7 min read ⌚ 

The Bulletproof Plan to Activate Untapped Brain Energy to Work Smarter and Think Faster – In Just Two Weeks

You want to address your mental weaknesses and stop feeling things such as forgetfulness and lack of focus?

Then, Dave Asprey’s “Head Strong” 2-week plan is just for you!

Bonus: you’ll also be a lot healthier person after the program!

Who Should Read “Head Strong”? And Why?

“Head Strong” is a program which Dave Asprey spent 17 years and more than $1 million dollars to develop. It’s a program which can make you healthier and boost your mental capacity and IQ.

In other words, you can’t go wrong with this program whoever you are and whatever you’re doing.

About Dave Asprey

Dave Asprey is an entrepreneur, author, and biohacker. In 2013, he founded the Bulletproof 360, Inc. and a year later, he founded another related company, Bulletproof Nutrition, Inc.

Both are based around his bulletproof diet, a program he developed himself after growing up obese and unhealthy, and a program he first explicated in his 2014 bestselling book, “The Bulletproof Diet.”

Supposedly, the diet helped him both lose 40 pounds of his weight and gain 20 IQ points.

Published in 2017, “Head Strong” builds upon the bulletproof diet.

Dave Asprey is also famous for developing bulletproof coffee, the recipe of which he posted on his website years before he built a bulletproof coffee industry.

“Head Strong PDF Summary”

We’ll never get tired of saying this:

Your brain is a magical thing!

So magical, in fact, that you don’t even notice using it anymore!

Which is, certainly, a bad thing, because it means that your brain is now working against itself – in an almost counter-evolutive manner.

In other words, it’s making you do things which are not helping it!

So, it’s time you go out of your (or its) way to help it!

How exactly?

Just like Monty Python’s meaning of life, it’s nothing very special: by eating better and staying away from (actual and metaphorical) toxins, by controlling your environment, and exercising and meditating more regularly.

What does this mean in practice?

Let’s find out!

#1) Diet

What you eat influences your brain and, consequently, your performance, more than any other factor you can actively control.

The main idea is to make your hormones fire properly.

And you’ll never do that with a fat-rich high-sugar diet!

Two foods that slow the rate of neurogenesis are sugars and oxidized (damaged) fats. When oxidized fats get into your bloodstream, they cause inflammation. That inflammation slows your ability to make precious ATP, chews up the insides of your blood vessels, inhibits blood flow to the brain, and slows neurogenesis to a crawl. A high-sugar diet slows your rate of neurogenesis by increasing the amount of insulin in the bloodstream. Too much insulin degrades every organ in the body.

So, opt for low-sugar fruits – blueberries and cranberries, grapes and pomegranates. Buy them fresh and buy them organic. Also – don’t forget your broccoli and other dark vegetables!

Acetylcholine is the long magic word if you want to get a good night sleep (and bonus: hold off Alzheimer).

In addition, gamma-aminobutyric acid (or GABA if you want to circumvent the tongue-twister) is the main neuro-transmitting regulator in your body – so you need it if you want to combat stress and negative emotions!

Good news: you can find them both in few different types of food!

The most important ones: beef, lamb, pork, kidney, liver, salmon, egg yolks.

Once again, buy your food only from vendors you trust – and see if you can get your meat and eggs from free-range and pasture-fed animals.

If you want to maximize your brain potential – try to eat your meals within six to eight hours.

You’ve heard that right!

Fasting for 16 to 18 hours a day boosts your brain energy because your body stops taking it from glucose and starts taking it from the stored ketones in your body.

This results in a state of ketosis, which, in turn, increases your brain power by almost a third (28%).

Dr. Veech explained that humans are the only animals that go into ketosis when we fast because we have such large brains to support. Ketosis protects our big brains from oxidative stress and allows us to survive. Without ketones, we would die in six days without food, but with them we can survive much longer.

Now that you know what you should eat and when you should eat it, it’s time that you learn what you should never consume – no-excuses-style!

First of all, trans fats.

Do we even need to say that?

Potato chips, fried and grilled foods, margarine – these are all big no-nos, and you should never even think about consuming them if you want to stay healthy and give your body and your brain some kind of a chance.

Also, avoid milk and other dairy products, as well as gluten.

Finally, don’t drink alcohol or use artificial sweeteners.

#2) The Environment

No matter how healthy your diet is, if you don’t spend some time examining and controlling your environment, your brain may be harmed by its toxins, and you may let all good dietary effects go to waste.

