dax moy's elimination diet 3.0

Dax Moy Personal Training Studios – Copyright 2010 – All rights Reserved

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Disclaimer and ‘Legal Stuff ’ Read This First!

As a health and fitness professional with over a decade of experience in

coaching people to great results I believe 100% in what I’m sharing

within these pages and know that if you apply the principles I’m sharing

that you will get great results.

However, given that people are nowadays super-litigious and enjoy suing

people for practically any reason they can I’m going to go through the

boring legal blurb that, sadly, needs to be done to protect me from

someone who says they got ill because they were asked to banish all of

the toxic, chemically altered, food colouring added, denatured stuff that

lines the supermarket shelves and instead to eat only fresh, natural and

unaltered foods that come from the ground, swim in rivers or the sea,

walk on land or fly in the air.

I know it sounds silly (and it is) but there are people who will claim that

removing known toxins, allergens and irritants from their foods will, in

some way have harmed them, caused mental anguish or removed the

fundamental human right to freedom of choice.

Worse still, some clever clogs will get a smart enough lawyer to press a

case, win and repossess my home, my car and all my other stuff and stick

me in jail for the rest of my natural life. (I’m only half joking!).

Therefore, read the following statement BEFORE you read the rest of this

book or follow any of the advice given.


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Medical Disclaimer: Read This BEFORE You Commence The

Program!

The elimination diet advice given within these pages is for

information purposes only and in no way supersedes any prior

advice given by a medical practitioner, registered dietician or

nutritionist.

Should you follow the advice herein you are choosing to do so of

your own free will, without coercion and in the full knowledge that

the dietary recommendations have not been personally designed for

you and that should you suffer from a medical condition of any kind

or suspect that the dietary regimen may cause you a medical

problem of any kind whatsoever that you should speak to a qualified

medical practitioner for advice.

Further, if you choose to follow the dietary recommendations and

feel that it is affecting you adversely or that you are feeling

negative side effects in any way then you should cease it

immediately and consult your doctor.

That’s it! It’s unfortunate that it’s necessary but now you’ve been told. The rest is up to you…


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Introduction

First off, relax! Whilst this program has the word ‘diet’ in it, it’s not really any kind of diet that you would recognise from the popular press. For a start, there’s no calorie counting whatsoever, meaning that you won’t be asked to restrict the amount of food you’re eating, you won’t have to weigh or measure foods and you definitely won’t go hungry while you’re following the plan I’ll be sharing with you shortly. In fact, most people using the elimination diet program comment that they are amazed at how much they are able to eat, how full they feel (in a good way!) and how much fat and overall weight they lose despite the fact that they never, ever feel hungry. You’ll find this too, as soon as you exchange the denatured, calorie-dense yet nutritionally ‘thin’ food in your diet for the nutritionally dense, natural, filling and delicious foods you’ll be eating whilst on the program. And no, you won’t be asked to follow any of those inane point-counting systems where cake and cauliflower are given scores that tell you if you can eat them or not and neither will you be asked to follow any insane advice like getting all of your meals through those awful ‘skinny shakes’, or never eating red foods after 8pm when the moon is full. It’s that kind of nonsense that put the word ‘diet’ into most people’s bad books in the first place. You know, that idea that diet was something temporary that you did to yourself in the short-term to ‘fix yourself’ before going back to eating exactly what you want, when you want and as much as you want. You already know that that kind of ‘diet’ never works, right? After all, that’s probably the kind of diet you’ve been following for years, cutting way back on your food intake to the point where you’re practically


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starving, losing a ton of weight but then piling it all on with interest as soon as you go back to your ‘normal’ eating plan. This is the famous Yo-Yo diet that we’ve heard so much about. The one where each time you use it, the results are less and less, last for shorter and shorter periods and the rebound weight gain is more and more. This is the diet that’s been proven time and time again NOT to work; yet it’s the one that most people (fitness professionals included) tend to rely on to get the weight loss results they desire.

In short, this is the kind of diet that made the word ‘diet’ a four-letter-word in the first place! Because of the bad rep that calorie restriction has given the word diet, much of the health and fitness profession have all but given up the ‘D-Word’ altogether, opting instead for ‘eating plan’ or ‘program’ or, well, anything other than diet.

We’re going to put that right. Right here, right now. Before you read another page of this elimination diet program let’s get clear on the definition of the word diet so that using one, going on one or following one is no longer the negative thing that many people seem to make it out to be. Rather than making up my own marketing-driven, hypey definition I’ll simply borrow from the dictionary if that’s ok?

According To Dictionary.com The Word ‘Diet’ Actually Means:

1. Food and drink considered in terms of its qualities,

composition and effects on health 2. A particular selection of food prescribed to improve a persons physical

condition or prevent or treat a disease 3. Anything that is habitually provided or partaken of


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That puts the old D-Word in a different light, don’t you think? It takes the concept of starting a diet from being a negative, faddy and potentially harmful one to one that’s positive and beneficial to health. But, well, dictionary definitions are always a little ‘dry’ don’t you think? That’s why for the rest of this book, for the remainder of your time on the program (and hopefully for the rest of your life!) I’m going to ask you to think of diet as being: The Way You Eat Every Day To Look, Feel and Perform At Your Best. Nothing more than that. (But nothing LESS than that either!) If you can think of it this way then being on a diet should no longer be a bore, a chore or an all-out war against your body and instead it’ll become exactly what it’s supposed to have been all along; the way you eat to look, feel and perform at your best! In fact, come to think of it, this is a much better definition that that offered by the dictionary, don’t you think? It means going from being a slave to food to having food serve you and help you to look better, feel better and perform better than you have in ages… perhaps ever. And the best bit is, this definition of diet allows you to eat freely of those foods that contribute to looking, feeling and performing at your best without having to worry about calories, portion control or any of the other nonsense normally associated with that old, tired, restrictive definition of diet that most people insist upon using. You’ll be able to eat large, satisfying portions of tasty, delicious, satisfying and highly nutritious foods while you’re following the Elimination Diet program and still see impressive and often amazing improvements in fat-loss and overall weight-loss along with the increased energy levels, mood, vitality and overall health that rarely (if ever) accompanies those awful calorie restricted diets that you’ve probably tried in the past. Sound good to you? I thought it might!


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About The Elimination Diet

The elimination diet plan you’re about to read about (and hopefully embark upon) is the result of over 12 years of training, education and practical observation of the effects of nutritional intervention strategies with hundreds of my own personal training clients as well as the thousands who’ve been trained by my team of coaches at my London personal training studios and thousands more who’ve been trained by independent personal trainers who’ve studied with me on my courses and seminars. Over that time, my team and I have assessed literally hundreds of popular (and many not-so-popular) dietary programs for their effectiveness at delivering the results that they were each promising in their scientific and testimonial literature. We’ve studied high fat-low carb, low fat-high carb, low protein, low fat, low carb, high protein, ultra high protein, raw, macrobiotic, vegan, vegetarian, food combining, metabolic typing and, well, just about every variant of each you could imagine. We’ve read thousands of scientific journals, textbooks, popular diet books, websites, magazines and everything in between to get to both the broadest and deepest picture possible of what works best in terms of both fat loss and health improvement results as well as why some approaches seem to work amazingly well for some yet fall flat on their face for others who follow the exact same advice. For more than a decade now I’ve been speaking to scientists, doctors, nutritionists, dieticians, Osteopaths, Naturopaths, Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners and Ayurvedic doctors, bodybuilders, elite athletes, super-obese people who couldn’t stop eating and those with eating disorders who couldn’t (or wouldn’t) even start, to try and discover some kind of unified theory of nutrition that would hold all the answers to creating the kind of health, wellness and physique that most diets promise but few ever deliver. With each and every source of new information I came across I made notes, jotted down the theory of the science behind it and tested the new ideas on myself and my team of trainers and coaches first to assess both their safety and their efficacy before applying them to my own clients.


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No single dietary approach was ignored and none elevated in status until we were able to predictably and consistently produce the results they each promised in their scientific literature and marketing materials. And what I found was…

… each and every approach that I and my team tested worked! Well, for a while at least! With every single diet we examined we were able to make headway toward the goals we’d set for ourselves or our clients in some way, shape or form. If we wanted to lose fat, pretty much all of the diets would work well… for a week or two. If we wanted to gain muscle or improve physical performance, many of the diets would work pretty well at that too… Again, for a couple of weeks. Yet after those first small flushes of success that each diet provided, there would inevitably follow a plateau and often a dramatic ‘rebound’ where the weight would suddenly return, seemingly without reason, carrying with it some form of ‘interest’ or the newfound muscle that had only been added to our clients’ frames would just disappear despite all training and nutritional factors remaining constant. Initially it was difficult to understand why so many diets that had gotten off to a great start were suddenly turning 180 degrees and failing to maintain there improvements, yet with just a little investigation it became VERY obvious. From calorie restriction of the most serious (and dangerous) kind to ‘liquid only’ diets (try a week on cabbage soup some time!) to ‘skinny’ shakes, pills and powders of all description to only eating foods of a certain colour or at a certain time, each of the most popular diets were clearly intended only as short-term, quick-fix solutions to problems that were chronic or long-term in nature. In other words, these diets were not about managing health, altering metabolism (in a positive way, at least) or making changes that were intended to last, they were designed to show a fast result to the dieter, metabolism and long-term health be damned!


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In addition they often espoused practices that were clearly unhealthy in order to achieve their aims, with ultra-low calories, nutrient exclusion and rapid dehydration techniques all part and parcel of the methods used to make the scale needle move down a few places to the left. As long as that needle went in the right direction both the authors of the diets and the dieters themselves were pretty happy, regardless of the long-term cost to health and the effect on metabolism that each of these extreme approaches took. By contrast to the seemingly endless diets that should have been categorised into the ‘fad’ department of bookstores and libraries there were but a mere handful of nutritional practices that were actually achieving the amazing results they promised, not only in the short term, but critically, in the long term too. These approaches certainly weren’t complicated, ‘flashy’ or even that popular by the standards of most of the other diets yet when my team and I applied them to our clients and ourselves they outperformed every single other diet we’d tried up to that point. By a long way. And the truly amazing thing was that none of these ‘basic’ approaches relied on the measures that were (and still are) commonplace with dietary advice. They didn’t require calorie counting, nutrient avoidance, liquid-only meals or those ridiculous ‘skinny shakes, instead they worked on just 2 VERY simple principles:

1. They removed any and all foods that the human body treated as toxic, irritating or de-vitalising in nature.

2. They ensured that ONLY wholesome

nutritionally supportive foods were consumed. Simple rules indeed, and very obvious when you think about it. Yet, for most people these rules are as far removed from the reality of their nutritional habits as it is possible to be.


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Most people still consume far too many foods that are full of chemical additives, colourings and preservatives, many of which have been PROVEN to cause problems with human physiology and create health problems and disease, yet have still found their way into our food. And even when the foods they’re eating sounds natural and ‘healthy’ like wheat, oats, bran, milk etc it’s often the case that they’ve been denatured to such a degree that the body barely recognises them as food anymore. In fact, once consumed they simply act as another stressor to the body and often serve to break us down physically rather than build us up as food should. Of course, you know this already. You’ve felt the effects of denatured or chemically altered foods many times but for one reason or another you’ve chosen to ignore it or believe that it was something else entirely. You know what I’m talking about… Those headaches and migraines. That lack of energy or outright fatigue. That acid reflux. That depression. Those low moods. That skin condition. That diabetes. The eczema. And many, many other ailments besides. ALL (and many more conditions) can be traced back to what you eat. ALL! [Note: As I’m not your doctor and don’t know you personally I’m not in a position to diagnose any of your specific conditions but nonetheless, ALL of these conditions can be diagnosed and treated by qualified nutritional practitioners


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This makes a great deal of sense when you stop to think about it. Your overall health is a direct reflection of the health of your cells.

Your cells require a constant supply of high quality nutrients both macronutrients (fat, protein, carbohydrate) and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) in order to function. Fail to give them the quantity or the quality they need and, quite simply, the health of the cells become compromised.

When enough cells in an organ become compromised, the organ itself is compromised and when the organ is compromised YOU become compromised to the degree that your function deteriorates and you become sick. It’s both as simple and as complex as that. In case that last section was a little unclear, let me spell it out for you again, ok?

Healthy cells equal healthy body, unhealthy cells equal unhealthy body.

If you are unhealthy or sick in any way, shape or form then your cells have been compromised. No if’s, no but’s. And the best way to prevent compromise of cells is to provide them with the nutrients they need to do their work, to repair, to grow and to thrive within the environment they live in. On the other hand, ignoring the signs that your cells are sick and malnourished and continuing to eat and drink foods that are toxic and harmful to them is an absolutely 100% guaranteed way to accelerate the signs and symptoms that you’re most likely already experiencing and to make them worse with each passing day. I’m not trying to scaremonger here, but this is fact.


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You’ve no doubt heard that old adage ‘you are what you eat’ a thousand times or more yet, like most people, rarely given more than a passing thought as to what it actually meant, yet this ancient truism has proven itself to be the most powerful and lasting piece of wisdom related to health that has ever been passed down through the ages. What makes it so powerful it that it is built around timeless, unchanging principles that can be relied upon again and again to produce results rather than the faddy methods-of-the-moment that change with alarming rapidity. To quote my good friend and fitness expert Alwyn Cosgrove Methods There are many, principles but few,

Methods are often changing, principles never do

The principle of ‘you are what you eat’ has stood the test of time and fared far, far better as a guide to outstanding health and wellness than any number of calorie-controlled, carb depleted, ‘one for breakfast, one for lunch and a proper dinner’ methods ever will. It also explains why an alarming number of those people following this method-based conventional ‘wisdom’ look, feel and perform far worse than they should be considering that they’re doing ‘all the right things’ as far as popular dietary advice goes. If they were doing all the right things then surely the benefits of doing so would be self-evident wouldn’t they? Yet there are more people who are unhappy with their appearance and general mood and energy right now than at any other point in history. This alone should tell you that the calorie-controlled, method-based models don’t work and that ‘you are what you eat’ is the right way to go if amazing health is your goal. In fact, it would probably be more correct to amend that old adage to ‘you are what you ATE’ as it’s your decisions up to this point that have created the body that you see when you look in the bathroom mirror every day.

it would probably be more correct to amend that

old adage to ‘you are what you

ATE!’


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That’s the not-so-great news. The good news is that regardless of how ‘bad’ your diet has been up to this point from a nutritionally nurturing, health-supporting perspective, regardless of the physical, mental and hormonal impact it has had on you, your physical appearance and your overall health, once you remove the toxic ‘insult’ you’re placing on the body and start giving it the nutrition it requires to clean up, strengthen and revitalise your cells, you’re guaranteed to experience positive results meaning that you’ll look better, function better and feel better than you have in ages. And the other bit of good news is that these results will stay with you for as long as you’re focused on keeping the health of your cells a priority. Just keep living to the principle that you are what you eat and your health (including your physical appearance) will reflect that. On the other hand, ignore this golden rule of health and you’ll be back to where you are right now.

You see, contrary to popular belief, sickness doesn’t ‘just happen’. You don’t just ‘get’ arthritis. You use the joints badly for long enough without noticing then one day you notice the effects of your mistreatment as if it came out of the blue. You don’t just put on 50lbs and become obese overnight. You gain a few

pounds here and there and here and there and barely notice because the increment is so small til one day you look in the mirror and see the impact that ‘just a few pounds’ has had on your frame. You don’t just suddenly become allergic or intolerant to foods you’ve eaten all your life. You burden your liver more and more, day in day out until it reaches a point where it can’t cope with the stress you’re putting it under. At that point you get allergies, itching, hives, a bad stomach, nausea from the food you used to be fine with. It’s not magic. It’s simply cause and effect at work.

The other bit of good news is that

these results will stay with you for as long as you’re focused on

keeping the health of your cells a priority


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If you’re seeing or experiencing an effect that you don’t like right now then it’s because somewhere along the line a cause for that effect slipped into your life unnoticed leaving you to deal with its after-effect here and now. And it works in reverse too! No matter how far removed from great health you are (or think you are) right now, every single change you employ in removing the burdens your body is having to cope with adds up and starts moving you back toward health. Every missing, depleted or under-consumed nutrient you add back into your diet does the same too. Cause and effect, remember? Cause good health and the effect will be good health. It doesn’t get any simpler than that, does it?

This is a question I often get asked by my clients and members of my online community who are often either sceptical, cynical or downright hostile to the idea of detoxification and elimination that I and many others share. They tell me that so-and-so ‘quackwatcher’ has told them that the whole idea of detoxification is B.S as the body already has its own perfectly good detoxification pathways including the liver, the kidneys, the colon and the skin and that each of these things happen independent of conscious thought and control and so don’t need to be addressed by individuals through their diet and lifestyles. And you know, they’re part correct.

But what About those Who Say That All This Detoxification ‘Stuff’ Is A bunch Of bull That’s made Up By Quacks And Con Men?


