Abel James Show

In today's show, Dave and I cover: How you can improve your mental performance with smart drugs (nootropics) The surprising foods Abel’s immune system does not tolerate according to the Mediator Release Test Why Bulletproof Coffee is brain food How the Bulletproof Diet reduces exposure to inflammatory toxins And why eating sushi – with the rice – dipped in a big tub of guacamole and covered in salt is a great idea

A decade ago, investigative journalist Nina Techolz set out to uncover the truth about our country’s misguided conception that eating delicious butter, beef, and cheese would make us fat and give us heart attacks.  What she found was a shocking trail of incomplete scientific data, one man’s maniacal mission to squelch conflicting information, and an authoritative body on nutrition taking handouts from Big Food, Inc. In this incredibly open, honest interview, Nina touches on a little bit of what’s covered extensively in her new book, “The Big Fat Surprise:  Why Butter, Meat, & Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet.”   Prepare to be shocked with: ·      The American Heart Association’s affiliation with Proctor & Gamble. ·      How one man bullied his anti-fat agenda into the hearts and bodies of the American people, and why the community of nutrition experts was afraid to speak out. ·      What should be on your dinner plate? (Bacon?  Please say bacon.) ·      Nina’s advice to women about how to fight the saturated fat phobia. In this podcast, you can find out about the bacon… and all of the secret history explaining why we think that eating fat makes us fat.  You’ll be relieved to know that the foods that should be on your dinner plate are way more delicious than a frozen, low-fat, weight-control dinner.  Trust me, I know.    PODCAST NOTES We hear a lot of conflicting information about fat, but what’s the real story? I was a low-fat vegetarian.  As an investigative journalist, I was sent on an assignment to write a restaurant review column.  There was no food stipend, and the chef’s didn’t want to send out grilled chicken and sautéed vegetables.  The chefs wanted to send out red meat, cream, sauce, and pate.  This was my introduction to this way of eating.  All of a sudden, I lost the stubborn 10 pounds I’d been struggling with and my cholesterol markers looked great! I wanted to try to understand the history of why we believe what we do about saturated fat—and those efforts culminated in “The Big Fat Surprise.” 1950’s:  The nation panicked over the epidemic of heart disease—it was the #1 killer.  A scientist name Ancel Keys proposed that saturated fats were the dietary culprit.  He was a charismatic, forceful man who got his hypothesis into the American Diabetes Association. There were NO SCIENTIFIC TRIALS to back his hypothesis. His theory was based on epidemiological studies in seven countries that were cherry-picked to support his hypothesis.  ·      He deliberately avoided countries like France, where they consume a diet rich in saturated fats but enjoy very low rates of heart disease.  ·      PLUS, he went to Crete during lent—when they were abstaining from meats and rich foods! ·      There were no clinical studies to follow up his studies.  After 50 years of following recommended low-fat diet guidelines, we are sicker than ever with a skyrocketing heart attack rate.  What they’ve been telling us is wrong.  We subsequently have clinical trials proving that Ancel Keys’ hypothesis is not supported. Unfortunately, as a culture, our ingrained ideas are more from advertising than science. Suddenly, we were told to eat unsaturated fats like vegetable and grain oils instead of saturated fats like butter and lard.  Why? 1948:  $1.7 million went into the coffer of the American Heart Association from Proctor & Gamble.  The edible-oil producing company sponsored the AHA’s radio show and continues to back this authoritative body—which continues to recommend vegetable oils over butter and lard. Big Food has been very wise about steering the conversation about nutrition in this country.  In fact, one VP of a big edible-oil company was quoted as saying, “If you pay $25,000 for a University study, you can ensure it will say what you want.” While you can’t totally rig a study, you can sway it so you don’t look so bad, or so that your product looks more favorable than it should. Why was the American public so easily steered into believing that just-invented foods like soy milk and soy hamburgers would restore our health?  We had just landed on the moon.  The science mindset was prevalent as we reevaluated what it meant to be a human being.  All of these new things were “invented,” so they must be good.  Faith in scientific invention left Americans open to these ideas. Women’s magazines told housewives to ditch the “old way” of doing things, to put away lard and butter with the spinning wheel and grab a can of Crisco made by scientists in a sparkling factory instead!  As a nation of immigrants removed from our traditions, we were quick to leave our heritage behind. The reality is that fats have been prized over time, and many scientists have proven over and over again that diets higher in fat are beneficial to health. ·      The Inuit consumed a diet comprised of 70% - 80% saturated fat, and they had no diabetes or heart disease. ·      According to George Mann’s research, the African Massai consumed a diet of primarily blood, meat, and fat.  The electrocardiographs of 400 Massai men revealed almost no traces of heart attack. The nutritional expert community became so closed to any ideas other than the idea that fat and saturated fat were bad for you, that the idea became enshrined as dogma so early on that any opposing idea was shunned. Ancel Keys would literally call people names in print when they disagreed with his theory, so much so that nutrition became a blood sport.  Scientists with opposing viewpoints lost their research grants and were shut down and discredited.  He would smear their names so they couldn’t work in their field. By the 1980’s, critics of Ancel’s anti-fat theory ceased because to criticize was professional suicide.  Honest, open debate was silenced.  George Mann, who studied the Massai, was a critic and it cost him his research grant. So, what did we eat before the 1940’s?  There’s a common misconception that we were primarily a plant-eating people.  This theory was based on really bad data.  In fact, we ate: ·      3 – 4 times more red meat ·      3 – 4 times more butter ·      5 – 6 times more lard Vegetables were considered so nutritionally poor that they were not worth growing—they were a luxury.  Before we could import kiwi and avocado, where were we getting our fruits and vegetables?  Unless you were living in a tropical climate, fruit and vegetable consumption was season and sparse. “Historical facts move you to rethink this idea that returning to a plant-based diet is a good idea.” What role do vegetables and greens play in a healthy diet?  Once we decided to cut meat, cheese, butter, dairy, and eggs out of our diet, that created a vacuum, a big empty space on the plate of the American diet that had to be filled with something.  That’s where the drive to eat more fruits and veggies came from. Saying that a vegetarian diet is off-based is one thing, and it’s another to say that vegetables aren’t part of a healthy diet.  In fact, there are people who are incredible endurance athletes who are on a plant-based diet. From the scientific perspective, the reason diets of all different kinds work for people is:  Most diets say to cut out sweets and desserts.  Just by cutting out sugar, high fructose corn syrup, flour—just by getting rid of those things, everybody can lose weight, look better, and feel better.  This is the basic starting point of why diets work. Bodies of large rigorous clinical trials show that a high fat (50%+) diet is better than low fat in terms of markers like diabetes, obesity, and heart disease.   You can lose more weight on this kind of diet and lower those markers. Yes, you should eat fruits and vegetables, but you have to be mindful about how many carbs they are adding!  Some fruits are high in sugar, and some starchy vegetables are high in carbohydrates. If you are a naturally lean person, you can do a lot more with your diet—you have a lot more leeway.  But if you’re obese, or someone fighting diabetes or heart disease, you are more sensitive to carbohydrates so you have to be careful about them in your diet. The science has been reevaluated:  Saturated fats were unfairly accused of causing heart disease.  They do not cause heart disease. The foods that we’ve been avoiding are nutritionally dense, depleting us of:  folate, selenium, zinc, iron, vitamins A, D, E, K and fat-soluble vitamins.  Evidence supports the benefit of bringing these foods back into our diet. Part of the problem is the word “fat.”  We use it for so many bad things.  What we don’t often realize is that sugar is stored as fat, but dietary fat is used as energy. Nina, what are you eating?  Eggs, bacon, sausage, cheese, nuts, leftovers, hamburgers, stews with bone broth, vegetables, chicken, fish.  Generally speaking, no pasta or breads around the house. It’s harder for women to eat more fat because there’s a phobia about it.  What would you say to women who want to change to a high-fat diet?  It’s so delicious and you’re not hungry!  Many women have succumbed to the constant obsession with calorie-counting.  Here’s the paradox:  “The more you shift to protein and fat, the less craving you have for other foods!”  For women, it’s such an ugly handmaiden to be worried about food all the time.  It’s wonderful to be free of that. To lose weight on a low-fat diet, a woman has to consume less than 900 calories per day.  That’s deprivation.  To have the government saying, “Here’s our solution for you:  Starvation,” that’s no acceptable. What are you up to and where can we find you? Promoting the new book, “The Big Fat Surprise:  Why Butter, Meat, & Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet.”   You can check me out on my web site, www.thebigfatsurprise.com. I’m also looking for someone to found the Parents for Whole Milk Movement.  It’s such a tragedy that we are depriving our children of whole milk, instead option for 2% and making that the standard in our schools.  It’s time to generate a change in nutrition policy, and that could come from this kind of movement.  Anyone out there interested? The key is simplicity:  The answers aren’t found in fads… and don’t be afraid to make a change.          

