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Chapter 1: How To Get Started With Facebook Ads

In this first chapter, you’ll learn the basics of Facebook Ads and how you can get started with advertising on Facebook. You’ve probably read a lot of success stories on the Internet of marketers spending a few hundred dollars and earning tens of thousands in return.

That sounds like a crazy return on investment (ROI), right? Well, not really. With Facebook Ads, it’s possible to replicate these successful marketers’ techniques so you too can experience an extraordinary ROI!

There’s no denying the fact that when it comes to marketing and advertising your business on social media, Facebook is the way to go. With over 2 billion users logging in to Facebook every month from all corners of the globe, Facebook is king of social media. Whether you want to reach people in your town or city or people on the other side of the world, it’s possible with Facebook ads.

What Exactly Are Facebook Ads?

If you scroll down your Facebook news feed, you’ll most probably see a post which says Sponsored or Suggested Post on it. Or if you’re on a desktop computer, you’ll see ads on the right side of your screen. You’ll even see in-stream video ads while you’re watching a video on Facebook.

Also, you’ll see ads or sponsored messages on Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and the Audience Network. These adverts are known as Facebook ads.

Individuals, small businesses, and large corporations pay Facebook billions of dollars a year to show their ads to Facebook users. And it’s not surprising because compared to other platforms, Facebook gives their advertisers the best bang for their buck.

Why Should You Advertise On Facebook Ads?

Before I show you how you can get started with Facebook ads, let me go through a few reasons why you should consider investing in this platform.

1. Your potential customers and clients are all on Facebook.

Well, maybe not all. But some, if not most of them, will be on Facebook. Not everyone likes Facebook, but everyone who’s ever heard of this thing called the Internet will have heard of Facebook. Whether you’re looking to target people in your location or another continent, it’s very easy to do so on Facebook.
2. Hyper-targeting is a Facebook Ads specialty.

When you sign up for a Facebook account, you give Facebook a wealth of information about yourself. Advertisers can then target you based on the information you provide. Other advertising platforms don’t come anywhere near Facebook ads’ targeting options.

For instance, you can target people based on their location, their hobbies, their favorite sports teams, their language, their education, their life status, their work, their finances, their travel preferences, and so much more.

3. Facebook ads won’t get you bankrupt.

Unless, of course, you give Facebook all your money. But that’s not a very wise business decision, is it? With Facebook ads, you can spend a few dollars each day, and Facebook is not going to complain about it.

If you compare the amount that you’ll spend advertising on Google Adwords, Bing ads, native ads, banner ads, billboard or newspaper advertising, you’re literally going to save a fortune on Facebook! With the amount you’ll save, you’ll be able to reach even more of your target market, that is, you can quickly scale your budget and get in front of more people.

4. You can measure your Facebook ads results.

You’re not going to be playing the guessing game with Facebook ads. The platform is very transparent, and you can see how many impressions, clicks, and conversions your ads are receiving in real-time. To be able to measure your results, you do need to add the Facebook pixel to your website.

This snippet of code is all you need to track important activities on your website – who’s buying, who’s signed up to your list, who’s visited and bounced off your site without doing anything, etc.

5. Facebook advertising can grow your website traffic and foot traffic, too.

With Facebook ads, you can direct people to do anything you want. For example, if you want them to visit your site, simply include the right call of action to your ad. If you want them to drop by your physical store, let them know. If you make your ad enticing enough and give people what they want (by addressing their pain points), then you make it easy for them to follow your call to action.

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Foreword

Engaging ourselves in physical activities is very important regardless of our age and status in life. This is because staying healthy doesn’t need a requirement to be able to start. Exercising daily will help us improve our overall health and reduce the risk of any illness. There are few notable benefits if you engage in physical exercise. To name a few, here’s the list.

1. It can increase the strength of both bones and muscles
2. It can reduce body mass, keeping it lean and healthy while eliminating body fat.
3. It improves mental health.
4. It can significantly reduce the feeling of anxiety, stress and depression.
5. It supports holistic approach to achieving overall health.

Whole Health

Introduction To Your Overall Health For You And Your Loved Ones

Chapter 1:

Introduction

Further added benefits can be gained if you engage in a more vigorous type of exercise routine. Studies show that people who exercise daily for longer periods of time, utilizing additional dynamic physical exercises, will likely have more health benefits compared to those who exercise less.

