Know Where You Want to Go in the Long Run

Brett Butler’s goal was not only to survive cancer by getting the best treatment possible, but he also wanted to get back to the game of baseball because that was where he felt most alive. Every choice he made, every step of the way, was focused on getting back onto the field of his dreams.

The more clearly you can visualize your long-term goals, the more likely you are to avoid wasting your time and energy reaching them. For example, if your goal is to spend your life working as a healer who eases people’s suffering, training to be a medical doctor might be the best way to achieve that goal—or it might leave you feeling frustrated and disillusioned. The pressures on doctors are intense in the “write-and-rip” world of the modern HMO, where they will see dozens of patients a day. Some doctors who work in that system find ways to remain emotionally connected and caring toward their patients. Others become so stressed by its demands that they become emotionally disconnected or addicted to prescription drugs to keep themselves going. There are a hundred ways to become a healer, both traditional and nontraditional. The trick is figuring out what kind of person you are and in what sort of world you would feel most comfortable and fulfilled.
There are many ways of achieving your goals once you know where you want to be in the long run. Looking down the road and clearly visualizing the work, relationship, or promotion that you really want can save you from being disappointed and wasting your energy.

Enjoy Lighter, Smaller Vegetarian Dinners

It seems to be an American custom for people to eat their biggest meal in the evening. From a standpoint of heart attacks, this is the worst time to eat a big meal . . . especially a meal with a preponderance of fat. It has been definitively established by researchers that the blood is more likely to clot 2 to 8 hours following a meal with a high fat intake. It would therefore seem logical to avoid heavy meals – particularly in the evening – to minimize the chances of intravascular clotting. The occurrence of a heart attack after eating a heavy meal has been recognized by doctors for years. Just think of how often you read or hear about a man in his prime dying of a heart attack while in bed at night.
Retired people, of course, can regulate their mealtimes easily. Business people can dine at an earlier hour in the evening and can certainly regulate their diet to promote their health and prolong their lives.
It can begin with a raw combination salad with lemon and olive oil dressing. Follow it with 2 lightly cooked vegetables such as stringbeans, zucchini, peas, corn on the cob, kale, okra, vegetable chop suey, etc. Several nights a week add a baked potato – but do not drench this potato in fat! Season it with a spray of Bragg Aminos, sea kelp and Bragg Organic Olive Oil instead of butter.
Now we are not telling you that the price you must pay to avoid a heart attack and live a longer life is to give up good flavor. Not at all! As mentioned previously, French dishes, soups, salads, potatoes, veggies, etc. are world famous and among the best heart-healthy recipes. A good French chef rarely uses salt and cooks with very little fat. The secrets of French flavor lie in the use of herbs, garlic, olive oil, onions, green peppers and mushrooms.

Dreams Can Reflect Past and Present Life

By exerting your willpower you can eat correctly, get enough exercise and breathe deeply – but you cannot sleep soundly by willpower alone. Through activity of the body and the brain you can cause weariness – but that will not insure you perfect rest. You may be too tired or too mentally excited to sleep. If you, for example, were watching a TV movie of violence, slaying characters and solving crimes you may find sleep reluctant. Don’t waste time watching TV violence – it causes restless sleep and even nightmares! But, when the brain and body are moderately and wisely used, then sweet, sane sleep follows.
However, too much sleep is often worse than too little. You can drug yourself with sleep to the point of stupidity, causing the blood circulation in the brain to become overactive and invoke frightening dreams. Fantasy can rise from the subconscious. Grimly, dreams can plunge you into past, old apprehensions and old worries again! Dreams can grow more distressful with age! And with weary relief we wake to reality again! Yet, isn’t it strange? We have life’s experience to draw on and dreams vary, reflecting experiences. It’s healthy lifestyle living with sound sleep that lets us enjoy more life-changing, uplifting, spiritual, guiding dreams. Web: www.sleeps.com

To Enjoy Your Daily Walk Is Important

Your walking should never be done self-consciously, no heel and toe routine and no time limiting. Let it be the most functional and enjoyable of exercises. Walk naturally – with head high, spine stretched up, chest out and tummy in. Swing your hips, arms and body into action. Walk as though your legs began at the middle of your torso. Breathe deeply! You will feel physical elation and will carry yourself proudly with body erect and arms swinging easily from your shoulders.

Move at your own pace, with a free spirit and a light heart. If you want, listen to motivational tapes or music. As you walk, your body ceases to matter, you become as near a poet and nature philosopher as you will ever be.

Walk your worries away! As blood courses through your arteries, cleansing and nourishing your body, you are filled with a sense of well-being that clears your mind of troubles and nourishes it with positive thoughts. As we stride along on our hike, we say to ourselves and sometimes aloud with each step – Health! Strength! Youth! Vitality! Love! for Eternity!

It’s beneficial to also take a hiking tour once a year. Select interesting areas which you, your family and friends would like to see, and hike about 15 miles daily. You will broaden your knowledge of our beautiful planet and of Mother Nature, as well as help to build a more powerful, healthier and long-lasting heart. The websites listed below will help you in your selection.

Develop Strength from the Inside Out, Not from the Outside In

Remember that from the day you were born into this world, to the day you die, your 640 muscles play an important role in everything you do. Think of it – more than half your body is sheer muscle!
It isn’t the muscles that you see that count as much as those you don’t see! Along the 30-foot gastrointestinal tract there are muscles to force food along this tube. The work of bringing adequate amounts of air into your powerful lungs also requires other strong muscles.
And above all, the greatest muscle in your body is your heart, your number one pump. It is the heart that pumps the blood supply into the body’s 640 muscles. And the more we bring these 640 muscles into play, the better our heart, circulation, physical condition and our entire state of health will be! You have four more extra pumps that can also help this whole process – they are your two arms and your two legs – use and exercise them!

Alcohol is a Depressant and Killer!

Alcohol, generally considered a stimulant, is actually a depressant. It dilates the blood vessels, in time breaking the tiny capillaries, especially of the nose, cheeks, neck and ankles (example: red, swollen nose of hard drinkers). Alcohol is also a relaxant and dulls and paralyses the brain. The drinker loses good judgement and control of the body, and is therefore the cause of thousands of car accidents, crimes, killings, rapes and unnecessary deaths. Drinking alcohol is dangerous and an unhealthy way to relax!

The chief toxic effect of alcohol is on the brain and nervous system. Alcohol burns up by depleting the body of vitamin C and also B (the essential nerve vitamin). This, in combination with capillary dilation, can lead to brain hemorrhaging – which in turn, can lead to paralysis. Medical research has shown that the boisterous actions, loud speech, joviality, bravado and devil-may-care attitude of the alcoholic are actually the beginning paralysis of certain parts of the brain!

Stay away from alcohol! It is nothing but empty calories. It will burden your body with unhealthy, flabby fat, in addition to its other toxic, poisonous and injurious effects. The numbing effect of alcohol on the pain centers of the brain and nervous system is a special danger to anyone with a heart condition. Without Mother Nature’s warning signal – pain – a heart attack, which might have been averted, may prove fatal.

Alcohol is a Depressant and Killer!

Alcohol, generally considered a stimulant, is actually a depressant. It dilates the blood vessels, in time breaking the tiny capillaries, especially of the nose, cheeks, neck and ankles (example: red, swollen nose of hard drinkers). Alcohol is also a relaxant and dulls and paralyses the brain. The drinker loses good judgement and control of the body, and is therefore the cause of thousands of car accidents, crimes, killings, rapes and unnecessary deaths. Drinking alcohol is dangerous and an unhealthy way to relax!
The chief toxic effect of alcohol is on the brain and nervous system. Alcohol burns up by depleting the body of vitamin C and also B (the essential nerve vitamin). This, in combination with capillary dilation, can lead to brain hemorrhaging – which in turn, can lead to paralysis. Medical research has shown that the boisterous actions, loud speech, joviality, bravado and devil-may-care attitude of the alcoholic are actually the beginning paralysis of certain parts of the brain!
Stay away from alcohol! It is nothing but empty calories. It will burden your body with unhealthy, flabby fat, in addition to its other toxic, poisonous and injurious effects. The numbing effect of alcohol on the pain centers of the brain and nervous system is a special danger to anyone with a heart condition. Without Mother Nature’s warning signal – pain – a heart attack, which might have been averted, may prove fatal.

