Move Around Every Day

February 3, 2012 by jeremy | 1 Comment

Walking is man’s best medicine.” – Hippocrates (Greek Physician 460 BC – 377 BC)

Most talk about health revolves around two concepts: diet and exercise. It basically comes down to a series of inputs and outputs that add up to what kind of shape you are in.

While there are obviously other factors that play into your total health (genetics, environment, etc.) exercise is a big one. For the sake of discussion purposes the word exercise will be used to describe any physical action you perform during the day. In other words, exercise should technically be thought of as work, applying a force over a certain distance.

We literally exercise every day whether we realize it or not. Exercise isn’t simply going to the gym or running around the block a couple times. It is walking down the aisles at the store, and cleaning up your house.

Good health implies that you are are able to do many things adequately well. In old age people often need others to help take care of them, but a person described as healthy will be able to perform the duties of daily living by themselves. And exercise helps enable you to be that healthy person in old age.

Good health is having the strength (power) to do a certain task for the full amount of time needed to complete the task (endurance). And so we have our basic breakdown of the fitness world today: weight training and cardiovascular training.

Many people will become dogmatic in their thoughts about exercise, but ultimately you need to have both power and endurance to accomplish the tasks that life throws your way.

The thing about exercise is that your daily activities contribute to doing those same daily activities better again the next day.

Walking on a daily basis helps you to walk faster and further the next day.

Lifting heavy things on a daily basis helps you to lift heavier things and more things the next day.

Sitting on the couch helps you to sit longer and harder on the couch again the next day.

At the very least, doing what you have always done will give you the results you have always had.

So you have to think a little bit about your current condition and where you want to be in old age. As they say, we aren’t getting any younger. You always have to fight against the degradation of your body.

If you want to be able to walk in old age, it is good to do plenty of walking in your younger years. If you want to be able to pick your grandchildren up and carry them on your shoulders in old age, you should be lifting something at least that heavy on a regular basis. If you want to enjoy the great outdoors and hike the highest mountains in old age, you should do plenty of that when you are younger.

Of course, if all you want to do is sit around and watch tv in your old age, you can do that in your younger years as well.

The idea here is that we should move around a fair amount every day so that we can age well and still be fully or mostly functional in old age.

Some people want to run marathons and some people want to be able to lift hundreds of pounds of iron effortlessly, but most people I imagine just want to be able to function well in their day to day living. They want to be able to get from point A to point B without the use of a wheelchair or walker. They want to be able to cook, clean, and take care of themselves and their homes without too much effort. Sure people have accidents and old age catches up to them sooner than they think, but we know that it is possible to live healthy and well into old age.

We just need to make sure we move a little and lift a little each and every day.

This is our 9th challenge in The Personal Health Challenge Series…

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On Food Intolerance & Allergies

January 31, 2012 by jeremy | 2 Comments

Many of us walk through life with something constantly weighing us down. Not having the same energy levels or the same level of health as other people. That silent nuance that could become a silent killer is a food intolerance and/or allergy.

Food allergies come in many different forms, but there are some that are more common than others. The FDA requires that food manufacturers list the top eight food allergens that could be in their food. The top eight food allergens are milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, soy, and wheat.

If you have a food allergy the symptoms may be minor, but if you notice that any particular food gives you trouble then it would be wise to be tested for an allergy to it.

A food intolerance is actually totally different from a food allergy. An allergy by definition requires an immune response that produces antibodies against a chemical substance found in that particular food item. Meaning that you body basically thinks that it is a virus or bacteria that will make you sick. The allergy is the response your body gives against the assumed threat much in the same way that your body will produce a fever when it thinks it is sick.

A food intolerance is usually associated with an inability by the body to properly digest a certain food. One of the most common, especially in children, is a lactose intolerance. This is where the body is unable to digest the sugar in milk known as lactose, and exhibits symptoms ranging from bloating to nausea.

Once you discover that you are actually lactose intolerant the problem becomes avoiding it. Lactose is found, not just in milk products, but in all kinds of foods ranging from processed meats to breads and cereals.

