Bulletproof Mind

So youve been treating your body right, and getting the results you want. But
your physical performance is only half the battle, but theres an entire other
universe to be conquered your brain.
When you upgrade your mind, you allow yourself to focus better so that you
can do better quality work even faster, which means you will have more free
time to spend on the things you love. You will be able to perform better at all
times, even in high-stress situations. You will be able to increase your
intelligence, and find solutions to complex problems that leave others baffled.

Step 1: Use the Bulletproof Diet to Feed Your

Brain
Most diets promise to get you thin, but they do this to the detriment of your
mental performance. The Bulletproof Diet, on the other hand, was not only
designed to give you a lean, healthy body, but also to get you a highfunctioning brain. How does this work, exactly?
Eliminating Toxins That Rob Your Performance
The Bulletproof Diet ranks food on a scale from Bulletproof to Toxic. And
its essential for healthy brain function to avoid the performance-robbing
toxins found in many crops including grains, vegetables, and even coffee.
These toxins are produced by the plants themselves (like the natural
pesticides found on spinach and kale) or are released by mold growing on the
plant, which is a known problem in the agricultural industry. These toxins give
you brain fog that places a huge burden on your brains ability to perform at
the level you want it to.
Stop Depending on Sugar for Fuel and Jumpstart Ketosis
When you follow the Bulletproof Diet, you eat a restricted amount of
carbohydrates, which puts you into ketosis. This means that your liver
converts the fats you eat into an energy source, ketones, so that you no longer
need carbohydrates to function. This is great for your brain, because your
brain prefers ketones to perform certain jobs. In fact, even if your liver isnt
producing ketones, your brain will make some on its own to maintain the
health of synapses. Ketones are a more efficient source of energy for your
brain than sugars are, and if your brain is working more efficiently, so is
everything you do.
Drinking Bulletproof Coffee in the Morning
The Bulletproof Diet isnt just your typical low-carb diet that helps you move

slowly towards ketosis. A staple of the diet, Bulletproof Coffee, can kick you
into ketosis much faster than you could get there on your own. The mediumchain fatty acids in Upgraded MCT Oil and Brain Octane Oil can also aid
in your ketone production. On top of that, youve got the added stimulant
benefits of the caffeine and diterpines in coffee.
Going Gluten-Free
Unless youve been living under a rock, youve probably heard about the
negative health effects of gluten. Gluten can cause learning problems, focus
issues, and memory malfunction. Gluten causes your body to elevate levels of
inflammation, particularly by forming cytokines, proteins that are found in
patients with Alzheimers, Parkinsons, multiple sclerosis, and autism all
neurological diseases.
Limiting Histamine
The Bulletproof Diet is comprised of foods with low histamine levels, which
have more of an impact on you than just causing your seasonal allergy issues.
Histamines are a neurotransmitter, which means they send messages
between your body and your brain. High histamine levels can cause
headaches, sleep issues, and anxiety, and you can get histamines not just from
your allergies, but also through food particularly aged, smoked, or cured
foods. Since the Bulletproof Diet advocates fresh meat, eggs, and produce
all low-histamine foods it can help protect you from these problems.
Eating More Healthy Fats
Your brain is mostly made up of saturated fats and cholesterol, which is why
people supplement with DHA and EPA (both fatty acids) to support brain
health with supplements like Krill Oil. Your mind uses fat to recover and repair
itself, resulting in improved memory, increased cognitive skills, and better
moods. Bulletproofs high-fat diet (up to 70% of daily calories) supports a
Bulletproof body and a Bulletproof mind.

Step 2: Restore Your Memory with Sleep

How Sleep Helps the Brain Function
You know how groggy you feel the next day when you barely get any sleep
during the night? Its not just because you want sleep; its because your brain
needs quality sleep to function properly. When you sleep, it gives your brain a
chance to repair the neurons that you exhaust during the day while youre
active. It also gives your brain time to exercise the connections between your
neurons. In fact, a recurrent lack of sleep may actually cause loss of brain
cells the last thing you want when youre trying to be Bulletproof.

