The Craig Van Cast
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The Craig Van Cast
8 Levels of Energy (your performance potential)
You think you're healthy because you're not sick. But there are 8 levels of health and energy—and you're stuck at level 2. Most "healthy" people accept brain fog and afternoon crashes as normal, never realizing there's a whole universe of vitality beyond just "not being sick."
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CHAPTERS:
00:00 Introduction: Why You're Stuck at Level Two
01:10 Understanding the Health Spectrum
04:01 The Eight Levels of Health and Energy
04:04 Level One: Severely Ill
04:38 Level Two: Chronically Symptomatic
05:37 Level Three: Symptom-Free but Low Energy
06:12 Level Four: Good Energy with Occasional Issues
07:05 Level Five: Consistent Energy, Rare Symptoms
07:40 Level Six: High Energy, Optimal Digestion
08:24 Level Seven: Peak Performance, Gut Powered
09:10 Level Eight: Transcendent Vitality
10:37 The Secret to Ascending the Levels
11:42 The Role of Gut Health
13:48 Ancient Wisdom Meets Modern Science
15:06 Review and Next Steps
#eat #guthealth #energy #biohacking #brainfog #inflammation #microbiome #performance #vitality #wellness
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Waking up groggy despite sleeping eight hours. Brain fog after what you believe is a healthy lunch. I'm gonna show you eight levels of health and why you're stuck at level two while trying to convince yourself that it's normal. I went from needing three coffees to function to 12 hour marathons of focused work without stimulants in only 30 days. I know you've heard about nutrition experts and the biohackers with perfect energy, but you also believe that working hard and getting older makes being tied unavoidable. So I'm gonna show you exactly where you stand on an energy scale of eight levels, and the three key factors that determine whether you stay stuck below level three or ascend to the peak performance available above level six. First, I want to ask you, what's the one thing most healthy people are doing that's actually keeping them trapped at level two, despite eating clean and exercising? I'll answer that in a moment. Let's first start with why everything you think you know about health is actually limiting your potential. What changed everything for me was realizing that health isn't binary, it's not sick or, well, it's a wide spectrum of possibilities. Way back in 1948, the World Health Organization had already defined health as complete physical, mental, and social wellbeing, much more than just the absence of disease. But we've ignored this. We've settled for not being sick. Dr. John Travis mapped it perfectly with his illness to wellness continuum. A scale from negative 10 to positive 10 on this scale. Zero is neutral. No active illness. Almost everyone hits zero and stops. They never realize that there's a whole universe beyond zero. That is the exact tragedy we are here to confront. Every time I stray from optimal health and crash for a few days, I'm slapped in the face by this truth. There is a massive difference between not being sick and being truly well. Reaching zero on Dr. John Travis's Scale from negative 10 to positive 10, and then believing you've made it is like a worldclass sprinter believing that walking pain free is his potential. Cutting edge research has proven the spectrum exists. Flow state research shows humans can achieve 500% productivity increases when operating at their peak. McKinsey studied executives in flow state 500%. Productivity increases, and that's not from motivation, that's biology. Level seven and eight. Operators access this daily. Your mitochondria produce more a TP. Your brainwave shift into transient hypofrontality, dopamine surges and ermine floods your system. You become a different organism. Another famous example are the folk in the blue zones living to well over 100 years old. They don't just avoid diseases, they maintain high vitality into old age. Dan Butner documented a hundred year olds still swimming, surf boarding, and lifting weights at 95. They're not just living longer. They've compressed illness into a tiny fraction of their lives and spend most of their years with vigor and clarity while you are running on 30% power. to help you get a clear idea of where you actually stand. Let me break down the eight levels of health and energy. Level one, severely ill. This is rock bottom, diagnosed autoimmune conditions attacking your tissues. IBS so severe you plan your life around bathrooms. Chronic fatigue syndrome where a shower exhausts you for hours. Your mitochondria barely produce a TP. Your inflammation markers are sky high. You can't work. You can't think. Your body is in crisis mode 24 7. You're in a constant state of inflammation. Level one sucks. Level two chronically symptomatic. This is where most so-called healthy people live and they think it's normal Daily bloating that makes you unbutton your pants by noon. Brain fog so thick, you reread emails three times. The 3:00 PM crash that sends you hunting for sugar or coffee. Acid reflux after every meal. Joint aches you blame on aging skin issues you cover with makeup, constipation you've had for years. The real tragedy is that most people in level two have normalized dysfunction. Society has been convinced that tiredness is the price of success. That brain fog is just a part of getting older, that needing acid reflux blockers is normal after 30, it's not normal. It's level two. You're not sick, but you're also far from, well, level three symptom free, but low energy, no obvious illness, but no sparks either your blood work comes back in the normal range, but you feel flat. You wake up groggy despite eight hours of sleep. You need that morning coffee to form coherent thoughts. By the evening, you're too drained for anything beyond Netflix. Your gut bacteria are producing some butyrate, but not enough. Your vagal tone is weak. You're not sick, but you're running on fumes level. Four, good energy, occasional issues. Most days feel decent. Energy holds until dinner, but certain foods still trigger you. Maybe dairy causes mucus or bread makes you sluggish. You haven't identified the patterns yet. Good days and bad days seem random, but this is where awareness begins. You start noticing that pizza night leads to brain fog tomorrow. That wine disrupts your sleep, your body's sending signals. You are just learning to decode them. Where are you right now? Be honest. If you need caffeine to function, you're maximum level three. If you crash at 3:00 PM you're level two. If you have any daily symptoms that you've accepted as normal, you're not above level three. Level five. Consistent energy, rare symptoms, steady performance. You wake up naturally before your alarm. Energy stays stable through the afternoon, and when you do crash, you can trace