#25 How to Adapt to Stress and Become Antifragile With Cold Thermogenesis, Ketosis and Fasting

Cristi Vlad (0:00)

It was all about reading every day for at least one, at least... The mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone. Something that is fragile breaks.

Something that is resilient, or that is put under stress, it can endure. But anti-fragile is something that, when it's put under a certain level of stress, becomes even stronger.

Siim Land (0:25)

Welcome back to the Body Mind Empowerment Podcast.

I'm your host Siim Land and today we have Cristi Vlad as our guest. He's a blogger and an author from Romania who writes about human nutrition, physiology, stress adaptation, ketosis, intermittent fasting.

Cristi Vlad (0:43)

You could adapt your body to like taking cyanide or something. Don't try this at home.

Siim Land (0:49)

But without further ado, let's delve into the world of stress adaptation.

SPEAKER_3 (0:54)

Do you want to know what it is?

Siim Land (0:58)

Body, mind empowerment.

SPEAKER_3 (1:00)

Get stronger, faster, smarter, quicker, friendlier, more helpful, more driven.

Siim Land (1:06)

Everything the body needs.

SPEAKER_3 (1:07)

Control your mind.

Siim Land (1:10)

Cristi, welcome to the show.

Cristi Vlad (1:13)

Hi, thanks for having me.

Siim Land (1:15)

Welcome.

And in your website, you say that you have a master's degree in civil engineering, actually. So how did you end up from that field into writing about nutrition?

Cristi Vlad (1:28)

Yeah, I guess that's kind of difference from what you'd expect. So I think everyone is interested in improving their health and their wellbeing. So same was I. It was like after graduating, I became interested in, like any other people, I became interested in improving my health because this was around, let's say, 2010

So I had a few pounds to lose.

And I thought of what could I do in terms of nutrition and physical exercise to reach that goal. So I started with like simple things, reduce caloric intake, exercise a little bit more. And I started getting on a like improvement track, which lasted a couple of years. So it didn't like rollercoastered in, I don't know, one or two months. It was a process that started in 2010 And up until 2013, it was kind of a slow track. So I lost weight, I improved my sleep, my physical performance. I was doing a lot of running and jogging at that time. And I was also practicing swimming and kickboxing. So it was okay.

But in 2013, I kind of decided to try something new. So I've learned from Tim Ferriss about the ketogenic diet. And that's when I actually started experimenting with it after reading more about it on Peter Atias' blog. So that was in late. So it was in the fall of 2013

Siim Land (3:40)

You said that you're like very self-taught in these many different topics like genomics, machine learning, and rational thinking and human physiology. So how did you manage to teach yourself all these topics? What are some of some maybe some key principles of self-education and learning?

Cristi Vlad (3:59)

Well that's another discussion, I guess. So I began reading books.

It was like during my running, during my runs, I started, I first started listening to some audio books.

And there were personal development books, like self-development books, things like Brian Tracy and that kind of stuff. So after listening to one or two books, I started reading more, up until that time, I don't think I read like 10 books in my entire life until then. So in 21 years, maybe 10 is a decent underestimate. So then I started reading and going into other topics rather than self-development. I started reading about nutrition a lot. I started reading about business.

SPEAKER_3 (5:05)

The more you learn, the more you earn.

Cristi Vlad (5:08)

It was all about reading every day for, I don't know, at least one hour. And the mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone.

And once you start doing that, say, for a couple of days, for two weeks, and once you set time for that practice, it becomes a habit after, I would say, after two weeks.

Siim Land (5:37)

Yeah, it's true. Like there are many examples of similar people in history as well who have, you know, been this kind of a polimath where they're simply so curious about the world and they want to, and they intrinsically want to learn more, like, you know, Leonardo da Vinci and Pythagoras and those kinds of people. And I also like to think that it's the, as an individual, it's a very good position to be in, in this very not so specialized, but, you know, you have at least some understanding of our wider topics to maintain your balance.