December 1st, 2012 Milan
We all know somebody who did everything right taking care of his health. He ate a good diet, exercised regularly and stayed away from toxic materials. His weight is perfect, he looks good, he seems to have a lot of energy, he is happy and feels really good. But he was recently diagnosed with cancer, or heart disease, or Alzheimer’s disease or Parkinson’s disease, or pre diabetes, or diabetes or other kind of scary life threatening disease.
I myself have few very young friends that are looking very healthy, they seem to be doing everything right but they are dying of terminal disease. What is going on? Why these people? While some genetics certainly play some role, I thing the common sense general health recommendation is flawed. Yes, your doctor will tell you to eat healthy diet, exercise for 30 minutes on most days, stay away from the sun, don’t smoke and don’t drink too much alcohol. And your doctor is right for the most part. All this advice is good. And you will probably stay healthy for life following it.
Average health advice is still dangerous to your health
The problem with this advice is, that it is average. And average is just average. The averagely healthy people will be still getting very sick. Yes, they will. And you already know some of them. And it scares us wildly.
I am not exception, I still consider my lifestyle pretty health average like lifestyles of other averagely healthy people. I do average stuff, other average healthy people do. I ate pancakes the other day. I made them myself and used much healthier ingredients, like more eggs and less flour. And I didn’t put any over sweetened crap like strawberry jam on it, but just a little bit of honey. But, this is exactly what average healthy people do. And most probably, they will stay healthy for life if they are lucky enough, including me. So, if my doctor tells me, to get my stuff in order because I am going to die in 3 years, I will know why. Those dam pancakes!
But, beside those pancakes I had 2 days ago, I am getting very close to that invincible like lifestyle. And I strongly believe, that closer you get to that kind of becoming invincible lifestyle, your chances of becoming seriously ill decrease even more.
I don’t think that average in your health is a good state to be. It’s ok to be an average skier or swimmer or to have average IQ, or be an average chess player. But in your own health, average is very, very bad place to be. Your health is the single most valuable think you have and doing everything you can to improve it is everybody’s duty number one. If it’s not, well than you are playing a Russian roulette with miss Death, where the odds are slightly on your side.
Take your doctors advice seriously, but don’t stop there
I believe, that if you take advice from your doctor seriously and then dig even deeper and bring your health protecting lifestyle to the perfection and I am going to show you how, you will become invincible.
What does it mean invincible?
It means, that you will never get cancer, heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, age causing dementia and you will live long and healthy life. So unless you drive your car as fast as my wife does, and climbing Mount Everest is not on your to do list, you will be certainly healthy. And I am writing this with the risk, that people who already are sick will hate me for claiming that they didn’t do something right in their health preservation. And it is true. They didn’t. And I don’t do everything right either. But that’s not the reason to get mad. We are all in fact human beings that make mistakes. Including me and you.
While I believe strongly that this is highly achievable, at the same time I am skeptical that many people will fallow this advice 100% right. I am not exception. While I don’t smoke anymore, I still fall of track occasionally. It is very challenging to do it 100 % right. But if you know how this becoming invincible lifestyle should look like, you will at least be getting closer and closer to your 100% and slowly becoming more and more invincible. Information is power, even if it feels uncomfortable.
Yes, yogurt can be bad for your health
Just couple of examples. Do you buy yogurt your doctor recommended to you as a healthy food? Your doctor will probably tell you, that fat free yogurt is healthy. And you go to the store, get your vanilla flavored yoplait yogurt that is 100% fat free but has 25 grams of sugar in it. Yes in some way it is healthy, it contains protein and calcium, but that sugar makes it average healthy food. And already right there, you put strain to your immunity system by pouring 25 grams of plain refined sugar into your body. Part of becoming invincible means not eating generally considered heathy foods that are average for your health.
Another example is about sun exposure. Average doctor advice is, that you really need to protect your skin with a lot of sunscreen with highly protective factor SPF like 50 or 100 and to spend some little time on the sun everyday. This information is also average and can be damaging. It is not completely wrong, yes you need to protect yourself from sun exposure, but you also need som unprotected smart sun exposure. Plus, your doctor will not tell you that that sunscreen with high protective SPF factor can be very toxic for your skin. And it’s more likely to cause skin cancer than sun does.
How about general advice about 30 minutes of vigorous exercise everyday to stay healthy that includes gardening, house cleaning and fast walking. Is that rally enough? Not, it is not. Not even close. Does that really mean, that as long as you are moving for 30 minutes everyday, you can sit and relax for the rest of the day? If that is what that means, and you do it that way, than you are in big trouble. You are not moving enough. And, you are not moving the right way either.
Healthy vs invincible
The question is: do you want your health to be average or exceptional? Do you want to be healthy or invincible? What would you do, if you knew, that you can become so healthy that you become invincible to any disease. And you can. There is a way to improve your average health to make it exceptional, so you become invincible. It takes a lot of work and som extra knowledge, but what else is more important to you? I will answer that question for you right now: absolutely nothing. Unless………..don’t even get me started.
Although it is very challenging to do everything right on the road to becoming invincible, and only a very small percentage of people will actually apply what they will learn here. And I am getting very close to that level.
The other day, when I went shopping and was passing the register I realized that I managed to turn my lifestyle completely around. While I still listen a metal music very loud in my car and it is certainly bad for my ears, and occasionally get some second hand smoke exposure from some of my bodies smoking not really what you would consider to be a cigarette after surfing, my diet completely changed.
My grocery cart consistent of 4 pounds of apples, 3 pounds of pears, bag of turnip leafs, kale and mustard greens, 5 jars of peanut butter, cottage cheese, raw almonds, walnuts, eggs, tofu, 5 cans of sardines, some canned herring, basked of blackberries and raspberries. No candy bar, no beer, no chips, no sandwich, no chocolate. It really amazes me, how my diet radically changed.
13 steps program for becoming invincible
I developed the 13 steps program you can apply to your daily life, that will make you jump from healthy to invincible. This is highly challenging way to live and quite frankly, only small percentage of people will get even close to following it 100% right. Are you one of them? Are you ready for the biggest challenge in your life? Will you be able to follow it, teach it to you closest ones and become invincible. If yes, get ready for the challenge that will change your life forever. It really is wort it. Your health is at stake. Become invincible!
Related articles
From healthy to invincible: Step 1 – Lift heavy things regularly
From healthy to invincible: Step 2 – Choose carbohydrates you eat very carefully
From healthy to invincible: Step 3 – Spend at least 50% of your day on your feet
From healthy to invincible: Step 4 – Don’t drink anything sweetened or flavored
From healthy to invincible: Step 5 – Get regular sun exposure
From healthy to invincible: Step 6 – Get hungry like a lion regularly
From healthy to invincible: Step 7 – Cardiovascular exercise redefined
From healthy to invincible: Step 8 – Nutrition redefined
From healthy to invincible: Step 9 – Stay away from toxins
From healthy to invincible: Step 10 – Get excited, play, have fun!
