“There is a meditation exercise in which you place a raisin in your mouth. You do not eat the raisin. You meditate and allow it to sit in your mouth unmolested. The raisin plumps up and becomes a juicy fruitness in your mouth, tempting you to bite it. This is a powerful example of how eating is different when you are truly aware of each morsel.” - Thich Nhat Hanh

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

When my family and I visited Tokyo earlier this year, it was a bit sad to see the rise of fast food in Japan.

It’s a beautiful country with a rich history of a traditional lifestyle, incredible food, and good health. They’ve perfected the art of food preparation, using the freshest ingredients to create small portions of beautiful dishes.

And while there still aren’t many fat Japanese people, especially compared to the U.S., I’d bet that will change with the insidious growth of fast food restaurants on many a street corner. McDonald’s is prevalent, of course, but so are many other Western food chains and an increasing number of Japanese fast food outlets.

It’s been awhile since I’ve written about the Slow Food movement, but I really believe it’s the answer to many of our problems: health and obesity, the hectic and stressful pace of modern life, and the lack of happiness in a complex and often burdensome world.

This is the Anti-Fast Food Diet — a way to not only lose weight and get healthier, but to change your life to one of simplicity, moderation, and joy.

Abandon fast food, and all the values it brings: mass consumption, mass production, the exploitation of workers, the destruction of the environment, the destruction of small local businesses, the corporatization of our culture.

Instead, embrace Slow Food. Here’s how.

1. Stop rushing to eat. Set aside more time for eating, for shopping and preparation, for enjoying life. Stop rushing to fast food places because it’s convenient — because it’s not so convenient to be hospitalized. Instead, make time, and take things a bit slower.
2. Prepare your own meals. I know, who has the time? You do. Make the time, and cook simple meals without a lot of ingredients or preparation time. It takes 10 minutes to whip together a healthy and tasty lunch or dinner. And it can be a lot of fun (get the family or your partner involved). Preparing your own meals is healthier, frugal, and you know you’re eating good food.
3. Eat real food, not processed. Buy fresh ingredients such as fruits, veggies, whole grains, nuts, beans, and the like. Use ingredients you can recognize, not things filled with chemicals. Don’t use prepared food if you can avoid it — microwaveable or boxed foods are not the best. Avoid processed food at all costs.
4. Eat slowly and mindfully. Too many people stuff food down their gullets these days. It’s not healthy, and you’ve just consumed food without enjoying it. Instead, take the time to chew your food, to taste it, to be present as you eat.
5. Enjoy the food. Fully savor each bite. Appreciate the miracle of the food you’re eating, and be grateful you have that bite at all.
6. Take time to breathe, and smile. Before you begin to eat, smile, and take a deep breath, reminding yourself to be present and enjoy the food. Between bites, instead of rushing to the next bite, breath, relax, enjoy. Savor the moment.
7. When drinking tea, just drink tea. When eating, just eat. Be fully present. Don’t read a book or surf the net or drive or work or anything else but eat and drink.
8. Good conversation. OK, the exception to the above rule: eating with friends and family. Fast food has destroyed the good meal and conversation, because we’re rushing as we eat and don’t have time for a good talk. Bring it back.
9. When you do eat at a restaurant, make it a good one. Avoid the fast food places, but also the chain restaurants (Chilis, TGI Fridays, Lone Star, Olive Garden, etc). Go to locally owned restaurants where they use real ingredients and really make good food. These may be more expensive, but you’re not supporting a corporation and your food will be better, and even if it means eating out less that’s OK — quality is more important than quantity.

“There are some people who eat an orange but don’t really eat it. They eat their sorrow, fear, anger, past, and future.” - Thich Nhat Hanh

“When you eat with awareness, you find that there is more space, more beauty. You begin to watch yourself, to see yourself, and you notice how clumsy you are or how accurate you are. … So when you make an effort to eat mindfully…, you find that life is worth much more than you had expected.” - Chogyam Trungpa

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If you’re interested in a life of minimalism, check out my new ebook: The Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life.

Or find more of my other books and ebooks.

Editor’s note: This is a guest from Brad Pilon, blogger and author of Eat Stop Eat.

We can’t control the future. I wish we could, but we can’t. There are simply too many variables and uncontrolled factors at play. Even the best-laid plans are no match for unforeseen circumstances.

Sure we all enjoy the security of attempting to predict, plan, and control our futures because it’s a way for us to attempt to reach our goals, but in reality this control is nothing more then an illusion.

A perfectly planned vacation can be ruined by the weather (out of your control), a flight cancellation (out of your control) or a sickness (again, out of your control).  At some point we are going to fail while attempting to control the future in order to reach our goals.

In fact, when it comes to reaching our goals we fail ALL THE TIME.  But this is perfectly all right because this is the only way we learn.

The problems arise when we fail to learn from our mistakes and overlook the big picture, and then grasp for even more control by concentrating on the little, small, and insignificant things that don’t really matter.

This desire to guarantee the future by controlling the small insignificant parts of our lives seems to be human nature, and this fact is extremely evident in the field of health and nutrition.

Think of the insignificant gimmicks that you’ve been told will help you drop
pounds:

• Eat breakfast every single day: If you don’t, your body goes into ’starvation mode’.
• Drink Coffee to speed up your metabolism
• Drink 12 glasses of cold water every day
• Eat protein for lunch
• Sip Green Tea all day
• Take your Fish Oil Pills every day.

In reality NONE of these things are going to result in significant or long lasting weight loss results.

Each one is either a misuse of scientific fact (confusing an association with causation), is an exaggeration (the ‘metabolism boosting’ effects of green tea or caffeine) or is simply repeating common myths as facts (protein for lunch).

And while the health marketers that push these info tid-bits may or may not mean well, convincing you to focus on the minor and mostly irrelevant tasks can not only prevent you from losing weight, it can also affect your health.

Successfully losing weight seems to be one of the most difficult life-problems to solve.

Yet it can be solved with one of the easiest solutions: Eating less.

Spending too much of your time concentrating on the insignificant parts in an attempt to control the future will cause you to lose sight of the big picture – In this case the big picture is that your body is perfectly capable of burning fat and losing weight without you needing to obsess and stress over learning how this happens.

The exact details are out of your control. Obsessing about them does not change them.