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These absolutely amazing organs are great at taking all manner of toxic insult from our environment, dragging them through a bunch of ‘in-house’ chemical treatment plants, removing or reconfiguring them into less harmful substances and either using them to fulfil some role or another within the body or excreting them from the body before they do any real harm. That’s the way it should work. And, truth be told, that’s the way it does work (most of the time) on a body that’s clean and not overly burdened by modern toxic insult. But on a body that’s already been overburdened, on a body that’s already into cellular and even organ breakdown and on a body that’s already sick, that’s just not happening the way it should and every new toxin added to the internal environment of the body creates a buildup of toxins that soon overwhelm the very organs designed to deal with them. Those quackwatchers conveniently forget to tell you that, didn’t they? They also conveniently forgot to mention that smoking tobacco (a toxin) causes lung, throat and mouth cancer if the body does not have the raw materials to break it down and disable the harmful components. Just like they forgot to mention that over-consumption of alcohol creates a condition well-known called ‘intoxication’ (which I’m sure you’ve heard of) and can lead to liver damage and even death if consumed in excessive quantities or over extended time frames.

And they forgot to mention that over 245,000 people die every single year in the US and over 100,000 in the UK due to the toxic effects of medications prescribed by doctors for the right conditions in the right dosages (in other words, these were not overdoses or mis-prescribed) to patients whose detoxification pathways were too inadequate to deal with the chemical burden that these medications placed upon them.

Make no mistake about this, toxicity

does exist, the human body does often fail in its ability to remove those toxins and

when this happens it does

get sick


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Make no mistake about this, toxicity DOES exist, the human body DOES often fail in its ability remove those toxins and when this happens it DOES get sick. Of course, the degree of that sickness is dependent upon the dose, the duration and type of toxin as well as the overall health of the individual but as a principle, understand that toxic insult to the body can and does occur on a daily basis and that it’s only the health of our cells (which is 100% determined by the nutrients responsible for building and maintaining them) that determines how each insult will affect us. Most of us know and understand this already even if we don’t think of it in these terms. We all know, for instance, that when we eat certain foods we feel ill, sick and tired whilst when we eat others we feel alive, well and full of energy. This is merely a reflection of how well our body’s are geared up for dealing with the chemical combinations that each of those foods represent. If we have the right internal chemistry to break the foods down efficiently, we get to extract the nutrients and use them constructively within our own bodies. If, on the other hand, we’re lacking one or more chemical components then the food becomes a toxic burden to the body and costs us many of our own vital nutrients to neutralise and expel it. Nuts aren’t bad in and of themselves. They’re just another food. So why do we have ‘may contain nuts’ labels on practically every food label nowadays? Because there exists a growing part of the population that lack the correct internal ‘chemistry set’ to break them down into their nutrients and for these people this simple food becomes a toxic poison. The same is true for some people with seafood, others with eggs and others still with grains. This is just common-sense stuff really. Trouble is, many people have forgotten how simple and easy it is to tune-in and listen to their body’s innate wisdom and so they tend to see the idea of cleaning up their diet as some kind of ‘extreme fad’ rather than the step toward nutritional sanity that it really is.


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The Elimination Diet Plan will set that straight for you, making tuning in to your body a simple, straightforward and step-by-step process that’ll you’ll know is right for you as soon as you start it. Give it 30 days and you’ll see and feel more than enough great results to convince you that it should form the cornerstone of your nutritional strategy for the life!

You Probably Won’t Want To Hear This… (But You Need To!) A lot of people won’t like this section of the book. Perhaps you won’t either. In fact, if you’re a big fan of the namby-pamby political correctness that seems to be the norm these days, I can pretty much guarantee that what I’m about to say will annoy you, upset you and perhaps outright anger you. So be it. Whilst it’s not my intention to make you feel bad in any way, I feel it’s important that you understand a few simple truths about why you look, feel and perform the way you currently do in your day to day life. A lot of people won’t tell you this. Instead they’ll tell you that everything you’re experiencing is someone else’s fault and that you’re simply the poor sucker who’s left paying the price. I’m not going to tell you that. In fact, I’m going to tell you that…


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If you’re fatter than you should be, if your skin is poorer, your hair more brittle, your energy lower, your mood lower, your blood pressure higher, your muscles weaker, your bones more brittle or your immune system

poorer then...

…It’s YOUR Fault!


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Chill out! Relax! No, I’m not judging you, blaming you or pointing a finger at you to make you feel bad about yourself. I’m merely stating a fact, so don’t overreact and stop reading at this point. If you do, you’ll miss why it’s your fault and, more importantly, what you can do about it. You see, here’s the absolute truth about achieving the outstanding, amazing, life-long health that a rare few people seem to enjoy, the truth that hardly anyone out there seems to want to address or talk about, but the very same truth that can and will make all the difference to both the quality AND quantity of your life… if you act upon it.

The Truth Is, YOUR Health Is YOUR Responsibility

I know, it’s probably not the biggest revelation to you. You probably already think you know this, but unless you’re actively taking responsibility for your health on a day-in, day-out basis then you don’t really know it. Not truly. Not deep down. You only really know something to the degree that you do something with what you know. If you say that you understand that eating a certain food isn’t good for you and you continue to eat it, you don’t really know. Likewise, if you often find yourself blaming others for how your body looks, feels or performs then you haven’t really gotten to the point where you truly believe that you and you alone determine these things and instead see all of your problems as originating ‘out there’. If you find yourself repeatedly saying ‘they should do something about that’ then it’s time to recognise that ‘they’ starts with you!


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If you’ve been thinking that the government of your country should make sure that you’re kept healthy, think again… Ultimately, governments are merely large ‘for profit’ companies of sorts that do what they can to ensure that the profit and loss accounts of a nation remain balanced. Even if a government could tell you exactly what, when and how much to eat to keep you healthy (which they can’t even agree on!), you know you’d cry ‘nanny state!’ or whinge, whine and moan about freedom of choice and ignore what you were told anyway, right? You know you would! Don’t believe me? Ok, then tell me, how many of the current government nutrition guidelines are you following right now? See, what I mean? Government guidelines on nutrition are public knowledge, free and repeated often enough that they should be tattooed on your brain in indelible ink yet you, me and hundreds of millions of other people around the world simply choose not to follow them. The truth is, it’s YOU that chooses what to eat, how to eat and when to eat. It’s got very little (if anything) to do with the government. Sure, they often drop the ball on ensuring the quality of the foods that we consume, but let’s be honest here, there isn’t a single government in the world recommending consuming cakes, biscuits, soft drinks and sweets is there? These are choices that are made by each of us as individuals. They are made despite evidence and advice to the contrary. They are made even though we know deep down that they’re taking us away from where we want to be in terms of our health and wellness. It’d be great to point the finger and blame the government for our not looking or feeling the way we want to. But we can’t. It’s our own fault.

How Many Of The Current

Government Nutritional

Guidelines Are You Following Right

Now?


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What about the medical community? Surely If Anyone Should Be Responsible For Our Health It’s Them, right? No, think again. As much as doctors are widely regarded as health experts, the truth is that most of them know very little at all about achieving the kind of amazing health that we’re talking about here in the Elimination Diet program. Contrary to what you’ve been told, doctors aren’t really involved in healthcare. They are, in fact, experts in illness and disease. When you’re already very sick or badly injured a doctor may well be the best person to go to in order to prevent the spread of sickness or infection. Likewise, they’re fantastic at stitching you up or setting a bone when you’re injured. There’s no denying that in the realm of emergency medicine doctors prove their worth time and time again but when it comes to maintaining or improving health they know very little indeed. For example, A 2006 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition gives the details of a survey of all 126 medical schools in the U.S. The aim of the survey was to find out the level of nutritional education that each institution was providing to the next generation of doctors. The results will shock you.

• Only 99 of the 126 schools required some form of nutritional education

• Only 32 schools actually required a separate nutrition course of any kind

• Only 40 schools across the entire U.S met the guideline minimum 25 hours of nutritional education advised by the National Academy of Sciences

• On average, medical students receiving nutritional education only receive 23.9 contact hours during their ENTIRE medical training

(Source: Status of Nutrition Education In medical Schools -Am J Clin Nutr. 2006 April; 83(4): 941S–944S.)


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We’re talking about doctors here! These are the people that most consider experts in human health yet most of them have not had a single week of nutrition education during their entire educational and professional careers. And if their nutritional education is lacking, their knowledge of exercise and fitness is practically non-existent. Yet most of us assume that because we’re speaking to a doctor about improving our health, that the answers they give us must be based upon medical science and PROVEN health-improving principles when, in fact, they’re often basing their advice on nothing more than a few hours (days at most) of formal nutritional education and what they read in the popular press. The truth is, many doctors are just as confused about what constitutes a healthy diet and adequate physical activity as the average lay-person. Have you looked at the physical condition of the average GP lately? How well does their own health advice seem to be working for them? Still think it’s your doctors’ job to keep you healthy? It’s a great theory but, unfortunately, it doesn’t bear up to scrutiny. Just try visiting your doctor for some health advice that doesn’t involve being medicated, scanned, blood tested or operated on and you’ll see what I mean. By all means visit your doctor when you’re sick but if you really want to be healthy then the conventional medical community is the wrong place to look and doctors are the wrong people to ask. They’re not experts on health. As strange as it sounds, the number one expert on your health is you! If you could tune back into your body enough to listen to it when it tells you what makes it feel great and what makes it feel awful then the only time you’d need a doctor is when or if you had an accident or injured yourself. But we don’t listen. And it’s our fault.


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What About The Media? Surely All Those Magazine Articles, News Reports and TV Diet Experts Can’t All Be Wrong… Can They? Despite the very obvious conflicting messages from these sources there are still far too many people who get their ‘health’ advice from magazines, daytime TV shows and celebrity watching through the various media bombardment that most of us are subject to on a daily basis. The reason that people find media advice so easy to believe in and follow (no matter how loony!) is because they feel that ‘if it’s on TV or in the papers it must be true’. It’s an easy assumption to make but few people think it through logically before applying it to their own lives; if it were true then the advice given wouldn’t change from week to week would it? Yet this is exactly what happens every single week in every single piece of media you read or watch. This week your favourite magazine tells you that low carb is the only way to go, you buy into it and start your own low carb diet, yet the very next week the exact same publication runs an article on the dangers and downsides of low carbohydrate diets and instead tells you that you that the ‘next big thing’ is raw food and green juicing. To support the validity of this approach, the magazine runs an article on your favourite Hollywood celebrity showing pictures of their amazing physique and telling you how it’s all down to eating raw food and drinking green juice. I know, I know. Ridiculous, right? I mean, you wouldn’t base the most important decisions about your health, your energy and your appearance on the advice of some celebrity in a magazine article or TV show, would you? Yeah, right. You know you would! Come on, be honest, most of us are massively influenced by the media’s advice, persuasion and outright brainwashing when it comes to

If it’s on T.V or in the newspapers and magzines

then it MUST Be True… Right??


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making decisions about what we eat. If they tell us that someone we like and respect is following ‘diet X’ and they have a great physique then we’re very likely to try that same eating plan out for ourselves at some point aren’t we? That’s how the media works. They make connections between things where there really aren’t any. They’ll tell you that J-LO has a great body and that J-LO eats high protein and that therefore a high protein diet creates a J-LO body. And if you’re like most people, you’ll believe that. Not because you’re stupid, naïve or gullible (well, not usually!) but because that’s what the media want you to believe. It’s not about what’s the best, what’s the safest or even what’s the fastest. It’s about one thing. News. Or to put it more correctly, new ‘stuff’. As long as what they’re writing is new they know that you won’t get bored and if you don’t get bored then you won’t stop reading and stop buying their stories every week. That’s why the health information you read about or see on TV is always changing. It has to be new to make the news and fight through all of the other articles and shows competing for your attention. Old information just doesn’t do that. But then again, news doesn’t make you healthy either, does it? Nor does following a dietary regime simply because someone from a movie is doing it (Besides, they neglected to tell you about the 2 hours a day J-Lo is with her trainer, the 1 hour a day of yoga she’s doing, the biking for 45 minutes, her afternoon massage and the sauna and steam that she was doing alongside her ‘miracle’ cookie diet!). Note: This is not about J-Lo or what she does or doesn’t eat. I don’t really know and don’t really care, it’s about the stories told to you by the media.


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We all know that the media is leading us on a long, protracted, never-ending wild-goose-chase but we ignore that gut feeling we get every time we read another celebrity fat loss article. And not only do we fall for the same old (excuse my bluntness here) crap over and over again but we look forward to it and welcome it with open arms. And it’s our fault. And Let’s Not Even Start With Food Producers! Let’s be really clear on something here. It’s not the food producers’ job to keep you healthy. They aren’t even slightly interested in keeping you healthy. Despite the ‘healthy option’ shelves in the supermarkets, the food producers are interested in one thing and one thing only. Keeping you spending your money on whatever they stack on their shelves. The good, the bad, the ugly. They really don’t give a damn about what you eat… as long as you buy it from them! You want low fat and they create a low fat option of your favourite food so that you’ll keep spending. You want low carb and they do the same. The average supermarket has over 40,000 different items on its shelves and the vast majority of them are full of e-numbers, long-worded ingredients you can’t pronounce and additives and addictive elements that make you want more and more. By contrast, the fresh produce section usually numbers under 300 items. The food industry are only interested in buying their food from farmers at the lowest possible price (meaning bulk production with hormones, anti-biotics and pesticides), keeping it from going bad on the shelves while it’s waiting to be sold (meaning chemical preservatives) and making it attractive enough and addictive enough that you’ll want to

They Don’t Really Give A Damn About What You Eat…

…as long as you buy it from them!


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buy it again and again and again (meaning chemical colourings and addictive flavour enhancers). Buying cheap, having it last for ages and then having it become addictive when you eat it all adds up to one thing for the food industry. Profit! On the other hand, natural foods that begin to go bad after a few days and that provide enough nutrients that appetite becomes suppressed means a marked drop in profit margins. So not only isn’t it their job to ensure you have clean, good, wholesome food, it’s not even in their best interests to do so! We know that what we’re buying from the stores is full of chemicals, pesticides and… crap, but we go ahead and buy it anyway and act like it doesn’t really matter.

See, That’s What I Mean About Your Health Problems Being Your Fault. After all, It’s Certainly Not Theirs

is it? But you know, maybe the word ‘fault’ is a little too strong. Maybe I should have just stuck with the word ‘responsibility’. Yes, that’s more like it. YOU are responsible for your health. No-one else. YOU are the only person who can do anything at all about making and keeping yourself healthy across the course of your life and when you’re not it’s because you’ve handed over responsibility to someone else. Let’s just look at that word ‘responsibility’ for a second. Just the tiniest tweak and a little imagination makes it easy to change the word to ‘response-ability’ or the ability to respond. We all have this ability.


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Each and every one of us has the ability to actively choose the correct response in any situation so that we remain proactively engaged and invested in the outcomes our choices bring. This is a world away from the passive reactivity that most of us engage in. Being passively reactive means that we just ‘go with the flow’ and let things happen as they will… until they go wrong, when we go into panic mode and reactively try to repair what’s broken. If you’re not looking, feeling or performing the way you really want to right now I’d be willing to bet it’s because you’ve been passively reacting to your health rather than taking responsibility. That’s the bad news. The good news is that you can change this right now…

Don’t Pretend You Didn’t Know All Along What You Needed

To Do To Get Into and Stay In Great Shape

Let’s not kid ourselves any longer. When it comes to what you’re eating on a day-to-day basis, you know exactly what’s the right and what’s the wrong approach to getting and staying in tip-top condition don’t you? You know, for instance, that including plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables into your diet every day is a step in the right direction, right? Sure you do, there’s not a single person on the planet, kids included, that doesn’t know this yet for some reason it’s a conveniently forgotten truth when it comes to shopping for groceries. You also know that a diet that includes fresh meat, fish and poultry that has been allowed to roam free and graze naturally is healthier than one from animals that are farmed intensively, injected with antibiotics and steroids and fed on animal remains and ‘slops’, yet you still buy the awful stuff ‘because it’s cheaper’.


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You’ve known all along that all those food additives that make your drinks and candies fluorescent blue and ‘taste funny’ aren’t good for you haven’t you? Yet you still buy them for yourself and your kids ‘because they like them’ and because they’re cheap. And you know that a diet high in sugar is bad for you don’t you? You’ve both seen and felt its effects in both yourself and others and have often commented that you ‘really should cut down’ but, for some reason, you never really get around to it. And you’ve certainly known for some time that there are certain things, certain foods and drinks, that when you take them just make you feel YUK! Yet you, like most other people, continue to eat them and drink them because you say you like them when, in truth, you’re addicted to them… and you know that too! So, you see, its not that you don’t know what you need to do to create great health, vitality and energy and to create a body that you’re proud of. You do, and you have all along.

The Trouble Is, You Don’t DO What you Know Needs To Be Done!

Worse still, you make all kinds of excuses about why you can’t do what needs to be done and a ton of reasons why it wouldn’t work for you even if you did. The truth is, if you did what you know you need to do, what your instincts have told you many times that you need to do then you’d see results. But you’re not… so you don’t. That’s why the Elimination Diet Plan has been put together very differently to most diets you’ll come across. You won’t get a bunch of cheat days and cheat recipes that only serve to distract you from what you need to do to get achieve the rapid yet long-lasting health-enhancing results you desire. You won’t be told that the old ‘everything in moderation’ approach you’ve been using up to this is just fine. It’s not. It doesn’t work and you know it.


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Instead you’ll be guided step-by-step through a detailed, systematic and principle-based program of nutrition that is based upon actually doing what you know you need to do consistently for long enough to actually see and feel some of those results that have eluded you for so long. Every step of the plan has been well thought out, extensively tested and proven to work for the 100,000-plus people who’ve used it so far but it’ll only work for you if you’re ready to actually do what needs to be done. Are you? We’ll see!

