1.28.16

We’re going to take everything we talked about today.  We’re going to get some specific answers, and we’re going to make it general and applicable to everybody.

I would encourage you to chat and connect with one another, in the chat box.  I’m going to keep it to 90 minutes.  If you don’t get your question here, I am very, very sorry but post it up in the Support Group which has been amazing this week.  So, please jump in there, if you haven’t already.  It’s in your Ignite program, just click on the Coaching tab and rock and roll in there.

Thank you for being here.  The goals, as always, are to showcase the love and community that we’ve got here at the Ignite Family.  Honestly, these are my favorite part of the week.  You guys rock.  You guys are the reason that I am here and that SANE exists and I so deeply and sincerely appreciate your support.  I want these to be extremely valuable and fun.  I want to provide you with specific cutting edge and immediately actionable information.  I also want to provide you with macro-level education and make these specific answers into general principles that you can use throughout your life.  We’re always about the ‘Teach a person to fish’ rather than ‘Give a person a fish’ approach, because that’s what we need for our life.  Off course we want to be having fun, we want to smile.  So if any of that’s not happening please let me know.

It looks like Fran has reconnected and we are good.  People are reconnecting, and we’re good.  Alright, awesome.  With that said, I’m going to get some water, as you can tell.

If you were on the last call, I had to get a fake tan, because we were doing some video recording.  I have since showered multiple times so now I’m back to my Seattle in January, blazingly pale self.   So if you have to wear sunglasses while you watch this, I apologize for that.

So thank you all for being here.  Use the chat, I love it.  If you don’t want to use the chat; you’re shy.  That’s cool, too.

I’m going to get started with the written-in questions.  Please feel free… please ask questions, respond to questions, ask follow-up questions.  If you like chat, you might have to copy and paste a couple of times because chats roll off my screen.  So it might get bumped down.  But I’m going to do my best.

Let’s jump into it here.  First question over here is—where are we at—this one has to do with Ecentric exercise.  The individual wrote in and is saying that they are trying to do Ecentric exercise at home.

I’m sorry I didn’t say, this is being recorded and it might be transcribed.  So please don’t share any personally identifiable information, because we want to keep that confidential.

Okay anyway.  ‘I have tried doing Ecentric exercises at home before and I end up not feeling like I really get it.  How have others dealt with getting the right weights to build up with without buying a huge–‘ It actually says a ‘hugs collection.’ Awesome typo.  I want a ‘hugs collection.’  ‘Without buying a huge collection, what have others successfully used as a home-made bar.’ Awesome question.  Thank you.

Definitely some specific advice here.  So let’s cover the At-home equipment first.  Everything that I’m about to say is available on Amazon.com.  It’s extremely affordable.  If you go to store.sanesolution.com-we don’t sell this because it’s too much stuff, but Amazon does.  We’ve actually curated a collection of exercise equipment for you.  Hold on.  I want to post a link in the chat box.  It would just be awesome.

I was about to ask, if you’re near a computer, please go to store.sanesolution.com and I’m sure you’ll find recommended At-home exercise equipment, but of course you’re by a computer, otherwise you wouldn’t be watching.  If you go to store.sanesolution.com and you scroll down.  All the way down a little bit left hand side, you’ll see ‘Shop on Amazon’ and then you can click exercise equipment.  I’m going to post this into chat and I’m actually going to answer your question.

That’s the link to our curated SANE recommended things on Amazon store.  Lots of great things here; resistance bands and weight vests are your friends.  Those are great resources.  You don’t need a bunch of individualized dumbbells.  You don’t necessarily need a bunch of individualized barbells.  These are body weight exercises and resistance bands are the way to go to help at resistance.  They’re also very safe and they’re very, very portable.  You can actually put then in your suitcase.  They don’t weight anything.  I mean, they do weigh something, but not as much as weights.  So those are a great resource.

When it comes to smart Interval training–I have and it’s linked to on that store–I don’t know the brand of it, it’s less than $200, very simple stationary bike.  It’s the upright kind.  It’s not electronic.  You don’t want an electronic one; makes it really easy to do your Interval training.  If that is something that you want to get started on, that’s where to go.  Go to sanesolution.com.  Look for the Amazon stuff, go to the exercise section.  That’s great resources.

In terms of not really feeling like I get it, I want to be really clear here.  The efficacy of At-home eccentric exercise in a lot of ways varies person to person.  So let me give you a specific example.  If you are already at or near your ideal body composition, doing eccentric body weight squats not even going to get close to working your Type 2B muscle fibers which is the type of muscle fibers we’re specifically targeting with the eccentric exercises.  Why? Because your body actually won’t provide enough resistance, because you’re not carrying a bunch of excess fat on your body; the key thing to keep in mind is the more advanced you are, the stronger you are the longer you do eccentrics, the more it’s going to become likely that you might need to join a very, very basic gym.  So if you are just getting started and if you have a significant amount of excess body fat to lose; At-home eccentrics: perfect for you.

If you’re doing squats with an additional 100 pounds body fat on your body-a lot of additional resistance, that’s very helpful.  As you start to burn that fat off and as your muscles start to get stronger, you’re going to need to have to add resistance.  Exercise bands are going to be a great way to do that.  Weight vests are going to be a great way to do that, but you’re going to do that.  Pretty soon you’re going to be so successful that you’re going to transcend that stuff.  The most basic of gyms is going to be very, very helpful.

Keep in mind also that if you want to just increase the challenge of the eccentric exercise for all of the eccentric movements or any exercise movements.  You’ll notice that there’s always a point that is the most difficult.  So let me give you a specific example.  If you’re doing eccentric body weight squats-if you’re standing upright now, I’m standing upright now- you can actually try this.

If you squat down an inch.  You go, ‘Boom.’ That’s really easy.  You can hold this for a long, long time.  But if you squat way down–which I won’t do because you won’t be able to hear me or see me–you’ll notice that’s much, much hard.  Specifically the lower you get or closest you get to parallel.  That’s going to be the point of most tension.  It’s the most muscle tension there.  It’s going to be the most challenging.

Another way to increase the resistance or challenge of an exercise is we talk about the 10 Second Lowering for eccentrics.  Let’s give a concrete example.  Imagine you’re doing eccentric body weight squats and you say, ‘A little mini squat.  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.’

So where 80% of the time was spent on the easiest portion of the movement, that’s not going to give you as good of results as if you, for example very slowly when you just take two seconds to get slowly down into the parallel position or the position you’re in when you’re in a chair or when you squat down to use the bathroom.  That’s going to be the most difficult position.  So maybe you take two seconds to get into that position.  Then you stay at that position for eight seconds.  That’s going to be much harder, same thing with an eccentric body weight push-up.

So if you’re just getting started, you start with your knees.  The very top of the push up where your arms are mostly extended, that’s much easier than the very bottom position where your nose is almost touching the ground.  Of course you’re just getting started; you got your knees down.  The point is that you can always identify these points in the movement.  You don’t need anyone to tell you what they are.  You can feel what they are; where the movement is most challenging for you.  That’s where you’re going to get the most benefit and that’s the way to sort of increase the resistance at home.  So hopefully that’s a bit helpful.

Now you know where to get the stuff, you know a couple of ways to increase the resistance.  I don’t know actually know the fitness level of the individual who’s written the question here.  But if you’re on this call right now, chances are very good that a year from now you are going to be so strong that and that’s awesome.  It’s a great problem that you have that you will need to join a very inexpensive gym.  That’s like $20 to $30 a month.  You’re going to go in there once a week.  You’re going to spend twenty minutes, and you’re going to use four or five machines.  You’re going to hammer your business and you’re going to keep getting better.  So that’s awesome.

