Food and health

I have been keeping myself entertained on the commute to work watching TV programmes I had missed.  One programme that I particularly enjoyed was‘Eat to live Forever with Giles Coren’ and really enjoyed it.  He had me with the first things he said: he was an older dad and wanted to live longer to be with his kids.  I am an older mum and the same thought has crossed my mind.  In the course of the programme Giles takes on 3 extreme dieting regimes which claim to increase lifespan.  This was rather entertaining as I have heard of caloric restriction, the paleo diet and fruitarianism before but didn’t really know much about them.  Giles injected the information with humour.  ‘I am a fat burning beast!  Not like that guy there who is just a fat beast’, as he munched on what he said was a disgusting paleo burger (two burger patties with some veg in between), made me laugh.  

I am not a fan of diets.  As a teenager I was overweight and tried many different diets; nothing worked until I incorporated the principles of healthy eating- i.e. eat real food and not in excessive quantities- with moderate exercise.  This has led me to the conclusion that fad diets focus on very narrow targets and in so doing could lead to weight loss but also other accompanying problems.  A well adjusted life-style is the holy grail, and finding a way to balance food, work, life, exercise, etc so that one has a lifestyle one can enjoy is crucial if the weight is to stay off.  Of course what we need to achieve balance changes over time and it is important to take the signs and cues from everyday living and adjust to these.  I certainly was (still am to an extent) very bad at ‘listening’ to my own body; I suspect I am not alone in this.

Recently there was a report on how parents are not very good at spotting obesity in their children.  As someone who has been overweight before, I can tell you I was/am not very good at spotting obesity in myself.  I have recently put on some weight- enough so that I now think that my lifestyle is unbalanced.  The realisation surprised me at first as the weight gain seemed to have creeped up on me unnoticed.  Thinking back on it, and if I were honest with myself, the signs have been there for a while.  I just chose to ignore them as I was busy/more interested with something else.  My life has changed substantially with the arrival of a child and I haven’t really adapted my lifestyle in a way that allows me to stay healthy.  I have pushed that back on my agenda as not as important as coping with the daily demands on my time.  I still prepare healthy food because that is important for the whole family.  However, I have denied myself time to exercise, always sacrificing that for something else.  Well, if I want to increase my chances of living longer then I need to take my head out of the sand and pay attention.  Step one- find some time for regular exercise; morning yoga, abandoning lifts and walking everywhere may be an achievable baby step.    

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