digestion – Page 4 – Dre Fitness

December 26, 2012December 26, 2012

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End Scrawny: 5 Fixes to Gain Muscle Mass for the Skinny Guy

How to Gain Lean Bulk for the Skinny/Underweight Male

Guys who are skinny are skinny for either one of two reasons.

1. They are young, somewhat active, and still experiencing growth

2. Most skinny guys haven’t learned how to eat properly

The author with a 50 lbs difference in body mass

Consuming food is easy, while consuming nutrients takes dedication.

Because most underweight males are at their weight due to lifestyle choices, we should focus on certain quick fixes to help gain some success and confidence. First I will discuss a few quick fixes, then I will relate the reasons why it is fundamental to create new eating habits.

Quick Fix# 1: Breakfast

This is simple and it should be happening at least 6 out of every 7 days. Sure I can speak for days as to how breakfast enhances human metabolic processes… but you just need to do it.

Smoothies (berries / milk / protein)
Oatmeal (milk / whey / almond butter or peanut butter / or coconut oil)
Shake (fresh juices, vegetables, fruits, powders)
Eggs + vegetables
Many possibilities

Quick Fix# 2: Allow yourself a minimum of 20 minutes for breakfast

Okay, so the first two MOST IMPORTANT THINGS YOU CAN DO are both related to breakfast. That should give you a glimpse as to how extremely valuable this time is for your body.

You cannot rush through breakfast and expect to have healthy digestion and consumption.

Go to bed 20 minutes earlier the night before if you must.

Quick Fix# 3: Eat Big Carbs before / after workout

To gain muscle mass, you want to increase the energy storage within the muscle. Carbohydrates, particularly glucose or food that readily converts into glucose are the muscles preferred sources of energy.

This guy understands the benefits of healthy carbs.

As muscles adapt to training stimuli, the overall amount of glycogen stored within the muscle will be increased.

Let me put it this way: The more lean, athletic muscle you possess, the more carb-based energy will be stored within the muscles. This is one reason that gives the muscles a larger physical size/appearance. It also means you have the potential to be more powerful than most other people.

Quick Fix# 4: Consume Protein before / after workout

Protein contains bonds of amino acids which are essential for the body. Powerful body-strengthening mechanisms are activated by protein.

After your workout, your muscles will be increased sensitivity to uptaking carbohydrates and glucose. When the muscles uptake glucose more readily, it has a carryover effect of uptaking protein as well. In other words, carbs help attract muscle building amino acids into the actual muscle tissue.

Quick Fix# 5: Take Omega-3 Fatty Acid supplement

Some people eat Wild Alaskan Salmon three times per week — and they might not need an Omega-3 supplement. However, most people, especially skinny guys NEED the nutrients and will utilize Omega-3’s to support anabolic processes.

You will cripple your progress unless you consume adequate omega-3s.

A lot of people talk about the health benefits of Omega-3 fatty acids — I know all about them. If you want to know more, google that. Let’s talk about the MUSCLE BUILDING and ANABOLIC properties that omega-3’s possess.

Improved insulin sensitivity (translates to –> more protein/glucose IN your muscles)
Joint lubrication (translates to –> less achy joints, quicker recovery time from exercise)
Supports Inflammatory process (translates to –> inflammation is regulated to improve adaptation to exercise)
Brain health (translates to –> you learn skills /exercise form quicker and can progress faster)

Gaining Lean Mass requires Lifestyle Alteration

Regardless of genes, your lifestyle is the reason for why your body looks the way it does. In order to enhance the muscularity of the body, you must also enhance the internal health.

I take a strong holistic approach towards gaining weight in a healthy way. You must pay attention to the bio-feedback and signals from your body in order to truly achieve a state of wellness.

A few things to consider during your journey:

The role of gut health / bacteria in nearly all realms of human health condition
Sleep and other cycles
Hormones, how to optimize male / human hormones to exist in a muscle building state
Stressors — your ability to adapt to everyday stress
Coping strategies. Example… health = exercise. Unhealthy = smoking / drinking.
Antioxidants and intracellular optimalization

Muscle mass must be earned, every day. every week. and every month.

The best things in life don’t come for free. The requirements to achieve greatness will always come with sacrifice and character building opportunities.

