Fitness Nutrition, Health and Wellness

Want Better Mental Clarity With More Energy and Less Stress?

Posted on November 14, 2016March 5, 2023 by Travis Wade

14
Nov

Want Better Mental Clarity With More Energy and Less Stress?

By Travis Wade

Dr. Joseph Mercola

If you haven’t heard of Dr. Mercola yet, then let me introduce you. Dr. Joseph Mercola is highly respected in the functional medicine world. Functional medicine is where they look at the root cause of medical issues and try to fix the root cause of something. One analogy is “Do you have anxiety because you have a lack of Ativan in your body?” Instead of giving you a prescription, which they might do for immediate alleviation of symptoms, they want to find out what is causing the anxiety and then fix that problem.

Dr. Mercola has been around a long time and his website has been around since just after the beginning of the internet. He is highly respected on the functional medicine side of things, (as opposed to the conventional medicine side of things). A lot of famous doctors look up to him and I have learned to trust him over the years. He writes a lot of very informative articles and does a lot of great research.

Krill Oil

What I would like to talk about today is his krill oil. Omega 3s is the second biggest nutrient deficiency in North America right behind vitamin D. The list of reasons why omega 3s are so important is very long. It’s a lot like asking why water is so important. You can’t function without it and the less you have the worse you’ll function. They call it essential because you must get it from an outside source.

The reasons why the krill oil is superior to the fish oil is summed up in this infographic:

Learn why krill oil is a safer and smarter choice than fish oil through the Fish Oil versus Krill Oil: The Cold, Hard Facts infographic. Use the embed code to share it on your website or visit our infographic page for the high-res version.

<img src="http://media.mercola.com/assets/images/infographic/krill-oil-vs-fish-oil.jpg" alt="krill oil vs fish oil infographics" border="0" style="max-width:100%; min-width:300px; margin: 0 auto 20px auto; display:block;"><p style="max-width:800px; min-width:300px; margin:0 auto; text-align:center;">Learn why krill oil is a safer and smarter choice than fish oil through the <a href="http://www.mercola.com/infographics/fish-oil-vs-krill-oil.htm"><strong>Fish Oil versus Krill Oil: The Cold, Hard Facts</strong></a> infographic. Visit our infographic page for the high-res version.</p>

I wish you lots of health, love and happiness!

Travis Wade

The only holistic personal trainer in Edmonton

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What’s the Big Food Enemy These Days?

Posted on November 7, 2016March 5, 2023 by Travis Wade

07
Nov

What’s the Big Food Enemy These Days?

By Travis Wade

I get asked the question “What is the big enemy these days? Is it sugar? Still sugar?” Nope. There’s something far worse than sugar these days, but sugar fits under the category. The answer is white food.

White Trash

I’m talking about certain fats like shortening that never goes bad or trans fats also known as hydrogenated fats that are to be banned. The government has given food companies lots of time to phase out trans fats so you must watch out for them yourself for now. At least it’s agreed that trans fats are something that should never be consumed internally.

Grains are in this category. Although grains are not genetically modified they are still sprayed with glyphosate. If you don’t know the dangers of glyphosate have a look at this article.

Even some grains that aren’t sprayed are still not good because they have been hybridized and developed over the years to have lots of calories and little nutrient. The flour is refined so much it’ll last forever and it is higher glycemic index than sugar. It mixes with the amylase in your saliva and turns to glucose before you even swallow it.

Of course, sugar is in this category too, but the worst thing about sugar is that it’s almost all genetically modified. A few things these types of foods do is they feed cancer, they cause inflammation which in turn increases sickness, they feed the bad bacteria of the gut, they increase insulin resistance causing diabetes and Alzheimer’s; they generally make people unhealthy and overweight.

What You Should Eat

My number one recommendation is to use food to get as much nutrient as possible. Eat as nutrient rich foods as possible. Always take the broccoli and spinach over the french-fries and ketchup. White foods take up room where you could have been putting good nutrients instead of empty calories mixed with toxins. I always tell my clients you’re either eating poison or medicine; it’s your choice with every single mouth full.

People in North America eat a lot of garbage for breakfast. People have been trained to believe this is what you should eat for breakfast. I like wine, but I don’t drink it for breakfast. If you’re someone that eats any kind of grain including oats or corn for breakfast and you can’t understand why it’s so hard to lose weight, then you need a paradigm shift. It’s time to change your beliefs.

Drop these highly addictive foods. According to Dr. Mark Hyman the food industry has discovered how to reproduce taste buds and they are very excited because now they can test to see what substances react on the taste buds in order to make their foods even more addictive. Are these foods harmful or make people fat? Look around you…

So, what do you eat? What foods are rich in nutrients? Have you heard of cruciferous vegetables? Kale (blanch these vegetables to reduce the oxalic acid [free radicals]), spinach (try to get organic if you can afford it, they are very high on the dirty dozen list), broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and asparagus. All the green leafy vegetables are very high in nutrients and fibre, and low in calories. Eat lots of colorful vegetables. They are our best source of carbohydrates because they are rich in the nutrients our bodies need.

So how do you get your calories? Fat. Not cheesecake. Not trans fat like margarine. Not shortening. I mean good fats. This might be another paradigm shift for some people. I know we have been taught to believe that fat is the enemy and causes heart attacks and raises bad cholesterol.

