Did you know that the food you eat could be prematurely ageing you? Science has made some amazing discoveries in the last decade in nutrition. We really should be taking note of what we put in our mouth because more than ever, “we are what we eat”. Do you know the impact of what you are eating? Probably not. It’s time to find out because over-indulgence in certain types of food cause the body to prematurely age.

Would you like some more free radicals with your lunch…? There is frequent mention these days about ‘free radicals’ and how they are constantly attacking the body, causing potentially serious damage.

A free radical is the name for a molecule that has an unpaired electron. They are a normal by-product of metabolism and without them you would die.

To put the record straight, it’s the over-production of free radicals that causes damage to the body. We are advised by nutritional experts to eat plenty of fruit and vegetables.

This is because they are rich in antioxidant phytonutrients…substances that neutralise free radicals and so help protect the body.

One of the essential tasks of free radicals is in producing energy from the food you eat. Every time you eat, free radical activity is intense. The more food you eat, the more free radicals are formed, and the more antioxidants your body needs to neutralise them. Big meals are big trouble!

Effective Antioxidants include vitamins A, C, E; minerals such as selenium, zinc, and herbs such as aloe vera and grapeseed extract.

The Reality of Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are root vegetables, pasta, rice, bread, grains, fruit, pastries, cakes, biscuits, crisps, sweets etc. They are easy to prepare, filling, tasty and cheap. Most meals are dominated by carbohydrates, as most of us ‘full up’ on them. When you eat carbohydrates you’re eating a form of sugar.

Carbohydrates are converted by the body into glucose, which is either used immediately for energy, or stored in fat cells. Carbohydrates make up an excessive proportion of the diet, add together a lack of exercise and excess sugar and the inevitable result is excess weight.

By reducing your overall carbohydrate intake and reducing the size of your meals, you reduce your body’s exposure to free radical activity, and, the amount of excess food that meals, you reduce your body’s exposure to free radical activity, and, the amount of excess food that gets stored as unwanted fat. A double bonus!

Big meals are too much stress

Food is in abundance – look around the supermarket shelves at the food mountain! Fill your trolley, take it home and fill your kitchen cupboards – fill your plate and fill your stomach till you can barely move. How many times a week do you overeat? How many free radicals are attacking your body and accelerating the aging process? You could choose to eat less.

Think about your meals over the last week.

Better still, keep a food diary for the next week, record each meal by drawing a plate divided up showing how much protein, carbohydrate, fat, vegetables and fruit you eat at each mealsnack. After a week you’ll be able to see for yourself how much sugar you are eating.

THE CAUSES OF EXCESSIVE WEIGHT

If you eat more nutrients containing energy than you need for your daily activities, for the internal processes of your body, and for the burning process that maintains the body temperature, the excessive nutrients can be transformed to fat and stored in the fat depots in your body. The causes of this occururing, and thus of overweight, are one or more of these factors

1. Consuming too much fat Fat is the most energy-rich nutrient, and over-consume will cause the eccessive fat consumed to be deposited in the body.

2. Consuming too much sugar, starch or other carbohydrates Carbohydrats are also important energy sources. Over-consume of carbohydrates will cause the eccess to be converted to fat and stored in the body.

3 Consuming too much alchohol Also this substance contains energy, and eccessive consume results in fat stored in your body.

4 Consuming too much of preprocessed products with added, and often hidden fat or sugar, like sweet beverages, cakes, ice-cream, fast food and snacks.

5. Eating too much alltogeather Perhaps your food is not fat- or sugar-laden, but you simply eat too much alltogeather. Also protein will be converted to fat if it is overconsumed.

6. Irregular eating, like eating much at one time, little at another time, wait long between some meals, cunsuming huge doses of sugar at some times, no sugar at other times If you eat irregularly, you can get an uncontrollable appetite, a swinging blood sugar level, and an abnormal physiology that makes you deposit fat in your body.