Want to know the secret to staying young? Ask Doctor Cates. Why? She’s a walking billboard for anti-aging. Plus, she really knows what she’s talking about. Dr. Trevor Cates, known as the Spa Doctor, was the first woman licensed as a naturopath in the state of California. Now practicing in beautiful Park City, Utah, Doctor Cates makes it her mission to help people on their road to wellness through her podcast, blog, articles, web site, television appearances, speaking engagements, and her actual brick-and-mortar practice. In my talk with Dr. Cates, we dive into the fountain of youth! Everyone is getting older… it’s better than the alternative, right? But we don’t have to suffer through the symptoms of premature aging (wrinkles, fatigue, weight gain, chronic disease) when so much is actually in our own hands.Dr. Cates is about to give us some insight into ageing gracefully, including:Spotting the six signs of premature aging.Why genes don’t matter as much as you thought they did.What you’re buying that makes you age faster.21 Day Healthy Habits ChallengePlus, how to make a green smoothie kids love! SHOW NOTES Dr. Trevor Holly Cates, affectionately called The Spa Doctor, was the first woman licensed as a naturopath in the state of California. Since then, she’s been blazing a trail in the world of natural, holistic health and wellness.A walking billboard for anti-aging, Dr. Cates looks like she’s in her twenties! She obviously practices what she preaches… which falls decidedly into the “lifestyle” group of anti-aging proponents as opposed to the group that goes for surgery and synthetic fixes.What does aging look like? We can’t stop aging, but we can prevent early aging. Watch for these six signs of early aging:FATIGUE: You may start to feel yourself getting tired more often.FOCUS: It might feel harder to stay focused.PHYSIQUE: It’s harder to stay in shape—as you lose muscle and gain fat.ACHES AND PAINS: You’ll start to feel ‘em.SKIN CHANGES: You may start to notice wrinkles, fine lines, and discoloration.CHRONIC DISEASE: Your risk for diabetes, osteoporosis, and heart disease is elevated. “We are all getting older, but the goal is to age gracefully.”You can see the way people live their lives on their faces as in their bodies. What are some of the things we can change to help us age gracefully? LIFESTYLE CHANGESLimiting sun exposure goes a long way toward helping you look younger. Some sun is good for your daily dose of Vitamin D and to help you feel good and be active, just be smart about it. Protect your skin by wearing a hat, covering up, and avoiding going out at peak sun hours. Stop smoking and avoid second-hand smoke. Cigarettes are an environmental toxin that causes wrinkled, leathery skin on top of a host of other health issues including lung cancer. Avoid environmental toxins found in the air you breathe, the food you buy, and your personal care and cleaning products. With toxins in our lotions, shampoos, perfumes, makeup as well as in our tile cleaner, dish soap, and more… it’s a bit overwhelming. But the key is to start small. TIPS FOR LIMITING YOUR EXPOSURE TO TOXINSIf the air quality is poor, you can move. Honestly, people don’t often think of that as an option but it can change the quality of your life. However, you can also focus on things you have more control over, such as changing the air quality inside your home by:Reducing or eliminating the use of toxic pesticides and cleaning products.Changing your air filter once a month. Eliminate toxins on your skin by choosing your personal care products carefully. Makeup, perfume, aftershave, lotion, shampoo, and other body products are often highly toxic. A good rule of thumb is, “If you can’t eat it, don’t put it on your skin.” What you may not realize is that it absorbs through your skin right into your bloodstream. Switch to organic produce and foods that are high in antioxidants. Eliminating the chemicals and genetically engineered foods will help keep your body strong, and the antioxidant foods will help reverse the oxidation process. 21 DAY HEALTHY HABITS CHALLENGEMany people know that they have bad habits, but they don’t know how to break them. A simple ten minutes a day can make a huge impact. Understanding why healthy habits are important is a huge part of the shift. The 21 Day Healthy Habits Challenge is a series of short, simple videos designed to help you start incorporating healthy habits into your daily life just a few minutes at a time. The videos cover things like simple nutrition, how to get a better night’s sleep, and even how to upgrade your self-esteem! By starting with the basics, you don’t get overwhelmed, which is easy to do. You can get the first three videos for free on the web site. What separates someone who’s throwing kettle balls at the age of 80 from someone in a nursing home at that age? We like to blame genetics… and genetics certainly do play a role in how we age. However, we are finding that we can change our genetic expression through our lifestyle choices. Whether or not we make those changes has a lot to do with motivation. People who are depressed or have a low self-esteem aren’t going to take care of themselves. I went back to school and got a degree in spiritual psychology because I wanted to dig into this deeper issue: Why people are resistant to change.What kind of emotional issues do you have?Can’t give up comfort foods? Why? What’s the worst thing that will happen?Are you dwelling on traumatic experiences or reliving the past? Don’t dwell on it.As yourself, “How can I be the best I can be?” The effect of small changes over a long period of time is tremendous. HOW DO SHORT-TERM EXTREMES EFFECT LONG-TERM HEALTH?If you load up on a supplement, over-exercise, or restrict your calories to the point of starvation, you’re going to do more damage and age quicker because you’re not getting the right kind of balance. “A healthy lifestyle can’t be done in spurts. The biggest impact is going to be your lifelong habits.” Most conventional medicine is about preventing people from dying prematurely. What we really want is to live every day symptom free, disease free, and feel great, look great, and be ready to charge! What is Dr. Cates doing every day to stay looking and feeling young?I start every morning with a healthy green smoothie full of greens, a bit of fruit, coconut milk, and a healthy protein powder. I can get so much more done and have so much more energy than if I were to start the day with a pastry.I exercise every day. Whether it’s skiing, hiking, trail running, or biking, I have more energy and feel better when I get exercise.I love what I do. As a naturopathic physician, I’m always trying to find the underlying cause of a person’s health problem. One patient came to me with insomnia. After doing a lot of digging, the only obstacle I could see was that she hated her job. At the end of her visit, I told her that she needed a new job! She didn’t come back. When I ran into her later, she told me that her life had transformed: She quit her job and got a new one. Her insomnia was no more. I can’t stress enough how important it is to love what you do. I love what I do. I do the podcast, I blog, I see patients. I love it. Let’s talk about your kids! How do you manage the reality of the world your kids are growing up in? Consistency and education. It’s important to talk to your kids about their choices and to be consistent. Don’t take them to a fast food restaurant one day and expect them not to want it the next. It’s also important to be a good role model. I grew up on an organic farm and my parents were such great role models. My dad, every evening he would chop up carrots and apples and fresh fruits and veggies and those were our snacks. Where do you stand on grains? I stick mainly to gluten free grains. One of my kids is sensitive to gluten, she’s seven years old and great at avoiding it. She has her gluten free treats when the other kids have their treats at school or birthday parties.With kids it can be really challenging. But if you can start a garden or take them shopping and let them help cook, kids want to eat what they help prepare. Is there a trick to getting greens into kids’ smoothies?Start early. The earlier you start, the quicker they get used to it. If you’re starting green smoothies with an older child, add in some frozen berries or fruit. You can also put it in a cup that they can’t see through, so they can’t see that it’s green or brown. Once they taste that it’s good, they’ll be okay. It’s not necessary to add honey if you’re using fruit, it’s generally sweet enough. The thing you want to avoid is sugar. If you give a child a smoothie with orange juice, banana, and frozen fruit you’re just going to be loading them up with natural sugars and they’ll still be flying around the house with a sugar buzz. Skip the juice and use unsweetened coconut or almond milk. What’s in the works for Dr. Cates right now?THE PODCAST: THE SPA DR. SECRETS TO SMART, SEXY & STRONGMy message is that you don’t have to be a rocket scientist, a prom star, or an Olympic athlete to be smart, sexy and strong. I want to help everyone at every age. I’m interviewing leading health experts, celebrities, and role models. I ask them, “How do you do it?” And the answers are incredible.I’m also giving lifestyle and health tips, and so much more. You can sign up for podcast notifications on the web site at www.drtrevorcates.com. 21 DAY HEALTHY HABITS CHALLENGEThe first three days of the challenge are absolutely free. This is a series of short video clips explaining the challenge for the day. The videos cover such things as toxins, sleep tricks, smart workouts, and all kinds of things to help people transform their lives.

