April 29, 2013: The LLVLC Show Episode 676 with guest hosts Vinnie Tortorich and Anna Vocino
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Hollywood trainer Vinnie Tortorich and his podcasting sidekick and voice over talent extraordinaire Anna Vocino, co-hosts of the “Angriest Trainer” podcast, are this week’s guest co-hosts for Episode 676 of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show.” Vinnie appeared as a guest on this show in Episode 651 earlier this year and both he and Anna have a ton of experience running their own fabulous low-carb/health podcast. Vinnie, aside from being America’s Angriest Personal Trainer, is also a trainer-to-the-stars who has appeared (twice!) on Oprah. His co-host Anna is a successful comedian and actress having appeared on The Office, It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, Children’s Hospital and multiple episodes of Jimmy Kimmel Live! She’s also a highly-sought after vocal talent in video games and commercials. Listen in as this dynamic duo explains why Vinnie’s so angry, and why maybe you should be too!

May 1, 2013: LLVLC Classic Episode 677 with Dr. Ann Louise Gittleman
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Clinical Nutrition Specialist and bestselling author Dr. Ann Louise Gittleman is our guest today in this LLVLC Classic interview in Episode 677 of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show.” We continue bringing you some of our favorite long-lost interviews from the archives every Wednesday! Today we have the world famous author of the book The Fat Flush Plan. Dr. Gittleman is the author of over 30 books on all areas of health and nutrition including diet, detox, cleansing and parasites, women’s health, men’s health, menopause, beauty, and environmental health including a couple of New York Times bestsellers. She has also appeared on some major media outlets, including 20/20, Dr. Phil, The View, The Early Show, Good Morning America, Extra, Fox News, PBS, CNN, Good Day New York and The 700 Club! Listen in as Dr. Gittleman and I discuss her fabulous book Get the Sugar Out: 501 Simple Ways to Cut the Sugar Out of Any Diet to help those of you still struggling with the sweet tooth. Listen and enjoy this LLVLC Classic episode!

May 6, 2013: The LLVLC Show Episode 678 with guest host Tony Federico
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Personal trainer and podcaster Tony Federico of the Paleo Magazine Radio podcast is joined by special guests Stefani Ruper, Todd Dosenberry and Joshua Weissman in his guest hosting appearance in Episode 678 of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show.” We are excited to bring you another fantastic guest host, Tony Federico from the “Fitness In An Evolutionary Direction” blog and the awesome new Paleo Magazine Radio (PMR) podcast. Listen in as Tony hosts a fabulous episode featuring “The next generation of Paleo” featuring three inspiring guests who are active in the Paleo movement and are all under the age of 25! Stefani Ruper is the voice behind Paleo For Women and has relied on a combination of Paleo living and natural medicine to correct her health. Todd Dosenberry from Primal Toad discovered Paleo via Mark Sisson at the tender age of 21 in 2010 and he’s been living the life ever since. Finally, 17-year old Joshua Weissman from Slim Palate managed to not only lose 100 pounds on a Paleo diet, but to also escape from an adolescence filled with bullying. Listen in as these four share loads of wisdom beyond their years that should make you very proud for the future of this movement in the decades to come.

May 8, 2013: LLVLC Classic Episode 679 with Dr. William Davis
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Milwaukee, WI-based cardiologist and perennial New York Times bestselling author Dr. William Davis is our guest today in this LLVLC Classic in Episode 679 of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show.” We’re super excited to bring you a pair of great interviews with Dr. William Davis long BEFORE he wrote his blockbuster book that he’s now most famous for called Wheat Belly. In case you weren’t a listener way back when these interviews first aired, you may not realize that even before Wheat Belly came on the scene, Dr. Davis was popular enough to be selected as one of the show’s top five guests of the year, returning for our annual “Encore Week” episodes as one of the best of the best from that year. We knew then that Dr. Davis was destined for greatness and it all started right here on “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show.” Don’t miss this fantastic LLVLC Classic episode where Dr. Davis reveals his thoughts on cholesterol, heart disease and why he advocates for getting a heart scan as a means for determining your true heart health risks!

May 13, 2013: The LLVLC Show Episode 680 with guest host Dan French, Amy Kubal and Corben Thomas
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Guest co-hosts stand-up comedian Dan French, registered dietitian Amy Kubal and moonshine expert Corben Thomas from The Health And Comedy Show podcast bring their own unique style of podcasting to Episode 680 of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show.” Dan French is a fantastically talented stand-up comedian, speaker, writer, and teacher, whose unique career includes being twice nominated for Emmys as a late night comedy writer while also having a Ph.D. in Rhetoric. He lost over 100 pounds on the Paleo diet and now infuses the Paleo message into his comedy routine called “The Comedian’s Diet.” Amy Kubal from “Fuel as Rx” is a Registered and Licensed Dietitian specializing in the Paleo Diet and performance nutrition. She holds both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Food Science and Human Nutrition from Colorado State University. Corben Thomas from “Paleo Life 365″ is a “regular Joe” who spent a long time going through just about every major diet plan until he discovered Mark’s Daily Apple and settled into the Paleo lifestyle which he continues to enjoy to this day! Listen in as these three extremely funny folks take us all on a spin through the world of health and fitness with a decidedly skewed (and sometimes whacked out!) perspective. I just happen to be a BIG FAN of their “Health And Comedy Show” podcast and think you will enjoy them too.

