Health & Exercise

Don't panic folks. This section will be about sensible Health (including eating ) and Exercise. As a qualified Health Walk Leader, Cook Club Leader and  Health Trainer, not to mention my days on the old fun runs (not that is not a contradiciton in terms!) which I only ever managed to get up to 10k, helping at junior football training, and acting occasionaly as a traveling offical with a junior team of a local athletics club, I will only offer the tried and tested, not the latest miracle diet, exercise regime etc.

Remember that what is right for you may not be what you are being told is right for you. There is a lot of advice out there, and it is up to you to take responsibilty for you own health and exercise regime, not follow that which is given to you by others. Of course you should follow proffestional advice, but when the chips are down (!) you are the only person who knows how you feel at any given moment. Never be afraid to say something if you don't feel comfortable with a regime that is being suggested to you. You are the boss of your own future.

What is the most natural form of exercise that any ablebodied person can indulge in, that costs little or nothing, can be done almost anywhere, and you don't need to join a club? That's right, walking!

"I wandered lonely as a cloud". What was that poet doing as he walked among the daffodils in the Lake Disteict? He was improving his general health, he was improving his cardio-vascular system, he was improving his mental well-being, and, as a bonus, he was writing the poem which above all others that he wrote gave his literary immortality.

The rest of us, no matter how many poems we may write, are unlikely to leave more than a shallow footprint on the fabric of history. But we can leave many a footprint in our endeavors to become fit by walking.

The recommended steps per day is 10,000. How far that actualy is depends on the length of your stride, but I have read that for the average person it is just over three miles. All steps count, not just those on a "walk". But if you do want to complete the whole lot in one session perhaps it helps to stride along to the chant 'I have walked five thousand steps, and I can walk five thousand more!' (Not out loud, as this attracts 'looks').

Have you noticed the way everything is now less this or that. Or the product has lots of something that 'they' say is good for you.

Take hydrogenated fat. This now appears, with the approval of the food police, in many products. What is hygrogenated fat? It is ordinary fat that has been heated to a very high temperature, and then infused with hydrogen bubbles. This causes a chemical reaction, that produces a sort of soft plastic, and it is this soft plastic that is added to your food. Yes folks, you are being encouraged to eat plastic! What happens to this substance when it gets into your body. Firstly your body desperately tries to get rid of this alien substance. This is why an overindulgence of certain products causes 'the runs'. (Also true of artifical sweeners, and additives). What you poor old system cant get rid of it has to store. Remember you are asking your body to store an artficial alien substance. Research has shown that the hydrogenated fat is changed back by your body into more recognisable fat, and is then stored mostly in the very worst area of your body, the waist area.  So go ahead, buy the products that 'they' want you to buy, my gosh, they even keep the price down so you wont be tempted to buy real food.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month in the UK.

Every woman over the age of fifty is entitled to a mammogram every three years. As one who popped in at the begining of September for my mammogram, and received the all-clear letter a few days later, I would like to say to anyone who has doubts, what have you got to lose?

The choice is yours.  Make it wisely.