Do you want to lose weight, get healthy, improve your athletic performance, or need help healing from a chronic disease? On this week's Fat Burning Man Show, Dr. Josh Axe will give you three basic tips on how to achieve your goals using relaxation, diet, and exercise. No drugs. No ridiculous workouts. Josh started Exodus Health Care in 2008, has been physician to professional and Olympic athletes, and helps thousands of people achieve fitness through his books and BurstFit program. He also spreads the message of health through his syndicated radio show and regular television program on CBS Nashville. On this week's FBM show, he opens up about his mother's struggle with cancer—from her initial battle with chemo to finally healing through the power of a holistic, natural approach. We talk about how he helped her on her path to healing, and so much more, including: • The three most important things you can do right now to heal your body, lose weight, and improve athletic performance. • How to fuel your body before and after training. • Sugar substitutes: Are Stevia and honey good for you? • Four steps to repairing a leaky gut, and why gut health is important. • The side-effects of chemo: healing cancer naturally. Come on over to the show, meet Josh, and dig into all of these topics and more! See you there. HERE'S THE SHOW IN WRITING! ➢ Dr. Josh Axe is an author, radio host, and a physician for athletes. He lives in Nashville, where he's had a clinic for the last five years. ➢ Josh was recently voted on of Nashville's 25 most beautiful people! ➢ How did you get turned on to natural health? Twenty years ago, Josh's mother had cancer. She was the picture of health- a swim instructor at school and a fit person. When she was diagnosed with breast cancer, she had a mastectomy and chemo. Her hair fell out and she was sick. She went through a cycle of depression, for which she was prescribed anti-depressants which made her constipated. She had chronic fatigue for ten years and spent half her life in bed—then she was diagnosed with cancer again. ➢ The second time she was diagnosed with cancer, Josh was in college in Florida studying chiropractic and nutrition. He knew he had to do something to help his mother. This lead him to all natural probiotics and juicing. ➢ They tried diet and everything in the natural world to help heal his mother's cancer, and in four months the tumors reduced by half! ➢ In 13 months, the cancer was in complete remission. Now his mother is in the best shape of her life. ➢ Now, Josh uses that knowledge to help people live the very best life every single day. He treats every patient like he did his mother- like family. ➢ What are the biggest things we can do to change our health? 1. Stress: It's a killer, so you have to do whatever you can to try and to reduce stress in your life. How? Write on one side of a sheet of paper all the things that stress you out—then address how to change those. On the other side of the paper, write everything that brings you joy—then schedule time for those things into your week. It's amazing how many people do nothing to bring them joy in their day-to-day lives. 2. Digestive Health: Hypocrates is famous for saying that health begins in the gut. This is one of the most important things to address, and is the topic of Josh's new book, "How to Heal a Leaky Gut." Gluten is one of the biggest culprits. It leaks through the gut and recirculates throughout the body, causing all kinds of havoc. 3. Nutrition: Pack your diet full of nutrient-dense healing foods. You have to think like an Olympic athlete: Instead of asking, "What can I get away with eating?" ask "What do I have to put in my body to be the best I can be?" Even nutritionists that assist pro athletes have the wrong idea about how to properly fuel the body. Here's a tip: CHOCOLATE MILK IS NOT GOOD FOR YOU, EVEN AFTER A WORKOUT. • Pre-workout nutrition should be low in fat, because fat takes longer to digest. Eat a simple sugar and honey with a quickly absorbable protein like grassfed whey or amino acids. • Post-workout meal is higher in protein and should be real food, like a grassfed burger or antioxidant-rich wild salmon with a serving of good carbs from fruit or vegetable sources. • For the rest of the day, get plenty of healthy fats and vegetables. ➢ There are lots of different ways to lose weight, but it's best when weight-loss is a byproduct of good health. Eat simple carbs, simple protein (collagen and wild salmon are the easiest to digest), short and medium chain fats like coconut oil. ➢ As you continue to lose weight and heal your body, include fermented dairy (kefir) and grassfed butter. ➢ Unlike other sweeteners, honey is not a concentrate. What are the benefits of using honey or other natural sweeteners? 1. There's no easy answer to the question, "Can I eat honey?" The answer is sometimes "yes" and sometimes "no." • Honey has antimicrobial properties. • Honey will not ferment or create gut issues like candida. • Honey is the simplest sugar to digest. • Local honey can contain pollen that will help your body adapt to its surroundings, alleviating symptoms of allergies and asthma. 2. Be careful about which honey you're buying. 77% of honey sold in grocery stores has no pollen count at all. It's not real honey. Instead, buy local raw honey. 3. BUT, even if it's local, raw, organic honey, you're not going to lose weight if you eat a gallon of it every week! A couple tablespoons a day max. ➢ What about stevia? Unfortunately, the healthy sweetener has been grabbed up by big food and turned into a confusing- if not unhealthy- sweetener. • Real stevia leaf is healthy if used in moderation. However, the popular Truvia and other commercial brands contain GMO erythritol and are contaminated during the processing of the leaf into the white powder we buy in packets. Truvia goes through 42 steps to make it 400 times sweeter than sugar. • Real stevia leaf can help control blood sugar and diabetes. • The Sweet Leaf brand is better than Truvia, as it only takes 3 – 4 steps of refining and does not contain the additives. • You can buy the ground stevia leaf online, and a huge bag lasts a long time! ➢ HEALING LEAKY GUT: Your intestines are the gatekeepers of the body. They are like a net, and inflammation causes a hole in the net that things start leaking right through. Gluten, casein, and heavy metals then begin to circulate through your body causing: • Thyroid issues • Joint pain • Autoimmune disease • Chronic illness ➢ The first step to healing a leaky gut is removing gluten and processed foods! ➢ There are four healing foods that can help repair a leaky gut: 1. Bone broth—sometimes in severe cases, Josh will put patients on a bone broth fast to jump-start the healing process. 2. Organic meats 3. Fermented vegetables 4. Raw goat's milk kefir ➢ The #1 thing causing leaky gut is prescription antibiotics, which kill both the good and bad bacteria in the gut. This is a big problem, considering that 80% of the immune system is your gut. ➢ You are what you digest! ➢ Good replacements for antibiotics are oil of oregano, clove oil, and tea tree oil. ➢ Load up on (preferably soil-based) probiotics. We used to eat our food from local farms. When you pull a fresh carrot, rinse it, and there's a little bit of soil embedded in the vegetable, that's good! Those minerals are probiotics, which help you break down starches. ➢ The baby carrots you buy in bags at the store are sprayed with a chlorine solution. So instead of buying chemical-laden veggies, EAT SOME DIRT! ➢ You can check out Josh Axe's latest advice on draxe.com. He is working on re-launching his site on a new platform, and publishing his new book about how to heal a leaky gut. If you're looking for information on metabolism, you'll want to read "6 Metabolism Death Foods." You could be surprised about how you're unintentionally hijacking your health. 

