There’s the knowing and there’s the doing.  You may know some or all of Dr. Hyman’s “10 Rules to Eat Safely for Life”, but can you do it?  We resist change, even if we know the change is good.  Here are some thoughts about doing what you know is right, and 10 rules to eat right.

Just kidding... Condiment's typically are rich in sugar.

AFTER READING Dr. Mark Hyman’s heat-felt suggestions about “10 simple goof-proof rules for staying healthy for life” (see below), I copied the link and emailed it to someone very dear to me who has struggled all her adult life with obesity.

I wrote this to her:

“I’d guess you’ve read this advice before and will probably agree how huge a change in behavior it would take to implement — from food buying patterns, to food oriented social endeavors, to how one gets nurtured.  Anyway, knowledge is power, as is a gun with bullets loaded, but of course, nothing is killed without pulling the trigger.”

(Yes, I could have used a better metaphor.)

Over the years, I’ve had enough conversations with people who want to change some big, entrenched, negative behavior – and they know what to do – but cannot take the steps necessary to make the necessary changes.

Indeed, often times the issue is not knowing what to do, but being able (or willing) to do what’s known.

Who among us hasn’t wrestled with this issue?

I’ve not wrestled with weight problems.  The few times I’ve found myself to be a bit overweight relative to my standards, I’ve both known what to do, and have been able to implement what I know.

But being overweight is not the only issue out there, or in me.  My issues, and perhaps yours, aren’t as obvious as a jiggling belly, but overcoming them can be just as confusing and arduous.

Because entrenched habits, whether good or bad, are deeply embedded in our life’s patterns and serve a purpose.  Strangely, even bad habits reinforce something that we need, or – to put it in another way – something that we believe about ourselves.

Naturally, the specifics are specific to each individual, but some common threads are shared among us.

For instance, a person who feels unloved or not cared for might nurture himself with food and drink.  A person who had a deeply negative experience with the opposite gender might allow herself to become obese to minimize the probability to confront such as situation again.

Over time, the behavior that leads to psychological and/or physical issues seems normal; certainly, it becomes entrenched and thus hard to dig out and replace with behaviors that build a different reality.

So, it is with this understanding that I share with you Dr. Hyman’s 10 Rules to Eat Safely for Life (and What to Remove From Your Kitchen).

Remember, although it’s very important to have this knowledge, in order to kill the habits that make you unhealthy, you have to find a way to pull the trigger.  If you’ve already accumulated a lot of helpful information, but find that you’re not adopting enough of it, consider how you can do things differently.

Perhaps recruit a friend to take the journey with you, or help guide your trip.  Perhaps retain a coach for a short  time just to get you on the right path.  If you know that you can be influenced by a good book, find one about behavior modification and/or goal setting and attainment.

(Read my Six Tools to Make Your New Year Resolutions Come True.)

And now to my summary of Dr. Hyman’s “10 Rules”.  For his original post, go here.

10 Rules to Eat Safely for Life

These 10 simple rules are designed to do several things.  If followed, you’ll lose weight, increase vital energy, reduce medication and avoid (or reduce) chronic disease.

As Dr, Hyman says:

“You vote three times a day with your fork and it impacts our health, how we grow food, energy consumption, climate change and environmental degradation. You have more power than you think. Use it!”

1. Food without Labels. Reduce or eliminate foods that come in a box, a package or a can. There are labeled foods that are great, like sardines, artichoke hearts, or roasted red peppers, but you have to be very smart in reading the labels. There are two things to look for: the ingredient list and the nutrition facts. (Check Hyman’s report on “How to Read Labels” for more information.)

2. The Five-Ingredient Rule.  If a food has a label it should have fewer than five ingredients. If it has more than five ingredients, throw it out. Also food with health claims on the label are usually bad for you, such as “sports beverages.”

3. Beware Sugar. If any type of sugar is on the label (by any name, including organic cane juice, honey, agave, maple syrup, cane syrup, or molasses) throw it out. There may be up to 33 teaspoons of sugar in the average bottle of ketchup. Same goes for white rice and white flour, which act just like sugar in the body. If you have diabesity — the spectrum of metabolic imbalances starting with just a little belly fat, leading all the way to diabetes — you can’t easily handle any flour, even whole-grain. Throw it out.

(Read The Diabesity Epidemic – It May Be Coming to You)

4. Beware High-Fructose Corn Syrup.  Throw out any food with high-fructose corn syrup on the label. This super sweet liquid sugar takes no energy for the body to process, and may also contains mercury as a by-product of the manufacturing process. Many liquid calories, such as sodas, juices, and “sports” drinks contain this metabolic poison. It always signals low quality or processed food.

5. No Hydrogenated Foods. Throw out any food with the word “hydrogenated” on the label. This is an indicator of trans fats, which are vegetable oils converted through a chemical process into margarine or shortening. These fats have been proven to cause heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. New York City and most European counties have banned trans fats, and you should, too.

6. No Highly Refined Cooking Oils.  Throw out any highly refined cooking oils such as corn, soy, etc.  Also avoid toxic fats and fried foods.

7. No Unrecognizable Ingredients. Throw out any food with ingredients you can’t recognize, pronounce, or that are in Latin.

8. No Preservatives or Additives.  Throw out any foods with preservatives, additives, coloring or dyes, “natural flavorings,” or flavor enhancers such as MSG (monosodium glutamate).

9. No Artificial Sweeteners.  Throw out food with artificial sweeteners of all kinds (aspartame, Splenda, sucralose, and sugar alcohols — any word that ends with “ol” like xylitol, sorbitol). They make you hungrier, slow your metabolism, give you bad gas, and make you store belly fat.

(Note: There is some debate about xylitol.  In my post, Are You Getting Fat and Sick from Sugar, I note that Finnish studies suggest xylitol to be a good sugar substitute.)

10. Eat from the Earth.  If it came from the earth or a farmer’s field, not a food chemist’s lab, it’s safe to eat. As Michael Pollan says, if it was grown on a plant, not made in a plant, then you can keep it in your kitchen. If it is something your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food, throw it out Stay away from “food-like substances.”

Well, there you have it, some great advice from a medical doctor devoted to understanding and treating the causes of disease, not just their symptoms; and one who has found that one very prevalent cause of chronic disease is the great American diet.

Related posts:

1. Dr. Hyman: 4 Supplements Reduce Healthcare Costs
2. Are Your Thoughts Yours?
3. Aubrey de Grey: “We Can Stop Aging” — Watch

Baby boomers want to cling to any remnant of youth possible, and calorie restricted diets are a proven way to extend longevity, but very few are willing to do it.  (You’d hafta tape my mouth shut and tie my hands.) Until the age-defying pill is invented, here are five suggestions to live a longer and stronger life.

Alternatives to a caloric restricted diet for longevity

IF YOU’RE a Rhesus Monkey you have a chance to live substantially longer than your peers; that is if some scientist has caged you and is feeding you a calorie-restricted diet.

Caloric restriction – where you eat just enough of highly nutritious foods to maintain health, but not one calorie extra – has been a focal point of anti-aging research for decades, long enough to have proven its effectiveness with a creature remarkably similar to we humans, the Rhesus Monkey.

But it’s not all about monkeys.  At this point, many studies done over a period of 70 years, and with a diverse range of species, have proven that “caloric restriction remains the most effective natural intervention for increasing longevity”, says Jay Williams, Ph.D., an acclaimed physiologist, medical nutritionist, author and researcher.

Studies on Rhesus Monkeys proves calorie restrictive diets improve longevity

So, given the all time high demand for a plethora of anti-aging products, procedures and gizmos, what percent of the population do you think are on a caloric-restricted diet?

Nearly zero percent.

A quick glance around any shopping mall is not a scientific method, but it will sure enough confirm my zero percent assertion.

