People who struggle with motivation often embrace the latest trends hoping that it will be what they need to keep them focused. However, given the large number of health related products and programs that exist, and the also large number of people who continue to struggle with motivation, it should be obvious that such an approach is unlikely to result in long term success. While it’s hard to criticize anything that encourages people to embrace healthier habits, the latest trends and technologies will rarely provide the substance needed to inspire lasting motivation.

The Importance of Inspiration

Due to the many unhealthy influences and temptations that have become such a common part of modern living, promoting and maintaining good health can require a lot of effort. However, just about any type of accomplishment requires commitment and hard work, and this shouldn’t necessarily be perceived with discouragement. The effort required to achieve a goal is often proportional to the fulfillment that it brings, and people who dedicate themselves to healthy living can enjoy a sense of accomplishment in addition to the benefits of improved health. However, none of this is possible without a daily commitment to healthy habits, and this commitment will be very difficult to make and maintain without a meaningful source of inspiration to do so.

How Strong is Your Inspiration?

One of the most common reasons why people consider making changes to their diet or exercise habits is to lose weight. In many cases, this is based more on appearance than health or wellness. However, many people find that such a source of inspiration isn’t strong enough to help them overcome their cravings for unhealthy foods or their lack of desire to exercise. Perhaps this is why so many people are stuck in a seemingly endless pattern of abandoning a new diet or exercise program, feeling guilty about doing so, and looking for the latest and greatest alternative to start the cycle over again.

Other Weak Sources of Inspiration

In my opinion, the P90X workout program and Reebok’s EasyTone shoes are two examples of how the novelty of something new and popular can be a powerful but short lived source of motivation. I’ve received a lot of criticism for having a negative opinion of these products, particularly because of their potential to encourage otherwise sedentary people to exercise. If such an individual makes a lifelong commitment to healthier habits after being inspired by products like these, it’s a great thing. However, if the disappointment of being overweight and more vulnerable to debilitating conditions has failed to inspire a long term commitment to good health, then it’s highly unlikely for the novelty of the latest fitness or diet fad to have any more of a lasting impact.

Regardless of the quality or effectiveness of products like the P90X program or Reebok’s EasyTone sneakers, their novelty can indeed motivate people to adapt healthier habits. However, once the novelty wears off, which it inevitably will, inspiration and motivation will likely fade away too. I consider this type of inspiration to be weak because it’s based on something other than the direct benefits of the tasks or activities that require motivation. While it may “get someone off the couch,” it won’t keep them off the couch for long unless it facilitates the recognition of a deeper and more meaningful source of inspiration.

How to Identify a Meaningful Source of Inspiration

There’s no single way to describe the meaning of life. It can vary greatly based on individuality, and although not everyone fully recognizes what aspects of life are most meaningful to them, we each have a unique set of values that represent what we care about most. Regardless of what these values are, they can be a tremendous source of inspiration and motivation, and as such, they can inspire the dedication needed to achieve challenging and long term goals. A great way to take advantage of this is to identify ways in which your values are dependent upon your goals.

Consider someone who’s naturally inspired by the fulfillment they gain from helping others but can’t find the motivation they need to lose weight. By identifying ways in which weight loss could make their generosity more productive and fulfilling, such a person will naturally be more motivated to implement healthier habits. For example, a more fit and healthy appearance would be a demonstration of self empowerment that could increase their credibility and influence, and the extra energy that typically results from improved health could increase their capacity and allow them engage in more of the generous behavior that fulfills them. Furthermore, relying on a sensible exercise program and a truly healthy diet to lose weight will more than likely improve their quality of life, and this is a benefit that should be meaningful to anyone. In short, the key to building motivation is recognizing an honest and realistic way to associate your goals with a stronger sense of urgency, and basing the association on personal values is an excellent way to accomplish this.

A great example of this concept comes from Andre Agassi’s autobiography. Andre’s time as a professional tennis player can easily be regarded as a dramatic transition from a young and flamboyant punk who took his talent for granted to a mature and dedicated veteran who made the most of what he had. Although he hated doing the very same thing that brought him his fame, he eventually recognized his passion for helping others and chose to use his tennis talent to pursue it further. This passion inspired him, and recognizing a way to associate it with tennis gave him the motivation that he previously lacked to fully commit himself to his career as a professional athlete. As a result, he was finally able to live up to his potential as a world class tennis player and enjoy consistent and long term success. More importantly, this helped him achieve his true goal of establishing the highly successful Andre Agassi Prepatory Academy which provides underprivileged children in Las Vegas with a good education and an opportunity for a better life.

Be Inspired By Enjoyment

A much more simple approach to cultivating inspiration, and one that doesn’t require much thought at all, is enjoyment. People who enjoy exercising and eating nutritious whole foods generally don’t have much trouble making these healthy habits a consistent part of their lifestyles. For example, I’ve always enjoyed working out and playing sports, especially tennis, and as such, it’s very easy for me to stay active. Likewise, with my appreciation for the importance of a healthy diet, I’ve become more aware of preferences that I have for certain whole foods and look forward to meals that include them.

Just about anyone should be able to identify a few physical activities that they find enjoyable and a variety of nutritious whole foods that they find delicious. The key is being open minded enough to discover what they are, and once this happens, healthy living will very likely become much easier. Those who find a way to enjoy healthy habits will likely find that their commitment to them seems effortless.

Change is Difficult

For many people, a large part of the reason why implementing healthier habits is so difficult is the discomfort of changing their existing habits. A strong source of inspiration, whether it be based on personal values or simple enjoyment, helps to overcome this sometimes overwhelming obstacle. Although habits relating to health are often the hardest to change and are most frequently related to diet and exercise, finding a strong source of inspiration can help a great deal in making any type of change.

Another common problem with change is starting out with too much ambition. For example, someone who exercises hard every day or excessively cuts calories will be more likely to lose their motivation regardless of how strong their source of inspiration is. As such, balance is critical, and within reason, doing less often provides more benefit than doing more, especially when the only other alternative is doing nothing at all.

Written by Vin Miller for NaturalBias.com.

Despite how many people make drastic but temporary changes to lose weight, long term success is highly dependent on making less drastic changes that are permanent. It’s common for people to be overzealous with calorie restriction or exercise, and although it may initially be effective, these practices are eventually likely to lead to fatigue, a raging appetite that can no longer be resisted, compromised health, and an eventual return to old habits. This is why so many people regain the weight they’ve worked so hard to lose and continue to repeat this cycle until they eventually give up and choose to accept being overweight.

Would You Do This to Your Car?

Imagine a hypothetical scenario where you compromise on the quality of gas that you put into your car. You need to drive the car an extra 200 miles each week to prevent the impurities in the low quality gas from settling and causing buildup that can damage the engine. The extra mileage would accumulate to more than 10,000 miles per year and put a lot of unnecessary wear and tear on the car. The car would probably be ready for the junk yard much sooner than normal, and choosing to use lesser quality gasoline would obviously be a tremendous mistake. In addition, driving the additional 200 miles each week would waste a lot of time, even if you enjoy driving.

This scenario sounds ridiculous in regard to a car, but yet it’s exactly what most people do to lose weight. They regularly eat lesser quality food and end up trying to compensate by exercising frantically to burn calories. In the process, they put a lot of unnecessary burden on their bodies and waste a lot of time.