Ancel Keys

The study by PhD. Ancel Keys called the Seven Countries Study was the basis for this information. In the Seven Country Study, there were countries like France and Switzerland that had a high fat diet and lower heart disease that weren’t taken into consideration. In 1984 Ancel Keys did a follow up study that showed no link between fat and heart disease.

Ancel Keys did another study where he used 9000 people from a mental hospital and put half of them on vegetable oil and the other half on saturated fat in the form of butter. The people with the butter had higher cholesterol and less heart attacks. This study was hidden in Ancel’s basement for many years because it contradicted his theory.

The right saturated fats are good for you because dietary cholesterol is the precursor to hormones. Also, fat is used as building blocks for the body and used for energy. It is a much cleaner burning fuel source with way less oxidative stress on the body than sugar or carbs.

Eat fat. Good fats like avocados, nuts and nut butters (not peanuts, those are a bean), coconut oil, grass fed butter, fat from grass fed free from hormones and antibiotics meats and seafood, and high quality olive oil. Especially at breakfast time.

I wish you lots of health, love and happiness!

Travis Wade

The only holistic personal trainer in Edmonton

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Fitness Nutrition, Health and Wellness

How To Do A Ketogenic Diet

Posted on October 31, 2016June 28, 2024 by Travis Wade

31
Oct

How To Do A Ketogenic Diet

By Travis Wade

It’s really simple and I’m not going to make it complicated. You need to get at least 75% of your calories from fats. You might have to weigh your food at first and use this keto macro calculator. There are 4 calories per gram of carbohydrates, sugars, and proteins. There are 9 calories per gram of fat. Alcohol is not included in this diet, but there are 7 calories per gram of alcohol.

The Problems With Keto

One of the problems with a keto diet is compliance. Nobody wants to cut their carbs to just cruciferous vegetables and that’s what you need to do for the first 2 weeks. It takes about 10 days to get into full ketosis and after that you can keep track of your weight to decide if you want to add some extra calories to your diet. If you want to lose weight and you stop, then you know you’ve added too many calories.

Another problem comes around day 10. There are some cells in your body that can’t process fat for energy and they will have to go through a process called autophagy. This is the natural death of a cell and it must be replaced by a new cell. During this transition, you’ll have serious carbohydrate cravings. This is because your cells don’t want autophagy, they want to live. At this point you’re just going to have to suck it up. It will be over in a few days. Sorry about the crappy advice but after those few days you will feel better than you ever have 🙂

The most common problem people encounter with a keto diet is they eat too much protein. Protein digests like a carb in a sugar burning mode. It will increase your insulin and may pull you out of ketosis. Fat, for the record, does nothing to your insulin.

The Problems With Carbs

So why go through all the trouble? I hate to say it but a high carbohydrate diet for most people will make them fat. Carbohydrates go through sugar burning mode of the body and have a very high oxidative load on the body. They cause inflammation which leads to disease and sickness. Carbohydrates feed diseases like cancer.

Sugar is in almost every packaged food available in some highly refined form to make it as addictive as possible to keep people coming back. Sugar causes weight gain, hunger, and slowed metabolism. When you run out of energy from carb intake then your body is more likely to breakdown muscle for energy instead of fat. The more muscle a person has the higher their metabolism.

Another thing I need to mention is sugar is genetically modified these days. GMOs is my biggest nightmare as a personal trainer because people don’t know what they are or what they do to them. I need you to read this article on GMOs.

If you really want to see the problems with a high carb diet just look at our society. In the 50s, 2 Harvard professors were payed off to write articles explaining that fat was bad and sugar was ok. The evidence against this was stored in Dr. Ansel Keys’ basement for a very long time. Dr. Ansel Keys was trying to prove that fat was the cause of heart problems. Our society has been getting more obese ever since and for the first time in history people are dying faster than the generation before them. I believe GMOs do play a huge part in this but that’s a completely different topic.

The Benefits For Athletes

Listen up bodybuilders; this is the diet you should be doing! Same with you endurance sports people. You will burn through your carbohydrates in about 45 minutes of exercise and then your body will use fat and muscle for energy. As mentioned a high carb diet leads to more muscle burning and a high fat diet leads to more fat burning. The energy you get from fat will last much longer. You keep burning fat for fuel depending how much you eat and how much is on your body. I know when I use Brain Octane Oil for a pre-workout I have instant energy and sustained energy for hours! Lots of savy marathon runners have switched over to fat and exogenous ketones for energy from sugars.

What they will do is first induce full ketosis for months leading up to an event. Both marathon runners and bodybuilders. Then bodybuilders will start cutting weight and reducing calories in ketosis right up until they go back to nothing but cruciferous vegetables a bit of fat and high protein just before they compete. A marathon runner will induce ketosis and stay there until they compete. During their run they can use sources like Brain Octane Oil to get them to the finish line.

Intermittent Fasting

Which brings me to intermittent fasting. Without adding carbs to your diet in the morning you will have very low insulin and as long as you have low insulin, growth hormone goes up. That’s why you produce growth hormone at night when you sleep. Insulin goes down at night while you sleep and GH goes up. As soon as you add carbs in the morning your GH goes back down. GH burns fat and insulin stores fat.

A sneaky trick is to not eat carbs or protein (or alcohol) in the morning and your insulin doesn’t go up so your GH keeps increasing. I’ve heard an expert say that it can go up as much as 400% and I’ve heard another expert say it can go up as much as 1200%. All I know is GH goes way up when you don’t eat carbs/protein/alcohol in the morning and people get shredded.

