Mixed Fitness

Irlen Institute – Treating The Brain’s Inability To Process Visual Information

I’ve been watching Dave Asprey’s Bulletproof Life course from creativeLive over the weekend (it was airing for free), and people had questions about his tinted glasses. Dave’s glasses are designed specially for his body. He was tested by the Irlen Institute to determine which wavelengths of light are offensive to his brain function and which lens tint removes those wavelengths. This allows his brain to think more clearly and reduce the wasted brainpower he would need to process those offensive wavelengths. These types of lenses can also help people with autism, dyslexia, ADHD, headaches and head injuries. I wonder what color of lenses would work best for me.

Phenibut, Addictive Sleep Aid With Unhealthy Hangover? Dosages, Effects, Side Effects and Safety Concerns

I quickly mentioned Phenibut in one of my updates a few weeks ago, in which the author of the article I linked to, said to use it as a sleep aid twice per week at 600mg each night. I’ve done a lot of research of my own, mostly about the safety of the drug and 600mg seems reasonable enough. I actually bought some to try, but I’ve been a little hesitant to try it based on the potential dangers. I’m very interested in experiencing the benefits of Phenibut though, so I’ll get to it eventually.

Everything You Need to Know About Sleep

Most of us understand the benefits of sleep, but you might not know all of the reasons why poor sleep is so bad for you. If more people did, everyone would try harder to get more and higher quality sleep. This post goes through some neat methods of getting better sleep (red lighbulbs, blackout curtains, reading fiction, changing your mattress), how to get more sleep (turning off electronics, shifting schedule by 15 minutes at a time) and how to wake up better (skip snoozing, use a sleep cycle app, use a dawn-simulator alarm clock). There’s much more covered in the post than what I’ve mentioned here. Great post!

World War D: All Natural Deodorants Battle it Out

I’ve tried so many different natural and organic deodorants trying to find one that works for me and I’ve not had any luck at all. They either don’t work and I get really stinky, or they cause a rash, so I always end up back with Degree, which I absolutely hate because of the terrible company they are and the toxic ingredients they use. Natural deodorants are expensive and when trying to find one that works it can be really costly, but I think continuing the search is worth it in the long run. I’ll have to give some of the products in this post a try, but I’m expecting to add a few of them to my already large collection of slightly used deodorants under the counter.

10 Minutes of Exercise Yields Hour-Long Effects

I feel like I’ve mentioned this post in my weekly updates before, but I can’t seem to find it. I know for a fact that I’ve mentioned this same exercise protocol, although Dr. Mercola calls it “Peak 8.” This is a great post about HIIT training that can be done in about 20 minutes a day and only twice per week. I’ve done it a couple times and it absolutely kicked my ass, but I just love lifting weights so I can’t stick with it.

Paleo Vegetarians – Recipes & Resources

I would really like to start cleaning up my diet a little more, mostly be reducing the amount of the grains that I consume. I know some health circles believe that even just a little grain can create inflammation for up to 6 months or more, but I’m just not ready to remove it entirely yet, so I need to start slowly. I think vegan paleo recipes might be a good place to start.

How to Freeze Kale

I actually have some kale in my garden that needs to be packed up before it dies from the cold. I don’t know if I have enough to warrant blanching and freezing, but maybe. Next year I plan to grow much more kale than this year thought, so this tip will be very handy next winter.

Harmful or Harmless: Carrageenan

I purchased the Artisan Vegan Cheese recipe book by Miyoko Schinner a few months ago and just recently decided to finally make something out of it. One of the common ingredients is carrageenan so I went to Natural Grocer’s Vitamin Cottage to see if they had it. The worker couldn’t find it so she looked it up on the computer. She came back and told me that they don’t carry it and that there have been claims of carrageenan being bad for the gut, which is probably why they don’t carry it. Interesting.

Nicolas Cole: How to Gain 80 lbs. of Muscle, Celiac Disease, and Why World of Warcraft Gets you Jacked

Being a hard-gainer myself, this is a really inspiring interview. I was so skinny growing up that I was often called “toothpick” and “chicken legs.” People don’t realize how hurtful those words are and what sort of psychological damage that can cause. I got so tired of being skinny that I “dirty bulked” like crazy for about a year. I ate everything I could think of, whether it was canned chili and hot dogs or $20 worth of Taco Bell and McDonalds. Every single day I ate to the point of feeling like throwing up. Finally when I got up to about 170 lbs. I learned about healthy eating and weight training. I cleaned up my diet and managed to keep my weight stable ever since. I would still like to be bigger though and that’s still a major challenge for me.

