About this blog

Okay, there seems to be some confusion about whom I'm writing for and why.

First off, for anyone wanting to comment: I will NOT publish any anonymous comments anymore. Enough negative comments already and surprisingly 75% come from Finland.

Mikä teitä ihmisiä oikein nyppii? Jos et pidä tästä blogista niin lue jotain muuta. Mene vaikka lukemaan Seiskaa. En voi käsittää kuinka erillisiä me suomalaiset luullaan olevamme toisistamme. Minä olen sinä ja sinä olet minä, monen linkin kautta. Miksi lannistaminen on niin paljon helpompaa kuin kannustaminen?

Second: This is not a paid blog by Charles. This is my personal blog that I write to share information that I learn on these courses and reflect through myself. I have not asked Charles to post this on his Facebook page nor he hasn't asked me to write anything. I write about Charles and his courses because he is the most important mentor of my past couple of years and I respect him greatly. The information I've learned from him has made a 180 degree turn in my life's path and I will be forever grateful to him for HIS career change from a strength coach for Olympic athletes to a teacher, which eventually impacted mine.

Everything in this world is connected through numerous links of incidents, people and things we have around us. Everything happens for a reason as there is no such thing as coincidence. So whatever you think about me or anybody around you will come back to you eventually. I can only make myself better and do what I have a passion for. It's that's not something that resonates with you, that's okay. You must find your own passion and go for that. Don't spend your time here going through negative emotions if you're not going to use them to reflect yourself and grow.

As my dear friend says... this is from a very funny Finnish cartoon show:

You can not diss somebody elses nirvana :)

Herbs as a means for achieving balance

Yesterday we talked quite a lot about herbs. Poliquin's herb supplements are top of the line - his company is one of the few that tests for solvents. If you use herbs and don't know whether the company you use does that, you are a moron. It's a well known fact that people (even the wisest ones - like a top nutrition expert whose name I can't recall right now) have DIED due to solvent poisoning because they used herbs that were not tested.

PLEASE do not order herbs over the internet if you don't know the source very well and can be 100% sure that the product does not contain solvents!

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For my Finnish readers: solvent = liuotin. Suurin osa yrttivalmisteista (ja monista muistakin ravintolisistä, kuten omega3, sisältää näitä. Nyt kun suomalaisten iHerb-hulluus edelleen jatkuu sekopäisenä, valitettavan moni myrkyttää jatkuvasti itseään käyttämällä ravintolisiä jotka on valmistettu ilman kunnollista testausta.

ÄLÄ OSTA HALPOJA TUOTTEITA.

Omega3:sta jopa paljon suositeltu Carlson sisältää heksaania (Charlesilla on tästä labratodistus). Ainoat puhtaat omega3:t joita iHerbistä saa ovat Nordic Naturals (joka sisältää vain noin 50% purkin mainitsemista pitoisuuksista) ja Metagenics.

Itse en käyttäisi mitään muuta merkkiä kuin niitä joita Charles suosittelee (mm. Metagenics, Biotics, Teeguarden's, Designs for Health, Crayhon Research ja tietysti Poliquin - hän ostaa omansa mm. edellä mainituilta) koska tiedän hänen testaavan jatkuvasti muita merkkejä löytääkseen parhaat lähteet omille tuotteilleen. Ns. eettisistä ja luonnollisia ainesosia suosivista firmoista ilmeisesti New Chapter on hyvä, mutta pitoisuudet eivät täsmää.

Charles on ÄÄRETTÖMÄN tarkka siitä mitä hän myy. Tässä kohti mikään muu kuin perfektionismi ei ihan oikeasti ole kannattavaa. Jos tunnet pistoksen sisälläsi kun luet tätä, suosittelen että siivoat kaappisi. Olen itse tehnyt saman ja heittänyt roskiin satojen eurojen arvosta tavaraa jonka turvallisuudesta en voi olla varma.

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Back to English... I totally feel a difference when I use Yin Builder & Holy Basil. Those are my all time favourite herb products from Charles' line. When I take both of them 2 x 2 per day it makes life a lot easier for Tytti while we're travelling... I haven't had an anxiety attack while I begun those again. For some of my clients they do nothing. And sometimes those clients do much better on Serenity 2.0 or Licorice Supreme.

For my male clients, my favourite combo to use is have them take 5 capsules of Yang R-ALA upon waking up with lots of water, 2 tabs of Licorice Supreme on breakfast and then both of those again at lunch. 95% report much better energy levels throughout the day and have got rid of their morning fatigue and brain fog (that has often haunted them for years) in just a matter of weeks. They will raise dopamine, which is energy producing neurotransmitter, and also balance the body to the direction it needs (more energy / more calmness / better stress tolerance / balanced mind etc). All adaptogenic herbs do that - that's the reason I just LOVE them. You can't really go wrong by trying out some of those. Did I mention they're much better for you than taking drugs... or drinking huge amounts of coffee to keep your eyes open?

Yang R-ALA is not a herb, but it will energize you very fast. "Yang" in the beginning means it's energizing - "yang is fire, yin is oil" like Charles says. Yang R-ALA contains Acetyl-L-Carnitine (ALCAR), which is a specific form of carnitine. Carnitine is great for energy production especially on people who are insulin resistant as it will make you more insulin sensitive over time. Vegans are always depleted of carnitine because it's found in meat (and that's why meat and nuts breakfast RULES). ALCAR is a brain nutrient - Robert Crayhon used to speak very highly of it. He actually wrote a book about carnitine which I mentioned in the previous post, you can order it from Amazon.

