Surveys show most people do, but only a little bit longer.  75% do not wish to live to 100 and very few want to live to 120 even if that were possible.  I am among the minority who want to live as long as is possible.

I think the key is where the emphasis lies; whether it is on the word live or on the word longer.  People are concerned about quality of life in old age; things like losing their health, losing their mind, and losing their ability to live independently.  I don’t want to live like that either.  Those humans who live to a very advanced age, like the current record holder Jeanne Calmet who died in 1997 at the age of 122, don’t just live longer; they age slower.  They stay healthy, vibrant, alert, and independent into advanced ages.  Jeanne was still riding her bicycle at 100,  a good 20 years after the average woman has already died.

Researchers are beginning to understand the mechanisms of aging and this makes it very likely they will uncover ways to slow it down; anti-aging drugs for example.  At the end of this article I will list some natural substances that may affect gene expression and offer promising possibilities while research continues.

The Naked Mole Rat

The naked mole rat is an interesting creature when it comes to aging.  First of all, they are very long-lived for animals of their type and size.  But even more interesting, is that they don’t seem to show signs of aging.  They live healthy and active lives into their third decade and then often just drop dead with no obvious cause.  That is the way I want to do it. That’s the kind of aging that I think most people want, and while it is not likely we will be able to achieve it exactly, I certainly believe we can age much more gracefully than we do now.

Genes

Experts currently believe that the way we age is about 1/3 genetic and about 2/3 lifestyle.  Jeanne Calmet obviously was dealt a very good genetic hand and that is likely the case for about all people who get past 100.  About twenty years ago I told my doctor that I was concerned about my low body temperature and that maybe it was the sign of some metabolic problem.  He told me the only thing I had to worry about was a long life because low body temperature was found in many long-lived men.  I have since learned the other common biomarker is low insulin levels.

There is a known correlation between versions of the APoE gene and longevity.  Various alleles are also known to be positively or negatively correlated with heart disease and neurological disease like Alzheimer’s.  There are a set of genes called SIRT that are likely involved in aging.  Given the complexity of human disease and aging there are likely many, many genes involved.

Lifestyle

Regardless of your genetic makeup, most people can significantly impact the way they age through lifestyle choices.  Most of the major disease of aging like cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and bone loss are significantly impacted by lifestyle.  Just as importantly it also appears that loss of physical and mental function are just as sensitive to lifestyle choices as disease.

In a nutshell for physical health:

• Eat a low calorie diet
• Eat natural foods rather than man-made or processed foods
• Get most of your carbohydrates from low-glycemic fruits and vegetables
• Raw is better than cooked, because cooking destroys enzymes
• Get plenty of protein but try to avoid too much grain-fed meat; grass-fed and free-range are best
• Eat nuts and berries which are loaded with phyto-nutrients and antioxidants
• Eat plenty of the good fats from small fish, olive, coconut, and canola oils, nuts, and seeds
• Restrict sodium intake
• Supplement with non-contaminated fish oils, potassium (you don’t get enough), vitamin D (if you don’t get sunshine), selenium, and a good all-around vitamin and mineral mix.  I recommend Life Extension Mix as I think it is unparalleled and is much cheaper than all the ingredients separately.
• Move, don’t sit.  The human body is made to walk and move so walk and move as much as you can.
• Strengthen your muscles as muscular atrophy is the main reason for loss of physical function as you age
• Increase your maximum heart and lung capacity by short bursts of intense activity followed by rest.  This is something like interval training but it consists of very intense intervals.  Maximum heart and lung capacity are correlated with mortality.  Constant aerobic activity does not increase maximum capacities and is less beneficial.

In a nutshell for brain health:

• Do everything listed in physical health because your brain is part of your physical body.
• It appears in the case of brain health, sustained aerobic activity increases nerve growth and reduces age-related loss of brain matter.
• All forms of exercise, including strength training, seem to protect brain health
• Be socially active.  For whatever reason, it appears that maintaining an active social life (friends and family), confers a strong protective effect on the brain function.
• Cognitive exercise unambiguously reduces the risk and amount of cognitive decline associated with aging.  Combining cognitive activities in a social setting seems particularly helpful (playing bridge with friends for example).

Calorie Restriction

If there is any universally agreed upon way to extend life-span and enjoy healthy aging, it is calorie restriction.  Calorie restriction is a semi-starvation diet that amounts to eating 30% fewer calories than you would normally eat to maintain weight.  There is recent evidence that an alternate day calorie restricted diet in which every other day you eat 50% fewer calories may also provide the same benefit.  There is a lot of research going on right now to uncover what genes or other processes are being activated in calorie restriction.  Some genes known as SIRT are prime candidates.  The goal is to come up with a way to mimic the effects of calorie restriction without having to half-starve yourself.

