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The one thing that will guarantee your success in diet, fitness and health for 2011. Part 2

Hi,

The one thing that will guarantee your success in diet, fitness and health for 2011. Part 2  (See part one here: health and fitness)

In the first part of this series we saw how commitment is the number one factor you need to accomplish your diet, fitness and health programs in 2011. 

The first part of commitment is acting upon your commitment.  You saw how you need to decide what to do and how to do it. 

Now we will look at the second part of commitment. 

The second part of commitment has an endurance factor.  Binding yourself to the course of action.  Sticking with it long after the mood has left you.  Coming through time after time after time, year after year after year. 

You have made the commitment.  You have acted and started eating better and exercising.

Now life gets in the way.  It happens to everyone. 

It doesn’t matter.  Did you think this was going to be easy? 

If it was easy, then no one would be overweight or out of shape. 

So making a commitment – the first part of commitment – is relatively easy.  Remember that is the first step.

The second, third, fourth and so on steps are the hardest. 

Keeping the commitment going – that is the hard part.  And this is where who you are comes into play. 

The last three lines of the poem by Ashbash sum it up much better than anything I can say to you.

Commitment is the stuff character is made of.
It is the power to change the face of things.
It is the daily triumph of integrity over skepticism.

Okay, what I am about to say right now will probably shock you. 

If you want to be successful with your commitment and your diet, fitness and health programs you must take it slow. 

I would bet that the number one reason people fail at doing something –even if they are committed to it- is because they try to do too much too fast.  And they then expect to much in the way of results immediately.

The body does not work that way. 

Drastic changes in eating, drastic changes in exercising cause the body to rebel.   Cause the body to fight the very things you are doing – even if these things are better for your overall health.

So instead of trying to change everything you eat overnight, instead change one thing. 

Maybe you forgo the bagel and cream cheese at breakfast.  Maybe you drink your coffee black instead of with 500 calories of whipped cream. 

Do this for a week or two and then change something else. 

If you decide to go to the gym, don’t try to act like a professional body builder and do 20 sets for every muscle. 

Instead do 1 set of a very moderate weight 2 or 3 times a week.  Introduce your body to changes – don’t try to knock it out. 

The key point is that you want to get fitter and healthier.  To do this you need to change your life.  You do this by gradually introducing new things into your life. 

This way they will stick and become your life.   

Now you know what you have to do. 

Act upon what you really, really want and do it for the long haul. 

Those 25 pounds and flabby muscles will disappear easily.

You will be healthier, fitter, stronger and have tons more energy.   Isn’t that worth committing to?

Thanks

Mike Val

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Your Health and Fitness Success Guaranteed

The one thing that will guarantee your success in diet, fitness and health for 2011.

Hi,

Are You Willing To Do The Number One Thing That Will Guarantee Success In Your Diet, Fitness and Health Programs for 2011?

This one thing always works.  It actually works for anything you attempt to do – it doesn’t just have to be with your health or fitness.

Yet, it is something that almost no one does.

Part of it is because they aren’t even aware of it.  Part of that is because they aren’t aware of how important this is.  Part of it is because they don’t understand how to do it. 

So what is this thing? 

It is commitment. 

So now you are aware of it. 

It is everything. 

So now you are aware of how important it is. 

We will get into how to do it later.

So exactly what is commitment? 

Commitment has many different definitions.  Here are a few that I like:

The trait of sincere and steadfast fixity of purpose.

The act of binding yourself to a course of action.

Sticking with something long after the mood you have said it in has left you… by jojo 11 Sep 20, 2008

Commitment is what transforms the promise into reality.
It is the words that speak boldly of your intentions.
And the actions which speak louder than the words.
It is making the time when there is none.
Coming through time after time after time, year after year after year.
Commitment is the stuff character is made of.
It is the power to change the face of things.
It is the daily triumph of integrity over skepticism…by Ashbash Jan 13, 2005
Wow.  I know that is a lot of definitions. 

But, let’s look at just a couple of them. 

First of all it is an act.  It is something you do.  

It is not something you just do by rote – like brushing your teeth or breathing – it is something you have to think about and then act upon.

So start out your commitment by deciding what it is you really, really want.  You have to want this more than anything. 

You can not commit to something that you really don’t care about.  Remember it is something that you really, really want. 

The operative word here is “you”.  If it is something that someone else wants for you, that will never work. 

If you spouse wants you to lose weight and you are only lukewarm to the idea, it is not going to happen.  Oh sure, you might make some pathetic attempts, but they won’t stick. 

You must be the one that really, really wants it. 

