Stand Up for Your Health

I started reading Dr. Kelly Starrett's new book, Deskbound: Standing Up to a Sitting World, on my flight to California for the 2016 Bulletproof Biohacking Conference, and it opened my eyes to just how bad sitting is for you and what to do to minimize nonessential sitting and incorporate better movement habits into your day. In fact, you can start by standing up while you read this post.

Why You Should Read It

This five year Australian study of middle-aged and older adults found that smoking, alcohol intake, poor diet, physical inactivity, prolonged sitting, and poor sleep were all factors in the deaths observed and that all but the diet had strongest relationship. Dr. James Levine of the MAYO Clinic wrote that sitting for more than two hours per day is associated with a 50% increase in death from any cause, and 125% increase in cardiovascular related events.

Why You Should Read it Standing Up

This article from CBS News reports that MAYO Clinic proceedings showed prolong sitting negated the benefits of exercise and was an indicator of health regardless of exercise. Starrett observed similar relationship with the injury and recovery rates of collegiate athletes who spend the majority of their waking hours sitting.

Why Your Boss Should Let You Stand at Work

Research from Texas A&M found a 46% increase in productivity when the call center being studied switched form sitting to standing desks and 75% of the employees reported less body discomfort as a result of standing. The increase in productivity between standing and sitting was maintained, even when productivity of both groups declined over the course of the summer months.

So I Bought a Varidesk

Determined to decrease the amount of time I sat at work, I bought a standing desk. I was not sure how I would take to standing, so I bought a VARIDESK which can convert from a seated position to a standing position almost effortlessly. Surprisingly, I have never used the seated position, though the VARIDESK also makes fine tuning your standing position a breeze as well. If you think the VARIDESK looks too institutional, you might like The Upstanding Desk or StandStand which are made of wood and can be stained different colors.

Standing Does Not Have to Be Expensive

Standing does not have to be expensive and the Spark by Ergodriven is a very affordable solution. While I have a VARIDESK at work, I have a Spark at home. Both are very solid solutions depending on your budget. 

So, checkout Deskbound and start standing more today.

Stay well engineered,

Devon


If you found this information helpful, I would appreciate it if you clicked my Referral Link and checkout all the great Bulletproof products for yourself. 

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These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These statements or products referenced are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Thanksgiving and Water Weight

Thanksgiving is a time for reflecting on the abundance God has given us. Gratitude has been linked to many health benefits including reducing depression. For many of us, it is also a time for reflecting on the abundance of our waistline, which makes many of us "depressed".

Glycogen and Water

Talking with a fellow wedding guest a couple months ago, I overheard another conversation regarding the relationship between water retention and glycogen, the storage form of glucose, commonly referred to as blood sugar. According to this guest the ratio of glucose to water was approximately 3:1, but according to Gary Tubes, it is closer to 2:1. 

How Much Weight Gain Is Water?

Either way, if the body can store 15g of glycogen per kilogram of lean body mass, it is evident that the body will store two or three times this in water. As you can see, someone like me can easily store 3.5 to 5.2 pounds of water along with the 1.7 pounds of glycogen. 

This lends some credence to the common belief that the first "ten pounds" you lose on a low carbohydrate diet is "water weight". This also shows that someone like me can easily pack on 5.2 to 6.9 pounds over the holidays. 

This Should Be a Comfort

While this should not be an excuse to eat poorly for days on end, it should be a comfort that a little weight fluctuation is completely normal, particularly around Thanksgiving. So, take the time give thanks, enjoy a meal with family and friends and, as always, stay well engineered.

Happy Thanksgiving,

Devon

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These statements or products referenced are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Why I Am Not Hungry in the Morning

For almost as long as I can remember, I have not been hungry when I wake up in the morning. This PubMed article may hold the key. The article suggests the body can store 15 grams of glycogen per kilogram of lean body mass. Naturally, I was curious how much this meant I could theoretically store.

As you can see, someone my size could easily store upwards of three thousand calories of glycogen. This kind of makes sense. Following a vertical growth spurt in my preteen years, I began to pack on lean muscle. By the time I was in high school, I had gained nearly 23 kilograms (50 pounds) of lean muscle mass. This larger capacity for glycogen storage was great for high school sports, but was not particularly useful for the relatively sedentary life of a college student or young engineering professional. The fact that I could probably go a day without eating carbohydrates escaped me for many years, but that is another post all together.

Stay well engineered,

Devon

If you found this information helpful, I would appreciate it if you clicked my Referral Link and checkout all the great Bulletproof products for yourself.


