The Origin of Energy Lifestyle, is a lifestyle designed to integrate practical choices for optimal health & fitness to be experienced. These choices are modifications that we live ourselves & recommend to OE members. Our approach is constantly being redesigned to integrate new solutions with the existing choices that we have seen repeatable measurable results be achieved. To simplify the abundance of information on how to get fit & healthy we will break some practical tips down into the key areas within the foundations of health: Thoughts, Breathing, Hydration, Nutrition, Movement & Rhythm Thoughts Have clear Goals Being clear on what you need & want makes it much easier to stay motivated and to work out what to do each day. Taking the time each week to write out 4 key goals and the associated action steps with those goals, lets you start living for you. Remember if you’re not living for your goals you’re living for someone else’s. 2. Think Before YOU Buy Before you invest $, Time or energy into any choice take a moment to think about what you’re really supporting with this choice & does it fit in with your health & fitness goals. Many choices we make are for short term fulfillment and over the long term take us further from what we really want. E.g buying take out food maybe easier than purchasing good quality food and cooking yourself but in the long run your body will suffer and slowly get harder to look and feel the way you would like. 3. Take Personal Responsibility True Health & Fitness is everyone’s birthright & individual responsibility. Obtaining coaching from a Health &/ or Fitness professional is useful, but ultimately optimal health & fitness comes from owning your own choices. That means researching & understanding every modification you are going to make. At Origin Of Energy we encourage critical thinking & for people to read up on any of the choices we are offering. 4. Find your own practical form of Meditation 30mins daily Most of us are stressed out by our modern lifestyles and practical meditation can bring some much needed stillness & rest to our overly active minds. Practical meditation includes gardening, dancing, drawing, walking in nature, singing. Anything that is non goal orientated while doing it and at the same time frees you from analytical thinking. Breathing Breathe with the Belly Taking the time to consciously breathe with the diaphragm & let the ribs expand with each breath, is a great way to calm the nervous system & massage the internal organs. We encourage nasal breathing as it filters, humidifies & warms the air before it hits the lungs. Breathing with your nose also further calms the nervous system. From the assessing of clients we have found most hyperventilate, or over-breathe, creating excess tension in the smooth muscle system (digestive & respiratory) & in the muscles around the neck. By slowing the breath down to: 4 sec inhalation 4 sec exhalation 2 second pause before taking another breath allows for the calming effect of mild Co2 retention to occur. This exercise can be done in bed on your back before going to sleep, on a foam roller which will aid in opening up the rib cage or in an epsom salt bath for 3-5mins. Buy a foam Roller These rollers are a one off purchase for life. They’ve been designed to allow for optimal opening up of the ribcage, improving posture & breathing mechanics and are perfect for giving yourself the best massages. We recommend people perform the long lie with the above breathing technique at least 6/7 days. Hydration 7. Use a Water Filter With the Tap water quality being sub standard and riddled with unwanted chemicals, bacteria, pathogens & heavy metals it is a worth while investment to purchase a good quality water filter. The top of the range would be a reverse osmosis filter with a good quality model setting you back around $900 AUD. An entry level water filter will be enough to get your started. RRP is around $150AUD and it will filter out all the unwanted extras except fluoride. Don’t forget about the shower & bath water too. A filter for the shower or bath will be around $90 AUD. Keep in mind that bathing in tap water & especially breathing in the steam of unfiltered water is not part of a healthy lifestyle. Chlorine will be absorbed through the skin & the steam vapor will go straight into the lungs. www.watershop.com.au. This is also why we recommend swimming in the ocean or fresh water instead of chlorinated pools. 8. Use a re-usable water bottle Worldwide we currently consume over 200 billion bottles of water per annum with the majority of this ending up in land fills. Recycling is an unnecessary energy & resource expense when a simpler option available is to get a high quality re-usable bottle like the www.kleankanteen.com These are made of a food grade stainless steal so minimal to zero nickel is transfered into the water. Plastic Bottles leach unwanted chemicals into your drinking water which have been shown to disturb your bodies hormonal balance. 