Author Archives: admin

Eating good fat makes you healthy (in case you forgot)

by admin

Fat is one of the healthiest things you can eat.

Period.

Although the concept that eating healthy fats, including saturated animal fat and butter (from organic sources), is now known by well-informed doctors, health educators, researchers, and scientists to be an essential part of a healthy diet and lifestyle, it still has a very negative stigma within our culture.

The belief that fat is bad for our health is FALSE.

Don’t believe everything you read or hear about fat … or cholesterol. Without good fat, you’ll end up sick, fat and … very unhealthy. In recent years fat in general, and saturated animal fat in particular has gotten an undeserved association with causing health problems.

To whet your appetite on this subject, how about this …

BUTTER IS GOOD FOR YOU This definitely flies in the face of conventional wisdom, but the truth is that butter is a great fat and a great food BUT, it must be ‘good butter’ – from pastured cows, NOT from feedlot, hormone / antibiotic dosed, grain-fed cows. Here are two articles that explain why butter is good for you:
10 Healthy Reasons To Enjoy Real Butter
Why Butter Is Better

For more info, please read FAT IS GOOD  More →

Circadian Sleep – Maximize Your Body’s Rest, Repair, and Recovery

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The way that your body cycles levels of activity throughout the day is called your circadian rhythm.  Various brain centers have internal rhythms that affect your body, and in turn are affected by personal habits such as your sleep patterns, activity level, and light exposure.  Since these lifestyle choices play such a large role in how your body functions, it is important to maximize your personal lifestyle habits to reflect how circadian rhythms are innately programmed.

Many activities inside your body vary based upon the time of day.  Body temperature, wakefulness, digestion, even cell division are all affected by circadian rhythms.  Nearly all of your bone growth as a child occurs at night!

Lack of a Healthy Rhythm
It is well known that those who don’t sleep on a healthy cycle suffer from health problems due to their schedule.  For example, those who work the night shift have a greater percentage of most of the major chronic diseases relative to those with a daytime work schedule.  Also, not sleeping enough is a powerful negative influence on your body.  For example, sleep deprivation is a strong promoter of obesity and weight gain.

Circadian Rhythms Also Effect Your Hormonal State
The hormone cortisol is emitted in a cycle throughout the day.  Cortisol is a hormone that your body releases primarily in times of energy usage.  In terms of your body’s circadian rhythm, cortisol reaches a peak output first thing in the morning.  On the other hand, the output of cortisol is lowest in the late evening.  The greatest output is around 5 a.m., while it is at its lowest point in a 24-hour period around midnight.  This is one reason why getting to bed before 11 p.m. helps your body sync up with your natural circadian rhythm.  And this helps to maximize repair during sleep. More →

Chronic Disease Crisis

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Growing up, current generations heard that the greatest health threats worldwide were things like starvation, epidemics, and drought.  While these things continue to plague mankind, there is now a newer problem that has surpassed these old disasters.  The number one threat to human life on the planet today is the crisis of chronic disease.

Just how bad has the crisis of chronic disease become?

The World Health Organization has declared chronic diseases the number one killer on the planet.  Chronic disease is now the cause of over fifty percent of deaths worldwide.  Furthermore, the death toll currently caused by chronic disease continues to increase steadily.

Facts about chronic disease from the World Health Organization:

  • Chronic diseases are now the major cause of death and disability worldwide. Noncommunicable conditions, including cardiovascular diseases (CVD), diabetes, obesity, cancer and respiratory diseases, now account for 59% of the 57 million deaths annually and 46% of the global burden of disease.
  • A relatively few risk factors – high cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity, smoking and alcohol – cause the majority of the chronic disease burden.
  • A change in dietary habits, physical activity and tobacco control, have a major impact in reducing the rates of these chronic diseases, often in a relatively short time.
  • Heart attacks and strokes kill about 12 million people every year; another 3.9 million die from hypertensive and other heart conditions.
  • More than one billion adults worldwide are overweight; at least 300 million of them are clinically obese.
  • About 75% of CVD can be attributed to the majority risks: high cholesterol, high blood pressure, low fruit and vegetable intake, inactive lifestyle and tobacco.
  • Sustained behavioural interventions have been shown to be effective in reducing population risk factors.

Chronic diseases include things like heart disease and strokes, cancer, diabetes, arthritis and dementia, and many others.  These diseases are widely understood to be the result of our modern lifestyle choices.  Over the past several decades, research has shown that these chronic illnesses are preventable in large part if we learn to make different choices.  In other words, if we live differently.

Predictions for the future are that this chronic illness crisis, as bad as it is today, will get much worse.  Cancer rates have been predicted to go up by 50% by the year 2020.  One in three children born in the USA today will develop diabetes.  And research continues to show our toxic modern lifestyle is the cause.

