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.

There’s a reason for that, says Total Health Breakthroughs’ Managing Editor Jon Herring. “The fat has been replaced with sugar and refined carbohydrates. And those are more dangerous to your health.”

The mania for low-fat foods has led to a host of health problems, some inconvenient and some downright deadly. These problems are becoming more common as more people jump on the low-fat bandwagon, Jon says. “And to make matters worse, the federal government and much of the medical establishment are advocating a low-fat diet!”

Among the problems caused:

• An explosion of obesity
• An increase in adult-onset diabetes
• Increased hypertension
• More heart disease

“Fats are a healthy and integral part of the healthful diet,” Jon says. “But you need to know what kinds of fats to eat and in what quantities.”

Check out Jon’s latest THB Undercover for all the details.

Yes, these oils are derived from natural sources. But by the time they make it to your grocery store, they are anything but good for you. Corn oil, for example, contains none of the vitamins, minerals, and fiber found in the plant itself.

A number of studies have shown a link between processed oils and heart disease. Processed oils have also been associated with asthma, blindness, cancer, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, stroke, and liver problems. Meanwhile, the average American is consuming more than 50 times as much vegetable oil as he once did.

Vegetable oils are not easy to avoid. They are in all salad dressings and processed foods. But some are healthier than others.

Choose coconut oil for cooking. Choose olive oil (which is easily damaged by cooking heat) for salads.

You can buy organic sugar, white flour, potato chips, corn chips, donuts, waffles, sugar-added cereals, pizza, and frozen dinners at your local health food store. All of these products are highly processed. They contain little to no nutritional value, and they have a high glycemic index.

My advice is to skip the same aisles in the health food store as you would in the regular grocery store. Avoid the baked goods, snack foods, cereals, and ice creams. Stick to whole foods and fresh produce.

I tried it recently and found that I ate considerably less. You wouldn’t think the water could have that much of an effect. But it does!

Yet it eludes us. All of our activities — our pursuit of fame and fortune, our quest for meaningful relationships, our drive to build or change things — are directed searches for this ephemeral state. We get there, but we can never heave a lasting sigh of relief because the feeling is gone almost immediately.

Can happiness be a permanent member of our household rather than an occasional and erratic visitor?

Think on this parable from psychotherapist and Jesuit priest Anthony de Mello:

“A group of tourists sits in a bus that is passing through gorgeously beautiful country; lakes and mountains and green fields and rivers. But the shades of the bus are pulled down. They do not have the slightest idea of what lies beyond the windows of the bus. And all the time of their journey is spent in squabbling over who will have the seat of honor in the bus, who will be applauded, who will be well considered. And so they remain till the journey’s end.”

Too many of us are like those tourists, engaged in petty power struggles while the true beauty of life lies all round us, unobserved and unappreciated.

I see this all the time in the seminars I conduct. I have the participants call out things that would make them happy, and I write them on a flip chart. The list grows to 50 or 100 items in minutes.

Wealth is a common desire. Not run-of-the-mill, garden-variety wealth but a fabulous fortune. A trophy spouse is also popular, though people rarely label it as such. Instead the ideal spouse is described as extraordinarily good-looking and, as a self-justifying afterthought, intelligent to boot.

Lots of other items come up, too, including travel, good health, great sex, friends, loving relatives, and interesting work.

The truth is, none of those things is necessary for happiness. None of them.

This is an extremely important point. Because all of those things are dependent on outside circumstances that will never be in your control. And doesn’t that make the quest for them an extremely frail reed to lean on?

Don’t confuse true happiness and soul-satisfying joy with the temporary satisfaction you get when you gratify your ego. Your happiness is not dependent on your wealth, your intelligence, or your abilities. Your happiness is not even contingent on your continued good health or having loving friends, relatives, or significant others.

In fact, happiness is already a part of your nature. There is nothing you have to get in order to be happy. All you have to do is allow your inner happiness to surface.

When I get to this point in my seminars, I generally have a revolution on my hands. How can people be happy if they live in extreme poverty? Or if they are afflicted with a painful disease? Or if they have no friends or loved ones? Or if they’re in any other hypothetical situation along those lines?

Yet the statement holds. There is nothing you have to get in order to be happy.

