I ’ megabyte no health and seaworthiness technical. I have no relevant degrees attached to my name. I offer you no studies or citations. I have no books, pills, shakes or exercise equipment to sell you. No YouTube channel for you to subscribe to. No seminars for you to attend. I ’ m not your guru. And I ’ m not trying to be. ad
truth is, I ’ molarity paying it forward. And if, by coincidence, a light bulb goes off in your mind by the time you finish reading this article and you decide to invest in your health and fitness as a consequence, well then – mission accomplished .
Over the by few months, my life style ( and hopefully life ) has drastically improved because of what some dentists have shared with me – namely, 8 Health and Fitness Ideas .
Before we get into the nitty game, a caveat : this is my fib. What worked for me may not for you. Men are physiologically different than women. Family health history, medication, stress levels, sleep, and what we consume all have an affect on our bodies and minds. Take what I write with a grain of salt. Please talk to your doctor first ahead embarking on your own health and seaworthiness travel .
With that said, let ’ s go back six months. At 5 ’ 11 ”, I weighed 233 pound and scantily squeezed into size 40 ” pants. No ab were visible. I needed eight hours of sleep and multiple coffees to keep me going throughout the day. Was I happy with my physical appearance ? It was acceptable. I ’ ve always been a big guy and I told myself that some people are just naturally reduce and that I was not one of them. Plus, Parastou ( my wife ) never complained .
fast forth to today. I ’ thousand 183 lbs and proudly wearing size 34 ” pants. I feel wax and energized all the time. I get through the day with just six hours of sleep and two cups of coffee. And it all came about because of these 8 health and fitness ideas that dentists gave me .
Gifts #1 & #2: Food and Fasting
I ’ ve been working out since I was 16 years old but I ’ ve constantly had some kind of gut. Abs, however, are not made in the gymnasium : they ’ re made in the kitchen ! And that ’ s where I was doing everything improper. My entire perception of food was wrong .
• I ate because I thought I needed energy. But as it turns out, I have a draw of energy reserves ( stored up adipose tissue ) and I ’ thousand never tired nowadays, even though I eat a distribute less than ahead .
• I ate because I was regimented to eat at certain times throughout the day ( early morning, lunch, belated dinner ). But I discovered that there are then many amazing benefits to eating within certain timeframes or not at all for extended periods of clock time ( 24-48 hours ) .
• I ate without giving much think to what I was putting in my mouth. Isn ’ t it curious ( or sad ) that there ’ s no recommend daily consumption of sugar listed anywhere ?
• I ate without counting calories. But it ’ randomness quite astonishing how certain foods and beverages in relatively small quantities can cursorily add up to thousands of calories ( one slice of pizza could well have 300-400 calories ; I used to eat six to eight slices in a unmarried sit ) .
And to top it all off, I was an emotional eater. If I had a dependable day, I was going to reward myself with a steak and a few glasses of crimson wine. If I was having an off day, I would punish my body with ease food to make me feel better – like piquant chicken wings, rib, pizza, or a burrito. You get the mind .
Enter Dr. Ming Yau ( general practitioner, Etobicoke ). When I was helping him sell his dental rehearse last summer, he told me that my organs have a sealed life ( i.e. 100 years ) and that I should give them a transgress by trying intermittent fast. Gift # 1 : The theme, for exemplar, is for me to eat all my meals during a six or eight-hour window ( i.e. 12:00 post meridiem noon until 6:00 post meridiem ). then, give my organs a probability to recover, perform better, and last long .
But he kept going. Dr. Yau suggested I use healthy and high-quality fat as my department of energy beginning rather of boodle. Using this method, my body would convert existing store fat into energy whenever it ’ s athirst. In early words, Gift # 2 : The keto diet .
Keto is about putting the body into a state of ketonemia by depriving it of starchy and sugary carbs so that it has no choice but to burn what we give it ( a.k.a. external healthy fats ) and internal visceral fat as its energy reservoir. Keto friendly foods include grassfed meat, eggs, avocado, nuts, certain intemperate cheeses, high-fat skim and plain yogurt, diverse high-quality vegetable oils, fatty barbarian fish, etc. Keto besides includes eating above-ground veggies to get nutrients and fiber. Think leafy greens, cucumber, asparagus, brussels sprouts, broccoli, mushrooms, etc. And minimal fruits and alcohol because of the high sugar content .
