8 Pillars of Lifelong Health: Part 1

Health is one of my big passions. Healthy lifestyles, teaching about them and helping people develop healthy habits, is a huge passion of mine. Personal Development is another, but that's for a different blog :D

By health I mean not just the absence of disease, but the lifestyle habits that make your body able to fight off degenerative diseases and function at its peak regardless of your age.

I love it when I help a patient get into healthy lifestyle habits that such 'side effects' as:
- Healthy weight loss
- Lowered blood pressure (in someone who had high blood pressure)
- Improved blood sugar status (in someone suffering from diabetes
- Lowered 'bad' cholesterol and triglycerides
... and so forth, all without prescribed medication and its attendant side effects.

It simply brings me sooo much joy when people take control, become empowered and proactive about their health, and start seeing the fruits of their labours - and believe me, when you consistently apply the information I'm sharing with you, you WILL see results, because 'In ALL labour there is profit'.

So today, let me begin to share with you an overview of what I teach my patients, then work with them to achieve. Future blog posts will expand on the following.

I give you...

The 8 Pillars of Lifelong Health
Part One

In Summary, the 8 Pillars of Lifelong Health Are:

1. Positive Mental Attitude (including Goal-Setting)
2. Healthy, Balanced, Nutrition
3. Adequate Hydration
4. Adequate Physical Exercise
5. Sleep. Adequate Rest
6. Correct Breathing Technique
   
7. Correct Posture
8. Adequate Support
   

1) Positive Mental Attitude.
Studies abound which confirm that this state of mind is conducive for health and healing. If you desire health, you need to be health conscious - don't keep focusing on your ailments and rehashing the whole bunch of symptoms over and over again; focus instead on what you can do to make you healthy. Your body does respond to your very thoughts, on a cellular level.

So be careful to hold thoughts and images of health.

Get the thought of 'losing weight' out of your mind. How? Replace it with thoughts of 'being healthy'. Being healthy has a 'side effect' of weight loss - a healthy body simply cannot hold onto excess fat - it releases it. So focus on being healthy, and the excess weight will take care of itself.

Now, because goal-setting is an important part of any achievement, when you set a goal to become healthy, you can and should set yourself some goals because then you can measure your progress.

Useful numbers for goal-setting are body fat percentage and waist measurement.

These are important because a healthy body does not hold onto excess fat - it releases it. That is why if you are overweight due to excess fat, you're not healthy and are at risk of developing a myriad of (preventable) chronic degenerative diseases.

The tables below give you a guide for recommended body fat percent range for health. To know your current body fat percentage, the quickest thing to do is pop into a gym or leisure centre and get a personal trainer to measure you using skinfold calipers.

Or go buy the calipers and measure it for yourself - only be sure you're using them correctly.

According to the American Council of Exercise:

Category	Women (% fat)	Men (% fat)>
Fitness	21-24%	14-17%
Essential Fat	10-12%	2-4%
Athletes	14-20%	6-13%
Acceptable	25-31%	18-25%
Obese	32% plus	25% plus

Body Fat Percentage For Men

Ideal body fat percentage for Men
Age(yr)	Excellent	Good	Fair	Risky
20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59 60+	10.8 12.8 14.5 16.1 17.5 18.6 19.5 20.0 20.3	14.9 16.5 18.0 19.3 20.5 21.5 22.3 22.9 23.4	19.0 20.3 21.5 22.6 23.6 24.5 25.2 25.9 26.4	23.3 24.3 25.2 26.1 26.9 27.6 28.3 28.9 29.5

Body Fat Percentage For Women

Ideal body fat percentage for Women
Age (Yr)	Excellent	Good	Fair	Risky
20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59 60+	18.9 18.9 19.7 21.0 22.6 24.3 25.8 27.0 27.6	22.0 22.1 22.7 24.0 25.6 27.3 28.9 30.2 30.9	25.0 25.4 26.4 27.7 29.3 30.9 32.3 33.5 34.2	29.6 29.8 30.5 31.5 32.8 34.1 35.5 36.7 37.7

Healthy waist measurements are as follows:
- Less than 40inches (102cm) for men
- Less than 34.5 inches (88cm) for women

The more you think of 'losing weight', the more your subconscious hears 'weight' and the more you focus on 'weight' the more of it you attract...

Think 'health' and 'wellness' and 'fitness' from now on. Fill your mind with images that reflect this. Think in terms of the body fat percentage goal you're aiming to achieve.


