There’s a Great Scene in one of my favorite old movies, A Thousand Clowns, where Jason Robards’s iconoclastic character, Murray (a disillusioned, unemployed-by-choice TV writer), is admonished to “get back to reality.” He says, mock-serious: “I’ll only go as a tourist.”

That’s how I often feel when confronted with what passes for reality in our culture. Being asked to settle for the way things are just doesn’t sit well with me.

That’s a big part of what inspired me to create Experience Life, of course. I wasn’t satisfied with the quality or consciousness of the conventional health magazines I was reading, and I believed it was possible to create something better.

Over the past decade or so, I’ve been told by a great many pragmatists that I have unrealistic expectations, that I’m overly optimistic, that I should dial back my hopes and dreams about what’s possible.

I do consider that advice from time to time. But then I look at how far we’ve come over the past decade and a half, and I think, “Nah, I’ll just keep on pushing for the seemingly impossible.”

Because here’s what I’m seeing: In many of the places where Experience Life was once a lone voice in the woods, there are now lively crowds gathering. Where once some of our expert sources were considered oddball outliers, they are now well regarded as among the world’s best.

Early reporting we did a decade ago (suggesting that natural fats and dietary cholesterol were not the heart-disease culprits they’d been made out to be) is now being echoed in Time magazine. It has even been incorporated into the new USDA recommendations. (In case you missed it, the 2015 USDA Dietary Guidelines no longer specify a limit on total dietary fat, and no longer consider dietary cholesterol a “nutrient of concern.” Some experts hope to see remaining prohibitions against saturated fats eased next.)

Arguments we’ve long made against calorie-based approaches to weight loss are now being advanced by respected scientific experts like David Ludwig, MD, PhD. (If you haven’t seen our feature article based on his new New York Times best-selling book, Always Hungry?, you can find it at “Hungry No More“.)

Ten years ago we were writing about a virtually unheard-of healthcare approach called “functional medicine.” Now Mark Hyman, MD, the progressive medical expert we were going to for advice back in 2003, serves as the director of Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine. Last time I checked, they were scheduled several months out and had a waiting list of close to 1,500 patients from around the world.

Today, our once-unique whole-person, whole-life approach to healthy living has been similarly embraced by the mainstream. Positive psychology, mindfulness, social health, and envi-ron–mental sustainability (domains that were visible only at the fringes of health coverage back when we started Experience Life in 2001) are now areas of central interest.

And the once-almost-inconceivable commitment Experience Life made to avoid sensational “bikini body” and “drop a size” cover blurbs is now being embraced by a leading competitor: Women’s Health recently announced that it will avoid using such “negative” and “shaming” terms on its covers in the future.

The fact that a leading health magazine is willing to acknowledge that such language is damaging is encouraging to me, and yet it is also heartbreaking. Because those terms have been hollering at us from the newsstands for decades now. Which means we have a lot of past damage to undo. And clearly, we still have a lot of future work to tackle.

Every day, I see things I’d like to change. I see plenty in our current reality that makes me mad, sad, mystified, inclined to visit only as a tourist. But that’s OK.

To paraphrase that old tune made popular by Billie Holiday: The difficult we will do right now. The impossible will take a little while.

This “Get Real” issue of Experience Life is a great place to start.

There are some crazy little lies we health seekers tell ourselves, often without realizing it. They go something like this: Once I am in better shape, I’ll start going to the gym/yoga studio/trainer. Once I get to my ideal weight, I’ll give up the diets and start eating more whole foods. Once I feel more confident about my appearance, I’ll start getting out of the house and being social more often.

And until that hoped-for some day comes? Well, we’ll just keep glaring at our bodies with frustration, trying to hide all the parts we wish were different. We’ll just keep eating the processed food, drinking the diet soda, and sneaking sweets on the side. We’ll just stay home again tonight and have some drinks and snacks while we watch TV in our sweatpants. You know, just for now — until we are feeling better about ourselves and a little more ready to take on a big change.

It sounds pretty nutty when you put it like that, of course, but that’s what passes for logic in the mind of a person who is struggling to shed an unhealthy self-image and a bunch of self-sabotaging patterns.

It can feel like a battle between two aspects of a split personality. One emerging identity feels a healthier life calling, sees a happier, more inspired self almost within reach. That part wants to make some changes.