Despite that the baby boomer generation is clinging to their quickly vanishing youth, and are willing to spend money on anything suggesting to be an age modifier, virtually no one is substantially reducing their caloric intake for the purpose of prolonging their health and life span.

That’s because it would take a Herculean effort, and is decidedly no fun.  We’re talking a 20 to 40 percent reduction in calories.

Yes, besides longevity, there are benefits to the caloric reduction eating system, such as substantial reductions in diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, brain atrophy – and even wrinkles.

However, this is a two-sided coin.  There are issues with such a diet, such as the potential for musculoskeletal losses, insufficient calories and amino acids (protein) for exercise, adverse effects for pregnant women, and more, which you can examine at Wikipedia’s exposition on the topic.

An Alternative to Caloric Restriction

In my view, and in my life, the caloric-restriction diet does not give sufficient benefits to outweigh the risks, plus the desire to maximize the joie de vivre of my life.  Although Epicurus might judge my habits to be too merry-less, I concur with Dr. Williams’ suggestions for some eating behaviors that are safer, more enjoyable and sure to help with longevity and health.

Here are Dr. Williams’ four suggestions for a long and strong life — sprinkled, of course, with my expositions – with the addition of one of mine, number 5:

1. Don’t Overeat.  The most important factor in your daily eating habits is to ensure you never eat to, or past, the point of fullness. The long-lived Japanese on Okinawa have a term for this: Hara hachi bu! – eat until 80 percent full.  Although you may not feel full at the 80 percent mark, about twenty minutes after you put the fork down, you may be.  It takes about this amount of time for the stomach to signal the hypothalamus in the brain that no more food is required.

2. Eat Nutritionally Dense Food.  Focus on eating smaller meals with a lower caloric density and high nutrient density. Think plant-based diet, rich in vegetables and whole grains. Read my Diet 101 and 86 Year-olds Recipe for Longevity.

Eat fresh, nutrient dense foods

3. Know The Ingredients. Avoid eating meals with too many unknown ingredients. Often restaurants add excess oils and ingredients that make a seemingly healthy meal much higher in calories than you’d expect.

4. Exercise Aerobically. Aerobic exercise (the type that builds endurance) is an effective way to improve the production of certain sirtuins. Although you don’t need to be so aerobically devoted to benefit by sirtuin production, a 2010 study on marathon runners displayed a significant increase in sirtuin production post marathon.

And now to my added suggestion, number 5:

5. Exercise Anaerobically.  Anaerobic exercise (the type that builds muscle) is now known to help cells maintain their DNA during successive cell division and to amp the production of a protein that slows the aging process.  For more on this, read: How Exercise Slows the Aging Process and New Research – Muscles = Longevity.

So, What are Sirtuins?

Sirtuins are proteins that are involved with the regulation of both metabolism and stress homeostasis, and are linked to longer life spans in a range of species from yeast to mice.

Seven forms of sirtuins have been located in humans and have been identified in playing key roles in energy homeostasis in metabolic tissues that are important for longevity.

How do you make more sirtuins? You can either reduce your calories by 20 to 40 percent, or as Dr. Williams puts it:

“Maintaining a healthy energy balance of calories in and out through conscious eating and exercise not only aid in sirtuin mechanisms and metabolism maintenance, but also prevent the deterioration of physiological fitness during the process of aging including oxidative damage, inflammation and lack of protein turnover. These factors are what contribute to our disease susceptibility and our overall aging as well.”

The Bottom Line

What you eat, how much you eat, along with persistent physical activity are the most effective way to age gracefully and live longer.

Someday there may be a pill for longevity, but if you want to live to see that day, better eat better, eat less and exercise more.

Yep.

P.S.  Read more specifics about Dr. Williams views on this topic in her post: Restricting Calories to Live Longer: Does it Work?.

Related posts:

1. Longevity Tips from the World’s Oldest Man
2. New Research: Muscles = Longevity!
3. Ten Foods for Longevity

Three famous doctors and one mega-Pastor have hatched a health plan.  It’s called “The Daniel Plan” and thousands at the Saddleback Church are losing weight and just plain getting healthier.  Here’s what’s happening at The Daniel Plan.

WHAT DO you get when you create a health team with a plan devoted to educating and encouraging people to improve their health, and the players are Dr. Oz, Dr. Hyman, Dr. Amen and Pastor Rick Warren, among others?

Answer:  The Daniel Plan.

Well, unless you’re a member Pastor Rick’s Saddleback Church, that answer begs the question:

“What’s the Daniel Plan?”

Answer: A health strategy with the medical input of heart surgeon Doctor Oz, functional medicine specialist Dr. Hyman and brain health expert Dr. Amen… and the spiritual guidance and community backing of Rick Warren, Pastor of one of the largest churches in the Nation, the Saddleback Church.

You may have heard about Rick Warren from his national best seller, The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?.  Rick Warren has, and continues to sell, so many copies of this book that he not only does not take a salary from the church, but also donates most of his earnings to charity.

So, I would venture to suggest, that the man’s heart is in the right place, even if I can’t bend my mind to his religiosity.

(No, I don’t really think it’s “God’s Prescription for Your Health” as one particular byline states, nor do I think anything humans can do would “glorify God” as the byline on the web site suggests.  But, right down here on earth, The Daniel Plan sure could be your prescription to improve your health!)

Why The Daniel Plan?

The reason I’m writing about the Daniel Plan is because several thousand adherents to the plan are losing weight and getting healthier.

It’s obvious that the plan’s methodology is working, and that should be no surprise given the input of those aforementioned doctors, as well as the ability of Pastor Rick to exhort his flock to follow the righteous health path.

And it’s that last point, I think, that’s the real key to success – having a “flock” and a “path”.  The flock is a group of like-minded, connected individuals who support each other along a proven path that leads to health.

This approach has a statistically higher chance of success than trying any behavior modification program by yourself and of your own construction.

The Daniel Plan embraces “The Simple Six” Core Principles:

1. CONNECT for Success – Get in touch with your health and with others!
2. RELY on God’s Power – Willpower is not enough. You need God’s power.
3. EAT Delicious Whole Foods – Imagine the Garden of Eden as your food source.
4. MOVE Your Way to Health – Get going. The more exercise, the more energy!
5. THINK Sharper and Smarter – Better brain health = better life!
6. HEAL for Life – Make a game plan for permanent changes that heal.

Given that this plan speaks to church-going folks and is animated by a church pastor, the agnostics and atheists among you might allow the Plan its principle #2.  Certainly, it can’t hurt to believe that a power greater than yours is guiding you past the fridge at midnight.

Check out the success stories, and this video full of testimonials which looks like this —->

(Suggest you allow the stream to load before playing the video otherwise it may be choppy.)

And here’s a success story about Chef Jenny Ross.

UPDATE: Dr. Hyman in the HuffPost today (1/31/12) reports the following Daniel Plan results:

“Not only were there estimated weight reductions of 250,000 pounds but also equal reductions in medication use, hospitalizations and doctors visits. And it was free.

In a survey after 10 months of the program, participants reported the following:

An average weight loss of 13.5 pounds (and 18 pounds for those who said they followed the program closely)
72 percent of those who wanted to lose weight did
53 percent reported increased energy levels
34 percent reported better sleep
27 percent improvement in blood work
20 percent reported improvement in blood pressure
11 percent reported reduction in medications
31 percent reported improvement in mood

Those who did the plan together lost twice as much weight as those who did it alone.”

There’s a rich amount of information at The Daniel Plan site.  The program is comprised of Eat, Move, Think, Heal and Connect, each with all the component parts necessary to get healthy.

For example:

Eat delves into nutrition, recipes, budgets and Superfoods.

Move gets into motivation and fitness programs for an individual and family.

Think presents the information helpful to understand behavior modification and brain health.

Heal speaks to mental health, hormones, energy, weight, skin, etc.

Connect ties in success stories, God and community.

