We know about amino acids, hormones, and how different foods affect our ability to build lean muscle, burn fat and stay healthy.

But if we want to achieve maximum levels of energy, recovery, health and performance, and build the most lean muscle, then we need to go down to the cellular level.

After all, our bodies are just one big mass of some 100 trillion cells all bonded together.

How well we're doing is an exact reflection of how well our cells are doing.

And they require a multitude of nutrients and biochemicals, all held in equilibrium, to ensure they can work properly, produce energy, build muscle, and keep our body going.

When these aren't properly balanced we can get headaches, brain fog, low levels of energy, muscle cramps, slower recoveries from workouts, and imbalances in hormones.

But when everything is in place, we have the most powerful you that you can be.

So let’s see how this works.

In today’s world, from the viewpoint of our bodies, they’re under constant attack.

Harmful toxins come in through our air, food and water, and even our clothing and personal care items. And these are at levels over 50 times that of just a few decades ago.

And they are affecting us quite significantly.

On top of that, our processed foods not only contain harmful chemicals, but have key vitamins and nutrients processed out of them. The exact nutrients our bodies need to fight or neutralize the harmful chemicals coming in.

As just one example, if you were to buy beef, you should be able to expect that it has one ingredient: beef. Nothing else. Why would it?

However, unless you’re buying completely naturally raised, certified organic, 100% grass-fed and finished beef, what you’re actually getting generally includes Antibiotics, tranquilizers, pesticides, animal drugs, artificial flavors, industrial wastes, and growth-promoting hormones.

Just to name a few.

Not quite one ingredient.

But what do you think these chemicals do in our body? How do they affect us?

Because that’s just one food source. We have the same things happening in vegetables and fruits today, and almost all of our processed, packaged or boxed foods.

We get literally thousands of chemicals in through our water sources, drinks, and even our skin care products and our clothes.

What does this do to our body?

Well, look at the amount of physical conditions occurring in society today. These either didn’t exist or were in most cases quite rare just four or five decades ago.

Look at stress levels, hormonal imbalances, and common allergies today.

And look at how fast aging is occurring in our younger generations, with members of Gen Z appearing to age faster than Millenials, and Millennials aging faster than Gen X and Boomers.

This is a real thing.

So let’s dive in and see exactly how these chemicals affect us and what we can do about it.

There are two main things driving obesity rates in America today, the exact things which make it easy to gain body fat and hard to lose it: processed sugars… and soy- and corn-based processed foods and meats.

Each of these increase cortisol levels more than almost anything else in our diet, and each for their own reasons.

We’ve already covered processed sugars.

Now let’s cover processed foods.

The use of corn and soy in our diet, and the diets of our cows and chickens, has grown steadily over the last hundred years.

But in the last several decades its use skyrocketed. And this is one of the key factors behind obesity rates in America today.

Today about 80% of what our livestock is fed is soy and corn. And corn and soy are also used as a base for almost all processed foods.

But while they are high in carbohydrates, and that increases body fat creation, they’re also high in something else: Omega 6 fatty acids.

And high omega 6 levels lead to high cortisol levels. And that leads to high body fat creation, high stress levels, poor sleep and recovery, and a host of other physical conditions now prevalent in society today.

Let’s dig in and see how this works.

The ability to fully digest and absorb protein determines our body's ability to not only burn fat, but to keep it off afterwards.

It also affects our energy levels, hormones, inflammatory response, ability to build lean muscle, and overall health.

Even more, when protein digestion goes, along with it goes the ability to protect ourselves from harmful microorganisms.

Everything hinges on protein digestion.

So, understanding exactly how digestion works, and how to keep or get it working, is very important.

The hardest part of any diet, whether for fat loss, muscle gain or health, is getting over our cravings for sugar and junk food.

There's no question there.

The only real question is how? It can be so hard!

I understand. And in case you feel alone in this struggle — you're not.

It's the hardest part of any diet or lifestyle change, and where most people fall off.

But to know how to fix this we need to know exactly what's causing it.

And one thing I can tell you is not causing it... is you having a "weak will."

That's not it at all.

There are very exact things causing these cravings, and they can turn them on hard.

In today's article I cover exactly what is causing them (all the reasons), why they can be so hard to get over, and exactly how to address them to make the transition as smooth as possible (which is exactly what the Fat Loss Protocol is designed to do).

I think you'll like it.

If we want a fit, lean, healthy body that lasts into our later years, then we need to not only put in the work and eat right, but we need to be able to spot any pitfalls in our path and handle them before they become a problem.

I'm talking about illness, physical issues, organ troubles, cardiovascular issues, etc.

Many things can exist and are quite visible or easy to spot. But only because they've become big enough to spot. However, there was a point before they became big enough to be visible when they were harder to spot... but much easier to address.

Health troubles can exist without us knowing, leading to troubles we can see later on, if only because they've gotten worse.

They can even impact our ability to build muscle, recover, or lose body fat, without us ever knowing they were there, existing.

But if these things are still too small to see right now, then how do we know? And how can we catch them before they become a problem?

That’s where Heart Rate Variability comes in.

Heart Rate Variability, or HRV, is a literal measuring stick of our current health and how well our body is able to adapt and recover. And it’s something we can use to monitor ourselves.

Whether we're into extreme sports and maximum physical performance, or trying to achieve optimal health for a long life, learning what HRV is, and how to use it, puts our health and performance in our hands.

This helps us spot trouble when it’s still a ways away, so we can handle it before it gets out of hand.

We’ve all seen energy drinks advertised on social media, by influencers, and even by athletes.

And the number of people drinking these on an almost daily basis has been growing for years.