From healthy to invincible: Step 11 – Obsess about your health and brake the rules occasionally
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May 31st, 2012 Milan
What is step 11 in from healthy to invincible program? Number 11 is my favorite number, so I decided to write one more chapter. 1:1 looks way better to me than 1:0. Don’t you agree? And I am not part of 11:11 club.
Will all these becoming invincible steps make your life boring and without joy? Some people might think, that that’s the case. But I disagree. I myself still have some reserves to follow all these steps perfectly how they should be followed. But I am getting very close to that level. Is my life becoming more boring and without joy while I am getting better at becoming invincible lifestyle? Nope.
The opposite is truth. I have more energy than ever before, more strength, more endurance, I am incredibly healthy, I have more positive outlook on life, I am generally happier, I smile more, I do more, I enjoy my life more. And who doesn’t want all of that? I don’t know anybody who would refuse to accepts any one of those great things.
Living the invincible lifestyle, however strict it might seem to you, actually brings more joy to your life. You become truly using your full potential in your life. Your body will work as a very well oiled supermachine and your mind and brain will follow the suit. You become a person who is not only invincible, but also fun to be around. Who doesn’t want to be around the happy and positive people?
To be invincible, break the rules occasionally
To become truly invincible, once in a while, you need to step aside from your invincible lifestyle path and break the rule. Like for example me the other day, when I met bunch of my buddies in the bar and sooner I realize it I already had 3 beers in me. I haven’t have a beer for a while and it seemed like a good time to have few. Another 3 beers later I realize that I went little too far. Did I stress about it too much? No, I didn’t. As long as I know that this is not happening on regular basis, I am fine with occasional splurge. And so should you be.
Become invincible, lead invincible lifestyle, but once in a while forget about it. Have whatever you want to eat, have that great Italian pasta, have few drinks with your friends, spend all weekend at home doing nothing and watching tv, or enjoy your favorite candy bar or indulge in Cherry Garcia ice cream and eat the whole thing.
This is the way, you really become in control of your invincible health. You’ll know what is invincible and what is not. And as soon as you step far away from invincible actions, your alarm bell will ring in your mind. You will tell yourself: great, this was fun, I enjoyed this, but now it’s time to step into invincible mode again. You will be in total control of your health and with it, your life.
Our health is our true wealth
I don’t know one thing in this world, that is more important in my life, than my health, health of my family and friends and ultimately health of all people in the world. It’s heart breaking to see people suffer from all kinds of diseases, that are ultimately preventable. Health really, truly is our wealth. And it is necessary to take it very seriously.
If everything else fails in your life, when you loose everything you had and you reach the very bottom and you still have your health and healthy family and friends, than you are actually very rich and successful person. You have something, that some very, very, very “successful” people don’t have – good health. In fact you are way richer than they are.
That leaves me with one more thing to say: set your priorities straight and work very hard on things that really matter – your great health and getting from healthy to invincible!
Related articles
>>From healthy to invincible
>>From healthy to invincible: Step 1 – Lift heavy things regularly
>>From healthy to invincible: Step 2 – choose carbohydrates you eat very carefully
>>From healthy to invincible: Step 3 – Spend at least 50% of your day on your feet
>>From healthy to invincible: Step 4 – Don’t drink anything sweetened or flavored
>>From healthy to invincible: Step 5 – Get regular sun exposure
>>From healthy to invincible: Step 6 – Get hungry like a lion regularly
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May 17th, 2012 Milan
What would life be without having some fun in it. Not much. The primary reason, you and me are here is to really enjoy it, to spend a substantial time having fun. And at the same time, being excited about something, having fun is a part of being invincible. Something happens in our body that is very protective of our health when we are excited about our life’s and when we have a lot of fun. It is a kind of mind body connection. And mind is a big part of It.
Do you ever remember getting sick when you fell in love? Most likely not. Your body’s immunity system is working at it’s best when you fall in love. You are excited and you feel great most of the time. That’s what I mean, when I am telling you to find activities and hobbies to get excited about. You need to fall in love with them.
Real fun takes some effort
You say. Milan this is impossible. I can not fall in love with playing harmonica, if I don’t know how to play it. In this case, you just need to pick up that harmonica and start playing something, start learning. You have to start. And that love will eventually come when you realize that you can actually play something and you want more. You get excited about it while you are getting better at it and you will start loving it.
I am not talking about the kind of fun and excitement where you go to a different restaurant every evening because you are bored out of your mind. No, the fun and excitement I am talking about is doing something that you are really passionate about. Don’t tell me that eating bloody stakes at Italian restaurant is really your passion. If it really is, well than I am sorry. You poor blood thirsty human being.
Start doing stuff you always wanted to do
The fun and excitement I am talking about is doing something, you know fun! The fun stuff like playing guitar, piano or other instrument, surfing, playing golf, playing tennis, getting ready for your first marathon or swimming across the English Chanel, or climbing the mount Everest or just a nearby little peak, fishing, camping, whatever it is that you enjoy. And even if you don’t enjoy it, but you always wanted to do it, just start doing it. If you stick with it, you will most likely start loving it too.
My form of fun and excitement is quite rich. I love to go surfing. I love, love, love that sport so much. And I am not even close to being great at it. But being in the water in beautiful environment, having a fantastic workout and getting better by learning how to rip recently gives me incredible joy. My goal is to take part at Czechoslovakian open cup of surfing that takes place in France. And I know that some day I will. You can throw 10 sharks in the water and let them circle there for a month and I will find a way to do my surfing.
My other passions are playing guitar, playing tennis, I love windsurfing and I plan to get back to it soon. I love writing and since it’s pretty challenging activity for me, because I write in English and English is my second language I love it even more. And I am getting better at it. I love to paint and doodle and I am interested in all the artsy fartsy stuff. I did a lot of art metal processing before and I am definitely planing to get better at it. That’s quite amazing fun to, bending and forming hot iron. All kinds of art techniques incredibly interest me.
I have incredible fun doing all this exciting stuff. But I am far away from being a master at them. Once you get just a little better at certain activity, it will become fun. You will get excited. It takes some work in the beginning. But than, it’s just pure fun and joy.
I can go on and on with the things I plan to do in the future. If the days had 50 hours they wouldn’t be long enough for me. I am by nature very passionate person. And if you are not, than I am sorry. Are you ok with it? Does your life seem like a time full of boring chores? Than my advice to you is to give it a try. Find something fun and challenging to do. Otherwise, you are going to be very disappointed at the end of your life.
Force yourself to have fun
If you think that you are just not that passionate person, because nothing really interests you, than you can really change that. Often we don’t like certain activity when we are not good at it. The key is to enjoy the process of it.
I would often get discouraged while playing tennis, because my backhand just wasn’t that great and I would get beaten very badly by my opponents playing matches. My opponents would always serve on my backhand and I would always make an error. Very easy way to win. It would get ugly many times when I threw a racket against the floor. I would brake quite a lot of rackets these way. I was disgusted by it. I am sure, if I were a pro player, I would be something like a bad sport John Monroe was. Not a very admirable think after all.