Frequent exercise causes the breakdown of body tissue which then needs to be rebuilt. This requires good nutrition and adequate rest. Most people who exercise for weight loss will also restrict their calories, but will do so without paying much attention to food quality. Between the calorie restriction, lesser quality food, and frequent exercise that is usually coupled with inadequate rest, full recovery will never happen and the body will gradually continue to break down. Eventually, the compromised health that this can cause may manifest as tiredness, irritability, poor concentration, and weakened immunity, all of which are symptoms of adrenal fatigue. Like the car that accumulates many unnecessary miles each year, your body will be ready for the junk yard well before its time. Although the human body is extremely resilient and can withstand a lot of abuse, there are much better ways to lose weight without testing this limit.

Not All Calories are Created Equal

Even dietitians and nutritionists are known to oversimplify weight loss to being a matter of “calories in vs. calories out” which basically means to consume fewer calories than you burn. However, this relies on the flawed assumption that all calories are the same regardless of the type of food that they come from. Fat, protein, and carbohydrates are each used for different physiological purposes, and although each of these macronutrients can often be broken down and reassembled as needed, this isn’t always the case and sometimes has negative consequences. Furthermore, how these macronutrients are processed can vary based on the individuality of one’s metabolism. In other words, 100 calories worth of protein will not be digested and utilized the same way 100 calories of carbohydrates would be, and the differences can vary by individual.

It’s absurd to think that eating 2,000 calories of carbohydrate per day would have the same physiological influence as eating 2,000 calories of all protein. Clearly, this is an extreme exaggeration, but so is the overstated simplicity of losing weight by creating a calorie deficit. Furthermore, many people are excessive with calorie restriction and it’s difficult to maintain consistent weight loss by doing this because the body will adjust to the decreased intake of nutrients and reduce metabolism to conserve resources. It’s also difficult to overcome the increased appetite that results, and when excessive calorie restriction is combined with excessive exercise, which is often the case, appetite will increase even more.

Although carbohydrates are our primary source of energy, fat is also important for energy production and is actually used by the body for long term energy storage. When necessary, protein can be used as a source of energy as well. As such, all of the three primary macronutrients can be used for energy, but carbohydrates can’t satisfy all of the needs that protein and fat do for the repair and development of body tissue. Clearly, our diets need to provide a balance of these macronutrients, and this balance should be based more so on optimal health and metabolic individuality than weight loss. Unless health issues are involved, weight loss tends to result naturally from a diet that promotes optimal health. However, partly as a result of deceptive advertising and food labels, many people are confused by the misconceptions of what a truly healthy diet really is.

Why Low Fat Diets are a Bad Idea

A gram of fat contains more the twice as many calories as a gram of protein or carbohydrate. As such, it’s one of the first things to be removed from the diet by someone looking to cut calories, especially given the popularity of low fat diets for both health and weight loss. Despite this, fat is very important to our health, and this has been made obvious in part by the increasing awareness of the benefits of essential fatty acids. Even saturated fat is necessary for good health despite the misconception that dietary fat causes heart disease. Furthermore, as shown by the important work of Dr. Weston A. Price, dietary animal fat is an important source of the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K which are critical to good health and proper development.

Another important consideration regarding fat consumption is its role in energy production. People who eat less carbohydrate tend to rely more on fat as a source of energy which decreases the likeliness of it being stored as body fat. Ironically, most people who follow a low fat diet eat an excessive amount of carbohydrates to compensate, and as a result, can be much more likely to gain weight. While an excess of either carbohydrate or fat can cause weight gain, most people would be better served by reducing their consumption of carbohydrates rather than fat.

A Better Perspective on Losing Weight

As I mentioned earlier, it’s much better to lose weight by eating healthy than to compensate for poor eating habits with excessive exercise and calorie restriction. The first approach will allow you to lose weight while also improving your health and overall quality of life, but the latter approach is much more likely to improve your appearance at the cost of your health. Exercise can indeed accelerate weight loss, but it shouldn’t be necessary to do much more than what’s required to maintain good health. Calorie restriction can promote weight loss as well, but done in excess, it can also cause nutritional deficiencies and even prevent weight loss. Besides, even if calorie counting were a good idea, the calorie information on nutrition labels is often inaccurate.

As you can hopefully see, the ideal situation is for optimal health to be the primary goal and to allow weight loss to naturally occur as a secondary benefit. This applies in regard to both diet and exercise. In fact, this is exactly how I lost 30 pounds in 3 months. I had no intentions of losing weight, and at the time, didn’t even know I had 30 pounds to lose. In addition, because I was at my worst stage of chronic fatigue, I wasn’t exercising much at all because I simply couldn’t do so without making myself feel worse.

A Healthier and More Simple Way of Eating to Lose Weight

Following a truly healthy diet can require a lot of dedication, but fortunately, it can also be very simple. The key is eliminating sugar and processed foods as much as possible which can automatically be accomplished by eating a diet based on natural whole foods. If necessary, this approach can be taken a step further by eliminating grain based foods, avoiding vegetables such as potatoes that are high in starch, and even being judicious with fruit consumption. After all, the sugar that our prehistoric ancestors obtained from fruit during the summer was one of the things that allowed them to gain the body fat needed to survive winter.

While this approach may sound like a low carb diet or a primal diet, I consider it to be nothing more than a common sense diet that promotes weight loss and good health at the same time. While this type of diet is low in carbohydrates relative to the typical modern diet, excessive avoidance of carbohydrates isn’t necessary and is even counterproductive for some people. What’s important to realize is that it’s difficult to consume too much carbohydrate from fruit and vegetables, and it’s also difficult to overeat in general when eating mostly natural whole foods. These are both factors that greatly contribute to healthy weight loss.

A great resource for more information on a rational and healthy perspective on weight loss is The Slow Down Diet by Marc David. Another great resource is The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson which is a detailed overview of a healthy lifestyle based on our evolution, much of which is geared towards weight loss.

Written by Vin Miller for NaturalBias.com.

Many energy boosting products are loaded with sugar and caffeine and may even contain artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners, preservatives, and other potentially harmful ingredients. According to the marketing, 5 Hour Energy is supposed to be different. While it does contain seemingly healthy ingredients like vitamins and amino acids, it also contains a number of questionable ingredients as well. Furthermore, even if 5 Hour Energy contained only the most natural and healthful ingredients, it’s also important to consider the flawed mentality behind the most commonly perceived need for such a product.

Only 4 Calories

Most energy drinks are loaded with sugar, and as many people are beginning to realize, sugar is unhealthy and causes blood sugar fluctuation that can lead to a number of additional problems. In addition, the energy it provides is often proceeded by significant fatigue and a craving for more sugar. Many of the 5 Hour Energy commercials point this out and boast about the fact that it doesn’t contain sugar. What they don’t tell you is that 5 Hour Energy contains sucralose, also known as the controversial artificial sweetener Splenda.

Splenda is marketed in a way that might lead you to believe that it’s a natural substance. Although it starts out as sugar, it’s highly processed until it becomes a type of chemical called an organochloride and is anything but natural. In fact, most organochlorides are pesticides, and Splenda is the only organochloride intended for human consumption. Like the infamous sweetener aspartame, a lot of politics were involved with the approval of Splenda. In addition, many people have reported adverse reactions from using it, and some research suggests that it could potentially damage DNA and be carcinogenic.¹ By using Splenda instead of sugar, 5 Hour Energy is merely trading one problem for another.

B Vitamins and Amino Acids

It’s well known that B vitamins and amino acids have an important influence on your energy levels. In fact, amino acids can influence your moods as well. However, if you’re eating a well rounded diet based on natural whole foods, then you should be getting plenty of these nutrients and not have a need to obtain them from an energy product like 5 Hour Energy. Furthermore, it’s generally safer and more effective to obtain vitamins and amino acids as they naturally exist in food rather than in isolation or synthetic form.

