Go Fit Yourself

      When you first begin a low or no carb lifestyle, your body (mostly your gut microbiome) will rebel. You will experience extreme fatigue, irritability, headaches, maybe even a low grade fever and extreme cravings for carbs. Does this sound familiar? It is almost exactly what would happen if you were a habitual smoker that suddenly quit smoking cold turkey. The "keto flu", as it is sometimes called, is not at all unique, it is an addiction response your body is having to addictive material, in this case, carbs / sugar.      Much like if you decided to quit smoking, you can use "quit aids" to help you along your journey and make the process less painful. There are nicotine patches, lozenges, and gum that help you cut back or eliminate smoking without all the withdrawal symptoms. IF you find it almost impossible to quit sugar and get on this ideal way of eating, these are the tools you can use to make your transition much less painful.     ...

      Building a community around health and fitness is just as important as building communities in other areas of your life. Weight Watchers is a terrible diet plan, but it works in the short term because of the weekly meetings and becoming friends with people with the same struggles. Cross Fit is a terrible training system that gets mediocre results, but it works in the short term because you make friends, your instructor has good energy and you built a "community" around your fitness.      We are social creatures whether we like it or not. I am a total introvert, which means social interactions drain my energy, but even I understand that I need to communicate with other people or I will go crazy. But enough about me, this is about you and becoming part of a community. That is why I am encouraging you to join the Facebook group "Go Fit Yourself Swoldiers" on Facebook. There will be live Q and As, a bunch of great information updated regularly, and a nati...

      Just as the title says, I am not anti vegan. I love vegans, some of my best friends are vegans. And those friends have huge hearts, good senses of humor and are coming from a place of compassion. However, the vegan diet is pretty darn bad for your health long term. If you would like to dabble in eating only vegetables and fruits (not the processed "fake meats, cheeses, and milks" that keeps vegans alive), go for it. You will probably lose quite a bit of weight just due to the fact that everything you are eating contains fiber and you can't absorb much nutrition (except sugar).     However, as covered in the book, plant matter is also full of anti-nutrients and enzyme inhibitors. This means that as these poisons build up in your system, you will feel worse and worse, not quite knowing why, after about a month of vegan eating. Let's look at almonds, the good old almond. Vegans use almonds for "milk", "yogurt", "cheese", and as a ...

    For the purposes of this article, "cardio" is going to refer to any activity that raises your heart rate well above baseline for a given amount of time.      I am NOT anti cardio, I just want to make that clear. The issue with cardio is that it is not enough to live a long, healthy life. Cardio can implemented to supplement a fantastic nutrition and strength training plan, but it is counter productive for most goals. Sometimes, cardio is simply walking, I LOVE walking. Slow, fast, up hills, up mountains, I don't care. Walking is what you were designed to do and you will aim for 6000 steps a day no matter what.      But other forms of more intense cardio, while fun, can be dangerous if you are not strong. If you try to juke left too hard in a game of tennis and your knees and hip muscles aren't prepared for it, that is where injury happens. People think that tennis will get them into shape, when really they need to get in shape to play tennis. ...

      If you have a fat dog or cat, I can almost guarantee you are also fat, and you show your love through food. Fat pets are an epidemic that I am seeing more and more of. While it is admittedly funny looking, the underlying health issues that are brewing beneath the surface are worse than you can imagine. All the same things that can happen to humans when they are obese can happen to dogs, cats, rats, and hamsters as well. The diabetes, the achy joints, the heart problems, but especially CHRONIC INFLAMMATION.      I get it, I friggin love my dogs, they get the occasional piece of cheese or egg yolk out of me outside of their "feeding window", but I try to keep them at 1 meal per day. It is how dogs and cats (carnivores) are designed to eat. The animal would "hunt" all day (these days that means playing with string or running around the backyard), then it would make a kill, feast, and call it a day. This is the way your animal is meant to live a healthy l...

