Click the link below to see my Dancing with the stars video. I was at the live tour in Lowell, Ma and was selected as a volunteer to go up on stage and dance with them, thanks to my two friends Kathy and Nancy who screamed so loudly that I couldn’t fail to be selected! So much fun!
As I’m currently working towards a Fitness Nutrition Specialist Certification, I thought I would share some of the information I’m learning with you via these monthly articles. If we can become better informed about foods and nutrients, it should certainly empower us to make better decisions in our day to day eating and exercise habits. This first article is just a quick overview of our food and what it contains. In the coming months we will look more deeply into each of these elements to truly understand how our bodies use them.
First of all think about this? Do you eat to live, or live to eat? I have heard this question posed in regards to work – and in this context it is trying to ascertain the same thing. Are you focusing too heavily on the joy of eating versus the importance of good and healthy nourishment for your body.
Many things influence the way that we eat. Our age, gender, genetic make-up, lifestyle, family and cultural background affect our food choices. We use food to project an image, show our creativity, build relationships, show friendship and express feelings.
We eat to cope with stress, or perhaps we don’t eat when we are stressed. We eat as a reward when we have done a good thing, or we don’t eat as punishment for personal failure. It would be interesting to figure out specifically what dictates our food preferences, and then to compare that with what we should be eating daily for optimal health.
Our food preferences can begin very early in life. Experiences we have had as a child cause us to like or dislike a food, and that can carry all the way to adulthood. To some degree what you eat says a lot about who you are. Age is certainly a factor. Infants with wide exposure to various foods will usually try new foods whilst pre-school children usually have a fear of trying new foods. Contrastingly school age children begin to be braver about trying new things and teenagers tend to be influenced in their food choices by their piers.
Look at which foods appeal to your senses. Taste, smell and texture play a roll – some people dislike certain foods just based on the texture. Color, moisture and temperature can also play a roll. Some people prefer salty foods to sweet, and others the reverse. Cognitive influences come from learned food habits which can go back to childhood.
If we were to generalize, we would see that in the typical American diet the most common grain is white bread. The favorite vegetable is the potato (usually in the form of French fries), and beef seems to be the favorite protein. As a whole, Americans eat few fruits and whole grains, focusing more on cereals, snack foods, juices and sodas. It seems many Americans do not know what they should eat, and even when they do learn what to eat it doesn’t necessarily make a difference to their daily food choices.
Environmental – where do you live, hot or cold, you will choose different foods depending on the weather
Religion – many religions have rules in regards to foods not to be consumed, or certain times when foods are limited.
Culture – certainly the culture you are born into plays a part. If you are like me and were born in another country, you carry many of your food and beverage habits with you to the new country – I’m specifically thinking of my 4pm tea time which my husband has also adopted.
Lifestyle – this plays a large part. How much time do you have to cook? What foods are available at your workplace? Does your schedule cause you to resort to convenience foods, or do you eat out several times a week?
Economics – What types of food can we afford or not afford? It used to be the refined foods that were available only to the wealthy, and the poor folk grew what they ate and raised their own meat etc. These days things are flipped around to where the refined foods are the cheapest, and the organic and more healthful choices are much more expensive.
Our goal should be to focus first and foremost on nourishing our bodies for optimal health. We can do this in a way that will still allow us to enjoy eating and look forward to our meals, perhaps even more so. Nourishment is necessary for growth and development, for cell and tissue maintenance, to provide fuel for physical activities, and to properly regulate our body processes.
These nutrients can be divided into organic and inorganic. Vitamins, carbohydrates, lipids and proteins are all organic and contain carbon in their biological structure, whereas water and minerals are inorganic with no carbon present.
Foods generally do not contain just one nutrient, although we might consider meat a protein and bread a carbohydrate – we are really generalizing based on the fact that protein is the largest part of meat and carbohydrate is the largest part of bread. However, there are usually small amounts of a variety of nutrients in most foods. A lot of carbohydrates also provide our body with fiber which is not technically an essential nutrient, but is very important for our overall health.
Main dietary sources: (Plant based): Starches, sugars, grains, vegetables, dry beans, peas, legumes, fruits.
Main purpose of carbohydrates: To provide your body with energy.
If thinking of water makes you think about hydrating, then the word carbo-hydrate tells you the exact composition of this nutrient. Carbohydrate is made up of Carbon, hydrogen and oxygen and is an important source of fuel for the body.
Carbohydrates are converted in the body to glucose, a simple sugar compound. Glucose is what our body uses to provide energy for cells and tissues. Carbohydrates provide the body with it’s preferred energy source. In the absence of enough carbohydrates it can use fats and proteins, but using alternative energy sources can deplete our bodies since fats and proteins have other important jobs that will be neglected if they are called upon to become a carbohydrate ‘stand-in’!!
Main dietary sources: Fats and oils, natural fats found in meat and fish, dairy products and other less obvious plant sources such as avocado and coconut, olives, nuts and seeds.
Main purpose of fat: The body uses fat as a fuel source, and fat is the major storage form of energy in the body. Fat also has many other important functions in the body, and a moderate amount is needed in the diet for good health. Fats in food come in several forms, including saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated.
Lipids are substances known as fats and oils. But they can also be fat like substances in foods such as phospholipids, and lipoproteins. Fats are organic compounds containing carbon hydrogen and oxygen.
