Getting Your Nutrition from Real Food is a Good Habit for Life > Health & Wellness

Many people think popping a multi-vitamin supplement to get their nutrients is just as good as what comes from real foods. They don’t realize that it is far better to get vitamins and minerals from natural foods and juices. Our bodies utilize the vitamins and minerals from real foods more efficiently.  And most people find it much easier to select a variety of whole foods they enjoy eating instead of trying to make heads or tails of the entire selection of vitamin and mineral supplements that are available. And any of us who’ve swallowed a multi-vitamin or a mineral supplement can say without a doubt that the taste leaves a lot to be desired

Supplements are also difficult for our bodies to break down and use, making it difficult to get the full punch from the vitamins and minerals they contain. Conversely, by consuming plenty of nutrient-dense food to get the equivalent means the nutrients are going to be easier for the body to process and utilize, and less likely to be wasted.  We are also processing nutrients throughout the course of the day when we obtain them from food, instead of just getting them from the ‘one a day’ approach.

Many of the supplements available today use fillers and binders to hold them together, plus coatings on the tablets themselves. These are products the body does not need and will not use. Some people find they are allergic to the dyes and fillers used in vitamin pills. However, the body uses the fiber that binds fruits and vegetables. Often the “skin” of a vegetable, like the potato, is the most nutritious part. In addition, sometimes the vitamin and mineral supplements can upset our stomachs, making taking them even more difficult the next day.  In many cases, combining supplements can counteract their effectiveness and can produce stomach upset when dealing with the taste and smell of some supplements. On the other hand, a variety of fruits and vegetables enhance the flavor of a nutritious meal and their fiber aids digestion.

If you’re looking to lose weight, eating fresh food is vital to a weight loss plan. Also, eating fresh fruits and vegetables help hair, skin and teeth stay attractive and healthy. And when you think about it, fruits and vegetables are the original ‘to go’ food. It’s simple to grab for an orange, apple, banana, grapes, or quickly toss a few vegetables together for a salad to take to work.

So when you’re looking for well-balanced, healthy, reliable nutrition, don’t reach for the bottle. Reach for the food!

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Color Your Way to Daily Health with Fruit & Vegetables > Health & Wellness

It’s important that we eat plenty of different fruits and vegetables every day. Diets rich in fruits and vegetables may reduce the risk of cancer and other chronic diseases. Fruits and vegetables provide essential vitamins and minerals, fiber, and other substances that are important for good health. Most fruits and vegetables are naturally low in fat and calories and are filling.

You’ve probably heard about the 5 A Day for Better Health program.  It provides easy ways to add more fruits and vegetables into your daily eating patterns. It’s vital that we eat a wide variety of colorful orange/yellow, red, green, white, and blue/purple vegetables and fruit every day. By eating vegetables and fruit from each color group, you will benefit from the essential vitamins, minerals, and fiber that each color group has to offer alone and in combination.

There’s several different yet simple ways to start incorporating vegetables and fruit into your familiar and favorite meals. You can begin your day with 100 percent fruit or vegetable juice, slice bananas or strawberries on top of your cereal, or have a salad with lunch and an apple for an afternoon snack. Include a vegetable with dinner and you already have about 5 cups of fruits and vegetables. You may even try adding a piece of fruit for a snack or an extra vegetable at dinner.

Don’t be afraid to try something new to increase your vegetable and fruit intake. There are so many choices when selecting fruits and vegetables. Kiwifruit, asparagus, and mango may become your new favorite. Keep things fresh and interesting by combining fruits and vegetables of different flavors and colors, like red grapes with pineapple chunks, or cucumbers and red peppers.

Get in the habit of keeping fruits and vegetables visible and easily accessible – you’ll tend to eat them more. Store cut and cleaned produce at eye-level in the refrigerator, or keep a big colorful bowl of fruit on the table.

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You Really Are What You Eat > Superfoods

Recent dietary research has uncovered 14 different nutrient-dense foods that time and again promote good overall health.  Coined “superfoods,” they tend to have fewer calories, higher levels of vitamins and minerals, and many disease-fighting antioxidants.