But I didn’t give up. I would work on my backhand and over time it would get much better. And my excitement about tennis grew, when my game got better. My backhand now is my strength and I often hit a winner right from my opponents serve. No more free points for my opponent by making errors. Now they have work hard for every point. Subsequently my excitement and passion about tennis grew. I love that sport.
The key is to enjoy the process of learning the skill. You have to realize, that you are not going to be great right from the beginning. But every time you try, you will get better. And if nothing is working, than force yourself to try, try and try again. Realize, that you had been put on this world to have some fun and not be miserable all the time.
Measure excitement in your days
If they told me that I have 6 months left to live, I wouldn’t change one thing in my life. I love every single thing I do in my days. And on my last day I would be certainly sad, but i wold be at peace. I did already have some very, very, very serious, exciting, fun time here on this earth. And I am still planing to have some very, very, crazy exciting good challenging time here. And I know I will. I am almost invincible after all 
Can you say the same thing about your life? If not, why not? Are you saving yourself for a later prime, or you are just a naturally bored person. If you are it’s time to wake up. It’s time to get excited about something. It’s time to have some serious good time. It’s important and necessary in our life’s. It’s part of being invincible. The protective mechanism of being excited is huge. You can’t pass it if you want to be invincible. Find a a way to do it. Keep trying. Don’t give up. Than try some more and more. And try some more. And one more advice. Try some more.
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May 3rd, 2012 Milan
Eating perfect invincible diet and doing everything necessary to become invincible is one thing that we have in our full control. Staying away from toxins and dangerous toxic chemicals is another. These stuff can be only partially under our control. But you can do a lot to minimize toxins from your life.
And you are partially already doing this by eating diet consisted of whole foods, and staying away from processed conservatives, sugar and flour loaded foods. Our body doesn’t recognize these on first sight harmless substances. While keeping toxins on check by eating good diet, there are another kinds of toxins all around us. And you need to put some effort to avoid them.
Dirt is not that bad, really!
I know people who start fricking out as soon as they see a death spider, dog poop, sand in the car, dirt in the pool, green looking lake, smell of a bad yogurt in the fridge or a smell of a death animal in the nearby creek. Most of the time these stuff are totally harmless to us. Why? They are organic. They come from nature. They are totally natural.
We feel very comfortable and pleased by swimming in clean blue pool that’s full of chlorine, or hanging out at the rooms with new carpets. We enjoy new smelly cars and we generally like clean disinfected environments. The problem with all these stuff we enjoy is, that they are very dangerous for our health. They are clean, new and disinfected by chemicals. The kind of stuff that is very toxic for us.
We would be way better leaving that living room floor dirty, dog poop included, that cleaning it with bleach and keeping it sparkling clean. Just the thought. That’s why I am not a kind of guy overly obsessed with cleanliness. Actually I almost never clean stuff. I am more likely to walk around the dog poop at my living room and kicking it under the sofa, than taking a bottle of bleach and cleaning it. Yes, you don’t want me to be your roommate at all.
You might say, Milan you are turning Berkeley. Like all those granola people over there! Yes, I live very close to Berkeley. But, no I am not turning Berkeley. I love Berkeley and all those people anyway. But this is not a certain kind of fashion here I am talking about. This is a serious stuff. Chemicals are a real threat to us humans. Cancer is on the rise, we are getting brain death and very sick over time. And big part of it is huge chemical exposure. And if you want to be seriously healthy, you have to try to avoid these chemicals as much as you possibly can. It’s not fashion, it’s life and death mater.
Toxins are all around us
Whenever you are washing dishes, cleaning your house, replacing carpets, doing laundry, taking shower, washing your hair, putting moisturizer on your skin and many many other activities, you are using some potentially harmful chemicals. And also, whenever you go out somewhere, either its outside or inside you are exposed to chemicals.
I work in the fitness industry and hang out a lot around gyms and pools. While this kind of work might seem like really healthy work environment, I get a fair share of chemicals exposure. There is chlorine and bromine in pools and hot tubs. The locker rooms and gyms are cleaned with all kinds of chemicals. And ivy growth and insect repellents are used to keep environment pleasing. Luckily I work mainly outdoors in a beautiful wooden environment and the air is always ventilated and chemicals are kept on minimum.
Keep your environment well ventilated
Either you work in the office or you are staying at home, or work in the workshop, try to keep your environment constantly ventilated. It is the best way how to prevent breathing chemicals trapped inside. Keep the windows open. Create air flow. Breath fresh ventilated air. If you are cold, put extra layers on, or do some push ups, pull ups or jumping jacks every 30 minutes or so to keep blood flowing.
I do this all the time. In fact, I can’t stand closed, warm, unventilated areas. It gets me to fair amount of conflicts with my family and coworkers too. When I open window on a cold day, people tend to frick out and say things like: you are crazy Milan, what are you doing, it’s freezing outside. While I try to educate people about this, I am not very successful with it.
When I am cold I simply hang on the bar and do 20 pull ups or do 50 squat jumps. I do this quite often. My days turn this way into incredibly active workout days. Sometimes at the end of the day when I count how many pull ups I did, I get really surprised. I did this recently, and counted 237 pull ups in one day. I doubt monkey in ZOO does more than that.
One argument people usually use to stay in warm, closed environment is than they will get sick. They say, that they don’t want to catch a cold. But the opposite is actually truth. People, event those very knowledgeable and intelligent don’t understand, that they get sick by getting into a contact with germs and not with cold. And germs love unventilated areas. So you are more likely to get sick in warm room with closed windows, than if they put your office desk on top of Mount Everest at – 30 degrees of Fahrenheit.
Many new parents make this mistake too. While their intention is good and they want to protect their baby from cold, they overheat their homes and they keep windows closed so the baby doesn’t get his hands cold. But it’s way better for the baby to be in colder, more ventilated environment. The little body of a baby is much more sensitive to chemicals trapped inside. If you have a baby at home, open windows frequently to bring in fresh, clean air.
Anyway, trust me on this. Keep your environment ventilated at all times. You not only prevent inhaling indoors trapped chemicals, but you will be way, way less likely to get sick. The only exception in this is, that you live close to a dangerous chemicals exposing factory. In this case, my only advice to you is to move far away from there.
Don’t put anything on your skin you wouldn’t put in your mouth
Is your skin dry? You want to put something on your skin after a bath? Put olive oil on your skin or almond oil or coconut oil or butter. Yes, the one you buy in your grocery store. Would you eat olive oil? Of course you would. Would you eat skin lotion from your drug store. I don’t think so. Same with coconut oil and almond oil. They are delicious and they are great for your skin. No chemicals and preservatives are inside the olive oil bottle. No, there is only one thing – olive oil. And they smell naturally great too.
One way for women to avoid chemicals is to put coconut butter on their skin instead of some body butter made in the factory. Thai kitchen whole fat virgin coconut milk in can can be a great body butter and very healthy and naturally good for the skin. You open the can, take the fat from the can, that’s the butter (fat tends to separate from the juice) put it on the skin and drink the juice while doing it. When my hands get dry I put some 100% coconut butter on them and it protects them naturally. And they smell like coconut too. I used to put petroleum jelly on my hands. Not anymore!