Michael Lovitch has always been interested in the brain, starting with his grad school thesis on hypnosis as a normal avenue for human communication.  Not the weird mystic guru kinds of things… he doesn’t believe in that stuff.  But he focused on the good people with good expectations, and helped launch The Hypnosis Network. He’d seen all kinds of people selling quack hypnosis programs on the internet, and thought he could offer something real.  If Michael is anything, it’s real.  So when he started consulting with doctors for The Hypnosis Network, he saw them cutting corners with supplements and couldn’t understand why they’d do that.  Well, aside from a little thing called money… because, sadly, for too many out there it’s all about the bottom line.  Fast forward a bit and Michael co-founds RealDose with Doctor Steve,  a supplement company focused on giving you the exact dose of the exact plant species using the exact same extraction process as was used in the double-blind studies proving the herb’s effectiveness on real human beings.  Unlike the guys on late-night TV advertising free trials of their miracle elixir for just $4.95 shipping and handling, Michael takes his supplements very seriously.  In this podcast, Michael and I have a very candid conversation about the good, the bad, and the ugly of the supplement industry.  We not only hear Michael’s thoughts on futuristic “3-D printable supplement packs,” but we also find out why he’s off chasing wild blueberries in Alaska.  On the show, we talk about: ·      How to stop getting scammed by online supplement shams. ·      The importance of Dr. Oz. ·      Why 90% of consumers can love a supplement, and 10% hate it! ·      Why Michael’s a “double-blind study” kind of guy. ·      How Alaskan blueberries could help battle childhood diabetes. ·      The future of health:  Printable personalized supplements.   SHOW NOTES Ø  Apparently it’s super easy to start a shoddy supplement company.  You just go to an expo, pick up a manufacturer, slap your label on the bottle, write up a fake review and put it on the internet.  Then you mark the product way up just so you can sell it for “the cost of shipping and handling.”  Ø  Often times, these low cost supplement companies pay a dollar to the manufacturer and charge you five dollars shipping of offer it for $69.95 with a thirty day money back guarantee.  But they have no location and don’t answer their help lines.  Guess who’s winning?  Ø  Here are the six steps shoddy supplement companies take to sell you an inferior product online: 1.    You’re innocently checking out a news story on a reputable site like CNN, and you see a “Related Story” in the sidebar.  If it takes you off of the CNN web site, it’s probably a fake news story about some “miracle cure.” 2.   Somewhere in the news story, you’re linked to a fake review site where the effects of the supplement are too good to be true! 3.   You will probably see “before and after” pictures, or the advertising will use sex appeal to sell you. 4.   The product says, “As seen on Dr. Oz” or Oprah, or some other celebrity.  Unless it’s that celebrity’s product, they’re probably illegally using the name just to sell to you. 5.    They’ll offer up a free trial for just the low, low cost of shipping or give you a 30 day money back guarantee.  Seriously, if the company doesn’t give you at least a year to see results of a supplement, the guarantee is worthless. 6.   They put you on auto-shipment with an option to cancel any time.  Problem is, it’s nearly impossible to reach anyone to cancel the shipments. Ø  Let’s talk for a minute about Dr. Oz.  He was recently suing people that are selling millions of dollars in supplements by using his endorsement without permission… thinking specifically of garcinia. The thing is, what Dr. Oz does is a lot of work.  He has to vet guests for his show, find new guest, research new content, make sure everything he promotes is well-tested and his information is accurate.  What he does is a lot of hard work, and people take advantage of that. Ø  What Dr. Oz and people like him do is important work because it gets people interested and talking.  His show starts a buzz.  What a good supplement company does is use that buzz as a starting point for their own in-depth research and development of a quality product. Ø  Science vs. Real Science:  There are great companies out there that have sort of a renegade approach to supplements.  There are a lot of different ways to test the efficacy of a product.  There’s the anecdotal sort of personal testing, which is the adventurous type.  Then there’s the “real science,” which is the controlled research using petri dishes, rats, monkeys, or humans. Ø  RealDose uses only double-blind clinical human studies to develop their quality products. Ø  Michael is clear that he would never say you should only take supplements that are double-blind studied or you’re going to die.  Instead, he says to do your homework.  Ask yourself what makes sense for what you’re trying to accomplish, and as long as it’s not harmful, then go for it. Ø  Some of the supplements I use for myself are Designs for Health and Thorn.  But I also use some adventurous ones, like Dave Asprey’s Bulletproof.  We need the renegades out there blazing a trail! Ø  What can we do to make sure we’re getting the real stuff?  First, determine what you want to accomplish.  Second, read the ingredients and the research to see if it’s at least matching your goals.  Finally, look at the refund policy.  Any reputable company will give you a year to see the effects of a product.  You could also call the help line, see if anyone actually answers.  Check out where the headquarters is located and see if it exists. Ø  To build a good supplement, you must start with the right ingredients.  Let’s take rhodiola, for example:  The research on rhodiola is from plants in Siberia.  The reason these plants are beneficial is because of the harsh environment in which they’re grown.  Why?  Because you’re buying the plant’s defense mechanism, the secondary phytochemicals that the plant uses to protect itself.  These are going to be different from different parts of the world. Ø  … and those ingredients must be properly extracted.  If you don’t use the exact same extraction process as used in the experiment, you’re going to end up with a different result.  Period. Ø  Those ingredients must be in the exact same dosage.  What happens is that when a supplement is plastered all over the news, then sham companies wanting to turn a profit source the herb from places like China and then put a very low dose of it into the actual pill you’re swallowing.  That’s how the low quality supplements can be affordable.  You’re not having to pay for the science or quality… but you’re not getting results, either. Ø  Another example is fish oil.  Fish oil is a really popular supplement.  But let me tell you, it’s completely different if it comes from healthy fish living in the wild than farmed fish fed turkey feces and soy protein isolate while being pumped with antibiotics.  Then, the extraction process has to be right.  If it’s not the right formula, it will be less absorbable.  Why would you pay for something your body isn’t able to absorb? Ø  The challenge of being an individual is that not every supplement that worked in the clinical studies is going to work the same for your biochemical makeup.  That’s why the future of wellness is moving toward printing your own personalized supplements at home.  In the future, there will be no supplement companies. Ø  Research is showing that our genetic profiles are not necessarily based on race, but that we each of us are completely unique.  That means we are all going to absorb nutrients differently and have different reactions.  Ø  But don’t go get a genetic test now!  Don’t run out onto the internet and start your search, because there’s no-one out there doing legitimate personalized medicine right now.  We’re talking about the future, but it will be here soon enough.  You’ll be able to go in, get tested, know exactly what you’ll need to take and get it in a neat little pack to go. Ø  Beyond that, the future of supplements is a community hub where your personal supplement pack will “3-D print” daily from a clutch of ingredients.  How cool is that?! Ø  This futuristic process will take out the guesswork.  