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Thursday, December 4, 2014

Pics

UpgradedSelf.com
Just wanted to add a few pics of me!
Old pic me 1997
pic taken Dec 2013

pic taken Dec 2014

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Saturday Trip to Farmers Market.

UpgradedSelf.com  Saturday's Prospect Park NYC Farmers market has become a favorite place. I can get great local organic vegetables. After going there stores vegetables look inferior. There is also great selection of grass fed and pastured meats. My plan would be to make my whole diet come from the foods purchased here. I can eat local organic seasonal diet.

Eastern Parkway Brooklyn New York



UpgradedSelf.com Some of the great foods.
Real pastured bacon and grass fed beef liver. 

Starting my very nutritious bone broth. I will consume some of this everyday after its finished.
Here about 20 hours in.
Nice bag of vegetables! In bag is kale, collard greens, leeks, and parsley.

Also started a fresh jar of sauerkraut. I love adding it to mashed avocado. So I get healthy fats and probiotics.


UpgradedSelf.com

Sunday, November 2, 2014

24 hours fasting.


 For 3 weeks in a row on Friday I have fasted. I wake up 4:30 am before work to make a large breakfast. Last Friday I made a 4 egg omelet with 3 slices cheddar cheese. I ate that with large portion of steamed broccoli and butter. Topped that off with a green plantain waffle with butter. The waffle is a paleomom.com green plantain pancake recipe. I want this meal to be high fat and calorie dense. Eating the large meal was no problem. On commute to work I drank a heavy bulletproof coffee. I finished drinking coffee at 7 am. So I planned to go from 7am Friday to 7 am Saturday no food. All day Friday at work I felt great. I feel I might lose 5% to 10% energy and mental clarity during the day. At 10:30 am I drank a black coffee and at 3 pm green tea. I feel the caffeine in these drinks help with fast. Most of the day my stomach actually felt full. No growls or hunger pains. Saturday morning I did Bicycle sprints for 30 minutes. Still in fasted state and energy was good. A little black coffe till 7 am. At 7 am made a lite bulletproof coffee. At this point I was still not really hungry. I started to wonder how many more hours I could go comfortably without eating? I really like the weekly 24 fast. My body definitely leans out during fast. Following the fast I usually to try to overeat. They say under eating followed by overeating stimulates human growth hormone. Also exercising in a fasted state is also beneficial. 

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Upgraded Paleo NYC: Sunday Oct 26, 2015

Upgraded Paleo NYC: Sunday Oct 26, 2015:  Good morning all! Great weekend so far. This Friday was another 24 hr fast for me. My second Friday in a row fasting. I consume a large...

Sunday Oct 26, 2015

Upgraded Self


 Good morning all! Great weekend so far. This Friday was another 24 hr fast for me. My second Friday in a row fasting. I consume a large meal before work. Usually 4 egg and cheese omelet with bacon and sour creme. I added large portion of steamed broccoli and butter. On commute to work drank a Bulletproof coffee. So all in all I finished my food at 7 am. During day had one green tea and black coffee. Both plain no sugar or milk added. The tea and coffee make fast a bit easier. I think the caffeine gives me energy boost. During fast I feel great with very minor energy dip. On Saturday 7am when breaking fast usually do it with Bulletproof coffee. Later in day felt like I consumed so much food. I once heard Art De Vany say on a podcast to under eat a day then follow with a over eating day. This is suppose to stimulate growth hormone production.

 I just got more ketone testing sticks. During week I made a paleo friendly cheesecake. The recipe had very little carbs, but still afraid it might bump me out of ketosis. I have also started green plantains to diet. Sometime I eat them raw for resistant starch. I also add them to a flourless pancake recipe. I take the batter and cook it on a waffle iron. Another great recipe is Mofongo. Take plantains and fry then mash with garlic butter and chopped bacon. Tested ketones Friday morning prior to meal before fast. My reading was 4.9. That is my highest reading so far. Glucose came in at 93. For some reason I thought when ketones were high my glucose would be low? So far not the case. Saturday morning test ketones were 1.3 glucose 81. This confused me again. I figured 24 fast would bump my ketones high. Still good numbers, and in ketosis.