May 15, 2013: LLVLC Classic Episode 681 with Sally Fallon
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Nourishing Traditions author and founder of The Weston A. Price Foundation Sally Fallon is our guest today for this LLVLC Classic in Episode 681 of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show.” Sally has had a lifelong interest in the subject of nutrition which began in the early 1970s when she read the book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by a dentist named Dr. Weston A. Price. That book was so eye-opening for her that she eventually created a foundation based on the work that he did and even wrote a fabulous bestselling book about the traditional food principles in Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats. These days Sally and The Weston A. Price Foundation advocate for eating (and in some cases legalizing) healthy, natural foods and she is one of the leading voices in the real food movement that is going strong today. Listen in to this LLVLC Classic interview where Jimmy and Sally take on topics as diverse as real raw milk, prison food, animals killed in the raising of grains and vegetables and so much more!

May 20, 2013: The LLVLC Show Episode 682 with guest hosts Ben Greenfield and Brock Skywalker
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Triathlete and host of the Ben Greenfield Fitness podcast Ben Greenfield is joined by his Canadian sidekick Brock Skywalker as our special guest hosts in today’s episode of The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show With Jimmy Moore! Ben Greenfield is considered by some to be the Internet’s premier free source of information on exercise, nutrition, weight loss, triathlons and wellness. Today he and his “Ben Greenfield Fitness” podcast sidekick Brock Skywalker have been kind enough to fill in while I’m resting up from the recent Low-Carb Cruise, shipping off a my book to his publisher and preparing to return to podcasting at the beginning of June! Ben is taking calls from listeners in this episode and has some highly controversial things to say about very low-carb diets that induce ketosis. In light of my phenomenal results from my one-year nutritional ketosis experiment, this ought to be interesting. Also, you won’t want to miss hearing when Ben sets his apartment ablaze mid-show–see if you can find when! There’s a lot to this episode, so don’t you miss a single second.

May 22, 2013: LLVLC Classic Episode 683 with Dr. Richard Bernstein
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Physician and low-carb diabetes advocate Dr. Richard Bernstein is our guest today for this LLVLC Classic Episode 681 of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show.” In this repeat of one of our all-time favorite interview guests, the great Dr. Richard Bernstein discusses the struggles he’s gone through to overcome inertia and avarice on the part of the American Diabetes Association, drug manufacturers and many others in the status quo who maintain that diabetics should not even attempt to regulate their blood sugar through diet and merely rely on drug therapy as their sole means for controlling their disease. Dr. Bernstein thinks that is nonsense as you will hear him passionately share with Jimmy in this pair of LLVLC Classic interviews. He is the author of a fantastic book that should be a part of every low-carb library called Dr. Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution: The Complete Guide to Achieving Normal Blood Sugars and we cannot recommend it highly enough to those dealing with some form of blood sugar health issue. Some of what you will hear will be shocking to say the least, but Dr. Bernstein remains cautiously optimistic about the future prospects of low-carb diabetes care. If you or someone you know has diabetes, then you can learn a lot from this man who has lived with Type 1 diabetes for over six decades and counting.

Don’t miss these podcasts coming up later this month:
May 27, 2013: The LLVLC Show Episode 684 with guest host Clark Danger
May 29, 2013: LLVLC Classic Episode 685 with Julia Ross
June 3, 2013: JIMMY RETURNS TO PODCASTING!

Deep down inside I was hoping and praying that I could find a way to get my low-carb plan rolling again for me when it had seemingly stopped working in recent years. What I discovered was that it wasn’t so much that low-carb failed me as much as it was that I was making some key mistakes that needed to be corrected. The changes I made were nuanced, but obviously much more profound than I realized. That’s the biggest lesson I have taken from this experience. Now I’m in a much better place than I was even after my original 180-pound Atkins diet weight loss success. If you missed following my NK experiment over this past year beginning in May 2012, get caught up here: Day 1-30, Day 31-60, Day 61-90, Day 91-120, Day 121-150, 151-180, Day 181-210, Day 211-240, Day 241-270, Day 271-300 and Day 301-330.

