Transform Your Relationship with Food and Exercise: Practical Tips for a Healthier, Energized Life

What if you could transform your relationship with food and exercise to achieve a healthier, more energized life? Tune in to uncover the secrets of maintaining a balanced diet and learn practical tips on portion control, nutrient-rich foods, and the importance of tracking your food intake. We dive deep into how these habits can help you manage your weight, reverse disease, and improve overall well-being. You'll also gain insights into why consulting with healthcare professionals and creating a personalized health plan are crucial for long-term success.

Join us as we explore the benefits of mindful eating and the power of setting realistic, achievable goals. From understanding your body’s hunger and fullness cues to incorporating physical activities like aerobic exercises and strength training, this episode is packed with actionable advice. Discover how to minimize added sugars and processed foods for better health, and why building a supportive community can make all the difference. Whether you’re aiming to lose a few pounds or simply feel more vibrant, this episode offers valuable guidance to help you on your journey to a balanced and healthier lifestyle.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:24

So what are you talking about when we discuss the balanced diet? So we discussed serving size, portions, but how do you get yourself to be able to measure so that you can manage the weight? And it helps with reversal of the disease. So that has to do with balanced diet, portion control, limiting your sugar, added sugars to meals, tracking your food intake, physical activity, mindfulness, behavior changes, the team, a community approach, collaboration and help from others. So first, like always I will say, consult with a healthcare professional, make significant changes in your lifestyle, with modifications and, as needed, additional resources. Discuss with a dietician or nutritionist. Try to come up with a personalized plan so that you have realistic, progressive goals and that you aim gradually. Sustainability and consistency those are so key to getting your weight loss and just into feeling healthier and your better self. It's not just the weight, it's overall healthiness. So the goals can be one to two pounds a week. It could just literally be my cholesterol, it could be I feel better, I feel less bloated, I feel tired, less pain. There could be many reasons and understanding what your goals are and doing it safely and effectively and consistently can be obtainable. So you can do this, obviously with a balanced diet, as we were talking about focusing on nutrient dense foods fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, whole grains and whole fats. Now that is a variety of things for you, depending upon what your needs are. Gluten freeinflammatory or whole foods is always the best bet.

Speaker 1: 2:13

Now, again, we've discussed previous was portion control and how to be mindful of your sizes. You can do this by avoiding many aspects of overeating with smaller plates. Really, be one to listen to your body. Take the hunger cues and fullness cues. In addition, I recommend, when you're mindfully chewing and mindfully eating, think about 20 to 40 bites per food. Now, that might be a lot, but try to get down between 10 to 20 if you could, because a lot of the breaking down of foods and prior enzymes are in from the mouth all the way down to your stomach and into your intestines. So it's beneficial to you to have smaller meals and smaller bites.

Speaker 1: 2:56

So when you're looking at foods and drinks, try to limit the added sugar. The average added sugar consumed for the day should only be about 36 grams for men and around 26 grams to 28 grams for women, and then for kids it should be about 16 grams. And would you believe there's so many added sugars per many meals and many things. So really look at that and take in consideration the serving size and the added sugar, because that would help and additionally reduce the amount of processed foods that you have in your intake of daily foods. So that means minimize the intake of highly processed, calorie dense foods, fast food, sugary snacks, fried foods, excess over consumption. Now, if that's available for you, maybe you want to track your food intake with a journal or a dietary needs for maybe symptoms or amount of how much you eat. Or you can also just consider more whole food options that would be more fibrous, more like broccolis, more apples, bananas and things of the nature. That will be more filling for you.

Speaker 1: 4:03

In addition, of course, I would like you to consider some physical activity in your life. Now, that is going to range depending upon your age and your time and what is available, but some sort of aerobic activity is walking, jogging, cycling, swimming, wherever that is, and that's anywhere between 100 to 150 minutes a week of exercise and that is where it lies for you. It doesn't mean it has to be vigorous, but modified as needed for your age, your disability, your needs and, you know, incorporate even a possibility of strength training or body composition training with light weights, and that's about two times a week to help boost the metabolism and help with not losing muscle mass and increasing, you know. So the muscle mass will help lower some of that fat content but also will help you be stronger so that when you're in your 80s, 70s and 80s you're able to stand up and lift and and reach for things, and things are not as complex and hard for you. So flexibility and strengthening are just as important as cardiovascular activity. Then make sure you find those activities that work for you, that won't cause you injury but is more enjoyable.

Speaker 1: 5:13

And additional to that is finding mindful behavior techniques. So I've talked about mindful eating, finding ways to figure out what you would like to eat, choose meals that are enjoyable, eat slowly, savor each bite it can prevent you from overeating. Try not to have the TV on the phone, distractions when you're eating, so that at that time you're focusing on just your meal. Managing your stress is always going to be a positive factor and so important because when you manage your stress you're able to become less stress, eating overeating or bloated and tired. So with that you can use techniques of deep breathing, meditation, yoga. Stress can also lead to overeating when you modify your sleep and you have good quality sleep. This ensures that it doesn't affect your hormones and it helps so that it makes you feel more full, because when you have poor sleep it does affect your hunger and when you wake up you actually find yourself more hungry or overeating that next day, which then, in tune, gives you higher calorie intake.

Speaker 1: 6:25

So how can you maintain a balanced diet, maintain your weight or just keep yourself at where you feel the most balanced and healthy? This is by getting some support and accountability. So how do you do that? You do that with a community or collaboration with a friend or family member and maybe get onto a weight loss journey or walking or support group to help you get to be motivated and accountable. You can use medical interventions as needed, like that can be anything from medical weight loss, bariatric surgery. That could just be just having a nutritionist or a counselor, and those are okay, those are allowed, and don't be worried, you know. The main thing is is trying to be as positive about where you are, love your body with what you're in and be consistent and know that it's okay.

Speaker 1: 7:12

Patience, patience, patience and reversing obesity is a long-term process.

Speaker 1: 7:17

It's not necessary that you're reversing it, but you're managing it and when you understand the genetics and the overall what, you are the one that can initiate your health and do the most amazing things for it, but also know that you are the one that can make the setbacks.

Speaker 1: 7:34

So, yes, some of it is in your control and some of it is not, but you have you're like in the driver's seat. You're the one that will make those decisions and you're going to make sure that you don't get full setbacks. So keep yourself accountable as much as possible and give yourself regular checkups with your healthcare professional that you may be with, whether it's even just a nutritionist or a counselor, trying to get between four to eight weeks of counseling or conversations with somebody so that it keeps you on track, or at least some team member or family member to get you where you need to go, because that's really helpful to get you in the goals of where you want to be. So if that's anything, you know, look online, look at some groups. You know collaboration and team effort is always helpful, because you can't always do it alone. You know sometimes you need a little assistance.