Life By Design Podcast

We've all been there before. You take out your phone, open your Facebook or Instagram app, start scrolling, start seeing pictures of people on vacation, new homes, new cars, date nights, cute, funny kids, lean trim physiques and you begin to think - wow, what's wrong with me, I don't have any of those things?   If you're lucky, those feelings end there, and you get back to your normal life, but sometimes the envy, jealousy, and resentment are much too intense and you end up becoming miserable and ruining your day.   The purpose of this podcast is to help give you some reasons as to why we behave this way and a practical strategy to implement so it doesn't happen that often.   What we covered: Comparing is a necessary component of our human nature and part of how we form concepts. We can't and shouldn't get away from using comparisons, instead learn how to compare in a less negative way. Why and how our cultural upbringing has played a role in making us chronically worried about the 'results' and 'status' or

Oh, the scale. How we all have a love/hate relationship with you. Looking and feeling good in your body is a goal we should all strive to achieve, especially since it boosts your self-esteem, and helps give you confidence for taking on the day. The purpose of this podcast is to discuss 5 reasons, that we typically see, as to why you're not reaching the ideal weight/body type that YOU want. What we covered: Why it's challenging to do things consistently that you hate doing. Muhammad Ali famously said, "I hated every minute of training, but I said: don't quit, suffer now and live the rest of your life like a champion." We all know that exercise and eating is part of getting the body you want, but hating it will make it hard to do. You haven't been doing it long enough. It would be fantastic if the timeline you had in your head for achieving a goal were the correct timeline; unfortunately, it always takes longer than you think. Aristotle, the philosopher not Dr. Kreso's son, famously said, "success is a habit,

Thursday, February 21st marks the start of the 2019 CrossFit Open. Every year CrossFit crowns the fittest man and woman on the earth. The way you earn this prestigious title is by winning the CrossFit games, and the way you get to the CrossFit games is by entering the CrossFit Open, placing well enough to go to regionals and then winning regionals. We think you should register for the CrossFit open this year. Why would we recommend this to you? For many reasons one of which is not because we get anything from it. It's true we own a CrossFit and training facility with a similar approach, and in general, love the training model, but our recommendation has everything to do with you and your personal growth, development, and health. We've all heard the saying that growth happens outside of your comfort zone, well, what better way to get uncomfortable about your fitness than registering for the CrossFit open. Every year the same thing happens during the open. There are people there, who are scared and think they s

Growing up we were always taught that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Breakfast was supposed to serve as a way to get proper nutrients into our bodies and give us the energy to meet the many challenges and needs of the day. It was also thought that eating a healthy (the jury is still out on what 'healthy' means) breakfast helped give us nutrients that would keep us full throughout the day, and would help us lose weight. However, a new study published in BMJ may disagree. According to the study people who ate breakfast ended up about around 260 calories more per day than those that skipped breakfast and ended up weighing slightly more (less than a pound) than breakfast eaters. The purpose of the podcast is to discuss the study, explain how we think this information is relevant to you and discuss the physiology of losing weight. What we cover: Discussion of the study, what we liked about it, what we didn't like about it and our interpretation of the results. Is breakfast really the most import

Skills are cheap passion is priceless -Gary Vaynerchuk As we search the internet looking for topics that we believe would be helpful for you, we can't help but feel overwhelmed. Overwhelmed at the biases, overwhelmed at the atrocious and dishonest headlines, overwhelmed at context drops, overwhelmed at the rude poorly thought out comments towards others, overwhelmed at the lack of empathy and overwhelmed at the ignorance of one of the major factors that will actually make people's lives better... self-responsibility. The overwhelm hit its peak while examining the Canadian Government's phase two of its new Food Guide release: the extra labeling of food that is 'high in sugar, high in saturated fat and high in salt.' You might be wondering why it sounds like we don't like that idea? We don't like that idea because it fails to bring into consideration the most important aspect of whether someone will buy the product and eat it - their desire. The old saying, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him d

January 30th is Bell's Let's Talk day and we know what's coming... Many people in our lives will share both excruciatingly painful and incredibly inspiring stories about their previous struggles and triumphs over their mental health challenges. It's always surprising who posts because you would have 'never expected that person to have a mental health problem,' and that's exactly the point - there is not one person that's not affected by mental health challenges whether directly or indirectly. The Canadian Mental Health Association reports that 1/5 people every year will have a mental health episode, almost 10% of the population will experience a major depressive state in their lifetime, and suicide is the leading cause of death from adolescence to middle age for both men and women. These mental health struggles and challenges also include us. We have both had more than our fair share of problems, triumphs, successes, and misfires, and we believe sharing those with you could be of tremendous benefit. The purpo

The FDA has announced that in 2021 there are changes coming to the way food is labeled in America. Some of the changes include changing the serving size (they say nobody eats just 1/2 cup of ice cream), larger, bolded font for calories and a category of 'added sugars' helping people know the difference between sugars that naturally occur within the food vs. the ones that are added in. The original idea of forcing food manufacturers to use food labels was transparency. It was assumed the more people that knew about what was in their food, the more they would be aware of what they were putting in their bodies and the better the decisions they would make. But has that been the case? The planned action and change has started a conversation and a debate about the whether food labeling has caused more harm than good with some research stating that food labeling, because of it's abstract terms, lack of public education and lack of over diet context, have done more harm than good. What I Covered: How to read labels

