On Target Living E-Book

Chris Johnson

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Seitenzahl: 487

Beschreibung

Make your company--its employees and its culture--healthier inside and out Energy and wellness are of ever increasing importance. With an increase productivity and job satisfaction that come from a healthier life, now is the time to get healthy. A poor food environment and the demanding pace of modern day life continue to contribute to a downward spiral of health, On Target Living offers focused strategies to achieve positive results. Everyone knows that exercise and physical movement contribute to better health, energy, and performance. The challenge comes with knowing what to do and how to do it. Author Chris Johnson has taught thousands how to live a life in balance, and here he shares his practices with you. * Developing healthy eating habits * Incorporating exercise into daily routines * Prioritizing rest and rejuvenation * Learning the keys to living well and applying this knowledge to enhanced performance, increased productivity, and positive results for your life and work The journey to optimal health and performance begins with the ideas in On Target Living. Building sustainable changes into your company culture will decrease health risks and sick days while contributing to higher productivity rates, but these improvements will also contribute to healthier and more enjoyable lives for your employees.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Why On Target Living?

Peak Performance: Something I have and something you want!

Peak Performance: Learn it and earn it!

Raised by Wolves!

I: Laying the Foundation for Optimal Health and Performance!

Chapter 1: What's Possible in Your Life?

Step 1: Self-Awareness That Change Must Occur

Step 2: What Do You Want?

Step 3: Finding Your WHY

Step 4: One Small Step at a Time

Step 5: Monitoring Your Success

What's Possible in Your Life?

Chapter 2: The Elephant in the Room

Why Are We Moving in an Unhealthy Direction?

Your Time Has Arrived

Chapter 3: Let Food Be Your Medicine

Chapter 4: The World Is Flat?

Chapter 5: Aging Well versus Anti-Aging!

Chapter 6: Cellular Health

Everything Begins at the Cellular Level!

The Cell Membrane

Mitochondria

Nucleus of the Cell

Chapter 7: pH Balance—The Missing Link to Amazing Health

Chapter 8: Laying the Foundation

Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs

Building “Your” Foundation

II: Rest and Rejuvenation

Chapter 9: Life Balance

Chapter 10: Is Stress Melting You Down?

So What Is Stress?

Stress Response: Lions and Tigers and Bears!

Optimal Stress Level

Autonomic Nervous System

Sympathetic Nervous System—The Accelerator!

True Fight or Flight

Parasympathetic Nervous System—The Brake!

Chapter 11: Hormonal Harmony and Your Health

Chapter 12: Building Your Rest and Rejuvenation Toolbox!

Strategy 1: Social Engineering

Strategy 2: Diaphragmatic Breathing and Breath Awareness

Strategy 3: The Power of Sleep

III: EAT

Chapter 13: So What Is Nutrition?

Nutrition 101

Good Digestion

Chapter 14: Read the Label

Ignorance Is Not Bliss!

Less Is Best!

Avoid Trans Fats

Avoid High-Fructose Corn Syrup

Say “No” to GMO

The Dawning of GMOs

If You Can't Read It, Don't Eat It!

What Is the Serving Size?

Supplements—The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Chapter 15: Going Organic

What Does Organic Mean?

Benefits of Going Organic

How Do You Know It's Organic?

How Much Does It Cost?

Chapter 16: What Are We Drinking?

Soda Pop

Coffee

Tea

Milk

Juice

Sports Drinks

Jack-Me-Up Drinks

Alcohol

Water: Your Body's Drink of Choice!

Is There a Difference in Types of Water?

How Much Water Do You Need?

Chapter 17: Macronutrients/Food Target: The Core of On Target Living Nutrition

Chapter 18: Carbohydrates—Fuel Your Body!

Are Carbohydrates Good or Bad?

Fiber

The Carbohydrate Continuum

Carbohydrate Chemistry

The Glycemic Index

Why Do We Crave Carbohydrates?