The Basics

For kids, it is best that they begin benefitting from physical exercise at a very young age so that as they develop to adolescent and adulthood they will sustain the value of physical exercise. Additionally, it is very important that they engage in physical activities as it can maintain a healthy body weight. Kids that don’t exercise and don’t have any other physical activities will likely become overweight. Also, too much of sedentary activities such as playing video games, watching TV programs, surfing the net and the like will increase the chance of becoming obese. Therefore, it is recommended to introduce physical exercise to kids as early as possible for them to stay away from unhealthy activities.

As a final note to achieving healthier bodies, it is critical that we chose the physical activity that best suits us. We need to understand that we have different body types and health conditions, and for that reason we need to know which physical activity can give us the utmost benefit. Talking to the experts will help us identify the right kind of exercises that we can perform daily.

On the other hand, in our effort to lose weight we sometimes skip our meals to speed up the weight losing process. However, by doing this we are sacrificing our health. We don’t need to do that. We just need to understand that losing weight is just a matter of burning enough calories that we consumed through our ativities.Thus, starting a good physical exercise can well take care of that.

Chapter 2:

The Basics On Physical Health

The act of reading this article demonstrates that you are ready to be physically healthy. However, the greatest challenge of staying fit is not the vigorous exercises or the preparation of a well-balanced food. It is the commitment that you have for yourself that makes all these things about staying fit become extremely difficult.

Create Good Physical Health

Most of us have the intention of staying healthy, but not all of us can sustain healthy living. This is the reason why a lot of self-help tools were made including this article as it can help you continue and eventually achieve your health goals.

To be able to carry on with this seemingly difficult task, it has to be perceived as something you do with no questions. We do these things because we believe that it is important and that we cannot live a day without doing it. The same concept applies when we decide to exercise every day. We need to have that mindset that exercising is the missing piece that will complete the process of staying physically fit and without it our other efforts will not suffice.

Learning the basics of physical health will help you understand what is it that you want to achieve and how it will benefit you. To begin with, there are four basic components of physical health.

1. Cardiovascular endurance - This can be taken care of with activities like swimming and running. Enhancing this component will improve the oxygen and nutrients supply in the body tissues and at the same time remove stored waste in the body.

2. Muscular strength - This can be improved with various weight lifting and stretching activities. Enhancing this component will help you to have stronger muscles that can respond quickly with less effort.

3. Muscular endurance - This can be enhanced through daily pushups as it can effectively strengthen the arms and shoulder muscles. Enhancing this component will improve the ability of the muscles to withstand repetitive contractions.

4. Flexibility - This can be improved with regular stretching as it can enhance the tractability of your muscles. Enhancing this component will improve your body's capability of moving your joints as well as using your muscles in their full range.

Having these fundamentals in mind, it is best that your exercise program must include activities that can take care of the four components in order for you to achieve optimum results. As a general guide, make sure that you start your workout with a good warm up and end it with a calming cool down. Also, try not to overwork your body, avoid doing hard exercises consecutively for the whole week.

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Foreword

We need to give more importance to our health and the treatment of diseases. A big number of medicines treat only the symptoms of the disease, and not the base cause. As a matter of fact, the cause of a lot of chronic ailments is still being researched.

It's here that Yoga therapy comes to our aid. Yoga stresses treatment of the base cause of an ailment. It works in a slow, subtle and marvelous manner.

Modern medicine may claim to save a life at a vital stage, but, for pure recovery and recovering of normal health, one should look into in the efficiency of Yoga therapy.

Chapter 1:

Yoga Basics

Yoga implies "union" in Sanskrit, the language of ancient India where yoga started. We may consider it of the union taking place between the body, mind and spirit. Yoga is the exercise of physical postures or poses.

The Basic Info

Many individuals believe that yoga is simply stretching. However while stretching is surely involved, yoga is truly about producing equilibrium in the body by formulating both strength and flexibleness.

Commonly, a yoga class at a gymnasium will be more centered on the strictly physical advantages of yoga, while one at a yoga center might dig more into the spiritual side. A few individuals discover that the physical practice of yoga gets to be a gateway into a spiritual exploration, while other people simply enjoy a wonderful low-impact workout that makes them feel awesome. Whatever your disposition, you'll be able to discover a yoga class that accommodates your style.

Yoga has a lot of advantages, it betters the flexibility of the body, one’s strength grows and it is a great way of dealing with tension. Stretching out your body in new ways will assist it to become more flexible, bestowing greater range of motility to muscles and joints. Yoga poses call for you to support the weight of your own body in novel ways bettering both your physical strength and muscle tone.

