As Dr. Al Sears writes in his book, The Doctor’s Heart Cure, endurance exercise actually makes the heart, lungs, and muscles smaller. They can perform longer with less energy — but what you gain in efficiency, you lose in reserve capacity. In your later years, it is this reserve capacity that protects against heart attacks.

To improve the health and strength of your heart, focus on short intervals of intense exercise punctuated by brief periods of recovery.

But staying tired — week after week — is a health problem, one you don’t have to live with and shouldn’t.

If you have been feeling tired for a while, answer these three questions:

• Are you getting seven to eight hours of quality sleep at night?
• Are you eating a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet?
• Are you getting enough B vitamins?

If you answered “yes” or “I don’t know” to any one of these questions, you need to know this: Most people understand the relationship between sleep and fatigue, but few realize the huge effect diet has on energy levels.

There is an easy fix.

Reduce or eliminate sugars and high-carb starches — bread, rice, pasta, etc. They strip your body of stored energy and turn it into a fat-storing machine. And eat lots of protein — eggs, fish, and meat.

That kind of diet will keep you lean, supercharged, and focused all day long. It works because it not only delivers quality proteins, it’s loaded with vitamins B12 and B6.

You need B vitamins to be able to fall asleep easily, wake up refreshed, and zip through the day. And as you age, your ability to absorb these nutrients from food decreases. So if you are over 40 — to be on the safe side — consider taking a good B complex supplement every day.

———————————————- Highly Recommended —————————————————-

The Relaxation Technique that Eases Stress in Seconds

You’re stuck in a boring meeting… a long line at the bank… or bumper-to-bumper traffic… Your blood pressure is rising. Your stress is through the roof…

But with one unconventional (and often misunderstood) technique, your frustration, anxiety, and stress simply slip away. You’ll feel peaceful, in control, and happy within seconds. Any time. Anywhere.

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They eat and drink like they have a free pass to longevity. But studies show that too much food and too little exercise — after years of intense activity — can quickly erase a history of perfect fitness.

Greek researchers, for example, found that overweight ex-athletes have no better protection against heart disease than anyone else. As their waistlines increased, two factors associated with heart disease — C-reactive protein and triglycerides — increased. And that means their risk also increased.

Here’s the deal. When it comes to your health today, your body doesn’t care how fit you used to be. If you want to stay healthy, stay active.

Let’s say you and your spouse are planning for the arrival of your first child – and you’ve made it your number one goal to make sure everything goes smoothly. Well, that’s going to take a lot of time. Regular visits to the ob-gyn… setting up the nursery… reading up on child care. Doing all that requires you to make adjustments to what had been your schedule.

By deciding in advance what you can take out in order to make room for what you are going to put in, you will be ahead of the game.

Try this little exercise to see what I mean…

My goal is to ______________________________.

I can take out _________________________ and ____________________ to make room.

For example:

• My goal is to exercise regularly.I can take out staying up late and I can get up earlier to make room.

• My goal is to spend more time with my spouse.I can take out playing golf every Sunday and nights out with friends to make room.

• My goal is to increase sales.I can take out unimportant meetings and long lunch hours to make room.

Can you see how this works? Now it is your turn!

Take out a blank sheet of paper or open up a Word document, create the template shown above, and start filling in the blanks.

I promise this will help you keep your goals on track, put them back on track, or get yourself started in the right direction.

MaryEllen’s Secret to Enjoying a Balanced Life

MaryEllen Tribby, Publisher and CEO of Early to Rise, is brimming with energy and a passion for excellence in business. She is also married and has three beautiful children.

MaryEllen has a lot on her plate in all areas of her life. She is often asked how she can possibly balance running a multimillion-dollar company AND managing her home life. In an article she wrote for ETR - The Balancing Act That’s Up to You – this mega-successful working woman, wife, and mother gave much of the credit to taking three simple steps:

• Step #1. Having the Right Attitude
• Step #2. Making the Right Choices
• Step #3. Developing the Right Relationships

In the article, MaryEllen shared a story to illustrate Step #2. As it happens, that same story can be applied to my message today.

She had an opportunity to attend a major networking party in Texas. Everyone who is anyone in the information publishing industry was going to be there. She immediately RSVP’d, and began thinking about all the deals she could make that would benefit ETR.

But while reviewing her travel plans with her husband, he pointed out that she would be away on the first day of the new school year. With three young kids in school, this is a huge event in MaryEllen’s world. She wanted to be there!

So even though her husband encouraged her to go, assuring her that he could handle the excitement of the first day of school without her… no way was MaryEllen going to miss it. After thinking through the consequences of missing the networking party or missing the first day of school, she made the decision to send someone else to Texas.

If she had used our little “take out” exercise, she would have come to the same conclusion. She probably would have done it this way:

My goal is to be present at my children’s first day of school.

