Are they serious…….am I the only person that thinks this is an absolutely crazy idea…….surely not. If we are saying that junk food shouldn’t be eaten without medication to counter its effects then why oh why are we allowing it to be served at all. Why are we not yelling it from the rooftops that this is not food. It doesn’t nourish us, it does the absolute opposite and actually harms us.

What pains me is the money that they spend doing research such as this when that money could be better spent going into educating people on what constitutes a healthy diet.

And don’t even get me started on statins and the effects of their long term use. See the articles below highlighting just a few of the concerns on the long term use of this drug.

http://www.statinanswers.com/effects.htm

http://www.healthy-heart-guide.com/muscle-weakness-from-statins.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1280040/Statins-The-effects-worse-feared.html

In the original article it states that statins are deemed to be ‘fairly safe’. Now to me using the phrase ‘fairly safe’ to describe a drug that will in theory be being issued to whoever, wherever and whenever – i.e with no control is not something that fills me with a great deal of confidence. I mean if someone gave you the opportunity to parachute out a plane deeming it to be ‘fairly safe’ wouldn’t you think twice about it??

It saddens me that all common sense seems to have long since left the food arena. Eating foods that pose a negative risk to your health and then attempting to neutralise that risk by taking medications that have serious long term effects just doesn’t add up to me.

We need to get real here. Handing out pills like smarties is not the answer. Eating healthily and exercising regulaly – well now you are getting there.

I have a set of about 5 exercises that I am now doing several times a day in order to loosen them up – it is my goal for this summer to get them to at least shift a little and show me that there is actually nice soft pliable muscle there somewhere and not that my hips are actually granite stone…..

The reason for my tight hips though is one that I don’t altogether follow. Most people when I question them about why my hips are so tight will immediately put it down to the fact that I used to run. I say used to because I have talked myself out of running at the moment because of said hip situation and the fact that ‘operation dislodge’ is taking place. Are my tight hips really down to the fact that for some years of my life I have been a runner. It doesn’t make sense to me. I mean we are meant to run. Our bodies are built to run – all long limbs and torsos and lets face it we wouldn’t have gotten very far as a species if we hadn’t have had the ability to run from a sabre  toothed tiger now would we.

No, I suspect that the reason my hips are so tight is that at the age of 5 I was walked into a classroom and made to sit in a chair for large portions of the day. 13 years later I walked out of school and into a job in an office sat behind a desk. And when I wasn’t at school or work I was sat eating, or sat in the car or on public transport or watching TV etc.etc.

Yep, I strongly believe that my tight hips are the result of spending much of my life sitting down. I’m sure then that running may exasperate that but I don’t believe it was responsible for it which means that there must be some way in which I can still run and not have to worry about my hips seizing up which is music to my ears because as much as I love yoga, I also love my running and I’m not ready to give up on it yet.

What has to go is sitting down all the time and although I am luckier now that I don’t have an office job anymore I still do sit for large parts of the day – I am sitting now and I have to drive a lot and that’s something you can’t do standing up – well not yet anyway.

Somehow I have to find a way to sit less and move around more but in the meantime I will keep religiously practicing my ‘hip opening’ exercises – even if they are excruciatingly painful – no pain no gain right!! I’ll keep you updated on the progress…….

Of course I knew it was a ‘disorder’ that had been linked with healthy eating – and I use the term ‘disorder’ very loosely here but it appears that it can apply to pretty much anyone who wants to eat in a way that is more benefical to their health. That is the trouble with coining ‘new’ conditions such as these, everyone applies there own perceptions to them.

Dr Stephen Bratman wrote the original article in which he suggests the condition back in 1997 see here He now adds in a caveat on his website stating that there are things in the article that he no longer believes (although he doesn’t point out what) and saying that he doesn’t include vegetarians, vegans and any other approach to healthy eating to be an inherant eating disorder but of course the damage has already been done as the media ran with the original article and it now appears over and over again to undermine the habits of many people that are trying to eat and live in a healthier way.

