The Winter Wellness Diet - 14

SUPER FOODS
One of the keys to overall health for the rest of your life are “super foods.” Why is there
a grading system in school? Because there is some work that stands out from the rest
as better. Super foods get an A+ when it comes to nutrition. Super foods are classified
as high nutrient, low calorie foods that give us more of what we need and less of what
we don’t than the average food. There are super foods when it comes to every food
category: grains, seeds, fruits, green leafy vegetables, root vegetables, etc... Just like
in school, there are some plants that just stand out from the rest.
By incorporating more super foods into our diets, we can realize many benefits including
appetite decrease. Remember how our bodies want to eat more because they aren’t
getting enough nutrients? Wouldn’t it be nice to not feel hungry? No one can fault you
for wanting to eat more with your normal diet. If your normal diet doesn’t give your body
enough of what it needs in reasonable portions, of course it will want to eat more!
Super foods will help your body get more of what it wants with less calories. Isn’t that
fantastic news?
Days that I am not exercising or going to the gym are interesting ones. I generally don’t
eat anything solid until late lunchtime. Super food drinks that I make give my body so
many nutrients to operate on, I’m not even hungry. It’s quite an amazing experience.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m getting enough calories, but they are in the form of nutrient
dense super food shakes, smoothies and juices. My body has everything it wants and
needs. As a result, I don’t feel hungry. This is coming from a guy with a RMR (resting
metabolic rate) of 3000+ calories per day according to “modern medicine.” Once again
our bodies are much more concerned with nutrients over calories. Focus on getting the
most nutrients and you’ll be fine with the calories. I am not withering away as I’m writing
this book, I can assure you of that.
OK, enough stalling, here are some examples of super foods that should be easy for
you to incorporate into your daily life and can be found at many produce stores, health
food stores and even regular grocery stores.
Leafy Greens
Spinach: This green leafy plant is a true wonder. Low in calories but packed with almost
all the vitamins present, a good variety of minerals, plant sterols and even amino acids.
It’s easy to make salads with, add to smoothies and even saute in large quantities
because it will reduce in size when cooked. (I only advise cooking spinach if you are
getting plenty of raw foods otherwise.)
Kale: Another green leafy miracle, Kale actually doesn’t shrink when it’s cooked but
gets a bit softer. It contains a high amount of Vitamins A,C and K.
Cruciferous vegetables: are especially high in anti-cancer compounds. Although low in
calories, they are high in nutrients and fiber which will help fill you up without weighing
you down. They include kale, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, bok choy, watercress,
radishes and wasabi. I should mention brussels sprouts too, although not my favorite
some people love them.
Veggies:
Sweet Potatoes/Yams: A great place to get high quality carbohydrates, they have a
wide spectrum of amino acids, are high in Vitamin A and minerals. These are one of the
best foods around.
Onions: Pretty much any onion is going to be a strong anti-inflammatory agent. They
help to clean your blood, are low in calories but provide a nice spectrum of vitamins and
minerals. Members of the onion family include scallions and garlic! They are a must
have addition to any soups, salads or stir frys.
Fruits: Pretty much any fruit is good for you. They are alkalizing to your body and
digest with relative ease. Grocery stores always have a good variety of fruits that you
can buy, but I’ll mention some fruits from around the world that are pretty amazing!
Acai berry: This Amazonian berry has become very popular in the American marketing
machine. Yes, it is packed with vitamins and minerals, but it also has healthy omega
fats and other phytochemicals like resveratrol which has been linked to anti-aging and
anti-cancer.
Goji berry: These berries from the Himalayas are truly remarkable. They contain 19
amino acid including 8 essential ones. Pound for pound they have 500 times more
Vitamin C than oranges, more carotene than carrots, trace minerals and tons of other
phytochemicals and anti-oxidants.
Camu berry: A native berry from Peru, this reddish-pink, cranberry-looking berry boasts
the highest known Vitamin C content of any food! It is easily consumed and has a
pleasant sweet and tart flavor.
Pomegranate: It looks like your heart, and coincidentally has many heart-healthy
phytochemicals. High in potassium, these wonder fruits help to balance out the high
salt diet that is standard American fare. They are pretty easy to remove the seeds if you
split it in half and then submerge the fruit in water to get at the seeds!
Grapefruits: Having a good amount of Vitamins A and C there are also some pretty
powerful compounds in the seeds and skin of grapefruits that can be realized if you
juice them. Fresh grapefruit juice can be a powerful addition to your diet but if you’re on
any medications ask your doctor if there are any risks with your medication and
grapefruit juice.
Grains
Quinoa: A staple grain native to South America, it cooks up exactly like rice. This tasty
grain has all the essential amino acids making it a complete protein. A great amount of
fiber and minerals including manganese make this an ideal source for carbohydrates to
include in your WWD. Not only is it easy to cook, it absorbs flavors well and
compliments almost any main course. I haven’t heard of anyone being allergic.
Wild Rice/Brown Rice: Organic, whole-grain rice is also an excellent source of high
quality carbohydrates. A good amount of fiber, amino acids and minerals like quinoa
and very few if any food allergies.
Whole Grain Oats: Important not to confuse with instant oats which have been refined.
Whole grain oats have a great amount of fiber, amino acids, some vitamins and
minerals. Science is also finding out they also have a high amount of micro-nutrients,
anti-oxidants and phytochemicals.
Legumes
Basically, beans and peas(and peanuts apparently), these are some of the best foods
that you can add to your WWD to get lots of fiber, amino acids and quality
carbohydrates. They have a nice amount of vitamins and a great variety of minerals.
Soy has all the essential amino acids making it a complete protein. The science is clear
with soy. It actually inhibits cancer and is very healthy for you. However, much of the
soy produced is GM (Genetically Modified) soy.
Research is being done that shows GM foods can have adverse effects on our
reproductive organs and other scary evidence is starting to mount. With soy (possibly
more than any other food) it’s so important to eat organic soy products. If soy is labeled
organic, it isn’t GM. Additionally, many soy products are processed with chemicals,
while organic soy products are free of these chemical additives. So, soy can be very
healthy for you if you consume it correctly.
Peas and beans like garbanzo, black and kidney can be very filling and have a ton of
nutrients to satisfy your appetite. I love adding beans to the fresh soups that will be part
of the WWD.
Seeds
Hemp seeds: This is another complete protein plant food that also has healthy Omega
fats, fiber and minerals. They can contain up to 50% protein by weight and are a
valuable addition to soups, smoothies and breakfast oats or cereal.
Chia seeds: High in protein, fiber and especially Omega-3 fatty acids, these little
wonder seeds can actually absorb 9 times their weight in water! That makes them fun
and functional to cook with. The abundance of anti-oxidants makes their Omega fat
more stable than that of the main stream flax seed.
Flax seed: The flax seed has many nutritional benefits including Omega 3s. A great
source of fiber, protein and hormone balancing lignans makes flax a super seed that will
help you get healthy and lean.
Fungi
Mushrooms have some amazing health benefits. They can help strengthen the immune
system, aid your body in resisting tumor growth and lower cholesterol. Reishi and
Shiitake mushrooms are traditionally the two most popular medicinal mushrooms.
Reishi is the crown jewel of mushrooms and is classified as a true adaptogen which
means that it helps to restore your body to normal functioning, “adapting” to the
environment around it. Conventional mushrooms you buy at the store can also be great
for your health, helping to balance the production of estrogen which is beneficial in
cancer prevention. Mushrooms can absolutely be considered a super food for these
reasons. Their health promoting nutrients are often most accessible when they are
cooked, unlike many other plants which are most effective raw.
Nuts
I won’t spend much time on nuts. Don’t get me wrong, nuts are healthy for you. I
haven’t really come across any “super nuts” on my health quest. They have beneficial
fats, amino acids and minerals in them. In fact, I snack on a handful of nuts everyday
for the most part. With the WWD you need to be monitoring your fat intake (we’ll talk
about that in the next few pages) because it will drop way below what you’re probably
used to. Nuts are high in fat, although healthy fat, and will be limited during the period
of trying to lose weight and detoxify.
Super foods. You may have a better idea of how they are defined or a new found
respect for some of the foods mentioned. The bottom line is that plants in their
unprocessed state are super in and of themselves. Even if you never picked up a
“super food” and just ate raw plants, you could still realize many of the nutritional health
benefits like lower cholesterol, lower blood pressure, increased energy and vitality and
much much more. Super foods are like Christmas presents to a child. You can never
have enough and the more you have the better you feel.
I’ve spent all this time on macro and micro-nutrients to paint the best picture possible of
why it is so important to eat plants. Fruits tend to be excellent sources of Vitamins A
and C while giving us soluble fiber. Berries seem to be the most nutrient dense of all
fruits with nature packing more punch into the smallest of packages. Green leafy
vegetables are the best sources of plant sterols and chlorophyll while supplying many
trace minerals. Vegetables provide us with valuable minerals, insoluble fiber and
vitamins too.
Grains tend to be excellent sources for amino acids, fiber and quality carbohydrates for
our body to run on. Something to keep in mind is to look for “sprouted” grain and seed
products. When a grain is sprouted, enzymes are activated and new amino acids are
formed. Generally, a sprouted grain or seed is much easier for your body to digest and
assimilate the nutrients from. Seeds are also excellent sources of fiber, minerals,
omega fatty acids and amino acids. Legumes are great sources for minerals, fiber and
protein. Lastly, the fungi although they were gross to us as kids, are some of the most
effective toxin eliminators in all of nature.
I hope you can see now that what kind of food we eat has a direct result on how we look
and feel. If we give our body plenty of the nutrients it wants and needs by eating real,
unprocessed food it will reward us with good health. Remember, nature is an orchestra,
foods are the instruments and our body is the conductor making beautiful music. Take
away some of the instruments and you’ll sound like crap!

