Use Your Fat for Fuel – Part 1

PledgeTraining

1. A healthy gut
   1. Good and bad bacteria are everywhere in the body but it’s all about balance. There’s a need for yeast in the GI tract but an excess causes UTI’s and yeast infections. There’s staph on everyone’s skin but when it gets out of control it’s a Staph infection.
   2. The thing about a ‘bad’ bacterial or yeast overgrowth is that often there’s a film that not only causes inflammation but also makes a physical barrier in the areas of the overgrowth that compromise our ability to absorb the nutrients that we eat. ALSO, the ‘bad’ bacteria do not make the short chain fatty acids that we need to feed out endothelial cells, specifically butyrate.
   3. Anyways so to reverse this you need to start eating a diet that feeds ‘good bateria’ aka lots of plants high in prebiotic fiber like broccoli, potato skins, spinach, cauliflower etc… then you want to take some enzymes to break down the bacterial biofilm, help break down the cell walls of some of the bad bacterial overgrowth and then to heal a bit of the inflammation going on in there. Serrapeptidase helps with the inflammation and excess mucus production and fibrotic deposits, cellullase helps break down some of that biofilm and S. boullardii is a ‘good yeast’ that out competes the common yeast strand that causes yeast infections. Then chitosanase breaks down chitin if the cell walls of yeast and fungus to get them gone and out of your gut.
2. A High intake of quality water
   1. Quality water, meaning without toxins present of a good mineral and alkalinity can really aid in helping your body get back to homeostasis and keep toxins flowing out of the body at a good rate. You need adequate cellular hydration for optimal metabolism, optimal enzyme function meaning that cells can process energy at its maximal rate. Also this keeps blood flowing through the kidneys at a higher rate making detoxification much quicker and easier. Your heart can also pump less per minute and get more rest due to a higher volume at load and therefore pumping more blood and oxygen with each beat. As little as 3% dehydration can have affects like higher heart rate, headaches, nausea, decreased exercise ability, decreased energy, lower IQ and increased hunger.
3. A normal estrogen level
   1. There’s a book out right now called ‘estro-generation’ that talks about all the compounds that can increase our estrogen hormone levels and it’s a little alarming how prevalent it’s becoming.
   2. For this reason, I’m not a huge fan of soy ….besides it being an estrogenic compound it’s largely GMO and can be found with levels of pesticides on much of the crops.
   3. Anywho things that increase estrogen are soy, edamame, soy sauce, tofu, tamari, chlorinated water, chlorinated pools, splenda, Red 40, animal, dairy and fat from animals fed grain and given hormones this also includes butter, yogurt and cheese.
   4. There’s even paraben in make-up and benzo’s in sunscreens and lip balms
4. Increasing testosterone and growth factor
   1. Heavy Strength training – increases lean body mass, testosterone etc so that you burn more calories at rest and so that your body preferences building muscle over storing fat
   2. Concurrent Training – think crossfit, certain types of bootcamps, or obstacle course racing
5. Having vitamins, minerals, trace mineral and nutrients in adequate amounts
6. Intermittent fasting
7. A moderate carb or low carb diet with a focus on anti-inflammatory foods–
   1. Eating more non-starchy veggies – the fiber makes you burn more calories by just digestion. This diet also keeps insulin low by eating low glycemic and high nutrient quality vegetables such as broccoli, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, asparagus, onions, bell peppers etc…
8. Slow, fasted cardio – building more mitochondria, more capillaries to allow you to stay aerobic. Not only that, more mitochondria actually make the daily caloric need of that tissue higher, increasing your resting metabolic rate even further.
9. Consistency – VEGF – vascular endothelial growth factor, local metabolites released by muscle, NO release – other factors creating this, heart gets stronger, arteries get thicker and stronger
10. HIIT training – high intensity interval training increases heart rate (HR) for a long period after, especially if it was a long interval workout – increases your lactate threshold and your ability to stay aerobic at higher calorie burns and work loads
11. Medium levels of activity during the day – having a standing desk, walking to lunch, doing some gardening or house work, easy hiking, bike commuting, yardwork etc…
12. Sleeping 7-9 hours a night – keeps cortisol and insulin low, keeps your hormones balances and your brain detoxified so that it can keep your metabolism up and stay sharp, not to mention your much more likely to go workout if you feel good.
13. lowering stress –
    1. First there’s good and bad stress. The good stress includes things like exercise that momentarily add stress but promote the body to respond to this stimulus by lowering stress afterwards, increasing endogenous anti-inflammatory power by adding superoxide dismutase (SOD) and by lowering your blood pressure immediately after and for 24 hours thereafter we can see positive affects. In any event we are talking about chronic and longterm, ‘bad stress’. And lowering this involves everything from your mindset, thought life, and this includes a ton of the above topics already covered, but healing your gut, decreasing inflammation, increasing quality sleep, learning to relax or meditate, regular exercise and a strong social network all are the keys to balancing stress.
14. Supplements
    1. bitter melon extract and cinnamon – blood sugar and insulin stabilizer
    2. probiotics with enzymes if you have a gut imbalance, a greens powder such as Garden of Life superfoods powder – helps you get all your vitamins, mineral, and trace minerals while also helping you increase your vegetable intake and antioxidant levels to lower inflammation
    3. ashwaganda – lowers inflammation.

DO NOT TRY ALL OF THESE AT ONCE :). Bookmark this page and just pick a couple of things you want to add into your life and focus on those two changes for 3 weeks until it becomes a habit and integrated into your ‘autopilot’. It takes a ton of energy to make changes and we are after a longterm change so don’t make this a short term fix or another ’30 day detox’ thing you do. It’s all about sustainable living, sustainable changes and becoming a better you. So do the work, have patience and feel free to post on here which changes you’re going to add!