9. Drink 3.3% of your BW in H2O daily Even mild dehydration decreases performance and places unnecessary stress on your body. Drinking 3.3% of your body weight in H2O (60kg person 2ltrs) is a simple modification that will have great long & short term benefits on your health. Adding a small pinch of unrefined sea salt to filtered water will add back in the minerals needed for effective osmotic transfer- getting water into the cell. Adding minerals to your water & spreading water intake throughout the whole day will avoid excessive urination. Having water no less than 30mins before and after meals will allow for better digestion. The easiest way we have found to get clients to remember to drink enough water is to buy a 1.2ltr or 2ltr Klean Kanteen to fill up each morning. Then even if you start the day with a glass of water, finish the bottles content and have one more glass of water when you get home, you will have easily met your daily quota for hydration. Keep in mind that processed fruit juices, soft drinks, alcohol* and caffeinated* beverages will further dehydrate you. So on the days you do consume these little extras, you will need to further increase your daily quota for water. *should always be consumed on a full stomach caffeine of any sort should be limited to 1 per day before 1pm Have an epsom salt bath 1-3x per week Having a bath in filtered water with 300-500g of epsom salts is a great way to release tension in the body. You need to be in the bath for 20mins for the magnesium sulphate (epsom salts) to really have the optimal muscle relaxation effect. Using your bath time to do a breathing meditation is a great way of further enhancing the therapeutic effects of the epsom salt bath. Following up the bath with your foam roller releasing work and corrective stretching program is also very beneficial. Having the bath in the evening is a great way of helping the body and mind relax and get into a good place for a great sleep. 11. Brush & Floss your teeth 2x per day The build up of bad bacteria in the mouth can cause the accumulation of plague, calculus, gingivitis, bad breath & tooth decay. Brushing & Flossing 2 x per day is a great way to maintain not just oral health but also whole body health. If you suffer from any form of dental challenges it’s best to see a good dentist. Here is the contact detail of the dentist we work with http://www.shdc.com.au/ Nutrition 12. Eat Whole Fresh Food from a Sustainable Organic Source Healthy soil makes healthy plants, healthy plants make healthy animals & healthy animals & plants make healthy human beings. Making sure you know the source of your food is an important step towards health. Seek out small local farmers for your food & if you cant get local make sure it’s fresh. The term organic has been bought and paid for and no longer guarantees a pure and healthy food- large scale agriculture can now produce food to be sold as “organic”. Just because they are using organic pesticides & fertilizer does not mean the food is healthier or sustainable. Nature loves diversity so farming 100’s of acres of 1 crop is not creating a healthy ecosystem that supports healthy life. Seek out produce grown using polyculture systems meaning more than 1 crop. Even Pasture raised beef, lamb, pork, eggs needs diversity within the pasture. Farmers that rotate crops, compost and rotational graze for meat production are looking after the soil by allowing it to rest & produce. Forcing the soil to produce more with chemicals only depletes it further & when farmers have to use biocides to control unwanted weeds & pests it’s a sign that something is out of balance. The vitamin, mineral and enzyme content is high in truly organic food and these are extremely important for creating a healthy body. Remember fats, proteins, carbs & calories alone are not a measure of nutrition so go out of your way to get high quality produce. 13. Prepare food for increased or maintained nutrition When consuming calories it’s best to maximize the nutritional content of the food. Overcooking all foods will denature the nutrition. Some foods consumed raw will block the absorption of nutrients. Here is a list of foods and optimal preparation. Refer to the Kitchen page for more detail on food preparation 14. Carbs within 1g per kg of lean body mass (LBM) 6/7 days Keeping the carbs to a level of 1g per kg of LBM per day & consuming animal foods e.g eggs, dairy, beef in their full fatty form is the best way to control insulin responses and learn how to use fat as fuel. When your body knows how to use the beta oxidation pathway for fat metabolism you can start to use your own unwanted body fat. When ever carbohydrate consumption is elevated insulin goes up shuttling carbohydrates into the fat cells + your body will learn to use glycolysis (carbohydrate metabolism) as it’s primary pathway for energy. Insulin also stimulates the appetite. This is why you can have a full belly of rice and still be hungry. Eating high amounts of carbs will give you an initial rush of energy then your body will store the excess carbohydrate in your body fat leaving you fat, hungry & tied. Cut the carbs, they’re not serving you. For more info review the Kitchen Page. 15. Eat Needed Calories for your goals Each of us have varying goals when it comes to performance & body composition. Most of us want to have consistent stable energy with the ability to concentrate throughout the whole day. The healthy variances in physical out put would be between high level of physical output to the minimum needed to stay or get healthy. Most men want more muscle, some women want more or the same or less. Most men would like to be ~8-12% body fat & most women around ~16-22% when either sex goes much lower in body fat% health can be compromised. Cunninghams equation for resting metabolic rate (RMR) of 22 x LBM + 500 will give you what you would use with complete rest for 1 day. So depending on where you are in relation to your desired body composition & how physically active you want to be you can work out the