We are back to mixed messages again. With a population in the western world where obese and overweight individuals are beginning to outweigh (no pun intended) those of a normal weight is it really the right way to go that we are attacking those who are trying to cut out junk food and anything that isn’t good for their bodies and brand them ‘mentally unstable’??

Whilst researching on the internet about this subject I came across many sites that would put me into the category of ‘orthorexia nervosa’ because I seemingly have a rigid approach to my diet. I choose to eat raw food because it makes me feel and look good. Plently of energy, clear skin, bright eyes, blah, blah, blah….the list goes on. It means that I cannot eat out much because there is never very much on the menu other than an uninspiring salad sold to me at an overated price. It also means that for most social gatherings that I go to I take my own food. I often plan my meals in advance because if I am making anything that needs to be dehydrated then this will take longer than conventional cooking and so needs to be prepared with enough time. I choose not to eat sugar, grains, dairy products, and I have recently stopped drinking alcohol.

Apparently all these things mean I have a ‘mental health disorder’ around food. Now I could go on a rant here and start defending myself against a society where fast food and genetically modified foods are the norm but that would probably give more ammunition to those who think I have a problem in the first place. Instead I’ll sit here and be grateful that I am in a position to research and make an informed decision about the food I eat. I will feel lucky that I have resources in the forms of the internet, books, videos etc etc to learn about the harm that eating a diet high in processed foods can do and I will be non judgemental about others who don’t choose to eat the way I do. That is their decision. Just as eating a raw food diet is mine. It doesn’t make me ‘strange’ or ‘weird’ or ‘mentally unstable’. It just makes me someone who wants to look after the amazing body she has been given and allow it to give her the very best that it can. I intend to still be touching my toes when I am 100. I intend to still be eating a healthy diet. I intend to live a very long and disease free life and enjoy every single moment and experience that comes my way. Does that make me someone who has lost her grip on reality – I don’t think so……..

I was thinking about emotions and memories this morning and realised that a lot of my happier childhood memories involve foods. For instance, Tuesdays were always a good day as it was the day my mum would draw her family allowance and so by the time I came home from school for my lunch she had been to the bakers and brought crusty rolls and belgian buns. We would then smother the rolls in thick butter, throw in some ham and eat them in front of ‘The Sullivans’ – a Australian soap – the precursor to Neighbours and Home and Away. It’s a lovely memory for me as it was just me and mum enjoying each other’s company. Now although the thought of the ham no longer has me running for the fridge, crusty white rolls still make me salivate somewhat.

I have many memories like this that weave their way through my childhood – sunday lunches with roasts or better still steak and kidney pudding, family holidays in the Lake District and picnics of crusty bread, cheese and pork pies perched half way up a mountain somewhere and again although the meat no longer habours any longings from me cheese has been one of the hardest things for me to give up.

It is really interesting to me to see the link between the foods and the memories that I associate with them.

When cravings strike it is not because the body has a real hunger that need satiating, but because the mind is trying to recapture a pleasing emotion/memory. So for me crusty white rolls and cheese trigger happy memories of my parents and siblings. Hence when I am feeling down and sorry for myself my mind steps in and tries to recreate a happy memory by getting me to eat foods that I associate with happier times. Still with me…….??

What I need to learn to do is to recreate happy memories with more appropriate foods and recognise when a craving is just a response from my mind to ‘cheer me up’. Nowadays my happy foods are somewhat different but none the less enjoyable and have the same effect. Juicy sweet fruit does it for me now – pineapples and peaches especially – the peaches remind me of an idyllic holiday in Sardinia a few years ago where we camped right near the beach and I ate big beefsteak tomatoes and peaches everyday.  Pineapple, mango, coconut and banana smoothies are like ‘summer holidays’ in a glass and instantly transport me to a glorious sunny beach in Goa with a light breeze, crystal clear seas and blue blue skies where we once spent two weeks of bliss.

It is great that our minds try to recreate happier times for us but we have to be careful of what they are directing us to eat in order to do that. Happy memories are there within us all the time and can be accessed at an instant. Just because I no longer eat cheese or belgian buns doesn’t mean that I don’t remember that special time when it was just mum and me or the madcap times scrambling up mountainsides that were family holidays!!