Another intolerance that has been getting major press these days is gluten intolerance. This is the protein found in wheat and other related grains. Just like lactose, gluten has been used as a food additive for a wide assortment of processed foods, and is somewhat difficult to totally remove from your diet.

The best way to discover if you have a food intolerance or not is to totally remove the suspect food for at least 30 days and measure the results. You can do the same for a food allergy, but allergies are more easily diagnosed through fairly easy allergy tests. Food intolerances on the other hand are fairly difficult to test for with any certainty.

If you have a symptom that has been chronic for any length of time such as migraines, IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome), heartburn, nausea, or any other symptom that could possibly be food related, it would be wise to look for the likely culprits through testing or food elimination diets.

This is our 8th challenge in The Personal Health Challenge Series…

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Reboot to a Healthier Lifestyle

January 30, 2012 by jeremy | 1 Comment

I think one thing that is great to do every once in awhile is to reboot your lifestyle. And perhaps this is most important in regards to your health.

Has your house or apartment ever gotten to the point where everything is just a mess? Clothes scattered on the floor. Papers covering tables. Things are dirty and need cleaned…

It doesn’t feel too good does it?

Then you spend an hour or two cleaning everything up. Putting everything back in place. Running the vacuum. Disinfecting all the surfaces, etc.

After it is all done you feel a little more at peace. It is so nice to come home to a clean house! Very relaxing as it should be.

Now think about how you can clean up your own life in the same way…

Doing all of the above can improve your health, certainly your mental health just from peace of mind, but what other ways can you reboot your lifestyle for health?

  1. Clean out your cupboards and refrigerator – Get rid of all the expired stuff. Throw away foods you just aren’t going to eat. Dump all those unhealthy foods in the trash. Then replace them with good clean healthy foods you will eat on a regular basis. (Not healthy foods you are also going to let expire because you don’t like the taste of them)
  2. Refresh your bed – Clean all the sheets and pillow covers. Perhaps buy new pillows? Flip the mattress over. Maybe move your bed to a better spot in your room? Or just organize things on your night stand better. Anything that helps improve your sleep environment.
  3. Schedule a day to relax – And I mean really relax. Precook you meals. Turn off the tv and avoid the internet. Take a walk outside. Read a book. Chat with a loved one. Just a day where you avoid all the usual distractions in life and you let your mind be a peace.

And those are just a few things you can do. So sit down right now and make a list of things that would help you to reboot your lifestyle to be healthier and happier. What would those things be? Then set out to accomplish those things one at a time. Break it up into small bits and you will be amazed at how all these little lifestyle changes add up to one big change!

He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home. -GOETHE.

This is our 7th challenge in The Personal Health Challenge Series…

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The Benefits of Fasting

January 27, 2012 by jeremy | 3 Comments

Ask yourself this question…

When was the last time you felt hungry AND allowed yourself to be hungry for a significant amount of time. This is by far the simplest way to describe fasting.

Now you might be asking yourself…

Why in the world would I consciously choose to go without food? The simple answer is to improve your health, but there are many physiological reasons to fast.

Reasons to Fast

  1. Disease Prevention – Animal studies have shown that fasting can help with disease prevention from various diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Human studies aren’t as inclusive but have significantly proven that fasting improves numerous blood markers of health.
  2. Weight Loss – Many individuals who practice fasting have shown the ability to lose weight and keep it off with intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting is simply an approach to calorie restriction that doesn’t require such extremes as going a whole 24 hour period without food or permanently limiting your calorie intake by a certain percentage.
  3. Detoxification – After many years of eating all the various foods we eat every day we eventually build up a lot of toxic substances in our bodies, with the majority of them stored in our fatty tissues. When we fast, the body uses energy normally reserved for assimilating food in our bodies to purging our bodies of everything unnecessary. This helps use to get rid of all the heavy metals, chemicals, and toxins that have built up over the years and helps our bodies run more efficiently.
  4. Improved Energy & Mental Clarity – A little bit of hunger makes you feel more awake and alive. This is your body’s natural signal saying it is time to hunt for food. Once you have eaten a large meal you feel tired. This is your body’s natural response to a large meal because energy is diverted to the process of digesting all that food. If you get the midday “blahs” consider skipping those snacks and/or drinks you have been going to get more energy.
  5. Improved Athletic Performance – Fasting has been shown to increase Human Growth Hormone (HGH) and improve protein synthesis. These two factors help your body repair itself after it has been damaged. The quicker your body is able to heal itself after a workout the faster you can improve your performance. It is that simple.

