Pursuing Health

Caffeine: It’s likely the most widely used mood- and performance-enhancing drug.

However, have you ever noticed that some people are wired all day from one cup of coffee in the morning while others can drink it right before bed?

The CYP1A2 enzyme is largely responsible for caffeine metabolism, and our genes may give some information about our individual response.

Interested in harnessing the performance-enhancing benefits of caffeine? Mark Goodman, MD, recommends you start by eliminating regular caffeine consumption. Then you can reintroduce a small amount approximately 60 minutes before your workout to observe its effect on your performance.  Experiment with timing and dosage, and keep in mind that some individuals might experience a neutral or even negative effect, so it may take a few trials to find the best formula for you.

To learn more about CrossFit Precision Care and how to get involved as a healthcare provider or patient visit care.crossfit.com.

If you like this episode, please subscribe to Pursuing Health on iTunes and give it a rating or share your feedback on social media using the hashtag #PursuingHealth. I look forward to bringing you future episodes with inspiring individuals and ideas about health every week.

Disclaimer: This podcast is for general information only, and does not provide medical advice.  I recommend that you seek assistance from your personal physician for any health conditions or concerns.

The average American spreads their food consumption out over 15 hours a day, which basically means they’re eating from the time they wake up until the time they go to bed and fasting only during sleep.

Increasing this fasting window by even just a few hours can provide a multitude of health benefits, (1, 2, 3) including:

• Decreased rates of obesity

These benefits are seen with many different fasting practices. With time-restricted feeding, for instance, an individual eats for only a portion of the day, say 8-12 hours, and fasts the remainder of the day. Periodic prolonged fasting, on the other hand, ranges from as little as 24 hours to up to 3-5 days during which an individual is consuming only water.

Keep in mind that fasting isn’t for everyone. Those who have a history of disordered eating or diabetes, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or are participating in high-volume training should all consult with a doctor before fasting.

However, if fasting is right for you, it can be a small, easy-to-implement change that can have a significant positive impact on your health.

To learn more about CrossFit Precision Care and how to get involved as a healthcare provider or patient visit care.crossfit.com.

If you like this episode, please subscribe to Pursuing Health on iTunes and give it a rating or share your feedback on social media using the hashtag #PursuingHealth. I look forward to bringing you future episodes with inspiring individuals and ideas about health every week.

Disclaimer: This podcast is for general information only, and does not provide medical advice.  I recommend that you seek assistance from your personal physician for any health conditions or concerns.

It’s a familiar scenario: Your client understands what they need to do to improve their health, and yet they just can’t seem to consistently follow through on eating right, exercising more, getting quality sleep, etc.

Enter motivational interviewing, a way of conducting conversations about change to strengthen clients’ motivation and commitment.

Dr. Stephen Rollnick is a pioneer in the field of motivational interviewing and has spent much of his career researching and developing effective methods for helping people resolve difficult behavior change.

He recently joined me for a live Q&A-style webinar hosted by CrossFit Health with a focus on how motivational interviewing can help clients and patients achieve their goals.

Join me live for next month’s webinar on April 22 at 6p ET/3p PT.  I’ll be chatting with Dr. Alessio Fasano about gluten and the microbiome.  Keep an eye out on CrossFit.com for registration details.

You can connect with Dr. Rollnick via his website.

Dr. Rollnick is offering a 25% discount to the CrossFit Health community on his book Motivational Interviewing as well as 50% off the online course Motivational Interviewing in Healthcare (use code MICROSSFIT)

Resources mentioned in the episode:

Coaching Athletes to Be Their Best: Motivational Interviewing in Sports (Applications of Motivational Interviewing), Stephen Rollnick

Finding Your Way to Change: How the Power of Motivational Interviewing Can Reveal What You Want and Help You Get There, Allan Zuckoff

Related Episodes:

Ep 84 - Chasing Excellence with Ben Bergeron

Ep 91 - Mind Over Matter: Improving Performance in Athletics and Beyond with a Sports Psychiatrist

If you like this episode, please subscribe to Pursuing Health on iTunes and give it a rating or share your feedback on social media using the hashtag #PursuingHealth. I look forward to bringing you future episodes with inspiring individuals and ideas about health every week.

Disclaimer: This podcast is for general information only, and does not provide medical advice.  I recommend that you seek assistance from your personal physician for any health conditions or concerns.

It probably comes as no surprise that alcohol has a negative impact on sleep quality, but why does something that seems to help you drift off actually turn out to be problematic?