Emphysema Smothers it’s Victim

Emphysema, another killer disease from smoking, is on the rise. Recent medical reports show that as many as half of all American men are suffering from some degree of emphysema. In this disease, the tars, nicotine and other destructive poisons of tobacco lodge in the lungs’ small air sacs, causing the sac walls to become very thin or to break down entirely. Soon the blood is no longer able to exchange poisonous carbon dioxide for life-giving oxygen. This self-destructing victim dies of oxygen starvation –being slowly smothered to death from within.

Emphysema is not a quick killer. It creeps up slowly, first with a slight cough – especially on arising. Then it attacks the smoker day and night. Slowly, air sacs are almost completely destroyed. The victim doesn’t die suddenly, but lingers on steadily deteriorating. They are forced to stay near an oxygen tank because the disease is shutting off their oxygen. When the lungs can’t operate any longer even with pure oxygen, the victim then dies.
Our breath is our life! Wecan live days without water and weeks without food, but only minutes without air. It’s the oxygen in the air we breathe that’s the greatest purifying force in Mother Nature! To get this oxygen into the lungs and bloodstream, we must breathe it in!
Smoking tobacco is against every Natural Law. When you attempt to break a Law of Mother Nature, it will break you! The heart needs large amounts of oxygen to function. Any disease that diminishes oxygen is going to destroy the health of your heart, lungs and entire body.

The “Big Three” of Health and Longevity

The “Big Three” of Health and Longevity Suppose you were told that you had to lug an unwieldy load of 20 to 50 pounds around with you wherever you went – walking, sitting, eating, sleeping – all day and all night. How would you feel about it? You would protest indignantly, wouldn’t you? Yet that is exactly what you are doing when you are overweight! You are carrying around a load of unhealthy, flabby blubber. You are overtaxing all the functions of your body – especially your heart and circulatory system. Excess fat is dangerous! It exhausts the heart. Insurance statistics show that fat people are the shortest lived. Every pound of excess fat on your body shortens your life.
❤Rule #1: Achieving and maintaining Normal Weight for a Healthy Heart. Normal weight must be attained and maintained by a healthy diet, exercise and fasting. Forget drugs, they are dangerous!
❤Rule #2: Daily Exercise for a Healthy Heart. Vigorous daily exercise helps you to keep your weight normal, it will also stimulate a healthier flowing blood circulation throughout your body. It helps tone your muscles and vital organs, and aids all body functions, giving you the glow of Super Health!
❤ Rule #3: The most important is Proper Diet. A healthy heart and body depends upon a clean, healthy bloodstream, and this depends upon the food you eat! We will discuss all of these points in detail later. When listing Proper Diet as point #3, we are saving the best for last. Your diet is the most important factor in controlling your ideal weight, nourishing your blood and protecting your heart from deadly-clogging cholesterol. Proper diet will strengthen you and make your heart a powerful fountain of life and a fountain of eternal youth.

The Highway to Higher Health and Happiness

Health and Happiness! To us, these seem inseparable. Our motto is: To make my body a temple pure, wherein I live serene. Promoting the welfare of our hearts and bodies is a loving, religious task. By Health we don’t mean the everyday variety that consists of not being sick. We are referring to what we call the Higher Health – a sense of amazing well-being that makes a person proud to say with gusto, I am feeling great today!
We all agree that the chief aim of life is happiness! There is but one main avenue to happiness that we can recommend with confidence . . . and that is the Highway to Higher Health! Without balanced health – physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally – it’s difficult to have true happiness. The healthy ditchdigger is more in love with life than the sick, flabby millionaire. Good Health is the prime factor in attaining True Happiness. Keep your body healthy and fit and your mind and heart 52 Risk Factors of Angioplasty on Women will rejoice in joy being a radiant health crusader!

Dealing with Hospital Costs If You Have Insurance

If you have insurance in any form—HMO, Medicaid, Medicare, indemnity, and so on—you must understand that the insurance company is likely not going to cover everything the hospital bills you for. The first place to start, therefore, is to look at your policy to determine what is covered and what is not. These are the questions you need answered:

• If the insurance is managed care insurance, is the hospital part of the plan’s network? Network hospitals have negotiated rates with the plan and you will be covered for a lot of the hospital’s charges based on your policy. If the hospital is not in the network, you will have to pay for all or a big portion of the charges, unless the visit was due to an emergency. With Medicare and Medicaid, the hospital just has to be certified as a Medicare or Medicaid provider for you to get the benefits (nearly all hospitals are). With indemnity insurance, you can go to any hospital of your choosing but remember the plan will only pay a portion of the charges that it determines to be usual and customary. Also remember the caps on your insurance. If you exceed that cap, you are responsible for 100 percent of the charges.
• What aspects of the “hotel” and “medical” charges are covered? Your insurance plan does not give you free reign to ask for five-star services. If your plan pays only for a shared room and you ask for a private room, you will be charged for the difference. This applies to
  other services that you request outside the customary services, for example, asking for a special diet.

In looking at the “medical” aspect of your bill, be sure that you follow your plan’s protocol. In an HMO plan, for example, you should be admitted to a network hospital by your PCP or a specialist to whom you were referred by your PCP. While in the hospital, be sure that consultations are done with your PCP’s approval and/or the doctors are all affiliated with the hospital and are in the plan’s network. While this might sound cumbersome and difficult to handle especially if you are very sick, it might mean the difference between coming out financially unscathed and having to file for bankruptcy. If you can’t handle it, find a friend or family member to help you with this. Remember, procedures that physicians perform account for the bulk of hospital charges, so handle this aspect with all seriousness.

Your Hormones Doing If You Are sleeping

When you were young, your mother may have told you that you need to get enough sleep to grow strong and tall. She may have been right! Deep sleep triggers more release of growth hormone, which fuels growth in children and boosts muscle mass and the repair of cells and tissues in children and adults. Sleep’s effect on the release of sex hormones also encourages puberty and fertility. Consequently, women who work at night and tend to lack sleep are, therefore, more likely to have trouble conceiving or to miscarry.
Your mother also probably was right if she told you that getting a good night’s sleep on a regular basis would help keep you from getting sick and help you get better if you do get sick. During sleep, your body creates more cytokines—cellular hormones that help the immune system fight various infections. Lack of sleep can reduce the ability to fight off common infections. Research also reveals that a lack of sleep can reduce the body’s response to the flu vaccine. For example, sleep-deprived volunteers given the flu vaccine produced less than half as many flu antibodies as those who were well rested and given the same vaccine.
Although lack of exercise and other factors are important contributors, the current epidemic of diabetes and obesity appears to be related, at least in part, to chronically getting inadequate sleep. Evidence is growing that sleep is a powerful regulator of appetite, energy use, and weight control. During sleep, the body’s production of the appetite suppressor leptin increases, and the appetite stimulant grehlin decreases. Studies find that the less people sleep, the more likely they are to be overweight or obese and prefer eating foods that are higher in calories and carbohydrates. People who report an average total sleep time of 5 hours a night, for example, are much more likely to become obese compared to people who sleep 7–8 hours a night.
A number of hormones released during sleep also control the body’s use of energy. A distinct rise and fall of blood sugar levels during sleep appears to be linked to sleep stage. Not getting enough sleep overall or enough of each stage of sleep disrupts this pattern. One study found that, when healthy young men slept only 4 hours a night for 6 nights in a row, their insulin and blood sugar levels mimicked those seen in people who were developing diabetes. Another study found that women who slept less than 7 hours a night were more likely to develop diabetes over time than those who slept between 7 and 8 hours a night.

Common Signs of a Sleep Disorder

Look over this list of common signs of a sleep disorders, and talk to your doctor if you have any of them:

1. It takes you more than 30 minutes to fall asleep at night.
2. You awaken frequently in the night and then have trouble falling back to sleep again.
3. You awaken too early in the morning.
4. You frequently don’t feel well rested despite spending 7–8 hours or more asleep at night.
5. You feel sleepy during the day and fall asleep within 5 minutes if you have an opportunity to nap, or you fall asleep at inappropriate times during the day.
6. Your bed partner claims you snore loudly, snort, gasp, or make choking sounds while you sleep, or your partner notices your breathing stops for short periods.
7. You have creeping, tingling, or crawling feelings in your legs that are relieved by moving or massaging them, especially in the evening and when you try to fall asleep.
8. You have vivid, dreamlike experiences while falling asleep or dozing.
9. You have episodes of sudden muscle weakness when you are angry, fearful, or when you laugh.
10. You feel as though you cannot move when you first wake up.
11. Your bed partner notes that your legs or arms jerk often during sleep.
12. You regularly need to use stimulants to stay awake during the day.

