The oil pulling experiment

Oil pulling. It’s apparently a term that is “trending” on the social media sites. It’s got some 100 million hits in X amount of time and blah blah blah. And if it’s trending in social media then you know it’s going to be the brand-new health craze that will sweep the nation. Or at least that’s how many are going to bill it. It didn’t take very much reading for me to figure out that it’s not really a new idea. I guess you can say oil pulling is a new concept just like Christopher Columbus discovered America (you can’t discover somewhere that people have already been living for thousands of years, but that’s totally off topic). Regardless of whether or not it’s new, many people, including myself, have not heard of the concept until now. And I found myself to be pretty intrigued.

So what is oil pulling? It is a practice that has roots in Ayurvedic medicine, and simply involves swishing oil around in your mouth for up to 20 minutes. The main idea is that the oil picks up the bacteria in your mouth and therefore helps to clean it. Different types of oil can be used including coconut, sesame and sunflower oils. Oil pulling supposedly has health benefits such as prevention of gum disease, fresher breath whiter teeth. The ideas of how it benefits your health even extends beyond the mouth, with some people believing it can manage skin conditions such as acne and eczema.

That is the short explanation and that is as much detail as I am going to go into at the moment. My curiosity after hearing about oil pulling gave me a wonderful idea. This is a great opportunity for an experiment. And I am always up to conduct an experiment. If I wanted I could read all about oil pulling, write a long informative post and tell you why I believe it’s good or bad. But wouldn’t it be better if I started the practice myself and then gave you feedback after not only researching it, but also subjecting myself to it? I think so. So that is exactly what I am going to do. I am going to start a regiment of oil pulling and keep a log recording anything worth noting about the practice. When I’m done I’ll have a much more detailed follow up post about oil pulling. While looking at only one person is certainly not enough of a sample size for any sort of legitimate research study, it will still give me a better insight into the idea, allow me to possibly present evidence as to its benefits and ultimately decide to recommend it to you or not.

So keep an eye out for the follow up post. It may be a while. I’m gonna do it for a fair amount of time before I make a judgement. A month perhaps? And you don’t have to thank me for putting my body on the line for science. I’m glad to do so.

Jack L.

Superfood smoothies: What they are and why you need to drink them.

     Man, I was so excited earlier. I thought I had coined a new word. I was going to get on my computer, write a long post about it, and claim my rightful title as the creator of a brand new word. I was going to get on the phone with the patent office ASAP. I was going to scream from the mountaintops, “I created this word!”….. Okay, those last two may have been an exaggeration. But as you can see, I was excited. Before I started writing, I figured I’d Google my new word just to see what showed up. Turns out I wasn’t the first to use it. Oh well. It doesn’t matter, because I’m still going to tell you all about something I (and apparently others) call, a superfood smoothie. I’m going to explain how I make them and why this is something you should seriously think about including in your diet.

As an American you are told a lot of things on a daily basis about what you should do health-wise. New studies are always coming out and guidelines are being revised (as they should be). So what should you do and believe? Well when it comes to how much of your diet should be derived from fruits and vegetables, it’s actually somewhat difficult to find one answer. I checked the USDA website first to see what their current recommendations are and they say to, “Fill half your plate with fruits and vegetables.” Now, not that I think the money driven USDA is a good source of nutritional advice, but many people do, and this vague guideline is decent. However, I wanted some numbers. After looking for a while, it seems that the answer is not a concise one. One statement from from the Harvard School of Public Health said that you should eat 5-13 servings per day. This would translate for most into 9 servings, or 4 1/2 cups per day (based on a 2000 calorie diet). There are other places I have seen use estimates similar to this one so for the sake of this discussion we will use it. Not only because it seems to be the most widely mentioned value, but also because it is the highest. Personally, I think that 9 servings per day is on the low end. But if you don’t get anywhere near that yet, then you gotta start somewhere right?

It cannot be said enough that a major reason why our society is so overweight is, in part, because we do not eat enough fruits and vegetables. When you don’t eat them, not only are you missing out on vital nutrients, but you must ultimately replace them with something else. That something else is usually more meat and carbs. Not a good substitute. So now you realize that you need to include more fruits and vegetables in your diet, but you may be wondering something like:

“How am I going to eat all of that food?

or

“I just don’t like most vegetables so how can I do this?”

