Tag Archive for Low Carb Cruise

Links To Low Carb Doctors, and What I Learned, Part 2

us on shipWe’re home from the Low Carb Cruise – and missing it! If you read my blog and you’re on a weight loss mission, I highly encourage signing up for next years Cruise. If you’re a Health Nut, like me!, I highly encourage signing up for next years Cruise. The speakers were fantastic, the people were wonderful, and then there’s the whole “cruise” part of it – I LOVE CRUISES!!! Theme cruises are the best!

Today I want to give you the blogs of the doctors who spoke to us (information = power over your own health), and some of the facts I learned at the lectures.  Most of the doctors who spoke are members of the American Bariatric Physicians ( not bariatric surgeons, that’s different).

Jimmy Moore is the leader and creator of the Low Carb Cruise, and this is the link to his site. You’ll find hundreds and hundreds of free podcasts loaded with information from top doctors and scientists who are literally at the forefront of Real Information ( as opposed to Pharmaceutical Sponsored Information).

Dr Eric Westman, from Duke University led the lectures, he runs a weight-loss/ketogenic clinic at Duke that I’ve been invited to attend and “shadow” this summer – YES!!!  Dr. Westman is the current President of the American Society for Bariatric Physicians.  Link to his clinic and information here.

Dr. Jeffrey Gerber is Denvers Diet Doctor, check out his blog here.  His May 26 blog post contains the pdf link to the Power Point on Cholesterol he presented at our conference.

Dr. Adam Nally hails from Arizona, check out his blog here.  I loved this guy and will definitely be following him.  He’s incredibly passionate about health, God, and Country.

Col. Phillip Blair, MD, is in Florida. He was a Family Physican for his first 20 years, but now specializes in Chronic Disease and Kidney’s. Read about him here, and then click on the HOME PAGE for the Space Doc site – wow. This one is jam packed with information on cholesterol, fat, the latest studies, etc.  Got a question about a statin, your ratios, or what something means, go here.

Dr. Michael Fox, Reproductive Endocrinologist/Fertility specialist, doesn’t have a blog, but here’s a link to a podcast with him.  He talks about diet’s role in fertility, PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome), and hormonal health.  Hint:  hormones are made from fat and cholesterol !

Dr. Jayson and Myra Carlton run Carlton Nutrition, with an ENORMOUS focus on food quality, and how to do the Real Whole Food lifestyle. Find them here.

There were a few presenting docs who don’t have sites:( , and some professors who didn’t either:(, but these 7 provide more than enough resources to make a difference in your health, or the health of someone you love.  I hope you check out their blogs; the only way to make an improvement in your health is by treating the root cause of your symptoms.  Band-aiding symptoms with drugs DOESN’T EVER SOLVE A PROBLEM; DRUGS MASK PROBLEMS AND ALLOW THEM TO QUIETLY CONTINUE.  These doctors aren’t Main Stream/Pharmaceutical Driven docs who just treat symptoms with drugs.  They get to the ROOT OF THE SYMPTOMS!

What I Learned, Part 2.  Here’s some bullet points:

– Dr. Blair talked a lot about Glycation; or the dangerous effect high blood sugar has on the proteins in our blood and our body ( proteins form our brain, kidneys, thyroid, joints, etc).  He said to picture the outside crust of a grilled cheese sandwich and apply that to the proteins that make your body.  FYI, glycation in a nutshell is when sugar/glucose IN-APPROPRIATELY attach to proteins (cells), damages them, and then ruins their ability to function and communicate.  Example:  Our skin is protein (collagen), the Wrinkles and Age Spots you see?  That’s Glycation.  That’s happening on the inside too.

– Cancer Cells are LOADED with INSULIN RECEPTORS.  If you’re eating carbs, you’re feeding your cancer.  That’s simplistic, but accurate.