If You Haven’t Been Put Off Yet…. There’s a very strong chance that you may perceive what I’ve written here so far as ‘mad rantings’ or ‘extremist views’ and I may have already put you off of trying the elimination diet for yourself. If I have then I’m truly sorry, that was never my intention but I felt that there were things that needed saying and that it was time I said them. I’m glad I did. There’s too much B.S around nutrition and it’s about time someone shared a few home truths, I reckon. But look, before you dismiss the diet out of hand I’d like you to consider a few things. First, are my rantings really that mad? Have I said anything that you really didn’t think or feel or know? I’m not making this stuff up, the things I’ve said are all statements of fact, not conjecture. Check them out for yourself. Second, are my views really that extreme? I’ve merely suggested that we eat more natural foods and less food that has been tampered with or had chemicals or steroids added to it. Is a clean diet now so outside of the norm that it is considered an extreme measure? Third, what do I stand to gain by lying to you? Think about this. I’m giving this book to you for free, I sell no supplements, pills or shakes as part of the program and were it to fail to deliver the kind of


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results I’m promising, you and the 100,000 other people who’ve used it would scream that fact from the rooftops and my career would come crashing down around my ears. Further, I don’t have any ‘mission’ against either my own government or that of any other country that would make me call them into question (though I do feel that all governments should better represent the people that put them into power in the first place), I don’t have an agenda against the medical fraternity (though I do believe that outside of emergency medicine their skills are over rated), I’m not anti-press (though I wish they’d think more about the impact their messages make) and I’m not anti-food company (Though I think they massively neglect their duties to consumers). The truth is, I’m not ‘anti’ anything! I’m not fighting against any of the things I’ve mentioned. I’m not even fighting against disease or ill health. I’m simply fighting for better health for those who want it and this book is my ‘little project’ that I use to do that. I can’t be anymore upfront or transparent than that can I?

So, Now’s The Moment Of Choice!

Do You Turn The Page And Commit To Finding Out More About the Elimination Diet Plan Or Do You Quit And Go Back To How

You Were Eating Before?...

…Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick…


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Good Choice!

Now, Let’s Get You Some Results!


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Why Do We Need To Eliminate Anyway??

I get asked this a lot and, to be honest, it’s a fair question for anyone to ask. After all, the plan I’m going to ask you to follow is, in most cases, pretty far removed from the way most people are eating and considered by many to be ‘extreme’. As I said in the last section, I don’t believe it’s an extreme approach at all, it’s simply a return to eating foods in the state they’re supposed to be eaten, in the way that supports optimal health and in the way that makes you look, feel and perform at your best. That means living without aches, without pains, without being dog-tired most of the time, without relying on stimulants like caffeine and sugar to keep you going, without abdominal bloating, stomach cramps, diarrhoea or constipation, without allergies and sensitivities, without skin conditions and rashes, without persistent and frequent illness, without weight problems and excessive fat retention, without mood swings and depressions and without diseases and dysfunctions that affect our lives negatively. We ALL deserve a life free of these things yet, sadly, more and more of us experience at least one of these negative factors on a daily basis, with far too many people now experiencing most or even ALL of them all the time! And the sad thing is that most people simply get used to feeling this way. They believe that feeling crappy most of the time is normal and that if they can get themselves to feeling just ‘ok’ every now and then, then they’re doing pretty well for themselves. The truth is, most people have extremely low expectations about how they should look, how they should feel and how they should function in their day to day lives, mostly because they’ve never known (or can’t remember) ever having felt any different than the way they do now. It’s sad but true that most people’s inability to experience amazing health and vitality is due primarily to having their sights set on targets and expectations that are way, way too low and achieving them rather than aiming too high and failing to.


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The aim of the Elimination Diet Plan is to help you raise your expectations… and finally achieve them! Can you imagine what your life would be like if:

• You had energy to spare all day every day for whatever physical or mental tasks you were engaged in?

• You were able to take problems in your stride without excessive stress, anxiety and worry?

• Sleep came easily, deeply and you awoke feeling

recharged, refreshed and relaxed?

• You rarely got ill and when you did, it was mild and you recovered rapidly?

• Your muscles were strong, supple and sleek?

• Your joints were mobile, free and without aches

and pains?

• Your digestion was ‘easy’ and comfortable?

• Your skin was clean, clear and glowing?

• Your hair was strong and shiny?

• Your weight was comfortable and your body-fat levels were healthy?

• You felt happy and emotionally stable Most Of

The Time?

• Your sex-life was energetic, pleasurable and something you enjoyed and looked forward to?


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Life would be pretty good, don’t you think? We all want to look great, feel great and feel like we have all the strength, suppleness and energy required to feel like we can take on everything that life throws at us and have plenty to spare in reserve, don’t we? Sure we do! And the great thing is, we can have these things present in our lives, most, if not all of the time, if we’re prepared to do the work that makes it possible. That work, for most of us, is as simple as paying attention to the quality of what we’re putting into our mouths on a day-to-day basis. It’s this, more than any other factor that determines how we look, feel and perform yet it’s this, more than any other factor that gets ignored by most people. We’ve all heard that old adage ‘you are what you eat’ thousands of times during our lives, I’m sure, yet most of us brush it off as though it doesn’t really matter when, as far as living healthy, vital lives are concerned, it’s the thing that matters most! The fact of the matter is that most of what most people are putting in their mouths most of the time are nutritionally poor, mineral depleted, vitamin deficient, chemical-laden and calorie-dense foods that do nothing to help maintain or improve health, but rather, serve to practically guarantee its decline. Remember ‘healthy cells = healthy body’ back in the first chapter? When we consume a poor diet like the one described above, not only are we depriving the cells of the fundamental building blocks of health, but we’re actually contributing to the rapid depletion of the limited supply that they already have, meaning that breakdown is unavoidable. It’s pure cause and effect at work. If you’re currently experiencing negative health effects then it’s because somewhere along the line, negative health causes were allowed to take root. Nothing more, nothing less.


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When these causes (mostly nutritional, though many environmental ones are present too) build up, it’s the job of the detoxification systems of the body to deal with them so that we continue to function. Our primary detoxification organs are: The Respiratory System = our breath is one of the means by which we remove toxicity from the body rapidly through gaseous exchange. Consistently bad breath or ‘bad taste’ in the mouth may be indicative of a problem with one or more detoxification pathways, as can mucus and asthma-like symptoms The Liver = the liver is considered by many to play the most important role in detoxification of the body as a whole and for this reason is usually the primary ‘target’ for detoxification programs. When the liver is under too much of a burden, problems with digestion, hormone output and sensitivity, excretion and reproduction can follow and, of course, the knock-on effects to each of the other detoxification pathways can be pretty powerful too. The Intestines and Digestive Tract= from mouth to anus, each part of the digestive tract has a vital role to play in extracting the vital nutrients we need in order to maintain optimal health and disposing of the fecal matter efficiently without compromising the body or making it prone to illness or infection. Problems here can range from the obvious abnormalities such as indigestion, diarrhoea or constipation, bloating, gas and flatulence to irritable bowel syndrome, diverticulitis or Crohn’s disease, fat retention, obesity to name a few. The Lymphatic System= the lymphatic system is a vital contributor to overall immune system function as well as acting as a transport pathway for nutrients and waste matter to and from the cells. A kind of ‘second highway’ after the bloodstream, if you will. A body over-burdened by too many toxic factors may result in many problems associated with the lymphatic system such as frequent infections and illness, allergies, sinusitis, chronic fatigue, swollen lymph nodes and more.


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The Dermal System= the dermal system refers to the skin which, as well as providing a barrier to prevent unwanted bacterial and chemical entry to the body also acts as an exit route for toxic compounds through the process of sweating. Problems that may indicate an over-burdened detoxification pathway include acne, eczema, rashes, rosacea, skin allergies and sensitivities, ‘blotching’ and problems with overheating. The Urinary System= the kidneys, bladder and urethra make up the primary processing station of liquid ‘waste’ within the human body and, as such, come under a lot of pressure (excuse the pun!) as a detoxification pathway. Working in conjunction with the liver (which turns many toxins into water soluble compounds), the urinary system can be compromised in many different ways. When it is, kidney stones, bladder infections, cystitis, low back pain and water retention often follow. But problems aren’t just limited to the detoxification organs and systems themselves! Sure, the detoxification pathways are often the first to suffer from being over burdened but their inability to cope has knock-on effects on other areas of the body too. The Nervous System= the neurological pathways that control cognitive, behavioural and motor-control aspects can be directly affected by negative changes in the body’s internal environment and has been linked to movement impairment, tremors, moodiness and depression, anxiety and inability to cope with stress, ADD, ADHD and cognitive problems including memory retention


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The Endocrine System= the endocrine (hormonal) system is primarily a chemical messenger system that tells various hormone-producing glands to switch on, secrete a certain amount of hormone and then switch off as dictated by the hypothalamus which is constantly monitoring every function in the body. When the internal environment is changed through being either over-burdened by toxins or under-nourished with minerals, the endocrine system no longer operates as it should and can create lead to problems such as thyroid disorders, diabetes, adrenal fatigue, endometriosis, PMS, polycystic ovaries, infertility and metabolic syndrome leading to weight gain and obesity. The musculoskeletal system= the joints of the body and the muscles that cross them are designed for a lifetime of pain-free movement in a wide variety of directions. As human beings we are extremely versatile in our ability to move, to produce force and to reduce the forces acting upon us from our environment. Or should be! An over-burdened detoxification system or lack of correct nutrition can lead to muscle and/or joint pain, movement restrictions, fibromyalgia, arthritis and general weakness. The Cardiovascular system= along with the respiratory system, the cardiovascular system is responsible for carrying oxygenated blood and nutrients from the heart and into the tissues that require them. When the arteries, veins and capillaries responsible for carrying out these vital roles are over-burdened there is often an increase in the incidence of heart disease, hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, arteriosclerosis and atherosclerosis


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This is not even a complete list of problems associated with a

compromised or over-burdened detoxification system!

The list of illnesses, dysfunctions and diseases associated with detoxification insufficiency is far too long to include here, but those mentioned above certainly account for the bulk of the conditions experienced by most of us in our day-to-day lives. I think it would be fair to say that practically every person you come into contact with on a daily basis has at least one of these health issues present in their lives, with many of them having a lot more! And whilst I’d be the first to admit that toxicity factors and malnutrition are probably not responsible for them all in every case, I’m willing to go out on a limb and suggest that for most of us, a significant reduction of those foods and drinks that we consume that are known to contain chemicals, additives and synthetic components along with a significant increase in clean water and food that’s unadulterated and still in its natural state will lead to a SIGNIFICANT reduction in these complaints for a significant number of us. Again, this is just cause and effect at work. If the primary causes of sickness are not present in our lives (or at least, reduced to within manageable levels) then effects can’t be present either, right? I know that this may sound an overly-simplistic and maybe even child-like proposition to some readers but the complicated and ‘adult’ methods that science has been using to explain and counter illness and disease haven’t done too well, have they? The current government guidelines that many people try to follow (or at least, pretend they’re trying to follow!) are more concerned with quantity than quality. They tell you that as long as you keep your calories under a certain amount, your fats under a certain amount and your pieces of fruit and veg up to a certain amount, that you should be healthy and slim. Keyword:Should


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Calories, Shmalories, Here’s Why

Counting Calories Is A Wild Goose Chase

Read practically any article or book about fat loss or weight control and they’ll tell you that the problem is basically a mathematical one. That it’s about nothing more than eating too much or moving too little… or both. Now, amongst most health and fitness professionals and practically everyone else there’s an almost mindless cult-like following of the calories-in, calories out theory. The mantra ‘burn more than you eat, eat more than you burn’ has been marked indelibly on the minds of so many people (including those that should know much, much better) that this theory (and it is a theory after all) has been elevated to the status of ‘fact’ without ever having had to have earned its rightful place as such. The trouble is, the calories-in-calories-out model does nothing but reduce the entire human physiology and metabolism to a machine. It says that the body runs on a kind of ‘miles per gallon’ equation like your car without ever taking into account the complex nature of untold biochemical interactions that are occurring within your body every second of every day, each of which can and do affect the way in which your body extracts, uses, stores and disposes of the nutrients you consume. And, you know, the calories you see food labels like the one above are determined without any reference to human biochemistry whatsoever! It’s true. The calorie composition of foods is determined by burning them in a calorimeter (a fancy heat sensing lab tool) and measuring the amount of heat produced.


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One calorie is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of water by 1 degree Celsius. So we’re taking foods, burning them off and seeing how they affect the temperature of water and THEN saying that these foods will have the same effect on a living, breathing human being? Doesn’t that seem just a little… odd? And it gets even odder when you consider that the test material used to assess calories against (water) actually heats at different rates depending on the altitude of where you are while you’re heating it. For example, at sea level water boils at 100ºC, whereas it boils at 96 degrees at around 6000ft and 72 degrees at the top of Mount Everest. So, if a calorie is nothing but a measurement of how much heat it takes to warm water and the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of water differs depending upon location, then what’s the point of using it. How does this relate to human beings? The short answers to both questions are a) there’s no point and b) it doesn’t relate at all. Still not convinced? Let’s do the math. Let’s, just for arguments sake and to keep the math simple, say that you were to cut your calorie intake from 3000 calories a day all the way back to a 1000 calories, as many of these ‘one for breakfast, one for lunch and a proper dinner ‘diets’ advise. Now, in that first month you’ll have consumed some 60,000 calories less than normal resulting in (in theory) a loss of over 17lbs of fat and, you know, very often this is EXACTLY what happens for a lot of people. In fact, some of them lose MORE than this (not exactly mathematical but hey, if you lose 21lbs instead of the mathematically correct 17, I’m sure you’ll be happy, right?). But what about the next month and the month after that and the month after that. Would you still continue to lose fat at the rate of 17lbs a month (if you’re a smartass and thinking about BMR coming


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into the equation then let’s say that you’re eating 2000 less than BMR rather than 1000kcal a day)? Does fat loss remain consistent with the mathematics were taught about calories in calories out? You know it doesn’t, don’t you? What happens? Massive weight drop for some, small weight drop for others, no weight drop for others still. Some get 17lbs on month 1, 10lbs on month 2, 4 lbs on month 3 and then grind to a screeching halt. Some even GAIN weight whilst eating less than they ever have in their lives! So here’s the math at work in all this? Surely, if I’m consuming 2000calories a day less than the calorie charts tell me I’m allowed to eat then I should be able to lose well over 200lbs in a single year, shouldn’t I? And what if I were only 185lbs to begin with, would I actually disappear by the end of 12 months? Of course, I’m being facetious here, but my point is that the math just doesn’t add up when it comes to fat loss and that there’s a much, much bigger player involved than the raw energy you’re extracting from your food in the form of calories. This player has the power to make you fat, make you thin, make you weak as a kitten, make you as strong as an ox, make you faster, make you slower, make you age, make you rejuvenate, make you sick and make, yes, make you as healthy as you can possibly imagine (if not healthier!) It’s this player that controls when you eat, what you eat, what nutrients you actually digest and process and assimilate, what you expel and how much.


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It’s this player that basically keeps you alive and healthy and well and it’s this player, when broken makes you fat and sick and, if affected enough, can kill you stone dead.

Hormones: Your Metabolic Master Switch

Far, far, far more important than the number of calories that enter your mouth is the interaction between the nutrients that your foods contain and the chemical messenger system that’s constantly at work within your body; your hormones. It’s fair to say that hormones are the metabolic ‘master switch’, governing every single process that contribute to keeping us alive, fit and healthy. Simply put, if your hormonal system is operating the way it should, you’ll look, feel and perform at your best. If it’s not, if even one single hormone is ‘out of whack’ (technical term for too high or too low in comparison to other hormones) then your appearance, your energy and your function will suffer. There’s no ‘ifs or buts’ about this. In fact, every single illness and disease you can name has a specific set of ‘hormone markers’ (elevated or depressed hormone levels) that accompany them, the correction of which usually alleviates or completely rids the sufferer of the condition. Most common prescription medications work through either direct or indirect stimulation or suppression of hormones in some way, shape or form to achieve their final aim. So hormones are important… but I’m hoping you knew that already What you may not know is the degree to which they’re important or just how much of a difference to your appearance, your energy and your overall health a hormonal imbalance may make. We’re talking MASSIVE differences here! For example eating a meal with your hormones in balance will mean maximum extraction of nutrients, maximum uptake of those nutrients by the cells and maximum improvement to the structure and function of the individual cells, the organs and the body as a whole.


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Sounds good right? But what about a little shift in your hormones? What happens if just one of them is over or under producing? Let’s take a look, shall we? Imagine that you’re stressed to the gills at work, your boss keeps throwing pile after pile of new files onto your desk and yelling at you for not getting any of your work finished. When you finally get home your kids decide to act up, you have an argument with your husband or wife and, after getting all the housework done and watching a bit of late night TV you don’t get to bed till 11:30pm or later. In other words, you have what many people would call, an ‘average day’. After all, this pretty much describes, almost exactly, the way their everyday lives pan out. But what is the hormonal effect of coping with the psychological, emotional and physical stress of a day like this? In a word, chaos! Let’s look at it step by step, shall we? When you’re stressed out, whether physically, emotionally or psychologically, your body increases its primary stress hormone cortisol to help cope with the stressor either by putting you into the fight or flight mode that most people have heard about many times. Whilst in this mode your systems are all on ‘high alert’ in order to get you out of the way of what your body perceives as ‘danger’. (Originally a charging woolly mammoth or sabre-tooth tiger would have probably been the trigger, but now your boss shouting at you, your kids giving you a hard time, large bills landing in your mailbox or even watching a violent movie or getting to bed too late can be enough to set cortisol cascading through your bloodstream) So far, so good.


