The Stalemate That’s Stopping You

Let's get philosophical for a moment. 

The following concept came up during a consultation with a new client this week.  We were talking about the ability to hold two conflicting ideas in our heads at one time, and how it can cause an uncomfortable stalemate instead of progress.

The First Idea (in two parts)

You are your body. 

It is you. 

There is no meaningful division between what is your consciousness and the meat suit you inhabit every day of your life.  

Also, your body is an incredibly adaptive and capable biological entity. Its ability to perform, survive, heal, cope, and thrive is far beyond anything humans have ever constructed.  

Some of the regular daily processes your body performs still appear indistinguishable from magic despite our substantial scientific prowess.  

These two facts alone are sufficient to make your body worthy of unconditional love and acceptance.  It’s amazing. It’s you.  We should all love our bodies. 

The Second Idea

Despite how amazing our bodies can be, many of us also feel potent dissonance at times when we see our own image in a photo, social post, or passing reflection.  We wish we had more energy, were sleeping better, and that our joints didn’t hurt. 

Our body at times might not look or feel like us, and that sucks.  Whether we’re pudgy, pasty, skinny, achey, lethargic, whatever. We want more for ourselves. And that's very real. 

The Reconciliation
How does one love their body fully but also recognize that we’d be more comfortable with more control over it? Should I love my body if it doesn’t fit in the clothes I want to wear, or feel how I want to feel?  

Too much acceptance and you’ve lost the initiative to make change.  Not enough and we end up in a negative headspace of shame and guilt. 

The solution is to take action to remove the dissonance.  

While many aspects of our physicality aren’t easily changed, such as our height, skin color, and bone structure, aspects like body composition, muscle tone, energy levels, mood, and overall health respond readily and rapidly to shifts in behavior.

If you feel some of this friction, can you strike a balance? 

I think so, yes. 

And this is one of the things we ask of our clients: To respect and love your body as it is, right now, without qualification.  

And then recognize, at the same time, you’re a work in progress.  You can be in a good place and moving forward at the same time. 

If you don't look and feel like yourself, take action. It’s time to better care for yourself. Improving your habits around food, sleep, and exercise is the most powerful way to honor and love your body and resolve the dissonance that you feel 

If you’re feeling the friction, let's talk.  Let us show you what’s possible.  It’s not too much to ask that you look like YOU in the mirror, that you feel fantastic day to day, and love the body you live in without the dissonance. 

The Dad Bod Is Out

This one's for the fellas... 

One part of popular culture I do not understand is the glorification of the Dad Bod, and all it stands for. 

If you’re a middle aged man and you wake up one day to find you’re soft and weak, it’s time to make a change.  And if you won’t do it for yourself, do it for your family and those that love and rely on you.  While humans come in all shapes and sizes, nobody is at their best with a pudgy midsection and no discernible muscle mass. 

Get your ass in the weight room, start eating like an adult, put down the booze, and get more sleep. It’s a simple change that will make you harder to kill and more useful in general to yourself and everyone around you. 

Do today so you can tomorrow

Our everyday lives as Americans are on average completely devoid of any physical challenge.  This is bad news if you’re a human living in a body that is the epitome of a "use it or lose it" organism.  You can go months without lifting anything that weighs more than a few pounds, walking more than a few thousand steps in a day, or getting out of breath. No, that trot up your basement stairs doesn’t count. 

If you’re not using your joints, muscles, connective tissues, lungs, skeleton, and cardiorespiratory system, you lose the ability to do so. Entropy is a bitch and if you’re not actively fighting it, it’s a battle you’re losing every day. 

The bottom line is if you’d like to be generally physically capable, ready for and unafraid of the unknown, and independent late into life, you’re going to have to take action now.  Lift heavy things, work so hard you want to stop (but don’t), and learn the limits of your physical capacity.  

Learn how to use a barbell, kettlebells, or even just the machines at the gym. Run, swim, ruck, bike, fight, chop wood fast and hard. Figure out how to move your body and learn what it can do, where its limits are, and push them just a little bit several times a week.  

You’ll find you get stronger, you look better, and your energy increases along with your confidence, resilience, and libido. How do you think that might affect your relationship with your spouse? Your kids? Your coworkers?

Food matters

The next step is fueling yourself appropriately.  This is not complex, although it can be quite hard to give up the easy way. Eat lots of meat, vegetables, fruit, and healthy fats. Avoid sugar, processed foods, and treats.  When you can see your abs, then you get starchy carbs. Stop eating out and cook your own food. Ignore the vegan propaganda nonsense. 

It’s also time to put down the booze for a bit. Alcohol was fun when we were in our twenties, but now it’s clearly poison for the mind and body. Treat it as such. It will tank your testosterone, destroy your sleep, depress your mood, and tear up your gut.  Go a few months without a drink. Then have a few beers and tell me the next day that I’m wrong. If you’re coping with alcohol that means you’ve got pain and discomfort in your life.  Call it what it is and develop healthy coping mechanisms like breathwork, cold exposure, meditation, and if necessary get your butt into therapy. 

Go the F*ck to Bed

If you’re training hard and eating like an adult, you’ll also want to get more sleep.  Those that say they’ll sleep when they’re dead will be dead much sooner than the rest of us.  Getting 7 hours of solid sleep every night is real a minimum. 

Start by tracking your sleep. More than 90% of the clients I work with aren’t getting nearly the amount of sleep they think they are.  There are plenty of free apps to get started with, but the best data comes from high end wearables.  It’s a couple hundred bucks you absolutely will not regret. 

Great sleep helps you gain muscle and lose fat, keeps you cognitively sharp, and improves your drive.  It also shores up your mood stability so you don’t get whiny, snippy, and depressed.  

Real men set bedtimes, turn off the electronics an hour before lights out, and learn to read, journal, or meditate to wind down.   I hear from clients all the time that spending time in the evenings without screens opens new chapters in their relationship by giving them time to talk, connect, and be a couple.

The Dad Bod and everything it represents is out. We’re out here getting strong, eating well, and resting to fuel the fire again the next day.  Join us. We’d be thrilled to show you a better way. 