amount of calories you need. E.g if you were 70kg and 50kg of that was LBM then your caloric intake needed to stay alive each day would be 50kg x 22 =1100 + 500 = 1600 calories. If your goal as a female was to get to 18% body fat (61kg total body mass 50kg Lean mass & 11kg of body fat) and maintain lean mass then you would need to workout how much physical activity you would be willing to take on and how well your body can utilize your unwanted fat. The 9 kilos of fat would be 9000g x 9 calories ( 9 calories per gram of fat)= 81000 calories. The OE workouts range between 500-800 calories. On average we recommend people do a maximum of 4 workouts per week and on rest days to do a light walk in nature, go for a swim in the ocean or do your own stretching program. If you’re walking around all day and fairly active then you will easily burn 1.25 x RMR If you’re training on top of that 2x per week ~ 1.5 x RMR If you’re getting in 4 hard workouts plus some walking on rest days ~ 1.75 x RMR Accumulated body fat is hardwired into our survival system. Loosing too much too quickly causes the body to want to put it back on just as fast. We recommend 250-500g of body fat loss per week. Most people will lose a bit of fluid & muscle with this (especially with the switch to fat as fuel) which may appear on the scales as 1-2kg per week. Usually this only lasts for the first 1-2 weeks after which slow consistent changes are best. 250g of fat= 2250 calories per week = 321 less calories per day 500g of fat= 4500 calories per week = 642 less calories per day which would mean realistically it would take 18-36 weeks to loose 9kg of fat. To loose 9kg of Body fat, 81000 calories with a 4 workout per week routine for 18 weeks you would need to eat 1600 x 1.75 = 2800 calories - 642 calories = 2158 calories per day and stay active. If your work outs are not as intense as this example you would need to drop it down to ~1800- 2000 per day. Remember if you drop calories too low you will loose muscle not fat and make it even harder to loose body fat. Drowsiness during the day is a sign that you have gone into survival mode in which case you may have consumed too few calories or not dispersed calories & carbs throughout the whole day effectively. If you are not feeling good energy it’s not working properly. The initial transition to fat as fuel can leave you feeling a little flat at first. This is only temporary and usually takes only 2 weeks to transition. Eat every 3-4 hrs Eating every 3-4 hrs gives your digestive system a rest without letting blood sugar drop too low. If you have too big a gap between meals you will turn into a fat storing machine & your body will bring blood sugar up by breaking down lean mass. When first reducing meal sizes to suite the desired calorie intake it’s important to spread it fairly evenly with your main meals e.g the female above would be best to keep main meals ~ 500 calories with snacks at ~ 100 - 200 calories. For Example: Breakfast: coconut cinnamon smoothie 4eggs ~500 calories Snack: 50g cheese 200 calories Lunch: 150g Slow Roast beef with salad 450 calories Snack: 25g soaked & dehydrated almonds 150 calories Dinner: 150g Slow Roast beef with steamed vege 450 calories Snack: 200ml Yogurt with cinnamon 160 calories Total: ~1910 calories Much of the nutritional work that is published & mainstream is based on much higher carbohydrate consumption than Origin Of Energy advocates. It’s also important to note that not all calories are created equal. Healthy Pastured fat from a healthy animal behaves very differently than the fat in a grain fed & finished animal. On top of that, fat is extremely different to carbohydrates in that it has so many more nutritional benefits & costs us so much less in enzymes, minerals & vitamins when metabolizing. Movement 17. Keep the Body Moving We recommend 30mins of movement everyday with 30mins of intense exercise 2-4x per week. Workouts lasting longer than 30mins tend to deplete the body & encourage poor form so it’s always best to keep workouts short & efficient. Origin of Energy’s circuit style of compound resistance training is a very important part of health as it promotes increases in: Muscle mass Metabolism Growth hormone & testosterone Bone mineral content & density Work capacity Joint stability Cardiovascular fitness Flexibility- functional range of motion All of this transfers into the ability to live an active fun life. As human beings we evolved from an environment that was very demanding, so when exercising it is important to have the goal of returning your body to it’s optimal function. For many that have let their body go, the process back to health needs to be a gradual one. Small consistent steps are best. Over exercising with either complexity, load or duration will only make the whole process take longer, only do what you have the capacity to recover from. Exercise is stress and you can only get the benefits from the stress stimulus if you’re committed to the other lifestyle components included here. 18. Perform Exercise that balances the body Our bodies are an expression of every choice we have made since we’ve entered the world. The body will always mould itself around what you do with it. E.g if you drive to work, sit in a chair 8-10 hrs a day, drive home and then sit on the couch to watch TV, then your body will become those environments- usually slouched & restricted. It’s important to do stretches and strengthening exercises that pull the body into alignment, especially if your life is fairly