While I do many things to support my health on a daily basis, here are the top 5 strategies I personally implement and strongly recommend to people to simultaneously reach their health and performance goals and slow the the aging process.  

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 at 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.

So how do we control glucose?

For starters, get rid of or greatly limit grains in your diet, or at least limit intake. When I have some quinoa (technically a seed) or organic wild rice, I keep my intake low and always have these with my evening meal or after physical activity when insulin is more sensitive. And don’t think that just because it is gluten-free that you are “safe”. Most gluten-free contain replacement flours like tapioca flour, cornstarch, etc. that can raise glucose even more than sugar.

You can also control glucose by increasing healthy fat intake. Healthy fats are integral to balance blood sugar and needed to regenerate an inflamed cellular membrane. Coconut oil, olive oil, avocado oil, and even some saturated fats, are excellent natural blood sugar regulators. 

You should also be eating a moderate amount of protein as excess amounts of protein trigger blood sugar spikes via a process called gluconeogenesis. While we need adequate amounts of protein, too much can 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. An excellent strategy to stimulate the healing process of autophagy is two have two to three low protein days of less than 25 grams of protein and then eat larger amounts on the other 4 to 5 days. Try to do your heavier training and strength workouts on the higher protein days. More on that below.

But this is still all the best knowledge recommendations. I am going to go straight to the data.
Based on the incredibly enlightening findings of a number of my colleagues, I plan to start wearing a continuous glucose monitor called Dexcom 6 that will painlessly check my glucose levels every 5 minutes and then transmit the data to my phone. I will then know exactly how certain combinations of foods, lack or excesses of foods, sleep, stress and physical activity and more all affect my blood sugar allowing me to adjust things that on the surface seem to be right on.

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 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?

As I described above I will vary protein amount several times a week. Several times a year I will implement a Fasting Mimic Diet where I go very low calories and higher fat (less than 500 calories) for five days. And then I will have anabolic gain periods of a few weeks at a time where I will bump up both my calories and carbohydrates with starchy vegetables, organic berries and non-glutinous grains. I also focused more intently on muscle gain during this period. 

This cycling allows me to both maintain muscle mass and stimulate autophagic cleansing of waster proteins. Just like you stop making gains if you do the same workout day in and day out, the same goes for diet. Your body thrives on variations of all kinds. Whether it is food, activity, temperature, toxins, slight stressors and more. This is a highly effective strategy that simply mimics our ancestors’ natural way of life.

MY PERSONAL INTERMITTENT FASTING ROUTINE

I practice intermittent fasting on a daily basis for general health and the anti-aging benefits. The science is clear that caloric restriction works on all organisms. After dinner, which I try to finish by 730 or 3 to 4 hours prior to bedtime, I wait approximately 16 hours to eat my 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). My first meal typically is a blender drink (consisting of fat and protein) between 1200 and 1300. For example, I may have a PurePaleo protein shake with CHOCOBERRY BLAST, Fresh Pressed Olive Oil or an avocado, a small handful of frozen berries or cranberries, nut milk and ice. I typically won’t eat then until dinner other than maybe a small salad or some yogurt and nuts. 

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.

Certainly, endurance and aerobic training have its benefits, but for slowing aging, there are far greater gains with burst training. When someone does a lot of endurance training, growth hormone drops as does testosterone. Conversely, when you do high-intensity bursting, these hormones increase. These anabolic hormones are needed to lose weight, remain lean, heal the brain and stay young-looking and vital.

Endurance athletes also 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. Now I don’t want to tell you to stop doing what you love or genetically have the advantage to do but the wise and even advantageous policy would be to incorporate burst (HIIT), strength and long slow training into your Zone 2 black hole of training. .

Studies also show that people who run or cycle miles and miles actually become weaker. But when they include 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. Another great way to enhance your ability to become fat-adapted is to regularly perform endurance or burst training in the AM while you are fasting. This double-whammy of fasting and burst training 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.

Most cleansers 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 almost 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. .

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 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.

FIX THE CELL

After you start the process of binding toxins, you need to concentrate on fixing the cell membrane. The cell must be fixed and proper detox must occur to realize optimal health and vitality. This is called the 5R’s. Remove the source (R1) that is causing the trouble in the first place. Fix the cell membrane (R2) in order to move good things in and bad things out. Restore cellular energy (R3). Reduce inflammation (R4). Reestablish methylation (R5). 

REMOVE THE TOXINS

Of course, diet plays a significant role in looking young, successful detox, and generating cellular healing. It is critical to remove toxic foods from your diet in conjunction with practicing diet variation and intermittent and block fasting. It is critical to cut out sugars, processed fats, poor-quality proteins, and most grains.

If you are eating conventional grains you are getting 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. It’s absolutely frightening what is happening to many of our food sources and consumer education on this issue is imperative.

Glyphosate is not safe in the human body. But companies are using glyphosate on organic grains after they have been harvested. 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. Wonder why kids today are allergic to so many things and ADD and autism have skyrocketed!

USE THIS PROVEN PROGRAM

Of course, we can’t avoid all of the toxins in our modern world. This is why a program such as True Cellular Detox™ created by Dr. Dan Pompa this 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.  The three phases include: 1. Preparatory 2. Body detox 3. Brain detox.

The True Cellular Detox will just be one of many program we offer at cost for those who join our PureClean Performance Member program. Coming soon!