Last night, President Obama gave his annual State of the Union speech.

It wasn’t quite as moving as this kid’s one, but you can debate amongst yourselves whether or not Obama gave a good speech.

In any event, I think we need to have a little state of the union amongst ourselves when it comes to fitness, nutrition, and getting healthy.

1st Annual State of our Health Address

Thank you! Thank you! Please everybody sit down for a minute.

Our shared human traits make us not rivals in our quest for optimal health, but partners and friends in progress.

It is my task to report the state of our health, but it is the task of us all to improve it.

There has been much progress, but after almost 50 grueling years of approaching health in confused and misguided ways, we still have much progress to make.

1. Reform Immigration the Quality of Foods We Let into our Bodies

I know that much of our country is focused on who to let across our national borders. Fine.

But there is a more pressing concern.

We need to focus on what we let into our bodies.

For almost 50 years, the prevailing wisdom has been that we should exclude as much as possible. That we should cut calories and eat less.

I ask you – is this the type of relationship we want to have with ourselves and our food? And I ask you further, does any one of you actually believe that 2,000 calories of pizza is just as healthy as 2,000 calories of vegetables, fruit, and meat?

Of course not! Eating 2,000 calories of pizza every day for the next year is probably going to make you sick, and it’s definitely not going to help you stay or get lean or slim.

Let’s end this madness. The amount of food and calories we let into our bodies is not the most important thing.

Let’s focus on letting more whole foods into our bodies. Let’s focus on letting in those vitamins and minerals that will help us prosper and flourish.

2. A Higher Minimum Wage Standard of Health

There have been many calls to increase the minimum wage and to raise the standard of living of our poorest workers. This is a laudable goal.

But I have an equally laudable goal.

Let’s raise the standard of our health.

When someone asks you how you’re doing, “fine” or “ok” are no longer acceptable answers. It’s not acceptable to be obese, constantly sick, or plagued by health concerns.

These are problems we can fix. There is a better way of health, and there is a simple path for us to get there.

As friends and family, let’s all focus on eating real food – not the processed and toxic junk that we’ve been told for years is “OK” for us in moderation. Let’s feast on grass-fed and humanely raised beef, on locally sourced and organic vegetables, and on seasonal and delicious fruit. Let’s sleep every night for more than 4 hours and wake up to a day that might be stressful but not overwhelming. Let’s get out of our chairs and move around more.

Raising the standard of our health is not an option. It is a mandate. We are human and are not broken by default.

Let’s reclaim our humanity.

3. Reduce Gun Nutritional Violence

Easily putting guns into the hands of convicted criminals is something that needs to be stopped.

But let’s take another step forward and stop putting chemicals, pesticides, GMOs, processed sugar, and antibiotics in the hands of our children, our sick, and everyone else.

We have created weapons of mass destruction that are capable of making us sick, overweight, and addicted to unhealthy foods.

We need more fresh and local vegetables, not more pesticides and preservatives.

We need more pastured beef and pork that’s full of life and nutrients, not more genetically modified and fortified wheat and corn.

And we need more fiber-rich and antioxidant-loaded fruit, not more products filled with sugar, honey, or artificial sweeteners.

Let’s end the violence that we’ve been doing to ourselves and our bodies by feeding ourselves foods that make us sick rather than nourish us.

Let’s Be Smarter

We have different bodies and like the tastes of different foods, but as humans, we all share the same birthright: a healthy body and mind fueled by awesome food and a healthy lifestyle.

It’s the way we’re made, and it’s what we’re destined for.

The past few decades have not produced great results in our national and global experiments of eating franken-foods and focusing on calories and fat rather than real food and nutrients.

But the past few decades have produced much great science and knowledge. We’ve seen the rise of great men, such as Mark Sisson and Mark Hyman, who have begun to lead us out of the darkness.

And yet, it remains the task of us all, as friends, family, and humans, to be the authors of the next great chapter of our health.

Thank You!

Photos courtesy of bedolaga (123RF), ranjithd (SXC), Kimberly Vohsen (SXC), and jayanta behera (SXC).

I interviewed Mark about his new book, and you can read that interview in a special issue of Paleo Living.

This is my own review of the book, but first…

Disclaimer: I’ve been looking forward to this book for a long time.

Typically, when I look forward to books or movies, one of two things happens. Either:

1. I get really disappointed because the book or movie failed to meet my high expectations (about 75% of the time); or

2. The book or movie exceeds my already-high expectations, and I love it that much more.

The fact that I’m writing this review of The Primal Connection is proof in this case that I had the latter experience, since I won’t waste my time writing reviews of books that I don’t like.

(And honestly, Mark doesn’t need my help selling his book…)

However, if you do want to buy the book, then here is a link to the book on Amazon (if you click the link then buy, I’ll get a small portion of the price you pay Amazon):

What You WILL and WILL NOT Get By Reading The Primal Connection

Unlike many reviews, this is not a simple list of the things I liked and disliked. You can find plenty of that on Amazon.

This is my list of the things that you can and cannot expect to get out of reading The Primal Connection. It’s unlikely that you’ll like all the same things I like, so I hope that this format is generally more helpful.

1. You WILL Get A Ton of Knowledge

I’m extremely hesitant say that knowledge is the first thing that you’ll get from this book. Very few people are reading just to gain more knowledge.

However, the amount of information in this book is probably the single most remarkable part.

There are just over 100 notes and citations in the back of the book, but it’s clear from chapter-to-chapter and paragraph-to-paragraph that Mark has read everything under the sun on most of these topics, from Paleontology to Psychology to Physiology.

Why is this important?

This book is about improving pretty much every aspect of your life, from social connectedness to posture to play. There are underlying Primal principles, but it’s still a huge body of knowledge that requires the knowledge of specialists, and Mark is a master of integrating them all.

All-too-often, books of this scope are fluffy and badly researched. Not the case here.

2. You WILL NOT Get Many Easy Answers

There were times when I was reading The Primal Connection that I’d wonder where to start implementing everything I just learned.

And that’s despite Mark including both side-notes and lists at the end of each chapter to suggest ways to incorporate what he’s just told you into your life.

Not having easy answers is neither good nor bad. It’s just a matter of fact, and it’s necessitated by the subject matter.

As I noted in point #1 above, this book is literally packed with information about how to live a better life. (In many ways, it’s like some of Tim Ferris’s books, such as The Four-Hour Chef or the The Four-Hour Body.)

For instance, there are plenty of tips you can give for staying more tightly connected with your very close friends and family, for slowing down, for engaging in Play, or for reconnecting with Nature. But no matter how many tips you give, these things require effort and continued vigilance.

Why is this important?

Don’t read this book expecting to find 2 or 3 easy rules that will completely change your life. The Primal Blueprint was much simpler in that respect. Although it focused on more than just diet, if you remove grains, legumes, and processed food from your diet, then you’re probably 80% of the way there in terms of nutrition.

The Primal Connection is about finding ways that your life is disconnected from your Primal roots and trying to re-connect one step at a time. I personally think that’s the healthiest way to approach life and health, but it won’t necessarily give you huge results in a week or even a month.

3. You WILL Get Excited

Ok, I’m only guessing that you’ll get excited, but it’s an educated guess.

I read a lot about health, so I often don’t get very excited about articles or books because they essentially re-hash information that I’ve already read.

The great thing about the Primal Connection is that there are just too many topics in the book for that to happen.