7. A still sitting life with little exercise so that you burn little fat and sugar.

8. Boredom in your daily life If you do not have much hobbies, or leasure activities, or isolate yourself from other people, you may suffer form boredom, and eccessive eating may be your way of getting entertainment.

9. The body has some capacity of burning some extra amount of sugar or fat. This capacity may be decreased because of lack of vitamins and minerals, and because of an unsound diet.

10. An abnormal appetite that urges you to eat far more than you need This abnormal appetite may originate from psychological causes, an onsound diet or lack of exercise.

AANALYZE YOUR OBESITY PROBLEMS

Before beginning your weight reduction program, go through every possible obesity causing factor listed above, to find out what factors contribute to your over-weight problem. Go down to details. For example If you find you consume too much sugar, find out the exact food types contributing to your eccessive sugar consume. Write everything down.

MAKE A PLAN

With the performed analysis in hand, make a plan for your weigh reduction. Decide a goal for your weight. Decide one or more measures for each component contributing to your problem. Write down your plan.

HOW TO REDUCE WEIGHT

In order to successfully loose weight, you must attack every component you have found to be a causing factor of your obesity problem. Here are the concrete mesures you can use, and put into your plan

1. Eat less fat

If you eat much fat, you must reduce the daily intake of fat, to do so

Choose fat poor fish, fat poor meatbeef, chicken, turkey, mushrooms and other food sources with law fat content as the main components for dishes.

Cut away visible fat from meat or other food sources.

Do not add much margarine, butter or oil to your food.

When you fry something, try to use as little fatty smear in the pan as possible.

2. Eat less sugar

If you eat much sugar, reduce your daily inntake of free sugar, or bounded sugar as in flour, potatoes and the like

Do not add much sugar to your food.

You may also need to consume less bread, potatoes, peas and beens, if you eat very much of it, but do not stop eating these kinds of food, since they contain valuable nutrients. However, use bread made of full corn.

3. Avoid eccessive alcohol consume

Alcohol contains energy, and will be transformed to fat, if you consume too much of it.

4. Avoid preprocessed food with added and often hidden fat or sugar

Some food contains a great amount of hidden fat or sugar, espesially fast food, snacks or preprocessed food.

Therefore you should avoid eating much of products like cakes, sweet drinks, snacks, choclate, icecream or fast-food.

You should also buy all the food you use in a natural form, and make your dishes yourself. Then you achieve an absolute controle over the amount of fat and suger in your dishes

5. Eat less alltogeather, but do not starve yourself

Having reduced the amount of sugar and fat from your diet, you may fall to the temptation of eating more than before, beacuse the new composition of your food does not satisfy your hunger. You should be aware of, and avoid this trap.

When trying to loose weight, you should reduce the total amount of the food you eat.

However, you should not starve yourself. To starve will only make you tired and sick, and then make you interrupt your efforts to get slim.

6. Eat regularly

Regular eating habits will give you a stable blood sugar level, help you control your appetite and normalize your fat burning physiology.

You should eat three or four meals each day.

Each meal should contain the same moderate amount of sugar and fat.

Each meal should contain some protein sources like fish, meat, eggs, mushrooms or proteine-rich seeds, and in every means be as nutritionally complete as possible.

7. Increase your daily physical activity

Physical activity increases fat burning and will help you control your appetite.

Do some daily exercises of a kind that increases energy consumption Jogging, cycling, swimming, ball play, skiing, and so on.

Do also som exercises to increase your muscular volume, since muscles will burn fat, for example weight lifting.

8. Find some new hobby or interest

If you find yourself some new hobby or leasure activity, you will avoid boredom and the temptation to over-eat because you are bored. Try also to do interesting activities together with other people. The new activities will also give you less time to only sit eating.

9. Eat healthy food to increase your fat burning capacity

It is not possible to loose weight without sticking to the above mentioned basic fat reduction principles, but you will also benefit from applying some measures that will increase your ability to passivly burn fat

Eat as natural food as possible, avoid food that has been heavily cooked, heavily fried or chemically processed. Natural food has its content of protein, vitamines minerals and anti-oxydants intact, and these are necessary for the fat burning abilities.