sedentary. To design stretching & corrective programs that are specific to individual needs we perform a comprehensive assessment. A basic rule for stretching is if it’s not tight don’t stretch it. Perform stretches needed to allow you to stand up straight, full squat, lunge, rotate the spine & press weight above the head all with optimal alignment of the spine and not too much or too little curve. Stretching programs need to be performed 6/7 days to get optimal results and for practical purposes are best designed to take no more than 10mins. Balance also relates to the hormonal system. If you’re run down then intense circuit style resistance training needs to be modified by slowing the movements down to breathing pace and doing lighter less complex versions of the movements. We encourage all different levels of athletic ability to train together in our groups and for everybody to work at their own individual level. When performing more than 2 intense days of training in a row the body will not recover and exercise becomes more stressful than it is worth. This is why we recommend 1-2 days of intense exercise followed by an active rest day of light walking, stretching or swimming in the ocean. Exercise programs should always vary and cover a variety of movements & responses- endurance, speed & power, maximum strength and muscle building strength work. This is why we have a different work out mon -sat on the homepage and have 3 hypertrophy (muscle/ metabolism building) 1 speed & power, 1 max strength & 1 endurance style workout every week. Balance within the muscle system also relates to the balance between stability & movement muscles. If you’re over investing in heavy and fast lifting the stability system of the body will be compromised. This is why all Origin Of Energy workouts are finished off with core stability work to keep tone and health within these muscles. Rhythm 19. Sleep with the Sun When sunlight starts to fade it’s time to start relaxing the body and mind so that by the time it’s 10 p.m you’re ready to sleep. Having a good sleep wake cycle (10 p.m-6 a.m) is a much needed component to creating good health. Your mind & body need good rest every night to make the most of the next day. It is more than worthwhile to keep a good rhythm at least 6/7 days. If you are going to have a later night then it is worth having an afternoon nap before 5 for less than 30mins both the day before & after. Try not to wake up too much later as this will also throw out your rhythm- e.g go to bed at 2 a.m and try to wake up at 8am. If you sleep in too late your rhythm will go off and you will feel like you have jet lag. In the evenings it is important to not over stimulate the mind or body so it is best to take it easy from at least 8pm onwards. Get your Vitamin D Getting adequate Vitamin D is essential for health. Vitamin D is what allows our bones to be calcified with out we suffer conditions such as a osteoporosis and in severe cases Rickets. The easiest way to bring your Vitamin D levels up is to get 2 x 30min sunbathing sessions per week in the middle of the day. This can be broken up into 10-20mins daily usually shorter is not going to get a decent response and longer than 30 mins is unadvised because of the risk of getting burn’t. In winter the UVB ray spectrum is available in a very short period and depending on your distance from the equator it may not be at all. In Sydney through Summer, Spring & Autumn UVB is plentiful provided there is no cloud cover which reduces UVB by 50%. You want maximum skin exposure so sunscreens are out with the clothes. Getting sun throw glass will not work either as the UVB rays are reflected. The synthesis of Vitamin D comes from the fatty acid secretions in the skin so you want to avoid washing the sun exposed skin with soap for up to 48hrs after getting sun. Washing the skin will wash away the vitamin d before it enters circulation. Those with darker skin- more melanin will need more extended exposure times to make the same amount of Vitamin D as fair skinned individuals. The richest nutritional source of Vitamin D can be found in Cod Liver Oil we recommend the green pastures brand because of the source and processing of their food products. 21.Take needed time out Each day it’s important to make time for yourself. It’s very easy to get caught up in the busy world around us and loose ourselves in other peoples ideas. Taking the time to stop and enjoy the simple things gives you the chance to put life in perspective. The things that most people worry about really don’t matter that much in comparison to the whole experience of life. Take the time to work out what you really need & want. Making lifestyle changes such as these are not easy at first, but once you feel the benefits its impossible to go back. Make changes 1 or 2 at a time get it down and then add to it. Each week aim to live 6/7 days in alignment with these 20 principles. On your day off don’t go too overboard. Aim to not have more than double the carbs e.g 50kg lean mass 100g carbs & 1.5 the calories as in the above example 2158 calories 3237 calories. Keep alcohol to a minimum & limit to 1 day per week until results are achieved then 2 consecutive days every 7 with a 5 day break is acceptable. Males stick to 1-3 drinks females 1-2 drinks. Any more than this can blow all your hard work and make you think that you cant achieve your desired result. Life is a process. So much is possible to achieve. We just need to be clear, consistent & keep having fun.