For instance, after reading Mark’s chapter on The Nature Connection (dealing with – you guessed it – our connection to nature), I was ready to immediately run around outside. It was 2:00 am, however, so I saved it for the next day.

Obviously, you may get more or less excited about particular chapters, but the book is great in that it speaks to many different aspects of your life – your social network, your relationship with nature, your connection to your body, the ways you talk to yourself, and even the ways that you play and enjoy yourself.

Why is this important?

If you’re like me, you’ve read more about nutrition and exercise than you’ll ever be able to remember. (Most of it probably wasn’t worth remembering.)

Mark, though, is addressing topics that get a lot less press but that are just as important to your overall health and happiness (particularly the latter). That’s exciting, because I don’t know about you, but I’m always looking for ways to be happier.

4. You WILL Definitely Discover Ways to Improve Your Own Life

My favorite chapter of the book: Playing Dirty, where Mark makes a case that both our immune system and our sanity are greatly benefited by coming into more contact with dirt and soil. (I’m seriously thinking of starting a garden on my balcony.)

The chapter of the book that I personally need to work on the most: The Inner Circle, in which Mark cites loads of research that we, as humans, need a lot of good contact with a tight social network. (I’m paraphrasing – his observations and suggestions are slightly more complex.)

You may or may not find those particular chapters helpful. Maybe you work in dirt everyday and have a very tight group of 15 friends and family.

If that’s the case, though, you’ll probably find that the other chapters (maybe on slowing down, going barefoot, or playing more) will speak to you and your life.

Why is this important?

It only takes a few things in our lives to make us not very healthy. No matter how nutritiously you eat, for instance, a bad strain of Salmonella is still going to wreck you. It’s the same for other areas of our life. Not playing enough, never slowing down and de-stressing, not getting enough sun or contact with nature – any of these things can lead to a life that is out of whack.

One of Mark’s main strengths is that he’s not myopic, and he doesn’t believe that one fix is going to solve all of your problems. That’s why The Primal Connection offers a more global view of ways that you can figure out, for yourself, the things that you need to work on the most.

5. You WILL NOT be Disappointed

Yeah – this is just a way for me to round this out to 5 points, since I’ve said most of what I think above.

I’m sure that there are people who won’t enjoy The Primal Connection. It’s impossible to write a book that’s universally appealing.

But from the moment you pick up The Primal Connection, you’ll know that it’s speaking to a part of you. The Primal Connection addresses parts of our human identity that many of us are out of touch with.

Rather than come up with just a few mental exercises or re-hashed tips, The Primal Connection attempts a deeper understanding of the evolutionary and physical roots that underlie the ways that we behave in and react to the world.

It feels like a good time and chance to start over. Even if the past year hasn’t been as healthy as we’d like, next year seems like it could be much better.

I think that there are countless ways you get healthier, from cooking more often to simply meditating.

Unfortunately, by the time Summer rolls around, most of your healthy resolutions are usually just faint memories that have fallen by the wayside.

Here is an easy 7 step guide for how to make sure that 2013 is different.

Why You Can’t Maintain Healthy Resolutions

Life Happens. Motivation Disappears.

Quite simply, the motivation that you feel at the beginning of the year is going to fade at some point. Sometime in the middle of February (or even in late January), you’re going to have a bad day at work, you or your kids will get sick for a few days, or you won’t get enough sleep for a week.

And when one of those things happens, it’s going to be almost impossible for you to summon the willpower to stick to your resolution. Cooking a healthy meal will turn into fast food, and going to the gym will become watching TV for a few hours.

It happens to all of us.

Fortunately, if you approach your resolutions properly, then you can avert the eventual loss of willpower.

Here’s a 7 step process on how to make sure that your resolutions are still around come Summer:

Step #1: Write Down Every Resolution You’ve Been Thinking About

You need to write down every resolution you’ve thought about. Even if you’ve decided some are less important than others, write them all down. Don’t skip any.

Above all else, this an exercise in clearing your mind. If you want to be able to stick to your resolutions, you must be very clear about which resolutions you’re choosing and why.

The only way to do that is to start by listing them all.

It doesn’t matter if you have 1 or 100 resolutions – you need to write them all down.

Step #2: Cross Out All but One Resolution

If you have 100 resolutions written down, cross out 99 of them. (Don’t worry, even after you cross through them, you’ll still know what they were. And you can always go back and repeat this process for a different resolution.)

Right now, though, you need to cross them all out except for one resolution.

This is not the same as just choosing or circling 1 resolution!

You actually need to cross them all out except for one. By doing this, you are telling your brain that the crossed-out resolutions can be temporarily forgotten, so that your brain can focus on what’s really important.

It doesn’t matter how you arrive at your 1 resolution – it can be the most urgent, the most important, or the most but – but you must eliminate all the rest.

Failing to focus on a single habit it task is the surest path to getting nothing done. – Click to Tweet

Step #3: Turn Your Resolution Into a Specific, Recurring Action

This is the most important step.

You now have 1 resolution on your list that isn’t crossed out. However, your resolution is probably not a resolution at all. It’s probably a goal or an extremely vague commitment.

For instance, these are not acceptable resolutions: cook more often, lose 10 pounds, go to the gym more often, eat healthier, or write a book.

In each case, the resolution is either a goal (lose 10 pounds or write a book) or else very vague (cook more often, eat healthier, or go to the gym more often).

What you need to do is to turn your resolution into a recurring action, and that recurring action must be incredibly specific.

Here’s an example:

Your Current Resolution: Eat Healthier.

Translated into a Specific, Recurring Action: Every morning, within 30 minutes of waking up, eat a food that contains at least 30 grams of protein.

(This was actually the way that Tim Ferris helped his dad lose weight. His dad lost 18 pounds in one month using just this specific, recurring action.)

The particular specific, recurring action that chose is just an example. You need to choose your own. But it must have the following characteristics:

• It must be just one action. It CANNOT be to do 20 push-ups a day, cook eggs every morning, and go for a 5-minute walk at 3pm.
• It must recur at a particular time. This can be a clock time (9:30am) or immediately after another routine behavior (brushing your teeth). It CANNOT be “every day” or “in the evening” – those are not particular times.
• It must be incredibly specific. It CANNOT be “eating healthier” or “working out.”
• It must be recurring. It doesn’t necessarily need to be every day, but it must happen on a regular schedule.

Step #4: Now Make Your Action Easier

At some point down the road, you’re going to be tempted to dump your resolution. It’s inevitable.

In order to prevent that from happening, you’re going to make your resolution fool-proof.

Take whatever specific, recurring action you wrote down in the last step, and make it as easy as possible.

For instance, maybe you committed to running 3 miles every morning at 8:00 am. That’s just one action, it’s at a particular time, and it’s specific and recurring.

The only problem is that it’s tough. There are going to be mornings when it’s raining or you’re tired, and 3 miles is going to seem like an insurmountable distance.

So make your resolution as easy as possible.

In the running example. your new resolution will be to run 50 steps every morning.

Your Objection: How is that going to help you? Don’t you need to do more to get in shape?

That’s not the point. You can commit to something that’s really hard, but if the past is any proof (and it is), you won’t be sticking to that type of resolution in 2 months, so it’s not going to be helping you at all. On the other hand, if you can get through a really tough week by just running 50 steps every morning, then you’ll maintain your consistency and momentum and probably still be running in June.

The point is to make your resolution so easy that not doing it just seems silly. You’ll probably run more than 50 steps every morning, once you actually get out and start.

Again, running is just an example. This step applies to any resolution.

