The Anti-Aging Lifestyle Commandments

The Anti-Aging Lifestyle Commandments People often ask me, “What are the things you do to stay fit and looking young?” I do many things to support my health on a daily basis, but here are the top 5 strategies I personally implement and use with coaching clients to support them in reaching health goals which also decelerate the aging process. Without further ado, here are my best anti-aging secrets… TIP #1: CONTROL GLUCOSE: The number one key to an anti-aging lifestyle and preventing disease is controlling blood glucose. Most Americans, even people we consider healthy, have glucose spikes meaning blood sugar levels go up and down throughout the day. Now this is not just on the Standard American Diet; even people who are eating so-called healthy diets are getting glucose and insulin spikes, and this ages you at the cellular level. In the morning, most people have a nice bowl of oatmeal with fruit or whole grain cereal or toast with jam. Even if the food is organic, we know this: eating one bowl of oatmeal or 2 pieces of whole grain toast is equivalent to drinking a 12-ounce can of soda in terms of blood sugar rise. After you finish these foods, you get a glucose spike an hour afterwards. Two hours later, glucose is still sailing up. AGEs AGE YOU FASTER: Even a “healthy” American diet often causes glucose spikes all day long. And those spikes drive the creation of AGEs, advanced glycation end products, which age you quickly because they damage collagen faster than should naturally occur. And that is what gives you wrinkles. Damage from AGEs also creates pain and inflammation in joints and skin and even autoimmune reactions. TELOMERES: OUR BIOLOGICAL CLOCK Worse yet, AGEs shorten something called telomeres, an essential part of human cells that affect how cells age. They are located the end of our chromosomes. Telomeres are the perfect biological clock: upon inspection, the shorter the telomeres the closer you are to death. We can observe cellular age versus actual age just by measuring telomeres. Therefore, you may be 45, but have the cellular age of a 65 year old based on the length of your telomeres. When glucose spikes, you are shortening telomeres rapidly and you are closer to death. GOODBYE GRAINS, HELLO HEALTHY FAT So how do we control glucose? For starters, get rid of grains in your diet, or at least limit intake. Every once in a while, I have some quinoa (technically a seed) or organic wild rice, but my intake is very limited. When I was sick, I had no grains in my diet for at least five years. Note: Many people consider gluten free bread, cookies, grains and desserts “safe” foods. But know that gluten-free is not a good option when you want to control glucose levels. This is because most gluten free products contain replacement flours like tapioca flour, cornstarch, etc. that can raise glucose even more than sugar. Beware. We can also control glucose by increasing healthy fat intake. That includes saturated fats—link to eat fat article. Contrary to popular belief, healthy fats are integral to balance blood sugar and needed to regenerate an inflamed cellular membrane. Coconut oil, full of saturated fat, is an excellent natural blood sugar regulator, as is organic cinnamon. For an energy boost, I like to take a spoonful of coconut oil, and sprinkle it with cinnamon and sea salt (for electrolytes). I also must note that we should be eating a moderate amount of protein to avoid blood sugar spikes via a process called gluconeogenesis (read more here). Too much protein can actually age you prematurely. For example, if you are 150 pounds, going over 100 grams of protein a day may be detrimental; between 50-75 grams is a reasonable and safe amount. Genetics play a role here as far as amounts tolerated, but moderate protein intake is best for anti-aging and optimal health. TIP # 2: DIET VARIATION: Tip number two for an anti-aging lifestyle is to practice diet variation (read the article here). Diet variation is just what it sounds like: regularly varying your diet. When we look at most primitive diets, before they started planting and growing grains, many were on a ketogenic diet (without knowing it). A ketogenic diet means that carbohydrate intake is so low that cells shift from burning glucose for energy to burning the body’s own fat stores for energy. When in ketosis the body utilizes most of its energy from dietary fat sources, so it’s crucial to consume plenty of healthy fats for success (read more on ketosis here–link to keto 1). When cells are burning glucose for energy, aka 99% of Americans, it creates many byproducts that age you prematurely and create more inflammation, the root of most modern disease (link R4). One of the things I do with very challenged and sick clients is use the ketogenic diet as a tool to shift them into a ketotic state. We drop their carbohydrate intake typically below 50 grams a day. That puts them in ketosis within 2-4 weeks and they become pure fat burners and their cells begin to self-repair. Burning fat produces less toxic byproducts than burning sugar and, therefore, decelerates aging. An example I love to give: when a gas stove is lit, the flame has no smoke. That’s like ketosis, when ketones are burning, a kind of “energy fuel” burns clean. On the other hand, light a log in the fireplace, and you see smoke and need a chimney. That’s what happens when you burn glucose for energy. It causes dirty byproducts, just like the logs burning in your fireplace. Therefore, putting people into ketosis down-regulates inflammation and helps their cells to use cleaner fuel to function with less cellular waste. As the production of ketones increase (which are by