But if you continually try to control the things that are out of your control with the small insignificant part of your life, you end up spending almost all of your time obsessing about health, nutrition and fitness. Recording your meals in a spread sheet, twittering about how ‘healthy’ your breakfast was, spending an extra 5 dollars to have a 90 cent chicken breast added to your salad at lunch and fretting over the timing of your next meal.

Too much of this and you can end up in a very bad place:  Spending every single waking moment of your life thinking, talking and stressing over your health.

And this is NOT healthy.

It’s nothing more than a mind full of insignificant health and fitness clutter.

In essence, by thinking that we can guarantee our future by controlling insignificant day-to-day things we end up sacrificing the enjoyment of our lives for some far off distant goal.

And remember, we can’t control the future, so we end up hopelessly grasping for control with more and more of the insignificant things, the ‘fluff’ and clutter.

And herein lies the big picture that we end up missing: Health is a lifestyle. It is a process. It is not a reward.

You should enjoy the process. It should be easy and sustainable. And in the best of situations, it should be mindless.

Enjoying the process means finding a simple and manageable way to enjoy eating less, and then eliminating the mind-clutter and the obsessive attachment to the insignificant little things. By doing this you eliminate the need to control the future, because you are enjoying the process.

The bottom line is that If you can’t sit down with a close friend for twenty minutes and have a good conversation WITHOUT talking about nutrition or your workouts, you need to take a step back and breathe.

Concentrate on getting the best results in the most comfortable and enjoyable way without worrying about the insignificant fluff.

Enjoy the process.

Read more from Brad Pilon at his blog, or check out his ebook, Eat Stop Eat.

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Chris Lopez of Fit and Busy Dad.

We live in an information overloaded society. There has not been a moment in history when information has been this available, right at our fingertips. By typing one simple phrase, we now get hundreds, thousands, sometimes even millions of answers to our most desired questions. And now it seems, because of the abundance of information available to us, that a lot of us are confused.

No more confusing has been our struggle with living excessively. As a result, many of us are in debt, have too much stuff and are overweight.

There are too many questions on how to exercise, how to eat, or how to live healthily – cardio or weights? How much protein? Does fat make me fat? Will situps give me abs? Am I going to get big, bulky muscles?

I don’t profess to know the answer to EVERY question out there, but I do know that all things being equal, the simplest answer is most likely the right one (Ockham’s Razor). That holds true in life as much as it does in weight loss, exercise and general health.

So in saying that, I have devised a list of The 7 Essential Rules to Optimal Health.

You may read these rules and be turned off that I’m insulting your intelligence. But let’s face it, now more than ever, do we need to get back to the basics in order to save our waning, unhealthy & obese society.

We’ve veered off the path of “simple” and have really made things more complicated than they are.

1. Eat REAL Food.

For a busy population who doesn’t have time to count calories or how many grams of protein or how much sodium or saturated fat, this is your answer to health and weight loss.

Anything that Mother Nature put on this earth in it’s simplest form is real food – unpackaged, unprocessed, unpreserved fruits, vegetables, legumes, naturally raised meat & fish.  Steak from a cow that has been allowed to eat from a pasture, not an all-beef hot dog. Water, not soda. Apples, not apple fritters.

Here’s the truth … if you eat nutritious real food then your body feels nourished and doesn’t feel the need to consume more. If you eat the common processed food products of today with empty calories and little to any nutrition value, then your body needs to 1) work harder to digest and assimilate what you’ve eaten thus using energy 2) still feel hungry because what you’ve eaten provides no nourishment and 3) throw your systems out of whack because your body has no idea what you just ate.

2. Live Life Actively.

Our society was the healthiest when there were no such things as treadmills, ellipticals and Pec Decks. We used the gym to support our activities (like what athletes do).  We rode our bikes, skied, surfed, played pick-up basketball and walked everywhere.

Now, we go to the gym. We run on treadmills like rats in a cage, partake in bodybuilding programs that give us bulky, unuseable muscles and create imbalance & injury, and do aerobic classes that give us little to no benefit with the way we look.

As our society transitioned from an active culture to a gym-going culture, obesity, heart disease and diabetes slowly started to increase. Coincidence? Maybe. But staying active and trying new things – playing a sport, going for a hike, being active with family, playing frisbee with the dog- never killed anyone.

Ask yourself these questions…When was the last time you got excited to go to the gym (to actually workout, not to see the hot aerobics instructor or personal trainer)? And what about when you knew that the weekend was just around the corner and you were going to the beach to play some volleyball?  Or out to the golf course with your buddies to play 18 holes?

Live actively and use the gym to support your efforts.

3. Get outside.

This goes hand-in-hand with the point above.

True that some of us live in a climate that isn’t always condusive to outdoorsy things. Hogwash.

Unless it is 110 degrees in the shade or sub-Arctic temperatures outside, there are always options for us to be active outdoors – even if it’s just for a walk after dinner. Our bodies crave the outdoors and being with nature.  It’s hard-wired into our systems. Being outdoors gives us a feeling of freedom and calm that no gym, mall or office building could ever provide for us.

4. Constantly strive to improve in order to see change.

If you are doing the same thing, day in and day out (lifting the same weights, running the same distance for the same time, etc) without any change or improvement, then nothing is going to happen to your body.

Your body wants to stay the same, and it is only when you decide to venture outside of your comfort zone that you will actually see any improvement – and that rule holds true with life as much as it does with exercise. Set goals, break records and constantly strive to get better. If you ran 5km in 30-minutes yesterday, then the next time out, aim for 29-minutes.  If you did 10 push-ups yesterday, then aim for 11 the next time you attempt them.

Force yourself out of what’s comfortable and you will change – both in body and in mind.

5. Get some sleep.

Often the “missing link” to everyone’s weight loss quest is their lack of quality sleep. Healthy adults require 7-9 hours of uninterrupted, good quality sleep EVERY night.

Sleep helps regulate your hormones. It kills off bad bacteria that has accumulated in your gut throughout the day and it’s the primary time for your body to repair its tissues – especially your muscles. Don’t get enough of it and your immune response will suffer (your ability to fight off disease & sickness), you gain belly fat (because of the higher amounts of the hormone cortisol) and you’ll experience lows in energy.

6. Practice Active Recovery .

This is the Yang to intense exercise’s Ying and is probably the most overlooked rule. You were not designed to “go hard” 100% of the time.

