Ageless Energy

In this show I’m talking the reverse physiology of weight loss.

So many people have issues around weight loss, well I’m what you call a ‘hard gainer’ and I’m sure there is a lot of people that haven’t even heard of this concept but trust me when I say there is a HUGE demographic of people which are usually male athletes that have a difficult time in gaining weight.

So in this show I’m going to tell you about how I’m experimenting on my own body to do the exact opposite of what I teach on a daily basis around weight loss.

We need to eat small meals throughout the day to increase our metabolism, the problem is, many people only eat two or three times which means their metabolism isn’t running fast enough to burn body fat. Well because I’m trying to gain weight, this is exactly what I’m going to do.  In a healthy manner, I’m going to eat large meals only a few times a day to see if I can generate some muscle gain which will bring along weight mass as well.

I understand it’s easy for many people to gain weight but as I said early it’s not easy for everyone, so here is my experiment I’m sharing with you.

More details in the show! Thanks for checking it out!

So, many of us at least in Canada just finished with Turkey Dinner and our wonderful holiday of Thanksgiving! Which means many people are feeling guilty, bloated, and far off the tracks of how well they were just doing. It doesn’t matter how well we plan or how strong we try to stick to our guns, at times we completely fall off the wagon and need some help getting back on track so why not look to detox after the holidays.

Now I’m not talking about your conventional cleanse or 3 day detox, I’m talking about taking small steps to get your gut back in order and digesting again, your life back in order as well and point you in the right direction so you can start feeling great again.

Let go of the guilt

In a previous post I talked about how guilt is by far the most detrimental aspect to ‘cheating’ or falling off the wagon so to speak. We work so hard for weeks or months and then fall apart at the nearest holiday. First of all there’s nothing wrong with enjoying yourself over the holidays even if you’re consuming foods/beverages that you wouldn’t normally. Most of the time we’re harder on ourselves than we need to be.

Try to understand that the best thing you can do is move on and start over, which is why you’re reading this. What happened with food, and drinks and dessert is in the past, it’s time to move on and get back on track, which is why it’s a perfect time for a detox after the holidays.

Hydration

There’s a good chance if you over indulged during the holidays you recently consumed a large amount of refined sugar. One of the best things you can do is rehydrate and flush toxins out of your system. Alcohol, sugar (and sweets), food coloring and more all need to be released so help your body out and get fluids flowing through your system.

Hydration is a key component when you’re looking to detox after the holidays

Exercise

Exercise is a great way to detox after the holidays. Get those toxins flowing and those lymph nodes cleaned out. Just like with sleep the sooner you get back to your regular workout routines the better off you’ll be. And if you haven’t started working out just yet, I’m not sure there’s a better time than now!

A good sweat will help those toxins flow out of your body as well, not to mention the clean filtered water you’ll be looking for after a good workout, which, as listed above will also help detox after the holidays.

Sleep habits

We all know there are all types of parties and late night gatherings over the holidays. More than anything our sleep habits have been set out of whack. The best thing you can do is to get back into your regular routine as soon as possible. The reason you slept so well before the holidays is likely because you have strong sleep habits (weather you know it or not).

Go back to you regular routines before bed, whether it’s reading, a cup of tea or a warm bath; and be sure to start going to bed at your regular time. All those late nights will catch up with you sooner or later, so the sooner you get back to your set schedule the better off you’ll be.

Get rid of Desserts!

If you really want to get back on track and start a proper detox after the holidays you’ll want to stop fueling the fire and get rid of ALL unhealthy food or left over desserts. You don’t need anything tempting you, and you certainly don’t need anything else polluting your body. Give away your treats, throw them away or send them home with guests before the night is over. Whatever you choose, make sure none are left over and in the fridge staring you in the face every time you open the fridge door.

Green Smoothie

What about a green smoothie to detox after the holidays!? There are tons of nutrients,

How to gain energy naturally isn’t always a question on our mind but it should be. So many people grab a coffee, soda/pop or another product filled with caffeine, refined sugar and other substances ‘to wake us up’ not thinking about the crash that’s sure to come. We also don’t think about other factors in our life that I’m going to talk about today.

In this post I’m going to talk about our Environment and how important it is, mainly concerning our thoughts, words and action. I’ll talk about our emotions and stress levels; and then I’ll talk about food before I briefly end with a few words about exercise.  If you’re looking to gain energy naturally, stay with me, I’ve got tons of great information in this show.