The Winter Wellness Diet - 13

WHY EATING HEALTHY WITH EXERCISE SPEEDS UP LOSING WEIGHT
It seems obvious right? If you eat healthy you can lose weight, so adding a calorie
burning exercise routine would be even more beneficial. Here are the specifics as to
why. If you take my word for it, that may motivate you for a second, but if you truly
understand what’s happening internally while you are implementing these changes,
you’re more likely to stick with it. Knowing why is just as important as knowing what to
do.
Remember how toxins are stored in fat? Taking in more nutrients will help you cut the
fat as we just covered. Exercise naturally boosts your metabolism and increases
circulation. Provided you are drinking enough water and taking in enough electrolytes,
the toxins that are released when your fat stores are mobilized for energy can be quickly
and efficiently flushed out. In addition, with exercise your body will detox anyway (with
or without nutrients).
Fat stores are buffers for those toxins, but when your body gets rid of them, it also
doesn’t need that extra fat anymore. In other words, if part of excess fat’s purpose is to
store toxins, and all of a sudden the toxins are gone, the fat is out of a job and gets
fired. Kind of like the classic “Office Space” line, “What would you say....ya do here?” If
you give your body the opportunity, obsolete fat will melt away. With the WWD we are
trying to give you all of the ideal anti-fat, anti-toxin situations that we can (high nutrients,
exercise and coldest part of the year) for the fastest way to get healthy and lean!

The Winter Wellness Diet - 12

HOW CAN WE USE OUR NEW-FOUND NUTRITION KNOWLEDGE TO LOSE
WEIGHT WITHOUT EXERCISING?
I know, I know. You want to exercise too of course. But let’s slow down for a second so
we can speed up later. Part of my job writing this book is to convince you beyond doubt
that eating healthier by making better choices is the #1 thing you can do for your health
and weight long term. We dig our graves with our teeth. In other words, aside from the
unpredictability of life, the food that we put into our mouths is the biggest determining
factor in how long and how energetically we live!
So here is how it works if you need to lose some weight. Think of it like this: you have 2
different bodies. You have YOUR body, and then you have this “other” body which is
fat. Fat is a living, breathing organism too. It needs calories to live just like you. It
needs you to feed it, however, you don’t need it. It’s like you two are handcuffed
together and all you want to do is find the key to break free. Well here is the key and it’s
very simple, STOP FEEDING YOUR FAT. Yep, it’s that simple. From here on out with
the WWD we are going to feed you and starve your fat.
Your body (muscles, organs, bones, brain) needs nutrients to operate efficiently and
keep you healthy and energized. So we are going to feed your body and stop feeding
your fat. This is a new mindset for you to consider throughout your day now. Every
time you pick up food to put it in your mouth ask yourself the question, “Am I feeding me
or my fat right now?” You and your fat run on different sources of fuel. You need high
quality raw fruits, veggies, protein, carbs, vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals and a
small amount of healthy fats. Your fat runs on unhealthy fats, refined sugars and
processed foods. As you reach for that snack do you grab the carrots and broccoli to
feed your body or do you grab the pretzels, chips or candy bars to feed your fat? Your
fat will get hungry, it will encourage you to pick up that soda, but what will you do?
Food is addicting just like cigarettes, just like cocaine. It is going to take a little will
power in the beginning to resist the temptation of the old habits. You’ll have the angel
on one shoulder whispering in your ear and you’ll have the devil on the other tempting
you too. The healthy life is like a snowball rolling down hill though, once you get on a
roll, start feeding your body what it truly wants, detoxifying and losing weight you’ll never
want to go back to the lifestyle you lived before. This is true for the “skinny” people who
simply aren’t truly healthy inside also. As Tony Robbins used to tell me when I listened
to his tapes, “Nothing tastes as good as fit and healthy feels!” When I was in the car
hearing this, it sounded good, but not believable. Once you try this lifestyle out, you’ll
have that AHA! moment when you take a bite of that freshly made salad and experience
for the first time the true taste of those vegetables! That is a truly amazing feeling and a
day you won’t forget.
When you focus on feeding your body the nutrient-dense calories that it wants and
needs, you begin the eviction process. When your body starts to trust you again, and
get comfortable with this new influx of quality food it will turn up your metabolism. A
higher metabolism will mean that your fat stores will be utilized as energy for your body.
Couple that with the cold chill of winter and picture a stick of butter on a plate in the
microwave. Your body fat is that stick of butter, and with each passing day it just starts
melting away. To keep you warm your body will be mobilizing those fat stores, lining
them up like cattle into the slaughterhouse and melting it away never to be seen or
heard from again.
This is how you can get healthy and lose weight without exercising. Feed your body
what it wants and needs, ignore the requests of your fat, and begin the detoxification
process. Remember, a lot of the toxins are stored in your fat. When your body starts to
utilize those fat stores and melt them away, the toxins will enter your blood. Your goal is
to get them OUT as quickly as possible. Drinking lots of water, teas and eating blood
cleansing and liver strengthening foods will give you the upper hand on eliminating
these toxins.