I wouldn’t ask anyone to starve however, but as I said, fat does nothing to your insulin. One thing you can do is eat nothing but fat in the morning. Some people will do Bulletproof Coffee in the morning. Fat reduces ghrelin (also known as the hunger hormone), better than anything and it also increases CCK (Cholecystokinin), which is the hormone that makes you feel full. If you have the right amount of fat you won’t get hungry.

A Few Tricks Of The Trade

In either case, when lunch comes, a cruciferous vegetable is great with a source of protein and another fat. The sources of fat I recommend are nothing but healthy fats; coconut oil, high quality olive oil (the vast majority of olive oil is fake), avocado, nuts and nut butters (if you don’t have a food sensitivity and no peanuts, they’re a bean), and GRASS FED butter or ghee.

Coconut Milk

My secret ingredient is coconut milk. I get the stuff that has no additives and it’s 85% pure coconut extract. This coconut milk is 96% fat and it tastes great! I put it in everything. My soup in the morning, my frozen berries, my stir fries, all my curries and I’ll even sip it occasionally. I get it in the international section at Superstore near the spices.

Avocado

Avocado is the new apple. An avocado a day will keep the doctor away. There are many things you can do with avocado but I like them so I just eat them plain. You can mash them up and make guacamole or add some coconut oil, vanilla, organic cocoa, and just enough raw honey to make more of a dessert type thing. Avocado are also great in smoothies or cut up as a side instead of a grain.

A lot of doctors are trying to get the word out about the health benefits of eating good fats. It seems like every doctor has a book out and there is a summit with over 30 experts talking about the benefits of fats. If you’re still unsure of how to use fats properly then I highly recommend listening to this summit. Also, have a look at these 2 articles: Ketogenic Diet, Truth About Fat

What A Ketogenic Diet Look Like

For the first 2 weeks your carbs are limited to cruciferous vegetables. These are spinach, kale, cauliflower, broccoli, asparagus, Brussels sprouts, horseradish, cabbage, kohlrabi, Bok choy, rutabaga, radish, and wasabi. Your proteins make up the rest of the diet after you factor in 75% healthy fats from the list mentioned above. I’ve seen many clients track their macros (macros are macro-nutrients meaning proteins, carbohydrates, and fats or all of the calorie intake) on a Fitbit or measure their food and calculate their macros.

After 2 weeks you can slowly reduce the fat intake down to 65% and increase your carb intake if it still works for you. If you reduce your fat to 70% and you stop losing weight then return to 75% fat for a while and try again later. You can play with the amount of calories you take in, in a day as well. You don’t want to reduce calories too much or weight loss will stop.

The amount of calories you should be shooting for will vary from person to person. A 200 pound man should be shooting for approximately 1600 calories in a day. If he exercises more he will need more calories. If a person weighs more they will need more calories. If they weigh less and exercise less they will need less calories. Use this keto macro calculator to help determine your macros.

Once a week you will need to do what they call a carb load. Once a week you have a high carb meal and increase your insulin. When I say high carb I don’t mean eat garbage, I mean healthy carbs please. This levels off hormones and keeps your body stable. Women need this more than men do. Try to do your carb load before leg day. You will still increase your insulin and hormones will stabilize but you will also have a great workout and burn off those carbs.

I wish you lots of health, love and happiness!

Travis Wade

The only holistic personal trainer in Edmonton

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Fitness Nutrition, Health and Wellness

Having Trouble Losing Weight or Increasing Muscle?

Posted on October 24, 2016March 5, 2023 by Travis Wade

24
Oct

Having Trouble Losing Weight Or Increasing Muscle?

By Travis Wade

There’s a couple summits coming up that I feel are particularly important for those looking to lose weight or gain muscle. The Thyroid Summit is coming up and so is The Fat Summit. They are related in some ways and I’m sure there will be some of the same speakers at both.

The thyroid is the main driver in your metabolism. You need to take very good care of it and unfortunately it’s under a huge amount of unprecedented fire with the foods we eat and our environment. Thyroid problems have become a huge pandemic. Learn how to take care of your thyroid by attending this expert laden summit.

Own all of the expert talks to watch at your own pace

The Thyroid Connection Summit will help you:

Work with your doctor to get the right diagnosis/treatment
Address the root causes of thyroid dysfunction
Implement healthy dietary and lifestyle changes
Reclaim your health and vitality
And more!

The Thyroid Connection Summit is online and free from October 24-31, 2016!

Own all of the expert talks to watch at your own pace

I’ll see you at the summit!

There’s still so much confusion and misinformation out there about fat, both the fat on our bodies and the fats we eat. You’ve been told that eating fat makes you fat–and increases your risk for heart disease and other chronic illnesses–but fat is NOT the enemy. The truth is: eating MORE FAT can help shut down cravings, accelerate weight loss and potentially prevent or reverse disease!

WHY ATTEND?

Dr. Mark Hyman, Carrie Diulus and over 30 of the world’s top experts created The Fat Summit 2 to dispel the biggest MYTHS about fat, and reveal the latest research about how to eat, move and supplement your diet for improved health and longevity!

Own all of the expert talks to watch at your own pace

Dr. Hyman’s first Fat Summit was a major hit–The Fat Summit 2 has 30+ brand NEW interviews during which you’ll discover even more about…

Biohacking your biology and weight loss with healthy fats
Truths about saturated fat, cholesterol, butter, sugar, carbs and more
Review and discussion of the latest articles on fat and weight loss
Digestion of fats through supplementation
Effects of dietary fat on fertility
Importance of community for making/sustaining healthy lifestyle choices
How eating more fat complements/combats other dietary approaches
Best practices for maintaining your weight and healthy eating habits

The Fat Summit 2 is online and free from November 7-14, 2016!