How to Lift and Live with a Herniated Disc

I was talking about back injuries with a coworker the other day and he told me that he’s had a bulging disk since 2011, which makes it difficult to do many things, even riding a bicycle. I mentioned that when I started lifting weights, my back problems almost completely went away, but he said that he can barely lift weights either. This got me interested in looking into what bodybuilders do when dealing with bulging discs and I came across this article. It’s pretty interesting and makes complete sense. Stretch your muscles (not just in the back), focus on single-leg exercises (squats & deadlifts) and reduce the weight if your body tells you to.

What methods help improve recovery?

It looks like all of the generally accepted methods of muscle recovery can be beneficial – massage therapy, foam rolling, electric stimulation, compression clothes and even several not-so-common methods – whole body vibration, water immersion and hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Wouldn’t it be nice to have the time and/or equipment to utilize all of these methods?

Fred Peterson 607 Dead Lift @ 75 ! – YouTube

I hope I can still lift heavy weight when I’m 75 years old. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to do 600 lbs. though.

Foodpairing – Creativity for recipes

I discovered this site by reading Tim Ferris’ book, The Four Hour Chef. This site is designed to help mix and match foods based on similar characteristics. For example, if you run out of an herb such as sage, did you know that you can replace it with rosemary and the meal will come out mostly the same?

Why we vaccinate–debunking flu vaccine myths in 25 easy steps

This is an excellent research piece, but I think one of the problems with evidence/science-based medicine bloggers is that they are often not willing to accept that it could be wrong. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t trust science-based medicine because that would be silly, but the issue is that while there may have been many studies that prove something as being safe, it doesn’t mean a study won’t be done in the future that will prove it unsafe. I generally trust science-based research, but I still do my own research and question everything.

If You Could Only Do One Lift…

When I saw the title of this article the first two exercises that came to my mind were the deadlift and the squat. When I started doing those exercises seriously I saw some big gains. If you want to build an awesome routine, check out the list of top 10 exercises at the end of this article.

Duct Tape Adjustable Weight Vest

The only reason I don’t have a weighted vest is because they are so expensive. I never thought about making my own before. I think I’d prefer to buy one anyway, but if you’re thrifty and really want a weight vest, give this a try.

7 Hazardous Home Cleaning Products and their Nontoxic Substitutions

The chemicals in your typical everyday commercial cleaning products can disrupt your hormone system, cause allergies, cause cancer and some can even be fatal if swallowed. These aren’t chemicals you want around your house. Instead make your own non-toxic cleaners using the recipes in this article.

Stupidity Spreads Like A Cold Sore At A Christmas Party: How To Avoid Programming Like A Jackass

I think the moral of this story is that when you’re training, you should have a goal in mind when setting up your routine and don’t stray from it. There are two great quotes in this post that really struck a chord with me: “Maybe it’s a sumo deadlift high pull and therefore, not even a real thing,” which is hilarious because I’ve had to look this up before when doing a Crossfit routine and the other quote is “when you ask yourself, “Why am I doing this?,” an intelligent coach will be able to give you an answer. If they cannot tell you why they program the way they do, then take your money elsewhere and find a coach who can.” I think that quote also applies to any routine you see online or in a magazine.

University physicists study urine splash-back and offer best tactics for men (w/ Video)

Must-read if you’re a guy. Urine splash-back sucks.

A Man Replaces His Lawn With a Giant Vegetable Garden and No Regrets

People are always telling me how they would never live in a community that is managed by an HOA because they want to be able to do whatever they want with their property. I totally understand, but I actually like living in an HOA-managed neighborhood because it keeps the community looking great. If there’s one thing I don’t like about it though, it’s that I can’t do a front yard garden like this. I would LOVE to be able to do this.

30 DAY R.E.A.L. Food Meal Plans

I’ve used a service very similar to this called The Vegan Menu, which I love. I signed up for six months but didn’t end up using the meal plans every week, so I saved them up and cancelled my service until I get caught up. I’m still using those menus most of the time and it’s awesome because they give you five days worth of dinner recipes and an ingredient list that keeps all of those recipes in mind, that way you don’t have to buy a ton of stuff every week. This “30 DAY R.E.A.L. Food” service actually looks the same, but better because all meals are free of soy, gluten, corn and dairy, and they provide three meals per day as opposed to The Vegan Menu’s one meal per day. The Vegan Menu is $60 for a year and the 30 DAY R.E.A.L. Food plan is $30 one time. I already signed up to the R.E.A.L. program and there’s only one menu so far. I’m not totally sure if there’s a new menu every month, but I sure hope so. It looks awesome.