So what are the downsides to fasting? Well it is tough for some people, especially those that have developed some serious sugar cravings. However, your body will adjust with some practice. Just take it nice and easy. Maybe skip a single meal at first and see how you feel. Then eventually progress to what people call an 8 hour feeding window. Meaning you can only eat food between noon and 8pm, or whatever time frame works best for you. This translates into a 16 hour fast.

Some people also have problems with how their body feels from an extended fast. For instance, when your body is detoxing your blood fills up with all the toxins your fatty tissues are releasing which can cause a feeling of sickness, grogginess, or just general malaise. You can combat this by shortening your fast, drinking double the water you normally do, or fasting with some type of food such as fruits and vegetables in small amounts.

There are many different ways to fast.

  1. Single Meal Fast – This is where you pick a single meal out of the day and abstain from it. Many people naturally abstain from breakfast because it doesn’t feel right for them to eat first thing in the morning.
  2. Intermittent Fasting (IF) – This is where you fast on a regular, perhaps daily basis, for a certain time period. The most common IF fast uses an 8 hour feeding window. This can be increased to a 12 hour feeding window or decreased to a 4 hour feeding window depending on the person’s goals and preferences. A feeding window is simply the time period where you eat the majority (90-100%) of your calories.
  3. Periodic Fasting – This is where your fast for a determined day and time. Maybe you fast once a week or once a month. This can be by choice or by circumstances. This fast can be for any time period, but is usually from 24 to 48 hours at a time. And during this fast you normally only drink water or small amounts of tea.
  4. Juice Fast – These fasts are very popular because they give you tons of energy and help people lose weight. Two very visible results of fasting. A juice fast is where you combine fruits and vegetables in a blender and drink the resulting juice, pulp and all. Drinking juice you buy at a store is not recommended because it is lacking in the amount of vitamins, minerals, and fiber you get from whole fruits and vegetables, and because they normally have a higher sugar content then is desired (thereby providing you more calories than makes sense for a fast).
  5. Salad Fast – This is one of my personal favorites because I know it to work well. I personally started eating salad for breakfast and it helped me lose some fat around my mid section and gave me improved energy levels. You can either replace whole meals with a salad or try and eat nothing but salad (perhaps with eggs, cheese, or chicken on top?) for a few days up to a week.

Fasting has many great benefits along with some difficulties in getting started, but with a little practice you will start to see your health improve. There is nothing to lose and everything to gain by trying some sort of fasting, so think about what you might like to try and go for it!

This is our 6th challenge in The Personal Health Challenge Series…

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Get Some Sleep

January 24, 2012 by jeremy | 1 Comment

There is nothing in this world like some nice long restorative sleep. Great sleep keeps us alert during the day. It helps us remain alert. It helps improve our memory. It evens helps us lose weight and prevent cancer. Sleep is not to be underrated.

For much of human history, we more or less went to bed shortly after nightfall and awoke with the rising sun. With the advent of electricity and the light bulb we are staying up much later, and therefore we need the help of another electronic device, the alarm clock, to help us get up in the morning.

We can do a lot to improve our sleep and thereby improve our health in general.

Not many people realize that sleep is more a habit then anything. The time you go to bed, the time you wake up, and the total amount of time you sleep is highly trainable. People have all kinds of different sleep habits, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are healthy.