You can choose to make excuses… or you can force mental adaptation (lifestyle change).

Some perspective…

Exercise: 3-4 hours per week

For the other 164 hours of the week, you need to be owning up to habits which promote healthy metabolic functioning. And in your case, that means forcing physical adaptation through recovery methods (sleep, nutrition, unstress, and soft tissue work).

Stay tuned for the next post for an Exercise Routine to help the skinny guy.

Nutrition, Immunity, and Digestion Physical Fitness by Dre

November 16, 2012May 31, 2014

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Natural Health and Muscle Recovery Secrets

For all of those who possess a passion for real training.

Even if I wasn’t in the gym, I would make time to train. Real training results in physical and mental empowerment. The beauty is in it’s simplicity.

Learn skills. And,

Develop precision and power.

Motivation to train is inherent. Physical recovery far supersedes the time spent training and involves everything from meal planning to quality sleep and hormonal balance. Here are some tips from the natural side of things.

Top 3: Recover from Exercise/Physical Activity:

1. Ginger

Inflammation can be chronic or acute. Either way, you want a tried and true ally on your side. Ginger’s effect on inflammation is based on strong evidence and more than a millennium of wisdom. Additional gut health benefits.

Root power

2. Turmeric

Supporters of Turmeric may question why ginger is ranked number 1 on my list and that’s me being partial to the benefits fresh juiced ginger. Turmeric is likely a more powerful COX-2 inhibitor and has been shown to induce apoptosis/destruction of harmful cells.

Powerful Powder of Turmeric

3. Cherries

Cherries are more much more than the pits! This berry has unique antioxidants which may have detox effects on the joint while promoting healthy inflammation. The antioxidants in cherries help process uric acid and flush the joint structures of excessive inflammatory compounds. Meanwhile, natural sugars refuel muscle glycogen and support repair process of lean tissue.

Good things come in packages like this.

Recovery from exercise, anti-aging?

To some people anti-aging is a broad marketing term, but in reality anti-aging is all about promoting healthy, efficient processes in the body. Physical activity should invigorate people. Their bodies ought to return with increased capacity and ability.

Tip: Recovery methods are most effective within 30 minutes of exercise so utilize that time window!

Nutrition, Immunity, and Digestion

August 30, 2010August 31, 2010

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How are You with E. Coli beef and Salmonella eggs?

Food is life.

Life is like energy, incorporating food.

My fellow reader. We are the energy from nourishment — the nutrients of life. But something is taking away from that.

Sick eggs.

Bad bacteria in food is a serious issue. Half a billion eggs — taken off the market due to health risks.

Beef has it too

Bacteria are simple living organisms — constantly recycling basic nutrients for higher life.

Think of the bad bacteria that steal nutrients from cells. The good guys help you when you help them.

For now, this is about avoiding the bad bacteria. Half a billion egg recalls and now big beef comes into question. What isn’t in doubt is the importance of prevention.

How cows get E. coli.

Diet
Lack of nutrition
Unfavorable touch and/or abuse (handling conditions)
Dangerously unhygienic habitat grow space

Coming to a plate near you…

How to Protect yourself from E. Coli and Salmonella in Beef and Eggs:

Since you have heard the news, you’re already in the game.

1. Consumer education

What are you actually eating? Where does it come from? When was it grown or created?

Know your food.

Feed 'em right, so they're like angels.

2. Choose healthy options

Building from the first step, seek the good stuff.

Intuitively, you probably already know what it is. Whole foods, fresh foods, and real foods.

3. Prepare food at home to avoid standard restaurant fare.

Sure, if you forget to pack a lunch one day a week, you can get some Mexican food that day.

But for the rest of the days, prepare food ahead of time and pack it for lunch.

Ice pack + lunchbox = meal on the go.

IronMan2 drinks his Greens

4. If in doubt, cook the life out of it.

It’s known that heat kills bacteria. For example, some egg companies pasteurize the product before sale. So the bacteria is pre-cooked — you know it is pasteurized by the marking on the egg.

When at home, you can cook meat and eggs to kill bacteria. But if you verify that your meat was from healthy animals, then you can even leave some raw in the middle.

5. Buy local organic

Aside from the nutritional benefits of well-treated cows, there are greater health benefits as well.

