Living Perfectly for 30 Days
30 days of perfection starts tomorrow! Currently getting our ducks in row and setting the parameters! First, we will only be eating a Whole Foods Plant Based Diet. That means absolutely no animal products! It also means no processed foods, with only a few exceptions that are unlikely to degrade the metabolic environment we’re trying to build, like stone ground mustard, spices, yeast, and nutritional yeast.
Second, we will be tracking it all on Cronometer, a total daily energy expenditure calculator that tracks the micronutrients of your food. Free on the App Store, btw! This way we can make sure we’re satisfying all of our nutritional needs!
Third, I have devised a macronutrient split of about 65% complex carbs, 18% protein, and 17% fat. This is our shot at an optimal, sustainable middle ground, but depending on the issues you’re battling, a different split will likely be more beneficial to your physiology.
To make a lot of complicated data simple, higher protein signals growth pathways, such as raising IGF-1, which promotes cell proliferation in cancers. Animal proteins are especially bad about this, and that’s why we’re avoiding them altogether.
Since we workout a bunch and don’t want to kill our gains, 18% is our compromise. But if you have cancer, you might want to reduce this even lower, albeit to a less sustainable percentage. On the other hand, if you’re suffering from heart disease, you might want to reduce your fat intake to as low as 10%. This is within a range at which studies show the potential to reverse heart disease. But again, harder to sustain physically and mentally due to fats' role in hormone regulation.
Fourth, we’re cutting our calories down to 80% of our total daily energy expenditure. Beyond getting a sexy sixer, this too contributes to the environment we’re trying to create (one less hospitable to cancer and disease). Excess energy worsens insulin resistance, inflammation, and those pesky growth signals, while energy restriction can reduce inflammatory markers and our body’s oxidative load.
Fifth, we’re going to be reading for an hour a day (the kind of literature that forces us to learn, think, and grow). This can increase white matter in the brain, and works against cognitive decline.
Sixth, we’ll be meditating a total hour a day (FML). I could info dump all day about the benefits of meditation, but I’ll just rattle some quickies off that are more so related to its potential benefits against disease. It can reduce stress, lower cortisol levels, help better regulate your parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system (down regulating the latter “fight or flight” response and up regulating the former “rest and digest” response).
It might even increase telomerase activity, slow telomere shortening, or even lengthen your telomeres! These are the caps at the ends of your chromosomes which prevent genomic instability. They’re like the caps at the end of a shoelace. They keep cell division safe, and you don’t want them unraveling!
Seventh! We’ll be limiting our consumption of influences which disrupt healthy thinking. That includes limiting time in the comments, listening to non-lyrical music only, limiting time on tv and social media, and (big gulp) limiting our time with video games. We’re restricting all recreational media to 2 hours a day.
Eighth, we will be cutting out coffee, because it inhibits iron absorption. Iron in plants is less bioavailable than iron in meat and we don’t want deficiencies. The heme iron in meat, on the other hand, increases oxidative stress and contributes to long term dna damage in the gut and colon. There are strong epidemiological correlations between heme iron consumption and colorectal cancer for example.
Finally, we’ll be working out 6 days a week, with at least 40 minutes of resistance training and 20 minutes of cardio/day. Little explanation needed. Exercise is good for just about everything, Mkay. We are biologically hardwired to move. Can’t be healthy without it.
That’s about it! Have we bitten off more than we can chew? Do we have the willpower!? We’re all more capable than we realize, but finding our true strength requires serious exercise. You don’t get stronger without pushing your limits, you don’t get healthier without avoiding the poison.
You’re invited to come along for any part of the challenge! Hard work, exercise, and self-control can really suck! But dying prematurely and suffering from disease you could have prevented with better decisions sounds way suckier to us! If the walk has taught us anything, it’s always better when we “embrace the suck” together. Besides, then we can have fun with it!
