CREATING YOUR 2010 - HEALTH TOOLS

This is the last segment of the Creating YOUR 2010 series. The entire series has been incredibly fun to write, but this segment on health is perhaps the most rewarding. We are going to explore thoughts and ideas about health. Remember, this segment builds off of our first segment Mental Tools for Creating YOUR 2010 so be sure to read that first!

What do we believe is good health?

For most people the immediate and obvious answer has to do with the physical body. For some, being healthy means being physically fit. People who use this definition of health tend to exercise frequently and participate in physical activities or know they most likely should be. For others, being healthy means eating modification and perhaps moderation. People who live by this definition of health tend to use dieting, NOT eating, and restriction. And of course, there are people who fall in the middle of the range and focus on both physical fitness and eating modification. In any case, it is a universally accepted idea that being healthy involves some or all of the above methods.

We believe that success in any field, including health, is a matter of science. Like-causes produce like-effects and success leaves clues. So what clues are the above methods leaving? As for exercise/physical fitness, we all know people who have tried walking, running, other cardio, personal trainers, cardio kick-boxing, the buddy system, and countless other workout strategies. How many have sustained results? When it comes to eating modification, there are thousands who participate in diet programs. Diet after diet … one, meticulously counting fat grams and sugar content only, the next totally eliminating carbohydrates while allowing some fat, and still another promoting frozen meals. Counting calories, fats or carbs gets to be an exercise in advanced calculus. The result? People often find themselves right back where they started before they became an advanced mathematician.

We are sure there are even a few of you who have actually exercised AND modified your eating habits at the same time! For those daring few, we know you saw results. There is no doubt that the combination of increased exertion and decreased caloric intake produces weight loss BUT it doesn’t do much for creating a LASTING CHANGE.

Is good health hopeless?

Absolutely not! Below, we walk you through exactly how to create your LASTING CHANGE and we mean LASTING, not a week, not a month, not a year but LASTING CHANGE! By the time you finish reading this segment, you’ll have a whole new perspective on health and how YOU live.

So what is TRUTH when it comes to health?

We invite you to take a step back and gain a broader perspective. Health is FAR more than just physical. As you already know from reading the first segment of this program you must BE before you can DO because what you DO comes from who you ARE. What you DO then creates what you HAVE. Health works in this model too! Yes, you knew it was coming. Health starts inside and works itself outside, meaning your physical body. We are spiritual beings with a physical body, not physical beings with a spirit.

“Go as far as you can see and then you can see further.” – Anonymous

The human race is constantly evolving and building on what we have learned. The more we learn, the more we realize we still have more to learn. For instance, dieting and exercise have only recently become the “Big Thing” to healthy living and even more recently nutrition combined with diet and exercise have been acknowledged. It is time to take things up a FEW more levels.

We must first understand that all changes occur within before they are ever present without. This is true for your health too! Your mind actually affects the cells of your body as well as your external world. Bruce Lipton is an AMAZING author and PhD with major career emphasis on cell biology. Dr. Lipton has dedicated his life to understanding how our BELIEF impacts our body. In his book, Biology of Belief, which we highly recommend, he outlines how our beliefs have a direct impact on every cell in our body. Dr. Lipton discussed this in full in his book but in an effort to bring you useful information, we will sum up a small piece of the content from his book. However, we highly recommend reading this book for yourself.

Your brain has many neurons that create chemicals, called neurotransmitters, which relay, amplify, and modulate electrical signals in the brain. When there is a demand for a particular chemical, the chemical is released and it is received by your cells. When the cells accept the chemical it is accepted through a membrane which acts a lot like any port.

What determines the need for a particular chemical?

Your thoughts, or more specifically your beliefs, create the demand for a particular chemical release. This is proven science and its mind blowing! A simple example would be in the case of adrenaline, which is one of the chemicals produced by your brain cells. When you BELIEVE you are in danger, that belief signals the brain to release adrenaline throughout your body. You have a heightened sense of awareness, energy, and focus. Have you ever been on a scary ride or in a haunted house for the first time with someone who had already been through that experience? They were not experiencing the same heightened senses that you were. Why? Because they already knew what was around the corner and what to expect. They believed they were not in any danger, so their brain didn’t send the signal to release any adrenaline.