2) Adequate Nutrition
Don't put the wrong fuel in your car and expect it to run perfectly.

Don't keep putting the wrong food into your body and expect it to function perfectly.

Every single bite or sip you take either nourishes and builds you up, or it poisons, destroys and kills ya.

Nutrition is a big big topic, and there is a world of information and misinformation out there so folks don't know who or what to believe anymore.

As a general guide, if the nutritional advice you receive is based on the way your body was made to function, then you can be sure it's sound. Any nutritional advice that doesn't sound natural or in line with normal biochemistry and physiology is stuff you should take with a pinch of salt. So in this blog I'm going to share with you in easy-to-understand language, information about how your body works.

This way you'll be empowered to make the right choices in terms of your food, regardless of the latest 'diet' craze. Oh by the way I'm not keen on the term 'diet' - each time you hear it, your subconscious thinks in terms of 'something with a beginning and an end'. So you're programming yourself to come off a diet right from the beginning, and what happens when you come off it? That's right - you're back to square one.

So again, when it comes to nutrition, think 'healthy eating plan' or 'healthy eating habits' or 'healthy eating lifestyle' - when it comes to your health, you've gotta be in it for the long haul, not just to slim down for a wedding or something like that. Set yourself up to succeed from the beginning, by programming your mind (using the right terminology) to steer you on course for lifelong health.

Check back here for more detailed information on nutrition, but here is a nutshell version:

Your healthy eating plan should be balanced and made of healthy foods plus nutritional supplements - no matter how healthy your diet is, current farming practices mean that by the time your vegetables get to your table, they're nutrient depleted so you are not actually getting what you need for optimal health, daily.

If you lead a very busy and hectic life, you need to supplement your diet even more because chances are you're not getting the basic healthy nutrition from your food.

In addition, a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in 2002 which looked at The Use of Vitamins for Chronic Disease Prevention in Adults, concluded that "it appears prudent for all adults to take vitamin supplements." (JAMA June 2002).

Now, because it is now widely known and accepted that 'Chronic Disease' can start in children - according to the American Heart Association, "There is compelling evidence that the atherosclerosis (ath"er-o-skleh-RO'sis) (fatty deposits of plaque in artery walls) or its precursors begins in childhood and progresses slowly into adulthood."(changed in arteries, and changes leading to type 2 diabetes, have been found in children as young as 2 years old, for instance), one can extrapolate that 'it is prudent for all children to take vitamin supplements' also.

Especially in today's fast food, fast paced culture - it's amazing and scary how many parents send their children to school with 'breakfast' consisting of sweets, chocolates, cookies, crisps and coke. I wouldn't have believed it myself if I hadn't seen it happening every single day when I used to take my son to school.

Visit http://www.trulyhealthykids.com (turn your speakers up for a brief message from me to you) to receive a free report on this vital issue, if you care about your children (or other children you are in contact with...).

The word 'supplement' does not mean to replace, however. So yes you should take supplements but this should always be in addition to a healthy, balanced, eating plan.

So, adequate nutrition for you thus includes:

• Healthy carbs (check back here for examples)
  
• Healthy proteins (ditto)
  
• Healthy fats
• Balanced, comprehensive, potency guaranteed, nutritional supplements
  
• Other nutritional and immune support like probiotics, etc.

Check back for details on the above...


3) Hydration
Your body is 70% water. You are made up of cells, and each cell needs at least 70% hydration for it to function optimally.

Anytime you are not drinking enough, dis-ease results because the cells give up their hydration to make sure the vital organs have enough. Your body is always seeking to achieve balance or equilibrium, see, and if you're not helping it by taking the right amount of water, some part or other, suffers - dis-ease. Dis-ease implies a state of imbalance or disturbance of your body's natural equilibrium.

The Healthy Lifestyle Program I teach, aims to help your body restore its natural balance without the use of prescribed medication. However in some extreme cases you may need medication temporarily.

Whenever a patient presents with a headache, when I've ruled out red flag symptoms and signs, I ask how much water they're drinking. Very often they're not drinking enough, and when they correct this, the headache often clears up. And there's no side effect with water either!

Other signs of dehydration, apart from headaches, include:

• Low back pain
• Heart burn/indigestion (so before you reach for the rennies, try filtered water.)
  
• Menstrual pain
• Water retention (paradoxical but true - so you find for instance, if you get bloated during your period, or as part of 'IBS', when you start drinking the right amount of water for your size, this symptom often disappears.)
• Chronic pain (not relating to infection)
• Depression
• Mental irritation
• Fatigue/tiredness
  

How much water should you be drinking then?

