Saturday, October 26, 2013

Saturday week 2: Mission Bulletproof Life.

It's about 1:30p, and I woke up about 9a in a slightly hungry state. I guess because I didn't get up and have the bulletproof coffee at 7a as I usually do, my weekend schedule changes my digestive schedule. I've been listening to a large number of Bulletproof podcasts, and as soon as I feel nice and caught up, I'll begin listening to Paleo Solution. I'm just interested in obtaining as much information as humanly possible. Such deeply rooted information exists on such a wide scale that I have a new scientific vocabulary when it comes down to it.

My mind and performance have definitely improved. I'm aligning myself with the mental patterns of the Bulletproof frequency, like dialing into that radio station. The lean results I'm expecting should have already been in place, not from doing this program, but in my life, and I've been wondering how to unlock that. I'm thinking this is the way...for now. My clients will appreciate my experimentation, trial and error on myself. They are more likely to listen if I have firsthand experience with it. In fact my question always has been, how can one proclaim a certain way of life works or doesn't work if one has not gone through the process of discovering it? As I teach my students about the six steps of the scientific method, I realize that my own junior biohacking is in the same category. You must ask the right questions, hypothesize your results, then test it to see if it worked.

I've never quite taken to heroes and role models to define my life, as I'd prefer my life set the tone and the example for many, but really, when I am admiring a scientist, biohacker, author or dancer etc., I really am looking up to their accomplishments and what I can glean from their experience, without getting confused as to what to choose for myself. I know that through this experiment, I find the best methods and timing for each, that work for me. So much has come from this time.

Back to the Bulletproof journey. I've weighed myself and noticed about a 4 pound deficit since the last time I weighed myself several months ago. I'm finally beginning to see the benefits of what I do as a natural course of constant improvement. The hunger pangs have completely subsided, though I did want to consume things this morning as I rose....but I figure part of that is due to me not having eaten enough in the last few days. My body is looking for a slight bit more, but if I satiate that, I'll be in a predicament of not being able to shed fat weight because I keep feeding the hunger pangs. To create a deficit, one must feel a bit empty; a bit of a loss....not in a bad way, but there needs to be some negative space created in order to advance the body.

     In the last few days I have been increasingly spending time canceling out negative patterns, behaviors and reactions to negative information with binaural beats. I've used them for focus, concentration and improving relationships, expanding love and joy, and finding greater wealth (which I think involves much focus, concentration and love, all the same goal focused into a product). I'm finally getting out of my own way and focusing on the things that need doing in order to be successful, and truly maximizing my time.

I was always meant to be a hard body. It was always meant for me to be able to walk about and proclaim that what I do works, and to not stop encouraging people to chip away at a DEFINABLE, MEASURABLE GOAL.

I had to put that in caps because I don't always think that people are looking at this. They are not seeing how much preparation and planning goes into manifesting and designing the architecture of a goal. People just say, "I wanna be skinny," or "I wanna be strong and toned." People don't think of the painstaking work it takes to get there, or the intense, dialed in focus and direction your trainers and coaches have to have in themselves, in order to teach it to you.

Let's face it. On a basic level, sans any intellectual or spiritual wisdom, I like feeling my abs when I touch my stomach. I like seeing them. I like grabbing my hard thighs. I like jumping higher than many others with power, grace and stamina. I enjoy being an UberHuman in the making. I get much value in other areas of my life by working this hard to see what I feel has always been meant for me to see, to experience.

No one said losing weight would be easy, or that getting lean would not involve some monk-like discipline at times, but the goal acquisition, and the life-changing moments of clarity and discovery obtained from such a journey, is well worth the struggle.

One, two many cups of bulletproof coffee....

Well this spelled sleepless night. I also didnt consume much food that day. With only two apples, peanuts and two fried eggs, I went into deep slumber. Funny thing is, I felt perfect all day and not a bit hungry (but grateful to eat nonetheless). I'm not sure my muscles appreciated not having much carbohydrate on such intense physical labor, but I figure it's nothing a few good days of sleep and an inversion table can't fix.

Truth is, I'm really obtaining quite a bit of benefit in stacking my mTOR pathways in this manner. It's a lot more manipulative to your biology than exercise, and a faster method if met with discipline. Also, my mind is on fire.

Friday Night Food Window.

