One month into the New Year and I am wondering how many people are still heading to the gym 3 to 4 times a week as per their New Year resolutions. I found out a while ago that the best way to avoid failing my New Year’s resolutions was not to make any! Instead, I just quietly and diligently do the things that need doing. One of the things that I have been doing diligently for a few years now is skipping. While many of us remember skipping as something we did as children, I became re-acquainted with this discipline through martial art training.
One of the reasons why people are struggling to make the most of their gym membership is that it requires effort to get to the gym. Having access to a gym right at your doorstep is not a given. One-hour gym session may turn into a 2-hour plus event if you add the time to get to the gym and back. If you are the type of person who is pretty busy, doesn’t like exercising indoors or can’t face the prospect of driving through traffic to get sweaty in a gym, I suggest that you grab a rope and skip yourself to health.
A skipping rope is the most convenient exercise equipment to have because it is easily available, you can carry it and use it anywhere, anytime. Skipping rope = accessibility, portability, versatility & a lot of fun.
Jumping rope has long been used by boxers as a form of training to help improve their footwear and general conditioning. Jumping rope will improve your cardiovascular health, will lower your blood pressure, and reduce your resting heart rate.
Jumping rope will also increase your cardiorespiratory fitness which essentially means your body becomes more efficient at taking up and using oxygen. Research has shown that cardiorespiratory fitness is linked to improved health and longevity.
Jumping rope is a full-body exercise that requires speed and coordination and is a form of High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). HIIT exercise is where you have short bouts of high-intensity efforts followed by a short rest interval. This is repeated several times. HIIT workouts are the ideal type of exercise for a busy schedule. The average HIIT workout is between 15 to 30 minutes. Research has shown that you can achieve more progress in 15 minutes of interval training than you can jogging on a treadmill for an hour.
Another reason why HIIT workouts are so popular is that they are extremely effective for weight loss. When trying to lose weight, you want to burn fat and build lean muscle to continue to burn more fat. HIIT forces your body to use energy from fat as opposed to carbs. Not only do you burn more calories during a HIIT workout than steady cardio; but the most amazing benefit of all is that all that intense exertion keeps your body working long after you’re done with your exercise for the day. In effect, you jump rope for 30 minutes and your body keeps burning the fat for the next 24 hours! Raise your hand if you want to turn your body into a fat-burning machine whilst sleeping!
In addition to increased fat burning and muscle preservation, HIIT workouts stimulate the production of your human growth hormone (HGH). It goes up by 450% during the 24 hours after your workout. This, in turn, increases your metabolism. An increased metabolism makes it less likely for you to gain weight.
Grab a rope and have a full-body workout.
Skipping is a full-body workout that uses abdominal muscles to stabilize the body, your legs for jumping, and your shoulders and arms for turning the rope. It will also improve your coordination and balance. A study found that jumping rope is one of the most effective cardio exercises out there – and it can whip you into shape with just a few minutes a day of skipping. In the study, after six weeks of daily 10-minute jump-rope exercises, participants demonstrated the same levels of improvement in their cardiovascular health as individuals who jogged for 30 minutes a day.
Research has shown that jumping rope will also increase your bone mineral density. Your overall bone strength is a combination of the amount of bone tissue you have (your bone density) and how healthy or strong that bone tissue is. Both of these things are affected as you age. Jumping rope involves making an impact on the ground with every jump. These impacts cause our bones to remodel themselves to become stronger, thus increasing bone density. Higher bone density makes you stronger and less likely to break a bone.
Your Quest my dear friend is to skip like nobody is watching and gain all the benefits of a short, intense, and fun workout anytime, anywhere! Off you go.
Why do we feel good when we kiss someone, eat sugary treats or achieve career success? Because of dopamine. Dopamine is a type of neurotransmitter chemical that travels through the nervous system to bring a message to our brain. Your body makes it, and your nervous system uses it to send messages between nerve cells. Hormones are also neurotransmitters, but they travel through the blood.
Histographics 2.0 – How Dopamine Work in a human body. Scriptwriter: Joanne Reed
Video Transcript
“How dopamine work in a human body?” I am so glad you asked the question because this video will bring you all the answers that you seek. And don’t’ forget to support our new channel by sharing, commenting, and subscribing.
