Day 90 of 90 transformation before & after photos - thoughts & wisdom

Here is a short video showing what I have learned over the last 90 days

After 90 days of learning, researching and using myself as a guinea pig, I have done quite well but not the amazing transformation I was looking for. It is time to understand what I did incorrectly and try again.

Are we ready for another 90 days?

1 day left of 90 - still learning about probiotics

I am enjoying learning about probiotics and fermentation.  I think this last 90 days has really helped me learn about nutrition and health.

What is health? What foods are healthy? I ask these questions 90 days ago to myself and thought I knew the answer. Obviously, eating steamed vegetables that were previous Lee frozen are not as healthy as I thought.  Eating sauerkraut and pickles from the store are not as healthy as I thought. Eating food that was originally in cans or boxes are definitely not healthy at all.

Conventionally grown vegetables, conventional chicken farms and Cal farms… I have probably learned way too much.

I will go in depth and what I learned tomorrow. There's just so much, I definitely need to write a book. Have a great evening :-)

2 days left of 90

I am putting in an organic garden. I plan on fermenting/probiotic a lot of veggies this summer.

Those big plans, they are pineapple I have been growing. They should produce a pineapple this year.

I am also growing my own herbs. 

Anything I eat or drink will be organic, or fermented.

By Scoby is rapidly colonizing.

I have learned a lot over this last three months. Mostly I learned that health is a balance.

Mostly a balance of good bacteria, sleeping, and exercise.

3 days left of 90 - things I have learned

So what have I learned over the last 90 days?

Fact: 80% of your immune system is in your gut. It consists of good bacteria versus bad bacteria. A healthy ratio of 85% good and 15% bad. Apparently that is the ratio that resides in the world, (air, land and sea.) 

We all play a host scenario to everything. Our solar system is a host to the Galaxy. The earth is a host to the sun and it's gravity. The earth is a host to us humans. Bacteria and amoebas need humans to survive. We all need each other in a very delicate balance.

The only time something get sick is when this balance is not correct.

So healthy is a balance of good and bad to a ratio of 85% desirable to 15% undesirable.

And that is everything in life. Love, Friendship, relationships, jobs even vacations and fun!

Scenario, you and your spouse are on vacation, it rains a little bit in the morning but then the sunshine comes out and makes the entire day so amazing. Without that rain in the morning, that ray of sunshine that made your day would not exist. It's a crazy ratio/balance that has to exist.

So on that note, let's look at health.

To be healthy, you have to be in balance. Remember this when you try to go on a crazy diet of eating only one thing. That is not balance. You have heard of eating balanced meals. This is an important! A balance has to be achieved. Eating 85% healthy and 15% bad is a balance.

When we eat healthy foods, we have to actually know what healthy truly is.

When we eat bad foods, we have to truly understand what bad food is.

Those two statements are extremely crucial when making choices when you eat.

Chocolate: is it good or bad? Research has shown that high-quality dark chocolate is a healthy choice because of the probiotics and the nutrients in this food. However, a milk chocolate candy bar is not a healthy choice because… Well, you know why.

The funny thing is, a majority of what you're reading in my blog you already know. The question that you are having is why can I not achieve a healthy weight loss/body fat loss and maintain my energy.

Nine times out of 10, this is strictly a balance issue.

Are you ready to understand balance?

This is what I have been struggling with for a majority of my adult life. I would lose weight, See a difference on the scale, my clothes would be fitting looser, I would feel happy and have a sense of achievement. But then… Seemingly for no reason, I would find myself eating a donut, grabbing a soda, maybe a beer with the guys, enjoying a birthday cake/pizza party, and always say that "life just got in the way". WTF? 

We just change the balance of 85% good and 15% bad the wrong way. Our balance got out of whack. But why?

We are a host to 10 trillion bacteria, microscopic organisms and things we just don't want to believe. We as humans only have 1 trillion human cells. We are outnumbered 10 to 1!

Science fact: our brains have a direct connection to our gut. Our gut also has a direct connection to our brain.

That means, our brains send signals to our guide and, I want to stress this, the intelligence of these trillions of bacteria colonies have a direct connection back to our brains.

