Week 10 Air Insight: Goal Setting

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ESSENTIAL ELEMENT: Goal Setting

Critical Concept: Hedging your success.
Your models and standards are powerful predictors of your success and happiness. The little voice inside your head can often tell you to stay on the couch. We are hard-wired to be lazy. When food was at a premium, your goal for the day was to find enough food to last until tomorrow. For the fortunate majority of us, this is no longer the case.

We are programmed to seek pleasure, move away from pain, and do it all with the greatest economy of energy. In regards to our internal GPS (Bonfire Genetic Positioning System), the suggestion of running a marathon is preposterous. Unless there is food under that dumbbell, you are not programmed to pick it up. If there was a crocodile in the pool with you, it would make sense to swim as fast as you can. Otherwise, expending all of that energy voluntarily is purely ridiculous. Unless you think about it.

The human mind thrives on challenges.

We are comparative animals. We love to compare ourselves to others. In fact, we know ourselves through others. We form our identities, self-image and self-worth by watching and comparing ourselves to others. And we want to be good. In fact, we want to be better.

Psychologists report that our identities are a reflection of how we perceive ourselves relative to others. We have models that set standards for us in every aspect of our lives. Since childhood, we’ve watched our mothers, fathers, siblings and friends, and studied their behavior. We have been shaped by the standards created by our environment. And we continue to be shaped.

Choose your environment wisely, as it will powerfully influence your experience.

Our environment is made up of people, places and things. We should be careful to choose environments that create the type of influence that we wish to experience. It is important to seek out those people and places that inspire you to move towards becoming the person that you want to be.

We have always watched the herd. We take social cues from those around us and we wish to be like them – and be liked by them. “We want to be connected, accepted and respected,” says author Tom Decotiis (Make it Glow).

In fact, influence masters insist that it is easier and more effective to change the environment than change people. Change the environment and you change standards – and, ultimately, performance.

To create the life that you want, create the environment that sets the standards that lead to that outcome.

Who do you spend time with? Where do you spend your time? What do you spend your time doing? Are these all in alignment with what you are trying to create?

Are you are trying to become the healthiest, fittest person that you can be? Does your environment set the right standards for that? Do you have a support system that makes it easier for you to be successful? Are you following a proven system of training that sets clear performance standards for you? Do you know what you’re doing today or where you are going with your fitness tomorrow? Are you measuring your progress?

You don’t get what you want, you get what you measure.

Research has revealed strategies that create greater chances of success in every endeavor – especially fitness. Measuring and recording your performance is a critical step in establishing tangible progress. Comparing your outcomes against a clear standard is vital behavior in progressive training. A Bonfire best practice is to clearly define your goals and objectives, set written goal dates, and use a compelling reward and penalty system. Publicly profess your intentions. Our personal identity is closely tied to our want to behave consistently in the public eye. Identify a person of influence in your life and tell them about your goals and standards. If you truly value their opinion of you, this can be a powerful contributor to your success. Put these clear standards in place and stack the deck in your favor.

In order to stifle that inner couch potato and achieve your ideal fitness and health goals, you must recruit the robust sources of influence that goal setting and clear standards provide. As they say, if you don’t know where you’re going, how are you going to get there?

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

Timeless

Week 10 Fuel Insight: Food Quality

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ESSENTIAL ELEMENT: Food Quality

Critical Concept: Keep it simple.
It’s so important to keep things simple. Think about it. Life is stressful, complex and complicated. Our food shouldn’t be. There are natural laws that we must follow to be healthy, happy human beings. We should be eating the foods that were available to thousands of generations of our ancestors – it’s what our cells expect. If we veer from these selections, our cells get confused and our bodies get sick.

Don’t you just love simple rules: “If it wasn’t food 2000 years ago, it is not food today.”

Human beings have a fascination with science. We think that we can improve anything. As much as this ingenuity has spawned incredible discoveries, advancements and conveniences in our lives, it has created a world of trouble for our stomachs.

70% of our diets now consist of foods that did not exist 200 years ago. Hydrogenated vegetable oils, refined carbohydrates, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Genetically Modified Foods, chemical preservatives and additives now constitute the bulk of what modern humans consume daily. Processed food and industrialized farming has transformed our food into “food-stuff.” We have made a dramatic shift away from natural foods in their natural forms to a totally unnatural, toxic and deficient diet-style. Eating this way is incredibly expensive.