Although there are some exceptions, most people who rely on energy drinks, shots, or supplements are only compensating for the unhealthy habits that are making them tired. In addition, those who really do need vitamin or amino acid supplementation would be much better off with a specific supplement program than a generic energy product.

Unnatural Additives

Splenda isn’t the only unnatural and potentially dangerous ingredient in 5 Hour Energy. In addition to unnamed artificial flavors, it also contains the preservatives sodium benzoate and EDTA.

Sodium benzoate is a commonly used preservative in the food industry that has the potential to damage DNA and produce the carcinogen benzene when combined with the ascorbic acid form of vitamin C.² As is the case with 5 Hour Energy, many products that contain sodium benzoate also contain EDTA because it helps to reduce the formation of benzene. However, like sodium benzoate, EDTA has the potential to damage DNA. It’s also toxic to cells and is considered to be an environmental pollutant that degrades slowly.³

In an interview with the marketing director of the company that makes 5 Hour Energy, journalist and spokesperson Dr. Wendy Walsh supports 5 Hour Energy by saying that other energy boosting products are loaded with unknown herbal stimulants. Is that any worse than potentially harmful preservatives that don’t even contribute to the effectiveness of the product?

That 2:30 Afternoon Feeling

The most popular commercials for 5 Hour Energy show the typical office environment with people who are tired and relying on coffee to get through the day. They point out that the energy provided by coffee won’t last and will leave you coming back for more. Despite this legitimate criticism of coffee, caffeine is one of the key ingredients of 5 Hour Energy. In fact, according to their website, 5 Hour Energy contains about the same amount of caffeine as a “premium cup of coffee.”

Although there’s a decaffeinated version of 5 Hour Energy, it clearly isn’t the one that’s been advertised so heavily, and even if the effects of 5 Hour Energy really do last longer than coffee, it’s still not the long term answer to “that 2:30 afternoon feeling” that so many people experience on a regular basis.

A Better Way to Have 5 Hours of Energy and More

Using a product like 5 Hour Energy on occasion is unlikely to do much harm, especially if it’s one that contains fewer unnatural ingredients, but doing so on a regular basis is asking for trouble. This is because it only addresses the symptoms of fatigue and neglects the underlying causes of it. Furthermore, because the artificial boost in energy allows you to push yourself beyond your capacity, it’s likely that the fatigue will worsen over time and may even lead to adrenal fatigue or other more serious health issues.

Fatigue is typically a result of poor diet, inadequate rest, excessive and persistent stress, or too much physical exertion, and in many cases, it’s a combination of these factors. Instead of correcting these problems, most people look for a quick and compensatory fix like 5 Hour Energy. Over time, this can lead to chronic and persistent fatigue, and I can tell you from personal experience that it’s quite unpleasant. By implementing much healthier lifestyle habits, I now have much more energy, and it remains consistent throughout the day. I never have the desire for an artificial energy boost, and whenever I’m unexpectedly tired, I think about the potential causes and take action to correct them. This may mean getting to bed earlier, being more careful about my food choices, dealing with stress better, or simply slowing down, but it definitely doesn’t involve any type of energy product like 5 Hour Energy.

In addition to having more energy, this type of mentality has also made it possible for me to enjoy many of the other benefits of optimal health. To learn more about some of the healthy lifestyle principles that have helped me tremendously improve my energy and my life in general, sign up for my free course, 7 Simple Steps to a Leaner, Happier, and Healthier You.

Written by Vin Miller for NaturalBias.com.

It’s common to hear people say that they’ll soon be starting a new diet or exercise program, but even if they actually make the attempt, chances are that the effort won’t last long. New Year’s resolutions aren’t much different. They’re usually based on changes that are long overdue and have persisted through many failed and halfhearted attempts. In fact, some people make the same resolutions year after year, and even when motivation starts off strong, the temptation and comfort of old habits will often prevail. This is not to say that there’s no value in making New Year’s resolutions, but rather that it should be done with the proper perspective.

Are New Year’s Resolutions Worth the Effort?

According to a study done on the effectiveness of New Year’s resolutions, only 46% of the participants considered themselves to still be successful in the pursuit of their goals after 6 months. A similar experiment found the success rate to be only 12% after a full year. While this may initially sound disappointing, the first study also surveyed participants who were pursuing goals not associated with a New Year’s resolution and found that only 4% of them considered themselves to still be successful after 6 months.

Based on the numbers above, there’s clearly something to be said for the formalized commitment of a New Year’s resolution. However, this commitment is only a small piece of what’s necessary to turn a resolution into a reality. The following are some tips that constitute a more complete approach and will greatly increase the likeliness of success.

Evaluate Your Motives

This may sound redundant at first, but it’s not as obvious as it may seem and is what I consider to be the most important factor in achieving a goal regardless of it being associated with a New Year’s resolution or not. Change is difficult and uncomfortable, and to successfully overcome this, it’s absolutely necessary to have an intense desire for the outcome that the change will bring. This desire must also be enduring, and for this to be the case, you must have a clear and solid understanding of why the projected outcome of your goal is so valuable to you. Without this desire and understanding, the discomfort of change will be extremely difficult to overcome.

Weight loss is one of the most common New Year’s resolutions and is very much based on diet. The sound eating habits that are the most critical aspect of healthy weight loss require a significant amount of determination to learn and implement. As such, the desire for weight loss must be strong enough to overcome the temptation and convenience of old habits, and the strength of this desire will depend on the perceived value of losing weight. For example, someone who’s suffering badly from being overweight is likely to have a much stronger desire to lose weight than someone who simply wants a nice figure to show off at the beach.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to improve your figure, but you should be honest with yourself about the value that such a goal will bring and if it’s worth the time and effort that you’ll need to invest. It will also be beneficial to spend more time thinking about the outcome of achieving your goal to see if you can associate any additional meaning with it. For example, if you initially wanted to lose weight just to improve your figure, you might realize that the health benefits of an excellent diet are important to you as well, and this added meaning will make it easier to implement the eating habits that will promote weight loss.

On a regular basis, ask yourself what you value most about life, how well your goals are aligned with these values, and how much better your life would be if you achieved your goals. If you don’t find the answers to be deeply inspiring, then your motivation will probably disappear quickly and you might as well be one of the many people who make the same New Year’s resolutions year after year. In other words, if you’re pursuing a challenging goal that won’t add significant meaning to your life, then your chances of success are limited.

Envision Success

Although it should be obvious that your thoughts and perspective can have a significant influence on your actions, many people get in their own way by having a poor outlook. If you perceive yourself as someone who’s already making progress and will achieve success, it can serve as a valuable source of satisfaction and motivation. In contrast, if you have frequent doubts about how difficult it will be to accomplish your goal and how much work you have left to do, it will probably encourage you to give up. By envisioning your success instead of dwelling on your doubts, you’ll be encouraged to consistently make the small decisions that will eventually accumulate into significant changes, and because this can happen at the subconscious level, it can be very powerful.

Consider someone who just had a stressful and upsetting day. Despite their desire to lose weight, they might be tempted to lift their mood with a huge bowl of ice cream. If they were to perceive themselves positively as someone who’s made great effort and progress towards weight loss, the satisfaction from this alone may eliminate the need to indulge, and if it doesn’t, the importance of their goal and the meaning behind it will likely influence them to not eat the ice cream or enjoy a more conservative portion of it. In contrast, someone who repeatedly reminds themselves of how much weight they have to lose and how long it will take will be more likely to surrender to their temptations and regret it afterward.

