22: 6 Things That Changed My Approach to Nutrition + Fitness in 2023

Michael Kummer (00:02.23)
Hey guys, welcome back to the Primal Shift podcast. In this episode, I'll share with you the six things that I learned about nutrition and fitness in 2023. And when I say learned, I don't necessarily mean that it was something that's completely new that I never even heard about before, but it's something that maybe I knew before, I kinda knew before, but it really settled in for me to the extent where I'm like, I gotta do something about it.

And kind of like the difference between, you know, yeah, I know that alcohol isn't good for me and I know that alcohol isn't good for me and that's why I'm not drinking anymore, kind of thing, if you get the drift. So let's jump right into those six things that I learned in this year about nutrition and fitness. Number one, mobility and range of motion are key if I want to age gracefully and be able to move without pain. You know, here is the thing.

I'm, I think, the fittest and strongest that I've ever been in my entire life. I'm turning 42 and I used to be a professional athlete, you know, most of you know that. And I always, most of my life, I was in pretty good shape. But I'm in the best shape of my life right now. I'm the strongest, my metabolic and cardiovascular capacity are just beyond everything I've ever had.

But my range of motion and my mobility have significantly suffered over the years because I've been ignoring it. And so I've thanks to a buddy of mine, actually, shout out to Brian, who kept pushing it as a hey, we need to work on mobility. We need to work on our range of motion. And we finally started doing this. And it's been an absolute not a game changer yet. It's been a it's been an eye opener to see how bad and how poor my mobility really is. And I've been noticing it with, you know, getting up.

getting out of bed in the morning or getting up from the floor or you know just you know back in the days I would be more like a cat you know I can jump out and you know jump out of bed jump off the floor and just Be super smooth and I guess agile in my movements and now I'm feeling more like I'm more robotic to a degree Because all of the you know those empty spaces in my joints and wherever did Wasn't muscle tissue before has filled out with you know with muscle tissue well with tissue in general and so that made me stronger and more

Michael Kummer (02:20.97)
Robust I guess, more compact, more... gave me a sturdier frame if you will, but it has significantly impaired how smoothly I can move. And so that's been one of the things that I'm... that I will be focusing on over the next couple of months and really for the rest of my life. To not only do my resistance training, you know, my heavy lifting, my high intensity stuff, my walking and all of the things that I do, but to also work every day on mobility and range of motion.

so I can continue moving pain-free and don't look like a robot. And I don't wanna be one of those guys, you know, 60 years old and still look super buff, but you know, I can't really, you know, turn my head around anymore. So that's one thing that I discovered that I really need to work on. Number two is something that we have been working on, but it really settled in this year, and that is to take in control of your own food supply is absolutely...

It's become so difficult to source high quality food, even from well-meaning brands. There is usually always something I'm like, you know, if I had the opportunity or if I was in charge, I would do this differently. And I've noticed this across the board. And the problem with that is that, you know, every day the foods that we eat contribute

deteriorating health, even if we are trying and that's very difficult to make the best food choices we can, even if budget is not an issue, if money is not an object, you know, it's still incredibly difficult, in particular in this country, but in other Western countries as well I would argue, making or finding food that doesn't have any issues whatsoever, you know, and we talked about this just a few episodes ago, you know, when I had Dr. Anthony Guston on the podcast.

even pasture chicken or pasture pork, not really something that you want to eat, you know, in greater quantities. And so taking control of your own food supply is critical. And that means, you know, raising your own, some at least some of your own food. I mean, ideally, and that's the goal for us, you know, as part of our Kummer Homestead initiative, to raise most, if not all of the foods we consume, especially our proteins and especially everything that

Michael Kummer (04:42.646)
delivers micronutrients. Now are there certain things that you know that might provide energy that we don't need to grow ourselves, you know, exotic fruits, what have you, you know, sure. But the core of our food, the protein, the micronutrients, I want to have full control over. And you know, I know that not everyone wants to be a farmer or can be a farmer who lives in an environment where farming and homesteading is possible.

But there are a couple of things like, you know, I just talked about it with Cathy and her mom this morning at the breakfast table. Raising rabbits for meat is incredibly easy. They don't make a noise, they don't smell if you, you know, raise them in an environment that's conducive to optimal hygiene. And they're easy to butcher. They're

that tastes great, that kind of tastes like chicken, but it's red meat. So they are not ruminants, but they are herbivores. And so their fatty acid composition is significantly better than anything you would find in poultry. And again, they are so easy to raise. All it takes is some hay and maybe pellets and maybe some fresh greens that you might have or not. And that's it. Very low requirements, very high output. I mean, they breed like rabbits. You know, every

We have two doughs and one buck, and we get about 14 rabbits every 45 days. And so if you only have one buck and one dough, I mean, you can get somewhere between five to 10 rabbits every 45 days with very little input, and with best quality meat, you'll find anywhere. And so...

I highly recommend for anyone to figure out what it is that they can take control over. And if it's raising a tomato plant or whatever it is, do something to raise your own food. It's enjoyable, you learn a lot, you appreciate the food much more because you know what it took to make it happen, to put it on your plate or into your fridge or freezer. And it's incredibly rewarding and it's absolutely healthy and so much better than anything you can buy in the store.