Beans (legumes), berries (especially blueberries), broccoli, green tea, nuts (especially walnuts), oranges, pumpkin, salmon. soy, spinach, tomatoes, turkey, whole grains and oats, and yogurt can all help stop and even reverse diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and some forms of cancer. And where one might have an effect on a certain part of the body, it can also affect the health of other body functions and performance, since the whole body is connected.  With these 14 foods as the base of a balanced, solid diet, weight loss gimmicks and other fly-by-night programs can become a thing of the past in your life.

Conversely, the ill-effects of an unbalanced diet are several and varied. Low energy levels, mood swings, tired all the time, weight change, uncomfortable with body are just a few signs that your diet is unbalanced.  An unbalanced diet can cause problems with maintenance of body tissues, growth and development, brain and nervous system function, as well as problems with bone and muscle systems.

Symptoms of malnutrition include lack of energy, irritability, a weakened immune system leading to frequent colds or allergies, and mineral depletion that can trigger a variety of health concerns including anemia.

And since the body is connected, realizing that an unhealthy body will result in an unhealthy spirit only makes sense.  When we nourish our body with these superfoods and complement them with other nutrient-dense and healthy fresh foods, our spirit will be vitalized and healthy as a direct result.

Many modern diets based on prepackaged convenience foods are sorely lacking in many vitamins and minerals, which can affect our mental capacities as well, and cause irritability, confusion, and the feeling of ‘being in a fog’ all the time.

Superfoods can be the basis of a sound, healthy, nutritious solution to curing many of these ailments and more.

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Designing Your Brain With Brain Training > Self Development

Brain plasticity effectively means that you can grow and reshape your brain in just the same way you can reshape your muscle. That in turn means that just as a bodybuilder can increase their muscle size and choose the physique they want, so too can you potentially use brain training to develop key brain areas and to design the kind of intelligence you want.

The general principle behind growing and shaping your brain is the exact same as the general principle behind growing and reshaping muscle. That is SAID: Specific Adaptations to Imposed Demands. You want better math ability? Then do more math. You want better spatial awareness? Then use that part of your brain.

Most of us don’t look at the brain in that way though. We use brain training in a very general sense and with no real objective.

We also don’t realize the potential of our brains at all. For an idea of just what’s possible, consider cases of individuals like Daniel Underwood, who have managed to develop ‘sonar’ to find their way around and to compensate for a loss of vision. If you can develop your sense of hearing to the point where you can use sonar, then imagine what you could do with other parts of your brain?

Einstein’s Brain

Structural differences in the brain certainly do correspond with differences in the nature and extent of human intelligence and there is no better example of this than Einstein’s brain. Einstein had unusual large inferior parietal lobes which were also strangely shaped.

Your brain and my brain have a large cleave cutting through the middle of this structure called the Sylvian Fissure. Interestingly, Einstein’s veered upwards and didn’t completely divide the lobes. His were also symmetrical, whereas most are smaller on the left.

The role of the inferior parietal lobe is to integrate sensory information across modalities. It is particularly important when it comes to spatial sense and navigation.

So, when we listen to Einstein’s accounts of how he came up with his theory of special relativity – by imagining himself to be travelling on a beam of light and looking back at the world around him leading to an innate understanding of the relationship between time and movement… it all kind of makes sense.

What also makes sense is that Einstein had a thicker corpus callosum – a structure that joins the two hemispheres of the brain. This would allow different brain areas to communicate more effectively, thereby leading to greater whole brain connectivity (which we know to be an important predictor of general intelligence).

It also follows that Einstein was ambidextrous. But perhaps making an argument for specialization is the fact that Einstein was probably dyslexic and some rumors claim he didn’t start speaking until the age of four.

The take-home message is that you could theoretically learn to think like Einstein. First by increasing your plasticity, then by practicing visualization and navigation to grow your inferior parietal lobes and perhaps by practicing ambidexterity to grow the corpus callosum.

But great though he was, you should not seek to emulate Einstein. Instead, focus on becoming the very best version of you.

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Sleep Better for Greater Waking Intelligence > Self Help

We as humans have a tendency to overcomplicate. Those interested in boosting their brain power for instance might feel tempted to focus on strategies such as brain plasticity, or nootropics before considering the most fundamental and basic changes they could make.