Commit to Only One Change at a Time

Changing even just a single habit or routine can be very difficult. If it wasn’t, the concept of New Year’s resolutions wouldn’t exist because we’d all be able to make a change as soon as we perceived the need for it. Despite the difficulty of change, it’s easy to get excited about the prospect of what we can accomplish during the new year, and as a result, be overzealous with our goals. This often leads to a number of ambitious goals, but because it’s more difficult to implement multiple changes at the same time, trying to pursue them all at once further decreases the already limited chance of success.

By focusing on one change at a time, you can increase the amount of focus and effort that you dedicate to it, and in turn, greatly improve your chances of success. For example, if your goal is to lose weight, you’ll likely be planning to change both your eating and exercising habits. Rather than attempting to accomplish both changes simultaneously, it would be much easier and more effective to initially focus all of your effort on the most important change which would be improving your diet. Once your new eating habits become a solidified part of your daily routine, then you can focus on starting a well rounded exercise program.

You can even take this approach a step further by focusing on smaller changes that are more specific such as reducing sugar consumption or improving just one daily meal at a time. With smaller changes like these, you won’t be overwhelmed by the prospect of reinventing your entire diet.

Despite the added challenge of pursuing multiple goals at once, you can still commit yourself to more than one New Year’s resolution. The key is to prioritize them and pursue only one at a time. For more information on prioritizing goals and simplifying them into smaller and more manageable pieces, I recommend that you read The Power of Less by Leo Babauta.

Make a Daily Effort to Improve

A year is a long time. If you manage this time wisely, it can make your success much easier than expected, but if you manage it poorly, you may very well be making the same New Year’s resolution again next year. Doing something each and every day that contributes to the achievement of your goal will generate momentum and make it easier to maintain your motivation. Even if your daily efforts are small, they can still accumulate into significant changes over time. For example, if you were to do something each day to maintain the healthy pace of losing just 2 pounds per week, you could lose more than 100 pounds by the end of the year.

Another benefit of consistency and persistence is the fact that it reduces the immediate amount of work that needs to be done which can be a major factor in preventing a loss of motivation. Although it can depend on the type of the goal, making a small effort each day is typically a lot easier and much more effective than making a larger effort less frequently. An obvious example is preparing for an exam. In regard to weight loss, however, a consistent effort is more of a necessity than an option because your success will depend on your daily habits.

It’s also important to realize that consistency and persistence can be detrimental if taken too far. Although these are two of the most important factors in successfully implementing new habits, you’ll likely overwhelm yourself, become frustrated, and lose your motivation if you push yourself too hard. Doing so may initially accelerate your progress, but if it ultimately causes you to give up, you’ll be no better off at the end of the year than when you started.

Educate Yourself

Second to giving your motives an honest and thorough evaluation, I think knowledge is the next most important factor in achieving your goals. Even with an unlimited amount of motivation and effort, it’s unlikely that you’ll make much progress without knowing an effective way to achieve your desired outcome. In contrast, following a more informed approach can save a lot of time, effort, and frustration while also increasing your chances of success.

Most goals can be achieved in a number of different ways, and as such, you should choose an approach that’s compatible with your values, preferences, and abilities. Many New Year’s resolutions, especially weight loss, require changes that need to become lifelong habits. If these changes won’t be an enjoyable or at least agreeable part of your daily life, chances are that you’ll revert back to old habits. Even if you have enough determination to not let this happen, the forced effort may cause so much conflict and frustration that it defeats the purpose by compromising your life instead of improving it. Although sacrifice and persistence are typically necessary for achieving any goal that’s worth pursuing, having enough knowledge to choose the most suitable and effective approach can significantly reduce the burden and will facilitate success.

If weight loss will be one of your New Year’s resolutions this year, the approach that I suggest you consider is to minimize the consumption of sugar and refined carbohydrates, eat mostly natural whole foods, and develop a healthy and sustainable perspective on weight loss. Most people don’t realize that weight loss has a lot more to do with diet than exercise, and by focusing on losing weight through a healthy diet, you’ll be much more healthy, happy, and energetic than if you chose the more popular method of overexercising to compensate for a poor diet.

Happy New Year!

Regardless of whether the past year was good or bad, it’s exciting to think about what the new year may bring and what we can do to improve our lives. Hopefully this excitement has encouraged you to establish some well thought out goals for next year. I sincerely hope that you’ll thoroughly enjoy pursuing them, I wish you plenty of success in doing so, and I hope that the upcoming year will be one of your best yet!

Written by Vin Miller for NaturalBias.com.

Americans are getting an average of less than 7 hours of sleep each night and are busier and more stressed than ever. The physiological burden of dealing with an unprecedented number of activities and responsibilities each day and the excessive amount of stress that they create increases our need for sleep each night, but despite this increased need, many of us are compounding the problem by sleeping less.

A Tired Nation Headed for Trouble

We’ve spent millions of years sleeping in accordance with a natural circadian rhythm based on the rising and setting of the sun. In contrast, it’s been less than a century that we’ve enjoyed the convenience of artificial light as we know it today. In this short period of time, our sleep habits have changed so much that they can no longer adequately support our lifestyles, especially with the fast pace of modern life.

Many people are relying on coffee and other stimulants to get them through the day, and by doing so, they’re compensating for their lack of wellness and are jeopardizing their health in the process. When this continues for a long enough period of time, it can cause chronic problems like adrenal fatigue that can take quite some time to recover from, and even worse, lead to more significant health issues.

Your Energy Budget and Why it’s Like a Bank Account

We each have a unique capacity for physical activity and stress, and this capacity is very much affected by our lifestyle habits. Some people, such as traditional Tarahumara hunters who run as much as 100 miles in the blazing heat while hunting, have incredible capacities and a seemingly endless supply of energy. However, most people have much more restrictive capacities and a much smaller supply of energy. In fact, many of the people living the busy, stressful, and unhealthy lifestyles that are so common today become fatigued from simply walking up a hill or a flight of stairs. Despite this, they still approach life as if they had the capacity of a Tarahumara hunter.

Through my experience with chronic fatigue syndrome, I know as well as anyone how frustrating fatigue can be, how it can affect your mood, and most importantly, how it can limit your life. To avoid the unpleasant effects of fatigue and overexertion, it’s important that you appreciate the limits of your capacity and respect them just as much as the finite balance of your bank account.

If you’re tired more often than you’d like, you’re not respecting your limitations as much as you should be. Just like a bank account, you want to maintain an energy balance that always leaves you with plenty of reserve. It’s important to make as many deposits as you can by following healthy lifestyle habits and to minimize withdrawals by avoiding unnecessary stress and exertion that you can’t afford.

Increase Your Energy Balance With Deposits from Healthy Habits

Despite their popularity, energy drinks and supplements are not an effective way to increase your capacity for physical or mental activity. Instead, you need to give your body the opportunity to recharge itself by following good sleep habits and eating nutritious food. In my opinion, these are two of the most fundamental and important ways to promote good health and enjoy the abundant energy that it provides.

It’s also helpful to include relaxing and refreshing activities in your lifestyle such as enjoying nature, meditating, listening to soothing music, or participating in rejuvenating forms of exercise such as tai chi or qigong. These activities will help keep you relaxed and give your body more opportunity to recharge and repair.

Being able to easily get out of bed each morning and have an abundant and balanced amount of energy that lasts throughout the day is extremely satisfying. It’s really not that difficult to achieve and is really nothing more than a byproduct of optimal health. However, most people would rather look for a quick fix that they’ll never find instead of dedicating themselves to achieving this level of health and satisfaction.

