Why Grandma’s Soup Was The Best

soup

Why Grandma’s Soup Was The Best

soup

By Travis Wade

Holy the benefits of soup! Grandma is the best! She makes the best soups doesn’t she? The benefits of soup are endless and so are the flavours!

How Grandma Made Soup

soup

Allow me to fill you in on how grandma made the best soup. First she started with a base from boiling the bones of an animal that grandpa shot. Back in the day, nothing got wasted. They used the entire animal tip to tail. That’s why the broth was so good and nutritious. The hardest to digest and least nutritious part of the animal is the muscle. I know, it tastes the best which is why we all eat it like kings.

On a side note, all of the studies showing that red meat is bad for you are studies using meat that has hormones, antibiotics, and fed genetically modified grains. This meat is bad for you. Grass fed or wild meat is extremely beneficial to your health. Enjoy your Walmart steak (sarcastic). Some places around Edmonton that sell grass fed meat are listed in this article.

The Asians got it right again. Not only do they work harder, study harder, and have faster reflexes, they eat meat better too. They eat all the nutritious parts we cringe at. I’m not going to try to talk you into eating testicles or tongue, but throw all those weird organs and parts into the soup base. Grandma did…

grandma

Boil your base for at least 12 hours. Grandma would boil it for at least that long and usually closer to 24 hours. Sometimes for days actually. That’s where the song came from, “Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot, 9 days old”. As long as you’re boiling it, it will keep. No bacteria will grow in those temperatures.

Anyway, boil your carcasses for about 24 hours. You’ll need to invest in a giant soup pot because you don’t want to be doing this every day. You’ll need a couple of them and a giant stainless steel colander that fits around the rim of the second giant soup pot. Strain the carcasses from the broth and throw out all those bones and organs. Don’t feed the bones to your dog. They will be brittle and get stuck in the dog’s’ throat.

Let the broth cool off. The fat rises to the top and after it sits in the fridge it hardens. Break off the fat and keep it for cooking with. Now you have a gelatin full of collagen, L-glutamine, proline, glycine, zinc and all kinds of nutrients that makes your body strong.

It doesn’t take much to make it taste good. Salt, pepper, onion, and garlic make it taste delicious. Grandma would put all the most nutritious strengthening foods in it like turmeric (if grandma was part Asian), cayenne pepper, basil, oregano, garlic, cabbage, onion, tomato, celery, squash, carrots… the list is very long here.

The Benefits

sleep

One benefit I need to mention grandma had in mind with her soup is that it strengthens the gut lining. Your connective tissue is made up of mostly collagen. Where are you getting collagen in your diet? Your gut lining is made up of collagen as well and unfortunately, today’s SAD or Standard American Diet is really good at breaking down the gut lining. Inasmuch, the SAD doesn’t have much to build the gut back up.

Hippocrates said that all chronic diseases start in the gut and many doctors believe he was right. Every autoimmune disease is caused by a broken down gut lining. Many things break down the gut lining, but the good news is bone broth builds it back up.

Leaky Gut Syndrome

bulletproof coffee

Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride is a Russian neuroscientist that created the GAPS diet and has seen thousands of patients get better with a soup diet and psychology. She teaches her methods to other practitioners and they also have seen thousands of patients get better with her methods.

I know a lot of skeptics say why isn’t everybody doing it if it works. For one it’s hard to monetize, but Dr. Josh Axe has done that now. He has created his bone broth protein powder and you can buy it online for around $45. Dave Asprey, the Bulletproof guy, also sells collagen powder.

The other thing is it takes approximately 18 years for scientist discoveries to become mainstream. The issue I’m writing about right now is called leaky gut syndrome and it affects us all to some degree unless you are doing something about it. A drug is in the works to help with the problem. Once the pharmaceutical companies can monetize this issue you will be hearing all about it in the mainstream, but for now a lot of conventional doctors are denying it even exists.

soup

Don’t take the drug because it doesn’t fix what is causing the problem. Do what doctor Josh Axe recommends and eat the one pot diet. He says the crock pot is the key to a healthy gut. He talked about how the gut is a lot like your skin and when you get an abrasion and you keep irritating that abrasion it’ll take a long time to heal. The same is with your gut when you eat hard to digest foods. If you eat crock pot or one pot foods your food is soft and easy to digest giving your gut the chance to heal. Dr. Axe recommends at least 3 cups of broth per day to heal the gut lining.

Dr. Natasha Campbell Mcbride says “Soup for breakfast, soup for lunch, soup for dinner and soup in between. Soup, soup, soup, soup!” 2 weeks to 2 months of nothing but soup to strengthen the gut lining. She’s a Russian grandma.