Also keep in mind that, although children can show some of these same signs of a sleep disorder, they often do not show signs of excessive daytime sleepiness. Instead, they may seem overactive and have difficulty focusing and concentrating. They also may not do their best in school.

Practice Detachment

Worry, anxiety, behaving compulsively, and being in an unhealthy relationship with a friend, significant other, or coworker are all forms of attachment that cause stress.

It is not easy to stop worrying about the present and the future, to cease feeling obligated to those to whom we really aren’t obligated, and to separate yourself from tasks and responsibilities that really belong to others. The first step toward detachment is to identify the things in your life that do not belong there. This can be done by sitting down and making a list with two headings: “My Life and Responsibilities” and “Other People’s Lives and Responsibilities.” Once you have identified which things in life you are not responsible for, you can start consciously disassociating yourself from them one by one.
Many of us do not realize how addicted we have become to solving other people’s problems and helping them to see how much easier, less stressed, and efficient their lives would be if only they would do things our way. In his book Growing Yourself Back Up: Understanding Emotional Regression, psychotherapist and workshop leader John Lee shows readers that it is arrogant and self-defeating for us to assume that we can solve other people’s problems for them. It uses up our energy reserves, causes us stress, and usually doesn’t help anyone anyway.
One of the most constructive things we can do for others—be they friends, family, or coworkers—is to allow them to make their own decisions, their own choices, their own mistakes, and to experience their own victories. How else can we expect them to learn except by doing for themselves? We can’t control the amount of stress in other people’s lives, but we can surely greatly reduce our own by not assuming responsibility for the stress of others.

Control Your Emotions for Maximum Performance

Being in control of your emotions at all times is another important key to maximum performance. Controlling your emotions is not the same thing as suppressing them. Rather, I’m referring to a technique that will allow your emotions to easily pass through you as they happen so that you will not become so emotionally paralyzed, stressed, or unfocused that you cannot perform properly. If you cannot gain access to your emotions, acknowledge them, and process them, you lose energy because they move below the conscious level and become tied up somewhere inside, creating an energetic short circuit. The result is compromised performance.
In order to keep that short circuit from happening every time you encounter an emotional stressor, utilize an autohypnosis technique:
Squeeze your hand into a fist and release it five times, repeating the word control and consciously letting go of the stressor. Each time you do this, simply feel your emotions and your stress pass through you. Sometimes it helps to visualize your heart in your hand and to see yourself squeezing out the tension and gently releasing it.
Emotional equilibrium is key to achieving high performance.

It’s Harmful to Your Health to Overeat!

Second after second, minute after minute, hour after hour, day after day our faithful, loyal heart is working to keep us alive. In both our waking hours and during our sleep, our heart takes only a sixth of a second to rest between beats. The hardest work the heart has to do is right after an individual has eaten. The bigger the meal, the more work it has to do in pumping vast quantities of blood into the digestive tract.
New studies done by the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, found that one out of five Americans are obese and the rate is climbing yearly – it’s an epidemic! Obesity is defined as anyone over 30% of their ideal body weight. This leads to high triglyceride levels which can cause diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Remember, exercise is a major key factor in lowering weight and helping keep the heart healthy and fit. Fact: only 20% of Americans exercise one hour weekly, yet they spend over 15 hours with TV and the web weekly.
Current obesity studies show increases in all age groups. The biggest gain is in the 18 to 29 years old group at 12.1%, up from 7.1% back in 1991. American children (1 in 3) are more overweight than ever! The number of overweight children ages 6 to 17, has zoomed up since the 1960’s. Overweight children are at high risks for adult on-set heart disease and diabetes. Teach your children healthy eating habits by being a healthy, trim, fit example for them.
Overeating puts more strain on the heart than any other one thing! Many people load up on a ten-course dinner and soon afterward suffer a heart attack! Overeating is a dangerous, deadly habit that can lead to serious consequences. You should make it a habit to always get up from the table feeling that you could eat a little more.

Salt Affects Your Blood Pressure

What causes high blood pressure? Medical Science recognizes many causes: tension, strains, stress, toxic substances such as cigarettes and gasoline, food additives, insecticide sprays, etc. and the side effects of drugs and industrial toxins are all suspect. What can you do to protect yourself from these injurious agents? You would do well to exclude as many of these harmful factors from your environment and life as soon as possible!
However, there is one cause of high blood pressure which can be easily avoided. Sodium chloride (common table salt) is the major cause of high blood pressure! Up to now, we have been talking about causing high blood pressure in the normal person. But how about the effects of salt on those millions suffering from our country’s most prevalent and preventable ailment – excess weight? This is a prime area for research because obesity is known to be frequently accompanied by high blood pressure. Medical researchers proclaim a link between high blood pressure and salt intake in obesity.

The Difference Between Organic and Inorganic Minerals

Inorganic minerals never lived and are inert . . . which means that they cannot be absorbed into the body!

Organic minerals are those which come from that which is living or has lived . . . and 16 of these organic minerals are essential elements of the human body. When we eat an apple or any other fruit or vegetable, that substance is living, for it has a certain lifespan after it has been picked. The same is true of animal foods, such as fish, milk, cheese and eggs. Animals obtain their organic minerals from plants. We humans obtain our organic minerals from both plants and animals.
Only a living plant has the power to extract inorganic minerals from the earth and sun and change them into organic minerals. No animal or human can do this. If you were stranded on an uninhabited island where nothing was growing, you would starve to death. Although the soil beneath your feet would contain all 16 essential minerals, your body could not absorb them.
Many years ago someone was on an expedition in China when one part of the country was suffering from drought and famine. He saw the poor, starving people heating and eating dirt for want of food. They died horrible deaths because they could not get one bit of nourishment from the inorganic minerals of the earth.

Pure Water Helps Keep Body Clean Inside

To have a clean, healthy bloodstream and arteries free from encrustation and corrosion, we must not only eat correctly but also drink the right fluids. The liquids which go into our bodies must be pure and nourishing.

To begin with, we believe that every person should have the equivalent of 8 to 10 glasses of pure distilled water every day. It can be obtained in most supermarkets, grocery stores and health stores. If you cannot find it readily, look under water in the yellow pages of your telephone directory for local bottled water suppliers.
Distilled water has no inorganic minerals to deposit on the walls of the arteries and other pipes of the body. In contrast, most sources of well, spring and river waters all contain inorganic minerals and some even have toxic chemicals which cannot ever be utilized in the body chemistry. They corrode the human pipes just as they do the plumbing pipes which bring water into your home.

Learn to Live Joyously with Yourself

Remember you came into this world alone and leave it alone. It’s nice to have a good family, friends and a mate, but – above all – you must learn to love living with yourself. Don’t become too intimate with too many people because “familiarity often breeds contempt”. Maintain a high personal dignity level, even with yourself. You must be good company for yourself. We have never been bored in our lives. We go on long hikes and get to understand ourselves better. As we grow to understand ourselves better, we get to understand other humans more.

Lead a busy, happy, creative life. If you follow , you are going to be busy! You will have a happy, well-rounded, balanced day with your meditation and prayer, your exercises and deep breathing, healthy eating program and reading new, instructive books, plus continuing with your daily work. A busy person is a happy person with little time to worry. Life becomes a great adventure. Enjoy every minute of it! We only get 24 precious hours a day. No one gets more – be they king, queen or billionaire. So live each day as though it were your last! Make every minute count! Time is too precious to waste. When someone says, “I have to kill time, I’m bored,” we think, “How sad!” Now, accept new challenges. Don’t be afraid to tackle any job or chore, no matter how big! Get going and start living successfully now!