But the old self — the part of us that doesn’t like uncertainty, the part that may feel ashamed of how things are, the part that isn’t sure we deserve better or can even survive without our current habits and structures — that part has a whole bunch of stories about why now is just not a good time.

Trouble is, that old “not right now” part of us can hold us back (for months, years, or even decades) from making even the slightest progress toward our biggest goals and desires. Getting that stuck part moving may take some reckoning. But note that I said “reckoning,” not “bludgeoning.” Because bludgeoning does absolutely no good.

I know this because back when I was going through the toughest part of my own healthy-life journey, I swerved endlessly between feeling like the victim of my unhealthy self and the hateful, hostile bully of it.

One day I’d feel helpless and hopeless about the state of my body and my life. I’d soothe myself with crappy food and numb myself with sedentary distractions.

The next day I’d feel disgusted and angry. I’d give myself harsh, punishing lectures about my lack of self-discipline. I’d look for ways to deny my body nourishment and pleasure. I’d go into white-knuckle withholding mode and just want the miserable day to be over.

It went like this for a long time: On my sad days, I’d indulge in unconscious ickiness and feel sorry for myself. On my mad days, I’d hate on myself and try to beat my “bad” behaviors into submission.

It wasn’t pretty. I didn’t like who I was in either mode. And nothing good was happening for my body.

Then, a couple of things happened. First, I got clear that this negative drama was playing out not just in my body, but also in my heart and mind. So I started doing some real soul-searching — digging into my values, my vision, my desires for my life, and the obstacles I was facing (a process you can read more about at “Refine Your Life“).

Next, I started imagining and experimenting beyond my current reality. I didn’t like my real-life body at this point (I mostly saw what was wrong with it and what I deemed not good enough). But I began to wonder: What if I started treating my body like I did like it? Or even loved it?

What would I do differently, I wondered, if I acted like I already had the healthiest, best-self body I so wanted? What if, instead of putting my healthy choices off until I deemed my body adequate and myself worthy, I started doing at least some of that healthy, positive stuff right now?

The results of these experiments were quick and dramatic. It turned out that even imagining doing nice things for myself radically changed the way I felt — and the way I was inclined to behave.

I would visualize myself (healthy and fit and feeling great in my body) getting up off the couch to go make myself a cup of tea or take a walk around the block, and I’d think, “Hey, that looks pretty appealing.”

Suddenly, I’d feel a quiver of motivation to actually do it. And the moment I’d act on that instinct, I’d feel a surge of positive energy that would make me inclined to do more.

I started out visiting the life of a healthy person almost like a tourist: I didn’t live there yet, but I liked to visit. Little by little, though, I began to inhabit my body in a very different way. I shifted my view of myself, and very soon, my body started shifting, too.

Want to make this experimental approach work for you? Here are a few ways to go about it:

1: Play an imagination game. What if you already had your best, healthiest body? How would you be treating it? How would you be eating and drinking and caring for it — right this minute, and on a daily basis? If you were already living the life of a super-healthy person, what things would you be doing differently? Try doing just a few of those things (even in a small, symbolic way). See how you feel and what you feel inclined to do next. Notice a little bright, excited feeling in your body? That’s your body saying, “Yes, please!” Do a little more. Experiment a bit. See what happens.

2: Be nice. Do at least one kind, healthy, self-nurturing thing for yourself each morning, ideally first thing when you get up. Make your bed. Have some warm water with a squeeze of lemon before you have your first cup of coffee. Floss your teeth. Dry-brush and oil your skin. Smile at yourself in the mirror. Light a candle and just sit for a minute. Put on some great music and groove a little before you go to work. It doesn’t really matter what the specific act or practice is; what matters is that you are treating yourself with reverence and respect. Once you’ve got your morning “nice thing” in place, add one in the evening — perhaps right when you get home from work (sorry, alcoholic drinks don’t count) or right before you go to bed. Gradually expand the space you dedicate to self-kindness.

3: Put love over fear. Often, the biggest obstacle blocking us from doing what we know could transform our health is simple fear: fear of other people finding us wrong or stupid or ugly or uncool, fear of change or loss or exploring our own potential. But you can be bigger than your fear and self-imposed limitations, particularly if you act out of love instead.

Ask: How can you express more love today — for your body, for yourself, for your life? When you sink into unhealthy behaviors or mindsets, notice what’s operating: love or fear? Choose love, and you’ll be choosing health, too.