You MUST make your action/resolution as easy as possible.

Step #5: Commit to your Specific, Recurring Action for at least 30 Days

Now you’ve got a very easy, very specific, recurring action.

Forget about eating healthier, losing weight, or getting more fit. Those are just icing on the proverbial cake.

For the next 30 days, your day is going to be a huge success if you complete your very specific, very easy action.

Keep this in mind: 30 days is a very short time. You’ve probably been trying to eat better and get in shape for years.

A day seems brief & a year like eternity, but build good habits & you’ll do more in a day than most people do in a year. – Click to Tweet

However, if you can commit and stick to 30 days, then the 30 days after that will become remarkably easier. And by the time it’s May, your resolution will be happening automatically.

Step #6: Track Your Resolution

Get a calendar. On the page for each of the next 30 days, write down your specific, recurring action.

Then, every day when you complete your action, put a big “X” through it.

Here’s a personal confession: I skipped this step for a very long time because I never thought I needed the positive reinforcement. I was wrong – I need the reinforcement, I now enjoy crossing off my actions, and you’ll need and enjoy it, too.

Also, writing your action in your calendar for the next 30 days is a mental commitment. You might miss a day here or there (or you might not, if you make your action easy enough), but every day, it will still be in your calendar, and you can get right back in the saddle.

If you don’t track your action, you won’t stick to it.

Step #7: Be Self-Compassionate

This sounds counter-intuitive. Most of us think that we need to be hard on ourselves to make sure that we stick to our plans and stay on track. And sometimes tough-love works.

But just as often, what we really need is to be more self-compassionate. Don’t take it from me, though. There have been studies conducted, and those studies have found that being self-compassionate leads to more improvement and learning.

Fortunately, the simple act of committing to specific, recurring actions will help you gradually become more compassionate toward yourself. It’s much easier to forgive yourself for missing one day of a habit than it is to continually miss huge goals that you’ve set for yourself.

For most of my life, the way I talked to myself was incredibly harsh and negative.

If any friend had talked to me way that I talked to myself, then I would have immediately dropped them as a friend. But I put up with it from myself.

I didn’t know how detrimental that was for me. Because I had no compassion or forgiveness for my failures, I internalized those failures, and it dramatically delayed my ability to learn how to make myself healthier and happier.

Commit to your specific, recurring action, praise yourself every day for accomplishing it, and if there is a day when you don’t, be understanding. I guarantee that you’ll be much healthier and happier at this time next year.

What’s Your Resolution?

Let me know what your specific, recurring action is. In fact, put it in the comments below and let everyone know. You’ll get great feedback, and you’ll also feel just a little more accountable.

By the way, 98% of people will read this article, feel a little better about themselves, and then do nothing. It’s 7 simple steps, and they work. What are you going to do?

Photos courtesy of angela7dreams, JoelMontes, spackletoe, and recompose.

This question – or the same question with a different food or ingredient inserted – is probably the most popular question asked in all of Paleo-land.

Lately, several bloggers have argued that we shouldn’t ask if a food is Paleo. They say we should just ask if it’s healthy.

I don’t agree.

Just asking if a food is healthy hasn’t really worked. Paleo works partially because it offers a simple explanation and framework for how to eat and live better.

And yet, asking if Soy Lecithin is Paleo is a DUMB question. (Sorry kids, despite what you were told in school, there are both dumb questions and dumb answers.)

I’m going to explain why it’s a dumb question (probably not what you think), but first…

What is Soy Lecithin?

In the simplest terms, soy lecithin a byproduct of soybean oil production.

It’s extracted either mechanically or using a chemical called hexane. It contains pretty much none of the soy proteins that we try to avoid, although it does contain many of the phyto-estrogens inherent to soy.

It’s used in a very wide variety of foods, including confectionery, doughs, and cooking sprays, and candy bars.

The main benefit of soy lecithin is that it acts as an emulsifier, which means that it stabilized foods like candy bars and makes them stick together instead of breaking apart.

There are many websites out there that will give you a lot more detail about what soy lecithin is (for example, see this article or this article).

This brings me to Dumb Question #1

1. Is Soy Lecithin Paleo?

Of all the foods that Paleo people ask about, Soy Lecithin is one of the most popular.

Do you know why?

You would expect people to ask about foods that have been eaten for a very long time (like potatoes or dairy). And to be sure, those are also popular foods to ask about.

But soy lecithin???

People ask about soy lecithin, because they see it listed as an ingredient in their chocolate bars.

Most chocolate contains soy lecithin. It’s what holds the chocolate together (an oversimplification).

This is a dumb question for 2 reasons:

First, the answer is obvious: Of course Soy Lecithin isn’t Paleo.

If you Google it and read 3 sentences about what it is, then it’s obvious that it didn’t exist a thousand years ago, much less a million.

And when you ask if something is Paleo, that’s pretty much the only standard you can use for an answer – did it exist a very long time ago?

Rule: If you have to ask if a food is Paleo, it’s not. And if you don’t want to feel guilty, don’t ask. – Click to Tweet

But there’s a second reason why this is a dumb question, and that’s because it’s not an honest question. It’s masking another question:

2. Is Soy Lecithin Healthy?

What people really want to know when they ask if Soy Lecithin is Paleo is whether it’s healthy.

But like the first question, this question is dumb for the same 2 reasons:

First, the answer is pretty obvious: Of Course Not.

If you search enough, you’ll find articles about Soy Lecithin contains Choline, which is good for you. (Big deal). Just because it contains one vitamin or mineral does not make it healthy.

Soy Lecithin has practically no nutritional value, it’s almost always GMO, and although it doesn’t have many of the harmful proteins contained in other soy products, it does contain harmful phytoestrogens. In addition, if you’re allergic to soy, it’s also possible that you’re allergic to soy lecithin.

Soy Lecithin is not healthy, and most people know this pretty intuitively. I mean when was the last time you told yourself “I really need to get some more soy lecithin in my diet”?

Again, though, asking if Soy Lecithin is healthy is really just a sneaky way of asking the 3rd dumb question:

Can I Eat My Dark Chocolate Anyway?

This is the dumbest question of all.

So here’s my dumb answer: You can eat whatever you want.

And here’s my slightly less dumb answer: Chocolate (even dark) isn’t good for you, and it’s not Paleo.

You heard me: Dark Chocolate is Not Paleo or Healthy.

Dark Chocolate is Neither Paleo nor Healthy. – Click to Tweet

Cacao beans might have existed forever, but it wasn’t even until a couple thousand years ago that people learned to grind and mix the beans.

Sure, there are certain positive health aspects of dark chocolate, but even 85% dark chocolate is still 15% sugar. I don’t think all sugar is evil, but let’s not kid ourselves into thinking that it’s a healthy or nutritious food.

And as for the soy lecithin, how much difference is that going to make anyway? It’s always less than 1% of dark chocolate, and really, unless you’re eating many chocolate bars per day, the soy lecithin is going to have far less of an impact on your health than the sugar is (unless, of course, you’re allergic to soy).

Now, none of this means that you should never eat dark chocolate. Most of us find it pretty impossible to never eat food that isn’t nutritious or healthy. And personally, I don’t want to never eat dark chocolate.

But don’t deceive yourself about it somehow being Paleo or being healthy. It’s not as bad as pizza, donuts, or Mountain Dew, but still…

So This Was a Bit of A Rant…

But here’s a secret: I don’t actually think the questions are dumb. I think the questions are dishonest.

