A Beach Ready Body
Summer is right around the corner and unless you have a thorough grip on nutrition you probably don’t “really” know what to be pulling off the shelves and feeding to your family. We are going to assist you with that at FitLife.tv
My philosophy, is…
If it is out of sight it truly is out of mind and that starts with an action plan. Only your action plan for the grocery store is a list. Let’s just get straight to this…
Here is our FitLife Grocery List.
Download HereAlso, if you need help preparing healthy food packed with energy, vitality and longevity get our recipe book today.
Here is our recipe book! Click Here!
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Healthy Recipe: Coconut Lemongrass Chicken!
Healthy Chicken Dinner Recipe
Thank you again to the beautiful Stephanie McKay for her incredible contributions to Fitlife.tv!
Coconut Lemongrass Chicken with Grilled Bok Choy
2 chicken breasts, salt and pepper
1 tbsp whole wheat flour
1 can coconut milk
4 stalks lemongrass, bruised and rough chopped
½ diced onion
1 diced bell pepper
1 cup sliced shitake mushroom
2 cloves minced garlic
1 tbsp fresh ginger, minced
1 tbsp curry powder
Zest of 1 lime and juice
Red pepper flakes, as desired
Dash of Stevia
Garnish: Scallion and cilantro
Directions:
In a separate pan, steep lemongrass in coconut milk for 10 minutes to infuse flavor. Lightly dust seasoned chicken in flour and sear in oil until half cooked. Add all vegetables, ginger, lime, and sauté for 2 minutes. Strain lemongrass from coconut and add milk into pan along with the curry powder and red pepper. For a little more sweetness, add a drop of Stevia or a sprinkle of Stevia powder. Simmer for 15-20 minutes or until chicken is tender and reads 165 degrees on a thermometer.
Serve with plenty of sauce and garnish with fresh cilantro, green onion, and more red pepper flakes.
Grilled Baby Bok Choy:
5 bok choy leaves, trimmed and cleaned
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsbp soy sauce
Pepper
Brush bok choy with oil. Drizzle soy sauce and pepper. Then grill! Make sure you do not overcook the leaves, they should be just wilted.
Let us know if you make this amazing chicken dinner and what your guests say. 
This is sure to be a hit!
Also for more recipes just like this, check out our cookbook in the store. Click Here.
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Read More »Brady Bunch “Treat meal” Apple Stuffed Pork Chops
Healthy Recipe – Pork Chops
Thanks to Stephanie McKay for this awesome recipe
Apple Mixture:
1 cup diced apple (a sweeter variety)
1 tbsp minced shallot
1 tsp molasses
1 tbsp fresh thyme
Saute all ingredients together until apples are semi-soft
Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and preheat oil in skillet. Prepare the pork chops by making a horizontal cut in the side of the chop, creating a pocket; stuff with apple mixture. Season and brown chop in oil for 2 minutes on each side. Prepare glaze.
Balsamic/Dijon Glaze:
¼ cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
Bake for about 20 minutes. Remove pork chops and top with glaze, continue to bake until the middle of the pork chop reads 160 degrees (about 10 more minutes.)
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Read More »One of the BEST Breakfasts to Eat for a Muscular Body
The Warrior Diet
Ori Hofmekler, author of The Warrior Diet, The Anti-Estrogenic Diet, Maximum Muscle Minimum Fat, and the upcoming book Unlocking the Muscle Gene, is an expert on how to build muscle and improve your health with foods.
In this interview, Ori shares his insights about the timing of your meals to optimize your health.
Sources:
Video Transcript
Dr. Mercola’s Comments:
You probably realize the importance of your food choices, but does it matter when you eat? Yes, it does. To shed some light on this issue, I asked fitness expert Ori Hofmekler to share his insights.
What to Eat for Breakfast
You need to be very particular with your meal size and food choices. Contrary to popular opinion, the morning is not the ideal time to eat large meals because during this time your body is in elimination (detox) mode.
When your metabolic system is operating well, you’ll find that you have to go to the bathroom each morning, like clockwork. This is important in order to effectively eliminate toxins and prevent disease. Unfortunately, constipation is an extremely common problem, and part of the reason for this is that your body is not “set” to eliminate properly due to poor diet and improper meal timing.
So, if you’re constipated, or do not automatically eliminate every morning, it’s a giant clue you need to re-examine what and when you eat.
