The post How Small Habits Rewrote My Life: A Journey Beyond the Gym appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Mobility encompasses not just flexibility but also strength, balance, coordination, and joint health, all of which are critical for aging gracefully. This blog post explores why prioritizing mobility over simple flexibility is essential for older adults, how it impacts daily life, and practical ways to incorporate it into your routine. …

The post Mobility vs. Flexibility: The Ultimate Guide to Staying Active and Independent as You Age appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

The post The Role of Hydration in Mental Health and Cognitive Performance appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

What if your diet could help you feel calmer, sharper, and more resilient? Science shows that nutrition profoundly influences mood, anxiety, and cognitive function, with omega-3 fatty acids, B vitamins, and the gut-brain axis playing starring roles.…

The post Mental Health and Nutrition: How Diet Impacts Mood, Anxiety, and Cognitive Function appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

The post High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) for Busy Schedules: The Ultimate Guide for Professionals appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

If you’ve ever tossed and turned all night only to wake up groggy and wonder whether you should still hit the gym, you’re not alone. The question of whether to exercise when you don’t get enough sleep is a common dilemma.

On one hand, physical activity can boost energy and mood; on the other, pushing your body when it’s already running on empty might do more harm than good.…

The post Running on Empty: To Exercise or Not to Exercise When You Don’t Get Enough Sleep appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Walk into any store or scroll online, and you’ll see shelves bursting with melatonin, magnesium, and a wave of newer sleep aids promising to lull you into dreamland. The market’s booming, with melatonin alone projected to hit over $1 billion globally by 2033, and magnesium riding a wave of hype for its calming effects.…

The post Sleep Supplements: Boom or Bust? appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

These places we gravitated toward not only hold some of our fondest memories, but when you look closer, they served as sanctuaries or feel-good spots that made us happier about being alive.…

The post How to Find Peace and Beauty: Find Your Spot appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

The post How to Make Health a Year-Round Lifestyle (and Still Enjoy Holiday Dinners) appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

My body aches and complains of discomfort, but worst of all is my mind. To refer to my mind during yoga as a “monkey” would be an understatement.…

The post 5 Unexpected Ways to Achieve the Benefits of Mindfulness appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Unfortunately, life is rarely predictable. Even if your sleep, nutrition, and exercise are on point, you might get sick at some point during the Whole Life Challenge.

This doesn’t mean you have to give up!…

The post How to Play the Whole Life Challenge When You’re Sick appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

And just in time to shove a bunch of Halloween candy into your mouth. (Maybe.)

The holidays are coming up, and with them, a seemingly endless stream of parties. First it’s Halloween, then Thanksgiving, and then things really kick into gear with Christmas, Hanukkah, and the December holidays. Oh yeah, and don’t forget about ringing in the new year!…

The post Why It’s Okay to Eat All the Halloween Candy appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

The Super Food That Wasn’t

POM Wonderful, the company, was founded in 2002 by the billionaire couple Stewart and Linda Rae Resnick.…

The post The Importance of “Whole” in Your Whole Life (Challenge) appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

But you are different. You do your daily workout, go to yoga twice a week, walk the dogs, and then in a lazy attempt to get things done, you bend over to pick up the laundry and there is it, your back goes out.…

The post Low Back Pain: Do You Suffer From the Bobblehead Doll Effect? appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

If I can’t bear the thought of making yet another salad, or I really, really don’t want to clean the guinea pig’s cage, I set a stopwatch and time how long it actually takes me to complete the task I’ve been avoiding for an hour.

In the case of making a salad, the answer is less than five minutes

“Well, that wasn’t so bad,” I think when I’m done.…

The post Too Busy for Healthy Habits? Here Are 4 Easy and Fun Solutions appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

The post So You Can Stay Longer: A Letter to My Fellow Fathers appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Here’s the formula:

…

The post Body Fat, Consistency, and Understanding the Whole Life Challenge appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

“Stop spending all day obsessing, cursing, perfecting your body like it’s all you’ve got to offer the world,” Glennon Doyle Melton wrote in the piece. “Your body is not your offering. It’s just a really amazing instrument, which you can use to create your offering each day.…

The post Your Body Is Not Your Masterpiece — Your Health Is appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

“Dude, you can’t see anything man-made anywhere from here!”…

The post 6 Easy Ways to Get a Big Green Scoop of Nature Into Your Life appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

The post Lack of Sleep: The Many Ways It’s Silently Ruining Your Day appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Now more than ever, we’re all working to re-establish old healthy habits that we may have lost and new ones that will serve our health and well-being better than ever before.…

The post 6 Simple Tips for Creating New Habits That Actually Last appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Turns out this isn’t a joke.