Mike Stone, MD, shares two main reasons why alcohol and sleep don’t mix:

• Alcohol disrupts normal sleep architecture, leading to nighttime waking and reduced sleep quality.

For an eye-opening experiment, try using a wearable sleep tracker and observe the results.  You’re most likely to notice decreased HRV, increased resting heart rate, and decreased REM sleep.

Still want to enjoy a cocktail or glass of wine?  Dr. Stone suggests these strategies to help mitigate the negative effects of alcohol consumption:

• Minimize the total amount of alcohol you consume.

To learn more about CrossFit Precision Care and how to get involved as a healthcare provider or patient visit care.crossfit.com.

If you like this episode, please subscribe to Pursuing Health on iTunes and give it a rating or share your feedback on social media using the hashtag #PursuingHealth. I look forward to bringing you future episodes with inspiring individuals and ideas about health every week.

Disclaimer: This podcast is for general information only, and does not provide medical advice.  I recommend that you seek assistance from your personal physician for any health conditions or concerns.

Jacki Hillios, Ph.D., is Deputy Executive Director of The Phoenix, an addiction recovery program that uses physical activity and community friendships to support members on their sobriety journey. In her role, she focuses on oversight and leadership in program design, implementation, evaluation, and expansion. 

Jacki is a former clinician who worked with youth and families struggling with mental illness and substance-use disorders. Since joining The Phoenix in 2006 she has helped expand the model to 22 states and over 40 communities across the country. 

In this episode, we discuss the amazing outcomes The Phoenix is seeing amongst their members and how CrossFit affiliates and other supporters can get involved.

You can listen to Jacki’s Tedx Talk here.

You can connect with the Phoenix via their website or Instagram (@riserecoverlive)

Related Episodes:

Ep 67 - Sobriety Through CrossFit: Brain Reap

Ep 71 - The Sugar Free Revolution with Karen Thomson

If you like this episode, please subscribe to Pursuing Health on iTunes and give it a rating or share your feedback on social media using the hashtag #PursuingHealth. I look forward to bringing you future episodes with inspiring individuals and ideas about health every week.

Disclaimer: This podcast is for general information only, and does not provide medical advice.  I recommend that you seek assistance from your personal physician for any health conditions or concerns.

“We like to say heart rate variability is the range of motion of your nervous system,” Lindsey Mathews, DC, says.

Put another way, heart rate variability (HRV), or the variance in time between the beats of your heart, can provide insight into how your body is responding to the many different stressors in life.

This is a valuable tool to help guide women’s training through pregnancy and postpartum. When HRV is low, it opens up a conversation on what other life stressors are going on and indicates a need to reduce training load.  

When HRV is stable or trending upwards, pregnant and postpartum women can use it as an opportunity to push training a little bit harder within the parameters of what is safe for their pregnancy.

HRV values are individually unique, but by establishing a personal baseline, women can bring awareness to how different lifestyle factors impact their physical readiness. They can then use this knowledge to inform training throughout their pregnancy and postpartum.

To learn more about CrossFit Precision Care and how to get involved as a healthcare provider or patient visit care.crossfit.com.

If you like this episode, please subscribe to Pursuing Health on iTunes and give it a rating or share your feedback on social media using the hashtag #PursuingHealth. I look forward to bringing you future episodes with inspiring individuals and ideas about health every week.

Disclaimer: This podcast is for general information only, and does not provide medical advice.  I recommend that you seek assistance from your personal physician for any health conditions or concerns.

Mealtime with kids — Is it possible for it to be low-stress AND nutritious?

Nicole Christensen wears many hats: CF-L4, owner of CrossFit Roots, Seminar Staff Flowmaster, CrossFit Nutrition Course Director, and, most importantly, mom of two.

Her best tip: Keep it simple and offer a small selection of healthy options to keep the decisions and negotiations to a minimum.

At breakfast, she keeps it quick and easy by offering a fruit and a protein, which vary based on what’s in the house.

For lunches and snacks, she likes to have a variety of good choices available so her girls can make their own selections.

At dinner, the kids eat what the adults eat: typically grilled meat, some form of potato, and a vegetable.

If this all sounds too good to be true, Christensen shares that when her girls come across foods they don’t want to eat, oftentimes it simply takes patience and time for them to change their minds.

To learn more about CrossFit Precision Care and how to get involved as a healthcare provider or patient visit care.crossfit.com.