10:57p: I realize that the food window that I am supposed to observe is supposed to close at 8p, and yet I have so much to do that a hot meal is inconceivable once I arrive home...I'm working out until then. It's the only time window I have on a regular basis, so I have to shorten the number of hours I spend in a fast until I can control my schedule a little better. I have to check my notes to see if the difference between 16 and 18 hours in a fasted state makes an important difference.

1a: When most mere mortals would go to bed, I am still awake. I suppose there's nothing wrong with that. However it becomes an issue when one adds two fried eggs and a red apple to the equation. I'm thinking this is an awesome little meal, and  the world is really not far off my ideas, if it weren't for my goals. But I push ahead, and feel that the weekend may prove to land on my schedule differently than was originally thought.

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Day 8, 9, and emotional flowering.

Day 8 and 9 had an interesting twist to my emotional development, in the moment of a watery sign retrograde in a commonly airy mercury state. My investigations as of late have been going deeper and deeper. I am asking the hard questions of myself and of others, my actions and theirs, versus historical events that have changed the course of lives in an impactful way. I ended up talking to my kids about silent inflammation and foods that cause it. I talked about brainwashing and how it is not in the government's best interests for us to stay healthy. As a means of population control, it is easier to send damaging subconscious messages via television and other forms of flashing media, allowing those who are weak to consume on sugary snacks. After all, catch them when they young and susceptible, right?

     I feel this is a common epidemic and it only began occurring to me in the last day or two, that there are some real issues in the world to consider, and that with food out of the way, at least during a major part of a thinking day, that I have space to think about these things. Before this moment I don't think I was even interested in getting into any full scale thought about the state of our world. It only proves that food creates us. It makes us who we are and where we're going. It is the definition of how our mind thinks. If we eat clean, our thoughts seem to come out cleaner...and in the process, purify into higher states of ability. We can do more if we can think more clearly....

I also found that I came to some ground clearing revelations with emotional and spiritual development, as a result of simply having my body focus on what it does internally, as opposed to reaching outside of itself for information and fuel. The body is a pretty unique self-fueling system in itself, if you let it do what it does. I'll go into my revelations in my blog Dawn of a New Thought.

Intermittent Fasting Gone Mad.

     I didn't plan on only eating two apples at 2p and dancing for two hours before getting to a handful of peanuts at 7p. The great part about this is that I finally reached my goal of waiting to eat until 2p. I was so excited, because on Tuesday I felt hunger around noon and by 12:45p, gave in to my emotions. After all, really, eating is a desire to eat, not always a physiological response to needing food. One can learn much about the psychology of eating when one is in a deficit, but it often be difficult to focus on when the body is responding to old messages such as "I always eat at this time, so feed me, please."

     Maybe science is finding that the old adage of eat on a schedule, even if one is not hungry, is actually an incorrect approach when it comes to food. Also if one has spent their life dieting, or has any kind of predisposition to illness, the body may have spent some time in a metabolically challenged or damaged state. Furthermore, it seems to be the case that eating is a recreational event where if there is any downtime between the person and an activity or task, sometimes food can conveniently intersect the event, creating a distraction from actually attaining success at that task.

By 9p, I began my trek home, but it wasn't until almost 10p that I cooked two fried eggs and enjoyed them immensely. That's all I had. Amazing. It seems to me that my body is acclimating to eat its own body fat for fuel with no issues at all whatsoever. Oh how I love that.

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Day 6: The Game Changer.

Day 6 consisted of a night where I couldn't sleep...I woke up with crazy dreams and couldn't really ever go back to sleep. That's when I decided to go for mantras, and then by morning, binaural beats. I felt an emotional overload of thoughts and feelings rise to the surface and dissipate. I am beginning to think that sugar shovels emotions down.

Next I began to think beyond my traditional precepts and started pondering transhumanism and the thought of a zombie apocalypse and I said to myself, "people really think this way?" To which I realized that maybe all great thinkers and doers have to do something different to surpass the human condition...

I mean if you really think about it, those who have gone outside themselves to attain wisdom have done well in school, but nonesuch have attained the type of wisdom that moves mountains, when one looks from within.

All my searching and wandering the earth seeking that better, more productive life has come to this one moment: everything I have, and everything I am, is more than what I ever thought I could be....I just have to find that seed, that core of discipline, (logs) and that spark (fire) to make the next phase of my existence alight with passion, truth, and the triumph of reaching the success that affords me the life I seek.

The second half of this post was brought to you by carbs. Yes, good old fashioned, sloppy dirty party carbs. Back to the fasting grind in the morn. I have goals.