I thought it all made feel. Plus, the prospect of eating more fat was intriguing. It ’ south delicious and a relatively small amount makes me feel full all day long. Dr. Jason Gomes ( general practitioner, Barrie ) told me that in the good morning he puts MCT ( mediumchain triglycerides ) petroleum in his black coffee and tops it off with gamey fat/low-sugar whipped cream. By the means, Dr. Gomes ’ lost a whopping 32 pound in three months doing intermittent fast and Keto – and he wasn ’ t even that boastfully to begin with !
My diet basically changed from high protein/ senior high school carbs/very humble adipose tissue to high fat/medium protein/ very low carbs. Fun ? Yes. sustainable ? absolutely. Do I crave carbs and boodle ? not one bit. Do I cheat ? Abs-so-lutely ( more on that below ) .
Do I have endless amounts of energy throughout the integral day ? YES ! How ’ s the sleep been ? Strange. I have means besides a lot department of energy – why won ’ thymine the day start already ? No more want to catch up on sleep. And when I talked to Dr. Gomes, he felt the exact lapp way .
Gifts #3 & #4: Counting Calories and Tech
A few months into my health and fitness travel, I stopped losing weight and hit my first tableland. Fasting and keto alone weren ’ thymine working. Yes, I felt great but I in truth needed to start eliminating internal visceral adipose tissue. I was missing something. After talking to Dr. James Vassallo ( retired general practitioner, Mississauga ), I discovered the benefits of Gift # 3 : Calorie count .
I learned that I needed to burn 3,500 more calories than I consumed to lose 1 pound of solid fat. With that little bit of cognition, I set my daily caloric inhalation to 1,500 calories and I burned 1,000 calories working out ( 2 ten 30-minute workouts per day was my distinctive act ) and stayed active walk or taking the stairs throughout the day to burn another 2,000-2,500 calories. The mathematics resulted in a daily average deficit of 1,750 calories, or approximately 0.5 pound of fat loss per day for equally long as my body could handle it before hitting the adjacent tableland .
But how precisely was I going to track calories in and out ? Enter Gift # 4 : engineering .
Because of Dr. Vassallo ’ s advice, I started using a diametric heart pace monitor to measure the calories I burned during my workouts. At the like time, I subscribed to My Fitness Pal, a popular fluid telephone app that allows me to track my caloric inhalation, vitamin a well as my weight and water consumption. I particularly like the bar-code scanner on the app, which instantaneously gives me all the nutritional information of virtually everything I can put in my mouth. It makes inputting calories super easy and, make bold I say, addictive. I wouldn ’ triiodothyronine have had much of an idea of my thermal consumption without this app .
What I learned the most from using technology is that it takes me a long time to burn just 100 calories, but it doesn ’ t take much food to get to 1,500 calories. A handful of nuts or a individual avocado could well be 300 calories if I ’ megabyte not paying care .
Given how hard and long I was exercising and dieting, I didn ’ thyroxine want to make life hard on myself. I substituted certain higher calorie keto-friendly foods like cheese, bacon and steak, with lower calorie ketofriendly foods like egg whites, almonds, and veggies. I besides started putting hot sauce on everything because piquant food is low-calorie and helps speed up your metamorphosis ( as does being in lower temperature environments ). And don ’ t forget about water. I was drinking about three litres per day and it surely helped with burden loss and inner rule .
now that I was counting calories using technology, I was able to blow past diverse tableland.
Gift #5: Hacking Habits
We all know what happens with fad “ yo-yo ” diets, right ? You lose a draw in a curtly period of time ( you ’ re down ). then you finally gain it all back ( you ’ re back up again ). And the cycle repeats. It ’ s inevitable right ? Why ? Because we ’ rhenium creatures of ( bad ) substance abuse .
The good news is that after speaking with uberfit and health conscious Dr. Sanjukta Mohanta ( WellFort Community Health Centre ), I ’ meter now more mindful of Gift # 5 : How to hack my habits so that I am able dominance them and not the other way around .
case in period, Dr. Mohanta cheats on her diet all the time. But she doesn ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate think she ’ s adulterous because she does it in a very master way. “ I don ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate deprive myself of anything. I do any feels good. If I happen to want a cocoa chip cookie, I ’ ll eat it but I don ’ t have to finish it. I barely need half of it to get the sweet smack that I crave. ” We ’ ve all hear of share restraint but this is that to the next flat – Dr. Mohanta doesn ’ triiodothyronine have cheat days or deceiver meals ; she has swindle mouthful ! The fact that she feels no guilt or coerce about not finishing is simply mind-boggling ; it defies the conventional wisdom of needing to finish what ’ south in your fridge/freezer or what ’ sulfur on the table or your plate ( thanks to my parents ). food is here for us ; not the other way around .