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These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These statements or products referenced are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Hacking Blue Light

I have been wearing my red sunglasses at night for almost two years. They block the melatonin blocking blue light as well as UVA and UVB. Unfortunately, they are too darkly tinted to drive with at night, as are my genuine BluBlocker Stargazers. So, I had been experimenting with these orange tinted ZeroUV which have a lighter tint, but seemed to cut down the blue light as well as all of the UVA and UVB spectra.

I recently received a pair of Swanwick glasses in my Dave Asprey Quarterly.co (now Biohacked box). They have a much brighter tint and are more suitable for driving at night, or a rainy day when this photo was taken. 

Swanwick recommends wearing their blue blocking glasses whenever you will be looking at screen for an extended period of time as does the Blue Light Exposed website. 

What is Wrong with Blue Light?

Blue light exposure has acute (sudden and transient) and chronic (long-lasting permanent) symptoms. First, there is the disruption of melatonin production at night, making it hard to fall asleep. It turns out that this has nothing to do with the optic nerve. Your eyes have melanopsin, a photopigment which is able to detect light between 420 and 440 nanometers according to this NIH article which means that your eyes can detect this narrow band blue light regardless of sight.

Almost everyone  is aware of the harmful affects of UVA and UVB radiation on your eyes and skin. Ultraviolet light, by definition, is a shorter wavelength than violet light, closely preceded in wavelength by blue light. As this Pub Med article explains, animal studies have confirmed the connection between blue light and Age-related Macular Degeneration and it is only a matter of time before the confounding factors are eliminated in human models. 

What are Some Sources of Blue Light?

Blue light has permeated every aspect of our lives. The obvious sources of blue lights may be the screens of computers, mobile devices and televisions, but the lights in your home and office could also be to blame. Florescent and LED lights, while more energy efficient, tend to emit more blue light than traditional incandescent or halogen lights. Also, more and more LED and HID headlights are appearing on cars.

Especially with the days growing shorter, I will be wearing my "Swannies" on my commute. Do your vision a favor and help yourself fall asleep faster with a pair of blue blocking glasses. Need a prescription? Companies like Lens Crafters and Gunnar appear to offer blue blocking corrective lenses and there are likely others.

Stay well engineered,

Devon

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These statements or products referenced are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Bulletproof Biohacking Conference, Day 2

I did not get much sleep last night and was wide awake by 5:30 AM local time. It might have been caused by all the Bulletproof Coffee I drank yesterday, or my circadian rhythm is still messed up from being in three different time zones this week.

At least two of the devices in the Tech Hall are designed to correct your circadian rhythm, but I really like the Humancharger. While my red sunglasses are intended to block blue light prior to sleep, the Humancharger emits white and blue light deep into your head to help reset your circadian rhythm.

I made good use of my early start to catch up on email and arrive at the Pasadena Conference Center in time for Dave Asprey's opening address.

Neil Strauss: Running a Virus Scan on Your Mental Operating System

Neil Strauss was the keynote speaker. His presentation was regarding how our emotional framework is established when we are young, inverted in our teens and and then presents in a fashion as adults. The major take away was having the humility to evaluate your own system beliefs.

Dave Asprey: Hacking the Power of Light

Dave Asprey spoke about the importance light on your health. The UVB found in sunlight is responsible for the conversion of Vitamin D3 to D-Sulfate and the up regulation of testosterone. Unless you live in the D3 Zone (33 degrees North to 33 degrees South), you are likely not getting enough UVB to stimulate these reactions. Tanning beds are starting replace UVB lamps in the face region with red and infrared bulbs as this stimulates collagen production. Speaking of red light therapy, Dave pointed out the Bulletproof Red Charger in the Bulletproof Lab is like a tanning bed but with thousands of red and infrared LED's instead of UV tubes. Dave talked about the importance of color when it comes to Irlen Syndrome, of which Dave is afflicted. 

Harry Adelson: Stem Cells - Here, Now and How

Dr. Harry Adelson gave a very nice overview how stem cell therapy has evolved over the years. I thought Stem Cell research stalled when the unethical means of obtaining them was abolished, but apparently it is legal to remove your own stem cells and transplant them the same day (Autologous Stem Cells). 

Dr. Tyna Moore: Barbells and Stem Cells

Dr. Tyna Moore gave a presentation on how physical activity can improve the quality of your stem cells in addition to all the other benefits of exercise, least of all being "harder to kill".

Leanne Venier: From Photos to Biophotons to Flow: The Power of Color & Light for a Bulletproof Body & Brain.

Leanne Venier's talk dovetailed nicely with Dave's on Hacking the Power of Light. Leanne covered everything from blue light therapy for acne and babies with jaundice, to red and near-infrared therapy for inflammation and immune function. Leane stressed the importance of LED light over LASER light: coherence. LASER light is coherent, that is to say all the waves are organized to peak at the same time, making them more intense and likely to cause damage to your cells.

