Happy Birthday - No Finish LIne Blog

 
Well, it’s been one year since my daughter Nicole, who had already been writing a very successful blog on Global Brand Marketing (More Than A Logo), inspired me to share my ideas, insights and facts about improving health and wellness through blogging, thereby reaching a much larger audiance. Over the past year I was never short of material to share, as I wrote 40 blog posts on a wide varity of topics to an audience that has grown from zero to over 6000 world-wide.  It seems I always have 6 to 10 topics that I'm either researching, or in various stages of development. 

The most rewarding aspect of writing blog posts of this nature beyond increasing my own knowledge is when someone shares with me how the information contained within a blog post has improved the quality of someone's life, or the lives of their family. 

There's lots of confussion out there about the food we eat.  In fact, according to Sang Liwei, Director of Beijing Office of Global Food Safety Forum, "Basically, people now feel nothing is safe to eat. They don't know what choices to make. They are really feeling very helpless."  It’s my hope that over the past year I’ve provided some clarity about our diets, the foods we eat and that “Big Food” has no interest in our collective good health.  As a result we now have Healthcare systems that are no longer sustainable, as seen by the long wait times and costs that will banrupt our country if left unchecked (Canadians spend over 43% of every tax dollar towards healthcare and the US spends more for even worse care).  And these systems are plagued with people suffering with degenerative diseases that are enitrely preventable if only citizens spoke with their dollars and stopped buying food that is killing them.

Over the past year, I also emphasized the importance of daily exercise and although it wasn’t one of the top read posts, my most recent blog about how our children aren’t getting enough daily exercise was highly viewed.  Exercise is the single easiest prescription that anyone can integrate into their daily lives to improve their overall health, but given the size of the pharmaceutical industry and its influence on people's behaviors, most North Americans would prefer to simply pop a pill to hide the symptoms of bad health.  Instead our drug companies should be focusing their R&D dollars on the prevention of disease.  But then if they did, they would put themselves out of business as they require sick people to return "healthy "profits to their shareholders.

So, for my anniversary post, I thought I would share with you a few of my more popular posts that seemed to resonate with all of you based on viewership. 

1. Know Your Numbers:  Within this post, I shared 10 health indicators that when monitored on a regular basis, a person can either maintain good health, or significantly improve their long term health through lifestyle adjustments.  Since writing this post the Alberta Government released this announcement (https://www.infoway-inforoute.ca/index.php/lang-en/about-infoway/news/news-releases/722) indicating that every Albertan will have access to their Personal Health Information within the year much like you have access to your personal financial information from your bank.  This is not only a significant step forward for healthcare reform in Canada at the individual level, but by making this health information available to its citizens, each Albertan will now be able to make better personal health decisions for themselves and their families which will have profound and positive impact on the out-of-control costs associated with our Healthcare system.
2. Lifestyle Choices for Positive Health:  A week after I posted the above blog about the numbers every individual should track to maintain, or improve their personal health; I shared 8 lifestyle choices that will enhance your health and wellness.  I find humans approach their personal health in much the same manner as we approach many things in life.  It seems we only take action when there is a crisis.  We’ve seen many disasters throughout history that were entirely preventable; the Space Shuttle Challenger and the recent BP Oil Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, immediately come to mind.  We also see the same behavior when it comes to our personal health.  Given there are now more overweight and obese North Americans then there are people of healthy weight and an increase in just about every degenerative disease, it seems most citizens are waiting for a persoanl health crisis before they take action and implement the lifestyle choices included in this blog post.
3. Sugar: A Bitter Sweet Story: A friend of mine that used to work at Nestles, (the global food conglomerate) once told me for a food product to be successful it requires three key ingredients, Fat, Salt or Sugar.  Most people eat to satisfy the requirements of their taste buds, rather than their nutritional needs.  In the mid 1980’s reseachers linked fat to high cholesteral and heart disease and the world jumped onto the low fat diet craze we still see today.  And by reducing, or removing fat from many of our favorite foods, big food manufacturers compensated the bad taste by sweetening our foods with the sugar of choice, fructose.  This blog seemed to resonate with many of my readers, as it was one of my most popular posts.  It seems many of you were unaware that fructose can only be metabolized by the liver and the by-product is free fatty acid…ie. FAT.  So the result of a low fat diet without understanding or considering the impact of the added sweetener in the form Fructose (High Fructose Corn Syrup), we now have a nation of people that are fatter and unhealthier than when we eat fat.

I’ve enjoyed sharing my thoughts and information over the past year and particularly enjoyed your feedback and I look forward to another year of sharing information and healthy living.

Enjoy the Ride….Rob

 

Comments

[Robert Armstrong]

Thanks Deena - you made my day. Share the word with all your friends and family. I'm always delight to hear from other people that take an active roll in their health and the health of those around them. Thanks for checking in. Enjoy the Ride....Rob

[Sports Jerseys Deena]

I'm a sucker for health and wellness and your posts sure are what I'd call "health bible material"! Keep writing more awesomeness!

[uk Timberland Store]

I love your blog very much, more more info, I will concern it again!

[domino]

La maggior parte delle persone mangiano per soddisfare le esigenze dei loro papille gustative, piuttosto che i loro bisogni nutrizionali. A metà degli anni 1980 reseachers legato grasso per alte malattie cholesteral e cuore e il mondo saltato sulla mania dieta a basso contenuto di grassi vediamo ancora oggi

[blackjack]

Happy Birthday. I wish did not stop there. I wish you prosperity and success