Maintaining a healthy gut is so highly underrated. As an EMT half the medical patients I saw had gut issues. Half of those patients left the hospital undiagnosed. In all autoimmune diseases you will find leaky gut syndrome. Do all chronic diseases start in the gut?

I wish you lots of health, love and happiness!

Travis Wade

The only holistic personal trainer in Edmonton

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Why You Should Be Camping For A Living

camping for a living

Why You Should Be Camping For A Living

camping for a living

I had a long busy shift at my EMS job the other day. I was reminded of the pleasures of having a demanding stressful job full time. For the whole day I was able to put my whole life on the back burner and not worry about my problems and it was fun. I theorized this might be why we live our lives in such high chronic stress mode.

Sleep

sleep

Almost everyone knows what I’m talking about from their own experiences. Unfortunately, living with this high stress day after day causes all kinds of health problems and increases sleep problems. Then people self medicate with caffeine and you throw in some shift work and forget about it.

Lack of sleep is the number one thing that increases stress. Your body wears out really fast. Your body isn’t meant for this chronic state of go go go. Your body was meant for chill out mode and grab food from around you in the form of leaves and berries, fruits and vegetables, kill an animal as needed. It’s a very relaxed lifestyle. It’s like camping or going hunting; pretty cool way to live.

Calm The Puck Down

farmer

Every once in a while, there would be the threat of a predator and then the glands would kick in for some cortisol and adrenalin, but not chronically or constantly. All I’m saying is everyone just needs to calm the puck down. Try to live everyday like you’re on your weekend retreat to the mountains or Saskatchewan to visit the family and drive the tractor. Not only will you live better and longer, it’s way more fun.

Some things everyone needs in their lives are 2 days off per week, meditation, as much sunlight as possible, surround yourself with the right people, spend time with friends and family, do things that provide you with a good sense of purpose, get proper exercise daily, and proper nutrition with proper proportions.

I wish you lots of health, love and happiness!

Travis Wade

The only holistic personal trainer in Edmonton

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A Tribute To Gordon Downie Of The Tragically Hip

gord

A Tribute To Gordon Downie

gord

By Travis Wade

My good man Gordon Downie just passed through town for the last time. I’m very sad I never got the chance to see him. I’m terribly heartbroken the Tragically Hip lead singer doesn’t have long to live. He is a Canadian icon and has a knack for Canadian references in his songs that sound so natural and unforced. No one can do it the way Gordon Downie can do it. FYI Trois Pistoles is a cute little town near the coast in Quebec that I passed through on my way to Gaspé.

I’ll never forget my first van and how the CD player was broken and I couldn’t get Gordon Downie’s poetry album out of the CD player. There was the time they were playing a word of mouth gig at the Trailway Pub in Vancouver as they often did. 75 people in a small pub and the Tragically Hip. I ran all the way there and after standing in line for about 10 minutes they announced they were sold out.

I found myself on the roof looking at ways to break into the Trailway when I came to my senses and decided, maybe not get arrested that day. Another time I raced to Rexall from a job near Lloydminster to see if I could get a ticket at the box office, but the band already started playing and the box office was closed. This time I didn’t have to break in, but I snuck in and sat down and enjoyed the show. I have seen the Tragically Hip more times than any other band at 7 times.

The Brain

Although I am very sad Gordon Downie is going to pass and there is nothing I can do about it I want to pass on information to all of you that prevents cancer and brain degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.

As an EMT, dementia and Alzheimer’s was seen in almost every patient living in an assisted living establishment. It’s so common it has become accepted as something that is inevitable with age. This couldn’t be more false.

The truth is brain degenerative diseases can be avoided with proper nutrition and exercise. That’s where I come in. I listen to Health Talks in my spare time everyday and I listen to hundreds of doctors talk about all kinds of diseases like cancer, thyroid problems, Alzheimer’s, etc. It doesn’t matter what the problem is, I hear the same things for all of them. So here is how to be healthy.

gord

Avoid GMO’s.  Stay away from white foods – sugar, flour, grains, dairy, potatoes – all foods with low nutrient value and high carb/glycemic index load. Lower your toxic load as much as possible, avoid food sensitivities, heal your gut with bone broth, find out what’s in your microbiome, correct dysbiosis (imbalance of good and bad bacteria of the gut), detox from heavy metals and other issues you might have; common ones are SIBO – small intestine bacteria overgrowth, and Candida which is a yeast overgrowth.

