We like to talk about having a good quality of life. To many people, that includes having a big house, a big car, a swimming pool, a country club membership, a luxury yacht, a big bank account, a vacation house, etc. But the basic premise of having a quality life for us here at PIH is to have good health - only by being fit and healthy are you able to enjoy (and enjoy for a long enough period of time) the good things in life, the things that are important to you. Health always comes first: Take care of yourself!

Health

We understand that it takes time and effort to exercise. Trust us, everybody grapples with these issues. Ever wondered why some people have the time and discipline to keep fit and look good? Ever envied the fashion models and actresses on screen and wonder how you can be like them? Well, as we always stress at PIH, it takes time and consistent effort. We’re letting you in on a few secrets to how this group of people take good care of themselves:

1. They treat their bodies well, as if their lives depended on it (your life actually does depend on the state of your body)

2. They habitually give their bodies the right food fuels (think salads, vegetables, fresh fruits, lots of water and steamed lean meats) to build muscle, purge toxins and burn fat

3. They exercise religiously, never giving themselves excuses for not going to the gym

4. They make up for a night of excessive drinking and feasting with a longer workout the next day, they make up for a missed exercise workout with a replacement session

5. They stick to a usual routine, often sleeping and eating at regular times to regulate their body clocks

6. Some of them have “easier to train” bodies – face it, we were not born equal. In the same way as some of us are more intelligent, more artistic, more academically inclined or more musically inclined, some people achieve fitter, more muscular bodies a lot more easily. In sports science terms, some people are genetically more adept to hypertrophy (grow muscle) and/or their bodies produce more ATP (which transport chemical energy within cells for metabolism). Just remember this: Even if you have a weaker body, consistent, hard work can make up for a lot

7. Use of specific, proven, highly effective methods of diet and exercise – yes, we might be sceptical, we might be disbelieving, but there are indeed some proven techniques of diet and exercise that can accelerate our achievement of health and fitness goals (we will explore diet and exercise in more detail in upcoming sections)

8. Getting a partner: Training at the gym, jogging together or playing a sport with a partner (or in a group) always helps to motivate you and makes spending time on exercise less onerous, daunting and mundane. Exercising with people you like to spend time with also helps you to keep up the routine. Refining your food intake towards more healthy eating will also be made easier if your partner, spouse or family member does it together with you

9. Getting professional help: Hiring a fitness instructor or seeing a nutritionist will help to no end. Professionals know how to motivate you towards exercising or eating right, and good ones tell you how to maximise your efforts to get the best results. Click the link below to get profession help.

Health Experts, Available 24/7!

10. Have fun: Finally, remember that dieting and exercising does not have to be boring, tiring, monotonous or painful. Include an element of fun into your workouts, like listening to upbeat music, making sports a little bit competitive, experimenting with a fusion of health foods, etc

Regardless of age, size or shape, most of us should exercise regularly and we all know it. Not only does exercise bring the obvious benefits of strengthening muscles and keeping illnesses at bay, it also tones the body so that we can all fit into our favorite clothes (and more importantly, look good in them!). Exercise also has a positive effect on social personal grooming. It prevents or reduces depression and anxiety, improves psychological well-being and increases confidence levels. To find out more about how to exercise effectively, scroll down to our Fitness section.

Sleep is the natural state of bodily rest, and there are countless points of view with regards to sleep. We are only beginning to unravel sleep myths and its association with well-being. We all know how a late night, insomnia or a bad night’s sleep can have detrimental effects on our levels of concentration the next day. Sleep is important to us, and we all know it. We all need different amounts of sleep, but the proverbial 8 hours a day is a good guide. For more on health benefits that sufficient sleep brings, click here

More than how much you sleep though is when and how you sleep. The importance of keeping regular sleeping patterns cannot be emphasised more – going to bed at a regular time every night goes a long way towards getting a good night’s rest. Sleeping throughout the night without interruption can be helped by:

1. Being asleep from 1am – 4am: Research shows that this is the most important time at night for your body to rest, so as far as possible try to be asleep during this period

2. Drinking a glass of warm milk before bedtime

3. Having a hot shower

4. Clearing your thoughts before sleeping – let tomorrow worry for itself

5. Environment: Dark or minimal light conditions, keeping the noise level down and sleeping in a well-ventilated, temperature regulated environment (cool is always better) helps to create a sleep-inducing environment

