Day 13 No Caffeine - age 57, January 17, 2025, 5:57 pm ⚠️CAUTION: THIS VIDEO IS FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY. THE ACTION(S) SHOWN CAN BE DANGEROUS OR FATAL. PLEASE VIEW WITH DISCRETION. I only do this exercise when I’m feeling really good and I’m pumped up on caffeine. This is my first time ever doing it caffeine free with 24 kg./53 lbs. kettlebells and it felt great. I discovered weightlifting and caffeine at the same time at the age of 14, and we soon became inseparable buddies for the next 43 years. I decided to take a break because I started tracking my sleep with an Oura ring and discovered that even if I slept 7 hours I could barely get 20 minutes of sleep on average. This mattered because over the last 3 years my knee arthritis has gotten really bad, and I knew that nothing could help me with that low amount of deep sleep. When I started my caffeine cleanse on January 5, I couldn’t jog or jump and I had to go down the stairs backwards. Three days later the swelling in my knees and the rest of my body went down a lot, and two days after that I was able to do jumping Burpee’s with a 20 pound weight vest on. When I first started, this thing, I was expecting to be tired and lethargic, but even though I yawn all day, my energy and mental clarity are much better. What’s not better is my sleep. I’m going on two weeks of the worst tossing and turning, weird-ass dream insomnia I’ve had in decades. After a week of this I tried melatonin to no avail, so my coach at Marek Health sent me a bottle of Liposomal Apigenin, and that worked much better. I also like the fact that it’s an isolate from chamomile and less likely to mess with my hormones like melatonin. I’ve always felt that I was cheating by fueling my workouts with caffeine, so proving to myself that I can have workouts that are even better without it is important to me as my body continues to heal and recover. I hope you’re having a great year so far and I appreciate you being here. Aloha - @billmaeda