What I Want to Be When I Grow Up

Posted February 23rd, 2013 – 120 Comments

Ever since I can remember, I had a deep, burning desire to have a striking physique. In Kindergarten we were asked “What do you want to be when you grow up?” to be presented at our graduation ceremony. I had watched a lot of sports on television at that age, and loved boxing and greats like Marvin Hagler. Marvin had deep, ebony skin tone and was very lean and defined. Put some sweat on him during a hard boxing match and he looked like he was a man carved out of wood with a fresh coat of paint laid down on him. I proudly announced to my Kindergarten teacher, precisely because I was so enamored with this look, “I want to be a black boxer.” I’m not making this up. … Read more »

The Effect of Bodybuilding and Figure Competition on Metabolism

Posted February 21st, 2013 – 181 Comments

Most people in the modern world look at images like the one of Tom Venuto in stage-ready condition to the left, as being the iconic portrait of a healthy metabolism. Likewise, I think a lot of health and fitness writers and other people in health circles glue the concept of health with people’s selfish desires to meet the current aesthetic ideal set forth by the bodybuilding, fitness, and modeling industries. Sticking these two concepts together makes the desire to diet down and overexercise to the point of extreme leanness even more desirable, and provides rational justification in one’s mind for putting so much time and effort into what, under the surface, has nothing to do with health and everything to do with a desire to achieve an elite level of awesome dominance over other members of the same sex. Basically, this… Read more »

Eat for Heat on Dr Marty’s Wellness Experience

Posted February 19th, 2013 – 35 Comments

By Rob Archangel, 180DegreeHealth.com staff writer Hey party people- Rob here, giving you a heads up about a live internet radio appearance with Matt tonight on Dr Marty’s Wellness Experience . I reached out to Dr. Marty a couple months ago about Eat for Heat and he wanted to have Matt share some of the tips and tweaks for increasing the metabolic rate by adjusting our food and drink patterns. You can call in live at 7pm EST and listen at (347) 633-9769 or tune in later to catch the archived edition here.

The Feedbag Method: How to Beat Food Cravings, Bingeing, and Emotional Eating

Posted February 18th, 2013 – 169 Comments

In line with the shift in focus in the new Diet Recovery, I thought it was worthy to post this insightful passage from Geneen Roth’s book, When Food is Love. It’s about letting kids regulate their own eating, but certainly applies to making the same leap ourselves. I had posted this in an old blog of mine that no longer exists, and it’s worth the reposting – especially for all the health-conscious moms out there who, despite really wanting the best for their kids, are disheartened by the fact that efforts to get junior to eat healthy have resulted in junior being a ravenous sugar fiend. There is mounting evidence that the more a parent interferes with a child’s eating, the more harm is done. The human body is fully equipped with a very sophisticated energy-regulating… Read more »

How to Burn Fat and Why You Shouldn’t

Posted February 16th, 2013 – 155 Comments

By Danny Roddy, author of The Peat Whisperer Traversing through the blogosphere reveals much text, but little art. This is, until you stumble upon the site of low-carb sage Petro Dobromylkyj. Similar to da Vinci’s “David” or Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Petro’s exudes extraordinary vision. One doesn’t have to read past the header for the first glimpse of his contribution to The Great Work: “You need to get your calories from somewhere should it be from carbohydrate or fat?” — Petro Dobromylkyj If I was forced to interpret Petro’s poem, I would say that he’s trying to tell us that carbohydrates reassure men that they can be masters of their own reality—but then turns around and says that actually, reality is not real. Another interpretation, which sounds less plausible, could be that… Read more »

Slim for Life By Jillian Michaels Review

Posted February 15th, 2013 – 79 Comments

When I released Diet Recovery 2 (99 cents until midnight tonight on Amazon), I had no idea that Jillian Michaels, the devil diet diva herself, would be releasing a book on the exact same day – her new testament of health holiness, Slim for Life. As you can go ahead and assume, it indeed brought me great joy to see my book edge ahead of hers in the rankings. But I thought taking the time to read (skim) her new book and write a short review here would bring me, and you, even more joy. In the beginning of Slim for Life I remained optimistic. She reminded me much of myself in the beginning of my health exploits, going on and on about eating unprocessed foods and abusing the word “crap” as an adjectified noun… Read more »

Diet Recovery 2: Restoring Mind and Metabolism from Dieting, Weight Loss, Exercise, and Healthy Food

Posted February 13th, 2013 – 236 Comments

It’s here, it’s queer, get used to it. 99 cents on Amazon HERE until 11:59pm eastern time U.S. on Friday 2/15. Then $9.99. As always, it’s included in the 180 Platinum Collection, which will include audio versions of this book (read by yours truly) and Eat for Heat by the end of the month. It’s also included in the brand-spankin’ new Metabolism Bundle. Read it, review it, eat the food and don’t spew it. No really, the reviews are a big help and I anticipate this one rocketing up to #1 in all of diets and weight loss on Amazon this week. If you want some hungry, cold, barely-fertile, food-obsessed dieter out there to hear the basic message of this book and 180DegreeHealth, your chance to reach them is in a heartfelt review. Plus, it… Read more »

What is the Healthiest Diet and Lifestyle?

Posted February 9th, 2013 – 206 Comments

By Julia Gumm I’ve spent so many years of my life trying to figure out “how to live.” As in, how are human beings meant to live? It’s no secret that the way we exist nowadays is about a million miles away from the lifestyle of the original model, and so many of us have a pervading sense that something is, well, kinda off. It hits us when we take the time to read ingredient labels and wonder what the hell TBHQ is and what exactly it’s doing in our crackers. It hits us when we feel our palms sweating against the steering wheel in the midst of a long and nerve racking commute to and fro the job we’re not especially passionate about, anyway. It hits us when we… Read more »

Why Vegan Diets Fail

Posted February 7th, 2013 – 125 Comments

Most people assume that vegan diets fail and cause people to become scrawny, emaciated, asexual, anemic, thin-haired, bloated, and frigid because it lacks animal products. Or protein. I’m not so sure. While we do seem to have a biological need for animal-sourced nutrients like vitamin B-12, and a big deficiency there will certainly cause some issues, my suspicions on why vegan diets (and all diets) so often yield a host of problems and symptoms lie elsewhere… I have recently had the pleasure of working with a young guy in the vegan vlogging vurld. Yeah I know, that only narrows it down to several thousand vegans who like to celebrate their awesomeness in video format. He’s a really good kid, smart, honest, and has had great success with weight loss (obviously, it’s very difficult NOT to… Read more »

Migraines and Vertigo from Overhydration

Posted February 4th, 2013 – 69 Comments

By: Joni Cox from Homegrown Health Two years ago, if you would have told me I may have a brain tumor, I would have likely believed you. The pain from the frequent migraines was so intense, that I would often have no choice but to surrender to them, hoping that my head wouldn’t explode. I usually have a high pain tolerance and could work through any migraine, as long as it was only on one side of my head. But when both sides were affected and throbbing, my ability to cope, resist or do anything other than sob, was completely gone. “Why is this happening to me?” was the only question I could ask during the “off” times. According to all the voices in natural health, I was doing everything… Read more »

The Gestational Diabetes Controversy

Posted January 31st, 2013 – 108 Comments

This post is not necessarily about how to fix gestational diabetes – elevated blood sugar during pregnancy. Although, if you are suffering from this condition, I would advise consuming frequent, calorie-dense (warming) high-carb meals and snacks and getting as much rest, relaxation, and sleep as possible. Anything that you perceive as destressing will help. And that brings us to the first point that you should know, not just about pregnancy complications like preeclampsia and gestational diabetes, but most “conditions” and “diseases…” High blood sugar is an adaptive response. While this an oversimplification, stress impairs the ability of glucose to get into cells and trigger proper production of ATP. In response to this, blood sugar rises to overcompensate and deliver vital glucose. It’s not necessarily a condition to be waged war against. In fact,… Read more »

Heavy Weights Low Reps

Posted January 28th, 2013 – 202 Comments

I don’t have much time to post today, but I received an email from a girl just the other day, and she mentioned jumping back into Crossfit after resting and refeeding for about a month. Not good. She experienced major insomnia as so often happens when doing really grueling exercise, which seemed to only worsen as she continued. Research and ideas I came across touting the benefits of high intensity interval training managed to seduce me a couple of years ago. While it may be true that higher intensity exercise (like Crossfit or HIIT) yields certain benefits, the fact of the matter is that really hard, grueling exercise has some negatives too – and I just don’t find it very sustainable. There’s only so many times that you can realistically motivate yourself… Read more »

Healthy Stress? Health Benefits of Acute Stress

Posted January 26th, 2013 – 58 Comments

Inspired by Matthew Bowen, I wanted to briefly discuss the concept of acute stress’s POSITIVE role in good human functionality. What is acute stress? Acute stresses are things that are so damn cute it actually elicits a stress response in your body. I mean, look at those freakin’ puppies. So acute. Acute stress can also be stress that’s comes in at an angle less than 90 degrees. Or if you go around a curve that’s tighter than 90 degrees really fast in a car while riding in the passenger side. That’s an acute stress. Okay, I’m not funny. Well, some people say I am, but I just assume they are the dorks that watch AFV and actually own post-Gilmore Adam Sandler movies. People who don’t find me funny typically put… Read more »

Smash Your Bathroom Scale

Posted January 22nd, 2013 – 93 Comments

As mentioned in the last post, I’m working on a completely rewritten version of Diet Recovery. We haven’t finalized a book cover yet. We’ve only done a few mockups. But Rob and I were thinking that it might be fun for you guys to submit some cover images in an informal contest. One image that we’ve been looking at doing some mockups with is an image of a smashed bathroom scale – or scale in the act of being smashed. I know many of you have bathroom scales that have done you wrong, but are still sitting in your house somewhere unpunished. This might be a fun way for you to commemorate some of the 180D-inspired breakthroughs you’ve experienced, and your fiet-ducking success. If you are feeling an overwhelming bout of Michael Bolton rage… Read more »

Diet Recovery 2013

Posted January 21st, 2013 – 226 Comments

It’s official. I’ve threatened to do a rewrite of Diet Recovery for nearly a year. I’m about halfway through a completely revamped and rewritten version of it right now. It is happening. If all goes well it won’t be too long before it comes out either. In fact, if I were to give one piece of advice to anyone attempting to write a book, it would be to write the book from start to finish in the fewest number of days as possible. This keeps your mind focused on what you are doing, keeps the flow going, prevents you from repeating the same thing over and over again, or having to constantly re-read the thing to remember what the heck you’ve said already. Plus, momentum is everything. Writing the first… Read more »

Danny Roddy on Robb Wolf and Chris Kresser’s Paleologix Supplements

Posted January 19th, 2013 – 242 Comments

By Danny Roddy, author of The Peat Whisperer A few weeks ago I received a message from Robb Wolf and Chris Kresser about their new ‘Paleologix’ line of supplements. I was immediately stunned, as I never imagined either of these dudes wanted to get into the supplement business, but I was also extremely curious, as I used to be quite the supplement connoisseur. Upon whiffing through the marketing material I learned that they had three products for sale, one for digestion, one for “stabilizing energy levels” and one for “liver detoxification.” Why is there a need for supplements when livin’ la vida Paleo diet template you ask? Well, like every dietary paradigm, not everyone does so hot during the transition. Having expert experience in this realm, Robb and Chris came… Read more »

How Dieting Causes Metabolic Syndrome

Posted January 16th, 2013 – 231 Comments

With quotes from Health at Every Size by Linda Bacon… “… extensive evidence documents that attempts at dieting typically result in weight cycling, not maintained weight loss. Weight fluctuation is strongly associated with increased risk for diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease, independent of body weight. In other words, the recommendation to diet may be causing the very diseases it is purported to prevent!” It’s a topic I’ve written about before in posts on Hypertension and How Calorie Restriction Causes Weight Gain, but I figured it was a good time to revisit the general concept. I have been thinking a lot about sustainability lately. Not sustainability in the “pee three times before you flush” or the “let’s build a compost toilet” kind of way, but the importance of sustainability in your… Read more »

Oxytocin – Emotion, Love Potion, Devotion… Plus Fatty Liver and Weight Loss Benefits

Posted January 12th, 2013 – 119 Comments

By Julia Gumm A few weeks ago I wrote a piece here that encouraged a diet featuring chocolate mousse pie and ice cream accompanied by a relatively carefree, adventurous and active lifestyle as a ticket to weight loss and vibrant health. I had only anecdotal evidence to support my claim: Once upon a time I had an experience where I ate whatever I liked, felt really happy and lost weight. Well, I’m sure that by now y’all have had sufficient time to come back down to earth and realize me for the lunatic I am. “Great” you probably said “So some chick had a fluke experience where she lost weight eating cake. Fat lot of good that does me, because whenever I eat cake I balloon up to the size of… Read more »

Strength Research Project

Posted January 11th, 2013 – 53 Comments

I‘m looking for a few good men (and some women too). Using some principles gathered from both research and experimentation that I’ve done, I feel pretty confident that I can create a pretty remarkable and foolproof method for increasing strength with basic exercises. Perhaps the best part is the miminal amount of exertion required to get this strength increase. My own benchpress has increased about 30 pounds in the last 6 weeks with just a couple minutes of total exertion. This 30-pound increase equals the increase in bench that I’ve experienced from age 14 to 34 with sporadic training, and a ton of total work overall, so I’m pretty psyched. Of course, a recurring theme here is getting the most reward for the least amount of time, effort, and life disruption… Read more »

The Biggest Dietary Change Ever Made

Posted January 8th, 2013 – 262 Comments

Over roughly the last 100 years, the United States, and the rest of the world, has undergone a dramatic dietary change. We eat less at home and more at restaurants. We eat fewer foods made from scratch and more that are processed and packaged at a factory far, far away. There are of course many other changes (frequent dieting being equally if not more significant). But the biggest change of all is a change that you’ve probably never heard of, or were aware of in the slightest. The biggest change seems to have been our collective increased consumption of two fatty acids in particular – linoleic acid (LA) and Arachidonic acid (AA). The primary sources of LA are vegetable oils (corn, soy, canola, sunflower, cottonseed, etc.) and peanut butter, and… Read more »