Have you ever told yourself that you are going to lose body fat go on a healthy diet and achieve greatness? Of course you have, you would not be reading this if you have not. My friends that have contributed to my research have also verified this next paragraph.

Scenario: today I am starting a new diet. I will lose at least 5 pounds a week and go to the gym and exercise! For the first three days it's very easy, you feel the sense of achievement and you know in your mind you will do this. About seven days in, you find it a little more challenging as you feel tired but you still have hope that you have the mental capacity for mind over matter. Two weeks in, you're finding it very difficult not to eat those fresh donuts that are brought into work by your coworkers, you noticed the McDonald's, Starbucks, and other fast food chains along the way to work that you never noticed before or used to be your place of enjoyment.  But you still resist. Now three weeks and you have lost many inches around the waist, the scale is starting to plateau after an amazing 20 pound weight loss… You were growing extremely exhausted and it's almost impossible for you to go to the gym or work out like you did when you first started. Now somewhere before the end of the month, for some strange reason, you find yourself in that Krispy Kreme store, fast food restaurants or worse, sitting in the parking lot of McDonald's eating a big Mac, you look down and honestly do not even remember ordering the food and ask yourself what the hell? Why am I eating this? I'm on a diet! Where is my self-control? But the food you were eating is causing you to have more energy, you feel happier and you wonder why you started this in the first place because you feel so exhausted when you're on this "diet". YMI beating myself up to feel exhausted and tired and worse yet, when you bring that bag of carrots in for lunch, all your friends are eating the foods that you remember make you happy.

I know that scenario has happened to you because it is happened to me. Even people that lose 100 pounds will fall back into this mindset. But is it your mindset? It may not be your mindset. Your bad bacteria craves sugar and many of the chemicals in processed carbohydrates. Remember when I said you have a direct connection to your gut and your gut has a direct connection to your brain? Your gut flora, a.k.a. whatever bacteria is dominant, send signals to your brain to eat more of the food that it wants.

Have you ever use the term trust your gut? Or I have a gut feeling?

Your good gut bacteria wants you to be alive and healthy. However, it can be overrun by your 15% bad bacteria quite easily if you do not feed your good gut Flora with probiotics and pre-biotics.

Okay, what are probiotics and pre-biotics?

Pre-biotics are the food you're good gut Flora, 85% good gut Flora, needs to eat to stay healthy. Fiber. When you eat fiber, that is food that is not digestible by humans, but is digestible and a food source for your good gut Flora.

I thought fiber was to help keep me regular?

Because your good gut Flora helps move your bowel waste through, it is easy to say it keeps you regular. 

I eat fiber bars, is that healthy?

Fiber bars unfortunately our full of sugars which feed your bad bacteria. 

Where can I get high-quality fiber?

Vegetables and fruits.

Okay, where is this balance you were talking about?

I'm glad you asked that question. A balanced healthy diet means that you are feeding your good bacteria so it over populates your bad bacteria keeping your ratio of 85% good to 15% bad.

So when you eat, it is not really for you. When you eat it is for your body to break down and use vitamins, minerals and nutrients to repair your body and to feed your immune system which is your good bacteria in your gut. 80% of your immune system is your good bacteria that lives in your gut.

Let me make this clear, 80% of your immune system lives in your gut.  To be healthy, you need a healthy immune system. Fiber from fruits and veggies are the food that your good gut Flora/bacteria needs to eat to stay healthy.

Sugar and processed carbohydrates feeds the bad bacteria that can overrun your good bacteria and make you sick.

Regular exercise, playing with the kids, playing basketball, swimming, walking with friends… Help keep your cardiovascular system healthy. That moves oxygen to cells and nutrients, vitamins and minerals to repair your body/cells. It also removes waste materials, dead cells and unhealthy bacteria out of your system.

Sleep: helps rejuvenate your body, produce healthy hormones and reduce unhealthy hormones/stress.

In a nutshell:

Healthy means,

1.  feed your good gut Flora/bacteria

And how do we do this? For mentation. Fermentation is the process of pulling good bacteria out of the air and populated on two fruits, veggies, meats and even fish.  You can populated on the majority of fruits to make delicious drinks. And I'm not talking about alcohol either.