– Cancer cells LOVE sugar/glucose; and they’re morphed/demented ( what’s the right word?) in their formation so that they absorb MUCH more glucose than normal cells ( thanks to the excess Insulin Receptors).  Apparently, we have cancer cells in us all the time, we either feed and nurture them, or we don’t.   We have some control over this. Take control. 

– Ketones suppress tumor growth.  ( from me:  Ketones also have “anti-seizure” effects.)

– Every single group in America, the young, the old, different races, the rich, the poor, and the middle class, have GAINED WEIGHT since our government instituted a Low Fat, High Carb paradigm.  Despite Unbelievable Failure, the policies continue.

– Number 1 Cause of Obesity:  Insulin Resistance  ( and what makes the pancreas release Insulin?  Carbohydrate.).   Number 2 Cause:  sedentary lifestyle.   Number 3 Cause (5 – 10%):  metabolic deficiencies, i.e. thyroid, cortisol, etc.   THIS IS SO IN OUR CONTROL.

– Fat Cells make at LEAST 100 Hormones; and the bigger a fat cell gets, the sicker it gets.  Some of the hormones?  Estrogen, and Inflammatory Cytokines.

– If you are Insulin Resistant, (and there’s a good chance you are if you live in America and eat carbs several times a day),  Insulin stays in your blood for up to 12 hours!!  When Insulin is in your blood, ZERO FAT BURNING HAPPENS. ZERO. ZERO.

– Alcohol.  There’s just no way to make this come out good for us; we’re not French Women or Italian Men.  We’re Americans, and we’re metabolically damaged:(  Alcohol ALWAYS induces insulin, even if it’s glucose and fructose free;  ALCOHOL becomes ETHANOL in the LIVER, the ETHANOL is converted to TRIGLYCERIDES (triglycerides are Fat), and the triglycerides are stored in the liver and fat cells.

– Eat a lot of fruit,  or drink fruit juice, or worse, High Fructose Corn Syrup?  Fructose always induces Insulin, raises the bad cholesterol, raises the bad triglycerides, and raises blood pressure.  This applies TO OUR CHILDREN ALSO.  They’re not immune to damage just because they’re young or skinny.

Whew.  That’s enough for today.  The take away:  our health is in our hands.  When we get sick, we’re not drug deficient; we’ve messed up our cells.  Our body wants – and can – repair and rebuild; but if we’re destroying our body faster than it can fix itself, we’re in trouble.

Repeat to yourself: Real Whole Food, Real Whole Food.

Obesigens, Weight Gain, & Sex Hormones, and Sexual Urges! Oh My!

shipCruise Day 3 – WOW!!! The Low Carb Cruise Lectures Have Begun!
Oh My Gosh, did I learn a lot today at the seminars! I hope you’ll read each of these synopsis, because I guarantee you’ll see information that applies to you.

Have you ever heard of the site, www.liveto110.com? It’s run by Wendy Myers; she gave a great talk on Obesigens and how they make you gain weight. What are obesigens? They’re chemicals in our food, personal care products, cleaning supplies, water bottles, and more, that absorb into our body and mimic estrogen. Except they’re not really estrogen, so instead of the benefits of estrogen, we get the hazards of “pretend estrogen”: cancer, disease, hormone disorders, thyroid issues, and weight gain.
Two take aways: (a) Yes, organic products are more expensive, and homemade products take time and effort, but the regular stuff we buy in the store? It’s killing us. Start one by one replacing what you’re using with NON-TOXIC options. Just one product at a time, don’t stress, but it matters, it really does. (b) Detoxing these chemicals out of our body is IMPORTANT!!!