It can feel weird at first, trying on choices and behaviors that aren’t yet “you.” In the spirit of experimentation, just give it a try. Start by faking yourself out a little, and you might just discover a whole new level of authenticity in the process.

You know what’s funny about severe stress? Not much, actually. At least not when you are in the middle of it. In fact, when you’re suffering from the body–mind disruptions that result from protracted stress, nothing seems particularly funny — because your sense of humor is one of the first things to go.

Whenever we’re really stressed out, we tend to inhabit what I call an “inflammatory mindset.” It’s a state of mind that interferes with our mental perceptions, irritates and swells our tissues, upsets our biochemical balance, and destabilizes our mood.

It’s a survival state where we set our jaws and grind our teeth, harden our eyes, shut down our hearts, and where the smallest irritations can fray our last nerve.

Once this mindset takes hold, most measures of our health, happiness, and sanity start dropping. And they typically keep dropping until one of two things happen:

1) We practice self-arrest. We witness ourselves sinking, recognize the danger signs, and initiate some sort of emergency-response protocol (rest, reflection, nourishment, movement, nature, social support); or

2) We hit bottom. We get to a place so miserable that we can no longer tolerate it, and we surrender to the fact we are going to have to change our lives and ourselves in some meaningful way.

While these two experiences are quite different, both represent resiliency at work.

The first scenario is like having a sturdy safety net strung tightly just a few inches below a high wire: You lose your balance, you go “oops!” and you hop right back on.

The second scenario is less pretty. You find yourself in freefall and wind up on the floor. But then — assuming you choose to live — an interesting thing happens: You bounce.

And sometimes, not too long after that, another interesting thing happens: You laugh.

You laugh because you are happy to be alive. You laugh because you suddenly wake up and go: “What was I thinking?” You laugh because you realize life on the other side of that bounce is so much better than whatever you were enduring before.

You laugh because you realize how many of your fellow humans have executed similar pratfalls, only to wind up in a better place as a result.

Most of us experience plenty of wobbling “oops!” moments (and at least a few spectacular, crashing plummets) at various points in our lives. So it’s worth noting: How do you handle the moments after each bounce? What are the stories you tell yourself and others about your bounce-back trials and travails?

Today, when I tell the story of my own inflammatory-mindset moments, I tend to tell them as comedic yarns. As in: Hey, remember that time all my eyelashes fell out, or I got the crazy clown-rash around my mouth, or I broke my own foot stomping in frustration, or I waited around for that one totally noncommittal guy for, like, 10 years? Oh my god, so funny! 

Because now that I’ve recovered from those experiences, they really are pretty hilarious — and also very valuable — to me.

I can also tell them as sad stories, of course, and as cautionary tales. But I think they are best as funny bounce-back stories. Stories of discovery, humility, self-compassion. Stories of learning the hard way. Stories of snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, and running with it.

Let’s face it: For most of us, life is one long blooper reel. Yes, there are unavoidable losses and tragedies along the way. Some will never be funny. But it’s how we choose to respond to those losses — how well we master our own fall-and-bounce cycles, and how we tell the stories of those arcs — that defines us.

Resiliency is a gift that certain people seem to have from birth, but it’s also a skill that any of us can develop if we choose. And that’s why we focused this issue of Experience Life on some of the most powerful interventions available to those who want to develop their own bounce-back muscles.

I’d love to hear your stories, too — about resiliency and recovery, about the challenges you’re struggling to make sense of now. Connect with me via the social channels below. And in the meantime, happy bouncing.

Note: This video contains content that may be unsuitable for children. Discretion is advised.

Rodale’s Prevention magazine recently announced that it will soon stop taking print ads and increase its cover price by a dollar to make up for lost ad revenue. This is a bold, exciting (and some might say crazy) move from a pioneer in the healthy-living space. It comes at time where higher levels of media integrity and independence are desperately needed.

Readers want more authenticity and transparency. They need credible, objective information that actually helps them improve their health and happiness  (vs. just selling them new-and-improved stuff and entertaining them with fluffy listicles), and they rightly suspect that the increasingly blurred relationship between editorial and advertising could be undermining the quality of the information they are getting.

Discerning audiences are no longer satisfied with pat “church and state” explanations for why the messages in ads and editorial sometimes clash. (I know because over the years, I’ve had to offer a few such explanations to readers who just weren’t having it.)