The Winter Wellness Diet - 11

BASIC INTRODUCTION TO MICRO-NUTRIENTS
I could write a whole book on fat, protein or carbohydrates. I won’t and don’t want to.
You know why? Because, there are already a bunch of them out there. To be honest,
too much attention is paid to the little details with the macro-nutrients. I told you I would
say things in a different way and provide a different perspective and that’s what I will
keep doing. Well the truth is, the most important parts of being healthy or losing weight
are the smallest things, the micro-nutrients. Read that again, reference this section
OFTEN and take a moment to do some quick internet research about these micro
nutrients. They will save your life!
Micro-nutrients have many different categories. In fact, these tiny parts of nutrition get
so little press and attention by health experts that I challenge you to do a “google
search” and come up with any coordinated information about micro-nutrients. Perhaps I
will run a series on The Body Blog in the near future to promote micro-nutrients and put
as much information in one place so the rest of the world can access it. Anyway, in this
section I want to give you as much information as I can BUT I won’t. I’ve found the
more information people learn about 1 aspect of nutrition they tend to focus on that as a
quick fix. If I spend this whole section talking about vitamins, then what you’ll do is
forget about a lot of stuff except that you need more vitamins. Inevitably, you’ll just go
out and purchase a multi-vitamin and think I’m full of it because that won’t get you
where you want to be. If you need significantly more of something I am about to go
over, I will tell you at the end of this book when I recommend what to purchase or
consume for your WWD.
Micro-nutrients include: vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals. Phytochemicals
include some names that you may or may not have heard of: polyphenols,
phytonutrients, trace minerals, bioflavonoids/flavonals, plant sterols, adaptogens and
chlorophyll. I tried to put the most well known ones first so you didn’t get overwhelmed.
If you have been eating a diet with cooked foods, fast food, foods from cans, boxes or
bags chances are you’re not getting any or nearly enough of the above nutrients which
are so critical to your health.
One other important point is that there are so many different micro-nutrients! “Scientists
have identified about 10,000 of them so far, estimating about 10,000 that have yet to be
discovered.” -Dr. Joel Fuhrman
Vitamins. Probably the most well known micro-nutrient include Vitamins A,B,C,D,E,K.
Vitamin A is important for skin health, eye health and the health of many other organs.
Your body makes Vitamin A from carotenes in the foods you eat. Beta-carotene, the
most common, is present in large quantities typically in orange and yellow colored
foods. Pre-formed Vitamin A (from vitamins or animal foods) can be toxic in high doses,
but when consuming whole foods, carotenes don’t pose a health threat, even in large
doses. If you go crazy on a diet of all carrots, it’s conceivable your skin could turn
orange which is about the worst case scenario. The WWD will be high in carotenes
because you will be building new, healthy cells like crazy to replace the old toxic ones.
Vitamin B. This is a whole family of vitamins including thiamine (B1), riboflavin (B2),
niacin (B3), pantothenic acid (B5), pyridoxine (B6), biotin (B7), folic acid or folate (B9),
cobalamin (B12). They have a role with the activity of enzymes typically crucial to
turning food into energy. We commonly hear that if we are sluggish or low in energy
that we need to take a B vitamin supplement. Eh, hold your horses, it’s not that simple.
Energy will come naturally from eating nutrient rich foods, not by adding one specific
nutrient. Remember, we’re here to get completely healthy not learn how to supplement
with one specific vitamin. However, with the B vitamin niacin, there is evidence that you
can use it to naturally balance cholesterol levels. (20)
Vitamin C. In my opinion (and that of many experts) this is the most important vitamin
to increase the dosage in turning around your health. Also known as ascorbic acid, this
powerful vitamin can kill cancer cells. It helps strengthen the body’s immune response
and aid in cell’s DNA repair. It is a powerful anti-inflammatory agent and it promotes
increased circulation, two things that are vital in detoxing and repairing with this
program. Vitamin C has virtually no known toxicity but describing the benefits could
take another book! It is important to get Vitamin C from foods though and they include
many brightly colored fruits and vegetables. Interestingly, the vitamin C poster child,
oranges are not even that high in Vitamin C when compared to other foods. We will be
eating a lot of foods rich in Vitamin C with the WWD.
Vitamin D. While technically not a vitamin, it’s a hormone that is produced in the skin
when exposed to sunlight. It has been revealed in recent years as one of the most
crucial factors in body functions and healing. Organs not operating at peak capacity
can lead to disorders such as diabetes. Low Vitamin D levels have been linked to many
modern diseases and cancers. In fact from analyzing world health charts it is apparent
to me that the less sun one gets, the more susceptible they are to cancer (including skin
cancer!). Vitamin D is understandably harder to make in the winter months without the
sun, so a supplement is absolutely critical. If you put on sunscreen in the summer, it
actually hinders or prevents Vitamin D production so deficiency is a year-round concern.
Vitamin E. This is an important nutrient because of the role it plays in protecting your
body from oxidizing. Yes, oxygen is important, but it can also play a part in deteriorating
your body from the inside out without the proper nutrients such as Vitamin E in place. I
have not seen any significant research to date that shows any substantial benefits of
intentional Vitamin E therapy (high doses). It clearly works best as a protectant when
consumed in vitamin-rich foods. Something of note though is that for years, cheap
vitamin manufacturers have been selling Vitamin E supplements that are actually not
the form our body uses, but a motor oil byproduct. Gross and a waste of money.
Vitamin K. An interesting vitamin. Perhaps that is why vitamins jump from E to K. It is
present largely in green, leafy vegetables, something we get far too little of. Vitamin K
is known to help blood clotting but also aid in the absorption of calcium, one of the most
important minerals in our diet. Helping to prevent hardening of the arteries, Vitamin K
can also be a huge aid in the beginnings of your new diet. Most of us who haven’t been
eating a diet that is advised by this book have arterial damage in the form of plaque,
hardened arteries, and other such heart disease risks. Your body can make Vitamin K
in your intestines, but getting it through whole food ensures that we have an ample
supply.
Here is the most important thing about micronutrients. Our bodies are EXTREMELY
adaptive. They have adapted to the nutrient deficient diets we feed them by running on
far lower levels than are optimal. Sometimes we can even synthesize these nutrients
inside our bodies with basic resources. However, the quickest way to become truly
healthy and lose weight is this: Instead of relying on our bodies to spend time getting
creative and converting resources, if we just give them an over abundance of the good
stuff, all that wasted time can be spent on detoxifying and burning that excess fat away.
That’s what we really want. So help your body help itself!
Minerals. Plants absorb them through the soil when they grow. Modern farming
practices have depleted the soil of a large quantity of minerals and so the food we eat,
even if we eat a good amount of fruits and vegetables, is most likely deficient in these
important nutrients. Just like macro-nutrients and micro-nutrients there are macrominerals
generally referred to as electrolytes and micro-minerals called trace minerals.
As you may have guessed you need more electrolytes on a daily basis than you do
trace minerals.
I will spend time covering the macro-minerals in a bit of detail, but the trace minerals
you will get enough of if you are eating a nice variety of raw/fresh fruits and vegetables
and consuming the super foods I’ll mention later. When it comes to electrolytes, having
an ample supply is crucial for maintaining fluid balance and hydration in your body.
Remember, we need to flush out the toxins from your cells, which means we need to be
hydrated and in proper balance in order to replace toxic fluids with fresh ones.
Calcium. You will NOT be getting this from milk or dairy products. In fact, milk actually
draws calcium from your body in order to neutralize it, because it’s so acidic! Data links
increased calcium excretion in the urine with consumption of animal products. Milk and
dairy products have a lot of phosphorus in them which hinders calcium absorption. Milk,
also low in magnesium, hinders our body’s ability to utilize the calcium we do absorb.
We will be changing our mindset and understanding that the best way to get calcium is
from vegetables period. Calcium is an essential mineral for building strong bones,
optimal muscle and nerve function, but also helps regulate the permeability of cell
membranes. In other words it helps preserve your cells ability to flush out toxins and
receive new nutrients.
Magnesium. SO important when you are trying to turn around your health and your
weight. If you have been bombarding your body with toxins for years or overworking it
because of excess weight, magnesium will be your body’s best friend. It will help your
liver and pancreas start to repair and return to normal functioning. (10) Magnesium is
present in most of the protein functions in the body. Remember the protein messengers
that are formed by the amino acids? Imagine if your body was a huge mailroom and all
the letters going out were protein messengers. Can you picture the chaos that would
ensue if a few of the mail sorters went on strike? Do you know someone (maybe
personally) who this may be happening to? Yes, magnesium will be an integral part of
getting healthy and losing weight. Just our luck, there are several ways to work high
quality magnesium sources into our WWD in a delicious way! Magnesium will also help
maintain optimal levels of potassium.
Potassium. Usually we think of bananas right? Potassium is required for normal
muscle and nerve cell functioning. It regulates intracellular osmotic pressure. Basically,
your cell’s ability to communicate with one another and receive nutrients. As you can