Next up was Dr. Eric Westermen, Internal Medicine Doc at Duke, and President of the American Bariatric Society. He’s a huge believer, researcher, and practitioner of the Low Carbohydrate, High Fat diet. He’s got the studies and experience to back it up; and we got to hear some of them. What he mostly talked about though, was that, “Research Is Politics”, his quote; and getting funding for anything that’s going to upset the Big Food, Big Business, Big Pharma Apple Cart is almost IMPOSSIBLE. ( my term for that is “Big Phuvernment) In other words, the funding necessary to do expensive studies testing Food as Medicine, is incredibly difficult to attain.   (not a lot of profit there for anyone)

Then we heard from “Reproductive Endocrinologist”, Dr. Michael Fox. He explained himself: he did an OB/Gyn residency, then followed it up with a fellowship that resulted in him now working in Reproductive Endocrinology, or, sex hormone problems. FASCINATING!! For all my clients who are struggling with infertility, PMS, menopause difficulties, low sperm counts, ED, PCOS, etc, listen up! He says after decades of work with men, women, and hormones, he finally realized that there was a link between all of it: the male and female infertility, polycystic ovarian syndrome, PMS, lack of libido, gestational diabetes, menopause symptoms, and pre-clampsia: Insulin Resistance! Why does anyone get Insulin Resistance? From TOO MUCH INSULIN, which gets released in response to CARBS. He takes all his patients off carbs and puts them (even the pregnant ones) on a ketogenic diet. He said the pregnancy/birth rates in his clinic have skyrocketed to 90% success!!
More gems from Dr. Fox: He thinks Aerobic exercise is HORRIBLE for humans, both male and female, because it screws up their hormones so badly. He says that STRESS must be controlled, because CORTISOL has BAADD effects on INSULIN, which has bad effects on sex hormones.

He thinks VEGETARIAN DIETS are worse than AEROBIC exercise!

He says physicians today are taught “Cookbook Medicine” and practice “party-line protocols” that have nothing to do with solving the root of the problem.
Oh, one more gem from Dr. Fox: for patients who have difficult pregnancies with hypertension or gestational diabetes, he said that they’re looking at themselves in 10 to 15 years if they don’t get off the Insulin/Carb train. This guy had a lot of energy and passion – I loved him!

We ended the day with two Evolutionary Biology Professors from Austin College in Texas; these two were a hoot! And just as passionate as everyone else. They threw several interesting facts at us ( don’t miss the Sexual Urges – Vegetarian connections), let me bullet-point:
*Starvation Diet Studies conducted after WW2 had participants reducing their intake to 1570 cal/day. It worked – they starved, you should see the pictures! Odd that TODAY, 1570 calories is NORMAL for a lot of people, but they GAIN weight, instead of lose weight. What’s happened?
*At 1570 cal/day, people in the study lost their libido, their thyroid function, their mental focus, and they became weak and lethargic. Hmmmm. Sound familiar?
*Japanese Samurai ( the warriors) ate diets of meat and fat; the peasants were fed a diet of rice.
*Monks have always used a Vegetarian Diet, with SOY, to suppress sexual urges.
*Reverend Graham, who came up with the Graham Cracker, was an Avid ANTI-SEX crusader. He preached a Vegetarian Diet to suppress sexual urges.
*Dr. Kellogg (yes, the Cereal Kellogg) was another Anti-Sex crusader ( and sadistic in his experiments on suppressing sexual urges – google them), he also promoted a Vegetarian Diet to suppress sexual urges.
Hmmm.
*We looked at ingredients lists of several dog food brands, and saw over and over pure crap: sugar, grains, artificial colors and flavors, and chemicals. No wonder our pets are fat and sick.
*We talked about the Defense Mechanisms of Plants, which illustrated that the High Carbohydrate/High Insulin value of grains isn’t the only problem with them.
*Grains contains “anti-nutrients”, actually, all plants do, it’s their defense against being eaten.
*These anti-nutrients contain: TOXINS, DIGESTIBILITY REDUCERS, and HORMONE MIMICKERS.
*The result? Grains, make us sick, fat, affect our brain, ruin our gut ( leaky gut and nutrient deficiencies), and pretend to be estrogen. (soy, flax seed oil)
*They ended reminding us that BIG BUSINESS SPENDS BAZILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO MAKE PRETEND FOOD “SUPER STIMULATING”, and incredibly addictive.