But the effect these energy drinks, as well as high levels of coffee have on our bodies, our health, our sleep, our stress levels, our mood, our hormones, and our ability to lose body fat and gain lean muscle is much more than most people think.

These energy drinks have high amounts of caffeine, sugars, and processed sugars, often under the guise of several different ingredients so you don’t see quite how much is in there.

While they may list 160 mg of caffeine as an ingredient, other ingredients listed supply even more caffeine and other types of stimulants.

How much stimulant is actually in them? I don’t know. But much more than anyone needs, especially when they’ve usually already had a couple cups of coffee in the morning.

And, while having one once, or very infrequently, may not be too bad, when continued over time, these can have a very significant impact on our long-term health, our aging, and our body’s ability to function at optimal levels.

Beyond this, many people who drink these are in their teens or twenties, when their bodies are still developing and growing, and the damage they do here can be far worse, leading to acute or even chronic health issues in the future.

This may seem small, but due to their prevalence and availability now, it’s very important.

In this article we cover how this works, and even go into the sleep/wake cycle, what occurs there, and how this affects it.

Cortisol is one of the most important hormones in our body. It’s been called the “stress” hormone because it’s released during moments of stress.

But it’s also the hormone that wakes us up in the morning, that starts the healing process in our body after any injury or workout, and that provides us with energy and mental focus when we’re “running low.”

But unfortunately, when cortisol levels go too high, it becomes something else.

It can cause muscle loss and prevent muscle gain, cause fat storage and prevent fat loss even when we’re exercising, cause low energy levels, cause us to feel stressed, cause poor sleep, and even slow or prevent healing and recovery.

If you have trouble with any of the above, it’s likely that higher than normal cortisol levels play a part.

But that’s when it’s too high. And, unfortunately, for many people in society today, it already is too high.

So let’s dive in and see what cortisol is, how it works and how we can balance our levels.

There is something that will directly improve our ability to recover, our performance, our overall energy levels and metabolism, and which is key to overall health more than almost anything else (though we'd never think it was).

This is something that very specifically controls or improves or decreases our body's overall ability to repair itself, recover, and function correctly.

It directly affects our longevity, our ability to gain lean muscle, our cardiovascular health, our ability to keep weight off more easily, our energy levels and mood, and which allows us to keep improving over time.

And it's also something that directly affects and increases or decreases our overall health.

It's called VO2 Max. V is for Volume, O2 is for Oxygen, and Max is for Maximum.

VO2 Max is literally the maximum amount of oxygen our cells can use to produce energy at any given time. It's how much horsepower our body has.

A person who is unwell in one way or another has a low ability to produce energy. A well person has good energy ability. And an athlete has high energy production capability.

Conversely, a person who has a low ability to produce energy will become unwell over time, and a person with high energy production will remain well, barring emergency situations.

From a performance view, VO2 max is literally the maximum amount (volume) of oxygen that your cells can utilize to produce energy during intense exercise before you burn out.

Our cells only have so many energy-making "engines" (mitochondria). So even if we increase oxygen to the cells, if there are not enough mitochondria to use that oxygen, we don't increase energy.

If we can increase the number of these engines, our body's horsepower, then we increase our VO2 Max, and how much energy we can produce.

Raising this allows us to raise overall performance, energy, endurance, recovery ability, and overall health. And leads to greater longevity.

Let's dive in.

This is the first issue in a series on Extreme Athletes, those who push themselves to the max to achieve their goals and, possibly, greatness.

But, while the information in this series applies very strictly to extreme athletes, it applies just as much to anyone else trying to achieve peak performance for themselves in fitness and athletics, while staying healthy overall.

Also, while we will cover points individual to specific sports, most of the information is applicable to all sports and performance, energy, and recovery as a whole.

In this first article we’ll start with one of the key, over-riding aspects to maximize not only the ability and performance of an elite athlete, but of anyone.

Because, when you put your body through as much stress and pressure as an athlete does, every one of your organs, muscles, nerves, bones, hormones, etc., all play a part.

And, while any weak links will bring down the rest, improving any weak spots in health will help increase the energy production and performance of the overall.

It hasn’t been understood by most people just how vital our gut health is to our heart health.

But in truth, it’s key. If our gut health is good, and our digestive tract working properly, the risk of poor heart health is much lower.

If our gut is in poor condition, however (heart burn or acid reflux often, bloating, pains, regular diarrhea, or worse), then this will, over time, lead to poor heart health.

But gut health among Americans has diminished drastically in recent times, worsening every year mainly due to our processed foods and sugars, and the 50x increase in toxins in our environment in the last 7 decades.

Now, younger and younger people every year are experiencing more and more gut issues which were rare even in older individuals in earlier generations.

And along with them, they're experiencing more cardiovascular issues.

This is something we need to address now, for each of us, to ensure a long and healthy life.

We’ve touched on how toxins affect our digestive tract and microbiome, and also how they lead to Leaky Gut and to our immune system mistaking healthy cells for harmful microbes that must be destroyed.

They cause an inflammatory response, both in our digestive tract and throughout our body over time.

They affect our hormones, energy levels, and mental focus. They make losing body fat and building muscle much harder due to increased cortisol levels.

And they speed the aging process, both internally and in our skin and overall appearance.

But now we’re going to dive deeper. And to give a real idea of how this works we're going to look at how one toxin, Glyphosate, affects us.

Glyphosate is the key ingredient in the herbicide Roundup, which is used on most major crops today.

This is a real problem, because it's one of the most toxic substances there is.

And due to its widespread use, it’s in almost all processed foods and non-organic meats.

And it plays a very large roll in the destruction of our digestive tract, microbiome and overall health, leading to Leaky Gut and some of the worst physical conditions there are.

So let’s dive in and see how this actually affects us and what we can do.