Yang R-ALA also contains R-ALA, which is one of the best antioxidants you can use - it will detoxify your body of the daily stressors and toxins very effectively, and biotin - R-ALA depletes it, so you shouldn't take ALA without taking biotin. Yang R-ALA is one of my favourite supplements as well. I always use it on days when I know my brain has to be as sharp as the best chef knife you can imagine (like on courses or doing client work) :)

Yesterday Charles mentioned Teeguarden's herbs as one of the most powerful herb supplements you can use. Their Deer Antler is said to be one of the best way to raise DHEA, which is the raw material for testosterone. If DHEA is low, it means you're producing a lot of cortisol - raw material for DHEA and cortisol is the same. You can find Teeguarden's herbs from iHerb.com. If you've never ordered supplements from iHerb.com before, you get a $5 discount by using the code KOL145. I love Teeguarden's herbal tea - it makes me feel really good!

Biosig CE day 2 - Mark Schauss & Charles Poliquin

Day two of Biosig 2 in Rhode Island. Poliquin Strength Institute is the best place I've studied in - I LOVE the energy and atmosphere here. Even the staff are so nice. They're always interested in hearing if everything is good, if we'd need something else and how did we like the days lectures. You can really tell they do this with passion. After being here for two days again, I'm thinking I wouldn't really want to do courses anywhere else anymore. Eleiko Center in Halmstad is excellent as well - I can see why Charles prefers it over other places in Europe - but PSI is just something else.

Yesterday we had a wonderful lecture about applying Traditional Chinese Medicine herbal formulas into Biosignature practice. Honso is a company that makes pure, tested herbal products with ancient formulas. We had the president of the company teaching us. I won't write more about it now but all I can say is that TCM really resonates with my inner self. Looking at the person on all levels is just something we lack too often in our western view of the world.

Today we had Mark Schauss lecturing. He's an expert on lab testing and environmental health. If you don't know who he is, that's okay. A month ago I had never heard his name either so not knowing him "doesn't make you a bad person" like Charles always says :) To find out more, check these out:

• Mark Schauss' website
• Mark Schauss' blog: Toxic World (you can order his book here - I got mine from Amazon)

Questions you might want to think about before you read today's post (these are from Mark's presentation):

• What does feeling good mean to me?
• Who am I comparing myself to?
• Have I ever thought that relying on how I feel might be a little crazy ? Even Robert Crayhon, a top nutrition expert on the field of functiona medicine, couldn't tell he was developing cancer by "going by feeling". Dr Crayhon was Charles' and Mark's mentor who died of colon cancer in September. Here's Charles' post on his blog on the topic - warning: if you're a sensitive and empathy is your second name, you might cry reading it :(
• When did I get my basic lab tests done the last time? ... or how about food intolerances... or a comprehensive blood lipid panel... or a fatty acid test...?

Mark insists on doing at least a comprehensive blood test which you should do once a year. BTW, I'm not a perfect example here - I haven't done a full panel in over two years! You need to do this in order to be able to COMPARE later on so you know what the numbers are when you're healthy and what they might be when you're getting sick.

I'm going to get one as soon as I get back to Finland and can see my doctor. I've got some tests done during the past year as I've had more health problems than in a very long time... but not a comprehensive blood test. I know for a fact that the stress I've experienced due to changing careers, being in a car crash, paying nearly $10 000 expenses because of the car crash, dealing with entrepreneurship alone and so on has really taken a toll on my health. There are no excuses to not putting myself as a priority though. I guess it's just something called LIFE.

But, back to the topic - Mark went over distinguishing what the differences between allergies and sensitivities are. Food ALLERGY means you might die when you eat the food - the reaction can be life threathening. An example of this is peanut allergy and aflatoxins. This occurs on 4-6% of population. When you go to a hospital to do an allergy test, this is what they test. It's not very useful as usually you know what foods cause immediate reactions.

Food SENSITIVITY is something you might not be able to see clearly right away, the symptoms might take 3-7 days to appear and usually you wouldn't even think it's caused by a food. You might have joint pain, headaches, brain fog, diarrhea... many symptoms you can't always spot to be caused by foods. This occurs on 20-100% of population.

Mark also talked about toxicity. It's very tightly connected to food sensitivities and vice versa. His daughter, Tasya, was diagnosed with a very aggressive type of epilepsy as a baby. The parents were told she won't live over the age of 12. Today Tasya is 14 and she hardly has any seizures anymore. What did Mark do? Go crazy over finding what may help her. Eliminating her food sensitivities and cutting out the foods she was sensitive to decreased the incidence of the seizures greatly. When she was first tested with LEAP MRT food sensitivity test, she had 25 "red" foods. Five years later she only had two. They have also continued doing detoxing on her. Mark strongly believes that finding out the causes of Tasya's condition has been the key to why she is still alive and doing well.

That kind of stories are such powerful examples of how ignorant we are - and how badly mislead we are by most sources of common information. It's actually very sad that so many people suffer just because they don't know. Anybody who is taking courses like this is doing a HUGE favor to their clients by bringing them information that's not widely used but so very helpful in finding solutions to the most complex programs.

Later the day Charles talked to us about toxicity and how it affects the body and the whole environment. Did you know that even polar bears are toxic nowadays? Even wild fish is toxic - the winds carry the pollution from other countries. In Finland we tend to think we're living in the safest place on Earth - pristine, surrounded by clean nature. Bah. That's a dream world.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A NON POLLUTED PLACE ON EARTH ANYMORE. Anyone who thinks his or her body doesn't have any toxins, is misinformed, ignorant or plainly stupid. Many people suffer from conditions that can be linked straightly to toxins in the body - for example Parkinson's disease is "a man made disease" - it didn't exist until 1970's, according to Charles. Most people in big cities are full of cadmium and other nasty heavy metals (we had quite a few people on the class to tell their own experiences on the breaks).

