part 7: the schwarzbein program

Benefits Of Following The Program

By balancing your metabolism and slowing your aging process, you will also experience a number of obvious benefits that will improve not just your health but also your quality of life. Based on feedback from thousands of people over more than two decades, below is a list of the kinds of benefits they have received by following The Program. Of course, the actual benefits are unique to everyone and are dependent on the current condition of your metabolism and how faithfully you adhere to The Program.

• Increased Energy – Stop feeling tired or exhausted; increase your stamina.
• Improved Mood and Sense of Wellbeing – Start feeling like yourself again; get motivated; be more present.
• Enhanced Mental Clarity – Improve your ability to concentrate and focus; no more “brain fog”
• Improved Memory – Increase uptake and retention; sharpen your recall.
• Increased Productivity – Get more done each day in less time and with less effort.
• Improved Strength and Flexibility – Reclaim lost capacity to lift, carry, and move.
• Reduced Stress – Eliminate hidden causes of stress; increase your ability to handle stress.
• Increased Libido – Regain your desire for physical intimacy and your ability to enjoy it.
• Better Sleep – Awaken feeling refreshed and ready for your day.
• Fewer Aches and Pains – Reduce the inflammation that causes joint and muscle pain.
• Better Digestion – Get more benefit from the food you eat; eliminate digestive problems.
• Improved Bowel Function – Become more regular and support colon health.
• Improved Immune Function – Better prevent illnesses and recover more quickly when they do occur; minimize allergies.
• Reduced Cravings – Eliminate dependencies on sugar, alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine
• Reduced Dependencies on Medicines: Eliminate the need to rely on various medications to treat the numerous symptoms of metabolic imbalance.
• Fewer Food and Environmental Allergies – Reduce both the frequency and effect of reactions to certain foods and environmental allergens.

The Elements Of The Schwarzbein Program

The goal of The Schwarzbein Program is to regain and sustain a balanced metabolism. We make this happen by helping you create and maintain the right conditions to maximize Building and minimize Excessive Using. Not so much by changing what you do, but, rather, by making some changes to how you do what you do.

To be clear, by “minimize Excessive Using” I am not saying that you should stop living your life, being active and engaged. Rather, what I am saying and will show you how to do, is to live your life as you wish to live it, but with “optimal” Using. Basically, maintaining the same “standard of living,” but at a far lower metabolic “cost of living.”
The Schwarzbein Program focuses on five Habit areas:

• Nutrition
• Sleep
• Stress
• Foreign chemicals
• Movement and exercise

The Program also focuses on Hormone Balancing Therapy. Since hormones regulate every aspect of your metabolism, if your body can no longer produce a hormone in sufficient quantities, then Hormone Balancing Therapy is called for.

Nutrition

Nutrition is essential to metabolic balance. It is what enables Building. Without the proper amounts and mix of nutrients from food, the body simply cannot Restoratively Build. Proper nutrition requires that you eat the right kinds, combinations, and proportions of foods at the right times and under the right circumstances.

There is no calorie counting with The Program. Neither is there any meal skipping. I encourage you to eat as much as you need up to five times a day. The only stipulation is to eat a balanced meal (or snack) every time. Schwarzbein Program meals are a balance of quality proteins, real carbohydrates, healthy fats, and non-starchy vegetables.

You also need to augment the food you eat with certain supplements, both to meet Restorative Building needs and to counteract the effect of the various toxins to which we are, almost unavoidably, exposed each day.

Through The Program, I will help you formulate a Nutrition plan that maximizes Restorative Building because it is in synch with the laws of biochemistry – with how your body really works. And, your plan will be tailored to the current condition of your metabolism. One of the major drawbacks of most nutrition or diet programs is that they don’t consider metabolic condition – whether the body is still able to respond as intended to good habits including proper nutrition. From my many years of experience, I can assure you that a nutrition plan that is right for someone with a Healthy Metabolism does not work for someone with a Compromised or Damaged Metabolism (and vice versa). Nutrition does not lend itself to a “one size fits all” approach. Being on the “wrong” plan will not only backfire, it will ultimately harm your metabolism.