6. Your bed: Make it as comfortable as possible, give yourself enough space to roll around, a good mattress to support your back, additional pillows, anything that can improve your comfort helps you sleep better. Explore further and you will find that good pillows and Egyptian cotton thread bed sheets for example can make a world of difference

7. Using the bedroom only for what it was meant for – sleeping. You should preferably not have a TV or use it as a study/work room

8. Not having afternoon naps: Excessive sleeping can lead to lethargy and insomnia at night when it is time for bed

9. Power napping: This is an art that takes time and skill to master, but taking a short nap for 20 minutes after lunch or in the afternoon energises and reinvigorates you for the rest of the day, and does not affect your night time slumber.

10. Exercise: Regular exercise in the day promotes a good night’s sleep. Just remember not to do it too close to bedtime as it stimulates your body through raising your body temperature

11. Avoid or reduce intake of stimulants: Excessive intake of alcohol interferes with continuous sleep and may wake you up at night, caffeine might keep you awake longer than you think and smoking reduces the quality of your sleep

12. Having a massage - foot reflexology, a body massage, or any other techniques that help improve blood circulation will help improve sleep

13. Use relaxation techniques: Yoga and pilates help. Learn progressive relaxation, toe tensing, deep breathing and other techniques here

At certain times in our lives, like during busy periods of school exams, work or computer gaming, we try to save on sleep so that we have more time. But more often than not, we find that we cannot “cheat” on sleep, and we usually have to “pay it back”. If we try to sleep less than we should for a sustained period of time, we find that we become tired, lethargic and less mentally agile. This leads us to making up for lost time by sleeping more. There are some schools of thought that assume all humans are meant to spend about 1/3 of our lives sleeping, and what you take away; you pay back in terms of sleep time.

Diet and exercise are inextricably linked. Eating well helps to feed the muscles and give the body what it needs to function at its optimal level for that “feel good” effect. Eating well also promotes good health and vitality – after all, “You are what you eat”. At PIH, we like to reiterate the importance of good health. A healthy diet and regular exercise naturally brings good health, something that money cannot buy. Good health allows you to more actively pursue all your personal development needs, including building wealth, advancing your career, or spending quality time with your family and loved ones. If you have not been eating well or have been a couch potato for way too long, then make the decision to treat your body right today. But remember to be patient and work hard at it consistently. Although you will see some instant results like increased energy levels, it does take time to see the full benefits of a sensible diet and exercise plan. Keep at it and you will soon feel good enough to be able to project a more positive, confident image.

Eating right doesn’t have to be boring. Here are some ways to eating right:

• Choose red meat of a leaner cut
• Grill your meats instead of frying
• Boil, steam, bake and grill your foods instead of frying
• Cook food in olive oil or margarine rather than butter
• Eat multi-grain bread instead of white bread
• Have a salad instead of baked potatoes
• Nuts and fruits make a good snack and are good replacements for cakes and biscuits
• Ask for smaller portions
• Eat half of what you are given or used to, and offer the other half to someone else
• Share a meal with your partner, or take the remaining half portion home
• Reduce salt, sauce and processed food intake
• Ask for more vegetables
• Try skim milk instead of regular milk which contain a higher level of fat
• Drink fizzy water instead of soda
• Get one dessert to share with everyone instead of having one to yourself

Most of us are aware of the general daily nutritional requirements our body requires for healthy functioning, like eating five portions of fresh fruits and vegetables a day. But research still shows that about four out of five Americans do not eat the five recommended daily portions of fresh fruit and vegetables. Then there are also many other requirements like vitamins, minerals, fiber, iron, protein and even fat that our body needs – does our food intake really satisfy all aspects? Many of us remain sceptical of supplements and whether we need it, especially with all the recent scares about the ingredients found in some “miracle supplements”. But the fact remains that the modern diet of instant meals, processed foods, fast food and fizzy drinks mean that our bodies are starved of the good stuff it needs to function optimally.