It became very clear on Charles' lecture that every single one of us needs detox. You should never buy a health food store's "detox in a box" - it can be very dangerous. An easy (and healthy) way to begin detoxing slowly is to start using Poliquin's Primal Clear pH as your post workout drink and slowly add another shake to your day as a snack. DON'T begin with two shakes a day initially, if you're new to cleansing foods - you will have nasty detox symptoms! It's a rice protein based medical food, that will help you get rid of pesticides in the body. They might act as estrogens causing fat accumulation especially on the hamstrings. Don't expect to drink a pineapple banana smoothie as the stuff is not very tasty... but it's about the effect, not about the taste. I use this for my PWO drink most of the time. Every time I try to go back to whey my gut tells me it was not a good idea :P

If you want to do a proper detox for heavy metals, plastics etc, I highly recommend you to contact a Biosignature Level 2 practitioner in your area. You can find all the practitioners here.

Eating a nutritious diet is just not enough - the amounts of nutrients have decreased so badly that it's impossible to get enough nutrients from a normal diet anymore. We learned that a modern orange may contain 0-20mg of C-vitamin in it - and it's advertised to be a good source of C-vitamin. It's supposed to have 75-100mg of C-vitamin in each but because the soil has become so weak due to loss of minerals, the veggies and fruits don't have much in them anymore. If the soil isn't naturally fertile, what do you think the veggies and fruits are going to be like?

Today was a great day. Highly enjoyed the lectures and also got to do a good but short workout in Charles' gym over the lunchbreak. I'm lucky to be on the list of people who get to train in the gym - there are only 20 people who they can fit in at the same time. Here are a couple of photos from the gym. I'm stronger here than I was at home so training is really fun :)

Tomorrow will be muscle testing - challenging, but a very interesting topic!

Good links over Mark Schauss' lecture's topics:

• LEAP Test - GOLD STANDARD for food sensitivity testing
  
• MetaMetrix food allergy panel, will look at IgG4 (not the gold standard but was mentioned on Mark's slides)
• The Whole Soy Story - why soy might not be the best protein source available
  
• Environmental Working Group - lots of info on food toxicity, cosmetics and household products etc.
  

Books you might want to read as well:

• Robert Crayhon: Nutrition Made Simple
• Robert Crayhon: Carnitine Miracle

Behaviors that Biosig 1 class participants promised to change

In the end of Biosig 1 class each one of us had to make one promise: change one behavior on Monday. This is the list I collected at the course (sorry, I missed a couple - there were about 80 people on the class):

LIST OF THE CLASS - BEHAVIORS TO CHANGE:

1. be grateful to myself (my own... I want to learn to love myself)
2. get food ready the day before
3. work for the hour
4. take time for myself
5. raise my prices
6. give less supplements
7. read 1hr a day
8. be ”not so nice” while training
9. be more direct with clients
10. estrogen protocol
11. become an alpha female
12. low carb diet
13. start taking pictures
14. tranquilo
15. get more sleep
16. stop doing cardio
17. readjust working week
18. zinc test with all clients
19. bodyfat pinches every week on myself
20. breakfast every morning and zinc tally for 5 days
21. one protocol at a time
22. plan for more education
23. lower risk of cancer by lowering E load
24. raise prices 25%
25. fish oil
26. change clients’ training
27. paleo clubs
28. insulin protocol
29. interval cardio
30. stop giving mobile number to clients
31. rotate proteins to decrease risk of food intolerances
32. more sensitive to my female clients
33. stop using the same protocol for everyone
34. find an integrative doctor to help out
35. help mom get off of lipitor
36. block out noise off of apartment
37. put kids on fish oil
38. grateful journal
39. get clients buy training programs
40. drink coffee only before training
41. use lean legs (note: Charles' brand has this cream to burn fat on the legs)
42. more time with kids
43. sleep longer
44. food intolerance test
45. not apologize for prices
46. not let clients control my schedule
47. book a PIMST course
48. meat and nuts breakfast
49. not overwhelm clients
50. HCL test on every client
51. honor my time and value
52. buy new calipers
53. rotate kids breakfast
54. learn to make cinnamon water
55. learn more business strategies
56. 14 days without carbs
57. more sleep between 4-6

Lots of promises... wonder what would happen, if each one of us would begin a new habit each week of the year? Meaning that for the 52 weeks of the year we'd apply one habit at a time. Quite a life change, huh?

Biosig 1 NYC, day 4

Second last day, boo hoo! I can't believe how fast the week has gone. Today we went over lots and lots of different Biosig profiles. It's amazing to see how people from different continents and cities have similar patterns.

All Aussies so far have had high hamstring readings. Charles mentioned that the amounts of pesticides in their food is so high that it's causing estrogenization even on males. Also, when they eat that stuff, they pee, the water is circulated and unfortunately estrogens are not cleaned out of the water. So most people also drink their estrogens, as well as shower in them. It's the same in the UK - similar patterns.

Most personal trainers on the course have very high insulin and umbilical sites. That's due to high insulin and cortisol load, which are two hormones that go up and down back to back. When you have high insulin, it's gonna lead to high cortisol. When you have high cortisol, it's gonna create more insulin resistance, lead to lower testosterone levels and basically break a havoc in all of your hormonal systems AND your gut. Some of the best ways to get all this is: eat irregularly, eat lots of carbs - especially sugar and grains, drink protein shakes for meal replacement and snacks (very high insulin load), sleep less than 8 hours and drink coffee throughout the day (keeps cortisol up - good if you're gonna train, other times not so good). Often the guys who have a profile like this also have an estrogen/testosterone imbalance. Having high insulin will castrate you. Having high cortisol will steal the raw materials for testosterone. So finding the balance is the key - and it can be done by using Biosignature to find out the priorities you need to work on. It's SUCH an intelligent system. The magic is in whether you know how to use it or not. All practitioners are not the same.

It's been - again - one of the best weeks of my life. I LOVE learning. It's better than... well, most things in life (hard to define whether I'd choose learning over chocolate though, if I had to pick one... having both is my heaven ;)). During this week I've typed 22 pages of notes on my Mac and will go over them again and again when I go home. My memory is pretty good - I can still remember stuff from the first course, from word to word what Charles said or what I've written on my notebook. BUT I learn the best when I write everything I hear. And I've also realized that when I don't study, I get depressed. It's in my heart to gain more information, turn it into knowledge and learn how to use it in practise or educate others. I just love it.

