Positive Influence – Inspiring Success in Yourself and Others

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Influence can be likened to a liquid that flows into and out of all of us. The character of what flows into us directly affects our internal state and affects what flows out of us, inevitably impacting what gets into others around us.

People, places, and experiences that provide positive influence are those that help us move nearer to our desired results and help us to be better today than we were yesterday. Many if not all of us can recall times of positive change in our thinking that enabled us to move well beyond what we initially anticipated. Some of us may even have enjoyed the privilege of watching others process inputs we provided and move themselves to better lives. More →

Create the Life you Want – How to Inspire Lasting Personal Change

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“Fake it ‘til you make it!” they say, but where’s the long-term value in that approach?  If we spend energy just faking progress, how will we ever actually arrive at our destination?  It sounds much like the experience of people who sit in what look and feel like race car drivers’ seats, but after exhilarating, high-intensity video game simulations, find that they’re a dollar short and no further from where they were when they began. More →

Dietary Guidelines and the Food Pyramid

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Can you think of a time when you couldn’t find any food to buy or eat?  Believe it or not, a little over 100 years ago, there were a lot of people in the United States who didn’t have enough to eat.  Food was not widely available.  There weren’t multiple grocery stores in every town, and they certainly didn’t have 24 hour convenience stores.

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Hunter-Gatherer Cultures, Movement and Health

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This is the abstract from a research article describing our innate needs for movement:

Abstract:
The model for human physical activity patterns was established not in gymnasiums, athletic fields, or exercise physiology laboratories, but by natural selection acting over eons of evolutionary experience. This paper examines how evolution has determined the potential for contemporary human performance, and advances the experience of recently-studied hunter-gatherers as the best available (although admittedly imperfect) indicator of the physical activity patterns for which our genetically determined biology was originally selected. From the emergence of the genus Homo, over 2 million years ago (MYA), until the agricultural revolution of roughly 10000 years ago our ancestors were hunter-gatherers, so the adaptive pressures inherent in that environmental niche have exerted defining influence on human genetic makeup. The portion of our genome that determines basic anatomy and physiology has remained relatively unchanged over the past 40 000 years. Thus, the complex interrelationship between energy intake, energy expenditure and specific physical activity requirements for current humans remains very similar to that originally selected for Stone Age men and women who lived by gathering and hunting. Research investigating optimal physical activity for human health and performance can be guided by understanding the evolution of physical activity patterns in our species.

Cordain L, Gotshall RW, Eaton SB, Eaton SB 3rd. Int J Sports Med. 1998 Jul;19(5):328-35. Physical activity, energy expenditure and fitness: an evolutionary perspective. Department of Exercise and Sport Science, Colorado State University, Fort Collins 80323, USA.

Week 13 Air Insight: Comprehensive Fitness

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ESSENTIAL ELEMENT:  Comprehensive Fitness

Critical Concept:  Being healthy = being fit = comprehensive
If you want to be truly healthy, you must be fit.  If you want to be truly fit, you must be comprehensive in your approach.

If you were getting a regular sufficient intake of most of the required essential nutrients in your diet, but were missing one or several required nutrients, you would not be well.  In fact, you would most likely not be alive for long.  You should think this way for your movement patterns as well.  Any deficiency in the essential elements of the Air Domain will create adaptive physiology and over time, sickness.  The manifestation or symptoms may be latent (dormant or hidden) when compared to a nutrition deficiency, but the consequences are just as devastating.

Your lifestyle is most likely movement-deficient.  You must supplement your movement patterns to fulfill your body’s requirements.  Adopt the following behaviors and enjoy the body, the energy, the health, and the life that comes with them.

Summary Checklist:

  • Add activity every day in every way
  • Calculate Energy Balance
  • Add Functional Training
  • Use variety in your workouts
  • Focus on the Intensity of your workouts
  • Gradually progress to a higher intensity
  • Adopt the Buddy System
  • Get your spine checked by a chiropractor
  • Do what moves you – have fun
  • Employ Goal Setting and Clear Standards
  • Increase your flexibility
  • Commit to consistency in your exercise

Week 13 Fuel Insight: Compounding Wellness

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ESSENTIAL ELEMENT:  Compounding Wellness

Critical Concept:  Cumulative Effect
Good habits add together, and we get healthier.  Bad habits add together, and we get sicker.  This is true inside of each lifestyle domain and, more importantly, across all three domains.  You should approach the following checklist as a lifestyle “To Do List” in the Fuel Domain.  Print it out and hang it on your refrigerator.  Make copies at work and hand them out.  Post this to your Facebook page.  The more of these healthy habits you successfully adopt, the greater the chance of you experiencing your health potential and reducing the odds of suffering from chronic disease.

Science is revealing your owner’s manual.  You should follow it.

Bonfire Fuel Summary Checklist

At this point in the program you should be….

