VeganAthleteGuide

Category: Blog

How to measure body fat percentage from home – Easy and cheap
There are many ways to measure your body fat percentage. Some include to go and get an expensive check by a doctor that can give you almost 100% accurate numbers. But most people don’t need it to be this accurate and can measure body fat percentage from home easy and cheap.

How to measure body fat percentage from home with a mirror
You can choose different tools and methods to check your body fat percentage from home. But all have their pros and cons.
There is a totally free method and that is basically the mirror. This way you can roughly estimate your fat percentage.
What you do is take pictures of yourself every week to record your progress. Either you make the shot or let somebody else make a picture of you. Just keep in mind to have good light and take it at the same spot with the same light, as this can make a difference.
Capturing your progress can further motivate you by having your progress not only in numbers but visually. This can be done additionally to other methods of fat measuring you use.
To help you to guess your body you can check the pictures from builtlean.com below:
Pros using a mirror and camera to measure body fat percentage:
It is free (if you have a mirror and camera already)
Extra visual motivation to the numbers
Cons using a mirror and camera to measure body fat percentage:
You need to have experience to guess your fat percentage
It is not very accurate to determine body fat
Should be done at the same spot and with good light

How to measure your body fat percentage from home with a BIA device
A BIA device (Bioelectrical impedance analysis) is measuring your body fat percentage by sending electricity through your body. There are two devices you can choose from. One comes as a weight scale and another to hold in your hands like in the picture below.
If you would use the device on the picture above, it would send the electricity from one arm to the other while passing your body. This way it determines your body fat percentage by measuring the resistance and time the electricity needs to travel.
The problem is that the hydration of your body plays a role when measuring. You can’t be dehydrated because this would lead to false results. Like measuring after waking up without breakfast.
But too much water in a full bladder or poop in your intestines can have influence in the results as well. So you always have to “launch the rockets” before using the device.
And there is one more problem as electricity is always looking for the fastest way to travel. This leads to a partly fat check in your body only.
If you would take the device meant for your hands, then the electricity would only run through your upper body neglecting the fat stored in the lower one. A scale on the other hand, would only measure your lower body by sending the electricity from one leg up to your butt and down to the other leg
Depending where your body is storing your fat, this could lead to inaccurate results as well. For more accuracy you would better need both devices and take the average of both results.

Pros using a BIA device to measure body fat percentage:
Very easy and fast method
Can be done alone
Cons using a BIA device to measure body fat percentage:
Hydration of the body can falsify the results
Measures only limited parts of the body

How to measure your body fat percentage from home with a caliper
A caliper is a simple tool that is using the thickness of your skin to measure your body fat percentage.
It needs to be placed at three or more different spots on the body like thigh, abdomen, chest and triceps for example. The average number of the results will indicate the body fat percentage.
It is best to have another person to do the measurements for you. It is important that the measurement is done at the same spots as before and in the same way.
Therefore, it should be done by the same person because someone else can measure different like with more or less pressure and falsify the results. You can use NOFOLLOW linear-software.com to calculate the result for you.
Most important for you is not how much body fat percentage you have but how it is changing. So make sure that the measurement is done in the same way for accurate progress records.
The calipers are unusable or inaccurate if your body fat is too high because then you can’t have a good grip with them.

Pros using a caliper to measure body fat percentage:
More reliable than other home devices
Very cheap
Cons using a caliper to measure body fat percentage:
Best with another person to measure for you
Not suitable for highly overweight people

Conclusion
Measure your body fat percentage once a week/month to keep track of how it is changing.
From the mentioned devices a caliper would be the best choice to measure body fat percentage at home. A BIA device can be used, if you have a too high body fat percentage what can make the calipers unusable.
If you want one of the devices:
Anything unclear? Leave a comment below.

See ya
Alex
February 16, 2017
How are Organic Foods better for you
There is often the assumption that organic foods are not much better than non organic foods. This might be true in terms of taste but how are organic foods better for you in terms of your health and weight?

Do organic foods have more nutrients than conventional foods?
Organic foods seem have not much advantage when it comes to vitamins and minerals. The major difference in nutrients is in the antioxidants (phytonutrients) amount.
Organic foods can have almost twice as much antioxidants than non organic ones as shown in this study. This means organic foods are more potent in protecting your cells.
So you can already say that organic foods are better in keeping you healthy and giving longer youth. And they also have better antimutagenic properties what is beneficial in cancer prevention.
One substance higher in non organic foods is cadmium. It is poisonous and similar to mercury and lead and can be found in amounts double as high compared to organic foods.
This is because of phosphate fertilizers non organic foods are dependent on due to the destruction of the soil through synthetic pesticide products. Those pesticides are also poisoning the groundwater.

Are low amounts of toxic pesticides harmful?
There is evidence that farm workers who work with pesticides, suffered from genetic damage.
But the amounts in the food is of course significantly lower. There is a debate about if those amounts are harmful or not.
And what seems to be often studied are the health risks of the pesticides isolated. Though the products that contain those, have many other ingredients.
Glyphosate is a pesticide that is an ingredient in the product Roundup. It was tested in a study financed by it’s owner Monsanto as not harmful for humans. But another study that was testing the product Roundup itself with all its ingredients, rather than only the single ingredient glyphosate, found that it has harmful effects.
And similar results have been shown for any synthetic pesticides. Only if all the ingredients combined in the pesticide product are tested, the active pesticides are harmful for humans.
Roundup that is sprayed on GMO foods like soy, flax, canola, corn and other crops has following health risks:
Infertility
Birth defects
Hormone imbalance
Brain or nerves damage
Leaky gut development
Cancer
Another thing that I would like to mention is that pesticides do bring money (a lot of money) to certain companies like Monsanto, DuPont and Novartis. And bad news about pesticides bring bad business to those companies. So these businesses pay studies and have methods to change the facts in favor of the business. Like monsanto did by increasing the allowance of glyphosate from 0.2 mg/kg to already 40mg/kg so it is legal to put it on your plate. You can read about it on rt.com.