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But what’s not so good is what happens when cortisol remains elevated for longer than it should. When this happens a whole cascade of hormonal changes occur within the body, most of which ends up being pretty negative in terms of looking, feeling and performing at your very best. Now, I know you’ve not gotten a copy of ED3.0 so you could pass an endocrinology exam so I won’t go into all of the finer points or hormones and their actions but still, it’ll really help you to get at least some understanding of what happens within your body when your metabolic master switch is allowed to get out of balance. So, here goes… When your cortisol remains elevated for an extended period of time it has the effect of not only breaking down fats and glycogen for energy but also vital amino acids from your muscles too. Obviously, this isn’t great as your muscles are largely responsible for maintaining that higher metabolism that we’ve all heard about and less muscle means slower metabolism. Now, obviously, the body has a mechanism dealing with excess cortisol that the liver can’t deal with quickly enough (and if you’re not consuming a diet similar to ED3.0 then you can be sure your liver is pretty busy already) and this involves specialised fat cells around the abdominal region and especially in an organ called the greater omentum just under your abdominals which gets bigger and harder, giving that ‘pot belly’ look we all know so well. Still, this isn’t the worst aspect of having an elevated period of cortisol. The worst is yet to come. All the while that cortisol is elevated, its functional opposites of Testosterone, DHEA and Growth Hormone are pushed way down, adding insult to metabolic injury. As you’re no doubt aware, as well as being responsible for the growth and maintenance of lean tissue (muscle) and other tissues throughout the body, these hormones are also responsible for repairing tissues, general libido and sex drive and general strength and energy.


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When they’re low (either through poor nutrition failing to provide the resource to make them or through cortisol suppressing them), these vital roles are suppressed; leaving recovery, sex drive and general energy through the floor. If that were not enough, the suppression of testosterone creates a relative imbalance with estrogen which can lead to irritability, mood swings, anxiety, insomnia, insulin resistance, weight gain and fat retention around the belly, hips, thighs, butt and backs of the arms. Men get fat in these same sites too but often show increased sign of ‘moobs’ (man boobs) when they’re estrogen dominant too. With estrogen elevated, the pendulum swings back the other way and creates depression of another vital hormone; Thyroid. Thyroid is commonly thought of as the metabolic ‘thermostat’. When it’s producing at optimal levels, the body is energy efficient, neither burning too much nor too little in order to carry out its various activities. However, when thyroid is depressed, the thermostat gets turned way down low meaning that it becomes very difficult to metabolise nutrients and convert them into energy. A useful way to think of it is that low thyroid means that what used to ‘cost’ your body 100kcals yesterday may only end up costing it 50kcals today. In other words, you eat exactly the same amount of food yet now have some left over to turn into fat. But it STILL doesn’t stop there! Low thyroid is related to insulin resistance whereby the action of insulin in response to a rise in blood sugar (from eating carbs) is lessened. When this happens, the body overproduces insulin to try to make up for the lack of appropriate response and in doing so creates a perfect environment for fat retention, especially in the abdomen, waist and lower back (think muffin-tops or love handles). Of course, it’s a bit more complicated than this, I’ve simplified it quite a lot so that you can connect the dots, but still, you get the picture. ONE hormone out of balance invariably leads to ALL of the hormones out of balance if it’s not taken care of quickly. Yet that’s hard to do when you’re eating foods that stimulate one hormone and suppress another or when your diet doesn’t contain enough of the right minerals to create your hormones in the first place.


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And it’s not just limited to the ‘pathway’ I laid out above either. The dysfunctional hormone cascade can start at any point, with high insulin from too much sugar or high estrogen from too many estrogen triggering foods or literally any elevation or depression of any hormone for any reason. The result will be the same even if the reasons are different. Imbalance, illness, dysfunction and, if left for long enough, disease. Oh, and fat storage too! So now you see why calories are a true red-herring as far as losing or maintaining weight is concerned. Unless you can be sure of the exact levels of cortisol, testosterone, estrogen, thyroid and insulin (and we haven’t even covered several other important hormones here!) you have absolutely no idea what the true effects of a calorie will be on your system. There are simply too many variables at play. That being the case, what’s the point of monitoring them at all? The answer is simple. There’s no point. Don’t do it. There’s a better way.


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Remove


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So, Enough Of The Background Theory… Ready To Get Started Yet?

This has been quite a long introduction to ED3.0 and no doubt you’re keen to get going and start to get some of the amazing results that I’ve been promising you throughout the book so far, right?

Well, let’s get started then! The ED3.0 plan is based around what I call the ‘R3 Principles’ which, when combined, serve to bring about very rapid and very impressive changes in health, aesthetics and function.

R3 stands for the 3 steps that you’ll be taking over the next 30 days or so. They’re very simple, very straightforward and yes, very effective at getting results. They are: 1. Remove – Remove all foods on the banned list so that the your body can begin to heal and repair at a cellular, organ and system level without toxins, irritants, stimulants and excitotoxins messing with the delicate balance of homeostasis (I’ll explain these later). You’ll also be asked to remove all self-prescribed medications and recommended to speak with your primary healthcare provider to check whether any meds you’re on need to be changed as a result of cleaning up your act as many become much more potent on a ‘clean’ system. Finally, for the best results on the program you’ll be asked to remove certain oils, chemicals, plastics and cooking methods from your life too as these can affect your health just as powerfully as much as the foods you consume. 2. Replenish – Replenish your body’s stores of vital macro and micro nutrients by eating only whole foods in their natural state so that your body can begin the ‘rebuild’ of cells, organs and systems. In addition, you’ll be asked to replenish your body’s supply of one of the most important substances of all… water! 3. Reinforce – Elimination and detoxification, whilst definitely highly beneficial and, indeed, vital, can be quite hard on the system at first.


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Especially as those toxins stored in your fat are released back into the bloodstream. When this happens, it’s as if you’ve just consumed the toxic foods right now and, of course, you get the yukky toxic response right now too. For this reason, I’ve included a reinforcement protocol that allows you to both reinforce the detoxification pathways themselves as well as a general supplementation protocol to reinforce cells, organs and systems so that they recover that much faster. Don’t worry though, you won’t be advised to take a hundred different supplements that’ll make you rattle when you walk and place a drain on your bank balance. We’ll keep it simple, I promise. Now, whilst each of the ‘Three R’s’ are proven and powerful methods of restoring amazing health, wellness and physical improvement, it’s the unique combination of R3 that creates the real magic. That’s why it’s vitally important that during your time on the plan you follow these principles at all times and don’t deviate one little bit. Whatever plan you’re on (we’ll come to that in a minute) it’s important that each of the R3 principles, once started, are continued throughout the entire duration of the program. Doing ‘a little bit’ or having a ‘well, one won’t hurt’ kind of attitude will only serve to slow down your results… or prevent you from getting them altogether. I know it’s not what most people want to hear. They prefer to hear about how you can cheat every now and then and still get amazing results but that’s not true on a body that’s already struggling. When your body is clean and operating well, a little of what you fancy certainly won’t do you any harm, but until then you’re kidding yourself if you think you can stray and still get amazing results.

On the other hand, the good news is that these principles ALWAYS work as long as you work the

principles So as long as you’re ready to give the R3 principles and ED3.0 a fair crack of the whip and commit to them for 30 days, your results are guaranteed. Sound good to you?


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R1 - Remove

Before we start with the R1 principle of removing toxic, stressful, stimulatory or allergenic foods we need to determine which of the 3 levels of the program you’re going to use to get your results and that’s accomplished by taking you through my simple yet highly revealing elimination potential assessment.

This assessment will give you an idea of just how stressed your body’s detoxification pathways are and guide you toward the program that’ll get you the best results in the fastest possible time. In order for it to be of any value (and to deliver the kind of results you most want) you must ensure that you answer the questions honestly. Many people try to ‘pass the test’ when they go through assessments like this and end up giving answers that are, let’s just say, not quite accurate. Make sure you don’t do this. Answer accurately and honestly and you’ll get an accurate and honest picture of where you’re at right now and what you need to do about it in order to get some pretty stunning results. You ready?


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Elimination Potential Assessment This assessment is very simple to use. Just tick all problems that that apply to you so that you can get a clearer picture of how well you detoxify toxins and stressors from your system and your need to engage in an elimination protocol. (This is for regular or frequent symptoms, not ‘once in a while) Do You Suffer From: Abnormal Metabolism of Fats

• Abnormalities in the level of fats in the blood stream (high cholesterol)

• Elevated LDL cholesterol and reduced HDL cholesterol and elevated triglycerides.

• Arteriosclerosis/atherosclerosis. • Build up of fat in other body organs (fatty degeneration of

organs). • Lumps of fat in the skin (lipomas and other fatty tumors). • Excessive weight gain • Inability to lose weight even while dieting. • Sluggish metabolism. • Protuberant abdomen (pot belly). • Roll of fat around the upper abdomen - (liver roll).

Nervous System Problems

• Depression. • Insomnia • Mood changes such as anger and irritability. • Hyperactivity • Poor concentration or "foggy brain". • Overheating of the body, especially the face and torso. • Recurrent headaches (including migraine) associated with

nausea. • Dizziness • Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) • ADHD

Immune System Problems

• Allergies - sinus, hay fever, asthma, dermatitis, hives, etc. • Multiple food and chemical sensitivities. • Skin rashes and inflammations. • Autoimmune diseases. • Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. • Fibromyalgia. • Increase in recurrent viral, bacterial and parasitic infections

(frequent colds/flu’s etc)


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‘External’ Signs

• Coated tongue. • Bad breath. • Skin rashes. • Itchy skin (pruritus). • Excessive sweating. • Offensive body odour. • Dark circles under the eyes. • Yellow discolouration of the eyes. • Red swollen itchy eyes (allergic eyes). • Itchy ears, earache, regular ear infections • Excessive nasal mucus • Stuffy nose • Blocked or painful sinuses • Acne rosacea - (red pimples around the nose, cheeks and

chin). • Brownish spots and blemishes on the skin (liver spots). • Red palms and soles which may also be itchy and inflamed. • Flushed facial appearance or excessive facial blood vessels

(capillaries/veins). • Rapid intoxification with alcohol • Heavy, persistent hangover • Slow wound healing

Pain

• Allergies • Hayfever • Joint /muscular aches and pains (including neck/back)

without obvious injury or trauma • Regular headaches and migraines • Fibromyalgia • Asthma/Shortness of breath • Regular use of painkillers

Energy Problems

• Trouble waking up and getting started in the morning • Need for stimulants such as coffee/tea • Sweet tooth/need for sugar • Regular dips in energy esp. after eating


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Lymphatic Problems

• Swollen lymph nodes • Painful lymph nodes

Endocrine (Hormonal) Problems

• Hypoglycemia • Diabetes • Overweight/underweight • Cellulite • Infertility

Urinary System Problems

• Kidney stones • Darkly coloured urine (even when hydrated) • Fluid retention

Respiratory System Problems

• Persistent coughing/wheezing • Frequent sinus infections • Persistent, regular sneezing • Shallow breathing

Reproductive System Problems

• PMS • Fibroids • Irregular/painful menstruation • Regular yeast infections


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Digestive Problems

• Indigestion • Acid reflux • Hemorrhoids. • Gall stones and/or gall bladder disease. • Bad breath • Intolerance to or difficulty in digesting fatty foods. • Intolerance to alcohol. • Nausea and/or vomiting attacks. • Abdominal bloating. • Coated Tongue • Excessive Burping • Excessive Flatulence • Constipation. • Irritable bowel syndrome. • Diarrhea • Pain over the liver - (upper right corner of abdomen & lower

right rib cage). • Blood Sugar Problems • Craving for sugar. • Hypoglycemia and unstable blood sugar levels. • Mature onset diabetes • Passing stool less than 2 times a day • Pale or yellow stool

Your Score! I’m not suggesting that ALL of these factors are 100% absolutely related to your need to detoxify, there are many reasons why you may experience any of them but, in my own personal experience of working with (literally) thousands of people over the last 12 years and nearly 100,000 people through my online communities, I can tell you that the more of these factors that show up in your life at any one time, the more likely it is that your detoxification pathways have been compromised or overburdened in some way. So, there are a number of ways we could score this as, clearly, some of these factors are more indicative of increased toxicity than others but let’s just keep this simple and straightforward shall we? Give each positive answer a score of 1 point and add up your total and compare it to the results key below.


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If You Answered: Zero yes’s Give yourself a huge pat on the back, you are indeed a very rare individual. You’re obviously doing everything right, so keep it up! 10-15 yes’s You’re not doing too bad but there are some signs that you’re not detoxifying the various metabolic stressors through your system the way you should be. You could benefit from eliminating certain stressors from your diet and lifestyle. You should consider using the level 1 elimination diet plan to take care of these issues 16-25 yes’s Hmm, your body appears to be struggling with detoxification and your liver is paying the price! You should consider starting at AT LEAST the level 2 elimination diet plan for a more intensive and rapid clean-up of your liver, kidneys and intestines so that you can see and feel the benefits as rapidly as possible. 26 + yes’s Your elimination efficiency appears to be low, struggling, suffering and putting your general health, wellness and performance at risk. You should use AT LEAST the level 2 program but seriously consider the more complete level 3 elimination diet plan to clear up these issues and return you back to better health and function. What About The BOLD Answers? More Than 5 BOLD yes’s - The BOLD answers are among those indicators most commonly related to detoxification pathways that are under stress. If you answered more than 5 bold yes’s, you should consider starting at the level 2 elimination diet plan as you need a cleanup... and fast! More Than 10 BOLD yes’s - If you have more than 10 BOLD yes’s, you probably feel pretty awful a lot of the time anyway and WANT to engage in a bit of a cleanup. You should consider starting at the level 3 elimination diet plan as this will rapidly clean up that over-stressed detoxification system of yours.


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The Three ED3.0 Levels

Now that you know your elimination potential score and your recommended level of the diet, let’s take a look at each of the three diet protocols so that you can see how you’re going to be eating over the next 30 days or so. Level 1 Level one of ED3.0 has been designed for those people who have either scored low on the assessment and don’t necessarily need a full-on approach to detoxifying their body or those for whom the sudden ‘retox’ or release of toxins from their fat stores may be undesirable. For example: Pregnant mothers – whilst there is no hard evidence to suggest that detoxification is harmful to either mother or foetus, many detoxification experts and doctors still tend to err on the side of caution (and quite rightly so) by advising against aggressive detoxification plans of any kind. I agree. Releasing all manner of toxins from the stored body fat in one fell swoop seems, to me at least, a recipe for disaster on a system that’s working hard to both sustain the health of the mother whilst at the same time grow a new life from scratch. That said, continuing to consume processed foods and other… crap (sorry, I can’t think of another way to describe many of the more commonly eaten foods) makes no sense either, as both mother and child will continue to be affected negatively until these foods are taken away altogether. So the level one plan offers a gentle yet systematic way to remove the banned list foods in a way that won’t result in a sudden toxic ‘dump’ into the bloodstream that may compromise the health of either mother or baby.


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Breastfeeding mothers – all breastfeeding mothers have seen the result of drinking too much orange juice or caffeine on their babies’ health. The high acidity normally shows itself in their nappies (diapers if you’re American) and the stimulating effect normally shows up in an agitated, irritable and sleepless night, so there can be no doubt that what a breastfeeding mum eats and drinks affects both the breast milk and the baby it’s being fed to. For that reason, more aggressive detoxes aren’t recommended as all of those toxins have a tendency to end up in the milk you’re feeding to your child. The level 1 plan will be perfect if you’re breastfeeding as it’s gentle and supportive rather than resulting in a toxic crisis that you’ll pass on to baby. Those with compromised immune systems – those with diseases or serious illnesses that compromise the immune system may find that their symptoms worsen if they jump feet first into a full detoxification protocol as the immune system will be under further stress as a result of the release of toxins from the fat stores. Clearly, if you’re already sick then adding more stress to the system makes no sense. If you’re sick, then level 1 is for you. Those on medications that affect the liver, kidneys and digestive organs – the initial burden created by detoxification INCREASES the stress on those organs whose primary role is to detoxify the body. If you’re on medications for conditions of the liver, kidneys or intestines then it’s probably best to start gently so as not to stress these organs out.

Note: I’m Not Your Doctor, I’m not Even A Doctor so please seek medical advice if

you’re pregnant, lactating or have a medical condition BEFORE You Begin Any of

The ED3.0 Plans


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The Level 1 Plan Looks Like This… The level one plan on ED3.0 is pretty simple, straightforward and easy to follow. You’ll still be asked to remove all of the foods on the banned list but instead of doing so in one fell swoop, you’ll do it in a slower, more gradual way that’s less stressful to your body than the other plans. It works like this: Days 1, 2 and 3 – Remove Caffeine And Alcohol For the first 3 days of your level 1 plan you’ll work on removing the obvious toxins and stimulants from your diet. This means that you’ll completely avoid alcohol and ideally go cold turkey on all caffeinated beverages from day one. However, caffeine is one of the harder and most addictive of all the banned foods on ED3.0 and you may find that the headaches are unbearable if you drop it altogether in one hit. If that’s the case, you should cut back over the course of three days from maybe 1-2 cups on day 1, to one cup on day 2 to complete cessation by day 3. Days 4, 5 and 6 – Remove All Processed Foods For the next 3 days you’ll be removing processed foods of all kinds from your diet. Once again, if you can drop them completely from the very first day that’s great, but if you find that too difficult then a gradual 3-day reduction is fine too. Just make sure that by the time you’re at day 6 you’re not consuming anything that’s processed as these foods are high in chemicals, colourings and anti-nutrients that will definitely stop you from progressing on the plan. ‘Processed’ includes sugar and wheat products too as we’ll be discussing shortly.


