It’s common knowledge that regular exercise is an important part of promoting good health. However, many people shortchange themselves by following an exercise program without putting much thought into what they’re doing or why they’re doing it. This typically results in the benefits of the program being poorly aligned with the individual’s needs and goals, and in some cases, this can do more harm than good.

It goes without saying that most of us make important decisions through a process of specific and deliberate reasoning. Because exercise has a significant influence on health, and because this influence can sometimes be negative, choices relating to exercise deserve the same level of discretion. However, it’s common for people to invest their time, effort, and health into an exercise program without evaluating how appropriate it is for their needs. This greatly reduces the value they’ll gain from their effort.

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Almost everyone knows that doing more exercise and reducing calorie consumption will promote weight loss. But if weight loss is this simple, then why are so many people failing miserably despite their desperate efforts? While it may be a result of laziness for some, it’s more often a result of calorie restriction and exercise being used inappropriately.

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.

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Many people mistakenly believe that weight loss and healthy eating require torturous effort. Fortunately, this isn’t the case, and with the right perspective, pursuing either goal can be a pleasurable process.

Two very important factors that most people fail to consider in regard to weight loss and health is how they perceive themselves and how they perceive the food they eat. Perception has an undeniable influence on physiological function, and because of this, the negative connotations that people develop toward themselves and their diets can promote weight gain and have an undesirable impact on their digestion and health. As such, approaching weight loss and healthy eating with a positive, rational, and inspired perspective is just as critical to success as choosing nutritious foods. The following 7 tips will help you develop this perspective.

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Most people struggle to get out of bed each morning and rely on stimulants to get them through the day. Despite this, they pack each day full of activity and force themselves to do things that they don’t have the energy for. It seems that nearly everyone is guilty of this to some extent which is why it’s so important to realize how much this can affect your health and wellbeing.

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.

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Everyone is talking about the P90X exercise program and ads for it are taking the internet by storm. In fact, I’ve even been seeing ads for it on websites like Miriam Webster. Is all of this hype justified? Not if you ask me.

Despite its gimmicky marketing, I was intrigued by the P90X program based on a number of people’s opinions and decided to check it out. Although my primary intention was only to learn more about P90X, I was actually planning to give it a try. That was until I watched it. Although this program may be well suited for some, which I’ll discuss later, it’s definitely not for me. I prefer fitness programs that are motivated by excellent physical function, high resistance to injury, and above all else, optimal health. Even though the P90X program can certainly bring the average person closer to these ideals, I think it does so in a manner that’s compromised by the program’s undeniable priority of burning calories and getting “ripped.”

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Despite incredible advances in technology and medicine, people are dying at an alarming rate from preventable diseases and are having significant problems with obesity, fatigue and depression. Anyone with half a brain would figure that the advances we’ve achieved should help us live longer, healthier and happier lives, but they haven’t. How can this be?

Our health and well being are dictated by requirements that have resulted from millions of years of evolution. No matter how smart we are, we’ll never be able to change this fact, at least not for another few hundred thousand years. That’s about how long it would take us to start adapting genetically to the unhealthy lifestyle habits that are so common today. Many of us have lost site of the evolutionary factors that brought us to where we are now and have let modern society entice us into a lifestyle that we’re simply not equipped to handle.

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