We mentioned that your cells act like ports. It is also important to understand that each chemical is unique in its signature. When the same chemical is sent to cells over and over again, the cells create more ports for that chemical. Think of it like a port in a harbor. Let’s say this port was an old port and built to suit its customers’ needs. Well, when it was built the boats serviced needed only 25 foot docks. Over time, customers needed larger and larger ports so what did the good port owner do? Build BIGGER ports and build more of them!

Your cells operate the SAME WAY! Whichever chemicals you are frequently releasing and sending to your cells, the membrane of your cell is accommodating by making more ports for those frequent guests. Of course there is only a limited amount of space available so if there is a need for more receptors for one chemical, then receptors that have been used for chemicals you do not often produce will be replaced to make room for the chemicals you are producing regularly (or more often).

What does that mean for you?

Well, whatever beliefs you have are creating chemicals in your brain and those repetitive beliefs are literally shaping your cells’ receptors to accommodate the high levels of production. For example, if you constantly believe you are unattractive and fat, your brain will release certain chemicals all the time. Let’s say you seldom believe that you are worth loving. The cells of your body will adjust and create more receptors for the “negative” chemicals. It will make room for these new receptors by getting rid of the receptors for “positive” chemicals. That means that each time this process repeats, you are literally programming your body to experience a greater amount of the “negative” chemicals and less of the “positive” chemicals. The result is a habitual way of seeing yourself as unattractive and fat that feels so much more “true” than seeing yourself as beautiful and perfect just as you are. This is just one example but we are sure you can understand where we are going with this.

Here is where it gets really interesting though. Through our study of biology and the human experience, we learned that this process creates a cycle where the cause of having certain chemicals released frequently produces an effect of having more cell receptors for that chemical. However, the cycle does not end there. Those cells, now fully equipped with many more receptors for a certain chemical, now become a cause. What do we mean? Your cells demand that their receptors are regularly filled. When they are not, they begin to send signals to the brain to produce more. This cyclical process is the process of addiction. Drugs, for example, create massive production of naturally occurring chemicals in our brain. The more someone does, the more the cells create new receptors. Then those cells send signals back to the brain for more. This is craving.

There are some differences between drug addiction and the normal human chemical cycle. For one, the amounts of naturally occurring chemicals that flood the brain when someone is on drugs are FAR greater than normal. This magnifies the cycle. Second, is that the brain of an addict knows that this huge chemical creation is due to taking an outside substance rather than a thought or belief. While this is different, it gives us a valuable insight into how this cycle works.

When the brain receives the request from cells to produce more of a certain chemical, how does it create that chemical? Well, as we have already mentioned, in the case of an addicted person, the brain triggers the activity which caused the rush of chemicals in the first place. In the case of a normal person, the brain searches for the cause of the particular chemical that the cells are asking for … thoughts and beliefs. This is very important! The brain actually causes you to think thoughts or have beliefs that will produce the chemical that the cells are requesting, thereby continuing the cycle.

If you understand this concept, you will understand why a certain thought process can seem habitual or almost addicting. Have you ever heard someone say that they can’t help being negative, it just happens? Or the reverse, that they can’t help but see the positive? They are alluding to the fact that they are fulfilling the chemical desires of their cells.

Are you trapped forever with the beliefs you currently have?

No. The good news is that you are in control of your thoughts and beliefs. You can challenge beliefs that do not serve you and focus on the ones that do. One good way of challenging a non-serving belief, is to ask yourself if you are certain, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that this belief is true. You will find that your beliefs are not certainly true. Of course, the opposite of your belief is probably not certainly true either. You now have two opposing possible beliefs; one that does not empower you, and one that does. Neither is certainly true or false. Why choose the one that is not empowering?