 Past 2 weeks really enjoying  headspace.com for guided meditation. I am currently up to take 15 part. Take 10 usually 10 min long. Take 15 is minutes and works on adding more things. I really tried to up the game. I meditated on lunch breaks in park. This feels great. I removed shoes and socks to touch grass to ground. I have heard a lot about grounding and hoped this would improve experience. I also have a grounding mat I sleep on. Headspace is great app for guided meditation. Real easy and really relaxes you. I know most people think meditation won't work for them. Just start and keep doing it. The changes to you will be not be big at first. Little by little you will enjoy the process. It has taught me to react to situations differently. I am more level headed and relaxed. Today so many people are so angry and anxious. Especially in NYC where I currently live.I will finish take 15, and move to the other series. Definitely go forward meditation will be part of my life.


 I recently added a gratitude app to my routine. I heard this recently on the James Swanick Alpha Male podcast. I have heard about giving gratitude for thing in your life many times before. I have tried it, but never really stuck to it. I am using an ios gratitude app($.99). So far I like it. Just prompt you several times a day to write what you are grateful for. Just one quick sentence. So many times we go through our day just thinking about what we don't have. Using the app you will see how many things you can be grateful for. They don't have to big. Just write anything.

 I am taking the primalblueprint.com certification course. I am trying to get some certs under my belt. Wow this course is harder then I thought. I know most of what the course is teaching. The questions are thoughtful and tricky. Anyone into primal living and wanting to get more from it should try it out. I think I will be attending the Primal Blueprint Seminar Nov 1.

 Two great Ted talks ted.com. First from Melissa Ramos sexyfoodtherapy.com and second from Kirk Parsley. Definitely check these out. Melissa talks about your poop, and how to see if your poop is healthy. Kirk Parsley talks sleep. Both great and entertaining. 

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Primal Blueprint Certification.

Currently working on Primal blue print certification. It's a well made course. It's very challenging and informative. I reccomend to anyone who follows primal lifestyle. 

Saturday, October 11, 2014

Saturday October 11, 2014



 Morning all!! Another great work week has come and gone. I felt pretty good all week. I tried a few things different to see how I felt. I usually drink Bulletproof coffee as my morning meal. Wednesday tried eating a breakfast of fats and protein. It was 3 eggs omelet and cheese with bacon. On commute to work I drank usual coffee and butter. I have heard that consuming 30 grams of protein 60 minutes after rising is good. Also not eating carbs in first meal will set you up good metabolically for rest of the day. If you start day with carbs you will bring on insulin cycle. This will make you want to eat every 2 to 3 hours. It will make you eat more and crave more carbs. How did it make me feel? Well I feel better just going with bulletproof coffee. I felt a slight energy lose during day. I use to have my first solid food meal at 2 to 3 pm. Now I am eating at 10:30am. I prefer to later time better. I am clear headed and have more energy that way. I will alternate and note difference. Also some how I want to add little carbs to that meal. A few days during week my energy level dropped. I bought a Lindt 90% dark chocolate and a Koboucha and energy level shot up. Wondering how blood sugar is during day. Maybe I will bring meter to work and test when I feel this way.

 The Precison Xtra Glucose Ketone meter is great. Cheap but Ketone sticks are costly. Best place to buy these are from ebay. A box of 10 test strips $35 free shipping. This is the cheapest I can find. I ran out so will be ordering soon.

  I am still working out 3 days a week. Monday and Wednesdays are kettle bell workouts. They roughly take 10 to 15 minutes. I get the workout from 2 dvds. The Extreme Kettlebell Cardio Workout 1 and 2. These dvds are great seven to eight total body workouts that take 8 minutes each. You can string them together as your fitness level increases. Starting with a 15 to 20lb kettle bell is more then enough. Try to finish the whole 44 minute dvd at once is challenging. Lets face it most people join the gym and never go. This is something that can be done at home anytime. There's no excuse! Its 8 minutes. My current ab routine is posted here also. The routine looks easy, but challenging to finish the whole way through. Takes 10 minutes to complete and really strengthens core. Start with first 3 exercises and add them as you can. Saturdays workout still 4 sets 20 deadlifts and quick sprint between sets.  You can get both dvds and kettle bells here.
https://www.onnit.com/?a_aid=bulletproof718

 Meditation has become a nice addition to my routine. I am using the Headspace app. It's great and works on ios and android. Goto headspace.com to sign up. The first 10 session take 10 are free. After that there's a monthly fee. I love it. They are guided meditations thats first take 10 minutes. I usually do them before bed. The speaker is really relaxing with a nice accent. If you want you can repeat the first 10 over before joining.

