Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Advice for Smashing Your New Year Goals

Arnold Schwarzenegger Just Shared His Tips for Smashing Your New Year Goals

“Negativity freezes you,” he says. “It makes you depressed about where you are instead of excited about where you can go.”

By Philip Ellis Published: Dec 27, 2022

This article is a repost which originally appeared on Men’sHealth.

Edited for content. The opinions expressed in this article may not reflect the opinions of this site’s editors, staff or members.

Arnold’s Advice:

‧ Be honest but not negative

‧ Don’t set out to finish these things this year

‧ Make one of your goals about physical health

As we head out of the holiday period and look towards 2023, many of us are starting to plan our New Year’s resolutions. Some of these targets for self-improvement will be simple, like wanting to eat healthier or work on personal fitness, while others might be more ambitious, like learning a new language or progressing in your career.

Regardless of what milestones you may have set for yourself, one man has got a few words of advice: Arnold Schwarzenegger. In his most recent newsletter, the champion bodybuilder and movie star shared his own approach to smashing his goals, breaking it down into three simple roles in the hopes that it will help others to stick to their own resolutions.

His first piece of advice is to “be honest but not negative” about where you are right now, and not judge yourself too harshly. “Do you think I’m more likely to follow through with change it I start out saying ‘Arnold, you look like a pig, you look like garbage, it’s time to fix it’ or ‘Arnold, studies show that people in better shape lead longer lives with less health problems, so losing a few pounds means more time to be here hanging out with the people you love?'” He writes. “Negativity freezes you – it makes you depressed about where you are instead of excited about where you can go. Lose the negativity (unless you are one of the small percentage where negativity actually fuels you.)”

“Second, don’t set out to finish these things this year,” he continues. “These are big, big visions about changing who you are, not what you are. You’ll make insane progress this year, but you don’t need to finish.”

Thirdly, Schwarzenegger recommends making at least one of your goals about your physical health. “The Greeks always talked about a sound mind in a sound body, so I’ve always focused on both,” he says. “The others can be things you’ve wanted to do for ages but you’ve put off, or things you know you should do, or things that will improve you as a person or at work.”

 

Changing Your Diet Can Add 10 Years to Your Life

Everyone wants to live longer. And we’re often told that the key to doing this is making healthier lifestyle choices, such as exercising, avoiding smoking and not drinking too much alcohol. Studies have also shown that diet can increase lifespan.

This article is a repost which originally appeared on ThePrint
Laura Brown - February 20, 2022
Edited for content and readability - Images sourced from Pexels 
Study Source: https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003889

Our Takeaways:

  • An optimal diet includes more legumes (beans, peas and lentils), whole grains (oats, barley and brown rice) and nuts, and less red and processed meat.
  • Gains from changing from a western diet to the optimal diet are largest if the diet changes start early in life.
  • Eating the optimal diet from age 20 would increase life expectancy by more than a decade for women and men from the US, China and Europe.
  • At age 60, life expectancy is increased by eight years. At age 80, life expectancy is increased by almost three and a half years.

A new study has found that eating healthier could extend lifespan by six to seven years in middle-aged age adults, and in young adults, could increase lifespan by about ten years.

The researchers brought together data from many studies that looked at diet and longevity, alongside data from the Global Burden of Disease study, which provides a summary of population health from many countries. Combining this data, the authors were then able to estimate how life expectancy varied with continuous changes in intake of fruit, vegetables, whole grains, refined grains, nuts, legumes, fish, eggs, dairy, red meat, processed meat and sugary drinks.

The authors were then able to produce an optimal diet for longevity, which they then compared with the typical western diet – which mostly contains high amounts of processed foods, red meat, high-fat dairy products, high-sugar foods, pre-packed foods and low fruit and vegetable intake. According to their research, an optimal diet included more legumes (beans, peas and lentils), whole grains (oats, barley and brown rice) and nuts, and less red and processed meat.

The researchers found that eating an optimal diet from age 20 would increase life expectancy by more than a decade for women and men from the US, China and Europe. They also found that changing from a western diet to the optimal diet at age 60 would increase life expectancy by eight years. For 80-year-olds, life expectancy could increase by almost three and a half years.

But given it isn’t always possible for people to completely change their diet, the researchers also calculated what would happen if people changed from a western diet to a diet that was halfway between the optimal diet and the typical western diet. They found that even this kind of diet – which they called a “feasibility approach diet” – could still increase life expectancy for 20-year-olds by just over six years for women and just over seven years for men.

These results show us that making long-term diet changes at any age may have substantial benefits to life expectancy. But the gains are largest if these changes start early in life.

Full picture?

The life expectancy estimates this study makes come from the most thorough and recent meta-analyses (a study that combines the results of multiple scientific studies) on diet and mortality.

While meta-analyses are, in many cases, the best evidence because of the amount of data analysed, they still produce assumptions with the data, which may cause important differences between studies to be ignored. It’s also worth noting that the evidence for reducing consumption of eggs and white meat was of a lower quality than the evidence they had for whole grains, fish, processed meats and nuts.