Insulin Is a Hunger Hormone

Carbohydrates as Mood Regulators

Understanding Your Sweet Tooth

Organic Cane Sugar

How Many Carbohydrates Should You Consume Each Day?

Chapter 19: Proteins—Build Your Body!

What Is Protein?

Complete and Incomplete Proteins

Benefits of Protein

What Kinds of Protein Should You Eat?

The Protein Debate

Eggs

Fish

Poultry

Lean Red Meat

Dairy Products

Plant-Based Proteins

Protein Supplements

How to Use Protein Supplements

Protein/Energy Bars

The Protein Continuum

How Much Protein Is Enough?

Chapter 20: Fats—Heal Your Body!

Medical Research Supporting Healthy Fats

Where Have We Gone Wrong?

Why Is Eating Healthy Fats So Essential for Good Health and Improved Performance?

Categories of Fats

Monounsaturated Fats (Omega-9 Fats)

Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids—Essential Fatty Acids

Omega-3 Essential Fatty Acids

Benefits of Consuming Omega-3 Fats

Where Do You Find Omega-3 Fats?

Wonderful Fish Oils

How Much Omega-3 Fats Should You Eat?

Omega-6 Essential Fatty Acids

Omega-3 and Omega-6 Fats in Balance

Improving the Quality of Fat in Your Diet

Chapter 21: Superfoods—Eat Like a Super Hero!

Cereal Grasses

Cod Liver Oil

Spirulina/Chlorella

Super Seeds (Flaxseeds, Chia Seeds, or Hemp Seeds)

Sea Vegetables

Coconut

Cacao

Berries

Leafy Greens

Nuts and Seeds

Super Whole Foods

Chapter 22: The Art and Science of Dieting

The Science of Dieting

The Art of Dieting

The 80/20 Plan

Go Green 10-Day Detox

Kristen's 21-Day Challenge

On Target Living 13-Week Action Plan

Chapter 23: How to Feed Your Kids: Lessons Learned Living with the “Health Freak”*

Feeding Your Kids 101

Chapter 24: Creating a Healthy Food Environment

Grocery Shopping

Healthy Eating on the Run

Chapter 25: Recipes

Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner

Desserts and Snacks

IV: Move

Chapter 26: Let's Get Moving

Benefits of Daily Movement

Why Don't We Move Daily?

Exercise and Weight Loss

Posture Alignment

The Bionic Woman

Getting Started—How Much Exercise Is Enough?

Dynamic Warm-Up: 2 to 3 Minutes

Foundation Exercises: 5 to 8 Minutes

Cardiovascular Exercise: 5 to 25 Minutes

Strength Training: 5 to 45 Minutes

Planned Recovery

Equipment Needs

Frequently Asked Exercise Questions

Your Exercise Hierarchy of Needs

V: Your Final Journey

Chapter 27: Your Body Is Always Talking to You!

Eyes

Teeth and Gums

Breath

Digestion and Elimination

Energy and Fatigue

Muscle, Tendons, and Ligaments

Bone Health

Resting Heart Rate

Blood Pressure

Sleep

Skin/Hair/Nails

Blood Test

Chapter 28: Know Your Numbers and Improving Your Numbers

Know Your Numbers/Improving Your Numbers

Cholesterol

Triglycerides

Homocysteine

High-Sensitive C-Reactive Protein

Prostate-Specific Antigen Screening (PSA)

Thyroid-Stimulating Hormone (TSH-Ultra Sensitive)

25-Hydroxyvitamin D Total

Testosterone

Chapter 29: Why and Why Not?

You Can Do It!

Expect Bumps in the Road

Why?

Why Not?

Enjoy the Journey!