One question remains. If happiness is our nature, why do we not experience it more often? Why are our lives filled with angst and sorrow?

The answer is simple: We have constructed mental models for ourselves in which happiness comes as a result of getting something — money, power, fame, etc. In the reality that we have created and that we live in, our achievements define us. We are “better” if we are “successful.”

The media reinforces those beliefs, subtly painting pictures of what successful and happy people have and look like. Your parents reinforced them too, imprinting on your mind that what they found valuable was what you should value. In all probability, they got their beliefs from their parents and accepted them without question. Your friends, relatives, teachers, classmates, and coaches all played a role. So did the movies and TV programs you watched, the books and magazines you read, the music you listened to, and what you observed in the world around you.

They all contributed to your mental model. And they succeeded because you did not question the beliefs and values they presented to you. But now, in your quest for happiness and freedom, you must question them.

When you want something — and you get it — there is a brief moment when you are content, when you are not your habitual wanting self. And in that moment, you experience the happiness that is always a part of you. You are content. And full. But the very next moment, some other desire raises its ugly head and you are off on another fruitless quest for happiness. It is a never-ending cycle.

The problem is that you do not realize why you experience that moment of happiness. You do not recognize that it is because, at that moment, you are free from want. The happiness springs from an acceptance of the Universe as it is. It is your innate nature bubbling forth in the absence of the bonds you put on it with your incessant demands.

Instead, you attribute the happiness you briefly felt to the acquisition of whatever it was that you got. And so you try to get the next thing, and the next thing, and the next thing.

If you go barreling through life, desperately doing things to make yourself “happy,” happiness will elude you. It is like a puppy that runs away when you try to entice it to come to you. But as soon as you ignore it and start reading your newspaper, you feel its cold nose in your hand.

It really does work that way. You are bound by the things you own as long as you need them emotionally. The moment you sever this psychological link, you will experience freedom, a marvelous sense of liberation that cannot be described.

Think back to your life 10 years ago. You had a list of wants at that time, things you thought would bring you lasting happiness. Odds are, you now have many of them. Have they made you happier than you were back then? Probably not.

Pick any item you currently desire. Now imagine yourself as a 95-year-old person about to leave this world. From that perspective, does having that item really matter? Again, probably not.

Enjoy, truly enjoy, what you have. Strive for what you do not have but want. But strive joyfully, knowing that the pleasure is in the doing, not in the getting. If you succeed, wonderful. If you do not, still wonderful.

P.S. Finding true happiness won’t happen overnight. With my Personal Mastery Success Program, you’ll get all the tools you need to make a break with negativity, sadness, and disappointment. Soon you’ll be living your life to its true potential.

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“If a picture truly is worth a thousand words, we’re about to make a hell of a lot of money!” - The multi-billion dollar “home shopping” industry got its start on cable access. It was a low-budget public access “operation” run by three guys in Clearwater, Florida. Before they had even made their first dollar their success was a sure thing. They had the “Billionaire Mindset”…

Stay away from foods with these additives, says James LaValle, ND, author of Managing Stress for Better Sleep. You’ll get a better night’s sleep. And you’ll lower the risk of damaging your brain’s sensitive nerves.

And that’s not the only reason to avoid these poisons. They can cause many health problems, including obesity, migraines, memory loss, and hearing loss.

• On Wall Street, unemployment is at 7 percent. That is three percentage points lower than the national average. Executives at Goldman Sachs and other bailed-out brokerages are getting million-dollar bonuses. Meanwhile, regulations meant to cut down on the cheating and stealing have not been implemented. For brokers and bankers, it’s business as usual — but with taxpayers’ dollars.

Government is supposed to protect its citizens — not only from bodily harm but from this kind of thievery. Trillions are spent on wars against people who never attacked us. Yet little or nothing is spent to put a stop to the financial damage being done to us.

That is a shame.

Oh, well.

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What MBA Students Have That You Couldn’t Get (Until Now…)

An unconventional course has appeared at Columbia University’s business school… at the London Business School… and at the Haas Business School at the University of California.

Says Brandon Peele, “I attribute 80% of my $120K MBA price tag to this one class. It changed my life in profound ways.” Now you can get the same life-changing benefits… From your home… For less than a thousandth of the tuition.

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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.

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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.