Another type of fat: triglyceride. Triglycerides are a type of fat (lipid) found in your blood. When you eat, your body converts any calories it doesn’t need to use right away into triglycerides. The triglycerides are stored in your fat cells. Later, hormones release triglycerides for energy between meals. Triglycerides are an important fuel source for the body. Also triglycerides, lipoproteins and phospholipids have other important jobs in the body, such as providing structure for body cells, carrying fat soluble vitamins and providing cholesterol. Our bodies need cholesterol for important metabolic processes but we don’t need to consume it, our body can make enough using other compounds. Of course we all know that too much blood cholesterol is not good for us so we need to keep it all in balance.
Main dietary sources: Meat and fish, nuts, dairy products, Soy
Main purpose of protein: Hair and nails are mostly made of protein. Your body uses protein to build and repair tissues. You also use protein to make enzymes, hormones, and other body chemicals. Protein is an important building block for bones, muscles, cartilage, skin, and blood.
Proteins are organic compounds made of smaller building blocks called amino acids. Unlike carbohydrates and fats, amino acids contain nitrogen as well as carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Some amino acids also contain sulfur. The amino acids you get from protein combined with those in the body to make hundreds of different body proteins. We can divide these proteins into two groups:
Vitamins are organic compounds that contain carbon, hydrogen and sometimes nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulphur. Some vitamin functions in the body include:
Vitamins divide into two groups: fat soluble and water soluble.
Fat soluble: A, D, E and K. Fat soluble vitamins can be stored in larger amounts in the body, and are all transported in the same way.
Water soluble: C and 8 B vitamins: Thiamin(B1) Riboflavin(B2) Niacin(B3) Pyridoxine(B6) Cobalamin(B12) Folate, Pantothenic acid and Biotin. Most interact with the energy metabolism pathways.
Vitamins are in a variety of foods. If you have a balanced diet you will get enough of each and can rarely overdose on any. But if you overdo supplementation, some vitamins can become toxic and cause serious issues.
Minerals are inorganic substances. 16 essential to health:
Microminerals:
Minerals have diverse functions:
Water chemically the simplest nutrient. While we can live sometime without food, we cannot live long without water. 60% of our body is water so it is essential. Water is used for:
Sources of water: Water itself is our best source. We should drink about half of our body weight in fluid oz per day, not including any we sweat out. We also gain some hydration from beverages, fruits and vegetables
Carbohydrates, Proteins, Lipids (but only as triglycerides)
Finally, I’m sure you are constantly hearing of new claims regarding the healthfulness or lack thereof of certain foods, the latest fad diet etc… the media is very good at overstating any new finding that is out there. All this contradicting information can be very confusing. How do we sort out the scientific facts from so much misinformation? First of all consider the source. Usually news stories are sensationalized, over simplified, facts are distorted, omitted or modified. Also beware of anything that has the following claims:
There is still much to learn about food and its healthful properties. As scientists continue to conduct studies we will find out more about things that are helpful and harmful and as we learn we will adjust as we have always done. Just remember this, what you eat really does matter. Your diet will likely effect your quality of life and ultimately could effect the length of your life. Making good and healthful daily choices will give you the best chance to live a long and healthy life, continuing to do all the things you love.
Christmas is over, and now it’s time to think about the new year. That’s the time of year when we all tend to begin thinking about what we would like to accomplish in this new year, and what we would like to leave behind us. Usually we are looking to get rid of bad habits and pick up some good habits, but often this is easier said than done. Here are some helpful hints to get you started on that New Years resolution:
You may have heard of SMART goals. Specific goals. Measurable goals. Attainable goals. Relevant goals. Timely Goals. The acronym just helps to organize our thoughts in a way that can allow us to move towards the things we want to achieve in a realistic way.
1. SPECIFIC. Make a list of SPECIFIC things you would like to accomplish. For example:
These are your end goals, they are specific and not vague.
2. MEASURABLE. You have to be able to measure your progress and see that you are continually and successfully working towards your goals. For example, working towards your weight loss goal is MEASURED by weigh ins that show you are losing weight. You can MEASURE your smoking habits based on decreasing how much your smoke regularly and consistently until you are ready to stop altogether. Becoming less stressed can be measured by your general state of mind improving week by week. Taking steps towards finding a new job is evidence that you are working towards this goal. When thinking about how measurable your goals are, is where you begin to break down specifically HOW you are going to get from where you are now, to where you want to be. For example:
3. ATTAINABLE. Your goals have to be realistic and attainable. You don’t want to give yourself an impossible task by an unrealistic date, and set yourself up to fail. Be sure that what you are setting out to do is possible.
4. RELEVANT. Your goal has to be something that is worthwhile. Something that you are willing and able to work towards and once achieved will be worth the effort.
5. TIMELY. Above all you should impose time constraints on your goals. Rather than leaving them open ended make sure you have a time schedule attached to each goal. Setting a deadline will give you motivation and a sense of urgency in achieving your goals.
perhaps you want to share your goals with a friend, or you and a friend share your goals with each other and have regular check ins to see how you are doing working towards each goals. Accountability can go a long way towards maintaining motivation as you move forward toward your goals.
