JohnBarban.com

If you’re an Eat Stop Eater you’ve probably run into your fair share of people who think the way you are eating is ‘unhealthy’ or ‘not good for you’.

Get Your Annual Check Up Done

Dealing with persecution from people you interact with on a daily basis is difficult, especially when those people are you family and friends. Getting into arguments with them isn’t going to help, and trying to convert them to your lifestyle if they don’t want to isn’t going to help either. So what do you do?

Well for starters get an annual check up/physical. Get your doctor to test every measurable health marker possible including:

Total Cholesterol

HDL/LDL ratio

Triglycerides

Fasting Insulin

Blood Glucose

Blood Pressure

Heart Rate

Liver Enzymes

Etc…

Whatever you and your doc can think of.

With these numbers in hand you can show whoever you’re arguing with that you are in perfect health according whatever your doctor can measure. Beyond that as long as you feel good about yourself what else is there to say?!

If you feel good about yourself, and you’re happy with your lifestyle, and your measurable health markers from your check up/physical come back in good shape, then what else is there to say? You are as healthy as we can possibly measure.

If you’re being persecuted for your lifestyle being ‘unhealthy’ the only way to silence your critics might be to show them how healthy you really are and get them to do the same for themselves.

John

Brad Pilon and I have started a new podcast called Phi Life. You can find it every Wednesday from now on at www.phi-life.com

This is our weekly take on all things related to health and how it fits into your life, and how all the parts of your life will add up to your overall ‘health’.

“Health” is a very ambiguous term and means something different for each person. What you might consider to be healthy will be different from what I consider healthy.

From what I can gather the most basic definition of health has to be ‘the opposite of death’

From there we can all throw in our own personal touch as to what we view as a healthy life.

So Phi Life will be an ongoing discussion about the pieces of life and how they come together for the healthiest life possible.

We want to hear your feedback/questions/opinions at Phi Life as it will help us form and shape the ongoing discussions and research that goes into the show.

We’ll be getting a feed on itunes as soon as I can figure out how to do that.

First episode is live www.phi-life.com

By all means leave comments for us at Phi Life.

Enjoy

John

If you knew exactly how long you were going to live and had no choice to change it, would you still follow a ‘healthy’ lifestyle?

After all, what is the point of health foods, healthy lifestyle choices, exercising, dieting anyway? If you engage in any of this you must have some sort of end game in mind.

My assumption is that your goal is to live as vigorously as possible for as long as possible. A more poetic way to say it would be:

“To die young…as old as possible”

No matter what you believe, there is one fact we all must face: We are all going to die.

And unless something miraculous happens in the next 30-50 years in modern medicine we’re all going to have to accept this fact.

So, given that you simply cannot live forever, all you have left is a choice of how you would like to spend the time that you do have.

This is where the concept of living a ‘healthy’ lifestyle comes into question.

Can you prove that the things you do and the way you choose to live will actually enhance the quality of your life (if not the length)?

Will eating raw foods do this? will eating low carb do this? Is interval training required for this? what about functional training?

Is stressing about all of this actually going to be worse for your overall quality and length of your life more than any benefit a diet or exercise routine could have had?

I went to a conference on aging a back in september and the 2 take home messages I got were as follows:

1. If there is going to be anything that can extend the length of our life beyond the current average, it’s not going to be a new style of diet or exercise. (we already know what to do as far as diet and exercise is concerned)

2.  The oldest people on record have only one thing in common…a low stress/laid back outlook on life.

I’m sure there are some risk factors you can reduce with your diet and exercise habits. But in general there is no proof that they will ever help you live longer than what we would expect based on current population data.

So the next step is living vigorously for as long as you can. And that is precisely what I am trying to do. One of the major keys to this is balancing the effort put into diet/exercise/lifestyle with the stress that these choices bring.

I’ll add in what is necessary but nothing more.

From what I can gather, simplicity is one of the basic tenets of achieving vigorous health for a lifetime. If I can simplify the things I need to do then I’m doing a good job

For example: with food it is just calories in vs calories out + variety. Any rules beyond this add unnecessary stress with no proof of benefit.