So, one of the first things you should do: check your building for mold. More than half of US building have it.

Also, make sure your building doesn’t have any leaks since it’s very dangerous to work in a water-damaged building.

Finally, check for toxic metals. They can be everywhere: around your building and in your food, in your medicines and in your water.

Next, be sure to get more sunlight. Artificial lights – especially the one from technological devices and LEDs hurts your brain and your body, severely damaging the quality of your sleep.

So, cover all of your LEDs. Buy red ones – since they can offset the “blue light” which has apparently taken control of the environment and our lives.

Finally, use all the oxygen you can get.

Your body needs it; your brain needs it!

So, stay away from environments with stale air – even if that means staying away from your gym.

After all, exercising outside is always better!

Which brings us to –

#3) Sleeping, Exercising and Meditation

Sleeping is underrated.

Sleeping well can make an enormous difference in your life.

Which means – don’t sacrifice the peace and quiet of your sleep for the new episode of “Game of Thrones.” You’ll watch it tomorrow: get some rest in a dark room, away from all technology.

If you still have problems, meditate: it’s one of the greatest favors you can ever do to your brain and our body.

Nothing reduces stress more than meditation.

The same holds true for regular exercise.

The reason why you’re feeling better and smarter after it is because exercising has numerous mental and physical health benefits.

So, start today!

Key Lessons from “Head Strong”

1.      Improve Your Diet: It Will Make You Smarter
2.      Control Your Environment
3.      Sleep Better, Meditate, and Exercise

Improve Your Diet: It Will Make You Smarter

The title may sound like a clickbait – but it isn’t.

It’s actually true – what you eat influences the performance of your brain more than anything else you do.

So, start fighting your forgetfulness, tiredness, inability to focus, and mood swings – on your table.

Eat organic food – mostly low-sugar fruits and vegetables, and free-range, pasture-fed meat and eggs. Eat salmon, almonds, cashews.

Don’t let trans fats into your body and don’t drink alcohol. Also, remove gluten and stay away from GMO or mold-infested food (in other words: check your cereals and coffee carefully).

Finally, eat far less sugar than you’re eating now.

No matter how much sugar you consume – it’s too much.

Control Your Environment

In addition to controlling your diet, you must learn to control your environment as well.

This means, among other things, checking your building for things such as mold, water leaks, and toxic metals – these are all around you and they are effectively poisoning you on a daily basis.

In addition, it also means staying away from LEDs and technology as often as possible.

Blue light hurts you in a much more literal way than you can imagine.

Sleep Better, Meditate, and Exercise

Blue light also impairs your circadian rhythms and your sleep habits.

And sleeping well is one of the most important things you should do.

Meditating may help you achieve it.

Exercising regularly has the added boost of improving your physical health, in addition to boosting your brain power: Exercise not only helps you become fitter; it also encourages the survival of your fittest mitochondria.

Sleeping, meditating, exercising – that’s the holy trinity of health and intelligence.

Like this summary? We’d like to invite you to download our free 12 min app, for more amazing summaries and audiobooks.

“Head Strong Quotes”

Your brain runs the operating system for your entire life, and it’s time for a major upgrade. Click To Tweet

By working with your mitochondria instead of against them, you can improve your sleep, get more out of your meditation and see greater results from your workouts in less time. Click To Tweet

Normal is your nemesis: It’s considered ‘normal’ to grow increasingly tired and foggy as you age, until one day you wake up with dementia, unable to remember the things that matter most. Click To Tweet

You do thousands of things every day that affect the way your brain creates energy. Choosing to do even just a few of them better will lead to powerful change. Click To Tweet

Your grandparents didn’t have UV-filtering glass, didn’t wear sunglasses much as kids and didn’t wear sunscreen, and they had less skin cancer and better mitochondria than we do now. Click To Tweet

Our Critical Review

If you’ve read “The Bulletproof Diet,” you’ll probably find most of “Head Strong” repetitive and redundant. But, that only means that most of Dave Asprey’s advices are on the spot.

In fact, if you haven’t read “The Bulletproof Diet,” “Head Strong” may be an even better start: it’s more engaging, more all-encompassing, and there’s less promotion of Asprey’s Bulletproof Coffee.

And it should get you the same results in less time!

So, win-win-win-win.

Emir Zecovic

Emir is the Head of Marketing at 12min. In his spare time, he loves to meditate and play soccer.