Zot - Ketone power : superfuel for optimal mental health and ultimate physical performance

KETONE POWER

Superfuel for Optimal Mental Health and Ultimate Physical Performance

CRISTIAN VLAD ZOT

Table of Contents

Introduction................................................................................................................................................ ..........................3

Chapter One: When Nothing Seems to Work, Adopt the Uncommon.......................................6

Chapter Two: Sugar or Fat? A story of Two Metabolisms..............................................................14

Chapter Three: The Beginning of an Amazing Journey.....................................................................21

Chapter Four: I don't want to get out of Ketosis.................................................................................36

Chapter Five: Health Implications of Ketogenic Nutrition..................................................................48

Chapter Six: Ketoadaptation: Strength, Endurance and Physical Performance...................91

Chapter Seven: The Keto Food Chapter.....................................................................................................133

Chapter Eight: My Virtual Academy................................................................................................................174

References........................................................................................................................................................................178

Introduction

Since there is too much information out there, many people really don't know who to follow and what to listen to. Information is not important now. What is important is how one is able to manipulate information, how to interpret it and how to use it to achieve greater benefits in their life.

In terms of nutrition and well being there is a lot going on right now. Some say fruits are bad, others say dairy is bad, while others say that consuming too many vegetables is bad. If you would have to listen to all that is said, you would not be able to eat anything.

The paradigm of nutrition will most likely shift to personalized nutrition in the years to come. We are different human beings and "one size to fit them all" should not apply to diet.

Experts and professionals in personal nutrition will have a lot to gain because this industry will explode. The level of personalization will apply to different variables, such as age, physical health, the purpose of a certain nutrition, etc.

Now you may be wondering what this book is all about. I wanted to write it ever since I started seeing amazing result with my ketogenic experiment. This book represents my manifesto to the misleading information that's promoted via the media and through dietary guidelines in terms of nutrition and health. Take it as a point of view (my point of view). Do not take it for granted but conduct your own research and see how it applies to your life.

It is also written as an expression of gratitude to all the wonderful virtual mentors that I had along my journey, such as: Peter Attia, Tim Ferriss, Dr. Stephen Phinney, Dr. Eric Westman, Dr. Jeff Volek, Gary Taubes, Thomas Seyfried, Mark Sisson, Doug McGuff, Dr. Stephen Sinatra, Johnny Bowden, and many other experts from various fields.

Again, I want you to start asking yourself some questions about the type of food that is being promoted to you as healthy and then conduct your own research.

This book is about high-fat-very-low-carbohydrate (ketogenic) nutrition. It follows my personal experience on the subject and it links back to the research in this field. The whole purpose is to help you, the uninitiated reader, to better understand how nutrition has a powerful impact on your well being, on your health, as well as on your mental performance.

Since I'm writing this book for the general public, I will try to use as much non-technical language as possible so that the level of understanding reaches the broader audience.

Special thanks go to my friends who helped me to edit the book and make it more comprehensive. David Hermann, you'd definitely make a professional editor wanna quit his job. Thank you Bill Lagakos, Cornel Paina, and Andrei Tit. Your help is ever appreciated.

31.01.2014 Cristian Vlad Zot

Measurements

Before getting started I'd like to make it easier for you to convert from one unit of measurement to another because I've written this book using the metric system and some of you may be accustomed to the imperial system. Here are the most common units to convert. If there is something you cannot find, just Google: "x" unit metric unit imperial or vice-versa (ex: 1 meter yards, 1 meter inches, 100g ounces, etc.)

Chapter One

When Nothing seems to work, adopt the Uncommon

That evening I jumped onto the scale and boom: 75.6kg. I was far behind the physical goals that I set for myself a few years ago. I felt that I was slowly sliding away from a state that I would like to call "good fitness". It was a Sunday evening of September 2013 and I was at the end of a binging day.

For those of you who don't know what binging is (in the context of dieting) it refers to the day of the week when you allow yourself to eat as much as you can and whatever you want. Some people call it a cheat day. You literally can eat until you throw up. However, the other 6 days of the week, you have to be a monk in terms of nutrition. You "gather" all the cravings throughout the week and you express them in an orgasmic-like form during the binging day. I learned about binging when following Tim Ferriss' Slow Carb Diet [1].

That same Sunday morning my scale was showing 71.8kg. So, I basically added almost 4kg in a single day. That's like ~10 pounds. You may wonder what I'd been eating that particular day. I loaded myself with mountains of refined carbohydrates in various shapes and forms, such as: pizza, cheeseburgers, fries, kebabs, and tons of chocolate. Plus additional water my body demanded to process all those carbohydrates.

Where was I heading? If I kept following that same routine going, things would have gone out of control. And then I had that Harajaku Moment . At that particular point in time I had been doing some research (very narrow) on very low carbohydrate diets. I'd been introduced to this study by a short article written by Tim Ferriss on his blog. The article featured Peter Attia and it was on ketosis and athletic performance, a subject that fascinated me tremendously [2].