  • Drinking adequate water
  • Eating plants first
  • Choosing lean cuts of high quality protein
  • Consuming high-fiber, whole food carbohydrates
  • Increasing your healthy fat intake
  • Taking your Bonfire Essential Supplements
  • Taking 3 Deep Breaths before you eat to reset your state
  • Maintaining a net zero or net negative calorie/energy balance
  • Being mindful of “why” you’re eating, not just “what” you’re eating
  • Choosing to consume an abundance of Nutrient Dense Foods
  • Choosing to avoid Toxic/Deficient Foods
  • Practice Intermittent Fasting to rest and rejuvenate your metabolism

Water Facts: All you Need to Know About H20 Consumption

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Nearly everyone has heard that the body is approximately 70% water.  Yet, very few people then make the connection that the preferred beverage we should consume throughout each day is water.  Sometimes it seems as though many people drink anything but water.  Throughout each day, the body is constantly losing water through breathing, urinating and sweating.  This means, of course, that you need to replace or replenish that water.  Thirst is one way the body lets you know it’s time to refill your body’s water supply.  Unfortunately, by the time you actually feel thirsty, this can indicate that your body has already entered into a state of dehydration. More →

Wellness Paradigm

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The Wellness Paradigm addresses the body as an innately intelligent, self-governing and self-regulating being.  When that being is exposed to the appropriate environment it will express optimal health.  The Wellness Model endorses a pro-active, deliberate approach to living that encourages lifestyle behavioral patterns that ensure the provision of all elements considered essential for optimal cell function, while simultaneously avoiding those elements known to be inherently toxic to cell function.  The objective is to observe, support and encourage nature – not suppress, manipulate or interfere with it.

The Wellness Paradigm recognizes that sickness is not the opposite of health – but rather the absence of health.  Just as darkness is the absence of light – not its opposite.  The only way to brighten a room is to add light, not reduce darkness.  Likewise, the only way to get well is to increase health, not fixate on reducing sickness.

The objective of the Bonfire Health Program is to empower individuals with the knowledge of a genetically congruent lifestyle (“what to do”) and equip them with the lifestyle strategies proven to get the best results (the “how to do”).  Our purpose is to create Well People.

Understanding: Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load

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Both of these terms relate to how your body responds to the food that you eat, in terms of blood sugar.

Glycemic Index
The glycemic index (GI) is defined as the measure of the power of foods to raise blood sugar (glucose) levels after being eaten.  The glycemic index is measured on a scale of 1-100.  Foods with a lower glycemic index raise your blood sugar less than when you consume a food with a higher glycemic index rating.  In other words, a lower glycemic index tends to be better than one that is higher.

Pure glucose has a glycemic index of 100, and is used as the comparison for other foods.  Here are some examples:  the glycemic index of jelly beans is 80, and rice cakes is also 80.  Corn flakes have a glycemic index of 83.  A banana is 56, while an orange is 43.  Sweet potato and yams are 54 and 52, while breads range from 60-90.  Broccoli and spinach, meanwhile, have a glycemic index of 6.

The glycemic index of a food is determined by testing the actual blood glucose measurements of a group of people after that food is eaten.  This is because there are many factors that affect a particular food’s glycemic index – not just the amount of carbohydrate it contains.

The Glycemic Index was developed in 1981.  Since then, over 2,500 foods and food-like substances have been tested to examine their effect on people’s blood sugar.  In doing this research, it was found that many other factors besides the amount of carbohydrate in the food were important in how the food affected blood sugar levels.

What else affects the GI of a Food?

  • The type of carbohydrate present
  • The amount of fiber in the food
  • The amount of processing the food has been through
  • The speed of digestion
  • The speed of absorption by your body

Glycemic Load
Glycemic Load is a measure that uses the Glycemic Index and combines it with the amount of a food that you have eaten. The formula for Glycemic Load is simple:

A food’s Glycemic Index, times grams of carbohydrate in the food consumed, divided by 100.

GL*grams carbs/100.

The Glycemic Index described above is a measure of how a particular food is digested, absorbed, and ultimately travels through your blood as glucose.  An aspect that is absent from this description is how much of that food that you eat and the impact of the total amount of sugar entering your body.  In other words, Glycemic Index describes how much of a particular food ends up as glucose in your blood (blood sugar), but it needs to be expanded upon to describe how much of a particular food have you eaten.

Glycemic load was developed at Harvard in the 1990’s to improve upon the concept of the Glycemic Index.  A lower Glycemic Load value refers to a lower total load of glucose in your blood stream.  For Glycemic Load, 10 or less is low, medium is 11-19, and a Glycemic Load of 20 or greater is high.  A range of Glycemic Load daily values is 60 on the low end to anywhere as high as 180 on the high end.  A best practice is to keep your total Glycemic Load under 100 per day.

Glycemic Load Tool:  See this index for more examples of other common foods’ glycemic loads.

Important Considerations:

The Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load of a food, and of your overall diet, is an important aspect of the quality of your nutrition.  High blood sugar levels are associated with all of the chronic diseases, most notably obesity, heart disease and diabetes, but high blood sugar levels are also associated with several types of cancer.  However, a holistic approach is always critical to ensure that your fuel contains all of the essential elements your body needs.  Total energy consumption, nutrient content, variety, and food quality are all key aspects to understand, along with your fuel’s affect on your blood sugar.