The search function also brings up lots of information for a particular query. For instance, I searched at the site for “weight loss” and got these results:

The Daniel Plan Conquer Your Cravings
Studies show that people who maintain weight loss eat a healthy breakfast. Add
a dash of cinnamon. This fragrant spice has been found to help regulate blood …

The Daniel Plan Eating Out Rules
I’m going to order a salad to lose weight and be healthy. Because I’m … Often we fool ourselves into thinking that, “if I eat a salad, I’ll lose weight and be healthy.

The Daniel Plan – Food Groups
Calories, Hyman · Calories Count, Amen · Get Dunked · Why Most Diets Don’t Work ·

The Daniel Plan Shopping List
National Weight Control Registry · Why Most Diets Don’t Work

The Daniel Plan Vitamin Supplements
Sleep more soundly, lose weight and improve your overall health and vitality.

The Daniel Plan Recommended Foods
Calories Count, Amen · Get Dunked · National Weight Control Registry · Why Most Diets Don’t Work

The Daniel Plan – Get Your Kids Involved Early
7 Tips to Lose Weight · Calories, Hyman · Calories Count, Amen · Get Dunked · National Weight Control Registry · Why Most Diets Don’t Work

The Daniel Plan Main Dishes
Two bricks, individually wrapped in aluminum foil, make the best heavy weight for pressing …

If you’ve gotten this far without clicking over to The Daniel Plan, might as well fulfill your curiosity now.  Here’s the link.

Related posts:

1. Dr Oz and the 14-Day Reboot Diet Plan
2. Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead — The Reboot Plan
3. Niko Alm and the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

Kate Grip Denon posted on Yahoo! Health lots of examples of trading high calorie foods for those of the lower calorie variety.  And the reason you should care is that it’s much easier not to eat the calories than to exercise, or metabolize, them away.  So read on and learn about this…

Cut Out the Fat Calories

I’M GOING to grab something from Yahoo! Health and share it with you, along with – per usual – a bit of commentary from moi.

A few days ago, Kate Grip Denon posted on Yahoo! Health, 78 Ways to Cut Fat Calories from Your Diet. In the article, she underscores how tough it is exercise away calories and how easy it is to pile them into your body.

For instance, Ms. Denon writes:

“Sweat through a 30-minute workout and you can torch 200. Take three gulps of a foamy frappuccino and you’re right back where you started.”

To which I say, “Amen!”

However unfair this is, the fact remains that it takes a lot more effort to exercise away the calories that you so easily eat than to simply not eat them at all.  This is one reason why metabolism is often scrutinized.

The “higher” your metabolism, the more calories you’ll burn at rest; meaning, when not exercising.  Over the course of a day, the calories used via metabolic action will far exceed anything but a Tour du France rider will experience during exercise.

Combining these two facts – 1. That it’s easier to avoid calories than exercise them away; and 2. Metabolism burns more calories than a specific exercise program over the course of a day – suggests that you seek to eat less calories overall and give preference to calories from foods that improve metabolism.

In my post, Metabolism’s Role in Burning Body Fat, I wrote about, well, metabolism’s role in burning body fat!  I said:

“How calories are used by the body can be confusing.  Metabolism, thermogenesis, age, gender, and physical activity all play important roles.”

So, to get a handle on metabolism, read my post about metabolism

To become more aware about how you might be adding unwanted and unnecessary calories into your body, stay right here as I present most of Ms. Denon’s examples. For her full list, go read her article.

Reduce Calories at Breakfast

• Ditch the Pop-Tart for a slice of high-fiber toast with strawberry jam.
• Drink your two cups of coffee black. Or order a single espresso instead of your usual latte.
• Swap OJ for the real deal—one fresh orange. (Had fiber.)
• Trade a side of regular sausage for turkey.
• Eat your granola from a 4-ounce mug, not an 8-ounce bowl.
• Order pancakes, but hold the butter.
• Eat oatmeal plus an egg.

Reduce Calories at Lunch

• Leave the cheese out of your sandwich.
• Uses mustard rather than mayo and save 80 calories per tablespoon.
• Pass up croutons at the salad bar.
• Devour a slice of Pizza Hut cheese pan pizza instead of the meat lover’s variety.
• Take your iced tea unsweetened.
• Make your burger turkey, not beef.
• Slurp minestrone soup instead of cream of anything.
• Go bunless—shed your hamburger roll.
• Have a quesadilla made with two 6-inch corn, not flour, tortillas.

Reduce Calories at Lunch

• Sip a single glass of wine instead of downing 2 beers.
• Ask for your rum and cokes in a highball glass. Bartenders pour an average of 20 percent less liquid into taller tumblers, so you’ll swig less per round.
• Drizzle extra hot sauce, not blue cheese or ranch dressing, on your wings.
• Ordering a cocktail? Make it on the rocks instead of frozen. Slushy fruit drinks tend to be made with bottled mixers that contain added sugar and syrups.
• Blending your own? Have a daiquiri, not a piña colada.
• Pop the cap off of an MGD 64 instead of a bottle of Killian’s Irish Red.
• Sip a glass of water between drinks—pacing yourself can help you cut back by a glass or more.
• Dip your nachos in salsa rather than guacamole.
• For automatic portion control, sip wine from a Champagne flute, not an oversize goblet.

Reduce Calories at Your Snack Break

• Drink sparkling water instead of soda.
• Move your stash of Hershey’s Kisses at least 6 feet away from your desk—you’ll dip in half as often.
• Drain the heavy syrup from your can of fruit cocktail and then rinse the fruit with water before digging in.
• Have 1/2 cup of fresh grapes instead of that little snack box of raisins.
• Lay off the Lay’s Classic potato chips and have a handful of Rold Gold pretzels.
• Munch on a bag of Orville Redenbacher’s Smart Pop Kettle Korn, not Movie Theater Butter.
• Chase down the ice-cream truck for a Good Humor vanilla sandwich, not a King Cone.

Reduce Calories During Dessert

• Stop eating when you hit the crust. The edges and bottoms of baked goods are especially caloric because they absorb the butter used to grease the pan.
• Fill your bowl with sorbet instead of ice cream—you can have an extra 1/2 cup of the former and still slash calories.
• Next time a cocoa craving hits, ditch the dish of chocolate ice cream (about 3/4 cup) for a Fudgsicle.
• Have sugar-free Jell-O instead of pudding. Better your nighttime treat jiggle than your thighs.
• Go ahead and have that piece of birthday cake—just scrape off the chocolate frosting first.
• Eat 5 meringue cookies instead of 2 chocolate chip ones.
• Pass on the à la mode and savor that brownie au naturel.
• Can the cone. Have your ice cream in a bowl.
• Top your dessert with 1/2 cup of fresh berries instead of 2 tablespoons of chocolate syrup.

Reduce Calories in the Kitchen

• Substitute nonfat Greek yogurt for a serving of sour cream.
• Use chicken broth (low-sodium is best) instead of oil to sauté meat and veggies.
• Making homemade mac ‘n cheese? Cut 2 tablespoons of butter from the recipe.
• Replace the oil or butter in cakes with Sunsweet Lighter Bake prune-and-apple mixture or any brand of unsweetened applesauce.
• Next time you make meatballs, meatloaf, or burgers, go half-and-half with ground beef and turkey.
• When preparing packaged foods that call for butter or oil, like rice and stuffing, use a broth instead.
• Swap low-fat cottage cheese for whole-milk ricotta when you make lasagna or stuffed shells.

