How to pick the best pillow for You!

Which pillow is right for you? The answer is usually a combination of various factors such as your:

- Sleep habits (side-sleeper, stomach sleeper, back sleeper)

- Age and the health of your spine (history of aches and pains, cramps, discomfort)

- Personal preferences (in terms of material, comfort and style), and

- Budget (no matter what you’re willing to spend, a little market research goes a long way!)

As you get older your body and sleep patterns undergo many changes. The pillow that seemed perfect a few years ago might not have changed much, but your needs are different. You might need more comfort and support, a different shape or a material that is more efficient at relieving pressure points that cause pain and discomfort.

Getting Started

The best size:

Your build and personal preference are the deciding factors while choosing the right size
.
Start with a pillow that looks ‘right’ for you. Lie down the way you usually do and slip the pillow under your neck. Do not rush yourself to make a decision. Take a moment to ’settle down’. Turn around and try your favorite sleeping postures. Rate the pillow for comfort level.

Next, try a slightly bigger pillow and test it for comfort. Does it feel better? Try a few progressively bigger sizes, thickness etc.

When you have found the right size, move on to the next step:

The best shape:

Comfort is not the only factor while picking your pillow. Support is equally important.
More so if you have special needs, such as back pain, neck pain or frozen shoulder.

A good contour pillow is shaped to ensure neutral spinal alignment, helping to relax the supporting muscles and relieve stiff neck and back pain.

The Sleep Better Pillow has special Arm Channels to allow free arm movement and support the entire weight of the head and neck.

The best material:

You can choose a variety of inner fillings and outer covers for your pillow.

Pick a memory foam pillow if you are looking for a “perfect fit”. Memory foam is composed of cells that redistribute themselves to match the exact contours of the body. Your body weight is evenly distributed throughout the entire surface area of the material, ensuring better comfort without tossing and turning.

Make sure you are not allergic to the filling or cover material and it does not emanate a strong or offensive odor.

The best credentials:

While neck support is proven to help people with cervical problems, you need to ensure that the type of neck pillow you buy provides the right level of comfort and neck support all night long. Many of the “special neck pillows” available in the market today have not been designed or recommended by a registered physiotherapist or neurosurgeon.

Leading neurosurgeon Dr. Berke has found much success in his quest to provide effective neck support for people who suffer from neck and back problems. Many people have benefited from his specially-designed contoured “Sleep Better Pillow ” made of visco-elastic memory foam.

In a quality-of-sleep study conducted on 1000 subjects, 90% said they would continue to use the Sleep Better Pillow ™ instead of their own.

The best price:

Don’t just confine yourself to the stores! Make a few calls and look on the Internet for the best value. Many manufacturers allow you to try your memory foam pillow or mattress risk-free and return it within 30 Days for a full refund.

Finally, make sure you do not end up comparing apples and oranges. Before you buy a pillow, compare all the features and put it to the “Better Sleep” Test!

If you just started your workouts or you are just about to start this few points can save you lots of time and money. For most of us, things in beginning tempt to be quite confusing. Where is best to start with building muscle mass quest and how? What I should do? Who do I believe? So much information around me but I want to make sure I choose the right track. I want good results visible soon, spring is near! How these guys managed to have those muscles and ripped abs? I want results without spending fortune for supplements but where to start?

The reason there are so much confusing informations around is simple. There are so many people trying to sell products related to building muscle mass and fitness. Bodybuilding supplements industry is so huge and influential that they own 85% of total media related to building muscle mass. When you add thousands of other people who claim they make up different training systems (and everyone claims that theirs is the best) the end result is - complete mess.

Let us look some 30 - 40 years back. People like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lou Ferigno or Bill Pearl achieved incredible results without thousands of “special” products we have today “jumping” on us from all around how is that possible? Simple answer to this again - they followed basic principles for building muscle mass and all others who followed their footsteps achieve best results. Why for the Gods sake, we do not know more about these principals of building muscle mass? Answer is again quite simple and strait - this is not at all profitable! People who own industry and media around science of building muscle mass and fitness know well they cannot profit from supporting and advertising this approach. Off course they can’t! If you give out complete science of building muscle mass to someone he is not anymore dependent on your products and therefore isn’t recurring costumer of yours. We live in ugly reality of the consumer orientated world and it’s on us how we adjust to it.

