Entries by Ori Hofmekler

Our next Warrior Diet Certification Class is on October 10, 2008 in the Los Angeles metro area. We are now accepting registrations!

Be sure to sign up now for an Early Bird special. Seats are extremely limited, so reserve yours before you get shut out!

The Warrior Diet certification includes the following:

 

Part I Controlled Fatigue Training CFT (10am – 2pm)

- Introduction: concept principles etc.

- Basics: Pre-fatigue exercises, core workout (upside down pyramids) post fatigue exercise.

- Advanced: Introduction to advanced CFT drills including Push-Full- Punch Exercises and Body Brutal Squats

- Workout design “Learn how to combine advanced and basic CFT drills in your workout for max impact”.

- Adjustments to sport specifics and individual needs.

Part II Nutrition (3:30pm – 5pm)

- The human feeding cycle: introduction of concept and principles

- The “Warrior Grocery List: prioritizing food choices - protein, vegetables and fuel foods

- Sport nutrition: recovery meals (composition and timing)

- Main meal design

- Primary fuel adjustments

- Applications for weight loss: food choices, food combining and supplement regimen for weight loss

- The “Anti-Estrogenic” approach

- Adjustments to sport specifics

- Nutritional supplements: Supplement Layout for maintenance, physical training and special conditions.

*The certification courses curriculum is subject to changes

Participant will receive follow up papers

Benefits
Warrior Diet certified trainers are entitled to the following:

- Promotion and client reference via Warrior Diet website.

- A special discount on all Warrior Diet Products and services.

- First access to new E books and special reports.

- Personal follow-ups with Ori.

- Affiliation rights to Warrior Diet/Defense Nutrition products.

NEXT CLASS: October 10, 2008

LOCATION: Woodland Hills, CA (Location subject to change but will be in Los Angeles Metro Area)

Cost: $1500 (non-refundable)

To register for the next class, please click here or call 818-342-1927:

http://www.defense-nutrition.com/cgi-bin/lyre.cgi/jvm/package/go_order.html?pack_id=10440

Plant Steroids by Ori Hofmekler

Can they help restore male power?

As a testosterone driven species, human strength, vigor and youthful appearance positively relates to the balance between the steroid hormones testosterone and estrogen as well as testosterone and cortisol. Testosterone plays a key role in regulating the development of male sexual characteristic and reproduction capacity. Among its numerous functions, big T works as a neuro-chemical inducing vigor, aggression and competitiveness in males and females. It is a most formidable anabolic agent, engaging in the regulation of protein utilization in the muscle, positively promoting tissue recuperation, muscular development and strength gain.

Maintaining a healthy hormonal balance is critically important. Low ratios of testosterone/estrogen or testosterone/cortisol are associated with metabolic disorders, loss of strength, muscle waste, fat gain, lowered libido, lowered virility, a weakened immunity and accelerated aging. We're facing today a serious problem – as a species we are shifting away from our evolutionary trend – from being under testosterone dominance to being under estrogen dominance. This shift is certainly not a secret, neither are the main causes of this phenomenon – excess of estrogen is most prevalent in our society and we pay the consequences with ever growing rates of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer.

There is a growing public awareness to the fattening, sickening and mortal effects of industrial chemicals on our bodies, particularly xenoestrogens, which have penetrated our food chain and our environment and are now disrupting our ability to regulate our body weight and sustain a strong, vigorous and healthy body. We have been falling victims to hormonal shattering substances, largely man made. Our testosterone driven ancestral program for having a potentially lean and powerful physique has been shattered, softened and weakened by estrogenic substances.

This issue is not just about how we look or perform, but mostly it's about how can we SURVIVE as individuals and as a species, and what can we do to tackle this problem?

In my book The Anti-Estrogenic Diet, I presented the "anti-estrogenic" approach. Its premise:

1) Avoiding estrogenic foods and chemicals

2) Consuming anti-estrogenic foods and herbs

3) Increasing intake of testosterone (and progesterone) promoting foods and herbs

The last element is critically important in view of the fact that our food chain has been FEMINIZED not just chemically but also biologically. Though largely unknown, the fact is that estrogenic chemical have been feminizing not only our animal food (meat, pork, poultry, etc.) but also the plant food that we eat – our last nutritional resource. The lower food chain, mostly plant food – the main source of essential human nutrients – has been now severely compromised and here is how: plants are inherently controlled by steroid-like substances which, like in mammals, dictate their reproduction capacity, rate of growth and structure. There is evidence that estrogens and androgens have different effects on plant development and structure. For instance, while estrogen has shown to promote flowering and inhibit root growth, testosterone has shown to promote root elongation, pollination and germination. Most importantly, chemicals in the soil can manipulate the feminine or masculine qualities in plants. Apparently, an estrogenic environment yields a more estrogenic plant with higher concentrations of naturally occurring estrogens. The existence of plant estrogens is common knowledge. Plant estrogens were first detected in the 1920s and since then, over 2000 phytoestrogens have been found, some out of which have shown to possess potent estrogenic activity.