Reduce Calories at the Drive-Thru

• Pass up a Wendy’s baked potato with sour cream and chives and chow down on value fries instead. Amazing but true.
• Have a McDonald’s cheeseburger instead of a Quarter Pounder with cheese.
• Downsize your drink: Trade a large fountain soda (with ice) for a medium.
• Go for grill marks. Order a flame-broiled chicken sandwich rather than one that’s breaded (and usually fried in oil).
• Treat yourself to an ice-cream cone at McDonald’s instead of Dairy Queen.
• Crunch on one Taco Bell regular taco instead of a Ranchero Chicken Soft Taco. And all the hot sauce you want.
• Slurp a cup of Panera Bread’s low-fat chicken noodle soup instead of the cream of chicken with wild rice.
• Make your daily pick-me-up at Starbucks a skinny vanilla latte, not a regular.

Reduce Calories When Not Cooking

• Request the lemon chicken with white rice, not fried.
• Skip the crunchy noodles with your bowl of wonton soup.
• Ask for an order of Szechuan Shrimp instead of your usual General Tso’s.
• Choose the pasta with 1/2 cup of marinara instead of 1/2 cup of Alfredo sauce.
• Indulge your inner carnivore with beef stroganoff, not meat lasagna.
• Go with the baked potato (butter only), not the mashed, as your side of choice.
• Dip your dinner roll in marinara sauce instead of olive oil.
• Avoid anything breaded. Flour and bread crumbs not only add calories, but also absorb more cooking oil.

And there you have it – many ideas for how to substitute high calorie foodstuff for choices less calorie-endowed.

Thanks to Yahoo! Health and Kate Grip Denon for this list.  I’m so completely out of synch with experiencing most of the foods mentioned that I could not have come up with these suggestions.

If you’d like to know how I eat, check out Diet 101.

Yep.

Related posts:

1. 7 Ways for Faster Fat Blasting
2. 10 Ways to Live to 100
3. Metabolism’s Role in Burning Body Fat

The Reboot Juice Cleanse, or Reboot Diet, is a popular and effective diet and/or cleanse; however, if you don’t approach it right, you will abandon it quickly as you struggle with hunger and detox headaches.  Here, I answer two common questions from Reboot beginners who struggle to get the Reboot right.

YOU MIGHT have heard by now of the “Reboot Diet”, or the “Reboot Juice Cleanse” made very popular by Australian Joe Cross’ documentary, Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead.

A fast recap of the film: Joe Cross is fat, sick and although not “nearly dead”, he’s on that path.  (Yes, I know we all are, but his was shorter than many.)  The good entrepreneur that he is, Joe decided to make a documentary of his approach to losing weight and getting fit.  For 60 days, he ambled across the USA while consuming nothing but vegetable-fruit juices made by his trusty Breville juicer (the same one I use).  We witness Joe getting thinner and more vital, as does a couple of inspiring people who join him on his juicing quest.

So, now web sites have sprouted on the Interwebs to promote and support the Reboot Juice Cleanse.  I myself have written about it, seeking to add my two cents about how to best go about successfully implementing this Reboot Diet.

In Fat Sick and Nearly Dead – The Reboot Plan, I introduce the documentary and suggest some improvements about how to do the Reboot Juice Cleanse.

In The Reboot Diet and the Detox Effect, I caution that diving from a meat and potatoes dietary existence into an all-juice, all-the-time diet/cleanse is a recipe for headaches, discomfort, hunger and an overall f_ _k you attitude manifested by throwing the Breville juicer out the window.

With all that as background, the reason I write this particular post is to share two comments I made to questions asked at the Join the Reboot site.  I’ll present the questions asked by two earnest, beginner juicers, and my response to each.

Two Questions, Two Answers

Jon asks:

“I am new here and took the assessment which recommended that I should use the 15 Day Reboot program. I was actually interested in shooting for the 60 day juice fast as was demonstrated in the movie ”Fat Sick and Nearly Dead”. Is there anyone currently working towards a 60 day plan here? Should I give it a shot or should I stay with what was recommended?”

My Reply:

“Jon, I’ve been cleansing and juicing off and on for 30 years, and have helped friends do the same. Given that experience, let me suggest that you first learn to add the juicing to whatever diet you now have. Over time, begin substituting fresh foods for the stuff that inhabits cabinets. Then, drop a meal, add juice. Spend a week with that. Then drop two meals, add juice. Once you’ve gotten to this point, you may be ready to sustain a long juice-only cleanse.

This process will help ensure success and also minimize the detox effect, which could upend the whole juice cleanse. Don’t know if this site will allow it, but I’ll try to copy a link to “The Reboot Diet and the Detox Effect” for more about this: http://wp.me/pA04z-MQ

If it doesn’t show up just google, “The Reboot Diet and the Detox Effect”.”

Doris asks:

“Hi I want to workout where will I get my protein”?

My Reply:

“Doris, getting protein during a cleanse is not easy… I mean enough to keep or build muscle while cleansing.

Most protein sources (meat, fish, eggs) is acidic and should be avoided during a cleanse. Unfortunately, even if you don’t do exercise that breaks down muscle tissue during a cleanse, most people lose lean muscle tissue. Of course, this is compounded if you do the sort of exercise that does tax the muscles.

As a long-time cleanser and exerciser, I’ve faced this issue many times. Sometimes I just say, “the heck with it”, and keep ingesting my whey protein in water. I still get good cleansing results. But perhaps a better solution would be to eat a vegetable-based protein, like pea protein, or hemp protein.

Whichever you do, I suggest that if you’re going to exercise during your cleanse –assuming you’re just ingesting juice — do it with less intensity. After all, an important part of cleansing is to let your body excise toxins, rest and recover.”

Now, I share these two questions because they are common questions for beginners seeking to do a juice cleanse, or substantially reduce the foods common to the American diet in favor of vegetable/fruit juices.

The Bottom Line

As with any journey, where you start on the Reboot Cleanse depends on where you are.  The further away is your regular, every day diet from an all vegetable and fruit diet — the slower must be your transition into a veggie/fruit juice diet/cleanse. Given that a cleanse demands rest, you should choose to do it when you can be less active than normal, and that includes ratcheting down the exercise intensity.

During a cleanse, you’re likely to lose both fat and muscle, so you could supplement with vegetable-based protein like pea or hemp protein.  I’ve used whey protein powder (see ), which frankly is not ideal because whey is a diary product and diary is acidic, whereas a cleanse is about getting your body more alkaline; however, I still benefited from my cleanses even while using whey.  (This is the whey product I use.)

If you’ve had any experience with juicing, how ‘bout you tell us about it in the Comments section below.

Thanks for reading!

Yep.

 
P.S. Here’s the Breville Juicer that Joe Cross and I use. Click the image and learn more about it at Amazon.com, and there you can decide if it’s the juicer for you.

Related posts:

1. The Reboot Diet and the Detox Effect
2. Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead — The Reboot Plan
3. Dr Oz and the 14-Day Reboot Diet Plan

As the second full year of my blogging on Garma on Health comes to a close, I look back over all my posts during 2011 and select my ten favorite for your reading pleasure.

These are not necessarily examples of the best-written posts, nor are they listed in order of importance; rather, this selection presents information and insights that I deem valuable for you to know.

I hope among the ten, there’s at least one gem that’s useful to you.

Garma on Health's Top 10 for 2011

I ADDED a bonus selection at the bottom… couldn’t help myself.

No one’s going to read all these, but do me a favor and pick your favorite and say so in the Comments section below.  Your selection will help me focus on health topics more to your interest.  Thanks!

Here’s Garma on Health’s Top 10 11 for 2011:

1. Aubrey de Grey: “We Can Stop Aging” — Watch

Aubrey de Grey says we can avoid aging.  OK… well… who is Aubrey de Grey, and why does he think that humans can avoid aging?  You’ll be surprised about what you learn.

2. Eat Fiber, Live Longer, Healthier too! Watch

Dr. Hyman, a recent government study, and health practitioners everywhere extol the virtues of fiber.  Learn how it benefits you and how to eat more of it.

3. Be here now: “Gerry’s” Dharma Lesson

A Dharma lesson from a Zen Center poignantly shows how even in the midst of a lesson on being present, our mind wrestles with the past and present.  A technique to “Be Here Now”.

