Energise Blog: Natural Health & Alkaline Diet

I have always been a proponent of the more simple, the better when it comes to health and nutrition.

As anyone who has read this before will know - I am a huge fan of the acid/alkaline balance approach to health (I’m also a huge fan of Spurs, but thats another matter). Although that may seem like an overcomplicated approach, it really isnt.

Once you have worked through the scientific reasoning and studies, the microbiology and microscopic tests etc the take home point is still - eat veggies and salads, drink lots of water and stay away from cakes. Simple, no?

So imagine my glee when I saw this article in the Independant yesterday. The article stresses 7 simple steps that, if followed, would certainly have a positive impact on your health:

1. GET A PEDOMETER - this is a good ‘un. Although the pedometer, 10,000 steps a day messages are largely being touted by companies who sell pedometers, it is still a good message. By measuring how far you walk each day you will be able to shock yourself at how little (or how much) exercise you get each day, measure your progress and try to beat the previous day’s effort. As you know I am big on measuring results and goals. There are lots of places to buy (and get free) pedometers, so why not give it a whirl?
2. THINK YOURSELF THIN - using visualisation can seem a bit wishy washy, but it is very useful. I like to use visualisation techniques when I want to a) remind myself how important my goal is to me (I spend a few minutes visualising how life will be if I follow through, and then how life will be if I do not follow through - it is a powerful motivator) and b) when I want to eradicate an unhealthy behaviour, using the Swish Pattern
3. DON’T DIET - to extrapilate a little, the message is - do not crash diet/fad diet! We all know this is true as it just creates pain, cravings, emphasises a negative relationship with food, makes your blood sugar go on a rollercoaster and makes you deprived and as every single bit of research on the subject proves - it makes you more unhealthy and heavier in the long term!
4. GIVE UP MEAT - at last, this message is going mainstream. I will not go into it too much here, but they base this on findings from a recent Cancer Research UK study: “Vegetarians are less likely to put on weight than carnivores, with vegans putting on the least weight,” explains Professor Tim Key, deputy director of Cancer Research UK’s epidemiology unit at Oxford University. “
5. EAT LITTLE AND OFTEN - eating regular healthy snacks throughout the day will lead to much, MUCH less temptation of giving into cravings as your blood sugar levels will remain stable. Good snacks include hummous and rice-cakes, almonds, low-sugar fruits such as grapefruit, celery/carrot sticks, soya yoghurt, fresh juices and soy smoothies.
6. SLEEP ON - studies show that sleep deprivation can cause hormonal imbalances that can make us feel hungry instead of sleepy! Important to note here is that more sleep does not mean better sleep. Improving the quality of your sleep is the issue here - which can usually be achieved by having a healthier diet and undertaking regular aerobic exercise. See how it all fits together?

It is a shame that the article is called ‘How to get slim’ as that means that there are a fair few people who might not read it - including the currently slim and men. The messsages make sense regardless of your weight, and I think ‘How to get healthy’ would have been a more accurate header.

Still, to be fair - weight loss will sell more papers than overall, general health. I mean, who cares about being healthy as long as we are skinny eh?!

Some other good resources on these subjects include:

iVillage’s 10,000 steps article

Kacper at Powerful Sleep has got some great free sleep articles.

The PCRM have some really impressive resources for veganism and vegetarianism.