Nutrition is one. But even more basic is sleep. If you want to upgrade your performance tomorrow, sleep better today. Not only will this clear adenosine from your brain, replenish key neurotransmitters to avoid things like adrenal fatigue and provide you with greater energy for more focus and energy, but it will also help to support learning by enabling the growth and reinforcement of neuronal connections while you rest. Sleep is the ultimate anabolic state – the ultimate example of rest and digest – and it is when what we learned during the day is consolidated.

How to Sleep Better

So, to that end, what can you do to improve your sleep? The most important thing to do is to put yourself at the less aroused and more relaxed end of the spectrum in terms of your chemical balance.

That means you need to avoid anything that will psych you up – which includes loud noise, bright lights and anything that causes physiological stress. This is why as most of us now know, looking at computer screens and phones is so bad for you before bed.

It’s also why having a cup of coffee is not a good idea. Even doing something seemingly harmless like turning on the light in the bathroom can cause a flood of cortisol and ruin your release of melatonin.
To avoid this, it is recommended that you take half and hour to an hour of ‘down time’ before bed. During this time, you should read by a low-level light and avoid looking at phones or anything else.

Eating right also helps. While you shouldn’t eat too much before going to bed, this is an ideal time to have a slightly sweeter, carb-rich meal. In fact, it has even been suggested that we evolved to eat sweeter things last (hence dessert) because this encourages the release of serotonin and then melatonin. Eat well, but give it a couple of hours before you hit the sack.

Having a warm bath can help too, as this encourages the release of growth hormone and melatonin and relaxes the muscles. Consuming magnesium threonine can also relax the muscles and supports plasticity during the night.

Waking Healthy

Also important is to make sure that you wake up in the right state, in order to help set your biological rhythms. External Zeitgebers (time-givers) help to set your ‘internal pacemaker’ (body clock) and these include things like light and even social interaction.

One fantastic tool to this end is a daylight alarm that will wake you up with a simulated sunrise using a wave-length similar to that of the sun. This gradually stirs you from deep sleep and increases the production of cortisol, readying you for when the alarm goes off. It is hugely preferable to being startled out of deep sleep in a pitch-dark room by a conventional alarm! I’ve started using one and now my wife and I would never consider turning back.

Oh and supplementing with vitamin D first thing in the morning may also be beneficial.

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Does Brain Training Really Work? The Limits of the Human Mind > Mindset

Many of us are fascinated with the idea of increasing our intelligence, our focus and our memory. If we could increase our capabilities in these areas, then we could solve more problems, we could succeed in our careers, and we could gain the respect of our peers. But can the brain really be upgraded? Is there such thing as a real ‘Limitless’ pill? And do all these brain training games really work?

The Hidden Potential of the Brain

You’ve probably heard claims that we only use a small percentage of our brain and that we have lots of untapped potential. Well the latter point is true, but the former is a complete myth and misunderstands the way our brain works. Likewise, many ‘brain training games’ have been shown to only really improve the specific task that they present us with.

Counting penguins makes you better at counting penguins and that’s about it. But that is not to say that there aren’t ways we can enhance our brain function and get more from our various mental faculties. It is possible to upgrade such things as focus, memory and attention, but in order to do that we need a better understanding of neuroscience, the biology of our brain and how our brains respond to stimulus.

The key to all of this is something called brain plasticity. This is the ability of the brain to grow and change shape in response to experience and training. We are capable of growing new neuronal connections and altering our chemical makeup but only when properly stimulated.

Why Train Your Brain?

But what is truly exciting is that the capabilities of the human mind go far beyond merely upgrading your ability to retain information, or to be witty in conversation.

Brain plasticity shows that the brain can adapt to incredible demands and changes. This is how some blind individuals have managed to develop sonar. It’s what allowed some people to develop synesthesia and to visualize complex mathematical equations. It allowed Dennis Rogers to recruit more muscle fiber during exercise and to stop an aircraft from taking off with his bare hands.

It allows gymnasts to move with fluidity, memory masters to recite pi to tens of thousands of decimal points (the record is 31,811) and it is what allowed Einstein to decipher the secrets of the universe simply by picturing the movement of light.