Physical activity is great for relieving tension, and this is especially true of yoga. Because of the concentration demanded, your daily hassles, both large and small, appear to melt away during the time you're doing yoga.

Yoga is separated into 8 sections known as the 8 "limbs" of yoga. Every limb relates to a facet of accomplishing a healthy and fulfilling life, and each builds on the one before it. You might be surprised to hear that only one of the limbs affects the performance of yoga postures.

Chapter 2:

What Is Hot Yoga

Like its title this form of yoga is predominantly practiced in hot and humid surroundings which have this constant temperature atmosphere.

Behind The Heat

Apparently there are other effects that can occur with this particular feature incorporated into the sessions of yoga. It is interesting to note that though yoga is a very gentle and slow moving art form, the individual can complete the session not only feeling rejuvenated but also a little sweaty.

Therefore when the hot yoga style is practiced there is also the aim in mind to really sweat out the unwanted negative elements of the body. None of those who use this style find the excessive perspiration an unpleasant byproduct, in fact most welcome it.

Hot yoga is a set series of yoga poses specifically designed to be carried out in a hot or heated room. In most cases the temperature of the environment where the hot yoga is done is kept at about 95 – 100 degrees.

By mere virtue of the temperature alone the level of perspiration is quite high, coupled with the yoga exercises, the body is able to harness and emit a different level of warmth which in turn is purported to make the individual’s body more supple and flexible.

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Foreword

In this EBook I will try to demonstrate different techniques of yoga. Especially if you have never tried it before then, this EBook will be the best thing to start with because I am going to tell you very basic techniques of yoga. If you want to define yoga then, you will come across different definitions by different people.
Some people say that it is reunion of outer winds with the inner body and some say that it is the way of getting inner peace. You will find one thing common in almost every yoga definition that they talk about inner peace and inner self in it. This is basic theme of yoga that you have to become familiar with your inner person.
The basic meaning of yoga is union and you can say that it unites your body, spirit and thoughts. There are so many techniques in this art of exercise and all of these techniques are considered very effective but you should start from basic because if you adopted some advanced technique from start then, it will become difficult for you and you will lose control over it.

All of these yoga exercises make you believe that you exist and you exist with lots of strength and courage. It allows you to gather all of that strength and courage and accomplish your goal in your life.

People who practice personal productivity also utilize yoga as a very effective technique to increase their focus. If you feel tiredness too often or you feel fatigue after a tiring day at office then, you must practice yoga and you will see a new change in yourself and your working ability will also be boosted.

Yoga originated from India and its surrounding regions but then, it spread throughout the world because it has a strong connection with spirituality and everyone wants to get closer to their inner self.

Getting to know you is difficult and especially in today’s artificial and superficial world, it is really difficult to live with yourself. You always have to go through family pressures and social pressures and you are forced to do things which you often do not like. Yoga allows you to ease all of those pressures and be very light internally.

Yoga For Beginners

Baby Steps For Practicing And Discovering The Joy Of Yoga

Chapter 1:

Introduction to Yoga

You will learn the basic techniques and concepts of yoga in this chapter.

Exercise
Breathing techniques
Meditation techniques

The Basics

Yoga is basically an ancient knowledge of body which originated from Indians and it is more than 500 years old. The basic word of yoga is originated from a Sanskrit word “yuj” which means to unite or to integrate two things. Yoga is exercised and practiced to unite your body with your spirit or you can make it easier and say that the reunion of person’s own consciousness and universal consciousness is achieved through yoga.

Ancient people, who practiced yoga, believed in the fact that in order to achieve internal peace, a person must integrate and unite his mind, body and spirit. Without this reunion, person can never achieve internal peace.

This is very dense and difficult process to unite all three of the above because you need extraordinary control over your emotions, intelligence and actions. Yugis developed some easy and short cut ways to achieve balance between intelligence, emotions and actions and this balance was dependent upon three basic things that were exercise, breathing and meditation. These three things are thought to be the pillars of yoga.

Exercise

Human body is treated with lots of respect and care in yoga and this allows the yoga exercises to be very friendly and calming for body structure. Once you start practicing these exercises, then, you will see that there is no twist in these exercises and they are very basic poses which are formulated by yogis to develop peace within the body structure.

Breathing Techniques

Breathing techniques were included in this process because breathing is the source of life and when your source of life is out of order then, how can you expect to have harmony and order in your life.