Preserve Your Energy Balance by Avoiding Unnecessary Withdrawals

With the convenience of artificial lighting and the advancement of computers, the internet, and a number of other technologies, it’s easier than ever to push ourselves beyond our capacity. We’re always in search of ways to do more in less time, and many people are pressured at their job to be more productive. In fact, many companies are expecting some of their best workers to do the jobs of two or three people. These people often have a lot going on in their personal lives as well, and the combination of it all creates a tremendous amount of stress and consumes a considerable amount of energy and physiological resources. This is how many people live on a day to day basis, and it’s a significant withdrawal from their energy balance.

To make matters worse, many people believe that strenuous exercise is a good way to relieve excessive stress, overcome fatigue, or lose weight. While it’s certainly true that exercise promotes good health, it can actually be harmful to a body that’s already overwhelmed. With the overburdened lives that many people live, it doesn’t take much exercise at all for this to be the case. Despite this, many people are exhausting themselves and compromising their health by doing too much cardio and following excessive exercise programs like the P90X.

Regardless of how much you sleep and how well you eat, it’s still absolutely necessary to minimize your mental and physical stress. Whether your frustrated, worried, angry, doing physical labor, or exercising, these are all forms of stress that are a physiological burden and will increase the need for rest and repair. As such, they each act as a withdrawal from your energy balance. Too many withdrawals will leave you deep in energy debt and you’ll likely become exhausted, run down, and susceptible to illness. To avoid this, eliminate as many sources of stress as possible and only engage in the most important or rewarding physical activities.

Living Within Your Energy Budget

It’s absolutely critical to appreciate the fact that you have limits. Just because you have a friend who works a lot of overtime, barely gets any sleep, exercises much more than necessary, and feels great, this isn’t justification for you to adopt the same misguided habits. People who are able to sustain such a lifestyle are the exception and there carelessness will likely catch up to them eventually. Don’t make the mistake of estimating your capacity based on what other people are able to do. Instead, pay close attention to how you feel so that you can accurately assess your own capacity.

At my most frustrating stage of chronic fatigue syndrome, I couldn’t even do a light 20 minute bike ride without it making me exhausted for several days. This is the type of low intensity exercise that a healthy individual should be able to do every single day with it actually improving their energy rather than taking away from it. After years of pushing myself beyond my limits, I had to learn the hard way that I can’t do as much as most other people. Fortunately, I now have much more capacity, and living a truly healthy lifestyle is what has given me this luxury.

Don’t stay up late just because it’s the weekend, don’t work long hours unless you absolutely must, don’t force yourself to exercise just because it’s your designated workout day, and do your best to not be uptight about things that really don’t matter. When you’re about to do any of these things, ask yourself if you really have the capacity for it at that exact moment and if it’s worth a reduction to your finite energy balance.

For more information on the healthy lifestyle habits that will increase your energy balance and minimize withdrawals from it, sign up for my free course, 7 Simple Steps to a Leaner, Happier, and Healthier You.

Written by Vin Miller for NaturalBias.com.

While our primitive ancestors were forced to live in agreement with nature, we seem to do everything we can to outsmart it, and we almost always fail. The following are some of the more notable and devastating mistakes that we’re still making.

1. We’ve Lost Our Inherent Ability to Choose Healthy Food

Even the planet’s most simplistic and unintelligent creatures are able to select appropriate foods to support their health. Despite being the most intelligent form of life on earth, many of us have lost this inherent ability and are literally killing ourselves with our food choices. Perhaps we’re too smart for our own good.

Healthy eating really doesn’t have to be complicated. Simply choose the whole foods provided to us by nature. Sure, there’s more to a healthy diet than simply eating whole foods, but this principle alone is in my opinion more important than any other and will resolve many of the diet related health issues that are so prevalent today.

2. We’ve Forgotten How to Sustainably Grow Food and Raise Livestock

For more than 99% of our history, we didn’t farm our food. We hunted animals and gathered fruits and vegetables. Although farming isn’t purely natural, it’s become a necessity with the drastic growth of the human population and is a tremendous convenience that allows us to settle down and establish communities instead of having to follow herds of animals. We’ve become reliant on farming, and unfortunately, modern practices have greatly deviated from the laws of nature. They’re contributing to our many prevailing health issues and are destroying the planet. If the current trend continues, we’ll eventually run out of productive land to farm.

Nearly all forms of life are supported by an amazingly efficient cycle in which the earth’s nutrients are continuously reused. The many organisms that exist in the soil feed on decaying matter such as fallen leaves, dead plants and animals, and animal excrement. The resulting byproducts feed the plants that eventually become food for animals and humans. Some of these animals then become food for other animals as well as humans. The cycle is completed when excrement and other organic matter decomposes and replenishes the soil with the nutrients that once again become food for the organisms living in it. This natural, effective, and robust cycle has been broken by modern farming in favor of increased efficiency and profit.

Without a way to naturally replenish the soil with nutrients, it becomes depleted, produces less nutritious food, and increases the need for pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. In addition, livestock are being raised in unsanitary conditions which leads to poor food quality, promotes the development and spread of disease, and contaminates the environment with highly concentrated lagoons of toxic excrement. To learn more about the flaws of modern farming and what good farming is really about, watch the Food, Inc. documentary and Fresh the movie.

3. We Intentionally Avoid the Essential Benefits of Sun Exposure

We wouldn’t survive very long without the sun, but despite this, many of us avoid it like the plague. Our primitive ancestors spent most of their time in the sun, and as a result, we’ve evolved to depend on it for more than just heat. The primary reason why sun exposure is essential to our health is because it provokes our skin to produce vitamin D. This important vitamin, which is really a prehormone, regulates the expression of more than 10% of our genes and plays a critical role in our immunity, particularly in regard to cancer prevention.

Despite the importance of sunlight, we’ve been advised to minimize our exposure and use sunscreen which blocks the production of vitamin D. This advice is mostly based on the high incidence of skin cancer and the fear of melanoma which is it’s most dangerous form. However, melanoma is most frequently found on areas of the body that are rarely exposed to the sun and has a notable prevalence among people who spend most of their time indoors. While frequent sunburn can certainly cause cancer, the significant amount of stress, chemical exposure, electromagnetic radiation, and unhealthy foods that we encounter on a daily basis are arguably more of a concern.

Instead of completely avoiding a natural resource that we’ve depended on for millions of years, a healthier and more practical approach would be to get sun exposure on a regular basis without getting burnt.

4. We Make Ourselves Sick By Polluting Our Environment

One of the major aspects of technological advancement is the invention of synthetic chemicals. We’ve polluted the earth so terribly that every single body of water on the planet is contaminated. Even the breast milk of Inuit women from the Arctic has been found to contain toxic chemicals. During our millions of years of existence, the human body has never before encountered these chemicals, but is now exposed to hundreds or even thousands of them on a daily basis. The body is often unable to process these chemicals properly, and even if this isn’t the case, the volume of exposure is still likely to be overwhelming, especially among the many people who aren’t optimally healthy.

Our obsession with profit encourages the production of a tremendous amount of material goods that we really don’t need. Unfortunately, the manufacturing of these products creates a considerable amount of pollution. We make matters worse by intentionally using chemicals to grow our food, and we’ve adapted a medical system that promotes the excessive use of chemical medications. Each of these sources contribute to our chemical exposure and the pollution that exists in our air, land, and water.

Chemical toxins can impair cell function and lead to a variety of serious problems including the dysfunction of important organs and glands, particularly the brain. Some of the best ways to avoid exposure to toxins are to drink filtered water, use natural personal care products, and eat organic produce, pasture raised meat, and minimally contaminated fish.

