Toss 90% of Your Diet and Fitness Books into the Trash Can

What??  Am I exaggerating here?  Toss 90% of your diet and fitness books into the trash can?  

Let's be honest, a hefty percentage contain outdated, partial or skewed information anyway, so there's no great loss.  For the rest, you may find they add more confusion than clarity to your life and have led to "paralysis by analysis" for you.


Enter, The 4 Hour Body.  Goodbye, paralysis!

It Started With a Very Long Road Trip

Last week I spent 18 hours on the highways of southern Ontario in a 55 hour period and 12 hours of that were solo, so I really needed something to listen to.  My cousin, a true renaissance man with a fanatical interest in human resilience (and most other things!) had suggested the audio book version of Timothy Ferriss' recent bestseller, The 4 Hour Body.  


Well, the audio book was great, but abridged, so the first thing I did when I got home was to grab the book itself - double the revenue going from my pocket to Mr. Ferriss ;-)


If you've read his previous magnum opus, The 4 Hour Work Week, you know Tim is a divergent thinker and a very entertaining and thought-provoking writer.  Better that that, he always tests his theories and gives you advice you can easily put into practice in your own life.  And this is where The 4 Hour Body delivers in spades.


At first I thought the title was contrived; just a take-off of the previous book's.  Not the case, however; it turns out that a total of 4 hours of exercise is all the exercise you need in a whole month to do a total body makeover.  And Tim's right on - most people vastly overestimate the "gym time" needed to build sculpted and functional muscles, reduce body fat and get you looking and feeling your best. 

Diving Into the Book 


Tim effectively breaks down the artificial mental silos we use to separate weight loss, diet, nutrition, fitness, body image and performance, and then pulls it all together for you in a series of usable programs you can apply to yourself.  And you don't have to read all of this 550+ page monster.  Just select what's most important to you.  Want to lose weight?  Read pages 44-156.  Want to gain weight?  Try pages 157-224.  Want to get stronger?  Then pages 404-432 are for you.


And there's plenty of science in the book to back it all up.  Fortunately, Tim keeps all but a minimum of that out of your way while he explains the programs to follow, and then lets you peruse the scientific research at your leisure.  

Important scientific note here: Tim is a meticulous data cruncher, as he says, and measures everything!  This alone should shift your thinking about how you approach life in general.  My own resilience work is built on the same premise: if you can't measure it, you can't prove it.  (This, by the way, was the same scientific logic ancient spiritual traditions built their practices on.  Then we invented "religion".  God help us all!)


At first sight, the book's a bit eclectic, covering an interesting spread of topics:

• Weight loss
• Weight gain
• Building muscle and strength
• Improving sex, including the female orgasm
• Perfecting sleep
• Reversing injuries
• Running faster and farther
• Swimming and Swinging (swinging as in baseball)
• Longevity

But then, Tim's an eclectic kind of guy, so the whole thing hangs together quite well.





Here's a fun video trailer for the book...

Afterthoughts

All this is not to suggest that I have no issues with the book.  Tim's mention of microwaving his food makes me cringe and more attention paid to the living, enzymatic quality of food as opposed to the simple categories of proteins / fats / carbs would have been helpful.  That said, if you follow his "Slow Carb" dietary suggestions, I can almost guarantee you'll send your health and fitness into the stratosphere.


His longevity chapter is, paradoxically, the shortest in the book and could have done with some more research, including investigations into the world's premier longevity tradition, i.e., Taoism.  


And I could go on.  However, the fact remains that if you read this book and put its programs into action - whichever ones apply to you personally, of course - you'll be a lot better off for it.  So grab yourself a copy and enjoy!


~ Dr. Symeon Rodger

This Colon Cleanse Gave Amazing Results!

NOTICE: Just a friendly warning to you that if you're really put off by explicit talk about human bowel functions, this post sure isn't for you!  On the other hand, if you're intensely interested in radically improving your overall health, immunity and longevity, read on...

It feels so strange... moving my jaw up and down in order to pulverize food for easier digestion.  The action stirs distant memories of a time long ago... five days ago, in fact, which was the last time I chewed anything!

The Past Week's Adventure in Resilience 

That's because I've spent the last week doing Blessed Herbs' Colon Cleanse, and what a super cleanse it is!  What basis do I have for making that claim?  Simple, by the visible results.


You see, with a colon cleanse, seeing is believing.  What you're out to eliminate from your system is the toxic mucoid plaque that's lining you colon / large intestine / bowel.  And it's easy to identify because it's totally different in color and texture from your usual bowel movement.  Here's what it looks like (no, this isn't mine ;-)

Mucoid plaque is long, rubbery, usually somewhere between very dark green and black.  This was the first time using an all-herbal colon cleanse that I've been able to eliminate this stuff. 

Previously, I was convinced that the only way to do this was by doing colonic hydrotherapy - that is, using water under pressure to flush out the colon.  The only problem with the latter is convenience, because it will probably cost you a few hundred dollars to have it done professionally, or you can probably get set up to do it at home for a couple hundred or so. 

So kudos to Blessed Herbs for a really effective colon cleanse that's so convenient to use and doesn't require colonic hydrotherapy!

Why Bother Cleansing Your Colon?