Since we are talking about your health let’s say you want to lose 25 pounds and “tone” your muscles (there is really no such thing as toning your muscles, but since it is a common term I am going to use it here).

You know that the 25 pounds aren’t just going to fall off by themselves.  You are actually going to have to do something. 

The first step is figuring out what that something is. 

Now maybe that something is eating less food or eating healthier foods or starting an exercise program.  Or a combination of the above.

Now you know what you really, really want to do.  That is to lose 25 pounds.

And you know what you have to do.  That is to eat healthier foods and exercise more. 

This is actually the easy part. 

Now comes the commitment.  Now comes the time to act upon what your want to do and have to do.

You have taken the first step.  Remember the saying that the first step is the hardest?  Well, that is a lie.

The first step is actually the easiest. 

The next post we will get into the harder part and the second part of commitment to your diet, fitness and health program for 2011.

 Thanks,

Mike Val

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Discernment and Your Health 2

Hi,

Wlecome to part 2 of discernment and your health.  For part 1 go to discernment.

To sum up – it is up to you to make discernment work for your life and your health.

We looked at the acai berry scam to show how to be discerning.

Sometimes you have to do some research to see if the advertising statements have any truth to them at all.

Now the marketing ads look very good and seem very official.  They might say that the information has been published.

You might think published in a scientific journal, however it could mean that it was published on the internet.  Quite a difference.

The ad might say the product is doctor approved.  But, what kind of doctor.  You could have a doctorate degree in English Lit and call yourself a doctor.  Not as impressive as a medical doctor. 

What about all the testimonials?  I hate to let you in on this, but most testimonials you see are not real. 

If you look at enough of them, you will see the same pictures, different names all promoting different products. 

And, really – go to any gym in the world and you will not see as many beautiful people as you see in just one of those television commercial exercise classes.  These – for the most part – are paid actors and actresses or models. 

Now so far we have talked about discernment with particular products and marketing promotions.

But, discernment is about your life.  Every single decision you make affects your life.

You get to make a decision about what to eat several times a day.  You can decide to eat a cream cheese bagel and have a coffee with loads of sugar and cream in it. 

Or you could decide to eat a ham and veggie omlet with 1/2 a grapefruit.

Look, you already know that there are healthy foods and junk foods or what I call ghost foods (they have no nutrients in them). 

You know what is better for your health.  What are you going to decide to eat?

Are you going to make the decision to eat healthier to have a healthier life? 

If you do decide to make that decision, then you have to make the decision every time you eat. 

You can’t decide to only eat healthy 1 meal a day or 1 day a week.  Your body doesn’t work that way.

Your body adapts to what you do to it.  Even if what you do is not good for it. 

Now you will eventually pay for it.  You might develop cancer, have a heart attack or a stroke, develop diabetes and so on.  All because of your decisions on what to eat. 

The problem is that it takes a while for all your bad decisions to catch up with you.  If every time you smoked a cigarette you coughed uncontrollaby for several hours, then you could figure out that smoking wasn’t good for you.

But, your body adapts.  Over time though you will probably develop cancer or have heart problems. 

The same is true of what you eat.  The same is true of whether you exercise or not.

So not only do you have to decide what to do, you have to discern what is in your best interests to do based upon your decisions. 

This is not an easy task.  And it is ongoing for life. 

But, there is help.  You can keep reading this blog to help you make these decisions.  There are also a few other good people that produce good products in the health, fitness and nutrition world. 

I will introduce these people to you as time goes by. 

In the meantime your health depends upon your discerning decisions. 

Thanks,

Mike Val

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Discernment and Your Health

Hi,

What does discernment have to do with your health?  How about everything.

So what exactly is descernment.  It is keenness of insight and judgement.  This means once you are given a piece of information you have the ability to have an insight about it and make a judgement.

The only thing I would add is a correct judgement.  This is of course very subjective in some cases.  And it is based upon past experiences that you have in your life.

A child hasn’t had a lot of experience in making decisions about things so they can’t discern the right or wrong of something.

But, as you get older this should be something that governs your life if you want to live life to the fullest.

So what does this have to do with your health?

Let’s use an example.  You see an advertisement for a new way to lose weight.  You can lose 20 pounds faster than you can imagine. 

You buy the product and find out that all you have to do is blink your eyes 100 more times per day. 

I would hope that you would discern that the statement is BS.  You can even think of discernment as your BS meter. 

Unfortunately, most people can not discern most of the marketing about weight loss, burning fat, exercise toys and programs and so on and so on.  To the tune of billions of dollars a year. 

Just look at the acai berry scam.  This is a good one because a good lie or scam has an element of truth in it. 

