I have never been a fan of essential oils, this is for a few reasons. I am very sensitive to the smells and don't really react to them well because the smells are too intense for me most of the time. Some of the more subtle scents I don't mind. One big issue I have with them is that MLM's seem to have made them popular. I can't stand mlm's and could write a book about them. I will resist the urge to make this all about why mlm's are scams but I will say that mlm's do best in unregulated industries that have a sensory product with no measurable effect.....oils....snake oils. From a business perspective you will never find an mlm selling computers or bikes or well anything that doesn't play on emotions and is not tangible that's why mlm's tend to gravitate towards health and beauty. I consider essential substances things the body can't make or store but are needed to survive. Minerals and certain vitamins are essential and must be consumed to stay alive. No "essential oils" are actually essential. The only people who think essential oils cure every illness in they way they are so often marketed are the ones selling them. They smell nice and I get that but lets not take a nice smell and pretend like it cures everything under the sun. I'm not saying that they have no health benefit but I am saying that their benefits are extremely exaggerated by the people selling them and the country has fallen for it.
If I where to make a section of supplements and it said oils (which I have done) I include things like fish oil, mct's, flax oil. "Essential oils" are things that mix with oils and are not oils themselves. So from my perspective the phrase essential oils is just marketing and if they were called "unnecessary smells" they may not sell as well. Please don't consume them and yeah some aren't bad bad others are and no matter what they shouldn't be something we just consume all the time. Once again I'm not saying they have no value I just can't stand fakeness and miss information. For example to many people are smelling oils all day long for stress and not taking magnesium....an actually essential substance that no mlm can make money on.
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Solar Powered Living9/11/2018 I'm on my fasting day. I do intermittent fasting on pretty long daily fast and it has been great but once a week I skip my eating window and do a 44 hour fast. based on my tracking this is when I really am getting the weight loss aggressively as it takes about 3500 calories to loose one pound of fat and between my daily expenditure and the fasted cardio that I do on this day I tend to loose that pound and then go back into my intermittent fasting so I never eat more to gain the fat back. It's worked out well so far but this post isn't really about fat loss.
On my fasting day and in my daily fasting window I have found that sunshine and better sun shine while I'm grounded feel like eating. Now let me qualify that I'm not saying we don't need to ever eat I'm saying that I look forward to the moments I can get sun like I used to look forward to meals. On my lunch break I lay in the sun. Yesterday on my fasting day I was set to go to the gym to do my cardio and thought I want sun and went and ran by the beach and after walked in the ocean. This was so much better. I have known about the befits of light and electrons for a while now and have had this page on my site(check out the quantum health page for more info) Quantum Health All about how light is carried on electrons and how we get light through eating but also through direct sun It is one thing to know something and another to experience it. As I am fasting I can tune in so much more to the sun light. I have lived near the beach for almost a year and am finally tapping into its power. Which is ok. It takes time to incorporate new behaviors into my routines. I just know that I live in a place that other dream of visiting to see the sun go down over the ocean and I feel a deep gratitude for this opportunity. Get sunlight! My Thoughts On A Few Weeks Of CrossFit9/10/2018 I never had any desire to try cross fit. I like going to the gym with my head phones on and doing my own thing. I was never the competitive type and am not into group activities. With my new routine someone was telling me about all the benefits they have gotten from crossfit and that I need to give it a try.