Not sure where to start?  Reply to this email with one thing you want to be different. We want to hear from you.

The Problem With Fitness Social Media

Here's the problem with social media fitness content as I see it:

Almost everyone I talk to these days is getting some kind of health or fitness information from social media. Yet why are so few seeing the changes and results they’re looking for?

The problem, in my opinion, isn’t bad information. Most of what I see on Instagram, X, and Facebook is actually pretty good information. The problem I see is cardinality, or more specifically, a complete lack of it.  

What’s MOST important? What should you do first?  If you only do a couple things, what should they be?

Get this right and you’ll see results, your motivation will go up, your journey continues.  Get it wrong and your efforts don’t deliver, you get discouraged, and probably go back to what you were doing before. 

If you’re like me, you probably see posts with messages that tell you that you should: 

• Take a magnesium supplement because it’s incredibly important for so many bodily processes and will radically change how you feel! 

• Lift heavy weights, and in particular to do this one exercise called the bulgarian split squat that will help you build muscle and stop knee pain! 

• Start your day by getting sunlight as soon as you can to set your circadian rhythm and improve your sleep later that day!

All of this is great information, but it’s easy to be quickly overwhelmed.  How do you prioritize? Nobody has the time, money, or energy to do everything they’re seeing come across their feed. At some point you’re going to have to pick and choose where to invest your resources, and if that investment doesn’t pay big dividends it’s going to leave you discouraged and frustrated.

Which of these domains has the most power to drive change for YOU? Is it supplements, exercise selection, sleep habits, nutritional approach, red light therapy, cold baths, meditation, or something else entirely? 

Answering this critical question of prioritization is something we do exceptionally well with the Holistic Transformation Program.

We've distilled the sea of fitness information down to the essentials and prioritized them in order of “bang for your buck”. What’s going to give you the biggest improvement relative to the effort you put in? 

In our experience, when someone starts a new approach to their fitness, if they experience dramatic changes that are clearly identifiable, in a short period of time, their motivation skyrockets.  

This starts the snowball rolling downhill. Once someone realizes they CAN do it, they dig in even harder and the results tend to compound.  Our typical clients lose a bunch of weight in the first couple weeks while their energy jumps through the roof and their GI issues go away. By that point they’re paying attention and want more. 

Here’s how we prioritize the first half of the Holistic Transformation Program, based entirely on the power of each area to drive meaningful change in health and fitness: 

1. Food Quality - Changing what you’re eating from a haphazard to a completely anti inflammatory diet.

2. Meal Prep - This has everything to do with sustaining and maintaining Step 1. Consistency and sustainability are critical to making life changing habit adjustments.

3. Sleep - Nobody is sleeping as well as they think, and there’s huge power in excellent sleep. Sleep better and life gets better in every way. 

4. Exercise - The right training program aligned with your goals takes the parking brake off your results. You don’t need to spend two hours in the gym if you’re being efficient. 

5. Supplements - While not as powerful as food, the right supplements are relatively cheap and REALLY move the needle. Which ones are worth it?

6. Macronutrients and Energy intake - Learning how to quantify what’s going into your body through the food hole will change forever how you look at what you eat and leave you feeling in total control 

We use this order because it works with our clients to create change, maximize buy in, and improve the outcomes for everyone we work with.  Will this order work for you personally? It depends on your own personal circumstance, what you want to be different, and your level of commitment to making a change. 

Answering these questions is one of the important things we do during our free consultations.  We’ll be honest with you about whether you’re a good fit or not. And even if we don’t work together, we’ll try to leave you with new tools to accomplish your goals.  

CLICK HERE  to get us on your schedule for a friendly chat! 

Cure That Bloating Part II

Here's Part II on how to fix 90% of all bloating and digestive issues...

(if you missed Part I, reply to this email and we'll get you a copy) 

Last week we discussed how removing specific items from your diet for a period of four weeks was the first step to resolving bloating and GI issues  

If you’ve taken the plunge and adapted what you’re eating to just meat, vegetables, fruits, and healthy fats you’re probably feeling a LOT better by this point.  We routinely get reports of significant weight loss, improved energy, better sleep, and yes… the disappearance of bloating, as you clean up what you’re eating.

You may also have realized that a vast majority of “food” available to us as Americans contain one or many of the ingredients you’re attempting to avoid. It can be a harsh awakening coming to terms with the idea that most of what you find on the shelves, whether at the gas station or the grocery store, is not really fit for human consumption.  The cost of eating it greatly exceeds what you pay at the check out.

Step 2 - Reintroduction

Once you have taken a four week break from the suspect foods list in my previous email, it’s time to test each of these food groups for tolerance. Careful reintroduction is important because your reactions to foods will have changed after a period of doing without them.  Your gut will have healed to some degree and responses to inflammatory food will be less confusing.  

For instance, corn is well tolerated by many after eliminating wheat for a while, but routinely causes problems if eaten within days of each other. This is called cross reactivity. Also, eggs cause issues on a damaged gut, but are relatively safe for many people after four weeks of elimination of the entire list. 

The How To

Try out one single food group at a time. For example, to test dairy, try some cheese along with other safe foods you’ve been consuming regularly, instead of having pizza which contains several of the suspect food groups. Singular foods will allow you to assess individual reactions and not confuse the test by introducing multiple variables at the same time. 
Also test different individual foods within groups. People tolerate heavy whipping cream and hard cheeses much better than skim milk and soft cheese. Homemade sourdough bread seems to be tolerated much better than store bought white bread. Agave based spirits like tequila or mezcal with soda water and ice tend to cause far fewer issues than white wine or beer.

Wait for at least 24 hours between food tests, and waiting several days is an even better idea if you do feel a significant reaction. Did you know wheat can stay in your digestive system for 7-10 days?

What to look for

During testing, did you notice the bloating or digestive problems come back? Did your weight jump up the next day indicating an inflammatory response? Was there a change in joint pain, brain fog, sleep quality, nasal congestion, swelling, or other symptoms? If you had no reaction to the food at all, it’s likely safe for regular inclusion in your diet.

