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Coffee, Running, Cabbage, TRX, and More


Carrie Brown: Hello world, this is Carrie Brown. Jonathan, stop laughing at me!

Jonathan Bailor: Hello world! You sound like the first computer program. Hello world! How are you today?

Carrie Brown: I had never started a podcast with “hello world”, so I decided it was about time. We do have listeners all over the world that are listening to our ridiculousness and I wanted to greet them appropriately. All you could was laugh at you.

Jonathan Bailor: Laughing with you. We’re laughing with you, not at you.

Carrie Brown: Can I introduce you now?

Jonathan Bailor: Yes.

Carrie Brown: This is Carrie Brown and over there in the argumentative corner is Jonathon Bailor.

Jonathan Bailor: Hello world as well. I also greet you in a very formal fashion. Carrie, we have a lot of great stuff to talk about this week. It’s a grab bag. We’re gonna start off talking about I know something that you think about all the time. Something that preoccupies you. I know that what I’m going to talk about right now is something that really hits home for you, and that is running.

Carrie Brown: The other day I thought about going for a run, and then I remembered there wasn’t a bear chasing me.

Jonathan Bailor: Well played, madam, well played. Folks know my thoughts on running, but one thing I wanted to do was throw a little alternative out there, so rather than just saying “hey, running is probably not the best use of your time, in fact may be even counterproductive for many of us”. An alternative, if you do not care what other people think about you, is power walking. Although you look goofy power walking, it is a great way to minimize the negative side effects that come with running while also getting some of the same effects. If you like running you might enjoy power walking, especially for some of our more mature listeners. Power walking is awesome. It does not take the place of our esentric exercise, but just in terms of health benefits, psychological benefits, mood benefits, power walking gets a Smarter Science of Slim two thumbs up. It is a form of smarter exercise that I do recommend. For all the power walkers out there, my mother in law is a big power walker. You should see her. She does not play around. She power walks. She is a power walker, and I support that. I just wanted to tip my hat to the power walkers out there and say “Jon Bailor gives you two thumbs up.

Carrie Brown: Yay!

Jonathan Bailor: Yay!

Carrie Brown: You’ll never catch me doing it, but hey! If that floats your boat, lovely people, you go right ahead.

Jonathan Bailor: Next subject is coffee. So, a couple things. I recently started drinking coffee. I had never actually drank coffee before. The reason I started drinking coffee is that I actually spent a bit more time researching coffee. While there are not a whole lot of randomized, controlled trials around coffee, there are a couple things we can know about coffee. We know that coffee is not a fattening food, certainly, and it’s not brown water, either. It actually contains nutrients in it. It has nutrients, it is derived from a bean, and it is a natural substance. The reason I mention this is because I am a huge green tea fan, and I obviously think that green tea is just top of the spec. For some people, I’ve heard that the kick that people get from green tea isn’t the same as the kick they get from coffee.

Carrie Brown: I think you’ve just made an awful lot of people real happy, because I think there are a lot of coffee drinkers out there that for some reason just assumed that a sane like would not include coffee. You may have just made tens of thousands of people really happy. Well done, sir.

Jonathan Bailor: The key distinction here, folks, is that we talk about insane foods, foods, that are in the middle, and therapeutic foods. Green tea is a therapeutic food. Even if you don’t like green tea, add it to your smoothies. Coffee is not. Coffee is not insane. It is essentially water that has caffeine and nutrients in it. The only downside is not the caffeine, because caffeine up to 300mg per day has not been shown to do anything negative to us. In fact, it has been shown to increase mental awareness. It actually makes you smarter. Literally, in clinical tests, they have shown that it increases memory. It is really easy to study. It actually makes you smarter. It improves athletic performance. This is caffeine from any source. In coffee, caffeine up to 300mg is not bad for you. Coffee is acidic, meaning it can create an acidic environment in your body, but if you’re eating an otherwise sane lifestyle, you will have a very alkaline environment in your body from all the non-starchy vegetables, lemons, omega-3 fats, so you don’t really need to worry about that.

Carrie Brown: Okay, I have a correction. I think you’ve made hundreds of thousands of people really happy now.

Jonathan Bailor: The point is that if you don’t drink coffee now, you don’t need to go out of your way to start drinking coffee, but two things to keep in mind. If you want a kick in the pants, some people have told me that they don’t get that from green tea. There is a reason for that. Green tea has another substance in it, and I’m going to mispronounce this. It’s called Thromabine or Thermabine or something. The point is that it kind of counteracts the effects of caffeine. It’s also found in cocoa, and that’s why you don’t get a caffeine buzz when you eat cocoa, because it has caffeine, but it also contains this substance.

