Hi everybody, Dr. Eric Cobb back with you, hope you’re having a fantastic week.
Now, last time I talked to you I said, “You know what? In Z-Health we are always trying to figure out how to help our clients achieve one of five typical things.” Those things are body composition change, performance enhancement, injury prevention, pain relief, or motivation.
I know I talk a lot about all those different things in the blog, but I’m trying to be much more consistent with it. Today I want to introduce you to a really simple concept that we apply throughout the Z-Health curriculum to help people change their body composition, so if you want to be leaner, you want to be stronger, whatever, we have to actually do some things very specifically for you as an individual.
Now, a lot of people when they come to Z-Health are like, “Okay, we’re going to learn the magic diet, and these magic things.” No such thing. The number one thing that we will tell you in our system is that you have to become your own food scientist. Now, here’s the hallmark of science. Scientists count stuff, alright? Really simple idea, they count stuff. What we’re going to ask you to do this week is I want you to start working on becoming your own food scientist.
The way that we do this and initiate this with all of our clients is we say, “Listen, if you’re going to improve something in your life you have to track something, and the challenge is knowing what to track.” A lot of people in the diet world, they go, “You know what? Measure your body, so measure your waist, measure your chest, measure your legs.” That’s a good idea, if you like it.
Other people say, “Hey, just see how your clothes are fitting, and if they’re consistently feeling better, you’re doing a good job.” Super useful. Count how many times you chew, super useful. All those different things matter, but ultimately what we’re trying to do, as scientists, is we’re trying to, in essence, propose something, like an experiment, say a hypothesis, that I think that this food that I’m about to eat is good for me. Then we want to figure out a result from that.
The way that we teach, as I said our clients in Z to do this, is to start with two basic measurements. One is your temperature, your body temperature, and the other is your heart rate. Now, I’m going to ask you to write some stuff down, so follow along with me. We’re going to get you guys to use a digital, or infrared actually is better than digital, but infrared thermometer. You can now get these at all pharmacies. They’re a little bit more expensive than the things that you stick in your mouth, but because we’re going to ask you to measure your temperature several times a day, you want to be able to do it quickly, and these literally are … That fast, right? And I already have a temperature reading.
Recommended (affiliate link): Infrared Thermometer
Step 2 – Become Your Own Food Scientist
Now, you need a thermometer, a good infrared thermometer, and the other thing that you need is some way to take your pulse. Now, you have two fingers, right? And you can always just take your pulse by counting on your wrist, but it’s also super easy now with any phone. An iPhone, Androids, there are lots of apps out there that actually use the camera on the phone itself to give you your heart rate. These are going to be our two tools that we’re going to just start to use.
Now the point of doing all this is not to make some immediate decision about what you’re eating but to begin the process of measuring. You’re going to get a thermometer, you’re going to get something to measure your heart rate, and you’re going to measure this way.
As soon as you wake up in the morning, I want you to grab your thermometer, and I want you to take your morning temperature. We normally have people do two or three readings because these only take about a second. Average those out, write it down, then take your heart rate before you get out of bed. That is your first reading of the day, and that’s going to be critical, because that’s going to give us a lot of information about how your body is responding, in general, to the food that you’re eating, the exercise that you’re doing etc. before your day gets going. You’re going to do your morning reading, then what I’m going to ask you to do is five minutes before, and five minutes after meals, I want you to do the same readings.
Our hope right now is that if you start doing this stuff, and you go, “Okay before my meal, my temperature was 98.4 degrees, and my pulse was 70, and then I ate and five minutes after I finished my meal, my pulse rate was about 78, and my temperature had climbed maybe 0.5 degrees or a full degree.” That’s awesome.
What we’re looking for when we put fuel into the engine is for the engine to get hotter, so we like to see your temperature go up, and your pulse rate go up with food, but this is a really interesting process, because if you study yourself as you try different things, you’ll find some foods that have the opposite effect, where your temperature and pulse rate fall, or other patterns. Right now we’re not going to try to explain those, I just want you to write them down, and start keeping track, because just knowing what I’ve told you, that we want food, and rest and everything else, to give us a nice high metabolic rate, because when our metabolic rate’s higher, it’s easier to lose weight, it’s easier to be healthy in general. That’s going to be the goal. Just by beginning this process, you’re going to learn a tremendous amount about you.
If you need to get started this week and you don’t, like … “Ah, there’s so much to think about right there.” Watch the video again, go to the pharmacy, get your thermometer, get something to start taking your pulse, and then remember. First thing in the morning, then five minutes before and five minutes after your meals. That’s going to be your starting point, and if that’s too hard just start with morning measurements. I just want you to begin tracking, because as you do that you really begin participating in a science experiment about you, with the end goal of making you a much better you.
Alright, so I hope this has been interesting.
If you have questions about it, feel free to email or call the office. Look forward to talking to you soon.
Thanks.
