Mrs. Burrito Bowl and I do a lot of weird things in the pursuit of overall health and fitness.  I wouldn’t have thought any of these things are particularly strange but I can tell from the look on people’s faces when I explain my morning salt water cocktail, or drinking bone broth for lunch, that they have questions.

I thought it would be fun to have a running list of oddities that we’re trying in our pursuit for immortality.  Without further adieu, here’s a list of healthy people stuff we’ve got going on these days.

Side Note: We are legitimately pretty healthy so you should look into doing some of these things.

Weird Things We Do

Wake Up Early

We wake up every weekday morning at 5:30am even though Mrs. Burrito Bowl doesn’t have to leave for work until 6:40am.  So why do we wake up so early?   Waking up early allows us to start off our day relaxed.  We don’t have to immediately rush around trying to make it to work on time.  We drink our coffee/tea in bed and spend about twenty minutes just reading or waking up gently.

Waking up earlier than you have to is a great way to start your day relaxed instead of stressed.

Intermittent Fasting

I typically fast from 8pm until 12pm Monday-Friday.  What this means is I consume no calories for approximately 16 hours per day.  To be redundant, I restrict my eating window to only consuming calories from 12pm-8pm Monday-Friday.  Not eating during that 16-hour window gives my internal organs a chance to relax and heal.  Additionally, it trains my body to burn fat for energy instead of glucose.

As far as visible benefits go, intermittent fasting has slimmed my midsection considerably.  For the first time since my mid-twenties, I have defined abs.  I attribute this to equal parts intermittent fasting and cutting out most of my beer consumption.

Related:

Intermittent Fasting for Beginners- The Basics

7 Things I do Every Morning to Avoid Decision Fatigue

Wim Hof Breathing

I’ve touched on this several times but my favorite life hack of all time is doing Wim Hof Breathing.  I won’t go into much detail since I’ve written about it a few times, but basically Wim Hof is an awesome dude who developed a breathing exercise to help him cope after his wife passed away.

The Wim Hof breathing exercise helps to calm my anxiety and it puts me in a more pleasant mood.  I do the Wim Hof breathing everyday before I get to my job site.

Watch this video to get an idea of how fun of a guy this Wim character is, and also how to actually perform the breathing exercise.

Related: How to Reduce Your Anxiety for Free- My Favorite Life Hack

Cold Showers

Cold exposure is another leg of the Wim Hof method.  Getting regular cold exposure has all sorts of positive benefits, both physically and mentally, including alleviating depression, helping with muscle soreness, increasing brown fat, and stimulating weight loss.

When you take a cold shower in the morning it helps wake you up and when you take one at night it relaxes your body and helps you sleep better.

I start off my shower with regular people hot water but I always finish off with at least a minute or two of cold exposure.  I make the water as cold as I can get it.  Doing this gives me a mental victory.  I don’t want to turn the water all the way to the cold side, but after I do I feel like karate chopping the world in the penis.*  That’s how good it feels.

*I was going to say karate chop the world in the dick, but my mom wants me to swear less so she can share our articles.  That edit was for you, mom.

Exercise

Exercise is important not only for general physical health but for mental health as well.  Exercise helps lower stress, depression, and increases those feel good endorphins.  I notice a huge difference in my overall life satisfaction on days that I get a good workout in compared to days where I don’t workout.  Being able to walk around all day in a body you’re proud of is a nice benefit as well.

I’ve posted several articles about exercise.  The important part is to get started on an exercise routine that you enjoy.

Related:

Easy 4-Day Gym Rotation to Help You Impress Strangers and Kids

10-Minute Workout for Humans Who Read Blogs About 10-Minute Workouts

5 Easy Ways to Get Back (and stay) in Shape

Go to Bed Early

We finish off our day by going to bed around the same time our nations geriatrics are tucking it in for the night.  We do this because we wake up early, and getting a good night’s rest is important for brain health and overall life productivity.

