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Hey folks! Erin Power is back for another round of Ask a Health Coach. This week she’ll be answering questions about beating the 3pm slump, what to eat when you’re hungry all the time, and strategies for speeding up a slow metabolism. Comment below with more questions or head over to the Mark’s Daily Apple Facebook Group.

Pete asked:

“I get so sleepy in the afternoons. In fact, sometimes, I actually have to take a nap. What can I snack on to beat my daily 3pm slump?”

Feeling a dip in energy mid-afternoon is so common, a lot of offices actually have a nap room. They also have boatloads of processed snacks, sugary coffee drinks, and vending machines to help you perk back up after your carb-laden lunch.

But just because it’s common, doesn’t mean it’s normal. Sure, you could be having a reaction to what you ate for lunch. Some food choices trigger a blood sugar spike and crash (think pasta, pizza, giant subs, a handful of candy).¹ If this is the case with you, I have a better solution than doling out energy-boosting snack ideas…or napping.

1. The lowest hanging fruit here is to manage your post-lunch sleepiness by swapping refined carbs for satiating and blood sugar stabilizing protein and fat. Maybe a Big Ass Salad or some leftover roasted chicken and veggies with butter. Even a handful of mixed nuts is better than a sandwich.
2. It’s not always food related though. You have a natural drop in energy as part of human circadian biology. And it comes, you guessed it, about mid-afternoon. Knowing that your body has a built-in lull that happens around 3pm, the best thing you can do is anticipate it and plan accordingly. That means don’t schedule any overly draining tasks during that time. Instead, practice a little self-care and schedule in 15 minutes of stretching, walking outside, or listening to energizing music.
3. Another possibility for your slump is mental drain. Even if your workday isn’t overly stressful, everything else in the world is right now, so again, cut yourself some slack and pay attention to how drained you feel on a daily basis. It could just be that by 3pm your brain (and your central nervous system) are so tapped that it signals a reset (i.e. you to take a nap). To avoid burnout, I like productivity apps like Focus Keeper. This one’s based on the Pomodoro Technique and breaks your day into 25-minute focus sessions, followed by 5-minute breaks.
4. Of course, there’s always the possibility that you’re not breathing. And by “not breathing” I mean, you’re taking small shallow breaths that rob your brain of oxygen. Chances are you spend most of your day hunched over your computer, which compromises your breathing and your energy flow. Next time you feel that midday lull, think about the last time you took a good, deep breath, then sit up straight and take six slow deep breaths.

Test out any of these tips and my guess is you’ll feel better fairly quickly, no snack required.

Valerie asked:

“I’ve lost 40 pounds following the Primal Blueprint and have about 5 more to go. The problem is, I feel hungry all the time, so I either eat or try and white knuckle it! How do I tame my hunger?”

You’re not alone here Valerie. This is one of the most common challenges I hear from my clients. “I would have done better this week, but I was SO HUNGRY!” Common diet culture says you should eat healthy meals and snacks every 2-3 hours if you want to keep your blood sugar stable and keep hunger at bay.

My opinion? You shouldn’t have to feed your body every 3 hours to do either of those things. You also shouldn’t fear hunger. We’ve all been led to believe that hunger is bad — that it’s the one thing that stands between you and your weight loss goals.

Here’s the deal though. Hunger is actually a loving, protective signal from your miraculous body. It’s one of your most primitive survival mechanisms. It’s how your body makes sure you’re fueled sufficiently so that you can function properly.

The clients I work with claim to feel hungry “all the time”, which to me, indicates that they’re out of touch with their body. Sometimes it starts as a kid — if you’ve been told to finish your plate, regardless of whether or not you were hungry. And sometimes it’s in the ultra-processed foods you eat which unapologetically mess with your hormones. Certain foods inhibit your ability to recognize when you’re full — they literally confuse your brain into thinking you need to eat more.²

Sugar-free or “diet” foods aren’t any better. In fact, this study proved that sugar substitutes, although calorie-free, adversely affected the metabolism of participants, causing them to eat more.³Even a can of diet soda can increase your appetite because your brain thinks you’re getting something sweet, but your body never receives the energy it’s expecting.

My solution? Step one, ditch any processed or diet foods you’re consuming. That means ones labeled “healthy” or “low carb” or “low fat.” Step two, sit with your hunger next time you feel it and know that you’re okay. I promise you that you won’t starve. Even if you had zero pounds to lose, you’d still have access to thousands of calories in stored energy.

