12-5-10 Sunday - Recommended Nutrition Amounts

I have been reviewing the information that you all have been giving me and it has lead me to a few discoveries that I want to cover over the next few posts. First I found a style of eating that covers all of what I am going to discuss, Mediterranean. I will go more into this later, but first I want to talk about focus and recommended amounts.

My goal and focus is essentially long lasting good health, so what does that actually mean? I have decided to start covering this more in every post. First, I have recently found that my focus on the numbers from the scale, are not the most prominent answer to this question. This can also become very frustrating if you are running into stagnate numbers on a scale even if you are feeling better. The main thing to remember in this case is that everyone has a different muscle and bone density, so the healthy number on a scale for you, will be different from everyone else.You and I should actually be focusing more on our Body Mass Index (BMI). Healthy BMI, is actually very easy to calculate because your height should be twice what your waist is in inches. For you to be with in the optimal (safe) health range, you need to know that the most dangerous fats that you retain in your body, are stored around your waist. So I am 6'1'' tall, which is 85'', so my waist needs to be at or preferably below 43", because my waist is bigger than this, I am putting unhealthy amounts of toxicity and pressure on primary organ function, like the liver, heart, and kidneys. Giving your body its daily intake of vitamins, nutrients, and trace minerals is essential and great to help support healthy organ function, but this should be part of a larger plan and not your only focus as mine has been so far. I also know there are many things you should do to help your body cleanse itself, and I have not implemented these enough. I will cover this in a later post.

The most over looked toxic items in our diets, are the "too much of" items. I am speaking of the different kinds of fats, our sodium (salt) intake, and the sugars, most of which are in our foods already. For example, we need sodium in our diet because it is used in essential muscle function as well as balancing bodily fluids. However, too much is a killer, so how much is safe? lets use a teaspoon as a measure. 1 teaspoon is equal to 4 grams. If you have high blood pressure like me, then you should not exceed the following amount daily.1/3 of a teaspoon of salt or approximately 1.5 grams of salt, (1500 milligrams). A normal amount for anyone else is only a little more than 1/2 a teaspoon, or 2400 mg and most of your packages calculate for 2500 mg, this is already wrong for everyone's diet. Pay attention to the grams or milligrams on packaging and do not exceed the amounts recommended because too much salt throws your entire system out of balance. The adverse effects from too much salt include all the leading causes of heart disease and are largely overlooked. Everyone focuses on fats, calories, and sugar, but most people forget about salt.

So now that we know 4 grams are in a teaspoon, we can visually see the scale more easily that is on the "Nutrition Facts" on everything we eat. There are a few discrepancies, but this is actually a good scale to follow. However, this is generalized, so I recommend getting your blood work done at your doctor, and get a more definitive chart to follow from your doctor. I have high blood pressure, so some of the things on this general scale are not right for me and following this scale blindly will still put me at risk. Knowing your own numbers are the key to long lasting good health as well as weight loss.

So, I have decided this post should be a general overview and to break all the information up into a few posts because of the details, and I don't want to be too boring on here. So tomorrow we will get into sugar and fats. Now onto my progress report!

12-5-10 Progress Report. My plan is going well, I did have some hamburger yesterday (which is high in saturated fats...more tomorrow) but I feel I didn't go overboard because it was balanced with the rest of my day. This study is largely to help me eliminate cravings (like hamburgers) and make it a little easier to follow my plan. Sodium intake has a lot to do with cravings! I didn't workout yesterday because of my back, so today I have prepped and I will be doing my Yoga as well as a simple 1 mile walk video that I found. I am excited to get back to working out, even though I am procrastinating right now and continuing to write words into this really long sentence so as to avoid having to actually do the work that I am bragging about so heartily in this motivational post designed to fix my life and rejuvenate my spirit both of which are done through Yoga as well and I should really realize this and get off this blog now instead of continuing this clickity clack of my keyboard which is so relaxing and helps my meditation and is part of the whole healing thingy too right?.....whew...OK! I am off to contort and drench. I love you all, and thank you for being on this journey with me. James.