We tend to get ready for bed around 9pm on weekdays.  We are in our early thirties, don’t have any kids until December, and we go to bed at 9pm by our own choosing.

Weird Things We Eat

Greek Yogurt Ice Cream

I love real people ice cream but I’ve been trying to eat less of it on account of it being filled with sugar and shame.

Enter: Bullshit Ice Cream made from Greek Yogurt.

Costco sells these little Dannon Light & Fit Greek Yogurt 20 packs.  They’re only 80 calories, have 12 grams of protein, 9 grams of carbs and only 7 grams of sugar.

Whenever I get a craving for ice cream, I put one of those suckers in the freezer for about 45 min and they come out pretty close to the texture of ice cream.  To add to the flavor (and so I avoid breaking down into tears like a fat kid who just watched his ice cream cone fall onto the concrete) I heat up a handful of frozen berries and mix those in.  What comes out is a delicious ice cream substitute treat that’s almost as good as ice cream but way better for me.

This is in no way better than ice cream, but it’s better for me, and it’s pretty good.

Cottage Cheese

Have you looked at the nutritional label of cottage cheese lately?  We get the Darigold 2% lowfat cottage cheese from Costco.  We aren’t anti-fat, obviously, but the 2% fat cottage cheese tastes way better than the 5% fat cottage cheese.  Plus, Costco doesn’t carry the 5% kind.

This tub of greatness has 13 grams of protein, 100 calories, 3 grams of fat and 5 grams of carbohydrates in a half cup serving.  If you want to increase your protein intake there aren’t a lot of better options than cottage cheese.

F-Bomb keto Pancakes

Mrs. Burrito Bowl makes these ridiculously good keto pancakes on the weekends.  They are comprised almost entirely of fat and protein.  The great thing about these pancakes is you feel energized after eating them, not sluggish.  These pancakes taste every bit as good as regular pancakes but they’re way healthier.  If you need anymore proof, just look how cute Mrs. Burrito looks making them!  How could you not want to make these? Primary ingredients are butter, almond flour, eggs, and water with the usual seasonings.

Broccoli Sprouts

Broccoli sprouts are super healthy.  Watch this video of Dr. Rhonda Patrick explaining the benefits.  She’s the smartest person alive in regards to nutrients.  If you don’t want to watch the video but do want to make your own broccoli sprouts, it’s really easy and will make you totes healthier.  Promise.  You can get all sorts of broccoli sprouts off amazon.  They are pretty inexpensive, for how much you get, and super healthy.  I freeze mine and put them in my daily smoothie.  They’re also good on sandwiches or salads.

 

 

Weird Things We Drink

Morning Cocktail

Recently, I’ve been drinking a morning cocktail I learned about from listening to the Aubrey Marcus Podcast. I drink this as soon as I wake up.  The recipe is 8oz of water, 1/2 teaspoon Himalayan salt, squirt of lemon or lime juice, along with 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar.

The Himalayan salt replaces electrolytes lost during sleep and has over 60 different minerals that your body needs. The lemon/lime juice gives vitamin C and the apple cider vinegar helps your body burn fat, regulate blood sugar and metabolize carbohydrates.  It’s kind of gross so you know it’s super healthy.

Watch this video of Aubrey Marcus explaining his morning cocktail.  Start at 3 minutes and 40 seconds.

Bullet Proof Coffee

On the weekends when I’m not fasting I’ll make myself bullet proof coffee.  Bullet proof coffee is basically regular coffee that you put coconut oil and butter into and throw it in a blender.  What comes out is a delicious frothy latte.  It’s really good and full of fat.  To add additional flavor I’ll put either cinnamon, peanut butter, or honey.  Lately I’ve been putting in a big spoonful of peanut butter.  The end result is a coffee shop quality peanut butter latte but with almost no sugar.

Bone Broth Lunches

I’ve recently started taking bone broth to work in a jar and heating it up as part of my lunch.  Bone broth is filled with nutrients and has a bunch of protein in it.  My current recipe is 2 cups bone broth, 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin, 1 teaspoon Himalayan salt, 1/2 teaspoon chili powder, and 1 tablespoon grass fed butter.

