Natural Exercise – HumanaNatura

HumanaNatura Health Programs

September 1, 2022

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As previously announced, I have been at work since late 2020 updating the HumanaNatura natural health programs and supporting materials, and importantly, converting them into book form. Right now, I am in the midst of final proofreading of the updated materials, and on track for the book’s publication in early 2023.

In preparation for the new book, the longstanding HumanaNatura natural health program website – formerly located at humananatura.org – has been closed down. Access to the website materials will continue via the book, which will be available in both electronic and paper formats. The HumanaNatura blog will continue unchanged, providing uninterrupted access to HumanaNatura’s many natural health articles, the graphical OurPlate dietary model (to be updated with the book’s publication), and the ever-popular HumanaNatura calisthenics poster.

HN Screenshot

If you are not familiar with the now-retired HumanaNatura website, its natural health programs, and its various supporting materials, the above graphic is a screenshot of its home page. For two decades, the site offered personal guidance and assessment tools for exploring naturally healthy modern eating, exercise, lifestyles, and community.

Most of the content of HumanaNatura’s natural health programs has found its way into the new book, though this material will be revised significantly overall and its format will be somewhat different. Key changes include: 1) putting the project of both personal and collective health into a larger and I think more helpful and motivating context, 2) reformatting and expanding the outgoing personal health program’s four natural health techniques into seven natural health tools, 3) substantial revisions to the natural eating section of the personal health program, again including an updated OurPlate dietary model, and 4) extensive updates to both the community health program and community assessment worksheet.

In addition to these program changes, I want to highlight that the new book also will complete a long-planned three-book series on my part, and in particular form the first of the three books in the series, even as it is the last of the works to be published as a book. This natural health trilogy of mine is an overarching project that has guided my writing for several years now, and in total explores natural health successively at a personal, social, and philosophical level. The other two books in this series and progression are The Seven Keys of Natural Life and Nature’s One Commandment, each already published and likely to be updated modestly during 2022.

If you have used the HumanaNatura natural health programs, either over the years or more recently, I would enjoy hearing from you with ideas and suggestions as I finalize work on the program revisions and book conversion. You can reach me anytime at marklundegren.com+hn@gmail.com.

Health & best wishes,

Mark

Mark Lundegren is the founder of HumanaNatura.

Tell others about HumanaNatura…give the gift of modern natural life!

HumanaNatura Book Conversion

January 1, 2020

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By Mark Lundegren

I am pleased to advise that preliminary work has begun on creating a book version of HumanaNatura’s natural health programs.

In the meantime, our comprehensive Personal Health Program and innovative Community Health Program remain accessible at HumanaNatura.

As you may know, I developed the HumanaNatura materials over a twenty-year period of learning, testing, community feedback, and periodic revision. Today, other than some pending changes to the nutritional information, I consider the programs complete, and my interest in converting the materials into a book format reflects this view.

In addition to refining the HumanaNatura programs, I have been writing about health-based life more broadly the last few years, including publication of my Seven Keys of Natural Life. This book of natural health practice is based on core ideas developed during the creation and refinement of HumanaNatura. It shows how key areas of modern life can be approached more naturally and beneficially, via a process I call the Natural Strategy method.

More recently, I have been at work on a companion book, this one almost entirely philosophical and centered on understanding why a health-centered approach to life is naturally superior. The new book, Nature’s One Commandment, is due to be published in 2020, and I am well into final proofreading now.

If you have used and benefited from the HumanaNatura programs, I would enjoy hearing from you with ideas and suggestions, as I plan and then begin work on the book conversion.

You can reach me anytime at marklundegren.com+hn@gmail.com.

Health & best wishes,

Mark

Mark Lundegren is the founder of HumanaNatura.

Tell others about HumanaNatura…give the gift of modern natural life!

HN’s April Health Challenge!

April 1, 2019

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It’s April, and whether this means spring or fall where you are, it’s a great time of the year to begin new things and challenge yourself to be happier, healthier, and more fulfilled in the weeks and months ahead.

