Keeping Fit And Healthy

Weight Reduction

Losing weight long term requires a lot of motivation and a commitment to permanent lifestyle change. Crash diets are often quite successful at losing weight but are impossible to sustain and when the diet is over people usually return to their old eating and exercise habits. Long term lifestyle change includes:

• -Changing the foods you buy each week
• -Not having biscuits/crisps etc in the house except on special occasions
• -Eating slightly smaller portions
• -Greater proportion of vegetables on the plate, less fatty food
• -Exercising regularly (most days, 30-60 minutes walking is fine)
•  

Tips

• -Learn a few new recipes - people tend to keep cooking the (high calorie) ones they know
• -Drink water/herbal teas rather than soft drinks/cappuccinos
• -Don't shop for food when hungry
• -Don't eat watching TV or on the move-you will tend to eat more/faster

Drugs/Surgery

Some drug treatments can give a small boost to weight loss, but they are only mildly effective.  Surgery (gastric-banding and gastric-bypass) is sometimes offered to the very obese and is effective, but carries risks. If you would like to discuss these treatments please arrange an appointment with your doctor.

Exercise

Exercise is beneficial to almost all individuals. It reduces heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, bowel cancer, type 2 diabetes, breast cancer, osteoporosis, and obesity. In addition it reduces anxiety and is comparable to antidepressants in treating depression.

Most people with illnesses of the heart, lungs and joints do better if they exercise than if they 'rest up'.

Ideally, you should do at least 30 minutes of moderate aerobic physical activity, at least five days per week. Brisk walking is fine.

Cholesterol

Cholesterol is a fatty substance essential for normal bodily function. Some of it we eat in foodstuffs, but most of the cholesterol in our bodies is manufactured by our own livers. Unfortunately, too much cholesterol is associated with blockages in arteries supplying the heart and  brain, leading to heart attacks and strokes.

A typical western diet, high in animal fat, stimulates the liver to produce too much cholesterol. Not all cholesterol causes problems. Having a high LDL cholesterol (low density lipoprotein) seems to be the problem, whereas a high HDL cholesterol (high density lipoprotein) seems to be protective. Your doctor will assess you cholesterol based on the ratio of HDL to LDL. Some people are born with a gene variation that leads to a particularly high cholesterol which can lead to a heart attack at a young age. If you have a close relative who had a heart attack at a young age contact your GP for a test.

Fortunately there are effective drugs now available for lowering cholesterol that have been shown to lower the risk of having a heart attack or stroke.

It is important to remember that having a raised cholesterol is not a disease, but a risk factor among others including:

• Age
• Smoking
• Blood pressure
• Male sex
• Diabetes
• Lack of exercise
• Obesity
• Family History
• Race (people with Indian/Pakistani ancestry at higher risk)
• Early Menopause

 So only having a raised cholesterol does not mean you are definitely at high risk of heart attacks. Similarly, if you have many other risk factors your doctor may suggest cholesterol lowering even if your cholesterol is average to lower your overall risk of cardiac disease/stroke.

Source:- http://www.rosemarymedicalcentre.co.uk/index.php/medical-advice/keeping-fit-and-healthy

Healthy Is The New Skinny

Tell me about the Healthy Is The New Skinny campaign. Why did you start it? 
Healthy Is The New Skinny is not about size—it's a change in our mindset. Girls are extremely critical of their own bodies and how it needs to be changed in order to be more "perfect." Most of the concern revolves around weight and size: If you complement a girl, you say, "OMG you look so skinny"; girls eat or don't eat with the goal of being "skinny"; girls work out with the goal of being "skinny." This mentality is extremely dangerous, and Healthy Is The New Skinny is challenging not only how the media portrays beauty, but also our own motives and mindset. If we can do things in our life to be healthy instead of skinny, we will be much more successful and happier than chasing an unrealistic goal. Girls are hurting themselves in the pursuit of beauty, and Healthy Is The New Skinny is taking a different approach to an industry that consists of two extremes. We think healthy bodies are beautiful bodies and that having a healthy body image means treating your body right! 

Do you think it's tougher than ever for teen girls to maintain a positive body image in today's culture? 
Most definitely, yes. I mean, this is nothing new—issues with body image have always been prevalent in our culture. However, I do think it has gotten tougher not only for teen girls, but for women of all ages, to maintain a positive body image. Everywhere we look, there is this "ideal beauty" continuously shoved in our faces, but unfortunately this ideal beauty is just one extreme. It's an unattainable fantasy composed of underweight and photoshopped bodies. Women are never exposed to what is natural, healthy beauty since we don't have examples of that in the media. Women and girls don't have anyone to show them that it's okay to be healthy and happy, and that they don't have to conform to this so-called norm that really isn't the norm at all. 

You personally had to deal with poor body image during your years as a model. What thoughts plagued your mind at that time about your looks? 
You know, when people see models, they only see the final, retouched product in the magazines, billboards, and commercials. They put models up on pedestals and forget that at the end of the day, they're just like other people. They have insecurities just like everyone else, sometimes even more because they're constantly being criticized, and it's like always being under a magnifying glass. I remember when I was working, I never really felt like I was being true to myself. I was always doing what made other people happy, but without having much regard for my health. The more weight that I gained [to do plus-size modeling], the more I was rewarded for it, yet when I lost weight [to try to do conventional modeling] I was never thin enough. No matter what I did, I could never win, and there was always this sort of false confidence in everything that I did. 

As someone who has struggled with my body, I can honestly say that learning to love and accept oneself is not an easy process. It's not as simple as looking in the mirror and telling yourself that you're beautiful, but that is the first step in the right direction. You have to make the decision for yourself that you're going to take back your body and not only change the way you think about it, but change the way you treat it as well. Your health is important, and when you make the decision to be healthy, you definitely begin to feel it; then before you know it, you'll start to believe what you've been telling yourself. 

You also helped create a modeling agency for girls and women of all sizes called Natural Model Management. Why did you decide to do this? 
There seems to be a real disconnect between what the public wants to see and what the fashion industry thinks they want to see. Fashion keeps force-feeding us these unrealistic expectations; meanwhile, girls and women want to see females of all shapes and all sizes and all colors—not just one extreme or the other. This isn't about skinny versus curvy, but rather skinny and curvy and every type of body in between. Look at every public fashion forum online and you'll see millions of girls chatting and blogging about how they wish they could see bodies like theirs in fashion, not just really thin or really curvy ones. There's this growing demand to see more figures that are in between the agency standards, which has created a huge void, so I thought it was really important to create Natural Models as a way to not only fill that void, but to show people that beauty really does come in all shapes and sizes. One particular size or shape isn't more beautiful than another. All women are real women. 

How can teens get involved with the Healthy Is The New Skinny movement?
One of our main focuses right now is to build a team of ambassadors in high schools across the U.S. who can spread the word and raise awareness about Healthy Is The New Skinny. We're looking for high schoolers who are passionate about helping change our culture's perception and standard of beauty, who want to actively participate in our PUP (Perfectly Unperfected Project) program, and who want to bring Healthy Is The New Skinny to their schools. So if you would like to be involved or even make a donation to the PUP program, you can visit healthyisthenewskinny.com and send us an email! We're so excited about our HNS tee shirt campaign too, so make sure you order yours today! 

Source:- http://www.teenvogue.com/beauty/health-fitness/2011-12/healthy-is-the-new-skinny/?slide=1