 Besides meditation I also liked to do hrv. Hrv stands for heart rate variability. When your heart beats 60 times a minute it doesn't beat once a second. It varies and it's suppose to happen. If it doesn't that's not good and you can be over trained or stressed. I use the Emwave 2 device. It's a portable device smaller then a cell phone. It has a wire that clamps to your ear lobe. It measures the spaces between your heart beats. There are indicator lights. Red light your out of coherence, blue light mild coherence, and green light high coherence. It helps balance stress and increase sports performance. I use it in car commuting to work. At first I didn't understand what it was really doing. The longer I use I feel it trains me to deep belly breathe. Most people shallow chest breathe and this isn't optimal. Breathing this way will keep you stressed. Using hrv has taught me how to breathe to calm myself. There are 3 option to using this product. Portable unit, Ios app and wire, or a pc desktop version. Great podcast on hrv at The primal blueprint Oct 7 2014.  All can be purchases here under tech.
Upgraded Self

 What I learned this week was importance of sunlight and vitamin D. On Bulletproof radio podcast #160 Dave Asprey had on Leanne Venier(@leannevenier). They talked about healing lasers which I want to know more about. Towards end of podcast Leanne said people who avoid sun get cancer more then people who go in sun regularly. Of course avoid sun burns. Sun exposure increases vitamin D levels which rids body of pre-cancerous cells. This effect is for skin cancer and other forms of cancers. Also vitamin d help prevent heart disease. So get regular sun exposure and supplement vitamin d. If you don't know your vitamin d level get tested. Last time I tested mine it was 75.5. You should be over 50.



Wednesday, October 8, 2014

During week lunch

 During week I have two goto lunches. I feel these lunches keep me into ketosis. One is Trader Joes sardines in olive oil with mashed avocado. I use a whole hass avocado and mash with homemade raw sauerkraut with some sea salt. This meal will hold me to dinner. Second meal is 2 to 3 eggs fried Kerrygold grassfed butter. I have it with bacon and a tbsp creamcheese. Sometimes have these with second lite Bulletproof coffee. Both meals keep me in ketosis and satisfied till dinner. 

Tuesday October 7, 2014

Upgraded Coffee

 Past weekend I ate sweat potato and plantains fried in coconut oil on Saturday. Sunday I made waffles with plantains. I followed paleomom.com plantain pancake recipe. The waffles came out great. I figured this would knock me out of ketosis. Test my blood this morning glucose 92 ketone 3.8 blood pressure 98/60/78 I think the blood pressure machine was off. LOL Ketone level was deep. So I either I never got out of ketosis or I go back really quickly. I really feel keto-adapted now.

Past week I tried on Wednesday to eat one large meal the whole day. So after meal I would fast 24 hours to test my fat adapted state. I made it through most of day fine. At 4:30 pm I felt little dip in energy. At no time did I feel hungry. Being no food for 24 hours essentially I protein fasted too. I love to eat, but it felt great not having to get a meal cause it was time to eat. This type of fasting I will incorporate every now and then.

 Today I upped my Unfairadvantage to 2 doses. I will definitely say I feel great. Energy level is even on level all day. On Friday will try again with 2 doses. Also one day will skip a day to test how I feel that way too.

 Currently still listening to all the usual health pod casts. I am really getting the audible book The Rise of Superman. Talks about flow state and how extreme athletes thrive in this zone. A lot of stories about surfing. 2 surfing movies mentions are Chasing Mavericks and Riding Giants. This weekend will try to watch these to get a better feel of these stories.

Saturday, October 4, 2014

Saturday October 4, 2014

Upgraded Self


 Morning all!! Up at 4 am and feeling great. Worked yesterday 11.5 hrs and had energy all day. My blood tests were glucose 78 ketone 2.8 blood pressure 107/68/79 Today's workout was dead lifts 100x20 then 2 min run and repeated 4 times. Last 2 return runs were sprints. I threw in a set of squats 80x10. My weights are real lite. Just trying to progress with irritating my back. During the week I did 2 kettle bell workouts. I feel great, but feel to thin body wise. Trying to up some weights in compound exercises. Would like to do basic bench press, squats, dead lifts, and some total body kettle bell workouts during week.