Ori recommends eating only detoxifying foods until noontime, such as:
Vegetables
Low glycemic fruits such as berries, papayas or green apples
Light protein, such as whey protein
Whey Protein—The Ideal Morning Fuel
Not only will whey protein satiate your hunger until lunch rolls around, it can also help you reap greater benefits if you exercise in the morning.
A recent study published in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports & Exercise, demonstrated that consuming whey protein (20g protein / serving) 30 minutes before resistance training boosts your body’s metabolism for as much as 24 hours after your workout!
It appears as though the amino acids found in high quality whey protein activate certain cellular mechanisms (including mTORC-1), which in turn promote muscle protein synthesis, boost thyroid, and also protect against declining testosterone levels after exercise.
This is in stark contrast to athletes who load up on carbs to fuel their workouts. Although popular with many, “carb loading” is a mistake, particuarly for people engaged in intense strength training, as you will burn carb fuel very quickly and then “hit the wall.” The same goes for most people who start their day with muffins, bagels, or pancakes for example. This type of breakfast typically ignites a vicious cycle of hunger and snacking on even more carbs. And the more you continue eating these carb snacks, the more insulin resistant you become.
The Proper Time to Eat—Before and After Your Morning Workout
In practical terms, consuming 20-30 grams of whey protein with no sugar added 30 minutes before exercise, and another serving 30-60 minutes afterward can help increase both fat burning and muscle building. If you are only going to do one whey meal, then the one after your workout is really crucial. That’s if you are seeking to increase muscle growth with strength training.
Ori explains: “During exercise, especially resistance, or strength training, you cause muscle microtrauma. Usually it’s a good thing because this microtrauma actually stimulates muscle development, but this muscle microtrauma impairs glucose utilization in your muscle for about 30 minutes up to an hour, and sometimes more.
This is the wrong time to put carb fuel into the muscle.
But since we are not putting carbohydrates in the meal it’s fine to have your recovery meal about 30 minutes after exercise.
If you exercised properly, you’re not really hungry in the first 30 minutes anyway. And if you feel very hungry, you didn’t exercise well. When hunger peaks up—you typically sense it 30 minutes or an hour later—that’s the right time to eat. So listen to your body.”
Another reason why eating directly after exercise is discouraged has to do with the fact that your body shuts down digestion during intense exercise, and it takes a little while before your body is ready to start digesting food.
Stressed? Watch Your Portion Sizes
Stress shuts down digestion. This is also why Ori recommends eating smaller meals during the working (stressful) hours of the day. In short, your body cannot adequately process a large meal if you’re constantly on the run—physically or mentally.
Whey protein seems to provide great nourishment under those circumstances. That’s if it’s high quality. Whey protein yields the fastest nutrient delivery. It will only remain in your system for 15 to 30 minutes, so it’s very easily digestible and assimilated—providing you with the highest amino acid score than all protein foods. And incredibly, it also gives you a great energy boost without over-spiking your insulin.
Yet another benefit of whey is that it promotes production of satiety peptides which help maintain your testosterone and thyroid hormones at healthy levels.
The Ideal Breakfast Combination
As I’ve shared before, whey protein is the staple of my morning meal. I consume one serving prior to exercise, and one after, as described above. The other components I add to my shake are:
Raw eggs
Raw organic coconut oil (about one teaspoon)
De-fatted chia seed fiber and protein powder
Two Complete Probiotics
One vitamin K2
The remainder, however, forms an ideal meal for that first part of your day.
“Dairy and eggs compliment each other,” Ori explains. “Basically, they enhance each others amino acid score… they belong to a similar family that has similar components… Both are naturally designed to support development and growth.
Coconut… does add good fuel. It’s the best fat fuel during the active hours of the day… with antibacterial properties… It’s also stable. It doesn’t get rancid, so it’s a very good choice.”
I used to use coconut milk but have switched to Fresh Shores Extra Virgin coconut oil due to concerns about BPA and phthalates in the lining of the cans. As long as you are using a hand mixer it will mix very nicely and you will not notice any solid chunks. The blender also works very nicely for mixing the eggs very well so there isn’t any texture issue to be concerned with.
As for the choice of milk, both raw milk from sheep and goat are rich and alpha lactalalbumin, and the raw milk creates a wonderful synergy with the whey. Whey is, of course, a part of milk to begin with, but when you add raw milk to it, you actually get something similar to human breast milk, according to Ori.
One caveat with using raw milk is that it slows the absorption of the whey, so while it’s great in the morning to give you stamina, you’ll want to avoid using it before your workout if you exercise in the afternoon, because at that time your body has entered the burning phase.