What's remained largely unclear is the fact that plants inherently contain the male steroid hormones androgens. Extensive studies detected a large variety of androgens including androstenedione, DHEA, testosterone and dihydrotestosterone (DHT) in over 100 plant species out of 130 species investigated. These findings are most revolutionary since they add a critical element to the human diet – plant androgens can potentially serve as an estrogen balancing factors, thus increasing the capacity to fight excess estrogen and restore a prime state of health. Plant androgens could be the MISSING LINK to our nutrition today. The knowledge how to choose testosterone dense plants over estrogen dense plants may make the difference between being lean, powerful and healthy, and being fat, weak and sick.

Researchers have been speculating that human nutrition was primarily BALANCED between male food and female food. Most likely that's how things were millenniums ago. But what about our nutrition today? Have we been losing the gender balance in our food? Interestingly, the activity caused by male plants was several times lower than that caused by the extract from female plants. It is becoming evidently clear that our food chain has lost its ecological balance becoming more and more feminine with less and less testosterone promoting male foods. In other words, our food chain that was once balanced between masculine and feminine properties has been polluted with estrogenic petro-chemicals, and is now becoming biologically FEMINIZED. The farm animals that we eat have been largely feminized by estrogenic chemicals and the plants that we eat have been losing their masculine qualities due to petro fertilizers and pesticides. Our typical variety of vegetables and fruits may NOT be sufficient enough to balance and counteract the excess of estrogen in our food and we certainly need to know what to do to address this problem.

The solution

Increasing intake of male plants

More studies need to be done on plant androgens and how they affect our health, but based on anecdotal evidence, male plants do work. Testosterone boosting foods and herbs such as garlic, onion, celery, radish, almonds, pine nuts, bee pollen, mucuna, ashwaganda and ginseng respectively have shown great impact on sustaining and boosting testosterone, virility, strength and vitality. In future reports I will present male supportive foods, spices and herbs in more details, but for now let me just suggest that any plant food harvested before and right after pollination, is more likely to have higher concentrations of plant androgens than during other seasons. Evidently phytoandrogens reach max concentrations in plants during pollination and then drop rapidly thereafter. Also, there is evidence that young "green" grains are more "male oriented" than old grains (such as with green oats). The germ in grain is a great source of male hormones supportive compounds vitamin E, phytosteroids and nutritional cofactors – naturally occurring in the fat component of the germ. Note that stabilized wheat germ or rice germ could be highly beneficial in this regard.

Increasing intake of anti-estrogenic foods

Certain foods and herbs have shown the capacity to help balance estrogen in the body by inhibiting its formation or by modulating it metabolism. These include broccoli, cabbage, omega 3 oil, flax, hemp or fish oils, nuts, seeds, turmeric, garlic, onion, oranges, berries, and all greens.

Supplement with estrogen inhibitors

Certain compounds in plants have shown to inhibit estrogen by blocking the aromatase enzyme that produces estrogen (converting androgens to estrogens) and by shifting estrogen metabolism to favor the production of the beneficial metabolites 2-hydroxy estrogens over the harmful fattening and sickening metabolites 16-hydroxy estrogens. These include the flavonoids chrysin from passion flower, apigenine from chamomile, and indoles from cabbage. (More information on estrogen inhibitors at http://www.defensenutrition.com/cart/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=63.)

Cleanse your liver, kidneys and digestive tract

The liver and kidneys are the sites for steroid metabolism. There is a positive correlation between liver and kidney's health and testosterone activity. Testosterone's impact on the body depends on the level of free testosterone and what becomes evidently clear is that levels of free testosterone DECLINES when the liver is strained or overwhelmed with toxins. Toxicity promotes a process in the liver that DEACTIVATES testosterone by binding it to certain proteins called sex hormone binding globulins (SHBG). Moreover, toxicity increases the level of estrogen and cortisol over testosterone – a process that further diminishes testosterone's impact on the body. At this point, it doesn't matter whether and how much testosterone was ingested or even rejected – due to high levels of SHBG, or an excess of estrogen and cortisol, much of the testosterone pool will be rendered inactive. To avoid this problem, which also accelerates with aging and stress, it is important to CLEANSE all the body's detoxifying organs on a daily basis. Fruits and greens on empty stomach have a detoxifying effect on the body, nonetheless it is also important to supplement with detoxifying herbs (see www.warriordiet.com/Detox Kit).

