5 Tips for Not Getting Sick this Winter

As the weather gets colder, it forces us to do things like wear clothing that covers our midriffs and spend more time trapped indoors with people who have runny noses and hacking coughs. To stay out of the infirmary, we need to keep our immune systems running at optimal levels. That means never going outside with wet hair and starving a fever, right? Not exactly.



Colds are caused by viruses, not inclement weather conditions. So to stave off the sniffles so you can continue to train hard through the long winter months, you'll need to do a few key things.

1. Eat More Fiber

According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, fiber intake should be between 20 and 35 grams per day. "Your immune system needs key ingredients to function properly," says Dr. Steven Masley, author of The 30-Day Heart Tune-Up. "Fiber is the most potent-packed nutrient in the human diet. Eating more fruits, veggies, beans, and nuts, as well as giving yourself a healthy oil change, using olive oil, nuts, and seafood instead of inflammatory grain oils, can help."

Lack of fiber in your diet can cause irregularity, constipation, and lethargy—not exactly the best kind of ménage a trois. Boost fiber by eating whole foods instead of processed and deep-fried foods that contain trans and oxidized fats. "Trans fat is like embalming fluid; the stuff is toxic," Dr. Masley explains. Sadly, that means passing on the chicken wings and beer-battered pigskin hooves over Super Bowl weekend.

2. Manage Your Stress

Emotional strains are unavoidable, and can serve a purpose if you're able to control them. "Stress gives us purpose and challenge," Dr. Masley says. "But if you don't manage stress, your cortisol goes up; and with prolonged stress you will get sick more often."

Stress fires up your sympathetic —or "fight or flight"—nervous system while suppressing your parasympathetic—or "rest and digest"—nervous system, which plays a big role in healing and immunity. In other words, when you're stressed, your body doesn't make fighting illness a priority.

Other negatives of uncontrolled stress include stomach pains, headaches, and trouble sleeping. So instead of Hulking up at your dilemmas, misfortunes, and outstanding TPS reports, explore healthier ways to calm down. Take deep breaths in through your nose and exhale out through your mouth, read for pleasure, or take a walk. Basically, if it's healthy and provides a reprieve from what's stressing you out, find a way to build it into your daily routine.

3. Consume Lean, Not Mean Protein

Foods high in protein help keep skin, hair, and nails healthy; they're also essential for packing on lean muscle. But all proteins aren't created equal when it comes to boosting immune function. "Eating 'mean' protein doesn't just mean consuming saturated fat like cheeses or fatty meats, but also proteins that are laced with chemicals, hormones, and pesticides," Dr. Masley reveals. Stick to proteins like organic and/or grass-fed meats, tofu, and legumes. These tend to be filled with more antioxidants such as vitamins E and C, as well as omega-3 fatty acids, all of which boost immunity. Then, as Dr. Masley suggests, "Add healthy fats to the mix and you're not just helping protect your heart, you're helping your immune system work better." Those include extra-virgin olive oil, coconut oil, avocados, nuts, and seeds.

4. Sleep Better

Whether you're pulling an all-nighter at work or you're pulling an all-nighter with an attractive coworker, depriving yourself of sleep means you're cutting back on your body's ability to repair itself. This includes undermining the way your immune system fights viruses.

"Our bodies do a lot of healing at night—we produce testosterone and growth hormone—so when we deprive ourselves of sleep, we're shortening that repair cycle," Dr. Masley says.

5. Monitor Your Exercise Intensity

Undertraining can lead to you owning an unsightly spare tire around your waist. But overtraining can lead to you owning decreased immune system efficiency. Essentially, you need to find that healthy medium. Some studies suggest that participating in more than 90 minutes of endurance exercise leaves an athlete more susceptible to illness for up to 72 hours after completing his or her last rep.

"Think of a U-shaped curve with immunity and exercise: No exercise and you're sick all of the time. As you get more moderate, you drop to minimal and almost never get sick. Overdo it and push yourself every day and you're fried and get sick all of the time," he says.

By Zack Zeigler, Team Beachbody

Take the Challenge For Your Life

Are you ready for the Challenge of (and for) your life?

You are going to be hearing a lot more about this, and not just in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and O Magazine.

How about a no-BS guaranteed program to help you get healthy, get fit, and lose weight?

Lots of people talk this stuff, we have 100's of thousands of people with real world results - not paid celebrities, but real people, like you (and like me).

We even give big buck financial prizes to people who accomplish significant results in getting healthier!

Check out this 5 minute video to see what I'm talking about.:



If you can't see the video here, go to www.LoseWeightGetFitandMakeMoney.com to watch it.

Starting November 15th I'm starting a P90X Challenge and Marge is starting a Slimin6 Challenge. Each is limited to just 5 participants. For more info and to contact  us about it, go to www.BrucetheCoach.com.

P90X Challenge - 90 Days, Starts November 15th

Are you ready to get fit, healthy, strong, ripped, and all that?

This page is a fast-moving work-in-progress with the actual launch on November 1st.

Our P90X 90-Day Challenge is a Beachbody Challenge that starts on November 15th and runs through February 13, 2012.

This Challenge is strictly limited to only 5 participants.

To contact Bruce about this Challenge, click the Contact Me button below and be sure to put "P90X Challenge November 15" on the subject line.



We are following a new format launched by Beachbody and implemented only by Team Beachbody Coaches.

Here are some highlights:

• Combine the best Exercise, Nutrition, and Support for the best results
• Very special discounted prices on Beachbody Challenge Packs
• Getting in the best shape, possibly in your life,
• Work with, support and be held accountable by 4 other people who are committed and working hard at the same task
• The chance to win daily ($500), monthly ($1,000), quarterly ($5,000), and overall competition ($100,000) prizes!

As I wrote above, more info is coming very soon.