Feeling as if your only choices are to succumb to hunger and *fail* or really punish yourself and diet harder, aren’t good choices if you ask me. Work on trusting your body’s signals instead of fearing them.

Suzanne asked:

“Now that I’m in my 40’s, I can’t even eat a few fun-sized candy bars without seeing it on the scale in the morning. Any tricks for speeding up my metabolism?”

Chances are you could eat whatever you wanted as a kid. Fun-sized candy bars, heck, even a few full-sized candy bars wouldn’t impact your weight or your mood or mental clarity for that matter. As you mentioned, age has made it harder to indulge when you feel like it, and potentially a “slow metabolism” is to blame.

For those who don’t know, your metabolism is the system of the body that decides how fuel is used and has implications for weight management, energy, and more. The uneducated will tell you that the extra five pounds around your mid-section (or your brain fog, or blah feeling) is just a sign of getting older. They’ll say that because of your age, your metabolism has just naturally slowed down.

That is absolute BS in my book. I believe that over time, your metabolism does “forget” to effectively put fuel to use — and seems to just start storing it instead of burning it. But you can help your body remember by making some simple changes to what you eat and how you move.

The goal here is to become metabolically flexible. That means your metabolism gets to a place where it can effortlessly switch between burning carbs and burning fat — leaving more room for a few treats now and then. All those people who can “eat whatever they want”? Those people have excellent metabolic flexibility.

So how do you get metabolically flexible? Start by exercising. And not in a chronic cardio sort of way. Go for a daily walk, try some speed intervals, or add a weight training session here and there. Not only does this help you burn fat, it increases mitochondrial biogenesis, a key factor in reversing age-related loss of insulin resistance.⁴

Next up, get fat adapted. For a period of time, choose foods that are unprocessed and higher in protein and healthy fats. While you’re at it, cut out all snacks. Honestly, if you’re eating satiating foods, you won’t need them. While this might seem opposite of what you want right now (to eat candy without gaining weight), it will eventually allow you to indulge without the same consequences to your waistline.

Got thoughts on snacking? Metabolic function? Hunger pains? Share them in the comments below.

The post Ask a Health Coach: Is Snacking Okay? appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.

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Before I had kids, I thought I’d be that mom who cooks and bakes endlessly with her kids. After all, I enjoy being in the kitchen, so why wouldn’t I want my sweet offspring by my side as I lovingly prepare meals for the family.

Ah, to be that young and idealistic again. Every year we get busier and more pressed for time, and—in my experience, at least—cooking with your kids makes everything take three to eleven times longer. Gone are my ideas of being Betty-Crocker-meets-Mary-Poppins in the kitchen. I have new priorities now:

• I need to be time-efficient.
• I want to feed myself and my kids nutritious foods.
• I refuse to prepare separate meals or snacks for kids and adults.
• My kids should learn their way around the kitchen, which means giving them age-appropriate tasks.

Most days we manage dinner together, but the rest of the day is a whirlwind. Snacking is something of a contentious topic in the ancestral community. Sincere kudos if your family can stick to set meal times with perhaps one planned snack interlude. Realistically, though, snacking happens here. Rather than fight it, I try to have quick, healthy options that check my four boxes above.

These are some of my top picks. Add yours in the comments section.

Instantly download your free Guide to Cooking Fats and Oils

Dips & Spreads

Veggies with ranch dressing. Use raw vegetables like celery, carrots, snap peas, broccoli, cauliflower, and mini sweet bell peppers, or leftover roasted asparagus or Brussels sprouts. To make a thicker dip, mix the ranch with sour cream to get the consistency you want.

Frozen chicken skewers (I get mine at Costco) dipped in barbecue sauce or a quick peanut sauce. This one uses tahini, or you can use almond butter instead.

Guacamole with raw vegetables or pork rinds. To uplevel the experience, try this recipe for Bacon Guacamole with Cheddar Chips.

Apples, pears, or celery with nut butter.

Hummus with veggies. Classic hummus is easy to make or buy pre-made if you eat chickpeas, but you can also make delicious legume-free versions like this Roasted Cauliflower & Macadamia Nut Hummus.

How kids can help:

• Wash and cut raw vegetables and fruit with supervision and depending on age.
• Pour dipping sauces into ramekins.
• Smash avocados for guacamole.
• Run the food processor for hummus.
• Arrange the food on plates.

Stuff You Can Eat with Toothpicks

Cubed melon wrapped in prosciutto.

Caprese skewers: cherry tomato + pearl mozzarella + basil leaf. Optional Italian or balsamic dressing to dip.