There is nothing wrong with the acai berry.  It does have antioxidants – just like every other berry in the world.

The problem is that the marketing world has taken the acai berry and made it the latest miracle berry that can do everything.

It has been promised to burn fat – no scientific evidence.

It has been promised to help you digest better – no scientific evidence.

It has been promised to give you energy – no scientific evidence. 

It has been promised… oh, well you get the idea.

All these marketing promises can make it hard to discern what is true and what is not. 

And almost every new health and nutrition product has tons and tons of miracle promises.

It is up to you to register it somewhere on your BS meter. 

Now you might think that the government is supposed to do that for you.   I could go on and on about personal responsibility and not giving that up to the government, but I’ll just leave you to think about that.

Just know that no government can police every single product and every single advertisement in the country. 

So it comes back to you. 

You have probably eaten berries before.  Did any of them cause you to drop 20 pounds of fat overnight? 

It is up to you to discern that the statement about burning fat is not true.  Or at the least do some more research to find out for yourself if the statements in the marketing ads are true or not. 

We’ll pick this up in the next post.

Thanks,

Mike Val

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Hi,

Do you know what the three words to improve your posture are?

Judging by the way that most people walk and sit, I would guess that you might not know them.

They are “stick em up”.

Now what comes to mind when you hear those words.  Some gangster type trying to rob someone. 

So if a gangster says this to you what do you do?  You immediately stick your hands up in the air straight over your head.

Doing this simple exercise a few times a day will help improve your posture greatly.

Most of us sit all day at a desk doing paperwork or typing on the computer. 

We drive in our cars with our shoulders hunched forward. 

We eat our meals with a relaxed and rounded back.

Over a lifetime of doing this you can see the results.  Rounded backs.  Forward slumping shoulders.  Neck tilted forward which causes the head to lean down.  Then we have to compensate so we can see where we are going, so we tilt the head back.

This helps keep tension on your neck and shoulders all day long.

So how can stick em up work?

Try this exercise.  Stand up against a wall, with your butt,  upper back and head touching the wall.

Your heels should be just a few inches away from the wall.

Now raise your hands over your head and touch your wrists, elbows and shoulders to the wall.

Slide your arms down the wall keeping everything in contact with the wall.  Slide them back up again like when the gangster tells you to stick em up. 

If you are like most, you will find it hard to keep everything in contact with the wall. 

As you keep doing this, you will find your posture improving.  Your back will be straighter, your shoulders pulled back and your neck will realign itself.

If you are having a lot of trouble doing this, then you can do this lying down on the floor. 

Just pretend the floor is the wall and do the same thing.  Your heels will be touching the floor also.

As you do this, you will find that your elbows or wrists might come off of the floor.  When you feel this happening, just stop there and relax for 30 seconds.   Let gravity help you stretch out.

Whenever you start feeling tension in your neck and shoulders, just remember those three words to improve your posture and help relax your upper body muscles.

Thanks,

Mike Val

PS.  Some of you may have noticed I am not posting 5 days a week.  I am cutting down to 3 times a week for now and possibly less in the future.

I am working on a lifestyle program that is designed to easily help you acquire the body you want. 

The problem is that I don’t have time to post every day and work on this program also.  So the posting has to give for now.  Hope you understand.

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Hi,

So which is better – health care or medical care?

Maybe we need to define these terms first. 

Your health care is one person’s responsibility.  And that is you.  You are the only one that can control what you put in your mouth.  You are the only one that can do whatever exercise you decide upon.

You are the only one that can control your personal hygiene. 

Medical care on the other hand is pretty much out of your hands.  This is what we consider the medical fields.  The doctors, nurses, hospitals and the ability to “fix” you.

In the US the medical care is top notch.  The health care is not so top notch. 

A lot of international studies that talk about the US not having the best medical care get these terms mixed up.

Michael Moore’s latest “documentary on medical care is an example.  He claims that the Cubans are healthier than Americans because they have better medical care.

Well, they don’t have better medical care.  Their hospitals are about where ours were 60-70 years ago. 

But, what they do have is a population that does not have access to thousands of pounds of junk food at the grocery stores.

They also have a population that walks a lot and rides bikes and stays active. 

So maybe the average Cuban is healthier than the average American, but it has only to do with health care, not medical care.

And this is something that you have full control over.  Yes, it is hard to bypass all that good tasting junk food.

But, one key is to never bring it into the home.  That way you won’t have it around to snack on. 

When it is in the home then it is very hard to resist temptation.  Keep it out of the home. 

If you want to have some with your cheat meal – for example some chips – buy the small individual bags, not the 27 pound bag at your local grocery warehouse. 