Most people who ask these questions are looking for ways to deceive themselves. And that’s not productive or healthy.

I’ve asked questions like these many times in my life, and I now realize (most of the time) that I’m not being very honest with myself when I ask these questions.

When you ask questions like “Is Soy Lecithin Paleo,” you’re generally not looking for information that will help you live a better or healthier life. You’re generally looking for information that will confirm what you want to hear (e.g. – that it’s OK to eat dark chocolate).

And when you look for that kind of information, that’s what you’re going to find, regardless of whether it’s healthy or not.

Being healthy or successful is not about what you know, it’s about asking honest questions and seeking honest answers.

What do you think?

Photos courtesy of anitasarkeesian, pasukaru76, mikebaird, and Live♥Laugh♥Love.

My favorite part of that article is one particular analogy.

He points out that it’s actually terrible advice to be told to “Listen to Your Body.” He analogizes that advice to a mechanic saying “Just Listen to Your Car.”

Dean actually had a mechanic who used to tell him this. The problem was that Dean could listen as hard as wanted, but because he knew nothing about cars, he had no idea what to listen for. And if he did hear something, he didn’t know what it meant.

It’s an excellent analogy, because health experts (even the good ones) often say that nutrition, health, and fitness vary from individual to individual. They tell you that you should experiment, listen to you body, and figure out what works for you.

That would be fantastic advice…if only we knew what to listen for.

Most of us don’t know how to listen to our bodies or our minds.

This article will focus on why being aware of our thoughts is actually the key to our health, and how you can become more self-aware.

It All Starts with Self-Control

If you ask a stranger what the #1 thing preventing them from getting healthier is, the most common answer you’ll get is a variation of “Lack of Willpower” or “Making Bad Decisions.”

Most of us know intuitively that the main thing holding us back is a lack of self-control. – Click to Tweet

Those aren’t the only answers you’ll get, but most of us know intuitively that the main thing holding us back (in terms of health or anything else) is a lack of self-control.

I am slowly realizing the full extent of just how true this is for me. In fact, I’m still nowhere close to achieving the kind of self-control that I’d like. Still, I have a lot more self-control than I used to have.

But why should this be important to you at all?

Think about it for a minute. You probably have goals, whether they’re related to your body, your happiness, your career, or your family. Whatever those goals are, you know (deep down) that the biggest obstacle to achieving those goals is whether or not you can keep yourself focused and make all the right decisions.

If you want to get in better shape, it’s going to be about what foods you choose to eat and what kind of physical activity you engage in. If you want to advance your career, you’ll need to be able to focus your time and energy on making yourself more valuable and more skilled.

No matter what, self-control is one of the secrets to shaping your life in the ways that you imagine.

You Can’t Be in Control without Self-Awareness

Being self-aware is the only clear path to self-control.

After all, if you are not aware of the decisions you’re making, how will you possibly be able to control or change those decisions?

Kelly McGonigal, in her excellent book, The Willpower Instinct, makes this point. She notes uses an example of food-related choices.

One study asked people how many food-related decisions they thought they made during an average day. The average guess was 14. However, when food-related decisions were actually tracked, the average number of decisions faced was 227. That’s 213 more than people guessed!

Think about that for a moment. On the one hand, you face an enormous number of decisions during the day, even if many of those decisions are subconscious or automatic. On the other hand, you probably don’t even realize that you’re facing or making most of those decisions.

If that’s the case, it’s going to be impossible to ensure that you make the “right” or “good” decision when you don’t even know that you’re making a decision.

It’s impossible to ensure that you will make the best decision if you don’t even know that you’re making a decision. – Click to Tweet

Yup – There’s Some Science Behind This

Sarah Bowen, who is a researcher at the University of Washington, conducted a study on a bunch of smokers.

During the study, the smokers took part in an exercise where they were literally guided through every single step of smoking (there are many more steps than you probably think), and in between each step, the smoker had to pause for a couple of minutes. It went something like this:

1. Each smoker first had to take out a new pack of cigarettes.
2. Pause for 2 minutes.
3. Remove the cellophane wrapper on the pack of cigarettes.
4. Pause for 2 minutes.
5. Take out one cigarette.
6. Pause for 2 minutes.
7. Smell the cigarette.
8. Pause for 2 minutes.
9. Put the cigarette in your mouth.
10. Pause for 2 minutes.

I think you get the point…

The result (of course) is that the participants were forced to notice each and every tiny decision and action that goes into smoking a single cigarette. There was also a control group who didn’t have to go through this painstaking process. She then tracked all of the smokers for a week.

Remarkably, without any further instruction or intervention, people who had gone through the step-by-step process reduced the amount they smoked by 37%. All because they were simply more aware of the decisions they were making.

Just imagine if you were continuously more aware of all the decisions you make…

Sadly, Most of Us Have Very Little Self-Awareness

You know what you’re thinking, right?

I mean, if I asked you right now, what are you thinking, you could probably tell me.

But (and this is an important but), there are 3 things that most of us lack:

1. Most of us aren’t aware of a great majority of the decisions we make during the day. (Remember the study above where people made 227 food-related decisions per day on average but thought they only made 13.)
2. Very few people can actually quiet their thoughts for any substantial period of time. We’re constantly distracted by things going on around us, worrying about what will happen in the future, or else regretting a choice we made in the past.
3. Very few of us can separate ourselves from our thoughts.

I fight every day to become more self-aware, but it’s a slow process.

There are parts of my life where I’m very self-aware. For instance, I generally eat healthy foods. It’s an awareness that I’ve cultivated for quite a long time, and I’ve developed excellent habits and systems to reinforce the decisions that I want to make.

On the other hand, there are parts of my life, such as my business, where making the right decisions – or even being aware of all the decisions I’m making – is a constant struggle. Every morning, I wake up and try to figure out how to get better, but many nights I go to bed feeling like I didn’t do much better that day. I often procrastinate, work on things that don’t really matter, or just generally let things slip through the cracks.

So How Can We Become More Self-Aware?

Like anything great in life, self-awareness is not something that is easy to come by. There are proven methods, but they take time and patience.

I’ve listed 3 of the most proven techniques for developing greater self-awareness below:

1. Meditate. You don’t want to be a monk. I understand that. Nor do I.

   But there is nothing that will help you become self-aware more so than meditation. This is a long-term technique, and you won’t fully recognize the benefits for at least a month or 2. The big benefits come years down the road.

   There is no right way to meditate. If you want some guidance, start with a book. 2 good books are Wherever you Go, There You Are or Peace is Every Step.

   Like any habit, this is something you need to practice every day. Start small, with just 3 or 5 minutes, so that it’s something you can easily commit to.

2. Habit-Specific Awareness. Remember how the study of the smokers helped them to smoke less? Well, you can take that lesson and apply it to a specific habit in your life.

   Do you want become more self-aware about that afternoon snack you have every day? Then spend a little bit of extra time tomorrow stopping and pausing in between each little action and decision that you make.

   This is actually a meditative process in-and-of-itself, and just becoming more aware in specific activities that you do every day will make you more self-aware in general, about food, exercise, health, or pretty much any other type of decision.

3. Tracking. This is my favorite suggestion, and the one that I think is actually most immediately useful. Meditation will have the most long-term impacts on your life, but tracking will change your life immediately.

   This is something that you absolutely must start small with. I personally tried to track too much for years, and I was never really able to stick with it until I drastically cut back on the number of things I was tracking.