Do you love your life? Do you enjoy every moment of every day? Do you look around you and feel how blessed or lucky you are? If not, why not?
Conversely, do you wish the days and weeks away until the weekend, or the vacation, or the summer? Do you find you have more things to complain about than to be thankful for? Do you have a negative self image?
What happens if life hands you lemons? Do you make lemonade?
Being a strong and healthy person involves much more than diet and exercise. In order to live your best healthiest life and to be your best and healthiest self you have to ask yourself a few important questions:
Answering these three questions will help you start to find the path towards a happier, healthier and more fulfilled life.
There might be some things in your life that don’t make you happy but that you can’t change, so the alternative is to try to adjust them in such a way that they become less stressful and more tolerable. Increasing the positive aspects of your life will inevitably help to decrease the negatives. Also adjusting your mindset, or the way you think about something can go a long way toward helping adjust a negative situation into a more positive one. Back to the saying ‘if life gives you lemons, make lemonade’.
If I made a list of the things that make me happy it would be a very long one! Over time I have adjusted things in my life to the point that I really love my everyday life, and there are very few negatives.
In order to live your best, happiest, healthiest and most fulfilled life you have to be able to say ‘no’. Say ‘no’ to those things that will cause you stress and take time away from those things that you truly enjoy and love.
Here is a little formula to get you started:
First, list the things that you may either love about your life, and the things that make you feel good and happy. Here are a few examples:
Second, list the things in your life that cause you unhappiness or stress or that you don’t like. Here are a few examples:
Third, make a list of things you can change for the better realistically. Here are a few examples:
Forth, make a list of the things that you cannot change but can improve upon. For example:
Fifth, take steps toward making the changes you have listed. Do it slowly and step by step you will find yourself feeling better, healthier and happier. The test is to ask yourself a few simple questions:
Of course there are going to be those things that occur in daily life to cause us stress, aggravation and sadness. These types of feelings come and go, and if your overall daily life is a healthy and happy one, you will more quickly recover from the temporary setbacks that life often brings. I find that our perspective has a lot to do with how we deal with life’s unexpected stresses. Knowing that we are still so much better off than others in the world can often help us adjust our attitude, and make lemonade out of those annoying lemons.
I do feel that in every difficult situation there is something positive to be learned, even if it just helps us to grow and become stronger as a person.
In conclusion, I challenge you to take a close look at every aspect of your life. Make the changes necessary to allow you to be your healthiest and happiest self. We are only here for a short time, and we shouldn’t take any of it for granted. Spread positivity to those around you, and live and love every day to the max.
My mother always used to say “a little bit of what you fancy does you good,” and I never forgot it. I quote it to people all the time, to my children and always prefaced by ‘my mother used to say…’ My daughter suggested I use it as the name for my next blog post, so here it is!
In the context of health and wellness, I use this statement as a means to explain how important it is to eat “a little bit” of something real, rather than a lot of something chemically altered or synthetic. In this day and age of genetically modified, chemically altered and artificially sweetened, so-called ‘low fat’ food products, it is a very important reminder to those of us who really want to eat clean and healthy, while still shedding a few pounds.
Let’s look at a few common things people tend to eat in place of something real:
Diet Soda – can you say oxymoron? Of course I’m going to tell you that ANY soda is bad for you. We already know that refined sugar is bad for us, and a glass of soda contains just under 1/4 cup of sugar! But what about diet soda? For some years it has been hailed as something to help with weight loss.
Artificial sweeteners still have an effect on your body by triggering the release of insulin, which causes your body to store fat rather than burn it. It can also cause you to overeat in other areas feeling that you saved calories on a sugar free soda, so can then eat a bit extra (cognitive distortion). The American Beverage Association insists the sweeteners used in diet sodas such as aspartame, sucralose and saccharine, are fully studied and completely safe. However, there are over 900 published studies showing that artificial sweeteners are carcinogenic. For more details follow the link to an article by Dr. Mercola:
Subsequent studies have said that there is no clear connection between artificial sweeteners and cancer, but those were also heavily funded by businesses who use artificial sweeteners in their products…
The bottom line here is that it is really best to stay away from soda all together. Look at your consumption of any sugar and/or sugar-like substances, and do your best to eliminate or at least reduce its presence in your diet. The only safe low calorie sugar alternative is Stevia, which comes from a plant. Personally I do not enjoy the flavor of stevia as it is much sweeter than sugar, but if you can take the taste, at least you know you are eating something natural rather than manufactured.
Getting back to the main message: It’s far better to consume ‘a little bit’ of a natural sweetener than lots. But it is better to stay away from chemical sweeteners altogether. Your best options for sweetening agents are honey, molasses, maple syrup, agave, brown sugar and stevia for a low calorie alternative. Glucose has also been shown to be a healthy alternative, although it’s slightly less sweeter than sucrose.
So this is a hot topic: Should we eat butter, with its high fat content, or switch to one of the many low calorie alternatives offered today? When I was young, margarine was the big butter alternative touted to have lower saturated fat and cholesterol. Of course years later we realized that margarine is actually packed with trans-fat, which is way worse for you! But these days there is a new generation of butter alternatives now advertised with no trans-fat BUT they instead contain a myriad of additives and preservatives.
Just because something is low in fat doesn’t mean it’s good for you.
