Showing posts with label p90x. Show all posts
Showing posts with label p90x. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Habits of really healthy people

Animals spend most of their life searching for food, sleeping and building shelter. I would assume that if we encouraged ourselves to revert to our wild selves, we would forage for fruits and nuts, greens and mushrooms all day. We would also eat raw, like the animals. We would drink lots of water, sleep on the floor, live in a natural habitat, and breathing much more oxygen; in other words, you would be consistently exercising and eating a clean diet while living holistically.

Even a healthy body runs the risk of battling a disease or illness due to air and water contamination, pollution, genetically modified foods (GMOs), etc.
However preventative measures should be taken to strengthen your immune system and keep you able-bodied (youthful). Diet and exercise play dominate roles in bettering your life and getting rid of ailments. A Small but important factor to your health is mentality (continuing to educate the mind and keep it sharp).

Considering the plethora of food and commercialism, it is not coincidental that heart disease and stroke is the first and third leading cause of death among men and women in the US (according to the CDC).
We can blame ourselves, but lets not forget that food has become subsidized in order for corporations to sell unhealthy products at a lost cost (abusing low income families).

Wealthy people eat small portions of meals through the mail (from corporations like Jenny Craig or Nutrisystem). The mindset behind these programs and products are to limit your calorie intake in order to still eat unhealthy foods you crave. A starved individual will eat ANYTHING-- which is why I suggest eating healthy food in large quantities (fruits, vegetables, salads, nuts).

Habits of really healthy people are the ones that fulfill their needs and enable us to perform our best, such as:

-Eat a diet rich of fruits and veggies (eat plenty until satiated)
-Drink water in place of alcohol, soda, and coffee
-Exercise 30 minutes everyday
-Get 30 minutes of sunshine in summer and more during winter
-Sleep 7-8 hours a day or more (as much as you need)

I understand to most people this may be difficult to achieve, or even this sounds a little Obsessive Compulsive-- well you're sort-of-right! I have been Obsessive Compulsive all of my life and this lifestyle can be difficult in social situations.
I digress, when we fulfill our goals and feel our best, the healthy people get their emotional and physical needs met.
This lifestyle is for long term health and long term results. Sometimes cancer can leave the body within a couple of months by switching to a vegan diet, and sometimes it takes 4 years to lose 40 pounds.

One of my habits is eating mono meals (one food in a large quantity). My family finds it amusing to watch me eat 7 individual bananas for breakfast or plain lettuce with 6 individual potatoes for dinner.
I have repeatedly said throughout this blog: I eat large quantities of food in abundance of carbohydrates and sugars, but my focus is on limiting fat and protein intake. Yes, I said I emphasize my diet on sugars and carbs-- most "nutritionist", 'health' products, and doctors would find this inaccurate, while other specialists promote this diet and lifestyle.

Calorie restriction and limiting carbohydrates and sugars are not healthy practices. In fact, I suggest the opposite: obtain 2500-3000 calories from bananas and other fruits through the day for energy, and salads for relaxing at night. If you are more interested in the starch-based diet, then eat plenty of potatoes, rice, and some beans (while eating fruit during the day or snacks). I suggest eating lots of potatoes and rice if you cannot eat many bananas, like me. If you are not moving your body or using calories, then you do not need as many calories. But for me, I exercise everyday so I eat a lot more than people.
My message about health is consistent, for further reading material on health, click the links below:


Vegan doctors such as Neal Barnard, John McDougall, Doug Graham (and many more), agree that an individual should intake 80% of your food from carbohydrates and 20% of their calories coming from fat and protein. Diets rich in protein and fat harm the body, clogging its arteries and creating acidity in the blood. A body in this state is susceptible disease and cancer.

What foods have fat and protein and are acid-forming?: Meat, dairy, and eggs (animal derived foods). In other words, your diet should be one rich in fruits and vegetables, and plenty of water. Please read my post on why Cow's milk is harmful to the body, here: "Is Organic & Raw Cow's milk better than conventional milk?".

Vegan diets are the most optimal for our organism because we are similar in physiology of apes. Like apes, we should spend some time everyday in nature, playing, running, climbing, throwing, and obtaining sunshine. Small, light exercise everyday helps keep the body fit and young.