see, all these micro-nutrients work in harmony. Some are responsible for similar and
complimentary tasks. If you are overweight or ever get sick you are undoubtedly
deficient in some or all of them. Potassium helps to get rid of excess salt in your
system. If you have a potassium deficient diet, that may lead to high sodium levels
which have a multitude of dangerous effects.
Sodium. Sodium is not inherently bad. It is a necessary macro-mineral and important
for your fluid balance and also is necessary for proper muscle and nerve function. It
helps essential fatty acids (EFAs) convert to phospholipids. Basically, it aids in your
body building new cells. Remember we want new, healthy cells built with the proper
amount of nutrients to replace our unhealthy nutrient deficient cells. Kind of like
replacing that old gas-guzzling car with a new electric car. Sodium can be dangerous
though because conventional salt is so over abundant in our processed food supply.
Table salt is actually toxic to our body because to process it, our body has to draw from
stores of other minerals. Ingesting table salt is like eating a McDonald’s burger. It may
give you what you need to survive, but it doesn’t make you healthy. Salt in its natural
form (sea salt) contains sodium and 84 other trace minerals that are natural to your
body and its ability to effectively use sodium. We will be cutting down and out table salt
and replacing it with sea salt which we will use with moderation.
Phosphorus. This mineral is important because it helps us build new cells and is a
crucial component of DNA synthesis. One of the primary ways we can help prevent
cancer is by ensuring that our body has enough of the right supplies to build new cells
and replicate DNA with. Phosphorus is found in pretty much all foods so we will be
getting plenty. Often people think they need meat to get enough of this nutrient. Not so.
In fact meat and animal product consumption leads to an over abundance of
phosphorus in our systems which can contribute to osteoporosis.
Manganese. This is different than magnesium and why I separated the two. We need
this important mineral to aid in Vitamin C absorption. It also contributes to the activation
of certain enzymes around the body associated with metabolism and growth of certain
tissues which will be central to our success with the WWD. Manganese will help your
body utilize the EFAs that will become so therapeutic with this diet in replacing old cells
and improving brain function.
You may be wondering at this point when I am going to get to antioxidants. That’s all
we ever hear about in the media. “Gotta get more antioxidants!” Yes, you do. Here is
the simple explanation of what anti-oxidants are: They are micro-nutrients that
neutralize free radicals. Many of the micro-nutrients are anti-oxidants. Normal
processes in the body produce free radicals as a by-product. They are completely
natural.
Also, free radicals bombard our system from outside sources including chemicals in the
air, the water, our food, trans-fatty acids from frying food, and many others. If you
remember middle school science, atoms consist of a proton and neutron core with an
electron cloud surrounding it. Free radicals are unstable atomic structures that can
literally rip our cells apart. Anti-oxidants are like the antidote to these poisons. They
donate an electron to the unstable free radicals and neutralize them.
The unhealthier our diet is, the more compromised our lifestyle, the more free radical
damage we impart upon our fragile bodies. This leads to getting sick, low energy, premature
physical aging, developing diseases and cancers. (Sarcastically) Luckily, there
is a new market of “magic bullet” health tonics that claim to be free-radical fighters. You
may come across the term ORAC which stands for Oxygen Radical Absorbance
Capacity. You have a bunch of different companies claiming they have a concoction of
different juices and extracts that will neutralize free radicals to a higher and higher
degree. They do...in a test tube. While I can say with confidence that these “miracle
juices” are not unhealthy for you, their claims can be overblown. In a test tube they may
be able to neutralize an incredible amount of free radicals in a controlled environment.
When it comes to real life and your body though, it’s very hard to tell their effectiveness.
I personally think a better idea is to put your money into raw fruits, vegetables and nonpharmaceuticalized
super foods.
I say all that to say this: there is so much we don’t know about micro-nutrients because
they are so small and there are so many of them. If we’re talking about a possible
20,000 different phytochemicals in food, half of which we haven’t even discovered there
is no way we know for sure how much one single lab-formulated product will do for us.
That being said, I personally consume an effervescent vitamin supplement frequently.
Why? Same reason I have car insurance. Just in case.
Anti-oxidants are anything that neutralizes a free radical, so they include all of what we
are talking about, vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals. It’s a generic term, not one
that refers to a specific food or specific vitamins.
Phytochemicals are perhaps the most mysterious of all the micro-nutrients, but also the
most important. Like I said, the smaller the nutrient, the more important it becomes for
your health and losing weight! We need powerful microscopes to see these things and
DNA testing to see how they affect us. Thank goodness that modern technology has
advanced enough that we understand their importance even if we don’t know how many
there are! I will take this section to give you enough information to convince you of their
importance, but not so much that you get confused. I want you to feel confident that
you can do this, not confused to the point of frustration.
I guess it would be easiest to start with trace-minerals. These are tiny minerals that are
absolutely essential to the processes that go on inside your body. However, unlike the
macro-minerals we don’t need large amounts of them. Food processing generally strips
many of the nutrients away including trace-minerals. So in the case of sea salt, even
though trace-minerals only make up 1/10th of the weight, they are so important for the
processing and utilization of sodium in our body. Trace minerals are present in many
fruits and vegetables so if you are good about implementing food groups in the WWD
then you will get plenty.
Phytochemicals I’ll put into one big grouping. Why? Because, once again, if I describe
too much in detail what benefits have been found by each one, inevitably someone will
think the answer is to just go out and buy that isolated compound and all their wildest
health fantasies will come true. Phytochemicals are tiny compounds in plants that work
together like a symphony. Like Dr. Fuhrman mentioned earlier, we don’t even know how
many there are. These are the most misunderstood when it comes to nutrition and
reversing disease.
Basically, these tiny nutrients work together to neutralize free radicals, deactivate
cancer cells and our mutated DNA, repair our cells and help form healthy new ones
while disposing of the old toxic cells. They stop the damage that’s already been done,
help to reverse it and make sure it doesn’t happen again---provided we keep feeding
our body a stable supply of them. Best part is that they have no side effects! I
challenge anyone to show me one prescription drug that can do the same.
Polyphenols represent the larger category of many anti-oxidants and other micronutrients.
Plant sterols work with your body to inhibit the absorption of bad cholesterol
and reverse heart disease factors. Foods containing them include whole grains, nuts,
seeds and legumes. Flavanoids and bio-flavonoids are sometimes referred to as
Vitamin P. They are often responsible for the bright colors that we see in fruits and
vegetables. As powerful anti-oxidants they help to enhance the effectiveness of Vitamin
C and are anti-inflammatory themselves. If your dinner plate resembles a preschooler’s
art project in terms of color then you are on the right path getting healthy and
losing weight.
Chlorophyll and adaptogens get their own segment to end the micro-nutrients with.
Chlorophyll as you remember from science class is the substance inside plants that
absorbs the sun’s energy and turns it into food. In other words, it is the beginning of the
food chain, thus the essence of all life. I have seen a lot, read a lot and a lot has been
speculated about chlorophyll. This is what I personally believe: Chlorophyll seems to
be a powerful agent in finding and eradicating toxins from our bodies. They are like
bouncers at a night club going around breaking up fights and escorting the trouble
makers out of the club. Green sea plants like algae, chlorella and others are especially
high in chlorophyll but pretty much any green leafy vegetable will give you some. Trust
me, you want as much of this stuff in your body as possible when you begin to detoxify!
If you want to compare losing weight and getting healthy to a construction site and
building a high-rise apartment complex, adaptogens are like the foreman. Everyone
has their specific jobs but when chaos ensues they help to calm the situation and get
everybody back on track and doing their jobs. Adaptogens are quickly becoming some
of the most sought after substances on the earth. Few plants have them and the ones
that are found to contain them have been prized by their native cultures for centuries.
It’s only now with a globalized economy that we have access to these amazing plants
containing adaptogens. They are plants like maca, and medicinal mushrooms. To be
classified an adaptogen a plant must: be non-toxic to the body, increase the body’s
resistance to physical, chemical or biological stress and normalize the body’s
physiology. We don’t even know all there is to know about them, just that they’re
amazing for our overall health.
With the WWD we will be focusing on getting as many micro-nutrients as possible. Of
course your basic caloric needs will be met in the process. Can you see now that
refining foods takes many of these key players out of the equation when it comes to
your health? There are thousands, even tens of thousands of these micro-nutrients in
our food that are lost in processing and even cooking food. Eating good food and
utilizing the nutrients in a symphony and when we take instruments out of the orchestra
it just doesn’t sound the same.
Are you beginning to see how simply focusing on calorie consumption to lose weight
and get healthy has been a grave mistake and bad advice from our doctors, trainers
and family members?