As it stands, there is no date set just yet but it has been confirmed that Canada is set to update their food guide. From everything we've read, it sounds like the updated food guide will be released sometime this year.   What's different?   As it sounds, from all the data and articles we could read, the new guide will be recommending fewer animal products, particularly dairy, and more plant-based products and whole grains.   Hasan Hutchinson, director general of nutritional policy and promotion at Health Canada, said that the goal was to base the recommendations on the best available evidence recognized by international organizations.   Hutchinson also said that his department is not saying that animal products aren't nutritious, stating the new guide will continue to recommend low-fat dairy, cheese, yogurt and leaner cuts of meat and poultry.   The purpose of this podcast is to discuss these changes and give our rationale for what we think, and what we would recommend.   What we covered: The purpose of nu

Of course it is! Everything that any human interacts with in their environment alters their brain. Please don't just believe this headline because the obvious situation that's assumed here is that by 'altering' they mean in a negative way. On today's podcast, we examine a study on how screen affects the brains of children and attempt to discern if this is something parents should be concerned about.   The study looked at 11,000, 9-10-year-olds throughout the United States and found that: MRI scans found significant differences in the brains of some children who reported using smartphones, tablets, and video games more than seven hours a day. Children who reported more than two hours a day of screen time got lower scores on thinking and language tests. The article also mentioned the traditional concerns around screen time such as increased risk of obesity, increased risk of depression, how social media affects the brain, and sleep alteration.   The purpose of this podcast is to discuss these results and crea

There are many misleading health articles, plenty of half-truths and an abundance of incorrect information. On today's podcast we focus on the concept of becoming 'toned.'   Our definition of the word toned means - not just losing weight but maintaining or increasing your lean body mass in way that leads to visible muscle on your body.   So how do you do it?   Well, if you paid attention to most articles on the internet you would just have to perform these 8-10 different exercises every day, and in just a few short weeks you'd be toned.    Can this advice work? Of course, if you've already done most of the hardest and longest work, changing exercises or adding different exercise comprised of different reps, tempos, and weight will help, but that's not the whole story.   The purpose of this episode is to give you a better and clearer understanding of what getting toned means and how to go about doing it.   What we covered The difference between health and getting toned up quickly. We're willing to bet that y

This is the last car (life) you're ever going to get... It's what you do now, today, that determines how your mind and body will operate ten, twenty, and thirty years from now.   -Warren Buffett   Buffett is an excellent example of learning and then applying what you've learned to catapult success. If you had asked him 20 years ago, he would have said that he didn't understand tech stocks and would not invest.   Two years ago, much to the investing world's surprise, Berkshire Hathaway (Buffett's holding company) made a sizeable purchase of Apple (a tech company) after which time Apple became the first company in history worth 1 trillion (yes with a T) dollars.   Seems like just because Buffett didn't 'know' about tech companies doesn't mean he was open to learning and using that to his advantage in the future.   So why do you care about this?   You care about this because it's the same way your life can become better.   2018 is almost over and the holidays are always a time for reflection... so what the heck

In a recent study that was published by The New England Journal Of Medicine, probiotics given to children with gastroenteritis (commonly called the stomach flu) had no effect in helping treat the stomach flu.   Nine hundred seventy-one children were selected between the ages of 3 months to 4 years to participate in a randomized controlled double-blind study to measure whether probiotics had a positive effect on the treatment of the stomach flu. The conclusion reached by the medical team was the group treated with the probiotic showed no improvement over the placebo group, therefore, probiotics are not effective in treating the stomach flu.   The purpose of this podcast is to review the study but more importantly to apply the conclusion to the philosophical difference between disease treatment (the practice of medicine) and health creation - what we are encouraging with The Life By Design blueprint.   We do not doubt the study's results - although we are sure there could have been better measures taken by the

In a study published in the New England Journal Of Medicine, scientists and researchers were attempting to help kids with peanut allergies survive in a (for lack of better terms) peanut infested world.   The clinical goal of the research was to systematically expose the treatment group to small amounts of controlled peanut protein every day for 6 months and then a maintenance dose of peanut protein everyday for another 6 months in an effort to get the children to be able to consume a small amount of peanut protein with no ill effect.   In essence, the study is aimed at increasing the adaptability of the human body.   Why should you care about this?    You care because adaptability, or at least that principle, is the very essence of health. If your body has a strong immune system - and one of the ways an immune system stays strong is it's exposed to a manageable level of bacteria and viruses - it gets stronger.   If you systematically expose yourself to heavier weights at the gym you get physically stronger. I

