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Unstoppable: 4 Steps to Transform Your Life

8 mins
book summary how to live
Author
Shawn L
Builds stuff minimally
Table of Contents

See what he does and experiment to see if it suits you. Skip the backstory because it centers on testing to see if it suits you.

Whole food. Yoga. Mindfulness.

When unsure, choose the food or activity that’s closest to our ancestors used to eat or do.

Our ability to open the future will depend not on how well we learn but how well we are able to unlearn.”

Myths, Misconceptions, and Money
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Myth: The Calorie Balance Myth
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Your body is going to ask for more fuel when you’ve burned more fuel.

Body fat. It’s much more useful to measure your overall body fat percentage than your weight because it can provide key insights into the overall composition of your body and how your organs are affected.

For a long time, this country has tried to eat less and exercise more, yet obesity, Type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular problems continue to increase.

Stop eating packaged and processed foods. If your food comes in a container, eat other foods, and scrutinize the labels on the foods you purchase.

Stick with eating whole foods that are as close as possible to their natural state.

Remove all refined sugars.

Stick to eating fruit whenever it’s in season.

Myth: “Fat Is Bad” and “Red Meat Causes Cancer”
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Myth: Red Meat Causes Cancer
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Fuel Yourself: The Unstoppable Lifestyle I
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Healthy fats are usually low-protein sources (and not just oils) that are solid at room temperature—things like butter, ghee, lard, olive oil (not to be heated or cooked), avocado oil, suet, avocados, cheese, and eggs.

You can get omega-3 oils from foods like fish, healthy nuts, or avocado, but hydrogenated oils (the worst of all oils), vegetable oils, and omega-6 oils should be avoided at all costs.

Vegetable oil
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When was the last time you saw an oil come out of a vegetable? Never.

What that means is that vegetable oil itself is a creation—the result of clever manipulation, a tremendous amount of chemicals, and a lot of processing. In other words, there’s nothing natural about vegetable oil.

Vegetables
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The rule is simple: eat any vegetable you want. Just know that corn and ketchup are absolutely not vegetables

Avoid…
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Avoid carbs, but eat it occasionally to tell your body is normal.

Never eat lean meats, meats without skin, or chicken breasts. Avoid pure protein.

Avoid refined sugars, flours, and grain.

Avoid corn, soy, and gluten.

Recommends macadamia, almond, coconut, and walnuts. Avoid peanuts.

Avoid cashews because they contain more carbohydrates than any other nut.

When you need flour, replace with almond or coconut flour.

Use natural—sea salt or pink Himalayan.

You don’t need the organic version if the product is encased in hard-skin or in a shell. E.g. avocado.

Beef, prefer grass-fed beef over non-grass-fed.

Never buy farm-raised fish. E.g. salmon. Stick to fish that are small and not high up on the food chain.

Stay away from cheap grains like wheat, corn, and soy. Why? The simple reality is that the food that animals eat in its lifetime is also what you’re eating.

Stay away from industrially raised meats.

The easiest way to intermittently fast is to simply skip breakfast.

Finish eating at least 3 hours before bed.

Vary your food. If you’re eating the same things all of the time and are in ketosis all the time, your body will get worried—it’ll crave variation.

Don’t cook with oils that have low burn or smoke points. A good example of an oil that has a low burn or smoke point is olive oil.

Olive oil should only be used on cold foods, like salads or vegetables,

Cook with butter, ghee, lard, tallow, or suet. Or use avocado oil because it has high burning point.

Cook foods on low temperatures.

Avoid beef jerky.

Steaming vegetables helps them to maintain their nutrients.

Make “fat bombs” for snack. These are made with things like coconut, ghee, butter, and other healthy fats, rolled up into a ball and perhaps combined with other tasty things like cacao.

Supplementation and Vitamins
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Look for brands that have the most “base” ingredients — no additional items.

Any additives or cutting agents are usually represented in the price. Don’t buy the most expensive or cheapest.

D3
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Vitamin D is a hormone responsible for metabolizing calcium, as well as absorbing iron, magnesium, phosphorous, and zinc.

Cost you less than buying high-quality omega-3 fish oil pills.

A simple 25-hydroxy vitamin D (calcifediol) blood test will help you determine how much vitamin D is in your body (optimal levels of D3 in the blood are around 60 to 80 ng/mL)

B12
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Found in animal products.

Deficiencies in B12 can result in low energy, brain fog, and stiffness or weakness in limbs or muscles.

Avoid B12 combined with methylfolate.

B12 is a little bit more expensive than D3.