Our skin absorbs stuff. The stuff you put on your skin will eventually get inside your body. So why would you use all those chemicals loaded lotions? I don’t see any reason to do it. I put only olive oil and coconut butter on my skin, nothing else. There are some other great options, like real butter or lard. But I don’t feel like opening a fridge and cut a piece of butter every time I need some skin lotion. I simply open an olive oil Bottle I used last night for my salad, pour little bit on my hand and put some on my skin. Or I open a coconut milk can, take some fat out of it and put it on my hands, and use the rest for delicious smoothie.
How about soap? How are you suppose to get clean? You wouldn’t eat soap, would you. Believe me, there are some soaps that are totally eatable. And you should use those soaps. Vegetable glycerin soaps are great and not toxic. While you would be safe eating them, please don’t. They are not that tasty anyway. You should use the same vegetable glycerin soap for hair washing too. I don’t care what Head and Shoulders company say, the plain natural stuff is best for you.
Use protection – rubber glows and get outside
Whenever you don’t have a choice and you have to use a chemical, use robber glows. Make sure it doesn’t touches your skin. And try to handle this chemical outside or in very ventilated area. If you don’t have a choice to go outside, simply don’t do it, use something natural to do it or refuse to do it. If it is a part of your job, quit that job now.
Your health is the most important thing it the world. Way more important than the profits you make for your boss. I don’t care how big unemployment is right now, or how the jobs are tough to get, or economy is bad. I would rather become homeless and live with my family under the bridge, than work in the chemicals infested environment. It’s way better to be homeless than suffer a terrible death 10 years down the road from lung cancer. Jobs like this shouldn’t exist in the first place. Your life is too short and very precious for that.
I know a place I would never work at. It is a commercial pool cleaning and supply chain. Always when I go there to buy stuff from them and enter the store, incredible smell of chlorine and other chemicals blow me away. As soon as I am there, I am basically sprinting to buy all the stuff I need and I try to get out of there as soon as I can. While at the register, smiling employee tries to chat, I am telling him that I got to run. I will come up with something like, my grandma is sick and she needs my help right now or other lies.
This is simply unworkable environment for me. And if they offered me 2 million dollars per year to work there, I would turn them down. And so should you.
Spent a lot of time outdoors in nature
Hanging out outside hiking, walking, doing sports, doing you cardiovascular exercise or just relaxing is not only great for your brain, it’s great for your body too. It’s part of the toxic chemicals reduction strategy in your life. There are way less toxins outdoors, especially attractive outdoors like woods, mountains, lakes, beaches, than anywhere else indoors.
They say, that the cleanest air is jut at the top of the ocean. And how do you get to breath the cleanest air there is? You become a surfer. If you don’t live in the area where there is a good brake, make sure your vacations will be at the beautiful ocean coast. No, you don’t really have to become a surfer. Just hang out at the beach playing Frisbee, soccer or beach volleyball. You will get to breath the cleanest air there is.
I live in San Francisco Bay Area. And this area has a reputation of having the cleanest air in the world. And I believe that. While you would think that living in a huge metropolitan area like this has to have some serious impact on the quality of the air, it’s the cleanest. Why? If you ever been here, you certainly experienced fogy parts of the days that are here regularly. You wake up into a foggy morning. Than by 1 pm it clears out, sometimes doesn’t, and the fog rolls back in in the evening and it will take all the smog with it when it disappears. Plus the smell of the cool ocean is so refreshing here on regular basis. I wouldn’t change it for anything.
We human beings were Suppose to spend big chunks of our time outside on fresh air and sun. And than after industrial revolutions we are stuck in the dusty, stinky, chemicals infested offices. To make things even worse, we hang out after work inside dusty, stinky gyms, coffee shops, shopping malls and homes watching tv.
Suddenly going out seems like very rear thing to do. If we are smart enough, we make it somewhere to the nature on the weekend. Others, not that smart stay home or go shopping.
I encourage you to find a way to make it outside more often. Make your afternoon workouts outside. Spend your office breaks outside. Just make it a rule to hang out outside more.
One of the people I admire the most, and at the same time am a little bit jealous of are those who travel from south or north of San Francisco to work in their offices and on the way back home stop at one of the great nearby beaches and surf for few hours before they get home from work. I don’t know a better, healthier activity on a clean fresh air where you also get a great workout and learn fun skill than surfing. They carry their boards in their cars in the morning, they get done with their work and go surfing. And some of them do it before work and also after work. Talk about a perfect work- fun balance. If I lived in Moss Beach and worked in SF downtown, I would do the same thing.
Stay away from chemicals
Staying away from chemicals and toxins is not that hard. It’s just a matter of realizing, that simple is often better. We don’t need to put all that stuff on our skin to stay young looking. We will most likely stay young looking without them. We need to keep our environments well ventilated and hang out more outside. And we need to use less cleaning supplies. In fact, dirty can be very, very, very clean.
Some tips for safe cleaners at home:
For glass – use newspapers and water instead of Windex or the other chemicals. It will clean the glass even better.
For grease – use citrus fruit or any fruit juice, lemon is the best because it contains the least amount of sugar.
For wood floor – use water with little bit of olive oil
For tile and linoleum – soak few black tea bags in a bucket of hot water overnight. By morning it will be cool and ready. Tea is natural cleanser and it’s wonderful for sanitizing.
For Carpet cleaning – rent steam cleaner and instead of store chemicals add cup of clear vinegar to the water.
For porcelain sinks, tubs and toilets – borax and baking soda are perfectly natural and safe.
For general clean up – use spray bottle with 3 parts water and 1 part of clear vinegar. For more serious counter cleaning, you can add just a few droops of bleach, you really only need few for killing power.
As a fabric freshener and room deodorizer – use natural oil with your favorite smell – lemon, rose, lavender, jasmine, rosemary. It will last and last.
For water stains – use water and vinegar
As detergent – make your own safe, Eco friendly detergent! I personally haven’t done this just yet, but it is on my list and considering all those chemicals and allergens in regular detergents I buy in the store, I am very close to doing my own.
Chemically free detergent – you’ll need a bar of vegetable glycerin soap, one box of washing soda, box of borax.
Here is how to do it:
Shave the soap into a pot of boiling water, about 3 cups. Add this highly soapy mixture to the 3 gallon pot of plain water. Stir. Ad washing soda. Stir. And if you want ad borax and stir again. Done!
Yes, I am not kidding here. All these stuff are really worth doing! They take some time to prepare, but they are completely natural. And while we rather buy the done stuff in the store because our life’s are too busy already, we are not saving any time in the large-scale at all. We will most likely be death much sooner not spending some time to prepare these safe cleaners and buying the easy fast strong chemical in the store. What kind of time saving is that? Think about it and if you want to become invincible act accordingly.
