Diet & Nutrition – Optimum Balance Series (Part 2) - Joey Bonfiglio

In Part 1 of my Optimum Balance Series, I discussed the need to get my diet and lifestyle in check after a staph infection I developed due to my gluten and soy allergy.

Similar to my exercise regime, I started with small changes to my diet and daily eating habits. The biggest issue I had in front of me was trying to pinpoint which foods were causing the reactions throughout the course of the day. Some foods would cause a delayed adverse skin reaction, where, with other foods it seemed almost immediate.

Although I had multiple allergy tests done, the results were not very specific and after further research found that these tests can be flawed. The results tell you what foods your body has high sensitivity to but those could be misleading.

According to the author of Medical Medium: Secrets Behind Chronic and Mystery Illness and How to Finally Heal, Anthony Williams, best known for his unprecedented accuracy and success rate as the Medical Medium,

“These tests are not always accurate and often provide people with misinformation that can lead to confusion and frustration. This isn’t the fault of the practitioners who are giving the tests. It’s that the tests themselves are inadequate and ineffective at times. For example, when an IgG test reveals that you are allergic to celery, it is likely that the celery is killing off a pathogen and the pathogen is releasing a toxin that is creating a histamine reaction. So in reality, the powerful celery juice in your system is destroying H. pylori, streptococcus, mold and more.”

The key for me was to start eliminating as much food as I could and then reintroduce foods one at a time. I decided to limit the window of time I would eat the majority of my daily calories to better document and track what foods were giving me the undesired skin and gut reactions. I knew with my gluten allergy I needed to avoid breads and anything with wheat. Soy was a bit trickier as most processed foods, sauces and condiments, to name a few, contain soy.

First, I substituted breakfast and dinner with 1 Scoop of Greens Plus Superfood mixed with one cup of organic carrot juice. Recently I swapped out the organic carrot juice in the morning with an organic fruit smoothie instead of coffee.

Below is my PB&J Smoothie Recipe. It truly tastes like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich 🙂

- - 1 Scoop Greens Plus Superfood
- - 1 Organic Banana
- - 2 cups Organic Frozen Strawberries
- - ½ cup Organic Frozen Mangos
- - 2 teaspoons Organic Peanut Butter
- - 3 Ice Cubes
  - Last, add bottled/filtered water* to the max-line of the blender.**

* I started using Flow Alkaline Spring Water which is an alkaline based spring water

** My wife and I use the NutriBullet Rx Blender (Magic Bullet) as it has proven to be the most durable and reliable, especially since we not only use it daily for ourselves but we also make healthy smoothies daily for our 3 kids as well.

If you have a nut allergy, no worries, it still tastes great without it.

So over the course of a month I slowly introduced foods incrementally which took a lot of trial and error but eventually found some go-to comfort foods I could eat outside fruits and vegetables. Gluten-free Paninis, pizzas, potato chips, pastas, soups, and ice creams to name a few. Again, these are not necessarily the healthiest alternatives from a diet perspective, but initially I just wanted to know what I could and couldn’t eat without making a drastic change, like switching to just plant based, etc. Now that I can eat those foods, I have slowly started to swap out those with healthier alternatives and only having some of those on special occasions.

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I also did my best to eat most of my calories within a 6 hour time period, between 10:30am-4:30pm. By only eating within this window, it not only helped me zero in and pinpoint what foods I could tolerate, but through this process I was also experiencing increased energy and weight loss. I also started to find myself less hungry with less cravings. I think part of it was knowing I wasn’t depriving myself of a food that I know I could have the next day if I chose to as long it was within the non-fasting window. This led me to close the window even more from 6 to 5. Currently I eat most of my calories for the day within a 4-5 hour window, usually between 10/11am-3pm as part of an intermittent fasting routine I created.

We have heard the myth or benefit of eating small frequent meals boosting your metabolism, which there is some truth to, but only to burn the food you can’t store – this doesn’t dispose of excess fat. According to Cronise, “The less frequent you eat, the more you tap into your fat reserves” In my experience, I have found the key to my weight loss and overall health is to consume the bulk of your daily calories during a specific window of time during the day.

“I fast to give me better mental efficiency.” -Plato, philosopher

Intermittent fasting is more mainstream now than it was when I initially started my journey. Initially I went into this without the intention of maintaining it this type of fasting and more to hone in my allergy issues, however after researching and more importantly seeing and feeling the benefits I was getting from not only a weight loss perspective but from an overall health and energy perspective, I knew I had to make this a lifestyle change. In one year my overall cholesterol dropped 48 points, from 200 to 152 while also seeing improvement in my HDL, LDL and Triglycerides.

“¼ of what you eat will keep you alive. The other ¾ will keep your doctor alive.” – Egyptian Proverb

According to Mark Mattson, professor of Neuroscience at John Hopkins University, intermittent fasting enhances the ability for nerve cells to repair DNA. Inside our brain we have something called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) which helps support the survival of existing neurons and encourages the growth and differentiation of new neurons. Simply put, when you are fasting you are producing more BDNF, activating our brain stem cells to produce new neurons.

“All calories count if you count all the calories” – Ray Cronise

In Rich Roll’s Podcast, former NASA Scientist, Raymond Cronise says “When we eat calories, the body prioritizes them based on its ability to store them as energy, we can store fat easiest (most) and alcohol the least.

Alcohol –> Protein –> Carbs –> Fat is the order of what the body burns for fuel. This is known as Oxidative Priority, as defined in this paper from Cronise.

This means fat metabolism after a drink nearly goes to 0 because our body chooses to metabolize the alcohol first, as it can’t store it.

Next on the priority scale is amino acids. After a high protein meal, the reason our metabolism rises so much is to get rid of the amino acids our body can’t store.

Then onto complex carbs and finally fat. We can store unlimited fats. Excess fat is excreted as stool. Excess alcohol/protein/glucose is not excreted as stool, the body just metabolizes it

To put this in perspective – If you’re at a dinner party and have a glass of wine (alcohol) and a cracker (carb) with cheese (fat/protein) – the body burns the alcohol/cracker/protein and stores the rest as fat until it can excrete the excess. It takes up to 4 hours to go through the Oxidative process so if you introduce more foods prior to those 4 hours, the process starts from the top (alcohol) even if it hasn’t fully processed the fat, which it then stores.

The combination of intermittent fasting and following a gluten and soy free lifestyle has not only made me happier and healthier, it also made me more energetic. It is important to know this did not happen overnight. It was incremental steps every day over a period of time that added up. Each day I accomplished my goal, the more mental drive I had to keep going. If I go a day where I eat outside my fasting window, I reset the next day and try not to put two days in a row like that. I also realize when I eat less I have much more energy.

The beauty of the process of slowly and incrementally making changes to my eating habits made it feel less like a traditional restricted diet of salads and carb cutting and more of a lifestyle change. Based on all the hours of research I’ve done regarding my condition as well as my wife’s food sensitivities, I know if I eliminate meat and dairy, I could increase my health and wellness even more.

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is an ongoing process with new information coming out all the time. My advice is to always listen to and do what’s best for your body.

Part 3 of my Optimum Balance Series will be focused on the benefits of “Meditation and Music”.

Please feel free to comment below or connect with me via email or social media.

Godspeed on your journey!

Joey Bonfiglio | #RiZeGrindRepeat

** Please note, the information above is not intended to replace the advice of the reader’s own physician or other health care professional. You should consult a medical professional in matters relating to health, especially if you have existing medical conditions, and before starting any new fitness regimen or adopting new dietary choices.