      Functional training gets thrown around A LOT lately. It usually just means easy physical therapyish movements for a couple sets of 15 reps. You will see functional training being performed on bosu balls, with tiny rubber bands and 3 lb. weights across the country. OR you might think of CrossFit, which is a Frankenstein's monster of a training system that combines heavy lifting, Olympic lifting, and "conditioning", in this case conditioning means flopping around and contorting your spine for 10 minutes doing various "functional" movements. The purpose is to make you ok at everything, but GOOD at nothing. So you end up an injured mess by the end of your CF "career".     The real functional training is simply training NATURAL human movement patterns. Everyone should be able to pick something heavy up off the floor with proper bracing and keeping their spine straight (deadlifts). Everyone should be able to crouch down until the hip crease is jus...

      I often get asked: "Why are you steadfast in your teachings, why can't I just eat a 'balanced' diet?" Because in life there is no room for balance, allow me to explain. A balanced diet got you into this mess. Your doctor or the media or other financial interests told you 50% of your diet should be carbs (sugar), 30% protein, and 20% fat (just enough to keep your hormones from getting out of wack). Heart healthy grains! A glass or 2 of red wine (because that's healthier) a day! Your brain can only run on sugar! Ketosis is bad for you! (mixing it up with ketoacidosis)      Well I say, be black and white about your diet, especially in the short term. For now, carbs are poison. For now, animal meat is a superfood! For now, gaining muscle is more important than aerobics.      When I first started off as a trainer, I was focusing on "macros". I would sit people down and give them the exact number of calories they need to eat per day, and the ...

      Hygiene is, of course, very important. But in today's modern world full of pollution (did you know that going outside and breathing in L.A. is virtually the same as smoking cigarettes?) we can not afford to put more chemical concoctions on our skin, in our hair, and in our mouths. These are the environmental pollutants that ad companies have decided we need to douse ourselves in everyday in order to exist in public without stinking or (God forbid) looking our age.      Today we are surrounded by "endocrine disruptors". These are chemicals that will alter your hormones, and not for the better. If you drink from a plastic bottle that hasn't been handled PERFECTLY, you have been exposed to toxic chemicals. If you drink unfiltered tap water, you have been exposed to toxic chemicals. If you use fluoridated toothpaste and chemical anti-perspirant (containing aluminum) you have been exposed to toxic chemicals. These "normal" pollutants we put ...

     Ok, let's get this out of the way: I am not a doctor and this is NOT medical advice, do not attempt what I write in this article unless under your doctor's direct supervision. This is my opinion. And all that legal stuff. Alright let's have some fun.        That's right, I am not going to "control" your diabetes. I am going to cure your diabetes. First, let's get it out of the way, NOT type 1 diabetes. This is present in children from a very young age and can be well taken care of with insulin and orange juice. Type 2 diabetes is on the rise. It is mostly present in adults that have out of control blood sugar. When you eat something containing carbs or too much protein, your body releases insulin to tell the sugar where to go: your muscles and brain to be used for energy, or your gut to be stored as bodyfat.       When you CONSTANTLY spike your blood sugar by overeating carbohydrates, your body needs to release more and mo...

       For thousands of years, we have counted on "medicine men" (or women) to help us take care of any illnesses we might experience or prevent the illness in the first place. But not long ago, John D Rockefeller decided that if he could get doctors to prescribe petroleum based "medicines" to all their patients, he could make a butt load of money. That is when the smear campaigns started. He discredited chiropractors, acupuncturists, and holistic health professionals in medical journals and textbooks that he graciously donated to every medical school in the country.      Before, that you could go to a doctor that specialized in "Eastern" medicine, a blanket term I use to describe any medical care that doesn't involve medication as the first step to treatment. Now, the family doctor is a thing of the distant past and you just go to whatever doctor your insurance will cover, and receive what is ironically called THE "standard of care". This bo...

      There is absolutely nothing like being weak. Being weak will guarantee that you grow old and develop  osteoporosis. It will mean that you can't play with your grandkids because you are always so tired and everything hurts. Being weak will put you on a cane, then a walker, then a wheelchair until the day your maker calls you home. If you were moving something even a little heavy, you would never ask a weak person, unless that is the only option, and even then, he or she will only get in the way and end up dropping something on your foot. Being weak means being less useful, and maintaining a built in helplessness that is hard to put into words.      Being strong, on the other hand, is one of the most freeing feelings in the world. It is not necessarily deadlifting 500 pounds, but it IS the fact that you can help your buddy move a washing machine (if you have ever moved a washing machine, you know it's the heaviest appliance known to man). Being str...