   Start by choosing one area of your life, such as exercise, food, writing – whatever it is you’d like to get better at. In that one area, write down what you do every single day (even if you do nothing). If we were using food as an example, you’d commit to writing down everything you eat, even if it’s something you consider to be unhealthy. Becoming Self-Aware is also a process of being honest and compassionate with yourself.

What Are You LEAST Self-Aware About?

I’d love to hear about the area or areas of your life that you think need the most improvement in terms of self-awareness. Which areas do you find that you constantly make bad decisions without even knowing it? How can you improve that? Let me know in the comments.

Photos courtesy of Orange_Beard, PetitPlat – Stephanie Kilgast, [martin], and jldmplnktt.

I wanted to write an article about the Paleo diet that is geared toward just getting started and the basic things that you should know. And the first thing that occurred to me is that when you’re just starting out, you should be very excited.

So…I actually am writing an article about Paleo for Beginners, but before I write that article, I wrote this one. I feel like there’s more than just good health at the base of the Paleo movement, and I think people need to know about it.

Exciting Aspects of the Paleo Diet

Although there is no magic involved, there are some pretty great aspects of the Paleo diet about which you should be excited. Here are just a few things about which I’m still excited, despite being Paleo for a very long time now:

1. The Community.

   You’re looking for a diet to help you lose weight and feel better. But what you get is an entire community of people who are generally very supportive, helpful, and smart. And having a team or sidekick supporting you is very important (go read Steve Kamb’s article for more on this).

   If you’re not already familiar, there are some well-known folks in the Paleo community such as Mark Sisson, Robb Wolf, and Chris Kresser, all of whom write pretty constantly and answer a ton of questions.

   In addition, there are also a ton of people who are not well known but whom are always willing to help out. Go check out the forums at Mark’s Daily Apple or the forum at Paleo Hacks. All great places to get good help and just to meet and interact with other people who are on the same journey.

2. Deliciousness.

   Being healthy is great, but personally, I can’t get excited about anything that has to do with food unless it’s delicious. I’ve always loved food, and I don’t really want to give up that love of food.

   Being healthy is great, but personally, I can’t get excited about anything that has to do with food unless it’s delicious. – Click to Tweet

   Fortunately, being Paleo not only allows us to keep this love for food – it’s also pretty commonplace and encouraged. Sites like CivilizedCavemanCooking.com and AncestralChef.com have an endless supply of delicious recipes.

   Much of the Paleo template is centered around eating real, whole foods. For most of us, there are some real, whole foods (like kale and broccoli) that we may eat but which are hard for us to love. On the other hand, though, there are a ton of other whole foods (steaks and sweet potatoes, for instance) that are amazing.

   It’s true that being Paleo requires that we generally do without some foods that most Americans find delicious (e.g., donuts and milkshakes), but it’s not at the expense of all delicious foods. I love pretty much every meal I eat now.

3. The Energy.

   If you haven’t been Paleo before, then this is something that’s hard to understand. In fact, I think it’s hard for most people to understand until they’ve gone Paleo and then tried to go back to eating their normal junk food.

   But if you ask pretty much anybody who’s been Paleo for a while, they’ll tell you that this is possibly the best benefit of being Paleo. I have a TON more energy than I ever did when I ate junk food all the time. And if I try to eat crap tomorrow, I’ll feel lethargic and tired.

   Before I went Paleo, I was always tired. Particularly after meals and in the afternoon, I would feel like I needed a nap or like I just couldn’t function very well.

   Now, I pretty much never get that. (Obviously, there are occasions when I get too little sleep, and since the Paleo diet is NOT a magic cure, you’re still going to feel tired when you don’t get enough sleep).

4. Your body.

   Let me first say that I’m personally not yet where I want to be. I want to be leaner and stronger.

   Even so, this is something that I get excited about. I was fat (although not obese) for most of my life. I lost weight at various times, but I always had trouble keeping it off, and it was ALWAYS a big struggle.

   That’s no longer the case. I find it very easy to maintain my weight now. Losing the last few pounds of fat, while potentially easier on a Paleo diet, is never easy. But I LOVE that I don’t have to worry on a constant basis about getting fat again.

   Being Paleo is not the ONLY way to lose weight and look great, but it’s the best and healthiest one. – Click to Tweet

   And it’s the way that I’ve seen the largest percentage of people be very successful with. And let’s face it – we all want to look good naked, whatever that means.

   What I Didn’t List

   If you look hard (or really not all that hard), then you’ll notice that there are a number of possible omissions from this list. For instance, what about health?? Shouldn’t we get excited about all the potential benefits of eating whole, real foods?

   My answer to that is an emphatic YES. Get excited if you can.

   However, most people just can’t get all that excited about their health unless they have an immediate health issue that is getting resolved. When it comes to long-term health, we all hope that we’ll beat the norm, but it’s not one of the things that motivates us on a daily basis.

   And I think that’s fine. Just roll with it. The fact of the matter is that the other 4 things I put on this list ARE things that many people get excited about (especially the 4th one).

   In the end, it doesn’t really matter WHAT you get excited about, so long as you DO get excited and change your life by eating and living better. Things like health will almost always follow.

   YOU

   There are certainly other things that excite some of you. What else gets you most excited about starting a Paleo diet or else being Paleo? Let me know in the comments below.

   Photos courtesy of Lin Pernille Photography via photopin cc, MrTopf via photopin cc, wtl photography via photopin cc, rAmmoRRison via photopin cc, and xxrobot via photopin cc.

   ]]> http://simplehealth.co/4-reasons-excited-be-paleo/feed 0 http://simplehealth.co/great-health-education-hoax http://simplehealth.co/great-health-education-hoax#comments Mon, 24 Dec 2012 15:18:12 +0000 Jeremy Hendon http://simplehealth.co/?p=324 Every time a news story comes out about obesity statistics or a government program designed to improve health, hundreds of people come out of the woodwork to complain “If only we had better education.”

   Why do people – even “experts” throw around “education” as the answer to every health problem? Let’s just teach people that soda and donuts aren’t healthy… OK…

   Don’t most people already know? Haven’t we been educating “the public” about health for the past 50 years? How much is enough?

   I can’t begin to tell you how long this has been annoying me. I spent a decade educating myself about nutrition, fitness, and health. I’m someone who’s really interested in this stuff, but it didn’t really click for me until I realized that it wasn’t all about what you know.

   That’s why, over the past few years, I’ve been studying and testing various ways to change behavior rather than just knowledge. Recently, I’ve written about topics like the anatomy of habit formation and how to get better at making healthy decisions, because, frankly…

   You Can’t Out-Educate Bad Health.

   The Numbers Don’t Lie

   70%, 83%, and 95%.

   Those are the common percentages cited by studies (see here and here) as to the number of people who either fail to lose weight on a diet or else gain it all back. In other words, even if you’re successful at losing weight on a diet, the likelihood is that you’ll eventually gain back any weight that you lost.

   Every day, a different health expert or clinical trial suggests that we’d all be really healthy if we only realized that “carbs make us fat” or that “whole grains are critical to weight loss.” Obviously, we just need to better educate people about how to lose weight and what to eat, and then obesity will be a thing of the past. And why hasn’t this happened yet?

   Can we please stop saying that education is the solution to this problem? It’s a cop-out of an answer. It’s a solution that hasn’t solved anything, and all it does is make us feel better about ourselves, because we’re supposedly “in the know” while all the people who are struggling with their health are just too stupid or lazy to fix it.