 So what happened during the week. I was looking forward to getting Bulletproofexec Unfair Advantage supplement. It finally came Thursday night. Took my first dose Friday morning commute drive to work. I was really excited. It contains special form of PQQ and CoQ10. I liked that cause I don't take CoQ10.  O.k so I didn't feel what was described in the video. Also it does say take one to two ampules. I have only taken one. I worked a long day of 11.5 hr and had energy all day. I did have a 4 pm snack of Koboucha and few squares Lindt 90% dark chocolate. Sometimes that little bit sugar can energize me. So too early for me to tell. I really like all Bulletproof products. What I do like is even with some added carbs I still stay in ketosis.

 On the book side I am listening to The Big Fat Surprise and The Rise of Superman. The Big Fat Surprise I am about 4 chapters in. It is so crazy how it came to be that saturated fats are bad, and whole grain carbs are good. Ancel Keys made this the way we think today. He really only used data that would support his hypothesis. He purposely left out anything that showed otherwise. So really the whole way we think today about fats is so wrong. It is not supported by anything scientific at all! Try convincing anyone you know this. Good luck!! Most people only believe what they hear on tv, magazines, and shows like Dr. Oz. They don't have enough time to learn about the most important thing their health. There are so many good audio books and health pod casts they can listen to on commute to work. The Rise of Superman is a book about the flow state. I always hear so many people recommend this book. I am about 2 chapters in. What I have learned is extreme sports where adrenaline is high is where the flow state occurs most. The flow state is when you are at your best and things are easy and go your way. I hope to learn how to apply this to real life.

 Wow I learned this week a friend of mine has a friend who died of cancer at 41 yrs old. I have never met her but I checked her face book page.She died of pancreatic cancer. I just read its rare for people under 40, and usually happens in your 60's.  When symptoms occur the cancer has usually spread to other parts of body. Drinking and smoking can contribute to the disease. Looking at her face book page you can see the difference from healthy to cancer state. It really grabbed and I wish I could have met her. I would have like to help her on diet side. I wonder how a low carb high fat ketogenic diet would have helped. Most people don't understand the importance of cutting sugars out the diet. All the cells in the body can be fueled by glucose and ketones. Only cancer cells use glucose only. So cut glucose you starve the cancer. Most find it so hard to cut sugars and carbs from diet. It's sad how today's food marketing has us eating so many carbs thinking they care good for us. My goal is to learn how to help people. I want to be certified in someway to have credentials for people 
to listen to me. I hope to do this soon.

 Lately on weekends I wake 4 am. I get so much more done this way. Also it set a good sleep pattern for me. I wake up refreshed and feel sleepy at 8 or 9 pm. They say doing this makes your day feel long and ready for sleep at night. I really like how this feels and works out. Too me the low carb diet helps me with this. Eating high carbs makes me tired and lazy. I know I would want to sleep in and not feel refreshed when waking up.trust me give it a shot!


Monday, September 29, 2014

What I worked on this weekend.

 I ate clean again this weekend and feel great. On Saturday I went to Park Slope Brooklyn farmers market. I have to say I really liked this market. They had great vegetables and great prices. They all said organic, and all local grown. There was a great selection of meats too. I purchased pork liver, beef soup bones, and duck bacon. Also giant lacinto kale(best kale to get low in acid), collards, cellery, onion, and leeks.
 As soon as I got home I made broccoli leek soup. Great recipe from the Bulletproof exec Upgraded Chef book. Wow forgot how good this soup taste. Sunday I made a recipe sweat potato leek omelet from chriskresser.com . I split in 2 cause was too big to eat at once. I love the contrast between the sweet potato and the leeks. I ate it with some green plantains fried in coconut oil and sea salt. I ate broccoli leek soup both days.
 Monday morning test glucose 98 and ketones 1.7 . I'm surprised I was still in ketosis with sweet potato and plantains.My body fat even seems lower.  I guess I'm really fat adapted. On Tuesday will put this to the test. I will eat one large meal in the morning. I will try to make it large enough so that will be only meal n food intake for the whole day. Friday I will protein fast. Protein fast is eating less then 15 gms protein in a day. I heard Bulletproof exec Dave Asprey talk about on the fatburning man podcast. I will post how i feel on both these day.