“Getting well and staying well is expensive, but it’s cheaper than being sick.”

People often make the argument that eating healthier, fresh, whole food is more expensive. At first pass, you may notice that your weekly grocery bill is a few dollars higher, but with simple considerations, the cost-effectiveness of eating well is obvious. Making the choice to eat healthier foods implies that you are forgoing the other, toxic/deficient foods. Eating a healthier diet has been irrevocably proven to improve immune system function, reduce blood pressure, normalize blood sugar, improve digestion, reduce reflux, heart burn and constipation, and reduce allergies, asthma, eczema, acne and arthritis. Think of all of the money that you’ll save if you don’t get sick.

“Staying well takes some work, but it’s easier than being sick.”

Some people suggest that it’s too difficult to eat healthy. Choosing the diet-style recommended by Bonfire Health has been shown to reduce cholesterol, heart disease, strokes, diabetes, obesity and cancer. I can’t think of anything that is more inconvenient than chronic illness. Following the Bonfire lifestyle means adopting a mind-set and a skill-set for better living. With a little know-how and practice, you’ll be a master of the life that leads to health and vitality, not the slave to the lifestyle that has been proven to create sickness and disease.

Some foods are inherently toxic to the body. For the most part, we know which foods to avoid. Most of the confusion is found in the other half of this food discussion: deficiency. The other side of the blade of toxic food choices is the fact that these foods are consumed instead of the nutritious foods that our cells require. This “double-whammy” sets the stage for accelerated aging, and promotes both acute illness and chronic disease.

A Bonfire vital behavior is to add as much nutritious, real food to your diet as possible. It is almost impossible to over-eat fresh vegetables. Eat plenty of wholesome fruit, nuts, seeds and berries. Enjoy lean cuts of organic, grass-fed meats, poultry, game and wild fish. Always add the good stuff first– there will be less room, and eventually less desire for the rest. A Bonfire best practice is to keep your grocery cart on the perimeter of the store. This is where all of the fresh foods are found. Join a Community Supported Agriculture co-op and support local farmers. Being a Locavore is a great way to save yourself and the planet at the same time. Buy locally-raised, grass-fed beef, buffalo, game and poultry. Choose local organic eggs, fruits and vegetables.

The vital nutrient density is higher in these local foods, so the return on your investment is direct – not to mention the benefit that you get from re-establishing your connection to the food that you enjoy.

Timeless

Week 9 Spark Insight: Connection

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ESSENTIAL ELEMENT: Connection

Critical Concept: Get connected, accepted and respected.
We are social animals. We are drawn to others, groups and gatherings like moths to a street lamp. We have an innate need to connect, to share and to be accepted. Coiled deep within our genome lives the predilection to commune with like others. We want to give, take and share. We are driven to socialize – as if our lives depended on it – because, in fact, it once did.

All human wants and behaviors can be reduced down to two fundamental lowest common denominators: Survival and Reproduction. Every natural drive that we have today reflects a trait that somehow conferred either a reproductive or survival advantage to our ancestors. Our need to belong to a Tribe is certainly one of these.

The Tribe provided support, protection and relations. The free exchange of resources was the impetus for the birth of the village and the glue that held it together. The union of skills, strengths and abilities had a multiplicative quality that defies inductive calculation. The whole is much more than the sum of the parts. Each being brought their essence to the group and breathed an immeasurable spirit into the collective. Individuals shaped groups, and groups shaped individuals.

In times past, the spoken word was the lubricant of socialization. The ability to recount facts, share vital information and to learn from others was the foundation of the tribal connection. Story telling was one of the most critical survival elements. Sharing stories multiplied everyone’s experience. By simply listening to the tribal elders, hunters or warriors one could benefit from their predecessors’ adventures, successes and failures. Back in the day, you’d get a lot of mileage out of sound advice like: “Fish over there”, “Don’t eat those berries” or “Stay away from that bear cave”.

Today the ability to communicate may still convey a reproductive advantage, but historically, it meant life and death.

We’ve moved into the cities and suburbs and out of the villages. We feel crowded, yet alone. Technology has allowed us to become “connected” – at the price of being disconnected. Our needs are subordinate to our schedules and structure. We are busier and busier each day, and make choices based on scarcity, not priority. We are left with deficiencies in all lifestyle domains – especially this one.

