Why Exercise?

If you've read my other posts then you probably already know more details about my life than I'm going to share in this post. I just need to use my own life as a reference to get the point across that I'm trying to make. So here it goes...
Why does health and fitness always get put on the back burner? I can't tell you how many times I decided that I'd start exercising and eating right...only to never start. Every time I'd make the decision I'd always tell my wife "tomorrow I'm going to start eating healthy and exercising". Every time I'd find an excuse to not start the next day. Life is busy. Your priority list is always having things added to it. Believe me, I get it. How in the world does one find the time to exercise? Well the simple answer is this...they don't. If you wait to find time, you'll keep on waiting and waiting until you're so old that you're incapable of exercise and the only reason you have found time, is because you're physically incapable of doing anything else too. You'll never FIND time to exercise. You have to MAKE time to exercise. Stephen Covey explains it in great detail in the book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People". He says that you have to split up your to do list into 4 quadrants. The 1st quadrant is for things that are urgent and important. Quadrant 2 is for things that are urgent but not important. Quadrant 3 is for things that are important but not urgent. Quadrant 4 is for things that are neither urgent or important. Most people pretty much live in quadrant 1 and 2...you know, doing the emergency things that have to be done right then. Then because they're so stressed out, they just want to escape and they go to quadrant 4 doing things that are neither urgent or important. What people don't realize though, is that quadrant 3 is where we should strive to stay as much as possible. If we are consistently doing the things that are important but not urgent, then most of the urgent things will never exist because we avoided it in the first place. Let me give you an example and how it relates to fitness. If you go eat a 2,000 calorie plate of food that is fried and empty of nutrition, you aren't going to instantly become obese. If you skip working out for a day, a week, even a month, you aren't instantly going to develop a ton of diseases and become obese. It doesn't work that way. However, eating healthy and exercising are both quadrant 3 activities. They're important but not urgent. So if you consistently eat horrible meals and don't exercise, you will develop health issues that become emergencies and put you in quadrant 1 where the stress is...which further develops into more health issues and is a downward spiral. If you consistently eat healthy and exercise regularly, you'll be avoiding a lot of that emergency activity and you'll have more time to enjoy life.
I think that whole point is crucial to understanding why health and fitness is procrastinated. It doesn't create immediate results one way or the other. It does however, create very life changing results. Obviously, there are a lot of conditions and diseases that we can get regardless of our habits and that is out of our control. I'm not suggesting that every disease is a result of bad habits. There are a lot of things though, that can be avoided, and that's what I'm referring to.
Another point that I believe is worth mentioning, is that people are afraid of commitment and failure. I know it took me 7 years to take my health back due to this. It probably has a lot to do with not getting immediate results as I already explained but because I knew it would take a lot of commitment, I avoided it. Plus, if I committed to it and then didn't do really well and saw myself as a failure, then I'd probably never try to start again. So I just kept on procrastinating...just wasting time. A fear of failure is a hinderance to life in general. I've learned that failure is actually a really good thing though. Failure is how we grow. Building muscle is done through reaching the point of muscle failure. Then the fibers tear and have to be rebuilt and they're rebuilt stronger than before. Why are we so afraid of failure? Every failure is another step towards success! Everybody wants success but every successful person got their success through failing over and over again until they were successful. It's just the way it works.
I always hear people say things like "life's too short to worry about eating healthy". I used to say the same thing and I believed it. The purpose of food is to give us energy and nutrients. In other words, the purpose of food is to live. Too many people live to eat instead of eat to live. I used to live to eat. Now I eat to live. I can live life so much more fully when I'm energized and feeling great! It's crazy to me that I ever lived otherwise by choice now that I've experienced life like this.
Health has become a top priority in my life because it affects literally every other aspect of life. It affects my social and family life by my ability level and energy level. It affects my spiritual life because I can think more clearly with proper nutrition. It affects my emotional well-being because of physiological changes that occur during exercise and proper diet. It affects my ability at work because I'm energized and motivated instead of tired and sluggish. There is no corner of my life that isn't made better because of the good health choices that I've made this year. I live by the 90/10 rule. 90% of my food is for health and nutrition. 10% can be whatever else I want. I usually use that 10% for chocolate chip cookies. Or sometimes a holiday becomes that 10%. This way, I can still enjoy the things that I used to live for and not feel like I'm depriving myself, and also get the benefits of eating healthy. It's a great feeling to take control of your health. I am 100% committed to helping those around me reach their goals if there is anything that I can do. I just want to spread the love!