Let’s take a look at the guy I was BEFORE I started this experiment in earnest last May. I’ll tell you a secret about this fella: he was not a happy camper at all with where he was physically and emotionally despite seemingly doing all the right things to be at his optimal weight and health:

That was then, but this is now AFTER 12 months of NK:

My Paleo bud Darryl Edwards from “The Fitness Explorer” posted this photo from PaleoFX in March 2012 and then again at PaleoFX in March 2013:

Can you tell I’m just a wee bit different now than I was then? That’d be an understatement! While the weight loss is evident, how about some of the health changes? Look at a recent blood pressure and heart rate reading I had:

Yowsa! Those numbers are pretty stellar and greatly improved from the 160/95 blood pressure and 69 heart rate prior to starting nutritional ketosis. These numbers went from okay to spectacular! They weren’t the only things that got better. Check out what my A1c was just a few weeks ago:

YES! As exciting as the weight loss has been doing this, it’s the health improvements that have made me most proud. Although the official one-year of public updates are over now, I will obviously be continuing to monitor my blood sugar and blood ketones along with other key health tests while continuing to purposely put myself into a state of nutritional ketosis by consuming a high-fat, moderate protein, low-carb nutritional approach. When I attended the American Society Of Bariatric Physicians medical conference in San Diego, CA last month, I was able to publicly thank Dr. Stephen Phinney and Dr. Jeff Volek for writing the book that inspired my n=1 called The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance. So many physicians attending the event came up to me asking about what I did. It’s something that has the potential to help so many more people. More on that after I share my final 30-day update with all my latest numbers. Let’s take a look what Day 331-360 ended up looking like:

AM BLOOD KETONE LEVELS – DAY 331-360

It was a pretty typical month for AM readings averaging around .8 millimolar with a few high days while I was in San Diego. I’m still not sure why my ketone levels seem to soar when I am away from home. Whether it is the change in food or something else, I find it intriguing that it seems to happen without fail. As long as I am above 1.0 millimolar most of the time, I know I am burning fat for fuel. If you’re testing in the morning, don’t be discouraged if your numbers are lower. Just keep tweaking by lowering the carbohydrates, lowering the protein and upping the fat. It’s something that Dr. Phinney discussed in this lecture he gave about “The Art And Science Of Nutritional Ketosis”:

http://vimeo.com/61215449

Some have wondered how often they should be testing their blood ketones and the answer to that is up to you. I think if you measure once or twice in the morning and night each week should give you an idea of where you stand. How about my PM ketone levels for Day 331-360? Let’s take a look:

PM BLOOD KETONE LEVELS – DAY 331-360

It’s an average of 1.6 which is nearly double the morning readings. That’s what you can expect from your nighttime blood ketones as long as you measure at least four hours after your last meal. You should be able to be well above 1.0 millimolar with your PM blood ketone levels when you’ve found your carbohydrate tolerance and protein threshold. Fat is your friend, so eat up on the healthy natural saturated and monounsaturated fats. How about the weight loss in Day 301-330:

WEIGHT LOSS – DAY 331-360

As has been typical since the weight loss has slowed down in recent months, the loss is not a steady daily movement. There’s a bit of ebb and flow and I realize that’s all a part of it. Up a little, down, down, down, up, up, down down down…I don’t fret about what my weight is doing in the day-to-day because in the end the trend is still down. Now that my experiment is finished, I may not weigh everyday anymore. I merely did that as a measurement for this n=1 test. I ended up with a 3.8-POUND WEIGHT LOSS which is about a pound a week. Not too shabby after a year of doing this. WOO HOO! What does that make my total weight loss for this one-year experiment? Check it out:

CUMULATIVE WEIGHT LOSS – DAY 0-360

The final tally came in at a TOTAL WEIGHT LOSS OF 78 POUNDS for this experiment. If you had told me in May 2012 that I’d lose 78 pounds to get back to a weight that is lower than I saw at the end of my Atkins weight loss success in 2004 and that for the first time in my adult life I am wearing shirts that begin with an “L” in front instead of an “X,” I probably wouldn’t have believed you. But it’s not only happened, I’m still excited about what the future holds now that I’ve found that sweet spot that works for me. Not everyone necessarily needs to be in nutritional ketosis to see the same kind of changes that I have seen. But if you’ve struggled and can’t seem to get anything else to work, it’s certainly worth giving it a try. Now let’s look at my AM blood sugar levels in Day 331-360:

AM BLOOD SUGAR LEVELS – DAY 331-360

Yes, I had a few funky blood sugar readings while I was traveling in San Diego and then on the trip to Texas for the Low-Carb Cruise. The average fasting readings in the morning were around 85 which I’ll take every day of the week. Yes, I’m still taking the blood sugar lowering supplement Glycosolve (two in the morning and two at night) to go along with my nutritional ketosis. How about my PM blood sugar readings in Day 331-360:

PM BLOOD SUGAR LEVELS – DAY 331-360

An average of 86 for this cycle which is right where I like it. The fact that my A1c is as low as it is at 4.3 shows that my blood sugar control has been stellar. I fully intend to keep this trend going. It’s interesting how very little it takes to make my blood sugar go up. Even a little bit of cashew butter sets it off–and I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of vegetables could as well. Perhaps that could be a future n=1 test to see what impact consuming green, leafy vegetables has on my blood sugar and blood ketone levels. Stay tuned!

