By the time she graduated from high school, Sherry Samson* said she weighed 180 pounds. As a result, her self esteem was almost non-existent. Looking back, Sherry says that weight gain was the result of her own negligence. “I stopped attending jazz-dance classes to spend more time with my friends. I also ate whatever I wanted, without any regard to health–pizza, French fries, and doughnuts were my staples.”
Unhappy about her physical health and overall appearance, Sherry decided she had to take control of her life and health. She began revamping her eating habits, switching from high-fat foods to healthy, low-fat ones. In addition, she started to exercise. Rather than engaging in just one activity, she chose a variety of workouts, including hiking, weight-lifting, jogging, and aerobics. The results were gradual but dramatic.
“Over the next year and a half, I slowly lost 45 pounds and transformed my life,” she proudly says. “My cravings for junk food disappeared. I was working so hard at changing my body, I thought twice about putting unhealthy food into my mouth. My self-esteem grew by the day. My family and friends remarked that I had become a whole new person–inside and out.”
Sherry Samson is an excellent example of the reality that lifestyle–the daily choices we make about spending our time and what we eat and drink–is a determining factor in the quality of our lives. More and more research definitely points to the fact that making a few positive changes in lifestyle decreases your risk for getting two of the top killers in America–heart disease and cancer. Every year, more than 1.5 million people have a heart attack. More than 800,000 people in the United States die from cardiovascular disease–that’s 1 in every 3 deaths and about 160,000 of them occur with people under the age of 65.
In 2019, roughly 1.8 million Americans were diagnosed with cancer. An estimated 608,000 died from cancer this past year which translates to 1,660 deaths each day. It is the second leading cause of death in America. For men, prostate cancer is the #1 killer and breast cancer the #1 for women. Lung cancer is the 2nd most dangerous killer, followed by colon cancer.
But the odds of having to deal with either one of these top killers are reduced considerably when you make careful lifestyle choices. The more lifestyle choices you make, the greater the likelihood that you will prevent and even reverse killer diseases.
Let’s look at 2 choices that Sherry Samson made that helped her get her life back on track.
Reduce Saturated Fat
“Evidence for the health risks of saturated fat is overwhelming,” writes Andrew Weil, MD, in his book Spontaneous Healing. He explains, “In most people, a high percentage of saturated fat in the diet stimulates the liver to make LDL (bad cholesterol) in quantities greater than the body can remove from the circulation. The result is damage to the arterial walls (atherosclerosis), impairment of the cardiovascular system, increased risk of premature death and disability from coronary heart disease, and reduction of healing capacity through restriction of blood flow.”
The primary sources of saturated fat are found in beef, pork, lamb, chicken, duck, milk and other dairy products (i.e. butter, cheese), and solid fats such as lard and shortening. The simplest way to cut down on saturated fat is to avoid animal products and eat more plant-foods. Eliminating oil from the diet can also protect you from heart disease and stroke.
Get Moving
Exercise is your greatest ally in helping you live longer and feel better. “Exercise is the invisIble link in reducing heart disease and cancer risks,” according to the American Heart Association publication, Living Well-Staying Well. “As a rule, people who exercise on a regular basis live longer. No matter which of the changeable risk factors you look at, physically active people, as a group, may be better off than their sedentary neighbors. Physically active people often have lower blood pressure and less body fat and usually more protective HDL (good) cholesterol. Also, people who exercise regularly are less likely to develop diabetes and are more likely to cut down on, or to stop, cigarette smoking.”
In a series of studies looking at diverse groups–Finnish men, San Fransisco longshoremen, Harvard University alumni, British civil servants, and residents of an Israeli kibbutz–the studies shoed that those whose jobs and hobbies included physical exercise all had less heart disease and fewer fatal heart attacks.
Get moving with more physical activity and you will quickly see and feel the benefits. To fuel your motivation, keep in mind that exercise can even help you lose weight while you’re sleeping. This is especially true of those whose exercise includes weight lifting. Researchers at Tufts University found that people over 50 who did 30 minutes of moderate strength-training exercises a week for 3 months, each built 3 pounds of muscle and lost 4 pounds of fat even though they added an average of 370 calories to their daily diet. The reason? Building even a small amount of muscle increases your metabolism, allowing you to burn more calories round the clock, even when you’re resting.
Excerpt from Keys to Happiness: Health and Nutrition: How Small Lifestyle Changes Produce Big Health Rewards
* Not her real name.