If you are ready for a challenge that will help you to achieve all these things, and maybe more, HumanaNatura’s April Health Challenge and HN-100 Natural Fitness Program may be just right for you. HN-100 is a free, step-by-step health program that gets results and introduces you to all four of our lifelong natural health techniques.

Our challenge? It’s for you (and maybe a friend) to begin HN-100 this month and see the program through to the end. As the name suggests, HumanaNatura’s HN-100 Program is a 100-day fitness plan that familiarizes you with our overall natural health system in a structured and incremental way. You may find that HN-100 strikes a perfect balance of essential fitness guidance and gradual exploration of your unique long-term health potential.

If you take our April Health Challenge, by July you will understand the HumanaNatura approach firsthand and in practical terms, possibly be in the best health and fitness of your life, and be equipped to maintain and progressively increase your natural fitness and well-being across your life.

In the HN-100 Program, there are 15 weekly focus areas, spanning the 100 days of the program:

Week 1 – The Foundation: Natural Eating
Week 2 – Explore Natural Exercise & Begin Walking
Week 3 – More Natural Exercise: Adding Calisthenics
Week 4 – Explore Natural Living: The Ten Dimensions
Week 5 – Explore Natural Living: Natural Life Planning
Week 6 – Explore Natural Living: First Self-Assessment
Week 7 – Halfway Point: Transitioning To Natural Living
Week 8 – Draft Your First Natural Life Plan
Week 9 – Advanced Exercise & Life Plan Refinement
Week 10 – Implement Your Natural Life Plan
Week 11 – Advanced Exercise & Plan Implementation
Week 12 – 100% Natural Eating & Explore Community
Week 13 – Complete 30-Day Actions & Explore Community
Week 14 – Assess Your Initial Natural Living Actions
Week 15 – Learn & Prepare For Ongoing Progressive Life

If you are ready to take our challenge, or want to learn more about HN-100 and HumanaNatura, click-through to our HN-100 Overview Page for detailed instructions on using HumanaNatura’s HN-100 program. And feel free to contact us anytime with your questions – online coaching in the use of our natural health programs is an important part of the HumanaNatura system, and is always confidential and without cost.

Again, it’s April, and maybe you are ready for a new challenge. We hope so, and that our HN-100 natural fitness challenge will prove to be a breakthrough change for you – leading you to new health, fitness, and quality of life, now and throughout your life.

Tell others about HumanaNatura…give the gift of modern natural life!

Wishing You Healthy Holidays!

December 23, 2018

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In much of the world, winter and new year holidays are upon us, or soon will be – remembering it is the beginning of summer and middle of the natural year in the southern hemisphere.

This common cross-cultural occurrence suggests roots in ancient winter solstice celebrations, even in cultures that traditionally used a lunar calendar, and a common desire to mark the welcome turn from declining to increasing daylight.

Regardless of your culture and the timing of its seasonal holidays, another common theme this time of years is that our emphasis on happy holidays can make healthy holidays difficult. All too often, we are encouraged to engage in older, less health conscious customs, or new ones born of nostalgia for the past.

This can mean less healthy eating, less regular exercise, or less healthy and even patently health-indifferent social activities – all with the potential for significant inertia in our lives well beyond the holiday season.

With these ideas in mind, HumanaNatura would like to offer ten ideas to help make this or your next holiday a healthy one for you, your family, and your community, wherever you are and whenever your holidays occur:

#1: Eat before events – as an aid to avoiding unhealthy foods

#2: Offer to cook – greatly improving culinary control

#3: Bring a dish – ensuring at least one healthy option

#4: Morning walks – before becoming busy with events

#5: Group calisthenics – fun for kids of all ages

#6: Active activities – away from couches and chairs

#7: Share 2018 recaps – fostering learning & understanding

#8: Discuss 2019 plans – inspiring reflection & forward thinking

#9: Volunteer – to reach more people in the holiday spirit

#10: Renaturalize – by spending time in nature, quietly or adventurously

This list may encourage you to have other healthy holiday ideas, and we would enjoy hearing them in the comments section.

From all of us in the worldwide HumanaNatura natural health community, we wish you healthy holidays, whether now or next.

