This Week I Learned #25 - Healthy Revisited
After 168 days of daily learnings I’ve decided to go through the inventory to pick out the top 7 learnings I continue to apply in my everyday life and/or refer my friends to and share them again for a highlight reel. Here they are and enjoy!
2018-06-02
Healthy: Cold showers are great. Why? Reduces muscle inflammation + makes body burn fat as energy (i.e. fat loss) + enhances focus + reduces anxiety and depression. Hence why I do a cold shower for 1 min. every day. Per research by Dr. Rhonda Patrick, this is because cold showers near 0 degrees for 30 seconds increase norepinephrine to 200-300%. Norepinephrine inhibits inflammatory cytokines (IC) to reduce inflammation. IC plays role in anxiety + depression so inhibiting is good! Also, Cold => activate cold thermogenesis => activate brown adipose tissue (BAT). Cold => more mitochondria => more BAT => higher efficiency in using normal fat as energy => fat loss. http://biohackersummit.com/2016/10/15/dr-rhonda-patrick-health-benefits-of-sauna/
2018-07-04
Healthy: Peter Attia on the principles of weight loss, among many other things, on Joe Rogan's podcast. We make the choice of the kinds of food we put into our body but once it is in it's our hormones that dictate nutrient partitioning. Confusion of nutrient partitioning is what we are trying to hack with exercise and diet when it is focused on the purpose of weight loss. Big hormones there are insulin, cortisol and testosterone. Lower insulin to limit storing nutrients as fat, either through fasting or cutting carbs. Cortisol is anabolic to fat and catabolic to muscle, testosterone is the opposite. Cortisol increases with stress and less sleep. So you could be on that $50 rabbit food diet everyday but if you are stressed as shit from your life then it will all get stored as fat and also kill your muscles. Nutrients are important too but get your life in order first, that's step 1 of looking like you have a great life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gP1NA5f4LfE
2018-07-07
Healthy: So I've been buying "free-run omega-3 eggs". No, it's not pretentious. Given your body's health is your greatest asset to achieve anything it only seems logical it gets the most of your investment. Yeah, so I spend $2 more on my carton of eggs instead of $60 at a club to pour car fuel in my liver but that's just me. Anyhow, I was curious on the distinction of free-run vs. free-range vs. organic vs. omega-3. Turns out, organic is free-range + your chicken is fed organic food (i.e. no pesticide/hormones/chemicals). Free-range is chickens running freely outdoors but not organic feed. Free-run is they run in slightly bigger than cage spaces indoors. Omega-3 infused is chickens just get fed flax seed.. which I could just as well eat myself instead of needing a chicken to digest for me for a tiny 125mg worth. So now, I'm just going to buy organic eggs. Turns out it's about $6.50 per carton. Pair of Adidas sneakers or 20 cartons of eggs? Eggs. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/health/free-range-organic-omega-3-what-type-of-eggs-should-i-buy/article30827142/
2018-07-26
Healthy: I've been on a binge on sleep research. A podcast with the sleep doctor Matthew Walker. Athletes with under 6 hrs of sleep saw 60% increase in likelihood of injury, one major reason being the failure of stabilization muscles. With less sleep the stabilizers give way first. Sleep also is required to improve learning of new motor skills. Turns out if you practice the skills, get good quality sleep and come back the next day your skills have improved by 20-30%. Quality sleep is about 7 - 9 hrs. If you sleep 6 hrs or less then time to physical exhaustion increases by 30%. Under 7 hrs results in objective impermanence in brain. If you read on an ipad for an hour your melatonin releases will be delayed by 3 hrs when compared to reading a book with dim lights. Individuals who can function normally with under 6 hours of sleep are under 1% of the population. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwaWilO_Pig
2018-08-08
Healthy: We have two circadian rhythms. One led by the brain, which impacted by light. One led by the organs, impacted by food triggering metabolism. As our body turns off and goes to sleep we burn our fat stores for energy and when we are awake we burn carbs and store the rest as energy. When we exercise our body burns carbs as energy then and burns the storage for the recovery of the damage done to our body. The recovery process is essential for building up strong immune systems too to fight off diseases. To aid the brain regulate the circadian rhythm lowering blue light exposure at night and replacing with dimmed lights and sleeping total darkness would help. For the body, keeping the feeding window to at least 12 hours would be good. Turns out most people have a 15 hour feeding cycle with the morning coffee and the late night snack and this practically stops your body from ever going into recovery and burning any fat stores. This is also why intermittent fasting has seen many of the benefits of regulating the circadian clock. Dr. Satchin Panda's research on time-restricted eating has actually been a major reference point for many intermittent fasting advocates. Here is his Ted talk on circadian rhythms: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erBJuxVR7IE
2018-09-07
Healthy: A mental reboot in interview with Sharon Salzberg and Jerry Colonna. Nobody knows what they are doing. I know this, I've learned this but this interview just helped it click internally with myself. In the pursuit of trying to create an "occupation" that doesn't exist it's brought on large amounts of anxieties on whether I'm doing the right thing. Even more anxiety when I realized I went down a path that was wrong for me. Lot's of great insight in helping me continue to reframe my mindset on work. Jerry said it well when he described success at work as having a greater emotional experience. Actually using work as a way to experience full self-actualization where the focus is on becoming more aware of the emotional experience the journey produces. Sharon paraphrased what the Dalai Lama told her about success when he said in Tibet that something was considered wonderful or creative not based on the product or result but on the transformation the creator/producer went through. It is a focus on who you are moment to moment to moment. Wonderful. https://www.reboot.io/episode/does-anyone-really-know-what-they-are-doing/
2018-10-23
Healthy: I previously wrote of a learning in regards to sulforaphane. I dislike eating vegetables. I know I should eat them though and so in looking for the most effective option I focused on broccoli sprouts. Mixed it into my morning smoothie but it tasted rancid. Hence, the search continued and I learned that major health benefits for aging, immune system boost against cancer, clearing out benzene from air pollution/carcinogens was available in all cruciferous vegetables. Cabbage is listed there and I know that fermented vegetables also provide lot's of benefits in essential vitamins and probiotics and one of those options is kimchi, the korean spicy fermented cabbage. Now I can go back to eating something that is a cultural dish akin to me and get the benefits of vegetable consumption via this source. Continuing on the trend of creating a diet that works for me, one of least resistance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz4YVJ4aRfg
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