THE CRONIN NUTRITIONAL EATING PLAN FOR WEIGHT LOSS AND HEALTH. 

You either love it or hate it but exercise is extremely important for the body.  It not only tones our muscles, burns fat and builds healthy bone but it makes us feel great.  Even if you drag yourself out of bed in the morning and groan at the thought of that cold and wet morning out there, you will feel invigorated at the end of your 30 minute brisk walk.

One of the areas that we don’t concentrate enough on is our breathing.  We need oxygen to survive but most of us do not breathe deeply enough to obtain the amount we need nor do we then get rid of all the waste from our bodies which is expelled every time we breathe out.

PART FOUR

Walking every day briskly for 30 to 45 minutes will not only help you lose weight and tone your muscles but is also weight bearing.  This improves both your bone density and the flexibility of your muscles, tendons and joints.  Your heart will benefit as the oxygen rich blood is pushed through the arteries clearing blockages and taking the nutrients around the body.  Your brain will benefit and you will feel very good about yourself.  If you have not been exercising recently then start with a 20 minute walk at some stage during the day and the gradually build this up to 45 minutes.  You can incorporate breathing exercises in the beginning that will help improve your internal health as well as build up your stamina.

Dancing, tennis, light weight training, golf and swimming can be integrated into your exercise programme and you need to put energy and commitment into the process to get the maximum benefit.

Do give yourself one or two days off though once a week, rest is also important to allow your body to recover and recharge itself.  You need to be following the Healthy Eating Plan to ensure that you are getting the right level of calories and nutrients to enable you to exercise without using up all your reserves.  Do not be tempted to starve yourself and work out too hard, as you will weaken both your immune system and cause long-term damage to your bones and organs.

A normal chocolate bar a day for a year is 55lbs or 25kilos in body fat – a Danish pastry every morning with your coffee is 67lbs per year or 31 kilos. Two digestive biscuits with your coffee each morning equates to 20lbs per year. Just think about that before you reach for them. Do you need them every day? If you cut down to twice or three times a week you will be losing between 10lbs and 34lbs per year automatically.  Take a look at your diet and you may find that there are one or two regular food items that you could reduce and lose weight easily and healthily.

Rule 10: SALT

Excess salt can cause raised blood pressure.  When blood is over salty it retains fluids, which increases the volume in the arteries. This causes a rise in the pressure.  The recommended amount of salt is 5gm for women and 7gm for men.  However, a useful measure is one level teaspoon per day.  Put a level teaspoon times the amount of people you are cooking for in a coffee cup or something similar and add pinches to your cooking and to taste on your meals.  If you run out before the evening, then I am afraid that is it. If you must put salt on your food put on the side of the plate and only use when absolutely necessary. Read food labels on processed foods, and do not forget to check your mineral water.  Multiply the sodium levels by 2.5 and see just how much salt you are drinking let alone eating.

Rather than give you a detailed calorie by calorie eating plan, I would rather you began to build your own from scratch using both the rules from the last couple of issues and the following list of ‘superfoods’ – there are 12 that I feel should be included in everyone’s diet.

If I was off to a desert island and told that I could bring 12 food items – I would take these – and Ray Mears! For those of you who do not know about Ray, I suggest you Google him and you will see for yourself why he is essential for every castaway.

I have twelve foods on my list although do remember that most fresh and raw fruit and vegetables are superfoods in though own right and have many of the nutrients of this selected few. Next time you are in the supermarket please add them to your basket.  We will worry about quantities later, the important aspect right now is to include them in your diet and gain the benefit of the nutrients that they offer.

1.      Oranges,

2.      Oats,

3.      Green Tea,

4.      Bananas,

5.      Walnuts,

6.      Spinach,

7.      Broccoli,

8.      Onions,

9.      Salmon,

10.    Turkey,

11.    Brown Rice    and