In fact, these low fat miracle products generally have a bunch of junk in them to make them taste good—extra sugar, chemicals, additives—which in the end are much worse for you than the slightly higher fat content, and prevent your body from losing weight. Skim milk? Might as well call it sugar milk.
Take it from Dr. Oz: “Don’t drink skim milk, you don’t need to. When you take the fat out of milk, what’s left? Sugar! Skim milk is sugar milk. You want to drink 2% milk, eat 2% yogurt…people who have a little bit of fat in the yogurt lose more weight, because your body is satiated.”
This harkens back to that cognitive distortion thing I mentioned earlier: With ‘low-cal’ products, mentally people think they can eat more, which means more of all that nasty artificial stuff in your system! Higher fat products not only don’t have all the junk added, but also make your body feel more satisfied, meaning you eat less.
Again, this simple rule always holds true: Chemical ingredients are never a good choice!
Butter itself contains only cream and salt, and is packed with a bunch of vitamins such as Vitamin A, important for our endocrine system and maintaining good vision as well as other bodily functions. Also vitamins E, K and D, which play a role in maintaining our cardiovascular system. It contains Lecithin which helps our metabolism work properly, and antioxidants which protect our bodies from disease.
This brings me back to my main point – ‘a little bit of what you fancy does you good‘ … a moderate amount of butter (maybe not Paula Deen amounts!) in our diet is much healthier than the alternatives out there.
Always go for the natural alternative and teach yourself to exercise will power to not overdo it. Part of changing the way you eat is to learn how to enjoy things in moderation, and doing so will help you enjoy those little pleasures immensely more.
And the oxymorons continue! My first thought would be ‘what’s the point’!!! But I assume people who buy fat free products are under the impression that fat is bad, and this is a way to save fat and calories while still enjoying a ‘fat like’ taste. Well, that ‘fat like’ taste is created by replacing fat with corn syrup and chemical thickeners (carrageenan is most common, and has been linked with cancer in multiple studies) that create the ‘fat like’ flavor and texture. Most fat free products are the same, instead of fat they add corn syrup and chemical additives.
Half and half is so named because it contains equal parts milk and cream—both natural products. It’s far better to enjoy a little bit of half & half rather than a fat free alternative.
The recommendation for fat consumption is that we get 20%-35% of our daily calories from fat. That’s about 44 to 77 grams of fat a day assuming you eat 2,000 calories a day. In order for your body to function properly, and your metabolism to work the way that it should, we need enough fat calories. Saturated fat should be kept to a minimum, with mono and polyunsaturated fat making up the majority of daily fat consumption.
Here are a few foods that contain healthty fats:
Low fat foods, much like fat free foods, often contain other ingredients to make up for the lack of fat. The key here is to read the label. Don’t trust companies advertising “all natural; healthy; wholesome”—the fact is that these statements mean nothing, and any company can slap them on their products, regardless of whether the statements are true. If you see that the product contains chemical additives and sugars (especially high fructose corn syrup) to make up for the lack of fat, then it might not be the best choice.
The main take-away messages?
–Real food in moderation is always better than low fat, low calorie, diet alternatives.
–Reading labels is so important. Food manufacturers are always coming up with new chemical ingredients to add to our food to make it last longer, taste better, contain less fat or sugar. A good thing to remember is that as much as they can test these chemicals before using them, it really is only once humans have been consuming them for years that the real effects will come to light.
-It’s so much better to try to avoid additives and preservatives, artificial sweeteners and fat substitutes. Buy natural whole ingredients and either make your own food or choose brands of prepared food that do not contain additives and preservatives.
I try to prepare all my food from scratch so I am in charge of what they contain. I’m also less likely to eat them as much because they take work, effort and time to prepare. On occasion I even like to make my own chocolate from scratch, I maybe eat 2-3 squares of good dark chocolate in a day when I have it available … a square at a time with a nice cup of British tea! I would eat one square of chocolate in place of a dessert after a meal, so I get a little sweet taste without overdoing my sugar intake.
I rest my case, a little bit of what you fancy does you good.
“Moderation. Small helping. Sample a little bit of everything. These are the secrets of happiness and good health”
-Julia Child
My mother always used to say “a little bit of what you fancy does you good,” and I never forgot it. I quote it to people all the time, to my children and always prefaced by ‘my mother used to say…’ My daughter suggested I use it as the name for my next blog post, so here it is!
In the context of health and wellness, I use this statement as a means to explain how important it is to eat “a little bit” of something real, rather than a lot of something chemically altered or synthetic. In this day and age of genetically modified, chemically altered and artificially sweetened, so-called ‘low fat’ food products, it is a very important reminder to those of us who really want to eat clean and healthy, while still shedding a few pounds.
Let’s look at a few common things people tend to eat in place of something real:
Diet Soda – can you say oxymoron? Of course I’m going to tell you that ANY soda is bad for you. We already know that refined sugar is bad for us, and a glass of soda contains just under 1/4 cup of sugar! But what about diet soda? For some years it has been hailed as something to help with weight loss.