Anti-Aging Nutrients

Resveratrol

Resveratrol may be a miracle molecule.  It is found in grapes and peanuts.  There are indications it has anti-aging, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, anti-viral, neuro-protective, and cardio-protective effects.  It can reduce both insulin and blood glucose, which are both markers for improved health and longevity.  It seems to dramatically increase physical endurance if given in high enough doses.  It is believed to be an activator of the SIRT longevity genes.

How much humans need to trigger these effects is disputed as is almost anything new.  It may be more potent in sub-lingual form so it can be absorbed into the blood stream without being metabolized.  Twinlab vitamins has just introduced a sub-lingual version.  I am not waiting for further studies to get more evidence and judging from the shelves at vitamin shops neither are a lot of other people.  It appears to be perfectly safe in massive doses far exceeding what anyone takes.

Quercetin

Quercetin has gotten a lot less attention, but it may also be another potent activator of the SIRT genes.  There are many promising indications of various benefits in initial studies of this substance.  It is found any many plants that are good for you like tea, green leafy vegetables, cruciferous vegetables, onions, and apples.

Fisetin

Fisetin is another activator of the SIRT genes and is found in strawberries.  Some studies have shown it to be synergistic with resveratrol.

CR Mimetic Longevity Formula contains all three of these nutrients and more.

What do YOU think?  Leave a comment and join the conversation.

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The way we work and live is not conducive to maximal effectiveness.  In our rush-around modern lives we try to live by one long pulse during the day and then rest at night.  We are working too long and too continuously.  We are burning up our mental and emotional reserves without giving them a chance to renew.

The sleep cycle is critical to our health and most people need more than they get – 7 to 9 hours.  During the day we need to adopt a more pulsing rhythm; one that can be likened to waves.  The crest of the wave represents your burst of focus and activity and the trough your renewal time.   Instead of pulsing like waves we are paddling continuously on a flat ocean.  As a result we are less effective.  In the push for more-better-faster, we are actually doing less-worse-slower.

We are much more effective if we work in bursts of intense and focused energy and then take time to rest and renew.  Given the chance many people naturally take a nap in the afternoon.  Research indicates that after an afternoon nap you can continue to produce at a high level the rest of the day.  Without a nap, output falls dramatically.  The culture in many organizations will prevent napping, but it is a highly recommended way to renew.

Here are some tips you might want to consider.  Even though you are not working as many total hours you will likely produce a lot more.

Work in 40 to 90 minute pulses

You need to work long enough to really get absorbed and into the flow, but not too long.

Renew in 10 to 60 minute breaks

The length of the break depends on the length and intensity of the pulse.  There are no rules here.  Find a rhythm that works for you.  The key is to ride your waves and then take time to renew.

Renewal breaks must be real

Switching from an intensely creative effort to processing a batch of email may seem like a break, but it is pseudo-renewal.  It may be better than nothing, but you need real renewal.  Some suggestions:

• Take a 20 to 30 minute power nap
• Go for a walk, preferably in nature – don’t think about work
• Talk a casual stroll around the office
• Focused breathing
• Meditation
• Work Out
• Yoga
• Eat lunch away from your desk, preferably with friends
• Get up and go chat with a colleague or friend
• Read something light and cheerful
• Close your eyes and listen to some music

Some day organizations will wake up and pay for output and not time.  In the meantime, if you work for someone who doesn’t get it then you might have to get creative:

• Take your laptop or paper materials and go hide in a conference room – look like you are going to meet with someone.
• Put on some headphones with music and pretend you are looking through some papers – you don’t actually have to be doing anything other than resting.
• Walk around the office like you are going to the printer room or break room, etc.  Take your time.
• If you are on a leash and collar go sit in the bathroom.  It may sound silly, but desperate circumstances call for desperate measures.

What do YOU think?  Leave a comment and join the conversation.

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“The one quality which sets one apart from another – the key which lifts one to every aspiration while others are caught up in the mire of mediocrity – is not talent, formal education, nor intellectual brightness; it is self-discipline.  With self-discipline, all things are possible.  Without it, even the simplest goal can seem like the impossible dream.” — Theodore Roosevelt, from The Skinny on Willpower by Jim Randel

Self-discipline, or what is more commonly called willpower, is an important component in the traits that are required to achieve long term goals such as hard work, determination, and perseverance.  These are being wrapped up in a trait that psychology researchers are calling grit.

“In a series of provocative new studies at the University of Pennsylvania, researchers find that the gritty are more likely to achieve success in school, work and other pursuits—perhaps because their passion and commitment help them endure the inevitable setbacks that occur in any long-term undertaking. In other words, it’s not just talent that matters but also character. “Unless you’re a genius, I don’t think that you can ever do better than your competitors without a quality like grit,” says Martin E. P. Seligman.” — Peter Doskoch

Grit goes beyond willpower, but willpower is a necessary component of grit.  In addition, willpower is critical in many short term goals and daily activities that don’t require large amounts of grit.

