2016

3 Sure Fire Ways to Elevate Your Seasons of Life

3 Sure Fire Ways to Elevate Your Seasons of Life
Life is busy. I get that.

At times, I feel incredibly overwhelmed by the million-and-one directions I'm being yanked, prodded and pulled. Between family, work, and the pursuit of my personal passions... well, it's a wonder no one has invented the 48 hour day!

How do you elevate your season?


When Bulletproof 360 (originators of the real Bulletproof Coffee recipe ) asked me how do I " elevate my season ", I had to really think about it.

They challenged me to look at my life a little bit differently. When I think about the act of elevating anything and everything in my life, I've realized it's not a short-term, every-once-in-a-while thing. It's a 24/7 commitment to self-improvement in all areas of my life.

https://youtu.be/kwIBghzhMPI

Bottomline, we can always improve.

We can always get better.

We can always strive for that je ne sais quoi... and in the process, impact not only ourselves but also inspire those around us to follow our example. But it takes more than a simple choice, it's daily choices put into action -- a ritual of constant measurable improvement.

And in my case, a personal Whole Life Fitness Manifesto.

If I had to break it down into a few MUST DO steps for continuous self-improvement, it would be the following...

3 Sure Fire Ways to Elevate Your Seasons of Life


Step 1. Create, and LIVE by, your personal manifesto


A number of years ago I wrote a personal manifesto. This became the foundation, and inspiration, for publishing my book, The Whole Life Fitness Manifesto. A manifesto is a document wherein a person, government, or organization outlines their intentions, motivations, and/or views. At the crux of it, a manifesto often declares publicly, ' THIS IS WHAT I BELIEVE'.

[caption id="attachment_22057" align="aligncenter" width="710"]The Whole Life Fitness ManifestoThe Whole Life Fitness Manifesto... simple ideas worth living.[/caption]

 

My creed is a simple, straightforward belief system for living my life. Even before I put it to paper, these daily actions began to manifest themselves in my life and the lives of those I was coaching. As I became more mindful of them, I realized they were more like milestone markers along a path to creating the life I wanted. A happy, fulfilled life was not a distant goal, but rather an ongoing goal I can live each day.
Do any of these resonate with you? If so, I invite you to join the tribe.

2.  Invest 30 minutes a day into Developing YOU


This is non-negotiable!  Take 2% of every 24 hours - that's just 30 minutes of your day - and invest it into YOU. 

You matter! And to be the best parent, partner, co-worker, boss, volunteer... aka Best Version of You , a daily investment strategy needs to be committed to, and executed daily.



My personal 2% routine involves 15 minutes of movement with purpose , 5 minutes of mindfulness/meditation and 10 minutes of concentrated personal development. I look at it like flossing the teeth is to oral hygiene, but for this is whole life hygiene for a healthy body, mind, and spirit...

Need some inspiration, here's how you can get my list of 99 workouts no equipment required.

3. Get SMARTer about your nutrition


Nutrition seems complicated. We've been hammered by low-cal this and no-fat that for too long. The word 'diet' has taken on a whole new meaning in the media and is often used as a synonym for 'weight loss' - when in fact it is simply a word to represent ' how we nourish our bodies'.

So what do we do? Well for starters, getting back to basics is key. Keep nutrition simple. Eat whole foods including lots of vegetables, fruits, nuts and lean proteins like beef ; be mindful of what you're eating (aka turn off the device at meal time), and drink more water. These simple steps are gold, Jerry!

[caption id="attachment_24938" align="aligncenter" width="500"]Over 4 years ago I was hospitalized after I developed an infection that my body couldn't fight... a couple bone-marrow biopsies later, they concluded I had autoimmune neutropenia.[/caption]

 

As someone that lives with a chronic autoimmune disease, I had to make some big shifts in my diet 4 years ago. I needed to find a way to nourish myself well, meanwhile also paying close attention to inflammation in my body. I started to dabble with a few different ways of eating, ultimately settling on a hybrid model which follows the paleo and ketogenic eating  plan. Funny enough, within months of making these subtle changes, I noticed some significant improvements in a few of my biomarkers, energy, and physical fitness. Bottomline, I was feeling great!


How does Bulletproof Coffee work into my Lifestyle?


For the past 4 years, my morning ritual has included a cup of Bulletproof Coffee. (I've included a recipe card below for easy printing)

Bulletproof Coffee is Upgraded Coffee blended with grass-fed unsalted butter (or Ghee), Brain Octane Oil and sometimes I include Upgraded Collagen protein as well. When we wake in the morning, we're in a fasted state, and I use the Bulletproof Coffee recipe to kickstart my body into a state of ketosis .

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Why use Brain Octane instead of MCT or coconut oil?


Alright, time to geek out a little...

Brain Octane Oil provides fast energy with no crash, contains 16x the healthy fats of coconut oil and improves your health and energy with regular use.

It is a purified form of medium-chain triglyceride (MCT) oil. MCTs have carbon tails that come in various lengths, from C-6 to C-12. The shorter the tail, the faster your body can absorb the MCT and convert it to ketones, little molecules that can fuel your brain instead of glucose. Brain Octane is pure C-8 MCT – it has 18 times the C-8 of coconut oil.