   Get real. If 70-95% of people are failing on diets, it’s not because they’re lazy (why would they even be trying to diet) or ignorant (even bad diets should work more than 5% of the time).

   If you need a better example, just think about drug use. Worldwide, some 200 million people use drugs, and the percentages are highest in developed countries. Are we really pretending that those 200 million people are just so ignorant that they think crack and amphetamines are good for them?

   What Needs to Happen?

   Education is not bad. In fact, it’s necessary.

   But most food and health decisions are fairly obvious. And this is coming from someone (me) who thinks that established nutrition has been way off-base when it comes to cholesterol, saturated fats, and whole grains.

   Still, nobody believes that drinking a can of soda is better for their health than drinking a glass of water. And I dare you to find someone who thinks that they’ll lose more weight by eating 3 donuts a day than they would by not eating the donuts.

   The real difficulty is not deciding what’s healthy. It’s forcing yourself to make the healthy choice. – Click to Tweet

   And unfortunately, reading books and articles on the newest types of diets is never going to help you choose a salad over a slice of pizza. Here’s what needs to happen:

   1. Remove Decisions. If you really want long-term health, weight-loss, and/or fitness, you can’t just try to make better decisions. You’ve got to keep yourself from needing to make decisions at all. There are 3 ways to do this:
   • Cultivate Habits. Yes – I sound like a broken record on this. But if you can practice and get good at developing habits, then you can literally change your life in a matter of months.
   • Change Your Environment. Everyone wants you to change yourself, your thinking, and your behavior. However, your behavior is much more a circumstance of your environment than you probably realize. Fortunately, making even very small tweaks to your environment, such as using a smaller bowl or just not keeping junk food in your house can dramatically change your behavior. The latter (not keeping junk food in your house) is a great example of changing your environment to remove a decision, since you can no longer decide at 11:30pm just to eat some of the potato chips you have in your pantry. It’s not possible.
   • Make Absolute Decisions. Cultivating habits and changing your environment work for pretty much everyone to some degree or another, even if they take a bit of practice. Making absolute decisions, on the other hand, works brilliantly for some people (like myself), but not for others. I NEVER eat gluten, for instance. The amazing thing about this approach is that it actually lifts a weight off of you. That’s something you never have to think about again. When I see bread, I don’t make a decision about whether or not I might want some, because I never eat it. Period. Like I said, this can only be used for certain situations, and some people have a very hard time with it. I’ve got a whole article in the works just on this issue.
   2. Change Your Environment. Hmm…I’m repeating myself. Thing is, changing your environment doesn’t just apply to removing decisions. The other example I mentioned (using a smaller bowl) is actually a way of tricking your mind to eat less while still feeling just as full. Don’t believe it will work on you? Neither did the people in this study. Doesn’t mean that 100-calorie packs are a good idea though. They’re still just 100-calorie packs of junk.
   3. Choose a Diet that Makes Decisions Easier. Remember, I never said that education wasn’t important – it’s just not the complete answer. The fact of the matter is that calorie counting almost never works and actually makes dieting harder because it eventually reeks havoc with your hormones. On the other hand, eating a diet low in inflammatory foods that allows your gut, hormones, and body to heal makes it way easier for you to good and healthy decisions.

   Educate Me!

   Disagree? Do you think that we need more education to get healthy? Is it really a problem of people not knowing enough? What would you suggest?

   Photos courtesy of tan4ikk (123RF) and Vladimir Nenov (123RF).

   ]]> http://simplehealth.co/great-health-education-hoax/feed 0 http://simplehealth.co/lectins-food-diet-risk http://simplehealth.co/lectins-food-diet-risk#comments Thu, 20 Dec 2012 16:04:12 +0000 Jeremy Hendon http://simplehealth.co/?p=302 Please raise your hand if you’ve got a passion for learning about lectins…

   Anyone?

   Let’s be honest – lectins are not a particularly popular topic. We read a lot more about gluten, toxic metals, and genetically modified foods.

   Many health experts, however, are ardently opposed to lectins.

   Why, you ask?

   Well, it’s not always clear. Mark Sisson put together a good article about lectins, but I thought I’d give a bit more thorough round-up of the literature on lectins.

   So What are Lectins?

   Lectins are a group of proteins.

   In general, there are 12 major lectins, although there are actually quite a few more (about 119 known types total). I’ll talk about a few particular lectins below, but for the most part, it’s enough to know that lectins are a group of proteins.

   Where Do Lectins Come From?

   Lectins exist in a wide variety of foods, but they’re generally prevalent in much larger quantities in plants than in animals. All in all, some studies show that lectins exist in at least 30% of all foods as eaten.

   Toward the bottom of this article, I’ve included a section on which foods contain the “worst” lectins (i.e., the lectins that are mostly likely to cause health problems for humans).

   A few lectins are also produced by humans. For instance, you might have heard of Mannose-binding lectins. Mannose-binding lectins (also known as mannan-binding proteins) are produced by the human liver to help identify and fight against bacteria, viruses, and other foreign invaders.

   What Do Lectins Do?

   There are a lot of different and obscure reasons that plants and animals produce lectins, and for our purposes, we don’t really need to know most of the functions of lectins.

   In plants, however, there is one very important function that lectins perform: Lectins act as a natural pesticide.

   Plants don’t generally want to be eaten and digested – especially the seeds that help the plant reproduce. Lectins help many plants keep from being eaten and digested by making any animal that eats the plant (particularly the seeds) get sick and/or not be able to properly digest the seeds.

   In this way, lectins deter animals from eating the plant, and if the animal does so anyway, it’ll likely poop out the seed without digesting it.

   Plant – 1.

   Animal – 0.

   Are All Lectins the Same?

   No.

   All lectins are similar, but they’re not exactly the same. One of the things that makes all lectins similar is that they all like to bind to sugar molecules.

   The difference, though, is that different lectins like to bind to different types of sugar molecules. And this is a very important distinction when we think about how certain lectins might affect our health.

   For instance, Wheat Germ Agglutinin (“WGA“) is a specific type of lectin found in wheat. WGA likes to bind to 2 particular carbohydrates: N-Acetyl Glucosamine (“NAG“) and N-Acetylneuraminic acid.

   When I talk below about the ways that lectins can affect our health, it will be important to remember that WGA likes to bind to NAG. (It’s a slight misspelling, but “WAG likes NAG”).

   What are the Problems with Lectins?

   This is the question that you’ve been waiting for, right?

   What can lectins do to you? And does it matter?

   Remember how WGA (one form of lectin) likes to bind to NAG (a sugar)?

   Well, here’s an interesting fact: The cells of our intestines are lined with NAG. (This is a bit of oversimplification, but still pretty accurate.)

   That means that WGA (a lectin) likes to bind to the cells of our intestines. And this is not a good thing:

   1. WGA damages our intestinal walls and causes inflammation when it binds to the cells of our intestines. (See here and here). By binding to the cells in our intestines, WGA thickens our intestinal walls and causes our intestines to not be able to properly absorb nutrients. Binding to intestinal cells also triggers an immune response in our bodies that causes our intestinal walls to get inflamed much like a rash might swell up on your arm if you scratch it.
      
      
   2. Moreover, some of the tiny WGA particles get through our intestinal lining (and into our blood stream) by tricking our intestinal cells into believing that the WGA is actually something else. This alone can cause damage to the cellular lining of our intestines, but it also causes further damage once it’s gotten into our bloodstream.
      