Regardless of what you may believe, exercise, with all it’s benefits to your body and health, is still stress. Any response that produces an adrenalin rush will also produce a stress response in your body. Because of this, we must balance our intense exercise activities with calming, stress management exercises. Traditional yoga, tai chi, qi gong or some form of deep breathing or meditation are the most common examples of ways to handle stress.

Try to incorporate at least one of these activities into your weekly (if not daily) practice. Only a few minutes of deep breathing or mediation is all you need to regain balance move on with your day without anxiety or nervousness.

7. Use Natural Movements.

There are 5 natural movements – Squatting, Lunging (which includes walking & running), Pushing, Pulling & Rotation. If you want to save time, increase results and live healthy, then all your exercises should incorporate at least one, if not more, of these movements.

Is there a need to stand in front of a mirror holding dumbbells and lifting them up to the side while standing on a ball? No. Is there a need to sit on a machine, strapped in and squeeze your thighs together or push them out? No. These movements are unnatural. They force you to break your body up into individual parts, when in truth, your body operates as a network of nerves, bones and muscles to move you and the objects you lift or carry from Point A to Point B.

Exercise naturally, move naturally, be healthy.

So Now What?

Use the above rules as a checklist and try to incorporate and adhere to one rule per week, introducing a new rule each time you have mastered one.

Try not to get overwhelmed. This isn’t a “shotgun” approach. We’ve gotten away from the basics of health and it will take time to get back. Just keep at it and be consistent and you’ll get there.

By just living with these 7 rules in mind, you’re sure to become a healthier, happier and more fulfilling life.

Read more from Chris at his blog, Fit and Busy Dad, or subscribe to his feed.

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

I’ve been trying to change my life for the better for awhile now, including simplifying, getting fitter and healthier, and trying to get greener — and in the last few months I’ve been doing a lot of researching into reducing my carbon footprint as well.

And while there are hundreds or even thousands of things we can do to reduce the resources we consume and the emissions we produce, I’ve been focusing on three areas that have (among) the biggest impacts.

One of the greatest things I’ve noticed is that these three changes not only help you to become greener, but can go a long way toward improving your health (and helping you to be more frugal). Going green and being healthier and fitter often go hand in hand.

And while I’m far from perfect, even in these three areas, I’d like to share some of my thoughts and findings with you, in hopes that you’ll look into and perhaps consider these changes yourself.

1. Human-powered Transportation. Namely, cycling and walking. While cars are seen as convenient, even the greenest cars use up tons of resources (literally) and contribute greatly to greenhouse emissions. Autos are one of the biggest emissions contributors in most people’s daily lives. While not everyone is going to go car-free all the time, we can reduce the amount we use cars.

I’ve been walking more, as have Eva and the kids, to parks, playgrounds, the library, meetings, restaurants, movies, things like that. Walking is an amazing form of transportation — you barely use any resources or have any emissions (other than your breath), and you get really fit walking around (see my Japan trip report for more on how I lost weight walking).

Cycling is something I also love, although I’m in between bikes right now and looking out for a good used bike (I prefer used as it means I’m reducing the amount of resources I consume). Cycling for transportation takes some getting used to, I’ll admit, but it’s another incredible way to get around by consuming very few resources and emitting just about zero pollution, while getting in great shape. Seriously, I highly recommend this — try it for a couple weeks and you’ll see that it’s a very satisfying way to live.

Mass transit, of course, is another great form of transportation, although in places like Guam it’s a bit more difficult as we don’t have a very good transit system. I’ve tried using it and it’s extremely inconvenient if you have to be anywhere within a couple of hours. I loved the transit system in Tokyo, however, and would use that all the time if I were living there.

Try to use human-powered transportation more often — you’ll love it. It really helps put you in touch with the outdoors, and takes you out of the confinement of cars, out of the frustration of traffic, and reduces the amount you spend on gas and maintenance. Someday, I’m going to go car-free, and I hope I’ll take all of you with me. :)

2. Vegetarianism or Veganism. Or, if that sounds too difficult, start by just reducing your meat consumption. From GreenWikia: “More land has to be put into agricultural production to produce meat than to produce plant products. Because the methane they belch is 23 times more effective at retaining heat than CO2, domestic animals contribute more to global warming than all human transportation combined.”

Becoming vegetarian (and especially vegan) is one of the changes you could make with the biggest impacts on the environment. If we all gave up meat and other animal products, we’d have enough food to (theoretically, at least) feed the world (most of the food we produce goes to raising animals for meat, milk and eggs), and we’d drastically cut down on the amount of pollution and greenhouse emissions.

Becoming vegetarian doesn’t have to be difficult — in fact, it can be a lot of fun if you explore new foods and ethnic cuisines. And while becoming vegan or vegetarian does not guarantee that you’ll be healthier, most vegetarians are healthier (on average) than the average American. If you replace (usually fatty) meat and other animal products with fruits and veggies and whole grains and legumes, you’ll get healthier. If you replace them with French fries and Twinkies, you won’t. (Feel free to argue this point, but please please don’t share info from the discredited Westin Price Foundation — it’s really full of pseudoscience, we’ve had this discussion many times before, and I would rather not have links to fraudulent articles on my site.)

I’m not saying that you’re evil if you eat meat or drink milk, or that you’re necessarily unhealthy. It’s definitely possible to eat healthy with animal products in your diet. But I am saying it’s something you should consider, for the sake of the environment … and if you get healthier in the meantime, that’s a nice side benefit.

I recently decided to go back to veganism (I’ve been lacto-ovo vegetarian for about 18 months, and was vegan before that) and will write a post about it soon, including some links shared by friends on Twitter.

3. Consume Less. This is a pretty simple (though not necessarily easy) step that can make a huge difference in all areas of your life: how many resources you consume, how healthy you are, how much you spend, how much clutter you have. Buy less, use less, eat less — get away from loving and buying stuff.

It’s interesting because when we try to become greener, many of us automatically look to buying green products … which is good, when you do have to buy something, but actually, buying fewer products overall is better than going out and buying a bunch of environmentally-conscious type products.

By consuming fewer products, clothes, gadgets, furniture … stuff … you’ll use fewer resources and contribute less to landfills. When you buy something, a lot of resources were used not only for the materials needed to make the product (wood, paper, metal, plastic, cotton, etc.), but to harvest those materials, to manufacture the product, to package it, to transport it to the store or to your door. Get into the habit of buying less, needing less, and when you do get something you need, get it used if possible. You’ll end up spending less money as well.