If there is something major to overcome, medication might be necessary, however, proper diet and exercise will give your body the optimal environment to recover and prevent relapse.

There are always specific things to help with specific issues, but today I will focus on brain problems and cancer in tribute to Gord Downie.

Cancer

cancer

The specifics for cancer beyond the above mentioned methods is a raw foods diet. There are books written on this and studies show pharmaceutical intervention in the treatment for cancer is futile. Juicing vegetables is the basis of the raw foods diet. Without sugar to feed the cancer growth and all the antioxidants in plant foods, an environment impossible for cancer to grow is created and in so many cases it reverses cancer growth.

Curcumin is the active ingredient in turmeric and the research keeps showing the positive effects of this powerful antioxidant. It helps with cancer and brain diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia. If you supplement then a quality fish oil that isn’t rancid may help. If your cheap omega 3s taste like a rotten fish, you might want to upgrade. Of course eating the actual fish is going to have the best effect.

gord

 A quality multivitamin is always recommended and Sayer Ji from Green Med Info has brand names he recommends. If you want a recommendation just give me a text. Vitamin D is the biggest nutrient deficiency in North America and I’m sure our American friends get more than we do.

You’re not going to get a better source for vitamin D than the sun. The sun also detoxifies. You can never get enough sun and especially where we live. Take off your shirt and take off your sunglasses; you absorb most of your light through your eyes and I’ve heard one speaker say up to 90% of your light is absorbed with your eyes.

Alzheimer’s

Alzheimer’s is now being coined type 3 diabetes because Alzheimer’s is actually insulin resistance of the brain. This just means insulin can’t take sugar into the cells of the brain and brain cells die. The best solution doctors are recommending is coconut oil. MCT’s are great for weight loss for various reasons, but also great for the brain. Coconut oil has been seen to help reverse Alzheimer’s.

Dave Asprey, the founder of Bulletproof Coffee refines coconut oil to isolate the C8 in the coconut oil. C8 in particular does a liver pass and you will be in full ketosis in about a half hour. It’s instant ketones in the blood and doesn’t need insulin to feed the brain.

One more supplement I need to mention is according to research an apple a day reduces chances of Alzheimer’s by 37%. The sugar from a fruit affects the body much different than sugar extracted from fruit. High fructose corn syrup didn’t exist 60 years ago. Stay away from anything processed.

I wish you lots of health, love and happiness!

Travis Wade

The only holistic personal trainer in Edmonton

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Why Do People Eat Breakfast Food At Breakfast?

breakfast

Why Do People Eat Breakfast Food At Breakfast?

breakfast

By Travis Wade

I know, cuz they’re hungry. I know, I know, but why do they eat breakfast food? And why are they hungry? Some people eat differently than others. What’s all that about? Let’s have a look at some of these questions and the answers.

Breakfast food. Eggs? Bacon? Fruit? Cereal? Toast? Jam? Ham? Hamburger??? Why does someone eat hamburger at breakfast? And another is vegan and sticks to tofu and oats? How active is the vegan? And do they care about building muscle?

If you’re a bodybuilder, you’ll need a lot of protein and your body is begging for protein in the morning. Is there such thing as a vegan bodybuilder? There aren’t many and that’s cuz a bodybuilder craves meat. The vegan is probably a little more sedentary; they don’t want the meat.

Carbs or Fats

breakfast

Want to know why I eat bacon? Besides the addiction, which could mean I have a food sensitivity to it and that can be common with pork products. Besides that. I like bacon because I like a keto-diet. A diet where I get my energy from fats instead of carbs. I still have carbs in the form of fruits and vegetables, but not in the morning.

Carbs are good before and after a workout and towards the end of the day because they can make you sleepy. You’ll get the initial rush with the increase in insulin, then the crash. I never eat anything white due to its high calorie content and high glycemic index which is perfect for storing fat. Also, the number one thing you are trying to accomplish with food is to get the nutrient your body needs. All things white like sugar, salt, trans fats, grains, potatoes, parsnips are low nutrient and high glycemic leaving you tired.

Fibre

breakfast

So why do people eat fruit in the morning? Well, there are 3 parts to the digestive system and you have to keep all three running smooth. Eating is first, then using the food, then excretion. What part do you think the fruit helps with…? Lots of fibre… After everything in your gut is sitting and fermenting all night, fruit is a good idea for excretion of waste.

Intermittent Fasting

bulletproof coffee

Why do people do bulletproof or intermittent fasting at breakfast? The idea is to remain in ketosis for as long as possible in order to lose weight. Ketosis is the process of using fats for energy. You can get the fats from food or from your stored fats and your body doesn’t care where it gets it from; it’ll take from both until you run out of the fats from food, like in the morning, and then it has to take from your stored fats.