If you had some mild symptoms, it might be worth it to have that food occasionally with a full understanding of what it might cost you. As an example, dairy causes me some congestion and mild stomach discomfort. However, I dearly love a good ice cream sundae. Balancing these, I indulge every month or two getting whatever I want from the local ice cream shop and enjoy every bite. I know what it’s going to cost me, so I eat it guilt free, but infrequently.  

During the reintroduction process, identifying foods that cause significant to severe symptoms can help you eliminate the worst of your problems and steer clear of those items completely. 

Knowing what foods will cost you in discomfort puts you a big step closer to aligning your nutritional choices with your values. 

Cure Bloating For Good

I'm about to tell you how to fix 90% of all bloating and digestive issues.

There’s a difference between feeling satiated after a meal and the uncomfortable pressure that comes with abdominal bloating that seems to be all too common. If you’re anything like our clients, you might feel some abdominal bloating or other GI issues on a regular basis after your meals. I’m going to tell you how to figure out what’s causing it and fix it once and for all. 

If you’re having some bloating or other digestive symptoms, the problem is what you're eating. Through a thorough elimination diet you can not only feel better quickly, but also make better decisions in the future about what foods are worth it to you.

Step 1 - Elimination

To solve your bloating, and other GI issues, first eliminate all the possibly problematic foods from your diet for a short period of time. Four weeks tends to be a good start.  The things you should avoid eating completely during this time are below. Start with the most problematic items at the top, and continue to eliminate items down the list until your symptoms have resolved.  

Wheat and grains (cereal, breads, beer, soy sauce, breakfast bars, etc)

Alcohol (wine, liquor, hard seltzers, etc)

Seed oils (Canola, palm, corn, soybean, cottonseed, grapeseed, and sunflower oi)

Dairy - except butter which tends to be well tolerated (milk, cream, cheese, yogurt) 

Sugar Alcohols (Sorbitol, Xylitol, Lactitol, Mannitol, Erythritol, Maltitol)

Processed and packaged foods with many ingredients

Sugar (table sugar, agave, honey, HFCS, cane syrup, etc)

Eggs (whole eggs, yolks, and egg whites)

Artificial sweeteners (aspartame, sucralose, sugar alcohols)

Corn (tortillas, corn chips, tortilla chips)

Legumes (all types of beans)

This is an extensive list and will leave you eating primarily meat, vegetables, fruits, and fats from olive, coconut, and avocado sources as well as some nuts and seeds. While this may seem restrictive, it’s only for a short time and the results are very much worth the investment. 

During this phase you might consider weighing yourself on a daily basis. Most clients tend to lose a substantial amount of weight in the first week or two as the chronic inflammation from problematic foods subsides.  You should also notice better energy and improved sleep quality. 

Most importantly, your bloating and digestive issues will have disappeared. 

From a physiological perspective, there's nothing wrong with eating just meat, vegetables, fruit, and healthy fats into perpetuity.  You will do no physical harm to yourself restricting intake to these foods, and will likely see substantial improvements in all health markers by doing so.  

It’s worth noting there are differing approaches if you’ve had your gallbladder removed, have an active autoimmune condition, or are returning to eating meat after a long period of vegetarian or vegan eating.

Step 2 - Reintroduction and Assessment 

Next week we'll follow up with our reintroduction protocol where we'll teach how to test foods for tolerance, identify problem items, and how to use that information to make better decisions about what you eat in the future.

While nobody has ever achieved peak health on a diet of pizza and beer, we also believe nobody has ever achieved peak happiness on naught but chicken and broccoli. 

Stay tuned for how to find balance and "game the system" to indulge in the items that are worth it without sacrificing your health and fitness goals.   

Overcoming Bad Genes

Let's talk about:

The Curse Of Bad Genes...

But is there truth in it?

Let's break down the role your genes play in being overweight or having a heart attack.  Not only does the food you eat matter, but so do your genetics.  This can lead to families with a common pattern of illness or everyone being overweight. It can also create frustration when your spouse has the same or worse habits, but seems to never gain a pound.  

And it’s true, cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes, cancer, osteoporosis, Alzheimer's, hypertension, and obesity have all been linked to genetic factors.  But just because you have “bad genes” does NOT mean you’re doomed to the same fate as your parents and grandparents!  In fact, just recognizing this potential pattern, if it exists, might be your ticket to a brighter future. 

Bad genetics loads the gun. Poor behavior pulls the trigger. 

You can walk around your whole life with a loaded gun and never pull the trigger into the diseases written in your genes. 

Of the hundreds of clients I’ve worked with to lose weight, improve health markers, or resolve chronic disease, I’ve never met anyone that doesn’t respond favorably to specific modifications to what they eat. Many of my clients are making intentional changes to quite effectively buck their unhealthy familial trends.

In a family where everyone is overweight, one individual can decide they want something different and be successful.

Mom! What’s for dinner?

It’s also worth noting that you and your family likely share more than genetics.  You probably also have common learned values and habits.  These can be just as powerful as genetics in determining your health and fitness outcomes.  A simple example I experienced is placing a positive connotation on joining the “clean plate club as a child”.  

My grandfather grew up in the depression, probably spent a lot of time hungry in his formative years, and when he was successful enough later in life to always have enough food on the table he was not only very proud, but also didn’t want it to go to waste.  For some of us, giving ourselves permission to put some food in the garbage, or just saving leftovers, is the right choice for our health.

Hand Me Downs

If your kids see you cook and eat real food, they eventually will too. If you cope with fast food, you’ll pass that along as well. Do you enjoy being active and working out, or see it as a chore?  Your kids will pick up on that.  I often see my clients' kids in their training videos following along, mimicking their parents, and loving every second. 

Watching your kids watch you can be a powerful motivator for change.  And there is always a way to change things for the better. 

Where do you go from here?

Step 1: Recognize if there’s a health pattern in your family that you’d like to skip your generation.  

Step 2: Consider that a combination of genetics and habits might be contributing

Step 3: Start to take action to understand clearly what you need to do to see the change you want.  

If you can handle Steps 1 & 2, we at NHP can help you out with Step 3. 

Just reply to this email with the thing you want to be different...

