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If you’ve struggled with chronic mold illness, it’s time to take a closer look at your nutrition. Check out this article for more on the foods to eat and foods to avoid for mold illness.
The post Food for Mold Illness: What to Eat and What to Avoid appeared first on Chris Kresser.
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You have likely heard the phrase, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” This proverbial phrase has long been used to foster optimism and a good attitude in the wake of difficult times. There is another lemon phrase that you may not be as familiar with that has to do with health. “A lemon a […]
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“I’ll start eating healthy again on Monday.”
“I’m not really a gym person.”
“I’ll probably gain the weight back anyway.”
I hear statements like these all the time. If any of them sound remotely like something you’ve said recently, there’s a good chance you’re secretly sabotaging yourself. You might not even know that you’re doing it—but what you do know is that nothing in your life is changing. That probably sounds a little harsh but hear me out.
I’ve worked with hundreds of clients who’ve battled their self-sabotage demons and you can, too. It starts by understanding the science behind why you do it. When your logical, conscious mind has a goal (like swapping bacon and eggs for fruit-on-the-bottom yogurt) is at odds with your subconscious mind (the side of you that believes fruit, cereal, and low-fat yogurt are part of a nutritious breakfast), your subconscious or “inner critic” tries to protect you and keep you safe from potential failure by sabotaging your efforts.
This phenomenon is so common that psychologists conducted a study where college students were instructed to choose between a drug that allegedly interfered with their performance on a test and one that enhanced it. They found that participants were more likely to choose the performance-inhibiting drug, so they could purposefully set themselves up for failure and eliminate the fear of not succeeding.
In light of this research, and all of you who might be in this camp right now, I’m going to show you 10 ways to stop sabotaging yourself so you can start working toward your goals.
We all have one, me included. But you always have a choice whether or not you listen to the thoughts your inner critic thrashes you with. Your mind’s job is to interpret the world around you, creating stories based on limiting beliefs or stories from your past. And… it’s just trying to keep you safe, so it might say things like, “Who do you think you are?” or “You’ll never be able to stick with this.” Know that you are not your thoughts. Just acknowledge your inner critic, thank it for trying to protect you, and move on.
If you always jumped ship when things didn’t go as planned, you’d never get anything done. It’s not going to be perfect. Nothing is. That’s why I believe in progress over perfection. So maybe you ate some of your kids’ Valentine’s Day candy. So what? Just think about all the times you got it right! Focusing on the things you didn’t do won’t get you anywhere, so ditch the perfection mentality and aim for progress instead.
You’ve got to want it more than you don’t want it. That means resolving any inner conflict that may be going on. You might feel great when you have a whole week’s worth of groceries in your fridge, but you hate taking the time to make a list and meal prep. I hear you. But do you hate having nothing to eat and ordering a pizza (something that works against your goals) more than meal prepping? That’s for you to decide.
Even if your habits are less-than-healthy—grabbing a muffin on the way into work, sleeping in instead of journaling, waiting for the elevator versus taking the stairs—they probably feel comfortable to you. Repeating the same behaviors over and over again gives you a false sense of safety and security since you’re used to doing them. And that can lead to unconscious self-sabotage because you want to avoid any uncomfortable feelings or situations that a new behavior might bring. Now is the time to get comfortable with a little discomfort!
Worthiness and self-esteem play a huge role in self-sabotage. You might feel like you don’t deserve to be healthy, fit, or successful. Or you’ve failed before, so why try now? If your imagination is working overtime (and coupling up with that inner critic) you might come up with a million scenarios about why you’re not worth working toward your goals. But trust me, you are. Everyone deserves good health.
Sometimes people try to overcompensate for their feelings of inadequacy by setting extremely high and unrealistic expectations. If you’re one of those people, pick one thing that you want to work on instead of attempting huge, sweeping changes all at once. Major changes to your diet and lifestyle can be hard to maintain, so get started by making small, doable changes that build your self-confidence rather than tear it down.
One of the easiest ways to prevent self-sabotage is to set your environment up for success. Limit the time you scroll social media during the workday by taking Instagram and Facebook off of your phone. Or cut down on the amount of sugar and processed food you eat by removing from the house and shopping for high-quality proteins and fresh veggies instead.
No one knows everything, so don’t let that keep you from working toward your goals. You may not know the best way to lose fat, how to get out of the “diet mentality”, or where to buy the best grass-fed beef, but there’s so much information out there about anything you could want to know. And if you can’t find it, you can always turn to one of our Primal Health Coaches for help.
Whether you’re in your first full week of paleo or committed to getting a solid eight hours of sleep, it’s natural to experience a little anxiety. You may fear the unknown or the unfamiliar, what others will say or think, that you may fail, or even that you’ll succeed. But just like your inner critic that you can listen to or ignore, you can choose to move past your fears with an understanding that the unknown is a normal part of the process as you move on to bigger and better things.
Growing up, we’re taught that failure is something to avoid at all costs for fear of shame, guilt, or ridicule. However, failure is a necessary step for success. Just think about all the famous inventors, authors, and actors who failed several times before successfully getting to where they are now. If you hit the snooze button every day this week, ask what you can learn from it. If you indulged all week on vacation, don’t punish yourself—simply remember how far you’ve come.
Two of the most important questions you can ask yourself are: “Why am I self-sabotaging”, and, “How am I doing it?” Knowing why and how you’re getting in your own way can help you get past the obstacles that hold you back. Self-sabotage might be part of human nature, but you don’t have to let it derail your goals. Here’s how:
The post 10 Ways to Stop Secretly Sabotaging Yourself appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.