Now we go to some of the chat questions here.  I’m going to scroll here a little bit.  Rebecca has a great question here which says, ‘Why do you suggest no water three hours before bed?’

It’s not because I don’t want you to drink a lot.  Drinking a lot of water is great.  It’s simply because sleep is really, really important.  Anything that would interrupt your sleep-I want to help you avoid.  So if drinking water two hours before you go to bed does not increase the likelihood of your needing to wake up and use the rest room, please drink water.  What I found and I know a lot of people found is that if they drink water near going to bed, or even sometimes if they eat very water rich vegetables then that causes them to wake up a lot.  So the recommendation is less about ‘Don’t drink water’ and more about ‘Do everything you can to avoid having to get up in the middle of the night.’ So hopefully that helps to clarify that.

Fran already answered that question.  Look at that! 10 points for Fran, good job, Fran.  Fran answered the question in the chat.  I love that.

Rebecca asked, ‘Does Stevia or Truvia cause blood sugar spikes?’ Rebecca, you also get 10 points.  Everyone gets 10 points for this question.  It’s a great question, with a very specific answer and also a much deeper and more important answer.

Just as quick experiment and I’ll explain why this will make sense to you in a second.  Imagine and visualize cutting a lemon in half, then cut the halves in half.  So now you’ve got a quarter of a lemon.  See it in vivid detail in your mind, see its juices and such.  Now bite into that lemon.  Taste the bitterness.

Notice how you now have more saliva in your mouth than before we started that seemingly ridiculous exercise.  What are we doing here? The point is that when you eat something that’s very acidic, it makes your mouth water.

You could do the same exercise thinking about some SANE chocolate chip cookies or something else that’s delicious; a piece of salmon from your favorite restaurant.  Thinking, even thinking about that experience will cause a physiological reaction.  We know this.  We know that there are things that we can do mentally that change our physiology.  Why am I saying this?

The reason I am saying this is because if the goal would be to never have our blood sugar go up, ever.  We would have to say, ‘I’m never even going to think of some think of something sweet.’ There have been studies down that show that even the thought of eating insulin-spiking foods aka starches and sweets, can cause a slight increase in insulin secretion much like it would cause a slight increase of a salivatory response.

The point here is that this is an example of where we risk over optimizing.  What I mean by that is we risk letting the pursuit of what might be ideal theoretically.  It might be ideal to avoid anything that is even slightly sweet.  Even if it’s Stevia, even if it’s low harm go which is some herb that just has a sweet taste.  Thinking about that–if that causes a stress, that stress and that distraction may-and I would argue, definitely does- cause more harm than the aversion of Stevia causes good.

I don’t know if that makes sense, but worrying too much about things which only have a minor impact.  Stevia or Truvia, I would imagine, do cause a slight increase in your blood sugar, because they are sweet and your body reacts to sweet taste by increasing blood sugar.  That’s its natural response.  But I would argue that its increase is less bad.  Insulin isn’t bad; if you don’t have insulin you’re in bad shape.  Ask a Type I diabetic.  Type I diabetics will die if they don’t take insulin because their body doesn’t produce insulin.  Insulin isn’t bad.  It’s too much insulin that’s bad.  You will never produce too much insulin by enjoying SANE sweeteners, ever.  No one has diabetes, or no one is insulin resistant, or has pre-diabetes because of saying sweeteners.  They probably increase your blood sugar, but they very likely do not increase your blood sugar in a way that is more meaningful than having to worry about stuff like that will cause stress and will cause you to feel like, ‘Oh my gosh! There are just so many things I have to do.’ I hope that helps.

I’m going to move on to some of the written in questions here.  This one’s a little bit long but it’s really nice.  The individual had really nice, kind words.  They say that the last coaching call left them feeling very spiritually connected to how they are choosing to feel and care for your body.  That’s awesome.  Regardless of your spiritual or religious affiliation, our bodies are a temple.  They are a manifestation, they are a gift that’s been given to us by whatever we chose to believe.   I definitely feel that there is a strong spiritual aspect to honoring that, and that’s why I am so proud that you are here with me.  Thanking you for recognizing that.

They are mentioning that some health issues shook her well-being.  She had some medical issues that resulted in weight gain, muscle loss, left her depressed and shaken.  It’s been really challenging for her to let go of her old sweet and junk food habit.  She knows that switching over to SANE eating will be the very best thing for her.  She is consuming green smoothies.  She said that at the start she had to scarf them down, but now she looks forward to having them and is feeling an energy difference.  That’s awesome.  Thank you.

A lot of people when they first have green smoothies: Not the best thing in the world.  But just like the first time someone drinks alcohol: Not the best thing in the world.  But quite a few people enjoy drinking alcohol.  The point is that we can acquire taste for things.

I was going to say it was a question.  A bunch of kind words, and there’s a question in here.  Thank you.

‘Any ideas to give me the final nudge off inSANE foods that still seem to reach out and grab me?’

[inaudible 21:40]

The key take away here is that we have an amazing courageous individual who has seen phenomenal changes but it’s just like she has a spiritual sense of what I’m doing   is right and is correct.  Not only metabolically, but also scientifically, honestly spiritually.  Because it allows you to rock your mission and your purpose and that is a spiritual tip of the hat for sure.

However, it’s like there’s this demon, there is this inSANE demon, which says, ‘You know you want that sugar!’

I’m going to be very, very clear here.  What you’re craving-might not be the right word, but let’s say it-what you’re craving is a taste.  It’s an experience rather than a specific food.  For example, I’m craving Grandma’s chocolate chip cookies or chocolate chip cookies from a friend that I really like.

Now, I personally would not recommend just to white knuckle and never having anything that gives you a feeling similar to, let’s say Grandma’s chocolate chip cookies.  I don’t want you to do through your life feeling deprived.  What I would recommend is that we work together in the same Support group.

If you don’t have the recipe already, good news; there are now over 1,100 SANE certified recipes in your Ignite Recipe Collection.  That’s a lot of recipes.  The reason I say that, is if it’s chocolate chip cookies let’s figure out a way to make SANE-er chocolate chip cookies.  Not that you’re going to make them for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  So this sort of dabble on your shoulder, isn’t a dabble anymore.   It’s like I feel deep emotional joy and a connection back to my experience at Grandma’s house when I eat something that tastes like her chocolate chip cookies.  Now the ‘like’ is the key thing there.

We’ll never be able to make something SANE that tastes out of the box just as good as–

Sarah Li is going to make whatever the best chocolate cake diabetes party that you can make at the store.  But we can do with the SANE ingredients and the SANE recipes that you already have access to.  We can get you 80% of the way there.  Then you can enjoy that.  Maybe if you enjoy that a couple of times, pretty soon your mental association with cakes or cookies actually shift to the SANE version.  You’re able to get that same feeling while being SANE.