I was pretty exhausted by the end of day two, but it was definitely worth it. I highly recommend attending next year for the Tech Hall and sense of Community alone, but it is nice to know that you can buy access and watch all of the talks from the Bulletproof Conference online.

Stay well engineered,

Devon

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These statements or products referenced are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Bulletproof Biohacking Conference, Day 1

I was fortunate enough to attend the Fourth Annual Bulletproof Biohacking Conference this year. I registered late so, naturally, my pass was not ready when I arrived. I was more than willing to wait for my custom printed pass, and even had a free sample of bulletproof coffee while I waited.

I finally received my credentials and proceeded straight to the Tech Hall. The Tech Hall was full of various vendors, many I had heard of, many I had not. Some of the ones that interested me were:

• Humancharger
• Re-Timer
• Four Sigmatic
• My Intent
• Swanwick

The Tech Hall also housed a portable version of Bulletproof Labs. There was a line and, having missed Mark Sisson's presentation, I wanted to make sure to take in some of the afternoon Q&A with Mark. So, I headed over to the main stage.

The Bulletproof Shop was outside of the speaking halls. All of the usual Bulletproof supplements were there: Upgraded Coffee Beans, Brain Octane and Unfair Advantage, just to name a few. New this year was KetoPrime, a new supplement that is intended to get your body ready for Ketosis. Of course, I had to buy a tube.

Mark Sisson Q&A

Mark Sisson's Q&A was a continuation of his morning talk, so I did not follow everything, but it seemed to focus on over training. He talked about how Cardio and High Intensity Interval Training are great apart, but when used together sends the body mixed signals: get faster (leaner) and get stronger (slower). Mark recommended one day on and one day off, instead of the typical Crossfit schedule of three days on and one day off.

Bulletproof Heart: Natural Heart Disease Reversal Program

Dr. Cate Shanahan's talk might have been the best of the day. Dr. Cate explained that atherosclerosis is not caused by dietary cholesterol, which is biologically different than the cholesterol your body produces and uses. She explained that HDL particles are large droplets of lipids (fat) covered by proteins. As the cholesterol travels through your body, lipids are transferred from the HDL particle to the cells of the body, causing the HDL to shrink as it travels from cell to cell. 

LDL are the result of depleting much of the lipids inside the lipoprotein. The reason these LDL are not completely absorbed by the body is that the LDL typically are left with only the oxidized lipids and proteins that the body cannot use. This is why no one should eat man made "vegetable oils" such as "Canola Oil" (AKA "rapeseed") or Corn Oil or over processed seed oils such as Flax and Sesame, and we should be aware of the smoke point of our healthy cooking oils: butter, coconut, lard, olive, tallow as even these oils can be oxidized by excessive heat or ultraviolet light.

Dr. Cate reported that the majority of fatal heart attacks are blockages caused by blood clots caused by a bleeding artery caused by the thinning of the arterial wall when oxidized LDL cholesterol builds up toward the outside of the artery, maintaining the inside diameter of the artery. This phenomenon makes this type of heart disease invisible to the standard dye test. She explained that this test can only detect blockages caused by inward forming blockages of oxidized LDL cholesterol, which are less of a concern. After all, a reduction in diameter would simply cause an increase in velocity, which in of itself is not a bad thing.

Dr. Cate went on to talk about how Intravascular Ultrasound (IVUS) is used in place of dye and can provide cross sections of the artery as it is pulled back out of the body. This can help identify the more deadly outward build up of oxidized LDL particles and thinning of the arterial wall. Unfortunately, UCLA is among the few hospitals in California that perform this procedure.

If you would like to see her talk, you can buy access to all the Bulletproof Biohacking Conference videos. Or, if you would like to know more about her Natural Heart Disease Reversal Program, check out her website.

Dave Asprey: My Year in Biohacking

Dave Asprey's year and Biohacking presentation was informative and amusing. Dave consumed live rat whip worm larvae on stage, hoping that these worm larvae will help with the severity of his allergies to toxic mold. Dave and his wife both had adult stem cells injected this year. Apparently, your fat is rich in stem cells and it is legal to harvest these from your body and inject them elsewhere in your body the same day (Autologous Adipose-Derived Stem Cells) which he also talked about on his podcast with Dr. Harry Adelson. 