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It’s time to learn how to get fit without leaving your home:
Maybe you’re practicing a self-quarantine.
Maybe you work from your apartment and are avoiding the gym.
Or maybe you just like living like a house cat.
Either way, you’ve come to the right place!
With CoronaVirus chaos swirling around the world right now, and more and more people being advised (or ordered) to stay indoors, I wanted to put together a practical guide to help you not lose your momentum!
We’ve had some incredible success with our no-gym workouts for our 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program, allowing our clients to train from any part of the world…or an underground bunker.
Here’s what we’ll cover in our guide, How to Stay in Shape Without Leaving the House:
Note: this is not prescriptive, nor guidance about protecting against the coronavirus – see the PS.
Let’s jump right in!
So you’re stuck inside eh?
Here’s the best advice I can give you: treat this as your new normal, and recognize the fact that nutrition is still 90% of the health and fitness equation!
That means the most important thing you can do to stay in shape:
Focus on your nutrition!
It’s really easy for our brains to think: “Well, I can’t work out like I used to, who cares what I eat.”
This is the EXACT opposite of how we should be thinking.
Whether you rarely leave the house or bike to work every day, what (and how much) you eat will largely determine your overall weight.
Here’s a telling story from our community: one of our coaching clients, Kyle, rides his bike EVERYWHERE. He only started seeing results when his coach helped him switch up his diet.
That’s why Rule #4 of the Nerd Fitness Rebellion states “You can’t outrun your fork.”
When you stock up your kitchen, pantry, or panic room with food, make sure the choices match with your fitness goals.
What does that mean, exactly?
Here are 5 resources to help you focus on nutrition while living inside:
One challenge of staying in shape while staying inside comes down to movement, and actually STICKING with a routine.
If you don’t have a home gym, how are you supposed to workout when confined to your house?
This is especially challenging if you’re a gym rat and used to a very specific gym routine!
So what’s a rational, level headed person to do in this situation?
In a nutshell here’s what we recommend:
As for what’s possible, meet Jimmy, an aeronautical engineer who got in great shape without ever stepping foot in a gym:
Through our online coaching program – we developed a routine that Jimmy could do in his home with just bodyweight exercises, some dumbbells, and gymnastic rings. ⠀
This style of training can build muscle, it just needs to be done with the right intention and intensity! Meaning you just need to have the right plan in place.
Like these types of plans.
Here are 10 workout routines you can do at home:
#1) Beginner Bodyweight Workout
This is the Beginner Bodyweight Workout (3 Circuits):
If you’re unfamiliar with any of these moves, check out the main post for a breakdown of each exercise.
This bodyweight routine has helped many a Rebel jumpstart their strength training journey.
#2) Advanced Bodyweight Workout
If the Beginner Bodyweight Workout above seems too easy, try this advanced routine on for size.
This is the Advanced Bodyweight Workout (Do 3 Circuits):
Again, if any of these moves are unfamiliar, head to The Advanced Bodyweight Workout for a complete tutorial.
#5) Do a Bodyweight Exercise Everyday
Strength training comes down to challenging your muscles.
This can 100% be done with your own body’s weight, meaning you can train from the comfort and safety of your home.
The trick is picking an exercise for each major muscle group (focusing on compound exercises to get the most bang for our buck) and making it more challenging as you begin to grow strength and muscle.
So we’ll want to pick a bodyweight exercise for each major muscle group:
The lower body exercise can be a bodyweight squat:
The upper body “push” exercise can be, you guessed it, a push-up!
An inverted bodyweight row would be a great way to train your “pull” muscles, which can be done on a sturdy table in your dining room:
To strengthen your core, you can perform some reverse crunches:
F
If these moves seem too tough, you can check out The 42 Best Bodyweight Exercises for easier (and more difficult) variations.
If you’re stuck at home, try and do at least one of these moves every single day.
You can also try “exercise snacking”: doing just a few reps of an exercise on the hour: 5 push-ups and squats every hour, for example.”
Up for a real test? Consider the “PLP60 Challenge:” every day, you add ONE more rep of a push-up, pull-up and a lunge, and do them in as many sets as you need:
There’s a benefit to doing one of these bodyweight exercises every single day:
Not only will you build muscle, but training can also remind us we’re trying to be healthy, which can remind us to eat healthier (remember our lesson on the importance of nutrition).
#4) Get a Kettlebell, follow our Kettlebell workout.
Right now, you can order a 30 pound kettlebell on Amazon for $40. It doesn’t take up much room, and you can do dozens of exercises with a single kettlebell to stay strong!
Watch our Beginner Kettlebell Workout video below, and follow along with the workout:
This Beginner Kettlebell Workout is what’s called a circuit (you can learn all about circuit training here). That’s just a fancy term for doing a workout like so:
Your long term goal should be to do 3 full circuits back to back for a complete workout.
#5) Get Your Steps In!
Movement of any kind is beneficial for human health.
That’s why we often recommend people starting their fitness journey begin by simply going for a walk.
But this can be more difficult if you’re trapped in your house or apartment.
That’s why you should create a walking path through your home.
Maybe it’s up the stairs, going around a perimeter of each bedroom (ask permission if it’s not yours), back through the kitchen and then out to the patio.
Or maybe it’s outside, walking circles around your backyard.
The longer the walking path the better, and don’t be afraid to go one direction and then turn around to reverse.
A cheap pedometer, FitBit, or even just the pedometer feature of your watch/phone could help a lot here.
Try to accumulate 10,000 steps per day if possible.
#6) Create an In-Door Obstacle Course
Just because you’re trapped inside, doesn’t mean you can’t play!