When I started with my attempts to loose fat from my belly and build muscle mass I had very hard time to figure out what is going on. I lost almost 2 years and quite a sum of money, buying different supplements and stuff hoping they will make me advance. Sound familiar? I was frustrated, I was angry I was envying those huge muscular guys from the magazine covers and advertisements! I knew that most of them were steroids users (read juice addicts) and I remember days I almost decided to risk my health in order to fast start building muscle mass, like they do.

But I did not give up and than few guys who knew the science of building muscle mass fortunately decided to help me out. Today, it is my turn to pass on that knowledge to the next generation. I know you will be relieved and very much pleased if you accept these advices.

1). Find the professional gym.

2). Use heavy weights - train with intensity.

3). Take enough rest

4). Train each muscle group ones a week

5). Proper diet. Eat plenty of protein and fresh natural foods.

These principals are both, the basics and guaranties for your future success. You have more than enough good examples that prove this, it’s just they are not easy to learn about. If they sound “too simple to be trough” you can spend some time comparing different training routines of athletes you admire or you can make other forms of research on building muscle mass principals if you like. Whatever you decide you will come to this same conclusions but you will have to invest some time and effort. In part two, I will explain all five principals in deep.

You can build up Massive and Strong Body fast, without risking your health. Sasha’s advices saved time, money and good health to many Athletes. His dedication, profound experience and personal example are causing the difference. Feel free to visit his web page , claim your Free e-Book’s and Video’s and learn more on Fast Massive Muscle Building.

While the worlds of sports and fitness are intertwined, it was not until the 1970s that popular culture was ready to accept fitness as eagerly as it had accepted sports. Fitness had not yet taken on its importance for improving health, and popular opinion likened fitness to work and manual labor. In the 1940s and 1950s, few participated in fitness willingly. Among those who did were Jack LaLanne, Victor Tanny, Joseph Gold, Joseph Weider, and Les and Abbye “Pudgy” Stockton. These fitness pioneers, among others, drew people to the beach in Santa Monica, California-the original Muscle Beach. Visitors came to watch their feats of strength and acrobatic displays. More and more viewers became participants, and these people, originally on the fringe, became a part of the cultural mainstream. Jack LaLanne, Vic Tanny, and Joe Gold all started gym chains with bodybuilding as their main focus. Due toPage 602 the influence of Abbye “Pudgy” Stockton, women were introduced to the muscularity and strength that came with bodybuilding. No longer reserved for just for “strongmen,” bodybuilding brought about a change in the mindsets of all those who visited Muscle Beach.

From the seeds planted at the Santa Monica came Venice Beach, the home to bodybuilding legends Arnold Schwarzenegger, Frank Zane, and many, many more. Venice Beach in the 1970s brought with it a fitness explosion across the globe. Not only did bodybuilding become mainstream, but the popular opinion of fitness changed dramatically. Americans in the 1970s would do anything to improve their health and fitness.

Sports and athletics grew in the 1970s as well. Women became increasingly more interest in participating in sports; however, very little funding was available for the development of woman’s athletics. A landmark law was passed in 1972. Part of a series of educational amendments, “Title IX,” legislated gender equity in athletics. Not only were women becoming more active and more physically fit, a law now existed that called for equal funding and equal opportunity for female athletes. On 21 September 1973, female tennis star Billie Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs in the first-ever winner-take-all “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match. The hoopla surrounding this event-and its outcome-provided even more incentive for women to become involved with sports and fitness. By 1977, a record 87.5 million U.S. adults over the age of eighteen claimed to be involved in some sort of athletic activity.

The fitness industry continued its growth into the 1980s. Gym owners tailored their facilities to attract customers and new gyms opened around the United States and around the world. A healthy lifestyle was becoming a part of popular culture. No longer was it unfashionable to be athletic, strong, or healthy. With the development of new technology, health and fitness were able to make their way into homes. Fitness tapes became available in the early 1980s and continue to encourage those to whom a gym or health facility may not be accessible. Innovators such as Jane Fonda and Richard Simmons were able to bring their exercise programs to a new population. Joe Weider became a significant force in bringing health, fitness, and bodybuilding as close as the mailbox through his magazines and pamphlets. Because of fitness pioneers such as Weider, Gold, Fonda, and Simmons, fitness continues to play a significant role in modern society. The importance of being in good health and physically fit has made and continues to have an impact.