In my experience, these are common barriers standing in the way of people eating the fruits and vegetables they need. Well this is where the superfood smoothie comes into play. It can break down any barrier or aversion you have keeping you from eating fruits and vegetables. I made a smoothie right before I started working on this post to use as an example. And to drink of course.

So first off, lets go over some reasons you should be drinking superfood smoothies:

1. Fiber!

You may be wondering why you would choose to make superfood smoothies instead of something like juicing, which most people have heard about and believe to be very healthy. Well juicing is healthy. But this is much healthier. I don’t particularly like juicing actually. While it does give you the vitamins and antioxidants you derive from fruits and vegetables, it also takes out the fiber. This is not a good thing. Fiber is of vital importance to the health of your digestive system. In very simple terms, you can imagine fiber acting like a saturated sponge as it travels through your intestines. It releases moisture throughout, keeping you from becoming constipated and thus allowing you to not only eliminate waste efficiently, but also to quickly and completely absorb nutrients. Fiber is also very effective at making you feel more full, so it can keep you from overeating. And recent studies have even begun to show a link between fiber intake and healthy bodyweight. It’s very important stuff. It truly is of the healthiest part of fruits and vegetables. That is why making smoothies is a better option than juicing. Is getting more fruits and vegetables into a glass a worthwhile trade-off for removing such an important part of the package? I don’t believe so.

2. To increase the amount of fruits and vegetables you ingest

Lets look at the smoothie I made today. It contained the following:

12 baby carrots, about 1 1/2 cups of frozen fruit (mixed strawberries, peaches, mango and pineapple), 1 kiwi, 3/4 avocado, 1/2 cucumber, 2 stalks of celery, 1 cup of pomegranate juice and 1/2 cup of coconut milk.

If you ask me, that is a lot of fruits and vegetables. I don’t think I could comfortably eat all of that in one sitting, yet I have often drank an entire smoothie in one sitting. Drinking these smoothies allows you to get more fruits and vegetables than you normally would, by condensing it. In fact, all of that would probably be more than the 9 servings that is recommended by the USDA. What a way to start your day, right? Well I had a sweet potato with my smoothie for breakfast, so that was a few more servings. For lunch I had pan seared scallops with mixed vegetables. I’m at the high end of my recommended values and its not even supper time yet. You can see how the superfood smoothie can make getting what you need to eat easier.

3. They are incredibly nutrient dense

You’ll hear me say this again and again if you follow my blog: You should avoid processed food and replace them with natural foods that are dense in nutrients. Well obviously fruits and vegetables are natural. And even when looking at individual servings of one kind of fruit or vegetable, the amount of nutrients contained within is outstanding. Lets look at some examples:

Spinach – Contains differing amounts of vitamins A, C, E, K, B6 and B12, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, folate, choline, betaine, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, sodium, zinc, copper, manganese, selenium, phytosterols, fibers and proteins

Carrots – Contains differing amounts of fibers, omega 3 fatty acids, omega 6 fatty acids, vitamins A, C, K, B6, and B12, pantothenic acid, iron, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, sodium, proteins and water

Bananas – Contains differing amounts of simple sugars, fibers, starches, omega 3 fatty acids, omega 6 fatty acids, vitamins A, C, E, K, B6, B12, folate, choline, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, manganese and proteins.

Mangos – Contains varying levels of vitamins A, C, E, B6, and K, alpha carotene, beta carotene, folate, choline, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, omega-3 fatty acids, omega-6 fatty acids, fibers, simple sugars, and proteins.

These are by no means the only nutrients found in these fruits and vegetables. You can consider those the very short lists. With every bite (or gulp) of fruits and vegetables you consume, you are taking in hundreds and hundreds of chemicals. It’s a cornucopia of vitamin, minerals antioxidants, and you better believe your body will put every one of them to use. And remember, i’m still talking about ONE type of fruit or vegetable. The superfood smoothies I make usually contain upwards of 10 different types of fruits and vegetables, sometimes more. Just think about how nutrient dense that glass full of smoothie is. Now you’re looking at what? Thousands? Thousands of chemicals created by nature and packaged up for you to consume and incorporate into your body. It truly is a miracle.