How about creating a fun obstacle course out of furniture?
Of course, the floor is always made of lava
This video might give you some ideas:
No one says you can’t do parkour in your apartment.
We discuss obstacle courses, parkour, and much more in our guide 40 ways to exercise without realizing it.
#7) Do Mobility Drills
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A post shared by Jack Hanrahan, CSCS. (@jackhanrahanfitness) on Jan 19, 2020 at 7:46am PST
Even in just a few minutes, it’s possible to do a full-body mobility drill.
You don’t even have to follow a pre-made routine. Just get moving, find what feels good, and give yourself permission to get creative.
However, if you are more of a “follow the blueprint” type of person, check out our guide How to Stretch for some pre-made mobility drills.
#8) Complete a HIIT Workout
You don’t have to head to the gym to do High-Intensity Interval Training. You can do a complete routine right in your own home!
HIIT is just following a specific regimen where you vary your speeds and intensity throughout a shorter run, swim, bike, or row.
Unless you have a giant backyard, running at home might be tough.
But you know what doesn’t require a lot of room?
Burpees!
To complete a burpee:
Check out our full guide on How to Start Interval Training for some more ideas on HIIT workouts.
You can also check out our post “The 20-Min HIIT Workout for Home” for another living-room-friendly interval routine!
#9) Try Yoga
You don’t have to head to a group class to do yoga. You can do it right from your living room!
Here’s a 20-minute yoga routine, specifically designed for newbies:
No idea what a downward dog is? Check out 21 Yoga Poses for Beginners, where we cover each and every move covered in this video.
#10) Attempt to do a Handstand
On the one hand, handstands are really tough. On the other hand, the amount of strength and balance required to perform a handstand will get you in great shape.
Plus, you don’t need to leave your home to practice.
Never done a handstand before? No problem! Check out our guide on getting your first handstand to begin.
#11) Train like Batman
We love the Caped Crusader here at Nerd Fitness, so naturally we have The Batman Bodyweight Workout for you to try!
This workout is separated into two days for you:
Batman Home Workout Day 1:
Batman Home Workout Day 2:
This is a relatively advanced workout already, but if you want to progress to the next level, check out the main Batman Bodyweight Workout for tips on how to do just that.
Outside of all these supersweet workouts we covered, if you want a more customized approach for your exact situation (kids, an old injury, you turn into a werewolf once a month), then check out NF Coaching. We know exactly how to get people into shape without ever leaving the house.
If you’re going to be stuck in the house, some essential equipment might help you stay fit and healthy without breaking the back.
As somebody who trains in a gym four days per week, I’m going to be avoiding the gym for the upcoming few weeks, and here’s the equipment I’ve picked up!
In addition to plenty of bodyweight training (push-ups, pistol squats, and handstands), this is the equipment I’m using to create a mini-gym in my apartment:
#1) A 30 lb Kettlebell. While you don’t need any equipment to grow strong, if you were going to buy anything, a kettlebell would offer you a lot of versatility.
If you do end up picking one up, make sure you check out our 20-minute beginner kettlebell workout, which can be done with one single bell in your living room.
#2) A Door Frame Pull-Up Bar. With this one piece of equipment, you’ll have all you need to build a complete bodyweight workout.
If you’re serious about fitness, a pull-up bar is a must.
I also will be hooking up gymnastic rings to the pull-up bar so I can stick with my ring training! Here’s Coach Jim playing with his setup:
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A post shared by Jim Bathurst (@beastskills) on Sep 29, 2016 at 11:48am PDT
Can’t do a pull-up yet? Read our guide on how to complete your first pull-up.
#3) Healthy Gaming – Ring Fit Adventure
On the one hand, it’s expensive and I don’t want to completely shill for Nintendo.
On the other hand, I’ve heard from multiple coaches and clients that Ring Fit Adventure provides a way to train in your living room that isn’t monotonous.
#4) Beat Saber: Come on, this is a no brainer! IT IS a video game to get you moving and THIS IS Nerd Fitness.
If you’re trapped inside and you can afford it, YOLO.
To play today’s game, you’ll need a twenty-sided die like you would use in Magic: The Gathering or Dungeons and Dragons.
To play our game, simply roll one die.
Then do the activity that matches it:
MOVEMENT
NUTRITION
LIFESTYLE
Feel free to edit The Nerd Fitness “Stuck in the House” Game to make it your own!
(Oh, and share your favorite additional missions in the comments below!)
Although this game seems very simple, don’t underrate its value. One of our coaches plays this game with his clients, and they utilize it as an easy trigger for daily self-care.
#1) Find ways to move more.
Did you know ‘fidgeting’ (aka “small micromovements”) can account for up to 350 additional calories burned per day? It’s called NEAT (Non-exercise activity thermogenesis).
Per the New York Times[1]:
“Overweight people have a tendency to sit, while lean ones have trouble holding still and spend two hours more a day on their feet, pacing around and fidgeting, researchers are reporting in findings published today.
The difference translates into about 350 calories a day…”
350 extra calories burned per day ain’t no joke!
As we cover in our “How many calories should I eat every day?” guide, burning an extra 350 calories per day can result in sustainable weight loss and maintenance over time for many.
Here are some ways to increase NEAT at home:
#2) Prioritize sleep!
When you never leave the house, you can really get off track with your schedule if you’re not careful.
You might be able to wake up tomorrow whenever. Why prioritize sleep if you no longer need to commute?
Well, because poor sleep can really mess with your immune system.
Depending on why you’re isolating yourself (like a quarantine from a nasty virus), a hampered immune system can really be harmful.
Here’s how to build healthy sleep habits.