Why I became a beachbody coach

So I wrote a little about the reason that I became a beachbody coach in my transformation story but I want to elaborate on it. I was out running last week and it dawned on me (as things so often do during exercise, particularly running) that my "why" is much deeper than I had realized.
I grew up with the belief that I wouldn't ever allow myself to get into a career that I didn't enjoy. I wanted to do something exciting like professional soccer or professional BMX. I wasn't too far from the BMX dream when I decided that I needed to change my lifestyle so that I didn't become a wastoid that lived for nothing more than booze and drugs and partying. In order for me to get away from that path that I was on, I needed to do a full 180 degree turn. I can't just kind of do anything. It's all or nothing for me. So I gave up on that dream and I just sort of accepted this new reality of living in a career that wasn't necessarily fulfilling or exciting. I sell insurance. Kind of the the other extreme of the "excitement" scale. I have done insurance for a long time and I still ride my bike but it's really hard for me to find time to fulfill that passion of mine.
So that was my life for multiple years and being so, I gradually gained weight. Before I knew it, I was 30 pounds over weight (not obese, just overweight). I didn't really have much motivation and I certainly didn't have much energy. I ate about 2 or 3 dozen cookies per week...because I make the best cookies on earth. I wasn't sleeping very good. I was struggling to really get myself to do anything productive. Every time I looked in the mirror I was a little bit embarrassed for myself. Not because of being superficial, but because I was ashamed that I had once claimed (and truly believed) that I'd never let myself get a gut and I didn't live up to that claim. I used to always complain about how I was fat and I felt so old. I'd try to play basketball and half the time was spent making comments about how I'm too old for this and I wish I could just be younger...blah blah blah. I always wanted to get in shape. I was envious of people that were really active. I saw people that were in good shape and I'd always think "I wish I had their energy" or "I wish I looked like that, I'll bet I'd feel better about myself".
In April of 2013, my 25 year old active wife who was an avid runner and did P90X regularly, started having symptoms that were very hard to diagnose. After about 8,000 doctor visits and months of speculation, she was finally diagnosed with a genetic disorder called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. There are many many forms of it and she got the lottery pick of it, meaning that if it's associated with the disorder, you can bet that she has it. Most people with it will experience a few of the symptoms. She experiences them all. She has autonomic nervous system problems like a lack of a body thermostat, or like the sudden and uncontrollable muscle spasms that cause a lot of pain and sometimes almost death (when the muscles spasming are the ones in your neck or tongue). She gets a lot of dizziness because it affects her blood pressure a lot. She can dislocate joints like it's no big deal and then relocate them by herself many times because it's just a part of daily life now. These, and other symptoms, have gradually taken over our lives. She was a stay at home mom and I would work all day up until this started. So I started having to stay home a lot and try to work at home but it was usually futile because being a caregiver and a father of 2 young kids is pretty time consuming. I had about 20 hours of combined work to get done in any given day but only had energy for about 10 of that.
I would try to get as much work done as possible and take care of the girls and my wife and the house and yard and all the other normal daddy duties...and by about 5 or 6pm, I'd be totally drained. I just didn't have it in me. Enedina would ask me to grab a drink for her or something like that, and I'd feel like she was asking me to run a marathon for her. The kids would want to play and I'd try to force myself to do it but I just simply couldn't enjoy it. I was burning out quick and I didn't know what I was going to do. I didn't really have an oulet that I had time for so I just had all this pressure building up with no outlet. The bills were piling up, the income was decreasing, the workload was getting bigger, my energy was depleting, and I felt like I was in a never ending uphill race that I couldn't ever compete but always had to try. It was horrible. I could go on for pages and pages about the difficulties that I was feeling but I think this will suffice.
One night when I couldn't sleep, I watched a paid program about a beachbody program called Focus T25. It is only 25 minutes of exercise a day and it looked pretty intense. I thought that it would be a great idea but it seemed expensive at $120. I didn't buy it right then. I talked to Enedina about it and she made fun of me because she says that I'm a sucker for paid programs. lol. Then I told her that it was a beachbody program and she changed her opinion because she LOVED P90X. After a few nights of deliberation, I got it. I had it for a couple weeks but I was a little scared to actually start it. I knew that once I started it, I'd have to go all in and it'd be a big life change so I hesitated a little.
After a few weeks, I decided that I had no choice but to do something about it. If I wanted to have the energy I needed, then I needed to take control of my situation and actually do something about it. I was at that point where I pretty much had no other option.
So I started the program. There is a pamphlet that came with it that is called the "5 day fast track". It is a diet plan for the first week of the program and it's supposed to boost the results from the start. Since I can't just sort of do anything, obviously I had to do that part of it too. So I started losing weight quick. I lost 7 pounds the first week. Second week I lost 5 more. Then 3. Then 2. Then I lost a couple pounds each week after that for a few more weeks. More than that, I started seeing muscles that I had never had before. The biggest change though, was my energy level. All of a sudden things started seeming easier. I had more energy and I had it for longer in the day than I'd had in years. I was able to play with my daughters and actually enjoy it because I wasn't just thinking about the couch or the bed...I was thinking about playing with the girls! I was able to do more around the house to make my wife happy. I was able to help my wife get around when necessary without it seeming like such a daunting task! Sleep started improving. I used to wake up every hour or so and never feel rested. All of a sudden, I could go to sleep and get at least 5 or 6 straight hours of sleep and actually wake up feeling rested! That in itself was a life changer! All of these changes led to a general feeling of well-being that I hadn't experienced in about a decade. So I was a happier person all around!
It was such an improvement that I just couldn't keep it to myself. I realized that there are people all around me that don't realize how much their diet and exercise could improve everything in their lives! So at that point, the only logical course of action seemed to be become a coach. So I signed up! I have been a coach for about 1 month now and I have already felt such a sense of peace and happiness from helping others! When I was a missionary, the feeling that I would get when someone told me about how much of an impact I had had on them was something that I have longed for ever since finishing the mission. For the first time in almost 5 years, I have been able to feel that feeling again! There is nothing I could do for myself that would feel better than doing something for other people. Helping others in whatever capacity I can gives me the greatest sense of purpose and happiness that I've ever felt...other than taking care of my family...The family trumps all.
Since becoming a coach I have realized why exercise has become such an obsession of mine but I'll save that for a different blog post because this post is already super long.
In the beginning of this whole post, I told you about my ambitions as a child and how insurance wasn't fulfilling that ambition. I'm not going to be quitting insurance anytime. I'm just really excited that I've found a new course that I can follow as a part time thing that is SUPER fulfilling and fun AND can make some money on the side. There are people that turn their beachbody business into a fulltime job but for now, it is just my new passion. I love being a beachbody coach! I try not to come off to people as a salesman for beachbody because I don't feel like I'm selling it...I feel like I'm spreading good news. It's like I just discovered fire and I'm trying to show others how much it can help them. I suppose it's ingrained in my behavior to sound salesman-like because of all my time I've spent selling insurance but that really isn't the intent. I just want to help people improve their lives. I want others to feel the difference that I've felt. I want to spread the joy!