Eat some raw fruit and vegatables to each meal, since these contain vitamins, minerals and anti-oxydants you need.

You may benefit from supplements of vitamins, minerals, herbs, anti-oxydants, as these will make your body more capable of burning fat.

The little fat you use in your diet, should come from sources like olive, peanuts, canola, fish, nuts, sun-flower, etc. Then you will get a good balance between mono-unsaturated fat olive, canola, peanuts, poly-unsaturated fat of the omaga-3-type fish and poly-unsaturated fat of the omega-6-type sunflower.

Consume whole cereals or bread made from whole unrefined cereals.

There are also natural products on the market you can use to increase your break down and burning of fat.

10. Bring your appetite under controle

Many of the measures allready listed, will also help you to controle your appetite. If this still is difficult, this problem may be attacked by specific means

You can use some medicines to reduce appetite for some time or to reduce the uptake of fat or carbohydrates in your inestines. There are both natural medicines based on herbs, vitamins and minerals and pharmachological products to achieve this.

Daily meditation can help to relaxe your mind and gain controle.

Psychological counseling may be necessary.

11. The ratio between fat and sugar in your diet

The total mount of fat and carbohydrates combined, is a key factor in causing obesity, not fat alone or carbohydrates alone. In some weight loosing regimes, one eats very little carbohydrates, and fairly much fat. In others one eats fairly much carbohydrates, and very little fat. The proponents of each type of regime claim that their approach helps the body to burn fat better.

Probably people are different, and react differently when trying to manipulate the diet in these ways. As a first approach, it is probably not wise to try such extreme approaches. However, if you have brought your eating habits under controle, and still not achieved a satisfactory result, you can try to manipulate the fatcarbohydrate ratio to see if this will help. But do not stop consuming fat alltogeather. You will allways need some essential fatty acids in your diet.

CARRYING OUT YOUR PLAN

Having made your plan for your weight reduction, the time has come to carry it out. After each week, go through the points in your plan, and evaluate how well you did. Also check your weight. Write down for every point in your plan how well you did.

Are you more or less constantly thinking about your weight, or whether youre eating or not eating?
Do you find that at times when you start eating that you just cant stop yourself? And then when your clothes dont fit do you decide to resolve that by eating more?

Often as a consequence of this common behaviour is that you will feel bad about yourself and imagine that everyone is thinking how big you are, thus increasing your anxiety about your eating and image, so that you eat more to comfort yourself.

You might not believe it yet there are steps you can take to get you out this self-destructive cycle and turn around the negative feelings that you experience.

When we are in these mind-traps we are habitually repeating thought patterns and acting on them without questioning where they come from and what they do for us.

A simple question such as What will that do for me? can often be the beginning of understanding ourselves better and our behaviour. Approaching the problem in this way can be the first step towards doing things differently.

It works like this a bad experience gives you the urge to go to the biscuit tin and eat as many biscuits as you can. But this time, instead of binging on biscuits, as yourself What will that do for me?

If the answer is something like It gives me a treat, ask yourself And if I have this treat, what does that do for me?; Again, wait for your answer, it may be something like, If I have this treat then I will feel appreciated. If this is your response carry on and ask yourself If I get to feel appreciated, what does that do for me? Listen for an answer and keep asking yourself the same question, until you can go no further with your responses. What youre looking for is the higher motivation behind the behaviour eating too many biscuits. By doing this on a regular basis you will get in touch with what you really want and take your first step to controlling the food cravings.

I worked with a client who was unhappy with her weight and eating. Her name was Mary, a wife and working mother of two young boys. We did this exercise and she realised that she wanted to feel comforted.

When we looked at other aspects of her life it became clear that she never put herself first in terms of what she wanted and one way or another she now felt unappreciated and lacking.

Mary also realised that rarely gave her self permission to have me time to do things like soak in a luxurious bath, or go out with friends, or watch what she wanted on TV, These all may seem like small trivial things, but added together they became the source of her feelings of being invisible, not appreciated and generally unloved.

