June 2010  Newsletter – How a healthy lifestyle plan has benefits far beyond just weight loss

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Recently, I watched part of a series on Dstv called The Doctors (www.thedoctors.tv.com) and was horrified by some of the statistics on heart disease: 70% of American children have the start of hardening of the arteries by the time they are 12, and children as young as 3 are showing signs of heart disease. Fortunately much of this can be avoided by eating correctly. And if you are genetically predisposed to heart disease, diet becomes critical in preventing the early onset of heart disease.

I know many of you may be saying well that’s the States, it’s not us….actually our statistics of heart disease, obesity and diet are no longer that different from America. We are eating more and more processed foods and fewer foods even closely resembling how nature made them.

How often do you eat something where you cannot identify exactly what is in it? It may be tasty but using a burger as an example, can you identify if it is beef, lamb or pork? Maybe it’s all 3? Did you check the ingredients on the box? How about the white bits in it? Are they fat or are they perhaps chicken or turkey? If you made a homemade burger, would you add the same meats, colourants, fats, preservatives and nature identical flavours (in other words, man made chemicals) as the mass produced burger or would you use less ingredients with all of them being identifiable?

The foods recommended for the prevention of heart disease are exactly the same foods one should be eating to sustain a healthy weight and balanced life style: complex carbohydrates, healthy fats, vegetables, fruits and mostly fish and white meat (rather than fatty red meat).

And this is my point: Healthy weight is a journey, and it should be a life style journey that will last you the rest of your days. Getting to where you want to be weight wise is not a quick goal where then you can utter a huge sigh of relief while returning to old eating habits. To permanently change your weight and fitness means permanently changing what you eat and what you do…it’s about positively reinventing your lifestyle choices!!

So my message to you is take the time to find how you can enjoy this trip of health, fitness and the correct weight. Most of us are happy to pay towards insurance – for our homes, life and cars plus medical aid, just in case we need them….how about insuring your health by eating correctly too? And it doesn’t have to be boring! Remember you have trained yourself to eat the way you do and it is just as easy to retrain your brain and taste buds to enjoy healthier eating too. (Hypnosis can also help you change these patterns if you are really stuck).

Here are a few tips in what to avoid and what to eat. By reinventing your diet and focusing on balanced eating, you can increase your chances of enjoying a longer, healthier life while having the bonus of being your goal weight.

Limit:

The most important simple carbohydrates to limit in your diet include:

• Fizzy drinks
• Sweets and most chocolates
• Artificial syrups
• Sugar
• White rice, white bread, and white pasta
• Potatoes (which are technically a complex carb, but act more like simple carbs in the body)
• Pastries and desserts

Increase:

Good fats are important for the body in a variety of ways, including improving heart health. And they're such an important part of a healthy diet because your body doesn't make essential fatty acids, some of the most important fats. In order to get what your body needs for good heart and brain health, you have to eat these good fats. Change the way that you cook, and use healthy vegetable oils. Snack on nuts, add avocados to salads and sandwiches, and dress up dishes with olives.

Foods with good fats that can help boost your health include:

• Fish and other seafood, especially salmon and other fatty fish
• Walnuts, pecans, and almonds
• Flaxseed oil
• Vegetable oils like olive, soybean, corn, sunflower, and safflower
• Sesame, pumpkin, and other seeds
• Avocado

Load up on super foods
Quit focusing on missing the obvious culprits (thick steak with béarnaise sauce, buttery mashed potatoes, chips and full-fat ice cream) and start loading up on healthy foods!!

According to a study published in the British Medical Journal, eating seven "super" foods daily (red wine, dark chocolate, fruits, vegetables, garlic, fish, and nuts), in the appropriate portion sizes can reduce your heart disease risk by 75 percent and add an average of six years to your life.
The dark chocolate and fruits and vegetables lower your blood pressure. Garlic and nuts lower LDL cholesterol. Fish helps protect against cardiac arrhythmias, blood clotting, and inflammation. Together, these foods help protect the endothelium (the Teflon-like coating around your blood vessels) and reduce the risk of heart disease.

Slash your calorie intake
Since the 1930s, studies have shown that calorie-restricted diets improve the health and extend the life spans of rodents. Now researchers are learning that slashing calories may have similar beneficial effects in humans. A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, for instance, found that two markers of longevity (fasting insulin level and body temperature) were lowered in humans through prolonged calorie restriction.
It has long been known that keeping excess weight off can stave off disease as well as adding years to your life.

Even if you're at a healthy weight, preliminary research shows that slashing your daily caloric intake by one-third can add years to your life. "The trick isn't just to eat less but to make sure that what you do eat is loaded with nutrients," says Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., author of The Healthiest Meals on Earth. "If most of your diet is plant foods, you can eat a phenomenally healthy (and filling) diet on 1,400 to 1,500 calories a day." Eat seven cups of spinach, for example, and you've consumed only 100 calories.

Go Mediterranean
Nutritionists consistently report that a Mediterranean-style diet — including fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fish, and a daily glass of red wine (or pure pressed grape juice) — promotes longevity. In fact, studies show that this type of diet lowers blood pressure, reduces inflammation, and protects against serious health conditions ranging from cancer to stroke.

Or emphasise a plant-based diet
You'd be hard pressed to find a nutrition expert who would argue against eating more fruits and vegetables. Plant foods are loaded with antioxidants, powerful disease-fighting chemicals that help counteract damage from free radicals, oxidation, stress, pollution, and other environmental toxins. People who live a long time tend to eat a lot of plant foods. These are the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet. They're loaded with flavonoids, phenols, polyphenols, and thousands of other chemicals we haven't even discovered yet — and all of them help prevent disease.

Here’s a challenge to you all J Try adding one more plant based food to your evening meal, and remember to eat slowly and mindfully!

Enjoy the world cup and school holidays. Travel safe to those of you getting away too!

Kind regards

Lesley Wood

021-4182843

082 3 782 782

www.weight-masters.com

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Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I shall have the belief that I can do it. I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it, even if I may not have it at the beginning.                                                                              Mahatma Gandhi    1869-1948, Indian Nationalist Leader

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