Eating Well for Longevity

I often ponder on the marvel of the human machine, what it is capable of and how robust it is in the face of the modern scenario of high stress manic living. As the leading organism on the planet we have certainly achieved a great deal in the few thousand years we have enjoyed this enviable position. But with this sophistication have we made things too easy with too much choice and too many ways of being comfortable. Imagine how odd the concept of going to a gym would be to a farm worker of 200 years ago! That person would have faced a good few problems but sitting behind a desk getting soggy muscles would not have been one.

I think we can look at the lifestyle we have today and identify a few problem areas, most the spoils from our success. One is the availability of food, year in year out you can eat as much as you want, easily, and what an unseen amount of choice we have!
Not such a good thing sometimes is it? Food producers bombard us with information and stimulus to buy their product, the health food industry has sprung up in the last 70 years to supply more information and more products. It is easy to see how it can become confusing. My advice here is to eat natural food and be rightly wary of manufactured food stuffs, once eating natural foods again your instincts will lead the way.

Portion size is a real problem too, eating slowly and allowing your food to hit your stomach is a good idea, this will allow you to feel full and satisfied without over eating and feeling uncomfortable.

Exercise was never a problem; imagine washing your clothes by hand or chopping a tree down, into logs then carting them home to burn for heat. A little different from adjusting the thermostat then sitting back down in front of the telly! Get out get active get a dog! Do what ever you have to do to be generally more active, your body is a use is or lose it machine, maintain it!

Now I love food and I love the social aspect of eating, so I want to be around long enough to enjoy this over and over again. So how will I ensure that? I just make sure each time I eat, I eat a little. Being overweight puts a strain on every internal organ, every joint AND makes it harder to be fully active. Do a little experiment now, get a backpack and 6 1 litre bottles of mineral water (full of course) now put the back pack on and walk around and up and down stairs. That’s the extra strain of being just under a stone overweight.

I hope this motivates you to eat naturally and get in shape.