By consuming less food, you’ll (likely) get healthier. Well, not if you’re underweight — you probably need more food actually. But for those of us who have a few extra pounds (or a lot of extra pounds), eating less is just what the doctor ordered. Fewer calories means you’ll lose weight, and if you add to that a regimen of walking and cycling, eating less meat and consuming more plant foods, you’ll definitely get healthier. Eating less food doesn’t mean you need to starve yourself — just eat smaller portions. Eat slower and more mindfully. That takes practice, but learn this habit over time and you’ll save not only your waistline, but your budget and a lot of resources as well.

Discuss
I know that this post will generate a bit of controversy — anytime I write about health or environmental issues, I get a lot of healthy criticism. :) So fire away! I’d love to hear your thoughts.

My feeling, by the way, is that even if I’m wrong and get blasted by my lovely readers, any discussion on these issues is a good thing. Let’s talk about it, and think about it, and in doing so, effect change.
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If you liked this article, please share it on del.icio.us, StumbleUpon or Twitter. I’d appreciate it. :)

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Adam Gilbert of MyBodyTutor.com.

Since I’ve quit my job, I’ve helped countless people change their lives for the better via one word: Consistency. And I want to help you too!

My idea for this post was to make a rule based post. Call it the healthy and fit algorithm. In the most general sense, an algorithm is a set of detailed instructions which results in a predictable end result.

Follow them consistently and you’ll be well on your way to getting in shape!

Remember: Getting in shape is about 3 things. Eating right. Exercising. And doing those two things consistently! Of course, that’s easier said than done but it’s the truth. Getting into shape is not rocket science!

Let’s get right into it.

Food:

1. Eat every 3-4 hours. By doing this you’ll keep your blood sugar stable which is the key and also turn your body into a fat burning machine. Think of your metabolism like a camp fire. If you don’t want a camp fire to burn out, you have to constantly add wood and logs to it.
2. Never let yourself get hungry! This serves many purposes. It keeps your blood sugar stable, keeps that fire burning, but also when you’re very hungry it’s extremely hard to make good decisions!
3. Eat only complex carbs. Refined and simple carbs will spike your blood sugar which is exactly what we don’t want. Eat whole wheat bread instead of white, whole wheat pasta instead of regular, brown rice instead of white, etc.
4. Eat lean proteins! Depending on your lifestyle stick with proteins like chicken, eggs, and fish. Beans, nuts, legumes, and lentils are also awesome choices.
5. Veggies! You can never have too many vegetables. I say everything in moderation. Even moderation. Not with veggies!
6. Fruit is nature’s candy. Eat fruit when you are craving something sweet. You’ll be amazed at how little you miss junk food!
7. Drink lots of water. No need to get obsessive but try to drink a glass of water with each meal, and in between every meal. Your body will love you for it.
8. Don’t eat 2-3 hours before bedtime. And if you must – make it a protein rich snack.
9. Don’t eat until you’re stuffed. Instead, eat until you’re satisfied. You should feel like you can exercise right after you eat.
10. Eat slowly. The best way to eat until you’re satisfied is to savor every bite. The slower you eat the more full you’ll feel. It takes 20 minutes for our brain to realize we’ve eaten. We don’t need nearly as much food as we think we do!
11. No such thing as perfection! No one eats perfectly. We’re not robots! Remember: It’s what we do most of the time that generates most of our results! If you eat unhealthy make your very next meal healthy! No big deal. Just make that U-Turn! Every meal, every healthy choice, every compromise, really and truly makes a difference. Your body never lies!
12. Am I hungry? Or am I eating to change the way I feel? Ask yourself this before you eat. If the answer is yes, you’re eating for the wrong reasons! Physical hunger comes on gradually. Emotional hunger comes on suddenly.
13. Focus on eating foods that make you feel good. What does this mean? I like ice cream and cookies as much as the next guy. But I hate how it makes me feel afterward. Tired, lethargic, unfocused, etc. Instead, focus on foods that make you feel good before, during and after you’re done. You’ll never regret making a healthy choice!

Exercise:

1. Do it 4 times per week for at least 30 minutes. Seriously, doesn’t matter. Basketball, jogging, weights, push ups, etc. Unless you have a specific goal just make sure to get it done!
2. The two day rule! You can’t miss 2 days of working out in a row. You can skip one day. But not the next!
3. Don’t let the “Exercise Monster” build up. When I don’t do laundry for a while it becomes what I like to call the ‘Laundry Monster’. It builds up in my mind and I avoid doing it at all costs. Until finally, I have to. And it’s never as bad as I think it’ll be! Don’t let it happen to you. Follow the two day rule!
4. Don’t focus on exercising at a certain time. Just focus on making time to exercise!
5. Make it fun! Listen to music; join a nice gym; etc. Bonus: If you love working out with music as much as I do, only listen to your favorite music while you workout. I’ve actually exercised just to listen to my music.
6. Focus on how you want to feel. We always feel energized after we workout. Yet, we usually skip exercise when we’re feeling tired! Remember: Exercise will give you energy. Want more energy? Exercise more!

Exercise and eating right pays off big in your quality of life! If you need to spend extra money on groceries, a gym membership, trainers, etc., do it!

Warren Buffet said it best. “The best investment you can make is in yourself!”

And if you’re able to follow these rules consistently you’ll be well on your way to getting in shape!

This post was written by Adam Gilbert of MyBodyTutor.com.

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

One of the most striking things about my trip to Japan was how thin everyone was. I kept saying to my family, “There are no fat Japanese!”

That’s not entirely true, of course. Aside from sumo wrestlers, there are some Japanese people who are fat — but at least in my two-week trip to Tokyo, they were pretty hard to find.

Seriously: in America (including my hometown of Guam), you could walk around and half if not most of the people you see will be at least a little overweight. Many are outright obese. But in Japan, everyone is thin it seems. I could go a whole day without seeing a fat person, unless it was a tourist.

This is not groundbreaking news, I know — it’s long been known that the Japanese are among the healthiest people on Earth, with one of the lowest rates of obesity among developed nations and one of the longest average lifespans. But when you actually see it in person, it’s almost shocking.