The Origin of Energy Lifestyle, is a lifestyle designed to integrate practical choices for optimal health & fitness to be experienced. These choices are modifications that we live ourselves & recommend to OE members. Our approach is constantly being redesigned to integrate new solutions with the existing choices that we have seen repeatable measurable results be achieved. To simplify the abundance of information on how to get fit & healthy we will break some practical tips down into the key areas within the foundations of health:

Thoughts, Breathing, Hydration, Nutrition, Movement & Rhythm

Thoughts

1.Have clear Goals

Being clear on what you need & want makes it much easier to stay motivated and to work out what to do each day. Taking the time each week to write out 4 key goals and the associated action steps with those goals, lets you start living for you. Remember if you’re not living for your goals you’re living for someone else’s.

2. Think Before YOU Buy

Before you invest $, Time or energy into any choice take a moment to think about what you’re really supporting with this choice & does it fit in with your health & fitness goals. Many choices we make are for short term fulfillment and over the long term take us further from what we really want. E.g buying take out food maybe easier than purchasing good quality food and cooking yourself but in the long run your body will suffer and slowly get harder to look and feel the way you would like.

3. Take Personal Responsibility

True Health & Fitness is everyone’s birthright & individual responsibility. Obtaining coaching from a Health &/ or Fitness professional is useful, but ultimately optimal health & fitness comes from owning your own choices. That means researching & understanding every modification you are going to make. At Origin Of Energy we encourage critical thinking & for people to read up on any of the choices we are offering.

4. Find your own practical form of Meditation 30mins daily

Most of us are stressed out by our modern lifestyles and practical meditation can bring some much needed stillness & rest to our overly active minds. Practical meditation includes gardening, dancing, drawing, walking in nature, singing. Anything that is non goal orientated while doing it and at the same time frees you from analytical thinking.

Breathing

5.Breathe with the Belly

Taking the time to consciously breathe with the diaphragm & let the ribs expand with each breath, is a great way to calm the nervous system & massage the internal organs. We encourage nasal breathing as it filters, humidifies & warms the air before it hits the lungs. Breathing with your nose also further calms the nervous system. From the assessing of clients we have found most hyperventilate, or over-breathe, creating excess tension in the smooth muscle system (digestive & respiratory) & in the muscles around the neck. By slowing the breath down to:

4 sec inhalation

4 sec exhalation

2 second pause

before taking another breath allows for the calming effect of mild Co2 retention to occur.

This exercise can be done in bed on your back before going to sleep, on a foam roller which will aid in opening up the rib cage or in an epsom salt bath for 3-5mins.

6.Buy a foam Roller

These rollers are a one off purchase for life. They’ve been designed to allow for optimal opening up of the ribcage, improving posture & breathing mechanics and are perfect for giving yourself the best massages. We recommend people perform the long lie with the above breathing technique at least 6/7 days.

Hydration

7. Use a Water Filter

With the Tap water quality being sub standard and riddled with unwanted chemicals, bacteria, pathogens & heavy metals it is a worth while investment to purchase a good quality water filter. The top of the range would be a reverse osmosis filter with a good quality model setting you back around $900 AUD. An entry level water filter will be enough to get your started. RRP is around $150AUD and it will filter out all the unwanted extras except fluoride. Don’t forget about the shower & bath water too. A filter for the shower or bath will be around $90 AUD. Keep in mind that bathing in tap water & especially breathing in the steam of unfiltered water is not part of a healthy lifestyle. Chlorine will be absorbed through the skin & the steam vapor will go straight into the lungs. www.watershop.com.au. This is also why we recommend swimming in the ocean or fresh water instead of chlorinated pools.

8. Use a re-usable water bottle

Worldwide we currently consume over 200 billion bottles of water per annum with the majority of this ending up in land fills. Recycling is an unnecessary energy & resource expense when a simpler option available is to get a high quality re-usable bottle like the www.kleankanteen.com These are made of a food grade stainless steal so minimal to zero nickel is transfered into the water. Plastic Bottles leach unwanted chemicals into your drinking water which have been shown to disturb your bodies hormonal balance.

9. Drink 3.3% of your BW in H2O daily

Even mild dehydration decreases performance and places unnecessary stress on your body. Drinking 3.3% of your body weight in H2O (60kg person 2ltrs) is a simple modification that will have great long & short term benefits on your health. Adding a small pinch of unrefined sea salt to filtered water will add back in the minerals needed for effective osmotic transfer- getting water into the cell. Adding minerals to your water & spreading water intake throughout the whole day will avoid excessive urination. Having water no less than 30mins before and after meals will allow for better digestion. The easiest way we have found to get clients to remember to drink enough water is to buy a 1.2ltr or 2ltr Klean Kanteen to fill up each morning. Then even if you start the day with a glass of water, finish the bottles content and have one more glass of water when you get home, you will have easily met your daily quota for hydration. Keep in mind that processed fruit juices, soft drinks, alcohol* and caffeinated* beverages will further dehydrate you. So on the days you do consume these little extras, you will need to further increase your daily quota for water.