Artificial sweeteners still have an effect on your body by triggering the release of insulin, which causes your body to store fat rather than burn it. It can also cause you to overeat in other areas feeling that you saved calories on a sugar free soda, so can then eat a bit extra (cognitive distortion). The American Beverage Association insists the sweeteners used in diet sodas such as aspartame, sucralose and saccharine, are fully studied and completely safe. However, there are over 900 published studies showing that artificial sweeteners are carcinogenic. For more details follow the link to an article by Dr. Mercola:
Subsequent studies have said that there is no clear connection between artificial sweeteners and cancer, but those were also heavily funded by businesses who use artificial sweeteners in their products…
The bottom line here is that it is really best to stay away from soda all together. Look at your consumption of any sugar and/or sugar-like substances, and do your best to eliminate or at least reduce its presence in your diet. The only safe low calorie sugar alternative is Stevia, which comes from a plant. Personally I do not enjoy the flavor of stevia as it is much sweeter than sugar, but if you can take the taste, at least you know you are eating something natural rather than manufactured.
Getting back to the main message: It’s far better to consume ‘a little bit’ of a natural sweetener than lots. But it is better to stay away from chemical sweeteners altogether. Your best options for sweetening agents are honey, molasses, maple syrup, agave, brown sugar and stevia for a low calorie alternative. Glucose has also been shown to be a healthy alternative, although it’s slightly less sweeter than sucrose.
So this is a hot topic: Should we eat butter, with its high fat content, or switch to one of the many low calorie alternatives offered today? When I was young, margarine was the big butter alternative touted to have lower saturated fat and cholesterol. Of course years later we realized that margarine is actually packed with trans-fat, which is way worse for you! But these days there is a new generation of butter alternatives now advertised with no trans-fat BUT they instead contain a myriad of additives and preservatives.
Just because something is low in fat doesn’t mean it’s good for you.
In fact, these low fat miracle products generally have a bunch of junk in them to make them taste good—extra sugar, chemicals, additives—which in the end are much worse for you than the slightly higher fat content, and prevent your body from losing weight. Skim milk? Might as well call it sugar milk.
Take it from Dr. Oz: “Don’t drink skim milk, you don’t need to. When you take the fat out of milk, what’s left? Sugar! Skim milk is sugar milk. You want to drink 2% milk, eat 2% yogurt…people who have a little bit of fat in the yogurt lose more weight, because your body is satiated.”
This harkens back to that cognitive distortion thing I mentioned earlier: With ‘low-cal’ products, mentally people think they can eat more, which means more of all that nasty artificial stuff in your system! Higher fat products not only don’t have all the junk added, but also make your body feel more satisfied, meaning you eat less.
Again, this simple rule always holds true: Chemical ingredients are never a good choice!
Butter itself contains only cream and salt, and is packed with a bunch of vitamins such as Vitamin A, important for our endocrine system and maintaining good vision as well as other bodily functions. Also vitamins E, K and D, which play a role in maintaining our cardiovascular system. It contains Lecithin which helps our metabolism work properly, and antioxidants which protect our bodies from disease.
This brings me back to my main point – ‘a little bit of what you fancy does you good‘ … a moderate amount of butter (maybe not Paula Deen amounts!) in our diet is much healthier than the alternatives out there.
Always go for the natural alternative and teach yourself to exercise will power to not overdo it. Part of changing the way you eat is to learn how to enjoy things in moderation, and doing so will help you enjoy those little pleasures immensely more.
And the oxymorons continue! My first thought would be ‘what’s the point’!!! But I assume people who buy fat free products are under the impression that fat is bad, and this is a way to save fat and calories while still enjoying a ‘fat like’ taste. Well, that ‘fat like’ taste is created by replacing fat with corn syrup and chemical thickeners (carrageenan is most common, and has been linked with cancer in multiple studies) that create the ‘fat like’ flavor and texture. Most fat free products are the same, instead of fat they add corn syrup and chemical additives.
Half and half is so named because it contains equal parts milk and cream—both natural products. It’s far better to enjoy a little bit of half & half rather than a fat free alternative.
The recommendation for fat consumption is that we get 20%-35% of our daily calories from fat. That’s about 44 to 77 grams of fat a day assuming you eat 2,000 calories a day. In order for your body to function properly, and your metabolism to work the way that it should, we need enough fat calories. Saturated fat should be kept to a minimum, with mono and polyunsaturated fat making up the majority of daily fat consumption.
Here are a few foods that contain healthty fats:
Low fat foods, much like fat free foods, often contain other ingredients to make up for the lack of fat. The key here is to read the label. Don’t trust companies advertising “all natural; healthy; wholesome”—the fact is that these statements mean nothing, and any company can slap them on their products, regardless of whether the statements are true. If you see that the product contains chemical additives and sugars (especially high fructose corn syrup) to make up for the lack of fat, then it might not be the best choice.
The main take-away messages?
–Real food in moderation is always better than low fat, low calorie, diet alternatives.
–Reading labels is so important. Food manufacturers are always coming up with new chemical ingredients to add to our food to make it last longer, taste better, contain less fat or sugar. A good thing to remember is that as much as they can test these chemicals before using them, it really is only once humans have been consuming them for years that the real effects will come to light.
-It’s so much better to try to avoid additives and preservatives, artificial sweeteners and fat substitutes. Buy natural whole ingredients and either make your own food or choose brands of prepared food that do not contain additives and preservatives.