The Winter Wellness Diet - 10

BASIC INTRODUCTION TO MACRO-NUTRIENTS
If you ever took economics in school you may remember there are two kinds, macroeconomics
and micro-economics. Macro-economics studied the economy as a whole
and how something going on in the overall economy might affect the individual. Microeconomics
was the study of how an individual’s behavior would affect the economy as a
whole. Similarly, there are two different classifications when it comes to your food.
Macro-nutrients: larger classification of calories defined as fat, carbohydrates and
protein. Micro-nutrients are the small integral parts of each macro-nutrient which
include vitamins, minerals and others I will go into in the next section.
If you want to make the types of decisions that will lead to weight loss and better health
then you need to know the important details. You don’t have to become a certified
nutritionist, I didn’t, but the basics of each nutrient will give you a strong enough
foundation for the rest of your life.
Protein. (7)The most abundant nutrient after water, protein makes up 50% of the
structure of your body as dry weight. Protein is just a combination of amino acids.
Chains are between 50 and thousands of amino acids bonded together to make a
protein. There are 22 commonly used amino acids in the human body. They are
divided into essential amino acids(8-10 depending on the definition), meaning your body
can’t make them and needs them through your diet. Non-essential amino acids are
what your body can make with the essential amino acids present. Think of amino acids
like a huge pile of legos. Given the right legos you can build anything.
There are about 50,000 different tasks your body uses protein and protein messengers
for. We need a fresh supply of amino acids everyday because we don’t store protein.
Either we use it, it gets converted to glucose (blood sugar) or our liver converts it to urea
for our kidneys to process and we pee it out. Basically, that long explanation was for
you to see that protein does not equal meat. Protein is simply combinations of amino
acids. Amino acids are in every fruit, vegetable, grain, nut, seed, bean and mushroom
we eat. Stop associating protein with meat and you are well on your way to losing
weight and getting healthy.
Protein is probably the most misunderstood macro-nutrient because society at large,
our doctors and family generally regard meat as the best source of protein and an
essential part of being healthy. This could not be further from the truth as I will explain
later. Once again, we need all three macro nutrients, but if you just assume that getting
them anyway they come across your plate is ok, then you NEED to keep reading.
Carbohydrates. I will spend as much time on carbohydrates, because they aren’t
inherently evil like some of the other diets out there say. However, they can be
dangerous to our health if consumed incorrectly which is why you need to understand
them. Carbohydrates are the main power supply for our body. They are sugars,
starches and fibers. Sugars and starches are what our body will break down and that
each of our cells uses for energy. These include simple and complex carbohydrates
which basically classifies its complexity and how quickly it is broken down and absorbed
into the blood stream. Insulin is the hormone produced by our pancreas that binds itself
to the blood sugar glucose and escorts it into the cell to burn as energy.
The key for carbohydrates, if your goal is to be healthy and lose weight, is to eat as
unrefined as possible. Fiber in fruits, grains and vegetables helps to slow the digestion
enough so our pancreas can keep up with enough insulin. Fructose is a simple sugar
found in many fruits and starchy vegetables. (8) It needs to be converted to glucose in
our liver so that our cells can use it. This means that a diet that is too high in fructose
can put a toxic load on our liver and make it hard to perform other functions.
Remember, clean blood, strong liver.
In the modern food supply high fructose corn syrup (hfcs) has become a standard
additive to many foods and sweet drinks. It’s cheap, easy to use and somewhat
addictive. What more could the food companies want?
Fiber and antioxidants, like vitamins, help our body process sugars more effectively
which is why we need to be careful about processed foods. Carbs can be bad if we are
consistently getting our supply from refined sources such as sodas/juices, refined
pastas and breads. Refining generally strips the food of valuable fiber, vitamins and
minerals. This is how carbohydrates can be bad for us.
Fat. Another demonized nutrient in society, but rightly so. In the Western world our diet
has become so high in processed foods, fried foods, fried AND processed foods that the
average person is consuming 40% of their calories from fat. Even 30% of caloric intake
from fat calories is considered acceptable. This is ludicrous! Cutting out most of the fat
from your diet is the foundation of the WWD. Remember how fat is where many of the
toxins are stored?
Consider this: if you consume a fair amount of meat or animal products, you’re likely
getting a high amount of animal fat. That means you’re constantly ingesting other
animal’s toxins! If you’ve seen how animals are raised for slaughter you know how
many toxins they likely have. I commonly advise people watch movies like, “Food Inc.”
or “The Future of Food” to get a visual of the food they are putting in their bodies.
However, fat is essential because it is needed to rebuild cells and make hormones.
There are two different kinds of fat, saturated and unsaturated. The science of it has to
do with the hydrogen “saturation” of the fat molecule. Most unrefined plants contain
unsaturated fats, with a few exceptions of (typically) tropical trees like avocado, coconut
and nuts having saturated fats. We need both, but our over-consumption of animal
foods have imbalanced our saturated fat levels. Saturated fat is solid at room
temperature while unsaturated fat is liquid.
Think about this when eating animal products. The fat in them is solid at 98.7 degrees
which is your body temperature (roughly). That means this fat is staying solid inside
your body. Think when you drink that glass of cold water after you eat. That is just
making it even harder on your body to use that saturated fat. When given the choice to
burn fat or carbohydrates our bodies will burn the carbs, especially since these big
chunks of cold, hard fat are floating around. We are very efficient at storing fat and will
do so with ease when there is an excess amount floating around inside.
Broken down further, there are 3 essential fatty acids to consider. Omega 3,6,9. Our
bodies make omega 9 and they are commonly found in vegetables so don’t worry about
those. Omega 3s and 6s are what we need to focus on to get healthy and lose weight.
Scientifically documented, (23) 1 in 6 people die because of Omega 3 fatty acid
deficiency. We have developed such an imbalance of Omega 3s compared to an over
abundance of Omega 6s that our health is really suffering.
Most of the fats available to us in our modern diet are Omega 6 fatty acids. We need to
make a conscious decision to include more Omega 3s. Reducing our overall fat intake
will drastically cut Omega 6 intake and we’ll cover Omega 3 supplementation later.
(9)For now, know that Omega 3 fatty acids help to increase metabolism, improve brain
function, build healthier cells and lower bad cholesterol. That’s what we are going to
focus on, getting more Omega 3s and less fried foods, processed foods and packaged
foods which are mostly Omega 6s.
Calories in each macronutrient:
Protein 4 calories/gram
Carbohydrate 4 calories/gram
Fat 9 calories/gram

The Winter Wellness Diet - 9

WHY A HIGH FIBER DIET IS ESSENTIAL
Fiber is one of the most deficient nutrients in our diets. Food processing depletes the
fiber content of the food. We all know the benefits of fiber. It helps us poop. So much
more than going to the bathroom, fiber actually helps to regulate the uptake of sugars
from our digestive track into our blood stream. Fiber-less, refined foods break down
very quickly and cause our blood sugar to spike causing a rush of insulin to be secreted
from our pancreas. Higher blood sugar results in more insulin being produced. The
blood sugar that is not burned as energy is then stored as fat. Over time, this process
repeated over and over, leads to a diabetic condition where our pancreas doesn’t
produce the proper amount of insulin, called type 2 diabetes. It is one of the biggest
health concerns in the Western world today. As we gain weight, fat actually inhibits the
insulin trying to escort blood sugar into cells.
The modern farming practices (fertilizers, insecticides, early harvesting) all result in our
food having less nutrients than past generations. Let me reiterate, food processing is a
major cause for less fiber. There are two kinds of fiber, soluble and insoluble. Soluble
means that it absorbs water and expands. Insoluble means that your body doesn’t
digest it and it doesn’t absorb water. Soluble fiber, because it absorbs water is a bit
slimy. When it expands it acts as a bulldozer, moving waste through your intestines
easily and quickly. Insoluble fiber acts as a scrubber, helping to keep the intestinal walls
free of buildup.
The reason that we want waste to move through our systems quickly is just that, it’s
waste! Waste is toxic and the longer it sits in our bowels the more of that toxic waste
gets absorbed into our blood. Also, the last thing we want is for waste to accumulate on
the walls of our intestines and sit there, slowly leeching toxic substances into our blood
over time. This is actually what many scientists believe leads to colon cancer.
Recall that most of us are chronically dehydrated. If soluble fiber needs water to do its
job correctly, then we aren’t helping it. On top of that, we can’t get enough insoluble
fiber in our diets without eating a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables. Generally fruits
contain more soluble fiber and vegetables more insoluble fiber. If we aren’t getting
enough insoluble fiber then we probably have toxic sludge sticking to our intestinal walls
all the way through our digestive system, yuck! Why are health officials so careful about
trying to keep landfills sealed and away from our drinking water sources? Because we
don’t want landfills leeching their toxins into our water supply and contaminating it.
Those who eat the typical Western diet are allowing exactly that to happen inside our
bodies...
Fiber also fills us up. Refined foods that are low in fiber generally break down very
quickly and easily inside our stomachs. This is generally why people who eat breakfast
cereals in the morning tend to eat more throughout the day, because they start their day
with a nutrient-lacking, low-fiber meal that triggers their body to want more and more the
whole day. With our stomachs half-full and lacking nutrients we are going to feel the
need to eat more. Once again, eating excess calories is what we want to get away
from.
Eating high fiber, nutrient dense meals will help our stomachs feel full and our bodies
satisfied we gave them enough nutrients to operate. This is a benefit to people who are
used to eating a lot. You can make salads and vegetable dishes as big as you want and
not worry about your weight. Vegetables are filled with nutrients and fiber that our body
craves. Eating more of them will only help you lose weight faster. Nothing wrong with
that.

