By Kusha Karvandi, Founder & CEO of Exerscribe.com

We’ve all been there.

A long stressful day at work, and we failed to plan our meals accordingly.

Or worse, we exert the time and energy to prepare our food, but office calamity and eponymous ‘fire-fighting’ steal the wind from our sails. So, in turn, our blood sugar turns into a turbulent roller coaster leaving us lethargic, ravenous and ultimately capitulated by comfort food.

But why do we reach for comfort food?

There are three elements which drive us toward the bad stuff: low serotonin, poor gut flora, and imbalanced hormones. And here are three tips for improving them.

Boost Serotonin

Serotonin is a neurotransmitter which is responsible for maintaining our Circadian Rhythm (natural sleep cycles), memory, and boosting mood. Our brain, just like our muscles, consumes blood sugar to function and produce serotonin. So, when blood sugar drops, so do our serotonin levels.

For the sake of efficiency, our body seeks what it knows to be the quickest source of energy to spike serotonin levels: comfort food. The reason being, comfort food is generally composed of processed, refined carbohydrates and/or simple sugars which are guaranteed to give an instant jolt in blood sugar. The problem with this is that not only does this add inches to your waistline by signaling body fat storage, but the brain also recognizes this pattern and begins to crave these substances when your blood sugar crashes.

The solution: retrain your brain by eliminating tempting junk food and replacing it with unprocessed, whole foods. A diet higher in quality animal fats (i.e. raw unpasteurized cow’s whole milk, organic whole eggs, etc) will keep your blood sugar stable and optimize fat-burning hormones. Be sure to limit caffeine intake, as well. Caffeine desensitizes key serotonin receptors in the brain, reducing the efficacy of your healthy eating efforts. Also, try supplementing with amino acids such as L-Tryptophan or 5-HTP, which are precursors to serotonin. Take 500-1,000mg 1-3 times per day for optimal results.

Restore Gut Flora

As mentioned above, comfort foods are typically composed of processed sugars and starches – enemies of gut flora. When we ingest these foods, the development of Candida overgrowth occurs in the intestines. Since the intestines are where we absorb vitamins and nutrients, it is essential to keep them in good health by fostering the growth of good bacteria.

Fermented foods with live cultures, such as kefir, natural sauerkraut, kombucha tea, and yogurt can help harvest good bacteria. Also, refrigerated probiotic supplements such as Jarro-Dophilus are an effective way to immediately promote gut health by delivering 6 or more beneficial probiotic strains in easy-to-swallow capsules. Start with the lowest dosage and work your way up as needed. When your gut is in optimal health, your body has an easier time stabilizing blood sugar. This equates to an elevated mood, and better eating decisions in the long-run.

Balance Your Hormones

When our hormones are in balance and optimized, our body becomes a fat-burning, muscle-building machine. Not to mention, our overall sense of well-being relies on this. However, when that balance is compromised by poor eating habits, our hormones work against us.

A diet high in processed, nutrient-shallow carbohydrates will leave our glands depleted and incapable of proper function. Our body needs saturated fats, such as high-quality animal fats, to provide our glands with the essential vitamins, minerals, and environment for production of hormones.

The additional problem is, of course, that so much of what we love to eat is also too high in omega-6 fatty acids. Packaged goods and unnatural vegetable oils (such as canola oil), provide a high concentration of omega-6 fatty acids, but our bodies necessitate a balance between omega-3, -6, and -9 for proper brain and hormone function. Eating a serving of fish (such as wild Alaskan salmon, mackerel, wild herring, sardines, etc) 3-5 times per week can provide a good dose of omega-3 fatty acids to get your body back in balance. Also, try supplementing with Butter Oil and Cod Liver Oil. Butter Oil delivers a high concentrated dose of fat-soluble vitamins and minerals, and Cod Liver Oil provides highly bio-available Vitamin-D and omega-3 fatty acids.

The suggestions provided will hopefully help you make better eating decisions, regularly. I’m not advocating you eliminate comfort foods completely, but the goal should be to eat whole foods and high quality fats to keep your brain happy, your stomach satisfied, and your day manageable.

For more insights about this type of eating, read my book, Nutriscribe: Your Nutrition Prescription (available for Kindle and as paperback on Amazon.com). Nutriscribe offers an effective solution to better health through simple, easy to follow dietary changes. The book provides a long-term solution to eliminate the antiquated need for fad diets, food logging, and calorie counting. With over 30 organic, gluten-free recipes included, this book will help you develop a more natural way of eating for health without compromising on flexibility. 