5. We Run Our Bodies Into the Ground and Call it Exercise

Most people tend to associate exercise with many laborious, intense, painful, and boring hours spent on a cardio machine. Some people even become fanatical about endurance exercise and run multiple marathons or participate in other types of long distance events. It’s unlikely that many of our ancestors ran the long distances that most enthusiastic runners do, and even those who did weren’t exposed to the persistent stress, poor nutrition, and inadequate rest that are such common characteristics of the modern lifestyle. As such, many of us don’t have the capacity for the volume and intensity of exercise that we’re doing, and over time, it’s very possible for this much physiological burden to cause issues like adrenal fatigue.

Our ancestors were more likely to get their exercise from activities such as hunting, fleeing from danger, walking, gathering food and supplies, building shelter, and carrying heavy objects. Activities such as light aerobics, high intensity interval training, and strength training resemble these activities much more closely than exhausting yourself on a cardio machine.

Another common problem is that many modern exercise trends encourage people to sacrifice their health for appearance. The popular P90X program is a great example of this. Instead of being overly concerned with weight loss, it’s easier, more effective, and much more satisfying to exercise for good health and let weight loss be a natural result of a truly healthy lifestyle.

6. We Avoid Saturated Fat Thinking that it Promotes Disease

Saturated fat has been part of our diet for millions of years, but just within the past century, we’ve decided that it’s unhealthy and causes heart disease. This is despite evidence that indicates otherwise such as the work of Weston A. Price which clearly shows that saturated fat supports excellent health. As is shown by the Fat Head documentary and The Cholesterol Myths by Uffe Ravnskov, the idea that saturated fat causes heart disease is based on manipulated research and is completely unsupported.

In an effort to replace saturated fat with something more healthy, we’ve invented a highly processed and unnatural form of fat called trans fat which has proven to be extremely unhealthy. We’ve also decided that it’s healthier to consume polyunsaturated vegetable oils which are very unstable and can easily produce free radicals and cause cell damage. Ironically, these fats have been associated with an increase in the prevalence of heart disease and are also linked to a number of other worrisome health issues.

7. We’ve Disregarded Our Natural Sleeping Rhythm

It’s only since the last century that artificial light has truly given us the ability to live according to our own schedule rather than the rising and setting of the sun. Through our millions of years of evolution, we’ve developed a circadian rhythm based on the sun and the earth’s magnetic field. Regardless of how we plan our day, our body’s preference is to operate according to this natural rhythm which would mean going to bed reasonably close to sunset and waking up at sunrise. In contrast, most of us follow a chaotic sleep schedule that differs significantly from this, and to make matters worse, we sleep much less than our ancestors did. Compounded with the significant amount of stress that’s characteristic of modern life, this can have considerable health implications.

Following healthy sleep habits is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to improve your energy, moods, and overall health. Instead of improving our lives with such a simple adjustment, most of us choose to rely on coffee to compensate for missed sleep and struggle through the day as a result. For more information on how artificial light has altered our lives in a negative way, I highly recommend reading Lights Out by T.S. Wiley.

Embrace Nature and Live Better

Many people unfortunately regard a healthy lifestyle as something that’s complicated and difficult to follow. However, if you let nature be your guide and use some common sense in applying the wisdom we’ve gained from our multimillion year history, it’s really not as hard as it may seem. For more information on how to live a healthy lifestyle based on natural principles, sign up for my free course, 7 Simple Steps to a Leaner, Happier, and Healthier You!

Written by Vin Miller for NaturalBias.com.

What About Skin Cancer?

The primary reason why people avoid tanning, whether it be in the natural sunlight or in a tanning bed, is because of it’s association with skin cancer. However, this doesn’t make much sense when you consider that melanoma, the most dangerous form of skin cancer, is most prevalent among indoor workers and is most commonly found on the areas of the body that are exposed to sun the least.

Research on vitamin D is beginning to validate the importance of natural sunlight and prove that sun exposure is critical to good health. This also presents the possibility of tanning beds not only being safer than previously believed, but also being a potentially valuable source of vitamin D.

In 2006, a review of 19 studies on the effects of tanning beds showed a strong correlation between melanoma and the usage of tanning beds, especially when usage started before the age of 35. However, not all tanning beds are created equal, and there’s a good chance that it’s still possible to use a tanning bed without incurring this risk.

The Less Obvious Dangers of Tanning Beds

Electromagnetic radiation is unfortunately a topic that gets only a fraction of the attention that it deserves. However, enough research has been done for us to know that it’s a significant risk.

Melanoma was rare before the 1950s, but between the years of 1975 and 1992, the number of cases in the United States tripled. According to Dr. Robert Becker, the author of Cross Currents, the highest incidence of melanoma in the United States was at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California. This lab is involved with the testing of exotic military weapons, and according to research done in 1977, the incidence of melanoma among it’s employees was noticeably high in comparison to the surrounding area. According to Dr. Becker, some employees were routinely exposed to magnetic fields much larger than what we now know to be dangerous.

A tanning bed typically contains between 24 to 60 bulbs that are between 100 and 200 watts each. The power needed to run these bulbs, which amounts to a total of between 2,400 and 12,000 watts, is typically supplied by a magnetic ballast that can be just inches away from the person in the tanning bed and expose them to a very strong magnetic field. As such, it’s very possible that the cancer risks associated with tanning beds are more a result of electromagnetic radiation than ultraviolet light.

Another significant concern regarding many tanning beds is that they’re designed to emit minimal amounts of UVB radiation. This is desirable for tanning bed manufacturers because it promotes faster tanning with less risk of burning. However, UVB is the most beneficial component of natural sunlight because it’s what provokes the skin to produce vitamin D. Furthermore, UVA can actually destroy the vitamin D produced by the skin and is also believed to be more of a risk for melanoma.

Can Tanning Beds Be Part of a Healthy Lifestyle?

Vitamin D controls the expression of more than 2,000 of our genes. It also plays a critical role in the prevention of cancer growth which is only one of it’s many important functions. Since a tanning bed can be a significant source of vitamin D, it also has the potential to support good health, but before you get excited about the prospect of tanning during the winter, there are a few important factors to consider.

A tanning bed must emit UVB radiation for it to provoke vitamin D production, and ideally, the amount of UVB should be similar to that of mid day sunlight. This means that you’ll have to be more careful about sunburn. It’s also very important to avoid the strong electromagnetic radiation associated with some tanning beds by using one that’s powered by electronic ballasts. These ballasts typically produce a smaller magnetic field than the commonly used magnetic ballasts, but keep in mind that the resulting it may still be large enough to pose a risk.

Getting sun exposure on a regular basis without burning and without the use of sunscreen is obviously the most natural way to obtain vitamin D. It’s probably the healthiest and most effective way as well. For people who are unable to enjoy regular exposure to natural sunlight, the use of a tanning bed could arguably be a more natural source of vitamin D than oral supplementation. Vitamin D can be dangerous in excessive amounts, and because the skin regulates how much of it is produced from UVB radiation, there is less risk of obtaining excessive amounts of vitamin D from a tanning bed as there is from a supplement. However, because it may still be possible to acquire too much vitamin D from a tanning bed, or even natural sunlight, it’s still important to be judicious about the amount of time that you spend tanning.

Is it Worth the Risk?

The potential for tanning beds to be a healthy source of vitamin D is likely to excite the many people who’d like to maintain a nice tan throughout the entire year. However, we haven’t spent millions of years evolving under the bulbs of tanning beds like we have with natural sunlight which means that there’s still a significant potential for unknown risks. For someone who needs to correct or prevent a vitamin D deficiency, I think the use of a tanning bed is a potential alternative to vitamin D supplementation, but I don’t think the risk is justified when the only motivation is a darker tan. In such a case, you may very well be risking your health for appearance.