Here's a short passage of my notes:

• all fat burning enzymes are carnitine based (vegetarians have problems burning fat)
• if you don’t add GLA after 6 months of omega3, will be harder to burn fat
• GLA is 50% of the total of EPA+DHA amount
• liquid fish oil goes rancid in 2 weeks when opened
• omega3 6:1 - six EPA molecules, one DHA molecule
• ADD or ADHD, use Über DHA
• there’s no such thing as essential carbohydrate
• visceral fat is a sign of insulin problem
• most people don’t train hard enough to burn fat efficiently
• any nutritionist who makes their clients weigh food is a closet nazi ;)
• fitness bunnies shut off their thyroid => with a slow thyroid you will gain fat very quickly
• focus on changing 1-2 behaviors per week!
• give information only at the level of the client
• insulin is the only hormone YOU have 100% control over
• I HONOR MY TIME AND MY WORTH.
• I WANT TO HELP OUT PEOPLE TO HELP OUT THEMSELVES.
• I AM MY OWN SCHEDULE.
• you’re known by the clients that you turn down more than the clients that you take in
• things that need to act on the brain on emergency action: take on an empty stomach (stack for cutting down alcohol: tyrosine and DLPA, also Yang R-ALA for adrenal fatigue) => if you need to have the supp to cross blood-brain barrier fast and act immediately / if you take them in the middle, will raise energy throughout the day
• probiotics always in the end of the meal - will populate the GI tract more efficiently
• Alpha-GPC is an energizing supp that makes you sleep better - growth hormone will increase
• Alpha-GPC and Yang R-ALA won’t need HCl to be absorbed (can take on empty stomach even when HCl is low)
• mag levels:
• if they have crazy dreams, medium def
• build up energy, very high def (take it in the morning 2g, when they start falling asleep, move it forward during the day)
• have mag after training to lower catecholamines
• compare supps to food
• ”HCL is water” => it’s a given
• ”meat is fish oil” => have to have it
• ”vegetables is magnesium / multi” => can survive without
• ”carbs if you deserve them” => the last three depend on your priorities and whether you’re taking the previous

On both of the Biosig courses I've done, Charles has mentioned that every practitioner should buy themselves a book called Strengths Finder 2.0. I did that last year while I was in NYC and it helped me understand myself better. With the book you can find out the strengths of your personality. By knowing your strengths, you can delegate your weaknesses.

I found my strengths to be:

1. Input - People who are especially talented in the Input theme have a craving to know more. Often they like to collect and archive all kinds of information.

2. Learner- People who are especially talented in the Learner theme have a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve. In particular, the process of learning, rather than the outcome, excites them.

3. Strategic - People who are especially talented in the Strategic theme create alternative ways to proceed. Faced with any given scenario, they can quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues.

4. Empathy - People who are especially talented in the Empathy theme can sense the feelings of other people by imagining themselves in others’ lives or others’ situations.

5. Connectedness - People who are especially talented in the Connectedness theme have faith in the links between all things. They believe there are few coincidences and that almost every event has a reason.

Every single one of these is so me. Anyone who knows me well can say they're true. Examples: Input and Learner - I love to read and learn even when I know I can't use the knowledge in practise. Strategic - I haven't done Biosig the way Charles teaches the business model - because I can't see most of my clients weekly - but have still been successful as I created my own model of doing the thing by giving them written reports. And so on. I'm not saying the book is to be taken as a bible of anything, it's just a fun tool for self growth. At the same time I know I suck at many things, like being organized, finishing projects, doing things on time and not the last minute and so on. My next goal is to get other people do those things when I finally get home from this trip. I'm so glad I have my husband and the girls helping me out so I can finally prioritize the right things.

Thinking about the comment of an annoyed blog reader, I can only ask - what should I do then? Quit, just because someone doesn't like what I'm doing?

I'm a firm believer in encouragement over criticism. What good can you really do by attaching to all the things YOU see being wrong? When we find ourselves feeling negative feelings, every single one of us should try to understand that it's NOT the other person. It's me. It's you. It's what I or you perceive the other person to be or do and... guess what - it's the mirror image of myself or YOU.

So I annoy you because I want to share? The truth is, you annoy yourself. Maybe it's because you DON'T want to share but in your heart you know it would feel better to do that.

Let's put it other way: I have a wonderful friend who's taking this course with me here in New York City. Her name is Tytti. She is a super lady - three kids, runs her own business, does reflexology and sells clothes... and she got her body composition from 31% bodyfat to 14,5% in six months by using Biosignature and Precision Nutrition system. She's become strong as hell and has a killer body after many years of disappointment and excuses. Now she's entering to a new career through Biosignature and will be working with me when we go back home. So, I love her to death as she has become a good friend through her process of lifestyle change and being my client. BUT - many times the past weeks I've realized something in her has annoyed me (and we've talked about this). I've felt envious over her success. I've thought she's too obsessed with her protein intake or doing every set when training. Is that something that's really in her? No - it's in me. I'm envious because she's done something I haven't been ready for. I haven't gone the distance like that in a very long time, when it comes to taking care of myself.

I'm not writing about this because the comment here hurt me. I'm a very sensitive person but I can put things in perspective. I'm writing because the person who wrote that got me thinking - and I got to use those words as my own mirror. I could have just erased the comment but I thought it's better for me to begin teaching myself to have a skin like a rhinoceros ;) Let them shoot the torpedoes... I was thinking about this today and realized one thing: even if I got many people bashing what I do, would I quit? No, because I love learning. I'd still get on the courses and continue getting educated.