It’s a research-supported finding you’d do well to understand — how long you sleep directly influences your energy, hunger, and body fat levels. In other words, those late nights and early mornings are royally screwing up your fitness plans. Here’s why.…

The post A Beginner’s Guide to Fat Loss, Part 1: Sleep and Your Appetite appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

The post The Surprising Ways Helping Others Can Improve Your Health appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Unfortunately, modern diets and lifestyles can often disrupt the delicate balance of the gut microbiome.…

The post Your Gut—It’s Not Just for Pooping Anymore appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

At the meeting you realize people are just sitting around waiting for their turn to talk.…

The post 3 Tested Techniques for On-the-Spot Stress Prevention appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

The reason I ask is if you don’t love your bed, you have a fairly large problem, one you might not fully understand you have.…

The post Sleep Guidelines: Do You Love Your Bed? appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

In my time of being a trainer and teacher, what I see most with mothers is that when they are stuck at home and not able to continue the things they used to do and love, they becomes depressed.…

The post Putting Mom First: How to Be a Healthy, Happy New Mother appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

You turn to stimulants, downing coffee and Red Bull to get through your day. Your brain calls for glucose, and your diet goes out the window, everything in the vending machine now fair game.…

The post Sleep Hacking: 5 Methods for Getting More Sleep, More Often appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

The post 6 Tips for Getting a Great Night’s Sleep appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

1. There is something wrong with you that only it can fix.
2. That it’s going to take a long time to get you there.

And it’s killing what real fitness can be.

Their platform is built on fear and money. Fear that someone is cooler, happier, prettier, or has a better life than you do.…

The post Is Fitness Killing You? appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

The post Why is Water So Important, and How Much Should You Be Drinking? appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Maybe it’s the trainer in me, but for years my day was run by time hacks, work bouts, meal intervals, and perhaps most importantly an imaginary must-go-to-sleep buzzer. For most of my single years, no matter how good the company or the TV show, 9pm was lights out time.

But then I met the partner who made me break all my little rules.…

The post What You Need to Know About the Relationship Between Sleep and Exercise appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

The constant push to be social, to be busy, to buy, and to share can be overwhelming. It can push you to be even more of a hermit than normal.…

The post 6 Ways an Introvert Can Learn to Love the Holidays appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

For decades, we’ve been told that gadgets and state-of-the-art appliances afford us the time to enjoy life and work less.…

The post How to Create More Time (Just in Time for the Holidays) appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

This blog is from Liv HEALTH, our partner in personalized wellness, reprinted here with their permission. To explore options for working with Liv HEALTH and its team of integrative and functional medicine doctors, click here and use the code WHOLELIFE to get your first month on us.

Without a doubt your genes play a pivotal role in your health and wellness, but they may not play as big of a role as we once thought.…

The post Epigenetics: Change The Future Of Your Genes appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Remember last week when you struggled to get through your day because you were so fatigued?…

The post Four Steps To Women’s Hormone Optimization appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

“What do you do when you meditate?” asked my eight-year-old son. “Is it like this?” He put his thumb on top of his middle finger, palms up, and started chanting, “Ommmmmm, ommmm,” and then collapsed into giggles.…

The post How Learning to Meditate Can Help You Lose Weight appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

The post How Chronic Dehydration Can Make You Fat, Tired, and Weak appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

The post 5 Ways You Can Make Social Media a Positive Force appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Whatever its exact functions are, we do know that our health—both physical and mental—relies on it. People who get poor sleep over long periods of time are more likely to be negatively affected by almost every other thing we worry about—chronic conditions, sickness, and cognitive impairment to name just a few.…

The post How to Boost Your Immune System: Part 3, Sleep appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Well, there’s not a whole lot of argument that exercise and other physical activity is an important part of a healthy life. The healthiest people in the world move regularly. Whether it’s the famous centenarians from the world’s Blue Zones or high performers in sports and business (or even playing with grandkids), the people who stay the healthiest don’t just sit there.…

The post How to Boost Your Immune System: Part 2, Exercise appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

The post How to Boost Your Immune System: Part 1, Nutrition appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Taking our time, we’d stroll in and out of the shops, holding up our finds:

“A fleece jacket for your dad?”…

The post How to Reduce Holiday Spending and Love the Season More appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

I’d eat as little as possible all day until the drinks and appetizers appeared, saving myself for the big meal. Dizzy with hunger, I’d talk and sip wine and start in on the appetizers, munching mindlessly until the meal was ready.