Now that the n=1 of nutritional ketosis is over, that doesn’t mean I won’t keep testing stuff. Someone in Spokane, Washington asked me if I tested for pH balance to see if I’m acidic or alkaline and I did this urine test daily over a two-week period–I’m almost always alkaline in the 8.0-9.0 range. One of my medical friends paid for me to have my hair analyzed for minerals and toxins and I’ll share the results from that test in another post soon. If you want to help me keep running tests on my health, then feel free to e-mail me what tests you would like to see along with making a donation towards this effort through PayPal:

Or CLICK HERE to donate!

Where do I go from here? Stay the course, keep doing what’s working for me, encouraging others in their own NK journey, tracking my health progress along the way, sharing any interesting data with you on my blog, doing lectures on my nutritional ketosis experiment (and even presenting a poster at Ancestral Health Symposium in Atlanta, GA in August 2013) and pursuing my next big goal–I WANNA SEE MY ABS! Yes, I realize this is a very challenging goal and that’s the point. I will do what I gotta do to make it happen. It may take a few years, but I’ll never stop pursuing this goal.

The day before I left on the Low-Carb Cruise, I signed the book contract to write my next book about my nutritional ketosis experiment called Keto Clarity tentatively set to release in March 2014. This has the potential to help so many people…I can’t wait to get the message out there to the masses! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for all of your amazing support of me throughout this one-year experiment. I’m grateful for all of your encouragement and motivation to keep me going even when the going got tough. I feel like I’m just now getting started and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Since I’ll be gone for a little while, I will continue my long-standing tradition of sharing 42 amazing new Paleo, low-carb and health blogs with you. If you like what you see at any of these blogs, then don’t hesitate to leave them a comment on their blog, write an e-mail to the blog author and bookmark their blog to visit again soon. In case you missed any of my previous blog listings, I’ve got them all listed for you here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Here are 42 new Paleo, low-carb and health blogs for May 2013:

1. LOW CARB KITTY
2. MY FAT STORY
3. PEACE, LOVE, AND LOW CARB
4. LOSE WEIGHT WITH KETO
5. STAY AT HOME PALEO
6. JEFF HERTZOG’S BLOG
7. BAM POW PALEO
8. NATURALLY HEALTHY LIVING
9. BIG FAT BLOG
10. 365 DAYS OF BACON
11. THE PALEO SECRET
12. THE PALEO DRUMMER
13. SABINE’S FAMOUS LOW-CARB RECIPES
14. PALEOPANTS
15. DIABETES IS BS
16. CALORIES PROPER
17. PALEO & ANCESTRAL NUTRITION SOLUTIONS
18. PASTA TO ZUCCHINI
19. LOW CARB HEALTHY FAT
20. PALEO/PRIMAL LIVING IN NEW ORLEANS
21. MEAT HIPPIES
22. LIVIN PALEO
23. BM STRENGTH AND FITNESS SYMPTOMS
24. NUTRITION EVOLUTION
25. JUEL’S FUEL
26. PALEO HOMESCHOOL
27. PALEO TORONTO
28. PALEO FOR POWER
29. KEEPING UP WITH THE PALEOS
30. BETWEEN WOD’S
31. DOUGS RAMBLINGS
32. CHOOSING TO EAT
33. HOT PINK CHILLI
34. 77ZERO
35. POP AN EGG ON IT
36. EAT.RUN.REHABILITATE.
37. FOOD TRUTH ONLINE
38. PALEO DIET FACTORY
39. CARBSANER
40. GET EDUCATED, GET HEALTHY
41. SOLA FIDE
42. A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A SUPER NURSE

If you or someone you know has a low-carb, Paleo or health blog or web site that you’d like to see featured in a future blog post here at “Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb,” then I’d love to know about it. E-mail me the name of the blog and the URL to livinlowcarbman@charter.net so I can add it to my next big blog update. If you’ve been successful in your weight and health goals by eating a healthy Paleo or low-carb diet, then you should DEFINITELY consider blogging–the more voices we have out there talking about this stuff, the better! I’m anxious to getting back into the regular groove of my schedule again beginning in June when we’ll be celebrating my 8-Year Blogiversary with lots of great giveaways! COMING SOON!