This problem is exacerbated by the fact that the world population explosion puts an ever increasing strain on agricultural production. The pressure to mass produce food on a large scale has led to over-farming on mineral-depleted, chemical fertiliser-laden agricultural land. Moreover, urbanisation, industrialisation and deforestation have also contributed to the ever-decreasing reduction in good arable land, resulting in even more strain on already nutrient-depleted soils. These factors combine to give us less nutritious food and fruits – with these now being deficient, is five portions a day still enough?

As a form of nutritional insurance many believe that it is definitely advisable to supplement your body in some kind of way – and we think so too. You will be surprised at the noticeable difference by simply giving your body what it needs to naturally maintain good health. Get your supplements here at our recommended online stores, a leading website whose products have been advertised on world famous radio shows like Howard Stern and Opie and Anthony, have been endorsed by celebrities like Al Sharpton and Ed McMahon and by Olympic athletes and hall of fame baseball player Tony Gwynn. Click on the image below to get your supplements

Are you overworked? Do you manage work and personal time well? The common symptoms overworked employees experience includes high levels of stress, burnout, headaches and migraine, body aches and muscular stiffness, chronic fatigue, anxiety, irritability, lower energy levels and lower sex drive. Many highly stressed individuals also cope by turning to smoking, drinking or harmful recreational drugs. If you feel that you are working too much and would like to now focus more on personal aspects of life, see tips to help you improve your work-life balance. Often, taking time out to exercise regularly and eating sensibly gives immediate health benefits and helps reduce stress. However, eventually you would still have to sort out related work issues.

Fitness

Health and fitness is the difference between living, and living well. So we have talked a lot about health, but what about fitness? Fitness can be defined as being in a good physical shape or condition. Being active and fit certainly helps to promote good health. A fit lifestyle can also improve your physical, mental, and emotional health. Consistent, suitable exercise helps to release more energy, feel good and perhaps prolong life.

If you have been a couch potato for too long, there is no better time than NOW to get that body started.

The benefits of exercise make a long list, but here are some (many!) of them:

1. Improves your mood – exercise releases the right chemicals to make you feel good. Two primary chemicals involved in making exercise feel good are cortisol and endorphins. Cortisol is a hormone produced by the body under stress and can be burned away through exercise making us healthier and happier. Endorphins are morphine-like hormone molecules that give a euphoric feeling (much like sex or chocolate!)

2. Self-confidence: Looking better makes you feel better when you exercise regularly, which boosts your confidence and improve your self-esteem. It also helps to improve your body posture, making you look more confident

3. Anti-depressant: Exercise can help to reduce feelings of depression and anxiety

4. Keep diseases at bay: heart disease, high cholesterol, obesity and osteoporosis can all be prevented through regular exercise. Exercise helps boost “good” cholesterol while decreasing “bad” cholesterol”, keep joints, tendons, ligaments and muscles flexible and active, and improves blood circulation. It also boosts your immune system

5. Improves sleep: You sleep better at night after getting some exercise in the day

6. Burning calories: Helps you maintain your weight and should also be used in tandem with weight loss

7. Increase energy levels: Achieved through improving your cardiovascular system, delivering more oxygen and nutrients to your tissues and circulating blood through your heart and blood vessels more efficiently. It also increases your metabolic rate, making you feel alive and more active

8. Improve your mental faculties and focus: Research shows that regular exercise helps to keep your mind active and sharp as you age, keeping your concentration levels high and enhancing your thinking capabilities

9. Improves your sex life: Might sound like a stretch, but being in better shape and fitness (think better stamina and blood circulation) increases your libido

10. Become physically stronger: The development of strong, firm muscles will help you to ease through daily physical activities like climbing stairs or carrying groceries

11. Reduce stress: Especially useful for the modern day office worker, it helps to take the day’s troubles away

12. Helps digestion: Better, more efficient burning of food fuels and no more heartburn!

13. Alleviation of menstrual cramps

Before we look at some tips for exercising, we feel it is useful to differentiate between aerobic and anaerobic exercise. According to Wikipedia, aerobic exercise refers to exercise that involves or improves oxygen consumption by the body. Aerobic means "with oxygen", and refers to the use of oxygen in the body's metabolic or energy-generating process.