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April 17th, 2012 Milan
So how do you eat to become invincible? Where is the secret? The secret in invincible diet lies in two words – real food. What does real food means? No, breakfast cereal you buy in your favorite store or that lean frozen meal you had for lunch today are not a real foods.
By eating real food, I mean eating anything that comes straight from the nature, it is not processed, sweetened or preserved for longer lasting. Real food is what the caveman Grobk used to find when he got out from his cave to find something for supper.
Grobk would find some berries, lots of green leafy vegetables, some apples, pears, plums and when he was lucky, he would hunt down a wild pig, rabbit, chicken or a deer. He would bring fresh eggs home if he managed to find them.
Grobk wasn’t stressing about what he should eat and what he shouldn’t, besides from some poisonous berries. Everything found on his trip from the cave was good for his health. And he could eat as much as he wished to without being afraid of getting fat and risking coronary heart disease in the future.
Today, the situation is different. When we get out from our own comfortable warm caves an go food hunting we are having a huge selection to choose from. Supermarket isles are loaded with shiny wrapped tasty stuff. Everything has distinctive flavor in it. The more the better. And most often, the best tasting stuff is the worst for our health. It’s often over salted, over sugared, over processed poison. It is very hard to find the good stuff. We don’t even try! Because that bad stuff is so much tastier. It takes a lot of effort to bring only the real healthy, natural stuff home from grocery shopping.
Change you must
But, if you want to become invincible, you have to overcome this challenge. My trick to this is, that I imagine myself to be a cavemen Grobk, living few thousand years ago. And than with that in mind I go shopping. I buy fresh fruit and vegetables. Lean chicken, turkey, some bacon, nuts, you know the real stuff.
When I buy a chicken, I stop at the isle and do 100 jumping jacks before I grab it. Grobk had to run and expose some energy to catch his chicken. The other day one older lady stopped by me, while I was doing my jumping jacks and asked me what I was doing. I told her than I am hunting a chicken. Than I finished my jumps, grabbed the chicken, smiled at her and without saying anything left.
Don’t eat anything processed
Human body doesn’t recognize anything that is processed. Our bodies didn’t evolve to that level just yet. And it will take a long time before it does. Which leaves us with eating only the stuff that is not processed. The real, natural foods. Yes, if you want to become invincible, you need to eat only unprocessed foods. Caveman Grobk did this without thinking about it. You must think and choose.
Is breakfast cereal you eat in the morning processed. Most likely if it contains any flavor or any sugar. Is orange juice that comes from Florida, that is supposed to be so good for you processed? Yes. And no, it is not good for you. Is the frozen pizza you heat in the oven before you eat it processed? Yes!
In contrary some foods that have a bad reputation like eggs, uncured bacon, whole milk, whole yogurt are not processed and yes, you can eat them. They are good for your health. There is a lot of misleading information out there. You need to learn to recognize it and use your own judgment.
The processed category are all foods that are packaged with some exception of canned beans and some canned fish like sardines and tuna. Processed foods are sweetened, salted, made out of wheat or whole grain flour. Yes, you heard that right, whole grain flour included. To these category belong also all processed meats like sausages, head cheeses, salamis and other meat processed products.
The only exception of processed food you can eat is olive oil. Yes, in fact olive oil is a processed food. It is squeezed out of olives. That’s processing.
What you are left with are the real foods. All kinds of vegetables, especially green leafy vegetables, all fruit choices, fresh meats you cook yourself, whole dairy products, nuts, seeds. You can add tofu, some whole dairy products and canned fish.
Add disgusting but very healthy foods to your diet
There are some very healthy foods out there, that let’s just say it mildly, are not very tasty. Ok, they are pretty disgusting.
I eat foods like that. I hated eating them before, because they tasted awful. But now I got used to eating them. And I am getting every bit of health benefit out of them. If you meet me on the street, you might often notice that I smell like a fish. While it might bother you, it doesn’t bother me. I eat all kinds of canned fish, stinky vegetables, garlic, onion and I love it!
Sardines in can
This could be a very healthy, convenient lunch for you, if you accept, that it won’t taste that great. But, your health is very important to you, so you go for it. And over time, you won’t be able to live without sardines.
I eat sardines in water, with very low sodium at least once per week.
Can of sardines has about 30 grams of protein. It is loaded with omega 3 fatty acids and it doesn’t have any mercury in it.
I usually ad some first cold pressed olive oil and eat it with another disgusting for many people food – raw brussels sprouts.
Other foods that are not that tasty but exceptionally beneficial for your health:
Brussels sprouts, broccoli, purple cabbage
Tofu
Wild canned salmon
Beans and garbanzo beans
Canned herring
Canned mackerel
Kale leafs – salad
Low sodium tomato sauce
Raw onion and garlic
100% dark chocolate
Yes it is out there. The 100% cacao chocolate with 0 grams of sugar. It is bitter, it sticks to your tongue and it is disgustingly delicious. I want you to get used to eating 100% cacao chocolate as your desert. You will not put any sugar into your system. Cacao is rich in antioxidants and has something in it very health beneficial, that’s not truly explained. It protects against many dangerous diseases like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancers and others.
Add spices to your meals
Spices make good healthy natural foods a power foods. They are very beneficial to our health. They make foods richer in antioxidants and fiber. Sometimes their benefits are not truly understood, but other times their benefits are showing to be huge.
Adding spices to crappy food and not exercising enough and generally leading unhealthy lifestyle will not save your health and you won’t become invincible. However, if your overall lifestyle is already great, they can enhance your invincibility. So why not to introduce spices to your lifestyle.
My favorite spices are:
Black pepper
Red chili peppers
Cajun pepper
Cinnamon
Turmeric
Curry
Caraway seeds
Thyme
Oregano
Parsley
After I cook my eggs for breakfast I cover them with black pepper, red Cajun pepper, parsley and oregano to the point you will not recognize what is under it all. That’s how much spices I use. I put cinnamon wherever I can. And I use huge amount of other spices whenever I cook something. I don’t put little bit here and little bit there of certain spice. I put huge amount here and huge amount there of spices.
The common sense is to use spices in moderation. I don’t follow it. Use your own judgment and see how your body reacts to certain spices. By all means start with moderate amount of spices. But use them everyday and often.
Add more fat to your diet
Now, you probably think that I am crazy. This is about becoming invincible and I am telling you to eat more fat. Isn’t the fat the worst enemy to our health? No it isn’t. Actually adding fat to your diet can seriously improve your health.
How could fat be good for our health?
Fat plays very important role in our bodies. It’s the least harmful source of energy for us to take. It slows entry of carbohydrates and simple sugars to our bloodstream. With that it prevents insulin and sugar spikes in our blood. These spikes are the most dangerous things happening in our bodies. They create inflammation in our arteries, which makes fertile conditions for plaque forming. And that is a serious thread to our cardiovascular system. Fat is helping to prevent these sugar spikes, by slowing carbohydrates down.
Fat in our diet helps us to feel full longer, so we eat less. It’s delicious and we can only benefit from eating more of the right ones.
