Do You Have A Personalized Health Plan? (Here’s How)

10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

“Good health” is quite a broad umbrella, and while we all have a general idea of what “healthy” looks like, it’s easy to focus on some areas and overlook others.

Of course, how much one does this will still depend on one’s level of interest in health, which can change over the course of life, and (barring serious midlife health-related curveballs such as a cancer diagnosis or something) often looks like an inverse bell curve:

  • As small kids, we probably barely thought about health
  • As teenagers, we probably had a narrow view of health (often related to whatever is considered sexually attractive at the time)
  • In our 20s, may have a bit of a health kick in which we learn and apply a lot… Which often then gets to later take a bit of a back seat to work responsibilities and so forth
  • This is commonly followed by a few decades of just trying to make it to Friday by any means necessary (definite risk factor for substance abuse of various kinds), double if we have kids, triple if we have work, kids, and are also solely responsible for managing the household.
  • Then just as suddenly as it is predictably, we are ambushed when approaching retirement age by a cluster of age-related increased health risks that we now get to do our best to mitigate—the focus here is “not dying early”. A lot of health education occurs at this time.
  • Finally, upon retirement, we actually get the time to truly focus on our health again, and now it’s easier to learn about all aspects of health, even if now there’s a need to juggle many health issues all at once, most of which affect the others.

See also: How Likely Are You To Live To 100? ← in which we can also see a graph of 10almonds subscribers’ ages, consistent with the above

So, let’s recap, and personalize our health plan

There are often things we wish we could have focused on sooner, so now’s the time to figure out what future-you in your next decade (or later!) is going to thank you for having done now.

So, while 20-year-old us might have been focusing on fat levels or athletic performance, how much does that really help us now? (With apologies to any readers in their 20s, but also, with the bonus for you: now’s the perfect time to plan ahead!)

At 10almonds, while we cover very many health topics, we often especially focus on:

  • Brain health
  • Heart health
  • Gut health

…because they affect everything else so much. We’ve listed them there in the order they appear in the body, but in fact it can be useful to view them upside down, because:

  • Gut health is critical for good metabolic health (a happy efficient gut allows us to process nutrients, including energy, efficiently)
  • Metabolic health is critical for good heart health (a nicely ticking metabolism will not strain our heart)
  • Heart health is critical for good brain health (a strong heart will nourish the brain with well-oxygenated blood and the nutrients it also carries)

So, this isn’t a catch-22 at all! There is a clear starting point:

Stop Sabotaging Your Gut

“How do I do the other bits, though?”

We have you covered here: Your Health Audit, From Head To Toe

“Wait, where’s the personalization?”

This comes once you’ve got those above things in order.

Hopefully you know what particular health risks you have—as in, particular to you.

First, you will have any current diagnoses, and a plan for treating those. Many chronic illnesses can be reversed or at least lessened with lifestyle changes, in particular, if we reduce chronic inflammation, which is implicated in countless chronic illnesses, and exacerbates most of the rest.

So: How to Prevent (or Reduce) Inflammation

The same goes for any heightened risks you have as a result of those current diagnoses.

Next, you will have any genetic health risks—so here’s where genetic testing is a good one-shot tool, to get a lot of information all in one go.

Learn more: The Real Benefit Of Genetic Testing

…and then, of course, take appropriate steps to avoid suffering the things of which you are at increased genetic risk.

Finally, you will have any personal concerns or goals—in other words, what do you want to still be able to do, later in life? It’s easy to say “everything”, but what’s most important?

This writer’s example: I want to remain mobile, free from pain, and sharp of mind.

That doesn’t mean I’ll neglect the rest of my health, but it does mean that I will regularly weigh my choices against whether they are consistent with those three things.

As for how to plan for that?

Check out: Train For The Event Of Your Life! ← this one is mostly about the mobility aspect; staying free from pain is in large part a matter of avoiding inflammation which we already discussed, and staying sharp of mind relies on the gut-heart-brain pipeline we also covered.

You can also, of course, personalize your diet per which areas of health are the most important for you:

Four Ways To Upgrade The Mediterranean (most anti-inflammatory, gut-healthiest, heart-healthiest, brain-healthiest)

Take care!

Don’t Forget…

Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!

Recommended

  • Language Fluency Beats General Intelligence & Memory For Longevity
  • Cherries’ Very Healthy Wealth Of Benefits!
    Cherries: sweet vs. sour, packed with antioxidants, anti-inflammatory properties, diabetes-fighting substances, sleep enhancers, and exercise recovery boosters!