#3) Wash Your Hands
Speaking of nasty viruses, here’s exactly how to wash your hands:
Good hygiene is always important, but even more so when you’re quarantined in your home due to contagious illnesses being on the loose.
Be careful out there. Seriously, wash your f***ing hands!
#4) Consider a Vitamin D supplement.
While most supplements are garbage, we get this vitamin mostly from the sun.
If you’re going to be away from sunlight for a while (whether quarantined or in the winter months), a supplement might be a good idea. Vitamin D helps us absorb calcium and also plays a critical role in our immune system, so you really don’t want to end up deficient.[2]
This brand is a well-reviewed option that I take personally.
#5) Fake Human Contact
We are social creatures. Meaning if you aren’t careful, never leaving the house might get to you.
So prioritize human connection, even if it’s not face-to-face.
#6) Stare out of a window
Constantly glaring at computers and objects right in front of you isn’t exactly great for your eyes.
Solution: The 20-20-20 Rule!
For every 20 minutes spent looking at a screen, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds.
There does seem to be some evidence it will help with eye strain, and it won’t hurt you, so it’s an easy enough rule to help your peepers stay healthy.[3]
If you want some help here, the app Eye Care 20 20 20 will offer a reminder every 20 minutes to go look outside.
Whether you’re only quarantined for a couple of weeks, or you’re somebody who works from home, the most important thing you do:
Schedule workouts in your calendar, wash your hands, eat your vegetables, and get plenty of sleep.
Do these things. Seriously.
It’s time to build a new routine, and it starts by treating your new life at home seriously.
It’s easy to say “I’ll work out later” when your training takes place in the next room over. So easy in fact, that it’s easy to push out until tomorrow.
Then the next day.
Then the next.
Then you’re plain just not working out.
So, whether you’re quarantined for weeks or the next month, why not KEEP up your momentum, train aggressively, and take care of yourself indoors.
This will allow you to hit the gym again down the road without having lost all of your progress.
Our coaching clients who have the most success training at home are those that place working out in their calendar.
Note: it doesn’t really matter what time of day you train. Pick a time that works best for you. Just be consistent with it!
Then at the end of the week, ask yourself “Did I complete this week’s training?”
We discuss this throughout our guide on tracking your fitness progress. If you want to see results, make sure you’re hitting your goals. If you aren’t, pick smaller goals.
The goals themselves aren’t so important at first. What is important is picking one, crushing it, then picking another.
This really is the quickest path to getting in shape. We’ve seen it time and time again throughout the Nerd Fitness Rebellion.
So pick a goal (or roll a die) and get going!
Want a little help? The perfect next step on how to start getting in shape at home?
No problemo!
Here are 3 options on how to continue with Nerd Fitness:
Option #1) If you want step-by-step guidance on how to get strong, lose weight, and level up your life, check out our killer 1-on-1 coaching program:
Option #2) Good at following instructions? Check out our self-paced online course, the Nerd Fitness Academy.
The Academy has 20+ workouts for both bodyweight or weight training, a benchmark test to determine your starting workout, HD demonstrations of every movement, boss battles, meal plans, a questing system, and a supportive community.
Option #3) Join the Rebellion! We need good people like you in our community, the Nerd Fitness Rebellion.
Sign-up below and receive our free guide Strength Training 101: Everything You Need to Know. It includes step-by-step instructions for all the exercises covered in today’s guide.
Download our comprehensive guide STRENGTH TRAINING 101!
Alright, enough from me. Your turn:
How do you stay active at home?
Do you have any tips or tricks for training without a gym?
Are you currently reading this from an abandoned missile silo?
Let me know in the comments!
-Steve
PS: Check out The 7 Best At-Home Workouts for more tips on how to train without a gym.
PPS: Hopefully this goes without saying, but getting healthy and building a strong immune system is one of the best defenses one can have against getting sick.
If you are looking for the most up to date information on the CoronaVirus situation in your country, please refer to actual experts over at Johns Hopkins.
###
GIF Source: Mario dance,
Photo Source: Home Sweet Home, Visiting Friends, Home Sweet Home II, Wizard, Strobist with the Hazmat Guy
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Tracking certain things makes sense, if you go for that sort of thing. Tracking step count is hard without a device. No one’s going to count every step they take in their head. You’d quickly go mad doing that. Same with pulse rate and heart rate variability—you could count the number of beats for 30 seconds and double it to get BPM, but that gets unwieldy after awhile and HRV requires a special device. But tracking sleep? On the surface, sleep tracking seems futile and pointless. If there’s anything you should know intuitively without having to measure, it should be whether or not you got a good night’s sleep. You wake up and see how you feel.
Are you groggy? Irritable? Did you just crack an egg into the coffee maker, brush your teeth with light roast beans, kiss your dog good morning and let your spouse out to pee? You probably didn’t sleep very well.
Are you rested? Full of vim and vigor? Can you perform basic bodily functions without requiring a mug of coffee first thing? You probably slept fine.
Many people are fine with that much information. I’m one of them, actually. If I slept well, I slept well. But the argument for sleep tracking is more nuanced than that. It’s not just about knowing how well you sleep from night to night (which you can usually tell just from how you feel).
It’s about tracking how your daily actions, behaviors, exercise patterns, light exposure, food timing, and alcohol intake correlate with the quality of your sleep using actual numbers.
It’s about identifying the amount of deep sleep, REM sleep, and non-REM sleep you’re getting every night—and then using that information to make necessary changes.