Michael Kummer (06:52.298)
Number three, protein and micronutrients are king as far as overall nutrition is concerned. You know, if you make every, if you center every single meal around proteins and high and foods that are high or very dense in micronutrients, you know, organs obviously would be an example, but it doesn't even have to be like that. You know, eggs, you know, responsibly raised eggs.

You know, if you make those the center of every single meal, you're not gonna have a whole lot of issues, you know. It doesn't really matter then at the end of the day if your energy is coming from fat, if you're more in a low carb, you know, ketogenic diet or carnivore diet maybe, or if it's coming from carbohydrates, you know, from seasonal fruits, from honey, from maple syrup, from dairy maybe, you know. Doesn't really matter. But if protein and micronutrients make up the core of your meal,

It's very difficult, if not impossible, to overeat and gain weight and to get sick or unhealthy from your meals. In fact, I overeat every single time, every single day with every single meal. You know, I'm not one of those persons that, oh, you know, I'm going to stop before I'm full. Bullshit, you know, I eat until I can't eat anymore and I don't gain weight. You know, my body fat is at a historic low of 8%.

I'm in great metabolic shape. My fitness level is absolutely through the roof and I overeat every single day, you know, and I like to eat, you know But I like to eat the right types of food and I think if you if you make it high quality protein ideally from animal Based sources and focus on your micronutrient intake. It's incredibly difficult to overeat and get fat, you know Yeah, you can overeat, you know, but you know it

If you do that, then my body, you know, maybe the next meal I'm hungry an hour or two hours later the next day, you know. So it kind of, you know, if you just listen to your body, it'll figure itself out, you know. There is no rocket science. There is no planning. There is no writing down my calories or my, you know, I don't track anything. I just eat until I can't eat anymore. And then a couple of hours later, you know, I do it again twice a day. And I've been doing this for many weeks and months. And

Michael Kummer (09:12.662)
there is no, I don't see the negative impact on my body. You know, if I'm getting fat, I'm not seeing it, you know? And so that's also one thing that's, I think, much more important than figuring out, oh, do I wanna do low carb or high carb or anything in between? Focus on proteins, focus on micronutrients. That's one of the things that I've learned, and I've really experienced this year and paid more attention to, by just, you know, reflecting of how I eat and how much I eat. Number four.

The water supply in our country is absolutely terrible. And obviously tap water is absolutely horrendous from a quality perspective. But even if you try to do the right things, and I'm not talking about plastic water and plastic bottles and all of those things. I mean, obviously those are all terrible. But even if you wanna do the right thing and filter your water, let's say you use an RO system, even if you then...

have an RO system with a remineralization capability that puts some of the minerals back into the water because our RO water is void of anything. You don't want to drink our RO water because it's dehydrating you more than it helps because it leeches minerals from either your tissue, from your gut or from the food you eat and you pee them out. So that's not a good thing. But even if you want to do everything right and you buy the best water filtration system there is.

The difference between that water and high quality spring water, you know, that has not been treated and processed in any way, is like night and day. I mean, just the other day, yesterday actually, I opened a bottle of Salpana Belegrino and I'm not pitching any particular brand. I don't know if there are, you know, there might be issues associated with that particular type of water. But just looking at...

the total dissolved contents or solids in that water, you know, the minerals and trace minerals and everything that's in there, and compare it with our remineralized RO water or with our regular water that's filtered through a whole house filtration system, without, you know, not RO, just regular sediment-based filtration.

Michael Kummer (11:19.838)
It's night and day. I mean, there is, you know, the TDS count, the total dissolved solids in our RO water is maybe around 20 after remineralization or 24. It's about 50 to 60 in our just regular tap water that was filtered, you know, it doesn't have any chlorine or anything. And it's between three and 400 in a high quality European spring water. That tells you how many more minerals.

trace minerals and other compounds that are naturally part of the water are in that water in comparison to what we drink every day. Now, I'm not suggesting that you need to go out and only buy, you know, expensive glass bottled water, but it goes to show that there is a significant difference and maybe that's why, you know, we need to supplement with or consume more salt and more magnesium supplements and all of those things to mitigate

the lack of minerals in our drinking water. And if you think about it, I mean, water is one of the key components that we need, not only to be healthy, but to live. And having a poor supply of water is just terrible. And that's something really, you know, to carefully think about and to see how you can mitigate that. Obviously, you know, consume increasing your salt intake, taking magnesium supplements, and all of the things that we do out of necessity, you know.

they're okay but I'd rather just get water that has everything you know we need and so I don't have to supplement but it's incredibly difficult in this country and that's you know number four that I knew kind of but that really sunk in this year for me. Number five and that's one that makes me angry at times because it's such a blatant

Michael Kummer (13:09.978)
obvious thing that is just so obvious in your face, but many people still don't understand what's going on. And that is, there is a lot of money in this country to be made with sick people. You know, large parts of our economy rely on people being sick. There is no money to be made or very little in comparison with dead people. I mean, yes, you know, the burial industry and everything, but it's, you know, nothing in comparison to the...