Index

Cover design: Wiley

Copyright © 2013 by Chris Johnson. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Johnson, Chris, 1957-

On target living : your guide to a life of balance, energy, and vitality / Chris Johnson.

pages cm

ISBN 978-1-118-43529-8 (pbk.); ISBN 978-1-118-63297-0 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-63296-3 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-63295-6 (ebk)

1. Health behavior–Popular works. 2. Health promotion–Popular works. 3. Industrial hygiene–Popular works. I. Title.

RA776.9.J64 2013

613–dc23

2012049823

Acknowledgments

There are so many people who were instrumental in the development and completion of this book. I'd like to begin by thanking many of my teachers. To Miss Ellis, my sixth-grade teacher, who believed in me. To my college professors, Dr. Louis Junker, Dr. Wayne Van Huss, Dr. William Heusner, and Dr. Kwok Ho. Thank you for sharing your passion and vision and opening my eyes to a life's work in health and fitness.

To my mentor Al Arens, your guidance and support made a huge impact on my life!

To my colleagues Phil Nuernberger, Bena Long, Matthew Cross, Diana Doroftei, and Anna Callori, who I have learned from and been supported by; they inspired me to keep learning and growing.

Thanks to all my wonderful friends and family who have supported me from the beginning.

To all our faithful On Target Living readers, followers, whose letters, phone calls, e-mails, and testimonials motivate and drive me everyday—I thank you!

To our wonderful team at On Target Living, Matt, Dawn, Sherri, Tab, Toni, Regie, and CJ: you are truly changing lives every day!

To brother, sister, and Annette: your love over the years has been a guiding force in my life.

And to my wife, Paula; my daughter, Kristen and her friend Sean, my son, Matt, daughter-in-law, Holly, and my dog, Dolly, for all your love and support.

To my mom and dad—thank you for your guidance, support, and most of all your love!

Introduction

Why On Target Living?

What makes On Target Living different from other health and fitness programs? The answer is Balance! With over 46,000 diet and nutrition books on the market today, and countless exercise DVDs, books, and programs, don't we have enough information to keep us healthy and performing at our best? The answer is yes! But what most people are missing for better health and performance is balance!

The On Target Living philosophy is centered around balance. Helping people understand how quality nutrition, proper rest and rejuvenation, along with regular exercise, keep the mind and body working in harmony. For over 30 years, I have watched people work hard in the gym and get little results. Or follow a strict nutritional program only to abandon ship only after a month or two.

Each year I receive hundreds of e-mails and phone calls from people all over the world who may be struggling with their health, energy, or performance. I try to help them understand that the answer to their high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, or getting a good night's sleep does not come from a prescription pad. That losing weight does not need to be a low calorie diet tied to intense exercise. Or the solution to erectile dysfunction or low testosterone may not be a pill or hormone replacement therapy, but learning how to control stress.

What do performance, productivity, and success mean to you? I believe many people view this as a financial description. If you are successful, you make a lot of money; if you are a top performer, you earn the most income; if you have the most productive sales team, you get the largest commission. What if I told you none of this matters if you don't have your health, or better yet, you can have greater performance, be more productive and have more success in your life, if you take control of your health!

How can being overweight affect your work? How can being on multiple medications affect your relationships? Is your energy not what it used to be? Why are my kids overweight? These are a few questions to think about. Each one is related to performance in some way, shape or form.

I have witnessed the positive change that comes when people adopt a mentally and physically healthy lifestyle. A better understanding of simple nutrition has not only improved their health, but changed their life. An important, though often overlooked, part of lasting success is finding the energy and vitality to complete your goals. Companies are spending a significant amount of money and resources to find solutions that will help their employees overcome the challenges of daily fatigue. The first step to solving these problems is a system of health and energy strategies.

Peak Performance: Something I have and something you want!

As I have evolved throughout my career, I have made some dramatic changes in my teachings, but the one thing that really stands out is how nutrition, rest, and exercise relate to PEAK performance. What I call PEAK performance is not something you compare to others, but your ability to perform, you being your best. Being your best as a parent, spouse, friend, boss, employee, athlete, grandparent, neighbor, or volunteer—all aspects of your life. If you are not feeding your body, resting properly, or exercising enough, you can never reach your full potential. As you read further in this book, think about where you want to go. Is your health and fitness where you want it to be? Are you on a path to greater success in your life? How do you want to be remembered? Let On Target Living help you bring greater health, energy, and vitality into your life!