There are also a few things the study didn’t take into account. First, to see these benefits, people needed to make changes to their diet within a ten-year period. This means it’s uncertain if people may still see benefits to their lifespan if they make changes to their diet over a longer period of time. The study also didn’t take past ill-health into account, which can affect life expectancy. This means that the benefits of diet on life expectancy only reflect an average and may be different for each person depending on a variety of other factors, such as ongoing health issues, genetics and lifestyle, such as smoking, drinking alcohol and exercise.

But the evidence the researchers looked at was still robust and drawn from many studies on this subject. These findings also align with previous research which has shown that modest but long-term improvements to diet and lifestyle can have significant health benefits – including longevity.

It’s not yet entirely clear all the mechanisms that explain why diet can improve lifespan. But the optimal diet that the researchers uncovered in this study includes many foods that are high in antioxidants. Some research in human cells suggests that these substances may slow or prevent damage to cells, which is one cause of ageing. However, research in this area is still ongoing, so it’s uncertain whether antioxidants that we consume as part of our diet will have the same effect. Many of the foods included within this study also have anti-inflammatory properties, which may also delay the onset of various diseases – and the ageing process.

Of course, changing your diet completely can be difficult. But even introducing some of the foods shown to increase longevity may still have some benefit.

What’s the difference between sugar, other natural sweeteners and artificial sweeteners? A food chemist explains sweet science

A quick walk down the drink aisle of any corner store reveals the incredible ingenuity of food scientists in search of sweet flavors. In some drinks you’ll find sugar. A diet soda might have an artificial or natural low-calorie sweetener. And found in nearly everything else is high fructose corn syrup, the king of U.S. sweetness.

This article is a repost which originally appeared on The Conversation
Kristine Nolin (Associate Professor of Chemistry, University of Richmond) - January 5, 2022
Edited for content and readability - Images sourced from Pexels

Our Takeaways:

  • Glucose is the most basic sugar and is mostly made by plants. Fructose is a sugar from fruit. Galactose is a sugar in milk. Table sugar comes from Sugar Cane.
  • High fructose corn syrup is made from corn starch, then treated with a second enzyme to convert some of it into fructose. Generally, high fructose corn syrup is roughly 42%-55% fructose.
  • Natural Non-sugar Sweeteners – These are food additives such as stevia and monk fruit, as well as natural sugar alcohols. These molecules aren’t sugars, but they can still bind to the sweet receptors and therefore taste sweet.
  • Artificial Sweeteners are produced in labs and factories and are not found in nature.

I am a chemist who studies compounds found in nature, and I am also a lover of food. With confusing food labels claiming foods and beverages to be diet, zero-sugar or with “no artificial sweeteners,” it can be confusing to know exactly what you are consuming.

So what are these sweet molecules? How can cane sugar and artificial sweeteners produce such similar flavors? First, it is helpful to understand how taste buds work.

Taste buds and chemistry

The “taste map” – the idea that you taste different flavors on different parts of your tongue – is far from the truth. People are able to taste all flavors anywhere there are taste buds. So what’s a taste bud?

Taste buds are areas on your tongue that contain dozens of taste receptor cells. These cells can detect the five flavors – sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami. When you eat, food molecules are dissolved in saliva and then washed across the taste buds, where they bind to the different taste receptor cells. Only molecules with certain shapes can bind to certain receptors, and this produces the perception of different flavors.

Molecules that taste sweet bind to specific proteins on the taste receptor cells called G-proteins. When a molecule binds these G-proteins, it triggers a series of signals that are sent to the brain where it is interpreted as sweet.

Natural sugars

Natural sugars are types of carbohydrates known as saccharides that are made of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen. You can imagine sugars as rings of carbon atoms with pairs of oxygen and hydrogen attached to the outside of the rings. The oxygen and hydrogen groups are what make sugar sticky to the touch. They behave like Velcro, sticking to the oxygen and hydrogen pairs on other sugar molecules.

The simplest sugars are single-molecule sugars called monosaccharides. You’ve probably heard of some of these. Glucose is the most basic sugar and is mostly made by plants. Fructose is a sugar from fruit. Galactose is a sugar in milk.

Table sugar – or sucrose, which comes from sugar cane – is an example of a dissacharide, a compound made of two monosaccharides. Sucrose is formed when a glucose molecule and a fructose molecule join together. Other common dissacharides are lactose from milk and maltose, which comes grains.

When these sugars are eaten, the body processes each of them slightly differently. But eventually they are broken down into molecules that your body converts into energy. The amount of energy from sugar – and all food – is measured in calories.

High fructose corn syrup

High fructose corn syrup is a staple of U.S. foods, and this hybrid sugar sweetener needs a category all on its own. High fructose corn syrup is made from corn starch – the main carbohydrate found in corn. Corn starch is made of thousands of glucose molecules bonded together. At an industrial scale, the starch is broken into individual glucose molecules using enzymes. This glucose is then treated with a second enzyme to convert some of it into fructose. Generally, high fructose corn syrup is roughly 42%-55% fructose.

