Building Metabolic Muscle
When you have established a consistent routine of eating FOOD, your body will be ready to build the machinery that will allow you to become metabolically flexible.
How do we do this?
Here’s the deal: after a lifetime of eating blindly and unaware, we must be very slow and careful in order to allow our bodies time to transition to the optimal state.
So, do not proceed with the next steps unless you have done the elimination process outlined in my last article (see that post here). You will crash and burn and then blame it on the process, instead of where the blame really lies: on yourself.
Think of it this way. If you had never run a mile in your life, would you go run a marathon tomorrow? If you had never completed a burpee or tried to carry a bucket of rocks up a hill, would you attempt an obstacle course next week (when you are ready for that here’s where to go - spartan.com)? If you had never so much as attempted a dive into water, would you all the sudden be able to do a double back-flip into the pool?
I don’t think so.
These things require training. And that’s exactly how you must think about these next steps.
Metabolic training.
Also, this process will not work if you are consuming material that is NOT FOOD. Real food that is nutrient-dense and satisfying is required. You must give your body the wholesome protein and fat that it needs to direct and build this machinery (more specifics on that here).
Once you have eliminated material that is NOT FOOD and are consistently eating FOOD, here are the next two things to do:
Adjust the time in the evening when the last bite of food enters your mouth.
Adjust the time in the morning when the first bite of food enters your mouth.
First, think about your evening routine. If you normally eat dinner around 6pm, do not let a bit of food enter your mouth after 8pm. You may do this gradually if you are accustomed to having a “bedtime snack.” Back your snack back to 10pm, then 9pm, then 8pm. Then stop the snack altogether. If you normally eat dinner at 5pm, stop all eating at 7pm. Get this right and consistent BEFORE you start adjusting your morning routine.
Once your evening is correct and established, begin adjusting your morning. Take whatever hour you normally eat your first meal, and delay it by one hour. If you normally eat at 8am, then push it to 9am. Then once you adjust to 9am, push it to 10am. Once you adjust to 10am, push it to 11am. Do not move on to the next adjustment until you are completely comfortable. There should not be any suffering involved. Your goal at the end of this (possibly long) process is to not eat your first bite of food until noon.
We are still not counting macros or calories, we don’t care about whether or not we are burning fat, we only care about NUTRIENTS. Removing things that are NOT FOOD and replacing them with FOOD. Again, you must build the metabolic muscle before you ask it to perform for you.
This will require planning on your part. You will have to pack food and resist your co-workers pressure to hit the local fast food joint. But again, make it simple, repeat your favorites, plan ahead, and give your body what it needs to become metabolically flexible and begin to heal itself.
“When you clean up your act and get insulin production under control, and dramatically increase the nutrient density of your diet, you will notice some life-changing benefits after a short time. Instead of relying upon your next carbohydrate dose to sustain energy and productivity, you will notice stable mood, appetite, and cognitive function between meals, and even if you delay or skip a meal. You will notice faster recovery from workouts, and feel less fried, inflamed, and agitated after a routine hectic day” - Mark Sisson, “Keto for Life”
I couldn’t put it better myself.
Back to our training.
I am not sure if you noticed what the above two steps actually are, so let me spell it out for you.
1. You are shrinking your eating window.
And
2. You are expanding your fasting window.
And guess what? By the end of the process, when you don’t eat after 8pm and don’t eat until noon, you are now fasting for 16 hours, congratulations!
I knew you could do it.
How long do you do this? As long as it takes for you to feel comfortable with it. Once you can fast gracefully and painlessly, you will then have the freedom to move around your eating and fasting windows for convenience. Want to have a massive breakfast at 8am next Saturday? Great, just adjust your evening eating time. You will also be able to shrink your eating window when needed to just 4 hours if you prefer (basically just eating dinner), with no ill effects. But don’t adjust from the times I list UNTIL you have done the hard work of building metabolic flexibility.
Also, you should not be surviving this process, but thriving in it. It should become routine and actually enhance your life, no suffering involved. IF you are suffering, you are moving too fast. You need to adjust your times, AND make sure you are only eating nutritious FOOD.
Let’s talk about your morning routine before you eat your first bite of food.
Anyone who knows us knows that we love our morning coffee, though for us it must be clean and mycotoxin-free (get some here). If we are traveling we love to find local coffee shops that roast their own beans, so they are fresh and non-moldy. Banish Starbucks from your life except in dire need. Most towns have a local coffee roaster that you need to be supporting anyway. For flights and other travel when local coffee shops are not an options we love these and these.
It is perfectly fine to consume coffee or tea (my favorite teas are from Pique - but I also love Numi Chocolate Puer) - during your fasting window, though you must NOT add sugar of any kind. Drinking it black is best, but I have no problem if you add some heavy whipping cream (because it is mostly fat), which is my personal favorite way to consume it. Other people like adding butter, MCT oil (buy some here), or collagen (buy some here) to their coffee to make it more filling, and if this is what you need to do at first, go for it. AT FIRST. Just keep in mind that eventually you need to transition to just a splash or two of heavy cream, or even black for the ninja warriors. Save the heavier coffee for closer to lunchtime, and don’t forget to switch over to decaf if you consume after 2pm.
As you are transitioning your morning routine to “lunch” being your first bite of food, you may need some ideas on what to eat during this training. You may need to pack some of these things to take to work with you. Here are some ideas of easily packable foods that can be eaten cold or at room temp:
Grass-fed beef sticks (Chomps, Nick’s Sticks, Country Archer, and New Primal are all good - get some here)
Eggs (soft-boiled if they need to be portable)
Grass-fed cheese (raw cheese is best, order some here, but Organic Valley is also good)
Kion Bars (my family loves these bars, great ingredients and made with cocoa butter not seed oils, buy them here)
Olives
Canned wild-caught salmon (I get mine at Costco)
Smoked wild-caught sockeye salmon (Trader Joe’s)
Sauerkraut (the real probiotic kind, like Wildbrine)
Organic berries (keep the portion small)
Liverwurst, Braunschweiger or Headcheese (from US Wellness Meats, these arrive fully cooked, you can thaw and slice, and take a slice with you, absolutely delicious and don’t taste like organ meats at all)
A note on raw honey: Raw honey is GREAT for you, within reasonable amounts. And you may find that adjusting to this new way of eating messes with your energy levels for a time. Adding raw honey (a spoonful when needed) will help this process. Also, make sure you are eating plenty of sea salt, and add an electrolyte supplement (like this one) when needed.
Remember, we are building metabolic muscle. Your doctor may have been harping on you to start an exercise routine, and yes that is important. But I would argue that building an eating routine is MORE important. Your body requires FOOD first and foremost. Stop expecting it to do all these amazing things (like lose weight and performing well) without it.
And by the way, endlessly doing chronic cardio is NOT the exercise routine you want. Your first priority must be resistance training. More on that later.
This adjustment phase will take you at least six weeks. Don’t require your body to go any faster than that. And it really is okay if it takes you longer. When you have completed this process, you will be ready to learn how to set that metabolic machinery to work for you for the rest of your life.