Then, because it was Thanksgiving, I’d load my plate up with every single item, even things I didn’t particularly like.…

The post How to Have a Healthy Thanksgiving (and Still Have Room for Pie) appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

When the official Challenge ends, another one begins: can you maintain these healthy habits without the structure of the Whole Life Challenge?

This is the Holy Grail of health — creating healthy habits that last.…

The post 4 Tips for a Successful Post Whole Life Challenge Transition appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Every moment of our day is likely filled with some sort of sound — some pleasant, some that fades into the background, and some that assaults our ears like a tone-deaf bagpiper playing “Bad Romance”.

We have control, though. Just as we can choose to fill our bodies with junk food, we can fill our ears with junk sound — turning on the radio or TV to fill the quiet space because that’s what we’ve always done.…

The post Why You Need to Get Quiet in a Loud World appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

If so, you’re not alone. Life feels overwhelming at times. Each day can pass in a flurry of activity without ever feeling like you’re getting things done. With so much left to do, you’re not sure how you’ll get through the day, week, month, or year.…

The post How to Reduce Overwhelm and Get Your Life Back appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Chronic stress and anxiety elevate the body’s cortisol level. Living in this state basically encourages our bodies to use our hard-earned muscle for energy and to store fat more efficiently.…

The post How to Harness the Power of the Present Moment appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

How do we get the best sleep, eat right, get some exercise, enjoy time with family and friends, and have some down time for ourselves—all while earning a living and remaining stress free?

We all can have that life. No matter how busy you are, there are small adjustments you can make in each day that can give you the lifestyle you’re seeking without adding more stress.…

The post How to Create a Healthy Daily Routine that Doesn’t Take All Day appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

If you’re eager to shed the weight you’ve gained this year, it’s going to be just as important to manage your stress levels as it is to bring your diet back to reality.…

The post How Stress Gets in the Way of Your Weight Loss Goals appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

According to the American Psychological Association, 42% of Americans reported lying awake at night due to stress while an additional 33% reported eating too much and/or eating unhealthy foods for the same reason. Stress is now considered to be one of the worst degenerative issues of all time, and it’s easy to see why after combining statistics like these with other issues such as depression, lack of willpower, and an overall greater risk of chronic disease.…

The post 5 Questions Guaranteed to Lower Your Stress Level appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

With everything that’s been going on, it’s natural to feel stressed or overwhelmed (or both). When that happens, the routines we have that keep our health in place can get easily interrupted. I know it, I’ve felt it. It’s happened to me.

And yet there’s no rule that says I can’t figure out a new way.…

The post How the Whole Life Challenge Can Help You Find “The New Healthy” appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

We laughed at the time (because we knew the potential was real), but what’s more, many of us really planned to use the time as best we could—exercise, personal development, skill building, and trying to truly enjoy the “free time” that was forced upon us.…

The post What You Can Do About Lockdown Weight Gain appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

If I then asked how you’d increase those levels, what would you say? Most people tend to respond with physical fixes, such as drinking coffee, tea or other stimulants, or getting some extra sleep.…

The post Your Personal Energy Plan: How to Protect, Manage, and Boost It appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Stability is held in place both by our personal routines and the regularity of the world around us—the expectation we generally have that when we wake up, the world will be just like it was yesterday.…

The post The 5 Things You Need for a Healthy Day appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

For most of us, stress was something that used to just come and go. We expected a certain amount of it as a part of life, and didn’t really worry too much when we had our fair share.

These days, it seems like just waking up each day, we’re bound to be stressed about something. Without a period of relief from it, it can accumulate a little more each day, leading to physical symptoms like:

Left unchecked, it can lead to issues like:

As well as unwanted behavior, like:

If you’re experiencing any of these more often than is normal right now, it’s important to consider if stress is at the root.…

The post 7 Ways the Whole Life Challenge Can Reduce Stress and Build Resilience appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Taking too little won’t help the problem, but taking too much could cause unwanted side effects. So the minimum effective dose is the ideal amount.