Own all of the expert talks to watch at your own pace

I’ll see you at the summit!

I wish you lots of health, love and happiness!

Travis Wade

The only holistic personal trainer in Edmonton

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Fitness Nutrition, Health and Wellness

60% Of Those Who Have This, Don’t Know It!

Posted on October 17, 2016March 5, 2023 by Travis Wade

17
Oct

60% Of Those Who Have This, Don’t Know It!

By Travis Wade

Tens of millions worldwide have some form of thyroid dysfunction, and 60% don’t know they have it or how it occurred. Are you one of them? Find out! 30+ experts are here to help you diagnose and overcome thyroid dysfunction, and then reclaim your health and vitality!

WHY ATTEND?

Your host, Amy Myers, MD, created The Thyroid Connection Summit because conventional medicine failed her in her journey with thyroid dysfunction. It’s now her mission to help make sure it doesn’t fail you! Join us if you have Graves’, Hashimoto’s, hypo- or hyperthyroidism, cancer, nodules, cysts, I-131 radiation or are post-thyroidectomy. Or, if your doctor says your labs are normal, yet you still have symptoms–this free, online summit is for you!

Own all of the expert talks to watch at your own pace

The Thyroid Connection Summit will help you:

Work with your doctor to get the right diagnosis/treatment
Address the root causes of thyroid dysfunction
Implement healthy dietary and lifestyle changes
Reclaim your health and vitality
And more!

Own all of the expert talks to watch at your own pace

I’ll see you at the summit!

The reason I feel this summit is so important for a lot of my clients is because the thyroid depicts your metabolism. A lot of people have a slow metabolism and don’t know why. Their doctor says they are normal. Certain thyroid issues will go undetected for up to ten years. Find out the real scoop with this summit.

I wish you lots of health, love and happiness!

Travis Wade

The only holistic personal trainer in Edmonton

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Fitness Nutrition, Health and Wellness

Do You Know The Facts About Eating Fats?

Posted on October 11, 2016March 5, 2023 by Travis Wade

11
Oct

Do You Know The facts About Eating Fats?

By Travis Wade

WHY ATTEND?

Doctors Mark Hyman, Carrie Diulus and over 30 of the world’s top experts created The Fat Summit 2 to dispel the biggest MYTHS about fat, and reveal the latest research about how to eat, move and supplement your diet for improved health and longevity!

Own all of the expert talks to watch at your own pace

Dr. Hyman’s first Fat Summit was a major hit–The Fat Summit 2 has 30+ brand NEW interviews during which you’ll discover even more about…

Biohacking your biology and weight loss with healthy fats
Truths about saturated fat, cholesterol, butter, sugar, carbs and more
Review and discussion of the latest articles on fat and weight loss
Digestion of fats through supplementation
Effects of dietary fat on fertility
Importance of community for making/sustaining healthy lifestyle choices
How eating more fat complements/combats other dietary approaches
Best practices for maintaining your weight and healthy eating habits

Own all of the expert talks to watch at your own pace

I’ll see you at the summit!

I wish you lots of health, love and happiness!

Travis Wade

The only holistic personal trainer in Edmonton

Want To Get Started On A New Lifstyle Right Away?

Or

Would You Like A Plan To Achieve Your Fitness Goals?

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Fitness Nutrition, Health and Wellness

The Keto Summit

Posted on September 26, 2016March 5, 2023 by Travis Wade

26
Sep

The Keto Summit

By Travis Wade

There is a ketogenic summit going on right now and I recommend everyone has a listen here. It seems like every doctor is writing a book on how fat is good for you and all the benefits of eating good fats. Then there’s the doctors writing books on how carbohydrates and sugars are causing all kinds of problems for people. The word is getting out slowly, but a lot of people are stuck on the stigma that fat is bad. I hope those people can have their minds changed with this summit.

A ketogenic diet is a diet that induces ketosis. Ketosis is a state of fat burning where your body takes fats and produces ketones to use as energy for the body. The reason why so many doctors are writing books on healthy fats now is because of the abundant amount of benefits a high fat diet has. Some of the favourites are weight loss, better immune system, better athletic performance, thinking clearer, prevention of so many critical diseases like Alzheimer’s, and increased homeostasis.

Some of the books written about sugar and the negative effects are “Grain Brain” by David Perlmutter , “Wheat Belly” by Dr. William Davis, and “The Blood Sugar Solution” by Dr. Mark Hyman. This list could go on for a very long time and so could the list of books written about how fat is good for you. “Eat Fat Get Thin” by Dr. Mark Hyman is a great start.

Listen to some of the world’s best experts talk about the topic at “The Keto Summit“.

I wish you lots of health, love and happiness!

Travis Wade

The only holistic personal trainer in Edmonton

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Fitness Nutrition, Health and Wellness

The Unknown That’s Killing People

Posted on September 19, 2016March 5, 2023 by Travis Wade

19
Sep

The Unknown That’s Killing People

By Travis Wade

Vitamin K2

One of the most overlooked nutrients we have is vitamin K2. When I mention vitamin K2 most people don’t know what I’m talking about and others say I get it in my cruciferous vegetables. The lack of vitamin K2 may be causing a lot of the blood clotting disorders in North American. Things like angina, heart attacks, pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis, stroke, and T.I.A or mini stroke.