The Pulse - Protein Will Save you

Protein can save you…

We’ve all heard protein intake is important, but why should YOU care, how much is enough, and what can it really do for you?  

Strength or Frailty 

Getting enough protein intake is critical for not just building muscle, but keeping what you got. THAT is one of the secrets to aging well.  If you want to play with your kids in your 40’s and 50’s or later you’re going to need muscle. If you want to travel in retirement, be unafraid of stairs, and carry your groceries, you need muscle.  And whether you’re in the position where those are real issues now, or are frankly too young to give a hoot, you’re either winning this battle or losing it every single day.  Strength or frailty?  You chose a point on that spectrum today, and every day, with what you ate.

Stay Full, Lose Weight

Sufficient protein intake is also one of the more powerful weight loss tools.  Protein makes you full longer with better satiety per calories vs. fats and carbs. This means the more protein you eat, the less hungry you get. When you get hungry infrequently you eat less and your total caloric intake goes down. This is clearly a good thing if you’re trying to lose weight. My clients often complain of how much food they have to eat while on the Holistic Transformation program, and rarely of being hungry.  

Enough is Enough

I see the best results in my clients with intake between 80-100% of body weight (lbs) in grams of protein per day.  As an example, a 150 lb human should eat 120-150g of protein per day. Bigger humans require more protein. One should get a vast majority of their protein intake from lean meats.  Plant protein can work, but isn’t as effective gram for gram and can cause gut and hormonal issues.  Chicken, fish, turkey, lean beef, lean pork, game meets, and shellfish are all excellent… you have options.  While it varies, most lean meats contain about 7.5g of protein per ounce of meat.  This is a rough estimate, but works in practice.  Recommended intakes are below

Yes, that’s a lot of meat for those of us, like me, over 200lbs consuming close to two pounds daily. And yes, it’s more expensive than eating processed food (pasta, bread, cereal), or even a plant based diet. But it’s much cheaper and healthier than eating out and getting delivery. It will make you healthier, more athletic, and likely lead to you living a longer, happier life. Lastly, for those that work out,  getting this much animal sourced protein daily will cause an order of magnitude better results in the gym versus not.
 

And How! 

If you want to change just ONE thing about your nutrition, protein intake is a powerful place to start.  I like to split my intake up into four meals evenly spaced throughout the day.  My energy stays high and it never feels like too much to eat at any one meal, which can happen with just two or three meals daily. 

Get a food scale and weigh out your protein portion for each of your meals hitting the targets above. If you try it, let me know what happens! Weigh yourself, take notes, I want to hear about it. 

I am not commenting on animal ethics here, although well raised animals seem to be the way to go. And if the carbon / global warming issue bothers you, my mind was changed mostly by a book titled Sacred Cow. I found it well written and compelling.  

Tips for Post Holiday Recovery

Welcome to 2024!  Let’s be honest, the holidays can be wonderful, challenging, and chaotic all the same time.  If you’re anything like me, you’ve gotten out of routine, indulged a little (or a lot), and are looking forward to getting back in a rhythm.

Here are three things I’m talking with my clients about this week to feel better as we all return to some level of normalcy:

Increase your Vitamin D dose: It’s winter which brings cold and flu season for all of us, especially parents of little ones.  To keep your household healthy, bolster your immune system by supplementing with 10,000IU of Vitamin D per day. We use a liquid that includes Vitamin K like this one from Thorne (20 drops a day) so you can supplement up to the optimal 60-80ng/mL range without any arterial calcification risk. Get it in daily and you’ll notice you get sick much less frequently

Get the treats out of sight: The way our brains are wired we’re unlikely to be successful with junk food at our fingertips. It’s time to clean out the pantry of Christmas cookies, candy, and other sweet treats we enjoyed over the holidays.    Did you know just seeing junk food triggers a hormonal response that initiates a sweets craving? Often this happens so quickly we don’t even really have time to think about it until you’ve got that errant cookie in your mouth.  Clients often joke that it’s not even a voluntary decision, which is sadly true. So how do you win? Get it out of the house. If you can’t see it, you won’t eat it.

Get some great sleep: Bedtimes are often all over the place during the holidays. We stay up late, sleep in, and generally disrupt our circadian rhythm.  Take this next week to reset your bedtime. The gold standard is 8 hours of lights out, which should allow most people 7+ hours of actual sleep. Want even better results? Make sure to put down anything with a screen 60min prior to lights out. High quality sleep will improve your mood stability, cognitive capacity, reduce junk food cravings, and make you more pleasant to be around.

Obesity: A Matter of National Security

As Americans it seems we keep making the mistake that obesity and all its related ills are a problem to be solved by exercise, which is a clear mistake. And the US military is no exception.  

Recently I was flipping through a fitness industry rag that I subscribe to and stumbled upon an article about the problem obesity is causing in the US military.  It stated that “the rate of overweight and obesity among active-duty members of the US military is now at 68% and poses a risk to national security.”

Read that article here

That’s an alarming statistic, but it shouldn’t be overly surprising considering it roughly mirrors the rate of overweight and obesity in the general American public.  So what are we to do? 

The article goes on to say that one of the solutions to the problem, and the only one mentioned therein, was to provide greater availability of fitness facilities to “allow better access to places to work out and get in shape.

Nevermind that the term “in shape” is vague and meaningless, the greater issue is that the strategy is wholly inept. More fitness facilities won’t fix the problem, but a deeper look at what military personnel are eating might. 

While there are many factors that need to be taken into account when tackling obesity, the one with the most leverage is very clearly food intake.  The mechanisms of gaining weight are not a mystery.  While hormones, sleep, stress, genetics, and yes, exercise, are all factors that contribute to whether or not we gain weight, the fundamental physics of the situation are clear. 

The only way to gain a substantial amount of weight is to consistently consume more calories than one burns.  That is the indisputable fact of the matter.  If you have a bucket under a spigot (calorie intake) that also has a hole in the bottom (calorie burn) it’s easy to imagine that more inflow than outflow will cause the water level in the bucket to rise. The inverse will cause the water level to fall.  

A rising water level in the bucket and you’re gaining weight; falling, and you’re losing weight. Interestingly we gain far better leverage over the situation by reducing inflow from the spigot than we do trying to drill a larger hole in the bottom of the bucket.