Aerobic exercises are low intensity activities performed for longer periods of time. They include walking, running, swimming, and cycling and require oxygen to generate the energy needed for prolonged exercise. In general, aerobic exercises are what we commonly refer to as “exercise” that burn fat, improve metabolism, improve stamina, reduce cholesterol levels, etc.

Then there are anaerobic exercises which are non-endurance exercises that build power and often used by bodybuilders to build muscle mass. Muscles trained under anaerobic conditions develop differently, leading to greater performance in short duration, high intensity activities. Anaerobic exercises yield a much more specific, narrow set of benefits that are mostly power performance based.

Top tips for exercising

1. Set clear goals to help you focus on what you want to achieve out of the exercise routine, regime or workout that you are putting some much time, effort and money in. Many of us neglect the importance of tracking our progress, which helps to motivate us as well as keep focused on reaching our target. Record your progress in a notebook or PDA and monitor your improvements

2. Decide on a particular exercise regime or routine: It always helps to find specific information on how best to achieve your exercise goals

2.1 Jon Benson provides a very quick method to build lean muscle mass, perfect for busy people who do not have a lot of time to spend on exercising. He tells you how to do less, but doing the right things so that every little bit counts. Jon also provides a full refund with no strings attached (no feedback required, no forms to fill, just an email) so it is a great deal with the basic upgrade starting at $99

2.2 The No Sweat Exercise Plan (Harvard Medical School Guides) by Harvey Simon

Harvey Simon offers in-depth explanations of why one should exercise, which exercises develop the cardiovascular system, why one should include weightlifting in a weekly routine, and why exercise becomes essential as one grows older

3. Give yourself enough time to recover: Working out through the pain is not advisable and can cause permanent damage to your body (muscles, joints, tendons, ligaments, bone, etc). Space out your workouts so that your body can recover sufficiently from the previous workout

4. Challenge yourself but take it one step at a time: Muscle growth or hypertrophy is enabled through tiny tears in the muscle fibres created by working them beyond their current capacity (eg when lifting heavy weights). The result is the pain you experience in the worked muscles after a strenuous workout. So it is important that you stretch yourself beyond your usual limits. If you find yourself wobbling or shaking from lifting the weight then it is probably too heavy at your current strength levels. If you find yourself running out of breath from exercising beyond your usual duration then it is probably too much at your current endurance levels. If you experience joint pain then stop immediately, you are probably doing it wrong

5. Good form and technique: Always learn how to do an exercise correctly, and try to do it in front of a mirror to make sure your form and posture is correct. Serious exercise enthusiasts do this to ensure that they are doing it right, not because they are particularly narcissistic! Alternatively, get a spotter or partner to look at your posture to make sure you are doing it right

6. Quality over quantity: For weight-training, it is always better to do a good repetition than doing a lot of repetitions wrongly. Make sure you focus and make every repetition count

7. Breathing: For any form of exercise, make sure you regulate your breathing. Breathing techniques are important and help to improve performance as well as prevent injury

8. Stretching: Many people neglect the importance of stretching. Notice that some very muscular bodybuilders have “bent” arms that cannot extend fully? Well the danger of neglecting the need to stretch is the loss of flexibility and full range of motion of your joints. In general, for aerobic exercise, begin stretching about 10 minutes after a light workout. For anaerobic exercise, stretch after every set

9. Neglecting the core stabiliser muscles: In our bodies there are what we call core stabilise muscles that help us to balance and keep our body posture intact. These small muscles groups are usually non-visible to the human eye and often neglected. Remember to also focus on specific exercises that improve these muscles, otherwise your natural balance might be affected by unequal strength training. Read this:

Ultimate Core Ball Workout: Strengthening and Sculpting Exercises with Over 200 Step-by-Step Photos

10. Achieve balance: Many of us have seen bulky bodybuilding beefcake types that have a huge upper body but a tiny lower body. It is important to focus on a right balance of exercises throughout our entire body, as having even body strength from top to bottom gives you good balance, posture and makes you a more well-rounded athlete

11. Variety: Changing your workouts at regular intervals is always good – challenging your body to adapt to a new routine stimulates muscle growth. A good point to vary your workout is after 6 weeks (for weight-training) or once your performance reaches a plateau, ie no more significant improvements in strength, speed and/or endurance. Changing machines, using free weights, changing sport or changing routines (eg running uphill instead of downhill, swimming instead of playing tennis, etc) always seems to stimulate improvement

12. Consistency: Try not to stop exercising for more than two weeks, otherwise you risk losing the improvements in performance you have achieved, as well as the stamina you have built up

Ultimately, we at PIH believe that there is no big secret to fitness.