Carrie Brown: Theabromine is, I think, the word you are looking for.

Jonathan Bailor: Thank you! Theabromine! Look at Carrie, coming up with the awesome-how did you know that?

Carrie Brown: I’ve spent years of my life making chocolate, Jonathan.

Jonathan Bailor: Oh yeah! Theabromine!

Carrie Brown: I’m a chocolate expert, Jonathon. Did you forget that?

Jonathan Bailor: No. You are an expert. That’s awesome. Anyway, coffee doesn’t have that in it, so when you drink coffee it’s going to kick you in the pants a little bit more than green tea will, and that’s okay as long as you don’t add a bunch of insane garbage. That’s the key. Don’t add a bunch of heavy cream, not because we’re afraid of fat, but because it’s not a sane substance. If you do want to add stuff to your coffee, cinnamon is a great option, because cinnamon is a therapeutic food and it has a nice taste to it. Arithrotil is a quite good sweetener in coffee. Stevia is a good sweetener in coffee.

Carrie Brown: Or our friend Xylitol.

Jonathan Bailor: Or our friend Xylitiol. Or even, this is an interesting breakfast option that some people have come up with to get the metabolism kick started. Protein powder in your coffee. Take some vanilla or chocolate protein powder, put it in your coffee. It sweetens it up, and tastes quite good. Now you have a nice little protein shake with a kick in the pants a little bit.

Carrie Brown: Can I just say that if you’re not used to drinking coffee and you decide to start, I find that, while it doesn’t stimulate my brain terribly well, it does stimulate other parts of my body in much the same way as some sugar alcohols do other people. So, if you’re new to coffee, just take it easy when you start out. Was that graphic enough? Are you all with me? Do they know where I’m going with this?

Jonathan Bailor: I think they do. The take away is that if you’re drinking black coffee, or coffee without a bunch of insane garbage added to it, don’t feel bad at all. If you don’t drink coffee and you start drinking coffee.

Carrie Brown: Just go easy on it.

Jonathan Bailor: Also, and again, please don’t feel like you have to give up coffee if you do eat it already. Do not drink coffee instead of green tea. If you like coffee because of it’s caffeinated impact on you, then get decaf green tea and drink that. Think of it as therapeutic. Think of it as non-optional because it is so dramatically good for you. Good stuff, Carrie?

Carrie Brown: Yes, and just another point on how you’re drinking your coffee. Of course, going to Starbucks and dropping five bucks on one of the thirty eight names of coffee, added this, added that. No, that’s not what we’re talking about.

Jonathan Bailor: Right, we’re talking about black coffee. Simple, easy.

Carrie Brown: Of course you can if you need to add almond milk or coconut milk. It is all goodness.

Jonathan Bailor: It is. Just make sure what you are adding to the coffee is sane. Awesome, awesome, awesome. Carrie?

Carrie Brown: Jonathan?

Jonathan Bailor: The next subject is a subject that you’re going to have to talk to, because I have no idea. We’ve been getting some good questions about non-starchy vegetables that not a lot of people know what to do with. One is cabbage, which I know you’re a fan of.

Carrie Brown: Cabbage is awesome.

Jonathan Bailor: To me, cabbage is like a rice substitute. You can top cabbage. Tell us about cabbage.

Carrie Brown: I love cabbage. This may sound weird, but one of the great things about cabbage is that it is very bland. It is also very robust. You can shred it incredibly finely, and it’s still robust enough to be in the place of rice, but it’s bland, so you don’t want to eat it on it’s own, but it doesn’t detract from the flavors of Jonathan’s beloved marinara sauce, salmon, or whatever else you put it with. It doesn’t take away, it just adds veggies to whatever else you are eating. We love cabbage, and cabbage, if you shred it finely enough, you can use it in salads, eat it raw, or saute it in less than two minutes. It take no time to cook at all. You can steam it. Cabbage is awesome. Think rice, think shredded cabbage.

Jonathan Bailor: Often times, the only reason we eat starch is because it’s a filler. White rice is not delicious. It’s not like people go to a high end Asian restaurant and are like “oh! That white rice!”.

Carrie Brown: You use it as a carrier for the flavors, and cabbage will do the same. I’m talking about white cabbage. It’s a brilliant carrier for the flavors.

Jonathan Bailor: One thing I like to do, the only way I’ve actually cooked cabbage but it works out really well for me, is sauteing it. Get some fresh garlic, onions, coconut oil, some shredded cabbage. Just mix that all up. It’s good eats.