Environment

I can’t express how important our environment is. The people that surround us are the most influential people in our lives hands down. It could be our coworkers, our family and especially friends that have the most influence. They influence the clothes we wear, how we talk, what we do; which is why it’s so important to pay attention closely to exactly who you let in your life.

You know the feeling when you talk with a coworker who always brings you down, we even have friends that makes us feel terrible but we don’t consider how draining they are to us and how they lower our quality of life. If you’re looking to gain energy naturally it would be a good idea to pay attention to who and what is draining our energy.

Digestion plays a key role in our energy levels. We might want to pay attention to the foods we’re consuming if you have low energy.

Stress

Most of us deal with stress at some point in our day and if not certainly our lives. It’s important to pay attention to our stress levels which all goes back to environment and what’s causing our stress to accumulate. It’s not just physical stress that we’re putting on our body but emotional stress as well.  Again, if you want to gain energy naturally pay attention to your stress levels and reduce the different ways stress is weighing you down.

Thoughts, Words and Actions

Looking back at stress, considering how to gain energy naturally you’ll want to pay attention to the thoughts you think, words you use and actions you perform. This also connects directly to our environment. If you at those whom surround you pay attention to the words they use, what kind of actions do your friends perform, are you hanging out with people that will increase your energy level will positive actions, words and thoughts, or are they bringing you down and draining your energy?

Food and Energy

No doubt there is food in energy, not only that but food gives us energy. So when we’re talking about how to gain energy naturally we have to mention food. First of all I believe is the answer to most of our dis-eases, so if we properly consumed the right kind of foods we’d all be much better off, but when it comes to food many of us are still eating highly processed, packaged foods that contain preservatives like MSG, soy and corn that are basically fillers and a number of other colors and substances our bodies simply don’t recognize.

Look to whole foods and avoid processed food if you’re looking to gain energy naturally..

And lastly concerning food and energy in show #102 Rick Kohut, talked about how Digestion plays a key factor in our energy levels. Highly processed foods take more energy to digest than lighter whole...

The number 1 reason counting calories is nonsense is because every calorie is not created equally.

You can’t possibly tell me a cracker, and crackers are some of the worst highly processed foods filled with chemicals you can find, and an apple have an equivalent quality of calorie.

If your goal is 1200 calories a day and you have one double cheese burger, fries and coke, can you tell me you’re done for the day, and on top of that, eating 1200 clean calories from whole food will affect your body in the same way?

No, of course not, it’s preposterous to think that. But here’s the issue, we do every single day. We pick up a box of garbage, look at the calories and since it’s 100 calories or less per serving, not even understand that one serving is half the box, we think it’s a good choice and carry on with our day.

We need to start reading the ingredients in every single thing we put in our bodies. I know this takes longer, and I know it’s less than conventional and I know we want to be trusting people but the truth of the matter is , the food industry doesn’t care for your health in the least. Do you want to hear something that will rock your world, most health food stores care little about your health.

These are businesses that care about shelf life and profit margins. And if you’re looking at real food that will expire on a shelf, there’s a good chance the store won’t carry it for long because they’ll lose money if it sits up there too long.

You have not only the responsibility to read labels and understand what’s in a package but an obligation to. For your health, for your family, for you to live a life in vitality, to understand what a restful night feels like; to feel how whole foods can actually improve your health and give you that energy you’re looking for so you can live life instead of just getting through the day.

Unable to Process Low Quality Calories

Let’s go over another issue when it comes to counting calories. For the most part, we count calories from a box, these calories are entirely different than the calories foods from let’s say a farmers market produce, which is mostly produce, and real living food. The biggest issue here is our bodies don’t recognize substances that aren’t actually food. Our bodies don’t really know what to do with a food coloring that only comes in a number…how ridiculous is that! Our bodies don’t recognize MSG and other toxins that are detrimental to our health but not only that, we either excrete these ‘foods’ right away or we store them as body fat.

So here we are, thinking we’re doing a good thing, counting calories, staying under our goal of maybe 1200, but there’s all low quality calories so even though we have a low count we’re still gaining weight, because our body is storing substances it doesn’t recognize instead of using clean calories as energy, and we feel miserable because we have no energy and continue to accumulate body fat as we store toxic substances we think is food.

Food is the Answer to our Health (from nutrients not empty calories)

I believe food is the answer to our health, I’m talking about real food, plant base whole food, nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables, roots, grains, lentils, beans and more. I’m not against meat but I’m talking about whole food here. I believe food can improve our health; I believe food heals, prevents and cures us if we allow it. And the truth is, we don’t allow it. As soon as an issue pops up, we run to the doctor and get prescription, as soon as our nose runs we hit the pharmacy isle instead of letting our body do exactly what it’s done for more generations than I can count. As a society we’ve never been more ill, we’ve never been prescribed more prescription drugs and above all else our bodies have lost the ability to heal, which we can still very well do with food.