Dopamine as a neurotransmitter has the effect of giving you pleasure, a sense of reward, and therefore motivation to do something. Dopamine is the molecule that is behind our most sinful impulses and also our cravings such as lust and addiction (whether to chocolate, cocaine, sex, or gambling) and is often referred to as the feel-good hormone.
Histographics 2.0 – How Dopamine Works in a human body. Scriptwriter: Joanne Reed
When you eat junk food, you feel good afterward. Why is this? There is a system in your brain called the Reward System. This system is designed to reward you when you’re doing things that advance your chance of survival. In the olden days, people had to hunt for food; if you didn’t have a good hunting day, you will be left with an empty stomach and your chance of survival will decrease by the day until you cross paths with a bison.
Nowadays, the only thing you have to do to get food is open your fridge or cupboard or drag yourself to the next grocery store, takeaway, or restaurant. Our problem these days is that we are eating too much food. Eating constantly highly increases our chance of being overweight. Eating is becoming addictive because it makes us feel good… until the day when we can’t fit in our favorite pair of jeans and our reflection in the mirror makes all our previous feel-good factor disappears.
Histographics 2.0 – How Dopamine Work in a human body. Scriptwriter: Joanne Reed
Drugs like cocaine for example make people feel good not because of the drug itself but because it stimulates dopamine That is why cocaine and sugar are so addictive, they satisfy your natural reward system in a big way. But repeated drug use also raises the threshold for this kind of pleasure. This means you need to take more to get the same high.
In addition to the risk of making yourself a target for the police, using drugs such as cocaine makes your body less able to produce dopamine naturally. This leads to emotional low when you are sober turning you into somebody people don’t want to be around anymore.
Talking about cocaine and sugar. Did you know that sugar is more addictive than cocaine?
A study published on 28 July 2010 in the Public Library of Science describes a strange rate experiment involving sugar and cocaine. The rats were given cocaine until they became dependent on it. Then researchers provided them with a choice – the rats could choose to switch to sugar. 94% of the rats chose to switch to sugar, even when they had to work hard to access it. The study concluded that sugar was more addictive than cocaine!
Histographics 2.0 – How Dopamine Work in a human body. Scriptwriter: Joanne Reed
If you are dopamine deficient you lack motivation and drive, you become fatigued, you can become moody and depressed. So, make sure to monitor your dopamine level. What kind of things will deplete your dopamine level? Excessive caffeine, alcohol, the use of chemical drugs, too much sugar, stress, and cortisol.
The good news is that this wonderful “machine” called our body is able to produce dopamine naturally. How? I am so glad you ask this question because there are ways to increase the production of dopamine naturally.
Histographics 2.0 – How Dopamine Works in a human body. Scriptwriter: Joanne Reed
Exercise is a dopamine booster. Keep moving.
Eat healthy preferably a keto (low carb high protein) diet, which will help you lower your insulin level and insulin has a huge role in regulating dopamine. Don’t drink too much coffee. Reduce your sugar intake. Reduce your alcohol intake.
Laugh as often as can. Laughter releases feel-good chemicals.
Connect with others. Find a sense of purpose. Go dancing.
Spend time in nature and in the sun. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a well-known condition in which people feel sad or depressed during the winter when they are not exposed to enough sunlight. While sun exposure may boot dopamine levels and improve mood, it is important to adhere to safety guidelines because getting too much sun can be harmful.
Get a massage.
Listen to your favorite music.
Get enough sleep.
Histographics 2.0 – How Dopamine Work in a human body. Scriptwriter: Joanne Reed
The bottom line is that dopamine is an important brain chemical that influences your mood, feelings of reward, and motivation. Levels of dopamine are generally well regulated by the body, but you can boost your level naturally by making a few diet and lifestyle changes. Drop the cocaine, but please do not switch to sugar, go outside for a run or a walk on a sunny day, and don’t forget to like, share and subscribe to our channel because it will give you such a feel-good factor that your dopamine level will for sure increase a notch or two.
Do not underestimate the writers' role in society. Photo by user 31947721 via freepik.com
Wishing you health, wealth, love, and happiness. We are coming to this time of the year when we wish our friends, family, colleagues, and everybody we meet the best of everything; wishing for health, wealth, Love and happiness encompasses pretty much everything that we all wish for. I wrote a whole book about this “This Is Your Quest”.
