eats single ingredients. Whole foods, whole foods. So most of the benefits that we're gonna get out of this, we think are gonna be mental, but to track and see if there's any physical difference. We did complete body scans at the beginning of the month. This is only a 30 day challenge, so if we see any changes, that's huge.
• 02:30 - 03:00 - Day five. Ugh. Damn, I was hoping that was tomorrow. Yeah, - So I remember a lot of this stuff on there, but I definitely don't remember the order. Caffeine is gonna be tough. I do know what the last one is and I've literally never done it before and I'm not sure how you'll make a video while we're doing it. - How'd that feel? It was harder than I thought it would be though. I'm feeling pretty cocky. I think we're gonna build day 30,
• 03:00 - 03:30 we're gonna be ripping 10 Ks. - You're probably wondering who that is. That's Redpath. We made a bunch of videos together at Donut and he's gonna be my teammate and moral support throughout this challenge because I'll tell you now, this is not going to be easy. I'm exhausted. I'm really looking forward to this being over. I - Think this challenge might kill us. - Just really - Unmotivated. Day six meditation. That was easy.
• 03:30 - 04:00 - It's day six and we are feeling great. The plunges and runs are giving us energy and the journaling really feels like it's working. - Where I was mentally 30 minutes ago is very different than how I feel right now. After journaling and after meditating. - Our whole food diet doesn't make us feel amazing, but we never feel like crap either, - Man, I'm so stoked. I don't feel like - Even though cold plunging, running, journaling, meditating and getting in steps don't take up that much time.
• 04:00 - 04:30 We know the time needed to accomplish all of our challenges will only grow and we're still making other videos for the channel. Oh, day seven, drink one gallon of water hydration. Many benefits I've said in previous videos. Your body is just a series of tubes filled with goop and you gotta do everything you can do to not only make that goop move around, but to dilute that goop to help it move around. Flush - In the system, - Flush this stone,
• 04:30 - 05:00 - Flush the sea. Flush the sea stove. Add it to the regimen. - I've been here for like 15 minutes trying to fill up this jug. One week down. I'm feeling good actually. I am peeing a lot. And today we're gonna introduce Reed for at least 30 minutes. 30 minutes.
• 05:00 - 05:30 - The day is packed and - We're only on day eight. Wake up, do this cold plunge, Dakota at night I meditate and journal. Solid journal sesh. Talked about procrastination being my final form of self-sabotage. Whole time, whole food diet. We got this. So Riley made whole food muffin things that are pretty good muffins,
• 05:30 - 06:00 but really just very convenient oatmeal. - How do they measure grams - Of fiber? McDonald's probably one of the easier ones. - Day nine, no gluten. There is gluten in a whole food diet, but it's really hard to pull off. So we've basically been gluten-free anyway, so I'm glad that we don't really have to add anything else to our schedules because it has been getting hard to fit everything in. - Took two minutes and four seconds to fill this mold.
• 06:00 - 06:30 It's day nine. We're starting to feel a little sick, but honestly that shouldn't be too surprising 'cause we're running in the rain plunging into freezing cold water and sometimes because of poor time management, not getting enough sleep. - It's 11:30 PM and I just remembered that I need to journal. - I have to journal and meditate and read that we're doing like a viral health trend challenge and we both get sick.
• 06:30 - 07:00 All right guys, let's journal meditation. - Oh, it's free, but unless you're rich enough, then yeah, it's a free market.
• 07:00 - 07:30 - Day 10. We're a third of the way into the challenge and I'm a little sick, so maybe just eat McDonald's and don't move your body at all. You might be better off. - Day 10. - Follow a skincare routine. Nice skincare routine. Skincare routine. Morning skincare routine. Morning skincare routine. I think skincare is something that most dudes overlook. - None of our dads did that. - No way. And you could tell my dad looked old as hell.
• 07:30 - 08:00 Dude, we go hard on our skincare routine. We cover all the bases in the morning. A water based cleanser to get rid of the dirt and oils, a toner to balance the skin's pH levels, a vitamin C serum to brighten the skin and boost collagen production and a moisturizing sunscreen for protection in the evening. An oil-based cleanser to remove sunscreen and cleanse toner. Again, a hyaluronic acid to retain moisture, A retinol to reduce wrinkles. An under eye moisturizer and a nighttime moisturizer.