Drop And Give Me Ten

I know exactly how Tamara Reynolds feels. There are times when I stray from my workout routine and become lazy and I get really upset at myself for letting myself slip. Nick Horton’s advice to her is to do 10 pushups. It doesn’t matter if you’re skipping leg day, do 10 pushups anyway, because 10 pushups is better than nothing. Scientifically, I don’t know if that’s true, but psychologically, I can see how it would be beneficial. If I stopped and did 10 pushups, I can imagine myself getting motivated enough to just set aside some time to go ahead and do those squats I skipped.

Healthy Whole Grains? Part II

To quickly sum up this monster of an article, don’t believe the hype that whole grains are better for you, because they contain anti-nutrients that have terrible health effects on the body. The studies that are used by supporters of whole grains don’t prove anything, which is explained in this post as well. If you have 30 minutes to spare, sit down and read this. It pretty much dissects everything we think we know about whole grains.

Morbidly Obese Toddler Gets Weight-Loss Surgery

I don’t even understand how it’s possible for a toddler to get this big. It’s really sad.

Male Chef Is Food Porn’s Worst Nightmare

Don’t look here if you’re eating because you’re not going to want to finish your meal. I really like this quote from the interview. It makes sense – “I feel like “Male Chef” erodes the idea of food photography and helps to demolish the idea that food bloggers and food photographers can get peripheral success based off of the efforts and ideas of others.” Check out his Tumbler blog.

Unreal Candy

I learned about Unreal Candy from The Unconventionals podcast. The idea behind UNREAL Candy started a long time ago when Nicky Bronner’s dad took away his Halloween candy because of how unhealthy it was. Nicky was upset and set out to prove his Dad wrong but he quickly discovered how unhealthy it really was – partially hydrogenated oils, corn syrup, artificial colors, flavors, GMO’s and chemical preservatives – so when he got older, Nicky and his brother Michael founded UNREAL Candy with a mission to “unjunk the world.” I can’t eat any of their candy yet because none of it’s vegan, but they’re working on dark chocolate version of their candies which they have stated will be vegan.

The Dangers of Kale and How to Fix It

I was listening to the Joe Rogan podcast and his guest Dave Asprey started talking about the dangers of kale (I’ve linked to the video. Starts at 45:13). Basically, raw kale is full of oxalic acid (the plant’s defense mechanism), which can cause kidney stones and GI issues, is a potential contributor to autism, and is also linked to vulvodynia (extreme sensitivity of the vagina). To remove oxalic acid, start by eating only dinosaur kale, which cuts oxalic acid by half compared to other kales. Then steam the kale for 5-7 minutes and dump water. The water absorbs much of the oxalic acid. You lose some vitamins, but not a lot. Toss the kale in the blender, add protein (hemp, whey, etc.), MCT oil, calcium carbonate and magnesium oxide and you’re good to go.

Our Health Journey: Healing as a Lifestyle

This post talks about detoxifying with bentonite clay, the practice of oil pulling, using a neti pot, doing coffee enemas, skin brushing, natural hair cleaning methods and other fun non-conventional ideas. She does this every. single. morning. 90 minutes a day. Wow. That’s dedication to health.

The Man Who Thinks He Never Has to Eat Again Is Probably Going to Be a Billionaire Soon

I’m amazed that people are so up in arms and scared of Soylent. I’m absolutely fascinated with this project and I really want it to succeed. Are people afraid that if Soylent succeeds that they will have to drink Soylent for the rest of their lives instead of eating? Because that’s not certainly not gonna happen. Sometimes people are just too afraid of “different.” This stuff isn’t on the market yet. It’s being tested. If it’s ever ready for public consumption, it’ll have a lot of research behind it. Stop worrying.

My $1.50 a Day Challenge: Eating a Plant-Based Diet on an Austere Budget

I try to eat like this most of the time. I buy for two (three technically ;)) and I’m lucky to get out of the store without spending less than $75 a week, but I think that’s pretty good. If you stick to basic foods instead of buying processed crap, eating cheap is much easier.

Improve Your Posture With The LUMOback Posture Sensor

Ooh! Ooh! A new product for my Christmas wish list. This device goes around your waist and tracks your body-position throughout the day. If you slouch, the sensor will send a message to your phone to vibrate so that you can fix the problem right away. It’s $150, so I probably won’t get one, but still cool.

The Scarecrow – Animated Video From Chipotle Showing Horrors of Factory Farming

Most of Chipotle’s ingredients are GMO, but I guess their foods are more “natural” than most other businesses. Despite that, this animated video is beautiful and has a wonderful message.