You might have a belief, “I am too old to get in shape.” Is that definitely true? No. There are many people from all over the world who get fit late in life, many older than you are right now. The opposite belief would be, “I am the perfect age to get in shape.” That is not certainly true either but if neither is certain, why not choose the belief that empowers you to get in shape?

BELIEF is like a filter – rose colored glasses. When you have these glasses on, if someone holds up a white piece of paper and tells you it’s white, your filter does not allow you to see what they see. The glasses are your BELIEF and that BELIEF shades everything you experience and it shades how you feel as well. If you BELIEVE it is difficult to lose weight then you will see reasons to support that and feel it in ways that make that seem very true to you.

Do you see now why certain circumstances seem to repeat themselves in your life?

“You see, in life, lots of people know what to do, but few people actually do what they know. Knowing is not enough! You must take action.” – Tony Robbins

Now that you understand that HEALTH includes more than just your physical body, let’s talk about some steps you can take TODAY! Yes, diet and exercise help but there is much more you need to do BEFORE you start to diet and exercise in order to allow the LASTING CHANGE to emerge in your life.

STEP ONE – Guard your MIND!

In today’s society you are literally BOMBARDED with information. You are constantly plastered with advertisements from the highest bidder. We are entrepreneurs and we believe in business and making money. We are aware that advertising is important for companies but we are also aware of how advertising works. Whether you believe it or not 99% of all food sold in stores is not sold because you need it or because it is healthy for you. On the contrary, most product sales are foods that are not needed and certainly not healthy. The stores and manufacturers are happy to oblige because it helps their bottom line. Yes, there are more companies making an effort to create products that are healthier than their competition today but by no means does that mean their product is actually healthy.

Ads ARE everywhere and we are conditioned by them. We have all felt the wonderful effects of food that keep us coming back for more. Most food is manufactured to be addictive. In addition, the way the human body works and the food the average person normally eats don’t mesh. We will delve into this a little more later but the point of this section here is being mindful of what you are buying and WHY you are buying it. Ask yourself if you are buying for health.

When you shop, do you ask yourself, “Is this on sale?”, “Am I getting enough for my money?”, or “Is there a cheaper alternative?”

If so, then odds are HEALTH is not on your mind. For example, if you try to buy only items that have 2 for 1 sales, you are focused on value and the sale, not health. What happens when you bring double the amount of something home? You consume more of it even when one item would have sufficed. If they are perishable items, you may even find yourself saying, “I have to eat this, I don’t want to waste the money.”

Start buying food with your health in mind. You may be arguing with us in your head by saying that the healthier foods cost more. We invite you to consider that if you are sacrificing your health for your finances, then you are on track to not need any finances with the shorter life span your worse health will bring you.

STEP TWO – BE before you DO!

Does this sound familiar? Before you start on a new program or join a new gym you first have to take a moment to really get to know who you want to BE. In our first segment this was a very major point and you will find it relevant here. Create an image of your ideal physical self. If you have a picture of the body type you want that can help too. For anyone who had that body type before, a picture of you with the body you now desire can help sharpen that image in your mind. Focus on your size and fitness level but don’t forget to focus on how you FEEL. Take a moment to recall the feeling of HIGH ENERGY or HIGH MOBILITY! How does it feel to be in this fit, healthy body? DAYDREAM a little bit.

No good dream building would be complete without GOAL SETTING. It is important to create the FIRST physical imprint of your desired physical self by WRITING THEM OUT! Write them out because you will need them later in this segment.

STEP THREE – The PAST is HISTORY!

“In order to move into the future we must first be present.” Michael Bloxton

A VERY large percentage of our population has attempted some sort of weight loss before… and failed. We are not inviting you to lose weight; we are inviting you to CREATE A LIFE! To do this, you MUST leave the past where it is. Living in the past is potentially the most damaging thing a person can do. Instead of focusing on the past, focus on how you can ACT TODAY with the END in mind. The past HELD great lessons but you need to move on. One of the greatest things about life is that if you don’t learn a lesson from an experience you have, life will give you more opportunities – until you do learn the lesson.