so, I took Dr. Mohanta ’ mho advice. I don ’ metric ton deprive myself of anything. I ’ ll just precisely do it in a control way. If I want pizza, I ’ ll take a abrupt tongue and cut off and eat the top part of tall mallow, sauce and toppings – that ’ s the best part anyways, correct ? Or if I want a hamburger, I ’ ll put the meat in a boodle wrap and put mayonnaise, tomatoes and pickles on top. And because I ’ megabyte count calories ( Gift # 3 ), I ’ m still staying within my daily thermal limit. If I happen to go over, I ’ ll good have to modify something that sidereal day or the following day ( i.e. exercise more, fast longer, consume less calories, etc. ) .
I ’ megabyte adulterous – but in control ! No loss. No fad “ yo-yo ” diet. This is a life style .
With that being said, and possibly because of the keto diet, I actually do not have cravings for unhealthy food or alcohol. It ’ s quite the opposite. If I do consume those things, my soundbox will punish me with excess bloat, dehydration, lack of concentrate and grogginess ( there goes my productivity at function or operation while exercising ). These are things that I unconsciously accepted before, but which I do not consciously bear now. There ’ s a tradeoff because I ’ thousand paying attention to how my soundbox reacts to certain things. And I ’ vitamin d rather spirit and look adept long-run than try to temporarily satisfy an complex number crave .
now, if that weren ’ triiodothyronine enough, Dr. Mohanta goes on to explain how she erects barriers to mitigate bad habits. At the grocery store store, she will purposefully not walk through the “ sugar and salt ” aisles. But if she does end up getting insalubrious snacks, she ’ ll merely hide them at base or place them high up on the shelves outside of her contiguous pass ( so she ’ ll have to take an extra step to think about where they are and how to get at them ). meanwhile, she ’ ll put healthy snacks front and kernel on the kitchen mesa so they ’ re accessible without excessively much think ( a.k.a. remove barriers and automate good habits ) .
finally, and I stumbled on this incidentally, I ’ ve learned to successfully trick my body into thinking that I ’ m cheat when I ’ m actually not. That basically comes down to enjoying things I previously wasn ’ metric ton concerned in. For model, I now love – yes, I wrote “ love ” – making this gripe bone broth without any salt. I ’ ve been doing it once a week for the past few months. It may seem strange and politic to many of you ( like something your ma would make binding in the day if you weren ’ metric ton feeling good ), and up until recently I never gave it any think. But I ’ thousand addicted to it now. Eating the bone kernel inside is a special treat for me ( something my dad and older brothers and I would fight over years ago when my ma made Ossobuco ) .
Besides that, if my sugared tooth starts to act up, I ’ ll grab a pair of Goli ’ randomness Apple Cider Vinegar Gummies ( loaded with nutritional benefits and broken carbohydrate ) or have a Vega Sport Protein Shake ( high protein ; broken calories/carbs/sugar ) or even have some 90 % dark chocolate ( containing very small sugar ). These are all healthy nosh and meal choices but I ’ ve tricked my heed and soundbox into thinking I ’ thousand cheat by having dessert ! I ’ molarity not the entirely one who does this. When Dr. Gomes wants to cheat, he ’ ll have some low-sugar peanut butter with some low carbohydrate whipped cream on top. “ It ’ south like my special little dessert and it keeps me gorge and felicitous, even though it ’ second keto friendly and healthy. ”
Gift #6: Exercise
I ’ ve been talking a bunch about diet, fast and hacking habits. But what function did exercise play in my journey ? It helped me burn more calories than I consumed so that I could lose the system of weights and finally control it .
There are therefore many other benefits to exercising, including de-stressing, reducing hazard of disease, strengthening muscles and bones, increasing energy levels, regulating diverse inner systems ( insulin, increase hormones, sleep, etc. ), reducing pain and improving mental health .
now, let ’ s get down to it. Walks or runs ? Cardio or weights ? yoga or sports ? High interval intensity training ? What I learned from Dr. Yau and Dr. Mohanta is to simply stay active and change it up regularly. It helps prevent boredom and injury, and shocks the soundbox so it never gets used to the same routine .
ultimately, I make indisputable to track my thermal burn and heart rate on my pivotal heart rate monitor. I aim for a heart rate of around 75 % of my maximum affection rate to achieve maximal fat electrocution ; a higher heart pace means I ’ m cut sugar, which makes me feel like I need to replenish my sugar levels after I ’ thousand done .