Hypertension Can Be Prevented

According to scientists, they have found that we all carry a salt gene, called angiotensinogen, that can affect our blood pressure. Those with mutated forms of this gene are more likely to develop high blood pressure, say researchers in the Hypertension Journal. Blood pressure declines in people with this altered gene when they use less salt. The Am. Heart Assoc. recommends no more than 2,400 mgs of sodium daily. Bragg Liquid Aminos, a delicious all-purpose seasoning, contains less than 110 mg organic sodium per 2 tsp – a safe salt substitute.
Read food labels! Cured meats (salami, hot dogs, etc.), frozen dinners, canned soups, stews, chilis, pretzels, chips, and snack foods contain lots of salt. Sweets such as cookies, cakes and soft drinks are loaded with sodium, best to avoid them. Instead, consume lots of calcium and potassium rich foods; both of these minerals have healthy beneficial effects on blood pressure. For further hypertension info, check out these websites: www.hsph.harvard.edu/press/releases/ press05262000.html,
www.nhlbi.nih.gov/hbp/index.html, www.bloodpressure.com

Chronic Depression May Lead to Cancer

According to researchers at the National Institute on Ageing in Bethesda, they tracked 4,825 elderly Americans for 10 years, and found that those who were chronically depressed during the first six years of the study were almost twice as likely to develop cancer as their nondepressed counter-parts. (See web: depression.net) Cancer malignancies of the breast, colon, lung and prostate were prominent in chronically depressed individuals. The researchers stated that depression cannot be considered a cause for cancer, but they noted that depression boosts blood levels of stress hormones, which impair immune function. Chronic depression appears to suppress the immune system significantly enough and long enough to allow cancer cells to multiply. You may seek on-line psychotherapy by contacting: (http://www.cyberanalysis.com or seek medical information by contacting medsurf.com).

Proteins !!!!!

I suggest a daily intake of 20 percent lean protein. Good sources of protein are chicken breasts, all types of fish, beef with a low fat content (in moderation), and soy products. Protein is a stabilizing food that assists in insulin management, as well as serves other vital roles in normal body function. Because protein is not stored, a person requires three balanced meals and two or three snacks that include protein per day to suppress their hunger and mobilize their body fat for burning during physical exercise. A good protein to ingest as a snack would be soy-based foods such as Personal Edge soy protein powder, which you can find in many health food stores or General Nutrition Center stores in your area. Research has shown the greatest benefits occur from ingesting at least 20 to 25 grams per day. I suggest adding your soy powder to low-fat milk or unsweetened fruit juice and having it as a midmorning and midafternoon snack.
Soy products have always been a part of my nutrition programs because of their many benefits. Research studies have shown that an overabundance of the amino acid lysine increases the level of bad cholesterol in the body, while the amino acid arginine decreases it. Compared to animal protein, soy has a more favorable ratio of arginine to lysine. This lower ratio decreases the body’s production of insulin and increases its production of glucagon. What this means is that eating soy every day helps you to shift your metabolism from fat storage to fat mobilization.
Soy products also help to lower the risk of coronary disease. And when used in conjunction with a properly balanced nutrition and aerobic exercise program, they are an important tool for lowering your body fat and cholesterol levels. Studies have shown that soy foods also lower the risk of hormone-related cancers.
In addition to soy-based powders, there are many delicious soy food products available, including soy burgers and hot dogs, many delicious varieties of tofu, soy cheeses, and soy milk. Soy products can be a nutritional mainstay for vegetarians faced by the challenge of getting sufficient protein in their daily diet.
When choosing other protein sources, always choose lean meats and low-fat dairy. First-choice protein sources include skim milk; fatfree cheese and cottage cheese; yogurt made from skim milk; 95 percent lean ground beef, turkey, or encased meats (e.g., sausage and bologna); white-meat, skinless chicken; white-meat tuna in water; egg whites; and nonfried fish and seafood.
According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, eating fish daily decreases insulin levels, increases glucose production, lowers triglyceride (bad fat) production, and increases the level of HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol), reducing your risk of cardiovascular disease. For this reason, it is important to eat cold-water fish such as salmon, mackeral, and halibut at least twice a week.
The current RDA recommendation for protein is 0.8 grams per kilograms of body weight, but this does not provide enough for the dietary needs of individuals involved in regular exercise. Dr. E. C. Henley, who designed the food program in this chapter, suggests 60 to 100 grams of protein daily. If you want to know how many grams of protein are in a food source such as packaged meats or fish, nut butters, or soy products, simply read the label.
Getting your proper daily protein allotment is important for another reason. Based on a study of men between the ages of forty and seventy published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, a diet with adequate amounts of protein helps stop the decrease in testosterone levels that many men experience as they age. The article goes on to say, “Diets low in protein lead to increases in sex hormone-binding globulin in older men, potentially reducing the availability of testosterone and causing loss of muscle mass, red cell mass and bone density.”

Exercise Can Decrease Your Back and Joint Pain !!!

An alarming 50 percent of people over the age of thirty suffer from pain in at least one joint and from low back pain. These conditions have been brought on by a variety of causes, including sports
injuries, overuse of joints in activities such as excessive jogging, strain on the joints and back from obesity, a sedentary lifestyle, and poor posture caused by the weakening of the muscles in the core area of the body.
If done incorrectly and at too great a level of intensity, exercise can have detrimental effects on back and joint pain. But if done correctly and under a doctor’s supervision, exercise can decrease lower back pain significantly by strengthening the core area of the body. It can also lessen the effects of osteoarthritis by increasing joint flexibility and range of motion.
Dr. Mike Wilson, tells all of his clients with chronic lower back pain to get into a good program of exercises for the core area of the body. The Pro Circuit Exercise Program in this book will do wonders toward relieving your lower back pain. If you feel the need for further back-strengthening exercises, I suggest my book Lose Your Love Handles, in which I offer a program designed solely for strengthening this core area of the body—the abdominals and the lower back.

Vitamin E &Raw Wheat Germ – Health Builders

Mother Nature invested raw wheat germ with one of the most valuable nutrients – vitamin E. And now it is coming to the aid of civilized man to help him regain the robust health he lost by eating devitalized foods.

Dr. Cureton of the University of Illinois, who is recognized as one of the greatest living authorities on internal and external physical fitness, recommends raw wheat germ (little yellowish flakes), wheat germ oil and vitamin E capsules. They are especially useful in providing a great boost for athletes and others who desire to be in the highest state of physical fitness. Athletic coaches all over the world are following this advice to get the best performance from their athletes. In our opinion raw wheat germ (vacuum packed), wheat germ oil and Vitamin E should be part of the nutritional program of everyone – not just athletes! Vitamin E capsules are also recommended as the oil is more protected from rancidity.

In the process of flour milling, refining removes the raw wheat germ to create white flour. Millers realize that 127wheat germ is a fragile, natural oil reservoir which will go rancid quickly. Commercial food requires a long shelf life. The average American demands that everything they buy never spoil. That is why so many American foods are refined and why over 700 chemicals and poisons are used to preserve them!

Smoking Has Many Ways to Kill You!

The body has no defense against carbon monoxide produced by smoking. You have read about people committing suicide or being killed by carbon monoxide fumes. Why deliberately breathe them into your lungs? The coal tars in tobacco are the chief poisons responsible for cancer of the lungs, mouth and related areas of the body. It frightens us to think of what will happen in another 25 years because of the excessive use of tobacco. We are convinced that every smoker will eventually develop lung, throat or some form of cancer –if heart disease or something else doesn’t kill them first!
The results of a recent federal health study found that cigars are no less hazardous than other forms of tobacco, and therefore needs stronger federal regulation! The absence of such warning labels on cigars could lead consumers to erroneously conclude that cigars don’t carry health risks. Beware – there is no safe form of deadly tobacco! Cigars are becoming tremendously popular and sales have jumped 18% recently. Yet cigar smokers and tobacco chewers face grave risk of diseases such as mouth, throat, esophageal, larynx and lung cancer, as well as coronary heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Fact: cigars contain up to 90 times as much of some cancer-causing agents as cigarettes do!

Tobacco – Enemy of Your Heart and Health

Whether it’s cigarettes, cigars or pipes, tobacco is one of the heart’s worst enemies! Here is what Dr. Lester M. Morrison, noted California heart specialist and pioneer in the low-cholesterol diet for the treatment and the prevention of heart disease, said about tobacco:
Tobacco is a poison. Nicotine, the main ingredient of tobacco, is a poison affecting the brain, heart and other vital organs. The tobacco plant is directly related to the deadly nightshade family of plants. Aside from the chief poison, nicotine, there are other well-known poisons present in tobacco: arsenic and coal tar substances and carbon monoxide (when tobacco is burned).
Dr. Morrison also said, Nicotine is the most noxious substance that affects the blood vessels in man. Nicotine is a powerful drug that constricts the arteries, narrowing still more the vital passageways of the blood, already clogged by other toxic residue. The tobacco smoker does double damage to his heart – first, by filling the bloodstream with the harsh poisons of tobacco and, second, by narrowing the arteries and other blood vessels, preventing a free flow of life-giving blood.