For more information on Fitness, visit my Fitness Information here.

When it comes to creating a bodybuilding diet, you should not underestimate the importance of carbohydrate intake. While you definitely do require enough protein to ensure your muscles have an appropriate pool of amino acids available to form the basic building blocks of the muscle, if the carbohydrates aren’t present, the fuel needed to assemble these building blocks is not being provided.

There are some weight lifters who prefer following a lower carbohydrate approach to building muscle, but often their gains will be slower than those who don’t reduce this macronutrient from their bodybuilding diet.

That said, what are the best carbohydrates to be consuming? There is a vast number of options here, so deciphering which ones will be most beneficial is a smart idea.

1. Oatmeal

Oatmeal, both cooked and raw, is an excellent source of whole grain carbs that will digest slowly in the body and thus provide a steady rate of energy to the muscle cells. You can blend oatmeal in with your shakes, or combine it with protein powder after it’s cooked to make a terrific meal when eaten alongside some nuts for healthy fat.

2. Rice

Rice is a staple of almost any mass gaining diet and for good reason. First, it’s cheap. As many of you know who are trying to gain weight, eating 4000+ calories each day can get expensive! Rice is only pennies per serving so it makes for a great option for those trying to save money.

Secondly, it’s quick. You can either opt for minute rice (which isn’t quite as good, but still a decent option), or pre-cook a big back of long-grain or brown-rice at the start of the week and dish it out for each of your meals.

It will go well with a variety of protein sources and could even be turned into a pudding type of dessert if you really got creative.

3. Dextrose

When it comes to the post-workout period, dextrose should always have a place on your muscle building diet program. Dextrose will be absorbed rapidly in the body, thus will help create an insulin spike, allowing those amino acids from the protein you consume at this point to get into the muscle cells and start the repair and rebuilding process.

It can be mixed easily into any shake and again is very easy on the wallet.

4. Kiddie Cereal

Surprised with this option? That’s right, kiddie cereal - all that sugary stuff you used to eat as a kid, can actually be a good part of a bodybuilding diet. There is one requirement though with this - it’s that it’s eaten immediately after your workout.

You see, at this time you want a fast reacting carbohydrate in your system, and kiddie cereals are just this. Plus, trying to gain weight should be fun since you know you’ll be cutting out food once you get back on the fat loss bandwagon, so why not make the most of it?

One to two cups right after an intense workout can be absolutely perfect and really help you see the progress you’re looking for.

So, have a good look over your current muscle building diet and be sure these are there. If not, it may be time for you to make some adjustments.

Get a tailor made diet that is designed to help you add more muscle to your body.

Vince Delmonte did it, so can YOU!

There are some men out there in the bodybuilding world who can just naturally see a good weight gain. They simply look at a dumbbell and it seems like they build muscle overnight. Then there are those in the bodybuilding world who don’t. These are often know as the ’skinny guys’ or ‘hardgainers’.

These are the individuals who train and train and train, and yet still cannot seem to build muscle if their life depended on it. What’s the story with them? Are they destined to live the life of a string bean forever? Or can something be done with them too, to get their body looking more strong and shapely?

You bet there is. These individuals just need to learn the ‘hardgainer’ secrets that should be applied to their workout program. When they do, they can grow too. It’s not magical growth that comes on over night, but it is solid weight gain that is composed of lean muscle mass.

Don’t forget, since most of these guys are naturally quite lean, this serves to help them when they build muscle since they won’t have to spend near the same amount of time trying to diet the fat off later on.

So yes, you may be ‘cursed’ with skinny guy genetics, but to look at it another way, this could actually be a blessing in disguise.

Skinny Guy Bodybuilding Principles

That said, there are some general bodybuilding principles that you as a skinny guy must follow. If you fail to do so, you are just wasting precious time in the gym because your body just isn’t going to be changing.

The most basic ones include:

More Rest Time

Contrary to popular belief, you need more time to lift

Fewer Isolation Exercises

Those bicep curls, they are not for you my friend, you need a whole new set of exercises

More Dietary Fat

Think you’re going to gain weight on a protein and carb diet? Think again.