One of the best things you can do for yourself is to set up a good solid sleep routine. Go to bed the same time every night, have the same pre-bedtime ritual.

It is also good to consider what type of person you are. While it may be slightly difficult to find out for certain, there are people who are definitely early risers, and people who are definitely late risers. It comes down to two hormones in your body. Cortisol is what helps you become truly alert after you wake up in the morning, and Melatonin is what helps you to feel relaxed enough at night to go to bed. Each of these is based off your circadian rhythm.

It is good to experiment a little and see when your optimum hours of sleep are. Some are better off going to bed later, some are better off going to bed earlier. Some need a little more sleep and some need less, but most people do well on 7-8 hours a sleep a night.

Some other ways to help yourself get better sleep at night is to avoid any kind of excessive stimulation. Exercise, large meals, caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, bright lights, especially the ones coming from your computer screen, all prevent your body from relaxing enough so that you can go to sleep.

Reading a book, making your bedroom quiet and dark, and lowering the temperature to 65 degrees are all ways to help you get better sleep at night.

There are many tips and tricks to getting a good night sleep, but it is mostly about becoming relaxed and going to bed when your body tells you it is time to go to bed.

Speaking of bed, I think my pillow is calling me right now. Here is to a good night’s sleep! :-)

This is our 5th challenge in The Personal Health Challenge Series…

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Eat This Way

January 21, 2012 by jeremy | 6 Comments

There is no one way to eat. Each of us has different genetics, different environments, and different demands we put on our body everyday. People survive on almost 100% meat (the Intuits), and people survive on 100% vegetable products (Vegans), and of course everything else in between.

When we decide what we are going to put into our mouths everyday most of us don’t think about the latest scientific studies that show what food is good for you or what food is bad for you. We only really eat what we think tastes good, and even beyond that we tend to eat what we have always eaten.

If you are seeking a certain result. If you want to change the way you look, have more energy, or prevent disease, then changing what you eat on a daily basis may be a good idea.

No matter how you eat now. No matter what your genetics are. No matter what demands you put on your body. There are a few things that people can do to improve their overall health by changing their diet.

  1. Eat More Vegetables – In study after study, no one food type has proven to be better for you than vegetables. Mom was right. We should eat our vegetables everyday to improve our health. Vegetables help people lose weight, have more energy, prevent disease, and help the body to run optimally. If you want to improve your health in any area, the best thing you can do is start eating a big heaping salad a day (preferably with oil and vinegar or lemon juice instead of dressings).
  2. Eat More Protein – Dietary protein provides most of the building blocks for our body in the form of amino acids. Every single part of your body needs amino acids for proper functioning of the cells. Your body mainly uses protein for this purpose and not as an energy source. For this reason protein is great for losing fat and building muscle. I think most of us know that meat, eggs, and fish are good sources of protein, but beans and legumes (soybeans, legumes, etc.) are great sources of plant protein followed by nuts and seeds such as almonds and sunflower seeds.
  3. Eat More Fat – For the longest time fat was thought to be awful for you, but all the latest research is pointing in the other direction especially in regards to healthy fats such as omega-3′s. Omega 3 and Omega 6 are called essential fatty acids because they are essential for survival. We need a certain amount of them to survive and it is better for us if they are in the form of Omega 3′s. Oily fish (sardines, trout, salmon, mackerel, etc.) have the highest Omega 3 content. Nuts and seeds have the next highest amount with flax seed ranking at the top. Finally grass fed animals produce eggs, milk, cheese, meat, etc. that is higher in Omega 3 content then grain fed animals.
  4. Eat Less Carbohydrates – While protein and fat are both essential for our survival carbohydrates (carbs) are not. Carbs only really provide us with energy. While more carbs are better for very physically active people, most people don’t need anywhere near the amount of carbohydrates they consume. This leads to an increase in fat (stored energy), and also contributes to diseases such as diabetes.
  5. Eat More Whole Foods, Not Processed Foods – One of the best pieces of advice I have ever heard about eating is to only shop around the edges of a grocery store. On the edges you will find fresh fruits and vegetables, meat and seafood, eggs, and other whole products that have been minimally processed. Processed foods such as bread, pasta, cereal, and anything in a can (high sodium), or a box (high chemical preservatives) should be avoided as much as possible. Two notable exceptions are rice and beans found in bags (again, not in cans or boxes). These are simply dehydrated and very near their raw form.
  6. Avoid sugar as much as possible – Sugar really does mess you up. It is raw energy in its purest form, has no nutritional value whatsoever, and should be treated as such. All baked goods contain sugar. Most of the processed foods in the aisles of a grocery store contain sugar. Sugar contributes heavily to increases in fat (again, stored energy) in your mid section, hips and thighs (where people want to try and reduce fat), and also contributes to diabetes (which is heavily linked to obesity). Just do yourself a favor, read labels, and avoid sugar at all costs.
  7. Enjoy Your Food – I don’t feel like I could tell you to eat this way without telling you that you should enjoy the process. Find out what tastes good to you, that will also keep you healthy in the long run. Learn to enjoy cooking and become good at it. Savor your food and eat slowly. Taste every bite. Become aware of your food instead of just mindlessly eating. There is nothing like a fresh crunchy salad with some olive oil and vinegar. Or a piece of salmon drizzled with a lemon butter dill sauce. A piece of dark chocolate is just as good as a candy bar or ice cream, and it is better for you. Eating right should enhance the pleasures of eating, not detract from them.