Below is a photo from last year's course in Rhode Island - Mark Houston, me and Charles Poliquin at Poliquin Strength Institute. Today I had was lucky to be able to do a short interview for my book with Mark Houston. After that he invited me to have lunch with himself, Charles and Charles' staff. I can only say I'm SO grateful to get to spend time with such brilliant minds. Mark has a heart of gold. No wonder his patients love him (btw - he sees 60-80 patients a day, how's that for a busy life... whoa, I have no excuses anymore). In the afternoon he slipped a note on my hand saying:

"Kaisa, for your book:

You are what you eat. You are what you drink. You become what you were. A wise healer uses that which works.

Mark Houston"

Biosignature 1, NYC day 3

I'll continue in English as it seems my brain is switched on the English mode a little bit too well. I might as well keep writing this blog on this language... maybe keep on sharing what I learn and somebody else can find it useful too :)

Soooo... it's day three and today we covered the female hormone sites (which used to be called estrogen sites) and begun talking about cortisol as well. The course has changed a lot since 2009 and everything seems to be just much more simple this time. The first time around, we got numerous different protocols for estrogen which was quite confusing. This time Charles went over the different possible estrogen problems and how to pinpoint which the client might be causing their fat accumulation.

By yesterday's posts comment, somebody (anonymous, what a surprise) called me bold for writing a book about Biosignature with such a small knowledge base. Sorry, whoever you are, but I take that as a compliment :) I *am* bold doing that - but I'm not trying to tell anyone I came up with the system. Journalists write books all the time by doing extensive research on different subjects. I believe in sharing knowledge and making mistakes as well.

Explaining laymen how insulin works or why eating a high carb diet will make their love handles expand doesn't require a biochemistry degree. I'm not saying I'm an expert. I'm only a messenger who wants to help others. If someone feels I "peed in their morning cereal" (that's how we'd say it in Finnish), too bad. What's the point of collecting information and keeping it to yourself? As soon as you learn, go share it. In my belief system that's the only way to bring more questions to the surface and deepen the knowledge. I ask a million stupid questions on the course. Why? Because I want to learn - when I don't understand something or when I'm curious to learn more, I ask. Or just buy more books from Amazon ;)

Ok back to the topic - just had to get that out of my system. I can see how differently Charles teaches the course versus last year. I think he has improved heaps as a teacher. He teaches a lot through metaphors and using stories. I think after today nobody in the class can say they don't remember how many grams (80 grams!!) of glutamine should be used with the 5 day quick gut healing protocol ;) Some lessons are just a funny stand up comedy show... BUT he has a point, and people remember lessons by having a good time and laughing. I think many come back to the courses because the body and the brain make associations to good feelings and high endorphins during the classes. Charles has a way of making difficult things easy. Like today...


I've asked Charles many questions about how he explains this and that to his clients. Today I asked him about testosterone converting into estrogen - aromatization, which is shown by fat accumulation on the pec, one of the female hormone sites. I see this a lot on my male clients. The main reason for this is inadequate zinc level in the body - which is often one of the results of low stomach acid level. Zinc requires sufficient stomach acid to be absorbed from any food or supplement. Fat tissue in the belly also excretes aromatase enzyme so having lots of fat increases aromatization.

But, to make it simple, how does aromatization happen? His explanation was this: you want to build a building (testosterone) on Manhattan. When the truck brings the bricks (raw materials for T) to the construction site, Tony Soprano's mob guy (aromatase enzyme) appears on the site and steals the blocks and takes them to New Jersey to build his own building (estrogen). So... how do you eliminate the bad guy? Hire someone to shoot him in the head (zinc) ;) Zinc is a strong aromatase inhibitor. BUT like I wrote before, there's no point using a zinc supplement if you don't know your HCl level.

Today we measured subscap, midax, suprailiac and umbil sites. Charles looked at my technique and corrected a couple of things, which made a nice improvement in the accuracy of my measurements. I hold Charles' accuracy as "the goal" meaning I don't think I am good until I'm very close to the numbers he's getting. You need to do over 4000 measurements to be accurate. To be honest, some of the sites are still very difficult to measure on some people. I have measured over 300 different people during the past year and a half, many of them numerous times - some once, some twenty times. I don't know how many measurements that is but it's still too little to say I'm accurate. It's great to have the assistants and Charles look at my technique, as nobody has corrected me since I did my first course. I was happy to learn I'm not so far off. Biggest problem seems to be lack of grip strength which is a common problem with female Biosig practitioners. I think having those people look at myself measuring is one of the best things I can do on the course. Some people just sit around and talk, some measure but don't bother to ask anyone check what they're doing. I believe the best way to learn hands-on skills like this is to show someone else what I do and have them correct me. I expect to still be a total amateur so I'm really grateful for every little piece of advise I get.

Talking to Dr Houston today also cleared up some confusion I've had about my own body. I know for a fact that I lead a way healthier lifestyle than many of my clients but still my body doesn't represent it. Lack of hard enough training is one part of it (I'm not in denial and I *do* know what training like an athlete is like ;)) but like Charles has mentioned many times, you should be able to get lean even without training, when the body is functioning optimally. Dr Houston talked to me on some of the breaks as we begun a conversation over eating or not eating carbs. To make a long story short, he mentioned he'd suspect a thyroid dysfunction due to high cortisol levels. When that happens, T4 and T3 might be completely normal but RT3 can be high. Nobody ever said that before... he recommended me to go check RT3 levels and see if that would show anything abnormal. He's such a nice man and seems like a very knowledgeable doctor with an integrative way of looking at things.

Again, I will probably get this checked. But at the same time I realize that most likely I would get good results by cutting the work/housework hours that I don't enjoy (note to self: get someone clean the house) and focusing more on things that I love (like writing my blog, doing yoga, spending time with my husband), focusing more on my own health (instead of my clients') and getting one of the PICP & Biosig coaches kick me in the ass with steel toe boots ;) (works quite good for most people). Though it's clear that having a well performing body in the first place would help a ton.