What a great day!
Oh, food and workouts!
-30 minutes shoulder and chest (the lectures started at 8:45am and went to 4:15, so not a lot of time for working out)
-whey, greens, and flax seed, 2 big carrots
-detox pack
-lunch: fish, turkey burger, on watercress and vegetables, lots of olive oil and balsamic
-detox pack
-dinner: seafood ceviche, spinach salad, roasted chicken, broccoli, bite of chocolate bar
-detox pack
& 7pm show “the Platters”, 10 pm bed. Sounds early – but we’re rarely tired – that good, right?
We’re getting off the ship and exploring St. Thomas today; I think our phones are supposed to work there, so I’ll take pics and put them on Facebook!

Cruise Details, Detox Report, and What I’m Eating On A Ship:)

freedom of the seasCruise Day 1
-up at 3:25am, out of the house by 3:42, and on the road to National Airport
-no food, no water, no nothing, too early
-airport by 4:45am, on board the plane by 5:30 ( I don’t like the way SouthWest is first come – first seated!!)
-morning pills ( systemic enzymes to combat inflammation, l-tyrosine for energy, GTA -which is a Biotics porcine thyroid glandular with no t3 to t4, all these are my normal pills/not detox) at 5:45
-a bottled water on the plane
-Jay Robb bar and carrot at the Atlanta airport, 8 am, another water
-a bottled water on the second plane ( I always drink a LOT when I fly)
-Jay Robb bar and carrot while standing in the ship boarding line, 12:15
-napped, walked the ship, napped, walked the ship
-dinner with our fellow Low Carb Cruisers at 5:30: coconut based seafood soup, spinach salad, cod, broccoli, carrots, and baked potato
LOVED our table mates! None of them are professionals, they’re all seeking weight loss, direction, and motivation. What an investment they’re making in their health! There’s over 200 of us here for the Low Carb lectures. Saw Jimmy Moore, Wendy Myers, and Dr. Gerber; the cruise is Jimmy’s baby, and the other two have their own websites, and are two of the week’s lecturers. Our lecture days are Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday, the days we’re at sea. The topics sound FANTASTIC, here’s a few: Keto-Adapted Diets; Obesegens:Chemicals that make you fat; The importance of building muscle and becoming strong; Busting saturated fat myths: the biggest health blunder in history. There’s several more and I’ll be sure to give you the details for each 🙂
-7 pm Show ( a cirque-de soleil routine that was amazing followed by a great comedian); walked the ship
-first Detox Pack – they were in my luggage, which didn’t arrive til after we got back from the show
-asleep by 10 ( we’re early-to-bedders!)

Cruise Day 2
-up at 5:30 ( if you’re a client or a friend of mine, you know by my emails I’m an early riser; hopefully, we’ll sleep in a little longer each day)
-morning pills ( enzymes, tyrosine, GTA)
-hot lemon water, black tea
-breakfast: Jay Robb protein ( I’d ordered Mercola, but it didn’t get shipped in time), mixed with greens powder and flax seed, and a couple carrots, DETOX Pack

(We travel with a lot of food, supplements, and Raw Milk – yes, Mark brings that ON THE PLANE, and ON THE SHIP.  )

-gym ( OMGosh you should see the gym! It’s got to be a few thousand square feet at least, biggest one I’ve ever seen on a ship): legs for 30 minutes, vinyasa yoga 1 hour, SAUNA 25 mins. ( sweating removes TOXINS).
-lunch: salad with fish and chicken, DETOX Pack
-pool all afternoon
-dinner: we skipped the Formal Night in the sit down restaurant (we’re SO NOT into formal nights), and went to the buffet instead: fish, chicken, TONS of vegetables in every way you can imagine! Even watercress! DETOX Pack. Had a bite of Mark’s dark chocolate bar afterwards.
-7 pm show, Broadway Night!
-water all day with a little Apple Cider Vinegar in each cup ( gotta have good stomach acid on a cruise ship to kill any bugs!)
-asleep by 10
Met a few more Low Carb Cruisers today – they’re definitely a weight-loss group, trying to figure out what will work for them. Nice, nice people! We’re all looking forward to the lectures tomorrow, I think there’s 8? I’ll be doing synopsis of each one. I know the info will be great!