Of course, the begs the question of why you would want to cleanse your colon.  Well, if you're a reader of this blog, you probably already know, but briefly, here's why:

• As the plaque builds up over time, it leaches toxins directly into your blood stream, compromising the function of all you cells and significantly increasing the toxic load on your system
• The plaque inhibits your ability to absorb nutrients from your food, creating a kind of internal "malnutrition" no matter how good your diet is
• If you have spent any of your life on the "Standard American Diet" (SAD), you can be sure you're carrying around some unwanted pounds of this stuff (consider that even though my diet is heavily organic, mostly follows the rules of food combining and that I've done colonic hydrotherapy in the past, I still eliminated about eight feet of plaque this time around!)

So naturally, when you cleanse your colon of mucoid plaque build-up, you eliminate all these problems and return your metabolism to a higher level of functioning and overall resilience. 




Know What You're Getting Into...

Now, before you run off to grab their kit, let me tell you up front that this does require some adjustments to your lifestyle for the duration of the cleanse.  You go through three stages:

1. Stage 1: The 3 day pre-cleanse, where you eat ever decreasing portions of raw, organic food.
   
2. Stage 2: The 5 day liquid-only cleanse.  That's right, NO solid food, for reasons I'll explain below.  And as my business advisor, Kathy, so kindly reminded me last week, "liquid only doesn't include having a beer on your patio!"  You'll be on water and organic fruit juice, with some vegetable broth if you want it.  Even my traditional fruit smoothie was out of bounds.
   
3. Stage 3: The 1 day break-the-fast, where you start slowly (since your digestive system has been largely in shut-down mode for several days), with a diet of fresh fruits and veggies, steamed veggies, brown rice or baked potato.
   

Just to clarify, the reason for no solid food is simple: their Toxin Absorber, that you'll be taking every three hours mixed into apple juice, binds to the mucoid plaque and escorts it out of your body.  If you still have solid food in your digestive system, the Toxin Absorber will bind to that instead and leave the toxic garbage inside you - not a great idea!

So there you have it - nine days invested total and well worth it!!


~ Dr. Symeon Rodger

 

Want a More Resilient and Happier Life? Build Relationships!!

Time after time, studies into health, longevity and overall happiness come to the same conclusion - people with the most developed support networks in terms of friends and/or family rank at the very top and get the best results.  

And it's the very same thing in business and career - if you want to prosper, build personal relationships with other human beings and do what you can to contribute to their success.


Yes, these days we call it "networking", yet it's a practice as old as the human race.  The irony you and I face is that although we have more technological tools to stay connected with other people, we're often too overwhelmed to use them.  

My dear departed mom wrote to at least one of her sisters and to her best friend (by snail mail) every week for over half a century, yet most of us seem to have a really hard time staying in touch with the people closest to us even though it's easier and cheaper than ever.


Social media is helping to bridge the gap, for sure, but as any expert on the subject will tell you, nothing can replace the traditional face-to-face contact.  

Networking 101

In this short video, networking master Michael Hughes gives you some killer tips on how the pros do it.  Keep in mind that this isn't just for sales people or people in business; the overall dynamics and benefits of networking apply to everyone:

A Man Who Walks the Talk

As it happens, Michael is a friend of mine and I can tell you I've learned more about networking from watching him in person than from reading any number of books on the subject.

Just the other day I was at a workshop given by someone else and Michael was there.  It was the first time I'd seen him in several months.  I sat with him in a small group discussion for just ten minutes and in that time he had learned exactly where my business was at, volunteered to spend time with me to work on some of my challenges and had introduced me to someone else who could do the same.


And there you have a perfect illustration of one of the chief functions of networking - helping connect others with the resources they need.  


Let me share one final point with you: even though networking is a key element for building your personal resilience (and your business, if that applies to you), most people, even business people, don't do it well at all.  You  can be different.  


So if you want a challenge, here's one for you: make a list of people you know and devote just 30-60 minutes a week for four weeks to contact them for no other reason than to say hello and let them know you care.  


~ Dr. Symeon Rodger















 

Resilience Tip: Why you need to build your network

One of the most consistent findings in studies of various resilience indicators (such as longevity, health, emotional balance, etc.) is that people with healthy and numerous social relationships are at the top of the range... every time.

Ancient traditions of health maintenance and spiritual life were built on the deep insight that all of us are interconnected with each other and the whole world in ways we're not even consciously aware of.  Quantum physics and the latest experiments in distance healing are beginning to validate this insight.  What's it all mean?


You are a communal being - you're not meant to be alone or isolated!


As our Western society has evolved over the past century, driven by industrialization, urbanization and endless technological change, we've become more and more isolated.  Sometimes it seems that our spouse and kids are all we have, if that!  One of the symptoms of this isolation is the mushrooming of social media - facebook, myspace, twitter and more.  People are desperate to connect with other people.  It's a deep seated existential need we have as human beings.


So what can you do?  If you want to be more resilient, help others to do the same.  Connect with new people.  Reconnect with old friends and family members.  Take some time over the next week to go out for coffee with someone you haven't seen in a while or call them.  Nudge somebody on facebook and remind them you care.  What you give will come back to you many times over.  Resilient people have big networks of other people they care about and people who care about them in return.


You CAN be such a person.  Sharing love is not only easy, it's fun and it's free.  What could be better?


~ Dr. Symeon Rodger