Put a little effort into these seven ways to eat and your life will never be the same. It will be better. Bon Appetit!

This is our 4th challenge in The Personal Health Challenge Series…

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Invest In Yourself

January 17, 2012 by jeremy | 1 Comment

Perhaps the greatest thing you can do to improve your health is to invest in yourself…

By invest in yourself I mean you should do things that help make you a better person. Help you get stronger, faster, smarter, etc.

A better you is a happier you. A better you and a happier you helps to make everyone around you better and happier as well.

As I mentioned in the previous post, being healthy is mostly about the desire to be healthy. Part of having a long and healthy life is to plan on living a long and healthy life. The rest is investing the time, energy, and money into becoming as healthy as you can be. Not becoming overly obsessed with health to the detriment of your health. But in investing the least amount of your resources to gain the maximum return on your health.

Invest Your Time

The first thing you invest when you decide to become healthier is time. Time to learn how to be healthier and time learning how to put it into practice. Whether you invest a lot of time to accomplish this or a little is mostly up to you. There is some luck involved in that you aren’t always going to find the right method the first time around, but the faster you learn and the faster you put it into practice, the faster you will attain your healthiest state of being.

Invest Your Energy

It takes energy to become healthy. There are few cliches truer than the old adage stating, “Use it or lose it” Walking, Biking, Playing, Working, Jumping, Cleaning, Fixing, Eating all require energy. And all of them done in the right amounts contribute to your physical, mental, and social well-being. Each amount of energy you give to a chosen activity helps you to become better at that activity and helps improve your health in the long run. Barring an unfortunate accident, it is mostly your choice as to whether you are wheel chair bound at 80 or running a marathon at 80.

Invest Your Money

If you invest your time and energy wisely you probably won’t need to invest much money at all in becoming healthy. However, we all need some extra effort sometimes and money can help us get there. Whether it is in the form of a book on health, a cooking class, a personal trainer, a visit to the doctor, or a new pair of running shoes, money can be helpful in getting us to where we want to be with out health.

Investing in yourself pays dividends in the long run. Realize that it takes a little effort to set yourself on a healthier path, but the payout is just around the corner in the form of a healthier you. Trust me. Investing a little in health now will certainly be worth it in the long run. I guarantee.

This is our 3rd challenge in The Personal Health Challenge Series…

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What Exactly is Health?

January 16, 2012 by jeremy | 1 Comment

What is health? How do we improve it? Why should we improve it?

These are questions we don’t think about too much until we become “unhealthy”.