Sadly, many diseases we are suffering from today were largely preventable if we knew what to do differently ahead of time.  The same applies to our health in the future.  If we act now, many of these chronic diseases are avoidable if we change how we live our lives. More →

Negative Influences – Comparisons, Social Cues and the Herd

by admin

We hear it often from the Bonfire experts, “If the herd was happier and healthier, we would follow them,” but as Dr. Jesse Davis put it, “Unfortunately, doing things that fit in has become increasingly dangerous.

The herd moves in fear. Movement with the herd often results in irrational decisions by way of the absence of comprehensive understanding and reasoning, also known as: groupthink. The herd’s movements, though keeping individuals from being singled out, seldom provide optimum benefit for any within, as is certainly the case in modern culture. Running with the crowd today may help us survive society, but will not help us thrive as individuals.

Many of society’s accepted norms dress the harmful up as helpful, present disease as desirable, proclaim the hurtful as healthful, and promote sickness as status. We are exposed repeatedly to messages that detract from our attention to our wellness. The vast majority of the inputs we are surrounded by emphasize momentary enjoyment, instant gratification, or both without regard to long-term effects of those indulgences on our own or others’ lives.

Along our Bonfire journey, we must continually ask ourselves what around us is influencing us “negatively.” We can define “negative” (since it is quite subject to individual interpretation) as:

Anything that detracts from the long-term quality of, or equilibrium among, the Seven Lifetime Value Accounts depletes their current balance, or hinders our ability to sustain our investment in them.

When we discover influences (people, information, environments, etc.) that subtract from or divide more than they add to or multiply, we should:

• Remove them from our lives altogether – this will work better on magazines, television shows, radio programs, and the like than on family members.

• Reduce their share of or input into our lives – let those who do not acknowledge the power of their choices in determining their own wellness watch us from a distance as we proactively shape ours…hopefully they’ll learn something.

• Remove ourselves from the reach of their energy – Let’s stay away from that corner store with the “Delicious Healthy Snacks” sign that peddles artificially flavored, food-like substances with corn syrup-sweetened carbonated beverages with which to wash them down. If we walk in, it is by our own choice that we come “under the influence.”

The next time we feel like just rolling with the herd because it’s “easier” than standing out and living healthy, well and awesome lives, let’s remember a tiny concept expressed in a well-known historical letter and ask ourselves if we really want what we’ll get if we do follow the crowd:

Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.”

Oh, and as far as keeping up with the Joneses, when we think about comparing what we have to what they have (food “freedoms,” bottled “youth” or “beauty,” “enhanced” athletic performance, etc.), let’s not forget to also compare what we have to what they have (chronic diseases, adverse reactions, that extra-spacey look, etc.). Then we can ask ourselves “Do we really want to clamor with everyone else around us to ‘win’ a lifetime achievement award for the number of chronic diseases and corresponding ‘treatments’ we can go through before we close our eyes for the last time?” We’d probably be a whole lot better off just staying near the basics of the Bonfire…

Sustained exposure to negative influence over time reduces the balance in our Seven Lifetime Value Accounts. It’s up to us to determine not to be part of the downward spiraling health trend that surrounds us. As Dr. Paul writes:

Let’s rally together to go against the accepted norms, against society’s common traits of living a sedentary existence, eating non-nutritious processed foods, and engaging in busy but unproductive, chronically stressful lives. All of these common contemporary lifestyle behaviors are literally destroying our bodies, our health, and our lives.

Stress Management – Quick Strategies for Coping with Stress

by admin

The Quick Take Away:

  • Eat less sugar: sugar is an extraordinary stress-inducing food that undermines our health in countless ways.
  • Sleep more: go to bed earlier because you still have to get up at your usual time, so to get more rest – one the most effective stress relief behavior you can engage in, and it’s free and feels great.
  • Exercise more: the body’s response to exertion is categorically a must for health in general but a key strategy for melting stress
  • Say no … more often: reduce the demands on your schedule by simply not committing to so many … things (for you, for your kids, at work).

We all do what we need to do to survive, “get by,” and in hopefully most cases, succeed.  In all of these, good, bad, or ugly, stress accumulates and adds to the load we’re already carrying through life.  Thankfully, we are surrounded with abundant information on how to productively quarantine, reduce, or ideally, dissipate the stress – the question is, have we looked into it yet?

There are none more powerful in managing stress levels than ourselves, and so we are charged with the responsibility of keeping tabs on how we are allowing stressors to affect us psychologically and ultimately, physically.  After reading Week 1′s SPARK Insight, we understand a few of the physiological effects of chronic stress, and are tasked with finding practical methods to incorporate daily to prevent stress-induced deficiency.