4. Fruit can be used to mask the vegetable taste

This is perhaps the niftiest part of making superfood smoothies. It is how you can incorporate vegetables into your diet if you can’t stand their taste. Fruit is WONDERFUL at covering up the taste of vegetables. It can be virtually eliminated with enough fruit. It all comes down to the ratio of fruit to vegetables. If you absolutely can’t stand vegetables the put only one or two types with the rest of the smoothie being fruit. I don’t mind the vegetable taste so it’s usually a somewhat balanced ratio in mine. You may find that even if you hate vegetables, that you will become more accustomed to the taste over time and be able to add more. If you are really picky about fruits then you can use only the ones you like. You should be able to see how you can adjust the contents of the smoothie in whatever way you need to make it possible to get a wide variety of fruits and vegetables into your diet.

So now that you can see the benefit to drinking superfood smoothies, it’s time to talk about making them. I’ll quickly go through the general process with some pictures and then provide some tips that I have picked up after making them so many times.

As you saw earlier, I have all my ingredients cut up already. This was purely for picture purposes. I typically throw them in the blinder as they are pulled out of the bag or cut up.

Once all the ingredients are in the blender, I turned it on the highest setting and let it roar for a good 2 or 3 minutes. After that it was nice and smooth. The color of mine may not look particularly appetizing to you, but as I said, I put quite a bit of vegetables in mine.

Well that’s it. I certainly didn’t just teach you rocket science. It’s just making a smoothie. On to the useful tips:

1. Try using some frozen fruit to make the smoothie cold

I do this with every smoothie I make. I always have multiple large bags of frozen fruit in my freezer. It is great because you can make the smoothie cold without the addition of ice, which is how many people make their frozen drinks cold. Leaving the ice out allows more room for the fruits and vegetables and we know that is the good stuff. If you don’t make the smoothie cold enough then it’s not as palatable, especially if you have lots of vegetables in it.

2. It helps to have a good blender

It really does. I use a Ninja brand blender. It’s very powerful, has multiple blades and can supposedly crush concrete. How useful is that? But seriously, it works really well. I’d recommend getting one the next time you are in the market for a blender. If you don’t have a fancy blender then you may just have to blend it longer. Be patient young grasshopper. As I said earlier, I let mine go for 2 or  3 minutes sometimes. It often depends on the ingredients.

3. Liquid ingredients are a must

You’ll have to do this. If not it’s gonna become a blended pulp. Juices are the obvious first choice and the options are endless. I’d just be sure to use a juice with no added sugar. I almost always use pomegranate juice. It tastes great and it’s incredibly good for you with all of the antioxidants it has. I also use coconut milk quite often. It’s a great way to get calcium, because I don’t drink cow’s milk. And it’s tasty.

Well that’s all I can think of at the moment. Now you see the versatility that making smoothies with your fruits and vegetables gives you. You see that no matter how much you dislike the the taste of vegetables, there is a way you can have them in your diet. There is no doubt in my mind that you can find a few types of fruits and vegetables you can drink in a superfood smoothie, if not eat whole. I mean, there must be thousands of different varieties that are used for human consumption on our planet. No excuses now. So please do everything you can to eat at least the minimum recommended amount daily. If you drink a superfood smoothie then you will be off to a great start and it will make the goal much more attainable. You will feel great for doing so and your body will truly thank you.

– Jack L.

8 reasons you should live a healthy lifestyle

Making the change to living a healthy lifestyle is not an easy thing to do. Bad habits are incredibly difficult to break, especially those of this nature. Other bad habits, chewing your nails for example, involves just one habit to stop. Difficult? Perhaps. But making the switch to a healthy lifestyle involves more than just one habit. You’ve got to not only stop eating unhealthy food, but also completely change your diet towards one that is healthy. You have to eat after all. Then you have to start exercising on a daily basis. Perhaps there is other unhealthy habits you have to break, such as smoking. As you can tell, making the move to a healthy lifestyle requires multiple steps in the completely opposite direction of where you may be headed now. And that is hard. There’s no way around it. So today I figured I’d provide some reasons as to why you should take that first step into the rest of your life. 8 to be exact. These are in no particular order.