So why the bulletproof? It provides your body with much needed energy in the morning and if you do it the Dave Asprey way, (he’s the guy who founded Bulletproof Coffee), you’ll be in full ketosis right away. It usually takes about 10 days to be in full ketosis when you stop eating carbs and use fat for energy. Compliance is the hardest part of a ketogenic diet but, it certainly works.

Eggs

breakfast

Why the eggs? The yolk is packed full of nutrients your body needs and the whites are full of protein. Like I said before, your body needs protein in the morning. Eggs are great because they can keep you in ketosis and you get some protein. Add some bacon and bamb! That’s enough protein and fat to keep you going for a while.

Addictions

breakfast

So why do most people eat the white foods in the morning? Oats, toast, cereal, jam is so much sugar. Cuz they’re hungry! We’ve been over this. They are all addictions. They provide almost no nutrient but, they feed visceral adipose tissue on the stomach. It’s a hungry fat that causes you to crave the white foods so you eat the white foods then more visceral adipose tissue gets created leading to more cravings and the slippery slope continues. These foods cause much more damage to your body then the fat on your stomach; that should be the least of your worries. Check out the article on bread here.

You are what you eat? Hell ya! I eat fat and protein for breakfast. Want to see my abs? It’s not easy to quit all the foods that create visceral adipose tissue but, I can help and I have seen amazing results. Time and time again people lose weight and put on muscle and feel great! They talk about their increased energy and how they keep looking better and better. I love results!

I wish you lots of health, love and happiness!

Travis Wade

The only holistic personal trainer in Edmonton

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It’s Time You Knew the Truth About Why You’re Fat!

truth about fat

It’s Time You Knew The Truth About Why You’re Fat!

truth about fat

By Travis Wade

There are 2 thoughts when it comes to food. I hear the comment “Food is meant to be enjoyed”.  Agreed. To a point. Alcohol is meant to be enjoyed as well. The other way to think of food is, the number one thing you are trying to accomplish with food is to get the nutrients your body needs. Hopefully you can learn to do both at the same time.

Let me start by saying it’s not your fault that you’re fat. Mostly. I’m not enabling here. Let’s say our society advertised for alcohol and we were told that it was healthy, nutritious, and makes us happy. Have you ever played the game one truth and two lies? Let me get back to this.

The Food Industry

truth about fat

A lot of people don’t realize how huge the food industry is. It is really, really, big business! The food industry wants your money and they hire people to make their food as highly addictive as possible. They’ve done very well. This practice is nothing new. We all know Coca-Cola used to put cocaine in their drink.

Then they advertise it very well. I heard once that if the food needs to be advertised then it’s not good for you. It sounds pretty accurate. So we have foods that are extremely addictive and are constantly advertised to us as being amazing. Then almost all restaurants offer genetically modified grains in the form of some kind of bread. Do you blame people for being fat?

The biggest addictions are sugar, salt, fat, flour, highly processed foods, refined carbohydrates, and almost all packaged foods have some form of these addictions. If you don’t understand what the word is, it’s likely one of the above in some hyper-addictive form or a toxin used to preserve the food to make it taste better.

Part of what makes these foods so addictive is their high glycemic index. When you eat high glycemic foods you get a sugar rush. It’s drug like and your mind relates to whatever you just ate as energy. When you start to lack energy you’ll need your fix. When sugar was compared to cocaine they found it lights up the pleasure centres of the brain 4 times as much as cocaine. Sugar isn’t the most addictive culprit. Flour is even worse with a higher glycemic index. On a side note, a rule of thumb is, if it can last forever on your shelf it’s not good.

Visceral Adipose Tissue

truth about fat

We need to talk about visceral adipose tissue (VAT). This is the fat stored around the belly area. It is a super fat. A hungry fat. A dangerous fat. When you eat high glycemic foods the energy goes into the VAT and then you’re hungry again. You eat more creating more VAT. It is a cycle that continues once you’re on it. It’s a very slippery slope.

Maltodextrin is a glucose attached to another glucose attached to another in a long chain of simple sugars. Maltose is two simple sugars attached to each other. The list of ingredients that is worse than table sugar is long and widely used in almost every package of food made. High fructose corn syrup is one of these that is sometimes disguised as “natural flavours” or just fructose.