We can make a change, each and everyone of us can, we just need to put in the effort,

I had an absolute blast emceeing the revitalize conference. I called this show revitalize yourself because I wanted to share with you all the knowledge and inspiration I received from this weekend.

Here I am on stage emceeing the Revitalize Conference

It all started off with Ron Garner who actually came on this show for an interview. If you’d like to listen to what he had to say that was show #156. What I like most about Ron is, he started a new career at the age of 50. He began studying, teaching and speaking about natural methods to heal the body.

Dr. Shane Johnson a Naturopathic Dr. also had a great presentation, who is local to Red Deer and owns his own clinic.

Later that evening we had a video and director presentation about GMO’s. The video is called GMO OMG, which was just as engaging as forlks over knives or food inc. Everyone should be paying attention to what’s going in our food, so this documentary would be a good start.

Starrm came on Saturday morning who offered a number of different insights all directed towards healthy living. Being mentored by Lou Corona, he had all kinds of information and knowledge to share.

Kameron Tarry later came on to talk about Toxins in food and the body, you might remember him from when he came on the show to talk about Food Like Substance.

After Kam came on Mel Tarry the President of Avena Originals talked about the company and how they were able to heal his wife from Lupus.  It was great to see Mel hang around the entire weekend, meet, greet and be present throughout the conference.

Later that evening Kristine Fraser from Inner Glow Nutrition prepared an absolutely tantalizing meal make with all raw food.

Dr. Davis, was the keynote for the weekend, author of Wheat Belly, who also joined us on a previous show right here on Exploring Mind and Body.  You can check out Dr. Davis’ show here.

And Peter Thomas Martial Artist and Hollywood stuntman ended with a pretty cool demo and presentation.

Thank You

I just want to thank the entire Avena crew for welcoming me to emcee my first conference and be a part of the weekend. And all the participants who came to support the event and were so gracious with compliments and and encouraging attitude.

 

Terry Fox is a real hero in my eyes, he someone that inspires without trying to; he’s someone that leads by example, doesn’t know what ‘giving up is’ and he’s someone many people don’t even know about. Admittedly so, I didn’t know as much as I should have been a Canadian.  Terry Fox lost his leg to a dis-ease his body in which he turned into a positive. That’s right, he turned what would crush most people into something that would inspire a Nation by doing something most people hadn’t even thought of.

Planning to run across Canada to show others that a lost limb or a dis-ease wouldn’t hold him back and shouldn’t hold others back in the same situation. Unfortunately Terry Fox wasn’t able to finish the run, he made it half way before his dis-ease moved into his lungs and eventually ended his life. The hardest part to watch during the documentary I did was how Terry Fox was so emotional when he shared news that he wouldn’t be able to continue. I understood that Terry wasn’t upset his lungs were now infected but that he wouldn’t be able to carry on with his run and set out to do what he said he would. I know he felt like he disappointed so many when quite the opposite occurred. He inspired millions and what gets me is more haven’t positively been influenced.

The problem is, not many people know about him. You could look at the morning news on a day like today when many schools and children are ‘running for Terry Fox’ and you hear nothing about it. You hear more about terrorism, accidents and tragedies than anything close to what Terry did for his country.

It’s the backwards world we live in where gossip is more interesting than the ‘buzz’ with celebrities, or the last accident or murder. Today I choose to think about Terry Fox and all he did for us.  Today I hope we can all make a higher decision for ourselves and understand what we watch, listen to and hear is a choice.

Terry Fox inspired millions on his quest to run across Canada

So I recently met Will Quijida when I visited his gym and talked with both him and his brother. It didn’t take long to realize they were both regular guys. Walking into Absolute Fitness was much different than most gyms you walk into. I wouldn’t exactly call it a studio but I certainly wouldn’t call it a conventional gym either because there are no machines!

I dislike machines in every way, so at first glace I thought we have something in common. We talked for a couple hours and realized we had much more in common which is why I asked Will to join me for an interview.

I didn’t hear the whole store before but in this interview Will shares a really cool story about how he started out in Muay Thai and how he later came to represent Canada in Russia.

From full body weight exercises to whole food, Will talks about his philosophy, how he trains others and what’s going on at his local gym in Red Deer.