Do organic foods play a role in weight loss?
It is clear that pesticides are toxins. And toxins that your body is absorbing have to be eliminated to prevent harm or quarantined in fat cells that are stored in your connective tissue.
So by eating too much pesticide foods you could force your body to store the toxins isolated in fat and transferred inside your connective tissue around all your organs. That means between your skin and muscles too which is visible.
By having an excess amount of the so called conventional foods, your body can be always in quarantine mode because it doesn’t have the time to get rid of the toxins. And by passing the intestines first, a damaged digestive tract can be the result.
Additionally to fat gain this will also lead to a malfunctioning connective tissue that is storing nutrients for your organs.
I actually wonder how beneficial it might be to try to lose weight and force the body to burn these quarantine fats. Because it would also force it to get rid of the toxins that might be too much to handle, what could have possible adverse health effects.
A better solution would be to give your body a detox supplement to cleanse it.
And please do not think that organic junk and processed food have no effect on weight gain.

Conclusion
The question about how organic foods are better for you wouldn’t be asked so often, if we would maybe label foods in a different way.
Why did we start to call conventional food organic at some time? Instead of changing the name for the pesticide foods to unconventional foods. This fact already starts to play with your mind psychological, by telling you that you eat harmless traditional food.
It should be clear by now that non organic food isn’t harmless. And that you have to change your mindset about the food you eat to prevent negative effects for yourself and the environment that is damaged as well.
How high and how many health risks exactly there are won’t be easy to determine, when businesses are fighting to bring up their “truth”.

Make use of the sharing buttons.

See ya
Alex
February 10, 2017
Balanced Vegan Diet Plan for Weight Loss – Eat the right calories
Gone vegan but still can’t lose unnecessary weight? Or thinking of going vegan to lose weight easier? All you need is a balanced vegan diet plan for weight loss and some exercise to fire up your hormones. But let’s focus on the diet only for now and begin with a question before we come to the diet plan.
Do calories in a balanced vegan diet matter for weight loss?
The difference for a vegan diet compared to a “normal” western diet is that your body needs more work to convert the plant nutrients to make them bioavailable for you. Because of that your body will not overconsume calories and therefore calorie counting might be not necessary.
But there are a few more things to consider.
Women tend to store more fat than men because of another biology and less muscle mass. Muscles are great to burn fats even when you are not active, but you need to exercise first to get more muscles. So women might need to watch more for calories because they are very good in storing them as fat.
But calorie is not calorie. It is more important what calories you eat than how many calories. The difference in what calories you take lies in the form of the food. You have to always ask yourself: Is my food whole or not whole?
Processed white rice for example has no fiber like the natural form brown rice. Brown rice has fiber, that makes it more time consuming for the body to absorb all the calories.
Because it is harder for your body to get all the calories it needs from the food with fiber, it will take in less. So even though you eat the same caloric amount of white rice and brown rice, your body will have fewer calories from the brown rice absorbed.
Carbohydrates in the fiber-less food are absorbed too fast. Because of that your body can fill up its need for carbs faster. This will lead to an excess amount of carbs that your body won’t waste but convert into fat as energy reserve.
But your goal is not to store more fat but to burn it!
And there is one more factor that counts to the question “Is my food whole or not whole?”.
If you would take the brown rice and put it into a blender and make it into a puree, you would break down the fiber and make the digestible carbs easier available. You basically predigest the food for your body and take up more calories faster this way. This would result in more fat storage again.
So eating 100 g bread made of whole grains or just the 100 g whole grains makes a difference too. And a whole fruit would be better than a blended fruit and a blended fruit would be better than a juiced fruit because a blended fruit still has fiber.
So what is the answer to the question: Should I count calories for weight loss or just eat whole foods without counting?
Like you see from the example above, it isn’t such an easy task to count calories, if you have to guess how many calories your body actually absorbs. And your genetics and gender makes that not easier too.
If you want to be on the safe side, then you avoid processed foods as much as possible and start to count your calories only if you don’t see results (intensive bodyweight exercise included). After some time you will know from experience how much of what to eat and won’t need to count calories anymore.
It must be self explaining that vegan junk food like meat substitutes will give you a hard time to lose weight and be healthy.
Vegan meat substitutes and junk food will not do you a favor. What you really need is better cooking skills!

How to count calories
The reason I wrote that you count your calories only if you don’t see results, is because done wrong can lead to more harm than good.
There are things you can do wrong. In case you set your caloric need to low you can face the famous yo-yo effect after, if you should decide to eat more again.
Another one is that your body adapts to the caloric deficiency and starts to be more productive with less calories. You might end up with malnutrition as well as the infamous fat wheel!
The fat wheel (a term I just invented) is the following: You eat lesser, your body adapts. You still don’t lose weight and get stressed about it. Your body will put itself under stress too. The stress raises your cortisol hormone what makes fat loss even more impossible.
To do it the safe way you go to cronometer.com and enter your details. Then you will see how many calories you need to stay at your weight. Don’t forget to include your activity level.
Next you use cronometer to enter the foods you had during the day. Your goal is to be 250 calories below the calories you need.
Then during a 6 week period you check if you lose fat. And I mean check for fat not weight! If you see no change, then you can try to lower 250 more.
If you are obese, you can go for 500 calories below straight. But never do more than 500.
With the right food and correct exercise you should see results. If not, then the issue shouldn’t be the calories. So please don’t overdo it!