Yes, with accurate sleep tracking, a person can do lots of things:
If you think something you’re doing, eating, taking, or implementing might be affecting your sleep, you can test it out. Eat the food/have the meal at said time/take the supplement/do the workout/etc. and track how you sleep. Remove the stimulus and track sleep again. What happened?
Sometimes it’s not about the accuracy of the device or the specific features of the device. It’s the simple act of measuring your sleep, thinking about your sleep, focusing on your sleep that compels you to get serious. It’s forking over a few hundred bucks on a sleep tracking device that finally gets you committed to a consistent sleep schedule. It’s the sunk cost of both attention and money.
When I asked people on Twitter about their biggest takeaways from using sleep tracking devices, one of the most popular answers was discovering a behavior, food, or exercise pattern that was hurting their sleep. Some named alcohol after 6p.m. Some named eating too large a meal after dark. Others mentioned too much exercise, or too little. The point is that people were using these devices to learn something about their own bodies. About what made them tick. They were gaining actionable information.
Many people have lost touch with their bodies. Using accurate trackers (like sleep trackers) can provide solid data that you can use to “sync up” with your subconscious intuition. Biofeedback can really help you become more intuitive, a better “body listener.”
At least, that’s how it’s supposed to work. That’s assuming the device you’re using is accurate. Are they?
A 2017 paper compared the accuracy of an OURA Ring to traditional polysomnography (the gold standard for tracking sleep cycles, waking, and sleep time) in a group of teens and adults.
Overall, it’s good as a total sleep time tracker, but not as impressive as a sleep cycle tracker.
In teens, researchers compared the accuracy of a FitBit Alta HR and a Philips Respironics ActiWatch2 (two wrist wearables) to traditional polysomnography. Both consumer devices were accurate in tracking sleep duration but not sleep staging, which, “would benefit from further refinement before these methods can be reliably used for adolescents.”
In adults, the FitBit Charge 2 was compared to polysomnography. The FitBit:
Another study had similar findings, concluding that commercial sleep trackers are good enough for tracking sleep time and time in bed.
Some of these devices track more than just sleep duration and cycles (however accurately). For instance, the OURA ring also has a body temperature sensor, a heart rate variability monitor, and a heart rate tracker because all three biomarkers—body temp, HRV, and HR—can give insight into how a person is sleeping. Are they accurate?
According to a recent study in women, the OURA Ring could detect menstrual shifts with 72–86% accuracy and ovulation periods with 83% accuracy by using nocturnal body temperature readings.
A newish wrist wearable called WHOOP was recently tested against polysomnography and actually did quite well:
Plus, the adults using WHOOP reported improved sleep quality.
There are definitely problems with most of the current devices. They’re not as accurate as medical trackers. They rarely muster up to polysomnography. But they’re good for tracking overall sleep duration, and they’re getting better at tracking sleep stages. I imagine at some point in the near future we’ll have consumer devices that rival the medical ones.
And some of the newer ones, like the OURA Ring and WHOOP, can also track respiration rate and heart rate variability, which give insight into not just how you’re sleeping but also general preparedness and stress tolerance. I’ve explained the merits of HRV in the past, and although I’m not a devoted HRV-tracker, I recognize its usefulness. If I were an athlete again, I’d get a lot of use out of tracking my heart rate variability and having a “readiness” number waiting for me upon waking.
But overall, I’m not sold on their necessity.
Imagine this: You get the newest, bestest tracker to finally figure out what makes a good night’s sleep. Except things get weird.
On the days you feel exhausted, your tracker reports the previous night’s sleep as having been exemplary.
On the days you feel rested, your tracker reports poor sleep.
Who are you going to believe? The tracker or your own experience?
This mismatch can throw off your ability to derive value and insight from the device. On the day you feel exhausted but should be rested according to the tracker, you ate a large meal at night with a glass of wine. On the day you feel rested but should be exhausted according to the tracker, you ate a small supper and had sparkling water instead of wine. Which nighttime routine will you pursue? Will you trust the numbers of your own intuition?
How you respond to this disagreement—who or what you believe—will have major ramifications for the rest of your day.
If you feel rested but the tracker says you slept terribly, you just might be inclined to believe the tracker. Do that often enough and you could become conditioned to feel dissatisfied with “good sleep.” You could nocebo yourself out of appreciating a good night’s sleep, or worse.
In one sleep study, what the researchers told participants about the quality of the sleep they’d had the night before had a greater influence on cognitive performance than how they actually slept. If they slept well but were told they slept poorly, they performed poorly. If they slept poorly but were told they slept well, they performed better.
Or—and I’ve seen this happen—you could become wedded to the numbers. That if you’re not able to track and validate a good night’s sleep and post the results to your Instagram account, it didn’t happen. I’ve heard from people who end up waking up in the middle of the night, stressing out over the quality of their sleep. Will the dog waking me up to go pee show up in next morning’s report and ruin my record for the week?
I have my leanings. As I said earlier, if I were a competitive athlete again, I’d probably be more inclined to give a sleep tracker a shot, especially if it had great accuracy and HRV capability. But this isn’t about me. It’s about what’s right for you.
Are you an intuitive who likes to feel things out and go with the flow, listen to your body?
Are you a number-cruncher who likes quantifying as much of the human experience as possible?
Most of us are a mix of both. It all depends on you—what makes you tick, what gets you going, what your goals are.
So, tell me, folks: Do you use a sleep tracker?
What do you get out of it?
What don’t you like?
Can you recommend any specific devices or apps?
Sell me on it. Or do the opposite. Make your case!
Thanks for reading, everyone. Take care and be well.
De zambotti M, Rosas L, Colrain IM, Baker FC. The Sleep of the Ring: Comparison of the ?URA Sleep Tracker Against Polysomnography. Behav Sleep Med. 2017;1-15.