If you read an article on how to prevent any of these issues, I’ll put money down that you won’t read about vitamin K2. It is very commonly overlooked, however, it is the third leading nutrient deficiency in North America. Also, it takes about 18 years for medical discoveries to go mainstream.

The way vitamin K2 works is it deposits calcium in the body where it needs to be. Without it you get calcium build up in the veins and arteries or gallstones or kidney stones. When plaque builds in the lumen of the blood vessels calcium can be deposited there and hardening of the vessels happens. It is called atherosclerosis or arteriosclerosis. The hardening then becomes brittle and breaks off causing what is called an embolism. Depending on where that embolism gets lodged determines the disorder. If it’s in the brain then it’s a stroke, in the heart it’s a heart attack etc.

Take vitamin K2 and your calcium goes to the bones and into the cells where it’s needed. A lot of people with osteoporosis don’t have a lack of calcium. They just have a lack of vitamin K2. Cruciferous vegetables have an abundance of vitamin K1. Fermented foods like sauerkraut, miso, kimchi, yogurt, and kefir have vitamin K2.

I eat some of these fermented foods at every meal and my favourite are the yogurt and kefir. I use them as my protein supplement as well. If you’re using a supplement for vitamin K2, you need a plant derived form of the nutrient. MK-7 is the form you want.

Toxins

One thing I should mention that I have heard before from Dave Asprey and heard it again tonight from Mike Adams is that North America is kinda the world’s dumping grounds for toxic foods and supplements. Other countries ban toxins in the ppm or ppb and in North America our rules are much less stringent and in some cases non-existent.

Stuff that’s considered toxic either gets sold here or on the internet. In general, stay away from food and supplements from China, India, Peru, Bolivia, and Mexico even if it’s labelled certified organic. They don’t test for heavy metal toxicity. The safest tends to be from Canada, U.S., and the continent of Australia. You can also have your stuff tested on Mike Adams’ website here.

One more thing that’s just as shocking is the source of organic fertilizer. They use human feces and toxic waste from the job site. All kinds of things go in it and then packaged as organic fertilizer which is sold at places like Home Depot and Rona. My brother saw an organic fertilizer company come to his job site and and empty the porta-potty in their truck.

How do you fertilize then? You can use compost and you can use inorganic forms of minerals which turn to the bioavailable form of organic minerals in plants. The plants use the minerals and when you eat the plant you’re getting a form of the nutrients your body will actually use. I hate to say it but the vitamins and minerals you buy are probably doing more harm than good. Feed them to your plants then eat the plants.

I wish you lots of health, love and happiness!

Travis Wade

The only holistic personal trainer in Edmonton

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Fitness Nutrition, Health and Wellness

The Ultimate Health and Happiness Plan

Posted on September 13, 2016March 5, 2023 by Travis Wade

13
Sep

The Ultimate Health and Happiness Plan

By Travis Wade

I’ve been an EMT for over 18 years now and it’s great to be able to help people out especially when they need it most. The down side is most of the people we deal with are people who don’t help themselves so we have to help them. There is way more depression out there than I ever thought and people have what they call “failure to thrive”. They don’t die. They live out their life on our stretcher. It’s not a great way to live and the number one reason why we get called is loneliness. What I do now is help people before they get to that point. I help people who want to help themselves. I keep people off the stretcher.

The main reason I do what I do is because I’ve seen what fitness has done for me. Of course it does a lot physically, I’m faster, stronger, feel better, look better, and move better in general, but it does way more. It created a lot of confidence for me which spilled over into every aspect of my life. That’s what I see in others as well. It starts with getting fitter and then confidence starts when someone accomplishes a goal. Confidence creates success for people.

What I Do…

“The Blue Zones” is a book by Dan Buettner. He talks about the 4 regions of the world where people are living the longest and what they all have in common. Research shows that people who live happy are the people that are living the longest. The 5 things that these people have in common is:

1. They have a sense of purpose. In other words, you can’t retire. The people that retire and sit at the coffee shops complaining about the world around them are miserable.

2. They have friends and family around them. They don’t believe in moving out. They live together. You can’t move to paradise island and be happy. You will last about 3 months and then it’s time to come home.

3. You have to surround yourself with the right people. You could have the best job in the world, but if you go to work with a bunch of dirt balls everyday it’s going to suck.

4. Proper diet with proper proportions.

5. Proper exercise.

What I do creates happiness and longevity.

My mission is to create a community of happy people around me that are beautiful on the inside and out. I encourage volunteering and altruism when I can and try to help out when I can as well. This is why I do what I do.

How I do It…

Exercise

The first thing I try to do is get people exercising doing things that they will enjoy. You have to like it or you won’t continue with it. You’ll have the initial motivation and after a while you’ll have all kinds of excuses to not show up.

Diet

The next thing I do is to try to get people to eat healthy. The number one thing you want to do with food is get the nutrients your body needs. The book I most commonly use to help my clients eat well is called “The 10 Day Detox Cookbook” by Dr. Mark Hyman.

Sometimes diet and exercise is all people need and they feel great and get their goals. I heard a trainer say once that people aren’t fat because their bodies are broken. He’s partially right. There is usually something more going on, but almost everybody has underlying physical health issues these days that contribute as well.

So my next step after diet and exercise is to look at nutrient deficiencies. Without doing a panel on someone I just address the top nutrient deficiencies in north America. Sometimes this is all people need to accomplish their goals and feel great.