If you ever have any questions about our program, reach out to us via LiveChat or text message on Exerscribe.com. At Exerscribe, our mission is to provide cutting-edge nutritional insights and custom workout plans for the gym.

Kusha Karvandi

Kusha Karvandi began working as a personal trainer in 2006, out of pure passion for nutrition and exercise. Seven years later, after holding various health club management positions across the country, he recognized the absence of self-serving, legitimate workout programs for health club members. Although a major advocate for personal training, he realized not everyone can afford to work with a trainer 4 days a week, and even those that trained less frequently typically were not provided a congruent workout plan to ensure long-term success. He created Exerscribe to explore what’s possible when people are provided a roadmap to working out.

by Sean Croxton

This stuff is awesome.

Never in my life did I imagine I’d be so head over heels about a soup made from bones.

I guess you can say I have quite the man crush on the rich, brown liquid that fills my coffee cup each morning.

It makes me feel warm inside, and puts a little pep in my step.

And oh my, is it tasty!

But my fondness for bone broth goes well beyond its taste and warmth. There’s a reason why it’s called the magic elixir — and it’s a darn shame that more people aren’t drinking it.

There was a time, not long ago, when bone broth was a part of just about every meal we consumed in this country, as it provided the base for soups, gravies, and stews. Unfortunately, with the disappearance of the local butcher as well as the invention of brain-cell-killing MSG — which gave processed foods an artificial meaty flavor — preparing broth became a lost art.

These days, very few of us even know what it is, or why we should be consuming it.

So today I thought I’d share with you my own personal Top 5 Reasons Why Bone Broth is The Bomb. Here we go!

Reason #1: Bone Broth Makes Your Joints Feel as Smooth as Eggs.

Yes, that was a Dave Chappelle reference. If you don’t get it, don’t worry about it.

Anyway…

In her ridiculously awesome book Deep Nutrition, Dr. Cate Shanahan writes…

“The health of your joints depends upon the health of the collagen in your ligaments, tendons, and on the ends of your bones. Collagens are a large family of biomolecules, which include the glycosaminoglycans, very special molecules that help keep our joints healthy.”

Bone broth is loaded with glycosaminoglycans (GAGs). In fact, I’m absolutely certain that you’ve heard of one of them — glucosamine. Yep, those supplements that seemingly everyone is taking for joint health contain one of the GAGs we get from consuming bone broth.

You know me, I’m a food-first kind of guy. Here’s just one of the reasons why I prefer Real Food over supplementation…

Notice I said that glucosamine is just one of the GAGs contained in bone broth. When you consume broth you also get chondroitin, hyaluronic acid, and likely a bunch of other equally important GAGs that have yet to be discovered.

What’s more, the GAGs we get from bone broth are resistant to digestion and are absorbed in their intact form. According to Dr. Cate, these intact GAGs like hormones, stimulating cells called fibroblasts which lay down collagen in the joints, tendons, ligaments, and even the arteries.

I can personally attest to the joint-healing benefits of bone broth. Before I began drinking it regularly, I had been dealing with a lingering dull pain in my left shoulder. After about a week and a half of daily consumption, the pain completely vanished. My knees feel much better when running stairs as well.

It’s truly powerful stuff!

Reason #2: Bone Broth Makes Your Hair, Skin, and Nails Look Dead Sexy.

I know people who, in a quest to recapture a youthful appearance, will pay top dollar for products that boost collagen — also the main constituent of hair, skin, and nails.

As we age, production of collagen declines and we start to see the outward signs of aging.

Out here in San Diego (Land of The Beautiful), botox — a drug made from a toxin produced by the bacterium clostridium botulinum — is all the craze for the reduction of lines and wrinkles.

That’s kinda weird, in my opinion. And expensive.

Personally, I’d much rather prepare and consume bone broth to keep my skin, hair (if I had any), and nails looking fabulous than have a toxin injected into my face.

But that’s just me.

(By the way, broth is super cheap to make on your own.)

Reason #3: Bone Broth Heals Your Gut!

Let’s keep it real. Most people reading this blog right now are experiencing some kind of gastrointestinal challenge — constipation, diarrhea, food sensitivities, leaky gut, or even autoimmune disease.

One of the most vital nutrients for healing the gut is gelatin. Yep, the stuff that makes the Jell-O jiggle.

There was a time when gelatin was the most studied nutrient under the sun for all of its healing virtues. Times have certainly changed.