But here’s the scary part that even many savvy readers don’t understand: That clash is too often a best-case scenario. Far worse is when the editorial coverage is invisibly altered to agree with — or at least not directly oppose — the ads.

That’s not supposed to happen, of course, but subtly or not so subtly, at many publications, it does. Whenever magazines rely more on ad revenue than subscriber revenue, the pressures and temptations to compromise are just too strong.

Quietly, behind closed doors, important editorial messages get diluted, diverted, deleted, delayed — either because advertisers overtly object to statements that might hurt their sales and reputation, or because publishers and editors simply feel they can’t take the risk alienating their best cash-cows and customers (whom they increasingly see as advertisers, not readers).

That’s how you get articles about managing type-2 diabetes that somehow never mention sugar or flour (but promote exercise as a strategy for managing blood sugar instead).

It’s why so few nutrition articles ever talk about the downside of “whole-grain” breakfast cereals (when there are many).

It’s why mass-media stories on the dangers of certain commonly used ingredients like hydrogenated oils or high fructose corn syrup emerge years or even decades later than they should.

It’s why many magazines won’t touch stories about worrisome chemicals or GMOs (much less climate change, perhaps the biggest human health issue of all time) with a ten-foot pole.

And perhaps it’s why there are still so few articles explaining how chronic health conditions can be reliably reversed — not merely managed — using effective lifestyle interventions (most of which would involve eliminating processed foods) rather than medications.

The fiscal reliance that leading health magazines now have on ads for pharmaceuticals, processed foods, soft drinks, diet aids, and plastic surgeries is disconcerting. Trends toward “native advertising” further complicate the situation, and chip away at an already fragile reader trust.

It’s not hard to imagine that many readers would much rather pay a dollar or two more for an ad-free magazine they can enjoy with greater confidence (and less schizophrenic BS). But only time will tell.

Meanwhile, it will be fascinating to see how this new approach plays out financially for Prevention, and how it spills over to affect advertiser and reader relationships at other magazines. In my view, it opens the door to some important and potentially uncomfortable conversations about media and media-literacy that are long overdue.

In order for writers and editors to feel free to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth — for them to report in a timely way, without fear or interference, on the emerging science around food, medicine, the environment and more — publishers are going to have to demonstrate new levels of courage and freedom from advertiser influence.

But the real success of this experiment is going to depend on the willingness of readers (who have now been trained to expect artificially cheap and free content) to start paying the true cost of good, objective reporting and editing.

I’m proud that Experience Life* has always been able to exercise a high level of editorial courage and independence (even when that created some frustration and anxiety for all involved). It’s one of the primary reasons we’ve been able to get out ahead in our reporting of so many important health issues, from the dangers of commonly prescribed pharmaceutical drugs to the benefits whole foods offer over processed ones — and even on the beleaguered state of health media itself.

But it’s not easy. If a magazine reports that whole, natural, full-fat foods are fine, that dietary cholesterol isn’t really anything to worry about, and that low-fat, low-calorie diet foods aren’t actually good for you, what happens to their relationship with advertisers who have a great deal invested in a very different message? I’ll tell you: It gets awkward, quickly.

Now think about that same dynamic as it might play out with pharmaceuticals, agricultural and industrial chemicals, all the weird stuff that goes into beauty and bodycare products. Yeah, more awkwardness all around.

I, for one, am excited to see Prevention taking the lead here, and I hope we’ll see more magazines going this way. But I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for mega-publishers like Hearst or Conde Naste to follow suit.

* While Experience Life (the healthy-living magazine of which I am founding editor) does take advertising, it does not take ads for pharmaceuticals, soft drinks, diet aids or plastic surgery. It also enjoys an unusual level of editorial independence, thanks to its relationship with its parent company, Life Time Fitness, and the fact that the majority of its revenue comes from reader subscriptions. If you want to know more about what makes Experience Life different, here’s an essay, Six Packs and Sex Lives, I wrote way back when. Or you can check out 20 Things That Make Experience Life Different (including No. 18: “We won’t ever sell out.”)

Ready to change the way you think about fat and weight-loss? In this eye-opening interview, Experience Life founding editor Pilar Gerasimo talks with Dr. David Ludwig about his new New York Times best-selling book Always Hungry?, and his research-based approach that challenges many of the common myths and misperceptions about what it takes to lose weight and keep it off. Dr Ludwig is a researcher at Boston Children’s Hospital and professor at Harvard Medical School (drdavidludwig.com). Learn more in our 2015 feature story at “Hungry No More” and at ELmag.com/ludwigpodcast.