4. Run, Jog or “Slog” Pain Free

If you run and want to keep at it, eventually you need to know your foot type.  Do you pronate, supinate, or do something in between?  If your running shoe isn’t built for your foot type, running will become more difficult and you’ll potentially develop pain in the feet, ankles, knees and hips.  Perhaps even in the calves, which is my issue these days.

5. Be Self-reliant – Be Prepared for Calamity

When I began this blog over 1.5 years ago, I wasn’t really sure just what I’d be writing about, but I know I did not contemplate providing a repository for earthquake news and disaster preparedness.  By popular demand, here are some resources to help bring you to self-reliance.

6. Weighing the Evidence on Exercise and Diet to Lose Weight

The aim: To dismantle the confusion about exercise and diet as they relate to weight loss.  I present several studies that may seem contradictory and try to find the nuggets of truth.

7. Four Ways to Build a Better Brain

Who would have thought that the most assured way to build a better brain is to build a better body?  Well, not precisely – but the science shows that some simple, consistent exercise does more to improve the brain than crossword puzzles and blueberries.

8. Five Diet and Exercise Myths that Need to Die

Here they are: 1) Long Cardio Workouts are the Key to Weight Loss; 2) Diet and Exercise are Equal When it Comes to Losing Weight; 3) It Doesn’t Matter What Time of Day You Exercise; 4) Diet Foods Will Help You Lose Weight; 5) You’re Destined to Gain Weight as You Get Older.  These are myths that need to die!

9. Steve Jobs’ Real Legacy – Teaching Us to Live Passionately

Steve Jobs created fantastic products, but his most important legacy is how he lived his life.  He found what he loved to do and did it passionately.  Here, I dive into his “Think Different” philosophy, “12 Steve Jobs Lessons for Us All”, and his “Stanford Commencement Speech” to share the golden nuggets of his life, so that you can live yours better. (Watch)

10. Will Your Belly Fat Cause Cancer?

Since in America 2/3rds of us are overweight, knowing about the ultimate risk of belly fat is both urgent and important. The facts recently uncovered are shocking!  Learn about the damage that excess fat can do, and how to minimize the risks.

11. Dr. Weil’s Four Alternatives to Antidepressant Drugs

(Yes, I can count, but I just had to add Dr. Weil into the mix.  The good doctor is among the best and must be heard!)

The science is in – for mild to moderate depression, pharmaceutical antidepressants are no more effective than placebos.  But the science also says that there are four steps you can take that are effective to reduce depression.  Reducing or eliminating mild/moderate depression is all about anti-inflammatory foods, supplements, exercise and a shift in cognition (perception).

See ya in 2012… Please don’t forget to tell me which were your favorites in the Comments section below.

Related posts:

1. Aubrey de Grey: “We Can Stop Aging” — Watch
2. “How To Live Forever”, a new film by Mark Wexler
3. Four Ways to Build a Better Brain

Here comes 2012!  Will you achieve your New Year Resolutions?  How will you make those goals a reality?  Begin with a conception, move to a process and then use these six practical tools to attain your goals.

SO, I’M sitting here on New Year’s Eve morning getting a wee bit nervous.  By now, I figure, I should have thought out my New Year’s Resolutions and be contemplating the plan to make them happen, an interesting compulsion given my erratic track record.

Well, “why not write about something I haven’t yet done to put me in the right head space?”, I suggest to myself.  Yeah, that’s right, tell people what and how to do what I haven’t even done myself… but, of course, intend to.

Lucky you.  For herewith are my thoughts on the matter, with ample help from HuffPost and Linda Eisenstadt. 

Lisa Eisenstadt of the The Daily Muse

Why bother?  Well, if you spend any time and effort at all at resolution making and goal-attaining, you might as well put yourself in a space to succeed.  Because the stats are not on your side.

As many as 100 million Americans make New Year’s resolutions, CNN reports. Only 40 to 45 percent of those people stick to their resolutions six months later.  And that doesn’t mean these goals were attained, as the next set of statistics presented below affirm.

The Conception

The concept is to take small bites that are easily chewable or digestible.  Or an even better analogy is the snowball.  Apply this to each goal (resolution), particularly if it has eluded you in the past.

Start small and roll down the hill.

Think of what happens to a small fist-size snowball that’s rolled down a hill.  Yep, get’s pretty big and gains momentum.  (It’s how billionaire Warren Buffet explains how his wealth grew).

If you bumped into a gigantic 10 foot diameter snowball and were challenged to make it, you might turn around and run away, or you might brace yourself and sign a wavering signature to the contract figuring you’d find a way to meet this goal.

Or, you could simply say,

“My goal is to make a fist size snowball and each day move it further down the hill.”

Let it be small, but challenging. The one great reason to begin this way is because the data is clear: Only 12 percent of resolution-makers succeed in attaining their goals.

The Process

The process whereby you determine and manage your resolutions comes to us via Lisa Eisenstadt of the The Daily Muse. In her post, New Year’s Resolutions, How to Actually Keep Them, Ms. Eisendtadt refers to author and psychologist Richard Wiseman’s research which finds that 52 percent of resolution-makers are basically self-deceptive; they were confident their goals would be met, yet only 12 percent succeeded.

Those transcendent 12 percent that shamed the rest of us succeeded due to employing a better process that helped ensure that they crossed the goal line.

They set up step-by-step goals and they shared their goals with friends and family, thus making their commitments public.

There are six practical tools that Eisendtadt’s presents, which, naturally, I mix up with my own suggestions.  You may find them to be a good process to incorporate into your goal making and goal doing.

Six Practical Tools to Attain Your Goals

1. Get Specific

Rather than say, “I’ll be healthier”, get more specific, such as, “I will eat five servings of fruits and vegetables each day, starting with three servings in week one, four in week two, and five in week three”.

Your resolution needs to be a tangible, achievable outcome.  When you focus on that goal, when you visualize it, it needs to make you feel good to you, and it needs to be a positive outcome to you and perhaps others as well. 

A good aide for this is a mantra.  Make a mantra addressing your goal and repeat it during your visualization and throughout the day.

2. Write it Down

Write down your goals!  Right down the steps to achieve them.  Date the projected day of attainment and each step along the way. Without a step-by-step plan, the goal can appear overwhelming and trigger frustration or negative thoughts that get in the way of your success. But by planning and accomplishing one small thing at a time, you’ll stay on track, focused, and positive.

3. Make Time

Be sure to set aside ample time for yourself to achieve your goals. If you want to exercise more, plot out time in your weekly schedule for runs and time at the gym.

4. Move Past Doubt

Monitor how you undermine your goals with your thoughts. Pay attention to self-sabotaging mind chatter, like: “I’m not good enough” or “I can’t do it.” Every thought you have is an intention. It’s normal to feel fear, doubt, or worry — but to make progress, it’s important to move past those negative feelings.

If you find negative thoughts surfacing, don’t criticize yourself, but stay in control. If your thoughts don’t support you or your goals, let them go — they’re not doing you any good. Replace them with your positive mantra, instead.  Remember that self-doubt thoughts are often misleading and downright wrong, and should be ignored.

5. Get a Partner

Having a group, partner, friend, or professional to encourage you can be a great way to keep you going. Try finding a friend who has a similar resolution, and check in with each other every week to talk about your progress and challenges. Or, ask a family member or significant other to keep you accountable — just make sure they’re supportive and positive.

You can also seek professional help, whether that’s a personal trainer to help you meet your fitness goals or a counselor who can help you tackle larger, looming issues such as low self-confidence or a lack of direction. If you are dealing with issues of self-doubt, these can seriously get in the way of you meeting your other goals — so do yourself a favor, and address such issues head on.