      For instance, once WGA gets into the blood, it can stop some important brain functions, it can lead to both insulin resistance and leptin resistance, and it can lead to a ton of other problems, like arthritis, ulcers, and maybe even diabetes.

   So Every Lectin Does These Terrible Things?

   No. Many lectins have almost no effect on someone who is healthy.

   For instance, most people can eat raw tomatoes without any problem. And yet, raw tomatoes have a lot of lectins in them.

   I’ve been using WGA as an example of a “bad” lectin, but WGA is not the only lectin that likes to bind to NAG, nor is NAG the only sugar in our bodies.

   Many of the bad lectins fall into a group known as “Chitin-Binding Lectins.” A chitin is a long chain of NAG (N-Acetyl Glucosamine), which is the sugar molecule that is preferentially bound by WGA (and a few other lectins).

   The lectins in potatoes, tomatoes, barley, and rice also bind to chitins.

   WGA is a form of lectin that is better researched and documented, but that doesn’t mean that other lectins can’t cause similar problems. In fact, cells of our intestines are affected by quite a few lectins.

   The takeaway is that some lectins are very bad, and some lectins have almost no effect on us.

   What Foods contain the Worst Lectins?

   The worst lectins are found in the following foods:

   • Grains (wheat, quinoa, oats, buckwheat, rye, barley, millet, corn, and possibly rice, although most of the lectins in rice are not in the part that gets eaten)
   • Legumes (any kind of bean plus peanuts, which have a particularly bad lectin)
   • Soy

   

   It’s long been known that certain foods like Kidney Beans and Castor Beans contain especially toxic lectins. In fact, the lectin Ricin, which is found in Castor Beans, is so toxic that it’s used as a weapon in biochemical warfare.

   Fortunately, soaking and cooking something like Kidney Beans will destroy enough of the lectins to keep them from killing us. I’ll talk below about whether that means we should keep eating them.

   The following food groups aren’t as bad, but they also contain potentially problematic lectins:

   • Dairy
   • Nightshades (potato, tomato, eggplant, pepper, and cucumber)
   • Nuts and Seeds

   These foods often don’t cause quite as many problems for people, but they’re something to be careful with.

   Dairy, in particular, is a group of foods that isn’t usually associated with lectins, but the lectins in milk are actually “designed” by nature to cause leaky gut, since infants who are drinking milk actually need to get a mother’s hormones and antibodies directly into their bloodstream in order to develop their immune system (thanks to Sarah (The Paleo Mom) for pointing this out).

   One other group of foods to be especially careful with is Genetically Modified foods. Many GMO foods have lectins spliced into them as part of their manufacturing process, and the toxicity and resistance to heat of the lectins in GMO foods is relatively untested and unknown.

   Don’t Our Bodies Break Down Lectins Before They Hurt Us?

   No. Neither our small intestines nor the bacteria in our guts can generally break down lectins.

   What About Cooking?

   Excellent question. Many lectins are broken down by heat, but this is not true for all lectins. And it matters what type of heat (wet or dry) and how high.

   Some lectins – such as those found in peanuts, carrots, wheat, maize, and other grains – are more resistant to heat. WGA has long been known to be more heat-resistant than other lectins ( Aub JC et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci USA 1963; 50: 613-19).

   Remember, though, that some lectins are not as toxic as others. So, for instance, although lectins in carrots may not break down as easily when they’re cooked, that doesn’t mean that they’re anywhere near as bad for us as the lectins in many legumes and grains.

   The biggest problem is that there is little evidence to show that cooking completely removes all of the toxic lectins from food, as there isn’t a ton of testing data floating around.

   Apart from cooking, sprouting can also reduce the amount of lectins in a food (Lis H. et al. In The Biochemistry of Plant Lectins, Vol. VI, NY Academic Press, 1981).

   Why Isn’t Damage by Lectins Diagnosed by Doctors?

   In general, the damage done by lectins like WGA is hard to diagnose, because of the type of harm done. Lectins don’t usually cause the production of antibodies or allergic reactions, so testing won’t usually detect the damage (for instance to the cell lining of the intestines).

   So How Big of a Problem is this Really?

   I’ve drawn a pretty dire picture of lectins.

   It may be surprising, then, to hear me say that I don’t think lectins are something that most people need to worry about.

   Although very little good that comes from eating lots of lectins, if you cook your food, then most lectins will be deactivated (a fancy way of saying they won’t hurt you).

   With that in mind, part of the reason that I don’t think lectins are a huge concern is because I think that if you actually want to get healthy, you should already be avoiding the foods with the worst lectins, such as grains, legumes, and soy. It’s just that there are much better reasons than lectins to stop eating grains, legumes, and soy.

   What Should I Do To Make Sure Lectins Aren’t Destroying My Health?

   1. Stop eating stuff that isn’t good for you anyway.

      Ditch the grains.
      Forget about legumes.
      Stop eating Soy.

      None of these foods are good for you anyway. They’re generally low in vitamins and minerals, they contain a lot of phytates that prevent you from absorbing many minerals, and they are mostly empty calories that will send you on a roller-coaster ride of hormones.

      As I mentioned above, lectins are another possible reason to avoid grains, legumes, and soy, but they’re not the biggest reason.

   2. If you’re not willing to stop eating ALL grains, legumes, and soy, at least give up wheat and peanuts. There’s no doubt that lectins from wheat and peanuts will eventually cause health problems for pretty much everyone.

   3. Experiment with Dairy, Nightshades, and Nuts if You have Stomach Issues.

      There’s a chance – particularly if you have stomach issues – that you react to the lectins in foods like dairy, nightshades, and even nuts.

      If you’ve gotten rid of grains, legumes, and soy, but you’re still having stomach problems, then take out the dairy for a while. After a few weeks, have some dairy again and see how it effects you.

      If you add something like dairy or nightshades back into your diet and it feels wrong, then it may be the lectins or it may be something else in that food, but you’ll know that you shouldn’t eat that food.

   4. Cook your food.

      This is an easy one, since you probably already do it, but try to cook most things you eat. Some raw vegetables are OK, but cooking generally makes foods much more digestible.

   5. Start listening.

      This is a tough one at first, but the answer in the end is to start listening to your body. Notice how you react when you eat certain things. Often this requires experimenting and taking out a group of foods for 30 or 60 days. It’s a pretty simple solution, but I never promised an easy one.

   What Do You Think?

   Are lectins something that you’re very concerned about? Why or why not? Please let me know in the comments!

   Photos courtesy of keng88, Primoz Jenko (123RF), Vukasin Ilic (123RF), Maurizio Martini (123RF), Vadym Zaitsev (123RF), and Matthew Benoit (123RF).

   ]]> http://simplehealth.co/lectins-food-diet-risk/feed 0 http://simplehealth.co/anatomy-of-a-habit http://simplehealth.co/anatomy-of-a-habit#comments Mon, 17 Dec 2012 15:13:07 +0000 Jeremy Hendon http://simplehealth.co/?p=287
   (Some habits (not these) are the best thing you can do for your health.)Over the past 2 weeks, I discussed why habits are so critical to achieving optimal health (or whatever health goal you’re aiming for) and how to enjoy building them.

   Even though most health experts don’t talk very often about habits, the things I’ve said so far are pretty obvious.

   Most people readily admit that it’s their inability to make good choices and decisions that hamstrings all of their diet and exercise programs.

   If you recall, I defined a healthy habit as an automatic behavior that allows a person to avoid needing to make a decision.

   I still stand by that definition, but we need to add a couple things.