Varying schools of thought on this one. Some say (and I certainly agree that you should) drink anytime you're thirsty (drink filtered water ideally, that is). Others say you should just eat fruit and you'll get enough water from there. While I agree that you should eat fruit daily, I don't believe you should depend only on them for your hydration.

I also don't believe that 'one size fits all' when it comes to an individual's daily water requirement. This is because people are of different size - you can't need 2L of water per day if you're 5ft and the same 2L per day if you're a small child.

There is a formula for calculating recommended water intake (from the International Sports Medicine Institute), which I find very useful. Here it is:
33ml of filtered water/kg of body weight if you're not active
43ml of filtered water/kg of body weight if you're active, athletic.

If you think in terms of ounces and pounds, this comes to
1/2 ounces of filtered water per pound of body weight if you're not active
2/3 ounces of filtered water per pound of body weight if you're active.

If this sounds overwhelming, then break it up into baby steps: if for example using the above calculation your daily recommened intake is 2L/day, get a 500ml bottle of water (find a bottle made from plastic that doesn't leach into your drink - in other words, don't use bottles that are designed for once-only-use...) and fill it up 4 times in every 24 hours. Surely thats more doable?

It helps if you have your water bottle in sight all day - that way you can easily remember to drink it and fill it up throughout the day. Do this often enough and it'll become 2nd nature, habit, for you.

Now, you may be concerned that drinking this amount of water daily means you'll live in the loo...truth is, in the early days of your increased water intake, you will run to the loo often. However, your bladder tends to readjust and what you'll find is that eventually, you're able to hold your pee longer before you feel the urge to go, and when you do go, you'll pee larger amounts per visit.


4) Exercise/Physical Activity
You were not designed to be sedentary.

And anytime you behave in a way that goes against the way you were naturally created to function, dis-ease results.

There are sooo many benefits to exercise and I'm sure you're aware of many of them. I'll be listing them later on in this blog, so check back.

The purpose of today's overview is to tell you what to include in your exercise program, for health and fitness.

- Daily aerobic (cardio) exercise: aim for 30-60 minutes per day of aerobic exercise that gets your heart rate up, so if walking your dog is a leisurely paced-walk for you, it's not doing the job. If you don't have the time to workout for that long, then you can work out for shorter periods of time, BUT it must be interval training - few minutes of moving as fast as you possibly can, followed by a few minutes of moving brisk but slower than before. You should be able to just hold a conversation while doing your cardio. If you can't, then you're overdoing it and need to slow down your pace.

Add some extra zing to your workout, and burn more calories when you retro-exercise too: walk or run backwards! Studies show you burn twice the amount of calories when you retro-exercise. On weekdays, I spend 30 minutes on the cross trainer - 15 minutes forward and 15 minutes moving backwards. On weekends I spend 45-60 minutes per day on the cross trainer so I do 15 mins front, 15 mins back. And I've noticed that I do a lot more work in the same amount of time, when I do it retro. (Note, if you walk outdoors, don't retro-walk unless you're walking with a buddy who can be your 'eyes' - don't be running into cars now!)

- Strength training every other day, but at least 2ce a week. No exercise program worth its salt is complete without some form of resistance training using weights. If you don't know what to be doing, pop over into your local gym or leisure centre, and get one of the personal trainers there to advice you on what weight training exercises you need to do.

Very important if you're at risk of Osteoporosis (hint: women, take note, especially if you're approaching, or have gone past the menopause...).

- Stretching exercises are great to help you maintain your flexibility. Do them after your workouts. Yoga and Pilates are also great for this.


5) Sleep. Rest.
Your body needs adequate rest time to replenish nutrients, direct nutrients to where they're needed and generally refresh you.

You need an adequate amount of sleep on a daily basis, if you're to function optimally.

Sleep deprivation affects you in many ways (and if you're looking to shed some of your excess fat, you need to have adequate sleep, as studies have linked sleep deprivation with weight gain...).

How much sleep is enough sleep?

Again, I don't believe one size fits all, but there seems to be a concensus that 7 hours minimum per night are conducive for optimal health.

So really, beauty sleep is not a myth...


Stay tuned for more thoughts on health...there are a 3 more 'Pillars' that I consider paramount for optimal health (notice the focus is always on OPTIMAL health, not on mediocre or for 'settling for' health): I want the best for you, dear reader as I do for my clients, patients and myself.


Meantime have yourself a healthy week.


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