Our top 5 critical success factors:

1. Consistency: Time and again we stress that a regular routine is important – to stay motivated  and keep going at it

2. Doing something you like: Whether its going to the gym, rock climbing, swimming, yoga, pilates, tennis, badminton, soccer, cricket or squash, doing something you like always helps to motivate you to keep on doing it

3. Doing it with someone you like: Having good company always helps

4. Doing enough of it: A very conservative estimate, and good starting point, is to aim to do some form of exercise for 20 minutes a day at least 3 times a week. Doing something is better than nothing, but that is like scoring 50 out of a 100 in a test – you can see that as the minimal passing rate. If you have specific goals like losing five pounds, to developing six-pack abs to playing sport competitively, then you will want to do a lot more than the minimum.

Always seek medical and/or professional help on what you can or cannot do, and how much is advisable, click the link below to get started

Health Experts, Available 24/7!

5. Doing it right: When you do something, it is always best to do it right! Exercising effectively brings you the maximum benefits in the shortest time with minimum effort required, so why not do that? Having these will certainly help:

• The right equipment
• The right professional advice
• The right information
• Taking supplements to improve performance and muscle growth

- A leading website whose products have been advertised on world famous radio shows  like Howard Stern and Opie and Anthony, have been endorsed by celebrities like Al Sharpton and Ed McMahon and by Olympic athletes and hall of fame baseball player Tony Gwynn

Recommended resources

1. More on benefits of exercise

2. Benefits of aerobic exercise

3. Benefits of strength training

4. Workout tips

Free ebooks

	How to Stay Young Read this ebook to understand more on the ageing process in humans. Learn how to slow down the process of ageing!
	What You Need to Know About Sleep Apnea Sleep Agnea is more than just a snoring problem. You can actually stop breathing for some time during an attack. Read on to learn more
	Winning the Weight-Loss Battle This ebook offers good sound advice on how you can shed those extra pounds. It also look into losing weight with Hypnosis - a very interesting and effective technique for some people. The basic idea is to program the mind for the weight-loss you require; and that has an effect on your eating habits which, in turn, means that you eat more healthily and consequently lose weight.
	How to Get from Fat to Flat People all over the world are struggling to lose weight. However, there are still those who are stay trim and fit well into old age and beyond. Diet and lifestyle play a big role in longevity and physical health.
	The 80-20 Diet Vilfredo Pareto is famous for the Pareto principle which basically means that 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts. Try applying this principle to weight-loss, it means only doing things which will bring optimal results. For example, doing 20% of those exercises that offers 80% of all the results. And cutting down on 20% of those food that gives 80% of fats.

More resources

1. Liveperson.com

This website gives you instant access to hundreds of experts online, with a price per minute charge. For example, you can have access to a range of professional counsellors and medical doctors for an online chat at a price of, for example, $1.79 per minute. Prices range between $1.50 and $3.00.

This translates into $107.40 for an hour’s worth of professional advice, which might sound like a lot of money at first, but if you consider that you are sat in the comforts of your own home it might be well worth your while. In addition, you can choose the preferred duration of your session, and end it whenever you like. If you do actually go to see a professional at their office, they usually charge for a full hour regardless so this is already a cost-effective method.

How to choose an expert? Well the site uses an easy to understand 5-star rating, as well as the number of reviews the expert has below it. Reviews are given by previous customers and you can also read their comments before deciding.

Top Health Experts!
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2. Browse through wide range of products in our PIH InfoMart or search for relevant books in our PIH Bookshop.

You can also find more resources and information in our "Additional Resources" page.

* Disclaimer: This section only provides a point of view and information. It does not represent or constitute professional advice on exercise, diet, fitness or health – if you are looking for these please seek alternative professional help through our professional resources provided herein, or through other means. We cannot be held accountable in any way for any consequences arising from taking the advice provided here.