Ultimate Body Makeover part 2

This is a continuation from last week where I was discussing the diet portion of the makeover.

Stage 1: the first seven days are designed to overcome lipotoxicity within our cells causing insulin resistance. To do this we have to force our cells to want to burn any available fats in storage for energy. The most readily available fats would be those already inside the cell walls; the lipotoxic fats. For a complex set of reasons called the Randle cycle, the cells will only burn either carbs or fats and if carbs are present, it will burn those first. We have to deplete all the carbs lying around inside the cells by not eating any carbs. If we eat lots of fats like folks do when engaging in a typical keto diet or carnivore diet, there is no reason for the cells to burn up the fats stored inside the cells. This problem seems to happen whenever our fat consumption exceeds 10% of our daily calorie needs. The message here seems to be that to avoid insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome, we need to live on a basically low-fat diet, at least until our body fat percentage gets down to around 18 to 22% (men to women). Once we are metabolically healthy, we seem to be able to tolerate more dietary fat. So that is stage one – a low fat and low carb diet for 7 days.

Stage 2: is a fast mimicking diet for 3 days to induce autophagy. This looks just like stage 1 except now we are eliminating the protein as well. Certain amino acids in proteins turn off autophagy. Autophagy is the ‘clean out the trash’ process in the body. A small amount of this is always happening in the body, but here we ramp this up tremendously. Autophagy peaks after 72 hours and then declines quickly, so just 3 days of this phase is all we need. Here we eat lots of salads and vegetable soups without carbs or fat in them. To really get this going we want our calorie consumption to drop to around 600 calories per day. Trust me, 600 calories is an awful lot of salad and soup, but three days of this gets boring pretty quickly.

Stage 3: is a short kidney clean-out period. Kidneys need a burst of insulin to function properly which does not happen when we are not eating carbs. But to allow the kidneys to heal, they also need to not deal with protein or fat. So stage three is two days of high carb of a type that does not have protein in it. Grains and seeds have way too much protein, so we need to stick with just rice, sweet potatoes, and fruits. We still want to continue losing weight, so we want to limit our carbs to around 300 grams per day for these two days. This will trigger the release of plenty of insulin for the kidneys to heal. This insulin release will also shut down any further autophagy. So now the body switches into rebuild mode. Loads of stem cells are released from bone marrow to seek out weak areas in our organs and replace the tissues there.

Special note: If you do not have any kidney issues I would skip this step and instead do four days of Stage 4. Ellen and I just finished Stage 3 and found that it really made our blood sugar levels go crazy. Eating just rice, purple potatoes, veggies, and fruit my blood sugar went way to high and stayed that way all night while Ellen’s blood sugar dropped to half what it should be all night. We both wear continuous blood sugar monitors that tracks our sugar all the time. Despite all the science literature that says this should not happen, it did. It may just be that we are peculiar, but there are some factors that are producing unexpected results that I don’t know yet.

Stage 4: is to support the work of the stem cells rebuilding and replacing organ tissues. For this to happen, we now need plenty of high-quality complete protein. For myself, I use my Super Amino blend that has exactly the right amino acids my body needs to replace and rebuild, but any animal or seafood protein will also do the job. Some vegan protein powders are also formulated with the proper mix of amino acids to do the job. We still want to avoid the fats for a few more days, so stick with the lean proteins. A couple of days of this high protein with carbs gives the body more time to practice normal healthy metabolism. At this point, you get to decide whether you want to go for another round of 14 days or give everything a rest for a couple of weeks. Check your energy and motivation levels to decide.

Eating just the right foods is good, but even more important is making sure that these foods are fully digested. This is a very common problem for many people. Reducing the calories to be processed will help, but if you are low in hydrochloric acid or digestive enzymes then the food you eat, even the best foods, end up turning into poison. Partially digested proteins and complex carbs promote the growth of negative bacteria and bowel inflammation. Heartburn, gas, bloating, nausea, foul smelling stools are some of the common signs of poor digestion. One thing that helps is to let the digestion really finish up and then rest at night. For this reason, I recommend not eating anything in the 3 to 4 hours before going to bed. Breakfast should literally be breaking a 12 to 14-hour fast from food every day.