Right now, even with fantastic products, you’ll get 90% of people that love them and another 10% that think you’ve lied to them.  That’s because even double-blind clinical studies can’t take each individual’s genetic makeup into consideration. Ø  What is a double-blind study anyway?  Okay, well a single-blind study tests against placebo.  One group is given the supplement while the control group is given a placebo.  In a double-blind study, the people being given the pills don’t even know.  It eliminates the placebo effect, or the power of positive thought! Ø  Are there ingredients we should stay away from?  There are contraindications, for sure.  Like, you should stay away from grapefruit extract if you’re on certain medications.  Or, too much fish oil thins the blood.  It really all depends on your issues. Ø  The kind of testing we do at RealDose goes way beyond the FDA’s CG-P testing.  If a product passes that, you’ll be safe.  But RealDose goes a hundred times further, testing for toxins and making sure that ingredients are tested for pesticides and then testing again to be sure they’re not lying.  Everything is double-tested.  Ø  Testing is really important to Michael.  “I think toxins are neuro,” he says.  “And I don’t want to do anything to mess up anyone’s brain by accident.”  Thanks, we appreciate it. Ø  What’s in the works for Michael now?  Chasing blueberries in Alaska.  RealDose is working on the best red and purple polyphenol drink ever!  It solves the great fruit dilemma:  people trying to lose weight need the polyphenols in fruits, but can’t have the sugar.  This drink will have all the benefits without the sugar.  Ø  The berries are being sourced from Alaska!  Remember, you’re harvesting these fruits for their secondary polyphenols (their defense mechanisms), so you want fruits from the most hostile environments.  The more harsh the environment, the better that mechanism.  Imagine being a blueberry trying to survive in Alaska! Ø  The implication of this drink for kids with diabetes is that parents can give them this instead of sugary orange juice.  Michael is really interested…

Dr. Bill Pawluk is definitely NOT one of those “overnight experts.”  Far from it.  He’s got 25 years of experience in acupuncture, homeopathy, hypnosis and bodywork.   In this week's episode, he talks about how the electric vibrations all around us affect our bodies and brains…and how we can use electromagnetic therapy for healing. You may have seen Dr. Pawluk on the Dr. Oz show, or perhaps heard him on the radio.  He’s an international expert in the use of electromagnetic fields for health and healing and a board certified family physician practicing holistic medicine in Baltimore. Bill and I have crossed paths several times over the last couple of years, but I’m super excited to actually have him sharing his wealth of knowledge about electromagnetism with us on the Fat-Burning Man Show.  I think you’re really going to dig it. We touch on a lot of great topics, including: Harnessing electricity for healing the body and mind. Why doctors rarely talk about health. How personal electromagnetic field systems balance your brain. Why nerds make the best doctors. Improving athletic performance with electromagnetic field therapy. How electromagnetism reduces inflammation. If you’ve ever felt drained after spending a ton of time on your computer… and then rejuvenated when you lay on the grass in your yard or dig your feet into the sand at the beach, you’re experiencing the incredible effects of electromagnetism.  It’s really incredible.   HERE’S THE SHOW IN WRITING! What is the concept of electricity as it relates to the human body?   Electricity is something we use all the time in our day-to-day lives—to power our lights and gadgets, to operate our cars and cook our meals.  But how it works within our own bodies is often a mystery.  Here’s the basic outline: Your tissues are made of molecules—the building block of chemistry. Every atom within every molecule is an electromagnet—this is physics.   The laws of physics govern everything, including the atoms that comprise the molecules which comprise the tissues of your body. By manipulating those atomic electromagnets, you can manipulate your body into wellness. The practice of electromagnetic therapy has been around for a long time, but people are just now “getting it” in the mainstream population.  We are realizing that health is not about the practice of medicine or going to a doctor. Doctors rarely give advice about health.  The model of “disease and cure” is so ingrained in the western medical practice that rarely does a doctor even know a chiropractor or an acupuncturist, let alone an herbalist or energy healer.  They’re in the business of eradicating disease after it happens. The electromagnetic pulses in the body control the body’s chemistry.  If your body were compared to a construction site, you’d have the bricks and mortar, the workers, and the tools.  Electromagnetic fields are the power source for the tools! Electromagnetic charges wake up your cells.  You perform better and have more energy.  As we age, we need more energy to perform the same tasks, so recharges become even more important. Abel:  I’m a really light sleeper.  I used to wake up at bizarre times through the night, and sleep is so important and necessary.  I tried herbs, drugs, and intervention.  Nothing worked.  Then I realized that there was electricity all around me.  I got into grounding, and then Earth Pulse.  It hacks the electromagnetic field to induce sleep—and it worked! Pulse magnetic fields cause resonant effects in the body.  For example, when you hit a glass of water with a fork, you can see the waves in the water.  Or when you sit too close to a loud speaker, you can feel your body vibrate. The Earth Solar Pulse sends a vibration at a specific frequency into the brain and body to slow the mind down.  When you are anxious or hyperalert, your brain is vibrating at a very high frequency—even up to 50 Hz.  If you’re hitting the pillow at 40 Hz, you’re not going to be able to fall asleep very easily.  You need to slow down to about 13 Hz or lower. Placing a magnetic system under your pillow lowers your brain frequency so that you can fall asleep easier.  With some of the systems I’ve tested, my frequency is reset so low that I fall asleep while reading. These systems are great for people who aren’t ready to meditate.   It’s like instant meditation! A room full of grandfather clocks with their pendulums all swinging at different intervals will eventually shift so that they’re all swinging in unison.  Our brain cells are electrical, and like the grandfather clock pendulums, will begin to resonate to the vibrations around them.  The magnetic systems harness that tendency to help us reach the frequencies we desire for the intended outcome. The Schumann Resonance is an electromagnetic wave that exists between the Earth’s crust and the edge of the ionosphere- about 55km up.  It’s not there all the time, but has to be excited by something like lightening.  If there is a storm in Sri Lanka, it’s going to affect your brain (in the U.S.) in a few seconds because those wavelengths are so long.  *The earth’s Schuman Resonance is generally steady at around 8 Hz. Your cell phones, computers, wifi, television and other gadgets put out their own pulse magnetic field.  These frequencies can work to “charge you up.”  Such frequencies as classical guitar or mellow music work to bring your frequency back down. The Harmony USB is geared to the Schumann Resonance.  You simply plug the USB into your computer and it stimulates you at 7.83 cps.  When your brain is set to this frequency, you experience enhanced performance and relaxation.  It works to harmonize you against all of the external electromagnetic stimulation that’s been jangling your nerves. PMF works on your body is basic ways- it transcends disease.  Electromagnetic therapy is the complete opposite of modern medicine’s “1,000 treatments for 1,000 diseases” approach.  This therapy will drop the inflammation in your tissues down without using drugs. Doctors have to be re-educated, and that’s challenging.  Currently, medical instruction and protocols are managed by the institutions with money- Drug companies, research institutions, colleges. In order to be a good doctor, you have to be a nerd.  You have to reach outside the house of medicine, you have to read and study and really be interested in learning about all of the alternatives.