During my stay in Japan, I formed some theories — and these won’t be groundbreaking either, but I think they’re worth reflecting on. Be aware, of course, that I’m not an expert in any related field here, and my observations are based on a two-week stay in Tokyo, and therefore are very, very limited. But here are the reasons the Japanese are not fat, in my opinion:

1. They eat a lot of seafood and veggies. It’s true that they eat red meat, and sometimes it’s fried. But red meat or poultry doesn’t seem to be the main staple of their diet as much as seafood, rice and veggies are. Meat seems to be eaten in smaller amounts (usually as a seasoning, not a main dish), or if it’s eaten in bigger amounts, it’s not an everyday occurrence. This is a generalization, of course, as is everything in this article, so there are many exceptions. Not everyone in Japan eats the same way.

2. They eat smaller portions. This is very striking, actually. While in American (and Guam) restaurants, the food is piled high in huge portions, or supersized in fast food restaurants, in Japanese restaurants the portions are … sensible. Not tiny, but definitely not large. You might get a bowl full of soup with some noodles and seafood (or meat), but if you take just the solid part it’s not a huge amount. Or you might get some seafood with rice and pickled veggies and miso soup — small amounts for each of those foods. The smaller portions is probably more important than the type of food they eat, in my opinion.

3. They walk and bike more than we do. This was pretty striking as well. It seems like everyone uses the subway stations and walks, every day. Their kids walk a good part of the way to school, instead of being dropped off by parents. And a LOT of people ride bicycles, everywhere. Usually not the kind you ride for exercise or training for races, but everyday, riding-around-the-city type of bicycles with baskets for a bag or two of groceries. This is all in contrast to us Americans, who ride cars everywhere, even to the corner store. (This is a generalization, of course — you my lovely readers are exceptions.)

It’s a combination of the walking, biking, eating smaller portions, and eating more seafood and veggies, that leads to the Japanese being pretty darn healthy in general. Any one of these changes would be a big improvement for most of us in America.

How I Lost 5 lbs. on My Summer Vacation
In just two weeks in Tokyo, without dieting or fasting, I lost 5 pounds and slimmed down.

I’m still not quite at my Leo vs. Bellyfat Challenge goal yet, but I’m getting there — I’m 17 lbs. lighter than I was when I started my challenge, all told. But the fastest fat loss during this challenge came in those two weeks.

And here’s the kicker: I wasn’t trying to lose weight!

Here’s how I did it:

1. I walked. For hours. Every day. My family and I walked all over Tokyo for two weeks — that’s me and Eva and the six kids, including one who rode around in a stroller. We walked about 15-20 minutes every morning to the subway station, then up and down stairs within the subway system (often transferring trains once or twice), then would walk for hours and hours exploring a new part of Tokyo. Then we’d repeat the subway trip and walk home, exhausted. Sometimes we’d walk for 10-12 hours in a day. Of course, we rested in between walking — stopping to enjoy a park or have a meal or a snack, or browse through a bookstore — but most of the time, we were walking. Great distances. Often hauling a 3-year-old toddler, a stroller, or a bag or two. Up and down lots of stairs and hills. It was an amazing amount of exercise, and by the end of the two weeks, my family and I were in great walking shape.

2. I ate moderate amounts. I didn’t stick to a meal plan, as I did early on in my Bellyfat Challenge, nor did I fast, as I started to do just before my Tokyo trip. I think both methods work great. But I decided to take a break from those methods during my vacation, and I didn’t worry about what or when I ate. My only thing was to eat until I was just full — to never stuff myself. I had desserts, I ate French fries (once in awhile), I ate white rice (I usually eat brown). I still ate fairly healthy most of the time, as I enjoy fruits and veggies a lot and fried foods kinda make me queasy, but I didn’t watch what I ate. I just ate moderate amounts.

These are really just my two Simple Fitness Rules, but the Tokyo tourist version of them, but they work. I didn’t have to worry as much about what I ate because I burned a ton of calories each day.

I hope to continue the walking, now that I’m back on Guam. As I’ve written about before, I’ve been walking more now that I’ve moved to a more central location here on Guam. I can walk to meetings, to restaurants, to see my sister, to the beach or playground. I’m going to step that up a little. There’s no way I can walk the ridiculous amounts I walked in Japan — I have a life, after all. But I hope to walk just about every day.

And not just for exercise — it’s important to walk with a purpose. While many of us will go walking for 30-45 minutes, for exercise, I’ve found that it’s better to walk somewhere, to do something. For example, when we walked all day around Tokyo Disneyland (which is obligatory if you have as many kids as I do), we didn’t think about walking — we were trying to get to the rides! And it was a fun (if tiring) day. On Guam, I hope to walk to places to do my work, walk with my kids to beaches and parks, go on hikes, walk on dates with my wife to restaurants and movies, walk to go on errands, and so on.

I encourage everyone to consider doing the same — you’ll be amazed at how great it feels.

Read more: Our Japan travel blog, and all our Japan photos.

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

Health and fitness are usually made to seem too complex.

If you read a lot of fitness magazines and blogs (as I often do), you’re told a confusing variety of complex advice. It makes your head spin.

You’re told that eggs, butter and meat are bad for you. Then another crowd will tell you those same things are actually good. Then you’ll hear running is good for you, and the bodybuilding and primal crowds will scoff at longer-distance running. You’ll hear that lifting weights is the best way to get into shape, and others will laugh at that. You’ll hear a million variations of the best workouts, of when to time your nutrition, of how to periodize your workouts, of how to measure fitness, of what supplements you need to take … ad naseum.

It’s enough to make you want to give up.

Fortunately, fitness doesn’t have to be that complex.

In fact, you can boil it down to two simple rules:

1. Get your body moving on a regular basis; and
2. Eat a moderate amount of real, whole foods (with occasional indulgences).

I believe if you stuck to those two rules, and stuck with them for awhile, you’d get fit. Doing one but not the other will result in an improvement in health for many people (not all), but it would be an incomplete health. Do both most days of the week and you’re on your way to health and fitness.

But what about specific macronutrient ratios (fancy way of saying the breakdown of protein, carbs and fats)? What about meal frequency and timing? What about workout frequency, splits, timing, reps, and more? You could add all these types of rules and many more, but the truth is, all the complexities are usually a way of masking some simple truths: if you want to lose fat or weight, you have to have a calorie deficit, and if you want to build muscle, you’ve got to use exercise to get stronger. The other stuff is mostly guesswork, and while these complicated programs probably work, they usually work because they promote one or more of the principles in this post, not because of their complexities.

The two rules above are all you need … however, most of us need a little more detail, so here’s a more complete set of simple fitness rules. As always, remember that 1) I’m not an expert — this is just stuff that’s worked for me; 2) this is for healthy adults — people with health problems should seek the advice of professionals.