Is soda really that bad? I daresay yes!

This is an article that I got from the beachbody website that I think everyone should read and consider. ESPECIALLY the diet soda drinkers because they are the ones that get sneak attacked...




There are countless reasons to stop drinking soda, immediately. Soda consumption has been linked to a host of diseases, including a dramatic increase in the risk for developing cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. The phosphoric acid that gives soda it's "refreshing" zing, is caustic enough to remove rust from the hulls of ships and dissolve acid build-up from car batteries. Tooth enamel and bones suffer that same erosion. Yet, people continue to guzzle the stuff in massive quantities. According to the Beverage Marketing Corporation, Americans drink more than 50 gallons per capita of carbonated soft drinks each year, the most in the world.

To add insult to injury, people who drink one or more soft drinks a day have a 31 percent greater risk of becoming obese. In his article about the Top 10 Reasons to Give Up Soda, our Fitness and Nutrition Expert, Steve Edwards says, "If you're looking for a scapegoat in the obesity epidemic, look no further than soda. It's the single greatest caloric source in the world, accounting for somewhere between 11 and 19 percent of all the calories consumed worldwide. It's cheap, addictive, and readily available, which generally means that it will take some willpower to avoid."

Diet soda is just as bad. Research shows that overweight people who choose diet beverages eat about the same number of total calories as those who choose sugar sweetened sodas. Their drinks may be calorie-free, but they make up for that by eating 88-194 more calories per day! What's more, when they snack, diet soda drinkers get more of their calories from sweets, which suggests that artificial sweeteners do something to cause an even stronger sweet tooth.