p.s. we’re ONLY taking the stairs – and this ship is 13 stories – GREAT leg workouts!!

p.s.s. Internet costs a FORTUNE!!  Posts are going to be brief!

Looks Healthy But Isn’t!

We leave tomorrow morning for our Low Carb Cruise, and we’re totally ready for our Partner Detox!  I’ve got the detox kits, the lemons/knife, detox teas, my supplements, protein and greens powder, and Jay Robb bars.  I’ll be sure to post our routine each day, plus pictures.  If you’re not friends with me on Facebook, friend me!

Let me leave you with a few “looks healthy but isn’t” to think about. barbaras high fiberThe first one is Barbara’s High Fiber Cereal.  People still believe they need this kind of stuff to poop.  Not True, ( Big Food’s done a great job convincing us otherwise).  The amount of SUGAR in ONE HALF CUP is 43 grams.  This will raise your blood glucose which raises your insulin which causes most of this to be remade into FAT (triglycerides) and deposited in the belly.  If you look at the Nutrition Label, you might think I’m wrong because it says, “sugar..8 grams”.   That’s MISLEADING; it’s just referring to added sugar, not naturally occurring sugar.  ALL CARBS ARE REDUCED TO SUGAR IN THE GUT.  The total carbohydrate count is what you need to look at.

kirkland baby wipesNext, look at the ingredients in these “natural, aloe vera based” baby wipes.  Ugh.  We rub kirklandthese toxic chemicals all over our little babies delicate skin, they absorb immediately, and are in the bloodstream in seconds.  MOMS:  SWITCH TO PAPER TOWELS AND WATER.   No, they’re not as “biodegradable” as these wipes, but rubbing cancer causing chemicals on your babies skin is worse I swear.    Want a great breakdown of these chemicals?  Read this.

Last, please quit using “coffee creamer”; even the So Delicious Coconut based creamer in the healthy aisle has chemicals: Organic coconut milk (organic coconut cream, water, guar gum), organic dried cane so deliciousjuice, colored with titanium dioxide, dipotassium phosphate, carrageenan.   Coffee mate’s even worse: COFFEE-MATE, FAT FREE LIQUID NON DAIRY CREAMER INGREDIENTS: Water, Corn Syrup Solids, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, and/or Cottonseed Oil, (Adds a Trivial Amount of Fat), and Less Than 2% of Sugar, Modified Cornstarch, Dipotassium Phosphate, Sodium Caseinate, (Milk Derivative), Not a Source of Lactose Color Added, Artificial Flavor, Mono And Diglycerides, Polysorbate 60, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, Carrageenan, Salt, Betacarotene. Color.

If you want cream, buy Organic Cream and use that.  Even better, find a source of Raw Cream. Real Cream is loaded with vitamins A and D, minerals, phytonutrients, and even anti-cancer fatty acids, like CLA.  Plug into www.localharvest.org to find a list of farms in your area.

What we put in our mouth – and on our body – matters!!  Our food doesn’t just affect our weight,  it affects our Hormones, our Brain, our Energy, our Mood, our Immune System, and everything else about us.    JUST BECAUSE IT LOOKS REAL AND TASTES GOOD DOESN’T MEAN WE SHOULD EAT IT.   Processed food, no matter how it looks or tastes or smells, isn’t Real Whole Food, not by a long shot.  Read your labels,… plan, shop, cook, and pack.  Take control of your life and your health;  be a Real Whole Foodie.

Spring Detox – It’s Happening!