• 08:00 - 08:30 - Obviously this is a video, so we're going kind of extreme with it. You - Should wash your face and you should moisturize it with sunscreen. All the other stuff just depends - On how beautiful you wanna be. - Day 10 meditation. I can't breathe through my nose. I've already read for a half hour, but I like this book. It's a book club book, speed book club.
• 08:30 - 09:00 If you haven't already joined our discord, go ahead and do it now. Conversations are great, but I don't feel well, so I'm gonna read this in my bed. Day 11, stretch. Stretching. Stretching, stretching. Routine viral stretching routine. Have officially entered the second act of the health trends challenge. - Full plunge today, the schedule is getting outta control. Schedule's.
• 09:00 - 09:30 - Heavy journal day 11. I'm a little bit under the weather. I don't think it has anything to do with Oh yeah, the fact that I've been plunging myself into cold water every morning for the first. Yeah, yeah, you don't sound very healthy. I'm feeling great. One thing I do want to document, that's a positive, but my poops right now are better than they've been in a long time. - I don't even poop anymore. No waste in. No waste out. That's where we're at right now. I am peeing all the time. Yeah, it's nonstop. - Day 12, no sugar,
• 09:30 - 10:00 but we're already not eating refined sugar because - We no food. Yeah, - So I definitely picked up the most no sugar. It's definitely better with the sun up though. Exactly the shade. Dude, I man out here. Morning stretch with David O Yoga. My name is James Ovideo. As we approach the end of the second week, the sickness starts to fade. We begin to feel everything that we're doing is starting to pay off.
• 10:00 - 10:30 We're getting more strict with our schedules. Everything feels manageable. Oh, I've been dreading this on the entire time That coffee really hit after the cold War. - Ooh, one month - Of no caffeine. Caffeine, caffeine. Caffeine. No caffeine. Caffeine. God, dude, it sucks, dude.
• 10:30 - 11:00 Oh, I should have peed before. I should have peed before we were draining it. Go ahead. It's drain day. We get to pee. - It's We got a sub. We can watch a movie in school. I'm gonna take a shit. The book in the pool. There is a layer of oil that I can see on - Top of my, yeah, definitely. We haven't emptied these since we started. - I've been wearing the, and they're gross. I've been wearing the same shorts. - I've also been running
• 11:00 - 11:30 and then getting straight these covered in sweat. - This video is full of trends, but you want to know something that is timeless running? Our ancestors did it and it's pretty much the reason that we're not dolphins. Perfect accessory for any running outing is this thing. The speed run club hat science shows that running is a whole lot easier. When you look cool as shit, just ask Cheah. This thing is comfy. It's stretchy. It makes you look like you know where the heck you're going.
• 11:30 - 12:00 Don't look like a lost Leonard. Go get your own speed. Run club hat [email protected]. Thank you guys for supporting this channel. You are the lifeblood behind it. There is no sponsor on today's video, but you can still support speed by shopping our merch. Besides this sick hat, we got shirts, we got stickers, we got license plate frames. I think there's a PS five on there. Buy the speed run club hat [email protected].
• 12:00 - 12:30 The one thing I wanna work on the most in the way I live is not procrastinating. Keeping the pace under seven 30 and being proactive and doing the little thing now. David Oyo your hands. Yeah, and I've removed a lot of self-destructive tendencies from my life and the one that remains is procrastinated Skincare. Got a little - Sun today.
• 12:30 - 13:00 Good thing I was wearing my SPF first morning without caffeine. Don't you look at me like that. Don't you look at me like that. No, no. Don't you look. Nope. Nope. I don't care. I don't care. We just can't. We just can't do this anymore. It is over and I mean that.
