It's Not Rocket Science: 52 Resolutions (The Book)

We beat the release date by a day.  It's here!  It's Not Rocket Science: 52 Resolutions (a book on reversing aging, getting healthy and looking fabulous) is on the market.  For only 4.99, you can buy the book at www.fiftytworesolutions.com.  It is currently available in PDF format.  Our website has a link to purchase the book.  My co-author and friend Kim Williams and I hope that you will purchase it and enjoy reading it as much as we have enjoyed preparing it for you.

Book Release

I have really exciting news - in a book that is line with the type of content and recommendations that I talk about on this Blog - my co-author Kim Williams and I will be releasing an e-book this weekend.  If you want to read more about easy tips to help you get and stay healthy, look great, and even slow and in some cases reverse the aging process (what is referred to as biological aging - meaning aging of your internal components) - look for more information this weekend when we go live with the website.

The website will contain a link to where you can buy the e-book on Amazon for Kindles and Kindle apps on your smart devices for only 4.99.

I'll post the website address when we go live.





  

"Survey Says.....- Plant-Based Diet beats the "Southern Diet" -- Researchers find strong nexus between DIET and STROKE

It's Not Rocket Science folks - and yet a major study is out today that says that people whose diets are heavy on deep-fried foods and sugary drinks like sweet tea and soda are more likely candidates for serious health consequences - in this case, a stroke.  In a federally funded study (funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, drugmaker Amgen, Inc. and General Mills Inc.) and presented at an American Stroke Assocation conference yesterday, University of Alabama researchers in what is being called the FIRST study completely isolated on diet and stroke found that people who ate about 6 meals a week featuring fried foods, processed meats, and sugary drinks had a 41 percent higher risk than people who ate that way only about once a month.  In contrast, people whose diets were high in FRUITS, VEGETABLES, and WHOLE GRAINS had a 29 percent lower risk.  Lead researcher Suzanne Judd said that "the message for people in the middle is that there's a graded risk" - meaning that the likelihood of suffering a stroke rises in proportion to each meal like this referred to as a "Southern Meal" in a week.

Interestingly, the study surveyed 20,000 people ages 45 and older from all 48 mainland states and sorted responses about diet into five diet styles.  Two of them were referred to as "Southern" and "Plant Based". 

Southern - Fried foods, processed meats (lunch meat, jerky), red meat, eggs, sweet drinks and whole mil

Plant-based - Fruits, Vegetables, Juice, Cereal, Fish, Poultry, yogurt, nuts, and whole grain bread

For 5 years of follow-ups after the survey, nearly 500 strokes in the respondents occurred.  Of the 5 diet styles, researchers only saw clear patterns with these two dietary styles (Southern and Plant-Based).  As mentioned above, 41% more strokes occurred in those who ate the highest amount of foods in the Souther Diet versus those occurring in the survey portion who ate the least amount of those types of food and 29% fewer strokes occurred in the the group of those who ate the highest amount of foods in the plant-based grouping compared with the people who seldom at that way.  Researchers say that the trends were completely independent of other risk factors for stroke.

One MORE reason to eat a diet that is highly plant-based and whole-food and stay away from those items in the "Southern" dietary style.  Again, I'm not a Rocket Scientist but the evidence is pretty clear - want to be healthier, live longer, and avoid being the sufferer of a significant negative health event like a stroke - eat healther!! 

Are you positive? You should be! It can help you live longer.

Positive thinking and a general sense of optimism is essential for stress management and can even improve your health.  Researchers have since 2000 concluded the following about the impact of optimism on health:

1.  There is a nexus between a more optimistic outlook and a lowered risk of heart disease in older men (Harvard, 2001)
2.  Optimistic women have less thickening of the carotid artery walls (University of Pittsburgh)
3.  A positive mental outlook is associated with reduced evidence of coronary heart disease and total mortality in postmenopausal women (Women's Health Initiative Study, 2009)

Conversely, research at the Mayo Clinic has shown that having a pessimistic view can increase the risk of mortality in patients by as much as 19%.

So have what's known as a PMA (Positive Mental Attitude).  Have a "glass half full" mentality, deal with what comes your way, and face challenges head on with an optimistic and upbeat approach.  You will not only more effectively be able to deal with the situation in the present but your future will be brighter (and longer).