DDTI’ve posted on Detox before,  but I’m posting today because Mark and I are starting a Partner Detox in 6 days, while we’re on a cruise!!  A few people have expressed shock and dismay at this, ( “but…. the cruise food??…”); not a problem, (1) I love my Detoxes, (2) we always eat good food, so the thought of binging on cruise food doesn’t stimulate us ( that’s what happens, right, the thought of all that food is very stimulating?) , and I’m excited because Mark hasn’t done one before, and if you’re 50 and you haven’t detoxed, YOU NEED TOO!

Why do I believe in Detoxes, or Cleanses?  Because, we live in a pretty toxic world:  our water is full of chemicals and drugs, our make up and personal care products are full of chemicals that the FDA acknowledges cause cancer and disease but give the “okay” on, the food we eat is full of pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics, and growth hormone,  even the air we breath is contaminated ( chem-trails anyone?).

There’s mercury in our fillings and vaccines, aluminum in our deodorant and cookware, there’s even toxic by-products left on dry-cleaned clothes that we put on our body.  Trust me, I could go on and on and on.  Have you ever heard of a book called, Slow Death By Rubber Ducky?  It’s pretty eye-opening.  The facts are, you really can’t escape toxins in 2014; and judging by the amount of sick, overweight people, and sick, not over weight people,  the built-in detox systems of the liver/kidney/skin/lung/colon are seriously congested.  That’s a problem.

Here’s our plan:  I’ve bought 2 detox kits from Biotics ( I’ve used these before and love them; let me know if you want one.  They’re very focused on liver/gallbladder/gut health).  We’ll skip the breakfast and lunch buffets, which we usually do when we’re on a cruise, and stick to (HIM) his raw milk (yep, he brings it on cruises and airplanes, honest);  and (ME) grass-fed, organic, zero antibiotic/growth hormone whey (Mercola) with a good greens powder (Mercola), plus some flax seed/chia seed that I’m bringing.  That’ll help me poop – because traveling usually messes that up and you MUST poop when you Detox! (If you’re healthy and normal, you poop every single day of your life, at least once.)  For the days we’re out at lunch time, on an island or something, I’ll bring my own Jay Robb bars. ( I quit all bars and powders at home last year, but for traveling, they’re perfect.)  Dinner will be fish, chicken and a ton of vegetables ( pretty normal for us ), but not red meat.  (While I LOVE red meat, it’s harder to digest, and I’m trying to eat things that AREN’T hard to digest for the 10 days of the Detox.)  Two things I need to give up for the Detox:  Coffee and cheese 🙁   But I’m working on my mind set, so it’s more like:   No Coffee and Cheese 🙂

I also always travel with my Apple Cider Vinegar, Lemons, favorite teas, and all my supplements.  Gotta be prepared!

The cruise itinerary is exciting!  It’s called  “The Low Carb Cruise”, and here’s the link if you want to see the speakers and the topics.  The focus this year is on Ketosis, which means the effect you get when Fat is your primary fuel and your body burns a lot of “ketones” instead of sugar.  The science behind why this is healthy for neurological conditions, cardiac conditions, the brain, and weight loss, is at this point, pretty hefty.   Our daughter Amanda, who has epilepsy, isn’t 100% ketogenic, but she’s close.  That said, eating a lot of healthy fats, tons of vegetables, some good protein, and no sugar or grains,  is good for everyone.

PS:  Ketosis doesn’t equal Keto-acidosis, which happens primarily to Type 1 diabetics whose pancreas has stopped working.  Long explanation, but worth hearing if you’re interested.

Mark has promised to do his Second Man Post while we’re on the cruise, so look for that next week, and we’ve also committed to either posting or facebooking every day about our Detox, our meals, and what we learn at the lectures.  If you’re not friends with me on Facebook, friend me at Debbie Brockett Abbott, and we’ll be able to keep in touch that way.

Here’s to eating Real Whole Food, and always prioritizing your health!