Breathing techniques help person to gain control over his whole body and his whole internal system as well. These techniques are little difficult to learn but yoga is all about practice and you can learn them by regular practice easily.

Meditation Techniques

Meditation is another thing which is necessary for yoga practice but there is some misconception involved about this technique and people think that their mind has to go blank for meditation.

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Foreword

We need to give more importance to our health and the treatment of diseases. A big number of medicines treat only the symptoms of the disease, and not the base cause. As a matter of fact, the cause of a lot of chronic ailments are still being researched. It’s here that Yoga therapy comes to our aid... Get all the info you need here.

Yoga Fire

Burn calories with the best yoga techniques today!

Chapter 1:

Yoga Basics

Yoga implies "union" in Sanskrit, the language of ancient India where yoga started. We may consider it of the union taking place between the body, mind and spirit. Yoga is the exercise of physical postures or poses.

Many individuals believe that yoga is simply stretching. However while stretching is surely involved, yoga is truly about producing equilibrium in the body by formulating both strength and flexibleness.

The Basics

Commonly, a yoga class at a gymnasium will be more centered on the strictly physical advantages of yoga, while one at a yoga center might dig more into the spiritual side.

A few individuals discover that the physical practice of yoga gets to be a gateway into a spiritual exploration, while other people simply enjoy a wonderful low-impact workout that makes them feel awesome.

Whatever your disposition, you'll be able to discover a yoga class that accommodates your style.

Yoga has a lot of advantages, it betters the flexibility of the body, one’s strength grows and it is a great way of dealing with tension. Stretching out your body in new ways will assist it to become more flexible, bestowing greater range of motility to muscles and joints. Yoga poses call for you to support the weight of your own body in novel ways bettering both your physical strength and muscle tone.

Physical activity is great for relieving tension, and this is especially true of yoga. Because of the concentration demanded, your daily hassles, both large and small, appear to melt away during the time you're doing yoga.

Yoga is separated into 8 sections known as the 8 "limbs" of yoga. Every limb relates to a facet of accomplishing a healthy and fulfilling life, and each builds on the one before it. You might be surprised to hear that only one of the limbs affects the performance of yoga postures.

Chapter 2:

The Breathing

Breathing is the basis of life, without it, death is inevitable. As it is one of the most important parts of life’s results of being alive, there is a need to learn proper breathing techniques.

Yoga promotes this proper breathing as vital to bring oxygen to the blood and to the brain as do science. These breathing techniques bring about the highest form of purification and self discipline covering both the mind and body.

The Breath

The primary intention of practicing yoga breathing is to prepare the individual to be prepared both in body and mind for the meditation phase.

Generally, most people don’t know the importance of breathing properly. Most people breathe in very shallow breaths, which does not carry enough oxygen to the entire body which in turn causes various negative medical conditions.

Yoga breathing is the art of taking deep breaths to fill up almost the entire lung and then to exhale slowly, while all the time concentrating on the process.

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Foreword

Let’s face it pal. Those turtlenecks is doing anything but get rid of that double chin taking residence. On a second note, you ever feel ….

Sluggish? Out of shape? Like your clothes seem to be outgrowing you a little faster than they should? Get all the info you need here.

Weight Warriors

The Spartan’s Guide To Chiseled Abs

Chapter 1:

Introduction

Are you the guy who’s perpetually perched on the couch sitting in front of the Television set eating a bowl of crisps and a bottle of beer perfectly balanced on your stomach, dreaming of that tasty, greasy Big Mac and hating yourself for it?

Are you tired of being on the heavy side? Do you want to get on the right track and for these questions to stop? Well buddy you’ve got it!

With this copy of Weight Warriors : The Spartan’s Guide to Chiseled Abs, we’ll have you out of that couch and into those running shoes in no time! Because now is the time to decide to live a healthy life-style.

The Basics

But before all else, please do keep in mind that healthy isn’t being skinny. Healthy is the state of a well-fit mind, body and spirit. Not your preference on the demon scale, or how good you look in that new body hugging blouse.

It’s about making the right choices that will absolutely bring amazing results throughout your lifetime. It’s about giving your body the exercise and flow of positive energy it needs. It’s about reinvention. Molding you into a better, happy and healthy person. The saying health is wealth was right all along.

Health is well being. Happiness that doesn’t have to cost you a dime.

If you've been heavy for almost all of your life or if you have a parent who is heavy, your obesity may be highly influenced by genetic science.