Deficiencies create stress. Stress creates adaptation, then fatigue, and then failure.

We must seek opportunities to fulfill our innate needs and deliberately fill them. In our unnatural, modern and mechanized lives we have become dangerously independent. Yes, we can now outsource nearly everything and survive – but thrive? At the expense of sufficiency, we now seek efficiency. This leads to deficits that must be reconciled.

Healthy people spend time with other Well People. A Bonfire best practice is to seek out like-minded, supportive people. Schedule time for friends, date night, mystery rides with the kids, and coffee breaks with your spouse. Put these times in your weekly schedule and make them part of your culture. Work, chores and other responsibilities will consume your day and fill every opening in your schedule if you’re not careful. Just as with your money, there is a fragile Economy of Time that you must master before it masters you.

In the interest of happiness, health and well-being, we must choose to supplement our disconnected lifestyles. As much as a multi-vitamin fills in the nutritional blanks in our diet-style, or the treadmill supplements a sedentary existence – our social lives must provide the essential elements missing from life outside the village.

So by all means get connected. You’ll be amazed by how much you’ll get when you give, love and share.

Timeless

Week 9 Air Insight: Vitamin F

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ESSENTIAL ELEMENT: Fun and Play

Critical Concept: Our modern culture is desperately deficient in Vitamin F – fun.
When was the last time you saw someone on a treadmill laughing? And I don’t mean because the TV looming above their head was featuring some outrageous guest on the Jerry Springer show. I mean that they were truly having fun?

A big reason that so many people have trouble sticking to their exercise routine or reaching their health and fitness goals is because they are trying to get themselves to stick to an activity that they hate! This will never work. You cannot expect to successfully maintain a regimen that you detest doing. You will always find a way to avoid, make excuses around, or straight out sabotage your fitness effort if you dread your program. So don’t do it.

Do what moves you. Choose the activities that you love to do and get to it.

Build your passions into your fitness program. If you love swimming – make it the anchor of your fitness program. If you hate running – don’t build your routine around running. Fill your activity calendar with the things that you love doing. If you love to be outside, don’t plan on spending every day on a stair climber in your basement. You should focus on outdoor activities. If you are very social, join a club or a team. Don’t go it alone.

Ultimately your health goals should include you achieving well-rounded, balanced fitness. This opens the door to a great variety of choices for activities. Don’t be narrow minded when designing your conditioning program. Open yourself to the possibility of trying a new sport or getting back to one that you loved, but lost years ago.

A Bonfire best practice is to join a club or team that engages you in an activity that you love to do. Committing to a team leverages a powerful source of social influence. If you have a group of people who are expecting you to show up and have fun with them, you are far more likely to make time for it.

A vital behavior is to schedule it. Your life is probably over-obligated, over-whelming and over-booked. Don’t expect that you’ll simply “find time” to have fun. You must schedule some “spontaneous time.” As paradoxical as that may sound, in today’s culture if you don’t write it into your day-timer, life will fill in the blanks. Schedule your playtime.

Ask yourself the most revealing question: What do I really love doing?

Our lives are so stressful and our schedules are over-booked. We should try to capitalize on every opportunity to have fun. If we get creative with our workouts, we can get two birds with one stone – get the movement that our bodies require and expect, while feeding our minds, hearts and spirits with the joy that comes from doing what we love.

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!

Timeless

Week 9 Fuel Insight: Emotional Eating

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ESSENTIAL ELEMENT: Emotional Eating

Critical Concept: You will never find the right answers when you are asking the wrong questions.
Why are you eating? There are as many answers to this question as there are people struggling with their diet. As we get closer to the truth, the reality behind our eating habits can be telling. Not all eating disorders manifest as overt weight issues, whether a person is overweight or underweight; sometimes outward appearances defy the truth of our relationships with food.

A common conception is that the choices that we make around food are driven by physical needs, wants and cravings. Psychologists disagree. Experts say that most food choices are motivated by emotional drives. Our association to food goes far beyond our want to satisfy a physical need.

Emotional eating is a broad term that implies that someone is eating for reasons other than hunger.

We have discussed the concept of essential elements in the three major lifestyle domains of eating, moving and thinking. These elements are like essential nutrients required by our cells for function and health. These nutrients must be provided by our lifestyle choices. In other words, our body cannot fabricate these elements on its own, and therefore, we must supply these essentials on a regular basis by the way that we eat, move and think.