Below: a private mini class with Dr Houston about thyroid function :)

I don't know what it is about these courses but I've met some most good-hearted people on these courses. Just beautiful people with loving hearts.

Biosignature NYC, day 2

Today I'll post in English as I'm sure many of my PICP and Biosignature friends abroad want to know what gems Charles is letting out this time on the course.

So I'm taking my second Biosig 1 in New York City right now. This is my 8th Poliquin course in the past 18 months. And I live in Finland - I have travelled hundreds and thousands of kilometres to learn more from Charles. So far I've been one of the few Finnish people who have gone the distance to participate in his courses, and the so far the only one to build a new career on what I've learned from him. Having a background in engineering (I got a master's degree in information and knowledge management), doing what I've done the past 1,5 years with Charles' systems has been a major life change for me. Working as an IT engineer was not my heart's passion. By doing figure shows and having the basic fitness bunny problems (gaining 30 pounds in the two months after the show) turned my life into the direction I'm following now. I first learned about Charles' education from Krista Schaus, who I'm grateful for as she's been an important mentor to me. I begun reading Charles' site and was jus fascinated about the broad knowledge base he has. I took my first Biosignature course in May 2009. Every course has just made it more clear that I will probably never get tired of learning from him. There's always something new and now that the knowledge builds on top of what I've learned before, every time I go back home feeling more condifent on how to help my clients. AND knowing I've got soooooo much more to learn too! You can't master something like Biosignature in... well, a long time.

Now somebody reading this thinks: she must be really wealthy. She must have her parents paying for the course. She must be a relative to Fairy Goodmother.... NO! If you knew what I've done to go to these courses, you wouldn't think so. I've stayed in the worst hostels you can imagine just to be able to pay the price of the course. I've taken a loan - thinking it's an investment in my future, and knowing I can soon pay it as I just need the education first. I've even stayed with a family through Couchsurfing.com which means that you can live with someone, staying at their place for free, hopefully teaching them something about your own country and culture. So last summer I stayed at a commune with 12 other couchsurfers in Brooklyn. Quite an experience for someone as tidy as me :O Then last November while I was in Rhode Island, I stayed with a wondeful, open-hearted American family for three weeks. I slept on their very uncomfortable couch and woke up to two little girls playing with anything from my glasses (yes they destroyed them) to kettles as drums at 6am in the morning. Talk about having a relaxing trip abroad! ;) I know many people wouldn't do this... but please ask yourself - how dear is your dream to you? Like Charles always says - there's no discipline, and you should feel no guilt over anything. You just choose what you love the most and for me it has been learning.

Anyhow - I'm currently writing a book about the concept of the connection of fat accumulation and hormones in Finnish. It will be out next year and I've got an excellent publisher for the book. I will be interviewing Charles for the book, as I need to learn more about the scientific side of why fat accumulates on these certain spots due to hormonal changes in the body, and of course talk more about the means of balancing everything out. This week I was so happy to hear the head of the Hypertension Institute, Mark Houston, is also teaching on the course - as well as Mark Schauss, who seems to be "the guru" of teaching about toxicity and how it affects the body. Dr Houston promised me a short interview and I'm hoping I get to talk to Dr Schauss as well. It would be great to have a couple of passages of those topics and their interviews on the book.

Yesterday we begun the course with talking about how Charles got started with Biosignature and then proceeded to learning how to measure the first two sites (chin and cheek) and what the initial steps of doing a Biosignature consult are. If you're a fellow practitioner and DON'T use the HCl test, please begin using it! It could be YOU who's giving us other practitioners a bad name by not getting results due to not fixing the most common and simplest thing in how the body works... and how your client can burn fat efficiently. Having enough stomach acid is the most important thing, because it will affect everything. Want to sleep better? Want to be more anabolic? Want to burn fat faster? Want to build nutrient reserves? Want to fix stomach problems and cut the daily trumpet concerts? Fix the stomach before trying anything else.

I think it's important that Charles goes over the topic of educating clients on healthy and natural nutrition on the first days, so everybody's got it straight: no counting calories, no weighing food. It's not normal to eat that way. Naturally lean people don't need scales to know if they've had enough protein or not. By what I've learned from Charles, appetite will regulate itself when you give the body a chance to rebuild itself. You might get periods when you eat a lot of certain foods and crave things like butter, but those will pass. Give the body what it seems to need and trust its wisdom. The mind creates stress about the most stupid things like whether you ate 9 or 11 almonds or if the chicken breast had 20 or 25 grams of protein. IT DOESN'T MATTER. Calories might be a part of the big picture, but according to Charles it's way more important to balance the hormones by eating the right kind of foods. Eating loads of clean foods will ramp up the thyroid - which will burn more energy at rest. And not obsessing about the grams will lower cortisol, which will help with fat burning.

Later the day we proceeded to learning about helping a client with an insulin profile, which means storing fat in the upper back and on the sides of the waist. Hello, muffintop! That would be part of my problems with my body. I used to eat boatloads of sugar, bread and carbs in the past. I still love them but have learned to live my (mostly) paleo life with some occasions when I indulge. Though it seems my case is a little more complicated as I seem to have some liver problems, but I won't go into details on this post. The first time I got into a insulin program it worked like a dream. Very high fish oil dosage, training hypertrophy style in the gym, switched to red meat breakfast, begun using a rotation of 4 days clean paleo and 1 day with a high carb free meal and so on... worked like a charm - I lost 5kg in a matter of weeks. And I see the same on my clients all the time. When they do what I ask that is ;)

Today we continued on insulin protocols and using the botanicals to aid with restoring insulin sensitivity. Charles also covered a host of topics that the course attendees asked about, everything from heavy metal toxicity to food intolerances, from Parkinson disease to ADD in kids. It's actually quite amazing how one person can have such a vast knowledge of so many different systems: coaching strength training for Olympic athletes, helping sick children, teaching students about how to re-educate laypeson on healthy nutrition the way they can really grasp the obvious and apply it to their daily life, Chinese medicine, hundreds of different herbs, how to build and run a business, how to do stand up comedy show on important topics so the people actually retain information and whatever other topics might come in mind. Even though he often goes off to speak about something completely unimportant and the detour might take half an hour, the days are still super interesting... and when the course comes near to its end, I find myself surfing on his site looking up the next ones I want to go to. Learning is one of the best things in life and I will never get tired of it. I think it's important to pick good sources and not settle for less.