I did and I Plan on sticking with it. It has been good for me to approach it thinking about the brain and how I learn. Cross fit has pluses and minuses which are often the same thing, double edged sword. The social aspect Doing a workout with other people has a way of immediately making me try harder both because of the encouragement and because I don't want to look weak not that anyone else cares but more for my own self perception. The time aspect doing as much as you can in a certain amount of time make me compete with the clock. I go harder knowing how much more I have to go. The downside to both of these aspects is that there is a subconscious push to sacrifice form to do more than I should. I see the potential for injury, which was what I always heard about crossfit before I started it. I have never most of the lifts before and luckily I know that this is mostly a situation where my brain needs consistent repetition of the new motion for me to be able to hold form and then I can worry about adding weight. The temptation is to add weight when the people around you are lifting way more than me. I have learned a ton about form since being there and am definitely working muscles I haven't before. When I first started I say my weight loss plateau a bit as I was so hungry and so sore, which I would expect. I also see the temptation to go all the time. i have continued my workouts and have inserted the crossfit into my routine and so I've been going about twice a week. This seems to be a good amount that allows me to recover and do my other workouts. It fits with my routine. I will say that crossfit has made the workouts I thought were tough that I was doing by myself look weak. This has also worked out really well with my intermittent fasting. The way it has worked out is that one day a week when I do my 44 hour fast I break the fast with a coconut water cacao, essential amino acid drink and then go to crossfit. This makes the workout very tough as I haven't eaten anything besides this but to fit the fast and the croff fit in it works out this way. Knowing I get to eat after is motivating. I live close enough to walk to crossfit and when my schedule allows I walk straight to the beach and jump in the ocean after which is great. Intermittent fasting - Crossfit - Ocean Dive - Food - Restorative Yoga - Sleep is a pretty amazing routine that I can do twice a week. To sum it up- I like crossfit- I think I know enough to avoid the downsides, specifically I don't want to injure myself and I want it to be sustainable. I don't have the mentality that fits with crossfit which is why It's good for me to get out of my comfort zone. i have only been to the one I go to and have no idea how different it is from other cross fit gyms but if you haven't tried it you should. Boron9/9/2018 So I promised I would do a Boron post. I have been taking 3mg of standard Boron for a while but after doing some more looking into it I've upped my dose to 6-9mg and switched brands to this patented form. I'll keep you posted on these changes.
The benefits of Boron are vast. It does everything from boosting testosterone to extending the half life of Vitamin D. I've stopped VitD Supplementation as it is a fat soluble hormone that interacts with Vit A. Boron may be the solution to a vitD deficiency. Here's an article for more info on Borons benefits www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4712861/ This isn't an informational blog as much as showing what I'm doing and trying. I will say that I have a short list of supplements I think everyone should consider taking and Boron is on the list. Yesterdays post was on Lithium Oritate and now Boron. These trace minerals are very interesting and are responsible for so many functions in the body. I always encourage people to start supplementing things your body doesn't make or store first before anything else. Minerals are on the top of that list. Lithium Oritate9/8/2018 One of the big reasons I'm excited about doing this health blog is because I will be able to go back and see different products and behaviors I have tried.
A few years back I used to take lithium oritate and was a big fan of it. Not sure why I stopped taking it but it will be interesting to see how it fits with my existing protocols. Lithium Oritate is not the drug but it is great for the brain. I'm not going to use this blog to go into lots of science details but here is a good video going over it's benefits. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jw-CrAR5E7M I've started this again today and will share any updates. anyone who struggles with depression, anxiety, has a history of mental illness, or is looking to improve brain function should look into this product. *Update I made this post yesterday and this is the next morning after taking the lithium oritate. I had really bizarre dreams and at one time had a very hard time waking up and in the dream things were spinning which was very appealing. 2 factorsd I can think of with this 1. Is that they have been redoing the streets around my house and yesterday I walked to the beach to jump in the ocean but the fumes coming of the new pavement were very strong and by the end of the day I was congested with head cold type symptoms which is no fun. 2. Is that I took the lithium oritate. When I took this product in the past I never remember having any dream issues however, this may just be from being so sound asleep which may not be a bad thing. I'm going to keep taking it and we'll see if this continues or not. Wondering if anyone else has had dream issues from it. It' would make sense. Fat Loss Chart9/7/2018 In todays My Thoughts Blog I wrote about big long term changes coming from small short term changes. This is a chart of my weight loss I weigh myself every day. Disclaimer: As always I am interested in fat loss not weight loss and the scale isn't the best measurement as I could go keto and cut water, glycogen, muscle and waste causing weight loss and not have any of it be fat loss. But I am interested in the trend of body fat loss and the scale is one way to see this. It is important to see how many times the chart goes up and to see the trend down. I weigh myself naked every morning at the same time fasted as a constant. I have been doing the same program this entire time. The graph shows about two months. In that time I have lost a good amount of weight. If I had weighed myself and not stuck to the plan the spikes up would have been discouraging and made me quit. I'm not done yet but it is good to see the trend. This is a visual for other goals I have in my life some tangible and others more conceptual. Learning looks like this, consistency is the key. In this process I have made very small adjustments to the existing program to see what would happen. Tracking helps me to run mini tests within the bigger test to optimize the process and it's all happening in real time. I hope that my wisdom and knowledge graph looks like this but trending up of coarse. That's the goal. Keto Protein is a Scam9/6/2018 Health Rant