Mary worked on creating ways that she could reward, comfort and appreciate herself that didnt have to mean eating. Very soon she became very clear about her goals and how to achieve them. People around her noticed a change and responded by being more receptive and positive towards her. As a result, she easily shed weight, looked and was much happier, and forgot all about eating for comfort.

Losing weight doesn’t have to be boring when you focus on living foods. What does this mean? Simply by making sure your plate reflects a range of colours, you’ll naturally create more balanced and healthful menus complete with a range of living foods.

What are living foods? They are re live, colourful, fresh and raw – fruits, vegetables and salads!

Let’s Look At The Positives

1. Colourful foods have no preservatives and no added colour!

2. Provide an abundance of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, fibre, water and trace elements.

3. Have a high water content – an excellent source of hydration for the body.

4. Are visually appetising.

5. Their firm textures demand a good chew, so we eat them more slowly and feel full afterwards.

6. Are quickly and easily processed and assimilated by the body – less work for the digestive system.

7. Are safer – contain less undesirable man-made chemicals.

8. Are as nature intended unlike processed, pre-packaged modern fast foods!

9. Are pure energy – living food.

Consuming Cooked Foods

1. Heat destroys the vitalising nutrients in colourful foods. So much so that sometimes, you may as well be eating cardboard for all the good it does your body!

2. The effectiveness of fibre in cooked fresh foods is reduced – vegetables that are floppy and overcooked pass through the body with a reduced ‘cleansing’ action.

3. If you cook vegetables, always steam them lightly and aim to retain their ‘crunch’!

4. Cooked vegetables tend to turn out soft and therefore require less chewing, which means they are usually eaten more quickly, so are less satisfying.

5. Heat also destroys the enzymes in fresh foods, which are essential for digestion. This means the body has to tap into its own precious supply of enzymes to support the digestive process.

6. Heat also destroys the enzymes in fresh foods, which are essential for digestion. This means the body has to tap into its own precious supply of enzymes to support the digestive process.

Weight loss such a big topic! Every month another book is out by another expert on weight loss. Everyone wants to know the secret to losing weight.

I certainly dont have THE secret, but I do have some secrets, and I want to share them with you in the hope you find them helpful.

Weight used to be a major issue for me. Losing weight was never out of my thoughts, and I cant tell you how many different diets, pills and programs I tried until I discovered some secrets that have worked for me for many years now.

So here they are. I hope they work as well for you as they have for me.

1. Change your focus from losing weight to achieving great health.

I grew up as a sickly child and I was a sickly young adult. I hated being sick and never having energy to do all the things I wanted to do. So I decided to learn about what creates great health.

First I read tons of books on nutrition and became convinced that I needed to switch to organic foods. That was quite a challenge in 1961! There was one coop health food store that I had to follow around Los Angeles because it kept moving locations. But it was worth it! My rule of thumb now is if they didnt eat it 100 years ago, then I wont eat it now. This cuts out most packaged and processed foods and leaves natural, organic food.

2. Learn to read your body signals regarding what feels good to your body and what feels bad.

I no longer read about all the different diets because Ive learned to tune into MY body so that I know exactly what my body needs for great health. Since my body needs different things than your body, no single food plan will work for everyone. Your job is to learn to tune into what gives you energy and what robs you of energy, and what foods create calmness and which ones create agitation. Once I learned what my body needs for great health, I lost weight and kept it off easily.

3. Find a form of exercise that you enjoy and that you can do at least 5 times a week.

I discovered that I love to walk in nature, so I take a fast half-hour walk every day. However, this can be a problem if you have physical limitations or chronic illness. Losing weight with chronic illness or physical limitations is not impossible, but it can be a much bigger challenge.