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Days 7, 8 and 9 – Remove Dairy Products For the next 3 days you’ll remove all milk and cheese from your diet. You may still consume organic butter and live yoghurt if you wish but remember, whilst they’re better, than pasteurized and homogenized dairy from non-organic dairy cows, they’re still foods that fall into the ‘questionable’ category as far as optimal health and performance is concerned. Days 10 to 40 – 30 Days Of Full ED3.0 From day 10 onward you will be clean and clear of nutrient poor, calorie dense, anti-nutrient loaded foods and are now ready to go into a full 30 days of staying that way. It’s during these 30 days that the biggest benefits will come to you, especially if you’re apply the other 2 elements of the R3 principles at the same time. As you can see, the level 1 plan still allows you to fully remove everything on the banned list, yet gets you there in a slower, gentler way that many people will find more comfortable. You’ll still get the same great results as those following the level 2 of the program but your results will take a little longer to achieve, that’s all. Still, it’s only 9 days longer, right?


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The Level 2 Plan If the level 1 plan is simple and straightforward then the level 2 plan is about as easy as it gets… from an organizational perspective, that is. There’s nothing tricky about this plan at all, simply cut out all of the foods from the banned list in one fell swoop from day one of the program. That means that if you’re starting the plan tomorrow you’ll cut out all wheat, dairy, caffeine, alcohol, processed food and sugar in a single hit and steer clear of them all for at least 30 days before you begin the reintroduction assessments to see what’s allowed back. This is a kind of ‘full immersion’ elimination protocol that is often accompanied by various ‘bad’ elements of detoxification such as headaches, flu-like symptoms, aches and pains, spots and bad breath in the first few days (not exactly selling it to you right now am I?) but the flip-side of this is that the results are very quick in coming too. After the first 3-4 days many people will have lost 4-5lbs or more and, despite feeling absolutely awful at first, will often report to looking and feeling better than they have in ages so I guess the price is worth it. In truth, this protocol was the ONLY option for clients working with myself and my team for years until we started to experiment with the 3 levels you see here today. It was a deal maker or breaker too. If you wanted to work with my team you were expected to fully participate in the full-immersion ED protocol. If you refused then you couldn’t work with us. Sounds harsh, I know, but the reason we demanded this of our clients is that we’d seen that this approach worked at all times for everyone we’d worked with up to that point. It simply couldn’t fail as a nutritional approach. It was this version of ED that allowed my company to become the first guaranteed-results personal training company in Europe and later to increase our guarantee to a double-your-money-back promise where we’d offer our clients double their personal training fees if we couldn’t help them lose at least a clothing size in the first 21 days. In short, this level 2 plan works and works well. It’s a little hard to be sure, but the results are so big and so fast that most people don’t care.


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The Level 3 Plan The level 3 plan is the same as the level 2 plan (meaning that it’s a full-immersion approach right out of the gate) but with one important addition; This plan asks you to also take grains, gluten, lectin and starches off the menu for a full 30 days too. If your body has been struggling with your energy and your health for some time or if you’ve found that no matter what you’ve tried that the weight just isn’t shifting, then it could be that you’re either over-consuming starch leading to an overproduction of insulin (and reduced sensitivity to it) or that you’re blocking your absorption of nutrients through the consumption of phytates. Or both. In the case of insulin overproduction or insensitivity, the result is that you’ll find it hard to manage your blood sugar and may find that you’re suffering with pre-diabetic symptoms or type 2 diabetes leading to fat gain that’s easy to lay down but almost impossible to shift. When this happens, the only real way to address the problem is to ensure that insulin-spiking starches and sugars are dropped from the diet or at least seriously reduced and that the body gets the raw materials to re-establish that all-important homeostasis that we discussed earlier. If it’s phytates that are the problem then cutting back on grains becomes critical as phytic acid, present in the bran of all grains and the coating of all nuts and seeds, works as a mineral blocker that inhibits the absorption of magnesium, zinc, calcium, copper and iron as well as critical vitamins including A, B12, C and D. Not a good thing when you consider the vital roles of these vitamins and minerals in maintaining a healthy and functioning body balance. Worse still when you consider that most modern diets are already poor in these nutrients anyway! In addition, many of grains are also high in compounds such as gluten and lectin. You’ve no doubt heard a lot about gluten, a type of large, water-soluble protein found in wheat, oats, rye and barley. Well, it turns out that increasing numbers of us are either allergic or sensitive to these


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proteins and that, once ingested, they create inflammatory responses in the stomach and intestines that have been linked to everything from dermatitis, arthritis, acid reflux, colitis, auto-immune reactions, IBS, celiac disease and much more besides. In addition, many of these same grains contain high levels of lectins. These compounds are natural plant toxins (you could call them natural pesticides) that damage the gut by allowing large, undigested protein molecules to pass freely into the bloodstream, creating an ‘alarm’ in the immune system and an autoimmune response that manifests itself in numerous forms of illness and dysfunction. Highest lectin concentrations are found in grains, legumes and ‘nightshade’ plants such as tomatoes, peppers, aubergines and potatoes. That’s why for the level 3 program you’ll be avoiding all grains and any nuts or seeds that have not been sprouted first as well as most sources of starch and nightshade plants too. This includes: Rice – all kinds, including brown, white and wild variants Potato – all kinds including white, red, sweet potato and yam Grains – all kinds, including amaranth, buckwheat, barley, oats, quinoa, rice of all kinds, rye, sorgum and millet Legumes– all kinds UNLESS they’ve been pre-soaked for at least 12 hours prior to cooking and even then, only eaten sparingly. This includes all beans, peas (including chickpeas) and peanuts. Nightshades – all kinds, including potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, aubergines Starches – including potatoes, sweet potato, turnip, swede (rutabaga), artichokes, corn, parsnips, squash, banana and plantain With the exception of sprouted or soaked nuts, seeds and legumes, all of these foods should be avoided entirely if you are on level 3 of the ED3.0 plan. Whilst this reduces your food choices somewhat over those on level 1 and 2 of the plan, you still have a huge variety of foods to choose from so don’t panic, you’ll never go hungry or get bored


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How To Shop For Food… ed3.0 Style! One of the biggest criticisms of the elimination diet that I’ve received over the years (to be fair, usually from people who didn’t even give it a go!) is that buying the food necessary to take part in it is complicated, confusing and challenging. After all, they tell me, after you discount the foods on the banned list (we’ll get to that in a minute), there’s not really much else to eat! I disagree. On both counts. There’s nothing particularly complicated, very little to be confused by (after all, as long as you don’t consume any of the banned foods on the list I’ll be sharing with you shortly you can eat freely) and the only challenging thing is that you’ll have to shop more regularly than you currently do as you’ll be buying fresh foods that spoil if you keep them for too long. And as to the idea that there’s nothing left to eat, well, that’s plain crazy! There are hundreds (probably thousands but I haven’t counted that far) of foods you can eat during your time on the Elimination Diet plan, all of them fresh, wholesome and delicious and can be eaten freely on all 3 levels of the plan. In fact, even when you take out the foods that are banned on level 3 of the program, the choice and variety you have available to you is still immense and remember, you can eat freely of all of it without weighing, measuring or counting calories. Shopping during ED3.0 is as simple as can be. You just need to follow some very simple rules and you can’t go wrong.


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The 8 Super-Simple Rules Of

Elimination The general foundation to ED3.0 is very straightforward and based upon 8 super-simple rules that anyone can follow without confusion. I’ll be explaining them all in greater depth as we work our way through the program, but for now here they are: 1. All Foods Must Be Fresh

Nothing confusing about this is there? This simple rule says that every single thing you put into your mouth while you’re following the plan is fresh, meaning it’s not canned, dehydrated, vacuum sealed, stored in jars or

packaged in any way that serves to extend its shelf-life beyond the length of time it would last in your refrigerator without spoiling. Yes, this means that you’ll have to shop more frequently but it also means that you’ll be eating foods that are far more likely to contain the vitamins and minerals you’ll need in abundance in order to get the kind of results you’re hoping for. 2. No Processed Foods Allowed! I know, I know. Rule one kind of makes rule two redundant doesn’t it? You’d think so wouldn’t you, but still, people seem to need it explained within its own category before they ‘get it’. So let’s be clear. Here’s where rule 2 builds on rule 1. For the purposes of ED3.0, ‘processed’ not only includes packaging and canning that extends the life of the foods but also includes artificial additives, preservatives, colourings, ‘e-numbers’, sugars or sugar substitutes.


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In effect, I’m saying that the foods you eat during your time on the plan need to be ‘real’ foods that are still in their natural state rather than those that have been altered in any way, shape or form so we’re talking fruit, veggies, eggs, meat, fish, poultry, nuts, seeds, pulses, legume and fungi only. 3. No Alcohol Of Any Kind I know, shock, horror. How will you manage??

Well, regardless, during your time on ED3.0 all forms of alcohol are off the menu. Just to be clear, that’s no beer, no spirits, no wine… and no whining either! I don’t care what you’ve read about a glass of red wine a day being good for you. It’s not, and for that reason you won’t be consuming it while you’re following the plan.

Oh, and alcohol breaks rules 1 and 2 anyway. 4. No Sugar, Sugar Substitute Products or Natural Sweeteners Of Any Kind That means no white sugar, brown sugar, fructose, dextrose, maltose, sucrose or any ‘oses’ for that matter. That also means no high fructose corn syrup, no molasses and none of the other ‘natural sweeteners’ like honey, maple syrup, stevia or others. No, it’s not that ALL of them are ‘bad’ for you (though some clearly are!) but because they affect your blood sugar and hormone production in ways that can only be described as negative until you’ve eliminated and cleaned up your system a little… or a lot!


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5. No Caffeine-Based Stimulants Of Any Kind That means that whilst you’re on the plan you’ll be steering clear of coffee, cocoa, sodas, ‘Red Bull’ type of drinks, black tea and green tea. Again, it’s not forever so relax! 6. No Pasteurised Or Homogenised Dairy Products

That means no milk, no cheese and none of those ‘fake’ yoghurts with flavourings and colourings (remember rules 1 and 2?), though you CAN still have natural, live yoghurt and some butter products if you can tolerate them. I’ll explain why later.

7. No Wheat Products of Any Kind

Yep, that means bread, pies, cakes, cookies (biscuits to us Brits ), breakfast cereals, cereal bars or ready made soups and sauces (which use wheat as a thickening agent) are not allowed while you’re following the plan.

8. Use Organic and Free-Range Products Wherever Possible


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This is not so much a rule, more of a really strong recommendation. Wherever you can, opt for organic, biodynamic and free-range sources (I’ll explain the differences in a later section) of food so that you can minimise the impact of pesticides, anti-biotics, hormones and genetic modification on your body. Yes, I know that many people say this doesn’t really matter but it doesn’t take a rocket-scientist to figure out that pesticide residue on our fruits and veggies and hormones in our meat, poultry and fish end up inside of us, does it? So where possible, eat organic and free range and where not, fresh is always the next best thing anyway


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Your ‘Banned’ List Whilst the rules above SHOULD make following the ED3.0 plan pretty simple and straightforward, my team and I are almost constantly bombarded with “can I eat this” questions from our clients and online followers, so clearly, whilst it may seem obvious to some of us, it’s not to all. For that reason, I’m adding an expanded and more descriptive banned list to ED3.0. My aim is to be as complete as I possibly can but given there are thousands of food choices out there, I’m sure I’ll miss a few, but the general rule is ‘if in doubt, keep it out’ of your diet plan. Follow that and you can’t go wrong. So, in some ways, the ED3.0 banned list is the easiest thing in the world to understand. It’s simply a case of answering a few questions… “Is It Fresh?” Simple enough, right? Has the food you’re considering purchasing or eating been tinned, canned, freeze dried, put into jars or frozen? If it has then it’s on the banned list and you shouldn’t eat it. The least ‘offensive’ of these is frozen whole foods in their natural state (vegetables and cuts of meat for example), but even these should be avoided where possible. If there is a need for freezing food (you live miles from the nearest town, for example) then buy it fresh and freeze it yourself. At least that way you get to assess the quality of it BEFORE it’s frozen and you also control the entire timeline between freezing and eating. You may also consume dried herbs and spices alongside the fresh ones in your diet.

A simple rule of thumb is that whatever you buy shouldn’t really be able to last beyond 4-5 days in your fridge. If it does then it’s very

likely that something has been added to it to stop it going bad.


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“Is It Still In Its Natural State?”

An apple is still an apple when it looks, feels, smells and tastes like an apple. It’s no longer an apple when it’s pureed, pasteurised, sealed into vacuumed jars and sold as apple-sauce. The same is true with all fruits, veggies, meat, fish, poultry, game, nuts, seeds, legumes or anything else for that matter.

Processing changes the biochemical makeup of foods, especially when that processing includes adding colours, ‘flavour enhancers’, preservatives, ingredients that you can’t pronounce the name or those that are described on the label with numbers instead of real words. Worthy of special mention in this group of banned items are the chemical compounds MSG and Aspartame. MSG or monosodium glutamate is a ‘flavour enhancer’ most famously used in Chinese takeaways but found in practically kind of processed food from baby foods to potato chips to sauces, soups and much, much more whilst aspartame is, of course, the now famous sugar-free sweetener than goes into practically every ‘sugar free’ foodstuff and drink that tastes sweet whilst having no sugar on the label. Both these compounds are known as excitotoxins which are capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier and affecting the brain, the neurological and the hormonal systems within seconds of being placed in the mouth. Yes, you read that right, they don’t even need to reach the stomach before they affect your health. These substances are linked to numerous medical conditions including asthma, Alzheimers, headaches and migraines, heart arrhythmias’, neurological disorders, MS, fibromyalgia and obesity to name a few. Even worse, the highest concentrations are in foods eaten by those who are the most sensitive to them… children. If adults are sensitive to excitotoxins, children are super-sensitive, yet kids foods are absolutely laden with them, making them more addictive and more-ish, meaning more consumption… and on and on and on.


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“If it’s so bad for you then why would they sell it and why would the government allow it to be sold?” that’s what most people ask and the honest answer is, I don’t know. But safety has never been the biggest concern of either food producers or governments has it? Alcohol and tobacco are two massive examples of substances PROVEN to damage health yet which are still sold freely all around the world. One of the biggest problems with MSG is that it’s often hidden on food labels by myriad names that sound harmless and even healthy allowing food producers to say “no MSG added” whilst still containing the exact same chemical compound:

Glutamic acid (E 620), Glutamate (E 620) Monosodium glutamate (E 621) Monopotassium glutamate (E 622) Calcium glutamate (E 623) Monoammonium glutamate (E 624) Magnesium glutamate (E 625) Natrium glutamate Yeast extract Anything “hydrolyzed” Any “hydrolyzed protein” Calcium caseinate, Sodium caseinate Yeast food, Yeast nutrient Autolyzed yeast Gelatin Malt extract Soy sauce Soy sauce extract Soy protein, Soy protein concentrate Soy protein isolate Anything “protein fortified” Anything “fermented” Stock Whey protein Whey protein concentrate Whey protein isolate Any “flavors” or “flavoring” Maltodextrin Citric acid (E 330) Corn starch Corn syrup Modified food starch Lipolyzed butter fat Dextrose Rice syrup Brown rice syrup Milk powder Reduced fat milk (skim; 1%; 2%) most things low fat or no fat anything Enriched anything Vitamin enriched

Note: This Is NOT A Complete List Of MSG Pseudonyms


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During ED3.0 you’ll be asked to only buy foods that are obviously the food you’re seeking to buy. If it still looks like a piece of fruit or a vegetable or a piece of meat, poultry or fish then by all means, go ahead and eat it. If it looks like chicken nuggets, or alphabetti-spaghetti or anything else that you wouldn’t see in nature then steer clear. Note: This also includes most sausages, ham and store bought ‘cold cuts’ as they usually have sugar, preservatives and these MSG ‘flavour enhancers’ added. “Does It Contain Wheat?” I personally have nothing against wheat. I love a good piece of bread a toasted bagel, a slice of devil’s food cake or chewy cookie as much as anyone else. After all, many of these things are outright tasty, right? Trouble is, these foods, and many other containing wheat don’t love me! And as it turns out, not only don’t they love me, but they don’t love a good many other people either, many of whom find that they are either allergic or intolerant to this grain which is practically THE most abundant and consumed part of the human food chain. For many people, wheat leads to all kinds of intestinal and digestive problems that manifest themselves in myriad ways from weight gain to hormone disruption, to IBS and celiac disease and many, many more problems besides. Trouble is, many people have these problems but never truly figure out where they originate. Well, during the ED3.0 we’ll find out once and for all! Now, it may well be that at the end of the program that you can re-introduce wheat and wheat products just fine and with no adverse reactions. If that’s the case, then well done, you’ll be one of the lucky ones who gets to enjoy many of what are arguably the most delicious (yet reactive) foods we can currently buy at the supermarket.