Untraditional Cardio Methods

Yes, even skinny guys should do some cardio, however you should not be doing typical 45 minute steady state sessions or 20 minute sprint sessions. That will only work against you.

A Different Role Model

If you’re currently idolizing one of those naturally big guys you see, you should stop. You are not like him and do not have the same body chemistry. You need to find someone who does and who has beat these skinny guy genetics. Then, you will have found someone who you can relate to.

So, if you’re someone who is struggling to add any more weight to the scale, think about these principles. If you aren’t putting them into action, you’re making a big mistake.

Check out Vince DelMonte’s amazing body transformation. If this doesn’t convince you that you can gain weight, nothing will.

Then if you’re ready, learn the exact workout program and diet plan he used to totally reform his body and build muscle

For us in the Northern Hemisphere summer has arrived and shedding the layers of clothes has begun. But for many it’s a case of extra winter baggage still hanging on, which sees a lot of people taking drastic measures like semi-starving themselves to fit into their bathing suits and summer outfits.

So this month I will examine firstly what happens to your body if you severely reduce calories and secondly how to safely and effectively achieve permanent fat-loss.

Topics

1. Cutting calories - hunger pangs!

2. How it effects the body in the long term

3. 5 keys to permanent and healthy fat-loss

• Need for Muscle

• Cardio in moderation

• Eat to boost metabolism

• Water

• Sleep

4. Conclusion

1. Cutting calories - hunger pangs!

What comes to mind when you hear the word diet?
Bad memories of starvation and restriction, or a physical feeling from a lump in the throat to a stomach aching from past hunger pangs. That’s the group of diets I am talking about: Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Slimfast or Cambridge - diets that the foundation involves cutting calories (calories are simply units of food energy).

Firstly however it is essential to stress and clarify that not all calories are the same. For example the calories from a slice of white bread has a different effect on the body than the same amount of calories in a serving of vegetables. So in order to be accurate I am all for reducing calories (consumption) from processed food but not whole food!

The following article examines what happens to your body when you reduce calories from whole foods resulting in a reduction of essential nutrients and energy for the system to function effectively.

2. How it effects the body in the long term

So how do “calorie restrictive” diets work?
Basically on the simple principle of less calories (or energy) coming in as opposed to more energy being used. This leaves the body in a negative energy balance state which results in using current sources including body fat.

Success from that concept makes sense in theory and often achieves positive results on the scale but unfortunately it’s generally short term because the body is a lot more complicated and smarter than that simple theory.

Therefore to explain why it’s essential to look deeper into the body’s mechanisms for creating a natural balance or homeostasis.

After cutting calories the miracle of the body’s internal wisdom sends a message saying “slow down the master regulator of metabolism” - otherwise known as the thyroid gland.

An under-active thyroid is one of the reasons people cannot achieve a permanent optimal weight. The thyroid gland reduces the energy production to cope with the reduced energy input which consequently slows down many of the bodies systems which we experience as fatigue.

Another problem in cutting calories is the body uses existing muscles for energy which further reduces metabolism as muscle is an active tissue. Losing muscle mass gives people a false sense of fat-loss as muscle weighs more than fat and can make the scale lie.

In short, the drastic approach of severely cutting calories does not work in the long run in the effort to lose body fat!

So what does?

3. 5 keys to permanent and healthy fat-loss

In my experience long term success comes from controlling metabolism through a synergy.

Synergy can be described as “the interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects.”

I believe firmly that the success of an individual’s health and fitness goals depends on the following synergy: the need for muscle mass, cardio-respiratory exercise in moderation, supportive nutrition as part of an overall healthy lifestyle that includes the right amount of water and sleep.

• The need for muscle. Muscle is an active tissue that needs fuel. It’s your friend if you want to lose body fat by increasing your metabolism. Did you get that? Muscle helps you to lose fat. Does it mean you have to end up with a body like Arnold Schwarzenegger, ladies? No, activities like circuits, Yoga and Pilates develop muscle. Furthermore after the age of 30 our muscles shrink so it is imperative to regularly maintain or build them.