Peak Performance: Learn it and earn it!

You may be asking yourself what “taking care of your health” has to do with my business or performance.

Traveling the world helping high performers and companies with time, money, and risk is my passion. I engage, educate, and motivate people on the benefits of eating healthy and exercising efficiently, and the reasons why getting proper rest is critical for peak performance. I reach thousands of people each year through my live On Target Living seminars and through this book I am now bringing this information to you! The goal is for you to walk away with the knowledge and practical applications to immediately implement into daily life.

Build momentum into your business with more energy.

Increase your productivity as you increase your vitality.

Understand stress and how to manage it.

Unlock the secrets to why we lose momentum and the keys to getting it back.

Learn how your health relates to your wealth.

Learn how to set realistic goals.

Gain insight on how your brain takes on new habits.

Find out the key metrics for optimal health and how to stay focused.

Be your peak performer.

At the end of this book, you will be asking yourself, Why isn't this taught in the top business schools all over the country?

Raised by Wolves!

I usually begin most of my seminars by asking the audience if they were “raised by wolves.” Some people laugh, some nod yes, but many are not sure what I mean when I ask this question. Let me explain: If you drank out of a garden hose, rode a bike without a helmet, or rode in the backseat of a car without a seatbelt and survived, you were most likely “raised by wolves” too!

I want to begin your journey by giving you a little background on the author (that's me!) to help you understand where this guy is coming from. I was born in Lansing, Michigan, on November 22, 1957. I have truly enjoyed living in the Midwest—I like the change of seasons, the Great Lakes, and the pace of life in Michigan, and by connecting the dots in my life; I hope to give you a deeper understanding of the man behind the curtain!

When I ask the audience about being “raised by wolves,” I'm not criticizing my two wonderful parents, but like most baby boomers, it was an era of “freedom”—rode my bike across town, played in the woods all day, and our only rule was to come home when the streetlights came on. I was told not to fight with my brother or sister, no swearing allowed, and I had to be home for Sunday dinner. There may have been a few more rules, but not many. It was a simple time, playing outside from morning till dark, spending summers at Douglas Lake, building tree forts, and playing games. My family loved to play games: Croquet, tennis, golf, ping-pong, cards, board games, if you could bet on it, we were playing it!

As my grandmother and dad used to say, I grew up eating the Food of the Gods. I don't believe we had any whole food in the house except maybe a banana, apple, or orange once in awhile. I grew up eating processed everything: Captain Crunch, Alpha Bits, Golden Grahams, Lucky Charms, Little Debbie Oatmeal Pies, Hostess Snowballs, Snickers, Three Musketeer bars, Heath bars, bologna sandwiches on white bread with Miracle Whip, Stouffer's broccoli with cheese, Beefaroni, McDonald's, Jon's Country Burger, Yankee Cone Shop, A&W Hot Dogs and Root Beer, Famous Recipe Chicken, DeMarco's Pizza, margarine, whole milk, Kool-Aid, Coke, Pepsi, and the list went on. I drank little water, except when playing sports, and the food I ate became a game changer in my life.

For most of my life, from ages 5 to 21, I had major skin rashes, dandruff, and psoriasis. Doctors prescribed topical creams, cortisone, and oral medications to help my skin, but nothing seemed to make a difference. Finally, the doctors told my parents their son just had “sensitive skin.”

During my college years, my “sensitive skin” continued until I enrolled in my junior year economics class with Dr. Louis Junker (a man way ahead of his time). One day, Dr. Junker explained the profitability of processed foods. He stated that there was little profit to be made selling whole foods such as a tomato, but if you took that tomato and turned it into catsup or tomato paste, then the profitability would go through the roof.