Saturday, September 27, 2014

Saturday morning 9/27/14. Up at 5 am tested blood with Precision Xtra meter.
Ketones 2.1
Glucose 79
Blood pressure 105/66/53
All looks good and I feel great!
I feel amazing when I am in ketosis. It's night and day. I have unlimited energy and feel at peace. I feel like nothing is impossible. I really feel carbs change people's outlook on life. I know that sounds insane, but it really affects your brain. Sugar hits same receptors in your brain that heroine does. So we eat carbs to feel good, but it starts a cycle of ups and downs. Carbs almost seem like a mild addictive legal drug. Some even mentioned how they feel like it dumb's us down. I think everyone should try a ketogenic diet for 30 days to see how it feel. Go for it!!

Workout was kind of crossfit.
Deadlifts 90x20 followed by a run around the block
repeated for 4 total cycles. Every Saturday will add weight.

Breakfast is Bulletproof coffee
Bulletproof coffee
2 tbsp Upgraded Brain Octane
1 tbsp coconut oil
2 tbsp Kerrygold butter
1 tsp upgraded cacao butter
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp upgraded vanilla
1 pak stevia
sprinkle cayenne pepper

 I just finished reading Jimmy Moore(Livinlavida low carb podcast) Keto Clarity. Geat book if you want to try a ketogenic diet. Real simple to understand. Awesome on Audible cause Jimmy Narrates it.
 Now I am reading The Big Fat Surprise by Nina Teicholz. Only 2 chapters in, but this is a good one. It explains how we come to think fat is bad for us. It's all marketing and lies. Fat is essential to good health. On a side note. Last night when I got home my wife was watching tv. I sat down with her and ate my dinner. Wow so many commercials for worthless products. The singer Usher doing a Honey Nut Cheerios commercial. It actually said good for your heart. Don't get me wrong I have eaten my fair share of Cheerios with bananas in my day. This is just a bold face lie. This why 99% of people today have no clue how to eat. Excess carbs and whole grains will lead to heart disease. They flat out say heart healthy with a big red heart on the box. I heard that cereal companies make a crazy 5000% profit on cereals. We live in a crazy world.

My current podcast list (all can be found on itunes or stitcher)
Bulletproof Radio
Primal Blueprint podcast (ep 36 great explaining expert cerification with plent of info)
Low carb conversations with Jimmy Moore
Livin La Vida Low Carb
Ben Greenfield fitness podcast
Paleo radio
Revolution Health Radio
Optimal Health Show

On my movie list
Fed Up documentary. This is a must see movie. So scary how big food companies don't care about our health. Also how most people dont realize that 95% of food in supermarkets are bad.

Coming up I am gonna try to test my level of ketosis. I will try to eat 1 large meal a day. This meal will almost have as much food as I normally would eat in day. I will then go 24 without eating. This will then put me in a intermittent fast. There is so many health benefit to do this. Also I will try a protein fast 1 day a week. This when you try to eat less then 15 grams of protein a day. This will rest your digestive system. Protein is hard to digest. This will allow my body to clean up bad cells. I will post how these turn out.

 What I learned this week. When you consume too many carbs and the source doesnt matter you can develop NAFLD. Non alcoholic fatty livers disease. This is when you live is composed of 10% fats. This is caused by to many carbs and not fats in the diet. We all think fruits are good for us and we overdose. Eat your fruits and vegetables we are told Most just eat fruits cause they taste better then veggies. They make mega fruit smoothies thinking its natural and full of vitamins. Add also breads, pastas, and processed food. Even thin people can develop fatty organs. If condition gets bad a liver transplant will be needed. Ketogenic diet can help and prevent  this condition.


Tuesday, September 9, 2014

I'm writing this post in hopes to continue my journey with this blog. I'm currently reading Jimmy Moore's Keto Clarity. I am listening to as many paleo health podcasts I can get my hands on. Soon I will post pics and workouts.