Tomorrow we'll learn more about cortisol and how to help stressed out clients. It's gonna be one of the most important days for me, as becoming an entrepreneur has been quite a journey. I've gone from a person living an athlete's lifestyle to someone prioritizing the business, and I don't like the change - it's affecting my own health. I guess it has been necessary at this point but I know there's room for improvement, as always!

By following Charles' advise I've taken my business from making couple hundred euros per month to a point where my husband also quit his job in engineering and joined me, as I couldn't handle it alone anymore. Now we have sent three more people to Charles' courses and they will begin working for us when I go back home in the beginning of October. I truly hope more people would follow the same path... all of us will and do have enough clients to help. Look around, I think every one of us can be a part of a good change in our communities! :)

Biosignature 1, NYC

Täällä ollaan taas maailmalla :) Viisi päivää höntsäilyä Nykissä takana ja tänään alkoi Biosignature 1 -kurssi Radisson-hotellissa Times Squaren tuntumassa. Iso porukka ja jälleen kerran oppilaita on ympäri maailmaa, aina Uudesta Seelannista Dominikaaniseen Tasavaltaan ja Unkariin. Valtaosa on tälläkin kertaa jenkkejä ja brittejä.

Charles on aivan elementissään ison porukan edessä. Koko päivä meni tosi hauskoissa tunnelmissa, kun CP viljelee huumoriaan ja lataa tulemaan juttuja joista varmaan tiukkapipoisimmat ottaa herneitä nenään pussillisia... kurssi on jo nyt ensimmäisen päivän jälkeen monella tavalla erilainen kuin vuosi sitten. Meitä sertifikaattiaan uusivia on kurssilla useampia ja on aivan selvää, että mitä useammin kurssin käy, sitä syvemmäksi tieto uppoaa ja paremmin Biosignaturea osaa hyödyntää erilaisten asiakkaiden kanssa. Moni juttu tuntuu hyvin yksinkertaiselta paperilla, mutta kun edessä istuu oikea ihminen on asia usein ihan eri.

Tänään aloitimme kurssin käymällä läpi Biosignaturen konseptia. Charles kertoi kuinka hän 1990-luvun loppupuolella ja 2000-luvun alussa alkoi hyödyntää havaitsemiaan yhtäläisyyksiä hormonien ja kehon rasvojen välillä urheilijoiden suorituskyvyn parantamisessa. Aluksi systeemiä käytettiin pelkästään urheilijoilla ja siitä saivatkin avun monet niinkin merkittävästi, että Charles muistaa aina kertoa kuinka moni urheilija on päässyt tienaamaan miljoonia sen kautta että ovat saaneet kroppansa parempaan tasapainoon. Hormonien optimointi kun tarkoittaa nopeampaa palautumiskykyä, parempaa lihaskasvua ja tietysti kaikin puolin suorituskykyisempää kroppaa. Miksi muuten urheilijat käyttäisivät kiellettyjä aineita? Biosignaturen ideana on kuitenkin TASAPAINO. Eli terveyden optimointi. Ei se, että vedetään joku taso äärilaitaan jolloin systeemi heilahtaa epätasapainoon. Kiellettyjen aineiden kanssa usein tämä on se juttu. Lisäksi elimistön ulkopuolelta tulevat synteettiset aineet ovat kaikkea muuta kuin kropan toimintaa tukevia ja tasapainottavia. Biosignaturella taas voidaan auttaa kroppaa itse tasapainottamaan itsensä, kaikkien järjestelmien suhteen: hormonitoiminta, maksan ja koko elimistön puhdistusjärjestelmä, aivojen toiminta, suolisto, lihaskasvu, rasvanpoltto, energiantuotto ja niin edelleen.

Vuonna 2001 Charlesin systeemistä tehtiin ensimmäisen kerran juttua Oxygen-lehteen. Tällöin hän keksi myös menetelmälle nimen ja siitä tuli Biosignature Modulation - modulation of your biological signature. Charles on nykyisin hyvin tunnettu siitä, että hän saa ennätysajassa mm. kansikuvamallit kuntoon Oxygenin kuvauksia varten. Biosignaturen yksi mielenkiintoisimmista lupauksista kun on täsmärasvanpoltto. Kursseilla olen lukemattomia kertoja kuullut tarinan kansimallista, jonka jalat Charlesin vastaanotolle tullessa näytti samalta kuin "raejuusto verkkosukkahousuissa" eli ilmeisesti näky ei ollut kovin imarteleva. Tässä kohti kyseessä on ollut siis vahvasti estrogeeninen nainen, jonka Charles sai sitten kuntoon Biosignaturen estrogeeniohjelmalla nopsasti. Tällöin tärkeimpiä asioita ovat maksan ja suoliston toiminnan optimointi (estrogeenien poisto vaatii maksan ja suoliston hyvän kunnon ja toiminnan) ja ylipäätään liikaestrogeenin liikkeelle saaminen rasvakudoksista. Reisissä majaileva rasva kun pitkälti johtuu liiallisesta estrogeenin tuotannosta tai elimistön ulkopuolelta tulleista, kropasta poistumattomista estrogeeneistä (esim. e-pillerit, muovit jne). Jalat on kehon kaatopaikka. Ja suuri osa toksiineista tykkää pesiä rasvakudoksessa. Rasvalla on aina syy olla!