Let me give you a concrete example that I think a lot of people have experienced.  This is not an endorsement.  This is just an example.  Some people have themselves or have helped their families-again I’m not making a judgment, I’d rather this is a good or bad thing-switch from full fat milk to skim milk, or switching from real sugar soda to diet soda.  The way they do that is they gradually work from a cup of full fat milk and half a cup of skim milk and gradually work our way down.  But the point is that once they get to skimmed milk and they get used to drinking skimmed milk.  Then they get to like their associated taste.  When they think of milk they start to think of skimmed milk.  If they have emotions tied to drinking milk, those positive emotions will now be triggered by drinking skimmed milk, because you’ve essentially swapped the trigger.  The trigger for those emotions is milk.  The way your brain and palette defined milk was one thing when you drank full fat milk, and now it’s another thing because you’ve established a different habit for skimmed milk.  That can happen with any food.

We can take the emotional association you have to an inSANE food, swap it to a SANE equivalent and then that devil on your shoulder actually becomes an angel.  They’re just saying, ‘Hey, now it’s time for that SANE treat.’ As we talked about in the last session.  So watch that please if you haven’t already.  SANE treats are some of the most optimal sources of fats in the world.  Hopefully that’s helpful.

The answer is — the nudge is — let’s identify what those foods are.  Find SANE substitutions, and let’s turn that devil into an angel.  How about that?

Let’s go through the live chat really quick.  Thank you, Laura.  Laura has given me positive feedback.  I get lots of positive feedback, thank you, everybody.  I appreciate that, it’s nice to get positive feedback.

So let’s go down a little.  Christina, great question; ‘Can we go back to the eccentrics for a second? Can you use the same [inaudible 27:06] machines at the gym?’

Absolutely.  If you want to read up on this at a deep level, look up the work of John Little.  Brilliant writer, co-author of a fantastic book called ‘Body by Science.‘ Along with Dr.  Doug McGuff, also a great resource.  He also has a book called ‘Max Contraction Training’ which is all about this.

So absolutely you can hold the weight at a hardest point to increase the difficulty versus increasing the way all the time.  Tempo is a great way to manipulate the resistance of an exercise.

Again, if I miss your question, please post it again.

Alison asks, ‘Wondering if palm sugar is oaky and SANE?’

Alison, I don’t know off the top of my head.  I’m terribly sorry.  I don’t know the breakdown of palm sugar.  However, for questions like that, I want to highlight the SANE Ignite Support Group.  You can put photos up there.  It’s a super rich thing.  Here’s the link, put the link up there.  Is this SANE or not? Yes or No.

I wish some day we could have an app that did that automatically on its own but we don’t have that, yet.  Maybe, some day, but we have people who know the answers to those questions, and they are there to support you in your SANE Support Group.

Take a picture of the label, send us a link to the thing on Amazon, and we’ll let you know if it’s sane or inSANE, in the Support Group.

Kitty, the Kittys squared.  What’s up Kitty and Kitty? The Kittys finally ask, ‘Are we lacking something important if we are craving salty items frequently?’

No, you’re not.  I think we’ve covered this in the previous sessions.  Definitely go back and watch those.  Salt, like any flavor isn’t bad.  Salt’s been given a really bad rep.  The reason we’re told salt is bad is because the foods most people eat-most Americans.-40 to 60 percent of that is coming from processed nonsense.  And processed nonsense has an inSANE amount of salt in it.  The type of salt that we add to home cooked dishes, is definitely not going to exceed what we need.

There was this 1960’s science that says fat is bad, and salt is bad.  We’re coming to find out that was just wrong.  The scientific community is constantly evolving and the general guidance around the quantity of salt was off.  However, it doesn’t mean we eat the bunch of processed packaged nonsense.  We need to steer away from that in general.  Salt, when used in natural, normal quantities in food that you prepare: All good.

In fact-I’m not supposed to tell you this, but since you are in the Ignite SANE Family I’m going to tell you this-we’ve got a really exciting new SANE super food coming out that is going to help with the salty, crunchy cravings.  That’s the next big thing, and it is amazing.  It’s straight up good for you.  It’s 100% natural.  It’s whole food.  I literally enjoy it every day, every night, excuse me for my crunchy cravings.  So, keep an eye out for it.  I know you’re going to like it.

There’s nothing wrong with you.  You’re not deficient in salt.  There are a lot of people who find also that as you start to eat more protein — basically, as you start to go SANE — you start to eat more vegetables, you start to drink more water.  You’re urinating more.  You’re eating more protein.  You’re eating more whole food, fats and less starches and sugar.  The body often actually requires a little bit more salt.

If you want to see an example of it; if you look at the Atkins Diet; which is very different from a SANE lifestyle.  You could be a SANE Atkins.  If you look at, for example the Induction Phase, where you go very Ketogenic and you’re consuming 20 or fewer grams of carbohydrates per day.  There is actually specific guidance around consuming additional salt simply because the way your body is metabolizing energy changes and you actually need additional salt.

The point is not that we need to go out of our way to eat more salt, but only that as you shift toward getting more of your calories from healthy, hormonally healing fats and away from sugar.  You might naturally need some more salts.  They might actually be not bad for you.  They might actually be good for you.  There you go.  Definitely don’t feel bad.

Bobby is asking.  And I see that you’re pardoning the typos beforehand so it’s all good.  ‘There could be emotional cravings that would call for analysis.’

Absolutely, great comment, Bobby about the psychological cravings for food and this is a great thing for us to talk about.  There is a lot of written in questions.  I’m just going to cover it briefly.  To try to say, ‘I’m never going to emotionally eat’ I think, is a non—Every time we eat, we emotionally eat.  Unless we’re in the movie ‘The Matrix’ and we’re eating unflavored goop all the time.  We are humans.  We are people.  We’re not machines.  So, every time we eat, we eat with the intention of having an emotional experience.  Even body builders that are eating plain chicken breasts and steamed broccoli with nothing on it, they still derive some emotional pleasure from doing that.  The emotional pleasure is that, ‘Look, I’m hard core and I’m going to do great in my body building competition.’ There’s always an emotional component.

The key is not to say, ‘How do I eliminate all negative emotion from my life?’ Although that would be a wonderful state to have, but that’s–It will cause more negative emotion if your goal is to never have negative emotion.

The fastest way to not be happy is to try really hard to be happy.  It’ll stretch you out so you don’t get happy.  It’s called Paradoxical Intention.  There’s a psychiatrist by the name of Viktor Frankl who is awesome.  In his book called ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’ if you happen to have read it, it’s one of the greatest book I ever read in my entire life.

Anyway, worrying too much about something can cause that very something to happen.  Instead of trying to avoid emotional eating, I simply recommend, much like we talked about earlier, finding the SANE substitutions.  Find those SANE substitutions and emotionally enjoy what you’re eating.  Just do it on SANE foods, whenever possible.

Let me just take a quick look here to the written in questions, because there are a lot of them.  The question here is, ‘I’m having trouble with knowing how much non-starchy veggies and fats to make a serving.  Are there some rules of thumb that will make it easier to determine especially when away from home?’

Absolutely, yes please check out in your step by step program, if you haven’t already.  I believe, it’s maybe Lesson 1, of the SANE 101 Course.  There’s a wonderful e-book there.  That gives serving size guidelines.  The general rules of thumb are super easy.  Non-starchy vegetables that are raw, especially if they are green leafy vegetables serving is – boom — like what you can fit in your two hands.  I want you to use your hands.

I believe, for example we’ve got Kitty and Kitty on the call.  One of them is the parent and the other one is the daughter, which is beautiful and awesome.  I’m so glad you’re here.  The daughter very likely has smaller hands than the mother.  The point is that servings are proportionate to your body size.  That’s why the common knowledge that ‘A serving is a third of a cup’ doesn’t make any sense, because if you’re an NFL linebacker how can the serving be the same as if you are a 110lb, eighty-five year old grandmother who doesn’t really move around that much; totally different things.