Some Essential Elements are acute in need, such as oxygen (it becomes immediately apparent if you do not get enough oxygen), whereas some elements are latent in need, like “connection” (one could go years without a sense of community before the symptoms of disconnection are apparent).

When the body experiences a deficiency in an Essential Element, there is an adaptive response. If you move to Denver, for example, there is less oxygen in the air, so your body adapts by forming more red blood cells (the oxygen-carrying component of your blood). This type of adaptation is innate and can be seen in all three lifestyle domains where a deficiency exists. Any “lack” in the environment produces a response by the body as a means of survival.

Psychological and emotional needs are latent essential elements. If you perceive that something is missing in your social life, love life or spiritual life, innately you will try to meet that need. Often, this sense of lack or deficiency will create a void that you try to fill with food. When you feel out of control in one aspect of your life, you will seek control in other domains. Finding solace in the fridge has become a widespread issue.

Research studies suggest 75% of overeating is the result of emotional eating. Food has become the “drug of choice” to treat feelings of stress, anxiety or loneliness.

There are real biological factors at play here. The hormones and neurotransmitters that are released in response to the foods that we consume are more powerful than any drug that we could take. When we eat certain foods, highly addictive “feel good” chemicals like serotonin and endorphins course through our blood and influence our thoughts and moods. High sugar and fat combinations can create feelings of relaxation and even euphoria while refined carbohydrates can cause sedation and calmness. Unfortunately, these “feelings” are short-lived and typically create a crash that sends us searching for more.

Societal pressures drive more and more people to eat emotionally. The unrealistic standards set by the modern media are largely unattainable for most and often leave people feeling inadequate. These feelings can drive a cycle of “food deprivation” which is unsustainable and inevitably leads to binging on some level. This “binge” can be as innocent as “cheating on your diet” or as serious as a life-threatening chronic illness. The feelings of failure associated with the binge can drive the emotional anchors to food even deeper.

“Food becomes therapy” Says psychiatrist Dr. Debra Emmite. “We are medicating our feelings. Often people will ‘eat at someone’ with whom they are upset, hurt or angry. If you overeat often, chances are that food has become your body’s programmed response to factors such as stress, loneliness, boredom, or sadness.”

A recent research study demonstrated that 85 percent of emotion-based eating was reduced in participants when they learned how to respond to negative emotions with a different attitude and real-life solutions.

You must become mindful of when and why you are “emotional eating” and replace this behavior with another positive behavior.

Be careful of two significant pitfalls in this approach. Do not think that this is simply a battle of wills and you must ignore your emotions and defy your deep rooted habits. That approach is unsustainable. You must follow these five steps of a successful change effort to see lasting positive change:

1. Identify WHY you are eating. What is the Perceived Deficiency that drives this behavior?

2. Understand the futility of this behavior and own the consequences of continuing this way

3. Recognize the physical / chemical factors at play: hormones and neurotransmitters

4. Choose to replace the current Belief System that leads to this behavior with one that drives healthier choices

5. Choose to replace this behavior with a positive, constructive one that provides sufficiency in your essential needs and ultimately healthier outcomes

A Bonfire vital behavioris focusing on adding good habits, not breaking bad ones. Choose to add behaviors that fulfill your actual needs in every lifestyle category. Add exercise, nutrient dense foods, meditation, prayer, journaling, time with friends, nature and inspiring projects. Creating an environment of abundance through healthier choices, relationships and experiences is a Bonfire best practice. Create a food log that provides a place for you to record your feelings around food and fosters mindful eating and healthier choices.

Every day you can choose to seek out sources of emotional, physical and spiritual nutrients that will fill your heart, mind and cells. This is the first and most powerful way to create lasting change in your life and health.

Timeless

Week 8 Spark Insight: Living in Alignment

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ESSENTIAL ELEMENT: Living in Alignment

Critical Concept: Genetic need for congruency
Coiled deep inside of our DNA are needs, wants and requirements of all kinds. These needs range from the obvious to the obscure, but all define the environment in which we thrive as human beings. One of the most abstract, but profound and most essential of elements is the need to live in alignment with our innate values.

The origin of these values can be credited to a God planting the seeds that drive an ingrained moral law, or chalked up to critical social qualities that developed over the millennia because they conferred a reproductive advantage. Regardless of orientation, most everyone agrees that we live by an internal compass that guides our behavior with feelings of good and bad, knowledge of right and wrong.