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However, many people find that after 30 days of being wheat-free, their bodies give them a much better idea of whether it should still be part of their diet or not, with many finding that they’re not very tolerant of it at all. I don’t know what YOUR body will tell you about wheat but nonetheless, for the duration or ED3.0 you’ll be asked to avoid wheat in all of its forms including (but not limited to) bread, cakes, pies, biscuits, cookies, breakfast cereals, ready-made sauces and soups, crackers, pasta, cous-cous most store-bought sausages and burgers, nearly all powdered foods, mayonnaise, luncheon meats, ice-cream, gravy sauces, beer, whiskey, gin or any foods containing ingredients such as ‘starch’, ‘MSG’, ‘flavourings’ or ‘modified food starch’. Once you start the ED plan you’ll see just how much and to what extent, wheat has dominated the foods you eat. It’s really quite amazing “Does It Contain Pasteurised Or Homogenised Dairy?” Milk is often thought of as nature’s perfect food and, in many respects it probably is… when it’s given to the babies of any species by their own parents. The milk from a cow is the PERFECT food source for calves just as the milk from dogs is PERFECT for puppies and the milk from a rat is the PERFECT food for young rat pups. The fact is that as mammals we’re supposed to suckle our mothers’ breast milk when we’re infants, wean off it as we’re able to chew and digest solids and stop using milk as food as soon as other nutrients can replace its usefulness.


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The fact that we don’t do that is kind of odd, isn’t it? Odder still that many people find the idea of ‘wet nursing’ (having another lactating woman feeding their babies) to be strange and unacceptable yet they’re more than happy to have their babies wet-nursed by a mother from a completely different species (though interestingly, there’s no market for rat or dog milk yet)… for the rest of their natural lives! I know, I know, it sounds strange when put that way but the truth is that cows milk is a dubious source of nourishment at the best of times, even when it’s in its ‘unadulterated’ raw and natural form straight from the udder. When it goes through the processes of pasteurisation and homogenisation, any real value that milk may have from a nutritional perspective is all but gone, making its consumption both pointless and potentially stressful to human physiology. We take pasteurisation and homogenisation for granted when we see it on our milk cartons and our packets of cheese but how many people, I wonder, really know what these terms mean both by definition and in terms of their health? During the process of pasteurisation, milk is either rapidly heated to around 160-170 degrees farenheit for about 20-30 seconds or boiled at 140 degrees for 30 minutes to kill off the bacteria that lead to fermentation and spoiling of the product. Of course, killing of bacteria always sounds pretty good to most of us as we’ve been trained to think that all bacteria are bad, yet pasteurisation also kills off those poor little lactic bacilli (the very same that you pay extra for in your little ‘probiotic’ yoghurt drinks) along with the lactase, galactase and phosphatase enzymes responsible for aiding you in the digestion of the milk. Without enzymes present either in the milk along with the fact that there are increasing numbers of us don’t produce enough lactase in our own bodies (this is normal as lactase is supposed to drop off markedly after weaning) we have a hard time digesting and assimilating milk and often react to the white stuff with allergies and intolerances including but not limited to:


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Skin conditions - Rashes, hives, eczema, ‘swelling’ Gastro-intestinal disorders –cramps, diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting, IBS Respiratory condition – runny nose, itchy, watery eyes, sneezing, coughing, asthma-like symptoms Metabolic conditions – there are known links (granted, they’re still disputed) between the ingestion of dairy products and insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is directly linked to diabetes… And what about homogenisation? Well, milk is essentially oil (fat) and water and, as we all know, oil and water don’t mix. That’s why, in the good old days the cream in your milk would rise to the top leaving the thinner, watery milk at the bottom of the bottle. That doesn’t really happen now does it? What you get now is an evenly consistent milk product without cream no matter how long it’s been left to stand. Sounds ok, right? Nothing too bad there. Well, you’d think so, but the process of homogenisation isn’t that great for either the milk or for you. Here’s how it works; milk is push through a kind of sieve or filter with tiny perforations at extremely high pressure to essentially ‘chop up’ the fat molecules within so that they create a uniform disposition throughout the water component. Technically, this is now known as an emulsion as it represents the mixing of two normally unmixable substances (is this messing with nature?). What’s so bad about this? Well, I’m glad you asked! You see, not only is the fat itself now in a format that’s arguably alien to human physiology (some experts suggest that the human body will treat these micro-molecules as ‘invaders’ and elicit an immune response) but the homogenisation process also changes (for the worst) the enzyme xanthine oxidase which has been shown to have links to heart disease through the bioaccumulation and activation of the so called ‘free radicals’ you’ve no doubt heard a lot about over the last few years.


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So, do YOU have enough lactase in your body to digest dairy? I haven’t got a clue, but I do know that most people who cut back on dairy during ED feel much much better for it and that many of those who attempt to reintroduce it after the strict 30 days period find that it doesn’t agree with them For that reason, for the duration or ED3.0 you’ll be asked to avoid dairy in the form of milk (including flavoured milk and protein powders and bars) and cheese (the most reactive forms) and if you must eat dairy at all to limit it to LIVE yoghurt (that means non-pasteurised or homogenised and containing live bio-cultures) and organic butter, both of which are far less reactive and, despite still being made from milk, are good sources of good bacteria and fat soluble vitamins. Understand though, you’re not being ADVISED to eat these 2 dairy products, just that you are allowed to if you wish. I still believe you’ll get better results from the plan if you avoid them but of all the insults you could give to the body these are among the least. “Does It Contain Caffeine?”

There are a lot of mixed messages surrounding caffeine at the moment. Some say that it’s really bad for you whilst others say it has many redeeming elements that support the case for its inclusion in the modern diet.

Whatever your views on it, the fact remains that caffeine is the most widely used (and abused!) drug on the planet at this time. Yes, I said ‘drug’. Caffeine is pure and simple, a stimulant. One that directly affects both cortisone which suppresses the immune system, and adrenaline which increases heart rate, contracts blood vessels and puts the body into sympathetic nervous system dominance which results in that ‘fight or flight’ response we’ve all heard so much about. This probably wouldn’t be so bad if the use of caffeine wasn’t so widespread, after all, a little pick-me-up ‘buzz’ every now and probably


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isn’t the worst thing a person could do in relation to health, but the trouble is, it isn’t just every now and then for most people, is it? According to The Coffee Statistics Report 2010, over 400 BILLION cups of coffee are consumed worldwide each year with over 400 MILLION of those being drunk by Americans PER DAY! To put that into context, over 50% of American adults coffee drinkers will have drunk over TEN POUNDS of coffee over the last 12 months with some drinking much, much more than that. That’s a lot of stimulant by anyone’s standards, don’t you think? A lot of immune suppression too. But, you know, it’s not just the caffeine itself that becomes the problem when drinking tea and coffee and your favourite ‘Blue Cow’ stimulant drink (you know what I’m talking about!). It’s the chemicals pesticides that are used to grow it too, and these are numerous and plentiful in most places where coffee and tea are grown and many of the specific chemicals used around coffee have links to Parkinson’s disease, some cancers and even miscarriages. Because caffeine is a stimulant it’s definitely best avoided by people by people who suffer insomnia, anxiety or who have high blood pressure as these problems are exacerbated by stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system. Pregnant women should also avoid caffeine as it easily crosses the placental barrier and has documented relationship to low birth weight, cleft palate and miscarriage as well as the depletion of iron and calcium from the body. Caffeine also passes on through breast milt from mother to baby. In addition, caffeine:

• Affects your ability to absorb and use folate, vitamin B12 and vitamin B6

• Is linked to raised cholesterol • Negatively affects insulin levels • Contributes to rheumatoid arthritis • Increases the risk of heart disease • Increases the risk of stroke


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So clearly, that cup of tea or coffee that you use as a pick me up has, well, let’s just say ‘a few limitations’. Sure, you like coffee or your morning cup of tea, and, you know what, I like coffee too, but it’s just not good for you and that’s why for your time on ED3.0 you’ll be asked to avoid: All coffee products – including decaffeinated products which, because of the chemicals used to extract the caffeine are actually worse for you than the real stuff Black and Green Tea – Everyone knows that black tea is high in caffeine but few know that green contains it too. Sure, it’s in a much lower amount than either black tea or coffee, but still, the idea is to get the caffeine addiction hooks out of you so that drinking caffeine becomes a want rather than a must. Drinking Chocolate or Cocoa – Yep, there’s caffeine here too so it goes on the banned list! ‘Energy’ Drinks – First it was just ‘blue cow’ but now there are literally hundreds of these caffeine pick-me-ups. Makes no difference, avoid them all. Sodas/Fizzy drinks – Not only are they processed, high in sugar and chemical additives but there’s caffeine in them so they don’t belong in you. There’s no doubt that when you first start the ED3.0 plan that caffeinated drinks will be among the most missed of all your banned items but you’ll soon get used to it not being in your diet and when you do, your energy levels will shoot through the roof and you’ll feel fantastic. The bad news is that this is the most ‘reactive’ of all the detox items too, so you’ll probably have the biggest withdrawal effects from caffeine. We’ll talk about this later…


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“Does It Contain Sugar?”

Over the last 300 years, sugar has gone from a ‘once in a while’ addition to food to a MAJOR part of the daily food intake of most people in the developed nations. Around 1700, the average person was consuming around 4lbs of sugar in an entire year.

By 1800 that figure had more than quadrupled to around 18lbs per person By 1900, the figure had increased fivefold over the hundred years previous to a staggering 90lbs per person By 2009 the amount of sugar consumed had doubled again to an all-time-high of 180lbs of sugar per person per year or an incredible 1/2lb of sugar a day! Now, clearly, people aren’t sitting down and eating a 1/2 lb bowl of sugar (at least, I hope not!) so where has all this extra sugar consumption come from? Well, it’s mostly from the countless ‘hidden’ sugars that have found their way into the food chain. This includes:

• The feeding of sugar to livestock prior to slaughter to increase the weight of the animal and the flavour of the meat

• The use of corn syrup and molasses in burgers and sausages • The addition of both cane sugar and high fructose corn syrup to

breads, cakes, pies, luncheon meats, ham, bacon, ketchups, soups and sauces

• The addition of sugar to ‘healthy’ fruit juices • The addition of sugar to nearly all breakfast cereals including

muesli and plain old porridge oats And that’s just a few sources of hidden sugar! We haven’t even spoken about the obvious stuff in candies and sweets, cakes, fizzy drinks etc In other words, we’re taking about processed foods as being the main hiding place for the various forms of sugar, which is another reason why processed food is off the menu on ED 3.0


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And it’s not just that sugar makes you fat through its interaction with insulin. If that were the only problem caused by over-consumption of sugar it would be bad enough but there are a lot more problems that can lay the blame at sugar’s doorstep than a high reading on the scales or a tight fitting waistband. Sugar is immunosuppressive, meaning that it leaves the door open to certain illnesses and infections, it upsets mineral balance within the body leading to osteoporosis, endocrine (hormone) system imbalance, depression and anxiety, it affects liver and kidney function, adversely affects digestion, is linked to asthma, arthritis, eczema, ulcers, ischemic heart disease and of course, diabetes, fluid retention and hypertension. And this isn’t anywhere near a complete list! There are many, many more problems caused by the over-consumption of sugar than I’ve added here, but I don’t want to be accused of scare mongering or have you stop reading. Regardless, the long and the short of it is that during ED3.0, sugar in all of its forms is off the menu. That means no white cane sugar, no brown sugar, no fruit sugar (other than that contained in ‘real’ fruit), no molasses, no honey, no maple syrup, no pre-packaged foods or fruit juices of any kind, no artificial sweeteners. “Is This Alcoholic?” What’s that word that police officers use to describe being drunk on alcohol again? Oh yeah, it’s intoxicated. In-toxic-ated. It means to poison, to stupefy or to excite by chemical substance. When you’re intoxicated by alcohol you’re poisoned. It’s poisoning that makes changes your physiological and psychological response to various stimuli that you interact with, it’s that poisoning that has you saying things you wouldn’t normally say, doing things you wouldn’t normally do or (literally) spilling your guts in an attempt to get the toxic substance out of your body as quickly as possible.


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When you were younger and you first started drinking, it most likely tasted pretty awful to you, make you hot, sweaty, nauseous and ready to pay a revisit to your last meal while leaning over a toilet bowl, yet over time you built up a tolerance and a taste for it (people react exactly the same to tobacco which is also a toxin), right? Like most adults on the planet (myself included) you probably enjoy the odd glass of wine, bottle of beer or shot of liquor from time to time either as a way to unwind and let your hair down or simply because you’ve acquired the taste for it. But acquiring the taste doesn’t make it good for you does it? And sure, you may have been told that the odd glass of red wine is good for you because of the polyphenols, flavenoids and reservatrol content that is (supposedly) good for your heart but let’s not kid ourselves that what little good is in wine outweighs the toxic and neurological and hormonal downsides. It doesn’t. Alcohol of any kind is quite simply a toxin. Maybe an enjoyable toxin at times but a toxin nonetheless. And the downsides are many, especially if looking, feeling and performing at your best is your main aim. Not only do those who drink regularly tend to lose their inhibitions around food and end up eating all the wrong foods but they also play havoc with their immune and endocrine systems too as it elevates cortisol, insulin and estrogen and depresses testosterone. A perfect recipe for getting fat… especially around the waist. Alcohol taxes the body’s detoxification capacity by placing huge stress on the liver as it tries to combat the intake of this pure toxic substance meaning that this vital organ’s other roles such, as the production of bile, are reduced. The result? Reduced digestion and sluggish colon. There’s more of course, but this should be enough to convince you of the need to quit the booze for a while. That means no hard liquor such as whiskey, vodka, rum, Bacardi, no beers, lagers or ales, no wines, champagnes or Perry’s. No alcohol in any shape or form whatsoever.


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Replenish


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R2: Replenish

Once you’ve gone through the R1 step of removing all of those toxic, stimulatory and reactive foods you’re left with foods that, in essence, are going to be wholesome, nutritious and supportive of good health and so by default will be making good headway into replenishing your vital stores of nutrients that have been depleted for so long. That said, it’s more than possible to remain

out of balance even whilst eating allowable foods if you’re not careful to follow some very simple steps, so the R2: Replenish phase is here to ensure that your diet is complete in every respect with regards to both macro and micronutrients. Just follow the R2 strategies below and apply them to the list of foods that follow and you can be sure that you’re going to get everything you need in order to look, feel and perform at your very best. Rotate Your Meat, Poultry and Fish On A daily Basis

People tend to eat habitually every single day without ever really thinking about what they’re putting into their mouths. Of course, you know this, which is why you’re on the ED3.0 plan, right? Trouble is, eating the same foods over and over again can lead to food sensitivities vitamin and mineral imbalances and hormone fluctuations that send your systems out of balance despite the fact that what you’re eating is healthy. Avoiding this problem is super-simple; Just make sure that you rotate your sources of meat, fish and poultry from meal to meal and day to day. Try not to eat the same ‘flesh foods’ more than twice a week if


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you can help it. Instead, choose 2-3 sources of meat (beef, lamb, venison), 2-3 sources of poultry (Turkey, Chicken, Duck) and 2-3 types of fish (salmon, sardines, haddock) and keep rotating through them all and you’ll do fine. Rotate Your Fruits and Vegetables On A daily Basis

Whilst people tend not to develop the same sensitivities from eating the same fruits and veggies repetitively, nonetheless it still makes sense to each a wider and more varied of them than most people usually do.

Most people have a tendency to stick to the same 4-5 veggies and 4-5 pieces of fruit and eat them over and over and over again rather than experimenting with a wider selection and, in doing so, they often create vitamin and mineral imbalances due to the overconsumption of some and under-consumption of others. Once again, this is very easy to avoid. Simply committing to eating a larger selection of these foods will pretty much take care of any imbalances that may affect you. One way of doing this is to take the allowable foods list and make sure that during the course of your time on ED3.0 you try each and every type of fruit and vegetable that’s available to you. By the end of the month, not only will you have most likely replenished all the nutrients you’re missing, but you’ll have no doubt developed a liking for many types that you would never have even considered otherwise. A double win! Whatever you do though, ensure that a decent amount of your veggie intake comes from cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, kale, cabbage, cauliflower, kohlrabi, bok choi, watercress, arugula (roquette) as these are high in C vitamins as well as anti-estrogenic compounds such as indole-3-carbinol that stimulates detoxification and prevents the buildup of estrogenic fat.


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Eat Plenty Of Sulphur-Containing Foods

Sulphurous foods such as garlic, onions (especially the red ones), asparagus, cruciferous veggies, leeks, shallots etc are great for stimulating the sulphation pathway in the liver, responsible for detoxing heavy metals like mercury from your system.

Try eating from at least one of these sulphur sources daily and you’ll have a far easier time getting through the harder parts of the detoxification process. Drink Plenty of Fresh, Clean Water A major part of the R2 strategy is the critical step of rehydration, the replacement of the vital fluids that every single chemical reaction within our body takes place within. If only a little dehydrated, the various chemicals that are circulating within our bloodstream are affected negatively and can lead to increases in blood acidity, changes in hormone levels and much more besides. Unfortunately, most people are much more than a little dehydrated! In fact, most people are going through life at a very high, even dangerous, level of dehydration without realising it, yet wondering why they’re so very full of aches, pains, digestive problems, hormone imbalance and too many other ills to mention. That’s why during ED3.0 you’ll be asked to drink 1 litre of fresh, clean water for every 50lbs of bodyweight. So if you weight 150lbs you’ll consume three litres and if you’re 200lbs you’ll consume four. This is probably much, much more than you’re consuming right now but then, how you’re feeling right now probably isn’t great, right? Don’t worry though, after a week or two of getting enough water you’ll be looking and feeling absolutely great.