Sleep

Sleep is another essential element of the Building equation. As previously explained, Building can only occur when there are more Building hormones in play (think insulin) than Using hormones (think adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol). Other than when you are truly relaxed, sleep is really the only time your body has to restoratively repair and rebuild itself. Without enough deep, uninterrupted sleep in conjunction with proper nutrition, you simply cannot Restoratively Build sufficiently to offset the Using that relentlessly occurs each day. I will help you overcome the obstacles to a great night’s sleep. There are more than you might think, and some of them will surprise you. (Spoiler alert: one of them is what you eat throughout the day.)

Emotional And Psychological Stress

Emotional and Psychological Stresses are a double-edged sword that both inhibits Building and increases Excessive Using. Such stresses interfere with the digestion and absorption of nutrients and the body’s use of nutrients. They also interfere with getting adequate uninterrupted sleep. In other words, Emotional and Psychological Stresses impede Building. For most people they are also the single greatest cause of Excessive Using as they trigger the continuous release of Using Hormones. Think back to the idea that these kinds of stresses cause a diminished but sustained “fight/flight” response. Because they are a double-edged sword Emotional and Psychological Stresses are a huge contributor to metabolic imbalance and accelerated aging and, therefore, must be effectively managed. There are a number of ways to both reduce the amount of these stresses in your life and to reduce the impact of the stresses you cannot eliminate from your daily life. I’ll show you how to do both.

Foreign Chemicals

Foreign chemicals – chemicals that are not native to the great chemistry set that is your body — both increase Using and complicate or preclude Building. Such foreign chemicals come from food we eat (think pesticides, preservatives, colorings, flavorings, etc.), potentially, the water we drink, but also other beverages (think sugar, alcohol, caffeine, artificial sweeteners, etc). Consider also the foreign chemicals that get absorbed through our skin and lungs (think lotions, perfumes, shampoos, etc.). And then, of course, there are the foreign chemicals in medications we take – both over the counter and prescription – that disrupt the functioning of our native biochemicals (think of the long list of side effects disclosed in the advertising of medications).

Many such foreign chemicals can be avoided or minimized, but many others cannot. Through The Program, I will increase your awareness of the presence of toxic chemicals you may unknowingly be exposed to, show you how to avoid them to the extent reasonably possible, and direct you to foods and dietary supplements that help counteract the effects of those you can’t completely avoid.

I recognize that the daily consumption of a number of the foreign chemicals people consume is really about what I call “self-medication.” Sugar, alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, and over the counter drugs lead the list. We use these substances to help us sleep, to help wake up, because we need energy, because we need to relax. We go to the drugstore for help with our headaches, heartburn, appetite, aches and pains.

Millions of people have unsuccessfully tried “quitting” using sugar, smoking, drinking alcohol and coffee, and taking all the things they get from the drugstore. Few are successful because, in many cases, it is their metabolic imbalance that underlies their need for these toxic chemicals and causes the cravings and dependencies they feel. Quitting self-medication “cold turkey” seldom works; I don’t recommend it. Instead, I will show you healthier ways to self-medicate and then how to taper off of these toxins, over time, as your metabolism heals. Through this method, you won’t have to rely only on willpower to overcome cravings and habituation. You simply won’t need these things any more. As I have said before, it’s all about informed choices. If you are physiologically or psychologically dependent, you really don’t have a choice. But, with a healthy metabolism, you will have a choice that’s far easier to make.

Exercise And Movement

Being sedentary changes your metabolism. And, not for the better. Periodic, daily movement is essential to a healthy metabolism and the avoidance of disease. It’s part of The Program. So is appropriate exercise. Emphasis on appropriate! Done correctly, exercise promotes Building. It helps you rebuild your proteins, including lean body tissue, and burn fat. Done incorrectly, including under the wrong circumstances, exercise drives Using and actually precludes Building. It breaks you down. It is critically important that your exercise regimen is aligned with the current condition of your metabolism. Exercising when you shouldn’t and doing the wrong types of exercise for your metabolic type will not improve your metabolism; it will only harm it. Through The Program, you’ll find out what exercise is right for you and when and how to do it.