Iltapäivällä etenimme insuliinin tasapainotukseen. Näitä tietoja käytän yleisimmin omien asiakkaideni kanssa, koska me suomalaiset ollaan ihan oikeasti pre-diabeettinen (ja diabeettinen) kansa. Se leivänsyönnin määrä mitä Suomessa harrastetaan, on jotain ihan älytöntä. Kun ihmistä ei ole tehty syömään viljoja, on täyttä järjettömyyttä ladata päivittäin sellaisia määriä hiilareita kroppaan - varsinkin kun suomalaisilla on useammin todella huono hiilareiden sietokyky. Ruokaympyrän suositukset sopivat harvoille. Moni asiakkaani on noudattanut pitkään "terveellistä suomalaista ruokavaliota". Ihan kiva asia, jos harrastaa hyvin hyvin raskasta liikuntaa (ts. muutakin kuin jooga ja bodypump) JA kuuluu siihen 25% ihmisistä jotka sietävät hiilareita hyvin :)

Mittauspisteistä harjoittelimme leuan ja posken mittaamista. Nämä pisteet eivät korreloi mihinkään hormoneihin, mutta ovat tärkeitä rasvanpolton kannalta. Kroppa alkaa ensimmäisenä aina polttaa rasvaa sieltä, missä sitä ei tarvita mihinkään. Eli kasvoista. Sen vuoksi mittausmenetelmä, joka ei ota huomioon kasvojen pisteitä, voi esim. ensimmäisen kahden viikon aikana näyttää täysin toimimattomalta. Erityisesti reilusti ylipainoisella kasvot lähtevät kapenemaan ensimmäisenä. Visuaalisesti tätä ei näe helposti kun joka päivä katsoo itseään peilistä. Pihdit on kuitenkin armottomat ja niiden avulla näkee selvästi, mitä elimistössä tapahtuu.

Päivän kohokohtana oli vielä juttutuokio Hypertension Instituten johtajan, Mark Houstonin kanssa. Hän on myös kurssilla ja käyttää Biosignaturea lääkäripraktiikassaan. Mark on erittäin arvostettu lääkäri, yksi USA:n huippuja sydän- ja verisuonitautien asiantuntijoista. Charles ja Mark ovat tehneet yhdessä tutkimuksen jossa tutkittiin Biosignaturen insuliinipisteiden (selkä, "jenkkkakahvat") ja hormoniarvojen yhtäläisyyksiä. Niissä on selvä korrelaatio - jos rasva kasautuu jenkoiksi, on insuliinitaso liian korkea. Ja jos selkä kerää rasvaa, on kropassa vähintään alkava insuliiniresistenssi. Tästä aiheesta pääsen haastattelemaan Markia tulevaa Biosignature-aiheista kirjaani varten tällä viikolla.

Esimerkiksi minun kroppani on geneettisesti huono sietämään hiilareita: selän piste ei ole missään vaiheessa ollut alhainen. Tällaisten tietojen saaminen itselle hyvissä ajoin voi estää myöhemmällä iällä puhkeavien kroonisten sairauksien, esim. verisuonitautien esiintymistä merkittävästi. Isälläni todettiin korkea verenpaine vastikään ja olin jo toissakesänä kertonut hänelle, että Biosignature näyttää hänellä olevan korkean sydän- ja verisuonitautiriskin. Joskus asiat pitää vaan nähdä kantapään kautta!

NYC kuittaa tältä päivältä :) Huomenaamuna taas salille ja sieltä kurssin kakkospäivä alulle!

Ulkolinja: Myrkkyä halvalla

Koska tällä hetkellä kiirettä pitää vähän turhankin paljon - tällä kertaa supernopea minipäivitys jossa lainaan Facebookiin laittamaani päivitystä:

Tässä on pakko ilmeisesti alkaa harkitsemaan luomuhamppuponchoon verhoutumista ja 100% luomuruokaan siirtymistä... katsoin taannoin Ulkolinjan "Myrkkyä halvalla" -dokumentin. Selvisipä sekin sitten, miksi jotkut esim. H&M:n vaatteet, muiden valmistajien halvat kodintekstiilit, muovilelut jne. haisee niin omituiselta ja aiheuttaa iho-oireita. Kuinka moni äiti tietää että lelut voi tehdä lapsesta lisääntymiskyvyttömän?

Katso Yle Areenasta vielä kolmen viikon ajan tuo dokumentti täältä.

Tässä kuvassa Hampurissa tsekataan, sisältääkö maahan saapunut kontti myrkkyilmaa - dokkarissa mm. satamatyöntekijän tarina, jonka hermoston konttien purkutyö oli saanut aikaan. Kuka on vastuussa, kun konteista revitään varoitustarratkin irti "etteivät työntekijät saisi tietää että ilma on myrkyllistä?"

Oli vaan niin käsittämättömän paha mieli tämän seurauksena. Miten tällaiselta voisi enää sulkea silmät, kun todisteet noiden asioiden paikkansapitävyydestä tulee silmille harva se päivä tutkimusten tai ihan todellisen elämän (Biosignature) kautta? Muutan varmaan kohta jonnekin poteroon keskelle ei yhtään mitään. Ei paljon lohduta, että tämä meidän Suomikin on nykyisin kaukana lintukodosta - maapallolla ei ole YHTÄKÄÄN paikkaa jonka eliöstössä ei näkyisi viittauksia saasteista ja toksiineista.

Mutta mutta... Suuntana on pian New York - siellä varmaan näiltä asioilta täytyy yrittää sulkea mielensä ja suosia luomuruokaa niin paljon kuin mahdollista (siellä se onkin ihanan helppoa, jei!). Reissua ennen vielä asiakastapaamisia, omat treenit ja huomiset firman valokuvaukset. Miten se menikään, vierivä kivi ei sammaloidu.... :)