Kelly Starrett: Ready State

Dr. Kelly Starrett's topic of Ready State dovetails nicely with his new book: Deskbound. He highlighted that some of the best practices do not scale to every day life. However, a daily process including some simple things such as 10-15 minutes of deep breathing in the morning, minimizing non-required sitting time during the day and spending 10-15 minutes on mobility in the evenings are easily incorporated into your day and can have a profound impact on your health.

Check back next week for my notes from day two.

Stay well engineered,

Devon

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These statements or products referenced are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Hacking Your Hotel, Part 4

Tip #4: Hack Your Coffee

Why would you spend the time cleaning your hotel coffee maker only to brew the substandard coffee packet that typically comes in most hotel rooms?

The Upgraded Coffee Coffee Cartridges come individually foil wrapped to maximize freshness. This makes them the perfect travel companion. Some hotels even have Keurig K-Cup machines in their rooms making a perfect cup of mold-free, mycotoxin-free coffee only a button push away.

Even if your hotel does not have such a machine, you can still have great quality coffee using your hotel coffee maker, two cups and the Upgraded Coffee cartridge with a trick I learned from one of Dave Asprey's videos.

1. Empty coffee grounds into first cup.
2. Use coffee machine to heat water.
3. Add hot water to first cup.
4. Let coffee grounds soak, stirring and tapping the cup on the counter periodically.
5. After a few minutes the grounds should have settled.
6. Decant the freshly brewed coffee into the second cup leaving the "mud" in the first cup.
7. Enjoy.

For further ways to hack your coffee, see my post regarding Bulletproof Coffee. With a good night's rest and a good cup of coffee, you will be ready for whatever your travel has brought you to do.

Stay well engineered,

Devon

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These statements or products referenced are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Identity and Digital Security

With Apple and Google doing their best to control what content is put on iTunes and Play respectively, we may have been lulled into a false sense of internet security. While Microsoft is by far the largest target, Mac has been gaining popularity and long standing belief that Mac OS is not susceptible to viruses, is just no longer true. No matter what operating system you are using we should be forever vigilant, but in the end it is just a matter of time before a breach will occur. Here are some tips to avoid breaches in internet security and how to ensure you can quickly recover from it.

1. Get an Antivirus

While not all antiviruses are created equal, and no antivirus is 100% impregnable, it is your first line of defense. Some higher regarded antiviruses are Norton, McAfee, TrendMicro and Avast. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but I have used these in the past and all have their strong and weak points, good and bad features. All of them have Android and iPhone versions as well.

2. Do Not Click, Close

This next tip is simple enough, but hard to remember when an issue arises. If a suspicious popup appears asking you to click on something, do not do it. There is an old Windows keyboard command for closing a window. Pressing the [Alt] and [F4] keys simultaneously in Microsoft Windows will close the active window; that is [Command] and [W] for you iOS users. For most smart phones, I believe you just need to long press your home button and swipe to close. It might not hurt to reboot your computer or mobile device just to sever your internet connect and clear your cache.

3. When in Doubt, Power Down

If you find yourself facing a never ending supply of pop ups, or someone else remote controlling your desktop, your best choice might be to power down. For Windows and iOS devices, press and hold the power button until the power shuts off, typically 10 seconds. Most Android users can try pressing the power button and volume down simultaneously until their phone reboots, while iOS users can press the power button and the home buttons simultaneously. If you act quickly, your data is likely safe on the internal memory, but you may require a third party to help you retrieve it depending on the damage.

4. Use Strong Passwords

Strong passwords contain upper case letters, lower case letters, numbers and symbols in a unique combination that is not a word recognizable by a dictionary. This includes family names, pets names, street names, favorite teams, food or anything that could be related to you. For more on strong passwords, check out the Master Lock Vault website.

5. Use Email with Two-Step Verification

Two-Step verification is simply that it requires two credentials to login. These are typically the answer to a secret question and your password. In the event your account is locked out, an email or a text message will be sent to verify it is you that is attempting to access the account. I am in the process of transitioning from an ISP provided email address without 2-Step Verification to an online email address that does.

6. Use the Cloud Confidently

Many people are uncertain about the cloud. However, the easiest way to steal people's digital information is to steal their phone or computer. Furthermore, phones and computers can easily be damaged in a disaster like a fire or hurricane. Most cloud storage has 256-bit encryption. I am not a Computer Science guy, but bits can be 0 or 1, so two choices to the 256 power? That is a lot of passwords to try by brute force. It would take the fastest computer in the world years to break a strong password.

7. Never Give Any Personal Information Over the Phone

Despite all the advances in technology, people still fall prey to the phone scam. I never give information over the phone to people I do not know. If my account is past due, I will politely inform them that I will take care of it online. If my account has been compromised, other than to confirm which recent purchases that were not mine, they do not require anything further from me to cancel my account and send me a new card. Even providing your date of birth and the last four digits of your social security number could be enough to.compromise your identity.