• 13:00 - 13:30 - Two weeks in the can, 100 pushups. Oh shit, dude. I've been looking forward to this one. - You have to do at least a hundred pushups, - A hundred pushups a day. 100 - Pushups. - 100 pushups every single day. I've lost a lot of weight recently and one thing that I need to add is muscle mass. So this will be like a good start to that. Get a little sore. 100 pushups. Zach and I both kind of hit a wall. Dude. Day 13.
• 13:30 - 14:00 I was feeling on top of the world. - Yeah, - I could do this forever. I thought 30 day challenge. Yeah, right. More like new lifestyle and then simultaneously, separately, Zach and I both hit a wall. - Today's the most that I've ever wanted to quit this challenge. God, it just felt like I had a million things to do this morning and I was running and I was like low on blood sugar I think or something and I was like, damn dude, we're only halfway.
• 14:00 - 14:30 I don't think I've really wanted to like quit until today. I was just like, yo, this is dumb dude, this is dumb. I don't know why we're doing this, but you know, there's a lot of stuff that you don't want to do. So just added to the list of that - Day 15 red light therapy tight.
• 14:30 - 15:00 For the past, like week or so, I've been thinking, man, I've really figured this out. But for the past two days I've been like extremely busy, but also extremely bored going through the day, ticking a bunch of boxes. We're really just removing spice of life and I'm sore and I can't have coffee. So what are the benefits of red light therapy?
• 15:00 - 15:30 - Red light therapy I think was originally a skin thing. More recently they've been saying it's even good for your muscles. The 100 by four light sources provide intensive care for the face, giving women the ideal filter filled skin. Okay, come on a little gendered. I could kill somebody in this. I don't know what just happened, but I think I damaged my retinas. - Red light therapy is a treatment that uses low wavelength red light
• 15:30 - 16:00 to promote various health benefits, skin health and anti-aging. Nice speeds. Up wound healing. Hell yeah. May reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety. That's great because I'm a little anxious these days. Stimulates hair follicles and increases hair thickness. So your boy's beard is about to be on point. May alleviate chronic pain conditions. That's good because a lot of people are like, Hey, does your face hurt because it's killing me.
• 16:00 - 16:30 Do I feel less anxious? Do I feel younger? Do I feel less depressed? Too early to tell. It's only day 16, man, there's so much crap we gotta do and I'm not having any fun eating at all. Mm, no.
• 16:30 - 17:00 A hundred pushups harder than I thought I was gonna be. Thought I was gonna be a breeze. Kind of hard. I also feel like I can't really like think because I'm not like there's no joy really going on in my life. I feel dumb and stupid and like not cool and fun. So what are we gonna add today? It's only getting harder now. Yeah. Oh no dairy. Damn. Thank you. This one is one of the easier ones, but this is taking a little bit of the joy I have left. - I'm embarrassed, but I just did my whole skincare routine
• 17:00 - 17:30 thinking that I was recording, but I'm not because apparently I'm a boomer. - Day. 17, right? Gratitudes. Yes, dude. If you start the day with three gratitudes, it puts you in a outwardly positive mindset. Like you are looking at things in a positive light. And so if you start with those three things, it's just gonna kind of carry over to into the day. You're like, we're almost three fits. And they say, if you can get past three fits, - If the first three fifths don't kill
• 17:30 - 18:00 you, you're home free. Just over halfway through the challenge. Even though it's getting harder every day, I have to admit I'm feeling great physically and mentally. There are tough moments, but in many ways I'm feeling elite. I feel clean, energized. My body is happy, my mind is clear. If my emotions and energy were grafted throughout the day before the challenge, it would feel like this big fluctuations, major spikes. Now it feels like this. Steady a few moments of pain or annoyance here, there,
• 18:00 - 18:30 but also way fewer wild highs. Day 18, going strong, not feeling positive, not feeling negative just in it like a robot. A healthy, healthy robot. - I've got a bad feeling about this one. I know we really, we've got some easy ones. Easy, easy, easy. Wake up at 5:00 AM It's time for this. Yeah, yeah. We need this. Waking up at five isn't like that big of a deal. Waking up at five for the next 2, 4, 6, 12 days.