In conclusion

The incorporation of testosterone boosting foods and anti-estrogenic foods with estrogen inhibitors supplements and liver, kidneys and digestive tract cleansing herbs will most likely grant the means to counteract excess estrogen and restore vigorous health. Note that excess of estrogen is not gender specific and therefore the above information can benefit both men and women.

A few days ago, I was approached by producers from Fox TV’s “The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet” for a discussion about The Warrior Diet. I was asked to bring a female testimonial and recommended Brandy Jackson, co-host for our radio show “The Warrior Within”. Brandy lost over 57 pounds in five months (see testimonial at www.warriordiet.com). The producers told us that we’d be featured with a couple of other diets and that I will certainly get a FAIR chance to present and argue my approach. I was also asked to NOT challenge their experts with anything they weren’t prepared for…the first feature was “The Flat Belly Diet” – a typical calorie restrictive diet for women – same old same old nothing new approach. You could see how patronizing Fox experts were to this poor author lady, who kept nodding her head “yes, yes” anxiously waiting for their verdict.

To see the television clip, see http://www.mandjshow.com/videos/%e2%80%9cmj-investigates%e2%80%9d-new-dieting-trends/. My segment is halfway through the video clip.

As we were walking into the studio, I immediately noticed how out of shape the nutrition experts were – one was overweight and the other one was under weight, which gave me a creepy feeling from the start (I’ve never trusted a health expert who looks unhealthy). I was asked to present The Warrior Diet’s main concepts and as soon as I started, I was cut off abruptly by these Fox experts. All I managed to say is that The Warrior Diet is based on similar principles as the ancient Greek/Spartan diet, explaining how humans are inherently night eaters and that the most successful diets in history were actually based on one main meal at night.

Nonetheless, before I could even finish presenting the first concept behind The Warrior Diet, this so-called medical expert interfered with the following remarks: First – “The Spartan/Greek experience was before science and therefore irrelevant”, and second – “An article in the journal Metabolism has shown that ‘people who eat their main meal at night suffer from blood sugar implications’.” Then this “starved” looking nutritionist next to him started screaming how “crazy The Warrior Diet is” insisting that it’s all based on “fasting” and didn’t forget to mention how damaging it would be for her clients. I responded first to the male “expert”, who failed to mention that the studies featured in Metabolism were done on people who were FORCE FED and against their spontaneous will had to eat only the food that was mandatory by the study’s terms and also had to consume a FIXED calorie intake (more than they wanted) – certainly NOT The Warrior Diet way. This expert also failed to mention that the scientist who conducted these studies – Dr. Mark Mattson – is a great supporter of The Warrior Diet and actually had featured The Warrior Diet in his article in the prestigious medical journal Lancet. I couldn’t even react to this stupid remark about the irrelevance of the Greek/Spartan experience which came from a guy whose medical education (maybe unknowingly to him) is fundamentally based on ancient Greek Hypocratian tradition – which ironically endorsed one main meal per day at supper. I’m still puzzled how a medical doctor today can possibly forget where the ideas of Western medicine had originated from.

As for this so-called nutritionist woman, obviously there is no point of discussion since she apparently became victimized by her own dietary approach with a look of someone who is seriously malnourished. In times of so much confusion as to “what is healthy” – she somehow managed to get a job as a nutrition expert with virtually no capacity to adapt to changes or admit that her “old” concepts of dieting on mainly calorie restrictions are obsolete, redundant and even dangerous to most people. The “eat frequently, eat moderately” approach has proven to be a complete failure. This approach is the very reason why people today are getting fatter and sicker than ever in spite of dieting more than ever.

The Warrior Diet is the ONLY diet today that puts the record straight regarding the three most critical nutritional blunders of our society which have been shattering people’s ability to manage weight and sustain health:

• Wrong meal timing
• Wrong food choices
• Wrong food combinations

There is also a CRITICAL need to address the problem of chemicals in our food and environment – which has been inducing a fattening and sickening impact on our society with often mortal consequences. I was unable to present any of these elements in this TV show which after all invited me as a guest. Mike, the host, shook my hand before I was cut off and that was it, just like that…trying to save any more embarrassment to their experts who were not prepared for any substantial argument.

Behind the scene I was approached by the producer of the show, “it was great and I’m so sorry that it was too short”…when I confronted these experts all I got was kind of a nod of the head, like this is business as usual, “more studies need to be done” – this is I guess what “experts” say when they don’t know what to say.

Anyway, this short “face off” just demonstrated how stubbornly have mainstream nutrition experts been resisting any new viable solution to our current health disaster, how cowardly they’re trying to avoid confronting new ideas, persistently holding on to their old redundant and failing routines. And most amazingly, how people today have been okay with this ABSURD phenomenon.

We’ll continue discussing this issue next week in our radio show “The Warrior Within” and at www.warriordiet.com. Until then, thank you all for your passionate support.