The Winter Wellness Diet - 8

THE SECRET THIRD HALF OF THE BATTLE FOR HEALTH
Yes, I know that’s an oxymoron, but there is another important step to getting healthy
and losing weight. The third step is what holds a lot of people back from achieving real
changes. We need to eliminate the toxins from our bodies. Sounds simple right? You
may ask, “Isn’t that why I am exercising and changing my diet? To eliminate those
toxins from my body?” Yes.
It’s important to consider how the process works. Remember why we tend to yo-yo
around on conventional diets? Our body doesn’t trust us. It thinks that we are going to
starve it again (in the sense of a calorie restricted diet) and so puts on as much weight
as it can to prepare for the next diet you try. See, when you change your diet and start
giving your body what it truly wants nutritionally, that’s when it can finally start to get
comfortable. Your body starts to trust that you will continue to give it the nutrients it
needs to operate. This doesn’t necessarily happen overnight, but it can fairly quickly.
When this happens we need to guard that trust with our lives. Our ability to get and stay
healthy depends on our body’s ability to trust us. Seriously. However, be prepared for
what will happen if you are unhealthy, malnourished, overweight or all the above.
TOXINS. We throw that word around so much in our society that it becomes
comfortable. Well, get ready to get uncomfortable. When our bodies detoxify, it can be
very uncomfortable. Keep in mind this is a good thing in the long run. When asked:
Would you rather have toxins in your body or out? What is your response?
How and why does the detox work though? Your body has been craving more nutrients
your whole life. When you start to feed it those on a consistent basis, it will start to get
rid of some of that excessive weight. Just like the metaphor about getting another job
for more money. If you get a raise at your first job, then you may not need that third job
for the extra money. If you do really well and get a promotion and another raise, then
you may not need job number two anymore either. Get it? If nutrients are money and
eating is your job, the more nutrients/money you have, the less you need to eat/work. If
you start giving your body more nutrients, it can start dropping that extra weight. It
generally increases your metabolism to burn the fat away, or actually just releases the
fat altogether and you poop it out.
Back to toxins. Fatty tissue is where most of the toxins in your body are stored. Your
body doesn’t use fat as much because it runs on carbohydrates and so fat cells are the
perfect place to store the excess toxins. When you start eating better food and
exercising more, now your body wants to access those fat stores either for energy or to
eliminate them. Well, this releases those toxins back into your blood. When this is
happening on a large scale all over your body, you will feel sick. Also, you may get
headaches, feel nauseous, get acne (or acne may get worse if you already have it),
metallic taste in the mouth (from eliminating toxic heavy metal stores), body odor and
more! Oh yes, it will be fun. Just remember to ask yourself the question: Would I rather
have toxins inside me our out?
Clean blood and a healthy liver. These are the two most important things to getting
healthy, losing weight and living a long life that is free of sickness and disease. With the
traditional Western diet, these two organs are literally put through the ringer. We
overwork them to the point of exhaustion cleaning out chemicals from our food,
processing excess hormones and too many animal proteins. When the liver and
kidneys are over-worked, the excess load of toxic chemicals and heavy metals in our
blood are stored in our fat and other fatty tissues (ironically, like the kidneys and liver).
Detoxifying is your body trying to finally rid itself of these foreign substances. The only
way to do this is put them in your blood stream to get them out. So be ready. Everyone
is different so don’t anticipate exactly what will happen, just know that when it does, it is
for the best.
LOTS OF WATER
When it comes to moving toxins out of your body, drinking a ton of water is essential.
You need to encourage the flushing out of excess from your blood and digestive system.
Besides that, chronic dehydration is a common problem in our population. It leads to
getting sick more often, premature aging signs like wrinkles, cells being malnourished
and many other issues. Remember that our bodies are 3/4 water by weight. That’s a
lot of water. Having an ample hydration level in our bodies means that our cells can
flush out the bad stuff and bring in new fluid. Familiar with the phrase: “Shit, shower
and shave?” It refers to someone getting clean. Clean out the insides, and clean off
the outside. Drinking more water allows our cells to do just that; flush out that bad stuff
and clean up while taking in some new nutrients.
At the gym after working out I love going in the sauna or steam room to force sweat.
Making your body sweat pushes toxins out of your cells (because they are carried out in
the sweat). Drinking a lot of water afterwards re-hydrates those cells and you literally
feel like you’ve had a shower inside your body. If your gym has a sauna or steam room,
I highly recommend that you take advantage of it. Stay in as long as it feels safe. You
will heat up and that’s a good thing but don’t spend more than 15 minutes in there.
Forcing your body to sweat and cool down is also really good for burning calories. It is
an energy intense process to cool down when you’ve heated up. Make sure you drink
plenty of water after though. You’d be surprised how much water you lose through
sweat. I personally drink about two liters of water if I spend 10-15 minutes in either the
steam room or sauna.
With all this talk about hydration, it’s important to understand that your body wants fresh
and pure water for this process. Sodas and juices do not hydrate you. If you think that
you’re getting plenty of water throughout the day because you drink coffee, juice, soda
or something like crystal light you’re gravely mistaken. With the WWD we are going to
focus on drinking plenty of fresh water, juice from freshly pressed fruits and veggies and
nutrient dense teas. These will help hydrate you and flush toxins out of your body.
Pasteurized fruit juices have been boiled and so their beneficial enzymes have been
killed. Sometimes fruit juices will even add extra sugar, or if they are from concentrate
they have more sugar anyway. Sodas have so much sugar in them they are not good
for your health. I don’t think I need to explain how an extra 150 calories per soda is
counter-productive.
Diet sodas and drinks like crystal light are not the answer either because they contain
many chemicals including artificial sweeteners. They are poisons to your body. All
these drinks dehydrate you even more because they force your body to draw water from
cells to try and flush out the toxins and excess sugars. This puts a toxic load on your
liver and kidneys once again. If your body is craving these other drinks, it’s because
you’re addicted to the chemicals in them. It may not be easy to give them up and you
may feel like you need a “sweet” drink but trust me, your tastes will change as you get
healthier.
How to hydrate with this diet and get maximum health benefits at the same time: First
of all let me make a point about drinking water throughout the day. Drink lots of water in
between meals, NOT with meals. Your body produces hydrochloric acid to break down
your food at mealtime. When you drink water with your meal, it dilutes this acid and so
your food doesn’t digest properly. If it doesn’t digest properly, you don’t get the
nutrients, and by now you know this causes you to overeat throughout the day. Stop
drinking water about 20-30 minutes before you eat, and don’t drink any for about 45
minutes after you eat. A (small) sip is fine to help you wash out your mouth but a
glassful is too much.
OK, we’ve discussed that your body heating up when it’s cold and cooling down when
it’s hot are both calorie-intense processes. So we are going to use this knowledge
along with hydrating in the WWD for detoxifying and burning calories. Drinking cold
water throughout the day lowers your core body temperature. This causes your body to
react by heating up. Also, drinking hot teas will help your body to sweat (in small
amounts) expelling toxins through the skin. Drinking healthy teas can help put nutrients
into your body that you need and keep you alert and focused at work during the day.
Waiting that 45 minutes or so after you eat and then drinking warm or hot teas can aid in
digestion. Animal fats are solid and tough for your body to break down so drinking a
warm liquid aids in this process. I actually recommend that you not eat meat at all for
the most optimal results, BUT I understand that cutting down and cutting out animal
products is a process and not for everyone to quit cold turkey (pun partially intended).
So with the WWD I will give you the best chance to be the healthiest you can be given
your circumstances.

The Winter Wellness Diet - 7

EFFICIENT EXERCISE IS THE OTHER HALF OF THE BATTLE
Many of the rural cultures described in, “Healthy at 100” naturally work exercise into
their lives. They live in areas where getting a whole body workout is just part of living
an everyday life. Going to the gym isn’t necessary because they are lifting, hiking,
pushing, pulling and working all day long. For you and I who live in suburbia, chances
are that our daily routine involves less strenuous activities. Therefore, going to the gym
or finding a way to exercise is not just important, but essential to our overall health and
well being. Exercising is not just about burning calories and raising our metabolism. It’s
important, but there are other critical reasons to exercise and get plenty of physical
activity.
For weight loss, exercising to burn calories and raise our metabolism is essential.
When it comes to getting healthy though, it’s crucial you understand how that exercising
is affecting you inside your body. Raising our heart rate pumps blood around our body
and increases the circulation. Blood carries oxygen which is vitally important to every
cell in our body. So the more we get our blood pumping, the better our circulation is and
the more cells in our body get the amount of oxygen they need to operate efficiently.
Generally our blood pressure comes down which means the most important muscle in
our body, our heart, doesn’t have to work as hard to circulate the blood.
Knowing that, now we can talk about exercising more effectively in order to circulate
that blood around better. Blood (and oxygen) goes to the muscles that are working the
hardest. Just hopping on the elliptical (called precor sometimes) machine at the gym is
better than nothing, but it doesn’t really stress our muscles for maximum benefit. I
believe these types of machines are part of a great warm up. They get our hearts
pumping and blood starting to flow.
To lose more weight we need to burn more calories. Since we don’t want to spend all
day in the gym I’ll give you some philosophies to consider for the most efficient workout
(most calories burned for the time spent). For short bursts of energy our muscles
typically use ATP derived from glucose (carbs) already present in our cells. The
endurance muscles that are used for longer, cardio workouts are accessing our fat
stores and burning those for energy. It all has to do with the types of activity you are
doing and the oxygen that is present at the time. I’ll leave it to the author of a different
book to explain that to you if you’re truly interested. For now what I am suggesting with
the WWD is to exercise in such a way that you keep your heart pumping hard the whole
time. Work in weights so you are using multiple muscles and burning energy in multiple
ways which increases the efficiency of your workouts.
*A good warm up is important to get your body in calorie burning mode, but it also helps
prevent injury. If you hurt yourself and can’t work out, you aren’t losing weight or getting
healthier. I have seen this time after time, someone gets all motivated to work out and
lose weight and OUCH, an injury, and they can’t work out for weeks.
*Weights (dumbbells) can help you work more muscles and in different ways to burn
more energy
*Switching exercises throughout your workout will work different muscles, resulting in
better blood flow and circulation throughout your body with more calories burned.
*Keeping breaks to a minimum to drink water or quickly catch your breath will help
maximize the time you are working your muscles.

