It is that time of year when most of us start thinking about getting healthy and we start making goals around diet and exercise. Many times those goals become too lofty and we stick to them for just a short time and then abandon them in favor of the status quo.
I’d like to suggest a simplified health and wellness program that is perhaps a bit easier to maintain and continue working all year long. It combines eating healthier, getting more exercise and Utah chiropractic care.
1. Diet
It really is not hard to clean up the average diet. The following program is aimed at the average person. It does not take into consideration people with special needs, diseases, food allergies or food hypersensitivities.
The standard American diet (SAD) contains too many calories; too many simple carbohydrates (sugars); too much fat (especially saturated fat); too much processed food, and too many chemicals (preservatives, colorings, stabilizers and other additives) that have no nutritional value. This diet helps contribute to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, and a host of other disorders.
The rate of these diseases can be slowed - even reversed - by eating more fruits; vegetables; legumes (beans); unprocessed grains; and by drinking more pure water. When a person eats more "good" food, they ingest more vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals and fiber.
There are 21 chances per week (seven breakfasts, lunches and dinners) plus snacks to give your body fuel. For breakfast, eat a high-fiber hot or cold cereal. If you need sweetener, make sure to measure carefully and not liberally pour. Nonfat milk, soy milk or protein powder are optional, depending on your level of activity and weight loss concerns. Add the optional calories for high activity, and skip them if you need to lose weight.
For lunches and dinners, eat seven vegetable-based meals and seven animal-protein-based meals. Thus, either for lunch or dinner each day eat a vegetable-based meal, such as a large salad. This should consist of a dark green with four to five colors of vegetables and one legume (pinto; kidney; black; white; red; garbanzo; navy; lentils; or soy). Use a spoonful or two of olive or canola-oil-based dressing. If that is not enough flavor, you can add vinegar or very-low-calorie dressings to suit your taste. Other options for your vegetable meal would be a large plate of steamed vegetables (again, shoot for at least five colors) or a bowl of vegetable soup.
For the seven animal-protein-based-meals, I prefer fish, chicken or turkey with a nonstarch vegetable side dish. For people with high activity or growth with no weight loss, starches such as pasta, potatoes, rice and bread may be added.
Unfortunately, many people only eat a few healthy meals per week. The goal of this plan is to eat 15 healthy breakfasts, lunches, and dinners each week. A habit of 15 healthy meals per week puts most Americans way above average and still allows flexibility and indulgence. Compared to the normal American diet, this plan is higher in both soluble and insoluble fiber, vitamins and minerals and is lower in saturated fats, sugars, empty calories and chemicals. It is also high in phytochemicals and yields over 10 servings of fruits and vegetables per day. By putting healthier food in your body, you will feel better now, and reduce your chances of serious illness later.
2. Exercise
For some people, life seems just too hectic to meet the recommended 30 continuous minutes per day of aerobic exercise. The American College of Sports Medicine and the Centers for Disease Control have changed the previous exercise guidelines to meet the demands of an increasingly busy society. A more practical approach: 30 minutes of total moderate physical activity - continuous or intermittent - should be performed most days of the week. The effectiveness of these new guidelines was recently tested, with particular emphasis on cardiovascular fitness and weight loss.
The study, which appeared in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, compared the effects of
All three exercise groups demonstrated significant fitness improvement, weight loss, and decreased body measurements at the end of the study. The results were similar between all three exercise groups. The nonexercise group did not show any significant changes.
Exercise may have similar effects on weight loss and aerobic fitness, whether performed in one long bout or several cumulative short sessions. It also promotes pain relief from the back and neck. If your schedule doesn’t allow for a long block of time to get in an effective workout, now you have an alternative to stay fit.
3. Chiropractic care
The proper function of the spine is a vital part of overall health and wellness, with Utah chiropractic care playing a major role. If you are serious about improving your health with diet and exercise, regular spinal adjustments will keep you more limber and stable and allow you to continue whatever exercise program you choose, contributing to back and neck pain relief. Additionally, improving nerve flow and function will optimize your organ function. So you can see that if you are providing your body with the proper nutrients from a better diet, and keeping your spine aligned, all the trillions of cells in your body will be able to perform their functions to their fullest.
Here at the Joint, we are committed to helping you reach your goals of a healthy and happy new year.
~Dr. Brad Hendricks
