So you want to Get Started? Improving Your Health & Fitness

So you are in a low state of fitness and you want to get going, feel good, be stronger, more capable, better looking etc. Join the club, we all do. Many of us do not know what to do, do not know where to start, or feel that starting on their own may be unsafe.

 I wanted to create an article where I could refer people who are seeking to improve their health and do not know where to start.  I will be outlining a few things you can do for huge returns on small investments in time, effort, or money by offering a way to think about the experience you are creating for yourself everyday. 

The Categories I will be covering today, are concepts I refer to in my work, The Brio Method. 

Intakes

Output

Control Points 

Intakes

Everything you put into your body, and expose yourself to. A few things you can change about your intake for big returns are your hydration, supplementation, and avoiding the intake of certain inflammatory foods. 

1. Hydration. This is the absolute most important one, a no brainer. If you are not drinking near a gallon a day of water, work your way into it immediately. Yes you may urinate more often for a few days or a week, your body will get used to it and your bladder will upregulate and become more flexible to accommodate your intake. If you are not getting enough water it is going to hamper every single thing you do and think about, how you interact with your environment, and effect your performance on nearly all levels. Sugary drinks, coffee, corn syrup laden beverages do NOT count towards water intake. 
2. Protein. You should be eating approximately your body weight in pounds in grams of protein. I weigh 198 pounds currently, I try to eat 198g grams of protein. This will protect you from metabolizing muscle for energy and help your body maintain cellular damage to muscle fibers from your activities. Consider the KINDS of protein you are getting, eggs and meat protein are the most bioavailable. MANY products are out there to help you hit that number, collagen protein, and various bars for different diets have sprung up commonly in recent years. If you are new to this, just estimate on a sticky note for a few days or a week to get a feel for it, and continue as needed. I don’t ever expect perfection from myself, but I do consistently try my best to be consistent.
3. Fat. You should be eating a considerable amount of health fat, found in eggs, avocados, most nuts, grass fed butter, and healthy oils like real olive oil, and avocado oil. Processed fats, hydrogenated oils, canola oils, vegetable oils are all basically POISON. Highly inflammatory to a majority of people. Your body needs fat, the low fat craze was a lie! On low carb days, I eat over 200g of fat!!!
4. Things to avoid.  Part of your intake is what you are NOT intaking. Consuming the oils and fats mentioned above, avoid soy products especially if you are male ( you will be surprised how many things contain soy). Soy is produced cheaply, and generally genetically modified, it is high in phyto-estrogens. Avoid cheaply made, high processed foods, enjoy them in mindful moderation if you must. Avoid low quality corn. This may be more difficult, it is for me, but avoid wheat products, not because of gluten, because of Glyphosate or “Round up”. In wheat processing, after harvest, wheat is sprayed down with round up in a process dubbed ‘desiccation’ which apparently ‘dries’ it out. Basically every wheat product in america is contaminated. Not only does Glyphosate contribute to your chances of cancer while accumulating in your body, but it also WRECKS your gut biome even in very small amounts. It is so pervasive that it is found in the breast milk of women.
5. Carbs. Carbs are a versatile input, you can do just fine on keto and consume few carbs. You can also strategically consume carbs to adjust your weight and body type. Your body will best utilize carbs eaten before, during, or after your workout, or all the above. Try to avoid very processed carbs, and refined sugar as a source of carbs they will jack up your hormone responses! Eating low glycemic carbs can keep your hormone levels balanced offering steady energy and mood throughout the day.

Wilson, M., Morley, J. Impaired cognitive function and mental performance in mild dehydration. Eur J Clin Nutr 57, S24–S29 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1601898

Maughan, R. Impact of mild dehydration on wellness and on exercise performance. Eur J Clin Nutr 57, S19–S23 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1601897

https://www.gmoscience.org/glyphosate-and-roundup-disrupt-the-gut-microbiome-by-inhibiting-the-shikimate-pathway/

https://theecologist.org/2014/apr/28/glyphosate-found-breast-milk

https://www.glycemicindex.com/

Outputs

Everything you do with your body, and produce with your body. Activity, labor, leisure. 

1. Your breath.  Nobody wants to be a mouth breather. It changes the shape of your face! You also don’t want to be a chest breather, these people are easily disturbed, grumpy, irritable. Breathing with the diaphragm will induce response from your parasympathetic nervous system, the part of your nervous system that keeps you calm and collected. Breath MATTERS; master your breath to master yourself. An easy trick is to exhale COMPLETELY when breathing, that will force it to contract.
2. Physical Fitness and upregulating your state. Your body is shaped by everything you do with it, it will rise to occasions and become less capable without use. It is always adapting, so in order to grow or maintain you must perform outputs that will stimulate those systems in your body. To get stronger, lift heavier things than you are used too. To get flexible, spend time in positions that attempt to access those ranges. If you want to have a stronger heart, you need to challenge it to keep up with a more intense activity than you are used to. Your body will only rise up to fill the needs created by your outputs, there is no cheat around this. Certain biohacks can help, but there is no replacement for telling your body what you need it to do by using it. Similarly, without use, it will quickly shave away any excess performance, or capability that you are not using.

Control Points 

Using an aspect of your environment or routine to change your patterns, changing your environment and what is immediately available is one of the easiest ways to change yourself. 

1. The positions you spend time in. I’m sure you have spent some time relaxing in a poor position at some point and felt bad afterwards? Sleeping funny? It’s very common. Your body is always responding to the position that you put it into, and spend time in. If you are sitting in a chair all day, your body will adapt to lock down that position so it can manage to continue doing it for you. For better or worse, your body will try to support EVERYTHING that you do.
2. What you are doing when you work. Many people sit for work, and sitting itself is a sport. Since most of us work for many hours a day most days a week, these positions we take will determine a lot about our bodies. Zoom in on these positions, inches or centimeters in a position can be the difference between pain and comfort. What is your neck doing? What is your shoulder doing? Are your feet flat? Which way do your knees point? Are you looking down? Examining these aspects of yourself and looking for small improvements can give huge returns on your investment of thought and mindfulness.
3. Your immediate and consistent environments. Do you feel better when your house is clean? Many do. Would you be less likely to eat ice cream if the closest ice cream was at the nearby grocery store? Yes. Would you drink less soda if the only thing in the house was water? Absolutely. My biggest one to date was, would I sit on the couch less if I threw it in the dumpster? Yes, and that was 4 years ago. As a creature of habit, you will tend to consume and utilize what is immediately available, tending to clutter, and removing less than ideal influences from sight and convenience can make massive changes for you. This can also apply to your thoughts, and what you spend time thinking about.
4. Your shoes. The way you connect with the surfaces you are walking on provides or deprives your body of sensory information. There are just as many nerve endings in your feet as your hands, and when you wear thick shoes, with pointy toes and funny surfaces to ‘support’ your arch you are keeping yourself from feeling. This sensory information is important for your back and the way your hips support you. Philip Beach calls shoes ‘sensory deprivation chambers’ and I agree with him. When your toes are pushed together it will also make you much more likely to develop a bunion, which is an enlargement of the big toe knuckle as the body tries to adapt in a supportive way to your positions and shoes. Getting wide flat shoes like xero shoes can really change your life! Many such brands are now making flat wide shoes that allow our feet to be properly stimulated and upregulated.

In summation, be mindful of your Inputs, Outputs, and the Control points that are dictating needs to your body. Auditing these things, and looking for improvement is a great way to start. I will be working on a series of articles that go more in depth, and will guide you are on you journey to cultivating Brio in your life. Tune in!