Meatballs, like these kid-approved Teriyaki Meatballs.

Steak “salad” bites. Leftover cubed steak topped with a few leaves of baby spinach and cheddar or blue cheese. Dip in BBQ sauce or dressing of choice. For the grown-ups, add Quick Pickled Onions.

How kids can help:

• Cube melon or steak.
• Wrap prosciutto around melon.
• Assist with cooking meatballs. The steps are easy enough for even young kids, supervised.
• Assemble the skewers.
• Pour dipping sauces into ramekins.

Charcuterie Plates

Charcuterie plates are just meat, crackers, cheese, produce —stuff you eat every day, but it’s the presentation that counts. There’s a reason the charcuterie plates were trending all over social media this year. Artfully piling a bunch of food on a platter or cutting board feels fancy and abundant. The nice thing about charcuterie plates is that you can put them out, and everyone can help themselves to the parts they like. It’s a great way to introduce new foods in a non-pressuring way.

All you need is any combination of the following:

• Crunchy stuff: grain-free crackers, cheese crisps, pork rinds.
• Cheese: any kind, sliced or cubed.
• Meats: cured meats, smoked salmon, sliced leftover steak or chicken.
• Nuts.
• Vegetables: any raw, pickled, or roasted.
• Fruits: olives, berries, cubed melon, grapes, apples, pears, persimmons, figs, dried fruits.
• Dips: guacamole, chutney, etc.

How kids can help:

• Slice/cut cheese.
• Wash and cut vegetables and fruit.
• Spoon dips into ramekins.
• Arrange food on platter.

NOTE: You can also adapt this idea into bento boxes. Have your kids help you fill compartments with these same types of ingredients. Put them in the fridge to grab for snacks or on-the-go mini-meals throughout the week.

Greek Yogurt Parfaits & Smoothie Bowls

These are filling options that older kids can make themselves—really more a small meal than a snack. All you need is Greek yogurt, protein or collagen powder if making smoothies, and toppings. Some of our favorites are:

• Grain-free granola
• Hemp or chia seeds
• Cacao nibs
• Shredded coconut
• Fresh or frozen berries
• Pomegranate seeds

How kids can help:

• Assist with making homemade granola.
• Putting ingredients in the blender and pushing the buttons.
• Adding toppings.

Prepare-ahead Options

With a little bit of work at the beginning of the week, you can stock your fridge with feel-good snacks to which your kids can help themselves.

• Egg muffins, customized with whatever ingredients each family member prefers.
• Hard-boiled eggs.
• Chia pudding.
• Primal-friendly muffins, either sweet like these Keto Blueberry Muffins or savory like these Bacon & Cheddar Keto Muffins.
• Paleo pancakes or waffles can be frozen then heated up in a toaster oven or microwave. Add protein powder to the batter for extra protein.

How kids can help:

• Chop vegetables for egg muffins.
• Assemble and stir chia pudding, and put lids on jars.
• Stir muffin and pancake batter.
• Crack eggs.

Ready in Less Than A Minute

• Sliced meat wrapped around string cheese
• Can of sardines, optionally mashed with avocado. Maybe a hard sell for older kids, but you’d be surprised how younger kids will gobble them up.
• Jerky, pemmican.
• Primal kitchen keto bars.
• Handful of nuts + dark chocolate.
• Half an avocado with Tajín or everything bagel seasoning.
• Pickles.

The post Keto and Primal Snacks for Busy Mom Life appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.

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Dr. DeVany’s title quote has haunted me for years; I typically ponder the significance of this deadpan assertion during my morning jog. “Come on, this can’t be dangerous, can it?” I assert that my morning jog helps me enjoy nature, clear my mind for the impending busy day in front of a screen or microphone, and seemingly contributes to both my fitness base and my health.

But only if I go slow!  

That is the revelation I have come to appreciate over decades of devoted endurance training. Walking is perhaps most health and longevity promoting activity of them all, the ultimate human experience of life and planet that our genes require daily for healthy functioning. This is especially true as you age. A UCLA study of the elderly revealed that walking more than 4,000 steps a day makes for a thicker hippocampus, faster information processing, and improved executive function.¹ Sedentary folks were found to have thinner brains, lower overall cognitive function and increased disease risk. From a base of frequent daily walking (and other forms of low level movement like yoga), if you are fit enough to jog at a heart rate below “180 minus age” in beats per minute, there is pretty strong evidence that you are boosting health. If your “jogging” routinely drifts above that important MAF cutoff (surely the context for DeVany’s warning), you are likely actualizing the quote and endangering your health.

