Lynn I.   Earning Online Since 1999
Eric,

As you know I exercise daily even if its walking...and I am dropping some weight slowly. And I feel much better. I have more energy, which leads to more exercise :) And this is a good thing. I used to say to myself gosh, how many more laps do I have to do. Now I say, I have time for one more :)

Lynn
Dec 12th 2007 16:12   

Eric Smith   Online Professional
Yeah, i have definitely been there... I used to weigh 107 Kg's now i'm down to 85. At 107 i used to avoid hills... now i look for them to walk up...
Dec 12th 2007 16:19   

Lisa G.   Health Wellness & Wealth Consultant
I have had the yo yo syndrome of my weight for years. I also use walking as my biggest stragegy against weight gain. Lucky for those, who have never had a weight issue.

I also do it for my total well being. My cholestrol has lowered and my blood pressure (which I only recently started having high figures)

I'm a sugar holic. I have learned, if I want a candy, just get one...not two or three...not an economy package of 10..lol. I make a special trip out for it too, so I appreciate it more. I don't keep candies, cookies, chips, sodas, stocked in my home. I don't deprive myself if I want an occasional treat, but I've also learned the consequences of indulgence, for me.it.is just not worth it. It's hard to loose weight, it's easy to gain it, and even harder to maintain it.




Dec 12th 2007 16:48   

Arthur Webster   Just plain honesty
Hi, Eric,

As somebody who can vaguely remember being fit (in my early teens I was a promising marathon and double marathon runner) I will share something that I and many of my clients find so damned frustrating.

While we are succeeding in living as normal a life as possible by simply ignoring all the trash that is talked about "a healthy life style" - we are watching our friends damage themselves and make themselves ill by trying to apply the teachings of the latest fitness guru.

It is absolutely astounding how many people cannot see that what they are feeling is actually a placebo effect and that most of what they do that is not natural to their way of living is possibly harming them.

The two great destroyers are, of course, inhaled tobacco smoke and excessive alcohol consumption but many people actually live to ripe old ages having enjoyed both sins.

It is true to say that everybody who successfully stops smoking feels a benefit once the withdrawal has been completed and those who can reduce their alcohol consumption to social drinking will also feel a benefit - but nothing like so great a one.

Do you remember the old exhortation to "feel the burn" in relationship to exercise? How many people, I wonder, did themselves actual bodily harm by forcing themselves to suffer pain? What possible form of logic ever pursuaded them that the body's natural alert system could be ignored without penalty?

What about the cabbages out there stuffing their faces with pills, potions, juices and minerals that any balanced and healthy diet will provide a sufficiency of? One of the most stupid adverts I ever saw was one which cried out how our soil was depleted and our plants no longer could provide all the nutritional value we needed. What was the solution? Nothing but an extract - - - - - - - from PLANTS!

The market for health foods and suppliments is one of the most aggressively promoted and certainly the most profitable way of benefiting from the fears that the producers, themselves, instil in you. If you have a deficiency in any substance, believe me, your body will let you know and it takes an expert to discover what it is that you might be deficient in. If the expert is a young Mum earning a few bucks going door to door promoting the latest wonder juice (probably from the gojoplopperflybysyntheberry), do you ever ask to see her credentials? Don't you sometimes want to know how many levels of commission are being added to the wholesale cost of the juice? Don't you ever wonder when will they discover the ultimate complete food in a berry that grows only on the south slopes of the south pole but has maintained the health of the local population to such an extent that no residents of the south slopes of the south pole has EVER died?

Live a healthy life by simply accepting that you need to eat sufficient and exercise enough - it really is that simple.

All the rest is Internet and Multi Level Marketing.
Dec 13th 2007 12:55   

Eric Smith   Online Professional
Lisa,

I used to be addicted to sweet stuff. Soft drink, lollies, ice cream... Then after 29 years of living i experienced the dreaded "D" word for the first time... That experience was enough to know... sugar didn't matter that much in my diet :o)
Dec 13th 2007 13:51   

Eric Smith   Online Professional
Arthur,

I can remember my grandmother telling me how she used to go shopping once every 2 months or so for fruit and vegetables and would keep them under her house. She said she would nearly get to the last couple of things in the box before she saw any signs of it going "off"...

Try to do that these days and they would be rotten in a week or 2 - 3 or 4 weeks max.

Back in my grandmothers day fruit was left on the tree until it was ripe and ready to eat. These days fruit is picked early and placed in large sheds which are pumped full of ethylene gas to speed up the ripening process.

Because of this "early pick" our fruit is lacking many important nutrients that were once found in the "old fashioned" fruit and vegetables.

Vegetables in particular are lacking many important nutrients due to the "over working" of soil in broad acre farms. Not to mention the problems associated with the addition of "Synthetic chemicals" to try and put back what has leached from the soil.

Supplements & Vitamins are an unfortunate necessity these days especially when our diet consists of fruit and vegetables but from a supermarket in either fresh or frozen form.

Those who grow their own fruit and vegetables organically or purchase from an Organic Market have an advantage and receive higher levels of necessary nutrients from their fruit and vegetables and can perhaps get away without supplements.

Dec 13th 2007 14:13   

Mary Leedy  
I used to smoke off and on for about 14 years. I finally quit in February of this year because I had a sore throat and when things really went "south" with my health a few days after that, I made a decision to quit. My husband couldn't fogure out how I could quit for 10 months each time I was pregnant and then go back within 5 months after baby was born. I put on a little weight since I quit but not much since I wasn't a heavy smoker to begin with.