We flourish when we live in alignment with our innate value system. When our behaviors are congruent with our values, we feel satisfied, confident and at ease. When our actions are at odds with this internal guidance system, we sense disconnect, anxiety and restlessness.

People perform best when given clear standards. Standards provide clarity, accountability and the opportunity for feedback. With qualities as abstract as “innate values,” role models are the best standard. When we can identify a particular person who clearly embodies a given trait, we can better relate to that quality.

Dr. Guy Reikman describes a best practice for alignment being the creation of your own Virtual Board of Trustees. Your Virtual Board of Trustees (VBT) is populated by individuals who best represent or role model “successful traits” in each of your Life Value Accounts. This group can include people you know well, celebrities or even fictional characters – whomever you choose. Mentally access this VBT whenever faced with a question of appropriate behavior or response – for instance, “What would Yoda do here?”

Timeless

Week 8 Air Insight: Benefits of Movement

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ESSENTIAL ELEMENT: Neurological Benefits of Movement

Critical Concepts: Lack of movement promotes stress.
There are many well-understood benefits of movement and activity, including improved cardiovascular health, weight loss, lean muscle mass and strength, balance, tone and appearance. Science is now grasping the depth of the role of exercise in the realm of prevention of chronic diseases such as diabetes, CVD and obesity. The latest research is now painting a broader picture for the benefits of movement in the realm of neurology, development and optimal health.

The primary purpose of movement and activity is to develop and condition the brain (Dr. John J. Ratey, Spark).

Our nervous system is an incredibly complex network of communication fibers and junctions that allow us to relate and adapt to our internal and external environments. The nervous system, made up of the brain, the spinal cord and miles of nerves, depends on movement to restore the body to homeostasis – or a state of general balance and equilibrium.

This resting state is critical to health and healing. Our lives have become frantic. We rush through our days, seemingly never having enough time to complete tasks, slow down to eat, or relax and unwind. So often we are stressed out in traffic or sitting in front of a computer or on the phone. Most people spend far too much time in the “Go State” – fight or flight. This constant Sympathetic Stress State keeps stress hormones coursing through our veins, wreaking havoc on our health.

One vital function of movement is its ability to “re-set” our nervous system from a “stress state” to a “rest and repair” state.

The cerebellum is the area of the brain that monitors movement. The “body sense” that is derived from movement is called proprioception. This body sense provides more data to our brain than all of our other incoming senses combined. It is described by Nobel Prize Winner Roger Sperry as a brain nutrient. The information is derived from the compression of spring-like mechanoreceptors in your joints. When you move, they send signals to your brain.

This cerebella stimulation from movement of our joints will actually drive the body away from a stress state and back toward a rest and repair state. This critical homeostatic mechanism is responsible for returning your body to a state of equilibrium. In other words, movement reduces stress.

Lack of movement promotes stress.

If you live a sedentary life, you miss out on this effective “stress-buster.” People who exercise regularly report less stress in their lives and experience fewer stress-related health problems. Exercise has the additional benefits of increasing neurotransmitters (brain chemicals) that promote happiness, better sleep and increased sex drive.

Poor posture and fixed positions can create stress in the body. Toxic and deficient movement patterns promote core weakness, muscle strain, inflammation and structural dysfunction. When joints do not move properly, they create irritation to the nervous system that acts a lot like “static” or noise in our communication network. This noxious stimulation or nociception changes the brain’s function and influences the body’s chemistry. This type of joint dysfunction and associated nerve irritation is called “subluxation.”

Subluxations can occur in any joint, but the most devastating are found in the joints of the spine. These spinal misalignments can be caused by trauma or bad habits (or both), and their ill effects on your health can be profound. A distinctive quality of subluxation is joint fixation. When a joint is fixed or “stuck” and not moving through its normal range of motion, a host of problems can arise. Joint decay and degeneration (arthritis) occurs when a joint is not moving properly. If a joint is fixated, proprioception (Body Sense) is reduced and nociception (noise) is increased – both of which promote stress in the body.