To make a long story short, the intestinal lining is supposed to be permeable in order for nutrients to pass through. However, this lining can become too permeable due to lifestyle factors such as poor diet, stress, long-term contraceptive use, as well as bacterial and fungal overgrowths. Just think of poking huge holes in your window screens at home. Yes, the good air will pass through, but the flies, gnats, and mosquitoes will too.

This is how leaky gut — or gut hyperpermeability — works. Undigested food particles can slip through the gut lining and pass directly into the bloodstream. No bueno! When this happens, the immune system freaks out and starts attacking the very foods you eat — we call these food sensitivities.

Over time, this can turn into an autoimmune issue by which your immune system thinks your thyroid — or any other tissue, for that matter — looks like the piece of steak molecule it’s been fighting off for the past few years. In other words, your body starts to attack itself.

According to our good friend Dr. Thomas O’Bryan, autoimmunity will soon be the number one cause of death in this country. Gut hyperpermeability is a big reason why.

What does bone broth have to do with any of this? Well, the gelatin in bone broth spackles the excess holes in the gut lining, so to speak. It’s quite the handyman, and should be part of any gut-healing protocol.

Reason #4: Bone Broth Reduces Your Need for Meat and Protein.

This is pretty darn interesting. In her fantastic Real Food Summit (RFS) presentation, Sarah Pope revealed that studies conducted in the 1800s demonstrated that when there is plenty of gelatin in the diet, the body’s need for protein from meat sources can be reduced by as much as fifty-percent!

We all know that purchasing quality meats can be hard on the wallet. The good news is that you can make bone broth for dirt cheap and thus save money on meat.

Not a bad deal.

By the way, you can watch Sarah’s RFS presentation below for FREE until Friday night. You may learn more about ordering the entire set of summit videos, audio files, transcripts, and bonuses HERE.

Reason #5: Bone Broth Helps Get the Toxins Out.

Here’s another golden nugget from Mrs. Pope. The liver is the master organ of detoxification. Unfortunately, it was never intended to withstand the very toxic, chemical nature of today’s world.

The liver is certainly under assault on a daily basis, and its capacity to detoxify is limited by the availability of the amino acid glycine.

Guess where you can get tons of glycine from? Bone broth, baby!

For now, forget about all the fancy detox programs you’ve heard about. Do your liver a favor by giving it what it needs to do its job most effectively.

Gosh, I can go on and on with this blog. The benefits of consuming bone broth are endless. That’s why it’s the bomb.

Down below, you’ll find a list of resources including a couple videos on how to make broth at home, as well as some excellent articles.

If you missed last night’s radio show, it was all about broth. My main man Chef Lance Roll crushed it! You can listen to the show HERE, or click the player below.

Out.

Resources
How to Make Beef Bone Broth video with The Shanahans
How to Make Chicken Stock video with The Shanahans
Broth is Beautiful article by Sally Fallon
How Bone Broths Support Your Adrenals, Bones and Teeth article by OraWellness

Sean
Bone Broth Enthusiast
Author, The Dark Side of Fat Loss

by Sean Croxton

Dr. Kalish is the man.

If there is anyone who can appreciate the beauty of balancing the brain naturally, it’s me.

About 6 years ago, my own chronic anxiety and depression issues finally led me to the doctor’s office, where I literally begged for a prescription fix.

I had done some reading up on Paxil (an SSRI) and just knew that it would help me snap out of a funk.

Instead, the doc wrote me prescription for Prozac, a drug that, at the time, I had associated with “crazy folk” who were one step away from jumping off a bridge. (I know better now, of course.)

I didn’t want to be a member of Prozac Nation. I wanted my damn Paxil! It was cooler than Prozac — even the great NFL running back Ricky Williams took Paxil, and he led the league in rushing that year!

The following day, I took the leap and dropped my first Prozac down the hatch. I will NEVER forget that day.

I popped my first pill in the morning before heading to my personal training job. I didn’t really notice anything different, figuring that the effects would take a few days to kick in.

Then, during my final session of the day — fortunately my client Beth was a psychologist — I started feeling a little…weird. The colors in the room became brighter. My balance was suddenly off. And I started hyperventilating.

I couldn’t get enough air, it seemed.

Slowly shuffling over to a corner where the rest of the gym members wouldn’t see me, I took a seat on the floor, breathing deeply and trying to calm my body while under Beth’s watchful and understanding eye.