6. Be Still

Have you heard the saying, “Be Still, Know God”?  My interpretation of this is that only when you’re your body and mind are still can you let in impressions/thoughts not spawned by the altered ego.  How can lofty thoughts penetrate the constant mind chatter unless you quiet them? Be still.

You’re more likely to slip on your goals when you’re stressed or overwhelmed, so spend time every day to getting out of your thoughts and reconnecting with yourself. Try a breathing exercise, meditation, yoga, or just going for a walk. The more practice you have being still and calm, the more present you’ll be for each step of achieving your goals.

[Read: Are Your Thoughts Yours?]

Setting and reaching goals isn’t about willpower, it’s about the power of your intention. Once you’ve mastered these few steps, you’ll be well equipped to follow through on your resolutions — this time, for good.

The Goals

OK, so here let’s consider applying some of the above tips to health goals.  These are examples that may guide you in determining health-oriented goals of your own. I’m guided here by a HuffPost article entitled, New Year’s Resolutions: How to Make Your Healthy Goals Stick.

Get Fit

WebMD reports that about 15 percent of people who make resolutions for the New Year cite getting in shape as their top priority, WebMD reports. But by some estimates, as many as 60 percent of people let those new gym memberships deplete their bank accounts without anything to show for it, according to Time.com.

Improve Your Chances: “Fitness” is not a goal, as it’s not specific enough. Pick a specific goal like being able to do more pushups, jump rope longer, or walk up that tall hill outside your home faster.  This way, you’re being specific and can track your progress.  Another idea along the vein of the snowball is to write down a goal of going to the gym twice a week for the first month, thrice the second, etc.

[Have five minutes to spare?  Watch Meg Hoffman’s five minute exercise routine.]

Lose Weight

It’s the perennial favorite. Year after year, losing weight is among the most popular New Year’s resolutions. And yet more Americans are overweight and obese than ever before. It takes cutting or burning off 3,500 calories to lose a pound a week (that’s 500 a day)!

Improve Your Chances: Again, as implied above in “Get Fit”, god is in the details.  Writing down “lose weight” in your goal journal is useless.  Need specifics.  You need a weight goal (which always has a time-line) and a map (plan) to get there.

One idea is start a food journal to track what you eat and how much of it, making plans with an exercise buddy or personal trainer to keep you accountable to a fitness regimen, or even simply weighing yourself every day.  (Note: There can be variance up and down, day to day, so make sure you focus on the weekly average.)

[Read 10 Unusual (Need to Know) Tips About Losing Weight for many weight loss tips, including food journaling.]

Eat Healthier

You know when you make an unhealthy food choice.  But which unhealthy food choice do you habitually make? It might be serving size, fast food, sodium, or sugar, etc. (Read Sugar Lover?  Which Type Are You.).  Again, specificity matters in goal making and attaining.

Improve Your Chances: Make a list of what you’re willing to do to eat healthier. Then choose one or two items on that list and make a plan to incorporate them, or delete them from your pantry, sorta speak.

At first, it might be an easier transition to determine what foods or food groups you aren’t getting enough of and focus on adding these to your diet, and gradually delete the bad stuff later.  Example: Eating more fruits and veggies, replacing refined grains with whole grains or choosing lean, fresh meat over fattier, processed meats.

[Would a blueprint be helpful?  Here is mine: A Blueprint for Eating Right.]

And that’s it for now, except to underscore that achieving your goals is not mainly about willpower, but about intention and process.

You can think that someday you’d love to visit Croatia, but it’s unlikely to happen unless you truly intend to do so, you have a plan to get there, and each week you’ve taken one additional step to getting on that plane.

Happy New Year!

Related posts:

1. Dr. Oz’s New Year’s Prescription: 3 “Revolution Resolutions”
2. Resolutions — Make Em, Keep Em
3. 5-Year Old Powerhouse, A Sensation (Watch)

Want to have the strength and leanness of a caveman?  Maybe you should have some Paleo in your diet.  Proponents of “Paleolithic nutrition“ say modern humans are genetically adapted to the diet of their Paleolithic ancestors.  Are they right? (Watch us cook a Paleo meal.)

THERE’S NO arguing that thirty-some years ago, Americans – and the rest of the industrialized world – were slimmer.  Look at any pictures of groups of people taken before the 1980s, and you’ll see few obese people.  Go back a few decades earlier, and it would be rare to see anyone overweight at all.

Certainly ain’t so now. Now we have industrial manufactured fast food.  It’s comprised of poor quality salt, sugar and fat — and these three ingredients conspire to make us eat more of the food they liberally inhabit, and grow quite plump in the process.

[Watch How To Get Fat Without Really Trying.]

Over the decades, food has changed in its variety, composition and availability.  Which begs the question:

“What is the most ideal and natural food for a human being?”

Well, a long time ago, the only fast food was fleet of foot.  It took hard work and luck to eat “back in the day”.  Cavemen ate very differently than us; in fact, they probably never tasted any grains at all, a major ingredient in industrial strength, fully-manufactured fast food.

The diet of our long-ago ancestors consisted mainly of fish, grass-fed meats, vegetables, fruit, roots, and nuts… and excluded grains, legumes, dairy products, salt, refined sugar, and processed oils.

And, by the way, they were thin.  (Probably cranky, too.)

Now, certainly our friendly cave dwellers had more than their food selection to thank for being thin. They had to work hard (calories expended) for the food they were fortunate enough to eat (calories in).

I imagine it took more effort to bag a Mammoth than to idle in the drive-in lane at MacDonald’s to obtain lunch.

The Mammoth’s, like the cavemen, are gone.  But what they ate has been studied, and as resurged as the preferred diet of some modern (wo)man city dwellers for more than forty years now.

First popularized in the mid-1970s, Paleolithic nutrition is based on the premise that modern humans are genetically adapted to the diet of their Paleolithic ancestors. Given that human genetics have scarcely changed since the dawn of agriculture, the supposition is that the ideal diet for human health and well being is one that resembles this ancestral diet.

Proponents of this diet argue that modern human populations subsisting on traditional diets allegedly similar to those of Paleolithic hunter-gatherers are largely free of diseases of affluence, and that two small prospective studies of the Paleolithic diet in humans have shown some positive health outcomes.

Now there’s one particular friend of mine that his friends call “Hammer”, “Hambone”, “Hammerman” or simply “SH”.  I’ve mentioned him before on this blog in a post entitled 7 Ways Meditation Builds Your Brain, and noted that Hammer is an adventurer.  He tries a lot of things.  As a metaphysical mentor of mine would say, Hammer endeavors to “make known the unknown”.  It’s just the Aquarius in him.

So, when Hambone announced that he was on the Paleo Diet, I wasn’t surprised, or particularly intrigued, as I knew a bit about it and already understood its appeal.  But I was hungry, so I told him to get his sorry ass over here and let’s cook up a Paleo Meal.

Here’s Hambone and me going caveman:

If you’ve had any experience going “Paleo”, let us know. Don’t be shy… scroll down to the Comments section.

Related posts:

1. 25 Diet-busting Foods Never to Eat
2. Bill Maher’s New Rule on the American Rat Diet
3. The Reboot Diet and the Detox Effect

AS PROMISED in This Holiday, Overeat and Gain No Weight, posted on December 23, 2011, this is my report of how I fared following Tim Ferris’ protocol for binging without gaining weight.

IF YOU want to understand what’s going on in this post, please first read This Holiday, Overeat and Gain No Weight.

The idea is to do certain things during a day of binge eating in order to get away with adding all those excess calories to your mid section.  The basics involve:

-       Beginning the day with protein

-       Taking grapefruit juice before you binge meals

-       Drinking coffee and Yerba Mate tea

-       Ingesting certain supplements

-       Performing certain exercises at the right time

(At this point, you really should read This Holiday, Overeat and Gain No Weight.)

I confess right at the start that I didn’t prepare properly.  I wrote about the Tim Ferris protocol too close to my planned Binge Day, Christmas!