products of fat metabolism, hence the name “ketogenic diet”), your brain and body uses them to heal its cells. OUR ANCESTORS AND DIET VARIATION If we look to ancient tribes, we realize that they were forced into diet variation. Why? They experienced seasonal changes, changes in their environment and, of course, the availability of certain foods was dependent on rain and weather conditions. In the wintertime, they didn’t have access to fresh fruits and the vegetables, so they relied almost exclusively on meats and fats. Their winter diet was very high in healthy fats, which kept them hardy and going strong through the season. Then, when summer came, they were able to start eating more vegetables and fruits again. A great example of diet variation is the Hunza tribe of Pakistan, known for their longevity of 120 years. During the summer, they eat tons of fresh vegetables and fruit. When winter comes, they consume apricots, sheep’s milk and cheese. Then there is a time when the Hunza’s eat nothing: a period known as “starving spring”. It is said they go a week with no food, and then have a little food, and then repeat this pattern throughout the spring months. That is indeed diet variation, and I believe a key factor to their longevity. HOW DO I VARY MY DIET? Here’s the key to diet variation, learned from working with many very challenged clients. After being on the ketogenic diet for a few months, we change their diets from a ketogenic diet to a healthy higher carbohydrate diet, like my Cellular Healing Diet. During this time, clients increase daily carb intake from less than 50 grams per day, to up to 100-150 grams per day. The healthy carbs come from eating more organic starchy vegetables, small amounts of organic berries, perhaps a very small amount of organic non-glutenous grains, and more organic seeds and nuts. Then, after a few months, we move them back into a lower carbohydrate diet (like the ketogenic diet). The variation seems to work magic in regards to fixing a broken metabolism. People who are unable to lose weight notice increased weight loss. Diet variation really works. Similarly, we see the shift occur in exercise too. For example, when you do the same workout in the gym, day in and day out, you stop making gains. The same goes for diet. Something magical happens in our innate survival mechanism with diet variation as the body becomes more metabolically efficient. It’s an effective anti-aging strategy that simply mimics our ancestors’ natural way of life. Implement diet variation: Every few months or so apply the basic principles of diet variation. And again, read my diet variation article to learn how to vary your diet wisely. I believe it will help your general health tremendously and slow down the aging process. TIP #3: INTERMITTENT FASTING: Another incredible anti-aging lifestyle tool is intermittent fasting, which I’ve written about in numerous articles and discussed on many CHTV shows (link). Here is the idea behind intermittent fasting. We know that eating revs up your metabolism, DNA, cells and ages you prematurely. But when you intermittent fast, this kind of calorie restriction counts. Why does this make a difference? Over time, intermittent fasting makes you a very efficient fat burner, and sugar and carb cravings slowly disappear. You don’t have to push food away, because your body simply doesn’t desire excess food. Studies also show that fasting raises human growth hormone, the so-called “fountain of youth,” and the key hormone for anti-aging and looking young and vital. When you fast all night long, and continue fasting until late morning or the afternoon, your body is burning fat and cleaning up cellular debris in the body. Periodically, I have clients do a “block fast” for four consecutive days on probiotic whey water or bone stock only (see more on fasting here—chtv show links). With some of my more challenged clients, I have them fast for 4 days straight once or twice per month to accelerate cellular healing. MY PERSONAL INTERMITENT FASTING ROUTINE I practice intermittent fasting on a daily basis for general health, and the anti-aging benefits are a nice plus. When looking at studies regarding longevity, (how long healthy people live), caloric restriction is always at the forefront. But I am not talking about pushing food away or classic caloric restriction. For example, the Tibetans and Okinawans, people who often live to be nearly 100 years old, never turn away food. They just eat until they are full, but don’t gorge themselves. At the end of the day, they don’t feel deprived because they don’t have cravings nor feel hungry. How exactly do I practice daily intermittent fasting? After dinner, I wait 16-18 hours to eat the next meal. That means that I don’t eat breakfast (I’m simply not hungry in the morning because my body’s glucose levels are perfectly regulated). I eat a small meal (consisting of fat and protein) typically around 2 o’clock in the afternoon. For example, I may have a whey protein shake (here’s my favorite whey) or a few lettuce wraps with grass-fed meat and cheese. Then I eat a very big dinner. This is natural, as humans we are biologically designed to be nocturnal eaters. With a bigger dinner, the meal tells your parasympathetic nervous system (which calms you down) to kick in and help you relax. The large evening meal is key to insure a deep night’s sleep, which is another key to anti-aging. If you eat a small dinner, it turns on the sympathetic nervous system, which then increases energy and stimulation, one reason why it is difficult to fall asleep. Also, with a tiny dinner, your body will think it is starving and hang on to fat stores, not a good side effect. The big