The Winter Wellness Diet - 6

CHANGING OUR DIET IS ONLY HALF THE BATTLE
The WWD is all about getting healthy from the inside out which results in weight loss,
more energy and an overall feeling of vitality. You can absolutely lose weight by simply
changing your diet and giving your body the nutrients it has been starving for your whole
life. I have worked with many people, overweight their whole lives, who lost weight
simply by changing the way they eat. I’m not talking about going on a diet. I’m talking
about lifestyle changes that result in eating different food for the rest of your life.
Changing your diet doesn’t involve never eating your favorite foods again. Changing
your diet means that you take a step back and assess where you get your calories from.
If your typical diet has been 40% carbs, 30% fat and 30% protein like a typical American
diet resembles, I doubt that you are reading this book looking and feeling the best
you’ve ever been.
Here is the new look percentages that we are going to focus on. 65-70% carbs, 20-25%
protein and 10-15% fat. Digest those numbers because they are going to be your north
star, your compass, what guides you for the next few months. A simple change in
mindset is all it will take. Let me explain briefly how I came to those numbers and why
it’s important to you.
If you want to be the best basketball player and could have anyone be your coach,
would you choose Michael Jordan or the guy who sat the bench and never scored a
point? If you want to be the best cyclist do you talk to Lance Armstrong or your
neighbor who occasionally goes for a weekend ride? If you want to be the richest
person in the world do you talk to Bill Gates or the person working at the drive through?
The same goes for health. If you want to be the healthiest and fittest you’ve ever been,
do you take advice from the healthiest, fittest, disease free, longest-living cultures or the
American society that has the highest cancer rates, the most obese and unhealthiest
population in the world?
Well, it just so happens that there have been studies published and books written on the
healthiest, longest-living, (almost) disease-free societies in the world. I have read as
many of these studies and books as I can get my hands on and a select few have really
shaped my view of how to be truly healthy. (5,6) The top 2 that I connect with are T
Colin Campbell’s ,“The China Study” and John Robbin’s, “Healthy at 100.”
The China Study was a:
“research project culminated in a 20-year partnership of Cornell University, Oxford University,
and the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine, a survey of diseases and lifestyle factors in
rural China and Taiwan. More commonly known as the China Study, "this project eventually
produced more than 8000 statistically significant associations between various dietary factors
and disease."
The findings? "People who ate the most animal-based foods got the most chronic disease ...
People who ate the most plant-based foods were the healthiest and tended to avoid chronic
disease. These results could not be ignored," said Dr. Campbell.”
As for Healthy at 100, John Robbins writes about 4 cultures with the longest life spans
on earth:
“Bringing the traditions of these ancient and vibrantly healthy cultures together with the latest
breakthroughs in medical science, Robbins reveals that, remarkably, they both point in the same
direction. The result is an inspirational synthesis of years of research into healthy aging in which
Robbins has isolated the characteristics that will enable us to live long — and most important —
joyous lives.”
I am not a scientist who has devoted my life’s work to researching statistically significant
findings or an anthropologist who discovers the secrets of other cultures. No, I am a
person who is passionate about living the longest, healthiest, disease-free and joyful life
that I possibly can. I ask Michael Jordan to be my basketball coach, Lance Armstrong
to teach me how to ride and 1 billion people in China to provide me with evidence on
what type of diet I should be eating. That’s how I came to believe that a diet high in
fiber-rich, plant based foods and low in fat can help me lead the life of my dreams and
have the energy and longevity to share it with others! Like I said, diet is only half the
battle though...

The Winter Wellness Diet - 5

HOW DOES THE COLD TURN UP OUR METABOLISM?
Now that you have a little more information than the average person about why these
other diets don’t work, let me finish the reason why the WWD can work for you. When
the weather cools down in the fall and gets cold in the winter our biological need to stay
warm kicks in. If the Inuit need 6000 calories a day just to stay warm and stay alive,
then you and I living with relative modern comforts can use that knowledge to our
advantage. Like I said, the only way to get 6000 calories is to eat a lot of fat because it
has twice the amount of calories of protein or carbs.
So here is how the WWD works: We are going to cut your fat intake drastically this fall
and winter. We are going to go on a diet that is high in the nutrients your body needs,
vitamins, minerals, carbs, protein and cut your fat intake down to only supplying your
basic need. When it gets cold your body kicks in that natural instinct to burn more
calories. To stay warm it will start accessing those fat stores and melt them away!
There is only one way to gain weight: you consume more calories than your body uses.
There is only one way to lose weight: you consume less calories than your body needs.
This winter we are going to consume more nutrients (but less calories) than your body
has ever gotten before while letting that metabolism fire up and burn off all those extra
pounds of fat.
Your body need nutrients to survive and thrive, not calories. Unfortunately the modern
climate of large food companies and supplement companies all trying to sell more
product have been able to infiltrate our government systems and influence policies. The
modern food pyramid is a load of crap. The modern recommendations for percentages
are crap. 40% carbs, 30% protein and 30% fat. Folks, we need to put back on our
“common sense” hat and stop blindly following the advice of the people that want to sell
us stuff.
That’s what this diet is all about, common sense thinking outside the box for the
healthiest you yet. I will break down the details of the essential nutrients we need for
our bodies to be healthy and start to drop weight in just a little bit. Keep reading.

The Winter Wellness Diet - 4

WHY THE “WINTER” WELLNESS DIET (WWD)?
Let’s get away from philosophy and talk some tactics for a minute. Traditionally, winter
time is when we stay inside with the heater, fireplace, lot’s of blankets, cats on our lap,
and any other warm situation you can think of. Even though I live in Orange County,
California I still get cold in the winter, it’s all relative. Chicago residents I am sure will
beg to differ and yes, you have a point. Keep in mind you can’t use the cold to fire up
your metabolism if you get frost bite.
I am introducing a whole new idea for a diet based on one of the oldest traditional North
American cultures, the Inuit eskimos. This is not the Inuit diet though. That is a diet fad
that some people follow eating high fat, high protein “Inuit style” food because Inuits are
generally regarded as long-lived and disease free. However, there are many shortfalls
to this diet and many obstacles that people don’t even think about.
The Inuits eat a lot of their diet raw. They eat raw livers and other organs along with
drinking seal blood. You know why they do this? To get the proper nutrients so they
can stay alive. Vitamin C which is an important part of the WWD is generally hard to
come by with the Inuit diet. Without fresh fruits and vegetables, Vitamin C is only
available by eating the raw organs of freshly killed animals and drinking their blood.
Feel like doing that? Yea, me neither. (4) Plus, the Inuits don’t actually live for any
amazing amount of time. Average life expectancy ranges from 60-80 years which is
nothing special.
Ok, but why bring up the Inuit diet? Here’s the deal. They live in the Arctic. It’s cold up
there and they need to stay warm. Humans (mammals) are warm-blooded and
therefore we have to stay at or around 98.7 degrees or we will have some serious
issues. When it’s hot, we sweat to cool down. When it’s cold, we burn extra calories
that are converted to heat energy to warm us up. This is the premise for the WWD.
The Inuit eat upwards of 6000 calories per day in the Winter! Yes, that’s how many
calories it can take to keep them warm enough to avoid hypothermia. Keep in mind that
they also wear furs, coats, and have some modern heating amenities. So no, you won’t
be trying to freeze yourself.
The only way to consume 6000 calories a day is to eat a LOT of fat. Since the
traditional Inuit diet is rich in protein and fat, some of the protein and most of the fat is
converted to glucose in the liver for energy because your cells use the glucose as
energy. Let’s take a second very briefly to talk about how the body converts food to
energy. This is a brief lesson, although important, it is not a lesson in molecular biology.
ATP (adenosine triphosphate) is the primary energy that our cells burn for fuel.
Mitochondria in the cells generally take glucose (blood sugar) to make this fuel our cells
need to operate. However, when we run low on glucose, our body uses two other
sources to make ATP. Protein can be converted by the liver into glucose. This happens
when we consume more protein than our body needs to use OR when we really need
glucose and our body takes protein from our muscles and converts it. The second way
is that our body converts our fat stores and converts them into glycerol and other fatty
acids which the mitochondria can convert into ATP. I know the science of it isn’t all that
fun to read about, but it’s important to understand when considering “diets” and how
they work.
Many fad diets out there suggest that you cut out the carbs and just eat protein. The
reasoning behind this is that your liver can convert the extra protein to glucose (as
explained above) to power your cells. In addition when the protein runs out, then your
body will burn fat for the same process. This is called glucogenesis and it is a survival
mechanism, not a means for everyday functioning.
What an awesome scenario right? I mean if you’re trying to lose weight, by eating a
really high protein diet you can burn off your fat. WRONG. See the problem is that
meat and fat don’t have the vitamins and minerals that your body truly needs. Burning
protein and fat for energy is a short sighted idea for losing weight. It has nothing to do
with getting healthy, AND as previously stated the second you go off the diet, your body
will most likely “yo-yo” back. Taking vitamins and other supplements don’t solve the
problem as I will explain later in the micro-nutrients section.

