Energy Balance/Stress Optimization Reflections, Part 4: What Doesn’t Kill Me Makes Me Stronger, Right? Or Maybe Not….

Jul 15, 2022

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In the final part of this four-part series, we consider whether we have too much or too little stress in life. Indeed, some folks would benefit from eating less frequently, loading the muscles with resistance, moving more in daily life, and tackling challenging physical fitness goals. On the other hand, most of us endure too much of the wrong kinds of chronic stress.

This includes psychological stress with rumination, consuming nutrient-deficient food or causing metabolic disruption, consuming plant toxins causing gut and autoimmune issues, not moving or exercising enough, exercising too much, and having stressful work circumstances and interpersonal relationships. We’ll cover Dr. Hans Selye's General Adaptation Theory of stress and learn that the fight or flight response is identical regardless of the nature of the stressor/stimulus. It goes like this: Alarm, Resistance, Exhaustion. Sound familiar?

We end with some reasonable insights to make sense of it all, including my off-line consult with #listentotheSisson to emphasize the importance of individuality and a careful calibration of all of your life stress factors. I relate my own scoreboard of stress factors and steps I’m taking to better manage (kinder, gentler approach to high intensity workouts), revelations from my recent blood test results, and how we all might optimize further with a strategic approach to exercise stress and careful attention to not stacking too many stress factors together.

As Dr. Paul Saladino likes to say, what we are striving for here is to ascend from level 5 to level 7, or from level 7 to level 9. We must acknowledge that we don’t even know what level we’re at without exploring further and remaining constantly open-minded to new tweaks and revisions of our health practices.

Click here to listen to part 1, part 2, and part 3 of this 4-part series.

TIMESTAMPS:

In recapping the previous shows, Brad talks about Jay Feldman’s premise that fasting causes stress hormones. [01:16]

Protein is not burned for energy except in dire starvation circumstances. [03:38]

We have been learning that too strict on the low carb intake, can lead to problems, so some of the least offensive plant foods like honey and fruit are good. [05:54]

Dr. Paul Saladino recommends one gram per pound of body weight in daily protein, and also one gram per pound of body weight in natural fats. [07:15]

The brain is believed to need around 50 grams of glucose every day. [09:06]

Be careful about stacking too many assorted stressors to metabolism and cellular function. [12:06]

What doesn’t kill me, makes me stronger………or maybe not! [15:37]

Don’t forget the chronic stressors in our everyday life like our constant exposure to technology. [21:44]

After being in a chronic alarm stage, comes the resistance stage. After that is exhaustion. [24:51]

Take a gentle approach, if you are not very active, by vow to move more every day and eat more foods that are natural, and improve your sleep habits. [29:01]

Ask yourself how many stressors are in your life. How can you remove or at least lessen them? [32:35]

Among elite athletes, there is very little incidents of extreme dieting or extreme biohacking. [35:41]

Now that Brad has changed his morning food intake, his hunger is more apparent. When he was used to fasting, his body didn’t feel hungry. [41:33]

When looking at your bloodwork, the most important reading is the value of triglycerides to HDL ratio for heart disease risk factor. [46:10]

It is extremely dangerous to go into the extreme mode of biohacking, progressive health practices. Just because we can do it, doesn’t mean it’s healthy. [50:06]

For exercise, be kinder, gentler and avoid fatigue and injury. [54:24]

Doug McGruff’s suggestion to increase muscle strength is to go to the gym and perform five functional full-body exercises….a single set to failure. [59:38]

Cold exposure has so many benefits for your health and well-being. Also Sauna and, of course, sufficient sleep. [01:01:53]

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