That way your health care will be so good that you might never need medical care.

Thanks,

Mike Val

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Hi,

Sorry women readers, this one is for men only.  Do you have man boobs?  (Although some of you women might want to print this one out for the man or men in your life.)

Now that the weather is warming up and more and more men are taking their shirts off at the beach – a lot of the time it is not a pretty site. 

Man boobs are on the rise.  And it is not just older and fatter men.  You see it in normal looking, but smooth guys too. 

If men’s breasts start getting any bigger, soon men will have to wear tops just like women do. 

What is causing this rise in mammory tissue?  Well, aging does have something to do with it.  Testosterone does decrease as you age and that causes the muscles to sag and allows more fat to accumulate. 

But, that is only if you let it happen.  You can naturally keep your testerone levels raised by keeping your weight down (which will help stave off estrogen) and doing some resistance exercise. 

What you eat plays a role also.   Because of the amount of hormones fed to cattle, chicken and pork it knocks our male hormones out of whack. 

This causes a rise in the amount of estrogen in your system. 

You can eat only grass fed beef and organically grown chicken and pork.  This will reinstate your normal testerone levels. 

Try to reduce the amount of canned foods you eat also as they can also contain xenoestrogens (toxins that imitate estrogen).

The third thing you can do is try to eliminate all the pollutants coming into your life. 

These xenoestrogens can be found in spermacides, detergents, plastics, plastic bottles, pesticides, herbicides, personal care products and lacquers.

I know it is hard to eliminate all these things, just do your best. 

Eat healthier, keep your weight controlled, exercise and try to eliminate pollutants you come in contact with.  Do these few simple things and you can eliminate the worry about man boobs.

For a simple way to keep your weight controlled check out this site:  http://www.valshealthsite.com

Thanks,

Mike Val

Hi,

Is your health a number?  What does that mean exactly?

Basically some researchers and marketers are using a new definition of health.  Sometimes they raise numbers to make you appear more healthy and othertimes they lower numbers to make you want to take their pills. 

So let’s look at this a little closer.

There was a study a few years ago that came out (Archives of Internal Medicine) and said that your could be healthy and overweight. 

They based that upon measurements of blood pressure and blood sugar levels. 

The report stated that anyone with a blood pressure under 140/90 and a blood sugar under 100 was healthy. 

See that is redefining health and using numbers to do so.  First of all just measuring those two things doesn’t prove you are healthy. 

What if you are stage 3 cancer?  You could still have a normal blood pressure and blood sugar levels and be dying. 

The other element is the use of those numbers.  Almost everyone considers 120/80 to be healthy or normal for your blood pressure.  To arbitrarily decide upon 140/90 is a little crazy. 

Most consider a blood sugar of 100 to be too high.  80 is considered healthier. 

Considering all the known problems that being overweight causes I would err on the side of the lower numbers. 

But, that brings up the problem – for the pharamceutical industry – of how to sell more drugs and pills. 

So some reports are coming out saying your blood presure should be 110/80 or even 100/70.   What would this do for the average person?

Well, it would put them on medication to reduce their blood pressure.  This is something the pharmaceutical industry would love.  They would make billions and billions more just giving pills to people with normal health. 

You can see the same thing happening with diabetes, ADHD, cholesterol levels and so on. 

Manipulate the “normal” criteria and you can put millions more on drugs. 

For Christ’s sake they even have kids on ADHD drugs.  Now that really pses me off.   Sorry for the rant, but the uninterrupted march to higher profits with no consequences for the health of the individual is absolutely crazy. 

 Now, the good news is you probably don’t need to take any medication.  You can control your health with what you eat and how you exercise. 

Do neither and you will die younger, spend a lot more time in the hospital and go broke paying for your hospital and medicine bills. 

Then you will be corpse number Z1875X25.

Your health is a number and it should be number 1 in priority.

Thanks,

Mike Val

Hi,

Yesterday we saw how there are a few simple things that you can do to help fight off Alzheimer’s.  One of these was meditation, which we didn’t have time to get into.

As a refresher, doing something simple like going for a walk and singing at the same time – although I am sure talking, whispering, humming or whistling would work just as well – can help reduce the onset of Alzheimer’s by up to 70%. 

There were a few other things mentioned in that article and you can see them here:  http://www.valshealthblog.com/fitnesstips/3-ways-to-stop-alzheimers/

That post got rather long, so I included meditation in today’s post.

One of the major things in life that plays havoc with the way you function is stress.  This can be physical stress as well as mental stress.

Today’s world is much more stressful than even 20 years ago.  It seems every year there is more stress around.