I’m going to part with a secret I have kept my whole life. Please, no need to spread this around. I can’t stand watching a fat person eat sugar filled foods. It’s a lot like watching an alcoholic reaching for the bottle with a shaky hand. It’s really hard to watch and I want to help these people. “Food is meant to be enjoyed.”  Agreed. To a point.

truth about fat

So how do you kick these incredibly overwhelming addictions?  If you’re an emotional eater it is going to be very difficult to quit your addictions, especially during hard times. My best suggestion is to take it seriously like any other addiction and see an addictions counsellor. One resource I found is Jon Gabriel with The Gabriel Method. He is a good man that dealt with his emotional eating and now teaches others how to do it.

The first method I try is to get my clients to follow the 10 day detox by Dr. Mark Hyman. Pick a time when you’re ready and drop the bad stuff all at once, cold turkey. It resets your system and the cravings go away within just days. The hard part is figuring out how to eat properly and finding good food that you like and learning how to prepare it so it tastes good. I see great results and lots of weight loss. It’s an amazing place to start. No gimmicks, just healthy eating habits.

I wish you lots of health, love and happiness!

Travis Wade

The only holistic personal trainer in Edmonton

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Why Do Most People Call An Ambulance? Besides Loneliness

ambulance

Why Do Most People Call An Ambulance? Besides Loneliness

ambulance

By Travis Wade

I have worked as an EMT for over 17 years. I have seen all kinds of health problems and it’s hard to watch when I know how to prevent health problems. The most common problem I’ve seen is abdominal pain. About half of the abdominal problems leave the hospital undiagnosed. You have to wonder why.

My full time job now is personal training and I am still helping people, but in a preventative way. That’s why I just want to go over some of the most common problems people have that I’ve seen and why.

Abdominal Pain

ambulance

You can’t exercise your intestines the same way you can exercise your biceps. The number one nutrient I recommend to people is not even on the list of highest nutrient deficiencies in North America. It is soup broth. The types of food most people will eat these days does so much damage to their intestinal wall and most people don’t do anything to improve it. Your intestinal wall is made up of mostly collagen. How are you getting collagen in your diet?

Soup broth not only has collagen, but it has the amino acids proline, glycine, L-glutamine, and it has zinc, iron, magnesium, and lots of other nutrients your body needs. All of these are recommended to build up your gut lining. Also, you just don’t get the same effect if you use supplements; you need to eat properly with high nutrients and lots of fibre.

Heart Problems

ambulance

Atherosclerosis and arteriosclerosis are generally the causes. The most common causes of atherosclerosis and arteriosclerosis was not on the list of nutrients to prevent heart disease that I just read, but it is on the list of most common nutrient deficiencies. It comes in third behind vitamin D and Omega 3s. Vitamin K2 is what reroutes calcium to its proper destinations like in the bones to prevent osteoporosis.

It also prevents the calcium (plaque), building up in your vasculature preventing diseases like heart attacks, stroke, deep vein thrombosis (DVT), and pulmonary embolisms. It also prevents the incredibly painful kidney stones and gallstones. Fermented foods like sauerkraut and kimchee have vitamin K2.

Diabetes

ambulance

Caused by sugar, but even more by sweeteners including stevia, sucralose or Splenda, aspartame, and anything diet. Artificial sweeteners are even more addictive than sugar and produce diabetes faster. This may be intentional. Food companies want you buying as much of their addictive food as possible and a side bonus is they can get you on medication too.

Depression

ambulance

Caused by many things, but a huge contributing factor is gut problems. Serotonin, dopamine, and other neurotransmitters regulating your mood are created in your gut. Take care of your gut with soup first, then find out what is in your microbiome. You might be able to manipulate your gut bacteria with natural methods or you might have to take a medication to get rid of severe pathogens under the guidance of a medical practitioner of course. Then take the steps to build a good strong microbiome with sauerkraut, sources of fibre, rice starch, and probiotics.

Autoimmune Diseases

ambulance

Again this is caused by gut problems. The weakened gut lining allows bigger molecules to pass through the lining which your body doesn’t recognize and attacks. These molecules and inflammation along with the toxins being produced are what cause the autoimmune diseases. In every autoimmune disease you will find leaky gut syndrome. Some of the things that contribute to leaky gut syndrome are genetically modified foods, gluten, dairy, and lectin found in beans.

Thyroid Problems

thyroid

Gluten is the protein in bread or flour that binds it like glue and one of the molecules that will pass through a weakened gut lining. Your body doesn’t recognize gluten and will produce antigens against it. Your thyroid has proteins that are very similar to gluten. The gluten antigens also attack the thyroid. Once you fix your weakened gut with soup, you can add some gluten back to your diet, however, gluten is one of the proteins that cause a weakened gut.