It allows Whim Hof to raise his body temperature and survive exposure to extreme cold. Plasticity allows autistic savants to create perfect sketches of cityscapes they’ve seen for seconds.

And ultimately it means you have the ability to design the brain you want, to become optimized for the challenges you face in your life and for the goals you are working toward. You can become more highly focused, more creative, more confident or even upgrade the speed of your thought.

You can train your brain just as a bodybuilder trains their muscles. And the potential that this represents is something that has not even been fully explored. Your mind is limitless, it is the final frontier.

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Changing Your Physiology to Change Your Mind > Self Development

In order to perform your best, you need to be in the perfect state of mind. That means that you need to have just the right chemical balance of neurotransmitters in order to be slightly aroused and alert but not to the point of being stressed to distraction. During times of relaxation, you of course want to tone down that stress to achieve a relaxed state of mind, which is also optimal for being creative.

You can use nootropics, brain training, visualization and more to achieve this, or you can rely on your natural cycles and simply choose the right time to work. Our body goes through natural cycles based on what we eat, what the weather is like and even our breathing.

But alternatively, you could also consider actively influencing these physiological factors in order to trigger the most desirable mental state for the given activity.

The Role of Physiology

You can also manipulate your physiology in order to alter your mental state and to change the way you feel and perform at any given time.

For example, if you wanted to be more alert and focused, then you should avoid a heavy lunch. A heavy lunch requires energy simply to digest and as it triggers the release of feel-good endorphins, which also happen to be inhibitory neurotransmitters, it actually makes your brain more sluggish.

This is one reason that many people claim they feel more alert and focused when they are in a fasted state (it possibly also has to do with the release of ketones, which are preferential for certain specific mental activities).

Conversely, if you find yourself becoming anxious and grumpy, then consider seeking out more food in order to fix that chemical balance.

Likewise, if you turn the temperature down slightly, then you will also increase your arousal. The colder you are, the faster you breathe and the faster the blood flows through your veins. You also produce significantly more norepinephrine and testosterone. This is why it can be such an effective tool to take a cold shower, to jump in a plunge pool, or even just to splash cold water on your face.

Another good way to fight the fight or flight response though and to restore your homeostasis/calm is to practice correct breathing. Correct breathing technique is often referred to as ‘belly breathing’ and it involves first relaxing the diaphragm and then allowing the stomach to expand as the lower portion of the lungs drop into it, before feeling up the top of the lungs and expanding the chest.

This slower, fuller breathing can modulate the response of your parasympathetic nervous system in order to restore a sense of calm – especially if you make each breath longer and count for 4-5 seconds on every exhale and inhale. Next time you’re about to give a speech or do an interview, try this technique to calm your nerves.

Master Your Emotion

Many of us make the mistake of believing that our emotions arise from our thoughts, but more often it is our thoughts that arise from our emotions. And what do our emotions arise from? Our feelings. These have an evolutionary purpose remember, so they are all about driving us toward survival – finding food, resting when we can and avoiding danger.

If you’re having a bad day and you think the world kind of sucks, then before you do anything rash, ask if you might be over tired (which makes us groggy but eventually results in a fight or flight response), overly hungry or even ill which can create brain fog by causing inflammation via the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines.

Either way, look after your body if you want to have the best chance of controlling your mind and consider the context for how you’re feeling at any given time. The reason you can’t focus might even be because your belt is digging in…

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Accessing Greater Strength and Creativity Through Mental Control > Self Development

If you’re interested in the concept of heightening human performance and getting the very most out of your brain and body, then chances are you will have come across the subject of flow states. Flow states are a mental state synonymous with heightened awareness and reflexes, when we are completely focused and all distracting thoughts melt away.

Flow states get a lot of positive attention and this is deserved for the most part; but they are often treated as a ‘cure all’ for our performance, along with increased mindfulness.

Right now, all the literature regarding our mental health seems to be around ‘being in the moment’ or focusing more.
But there is always a danger with something like this that we will become overly enamored with a single solution. Like a fad diet, we can end up getting carried away with one solution and end up trying to apply it to every aspect of our lives.

Flow states are not the answer to everything and they should not be relied upon in every situation. And while being in your own head can be a bad thing, it can also actually be a very good thing.

