Optimum Vitality

I pay close attention to requests that I receive from readers.  There have been several requests that have come in of late related to sexual vitality.  One of our readers is a 60 year old male who requested that I write about, je ne c’est quoi, how shall I say good stamina and great energy; I suppose is the best way to phrase it.

Several readers have asked my opinion on taking Viagra and the like.  Well since you already know, I am not thrilled at the prospect of taking medications.  Do not despair, although I will tell you what is wrong with these medications, be patient with me; I will of course provide you with fantastic solutions to great energy.

Listen folks, the primary reasons for poor energy are obesity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and poor blood flow.  Should you choose the easy way out and opt to take medications such as Viagra, allow me to clarify what the side effects might be:

• Headache
• Upset stomach or heartburn
• Flushing (feeling warm)
• Nasal congestion
• Blindness
• Back pain (with Cialis)
• Possible damage to organs (liver and kidneys)

Besides coaching you to lose weight, lower your cholesterol, lower your blood pressure and exercising; I’m going to discuss specific things that you can do and eat that will provide you with optimum stamina.  First and foremost depression, stress and anxiety must be addressed.  You cannot possibly be depressed and do anything at all in a great fashion.  At the risk of sounding redundant here folks, there are very simple solutions to great stamina and they are of course diet and exercise.  When I say exercise I do not mean go to the gym and pump iron.  If you want to impress your paramor you’re going to have to do cardio.  Work those lungs and get them healthy.  Don’t worry, fast walking really will do the trick as long as you participate four to five times a week (I mean the walking).

Blood flow is critical so let me give you some ideas for your diet.  Try to increase your intake of the following:

• Red kidney beans
• Wild Alaskan salmon
• Sardines
• Raw nuts such as walnuts and almonds
• Avocados
• Chia seeds
• Flax seed oil
• Tons of H2o

Tobacco and alcohol will of course hinder your abilities so less is more here folks.  How about it, take my advice; throw away those nasty pills.  For the next three or four weeks incorporate fast walking into your life, avoid junk food (it hinders your blood flow), increase healthy food and you shall find yourself quite impressive.  It really is that easy.  I know that diet and exercise seems to be our answer to everything, but I don’t know what else to say, it really is.

One tip I would like to leave you with.  One of the readers specifically asked me what to eat immediately before…how shall I say, an encounter?  The perfect meal in my opinion my friends would be a large piece of wild Alaskan salmon and a large sweet potato.  The salmon will be great for blood flow and the sweet potato will provide you with hours of energy.  Oh yeah, and share a piece of dark chocolate with your paramor, the increase in serotonin will treat you both well.  Good luck and I bid you adieu.

He said, “Well, you might really be onto something!”

I’m so excited! And I just can’t hide it!… No, I will not break out into the song.  Just wanted to convey my extreme excitement.

Our general manager, Mike, called me on Saturday – which, by the way, is quite common, since we tend to work a lot on Saturdays.  What was unique about the phone call this past Saturday was that he began the conversation with, “Well, you might really be onto something!”  When I asked what he meant, he informed me that he had gone back to the doctor for his annual checkup and had just received his lab results.  He informed me that his results were outrageously good.  In fact, his cholesterol was at 144.

Now, of course, not being able to ask questions regarding health when hiring anyone, I did not have any clue what his cholesterol was previously.  He informed me in this phone call that at his last checkup, his cholesterol was 179.

At this point, I should give you a brief history.  When Mike started working for Studio V Health, he was a 33 year old male who jogged a lot, almost daily, I think due to the fact that he has a family history of severe heart disease.  In fact, on his father’s side, most of the males had heart disease issues from a young age because of genetic issues.  Mike ate healthy and jogged quite a bit – or so he thought.

Mike began working for Studio V Health as the general manager in August, 2010.  On October 17, 2010, we launched the online wellness program.  Although I cannot insist, I can strongly advise that all of the employees of Studio V Health to choose a program online from the Cooking Coach and follow it.  To my understanding, Mike chooses the Quick and Yummy and adheres to that program on a weekly basis.  When I quizzed him on what some of the other differences in his life over the past year have been, here is what he stated to me this past weekend.  He has completely given up diet drinks and soda in general.  He has also refrained from eating fast food, which he did not do a lot, but he now does almost never.  He has also informed me that he makes better choices when eating out.  In fact, here is an example in his words, “instead of eating chicken fingers, I will generally order grilled chicken now.”

In my opinion, I think one of the most important issues is that Mike now is extremely aware of ingredients and rarely consumes anything with chemicals.  He was, in fact, quite overjoyed, because his cholesterol, blood pressure, and all of his lab results were extraordinarily great in such a short time.

The reasons why I wanted to write about this – well, number one, since Mike is an employee of Studio V Health, he has allowed me to write about him (most of our members who have seen a significant change in their lab results would not appreciate me writing about them and of course, I keep all of that very private).  So, you could imagine my excitement when it was one of our very own employees.  The second reason why I am so excited about this is because, at least in this instance, it has more to do with changes in food than in exercise.  For instance, Mike as an integral part of the team, works very long hours.  In fact, such long hours, that many days, there is no time for exercise.  So, he went from jogging on a daily basis to much less exercise due to his work schedule.  Of course, I am a huge proponent of exercise.  I point this out merely to make everyone aware that at least in this instance, only a change in food resulted in lowering his cholesterol by 35 points in addition to lowering his blood pressure and everything else.

Now, of course, you can imagine the conversation I am going to have with him regarding exercise and how much more we can do by finding the time to exercise 4 to 5 times per week.  The timing of this is quite extraordinary to me since I spent all weekend researching the areas of the world considered the Blue Zone.  It turns out that the people who live in the Blue Zone live longer due to hard work, positive frame of mind, faith, walking 30 minutes per day and eating mostly plant based foods, but – and here is the most important piece of information – absolutely NO processed foods.  In fact, and yes, you guessed it, I will be blogging about the different parts of the Blue Zone around the world over the next couple of weeks.

In conclusion, congrats to Mike who is definitely more like family than an employee who I had no idea what his cholesterol was – although it was still normal.  You can bet since he has shared his story with me, I will work on getting his cholesterol to 120.  Stay tuned… I’ll let you know when it gets there.