Another very common problem for the thyroid is everyday chronic stress. It creates an overactive adrenal gland and when cortisol is high, thyroid hormone is low. Experts don’t know which causes which but adrenal problems and thyroid problems go hand in hand.

Toxins

ambulance

Toxins need an honourable mention here. I was talking to someone about mycotoxins in their coffee and they wanted to show me an article that said the mycotoxins in our coffee was under the legal limit and considered safe. The article also talked about how there was mycotoxins in dairy, peanuts, grains, and is even found in breast milk. All of the above are things I recommend avoiding in your diet for reasons much more than the mycotoxins. All except the breast milk which I highly recommend.

How did the mycotoxins get in the breast milk? Like a lot of toxins, mycotoxins are difficult to eliminate and end up in breast milk. This is another really good reason to reduce your toxic load. You are exposed to over 200 toxins before you’re born and if your mom wasn’t careful it’s in her breast milk. I am not saying you have to avoid everything that has toxins, but you have to take care to reduce your toxic load.

The mycotoxins in your coffee, along with the milk in your cereal, the grains in your cereal, the sugar… how much toxins have you swallowed at breakfast? By the end of the day? Week? Month? They accumulate and are very hard to eliminate. Is the accumulation below the legal limit? The legal limit isn’t a standard you want to follow by the way. I’m going to stop there.

Toxins = The external sources include air, water, diet, drugs, organic pollutants, heavy metals, radiation, and physical or psychological stressors. Internal processes include inflammation, free radical production and oxidative stress, allergens, infections, and even gut flora.

I wish you lots of health, love and happiness!

Travis Wade

The only holistic personal trainer in Edmonton

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10 Reasons Why Bread Is Bad For You

bread

What The Baker Doesn’t Want You To Know!

bread

By Travis Wade

1.      Bromide- binds to thyroid hormone carrier.  This prevents T4 from being converted into the active T3 thyroid hormone. Thyroid hormone is a big part of what depicts your metabolism. Less T3 means a slower metabolism.

bread

2.      Sugar- is one of the products used by the food industry to make food as addictive as possible.  When tested against cocaine, sugar lights up the pleasure centres in the brain four times as much. The fast absorption makes sugar drug like and gives a person a quick high, then a crash.  The end result is fat gain and left feeling tired and wanting more.

bread

3.      Flour- is refined to be higher glycemic index than sugar. It mixes with enzymes in your mouth and turns to glucose right away. This makes flour a great fat gainer. It doesn’t have much nutrient content; anything that will last forever on your shelf is not good.  It is more fattening and possibly more addictive than sugar due to its quicker absorption rate. The average american eats 152 pounds of sugar and 146 pounds of flour a year. This sugar and flour combination is the vast leader causing alzheimer’s. A famous book written on the subject is Grain Brain and a famous movie that is a documentary is Bread Head. Click on the link for a trailer.

bread

4.      Yeast- like bacteria of the body you have good bacteria that you want to grow and the bad bacteria to die. Same goes with yeast and unfortunately the bad kind of yeast is in bread.

bread

5.     Gluten– is the protein in bread that makes it stick together and is one of the highest allergens in our food supply. It breaks down the lining of the gut and gets absorbed into the blood. It’s a big molecule that the body doesn’t recognize and your body forms antigens against it. These antigens can’t tell the difference between the protein in your thyroid and the gluten. Your thyroid gets attacked by the same antigens attacking the gluten. This is the main cause of Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. Once again, your thyroid depicts your metabolism.

bread

6.      The number one thing you’re trying to do with food is get the nutrients your body needs.  Bread is very high glycemic and very high calorie with very little other nutrient. It’s a quick fat gainer and takes up room where you could be putting much healthier foods that your body desperately needs.

bread

7.      Glyphosate– Monsanto has gotten to be my biggest nightmare. Their glyphosate is sprayed on grain crops 3 days before they are harvested for quick ripening. Of course it gets in the food.  It is a really good chelator and binds to minerals to clean them off stuff. It binds to minerals in our body and depletes our body of minerals. It causes massive amounts of cancer in animal studies. There have been no human studies, (no volunteers). It’s known to mutate human cells leading to cancer. Wherever glyphosate gets sprayed at the time it gets sprayed cancer and other diseases have increased significantly. We are now officially allowed to call it a carcinogen. One of the side effects isn’t just the massive increase in diseases but significant weight gain as well.

gmo

8.       GMOs– Some grains are GMO which means they are genetically modified to be highly toxic to keep bugs and pathogens and birds away. Natural toxins are increased and others are added. All these toxins massively increase inflamation and disease.

bread

9.      Toxins– It is common to find over twenty different toxins in bread. Toxins like bleach, high fructose corn syrup, mycotoxins, and bacterial toxins.

bread

10.     Phytic acid and wheat fibre. They deplete your body of nutrients. Phytic acid decreases your body’s ability to absorb minerals like zinc, calcium, and iron. The wheat fibre depleats your body from vitamin D which is the highest nutrient deficoency in North America.