Wherever we are in the world we all want the same thing. We all want to survive and thrive. We want to be happy, healthy, and wealthy. Surely, there must be a secret to get to this Eldorado. I’ve got news for you: the secret to survive and thrive in this crazy world is that there is no secret.
Wishing you good health
Health matters a great deal. Photo by freepik via freepik.com
Health matters a great deal. It has always mattered but for the past two years, it has become the topic of conversation in all circles of society and the subject of health remains at the center of every decision we make on a daily basis, where the medicals, the politicians, the economists, the lawmakers, and law enforcement people take their turn to opine, legislate and execute decisions that affect us all on a daily basis. Health is at the center of everything we do today.
“Everything on Earth has a purpose, every disease an herb to cure it and every person a mission.”
Native American Theory of Existence
From the beginning of time, health mattered a great deal. Life in the Ancient World was a dangerous endeavor. For most of history, living was a dangerous occupation with most people at risk of dying from war, famine, disease, epidemic, or childbirth with the average lifespan much lower than it is today. In those days, people relied heavily on the good graces that their favorite Gods were willing to dispense over them in order to maneuver all those perils. People prayed and made offerings to their favorite Gods in order to keep them healthy. A healthy person was recognized as being in the “good books” of the Gods; being sick on the other hand, meant that you were being punished by the Gods for some bad deeds you did.
By the 5th century BC, physicians started to develop and exercise a more scientific medical profession Hippocrates, also known as the Father of Modern Medicine, is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine. Hippocrates is credited with being the first person to believe that diseases were caused naturally, and not because of superstition and Gods. He separated the discipline of medicine from religion, believing and arguing that disease was not a punishment inflicted by the Gods, but rather the product of environmental factors, diet, and living habits.
Hippocratic medicine was humble and passive. The therapeutic approach was based on the healing power of nature. According to this doctrine, the body contains within itself the power to re-balance and heal itself. Hippocrates was reluctant to administer drugs, the medicine he prescribed was very kind to the patient,his favorite treatment included fasting, the consumption of apple cider vinegar, and exercise and he emphasized the importance of keeping the patient clean and sterile . He sometimes used potent drugs but when absolutely necessary.
“Let your food be your medicine and your medicine be your food. The strength that is in each of us is our greatest doctor. Man must harmonize mind and body. It is nature that heals the sick. Everything in excess is opposed to nature. The same remedy could heal in one dose but could cause harm in greater doses. Unless you have real evidence that medical treatment was helpful, you shouldn’t use it. To do nothing could also be a good remedy, depending on the case. “
Hippocrates
Fast forward to our modern era, everybody knows that in order to have a healthy body you have to eliminate toxins as much as possible from your environment, eliminate tobacco and alcohol, eat healthy nutritious food, exercise and keep active. This information is no secret. It is out there, and it is available to everyone. Those people who walk around on the beach in their bikinis with a toned body and a six-pack didn’t get there by accident, they worked on it days in and days out. They didn’t take a secret pill that gave them a fit body overnight, they honed their skill quietly and patiently.
The expectation nowadays is for things to happen instantaneously; and when it doesn’t, we get frustrated even angry. Being patient is a virtue that has been forgotten. We should get re-acquainted with this concept. In public, it is the impatient one that grabs all the attention but patience is a skill that you practice quietly, behind a closed door, just like professional athletes who step away from the limelight taking some time off to heal their injures so that they can come back stronger, step back in the arena and compete another day.
Wishing you wealth
Wishing you Health, Wealth Love and Happiness
There are a lot of things you hear about money: the love of money is the root of all evil. Money doesn’t grow on trees. Money can’t buy happiness. Nowadays there is a huge divide between the 1% of the population who holds in their hands the vast majority of the world’s wealth, leaving the 99% to scramble for the leftover. Money is what makes people worry the most and makes them the happiest and the unhappiest.
The true fact of all money matters remains a secret for the majority of people. “Money ” is created out of thin air and is just a piece of paper with no intrinsic value. The current debt-based-fiat-money system was born in secrecy following a meeting of some of the most influential people of the time gathered on Jekyll Island.
“The modern banking system manufactures money out of nothing. The process is perhaps the most astounding piece of sleight of hand that was ever invented. Banking was conceived in iniquity and born in sin. Bankers own the earth. Take it away from them but leave them the power to create money and control credit, and with a flick of a pen, they will create enough money to buy it back again … but if you want to continue as slaves to the bankers and pay the cost of your own slavery, let them continue to create money and to control credit.