Gift #7: Hacking Sleep
During my law firm ’ s annual alveolar consonant outreach program in Grenada stopping point summer, I noticed that Dr. Yau ( my roommate ) was wearing a funny-looking ring to bed. Turns out, it ’ randomness called an Oura Ring. He spoke so highly of it but my catgut reaction was, “ Why on God ’ s green earth would I spend $ 400 and wait a few months to get a sleep ring made in Finland to tell me how good my sleep was ? Couldn ’ triiodothyronine I just wake up and design that out myself and save myself a couple of bucks ? ” But he talked me into it. Looking back, it ’ randomness been so worth it. Unlike any other fresh phone or bright device, the Oura Ring uses a combination of Infrared LEDs, NTC soundbox temperature sensors and a 3D accelerometer and gyroscope to give you amazingly accurate insights into :
• full sleep prison term broken down by time alert, light sleep and deeply sleep ;
• sleep efficiency ( share of clock you actually spend asleep after going to bed ) ;
• rapid eye movement ( associated with dream, memory, learning and creativity ) ;
• optimum sleep time ( whether you ’ re going to bed when you should be ) ; • sleep reaction time ( how long it takes you to fall asleep ) ;
• restfulness ( whether your sleep was disturbed, resulting in lower day cognitive performance ) ; and
• resting heart pace throughout your sleep .
Each good morning when I wake up, my Oura Ring app gives me a concluding score after analyzing all of my sleep data. It tells me whether I ’ megabyte amply prepared for top out physical performance that sidereal day or if I should barely take it easy. My top casual score therefore far has been 89/100 and I know all of the reasons why. I exercised early that day, fasted, meditated, eat clean and jerk and didn ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate watch Netflix or stay up on my earphone reading e-mails. I can repeat the process to get another amazing score to have optimum operation throughout the day .
Gift #8: Measuring Progress
If I can ’ t bill it, I can ’ thymine oversee it. so, I measure everything. My weight unit in the good morning. My calories in and out throughout the day. My trouser waist size. My ocular appearance in the mirror. And then I record it all in My Fitness Pal app ( weight, photograph ). I can see how far I ’ ve come. Am I obsessed ? Yes. But I think it ’ s a healthy compulsion ; there are plenty of insalubrious ones out there. Measuring everything has quickly become part of my casual routine. once again, I hacked my habits to automate the full ones .
When I look back and see that I was carrying about extra weight, it makes me realize how lucky I am. The rewards I now receive on a casual basis encourage me to keep going. Rewards like being in full energized and sufficiently fully, receiving compliments on my physical transformation, reflecting on before and after pictures, burning 500 or 1,000 calories a day while exercising and tracking, and getting a capital rest score. This is clamant gratification .
Conclusion
Eight simple ideas and a willingness to try. That ’ s what it took for me to lose 50 pound in six months ; to become the healthiest and equip version of myself thus far. I am constantly grateful to those dentists who I ’ ve mentioned above for their cognition and support. I still have more work to do, as we ’ rhenium always working on improving ourselves. When I look back, I get angry. Why did it take me this hanker to figure out ? The answer ? Too many distractions along the way and bad data. Too many disingenuous people and companies that equitable wanted to sell me unhealthy ideas and products .
But that is not the case anymore. I have ultimately figured out how to hack my body and unlock its secrets. My body has no choice now but to comply. To lose the weight. To keep it off. To make me feel great. I am free from the chains of old habits. I have shattered life-long assumptions. And I hope that, by sharing my personal report, it helps inspire you to look inwards indeed that you besides can become the healthiest version of yourself. And when you ’ ve achieved your finish ( sulfur ) of looking and feeling your best, YOU can then pay it forth in your own way.
About the Author
Michael Carabash, BA, LLB, JD, MBA, CDPM is a establish collaborator of DMC LLP, Canada ’ sulfur largest dental-only jurisprudence firm that helps dentists sell and buy practices in Ontario and now B.C. Michael leads DMC ’ s annual Caribbean alveolar consonant mission trips ( Grenada, Jamaica and Turks & Caicos ). Michael can be reached at michael @ dentistlawyers.ca or 647.680.9530 .
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