If you like this episode, please subscribe to Pursuing Health on iTunes and give it a rating or share your feedback on social media using the hashtag #PursuingHealth. I look forward to bringing you future episodes with inspiring individuals and ideas about health every week.

Disclaimer: This podcast is for general information only, and does not provide medical advice.  I recommend that you seek assistance from your personal physician for any health conditions or concerns.

Erin Donaldson is a board certified Family physician and graduate of the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine.  After starting her career practicing hospital medicine, she transitioned to her true passion, providing preventative care through wellness and disease prevention.  

While working in the hospital system, Dr. Donaldson developed a deep respect for the capacity of our healthcare system to treat acute conditions, but she also constantly witnessed the devastation that chronic disease creates.

Dr. Donaldson’s personal journey with Lupus, a systemic autoimmune condition, also helped spark her passion for changing healthcare.  Since her diagnosis, she has made dramatic lifestyle changes to improve her nutrition, exercise, mindfulness, and more, and today no longer requires the use of medication to manage her condition.

In Dr. Donaldson’s current practice, she combines her personal and clinical experience to help patients take control of their own health outcomes.  By using genomics, in-depth labs, and an understanding of each individual’s unique lifestyle, she’s able to formulate treatment plans that help her patients create sustainable change to optimize their health.

You can connect with Dr. Donaldson via Instagram (@thedoctorerin) and her website.

You can learn more about Wild Health and how to become a patient at wildhealth.com.

Related Episodes:

Ep 172 - Optimal Health through Genomics Based Personalized Medicine

Ep 109 - All About Functional Medicine with Dr. Elizabeth Bradley, Medical Director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine

If you like this episode, please subscribe to Pursuing Health on iTunes and give it a rating or share your feedback on social media using the hashtag #PursuingHealth. I look forward to bringing you future episodes with inspiring individuals and ideas about health every week.

Disclaimer: This podcast is for general information only, and does not provide medical advice.  I recommend that you seek assistance from your personal physician for any health conditions or concerns.

Fats and oils are important parts of a healthy diet and support functions such as vitamin absorption, brain function, and nerve function — but did you know not all fats and oils are created equal?

When choosing the right oil for your meal, consider two factors:

Seed oils such as sunflower, vegetable, and canola oil require a high degree of processing and can be pro-inflammatory. Better choices require less processing and include avocado oil, coconut oil, olive oil, and grass-fed butter.

Olive oil has a low smoke point and is best saved for dressings.

Avocado oil and butter have higher smoke points and are more appropriate for cooking.

By selecting minimally processed oils with appropriate smoke points, you can maximize the health benefits of including fat in your diet and minimize factors that contribute to the risk of chronic disease.

Continue learning with the CrossFit Nutrition I Course.

To learn more about CrossFit Precision Care and how to get involved as a healthcare provider or patient visit care.crossfit.com.

If you like this episode, please subscribe to Pursuing Health on iTunes and give it a rating or share your feedback on social media using the hashtag #PursuingHealth. I look forward to bringing you future episodes with inspiring individuals and ideas about health every week.

Disclaimer: This podcast is for general information only, and does not provide medical advice.  I recommend that you seek assistance from your personal physician for any health conditions or concerns.

Focusing on QUALITY food can have a huge impact on health, but many individuals reach a point where they hit a plateau.

That’s when food QUANTITY comes into play.

Stephane Rochet, CF-L3, shares a simple method to begin measuring food portions.

At each meal, load your plate with:

• Protein: Between 1 and 2 palm-sized servings, depending on your size and goals

Ready for more precision? Start with between .8 and 1.2 grams of protein per pound of body weight and set a macronutrient ratio from there — 40% carbohydrates, 30% protein, and 30% fat is a good place to start.

The practice of measuring doesn’t have to last forever.  

Once you do it often enough, you’ll have built the skill to look at your plate and generally know if you’re hitting the correct quantities, Rochet says. From there, you can return to measuring as needed when you find you need to recalibrate your eye.

To learn more about CrossFit Precision Care and how to get involved as a healthcare provider or patient visit care.crossfit.com.

If you like this episode, please subscribe to Pursuing Health on iTunes and give it a rating or share your feedback on social media using the hashtag #PursuingHealth. I look forward to bringing you future episodes with inspiring individuals and ideas about health every week.

Disclaimer: This podcast is for general information only, and does not provide medical advice.  I recommend that you seek assistance from your personal physician for any health conditions or concerns.