Fermenting your foods means you are getting plenty of probiotics. Probiotics are good bacteria. You deliver the fiber and good bacteria all at once. Your body forces with good bacteria. It drowns out the bad bacteria. You become healthy and your sickness goes away.

2. Regular exercise.

Move around and play. That is all you need to do. Basketball, biking, walking, hiking, swimming… Anything that gets you moving. It helps maintain good hormone level, cardiovascular,  sends all the vitamins and minerals and oxygen to your entire body. It makes you happy :-)

3. Sleep/rest

There have been many studies about sleep. Because some people need 6 to 7 hours of sleep and some people need 8 to 9 hours of sleep, the average is eight hours. Because we are all different, you know how much sleep you actually need to feel rested and alert.  It is a personal choice and you know your own body.

One serving of fermented veggies that you can make at your house with salt water and veggies in a mason jar, will provide 10 trillion probiotic bacteria. You can culture and make your own yogurt which has trillions of probiotic/good bacteria.

You can make nonalcoholic, fermented drinks for your entire family that are full of good bacteria.

Ferments some ginger, in three days you have real ginger ale.  You can also use that to make real root beer. Beer, made from roots and is fermented slightly, root beer.  Nonalcoholic, your whole family can drink including children. Amazing probiotics that are fun to drink. Get sodas out of your life immediately!

Because all these bacteria are wild and in the air, I am starting a new blog, wild fermentation.

I will show you step-by-step how to make your life amazing with truly a balanced diet.

I have a full-time job, a part-time job, I am going to school/college full-time, I have a family, wife and children and I still have time to be healthy.

No excuse.

I will see you for 3 more days on this blog and I will link to my new blog very soon.

4 days left of 90 - starting wild fermentation

I have been enjoying fermenting my foods, unfortunately, it does take some money to start the process. But after I get all the Mason jars that I need, I am sure that I will have a nonstop supply of fermented foods throughout the year. 

I am making a garden on the back porch and plan on fermenting everything I can.

I have also been composting for a year

 I am going to convert a closet to a fermentation station.

I will take all the clothes and stuff out and build shelves.

5 days left of 90 - wild fermentation

My research has led me to fermentation a.k.a. culturing foods with probiotics.

Can you imagine taking five minutes to add a little salt to water, place organic fruits veggies meats and fish in mason jars, and growing your own probiotic foods? 

Can you imagine using mason jars for making probiotic drinks?  Add fresh coconut milk in a mason jar, seal tight and leave on your kitchen counter for 2 to 3 days. Probiotic Rich drink.

Chop up some gingerroot put it in water in a mason jar for 2 to 3 days and now you have real ginger ale. And with that fermented ginger, now you can make real root beer!

Grow your own cultures to make fermented tea, full of probiotics and extremely healthy for you. Easy as pie :-)

Start your own cultures out of the air in your house for free.

Start culturing probiotics to make your own sourdough bread. Extra starter? Pancakes in the morning :-) all free. 

The free probiotics cultures that you grow in your own home will help repopulate your gut flora which is 80% of your immune system! Good it got Flora a.k.a. probiotics, will overpopulate and drowned out bad bacteria and make it impossible for you to get sick.

With a healthy immune system is impossible to get cancer, and any other illness that you have heard on the news. Why is everyone getting sick? Because no one is eating there fermented foods anymore. We are losing our immune system. Re populate now!

Over the next two weeks, I am getting ready to eat and drink all cultured foods. I will show you what I do, I will give you my results, and your choice to try this or not.

6 days left of 90 - Day 3 of growing KT scoby mother

Day three and my mother is growing.

On a different subject, our new store is opening up Friday morning so we are all meeting up today at 8 o'clock to stock the store and get it ready for opening. We are so excited.

How to make home made yogurt from scratch

This will be the easiest thing you have ever done.  

Yogurt is just milk fermented with certain live cultures. 

You need to have some from a previous batch, some live whey, or the easiest, a small cup of premium plain yogurt.  Whole is best without any fruit. 

I use two pots.  One fits in the other to keep from burning the milk. You can use one but use medium heat and stir constantly so it doesn't scorch.  

Sanitize everything.  Boil water and turn the other pot so the steam cleans the one the milk goes in. 

Sanitize a spoon and thermometer. 

Place the smaller pot in the larger pot where the water is boiling. Make sure the boiling water does not overflow.

Add a gallon of whole milk.

Stir the milk every once a while until it reaches 180°F. This is when your milk will start to froth. Remove from heat. 

Put the pan in your sink with cold water  until it is 100°F.

Add 3 tablespoons of your store bought yogurt, whey or cultures from your last batch. 

Put the entire pot in your oven with the oven light on. This will keep the oven at 100°F. Let it do it's thing for seven hours.

7 hours later...

That liquid on the top is whey. 

Stir up the yogurt and put it in mason jars. 

Plastic is ok too but glass is best. 

 Put it in the refrigerator overnight.

DONT FORGET TO KEEP A CUP OF YOUR NEW BATCH SO YOU CAN MAKE MORE WITHOUT BUYING IT FROM THE STORE. 

The next day, you can put your yogurt in a colander lined with cheesecloth and let the whey drain out. This will cause your yogurt to be thicker. In an hour it will be Greek yogurt. Overnight it will be yogurt cheese.

You can use yogurt cheese as a mayonnaise. 

Keep the whey. We will be making homemade katchup tomorrow. 

7 days left of 90 - day 2 Kombucha scoby mother starter

Making a few home made kobucha scoby mothers. Seeing if different places will grow them faster. 

Let's see what a mason jar with sweet black tea and a half can of store bought Kombucha will do. 

Here is my 2 gallon starter KT. 

8 days left of 90. Day 1 of Kombucha scoby mother

How to make a Kombucha Mother Scoby at home cheap. 

Start with organic and raw Kombucha. I found this to my local supermarket. Health food stores have these for sure.

Let this warm up to room temperature.

Get a 2 gallon glass jar or get a quart mason jar. You can get these inexpensive at Walmart.

Make black tea with real cane sugar. Let IT cool down to room temperature.

Combined the Bombucha with the tea and cover with a cloth so it can breathe.

Wait seven days for your mother to start to form on the top of the tea. 

I will post progress pictures here.

9 days left of 90 - getting ready for "fermented 30 day challenge"

Fermented foods are full of probiotics. My research over the last 80 days has shown that fermented foods and drinks keep you on track and help you lose body fat and help maintain high energy throughout the day.

March 31, 2014, my entire diet will include homemade fermented foods and drinks. I will eat "normal" to see if just fermented foods and drinks will help curve my appetite for unhealthy foods and help me lose body fat and maintain a high energy throughout the day.

No more buying energy drinks or feeling tired. No more getting sick or going to the doctor.  Is this the cure for the world? Research has suggested this.

Time to see if this really works. I am fermenting my own foods and getting ready for my F30C Fermented 30 day Challenge. 

http://www.F30C.com

I believe in this so much I bought the.com and starting a Facebook page. I will be doing daily videos on how to ferment, how to eat, what foods to buy and fermentation recipes for you to use at home.

10 days left of 90

I'm starting to ferment my veggies

The pool is getting fixed

I'm thinking of a water filter for the house

I'm looking into probiotic soap

Only slept 6 hours but feeling awake.  

I'm ready to go start my day and be healthy. 

11 days left of 90

This morning I feel spectacular! When to the gym yesterday and walked with my wife… I am feeling amazing. I only got a little under seven hours of sleep last night but still feel awesome!

This afternoon, I will be fermenting vegetables and making yogurt at home.

12 days left of 90 but 5 days of shakeology

I am enjoying my bulletproof coffee/shake ologies mix. Extremely tasty and gives me lots of energy for the day. I do not feel hungry at all.

13 days left of 90 but day 4 of my shakeology

Another day I wake up full and not hungry… Go figure

A full day of work at a different location than usual. The owners supplied a lunch of Taco Bell soft tacos. They were delicious.

After work the boss wanted to go out with a few select people and relax. We went to a restaurant and enjoyed about an hour of talk time drinking a few drinks. I had a blast.

I really enjoyed my new group of friends. Very positive and completely amazing.

Next week will be setting up the new store and opening on Friday. The following week I will start a different schedule. 2 PM till 11 PM. with this new schedule, there will not be an early 4a morning work out. However, 8 o'clock will probably be my new morning time. I will get up and go directly to the gym for a few hours. Since summer is rolling around, I will also be able to chill at the pool for a while. I do want to do a lot of swimming and look good in a swim suit.

My off days will be Wednesday and Thursday. Something tells me that this new schedule will give me a lot of free time. It is nice to be five minutes away from my job.

Hope you have an amazing day!

14 days left of 90 - day 3 of 3 shakeology cleanse

Today is my last day of my cleanse. Tomorrow morning I get to eat breakfast :-)

Believe it or not, I am not very hungry. I do think that they day week of fasting will make me feel better.

I guess Sunday would be a good day too fast.

I can definitely tell that I will have no problem eating all organic and all natural.

Believe it or not, I am quite anxious to see my results after this 90 days.

I am definitely ready to start eating organic food tomorrow morning.

Is the last few weeks of changing jobs and getting ready for school has been challenging… I am ready for A regular schedule so I can plan my activities better.

After three days without eating, I still feel full and bloated. What the hell?

I am out doing a little jog/walk down at our local bike trail.  I feel like I am 300 pounds… I have plenty of energy but my waistline feels like it's really bloated.

So I will continue another day of fasting with shakeology  tomorrow… There is no reason to eat if I am not hungry. Strange how the cravings of bad food are going after this shakeology cleanse.

If I could find something that would make me feel bloated and full all the time, I would lose 30 pounds a month LOL

15 more days of 90 - day 2 of cleanse

Today is day two of my shakeology cleanse. Tomorrow is the last day. I do not feel hungry at all… Nor has there been a significant weight change on the scale.

I had my bulletproof coffee shakeology and made some homemade almond milk. I ate the leftover almond "crumbs" Not sure what to call them. 

I finished my pact this morning. I am feeling accomplished :-)

Today I work special events at bass pro shop. I get to help beta hooks and help the children catch fish.

The photographers took a picture of me and put it on the bulletin board in the break room. LOL

Yesterday I bought all natural/organic foods and products. Anything I eat or put on my body will be organic/all-natural.

16 more days! But day 1 of my cleanse

16 more days until the end of my 90 day New Year's resolution challenge. This has been challenging because I was extremely ill for about a month. Some sort of bacterial infection in my intestinal tract.

It is time for a three day cleanse and 30 days worth of eating 100% organic

I will be eating homemade fermented foods also :-)

I am feeling wonderful after nine hours of sleep last night.

However, this that curio infection has caused a fecal impaction which caused a scale weight gain. This is why I am doing a cleanse.

Now that the infection is gone, it is time to repopulate my intestines with good gut flora.

After my colonoscopy cleanse, I will do anything to repopulate my gut with good bacteria.

The first thing I will do after my three days, is to eat only 100% organic food. I do not trust commercial groceries anymore. I believe they are full of toxins and molds. Plus the preservatives may be toxic to me. 

Obviously, no fried foods. I have also researched sugar. I believe sugar is the food for bad bacteria. So, when you eat processed sugar and processed carbohydrates, that will produce a surge of harmful bacteria in your gut. Those bad/harmful bacteria will overpopulate and killed your good gut Flora. Your good gut Flora is 80% of your immune system.

Basically, when you eat processed sugar and processed carbohydrates, you are killing your own immune system.

Good oil and fat

A majority of us have been told our entire lives to eat less fat. However, the entire population has been getting fatter ever since. Obviously, this is insanity. Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is insanity!

That is the reason for the next 30 days of my life. To do something completely different so I can expect a different result.

Our bodies can run on carbohydrates as a number one fuel source. However, our bodies can run on our own stored body fat and from the fats that we eat.

So over the next 30 days, I am going to be training my body to use fat as its main fuel source. That means a low carbohydrate and a higher fat diet.  I have tried this before but never with an all organic diet. I have not tried this without added sugar either. I do feel this is the key.

Three day cleanse. Followed by 100% organic food. Zero added sugar. And I will use shake ologies for nutrients.

Learn more about shakeology here
http://www.shakeology.com/ShawnFitness 

If I am successful, then the rest of the year will be amazing :-)

I am starting college this summer so I want to make sure I have energy and I do not have brain fog.

17 days left of 90 Cheat Day

Today is my cheat day, that means I can eat anything I want to without consequence. However, it seems like I do amazing for six days and on my seventh day, my cheat day, I gain all my weight back.  

Has this happened to you?

For some of us, it's like telling the drunk that he can drink anything he wants to only one day a week.  Or telling the smoker he can only smoke once a week on one day.  Possibly telling someone to cram all of his work for the entire week into one day. I think for some of us, it is not possible to have a free day/cheat day ever.

Maybe, we can find a way of eating fun foods that are healthy, but they seem to be our cheat meals. I suppose if there is a will, there is a way!

Today will be free until 7 PM tonight. At that time, I will begin my fast/cleanse.  

I am going to do a shakeology cleanse. That means, I will only eat/drink three should shakeology meals on Saturday and Sunday. And lots of water.

I will be extremely happy when I get on a routine again :-)

18 more days

With only 18 more days left of my 90 day challenge, I have decided to go all organic. I feel that I may be sensitive to normal toxins in our foods. For example, pesticides, preservatives, nitrates and sulfates.

There is only one way to find out, and that is to cut them out of my diet. I am starting a cleanse tomorrow. I will explain what I am doing tomorrow morning. 

:)

19 more days

A human body has 1 trillion cells. However, there are 10 trillion cells inside of us. What are those other 9 trillion cells? Well, we are a post to 9 trillion other organisms. 80% are in our gut. And our get is our immune system. The more sugar we eat, the more we feed our bad gut organisms/cells/Flora. 

Scientific fact: our brain has a direct link to our immune system/gut Flora. We also have a directly from our gut to our brain.

When we say trust Our Gut, there is a reason. Our gut cells make decisions for us.  Usually amazing and strategic decisions. Usually decisions that will save our lives.

However, if we are overpopulated with bad gut Flora, then they make decisions for us to eat more sugar and therefore feeding their population.

Sounds almost science-fiction doesn't it?

Scientific fact: extreme athletes and healthy people have extremely good immune system's/gut Flora.

So I propose a 30 day challenge to repopulate my gut with good gut Flora/immune system/probiotics.

And that means eating very few toxins. Therefore, I will eat all organic foods.

I will also eliminate sugar from my diet. I believe wheat gluten causes our bodies to be inflamed therefore, I will also go gluten-free.

My other research suggests that a diet high in fat will cause us to burn more body fat and be healthier.  

Starting Friday evening after dinner, I will start fasting.  Saturday evening after work, I will "flush" myself out like I will have a colonoscopy.  Sunday I will buy all organic foods and start preparing my next weeks meals while I continue my fast.

Monday morning, I will start eating Toxic free, organic food, gluten-free, sugar-free, and taking probiotics while eating homemade fermented foods.

I will try to maintain a healthy weight that gives me energy, however, I will not look at my body weight. I will cover the scale with tape and weigh myself every day to see if there is a trend after the 30 days.

Also, being a half a mile from work/college, there should be zero reasons to get less than eight hours of sleep.

Ok. Great shower! Time for bed! 

20 more days

It feels like I have been spinning my wheels. I want to eat healthy and exercise but I feel like I am allowing other factors to control my life.

I went to bed at 10 o'clock last night and slept soundly. I got up and went out for a short run for an hour this morning.

It should be 75° when I get off work today :-)

21 more days - Starting a new job

Not only do I start a new job today but I head to my parents after work.

I truly enjoy my new job. Working from 6 AM until 2 PM totally rocks!

I went to see my parents and gave them their Christmas present.

Needless to say, they loved it.

Best hot wings I've ever had in my life!

Even enjoyed some bread pudding.

After a great visit I headed home and went to sleep.

22 more days

I'm looking to start making fermented foods. 

My family wants pizza and a movie tonight.  I'm not sure about the pizza but movie sounds awesome. 

I need better gut flora.  My current flora sucks. 

I ate a liver and cheddar cheese omelette for breakfast.

We watched the new Thor movie

I was tempted by a pizza and breadsticks dinner…

This tasted nothing like pizza