So which fats are best for us?
The best fats for us are in naturally occurring foods like nuts, seeds, avocados, fish, all kinds of meats, eggs and dairy products. Naturally occurring fats are all harmless for us. Saturated fat included. Yes, you heard that right. Saturated fat that is mainly in animal products and coconut is good healthy source of energy.
The misleading fact that fat in natural form is bad for our health will take very long time to fix. It is ingrained in us. We have been all brainwashed to believe this.
I remember having this conversation with a famous DNA scientist. This is a world famous, brilliant guy who travels all around the world to teach his craft. I was unsuccessfully trying to explain to him why saturated fat is not harmful and how it could actually improve our health. Of course, he disagreed with me. “Saturated fat is our enemy. And we should eat less of it,” he said.
Now, who would you believe? Of course you would believe the famous DNA scientist what he is saying and not some guy with eastern European accent talking to you. And that’s my point. The fact that fat is ingrained in our brains as our biggest health enemy is here to stay.
But, I encourage you to dig a little bit deeper. Venture out of your field to learn something new and do a little research about what really causes heart attacks. And then dig even deeper and find out what causes the causes of heart attacks. You will be really surprised what you’ll find.
Fats to avoid
Of course there are some terrible fats out there. They are called trans fats. If you want to be healthy and invincible you have to avoid trans fats. These are manufactured fats that are added to commercial products like cookies, energy bars, baked goods and you can find them in almost all processed foods.
One of the products that had trans fats in it before and possibly still has, even do they say it doesn’t, I use to indulge in the past is the hazelnut spread Nutella. Firs, Nutella seems like a healthy choice. It’s made from hazelnuts and some cocoa butter. But when you look on the ingredient list, you will find names like palm oil. Palm oil itself is not bad for your health. It comes from plum like looking fruit that palm trees produce and its widely used in African and south east Asian countries for cooking. But in our world palm oil that is used for commercial products like Nutella is more likely to be processed and partially hydrogenated too. Nutella says it’s palm oil is not hydrogenated. Do I believe them? No. Do I believe the regulators, that check the product ingredient list and compare it to what it really contains? No. I don’t. Anyway having about 60% of calories coming from fat, majority of it from palm oil and not nuts and about 40% from sugar, you shouldn’t be eating Nutella anyway.
Even majority of peanut butter out there contain plenty of trans fat. The key in choosing the right one not only when shopping for peanut butter is to read the ingredients list. If you see palm oil or any other exotic name in peanut butter ingredient list, don’t buy it. It’s most likely loaded with trans fats for better taste.
The best way to avoid trans fats is to buy plain products. Like for example peanut butter, that contains only peanuts and nothing else. Or coconut milk, that contains only coconut milk and nothing else. If you buy something creamy and packaged that has more than 3 things on the ingredient list, it’s most likely enhanced for better taste with some trans fats.
Here are the 10 food products with the most trans fats content:
Spreads and margarines
Chips and crackers
Fast food
Candy and cookies
Packaged foods
Commercial cakes
Dips
Commercial soups
Frozen foods
Baked goods
The best way to increase good fat in your diet
The best way to increase fat in your diet is by making sure that every meal you eat contains some fat. For example, if you have a lean chicken breast with salad for dinner, you add some olive oil into it. Or when you eat a piece of fruit, you eat some nuts with it, or eat some right peanut butter with it. When eating a dairy products like yogurt, milk, buttered milk and cottage cheese, you go for whole stuff. That means full fat products.
My favorite meals that are loaded with good natural fats are:
Eggs with bacon.
Fruits eaten with almond and peanut butter, or with some nuts.
Salad that literally swims in first cold pressed olive oil.
Whole yogurt with berries
Shakes that are made with some frozen fruits and whole coconut milk.
Protein shake thats made of two full spoons of peanut butter, some ground flax seeds, banana and whole milk.
All these foods are very fat. They are very rich in fat. I eat these all the time. And I am pushing it even further and adding more fat to my day. And surprisingly, you will hardly see a leaner guy than me out there. I have clearly visible six pack abs, my overall body fat percentage is between 7-9%, my blood pressure is perfect: humming around 120/70 all the time. I feel great, I am always energized. My endurance is incredible. I feel fantastic!
You would think that guy like me, indulging in fat in his diet will be overweight, tired and sick. But the opposite is the truth. I am healthy, lean and I perform like an animal. Why? Increase fat in your diet, cut the bad stuff, move, do everything that’s necessary to become invincible and you will see. Its really worth it!
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April 2nd, 2012 Milan
Your doctor will tell you, that 3-5 times per week for 30 min. of cardiovascular exercise will keep you healthy and fit. And he is probably right and if you are ambitious enough, you are already doing it. But there is more to cardiovascular exercise.
Let’s say, that you are one of the few of those who do their walking, running, elliptical training or stationary bike riding for 30 min. several times per week. Does that make you healthy? Probably. Does that make you invincible? Most likely not. This kind of advice from your doctor is average. And average advice even if followed religiously will lead to average results. Your health will be average. And this program is about becoming invincible.
So, how can you make your cardiovascular exercise even better for your health? How can it become more beneficial for your health, so you can say you did more for your health than average?
Here is the answer:
You do your cardiovascular exercise outside, while doing some skill activity, preferably without your shirt on when sun is out and you add some sprints and intervals to it.
Let me break it down for you:
Doing your cardiovascular exercise outside
Outside, even on the worst rainy day, or freezing cold weather and blizzard, the air is cleaner, the environment nicer, there are no TVs or Internet connection and the air you breathe is constantly ventilated. All your mental senses are working at their maximum, noticing always changing environment, water, woods, birds, hills, soft grass, smells of flowers, cold, warm, snow, rain, sun and others. In the Gym, you move on one spot and you are staring on the sweaty exerciser in front of you or watching some terrible news on TV.
Compare it to some gym environment, where air conditioning is always on, staff cleans the equipment with all kind of chemicals, windows are closed at all times. Hey we have air-conditioning, personal trainer will tell you. Night cleaning crew cleans the floors and carpets with a chemical that outgases and stays trapped inside. And Guess what? You will breath it next morning when you sweat on that treadmill.
I am a guy who is not overly concerned by cleanliness, in fact I don’t care much about it. But bring me a guy who hangs around me trying to bleach som part of the dirty machine or some insect chasing guy with chemicals while I am doing my cardiovascular exercise on treadmill (that really never happens in my life), and that makes me run away and never come back again.
Same with ventilation. I don’t care about cold and heat when I do my cardiovascular exercise. I prefer them. Especially cold environments. They can be actually used as a great tool to improve quality of your cardiovascular exercise. But the thing I can’t stand is gym with closed windows, and any not ventilated area. And many gyms are like that. Dusty, dark, air conditioned, stinky caves where people work their hamster wheel while outside is a beautiful sunny day.