Dr. Bill Pawluk is definitely NOT one of those “overnight experts.”  Far from it.  He’s got 25 years of experience in acupuncture, homeopathy, hypnosis and bodywork.   In this week's episode, he talks about how the electric vibrations all around us affect our bodies and brains…and how we can use electromagnetic therapy for healing. You may have seen Dr. Pawluk on the Dr. Oz show, or perhaps heard him on the radio.  He’s an international expert in the use of electromagnetic fields for health and healing and a board certified family physician practicing holistic medicine in Baltimore.  Bill and I have crossed paths several times over the last couple of years, but I’m super excited to actually have him sharing his wealth of knowledge about electromagnetism with us on the Fat Burning Man Show.  I think you’re really going to dig it. We touch on a lot of great topics, including: Harnessing electricity for healing the body and mind. Why doctors rarely talk about health. How personal electromagnetic field systems balance your brain. Why nerds make the best doctors. Improving athletic performance with electromagnetic field therapy. How electromagnetism reduces inflammation. If you’ve ever felt drained after spending a ton of time on your computer… and then rejuvenated when you lay on the grass in your yard or dig your feet into the sand at the beach, you’re experiencing the incredible effects of electromagnetism.  It’s really incredible.   HERE’S THE SHOW IN WRITING! What is the concept of electricity as it relates to the human body?   Electricity is something we use all the time in our day-to-day lives—to power our lights and gadgets, to operate our cars and cook our meals.  But how it works within our own bodies is often a mystery.  Here’s the basic outline: Your tissues are made of molecules—the building block of chemistry. Every atom within every molecule is an electromagnet—this is physics.   The laws of physics govern everything, including the atoms that comprise the molecules which comprise the tissues of your body. By manipulating those atomic electromagnets, you can manipulate your body into wellness. The practice of electromagnetic therapy has been around for a long time, but people are just now “getting it” in the mainstream population.  We are realizing that health is not about the practice of medicine or going to a doctor.   Doctors rarely give advice about health.  The model of “disease and cure”is so ingrained in the western medical practice that rarely does a doctor even know a chiropractor or an acupuncturist, let alone an herbalist or energy healer.  They’re in the business of eradicating disease after it happens. The electromagnetic pulses in the body control the body’s chemistry.  If your body were compared to a construction site, you’d have the bricks and mortar, the workers, and the tools.  Electromagnetic fields are the power source for the tools!   Electromagnetic charges wake up your cells.  You perform better and have more energy.  As we age, we need more energy to perform the same tasks, so recharges become even more important. Abel:  I’m a really light sleeper.  I used to wake up at bizarre times through the night, and sleep is so important and necessary.  I tried herbs, drugs, and intervention.  Nothing worked.  Then I realized that there was electricity all around me.  I got into grounding, and then Earth Pulse.  It hacks the electromagnetic field to induce sleep—and it worked! Pulse magnetic fields cause resonant effects in the body.  For example, when you hit a glass of water with a fork, you can see the waves in the water.  Or when you sit too close to a speaker thunking bass, you can feel your body vibrate.R The Earth Solar Pulse sends a vibration at a specific frequency into the brain and body to slow the mind down.  When you are anxious or hyperalert, your brain is vibrating at a very high frequency—even up to 50 Hz.  If you’re hitting the pillow at 40 Hz, you’re not going to be able to fall asleep very easily.  You need to slow down to about 13 Hz or lower. Placing a magnetic system under your pillow lowers your brain frequency so that you can fall asleep easier.  With some of the systems I’ve tested, my frequency is reset so low that I fall asleep while reading. These systems are great for people who aren’t ready to meditate.   It’s like instant meditation! A room full of grandfather clocks with their pendulums all swinging at different intervals will eventually shift so that they’re all swinging in unison.  Our brain cells are electrical, and like the grandfather clock pendulums, will begin to resonate to the vibrations around them.  The magnetic systems harness that tendency to help us reach the frequencies we desire for the intended outcome. The Schumann Resonance is an electromagnetic wave that exists between the Earth’s crust and the edge of the ionosphere- about 55km up.  It’s not there all the time, but has to be excited by something like lightening.  If there is a storm in Sri Lanka, it’s going to affect your brain (in the U.S.) in a few seconds because those wavelengths are so long.  *The earth’s Schuman Resonance is generally steady at around 8 Hz. Your cell phones, computers, wifi, television and other gadgets put out their own pulse magnetic field.  These frequencies can work to “charge you up.”  Such frequencies as classical guitar or mellow music work to bring your frequency back down. The Harmony USB is geared to the Schumann Resonance.  You simply plug the USB into your computer and it stimulates you at 7.83 cps.  When your brain is set to this frequency, you experience enhanced performance and relaxation.  It works to harmonize you against all of the external electromagnetic stimulation that’s been jangling your nerves. PMF works on your body is basic ways- it transcends disease.  Electromagnetic therapy is the complete opposite of modern medicine’s “1,000 treatments for 1,000 diseases” approach.  This therapy will drop the inflammation in your tissues down without using drugs. Doctors have to be re-educated, and that’s challenging.  Currently, medical instruction and protocols are managed by the institutions with money- Drug companies, research institutions, colleges.   In order to be a good doctor, you have to be a nerd.  You have to reach outside the house of medicine, you have to read and study and really be interested in learning about all of the alternatives.  

Watch or listen to this week's episode with Gary Collins...  Gary Collins was a special agent for the FDA. Now, he’s a ruthless consumer watchdog—down in the dirt trying to keep the supplement and pharmaceutical industries clean and honest, which is quite a monumental task. In this week's episode, Gary pulls back the curtain on what the FDA knows that the public doesn’t—information that just may be keeping you from having a lean and healthy body. In this episode, we’ll reveal: The truth about the explosion of "sham supplement" companies — is your vitamin laced? Why you should never trust a diet book written by a celebrity. Which ADHD meds are practically street meth. Overnight “experts,” and why they are usually just clever marketers. How and where to buy good quality supplements that are safe. This interview is so raw and honest that I was absolutely shocked by some of the things I learned. Do yourself, and the health of your family a huge favor and watch this episode! Gary also just released The Organic Caveman, and it covers everything from GMO’s to polyculture and teaches you how to bring organic food into your lifestyle. Check it out on his website. SHOW NOTES: I grew up an athlete and self-admitted redneck—hunting and fishing. I went to college for criminal justice and health science. After college, I went into the military. After that, I worked in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. When I burned out on investigation, I ended up in the FDA where I went out of the frying pan and into the fire. What does a special agent job for the FDA look like? It’s working with all the different agencies investigation crimes. It involves search warrants and affidavits just like any other type of investigation—only we’re investigating cases of counterfeit drugs, food, supplements, scam companies. Stuff like that. We’re going after that guy who’s selling you a cream that actually has an active drug ingredients when it’s not supposed to. Or the online Viagra that has too much active ingredient or is nothing but sawdust. What kinds of consumer goods are being counterfeited? One time, I found a case of counterfeited Campbell’s Soup, and I’ve found counterfeit catsup, too. Centrum vitamins have been counterfeited in China for years. These scam artists make it almost impossible for us to shut them down. They put up a complicated web of shells and fronts and an endless succession of new companies. If you shut one down, they pop up in a new name with the same product the next day. Supplements are not regulated by the FDA. There’s good and bad to that. It’s good because we can do what we want—and it’s bad because the bad guys can do what they want, too. HOW TO AVOID SHAM SUPPLEMENTS: Don’t go to Walmart (or whatever big box store) and buy whichever bottle is 50% off. Do that and you’re rolling the dice, and you’ll probably end up causing more harm than good. Use common sense. If it sounds too good to be true (“Lose 100 pounds eating anything you want!” for example.), then it probably is. If it’s really cheap, it’s probably garbage. Never buy from multi-level marketing companies. If a product is good, why would you need everyone in your family and neighborhood to sell it in order to buy it? It makes no sense. In my [Gary’s] many years of experience, I have yet to find a good MLM company product. NEVER buy supplements off of Ebay. You really do not know what you’re getting. Don’t buy on Amazon, unless you’re buying directly from the source. When you go to a product page on Amazon, there’s a little box that tells you the seller. Don’t just look at that box, actually click on it. That will take you to the seller’s page. If the link you follow goes to a different company than what’s “listed” as the seller, don’t buy the supplement. It’s a scam. Stay away from supplements that are owned by big pharmaceutical or personal care companies. Sometimes a small company puts out a great product, then they’re bought by big business and the formulas all change. HOW TO FIND QUALITY SUPPLEMENTS: Go to your small, local health food store. The employees running the vitamin and supplement section are usually well-trained and have experience in the area. Ask them which brand supplement is best for whatever you’re trying to address. Make sure they know you’re serious and you don’t want any BS. Go to an expert for advice or to order your supplements. Find someone who’s not a supplement store [such as Gary] to order your supplements from, but make sure they’re well-trusted and have a solid background in wellness. Make sure the supplement you buy is lab tested. If it’s not, then anything could be in there and they could make any claim they want. Ask people who are on it. That’s really the best way to find something good—just be wary if someone has fantastic results on a cheap-o supplement. Sham companies will sometimes lace just a few of each batch with performance-enhancing drugs to amp up the hype over this “miracle” product. Go for small brands that have been around a while. Like Megafoods is a good example. This means they have some credibility. Do your homework, it’s your body we’re talking about! Counterfeit supplements can be worthless, or dangerous, or both. Some supplements are doped to get results, but they don’t always dope the entire line. They’ll drop in an active drug so some random consumer will get a bottle