But this isn’t a death sentence, because I assure you exercise and a whole lot of dedication will go a long way. We can defeat the fat gene and those fat cells right here, right now.

Embracing the beautiful concept of being physically fit will come with a whole lot of great benefits, such as the amazing feeling you’ll get when you wake up one morning and feel totally refreshed, better than you were before. It’s like waking up on the right side of the bed every day. And once you see those pounds being knocked off on that scale, it’s like Christmas came early. Now you’ll finally able to get into those favorite jeans of yours that you outgrew last year or that extra mile you thought you could never make. And it gets better.

A healthy life style isn’t something you can put down or pick up whenever you feel like it. It takes dedication and perseverance. In a matter of weeks, even days, you will be able to be successful and pleased with easy choices that reward you in the long run.
The toning process is extremely wonderful, giving you that extra kick and confidence everyone should have. Remember, a fit life-style is a set of selections you make day-to-day.

There is no magical formula, only dedication to making favorable selections a righteous your life. Never consider your health as something demanding or high-maintenance.

Rather, think of your health as a great investment, and not a scary project. Remember, this is you we’re talking about. And don’t you deserve the best life has to offer? Have self-assurance and patience and you'll be a winner by the end of this race.

List down your goals. Arrange goals for your self at steady intervals like a few weeks, to a couple of months and so forth. Be fearless. We’re doing this together, step by step.

If you wish to run 5 miles within 6 months, then write it down. Don’t be afraid of big dreams and high hopes. The only thing standing in the way is You. Do not expect yourself to be able to run 5 miles on the first run. You’re starting off and your body isn’t accustomed to the vigorous activity at hand, so don’t worry.
Be easy on yourself and take it one step at a time. You won’t ever get to accomplish anything if you keep telling yourself time and time again that you aren’t up for it. Stop hiding from those running shoes.

Procrastination is the enemy.

Let’s begin with a dietary and physical activity journal and jot down everything you consume, as well as how much physical activity you get throughout the whole day. Keeping track will help you see how much work you’ve done and do estimated weight changes and such.

Remember that everything adds up, from that additional café latte to taking the stairs at work. Utilize this handy journal to distinguish your sorry habits and areas for betterment.

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Foreword

Where previously most people take health for granted, now most people make a conscious effort to stay healthy. Part of staying healthy is knowing the benefits of exercise, living according to appropriate lifestyle habits, healthy dietary choices and generally keeping stress levels as low as possible. Get all the info you need here.

Wellness Dietetic

Amazing Tips To Eat Well And Live Healthy

Chapter 1:

Health Is Wealth

Staying healthy is a very good position to be in, as the opposite of that would be tracking in and out of hospitals with one medical condition or another. This cannot only be depressing but can also severely dent the wallet, as medical bills can be rather expensive to handle. Being able to enjoy life without the burden of popping pills and visiting doctors every so often is definitely a better option to live by.

The Basics

Extensive research has shown that many medical conditions are the result of poor eating habits coupled with the lack of consistent exercise and a stress-filled life. Therefore taking the time to seriously address these issues before they turn into problems is one way of keeping healthy.

It would certainly be lighter on the wallet, when the individual is not bogged down with medical bills and the trauma of having to face a terminal condition. Poor dietary plans usually cause less that optimum body conditions, where the clogging, damaging and over working of internal body systems can then contribute to poor health conditions.

Therefore instead of having to deal with the probability of managing poor health, the better option would be to start on a healthy diet plan, a regular exercise regiment and a stress free mindset. Having some knowledge and education on the benefits of healthy living style, will not benefit the individual, if information learnt is not put into practice. As the human body naturally deteriorate as it ages all steps should be taken to ensure the process is not helped along by poor health.

Chapter 2:

Nutrition Is Important

There are a lot of reasons why there are various diets available to the general public, and most of these safer diets are designed around the importance of nutrient content.

Nutrients

Nutrition is the key factor to a healthy body system which is able to function at its optimum capabilities and also help to maintain an ideal positive overall health condition. One way of ensuring the right nutrition intake is practiced, that the measured amount considered being enough for the individual is to ensure the diet plan includes elements such as carbohydrates, fats, fibers, minerals, proteins, vitamins and water. Good nutrition intake is even more beneficial to specific parts of the body and not just the overall body system.

The following are just some ways of how specific the benefits can be:

The heart of course is the essential core of the entire body system; therefore being of such important is needs the special attention so that is cab function at its optimum, thus the need for good nutritional support.