“There is nothing that matters more in goal accomplishment than the ability to resist the urge to give in to little voices that tell us that it’s okay to quit when the going gets tough… The key to success with any goal is to withstand temptation and persist through discomfort.” – Caroline Adams

Your Willpower is Limited

Research has clearly demonstrated that willpower is a limited resource.  When you exercise deliberate control to suppress urges, suppress thoughts, make decisions, resist temptations, or summon the will to do something, you are depleting a limited supply.  Having used up some of that supply, you will find it more difficult to summon willpower in the next situation in which you need it.

Sleep seems to refresh your supply of your willpower much like it refreshes other mental resources.  There are also indications that exercise and meditation increase your overall willpower capacity.  This should not be surprising as both exercise and mediation have been shown to improve a wide range of mental functions.  A sugary drink (definitely not recommended), or a rest period will also help.

The bottom line is that you must find ways to limit your need to use your willpower and thus preserve this critical resource.

Make it a Habit

The absolute best thing you can do to ensure you have the willpower to persist in the face of challenges and temptations, is to simply conserve it.  One way to do this by turning as much positive activity as possible into habitual behavior.  I assume you don’t have to exert willpower to brush your teeth every day and that doing so has just become an automatic part of your daily routines.

About 10 years ago I went on a very strict diet for about 1 year.  I went cold turkey on a bunch of crap I had been stuffing myself with for decades.  This took a lot of willpower at first, but after a few months on the diet it took absolutely no self-control to maintain.  I simply got in the habit of refusing to eat certain foods.  There was no decision involved.  I didn’t have to continually debate whether I should or I shouldn’t eat something and I thereby preserved my willpower resources for other issues.  Over the subsequent years, when I applied less strict standards, I found myself failing to eat properly much more frequently.  This was especially true when my willpower was drained at the end of a stressful day.

Other Ways to Enhance and Conserve Your Willpower

Avoid Temptations

You simply need to avoid putting yourself in situations that will constantly require you to exercise control of some tendency or urge.  This may seem counter-intuitive, but the evidence of depletion is convincing.

Connect Your Actions to Deep Values

Value-based decisions are easier to make.  They require less deliberate control.  You are creating rules for your behavior ahead of time.  A deep commitment to the values that are thus represented, make the decisions to act or to refrain from acting much easier as the individual situations arise.

Plan For Problems

When you are attacking a project, try to plan ahead for problems and challenges.  By creating some black and white rules for how you will act under certain circumstances, you can reduce the need for stressful deliberation.

Create a Keyword Reminder

Create a keyword or short phrase to remind yourself of whatever deep value you are trying satisfy and then use that keyword whenever you find yourself weakening.  It will remind you and motivate you to continue.  Furthermore you will create a habit of responding positively to the keyword.

Don’t Dilute Your Willpower Reserve

If you try to tackle too many projects or goals at once, you will likely not have enough willpower reserve to accomplish them all.

Control Your Thoughts

“Willpower is directly connected to mind control.  Once you realize that you have the ability to eject negative thoughts from you mind and inject positive thoughts into the void, you have taken a gigantic step toward a lifetime of self-discipline as and when you need it.” – Jim Randel

Break Tasks Into Small Chunks

It takes a lot of willpower to create momentum and get started on projects for which there is a large gap between where you are now and where you need to get to.  Instead, focus on the first tiny step that you can almost fall into.

Give Yourself Time to Recover

If you have just finished a willpower sucking activity, give yourself a break before starting anything else that requires self-discipline.

Use the Morning

Since your willpower is strongest in the morning, it just makes sense to undertake those activities that require the most willpower as early in the day is possible.  For example if you are starting an exercise program, try to develop the exercise habit in the morning when your willpower is at its strongest.

For an excellent treatment of willpower I recommend The Skinny on Willpower, How to Develop Self Discipline by Jim Randel.

What do you think?  Leave a comment and join the conversation.

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“First, look for opportunities to say, ‘Count me in,’ and ‘Hey, I’ll play!’  Look for a chance to make a fool of yourself.  Don’t be afraid to lose face and fail at something.  Don’t reject the idea of coming across as a human being.  Jump in.  Play.  Fall down.  Get up.  Play harder.  Come home with a dirty face and sweat on your neck.   Take a bath.  And sleep.” –Steve Chandler

Who doesn’t like being around enthusiastic people?  Enthusiasm is contagious.  Adding enthusiasm to something is like adding fuel to a fire.

Note from Stephen: There is a lot of sports talk early in this article.  Sorry if you don’t watch sports and actually I don’t much either anymore.  Is that the only place where people seem to be consistently enthusiastic in modern culture?

