Eating Smarter and Your Health
KEY POINTS:
1. In today's society, we are overfed and undernourished, leading to a number of diseases including obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and depression.
2. Fortunately, proper nutrition can help prevent these diseases, and can take our health, wellness, and performance to the next level.
“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”
Never before in the history of planet earth have we had access to so much food. Those of us lucky enough can get food anytime we want. We can probably get something to eat within minutes. And we can get any type of food we want. In any quantity we want. And we do.
Despite having almost unlimited access to food, we are not healthy. Many of the foods that we eat are high in calories but very low in nutrients. As a result, no matter how much of the high-calorie, low-nutrient foods you eat, you still feel depleted and hungry.
We are overfed and undernourished.
Poor nutrition leads to obesity, which is known to cause heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and certain types of cancer. Obesity is also a cause of depression (and vice versa). Additionally, my research team has shown that obesity damages muscle tissue, which in turn causes exercise intolerance. If it is harder to exercise because your muscles are damaged, you’ll become more physically inactive, leading to a greater risk of greater obesity. These relationships end up causing vicious circles that we find ourselves in and make it seem almost impossible to escape from.
The good news is that, while poor nutrition is associated with a number of chronic diseases, good nutrition can do the opposite. Good nutrition has been shown to help decrease the risk of getting chronic diseases such as obesity, certain types of cancers, Alzheimer's disease, and cardiovascular disease. The problem is there is a lot of confusion regarding which foods are good for you, and what the latest fad diet is.
However, if you can overcome the confusion about what is actually good for you, which foods can improve your health, and how to eat to perform better, you can take action and create a diet that will propel you to new heights. So what can you do? The answers are relatively simple. If you follow the seven keys to healthy eating I propose later in this chapter, you'll be well on your way.
This Week’s Exercise: Hydrate!
This week your habit is to stay hydrated. To make sure you’re getting enough water, there is an easy formula to follow. You should be drinking half of your weight (in pounds) in ounces of water each day. If you’re 150 pounds, this means 75 oz (or 2.2 litres). If you’re 200 pounds, you need 100 oz (almost 3 litres).
This week, try and track how much water you’re drinking each day and see if you can hit your target.
If you'd like, you can use the Hydration Tracker to help you keep track of your intake. This exercise is also on page 39 of The Ripple Effect Workbook.
Bonus Content
Here's the next bonus video from the Eat Smarter module of the Ripple Effect Course.
All these videos are designed to show you how to eat healthy food that is easy to prepare and fits into a busy lifestyle.
Here's the video - let us know what you think!
The information and advice provided in this program is intended to assist you with improving your performance, as well as your general health. It is not intended and should not be used in place of advice from your own physician or for treatment or diagnosis of any specific health issue. By participating in this program you acknowledge that undertaking any new health, diet and/or exercise regime involves certain inherent risks, that you assume such risks, and that you release Wells Performance Inc. from any responsibility or claim relating to such participation.