By thinking about it this way, most people see health as the absence of illness, injury, or pain. But health isn’t just about the absence of bad things happening to our body. It incorporates everything we know that contributes to our general well-being in mind, body, and soul.

There are many things that we can do to improve our health…

1. Exercise
2. Get Enough Sleep
3. Maintain a “healthy” body weight
4. Avoid environmental contaminants
5. Practice safe habits
6. Eat “healthy” food
7. Drink clean water and breath fresh air

And those are just a few things to think about to keep our bodies healthy. We also can practice a lot of things that help keeps our minds and our souls healthy.

Human beings have defined themselves as having three separate parts for a very long time. Many different societies talk about the gut, heart, and mind as three separate things. And science has shown that nervous system near the gut and heart can sometimes have a “mind of their own.”

There are many ways to define health, and many categories of health to look at. A person can be perfectly healthy in their body, but be sick in their mind. Or they can be sick at heart while their mind and body are functioning perfectly. And each area can affect the other. A person who has a sickness in their body can become depressed about it, and depression can lead to a sickness in the body and heart.

The complexity of what health is boils down to a very simple idea. Good health is what allows you to do all the things you would like to do in this world. And poor health is what takes away many of your options. In other words, good health brings freedom.

“The wish for healing has always been half of health.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca

As Seneca said, a desire to be healthy is half of health. It is where everything begins. If you do not want to be healthy, then you will suffer the consequences of your lifestyle. If you do desire to be healthy, then everything else you desire in life becomes that much easier to attain.

For me, health comes down to one’s ability to accomplish things in life. I desire a little more in life then mere survival. And because of that desire I have to care about my health. For without health, I couldn’t achieve many of the things in life I set out to do.

Many people think that being healthy keeps them from enjoying things in life. They often talk about how boring life would be without alcohol and delectable treats. How boring life would be without dangerous behavior and other things that threaten health and life itself. People with this mindset have a very shallow view of health, and perhaps a very shallow view of life itself. I would go as far to say that they lack understanding of just how precious life is and can be.

Life can be very enjoyable without the things that bring you joy, but threaten your health and life. And many of the things that people view as unhealthy can be healthy and enjoyable in moderation. Striving for good health does not mean depriving yourself of some of the finer things in life.

Health is a mindset with the belief that life is precious. That it deserves respect. That your life is worthwhile. It is not to be wasted.

Good health is, in the end, making the most of your life. Enjoying it to its maximum potential. Health is the great enabler of life.

This is our 2nd challenge in The Personal Health Challenge Series…

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Drink Mostly Water

January 12, 2012 by jeremy | 1 Comment

Let’s face it. We drink a lot of stuff we really shouldn’t be drinking.

There are thousands of different kinds of beverages to choose from. Caffeinated beverages, alcoholic beverages, fruity drinks, some made with real fruit, some artificially flavored and artificially sweetened. Drinks come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. The more colorful and sugar laden they are the more we tend to buy them.

Very, very few of these beverages will do any good for you, and most of them will actually do you a lot of harm.

Take regular old soda pop for instance…

- Drinking soft drinks has been shown to increase obesity in numerous studies.

- Drinking one soft drink a day has shown to double your risk of Type 2 Diabetes.

- Even calorie free soft drinks (using artificial sweeteners) have been shown to increase weight gain because it tricks your brain into thinking it received calories when it didn’t, which causes you to crave more later.

*Source – Harvard School Of Public Health

Now what about coffee?

- Overall, coffee has more benefits than risks associated with its consumption. Mostly because of it’s antioxidant content it has been shown to help prevent cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.

- However, coffee should be consumed in moderation because it has been shown to contribute to iron deficiencies, migraines, and sleep disturbances.

*Source – Wikipedia

How about alcohol? (Beer, Wine, Liquor, Over the Counter Medicine, etc)

- One in 25 deaths around the world is caused by alcohol consumption. *Source – Time Health

- It is well known that excessive alcohol consumption causes everything from cancer to liver disease to premature death from injury. It is wise to limit your consumption.