*should always be consumed on a full stomach

caffeine of any sort should be limited to 1 per day before 1pm

10.Have an epsom salt bath 1-3x per week

Having a bath in filtered water with 300-500g of epsom salts is a great way to release tension in the body. You need to be in the bath for 20mins for the magnesium sulphate (epsom salts) to really have the optimal muscle relaxation effect. Using your bath time to do a breathing meditation is a great way of further enhancing the therapeutic effects of the epsom salt bath. Following up the bath with your foam roller releasing work and corrective stretching program is also very beneficial. Having the bath in the evening is a great way of helping the body and mind relax and get into a good place for a great sleep.

11. Brush & Floss your teeth 2x per day

The build up of bad bacteria in the mouth can cause the accumulation of plague, calculus, gingivitis, bad breath & tooth decay. Brushing & Flossing 2 x per day is a great way to maintain not just oral health but also whole body health. If you suffer from any form of dental challenges it’s best to see a good dentist. Here is the contact detail of the dentist we work with http://www.shdc.com.au/

Nutrition

12. Eat Whole Fresh Food from a Sustainable Organic Source

Healthy soil makes healthy plants, healthy plants make healthy animals & healthy animals & plants make healthy human beings. Making sure you know the source of your food is an important step towards health. Seek out small local farmers for your food & if you cant get local make sure it’s fresh.

The term organic has been bought and paid for and no longer guarantees a pure and healthy food- large scale agriculture can now produce food to be sold as “organic”. Just because they are using organic pesticides & fertilizer does not mean the food is healthier or sustainable. Nature loves diversity so farming 100’s of acres of 1 crop is not creating a healthy ecosystem that supports healthy life. Seek out produce grown using polyculture systems meaning more than 1 crop. Even Pasture raised beef, lamb, pork, eggs needs diversity within the pasture.

Farmers that rotate crops, compost and rotational graze for meat production are looking after the soil by allowing it to rest & produce. Forcing the soil to produce more with chemicals only depletes it further & when farmers have to use biocides to control unwanted weeds & pests it’s a sign that something is out of balance.

The vitamin, mineral and enzyme content is high in truly organic food and these are extremely important for creating a healthy body. Remember fats, proteins, carbs & calories alone are not a measure of nutrition so go out of your way to get high quality produce.

13. Prepare food for increased or maintained nutrition

When consuming calories it’s best to maximize the nutritional content of the food. Overcooking all foods will denature the nutrition. Some foods consumed raw will block the absorption of nutrients. Here is a list of foods and optimal preparation.

Refer to the Kitchen page for more detail on food preparation

14. Carbs within 1g per kg of lean body mass (LBM) 6/7 days

Keeping the carbs to a level of 1g per kg of LBM per day & consuming animal foods e.g eggs, dairy, beef in their full fatty form is the best way to control insulin responses and learn how to use fat as fuel. When your body knows how to use the beta oxidation pathway for fat metabolism you can start to use your own unwanted body fat. When ever carbohydrate consumption is elevated insulin goes up shuttling carbohydrates into the fat cells + your body will learn to use glycolysis (carbohydrate metabolism) as it’s primary pathway for energy. Insulin also stimulates the appetite. This is why you can have a full belly of rice and still be hungry. Eating high amounts of carbs will give you an initial rush of energy then your body will store the excess carbohydrate in your body fat leaving you fat, hungry & tied. Cut the carbs, they’re not serving you. For more info review the Kitchen Page.

15. Eat Needed Calories for your goals

Each of us have varying goals when it comes to performance & body composition. Most of us want to have consistent stable energy with the ability to concentrate throughout the whole day. The healthy variances in physical out put would be between high level of physical output to the

minimum needed to stay or get healthy.

Most men want more muscle, some women want more or the same or less. Most men would like to be ~8-12% body fat & most women around ~16-22% when either sex goes much lower in body fat% health can be compromised.

Cunninghams equation for resting metabolic rate (RMR) of 22 x LBM + 500 will give you what you would use with complete rest for 1 day. So depending on where you are in relation to your desired body composition & how physically active you want to be you can work out the amount of calories you need.

