Week 1: Day 5 Health Principle: 80/20

__Read Genesis: Chapters 29-35

__Walk 3 miles: Actual miles walked

__Eat 5 fruits or vegetables

__Virtue: Temperance-eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation

We’re five days into the year and still talking about ways to make New Year’s resolutions that take you where you want to go. Another mistake in resolutions is that of working very hard at the less important. Part of the art of any endeavor is deciding where to focus the most effort for the best results. With only a finite amount of time and energy, focusing on the less important results in wasted time and poor results. The 80/20 rule applies to health just as much as it does to business.

For example: I really like the way I feel when I do YOGA. The focus and stretching make me feel relaxed and focused and seem to release energy. But, research does not show nearly the benefit to health with YOGA as what is possible with walking. I’ve known hundreds of people who have lost 40 or more pounds walking (and kept it off); I know no person who lost more than 40 pounds with YOGA. I’m not saying that no person ever lost 40 pounds with YOGA. I just think it’s less effective as a health maintenance activity for most people. So with limited time, I choose to walk every day and save YOGA for those rare days when I have extra time after I’ve walked at least three miles.

In the effort to build physical and emotional health, is there something you’re including in your day that may be less helpful? Sometimes, people miss out on good health by finding time for a helpful activity but not having time for the activities that could affect a radical change.

I constructed the checklist at the beginning of these lessons with the 80/20 rule in mind.

I’ve read other scriptures and books of philosophy and "self help" and think you should not ignore wisdom wherever you find it. But, I know many thousands of lives have changed and nations have risen and fallen with the power of the Holy Bible. Charles Dickens said, "The New Testament is the very best book that ever was or ever will be known in the world." Napoleon said, "The Bible is no mere book, but a Living Creature, with a power that conquers all that oppose it." Goethe said, "Let mental culture go on advancing, let the natural sciences progress in ever greater extent and depth, and the human mind widen itself as much as it desires; beyond the elevation and moral culture of Christianity, as it shines forth in the gospels, it will not go." Without bogging down in theology that derails, I choose to study the Bible and love others no matter what scripture they read. These lessons will take you through the old testament once and the New Testament twice in a year of reading 15 to 20 minutes per day.

I know many benefits to activities other than walking or jogging; but I don’t know of another physical activity that offers as much benefit as walking.

Five servings of fruits or vegetables is known to decrease the risk of heart attack, stroke, hypertension, colon cancer, breast cancer. It’s also the "dosage" known to help decrease cholesterol and help to lower weight (by acting as low calorie appetite suppressant).

Sustained good health requires virtue.   I’ve slightly modified Ben Franklin’s definition of the virtues.  We'll use his method of daily examination (swapping to a different virtue each week).