I try to prepare all my food from scratch so I am in charge of what they contain. I’m also less likely to eat them as much because they take work, effort and time to prepare. On occasion I even like to make my own chocolate from scratch, I maybe eat 2-3 squares of good dark chocolate in a day when I have it available … a square at a time with a nice cup of British tea! I would eat one square of chocolate in place of a dessert after a meal, so I get a little sweet taste without overdoing my sugar intake.
I rest my case, a little bit of what you fancy does you good.
“Moderation. Small helping. Sample a little bit of everything. These are the secrets of happiness and good health”
-Julia Child
This is a short article addressing one of the biggest hurdles people face when trying to achieve their health and fitness goals. It’s easy to figure out what you would like to achieve and where you would like to be in 6 months, a year or two. What is not so easy is making that journey from where you are now, to where you want to be. The most important thing to remember is that there is a lot to be learned on that journey, and perhaps the result you end up with may fall a little short of your ideal, but remember that each of us is unique and different. What is ideal and healthy for your body may look different from the next person.
Things to remember:
If you have a bad day/week, remember the journey you are on and keep moving forward. It’s so easy to let one slip up sabotage you entirely. We are all bound to have days and weeks when we do not stick entirely to the plan, but as time goes along and ‘the plan’ becomes more and more a part of your regular routine, you will find you slip out of it less and less.
We are all different and unique. We all have our own genetic make up, which for better or worse will to some degree influence our outcome. You may find that fit and healthy for you is not necessarily what you envision, but it’s the best for your body. You may have inherited health issues that work against your desire to be fit an healthy, but remember that we all do the best with what we have. You will always be better off, fitter, healthier and happier when you eat and live a healthy lifestyle.
Don’t allow negative thinking patterns to influence you on a day to day basis. Tell yourself how well you are doing, and how much healthier you are getting daily. When you have a good day or week, be proud of yourself. When you have a bad day or week, brush it off. Tomorrow is a new day, and you get a do over!
Listing your goals, and tracking your progress towards them is important to help you stay positive and encouraged. Even if you gained a few pounds, you can look back and see that you still have an overall weight loss – if weight loss is your goal. Give yourself achievable goals. For weight loss, 1 1b a week is recommended. Losing too much too fast can result in weight being gained back. Remember that 1 1b of weight is equal to 3500 calories. So all you have to do is burn 500 more calories a day than you eat to lose 1 1b weekly. You can burn 3-500 calories during a good workout!
No matter what, it’s important to keep your body moving. Whether you have missed a few classes due to scheduling issues, or took some vacation, your body still needs to move. Walking, jogging, cycling, swimming are all easy things to do and can be fun even when you are vacationing. Don’t take a vacation from exercising, that should be part of your every day along with making good food choices. If you have to sit for hours at a time for work, make a point of getting up and walking around every 45 minutes or so.
Try to be with people who are like minded or who will encourage your efforts. There will always be those who are negative about fitness and health since they haven’t managed to incorporate it into their lives, and resent others who have. The mind body connection is very real, and when you feel good physically it will positively affect you psychologically as well. Then you will be someone who can encourage others to take charge of their health and fitness.
In conclusion remember the bullet points above. Write them somewhere you see every day and remember to actively follow them as you work towards your goals:
Next time: Adding healthy habits to your daily life
Our health is, for the most part, in our hands. The choices we make each day will have an effect on our health. Here are a few examples of daily choices that, over a period of years, will eventually result in you becoming sick and unhealthy. Starting with the most obvious and then going into a few you may not think about.
Our health is not just about our body, in fact our body can reflect issues we have mentally and spiritually. Its a proven fact that stress, for example, can cause actual physical illness. We have to maintain ourselves as a whole person, and only then will we be able to lead lives that are as happy, healthy and fulfilling as they can be.
Slowly swapping out bad habits for good ones will be a process. Take it in bite size chunks, one at a time. Give yourself a realistic time period to accomplish the swap out. Here are a few practical tips:
Smoking. If you smoke, that should be the first thing you work on. See below for the many health risks. Here is a good link if you are looking for ways to quit: http://quitsmoking.about.com/od/tipsforquitting/ 
Alcohol is not unhealthy in moderation, unless you have alcoholism in your family. It can be both a medicine and a poison depending on the dose. Moderate alcohol is known to be good for the heart and the circulatory system, while overconsumption is associated with inflammation and cirrhosis of the liver as well as several types of cancer. For more detail on the health benefits and risks of alcohol go to: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/alcohol-full-story/
Lack of exercise. The most common excuse I hear from people is the lack of time to work out. Many of my clients meet with me specifically so they have accountability, and to ensure that they work out regularly. They know I’m going to check in with them to be sure they are 
getting more than just our workout in during the week. If a trainer is not possible for you, start by moving more, walking further, parking farther away from places. Take the stairs and not the elevator. Start small and increase gradually, keep a log so you can see the improvement. Check out my workout page for some easy ideas for working out at home.
Not drinking enough wat
er. We each need about half our body weight in fluid oz of water daily. This is the best visual image of why
water is so important that I found. It’s an easy change to make, keep a bottle with you, replace consumption of a sugary drink with a refreshing glass of water.