E.g if you were 70kg and 50kg of that was LBM then your caloric intake needed to stay alive each day would be 50kg x 22 =1100 + 500 = 1600 calories. If your goal as a female was to get to 18% body fat (61kg total body mass 50kg Lean mass & 11kg of body fat) and maintain lean mass then you would need to workout how much physical activity you would be willing to take on and how well your body can utilize your unwanted fat. The 9 kilos of fat would be 9000g x 9 calories ( 9 calories per gram of fat)= 81000 calories.

The OE workouts range between 500-800 calories. On average we recommend people do a maximum of 4 workouts per week and on rest days to do a light walk in nature, go for a swim in the ocean or do your own stretching program.

If you’re walking around all day and fairly active then you will easily burn 1.25 x RMR

If you’re training on top of that 2x per week ~ 1.5 x RMR

If you’re getting in 4 hard workouts plus some walking on rest days ~ 1.75 x RMR

Accumulated body fat is hardwired into our survival system. Loosing too much too quickly causes the body to want to put it back on just as fast. We recommend 250-500g of body fat loss per week. Most people will lose a bit of fluid & muscle with this (especially with the switch to fat as fuel) which may appear on the scales as 1-2kg per week. Usually this only lasts for the first 1-2 weeks after which slow consistent changes are best.

250g of fat= 2250 calories per week = 321 less calories per day

500g of fat= 4500 calories per week = 642 less calories per day

which would mean realistically it would take 18-36 weeks to loose 9kg of fat.

To loose 9kg of Body fat, 81000 calories with a 4 workout per week routine for 18 weeks you would need to eat

1600 x 1.75 = 2800 calories - 642 calories = 2158 calories per day and stay active. If your work outs are not as intense as this example you would need to drop it down to ~1800- 2000 per day. Remember if you drop calories too low you will loose muscle not fat and make it even harder to loose body fat.

Drowsiness during the day is a sign that you have gone into survival mode in which case you may have consumed too few calories or not dispersed calories & carbs throughout the whole day effectively. If you are not feeling good energy it’s not working properly. The initial transition to fat as fuel can leave you feeling a little flat at first. This is only temporary and usually takes only 2 weeks to transition.

16.Eat every 3-4 hrs

Eating every 3-4 hrs gives your digestive system a rest without letting blood sugar drop too low. If you have too big a gap between meals you will turn into a fat storing machine & your body will bring blood sugar up by breaking down lean mass. When first reducing meal sizes to suite the desired calorie intake it’s important to spread it fairly evenly with your main meals e.g the female above would be best to keep main meals ~ 500 calories with snacks at ~ 100 - 200 calories. For Example:

Breakfast: coconut cinnamon smoothie 4eggs ~500 calories

Snack: 50g cheese 200 calories

Lunch: 150g Slow Roast beef with salad 450 calories

Snack: 25g soaked & dehydrated almonds 150 calories

Dinner: 150g Slow Roast beef with steamed vege 450 calories

Snack: 200ml Yogurt with cinnamon 160 calories

Total: ~1910 calories

Much of the nutritional work that is published & mainstream is based on much higher carbohydrate consumption than Origin Of Energy advocates. It’s also important to note that not all calories are created equal. Healthy Pastured fat from a healthy animal behaves very differently than the fat in a grain fed & finished animal. On top of that, fat is extremely different to carbohydrates in that it has so many more nutritional benefits & costs us so much less in enzymes, minerals & vitamins when metabolizing.

Movement

17. Keep the Body Moving

We recommend 30mins of movement everyday with 30mins of intense exercise 2-4x per week. Workouts lasting longer than 30mins tend to deplete the body & encourage poor form so it’s always best to keep workouts short & efficient. Origin of Energy’s circuit style of compound resistance training is a very important part of health as it promotes increases in:

Muscle mass

Metabolism

Growth hormone & testosterone

Bone mineral content & density

Work capacity

Joint stability

Cardiovascular fitness

Flexibility- functional range of motion

All of this transfers into the ability to live an active fun life. As human beings we evolved from an environment that was very demanding, so when exercising it is important to have the goal of returning your body to it’s optimal function. For many that have let their body go, the process back to health needs to be a gradual one. Small consistent steps are best.

Over exercising with either complexity, load or duration will only make the whole process take longer, only do what you have the capacity to recover from. Exercise is stress and you can only get the benefits from the stress stimulus if you’re committed to the other lifestyle components included here.

18. Perform Exercise that balances the body

Our bodies are an expression of every choice we have made since we’ve entered the world. The body will always mould itself around what you do with it. E.g if you drive to work, sit in a chair 8-10 hrs a day, drive home and then sit on the couch to watch TV, then your body will become those environments- usually slouched & restricted.