Doing your cardiovascular exercise while learning, or improving new skill
Doing your cardiovascular exercise on cardiovascular equipment is certainly beneficial to your health. Your heart is pumping and you get a lot of benefits from it. But don’t you feel like a hamster on the wheal spinning there while years go by? You are really just passively working your muscles and your cardiovascular system and praying that your time will be up soon, so you can finally quit and go home.
Doing your cardiovascular exercise while learning, or improving a skill is incredibly beneficial. By far more beneficial to your overall health than exercising on hamster wheel. Yes, it is very uncomfortable, and often times little dangerous too. But if you endure that uncomfortable zone, and use protective gear, you will reap a lot of benefits.
Learning new skill, like rollerblading, ice-skating, playing tennis, playing soccer, surfing, swimming all kinds swimming strokes, playing ping pong, playing beach volleyball, bicycling, skiing, cross country skiing and others will make you better at these skills and on top of that, you will get another fantastic benefit out of it. Your brain notices that, you are learning something. It feels hard and challenging. You even take a few falls here and there. But new nerve connections start creating and while you exercise your heart, muscles and lungs, you exercise your brain too.
Not only you get smarter in general, but you are actually preventing some very scary brain diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia with learning new skills.
I do all my cardiovascular exercise outside. I play tennis regularly, I play soccer, I am a surfer, I play beach volleyball, rollerblade regularly, play ping pong, swim, bike and in the winter ski, cross country ski, play some hockey, or just ice skate for an hour. I used to row competitively and kayak occasionally and I am planing to get back to these sports soon. It’s actually amazing how many sports I can do quite well.
You will see me very rarely on running track. Yes, I actually run sometimes, but not that often. You will never ever see me in the gym on elliptical machine or spinning bike. No, I prefer to learn or get better at the skill outside while getting my cardiovascular exercise done for the day.
Many of these activities seem like they require partner, or group of people to do. Yes, partner would be helpful, but you can do most of them by yourself. Often, doing them yourself only is way better than doing it with a partner. You get a better, more intensive workout that way. One simple activity, you can do now is to hit a tennis ball against a wall. I do this quite often and it is really improving my overall game too. So I can kick some butt on Monday evening when I play matches with my buddies. Your partner here is the wall, and that’s the partner that is always there for you.
The key here is to start hitting the wall with a tennis racket and a ball and do it intensively. Without stopping. Time yourself. Let’s say you will be hitting the wall for 30 minutes. Start a clock and start hitting using forehand, backhand, overhead and volley strokes.
If it doesn’t go very well and the ball keeps bouncing away, that’s OK. Just run to get it and start over. Remember? I said it’s not going to be easy. But over time you will get better at it. You will be improving this skill, while your heart rate is up and that means you are getting a great cardiovascular exercise. And hopefully you will have some sun out so you can take your shirt off and get some healthy sun exposure.
Doing your cardiovascular exercise outside and sun exposure
You most probably work somewhere in the office the whole week, and barely get to see the sun. If your job is outdoors, congratulations, keep it as long as you can. It’s rare these days. So why would you want to go on Saturday morning to the gym to do your elliptical workout in air conditioned cave? You want to bring your workout outside, especially, when the sun is out. And than, you want to expose as much of your skin as you can to the sun.
Take off your shirt while doing your cardio and sweat little bit on the sun. It’s so great for your health!
Sun exposure is very beneficial for us human beings. And we don’t get enough of it these days. Our ancestors would spend all day everyday outside on the fields and reaped all the benefits sun exposure provides.
I wrote about benefits of sun exposure in a previous chapter, but in short it keeps our body supplied with healthy amount of cancer fighting vitamin D, and keeps our mood elevated.
In one study, Cancer patients who exposed themselves to the sun regularly, were by much higher percentage to recover from the disease, than patients that didn’t get regular sun exposure. Smart sun exposure fights cancer.
Avoiding injuries while doing you skill cardiovascular activities outside
One thing is true. Doing skillful cardiovascular activities like skating, playing tennis, playing soccer is more dangerous than spinning on the treadmill somewhere in closed “safe” gym.
But if you follow certain safety procedures, you don’t have anything to be afraid off. You will get your cardiovascular exercise, you’ll learn new skill, developing your brain further and preventing it to go bad, and hopefully you’ll get some healthy sun exposure in the process. To avoid injuries, use appropriate protective gear and start slowly.
Adding sprints and intervals to your cardiovascular actvities
While I rollerblade holding my hockey stick in my hand in a nearby park, that has a big parking lot, I add few skating sprints to my workout. Usually 7 x 20 second sprigs. These are sprints where I try to give it my max. Other times I try to skate while having puck on the floor and leading it (very hard thing to do).
When I hit the ball against wall, I time myself few 1-3 min intervals when I hit it very intensively. You would think, that this kind of interval can’t be a good intensive interval, but my heart rate reaches up to 190 beats per min. And sometimes more. Which really makes it an incredibly intensive interval. And at the same time, I am improving my tennis game, creating some beneficial nerve connections, getting some healthy sun exposure, because I take my shirt always off when sun is out.
You can create these kind of practices while kayaking, rowing, cross country skiing, bicycling, swimming and in many, many other sports. Don’t be afraid to get creative.
One of the things I have been trying to do these days is running while playing guitar. Trying to hit the right chord while sprinting can be very difficult and I am still not very successful with it. But I will keep working at it. As long as it keeps challenging my brain and as long as I can get my heart rate up to the certain level, I will keep doing it. I am also seriously considering taking my shirt of while doing this. But it could really scare some people around me. Anyway, it’s worth a try, considering the incredibly beneficial sun exposure I would be missing if I kept my shirt on.
These sprints and intervals promote extra secretion of growth hormone, also called a hormone of youth. And you don’t want to miss that if you want to look beautiful and stay invincible.
My cardiovascular exercise turns into hard, challenging, technically difficult, intensive movement outside. And, I am getting enough healthy sun exposure while doing it. And so should your cardiovascular exercise look like if you want to become invincible. Just compare it with working that treadmill in stinky, dusty gym. Quite a difference. Don’t you think?
Stop complaining and take your cardio outside! Make it more challenging. Don’t do it and it becomes average like your health. Do it and become even closer to being invincible.
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March 15th, 2012 Milan
Being hungry like a lion, enduring hunger for extended periods of time is not a bad thing. It is actually great for our health. It is also sometimes called – fasting. And including it to your healthy lifestyle will get you closer to becoming invincible.
I am not talking about the kind of hunger you get from eating some heavy carbohydrate processed meal, or after eating something loaded with sugar. That is a dangerous hungry feeling caused by your body being over drugged with empty calories, flour and sugar. By eating processed foods and too much sugar, your blood sugar levels and insulin levels will jump up and down. Making you very hungry at the process.
This is the state of being, you don’t want to be in at all. The interesting thing is, that people who eat more calorie dense foods get actually more hungry and more often. This is a bad, very unhealthy state for your body to be.
Have you ever seen a lion eating a big piece of chocolate cake or being aggravated by seeing a kid eating ice cream outside of the cage in ZOO. No, you don’t. He is more likely thinking: You can have it Kido, I would rather starve than eat that s**t.
