Welcome to The BOOK, where I Michael will lay out Nutritional Information, guidelines, health tips, and Insights, all supported by scientific references. This ensures the information provided is credible and actionable, empowering you to apply it in your own life to enhance your quality of living.

Glossary

Sleep

Bad sleep is learned, so we can unlearn what is not serving us and apply strategies that will support us in having great sleep.

- Do not consume caffeine after 1 pm, caffeine can last up to 12 hrs in your system, preventing you from sleeping.

- Cut out blue light 1 hour before bed, blue light can trick your brain into thinking it is daytime, it blocks Melatonin (makes you sleepy) from being excreted and produces cortisol (makes you awake, elevated is equal to stress) which prevents you from sleeping, to cut out blue light it is best to use the night shift mode in your phone, for Iphone access your phone's "Accessibility" section in settings, to enable the feature and adjust the color to red, It can be then turned on and off with 3 clicks of the home button, using this setting allows for melatonin to be produced and your body to want to fall asleep.

- Have a camomile tea before bed, it contains a compound that relaxes the mind and aids in sleep onset. working at the same pathway as the drugs like benzos/xanax, research shows significant results among stress, anxiety and insomnia, so if you have a mind that runs as you are going to sleep you will notice a great benefit in incorporating in your routine, I recommend getting 100% camomile tea, steeping for at least 5 mins, and having it roughly 30 mins before bed (Srivastava et.al 2010)

- Supplement with magnesium (any form, preference of glycine or citrate) 1-2 capsules before sleep.

- View natural sunlight within 1 hour of waking, this will aid in your circadian rhythm.

- I do not recommend taking melatonin, prolonged supplementation teaches your body to stop producing it, Melatonin is fantastic when flying to a different time zone and you need to adjust, take melatonin after dusk an hour or two before sleep, this can be used over 3-4 days until your body adjusts to the new timezone.

- Stress and Anxiety from our perception of life can prevent us from sleeping, this is mostly caused by elevated cortisol or a flight or fight response being active (sympathetic), a camomile tea can help with the symptoms as mentioned above, grounding by electrically neutralising our body can greatly reduce these symptoms, getting barefoot on the ground and taking deep belly breaths in you can notice the tension release from the neck and head, only a few minutes is needed.

 Pre-Workout/Intra-workout/Post-Workout

‘Creatine’ is mentioned here since it has to be taken daily for weeks to have an effect, I recommend this to young, old, and or female, as the amazing benefits it provides to all people, ATP serves as your body's energy currency, and creatine helps increases that supply, all parts of the body, brain, lungs, heart use ATP to function, so an increase in all those? Yes please.

Dose 5g Daily, quality does not matter so look for the cheapest available as they are all the same!

  • Increase cognitive capacity

  • Muscle retention, amazing for women and the elderly. Muscle retention is a defining trait of longevity.

  • Reduced extra-cellular fluid, and an increase in intracellular muscle fluid, meaning less water around your muscles (bloated look), and more fluid in the muscle (look leaner).

  • Increase in muscle strength and endurance.

Pre-Workout Guidelines

Hydration and electrolytes are the most important components of a great workout, electrolytes such as sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium etc, are needed for proper muscle contraction, and note that the brain, lungs, heart, and all parts of the body are muscles, affecting the function of the body on many levels, consuming a variety of fruit and vegetables will provide varying amounts of minerals for the body to use, quality salt such as Celtic sea salt or pink himalanyan salt containing 80-90% sodium with trace minerals will provide a healthy sodium source.

  • Hydrate 2-3 hours prior to training.

  • The digestive system is to be empty, so main meals should be consumed at least 2-3 hours prior to an intense session. If food is in our digestion it takes energy and blood flow to break down food, taking that away from the muscles when intense exercise is taking place.

  • 30 mins prior to training. 1/4 tsp of salt or electrolytes.

  • 30 mins to 1 hour prior to training a small meal can be consumed involving quick digesting carbohydrates, can increase workout capacity and intensity, examples are lollies, white bread, fruit, and jam. Fats and proteins are to be avoided as they can slow digestion and take time to break down.

    non-stimulus Pre-Workout

  • Citruline - Increases Nitric Oxide for vasodilation (pump), reduces muscle soreness and increases recovery from exercise due to increases blood flow, increasing nutrient delivery to the muscle and clearance of waste products like lactate and ammonia therefore increases the time till exhaustion (Gough et al, 2021).
    10-15g dose to illict a response. 1 hr before training.

