HIVE5 – Diet – How good could it get?

Welcome to the HIVE5. On this episode we are talking about how to start dealing with your diet in a meaningful and lasting way starting with a question. How good could it get?

 

I got clean and sober 9 years ago. I was a full blown opiate addict – sadly not the first time – God willing the last. At that time I was down to about 150 pounds, my ideal weight is 175. My body was a mess… In treatment I packed on 20 pounds of fat which, at the time, was necessary. I was malnourished and my body was a total mess. For the next couple years I was incredibly focused on habilitation – like, I needed to earn how to live. Rehabilitation would come later. After a couple years of pounding out meetings and rebuilding my business I was looking for something to do so I bought a pistol which led me to 3 Gun and ultimately I got really curious about performance. If I could do it all over again I would start with:

 

Sleep: Check out HIVE2 http://hawkeyesyndicate.com/hive2-hack-your-sleep/

Diet: Which will talk about today 

Fitness: The final piece not the first 

 

Let me first say the I have tried nearly everything. At first I used what I learned from the body building community. At the time this was all I could find. The body builders have a lot of on the court evidence for what they believe and they are very good at building muscle. I don’t discount this today I just am not that interested in picking on a ton of muscle weight. Today I am pretty clear that there is not a one for all diet. In fact there are probably about 7 billion perfect diets on the planet – 1 for every human being and I would urge you to start where you are at, stop thinking about it as a diet and start thinking about it from the statement “how good could it get?”

 

So, how good could it get? I am not a fan of huge sweeping changes. I am for taking small steps and then asking the question again. How good could it get?

 

Step 1 – Beginners : Start by eliminating or decreasing the biggest offenders. 

Processed foods: Soda diet and other wise, energy drinks, fast foods, microwaveable meals (I don’t care how good they say they are), candy, and any foods containing sweetners derived from corn or a lab. They go by several names: High Fructose Corn Syrup, Dextrose, Maltodextrin, Sucralose and a whole bunch of other nasties that are highly addictive. Pop, snack foods, fast food, candy and other mouth fun is designed to be addictive. It will take a little while for the cravings to go away but it is totally worth it. hang in there for 30 days. Do not restrict calories or do anything else for a month. Just get this crap out of your system and see how you look and feel.

 

Note on Alcohol: This is another big offender. If you have a problem deal with it. If you don’t but like to drink reduce your intake for 30 days in step 1.

 

Now look… how do you look and feel? Ask yourself again. How good could it get?

 

Step 2: Look at the next big offenders and replace them

The main thing in step 2 is to start shopping from the perimeter of the grocery store as much as possible. This is where you will find fresh fruits and vegetables, fresh meats, small batch breads, dairy, eggs, yogurt, etc. Start reading labels on multi-ingredient items, and then start dealing with the next level offenders for inflammation and glycemic variability.

 

Glycemic Variability: glycemic variability basically refers to how much your blood sugar bounces up and down. Think Sugar buzz vs. being Hangry.

Ref: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4543190/

 

Continue reducing sugar in your diet and increasing activity after meals

 

Inflammation: Inflammation in the body is a normal and healthy response to injury or attack by germs. We can see it, feel it and measure it as local heat, redness, swelling, and pain. This is the body’s way of getting more nourishment and more immune activity into an area that needs to fend off infection or heal. But inflammation isn’t always helpful. It also has great destructive potential, which we see when the immune system mistakenly targets the body’s own tissues in (autoimmune) diseases like type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.

Whole-body inflammation refers to chronic, imperceptible, low-level inflammation. Mounting evidence suggests that over time this kind of inflammation sets the foundation for many serious, age-related diseases.  

Ref: https://www.drweil.com/diet-nutrition/anti-inflammatory-diet-pyramid/reducing-whole-body-inflammation/

 

Now, most of you are probably thinking, holy shit!, that is all I eat. I got it. Don’t try to scale this mountain all at once. Look where you can make reductions slowly and track the difference it makes. Some people are good to go on breads and dairy so start with reducing or cutting our fried food, reducing alcohol intake and replacing vegetable oils with Olive oil, Avocado Oil and Coconut Oil for 30 days. See how you feel and then ask the question. How good could it get? 

 

The next step is really dialing in your diet for what you want to accomplish but I submit that you can’t get there from where most of you are. You might for a short while but it won’t last or even worse, you might set yourself further from your goals. Here is my invitation. Look at where you are at and get started. If you are already through step 2 there will be other podcasts in the future or find someone way smarter than I am at all of this to figure out what’s next on your own. If you are a mess, like I was 9 years ago, do step 1 – if step 2 makes more sense jump in right there. Remember, you fucked up your diet over a long period of time and, while you can undo a lot of that in short order, lasting change comes slowly. Have an awesome weekend and feel free to message me at mark@hawkeyesyndicate.com if you have questions or comments.