gazillions of dollars that are made with people being sick. And there is also not a whole lot of money to be made with incredibly healthy people. But there is just so much money to be made if you're sick, especially if you're chronically sick. The whole junk food industry is obviously, or the processed food industry is feeding into that, is helping, keeping people sick. The pharmaceutical industry is then offering a quick fix that's not really solving anything, but just...

prevents you from dying and you know, you continue on being sick. And then the entire healthcare system that treats sick people instead of, it's not really healthcare, it's sick care. We are treating sick people making sure they are not too sick, so they're not gonna die, but just sick enough so they keep coming back. And if you realize that, then you start questioning everything, because everything you hear in the news

from medical authorities, from the government, from your primary care physician. I always ask myself the question when I hear something, who benefits from doing what they are doing and from doing what they are saying? And you'll quickly realize if you follow the money trail, that it's all bullshit advice. It's all advice that's meant to keep you from getting healthy, it's meant to keep you sick, so that those...

entities can continue making money and You know once you've realized that you really start questioning everything and you almost become like oh, you know now I'm one of those in a conspiracy theorist or whatever or you know, I need a tinfoil hat But it's unfortunately very true. There is not a whole lot of information out there. That's Honestly meant to make people healthy and keep them that way. No, it's all about here is a quick fix

Michael Kummer (15:35.35)
but continue eating those chips and then you know you we have another medication for you if your blood pressure gets too high and you know and it's just a whole mess. And but the good news is you can easily break out of that you know but first advice is you know not to listen to anything you hear you know think about think for yourself for a moment and then start thinking okay who benefits from you know that advice that piece of advice.

And usually you come to the conclusion that, well, there is money involved, so I'm probably going to do the opposite and you're much better off. Number six, and that is the last one. That's to end it on a good note, because a lot of the points were really not very positive and makes you think. But I mean, the good news is to all of that, there is a solution. You know?

Lack of mobility and range of motion, well, work on your mobility and range of motion, not a problem. You know, taking control of your own food supply, anyone can do that in varying, you know, degrees. You know, maybe you just, you know, plant a tomato plant. Maybe, you know, you can raise rabbits. Maybe you have a couple of chickens, you know, to the limit that your enjoy might allow. Maybe you finally purchase, you know, a piece of land like we did so we can raise, you know, derrick cows and beef cattle and then pigs and all of that, you know, make sure that you're.

your meals are focused around or centered around in high quality proteins and micronutrients. And so all of that, most of that you can solve. You know, there is, that's the good news. That there is, you know, I always try to ask myself the question, how can I, you know, whatever, and fix whatever the problem might be. And there is always a solution. Sometimes it takes time, sometimes it takes money and commitment, but you can do that. And to end it on a good note, my number six that I...

discovered this year is that fortunately most of what I've been doing in terms of improving my fitness improving my nutrition improving my health over and wellness overall has been working and I absolutely love it now if you ask me, you know, sometimes people come up to me say hey, you know So what is it exactly? Tell me exactly what you do to perform, you know in the gym like you do and unfortunately

Michael Kummer (17:48.902)
I don't know, you know, honestly, I don't know, but I know that the summary of all those puzzle pieces that, you know, are my life or our life and, you know, as part of the Kummer family, come together and lead to the results that I've been seeing. And so I really liked it. So I know that, you know, I might not do everything right. There are many things that I know that I don't do right and that I can fix and that I will fix and that I have fixed.

But everything together, there appears to be a net positive. You know, I'm getting healthier, I'm getting stronger, I'm getting fitter, I sleep much better and much longer than I have in the past. And it's all about the little things that I try to improve every single day. Like not stressing about, oh, first thing in the morning I need to do, I need to write for the blog, I need to record, I need to...

You know, those, I need to need to need to where the truth is I don't need to do anything. You know, the only thing I need to do is get up and be happy and then we'll figure out what I can do. And so by, by really redirecting, you know, priorities by re-evaluating priorities and shifting stuff around and really focusing on, you know, on what I'm doing right now and, and enjoying it as much as I possibly can, you know, by doing that it has, it has led to a lot of improvements in various areas, sleep, nutrition.

fitness, exercise, etc. So that's, I'm grateful for that, I'm happy for that. Now that doesn't mean I'm gonna stop here and you know call it a day and just keep on with what has been working so far. Obviously I will continue reevaluate what I'm doing and see how I can further optimize it and share it with you so you can hopefully you know pick up some of that and apply it to your own life and see the benefits. But that's overall those six things that I've learned, rediscovered in some cases.

and really internalized in others this year. And I'm gonna plan on, I'm not gonna wait until next year to address some of those if I haven't already. I'm gonna do it right away. That's one of the things, I don't make new year's resolutions, I don't wait for next year. Whatever I can do to improve something, I'll do it right away. With that, we're gonna wrap it up. I hope you enjoyed this episode and I hope I'll see or watch you.

Michael Kummer (20:06.038)
With that we're gonna wrap this episode up and I hope I will hear and see you in the next one.