8. File a Complaint

Internet Crime Complaint Center has links to Internet Crime, FBI anti-terrorism and National Center for Missing and Exploited Children complaints. If you have been the victim of an internet related crime, you can report it through the links found on the IC3 website.

Hacking Your Hotel, Part 3

Tip #3: Hack Your Environment

I am sure you have spent a sleepless night or two on account of a room that was too hot, too humid, or so dry that your nose would not stop running. In nature, the sun goes down, the earth cools down and excess humidity presents as dew providing the perfect environment for sleep. Replicating this environment in a hotel room is critical for obtaining good sleep when you travel.

Hacking Your Humidity

Most humans prefer around 70% humidity. Many hotels have dry air, certainly in the winter. Some even have poor bathroom fans, so hacking the humidity in the room is as simple as turning on the shower for 20 minutes. As Dave Asprey showed in his video, some bathroom vents might need to be blocked temporarily with a piece of tissue.

In the case of humid climates, the air conditioning and shower may make the room too humid. In this case, may require you turning on the heat for a little bit, but that may require you to gain control of the thermostat.

Hack Your Temperature

Whether your aim is to raise or lower the temperature in your room, it will require that you have access to it. Some energy conscious hotel chains now have motion sensor thermostats, which are about the useless device for people who do not toss and turn or wake up frequently in the night. Thanks to the internet, you can usually find ways to get into manual or VIP mode. I am all for reducing energy usage, but you can have more impact with how you ser your thermostat at home and my sleep comes first.

With the temperatyure and humidity to your liking, you should have fewer issues falling asleep and staying asleep.

Stay well engineered,

Devon

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These statements or products referenced are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

External Brain, Part 2

One of my very first posts was about my first steps toward creating my "external brain". Everyone has different bandwidth, but everyone has their limitations. Storing your information digitally allows you to choose what you will spend your energy remembering. Locally stored files are not easily indexable, searchable or shareable. Digital files are.

Evernote

Evernote is your digital filing cabinet in the sky (cloud). Notes are organized by Folders, which work more like binders, and Tags, which work more like folders with cross-reference capability.

Notes

Notes can simply be text, or contain attachments like photos or documents. You can type your text into the app, clip it from your web browser, or you can forward an email to capture the text. You can attach just about any file. Text in photos are searchable as are Microsoft Office documents, if you are a Premium subscriber.

Folders and Tags

I recommend limiting the number of folders to a dozen or less and tags to as few as you can manage. The search function in Evernote is pretty robust, folders and tags just help you get to frequently used data more quickly.

Upload, Upload Some More

What is really unique about Evernote is that they restrict you monthly upload size, not your total account size. Basic users can upload 60MB of content per month for free. Plus subscribers ($34.99/yr) can upload 1GB per month. Premium subscribers ($69.99/yr) and Business subscribers can upload 10GB per month.

Evernote and Email

Your Evernote account comes with an email address, so you can easily send information to Evernote through your email client. You can use "@" on the subject line to specify the target @Folder. You can also use the "#" symbol in the subject line to specify the target #Tag. One tip about emailing Evernote: The notes look better if the email is in Rich Text format; the HTML format emails become double spaced in Evernote.

Security

A brief word about security. Evernote has a 256-bit encryption so your data should be quite secure, provided you have a strong password, consisting of at least 10-20 upper case, lower case, numbers and symbols.

With so much to gain with Evernote for absolutely free, you really have nothing to lose. Just take a few minutes to think about the fewest number of folders that can contain all your data and the fewest number of tags you would want to search or link similar documents with and you will be ready to make serious efficiency gains with Evernote.

Stay well engineered,

Devon

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These statements or products referenced are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Hacking Your Hotel, Part 2

Introduction

Like many of you I need to travel for various reasons and many times that means stay in hotels. Even the nicest hotels can have issues that can hinder your performance. Dave Asprey has several great tips for staying in a hotel, but I have  few of my own.

Tip #2: Clean Out Your Coffee Maker

You would be surprised to see what comes out of a those cheap hotel room coffee makers when you just run water through it so spending some of your precious alpine or aquifer water to perform a "dry" run or two without coffee grounds is quite warranted.

I am even willing to sacrifice a cotton swab to get the hard to reach places.

With your coffee maker clean and ready for morning, you are ready to get a good night's sleep.

Stay well engineered,

Devon

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These statements or products referenced are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Hacking Introversion

I cannot find my Meyers Brigg's test results from years ago, but I am fairly certain that I fell in the introverted spectrum along with at least one third of the population on this spectrum, you would think that introverts would not get such grief like Susan Cain did during summer camp.