But now, think about this in the context of the rest of your life (and the Whole Life Challenge).…

The post How to Use the “Minimum Effective Dose” Concept to Get Results appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

The Challenge is a particular time when being focused and specific about each habit pays off — by enforcing a kind of rhythm, you can build habits that become natural.…

The post How To Make Hydration (And Other Habits) Part Of Your Daily Routine, Even After The Challenge Ends appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

If you haven’t seen it already, check out Andy’s video on optimizing your bedroom for a good night’s sleep — there’s lots in there to help set the stage.

But for today, rather than physical strategies for creating a more optimal sleep space, I’m going to talk about strategies and actions you can take to better set yourself up for bed and to help increase your awareness of the importance of a good night’s sleep.…

The post Go To Bed!: How To Get Ready For Sleep (As Soon As You Wake Up In The Morning) appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

It’s one of the four pillars of health and well-being (alongside nutrition, fitness and exercise, and emotional well-being), but it’s often the most overlooked. We tend to think of it as optional because we can still function with less than what we need.

You can sleep when you’re dead, right?…

The post Sleep Like A Boss: How To Optimize Your Bedroom For Better Sleep appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

This is a technique I call “creating a clearing.”

The goal is to clear out your head and create space so that you can align yourself for whatever you have coming next.…

The post How to ‘Create a Clearing’ in Your Mind appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

But cholesterol, and its role in heart disease, is an extremely complicated topic that we truly do not understand yet. It has more subplots and history than Game of Thrones.…

The post How to Lower Your Cholesterol (Without Cholesterol Medication) appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever does.”…

The post Trimble: How 1 Company Uses the WLC to Do the Most Good appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

But according to the latest science, many of us are dangerously short on sleep.…

The post What You Need to Know About Sleep and Your Long-Term Health appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Seriously…who would ever complain about their life being too good?

Close your eyes and imagine this (well, read this next part first, and then close your eyes 😉)

All your clothes in your closet fit perfectly (no need to suck in your stomach), and you looked GREAT in them.

You get out of the shower in the morning and admire what you see in the mirror because you know inside how great you look and the hard work that you put in to make you look that way.…

The post Why NOT You? appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Things evolved to an entirely new level at the beginning of the most recent Whole Life Challenge — when I chose to make my blog my Well-Being Practice for the entire six weeks.…

The post What I Learned from Blogging Every Day on the Whole Life Challenge appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever does.”…

The post M43 Fitness: How This Gym Uses the WLC to Do the Most Good appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

“If you don’t know what you’re here to do, then just do some good.”…

The post How Phill Kane Does the Most Good (and Crushes Being a WLC Team Leader) appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

But the same can be said for good habits.…

The post How Did the “7 Daily Habits” Come to Be? (#BecauseScience) appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

The post The Science of Happiness (And How to Be Happier) appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

But, it doesn’t have to be that way, friends.

You have the technology right at your fingertips to help you reach this year’s goals. Here are five ways you can use tech to help you keep your New Year’s resolutions.

1. Share Your Resolutions Online

According to the Whole Life Challenge Guide to Making New Year’s Goals That Stick, “[T]elling your friends and family what you’re working toward can be beneficial since in-the-know loved ones can help leverage your personal accountability (plus, it’s fun to celebrate successes with others).”…

The post 5 Ways Tech Can Help With Your New Year’s Resolutions appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

The post 10 Things You Didn’t Know About the Whole Life Challenge appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

The post 4 Better Ideas for Healthy Resolutions to Make This Year appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

This is how it is for your family, right?…

The post 7 Ways to Dial Down Holiday Stress and Actually Enjoy Your Family appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

The post Are You Getting Enough Light? How Red Light Therapy Can Help appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

The post How to Increase Happiness (by Following These 5 Twitter Accounts) appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

As such, I was extremely intrigued by a recent study that came out regarding cancer survivors and their possible increased risk of heart disease.…

The post What the Latest Research Says About Cancer and Heart Disease appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Here are ten new features that can help make you happier and healthier.…

The post 10 Ways iOS 12 Can Make You Healthier and Happier appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Creatine is one of the most highly studied sports supplements and has been shown to be safe and effective for improving muscular power endurance.…