Animals spend most of their life searching for food, sleeping and building shelter. I would assume that if we encouraged ourselves to revert to our wild selves, we would forage for fruits and nuts, greens and mushrooms all day. We would also eat raw, like the animals. We would drink lots of water, sleep on the floor, live in a natural habitat, and breathing much more oxygen; in other words, you would be consistently exercising and eating a clean diet while living holistically.

Habits of healthy people are lifestyles our monkey ancestors practice: eat fruit, play, drink lots of water, and sleep (early nights). Use these four practices to obtain a healthier you; most importantly to get rid and prevent dis-ease.

When discussing habits of healthy people, there are lifestyle choices that should be practiced and should not be practiced. In other words, there are things healthy people would not do in order to maintain their health, for example smoking cigarettes.
As we know, Healthy people are known to get plenty of sunshine, drink lots of water in place of all drinks, eat a diet rich in fruits and veggies, get plenty of sleep and exercise. But, unhealthy are known to:
-Smoke cigarettes or other drugs
-Drink alcohol, soda, energy drinks, soft drinks
-Use drugs (nicotine, caffeine, pain killers, cocaine, meth, etc)
-Eat a diet rich in fat (meat, dairy, cheese, eggs, oils)
-Eat an acidic diet with vinegar, coffee, soda, and animal foods
-Stagnant, or lazy (never exercises, walks or runs outside)
-Apathetic or unhappiness which leads to depression
-Get little sleep (or stay up late after dark)
-Stressors (family, job, kids, money <--roots of evil)

There are many ways to be unhealthy, just as there are many habits that allow you to maintain your health (like drinking fruit juices instead of coffee, or reading or exercising instead of watching TV).

Monday, January 14, 2013

New Years Resolutions: Exercising, Dieting, & What you should avoid

We're about two weeks into the NEW YEAR, and I'm sure there are plenty of people committing to their New Year's Resolutions. I have written about exercise programs (P90X, INSANITY, Julian Michaels, and Zumba) in the past, as well as weight loss products; but I wanted to write about this topic once again because it is the perfect time of year to do so...

P90X, INSANITY, JULIAN MICHAELS, ZUMBA, and other exercise programs have three aspects in common: (1) they're pointless, (2) they are marketing off of your unhappiness/vulnerability; and (3) they're stressing your body quickly in a shorter amount of time in order for you to achieve faster results. These "quick" miracles, with the promise you will be gorgeous in 90 days, defeats the body faster -- then you inherently give up exercising because your body aches, and as you become lazier you find solace in unhealthy foods.


These programs can afford to run their commercials every single day, which makes it easier for them to convince the most vulnerable people. Whether or not people are actually benefiting from the programs is not the point I am trying to make. Instead, I am suggesting that YOU can exercise and eat healthy to lose weight, without relying on a "fitness guru" robbing you of $200-300. You can get the body you want, without the cost of a commercial product. And, don't you feel like a ROBOT when you're exercising to these work-out programs...following along to their every move...?

Real exercise is minimal and long, like biking, hiking, running, dancing and yoga. Kenpo is also very fun, and one of my favorite exercises (I show off some of my Kenpo moves in this post "Exercises for Vegans".)
Now, I'm not undermining these work-out programs, because they have definitely helped many people, but for the majority of consumers who have bought into these products, may feel resentment towards the same programs. But lets at least exercise programs some credit; because weight loss food and supplement products are WAY worse. I'm talking about SENSA, Hydroxycut, Atkins Diet, Weight Watchers, alli, QuikTrim that tell you to ingest unhealthy drugs to lose weight. 


All of the weight control programs/products I have mentioned, are deliberately promoting an anorexic diet. Sensa encourages people to suppress their hunger, by sprinkling a concoction onto your food, so you will eat smaller portions.

Don't you feel like a science experiment when dousing Sensa on your food, or taking pills to get rid of fat??

Weight Watchers is similar in that it uses a number system so you can control the amount of food you are eating. The Atkins diet aims for you to eat all of the low carb foods like meat, without fruit, rice, and potatoes.