1. Get moving. Try to do some kind of physical activity most days of the week (4 or more days if possible). If you have an aversion to exercise, don’t think of it as exercise. Just think of it as a way to get your body moving in some fun way. It can be dance, yardwork, hiking, a nature walk, a swim, basketball, rugby, cycling, even housework if you do it vigorously enough. And it doesn’t have to be the same thing each day. I recommend, just for the sake of simplicity, that you do find a regular time slot you could do your daily activity, most days of the week. I prefer mornings but others enjoy lunchtime or after work.

2. Enjoy yourself. Whatever activity you choose, it has to be fun. If you don’t like it, move on to something else. Focus on the fun part, not the hard part. Or learn, as I have, to enjoy the hard stuff! Again, make it fun, or you won’t keep it up for very long. To make sure it’s not too hard, start easy. Focus on just getting moving and enjoying the activity. Start small, and build up with baby steps.

3. Slowly add intensity. Once you’ve been doing an activity for a little while, and you’re in decent shape, it’s good to add some intensity. But slowly — if you add intensity too quickly you’ll risk injury or burnout. So let’s say you’ve been doing some walking for a couple months — you should be ready to add a little jogging or fast-paced walking, in small little intervals. If you’ve been running, try some faster-paced intervals (take it easy at first) or hill workouts. If you’ve been strength training, be sure to add weights (safely) or decrease rest time or add more reps or sets. If you’re playing a sport, really speed things up, or focus on explosive movements. Intensity is a great way to get yourself in shape and have an effective workout in only 20-30 minutes. Here’s a great way to do bodyweight exercises with intensity: do a circuit of bodyweight exercises (such as pushups, pullups, squats, burpees, Hindu pushups, lunges or others) and do as many circuits as you can in 10 or 15 minutes. Next workout, see if you can do more circuits. It’s great!

4. Minimal equipment. There are a million different exercise gadgets out there, from ab machines to elliptical trainers to a whole slew of weight machines at the gym. My rule is: keep it simple. You can do amazing things with bodyweight exercises — in fact, if you are a relative beginner, you should start with bodyweight exercises for at least 6 months before progressing to weights. You don’t need cardio machines — just go outside and walk, run, bike, do hills, climb stairs, sprint. Even if you do weights, a barbell or dumbbells are all you need — stay away from the machines that work your body at angles it’s not meant to use (although cable machines aren’t bad). Even better, get outside and do sprints, pushups, jump over things, pick up big rocks and throw them, do pullups from a tree, climb up rocks, swim, do a crabwalk or monkeywalk, take a sledgehammer or pick and slam it into the ground, flip tractor tires, and generally get a great workout with very little equipment.

5. Just a few exercises. Bodybuilding routines will have you doing 3-4 different exercises per body part. That’s too complicated for most people. Keep it simple in the weight room: squats, deadlifts, presses, chinups or pullups, rows. You can do a lot with just those lifts. Of course, you’ll want to mix it up eventually with some variations, but no need for 10 different ab exercises or things that focus on your rear deltoids or use swiss balls. If you’re doing bodyweight exercises, I love things like pushups, burpees, squats, lunges, pullups, dips, planks. Pick a few and do some circuits with little rest.

6. Eat real foods. One of the most important rules on this list, because if you don’t eat right (most of the time), it doesn’t matter how much exercise you do — you’ll get fat and unhealthy. Aim for real, whole foods that are as close to their natural state as possible. That means stay away from processed, refined, fatty, sugary foods. Veggies, fruits, lean meats, dairy, nuts, beans, whole grains, eggs, seeds. Prepare them yourself if possible — convenience foods often have added ingredients, as well as extra salt, fat, sugar and preservatives. If you follow this diet — with the plant foods making the bulk of the diet — it’s hard to go wrong.

7. Eat less. Most people eat too much, and eventually it shows up as fat. To lose that fat, we need to eat less — it’s really that simple. Of course, if you eat the real foods mentioned above, you’ll probably consume fewer calories, but even so, it’s smart to reduce how much you eat overall, at least until you reach a healthy level of body fat (and even then, you shouldn’t let it all go). One way to do that is by eating slowly and mindfully until you’re just satiated (not stuffed). Another way is to eat smaller meals and watch the portions. A third way, which I’ve been experimenting with lately, is intermittent fasting (see Brad Pilon’s Eat Stop Eat ebook for a great explanation of the science behind fasting). However you do it, be sure to consume the real food in moderate amounts, and reduce your calorie intake if you’re looking to lose fat.

8. Give it time. This is what gets many people — they expect to see results immediately, within the first month or so, because the magazines they read make it seem so instantaneous. But real fitness rarely happens this way — it’s a process and a lifestyle change. I started out in really bad shape, really overweight, and all I did in the beginning was to quit smoking and start running. A year later, I ran a marathon and was a vegetarian — but I was still kinda fat. A year after that, I was still exercising regularly, and had made a lot of progress, but I still had a ways to go. Now, 3.5 years later, I’m in great shape — slimmer and more muscular and much healthier — but I still have a little stubborn belly fat I’m working on. I’ll get there, but I have accepted the fact that it takes time. You didn’t gain the fat overnight, and you won’t lose it that way either. Learn to enjoy the process, enjoy the activities, enjoy the healthy, real food, and you’ll get healthy and fit almost as an afterthought to this new, amazing lifestyle.

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If you liked this article, please share it on del.icio.us, StumbleUpon or Twitter. I’d appreciate it. :)

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

Have you ever stopped to consider what relationship you have with food?

We don’t often think we even have a relationship with food, and yet we do — and it’s pretty intimate.

Think about this: if you’re like me, you spend as much or more time with food than you do with many of the loved ones in your life — several hours a day or more.

And consider this: technically, food is just fuel for living. That’s all — nothing else.

And yet … it has become so much more to most of us:

• we use food for pleasure
• we use it for comfort
• we turn to food when we’re sad, depressed, hurt
• we use food to socialize
• we use it as a reward
• we do it when we’re bored
• food can also be a chore
• we use food as gifts
• we turn to food when we’re lonely
• food can be associated with sex
• food is equated to health
• sometimes, food becomes an obsession
• it definitely can be an addiction
• food can make us hate ourselves
• food is the center of many billion-dollar industries

In fact, the huge food-related industries are at the center of much of our relationship with food: restaurants, fast-food chains, convenience foods, agribusinesses, distributors, grocery chains, snack foods, bakeries, coffee shops, dessert chains, health food, diet foods, supplements, bodybuilding food, and many others. They spend billions upon billions every year trying to get us to eat more and more food — their food in particular — and the horrifying thing is that all this advertising really, really works.

