Top Wellness Articles

20 Health Benefits of Fasting

author Dan Riefstahl date 04/18/2018

Fasting has been recognized for its many health benefits dating back to Hippocrates. These benefits extend to everything from better weight management, improved cardiovascular health, healthier blood composition, and better cell recycling, among many others.

Although there is not an abundance of research on fasting in humans, a growing number of health experts believe that the results of fasting from animal studies hold great promise for human health and future research efforts.

There are many different types of fasts you can choose from, and they differ in their results and difficulty. Much of the research included here comes from studies on caloric restriction and intermittent fasting. One conclusion is steadfast, fasting remains one of the most effective means of detoxifying your body and resetting your system for better overall health.

20 Health Benefits of Fasting

Read More

The path to emotional wellness

author Dan Riefstahl date 04/07/2017

Being emotionally well is more than just handling stress. It also involves being attentive to your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, whether positive or negative.  Emotional Wellness implies the ability to be aware of and accept our feelings, rather than deny them, have an optimistic approach to life, and enjoy life despite its occasional disappointments and frustrations.

If you are a person engaged in the process of emotional wellness, you are willing and able to:

  • Arrive at personal choices and decisions based upon the synthesis of feelings, thoughts, philosophies, and behavior.
  • Live and work independently while realizing the importance of seeking and appreciating the support and assistance of others.
  • Form interdependent relationships with others based upon a foundation of mutual commitment, trust and respect.
  • Take on challenges, take risks, and recognize conflict as being potentially healthy.
  • Manage your life in personally rewarding ways, and taking responsibility for your actions.
Read More

15 fitness tips

author Dan Riefstahl date 03/31/2016
  1. Small steps
  2. Find short-term rewards
  3. Track your progress
  4. Enjoy yourself
  5. Never ever give up
  6. Get a workout partner
  7. Vary your workouts
  8. Focus
  9. Rest is important
  10. Focus on long term
  11. Focus on your diet first
  12. Find the exercise that works for you
  13. Learn to be present
  14. Don’t let your body adapt too much
  15. Get inspired

source

Read More

Displaying items by tag: motivation

October 25, 2016

Final Results

face

So I let life get in the way of keeping up on this blog. If you are curious of the final results, they were very good. I lost 17 lbs in 31 days. I did post on facebook on August 31st but not on the blog. Here is my facebook post:

"This ones for you, Jon. I know today is a tough day for everyone. My love goes out to all of you who loved this great man. At the Boulder ceremony we wrote down what we wanted to accomplish in honor of JGreens. My goal was to get fit again. I started a 31 day reboot on Aug 1. Today is the last day. My goal was to lose 4-5 pounds per week. I did it! I lost 17 pounds. To help me stay motivated, I looked at my new tattoo. It reminds me everyday to crush life. For myself, Jonathan and all of you."

I also had some technical difficulties as my phone with my "after" pics died on me and I lost the only one I had with my shirt off. The pictures here are from October, 2016. In these picture I weigh approx 218 lbs. 

Published in Blog
April 07, 2017

Day 5

Today is Friday and I am on day 5 of my second reboot. I have only been to yoga 2 times this week. I got some tattoo work done on my arm on Wednesday and it has been really sore! My weigh in on Monday did not go well. :( I weighed in at 226 lbs. No pre-diet this time, but I do know that some of this was "weekend weight" from much beer drinking and bloating. I decided not to weigh myself again until the following Monday but was too tempted this morning not to do it. Today I am at 220. Not bad for 5 days! Although my "real" starting weight was likely 224 after my body normalized.

This week I did not do anything too special. But I think that is the key here. We want to be able to maintain this lifestyle long term so going crazy and being extreme will not work in the long run. Slow and steady wins the race. My main goal was to begin to train my body and mind (mostly my mind) to avoid snacking and late night eating. Also to avoid (as much as possible) items high in sugar. I did have several dum dums and a tootsie pop but overall I was successful and did not snack at night and did not eat after 7 p.m. I also drank a bit more water than normal. My diet this week was very good. I ate a lot of lean protein such as chicken, tuna, hard boiled eggs and salmon. Each day I started with a chocolate banana smoothie and a hard boiled egg. I use Atkins Dark Chocolate protein shakes. I cant say enough how much I like these. They have 15g of protein, 4g of fiber and only 1g of sugar but they taste amazing! I mix a half of a shake with one banana, and a 3/4 of a cup of ice and blend for a satisfying start to my day. Trying hard to stick to a routine seems to help me stay on track.

Published in Blog
April 03, 2016

Saturday blues

Today's been a pretty low day. I laid around all day and ate way too much food. Missing Jonathan a lot today. I thought about him several times. Little things just reminded me of him. I saw Point Blank in my movie queue. He didn't get to watch it. :-(

Not to mention it's snowing. I know we had a great winter. I'm very thankful for that. Between buying a new house and having a mild winter, I barely noticed this year. I do suffer from Winter Blues and this year I skipped it. :-) but it's April 2nd and I needed some sun for motivation today. Didn't get it.

Published in Blog
March 30, 2016

Is today the day?

I am afraid not. What am I talking about? I AM GOING TO GET FIT. Just not today.

Yes, getting fit is my goal, but what does that mean? Physically fit? Spiritually fit? Emotionally fit? Check. I often feel like they go hand in hand and I am sure many others do as well. I don't think it is realistic to try to get "fit" in all ways at once. You are setting yourself up to fail. Too much change at one time will overwhelm even the strongest of us. I don't have any real rules for this challenge.

Your 31 days can be anything you need to reboot. No TV, no internet, maybe dedication to read everyday. The reboot is anything YOU want to change.

Science say it takes minimum of 21 days to form a new habit. How long does it actually take to form a new habit?

Why not start today?

Because I don't want to. Really that is it. I have been thinking about this plan for months. I want to start today but I am being realistic. I am not ready. I want to go have a snack. I am going to spend the next 2 weeks motivating myself for this experience and hopefully my work will motivate you as I collect and publish articles and inspiration from each of the 7 dimensions of wellness. When someone asks me, "How are you?" I say "I am well"  I want to say this and actually mean it!

Published in Blog