Is Laughter "the Best Medicine"?

Research repeatedly shows that laughter is one of the best things you can do for your health.  Cardiologists at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore (MD) found in 2005 that laughter is linked to healthy function of blood vessels. Using laughter provoking movies to gauge the effect of emotions on cardiovascular health, the researchers there showed for the first time that laughter causes the tissue that forms the inner lining of blood vessels, the endothelium, to dilate or expand in order to increase blood follow.  Studies had already showed that nexus between mental stress and the narrowing of blood vessels, a nexus confirmed by this research.  The 2005 research built on research by the same scientists about 5 years earlier that found that people with heart disease responded with less humor to everyday life situations than those with a normal cardiovascular system.  Dr. Michael Miller of the University of Maryland said "We know that exercising, not smoking and eating foods low in saturated fat will reduce the risk of heart disease. Perhaps regular, hearty laughter should be added to the list."

What other benefits are achieved by simply laughing?  Laughter burns calories, lowers blood pressure,  increases the flow of oxygen to your tissues, strengthens the immune system, decreases blood sugar levels in diabetics, helps with relaxation by relieving physical tension and stress, improves sleep, triggers the release of the feel-good chemicals known as endorphins even helping to relieve the discomfort of pain, increases memory and learning, and improves alertness and creativity.

So find what makes you laugh and partake more frequently in that activity.  Read joke books, comic strips, watch comedies on TV, go see the newest comedic release in the theaters, rent funny movies, or just spend time with good friends or family members who you know will make you laugh.

Don't be so serious!  Laugh a little!

Exercise Every Day/Read "Main Street Vegan" by Victoria Moran

This might be one of my shortest posts so far and ever (including the future) but I feel so strongly about these two that I don't want to bury the power of these two resolutions in a sea of other words:

1.  Exercise every day - choose something that you love doing and that makes you feel better and look better (for example, I love my rowing machine.  I can put on my headphones and listen to great music and go into a zone for at least 30 minutes while getting a great all body workout) and do it EVERY DAY.  It doesn't have to be the same thing but do something every day for at least 30 minutes.

2.  Pick up a copy of Victoria Moran's Main Street Vegan:  Everything You Need to Know to Eat Healthfully and Live Compassionately in the Real World.  Dr. Neal Barnard said that this book is "exactly the guide you need to make changing the menu effortless.  Victoria Moran covers every aspect of plant-based eating and cruelty-free living, with everything you need to make healthy changes stick."  This book follows the It's Not Rocket Science approach with its emphasis on practical "baby steps" and it includes GREAT recipes.  I bought a hard copy of it and LOVE THIS BOOK.

20% Resolution/80% Execution

The Super Bowl kicks off in about an hour and I'm thinking about all the people who made News Years Resolutions this year to eat less, exercise more, and lose weight.  I'm wondering, after watching all the commercials and news stories about the amounts of various snack foods that people have bought for this year's Big Game, how many people have already given up their healthy resolutions and have fallen back into bad habits.  This happens every year - millions of people with good intentions make healthy resolutions but can't execute for very long.  Now - the treadmills purchased for Christmas sit untouched, the gyms are raking in the dollars and their membership rolls are high but the percentage of members who work out is starting to dwindle, those diet books and exercise DVDs are starting to again collect dust.

This happens every year.  Why?  Because, like much in life and business, it is all in the execution.  One of my favorite quotes is by Thomas Edison - "Vision without execution is hallucination."  As with anything else, successful healthy resolutions are not worth the paper they're written on (or the napkin they were scribbled on during some New Year's Eve party) if they are not followed.  The title of this post is 20% Resolution/80% Execution because execution of such resolutions is at least 4 times as important as the resolutions themselves........and probably a lot more.

So now that it's February and the Super Bowl is over, pull out that sheet (or napkin) of  at least your wellness resolutions and re-commit to get fit or in other words - EXECUTE.  Don't get discouraged. Whatever it is (lose weight, quit smoking, exercise more, etc.) is an aspect of your life that didn't get to where it is now over night and you are not going to improve it over night.  Just put one foot in front of the other and EXECUTE.