I can take out the networking event and find time later to talk to or meet with everyone I would have seen that day to make room.

Your Personal Balancing Act

MaryEllen is the first to admit that she is not Superwoman. The truth is, she sincerely believes everyone can have a balanced life.

“You just need to want it… and act to achieve it,” she says.

That works for me, and I am betting it will work for you. You can find your own personal balance by using my “take out” exercise to help manage your priorities. It’s all about taking ownership of what you want – and making room for the good choices you need to make to get your goals done.

[Ed. Note: It is entirely possible to turn every dream you have into reality. Allow success guru and "Mentor to Billionaires" Bob Cox to help you every step of the way. Get all the details here.]

Why not?

Looking for clues, I asked her to tell me a little bit more about her diet. High in protein and fiber, low in carbs, a good balance of healthy fats. It sounded great. Until I heard this: “I even refuel after every workout, like my trainer told me to, with a banana chocolate smoothie.”

Uh oh.

While many trainers encourage consuming a carb- and protein-rich meal or snack after a workout to promote muscle growth and speed recovery, recent research shows this can sabotage weight-loss efforts.

In fact, studies conducted at the University of Massachusetts found that walking on a treadmill for one hour per day improved blood sugar regulation by 40 percent. But that effect was completely wiped out when people noshed on carb-rich foods afterward.

Keeping your blood sugar stable flips your fat-storage hormone (insulin) off. So if you’re trying to drop a few pounds, skip the post-workout carbs. Opt, instead, for a balanced snack before your workout to make your time at the gym count.

[Ed Note: Eating a low-glycemic diet to keep your blood sugar stable is essential for weight loss. But when the pizza craving strikes (and you indulge), you can slash its fat-storing effects by up to 56% with eight foods. Find out what they are in Kelley Herring's revolutionary 7-part health transformation program, Your Plate, Your Fate. Get all the details and learn how to get 3 bonus books right here.]

If you “hate” exercise, here are three ways to stay motivated and stick to your plan:

1. Work out with a partner or in a group. Bootcamp exercise classes are becoming more popular every year – mostly because they are a million times more fun than jogging on a treadmill by yourself. If you get a good high-energy trainer, and a few friends to join you, you’ll have a grand old time while you burn belly fat.

2. Play the right music. Whether your bootcamp trainer brings it or you create a kick-butt mix on your iPod, working out to peppy music will make the time fly by.

3. Turn your exercise program into a golf game. In other words, keep challenging yourself to do better. That’s what golfers do. They get hooked on the game because they always want to beat their last score. And by giving yourself a “score” to beat every time you work out, the competitive streak deep within you will come to the surface and you’ll work harder and more consistently.

It’s all about making it fun. That’s why workouts like my Bodyweight 500 have become so popular that more than 5,100 readers of Men’s Health magazine used it to burn up to 41 pounds of belly fat in just 8 weeks.

You, too, could see results like that.

[Ed. Note: Fitness expert Craig Ballantyne's Turbulence Training for Fat Loss program is the ultimate in fat burning. Not only are the exercises high-energy and high-intensity - which means they blast fat away - they are also quick and fun to do. Better yet, you can build a lean, toned body with just three 45-minute workouts a week. Learn the details here.

For more easy-to-implement ideas about how to live longer and feel better, sign up for ETR's free natural health newsletter.]

Fact is, if you want lean, sexy muscle (at any age), walking is not sufficient exercise.

Sure, walking is better than no exercise at all. But it’s not going to help you burn the fat you need to burn in order to feel great and get noticed. Nobody ever walked themselves out of the Fat Cow Hall of Fame. I didn’t… and neither has Oprah.

When it comes to exercise, the old adage holds true: “No pain, no gain.” Why? Because you need to force the body to produce a family of fat-burning, beer-belly-melting compounds known as catecholamines. When released, these weapons of fat destruction bind metabolic receptors on the outer membrane of fat cells, causing them to be eradicated via thermogenesis and lypolysis. (That’s just a fancy way to say that the fat cells are being demolished.)

Getting rid of fat with exercise happens only when you attain 60 to 80 percent of your max heart rate. If you’ve forgotten how to do the calculation, here it is: 220 minus your age times .60 equals your maximum target heart rate.

Exercise by the numbers, and watch the numbers plummet on your scale too.

[Ed. Note: Shane Ellison's entire career has been dedicated to the study of molecules - how they give life and how they take from it. He was a two-time recipient of the prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Grant for his research in biochemistry and physiology. He is a bestselling author, holds a master's degree in organic chemistry, and has first-hand experience in drug design. Take advantage of his knowledge and insights to look and feel your best in 90 days.]