“[I]n the afternoon, just take 20-30 grams of whey before exercising,” Ori recommends.
Just be sure that if you decide to mix anything else into it, make sure it’s low-glycemic.
How to Select a High Quality Whey Protein?
Since whey protein is a by-product of dairy, it’s important to make sure it’s derived from grass-fed, non-hormonally treated cows. It should also be minimally processed in order to preserve beneficial immuno components such as immunoglobins, bovine serum albomin, lactoferins, and other key amino acids and nutrients.
Most commercial whey products are derived from pasteurized dairy and processed with heat and acid, which destroys the whey’s fragile Immuno components and damages important amino acids. Many of them also contain chemical additives, detergents and artificial sweeteners, which are known for their health shattering effects. And contrary to popular belief, artificial sweeteners actually sabotage your weight loss efforts by impairing your ability to regulate your appetite naturally.
In addition, you’ll want to look for medium chain triglycerides (MCTs), not long chain fatty acids. MCTs are easily digestible, and they spare branch chain amino acids and leucine from degradation to energy. Hence, they increase the utilization efficiency and anabolic properties of the whey. For more in-depth information about whey protein and its many health benefits, please see my previous interview with Ori on this topic.
A Novel Way to Add Probiotics
Probiotics can also be added to your shake. In fact, probiotics increase the bioavailability of your protein and they play a critical role in protecting your body from waste toxins, pathogenic bacteria, and yeast infections.
One way of doing it is to place it directly into the whey powder. Another option is to open the capsule and pour the probiotics into your raw milk. Then place it in the fridge and let it ferment overnight, or for a few days.
What you end up with is a sour milk that is highly beneficial not just for your digestive system, but also for your cardiovascular system. It will also act as a cofactor for muscle building as they help your body utilize and produce amino acids.
If you are looking for a guide/diet to setup your new regime. Buy our book here. Click Here.
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Via Mercola.com
The Potentially Lethal Side-Effect of Benzocaine
Benzocaine is a local anesthetic commonly used as a topical pain reliever. You can also find it in cough drops, throat sprays, and gels or liquids used for teething and canker sores (cold sores).
However, you need to be careful when using these products, especially on children. The FDA is now sounding the alarm as they continue receiving reports of methemoglobinemia, which is a potentially life threatening side effect of the drug.
This side effect has been reported with all strengths of benzocaine gels and liquids, including a single dose of benzocaine throat spray. They’re now advising against the use of benzocaine products on children under the age of two, as most of the cases included infants given teething gel containing benzocaine.
Methemoglobinemia is a condition in which the amount of oxygen in your blood stream is greatly reduced. In severe cases, it can result in death.
Signs and symptoms of this severe adverse reaction include:
Read More »If You Can’t Beat Depression, This Could be Why
Don't Feel Trapped
via Mercola.com
Researchers examined the performance of germ-free mice, who lack gut bacteria, on a kind of maze used to test anxiety-like behaviors. The maze is in the shape of a plus with two open and two closed arms; normally, mice will avoid open spaces to minimize the risk of being seen by predators.
Normal mice, as expected, spent far more time in the closed arms when placed in the maze. The germ-free mice, however, entered the open arms far more often, spending significantly more time there than in the closed arms.
According to the study in Neurogastroenterology & Motility, when they examined the animals’ brains, they found that:
“these differences in behavior were accompanied by alterations in the expression levels of several genes in the germ-free mice. … Bacteria colonize the gut in the days following birth, during a sensitive period of brain development, and apparently influence behavior by inducing changes in the expression of certain genes.”
Sources:
Most people fail to realize that your gut is quite literally your second brain, and actually has the ability to significantly influence your:
- Mind
- Mood
- Behavior
So while modern psychiatry still falsely claims that psychological problems such as depression are caused by a chemical imbalance in your brain, researchers keep finding that depression and a variety of behavioral problems actually appear to be linked to an imbalance of bacteria in your gut!
Germ-Free Mice Engage in High-Risk Behavior
In the featured study published last month in Neurogastroenterology & Motility, mice that lack gut bacteria were found to behave differently from normal mice, engaging in what would be referred to as “high-risk behavior.” This altered behavior was accompanied by neurochemical changes in the mouse brain.
According to the authors, microbiota (your gut flora) may play a role in the communication between your gut and your brain, and:
“Acquisition of intestinal microbiota in the immediate postnatal period has a defining impact on the development and function of the gastrointestinal, immune, neuroendocrine and metabolic systems. For example, the presence of gut microbiota regulates the set point for hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity.”