Sir Josiah Stamp – Former Director of the Bank of England.
But our true wealth is our time and freedom.
“Our true wealth is our time and freedom. Money is just a tool for trading your time. It is a container to store your economic energy until you are ready to deploy it. The secrets of money are hidden in plain sights they are, they are out in the open, like the way the monetary system works, but most people can’t really see or understand how it really works; the use of technical jargon makes it very opaque and inaccessible to the uninitiated. The secret remains a secret because of a lack of proficiency for the majority of people. Other secrets are meant to be just that, secrets! But the truth is finally coming out, such as the fact that the Federal Reserve is a private corporation and not part of the US Government.”
Mike Maloney
For the 99% knowledge is power. Know how the system works and you will become powerful.
Wishing you Love and Happiness
Wishing you Health, Wealth Love and Happiness
Falling in or out of love is one of the strongest emotions that people can experience. Love can be kind. Love can be cruel. Love is everything. Love has been called one of the most studied and least understood areas in psychology. Everyone has experienced feelings of love to some extent or another. There are those who found love then lost it, those who found it and kept it, and those who are seeking it in odd places. They are also those who don’t know they have it, not realizing it is closer than they think!
Romantic love, the love that perhaps most naturally springs to mind, has been the inspiration for countless ballads, stories, and pieces of art and has captured the imagination of singers, artists, poets throughout history. However, there are many flavors of love, from brotherly love, the love of God, and self-love. The question of “what is love?” generates a host of issues; some have sought to analyze them; others have preferred to leave them in the realm of the ineffable. There are 8 types of love according to the Greeks:
1. Eros: erotic love;
2. Philia: affectionate love or friendship;
3. Storge: familial/unconditional love;
4. Ludus: playful love;
5. Mania: obsessive love;
6. Pragma: enduring love;
7. Philautia: Self-love
8. Agape: selfless love.
We are all students of love and in our Quest to find love we should remember to Stay away from mania. Don’t just seek eros – it usually ends badly. Cultivate philia by spending more time with your friends and family. Add some frivolity into your life from time to time with ludic activities. Seek pragma for a long-lasting relationship. Indulge in storge, let your maternal and paternal instincts out. For all the lonely souls out there, get yourself a dog. Practice philautia to stay away from stress, anxiety, and depression. And for the most advanced students, seek agape.
Wishing to all my readers and followers health, wealth, love, and happiness.
Personal Note
DDI Chat – Personal Growth – One-to-one Chat with Joanne Reed
In addition to publishing my articles on my website, I have also been publishing on Medium. I have been working closely for the past months with Data-Driven Investor (DDI) Publication. DDI has recently launched a new marketplace/platform where people can book a paid one-to-one session with an expert of their choice. DDI asked me to join their panel of advisors/experts in the Leadership, Coaching, and Personal Growth category. Here is my profile. If you wish to book a one-to-one chat with me you can do so on this platform.
Health matters a great deal. Photo by freepik via freepik.com
Health matters a great deal. It has always mattered but for the past year and a half, it has become the topic of conversation in all circles of society and the subject of health remains at the center of every decision we make on a daily basis, where the medicals, the politicians, the economists, the lawmakers, and law enforcement people take their turn to opine, legislate and execute decisions that affect us all on a daily basis on based on our health. Health is at the center of everything we do today. This blog article is based on some extracts from Chapter 22 of my book “This Is Your Quest“.
Native American Theory of Existence “Everything on the Earth has a purpose, every disease an herb to cure it and every person a mission.”
From the beginning of time, health mattered a great deal
Life in the Ancient World was a dangerous endeavor. For most of history, living was a dangerous occupation with most people at risk of dying from war, famine, disease, epidemic, or childbirth with the average lifespan much lower than it is today. In those days, people relied heavily on the good graces that their favorite Gods were willing to dispense over them in order to maneuver all those perils. People prayed and made offerings to their favorite Gods in order to keep them healthy. A healthy person was recognized as being in the “goods books” of the Gods; being sick on the other hand, meant that you were being punished by the Gods for some bad deed you did. In Greek society, the most favored God for healing was Asklepios. Sick people traveled for days to seek healing in “Asklepion” or sanitariums. These sanitariums were similar in some ways to the modern spa. Asklepions were located in remote and beautiful areas and provided baths, healthy food, and sanctuary rooms intended specifically for sleep and meditation.