Dick Vitale loves basketball.  His enthusiasm is contagious.  Sometimes he may be over the top, but even the people who claim they don’t like him would choose him over a dry and boring commentary.  Remember Jimmy Valvano when his NC State team were in the 1983 championship game? Talk about contagious enthusiasm!

Think about a basketball game and how the “momentum” changes when the crowd gets into it big time.  The enthusiasm transfers from the crowd to the players and something big happens.  The fuel has been added and the energy level and creativity go way up.  The same thing applies to you as an individual on a daily basis.  You can be your own crowd and your own cheerleading squad.  You can infuse your own body with that magical elixir.

“In adulthood, enthusiasm is a choice.  It is the decision to say yes to life.  This doesn’t mean suddenly being a little child again and becoming indiscriminately excited about everything.  In adulthood, being chronically excited can prevent us from experiencing vitality rather than enjoying it’s benefits.”  –Anat Baniel

One of the big differences between those who seem to get lucky and achieve the seemingly impossible and those who don’t is enthusiasm.

If you don’t want to do something and you think about not wanting to do it and you have to drag yourself through it and you make it a chore, what is the experience of doing it going to be like?  You are going to be miserable and drained.

“Lack of enthusiasm can be learned and can become a habit.  Enthusiasm is such a necessary part of human life that when we lose it, or we simply lack the skills to generate it, we not only drain ourselves, but also become a drain on others.  The vitality and magic of life vanishes.”  –Anat Baniel

Being enthusiastic about what you are doing will increase your experience in a really good way.  It increases your vitality.  You will go about your life with energy and you’ll feel good about what you are doing, no matter what it is.

When you are struggling with something, celebrate and get excited about small victories and tiny progress or improvements.  That will generate enthusiasm about what you are doing and it will do something even more important.  It will tell your brain that what you are doing is very important.  The increased emotion and enthusiasm will make the changes in your brain, i.e. what you have just learned, stronger.  All of this makes more success in the same area even more likely.  It’s a self-reinforcing upward spiral.

If you are exercising, for example, you will make faster progress if you are enthusiastic about your improvements.  Our brains will focus on what we tell them is important.  Our brains respond to our enthusiasm.

Enthusiasm and negativity spread out from you like a contagious disease.  Imagine the difference, and it’s not hard to imagine, in your children depending upon whether you nag them to death or enthusiastically support their positives?  Imagine the difference in your spouse?

Remember the Rocky Movie? Remember him running through the streets and up the steps? This isn’t the scene that I wanted but you get the song at least.  Just imagine the scene, there are a few clips.

Ways to Develop Your Enthusiasm

• Make a commitment to the importance of enthusiasm in human thriving.
• Make a commitment to yourself that you will get enthusiastic about small things just as much if not more than big things.
• When you are exercising or doing anything in which you are trying to improve, look for and take note of small improvements (even tiny changes) and celebrate them.  Be thrilled and excited by them.
• Whenever you find your energy draining out or you are becoming negative, make it a point to find something to become enthusiastic about.
• Get excited about solving problems, especially problems that normally cause the life to drain out of you.
• Get enthusiastic about the success of those around you – your friends, family, or colleagues.  Get excited about the success of anyone!
• Sing.  A little trick I’ve learned when I’m driving and start to get irritated is to sing some upbeat song.  It’s much better than listening to one.  Something about you actually singing it yourself makes it impossible to be upset.

“Do not go gentle into that good night, but rage, rage against the dying of the light.”  –Dylan Thomas

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This article is the fourth in a series that will be dedicated to helping you improve your energy. You will not escape the rat race or enjoy life if you are energy deficient. Energy level is a fundamental key to thriving and not just surviving. Take it from someone who knows. I have been chronically fatigued for much of my adult life. I’m turning it around big time, but I’m not all the way there yet. The first three articles are:

Energize Your Success – Decrease Distress
Energize Your Success – Use The Right Fuel
Energize Your Success – Potassium

Exercise that increases your cardiovascular fitness will actually increase your body’s ability to produce energy.  Some very good studies have confirmed that moderate aerobic exercise increases the energy of otherwise sedentary people.

Aside from aerobic exercise, I believe everyone should lift weights.  Loss of function in aging is more related to loss of muscle strength than anything else.

I think there is great value in Pilates.  Strengthening your core and learning to move correctly is very important.  Other exercises that increase flexibility and range of motion like yoga are also probably very valuable.  I took a few yoga classes a few years ago and I thought it was very beneficial.  I quit doing it and regret that decision.  I intend to start up again.

Our bodies developed in an environment where we moved.  In fact we moved almost constantly.  Therefore it makes sense they we need to continue to move throughout our lives.  They are making treadmill desks now so you can actually walk slowly while working on your computer!  I have an adjustable desk that can be raised or lowered to sit or stand.

I read a lot, which is very easy to do in a recliner.  I have been doing a lot of standing and walking while reading.  I just walk around my house.  There are many ways to move more if you get creative.