1. To feel better

I believe very strongly that most individuals do not realize how bad they feel on a daily basis. After many years of eating whatever “tastes good” and being physically inactive most of the time, they are completely accustomed to not feeling good. It’s become the new normal. Maybe you even have chronic pains such as joint discomfort, headaches or intestinal issues that you just chalk up to being something that will never go away. Well I can tell you that, if you adopt a healthy lifestyle, then it won’t be very long before you start to feel better. Much better. You’ll realize that you actually felt horrible and will be shocked that you ever lived that way. It’s a very noticeable difference even when you only make slight changes. I was at a point where I had quit exercising regularly and didn’t always eat healthy. It was that way for a few years. I never got severely overweight, but I was most certainly not healthy. When I went back to eating good food and exercising, the change in the way I felt was incredible. I can only imagine how much greater the change would be if you were to go from being severely overweight to being healthy.

2. To not miss out on life

I’m not gonna beat around the bush with this one. Do you want to live only a portion of your possible life span while feeling like dirt most of the time? Do you want to miss out on parts of your grandchildren’s lives, if not loose the chance to meet them completely? Do you want to die within a few years of a massive heart attack and not be able to see your children reach adulthood? For some people that is the dire reality of the situation. The extent to which you’re putting your life on the line is of course highly variable, depending on factors not limited to your age, gender, family history, and bodyweight. Regardless of if you weigh 500 pounds or if you’re only 50 pounds overweight, you’re still jeopardizing your life. Plain and simple.

Perhaps it all comes down to delayed gratification. Would you rather a cheeseburger and fries for dinner and to spend the night sedentary on the couch or would you rather live a long and healthy life, while you watch your family tree blossom and grow. The choice is not difficult in my book. One holds a much greater value than the other. If you disagree then perhaps you need to get your priorities in order.

3. To age gracefully

It seems to be that the majority of people have a negative attitude towards aging these days. They anticipate it with dread. They treat as something where they might as well be dead before they even reach that point. Look, aging doesn’t have to be a bad process. It doesn’t have to be riddled with disease and agonizing pain. I don’t think that’s how we are meant to age. If you choose to take care of your body that is. I believe that if you make healthy choices throughout your youth and into your older years, that it will make the process of aging a pleasant and rewarding one. Obviously I don’t have any personal experience with this (i’m only 22), but I think many people who did just that would agree with me. Look at people like Jack Lalanne. He stayed healthy and active until his death at 96.

Of course, if you go through life eating anything you want, never exercising and pouring damaging chemicals into your body then, yeah. Aging is going to be terrible for you. You will be met more and more frequently with debilitating diseases the older and older you get. Eventually one of them will kill you. So would you rather age gracefully like Betty White or be a wrinkled mess and feel even worse than you look? I’m with Betty on this one.

4. To make the most of yourself

I’m a big fan of the show, My 600lb Life. I’ll probably mention it quite often in my posts. In case you haven’t seen it, it’s a show chronicling the lives of super morbidly obese people as they try to loose weight. One of the things I’ve noticed many of them saying  goes along the lines of, “I’ve got to loose this weight. This isn’t who I am.” That statement aways strikes me. How horrible it must be to want so bad to cultivate yourself as a person, only to be stuck in bed weighing more than half a ton. They have hobbies they want to pursue, places they want to go, goals in life to accomplish. But they can’t because they are in a perpetually lethargic state. It is one of the saddest things i’ve ever seen. And it is certainly a good reason to start living a healthy life. Seeing them make this change is why I love the show.

But how does this apply to someone who isn’t bed ridden because of extreme obesity? Well I don’t know your aspirations in life, but I think you would certainly be able to do more if you lost weight or just lived healthier. It could be something as simple as being able to play outside with your children without getting totally winded. If it matters to you then don’t let anyone tell you it’s not important. And don’t let being unhealthy hold you back.

5. To look good

Is this reason petty? Shallow? Maybe. But who cares. Looking good is wonderful for so many reasons, including some that are not petty. Not only are you gonna be attractive to others (petty) but most importantly you’re going to feel good about the way you look (not petty). Having a high level of self esteem is very important. It’s detrimental to your emotional and meantal health to have low self esteem. It can be so severe that it becomes a contributing factor to disorders such as depression. You should feel good about yourself no matter what your body type (not saying it’s good to be overweight), but making a lifestyle change and improving your body will make a positive difference in the way you look at yourself and ultimately feel.

6. To take care of your “temple”

Now i’m not a particularly religious guy, but I know the bible mentions you should take care of your body. So I looked up the verse I was thinking of.