   Cues

   Habits can actually be broken down into 3 parts, and all habits follow this pattern.

   
   )Not This Kind of Cue…)The first part of a habit is a Cue (sometimes called a “trigger”). A cue is something that initiates a habit.

   A cue can be pretty much anything – a time of day, an event, or an object. For instance, in terms of a bad habit, if you have potato chips in your house, simply seeing the chips may be a cue that causes you to automatically eat some. The sight of the chips triggers a reaction in your brain that sets the stage for a particular behavior (eating the chips).

   It’s possible, of course, to occasionally resist the automatic behavior caused by the cue. However, resisting actually takes conscious effort and willpower, whereas eating the chips would require no thought at all.

   Everyone’s cuesare different, and we all have triggers for a variety of behaviors, good and bad.

   In addition to cues, habits also have…

   Rewards

   If the cue initiates the habitual behavior, then the reward ends it. The reward is essentially the reason that our brains form habits.

   In the research on habits, there is no more important aspect than the reward, since it’s the part of the habit that actually changes our brain chemistry and keeps us coming back for more

   In terms of eating the potato chips, the reward would most likely be the enjoyment of the flavor and the accompanying endorphin release.

   Rewards can also be pretty much anything, including feeling better, receiving praise, or getting a sense of achievement, but if you really want to make a habit permanent, you’ve got to put some sort of reward in place.

   Structure

   These 3 parts make up all habits:

   Cue –> Behavior –> Reward

   This is a very useful way to think about habits because it allows you to understand why you automatically take many of the actions that you do. And once you understand the cues and rewards for those behaviors, it becomes possible to create new behaviors or even to change existing ones.

   In terms of health, there’s nothing more important than creating new habits. – Click to Tweet

   Contrary to the opinion of many health professionals, you are not a complete idiot who just doesn’t know what’s healthy or unhealthy for you. What you probably haven’t been taught is the process of creating and changing habits.

   Once you’re able to consistently establish new habits, you can change your health and your lives on an ongoing basis, rather than simply dieting for 2 weeks at a time.

   Next week, I’ll be putting up a more comprehensive, step-by-step guide to changing a habit.

   But, if you haven’t thought much about habits before, then please use this opportunity to identify just one unhealthy habit that you have. Think about something that you do without thinking that is not healthy for you.

   Once you’ve got one habit in mind, identify what the cue and reward for that action are. Often, identifying the cue can require observing your behavior for a few days and even taking notes on what happened just before you took that action each time.

   After you’ve done all of this, please leave in the comments below a description of your bad habit and the cue that causes it.

   Photos courtesy of Oleg Tirunov (123RF), Simon Lieschke (Flickr), and Ruslan Kokarev (123RF).

   ]]> http://simplehealth.co/anatomy-of-a-habit/feed 1 http://simplehealth.co/love-failure-gratitude-health http://simplehealth.co/love-failure-gratitude-health#comments Thu, 13 Dec 2012 23:32:16 +0000 Jeremy Hendon http://simplehealth.co/?p=274 Today, I decided to put together a short post on why and how you should learn to love failure (or ‘slipping up’ as I prefer to call it).

   You’re Going to Fail

   Whether it’s your diet, your exercise, climbing a mountain, starting a business, or anything else, it’s going to happen.

   Tough Love says that you should “buck up” and “deal with it.”

   I don’t really like Tough Love. I don’t believe in coddling, but Tough Love is usually just another way of saying that we haven’t found a way to make it easier for you.

   Well, when it comes to failing, there is an easier way…

   Learn to Love Failing

   This is not a Jedi mind-trick. It’s not really a trick at all.

   It’s a completely different way of thinking about your goals and about your life.

   Loving failure is something that takes time and effort to learn.

   Unfortunately, there’s no exact process. After all, you also have a slightly different mind and mental attitude than everyone else.

   But there are 2 things I’ve learned that really help:

   Step #1: Your Goal Should Be the Action and Not the Result

   If you don’t remember anything from this article, then remember that your goal should be the action and not the result.

   It’s that important.

   Most goals are results like “lose 20 pounds” or “bench press 250 pounds.” Your goals might be different, but I bet they’re results that you’d like to achieve.

   So what happens if you fail or slip up on your way to a result?

   Answer: You don’t get to the result (or it takes more time or effort to get there).

   It is really, really hard to love failing if it means getting further away from the satisfaction that would come from achieving your goal.

   On the other hand, imagine if your goal were to “Eat 3 eggs every morning” or “Bench Press 2 times per week”?

   In this case, if you fail and don’t stick to the action, you’re not really any worse off. If you start the process again tomorrow, you’ll be just as on track as you were before you missed a day.

   Common Objection:

   How can you get motivated about an action, when it’s the result you really want?

   The answer is simple, but you might not like it.

   Only set goals that are actions or habits that you like doing.

   Seriously. If you don’t like the habit, then you’re not going to stick with it anyway, and you’re not going to get the result you originally wanted.

   More importantly, after you’ve been doing this for a while, you’ll notice that it gets a lot easier to get excited about creating new behavior patterns. After all, that’s what life is – a series of actions.

   Setting the right kinds of goals takes a little while to get used, but it’s worth it. It also helps with Step #2:

   Step #2: Be Grateful

   Pain can be a powerful motivator, but it’s very short-lived. Once you’re out of the immediate pain, your motivation will quickly wane.

   On the other hand, Gratitude only gets stronger the more you practice.

   I used to get up every morning and look in the mirror. Some days, I would be sick at how fat I’d let myself get, and on those days, I’d eat better and work out more.

   However, there were many days where the pain of being fat just wasn’t as strong for me. Maybe I was too tired to care or maybe I just didn’t look as fat that day. On those days, I’d eat badly and sit around.

   Gratitude, for me, started with being grateful about the progress I’d made, but it only stuck once I started valuing and enjoying the process.

   Every day when I wake up now, I’m extremely grateful for the habits, systems, and processes that I’ve put in place in my life – for health, business, personal growth, and everything else. I enjoy growing and I enjoy learning, and the results that come out of these processes are just thing that’s I’m extra grateful for.

   Here’s something that nobody ever told me, though:

   Learning to be grateful takes time and practice. But it’s worth it. – Click to Tweet

   At first, I had to think hard every morning about things I was grateful for. It took me a year or more until it started coming more naturally.

   I read many people who talked about how gratitude helped them, but nobody ever talked about how hard it was. The upside is that it gets easier, but you’ve got to spend time every morning or every night reflecting on the things you’re grateful for.

   Reasons I Love Failing

   At this point in my life, I love failing (not always, but most of the time).

   Here’s why:

   1. You get to start from a better place next time. Starting is the hardest part of anything. No matter what, if you’ve failed or slipped up, then you’re at a better place in your endeavor than you were before. And though getting to the end might not be your goal any longer, being further along is still more fun.
   
   2. You get to experience success all over again. How great does it feel when you accomplish something you’ve worked really hard at, even if they’re little successes along the way? Well, every time you fail and slip backwards a little, you get the chance to experience those successes all over again. Yay!
   3. Time to Rest. I’m pretty driven, but even I recognize that we all need time to slow down occasionally and take it all in. Failures and setbacks are the perfect time to enjoy how far you’ve come and admire the view.
   4. What kind of story would you have otherwise? Every story needs some adversity, and I’m promise that your current failure will make the funniest and best story in the future.

   Photos courtesy of Michael Fitzsimmons, cjdaniel, sammydavisdog, and John Watson.

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