Lee XK, Chee NIYN, Ong JL, et al. Validation of a Consumer Sleep Wearable Device With Actigraphy and Polysomnography in Adolescents Across Sleep Opportunity Manipulations. J Clin Sleep Med. 2019;15(9):1337-1346.
De zambotti M, Goldstone A, Claudatos S, Colrain IM, Baker FC. A validation study of Fitbit Charge 2
compared with polysomnography in adults. Chronobiol Int. 2018;35(4):465-476.
Lee JM, Byun W, Keill A, Dinkel D, Seo Y. Comparison of Wearable Trackers’ Ability to Estimate Sleep. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2018;15(6).
Maijala A, Kinnunen H, Koskimäki H, Jämsä T, Kangas M. Nocturnal finger skin temperature in menstrual cycle tracking: ambulatory pilot study using a wearable Oura ring. BMC Womens Health. 2019;19(1):150.
Berryhill S, Morton CJ, Dean A, et al. Effect of Wearables on Sleep in Healthy Individuals: A Randomized Cross-Over Trial and Validation Study. J Clin Sleep Med. 2020.
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For people with gluten sensitivities or those pursuing a low carb lifestyle such as the keto diet, eating a big bowl of conventional pasta is a no-no. But, if you still want to enjoy a type of pasta, there are a few “noodle” options to consider. One popular, low carb pasta replacement is made from […]
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For today’s edition of Dear Mark, I’m answering a pair of questions from readers. The first one comes from the comment section of the excerpt from Paul Saladino’s new book: Can a seafood-only carnivore diet work? Will it miss anything? Is there anything to watch out for, add, or consider? The second one comes from the recent post about exercising during a fast. If someone’s trying to gain muscle, should they prioritize eating protein after a fast-breaking training session, or should they keep the fast going?
Let’s go:
I have a question though. Is eating a seafood-only carnivore diet well rounded enough Mark? Will I cover all my bases nutritionally? I eat plenty of fish heads (caught that post with interest) plus whole mollusks. Basically any seafood. What do you think? And how long term could this diet be?
It can definitely be done. You’ll have no issues hitting your recommended nutrient intakes, since seafood is one of the most nutrient-dense classes of foods around. But you’ll have to keep a few things in mind to do it right:
Wait, what? Too many omega-3s? Aren’t those good for you?
Yes, but there’s a limit. I for one love sockeye salmon with crispy skin, but there’s definitely an “off-switch.” I can’t sit there and put down two or three pounds of it in a single sitting. And if I do eat a lot, I usually don’t want any more for at least a few days. This effect happens with other fatty fish, too, like mackerel. It doesn’t happen with leaner seafood, like cod. I’ll eat a huge amount of cod cooked in capers and butter and lemon. I’ll eat shrimp forever.
Most populations who ate significant amounts of seafood got most of their fat from terrestrial sources. Northern Europeans and people from the British Isles ate a lot of cold water fish, but they also ate huge amounts of dairy fat and animal fat (and other plant foods). The traditional Mediterranean diet wasn’t just sardines and anchovies, but also cheese and lamb and olive oil (and other plant foods). Pacific Island nations whose populations ate mostly seafood for their animal protein weren’t eating king salmon and fatty tuna; they were eating low-fat fish and getting a lot of their fat from coconut (plus fruit and tubers).
The only peoples we know who got a huge amount of dietary omega-3 from seafood and ate a close-to-carnivore diet were the Inuit, and even they also ate high-fat terrestrial animals or marine mammals with abundant fat stores.
Eating a high-fat diet with most of the fat coming from fatty fish is evolutionarily novel and, probably, unwise. And maybe impossible, or extremely expensive.
If you want to do seafood-based carnivore, try these:
What can you do?
1. You can source really, really good eggs. Joel Salatin claims to raise chickens who lay eggs with 218 times the folate levels of normal eggs. That’s hard for me to believe, but I do know that chickens who eat lots of greens and other folate-rich foods will have more folate in their eggs than chickens who eat none. Another option is Eggland’s Best Organic Eggs, which have about 10% of your daily folate requirements in each egg (plus an impressive overall nutrient profile). Throw in a few of those each day and you’ll get a big boost.
2. You can eat some romaine lettuce. Hear me out. Romaine lettuce is actually a very good source of folate. Two cups of the stuff will give you a measly 1 gram of digestible glucose and over 30% of your daily folate requirement. Moreover, it’s very low in oxalates, the primary component in leafy greens that carnivores like to avoid.
I hope that helps. Let me know how it goes.
On the shorter fasts with fat loss AND muscle gain as the goal, would you recommend prioritizing protein intake following resistance training? I will typically lift weights in a fasted state first thing in the morning (4x week), and I’m wondering if I’m losing progress by prolonging my fast (and protein intake) until lunchtime.
Yes. Protein intake shortly after the workout is the best move for optimizing muscle protein synthesis and muscle gain. For fat loss, I’d also recommend doing some really light cardio after the training session before you eat to burn through the free fatty acids the exercise liberated from your body fat. By light, I mean light.
Go for a 20-minute walk around the block or on the treadmill.
Casually pedal the stationary bike.
Go for a hike.
Swim some laps.
Jog at a pace easy enough that you can hold a conversation.
I often prolong my fasts even after training because I’m not really interested in active muscle gain at this point. I’m mainly going for muscle maintenance, performance maintenance (train so I can play), longevity, and compression of morbidity. If I were to start a mass gain protocol, I would be eating lots of protein immediately after my workouts.