I hope you liked the article. If you did, share it with friends. These are the types of issues I deal with daily with my clients in order to accomplish their fitness goals. I believe in a coach like approach and I help guide my clients to do the things they deem relevant for them and they are seeing really great results. For me the reward is the happiness it creates and seeing the new found confidence in people.

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What You Can Add To Your Workout To Improve It Immediately

preworkout

What You Can Add To Your Workout To Improve It Immediately

preworkout

By Travis Wade

I didn’t have time to write an article this week. I know I’m a slacker. However, I want to refer you to an article on bodybuilding.com. I send this to every new client because I want them to know how to eat before during and after a workout. I wrote an article on that already, but here’s an article on what to have during your workout. I hope you enjoy it!

In 2006, Stephen Bird published a series of papers that paint a good picture of the hormonal changes that occur as a result of weightlifting, and how different nutritional interventions impact these changes. When taken together, these papers provide a picture of the difference between short-term—e.g. during or after a training session—and long-term changes in hormones.

There were four groups of subjects in Bird’s study, organized by what they were allowed to drink during their workouts: water, essential amino acids, carbohydrates, or essential amino acids plus carbohydrates. Over 12 weeks, all the groups lost approximately the same amount of body fat, and the group that had the most complete workout nutrition (EAA + Carbs) packed on the most muscle.

Now let’s look at the acute changes that went with these big-picture changes. Researchers measured the amino acid 3-methyl-histidine in urine as a marker for muscle breakdown. As shown in the graph below, the group which drank only water (the placebo) had an increase in muscle breakdown 48 hours after its training session. There was no change for the groups that had essential amino acids or carbohydrates. The group that had the combination workout drink actually had a decrease in its 3-methyl-histidine levels after training.

What happened with cortisol? As you can see below, cortisol levels 30 minutes following exercise were increased by more than 50 percent in the group which drank water, but unchanged in the EAA group. Cortisol was decreased in both groups which had carbohydrates as part of their workout nutrition.

Think back to when I was explaining gluconeogenesis, the process in the liver that creates glucose from non-sugar sources to provide energy to parts of the body that need it. The body doesn’t need to generate its own sugar—a metabolically intensive process—when there is extra sugar from a sports drink floating around the blood stream. Thus, there was no increase in cortisol when carbs were present.

That short-term muscle loss and cortisol spike for the water-drinking group may seem significant, but don’t forget that all the groups gained muscle over the course of the study. The group that just drank water added almost four pounds of muscle over 12 weeks!

If you want to read the full article you can click here.

The bottom line is you’ll get better results from your workout if you add a fast acting source of energy and some branch chain amino acids to your workout.

I wish you lots of health, love and happiness!

Travis Wade

The only holistic personal trainer in Edmonton

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What Vegans Know That You Don’t

vegans

What Vegans Know That You Don’t

vegans

These are the secrets vegans are keeping!

By Travis Wade

Oxidative Stress

Oxidants are highly unstable compounds because they are missing an electron. They steal an electron from their neighbor, but now the neighbor needs an electron, so it steals one from its neighbor, and so on. When this happens in the body, it is called oxidative stress and it’s very damaging to our cells if it’s not stopped.

How do we get the oxidants in the first place?

Free radicals or oxidants can be caused from processes in the body like metabolism, exercise, phagocytosis, and inflammation. External causes of free radicals are toxins, radiation like the sun, and medications or drugs. I looked on the internet to see if I could find a table that shows the oxidative stress of foods, but there is no such table. One thing people should know is carbohydrate metabolism causes exponentially more oxidative stress than fat metabolism.

We need a balance between antioxidants and prooxidants. However, if you look at the list of things that cause free radicals it’s easy to see we have enough prooxidants. All the toxins we are exposed to make it vital to get as many antioxidants as we can.

Antioxidants

vegans

Antioxidants are a molecule that have an electron to give without becoming unstable itself or it can steal an electron from its neighboring antioxidant buddy.