Stand up straight and don't slouch.   Part of being a kid is having our parents tell us to stand up tall about a million and a half times. I'm sure our parents just wanted us to look good and not look like a lazy slouch... but who would have known just how accurate their advice was with regards to maximizing the health of our bodies.   Yes, it's true, many people the fear the 'ugliness' and sloppiness' that poor posture brings - nobody wants to have a massive hump at the base of their neck when they are older - but poor posture affects ALL aspects of your health and physiology - not just the physical ones.   The purpose of this podcast is to cover the adverse health effects that poor posture has on your body mechanics and physiology.   What We Covered What is considered bad posture and why. It's one thing to know that having bad posture is bad for you, but why is it bad for you? What makes it that way? A fundamental review of anatomy and physiology, specifically focusing on your spine and nerve system and h

An article reviewing a study posted on October 23rd by the New York Times claimed that people who ate more organic meat, dairy and produce saw their cancer risk drop by 25%. As you can imagine, and hence why we're doing a podcast on this article, the headline caught our attention. Twenty-five perfect is quite a number. Imagine your salary increased by twenty-five percent? We would imagine you being very thrilled by this fact and rightfully so. The purpose of this podcast is to break down the article and talk about the possible meanings and ramifications of such a finding, exactly what it means and how we believe you could best apply this to your life with the most amazing results.   What We Covered Requirements vs. Strategies. Are you wondering why we start with this? I hope you are. You cannot escape reality and the nature of your body. Sometimes there are peer-reviewed published studies that seem to fly in the face of reality. The latest one that comes to mind is claiming eggs are just as dangerous as s

    It's called a mindset because you get to choose how you want to 'set' your 'mind.' For us at Life By Design this idea was an instant game changer. It means that you get to dictate the pace of your life, it means that you get to be in control.    To be totally clear, and to play devil's advocate for that last statement, it is true, nobody completely controls their lives. We interact with people whom we can't control, the outside world is mostly unpredictable, and crap hit's the fan for all of us. So how can you be in control? You are in control because you get to choose how you respond to the situations you are dealt.   Mentally tough people respond differently.   Charles Darrow, who lost everything during the 1929 stock market crash leading into the great depression, did not succumb to the malaise and fear of being without money, he created a game about losing money, and how to make more called Monopoly, I'm sure you've heard of it. I'm also sure you know that Monopoly still to this day, sells about 2

In today's episode of Life By Design we bring back one of our favourite and most listened to episodes for a BEST OF week...    No surprise it had to do with burning fat!   What if there was something simple you could do that would help switch your body from fat storing to fat burning?   What if it only took 10 seconds a day?   What if there were other amazing things (like better hair, younger looking skin, better concentration and improved mental function) associated with this ‘miracle’ cure.   To end the suspense go listen to today's episode of Life By Design.    What we covered: Why fat is your body’s preferred fuel source. The purpose of fat and how we’ve had it all wrong. What types of fat you should be eating every single day. How a quality fish oil supplement can speed up your fat loss goals.

It is always nice, and not surprising when you read research that supports the idea that improving health makes everything, in this case pregnancy and birth, more comfortable and better for the person who's health increased.   In a study published from the University of Alberta - 150 minutes a week of moderate exercise can result in a 40 percent reduction in the risk of developing gestational diabetes, gestational hypertension and pre-eclampsia researchers discovered.   There was an interesting note that Margie Davenport, a cardiovascular researcher at the University of Alberta made, that pregnant women have been understudied in the past.   The purpose of this podcast is to discuss this research, what it means for pregnant women, and most importantly how to take and apply this research into tangible steps for you to be able to do something with it.   It is one thing to know that exercise is good for you, yet another completely different thing to be able to take that research and do something with it.   What W

Autoimmune disease can be devastating.   Autoimmune diseases are challenging to diagnose (at best), can take various shapes and forms (hence the wide variety of diagnosed autoimmune disorders), can affect different organs and systems in the same person, and to top it all off, can act very differently in each person they affect.   The management of autoimmune diseases has been equally frustrating. Some patients respond well to traditional medical approaches; others do not. Treatment can also be time sensitive meaning what 'worked' before does not 'work' now; with no rhyme or reason as to why. Sometimes symptoms can lie dormant for years and then, seemingly out of nowhere, the patient has a massive flare up.   But one thing that seems to consistently help everyone with an autoimmune disease is to modify their diet.   This is not to suggest that changing your diet is a cure or even a treatment for autoimmune diseases, but it has been shown to help, even tremendously in some people.   The purpose of this podcast

At Life By Design we are big fans of knowledge.   As human beings, we depend on our minds and the mind's development not only to survive but to help us (humans) solve the problems that plague us every day.   Education should be paramount to both the learning and application of knowledge. Unfortunately, in some circumstances, it's not.   We believe that the youth of society, those that are going to carry the torch of humanity's future are not being equipped with the tools necessary to develop their brains fully and completely.   The purpose of this podcast is to share the requirements for education based on what we would like to see, and what we believe you, as a parent can do at home with your children to ensure that they are gaining and applying knowledge.   This podcast is not meant to be a political or a social attack on education. We want to share solutions and tips that we've found helpful for us as parents who know the importance of what a good education can provide to their kids.    We would like to se