Foodtrainers’ Favorites from the Bulletproof Conference

We’ve been busy. Yesterday, we launched our pretty, newonline shop. Unexpectedly, our curated products have become popular and so we needed to give them a spiffed-up home. There were no major tech issues and orders surpassed our predictions, phew.

And, over the weekend, Carolyn and I attended the Bulletproof Conference. We pride ourselves on being seekers or guinea pigs, if you’re a Bulletproofer it’s called biohacking. When we walked into the conference we felt as though we had found our people (“tribe” is so annoying but maybe it applies). If anything, these people made us look unaccomplished in our experimentation. There was some weird shit.

Clients and commenters were curious about some of the things we posted so I thought I’d do a round-up of top 10 things we learned or heard about:

Bulletproof coffee- this isn’t new to us but we were treated to Bulletproof coffee throughout the conference. The first morning’s coffee kept us focused and full for many hours despite a red eye the night before. If you haven’t tried it, Bulletproof coffee is coffee plus oil (MCTs or coconut oil) + grass-fed butter blended with collagen optional. We add cinnamon to ours as well.

 IV nutrition- Yes, this is controversial, yes you must be SUPER careful about who gives you needles and yes our client, an ER MD, doesn’t agree with me on this one but I’m a fan. It’s an efficient way to get a large dose of nutrients for immunity, energy and cognition. The speakers at Bulletproof got IV’s before their talks,

Dig Deeper-Mastin Kipp (one of the speakers) provided a good reminder that all of this biohacking is just busy work if we aren’t getting to the root of our pain, stressors etc. I emailed my therapist stat. 

The healthiest wine-I’m usually a mezcal/tequila girl, So, I’m not a big wine drinker but I am a drink-only-the-best-er. Dry Farm Wines was an exhibitor at Bulletproof and I just signed up for their healthy wine delivery. Low/no sulfites, organic and the “cleanest” wines I’ve found.

And from the sleep doc, red wine (not dry farm wines but the sulfitey kind) is worse for your sleep than white. If you’re on the fence about prioritizing sleep, Dr Mercola called it the #1 thing we can do for your health.

Cell phones are scary. I know he’s beloved but I didn’t enjoy Mercola’s talk simply because it terrified me. He focused on radiation from cell phones and Wi-Fi. There just aren’t many legit solutions. I mean, I told my kids not to put phones in their pockets/touching their bodies and they told me where to go (“so everyone in the world is going to get cancer then Mom”). One way to combat the damage to our cells from radiation is taking magnesium, a lot of magnesium One form I like is this. I have no suggestions for mitigating the damage of teenagers.

Molecular Hydrogen is something to keep an eye out for. I’m talking to one of the companies today, more on that soon but I think it’s going to be big.

Esther Perel. I really believe relationships and sex are the next frontier when it comes to our wellness. Check out Esther’s amazing podcast on audible or her books. I took copious notes at her talk but one thing that resonated was that people, entrepreneurs especially, often give their passion, love and energy to their work and then save “the crumbs” for their partners. I was guilty of this, when I opened, Foodtrainers. Marc has his own business too. I’m happy to report we give each other large crumbs, maybe bites, at this point.

It’s invigorating to learn new things. I seriously get a high from hearing about new ideas, technology and the such. Whatever you’re interested in, seek out information, preferably in person versus on the computer. “Gathering” is good for your health.

Malibu is worth it and Carolyn is the best. Our conference was in Pasadena, we took an Uber to Malibu (about an hour, female drivers both ways, go Cali). We sat at the bar at Nobu, looking out at the ocean, eating, drinking and catching up. Esther Perel said work partnerships were marriages. You need to think about them. Well we thought about it, over margaritas, and our “marriage” is solid.

If you have any questions about this list, comment below. Or, have you tried anything I mentioned?

Breggie is the new Breakfast

CB Collagen Smoothie

It’s officially our second Whipping Week! If you’ve missed our incessant posting, Whipping Week is one of our programs/resets that we offer three times a year. Pre and post summer, we call it The Squeeze but after the holidays, we all need to be whipped into shape. Participants receive a packet with Whipping rules, a sample Whipping meal plan and recipes. Every day, for seven days, there is a Whipping tip of the day and personalized food journal feedback. Week 1 was a breeze, with Whippers reporting they felt “rejuvenated, in control, on track, mentally and physically clear, lighter” and much more. The average participant lost 4-6 lbs, pretty damn good! Most importantly, they all felt they had made changes to their habits that they will stick with.