Throughout this 14-day protocol, there are several additional things we want to be doing to support our health recovery. Number one is attending to our gut health. For a long time, I have been consuming lots of varieties of fiber to feed the good guy bugs in my gut. But a recent study demonstrated, at least in the short run, that fiber is not good enough to do the job. We need actual fermented foods. That means kimchi, sauerkraut, kombucha, kefir, kvass, yogurt, tempeh, miso, apple cider vinegar, natural vegetable pickles, natto, and the list goes on. The goal is to consume a couple of these at each meal at the beginning of the meal. Stomach acids will destroy the good guy bacteria in these foods, so we want to start the meal with them before the stomach wakes up. Research has measured 19 different inflammatory markers that are reduced by eating these foods regularly. If you have signs of a leaky gut like frequent food reactions or allergies then I would also add in colostrum and aloe vera a couple of times a day. During the 5 days that are low protein, do not use kefir, yogurt, tempeh, or natto as they have good levels of protein.

An additional strange-sounding nutrient we want to consume to really help our gut is purple. Yes, the color purple from natural sources is what we want to eat. This color in nature comes from something called anthocyanins, a pigment that produces deep purple and deep red colors in fruits and vegetables. These anthocyanins are also good at chasing bad guy bacteria out of our guts and helping good guy bacteria set up shop. They are also good for your heart, brain, blood sugar levels, and general inflammation. Look for these in purple yams and potatoes, purple cabbage and cauliflower, black beans, black rice, berries, cherries, pomegranate, blueberries, and other dark fruits.

An additional diet modification for the 14 days as part of the kidney support is to go low on salt. So put away the salt shaker for the duration. This will also make the lower calorie levels more tolerable as salt is an appetite stimulant. It makes foods taste better so that we will want to eat more. I am all for food tasting better, but that does not serve me during this body makeover.

Supplemental nutrients to support our goals would include both curcumin and CBDs to decrease inflammation. CoQ10 and high doses of B vitamins support energy production in the mitochondria, as does L-carnitine as it transports those fatty acids into the mitochondria to be burned up. The minerals magnesium, manganese, and zinc are super important. Magnesium relaxes the whole system and supports the neurological pathways for healing (Vagus nerve) as well as helps to clean out the gut/colon. Manganese helps clean out the arteries, strengthen bones, fight inflammation, and regulate blood sugar. Zinc is so important as it is a co-factor in over 400 different enzymatic reactions in the body. Last of all I recommend taking a capsule of lumbrokinase every day. Lumbrokinase is the strongest systemic enzyme for breaking down fibrin, the glue that ties together clots, blood vessel blockages, and scar tissue. This will help our blood flow more easily and help us get over the leftover traces of scar tissue from old injuries. I mentioned previously that I take DHA and krill oil daily to make sure that I get these essential fats while on a no-fat diet. I suggest at least adding these supplemental nutrients into your daily protocol while doing the body makeover. There are a zillion other things you could take, but these are the basics from my view.

Last of all let’s talk fiber. Fiber is the basic food we are eating over the 14-day protocol. Fiber feeds the good guy bacteria in our gut. From this, they make some short-chain fatty acids like butyrate that feed the cells that line our colon. These good guy bacteria also produce a ton of different signaling molecules that calm down our immune system and heal the gut. Fiber is naturally in low-carb veggies, like in our soups and salads. I also like to add extra fibers in the form of inulin, pectin, guar gum, konjac root, bamboo fiber, psyllium fiber, oat fiber, dextrin, and xanthan gum. These are cooking ingredients that expand our options of things to eat while on a low-calorie protocol as they are considered a non-food. I make a bread that is basically fiber and protein that works well on the first 7 days of the program. They are also wonderful for healing our gut as long as we don’t have issues with SIBO – small intestine bacteria overload. Fibers make SIBO worse.

I believe that covers the food portion of the ultimate body makeover. Next time I will go over the physical therapies and exercises we want to engage in while we are rebuilding our body.

Take care,

David

Ellen 

Here Ellen is starting our first fast mimicking meal for day eight of the 14 day protocol. What yumminess does she have? Well there is a lot of purple cabbage plus jicama plus mushrooms plus purple cauliflower and even some beet, all in a lovely soup base. Two days later I turned this combo into a vegetable ketchup to put over konjac zero carb noodles. Delicious, with very low carb, protein, and fat – mostly just plant fiber.