We have been convinced that the answer to almost any problem is food. You truly love someone? Buy them chocolates, or take them to a restaurant, or bake them cookies. Want to lose weight? Eat diet food. Want to get fit? Take our supplements, eat our meat, drink our milk. Want to be healthy? Eat our healthy products. Want to reward yourself? There are too many options to name here. Having a bad day? We’ve got the food for you. Don’t have time? Our food will save time. Want to save money? Buy super size and “save”.

Food is the answer to everything, apparently.

And yet, we forget that food is just fuel. We need to eat a certain amount to live and maintain our weight. If we eat more than that, we will store some of that fuel as fat (or build muscle if we’re exercising). And how do we lose weight? By eating, apparently — eat diet food, drink diet shakes, eat Zone bars, eat vegetarian products, eat meat and other protein sources, eat low-fat products, eat our cereal, drink our diet soda.

But what if we … just ate less?

Despite what the food industries have convinced us, we don’t need to eat as much as we do to survive. Sure, maybe eating that much is fun, and pleasurable, and will stave off boredom, and is fun to do with friends and family, and so on. But we don’t need to eat that much. Actually, we need to eat less.

The problem isn’t that it’s so difficult to eat less. The problem is that we have a complicated relationship with food that started when we were toddlers and has become more and more complicated through the years, through endless amounts of advertising, of eating when we’re sad and lonely and happy and bored and at parties and going out and on dates and watching TV and dieting and so on.

Our complicated relationship with food makes it hard to cut back on how much we eat.

So let’s start building a new relationship with food:

• Start recognizing exactly why we eat — is it just for sustenance or is our hunger often triggered by other things (boredom, socializing, pleasure, etc.)?
• Start realizing the effects that advertising and the food industries have on how we think about food and how we eat.
• Stop eating when we’re bored, out of habit, as a reward, for pleasure, for comfort, etc.
• Only eat what and how much we need.
• Find other ways to entertain ourselves, comfort ourselves, find pleasure, etc.
• Find other ways to socialize than eating large amounts of food.
• Stop obsessing so much about food.
• End our addiction with certain foods — sugar, for example, or starches. We can still eat them, but we don’t need to eat them as much.

Think about it: how much simpler would life be if you could end this complicated relationship with food? Some changes that might happen:

• You’d spend less time thinking about food.
• You’d spend less time preparing food.
• You’d spend less money on food.
• You’d eat less.
• You’d get healthier.

Fasting
I have to give credit to Brad Pilon and his excellent ebook, Eat Stop Eat, for inspiring this post. Brad shook up a few of my notions about eating, my assumptions about standard beliefs in the health industry, and about why we are conditioned to eat so much.

While I haven’t yet decided to try Brad’s super simple method for losing fat — fast 1-2 days a week and eat normally on other days, plus strength training — I definitely recommend his book as a way to challenge the ideas you might have read in magazines or fitness blogs.

But what’s most interesting is how he recommends 24-hour fasts as a way to transform your relationship with food. By fasting, you learn to give up your need to eat for reasons other than fuel. You learn that hunger is often conditioned by other things, and you end that conditioning. You learn that hunger is OK, and after awhile the fasts don’t bother you at all. At least, that’s what Brad claims, and it sounds reasonable to me. I might try fasting for this reason alone.

Now, some of you will object to fasting on the usual grounds — it’s unhealthy, your body goes into starvation mode, it’ll slow down your metabolism, your body will start using muscle as fuel, your blood-sugar levels will drop too low, you won’t have energy. Those are the same reasons I objected. And I won’t try to refute these ideas — Brad’s book does a much better job. (Note: the links to his website aren’t affiliate links and I don’t make any money if you buy his book. Nor do I endorse his program, as I haven’t tried it. I do endorse the book for informational purposes.)

Anyway, you don’t need to fast to transform your relationship with food. It’s one way, and I thought it was an interesting idea.

In the end, let’s teach ourselves some simple things: food is just fuel. Most of us need to eat less. Food isn’t love or entertainment or anything else like that. It’s just fuel.

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

Those of you who have been following Zen Habits for some time know that I’ve been working on getting fit and healthy for the last couple of years — I’ve done 3 marathons, a couple of short triathlons, and I’ve tried all kinds of workouts, not to mention developing healthier eating habits. But there’s some stubborn bellyfat that just doesn’t want to go away.

Bellyfat, it is on.

Over the next 4-8 weeks (depending on my progress), I will be going head-to-head (so to speak) against my bellyfat. OK, head-to-belly then.

Will I be taking on some dangerous diet? Of course not. You guys know me better than that!

Here’s the plan:

Diet: I’ll be eating pretty much the same diet I’ve been eating for the last coupla months, but measured and calculated so that I’m cutting about 500 calories (or so) from what I’ve calculated to be my maintenance level of calories. See my menu plan here.

This diet is based around foods I enjoy. Because I don’t like to log foods, I’m going to stick with this same menu plan every day except one “cheat meal” a week — on dates with my wife, where I’ll still try to eat healthy. I’ve worked in a few options so that I can have a little variety, but for the most part I’m going to eat the same thing every day. This might sound boring but it doesn’t bother me a bit.

My diet has adequate protein, fiber, healthy fats and other goodly nutrients, according to my calculations. Most of the foods are whole, clean foods, with minor exceptions. It’s also designed to be really easy to prepare, because if it’s difficult I won’t do it. Also, I only drink water (that’s normal for me).

Exercise: I’ve been doing split bodypart weightlifting routines (4 times a week) for a couple of months now, but I’ve just switched to a full-body weight routine 3 times a week. Each of those three weekly sessions starts with a different heavy lift: squat, deadlift and power clean, and then progresses to a bunch of different lifts.

In addition, I run with my sister on the same days, and usually we do 30-45 minute runs, sometimes with hills or intervals.

I also plan to do some kind of light cardio on 3 days a week, with Sundays being complete rest days. This might sound like a lot, but it really isn’t for me — I’ve been working out 6 days a week for a little while now and have built up to it gradually. This is challenging but not exhausting or anything. See my workout plan here (below menu plan).