Good Sun Exposure and a Healthy Circadian Rhythm

Did you know that people whose offices have windows get better sleep than
those who work in windowless workspaces? Thats because getting enough
sun exposure everyday keeps your bodys clock or circadian rhythm on
point. Sunlight tells your body to postpone making melatonin the hormone
that makes you tired and helps you sleep. So its a great idea to get some sun
in the morning if you can, but if youre rushing to get to work and dont have
time to take a leisurely walk, you can take your vitamin D supplements in the
morning instead. Since sunlight makes your body produce vitamin D, which
put offs melatonin production, taking a morning dose of the vitamin may make
your body feel like youve been outside. (For this reason, you want to avoid
taking your vitamin D at night, which can interfere with sleep).
How to Hack Your Sleep
Eight hours of quality sleep can increase your ability to tackle complex
problems by 50%. So how do you get that kind of sleep? First, invest in Sleep
Cycle, a simple iPhone app that tracks the quality of your sleep, just by
placing your phone on your bed!
After youve done that, install F.lux on your computer, which changes the light
from your computer screen to adjust for the time of day, helping your brain
prepare for sleep even when you use your computer at night (that said, you
want to avoid bright lights like the TV for an hour before bed). You should
also avoid exercising for at least two hours before bed.

Step 3: Smart Drugs and Nootropics

Nootropics, or smart drugs, are some of my favorite hacks. These
substances increase your brains performance you remember more, learn
better, concentrate more fully, and can even increase your intelligence. These
drugs are also neuroprotective, so they protect your brain from injury (unlike
amphetamine-derived stimulants like adderall).
Vitamins and Nutrients
But if smart drugs arent your thing, you can always boost your mental
performance with nutrients, such as Magnesium, vitamin D, Krill Oil,
Turmeric, and vitamin B.
Magnesium can actually reverse the affects of stress on your brain, and
can therefore increase your memory and cognitive function. Magnesium
is also vital to ATP production, so low magnesium means low brain
energy, which isnt Bulletproof!
Vitamin D is also a great supplement for your brain. It helps protect
you from free radical damage, which can decrease your cognitive

performance.
Krill oil, which is packed with DHA, EPA and Astaxanthin, keeps the
neurons in your brain communicating freely. Better communication in
your nervous system obviously means that youre going to be smarter,
faster, and better.
Turmeric is a spice used frequently in Indian food. It contains
curcumin, which is great for your brain. Curcumin is an antioxidant that
travels easily from your blood to your brain, and like vitamin D, it helps
protect your brain from free radical damage.
B Vitamins fight off the amino acid homocysteine, which increases
brain shrinkage and may lead to Alzheimers. In fact, it seems that
vitamin B may be able to decrease brain shrinkage by up to 90%, and
may make shrinkage 7 times slower. And we all know that size matters.
Other Natural Supplements
CILTEP - CILTEP, short for Chemically Induced Long-Term
Potentiation, is an all-natural supplement created by Abelard Lindsay
that can improve your mental performance. It helps you be more
focused, motivated, and retentive. CILTEP works by optimizing levels
of intracellular second messengers, which carry signals between your
brain cells.
Choline Choline is an essential micronutrient that helps your brain
make the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which fosters intelligence and
memory. There are also some studies that suggest it may be protective
against Alzheimers and other forms of dementia. You can find choline in
supplements like Alpha BRAIN.
Upgraded Glutathione Force Glutathione is the best antioxidant
out there. Your liver already makes its own supply, but with todays
constant environmental exposure to toxins, its good to help out your
liver. Supplementing Glutathione through a lipsomal form like
Glutathione Force (other forms are destroyed by your gut before being
absorbed) is a great idea because your brain makes more free radicals
than any other organ in your body, and these free radicals
accelerate cell death. Glutathione helps eliminate these free radicals
and protects your brain from them, so it optimizes your brain function.
Upgraded Aging Formula The foundation of Upgraded Aging
Formula is oxaloacetate, or OAA. This supplement works to protect the
neurons in your brain from toxins, and there is also evidence that it can
improve your short term memory and help you think more clearly and
efficiently.
Modafinil
Modafinil, commonly known as provigil, is by far going to pack the most

powerful punch. It helps you focus on what youre doing so that you can do
things not only more efficiently, but better. Modafinil is also much safer than
drugs like Adderall and other stimulants because it doesnt give you the same
sensation of heart-racing, jittery speediness. It doesnt flood your brain with
dopamine and instead of forcing your body to stay awake, modafinil boosts
your focus so that youre actually more alert.