The bones are basically the elements that keep everything together. Here to there is a need for good nutritional support as without optimum bone density and quality the body will experience a lot of connective problems.

Energy for the body is derived from the daily food intake, and there is a need to ensure this food is nutritionally based so that the relevant minerals and vitamins can be dispersed within the system to churn out the necessary energy source for the body’s energy needs.

With good nutrition the human body can function at its optimum and basically be able to “last” and with stand any adverse effects the surroundings may throw at it. Often people disregard the importance of good nutrition and this is especially prevalent among the youngsters who seem to think their health in infallible.

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Chapter 1: How Smoothies Can Transform Your health

Imagine if you could wake up every morning feeling amazing. Instead of waking up with a headache, or struggling to open your eyes because you’re still so tired; you just leap out of bed full of life and ready to go and take on the day. This energy is then enough to carry you through workouts, through your office job and through the evenings when you still have enough left in the tank to chat to play with your family. You have enough to work on projects, to keep the house clean and tidy and to make the very most of every last hour. And imagine if you had the dream physique you’ve always wanted: flat abs, ripped muscle and skin that looks glowing and healthy. Of course, there’s no quick fix that can make all of this a reality, but it is a very good aim to have. And actually, there are just a few simple things you can do that will immediately take you a lot closer to that reality. One of them is just to start drinking a smoothie every day.

Really? A smoothie? A drink hat can improve your health, your mood, your appearance and your energy levels?

Definitely – and much more as well! In this book you’ll learn how smoothies can change your life and you’ll discover easy recipes for smoothies that boost immunity, fight stress, improve athletic performance, build muscle, fight cancer and MUCH more. Let’s take a look at just how it happens…

Why We Need Nutrients

A smoothie is of course a blend of different fruits and vegetables. You simply take a bunch of fruits, drop them into a blender and hit ‘go’ so that your drink will be ready to consume. It’s a simple process but it’s enough to give you a drink that not only tastes amazing but also provides you with a ton of nutrition. And this is the key word: nutrition. What is incredibly important for all of us, is that we eat a nutrient dense diet. That is to say that it isn’t good enough that we view our diet just as a source of fuel – it also must be a source of raw materials that provide us with enhanced performance and health. The old saying that you ‘are what you eat’ is literally true. Your muscles, your bones, your hormones, your brain cells, your immune system and your digestive enzymes are all made from nutrients in your food and that’s what makes it so important. When you consume fruits, meats or vegetables, your body will proceed to break them down and then use the constituent parts to perform numerous jobs throughout your system. These help you to grow, to develop, to fight illness and to function optimally. And it’s no coincidence that we need fruits, vegetables and other ingredients to thrive. After all, these are the things we evolved eating. It’s not that our biology forced us to seek out these foods – the foods were available and so our biology adapted to survive on them. We need these ingredients to thrive then and without them, we start to literally fall apart. We start to see signs of poor health such as difficulty sleeping, brittle hair and nails, weaker bones and lack of muscle tone. Our eyes aren’t quite as white and we lose the spring in our step. Our hormones fall out of whack and we eventually start to see serious illnesses and other conditions slowly arise. And this isn’t the exception. This isn’t a rare and unfortunate scenario that only some people experience… this is the norm.

Did you know that a huge number of the diseases and illnesses that affect us in old age are actually highly avoidable degenerative diseases? Your body was built to last you your entire life. In theory, you should be able to stay healthy, active and engaged right up until you keel over. But malnutrition allows all sorts of problems to slowly creep up on us from weak bones, to heart disease, to high blood pressure, to arthritis, to dementia. Not all of these conditions are avoidable but in many cases, they are. So what’s the problem with our modern diet?

The Problem With Modern Diets

The biggest issue is that we eat far too much processed food. What is processed food? Simply put, it’s food that has been manufactured and prepared in such a way that it bears little resemblance to the original ingredients. A good example might be a sausage role. Here, you think that you are getting some meat and pastry. The pastry is made from flower and egg but at least the sausage is real meat, filled with real amino acids and minerals, right? Wrong! That meat is most likely a combination of all the cast offs from countless other meals that have been blended together and mushed into a pulp. That means you’re getting the gristle and the parts of the meat that no one would eat in any other format. From there, the sausage meat then has copious amounts of sugar, salt and fat added. This helps to preserve the sausage and make sure it still looks that appetising grey color when you come to eat it. What about the fruits and vegetables you get in your cereal and your breakfast bars? Nope, they’re just as bad! These fruits have been ‘freeze dried’. That means that they have been subjected to a vacuum and sub-zero temperatures. The low temperature will have frozen the moisture to the point that it becomes tiny icicles and the low pressure will then have forcibly removed them from the fruit. You think that won’t bring with it some of the all important nutrients along the way? Apart from anything else, when you consume something containing vitamin C, you need the moisture in order to absorb it. Vitamin C is literally a ‘water soluble vitamin’ and you can’t use it if it’s not presented correctly. And once again, lots of sugar and other additives will be added which will make your fruit look colorful and remain edible. Something like crisps or chocolate bars meanwhile barely have any nutrients in them to begin with!