Omega-3
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Potential for these long-term benefits and effects.

Most fish oil are no longer from wild fish.

Prefer krill oil, specifically Antarctic krill oil. This product includes the most complete set of fats because they use the whole fish, not just parts of it.

If you want to measure its efficacy, use omega-3 to omega-6 ratios and fat in the stool.

Probiotics
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Probiotics have had a tremendously positive impact on my health.

Look for two things:

  1. Refrigerated
  2. The brand is used to help with UC, Crohn’s, or IBS.

Usually take one probiotic a day.

Fiber
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Fiber is essential nutrient for your body to operate efficiently.

Some fiber pills cause laxation.

Prefer fiber supplement called psyllium husk, which doesn’t contain any carbs.

Magnesium
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Helps you sleep more soundly and think more clearly.

Sometimes people experience muscle cramps or headaches when on magnesium supplements, so be aware.

Vitamin C
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Avoid vitamin C packets that you mix into a beverage because the powder usually consists of other ingredients besides vitamin C, sometimes sugar.

Salt
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Stay away from salt supplements that have calcium citrate.

It’s cheap and easy to test with. Simply try it for a few days and see how you feel. If you don’t feel significantly better, it’s probably not worth your time and energy.

Sleep
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How do you know if you’re getting the right amount of sleep? Easy. Just ask yourself the following question when you wake up: do I feel rested and ready for a new day?

Sounds extreme, but if you’re trying to tap into your body’s natural circadian rhythm, there’s really no need to ever go to bed later than 9:00 or 9:30, the latest.

In general, the more you can get back in line with the rising and setting of the sun, the more you’ll sleep better.

That’s because the most restorative and important sleep happens between 9:00 p.m. and 1:00 a.m.

Wake Up between 5:00 and 6:00 a.m.

Stay away from melatonin and other “natural” sleep aids, because after a while, the body becomes dependent.

Your bedroom is a sacred space for sleeping and intimacy.

Exercise, Movement, and Alignment
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Instead of thinking of exercise as moving your body and being active, we tend to conjure up notions of spending hours in the gym burning calories.

When you hear the word “exercise,” I want you to think movement.

Endurance sport causes long-term damage due to the intensity. In many cases, this has caused permanent tearing around the heart tissue.

Human bodies aren’t made for this kind of exercising.

Heart rate variability (HRV) is a good test if you’re exercising.

The 2:15 method: For every two hours I spend at my desk, I make sure I have fifteen minutes of movement away from the desk.

The foam roller is light, easy to travel.

PEMF (pulsed electromagnetic field) is worth trying for pain relief and muscle issues.

Micro-optimizations
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Turn off fluorescent lights. Fluorescent lights emit blue light, just like your computer and phone screens,

Open the blinds. Natural light is good light.

Get a red light or sunlamp. Although red light is often associated with treating wrinkles and boosting collagen production, it may also have the potential to increase energy,

Deodorant. Avoid aluminium. Use crystal-based deodorants because they are 100% natural. Due to the presence of both sweat ducts and hair follicles, your underarm area is essentially a gateway to your body—what you apply to it is rapidly absorbed into your tissue and bloodstream.

Oral care. This area of optimization becomes much easier once you’ve cut out sugar and are following a low-carb diet. A middle-of-the-line electric toothbrush that costs forty-five dollars is good enough. You don’t need crazy spinning heads. You need small vibrations, guiding pulses, and a timer to make sure you are brushing for two minutes straight.

Toothpaste. If it has the word “natural” on it, take a closer look at the list of ingredients. Avoid xylitol and fluoride.

Squatty Potty. This puts you in a natural squatting position.

Baby wipes will help your skin to feel better after pooping

Mindfulness practices
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Physical strength. The more active yoga, like hot Vinyasa flow, pushed you on a more holistic physical level than endurance sports had ever done.

There are multiple types of yoga, but the highest return, are the more active types that get your heart rate up and cause you to sweat, like Vinyasa, Power Yoga, Ashtanga, Core Power, Life Power, or similar.

Hot Vinyasa flow, and specifically Life Power, is practiced in a heated room. Designed for detoxification, Life Power is less about flexibility and more about your active (or yang) poses, breathing, and linking breath with movement to find “seats” or poses for meditation.

Start by exhaling slowly and fully. Then inhale through your nose for four seconds, and, at the top of your inhalation, hold your breath for four seconds. Exhale through your mouth for four seconds, and then, at the bottom of your exhalation, hold your breath for four seconds.

That’s because when most people breathe normally, without thinking, they don’t allow all the CO2 to exit from their bodies