Drinking Soda. Slowly replace soda with a healthier choice, could be herb tea with honey, or water with cucumber or lemon. Diet soda is not better as it contains harmful chemical sweeteners. Here is some further reading on why it’s so important to avoid soda: http://www.healthambition.com/what-is-in-soda-why-so-addictive
Overeating. Many people overeat on a daily basis. Treating food as an emotional comfort, or as a reward is part of the reason. We need to take the emoti
on out of eating, and see it as providing fuel and nutrition for our bodies. Try finding a different habit to comfort you when things don’t go as planned, or a different reward when things go well. This will be a big step in the right direction. Diets can provide a short term solution, but unless you change the way you eat long term, eventually when the diet ends you will resume old habits and gain the weight back again. Slowly purge your pantry of ‘trigger’ foods, those you can’t stop eating, and incorporate healthier choices. For more on this topic go to the ‘Change the way you eat’ page of this site.
Eating too much sugar This goes with the last one. If you can’t eat sugar in moderation, try to stay away from it. The only safe substitute sweetener that’s low calorie is Stevia which comes from a plant. Honey, maple syrup and molasses are marginally better nutritionally but still have lots of calories.
Eating too many prepared or processed foods Simple answer…. cook more. Try to carve out some time to prepare your food from scratch, see the recipes section of this site for some great ideas.
Sun – too much or too little Obviously one has to be careful about sun exposure, especially if you have fair skin. But too little sun can lead to a vitamin D deficiency which can lead to health issues such as osteoporosis. Many of the sunscreens out there contain harmful carcinogenic chemicals, so I make my own. See my beauty recipes page for some tips. Its best to avoid summer sun from 11am-2pm when it is the strongest, and to limit exposure.
Using tanning beds Cancer, premature aging, Immune suppression and eye damage to name but a few. For more information go to: http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm186687.htm
Using chemical hair, skin and dental products This may be something you don’t consider when assessing your choices health wise. However, there are many harmful chemicals in the beauty products that we use daily. Try reading the ingredients and look them up. There are natural alternatives you can purchase or if you have the time and energy, you can make your own. See my ‘Home made beauty products’ page for some recipes.
Stress If you can identify stressful situations that currently exist in your life, then perhaps you can make a commitment to yourself to remove the stress. Studies prove that too much stress can make you physically ill if not dealt with. ie. either ‘let it go’ if it’s something you are just stressing over. Or perhaps its stress at work, in which case adopting a different mind set could work. For some practical tips on dealing with stress check out this link: http://www.livestrong.com/article/19198-natural-deal-anxiety/
Negativity Do you find yourself thinking the glass is half empty rather than half full? Negativity and a negative self image can really get in the way of your journey toward a healthier, happier life. Turning those negative thought processes around is imperative if you are going to be successful. I found this article interesting in strategies to deal with negativity, be it your own or those around you: http://top7business.com/?Top-7-Strategies-To-Overcome-Negative-Attitudes-In-The-Workplace&id=561
This article is from http://www.watercure.com/wondersofwater.html
How to test whether a simple home remedy for dehydration can help relieve your rheumatoid arthritis pain
Before I give you the simple home remedy for dehydration that has helped relieve rheumatoid arthritis pain, let’s first review:
How water helps your normal joints work.
A joint is a place where two bones meet so your body can move. The bone surfaces are covered with cartilage which is a semi-soft tissue like that found in your nose.
In order for your two cartilage surfaces to glide easily over one another, the cartilage needs to be full of fluid—so its surfaces are smooth.
If your body or your cartilage is a little low in water, your cartilage surfaces will become dimpled, like the wrinkled skin of an old apple. Two wrinkled cartilage surfaces in your joint will not glide over each other very easily. They will rub, and stick to each other. You’ll get a mild abrasion on your cartilage, like a skin scrape from falling down and more. You’ll feel better and move more gracefully when your joints have enough water.
Dehydration may be a major trigger for the start of arthritis.
Many chronic and acute signals of dehydration were discovered in a stress filled environment in Iran by Dr. F. Batmanghelidj.
In his book, “You’re not sick, You’re thirsty!”, he describes many very painful conditions that he healed solely by having patients drink more water,
He proposed that dehydration is a major trigger for your rheumatoid arthritis.
His theory opens a new perspective on a cause and potential treatment for rheumatoid arthritis.
Here are additional aspects of your life that improve by drinking optimal amounts of water:
1. Promotes easy weight loss,
2. Relieves heartburn, and constipation,
3. Improves food digestion and nutrient absorption,
4. Enhances germ fighting ability of immune system,
5. Catch fewer colds, flu and other infections,
6. Improves memory and clearer thinking,
7. Restores normal sleep patterns,
8. Increases your ability to reach goals,
9. Reduces stress, anxiety, and depression,
10. Makes skin smoother,
11. Gives luster and shine to the eyes,
12. Gives higher energy,
13. Washes out toxic deposits in tissues,
14. Improves flexibility,
15. Normalizes blood pressure and cholesterol,
16. Increases libido,and more.
Could your rheumatoid arthritis pain– and the rest of your body– be signaling that you’re thirsty?
A home remedy for dehydration and your pains would be to recognize and quench your thirst.
Signals of thirst
When your joints hurt, you may not feel thirsty.
Unfortunately, many of us, probably you, may not be able to tell apart the signals for thirst from hunger because we weren’t usually taught this as children.