This blend is sweet and cheap to produce but has a high calorie content. As with other natural sugars, too much high fructose corn syrup is bad for your health. And since most processed foods and drinks are packed full of the stuff, it is easy to consume too much.

Natural nonsugar sweeteners

The second category of sweeteners could be defined as natural nonsugar sweeteners. These are food additives such as stevia and monk fruit, as well as natural sugar alcohols. These molecules aren’t sugars, but they can still bind to the sweet receptors and therefore taste sweet.

Stevia is a molecule that comes from the leaves of the Stevia redaudiana plant. It contains “sweet” molecules that are much larger than most sugars and have three glucose molecules attached to them. These molecules are 30 to 150 times sweeter than glucose itself. The sweet molecules from monk fruit are similar to stevia and 250 times sweeter than glucose.

The human body has a really hard time breaking down both stevia and monk fruit. So even though they’re both really sweet, you don’t get any calories from eating them.

Sugar alcohols, like sorbital, for example, are not as sweet as sucrose. They can be found in a variety of foods, including pineapples, mushrooms, carrots and seaweed, and are often added to diet drinks, sugar-free chewing gum and many other foods and drinks. Sugar alcohols are made of chains of carbon atoms instead of circles like normal sugars. While they are composed of the same atoms as the sugars, sugar alcohols are not absorbed well by the body so they are considered low-calorie sweeteners.

Artificial sweeteners

The third way to make something sweet is to add artificial sweeteners. These chemicals are produced in labs and factories and are not found in nature. Like all things that taste sweet, they do so because they can bind to certain receptors in taste buds.

So far, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved six artificial sweeteners. The most well known are probably saccharin, aspartame and sucralose – better known as Splenda. Artificial sweeteners all have different chemical formulas. Some resemble natural sugars while others are radically different. They are usually many times sweeter than sugar – saccharin is an incredible 200 to 700 times sweeter than table sugar – and some of them are hard for the body to break down.

While a sweet dessert may be a simple pleasure for many, the chemistry of how your taste buds perceive sweetness is not so simple. Only molecules with the perfect combination of atoms taste sweet, but bodies deal with each of these molecules differently when it comes to calories.

Biohacking: What Is It?

Biohacking: What Is It?

PEGym will soon be taking on expanded subjects related to self-improvement. One of the more increasingly used terms for DIY uplifts is “biohacking”. This is a very broad term which includes subjects like fitness, longevity and physical training. At the extreme end of the definition are projects like DNA alteration and cyborgization.

We at PEGym support all types of discussions but it should be made clear our intent is to support healthy, beneficent and (unless medically necessary) nonsurgical techniques for self-improvement.

If you would like to discuss or learn about these subjects in more detail please keep an eye on this site. You can also visit our new forum section Body & Mind Improvement.

The Surprising Health Benefits of Sex

health benefits of sex

And Rock n’ Roll

Often times in life the things that are most thrilling are often the worst for you. For example, a
triple decker cheeseburger with bacon, fries, and a milkshake all sound pretty delicious.
Unfortunately, eating all of that is kind of like sticking a fork into an electrical outlet. It probably
won’t hurt you, unless you keep doing it. Thankfully, there is one thing that is both thrilling, and
good for you, sex!

You heard that right. According to several different medical studies, routine safe sex can be very beneficial to your health. Now of course all things in moderation, and the conditions around the
sex you are having has a lot to do with its impact on your health. Done safely and properly, sex
can substantially increase your overall health.

Here is a list of some of the surprising health benefits of sex:

Keeps Up Your Immune System – Believe it or not, regular sex can help prevent you from
getting sick. According to Yvonne Fulbright, a PhD sexual health expert, “sexually active people
take fewer sick days”. Those who have sex regularly also tended to have a higher antibody
count in their system, making them more resilient to illnesses. Long story short, some hanky
panky can help keep the sniffles away, as long as you are using protection that is.

Improve Your Libido – We have all heard the expression, use it or lose it. This applies to sex
too. Regular sexual practice not only makes you better at it, remarkably it gives you a better sex
drive as well. According to Lauren Streicher, an MD, women who have sex regularly have better
blood flow, more vaginal lubrication, and better elasticity. Regular sex can make you better at it,
and make you want to have it more frequently.

Lowers Blood Pressure – New studies have suggested a correlation between lower blood
pressure and an active sex live. Talk about letting off steam. It seems regular sex quite literally
relieves tension in the body. Healthy sexual practices are important, and it seems that more
people are engaging in better sex habits all the time. For example, it has been found that sex
and drug usage has lessened among teens. This is good in many ways, but if young adults practice
safe sex, it could improve their health as well. It is interesting to note in these studies it was
found that sexual intercourse itself and not masturbation caused lower blood pressure levels.

Lowers Risk of Heart Attacks – More good news. It turns out that a healthy sex life is great for
your heart. Sex helps to stimulate the heart, counting as a form of exercise. Sex also helps to
keep estrogen and testosterone levels balanced. If either of these hormones starts to get low,
problems like osteoporosis and heart disease. One study found that men who have sex at least
twice a week were half as likely to die from a form of heart disease.