So, servings are judged in relation to the size of your hands.  That also accounts for differences in body size due to excess body fat.  The size of your hand is the same regardless of how slim or not-slim you are.  So it’s a good constant for your basic body structure; beautiful and simple for many reasons.

Non-starchy vegetables if raw, a serving is two heaping handfuls.  If cooked and if they shrink, a serving now becomes what you could fit into the palm of your hand.  If you’ve ever cooked spinach for example, you take this much spinach.  You cook it, and you got this much spinach.  It’s what you could fit in the palm of your hand.

Serving of nutrients; that’s protein-palm of your hand.  Serving of whole food fats, that was a little bit harder, because an avocado versus macadamia nuts-it varies quite a bit.  A good guide is kind of that a serving is two fingers worth.  Two eggs are a serving of whole food fats, not one.  Two eggs, generally, as a general rule of thumb.

Then fruit.  A piece of fruit is a good estimate, if it’s not like a piece of blueberries.  That doesn’t make sense.  You could fit blueberries in the palm of your hand.

These are all approximations.  Remember, please don’t let this sort of ‘Must-be-precise-calorie-counting’ motto.  Please don’t let puberty creep up on you when you’re in your mid-thirties.  Don’t let that precision distract you.  Get the big things right and your body will take care of the rest.  Hopefully that is helpful.

Popcorn-aholic, what to swap for that? Rebecca is a popcorn-aholic.  Well, Rebecca you’re going to be very happy in a few months when we come out with the–We’re working with the USDA to get approval for it, because it’s a big long drawn out process.  I’ve got a great answer for you in a couple of months, but for now, the popcorn–Support Group.  Let’s just do it in the Support Group.  That’s my challenge to you.  Right now, after this call, post it in the Support Group, because I can’t think of a good answer right now.  We’ll get an answer for you for sure.  Just @JonathanBailor me if you don’t get one fast enough and I will crack the whip and make sure you get one faster.

Neeli, difficult time getting protein requirement being vegetarian.  Neeli, I’m so glad you asked this question, because a question came a while back about vegetarian and veganism and I did a poor job of answering it; because there is actually a very simple way to increase your protein intake if you cannot eat any animal products.

So let me just be very clear.  There is a huge difference between being a vegan and a vegetarian, as Neeli and everyone knows.  Vegan means no animal products at all.  Vegetarian means no meat.

Not being able to eat meat is in no way, shape or form a problem-or I would argue even a challenge-when it come to Sanity, because the most Sane nutrients and sources of proteins in the world are not meats.  They are not meats like most people eat, like liver is an optimal source of nutrient dense protein but most people don’t eat those; whereas, seafood, fish, salmon, clam and oysters and basically any fish–super optimal source of nutrient dense protein.  So if you eat fish, if you’re a pescetarian, you’re good to go, done.

Then you’ve also got all natural Greek yogurt, you’ve got cottage cheese.  You’ve got egg whites mixed with whole eggs because that’s not meat.

If you’re a vegetarian than soy meal bars.  It’s good for you.

If you’re vegan then it becomes hard.  Everything I just mentioned that goes off the table, because those are all animal products.  Then you’ll say, ‘What’s your answer now, Mr.  Smart Pants?’

If you’re a vegan, it is harder.  I’m not going to–My recommendation and you can find these in the same store if it’s helpful is pea protein, hemp protein or rice protein, potentially in that order.

My preference is pea.  Pea has a great amino acid profile for a plant.  I recommend the clean Pea Protein available in the same store.  Not because I own the company but because it’s very hard to find the Pea Protein where you look at the ingredients and it’s just like, ‘Pea Protein from pure Belgian wonderful peas.’   Same thing with rice or hemp protein; these are great ways to augment your protein intake if animal foods are completely off table.

Thank you Kitty for the kind words here.  And Neeli, hopefully that helps a bit.  If it doesn’t – boom — chat it up.  Let me know.

Let me jump over here to the written in questions.  This is a really long one.  This individual is 73-years young, which is awesome.  Thank you so much for being here.  Body is full of inflammation severe arthritis from a head-on collision in the twenties, degenerative bone disease in ankles, insulin dependent diabetes Type II, and asthma.  This individual is going through a very, very hard time.  They also care for their husband who is 83-years old, who is struggling.  Essentially this individual is going through a really hard time.

I’m sorry guys for getting a little quiet here, but this individual is–I guess it’s less of a question and more of a general cry for help.  I want to say thank you for the trust.  I hope you are here.  I hope you’re in the chat and I hope you’re seeing the love that this community and that the members of this community have to offer you.

What I would recommend right now, is to copy and paste what you wrote here and please put this in the SANE Support Group.  That’s why it’s here.  Start your SANE journal.  Put this in the SANE Support Group and take advantage of the amazing people and the resources that are here in this community.  You’re not going to find a more sound science and love and care together in one place, than you’re going to find in the same Support Group and the SANE Family in general.  So please let us help you there.  If you haven’t already started your SANE journal, please do that.

We see all these ads in magazines like, ‘This magic pill will make you lose more weight and blah-blah.’ It won’t, or if it does it will cause horrible side effects.  Two things right now; writing down where are you starting from, where you want to go.  Taking five minutes per day and updating your SANE journal.  You just sign into your Ignite program.  Click on Coaching, start New Discussion something title it ‘My Journal’ and put it in category Journal.  Tell us your story and update it.  It’s like making a public commitment.  It’s a fact that the more people involved in any life style change, the more success you will have.

We see these ads on television or magazines.  ‘You’ll lose 17%more weight.  It’s only $8000.’ A lot of people throw money at that, or they watch television and there’s this news like Raspberry Ketones.  Throw money at that.  That isn’t going to do it.

There is proven, rigorous, science over decades that say two things.  One, the more people you involve in a lifestyle change, more supportive people-and that’s why we’ve got the same Support Group- the more successful you will be.  If it’s like, ‘Ah, I don’t want to post this.’ You will be X% more successful if you actively engage others with it.

The other thing is having a buddy do it with you.  Reach out in the same Support Group.  Reach out in your community.  Reach out in your church.  Share.  Teach other people what you’re learning.  Make the commitment not so much that, ‘I have to learn this for me.’ Imagine that you are going to teach this to the people you live with.

I know for a lot of us.  I see this a lot in parents especially.  It’s much more difficult for them to do something for themselves, than it is for them to do something for their family.  My parents are a great example of this.  They are about as middle class as you get.  And if they had a medical issue, it was like, put some Robotussin on it.   I will do anything to take care of them.

Macro point is it’s hard for us to do something for ourselves.  But it’s much easier for us to be motivated to do that for someone else.  Use that with your SANE lifestyle.  This isn’t for you.  You’re not learning this, you’re not going through, and you’re not completing this one step in your step-by-step program per day for you.  You’re doing it because it’s going to be your dinner conversation.  You’re going to share it with other people.  You’re going to help them and you’re going to make their lives better.  So jump to the Support Group and help others in the Support Group and in your own life.  I think it’s going to be really helpful specially based on the challenges you’re facing.  Thank you for being here.  I think it’s amazing what you’re going through.