Let’s discuss your past health challenges from a scientific point of view. Most of the reason you fell back into poor health habits wasn’t you. The foods we commonly eat today create big rises and falls in insulin levels. Heavy carb intakes like cereal, bagels, pasta, and toast create a massive increase of insulin but also create a crashing low shortly thereafter. What happens when you feel that low? You look for a snack and repeat the cycle. Your body is not designed to get its primary fuel from these sources. Look at it this way, your car runs on either diesel or gasoline. What do you think would happen if you filled your tank with the one you are NOT supposed to? Do you think your car would run smoothly? OF COURSE NOT! However, with food, we have been trained to consume foods that have this cyclical, addictive effect. Learn from this and move on.

STEP FOUR – FUEL Your BODY!

Make sure you are giving your body the fuel it requires, not what the advertisers want you to want. Your body is one of the great wonders of the world because it is truly amazing. Your body is designed for your survival. It is designed with a “famine safe” metabolism. This means that your body is built to be an efficiency MACHINE! Your body won’t waste a thing, NOT EVEN FAT. A couple centuries ago, when a human ate, he or she might not get food again for a while. In addition, human bodies had to be ready to hunt, run, build, and create even if food was unavailable so the body is programmed to store nutrients and energy-providing materials. That is how your body still works. It has only been in the last century that we have become complacent beings with access to consistent sources of food.

The fuel we put in our system and the fuel our bodies require are QUITE DIFFERENT. Our body needs fuel to match our level of function, not of craving.

So WHAT am I supposed to EAT/DRINK?!

This is a huge subject all by itself. For that reason, we are not going to go into full detail here. We plan on doing several supplemental posts to this series in the coming months but for now, there is a simple question you can ask to improve the quality of food/drink you are consuming. When you are deciding on a food/drink to consume, ask yourself:

1. Does this food/drink occur in nature in the same way I am going to consume it today?

This question is a gem! Think about it for a second. Let’s start with drinks … what drinks are available in nature? Water and milk are the only two that come to mind immediately. You may be wondering about fruit juices. Well, fruit is found in nature BUT you don’t go outside and find a glass of orange juice hanging from a tree. Fruit juice contains fructose, which is essentially sugar. The juice you intake when you drink a glass of fruit juice contains MUCH more fructose than what you would get if you ate some fruit. Plus, in many cases, you get less fiber than you would by eating the fruit. As for food, we can find chicken, fish, starches such as potatoes, rice, and sweet potatoes, vegetables, beef, pork, fruit, and other sources of protein and nutrients in nature.

Portion control is very important too. Eat smaller meals, BUT eat them more frequently. We are mostly sedentary as a population so keep in mind, many times your body will not be burning a lot of calories. Here are some tips to help you with portion control:

1. Instead of using a regular size plate and putting a small portion on it, use a small plate and put the same portion on it. This creates the appearance of more food.

2. Draw an imaginary line on your plate cutting the plate in half. One of those halves should be your spot for vegetables. The other half then gets cut in half again (perpendicular to the original line). One of these smaller sections is for your meat and the other is for your starch. Remember, everything on the plate should be found in nature, and is best consumed in its natural state. So, consider a fresh salad as your vegetable. Raw fruits, veggies. Nuts and legumes lose the least amount of nutrients when consumed in their natural state.

3. Eat slower than normal and chew each bite extremely well. Chewing does a few things that benefit your health. First, it helps you eat less and second, your saliva has enzymes that are designed for you to digest your food more effectively. It is also a known fact that your brain does not signal your body that you are full for up to 15-20 minutes after you are full and by then you are STUFFED.