Hormone Balancing Therapy

While your Habits regulate your hormones, they can do so only if all of your hormone systems are functioning correctly. If your body can no longer produce enough of any one of your hormones, what is known as a hormone deficiency state, then it is necessary to supplement the missing hormones to rebalance all hormone systems and, by doing so, your metabolism. The Program addresses this issue by showing you how to determine if you have a hormone deficiency and teaching you what to do to safely correct it. 

Eight Reasons Why The Program Is Different

From nearly three decades of restoring and safeguarding metabolic balance for thousands of patients, and from the very positive feedback from the hundreds of thousands of people who have read my books, I know that The Program works. It works because it is fundamentally different from the literally thousands of other health and wellness programs available today.

Of course, you may say that eating well, getting adequate sleep, minimizing stresses and their impact, avoiding toxic chemicals, and getting proper exercise is, well, pretty much just common sense, right? Nothing earth-shattering. Definitely no headline news or big debate here. And, you are right.

So, if there is a high degree of consensus about what’s important, and if the laws of human physiology are the same for everyone (and they are!), then why are there thousands of different plans and programs on the market today? It’s because they give people what they want, not what they need.

Sadly, the multi-multi-billion dollar health and wellness industry thrives on selling what “sizzles,” marketing “ground-breaking” developments, quick, easy, almost effortless solutions for “a whole new, happier, healthier, sexier you” or the reversal of your chronic health problems in just a few weeks. And, of course, there is the whole glamour angle – somehow, health boils down to how good you look and feel. Trendy, “hip” (often extreme) programs that appeal to our emotions and vanity and deliver “guaranteed” quick results with little effort are what the marketplace rewards.

There are many thousands of such programs and books making these “quick and effortless” claims. They have one thing in common. They don’t work long term. Mostly, they break you down, which, ironically, feels good for a while (more on that later) until you crash with a metabolism more compromised than when you started and begin searching, yet again, for the next “life changing” program.

Here are eight characteristics, which, together, differentiate The Schwarzbein Program from your alternatives:

First, The Schwarzbein Program works. It absolutely works. IF you make it a way of life.

Second, The Program is steadfastly rooted in the laws of human physiology, not in beliefs or opinions.

Third, The Schwarzbein Program focuses on making you healthy again, not on how good you feel or look.

Fourth, The Schwarzbein Program focuses on long-term, sustainable results.

Fifth, The Program takes a 360-degree view. It takes into account that your body is an intricate system of interrelated and interdependent systems and that nothing in physiology happens in a vacuum.

Sixth, The Schwarzbein Program is specifically tailored to your age and the current condition of your metabolism. This is not a one-size-fits-all program.

Seventh, The Schwarzbein Program is a “step-wise” program. There is a method and an order to what I do to help my patients.

Eighth, The Program is not for everyone. The marketing experts aren’t wrong. You sell products and programs by appealing to people’s emotions, to what they want. Some people just want a quick fix or a program that takes little or no time, effort, or discipline. They don’t really want to be educated, just told what to do. If any part of this description fits, then The Schwarzbein Program may not be a good fit for you, today. However, I will caution you, if your metabolism is already in trouble, fixing it will only get harder and take longer. It will never be easier to turn things around that it is today.

My Promise To You

To a point, the body is very resilient and forgiving. To a point. Unless you have a truly damaged metabolism you can restore metabolic balance. Your body can heal itself. Even if your metabolism is already damaged, by changing your Habits, over time, you can improve metabolic function and slow your already accelerated aging process. If your metabolism is merely at risk, you can see results quickly just by changing your Habits.

I promise you that if you consistently follow The Program. you will be healthier in a year.

For those of you who have not yet severely compromised or damaged your metabolism, the effect on your body, your energy, and your health will be startling. For those of you with a severely compromised or damaged metabolism, you will benefit greatly during the year, but you will not be fully healed. Again, it took years to damage your metabolism and it will likely take years to repair it. But, during this first year you will be able to stop the downward spiral and begin your journey back to health. And, I will teach you ways to feel better while you are healing that don’t further damage your metabolism.

The good news is that you have more control over your own health and aging than you were probably led to believe. The Program is meant to empower you with the information, understanding, direction, and support you need to make the changes to your daily Habits that will help determine your metabolic destiny.

Health is a choice. Your choice. I’m here to help you.