1 Corinthians 6:19 – ” Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?”

It goes on to say pretty much the same thing in all of the translations. That your body is not merely your own and that you should honor god with it. So what better way to honor and thank him for this wonderful, fleshy gift than to take care of it? Are you a devout Christian? Well here’s your reason to live a healthy lifestyle. Honestly, I don’t think you have to be religious to appreciate this concept. Even if you do not believe in a god, I think we can all agree that our body is the vessel that houses our consciousness. That’s a special thing. And in this world we only get one, so should we not care for it as best we can?

7. To fight off cancers

Yes the dreaded C word. It strikes fear in the hearts of millions. It causes perfectly healthy women to go to such lengths as to have mastectomies cause they carry a gene that has a suspected link to breast cancer. Are we really so helpless against diseases like this? I do not believe so. I think we have far more power to prevent disease than we know and FAR more than some people want us to know. This idea about having control over even cancers based strongly in our genes is a topic in itself, but just know that you have powerful tools at your disposal to prevent and even combat pre-existing cancer. Those tools are diet and exercise. Of course, I can’t promise that you will be 100% effective at preventing cancer. But if you could take two humans with the same genetic information, have one live a very healthy and active lifestyle and the other eat poorly and stay sedentary, then I can tell you that one is ABSOLUTELY at a greater risk of cancer than the other. This can be said for a variety of other disease as well.

8. To be a good role model for your children

I don’t think anyone who has children would want them to be unhealthy. But if you, as a parent, are unhealthy then that will rub off on them. If you eat poor quality food and stay inactive, then chances are they are doing something similar. And this is a very bad thing. Habits that can easily last a lifetime are made and strengthened in childhood. Tastes for different types of food begin to develop very early on. If you are not teaching your children about eating right and exercising then this will not only put them at a great risk for preventable disease in their adulthood, but also puts them at greater risk for diseases that used to not even be seen in children, such as type 2 diabetes. Children shouldn’t have high cholesterol or high blood pressure, but this is happening more and more frequently. That’s just not right.

And if you really want to be the forward thinker, what about their children? And their children’s children? Bad habits can be passed on for generations along with genes. Speaking of genes, research has shown that damage to DNA from mistreating our bodies can be passed along to our children, from the mother AND the father. So do your children and grandchildren (even those not created yet) a favor. Treat your body right and teach them to do the same. At the very least don’t let them smoke. I shouldn’t even have to say that.

So there you go. There’s 8 reasons for you to start living a healthy lifestyle. And if you ask me, they’re pretty good reasons. I’d say that absolutely everyone can find, at the very least, one of these reasons that they can use to motivate themselves. And maybe you can even think of some reasons I haven’t here. Probably so, because the reasons to make the change are without limits. So now the only thing holding you back would be the reasons not to live a healthier lifestyle. I can’t think of any that can stand up against all the reasons to be healthy. Maybe you really, really like McDonald’s? Or your favorite episode of Honey Boo Boo is on so you don’t have time? Or umm… you just don’t feel like it? Excuse me for being blunt, but those excuses are garbage. Make the change now and the results will outweigh any of your excuses. You will not regret it.

– Jack L.

Physical activity vs exercise: Does one constitute the other?

I love to garden and it’s getting to be that time of year. The days are getting long again (finally) and the temperatures are slowly creeping up. While it’s not quite time to plant, there are still jobs that need to be done in preparation. The garden needs to be tilled. I’m planning on doubling its size, so the extra area needs to be cut out. I need to build more trellises for the increased amount of beans that I will be planting this year. A load or two of compost needs to be picked up and mixed into the plot. Maybe the biggest job is finishing the very large raised garden bed that i’m constructing solely for the 50+ hot pepper plants I will be growing. I think you get the point. Lots of work to be done.

All this thinking about what needs to be done on the garden made me think of a topic that needs to be discussed, regarding the distinction that should be made between physical activity and exercise. When someone is asked by their physician or maybe even just an acquaintance whether or not they exercise, and if so how much, how often do you hear answers such as this?

“Well I get out and tend to the garden every day.”

or

“I’m on my feet all day at work so I get plenty.”

or better yet

“I walk to the end of the driveway to get the newspaper.”