A dry mouth is a signal of extreme thirst. Low energy, irritability, and pain are all signals of thirst.
In addition, your ability to sense thirst diminishes as we age. In fact, a clinical study showed that elder men had lost most of their recognition of thirst.
The optimal amount of water and sea salt
You, like me, can only use the water we drink today.
Each and every day, you use up approx. 56-64 oz. of water in your daily life by breathing, eating, perspiring, moving, and removing wastes. In other words, you use up 7-8 glasses (8 oz. each) of water.
In addition, some beverages –like coffee, tea, and caffeine containing soda –cause your body to excrete more fluid than the beverage that you just drank.
Other beverages like milk and juice require water to digest (just like food). Otherwise, your blood and lymph becomes fuller as it picks up the digested nutrients.
This is why you should only count the amount of water you drink.
How many 8 oz glasses of water do you drink each day? (This does not include coffee, tea, soda, juice, milk or any colored, flavored fluid.)
a) none
b) 1-2 glasses
c) 3-4 glasses
d) 5-8 glasses
e) 9 or more
For a simple home remedy for dehydration, let’s compare how many glasses of water you drink now with how many Dr. Batmanghelidj recommends.
Simple Home Remedy for Dehydration:
To figure out how much you need to drink, Dr. Batmanghelidj recommends 1 oz of water for every 2 lbs. or 0.9 kg of body weight in his home remedy for dehydration.
So, if you weigh 125 lbs. (57 kg), Dr. Batmanghelidj recommends that you drink at least 7-8 glasses (1.75- 2 liters) of refreshing water each day with a ½ teaspoon of sea salt to replenish your lost salt in sweat, etc.
Or if you weigh 200 lbs.(91 kg), he recommends that you drink 12-13 glasses of water (3-3.1 liters ) and eat 2/3 teaspoon of sea salt in your foods each day.
If you exercise and sweat a lot, then he recommends that you drink 2-4 glasses more with a couple of extra pinches of sea salt.
However, it may be easier to remember to drink 2 glasses (8 oz each) of water approx. 30 min before each meal and drink 1 glass of water approx 1 ½ hr after each meal.
Dr. F. Batmanghelidj notes that he has even observed patients who are taking diuretics, improve with his water and sea salt regimen.
As with all changes, it is often good to begin changes gradually. For example, you could choose to begin drinking 1 extra glass of water approx 30 min before each meal in addition to your regular water for several days and then increase it.
When you are drinking optimal water, it’s also important to ingest enough minerals, like sea salt.
Sea salt is essential for your healthy life. It contains about eighty mineral elements that the body needs.
Trace minereals are vital for many essential functions. The minerals in sea salt improve brain performance, bone health, muscle tone, circulation, kidney excretion, digestion and lung functions.
One of the easiest ways to savor sea salt is to season your food with it.
How much sea salt do you eat each day on average?
a) none
b) less than 1/8 teaspoon sea salt
c) 1/8 – ¼ teaspoon sea salt
d) ¼ – ½ teaspoon sea salt
e) more than ½ teaspoon sea salt
Sea salt can be in your food or taken as a little dab placed on your tongue each time you drink 2 glasses of water. After drinking the first glass of water, put a pinch of sea salt on your tongue—it tastes salty but ok. Then drink the second glass of pure refreshing water.
Note, if you eat many salty foods, then you may be getting enough salt.
However, sea salt or salt found naturally in foods contains many other minerals essential for your healthy body.
Since I’ve been following this home remedy for dehydration, which is based on Dr. Batmanghelidj’s water cure program, my knees don’t creak. It certainly helps and combined with the additional approaches has given me more energy, more strength, more clarity, and more joy de vivre! You’d probably enjoy the same or more benefits.
When you’re drinking more water, the color of your urine will become paler. When you’re drinking the optimal amount of water and ingesting sea salt, your urine will be a very pale yellow.
For further details, you may want to purchase one of Dr. Batmanghelidj’s books, “You’re not sick, You’re thirsty! Water for Health, for Healing, for Life”, or “Your Bodies Many Cries for Water, or “How to Deal With Back Pain or Rheumatoid Joint Pain”.
If you are concerned about your water or you’d prefer a better tasting water, check out reviews of different bottled waters, water purifiers and water filters.
You can find several brands of sea salt in health food stores. Just read the label. Some contain sugar (dextrose) and other additives. My favorite sea salt is Redmond’s Sea Salt.
In addition, most sea salt is not iodized so include a source of iodine such as deep sea fish, or kelp in your diet.
Although increasing water consumption while taking small amounts of sea salt has not induced any reports of negative, side effects, it may be prudent to consult your healthcare provider, especially if you have any kidney problems.
Please note that the information on this website ( http://www.watercure.com/wondersofwater.html) is a sharing of information and knowledge from the research and experience of Dr. Molnar-Kimber and her community. It is not intended to diagnose nor treat any disease or precondition nor replace your one on one relationship with a qualified health care professional. It also is not intended to be medical advice. However, it is often observed that patients who take a major interest in their disease and learn as much as they can about their disease and potential treatments often improve faster than those who don’t. Dr. Molnar-Kimber encourages you to make your own health care decisions based upon your own research and discussions with your qualified health care professional.