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I was going to put all kinds of science in this article about pH balance, sodium-potassium pumps, and other such fascinating stuff.  As I sat down to write, it dawned on me that most people probably are not as fascinated by that kind of thing as I am, so I decided to write something practical that could be easily understood.

This article is the third in a series that will be dedicated to helping you improve your energy. You will not escape the rat race or enjoy life if you are energy deficient. Energy level is a fundamental key to thriving and not just surviving. Take it from someone who knows. I have been chronically fatigued for much of my adult life. I’m turning it around big time, but I’m not all the way there yet. The first two articles were:

Energize Your Success – Decrease Distress
Energize Your Success – Use The Right Fuel

A Paleolithic diet of natural whole food would contain a potassium-sodium ratio of about 17 to 1.  A modern American diet contains a ratio of about 1 to 1.7. Do I really need to say any more?

I’ve had low blood pressure all my life and so ignored salt and ate processed foods.  Natural foods were unknown to me.  Processed foods have been stripped of potassium and preserved and flavored with salt.  The science concerning what this does to our cells is pretty clear.  The number of health problems that can be attributed to this imbalance may be more than we could have imagined.  Aside from all that, there is a very strong impact on your energy.

Most people are chronically potassium deficient.  It’s as simple as that.  Blood tests do not determine the level of cellular potassium and so they are worthless with one exception.  If they show low blood potassium you are in trouble.  If they show normal they mean nothing.

What Should You Do

Limit sodium intake to 500 mg per day or less.

Eat fresh whole fruits, vegetables, and nuts.  Raw is better than cooked, but cooked is still OK.

Take potassium supplements.  There is a problem here.  Drug manufacturers like to make prescription potassium or create drugs that solve health problems by increasing potassium.  This is very convenient since our diet creates health problems and then we have the FDA and drug companies ready to solve it for us.  A cheap mineral supplement might cut into big pharmaceutical profits.  So in the guise of protecting the public from the dangers of potassium, the FDA limits supplements to 2.5% of the RDA.

Think about the absurdity of that.  If I need potassium supplements why would I need a capsule that gives my a measly 2.5%?  What good would that do?  If I need supplementation, I certainly need more than 2.5%.   I know there are claimed reasons for this, but they are absurd and unsupported.  You might as well ban potassium supplements.  I would have to take 40 capsules per day to get 100% of the RDA.  Or I could just go to a doctor and get a prescription.  Hmm…

To hell with the FDA.  I take 20 or 30 capsules a day.  Make your own choice.

Potassium Rich Foods

One caution.  Don’t eat 10 bananas a day.  Some of the most potassium rich foods play havoc with your blood sugar.   Look for lower GI potassium sources.  I’m going to leave off of my list high GI foods rich in potassium.  For example a baked potato is about the richest source of potassium you can find and it is also very bad for you from a blood glucose perspective.

Also, if you buy a can of green beans loaded with salt you are not helping yourself.  You need to increase potassium and reduce salt.

• banana (eat in moderation)
• tomato
• almonds
• sunflower seeds
• asparagus
• mango (eat in moderation)
• orange
• pear
• peach
• strawberries
• pumpkin
• brussels sprout
• green beans
• carrots
• broccoli
• cauliflower
• pinto beans
• lentils
• salmon
• dark turkey meat
• lean beef
• peanut butter
• egg
• cheese
• milk
• chocolate

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You wouldn’t put diesel fuel in a rocket or rocket fuel in a truck.  They each were made to run on a certain kind of fuel and so are you.  If you put poor quality fuel into your body, you are going to have a poor result.  One result will be a lack of energy, or in any case a less than optimal amount of energy.  Remember, you are essentially drugging your body every time you eat.  Put in good drugs.

This article is second in a series that will be dedicated to helping you improve your energy. You will not escape the rat race or enjoy life if you are energy deficient. Energy level is a fundamental key to thriving and not just surviving. Take it from someone who knows. I have been chronically fatigued for much of my adult life. I’m turning it around big time, but I’m not all the way there yet. The first article was:

Energize Your Success – Decrease Distress

So what kind of fuel do you need to perform at your optimum level?  This is something that tends to get people fired up and controversial.  There are a wide range of schools each with their own gurus.  Each of them can make good arguments that their particular vision of healthy eating is the “right” way.  I’m not really going to wade into that because I think you can make some general conclusions that are widely accepted across most schools of thought.

The human body and its operation is extraordinarily complex.  We know only a tiny fraction of what we need to know to be making categorical pronouncements.  I know people who are very healthy and seem to eat right even though they have very different ideas about what “right” looks like.  You can be a vegan or a meet eater; you can be a raw food enthusiast or a cooking enthusiast and still eat very healthy.