• 18:30 - 19:00 Yeah, that's kind of a lot less than two weeks left. Yeah, - It is like six. My brain is awake, but my body,
• 19:00 - 19:30 - My body is tired. Unfortunately we were up kind of late last night working at James's house, so didn't get that much sleep. - Oh yeah. - Oh, eating paleo basically means eating like a caveman. Some of it's obvious. No processed foods or dairy, which we're already doing. But there are other things you might not realize that our ancestors didn't have access to like grains
• 19:30 - 20:00 and certain legumes. Even though those plants existed 10,000 years ago, we didn't have the technology or cooking methods to make them a regular part of our diet. - No beans, no peas, no grains. Yeah, they're just like chicken, steak, potatoes, eggs, eggs. Okay. As long as we never lose eggs. Yeah, this one kind of blows - Most of the things that we add to the challenge. Take away time. 5:00 AM wake up is the first one
• 20:00 - 20:30 to give us something. So I gained an hour or two every day. I'm way ahead. I mean good spirits for sure, but definitely looking forward to not doing all of these every day. Forgot to record egg white, ground Turkey. Soupy tea. I want pizza. What am I thinking today? I don't know. I'm really just in it. I'm in this.
• 20:30 - 21:00 Am I at peace? Is this what peace feels like? Ain't got no beefs, dude. Day 20, dude, - It says two minutes. Two minutes. That's pretty good. Oh, good. - Dead hang. Everyone in the world should be dead hanging for at least five minutes every single week. Not only isn't an amazing exercise just to open up the shoulders and get them into that overhead position, but it's going to be great to help you decompress the spine and develop grip strength as well. - The way that we designed this is
• 21:00 - 21:30 that the final days are the hardest. During all this, we're also doing our normal lives. We've got the golf build, we have other videos to shoot. We have members only podcast. We have live streams and all the like behind the scenes stuff that goes into running a YouTube channel. I'm just really looking forward to not doing 20 things every morning. - I've been invited to go camping with a group of friends this weekend. It's probably gonna be pretty hard,
• 21:30 - 22:00 but bring in my journal, my book, my Gallon of water, my running shoes, and I'm going to go to the store to buy totally paleo meals. So it's only for a - Night. I Ms. Rice, I miss soy sauce. I miss peanut butter. I miss toast. I want butter. And I really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really want coffee. You know how sick it is to do 5:00 AM
• 22:00 - 22:30 without coffee sucks. Dude, - Just forgot to hit record again. But I did. I did my skincare. Sorry. - Journaling at night tonight. Wonder how Zach's enjoying camping. - I just woke up and it's brutal because it's so cold. I think I'm just gonna read and journal and try to do stuff in my tent 'cause it's so cold outside.
• 22:30 - 23:00 I just want to go back to bed so bad 'cause it's so cold. My sleeping bag is warm. I'll wait to go for a run later. It's way too cold. - 5:00 AM day 21. Sunday. Not very into making this video right now.
• 23:00 - 23:30 Alright, let's hit the streets. - Two, three. It's not fat. You got shoulder limbs, so like that's literally all you need. It's just me. - Alright. All right. Sauna, sauna. This one's nice. The problem is we gotta go somewhere 'cause neither of us have a sauna. - So I joined the Y today because they have a sauna.
• 23:30 - 24:00 It was a weird vibe, man. Los Angeles, YMC, a sauna. Weird vibe dude. - Saunas are supposed to improve circulation, help with recovery and reduce stress, which is awesome because that is exactly what we needed at this point in the challenge. Officially three weeks into this thing and I don't feel like doing it anymore. Like I don't want to cold plunge today. I don't wanna meditate today. I don't want to journal. I want to dairy. I want to eat fake food.
• 24:00 - 24:30 I don't wanna write gratitudes. Definitely don't want to hang from a bar for two minutes. I'm just really unmotivated. 21st day, we're officially three weeks in and it's a Sunday and I just want to chill. I'm so tired. - Hit record today. - I wanna relax. I can't 'cause I have 21 health trends to participate in. I just wanna chill and watch the game. You know what I mean?