I like to give every year of my life a theme. And for me, 2015 was the Year of Desire.

It was a year of noticing what I was really hungry for — physically, mentally, emotionally, socially — and of finding value and pleasure (instead of anxiety or angst) in those appetites.

It was a year in which I got clear that there’s a real intelligence in the energy that draws me to whatever it is that has grabbed my interest and attention.

For most of my life, I mistrusted that energy. I feared that heeding my desires would pull me off track, distancing me from my goals, and making me (or revealing me as) weaker than I wanted to be.

“Oh, sure,” I’d think, “stopping to smell the flowers [or have this chat, or read this poem, or notice how I am feeling] is all well and good — but I’ve got important things to do!”

For a long time, I ran myself ragged getting all those important things done. Some of those things were rewarding. But many came at the expense of more valuable considerations, including my sense of peace, my sense of connection, my true sense of purpose, and my most honest creative expression.

What I’ve been noticing is that the things I’m initially tempted to deny myself are very often the things that make my life not just good, or even great, but truly lush, magic, and “me.”

A few years back, thanks in part to advice from my friend Cindy Joseph and some other wise women, I decided to start trusting my own instincts a bit more. I began assuming that the people, experiences, and things I am attracted to have some special, intrinsic value — whether or not I can fully grasp it at the time.

More than a decade ago, I reshaped my eating to reflect my real appetites. I chose to embrace a higher-fat, nutrient-dense, whole-food diet (much like the one that Harvard’s Dr. David Ludwig advocates for in “Hungry No More” and that we helped him test with 100 of our readers last year), rather than the low-fat, low-calorie, low-pleasure diet that was mass-advocated at the time.

That change radically improved both my health and happiness.

Now that I’ve put not just my body but my heart and mind on that same sort of feel-good regimen, I find a similar transformation taking place: Everything works better, feels better. My daily actions produce more pleasure, more value, and more fun.

And what about 2016? I feel like it will be the Year of the Ask. Not in a greedy “gimme” way, but in an open, honest, thoughtful way, a way that creates clarity, ease, and abundance — for me and everybody around me.

In her new book, The Art of Asking, musician and performance artist Amanda Palmer (whose TED talk has had nearly 8 million views) writes: “Asking is, at its core, a collaboration. . . . Those who can ask without shame are viewing themselves in collaboration with — rather than in competition with — the world.”

That’s what this issue of Experience Life is all about: Noticing and heeding your appetites for joy, and trusting they are in cahoots with some greater good.

Starting with Kathryn Budig’s cover interview, and winding up with “Build Better Habits,” we’ve rounded up all sorts of wisdom designed to help you get more of what you want out of life, and to give more of what you’re here to share.

Why not pick a theme for yourself for 2016? Then start noticing all the ways it begins to show up in your daily life: as awareness, as support, as serendipity.

And, hey, since 2016 is my Year of the Ask, I will ask: Will you please tell me what theme you come up with? Connect with me via the social channels below. Tell me what you want to learn, be, do, change, and experience this year. In exchange, all of us here at Experience Life will do our level best to help you get it.

Thank you, and happy New [Fill In Your Theme] Year!

P.S. I’m honored and excited to be part of Dr. Mark Hyman’s “Fat Summit: Separating Fat From Fiction,” which starts on Jan. 25. This cool online learning event features an all-star lineup of experts, including Dr. David Ludwig.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs states that humans have an ascending set of fundamental requirements — first for physiological survival essentials (like food, water, and shelter), then for safety and security, and then for a sense of love and belonging — all of which must be fulfilled before we are inclined to seek even higher motivations, such as self actualization and self-transcendence.

I would argue that there’s a corresponding hierarchy of needs in the pursuit of healthy living. And that observing and respecting that hierarchy can be a huge help in predisposing any health-and-fitness seeker toward success.

Otherwise, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by pesky details and “optimization” advice long before we’ve got our heads (and bodies) wrapped around more urgent essentials.

Too often, people get hung up on arcane questions about food combining, intermittent fasting, and herbal detoxes before they have begun consuming any reasonably balanced combination of whole, unprocessed foods.