Every weight loss product and program is going to tell you to eat smaller portions, because they know you're going to keep eating animal products, which have the highest fat and lowest nutritional value. Fruits and vegetables, on the other hand, have zero fat and have the highest source of vitamins.

Furthermore, you don't need to pay someone to tell you how you should eat. You already know how you should eat. You know you should be eating 2500-3000 calories from grains (gluten-free pasta, rice), fruit, vegetables, and greens; while limiting or eliminating animal products (milk, eggs, dark & white meat, and processed foods.) 

If you eliminate animal foods, and FILL yourself up on fruits and vegetables, you'll be losing weight so fast you will rarely need to exercise. Not to mention, animal products and pre-packaged foods are more expensive than fruits and vegetables. I have a post here "Veganism is the CHEAPEST DIET??" that talks about Veganism being inexpensive compared to eating a animal-based diet

Weight Watchers, Atkins diet, and other weight loss programs have the money to advertise their product DAILY. These products are marketing off of your unhappiness and vulnerability. It's easier to brainwash people into thinking they need that product when they see the commercial everyday, while they sit bloated and lazy on their couch. 

I cannot stress this point enough: stop relying on products and "gurus" that are selling products, because these are the type of people that are JUST trying to make a living (they are not selling health information.)

It's not just meat eaters that are fooled into buying products. Vegans often buy superfoods and supplements that are being marketed by "health gurus", when they are totally being fooled into buying them. As long as you stuff yourself with fruits, vegetables, and greens -- you don't need powdered superfoods or supplements. I have post on this subject here "Don't Be Fooled By the Supplements & Superfoods!". NO MORE POWDERED PROTEIN, PEOPLE!!! You don't see a VEGAN elephant or cow buying protein powders, and look how gigantic they are!

My advice to you is: eat fruit and vegetables till you are stuffed; and exercise for one hour, three times a week:

1. Low fat vegan (high CARB) diet: eat lots of potatoes, bananas, juicy fruit, greens, rice, and soy milk/cereal. Limit salt and oil, especially fat. Add avocadoes and nuts in your diet in the winter, but be careful on your fat intake as avocados and nuts can "weigh" you down. Fruits and vegetables supply you with more vitamins and zero fat. Plus, fruits and vegetables are inexpensive.

Meat is murder; milk is torture; and cheese is an addiction.

2. Light Exercise: Yoga is great because it feels less like a chore, and more relaxing. Look on the internet (youtube) for yoga positions for beginners. Check out my Yoga Tips and where you can go to find good Youtube Yoga vids, in this blog post "TOP 5 YOGA TIPS FOR BEGINNERS"
hiking or biking, and even dancing are more practical and natural ways of working the body. These exercises are minimal and long, which train the body for survival situations. I have post that talks about the exercises that work best for me here "Exercises for Vegans (keeping it minimal"


The key is to put less stress on your body after so many years of doing so!!!
Another useful tool I like to use to make sure I'm getting adequate nutrition and keeping my fat intake low, is CRONOMETER.COM
Go to Cronometer.com to log your training and what you're eating!

Veganism does NOT promote an Anorexic diet. Please check out my post "The Feminist's Diet & the Media still promotes unhealthy eating standards"

"Obesity: Is Smaller Portions REALLY the answer? (No!)"

"Losing weight fast vs keeping the weight off"

And for VEGAN recipes, please check out my recipes on the left hand side of the blog.

Saturday, October 6, 2012

P90X, Insanity, Zumba, Julian Michaels: What do these programs have in common?

All of the exercise programs I have mentioned in the title, have three aspects in common: they're pointless, they are marketing off of your unhappiness/vulnerability; and they're stressing your body quickly in a shorter amount of time in order for you to achieve faster results. These "quick" miracles, with the promise you will be gorgeous in 90 days, defeats the body faster -- then you inherently give up exercising because you're body aches, and as you become lazier you find solace in unhealthy foods....Trust me, I know... 

Real exercise is minimal and long, like biking, hiking, running, and yoga. Kenpo is also very fun.

Don't you feel like a ROBOT when you're exercising these work-out programs...following along to their every move...