If I think back to the very first grubby T-Shirt that I had printed in the name of Thorfit, you would see that there’s a slogan on it, and it read… Live long, Live strong. Over the years, I have vacillated from being the “turnaround specialist” for the chronically overweight, to being a mindset one-stop shop for Silverbacks, and while I would not chalk this up to indecision, but rather a metamorphosis of continued improvement, today, I would have to admit that my very first slogan rings the truest of all, namely that my biggest fascination is learning and sharing how to
“live long and live strong.”
What do I mean by this? To live a long life is one thing, easy to quantify. Today’s science and medicine is literally giving us the knowledge by which we can drastically increase our life spans. That’s good and great in and of itself, but it’s no good to become a world of centenarian zombies, patrolling the cities with our Zimmer frames. The magic lies in living strongly too.
I want to see my children’s children being born and I want to celebrate this with them by being healthy enough to dance with them in celebration… literally. What I don’t want, is to be wheeled into the maternity ward with a wheelchair, eyes glazed over and drooling out of my mouth. I want to be part of the party. Of course, Father Time is inescapable in the ned, but here’s the kicker… Science and medicine have advanced to a point, where we can extend our life-spans by 30%. Given the option, wouldn’t you like to add another third of your life to your life or better said… When you hit 80, you could be looking and feeling like 50. It’s possible you know.
Ok, I hope you’re at least mildly intrigued. So, in scratching my own itch, I am uncovering so many fascinating concepts, that I find it hard not to share these. This is how the 4F’s of Thorfit came about, the first of which is Fasting. You may ask why a simple habit of not eating gets its very own F, – I mean it’s not as much fun as F’&#’ing and that never got an F…
Traditionally, we have been taught that we should never be hungry.
Big mistake.
The traditional view was that this was not good for the pancreas and caused fluctuations that were deemed unhealthy.
I would like you to relegate the constantly fed state to the shelf where you may find guns and poison and stress and other things that will kill you.
Why is it that animals that go through periods of hunger as opposed to having food available to them all the time, will live 30% longer than those that are able to feed when they want to?
There are longevity genes in the body called kirsutins (probably not the right spelling) There are 7 of them. If you have low levels of insulin, those low levels turn on the longevity genes. If you are constantly in a fed state and have high levels of insulin, this means that your longevity genes are not switched on. Your clock is essentially ticking faster by always being fed. You’re falling apart quicker.
You are not allowing the cells to have periods of rest.
A recent study in which over 1000 mice were fed with various macro combinations – Protein, Carbs, fat. One group had food available all the time whereas the other group was given food for an hour a day. The mice consumed roughly the same amount of calories, but the group that only ate in the hour window had a life expectancy of twice as long as those which had the food availed to them all the time. It’s not really about what you eat, as much as it is about WHEN you eat that really matters.
So, if you want to age gracefully and dance like you’re 50 on your 80’th birthday, do yourself a favor and become aware of the harsh effect that a constant state of glucose saturation has on your body. It literally exhausts your body on a cellular level and you age quicker, because your body is not given a rest. This is why we do the insulin re-set. This is why I ask you to adopt a Fasting practice. If your body is like a battery, the act of not eating for some time is like switching the system off for a while, and then turning it back on when you do eat… If your battery is always on, your light will dim sooner – it’s basic science.
The single biggest favor your can do yourself when it comes to improving your health and thus your life expectancy, is to adopt a fasting practice. We will delve deeper into this periodically. For now, I am looking forward to eating something delicious at lunchtime, because my last meal was a day ago, but we’ll work you towards this…