The Winter Wellness Diet - 3

WHY DIETS FAIL
(1) Diets at their core are designed to deprive our bodies of calories. Conventional
thinking says that over-eating, or too many calories are what makes us fat and/or
unhealthy in the first place. We just addressed the root causes of being unhealthy and
overweight, so already you can begin to see that just cutting calories is not the solution.
Your body is a giant battery and has fat stores in it. When you deprive it of the food
energy it needs, yes, it will begin to burn fat for energy. The fat is converted to glucose
(blood sugars) and then burned as the energy you need. However, this is a short-term
fix. The second you cheat or break your diet (eat more calories) your body reacts by
storing even more fat. You have confused it into thinking that you may starve yourself
again and so the reaction is to put on even more weight to prepare for this possibility.
You have probably heard this referred to as the “yo-yo effect.”
That brings us to the next reason diets fail. They are temporary! No “diet” I have ever
heard of can last forever. Additionally, we are hard wired to want variety. Boredom is a
real human emotion and it relates to our food as well. Unless we grew up eating a very
limited diet, and have never deviated from it, our senses desire variety. Given that, in
any calorie cutting diet, there is not enough variety to keep us from cheating. Even if
you have enough will power to make it to your “weight loss goal” most people go back to
eating that diet, tasty with variety (and unhealthy foods) and just put the weight back on
for the previously talked about reasons.
If you are always worried about what you can and can’t eat, that makes the diet harder
to stick to. Education is the key to any kind of progress in life. That’s why this book is
going to make it simple to know what you should and shouldn’t eat, and make it easy to
have those foods around at all times!
I would like to take a moment to address nutrition education. This is often why many
other “diet” plans fail. The participant is none the wiser to how their body works. They
are just following a specific plan of caloric deficiency with no idea how it’s actually
affecting them inside. You may have heard or read horror stories of people going
vegetarian or vegan and getting really sick or their teeth falling out etc... Some of these
stories may be true, BUT the fact is that you don’t get sick and your teeth certainly don’t
fall out if you are getting the proper nutrients.
With other diets, you’re hungry, your breath stinks, you get constipated etc... The
Winter Wellness Diet is different because it addresses all of your body’s nutrient needs.
This allows your body to detoxify, repair and have tons of energy in the long run.
Diets in the conventional sense are expensive. Buying specific food, drinks and
supplements at the start often has a big impact on a budget. I did a review of the new
Zone 1-2-3 diet last year and products ran upwards of $700 per month! That’s in
addition to the regular food you buy at the store (or farmer’s market if you’re going
green). $700 is either enough to keep most people away from dieting, cause them to
quit sooner, or get really mad when they “yo-yo” back to their original weight or more
and feel like they wasted their money.
Now, I can honestly say that I have never experienced this feeling because of my
weight, but depression can be a big deterrent to starting a diet. (25) First of all on a
physiological level, if your body is deprived of the correct nutrients, depression can be a
predictable result. (22) There are many nutrition therapies for depression as it has been
found that many causes of depression come from hormonal imbalances in the body.
Basically, the brain doesn’t get enough nutrients to operate properly and ends up not
producing the correct hormones in the correct amounts. (3) CBS reported on this in
2004 and nutrition therapy for depression gets more popular every year.
Depression can absolutely be a huge obstacle. Maybe you think that if people find out
you’re on a diet they will judge you. Well, I’ve got news for you, if you are unhealthy,
overweight or both people are judging you anyway. But I say, WHO CARES! Even if
the world thinks there is no way you’ll succeed with this diet, this time, all you have to do
is prove them wrong once. Am I right? You’re not making this choice to lose weight or
get healthy for anyone else but yourself. Let’s do this, you and I, together.

The Winter Wellness Diet - 2

WHY WE GET FAT AND UNHEALTHY

Throughout this book, take off your conventional thinking hat and put on your common
sense hat. You will read a lot of information that you have never heard, or never heard
presented in this way before.
Gaining weight is not an overnight thing. Our bodies weren’t designed to gain weight,
we have forced them into that situation. We aren’t bears that put on huge stores of fat
so we can live through winter hibernation. Weight gain actually stems from us depriving
our bodies. Yep, that’s right. We don’t give our bodies enough of the quality nutrients
that it needs and our body responds by gaining weight. If we consistently eat a diet that
is nutrient deficient, our body responds by lowering our metabolism (generally) so that
when we eat the same amount of calories, less are used, therefore we need less
calories. Our bodies are defending themselves from well---US! If we are using less, but
consuming the same amount, much of that excess will be stored as fat.
Understanding the following point will be invaluable in creating your mindset to be
healthy and lose weight. Our bodies need nutrients. If we are consistently consuming
food that is deprived of nutrients (i.e.. doesn’t have enough) then our body will signal us
to eat more. Here is a metaphor to explain this situation: Your body is like your
household finances. Nutrients are money and eating is the work you do to get the
money. If you need more money what do you do? Work more/eat more. What if that is
still not enough? Then you go get a second job, or a third. This is how your body views
nutrients. It needs more, but is doing the best it can with what you feed it. Our budgets
need a lot of money and our bodies need a lot of nutrients.
Inevitably, if you eat more, you will gain more weight. That’s why you may be hungry all
the time. Your body is hungry, but not for food, it’s hungry for nutrients. Many of us
don’t understand this and so are doomed to over-eating which leads to weight gain.
Nobody wants to work a second job or a third job to get enough money for the bills. The
same can be said for eating. At their core people don’t want to eat 5000 calories per
day.
You may ask how some people eat like crap and stay skinny. Well, first of all, being
skinny doesn’t mean you are healthy. A high metabolism may be a benefit, but it’s not a
cure-all. (21)(2) I’ve read about some scientists researching an enzyme or lack there of
in the digestive system. Some people have the enzyme which encourages fat storage
while some people don’t which means they can burn fat as energy more often. Either
way, that gene has nothing to do with whether or not you get enough nutrients.
Lot’s of skinny people get sick all the time, have diseases or get cancer just the same
as overweight folks. So that’s why I submit we define being unhealthy as, “not getting
enough nutrients.” Everyone is different. As you are reading this, you may feel that you
could lose some extra pounds, or if that’s not a problem, not getting sick and not
worrying about cancer would be nice right?
We’ll get into the nuts and bolts of the nutrients our body needs later on, but for now go
with this: Gaining weight and getting sick is the result of not getting enough of the
nutrients that our body needs to operate and stay healthy. Everyone is different and
therefore will have different specific needs. There are basic needs common to everyone
and this book will give you the knowledge to meet your basic nutrient needs. In
addition, the more you learn about different nutrients the better you can help your body
meet its individual needs. The best medicine is the knowledge of how to recognize your
unique needs and meet them.

The Winter Wellness Diet - 1

The Winter Wellness Diet: How to use the cold to fire up your metabolism and melt the
fat away!
What are the first 3 letters of diet? D-I-E! Yep, because generally when people go on
diets, the structure of it all is too much to handle for any significant amount of time.
Hence, you’d rather die than stay on the diet any longer. It would be naive to think that
some people don’t succeed with dieting to lose weight or get healthy, but generally
those people are ones who change their lives during the dieting period. No diet will ever
work if you go back to eating, exercising and living life the exact same as you did before
you started torturing yourself.
The Winter Wellness Diet will help you lose weight, it will help you get healthier, BUT it
is a lifestyle change as much as anything else. Other fad diets that I’m sure you’ve
heard of are designed to be money makers. Just because a “doctor” came up with the
diet or endorses it doesn’t mean it’s healthy. There are big bucks in creating a brand
name, a logo and then licensing that to companies to put on their products. In addition,
writing a “best selling” book is pretty profitable for these people as well.
I’m not trying to get this published (unless you know anybody who wants to pay me). I
just want to share good health and nutrition principles with anyone who wants to live a
healthier, leaner life that tastes good and feels good. You’ll never see a “Winter
Wellness Approved” logo on a food package. Why? Because, you literally have access
to pretty much any piece of fresh fruit or vegetable you can get your hands on. Buying
food in a package that has been shipped thousands of miles to get to your grocer is
probably the first thing you’ll stop doing, not the first thing you’ll start looking for.
So take a journey with me the next few months and see how good it can feel to lose
weight, have more energy, detoxify your body and never get sick again!