The word keto comes from ketones Ketones are made from fat, not protein, not carbs only fat A keto diet typically has a 70% fat 30% carb/protein macro mix Proteins do not make ketones they make glucose, the opposite of the goal of a keto diet There is no such thing as Keto protein powder What's worse is that a protein in powdered form spikes insulin much more than protein in other forms Adding fat (mct's or otherwise) to a protein powder does not make the protein convert to ketones - protein converts to glucose always Mct's convert to quick fuel, they act like a carb Eating glucose in any form, ketones, mct's or fats will always prevent the body from using body fat because it takes work to break down body fat and any other readily available fuel source will be used before body fat water, glycogen, muscle, and waste are all weight and none of them are fat The popular keto phrase fat for fuel should be body fat for fuel as eating fat does not make tyou loose body fat. The opposite actually. I'm not saying you can't loose fat opn a keto diet. It is a good tool but the supplement companies and health practitioners pushing this as a one size fits all diet are just making money. A keto diet done unintelligently will make you loose weight and maintain fat through fat consumption Anyone who incorporates intermittent fasting will target body fat Fake health companies can't make money off fasting but they can make money off things like "keto protein" playing on the ignorance of the population the sad thing....it works there is no such thing as "keto protein" just glucose protein because that what all protein converts to in the same way there is no such thing as keto carbs because they don't convert to ketones either. The people profiting from these products know this. They are counting on you not using common sense and buying the big word on the front of the product. New Low9/6/2018 On this site I have tried to emphasize the importance of fat loss instead of weight loss. I do weigh myself daily to see trends and typically my weight fluctuates with a downward trend. I have actually charted this out.
The bad news - On my Day 3 lifting (see My Routine) high rep workout I do several exercises that have been tracked to see see how my strength trends as I loose weight. For a very long time this has trended up yesterday I wasn't able to do near as many. I look at this in a few ways 1. I did crossfit the day before - I had been taking a recovery day in between this but with my schedule this week I wanted to fit both workout in and I was sore 2. I had my weekly 44 hour fast on Monday-Tuesday and went straight into my crossfit workout and intermittent fasting I just don't think I had the food/carbs in me to push it 3......which is also the good news is I weighed in this morning at 192.4 This is a new low and it means I have lost 20 Pounds since I started I think this recent weight loss push has caused my strength to decline some which is ok, it happens. keep in mind that I am eating carbs so this weight is not me cut down from keto shedding my water weight. I have not been doing a cheat day as my weight has continued to dip and I have been feeling light. My weight loss has been consistent over the past few months but recently I feel like I just plain can't eat as much in my window as my stomach seems to have shrunk. This fullness is new to me as I have always been able to just keep eating and not get full. I'm guessing my weight will go back up a little and then continue to trend down as it has as long as I've been tracking it. Looking at my current body I think getting down to 185 would be good. I can't imagine being 180 and not looking sick but we'll see how things continue to progress. In other interesting news I have been taking 3mg of Boron for the past few months and stumbled a across an interesting video showing studies that for testosterone enhancement 3mg showed no change but 6-12mg is a better amount. I am going to up my dose to 9mg today and 6 tomorrow rotating back and forth skipping my fasting day. We'll see what this does for me. I'll keep you posted. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4712861/ August 29th 20189/6/2018 Here is my progress since starting the routine listed on this site. The routine currently posted has been modified over time but this was the beginning of my intermittent fasting. I have maintained all my strength and even increased it since I began while not only loosing weight but specifically fat. I have more to go but have tried to do this in a sustainable way loosing at most five pounds a month or 1.25 pounds a week.
In this phase of life my max weight was 212 I weighed in August 29th at 194 down 18 pounds form almost 3 months earlier. The important point is that this is fat loss not just weight loss. The pictures on the right are a normal day I ate carbs the night before, I did not use a keto diet to shed water weight for this pic. As person who grew up fat and carried most of my fat loose and around the mid section I have never been able to fully tighten things up around the belly but I want to see how far I can go. If I can maintain my strength and get down to 185 I think I will probably be at my goal. These pictures are real. I didn't spend any time considering lighting and no filters where used. Just showing progress. I hope to get some good pics once I hit my goal. I haven't taken any fat loss products natural or otherwise that are not listed on this site. Health Blog LibraryAuthorRob Alexander is on a journey to learn not just about health but everything else. Archives
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