We have to remember that eating does not create happiness. It can be a happy experience but the happiness is already in each of us to start with. We just have to learn how to access it.

Am I alone in thinking that this is just……well just a bit wrong. I know its very difficult to lose weight, I know how hard it can be to motivate yourself and I know that emotional eating plays a huge part in obesity so tell me just how throwing money at the problem will solve all these issues, have you lose a substantial amount of weight and most importantly keep it off.

In my opinion it won’t but I guess the cynical view would be that it will keep people from their doctor’s door for just a little bit longer. Put off the inevitable onset of diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, strokes…….the list goes on.

Isn’t it a sad society that we live in that figures money over education is the better way to go. When are we going to wake up and realise that the food we are eating is slowly killing us.

When are we going to realise that we need to go back to the old ways of cooking/uncooking and eating. When is the penny going to drop that eating foods laden with sugars, fats, chemicals, preservatives and all sorts of other unpronouceable ingredients isn’t doing us any good.

We have a real obesity problem in this country now. Statistics paint an alarming picture that is only getting worse. In the UK around 43% of men and 33% of women are overweight and on top of that a further 22% of men and 23% of women fall into the obese category.

This means that over half the population is overweight and the older you get the more grim it becomes. In the age group 64-75 the figures are even more alarming – 77% of men and 71% of women!!!

Doesn’t make for good reading does it?? We really have to do better than throwing a bit of pocket money at a problem like this. We have to start educating people about what they are putting into their mouths, about what is in that food and how that is a DIRECT cause of not only obesity but of illness and disease too.

So, sorry NHS but I don’t think much of your latest incentive. When I first started out as a Personal Fitness Trainer my local doctor’s office wouldn’t take any of my fliers because they couldn’t be seen to endorse my services for fear of recriminations if anything went wrong (even though I have insurance and have never done anything to injure any of my clients)

Maybe just maybe they could instead draw on the experience of people like me that are out there who are only too willing to help people lose weight and improve their health for the long term instead of sitting around coming up with pointless short term solutions like this one……..

]]> http://thefitoption.com/2010/06/15/new-nhs-incentive-pay-people-to-lose-weight/feed/ 2 http://thefitoption.com/2010/06/03/the-fit-option-forum/ http://thefitoption.com/2010/06/03/the-fit-option-forum/#comments Thu, 03 Jun 2010 14:22:04 +0000 Helen http://thefitoption.com/?p=572 The Fit Option Forum has sprung into life over the last 24 hours. I originally set it up at the back end of last year but didn’t really do much with it at the time. Developments over the last few days have seen me invite another ‘raw food’ forum across to join with The Fit Option as they were going to shut down otherwise so now the Fit Option is seeing a flurry of activity and I am busy getting organised and making sure there is something interesting there for people to view when they come and join in.

You can come and sign up at the Forum here and after you have been approved will be free to peruse, debate, discuss and digest new information to your heart’s content.

We look forward to seeing you there.

The summer is such a good time to make a change and start to include more exercise in your life and equally important to eat a more healthy diet. We all feel so much more positive when the sun is shining and possibilities seem endless and problems somehow smaller.

All of the exercises within our summer challenge can be done outdoors so there is no excuse not to enjoy both the weather and a new exercise regimme.

We will be keeping the food nice and simply with minimum preparation time involved so that you don’t end up spending precious ‘outdoors time’ couped up in the kitchen. Get the rest of the family to join in too and make it something that everybody can enjoy.

So, this summer instead of feeling blue about yourself, join us and really enjoy the sunny days and challenging yourself to be the best that you can. We look forward to seeing you on our challenge……………….

Over the last few days I have watched as people around me begin to shed the layers that they have been wrapped up in for the last few months and enjoy being out in the sunshine. The sun definately creates a feel good factor and it is soooo much easier to think about being healthy when everything around you is bathed in sunlight.

What I would like to do here at The Fit Option over the next few months is to expand on that feel good factor and to encourage everyone to start to make more conscious decisions about what they are eating and how much exercise they are taking.