meal in the evening is very important for successful intermittent fasting and an everyday step you can take towards maintaining that youthful glow. TIP #4: HIGH INTENSITY BURST TRAINING As an an avid cyclist, I’m by no means against endurance training. Genetically, I’m built for it. However, when we look at studies on slowing down the aging process and weight loss, high intensity interval training (HIIT), or burst training as I like to call it, is far superior. High intensity burst training is the kind of exercise humans are meant to pursue, and incorporate into our ant-aging lifestyle. We were designed to chase down prey, to run and stop and then run again. High intensity interval training is about getting the heart rate high enough so it’s tough to breathe: then you rest and repeat. Endurance and aerobic training has its benefits, but for weight loss and slowing aging, there are far greater gains with burst training. When someone does a lot of endurance training, anti-again growth hormone drops as do anabolic hormones. Conversely, when you do high intensity bursting, these hormones increase. Anabolic hormones and growth hormones are needed to lose weight, remain lean, heal the brain and stay young looking and vital. To see my point, look at endurance athletes: they typically battle oxidative stress and premature aging. Many marathon runners look older than their age, and are often not lean but what I call “skinny fat.” They lose muscle because they’re in a catabolic state (breaking down molecules for energy). Excess endurance training is definitely not a healthy lifestyle and can make you look older than your years. My advice to endurance runners: stop the madness, stop the treadmill running for an hour, stop the lengthy aerobics classes, and do high intensity workouts. Now if you are healthy enough to do endurance exercise, vary it. Do it in moderation while you are training for a marathon, and include burst training as well. Studies show that people who run miles and miles actually become weaker. When those folks start including high intensity training, they do much better. Resistance training, weight lifting, and yoga all put resistance on muscles, and are forms of burst training. Your heart rate goes up very high when lifting weights. There is also a form of exercise called skinning I love to do during wintertime in Utah: it’s high intensity training I perform while intermittent fasting (aka on an empty stomach) (see more about skinning here). After skinning, or any high intensity training, for the next 36 hours your body will burn its fat stores even more efficiently. Consequently, the double-whammy of fasting and burst training (tips #3 and #4) utilizes your fat to replace the glucose and raises growth hormone production. An amazing combination of strategies that work like magic for weight-loss and anti-aging. TIP #5: PERIODIC POMPACORE CELLUAR DETOX™: We are exposed every day to neurotoxins from flame-retardants in drapes and carpets, to GMOs in our foods, to pollutants in the air. We walk in and out of buildings that are loaded with chemical fragrances. And then there are heavy metals in our water and our mouths. The amount of toxins we are exposed to daily is astronomical and has a major impact on cellular health and rate at which we age. Of course, we can’t avoid all of the toxins in our modern world. This is why PompaCore Cellular Detox™ is something that we must implement into our lifestyle on a regular basis. The detox approach involves three components and three phases. The three components include: 1. Addressing the 5R’s to fix the cell; 2. Opening and supporting detox pathways (lymph, gut, kidneys and liver); 3. Using true binders to remove toxins (learn more about a revolutionary new binding agent I’m using here–link to Cyto). The three phases include: 1. Preparatory 2. Body detox 3. Brain detox. For more information on PompaCore Cellular Detox™, how it works, and the true binder I’m using to get real detox results, please read my in-depth article here. When appropriate, I may also suggest heavy metal detox. I’ve written a three part series on proper metal detox called “When Detox is Dangerous.” Please read these articles to become more familiar with this topic: Part One, Part Two and Part 3. THINK BEFORE YOU DETOX: Although people have the best of intentions, most do not understand how to properly and safely detox the body. It’s not just about doing a colon cleanse, although that can help move toxins out. Detoxification needs to be much more far-reaching for real results. Most cleanses and detox products from the health food store remind me of the mechanical sweepers we used to see on the streets. For example, if you are driving behind a street sweeper, all you see is a big cloud of dust because the sweeper is moving that dust around. The dust goes up in the air and then resettles somewhere else. This is a helpful analogy for most detoxes: one of the reasons that most people don’t feel great after a single colon, kidney or liver cleanse is because the toxins are simply moving around the body and resettling in a new place. It is very important to understand that when you do an incomplete cleanse, you may inadvertently be creating more problems by moving toxins around but not properly removing them from your system. When you do an inadequate detox, toxins start to accumulate in different places in the body which causes the cell membrane to become massively inflamed. And, as we know, inflammation is the cause of most every disease. When the cell membrane is inflamed, nutrients needed to feed the mitochondria (the powerhouse of the cell) can’t get inside and toxic waste can’t get out. And then you have a “toxic soup” inside the cell, which sets the stage for disease to arise and, of course, accelerates aging. . What about the brain? You need those nutrients to make energy inside the brain cells. But if you have cellular inflammation in the brain, that is a big problem. Many people complain that they have no energy and say, “My brain is not working!” But in actuality your brain cells are simply inflamed. WHERE DO THE TOXINS GO? When toxins migrate from the cell they make their way to the liver and kidneys. The liver processes the toxins and then they are dumped into the gut and intestines, and we only hope they go down the toilet. Unfortunately, many people are suffering from leaky gut—read more here, and the toxins then circulate right back into the system. From there, they cross the blood brain barrier and can cause many unwanted symptoms. Then toxins work their way back into the body where they are bound up in the bile. When you digest fat, you dump bile, and the toxins re-circulate again. This vicious cycle is called autointoxication, and is why a supplement called BIND (super activated charcoal) is so important to take during detox: it acts as a catching agent for those nasty toxins and helps to move them out of your system. FIX THE CELL After we start the process of binding toxins, we need to concentrate on fixing the cell membrane. This is where the Core Cellular products come into play. My concept called the 5R’s of PompaCore Cellular Detox and Healing™ is about healing the cell and PompaCore Cellular Detox™ is a key approach to helping people get their lives back from toxic illness. Please read those articles, because you must understand how vital it is to remove the source (R1) that is causing the trouble in the first place, and fix the cell membrane (R2) in order to move good things in and bad things out. In addition, you have to restore cellular energy (R3), reduce inflammation (R4) and reestablish methylation (R5). The cell must be fixed and proper detox must occur to realize optimal health and vitality. AN ANTI-AGING DIET AND THE SILENT KILLERS Of course, diet plays a significant role in looking young, successful detox, and generating cellular healing. I suggest following my Cellular Healing diet, in conjunction with practicing diet variation and experimenting with intermittent and block fasting, for decreasing inflammation, balancing hormones and promoting anti-aging. My diet cuts out grains, sugars, toxic fats and poor quality proteins to make you look and feel your best. If you are eating conventional grains you are getting a massive exposure to a chemical called glyphosate found in GMOs (genetically modified organisms). Glyphosate puts holes in your gut and brain and is very dangerous. I wrote an article called, “It’s Not Just Gluten.” Please read the article and pass it on to those you care about. In it, I talk about the dangers of genetically modified foods. Please also see Cellular Healing TV episode 95 where I interviewed Dr. Stephanie Seneff, a senior research scientist at MIT, on the dangers of GMOs to human and planetary health. It’s absolutely frightening what is happening to many of our food sources and consumer education on this issue is imperative. Monsanto, the company behind Roundup Ready herbicide with the active ingredient glyphosate, has bamboozled the public with propaganda stating that GMOs are safe. Other countries are banning GMOs because they are loaded with glyphosate. The truth is, glyphosate is not safe in the human body. Right now, companies are using glyphosate on organic grains after they have been harvested. So we are being massively exposed. Once glyphosate gets into our cells, it starts to alter DNA. When this happens, we start expressing certain diseases as a result of these forced genetic weaknesses. When combined with vaccinations and other environmental toxins you have the perfect storm for a health disaster. And we wonder why our kids and friends are allergic to everything… I hope that you do your own research, read my articles, watch Cellular Healing TV, and follow these tips for not just anti-aging but for reaching your peak state of health. There are many things in life we cannot control, but these 5 strategies are tools you can implement everyday to take back your health and your life. I wish for you a healthy, long life filled with well-being in mind, body and soul. This is how God intended us to exist: vital and vibrant all of our days on earth. Healthy Fats – The Fat that Makes You Skinny Back to the Basics: The 5R’s of PompaCore Cellular Detox and Healing R1: Removing the Source of Toxins R2: Regenerating the Cell Membrane R3: Restoring Cellular Energy R4: Reducing Cellular Inflammation and Oxidative Stress R5: Reestablishing Methylation The Ketogenic Diet: An Answer for More than Weight Loss Resistance Diet Variation Strategies: The Quickest Ways to Lose Weight Intermittent Fasting – A Top 5 Strategy to Create Your Best Health Ever Cellular Healing Diet Book DFH Whey Cool: Chocolate, Vanilla, & Plain BIND Core Cellular Healing Package Burst Training – A Top 5 Strategy to Create Your Best Health Ever Working Out While Fasting PompaCore Cellular Detox™ – A Top 5 Strategy to Create Your Best Health Ever When Detox is Dangerous: Cellular and Heavy Metal Detox Done Right Heavy Metal Detox Done Right: When Detox is Dangerous Part 2 How to Detox Heavy Metals Correctly and Safely: When Detox is Dangerous Part 3 Ground Zero: How to Heal Your Leaky Gut It’s Not Just Gluten: The Glyphosate Threat The Truth About GMOs and the Diseases They Cause Cellular Healing TV Episode 58: Top 5 Tips for Anti-Aging Cellular Healing TV Episode 95: GMOs with Special Guest Dr. Stephanie Seneff