The plan for Christmas dinner was to go to my sister’s house.  I knew there would be all kinds of nasty, tasty food there for me to over eat.  The timing was good for the binging, but not good for acquiring the supplements recommended in Mr. Ferris’ protocol.

OK, with that said, let’s dive into what I did and what the results turned out to be.  First, what I ate, when I ate it and what else I did and didn’t do.

But before we launch into that, a little interlude brought to you by the Sunny Cowgirls singing, I Ate Too Much For Christmas:

Now that you’re properly tuned for this post’s topic, on to “My Binge Data”…

My Binge Data

This is the food eaten, when eaten, estimate calories courtesy of Google (for instance, search for “10 walnut pieces” and, magically, get 150 calories), as well as exercise sessions.

9:00 AM:

8 oz water with 1 Tbps of apple cider vinegar, 0

9:15 AM:

Protein drink consisting of — 6 oz almond milk, 4 oz water, 3 oz aloe vera juice, 20 grams whey protein powder, 3 Tbps flax seed powder and 10 grams Ultimate Greens. Approximately 120 calories.

5 raw Brazil nuts, 150 calories.

10:00 AM:

8 oz coffee with 3 Tbps low fat milk, 10 calories.

10 walnuts, 150 calories.

1 tangerine, 45 calories.

10:45 AM:

16 oz green tea, 0 calories.

2 dried figs, 70 calories.

6 oz orange juice, 100 calories.

12:10:

2 minutes squats, push-ups, squats, wall presses.

12: 15 PM:

200 mg alpha-lipoic acid, 0 calories.

200 mg garlic extract, 0 calories.

1 small oatmeal muffin, 125 calories.

6 oz coffee + 2 Tbps eggnog, 30 calories.

3 oz smoked salmon, 220 calories.

1 Tbps cream cheese, 35 calories.

1 sprouted whole wheat bagel, 250 calories.

3 slices tomato, 10 calories.

3 slices onion, 5 calories.

2 Tbps blueberries, 20 calories.

2:00 PM:

3 oz eggnog, 115 calories.

1 shot brandy, 65 calories.

3:15:

8 oz water + 1 Tbps apple cider vinegar, 0.

3:20:

2 minutes squats, push-ups, squats, wall presses.

5:30:

3 oz orange juice + 5 oz water + 2 Tbps psyllium husk powder (shake and drink), 50 calories.

5:45 PM:

25 pasticcios, 85 calories.

4 crackers, 50 calories.

10 almonds, 70 calories.

4 green olives, 45 calories.

2 oz cheese, 230 calories.

6:40 PM:

2 minutes squats, push-ups, squats, wall presses.

6:45:

12 oz salad, light dressing, 75 calories.

6 oz turkey, 200 calories.

1 oz stuffing, 108 calories.

3 oz kale, 43 calories.

2 oz sweet potato, 55 calories.

2 oz mash potato, 60 calories.

6 oz white wine, 150 calories.

12 oz beer, 150 calories.

12 oz green tea, 0 calories.

5 oz strawberry rhubarb pie, 400 calories.

14 peanut M&M, 140 calories.

9:50 PM:

2 minutes squats, push-ups, squats, wall presses.

10:30 PM:

8 oz water + 1 Tbps apple cider vinegar, 0 calories.

I’ll now grab the calculator and add up the calories…and the total is…

3,431 calories for my binge-eating day!

Now, if you’ve dutifully read This Holiday, Overeat and Gain No Weight as I instructed sweetly requested, you may now be snickering,

“Ha!  Ferris’s 6,214 calories blew the Garma-dude away!!”

Indeed he did, and I am humbled.  I really did try to eat more, but what can I say except to say that matching Tim Ferris in anything is a long shot — a statement that will be underscored as we get into BMR relative to calories consumed calculations.

A Primer on “BMR”

Let’s dig deeper into the calories consumed relative to Tim’s and my respective basal metabolic rates (“BMR”) – the calories a body uses at rest to maintain a body’s caloric needs.

In Ferris’ book, The 4-Hour Body, where I read about this “Binge Protocol”, he reports that his BMR over a 24-hour period is 1,765 calories, or 883 for 12 hours. To that he adds his estimate for calories expended that 12-hour day by walking and a twenty minute weight lifting work out, and then divides that total calories expended number into what he consumed – 6,214 – resulting in a net caloric intake of 6.8 times his BMR!

My BMR estimate is 1990.  As expected, it’s a larger number than Tim’s given that I weigh considerably more and therefore need more calories just to be a couch potato. (Get a crude estimate of your BMR as this calculation does not consider lean body mass – how much muscle vs fat you have on your body.)

On Binge Day, I walked two miles and did those two-minute exercises mentioned above, adding to an estimated calorie burn of 150 calories.  Add that to my BMR and you get a total of 2,140 calories expended on Binge Day.

3,431 in and 2,140 out, results in a net caloric intake of 1.6 times. Notice that 6.8 is a much bigger number than 1.6. I’m not even close to what Ferris achieved in terms of how many calories he consumed relative to his BMR. 

Surely, I should be able to match his feat of overeating without gaining weight.

Pay the Piper?  The Scale Speaketh

One hour ago, I stepped on the scale wearing the same clothes I did two days ago on the morning of December 25th, Binge Day.  Here are the results…

December 25^th weight:  216.4 pounds.

December 27^th weight:  218 pounds.

Yep, despite eating far fewer calories than Tim Ferris, I gained weight (1.6 lbs) and he lost weight (4 lbs).

I wasn’t able to test body fat as he did; those of you who read about his protocol will recall that his body fat percentage was actually a tiny bit lower two days after his Binge Day.

Spinning the Results

If you expect to duplicate the results of a scientific experiment, it must be precisely followed.  As I’ve noted, I fudged.  I did not have the specific supplements that Tim Ferris used and recommends for this protocol to work.

My hope was that some substitute actions would assist me in getting results similar to Tim’s.  Here were my all-too-weak substitutes:

-Rather than the grapefruit juice, I ingested apple cider vinegar as it mitigates blood sugar spikes.  I also tried orange juice to see if this citrus would work as well as that in the grapefruit juice.

-Of the four supplements, I had only, and therefore used only, two — obviously insufficient.

-Not having Yerba Mate tea, I drank green tea.  I also used the time-tested psyllium husk drink to pave the way to the exit door, thus underscoring Tim’s “Principle #2: Get the Food Out Quickly”, which did work, but could not overwhelm the other deficits in my reenactment of his protocol.

One other factor to consider is that on Binge Day, Tim did a 20-minute, moderate intensity weight lifting session.  I did not.  This could have helped measurably in boosting his metabolic rate over the next 24-hour period, and might have reduced the weight gain I experienced had I done the same.

Moreover, even though the next day, December 26th, was a scheduled exercise day for me, I did not do it as I had no information as to whether Tim exercised the day after Binge Day.  If he did not exercise and I did, I would be adding yet another curve ball in my attempt to maintain his protocol.

Lessons Learned

Despite not being able to overeat without gaining weight, can I justifiably feel that my interventionist actions reduced the pounds I would have gained if I had done nothing on Binge Day but binge?

Maybe.

This is near impossible to accurately know, or measure, because it’s very difficult to duplicate everything exactly, including what my body was doing on Binge Day and the intervening two days until weigh in.

Which underscores the soft spot in protocols like this one.

Given the difficulty for any of us not in the lab to reproduce an experiment, and given the uniqueness of our bodies and body biochemistry, one size does not fit all. What works for Tim or Joe (me) might not work for you.

That said, the science behind Ferris’ method seems solid, and I, for one, will endeavor to follow it more closely the next time I prepare for a Binge Day.

As ever, your comments are appreciated and may be presented in the Comments section below.