If you folks have any more questions about these (or any) topics, drop them down below. Thanks for reading!
The post Dear Mark: Going Carnivore with Just Seafood, Protein Right after Fasted Workout? appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.
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Diet is one component of health, wellness, and longevity, but it’s not the only one. Lifestyle factors like stress, sleep, and exposure to light, noise, and air pollution also have a major impact on your overall health. In this episode of Revolution Health Radio, Max Lugavere and I discuss how these factors affect your health and how to mitigate their harm.
The post RHR: How Your Lifestyle Impacts Your Health and Longevity, with Max Lugavere appeared first on Chris Kresser.
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Hi folks, today’s post comes from my friend Max Lugavere, New York Times best-selling author of Genius Foods and The Genius Life, which will be available for purchase on March 17, 2020. Max is a young guy, but he’s accomplished a lot so far, including an impressive bit of research and writing about longevity and how to age optimally with grace. I know you’ll enjoy Max diving into the weeds a bit about the nutrient sensors, proteins, and catalysts that may help us live long, healthy, thriving lives. This post comes from an excerpt from Max’s newest book The Genius Life.
From now until March 11, 2020 at 11:59 p.m. PST, enter for your chance to win a FREE copy of The Genius Life as well as Primal Kitchen salad dressings and Primal Sun. All you have to do is head over to Instagram, follow @marksdailyapple and @maxlugavere, and tag some friends in the comments of the giveaway post. Three winners will be selected and notified via DM. Good luck, and enjoy the excerpt.
When it comes to slowing down the clock, life extension is indeed possible. The catch? There are two: it involves calorie restriction, and it has only been successfully demonstrated in lab animals. Studying longevity in humans is a bit more challenging. We don’t sleep in labs, we live a lot longer, and we like to eat. (Correction: we love to eat.) So while most of us would happily opt for a 40 percent increase on our life spans like food-deprived lab rats seem to achieve, we need a better route to get there.1
Thankfully, longevity researchers have begun to look for calorie restriction mimetics—compounds or strategies that can mimic the beneficial effects of prolonged calorie restriction but without the misery that goes along with it. Some emerging food-based candidates include resveratrol, the antioxidant found in red wine; fisetin, found in strawberries and cucumbers; and curcumin, found in turmeric. The most promising of all, however, may derive from a practice as old as humanity itself: fasting.
How do the cells of the body know when we’ve decided to fast? Answering that question has been mission critical for longevity researchers. Why? Because if we’re able to find the signal that tells our cells “food is scarce,” we may be able to activate those signals on demand and reap the myriad cellular benefits that ensue. Plus, we’d be able to do it without committing to a lifetime of starving ourselves. The chief nutrient sensor that our bodies use to assess whether or not we are in a calorie-deprived state is—and it’s a mouthful—adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase or, simply, AMPK.
AMPK senses overall energy (i.e., calorie) availability. You may have heard of adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, the basic energy currency of cells. Under normal circumstances, ATP is able to be generated to meet the demands of our activity. But when ATP can’t get replenished fast enough, such as during calorie restriction or high-intensity exercise, AMP builds up in the cell. AMP is an energy-depleted version of ATP, and too much AMP leads to the activation of AMPK.
AMPK sits at the helm of coordinating the body’s response to the sudden lack of energy. It promotes increased fat burning, better glucose handling, improved insulin sensitivity, and reduced inflammation. It also decreases the liver’s synthesis of fats like cholesterol and triglycerides.2 And, since AMPK’s duties include making sure your cells are better prepared for next time, it spurs the creation of healthy, new energy-generating mitochondria (dysfunction of these little power plants is associated with aging and numerous age-related diseases). This is all why activating AMPK is considered a powerful lever for the life-extending properties of calorie restriction.
Other Potential AMPK Activators:
What might you do to support the activation of AMPK? Calorie restriction, of course. Other than that, high-intensity interval training, which I describe in more detail on page 122 in my book The Genius Life, is a potent AMPK activator, precisely because it creates a temporary state of energy deprivation. And new research suggests that a few hours of daily fasting can also activate this pathway. By simply eating less frequently, we allow AMPK to become active, whereas eating around the clock keeps AMPK perpetually subdued. Avoid food for the first hour or two (or three) after waking up and avoid food for two to three hours before bed.
One pathway that AMPK stimulates is the FOXO family of proteins. One of them, FOXO3, has been proposed as a longevity protein. It boosts stress resilience (important if you want to live a long time) and may help prevent age-related diseases including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases. Some lucky people have genes that make their FOXO3 more active, and those people have markedly higher odds of living to one hundred.
Genes or not, you can activate FOXO3 just as easily.
For FOXO3 to activate, it needs a signal, and AMPK is just that. While eating around the clock keeps AMPK chronically deactivated, constraining your feeding window to eight to twelve hours every day encourages AMPK—and subsequently FOXO3—to ramp up. (FOXO3 is also sensitive to insulin, which acts like a nutrient sensor for glucose availability and is discussed on pages 12–13. By keeping insulin within a normal healthy range with a lower carbohydrate diet among other things, we allow FOXO3 to come out of its hole.)
Finally, there’s mTOR, which may be the most potent antiaging protein of all. mTOR was discovered decades ago while scientists were investigating how a strange bacterial compound discovered on Easter Island seemed to exhibit powerful anticancer effects. It appeared to work by inhibiting a protein in the body involved in cell proliferation, which is increased in cancer. The compound was named rapamycin for Rapa Nui, the Polynesian name for the island on which it was discovered, and its target, the anticancer protein, came to be known as mTOR, or mammalian target of rapamycin.3
mTOR promotes storage and growth. As with insulin, this can be highly beneficial when that growth occurs in your muscle tissue, which mTOR helps to achieve. It is also an important player in the formation of synapses—the connections between brain cells—and neuroplasticity, which is your brain’s ability to change over time. These processes all require mTOR-regulated growth.