After a few minutes, I started feeling a little better. I walked outside where there was plenty of air, and I called a friend to come and pick me up. There was no way I was going to drive myself home.

I was scared sh*tless!

I thought I was in the clear, my odd little episode had come to an end. But no sooner than 5-minutes after stepping outside, it came back. This one was worse than the first. I remember going back inside of the gym to find someone who could help me get to the on-campus Health Services building (I worked at SDSU at the time).

A hyperventilating mess, we finally made it to Health Services where I breathed into a brown bag until my symptoms subsided once again.

I had never had a panic attack in my life. Funny that it took a tiny green and white pill — intended to balance my mood — to give me my first and second on the same day.

That was the last time I ever took Prozac.

My doc was convinced. Prozac wasn’t for me.

I went home with a prescription for Paxil.

Although Paxil didn’t send me into any Prozac-like episodes, it had its own problems. My first week on the drug was interesting to say the least.

First off, my appetite was gone for the first 5 or 6 days. The only thing I could eat was Lucky Charms. Weird, I know.

As if the whole Lucky Charms thing wasn’t strange enough, my attraction to women literally took a hike. Women just weren’t women anymore. To be frank, boobs and booty just weren’t doing it for me. It was as if my “man switch” got turned off for a week. All I could do was cross my fingers and hope that it would flip back on more sooner than later.

It finally did, but not without a few sexual side effects that I won’t get into here.

Just use your imagination.

Anyway…after a week of adjusting to my new medication, I actually started to like it. Despite a bad case of the all-day yawns and this weird tingling feeling I would have upon waking, Paxil wasn’t that bad. I went from being down-in-the-dumps to being one happy dude in a matter of weeks. I literally had no emotion but happiness. I called it my Paxil Glow.

The glow actually had me going out with friends and participating in life again. It was during this time that I learned that people weren’t so bad after all, and that I actually has a personality underneath all of my shyness.

There’s a bright side to everything, I guess.

Deep down I knew that I couldn’t stay on Paxil forever. At some point, I would have to ditch the glow and figure out how I could boost my mood naturally. And to be honest, being happy all the time just isn’t as cool as it sounds. I wanted to feel real emotions again.

So, through my reading I figured out that my previous anxiety and depression issues had more to do with my low-fat diet, exercise addiction, and a poor outlook on life than anything else.

By adding more fats to my diet, cutting back on the chronic cardio, and immersing myself in personal development books, I was finally able to ditch the Paxil Glow cold turkey with zero side effects.

No, I wasn’t as uber-friendly as I was before. But those irritating yawns were gone. And all of my body parts started functioning normally again (if you know what I mean.).

Happiness no longer followed me around everywhere I went, but I was very happy to feel a little anger, sadness, and “blah” every now and then.

Life felt real.

The reason I am telling this story is because although my experience with Paxil had its perks, it was also marred by a litany of unnecessary trials that I would have never had to experience if I had known what I know now about natural treatments for depression and anxiety.

Treatments that don’t make you have a panic attack while at work.

Treatments that won’t have you eating marshmallow rainbows for a week.

Treatments that keep all of your body parts working…

This is why Dr. Kalish is the man.

Instead of resorting to prescription drugs — riddled with side effects — as a first option, he thinks “natural first”.

Using simple urine tests, inexpensive amino acid supplements, as well as diet and lifestyle modifications, Dr. Kalish has helped thousands of people sidestep the allopathic approach to mood disorders by way of identifying and correcting specific deficiencies in the neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine.

On last night’s episode of UW Radio, Dr. Kalish and I discussed the following topics and more:

* How a simple urine test can take a snapshot of your brain chemistry.

* How neurotransmitter deficiencies impact weight gain, sleep, fatigue, and cravings.

* How the amino acids supplements 5-HTP and L-tyrosine balance the brain by way of increasing levels of serotonin and dopamine, respectively.

* Why taking 5-HTP alone — without balancing it with l-tyrosine — can lead to dopamine deficiency, and vice-versa.

* Whether it is safe to take amino acids while on medications for depression, anxiety, or ADHD?

* Really cool cutting-edge science on OCT2 receptors and how the opening and closing of cellular gates in the brain and kidneys impact brain chemistry. ((See video below))

* How damage to nerve cells via recreational/prescription drugs, environmental toxins, and neurotoxins impact cellular communication and mood.

* The connection between your brain and gut — and how increasing serotonin via amino acids can improve gut function.

* The effect of caffeine consumption on serotonin production

* How sex hormones are tied in with brain chemicals.