- Red wine has been known to be heart healthy because of the antioxidants found in it, but studies are not entirely conclusive and alcohol consumption may be a bigger risk than the benefit from the antioxidants.

*Source – Mayo Clinic

What about any drinks with calories? (Fruit Juices, Flavored Drinks, etc.)

- Guess what? Anything with calories mostly in the form of sugar is going to lead to diabetes, obesity, and weight gain. (Same as mentioned above with soda pop)

- The benefits from any antioxidants, vitamins, or minerals found in these beverages DOES NOT outweigh the risks of increased sugar consumption.

Lastly, what about tea?

- “Studies have found that some teas may help with cancer, heart disease, and diabetes; encourage weight loss; lower cholesterol; and bring about mental alertness. Tea also appears to have antimicrobial qualities.”

*Source – Web MD

- I believe tea is great to drink because it has many benefits and literally no downsides.

And finally we come to good old water. And before I advocate water outright, I must mention a few things.

- Tap water has chlorine in it and some other things you possibly don’t want to be drinking. Solution? Buy a good water filter. I prefer the Brita brand, but it is worth it to do some research here into your needs. Perhaps you might want to invest in an “in-line” filter that filters all your tap water.

- To help you drink more water during the day, and less of other drinks, it is good to invest in a good water bottle that you can carry around. Again, it is worth doing research here, but I would recommend a good Nalgene brand bottle.

- This may seem rather random, but remember that whole fruits and vegetables have a high water content to them. We get approximately 20% of our daily water requirements from the foods we eat. All the more reason to eat your vegetables! ;-)

This is our 1st challenge in The Personal Health Challenge Series…

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The Personal Health Challenge Series

January 11, 2012 by jeremy | 24 Comments

Here we go again…

52 posts on health over the next few weeks and months.

The Personal Finance Challenge went over better than I thought it would, and I am excited to start talking about health.

The Personal Health Challenge Series will be a lot like the Personal Finance Challenge expect it will be about health, and the post titles will stand by themselves instead of having “Personal Finance Challenge” in front of them.

After thinking about the concept more I am still very happy that I chose the word “challenge” and here is why…

A challenge is something that may be difficult, but is not impossible. It is something that you have the strength and skill to accomplish. If you don’t currently have the strength or skill, you can work up to the level you need to accomplish your task. And completing a challenge is very fulfilling. :-)

So join me as I seek to explore and explain the world of health! Good luck on all the challenges!

The Master List Of Challenges:

1. Drink Mostly Water
2. What Exactly is Health?
3. Invest In Yourself
4. Eat This Way
5. Get Some Sleep
6. Benefits of Fasting
7. Reboot To A Healthier Lifestyle
8. On Food Intolerance and Allergies
9. Move Around Every Day
10. Exercise This Way
11. Weight Lifting And Workload
12. Focus On Fat Loss, Not Weight Loss
13. On Taking Vitmains (The Problems With Pill Popping)
14. Cholesterol is Good For You
15. The Substitution Diet
16. Chronic Inflammation Is The Real Killer
17. Its All About The Hormones
18. How To Live To Be a Centenarian
19. How To Boost Testosterone Naturally
20. How To Have A Healthy Baby
21. Just Do it!
22. Walking is Mans Best Medicine
23. 10 Stubborn Exercise Myths That Won’t Die, Debunked by Science
24. The Metabolism Myth
25. On the Mind Body Connection
26. Change Up Your Exercise Routine
27. Be Ready For An Emergency
28. How To Read Nutrition Labels
29. How To Combat Fatigue and Tiredness
30. Control Your Food Portions Control Your Waistline
31. Keep a Food Journal For Weight Loss
32. Health is Wealth
33. How Should We Cut Health Care Costs
34. What is a Healthy Diet?
35. Grazing vs. Gorging (Food Timing Strategies)
36. How the Body Actually Loses Fat
37. The Desire to Be Healthy
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
51.
52.

One for each week of the year. Enjoy!

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