This is a fairly common type of answer I would say. Unfortunately, when you say something like this, you are not answering the question that was posed to you. You were not asked whether or not you have a garden to tend to. You were not asked about the daily activity levels involved in your chosen profession. And you were most certainly not asked if you have USA Today (or whatever wonderful piece of literature you choose to indulge in) delivered to you.

I would have to say that, based on the type of answers shown above, the appropriate response to the question would have been, “none.”

“I participate in no regular execise.”

Because exercise and physical activity are two similar yet also different things. I’m going to explain why.

“Physical activity” is a pretty broad term when you think about it. It could be defined as: any activity that involves the activation of your muscles and, in most cases, the subsequent movement of your body. So by this definition, the person out tending the garden is most certainly involved in physical activity. They bend and stoop. They rake. They dig. They are without a doubt doing physical activity. By this definition, the person on their feet at work all day is also doing something that qualifies as physical activity. Also, I was just involved in physical activity. I leaned forward off the couch, picked up my water bottle, brought it to my mouth to take a drink and returned its original position on the table. I’m even involved in physical activity as I write this post. Am I exercising though? I couldn’t say that I am. So now that you see how the term physical activity encompasses every single movement you make throughout your day, we need to discuss which, if any, of those movements qualify as exercise.

I can say pretty confidently that all forms of exercise, at least in the physical sense, involves physical activity. You have to move in order to exercise after all. So what is the deciding factor that sets exercise apart from physical activity? Simply put, it’s the fact that exercise has a purpose. A goal. Exercise is physical activity done with the intent of improving or maintaing specific aspects of your health. You perform exercises such as jogging, swimming, biking, etc., for the benefit of your cardiorespiratory system. You take part in resistance training to promote musculoskeletal health. Not only is exercise a very specific activity with a purpose, it also has a measurable aspect to it. At least it SHOULD. Some examples:

“I’m going to jog a distance of 5 kilometers in a reasonable amount of time.”

“I’m going to swim at a steady pace for 20 minutes.”

We can get more scientific and accurate than this of course:

“I’m going to perform a mixture of cardiovascular and resistance exercise to get my heart         rate up to 160 beats per minute and maintain that intensity for 15 minutes.”

“I’m going to walk at an intensity of 3 METs for 3o minutes a day, 5 days a week.”

(I know you may not know what a MET is. It is something I will most likely post about later. For now just know it’s a measure of exercise intensity.)

As you can see from all of these examples, they are done for a purpose and are measurable, usually in more ways than one. This, to me at least, is what sets exercise apart from physical activity.

Does that mean that the work you do in your garden, the walk to your mailbox, or the thousands of steps you may take at work is meaningless? Absolutely not. You are definitely deriving benefit from that physical activity. Especially when it’s as vigorous a type of physical activity as working in the garden can be. By the time I have completed building my raised garden bed I will have slung a sledgehammer hundreds of times, lifted and placed heavy boards, and scooped quite a few shovels of dirt. I’ll undoubtedly burn quite a few calories. That doesn’t mean I won’t exercise on the days I work on it. Living an active lifestyle is a vital aspect of being healthy. You should be taking part in physical activity throughout the whole day. Our bodies are not made to be sedentary. But if you think that you are deriving the same benefits from the physical activity involved in pulling weeds as you are from getting at least 150 minutes a week of moderate intensity exercise, then you are truly selling yourself short. It’s not the same.

Speaking of that raised garden bed, I need to get to work before the bad weather moves in. I also ran a 5k this morning in case you were wondering.

Have a healthy day.

– Jack L.

The road to a healthier life (Welcome post)

Welcome to my humble little blog. I’m glad to see you stopped by. Maybe you found this page because you started digging through the vast sea of animal videos and pornography that we call the internet in order to figure out what you can do to be healthier. Or maybe you just happened to come across it while you were doing something else that is certainly very important (animal videos/porn). Ultimately, it doesn’t matter HOW you got here. What matters is that you got here. You found my blog that, while currently in its infant stages of life, has the vey real potential to help you. To completely change your life. If you let it.