How Empty Calories Are Destroying Your Health

All this means that you are consuming empty calories. An empty calorie is food like sausage roles, like unhealthy breakfast cereals and like ready meals that contain lots of calories but very little actual nutrition. You’re temporarily filling yourself up and spiking your blood sugar but you’re not providing any actual sustenance. Plus, these empty calories take the form of simple carbs. Because there’s nothing ‘real’ left in them, you’ll digest them too quickly resulting in a spike in blood sugar. This provides a short energy burst but that then runs out just as quickly, leaving you craving real food. Moreover, you’ll be malnourished and fail to get the vitamins and minerals you need. And what’s more, is that this will eventually translate to the build-up of more serious diseases and conditions. Failing to get proper food in your diet is also what causes snacking behavior and weight gain. This is partly due to the fact that your blood sugar troughs so soon after it spikes and partly due to the fact that your body will ‘crave’ the things it needs. If you’re not getting enough vitamin C, then your body will tell you it wants something sweet. It’s trying to communicate that you need an orange or an apple – but years of training mean that you’ll interpret this as needing a chocolate bar! And even before that happens, you’ll find you gain weight easily and you have to drag yourself through the day like some kind of zombie! When you view food just as fuel and forget that it is also sustenance, that is when your body starts to fail you.

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Chapter 1

“FOCUS” Defined

Focus is integral to accomplishment. It may actually fall in the same category as ambition, motivation, leadership and other driving forces behind becoming successful, but does not necessarily get the attention that it deserves. Often downplayed, the role of focus cannot be sabotaged in an individual’s ability to be productive.
What all this basically means is that you need to be focused in order to achieve something or become successful in your endeavors. But before we go into that, here is a look at what focus really means.

By definition, focus is a skill that allows people to start a task without procrastination and then keep up their attention and effort until the job is complete. It is an ability to not only pay attention to things that they are engaged in but also avoid distractions that will impede the work they are trying to do.

In fact, focus is so important to getting anything done that you can’t really think without focus. When you hear about things like perception, memory, learning, reasoning, decision making and problem solving, you know that none of these can be done successfully unless you focus.

On the contrary, a wandering mind will make you less effective in your work and your productivity will suffer. The same will also compromise the quality of work giving you less than optimal results. Not to forget that you will also be wasting time every instance your mind drifts off.

Why do people suffer from a lack of focus?

In some cases, a lack of focus may be a matter of interest. Take your everyday to-do list for instance. Not everything on the list might be interesting to work on, but needs to get done anyways for you to move ahead. In these instances you may find yourself stuck, trapped doing something that you couldn’t care less about. Your only obligation may be the feeling that you need to get the job done to move on to other things. Not such a great motivator, but that’s reality; in the real world things need to get done to make way for other things.

It is only natural that your mind starts to drift off in these situations. You may end up finding excuses for not doing that particular thing, say by justifying that you don’t really need to do the job right then, or that it’s not really that important or even something like you’ve got better things to do than the job on hand. But any way you dress them up, they are all just excuses for procrastination.

Which brings us to another aspect of focus; procrastination. Procrastination is perhaps the biggest hurdle in the way of attaining good focus. When you use procrastination to get out of things what you are really saying is that you don’t want to do a particular task, or that you are secretly hoping that it will just go away on its own, or that you will eventually feel motivated to do it.

With so much going on, it is no wonder that focus gets sidelined and never surfaces to the forefront.

And while a lot more can be said on procrastination, we will cross that bridge when we come to it (in a later chapter). For now, it is sufficient to say that procrastination, in fact, is the granddaddy of all excuses and will never let you focus properly on any given task.

How can you counter a lack of focus?

