Nutritional Stress Management
America lives on fast food. After all, we live in a fast-paced society and we value quick, efficient meals. Each year we gain weight – the average male gains five pounds and the average female puts on eight. And each year we lose life expectancy. Obesity surrounds us. Overweight children were rare in the 1950s; now they’re common. For the first time in a century, the youngest generations are predicted not to live as long as their elders. Sad, but true.
LifeNuts are fit. Very fit. Small waists and low BMIs. Part of that fitness is exercise and the other part is diet. The way to lose or maintain weight is to burn more calories than we eat … each day. Duh. The more we exercise, the more calories we need and vice versa.
To find out how many calories you need each day, go to the Cooper Clinic website and enter your age, weight, height, and amount of daily exercise. And while you’re at it, search for cooperaerobics.com and read about how Dr. Kenneth Cooper, the founder of modern aerobics, lost 40 pounds, worked with NASA and the Air Force, and developed his now world-famous aerobic program.
Most don’t know caloric needs and most exceed them daily. Sixty-four percent of Americans are overweight and that figure could reach 75% within a few years, adding to the strain on our health care system. A cartoon in Barrons, the financial newspaper, captured this concept quintessentially. As two men sit, eating lunch, one says, “I love cheeseburgers more than I hate being fat.” Right on.
Five books have helped me to lose 50 pounds and to have kept it off since 2005: The 3-Hour Diet, The China Study, Healthy at 100, Thrive and The Engine 2 Diet.The first book stresses the importance of eating small meals every three hours to maintain body metabolism and establish a small appetite. The others stress a plant-based diet. Ironman triathletes wrote the last two books, proving that champion endurance competitors could win while eating fruits and vegetables, a fact that the meat and dairy industry don’t want to acknowledge.
Although not loaded with recipes, the book LifeNuts delves into many areas of nutrition, its myths, its good and bad, and delivers a simple approach to eating wisely. This takes discipline but the rewards are a healthy lifestyle. Just ask any LifeNut.
Lifestyle involves choices.
Afraid to switch eating habits because you're concerned food won't taste good? Believe it or not, it takes only about 4-6 weeks for taste to change. After you give up sugar-laden soft drinks, fried food, and fat-saturated dishes, you'll notice that your new food choices taste great and the former ones don't.
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