They get drawn into debating the relative benefits of green tea, Bulletproof coffee, cold-pressed juice, and raw milk before they have begun to let go of their soda or vodka habit, or begun to embrace drinking any kind of clean water.

They get embroiled in the finer points of VO2 max, periodization, plyometrics, and slow- versus fast-twitch muscle before they have begun to practice getting any kind of regular, enjoyable activity.

Worse, people are often encouraged to ramp up aggressive nutrition and fitness programs before they’ve been invited to give any thought to their sleep, stress, or available energy.

They attempt to cram a whole fleet of new, complex habits and skill sets into a life whose daily structures, rhythms, and social influences are in no way designed to support them.

Needless to say, this doesn’t work all that well.

Part of the problem, as seen through the lens of Maslow, is that until the body’s basic cellular, neurological, and tissue-level survival needs have been met, it simply does not feel “safe.”

A poorly hydrated, malnourished, underslept, overstressed body is going to be stuck in “just-getting-by” mode, and until its basic needs are handled, that’s precisely where it’s going to stay.

In this condition, the body is not inclined to allocate resources to anything beyond defending its lackluster status quo: It’s not invested in generating higher levels of energy, burning off excess fat, increasing lean body mass, pursuing new goals, or discovering an athletic identity.

So, how can we address the body’s hierarchy of needs in a way that predisposes it to progress and evolution? By focusing first on the fundamentals.

1: Whole foods and water. By “whole foods” I mean actual, nature-produced foods — plants, animal products, nuts, seeds, fruits, legumes, whole-kernel grains — that have not been commercially processed, combined, re-flavored, and extruded into brand-name food products. And by “water” I mean water — pure, unsweetened, unadulterated H2O.

Why this comes first: Without adequate nutrition and hydration (and the elimination of hugely irritating processed flours, sugars, and chemical gunk), your body won’t have the cellular fuel it needs to get out of “struggle” gear. Instead, it will be bogged down with damage control.

Your energy, digestion, mood, and focus will all suffer. You aren’t going to feel much like being active, and your life will seem too overwhelming for you to consider undertaking most other attempts at healthy change.

You can massage the details of your personalized program (fat/protein/carb ratios, food sensitivities, and specific nutritional needs) through experimentation, or by getting some lab tests done and working with a smart nutrition pro. But starting with a good, whole-food eating plan is going to get you to healthy a whole lot faster than dabbling with more liminal details first.

2: Sleep and recovery. My friend Dallas Hartwig and I agree on this key point, and he’s doing a great job reminding folks of it: Unless you are getting adequate sleep and stress-recovery windows, including time to relax and enjoy important relationships, your body won’t have the capacity to repair day-to-day damage, much less take advantage of any strenuous fitness-improvement activities you decide to undertake.

Instead, you will be plagued by appetite disruptions that torpedo your healthy-eating intentions, and your whole body will be undermined by hormonal, neurological, and immune-system imbalances that work against all your other healthy-living efforts.

There are some real chicken-or-egg dynamics at work here though. For example, if you are not sleeping well, you will feel stressed out, be inclined to eat poorly, and have limited energy for exercise. But if you aren’t eating well, being at least somewhat active, and managing your stress, you’ll probably have trouble sleeping. So, hmm.

Ultimately, you have to intervene somewhere in the cycle, and only you can decide where you are best off applying leverage first. If you already know what works best for you, go for it.

In my experience, a whole-foods diet leaves me sane and energy-balanced enough to manage my life, create space for seven to eight hours of sleep, and sleep well through the night. That inclines me to feel more like exercising, and also lets me take on (and recover from) the higher-intensity training that builds my fitness. Which brings me to . . .

3: Activity and fitness building. Regardless of your fitness goals, you need a certain amount of daily activity (including full-range movement of your core, limbs, and digits) to shift your body fluids around, to lubricate your joints, to oxygenate your body’s tissues, and to give your brain some key inputs required for it to function properly.

Most of us get a certain amount of daily activity just by living our lives, and most of us would benefit from getting a great deal more. Fitness building is really about consciously escalating our levels of activity, while simultaneously seeking more exciting and nuanced opportunities for physical challenge, self-expression, exploration, and enjoyment.

Yes, high-intensity interval training (HIIT) can net you exceptional fitness gains — but only if you can get yourself to do it, and then maintain your efforts without injury or exhaustion.

So, diving into hardcore fitness building before you can tolerate a walk around the block, handle body-weight exercises, and maintain your general health probably isn’t going to pay off. It’s going to tear you down more than it builds you up; it’s going to put your body into injury-prone panic mode.

All of which brings me back to my original thesis: Giving your body the fundamentals it needs to feel secure at a biological and mental-emotional level is the best way to prepare yourself for next-level striving, and to reap the rewards of your augmented efforts.

So why not start by asking your body what it really wants and needs now? Once you get those basics handled, you’ll see higher-level motivations and rewards come into clearer focus. And all those pesky optimization details will start to make a whole lot more sense.

People have many excellent reasons for wanting to get and stay healthy. Most of them come down to two basic things: People want to look better and feel better. No big surprise there.

Delightfully, whenever we succeed in upgrading our health, we tend to get both of those benefits at once. But we also get a whole lot more — not just from the positive outcomes of our healthy efforts, but also from the pursuits themselves.

Unfortunately, within the context of our current culture, a lot of these positive benefits don’t get nearly enough air time or attention. In fact, most of them are hopelessly undersung.

Mass-media channels are too busy selling us on flatter abs, thinner thighs, and bigger biceps to dig into the broader payoffs of health improvement. And social media’s torrent of Fitspo posts rarely convinces us to lift our eyes (or our minds) above the level of a tightly sculpted midsection.

While there’s nothing wrong with chasing the torso of your dreams (particularly if you enjoy the chase), I have found that there’s greater value in expanding our horizons, and seeing that we can win much bigger than that.

Like many, I originally got interested in eating better and becoming more active because of yearnings that revolved around the basic “look-better-feel-better” promise (a subject I covered in my September column, “Revolutionary Acts No. 14: Leverage Your Big ‘Whys’”).

Gradually, though, I discovered that I was getting more than I’d bargained for: There were richer and more nuanced experiences to be noticed; more substantial rewards to be reaped.

I got a rush of unexpected satisfaction each time I discovered a new one, as in: “Hey, neat! Why didn’t anybody tell me about this delightful side effect?”

And yet, on some days — especially when I was feeling stressed, frazzled, tired, or distracted — it was hard for me to stay cognizant of all the ways I was profiting from my healthy commitments. And on days like that, of course, I found it a whole lot easier to let my commitments slide.

So years ago, in an effort to keep myself more consistently motivated, I started developing a list of all the benefits I stood to gain from my continued commitment to health stewardship and self-care. Here, in no particular order, are a few of my favorites:

• Improves your sense of self-confidence and self-esteem
• Amplifies your self-efficacy
• Increases your energy
• Upgrades your mental focus and endurance
• Balances your hormones
• Improves your moods and lowers your stress
• Eases depression and anxiety
• Relieves chronic aches and pains
• Reduces inflammation; reverses many chronic conditions
• Prevents hereditary, disease-causing genes from “switching on” in your body
• Improves your immunity and decreases your vulnerability to contagious diseases
• Extends your longevity
• Reduces the likelihood of being hospitalized or put on prescription drugs
• Lowers your healthcare costs
• Makes you smell better and eliminates offensive body odors
• Heightens your senses and increases your pleasure in being alive
• Makes you more fun to be around
• Enhances your chances of career success and improves your earning power
• Makes you more present and less reactive in your relationships
• Makes you a better partner, parent, and friend
• Emboldens you to try things you might previously have believed beyond your reach
• Gives you strength to fall back on in times of trouble, and helps you bounce back faster
• Helps protect you against addictive and disordered tendencies
• Allows you to exchange the role of low-vitality victim for the role of
  high-vitality catalyst
• Demonstrates your integrity, your willingness to pursue your priorities, and your ability to follow through on your commitments
• Gives you an opportunity to experience your life in a proactive, intentional way
• Makes you a force for positive change; lets you contribute more powerfully to the world around you
• Reduces your likelihood of becoming a burden on those you love
• Connects you with other strong, exceptional, health-motivated people who share your healthy values and interests

There are many more great payoffs, of course. And, day by day, my list continues to grow.

Whenever I look at my list, I feel a rush of excitement and motivation — and a funny sense of “Duh!” Because of course I want all that; of course I’m willing to go after it; and of course it’s worth the effort.

To me, the promise of all these payoffs goes a lot further in sustaining my motivation than the promise of any idealized midsection could.

Much of the time, we put our attention on minutiae. We nitpick the parts of our bodies we wish were different, we obsess about the things we don’t have, we get all hung up on the forbidden fruits we “aren’t allowed” to enjoy.

And in the process, we lose track of what really matters. We lose touch with the rewards already within our grasp — all those bigger payoffs and pleasures that stand to make the biggest difference in our lives, both now and over time.

There’s a very natural human tendency to overlook and take for granted the most fundamental of things, particularly when faced with a media landscape intent on endlessly reminding us of the new, the novel, the crazy, the click-worthy, and the terrifying.

So if you want to stay focused on the things that are actually most likely to change your life (as opposed to the “life-changing” discovery or trend of the moment), you are probably going to have to take matters into your own hands.

You’re going to have to reclaim enough brain space and life space for the pursuits and priorities that matter to you, and you may have to reorient your attention toward the less-advertised rewards of your efforts.

Start by making your own list of the payoffs you experience (or hope for) as the result of your own healthy choices, habits, and perspectives. Then allow that list to grow.

As 2015 draws to a close, I’m reflecting on the fact that I’ve been working on Experience Life for nearly 15 years now. Amazing.

Equally amazing is that I still love what I do, and I still learn something new with every issue. Somehow, it’s always a fresh experience for me. And with every issue, we get letters from readers who let me know it’s still a fresh experience for them, too.

One of the questions I get most often from people when they learn about my long history with the magazine is “How do you keep coming up with ideas for all those articles?” The truth is, that’s the easy part.

Because our mission is helping our readers lead healthier, happier, more authentic lives, and because we live in a culture that throws up endless obstacles to that goal, we rarely run short of potential topics.

As a creative team, we only have to look around at our own challenges (and at those of our families and friends) and consider what’s giving us the most trouble (or what’s working best for us), and we’ve got an endless supply of material.

The only thing I find some-what difficult about working on the magazine — particularly after all these years — is allowing it to grow beyond me, and allowing myself to grow beyond it.

I have always wanted Experience Life to have a life of its own, to see it evolve in ways that reflect our diverse, ever-expanding audience of health-motivated individuals. And of course, it must also reflect the shifting challenges they face.

At the same time, I am committed to seeing the magazine stay true to its original vision, to preserving its central “no gimmicks, no hype” promise, and to maintaining its whole-person, whole-life purview.

On a personal level, too, I’m a big believer in the idea that it’s important to keep growing, stretching, trying new things. So, for the past few years, I’ve been exploring ways I can recast my role as founding editor to include less time in the editing chair and more time as ambassador, guide, navigator, and collaborator.

[callout]I’m a big believer in the idea that it’s important to keep growing, stretching, trying new things.[/callout]

With this in mind, we’ve been expanding and reorganizing our team over the past year or so, and giving our staffers more room to try out new roles, hone new skills, and test out new territories.

It’s been a fun process, one that has breathed new energy into our pages and our digital endeavors, including our award-winning enhanced digital edition and social-media streams. It has also allowed some long-standing team members to grow in exciting new directions.

One person who has quite literally grown up on our team, and who continues to enthusiastically embrace new challenges, is Jamie Martin. After joining us as an intern, fresh out of college, more than a decade ago, Jamie quickly rose through the editorial ranks. For the past several years, she has led our digital initiatives, and recently she stepped into a new leadership role as executive editor.

Jamie and I have been working together for such a long time, I feel a profound sense of confidence in her instincts and skills. And in the coming year, as I peel off some of my day-to-day editorial tasks to focus more on the big picture (and my in-progress book), I am excited to see more of Jamie’s mark on the magazine and its various digital offshoots.

I’ll still be here at the helm, helping shape each issue, and keeping my finger on the pulse of whatever’s coming next. And I’m hoping you’ll actually get to hear a bit more from me as I make more time to speak, to write, to create new media streams, and to collaborate with like-minded partners.

Meanwhile, in honor of this successful year’s end, and the new year coming into view, we’ve dedicated the current issue to all things fresh, untried, unexpected. Here’s to the happy surprises, the unforeseen adventures, the doors unlocked and flung wide open just as you approach.

Take a deep breath, friends. Let us pause to release with appreciation the cycle we’ve just completed, and embrace with hope and optimism the new cycle that’s about to be revealed.