Healthy is something that contributes positively to behavior and self-thought. Even though each cow must be ended, the healthiest cows feed us mind-body-everything nourishment.

Go for the beef, and make it grass fed. Chew thoroughly for optimal digestion, and rock on.

Your GUT is the Last Stand against Bad Bacteria

Anything that cant survive in a certain place, won’t survive for long.

The healthy immune system promotes a digestive environment in which E. Coli and Salmonella do not survive.

Bad Digestion is a warning signal!

If you hear other people talk more about digestion, you aren’t alone.

It’s common for people to have horrible digestion from the highly processed diets found in America.

For most, the intestinal flora is out of balance.

Too much acid, not enough alkaline.

Eat more vegetables. Green is known as the color of peace and ecology. Make it green, keep it clean.

To clean up the gut, consume Probiotics

Probiotics are non-human cells that are beneficial to the system.

Probiotic foods prevent disease and promote healing.

The best probiotic foods have this in common:

it is abundant with beneficial living cells
promotes positive enzyme potential

These probiotic foods contain beneficial lactic acid producing bacteria. In the gut, lactic acid acts as an environmental regulator for other strains of other bacteria. Healthy bacteria that has been with you since birth will thrive in this environment.

For example, from Probiotic Kefir I can easily consume over a hundred billion bacteria from one large serving. Now, most, of this bacteria will continue traveling on through my system.

A serving of Kefir

One serving of Kefir can:

Promote assimilation of nutrients
Relax the central nervous system
Reduce the ratio of harmful bacteria in your gut
Provide all eight essential amino acids
Good source of Tryptophan — precursor to serotonin and a good mood.
Excellent source of calcium
Contains some Vitamin-K (MK7) which promotes constructive metabolism of bone tissue.
Regulate blood sugar levels (great for diabetic)
Gives you energy
Aid in the development of lean muscle tissue
Boost the immune system against bacteria, virus, and more.
Contribute active enzymes

When it comes down to it, this food changed my life. I don’t go more than a day or two without it.

Let food be the answer.

Mass produced food is one of the greatest causes of disease, but it is also one of the greatest causes of human life.

Without massive globalized agriculture, billions of people on this planet would not subsist. But we have to find a balance. Our food is our life — by choosing your food, you choose your life.

So you have two choices. Cook the life out of all of your food, OR… make probiotic food a priority.

This is the difference between less than potential versus wellbeing.

WARNING: Healthy food may produce long lasting results

You are the answer.

Eat with confidence, my friends.

Nutrition, Immunity, and Digestion

August 19, 2010

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Three Simple Steps to Understanding Digestive Issues and the #1 Healing Food

Without good digestion, you cannot be in good health.

Almost everything about the human body relies upon the proper functioning of digestion.

At least 70% of all immune system function is in the digestive tract.

Nearly all components required for life are absorbed or created in the digestive system.

The state of your digestive system is indicative of your overall health. This is why it is imperative to listen to the signals that your body sends. Anything such as bloating, cramping, diarrhea, constipation, throw-up, and bloody stool should not be ignored.

Step 1. Mind-body Awareness: How do Certain foods affect you?

My journey in nutrition began as a way to build muscle without adding body fat. Therefore, I would study my body everyday and consider how the foods I ate affected the shape, size, and feel of my physique. That is how I determined “healthy” vs “unhealthy.”

But the reality goes much deeper than body fat percentage.

Here are the questions you can consider during and after each meal you consume:

On a scale of -10 to +10, how effective does my digestion feel?
Do I feel like I ate too much, too little, or just the right amount of foods?
Are the foods I consumed causing gas, bloating, or an upset stomach?
On a scale of -10 to +10, how energized do I feel?
Do certain foods upset my stomach only when combined with other foods?
Am I satisfied?

The goal is to have perfect digestion.

Step 2. Aim for Perfect Digestion

What is perfect digestion?

It is the maximum absorption of nutrients without causing harm or discomfort to the body.

Some foods are naturally highly digestible.

For example , bananas eaten alone are almost never known to cause an upset stomach. Avocados are also a very gentle food, high fiber, and highly satisfying.

Other foods are very difficult to digest.

Difficult foods to digest include processed milk, processed foods, highly saturated foods, and starchy or sugary foods.

