Your Health
Your Health and Wellbeing
The fact you are interested in Pilates would indicate you are interested in looking good, feeling healthy and staying mobile. This page is intended to give information in addition to, and complementing the Pilates way of life. Some things may seem obvious, but are also largely ignored by a high percentage of the population.
Pilates, as already described elsewhere on this site, is all about strengthening and conditioning the body, but for overall fitness, and weight loss, should be combined with regular exercise that elevates the heart rate for periods over thirty minutes, ideally three to five times a week.
This could be achieved in many ways, from brisk walking to running and through all the sports – Choose something you enjoy, or a combination of different activities, and there is more chance of maintaining it in your life style.
Weight Management- Getting the Balance Right
Try to imagine the body like a bucket with holes in the bottom;
If the water (food) being poured into the bucket, exceeds the loss from the holes in the bottom (energy expenditure) the level in the bucket will rise (weight gain).
Solutions for weight loss;
Decrease the water (food) being poured into the bucket – Also analyze the food quality.
Increase the number of holes in the bottom of the bucket (increase energy expenditure).
This sounds simple, but putting it into practice not so simple;
Years ago the standard diet was simple but nutritious. A lot of food was home grown and would naturally be organic. Now with advances in food technology and pressure to manufacture food more cheaply, fast food stores have sprung up every where, supermarkets are selling food at very low prices, and convenience foods that can be cooked and ready in minutes are readily available. But, most of these foods are laden with saturated fats, high levels of sodium and have very little nutritional value. Not only are these attractive to the taste buds and can become addictive, but they are very cheap to produce, so the low cost becomes attractive to the consumer.
Most soft drinks and flavored water are high in sugar content: A can of pop can contain the equivalent of 6 tea spoons of sugar. The companies are now aware of this bad message and have introduced sugar free varieties, which instead contain artificial sweeteners which are much cheaper than sugar but also carry a health risk, and have been linked to the possibility of causing cancer if consumed in high quantities so should be avoided.
The best advice – recently publicized by Jamie Oliver, is to try to prepare your food as naturally as possible, using whole foods that have not been tampered with already – It doesn’t take much longer and is both more beneficial and satisfying.
Latest information tells us to stay healthy, we must eat 5 or more fruit and vegetables a day, however, due to modern farming, environmental pollution and transportation of food around the globe, many food products simply do not have the same level of essential nutrients in them as they did just 20 years ago.
Many people now take health supplements to try to feel better and counter the deficiencies in their diets and lifestyles. But how do you decide what to take?
We know that Vitamin C is good for you – (Did you know that oranges are transported frozen and this freezing process drops the vitamin C content by 50%). It is claimed in some reports that too high a dose of vitamin C can also be bad for you!
But what about all the other vitamins needed by the body? And what about the minerals – Also required? It’s starting to get complicated now – In order for these vitamins and minerals to help, they should be in balance. How many jars of supplements do you now need to buy? Is it even sensible – Portaloo companies report that there are always undigested tablets in their loo’s when it is time to empty them – Seems like many just pass right through you, without being absorbed by the body – Good money down the drain!
It would seem to us, sensible to supplement the diet, but to do it in a balanced considered way – Find a supplier of an easily assimilated, balanced mix of the whole spectrum of vitamins and minerals in one product.
There are suppliers that produce supplements that give you all your daily requirements of vitamins and minerals in one dose, in a colloidal form (liquid) or powder, as it is absorbed straight in to the digestive system.
Cravings – Do you crave certain food stuff’s such as chocolate? This could be caused by vitamin deficiency – Your body is telling you it needs something – Chocolate may not be the answer!!
Bowel Health – You are what you eat.
This may not be the most glamorous of subjects, but the condition of the bowel affects the condition of the body as a whole. If the bowel is underactive, toxic waste builds up, and is absorbed into the blood stream where these toxins are circulated to every part of the body, and some are deposited in tissues. The body can, over time, be overwhelmed by these toxins causing symptoms such as fatigue, derangements, sickness and disease.
Solution? Keep the bowel in good condition, allow it to function as nature intended. Consider the addition of friendly bacteria to your dietary supplements. Consider also, what you are eating – Some food stuffs are better left on the supermarket shelves!
Recommended reading – Dr.Jensen’s Guide to Better Bowl Care, by Dr. Bernard Jensen.
Toxic Attack
We are all exposed to toxic attack in our every day lives – Air pollution, toxic chemicals in our food stuffs and in our personal care products. Who would have thought that harsh chemical degreasants as used to clean garage floors would be used in shampoo? It is, because it creates plenty of lather and is very cheap – Just what’s required by the manufacturer, but we are then expected to pour it over our skin (our largest organ) in the shower just when our pores are open, so we can absorb these toxins straight into our blood. Were we really designed for such abuse? Why do toothpaste manufacturers state on the tube – “Do not injest”? Because it’s bad for you! So why brush it round your mouth where it will be absorbed into the blood supply?
Just food for thought!