Introverts are not antisocial, they simply have less social "juice" in their cup. Put another way, Introverts have less social energy while Extroverts simply have more. The Introvert will typically deplete their social energy in two to three hours, but varies person to person.

Once depleted, Introverts must return to their place of refuge to recharge, which takes considerably longer. This leads to fewer social interactions and longer spans between interactions, which is often mistaken for antisocial behavior. Thankfully, there are some hacks for this.

Schedule Your Social Time

Obviously, the first step in hacking introversion is to plan your activities. If an event lasts longer than your personal tolerance, arrive fashionably late. This avoids the chance that you might be encouraged to stay the duration of the event. Even so, it helps to have another activity planned immediately after to ensure you are not tempted to stay for the after party.

Warm Up With Friends

The next tip is to spend time with people you are comfortable with before heading out to be social. When you are around friends, your defenses are down; in other words, you are relaxed. Often, friends will greet you with a handshake or a hug. Physical contact releases Oxytocin, the bonding hormone that is more likely to get you in a relaxed, social mood.

Practice Often

Lastly, as with anything, being social gets easier with practice. So, plan to practice and plan accordingly.

With these new tools at your disposal, you will be able to be more social, on your terms.

Stay well engineered,

Devon

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These statements or products referenced are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Hacking Your Hotel, Part 1

Like many of you, I need to travel for various reasons and many times that means staying in hotels. Even the nicest hotels can have issues that can hinder your performance. Dave Asprey has several great tips for staying in a hotel, but I have  few of my own.

Tip #1: Check the Corners

I come from a state that has few insects that are very dangerous, but other states and countries have everything from bed bugs to spiders and scorpions. I even found a scorpion in my parent's spare bedroom once. That is why one of the first things I do when I enter a hotel room is pull out my 12 LED UV flashlight, turn off the lights and check the corners of the room and the mattress.

Many arthropods (insects, spiders, etc.) appear to glow under UV light making them easy to spot. 

A tip regarding battery powered devices is that I will often cut out a section of a plastic water bottle or something and use that between the cap and the battery or battery compartment. This ensures that the flashlight does not get accidentally turned on en route.

So, next time you stay in a hotel room, make sure to check the corners. You will sleep easier knowing your room is clean, and clear of critters.

Stay well engineered,

Devon

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These statements or products referenced are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

100% Coconut MCT Oil

In case you have not heard, Bulletproof XCT (C8 & C10 MCT Oil) and Brain Octane (100% C8 MCT Oil) is now 100% Coconut sourced. This means no more palm oil, which is the cause of much deforestation according to Orangutan Foundation International.

Why is Bulletproof XCT and Brain Octane superior to coconut oil or other brands of MCT (Medium Chain Triglyceride) oil? It comes down to the number of carbons in the fatty acid chain. The more carbons, the more solid it is at room temperature and the harder it is to digest. MCT oil is liquid at room temperature, which makes it perfect for cooking or mixing into a beverage, like Bulletproof Coffee. If you would like to know more about MCT Oil you can check out this article on Paleo Leap.

If you would like to try Bulletproof XCT or Brain Octane, they are 10% off for a limited time.

When you do order from Bulletproof, I would appreciate it if you used my referral link so I can continue on my journey of health and wellness.

Stay well engineered,

Devon

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These statements or products referenced are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Hack Your Junkmail

I have been redirecting email from outside my organization to an "external" folder for several months now. It allowed me to focus on only emails from from within my organization, sister and parent organizations and priority vendors only.

However, this required me to pick through the "external" email folder for important emails to salvage and delete the rest. Most of the emails that were being filtered out were basically junk mail, but I did not necessarily want to unsubscribe from all the emails (https://unroll.me/) because there would occasionally be an article, webinar or vendor that I wanted to hear from. Recently, I thought better of it:

Move all "external" email to the Deleted Items folder.

So I created a Microsoft Outlook Rule that moved all emails with the "@" symbol (all emails that I am aware of) to the Deleted Items folder, except the specific email addresses and domains (like within my organization) .

If I find that I am salvaging too many emails from a particular vendor or domain, I can move them once, update the rule, and never have to worry about that source again. Just another step closer to achieving true Inbox Zero at work.

Stay well engineered,

Devon

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These statements or products referenced are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

The Best Fuel for High Altitude, Part 2

In my previous post on The Best Fuel for High Altitude activity, it seemed that Glucose would be more efficient from an oxygen availability standpoint. This may technically be accurate, but it may not be the entire story.