This article details how I destroyed my health during a six-month binge of high volume aerobic exercise (playing Speedgolf, where you run around five miles while playing 18 holes as fast as possible) after a long layoff from real training. I overestimated my aerobic maximum heart rate by 12 beats (and exceeded that beeper limit on the golf course frequently as well!) and experienced that familiar steady spiral into declining energy and burnout. First, I delivered a free testosterone reading that was clinically low—as in, a candidate for hormone replacement. Next, on the heels of a two strenuous workouts in 100-degree temperatures over four days, I found myself in the hospital with extreme dehydration, a ruptured appendix and emergency surgery. Months of complications and follow up surgeries ensued. Doctors might assert that an appendix will blow out randomly, but I’m certain that my problems were driven by the six-month chronic cardio binge.

With five months of enforced rest and trading my slightly too difficult cardio for easy jogging and walking (after surgeries), I doubled my testosterone levels—going from clinically low to exceeding the 95^th percentile for my age. In the aftermath of the ordeal, which coincided with me hitting the big Hawaii 5-0, I turned my attention to fitness goals better suited for longevity: building power, speed, explosiveness, flexibility, balance, and mobility. I increased my devotion to sprinting and strength training, and integrated the wonderful drills and skills highlighted in the basic running drills and advanced running drills videos and morning flexibility/mobility exercises video. I’ve gone from an aging ex-triathlete still capable of jogging or pedaling (increasingly slowly with each passing year) to high jumping at a world class level for my 55-59 age group. Granted, attrition in this event is a driving factor in my positioning in the rankings, but in many respects I am a fitter, stronger, faster human than the narrowly adapted endurance athlete I was decades ago.

Here are some ideas to trade steady state cardio sessions for sessions that deliver broader fitness benefits and are more fun, more challenging, and more rewarding.

What to Do Instead of Steady State Cardio

Morning Flexibility, Mobility, Dynamic Stretching, and Core Strengthening

The sequence of exercises that I present in the video take about 12 minutes, and I’m on a good streak of daily execution for nearly four years now. What’s happened with my recent transition away from my consistent morning jog is that I continue to add more and more fun stuff to the daily template. At first, it’s extremely important for habit forming to design an initial routine that’s easy and doable, meaning short in duration. Once you build some momentum, you can add to the complexity and degree of difficulty of your routine. Today, I burn up at least 45 minutes with an exact sequence of exercises that I repeat every day. I regularly add, subtract, and modify the sequence, but it’s important to have a repeatable routine that doesn’t require creative energy. This way, you can relax and get into the zone of simply counting out the desired reps of each drill and move on to the next. You’ll see this same dynamic in a flowing yoga class.

I’m not suggesting that you squeeze a 45-minute routine into your already busy mornings, but starting small with a 12-minute session can be a great way to broaden your fitness experience. For me, the lengthy and quite strenuous morning routine has pushed my morning jog into the “optional” category. As mentioned in the previous post about the paltry requirement for optimizing aerobic fitness (Dr. O’Keefe’s Goldilocks Zone), shifting from daily jogging to a few per week causes no loss in aerobic conditioning. Furthermore, an ambitious routine of flexibility/mobility drills without break from start to finish is aerobic in nature. I obtain all the cardiovascular benefits of jogging in addition to all the additional flexibility, mobility, core strengthening, and balancing benefits.

Walk – Jog – Jump

We’ll discuss the broad-based benefits of jumping in a future post. Mark says, “Nothing cuts you up like sprinting,” due to the profound genetic signaling that occurs from brief, all-out high impact sprinting on flat ground. Any act of jumping falls into the same esteemed category. You are building bone density, improving the resiliency of your muscles and connective tissue, and sending a strong genetic signal to reduce excess body fat.² The reason for the latter is the same as with sprinting—the penalty for carrying excess fat is severe when you are trying to get off the ground.

Head out the door for your session on the roads or trails at your aerobic jogging pace. After 10 minutes of warmup, do some jumping drills of your choice. You can simply stand in place and jump up and down off of two feet. Dr. Michael Roizen, co-author with Dr. Oz of the popular You: The Owner’s Manual book series and Chief Wellness Officer at the Cleveland Clinic, recommends jumping up and down 20 times every morning and evening to preserve bone mass in the spine and lower extremities. “Jumping is thought to create an electrical current that stimulates the bone and thickens internal bone mass,” says Roizen.