Let’s see what we’ve got here, lots of good stuff coming in.  I’m trying to keep up with it.  I’m so sorry.  Nancy’s got a good question here.  She says, ‘I read the article linked to the fact about prognosis for changes in post-menopausal women.  As a 65-year old I was disheartened to read there was a minimal weight loss unless you’re very strict.  Can you comment on the perspective for the over 65 group?’

Nancy I ‘m terribly sorry for that article.  I think you’re referring to an article written by Dr.  Kathy Patel, who is an amazing member of the same community.  I’m terribly sorry if that came off as negative.  What we were trying to communicate is that we have to give ourselves permission to celebrate who we are in the position we are individually, and not others.  Here is why I am saying this.  Everyone who does this loses 7 pounds in 7 days.  Even if you recall from your SANE planner, where there is like a bunch of questions; we have to know more detail about the individual.  Your metabolism changes radically as you age.

Think about it this way, when people are born obviously very few sex hormones.  If you look at an 8-year old girl and an 8-year old boy; they don’t look that different.   Why? Well, because their hormonal make up isn’t that different.  Now that changes.  Of course, that’s what we call puberty.  At puberty, the visual appearance of males and females goes like this.  Why? Because their hormone levels are going like this.

As we go through life, obviously our hormone levels change.  They peak.  They fall.   After we hit 40 or 50, men go through something called andropause.  Women go through something called menopause and the level of sex hormones changes.

The point of that is not to say that once you hit a certain age, prognosis is not possible.  It’s absolutely not to say that.  We need to give ourselves permission.  It’s going to take a little bit longer.  I would argue that it is not natural-forget about healthy-for a 65-year old man or woman to be able to see their abs.  A 15-year old guy sees his abs–it’s totally fine.  Because that is a normal healthy weight for that age.

You would agree that what is normal and natural and healthy, as we mature, changes.  Just like the level of muscles that a male will maintain, that is natural for a male to maintain will go down over time.  It’s a fact based on hormonal changes that our bodies become more inclined to store fat and less inclined to hold onto muscle as we get older.  Doesn’t mean we can’t make progress.  We can make progress.

What we need to do is we need to give ourselves permission to understand that wild success for a 65-year old woman looks very different-and I use ‘looks’ intentionally-looks very different from wild success for a 25-year old woman.  I hope everyone who is on this call and everyone who is watching does not see that as bad news.  Because brilliant and amazing at 65-years is not the same as brilliant and amazing at 25 and it shouldn’t be.  Seeing a 65-year old dressed like you’re twenty-three is not amazing.  It is not beautiful.  It is not attractive.

I would argue that living an optimal, SANE and eccentric lifestyle, and enjoying the best version of yourself at sixty-five is not going to look like a 25-year old.  But it shouldn’t.  Anyone who is worth a dime will know that and will appreciate that and will love you even more for manifesting that.  I hope and I pray that I get the opportunity to grow old with my amazing wife Angela, and that when she is sixty-five she looks like a radiant 65-year old.

I hope this is making sense, but if we had a goal for our 8-year old son to become stronger or to become better with football.  We’re going to have very different goals for an 8-year old child to build muscle than we would for an 18-year old man to build muscle.  And it’s not sad, it’s 8-year old versus 18-year old.  It’s different.

So please.  Throw away the nonsense magazines.  Throw away this toxic garbage.  That makes us all feel like we need to fit into this little box.  At one point in time that box was appropriate but it isn’t appropriate now.  I’m the worst at this.  I see someone who has got a family.  They’ve got so much responsibility.  They’ve got familial responsibilities.  They’ve got professional responsibilities.  They’re just crushing it in terms of things that actually matter, rather than things that people will remember you for when your time on this earth is done.

No one is going to be at your eulogy, ‘Sally had such great abs.  That’s what I remember her for.’ You’d probably like ‘Sally was an amazing person who made the world a better place, and who enhanced the lives of everyone she interacted with.’

Those things — if you’ve got those dialed in.  No.  There’s going to be someone out there who spends all their time weighing their food and spending three hours per day in the gym and its fine.  If that’s how they want to spend their lives, yes.  For trading everything else in their lives, so that they could be sixty-five and have a six pack.   If you’re going to be sixty-five and you’re going to be a healthy optimal weight, you’re going to look beautiful and you’re going to feel beautiful.  You’re going to rock the things in life that actually matter.  That’ what we call Nutritional Serenity, and that’s what we’re after here.  Hopefully, that’s helpful.  I’m going to step out of my self-box a little bit, but I do hope that helps.

I’ll have take peek at the written-in questions.  Alright question here, ‘I love the concept of process school versus result schools.’ Ten points for paying attention to the last session.  ‘I think it’s a really helpful way to achieve progress, not perfection.’ Another 10 points for using one of our terms.  ‘And to stay encouraged to get better day after day and meet your goals too.  I would love to hear another example of the SANE Spin on Traditional Diet principles or behaviors that promote sticking to a program and creating new habits but in a much healthier way.’

SANE spin on traditional principles, got you.  For example, the SANE spin on goals is to take the more SANE approach, which is to focus on that, which you can control, which is the process, the actions you take and not to focus on the goals.  For example, if you want to become a better free throw shooter basketball, you can control how much time you spend practicing.  You might not be able to control how your muscle memory adapts to that practice, because you can’t control your muscle memory.  Same thing sometime applies to other aspects of our bodies, specially our waist line and things like that.

Put me on the spot.  So what’s another example of that? I think we touched on this earlier, but this is actually really important.  In the Traditional model precision is super important.  This is a really important distinction when you count calories, by definition, every single calorie counts.  That’s why we see so many questions about what’s the serving size, and is it two serving or one serving, and what the servings here are.  Those are great questions and I totally understand them.

These questions are a manifestation of the belief that your body is dumb-for lack of a better term-and if you over-ate 10 calories per days for a year and gained a pound per year.  For fifty years you would gain 50 pounds.  All because your caloric balance wasn’t precisely managed down to the calorie.  That sounds ridiculous but pick up any popular health magazine and it’ll be like, ‘Just by chewing gum for 3 hours per day you’ll burn 17 more calories, which by the end of the year will mean you’ll 7 pounds.’

That’s not how the body works.  We know the body is a homeostatic system so it’s going to respond to more calories in and more calories out, and more calories out and more calories in to a point.  So what is the SANE approach here?

SANE approach is not to be focused on precision.  Not to be focused on the micro.  SANE approach is to be focused on the macro.  Let me give you the perfect example.  Calorie counting: How many exact calories did you burn and how many exact calories did you eat? SANE approach is answering the three questions for me.  How many exact calories did you eat? Did you eat double digit servings of vegetables today?

Actually I’m going to make it simple.  One question, today, is the volume of food you consumed in this order: The highest volume of food I ate was vegetables; the second highest volume of food I ate was nutrient that’s proteins; and then the third highest volume of food I ate was whole food fats, and low fructose fruits.  Anything else if I ate at all, I ate much smaller sized quantities than any of that stuff.

If you do, non-starchy vegetables, nutrient dense proteins, whole food fat in that order, every time you eat.  You will achieve radically better success, than you ever would by precisely counting calories.  You would avoid neurotic eating disorders that come along with trying to be perfect.  That’s what calorie counting is saying.  It’s demonizing food.  It’s saying food is bad.  Food is to be avoided.  It’s saying your body is stupid, and if you don’t precisely manage this.  It’s going to go bonkers, which for so many reasons is ridiculous.  You don’t measure how many vitamin C you eat per day, and how much vitamin C you excrete out in your urine or in your sweat, but somehow you body maintains adequate levels of vitamin C by eating healthy normal foods? How does that work? It’s because your brain is a really smart thing.