Meditation

Next, I educate people on the importance of meditation. It’s an easy concept to laugh about because people appear to be doing nothing but people that overachieve dedicate their ability to overachieve to all the meditation they do. Many cultures have been doing it for thousands of years and they know the benefits.

More recently in our culture we have been studying the effects with MRI and other technology to see what’s happening in the body. Activating the relaxation response is the only intervention known to man that actually makes a person’s biological age younger. It also allows a person to focus to get more done.

Other Resources

Microbiome

After that I will get to know someone and get a feel for other possible resources to make them as healthy as possible. viome.com will test a person’s microbiome to see what they have going on inside them.

We are made up of 10x more bacteria than we are human body cells and we have 10x more viruses than we do bacteria cells. We have a huge ecosystem going on in and on us and it has a massive, massive impact on us. One example is there are two main types of bacteria in us; bacteroidetes and firmicutes. Bacteroidetes is skinny person bacteria and firmicutes is fat person bacteria. You need to know how to manipulate these to your advantage.

Hormones

I might ask people to work on hormone imbalances. A place called True Balance does a full panel including nutrients, blood cell counts, hormones, and even antigens. It’s great to see this and they educate people about their particular situation and offer treatment as well.

DNA Test

A couple other resources available are The DNA Company. They test your DNA and tell you what things you need to avoid and what things you should be doing.

Detoxification

Another resource is Wendy Myers who deals with toxicity and minerals. We are exposed to over 200 toxins before we are born and 3000 more are being created every year. A hundred years ago our liver could take care of us, but not anymore. Toxins accumulate in the brain and in our mitochondria which are responsible for creating our energy. We become slower and can’t think as well over time. We need to detox.

Mental Barriers

I guess I should mention Jon Gabriel. My friend that talked about how people’s bodies aren’t broken has a point. We’ve all been through some mental trauma in life. Sometimes it’s enough to prevent people from attaining their goals. Jon Gabriel deals with that side of things and his website is thegabrielmethod.com.

Journaling

Finally, I try to get every client I have to journal. My coach journals twice a day. I journal once a day in the morning. If I give you the formula to happiness, it doesn’t mean you will be happy. You have to implement the formula. The best way to hold yourself accountable to implement the formula is to journal. These are some of the key factors to implement in your daily life that have been proven to significantly increase happiness.

Journal in the morning because starting your day by taking time for yourself is the best way to start a day. If you start your day on a positive note then you will live your day on a positive note. If you start every day on a positive note that is how you will live your life. Rate your happiness out of 10 and journal for a month and rate your happiness out of 10 again.

Journaling allows us to relive the good things in our lives. No matter what happens to you in a day, no matter how good it was, journaling will be the best part of your day because you get to relive whatever happened without the bad.

When good things happen it creates dopamine which is the “feel good” neurotransmitter. When we journal we relive the good things without the bad and we get the dopamine again. We all need dopamine! Some people get it by eating sugar, I’m asking you to get it by journaling.

If you want more information on journaling watch this Tedtalk with Shawn Achor. If you want to know what I journal, contact me and I will send you the happiness template.

I wish you lots of health, love and happiness!

Travis Wade

The only holistic personal trainer in Edmonton

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Health and Wellness

Want Better Sleep?

Posted on August 22, 2016March 5, 2023 by Travis Wade

22
Aug

Want Better Sleep?

By Travis Wade

Sleep is so profoundly important. People seem to be willing to trade it for anything else. We avoid it like we owe it money and it’s the only thing that can heal us. We also seem to want to blame everything else for our health problems. People want to look at food and look for a pill to fix our health problems. Cut. It. Out.

Insomnia

If you’re having trouble falling asleep or you wake up for 30 minutes for 3 nights a week and it happens more than 3 weeks in a row for more than 3 months. This is called Insomnia. 1 in 3 people have insomnia at any given time. That’s about how many people are in bed at any given time??

There are 8-10 types of insomnia associated with all aspects of life. There will be a root cause; your job is to find the cause. Everyone has an individual amount of sleep need, usually 7-9 hours a night. Most people have 5 – 90-minute sleep cycles totaling 7.5 hours with a half hour of fall asleep time. Simple math can determine your bedtime.

Stage 1, stage 2, stage 3, stage 4, back to stage 2, and then into REM. That pattern is approximately 90 minutes and occurs 5 times a night. Your body is primed to sleep at certain times due to your circadian rhythm. Forget about sleeping in; you’ll lose your REM sleep on the back end. Mom was right again; everyone needs a bed time.

Most people don’t prepare for sleep. Most people don’t embrace sleep; they want to avoid it. There is no avoiding it. You need about 8 hours. If you want to over achieve you need to get that 8 hours or you’ll massively under achieve. Everyone needs a sleep preparation ritual. We need to do some form of meditation to activate the relaxation response.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. How you think about sleep affects the way you sleep. The continuous action between the feelings, the actions, and the thoughts keep spiraling. People hate sleep, but know they need it. The negative thoughts produce negative feelings which produce negative actions.

The last 20 minutes before you sleep directly affect your thoughts while you sleep. Use those last 20 minutes to write down 3 things you are grateful for that day and one story. Get the positive emotions in your mind.

Falling Asleep and Staying Asleep

A couple more points I want to touch on are things that are going on internally that make you tired. There are 2 distinct systems for sleep. There is sleep drive and circadian rhythm. First, adenosine is a byproduct of metabolism and as it builds during the day you get tired. That’s your sleep driver. Secondly, your cortisol is high in the morning and decreases through the day. When cortisol is high melatonin is low. Your circadian rhythm, or your internal clock, is primarily run by these 2 hormones.