Everyone wants to look their best at this time of the year. Summer holidays are not too far away and the shorts, little tops and pretty dresses that have been packed away over the long cold winter will soon be seeing the light of day again and it is only natural that we want to look fantastic in them.

Over the coming days I will be posting details of how you can join in my ‘have a sizzling, sexy and healthy summer’ campaign. It will be choked full of tips and advice on how to eat and exercise your way through the coming months and most importantly how to have fun and enjoy transforming yourself into a ‘super summer goddess/or god!!‘

Stay tuned………

We live on a planet of such diversity but we rarely choose to celebrate that diversity, chosing rather to be judgemental of each other for our differences.

This was brought home to me this week within the raw food community. I dip in and out of several forums and hadn’t been on any for a while until this week. What I found was that one of these forums had chosen to hold up someone’s own personal raw food journey to ridicule, questioning that person’s commitment simply because they weren’t having the results that the author of the thread thought that they should. Without going into more detail and giving more energy to a somewhat pointless discussion I got to thinking how sad it was that we couldn’t all go about our journeys in our own way without fear of someone else ‘judging’ what we were doing to be wrong.

They say that any judgement you have against other people really only mirrors what you feel about yourself and I think that this is a really interesting concept. In thinking that someone else is being misguided in what they are doing you are really only having that judgement upon yourself. Maybe not at a conscious level but definately on a subsconsious level, which is incredibly powerful. Scientists have found that the average human thinks approximately 60,000 thoughts per day. However, it is also found that most people are only aware of less than 5 percent of their thoughts. Emmmm…. now there’s a thought.

So, armed with this information, wouldn’t it be better next time we have a judgement upon someone else to ask ourselves where it is coming from. How can we address this issue within ourselves. Instead of turning it on everybody else why don’t we try and resolve that judgement first and foremost  and then with some empathy and understanding (which is how we would all like to be dealt with) why don’t we see if we can help other people in more positive ways.

My work as a Personal Fitness Trainer means that I come across people with a large range of issues that stop them from working out, eating well and generally having a healthy lifestyle. What I aim to do (and hope that I achieve) is to treat each of my clients as individuals. What works for one doesn’t work for another and it is important to realise this.

I hope that I don’t judge them, and if I ever do then I hope that I have learnt enough to understand that the judgement is not about them. It is my issue and by working on it I can not only help myself but I can be more effective for my clients as well.

Our new motto here at The Fit Option is:-

‘We put the Personal into Personal Training’………………more about that in a few days.

In the meantime – lets try and be more tolerant of each other………

Well I don’t want to be a record breaker but I do recognise that if you want to do something really well in this life then you need to have a certain amount of dedication and the amount of dedication you have is directly proportional to the amount of success you will have.

‘For uncommonly excellent results one must have uncommonly excellent habits’

Over the last week I have been seeing lots of videos on Facebook of ladies in their 90′s who are still teaching yoga and postively radiating good health as well as other more inspiring video’s of people simply flying through their yoga practice which such grace and elegance it is breath taking. I keep saying to myself ‘that’s what I want to be like’ but then a second later another little voice in my head says ‘forget it you will never be that good’.

Well today I decided that one of those voices was correct and the other was just trying to protect me and stop me from doing something that it potentially sees as  short cut to failure (thank’s ego, objection noted but this time it is overruled) There is no reason why I shouldn’t – with a lot of practice and a huge dollop of dedication – be one of those people who can seemingly fly when they get on their yoga mat.

So, from now on every practice is an opportunity to spread my wings, and not just an opportunity to exercise and switch off for a while. From now on everytime I get on my mat it is with a view to dedicating myself to the possibility that I can move my body in ways that I never thought possible for me. It is about having the belief in myself that all things can be possible, you just have to be open to them, desire them and be prepared to work for them.

This little philosophy applies to us all, we can all lose weight, get fit and achieve something that we never thought was possible for us because ‘dedication’s all you need’ and that is something that is within everyone’s grasp……