You should try it.  It’s really good, especially on a cold day. If I make it at home, I blend the ingredients for a couple seconds. On the road, I just throw it in the microwave and shake it up.

Daily Green Smoothies

I don’t have the energy to eat all the healthy stuff I should be eating.  Instead of forcing myself to eat a huge salad everyday, I make a delicious smoothie.  Usually I’ll have my smoothie as a post workout meal, but not always.

I don’t advocate for spending a lot of money on contraptions, but do yourself a favor and buy a Vitamix.  They are spendy, about $320 for the one we have on Amazon. I use ours almost every day. Choose one kid to go to college and buy one of these blenders with the other kids’ college money.

I can throw all sorts of disgusting vegetables into this blender and my smoothie always comes out drinkable.  Cheap blenders leave large chunks.  Large chunks make a smoothie gross. A gross smoothie is a smoothie that won’t get made consistently.  Do yourself a favor and buy a Vitamix, or a comparable brand of blender, and start making yourself a daily smoothie.

Kombucha

We brew our own kombucha at home.  Kombucha is filled with all sorts of healthy gut bacteria.  Brewing it at home saves a lot of money.  Store bought kombucha can cost over $4 per pint if you get it from a grocery store.

As an aside, if you make kombucha yourself you can get the alcohol content a lot higher than with store-bought kombucha.  Not saying this is a positive or a negative, I’m just spitting out facts.

Related:

How to Make Your Own Kombucha…Wait, Come Back

Kefir

Mrs. Burrito Bowl drinks a lot of kefir.  Kefir is like if yogurt was more liquidy and contained organisms.  Much like kombucha, Kefir is full of healthy bacteria that help keep her immune system strong during pregnancy.  As previously mentioned, Kombucha has small amounts of alcohol in it, so while she’s pregnant she sticks with kefir.  You don’t have to be pregnant to drink kefir, btw.

Kefir is high in protein and comes in low fat or full fat options.  We buy the full fat because fat keeps you fuller longer and, contrary to what you may believe, fat doesn’t make you fat.  Avoid kefir that is flavored because that just means it’s full of sugar.  Sugar will make you fat.

Drink Less Beer

Drinking beer is a very calorically high way to get your alcohol fix.  Over the last year or so I’ve almost entirely cut beer from my diet.  The catalyst for this was realizing I no longer possessed abs but I DID possess a beer belly.  Mr. Burrito Bowl is not the type of person who has a beer belly.

In order to cut beer out of my diet I bought a 48-pack of Kirkland Light from Costco.  I know, that seems the opposite of what I should have done.  The thing is, I’m too cheap to go buy more beer if I know I have beer in the house.  I’m also too much of a beer snob to drink Kirkland Light on a regular basis.  Buying a lifetime supply of Kirkland Light was the perfect storm of motivation that got me to switch from daily beer to daily whiskey.  I will also point out that I didn’t cut out alcohol, only beer.  I still drink whiskey, possibly too much, but whiskey has way less calories than beer.

Side Note:  I've recently started cutting out whiskey as well and limiting myself to only having a glass on the weekends unless a particularly shitty workday requires otherwise.

Related: How I Lost 11 Pounds Drinking Kirkland Light

Boom! Healthy Things

Those are a few of the weird healthy people things we’ve been doing lately. Overall I feel great.  I have good energy throughout the day and my life satisfaction is pretty high.  Mrs. Burrito Bowl doesn’t do all of these things on account of being pregnant.  It could be that she’s carrying another human inside her, or it could be because she’s not doing cold showers and Wim Hof breathing, but I do seem to be able to get out of bed quicker than her these days.  Try a few of these and see what works for you.  If you have any questions don’t hesitate to comment or send us an email.

If you have any weirdo healthy things you do, let us know in the comments.  We’re always looking to expand our knowledge and would love to try whatever health nut stuff you’re into.

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