Sunday, 5 December 2010

The Importance of a Controlled Diet

Now I do understand that going on a traditional "Diet" does mean that there is control happening. The problem is that this control usually comes with the limiting of certain food types, or the exclusion of most food types, which in itself can actually be detrimental to good health.

Furthermore, the type of control brought about by "a diet" usually means that emotionally "the dieter" knows that he or she will have a time limit after which return to the old ways is almost inevitable.

Now, as far as I am concerned, there are only two things that have to happen to ensure that what is eaten is actually good for the health:
  1. Acquire the knowledge about what food actually is and is not good for your health
  2. THIS IS THE BIGGY - Break The Emotional Ties To Food

The western diet is originally and still, based on masses of carbohydrates - carbs forming the base of the triangle used by governments as their "model" for a healthy diet:


A TYPICAL CARB BASED PYRAMID

The biggest danger of a lifetime of following the guidelines of the above type of food triangle is that we are all hooked on sugar. Most of the stuff in the base of the triangle is one step away from sugar, and sugar is precisely what the body recognises those products as. If you look at the top of the triangle it says to only eat very limited amounts of sugars.

You now therefore know that the information in the government backed food triangle is absolute nonsense. It actually contains other information that is nonsense - more on that later.

However, the worst effect of eating foods that turn to sugar is the emotional dependance that builds up in relation to these foods. What do you include in your list of "treats"? Chocolate, toffee - or are you a crisps or chips person? All of these so called treats are related directly to sugar. How many of us think of a green smoothie as the ideal treat? The fact is that whilst our emotions push us in the direction of sugars, our bodies would choose the green smoothie or the salad every time.

So how do we sort this problem out? One certainty is that breaking the emotional tie to sugar is as difficult as it is for the alcoholic to break the emotional tie to alcohol. I know this - I have been trying to ditch sugars for around ten years.

So, back to the title of this Blog - the only way to make sure you eat a healthy diet is to BREAK the emotional tie to food of the wrong type by exerting self control.

More on this tomorrow.

Saturday, 4 December 2010

Fitness For Over Sixties

Hi there

As I write these first words on my Blog, Fitness for Over Sixties, I am in fact a mere 59 and 7 months old. This project will test me to the limit, as although I have been interested in and have a lot of knowledge about, health and fitness, I have never managed to put everything together at the one time and create the health and fitness that I desire.

So, with just 5 short months until I hit sixty, I have decided that NOW is the moment to do something I have been attempting to do for the last ten years - bring all the knowledge and experience I have gathered studying under and working with experts in the field of health and fitness and create the physical person that I know I should be.

Then, on my sixtieth birthday, I am going to release a product to the unsuspecting world that will enable others to do the same with their health, fitness and more. As well as a product/plan I am going to have a membership site that will enable people to get together and help each other with health and fitness as well as giving them some great tools to do so.

Now, I call this Fitness For Over Sixties purely because of my own age. In fact, the product/plan that I release will be suitable for any age. However, my focus is on older people because there are particular reasons for them to start taking real care of themselves. These reasons will become clear over the next five months.

For now, I will say that I am going to deal with five main areas of "wellbeing":
  1. Fitness
  2. Diet
  3. Personal Growth
  4. Relationships
  5. Helping Others
All for now - I am going to take this a step at a time. This is not something I am used to - I normally jump in with both feet and then run out of steam. This time is different.

Very best wishes

John