Step 4: Hacking Your Nervous System

Meditation and Breathing to Calm Your Mind
When you suffer from stress (as most people do), its too hard to focus and be
productive and too easy to have recurring irrational thoughts. It can also
cause poor judgment and memory problems, and thats certainly not
Bulletproof. A good way to combat stress is to use meditation and breathing
exercises.
When you meditate, you practice the art of mindfulness, which allows you to
choose which thoughts you want to focus on. It allows you to choose how you
respond to your feelings instead of blinding reacting to them. Different ways
of meditating include counting, mantras, mindfulness, positive self-talk, and
controlled breathing exercises.
With controlled breathing, you want to breathe from your diaphragm, not your
chest. Pull the air in through your nose all the way down into your belly, then
exhale with your stomach first, using your diaphragm to push the air out of
your lungs. Only your stomach should move, not your chest. The inhale should
be a long, continuous breath, followed by a pause before exhaling, and then
another pause before taking the next breath. This slow, steady breathing can
help control your heart rate and allow your mind to relax.
Heart Rate Variability Training
When you are relaxed, you have a rhythmic heart rate variability, or the
amount of time between each beat. Under stress, your body resorts to a fixed,
inflexible rhythm. HeartMath technologies (like the emWave2 or the Inner
Balance Sensor) use a tiny sensor to calculate your heart rate variability,
and warns you that you are showing signs of stress (perhaps before you even
realize it). The sensor guides you to take deep breaths every five seconds as
you listen to music or meditate to resume relaxed heart rate variability. By
warning you that you are getting stressed, and teaching you to prevent stress
before it starts, you can stay more focused, controlled, and in better moods.
Gratitude and Forgiveness
Taking a few minutes a day to do a gratitude and forgiveness exercise can be
unbelievably beneficial. In fact, its probably the most powerful biohack ever.

Either stop everything youre doing and consider what you are grateful for, or
write your thoughts about gratitude and forgiveness down in a journal (like
The 5-Minute Journal). By doing this, you can increase your happiness,
recover more easily from stress (I mean, how much stress do you carry around
from your anger and hurt?), and become more effective at work. In fact,
gratitude exercises are shown to increase decision making abilities and
encourage productivity. It also makes you generally more likeable.

Step 5: Neurofeedback
Neurofeedback is when you re-teach your brain how to respond to different
emotions. Cool, right? You have EEG sensors placed all over your scalp, and
monitor your brainwaves in different areas. Then you play a video game
with your brain, using your brain electricity to make the game progress. The
more positive brain activity, the faster the game goes (positive reinforcement),
and the more undesirable brain activity, the slower the game goes.
Eventually, this cycle of positive and negative reinforcement re-teaches the
brain which brain waves are desirable, so that they can replace your previous
negative responses to stressors.
To get neurofeedback, you can either buy your own Neuroptimal unit, or you
can find a local practitioner.
Upgraded Focus Brain Trainer
The Upgraded Focus Brain Trainer works a lot like neurofeedback, except it
measures the blood flow to your prefrontal cortex. The trainer is linked to
your computer, and gives you immediate feedback so that you can consciously
send more blood to that area of your brain the productivity powerhouse that
controls attention, planning, organization, motivation, and memory
40 Years of Zen
40 Years of Zen is an intensive 7-day neurofeedback program that puts you in
the same mindstate as advanced (were talking to 20 to 40 years) zen
practitioners. It takes 7 very long, very full days of monitoring and retraining
your brain at a facility dedicated solely to this process, but it can increase
your IQ by an average of 12 points, and increase creativity by an average of
50%, and its hands-down the fastest, most efficient way to reap the benefits
of neurofeedback.

Step 6: Other Fun Hacks

Inversion Therapy (Hanging Upside Down)
It sounds weird, but hanging upside down is a great way to hack your brain.
Regular inverting trains your brain capillaries, making them stronger and

more capable of bringing oxygen to your brain. Its pretty straightforward

more oxygen to your brain means better brain performance. As an added
bonus, after repeated inverting, the way your body regulates blood pressure
actually changes.
Using Light to Get a Mitochondrial Boost
You can use light to affect your mitochondrial function. Just hold a red LED
light to the place where you want a boost your stomach, a sore muscle, or up
your nose if you want to bump up your brain for a few minutes, and you will
experience more mitochondrial activity, meaning more cellular energy and
better cellular communication.
https://www.bulletproofexec.com/bulletproof-mind/