He continued his lecture, discussing digestion and drinking cow's milk. This was one of my greatest aha moments (have you ever had one of those moments when everything makes sense?). Dr. Junker was not a big fan of cow's milk. He began by saying that the protein molecule in cow's milk is very difficult for the human body to digest and absorb correctly—remember this was in the late 1970s. He went on to say poor digestion of cow's milk could lead to many problems such as asthma and skin rashes. Skin rashes? I was a poor college student drinking two gallons of cow's milk per week and had terrible skin. My doctors never mentioned anything about what I was eating or drinking and how that could affect my skin. After this discussion in class, I cut back on my consumption of cow's milk (a lot!) and my skin immediately started to improve. It turns out I did not have “sensitive skin”; what I had was a horrible diet. What I was eating and drinking was causing havoc to my skin.

After I graduated from college with a business degree, an economics minor, and better skin, I went to work for Butternut Bread selling white bread and Dolly Madison cakes and cupcakes. This was my first experience working in grocery stores, observing the buying habits of consumers, and learning how the grocery stores get consumers to buy. After one year of sleep deprivation and working more than 70 hours per week, it was time for me to move on from the Butternut Bread gig.

Next on my job list was Frito-Lay where I spent my days selling Doritos, Ruffles, Munchos, and Funyons. This time the hours and pay were much better, and I had options for future growth within the company if I desired. Again I was back in the grocery stores and was amazed at the volume of snack foods people were buying. Some of the larger stores would take over five hours to service (just one store). Each day on my route, I would pack my lunch, extra snacks, water, and find myself talking to co-workers, people in grocery stores, friends and family about fitness, nutrition, and health. After two years at Frito-Lay, my interest continued to grow and so I decided to pursue other career options.

I really did not know what direction to turn. I was thinking about going back to school to study physical therapy, sports medicine, or start a career teaching, and although I had a lot of options, I knew whatever I decided, I wanted more.

After many phone calls and interviews, I finally struck gold when I met with Dr. Kwok Ho at Michigan State University. Dr. Ho was a professor in the School of Education, and he had his doctorate in Exercise Physiology. We had never met before, and it amazed me that he was willing to spend over two hours with a person that was not yet a student. He asked all the right questions: What was driving me? How did I want to help people? Was I looking for a job, career, or a calling? This question was deep: I never once thought of finding work that would turn into my calling. I was just trying to make a living and have some fun along the way.

As we talked, I could feel his passion and his belief that what he did was very important work. When our meeting ended, I stood up and gathered my notes, and he said something I will never forget. He said, “Chris, you are a prevention guy and the world needs you!” The next day, I began the enrollment process as a graduate student at Michigan State University in Exercise Physiology, and in the fall of 1985 I began my journey, or as Dr. Ho would say, my calling.

So when you begin to read and learn more about cod liver oil, chia seeds, sweet potatoes, cacao, macadamia nuts, hemp seeds, flaxseed, wheatgrass, hydration, bone health, hormones, weight loss, pH balance, cellular health, spirulina/chlorella, almond, hemp or coconut milk, diaphragmatic breathing, how to get a good night's sleep, medications, rejuvenation strategies, body alignment, and posture exercises, remember I wasn't raised on this stuff: I was “raised by wolves”!

I hope you enjoy your journey!

Health and Happiness!

—Chris

I

Laying the Foundation for Optimal Health and Performance!

Chapter 1

What's Possible in Your Life?

Our life is what our thoughts make it.

—Marcus Aurelius

The question, “What's possible in your life?” can be fascinating and yet a little scary. Have you ever taken the time to dream, step back, and truly contemplate “what is possible in your life”? Is it possible to be medication-free for the rest of your life? Climb the Grand Canyon rim to rim? Ski with your great-grandkids? How about owning your own business? Lose 100 pounds and keep it off for the rest of your life? Have a great night's sleep? Get into the best shape of your life? Have greater stamina in your professional and personal lives? And live life with greater balance?