For example, one 20oz bottle of Coke has 65g of sugar and roughly 260cal.  Drinking this bottle of coke could happen in a matter of a few minutes. However it would take an average person roughly half an hour of intense exercise to burn that much energy. 

That might sound just fine until you consider that drinking the coke in the first place does very little to satiate any existing hunger due to the lack of protein, fat, or fiber. And the half hour of intense exercise would predictably cause a dramatic rise in hunger, understandably leading to further subsequent caloric intake.  

This feed forward mechanism of consumption driven by exercise is one of the primary reasons we can’t outwork a bad diet. The assertion that to lose weight one needs to exercise more implies holding calorie intake constant while increasing exercise to improve calorie balance. To hold food consumption constant and increase exercise you’re prescribing to anyone willing to try that they endure a serious amount of hunger.  

Hunger is not a feeling humans are well equipped to live with over a long enough period to experience substantial weight loss, especially in an environment of ever present, highly palatable, processed junk food. If you don’t believe me, try going without eating for eight hours and then open the refrigerator. What foods call to you the loudest? I’ll give you a hint, it’s not the chicken and broccoli. 

While there are likely many effective ways to approach the obesity epidemic in the military, more exercise is not one of them.  What might work better is encouraging service members to eat a high protein, whole food based diet rich with meat, fruit, and vegetables. Eating a whole food based diet can very effectively reduce caloric intake while keeping individuals satiated so they’re not fighting long term hunger.  This improves long term sustainability necessary to cause a reversal in obesity.  

Providing access to these fresh foods whenever possible and reducing availability of highly processed foods could meaningfully reverse the spread of obesity and chronic disease and improve our military’s readiness level, which has apparently become an issue of national security.  

Moreover, we need to stop perpetuating the fallacy that it’s a lack of exercise that’s solely causing the obesity epidemic.  While exercise is a powerful part of a healthy lifestyle it’s a weak and ineffective leverage point for reversing obesity and chronic disease.  

Tools For Physicians - Elimination Diet

Overview

My name’s Tyler Nicholson and I’ve been working in the fitness industry for almost 15 years. I’ve spent most of that time helping people achieve their fitness goals which often includes losing significant amounts of weight, resolving chronic conditions like high blood pressure, pre-diabetes, acid reflux, and autoimmune conditions like lupus, Hashimotos, IBS, and more.  

Through a lot of learning combined with real world trial and error I’ve arrived at a set of habits and tools that when used appropriately deliver very consistent results for the participant.  I want to share these tools with the medical community so they can use them with their patients to drive improvements in chronic health and together we can save lives and reduce the reliance on pharmaceuticals that only mask the underlying issues. 

Let’s start with food. 

There are two major factors causing people problems based on what they eat. These two factors are systemic inflammation from problematic foods and regular surplus calorie intake.

Elimination Diet Basics

Systemic inflammation from foods like glyphosate covered wheat, seed oils, dairy products, alcohol, and more is something you can think of as smoking for your GI tract.  This kind of inflammation can cause a wide variety of symptoms that includes everything from bloating, constipation, and stomach pain to brain fog, skin issues like eczema, and more serious conditions like IBS, colitis, and plays a big factor in autoimmune issues like RA, Lupus, Hashimotos, and more. 

While there’s some promising emerging science around identifying sensitivities to foods via blood tests, I’ve found the most accurate way to assess people’s individual reactions to inflammatory foods is via an elimination diet. This process includes eliminating all of the possibly problematic foods for a period of at least 8 weeks before reintroducing them one at a time to assess the consequences and individual reaction.  

The rationale here is that if you’re already accustomed to the symptoms caused by having inflammatory foods consistently in your diet you may not notice anything being “wrong”.  However, once all that inflammation goes away by removing all the possible offending foods, an uptick in inflammation can be easily identified. I like to get people feeling REALLY good first, then have them test foods to see the impact.  

Due to individual variation, people will respond differently to different foods. Things like dairy and beans can be very well tolerated by some and cause serious symptoms in others, whereas some foods like wheat seem to be poorly tolerated by just about everyone.  The severity of reaction upon reintroduction combined with a value assessment of that food can drive a decision tree on how often to include that food in an individual's diet. 

Foods with severe reactions, or those with milder reactions and less value to the individual, might be avoided entirely or eaten only occasionally following the completion of the elimination diet. Conversely, foods that are well tolerated, or those that cause only mild symptoms but have a high value to the individual might be incorporated more frequently based on their own judgment.  

The goal is for each individual to be put in control and made aware of their own reactions to inflammatory foods so they can modulate their intake to keep themselves feeling good, but not feel arbitrarily restricted. 

The How To

For eight weeks individuals should completely eliminate all possibly offending foods and stick to a whole food diet of meat, vegetables, fruit, and healthy fats. These plant and animal foods are not only anti-inflammatory, but also nutrient dense, and safe for just about everyone. 

The list of foods I’ve found that should be restricted is as follows:

• Wheat and grains (cereal, breads, beer, soy sauce, breakfast bars, etc)

• Dairy - excepting butter which tends to be well tolerated (milk, cream, cheese, yogurt) 

• Eggs (whole eggs, yolks, and egg whites)

• Sugar (table sugar, agave, honey, HFCS, cane syrup, etc)

• Alcohol (wine, liquor, hard seltzers, etc)

• Drinks with calories (soda, juice, smoothies, sweet tea)

• Artificial sweeteners (aspartame, sucralose, sugar alcohols)

• Legumes (all types of beans)

• Corn

• Seed oils (Canola, palm, palm fruit, corn, soybean, cottonseed, grapeseed, and sunflower oi)

• Processed and packaged foods - these are suspect since they almost always contain ingredients mentioned above

This list will invariably include foods that don’t necessarily cause issues for everyone, but much like excising a cancerous growth surgically, it’s far better to cut with a little wider margin than necessary then to accidentally leave a problematic food in.  Some foods such as eggs and corn tend to be well tolerated in moderation only after a period of elimination. While specific mechanisms are in need of more research, it’s my belief that the elimination period allows the gut to heal and become much less reactive. As an example, we find eggs, corn, and dairy to have highly individual responses with some showing almost no reaction after the eight week period, while others still see significant symptoms from reintroduction. 