We can’t give away all our Whipping secrets (but we’d love to have you in our next program: The Pre-Summer Squeeze in May), so we’ll give you a taste and let you in on one of our favorite Whipping tip. This is what we sent participants:

Breggie Is the New Breakfast

You know we love veggies at lunch and dinner, this week we would love you to veg at breakfast too. Enter: BREGGIE. Yup, add veggies or fermented veggies to eggs, greens to smoothies or mint leaves or basil to yogurt. Have a salad for breakfast and you will be an all-star Whipper. Fiber in vegetables helps you excrete fat and keeps you full. Plus, we need vegetable action for that healthy glow. So, how veg can you go?  

Regardless of your personal, wellness goals, you too can benefit from BREGGIE-ing it up. One of my fave fast breggies is a smoothie, of course.

CB’s Collagen Breggie Smoothie

*This isn’t a Whipping recipe

·      1 scoop of Vital Proteins beauty greens collagen

·      handful of spinach

·      ½ banana

·      almond milk

·      ½ avocado

·      a splash of almond extract

·      ice

Blend and sip! (you could absolutely add frozen blueberries or strawberries in here too. Just might not come out as breggie-beautiful).

The collagen in Vital Proteins is SO good for your skin, hair and nails.  It’s also great for your GI system and helps increase strength gains from exercise programs. This beauty greens blend also raw organic greens, hyaluronic acid and probiotics. OK that might not sound so yummy but I promise it is.

What’s your best way to breggie? Can you commit to it for the rest of January?

Foods to undo some of the holiday bulls#!t

Last night Carolyn and I had a talk to give. If you’re in NYC,  you know that it was an insanely rainy night. So, like the true professionals we are, we emailed our host 10 times saying “are you sure we’re on, it’s so bad out maybe people would like to do another night?” We were on and, as is often the case when you least expect it, it was great. We had a smart/fun group in a small, swanky 51^st floor room. There was booze we didn’t drink and chandeliers we did NOT swing from (we didn’t know these people yet). The topic was top 10 foods you should eat to undo holiday damage.

Issue: Hangovers

Shockingly over 20% of people do not experience hangovers. Most of us do. Try our 1 for 1 rule and have 1 water for every drink you have or just stick to 1 drink (some people can do this). If you overdo it, think ginger. Most hangover issues stem from inflammation. We like Wakaya ginger Mix it with water after you drink or next morning or be like us and plop some in your clear spirit of choice.

Honorable  hangover mentions:  coconut water, eggs, vitamin B12

Skip: hair of the dog or bacon egg and cheese rituals

Issue: Sweet tooth (or teeth)

Sweets are a big issue this time of year or really every time of year. If sweets are your kryptonite- be ferm! I’m talking fermented foods. Your gut is really the control tower for your body and what’s going on there affects your cravings, especially sweet cravings. The “top shelf” ferm(ented) foods are  fermented  veggies (farmhouse kraut, bubbles pickles and BAO are great brands) & kefir (sort of turbo yogurt when it comes to probiotic count).

Issue- Dry, gross skin

Winter, sugar, booze and too much time inside = parched, sad skin.

If you haven’t started collagening, you have 2 choices:

collagen powder or bone broth. In NYC check out the new brodo shops west village and Bryant park.

Issue: Zero Energy 

First I’ll remind you to sleep more and hydrate (professional obligation). If you want a little metabolism boost, make that water ice cold. If  you’re seekinga more interesting upper, drink matcha. Matcha, because you consume the whole leaf via this pretty powder, puts plain old green tea to shame.

Matcha gives you a push without making you jittery. It revives you and calms you down at once, impressive. If you’re really feeling low, drink matcha with brain octane in it and thank me when you decide to take a break hours later.

Issue: Stress!!!

Once upon a time there was a mineral called magnesium. This super-crucial mineral helps you chill out and keeps your metabolism humming along. However, there’s also a demon called stress that runs around the city scopping up magnesium. I don’t’ know where I’m going with this but most of us are deficient in magnesium which means both our mood and metabolism are subpar.

Don’t freak out. I love magnesium bath flakes (Naturopathica makes amazing ones), you can supplement magnesium (we love pure encapsulations or natural calm packets). And you can eat real, potent dark chocolate, 70% or > and avocado morning, noon and night.

Issue: family 

Solution: I’ll get back to you on this one, Foodtraining can only fix so much.

Happy Holidays! Cheers to not feeling like Santa at the end of this season.