Written by Vin Miller for NaturalBias.com.

I recently read a book called The Power of Less, and although it’s about productivity, it’s principles are very much related to the discipline needed to implement and follow a healthy lifestyle. The author, Leo Babauta, is a minimalist by nature and is passionate about the topic of simple productivity. In contrast to the typical productivity philosophies that aim to help you cram even more work into your already busy day, the idea of simple productivity is to be more efficient, practical, and logical with your time so that you have more opportunity to simply be happy and experience the joy of living.

We all want happiness, and because our health is such an important part of this, we should all want excellent health as well. As such, I think simple productivity is an excellent concept that can help us live a healthier life without it taking too much of the time that we’d like to spend doing other things.

Set Limits

Many of us are frequently tempted to plan more work for a single day than what’s humanly possible. Despite this, we often do it anyway and it usually leads to nothing but frustration. By recognizing your limits and knowing how much you can comfortably handle or accomplish, you’ll be much more effective with the tasks that you choose to focus on, and the process will be much more satisfying.

There are so many important factors involved with a healthy lifestyle that it’s easy to be overzealous and try to incorporate them all at once. I’ve done it myself and I can assure you from personal experience that it’s an unnecessary source of stress which can be more of a hindrance to your health than the good habits that you’re trying to implement.

Choose the Essential

Once you’ve embraced the necessity of setting limits, it often leads to the uncertainty of what to eliminate. Your personal values, passions, and goals, which hopefully include excellent health, are what will allow you to make these choices. This is critical because if you don’t know what you value in life, you’ll likely find happiness to be elusive regardless of how well you manage your time. As Yogi Berra is known for saying, “You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you’re going, because you might not get there.”

If you don’t already have a very clear understanding of what you value in life, I suggest that you spend some time thinking about it. Even if you do have this understanding, it’s still a good idea to reflect on it every so often. Once you’re aware of your values, you’ll become much more effective at making wise choices that are more likely to promote satisfying accomplishments. Every aspect of your life can benefit from this including your job, relationships, hobbies, obligations, and especially your health. Furthermore, the satisfaction that often results from living in accordance with your values is a strong and positive emotion that can be just as beneficial to your health as more obvious factors such as diet, exercise, and sleep.

Focus on One New Habit at a Time

Even when you have a solid understanding of your values, life can be so busy that it’s easy to lose sight of them. This is especially the case with new habits that haven’t yet become a natural part of your daily routine, and if you lose focus of them for long enough, you may forget about them entirely. An easy way to avoid this is to focus on implementing just one new habit per month. By doing so, you’ll be much more focused on it, less likely to forget about it, and your chances of making it a permanent part of your life will increase dramatically.

If you’d like, you can even prepare a schedule of habits to implement over the next few months. Here are a few simple examples that could make a significant difference in your health and wellbeing.

• Eat only natural whole foods with the exception of an occasional treat.
• Establish healthy sleeping habits. Better sleep is one of the easiest and least expensive ways to improve your health and wellbeing.
• Dedicate some time each day to relaxing and reducing stress.
• Eat only organic produce, pasture raised meat, and uncontaminated fish. When possible, buy it from local farmers or other reputable sources.
• Spend at least 3 days per week engaging in a well balanced exercise routine including strength training, self massage, stretching, low intensity aerobics, and interval training.
• Drink more water each day and make sure that it’s filtered.
• Get an adequate amount of natural sun exposure on a regular basis, and if this isn’t possible, consider supplementing with Vitamin D.

Take it Slow

As someone who’s very focused on achieving, I often catch myself trying to accomplish more than I should. It’s important to have a balance between aggressively pursuing goals and taking time to simply relax and experience your life for what it already is. As I mentioned in the beginning of the article, simple productivity is not about finding more time to do more things, but rather to make time for what’s really important and not obsess about the rest.

Taking a slow and measured approach to change is not only an easier way to implement healthier habits, but it’s also a healthy habit in it’s own right. This is because it’s less stressful and more rewarding. Accept the fact that you’re not going to reinvent your health or your life overnight. In fact, it might take quite a while and the more prepared you are to accept this, the better off you’ll be. Finally, it’s also important to remember that most habits worth implementing are long term pursuits that should be embraced as a permanent part your lifestyle and approached with a good balance of ambition. Relax and enjoy the process!

The Power of Less

If you’d like to learn more about simple productivity, especially in regard to your professional life, I highly recommend that you check out The Power of Less and also ZenHabits.net which is Leo Babauta’s blog.

The Power of Less does discuss other aspects of life and even includes a chapter about health and fitness. Even though I disagree with a few things that are mentioned about saturated fat, soy, and endurance exercise, I think this chapter contains a lot of great information that I’m sure you’ll enjoy.

For more suggestions of healthy habits to consider implementing in conjunction with the principles of simple productivity, sign up for my free course, 7 Simple Steps to a Leaner, Happier, and Healthier You!

Written by Vin Miller for NaturalBias.com.

According to the National Coffee Association, more than 50% of Americans consume coffee on a daily basis and drink an average of 3 cups per day. Dunkin’ Donuts, arguably the most popular coffee franchise in America, helps to support this habit by serving nearly 1 billion cups of coffee each year. There’s no doubt that the coffee habit is alive and well, but unfortunately, many people are using it to mask a significant problem that they may not be aware of.

What America is Really Running on is Fumes

According to the averages from the National Sleep Foundation and a recent Gallup poll, Americans are working 45 hours per week, spending a total of 46 minutes per day commuting to and from work, and are getting less than 7 hours of sleep per night. In reality, many people are working longer and sleeping less than this data suggests. We’re busier and more stressed than ever, we’re exposed to growing levels of chemical and electromagnetic pollution on a daily basis, and we’re eating an unprecedented amount of processed food. As a result, many of us are suffering from chronic exhaustion and compromised health. Coffee just so happens to be a convenient, tasty, and effective way to compensate, but the results are only temporary and the consequences can be significant.

How Coffee Gets You Through the Day

Coffee is one of the most concentrated sources of caffeine available and directly stimulates the adrenal glands to produce a number of hormones and neurotransmitters that keep you alert and energized. This is actually the same physiological stress response that we’ve relied on throughout our evolution to overcome and avoid life threatening danger. Because the body must draw from it’s own resources to support this heightened physical capacity, it’s an expensive burden to the body. Much of the stress, excitement, and physical activity that we encounter and engage ourselves in on a consistent basis also invokes this response even though there’s no associated life threatening danger. As a result, the fast pace of modern life wears the body down and impairs its capacity to adequately handle stress and stimulation. This is known as adrenal fatigue and can lead to a number of additional health issues.

Whenever you feel exhausted, it’s a sign that your body has been pushed beyond it’s capacity and needs time to recover. When this type of fatigue is common and recovery is slow, it’s a strong indication of adrenal fatigue and the associated reduction in capacity to produce the hormones and neurotransmitters that are needed to cope with stress and feel energetic. This state has become so common that most people perceive it as normal, and without any thought, use stimulants like coffee to get through it. Doing this pushes the body beyond it’s reduced capacity and makes the problem even worse. It’s like whipping a tired horse. While the horse may respond by temporarily increasing it’s effort, it will soon become even more exhausted and will eventually collapse. Likewise, people who spend decades pushing their bodies like this often destroy their health in the process.

Additional Coffee Concerns

In addition to the stimulating effect of coffee that so many people rely on, there are some additional concerns that can push an already overwhelmed body over the edge.

