Just like cars humans can run on low performing fuels or fuels that can maximize their performance.  Does you metabolism run at it Peak Performance or is it sluggish and often down for maintenance/illness and repair?  Humans need the right fuel to upregulate their metabolism and look feel their best.  Metabolism is not like the color of your eyes you can manipulate your metabolism through the proper fuel and movement. 

More and more people believe that their metabolism is slowing or even worse stuck in park.  This is a popular myth that makes people feel better about their bodies not looking and feeling like they would like because they have a reason to blame.  In reality given the proper fuel anybody can perform optimally and burn fat as a fuel instead of sugar.

Thats right your body can burn on different substances.  Either what is called glucose (sugar) or it can burn ketones.  Ketones are the diesel of our body and glucose is the fast burning gas.  You getter better mileage and performance from ketones than you do from glucose and all it requires is a rewiring of your metabolism through nutrition.  Think of it like kindling quick burning and needs to be replenished often versus a hard wood log that burns long and slow.  You don’t need to add more logs very often to keep the fire (energy) burning for a long time.

Just like the logs if you consume the right nutrition your hunger is reduced and the time between being hungry and eating increases.  That’s right the way you eat dictates the fuel you burn and the rate of fuel you burn.  One thing I hear often as I educate people about the truth is “but isn’t a calorie a calorie†if that were true why not just eat chips and ice cream.  The truth is a calorie is the amount of energy a given food contains.   If you have two foods that weigh equal amounts a cookie and an avocado I bet you instinctively know which one is better, the avocado which may have more calories but is a much better fuel for your body.  Our body needs deep nutrition and foods that support our wellbeing.  The kind of foods you eats determines the look and performance of your body.  

There is not much money for the food industry to tell you to eat whole food because they make more money having people eat the highly palatable chips, snacks and cereals.    

If you look at how supermarkets are designed, you will find that the middle isles are full of “filler foods.â€Â  Foods that have an ingredient list as long as the package and many difficult to pronounce.  The companies that manufacture (that’s right manufacture not grow or raise) these foods have the most money and can afford the most shelf space.  The meat, vegetables, fruit and dairy are on the edges of the supermarket.  This is where you should spend your time shopping as well as the spice isle.

While the supermarkets contain both kinds of fuels if you observe the patterns you will see more people are in the middle isles than in the other sections of the supermarket.  All the ads on TV are supporting that behavior by saying how their food is gluten free or fat free and in reality what they should be telling you is that the foods are nutrition free. 

When eating the right food you can quickly convert from burning sugar to burning fat with a couple of quick tweaks to your current routine.  Here are a couple of quick tips:

1.       Nourish your body with good prebiotics and probiotics to get your gut healthy, some easy probiotics to make and consume are Kimchi, kefir, sauerkraut, pickled ginger, and properly prepared pickles.  The market is also flush with prebiotics, and there is more and more research going into all the specific strains and how they translate into assimilating and working with your microbiome.

2.       Work your muscles-you don’t need to be a gym rat but as we age we need to limit the natural occurrence of sarcopenia (age related muscle loss) and doing exercises that stress your muscles 3 times a week along with walks will increase the rate at which glucose is consumed by your body and increase your metabolism. 

3.       Expose yourself to cold-It has multiple effects on your metabolism.  The exposure to cold will activate the burning of brown fat, which works to provide heat when you are cold.  Shivering is the external sign brown fat activation on white fat is the internal workings.  Cols exposure in addition to lowering body fat it can also increase hormone levels, lower blood sugar, cut food cravings, improve adrenal function, assisting in regulation of thyroid, improve deep sleep quality and reduce inflammation.

4.        Drinking coffee or tea increases your metabolic rate this is the easiest but also may be of lower effect.  You can increase the effect along with exercise.

With the proper deep nutrition and the above tips, you can get you metabolism on the right track to burn the proper fuel and being to see your body adjust to the natural size and shape you were meant to have to attain Peak Performance.