We know that eliminating soda from your diet is easier said than done. If you have to, ease into it. If you drink two sodas (or two liters of soda) cut that amount by half, and replace it with something from the list below:

1. Water. Learn to love it.
2. Need flavor? Add crushed berries, cucumber, lemon, or mint to water. Try these recipes.
3. Like it fizzy? Carbonated water is your friend.
4. Skip flavored syrups&madsh;try flavored bitters instead.
5. Crave caffeine? Try unsweetened iced tea or green tea.

Follow our 60 Days 'Til Summer Countdown and we'll help get you swimsuit ready with mini-workouts, healthy eating tips, fitness tips, and more! Each morning we'll post a new tip, so check our homepage or this post to find out what it is. And, make sure to follow the hashtag #SummerCountdown on Twitter for more motivation and to tell us how your #SummerCountdown is going!

Do you drink soda? Which of these tactics will you use to help you quit?

20 Secrets of Very Fit People

Here is an article I read from the free membership anyone can get on my beachbody website at www.beachbodycoach.com/mikestanger    This has a lot of good information in it!


Chalene Johnson

Here are a few Turbofied tips. Read these tips, then print and post them so you have them as a daily reminder. Look at exercise as a pleasure and a privilege, not a burden or chore. Think positively about the changes regular exercise will produce. Rather than obsessing about your next meal, get excited about your next workout! Focus on short-term fitness goals with an emphasis on completing daily exercise. Work to take your exercise to new levels of intensity. Make it your goal to do some form of exercise 6 or 7 days a week. If some days you exercise once in the morning and once in the evening, even better! If you're eating right, exercise will fuel your energy level! Create an exercise schedule the day before instead of leaving it to chance or waiting to "find" the time. If the last three Presidents of the United States can make time to work out every day, you can make time too! Enjoy contributing to the health of others by having a partner or friends to exercise with, as well as recruiting others who want to feel better and have more energy. Have a neighbor who's sitting on the porch every morning when you walk by? Ask him or her to join you on your walk! Avoid monotony by taking up new forms of exercising, or using things that keep you motivated and inspired, like new shoes or great music. Invest in the right tools—good shoes, a portable MP3 player or iPod®, fitness equipment, a new series of tapes, etc. Subscribe to fitness magazines to keep focused on health as an overall way of life. Eat well-balanced meals and remember that excess calories, even if they're from food that's fat free and high in protein, will turn to excess weight. No matter what the latest fad diet says, extra calories equal extra weight! Limit caffeine and exposure to even secondhand smoke. Keep a water bottle with you at all times and drink from it often. Water should always be your drink of choice. To kick things up every once in a while, try adding lemon, lime, cucumber, or a few berries to liven up the flavor without adding significant calories. Stick with eating plans you can maintain indefinitely. Remember that no matter how hard you're working out, if you're consuming too many calories, you'll never see the muscles that lie beneath layers of fatty tissue. Keep a daily log of what you're actually eating. This includes every time you grab a handful of chips here or eat the crust of your kid's sandwich there, and ALL of your snacking. Enjoy an occasional (once a week) "unhealthy" treat, but never an unhealthy week or unhealthy vacation. If your diet is unbalanced, take daily vitamin and mineral supplements for total health. Don't compare your body to others'. Instead, work to be your personal best. Move beyond the boundaries of weight loss and into total fitness. Measure success by the way your clothes fit, not some number on a scale. Get adequate amounts of sleep, but remember that people who exercise regularly fall asleep faster and sleep more soundly. Limit alcohol intake to special occasions.

Why do we do what we do?