The Diet Your Body Was Made to Eat

If I had nothing else to go on, and I don’t have a lot, I would suggest that we should generally eat the kind of diet that humans and human ancestors ate during our biological development.  It seems uncontroversial to say that the bodies that thrived on those diets were the ones who survived and passed on their genes to us.  Agriculture was only invented 10,000 years ago and our modern dietary habits have only developed in the last couple of hundred years.  Neither of those is nearly long enough to significantly change our biology.

So right off the top we can assume that our bodies are not made to eat processed foods any more than a truck is made to run on rocket fuel.  Furthermore, there is plenty of logic and research that shows that those foods are not good for us.

Individuality

One problem with giving diet advice is that we are all different.  I think I remember my biology studies enough to remember that for some genes they have identified as many as 20 different alleles (genetic variations).  That was way back in the dark ages and probably is far out of date.  These individual variations can make a huge difference in what you can tolerate.  There are a lot of people who do poorly on gluten while it doesn’t seem to bother others.  Same thing for dairy, wine, shellfish, etc.  Some people have poor glucose control and others have excellent glucose control (although if they abuse it they can ruin it).  Some people remove toxins well and others don’t.  There is a metabolic typing system that I don’t know much about but it makes sense to me.

Some of these problems with food tolerance surely developed recently.  The gene pool is going to hell in some ways.  I’m pretty sure that not too many of my ancient ancestors had my poor eyesight.  The spear in their chest would have limited the number of descendants they produced.  The point is that regardless of what someone tells you, and that includes me, you must pay attention to your own body and how you personally react to various foods.  That will tell you more than a lot of the advice you get that is based on a non-existent typical person.  I can’t emphasize that enough.

My Recommendations

I am trying to stay fairly uncontroversial and I welcome your thoughts.  I’m not an expert but I have studied this enough to have some opinion.

General

Eat as much natural and whole food as you can.  Eliminate most or all of the man-made and refined foods you eat.  No matter what anyone claims, there is simple logic to this:  Human bodies did not develop eating the crap most of us eat now.  There is no way the body is going to handle this stuff as well as the whole natural foods that were the basis of our biological development.  I recommend Vin’s Natural Bias website for more information on natural foods.

Toxins

I’m not a organic bigot, because if truth be told the reason I’m able to type on this computer to you and the reason you are able to read it,  is because of mass produced agricultural products.  Agriculture, even if it was bad for our bodies, allowed civilization to develop.  Later, pesticides, herbicides, fertilizer, etc. allowed us to go from an agricultural based economy to one in which agriculture is now almost unnoticeable.  I’m probably pissing a lot of people off with this, but I believe it to be the truth.

However, having said all that, if you can afford it I think organic natural food is far better for you.  Just because we are where we are because of less than wholesome food, does not mean you shouldn’t optimize your own situation.  There are reasons to believe, aside from the toxic effect of eating all that poison, that the natural foods are far better.  Starving people or countries that are not as blessed as mine can eat all the mass produced food they need.  Enough said.

Don’ts

• Refined Carbohydrates – I’m sure there are millions of articles on the net on the dangers of refined carbohydrates so just read them.  If you want to slowly kill yourself, just load up on these.
• Trans-Fat – Zero positives and tons of negatives.  It damages your cell membranes.
• Deep Fried Food – They are cancer producers.
• Man-made sweeteners and other additives – Aspartame for example kills your brain cells, especially sensitive ones in your hippocampus.  That’s very important to memory in case you didn’t know.
• Carbonated Drinks – They rot your teeth and bones.

You Can’t Go Wrong With These

Balance

Eat carbohydrates, protein, fats, and fiber at every meal.  I’m not going to preach about ratios since there is plenty of information on that, but avoid extremes.  I eat mostly carbohydrates, a good amount of protein, and smaller amounts of fats every time I eat.

In my article, How To Take Care of Your Brain, I recommended a colorful rainbow diet and I repeat it here.  Eat colorful foods; orange, red, blue, purple, and green foods.

Cruciferous Vegetables

Cauliflower, broccoli, kale, bok choy, cabbage, brussels sprout, etc.  These are nature’s miracle foods.  Find me somebody who thinks you should not eat these.  They are absolutely loaded with phytonutrients, vitamins, minerals, and soluble fiber.  They are complex carbohydrates that break down very slowly and give your body a constant supply of blood glucose.   In the GI index they are at the top of the list.  They have strong anti-cancer properties.  Men, scientists have discovered they have powerful anti-prostate cancer properties.

Green Leafy Vegetables

Arugula, spinach, collard greens, Romaine lettuce, mustard green, Swiss chard, etc.  The darker the leaves the better. You can almost repeat the cruciferous vegetable paragraph for these.  Dark green leafy vegetables are a super food and you should eat them at every meal if possible.