Early Lifestyle Triggers Obesity

Lifestyle triggers obesity in kids. Many young people are not physically active on a regular basis and physical activity declines dramatically during adolescence. Regular physical activity in childhood and adolescence improves strength and endurance, helps build healthy bones and muscles, helps control weight, reduces anxiety and stress and increases self-esteem. It also helps normalize blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
There are numerous reasons for concern for these overweight children. Studies show that overweight children are at risk for many serious diseases such as high levels of blood pressure, insulin and cholesterol, making them excellent candidates for conditions like heart disease, diabetes and cancer. In addition, there is the emotional stress and depression associated with peer pressure and the stigmatism of being fat.
It’s important to be supportive, accepting and loving of all children, overweight or not. A positive self-image is important for weight control. There are many ways to help an overweight child regain control of their weight. By cutting out 100 calories a day, he’ll lose 15 pounds a year! Turn off the TV and video games and encourage physical activity; sports, handball, tae kwon do, rollerblading, swimming, trampolining, tennis, etc. Teach nutrition and healthy eating practices, not only by making healthy meals, but by example – eat the right foods and avoid fast foods, high sugar snacks, sodas and desserts altogether. Substitute healthy fresh fruit snacks and raw veggie stick snacks. Eat slowly and chew each mouthful thoroughly. Don’t overeat. Exercising, eating healthy foods and an occasional fast day helps teach children early to normalize their weight.

Teenagers Now Susceptible to Heart Disease

Nutritional biochemist, famous Dr. T. Colin Campbell of Cornell University has found that one out of two children born today will develop heart disease, and a new study from the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions (http://www.americanheart.org/), shows that heart disease actually begins developing early in childhood. Fatty deposits in the coronary arteries begin appearing by the age of 3, in children who partake in a typical American diet -processed foods laden with fats. By the age of 12, nearly 70% of our children have advanced fatty deposits, and by the age of 21, early stages of heart disease is evident in virtually all young adults! Dr. John Knowles, of the Rockefeller Foundation, has cited that 99% of all children are born healthy, yet are made sick as a result of their eating habits. The tender years of childhood should be the healthiest of all, bones are strong, hair is thick, liver and endocrine glands are functioning to full capacity, and they should have inexhaustible energy; yet, their bodies are being fed hamburgers full of steroids, antibiotics, hormones and chemicals; milk that is often indigestible which can cause ear aches, colds, allergies, asthma and lots of health problems.
The latest studies find “adult” diseases are related to what we eat throughout our early years in life. In fact, 95% of coronary disease can be prevented by implementing healthier eating habits earlier in life - reducing dietary fat and consuming more fresh vegetables, fruits and natural complex carbohydrates such as whole grains is very important.
Prevention is important - reward your child for good behavior with fresh fruits, instead of sugary processed candies; establish healthy eating habits before any damage to their health occurs.

Learn to Anticipate Life’s Next Moves

If you do then you need only take the actions most needed, and you will not waste precious energy rushing around trying this, that, and the other thing until you get it right. Great athletes know how to enhance their performance through anticipating the competition. Retired Miami Dolphin Dan Marino could always come up to the line of scrimmage and have a very accurate idea of where his opponents were going to move. Wayne Gretsky, one of the greatest hockey players of all time, could always see the puck coming two moves away. He knew so much about his game and the people he played against that he could almost always guess what the opposition—and his fellow teammates—were going to do next. Tiger Woods has the same gift.

In life, we need not only to be aware of what’s going on in the here and now but also to be able to look down the road and see what’s approaching. Some blows are inevitable, and the best we can do is to see them coming and try to limit the damage. Others we can prepare for so that we don’t have to sustain damage.
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General George S. Patton once wrote: “I have studied the enemy all my life. I have read the memoirs of his generals and his leaders. I have even read his philosophers and listened to his music. I have studied in great detail the account of every damned one of his battles. I know exactly how he will react under any given set of circumstances.”
All of us need to learn how to patiently study and understand
those we compete against in life and in the workplace. Always focus on the big picture and anticipate the future. Some tips for doing this include:
• Head off the younger, less experienced coworker who is after your job.
• Read the signs of your industry and see when things are going to make a downturn or a major shift—and be ready.
• See that tremendous opportunity down the road and position yourself so that you are ready to grasp it when it presents itself to you.
• Never become complacent in your career or in any other area of your life. Educate yourself about new developments in your field and make yourself available for new training opportunities.
• Seek out willing mentors who can honestly evaluate your skills and teach you things you could never learn otherwise.
The ability to look ahead and accurately foresee the next move will give you a performance edge that those who spend their lives rushing around to catch up just won’t be able to match.

Carbohydrates !!!!

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In my experience, many people find a food program consisting of 55 percent carbohydrates an intimidating amount. This is because many of the popular diet books out there have caused people to shift their dietary fears from fats to carbohydrates. The key is not to be afraid to eat carbohydrates, but to learn how to manage your intake of carbs relative to your activity level. We all know of people who have lost a great deal of scale weight on low-carbohydrate diets, but it’s a sure thing that they felt irritable, headachy, and fatigued while on that diet. To maintain the brain and central nervous system, the body needs a certain amount of glucose, which it gets from sugars and starches, the byproducts of carbohydrates after digestion. The body stores this glucose in the liver and in the muscles. When you do not ingest a sufficient amount of carbohydrates in your daily diet, the body has to get its supply from somewhere. At that point, the body will begin breaking down its own muscle protein to synthesize glucose to provide your vital organs with an adequate supply. The weight you will lose on a low-carbohydrate diet will be muscle tissue, not fat, because your body cannot break down its fat stores into glucose.
The goal of any good weight loss program should always be to lose as little muscle as possible in comparison to fat loss. For every gram of muscle tissue you lose, you lose 4 grams of water. For every gram of fat lost, you lose only 1 gram of water. Water weight is not true long-term weight loss, because water is the easiest thing in the world to gain back. If, after losing weight on a diet, you start eating a larger amount of carbohydrates during times of stress, the body will quickly regain its lost muscle tissue and its associated water weight.
Remember, the goal of any nutrition program should be to spare lean muscle tissue at the expense of excess body fat. Keep in mind also that a pound of fat is four times the volume of a pound of lean muscle, so losing pounds of fat will create the greatest transformation in your physical appearance. So don’t be afraid of carbohydrates. This does not mean, however, that you can eat all the carbohydrates you want. A recent study at Stanford University School of Medicine showed that eating a diet extremely high in carbohydrates caused triglycerides (bad fats) to go up. It is possible to have too much of a good thing. The key is balance.
Remember, all carbohydrates are not created equal. Complex carbohydrates such as sweet potatoes, yams, brown rice, and whole grains will be utilized more efficiently by the body than simple sugars such as candy and cakes. I’m not saying that you can never again indulge your sweet tooth, but it is important to eat desserts in moderation. Make them a special treat, not a daily occurrence.
Another factor to consider when choosing appropriate carbohydrates is their rating on the Glycemic Index. Foods with a high glycemic rating stimulate a higher than normal production of insulin in the body and tend to stimulate fat storage. Foods that have a low glycemic rating do not significantly elevate insulin or stimulate fat storage. High glycemic foods should be avoided or eaten in moderation.

Fiber Is Important !!!