4. Drink LOTS of water. There are so many reasons to do this; we cannot even list them here. The important point is that lots of water is actually MORE water than you might think. Standard recommendations say 6-8 glasses of water per day. That is between 48 and 64 ounces of water daily. Recent research suggests that you should consume as much as .75 ounces of water per pound (your weight) per day. An important note is that the water should be consumed between meals, not during. The water consumed at mealtime dilutes those important digestive enzymes. Further, when you drink your water during the day (not at meal time) it should be cold. Your body must heat the water to digest it which causes a thermogenic reaction in your body and burns calories. However, if you must drink water during meal time (within 30 minutes before or after), the opposite is true. Drink room temperature water because iced water slows the digestive process while your body is warming the water, so if you must have a liquid with your meal, consume it at room temperature.

How should I exercise?

This subject is also a rather large one and we will be addressing it further in subsequent segments. Here are a few helpful tips to help you get started:

1. Exercise does not have to be an activity in and of itself. Start looking for ways to be active in your every day life. Take the stairs instead of the elevator, walk to the corner store instead of driving, and sit up while watching TV instead of lying down (this actually burns more calories).

2. The two most effective times to do formal exercise are in the morning prior to eating and in the evening prior to bed, the latter of which is actually the best. Morning exercise is great because it helps boost the metabolism, burns more fat, and increases your energy during the day.

3. Don’t do the same exercise all the time. Your body has an amazing ability to adapt to anything. Once it does, you will not get the same benefits. Mix it up. If you jog each day, try doing 1 minute sprints with short walking rests in between once a week. If you typically ride a bike, try doing stairs or using a stair stepping machine to regularly mix up the workout. Keep your body guessing for great results!

We have some great additional resources for the food and nutrition portion of the health equations as well as the fitness portion of the equation. We will be sharing these with you in future segments so look for these supplemental posts and in the mean time, we strongly encourage independent research.

STEP FIVE – Supplement Your LIFE!

It has actually been found that proper sleep is HEALTHY! Sleep, therefore, is supplement number one. HOW GREAT IS THAT?! If you get 7-9 hours of sleep per night on a consistent basis, you will be amazed at your energy levels. High quality supplements can also help you. Be sure that you are getting a high quality supplement though. There are a lot of poor quality products on the market.

Making these small lifestyle adjustments acts as catalysts to the healthy life you are striving for. These things may have been previously “sold” to you as “end all” programs but they are a piece of the puzzle not a short cut to a masterpiece. Supplements are simply a piece of the health puzzle that allows you to intake the essential nutrients your body needs, even when the food you eat is deficient in certain nutrients.

STEP SIX – Master YOU!

This entire series is about YOUR life! We know there are family members, co-workers, friends and acquaintances who have an effect on you and whom you have an effect on. As you have heard from us before, the only corner of the world you can change is your own! You absolutely MUST make this about you. You MUST take responsibility for yourself and take on the opportunity to change for yourself.

It is almost guaranteed that you will be given GREAT opportunities to test your determination with your closest friends and family. You are sure to run in to the person who “tried that” before, already failed on your behalf, and they will try and convince you that it won’t work. REMEMBER, this is YOUR LIFE, not theirs and YOUR success will illuminate their past failure so be wary of those who counsel you to not follow your dreams under the disguise of “helping you.”

Partners VS. Coaches

Partners are people that you have an existing personal relationship with. Some might be long time friends, family, co-workers, or maybe a new friend you are developing a relationship with. When dealing with partners in your life, it is important to ask yourself where their expertise lies. If you had a plumbing problem, you wouldn’t ask your accountant for advice to fix it, would you? And if your accountant gave you his or her opinion without you asking, would you stop searching for a plumber? No. Yet so many times people ask their friends for advice, or unsolicited advice is received, and they take their friends’ opinions as FACT. Now, don’t get us wrong, we LOVE our friends and our family. However, we do not ask or accept opinions from them on subjects they know nothing about. This holds true in our interactions with each other as well. We have been friends for many years and we enjoy doing business together. This friendship enables us to be even more effective at what we like to do. However, even our friendship with so much in common, would not satisfy all possible discussions on our desires. We are two different people, with our own desires, habits, and beliefs. You can likely think of many people whose company you enjoy for certain activities but that same person does not work well with other activities you are interested in doing. When looking for a workout partner, find out what their goals are and see if they are similar to yours. Next, realize that even though their goals are similar to yours, you may end up with different results and that is ok. Finally, know that your success in creating the health you want is independent of that person’s success and you are not responsible for them. Choosing to create YOUR 2010 is about YOU, not someone else, and making new decisions that are in line with who you want to BE!