Days 3,4,5, and the Odd change in Thinking.

Day 3 was fantastic. I had a ton of energy and did not think much about food...well, maybe just a little. My mind really went through a process of discovery with what I was doing and what it could do for me. My thoughts did not go too far beyond my food and how I felt though.

Day 4 turned into a long stretch where I didn't get a meal until 2:30p or so...Friday was just tough all around because I kept zoning out. All that mental clarity of the days before had fallen into a mush by the time I returned. I couldn't wait to get to my meal and so had a handful of cashews by noon. That held me over until I got home. I felt my creativity peak, and I was definitely more excited about making new things happen, especially in my classroom.

Day 5 was a sleeping in and a joy to behold because I got to 4p before I had my first meal. I taught yoga in the morning and was actually hoping to practice with my students, but not this morn, though it was definitely an enlightening conversation.
 Honestly I couldn't get to my meal before then so it worked out. I did have a kombucha though at noon, and that seemed to work well. I ate fish and cauliflower leftovers. 

One of the things I really started to notice was that I was eager to learn about my life, my experiment, and what performance enhancement could do for me. I must have listened to about three shows in that day alone, and my brain was bristling with new information. I have lots of friends to discuss health with. I have been feeling encouraged to jump back into the driver's seat and pick up some new clients.


Thursday, October 17, 2013

Day 2 Of a New Mental Clarity and some other discoveries.

9a: This new mental clarity needs to stick around for a bit, as I am thoroughly enjoying this new level of focus I feel I have this morning. Is this unlike other mornings? Is this upgraded coffee, butter and MCT oil really doing the work of numerous brain-building supplements? I just found out that I should leave the tea alone until later, at least until after I am off the fast. Sometimes being aware of something you're "supposed" to be doing makes one resistant to follow through. You know the story.

Let's look at what might be making me feel so sharp. MCT oil is touted to be an energy booster, and very little of the oil is stored as fat. That's a solid, clean-burning, carb-free energy source. Grass fed butter contains short and medium chain fatty acids, lauric acid, omega-3's, conjugated linoleic acid, and vitamin A.

10:30a: Oh wow I just want to eat something!! ANYTHING!! I'm sleepy! What's happening to me?

11a: Oh, whew. I'm okay now. I just want my lemon water. These brief waves of oddness is interesting! I've also been told that we need to ignore "hunger pangs" as well, as they are created, not real signs of hunger...or so I've been told...

12:30p: Having a dip in energyyyyy againnnnnnnnnnn..............the toughest part is to get my mind off of food. I have salmon and sweet potatoes with arugula salad waiting for me. I'm chomping at the bit...

12:45p: YES!! It's salmon, arugula and sweet potato time!

So I gather that it's only a matter of time until I train my body to respond to not eating mid-morning. Every day is different, but if that means I will be able to produce more energy from what is already contained in my tissues, that means greater fitness and physical efficiency all around. Then I will look and feel like the monster production machine I was always meant to be.


Wednesday, October 16, 2013

The Bulletproof Experiment.

I have to say that Dave Asprey is a genius. Whoever can put together that something like yak butter tea could work in the real world is brilliant. And, they also have a lot of common sense. Just like fur keeps an animal warm in winter, so would eating extra fats increase fat metabolism. Right? Well maybe not to everyone, but if it works for those in the Tibetan mountainous terrain, it can work for us all. Probably. Well we'll see. But we have faith.

I am fully ready to chronicle my bulletproof journey. I just purchased my MCT oil and upgraded coffee. I was so excited that I made a frothy cup at 8p! Of course I didn't eat my usual dinner at that point...but had a little something after about 4 hours. I know. Look, I'm being completely honest. I was up late prep cooking for the next few days and I didn't know when I'd get the next chance, so I decided to burn the midnight oil. Don't judge, yo.

After falling asleep at 1:30a, I woke up to a burning hot stomach at 6:15a. My whole body heated up like a furnace! The first thing I thought was, I'm bulletproofing! Well not quite, but my metabolism was definitely kicked up. I made myself a fresh cup and bought into the idea of grass-fed butter in my cup o' joe. Woah. Grass fed butter. And I'm not even really a Paleo girl! I saw my avantgarde ways in that moment.