These are some of the basics of how sleep works and it is a really complicated topic. I could write for days, but I have to get some sleep. I’ll leave you with only three main things to concentrate on for a better sleep. Number one, make sleep a priority. Number two, determine a bedtime depending on when you have to get up and how much sleep you need. Number three, do a nighttime ritual and be sure to include meditation and write down 3 things you are grateful for and one story. The story lets you relive the experience and you fall asleep with positive thoughts.

Set Your Circadian Rhythm

Blue light keeps you awake. Is that news to you?? Melatonin is called the vampire hormone because it’s only produced in the dark. Go to this web site and download the program to instantly help you sleep better. Also, one hour before bed you have to turn off all lights or use blue blockers or candle light. My preference is candle light when possible.

It’s all about setting your circadian rhythm and light has a lot to do with that. The blue light from your computer will turn off your melatonin production just like the sun. That’s why you’re supposed to get 15 minutes of sunlight first thing in the morning too. It sets your circadian rhythm.

A sleep mask can be handy for blocking out the sun for when you sleep. There are light sensitive cells on your skin called cryptochromes that will absorb light as well. Some people prefer black out curtains. They’d be the cat’s ass on a timer I think. 10-15 minutes before you have to get up they let the sun shine in. What a great way to wake up in the morning as opposed to the mofo alarm.

Nutrients

The first tip I give my clients for better sleep and quality of life is get the nutrients your body needs. If you have trouble with sleep or even if you don’t, you should be addressing nutrient deficiencies. Just doing this can help with so many issues people have. It’s like taking away water or food; you can’t think or perform very well. You also get hungry when you lack nutrients. You could be stuffing your cake hole with cake only because you’re lacking a nutrient your body is constantly telling your brain to eat.

We try to get the nutrients we need with food because the supplement will never be as effective as the actual food source. A supplement should be taken when needed and it’s really important to get a quality supplement or you could be doing more harm than good.

Without having a full panel done all I can do is tell you the top nutrient deficiencies in North America. Number one is vitamin D, number 2 is omega 3’s, number 3 is vit. K2, and the 4th is magnesium, sometimes called the sleep drug because it knocks people out. You need 2-1 or 3-1 calcium to magnesium. I’ll get back to the magnesium in a bit. Number 5 is vitamin B12, number 6 is vitamin E, number 7 is vitamin A, number 8 is iodine, number 9 is calcium, and number 10 is iron.

Let’s recap a few tips because they are the most important. First, make sleep a priority. You can’t have the attitude that it is just something that hopefully happens when you go to bed. Second, determine a bedtime based on your wake up time and how long you need to sleep. Third, make a bedtime ritual consisting of activating your relaxation mode.

Magnesium

Ok, back to the magnesium. We lack magnesium because it’s just not in the soil anymore. If you’re taking a supplement avoid oxides. You only absorb 3-4% of it. Citrates destroy toilets. Here’s a great tip. There is three times as much magnesium in a banana peel as there is in the fruit itself. Get organic bananas. Wash one off and cut the ends off. Put it in 4 cups of water and boil it for a few minutes then let it steep for 10-15 minutes. Add a little cinnamon, honey, and coconut milk. It’s delicious and for a lot of you it will knock you out.

Magnesium is the 1 mineral deficiency in North America. It’s responsible for over 300 biochemical processes. That’s 300 things your body can’t do without magnesium. One study used people with sleep issues and low magnesium. 30-40% had better sleep when their magnesium was increased. Epsom salts is a form of topical magnesium, magnesium sulfate. The sulphate is very important to get as well.

Hormones

We talked a little about hormone imbalances. Melatonin and cortisol are hormones and when one is high the other is low. A couple other hormones in this whole scheme of things is thyroid hormone and testosterone. When melatonin is high testosterone is low.

You will produce less melatonin as you age. People around 50-55 or older might consider hormone replacement therapy. 0.1-1 mg of melatonin does nothing to how much melatonin your body will produce and I use it for better sleep. It works at these small doses. When I took the amount recommended on the bottle it was a higher dose and didn’t work.

The brand recommended by “The Sleep Doctor” is Usana. Melatonin isn’t regulated and you might be getting some Jägermeister instead of hormone. The test for melatonin levels is a saliva test. Remember melatonin isn’t a sleep initiator it’s a regulator. Take it about 90 minutes before bed and the dosage is a half to one milligram.

Thyroid problems can cause anxiety at any time or cause insomnia with Grave’s disease. Grave’s disease is an autoimmune disease where your immune system attacks the control mechanism of the thyroid and there is no stop. You just keep pumping thyroid hormone and become hyperthyroid. That’ll ruin your sleep. Magnolia bark helps reduce levels of anxiety.

There can be various things that cause hormone imbalances, but the place in Edmonton to get tested is called True Balance. They will do a full panel and you can see nutrient deficiencies, hormonal imbalances, blood cell counts, and even antigens causing autoimmune diseases like Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis.

Supplements

We need to talk about caffeine. You need to avoid caffeine after noon. Caffeine is an adenosine antagonist. Caffeine is very similar in molecular structure as adenosine and binds to receptor sites in the brain blocking adenosine. That’s why you get the caffeine crash when caffeine wears off. Most people don’t realize caffeine has a half-life of about 8-10 hours. “Ween the bean”, doctors will say. Dandy Blend is a non-caffeinated herbal drink that tastes like coffee. Maybe give that a day in court.

