Get Ahead (Healthwise) This Winter

Today’s almonds have been activated by:

In A Rush?

Today’s 30-Second Summary

If you don’t have time to read the whole email today, here are some key takeaways:

• In the Northern Hemisphere, December comes with many health pitfalls

  • Today’s main feature covers the main traps to avoid, and how to enjoy excellent health ready for the new year!

• Wish you had a doctor who takes your menopause symptoms seriously?

  • Today’s sponsor Winona’s board-certified physicians are offering personalized, bioidentical HRT tailored to your needs and delivered to your door.

• Today’s featured book is about resistance training in the context of injury or chronic pain—a doctor of physical therapy’s guide on how to fix what can be fixed, and make things stronger rather than weaker.

Read on to learn more about these things, or click here to visit our archive

A Word To The Wise

Watch and Learn

Stop Tinnitus, & Improve Your Hearing By 130%

Caveat: this will depend on the cause of your tinnitus, but there’s a quick diagnostic test first, and it’s for the most common kind 🙂

Prefer text? The above video will take you to a 10almonds page with a text-overview, as well as the video!

Saturday Life Hacks

Ho Ho How’s Your Health Going To Look Next Month?

Tomorrow will be December the first.

A month later, it’ll be January the first, and very many people will be quite briefly making a concerted effort to get healthier.

So, let’s get a head start, so that we can hit January already in great health!

December’s traps to plan around

In North America at least, common calendar-specific health problems associated with December are:

• Infectious diseases (seasonal flu and similar unpleasantries)

• Inactivity (seasonal weather)

• Slower metabolism (seasonal eating and drinking, plus seasonal weather)

• Alcohol (seasonal drinking)

• Stress (seasonal burdens)

So, let’s plan around those!

But first, sleep

Nothing will go well if we are not well-rested. There are six dimensions of sleep, but the ones that generally matter the most are regularity and duration, so plan for those and the rest should fall into place:

Calculate (And Enjoy) The Perfect Night’s Sleep

Skip those viruses

If you’re doing the rest of what we advise, your immune system will probably be in good shape, unless you have some chronic disease that means you are immunocompromised, in which case the next things will be extra important:

• Avoid enclosed spaces with lots of people where possible

• Ventilation is your friend (as is air filtration)

• Masks don’t protect against everything, but they do protect against a lot

• Wash your hands more often than you think is necessary (invest in luxurious soap, to make it a more pleasant experience, then you’re more likely to do it often!)

• Breathe through your nose, not your mouth (nostril hairs attract floating particles by static charge, and then dispose of intruders via mucus)

See also: The Pathogens That Came In From The Cold

Plan your movement

But, realistically. Let’s face it, unless you already have such a habit, you’re not going to be hitting the gym at 6am every day, or be out pounding pavement.

The weather often makes us more reluctant to exercise, so if that sound like you, plan something low-key but sustainable that will set you in good stead ready for the new year. Here are two approaches; you can do both if you like, but picking at least one is a good idea:

1. Commit to just a few minutes of high-intensity exercise each day. If you don’t have equipment, then bodyweight squats are a great option.

2. Commit to gentle exercises each day—pick some stretches and mobility drills you like, and focus on getting supple for the new year.

See also: How To Keep On Keeping On, When Motivation Isn’t High ← this isn’t a motivational pep talk; it’s tricks and hacks to make life easier while still getting good results!

Fuel in the tank

It’s fine if you eat more in winter. We even evolved to put on a few pounds around this time of year. However, to avoid sabotaging your health, it’s good to do things mindfully. Pick one main dietary consideration to focus on, for example “anti-inflammatory” or “antidiabetic” or “nutrient-dense”.

Those focused ways of eating will, by the way, have a huge amount of overlap. But by picking one specific factor to focus on, it simplifies food choices at a time of year when supermarkets are deliberately overwhelming us with choices.

If you’re having a hard time picking just one thing to focus on, then we recommend:

What Matters Most For Your Heart?

About that festive spirit…

Alcohol consumption goes up around this time of year, partly for social reasons, partly for “it’s cold and the marketing says alcohol warms us up” reasons, and partly for stress-related reasons. We’re sure you know it sabotages your health, so choose your path:

How To Reduce Or Quit Alcohol, or

How To Reduce The Harm Of Festive Drinking (Without Abstaining)

Relax and unwind, often

There’s a lot going on in December: consumerism is running high, everyone wants to sell you something, finances can be stressful, social/familial obligations can be challenging sometimes too, and Seasonal Affective Disorder is at its worst.

Make sure to regularly take some time out to take care of yourself, and make sure you’re doing the things you want to do or really have to do, not just things you feel you’re expected to do.

Different people can have very different challenges at this time of year, so it’s hard to give a “one size fits all” solution here (and we don’t have the room to cover every possible thing today). You know your life best, so think what you’re most likely to want/need for you this month, and make sure you get it.

At the very least, most of us will benefit from taking a few minutes to consciously relax, and often, so something that is almost always a good idea for that is:

No-Frills, Evidence Based Mindfulness

…but if you’re feeling in a more playful mood, consider:

Meditation Games You’ll Actually Enjoy!

Take care!

Our Sponsors Make This Publication Possible

Searching for a doctor who takes your menopause symptoms seriously?

Winona believes every woman deserves to feel their best. Their board-certified doctors provide customized hormone therapy to address your unique needs, with free shipping and ongoing support:

Please do visit our sponsors—they help keep 10almonds free

This Or That?

Vote on Which is Healthier

Yesterday we asked you to choose between collard greens and kale—we picked the collard greens (click here to read about why), as did just 28% of you!

Now for today’s choice:

Click on whichever you think is better for you!

Bonus (Sponsored) Recommendation

Starting in our 30s, some key cellular processes begin to slow down, making us feel tired and weak over time. Meet Mitopure, by Timeline, a clinically proven way to increase cellular energy, giving our bodies the energy they need to function optimally.

Try Mitopure today with 30% off with code NEWSLETTER30 for a limited time, while supplies last!

One-Minute Book Review

Rebuilding Milo: The Lifter's Guide to Fixing Common Injuries and Building a Strong Foundation for Enhancing Performance – by Dr. Aaron Horschig

The author, a doctor of physical therapy, also wrote another book that we reviewed a while ago, “The Squat Bible” (which is also excellent, by the way). This time, it’s all about resistance training in the context of fixing a damaged body.

Resistance training is, of course, very important for general health, especially as we get older. However, it’s easy to do it wrongly and injure oneself, and indeed, if one is carrying some injury and/or chronic pain, it becomes necessary to know how to fix that before continuing—without just giving up on training, because that would be a road to ruin in terms of muscle and bone maintenance.

The book explains all the necessary anatomy, with clear illustrations too. He talks equipment, keeping things simple and practical, letting the reader know which things actually matter in terms of quality, and what things are just unnecessary fanciness and/or counterproductive.

Most of the book is divided into chapters per body part, e.g. back pain, shoulder pain, ankle pain, hip pain, knee pain, etc; what’s going on, and how to fix it to rebuild it stronger.

The style is straightforward and simple, neither overly clinical nor embellished with overly casual fluff. Just, clear simple explanations and instructions.

Bottom line: if you’d like to get stronger and/or level up your resistance training, but are worried about an injury or chronic condition, this book can set you in good order.

Click here to check out Rebuilding Milo, and rebuild yourself!

Penny For Your Thoughts?

Wishing you the best of health for the coming month,

The 10almonds Team