Carrie Brown: I have actually converted several cabbage haters. There are several cabbage recipes up on my blog carriebrown.com. There is one which is a one pan dinner, so even Jonathon would like it. It’s pork chops with bacon and cabbage. It has cabbage wedges in it, with pork chops in a pan with the sauce that you make. When I first served it to my friends, they walked in and said they hate cabbage. I said “well I’m sorry, you have to try it. You’re a guest in my house. You don’t have to like it, but you have to try it”. They were cabbage converts immediately. They loved it. Don’t be afraid of cabbage. Go up on my blog, try some of the cabbage recipes and then you’ll get a feel for it. If you like it, shred it and saute it where you would use rice.

Jonathan Bailor: Carrie, I often think of people who say “I don’t like cabbage”. There are people who say that they don’t like tomatoes-who wouldn’t take a tomato and eat it like an apple-but they do like marinara sauce. They do like ketchup. So cabbage, yeah, I’m not gonna get a head of cabbage and just get a fork and a knife and eat my head of cabbage. It’s almost like chicken. You just put it in anything and it makes it better. In an earlier podcast, Carrie, we talked about how if you have a taste that you like and you want to eat a lot of it, there’s fillers-like when we make smoothies and you really like it if you add more ice-you add more of it.

Carrie Brown: And water’s good. We like water.

Jonathan Bailor: We love water. If you have this sauce that you just really enjoy, don’t just put it on your fish, don’t just put it on your nutrient dense meat. Add some cabbage and have that too!

Carrie Brown: No, seriously, finely shredded white cabbage sauteed for two minutes. Dump everything else. Dump your protein and sauce on top of that. Fantastic.

Jonathan Bailor: Love it, love it, love it. Next subject, Carrie Brown, is one of the newer-

Carrie Brown: I feel like I’m on Wheel of Fortune. I just never know what’s coming.

Jonathan Bailor: You never know. This is very Forest Gumpy. The Smarter Science of Slim podcast is kind of like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get; but with no sugar added. It’s just cocoa. It’s like 100% dark chocolate. Carrie, next question. This is the newest must have workout device that is sweeping the nation. TRX. You hang from ropes, it’s almost like a weird bondage form of exercise where you hang from ropes and yo do these body weight exercises. I’m being a little satirical here. It’s nice from a stability perspective, and blah blah blah. Again, folks, the key thing to keep in mind when thinking of any exercise technique is that if our goal is hormonal healing, set point lowering, long term practical, permanent fat loss and health, we want exercises that enable us to maximize resistance and safety. Doing anything while suspended from the rope is not maximizing safety. So, again, if you’re doing it for fun or for variety, that’s cool, but please understand that there is very little money in simplicity, and a lot of money in complexity. The more complicated someone can make something seem, the more stuff they can sell you to simplify it. TRX, for some of us, may be an example of that. We do not have an obesity epidemic or a diabetes epidemic because we are all TRX deficient. It’s not as if in the 1960’s, before this problem happened, it was like everyone was doing TRX and then we stopped for 40 years and now we’re all fat. It is actually quite simple. Prior to forty years ago, people ate food, and the food they ate was as nature intended. It was not genetically modified, it did not have artificially elevated fructose, it didn’t have as much garbage added to it, and they walked. If you eat real nutrient dense foods and you walk, life is good.

Carrie Brown: While we’re generally on the topic of exercise-typically, that makes my eyes glaze over and I kind off drift off to my own little world-but this has been the question of the week for me and a couple of people, which is bizarre, because I’m all about food.

Jonathan Bailor: I saw Carrie today, folks, and I was actually like “Carrie, have you been doing something different? Because folks, I gotta tell you here. Carrie’s looking even Smarter Science of Slimmer than she has been, so props to Carrie.

Carrie Brown: Anyway, for some bizarre reason, I’ve had a ton of people ask me this question about exercise. Which is: If it doesn’t hurt, can I do it more often? The answer to all of the questions I’ve had this couple of weeks is “resistance, not reps”. It’s all about the resistance. Not how often or how many times you do it. It needs to be harder, not more frequent.

Jonathan Bailor: Absolutely. It’s about increasing quality, not increasing quantity.

Carrie Brown: So I may have to give a shout out to Meredith. I just do. Just trust me on this one. Hey Meredith! I spent a long time on the phone with Meredith, who lives in California. We went over this several times. Just resistance, not reps.

Jonathan Bailor: I love it. Quality, not quantity. Remember it, live it, love it, and enjoy the results. Carrie Brown, Jonathan Bailor eating smarter, exercising smarter, living better, and having fun along the way.

Carrie Brown: Yes we are.

Jonathan Bailor: See you next week.

Carrie Brown: Bye!

– Is coffee SANE?
– Is running good or bad for me?
– Is cabbage SANE and what can I do with it?
– What is TRX and is it smarter exercise?