KALMESE FIT ADULT HEALTH CHALLENGE: SEVEN KEYS TO "YOUR SUCCESSFUL HEALTHY"!

WHY TAKE BETTER CARE OF YOURSELF?

Well, from being married over a decade, as a 42 year old athlete and trainer who has served over 7,500 clients aged 5-94 years of age, I'd say that one great reason is that I know so many healthy, brilliant matured people already out who are willing to enjoy life, and they're looking for partners, or already have partners, who TRY to be here for the long term. WHY NOT YOU?! You may or may not have the privilege of spending your life with one of those people, and whether you do or don't, you wouldn't want to hurt them by forcing them to nurse you/lose you sooner than necessary. We have ALL got to do better, and it ALL has to do with our relationships; with ourselves, with our people, with our crutches, and with our reasons to continue on.

As reported by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention:

Heart disease: 647,457.

Cancer: 599,108.

Accidents (unintentional injuries): 169,936.

Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 160,201. Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases) 146,383.

Alzheimer's disease 121,404.

Diabetes: 83,564. Influenza and pneumonia: 55,672.

Many of our habits promote many of these issues, and in countless cases, our habits CREATE these issues. Though it is reported that the human body is 70% water, the statement is completely false if the individual does not consume enough water daily. Dehydration alone dries the muscles, joints and all other tissues, changing what could be a simple ankle stretch into a life-changing and debilitating broken hip and torn ACL. Life is full of experience, and our enjoyment of a few of those experiences don't have to result in the premature ending of experience altogether.

HERE ARE THE 7 KEYS TO A SUCCESSFUL HEALTHY!

1. Hydration: Dehydration is defined as: losing 1% or more of bodily fluids without replenishing. Drink up to one liter of water per hour until you get half of your body weight in ounces of water, daily, and as the first and last thing you consume. Start with one 8oz glass first thing in the morning to jump-start your metabolism. A "traveling" liter bottle works well, and to keep it simple, just sip throughout the day until your ounces are completed. (Ex: i weigh 215 lbs and I need a minimum of 107.5oz of water, so I drink 24oz of water every hour until the early afternoon. My last glass comes after dinner. If you are consuming fresh hydrating fruit daily, you won't need as much water, as the body absorbs the natural water contained in fruits. What are hydrating fruits? Quite simply: Fruits that release juice. Watermelon, strawberries, pineapples, apples, grapes and kiwis are all hydrating fruits. They are best with breakfast and lunch, and in between meals as snacks.

2. Breadth of breath: Intentionally practice deep breathing exercises periodically throughout the day.

Ex: inhale slowly and deeply, exhale slowly 20 times consecutively; best before rest, at the very start of your days, and after receiving stressful stimuli.

Stress hormones are a very significant subject in autonomic nervous health, organ health, digestion, immune responses and overall human health. We are fully capable of healing or harming our overall health with our consistent thought patterns. Taking the time to breathe and process can be the difference between a great day and a massive stroke: no exaggeration, no joke. Breathe deeply.

3. Physical Exercise: 1 hour of exercise and stretching daily. Walking is only a warmup; squats, pushups, crunches, planks and resistance training create progress. Here's a good place to start: Walk a mile to warm up. Raise your knees higher, occasionally, to provide more strength in your range of motion. Once completed, try a one minute wall sit, then rest one minute. Next do 50 standing squats, then rest for a minute. Next try a plank for one minute, then rest for one minute. Lastly, knee pushups(if you really struggle with them, do not quit. Pushups help support the shoulders and provide stability/strength to the spine and core. Take your time and do 5-10 consecutively at a time resting between sets until you've reached 50 repetitions. Your measure of improvement will be seen in how easy they become over time. It is okay to decide to become stronger mentally in order to become stronger physically. Beginner's yoga is also a great idea. Exercise and stretch almost daily, allowing a day or two for recovery weekly.

4. Plants and seeds, nutritional needs: In your meals be sure to have 4 half cup servings of fresh-purchased vegetables, 4 half cup servings of fresh fruit, and 1oz of seeds before the end of each day (almonds, sunflower seeds, walnuts, peanuts, etc. ). If you really want profounf results, add a half cup of beans (once or twice daily), and oats once, to your daily routine to ramp up your protein and fiber intake. 

5. Self-respect: Eliminate soda, alcohol, tobacco, fried foods, fast foods, processed meats, boxed/bagged microwave foods, added sweeteners, white sugar and white flour. Each of these will only cause adverse effects, promoting bloating, inflammatory responses and digestion issues that disrupt the healing process of this challenge. The goal and point behind this method is to HEAL: Hydrate, Energize, Adapt, Learn. Heal the results of years of self-damaging repetition and accumulated toxins, parasites, bacteria, virii, and residual components of yesteryear's lacks of understanding. Our food, and it's market, is filled with components designed to addict you and I, and us all. Those components are accompanied with agents that were not designed to addict you, but still do. That mixture of unpronouncible, man-made chemicals (and often highly hormonal) nonsense has been lobbied for to be legally added to our food to save costs and build revenues. That same mixture was never what we were designed to build human tissues from; we were not supposed to draw energy from non-electric foods (foods with living energy and nutrition).

Challenge yourself to HEAL from the world, so that you can fully live this one single time you get the chance to be you, while being fully equipped with all that you are capable of.

6. Plan ahead. You should start by dumping all products that don't align with this method. Snacking on fruits and nuts is a great idea. Packing up a lunch pail for the day is a GREAT idea. Failure to plan is a plan to fail, so take your time to plan how to enjoy this process. Take before pictures of your face and whole body. Let that be your motivation more than the scale.

7. Humility. Practice patient appreciation throughout this process. What I mean by that is, when you drink your water, see it as the literal "liquid gold of the future". When you practice deep breathing exercises, see the breath, and the breadth of that breath, as literal medicine to the lungs, muscles, and body. When you exercise, see it as the privilege that many do not have, many did not make it this far because they never tried; you ARE. When you eat, chew thoroughly and carefully and see that process as the key to giving your digestion a fighting chance to right this ship. When saying "no" to the temptations of your old habits, see those old habits as one bad ex who abused you, cheated on you, and attempted to intentionally give you diseases simply because you never wanted to leave; in that is the patient appreciation for yourself, because you know you deserve better than what you have allowed in your life. We spend so much time expecting others to be more faithful to us than we are to our own selves, and this movement is about healing yourself from yourself.

TRY FOR 8 WEEKS BEFORE TAKING ANOTHER PHOTO. TRY FOR 6 MONTHS TO SEE WHAT YOUR DEFINITION OF AGE COULD REALLY BE...The future you with thank the you for today.  #iamkalmesewell