The calorie counting model makes it seem like it’s precise.  It also makes you neurotic, because it tells you to pursue perfection and precision.  Then it makes you crazy so you’re like, ‘I cut the 37 calories and I didn’t lose 25 pounds in 25 days.’

So that’s a SANE example of where the traditional approach is about precision.  The SANE approach is about focusing on getting the big things right.  I literally don’t even want you to personally until you have rocked the vegetable, protein and fat, thinking about, ‘Is Xyletal or Erithretal better?’ Doesn’t matter.

If your car’s burning in your drive way, it doesn’t matter if the wind shield’s dirty.  The car’s on fire.  Let’s put the car out first.  Whereas the calorie counting approach is just like, ‘It all needs to be taken care of right away.  It has to be precise and perfect.’ Nonsense.  So anyway, it’s the SANE approach to that question.

Alright let’s see what we’ve got here.  Lots of good comments coming in; Kate had a good suggestion for the popcorn.  This is not something that I would recommend you eat every single day, but until we get our SANE alternative ready for you.  Again I’m not saying this is SANE, this is possibly a SANE-er option than popcorn, soy nuts.  Soy nut especially for men might not be the best thing in the world.  Soy nuts or you could do toasted legumes.  Corn is a starch; it’s on the same spectrum.  Legumes are SANE-er than starch.  Eat it with something else.  Eat it with proteins, vegetables, fats-in that order; some really neat snack options for legumes that are toasted and crunchy.

Also some options there on the Amazon link I provided earlier, in terms of SANE and crunchy things.  There are kale chips which are incredible super SANE.  If you try to buy them, its $5 for a bag this big, so make them yourself if at all possible.

That might be thing possible to take those robust vegetables kales, kala greens, things like that and make chips out of those; a lot of great recipes available for that, so I think that would be helpful.

Kitty is asking a good question here.  She may need someone to do that for her possibly, not knowing if she can navigate the Support Group.  That may be the response which I appreciated in the question earlier about the individual who–So if you don’t know how to use the Support Group, or are not comfortable using the Support Group, please shoot us an email.  We’ve got a how-to video that’s going to show you exactly how to do it.  If you were able to attend the master class, and were able to fill out the survey here, you can use the Support Group.   If you were able to submit a question here, I know—

If you’re 73, that just means you’ve got 73 years to crush it and to learn a lot.  You are smart–the fact that you’re doing what you’re doing right now, you are every single day doing things harder than using the Support Group.  So if there’s any challenges with that shoot us an email and we’ll help you with it.  I promise you its super easy.

Fran’s got a rocking recipe for how to make kale chips in the Support Group.  That is awesome.  Then Kitty again saying, ‘Surely, Jonathan I don’t expect to look like my 11-year old.’ Yes, obviously.  That is awesome.  I love that.  That is great.

Michelle’s asking, ‘Where do I find the Live Coaching recordings?’ I will send you a link probably tonight.  If not tonight then early tomorrow morning and that link will just link to all of the recordings.  The answer is if you log in to you Ignite program and go down the bottom in the footer, you’ll see a section called ‘Stay Motivated’ and that’s where they are.  You’re going to find them in that section called ‘Stay Motivated.’

Some more questions back to back.  ‘I’m afraid I’ve gained weight eating all of the suggested portions.’

Important great question.  If you eat all of the suggested servings-12 servings of vegetables, 3 to 6 servings of nutrient dense proteins, 2 to 6-depending on where you’re at-servings of whole food fats, you will not gain weight.  It would be somewhat impossible for you to gain weight, specifically if you focus on the vegetables first, then the proteins and less of the fats.  You’re already full.  The reason for that is the food is so nutrient dense and so satisfying.

Just try to eat 12 servings of vegetables and 4 servings of nutrient dense protein.  Those are not energy rich.  Those are nutrient rich.  That in itself could not possibly provide you enough calories to gain weight.  Calories exist, and if we over-consume them chronically, we will gain weight.  Calorie myth is that calories don’t exist.  It’s that focusing on calories rather than the quality of what we’re eating, that’s a myth.  That does not work.  It leads to craziness and inSANity-lower case and upper case.

I promise you if you focus on it in the order and not like they do what’s common on the internet is that people take bits and pieces from different lifestyles.  ‘I’m going to add 700 calories to my coffee, and I’m not really eating any vegetables.’ You’re not eating low carb healthy vegetable, then yeah though you’re eating healthy fat, but you will gain weight.

The calorie to nutrient ratio is off there, but if you do SANE non-starchy vegetables, nutrient dense proteins and whole fat in that order.  A lot of people are too full, if you’re too full, I promise you it is physically impossible for you to gain weight.  If you are, please let us know exactly what you are eating in the Support Group and we will help to troubleshoot.

Vegetarian portions measuring recipes–I hope I answered that question for you.  If I didn’t, please post in the chat box.

‘What impact does age have on this plan?’ Boom, we already covered that one too, so that is good stuff.

Let’s go back to the chat.  Sherry, thank you.  Sherry says, ‘Great answer’ for my previous answers.  This is coming from a 62-year old woman.  Thank you, I appreciate that.  Thank you everyone.  These are always nice calls.  I’ve actually had a very hard week so far, so it is refreshing support here.  You guys support me which is why I’m supporting you, because you’re showing love and your amazing success.  I really appreciate that.  I honestly do.  I like to have these at the end of the day, because it’s the perfect way to close the day.

Bobby says, ‘Not how long these calls go.  But if you don’t get to my metabolic syndrome question today—rolled over to the next call–resubmit it.’

Bobby, all good.  We’ve got new people every week so please don’t feel bad.  If we don’t get your question today, I go in the order of the questions that are submitted.  When I send out the next survey for the next call, ask your question right away and you will get it answered.  You can also post it in the Support Group.  Either way, I promise, you’re going to get your question answered.  If you don’t get it answered within a reasonable amount of time, let us know.  We’ll make sure to get it answered for you.

Cindy you may have missed the last session.  You should have the link in your email.  Good news is even if you don’t have the link in your email, log in to Ignite and go down to the bottom, look in the footer, find Stay Motivated, click that.  You can see all the recordings that you have access to.

Nancy, thank you for your kind words, Fran, thank you for kind words.  Tahini is — generally saying it depends on the brand.  Fran — the brand Fran — of course there are inSANE versions of everything.  But yes, if you use it just a little bit, it’s okay.  Nobody has diabetes because they’re eating too much tahini sauce.  No one is struggling with weight chronically because they are eating tahini sauce on their kale chips, so progress, not perfection.  You’re doing great.

‘Can you please compare SANE eating to programs like Whole30?’ Cindy, I actually don’t know a lot about the Whole30.  I think it is a very hard core elimination diet that is Paleo inspired.  I met Melissa and Dallas Hartwig, when I went to Paleo effects couple of years ago.  They’re really cool people.  I believe Whole30 is a pretty strict elimination diet.  So it’s a hard core Paleo diet.  I believe.  I’m sorry if I’m wrong, but it’s like Atkins.  Atkins in its Induction Phase says, ‘Look 20gms of your Induction carbs.’ Doesn’t work without question; they’ve proven in lab studies that if you do the Atkins diet as prescribed, you will lose weight.  I’m sure the same thing is true with Whole30.  Eliminate all this stuff, and of course if you do that you’re going to have success.