The neurotransmitter serotonin activates your hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis by stimulating certain serotonin receptors in your brain. Additionally, neurotransmitters like serotonin can also be found in your gut. In fact, the greatest concentration of serotonin, which is involved in mood control, depression and aggression, is found in your intestines, not your brain!
So it actually makes perfect sense to nourish your gut flora for optimal serotonin function as it can have a profound impact on your mood, psychological health, and behavior.
The authors concluded that:
“[T]he presence or absence of conventional intestinal microbiota influences the development of behavior…”
This conclusion adds support to another recent animal study, which also found that gut bacteria may influence mammalian early brain development and behavior. But that’s not all. They also discovered that the absence or presence of gut microorganisms during infancy permanently alters gene expression.
Through gene profiling, they were able to discern that absence of gut bacteria altered genes and signaling pathways involved in learning, memory, and motor control. This suggests that gut bacteria is closely tied to early brain development and subsequent behavior. These behavioral changes could be reversed as long as the mice were exposed to normal microorganisms early in life. But once the germ-free mice had reached adulthood, colonizing them with bacteria did not influence their behavior.
According to Dr. Rochellys Diaz Heijtz, lead author of the study:
“The data suggests that there is a critical period early in life when gut microorganisms affect the brain and change the behavior in later life.”
In a similar way, probiotics have also been found to influence the activity of hundreds of your genes, helping them to express in a positive, disease-fighting manner.
The Gut-Brain Connection
When you consider the fact that the gut-brain connection is recognized as a basic tenet of physiology and medicine, and that there’s no shortage of evidence of gastrointestinal involvement in a variety of neurological diseases, it’s easy to see how the balance of gut bacteria can play a significant role in your psychology and behavior as well.
With this in mind, it should also be crystal clear that nourishing your gut flora is extremely important, from cradle to grave, because in a very real sense you have two brains, one inside your skull and one in your gut, and each needs its own vital nourishment.
Interestingly, these two organs are actually created out of the same type of tissue. During fetal development, one part turns into your central nervous system while the other develops into your enteric nervous system. These two systems are connected via the vagus nerve, the tenth cranial nerve that runs from your brain stem down to your abdomen. This is what connects your two brains together, and explains such phenomena as getting butterflies in your stomach when you’re nervous, for example. (For an interesting and well-written layman’s explanation of this connection, read through Sandra Blakeslee’s 1996 New York Times article Complex and Hidden Brain in Gut Makes Stomachaches and Butterflies.)
Your gut and brain work in tandem, each influencing the other. This is why your intestinal health can have such a profound influence on your mental health, and vice versa.
As a result, it should be obvious that your diet is closely linked to your mental health. Furthermore, it’s requires almost no stretch of the imagination to see how lack of nutrition can have an adverse effect on your mood and subsequently your behavior.
Have We Become Too Sanitized for Our Own Sanity?
Another study published last year in the Archives of General Psychiatry reviewed the evidence for signs that psychiatric problems might be caused by lack of natural microorganisms in soil, food, and the gut. And it did find such a link.
Rates of depression in younger people have steadily grown to outnumber rates of depression in the older populations, and one reason for this could be the lack of exposure to bacteria, both outside and inside your body.
Quite simply, modern society may have gotten too sanitized and pasteurized for our own good.
Fermented foods have been traditional staples in most cultures, but modern food manufacturing, with its focus on killing ALL bacteria in the name of food safety, has eliminated most of these foods. You can still find traditionally fermented foods like natto or kefir, but they’re not the dietary staples they once used to be, and many people don’t like them when trying them out for the first time in adulthood.
When you deprive your child of all this bacteria, her immune system—which is her primary defense system against inflammation—actually gets weaker, not stronger. And higher levels of inflammation are not only a hallmark of heart disease and diabetes, but also of depression.
The authors explain it as follows:
“Significant data suggest that a variety of microorganisms (frequently referred to as the “old friends”) were tasked by coevolutionary processes with training the human immune system to tolerate a wide array of non-threatening but potentially proinflammatory stimuli. Lacking such immune training, vulnerable individuals in the modern world are at significantly increased risk of mounting inappropriate inflammatory attacks on harmless environmental antigens (leading to asthma), benign food contents and commensals in the gut (leading to inflammatory bowel disease), or self-antigens (leading to any of a host of autoimmune diseases).