Also, those with a suspected or diagnosed autoimmune condition are encouraged to eliminate an even broader list of foods that are associated with AI conditions. This AIP protocol should further eliminate: 

All nuts and seeds including:

• Almond

• Brazil nut

• Cashew

• Chia

• Coffee

• Cocoa

• Flax

• Hazelnut

• Hemp

• Pecan

• Pine nuts

• Pistachio

• Pumpkin

• Safflower

• Sesame

• Sunflower

• Walnut 

Seeds and Berry Spices

• Allspice

• Anise

• Caraway

• Celery seed

• Cumin

• Fennel seed

• Mustard

• Nutmeg

• Pepper

• Poppy seed 

Nightshades

• Eggplant

• Goji berries

• All peppers (including sweet, bell, and chile)

• White potato

• Tomato

• Tomatillo 

• All red spices

Which then begs the question, what DO we eat while we do this elimination diet.  In my experience almost 100% of people feel fantastic and see dramatic reductions in inflammation when eating only: 

• Meat (chicken, turkey, beef, pork, game meats, fish, shellfish)

• Vegetables (asparagus, broccoli, brussels, salad greens, squash, cucumbers, the list is almost endless..)

• Fruit (berries, apples, citrus, stone fruit, etc)

• Safe starches (rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes, oats, yams, and squash)

• Healthy fats (from olive, coconut, avocado, and grass fed butter sources)

Participants should plan to eat to satiety during the elimination phase. When hungry, eat more, but not beyond what makes one comfortably full.  There’s no need to experience hunger at this stage.  

If guidance on portion sizes is helpful, encouraging the following tends to work well:

• Eating every 3-5 hours to proactively curb hunger helps maintain fidelity to the process. Getting overly hungry seems to reduce compliance and increase the risk of resorting to food on the avoid list

• Meat portions of 4-6oz for females and 6-8oz for males 

• A large handful of vegetables or fruit per meal

• A tablespoon of fat from olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, or butter)

• If whole fat sources are used like olives or whole avocado / guacamole, a baseball sized portion of fats is acceptable due to the reduced calorie density 

• One to two cups of safe starches or less based on activity level. Very high activity levels will respond well to increased starch content, and sedentary populations can skip starches altogether.

What to expect 

While the above recommendations may seem restrictive from an experiential standpoint, I find it hard to argue that eating only these foods would cause anyone to be unhealthy. In fact, it’s my experience that when eating ONLY meats, plants, and healthy fats individuals see rapid and dramatic improvements in every measure of health and fitness you can find.  

The subjective measures such as energy level, GI discomfort, sleep quality, mental clarity and more improve rapidly alongside the subjective measures such as HBA1C, lipid profile, blood pressure, HRV and RHR, work capacity, and more.  

It’s also common to experience substantial weight loss in the first week or two of the elimination diet, to the tune of two to twelve pounds, or even more.  While the elimination diet may favorably improve caloric balance, the weight loss is too rapid to be explained by body composition change via a shift in thermodynamics.  

My current hypothesis is that this “water weight” loss is due to the elimination of chronic inflammation from the gut and possibly greater abdominal cavity and tends to taper off within two weeks or less as symptoms and overall experience improve. 

The changes experienced while completing the elimination diet are often dramatic enough that people rarely return to their previous eating habits. They feel so good they’re reluctant to give up their newfound vitality to go back to their previous eating habits, which is telling. 

Running the elimination diet for a short period of time, say 10 days, can be a powerful experience and create the motivation to lengthen the commitment without feeling overwhelming at the outset.  Best practice of duration for optimal assessment of food sensitivity seems to be somewhere around eight to twelve weeks.  Sometimes it makes sense to start small and build once people start to feel the positive changes.  

How to Reintroduce

Once someone has taken a break from the suspect foods they can test each of these food groups for tolerance. We think it’s unreasonable that anyone eliminate a food from their diet permanently based solely on what someone else tells them, so the major factor in how often and how much one eats of these foods is going to be based on the calculated cost / benefit. 

The cost is measured in negative reaction to the food with regard to experience, comfort, and affect on symptoms. The benefit can be assessed as the joy the food brings, cultural importance, roll in social life, etc. 

Here’s how we recommend testing out each of the previously eliminated foods:

Try out one single food group at a time. For example, to test dairy, try some cheese along with other safe foods you’ve been consuming regularly as opposed to having pizza which contains several of the groups above. Singular foods will allow you to assess individual reactions and not confuse the test by introducing multiple factors at the same time. 

Take into consideration ones current state when doing so. Has anything else changed in their routine that might confound your results? Ie. Did they sleep well the previous night? Are they well hydrated? Are there new supplements or meds in their routine? All of these factors can confuse the outcome

Test different individual foods within groups. Keeping with the dairy example, we find many people tolerate heavy whipping cream and greek yogurt well, however very few tolerate skim milk. Homemade sourdough bread seems to be tolerated much better than store bought white bread. While the list can seem overwhelming, testing one food within a group and getting a favorable response might encourage further investigation. Conversely, a significantly negative response might be all the data one needs to label that food group an occasional or rare introduction. 

Wait for at least 24 hours between food tests, several days is even better. Did you know wheat can stay in your digestive system for 7-10 days after eating it compounding GI inflammation and causing cross reactivity with foods like corn?

Start with a small serving size of the food you’re testing, and if you find you tolerate it well consider increasing the size of the serving next time. Remember, the poison is in the dose. Sometimes our bodies can handle a little of something, but not a lot. 

Lastly, watch how the food in question affects body weight.  Short term fluctuations in body weight are almost always inflammatory in nature. If eating some yogurt causes a weight increase of a pound or two that’s an indication there’s a significant inflammatory response active. 