Around 35% of people don’t need a supplement to help them sleep better. If you get up at 6 and only sleep 5.5 hours a night, go to bed at midnight. It sounds crazy, but it works. You’ll fall asleep faster and then you’ll get 6 hours of sleep a night. Then go to bed at 11:30. It’s an evidence based technique called sleep restriction. Sleep doctors are taught this technique in their training. Phshshsh,I’m not a sleep doctor. I’ve used this technique. It works.

Serotonin is the precursor to melatonin. People with depression either can’t sleep or they use sleep as an escape. 5HTP or L-tryptophan can increase serotonin levels. You need to have a health practitioner to help with that. You don’t want to create too much serotonin.

People deficient in potassium have trouble falling asleep. Just another reason to do banana tea. Low Vit. C levels cause people to wake up at night. Glycine for some will one a magic sleeping pill. Take about 5 grams before bed. For others magnesium will be a sleeping pill. Use magnesium-threonate because it’s the only magnesium supplement that crosses the blood brain barrier.

Your Gut

Your gut integrity impacts your sleep. The pineal gland was believed to produce your melatonin, but research shows there is 400x more melatonin produced in your gut. The precursor hormone serotonin is also produced in the gut, over 90%. Researchers at Caltech found there are specific bacteria in the gut that communicate with the cells that produce these hormones. Build a proper microbiome by preventing overgrowth of bad bacteria.

Dysbiosis of the gut is created by processed foods and sugar. Also the use of antibiotics destroys your microbiome. Chlorine is a strong antibiotic. Using a reverse osmosis system to filter your water is preferred, but a bottled spring water is fine.

Up to 80% of the antibiotics we ingest are from meat. You need antibiotic free and hormone free meat. Check out my article on meat to see options for grass fed, grass finished meat.

Improving the microbiome is complicated, but please read some of my previous articles on it.

Exercise

It’s time to talk about my favourite subject now; exercise. In a study, they had people exercise at three different times. Phase 1 was at 7am, phase 2 was 1pm, phase 3 was 7pm. The morning exercisers spent more time in the deepest most anabolic stages of sleep. Up to 75% of them had more efficient sleep cycles and slept longer. They had a 25% decrease in blood pressure in the evening. Their relaxation mode was more active in the evening.

Sleep Apnea

I don’t want to get into sleep apnea too much because it accounts for about 30% of sleep disorders and 95% of the clinics deal with it. These are the signs and symptoms of sleep apnea. Waking up with a very sore or dry throat. Occasionally waking up with a choking or gasping sensation. Sleepiness or lack of energy during the day. Sleepiness while driving. Morning headaches. Restless sleep. Forgetfulness, mood changes, and a decreased interest in sex. Loud snoring, which is usually more prominent in obstructive sleep apnea, episodes of breathing cessation during sleep witnessed by another person, abrupt awakenings accompanied by shortness of breath, which more likely indicates central sleep apnea, attention problems, and irritability. If you suspect you might have sleep apnea, go to one of the many clinics that deal with it and get tested.

Stress Insomnia

The main thing I want to talk about is stress type insomnia. 75-80% of sleep problems are stress related. If you have trouble falling asleep or wake up for more than 30 minutes in the night, then this might be where you are. Obviously the stress is what needs to be dealt with and most people don’t realize their stress is high. Things like what you eat and toxins in your environment affect your stress as well.

Seeing a sleep psychologist may be your best line of action. I heard a doctor talking on a sleep summit and she said if you have any one of these seven childhood traumas you will have sleep issues. The seven traumas are things I’m sure almost all of us experienced at one time or another. Deal with it.

Sometimes a doctor may initially give you GABA (Gamma-Amino Butyric acid). It inhibits nerve transmission in the brain, calming nervous activity. Or a doctor may prescribe tryptophan to help you sleep. Tryptophan increases your serotonin levels. Serotonin is the precursor to melatonin. Both of these will calm you down for a better night’s sleep. You have to be careful with this stuff because they are addictive for one thing and another is you don’t want too much serotonin. There are safer methods to deal with the night time anxiety.

Natural sources of tryptophan are very safe. Try seeds (pumpkin, squash, or chia), spirulina, or game meat before bed. A study published in Sports Medicine found that consuming carbohydrates like honey and a form of protein high in tryptophan before bed helped with better sleep.

More Supplements

Clinical trials show that passion flower is as effective as a benzodiazepine to eliminate anxiety. The benzo worked faster, but the passion flower didn’t have the side effects such as drowsiness the next day. Another great anti-anxiety supplement is Valerian root. It increases GABA naturally. Magnolia bark is another anxiolytic. No matter what supplement you choose make sure you are getting a high quality supplement or you will be getting ripped off and causing more harm than good.

A few more tips to finish off this topic. Electromagnetic waves. Ground yourself and get rid of the cell phone near where you sleep and avoid the electrical stuff in the wall. Take your socks and shoes off on the earth to ground yourself as well. Grounding mats do exist for the winter months.

A place that’s too quiet can be a factor. Binaural beats can slow down your mind and help you sleep, but if the room is too quiet any little noise could wake you up. White noise can help. Sounds of the ocean. Last tip – Lavender essential oils are great in a diffuser to calm your mind.

I wish you lots of health, love and happiness!

Travis Wade

The only holistic personal trainer in Edmonton