Learn to Age Gracefully

Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:

  • Beat Sugar Addiction Now! – by Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum & Chrystle Fiedler

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    Sugar isn’t often thought of as an addiction in the same category as alcohol or nicotine, but it’s actually very similar in some ways…

    A bold claim, but: in each case, it has to do with dopamine responses to something that has:

    • an adverse effect on our health,
    • a quickly developed tolerance to same,
    • and unpleasant withdrawal symptoms when quitting.

    However, not all sugar addictions are created equal, and Dr. Teitelbaum lays four different types of sugar addiction out for us:

    1. Most related to “I need to perform and I need to perform now”
    2. Most related to “I just need something to get me through one more stressful day, again, just like every day before it”
    3. Most related to “ate too much sugar because of the above, and now a gut overgrowth of C. albicans is at the wheel”
    4. Most related to “ate too much sugar because of the above, and now insulin resistance is a problem that perpetuates itself too”

    Of course, these may overlap, and indeed, they tend to stack cumulatively as time goes by.

    However, Dr. Teitelbaum notes that as readers we may recognize ourselves as being at a particular point in the above, and there are different advices for each of them.

    You thought it was just going to be about going cold turkey? Nope!

    Instead, a multi-vector approach is recommended, including adjustments to sleep, nutrition, immune health, hormonal health, and more.

    In short: if you’ve been trying to to kick the “White Death” habit as Gloria Swanson called it (sugar, that is, not the WW2 Finnish sniper of the same name—we can’t help you with that one), then this book is really much more helpful than others that take the “well, just don’t eat it, then” approach!

    Pick up your copy of Beat Sugar Addiction Now from Amazon, and start your journey!

    Share This Post

  • Take This Two-Minute Executive Dysfunction Test

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    Roll For Initiative

    Some of us struggle with executive dysfunction a lot; others, a little.

    What Is Executive Dysfunction?

    Executive function is a broad group of mental skills that enable people to complete tasks and interact with others.

    • Executive dysfunction can impair a person’s ability to organize and manage behavior

    • Executive dysfunction is not a specific stand-alone diagnosis or condition.

    • Instead, conditions such as depression and ADHD (amongst others) can affect a person’s executive function.

    Medical News Today

    Take This Two-Minute Executive Dysfunction Test

    How did you score? (8/16 here!)

    Did you do it? (it honestly is really two minutes and is quite informative)

    If not, here’s your cue to go back up and do it

    For almost all of us, we sometimes find ourselves torn between several competing tasks, and end up doing… none of them.

    For such times, compile yourself a “productivity buffet”, print it, and pin it above your desk or similar space.

    What’s a productivity buffet?

    It’s a numbered list of 6, 8, 10, 12 or 20 common tasks that pretty much always need doing (to at least some extent!). Doesn’t matter how important they are, just that they are frequently recurring tasks. For example:

    1. Tidy desk (including that drawer!)
    2. Reply to emails/messages
    3. Drink water
    4. Collect stray one-off to-dos into a list
    5. Stretch (or at least correct your posture!)
    6. Extend that Duolingo streak
    7. Read one chapter of a book
    8. Etc

    Why 6, 8, 10, 12, or 20?

    Because those are common denominations of polyhedral dice that are very cheap to buy!

    Keep the relevant die to hand (perhaps in your pocket or on your desk), and when you know you should be doing something but can’t decide what exactly, roll the die and do the item corresponding to the number you roll.

    And if you find yourself thinking “damn, I got 12, I wanted 7!” then go ahead and do item 7—the dice aren’t the boss of you, they’re just there to break the ice between you and your to-do list!

    The Housekeeper In Your Pocket?

    If you found the tidying tips (up top) helpful, but don’t like cleaning schedules because you just can’t stick to them, this one’s for you.

    It’s easy to slip into just doing the same few easy tasks while neglecting others for far too long.

    The answer? Outsource!

    Not “get a cleaner” (though if you want to and can, great, go for it, this one won’t be for you after all), but rather, try this nifty little app that helps you keep on top of daily cleaning—which we all know is better than binge-cleaning every few months.