It’s important to do stretches and strengthening exercises that pull the body into alignment, especially if your life is fairly sedentary. To design stretching & corrective programs that are specific to individual needs we perform a comprehensive assessment. A basic rule for stretching is if it’s not tight don’t stretch it. Perform stretches needed to allow you to stand up straight, full squat, lunge, rotate the spine & press weight above the head all with optimal alignment of the spine and not too much or too little curve.

Stretching programs need to be performed 6/7 days to get optimal results and for practical purposes are best designed to take no more than 10mins.

Balance also relates to the hormonal system. If you’re run down then intense circuit style resistance training needs to be modified by slowing the movements down to breathing pace and doing lighter less complex versions of the movements. We encourage all different levels of athletic ability to train together in our groups and for everybody to work at their own individual level.

When performing more than 2 intense days of training in a row the body will not recover and exercise becomes more stressful than it is worth. This is why we recommend 1-2 days of intense exercise followed by an active rest day of light walking, stretching or swimming in the ocean. Exercise programs should always vary and cover a variety of movements & responses- endurance, speed & power, maximum strength and muscle building strength work. This is why we have a different work out mon -sat on the homepage and have 3 hypertrophy (muscle/ metabolism building) 1 speed & power, 1 max strength & 1 endurance style workout every week.

Balance within the muscle system also relates to the balance between stability & movement muscles. If you’re over investing in heavy and fast lifting the stability system of the body will be compromised. This is why all Origin Of Energy workouts are finished off with core stability work to keep tone and health within these muscles.

Rhythm

19. Sleep with the Sun

When sunlight starts to fade it’s time to start relaxing the body and mind so that by the time it’s 10 p.m you’re ready to sleep. Having a good sleep wake cycle (10 p.m-6 a.m) is a much needed component to creating good health. Your mind & body need good rest every night to make the most of the next day. It is more than worthwhile to keep a good rhythm at least 6/7 days. If you are going to have a later night then it is worth having an afternoon nap before 5 for less than 30mins both the day before & after. Try not to wake up too much later as this will also throw out your rhythm- e.g go to bed at 2 a.m and try to wake up at 8am. If you sleep in too late your rhythm will go off and you will feel like you have jet lag.

In the evenings it is important to not over stimulate the mind or body so it is best to take it easy from at least 8pm onwards.

20.Get your Vitamin D

Getting adequate Vitamin D is essential for health. Vitamin D is what allows our bones to be calcified with out we suffer conditions such as a osteoporosis and in severe cases Rickets. The easiest way to bring your Vitamin D levels up is to get 2 x 30min sunbathing sessions per week in the middle of the day. This can be broken up into 10-20mins daily usually shorter is not going to get a decent response and longer than 30 mins is unadvised because of the risk of getting burn’t. In winter the UVB ray spectrum is available in a very short period and depending on your distance from the equator it may not be at all. In Sydney through Summer, Spring & Autumn UVB is plentiful provided there is no cloud cover which reduces UVB by 50%. You want maximum skin exposure so sunscreens are out with the clothes. Getting sun throw glass will not work either as the UVB rays are reflected. The synthesis of Vitamin D comes from the fatty acid secretions in the skin so you want to avoid washing the sun exposed skin with soap for up to 48hrs after getting sun. Washing the skin will wash away the vitamin d before it enters circulation. Those with darker skin- more melanin will need more extended exposure times to make the same amount of Vitamin D as fair skinned individuals. The richest nutritional source of Vitamin D can be found in Cod Liver Oil we recommend the green pastures brand because of the source and processing of their food products.

21.Take needed time out

Each day it’s important to make time for yourself. It’s very easy to get caught up in the busy world around us and loose ourselves in other peoples ideas. Taking the time to stop and enjoy the simple things gives you the chance to put life in perspective. The things that most people worry about really don’t matter that much in comparison to the whole experience of life. Take the time to work out what you really need & want.

Making lifestyle changes such as these are not easy at first, but once you feel the benefits its impossible to go back. Make changes 1 or 2 at a time get it down and then add to it. Each week aim to live 6/7 days in alignment with these 20 principles. On your day off don’t go too overboard. Aim to not have more than double the carbs e.g 50kg lean mass 100g carbs & 1.5 the calories as in the above example 2158 calories 3237 calories.

Keep alcohol to a minimum & limit to 1 day per week until results are achieved then 2 consecutive days every 7 with a 5 day break is acceptable. Males stick to 1-3 drinks females 1-2 drinks. Any more than this can blow all your hard work and make you think that you cant achieve your desired result.

Life is a process. So much is possible to achieve. We just need to be clear, consistent & keep having fun.

OE Lifestyle