Posted on 11/16/24
Rachel is 47 years old. She came into The Wellness Clinic for a consultation to consider working with us. She had become very concerned as her weight has been climbing by about 2 kilo per year for the last 5 years and in parallel, both her sugar and blood pressure had been creeping up. As someone who had never had health issues, this had Rachel worried. Her doctor was quite adamant that if she wasn’t able to control her risk factors through lifestyle changes including weight loss, he was going to have to start her on medications both for her high blood sugar and her high blood pressure and as a precaution, give her a statin drug against high cholesterol.
Racheli was clearly frustrated. “What am I doing wrong?” she asked. “I don’t smoke, I cut down on red meat, and I limited my consumption of junk food and I cut my deserts down." She insisted that she really considers herself to be a healthy eater. She even takes extra vitamins and supplements. While it’s true that Rachel has refrained from certain foods considered poor choices for healthy living, she wasn’t focused on the positive habits and behaviors necessary in order to achieve good health. It isn’t just a matter of abstaining from junk food, cigarettes, and excessive consumption of meat and dairy. It is also essential to be proactive and take positive actions to improve health and prevent or cure the adult diseases.
One of the reasons that typical diets fail is their emphasis on the “don’ts.” It’s eat less, don’t eat certain foods and even eliminate entire food groups. These programs can be quite restrictive and eventually the deprivation and frustration sets in. These diets are all unsustainable. Sustainability is the number one factor as to whether any food regimen will work for you or not. But what happens when we turn things around and emphasize what we need to do instead of what not to do? The results can be quite amazing!
There is no question that refraining from poor health behaviors is essential to better your health, but at best, it is half the equation. In order for our bodies to maintain health over a lifetime, it needs to be fed the proper fuel and nutrients. Let’s presume that we take some minimal steps on the “don’t” list, like cutting back on ultra-processed junk foods, cutting back on animal protein and making soft drinks or any sugar sweetened beverages rare treats if at all. So now, what can I do to enhance my health and well-being? Here are the positive steps that can be taken to enhance and improve our health and well-being:
The more you stick with whole foods, the better and the more you can stay plant based, the better. Diet products are NOT whole foods. They can leave you unsatisfied, and many of the artificial sweeteners used in these products have been shown to cause a host of health issues, and I know that this is counterintuitive, but they can even cause weight gain!
There are other very positive behaviors we can incorporate to bring about better health and quality of life. Can you start exercising? Even a daily 30 minute walk brings great benefit. If you have a fitness tracker you can try to monitor your daily steps. 7500 is a minimum, closer to 10,000 is best. Add some resistance training a couple times a week and the advantage is even more. Can you incorporate better sleep habits? 7 hours of sleep is a minimum—8 is usually better. One last positive behavior to incorporate; good social integration has been shown to prolong life. So, get together with family and friends as much as possible.
There is something else that happens automatically when you are concentrating on eating all of the right foods and eating them in abundance, there isn’t much room to consume the poor choices. This is called crowding out and I am a big fan of it. All of the good foods are full of fiber and contain a lot of water. So you always feel full and satiated. Ask any whole food plant based eater—they are rarely hungry. This is opposed to the traditional diets where weighing, measuring, and calorie counting, are the norm and may result in obsessive behaviors.
Remember Rachel? She began to just focus on positive actions and she ended up with an overall positive result. Her pre-diabetes went away, her blood pressure became normal, she dropped weight and avoided all of those medications she didn’t want to take. In the end of the day, your health, well-being and longevity will all end up in a better place, and all without being preoccupied about what not to do. Focusing on the positive aspects in eating, exercise, sleep and social behaviors will “add hours to your days, days to your years and years to your lives.”
Alan Freishtat is a WELLNESS COACH and PERSONAL TRAINER with more than 25 years of professional experience. He is a graduate of the eCornell University Certificate course on Plant Based Nutrition a member of the international Council of the True Health Initiative and a member of the board of Kosher Plant Based. Alan is director of The Wellness Clinic. He can be reached at 02-651-8502 or 050-555-7175, or by email at alan@alanfitness.com www.alanfitness.com US Line: 516-568-5027