• 24:30 - 25:00 - Today's the first day that I feel worse than I felt yesterday. - Yeah, I don't feel motivated to do this. I think this is dumb. Wish we didn't do it. Jk. - I haven't even started pushups and I like have a hard time remembering everything I have to do. It like randomly hits me. I'm like, oh, I didn't stretch and I like go stretch. - I've thought to put my Fitbit on like eight times. I haven't, so I don't know how many steps I've gotten. - Have you run - Yet? Yeah. Without your Fitbit? Yeah. Oh dude. See, it's just an off day.
• 25:00 - 25:30 This is getting hard. Yeah. All right. With that said, what else? Let's see, what else are you fucking kidding me, dude? All right, dude, back that back time to get real. Time to get real. Time to get swollen over the next eight days. Eight days.
• 25:30 - 26:00 Feeling good, feeling alive, feeling like we're on the last lap. We are getting it. Zach and I have already been to the gym. We've already sauna. We've already run, we've already meditated, we've already stretched, we've already journaled, but we're feeling good, feeling motivated, feeling awesome. Hey, definitely ready for this thing to be over, but excited for what the last week is gonna bring. Day 23, keto, paleo.
• 26:00 - 26:30 Okay. The point of a keto diet is to get your body into a fat burning mode called ketosis where your metabolism starts burning fat instead of glucose. Once you're in ketosis, your cravings for carbs go down. You burn fat more easily and it's easier to maintain a caloric deficit. - So no more broccoli. Oh no, no more asparagus. No more potatoes. No - More potatoes, dude. - Yeah, - The potatoes were good. That's a big one. It's
• 26:30 - 27:00 - Basically paleo but no - Carbs. Yeah, so we're gonna lose some cornerstones of our diet. - My legs are so, so this is my keto - Paleo dinner. This is what I eat now.
• 27:00 - 27:30 Just had dinner. I gotta get more steps. My butt really hurts, like my butt cheeks - Doing skincare. Final thing of the day and then I'm getting in bed because I'm - Tired. It's hard to bend over. We did dead lips today. - I'm sitting on the toilet. I think I ate too much red meat.
• 27:30 - 28:00 - All right. Day 24. It's - Gonna be hard. No social - Media. Whoa, I wasn't expecting that. I forgot about that one. Yeah, crazy. And YouTube counts. Oh shit. We can't do YouTube. No YouTube analytics. Four fifths of the way through. You know what they say. If you can make it through four fifths, you can make it all the way. Yeah. We - Are officially in the final week. - This last section is, it's gonna break us.
• 28:00 - 28:30 It's, it's the hardest stuff. We put all the hardest stuff kind of at the end. The things that we could only bear for just a few days, we put at the end, - There's Instagram, remove app. Damn. I don't know my Instagram password. - You can get it if your phone's attached to it. - Alright, - It deleteds data. What does that mean? Like your most recent searches and stuff like that. Okay. Like your browsers. Well, it's deleted.
• 28:30 - 29:00 - TikTok. That one is more like, I know that's good for me. YouTube deleted. YouTube Studio deleted. Oh, Reddit deleted. That one's probably for the best LinkedIn. Damn, dude. How am I? How am I gonna post about my wins? Dude, I feel free. You actually, I do actually feel like a sense of relief. It does like honestly feel like a kind
• 29:00 - 29:30 of a weight off my shoulders. It's like, it's like kind of like when I went to rehab, it's like this is gonna be hard, but I'm making the right decision. My red light mask is dead. Day - 25, intermittent fasting. Sick. All right. This is circadian rhythm, which means you can only eat when the sun's out. I don't really have anything to say.
• 29:30 - 30:00 - I felt, I felt my brain kind of like craving scrolling TikTok in a weird way last night, and that's gross. I'm worried the keto paleo diet mixed with all of this working out is very bad for me. I'm gonna keep an eye on that. - Dude, this diet is killing me. I just ate steak in arugula last night. My stomach was hurting so bad. I was sitting on the toilet for like an hour. One more week baby. You know James has a heart condition.