In June 2014, I was visiting friends in Vail, Colorado where we did some hiking. At this time, I had been in Ketosis for several weeks with an average BHB level of 1.5 to 3.0 mmol/dL. My cardiovascular performance seemed significantly improved, despite not doing anything to prepare for the lower oxygen environment.

Could it have been the Ketones?

According to this podcast (30:55) with Dr. Dominic D'Agostino, it does appear that Ketosis has several benefits that may balance out the higher oxygen requirement to obtain the Ketones. Dr. Dom states that some people note an increase in cerebral blood flow and hypothesize that the diuretic effect of Ketosis counteracts the inter-cranial pressure, as one experiences when diving underwater which is his area of study. 

Furthermore, Ketosis might be a natural defense against weight loss at altitude as noted in this Pub Med article, as Ketosis are noted to produce fewer reactive oxygen species in the brain and be more muscle sparing than Glucose. Least not of all, is that Ketones produce more ATP than Glucose making it a more efficient fuel per gram.

So, while it may require more oxygen to burn fat, it would appear that being in Ketosis and/or having some free Ketones in your blood would be beneficial for high altitude activity. For the latter, I would recommend Bulletproof Brain Octane and Keto//OS.

Stay well engineered,

Devon

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These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These statements or products referenced are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Sent Box Zero

Email Efficiency

It has been a while since I wrote about email efficiency. I have given a half of a dozen presentations on this subject to my coworkers over the past two years and have seen some steady results. This post is simple, yet powerful. I have been categorizing the email I receive for over a year now, but I have more recently started to categorize the email I send.

Why Categorize Sent Mail?

By default, Microsoft Outlook will clear any categories assigned to emails that you receive from other people and, therefore, any emails people receive from you. So, assigning categories to emails you send would seem to be a fool's errand. However, if you create a Microsoft Outlook Rule that states, that a copy of an email you send that is assigned to a category are moved to a folder you specify, you now have an automatic way to archive emails you send.

By default, Microsoft Outlook does not let you assign categories to a draft of an email, but this can be achieved with a little VBA Macro. For instructions on how to create a VBA macro click here.

Public Sub CategoriesButton()

  Dim Item As Outlook.MailItem

  Set Item = Application.ActiveInspector.CurrentItem

  Item.ShowCategoriesDialog

End Sub

Added Sent-Box Zero to Inbox Zero is a powerful way to be more efficient.

Stay well engineered,

Devon

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These statements or products referenced are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

The Best Fuel for High Altitude

I heard somewhere this weekend, possibly the GoPro Mountain Games episode of Boundless, that Carbohydrates are more efficient fuel for low oxygen (high altitude) activity. Being a fan of using fat as fuel, I had to see for myself.

If my math is correct, fat requires 13 times as much oxygen, making carbohydrates the more efficient fuel to burn at altitude. Fortunately for us closer to sea level, we have ample oxygen to burn fat for fuel.

Stay well engineered,

Devon

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These statements or products referenced are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Hack Your Wardrobe, Hack Your Decision-Making Powers

Did you ever notice that the more powerful decision makers in the world wear the same outfit every day, or every other day? Mark Zuckerberg wears a gray t-shirt and jeans every day. Steve Jobs wore a black turtle neck and jeans every day and may other famous people have made similar wardrobe choices according to this Forbes Magazine article.

Why would they do this?

They are hacking their brains, specifically their decision-making banks. Everyone has a limited supply of decision-making power. When this runs low, people have trouble making good decisions about just about anything, including what to wear.

The solution? Plan what you will wear well in advance and be consistent. I found Mark's and Steve's color palettes a little drab, so I have elected to wear a different color shirt every week day, but relatively the same color shirt on that particular day of the week. Ever forget what day it is? Some people look at there phones; I look at the shirt that I am wearing.

Worried that people will notice? It is call "the spotlight effect". One study had a person wear a Barry Manilow t-shirt in a room of their peers. Less than 50% of the peers noticed. In my own experience, only a couple coworkers have ever mentioned that I always wear a black shirt and jeans on Fridays, and they are certainly the most observant few.

So do yourself a favor, save up your decision making reserves for the important stuff.

Stay well engineered,

Devon

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These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These statements or products referenced are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Intermittent Fasting

Eat Less, Move More?

As I touched on in my Burn Fat with Science post, there is more to the "Eat Less, Move More" theory of weight loss. Dr. Jason Fung does a great job of explaining how "Calories In Must Equal Calories Out" is an oversimplification of a two part problem in this YouTube video. Eating less causes your bodies metabolism to slow down and your basal insulin levels to rise. The result? Every single calorie you eat over your energy expenditure is stored as fat. The solution?

Eat Less Often, Move More!