it directly. Late night, the processed meal, the stressful week, Your gut microbiome is diverse. Beneficial bacteria are thriving, you're producing adequate butyrate. Recovery from exercise is quick. You bounce back from stress within hours, not days. Level six, high energy, optimal digestion. This is where life gets good. You wake up energized mind already generating ideas. Sustained focus for four to six hour blocks. Meals leave you satisfied and energized, never heavy or tired. Your gut is so optimized that you rarely think about digestion. It just works. Biomarkers show excellence. Fasting glucose under 85, triglycerides under 100 inflammatory markers. At rock bottom, your cells are producing a TP efficiently. Your gut brainin access is firing clean signals both ways. Level seven peak performance gut powered. Your biology becomes a superpower. HRV, consistently high, Elite athlete territory, you access flow states daily, where five hours feels like 30 minutes. Your gut microbiome is a finely tuned orchestra, high diversity, abundant keystone species, optimal short chain fatty acid production. Your intestinal barrier is a fortress tight. No leaky gut, no inflammation. Your vagus nerve is the tone of a meditation. Master ideas arrive fully formed. Complex problems feel simple. Your cognition is sharp enough to cut glass. Level eight, transcendent Vitality, the blue zone state. Every system is optimized beyond what most consider possible. You're aging in reverse by every biomarker. Telomeres, lengthening muscle mass, maintained bone density of someone 20 years younger, like those Okinawan centenarians, still farming at 95, or Sian Shepherds, hiking Mountains at 90. It's not just longevity, it's vitality compressed into every single day. The mental clarity of a 25-year-old energy of a teenager, wisdom of your years, your gut microbiome resembles that of. Indigenous peoples wildly diverse, resilient anti-inflammatory. your mitochondria pump out a TP like factories running three shifts. Your cells are essentially younger than your chronological age. This ist fantasy. We can measure every one of these markers. Heart rate variability, mitochondrial health index microbiome, diversity scores, inflammatory panels, telomere length, vagal tone. These aren't just feelings. They're quantifiable positions on the spectrum of human potential. When I operate at level seven or eight, everything changes. Focus, energy, inspiration, clarity, ideas, communication, connection, creativity, productivity. Everything goes through the roof. Stuff just works. Things just happen. The whole journey feels effortless. But the real secret is that I only realized I could feel this good once I tasted it for myself. You don't know what you're missing until you experience it firsthand. This is where you choose. The puppet lets fatigue pull his strings remains stuck at level two controlled by his food and symptoms. The pilot views his body as a high performance system, uses symptoms as data to optimize and ascend, Which are you? Here's what's keeping healthy people trapped at level two. Your gut controls, your health and your energy, period. Think of your gut as mission control for a spacecraft. When mission control fails, the entire mission crashes. Your gut commands 70% of your immune system manufactures. 95% of your serotonin contains more neurons than your spinal cord forms the barrier between your body and the outside world. However. As you listen to me right now, your gut wall is probably leaking like a broken dam. Picture this, your intestinal lining should be a fortress wall, tight, impenetrable, but certain foods, gluten, processed sugars, alcohol, they punch holes right through that wall. Toxins flood through your bloodstream becomes a sewer. Those toxins hit your brain that afternoon. Fog, that's literally poison clouding your neurons. What's worse, your gut bacteria is supposed to be manufacturing rocket fuel for your cells. It's called butyrate. No butyrate equals no cellular energy. Columbia researchers found chronic fatigue. Patients all share one trait. Dead gut bacteria, no fuel production, empty tanks. I discovered this the hard way. 30 days without gluten. I felt like someone had cleaned my windshield after driving through mud for years. The fog wasn't normal, it was poisoning. Each food you eliminate is another layer of grime removed. Another energy valve opened and you're operating at 30% capacity right now. And you think it's normal, but it's not. Ayurveda calls it OJS, your vital essence. When OJS is strong, you radiate health with robust immunity, glowing complexion, calm mind, and stamina. When OJS is depleted, you're susceptible to everything. They aimed for a state called Parama, OJ. Supreme vitality that fosters longevity and an enlightened mind. Traditional Chinese medicine measures Qi life force energy. Abundant qi means energetic, clearheaded, and harmonious Living. QI deficiency means fatigue and subpar functioning even without western diagnosis. They recognized that someone with harmonized organs and strong Q was truly, well, not just free of disease. These 5,000 year old systems recognized the full spectrum of health. They knew that not being sick wasn't the goal. Modern science confirms what ancient practitioners knew. Vitality operates on many levels, not just sick or, well, let's quickly review the eight levels, levels, one to two, symptomatic struggle, levels three and four. Functional but limited, level five and six. Consistent performance, level seven and eight. Optimized vitality. Remember, the puppet stays at level two, accepting fatigue as normal. The pilot uses the scale and his understanding of it to ascend. When you understand the scale, everything changes. You stop accepting. Fatigue is inevitable. You start treating your gut as your performance engine. You can move from Puppet to pilot in 30 days. Imagine waking tomorrow at level seven. No caffeine needed ideas flowing before you even open your laptop. Sustained focus for 12 hours straight. Still energized for evening activities. This isn't farfetched. You can run the test right now. You become the master of your own biology, the architect of your own energy. The next step is simple. Download the Body Compass poster below. It's free. It shows you exactly how to categorize foods based on your body's unique responses, not generic population averages. This poster is your first tool for moving up the energy scale. It helps you decode your body's unique responses to foods into clear data. Remember that your biology is as unique as your fingerprint. Generic advice will fail. A personalized approach is the only way. You can get to level six and beyond in 14 days. If you start right now, comment your current level below. Be honest. Where are you on the scale of one to eight? Let's see how many pilots are ready to ascend to the next level.