The post Why It’s Critical to Be a Health and Fitness Skeptic (and How to Do It) appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

These daily workouts cut into my workday and make my afternoons more rushed, but I make them a priority, often shoving other things to the bottom of my long to-do list in order to fit in this hour for myself.…

The post How to Take Care of You (And Why You Need to For Your Family) appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

These habits can be especially difficult to change because they are wrapped up in our lives as social creatures. That feeling of waking up and wanting things to be different may well come after a long time of feeling a sense of dissatisfaction.…

The post What to Do When People Just Don’t Get Your Healthy Choices appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Getting back to normal isn’t quite as easy with issues you cannot directly see.…

The post How to Launch a Successful Comeback After Illness or Stress appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

A trope, an aphorism of self-improvement, sure. “It changed my life…”

But perhaps I can give you some context.

When I found the WLC, I found it like most everyone else — during a chance web search. And I was so taken with the concept of its completeness, its focus on a constellation of habits, that I called one of the co-founders (Andy), and told him it was great.…

The post Why I Believe the Whole Life Challenge Works appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

The post How to Completely Change Your Life (and Not Even Notice) appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

The post How to Stop Worrying and Actually Have a Relaxing Vacation appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

For starters, they are definitely not texting on their smart phone.

Jokes aside, no matter who you’re picturing, these athletes typically share an incredible ability to focus and concentrate that conveniently also makes them appear quite intimidating to their competitors.…

The post The Quiet Eye: How to Train the Way You Gaze (and Why) appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

The post Essential Oils 101: What You Need to Know and How to Buy Them appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Most of these healthy microorganisms can be found in our digestive system, more specifically in the gut, and it was recently proven that a person’s gut health has a tremendous impact on the general well-being of the individual.…

The post 3 Ways Gut Health Impacts Quality of Life (And How to Eat to Improve It) appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Maybe it’s because I rarely get sick, but when illness or injury descends, I lose all my stoicism. This is especially true if I perceive that the illness is something out of the norm, difficult to explain, or lasts longer than a few days.…

The post How to Be Mentally Healthy While You’re Sick appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

The days are getting longer and the temperature is rising. This means you’ll soon see articles about how to get ready for summer. Usually with titles like 5 Ways to Get Summer-Body Ready or Get Bikini Ready Now.

The premise of these articles is that there’s something “wrong” with your body and you’d better change quickly if you’re going to walk around in something other than long pants and a jacket.…

The post How to Get Ready for Summer (and Learn to Love Yourself in the Process) appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

As I watched, I became fascinated with their flight — with the simple act of birds flying.…

The post Taking Flight: A Few Words on the “End” of the Challenge appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Actually, there is one thing worse — getting those achy, tired, don’t-want-to-do-anything feelings just as you have established some really amazing and healthy habits in your life.

So, here you are: you’ve taken on the Whole Life Challenge and life throws the flu at you.…

The post 6 Ways to Work on Health and Wellness (Even When You Have the Flu) appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Store lamps beaming off the glaze of the baked goods on display, I saw my dreams of an improved eating habit flashing before me, and wondered, “Would this be the gateway donut? The sugar bomb that crashed my whole 2018 health plan to the ground?”…

The post How to Bounce Back After Falling Off the New Year’s Wagon appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

But then you come across a health news story that blows your new world apart.…

The post How to Know If the Latest Health News Is Bunk appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

My friend would repeat this phrase to me any time I said I was too tired to go out, and it usually convinced me to reconsider and head out the door.…

The post 4 Better Sleep Solutions (That Don’t Come in a Bottle) appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

The post 15 Foods That Will Help You Combat PCOS appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

The post Don’t Stop When You Reach Your Goal: 4 Tips for a Healthy Life appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

The post How Time in the Sauna Can Benefit Your Mind, Health, and Performance appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

We see this vision because we’re conditioned to think that health and wellness occur in certain locations in our lives — the gym, the salad bar, the doctor’s office.…

The post How to Live Each Day in the Context of Well-Being appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Self-assessments are an important part of the Whole Life Challenge. Measurements at the beginning let you know what kind of progress you’ve made, and provide an objective picture of your health.

The Whole Life Challenge includes three assessment phases.

…

The post The Purpose of the Phase 3 Assessments: Blood Lipids and Blood Glucose appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.