• 30:00 - 30:30 I think this challenge might kill James. That would not be good. Probably be really bad for the channel. It'd be good for one video then it would be bad for all the videos after that. All right, dude, you just feeling it in your heart. Yeah. - Zach was joking that this challenge would kill me, but I think he actually jinxed me. A lot of you guys know that I have a heart condition
• 30:30 - 31:00 and that heart disease runs in my family. I have a stent in my heart and we've been pushing it pretty hard in our morning workouts. That morning I noticed that my heart rate was climbing past the limit that my doctor set and I started to feel pain in my chest. - What's it feel like? Just hurts. Sorry, I'm trying to, yeah, - When you've had a heart attack, it's kind of always in the back of your mind, but I think that the pain I was feeling in my chest was
• 31:00 - 31:30 because I hit it earlier with a dumbbell right to the heart. It's hard to know when you're just being paranoid and when you actually need to go to the hospital. Having a heart attack is a huge pain in the ass. - All right. I'm a believer in the keto diet. It changes the way that your body metabolizes. It makes me really believe in the diet. I'm also not as hungry as often, like my cravings. I've really gone down.
• 31:30 - 32:00 I started making a list of everything I'm gonna eat on the day that this thing is done. Oh my God, my beautiful cheat day. I'm gonna make almond milk latte. Oh dude, eat a buttery croissant. Then I'm gonna eat a bowl of Reese's puffs. Then I'm gonna go surf. I'm gonna get a pit fire pizza. Oh dude, it's got like that chewy crust. I just want pie, just straight pizza. - Oh, day 26. I'm feeling kind of like down in the dumps calling old
• 32:00 - 32:30 friend, but I think some reconnection with some people will be good. This one I'm actually relieved by. I haven't felt that way in a while. My mind is strong, but my body is weak, exhausted. - Five more days. Let's go baby. Let's go. - It is the first day. It felt good. Dude, I think I'm going crazy because this feels awesome. I'll talk to you later, dude, you later. Bye.
• 32:30 - 33:00 Also, I've been having a hard time getting off of the toilet because my legs are so sore. One big, one - Little or too big too. - Riley's throwing me some salmon. Look at all those colors. I mean that's gotta be healthy, right? Breaking out a little bit here. Think it's because of retinol. - How long are you guys staying there? - 20 minutes. - No,
• 33:00 - 33:30 - Redpath and I have been doing the keto diet for two days now. Theoretically, you can test whether your body is in that fat burning ketosis mode by measuring the ketones in your blood. We're using this device to measure our ketone levels and hoping for anything above 0.5. That means we're in ketosis. - Oh, you're a good clotter. Point five. So you're like right in ketosis. Alright, we'll do Jesse, and if Jesse reads like a 1.1,
• 33:30 - 34:00 this thing's a scam low, dude. Not even reading anything. Ooh, 1.3. Dude. Damn dude. Cheo dude. Burning. Well, we're in ketosis, dude. Barely. Dude, you're sewing - Ketosis. I'm like ain. What your levels, dude, I gotta get on your level dude.
• 34:00 - 34:30 Day 27. Oh no screens. - Oh, I thought that was tomorrow. - Yeah. - Whoa. This is a long time ago. Without screens. - Yeah, we have stuff to do. Holy shit. This video might be financially destructive. We're going no screens for the rest of this challenge. That includes the screens on our action cams, which we've been shooting all of this footage on. There might be some shots out of frame.
• 34:30 - 35:00 There might be some poorly lit shots. No screens on action cams, no apple watches, no Fitbits analog watch. Nothing that emits light except the sun. - Okay, so we're not allowed to look at screens, but we still need to be able to call an old friend. The thing is, we are allowed to make phone calls. We're just not allowed to use our phone in the normal way to make a phone call. So my whole phone is taped and actually the touch screen still works through the tape. So I have marked exactly where I need to swipe
• 35:00 - 35:30 to answer a call, where I need to press to hang up and where I need to press for it to go to speaker phone. So basically a phone call to an old friend, which I need to do today would go something like this. Hey Siri, call Michael Potter. Press the speaker button. It's going Hecky boy yo, dude, how's it going? - We like Zach's little tape hacks so much that we turned it into a real product. This is Screenless maybe once a month.