Hope you enjoy the show!

 

Believing in yourself isn’t the easiest thing to do. There is so much doubt, so much unknown. I’m not sure exactly where internal confidence comes from but I can tell you it usually doesn’t come easy.  Believing in yourself or lack there of, has a lot to do with failure.  The fear of failure controls so much. Many of us are simply afraid to fail to follow our dreams.

In this case I’m talking about a product but it really doesn’t matter what it is, if we want to progress in life we need to push fear of failure aside and start believing in yourself.

More details or posts like this here.

So I’ve had big names before, maybe none bigger with 2 million copies sold by Mr. Wheat Belly. He’s changed the industry in many ways, changes many lives as well. What’s funny is the bigger names I’ve had on the show, to be honest weren’t really good interviews. They seem like, all they want to do is get the interview over. I mean, I understand they do tons of interviews and maybe they even get boring to them, but why would you go on then, don’t you have the obligation to put your best foot forward for those that haven’t heard you? I suppose that reigns true with anything in life, if you’re going to do it you may as well do it 100% or not at all.

Dr. William Davis, author of Wheat Belly

Dr. William Davis, was a fantastic interview, he clearly cared because before the interview he asked my demographic or who will be listening (which rarely happens), he was clear, didn’t get too scientific as I requested and he was personable. We talked about the conference we were at, his travels and more which again is unlike many big names who just want to get the interview over with.

I’m not one to say ‘stay away from wheat’, and as you’ll find out Dr. Davis isn’t exactly saying that, he’s saying because the industry has changed so much, it would be a good idea to not only consider what you’re putting in your body but the source as well.

One of my favorite parts of Dr. Davis’ interview is how he talks about paying special attention to products that say ‘gluten free’; I think more times than not we think just because a product says ‘gluten free’ it’s okay to eat, or it’s even healthy. It’s not the case, especially given that ‘gluten free’ has almost become trendy and large companies prey on key words that will get the attention of a consumer looking for something specific.  By all means, we still need to read ingredients and more times than not stay away from product because they say ‘gluten free’.

What’s great about the world we live in, and what we need to understand, we have the choice to vote each time we visit a grocery store.  With each purchase we tell the stores when products we want more of, which we’re will to spend out money on and what we want to see restocked. Be conscious of each decision you make because that decision makes a bigger impact than you realize.

Thank you

I just to mention a short thank you for Dr. Davis for coming on the show and sharing some of his insights with us on the topic of wheat belly. It really was a pleasure meeting him and talking with him and listening to him say what I feel a conventional doctor wouldn’t. These are things we need to hear and can actually prevent and improve our health instead of ‘treatment’, which many of us are still after.

I hope you have the chance to listen to the interview and if you have picked up his book you find more details here at wheat belly.  And finally there is on going conversation, tips and information at the wheat belly blog.

All the best in finding life changes through wheat belly or other avenues of information and health.  Remember small changes are sustainable changes.

Pushing your limits through 56 km’s in 3 days and some of the most intense hiking I’ve ever done, which matched the most incredible scenery I’ve ever seen, equals what could be the most physically and mentally challenging weekend I’ve experienced.

It started out with an invite from some good friends of mind, all I’d call established hikers; they’ve been hiking since they were young with family, all have done the West Coast Trail at least once and are what I’d call real hikers/campers. They had all the gear from backpacks to sleeping bags and tents.

Given how long we’ve been friends for, their experience and mine, I couldn’t have asked for a better group of guys. They took care of me with preparation, equipment and even encouragement through some difficult parts of the hike (which is hard to come by if you knew them ;)).

We hiked 14 km’s to our camp site after driving 20 mins into the mountains further than I’ve ever been. We get to a camp site which isn’t actually a campsite, it’s the middle of the woods next to a creek. We fish a little the first day, hang around what they call ‘the camp site’ and have a relatively early evening.

The next day was something I couldn’t have dreamed of. 26 km’s through the mountains, round trip back to our camp site was more than a test of will. And I’m serious about that. I’m not sure if I’ve walked 26 Km’s in a week on flat ground let alone in a day through the mountains.

I doubt any of the guys read this, but I’m grateful they brought be along and gave me the opportunity to experience pushing myself to the limit in a way I’m not used to; know what it’s like to actually camp under stars (which is much different experience than what it looks like on tv), and see sights I never would have seen otherwise. And trust me when I say ‘sights I’ve never seen’, it’s much different hiking through a mountain pass, near peaks of mountains you could almost touch.