Loss of exposure to the old friends may promote major depression by increasing background levels of depressogenic cytokines and may predispose vulnerable individuals in industrialized societies to mount inappropriately aggressive inflammatory responses to psychosocial stressors, again leading to increased rates of depression.
… Measured exposure to the old friends or their antigens may offer promise for the prevention and treatment of major depression in modern industrialized societies.”
Researchers around the World have Linked Gut Problems to Brain Disorders
Brain disorders can take many forms, one of which is autism. In this particular area you can again find compelling evidence of the link between brain and gut health. For example, gluten intolerance is frequently a feature of autism, and many autistic children will improve when following a strict gluten-free diet. Many autistic children also tend to improve when given probiotics, either in the form of fermented foods or probiotic supplements.
Dr. Andrew Wakefield is just one of many who have investigated the connection between developmental disorders and bowel disease. He has published about 130-140 peer-reviewed papers looking at the mechanism and cause of inflammatory bowel disease, and has extensively investigated the brain-bowel connection in the context of children with developmental disorders such as autism.
A large number of replication studies have also been performed around the world, by other researchers, confirming the curious link between brain disorders such as autism and gastrointestinal dysfunction. For a list of more than 25 of those studies, please see this previous article.
Other Health Benefits of Probiotics
Your body contains about 100 trillion bacteria — more than 10 TIMES the number of cells you have in your entire body. Ideally, the ratio between the bacteria in your gut is 85 percent “good” and 15 percent “bad.”
In addition to the psychological implications discussed above, a healthy ratio of good to bad gut bacteria is essential for:
- Protection against over-growth of other microorganisms that could cause disease
- Digestion of food and absorption of nutrients
- Digesting and absorbing certain carbohydrates
- Producing vitamins, absorbing minerals and eliminating toxins
- Preventing allergies
Signs of having an excess of unhealthy bacteria in your gut include gas and bloating, fatigue, sugar cravings, nausea, headaches, constipation or diarrhea.
What Interferes With Healthy Gut Bacteria?
Your gut bacteria do not live in a bubble; rather, they are an active and integrated part of your body, and as such are vulnerable to your lifestyle. If you eat a lot of processed foods, for instance, your gut bacteria are going to be compromised because processed foods in general will destroy healthy microflora and feed bad bacteria and yeast.
Your gut bacteria are also very sensitive to:
- Antibiotics
- Chlorinated water
- Antibacterial soap
- Agricultural chemicals
- Pollution
Because of these latter items, to which virtually all of us are exposed at least occasionally, it’s generally a good idea to “reseed” the good bacteria in your gut by taking a high-quality probiotic supplement or eating fermented foods.
Tips for Optimizing Your Gut Bacteria
Getting back to the issue of inflammation for a moment, it’s important to realize that an estimated 80 percent of your immune system is actually located in your gut, which is why you need to regularly reseed your gut with good bacteria.
Additionally, when you consider that your gut is your second brain AND the seat of your immune system, it becomes easy to see how your gut health can impact your brain function, psyche, and behavior, as they are interconnected and interdependent in a number of different ways—several of which are discussed above.
In light of this, here are my recommendations for optimizing your gut bacteria.
- Fermented foods are still the best route to optimal digestive health, as long as you eat the traditionally made, unpasteurized versions. Healthy choices include lassi (an Indian yoghurt drink, traditionally enjoyed before dinner), fermented milk such askefir, various pickled fermentations of cabbage, turnips, eggplant, cucumbers, onions, squash and carrots, and natto(fermented soy).If you regularly eat fermented foods such as these that, again, have not been pasteurized (pasteurization kills the naturally occurring probiotics), your healthy gut bacteria will thrive.
- Probiotic supplement. Although I’m not a major proponent of taking many supplements (as I believe the majority of your nutrients need to come from food), probiotics are definitely an exception. I have used many different brands over the past 15 years and there are many good ones out there. I also spent a long time researching and developing my own, called Complete Probiotics, in which I incorporated everything I have learned about this important tool over the years.If you do not eat fermented foods, taking a high quality probiotic supplement is definitely recommended.
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Enjoy the video,
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Wolverine Workout – Dumbbell Complex
Alright Fitlifers,
You asked for it. Something that you can do from the comfort of your own home. This is called the Wolverine Workout because by doing this it is going to give you the V shape that you are looking for. Ladies, if you would like to tone up your entire body than this is for you as well.
Upward,
Drew
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Leave a comment below, and let us know what you think.
Fit Is The New Rich,
Drew