Why not C-6, if your body processes it faster? To be blunt,  C-6 tastes and smells terrible while C-8 is nearly tasteless and odorless, and you can still convert it to energy quickly, speeding up your metabolism and giving you a cognitive boost. 

It takes just 3 steps to convert Brain Octane to ATP (cellular fuel for both your body and brain). For context, it takes sugar 25 steps.

Brain Octane and other MCTs bypass liver processing entirely, making them rapidly available. The same is not true for long-chain fatty acids. It’s also not true for lauric acid (C-12), the main MCT in coconut oil. That’s why you won’t get the same rapid energy boost from imitations of Bulletproof Coffee that use coconut oil instead of Brain Octane.
"Don’t get me wrong: coconut oil is very good for you, and it’s a superb addition to the Bulletproof Diet. It’s just not ideal for mixing into your coffee." - Dave Asprey

Check out the following video interview from Dave Asprey's Bulletproof Radio Podcast, where Dave interviews Dominic D'Agostino about Mastering Ketosis.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vlOLw80VD0

Brain Octane is a key part of Bulletproof Intermittent Fasting , a protocol that boosts metabolism, burns fat, improves cognition, builds muscle…the list goes on.[/toggle]

Ketosis was something fairly new to me, but when I dove in to learn more about it, everything started to make a lot of sense. Including these...

4 Key Benefits of the Ketogenic Diet

  1. Improves and increases the body’s ability to use fats for fuel(whereas most North Americans have a ‘lazy’ metabolism as a result of high carb diets)

  2. Ketosis spares protein – when in a state of ‘ketosis’ our bodies tend to burn ketones versus glucose – which means the body doesn’t need to use stored protein to create glucose for metabolic processes (i.e. gluconeogenesis) since the body has lots of fat stores. But note, for this to be optimal, you still have to eat adequate amounts of protein in your diet.

  3. When in ketosis, insulin levels in the blood are lower. This means we improve our body’s ability to burn fatty acids. (insulin has a lipolysis blocking effect) --- note, when insulin levels low, certain hormones are released like GH.

  4. When in ketosis along with following a higher protein diet, appetites are suppressed. Think 9 calories per gram of fat versus 4 calories per gram of carbs… double the benefit with less intake if you can help the body with using ketones as energy.


You can read up on more of the benefits here.

I encourage you to do your own research, try it out and see if you notice the benefits like I did.

Nutrition doesn't have to be hard and having a plan to follow takes the 'thinking' out of it and replaces it with 'doing'...

So, now it's my turn to ask you...


How do you plan to elevate your season?

Don't overthink your answer. Visualize how you see your life in 2 or 3 years from now.

What are your days filled with? What are you doing to bring a smile to your face? Are you having fun? Are you feeling healthy? Full of energy?

Picture that and then ask yourself if your daily decisions are bringing you closer to that visualization. Because if it is, you're well on your way to elevating more than just your season - you're on your way to elevating your life!  

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Bulletproof Coffee Recipe of Awesomeness (click to print)


 



The Bulletproof Coffee Recipe of Awesomeness



Butter in my coffee? Seriously? Why would I want to do that? This was my thinking when I was first introduced to the idea of Bulletproof Coffee. But once I got past the shock, I had to find out if all the hype was true. Would this coffee really boost my energy, increase my mental clarity and help me lean out - the short answer - yes it did. It's been a huge part of elevating my lifestyle, starting with my health first...  



  • 12 ounces Fresh brewed coffee (Make sure to use a 'single source origin' coffee)
  • 1 to 2 tbsp Brain Octane
  • 1 to 2 tbsp Grass-fed Ghee (Or, use 1 grass-fed, unsalted butter)
  • 2 tbsp Upgraded Collagen Protein


  1. Using a French Press if you have one, brew 12 ounces of coffee using filtered water, just off the boil, with 2.5 heaping tablespoons of freshly ground single origin coffee beans. (I suggest Bulletproof Coffee Beans)

  2. Add in 1 to 2 tablespoons of Brain Octane to the hot coffee (note, if your first time trying this recipe, use 1 tablespoon - it's strong and you will want to work up to the full 2 tablespoons over several days)

  3. Add in 1 to 2 tablespoons of grass-fed ghee (or, unsalted, grass-fed butter)

  4. Add in 2 tablespoons of Bulletproof Upgraded Collagen protein.

  5. Mix it all in a blender for 30 seconds until it is frothy like a super-yummy, foamy latte.






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[tweet_box design="box_9"]While you can buy your way to growth, you can’t ever buy your way to greatness - Jim Collins[/tweet_box]


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Dai Manuel - The Moose Is LooseThis is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Bulletproof 360. The opinions and text are all mine.


And to be absolutely clear, this is my disclaimer: “Just so you know, I have been compensated to share my ideas on this topic. Sometimes it is in the form of products, or services or even money… But here’s the thing; I won’t  share anything with you that I don’t fully support. It doesn't matter what it is, or how much they are willing to give me, if I don’t believe in it, It won’t be on my site. Seriously. You’ll just have to trust me on this.”   ~ Coach Moose

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