Health matters a great deal. Never underestimate the power of ginger and lemon tea. Photo by freepik via freepik.com
By the 5th century BC, physicians started to develop and exercise a more scientific medical profession. Hippocrates, the most famous physician of antiquity, started writing medical textbooks. From such writings, we see that ancient physicians knew that draining and cleaning infected wounds promoted healing and they knew of certain herbs that had healing and disinfecting properties. Wild ginger for example and a particular clay found on the Greek Island of Lemnos was believed to be helpful for ailments such as dysentery. The clay contained elements such as kaolin and bentonite, which are used in modern medicines to treat diarrhea. During those times, healing was very much focused on the idea of a body-mind relationship. Hippocrates believed that the body and mind are in unity, and to affect one is to affect the other.
Health mattered a great deal for Hippocrates of Kos the father of Modern Medicine
Hippocrates of Kos[1] also known as the “Father of Modern Medicine” is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine. Hippocrates is credited with being the first person to believe that diseases were caused naturally, and not because of superstition and Gods. He separated the discipline of medicine from religion, believing and arguing that disease was not a punishment inflicted by the Gods, but rather the product of environmental factors, diet, and living habits. Hippocrates conducted the first clinical studies by observing people and comparing their health habits. He noticed that bodies grow relaxed and sluggish through sedentary lives which led to various illnesses. Those who walked more stayed well longer. So, he often prescribed exercise. This was a very forward way of thinking coming from someone who lived in the Ancient World.
Health matters a great deal. Hippocrates the father of Modern Medicine. Photo by freepik via freepik.com
Fast-forward to today, this concept of walking every day to make you healthier has been vindicated through many studies; a recent National Cancer Institute study conducted on more than 650,000 people found that those who walk briskly for just 150 minutes a week, or 22 minutes a day, gained an average of 3.4 years of life expectancy.[2] No drugs required and so simple!
Hippocratic medicine was humble and passive. The therapeutic approach was based on the healing power of nature. According to this doctrine, the body contains within itself the power to re-balance and heal itself. Hippocrates was reluctant to administer drugs, the medicine he prescribed was very kind to the patient, treatment was gentle, and emphasized keeping the patient clean and sterile. His favorite treatment included fasting and the consumption of apple cider vinegar. He also used potent drugs but only when absolutely necessary.
Hippocrates meticulously examined his patients’ urine, stools, pus, and sweat; but he also observed their personalities, home environment, relationships, diet and even their facial expressions before diagnosing and treating them. He believed that it was impossible to understand illness without understanding the whole person.
Let your food be your medicine and your medicine be your food. The strength that is in each of us is our greatest doctor. Man must harmonize mind and body. It is nature that heals the sick.
Hippocrates
He recognized that when people ate mainly a fresh, plant-based diet, they developed fewer diseases. Hundreds of years later, this concept has now been proven clinically; a new study has shown that an intensive weight management program can reverse type 2 diabetes.[3] Hippocrates’ primary form of treatment was usually improving a patient’s diet.
Everything in excess is opposed to nature. The same remedy could heal in one dose but could cause harm in greater doses. Unless you have real evidence that a medical treatment was helpful, you shouldn’t use it. To do nothing could also be a good remedy, depending on the case.
Hippocrates
[1] Hippocrates of Kos (460 – 370 BC – Greece) – Physician. Best known for being the father of modern medicine. The “Hippocratic Oath” that newly qualified doctors take, bears his name.
[3] A new study – the Diabetes Remission Clinical Trial (DiRECT) suggests that remission of type 2 diabetes may be achievable through intense weight management programs supported by routine primary care – https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/320274.php
DDI Chat – Personal Growth – One-to-one Chat with Joanne Reed
In addition to publishing my articles on my website, I have also been publishing on Medium. I have been working closely for the past months with Data-Driven Investor (DDI) Publication. DDI has recently launched a new marketplace/platform where people can book a paid one-to-one session with an expert of their choice. DDI asked me to join their panel of advisors/experts in the Leadership, Coaching, and Personal Growth category. Here is my profile. If you wish to book a one-to-one chat with me you can do so on this platform.