Fiber is simply plant food that passes undigested through the small intestine. There are two basic types of fiber, insoluble and soluble. Insoluble fibers hold less water and include foods such as vegetables, most bran products, and whole grains. These types of foods provide bulk and help to normalize bowel movements. Soluble fibers hold up to forty times their weight in water, and include such foods as oats, any type of legume, beans, and psyllium. These kinds of foods provide the primary food source for friendly bacteria in the intestinal track. Not getting enough soluble fiber in your daily diet can lead to reduced growth of friendly bacteria, increased growth of unfriendly bacteria, constipation, and increased risk for colorectal cancer. Citrus fruits and apples, the most soluble fibers, hold 100 times their weight in water.
While the average person eats 16 to 17 grams of fiber per day, the National Cancer Institute recommends an average of 25 grams daily. A recent study by the American Dietetic Association, however, has caused the American Dietary Association to begin increasing its dietary recommendations of fiber. This study indicated that people with diabetes could significantly reduce their blood sugar by eating up to 50 grams of fiber per day. Other benefits of this high-fiber diet were an improved cholesterol level, lowering the participants’ risk of heart disease, which is a major cause of death among people with diabetes.
A long-term study published recently in the Journal of the American Medical Association stated that eating a high-fiber diet also helps to fight obesity. On average, young adults who ate at least 21 grams of fiber per day gained eight pounds less over a ten-year period than those who ate the least amount of fiber. When you consider that a bowl of high-fiber cereal can contain up to 25 grams of fiber, it is not difficult to get sufficient fiber in your daily diet.
High-fiber foods include the following:
• Raw or lightly cooked vegetables.
• Cereals, rolls, and bread made from whole grain flour.
• Nuts, beans, peas, lentils, potatoes, and yams (with the skins on).
• Whole grains, such as whole wheat, brown rice, whole or rolled oats, buckwheat, amaranth.
• Raw fruits such as apples (with the skins on).
• Dried fruits such as raisins, apricots, dates, and prunes. (Buy organic dried fruits, since the drying process concentrates the level of fungicides and pesticides already present in nonorganic
fruits.)
When you increase your daily intake of fiber, do it slowly to avoid discomfort and flatulence. Make sure to take a multivitamin, since fiber speeds digestion and might deplete the body of certain vitamins.
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Essential Fatty Acids Decrease Health Risks

Two kinds of unsaturated fats are necessary for your very survival. These are the essential fatty acids omega-6 (linoleic acid) and omega-3 (linolenic acid). Since your body cannot manufacture these fatty acids, they must be obtained from the foods you eat. Omega-6 is fairly common and is found in most of the vegetable oils sold in the grocery store. I suggest, however, that you try to buy your vegetable oils in health foods stores, if possible. Most typical grocery store oils, which are processed for mass distribution, are often filled with free radicals and bad fats called trans-fatty acids. Omega-3 is found in soy oil, walnut oil, flax oil, and canola oils and in dark green, leafy vegetables. I suggest that you purchase all oils in dark-colored green or amber bottles, since clear bottles tend to make the oils go rancid after a time due to chemical changes caused by exposure to sunlight.
It is especially important to make sure that you supplement your food plan with enough omega-3 fats, since the American diet is usually deficient in this nutrient. While the ideal ratio of omega-6 oil to omega-3 should be between 3:1 and 4:1, a recent study showed that for most people their level of omega-6 is 20 times their level of omega-3.
The benefits of ingesting the proper amount of unsaturated fats and essential fatty acids include:

• Lowering cholesterol levels
• Lowering high blood pressure
• Decreasing symptoms of heart palpitations and angina
• Preventing significantly the risk of heart attacks and strokes
• Decreasing the symptoms of multiple sclerosis
• Decreasing the pain and swelling of rheumatoid arthritis
• Correcting or markedly improving skin conditions such as psoriasis and eczema
• Lowering the risk of cancer

There are several other ways to increase the amount of essential fatty acids in your diet. For example, cold-water fish such as salmon, mackerel, and trout are rich sources of the essential fatty acid metabolites DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid). These have been shown to help lower blood pressure, improve cholesterol levels, and lower one’s risk for cardiovascular disease. Aside from simply eating fish a minimum of twice per week, you can supplement your diet with omega-3 by taking fish oil capsules (taken with a meal), available at most pharmacies or health food stores.
Flax oil is another rich source of omega-3 and all essential fatty acids, which is why body builders mix it into their protein drinks so often. It is best taken not in capsules but in liquid form to make sure that it is fresh and of high quality. The next time you are fixing a green salad, try using a tablespoon of flax oil as a dressing, or half a tablespoon mixed with sunflower oil or a little vinegar. You may also lightly brush it over meat after it has been cooked.
Other acceptable oils or products containing oils include corn oil, Hellmann’s Light Mayonnaise, Kraft Light Mayonnaise, Smart Balance Soft Spread (no trans-fatty acids), and unsaturated corn oil. Products such as Promise, Take Control, Fleischmann’s Margarine, and I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! (spray, not solid) are excellent butter alternatives. If real butter is your only alternative when dining out, use it in moderation.
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Chemical Changes That Occur during Stress

When you find yourself in a situation that your body perceives as stressful, a number of chemical reactions occur that push certain body systems into higher gear by shutting down or cutting off energy to others.

1. Stress affects the cardiovascular system. The first to be affected is the cardiovascular system. In the presence of danger, much of the blood in your outer extremities is shunted to organs that need more oxygen, such as the brain (the decision maker), the heart, and your other vital organs, such as the lungs and the liver. The constricting of the blood supply to your hands, arms, feet, and legs has another role—it decreases your blood loss should you be injured. Your body also increases its production of endorphins and other pain-reducing chemicals so that you won’t feel the injury as keenly as you normally would. When these changes happen, your blood pressure rises, your pulse races, and your heart must beat faster and harder to handle the strain. Adrenaline causes glucose and fat to be released from your tissues to give your body a much-needed energy surge in case you must fight or flee.
2. Some systems shut down. This enormous surge of energy comes at a price, however. Certain other bodily systems must be shut down somewhat in order to compensate. Your reproductive system, which is normally very energy intensive, is suspended so that its energies can be directed elsewhere. In the short term, this isn’t a bad thing, since you would never think about fighting off the cave bear and making love to your mate at the same time. But you can see how living in a constant state of stress would erode your libido over the long term.
3. How cortisol affects the body. Another chemical downside following the release of stress hormones is that cortisol accumulates in your body. As the adrenaline rush that released fat and glucose as an energy source subsides, the stress hormone cortisol becomes active, causing insulin to be released to stimulate your appetite so that you can replenish your fat stores. Since most of us don’t reach for an apple or a piece of swordfish when we are ravenous, this usually leads to craving a quick carbohydrate snack such as candy, pizza, cookies, ice cream, or high-carbohydrate fast foods. Unfortunately, living with a high level of daily stress causes the body to produce a consistently high level of cortisol, leading to overeating and weight gain, especially in the all-important abdominal area in men.
   
4. The immune system is weakened. One of the more serious effects of stress is the redirecting of energy away from the immune system. A tremendous amount of energy is necessary to operate the complex cells, hormones, and organs that make up this system. Fifteen minutes of danger and a return to normal isn’t going to compromise your immune system, but living with constant stress will surely make you more susceptible to illness.
   

Cultivate Healthy and Loving Relationships

While codependence serves no one, working to create healthy and emotionally stable relationships in our lives does much to keep our stress levels low. In their book Feeling Good Is Good for You: How Pleasure Can Boost Your Immune System and Lengthen Your Life, Drs. Carl Charnetski and Francis Brennan point out that we are at our happiest and healthiest when we have loving people in our lives. Studies have shown that chronically lonely people have greater instances of illness, lower levels of life satisfaction, and even earlier death rates than people who have significant others in their lives. The authors write: “Do you have people to lean on, people to talk to you, people to tell you that, despite your doubts, everything will work out? That’s emotional support, and it can come from anyone—a lover, parents, other family members, friends, neighbors, acquaintances at the gym or country club, members of a church group, coworkers, the bowling league, even seemingly impersonal cyber-friends on the internet.”
Although the research is still in its infancy a growing number of studies have shown that people who are in good marriages or love relationships live longer. These individuals have stronger immune systems, have fewer hospital stays and less serious diagnosis upon admission, are less likely to die in the hospital, and are less likely to be placed in nursing homes upon discharge. Even cancer does not seem to progress as rapidly in their bodies.
On the other hand, getting out of a bad marriage or relationship has been shown to be one of the best methods for managing stress and improving your overall health and immune function. The stress of a toxic relationship can make you physically sick.

Exercise for Heart Health

Be aware that doing the right kind of exercise is one of the best prescriptions for gaining and maintaining a healthy heart and cardiovascular system. According to an excellent ten-year study done at the Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute:

• Regular exercise is associated with marked reductions in the long-term risks for major cardiac events such as heart attack or stroke, and death from heart disease.
• People who exercise regularly, at least three times per week, reduced their chance of a cardiac event from 30 to 50 percent.
• A study from the Cooper Clinic shows that physical fitness is directly correlated with increased life span and fewer deaths from cardiovascular causes and cancer.
• Even for obese individuals or for people with several coronary heart disease risk factors, physical fitness strongly decreases the chance of developing symptoms of heart disease.

The Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute has found that the following types of exercise are most effective in treating people with cardiovascular disease, or for people wishing to avoid developing cardiovascular disease:

• Dynamic or aerobic exercises, which include walking, running, cycling, swimming, aerobic dancing, cross-country skiing, and using elliptical machines.
• Light isotonic exercises such as using handgrips or weight lifting (frequent repetitions with low amounts of weight).