• Cardio in moderation. It is important however not to overdo the cardio (e.g. cross trainer or jogging), as this can lead to a decrease in muscle mass which are your fat burners. I am not saying Cardio is a bad thing, as it allows nutrients to be transported to the cells via the bloodstream. When fat is released from storage centers (adipose cells) it travels through the bloodstream to be “burned”. But if there is a decrease in muscle mass, the body’s ability to burn fat is also decreased. I recommend short duration cardio to limit the possibility of losing muscle.

• Eat to boost metabolism which means minimising simple sugar and refined carbohydrates intake, but consuming frequent meals consisting of proteins (meat, fish, chicken), complex carbohydrates (starches- brown rice), fibrous carbohydrates (vegetables), and essential fatty acids (olive oil). By eating every 3 hours metabolism increases and your body basically says I don’t need to store this as fat as I get food regularly. (1)

• Drink plenty of water. The body is made up of around 75% water. Water is crucial when it comes to health by playing a role in transporting nutrients, digestion, elimination of waste products, detoxification, etc. Processes that if not balanced can directly lead to weight gain.

For example body fat is a great place to store toxins by pushing them away from the vital organs. Only until an individual has detoxified will the body freely give up body fat as it naturally protects itself from circulating dangerous toxins through the blood stream.

Beware a “dry mouth” is NOT a safe judge of thirst, it is actually a sign that the body is well into dehydration.

How much water should we drink each day? That depends on several factors including your weight and how active you are. But without complicating it with litres or ounces my rule is start the day with 2 big glasses of water and then take a water bottle everywhere you go sipping throughout, aiming for at least 8 glasses consumed for the day. Additionally hydration comes from pure water not soft drinks, juice, coffee, tea, processed milk or alcohol. These drinks require much more water than they actually contain to process, detoxify and pass them out of the system, and lead to further dehydration. To maximize absorption add a pinch of unrefined sea salt. (2)

An excellent text outlining the need for water is called “Your body’s many cries for water” by Dr. Batmanghelidj.

• Get sufficient sleep. Sleep is another factor that has huge ramifications on the body. I consider sleep a major tipping point as many times I have personally seen clients only achieve results until they get to bed earlier and sleep a little longer.

It may seem far fetched but we are often sick, overweight, diabetic, and suffering from disease because we don’t sleep enough. The invention of the light bulb brought with it a host of chronic health concerns. In 1910 the average adult slept 9-10 hours per night for over 4,000 hours yearly. Currently we are lucky to get 7 hours for an average of 2,555 hours yearly. (2)

Dr. Shahrad Taheri, a leading sleep expert reported that those who are sleep-deprived have the “same hormonal balance in their brain as someone who has been on a low calorie diet for three months”. Which as previously discussed puts the body in a starvation state triggering a negative hormonal change, potentially leading to obesity. (3)

The earlier you get to bed the better. Aim to be asleep by 10.30 pm and to obtain a minimum of 8 hours sleep in complete darkness. The body is programmed to perform tasks at certain times. One example is the gallbladder which detoxifies between 10 pm - 1 am. A good rule is every hour of sleep before midnight is worth two hours after in terms of recovery and repair.

To find out how to improve your sleep patterns check out the November issue of Peak Performance article called “22 Ways to a good nights sleep”. (4)

4. Conclusion

So next time you have that fat-loss thought don’t set yourself up for failure, be smart and think synergy: need for muscle, cardio in moderation, supportive eating, plenty of water, and sleep.

Your 3d Coach

Craig Burton

About the Author:

References

(1) Burton, Strong beginnings - success through synergy, 2005
(2) Hittner, Sleep, Water & Food. http://www.ptonthenet.com, 2003
(3) Fletcher, Stay in bed if you want to stay slim say scientists, Express Newspapers, 2006
(4) Burton, 22 ways to a good night’s sleep, 2005

Article by Craig Burton. Craig is a prominent European based holistic health and fitness coach with more than 15 years experience. Craig is a Sports Science graduate of Edith Cowan University and has postgraduate accreditations in nutrition, massage, athletic training, and corrective exercise therapy. He is the author of “The 21 Day Roadmap to Health” available at http://www.3dpts.com

If you enjoyed this article, please feel free to forward it to others, make it available from your site or post it on forums for others to read. Just make sure that this paragraph and URL are included. For more information and articles on health and fitness visit http://www.3dpts.com/articles

To join the FREE monthly Peak Performance Newsletter and to find out more about your current health status with our FREE questionnaire go to http://www.3dpts.com

Kevin: You talk about mentors, and you talk about Fred Bisci, how important is it to you? And this kind of my own question but I think people can relate to this, how important is it to you that you have someone there that you can ask questions to and to help support you?