Below are the most common symptoms we see reported by clients from reintroduction of inflammatory foods: 

• Stomach discomfort

• Bloating 

• Gas

• Acid reflux or heartburn

• Rumbly tummy or gurgling 

• Diarrhea or loose bowel movements

• Constipation

• Brain fog

• Loss of energy or lethargy

• Disrupted sleep 

• Skin irritation, hives, or eczema 

• Nasal congestion or increased mucus production

• Joint pain or muscle tenderness 

• Immediate weight gain (within 24 hours) 

Finding Balance 

Once someone has tested some foods and identified symptoms and severity of response they’re ready to start making some individual decisions about what foods to include in their lifestyle. 

The goal of this process is to find a diet (meaning a selection of foods) that allows them to achieve their goals while living a rich, meaningful lifestyle. Most individuals will find that occasional inclusion of inflammatory foods allows them to enjoy the social, cultural, and flavorful joys of food without sacrificing long term health and fitness goals. 

Doing some basic cost / benefit analysis is appropriate at this stage.  There are great reasons to incorporate foods that might not make one feel their best for a short period of time. Eating a home cooked meal with family you don’t see frequently, or celebrating a big night out for an occasion are both great reasons to make short term compromises. 

However, everyone will find there are foods that make them feel bad enough that eliminating them completely from their diet makes sense and improves their quality of life. 

One important point here is that participants make a decision about food that fits THEIR values. Only you know the relative value and cost of eating these foods. We want to instill confidence that they can make these decisions themselves and do so without any guilt or regret. The perfect diet is different for everyone and it’s all a matter of balance and informed, educated choices. 

When someone asks what rules you follow when you eat, we should all strive to be able to answer simply “I know what makes me feel good and what gets me to my goals, so I eat whatever I want”. 

Phase One

We refer to the elimination diet part of our coaching process as Phase One.  To accompany this process we’ve developed a helpful infographic that you can print out and pin to the fridge.  You can download a copy for free below: 

Phase One Infographic

The Health & Nutrition Evolution: A Conversation with Tyler Nicholson

The Warrior Monk Podcast

The Warrior Monk podcast, founded and hosted by Lace Radford, is dedicated to sharing personal philosophy and experiences that empower listeners to enhance their mind, body, and spirit. With a focus on balancing the warrior and monk within, this podcast offers practical insights and practical wisdom to help individuals on their journey of self-improvement. Through honest conversations and relatable stories, Lace Radford guides listeners toward achieving inner harmony and unlocking their full potential.

About Lance Radford

Lance Radford, a South Florida native, graduated with a degree in molecular biology from the University of Central Florida in 2010. After college, Lance embarked on an extraordinary path that led him to serve in the Air Force for nine years. Throughout his adventures and experiences with diverse cultures, Lance shaped his perspective and gained valuable insights. Now, as he transitions back into civilian life, he is eager to share his stories, philosophies, and healthy lifestyle habits through his podcast, while seeking collaborative opportunities with like-minded individuals. Through the Warrior Monk podcast, Lance aims to spark impactful conversations rooted in a passion for wellness and entrepreneurship that resonate with his listeners. Check out the Warrior Monk podcast to listen for yourself.

Episode 38 - A Conversation with Tyler Nicholson

“In this podcast, Lance speaks with fellow strength and conditioning coach and health enthusiast Tyler Nicholson. Tyler is a seasoned coach with over a decade's experience within the CrossFit, fitness, performance, and nutrition worlds. Topics of discussion include Tyler's approach to transforming health, misinformation and misconceptions regarding nutrition, and his new 12-week Transformation Program.”

What Makes People Fat? Breaking Down Weight-loss Stereotypes

For decades, the conventional wisdom has held that overeating and a sedentary lifestyle are the primary causes of obesity. This view has been reinforced by countless public health campaigns, diet books, and weight loss programs. But what if the conventional wisdom is wrong? What if we’ve been looking at the problem of obesity from the wrong angle? After more than a decade of helping people solve that problem firsthand, I will argue that the real culprit behind the obesity epidemic is not overeating or lack of exercise, but the processed carbohydrates in our diets.

The idea that carbohydrates, particularly those in the form of sugars and refined grains, are the main driver of obesity is not a new one. It has been championed by a number of scientists who have been challenging the conventional wisdom for years. At the heart of this argument is the role of insulin in the body.

Insulin is a hormone that regulates blood sugar levels by instructing cells to take up glucose from the bloodstream. When we eat carbohydrates, particularly processed carbohydrates like we find in fast food or breakroom snacks, our blood sugar levels spike, and insulin is released to bring them back down. Over time, repeated spikes in blood sugar and insulin can lead to insulin resistance, a condition in which the body becomes less responsive to insulin signals.

Insulin resistance is a key factor in the development of obesity. When the body becomes resistant to insulin, much the way it does over repeated exposure to many drugs, the pancreas produces more insulin to compensate. This excess insulin promotes the continued storage of fat in adipose tissue and inhibits the breakdown of stored fat for energy. As a result, people with insulin resistance tend to gain weight and have a harder time losing it.

The conventional wisdom when it comes to weight loss has been that calories in = calories out. This idea is based on the First Law of Thermodynamics, which states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed. In other words, if you consume more energy than you expend, you will gain weight, and if you consume less energy than you expend, you will lose weight. But this view ignores the fact that different macronutrients (carbohydrates, fats, and proteins) have different effects on the body’s metabolism and hormones.

When we eat processed carbs, they are quickly broken down and absorbed into the bloodstream. This leads to a rapid spike in blood sugar and insulin levels, which can promote fat storage and inhibit fat burning. In contrast, when we eat a diet that is low in carbohydrates and high in fat, insulin levels remain low, which prompts the body to burn fat for fuel instead of carbohydrates. This can lead to rapid weight loss and improved metabolic health.

In conclusion, the idea that overeating and a sedentary lifestyle are the primary causes of obesity is a myth. The real culprit is the processed and refined carbohydrates in our diets. By reducing our intake of carbohydrates and increasing our intake of healthy fats, along with keeping high levels of protein intake, we can reverse insulin resistance, promote weight loss, and improve our overall health. It’s time to rethink the conventional wisdom and embrace a new approach to nutrition and weight loss.