The compounds in fruits and vegetables giving them all their colors are called polyphenols and flavonoids. They are very potent compounds and thousands of them are found in plants. They are only found in plants; nowhere else. They serve as a defense for the plant against the oxidation of the sun. The reason plants don’t get sunburned is because they have these flavonoids, and carotenoids to some degree, that protect them from the oxidization of the sun. They are very potent antioxidants.

They have the same function in us. They lower inflammation very dramatically, they quench the carcinogens directly halting cancer growth, they improve our immune system, they affect our stress response system making us more likely to be calm, and they support detoxification. They do it in a way no other compound can.

Your cruciferous vegetables are high fibre, low calorie, and high nutrient making them essential daily. Check out World’s Healthiest Foods to see the nutrient content of these superfoods! All the nutrients and antioxidants may be the reason fruits and vegetables may be the cure for cancer. Any diet that staves off cancer has to be good for you! Check out Chris’ story here.

The Problem Vegans Encounter

Iron, zinc, coenzyme q10, collagen, protein or certain amino acids, omega 3 fats, and Vitamin B12 are very difficult for vegans to get from their diet. These nutrients are essential. Check out the links on these nutrients to find out more about how they are beneficial. I can’t explain all that here or this article will get really long!

Juicing Recipe

vegans

Because I don’t like vegetables, I juice them daily. One of the key ingredients Chris used to cure his cancer is carrots. And by the way, he used his method because he read God’s Way to Ultimate Health by Rev. George Malkmus with Michael Dye; he is not the only one who was successful curing their cancer with raw vegetables.  There has been many. One thing I may add is, some doctors will use vitamin C intravenously to help with cancer treatment.

This is what I juice daily.

Ingredients:

1 bunch of spinach
2-3 carrots
1/2-inch knob of ginger
4 celery stocks
5 leaves of cabbage

Directions: Juice ingredients together and drink.

These are a great combination of vegetables for antioxidant and nutrient benefits. Spinach is on the Dirty Dozen list on ewg.org which is a great resource for toxic rating of all kinds of products. If you can get organic, it’s preferred, but if not make sure you wash your spinach really well. Celery is also on the Dirty Dozen list so the same goes. You can usually get organic spinach, carrots, ginger, and celery at Superstore. Cabbage is on the Clean Fifteen list.

vegans

I wish you lots of health, love and happiness!

Travis Wade

The only holistic personal trainer in Edmonton

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Morning Mojo

morning mojo

Morning Mojo

morning mojo

By Travis Wade

I just wanted to share one of the recipes from the 28 Day Challenge. It’s called Morning Mojo and one of the important things it does is it helps increase stomach acids. A lot of us suffer from low stomach acid and that can mimic high stomach acid. If you go to a conventional doctor you may get treated for high stomach acid making the situation worse. All you really need is Morning Mojo or Braggs Apple Cider Vinegar in water.

The reason stomach acids are so important is because they help us absorb nutrients from our food. One of the substances that causes low stomach acid is antibiotics. With each course of antibiotics, you will produce less and less stomach acids causing you to have trouble with absorption of nutrients.

Got anemia? Lack of iron? Here’s all the things you have going against you. Possible low stomach acids from too much antibiotics. Low nutrient in the soil because farmers use chemical fertilizers which causes lack of nutrients in our food. Heavy metal toxins block absorption in the gut. GMO foods prevent absorption in the gut and binding to nutrients in our bodies depleting them further. Bread.

Grains get sprayed with glyphosate (the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup), 3 days before the crop is harvested. It ripens (kills), the crop and kills the weeds for the next season. Glyphosate is patented as an antibiotic and one of the widest chelators known to man. It is used to clean minerals off things. It binds to minerals in our body and depletes our minerals. Let’s stay away from grains and up our stomach acids for better nutrient absorption. Here’s the Morning Mojo recipe.

morning mojo

Morning Mojo: Lemon Ginger Detox

Ingredients:

12 oz. glass water (at room temperature)

½ lemon

Either:  ½ inch knob ginger root OR pinch of cayenne pepper

Directions: Add the lemon juice to the glass of water.

If ginger: finely grate the ginger using a zester, and add the zest to the glass of water.

If cayenne pepper:  add a pinch of cayenne to your water. Perfect way to start your day!

If you have a good blender, get organic lemons and blend all the ingredients including the lemon peel. The peel has the essential oil in it, and it’s very beneficial.

This is just one of the recipes found in the 28 Day Challenge. Everything is in place for a reason and has it’s health benefits. The side effect happens to be weight loss for people looking to lose weight. It also teaches good habits. I hope you like the recipe and if you are interested in trying the 28 Day Challenge, click the link and sign up!

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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