Healthy people practice regular spinal hygiene by utilizing the Life Extension Exercises. A Bonfire best practice is to implement these into your daily routine to combat stationary work and postural stress. Best results are achieved if you do this one-minute routine at least once every two hours at the computer or work station. Nudge yourself into better habits by auditing your workstation for postural stress (read more here). Make it a regular habit to get up and walk during your day. It is very unnatural for you to sit for extended periods of time – no matter how important the project. Dr. James Chestnut suggests a brilliant nudge: position yourself perfectly while sitting at the wheel in your car and then adjust your mirrors. If you slouch during your drive, the mirrors will remind you to sit up.

A vital behavior for optimal health and function is to have your spine and nervous system evaluated regularly by a qualified chiropractor. These doctors have a unique training and specialization in locating and correcting spinal misalignments that contribute to spinal stress. This safe and effective method has been practiced widely for over one hundred years, and is now the second largest form of health care in the world.

Your brain and body expect and require movement for health – for life. Get to it.

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

Timeless

Week 8 Fuel Insight: Energy Balance

by admin

ESSENTIAL ELEMENT: Caloric Energy Balance

Critical Concepts: Optimal energy intake and output
The human body functions best with a net zero or net negative energy (cal) balance. We are faced with the perfect storm of obesity today. The confluence of three factors has created the obesity and sickness pandemic that is sweeping our nation: first, choosing to consume foods that are inherently toxic to our cells; second, the deficiency that results from making these toxic choices instead of eating the healthy foods that our bodies require; and last, the resulting energy imbalance that is a consequence of our relatively sedentary lifestyles.

The divorce that now exists between energy acquisition and energy consumption has led to an energy imbalance – better thought of as an energy crisis – that has produced the greatest threat to mankind’s health today: chronic disease. Although we have been designed to adapt magnificently to famine, we have no physiological defense against abundance and abuse…except intelligence and free will.

Every cell in your body is stuffed with a genetic legacy that has been shaped over thousands of generations by successful adaptations to environmental stressors and the behaviors that promoted survival and reproduction. One key behavior that left an indelible imprint on your genetic owner’s manual is movement. The most active humans won in the greatest contest known to man: life.

We must recognize that in our modern industrialized world, most things are done for us. Previously obligate activities like running down your lunch are no longer on your daily planner. We must remember that “busy” does not equate active. In fact, busy usually equates “stressed” – which in turn means more chronic low-grade inflammation.

Our ancestors moved as if their lives depended on it – and today, ours still do. If you wish to be truly healthy, you must become truly active.

If you are trying to lose pounds to reach your Ideal Weight, there is one equation that you must understand: calories consumed – calories burned = calories (weight) lost or gained. We do not promote that you spend a lifetime counting calories and measuring food. In fact, we promote the opposite for the long-term. But, we do recommend building a critical skill set: the ability to eyeball your food and have a working estimate of its caloric value. If you gain an understanding of the caloric value of your typical foods along with an understanding of the caloric value of your typical exercises and activities, you will be empowered to influence your body weight and overall health.

An excess of calories triggers the release of Insulin – the Fat Storage Hormone. Remember, chronically elevated insulin is the enemy.

When it comes to food and longevity, the research shows that reducing your (net) calorie intake increases the length of your life. The Bonfire Ideal Dietstyle promotes balancing the energy budget of your body by increasing your activity output first and then looking at your caloric intake. A good rule of thumb is to eat enough to fuel an active life and support plenty of lean muscle mass – and no more.

Best practices for achieving your ideal weight include simple things like using smaller plates, smaller portions, or pouring yourself a serving instead of eating out of a bag. Avoid mindless eating – sitting in front of the TV while snacking is a fast track to over-eating. Be careful who you eat with. The research shows that your company can influence your portions by as much as 100% or more.

Keeping a food log and activity journal has been proven to be a vital behavior to those trying to master their energy balance. Understanding the number of calories in our foods and activities is a powerful way to make the “invisible” visible. When people realize that they would have to spend 66 minutes on the treadmill to burn off the blueberry muffin that they’re considering, they tend to make better choices.

Summary Checklist: At this point you should be:

Drinking adequate water
Eating plants first
Eating 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

Timeless

Week 7 Spark Insight: Gratitude

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ESSENTIAL ELEMENT: Gratitude

Critical Concept: Gratitude is a choice, not a feeling.
The best description of the optimal wellness mindset is ultimately peace of mind. Individuals who enjoy peace of mind do not necessarily experience fewer challenges or opposition in their lives; they simply choose healthier responses.