Options for jumping abound, pun intended. You can get a three-step running start and jump off of one foot like you are going for a slam dunk, land and repeat three times. You can do some explosive skipping, trying to maximize the height of each leap into the air. You can try the bicycle drill as seen at 1:18 in the Advanced Running Drills video below. Perhaps you’ll want to try some vertical jumps onto a park bench or retaining wall, jump over a bush or traffic cone, or other appealing challenges along your route.

Remember, your explosive efforts should last between 10-20 seconds and no longer. Review the HIIT versus HIRT post to understand why 10-20 seconds is the sweet spot. After you do your jumping sequence, walk for five times as long as your burst lasted—so that’s between 50 seconds and 1 min, 40 seconds. After you feel fresh and recovered, resume your jogging pace slowly and eventually work back up to your “180 minus age” heart rate. After 1-3 minutes of jogging, initiate another jumping sequence.

Cardio Plus Calisthenics

If your go-to workout is on a cardio machine in the gym, do you thing for 5-10 minutes and then take a quick break for a set of burpees, squats, pullups, mini-bands, TRX moves, or other exercises you’re fond of at the gym. Take your time returning to your cardio exercise, and resume at a very slow pace. Work up to your usual aerobic training pace for a few minutes, then dismount again for different activity.

Power Walk

You’ll completely bypass steady state cardio in this session; you’ll either be walking or jogging very slowly (20-40 beats below your MAF heart rate), or doing a 10-20 second explosive effort. This could be an uphill sprint, a set of stadium or building stairs, or a few kettlebell swings if you are taking laps around the block and returning to your garage every ten minutes.

For those dutiful endurance athletes monitoring training heart rates to stay below MAF, note that the explosive efforts in each of the aforementioned formats will cause your heart rate to exceed aerobic maximum. You’ll hear the beep somewhere between the middle and the end of your burst, and it may take 30-60 seconds for heart rate to return to MAF or below. This is nothing to be concerned about and will not hinder your aerobic development like exercising for sustained periods above MAF at many workouts. Exercise physiologists call the heart rate zone above MAF where you still feel pretty comfortable but are burning more glucose and less fat the “black hole.” This is a no-man’s land where you are sabotaging desired aerobic benefits but not going hard enough for a truly anaerobic effort that can stimulate performance breakthroughs when done occasionally and correctly.

JFW (Just F@$&ing Walk!)

Let’s put in a plug here for trading the occasional jog for a walk. The common fitness edict of, “consistency is key” can easily be misapplied to the extent that the daily and weekly application of exercise stress is not adequately balanced with recovery time and down time. I’d like you to view the “consistency is key” principle over a wider time frame that the typical obsession with delivering a tidy weekly schedule of repeat template workouts (e.g., Sunday long run, Tuesday night track intervals, Thursday spin class, etc.) Realize the body is really good at preserving fitness even with the occasional week or month of drastically reduced training. Popular studies from renowned exercise physiologist Dr. David Costill of the Ball State University Human Performance Lab reveal that extreme tapering delivers outstanding results. One decades-old Costill study of elite swimmers revealed that reducing swimming volume by 67 percent for 15 days delivered a four percent performance increase! A study from McMaster University in Toronto of serious runners averaging 50 miles per week showed the control group that cut volume by 88 percent (six miles a week, but featuring hard intervals) improved performance by 22 percent!

If you are reluctant to embrace any workout that doesn’t introduce discomfort and sweat, realize that a brisk walk still delivers an outstanding aerobic training effect that will support peak performance efforts at all faster speeds. Envision a cruise ship with 12 massive turbine engines. On the open seas with all 12 at full throttle, the mighty ship can hit 25 knots. When cruising into port at two knots, imagine only two engines are running at half power. However, those two engines still make a contribution to the effort when cruising at full speed. You are easily doubling your resting heart rate during a walk recruiting the same aerobic enzymes and muscle fibers to perform that you call upon when you deliver a peak performance effort. For endurance athletes, walking is a low stress way to build and build more fitness without the risk of breakdown and burnout from black hole workout.

Hopefully these suggestions will get your creative juices flowing when you head out the door for future workouts. You can let your imagination run wild here, unleash your childlike spirit, and look for forgotten ways to engage your body with nature for physical challenge. Take inspiration from Nutritious Movement queen Katy Bowman, MS—here’s some people having fun on one of her “Move Your DNA weekends.”

The post Don’t Jog, It’s Too Dangerous: Part 2 appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.