Part of that is because there are more people in the world.  Overcrowding has been known to cause stress.  So if you live in a crowded city you are just going to be surrounded by more stress than if you live in the country. 

Even if you really don’t have much stress within you, your body will feel the effects of the stresses of everyone around you. 

Stress affects both proteins associated with Alzheimer’s.  The first is beta-amyloid and the second is tau.

As these proteins increase they fragment and form tangles and plaques in the brain.  Most noticibly in the frontal regions. 

Over the years if you do nothing to relieve your stress the risks of Alzheimer’s skyrockets.

Meditation does two things.  It helps relieve stress by really teaching you how to relax.  Relax not only your body, but also your mind. 

And its effects are most noticible in the frontal regions of your brain. 

So that is the good news.  The bad news is that hardly anyone knows how to meditate correctly.

Most people just sit down and try to relax their body.  While this helps, it really doesn’t do much for the mind. 

If you are sitting down and relaxing and your mind is still going a million miles a second, then you aren’t really getting much in the way of benefits. 

The hardest thing about meditation is learning how to acquire an empty mind.  This is one where your brain is not thinking. 

It is sort of like being in a deep sleep, where your body and mind can totally relax. 

When I taught meditation I found that if I had my students concentrate only on breathing that really helped them. 

This means breathing correctly.  So I had them sit in a semi-lotus position and place one hand on their lower abdomen.  They closed their eyes and felt their abdomen move out as they inhaled and move in as they exhaled. 

I asked them to just concentrate on their abdomen moving in and out.  This seemed to help most of them get into a relaxed state much more quickly then just telling them to relax and empty their minds.

So go ahead and do this 2-3 times a day for a few minutes at a time.  If you can do it longer, great. 

Doing meditation will help stave off Alzheimer’s and that is a good thing.

Thanks,

Mike Val

Hi,

What does Alzheimer’s have to do with this blog?  As you know this is called a health blog.  And while a lot of this focuses on fitness and nutrition we will also look at ways to keep you healthy. 

 This would also include stopping, slowing down or preventing the progress of diseases like Alzheimer’s. 

One of the scariest things I ever heard was when a friend of mine told me his dad had Alzheimer’s. 

Now his dad was sharp.  He was a finance manager and very smart.  Ran his own business and was quite successful. 

But the scariest part was when his son told me that his dad told him that he knew what was happening to him and he couldn’t do anything about it. 

To know that you have this terrible disease and couldn’t do anything to stop it.  That would have to be one of the most horrible things to have to go through in your life.   

Back then – in the late 70′s, early 80′s – not much was known about how to stop it or prevent it. 

And today, there is a lot we still don’t know about the disease. 

But, we are learning somethings.  Like the importance of living a healthy and fit life.  Exercising and eating right still go a long way in preventing many diseases and the ravages of older age. 

There is some promising research that shows it is important to keep your brain active.  But in certain ways. 

I know many of the mind games being promoted talk about keeping your mind active and continually learning.  However, most of them are only good at improving (if they improve at all) your mental ability in one area. 

There is no transference into other areas of your brain.  So a computer game that promotes recognizing patterns will do only that.  It won’t make you react faster, it won’t make you think better and so on.

So what can you do?  You have to build up your CR.

CR is your cognitive reserve.  Your CR consists of your IQ, education level attained, occupational level, and participation in novel leisure events.

People that have  a higher level of CR activities in their life have a lower risk of Alzheimer’s. 

The really great thing is that no matter what your current CR is you can improve it.  One of the studies showed that improving your CR can reduce the risks of Alzheimer’s by up to 70%!

So what can you do?  You have to participate in activities that engage your attention and involve more than one of your senses. 

You should also routinely break out of your regular patterns.  Drive home from work a different way once or twice a week would be an example. 

One of the things I have done for years is to notice license plates.  I add or multiply the numbers in the license plate together and see how long how I can go with multiple cars. 

I also notice the letters and try to make up a sentence based upon the letters.   Sometimes I try to keep the sentences going with another license plate. 

That engages my mind and it is something different every day. 

Here are a couple of other ideas.   Take a walk and sing or hum a song as you are doing so.   This gets two parts of the mind working at the same time.

Pay real close attention to your surroundings.  Describe them outloud.  (You might not want to do this at work.)  But, just look around you and say the kitchen counter top is marble and describe the shades of color in it.  Describe your whole kitchen while you are cooking. 

You are only limited by your imagination here.  Do this a few minutes a couple of times a day. 

Lastly, meditate – which since this article is getting longer – I will get into tomorrow. 

Try these few simple things and you will stop Alzheimer’s in its tracks.

Thanks,

Mike Val