    Sweepy keeps track of:

    • What jobs there are that might need doing in each room (or type of room) in the house
    • How often those jobs generally need doing
    • How much of your energy (a finite resource, which it also takes into account!) those jobs will take
    • How much energy you are prepared to spend per day (you can “lighter/heavier” days, or even “off-days”, too)

    …and then it populates a small daily task list according to what needs cleaning and how much energy it’ll take.

    For example, today Sweepy gives me (your trusty writer, hi! ) the tasks:

    • Bathroom: clean sink (every 3 days, 1pt of energy)
    • Dining room: clean and tidy table (every day, 1pt of energy)
    • Bedroom: vacuum floor (every 7 days, 2pts of energy)
    • Kitchen: clean coffee machine (every 30 days, 2pts of energy)

    And that’s my 6pts of energy I’ve told Sweepy I’m happy to spend per day cleaning. There are “3 pts” tasks too—cleaning the oven, for example—but none came up today.

    Importantly: it does not bother me about any other tasks today (even if something’s overdue), and I don’t have to worry my pretty head about it.

    I don’t have to feel guilty for not doing other cleaning tasks; if they need doing, Sweepy will tell me tomorrow, and it will make sure I don’t get behind or leave anything neglected for too long.

    Check it out (available for both iOS and Android)

    PS: to premium or not to premium? We think the premium is worth it (unlocks some extra customization features) but the free version is sufficient to get your house in order, so don’t be afraid to give it a try first.

    Share This Post

  • Calisthenics for Beginners – by Matt Schifferle

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    For those who are curious to take up calisthenics, for its famed benefit to many kinds of health, this is a great starter-book.

    First, what kind of benefits can we expect? Lots, but most critically:

    • Greater mobility (as a wide range of movements is practiced, some of them stretchy)
    • Cardiovascular fitness (calisthenics can be performed as a form of High Intensity Impact Training, HIIT)
    • Improved muscle-tone (because these are bodyweight strength-training exercises—have you seen a gymnast’s body?)
    • Denser bones (strong muscles can’t be built on weak bones, so the body compensates by strengthening them)

    A lot of the other benefits stem from those, ranging from reduced risk of stroke, diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis, etc, to improved mood, more energy, better sleep, and generally all things that come with a decent, rounded, exercise regime.

    Schifferle explains not just the exercises, but also the principles, so that we understand what we’re doing and why. Understanding improves motivation, adherence, and—often—form. Exercise diagrams are clear, and have active muscle-groups highlighted and color-coded for extra clarity.

    As well as explaining exercises individually, he includes three programs, increasing in intensity. He also offers adjustments to make exercises easier or more challenging, depending on the current condition of your body.

    The book’s not without its limitations—it may be a little male-centric for some readers, for instance—but all in all, it’s a very strong introduction to calisthenics… Enough to get anyone up and running, so to speak!

    Get started with “Calisthenics for Beginners” from Amazon today!

    Share This Post

Related Posts

  • Language Fluency Beats General Intelligence & Memory For Longevity
  • This Naked Mind – by Annie Grace

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    We’ve all read about the many, many, dangers of drinking. We’ve also probably all read about how to make the change to not drinking. Put things out of sight, tell your friends, have this rule, have this excuse (for not drinking) ready to give to people who challenge you, consider a support group, and so on.

    What Annie Grace offers in this #1 bestseller is different:

    A blend of mostly psychology and sociology, to examine the “liminal thinking” stages that funnel us to drink in the first place… and where that leads, and how to clamber back out of the pitcher plant we weren’t necessarily aware we were sliding into.

    While she kicks off citing Jung, from a psychological perspective more of this book is CBTish, as it pertains a lot to examining the process of:

    • belief—held and defended, based on the…
    • conclusion—drawn, often irrationally, from the…
    • experience—that we had upon acting on an…
    • observation—often mistaking an illusion for the underlying…
    • reality

    …and how we can and often do go wrong at each step, and how little of the previous steps we can perceive at any given time.

    What does this mean for managing/treating alcoholism or a tendency towards alchoholism?

    It means interrupting those processes in a careful, surgically precise fashion, so that suddenly… The thing has no more power over us.

    Whether you or a loved one struggle with a tendency to addiction (any addiction, actually, the advice goes the same), or are just curious about the wider factors at hand in the epidemiology of addiction, this book is for you.

    Get a copy of “This Naked Mind” from Amazon today!

    Don’t Forget…

    Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!

    Learn to Age Gracefully

    Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:

  • Black Bean Burgers With Guacamole

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    Once again proving that burgers do not have to be unhealthy, this one’s a nutritional powerhouse full of protein, fiber, vitamins, and minerals, as well as healthy fats and extra health-giving spices.