and feel great, but the next time they purchase it, there will be no effects at all. Oops, and it’s too late for that 30-day money back guarantee! HERBS can be loaded with heavy metals and toxins. Even with the USDA organics, you just don’t know anymore because the process isn’t regulated. What kind of water are they using? Where are the herbs grown? Are they using herbicides and pesticides? Which ones? Is this organic farm built on top of an old farm that might still be leaching chemicals? If you’re private labeling, you can start a supplement company online for a few hundred bucks. This means that you just slap your company branding on a bottle of supplements made by the larger manufacturer. There are new private labeled brands popping up every single day, and the problem is that you just don’t know what you’re getting. ADhD meds for children are just one atom off from street meth. *In fact, patients taking a methamphetamine for ADhD can often test positive on a drug test, and can have a propensity for addiction. Everyone wants a quick fix, but the only way to optimal health is slow and steady. Take a couple of new supplements at a time, max. Throw on your running shoes and get moving. Eat right. There is no magic bottle. And for gosh sakes… Don’t take advice from celebrities! TV sells controversy and star-power. Cameron Diaz recently wrote a book on total optimal health. Fine, great for her that she found what works in her life. But what’s the point of the book? It’s to make money. She doesn’t have a background in health. She’s never consulted with clients and seen the straight-on effects of what she’s slinging. It just doesn’t make sense. Abel: The thing that got me sick was listening to the wrong doctors and relying on celebrity books. Gary: I’ve investigated a lot of doctors during my career, so there was a time that I didn’t go to a doctor for two years because I was only seeing the bad ones. There are good out there, too. RED FLAG= someone claiming to be a health expert when they have no background in the field. One of these “overnight experts” once said that because modern medicine has it all wrong, it’s better to start with a blank template. That guy had never had a biology or biochemistry class. No nutrition or physiology. Hmmm, who knows more? If someone has “learned the secret” to optimal health, or they’ve “uncovered a hidden ingredient” like in Subway’s bread, that doesn’t mean they’re a health expert. That one ingredient in Subway bread isn’t what’s making our nation fat and sick. It’s eating that garbage in the first place that’s doing it. That person with one secret or one find has no background in anything related to health but suddenly they’re a sensation. Best to turn the other way… and run! Gary’s got three books out, available on his website and on Amazon: Primal Power Method Change Your…

Amy Clover has battled her own demons, and won.  Now she helps other people take back the power to fight their own demons through fitness and positive action.  Amy is the founder of StrongInsideOut.com and the driving force behind the 2014 Strong Inside Out Tour. When you talk to Amy, she seems like the epitome of strength, endurance, and physical health.  She’s also funny and upbeat.  You’d never guess that just seven years ago she was ready to end her life.  She was struggling with depression and OCD, and when she was put into a psychiatric hospital against her will, she knew she had to get back in the driver’s seat. But the message she got from just about everyone was that these demons were something she’d have to live with her whole life… and that maybe with medication she could at least exist. Then she stumbled into fitness-- and finally felt in control. Now, seven years later, Amy knows how to play that daily mental game and win—and she’s sharing her mad demon-slaying skills with anyone who wants to listen.  Here’s what we talk about on the show:   The one thing the fitness industry downplays, but shouldn’t. Why we need to become “anti-fragile.” How pushing yourself to the point of struggle makes you stronger. Workout advice for women—and Amy’s “happy foods.” Changing your body to change your brain. So, check out the show below.  Check out Amy’s web site, or hit up the tour near you… because who doesn’t have a few demons to slay?     SHOW NOTES Amy says that she dyed her hair red to look more like Jean Grey from X Men… and she certainly does have the strength and resilience of a super hero.  She keeps things light as we talk about a very heavy subject—depression, suicide, and digging your way out of it all. When Amy was in high school, she was dismissed as one of the bad kids.  Clinically depressed and diagnosed with OCD, she would hold it all inside until she’d finally let it go and lash out. Most adults in her life didn’t want to dig any deeper, so they just slapped a label on her and dealt with her as a problem that couldn’t be fixed. In her 20’s, Amy tried to end it all by putting a knife to her wrist.  Her roommate found her like this and had her call the suicide prevention hotline.  The hotline saved her life that night, and the next morning she checked herself into the hospital. She was hospitalized against her will, which is when she realized what it felt like to have no choice.  To have no control. When she left the hospital she realized that she had to make some changes.  It was when she found fitness that she started to play the mental game every day, and win. The thing that much of the fitness industry downplays is the internal struggle.  Our understanding of physical education or physical culture is very detached.  But it’s very much integrated with our minds and the rest of our wellbeing.   We can cure, treat, or prevent almost every disease out there with diet and exercise.  That includes both physical and mental illness.  Exercise is about changing the brain. What is the mental thing going on when you work out, when you push yourself?  Rigorous exercise elevates the brain derived neurotrophic factor.  There’s a book called “Spark” that explains the scientific side of it really well.  But when you’re pushing yourself in the gym, you’re essentially training yourself for real life.  You push yourself to the edge of discomfort, and then you have that feeling of success. For so long, we’ve wanted to make things easy.  But we’re discovering that we need challenge, we need some level of discomfort in order for our brains to grow.  When you’re, say, going to do some weight lifting, you have to ask yourself, “Can I lift this, or not?”  There’s that second of being unsure, maybe a bit uncomfortable.  Then you assess the risk and push yourself just a tiny bit further. You are exercising your body, and your resolve.  You’re working your resilience.  We’ve shied away from struggle for so long, but we absolutely need to push ourselves.  You just don’t want to take it too far.  You wouldn’t start out your first day weightlifting by dead lifting 200 pounds. We need to become “anti-fragile.”  The strongest people… and animals… thrive during a struggle. To help you empower yourself, you need to find something you want to “get uncomfortable about.”  Maybe it’s leaving your job.  That’s exciting, but uncomfortable, right?  You need to think about what kind of life you want to land in after you take that leap… and get that all set up so you have solid ground to put your feet on when you walk away.  It’s the same thing with fitness.  It’s not about taking ridiculous risks.  It’s about taking calculated risks that move you in the right direction. When do you know when you get there?  You never get there.  You are always pushing those limits, every day.  It’s about the moment.   There’s a shift from being the victim of circumstance to celebrating the fact that you’re in control.  It’s incredible when you realize that you’re in the driver’s seat. What changed for you?  Amy:  I joined a gym.  I was acting at the time and needed to lose a few pounds.  I hopped on an elliptical and powered through intervals.  My brain was just firing off explosions of adrenaline.  I started to feel like I could handle things in day to day life. If I could stumble upon it on accident, think about what people in the depths of darkness could do going into it with intention!  That’s when I started really helping people empower themselves. How do you help someone get out of that dark place?  Just tell them to get outside and move in some way.  Take that first step.  Even if it’s just walking around the block, that movement can be transformational.  Something as simple as a daily walk has been shown to be more effective long-term than prescription medication.  Why don’t we just make better decisions?  It’s not a one-stop shop—the effects of exercise aren’t immediate, like popping a pill.  But regular aerobic exercise has been proven more effective than Zoloft for treating depression when used consistently.  If you just do one workout- no.  You have to stick with it. You must have the will, and the knowledge that you’re doing it for a bigger reason.  Knowing your “why” is what drives your actions. Success stories of people using Amy’s Phoenix Method are everywhere.  It’s not necessary to hit rock bottom before you rise from the ashes.  You just have to realize that the life you’re living is not the life you want, but not in despair—in mindfulness. How should women exercise?   First, I want to tell you that big weights won’t make you big.  There is a lot of misinformation out there.   Just start by doing what makes you happy and gets you active.  Move to feel better. As far as diet goes, the wild diet helps me feel more emotionally level and feeds into better performance during workouts.  The point is that you’re eating to fuel your body and for nutrition. Be careful about high-intensity workouts.  I live by the hit workouts, but if you do them multiple times a week you won’t be able to deal well emotionally.  You can do some aerobic exercise in between to help keep you balanced.  You just want to get your heart going. Don’t be extreme.  It doesn’t help.   How should women eat? As far as nutrition, I have to tell you to be wary of a low carb diet.  Eat your healthy carbs, and it’s okay to add in some brown rice and quinoa once in a while.  These are my happy foods.  Sometimes women need a few healthy gluten-free grains or carbs, especially during their period.  Just don’t overdo them. The right answer is always, “It depends.”  What does low-carb mean?  Amy’s a fan of the 90% rule.  Eat wild 90% of the time, and if you’re working out and maintaining a healthy lifestyle, it’s okay to indulge once in a while. The biggest things you should avoid are sugar and most grains.  Stick to real, whole foods, but be relaxed about it.  Don’t make yourself crazy with deprivation and then binge.  Your ideal diet may vary, but it’s about learning to trust the natural intention of your body, the strength of your brain, and your willpower. The cleaner you get by eating a real food diet, the more bad foods will affect your body and brain.  So much so that you may even decide that they’re just not worth it. Keep treats as treats.  Food marketing has gotten so ridiculous, there’s even marshmallows in cereal.  We’ve forgotten that sweets should be for special occasions, celebrations, and reserved for rare occasions—not eaten for breakfast. The Strong Inside Out Tour is hitting major cities throughout the U.S. and Canada.  Some cities are having entire weekends dedicated to celebrating life.  There are wellness workshops and opportunities to work with Amy, and 50% of the ticket sales go straight to the suicide prevention charity, To Write Love on Her Arms.  There’s an Indiegogo campaign set up for the tour, so you can check it out there and get involved.