Introduction to Ice Baths

Getting started with ice baths:

Why would anyone willingly get into an ice bath? This a reasonable question, and one that I think many people are asking these days after seeing the proliferation of the habit on social media.  Suddenly fitness influencers, meditation gurus, and self-improvement aficionados are hopping into tubs filled with ice water, and mountain streams, and occasionally cutting holes in the odd frozen lake to gain access to…. What exactly?

Cold exposure does seem to have substantial physiological benefits including improved circulation, accumulation of brown fat (this is a good thing for metabolism and longevity), and immune function. But none of these, in my opinion, account for how quickly the habit is spreading.  

I’m personally drawn to the ice bath not for some longer-term intangible benefit, but for the immediate psychological and emotional boost.  I’ve heard it described by one of my close friends after an ice bath session as “bringing on a calm and quiet of the mind” he had never experienced before. And I’d say my individual experience corroborates that.  It’s like a supercharged form of meditation.  But you’ve gotta go through some discomfort to get there. 

Here’s how it works:

Ice water is a non-harmful noxious stimulus that puts your body into a full stress response without the risk of causing any physical harm. Theoretically getting chased by a bear would do the same thing physiologically, but I find my acceptable risk for mauling too low to test the comparison.

So there you are, getting into the ice bath, and your body panics. Learning to control this panic is the real fruit that cold exposure bears, pun intended.  That skill of controlling stress response is transferable, as it turns out, to the rest of life. Many of the people I’ve had the chance to cold tub with report a substantially reduced baseline level of anxiety during everyday life, and a notable resilience to acutely stressful events.

For me, that resilience presents itself in a way that feels like a pause, a still moment where you have a choice in how to respond.  It’s the difference between getting cut off in traffic and shaking your fist in road rage, or instead shaking your head chuckling to yourself that someone must be in a hurry. While the calm in the hours following each ice bath is remarkable, the reduced overall amplitude of reaction to stressful stimulus seems to be persistent. 

For those interested in learning more, here are the basics of trying it out:

Start in your bathtub (if it’s deep enough) or a stock tank where you can submerge your whole body up to your neck. At 6’4” I don’t fit in any common bathtub so I have a 150-gallon stock tank. More reasonably sized humans will do fine in a 100-gallon version. 

Add water and enough ice to bring the temperature to ~ 42-46°F. You can go colder after a few sessions if you want but this is plenty to get the response you’re looking for. Going warmer may work for the cold-averse (raynaud's sufferers etc.), but in my opinion, maybe too mild to really get the job done. I now prefer ~41-42°F. 

Start with a two-minute session. Set your mind, and a stopwatch, for two minutes, no more no less. Committing to two minutes is an important part mentally. When you get in, do so quickly but smoothly, all the way up to your neck. This will be uncomfortable, but remember, you’re only going to be in a short time and it can’t hurt you. 

As you get in your breathing will quicken as your body starts a stress response.  This is going to feel a little intense. You may even feel like you lose control of your breathing.  To start to regain control, continue to breathe quickly (you won’t have much of a choice) but start deepening your fast breaths. 

Respiration will still be quick, but deepening your breathing will allow you to gain control back. Then, start to slow the cadence of your breathing, taking longer inhales and exhales while pulling air deep into your belly and chest. Once you are breathing slower and deeper, then switch to breathing exclusively through your nose. Close your eyes if you want to and focus on slow, calm, deep breaths,

At some point, while you were focusing on your breathing the panic will have stopped and you will now be calm, albeit maybe a little physically uncomfortable.  You may feel like “this is kinda chilly in here” instead of the initial “I HAVE TO GET OUT NOW!” panic.  

It’s possible that you might even gain enough confidence through your breath control in this first bath to push your time longer than you had planned for your first session. I don’t recommend going longer than two minutes on this first one. As Dan John once said, “The goal is to keep the goal the goal”. 

You can push your time longer based on how you feel in the future, but for now, by staying in too long you risk your core body temp staying low for longer which isn’t dangerous but can be unpleasant when it takes hours for your core body temp to come back up. 

In the process of doing chronic cold exposure over repeated sessions, you’ll learn to control your stress response and better apply it outside the tub. I find my mind gets noticeably quieter when I am “tubbing” regularly. 

Once you’ve done a session for two minutes, for your next session progress the stimulus. By increasing the amount of time you’re in. For those just starting their journey, I would recommend modest increases in time for each subsequent exposure.

As follows is one way to progress:

• 1x 2:00

• 1x 2:30

• 1x 3:00

• 2x 2:00 with a 6-8min break

• 2x 2:30 with a 7-9min break

• 2x 3:00 with a 9-12min break 

• 3x 2-3min with 6-8min breaks

And then start to freestyle with what seems to challenge you, but doesn’t take you too long to warm up afterward. Lower the temperature a few degrees, dunk your head when you get in, or hold your breath underwater for a brief period. If you’re going to hold your breath underwater, do it with an attentive buddy and be safe!

Lastly, while doing cold baths with company can be great for camaraderie, bonding, and support, avoid turning it into a competition. Each individual body progresses at its own rate, not to mention day to day your tolerance for cold may be more or less than it was last time. 

For beginners, shivering can be a sign it’s time to get out. For those that have some significant experience, it can be worthwhile to try to calm your body and control your body’s shivering.  That being said, uncontrolled shivering in the tub is a sign you’ve exceeded the dose necessary for physiological benefits and are simply training mental toughness.  Do so with caution and understand the risks associated with doing so that are beyond the scope of this post. 

If you do use this primer to try out ice baths I would be very interested in your experience! Please don’t hesitate to share what it was like and if there was anything else that would have been helpful. Happy tubbing and enjoy the calm!

Gear I Use

• 100 gallon Rubbermaid Stock Tank or 150 Gallon Rubbermade Stock Tank for the larger individuals out there

• Stock Tank Heater - this is critical for keeping your ice bath from freezing solid in the winter. I use it in conjunction with an Inkbird Temperature Controller. I’ll set it to heat up to 43 degrees which keeps my tank ready for plunges any time.

• Pool Thermometer - If you’re adding ice to an indoor bathtub, or in a warmer outdoor climate a simple pool thermometer allows you to know how much ice to add