The Pro Circuit Exercise Program,fills this prescription perfectly in that it alternates periods of aerobic exercise with periods of isotonic (weight training) exercise.
But before beginning any exercise program, if you are a healthy but sedentary woman over the age of fifty or a man over the age of forty, remember that the American College of Sports Medicine recommends that you should always consult with your physician and have a preexercise medical examination. This is even more important if you have high blood pressure, chest pains, high cholesterol, or any serious risk factors for heart disease, or if you are a smoker.

Food Programming versus Dieting

I am often amazed at how little understanding people have of the roles played by all three food groups—carbohydrates, proteins, and fats—in the maintenance of physical health. Popular diet books only add to this confusion. Some diet authors advocate an almost total avoidance of carbohydrates and a large intake of protein. Some give readers the idea that all fats are bad. Others downplay the importance of choosing unsaturated fats such as olive oil and soy butter, over saturated fats such as dairy butter and cheese, by including recipes with heavy, creamy sauces in their food plans. You could probably lose weight on any of these diets, since most people eat so inconsistently that almost any routine food program will have a positive effect on the body’s metabolic processes. But no one can stay on an extreme or unbalanced food program for long and expect to remain healthy.
The key to maintaining weight loss, eliminating health risks, increasing energy levels, maintaining performance, improving your moods, and increasing your longevity is to follow a food program that can become a lifestyle. This type of food program must have several basic characteristics:

• It must be intelligently balanced among carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, based on the evidence presented by nutritional science.
• It must adequately satisfy your body’s daily caloric requirements.
• If you need to lose weight initially, it should never put your daily caloric intake so low that you will feel undue hunger, physical or emotional stress, or loss of energy.
• It should provide you with three balanced meals and at least two snacks per day to keep your energy levels consistent.
• It should have a certain amount of flexibility built into it to allow for your individual nutritional needs, since we are all a bit different from one another. For example, a man or woman who is very athletic will require more protein than your average person.

Generally, I have found that the percentages that work best for most people are 55 percent low-glycemic carbohydrates, 20 percent lean protein, and 25 percent acceptable fat. Allowing for individual differences, Dr. E. C. Henley, Ph.D., R.D., executive vice president and director of nutritional sciences for Physicians Pharmaceuticals, the experienced nutrition researcher and counselor who has designed the food program in this chapter, has built a bit of flexibility into that range. I guarantee that every reader who follows this food program will experience, in as few as thirty days, significant fat loss, an increase in lean muscle, lowered cholesterol, decreased
health risks, and a marked increase in energy levels. But I also encourage you to listen to your body and observe its performance levels. For example, you might find that as you increase your level of exercise, you may need a somewhat higher percentage of lean protein. Or you may discover that you are an individual who is at his or her most energetic when you stick with 55 percent acceptable carbohydrates— or maybe even a bit more.
Let’s take a look at the three food groups and the role each nutrient plays in the body.

Find Your Weak Link

It is not as easy as you think to ascertain your level of fitness because the appearance of health is not always the same as true health. I remember when Frank Warren, then a thirteen-year veteran with the New Orleans Saints, dropped out of football to coach. After a while, Frank decided to get back into the game because he felt that he was better than most of the players he was coaching. When Frank came to me for preseason training, he looked as if he were in decent shape. But the in-depth health evaluation that I recommend for all of my trainees showed that he had developed coronary problems and needed angioplasty. If Frank had stepped onto the playing field without assessing his health profile, there is a strong chance that he would have died on the field.
Your career and your passion might be calling to you to put forth your most energetic effort, but no one should ever jump into the stresses of life’s battles without a clear understanding of whether or not there is a weak link in your health chain—a point at which you could literally break down. Following a recent decision by the office of the commissioner of Major League Baseball to create a division known as Umpire Medical Services to manage the health of their umpires, my PEP program was hired as a consultant. I discovered that one umpire, whose weight had soared to 357 pounds, didn’t know that he had type 2 diabetes.
When this man didn’t want to consider the health ramifications he was facing if he didn’t lose weight and begin eating and exercising right, I appealed to his better judgment. “How can you be calling the balls and the strikes for every player when you won’t look at your own score? Your body already has two strikes against it. The next one could be your last.” I explained how easy—and even likely—it was for him to develop complications such as heart disease that might lead to premature death. Finally he took my suggestions seriously. He lost weight and reduced his waist measurement, thereby getting his blood sugar back to normal. Amazingly, he accomplished all this without taking medication, just by following my nutrition, exercise, and lifestyle management programs.
Many people are walking time bombs and don’t even know it. If you don’t have the internal physical health to deal with the stresses, demands, and performance standards of your personal life and career, then it doesn’t matter if you look as if you are fine or even feel relatively good.

Avoid or Decrease Loss of Bone Density and Muscle Mass , Do Exercise

Most people believe that a significant loss of muscle mass (sarcopenia) and bone density is inevitable as one ages, leading to decreased strength, mobility, and flexibility. This is not so. According to a recent article published in the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, most age-related changes in muscle and bone can be reversed through an appropriate exercise program incorporating both aerobic and resistance/strength training (working with weights or objects one has to push against).
Individuals suffering from sarcopenia and bone loss experience a significant decrease in energy levels and strength. A special issue of Newsweek focusing on longevity reported how a seventy-six-year-old woman, Barbara, was finding it more and more difficult to do simple things such as getting up out of her favorite easy chair. Bending over to make her bed was so painful that she had to get down on her knees to do so. At 140 pounds, Barbara was not overweight, but her fat to lean muscle ratio was extremely high. She described herself as “mostly flab and mush.” This is not surprising, since people who lose muscle as they age also gain body fat—and most of us do. Remember, a greater body fat to lean muscle ratio also means a less efficient metabolism, since fat is not metabolically active. It just sits there on your body, pulling you down.
When her doctor told her that she was suffering from low bone density as well, Barbara knew she had to do something to help herself. She enrolled in a study at Oregon State University that was researching the effects of exercise on bone density in women over fifty. The study was exploring the hypothesis that gradually reintroducing women to exercise would increase bone density and muscle mass. The women began by wearing weighted vests and practicing everyday movements such as standing up, walking, and stepping from side to side. They gradually moved on to more strenuous activities, such as four-inch high jumps. Once Barbara began to gain back some of her lost bone and muscle mass, she started exercising regularly with her husband and now says she is more fit at eighty-one than she was at forty. “I can’t describe the feeling—it’s a sense of being stronger and more accomplished and less afraid. You can’t just give up and go downhill. Life is just too precious.”
It used to be that men and women past the age of fifty were expected to be flabby. For many, that attitude is changing as they discover that even a moderate amount of exercise makes muscles stronger and joints more flexible and arrests the loss of bone density (a problem in aging men as well as women). In fact, the Canadian Journal of Applied Physiology reports that studies on sarcopenia unequivocally show that older muscle tissue has the same, if not an even greater capacity, to respond to a vigorous bout of resistance exercise than younger muscle does.
Women: Defeat Osteoporosis through Exercise
Of special interest to women is the fact that osteoporosis can be either prevented or slowed by the consistent practice of a good resistance exercise program. In fact, the older a woman gets, the more important exercise becomes to her musculoskeletal health and strength. Think how many women you know who can barely get around in their seventies, eighties, and nineties. Since women live longer than men, it is especially important for them to keep relatively fit so that their quality of life does not degrade in their later years.

Eight Steps for Controlling Stress at the Office

It would be wonderful if all corporations provided their employees with meditation rooms and built mandatory recovery breaks into everyone’s busy schedule. In fact, studies have shown that these kinds of activities actually increase productivity. Since that day is still far in the future, Anna Wise offers eight meditation exercises one can practice in the office to deactivate the stress response and become more relaxed, creative, and balanced during the workday. I have included that list here.

• Make ample use of one-minute meditations. Obviously, this will be easier if you are working in a private space than if you are sharing an office. These include the following:

• Sit in a relaxed posture and breathe deeply, in and out, for one minute.
• Focus on relaxing your tongue and jaw for one minute.
• Intentionally slow your breathing for one minute.
• Sitting comfortably with your eyes gently open, focus your awareness on a spot outside of yourself for one minute.
• Sitting comfortably with your eyes closed, focus your awareness on a particular location inside yourself, such as your heart, your third eye, or your navel.
• Imagine a friend’s face smiling at you.
• Imagine receiving a warm hug from an old friend.