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“What’s Left To Eat??” That’s what I get asked more often than anything when people first set eyes on the banned list. Particularly if their diet is mostly made of these foods like so many peoples are. To these people, the removal of wheat, dairy, caffeine, alcohol, sugar and processed food means that there is practically nothing left on the planet that could be thrown together to create simple meals and that, to them at least, this makes the ED3 plan unrealistic and unworkable ‘in real life’ (whatever that means). Now, whilst it’s true that limiting the foods from the banned list WILL considerably alter the choices available to you, it’s not true that your choices will be restricted or limited to a few choices that are bland, tasteless and boring. In fact, the variety of foods available to you during ED3.0 is massive! And not only is it massive, it can be delicious and appetising too, meaning that you never have to be bored with ‘eating healthy’ as some people claim is inevitable. Remember, the only limitations are the banned foods. Other than those, you have almost an entire world’s supply of fruits, veggies, meat, poultry, fish, seeds, nuts and legumes to choose from and only a few limitations amongst all of them even if you’re on level three of ED3.0. You’re certainly not limited for choice, you certainly won’t go hungry and no, you certainly won’t be bored by healthy eating. Let’s take a look at what you can still eat, shall we?


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Fruit Veggies Asparagus Aubergine Artichoke ** Arrugula (known as Roquett in UK) Beetroot ** Broccoli Brussels Sprouts Beetroot Bok Choy Bamboo Burdock Carrot ** Cabbage Cauliflower Caper Celery Celeriac Cassava Cilantro Coriander Chard Chicory Chives Corn ** Cucumber Dandelion Dill Eggplant Fennel Garlic Ginger Ginseng Gourd Horseradish Kale Kohlrabi Leek Lettuce Mushroom Mustard collard Okra Onion Parsnip ** Parley Peppers ** Potato ** Pumpkin Radish Rhubarb Rutabaga (known as Swede in UK) ** Shallot Spinach Squash **

Apples Apricots Avocado Banana ** Berries (all Kinds) Black-currents Butternut Squash ** Cherry Clementine Courgette Custard Apple Date Dragon-fruit Elderberry Eggfruit Fig Guava Gooseberries Grapefruit Honeydew melon Jackfruit Kiwi Fruit Kumquat Lemon Lime Lychee Mango Melon Nectarine Olive Orange Pawpaw Papaya Passionfruit Pomegranate Pear Peach Pineapple Plum Quince Raisin Raspberries Red-currents Sapodilla Satsuma Starfruit Strawberry Tomato ** Ugli Fruit Watermelon Zuccini (see courgette) Note: Orange writing with asterisk’s ** denotes foods that need to be avoided at level 3 of ED3.0 Sweet Potato **


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Legumes Nuts Adzuki Beans Black bEANS Black Eyed Peas Broad Beans Butter Beans Calico Beans Cannellini Beans Chickpeas Edamame Green Beans Kidney Beans Lentils Lima beans Mung Beans Navy Beans Pinto Beans Split Peas White Beans

Almond Beech Nut black Walnut Brazil Breadnut Butternut Candlenut Cashewnut Chestnut Colocynth Coconut Filbert Hickory Macadamia Pistachio Walnut

Meat Fish Beef Bison Buffalo Game meats Lamb/Mutton Pork ** Pork is allowed though not recommended due to it being a more reactive meat than others for many people Offal ** Offal is allowed though not directly recommended UNLESS from certified organic sources as the liver and kidneys of non-‐organic animals will ADD to your toxicity

Croaker Haddock Flounder Sardines Tilapia Wild Pacific Salmon The list above includes those fish least likely to contain high levels of heavy metal. You may also eat other fish such as Tuna and Cod etc but try to limit them in quantity and frequency Shellfish Shellfish aren’t banned but they’re strongly discouraged as they tend to be both scavengers and bottom –feeders meaning that they contain higher levels of heavy metals and produce lower quality ‘meat’

Note: Try to limit your intake of meat, fish and poultry to organic, free range and biodynamic sources only or you’ll be taking onboard the various steroids and antibiotics used to rapidly fatten then and guess what will happen to you as a result?


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Poultry Chicken Turkey Goose Duck Pigeon Quail Game birds Eggs Of All Kinds Organic** Try to minimise the non-‐organic consumption of poultry as large amounts of estrogen are used to promote larger and faster growth of the more popular breast meat. This estrogen ends up in YOU when you eat it and plays havoc with your own hormone balance making you more likely to gain fat

Grains Amaranth Barley Brown Rice Corn Millet Oats Quinoa Rye Sorgum White Rice Wild Rice NOTE** If you are on the Level 3 variant of ED3.0 these foods are added to your banned list. Level 1 and 2 may eat from this list but are recommended to do so sparingly and infrequently

Other Foods Given that there are literally hundreds (if not thousands) of foods, the above lists are obviously not going to be complete. Neither are you LIMITED to these foods only. The lists illustrate just how wide your food choices are while on ED3.0. As long as you’re not eating wheat, dairy, caffeine, alcohol, processed foods or sugar while on ED3.0, levels 1 and 2 you may, of course, consume what you want even if it doesn’t show up on one of these lists. NOTE** If you’re on level 3 of the program you will need to avoid grains and starches in addition to the main banned list.

Herbs and Spices Fresh is Best But Dried Is OK Too Use all herbs and spices freely during your time on ED3.0 (as long as they have no additives or preservatives) as these ‘foods’ are beneficial to health in numerous ways and have been used as health restoratives for millennia. Make sure you use organic wherever possible


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Beverages Tulsi - Rooibos - lemon water - Chamomile - Most Herbal Teas These are all fine as long as they’re organic, natural and dried. If any of these products have additives then you can’t have them. Similarly, any products that are ‘decaffeinated’ are not allowed as the chemicals used to remove them are problematic to health. Look for ‘naturally caffeine free’ on the label.

Oils Virgin Olive oil Coconut Oil Flax Oil Fish Oil Butter Oils are a difficult area as they are, by definition, processed in order to extract them. However, choosing organic sources and limiting them to the selection above works well for most people. Choose glass bottles for these oils rather than plastics which will leach their chemicals into the oils and contaminate them.

So as you can see, you’re not exactly being limited or restricted on the ED3.0 plan are you? In fact, unless you’re a very rare individual indeed, chances are that you’re not even eating a quarter of the foods that are on the lists above on a regular basis so, in very real terms, you have more choice available to you once you start ED3.0 than you do now! The truth is, most people tend to eat very repetitively on a day in day out basis with most of us having a base repertoire of 10 meals or less that are cycled over and over again. This in itself is a problem as we often become intolerant to foods not because they’re bad for us, but simply because of overconsumption that leads to chemical mineral, vitamin and hormonal imbalance over time. Ideally, during your time on ED3.0 you should endeavour to eat from as many of the foods on the lists above as possible to both ensure that you get your vitamins and minerals from many different sources as possible, as well as to educate your palate to more variety so that you’re less likely to feel the need to stray off the plan due to boredom with what you’re eating. In fact, I can predict with great certainty that the more varied your diet is over the next 30 days or so, the more impressive your results will be, so don’t get stuck in a nutritional rut or you won’t achieve as much.


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“So, How Much Should I Eat? What About Portion Size or Calories?” During your time on ED3.0 you won’t be weighing, measuring or allocating points or calories to your meals in order to determine how much you should be eating. Instead you’ll be ‘taking it old school’ and doing what people did for thousands of years before they ever knew that such a thing as a calorie even existed. Listening to your body. That’s right, during this program you’ll eat what your body tells you to eat and stop eating when you’re full. I know, nutritional blasphemy, right? It is if you believe what most nutritional ‘experts’ tell you. They’ll tell you that you’ll end up overeating and, as a result, not only will you fail to lose weight but that you’ll probably gain some too. And you know, if we were talking about any other diet than the ED plan, they’d probably be right. You see, most diets are forced to place their emphasis on controlling the quantity of food consumed because they rarely, if ever, focus on quality. Most diets advocate calorie counting, weighing and measuring because they’re still allowing you to eat foods that are loaded with anti-nutrients that deplete your body’s vitamin and mineral stores as well as chemicals that are designed to stimulate your appetite to want even more of the same junk that made you fat, sick and tired in the first place! Simply put, if you’re going to continue eating crap, then the only way to reduce its effects on your waistline and your health is to eat less of it, hence the focus on calories. The more you focus on the total calories shown on the packaging, the less you focus on the ingredients, and the more important those numbers become to you, the easier it is to sell you new foods with smaller numbers on them.


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When you think about it, the food companies that manufacture diet foods have got it made. All they have to do is make you as paranoid about calories as they possibly can whilst at the same time offering you more and more foods with less and less calories… and less and less nutrition too! ED3.0 takes the exact opposite approach During your time on the plan you’ll focus only on the quality of foods that you’re consuming and let your body dictate the quantity it wants. Now, at first, that may sound like a recipe for disaster as far as fat loss is concerned but once you understand how the body really works, it’ll make all the sense in the world. You see, contrary to what you’ve been told, your body doesn’t spend most of its time looking for ‘energy’ in the form of calories to carry out its various metabolic tasks. Especially if you’re already fatter than you should be. Think about it. If every pound of fat on your frame is 3500 stored calories and you’re 10, 20, 30lbs overweight then why on Earth would your body be calling out for more calories? With 35,000-plus calories sitting on your frame when you’re carrying a mere 10lbs of the stuff then you’ve got well over 2 weeks worth of energy ‘in the tank’ even if you eat nothing for that entire period! And that’s just 10lbs of fat. If you’re carrying 20lbs then you have nearly 5 weeks of energy in the form of calories sitting in your fat stores, and we haven’t even begun to look at the energy sitting in your muscles in the form of glycogen and protein yet. No, the whole calories ‘thing’ simply doesn’t make sense as far as human physiology and health are concerned. In fact, as a theory it’s got more holes in than Swiss cheese which, as you know by now, is banned on the ED3.0 program So if it’s not about calories then what is it about? Well, the answer is pretty simple. Let me ask you…


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When you remove the calorie energy from food, what are you left with?

Nutrients, right? Those nutrients are divided into macronutrients such as proteins, fats and carbohydrates and micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals, all of which are vital to health and an absence of which is guaranteed to create imbalance and dysfunction in the cells, organs and systems of the human body. Simply put, if you want to ‘break’ the human body, all you have to do is withhold one or more nutrients for long enough and a cascade of dysfunction and eventually disease is 100% guaranteed. On the flip-side, if you get all of the macro and micronutrients that you require in the right amounts and proportions then you get healthy cells, healthy organs, healthy systems and, yes, a 100% healthy, happy and perfectly functioning you. Makes sense doesn’t it? It also makes sense that your desire to eat should be come about as a result of your body recognising that one or more of those important nutrients are running low, too. It works like this; every single one of your bodily functions is being monitored by a specialised part of the brain called the hypothalamus. It’s this area that’s responsible for what’s known scientifically as homeostatis or more commonly as ‘balance’. The hypothalamus monitors every system to make sure that it’s operating in perfect balance and if it isn’t, makes the necessary changes through the action of hormones to get it back on track. That’s how it should work and how it does work when the body is supplied with all the raw materials it needs to maintain balance but when the nutrients required to either make the hormones or repair the cells are


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missing, it does the next best thing. It sends a ‘FEED ME!’ signal in order to acquire whatever nutrients it needs. If your food intake is natural, fresh and varied and if you’re not eating foods that that disrupt the finely-tuned internal communication pathways within your body, you’ll end up with what most people call ‘cravings’ for exactly the right foods at the right time meaning that you get to return to homeostasis as quickly as possible. However, that doesn’t happen for most people. Most people are eating foods that are processed so much that they contain hardly any of the nutrition they’re supposed to, are far from fresh and laden with chemicals from pesticides, food colourings, flavourings and preservatives meaning that whilst the general ‘feed me’ command still activates when nutrients are low, the specific cravings aren’t registered or understood. Instead, most people simply eat. They eat anything! Usually, they end up eating the same calorie rich yet nutrition poor food that serves only to further deplete the very minerals that their body’s were crying out for in the first place and so they perpetuate feed me cycle over and over and over again. No doubt you’ve experienced this for yourself, right? You finish a large (yet nutrition free) processed dinner of some description which leaves you full to the point of bloated yet within less than an hour you’re hungry again and raiding your fridge for snacks. You eat those too yet by the time the next commercial break comes on you’re ready for more. Now you know why! It’s not that you need calories (you’ve already eaten enough of those), it’s not that you’re hungry, it’s not that you’re greedy and, whilst it’s a convenient scapegoat, it’s not just that the TV ads have brainwashed you into wanting food that you don’t need (there’s definitely an element of this though it loses its effect if your nutrients are balanced). It’s that your body is doing exactly what it’s been programmed to do.


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It’s calling for nutrients that it needs, and will continue to do so until it gets them. It’s not your hypothalamus’ fault that all you’ve got in your fridge is crap. YOU put that stuff there so when you get the feed-me signal that’s all you have to put into the system and, well, it’s simply not good enough. It’s not good enough to repair the cells that make up the glands that secrete the hormones that control the body functions that keep you looking, feeling and performing at your best. On the other hand, if all that goes into your mouth is fresh, clean, natural and wholesome food that’s replete with high-quality nutrients then your body will get what it needs to re-establish balance and the commands to eat will simply… stop. Sounds too simple, I know but that’s how it works. Of course, there’s a whole bunch of science behind this simplification but you’re not overly interested in that, I’m sure. More importantly, you shouldn’t even need to know any of it in order for it to work for you, just as you should never have needed to concern yourself with the idea of counting calories. When your body needs energy or nutrients it’s perfectly capable of letting you know without having to check some kind of ‘fuel gauge’ based upon calorie intake. If it did then how did we survive 200,000 years as a species when the ‘invention’ of the calorie only occurred in 1824? Surely we should have all gotten obese and died out, no? Part of the reason for our survival as a species is that we ate as fresh, natural and as varied as we could given the habitat we lived in and listened to our natural appetites and cravings which all fall under the command and control of the hypothalamus. So what I’m saying is this; when you start eating ED style you’ll be ONLY be eating clean, natural, wholesome and varied foods, meaning that you’ll come that much closer to replenishing you nutrient stores


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that much faster each time you eat. Because of this, your appetite will soon start to auto-regulate, telling you when to eat, what to eat and how much. It’ll also tell you when to stop. Initially, while you’re replenishing lost nutrients you may actually find that you’re eating more than usual in terms of quantity. That’s fine. You’ll only be doing so because your hypothalamus is looking for the bricks and mortar it needs to build a better you. Once it gets them it’ll down-regulate and your appetite will stabilise. In any event, don’t worry too much about how much you’re eating. When you cut the crap from your diet it’s actually pretty tough to overeat. For instance, to eat a mere 200kcal of broccoli you’d have to eat over half a kilo of the stuff. Same for carrots. Yet in both these instances you’d be consuming over 3 times the RDA for nutrients such as Vitamin C and 8 times RDA for Vitamin A, which is a lot more than any of your processed foods will ever give you, that’s for sure! So relax and throw away your little calorie-counter thingummyjigger. You won’t need it, I promise. Just listen to your body, give it what it wants and your results are guaranteed. That said, make sure you DO listen. Eat only when you’re actually getting hungry rather than because you’re bored or because it’s a certain time of day and you’ll do just fine.


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Reinforce


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R3: Reinforce

Ok, so you’ve removed all the problematic foods from your diet and you’ve replenished your stores of nutrients through an eating plan based on fresh, natural wholesome foods that are regularly rotated to provide a huge variety in terms of both taste and nutrition and you’re fully hydrated from drinking plenty of clean water. Now what?

Well, ideally, there shouldn’t be a ‘now what’, it should just be a case of getting on with eating a variety of fresh, natural foods, drinking plenty of water and getting plenty of sleep. That’s how it’s supposed to work and, truth be told, if you do just these 3 things you’ll undoubtedly make larger inroads into looking, feeling and performing at your best than you have in years. However, what I’ve found with increasing numbers of people over the years is that whilst these strategies go a long way to getting them the kind of results they’re looking for, they often come up just a little short due to having to live in the ‘real world’ of jobs stress, kids, entertaining and late nights, all of which take their toll on the body. Sometimes it just needs a little help. That’s why I’ve included ‘reinforce’ as part of the R3 strategy on ED3.0 as it recognises that sometimes life just gets in the way or that there are times when we just need a little bit more of a nudge to speed things up. The supplementation strategies one could employ in order to get great results are almost endless but to include them all would be both unnecessary and costly, so during this, the third phase of the R3 strategy I’ll focus only on those supplements that I’ve experienced firsthand as giving the best possible effect and leave all the others out. That way you won’t break the bank to buy what you need… and neither will you rattle when you walk


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Milk Thistle As a detoxification supplement, the milk thistle of the daisy family is hard to beat. This amazing herb has been in use since ancient Roman times to treat liver and gallbladder disorders, working through the action of a flavenoid called silymarin that helps to regenerate and heal liver

tissue, aid detoxification and improve digestion. For most people, dosages up to 400mg a day seems to work pretty well. Spread throughout the day for best effect. Magnesium Magnesium is a mineral that’s vital to too many of the body’s functional processes to count but including the synthesis of proteins, the transmission of nerve signals, the production and transportation of energy from food and detoxification. Perhaps it’s this last role (detoxification), when one considers the modern diet that most people consume, that explains the enormous depletion of magnesium that most people seem to suffer from or maybe it’s the ever-increasing amount of calcium and calcium supplements that many people are consuming, but whatever the reason, people are more in need of magnesium supplementation now than ever before. Just make sure that whatever form of magnesium you opt to supplement with, it’s not the oxide version which is practically useless for improving your health. Instead opt for any of the ‘ate’ versions of magnesium such as magnesium citrate, malatate, glyconate, orotate, sulfate or magnesium chloride. Dosages up to around 400mg a day seem to work best for most people, though this is largely individual with some people tolerating less. One of the signs that you’ve taken too much is diarrhoea so build up slowly. Best time to take magnesium is about 60-90 minutes before bed… it’ll help you sleep better too!