4. Learn to discern which part of you determines what and when you eat, as well as how much you eat.

We all have a wounded part of ourselves that uses various addictions as ways to deal with feelings of loneliness, aloneness, helplessness, anxiety, depression, fear and anger. Some people may use alcohol, drugs, spending, TV, gambling, sex, and so on to avoid their pain, while other use food. While food may work to pacify painful feelings for the moment, in the long run all addictions backfire and create the very pain you are trying to avoid. Yet our wounded self keeps choosing addictive behavior as a way of managing pain. As long as the wounded part of you is making your food choices, you may continue to have a weight problem.

The part of us that is capable of managing painful feelings in healthy ways and making healthy choices is the loving Adult. The loving Adult is the part of us that has a deep desire to learn about and take loving action in our own behalf. Developing a loving Adult is a major aspect in creating health and wellbeing, as well as in losing weight and maintaining a healthy weight.

5. Learn to connect with a spiritual source of wisdom, strength, love and guidance.

The loving Adult is that part of us that is connected with a spiritual source of guidance rather than being governed by the mind. The mind, bring programmed from childhood, is the home of the wounded self. You are being a loving Adult at those moments when you choose to be guided by a source of wisdom beyond your mind. This source will always guide you toward your highest good. You just need to learn to open and listen.

It is very likely that you will not only lose weight, but will also move into more physical and emotional health and wellbeing if you embrace these secrets into your life. We offer you a free course see the resource box to help you with developing your loving Adult. Once you have developed a powerful loving inner Adult, you will be able to lose weight. If you really want to lose weight, there is a way!

Please bear in mind that I am not a dietician, or a physician, and my opinions are those of a Yoga teacher and life-long student of Ayurveda. Always consult your family physician before changing your diet.

It may be generally agreed that eating wisely and weight loss do not often agree. Just look back that the parade of fad diets that didnt seem to work over the long term and, in retrospect, were not wise from the onset.

This article will be a union of ideas from Ayurvedic principles, modern fitness concepts, and overall strategies for better health.

It goes without saying that a vegetarian diet is healthy. Only a decade ago, there were many reservations, among local physicians in New England, in regard to this concept. How rapidly knowledge, insight, and opinions change.

Marie, my wife, exposed me to the vegetarian diet. Before that, I ate what is now called the Mediterranean Diet. The diet I eat, to this day, is a combination of the two. The combination of these two, classic diets, are easy for me to live with and it is not an effort, at all, for me.

That is the biggest hurdle for most people. Many of us take on a radical dieting change that we cannot live with. Most of us can afford to make a few small changes at a time, instead of changing everything at once – unless you are dieting under the guidance of your doctor or dietician.

Therefore, I propose a few small changes to your eating habits that will make sense. You do not have to change them all at one time.

Sit down and focus on eating your meal.

Avoid television, reading, heated conversations, etc.

Thoroughly chew your food at a slow pace and do not put more food in your mouth until you have swallowed the previous bite.

Be aware of how hungry you are before your meal.

Try to avoid too much time between meals, as this leads to over consumption and your stomach should never be more than three quarters full, after a meal.

Exercise tip Some of you practice Yoga and understand the many benefits of Sun Salutations, but have you ever tried weight resistance?

Strength training increases energy expenditure during a weight resistance training session. The high intensity of strength training indicates a high utilization of carbohydrates during a training session.

During the post-exercise recovery period, energy expenditure is elevated for a period ranging from two to fifteen hours 1. The increased energy demands are obtained by burning more calories, and a good portion of the calories are coming from fat stores.

Reference 1 – Melby C, Scholl C, Edwards G, Bullough R. Effect of acute resistance exercise on post exercise energy expenditure and resting metabolic rate. Journal of Applied Physiology 754 1847-1853, 1993.

Even if you work every body part just once a week, this method of cross training will effectively burn calories. When you combine this with any aerobic activity, you have a powerful combination. Rowing and bicycling are good substitute forms of resistance too.

Strategies for results Get help from a qualified Personal Trainer, Dietician, or a Life Coach. You could do it all yourself, but how much time do you have to spin your wheels. without any progress? These services exist for those who dont want to waste time and want solutions now.