* A simple way to increase the long-term efficacy of Alzheimer’s drugs.

Dr. Kalish was truth-bomb-dropping machine last night! The feedback has been off the charts. This is certainly a show you don’t want to skip.

If only I had been privy to this information before I paid that Prozac-dispensing doc a visit back in 2006…

But, hey, everything happens for a reason.

Please send this show to your friends and family who may be suffering from mood issues. Everyone deserves to know that they have options.

Click the PLAY button below to listen to Dr. Kalish’s podcast or click HERE to download the show on iTunes. And if the show leaves you thirsty for more info, click HERE to receive a FREE Treating Depression Naturally class taught by the man himself.

Enjoy!

Sean
All of My Parts are Working Fine Now!

by Sean Croxton

My exploration into the human brain continues.

Last night I was hanging out in my bathtub (yeah, I do that once in a while) reading a book called Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert. You can imagine how geeked out I was to learn that humans are only species with the ability to prospect. In other words, we can look forward in time and consider the future. Which means that we do whatever the heck we can do to control the future. We believe that this sense of control makes us happy. And when we lose this control, we freak out. I’m sure you can relate.

Why is prospection exclusive to humans. Well, it’s because we have ginormous frontal lobes in our brains. In fact, a frontal lobotomy — or chemical/mechanical destruction of the frontal lobe — would not affect you much. The only major side effect of such a procedure would be the inability to think into the future. The ability to prospect is gone.

I found this interesting because a lobotomy was, at one time, a common and effective treatment for anxiety. What do people typically feel anxious about? The future!

No frontal lobe, no future. Anxiety gone!

Trippy, huh?

Anyway, our last video was about impulsive overeating and its connection to decreased activity of the prefrontal cortex, the front one-third of the brain responsible for planning.

Today, we’re discussing another type of overeater called the compulsive overeater. This individual may have increased activity in a part of the brain located deep within the frontal lobe called the anterior cingulate gyrus (ACG). Increased activity in the ACG may be due to low levels of brain serotonin.

Dr. Daniel Amen and I discussed this type of overeating in THIS PODCAST a couple weeks ago.

Proven and natural ways of increasing brain serotonin are supplementing with 5-HTP, l-tryptophan, or St. John’s Wort, as well as using the brain-boosting spice saffron.

But before you head out to the local supplement store to grab some 5-HTP, be sure to check out THIS PODCAST with Dr. Daniel Kalish.

According to Dr. Kalish, serotonin and dopamine are antagonistic — when one goes up, the other goes down. This can cause a problem down the road.

Load up on information, and then decide what is best for you!

And enjoy today’s video.

I’m out!

Sean Croxton
Author, The Dark Side of Fat Loss
Host, The Paleo Summit

by Sean Croxton

I have a huge man crush on the human brain right now.

And doing THIS INTERVIEW with Dr. Daniel Amen last week was beyond brain candy for me.

Of the 5 brain types Dr. Amen outlines in his books, I find that a ton of people are dealing with a bad case of impulsive overeating. They just can’t seem to say no!

They’re in that constant state of starting their new healthy lifestyles “on Monday”.

For a lot of people, this type of behavior may not be as simple as willpower. They may be dealing with a real brain problem. More specifically, their prefrontal cortexes (PFC) may be underactive.

When the PFC is down, it may be an indication of low dopamine levels in the brain.

In OUR PODCAST, Dr. Amen discusses how to increases dopamine levels via supplements like rhodiola, ginseng, l-tyrosine, as well as through exercise.

In many cases, the key to getting healthy is in between the ears.

Check out today’s video on this very topic.

Oh! I forgot to mention that one other cause of low PFC activity is toxins. And when I say “infections”, I mean brain infections.

If you’d like to take Dr. Amen’s FREE Brain Audit, please visit the Amen Clinics website.

Out!

Sean

by Sean Croxton & Dr. Daniel Kalish

Truth bombs are droppin’ today!

Check out this clip from last week’s UW Radio show with Dr. Daniel Kalish. In this segment, the doc explains how the use of antidepressant medications can deplete serotonin levels in the brain over time.

He also talks about why the medication Abilify is needed when serotonin levels drop too low from use of SSRIs.

Please note that Dr. Kalish is not against the use of antidepressant medications when used properly.

To learn more about how you can boost neurotransmitter levels naturally with amino acids, click HERE to listen to the entire show.

Enjoy!

Sean Croxton
Author, The Dark Side of Fat Loss