As I said, it doesn’t matter how you got here. It doesn’t matter who you are or what the current state of your health is. This blog is dedicated to helping you make healthy decisions and live a better life. Maybe you currently find yourself weighing over 400 pounds. Your eyes have been opened to the reality of what you have done to your body and you know that something has to change. That it truly is a matter of life or death. If so then I cannot express in words how glad I am that you are here. Maybe you are only a couple pounds overweight and need to fit in your swimsuit for spring break (which is less than a week away so you probably should have started sooner) or maybe you are perfectly healthy and just want some more ideas about how to live well. Again, I’m so glad you are here. Because the best time to start being healthy is now. It doesn’t matter how old you are or how much you weigh. It doesn’t matter how much or how little you currently know about health. EVERYONE can benefit from making the change to a healthy lifestyle. And tomorrow isn’t the day to make that change. It’s today. It’s right now.

So now that you are here, there are some things I need to tell you before you get started with the rest of your long and healthy life. I’m gonna shoot you straight with everything I say. I’m not gonna sugar coat anything (after all sugar is part of why you are unhealthy). I’m gonna tell you what I cannot do for you, what I can do and even make you some promises. So here we go.

What I cannot do for you:

1. I cannot offer you guidance in the latest fad diet that is spreading like a wildfire through society. I cannot recommend some sort of miracle diet pill that’s going to make you not only a heathy individual but also just like the “celebrity” who you idolize so much and saw giving a “testimony” about how great the pill worked for them. In fact, the only thing I can morally do is tell you how horrible these things are. I’m not going to go into the details at this point because it is a broad enough topic for a post all it’s own. I’m gonna leave it at this very simple and very true statement:

There is no way to promote healthy and long lasting weight loss other than changing your lifestyle.

Yeah I said it. And that’s all I’m gonna mention about that at the moment, because as I said, it’s worthy of an entire post. I just want you to be aware that I can’t give you a pill or cast a spell on you and make you healthy. I’m sorry to let you down if that’s what you were coming here for. (Sorry I’m not sorry)

2. I cannot cause you to become healthy. As in, I cannot force you to exercise. I cannot force you to stop eating processed foods and replace them with healthy, nutrient dense foods. If I could, well then I guess that would make you my slave or something. I don’t think you would want that and neither do I. You have a free will and you have to exercise it (pun intended) with the purposeful intent of being a healthier person. I CAN, however, give you fabulous guidance on the matter and that’s exactly what I’m gonna do. In then end you have to want it more than you want to be miserable and unhealthy.

3. I can’t tell you it’s gonna be easy. Especially if you’re deeply ingrained in an unhealthy lifestyle. You may even have a food addiction,
which beating could turn out to be the hardest thing you will ever face. Nothing worth doing in life is easy though, my friend.

I think that’s it. Now..

What I can do (and promise to do) for you:

1. As I said right before this, I can give you advice and tips as to how you can make this vital change in your life.

2. I can promise you that what I tell you on various topics will be well thought out and researched. There is enough nonsensical advice being given out to people looking to be healthier these days. We don’t need anymore.

3. I can promise I’m not trying to sell you anything. I genuinely want to see you be a healthier person even though I don’t know you from Adam.

4. I can promise you that if you follow this blog, take my advice and use it to make firm changes to your lifestyle, that you will feel better than you know you can, live longer and be happier.

5. I can promise you that no matter how hard it may be, in the end you will realize how well worth it the process really was. You will look back at the individual you were before and wonder, “What was I thinking?”

I’m gonna do everything I can through this blog to help you live better. I feel like it’s my calling in life to help people manage their chronic pain, take care of their bodies and live a healthier life. And that’s exactly what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna educate you in every way I can on the matter. I’m gonna talk about all aspects of your health. Physical, mental, emotional and everything in between. I’m gonna talk about how they are connected and why you can’t neglect any part without affecting the whole. You may very well learn things you didn’t know. Most importantly you’re gonna be healthy and live life to its fullest. And if I only manage to help one person, well at least I did something. The information will be yours for the taking. All you have to do is make the commitment.

I’m gonna stop blabbing on now. I could keep going and going but I don’t want to bore you on this intro post. Just please follow the blog and take this journey with me. We’ll all be better off in the end.

I’m gonna leave you with one of my absolute favorite quotes that I heard from my gerontology professor. Out of all the health quotes I could tell you, I feel that this one is important enough to mention here. So please give it some thought along with everything else I have said.

“Those who think they have no time for exercise, will eventually have to make time for illness.”

Now if you’ll excuse me. I’m going for a run.