Vegetables in General

If you look at a GI index you will see the top of the list (low GI foods that are good for you) is dominated by vegetables.  In general you should eat more good vegetables than fruit.  Some fruit can spike your blood sugar.  You can almost not go wrong with vegetables.

Avoid the few hi GI vegetables like white potatoes, parsnip, beets, and be careful with corn and yams.  The latter two you can eat in moderation.  Carrots are high GI but low in carbohydrate content so you can eat them without worrying.

A Note On Blood Sugar Testing

My wife is mild type II diabetic.  She has those finger-prick home testing kits.  I have taken advantage of this to watch my own blood sugar level.  Your level will vary throughout the day, mostly as a result of eating.  With most people it spikes dramatically.  You want to maintain as flat a level as possible and avoid too much spiking.  If you eat the white death foods, you will spike your blood sugar and produce a lot of insulin.  I take my readings at random occasionally and I spent a couple of days taking it all day long.  My blood glucose stays very flat and doesn’t rise much even after eating.  I consider this evidence that eating the way I recommend with low GI vegetables and small frequent meals, is ideal for blood sugar maintenance.  I also eat a lot of protein which helps maintain it between meals and overnight.  Test yourself if you can.

Fruits

Fruits are excellent but they tend to be much higher blood sugar producers than vegetables. So eat more vegetables than fruits.  The berries are fantastic and they are generally low GI and low carbohydrate content so eat away.  They are packed with phytonutrients and antioxidants.  The berries should be a basic part of a healthy diet.  The purple/black berries like blueberries and blackberries are super brain foods.  I eat strawberries and blackberries like candy, because once you stop eating processed sugar, fruits taste so sweet!

With fruits stay away from fruit juice.  It will spike your sugar and most of the fiber has been removed.  Other high GI fruits to be avoid are raisins and pineapples.  Be careful with mangos, bananas, and too much watermelon.  Grapes are excellent sources of nutrients (especially red or black grapes), but don’t eat too many of them at once.  They are moderate on the GI index.  Eat berries, apples, pears, grapefruits, and plums about any time you want.  Just don’t eat too much of them at one sitting.  Don’t eat two or three apples for instance.

Lean Meats

If you get protein from meats, eat mostly lean meats.  You need fat, but too much of the wrong kind is bad for you.  If you review my articles on brain chemistry, you will find a common pattern of good meats with wild game topping the list:

Your Brain on Food and Supplements – Dopamine
Your Brain on Food and Supplements – Acetylcholine
Your Brain on Food and Supplements – GABA
Your Brain on Food and Supplements – Serotonin

In addition to wild game, chicken and turkey are excellent.  Ham is a fairly lean pork if you cut the fat off the outside.  If you eat fatty red meat, at least eat it in moderation.  The grain-fed beef most people eat has the wrong kind of fat content and produces inflammatory arachidonic acid.  Grass fed beef is supposed to be great, but I haven’t started it yet.  Read Vin’s article Why Grass Fed Beef is Better for Your Health for good information.

Eggs

Despite the bad rap they have received in the past, I think eggs are a great food.  They are loaded with high quality protein that is good for your brain and they contain Omega 3 fatty acids.  Eat your eggs without worrying.  I guess I’m getting controversial here but I couldn’t help it.

Vegetable Protein

I’m not too good in this area so I would welcome comments.  Meat protein is more complete than vegetable protein and since I am a meat eater I don’t worry about vegetable protein too much.  From what I know I would recommend seeds (sunflower especially), nuts, beans, peas, soy, rice, and spinach.  I need help on this please!

Supplemental Protein

Why not take a high-quality protein powder just to be sure?  Especially if you don’t eat meat.  I eat meat and I still have one glass of protein powder drink every morning.

Nuts and Seeds

I eat a ton of nuts and seeds.  I know they are very fatty but in general this kind of fat does not make you fat and is very good for you.  Like I said I eat tons of them and I am still losing weight.  My body chemistry is likely different than yours, but everyone should eat some of them.  Walnuts are a supper brain food.  Please eat them.  Almonds, peanuts, hazelnuts, macadamia, cashews, sunflower and pumpkin seeds are my other favorites.  I eat them with every meal and snack.

Summary

I tend to be scientific and over analyze everything.  If you want to be more relaxed about it I would suggest you eat a rainbow diet with a wide variety of natural whole foods.  Eat a lot of vegetables, a moderate amount of fruit, and a moderate amount of lean protein.  You need to eat some seeds and nuts and you should eat a lot of berries.  Eat small frequent low GI meals and snacks.  Mix your meals up with portions from each food group: fiber, vegetables, fruits, protein, and good fats.   Enjoy your super health!

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You need to energy to be successful.  Your brain and the rest of your body run on energy.  What happens in one part of you body impacts the rest of it.  Mental exhaustion is really just physical exhaustion occurring in one part of your body.  It saps the strength and energy from other parts.  You might not think physical energy matters that much, especially if you are more intellectually oriented.  But it matters and I think it matters a great deal.