Eating less often gives your body a chance to deplete the glycogen stores in your liver and turn to your fat stores to get between meals. A novel concept, right? But the concept of "fasting" scares some people, even though some religions practice it periodically during the year and everyone does it for several hours every night.

Bulletproof Coffee is the cornerstone of Dave Asprey's Bulletproof Intermittent Fasting. Consuming a little butyric acid and caprylic acid in your coffee keeps you satisfied, while extending the fast from insulin stimulating proteins and carbohydrates that you initiated a few hours prior to sleep. When your insulin levels normalize, you will naturally eat less.

Soon, I will be writing about a specific source of carbohydrate that I have been adding to my diet to help normalize my insulin response and keep me in Ketosis.

Stay well engineered,

Devon

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These statements or products referenced are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Kautious About Kale

Is it just me or are the leaves of Kale at the grocery stores getting smaller? Apparently there is growing concern over a Kale shortage and with good reason. Kale is one of the most popular super foods finding its way into salads, stuffing and smoothies everywhere.

Unfortunately, too much Kale can be hazardous to your health as the oxalic acid in Kale binds to calcium increasing risk of kidney stones and atherosclerosis as I discussed in my Do You K2? post.

One way to reduce your risk of a specific type of oxalic acid build up is to rotate your greens constantly. In the wild, ruminant animals will naturally go from patch to patch varying the sources, and therefore the types, of greens and oxalic acid.

Dave Asprey also has some upgrades to the Kale shake that will lower the oxalates. Steaming Kale does not work with my schedule right now, so I have resorted to Calcium Loading by adding cheese to my salad or a teaspoon of Calcium Citrate to my smoothie.

I got back on the Kale smoothie band wagon sometime after Christmas: several whole leaves of kale, a banana, berries, ice and water. Despite having Bulletproof Coffee for breakfast, the Kale shake would trash by Ketosis and raise my blood sugar 20-40 points. No Buenos.

I have resorted to swapping out all the fruit for a whole lemon, a"thumb" of ginger and a quarter sprig of cilantro. My coworkers enjoy seeing by the expression on my face, as this smoothie is rather tart. A small price to pay for a healthier liver and regular bowel movements, I would say.

Stay well engineered,

Devon

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These statements or products referenced are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Science the S*** Out of this Body

Like many of you, I have taken the past few weeks to renew my commitment to physical activity. I am now walking a mile every day and on Sundays I lift a very simple set of five compound movements as described by Dr. Doug McGuff in his book,  Body by Science,

In Body by Science, Dr. Doug McGuff outlines the problems with most lifting programs is volume and intensity. I remember performing three sets of ten in High School, hoping to build strength for the wrestling team. Even though the duration of each set was relatively low, the weight was also relatively low as to ensure I could complete the third set. In contrast, we would occasionally test our 1 Rep Max. Again the duration was rather low, but the intensity was significantly higher.

Dr. McGuff crushes the age old question of repetitions versus intensity with the concept that intensity and time are the important factors. Why? Your body has three types of muscle fibers: Quick, Strong and Long. Quick fibers are fast acting, but not as strong as your Strong fibers, neither of which can sustain load very Long. The goal of any lifting program is to properly fatigue all three fibers and stimulate growth. However, a high number of repetitions will likely fail to burn out your Strong muscle fibers, while a few high-intensity repetitions will not likely burn our your Long muscle fibers.

The solution? A long interval of moderately strong intensity. How long? Approximately 6 to 12 seconds per repetition. How strong? Intense enough that you cannot complete more than 10 repetitions. That is anywhere from 60 to 120 seconds under load. I manage my tempo with a Gymboss miniMAX set to 6s intervals for both the exertion and the return intervals. That way I only need to keep track of the reps.

This is a sheet I created to record the weight and the duration. I chart them separately so I can see my progress in each category as the weeks go by.

Five compound movements. Under 120 seconds each. A robust exercise interval of under 10 minutes? Absolutely! My heart is pounding and I am sweating bullets by the end of the set. I am not overly sore, but I can definitely feel it for 24-48 hours following this activity.

Some people are concerned that they will put on mass on this training program. The fact is some will, and some will not. There are two main factors: genetics and diet. Some people lean out when they exercise, others build mass. At the end of the day, if you do not eat to support muscle growth, you will never put on size.

If you are looking for an efficient way to ramp up your metabolism, try this work out. If you are interested in the biochemical science behind this exercise strategy check out Body by Science.

Stay well engineered,

Devon

If you found this information helpful, I would appreciate it if you clicked my Referral Link and checkout all the great Bulletproof products for yourself.

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These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These statements or products referenced are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.