Eating food that you love

— including fat, like avocados — as long as it’s fresh.

Riding your bike, shooting hoops, or dancing

— doing what you enjoy — instead of going to the gym.

Laughing and loving

— having fun and feeling good — to relieve stress.

Diet & Nutrition

People often follow rigid diets that are full of rules. Most diets come and go. Despite their claims, diet is not one size fits all. Most diets do not — cannot — account for differences in one’s genes, state of health, or nutritional needs. Schedules, budgets, or food availability. Personal preferences or even cultural traditions. But diet — the word — just means which foods we eat regularly to obtain nutrients. So, don’t think of it as “following a diet” but rather a way of getting all your nutrients through your diet. The purpose of diet is to choose foods to regularly eat that will provide you with needed nutrients.

 from the Eat Chapter, The Simple Seven

Fitness & Exercise

We believe that “going to the gym” is the only way of getting fit. Why? Because medical research talks about it. But that’s only because exercise research is conducted in a gym, not in a dance studio or on a basketball court. Dancing and shooting hoops are also beneficial forms of exercise. Another misconception is that the true measure of physical fitness involves having big, “cut” muscles, six-pack abs, low body fat, and marathon running. Why? Because that’s what the fitness industry promotes. Which really isn’t a hard sell. In truth, many of us want to look buff and push our bodies to the limit. But are these things required for physical fitness? No.

from the Move Chapter, The Simple Seven

Stress & Emotional Healing

By now everyone is aware of the link between stress and disease – high blood pressure, stroke, cancer. But did you know this? According to the American Medical Association: Stress is a factor in more than 75 percent of all illness and disease. That’s a significant statistic. And grim. Name almost any illness or disease and stress will be a factor. Moreover, because stress is so damaging to the body, regardless of the other healthy things we may be doing, stress can override the gain.

from the Feel Chapter, The Simple Seven

Weight Loss

We’ve long known the formula for losing weight and keeping it off. It involves diet and exercise, and the idea is this: Take in only the number of calories your body needs (diet) + burn excess body fat (exercise). It’s a sound formula, but we don’t like to follow it because it takes time and it’s hard to do — rather, we make it hard to do starving ourselves and over-exercising. It’s no wonder we look for quick and easy weight loss solutions. The multibillion dollar weight loss industry is itself a failed attempt at quick and easy solutions that are unpleasant, tedious, deceptive, harmful, expensive, and painful. If we look closely, the weight loss formula involves two of the Body Basics. Weight loss isn’t hard after all — and, using the Body Basics, it can be permanent.

from the Look Good Chapter, The Simple Seven

Beauty & Anti-Aging

Embrace your vanity! — if that will motivate you to get and stay healthy. For the quality of your physical appearance is a reflection of your state of health. Good health = a beautiful, youthful, lean you.

from the Look Good Chapter, The Simple Seven