As most people know, caffeine is a diuretic and increases the amount of water excreted from the body. Unfortunately, most people don’t drink enough water as it is and compound the problem by drinking coffee, soda, and other caffeinated beverages instead of water. This greatly increases the risk of chronic dehydration and the significant problems that it can cause. Since coffee can satisfy or even suppress appetite, it can also reduce the consumption of foods that provide the essential nutrients needed to recover from fatigue and support optimal funciton. This is a particularly important concern for people who mostly eat processed foods.

Coffee bean crops tend to be heavily sprayed with pesticides and are grown in countries where it’s legal to use chemicals that have been outlawed in the United States. As a result, most brands of coffee are likely to contain a notable amount of dangerous chemical residues. In addition, many people load their coffee with unhealthy amounts of sugar, or even worse, dangerous artificial sweeteners like Nutrasweet, Equal, or Splenda.

According to Julia Ross, the author of The Mood Cure which is an excellent book about improving your mood through diet, the potential problems caused by caffeine reach even further. It’s a major cause of anxiety and studies have shown that people who regularly drink caffeine are more likely to suffer from chronic depression. Caffeine also inhibits the production of serotonin, which is a neurotransmitter that promotes happiness, and melatonin which is a hormone that’s essential for refreshing and restorative sleep. Ross also states that caffeine can deplete the body of important nutrients including the B vitamins, vitamin C, potassium, calcium, and zinc, can overstimulate and weaken the kidneys, pancreas, liver, stomach, intestines, heart, nervous system, and adrenal glands, can acidify the body’s pH level, and that it only takes two small cups of coffee to initiate these effects!

How to Enjoy Coffee as Part of a Healthy Lifestyle

I know that many people are very attached to coffee and are unwilling to give it up. Fortunately, you don’t have to. I’m definitely not going to help you justify moderate coffee consumption as something that’s beneficial to your health, but in reasonable moderation, you can probably enjoy coffee on a fairly regular basis without it having too much of a negative impact. What’s most important is that you be honest with yourself and make sure that you’re choosing to drink coffee for the pure enjoyment of it, and maybe even for a small energy boost. If you’re using it regularly to wake yourself up, elevate your mood, or get through the day, then you’re doing yourself a disservice and it will likely catch up with you.

If you decide to continue drinking coffee, at least choose an organic source to avoid the pesticide issue and also be mindful of what you add to it. I’m not a coffee drinker and I unfortunately don’t know of any good brands of organic coffee to recommend. If anyone knows of a good brand, please share it with us by leaving a comment!

What to Do if You Rely on Coffee for Energy

The only reliable way to enjoy many years of balanced and lasting energy is to achieve and maintain optimal health. The first and most important step in doing so is to implement the foundational principles of a healthy lifestyle. Without this, anything that you do to increase your energy will be no better than compensating with a stimulant like coffee. If you’d like additional guidance on implementing a healthier lifestyle, my free course, 7 Simple Steps to a Leaner, Happier, and Healthier You, will provide you with plenty of information to help you get started.

Written by Vin Miller for NaturalBias.com.

According to a report from The Nielson Company, the average American watched a record breaking 151 hours per month of television during the fourth quarter of 2008. This amounts to approximately 35 hours per week which is almost the equivalent of a full time job.

Although television is a convenient source of entertainment, it’s usually mindless, provides little to no meaningful value, and can sometimes be a harmful influence. The following are three reasons why television detracts from the quality of your life and why you should minimize the amount of time that you spend watching it.

Time is Precious

We each have a limited amount of time to accomplish our most meaningful goals and experience a rewarding and fulfilling life. If watching television is what’s most important to you, that’s fine, but chances are that you’d like to do much more with your life.

Most people watch television for pure entertainment, and by doing so, they’re sacrificing precious time to live through the experiences of others. In most cases, these experiences are either stressful, completely worthless, or influential in a harmful way. This is especially the case with reality television which is often centered around people who create drama with everything they do. Unfortunately, it seems that many of us enjoy watching others encounter problems, perhaps because it makes us feel better about ourselves. We also tend to love fictitious stories that are intense and highly exaggerated, and this is probably a result of being bored with our own lives.

The only thing stopping you from living a more balanced, enjoyable, and exciting life is yourself, and sitting in front of a television for 35 hours per week is certainly not going to help. Imagine if you dedicated some of this time to reading more, exercising, preparing healthy food, and getting more sleep. After a few months, you’d likely feel invigorated with new knowledge, better health, more energy, increased mental clarity, a leaner and more muscular body, and an improved sense of overall wellness. You definitely won’t experience any of these benefits from watching television.

If it’s mostly your job that’s holding you back from living a better life, 35 hours per week is plenty of time to learn new skills, discover new passions, and create the opportunity for a new career that’s more exciting and fulfilling. In addition, you could dedicate more time to leisurely activities and hobbies that will provide more meaning and allow you to experience life directly rather than through a television screen.

An Unrecognized Source of Stress

Anything that causes you to be excited, fearful, nervous, anxious, or worried is a source of stress that imposes a physiological burden on your body. Although few people realize it, the intense television programming that is so common today can easily invoke these negative emotions and add to the high load of stress that most people are already dealing with.

Watching the news can especially be a considerable source of stress. The leading story right now from CNN is about a woman who was violently beaten in front of her child. Some of the other headlines include a terror probe, letting guns on Amtrak trains, the strangling of a Yale student, and a gang rape at Hofstra. While it’s highly doubtful that these stories will add any value to your life, it’s very likely that they’ll invoke some unnecessary negative emotions. The news is always full of sensationalized drama that’s sure to affect your mood. You’ll likely find out about all of the important stories that you need to without watching the news. Despite the fact that I haven’t watched the news in several years, I always manage to find out what I need to, and I feel that I’m better off not knowing about most of the ridiculous things that are going on around the world.

Watching television can also consume the time we need to get important tasks done. When this happens and we finally get around to doing them, it’s common to feel panicked and work frantically to get them done. This is yet another source of stress to add to the hectic lifestyle that’s overwhelming many of us and leading to compromised health and adrenal fatigue.

The Power of Persuasion

Although you might think that you don’t pay much attention to television commercials and that they have no influence on you, you’re most likely mistaken. If this were the case, companies wouldn’t be spending enormous amounts of money on them. Most commercials are intentionally designed to inspire a strong desire or a perceived need for the product or service being advertised. For example, you might see misleading commercials suggesting that Cheerios lowers cholesterol, that you can lose weight easily with FullBar, or that taking Aspirin could save your life. Regardless of how effective the product or service actually is, it’s in the best interest of these companies to have you believe that it’s the best solution to your problems, and there’s a good chance that you will.

Drug and food companies run many of the commercials that you see, and unfortunately, they often promote the shortsighted symptom chasing mentality that’s such a significant factor in the development of today’s most serious health problems.

It’s also common for misleading information to make it’s way into regular programming. For example, the popular weight loss show, The Biggest Loser, glorifies the effort of contestants who overexercise and practically starve themselves. Not only is this awful for your health, but it’s an ineffective way to lose weight which is made evident by the many contestants who regained the weight they lost after leaving the show. Unfortunately, this show has inspired many people to follow the same flawed and unhealthy approach, and many other shows are influencing people in similar ways.

Take Responsibility

Although it may sound as if I’m blaming a lot of things on television, that’s not the case. It’s your responsibility to look after yourself, manage your time, protect your health, and be critical of all information. Television is just one of many modern influences that can make it difficult for you to do these things effectively. In fact, other popular sources of mainstream media such as the internet, magazines, newspapers, and radio can have this effect as well. If you’re unable to benefit from these outlets without being negatively affected, the only person you can blame is yourself.

Written by Vin Miller for NaturalBias.com.