  • Beta-alanine - That Tingle feeling, personally I do not like it, exercise of less than 60s duration are not improved by β-alanine, significant elimination of fatigue during high-intensity exercise, particularly in exercise capacity tests and measures, and where the exercise lasts between 1 and 4 min, · Beta-alanine appears to increase training volume, however, more research is needed to see if there is an effect on strength gains (Trexler et al. 2015).
    paraesthesia (tingling), 1.6G as a lower dose but 4-6g as a full dose.

  • Betaine anhydrous - Increases power but not strength, allows for more efficient use of dietary protein, accelerates lean mass gains, and mass retention, reduces fat mass and body fat percentage, the increase in lean mass is due to a greater training load over time.
    2.5g Dose

  • Taurine - That redbull additive, Taurine accounts for ~50% of the total free amino acids in the heart; it has been shown to enhance cardiac contractility and improve heart function, shown to lower blood pressure, also found in the brain affecting cognitive processes, mood, behavior, memory, learning, and reduction of anxiety.
    3-6 g Daily.

  • Tyrosine - Precursor to neurotransmitters dopamine (what is needed in your brain to make you feel accomplished and happy), L-Tyrosine supplementation may help alleviate acute stress-induced cognitive decline by restoring catecholamine levels in the brain. Improves performance in stressful environments, distance in heat or cold. Due to stressful perception can cause a decrease in neurotransmitters (Tumity et al. 2011).

Endurance

Activities that exceed 90 minutes are placed in the category. Larger quantities of carbohydrates are recommended to be consumed leading into events to allow for more carbohydrates to be stored in the body, basically, more fuel to use before your body relies on other forms.

  • Sports drinks, gels and lollies are great to provide the body with quick acting carbs for intra workout (during session). 20-25 g every 30 mins, this can be having 2-3 snake lollies.

Post Workout

An easy answer, a big meal! Your body is a broken down, damaged dry sponge ready to take on amino acids (protein) and replenish glycogen stores (carbs), aim to consume the majority of your daily protein within the 1 to 2 meals after your workout,

  • Aim for 25-50g or 25% of your Daily protein goal for your postworkout meal, this can look like a protein shake with a banana within 1 hour after your workout (20g) and another large meal with slow digesting protein and carbohydrates (30g) 2 hours later, or what I like to do is consume 30-50g of protein with a quality carbohydrate source within 4 hours of training.

  • Combining carbs with protein replenishes glycogen stores increasing muscle recovery.

  • Heavy sweating sessions should involve replenshing of electrolytes and fluids, water rich fruit such as melons, oranges, pineapple, and coconut water are great.

Weight Loss Tips

Allulose zero calorie sweetener

Adding this as a daily supplement acts the same as the weight loss drug ozempic, having benefits in reducing appetite, increasing satiety and improving blood sugar regulation so It is fantastic to take if you have any form of insulin resistance, read further info in the blog post found in the Nutrition Bites Tab https://www.mikeseeksnutrition.com.au/nutrition-bites.

How to Use Allulose

Simply add a heaped teaspoon or 5-10g to your morning coffee or a main meal. It’s a great additive to carb-rich meals like smoothie bowls, as it can lower the glucose spike from blended fruit.

Allulose has a lingering effect when taken daily for weeks, with GLP-1 increasing over a 12 week period, so take it as a daily supplement.

References

- Arazi, H., Aboutalebi, S., Taati, B., Cholewa, J. M., & Candow, D. G. (2022). Effects of short-term betaine supplementation on muscle endurance and indices of endocrine function following acute high-intensity resistance exercise in young athletes. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 19(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/15502783.2022.2041988 
- Gough, L. A., Sparks, S. A., McNaughton, L. R., Higgins, M. F., Newbury, J. W., Trexler, E., Faghy, M. A., & Bridge, C. A. (2021). A critical review of citrulline malate supplementation and exercise performance. European journal of applied physiology, 121(12), 3283–3295. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-021-04774-6 
- Srivastava, J. K., Shankar, E., & Gupta, S. (2010). Chamomile: A herbal medicine of the past with bright future. Molecular medicine reports, 3(6), 895–901. https://doi.org/10.3892/mmr.2010.377
- Trexler, E. T., Smith-Ryan, A. E., Stout, J. R., Hoffman, J. R., Wilborn, C. D., Sale, C., Kreider, R. B., Jäger, R., Earnest, C. P., Bannock, L., Campbell, B., Kalman, D., Ziegenfuss, T. N., & Antonio, J. (2015). International society of sports nutrition position stand: Beta-Alanine. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 12, 30. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12970-015-0090-y
- Tumilty, L., Davison, G., Beckmann, M., & Thatcher, R. (2011). Oral tyrosine supplementation improves exercise capacity in the heat. European journal of applied physiology, 111(12), 2941–2950. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-011-1921-4