This leads to a good macro point.  The question is not, ‘Can something work?’ Let it be clear and the data is clear.  Calorie counting and starvation dieting can work.  We’ve all seen the biggest loser.  We know from larger studies that for 4.6% of people calorie counting and starvation dieting works.  The question is not, ‘If you follow the prescription will it work?’ It will.  The question is, ‘Can you live a rocking awesome, full life for the rest of your life while following your prescription?’

Eating 1200 calories of sugar per day will probably cause weight loss.  So the 1200 calorie of pure sugar diet might work.  But it will kill you long term, and it will make you crazy long term.

Any diet works as long as you do it, the question is can you rock your life doing it.  If you can, doing the Whole30 might be fabulous.   I think the SANE is specifically designed to say, ‘Whoever you are, whatever you like to eat, whether you’re paleo, vegan, vegetarian, we’re just going to outline the science that provide proven tools and Support Programs, recipes and menus and meal plans that help you empower you both from an eating and an exercise perspective to rock your best life.  We’re just going to give you a tool set.  We’re going to give you a box of 128 crayons and we’re going to give you some guidance on how to use them.  But then you’ll color in whatever the heck you want.  Because of that it works.  Because you can work longtime, you can customize it for yourself.  So hopefully it helps a little bit.

Let me jump back to some of the written in questions.  This individual writes in, ‘I have no gall bladder.  I do take enzymes, but my biggest challenge is not being able to eat a lot of healthy fats.  They are just hard for my system to process.  I spread them up but have to settle for more carbs; good carbs.  I like them because it is easier for my system to process, any advice?’

It’s a great question, because I’m going to give a ridiculous example but if someone has a chronic kidney disorder.  And I’m like, ‘Eat a lot of spinach.’ Raw spinach is high in oxalates, which isn’t great if you have a pre-existing kidney condition.

Then general non-customized specific to your condition SANE guideline is moot.  If you have a peanut allergy, you better allergy you better believe peanuts are even less SANE for you than high fructose corn syrup, because if you eat them you die.  I don’t mean to exaggerate but if you don’t have a gall bladder, and it’s very difficult for your body to process whole food fat, you’ve got to work with your primary care physician for my SANity.

SANE is a general framework.  That’s why we’ve got Neeli here she’s a rocking SANE vegetarian.  We’ve got Cindy here; chances are she might be a little bit paleo.  She’s checking out things like Whole30.  We’ve got people here who’ve done low carb.  I bet we may have some people who practice kosher or halal dietary restrictions.  You can take your specific flavor of eating-for lack of a better term-and you can make it the SANE-est version possible.

So if you can’t eat a lot of healthy fats, please don’t compound an already pre-existing medical condition by eating them.  Rather like you said, let’s find the SANEst carbs that you can enjoy.  To be clear, it’s not about carbs are bad because vegetables are carbs.  It’s about what are the most fiber rich carbs available to you.  So maybe you’ll do a little bit more of the legumes, hopefully that’s helpful.  The general guideline is your SANity is what’s key.  Lowercase and uppercase.  It’s about your individualized SANity.

Let me do one more from the written in here.  Then I will go back to the chat.

Another person says,’ I work Monday to Friday 8 to 9.  I’m not sure about the rest of the group but I can’t make these calls at 5p.m.’

Please if you ever can’t make any of these calls.  You can write in questions, and we’ve got wonderful members of the Family that are at 17 different time zones.  Unfortunately there’s never a time that works for everybody.  That’s why we want to make sure that you always have an option.  We try to vary the days of the week as much as we can.  Please write in your questions and we will ensure you get the answer.  You could of course watch the recordings of this session to get your answer that way if you have followed.  You could post them in the Support Group.  Bottom line is we are going to do everything in our power to serve you, and everything in our power to help.

Let’s jump in here into the live chat.  ‘I really like vegetables and now I can fix them in my pizza.’

Absolutely I love that Suzanne.

‘Dreaded diarrhea from all the water and veg.’ Rebecca two or three sessions ago we did twenty to forty minutes on help with digestion.  So if you get a chance, go to the Stay Motivated section on the website.  Some really helpful tips next up on how to make digestion easier; but the macro principle is smaller meals.

I did a bad job of this.  I’m going to give you guys the inside scoop.  The very first batch of SANE meal bars that we ever made.  We used a form of fiber called chicoree root fiber, totally SANE.  It is not easy to digest.  Since then we have switched to a pre-biotic fiber which is not only better for you.  It’s also way easier to digest.  However, we have a bunch of these old bars which we don’t sell anymore, because we always want to provide the freshest and best stuff.  I’m a very frugal person.  I’m like, ‘I’m not throwing these away.’ So I would eat them.  A couple of nights ago I had a fiber rich dinner and then I ate one of these bars.  I ended up doing a little napkin math and I said, ‘Well my stomach really hurts.  Why?’ I just ate 47gms of fiber in an hour or less than an hour.

The average American consumes less than 10gms of fibers in a day.  We should be targeting between 60 and 90gms of fiber in a day.  So I did — like almost — what you should eat in a day in less than an hour.  You better believe that causes gastrointestinal distress.

So if possible, just try to divide that out.  Just to answer different thoughts like, ‘How many meals you should eat?’ You should eat as many meals as work for you.  Part of the reason I encourage more meals is because if you try to eat 12 servings of vegetables in two meals it’s not going to digest well.  You’ve got to break it out, top level recommendation there.

There is some other stuff there as well; apple cider vinegar, so on and so forth, previous recording.  If possible, just try and break your meal.  So you don’t have that dump of fiber into your system all at once.

‘Why are oranges more SANE than apples?’ Good question, Alison.  Berries and citrus are the only two categories of fruit that are considered low fructose fruits.  Apples are considered high fructose fruits because they are extremely high in fructose.  Oranges are SANEr than apples globally for the same reason that one food is SANE-er than the other.  It just means they are higher in nutrition, they are lower in sugar, they are more satisfying, and they are less efficient.  If you look at the vitamins and minerals and fibers that you get in an orange per calorie; you could go to nutritiondata.com.  You can look at what’s called nutrition density so it’s vitamins, minerals, fibers divided by calories.  You can see that an orange is far more nutrient dense than an apple.  Doesn’t mean an apple will kill you if you eat it.  It just means that for every orange calorie you eat, you get way more good stuff and way less bad stuff than for every apple calorie you eat.  Apples as most fruits have undergone a lot of hybridization which causes them to be higher sugar in general.  The sweet apples, red delicious and such are the worst offenders at that.  Hopefully, that helps.

Bobby, I got your question here, I’m going to make sure we answer it, because we are running low on time.  But I told you I’ll answer it so I’m going to answer it.  Bobby says, ‘Hey Jonathan and everyone new to the family.’ Welcome Bobby.  ‘I’d like to know if someone with a metabolic syndrome needs to modify or alter the same program.  And any way that is different for other persons without the syndrome who maintain the SANE lifestyle in order to lose or maintain weight.  Are there any special considerations I need to be aware of or things I should have weighed in the SANE world? I used to be healthy and fit twenty-five years ago, but I am in my mid-forties now and I am at my heaviest now, about 75 pounds over healthy.  I developed the metabolic syndrome over the last seven years, [inaudible 1:19:27] or so.  I feel like it’s hard to lose weight and so is it to gain depressing and frustrated.  Thank you.’