Matt: Well, I mean I feel blessed and lucky. If I didn’t have him, I’d probably be searching for someone. I would, it’s actually really important, because it makes me feel like just more secure in what I’m doing. I mean it’s like, you know you’re doing it right when, but you also have to have a mentor who knows what they’re doing. Yeah, I think it’s a very beneficial thing.

Kevin: What about, you mentioned your theory on it’s not what you eat, and I love the whole theory, the whole philosophy behind that. Can you explain that a little more thoroughly for people, because I’ve heard it a couple of times, can you explain that just so people can understand what that means?

Matt: Okay, so there’s many diets out there today. I’m sure you’ve heard of many of them such as the Zone diet, the macrobiotics diet, the South Beach diet. And they all claim to get results with their diet. You know, some people they say are healing from degenerative diseases and people are losing weight. And in actuality they sometimes do have good results and these things are happening, and there’s one common denominator on why all these diets are succeeding and that common denominator is they all leave certain foods out of their diets completely without an exception whatsoever. And the reason why the raw diet is the best diet is you’re eliminating everything from your diet and only keeping in the good stuff. And as I was saying before, it’s actually more important what you don’t eat than what you actually eat. I mean, a lot of people they’re preaching raw foods, super foods as if it’s the god or something. I mean you can eat all that stuff until you’re blue in the face, but if you don’t eliminate the cause then you’re just not going to get better.

Let me explain which foods are most damaging to the body, because you don’t need to be 100 percent raw to be healthy, you can do an intermediate diet and not take it to such an extreme, and be very healthy for the rest of your life. For example, my mom is on an intermediate diet and she’s been becoming younger for two years now, because that’s how long she’s been on it. She looks amazing and it’s probably going to prolong her life for a couple of decades. So I like to break down the foods into the following food groups: refined sugars, processed starches, dairy, animal protein, and then raw foods. So if we understand that what you leave out of your diet completely without any exceptions is the way to ultimate health, then we obviously want to leave out the food groups that are the most damaging to the system.

From a moral standpoint, of course the first thing we want to lose, we want to get rid of the animal products. However, from what is most damaging to the body, the refined sugars and the processed starches is the answer there. That’s like the key, that’s like the secret, eliminating refined sugars and processed starches from your diet completely without any exceptions for the rest of your life. That’s what every one of those diets do out there, that’s how they succeed. And then they just make up their own little rules saying you can’t have this type of nightshade or that or this. You know, it’s just eliminating those products. And a lot of them also eliminate the red meat and of course the dairy, the pasteurized cow’s milk. I mean you can get away with a little bit of raw goat’s milk products in moderate quantities. Yeah, that’s pretty much the concept.

Kevin: Yeah, and it’s funny that you bring that up because that is what all the diets are about. You know you take out the processed sugar, you take out the processed flour and people lose weight. Surprise.

Matt: Yeah, and there’s some processed starches, like the one’s that are wheat and gluten-free. I mean you can take it to the next level of an intermediate diet and get rid of those, but the quinoa, the millet, the whole grains, the things that grow from the ground. There’s even wheat and gluten-free pasta if you want to do that sort of thing. You don’t want to mix that with the animal protein because that’s a horrible food combination that can develop issues, but yeah.

Kevin: So let’s get into another question here. This question is from Michael and Michael says, “I’m a fitness model. I require more protein than an average raw foodie. How can I get more high quality protein in a raw food diet?”

Matt: Yeah. Okay. Okay so protein. Some good proteins are hemp seeds, hemp protein,
maca. There’s these protein, there’s a lot of protein powders on the market. A lot of people, you know, they like to, I don’t know if you’re truly 100 percent raw. You’re a fitness model. It was a guy. You really don’t need as much protein as you think. It’s pretty crazy. You’re not going to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger so to say but you’re probably going to look more like Bruce Lee if you kind of live by this lifestyle. The key is to actually work out and the muscle will just come. That’s the key. A lot of people think they’re skinny on the raw food diet. If they just do the working out it’s pretty intense what happens. I mean, when you become 100 percent raw, your body becomes a very efficient biological machine and you don’t need that much fuel to maintain. So therefore all the green juice and the nuts and seeds are plenty of protein for people like us. See my, I would say the key is to, you know, just do lots and lots of working out if you could, that would be the best. And you don’t even really need to do that much, but just do it. You’ll notice that your cuts, another thing is that society, you know, they think that everyone’s big so they think like a smaller figure isn’t that good. When in actuality, it’s the way we’re supposed to be and you actually become much more beautiful. You actually become model-like. It’s quite amazing.