Today went quite well, and I was impressed with the idea of me fasting through until 2p. I would have thought I would be famished, but I actually wasn't, and could have made it until 2p. I broke the fast at 1p due to a school lunch party. That would certainly save on meal prepping for school, now wouldn't it? The idea of bringing two, hot and frothy mugs to get me through the morning, along with tea and lemon water, seemed like a hell of a plan.

I see now why it is imperative that only the upgraded products be used. I admit that I tried to bulletproof organic store brand coffee and coconut oil, as I was way too excited to try the buttery combination, but it only ended in weird burping and grumbling that deeply concerned me and had me running for food by 11a. Was it the fasted state? Stopping eating by 8p? (Not sure I even did that.) Or maybe it was the idea that I no longer had to run to find food at my conference period anymore. Relying on a cup of low toxin, caffeinated bliss has its perks.

Today's cup was pure brilliance. This is an experiment I will want to see all the way through. Well, I'm not convinced it will lead this newly turned pescetarian into a grass-fed beef eater, disavowing all carbs as I had once done in the past, but it may just shave a few pounds off my winter physique, circa 2004...

Back in the Game...

I feel like I dropped out of the game for a minute, but I'm back. For me, dropping out isn't a total and complete departure though, unlike others I've known who'll take the opportunity to eat anything and everything in their pursuit for happiness, shoveling down another emotion instead of letting it release from the body by eating something cleansing and nutritive. Eating healthy is a purging of the soul that most don't see from first glance, but after looking in just a little bit deeper, they find a wealth of information underneath that surface that may just be important to one's next big discovery about themselves.

I'll use myself as an example. I just finished what I call a huge sugar binge, where I started to eat products with refined sugar and starches. I even bought a few egg muffins from said fast food institution whose name will remain unknown, in a desperate attempt to not go the day long without eating. This was the result of going to bed at night instead of packing a lunch. Something always suffers.

And then the next layer of the problem, again like most Americans, I wasn't willing to fix the situation. It seemed to occur after the purchase of my new car. This to me and my energy system was like buying a new home in another country, totally throwing me off my original game. Finances were also affected, as I was not originally planning to lay down extra funds to pay for a car. This simple fact alone changed my food on just a financial level.

Once I got everything under control again, I took myself to the grocery store at the beginning of this month. I loaded up on ahi, salmon, arugula, sweet potatoes, eggs and grass fed butter. I also bought smoothie preparation for my nutribullet with walnuts, pineapple, strawberry, mango and peaches. I made a brown fried rice with lots of green and white onions and garlic. I threw in some fluffy eggs and brought it to work with my buffalo salmon chunks, since I was craving hot sauce flavor. It came out deliciously! Along with several supplements I like taking, I think I'm back in the game.

Thoughts on becoming a certified health coach.

Airplanes instruct us to put our masks on before helping others put theirs on. Firefighters put on protective clothing before going in to put out the flames. Monks meditate and clear their minds before doing their daily chores and counseling families. Chefs prep and cook before making a beautiful presentation and serving to the customers. Everyone makes a preparation, a plan, a protective practice, before going in to meet the needs of their population.

As a health coach, I realize that I may have a largely varied group of people who represent a cross section of the population, or a certain set of goals. There will also be the client that needs close to an emergency level of help with their situation. In fact I am often in awe of the scenarios painted in the Integrative Nutrition forums on a regular basis. As I would love to have an ideal client, I may get a few that expand my practice in ways I would not expect, always giving me something to grow into.

I've been in fitness and nutrition for some time, since 2000, and have been a vegetarian for as long. I sometimes wished I would have made a bigger stink about writing nutrition articles and journals then. People would have known me, and I would have a brand. Either way, I've always been a bit obsessed to the point of either something definably noticeable as exercise bulimic or orthorexic (addicted to healthy eating to anxiety ad nauseum), as clarified by Dr. Steven Bratman. Yeah, when I started worrying about peanut butter possibly being the demise of my health (I was eating a sandwich on whole grain and running marathons), I knew I was either passionate about what I was doing, and needed to make a better living at it, or I needed mental help.

Today I am more obsessed with experimentation and finding the best fit for my body at the age and shape I'm in. This is no easy feat, when one looks at the factors that seem to weigh against us as we age. But do most people know that food is a deciding factor on how well or how poorly one ages? Do people realize that all we need to do is follow a few simple rules about what we put into our mouths and minds? Do we all understand that the same universal principles apply for all, and that age has little to do with level of health to a large degree? And finally, do we realize that we can have optimal health at any age? I hope so. If not, I'm here to teach you that.