Moving on, while you may be well aware of what is stopping you from focusing (think procrastination), you may not know how to tackle this problem. So here’s some help:

Address WHAT needs to be done

To make focus work for you, you need to have a clear cut goal; call it a grounded purpose towards which all your efforts are directed. When you have this reference point in sight, you can apply all your skillset and decision making to get the job done right. But with this crucial factor missing, you may as well go on a roller coaster ride.

It is these clear cut goals that define what needs to get done.

Clear cut goals also stop you from derailing and prevent you from going places where you never intended to go. Pick out a typical day in your life and think of all the fifty or so things you need to do. With your mind divided and scattered trying to deal with all fifty at the same time, you are likely not going to get much done. On the flip side, you may actually neglect to do some of the more important ones as you keep thinking about everything else instead.

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Introduction

Why do we read books is one of those vast questions that need no answer? As well ask, why ought we to be good? or, why do we believe in a God? The whole universe of wisdom answers. To attempt an answer in a single article would be like turning a spyglass for a moment toward the stars.

We take the great simple things for granted, like the air we breathe. In a country that holds popular education to be the foundation of all its liberties and fortunes, we do not find many people who need to be argued into the belief that the reading of books is good for us; even people who do not read much acknowledge vaguely that they ought to read more.

There are, to be sure, men of rough worldly wisdom, even endowed with spiritual insight, who distrust “book learning” and fall back on the obvious truth that experience of life is the great teacher. Such persons are in a measure justified in their conviction by the number of unwise human beings who have read much but to no purpose.

The book full blockhead, ignorantly read, With loads of learned lumber in his head is a living argument against mere reading?

But we can meet such argument by pointing out that the blockhead who cannot learn from books cannot learn much from life, either. That sometimes useful citizen whom it is fashionable to call a Philistine, and who calls himself a “practical man,” often has under him a beginner fresh from the schools, who is glib and confident in repeating bookish theories, but is not yet skillful in applying them.

If the practical man is thoughtless, he sniffs at theory and points to his clumsy assistant as proof of the uselessness of what is to be got from books. If he is wise, the practical man realizes how much better off he would be, how much farther his hard work and experience might have carried him, if he had had the advantage of bookish training.

Moreover, the hard-headed skeptic, self-made and self-secure, who will not traffic with the literature that touches his life work, is seldom so confined to his own little shop that he will not, for recreation, take holiday tours into the literature of other men's lives and labors.

The man who does not like to read any books is, I am confident, seldom found, and at the risk of slandering a patriot, I will express the doubt whether he is a good citizen. Honest he may be, but certainly not wise. The human race for thousands of years has been writing its experiences, telling how it has met our everlasting problems, how it has struggled with darkness and rejoiced in light.

What fools we should be to try to live our lives without the guidance and inspiration of the generations that have gone before, without the joy, encouragement, and sympathy that the best imaginations of our generation are distilling into words. For literature is simply life selected and condensed into books. In a few hours we can follow all that is recorded of the life of Jesus—the best that He did in years of teaching and suffering all ours for a day of reading, and the more deeply ours for a lifetime of reading and meditation!

If the expression of life in words is strong and beautiful and true it outlives empires, like the oldest books of the Old Testament. If it is weak or trivial or untrue, it is forgotten like most of the “stories” in yesterday's newspaper, like most of the novels of last year. The expression of truth, the transmission of knowledge and emotions between man and man from generation to generation, these are the purposes of literature. Not to read books is like being shut up in a dungeon while life rushes by outside.

I happen to be writing in Christmas week, and I have read for the tenth time “A Christmas Carol,” by Dickens, that amazing allegory in which the hard, bitter facts of life are involved in a beautiful myth, that wizard's caldron in which humor bubbles and from which rise phantom figures of religion and poetry. Can anyone doubt that if this story were read by every man, woman, and child in the world, Christmas would be a happier time and the feelings of the race elevated and strengthened?

The story has power enough to defeat armies, to make revolutions in the faith of men, and turn the cold markets of the world into festival scenes of charity. If you know any mean person you may be sure that he has not read “A Christmas Carol,” or that he read it long ago and has forgotten it. I know there are persons who pretend that the sentimentality of Dickens destroys their interest in him.

I once took a course with an over-refined, imperfectly educated professor of literature, who advised me that in time I should outgrow my liking for Dickens. It was only his way of recommending to me a kind of fiction that I had not learned to like. In time I did learn to like it, but I did not outgrow Dickens. A person who can read “A Christmas Carol" aloud to the end and keep his voice steady is, I suspect, not a safe person to trust with one's purse or one's honor.