Kevin: I’ve seen actually some of the, some of the smaller people that I’ve seen in, who are fitness models, I think they show their musculature better than someone who’s taller and bigger, I’d say. I’ve seen that over and over and over again.

Matt: Yeah, I totally agree.

Kevin: So let’s see. Is it better to juice fruits and veggies or puree them in a blender? Katy wants to know what you think.

Matt: Katy, I have this juicing versus blending article on my website at rawspirit.org. It’s awesome. But I’m definitely, juicing is definitely the way to go in my eyes. And I can tell you why if you want me to.

Kevin: Let’s do it.

Matt: Okay. Vegetables are known as the builders, the nourishers. That’s where we get our nourish from, nourishment from and regeneration from. While the fruit is the cleansers. So, me personally, I wanted to just drink as much vegetable juice as possible to just get all this nourishment. Additionally, it doesn’t have any fiber. It’s just pretty much colored liquid. And what those colors represent is pretty much vitamins and minerals. And, because it’s just pure liquid, it’s in it’s most absorbable form to the body, which is liquid. I was actually just, my friend was just talking to some women today, and they were just talking about they don’t know what it is but the smoothies and the green tea powders don’t have that electrical charge that straight, fresh green juices do, the people from the Rise and Shine. It’s just totally true. Nothing alkalinizes your system more than vegetable juices. And the greens are key. It’s like chlorophyll is just awesome. It’s just like a huge beauty secret, drinking green juice. I can see it in people’s faces when they drink green juice. Their skin just smooth and beautiful. It’s just quite amazing.

Kevin: Yes. What do you think, how do you eat fruit? You just eat it, not blended not smoothie like or?

Matt: Oh, okay. If I were to choose between the two, it would be the juices but I usually just have a salad. Sometimes, I blend some apples and throw some stuff in there. Yeah, you could definitely blend. You can definitely get benefit from it. There is nothing wrong in it and you can even get away with blending over juicing if you really wanted to. But I usually just, that’s where I usually get my fiber from, is from the meals I eat throughout the day. I might have a salad. I might have a fruit meal, with some nuts and seeds and things like that just mixed together with it, just small amounts of it.

Kevin: In what percentage are you eating, say, carbohydrate, protein, fat? I mean do you
subscribe to any sort of system on that or do you go with the flow?

Matt: Sure. As the years go by we evolve to need less and less food on the 100 percent raw food diet. It just automatically happens, we become very clean very rapidly. In the beginning, I was eating a lot of fat just for emotional purposes. I was eating like three avocados a night. And I got away with something like that because it is such an improvement from my last diet. So, it takes a while to stabilize out on the 100 percent raw food diet, to where you’re balancing. Everything is pretty much you are caught up with what you are doing and that you could live like that. And what had happened with me was that I was eating three avocados is not a problem. And I actually did that in one day. I did that for five years and that is how I did it actually. And then, after the fifth year, every time I would do the three avocados, I would get this huge running nose and I would wake up in the morning just like, “Oh, my God, I can’t move.” So, I had to take it to the next level and start reducing that quantity. So now after eight years of doing this, I mean I usually have less than half of avocado at the most. It is pretty crazy but I only eat two meals a day. I get a couple of vegetable juices, I feel like that is where the true nourishment comes from. And percentages, I really don’t know but I’d probably say it’s about equal or on the board.

Kevin Gianni the host of Renegade Health Show - a fun and informative daily health show that is changing the perception of health across the world. His is an internationally known health advocate, author, and film consultant. He has helped thousands and thousands of people in over 21 countries though online health teleseminars about abundance, optimum health and longevity. He is also the creator and co-author of “The Busy Person’s Fitness Solution”