How to Slackline

One of my coworkers just told me about slacklining a couple weeks ago and I thought that it seemed sorta interesting, but ultimately pointless for myself. But after reading this article and realizing how balance is important for so many different things, now I want a slackline!

Scientists Use Videogames to Improve Older Brains

I attribute a lot of my eye-hand coordination and reading abilities to playing video games. I can’t say for a fact that video games benefited me, but I strongly believe they have. It looks like there are some other great benefits to video games as well – serious benefits.

Fermentation 101 with Jill Ciciarelli

This is a good intro to fermented foods. The only fermentation that I do regularly is to make kombucha and occasionally beer, but I’d really like to get into making pickles and sauerkraut. I might have to pick up this book. It’s only $10 on Kindle!

East Meets West Veg: Vegan Grocery Shopping 101 at Costco

Who knew that Costco had so many vegan products? Well I did, actually, because I shop there regularly. Well, I did shop there regularly, until I let my membership expire in March of this year. I love the deals at Costco, but I absolutely hate shopping there because of the crowds, which is why I haven’t gone back in such a long time. Now that we have a baby on the way though, we plan to renew our membership soon. I’ll have to keep my eye out for some of these cool vegan products.

Breathe Through Your Nose

I had no idea that nasal breathing was so important. Well I had some idea because I always hear the advice that you should breathe through your nose while running. This comes at an interesting time for me too because for the last couple of weeks I’ve been having allergy issues that are causing labored breathing and I’ve noticed that breathing through my mouth makes it much worse. Now it makes sense why. There are also some neat tricks in this post on unplugging a stuffed nose.

Do It Yourself: Homemade Natural Hair Gel with Flaxseeds – YouTube

I’ve always either just grown my hair out really long, or I shave it off completely bald. I haven’t had a real hairstyle for a very long time. I just got a haircut for the first time in probably 5 or more years and one of the biggest reasons is because I really, really hate having gross toxic products in my hair. I’ve hated hair styling products ever since I was a kid. Well, I’m getting married this weekend and my soon-to-be-wife wanted me to get a haircut, so I did. Before heading to the grocery store to pick some hair gel, I wanted to see if there were any natural hair gels on the market. I did a search for “natural hair gel” on Google and the first result was this awesome recipe using only flax seeds and water. I boiled 1/8 cup flax seeds with 1 cup water for about 6 minutes and then squeezed it through a paint strainer bag. So far I really like it. I hope it lasts through my wedding! Update: It got windy during my wedding and the flax gel didn’t last, but I still like it.

Best Nootropic Stack

I’m a huge fan of nootropics. I already take a stack of piracetam, choline, aniracetam and coconut oil when I’m at work. This article also mentions L-Theanine and Phenibut to act sort of like a beta blocker to cause calmness and reduce overactive brain activity, which can also be used with caffeine to wake you up, but without the negative side effects. That’s pretty freaking awesome! So this author recommends taking L-theanine at a ratio of 0.5 to 1 of the amount of caffeine taken, so if you consume 100mg of caffeine you want to take 50mg or more of L-theanine. The other nootropic mentioned here, phenibut, supposedly resets caffeine tolerance and can give you the best sleep of your life. He suggests taking it only twice per week (he does Sun. and Wed.) at two 300mg doses – one 3 hours before, the second as he’s going to bed. I don’t know about phenibut. If it feels like alcohol and can cause a hangover, I’m not sure I want it in my body. This forum thread about trying to get off phenibut is pretty scary too.

FDA allows natural blue from spirulina as food coloring

Food dyes are in everything and some of the most common dyes are quite toxic. It’s great that companies can start using spirulina as a food coloring. I never realized that it could be used as a food dye. I’m surprised it has taken this long to get approval.

Most Popular Strength Coaches & Thank You to All My Readers

This is kind of a weird thing for a strength and conditioning coach to spend their time on, but it’s clear that Bret Contreras is an excellent S&C coach and tech geek. There are some new names in his list of top ten coaches that are unfamiliar to me, so I’ll begin following them ASAP!

Dilutions Cheat Sheet for Dr. Bronner’s Castile Soap

I’ve been wanting to move away from some of the toxic cosmetic products I use, while also trying to keep things simple, so I’ve been thinking about switching to Dr. Bronner’s soap products to do just about everything – wash my hair and body, brush my teeth, do the dishes, do the laundry and so on. This cheat sheet should come in handy, although it looks like it’s more trial and error and just using a couple dabs here and there or more if you need it.