What food you should have in your kitchen
If you want to live a healthy life with a high quality body, you need high quality food. That’s why you should prefer organic food and save your money somewhere else.
Some people believe that there is no much difference in organic and non organic food. It can make a difference for your weight too.
Food to have in your cupboard:
Millet Flakes, Buckwheat Flakes, Oats
Almonds, Peanuts, Cashew, Walnuts, Brazil nuts
Flax Seeds, Chia Seeds, Hemp Seeds, Sunflower Seeds
Whole Grains (Millet, Buckwheat, Brown Rice, Amaranth, Quinoa, Spelt, Rye, Barley)
Legumes (Lentils, Peas, Beans)
Olive Oil, Hemp Oil, Avocado Oil, Coconut Oil (All virgin)
Dried Raisins
Still Spring Water
Food to have in your Fridge:
Broccoli, Cucumber, Capsicum, Tomato, Cabbage, Sweet Potato, Carrots, Arugula, Spinach, Wild Plants.
Orange, Kiwi, Banana, Pineapple, Pomegranate, Berries
Virgin Flax Seed Oil
Food to have in your medicine shelf:
Garlic
Cinnamon, Turmeric, Milk Thistle, Parsley, Oregano, Black Pepper and other herbs
There are other nice healthy foods that I haven’t mentioned.
And if you don’t buy candies and have fruits at home instead, you won’t have cravings for them.

How to use the food in your kitchen
This is based on the way I do it and can be altered of course. I exercise regularly and therefore eat some more calories. The amount in grams for food should be altered on personal needs.
If you want to use dry legumes like me, that are cheaper and have no additives, you will have to acquire the habit to think ahead of what you want to eat tomorrow, because you need to soak them before cooking.
But with a big fridge you can store the already soaked foods for several days and be more flexible this way.

Breakfast (Muesli)
100 g Millet flakes
1 Kiwi
10 g Brazil Nuts
30 g Almonds
30 g Flax Seeds
30 g Dried Raisins or preferably fresh berries
Still Water

You have to soak the flax seeds one day before you want to eat them. Either in the morning while preparing your breakfast or in the evening before going to sleep. Unsoaked ones will drain water from your intestine and could cause constipation.
You don’t have to soak the almonds and brazil nuts, but I would recommend it because soaking gets rid of the phytic acid and makes the micro nutrients more available and digestible. Phytic acid in a low dose however has shown to be beneficial against cancer.
The next day you blend a kiwi with around 0.4l still water in a blender. Add all ingredients into a bowl.
I know that it is not the best way to eat the kiwi in terms of what I have mentioned above, but combined with the water as well as the fat of the nuts, the sugar intake will be slowed down.
Variations:
You can use oats or the buckwheat flakes too. In case you have some gluten intolerance, oats might be a problem for you.
Instead of flax seeds you can take chia seeds or hemp seeds too. The reason I prefer flax seeds is because of the higher omega 3 amounts.
Walnuts would be a great alternative for almonds. But they are low in vitamin E.
Brazil nuts are the best known selenium source. 10g brazil nuts have a maximum of 200 micrograms selenium what will give you more than you need to protect your cells. More than 400 micrograms selenium are believed to be toxic though this should apply more for medication than natural sources.
The reason I choose kiwi is due to the high vitamin C amount. You can use other fruits like orange too if you like.
Caution with dried fruits though because most of them are industrially dried with sulfur and can harm your digestive system. So better use fresh fruits if you can.
And of course you can add all the above-mentioned variations in a good mix if you like.

Lunch
150 g Whole grains
75 g Legumes
500 g Vegetable salad
10g Flax seed oil

The vegetables will provide your cells with many vitamins, minerals and digestive enzymes (if raw). It is best to always have some raw vegetables before your main meal.
You can use flax seed oil on top of your salad and some herbs if you like. What I like to do often is to eat my vegetables separate and put the oil into the cooled down grains or legumes with some seasonings.
Other oils I use are avocado, olive, hemp and coconut oil. They don’t interfere much in your omega 3 to omega 6 ratio balance.
Never heat up flax seed oil or any oil high in polyunsaturated fatty acids (Omega 3 and omega 6). That will lead to trans fats and is highly unhealthy and will cause your body to isolate them with even more fat. The only oil you should use for high heat is coconut oil.
You can cook the first two ingredients as instructed. I would soak dry beans and peas usually 24 hours instead of just 12 as often recommended. That will make them better digestible. Dry lentils should be soaked too, but can be used unsoaked as well in case you forgot to soak something.
Special trick: Because beans can make you produce more butt air than you want and you usually don’t want to use it to launch to the moon (or someone beside you to send you there with his fist ), you can add one tablespoon bicarbonate of soda into the soaking water. This seems to help.
For whole grains soaking is less important, but maybe better. Which one you choose for your meal is your decision. All have a unique taste. Quinoa is usually more expensive than the others, but is praised highly for its health benefits and is my favorite in taste.
Herbs
You can try to include turmeric from time to time into your meals. It has some very good health benefits like detoxification of organs and can be made up 1000 times stronger by combining it with black pepper.
The thing with herbs though is that they are meant to heal specific areas by poisoning them and forcing the body to detox the problematic area more intensively. Thus neglecting the parts the body gives usually more priority to.
Therefore, it might be not wise to overuse any herb and that’s the reason you shouldn’t “overdose” herbs and use them probably more when really needed for a period. The bitter taste alone tells you that they are toxic. And garlic for example has the same effects like herbs.
Further knowledge can be probably best found in traditional Asian medicine and exclude my knowledge so far.