Being hungry regularly while eating well
I had a rich breakfast at 7 AM today. 4 eggs fried on butter and 2 apples. It’s 1 PM now and beside having another 2 apples and spoon of peanut butter, I haven’t have anything else. And I feel hungry right now. But i feel hungry and great. My goal is to extend my hunger until 7 PM today.
The best way I handle this mildly uncomfortable hungry state of being is by sipping plain unsweetened green tea. Feel free to copy that. Green tea is good for your health and extra little bit of caffeine content will make you forget a little, that you are actually hungry.
While I’m in this good hungry state, I am going to get some important stuff done. I realize, that my brain and creativity works the best while I am starving this way. I never feel sleepy when I’m hungry. My mental performance is at it’s best. My brain neuron connections fire at it’s highest levels.
But, this increased mental creativity and better mental performance doesn’t work for me, when I eat garbage foods. And most probably won’t work for you either.
Remember, if you eat something that is carbohydrate heavy, eat or drink something sweet, you will suffer while being hungry. You will feel sleepy, sluggish, your stomach will probably hurt and your mind will be shut. So it is crucially important to eat right before enduring beneficial hunger. Having optimal amount of protein, fat and some carbohydrates from vegetables or fruits in your meal before enduring long lasting hunger works the best.
Health benefits of being hungry like a lion regularly
1. Due to the lack of incoming energy, the body must turn into it’s own resources, a function called autolysis. Autolysis is the breaking down of fat stores in the body in order to produce energy. That’s why one advantage of having lots of fat on your body will help you survive longer than the fit guy without food. Of course, the dangers of being fat far more outweigh this benefit. So, don’t get fat to hope to survive some day when facing brutal starvation caused by disaster. This will most likely never happen in you life, while diabetes or heart attack is very likely to happen to you when you are fat.
2. Detoxification of the body. When food is no longer entering the body, the body turns to fat reserves for energy. Certain toxic chemicals like DDT that body absorbs over time are stored in fat reserves, that might release during hungry like a lion periods.
3. Diversion of the energy from digestive system to the immune system. Healing process begins in body during hungry like a lion period. The energy is diverted away from digestive system due to it’s lack of use and towards the metabolism and immune system.
4. Greater growth hormone – hormone of youth production, due to greater efficiency in hormone production during the extended hunger.
5. Rejuvenation and extended life expectancy. A slower metabolic rate, more efficient protein production, improved immune system and increased production of hormones contributes to this long-term benefit of extended hunger. In addition to the human growth hormone, that is released more frequently during hunger, this anti – aging hormone is also produced more efficiently. As one scientific study states: “The only reliable way to extend the lifespan of a mammal is under-nutrition without malnutrition”.
That means, that you give your body everything it needs and nothing else.
Staying hungry and calorie restriction
Eating the right diet, the right way, with carefully chosen carbohydrates works already as a low calorie diet.
Calorie restriction is proven to be a major benefit for your overall health. And while extending your hunger for longer periods of time, you are restricting your calories even further.
Eating right healthy foods is already calorie restricted died, and I assume you have that already under control. If not, check my healthy performance diet here. And start eating well before adding extended huger periods to your day.
Staying hungry and physical performance
Staying hungry doesn’t help my physical performance. That’s why I never schedule my hungry periods before workout or any other heavy physical activities, like helping a friend to move and others. It would not hurt me, but I would certainly suffer. As with anything else, you have to plan these periods in advance.
For example today, after I had great nutritious breakfast, I went surfing right away. Stayed in the ocean for 3 hours, had a great intensive workout over there, got out, ate 2 apples with some peanut butter, and now I am hungry. And that’s fine, because I don’t plan to do anything physically hard anymore. If I had a tennis game or soccer game later in the afternoon, I would be already filling my energy reserves now with some tofu, sardines, nuts, vegetables and fruits.
This is why planing your staying hungry periods is very important. It won’ help you physically, but it will keep you very alert mentally, and will give great boost to your health.
Being hungry is natural
We live in the world of plenty. Plenty of everything, everywhere. But few hundred years ago, it wasn’t like that. People would go throughout some festive periods, when they manage to find plenty of food. And than, they stayed hungry for some periods when there was not enough food.
Nature knows it and it worked very well. But these days, people eat all the time, they have always something in their mouths. Munching on chips and snicker bars between meals, having that bowl of ice cream before going to bed, some cheese here and some salami there.
People can’t stand being hungry and they fix the problem immediately by eating something. This way, years go by without out bodies experiencing the beneficial hungry state of being, when the immunity system recharges and stored reserves from the waist line can be used.
Staying hungry and immunity system
When you’re hungry, your immunity system is working at it’s best. There is certain protective mechanism in the our bodies that turns on when famine is here. Immunity system at this state is fired to the maximum.
Just imagine, that you’re living 10 000 years ago. It’s winter and you are traveling (walking) across the country and staying in a cave you managed to find on your way. You haven’t eaten anything for 2 days now and you are very hungry. It’s dark outside and very, very cold. You have to wait until the morning light to get out and find something to eat, so you can survive. And there is a big chance, that you will not find anything the next day either, because everything is covered by snow.
Your immunity system now has to work at it’s maximum. Because if you get sick now, you will have to stay in the cave, tired and with high fewer. You will not have any strength to go hunting so you can eat. And you’ll most likely die from hunger.
Nature has it figured out very well. Hunger signals, bad times. And in bad times, we need to be protected, because the death is close. So the highly protective mechanism sets in. Nature doesn’t know, that you have a Chinese restaurant just down the block from your house. And by being hungry you are playing little tricks with it. Your body thinks that bad times are here, with not enough food and it’s time to stay very healthy and invincible.
Schedule your hungry periods like you schedule your workout
Plan ahead. Schedule at least 2 long hungry periods in your week. The best time to do this is after workout, and after having something small to eat after it. Have very healthy protein rich breakfast, get your workout done, have something small after, like apple and some nuts and than starve! Try to starve for at least 5 hours. I usually go up to 9 hours without eating anything, just sipping green tea. But that all depends on my schedule.
It takes discipline to do this and it is not easy. Quite frankly, only a small percentage of people will ever try it and only few will stick with it. But if you do, the benefits are incredible.
Being hungry like a lion regularly and loss of muscle mass
You will not lose your muscle mass if you stay hungry regularly unless you are a competitive body builder who is 5′ 4″, and you managed to pack 230 lb of muscle on your skeleton.
I starve myself regularly. And I actually managed to gain some muscle mass lately. With about 195 lb, 6’3″ tall and 9% of body fat, that is a lot of lean muscle. The reason I don’t loose muscle mass is my protein rich diet and diligent, regular, heavy and intensive weight training.
So if you thought that I look like anorexia suffering guy with my being hungry regiment, you are wrong. I am actually quite a big guy, and it’s all muscles and very little fat.
My last advice is: Get in love with being hungry like a lion, and get closer to becoming invincible.
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