Category: Wellness and Health Promotion

This category provides ideas, concepts and solutions to the challenges people face every day in attempting to change their lifestyle behaviors to improve their health and well-being.

Bite #2 — Motivation to Change Behavior — Wellness & Health Promotion

Do you know someone in your life that for some reason is not taking care of themselves physically? Is there someone that you know that is an intelligent person, has a successful career and family and yet is making lifestyle choices that are literally shortening their lives? I think that we all know one or more people that we care about that continues to make poor lifestyle choices knowing that their choices are probably going to end their lives prematurely.
Ever since writing my first book Elephant Hunting I have been totally intrigued when I meet intelligent people who are fully aware of the fact that the lifestyle they are living is statistically going to end their lives earlier than the averages.
My new book is going to look closely at a simple but powerful concept that I believe will motivate a certain percentage of the population to make the decision to change their lifestyle behavior for the better. This concept has to do with one of the most powerful three letter words in the world, why. I think this little word holds the secret for what is keeping people from changing.
Why are you here?
The age-old question that philosophers have been debating and pondering for thousands of years. Why are you on this planet? What is your purpose for being? Do you really know the answer to these questions? I believe that once you know the answers to these questions you are on your way to finding the motivation necessary to change your lifestyle behavior. However, there is a second question that is as important as the first that you also need to answer which will hold the remaining key to your success:
Are you currently pursuing the answer to the first question (why you are on this planet) in your current job or vocation? In other words, are you currently pursuing your passions in life?
If you know the answer to the first question, and you are pursuing your life’s passion through your current career, vocation and family relationships then I believe you will change your lifestyle behavior for the better.

Do you recognize this character?

That’s right, you know him as the Grim Reaper! What in the world does the Grim Reaper have to do with taking charge of your own health and well-being? Everything!!! Let me remind you of a simple fact, if you are a human being you are going to die. It’s just a matter of when. I really don’t mean to insult your intelligence, I know you realize that someday you’re going to die. I am convinced that if a person knows why they are here and they are currently pursuing their life’s passion and loving it, they will want to do everything possible within their power to make sure that the Grim Reaper is as far away from them as possible.
I am here to remind everyone that the lifestyle choices I am talking about are the following; nutrition/eating, sleeping, exercise, smoking, and drinking. Each one of these are things that we can choose to do or not. They have nothing to do with those things that are out of your control such as injury or illness/DNA. One of the many reasons I am co-authoring this new book with my personal physician Dr. Mark Levy is because he has studied the facts and the facts state that by making better choices within these five lifestyle categories you have the power to put distance between you and the Grim Reaper.
Our new book and this blog are all about giving you tools to help you figure out why you are here in case you don’t know. And if you do know, how to change your lifestyle behaviors which are things you can control to give yourself more time to do those things you love to do before the Grim Reaper comes to take you away.
I encourage you to take the time and watch the video I have included from Simon Sinek as he discusses — How Great Leaders Inspire Action. He does a great job in this 18 minute video explaining the importance of this little three letter word — why. As the elephant hunter it is my purpose to help others find the why in their lives.
Matthew Berrafato
“The Elephant Hunter”

Wellness & Health Promotion — Bite #1 — Healthy Fast Food article

Although it has been many months since my last post I am excited to be back in the
saddle again and sharing ideas that you can use in order to Take Charge of your
own health and well-being.

I will be shifting away from the topic of health care reform now that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is the law of the land. I hope that any of you that have read my blog
in the past understand that it was not the intent of the law that I disagreed, it was a matter of how the law was going to go about solving the health care issues in our country that I was concerned. One of the positive outcomes of this legislation was to focus attention on what I believe is the key to getting our arms around how to control healthcare costs going forward and that is wellness and health promotion. Unfortunately the new law barely scratches the surface of bringing wellness and health promotion to the forefront of the health care system. Therefore, it will be my intent to focus my blog entirely on bringing ideas and tools to my readers that will help them when they choose to get healthy and stay healthy. We as Americans need to Take Charge of our own health and well-being if our current and future health care systems are to have a fighting chance.

I have been working over the past four years on my new book that I am co-authoring with my personal physician Dr. Mark Levy. The working title of our book is “Take Charge of Your Own Health and Well-Being” — It’s Your Personal Health Care Crisis. We are very excited because we are getting close to our publication date which is scheduled for the beginning of fall 2011. It is our intent through this project to create a toolkit available for all that will continue to evolve in helping people to make the decision to take charge of their health and well-being. There will also be tools included that will help you to keep your commitments to yourself and follow through on implementing your strategies to accomplish these worthwhile goals.

To begin the process of offering valuable content to all of our readers that are in line with the goals of our new book I am enclosing an excellent article I came across that I want to share with all of you to use as a tool to help you on your journey to Take Charge of your own health and well-being. If it is your goal to get healthy and stay healthy then I know this article will come in handy.

We all lead extremely busy lives and many times due to the numerous commitments for yourselves, spouses and children the only option available for breakfast, lunch or dinner is fast food. After reading the article I am enclosing you will be armed with the knowledge and information you need to make healthier fast food choices. With the One Bite Connection at your fingertips the old adage “there was nothing I could do” can be a thing of the past.

Healthy Fast Food

 

 

 

 

 

If you have enjoyed reading this article and it helps you to make better decisions about the fast food in your life please feel free to share this article with someone
that you care about.

If any of my ideas resonate with you or if you have additional comments or ideas that can help other people on similar journeys of getting healthy and staying healthy, I would love to hear from you.

Matthew  Berrafato

“The Elephant Hunter“