The #1 Success Principle of Lean, Healthy People

Failing to plan, is planning to fail

I’ve done it and so have you. You arrive home from work after a day from hell and then sitting in traffic to open your fridge and, save for a pork roast that would demand an hour to cook (never mind the prep time), realize you have next to nothing for dinner.

Conveniently, a menu sits nearby from that new pizza place, so you decide on takeout. You choose something sensible but then remember your friend raved about their thin-crust gluten-free pizza. You don’t want to let her down. Besides, you’re starving and pizza just sounds so much better than a salad.

Two hours later, you’re guiltily starring at an empty pizza box, feeling gross from eating too much, and determining that tomorrow you’ll renew your diet commitment.

Why We Fall into These Hazardous Traps

Sweat It Out: How Sweating Can Keep You Healthy, Happy, and Beautiful

Sweat it ALL out

Like with most of America, a heat wave engulfed Los Angeles during the past few months. Much as I love breaking a sweat working out, walking out of my house and instantly becoming a sticky mess exceeds my admittedly wide comfort zone.

Sweating isn’t sexy and it often gets a bad rep. You’ve heard someone say “Don’t sweat it,” for instance, and you remember like yesterday breaking into a miserable sweat before that make-or-break high school chemistry final.

First dates and job interviews are not the time to break into a sweat. During a workout or rigorous outdoor activity, however, you want to sweat, and the more the better. Here’s why:

Is An Occasional Toke Really So Bad?

A few hits of weed never hurt anyone...

I have these friends and you do too. They’re smart, educated, healthy, and successful. They also recreationally smoke pot: they’ll light up a joint at a dinner party or have a few hits before a concert.

You wouldn’t dare saying anything, but if you did they would dismiss their casual use as just “an occasional thing” and then subtly imply you were being uptight for even mentioning their vice.

Smart as our friends are, they aren’t likely aware of

Your Chances of Winning the Lotto are Better than Finding Someone in Shape (Well, Almost…)

Only 1 in 5 people comply with government fitness guidelines 

Are you hustling to hit free weights or make that new burst training class at your gym? Congratulations: you’re among the 20% who stay on top of your fitness game.

You read that right. Only 1 in 5 people comply with governmental fitness regulations. That’s what a new study in The Journal of the American Medical Association (thankfully abbreviated JAMA) http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleID=1697982 concluded about people meeting federal recommendations for aerobic and muscle-strengthening activity.

Are you familiar with these physical activity guidelines?