Here are some great “weapons” in our arsenal that everyone can use to combat chronic stress:

  • Bonfire’s FUEL section provides a wonderful way to eliminate some of the stress of having to “cook up” healthy meals to fuel a hungry household, and provides grocery shopping lists and recipes with instructions each week.  Not only does this help with the planning and shopping aspects, but the real, live, and whole ingredients in the meal plan help our bodies be properly set up to physically deal with our daily stresses.

We need to practice removing ourselves from our everyday stressors, even if for a few seconds at a time while right in the middle of them, and we need to be on-purpose about it.

One particularly inconspicuous strategy that is fun and costs nothing is a “three second vacation.”  For three seconds, close your eyes and let your mind transport you to the most relaxing place on earth – sights, sounds, scents, everything.  Breathe it all in deeply for three seconds, and then resume your activity (extend duration and/or repeat as many times throughout the day as necessary).

Also, to the extent that schedule and location make it practical, giving your body a chance to “reboot” comes highly recommended.

On a larger scale, we challenge you to use some of the most gratifying activities you’ve come to enjoy to assist in the battle against stress.  They don’t necessarily need to cost anything (it doesn’t cost much to take a sketch pad out to draw a landscape or to get out and climb a tree…preferably your own tree), but a reasonable expense is also acceptable (a ride along the coast on a sunny day, top-down in a rented convertible, a round of golf, or a session out on the community airfield with a radio controlled airplane…however, if the expense or challenge of the mechanism adds stress, please find another coping mechanism to use).  If we ask our Bonfire experts, we’re sure to find intense exercise and surfing among their top choices for coping mechanisms – not specifically for the coping aspect, but because they’re a main course of fun with a generous helping of stress-relief on the side.

We’re all different and there’s no sense in stressing about choosing coping mechanisms, so find your fun and you’ll discover a mechanism that works for you!

Featured

by admin

We make it easier to reach your goals.
Get started with us today!

Most people would say they should be healthier. The sad truth is that we’ve never been sicker – despite more doctors, more hospitals, more drugs, greater technological advances in diagnosis and ‘treatment’ (after the fact = sick care), man has never been sicker than we are today. The deterioration of modern man’s health has gotten to the point where recently the CDC announced that for the first time in the history of man on earth, children are not expected to live as long as their parents – did you get that? That’s never happened before. Ever. And it’s the result of toxic and deficient lifestyles in the form of processed packaged nutrient-poor foods filled with health-robbing chemicals and devoid of life-giving nutrients, combined with sedentary and stressful lifestyles.

The good news is science has shown beyond a shadow of doubt what is required to be healthy – the doctors who founded and created Bonfire have not only vetted this research on your behalf to outline in great detail how to successfully adopt healthier lifestyle habits, but they’ve been teaching it to literally tens of thousands of patient for over 58 years of combined clinical practice. It’s now available to you as the Bonfire Program and it’s FREE. The Bonfire Program is a 90 Day Health Transformation Program that will gently and effectively guide you through adopting healthier habits into your lifestyle within the domains of eating (fuel), moving (air) and thinking (spark).  [click here]

Get the Body You Want … Without Fad Diets or Gimmicks. 

Perhaps the single most identifiable characteristic of our unhealthy modern culture is the fact that the vast majority of people today, both young and old, are overweight or outright obese. Being overweight is the hallmark feature of nearly all chronic diseases – heart disease, cancer, diabetes, autoimmune/inflammatory disease, and the like. Being overweight isn’t about ‘being overweight’ (or out of shape, or ‘fat’, or whatever), it’s about being unhealthy. There is no other way to put it – when someone is overweight, they’re unhealthy. Period. Do you want to ‘gain health’ (i.e. lose weight)? Then sign up for the Bonfire Program today and start losing weight and getting healthier tomorrow.

Are you facing a health challenge?

Allergies? Skin Problems? Autoimmune Condition?

You know, it wasn’t that long ago that when someone died of cancer, it was unusual – it was a ‘big deal’. Today, it’s commonplace – everyone knows someone who’s has or has died from cancer (every other weekend is a Breast Cancer Walk). Similarly, between 1940 to 1980, an overweight kid was somewhat of a rarity; or, for those of you old fossils like Dr. Paul, remember when there was that one kid at school who ‘had asthma’? Today, registering a child for school always involves a list of current medications, allergies, health conditions, etc. (not to mention the 15% of boys today taking Ritalin or some other ADD/ADHD medication). How peanut butter and jelly used to be an American tradition; now, it’s an act of bio-terrorism at ‘NUT FREE’ schools. What’s most fascinating is that no one is asking is … WHY?

Learn the keys to getting the body, health and life you’ve always wanted and deserved – for FREE.