“The individuals I have learned and gained the most from have always been those who attained that knowledge through their own personal experiences. A lot of people told me what I “should” do, but they had never done it. Only those who had gone where I wanted to be understood what was important … what was critical to my success and what was not.” – Nick Bogatin

What is the science behind being careful with partners?

That is a GREAT question! While partnering you tend to do the same workouts and routines and even switch routines at the same time assuming you have found that gem of a partner. This is great but it is an individual process regardless of your partner. Most people expect to get similar results ESPECIALLY if their partner has a similar body type. Momentum and effectiveness go out the window if one of you is not getting the same RESULTS. This can be a game killer in itself. You are doing everything the same. You look the same, eat the same, exercise the same, have the same affirmations, do EVERYTHING the same yet one of you is not gaining the rewards like the other. SCIENCE: YOU, being an individual, have a “thermostat” for your weight and health. You will find this thermostat number when your body stops responding to all the things you are doing AND changing. It’s natural and is part of the process but so many people are discouraged by the fact that they can’t DO anything to keep it all going. If you have been at 200 lbs for half your life and you just went from 220 back to 200 and you are doing everything, keeping things fresh, changing things up and working just as hard and your STILL at 200 THAT IS NORMAL. If you were there for so long it will take a few weeks for your body to SNAP out of it and move on. The best part is that when you do get to a weight and maintain that for 6 months or more your “thermostat” readjusts and you have a new NORMAL!

Now let’s talk about coaches. We LOVE coaches whether it’s a fitness, health, relationship, business, or life coach. You should learn about their background, see their success, and communicate with them about the person you desire to BE. Ask them if they would be willing to coach you. There are many ways to find coaching. Some people are not professional coaches but they have attained the goals you desire and are willing to help. You might run into someone at the gym that is getting the results you desire. Tell them you are new, looking for help, and wondered if they would be able to help you. Other times, you may find good professional coaches, or in the fitness industry the proper term would be trainer. The best part about these coaches is that their business success rides on your personal success! YOU employ THEM!

No matter what your financial situation, you can get a coach. With the high quality materials available today through the internet, you don’t actually need someone present with you. As a matter of fact, there are countless audios, videos and books that can be your guide and your coach on health. One of our very good friends is a fitness coach. She actually breaks down full workouts on video and supplies different audio material to listen to while you work out! She is not even there but she is right in your ear, how cool is that?!

Coaching can be a big component in YOUR evolution. A coach is someone who has gone down the path that you wish to travel. Even more importantly, they have gone down this path and achieved the result you desire. They can help you to avoid certain things and help you focus on what will really get you to your goal.

What is your NEW perspective on HEALTH?

Health is not just your physical body but a way of BEING, a way of LIVING. This entire “2010” program is about creating LASTING CHANGE and the first step to any lasting success starts “within” before you can see results.

Your idea of health is more complete when taken from how you think and feel about the decisions you make every day. The food and nutrition you consume combined with exercise, sleep, water and supplements are ALL pieces of the puzzle. These are all only as effective as YOU are in guarding your mind and taking an ACTIVE role in how YOU live. Notice that this was an article on Health Tools for Creating YOUR 2010 and it wasn’t how to lose weight, how to get fit, how to gain muscle or how to drop fat! Those are all pieces of LIVING HEALTHY. We have supplied you with TOOLS for success and STEPS to creating LASTING CHANGE. Remember:

1. Guard your mind.

2. Be before you Do.

3. The past is history.

4. Fuel your body.

5. Supplement your life.

6. Master You.

NICK BOGATIN & MICHAEL BLOXTON

Please post your comments below. I appreciate it.