• 35:30 - 36:00 You wanna break from your phone, but you still wanna be reachable in case someone needs you. That is exactly what Screenless is for. It's a removable sticker that you put on the screen of your phone. We've put indicators on all the the important buttons, but you can't look at your phone. You slap one on, you go about your day. You stay available without getting sucked into the scroll. We designed a bunch of styles so you can pick the vibe that fits your specific non-screen journey. I've tried screen timers, I've tried downloading apps
• 36:00 - 36:30 because I've considered buying a dumb phone covering the screen of your phone works. Go to speed.co to get your mark one screen list. This is an experimental product. We are excited to hear your feedback, what you like about it, what you don't like about it. This is a new thing for us and we're really stoked. More to come. Let's go screen list together. Honestly guys, I don't wanna ruin the rest of the video, but it will. It's very good for your brain. Day 28, carnivore diet.
• 36:30 - 37:00 Alright, so basically we can't eat leaves anymore. - All right, - Dude. - Chicken, eggs, ground turf, beef. That's basically all I'm going to eat. I'm going to eat horse - Balls, cow dicks, bull testes, bull testicles. Those nice dude, - You, you've gone. You've like broken a threshold that I haven't yet. - I've gone full wim off. Dude. I'm trying to spread out as much as I can. I'm trying to spread out
• 37:00 - 37:30 - As much as I can. Hands and armpits is crucial. - Oh my god,
• 37:30 - 38:00 - You had Swedish fish on your counter the other day and I, I walked inside and like literally in my head I go, don't mind if I do. And I was like, oh no, I can't. I think maybe my phone is recording right now. Three - More days. Three more day. - I've really like falling into this routine. I cannot wait for it to be over though. I like the removal of social media, but not being able to check in
• 38:00 - 38:30 with the world easily is affecting me in a negative way. Sounds good. Screen. I can't watch, watch tv. I can't. The chest really hurts. The diet stuff is like fun. I don't have any energy. When I'm ready for it to be over, I really want to eat a focaccia sandwich. - This is what it's come to and I really want a coffee. I'm just eating hamburger. Patty, - This is by far the most challenging video I have ever made. I hope that all recorded because I don't have a screen.
• 38:30 - 39:00 Am I in frame? Nobody knows my in focus. I don't know. Day 29, 2 more days. We knew it was coming. No shoes. I haven't worn shoes in. Over a year, fucking barefoot, barefoot. No longer going to wear shoes. So there's a bunch of bones in your feet that apparently shoes squished together. So today and tomorrow we're gonna not wear shoes anywhere.
• 39:00 - 39:30 Stretch out our little bones and get more in touch with the earth. This one's wild. This is no way to live. I'm glad it's almost over. - I think I thought when I got to the end, I'd be feeling really good and almost not wanting to stop. That couldn't be further from the truth. I think James and I learned a lot. It's been hard, dude. It felt like it was never gonna end. It still kind of does. I think I have a headache from eating just meat, bro. The carnivore thing is messed up.
• 39:30 - 40:00 I mean, I just want a goddamn brussel sprout today. I just rode my bike barefoot. - That hurt. Definitely bad, as bad as I thought. Totally conscious of the fact that I'm not wearing shoes. It wasn't excruciating, but there's like an underlying fear the whole time that you're just gonna like step on something sharp or gross or like catch your toenail. Dude, when we are done with this, I'm gonna not do anything for a whole day.
• 40:00 - 40:30 Not a not a thing, not a single thing. I'm gonna crawl from the bed to the couch. I'm gonna watch home improvement all day and eat pizza. It's not like that hard. It's just a lot. It's like having two jobs, a lifestyle job, and then my regular have meetings and phone calls and write future videos. Job brother, it's a lot, man. Tired as hell. Feels good on this couch though, boy, I tell you what,
• 40:30 - 41:00 but I have to do 50 more pushups today. Nice shoes. You think I'm self-conscious about not having foot prisons free baby. I can peel a banana with these bad boys. Heading into the last day, I think I had a really good feel for which trends were working and which ones I would not recommend at all. It's a lot to cover, but I wanna give you guys my takeaways
• 41:00 - 41:30 for all 30 health practices. Here we go. Cold plunge. It's cool. Weekly. I'm not doing it daily or just take a cold shower, run a mile. I try for seven miles a week in any form journaling. Enjoyed it. Once a week feels right. Whole food diet solid for cutting out snacks. Would recommend 10,000 steps. Great. It's not hard. Gets you outta the house. 15 minutes of meditation. Too long. Five minutes is enough. Hydration challenge. A gallon is too much. Half a gallon is fine. 30 minutes of reading perfect replacement for your TV show.