The Default Mode Network

Consider the default mode network for instance. This is a network of brain regions that activates in the brain when we are daydreaming, planning ahead or generally completely detached from reality. It often sees activation when we engage in repetitive, manual tasks and allow our mind to wander.

This is in many ways the opposite of a flow state, but that doesn’t mean it is a bad thing. After all, the ability to think ahead, to imagine and to create is what makes us human… and it’s also where many of our best ideas come from.

Einstein was almost certainly using the default mode network when he came up with his theory of Special Relativity. He was working in a patent office at the time and he even credits the menial work with helping him to flex his imaginative muscles.

So yes, be ‘mindful’ and aim for ‘flow’ but don’t forget that there are other useful mental states out there too.

Ultimate Strength

At the other end of the spectrum, what happens when you go passed a flow state? What happens when you become more aroused and alert than you ever have before?

This may be what causes a state known as ‘hysterical strength’. If you’ve heard stories of Mothers who have lifted cars off of their trapped children, then that’s what scientists now suspect hysterical strength to be.

Normally, you are only capable of recruiting 30% (average) to 60% (highly trained athlete) of your muscle fiber at once. This protects the body from harm and prevents us from becoming completely fatigued.

But when you are in a life-or-death situation, adrenaline is released and this actually increases muscle fiber recruitment to a large extent – studies show that even shouting in the gym can trigger the release of enough adrenaline to cause marginal increases in strength.

So, when you see red and your body is awash with these hormones, it appears that you are actually capable of tapping into immense reserves of super-human strength. It’s not something that has been thoroughly researched or even proven, but it’s a fascinating concept and it demonstrates just how much untapped potential our minds and bodies are hiding.

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Accelerated Learning Techniques > Self Development

From a neurological perspective, there are few things that are better for the development of true intelligence than to learn multiple subjects.

This encourages the use of multiple brain areas and by learning lots of different subjects you can use them together – thereby enhancing the interconnectivity of your brain. Learning itself triggers the release of dopamine, BDNF and other neurotransmitters that enhance plasticity – meaning that the more we learn, the easier learning becomes.

And having multiple skills means we can thrive in multiple different situations. This is one benefit of being a freelance writer – I’ve learned countless skills from how to pick a lock to how to fix the toilet!

And if you want to learn more, faster, then you only need apply a range of ‘accelerated learning’ techniques. Here are some of the best…

The Feynman Technique

The Feynman Technique is a mental model named for Richard Feynman. The aim is to learn and to increase your depth of knowledge by making sure you can teach someone else the subject. The idea is that if you can’t explain a subject simply, you don’t fully understand it.

To this end, Feynman suggests a flow chart of steps.

Start with the concept and then ‘explain like I’m five’ (ELI5). If you don’t understand, pinpoint the gap in your knowledge. Then try using an analogy to explain that (which actually taps into the way we understand the world – using embodied cognition) and then simplify that concept.

Then repeat the cycle.

Writing an explanation of the topic you’re trying to learn can often help to this end.

DiSSS

Tim Ferriss, author of The 4 Hour Workweek has a different method for learning subjects more quickly. He calls this the DiSSS method.

The phrase is of course an acronym, which stands for:

• Deconstructing (what are the minimal learnable units?)
o iNterviewing (asking people who have already mastered the skill)
o Reversal (looking at the end goal – for instance, Tim recommends learning finishing moves first in chess and then working backwards to learn how to get to that point)

• Selection (which 20% of the minimal blocks should I focus attention on?)

• Sequencing (what is the best order to learn said blocks in?)

• Stakes (how can you set up stakes to motivate yourself to keep learning)

The First 20 Hours

The First 20 Hours is a book by Josh Kaufman, that explains an alternative accelerated learning method. The central conceit is to aim for a ‘target performance level’ or more specifically, to know what you want to achieve through learning.

In particular, if you want to learn to code, then don’t set out to ‘learn to code’ which is much too vague, but instead set out to create a specific goal. Not only is this much more intrinsically motivating with more of an emotional drive, but it also gives you much more structure and it shows you precisely which skills you need to develop.

Conclusion

Combine these methods with adequate interest and with strategies to increase brain plasticity and you can rapidly accelerate your learning and become a far more formidable mind.

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