There's a saying that I've heard before but for some reason today it meant more. "Your attitude determines your altitude". It got me thinking a lot.
I am quite an extremist in just about anything I've ever been interested in. I'll give you some examples. When I was into soccer, I literally did almost nothing in my spare time but play soccer. I got to the point that I was playing for the Olympic development team and then my interest started changing to bmx bikes. Then I quit playing soccer and I spent every possible minute on my bike. I rode like my life depended on it. I got pretty good and started getting sponsors and started getting offers to get paid for it. By that point I was partying (although in my teens I was super straightedge and despised drugs and alcohol) a lot but I started talking to Mormon missionaries and decided to change my life. So I gave up my dream of professional bmx in order to follow what I thought God wanted me to do and I got baptized. Up to that point I had been extremely anti Mormon. In fact, I had acquired a lot of information and started writing notes about how I was going to write a book to prove that the Mormon church was false. Anyways, instead of that, I got baptized and changed my life entirely. After a year I went on a mission and did my best to spread the news that the church is true. I considered myself to be a good missionary because my heart was into the work as much as I've ever experienced. In other words, I've been on both ends of many different extremes and I've learned an awful lot by doing so.
It would seem that I've gone off on a large tangent but the truth is, there is a point to all of that. In every example that I just wrote about, my heart was into whatever I was pursuing. My attitude in whatever I did made me successful in said activity/mentality. If my heart isn't into something, then it has never amounted to anything. There is only one time that I tried to do something that I didn't feel passionate about but that isn't something to write about here. That is for another blog post. Suffice it to say that I've never been successful at something that I didn't care about. So the saying that "your attitude determines your altitude" couldn't apply more.
What is your motivation to do what you do? Why are you in the career you chose? Is it just for money? Is there some deeper reason? I daresay that it's impossible to be happy in a career if there isn't some deeper reason than just making money. Also, you limit yourself in your level of success if you aren't happy doing whatever you're doing. There are exceptions to that, I know, but for the most part I think it applies to most people. Your attitude determines your altitude. If your heart isn't in it, you aren't going to be as good at it as you would be at something you love.
Why do so many of us settle for careers that we hate? I don't get it. You spend an average of 1/3 of your life at work. Why do we voluntarily make ourselves miserable for a minimum of 1/3 of our life? It makes no sense. Not to mention that it has lasting effects on the other 2/3 of your life. So long as your able to sleep like a normal person, then you spend another 1/3 of your life asleep. That only leaves 33% of your life to try and be happy! I don't know about you but I want to be happy as much as possible and 33% of my life doesn't sound like what I grew up planning on.
Maybe this whole blog post is only applicable to myself but I realized today that I'll never be a success at anything unless I have a deeper reason to do it than just money. I can't have a good attitude about something that I hate doing. I need to either enjoy the work, or feel like I'm providing an invaluable service or product to someone, or change peoples lives, or something else that makes a difference in the world, in order to really excel.

My health transformation

I was always very fit growing up until about the age of 23. I spent most of my free time on my bmx bike until then and when I stopped spending so much time on my bike, my gut started getting bigger. I ended up gaining about 25 pounds and then started complaining about how I was old and fat. I did that for 7 years. I always complained but I never had quite enough motivation to do anything about it. I always intended to do it but I just never did. Then my 25 year old healthy wife started having a lot of health issues and within 6 months she had gone from being super fit (she did p90x and ran almost every single day) and active to being in an electric wheelchair. We have 2 young daughters and so all the responsibilities that we used to share started to gradually fall on my shoulders alone. As her condition progressed, my responsibilities grew. It got to the point where I was raising my 1 year old and 3 year old almost by myself all while becoming the caregiver of my handicapped wife and also trying to juggle all my other responsibilities as a husband and father. I simply didn't have the endurance to get through each day without bonking. I decided that I needed to get in shape so that I could care for my wife, work, take care of the house, and still have energy to entertain a 1 year old and 3 year old. I started running regularly and eating a mostly vegan diet and I lost about 7 pounds and felt a little better but I still didn't have enough energy. One night I couldn't sleep and I watched a paid program about Focus T25. I told my wife about it the next day because I wanted to get it. She made fun of me at first but then I told her that it was Shaun T and she realized that it was legit, so I ordered it. Within 2 weeks of following the diet (with some adjustments because I'm not eating meat and very little dairy) and the exercises, my energy levels started increasing. Every day my strength is increasing and my energy levels are increasing and life is now not seeming quite so impossible to live. As of this coming weekend I will be 50% of the way through the program. I can't even begin to describe how much of a change it has made in my life. Not only do I have more energy to fulfill my responsibilities but I feel better, I am happier, I look better, and I feel like I have gone back to my early twenties body...all in about 1/2 hour per day for only one month!  Starting t25 was one of the best decisions I've ever made. It's made such a difference in my life that I became a beachbody coach to try and spread some of this wonderful feeling to everyone that is interested! I want my friends and family and everyone else to feel what I'm feeling. Most people probably don't realize how much it can change their life. I know I didn't. I didn't have enough motivation to do anything about my health until I pretty much had no other options and now I feel like I wasted the last 7 years by being unmotivated and unhealthy by choice.

Does diet affect your happiness?