Eat healthy. This is easier said than done, but simple really. Consume only foods that your digestive system approves of, and avoid all the rest. In this manner, only you know what is best for you.

Step 3. Seek out Healing Foods

Some healing foods are very common. For example, almost everybody has had broccoli at least once this year.

But other healing foods remain outside certain perspective.

My personal favorite number 1 Healing Food is Kefir

Kefir

Raw Kefir is my all time highest ranked healing food.

Kefir is similar to yogurt, but it is in the liquid form because the molecules are smaller. As a result of smaller molecules, the digestion is much easier on the body. But thats only one reason why it’s great for digestion…

Raw Kefir is created by combining Kefir “grains” (the live culture) with raw milk. The Kefir “grains” eat the lactose sugars from milk and convert the milk into a zero-glycemic probiotic superfood.

Kefir contains large amounts of beneficial Lactic acid bacteria:

By consuming lactic acid bacteria, the internal environment in your intestines is more suitable for the bacteria that naturally resides in your body. In other words, Kefir bacteria doesn’t necessarily stay inside you, but during the time that it is inside you, it is helping you grow your own healthy bacteria. Therefore, you have more intestinal balance.

The healthy bacteria in our bodies are beneficial in many ways.

For one, healthy bacteria are essentially enzyme factories. They produce catalysts that make our bodies function more efficiently.
Secondly, beneficial bacteria break down indigestible particles such as plant fibers.
Third, healthy bacteria produce and convert vitamins. For example, Vitamin B12 is required in the metabolism of nearly every cell in the body and is vital in brain, nervous system, and blood formation. The only thing on this entire planet that can produce Vitamin B12 is bacteria. Another vitamin involved in healthy circulation and clotting is Vitamin K — which can only be converted to the preferred form (Vitamin K2 in the Mk7 form) through bacteria.
Fourth, beneficial bacteria are essential for proper immune functioning. These bacteria can physically take the place of potentially harmful bacteria. Beneficial bacteria can also produce antifungal, antiviral, and antiyeast compounds.
Fifth, these healthy bacteria can regulate a normal inflammatory response. When the bowels are inflamed, you are not healthy. By sustaining a healthy environment in the digestive system, beneficial bacteria are vital to overall health.

Kefir is high in Protein:

In addition to containing all of the benefits above, Kefir is also a valuable source of highly absorbable protein. Most of the protein in Kefir is essentially pre-digested as a result of the fermentation process. The Amino Acids from Kefir protein are in healthy ratios and promote healthy body functions.

Kefir is particularly high in the amino acid Tryptophan, which can be converted into various neurotransmitters. Kefir also contains a good ratio of L-Lysine to L-Arginine, amino acids that are vital to immune function.

Of course, Kefir also contains the essential amino acids like L-Leucine and L-Valine which directly support muscle tone. Kefir is just a great way to get your protein.

Kefir contains vitamins and minerals:

Aside from some of the B family vitamins, Kefir is high in both calcium and magnesium. Calcium, of course, supports bone density and magnesium has a variety of functions. I usually consume Kefir before bed because it can promote a healthy wake-sleep cycle.

Kefir benefits are backed by both testimonial and scientific evidence

I don’t sell Kefir, I just love it.

It heals me and has healed so many others. I consume it on a regular basis — I do not experience ANY symptoms of colds or flus when I regularly consume Kefir.

Believe in the cure…

You may never be healed completely or be able to eat like other people.

But that doesn’t mean your quality of life has to suffer.

If you believe that there is always something that you can do to make you feel better, then you will continue to search for the answers.

The more empowered you are with knowledge, the healthier you can seek to become.

The truth is out there.

Go forth and heal!

Nutrition, Immunity, and Digestion

June 24, 2010June 25, 2010

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How do Digestive Enzymes promote Health and Fitness?

Enzymes equal life.

These are the workers of the living world. They make movement, growth, thought, emotion, healing, disease, virus, life, sex, and everything else possible.

Lock and key theory of enzymes. Each enzyme can do this at a spectacular rate. For some, millions of times per hour!

Enzymes are workers, acting constantly as catalysts throughout the entire body. Enzymes cause important events to happen — each individual enzyme induces thousands of reactions per hour.