This article is the first in a series that will be dedicated to helping you improve your energy.  You will not escape the rat race or enjoy life if you are energy deficient.  Energy level is a fundamental key to thriving and not just surviving.  Take it from someone who knows.  I have been chronically fatigued for much of my adult life.  I’m turning it around big time, but I’m not all the way there yet.

You may know what to do to increase your success, but don’t feel you have the “time” or the energy to do it.  This is pervasive in our modern fast-paced culture.  Often people who don’t think they have time, really just don’t have the energy because lack of energy slows down their rate of action.  Energetic people can get more done in a given amount of time.  Increased energy then can in one sense give you more time to do the things you want to do.

I have a friend who we refer to as the Energizer Bunny.  She is full of energy and she moves at least twice the speed of most people.  She actually lives more life in her day than other people.  You can take this too far and I’m a big believer in slowing down and living in the present (see Problems are Memories: How to Become Present, 10 Ways to Slow Down and Still Get Things Done, How To Relax And Why It’s So Important), but the two are not incompatible.  When you want to act and when intense action is called for, having the energy to perform is critical.

While the impact your physical energy has on your overall success might be more obvious to those of us who have had or do have a significant deficits, we shouldn’t ignore the potential impact of increased energy to those who already have normal or even above normal levels of energy.  Unless you are already super-energized, I think you would benefit greatly from increased energy no matter what your current level.

This series will focus on ways to increase your energy levels that I think are fairly universal and non-controversial.  Keep in mind that when you use energy for one thing, such as digesting a big meal, you have less energy left for other activities.

Decrease Distress

This is the bad stress and includes any physical or mental stress that is bad for you.  The best way to decrease distress is to avoid it.  Here are some common sources of distress that you can reduce in order to increase your energy levels:

Fat

This is simple physics.  Carrying around extra fat simply uses up more energy.  If you don’t believe me just pick up a 50 pound weight and carry it around all day and see what happens to your energy levels.  You wouldn’t do that so why do you carry extra body fat?  Fat doesn’t do work.  Lose fat, not muscle, and you will use less energy.  Lose fat and gain energy to do those things that are important to you and your loved ones.

Eating Too Much at Once

Eating a lot of carbohydrates at once will cause blood sugar to spike and that will cause insulin to spike.  Insulin causes a lot of damage to your body if it is chronically raised.  Further the subsequent drop in blood sugar will make you feel tired and sluggish.  Finally digesting a lot of food uses a lot of energy.

Not Eating Often Enough

Eating smaller meals more frequently will give your body a constant supply of nutrients, especially blood sugar, and allow you to maintain a much more constant source of energy.

Eating Refined Carbohydrates

These foods are killing you.  I’m not just talking about refined sugar.  Once your body turns any carbohydrate to glucose, it really doesn’t matter what it’s source.  The important part is how much glucose it contains and how fast it is released into your blood stream.  High GI foods like white flour, white rice, white potatoes, or other refined carbohydrates are just bad for you.  You might as well be eating poison.  When you restrict the candy your child can eat, but then give them a sandwich on white bread you are accomplishing nothing.  In fact white bread may be worse than table sugar.  If you want to know what the white deaths are doing to your and your family, read Vin’s excellent articles: How Sugar Can Ruin Your Life and How to Eliminate Sugar From Your Diet.

Lack of Sleep

When you sleep your body repairs itself and does a lot of other things.  Sleep deprivation creates distress on your body by not allowing time for recovery.  I have recently written a fairly long article on sleep that you can read: Sleep Your Way to Success.  You can also check out Jonathan’s article: What is Your Brain Doing While You Are Sleeping?

Mental Stress

I don’t think I need to spend much time on this one because we all know what stresses us, but I want to mention a couple of things.

• Negativity from others – Eliminate these people from your life or walk away from them when they get negative.
• Negativity from yourself – I’ve written about this in the following article and it is a huge factor:  Positivity Leads to a Flourishing Life.

When you eliminate your own negative reactions you save tons of stress and thus energy.  When I get mad I feel physically sick or drained.  I simply can’t emphasize the importance of this enough.

Relax

The other topics in this article focused on avoiding or eliminating specific sources of stress.  Aside from that, you can reduce overall stress by taking time to relax and practicing specific techniques of relaxation such as meditation or yoga.

I don’t have a source for yoga yet so if you know any good ones please add them in the comments.  For meditation, Roger has a good series going: Meditation for Beginners (Week 1) – Introduction

Other Resources

This article from the Mayo Clinic contains tons of stress management information.  I highly recommend it:  Mayo Clinic Stress Management

Check out these other articles:

10 Ways to Remain Calm in a Stressful Situation

One Dozen Simple Stress Busters

Stress Is A Myth

The Second Step To Happiness

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