One of my favorite things in this world is to find delicious food and eat it. Ever since I can remember, I have always been on a quest for the best food I could find. In fact, my wife and I had a goal that when I retire, we'd travel the world with the sole purpose that we'd find the best food on earth.
That being said, I had quite the epiphony about food a few weeks ago (about a week or two into my first beachbody program Focus T25). I'll get into that epiphony after giving you a little more background.
I never could understand how people could be so devoted to being healthy that they'd give up the joy of so many different types of food to maintain their health. Whenever people would talk to me about it my response was always something along the lines of "no thanks, I like to enjoy life". Food being one of my biggest pleasures in life made it seem impossible to enjoy life without those foods.
Then I started Focus T25 and when I started, I decided beforehand that if I'm going to do it, then I have to do it 100%. I figured if I didn't give it 100%, including the diet part, then I wouldn't be able to blame the program for not getting results. If I follow the program perfectly then I'll either get the wanted results, or worst case scenario, I don't get results but at least I can blame it on the program. So I decided to put my love for food aside for the 10 weeks and then resume life as normal if it didn't work.
The epiphony came after giving it all a try for just a few weeks. I noticed that I was sleeping MUCH better. I felt happier on a regular basis. I had more energy for much longer periods of time. For example, I could make it through the whole day without wanting to collapse and go to sleep at 6pm. I was getting more done at work. I could think more clearly. Plus, my opinion of what qualifies as "good" food started to change. I guess my pallett adjusted or something. When all of those things dawned on me, I realized that my motto of "no thanks, I like to enjoy life" should never have been my response to living healthy. On the contrary. "No thanks. I like to enjoy life" should be my response to eating unhealthy food and being lazy so that I CAN enjoy life to it's fullest!
My eating habits were playing a major role in most of the tings that I complained about and now my eating habits are playing a major role in correcting those things that I was unhappy about. It doesn't fix everything in my life but it certainly makes it easier for me to fix everything I can when I feel good.

Why everyone should exercise daily

I read this article by Tony Horton and I just wanted to copy and paste it here because this is a fantastic article and it gives EVERYONE a great reason to excercise. Here it is:

Your Brain on Exercise

By Tony Horton

There was an astonishing article in Newsweek a few weeks back that just blew my mind/brain/cranium/noggin. Here's what I've learned from this article and further research. We all know that working out and exercising do amazing things for our body, and the benefits, other than weight loss and getting fit, are endless. Most of us also know that when our hearts, legs, and lungs get pumping, we feel much better than if we did nothing. Turns out that doing 20 minutes or more of cardiovascular and/or high-paced resistance workouts affects every aspect of our lives. The great thing about the Newsweek article is that it really laid out the scientific findings over the last few years. Here's the scope. When you're forced to pull more oxygen into the body through exercise, you break what's called "the blood-brain barrier." It happens when you climb a long flight of stairs and when you're busting through any kind of workout that gets your heart rate pumping. This oxygen-filled blood makes its way into the temporal lobe of the brain. Inside that temporal lobe is an area called the hippocampus. Inside the hippocampus lies the seahorse-shaped area known as the dentate gyrus. As you exercise, these oxygen-filled blood cells rush into this area of the brain. A chemical/protein called IGF-1 is formed and released inside the dentate gyrus, which ramps up another chemical/molecule called BDNF; both IGF-1 and BDNF are "Miracle-grow" for the brain. Studies with kids right up to seniors have proven that high-paced workouts (www.milliondollarbody.com Power 90®, Power Half Hour®, Power 90® Master Series, P90X®, Tony & the Kids!, etc.) cause the release of these chemicals into the brain. Combine this with even more "brain drugs" like dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine and you've got yourself a feel-good party in your head. Aerobic physical movement causes the release of these chemicals, and they all help you focus and give you energy when you need it. They also help you relax and rest properly. It's like a homemade chemistry set inside your skull that produces a cocktail that simulates the effects of Prozac and Ritalin. Children who play outdoors more often score better on tests than kids who don't. Regular physical activity improves memory, mood, and problem-solving abilities. Consistent exercise raises self-esteem and decreases anxiety. Study after study has proven that people who exercise 5 to 6 days a week greatly decrease their need for psychotherapeutic drugs. If your brain goes without regular bouts of exercise, the hippocampus will shrink and erode, which can lead to neurological illnesses such as Alzheimer's disease. When the dentate gyrus is stimulated, neuro-genesis or neuro-plasticity occurs. I'm not talking about just slowing the aging process, I'm telling you that the brain creates new cells through exercise—brand new cells that assist in the reversal of aging. If you're looking for the fountain of youth, you can find it inside your head every time you exercise for more than 20 minutes. TMT X 2 anyone?