• Breathe! The most calming action you can take when faced with stress is to consciously focus on slowing your rate of breathing. For example, while you are listening to problems
  or complaints from a superior, you can at the same time be aware of your rhythmical and slow breathing and your relaxed heart rate. This not only helps to keep you calm, but gives you the detachment that helps provide proper perspective when dealing with crisis.
• When faced with stressful situations make a complete energy circuit in your body. Sit with the palms of your hands together or—just as effective—the tips of the thumb pads and middle fingers touching one another. This helps contain the flow of energy within your body and maintain centeredness and balance.
• Sit with your spine straight and relaxed, and your legs uncrossed. This also unblocks energy, which can then be called upon for use.
• Sensualize! If you are facing a very difficult encounter or situation, take a few minutes to be by yourself before it begins. Using all of your senses, imagine the situation occurring in
  the most successful and healthy way possible. Imagine your own actions and reactions to be calm, strong, creative, and appropriate.
• Use ordinary activity as a meditation practice. For example, when you are going to the watercooler for a drink, take the opportunity to be awake and aware. Be aware of each move as you make it and be very present in the actual act—not drawn back into the past or forward into the future. Be sensually aware of the smells, tastes, sights, sounds, textures, and kinesthesia of the situation. Savor every second of the experience, while remaining in the present.
• Look for allies among your coworkers. You might be surprised to find other meditators more prevalent than you thought. There is support in numbers—if meditation becomes an acceptable and even pleasantly anticipated topic of conversation, your practices will be supported and you will feel freer to practice more frequently and more openly.
• Support others in the need for and value of contemplative time.
  

Negative Effects of On-the-Job Stress

For many of us, most of our stress is encountered in the workplace because we spend so much time there. A lot depends on our ability to financially support ourselves and our families and to achieve success in the eyes of the world. Therefore it is important to develop tools for managing on-the-job stress.

According to Dean Sunseri, individuals who do not manage their work-related stress have a higher level of absenteeism, decreased work performance, and emotional instability at their jobs. In their personal lives, this inability to manage stress leads to relationship problems, emotional isolation, substance abuse, verbal/physical violence, and increased high-risk behaviors such as alcoholism.
A recent study by Drs. Nicole A. Roberts and Robert W. Levenson of U.C. Berkeley, published in the Journal of Marriage and Family, shows that high levels of on-the-job stress seem to play a significant role in marital problems and could potentially lead to divorce if the stress isn’t acknowledged and managed. “These influences of job stress were found regardless of couples’ marital satisfaction, husbands’ work shift, and couples’ parenthood status,” the authors wrote. They went on to suggest that when job stress levels become highest, couples should make an extra effort to be attuned to themselves so that they could find ways to handle their stress in a constructive manner. “This may include employing stress management techniques, making an effort to infuse positive emotions into marital conversations, and finding ways to talk about job stress rather than avoiding it.”
This is often easier said than done. According to a recent article in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, job stress can sneak up on you so gradually that you don’t even realize it. Many employees entering the workforce are young and single with ample time for leisure activities, exercise, rest, and sports. As they grow older, marry, have children, and acquire a mortgage and other major responsibilities, their stress load will build and their productivity levels drop. Add to this the fact that many companies lay off employees during times of economic recession, burdening those who remain with an increased workload and even greater stress.
Recently I saw a dramatic example of this when a shipping company called me to inquire about my corporate program. Their top salesperson, a middle-aged man named Arnold, had serious physical problems. Arnold was 400 pounds, had a fifty-two-inch waist, and had a blood sugar level of 126, which made him diabetic. Arnold hadn’t been this heavy or this sick when he first went to work for them. But the stresses of his workload and the amount of constant traveling he had to do had brought him to this point. Arnold was a prime candidate to drop dead of a heart attack. And if he had, his company would have been in serious trouble. Fortunately, Arnold is thrilled with the program and has already lost twenty-five pounds.
Dee Edington, director of Michigan’s Health Management Research Center, has spent twenty-five years researching how major corporations have saved literally millions of dollars in health care costs by offering services to their employees such as wellness programs, onsite gyms and fitness programs, and health newsletters. What Edington stresses, however, is that companies should not focus on just those employees whose stress loads and health needs are the greatest. There are tremendous long-term benefits in retaining relatively healthy employees who eat right, exercise regularly, and manage their stress healthfully. “It is much easier to help a low-risk person remain low-risk than to try to change a high-risk person to low-risk,” Edington says.
Unfortunately, most corporations do not take responsibility for their employees’ health. Even if you are fairly healthy, you cannot count on your workplace to take responsibility to help you maintain your health and emotional well-being. Ultimately, that responsibility falls squarely on your shoulders.
In this fast-paced, stress-filled world, the only answer is to develop your own stress management skills. I have found the following stress management techniques to be tremendously effective. I suggest that you experiment with one or a combination of these until you find what works best for you.

Perform Well to Your Last Breath

There is no overtime in life. Therefore it benefits us to perform with as much gusto as we can until our very last breath.

In a very real sense, the adversary all of us will eventually face is death. For this reason a question you must ask yourself is, How do I want to die? Do you want to end up living in a nursing home for the last decade of your life because you can no longer take care of yourself? Do you want to spend your final years partially paralyzed by a stroke? Would you look forward to the pain and limited mobility of arthritis or the hassle of having to replace a knee or hip because the joint was just worn out by overuse or abuse? Would you enjoy being extremely overweight and suffering from obesity-related illnesses such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease?

Or do you want to enjoy life, playing and working for as many years as possible?

I often ask my clients, “If how you live is determined by how you want to die, what performance strategies must you develop to work and live with gusto?” While the average life span for men is seventyeight and for women is eighty-two, that figure has been steadily increasing. In fact researchers are projecting that by the year 2025, sixty-two million people will be over the age of sixty-five, and by 2040 as many as one million people will celebrate their hundredth birthday. Many of us will live much longer than our parents did.

The choice we face is this: Do we want to spend our later years as a drain on society, suffering from health problems that are largely avoidable? Or do we want to remain a good prospect for as long as possible, performing with energy and a zest for life?

Dr. Christiaan Barnard, the physician who did the first heart transplant, said, “I want to die ‘young’ as late as possible.” I love to share this with my clients. When I repeated this to one woman, she told me, “That reminds me of my Great Aunt Ruth. She always walked everywhere—miles and miles per week, ate right, and kept her joy for living alive by traveling the world with her children and cultivating friends of all ages. She ran her own business, retired, then managed to keep active and live independently all the way up to the age of ninety-one. At that point she had a stroke that partially paralyzed her and put her into a nursing home. The last eight months of her life were hard for all of us, but at least we knew that she had lived the first ninety-one years with good health and gusto.”

There is no overtime in life, no going back onto the field for one last play. The lifestyle choices we make every day truly determine the level of our performance, whether we remain a good prospect or become suspect. It’s up to us to make sure we’re choosing wisely.

Manage Your Performance to Go the Distance

One of the keys to delivering maximum performance is being able to manage your energy so that you can go the distance. Every task takes a certain amount of time, and you must maintain enough energy during that time to effectively exercise your skills, talents, judgment, and teamwork long enough so that you can win. Athletes are great role models for energy management. For example, boxers must be able to control their energy expenditures for twelve rounds. It does not matter if you give your opponent the battle of his life for five rounds if you don’t have the stamina to finish the fight. The workplace is no different. To complete a task or a project, you need to be able to go the distance.
The competitive challenge in life as in sports is to maintain your own energy levels while pushing your opponent into a state of overuse and overreaching. On the other hand, wise energy management involves being smart enough to never allow others to maneuver you into a position where you are being forced to overreach, to attempt a task that you know is beyond what you can realistically do. That could automatically set you up for a failure.

• Always perform with integrity. If you have integrity, you will go the distance with your client, even when the chips are down. You will stand by your people, handle and minimize the damage, cut your losses, analyze what went wrong, and create a better plan to help you make a comeback
  
• Never overreach yourself. Managing your energy system is crucial to going the distance. It does not matter how much sheer talent and experience you have if you are overreaching. Whatever amount of energy you are putting out daily on your job, make sure that it is never so much that you are not able to recover.

The upside of the equation is that once you have learned how to manage your energy system, you are almost always going to be able to go the distance and accomplish whatever performance goals you set for yourself.