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How are you going to let this current recession effect your health?  This economic disaster that we find ourselves in has a lot of us stressed out to the max, which is a health threatening situation to say the least. Everyone knows of someone that has lost their job, or everybody is fearful of losing their own employment with the daily bad news of cutbacks and downsizing

I personally know of people who are forced by the recession to cut back on essentials such as their medications and health care needs.  And, of course, this just adds insult to injury by making an already stressful situation more harmful to their overall health.  Foregoing a visit to the doctor or not being able to afford prescription medicines is a dangerous consequence of our present economic situation.

What are some of the other harmful consequences of this recession with regards to our health?  First off, the place people cut down in spending during hard times is in our daily food costs.  We stop eating out on a regular basis, start cooking more at home, and unfortunately today’s society is less skilled in culinary arts as our parents generation were so it is really easy to choose pre-prepared processed food items to comprise our meals. This can have a dangerous impact on our health and weight because as we all know, processed foods with high calories and that lack nutrition can be way cheaper and easier to prepare than even fruits and vegetables.

Secondly, with everyone caught in this quagmire of doom that I believe we talked ourselves right in to, the upbeat or positive mood necessary for exercising is just not present.  So we don’t go for our walk, we stop going to the gym, we just sit and watch the gloom on the television and we get even more depressed.

So what are we going to do about it?  Numero Uno, as i said the media and us talked ourselves right into a recession.  We can also talk ourselves right out of it.  Turn off the terrible news, stop reading the daily gloom and doom in the paper, and avoid like the plague all negative influences in our everyday life.  Adopt and force a positive outlook. Taking a walk will get you off the couch, let you enjoy this wonderful spring season, and actually relieve some of your stress.

Second, if you simply cannot boil water by yourself, buy an easy and inexpensive basic cookbook.  Cooking at home can be fun and extremely nutritional.  If you have a family then make meal preparation a fun family project.  Get back to the basics of meal planning, vegetables are really easy to cook and are great for your body, cheaper cuts of meat can be prepared in delicious recipes that rival  your favorite eating establishment.  Add a shot of grains, cheap dried beans and some fruit for dessert and you have the makings of an affordable healthier diet.

Third and last, even if you don’t have a lot of room, grow some of your own food.  Gardening is theraputic and not really hard to do.  Planting a garden and watching it grow is one of the most enjoyable activities in my life.  It may seem like a lot of work if you grow a big garden such as I do, but I am going to save a s-load of money on my grocery bill this year.  Even if you are limited on space, such as living in an apartment, you can still plant a tomato plant on the balcony and save some bucks.

Unfortunately, we became accustom to being to frivolous with our food dollar in the pre-recession era and our waist line shows the fruits of that orgy.  We can grow out of this current situation both wiser and healthier.  But in order to do so we have to take the first step towards a positive outlook on life and use this temporary inconvience to our healthier advantage.  Remember, we are the nation that was build on positive attributes and strength, not drudgery.

To your health.

Clink

The Infamous Diet Plateau

Well we’re three weeks into the New Year, we’ve sworn in a new president, the outlook is rosy, and everything is good.

Or is it?  The good intentions of our resolutions to lose weight this year and the shedding of pounds we have experienced in the first three weeks have simultaneously come to a screeching halt.

We have arrived at the infamous diet plateau.  Our bodies have figured out that we are trying to deceive it and it has systematically adjusted itself to counteract our deception.  It is not anything you are doing wrong.

Our bodies are very complex machines that adjust accordingly to what we try and make it do and no matter how good our intentions may be, you simply cannot fake it out.  This is the precise reason most diets will not work, this is the reason most people become discouraged and quit a diet and then re-gain the weight lost.

It really doesn’t matter what type of diet you decided to try, the results are always the same.

Low Fat – Low Calorie – High fiber Diets

As discussed last, these diets don’t work for the long term weight loss program.  The Pritikin Diet, Dr Barbara Rolls’ Volumetric Program, or any of the numerous other low fat, low calorie, high fiber diets are all doomed to fail.

The reason behind this failure is really very simple.  First of all your body needs a certain amount of fat in order to survive.  Every cell in our body needs a little fat to keep that cell healthy.

Secondly, you cannot lose weight by starving yourself and that is precisely what you are doing by cutting fat and calories from your diet.  When you deprive the body of necessary fat and calories, the body automatically adjusts your metabolism accordingly.

Your body will detect the major drop in caloric intake and lower your metabolism as a defense.  If you are accustom to a 2500 to 3000 per day calorie diet, your body is accustom to burning approximately the same amount of calories per day.  If you lower your fat and calorie intake to 1200 calories per day, your body will slow your metabolism to burn fewer calories.  You can’t win this fight no matter how hard you try.

Low Carb Diets

Low carb diets are only marginally better for weight loss than low calorie, low fat diets.  Some of the more famous Low Carbohydrate Diets are of course the Atkin’s Diet, The Sonoma Diet, and The South Beach Diet.  All of these trigger a faster weight loss initially than other diet programs. 

This initial weight loss is achieved because when you limit the bodies intake of carbohydrates, the body starts to burn its store of glycogen.  Glycogen contains large amounts of water and by burning the glycogen in your body instead of carbohydrates, you naturally lose weight by the reduction of water in your body.

The body’s adaptation to you removing carbs can be very dangerous to you in the log term.  By switching from burning carbs to burning fat at first will leave your body with less energy and you feeling weaker.  The longer term problems with the reduction of carbohydrates are that your body defensively adjusts you metabolism to a state of ketosis i.e. burning fat not glucose for energy.

The state of ketosis can, in the long run, cause your organs to start failing, increase your risk of cancer, heart disease and bone loss.  It just ain’t worth it.

Another important reason not to take on a low carb diet is that it deprives your body of many minerals, vitamins, fiber, and anti-oxidants you need to maintain a healthy life and body.

Now don’t get discouraged, there are eating/diet programs that can safely help you lose weight with out the drastic measures of the aforementioned plans.  If you change your eating habits to a varied intake program, you can and will lose weight without the problems or unhealthy consequences.

For a healthier and less intrusive plan for you and your body, go to my sister site http://fat2phatt.net for an in depth preview.

Have a great one.

Clink.