    You will need

    • 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed (or 1 cup same, cooked, drained, and rinsed)
    • 3 oz walnuts (if allergic, substitute with pumpkin seeds)
    • 1 tbsp chia seeds
    • 1 tbsp flax seeds
    • ½ red onion, finely chopped
    • 1 small eggplant, diced small (e.g. ½” cubes or smaller)
    • 1 small carrot, grated
    • 3 tbsp finely chopped cilantro (or if you have the “this tastes like soap” gene, then substitute with parsley)
    • 1 tbsp lemon juice
    • 1 jalapeño pepper, finely chopped (adjust per heat preferences)
    • ¼ bulb garlic, crushed
    • 2 tsp black pepper
    • 1 tsp smoked paprika
    • 1 tsp cayenne pepper (adjust per heat preferences)
    • ½ tsp MSG or 1 tsp low-sodium salt
    • Burger buns (you can use our Delicious Quinoa Avocado Bread recipe if you like)

    For the guacamole:

    • 1 large ripe avocado, pitted, skinned, and chopped
    • 1 tbsp lime juice
    • 1 tomato, finely chopped
    • ¼ red onion, finely chopped
    • ¼ bulb garlic, crushed
    • 1 tsp red chili pepper flakes (adjust per heat preferences)

    Method

    (we suggest you read everything at least once before doing anything)

    1) Process the walnuts, chia seeds, and flax seeds in a food processor/blender, until they become a coarse mixture. Set aside.

    2) Heat a little oil in a skillet, and fry the red onion, aubergine, and carrot for 5 minutes stirring frequently, then add the garlic and jalapeño and stir for a further 1 minute. Set aside.

    3) Combine both mixtures you set aside with the rest of the ingredients from the burger section of the recipe, except the buns, and process them in the food processor on a low setting if possible, until you have a coarse mixture—you still want some texture, not a paste.

    4) Shape into patties; this recipe gives for 4 large patties or 8 small ones. When you’ve done this, put them in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, to firm up.

    5) While you wait, make the guacamole by mashing the avocado with the lime juice, and then stirring into the onion, tomato, garlic, and pepper.

    6) Cook the patties; you can do this on the grill, in a skillet, or in the oven, per your preference. Grilling or frying should take about 5 minutes on each side, give or take the size and shape of the patties. Baking in the oven should take 20–30 minutes at 400℉ / 200℃ turning over halfway through, but keep an eye on them, because again, the size and shape of the patties will affect this. You may be wondering: aren’t they all going to be patty-shaped? And yes, but for example a wide flat patty will cook more quickly than the same volume of burger mixture in a taller less wide patty.

    7) Assemble! We recommend the order: bottom bun, guacamole, burger patty, any additional toppings you want to add (e.g. more salad, pickles, etc), top bun:

    Enjoy!

    Want to learn more?

    For those interested in some of the science of what we have going on today:

    Take care!

    Don’t Forget…

    Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!

    Learn to Age Gracefully

    Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:

  • The Secret Easy Tips to Loosen Your Hips In 10 Minutes

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    Stiff hips can often cause discomfort, and ultimately back pain because of how one thing relies on the other as its seat. However, there are ways to improve it without taking years to get to where you want to be:

    One bit at a time

    Warm up and massage:

    • Massage the front and back of the thighs to loosen tight muscles.
    • Use your body weight for effective massaging.
    • Relax and breathe slowly while massaging.

    Vary your stretches:

    • Perform a seated butterfly stretch, but avoid overexertion.
    • Move knees gently within a comfortable range of motion.
    • Perform stretches like placing one foot on the opposite knee or holding legs to open hips.
    • Stretch the hips while lying on the floor with bent knees.

    And now for the “magic move”: lie on your stomach, bend one knee, and gently rock to loosen hip stiffness.

    Generally speaking, for most stretches one can usually stretch further on one side at once, than both at the same time. So, leverage this in your flexibility training, to get each side of your body accustomed to going that bit further. Then, when your body is comfortable with that, put it together.

    For more on all of this plus visual demonstrations, enjoy:

    Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!

    Want to learn more?

    You might also like:

    How Tight Are Your Hips? Test (And Fix!) With This

    Take care!

    Don’t Forget…

    Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!

    Learn to Age Gracefully

    Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails: