Are you Normal?

Growing up, I was a major superhero fan. Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman. The list goes on. Yet what is one common theme amongst all superheroes?

Yes. That’s right. They are not ‘Normal’ people.

In fact, I would consider them as ‘Optimal’ beings. Some may argue that Superman and Wonder Woman are optimal because they have super powers. But Batman certainly did not have super powers yet he is still in optimal form and function. I’m referring to the comic version of Batman, of course. Definitely not the Ben Affleck version. 

What is normal? Normal is average. Normal is boring. In today’s times, normal means you are overweight, bordering diabetic, sleep deprived, over stressed and under achieved. 

How does the medical world rank people as normal or not?

First of all. There needs to be a mechanism to measure our metrics and gather the data. I suck at math but I do remember the standard deviation....

Who Do You Live For?

The last couple of years has been particularly hard on us.

My father passed away due to complications from his Parkinson’s disease, which is something he had been suffering for over 12 years.

Minna’s mother broke her hip and got a hip replacement a couple of years ago. But she never really fully recovered from the surgery. Every time we see her, she seemed to have deteriorated a little more.

My mother has osteoporosis of her knees and her knee pains are getting worse every year.

And what hurt me most this year was when I found out that my older brother, his name is Sam. Sam has been diagnosed with kidney failure and I have made multiple visits back home to support him, take him through his tests and diagnosis and trying to change his lifestyle and habits to reverse some of his symptoms of his diabetes, high blood pressure and lose some weight because all these chronic diseases ultimately led to his kidney problems.

So over the course of just 2...

Hi. It is Andrew from the Foolish Couple. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving last weekend. For us, we didn’t actually had a turkey over the weekend. Minna and I went to Vancouver to visit our family during Thanksgiving. And since Canadians don’t celebrate Thanksgiving the same day that we do, well, we didn’t have our Thanksgiving dinner.

But we are thankful that our parents are always there for us and we are thankful that in general our family members are living quite well.

But, our Vancouver trips are always a little stressful trip for us. Let me explain.

Lately, we have been really focusing on confirmation bias, and how we can raise our awareness on confirmation bias and probably even to debunk it. Because, like everybody else, we also have our own confirmation bias.

So this week, our topic is about the limiting beliefs on your health situation, and the lies that you tell yourself through confirmation bias.

First of all,...

Hello. Welcome to the Foolish Couple's blog. If you have been following us for a while, you would know that we created the FoCo Academy to guide and mentor people to achieve true health and healthy relationships through nutrition, exercise, mindset and lifestyle changes.

Last weekend, we went to this epic Thanksgiving party with over 20 people. It was a potluck party so everyone brought different dishes to the party. We made a smoked turkey, our super antioxidant salad and our special dry-farmed wines. Others made rib eye steak, grilled vegetables, clam chowder, sautéed mushrooms, egg & potato salad, mashed potatoes, scalloped potatoes, fresh baked breads, fried rice, fresh fruits, cheesecake, tiramisu, passionfruit mousse cake and lots of wine and lots of chips.

The holidays are here. This is the joyous yet dangerous times when things get out of hand. During the year, hopefully by now we have inspired you to at least make some small changes to your...

Hello. Welcome to our blog. I am Andy. And this time, I am running solo without Minna. Minna and I have many things in common. Heck, we even share the same birthday, just so that we won’t ever forget each other’s birthdays. But there is one thing that is vastly different between us. And that, is alcohol.

The way I see it, there are 2 types of people. The type who likes to drink alcohol, and the type who doesn’t. I am a social drinker and I do enjoy drinking amongst a bunch of friends, but Minna rarely drinks. She has, in her DNA, an alcohol flush reaction, meaning that she would turn beet red even after just a few tiny sips of wine. And according to her, alcohol also makes her itchy and uncomfortable. She more or less stays away from drinking altogether.

But I do enjoy a glass of wine every now and then, and there are a lot of debate over whether red wine is good for your health or not. Some of the health benefit claims include:

• Boost Heart...

The 3 Pillars of Healthy Aging - Part 3

Hello. We are the Foolish Couple. We believe that healthy relationships start with health and we help couples achieve total success in health and in relationships through nutrition, exercise, mindset and lifestyle. 

We came up with the 3 pillars of healthy aging and we're on our last pillar of healthy aging. 

But first let’s do a quick recap. To us, healthy aging means

• to slow down our body’s aging process
• having a sound body and mind
• free from pain and diseases
• looking and feeling younger and
• of course having lots of energy

Pillar #1: Healthy eating habits

We came up with the 3 pillars of healthy aging. The first one is about healthy eating habits. What you eat has a direct impact on how you look and how you feel. Eating foods that are nutritious and clean will do wonders to your body. Eating bad foods, such as processed foods, will not only age you inside...

The 3 Pillars of Healthy Aging - Part 2

Hello. We are the Foolish Couple. We believe that healthy relationships start with health and we help couples achieve total success in health and in relationships through nutrition, exercise, mindset and lifestyle. 

We began talking about Healthy Aging and to us, healthy aging means

• to slow down our body’s aging process
• having a sound body and mind
• free from pain and diseases
• looking and feeling younger and
• of course having lots of energy

We came up with the 3 pillars of healthy aging. Last time we talked about the first pillar to healthy aging, and that is healthy eating habits. If you’ve missed that episode make sure you go back and watch it after you’re finished with this one. The link to Episode 1 is here.

Move it or Lose it! 

The second pillar to healthy aging is: Move it or Lose it! The problem with the general population is that we eat too much and we move...

The 3 Pillars of Healthy Aging 

Hello. We are the Foolish Couple. We believe that healthy relationships start with health and we help couples achieve total success in health and in relationships through nutrition, exercise, mindset and lifestyle. Over the next couple of weeks, we will be talking about "Healthy Aging".

To us, healthy aging means:

• to slow down our body’s aging process
• having a sound body and mind
• free from pain and diseases
• looking and feeling younger, and
• having lots of energy

We came up with the 3 pillars of healthy aging. And today we’ll talk about the first one.

Pillar #1: Healthy Eating Habits 

The first pillar to healthy aging has to do with our eating habits. Too many of us eat like it’s our last meal. They eat whatever they feel like, without thinking about the consequences of how the food affects their bodies.

Good foods can heal you, but bad foods can really hurt you. Your choice of food is...

Are you an Underpant Gnome?

We are the Foolish Couple, Andy and Minna. We believe that healthy relationships start with health and our goal is to help people achieve true health and healthy relationships through nutrition, exercises, mindset and lifestyle.

Today we have invited our resident teddy bear to this blog because, well, as you can see, he is wearing underpants. And today, we’re going to talk about, yeah, underpants.

The other day someone told us about this episode on South Park that he insisted that we should watch. Normally we don’t watch South Park, but we decided to check out this particular episode, which is called “underpants gnomes”.

So, the story goes like this. The character in South Park was talking to his friends, and he said,

‘Someone has been stealing my underpants! I only have 1 pair left!’

So, they set off to look for the underpants thief, and they found out that it was a bunch of...

Have you found your “Fountain of Youth”?

Ever since ancient history, humans have been searching for ways to look and stay young, to preserve their vitality and youthfulness, and to live forever.

We are the Foolish Couple, Andy and Minna. We believe that healthy relationships start with health and our goal is to help people achieve true health and healthy relationships through nutrition, exercises, mindset and lifestyle.

In ancient Chinese history, people used to have to praise their king with “Ten Thousand Years of Life” before they can be dismissed. Not only do we all wish to have a longer life, but we all want to live a Happy, Healthy Life. Modern medication has advanced to the point that your life can be extended by many years, even when you have chronic, degenerative diseases.

But how will your quality of life suffer if you depend on medication and medical treatment to stay alive? Will you still able to fulfill your...