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Rule #1: Eat a low-calorie diet, focusing on whole, natural foods.

Everyone needs to be eating more fruits and vegetables, no matter how old they are. So try to add one extra serving every day – starting tomorrow – until you are up to 10 total servings per day. The fiber will help fill you up. And by reducing processed foods in your diet at the same time, you will have more energy and you will lose weight. It’s that easy.

Rule #2: Use resistance training to sculpt your muscles.

As you get older, strength becomes more and more important to your health and well-being. If you don’t use it, you’ll lose it. So make sure your exercise program includes total-body strength training at least twice per week, preferably three times.

Rule #3: Do interval training instead of long, slow cardio.

Researchers from Australia found that women who did only 20 minutes of interval training three times per week were able to lose more belly fat than women who did 40 minutes of long, slow cardio. So switch your program to short-burst exercise and you’ll get more results in less time!

[Ed. Note: If you're not sure of the best fat-burning exercises to try, fitness expert Craig Ballantyne can help. In his Turbulence Training program, he'll reveal how you can burn fat and build muscle with three 45-minute workouts a week. Get the details here.

For more easy-to-implement ideas about how to live longer and feel better, sign up for ETR's free natural health newsletter.]

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The phone rings. Do you answer it?

A new e-mail chimes. Do you immediately read it?

A text message arrives. Do you look at it and reply?

Your spouse or child enters the room. Do you stop what you are doing to see what they want?

The question is: How easily are you distracted?

The other day, I was reading that the average person can concentrate on one thing for only about five minutes. He’s got so many gadgets and gizmos that he can never rest or relax mentally. The cellphone or blackberry is always with him. He sleeps with it at his side. Cannot go for a walk without it. Or attend a movie or concert. Can’t eat a meal with his family without looking at his gadget.

I am NOT saying you should get rid of all your gadgets. I’m not saying to stop using technology.

What I’m saying is that peace of mind, happiness, and the ability to achieve your goals has a lot to do with how long you can concentrate on one thing. And if you can’t go for a walk, watch a movie, or have dinner with family or friends without constantly checking your tweets and text messages – if you can’t leave all your gadgets at home or away from your reach for extended periods of time – then you most likely have a lot of trouble finishing projects that require deep concentration and focus.

Here are some things I do that you may find helpful:

1. I put my gadgets in another room when I go to bed at night.

2. I do not bring my gadgets with me when I go for a walk.

3. I do not bring my gadgets with me when I am eating with family or friends – and if I do bring them, I do not use them when we’re talking.

4. If I am working on a project (like this very article), I do not respond to pings, pongs, pangs, or anything else. Everything can wait until I am finished with what I set out to do.

5. If I am talking to someone who allows himself to be continually interrupted by pings, calls, and tweets – I end the encounter. Because that person is letting me know that he values his gadgets more than me.

Now if you’re the type of person who likes his gadgets more than accomplishing something worthwhile – well, you’ll get no argument from me.

On the other hand, if you’re willing to try turning off your gadgets – or letting them ring or chime, unanswered, for extended periods of time – you’ll be amazed at how you will have eliminated a great deal of the unwanted resistance you may have to success.

In fact, if you really want to get more things done in less time – with next to no interruptions – then you’d better learn to do nothing more than concentrate on what you want in such a way that you feel as if nothing is blocking you whatsoever.

No resistance.

No turbulence.

No sandpaper rubbing against you as you go through life.

Instead, a resistance-free feeling flowing against your skin and through your veins.

You get up in the morning with things to do – and you get them done. Day after day. Week after week. Year after year.

Thousands upon thousands of days in which you git ‘er done because you know the power of a focused mind.

[Ed. Note: Matt Furey is an internationally recognized expert in the fields of self-development, fitness, and martial arts, and is the president of the Psycho-Cybernetics Foundation, Inc. If you're nodding your head in agreement about the need to focus and concentrate - without resistance - you should check out Matt's world-famous Zero Resistance Living Course. This is what the super-successful use to get more things done in less time.]

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The best energy bar is the barbell.

Researchers from the University of Georgia studied the effects of exercise on fatigue in sedentary college women. Fourteen subjects did 2 workouts and 1 control session, and then filled out some “profile of mood state” forms. The results showed that the exercise made them feel more energetic.

So if you are in a low-energy slump, slip in for a quick workout. Heck, you can even do a bodyweight workout in your office mid-afternoon to get yourself going. Do bodyweight squats, push-ups, lunges, and planks to energize your body in just a few short minutes.

[Ed. Note: For a mood- and energy-boosting exercise routine that can help you burn fat and build muscle, try fitness expert Craig Ballantyne's Turbulence Training program. Get the details here.

For more easy-to-implement ideas about how to live longer and feel better, sign up for ETR's free natural health newsletter.]

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