How to Stay Healthy

No matter what hemisphere or country you are in you are likely affected by the coronavirus. While we are all urged to do things to keep us healthy, I have a group that has been optimizing their health and boosting their immune systems for weeks, months or years.

This group is somewhat fanatical because for most of us it reversed serious health problems. These include but are not limited to heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure and related diseases, diabetes, cancer, gallbladder disease, osteoarthritis, gout, sleep apnea, and asthma. All are serious life threatening or life ending diseases, and people from all walks of life have been able to reverse, reduce, and in some cases eliminate these obesity related illnesses.

The people I am talking about have gravitated to two of my Facebook Groups, Mediterranean Diet and Mediterranean Diet and Intermittent Fasting. The Mediterranean Diet is very popular for people looking to get started, find recipes, know what to cook, know what the guidelines are, and have a community to share. The Mediterranean Diet and Intermittent Fasting group is a spinoff for people who are very serious about their long term health and weight loss. We walk that group through every step of the process and have great success rate for making the changes necessary to achieve and sustain optimum health.

Experts tell us that permanent weight loss is 80% diet and nutrition and 20% exercise. While every successful daily practice should include exercise of some kind, unless you are an elite athlete burning thousands of calories each day, eating the right things in the right amounts at the right times is the most successful strategy for losing weight. Here in Colorado the Corona shutdown is in full force and the street, parks and open spaces are flooded with people getting out of the house and getting exercise. You can do the same; walking, yoga, swimming, Pilates, pickle ball, bike riding, basketball and all other activities that get your body moving are all great to develop as lifelong habits. Make sure to do one or more each day to help with cardiovascular fitness, muscle strength and general well-being. 

So what is the most important part of the Mediterranean Diet? It could be the specific ingredients, the amount that you eat, the time you eat, how fast you eat, how you chew and swallow, what you drink, how your willpower is challenged or absorbed, how capable a cook you are, your environment, your support system, how much stress you have, or how adept you are at change. It is actually a combination of all of those factors, which is why people often struggle with adopting a Way of Eating that is so clearly healthy for them.

Ingredients such as superfoods and extra virgin olive oil are important because unsaturated fats are a key to good health, with many health benefits. Superfoods include avocados, blueberries, broccoli rabe, spirulina, and flaxseeds. Extra Virgin Olive Oil is an absolute essential ingredient for sustained robust health. Portion control is also key to effective weight loss, loading up on carbohydrates like pastas or breads is discouraged, while have some pastas or breads is OK. In fact proper Mediterranean Diet meals have us filling up on vegetables with a little pasta or bread as a side.

Meal timing is also a key, in fact meal timing taken to an extreme is called Intermittent Fasting (IF). For people getting started with intermittent Fasting I recommend 16:8, eating each days meal in an eight hour period then starting a fasting window that lasts 16 or more hours. I have found that this is by far the easiest way to adopt IF, and as I always say only adopt practices that you know you can continue for life. However you can certainly adopt the Mediterranean Diet without  Intermittent Fasting, the primary timing consideration is along with portion control do not eat for four or five hours before sleep, and eat lighter later in the day. This schedule is more suitable for a lifestyle where you are digesting and burning energy while awake and giving you digestive system the opportunity to rest while the rest of you is, during sleep.

Chewing your food well helps you slow down your meal times and mixing saliva with each bite aids in the digestive process. In the Mediterranean Diet food is to be savored, meals can last hours with each course a smaller portion than westerners are accustomed to.  Not all my meal are events worth savoring but I use the concept to be mindful of eating slowly and deliberately. Not drinking calories is how I start people on the Mediterranean Diet, no more sodas, sweet teas or any other sugar laden products, especially diet drinks, many of which have harmful sugar substitutes.

Studies have confirmed my experience that will power is a finite resource for everyone, those that seem to have more than us are just better at changing habits. A new healthier habit is easy to keep and you don’t use precious energy forcing yourself to do something that is out of the ordinary. Habits make eating well ordinary and people in my groups report that they soon no longer crave sweet drinks, in fact many find the old sugary staples downright distasteful. For many the new habit will be cooking far more than you are accustomed to. Particularly for those with little time or energy at the end of the day, daily cooking can be challenging. Mediterranean Dieters end up being good cooks as we explore the many delicious recipes that are compliant with this way of eating. We also strategize to cook in batches so great meals can be heated up later, reducing kitchen time and ensuring we have good food on hand for days or evenings that we don’t feel like cooking.

There are other obstacles that can be challenging, such as unsupportive family. Many of these are shared, discussed and often solved in the Facebook Group. The website where this is published also has many articles designed to help everyone get started the right way to lifelong weight loss and health. Whether the obstacle is stress eating, what kind of groceries to buy, or proven effective change strategies, the articles here have helped thousands get their start to a healthier life.

Sometimes change can be difficult, we all know someone who has adamantly said they will never give up drinking, or smoking, or eating meat, or huge portions, or fast food. Sometimes though it is necessary to follow the practices of those who are as healthy as you would like to be, and replace the habits that caused weight problems and ill health with habits that allow your slimmer body to heal.  The Mediterranean Diet does that for us and will do that for you as well, and the next step to Intermittent Fasting has even more benefits. Combined together they will let your body return to its natural healthy weight.  To Your Health!