• 41:30 - 42:00 I read two books. Gluten-free makes me feel lighter, but I love bread too much. Daily skincare routine. I love it. Morning stretch. I feel a huge difference in my back and joints do it every day. Refined, sugar free. After a few days, I stopped having sugar highs and cravings, but I still like my little treats. No caffeine. I hate this. I do think I slept better. I hate it. 100 pushups per day. Definitely recommend, especially if you're not doing any of the strength training. Red light therapy. Honestly, the skincare routine made such a difference. It's hard to tell if this did anything. Dairy free.
• 42:00 - 42:30 I feel better without cheese, but I like cheese. Gratitude's easy to do alongside journaling. It really put my mind in a positive place. 5:00 AM wake up makes me feel elite. Nothing beats waking up early. It gets easier. It'll drastically improve your life if you have something to do when you wake up. Paleo, kind of neutral on this one. Two minute dead hang. It made my back feel better. If you have back pain, try it. Sauna. It clears out the sinuses and definitely helps with recovery. Two workouts per day. One is enough. Keto paleo. Zach is a huge believer. It killed his cravings, which is a huge part of any diet.
• 42:30 - 43:00 No social media. Do this every day. Get off TikTok. Get off Instagram. Social media doesn't improve your life except our videos. Those come out Thursdays. Watch those on your tv. Don't watch anything else. Intermittent fasting with everything else. It's hard to tell if it helped, but it does Stop me from nighttime snacking. Call an old friend. Don't do it daily or you'll run out of friends. But once a week or once a month worth it. No screens. I kind of love it. Inconvenient. Yeah, but maybe once a month. Screen list now [email protected] carnivore. Never again. I feel gross. This one's weird. No shoes. Kind of like it.
• 43:00 - 43:30 Let the dogs loose sometimes. As for the last challenge, if you can find the time to do it, I think it's introspective and fun, but it might just be something to try. Once as we wrap up the final day of the challenge, my biggest takeaway is this.
• 43:30 - 44:00 We're living in a time of hyper optimization. Every health trend we tried, every diet, every exercise, every mindfulness practice came from something that we saw online. There's this pressure to not just improve, but to become the best possible version of yourself. The goal isn't balance or joy, it's perfection. Like we're machines
• 44:00 - 44:30 and if we fine tune every setting, wake up at 5:00 AM follow the perfect diet, do the exact right workout, we'll unlock 100% of life. But 100% is a myth. Life is messier than that. It's more interesting. It's more beautiful and honestly it's more fun. Now, I'm not saying don't try. We should try. The whole point of this channel is to encourage people to try.
• 44:30 - 45:00 We should challenge ourselves and build habits that could help us feel alive. And a lot of the people promoting these trends are genuinely trying to help. But let's not forget, some of them are trying to monetize our insecurities. The easiest way to get you to click to buy, to stay hooked is to convince you that you're not enough. Perfection is impossible, but it's easy to feel like it's just around the corner.
• 45:00 - 45:30 Look, get on a manageable workout routine. Eat food that makes your body feel good. Drink more water. Take care of your skin. Do the cold plunge. If it excites you, not because you think it'll unlock a new life, let's be better. We don't have to be perfect. Perfect is usually someone else's idea of what you should be anyway.
• 45:30 - 46:00 You are not a machine. You're a person. I love you guys. - You said a month ago, right? Yeah. Which I don't think a lot will change your month. Well, at least it is enough to kind of show you go in the right direction. Yeah. Right. Yeah. What's the routine like for that last month?