(The only caveat I will add is that intermittent fasting might very well be the most beneficial way to reduce calories)

If I’m making things too complicated then I’m not only adding unnecessary effort and work but I’m also adding unnecessary stress.

I’ll have to borrow another quote from Einstein because he said it so well:

“make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler”

This is my basic philosophy on health and wellness.

So what is your end game?

John

I met up with a friend for my morning coffee today and we got onto the topic of body image (go figure) and we ended up talking about what a healthy body looks like.

This is when I realized that we all have a built in image in our heads of what we think a healthy body should look like.

I’m sure right now you have a picture in your head of what you think a ‘healthy body’ should be. And I also guarantee that most people have the same image in their heads as well. (In fact know they do because this has been well studied)

The point is that when people say things like:

“I want to get in shape”

or

“I want to lose weight”

or

“I want to gain some muscle

What they are really saying is:

“I want to look healthy”

It might sound superficial but it’s not. Our best guide of what is healthy is our eyes.

Unfortunately it has become socially unacceptable to point out that being 40 pounds overweight simply isn’t healthy, likewise with people who are grossly underweight. There are actually groups of people who are trying to lobby governments to make it illegal for doctors to recommend weight loss for people who are overweight! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!

Self denial runs deep for these people. Those people who are trying to ‘accept their size and shape’ are just accepting a less healthy body. Plain and simple.

I will be one of the first to say it and let the hate mail pour in.

A healthy body is also a good looking body. They are one and the same and cannot be separated from each other.

Think of it this way. Would you go to the gym diligently and eat a strict ‘healthy’ diet if it somehow gave you perfect health (as measured by all levels of physical emotional mental and social health)

BUT

this same lifestyle made you grossly overweight?

The answer is most likely no because it’s not possible. I’ll bet you’re having trouble even imagining that right now; How can a grossly overweight body also be a healthy body? — It can’t.

With that said there are always levels or degrees of relative health associated with various sizes, but the range is much more narrow than you probably think.

The fact remains, you and I both have a built in image of what we think is a healthy looking body. I didn’t put that image there, and neither did the media, it’s something we have evolved to recognize at a basic level. (this is evidenced by research showing the same body images are selected as the best looking by people from all different cultures and societies and socioeconomic status from around the world)

Your eyes cannot tell a lie when it comes to the look of a healthy body.

So I want to know what you think a healthy body looks like, if you feel so inclined I’d like you to describe your ideal healthy body in the comments section.

John

CHEERS TO YOUR HEALTH

The word “health” and its derivaties like “healthy” are loosely thrown around all over the fitness and nutrition industry and media.

But how do YOU define ‘health’

The World Health Organization has a simple definition as follows:

Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

Look at that statement for a moment. Can you think of any moment during any day of your life when you could truthfully say that you fit into this criteria?

I’d say all of those things almost never apply to any of us all at once…except perhaps during sex and after about 6-8 alcoholic beverages (with full intentions of having at least 2-3 more drinks after the first 8 rounds are done!)

This seems like an unrealistic criteria to be shooting for per se.

But as you will find with just about everything in life, its all relative.

It seems more realistic that health would have a much more personal and relative definition for each of us.

Health is relative to your age, the health of other people of your gender and age, how ‘healthy’ you were 5 years ago, and even how ‘healthy’ you were 5 days ago.

For example, I currently have tedonitits in my left tricep tendon, its not nearly as bad as it was 6 months ago.

I can lift approximately 70% of the weight I was lifting before I got the tendonitits, but compared to the guys I am working out with I am still strong.

The tendonitis doesn’t really stop me from doing anything in my life (besides lifting heavier weights)

So would I be considered healthy right now?

Could I say that most of my body is healthy besides my left tricep tendon?

In reality you could easily make the case that all areas of science, medicine, human biology, environmental biology, sociology, politics and economics all have an impact on your ‘health’.

Its up to you to define where you draw the line on what health means to you and what you can do about it.

So whats your definition of health?

John