  Kevin Johnson is the owner of Zero Gravity Institute, the float spa in Austin, Texas where I go for my weekly one-hour floats.  We get a chance to chat outside of the spa in this week’s show. You may be scratching your head thinking, “What in the heck is a float?”  Well, unlike what might come to mind for many of you-- ice cream scooped into root beer, this kind of float is incredibly good for your body, mind, and spirit.  Maybe you’ve seen the float references plastered all over the blogosphere lately.  If not, here’s the basic idea: It’s total sensory deprivation.  You slip into a chamber that’s about the size of a large walk-in closet or a small room where you float in about twelve inches of highly salt-saturated water in complete silence and darkness. The water has been filled with 1,200 pounds of Epsom salt, so you become incredibly buoyant, to the point that gravity is nonexistent.  The water is warmed to skin receptor neutral, 93.5˚F.  You register neither warm nor cold.  Without gravity, temperature, light, or sound, you fall into a state of complete relaxation. Sound good?  Let me tell you, when you walk out of the float spa you feel like you’ve had the best massage of your life… but even better!  In this show, Kevin and I talk about: How a good float gets creative juices flowing. The past, present, and future of floating… from the deprivation tank to float spa! The major benefits of floating for athletes. 100 floats in 100 days:  Kevin’s exploration of the mind. Tapping into other states of consciousness. Why our overstimulated brains need time to reboot. SHOW NOTES When I first walked into the float spa, I have to admit, I was skeptical.  How could something so ridiculously simple actually help?  I was completely blown away. In 1954, a neuroscientist, physician, and psychoanalyst at the National Institute of Mental Health, John C. Lilly created the sensory deprivation tank to explore human consciousness.  Without stimuli, would I cease to exist?  Would I shut off?  He set out to answer some of these questions. Why would this process be beneficial for the average Jane or Joe? The float tank removes 90% of the brain and body’s workload.  At any given moment of your regular life, you are operating in sympathetic response mode.  That means you’re sensitive to all the flashing lights, beeping sounds, bodies around you, air conditioning, hot stove, etc. etc.  This is good for survival.  It helps you navigate the world without walking out into traffic or putting the food in the wrong orifice. As society gets more and more filled with sensory stimulation (think smartphones, microwaves, car horns, music, flashing screens, barking dogs, TV newscasters), we spend less and less time in a parasympathetic environment.  Our brains are so overwhelmed that we can’t shut off. Your body and brain need time to do the background work, to heal and rejuvenate.  The floating tank gives you that time.  Once your body switches into that healing mode, it starts to reallocate its resources.  You get extra digestion, enzyme production, endorphins, and neurotransmitters. Even in a really good massage, you’re still responding to stimuli.  With floating, you come out feeling completely rejuvenated.  Your endorphin load is boosted up and your brain chemistry is in balance.  It’s like “fasting for the brain.” What do you DO for sixty minutes in total darkness and silence?  First off, all concept of time disappears.  It’s like you’ve been in a dream state.  When you “wake up,” you recall moments of clarity but have no real sense of time.  When the light comes on slowly and gently, it’s the closest thing you’ll ever experience to heaven on earth. People might have images of the cult sci-fi film “Altered States!” What is it actually like when you walk into the spa?  At first, it’s very much a spa-like experience. You sit in some of the most deluxe massage chairs you’ve ever seen and get a fifteen minute, very relaxing massage. Moving into your private room, you shower and wash your hair.  Then you climb into the float tank and lay down on your back in the satiated salt-water.  Don’t worry, it would take serious core strength to flip yourself over… so no need to fear drowning.  This water is five times denser than the salt water of the Dead Sea! You close your eyes and the camber closes.  The lights dim and finally, you are in complete sensory deprivation.  A parasympathetic environment. When the lights come gently back on, you step out of the tank and shower again.  Dressed and ready to meet the world, everything outside the room will seem sharper.  Your senses will be heightened, but not in a tense fight-or-flight kind of way.  Your creative juices might be flowing, and your body will feel rejuvenated. Instead of taking a pill to attack specific symptoms, the deprivation tank removes all of the body’s extra work so it can focus on healing. Some of the reasons people seek out the float spas are: Relaxation Recovery (especially athletes) Cognitive function Boost creativity Increase intuitive mind Increase problem solving skills Become a super-learner Help with attention deficit/ learning ability Healing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Mind expansion Altered states of reality Exploration Meditation Even though the positive effects of sensory deprivation are well documented, the practice is just now reemerging.  Why?  It seems like it would be all over the schools, hospitals, retreat centers…  From the 1950’s to the 1970’s, sensory deprivation tanks were mainly tucked away in the basements of University psychology departments to be used for drug and teaching methodology research.  But in the late 70’s, sensory deprivation became a commercial venture. Kevin:  I started working for Samadhi in L.A. in the mid 1980’s.  I went in and did my first float… and whoa.  I never would have believed I could reach that state of consciousness.  I made another appointment, and the owners offered me a job.  I learned a lot from talking to people when they finished their sessions.  You’d have fifty people and fifty different stories. It’s amazing when you suddenly realize, “Oh, I’m driving!”  You are totally in charge of where your consciousness goes. What are the benefits of floating for athletes? First off, the Epsom salt is a muscle relaxer.  When you achieve zero gravity in that Epsom bath, your muscular system lets go, allowing your skeletal system to readjust. When you remove gravity, you experience a vasodilatory effect.  Your veins, muscles, and blood vessels expand leading to a drop in blood pressure and heart rate and increased circulation. Everything is suddenly working.  Fresh blood cells are moving through tissues and muscles, and the system is moving oxygen around the body to feed the muscles. When you’re in a flight-or-flight stress mode (as many of us usually are), your blood rushes to your extremities.  In sensory deprivation, your blood seeks the core, which promotes rapid healing. The reason floating is recently regaining popularity is because we are all so technologically overstimulated.  We love our smart phones and laptops, our navigation systems and coffee makers.  But such things are constantly shouting at us… we are nailed by a steady stream of beeps!  What we will see over the next few years is a return to simplicity.  We will get back to the core, back to nature.  We NEED to come back.  Until then, we need a time to reboot, even if it’s just for an hour a week. The technological age takes place in an evolutionary blink of the eye.  We used to spend hours every day sitting at the edge of a grassland waiting for dinner to walk by.  We had time to contemplate, to think, to daydream.  It’s really remarkable that we can even survive in today’s stress-filled world. I’ve been able to get to the parasympathetic state a few other times in life, through music and meditation.  But it’s not quite as deep, and it’s not as quick.  As a musician, or any kind of artist, coming out of a float gets you straight into a creative mode. The goal of floating is long-term:  It allows you to eventually put yourself into a deep meditative state whenever and wherever you need it.  This is the reprogramming of the brain that is clearly illustrated in John Lilly’s book “Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer.” For people who don’t or can’t meditate, the float tank is like the “easy button.” Kevin tells the story of floating healing symptoms of PTSD:  There was a veteran whom had been suffering from PTSD for six years, and was heavily medicated.  He found floating, and after just four sessions was taken off all of his…