Tell others about HumanaNatura…give the gift of modern natural life!

HumanaNatura Program Changes!

November 10, 2018

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As planned, and as outlined in our last few community newsletters, HumanaNatura has just completed an extensive update of the Natural Eating section of our Personal Health Program. If you are tracking the iterations, the new nutritional materials are in their eighth edition, extending back to when HumanaNatura first launched in 2002.

In addition, while editing the Personal Health Program, we also used this opportunity to make a change to one of the Core calisthenics exercises in the Natural Exercise section of the program – specifically updating the Body Twists exercise in its entirety.

HumanaNatura…Evolving In Time, As With All Natural Things

The revised Personal Health Program and companion OurPlate dietary guide and graphic, along with revised versions of our stand-alone Calisthenics Guide and Workout Poster, are all now live online and can be accessed via the above links. Please note that the updated Personal Health Program and Calisthenics Guide are each labeled version 3.6, so you can be sure you have the latest editions. As mentioned, this now completed work substantially updates the HumanaNatura Natural Eating technique.

Please note that no other material changes were made to HumanaNatura’s Personal Health Program and none were made to our Community Health Program. However, various supporting materials have been updated to reflect the Natural Eating changes, and these updated items are listed below:

Once again, the changes to the Natural Eating section are considerable, with substantial new material that nearly doubles the size of the Natural Eating technique overall. Among the new materials are expanded discussions of historical human diets and eating patterns, natural food intermittency and thus ketogenic fasting in human history, and the science of both intermittent fasting and ketogenic eating today.

Following on these points, we would add that special attention has been paid to better differentiate and also link the historical and modern dietary science discussions in the Natural Eating section. In addition, another notable change is that four model diets are presented and discussed in some detail, each with different fat-carbohydrate profiles. And while the Natural Eating section overall and its guidelines in particular will be familiar, all are significantly revised and updated.

Specific changes to the Natural Eating section include:

> Added discussion of modern dietary science consensus and controversy

> Expanded discussion of the naturalness of both fasting and low-carbohydrate eating

> Examination of the idea of essential carbohydrates

> Discussion and contrast of the pros and cons of four model diets with different fat/carbohydrate ratios

> Offering ketogenic eating as an option within Natural Eating

> Updating of the OurPlate graphical model to reflect this option

> Encouragement of at least short-term exploration of ketogenic eating as a tool to reduce hunger and increase dietary control – notably during the transition to Natural Eating and as needed over time

> Discussion of long-term ketogenic eating

> Consideration of ketogenic eating during pregnancy, lactation, and childhood

> Expansion of the fasting discussion, including added information on daily intermittent fasting, as well as the use of water and electrolyte fasts for weight loss

> Encouragement of daily intermittent fasting

> Discussion of healthy body fat levels in women and men, and girls and boys

If you have questions or suggestions on these changes, please let us know. You can comment below or message us via Contact HumanaNatura anytime, and with whatever is on your mind.

In the meantime, we would welcome and encourage your review of the new Natural Eating materials!

Tell others about HumanaNatura…give the gift of modern natural life!

HN’s October Health Challenge!

October 1, 2018

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It’s October, and whether this means fall or spring where you are, it’s a great time of the year to begin new things and challenge yourself to be happier, healthier, and more fulfilled in the weeks and months ahead.

If you are ready for a challenge that will help you to achieve all these things, and maybe more, HumanaNatura’s October Health Challenge and HN-100 Natural Fitness Program may be just right for you. HN-100 is a free, step-by-step health program that gets results and introduces you to all four of our lifelong natural health techniques.

If you take our October Health Challenge, by January you will understand the HumanaNatura approach firsthand and in practical terms, possibly be in the best health and fitness of your life, and be equipped to maintain and progressively increase your natural fitness and well-being across your life.

