April Favorites For Health Nuts

Hey friends,

Here’s April’s treasure box of health and wellness resources Barbara and I have put together for you. It’s filled with several books we’ve recently read that offer excellent health and exercise advice. And we’re also sharing several products that we use often and have found very helpful in our wellness journey.

We’ve also included two podcasts by health experts that we hope will also help you in your pursuit of wellness and longevity.

Here we go…

BOOKS

The Keto Reset Diet: Reboot Your Metabolism In 21 Days And Burn Fat Forever by Mark Sisson with Brad Kearns.

Mark Sisson is one of the most successful popularizers of paleo, low-carb, and keto diets. He created marksdailyapple.com in 2006, and since that time, he has helped thousands of people live a healthier life through proper diet and exercise.

On a personal note, Mark’s site was responsible for introducing me to the paleo diet which I believe was the single most important strategy that helped me heal from chronic fatigue syndrome.

In this book, Mark introduces the reader to the ketogenic diet. He explains what the diet is, how it increases the body’s metabolic efficiency, health, and disease-fighting ability while at the same time maximizing performance.

Mark dives into a little bit of science to explain how a keto diet works, but he keeps it on a very readable level so those who don’t have a science background can understand the concepts.  

There are detailed sections on how to get going with the diet, how to tweak it to your situation, and how to overcome stumbling blocks. It even has a large section with recipes and full-color pictures.

Barbara and I can’t recommend this book highly enough.

The Barbell Prescription: Strength Training for Life After 40 by Jonathon M Sullivan and Andy Baker

If you want to start a barbell strength training program, and I highly recommend you do, this is the book to get.

The first part of this book was written by Jonathon Sullivan MD. Sullivan is an emergency physician, physiologist, and Starting Strength coach. He explains in detail why everyone over the age of 40 must — let me repeat that — must engage in some kind of strength training.

Sullivan warns that there is a growing epidemic of visceral obesity, hyperglycemia, insulin resistance, hypertension, dyslipidemia, chronic inflammation, sarcopenia, and osteopenia among our aging population today. The end result of these “lifestyle” diseases will be frailty and incapacity as we age.

He argues that prescription drugs will only treat the symptoms of this sick aging phenotype and may, in fact, make the situation worse.

Sullivan’s solution to this problem is exercise. He illustrates how it’s been scientifically proven that exercise can improve metabolic markers and increase longevity. Then from a medical perspective, Sullivan explains why barbell training is the most efficient and beneficial exercising we can do.

The second part of the book is written by strength coach Andy Baker. Baker gives an in-depth plan on how an untrained individual over 40 years old can successfully engage in strength training.

He also gives a good overview of the main barbell exercises and then presents an analysis of strength programs for different individuals (eg. male, female, advanced age, novice trainee, and advanced trainee).

This book is a gem. If you’re going to start an exercise program, read this book first. I wish I had it when I started lifting.

PRODUCTS WE RECOMMEND

Tryone Gooseneck Tablet Stand, Tablet Mount Holder for iPad iPhone Series/Nintendo Switch/Samsung Galaxy Tabs/Amazon Kindle Fire HD and More, 30in Overall Length(Black)

Okay, this doesn’t seem like a health and wellness product, but it is, and it’s also a great productivity tool.

Over the winter when the weather didn’t allow me to walk outside, I used my treadmill. The problem was that if I was watching a video on my iPad, I had to look down at it. The holder on treadmills is usually at lower chest level.

If I didn’t look down, I was then staring at a wall. Boring!

The Tryone Gooseneck Tablet Stand solved the problem. I can attach one end of it to my treadmill, and the other end holds my phone or iPad. The arm is long enough to place my device at eye level.

The other day it was raining so I walked on the treadmill, listened to a podcast on my phone, and watched a video on my iPad of a walking tour throughout London. How cool is that!

The tablet stand fits a cell phone or an iPad. I imagine the stand is also useful if you’re at your desk or if you’re in the kitchen and need your device to be higher than your counter.

I was afraid at first that there might be some shake on the arm when walking on the treadmill, but there was none. It’s a pretty sturdy stand.

Collagen Peptides Powder (16oz) | Grass-Fed, Certified Paleo Friendly, Non-Gmo and Gluten Free – Unflavored

Barbara swears by collagen peptides powder. She’ll tell you that since she’s been taking collagen her hair has stopped going gray, her nails are strong, and her knees no longer hurt.

She barbell squats with absolutely no new problems at all!

Collagen is an important nutrient for healthy bone, skin, hair, tendons, and joints. The problem is that as we age our natural production of collagen decreases. 

I also really need this stuff. I lift heavy weights five times a week which means I’m stressing my tendons and ligaments big time. I need the collagen to help them repair and recover. 

Now, you could increase your intake of collagen by making some of Barbara’s delicious and nutritious bone broth and enjoying that. That, however, could be time-consuming if you want collagen every day.

Enter collagen peptides powder.

The one we use is made from grass-fed cows. It’s GMO-free and gluten-free. Barbara stirs the powder in her coffee where it mixes well and has no taste. I put mine in my steaming cup of green tea.

Since our joints appear to be doing well, we’ll keep taking our collagen daily.

Here’s a bonus. One scoop of powder contains 10 grams of protein. Some extra protein is a good thing for those of us who are getting older.

PODCASTS WE ENJOYED THIS MONTH

Dr. Bret Scher ON THE HUMAN PERFORMANCE OUTLIERS PODCAST.

Dr. Bret Scher is a cardiologist who advocates for low-carb diets and hosts the Diet Doctor Podcast and Website. In his practice, Dr. Scher’s main focus is on preventing and reversing heart disease naturally rather than putting patients on medication and performing surgery.

In this podcast, Scher, and host Dr. Shawn Baker discuss how lifestyle intervention is often the first and best means of treating heart disease, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes.

As usual, Baker does an excellent job getting his guests to discuss practical ways that can help all of us lead healthier lives.

Here’s the link to the podcast: https://humanperformanceoutliers.libsyn.com/episode-92-dr-bret-scher

Dr. Jeffrey Gerber on the Low Carb Cardiologist Podcast

MOVING PAST THE HIGH CHOLESTEROL MYTH AND ON TO PREVENTING METABOLIC DISEASE WITH A LOW-CARB LIFESTYLE

Dr. Bret Scher (see above) is also the host of the Low Carb Cardiologist Podcast. In this episode, he interviews Dr. Jeffrey Gerber, known as Denver’s Diet Doctor. Gerber is a board-certified family physician in Littleton, Colorado.

Gerber’s practice focuses on the prevention and treatment of illnesses such as obesity, diabetes, atherosclerosis, and heart disease using low-carb high fat (LCHF), Ancestral, Paleo, and Primal diets.

In this podcast, Scher and Gerber discuss some extremely controversial topics such as:

• Is high LDL (bad cholesterol) a good predictor of cardiovascular risk?
• Should more doctors use a glucose tolerance test to identify diabetes and prediabetes?
• Who should and who should not take statins?
• Why a coronary artery calcium (CAC) scan is important for detecting heart disease? 

Since both Scher and Gerber are on the frontlines in the prevention and treatment of lifestyle diseases, they are able to bring us extremely practical advice on how to stay healthy and identify potential disease risk factors in our lives.

Have a listen. You won’t be disappointed.

And if you enjoyed this post, please share it with a friend who you think might find it helpful too. Thanks for reading!

God bless and have a great week.

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