You are welcome.  Metabolic syndrome is a synonym in a lot of ways for hormonally clogged or elevated set point.  The deeper underlying cause of the *of things which are defined as the metabolic syndrome or maybe other people on the call have heard it called Syndrome X.  Those are the hormonal clogs, or if you really want to get into in go on pubmed.com academic database and type in metabolic dis-regulation.  It’s basically just your brain, your hormones, your gut are out of lack and we need to administer a heavy dose of nutritional therapy to them and we need to minimize negative stress so we need to eliminate the inSANE exercise which causes more harm than good, like chronic jogging and do low-dose but high potency exercise like eccentrics.  It’s incredible the results you’re going to get.  In some ways, SANE in conjunction with your primary care physician or in conjunction with your OB/GYN or in conjunction with your diabetes counselor is saying, ‘Look, educate yourself on the same frame work.  Teach your doctor, if they haven’t already learned about it.’

I love when I see these email which are saying, ‘My doctor at the male clinic recommended the same program to me,’ and I am like, ‘YES.’ Makes me really happy when I hear that.

SANE eating and eccentric exercise is literally THE prescription for metabolic syndrome.  You obviously work with your primary care physician but you’ve come to the right place, my friend.  That’s what we’re after here to help with the metabolic syndrome stuff.

Nine minutes left.  Let me see what I can do in terms of the chat here.  Last call; if you’ve got questions please get them in here, we’re going to close.

What have we got here, Susan? ‘I need an eating plan that is sustainable.  I think SANE is something I can live with forever.’

Thank you, Susan.  You hit the nail on the head.   Plus thirty points.  That’s is the key thing.  We got to have sustainable.  Anything can work.  The question is can we enjoy our lives doing it.  I believe with my whole heart and hundreds of people in many different countries can attest to you that SANE is that.  The bottom line is there is no flavor you can’t enjoy.  Sweet, salty, savory, bitter.  Enjoy them all from SANE sources.  You don’t have to be hungry.  Eat when you’re hungry.  Stop when you’re full.  From SANE sources; whenever you want, day, night, whatever.  What’s more sustainable than that? It’s a super setting people.

People say, ‘Oh it’s easier to be inSANE.’ Let ask some of the people here.  If you’re struggling with metabolic syndrome, if you’re struggling with sleep[1:22:46], if you’re struggling with diabetes, if you’re struggling to walk.  How easy is that? That’s not easy.  The changes you’re making right now will lead you to the most sustainable and enjoyable life you could ever imagine.  Thank you for being here.  Thank you for doing that.  Thank you for your kind words, Susan.

Cindy asks, and Fran actually asked the question which I love.  Points for Fran for using the technology here.  Cindy says, ‘Can we be gluten-free/ dairy-free following the same program?’

Absolutely, Cindy has a great example of you can be anything plus SANE.  You could be a SANE vegetarian.  You could be a SANE vegan.  You could be a SANE Whole30.  You could be a SANE low-carb.  You could be a SANE primo.  SANE paleo, SANE kosher, SANE halal.   If dairy free SANE would be this overlapping — SANE would say, cottage cheese and Greek yogurt and whey protein are SANE dairy products.  You would say, ‘Nope.  That’s not part of my SANity.’

Answer to the gall bladder question.  You take the SANE universe and you put your universe on top of that, to get the set that’s perfect for you.  Layer it up, multiple layers.

Fran says, ‘What were you going to say last week but ran out of last week.’

Sorry.  If you can sort of hint at me what I was talking about.  I don’t remember what I did three hours ago, unfortunately.  I’m a big fan of Eckhart Tolle, ‘The Power of Now’ guy he is super smart.  I have actually gotten pretty good at that.  I have a heart that I am so dialed into what’s happening now.  The only downside is that I don’t really remember what happened yesterday, so I write down a lot about–Anyway, I’m sorry Fran, I don’t know.

So five minutes left, I’m going to close, in my formal way.  I’m so sorry if I have missed your questions.  Submit them fast for the survey, or pop them in the Support Group right now and ask them.  Katherine, ‘Best advice I had to start with.’

Katherine we’ve got five minutes left, but I can answer it here for you, it’s very easy.  The best way to start is to log into your SANE program.  First of all you’re here.  That’s awesome.  You get a hundred points for starting by being on this call.  Sanesolutions.com login, click on step-by-step.  Click on the orientation, preliminary check list; one step per day, complete the Orientation Course.  Step one is to click on the Orientation Course.  Step two is take One in the Orientation.  Finish that course.  Watch the celebration video at the end.  Step-by-step, one step per day; that’s the SANE way.  And that was horrible, minus ten points to Jonathan.  But you’re close.

Some goals at the beginning were to give some very specific and actionable advice.  Then we got some wonderful tips.  Hopefully I lived up to that, if I didn’t please tell me.  Hopefully we had some wonderful general learning.  Hopefully you are feeling the love and support f this amazing community which I am so proud to be a part of.  So thank you again for being here.  Hopefully you had some fun and some smiles.  If any of those things didn’t happen, please tell me.

I do have something that I wanted to share with everyone at the end.  This is an excerpt from a wonderful book by a gentleman named Kleinberg.  It’s about Viktor and Ellie Frankl.  Jonathan’s top five books of all times.  ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’ by Viktor Frankl definitely on that list.  This is a really powerful excerpt that I wanted to share with everyone because I think this is great.  I’m going to read this to you verbatim, so forgive me.

‘We are not free from our biological nature, whether instinctual drives, genetic legacies, of the functions of our brains and bodies.  Nor are we free from the grasp of social, developmental and environmental influences.  But we are free to take a stand toward these, even against them.  We are free to do what we will with the cards we are dealt to choose what response we will make to fateful events, and to decide what cause or person will receive our devotion.  And this freedom carries an obligation.  Each of us is responsible for something to someone.  By using our freedom to act responsibly in the world we uncover meaning in our lives, and it is only when our wealth of meaning is frustrated that we set off for the pursuit of personal pleasure like Freud talks about, or financial and social success like Adler talks about.  When a person exercises spiritual freedom and responsibility, there follows a host of effects: peace of mind, good conscience and contentment.  But these occur naturally as by-products so to speak.  By pursuing any of these directly makes their attainment improbable or impossible.  There is nothing quite like striving for peace of mind to keep one edgy.  To the center one’s efforts on achieving a good conscience may lead to hypocrisy or guilt, or both.  To make one’s health one’s chief aim may bring about something akin to hypochondria.  For Viktor Frankl these are not ends to be pursued for their own sake or even for one’s own good.  Instead they ensuing naturally for people who live for something else, for something greater.’

That is so beautiful and powerful and ties back to a lot of what we’ve talked back today.  Doing this for someone else.  You can rock the mission and the purpose that you were put here to do.  Doing this so that you can be the optimal version of yourself.  Doing this because it’s the right thing to do.  You are obviously incredibly blessed and incredibly courageous to be on this call right now, to be part of the Ignite Family.  It’s such a pleasure and honor to provide you the tool that will help you to take off to the next level.  Please know that establishing the deeper meaning and the deeper purpose, and the social connections-that is when this becomes a whole new ball game.  It’s not about the scale.  It’s the furthest thing from vanity.  It’s about meaning and purpose in your life.  Thanking you for letting me be a part of that.  Thank you for being a part of the community.  Thank you for being here, and thank you for making this all possible.  I want to send mad love and thanks to everybody and I will see you in the next session.  Thank you so much and have a great evening.  Ba-bye.