In the HN-100 Program, there are 15 weekly focus areas, spanning the 100 days of the program:

Week 1 – The Foundation: Natural Eating
Week 2 – Explore Natural Exercise & Begin Walking
Week 3 – More Natural Exercise: Adding Calisthenics
Week 4 – Explore Natural Living: The Ten Dimensions
Week 5 – Explore Natural Living: Natural Life Planning
Week 6 – Explore Natural Living: First Self-Assessment
Week 7 – Halfway Point: Transitioning To Natural Living
Week 8 – Draft Your First Natural Life Plan
Week 9 – Advanced Exercise & Life Plan Refinement
Week 10 – Implement Your Natural Life Plan
Week 11 – Advanced Exercise & Plan Implementation
Week 12 – 100% Natural Eating & Explore Community
Week 13 – Complete 30-Day Actions & Explore Community
Week 14 – Assess Your Initial Natural Living Actions
Week 15 – Learn & Prepare For Ongoing Progressive Life

Again, it’s October, and maybe you are ready for a new challenge. We hope so, and that our HN-100 natural fitness challenge will prove to be a breakthrough change for you – leading you to new health, fitness, and quality of life, now and throughout your life.

Tell others about HumanaNatura…give the gift of modern natural life!

Keto And Strenuous Exercise

August 10, 2018

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By Mark Lundegren

I am recently back from a fairly challenging 15-day summer backpack along a section of the Pacific Crest Trail, one covering 555-kilometers (345-miles) through central and northern California. If you follow HumanaNatura, you may know that extended walks of this kind are a regular occurrence for me, and something I encourage for anyone who is able.

What was different this time, however, is that I did the entire walk eating ketogenically, or with a very low carbohydrate intake and primarily burning ketones or fats for energy. Since ketogenic exercise at this level is still unusual, and because there remains quite limited material on ketogenic eating amid strenuous exercise and other demanding physical activity, I wanted to use this opportunity to summarize what I did and experienced. Hopefully, the discussion will be helpful to you and, as importantly, encourage researchers to explore intensive exercise and sustained activity amid intentional ketosis.

Looking South Across A Very Smokey Sonora Pass In Northern California

Before beginning our discussion, let me emphasize that I did this extended keto-enabled walk after a significant time of eating and exercising ketogentically in my regular life (technically, eating phyto-paleo-keto, or a diet that is plant-rich; free of grains, legumes, and processed foods; and then further largely free of fruits and starches – see here and here for examples of my typical once or twice-daily meals). Because of this, I had given my body sufficient time to become keto-adapted or able to readily (and naturally) use fats as my primary energy source.

Importantly, regardless of how physically fit you are or may become, I would recommend not engaging in strenuous or extended exercise on a ketogenic diet until you are fully keto-adapted (this normally takes a month or more), reasonably experienced in ketogenic eating overall, and have successfully exercised more moderately on a ketogenic diet for a number of weeks. I would also recommend avoiding alcohol entirely while eating, exercising, and living ketogenically, as is my practice.

Continue reading “Keto And Strenuous Exercise”

HN’s April Health Challenge!

April 1, 2018

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Continue reading “HN’s April Health Challenge!”

HN’s October Health Challenge!

October 1, 2017

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Our challenge? It’s for you (and maybe a friend) to begin HN-100 this month and see the program through to the end. As the name suggests, HumanaNatura’s HN-100 Program is a 100-day fitness plan that familiarizes you with our transformative natural health system in a structured and incremental way. You may find that HN-100 strikes a perfect balance of essential fitness guidance and gradual exploration of your unique long-term health potential.

Continue reading “HN’s October Health Challenge!”

HN’s April Health Challenge!

April 1, 2017

Visit HumanaNatura Follow Us On Facebook

If you are ready for a challenge that will help you to achieve all these things, and maybe more, HumanaNatura’s annual April Health Challenge and HN-100 Natural Fitness Program may be just right for you. HN-100 is a free, step-by-step health program that gets results and introduces you to all four of our lifelong natural health techniques.

Our challenge? It’s for you (and maybe a friend) to begin HN-100 this month and see the program through to the end. As the name suggests, HumanaNatura’s HN-100 Program is a 100-day fitness plan that familiarizes you with our transformative natural health system in a structured and incremental way. You may find that HN-100 strikes a perfect balance of essential fitness guidance and gradual exploration of your unique long-term health potential.

Continue reading “HN’s April Health Challenge!”