Dinner
50 g Peanuts or peanut butter
50 g Green leafy vegetables

A quick meal for the evening are some peanuts or if you like a peanut butter on a bread or a rice cracker. Or you can also make a salad with green leafy vegetables with peanut toppings.
You can use other nuts too. Look for the ingredients though and make sure it contains 100% nuts only.
Alternative:
If you have a ripe avocado you can make yourself an avocado salad.
Just add some cucumber, tomatoes and some green leafy vegetables.

Snacks during the day
Almonds or/and Cashew/Peanuts/Walnuts/
Bananas and fruits in general.

Almonds will be your best vitamin E source. Cashew can aid your zinc intake. Peanuts are very high in vitamin B3 and high in vitamin B5. Walnuts are the best source for Omega 3 from nuts, but still higher in Omega 6 though.
Bananas will be a good potassium source and are a great food after a workout, because they raise your blood sugar levels. This is ok after a workout. Other fruits should be preferred other times.
And drink enough still spring water from glass bottles if possible instead of fruit juices or soft drinks so you stay away from sugar.

Conclusion
Having a balanced vegan diet with whole foods is in my opinion the best way to lose weight. Not the only one but the best because it comes with health benefits.
If you stick to a good exercise plan as well, you will reach your goals fast enough.
Get started with a free workout plan for weight loss

Be consistent and most of all patient. There are no magic pills that will take the excess fat from your body in 2 weeks.

I am sure you have a lot of questions. If so, leave them in the comments, I am happy to help.

See ya
Alex
February 7, 2017
Vegan Meal Plan for Beginners – The Healthy way

Starting to be vegan without knowing the basics that keep you healthy or a wrong mindset can be reasons to quit a vegan diet. To keep that from happening you need a vegan meal plan for beginners that helps you to stay on track.
I won’t focus on giving you meal examples but guidelines you can use to create your own meals with some inspiration from some other sources if you need.

Basics ingredients and guidelines to create a Vegan Meal
You can see the most important foods as well as things to look for in the infographic below.

Have all of the 6 food groups daily in your diet and keep your food variating to make sure to get your nutrients.
At the beginning of your (healthy) vegan journey you should use cronometer.com to keep track of the nutrients you get from your food. Using it a couple of times you will start to know for yourself what to eat to get your nutrient levels.
Dry legumes need to be always soaked before you cook them. This will get rid of the phytic acid that prevents the release of nutrients and also your body from absorbing nutrients.
But phytic acid has some positive effects as well. It acts as an antioxidant and prevents cancer. You can find out more on www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
And about the whole grains. The options you see on the infographic are without gluten. In case you have a gluten intolerance, they are your preferred source. If you don’t have any, I would recommend to use whole spelt over whole wheat. Whole Oats are good too.

Thoughts that make you doubt a Vegan Diet
I won’t get enough Protein. Actually you not only can get enough protein throughout the day but even enough if you exercise and don’t supplement with protein shakes. Legumes, nuts, seeds and whole grains are all good sources of protein.
Iron? Not only it will be enough for men but as well for women who need a bit more. If you use my recommended food groups well, you won’t have any mineral deficiency except if you already have some health issues you might not be aware of. That is one reason to not just believe that everything is fine but to make regularly check ups.
There is nothing I can eat. The limitation is only in your head. There are millions of combinations you can have to create a vegan dish. And it is very likely that you can find at least hundred dishes you like, of which you will probably use not more than 20 regularly.
There are no restaurants. There are more and more options for vegans to go out to eat. And this will increase because veganism is growing. And you can be a part of the growth and not only improve your health but also reduce animal abuse and environmental damage caused by factory farming.
Veganism might be unhealthy for long term. Not sure what Dr. Ellsworth Wareham would say to that. This vegan retired as a plastic surgeon at 95. His mind and body stayed sharp like the scalpel he used.
A vegan lifestyle is unhealthy when you don’t know what you do. And depending what drugs you take that you shouldn’t (like birth control pills), or doing other lifestyle mistakes, you set yourself a ground for being unhealthy you might blame your diet for where it is not the diets fault.
Beware that cosmetics with questionable ingredients can cause harm too, like decreasing your thyroid function.

Is Supplementation necessary when having only Vegan Meals?
Using the RDA guideline in cronometer, you will usually have difficulties reaching your recommended calcium needs. But you won’t need as much as shown. 9.4mg per kg will do (~60%). Here is the study for that claim.
Your vitamin D levels can only be sufficient from sunlight no matter what diet (or supplementation in winter when the sun won’t be enough for you).
Vitamin B12 is the only “modern” vegan problem. You can read about my experience testing to go without vitamin B12 supplements.
If you variate and have a sufficient amount of the foods shown in the infographic, you shouldn’t face any malnutrition. Neither in macronutrients like protein nor in micronutrients like iron.

Conclusion

No matter how your individual vegan meal plan will look like, make sure to enjoy what you eat. You can give yourself some treats from time to time. Just keep yourself from being stressed about your diet. Stress can cause more harm than an unhealthy diet.
To stick to a vegan diet as a beginner, you will need a good reason to do so. I will soon link a post about how to stick with a vegan diet.

You probably have some questions. Don’t hesitate to leaf some in the comments section.

See ya
Alex

January 19, 2017
Best Vitamin B12 Supplement for Vegans and the rest of the World
If you are looking to supplement your vitamin B12, you will find many products to choose from. To make the choice easier I will explain how these supplements differ so you can get the best vitamin B12 supplement for yourself.

What Supplements you can choose from
You can get vitamin B12 in different forms. Not only in shape and structure like in pill- melting tablet- or liquid form but different in chemical forms too.
The shape form is the less important to focus on. But if I would choose one, I would take a liquid one, because digestion starts already in the mouth and it doesn’t have so many other ingredients like the melting tablet.
The main focus should be on the chemical form of B12 and there are mainly 4 to choose from. We have cyanocobalamin, hydroxocobalamin, methylcobalamin and adenosylcobalamin.
Three of those are occurring naturally in the body and in food. Cyanocobalamin compared to the other three is synthetic.
Hydroxocobalamin and adenosylcobalamin are higher available in meat products. Methylcobalamin is higher available in milk products. There are more forms of B12 (Cobalamin) that are usually not present in food but are produced through conversion in the body.

What are the differences in these Vitamin B12 Forms
The major difference between these four B12 forms is that only two of them are bioactive and can be used by your body. That doesn’t mean that the other two are useless but need to be converted by the body into active forms first.
To give you an understanding of the converting process look at the infographic below.
As you can see the cyanocobalamin needs up to four conversion processes and the hydroxocobalamin up to three to produce the bioactive coenzymes methylcobalamin and adenosylcobalamin.
Methylcobalamin can be converted to adenosylcobalamin but not the other way around.

What is the best Vitamin B 12 Supplement
The synthetic cyanocobalamin has the negative effect of leaving cyanide during the conversion in the body. Cyanide is a toxic substance that has damaging effects in the body. It was used during world war 1 and 2 because of that.
So it is already clear which vitamin B12 form you better avoid.
The only positive thing about it is, that it is very cheap to produce and thus cheaper to buy.
Hydroxocobalamin has the positive effect to stay the longest in your bloodstream as a deposit. Another positive effect is its ability to detox the mentioned cyanide as well as nitric oxide. Cyanide is usually accumulated in the body through smoking. Too much nitric oxide can cause migraines.
The downside is that during conversion from Cob(II)alamin, S-Adenosyl methionine (in short SAM or AdoMet) is used to produce methylcobalamin.
S-Adenosyl methionine is a cosubstrate that has shown in studies to have:
the same positive effects on depression like regular anti depressions
similar positive effects on colon cancer like chemotherapy
pain relief in osteoarthritis patients due to probably anti-inflammatory effects
benefits for liver health, where it is produced and used in the body.
You can read more about it on www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
To avoid SAM being used up in your body, a reduced intake of hydroxocobalamin would be beneficial.
The best vitamin B12 supplement suitable for vegans I would recommend you to take, would be a mixture of methylcobalamin and adenosylcobalamin. This helps your body to get the two important coenzymes it needs without converting them and using up your body’s resources.
Hydroxocobalamin can be considered as well for detox reasons. Because of its long durability in the body, compared with the two coenzyme forms, it won’t be necessary to take it on a regular basis.

Some people have a missing gene to convert the cob(I)alamin into methylcobalamin what seems to cause side effects. In case you realize side effects you should focus on getting your B12 from hydroxocobalamin, if you already know that you have a problem with methylcobalamin.
Don’t hesitate to share your experience or questions about the mysterious vitamin B12. You might help someone or can get new insights. You can read about my experience here.
See ya
Alex
January 5, 2017
Vitamin B12 deficiency in Vegans – What you should know

Vitamin B12 for vegans is one of the nutrients people think won’t be sufficiently obtained on a vegan diet. Instead of the other things like protein, iron, calcium and what else some tend to see as problematic, vitamin B12 deficiency in vegans is the only thing that is truly being a problem that you can’t overcome with a vegan diet. At least with a tasty diet.. (more below)
So that you not face any problems, I will give you the things you need to know and my experience about the experiment I made with not supplementing with vitamin B12.

Experiment on a Vegan diet without Vitamin B12 Supplementation
Going vegan I made tons of research on this diet form and stumbled across one major issue in a vegan diet. As you already know it was vitamin B12. So having the “paleo way” in my mind I wasn’t really into considering supplementation but a way to get the B12 on a natural way.
What I have found about getting the B12 natural (back then) was that if you have a healthy gut flora, your body will absorb a sufficient amount of B12 from your gut. Important to know is that B12 is actually produced in your colon, the only problem is that the colon is not absorbing a sufficient amount into your bloodstream and the B12 is ending up wasted in the toilet.
Other ways I read of getting vitamin B12 are eating dirty vegetables, meaning not washed after harvest, what meant to me the only healthy way doing this is to grow your own food (what I couldn’t do). And another would be to drink water from a natural spring. I have a spring near my place and gave that approach a try.
So assuming to have a healthy gut flora, eating organic foods (but cleaned) and drinking my water from a spring I put it to the test. After 2 years I had obvious symptoms I couldn’t neglect and did a regular blood test to check my B12 status. It is not the best approach for a B12 test but good enough, if you are really deficient and it turned out that I was deficient.

Vitamin B12 is recycled in your Body
The reason why I could go for two years without having symptoms of a vitamin B12 deficiency is mainly because vitamin B12 can be reused and therefore your body won’t get rid of it so fast.
But after I started to be sleepy throughout the day as well as more forgetful, I did the blood test to check what it could be. Already being very sure it can only be the B12 the tests showed exactly that. The doctor added that he is surprised that my hemoglobin (red blood cell) size is normal as it should usually get bigger. I’m not sure if that has something to do with unknown super powers (probably not).
So my test failed and I can tell everybody not to repeat this experiment because it can end in damaged nerves in your body that can cause an inability for a lifetime, if you don’t react quick enough. Another thing I learned is to invest into blood tests instead of just thinking everything is fine.
After taking vitamin B12 supplements for some weeks and recheck myself again on the B12 issue, the results have been alright. But soon after I realized that I could have prevented this from happening. There was another way I could have obtained the vitamin B12 naturally, if I only had thought about it more simple.

Vitamin B 12 can be obtained on a Vegan diet but…
… that’s for the hardcore vegans. Like I mentioned before B12 is produced in the colon and then wasted in the toilet. Well, thinking simple would be: “Why waste it?”
If you would eat your poo, you would get a sufficient amount of B12. And that was actually already known in the late 50s when Dr. Sheila Callender treated vegans with low B12 with water extracts from their poo. That is documented on onlinelibrary.wiley.com.
Vitamin B12 isn’t hard to get naturally. Just hard to eat.
Looking at the animal kingdom you will find animals like our beloved dogs eating poo. The reason behind it is that they are lacking in nutrients (like B12) they can get by reusing their “brownies”. This a legitimate and natural way to get B12 even if you are on a vegan diet. You can argue that poo is not vegan but vegetarian and I would’t participate in that debate, because I think that time could be better used like in trying to sell one’s poo.
Luckily we have science that can produce vitamin B12 in capsule form so you don’t need to live a poopy live.

Vitamin B12 should be taken seriously
No matter if you want to take supplements or tend more to poo, which I wouldn’t recommend, watch out to keep your vitamin B12 up. Too low levels can also cause depression what can result in obesity as well.
A Vitamin B12 deficiency isn’t only a vegan or vegetarian problem. The average Joe can have it too and people with a higher age tend to be deficient as well. Therefore, you should always do yearly check ups on any deficiency to prevent age related diseases.
You can find out about what vitamin B12 supplement you should take here.

Did you have a similar experience like I did or did you even have found a better way nobody knows about getting your vitamin B12? Let me know in the comments.
See ya
Alex

December 13, 2016
Tooth Pain After Exercise is nothing to worry about

After I do a very demanding exercise I usually get tooth pain after that. Often the tooth pain starts sometime during the exercise and lasts for a while. But this is nothing you and I have to worry about and go to the doc so he can sell you some medication. Let’s see the reasons for this phenomenon.

Oxygen demand in muscles causes tooth pain
Exercising leads to a higher oxygen (O2) demand in your muscles. This oxygen is delivered by your blood cells to your muscles. If you put your muscles under high intensity exercise, the oxygen demand is rising and the body adapts to the demand to make your muscles go further.
This is done by releasing the short term stress hormone adrenaline also known as epinephrine. What is does is regulating your blood flow by narrowing down the blood vessels of your organs so those get less blood and go in standby mode. This process is called vasoconstriction. You can read more about it on Wikipedia if you like.
The muscles blood vessels on the other side do the opposite and widen what is called vasodilation. This way the muscles can receive more blood and thus more oxygen what makes them more durable and recover faster. This way exercising muscle groups can have up to 20 times more blood flow.
Sounds fancy but what does that have to do with tooth pain?
Well, like mentioned before your body focuses on delivering oxygen to your muscles and therefore closes up blood wherever it isn’t needed at the moment. That goes for your mouth and teeth as well. The blood vessels in your teeth are close to its nerves. When the vessels narrow they affect the nerves and thus you get the tooth pain.

Heavy breathing causes tooth pain as well
Another reason you get tooth pain is through heavy breathing with an open mouth when you exercise. What happens is actually the same as before: vasoconstriction, blood vessels narrowing in your teeth.
Vasoconstriction isn’t only triggered through heavy exercise and the demand of your muscles for oxygen but just through cold as well. Your body needs to maintain 37 degrees Celsius at all time.
When breathing heavily the air is passing your teeth fast and thus has a cooling effect on them. This leads your body to narrow the blood vessels so they are closer to the core where it is warmer. This way the body can maintain its temperature. The fast breathing is a similar effect like biting into ice cream just not as sudden.
If you do a High Intensity Interval Training where you do several sprints your chances for tooth pain are highest (at least for me).
So the short answer for tooth pain after exercise is because of vasoconstriction.
Hope that was helpful and relieving for you
See ya
Alex

December 5, 2016
High Intensity Interval Training – Melt fats like Ice on Fire
When working out at the stadium in my place, I often see a lot of people jogging in slow or sometimes a bit more moderate speed. Doing this 30 minutes or up to one hour. I admire them and tell myself that those people must have a lot of time and willpower. I don’t have time to jog for one hour and am not willing to jog for months without seeing almost no results in fat loss or endurance gain. So I go for the lazy approach and do some High Intensity Interval Training.
Are you planning to be lazy too? Then keep reading.

What is High Intensity Interval Training
High Intensity Interval Training is when you feel like dying but don’t accept it. That is the short description you have to keep in mind when you practice HIIT. You will read more about that below in how to do High Intensity Interval Training.
HIIT is basically a cardio exercise. That means you should bring your ass out in the sun and run. You could do it on a treadmill in the gym, but I’m all about being in nature. And it will be difficult to do it efficiently on a treadmill.
A HIIT is usually no longer than 15 minutes and is based on sprints with short recovery times. So no excuse here with no time to workout.

Why do High Intensity Interval Training
There are several reasons to do a High Intensity Interval Training. The most popular would probably be the increased weight loss through a more efficient and lasting calorie burn.
Another one is the increased endurance through the production of more mitochondria in your cells, that are known as the powerhouse of your cells. The increase of mitochondria leads to several health benefits and helps to sustain weight loss as well.
Here are the benefits of HIIT in a nutshell:
Fast fat burn
More mitochondria in your cells
Increased endurance
Better hormone production
Nice shot of serotonin (Gives you a wide smile)
You really FEEL you worked out (Makes you smile even more)
You save time
15 minutes HIIT is up to 9 times more efficient in fat burning than 60 minutes jogging.
The benefits are worth dying for. So don’t be afraid to die a little when you go for a HIIT.

How to do High Intensity Interval Training
The classic way is to go for a run.
After warming up you start jogging and accelerate into a sprint. That means you run as fast as you can. When your GOAL is reached you stop running and change back into slow jogging to recover. You repeat this process 8 times and can do it more as you progress.
The important thing here is not to recover for too long or too short to get the maximum benefit. You should aim for 60-65% of your maximum heart rate. When sprinting, you want to reach 90-95% of your maximum heart rate before you slow down. (That’s a GOAL)
There are three ways to determine your GOAL. They are by distance, time or heart rate. The last one is the best choice because it tells you, depending on your individual heart frequency, when to slow down and when to run.
The amount of time or distance will be hard for you to determine because you have no solid experience on your heart rates yet. If you have used a heart rate monitor for a while, then you will have enough experience to know when it is time to go.
But it will change as you get better and so the heart rate monitor will always be the best choice to do an efficient HIIT.

Your maximum heart rate can be calculated with the formula “220 – your age” or a bit more precise with the formula “208 – (your age * 0.7).” All you have to do next is to determine your two heart rates.
60% and 90% should do. Let’s make a little example with the 30 year old Tarzan, so it is really clear:
For 90% heart rate: (220 - 30) x 0.9 = 171 For 60% heart rate: (220 - 30) x 0.6 = 114
The intensity of the training leads to increased metabolic and hormone regulating processes in your body throughout the day.
The best time to do a HIIT would be before noon to benefit most of it. Doing it in the evening a few hours before sleep would be less productive, because it could inhibit your sleep.
If your goal is to increase your endurance, then you can control your progress by checking your heart rate directly after you wake up (it should get lower as you improve) and by checking how much time you need to recover from high heart rates (should take less time as you improve).
An alternative to running would be rope jumping, swimming or cycling. I would say that running is the most effective one but should be altered from time to time to increase the results.

How to survive a High Intensity Interval Training

HIIT is done succesfully with a good mindset. Think of your goal, not of your pain.

During round three or four you feel like dying. But it is only the lazy pig inside your mind telling you that you do.
Your body can go on. Fight that pig and silent it and the following rounds will get easier. Half done, only 3 left, only 2 left only 1 left, Done! That is all you have to see. And equip yourself with motivational music to get your ass on fire.
If you have high blood pressure or a cardiovascular disease you better not do HIIT. Once running with my cousin, who had high blood pressure, I was running alone from round 3 onwards. He started to see fat birds flying around his head and was dizzy for quite some time.
One other thing to look for is that you run on a soft ground or with good running shoes (Ideally both).
Don’t take that too easy and risk damaging your joints. Unlike muscles they repair and adapt really slow and can become a lasting problem, if you don’t take care in advance.
Some running shoes I would highly recommend you
Well that’s it. Would be nice to hear about your experience. Happy dying 😉
See ya
Alex
October 18, 2016
How to lose the fat on your thighs
One thing you women often ask is how to lose the fat on your thighs. So you are looking for the same answer it seems. I will make it easy for you and give you all the important facts you need to know so you don’t have to struggle anymore. It is most likely that not all of your questions are covered because every one has different ones and I would need to write a book to answer all, so just use the comment section and I will try to help.

Why your thighs are not firm
Below the skin of your thigh lays the connective tissue. Your body stores nutrients like fats in it. These fats can come from too high calorie consumption which is consumed through sugar especially.
What’s also important to know is that fat acts as an insulator for toxins as well. So when your body is getting too many toxins without having the time to get rid of them, it just isolates and stores them in your connective tissue until it has time to get rid of them.
Having too much fat in your connective tissue is causing to form cellulite (orange skin). So your main goal is to get rid of those and firming your connective tissue to have firm thighs. Having this in mind, you do the following.

Exercises to trigger fat loss and firmness
If you already have started to exercise, you have made a good step. The next step would be to optimize your workouts.
What you want to do is a High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) for fast results. That means that you have to step up the speed of your running to sprints. Maybe easy jogging gives you a nice feeling of doing something but it doesn’t trigger fat burning effectively.
HIIT on the other hand is giving your body a kick in the ass to burn fat even hours after the exercise. A short 15 minutes HIIT will increase your fat burn up to 9 times more efficiently than 60 minutes of jogging. Check out how to do a HIIT.
To tighten your legs you want to include weight training. Your body as weight is all you need for that. Try to include exercises that are demanding.
For example, if you can do over 20 squads before your legs can’t do anymore, then you should consider a harder exercise. To make a squad more difficult, you don’t need more weights. There are 3 options how to simulate more weight:
Execute the exercise slower. Especially when squatting down
Execute it very slow downwards and make an explosive jump
Do harder exercises like front or back steps and remember to include number 1. and 2., if necessary
Do the HIIT and the weight training for legs every 3-4 days.
What is also important is to train your upper body on days your legs need a rest, so your body keeps burning fat. It doesn’t matter which parts of your body you train for fat loss.
If you do push and pull exercises with your upper body, your body will burn the fat from your legs as well. Don’t do only push up exercises but especially pull up exercises.
Why?
Pull up exercises will include your back muscles which have more muscles than your chest that you train with push ups. The bigger the muscles that are involved in the exercises the more fat you will burn.
Vary the training with exercises you would like try out and that you enjoy, and make them a bit similar to an HIIT in terms of resting times.
Include the upper body training in between the days of HIIT and weight training for legs.
On every other day you could do some easy static exercises or moderate jogging for 15 minutes. It is important to be active every day and not to exercise late if possible, to boost your hormones earlier in the day. Well balanced hormones will coordinate the fat burn more efficiently.

Better metabolism for efficient fat loss
Your metabolism will be already triggered through your exercises. But working out is not everything. You have to watch for some other things to ensure a proper fat burn in your thighs. And remember that there is not only fat but toxins as well.
Things you have to look for to ensure a good metabolism in a nutshell:
Don’t sleep later than 11pm ideally, to ensure that your hormones don’t go out of balance.
Have a healthy organic diet with raw vegetables and fruits. Stay away from sugars. Eat high fiber foods.
Avoid stress and bad emotions.
Test your blood for nutritional deficiencies. Keep an eye on T3 Levels.
Don’t use Anti Baby pills and other drugs that influence your hormones. Skin products can be an issue as well
For the toxin part; you have to give your body time to detox. There are several ways to do that:
Intermittent fasting once or twice a week
or/and eat not too early and not too late in the day
Do a full detox program once to twice a year
You will see good results after 8 weeks of implementing the exercises and the suggestions for better metabolism.
I am very sure that you will have an interest in my eBook that is covering more than just your thighs.
If something is unclear, leave a comment. Or bookmark this page to report your progress after your 8 weeks.

See ya
Alex
October 17, 2016
Best Anti Aging Face Cream – Only Natural Ingredients
If you have read the ingredient list on cosmetic products you probably read a lot of ingredients that sound like spaceships. Often these spaceships are made of skin or health damaging compounds that can even make your hormones go roller coast. And that is something you really don’t want, because your hormones play a significant role in your aging process. But is it really necessary to buy an expensive cosmetic product that is putting you in such danger?

The best anti aging face cream doesn’t have to have tons of questionable ingredients. And it can be made by yourself. Below you can see how. Already excited?

The Ingredients

Avocado Oil. Your main ingredient is Avocado Oil. “Huh, running around oily?” you may ask. Actually no. Avocado oil is soaked up in less than 15 minutes by your skin and keeps it moisturized. It has high amounts of the antioxidant Vitamin E.

Your skin will get the following benefits from the Avocado Oil:
- Moisture
- Elasticity
- Anti inflamentory
- Reduces itching
- No acne
- Less wrinkles
- Scar repair
It also seems to protect you a little against UVA rays from the sun, which make your skin cells die faster and make you age. And you should know that glass only protects from the UVB rays that make you tanned, but not from UVA.

You should know that glass only protects from the UVB sun rays that make you tanned, but not from UVA. This man was driving his truck for many years. The one sided sun exposure caused his skin to age significantly compared to the non exposed side. Check out my Vitamin D Post to find out how to protect your skin.

Essential Lavender Oil. This essential oil can be used on every skin type. It has the same effects like avocado oil. Another nice ability is it’s calming effect that can aid to your sleep or raise your mood depending when you use it.

Rosehip Oil. It contains high amounts of Retinol in its plant form called Beta Carotene and also high amounts of Vitamin C. Rosehip Oil is scientifically proven to have age reversing effects. So you should consider to include it if you are over 30. It is especially well known for scar repair and has great ability to keep the skin moisturized as well.

Another benefit is that you can inhale the essential oils for other beneficial effects. So you don’t only get a better facial skin. I have put together a list of the best quality oils for you.

How to use them

I would recommend to use a small glass bottle to make your mixture in it. As base ingredient you use 90% Avocado oil as a carrier oil and 10% of the two essential oils combined. All of the mentioned oils can be applied on your skin without being diluted if desired though. That means the amount of the two essential oils can be higher if you like. But this isn’t applicable for most of the other essential oils.

You can use your new self made face “cream” once in the morning and once in the evening. And that’s not it. The mixture can be used for your hair and scalp as well to promote hair growth and prevent thinning hair.

Keep the essential oils in your fridge, so they don’t lose their effects and get rancid. Especially the Rosehip oil. You can do the same for the avocado oil if you don’t intend to use it for salad dressing or similar.

Before mixing them all together you should try all oils on parts of your forearm skin. In case you might be allergic to one of them.

Don’t expect the oils to work immediately. It can take a few weeks until you see the difference.
```
Essential oils can't be patented. That's why they won't get popular with pharmaceutical companies or be recommended as a healthy alternative. This is the reason why they are not well studied. The knowledge about their effects come mainly from years of ancient experience.
```
Final words about anti aging

It would be nice if its enough to just put some magical elixier on your face and not to age at all. But I don’t have to tell you that this is not true. You know that a proper diet that enables your body to work properly is one of the main keys for youth. If you want to learn how aging works and what you can do about it, then you might be interested in my eBook. It is free. More information on the side bar.

Remember to return and leave your experience in the comments.

See ya

Alex

Dedicated to Irene
September 23, 2016