So if you're ready to BRING IT!, hit the Contact Me button and get on this list. I'll get back to you to discuss how it's going to work.

Making Progress

I guess this shot isn't as dramatic as some I've seen, but it means a lot to me. In January this year those pants were tight. They are size 36 waist with 3-inch expansion, which really makes them 39s. And, as I said, they were tight! Yesterday I bought a pair of 32 waist pants and they fit just fine, actually a bit loose in the waist. So overall, I'd guess I've lost about 8 inches around my waist. I'm for sure not done working out and getting in better shape, but I'm happy to have come this far.

How Much Exercise Is Enough?

People often ask, "How much exercise is enough?"

If there is one answer that fits most occasions when the question is asked, it's probably this: "More than you're doing now."

Are there people who exercise 'enough'?  Most certainly yes, but they wouldn't ask the question that way. They might ask how  they can get more from their exercise time or programs but the word 'enough' as used in the opening question implies that exercise is something unpleasant that the asker wants to minimize. That's akin to someone asking, "How long to I have to eat vegetables and skip what I really like in order to get to a healthy weight?" Sometimes folks who ask these questions keep asking till they get an answer they like, whether it's valid or not."

Another question, "How much exercise is too much?"  might reveal another concern. It certainly is possible to overdo exercise, possibly at the cost of or to avoid other elements of one's life. Exercise can also be addicting, so there's a concern there as well, best measured I'd say by if exercise interferes with other elements of a healthy, happy, relatively balanced life. You run all the usual addiction tests to discover for yourself if you might be addicted to exercise, such as do you keep exercise sessions a secret from family or friends who are concerned, have you lied about exercise, have you actually tried to cut back and failed?

If someone inquires about "too much" exercise chances are others have suggested it may be an issue. As with the folks seeking just the opposite, people who exercise in excess will also keep asking till they get the answer they want and are then outfitted with justification from someone who may or may not know what they're talking about.

I have a sense of how much exercise is right for me. And it varies at times. Right now I'd say that, in addiction to living a moderately active life, about 90 to 120 minutes a day of exercise is about right for me. Now, of course, that's not all on a treadmill or spinning, or even in Zumba classes (now there's one I'd totally dig as a universal only-do-this exercise, but of course there's no such thing). But that's what's right for me now.

Perhaps in another 10 years the amount will change, possibly it will lessen, but more likely it will go up by another 30 minutes a day. Sounds like a lot, right? Of course it is, actually, but the reality is that as one hits middle age, and beyond, it takes more time and more work to get in shape and stay in shape.

You may not like the prospect of long workouts every day, and not everyone may need as much as I currently think and feel is right for me. However, faced with a choice of living a longer, healthier, happier, more vital life versus giving in to gradual declines in strength, flexibility, and cardiovascular conditioning, why not chose health?

There are lots of articles about how 15 minutes of daily cardio can vastly improve conditioning and that's true, for folks who are mostly sedentary. But then once that 15 minutes gets easy, it's time to add on some minutes and look for some strength building, flexibility work, and stretching as well.

We're used to food groups and pyramids and pie charts (tell me why a country struggling with obesity and diabetes type II uses a 'pie' chart for the new food group graphic, please?); perhaps we should develop and exercise graphic as well.(In fact, that sounds like a task for someone I know.)

For now, however, think about the question you'd most likely ask:

• "How much exercise is enough?"
• "How can I  get the most out of my exercise time?"
• "How much exercise is too much?"

What does that tell you about you?

I'd love to hear what you think is your optimal daily exercise allotment, and why.

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And, if you're looking for a new workout, don't forget that P90X2 is coming out this fall (remember I have a vested interest in this since I sell it on my Beachbody site). Right now P90X2 is available only for pre-order in limited quantities.

If you pre-order P90X2 now  here are the advantages:

• Free shipping (saves you about $40)
• Two additional workouts included
• Shipment before December 25 (once the pre-order inventory is gone, most people won't be able to buy P90X2 until 2012).

And here's where to order it:

www.BrucetheCoach.com

Mix It Up, Baby! Multi-Plane!

Dear You,

Don't do just one thing.

Should be simple, right? Makes sense, right? 

Well, if that's the case how come some people do only one form of exercise, consistently, persistently, day after day. And in many cases, they think they're getting great exercise, all they need.

Nuh-uh, it doesn't work that way. 

In fact, if you only do one form of exercise, especially if it's single plane exercise like spinning, treadmill running, stair climbing, or working out with weight machines, even if you vary the frequency, duration, and intensity, you "Hamay strengthen one set of primary and secondary muscles just fine, but because they operate only on one plane of movement, other secondary muscle groups in particular are liable to injury.

I'm not a medical guy or a certified personal trainer  (used to be the latter, but not now), but it doesn't take much knowledge, sophistication to understand that if you only practice running forward, for example, that the muscles to run backward won't get strengthened. ("Ha!", you say, who wants to run backwards anyway? Okay, then how about moving quickly sideways, think that might be useful sometimes?)

Anyway, I  could go on and on with plenty of obvious examples, but the point is you need to mix up your workouts if you want to maintain your optimum fitness or even just to kind of stay in shape.

So not only do you need cardio (daily, please!), strength training,  flexibility, and stretching, for the best overall effect you also need to vary what you do in each of those categories, and realize, that  just because one type of cardio exercise or one weight machine may be your favorite or the most convenient, you could be fooling yourself into thinking your getting adequate workouts and, even worse, you could be setting yourself up for injury.

So mix it up, try different stuff, frequently. You're less likely to get bored, you 'll be less likely to plateau in your conditioning, you could very well have a lot more fun, AND you'll improve your overall fitness and injury prevention levels.

And don't just take my word for it, ask a real trainer or health professional.

In fitness and health,