But mTOR also has a dark side. Too much mTOR activity has been linked with autism, seizures, and certain cancers.4 It can even accelerate aging. When activated, it’s the central gatekeeper to the house-cleaning process known as autophagy. Autophagy clears away old and damaged cell components, such as old mitochondria—the energy generators of your cells—making way for new powerhouses to be created. But by being stuck in an always-on state, this rejuvenation process is blocked. We can see this play out in old mice, whose lives can be extended by up to 60 percent by inhibiting mTOR with rapamycin.5 Rapamycin is not a free lunch, however, and its chronic use is associated with numerous potential side effects such as insulin resistance, the hallmark of type 2 diabetes. This begs the question: is there a healthier way of inhibiting mTOR?
mTOR is sensitive to two things: dietary protein and energy availability. When protein is abundant and energy is flowing, mTOR is revved up. When energy is lacking or protein is restricted, mTOR is inhibited. By limiting our food consumption to eight hours a day—effectively half the feeding time of your average person—we can easily achieve both and spend more time in an mTOR-inhibited state.
And while the story on fasting and longevity is still being written, one proposed method has emerged, with clinical research to back it up.
The raw power of activating AMPK and simultaneously inhibiting mTOR was on display with the results of a fasting protocol devised by scientists at the University of Southern California, led by gerontologist Valter Longo. The research suggests that a periodic very low-calorie diet can not only potentially extend life and health span, but even treat conditions like multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes.
It’s known as the fasting mimicking diet. When it was first tested in mice, Dr. Longo and company witnessed essentially a “resetting” of the immune system. The energy-restricted diet destroyed old and dysfunctional autoimmune cells, which were then re-created in a non-autoimmune state during the refeeding process.6 The rejuvenation of the immune system mimicked what Dr. Longo calls “an embryonic-like program,” causing an increase in healthy new stem cells similar to those seen in development.
We don’t often get to restart with a clean slate, but that’s what fasting seemed to do for these rodents’ immune systems. Moving on to higher-level organisms, the human version of the fasting mimicking diet involved five consecutive days of very low-calorie eating. How low? About half of participants’ normal calorie intake. And the calories were specifically intended to come predominantly from veggies and healthy Mediterranean fats like extra-virgin olive oil. It was then repeated monthly, for a total of three months.
By the end, the subjects had decreased risk factors and biomarkers for aging, diabetes, and neurodegenerative and cardiovascular disease, without any major adverse effects and with just a few days of calorie restriction per month. The diet was also deliberately low in protein, but it’s hard to know whether the benefits seen were due to protein restriction, or calorie restriction in general. Independent of calorie restriction, protein restriction hasn’t yet proved beneficial in humans—quite the opposite, actually—and is likely a recipe for weight gain and muscle loss, especially over the long term.
The takeaway here is that aside from minding your meal timing, occasional low-calorie dieting may be useful for a long and healthy life. It makes sense from an evolutionary standpoint that our bodies would know what to do once food became scarce, since it’s unlikely our ancestors had successful hunts all year round.
Pick up a copy of Max’s book, The Genius Life, on or after March 17, 2020, or pre-order your copy today and get a number of generous freebies, including “The 10 Supplements for Better Brain Function.”
1. Les Dethlefsen et al., “The Pervasive Effects of an Antibiotic on the Human Gut Microbiota, as Revealed by Deep 16S rRNA Sequencing,” PLOS Biology 6, no. 11 (2008): e280, doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060280.
2. Tsepo Ramatla et al., “Evaluation of Antibiotic Residues in Raw Meat Using Different Analytical Methods,” Antibiotics 6.4 (2017): 34, doi:10.3390/antibiotics6040034; Khurram Muaz et al., “Antibiotic Residues in Chicken Meat: Global Prevalence, Threats, and Decontamination Strategies: A Review,” Journal of Food Protection 81, no. 4 (2018):619–27.
3. Marcin Bara?ski et al., “Higher Antioxidant and Lower Cadmium Concentrations and Lower Incidence of Pesticide Residues in Organically Grown Crops: A Systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analyses,” British Journal of Nutrition 112, no. 5 (2014):794–811.
4. Jotham Suez et al., “Post-antibiotic Gut Mucosal Microbiome Reconstitution Is Impaired by Probiotics and Improved by Autologous FMT,” Cell 174, no. 6 (2018): 1406–23.
5. Ruth E. Brown et al., “Secular Differences in the Association Between Caloric Intake, Macronutrient Intake, and Physical Activity with Obesity,” Obesity Research & Clinical Practice 10, no. 3 (2016): 243–55.
6. Tetsuhide Ito and Robert T. Jensen, “Association of Long-Term Proton Pump Inhibitor Therapy with Bone Fractures and Effects on Absorption of Calcium, Vitamin B12, Iron, and Magnesium,” Current Gastroenterology Reports 12, no. 6 (2010): 448–57, doi:10.1007/s11894-010-0141–0.
The post How Fasting, Calorie Restriction, and a Fasting-Mimicking Diet Can Encourage Longevity appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.
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The benefits of massage are well documented through history and by science. Massage can indeed be one of the best ways to pamper yourself and boost your physical and mental wellbeing. However, did you know that massage can also be highly toxic? Unless you know exactly what questions to ask your masseuse, you could be […]
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