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Remember the food pyramid we were taught as kids? It has fallen from favour. However current thinking on nutrition is presented in a new pyramid developed by the American Department of Agriculture. While aimed largely at children the advice applies to us all. If you need to lose weight or want to visit another site promoting healthy living visit http://www.mypyramid.gov/ regards, Keith I have found to lose weight I need to focus on what I am eating. Exercise has not been that helpful in directly losing weight. For unfit people my suggestion is you can improve your overall health by losing weight through managing what you eat. While low glycemic diets are generally only recommended for people with diabetes I believe they provide excellent eating principles for all of us. However you should not avoid exercise for ever. Consider slowly increasing your activity levels. You do want to exercise regularly as long term health is dependent on being moderately fit. Putting my money where my mouth is you will note from my other blogs I keep myself fit through regular and varied exercise. The importance of exercise has been reinforced by a study that compared dieting with dieting and exercise. While the weight loss was similar across both groups the group that exercised improved their blood pressure, cholesterol and insulin sensitivity more than the group that did not. Reference: Enette Larson-Meyer, Ph.D., R.D., assistant professor, family and consumer science, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyo.; Walt Thompson, Ph.D., professor, kinesiology, Georgia State University, Atlanta; January 2010, Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise Eat well and consider what exercise you would enjoy doing and how you can motivate yourself to undertake this exercise regularly. Follow my guidance in Enjoy Losing Weight if you are over-weight. Regards, Keith Christmas is the time of year when its hardest to lose weight. However there are a number of strategies you can use to maintain weight loss. Plan for the majority of food eaten over Christmas to be both tasty and healthy. Restrict food high in fat and sugar to a limited number of big favourites. Chose a way of cooking meat that results in lower fat on your plate. Select deserts that include and are garnished with fruit rather than cream. Plan Christmas day so you eat the main meal and then do something that doesn’t involve continuing to eat - avoid eating on and on. And a little bit of exercise never hurt anybody! The Christmas period can easily end in a session of overeating from Christmas through to New Year so be selective in when you are going to have ’special’ meals and stick to normal, tasty meals at other times to lose weight. In other words, keep making food a focus of Christmas but in such a way you continue to lose weight. Enjoy losing weight over Christmas Keith The Three Bridges Half Marathon held in Wanganui on 12 December 2009 started in pouring rain. However the mild temperature meant the experience was more refreshing than chilling. By the end the sun was out and everything drying out. A lovely run that not only crossed three bridges (twice) but passed through beautiful parks on one side of the river and skirted the edge of the city centre on the other. Its a very flat course, although my time didn’t reflect this! Some days you run well and other days… Great to be out and experiencing the run however. The run was well organised with lots of support at drink stations and around the course. Well done to the organisers although best if you don’t finish the briefing one minute before the start. And after the run there was a market to visit with food and crafts. The strawberries were huge and super tasty. Overall the experience rated highly. All fitness levels were catered for with distances from 5km to the full marathon. Pencil a weekend in Wanganui for next year.
The American Diabetes Association is warning the number of diabetes cases is predicted to double. The two main drivers are the aging population and increasing rates of obesity. While we can’t address the aging issue on an individual basis we can minimise the risk we will develop diabetes. Reduce weight through eating well is the main priority as being obese appears to be a major risk factor in developing diabetes. An important element is controlling blood glucose levels. While a low glycemic diet has been recommended for people that already have diabetes or have recognised symptoms I recommend such a diet for everyone and follow the general principles myself. While a low glycemic diet sounds like it is a ‘medical treatment’ it can better be termed a common sense approach to eating well!!! Keeping fit through regular exercise also helps overall wellbeing as well as contributing directly to reducing the risk of diabetes. Eat well, exercise, feel great Keith The Three Bridges Half Marathon is a week away. A short run this morning while the temperrature was still brisk. Great to see lots of people out getting fit. A longer run tomorrow should be a good test of where I am in preparation for the half marathon. Having events to aim for helps my motivation to get out and exercise. Looks like a perfect day for a dive. Might even get something for the BBQ! Cheers, Keith Exercise makes you hungry – not a new concept to most people I would have thought. However if you are seeking to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight you don’t want extra eating overwhelming the benefits of exercise in assisting to lose weight. A small study of 58 overweight and obese adults found some lost weight through increased exercise while others appeared to have their exercise efforts counteracted by increased eating. For those who managed to lose weight exercise may have improved their body’s ability to signal when they were full. The researchers found these subjects were hungrier before breakfast but were not hungrier during the rest of the day. The learning from those that didn’t lose weight is a general warning to all of who are managing our weight. We need to be aware of any tendancy to over eat after exercise and address this if it occurs. It also reinforces the need to control our eating habits as the main contributor to losing weight. To read the abstract go to American Journal of Clinical Nutrition Neil A King, Phillipa P Caudwell, Mark Hopkins, James R Stubbs, Erik Naslund, and John E Blundell regards, Keith Training for the Three Bridges Half Marathon is in full swing with a two hour run undertaken today. For someone who was not fit six months ago this is great progress. It has been most helpful to have lost weight prior to starting the training. By losing weight previously I am not causing extra stress to my joints etc with the raised level of activity. While my runs are typically between one and two hours I wonder what the minimum level of activity is to keep fit? I wonder where the recommendation of a minimum of half an hour of moderate exercise orginally came from. Has it been actually tested? So many studies are based on this level of activity but why is this standard being used? So get off the couch and get moving. Any exercise is better than none. Keith Modern life sees us rushing here and there (and back again). Lots to be done. No time to relax. We eat fast food and we tend to eat food fast. However, to help us in our endeavours to lose weight it appears we should slow down and eat slowly. A brief video points to the value of eating slowly. By eating food over a longer period there is time for the body to tell the brain it is full. To watch the video click on the link to the HealthDay website So, to lose weight, eat food more slowly (and perhaps more slow food as well) The pressure is on. The Three Bridges Half Marathon in Wanganui is three weeks away. A 1.5 hour hill run yesterday indicates the training is on track. I am aiming for 1 hour 45 minutes. To a runner this will seem a very modest target however the point is I’m not an athelete. If I can achieve this so can most people. I have got to this point through two steps. Firstly I lost over 25 kgs. This rekindled an interest in getting and keeping fit. Since then I have been jogging and, in October, ran a half marathon to test my fitness. With little idea how well I would go I finished in 1 hour 50 minutes. To maintain this fitness I then selected completing the Three Bridges run as the next goal. Having a relatively short term goal helps keep the interes7t and motivation up. I see a large number of overweight people out training – mainly walking, running and cycling. However from my experience exercise alone wont get your weight down. I found to lose weight I first needed to change my eating habits. In addition, once you have achieved the weight loss you don’t put the same stress on your body, particularly joints, when you are out training. Go for a run, eat an apple. And, if you are looking for a goal consider participating in an event like The Three Bridges Marathon, Half Marathon or Walk. cheers, Keith |
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