18th
November 2012
Worry is a misuse of the imagination. Dan
Zadra
What is ‘healthy’? If you google that question it automatically
assumes you mean ‘diet’ and according to the NHS this is the answer;
The two keys to a healthy balanced diet are:
- eating the right amount of food for how
active you are, and
- eating a range of foods – this is what
balanced means
The range of foods in your
diet should include:
- plenty of fruit and vegetables
- plenty of bread, rice, potatoes, pasta and
other starchy foods (choosing wholegrain varieties when possible)
- some milk and dairy foods
- some meat, fish, eggs, beans and other
non-dairy sources of protein
- just a small amount of foods high in fat
and sugar
That sums it
up I suppose, I’d say healthy
eating means consuming the right quantities of foods from all food groups in
order to lead a healthy life. Diet is often referred to as some dietary regimen
for losing weight. However, diet simply means what food we eat in the course of
a 24-hour, one week, or one month, etc. period. A good diet is a nutritional
lifestyle that promotes good health. A good diet must include several food
groups because one single group cannot provide everything a human needs for
good health.
However being healthy isn’t just about the
food that goes in our bodies is it?
Having good health is important to make you feel good and hopefully live
longer, it depends on eating the right food, doing the right exercise, and
feeling good about yourself.
Is it any good being a size 8, if you have low
self esteem and live on nothing but the odd bag of crisps and bar of chocolate. Equally is it good to feel really confident
but be carrying so much excess weight that you can barely breathe when you walk
up a flight of stairs? The answer to
those questions is personal to the individual in that situation. I know I’m quite happy to be considered ‘overweight’
according to the bmi chart because I walk everyday, I eat good healthy foods
with the occasional treat, yes I have a glass or two of wine but I’m also
really content with my life. I have a job
I thoroughly enjoy and friends and family that just make my world complete, I feel
blessed. I’m still what I call an happy
o.w.l. (over weight lady) oh and I love that the latest fashion trend is owls,
how fab is that, I’m taking credit for that trend lol even if it isn’t mine to
take ;-)
Why have I bought this subject up today you
may be thinking, well it’s because of my mom, a lot of you know her, she’s a
tiny wee thing these days but she hasn’t always been. When we were kids she hit 18 stone at her
heaviest, at 5ft 3in it meant when we hugged her we couldn’t get our hands to
touch at the back. Then she went to
Weight Watchers often, every time she joined, she’d lose some weight and she’d
actually keep it off till the next time she joined! By the time I was eighteen she was probably
about 14st and she went to the doctor with heartburn and indigestion problems,
they told her she had a hiatus hernia which is where part of the stomach pushes up into the lower chest through a defect
in the diaphragm. The diaphragm is the large flat muscle that separates the
lungs from the abdomen, which helps us to breathe. Back in those days they just gave her
medicine and told her to lose weight, whatever you went to the doctors with
back then they told you to lose weight whether it was a headache or sore
finger!
So she did, and
in 1994 she hit her goal weight and was given a special gold of 11 stone, she
was thrilled, she’s kept that weight off ever since. Isn’t that fabulous? Well yes and no, no because she didn’t change
her diet enough to stop her health problems – one cannot live on junk alone –
not if you hope to live a long term healthy life.
That hernia has
grown to six times its original size in the past 25 years and now she has
abused her body so much that the lining that you get on your stomach is
normally different to the lining on your oesophagus, her body has been so
clever that it has grown that stomach lining onto her oesophagus to try to
protect it from the acid! This is called
Barrett's oesophagus – I’m educating you today!
What I’m trying to say I
suppose is there’s more to health that being a certain weight! I was going to show you a photo of what the
inside of my mom’s stomach might look like but it’s too early in the
morning! Google it if you want to be put
off your breakfast, I didn’t need to see it, I can imagine, I listen to her
every morning struggle with the pain and this has been getting steadily worse
for years but she just couldn’t put together ‘what you eat and how you feel are
connected’, she would say, “I’ve always eaten crap”, and you can’t argue with a
stubborn old lady! She’s starting to listen
now though, she can only eat small, regular meals and even that’s a struggle.
If the scales aren’t saying what you want them
to right now, seriously that’s not the important bit, the most important thing
is how you feel;
- are you happy? Do you enjoy being you?
- are you eating a good healthy range of food
with the occasional treat?
- do you find ways to move your body in a way
you enjoy in order to be active?
- are you happy? I ask this twice because this
is more important than anything in the world, if you’re happy then you’re more
likely to take care of yourself – if you’re not what can you do right now to
start changing that.
Oh and just in case you think I’m deluded – no
one is happy ALL the time, not even me, you should hear me rant and rave when I
can’t find something, or when Alfie is doing my head in or when I spill a
bottle of water all over my car seat like I did yesterday! Yep I have my moments but overall I’m glad to
be here and I wouldn’t want to be anyone else.
Start taking care of you today, so the future
you will be grateful. xx
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