Goals: I hope to reduce my overall bodyfat, while keeping my muscle. I don’t have a specific bodyfat percentage target, but I was measured with calipers last week and am at about 21%. I’d like to get that down to 18% (and eventually lower) but I don’t know how long that will take. We’ll see — I’ll adjust my plan according to my progress. I’d really just like to lose the mini love handles I have. :)

Accountability: I’ve published my log (at the bottom of my menu) for all to see, and plan to update it regularly. In addition, I’ll be posting updates on Twitter (follow me here). I’ll also post the results when I’m done (again, probably in 4-8 weeks). All of you can motivate me! :)

As you can see from the log, I started a few days ago, and so far the diet is going fine. It’s not difficult at all. I tell myself: “If it’s not on the plan, it doesn’t go in my mouth!”

So far so good. Bellyfat, it is on!

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Andrew of Go Healthy Go Fit.

The journey of transforming your body from out of shape to fit as a fiddle is a long one with many twists and turns. It behooves you to focus on the end result at the onset of that journey because you may lose motivation as results come slowly. But if you can’t visualize the possibility of going from one extreme to another, you won’t be able to stay the course.

I know from experience, having gone from being classified as obese at 245 pounds (25% body fat) to now being classified as an athlete at 175 (9.5% body fat).

So how do you stay motivated during the process?

Staying motivated during this process is arguably the most important part of the journey. If you start doubting yourself, you will fall off. So go the other way with it and get yourself pumped up! Here are a couple of tricks that can help you stay motivated:

•    Set goals to reach, like being able to do 10 pull ups
•    Use your favorite movie quotes to motivate you
•    Find a line in a song that sends shivers down your spine when you hear it
•    Write down your progress (your weight, body fat percentage, the amount of weight you can lift for a specific exercise) but only compare it on a long timeline
•    Pick someone with what you would consider to be an ideal body and aim for that
•    Write down the jean size you’re going for
•    Create a fitness equation that breaks down, by percentage, what you think it’s going to take to get the job done. Here’s mine (15% Heart, 10% Dedication, 20% Will Power, 5% Luck, 10% Desire, 10% Reflection, 20% Consistency, 10% Humility)

Whatever you chose to motivate yourself, customize it for you and print it up. You can put it around your mirror, computer screen, in a private diary, etc. This is all about what motivates you, so don’t worry about what anyone else would think about your choice or music or movie line, because what they think truly doesn’t matter.

Know Which Whole Foods You Can Stick With

I’m assuming that we all know and accept that eating nutrient dense whole foods, green leafy vegetables for example, is a key factor in weight loss and sound health. But you don’t hear enough people talk about picking the whole foods that you like. In order to consistently eat healthier, you have to enjoy what you are eating.

However, you can’t say that you don’t like vegetables! That one just isn’t in the cards. So if you enjoy Spinach more than Brussels Sprouts, enjoy the Spinach! Look up recipes that you can put your favorite vegetables in. There are tons of great food blogs out there that showcase their healthy recipes.

Know Which Foods To Stay Away From

Everyone has certain foods that seem to do more damage than others when it comes to their fitness. Processed foods, candy bars, jam-packed-with-sugar-Jamba Juices (yeah, I said it) are usually some of the big culprits. So find out what food or foods seem to keep you from losing weight and only have them on the occasional cheat day, if at all.

This list of foods may change as your goals change. If your ideal look is that lean, muscular/toned Hollywood physique, than I will tell you from personal experience that staying away from carbs such as grains, potatoes and pastas may help you out.

Find Your Favorite Exercise And Own It

My buddy Rusty talks about this all the time. In the world of fitness, everyone always says you should switch it up, and it does help your progress. But if you like a classic and effective workout, such as pull ups, as much as I do, keep doing them until you are a pro! You will be proud of yourself for getting good at an exercise that you enjoy. If possible, try and chose a good compound exercise like bench press, pull ups, push ups, dead lifts, etc.

This Is A Lifestyle Change, Not A Diet

This is a whole new life, not a month long excursion into healthy eating and/or fitness. It’s not important if you get it all right off the bat or if you do it gradually, but consistency is where the results reside. Counting calories is not a necessity, but understanding the cost of them is paramount. In your former lifestyle, you ate “X” amount of calories. In this new, healthy lifestyle you will be eating “Y” amount of calories. I had to understand that concept before I saw any gains (or losses for that matter). At least at first, writing down what you eat can help you begin to understand how many calories you should be eating (a.k.a. your caloric deficit).

Same goes for exercising. You’ve got to be consistent. I know Leo talks about this in The Power Of Less, and he’s right on point. Its like the tortoise and the hare, slow and steady wins the race. So figure out how many days a week you can go to the gym and stick with it. Then adjust it as your goals change.

Accepting That Your Life Will Change For The Better

Most think that this is an easy part of the journey, but it’s really hard… and scary for that matter. Change is always hard to deal with and transforming your physical appearance is no different. My whole life, I was always the token fat funny guy. That’s who I was, it was a part of me. During my switch to a healthy lifestyle, I had to come to grips with the fact that I would be received differently by others, which brings me to my next point.

You won’t believe the difference in how people listen to you. Before I lost the weight, people would of course hear what I had to say, but they were much more focused on what they were going to say after I was done. Then I lost the weight and I started to notice that people were much more invested in what I had to say. It’s amazing to think that a person’s appearance can change the way people interact with that person, but it’s true.

Never Stop Seeking Out Good Advice

When it comes to the difference between hearing what people say and actually listening to what they’re saying, it goes both ways. Being able to open your ears and listen to what others have to say will help you for the rest of your life, especially in health and fitness. Three of the main tools currently at my disposal are in direct contradiction to how I used to think. If I had shut myself off to others suggestions, I would never have experienced the benefits of Intermittent Fasting, Paleo eating, and High Intensity Interval Training.

Make It Fun!

The best thing about getting into shape is that it opens doors to fun activities. You’ll get better at sports, feel more comfortable in revealing swimwear, be able to hike up higher mountains, the list goes on as high as your imagination wants it to go. I was so happy the first time I got to the top of Half Dome. I was proud when I did the entire hike in 6 and a half hours. So enjoy yourself, cause it’s going to be lots of fun!

Read more great health and fitness posts from Andrew at his blog, Go Healthy Go Fit.