Why are so many people, children and adults alike, off the rails with their health? It’s quite simple really – it’s our lifestyles; as modern humans, we’re so off base from what and how we’re supposed to eat, move and think that the current health epidemics (obesity, allergies, diabetes, autoimmune, dementia/neuro-degenerative diseases, etc.) are to be expected. Think about it – if you fed your dog a steady diet of donuts, pizza, soda pop, and Twizzlers, and never took him for walks, what do think his health would be like? Think he or she would have skin problems, digestive issues, develop cancer?  Of course our dogs do suffer because we feed them processed packaged crappy food made from corn, soy and junk vegetable oils in the form of ‘kibble’ … and so do we suffer – because we’re living unhealthy lifestyles as well. But there is an answer, a better way – a correct path to take in our lifestyle choices. The Bonfire Program is built upon evidence-based research proven to promote health and reduce, and in many cases actually reverse, many health conditions affecting modern man today. [click here]


Get FREE Recipes, Workouts, Thought-Life resources that make it easier to get results. 

Three successful doctors created Bonfire to make it easier for you to get healthy – the FREE 90 Day Program will take you step-by-step down the path to improved health! START TODAY – CLICK HERE

 Change Your Lifestyle
Change Your Health

Do you know your lifestyle is probably creating widespread CHRONIC INFLAMMATION throughout your body? Inflammation is the root cause of many, if not ALL health challenges facing people today.

What causes INFLAMMATION? The scientific research is very clear on this: modern life is killing us through pro-inflammatory lifestyle choices – the way we eat, the way we [don't] move, and our mangled thought life (stress, lack of sleep, lack of gratitude and patience).

Here are two things YOU MUST DO right away to stop deadly chronic inflammation:

1. Change your lifestyle CLICK HERE TO START TODAY

2. Start taking ENOUGH high quality natural triglyceride omega-3 fish oil to mitigate the effects of your PRO-INFLAMMATORY LIFESTYLE CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE

Are you STRESSED? Who isn’t, right? Being stressed ALL THE TIME, and NOT GETTING ENOUGH SLEEP are major threats to your health. Change your lifestyle starting TODAY - Change Your Lifestyle and Change Your Health – Today … for FREE! CLICK HERE TO START TODAY

Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired? There is a way out, a better way … through healthier lifestyle choices. Let us come beside you and guide you, teach you, show you … how to adopt healthier habits in your life. The Bonfire Program has worked for thousands and thousands of people … just like you! Our motto is ‘We make it easier to get healthier’. Notice we don’t say ‘easy’, but easier; it’s simple, but not necessarily easy to add healthy habits to your life, to make change, even positive change. But we’ve figured out how to help you do it … in a confidence-building step-by-step process. The Program is FREE – just sign up and start doing (yes, reading won’t cut it – you have to DO).

What have you got to lose? It won’t cost you anything and you’re friends already think you’re weird, so … why not?

 

 

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Vaccinations Continue To Come ‘Under Fire’

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At Bonfire Health we hold many truths to be “… self evident”. First and foremost, we understand and recognize that the body is genetically programmed to be healthy. Second, if we live in accordance with the laws of nature and natural lifestyles, we can successfully maintain our health (even restore our health through returning to natural health habits). Third, the modification of our food supply or the introduction of synthetic or manufactured chemicals into the body (or the environment) does not support or lead to healthy outcomes.

With those as foundational precepts, what science continues to reveal is that vaccinations are laden with profound neuro-immunlogical risk. We see evidence of this throughout our culture in the form of increased rates of asthma, allergies, autism, autoimmune disorders, and cancer; all of which have vaccinations as a contributory causal factor.

Now, the evidence is showing up in the court room:

Without a doubt, parents who choose to not vaccinate are faced with many challenges – from uninformed friends and neighbors (not to mention family) who have emotionally charged opinions on the subject, to outright arrogant or angry pediatricians who stoop to belittling a parent who doesn’t “toe the line” and follow ‘standard practices’ regarding vaccinations.

Here’s a mother’s heart-felt and eloquent description of her encounters at the doctor’s office: How a Mom Fought for Vaccine Exemption to Protect Her Kids

For more great information on vaccinations:

UPDATE: Oct 21, 2012 – Vaccine empire has collapsed

 

 

 

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Rest Stop Workout I – Summer 2012

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Exercise … anywhere, even at Rest Areas

Dr. Paul and his family working out while driving across the country.

Yes, we brought a few pieces of equipment, but the idea is that you can and should figure out a way to fight the effects of prolonged sitting when making long drives. Even doing Air Squats, combined with Push-ups, Mountain Climbers, Lunges, … whatever – get it done!

Here we’re doing one-arm dumbbell snatches, weighted lunges, and handstands.

A short while later, here’s Chanya and Hope are prepping the fresh salad to go with our grilled rib eye steaks (yes, packing a grill was great; one night we warmed up No Pasta Lasagna on the grill).