Our ability to choose our response to a situation is a learned skill. Like a muscle, it requires time and practice to develop strength and coordination. Our inherent emotional reflexes are primal in origin and are rooted in our deepest survival mechanisms. They are neurological remnants from a time when threats to life and limb were a constant companion. Historically, they served us well by protecting us from predators. In the modern world, these ancient reflexes often cause worry and anxiety personally, and conflict and defensiveness in our relationships.

On a personal level you get to choose your attitude. Your attitude is a set of beliefs that are developed over time. Your attitude reflects your chosen belief system and dictates your behaviors and feelings. In any given situation you have the ability to choose your attitude and therefore your response to it.

Too often we become totally associated to our outcomes. In any given venture we have an objective (what we want to create), a process (how we do it) and an outcome (what we get). If we tend to associate too strongly to our outcomes, our lives will be an emotional roller-coaster, vacillating between elation and depression. 1 To combat this cycle, we must anchor ourselves to our Vision first, our Process second and our Outcome third. We simply cannot “do” an outcome. Our influence is found in our process, and that is where our focus should be.

To maintain this focus we must leverage gratitude. If our attitude reflects the belief that every circumstance provides an opportunity for growth, we can maintain a state of gratitude.

In every situation there is the possibility of receiving support or resistance. We can choose the perspective that promotes gratitude by recognizing that every source of opposition, challenge or struggle strengthens us. We can choose to be grateful for the opportunity to learn and develop. In these situations we can choose to allow stress to build in our hearts and minds or let gratitude fill our growing minds and spirit.

Conversely, if we experience support, we must choose to recognize it and be grateful. We should be careful not to take it for granted and miss the opportunity to recognize others for the support. A Bonfire best practice is to role model gratitude, recognition and appreciation in our relationships. Show others how we wish to be treated. Be deliberate and discuss this openly with the people you care about. Having clear standards for communication is as critical in our personal relationships as our professional ones.

Healthy people choose to fill their hearts and minds with gratitude at every opportunity like a traveler filling a canteen for a long journey. As James Macdonald says, your heart is like a bucket that you fill with your attitude. You never get to see what’s in the bucket until you bump it and its contents spill out.

On this journey called life there will be plenty of bumps. What will spill out of your bucket?

Timeless

Week 7 Air Insight: Community

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ESSENTIAL ELEMENT: Community

Critical Concept: We are communal beings who thrive and prosper with social support
There are three critical steps to adopting exercise as a permanent fixture in the landscape of your life:

1. Deeply own the significant benefits of fitness to your overall health and life.

2. Equally understand the devastating consequences of not exercising.

3. Surround yourself with as many committed, motivating supporters as humanly possible.

Man has always hunted in a pack and gathered in a group. We love to be part of a greater whole on a quest for a mutual goal. A group of like-minded others successfully completing a task creates a “vicarious experience” that gives us confidence to embark on a new activity or break a four minute mile. The power of the group can pick you up and carry you along when motivation is low. And the influence that others exert on our experience can create extraordinary performance in the name of excitement, camaraderie, competition or good old pride.

A group can be as small as just you and someone else. The Buddy System is one of the most powerful Influence Strategies that you could possibly employ. Want to increase your compliance, frequency of workouts or bottom line results? Simply coerce a friend to join you.

A best practice is to get friends to join you on Bonfire. The only thing more gratifying than embarking on a personal journey back to optimal health is taking others with you. Share this link (Bonfire Health) with friends and tell them that if you’re going to get fit and live longer, you’d love to have them along for the ride with you.

No friends? No problem. Hire one. A personal trainer or coach is a great way to get the double whammy of Influence Strategies. A coach will give you clear standards, accountability, feedback and with any luck – encouragement.

A best practice is to follow the Bonfire Workout of the Day with friends. Organize groups at work, get your whole family moving, or organize a Bonfire Workout at a local beach or park. Find a qualified functional training facility such as CrossFit. The spirit and energy of these communities are exactly what is needed to get you to the gym, through a great workout, and back for more tomorrow.

Misery loves company – and apparently so does wellness. The easiest way to make fitness fun is to share it. Make new friends, build a social life around activity (not just food and drink) and create a community of healthy minded people (like you) who will support and promote the wellness lifestyle.

Show me who you’re spending your time with, and I’ll show you who you’re becoming.

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