Pause for a second and flex your forearm.

Enzymes made that possible.

How fast he strokes, his enzymes work even faster.

As you can imagine, the quantity and quality of enzymes in your body is directly related to your current state of health and vitality.

Zero enzymes = death.

Supplemental enzymes Save You Energy.

The digestive process uses LOTS of energy so that you can have that energy.

It’s like the Greenpeace canvassers who go door to door asking you for money. Most of the money they raise goes towards their paycheck. Same thing in the body — most of the energy from food goes towards powering the digestive system.

"Hi, will you donate money so I can keep asking people to donate money, a small portion helps whales."

When you use supplemental enzymes, it therefore saves your body a significant amount of energy so that your body can focus on promoting vitality instead of living in a weakened state.

Basically, supplemental enzymes are FREE workers.

Overly Cooked and Processed food creates Disease in America

Processed foods are dangerous.

Future of America: This is why Junk-Food companies invest millions $ into insurance and "health-care" companies.

For example, Soda is highly processed, full of high fructose corn syrup, and completely lacking in enzymes. You feel a burst of energy from the carbohydrates that that your body is able to extract from the Soda, until 20 minutes later you feel down again.

Why?

One reason is because after 20 minutes, the undigested soda has gone through the digestive system too fast and inefficiently to even be utilized.

Why does my stomach bulge after eating this?

Undigested food becomes toxic to the body in multiple ways ways.

First, it can feed the harmful bacteria and yeast in your intestines which can create dysbiosis in the gut (unbalanced microbial environment), which is a huge cause of disease and yeast infections.
Second, undigested food in the bloodstream induces an immune response by your body. This takes more energy and resources that are not being spent on giving you vitality.
Since the energy cannot be readily used by the body, it is converted into triglycerides that flow freely in the bloodstream.
Excess triglycerides (fats) will clog veins and arteries, causing circulatory issues and even worse: cardiovascular disease!

Moreover, since processed food contains no actual enzymes, it requires your body to produce significant enzymes from its limited enzyme capacity. The more enzymes you use now, the less you have later. The less enzymes you have later, the quicker you age, and the more susceptible to pain, disease, inflammation, autoimmune disorders, and so much more…

Eat only Raw Foods…in an ideal world.

Apples, oranges, broccoli, and all other fruits, vegetables, mushrooms, and plants contain active enzymes. These enzymes aid in assimilation of the nutrients available.

If you had the time, energy, and ability to prepare raw foods like this...I might just marry you.

But Heat KILLS enzymes. Cooking at or above just 118 degrees Fahrenheit will deactivate and destroy the enzymes. You therefore lose nutrients and enzyme potential.

Cooked food often sucks more life from you than it actually gives you.

Raw foods save your body energy and promote HEALTH by…

Providing you with enzymes to absorb nutrients
Allow you to fully digest the food so that your body does not have to mount an immune response
Beneficial phytochemicals from raw foods promote hormone balance, anti-cancer properties, and cellular rejuvenation.

But…eating raw foods 100% of the time is not realistic for most of us.

Supplemental Digestive Enzymes should be used with meals.

In order to fully assimilate nutrients and to promote vitality, Digestive Enzymes are one of the best supplements to make part of a healthy lifestyle.

Hire more workers, pay them nothing, and they'll still be happy to do their job!

Benefits of Digestive Enzyme supplements include:

Fully assimilate nutrients (for example: taking digestive enzymes with protein is proven to provide the body with significantly more life-building amino acids)
Reduce/Elimate…gas, bloating, acid reflux.
Support immune system by fully digesting food and not allowing rotten foot particles into bloodstream.
Ease the load on your natural enzyme storage.
Weight Management
Feeling good after meals.

Simply put, using digestive enzymes has been shown to improve quality of life in many different ways.

If you want to lose weight now, but your digestive system is broken, then you need extra help. People who are bloated do not lose fat. In fact, people who are bloated just feel bad about everything. Thats because the most essential process in the body (digestion) is not functioning properly.

Proper digestion is important for you AND your friends.

Gas is bad, if you release stinky bombs, you need digestive enzymes with those meals. Stink bombs mean you literally have rotten, toxic food in your system and your body hates you for it. (Your friends hate you for the stink bombs too).