Lifestyle & Diet Tips
OmegaGen Cardio™ provides a highly effective way to help maintain cholesterol within the normal range and improve the HDL/LDL ratio. It does this most successfully within the context of a healthy lifestyle and balanced diet. Consider some of these tips in creating a holistic approach to enhancing your health and wellbeing.
WEIGHT AND SEE
It is important to maintain a healthy weight to stave off risk of heart disease and other ailments. What is ‘healthy’ is of course relative, depending on a range of factors: height, gender, age, genetics, even ethnicity. It is therefore worthwhile establishing exactly what YOUR healthy weight range is and work from there. A medical professional can assist with this.
MIDDLE MANAGEMENT
Excess weight around your waist is the most dangerous in terms of heart disease, for both men and women. However, don’t aim for or expect overnight results. Weight loss takes time and you will need to think long term. Set realistic weight goals and take the tortoise approach to win the race – fast and over ambitious will burn out every time.
AUDIT SEASON
Go through a typical day or week and identify roughly how long you spend sitting, the types of food and drink you are consuming, exercise amounts, amount of sleep etc. If it helps, keep a diary of what you eat and when. Do the same for exercise. It helps establish a starting ‘benchmark’ point and can make great ‘time capsule’ reading down the track!
EXERCISE CAUTION
Before you begin any change to your current lifestyle, you should seek advice from your doctor or accredited dietitian. They can advise you on what is going to be the best way forward for your body.
THE SIMPLE EQUATION
An entire library of books have been devoted to diets, fads, and exercise programs on how to lose weight. But at the end of the day, it comes down to kilojoules of energy you intake (through food and drink) minus kilojoules of energy you burn off (through exercise). If what you burn off is more than what you take in, you lose weight. The Heart Foundation advises that one kilogram (2.2lb) of body fat has an energy value of around 32,000 kilojoules. So to lose 1 kilogram of body fat in a month, you need to reduce your equation by 32,000 kilojoules, or approx 1000Kj a day. It’s achievable.
IT ALL COUNTS
Too many people fall into the trap of thinking exercise must be a ‘regime’ or a ‘training program’ etc. You will not run a marathon in your first week. Exercise is in fact ANY time you are not sitting still. Everything counts, which is why incidental exercise, such as taking the stairs, walking to the letterbox, even cleaning the house is so good – its exercise you don’t even know you are doing!
ADD IT UP
We spend a considerable amount more time sitting down than even 20 years ago. The Heart Foundation recommends at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity each day, or most days. Essentially the first goal is just to get moving, and the daily amount may be made up of chunks of at least 10 minutes in duration.
IT’S ALL ABOUT YOU
Whatever you plan, it must fit into YOUR day and YOUR goals. It’s that simple. You don’t need to join a gym just because others are – you might prefer walking outside instead. Success is a direct result of the relevance to your lifestyle.
MAKE AN EXAMPLE OF YOURSELF
If you have children living with you, it’s important to set a healthy example. Heart disease manifests itself through lifestyle choices from a very young age, so forming the right habits now will help them later in life. Many people see their kids as a source of inspiration and a tangible goal to getting healthier.
YOU AND THE TUBE
TV screens are getting bigger, and so too are our waistlines. Consider getting up to change channels instead of relying on the security blanket of the remote control. Watch one less show a week and do something active in that hour. Invest in a digital recorder (and learn how to program it!) so that you can record and store shows you want to view, giving you time in front of the box that is quality, not quantity.
MAKE A DATE
Arrange to exercise with someone else. You are less likely to ‘back out’ if you know that someone else is meeting you.
SIT LESS
Find other ways to do things. At home, get a cordless phone and move around the house. Get up from your desk and walk about every hour. Walk to another room to talk to someone rather than emailing them. Those boots were made for walking, and that’s what they should do.
SMOKE SIGNALS
To give your heart and lungs a fighting chance, you should consider giving up smoking. The advertisements are graphic but true, and while you remain a smoker, your ability to perform even moderate intensity exercise is compromised. There are many options to consider, from patches to gum, even hypnosis. Contact QUITline for more information.HEALTHY EATING
MIX IT UP
Food items to include every day are vegetables, wholegrains, fruits, nuts and seeds. But that shouldn’t mean what you eat should be boring or repetitive. Try new foods, or new techniques. Think outside the box – “nuts” doesn’t need to mean a bowl of nuts – try adding them to a salad. Make a vegetable salsa, or blend fruits for a delicious smoothie. Keep your body guessing!
WATER WATER EVERYWHERE
Water truly is the perfect drink. Get into the habit of drinking water at set times in the day – keep a jug of iced water in the fridge or invest in a bottled water cooler. Monitor your intake easily by filling a 600ml bottle and aim to drink this by lunch, another in the afternoon, etc. Dehydration affects brain performance and general energy levels. 6-8 glasses a day is recommended – and not all at once!(Remember, water you drink while exercising should be over and above your daily intake. Sweat is getting rid of water – you need to replace this to restore equilibrium.)
TAKE IT AWAY
A balanced diet needs to have a personal input from you. Put time aside to make meals. Reduce the number of takeaways you have as they are generally high in kilojoules that you have no control over.
DIVIDE AND CONQUER
Fatigue plays a big part in our ability to bother eating healthily. If you have a busy schedule, consider spending time one day a week (like a Sunday) preparing a number of healthy meal options in advance, divide into small portions (a great way to control Kj intake) and freezing. The couple of hours on the weekend will pay big dividends when you are exhausted through the week and that pizza flyer is seducing you.
EVERYTHING IN MODERATION
Don’t go anywhere near fad and crash diets that require you to completely cut out one or more food groups. The best ‘diet’ isn’t a diet at all – it’s about having everything, including the good stuff, in small doses.
IGNORE SCIENCE, TRUST YOUR GUT
One week red wine is good, then bad, same for chocolate – now it’s fine to exist solely on potato chips says another study. Unless something is found to be poisonous, pay attention to the simple rule of above – everything in moderation.
EAT BREAKFAST
It’s more than a word, it’s a directive. Break your fast – your metabolism will kick start and your body will thank you.
YOU ARE WHAT YOU READ
Every packaged food in Australia now displays a standard nutrition information panel. It can be very overwhelming with so many numbers, so stick to reading just the Energy (Kj) values. (It helps to know your approximate daily intake in kj – based on your weight, height, age, gender, activity level etc.) The 100g/100ml column is useful as the ‘common value’ when comparing with other foods which may have different sized servings.
ALCOHOL
Alcohol is high in kilojoules and often high in sugar. Despite not looking at all like a cream doughnut, it can be the ‘silent assassin’ in adding extra kilos. Consider low alcohol varieties, half measures, or alternate drinks with water. Once again, our good friend moderation is the key.-
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