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Zinc Zinc is another mineral of enormous importance and one that tends to be deficient in many people. This mineral plays a vital role in growth, protein synthesis, liver function, detoxification, insulin synthesis and general metabolism amongst many others. meaning that you’ll speed up your metabolism, burn fat faster, reduce your cortisol levels and build up lean tissue more quickly. Only about 20% of the zinc consumed in the diet is actually absorbed by the body and even less if phytates such as those found in grains nuts and legumes are present. Dosages between 10-20mg seem to work best for most people and, as with magnesium, the oxide version of the supplement is best avoided. Take with magnesium 1 hour before bed for best effect. Fish Oil

I hate to say it but fish oils really are one of those ‘miracle’ supplements. Due to their high omega-3 content they are involved in everything from improving cells membranes to increasing the rate of fat burning to slowing the rate of fat storage to improving seratonin levels to helping you to fight stress and much, much more besides. Try taking 10-15mg of liquid fish oils (not capsules as they’re all rancid) in 2-3 equal doses throughout the day and you’ll soon feel the benefits.


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Ashwaghanda

Ashwaghanda is a well-know Ayurvedic supplement that has been used for several thousand years as an adaptogen for helping people to cope with stress and adverse conditions. More recently it has been shown that the herb effectively manages and lowers cortisol, the stress hormone and, in doing so, it allows for an all-round better functioning of the endocrine system as a whole.

Taken as 20-30 drops in water 2- 3 times a day this ancient herb seems to work really well for reducing stress and anxiety and improving the rate at which abdominal fat burns off. Tulsi Tea Tulsi tea is another Ayurvedic compound made from the plant holy basil which has similar properties to Ashwaghanda in that it helps to lower the effects of both psychological and physical stress, lowers cortisol, reduces inflammatory responses, improves liver function as well as helping to fight infection. Use Tulsi tea in place of tea, coffee or green tea and drink 4-6 times a day for best effect. That’s it! That’s all I’m recommeding as part of your Reinforce strategy right now. Of course, there are literally hundreds you can take but as long as you’ve followed the whole R3 strategy of removing the toxins and stimulants, replenishing the nutritients through high quality, whole, natural foods and then reinforcing with this handful of supplements, I’m sure that you’re going to look, feel and perform much better than you do right now.


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Of course, if you want to take a multivitamin supplement that probably won’t hurt, but make sure it’s a wholefood supplement rather than one made from synthetic vitamins as these can further deplete the nutrients you’re struggling so hard to build up. Oh, and once you’re looking and feeling much better, it’s advisable to reduce or stop your supplements altogether for a time. This’ll give you an indication of how well your diet is providing you with what you need, but take care not to cease supplementation suddenly or you can create what’s known as a ‘relative deficiency’ where your body reacts adversely to the reduction of a nutrient, even though you may still be getting more than the required amount from your food. Just cut back slowly over a week or two and you should be fine, but if you feel your energy drop or notice a return of aches, pains or other symptoms then obviously, maintain your supplementation a little longer. Finally, remember that I’m not a doctor. I’m not allowed to ‘prescribe’ supplements nor make individual claims about the medicinal effects they may provide you as an individual. The advice given in th section is advice only and you should check with your doctor for specific advice about how it may or may not affect you, especially if you’re taking medications. That’s called a CYA or ‘cover your arse’ statement. It’s a shame that we can’t just share our collective wisdom about health and wellness, what works and what doesn’t as adults without fear of someone trying to lock us up for life, but you know how it is…


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What You Can Expect…

As I’ve explained many times throughout this book, the aim of this diet plan is to re-establish the vitality of your internal environment, properly nourish your cells and allow your nutritional and biochemical status quo to be re-established. When this happens you’ll notice several things: You will lose a rather large amount of ‘stubborn fat ’ and excess water in a relatively short period of time. This is because the human body, when overwhelmed with toxins, will ‘dump’ many toxic substances into the fat stores in order to reduce their circulation throughout the body. Ideally, when there are no longer any new toxins entering the body, those that have been stored will then be processed and expelled along with the fat (and a lot of excess water) that is stored alongside them. Of course, the down-side of this is that temporarily you may feel a little off-colour as those toxins re-enter the circulation with aches, pains and flu-like symptoms and pretty persistent headaches quite common for many people, though these normally disappear within 3-4 days. (Note: if you’re at all unsure or concerned about what you’re experiencing, talk with your doctor) Your food cravings and non-physiological (emotional) hunger will reduce or go away entirely When your body no longer has to transmit its chemical messages against a background of toxic ‘static’ you will find that you are able to extract a greater amount of nutrients from the foods you eat and, because of this, you’ll notice that your hunger will reduce quite substantially. After all, if you’re getting all of the vitamins and minerals and other nutrients that your cells need, then why would you be sent ‘eat’ signals, right?


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A body that is getting the correct quality and quantity of nutrients self regulates, giving you ‘feed me’ signals when nutrients are low and ‘stop’ signals when they are topped up. Just as nature intended! Your health and general vitality will improve After the stored toxins have said goodbye and you’re no longer adding others, you’ll notice that many ailments you’ve been suffering from will either reduce or go away entirely. Once your body is getting everything it needs to ‘build’ good health you’ll start to repair and rebuild your cells, organs and systems much more effectively and many of your aches and pains will simply fade away. But not just that! You’ll notice that hair, skin and fingernails are healthier and stronger too and that your energy levels are at a higher level than they have been in ages. In addition you may find that if you are on medication that your doctor may need to reduce the dosages and that you may be able to come off the meds altogether. [I make no claims to this, I’m simply feeding back what many of my readers have experienced, especially with their hypertension and diabetes medications and with conditions like gout, indigestion, acid reflux and asthma. On no account should you self medicate or change your medicine doses without the guidance of you doctor who is, after all, an expert on drugs] Not bad for a diet that doesn’t ask you to count a single calorie or weigh and measure your foods is it? In fact, during this eating plan you may even find that you’re eating more food than before yet still find that you’re dropping weight as a result of the elimination process. Though I’d love to claim that all of this is fat, the truth is that much of it will be water. This is because a toxic system holds more water in order to ‘dilute’ the toxins it contains and, once they’re gone, the water goes with it.


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You will lose fat though…lots of it! Many of those that have used the original Elimination Diet plan have found that, on average, they lose 7-10lbs in 2 weeks with reports of much more than this and, of course, some who say that they lost much less. But whilst both weight and fat loss are desirable outcomes for many people that’s not the real point to this eating plan. This whole system is about improving your health, your wellness and your vitality and as long as you follow the plan as I’ve laid it out for you in this ‘little’ book you’ll achieve all this and much more besides.

As I’ve said several times now, this plan is principle-based and the principles ALWAYS

work… as long as YOU work the principles

However, the opposite is true too. If you fail to work these principles as they’ve been laid out for you here, then the principles will simply fail to work for you. You don’t want that, I don’t want that so the answer is simple; Work the principles!


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What About AFTER The 30 Days Are Up? Well, in all honesty, that’s completely up to you. Many people find that after 30 or so days of feeling absolutely fantastic, the last thing they want to do is go back to eating the way they were before whilst others can’t wait to get back to eating a little of what they fancy. Both approaches are just fine and are totally your choice. However, if you want to maintain your new results for as long as possible it’s best that you follow an R4 phase that involves a systematic reintroduction of any of the items on the banned list rather than haphazardly adding them all back at random. Do that and you’ll ‘retox’, gain back most of the weight you’ve lost and feel awful faster than you’d ever believe possible. Instead, think about adding back just one of the banned foods over a 3 day period, starting with just a small amount to see how it affects you before going back for more. This way, if you find that you react to it, you can skip it before it causes you problems and you can keep your hard won results. After the 3 days are up, you can try another item if you wish. Just repeat the process, observe the effects and only consider the permanent re-inclusion of no-reactive foods. Simple! Take care with ‘combination’ items though. Things like coffee with milk and sugar add 3 banned items back all at once. If you react, you won’t know what the real problem was, which will be a real shame after spending a month learning about what your body likes and what it doesn’t.


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In Closing…

The ED3.0 plan I’ve shared with you in the preceding pages is the exact same program that I and my team use with our clients at my London personal training studios to generate great results in rapid time frames for people who tend to have tried most approaches to losing fat and getting into great shape… and failed. The program has been tried and tested by well over 100,000 people to date and adjusted and improved until it has become what you now hold in your hands. The principles that have been shared with you here are both simple yet at the same time highly profound and represent principles of health and wellness that have stood for thousands of years of recorded history and (probably) hundreds of thousands of years before that. They are, quite simply, eat clean, avoid those foods that weaken the body rather than strengthen it and drink plenty of clean, fresh water. Without these fundamentals of the health-building puzzle in place, all other nutritional advice is rendered practically useless. After all, simply throwing good nutrition onto a toxic, dehydrated system is an obvious waste, I’m sure you will agree. Yet that’s the very same approach that most people take when trying to lose weight, get in shape or improve their general health. No wonder it doesn’t work. It simply can’t, as I’m sure you’ve learned throughout this book. So look, choose now to commit to the ED3.0 principles 100%. Give them everything you’ve got and don’t look for ways to cheat or get out of doing what needs to be done or you’ll only end up cheating yourself of the results that you should be getting.


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If you can follow the plan as I’ve set out for you here I guarantee that the person staring back at you from the bathroom mirror in a month’s time will be very different to the person you see there now. Not only will you look much better than you do at the moment but I’m certain that you’ll feel better than you have in a very long time. Maybe even ever. But it’s all down to you from this point on. I can’t be with you all the time and I can’t check everything you put into your mouth. Besides, to do that would be defeating the very purpose of what I set out to do when I wrote this book; To teach and empower people toward learning for themselves how to best manage their health. Neither I nor anyone else can do any more than that. We can’t eat for you or make better decisions. Only you can. I wish you every success and can’t wait to hear about your amazing results! Truth, joy, love and outstanding health!


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Frequently Asked Questions “You indicate in the ED Book never to steam veggies in the microwave. WHY? how can a 1-2 minute process be that harmful? Today many fresh veggies come in a package that are ready to pop in the microwave for 1 to 2 minutes” Microwaves create their heat by generating a high level of vibration of the molecules of the food. Unfortunately, this vibration changes the molecular makeup of the food damaging the nutrients and rendering them mostly useless to the body. Avoid microwaves during the 30 days… and for life if you can. I threw my microwave away 5 years ago! “Your book pretty much covers it all. The only other place that may need a little clarification is for those out there that eat/cook oriental foods (ie. Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, etc.) where rice stands. Is it ok or not ok? Such as white rice, rice noodles, rice paper etc. is ok or only a little brown rice?” Rice is not on the banned list unless you’re on level 3 of the program and so rice in all its forms is acceptable. However, if your primary reason for following the diet is fat loss or weight control I’d recommend minimising the amount of white rice you consume as this creates quite a high insulin response that may lead to subsequent fat storage. “If the ED is assisting our bodies in burning fat, how is it that butter (which I cook EVERYTHING in) be ok? I have the same wonder about coconut milk and coconut cream.” It’s a widely held fallacy that consuming fat causes fat retention in the body. It doesn’t. In fact, if you cut the fat intake too low the body will respond by making more of its own and storing it. The fats in butter and coconut are both extremely beneficial to the health of most people (those who can’t tolerate dairy are advised to avoid it).


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“Dax, I want to know the cheats, like when you’re craving chocolate, what can you substitute for it? And when your craving potato chips ? etc” Sorry, I don’t believe in cheats. The very word itself is almost a license to fall off the diet. This is an all or nothing system. That said, you can have unlimited fruit and make chips from real potato or parsnips if you’re not on level 3 of the plan. “I am breastfeeding and so the most important thing or piece of information for me to know before starting this program is - Is it safe while breastfeeding? or How soon after giving birth would you recommend commencing the elimination diet? There isn’t much data about detoxing and breastfeeding at the same time. For obvious reasons I guess; no one want to risk the child’s health by experimenting to find out… and rightly so. However, I have spoken with many mothers who have implemented a longer, slower version of the elimination diet where they reduce one of the banned items every 2-3 days. Their feedback has been positive and they claim an improvement in the quality of their breast-milk and satiety of their babies. This was one of the drivers for the creation of a level 1 ED plan. I make no claims in this respect as there have been too few people to feedback their results however, as long as the banned foods are reduced slowly I see no reason why this shouldn’t benefit both mother and baby. If in any doubt however, wait. “I work with a lot of team sport and would like to get some of them on the ED? Can we tailor the ED to fit in around Sports Nutrition principles and specifically around supplementation for those looking to increase muscle mass.” The elimination diet positively affects the performance in every sport (though I wouldn’t start it within a couple of days of an important game) as it improves metabolism and cellular response. With regard to supplementation, you may continue to take any supplements that do not go against the diet principles.


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You see! Hardly a hardship is it? In fact, the elimination diet allows you such a wide variety of great foods that it’ll hardly feel like you’re on a diet at all!

Sure, there are a few restrictions from the banned list but the variety of food you’re still ‘allowed’ to eat is immense.

That said, if you’re not great with working out meals or figure out what goes with what then you might want to consider grabbing a copy of my Elimination Diet cookbook.

The Elimination Diet cookbook has well over 100 ‘no fluff’ recipes that are all in

keeping with the dietary protocols laid down in ED3.0 Easy to prepare, delicious and highly nutritious, each recipe has been designed to provide supportive nutrition over breakfast, lunch dinner and snacks. But look, it’s only fair to warn you that if you like your cookbooks with lots of flowery language describing the meal and beautiful pictures set in wonderful country homes then this isn’t the cookbook for you. You’ll get simple lists of ingredients and straightforward instructions on how to prepare and cook them but without the ‘fluff and padding’ that you normally get with cookbooks. If you’re ok with that then go ahead and get on over to http://www.londonpersonaltrainingstudio.com/eliminationcookbook.html and grab yourself a copy today. If not… then don’t


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Vegetarian? No problem!

The Elimination Diet Vegetarian Cookbook is choc-full of 101 easy to prepare, super simple yet highly nutritious and delicious recipes for vegetarians and vegans who want to follow the Elimination diet protocol but who often got stuck for meal ideas.

Not any more! I’ve pulled together another great little 'no fluff' cookbook that does away with pretentious hype, glossy photographs and 'artistic' comments by chefs and gourmets and instead has gotten down to the nuts and bolts of vegetarian recipes that are 100% compatible with the Elimination diet. If you're looking for simple instructions on

meals that are easy to prepare and taste great you'll love this latest addition to the elimination diet family of supporting material. If, on the other hand you prefer glossy photos of stir-fry dishes and the like along with flowery comments like "This dish will remind you of autumn days on your front porch" then you probably want to give the Elimination Diet Vegetarian Cookbook a miss. Don't say we didn't warn you The Cookbook is deliverable in digital download format so all you have to do to get these 101 recipes is click on the link below and you'll be taken to a secure payment page where you'll be asked for your card or paypal details and within 5 minutes you'll have the book delivered to your inbox in downloadable ebook format so that you can get to enjoying the recipes right away. http://www.londonpersonaltrainingstudio.com/vegetarianeliminationcookbook.html


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The 90-Day Look Great Naked Challenge

Want 100% Support Each And Every Day For 90 Days as You Move Toward Your Health And Fitness Goals?

If you answered ‘yes!’ then the 90 day Look Great Naked Challenge is just the thing for you! Imagine getting an email from your personal trainer, your lifecoach and your nutritionist each and every day for a full 90 days that told you what to eat, what to focus on and what exercises to do to create the body of your dreams. Imagine too, that within each email link you

were sent videos of your exercise routines, printable program cards, ‘listen as you go’ mp3’s and a whole bunch of easy to follow instructions that made falling off of your exercise program or diet impossible.

Be good wouldn’t it? Well, you don’t have to imagine anymore!

The Look Great Naked Challenge has been designed to deliver workouts, motivation and nutritional support right into your inbox daily for 90 days with workouts that you can do from home in less than 20 minutes a day for most of the program.

With more than 10 different exercise routines, a follow-along dietary and exercise plans and a daily ‘butt kicking’ from Dax so that you can’t fall off the program or ‘forget’, the Look Great Naked Challenge is a one of a kind system.

In fact, it’s like having a personal trainer working with you everyday!

And at Only £99… it’s a steal!

Just go to www.lookgreatnakedchallenge.com for more information about how to join.

dax moy's elimination diet 3.0

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