Related posts:

1. This Holiday, Overeat and Gain No Weight!
2. Sunday Summary: Weight Loss Truths, Weight Loss Steps and A Guide to Healthy Shopping
3. Lose Weight Without Dieting

Tim Ferris, author of The 4-Hour Body, tells us how to binge without gaining weight.  The secret is in the supplements, starting the day right, and a wee little bit of well-placed exercise. The end result: this Holiday, overeat and gain no weight!

WITH THE Holiday Season and New Year upon us, we will be overeating as if succumbing to an eating disorder.  Most advice on the matter is about eating abundantly of the good stuff while picking at the bad stuff.  This is a noble sentiment.  But during the Holidays, advice on how to prevent binge eating falls on deaf ears.

I say go for it.  Binge away! Overeat to your heart’s content. After all, it’s our Holiday Birthright.

Just do two things so you don’t pay the inevitable price of constipation, bloat and weight gain:

1. Choose one, or two at most, days to do your binge eating; and
2. Adopt the advice of Tim Ferris to prevent fat gain whilst you binge.

Number one is up to you.  Choose the day(s) when you’re going to the biggest food feast banquet of the Holiday season.

Number two is explained by Tim Ferris in his most recent book, The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman.

The rest of this post will explain the man’s methods for eating a bunch of high-calorie crap without gaining weight.  (Hopefully.)

The relevant chapter in Mr. Ferris’ The 4-Hour Body is titled: “DAMAGE CONTROL, Preventing Fat Gain When You Binge”.  There, Ferris tells the tale of his self-experimentation during a binge day, and his interventionist principles used to negate the binge calories’ propensity to create more fat on the ole body.

Tim Ferris on Binge Day

Tim meticulously recorded the food and drink eaten on binge day.  The calories total a mind-boggling 6,214! This was eaten by a thirty-something year old man who weighed less than 170 pounds at the time, and had then a basal metabolic rate– the calories burned without activity – of 882 calories over the 12 hour time period of total eating. (Calculate your BMR.)

My calculator tells me that on his binge day, Ferris ate 7 times the calories needed to sustain his BMR.  But, naturally, he didn’t stay in bed on binge day, so Tim estimated the calories he used from a very light calorie-expending day to be a mere 200, resulting in a net intake of 6.8 times his BMR!

Despite this amazing amount of overeating, remarkably, Tim was four pounds less and about the same percent body fat on the morning of the binge day as compared to 48 hours later. Specifically, on binge day he weighed 169 pounds at 9.9% body fat, and two days later weighed 165 pounds at 9.6% body fat. Remarkable!

At this point, the reasonable query is: “How did he do it”!

The Three Principles of the Lost Art of Binging

These three principles, says Ferris, are designed “to have as much of the crap ingested either go into the muscle tissue or out of the body unabsorbed”.

Principle #1: Minimize the Release of Insulin

If you’re familiar with Dr. Mark Hyman’s work and lectures, he is very focused on insulin levels produced by the body.  He links belly fat, high cholesterol, depression, fatigue, infertility diabetes and many chronic diseases – which he likes to roll-up into one term, “Diabesity” — to the overproduction of insulin.

[My post on Diabesity is called The Diabesity Epidemic – It May Be Coming to You.  I intend to post about Hyman’s PBS Diabesity lecture soon.]

The amount of insulin produced by the pancreas is diminished by smoothing out blood sugar spikes as a result of eating foods with high sugar content, such as white, refined, non-complex (“simple”) carbs (carbohydrates (bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, etc.).

When the pancreas produces more insulin than the body can use, it becomes insulin-resistant, thus needing an excessive amount of insulin to do the same job of keeping blood sugar levels even. The high insulin level leads to an appetite that is out of control and the resulting weight gain gets concentrated in the most damaging part of the body — around the belly.   Belly fat!

Tim Ferris extols four actions to minimize the release of insulin:

1. On binge day, don’t make your first meal a binge meal.  That can wait till after your breakfast.  For breakfast, eat protein and fiber.  Aim for 30 grams of protein within a half hour of arising, and either mix fiber-rich food into that protein meal, or supplement with fiber supplements.

The protein can be eggs, meat or protein powder. The fiber can be legumes (lentil, pea, beans, chickpea, etc.) or something like flax seed  powder or psyllium husk powder.

2. Before your second meal of binge day – the start of your first “crap meal” (Tim, you have a way with words), ingest a small amount of grapefruit juice, which has a “near-flat-lining effect on blood glucose” (blood sugar).

3. Ingest supplements that increase insulin sensitivity.  Tim recommends “PAGG”, which consists of the following four supplements, along with the amounts of each he uses per serving:

1. Policosanol, 20 – 25 mg
2. Alpha-lipoic acid, 100 – 300 mg
3. Green tea flavanols, 325 mg
4. Garlic extract, 200 mg

You can get all of these separately at Lucky Vitamins, and a Google search found an all-in-one supplement called PAAG Supplements 2.0.  Lucky has good prices on all the top brands, but has slow mo shipping.  Don’t know anything about PAAG S. 2.0.

If you’re an Amazon shopper, there’s a page for all the PAAG-comprised supplements.

Note: Mr. Ferris took two doses on pig-out day, but says he would have taken up to three doses “If I’m going whole hog…”, which makes me wonder if he thinks 6,214 calories is half hog.

4. Consume citric juices.  These can be lime and/or lemon juice either in water or on food.

Principle #2: Get the Food Out Quickly

Proper eating is eating to maximize nutrition.  Nutrition is medicine, as Dr. Hyman and Dr. Weil like to say.  But on gluttony day, you want to absorb as little of the crap as you can.

This can be accomplished, Tim reports, by consuming caffeine and yerba mate tea.  Yerba mate tea is widely available and it contributes to this endeavor by offering theobromine (also in dark chocolate) and theophylline (in green tea).

He takes 100 – 200 milligrams of caffeine, or 16 ounces of yerba mate tea during crap eating.

Apparently, this concoction instigates focused toilet seeking.  I should add, you could similarly inspire this action by drinking down some psyllium husk powder (tablespoon) along with four ounces of apple juice and four ounces of water about one-half hour prior to crapmeal.  Simply shake in a jar and down the gullet before it all congeals into Elmer’s glue.

Principle #3: Perform Brief, Multi-muscle Contraction Throughout the Binge

Working your large muscles, even briefly, “brings glucose transporter type 4 (“GLUT-4”) to the surface of muscle cells, opening more gates for the calories to flow into”.

OK, that description might make a scientist cringe, but what you should take away from this is that there’s someplace for the glucose (sugar from all the simple crabs you’re binging on) to go, like to fuel contracting muscles, rather than building the midsection’s muffin top.

Here’s what to do: 60 to 90 seconds of squats (no weight but you), push-ups (on your knees if regular ones are too hard) and wall presses (feet three feet or so away from the wall, face it, hands on it, press chest to and from it).

Do the exercises a few minutes prior to and 90 minutes after the binging.  If you binge both at lunch and dinner, do this twice.

I’m Going To Do It!

Typically, I don’t binge on crap.  Instead, I may pick at the mashed potatoes, gravy and stuffing, and stuff myself with bird, veggies and salad.  (But here’s one time I surrendered to gluttony.)  This Christmas Dinner at my sister’s home, however, I’m going to go where the whims of the Binge God direct me.  I’ll do my own weigh in before and two days after, just like Tim Ferris.  And I’ll report back to you.

[Update: As promised, here's my attempt to "Overeat and Gain No Weight".]

In closing, I encourage to you try one or more of Tim’s “Principles” on binge day.  And if any of this intrigued you, know that you’ll find a bunch more “health hacking” in his book, The 4-Hour Body.  I encourage you to check it out!

Related posts:

1. Like Tim Ferris, I Try to Overeat Without Gaining Weight
2. Sunday Summary: Weight Loss Truths, Weight Loss Steps and A Guide to Healthy Shopping
3. Lose Weight Without Dieting