Now, of course with a liquid vitamin, I feel much better and habe more energy to keep up with my 3 kids. I don't have the desire to smoke again at all because I know it will hurt and I don't need the extra expense either. I have other focuses in my life such as living longer and having more time to do the things I want to do.

I like walking and od most of it during the summer time because it's nice out and walking on the beach is good for me. Not to mention building sand castles with the kids too! LOL :-) I also cut out soda after realizing it was depleting my calcium and had to over compensate my soda intake with calcium pills every day. Plus, soda made me more thirstier than anything else (from the sodium in it). And now, even a couple sips or so gives me a bellyache, no thank you!

I haven't given up my candy though, lol. I'm not too bad with it, i just know that if I eat a few pieces, I'm good to go for awhile. Otherwise, if I get to that craving point, I will eat a King sized bar of it.


Dec 13th 2007 16:21   

Arthur Webster   Just plain honesty
While it is true that the foods we eat today are different in nature from what we, as children, and our parents ate, they are still no less nutritious.

One of the things which I have discovered over more than three decades of being involved in clinical trials of foods, additives and snake oil is that the decline in content of our food does not equate to a lack of content and certainly not an insufficiency in content.

When it comes to organically grown foods, I was absolutely amazed to find that soil that had not been artiificially fertilised within the last six months could be used to grow vegetables that could be claimed to be organically grown. This seems a little of a loop hole because it is so simple to fertilise in October (after the last harvest) and then replant in March.

The organic movement has a delicate balancing act as well. How can they claim that our soil is less fertile but then grow better quality crops in it? Where do they find this rich soil that nobody else in the horticultural or agricultural fields know about? If they fertilise by mulching other vegetable matter, aren't they fertilising at an incomplete level - isn't what was missing from the mulched plants going to be missing from the organic plants grown in it?

Because I have a particularly restricted digestive system (most of it is missing) it has been very obvious for years that my body can utilise plant and animal products but simply does not have the time or energy to get benefit from most commercially produced vitamins, additives and snake oil. While the nutritional value of most of our foods has been falling over at least twenty years, there has been no evidence that, even for someone like me, there is any deficiency in our diets.

Indeed, the only deficiency I am conscious of is that of flavour and texture - both of which are caused more by our cooking methods rather than the quality of the ingredients.

Having said all that, the placebo effect can be as beneficial as actual remedials so maybe what is important is that you believe what you believe but don't subscribe to the latest scare tactics desperate marketers and production companies come up with.

Fear sells just as well as desire.

Incidentally, how many people will we have to dispose of in order to have an organic farming community could feed us all?
Dec 14th 2007 05:41   

Eric Smith   Online Professional
Arthur,

In Australia ACO (Australian Certified organic) has a strict policy for declaring products to be certified organic. There is a 3 year process farmers need to go through... 1. Pre-Certification 2. In Conversion & 3. Certified Organic. I'm pretty sure the USDA has a similar certification process.

This link explains the organic process in Australia -

http://www.australianorganic.com.au/_files/Organic%20Certification%20Handbook%202004.pdf

That process allows for the leaching of artificial chemicals and fertilizers from the soil and also allows time to structure ways to prevent leakage, run off, air borne impurities from other farmers etc.

On the other hand, the little "Bunny" logo that is used to show a product has not been tested on Animals can be used on a product providing the product was not tested on animals in the 3 years previously. Considering a product can go through years of trials and testings it is possible for the product to have been originally tested on animals then by the time it reaches us on the shelves, it can still be declared to be officially "not tested on animals".

Organic soil brings with it more than just no chemicals. Organic soil is a "Disneyland" for all types of beneficial insects, worms and other creatures that bring with them the ability to break down organic matter to produce nutrient rich byproducts that add a higher nutrient value to the soil... In addition these insects inevitably die (or are killed by natural gardening processes (cut in half by a spade etc ;o) and as they decay they add more nutrients to the soil. Vermiculture (Worm Farming) is huge across the world. Some countries even use it for turning human waste into a product that is safe to enter the environment.

Farming practices that use Chemicals to kill pests and disease are also killing the "Good" insects and the good bacteria that is necessary to maintain harmony in environmental processes.

Organic practices go much deeper than just not using artificial fertilizers or pesticides. Its a complete process which not only benefits our long term health but also the health of our animals, insects and the ENVIRONMENT!

Not to mention genetic deformaties in our children which are caused by an overload of synthetic chemicals in our bodies which are passed on to our kids at conception... My daughter will never talk, will need assistance for walking and will need round the clock monitoring all her life because of a chromosome deletion.

And then theres the increase in cancer rates to 1 in 3 over the past 50 years. Granted - Synthetic chemicals can not be the 100% culprit but i don't think its a coincidence that cancer rates have increased at the same rate as the use of synthetic chemicals by farmers.

However, this topic was not meant to discuss one particular health issue so we should probably open the topic up for more health related discussions...


Dec 14th 2007 15:16   

Jennifer Oliver   
Exercise is so very important in todays society where we cram all thee junk food we can find down our throats. It is amazing to me how many more cases of heart attack and strokes, there are today than ten years ago. Just goes to show you that in todays economy, businesses are not as interested in saving lives as they are making money. No one cares about you but you and family members, so you have to step up and add exercise to your daily plans, get the vitamins and mineral supplements your body needt to gain optimal nutrition. You have to insert that 10 minutes a day in even if you think you cant it will be well worth it in the long run. Dont forget to drink plenty of juice and water, to help flush all the toxins out of your body, because this in itself drains your energy levels.
Jan 17th 2008 13:25