Squishy & pinchable or firm & pressable? The kind you have can make a difference to your health.10/7/2020
 So this week I thought I'd focus on something that we all have... FAT. Good news though - Fat doesn't make you FAT! In fact it is essential to our ongoing good health. Not only does it help our body to absorb vitamins and minerals, it also produces and releases hormones that affect your organs. But now don't get all complacent about your body fat. There are 2 different types of fat. And where they are found is critical. Just like in real estate, it's a case of Location, Location, Location! There is subcutaneous fat. This is the fat that lies below your skin. It keeps you warm and cushions you from a fall or bump. It stores calories. It is PINCHABLE. The other type of fat is Visceral Fat. It stores calories too. It is found deep inside your abdominal cavity. It surrounds your organs. It is Firm to press. It is not squishy and pinchable. When you have too much visceral fat it can increase your LDL cholesterol. That is the bad kind. It can also increase your blood pressure. Visceral fat makes your body less sensitive to insulin which can increase your chances of Type 2 diabetes.  How do you know if you have too much visceral fat? It is all about apples and pears! What does fruit have to do with it, you ask... Well think of the shapes of these 2 fruits. And apple is round and a pear is triangular. They give you a picture of where fat is stored on your body. Pears store weight on their hips, thighs and bum. And it is subcutaneous fat. It is surface level fat. Apples on the other hand, store fat around their bellys. Hence the name Belly Fat. To get a more specific confirmation of whether you could be an apple or pear, there are 2 measurements to take. The first is your waist measurement. Feel where your hip bone is. Feel the top of it and measure around from this point. Take a couple of measurements and Don't Hold Your Breath! You want an accurate measurement! It is best to have a waist circumference of less than 89cm (35in) if you are a woman. If you are a man then your waist circumference should be less than 102cm (40in). The second measurement is your hips. Measure 20cm down from the top of your hips. That is the point at which to measure your hips. Take the measurement with your feet together. Now for a bit of maths! Take your Waist Circumference and divide it by your Hip Circumference to get your waist to hip ratio. WC/HC = WHR e.g. 74cm/97cm = 0.77 Women should have a WHR of less than 0.8 and men should have a ratio of less than 1.  Having a greater ratio of visceral fat is linked to heart disease, type 2 diabetes, strokes and other chronic diseases like Alzheimers.
Belly fat also produces inflammatory molecules that go into your blooldstream. Continuous long term inflammation puts your body under severe stress. As a result we become one big hormonal imbalance. And that is a topic for another day. So since you can't spot reduce fat around your tummy what can you do? 4 things. 1) Keep track of your measurements. They are far more telling than the scale ever will be. I have been tracking my measurement for 19 years, off and on!! When you lose cm you're losing FAT. If you're losing Fat then your risk of Type 2 diabetes and other lifestyle diseases are decreased. 2) Sweat each day. Belly fat responds well to endurance exercise that raises your heart rate. Running, biking, swimming, rowing are going to help. 3) Choose to eat foods that are whole i.e. they aren't packaged and processed - vegetables, lean protein and healthy fats. 4) Sleep - get 7 - 9 hours of sleep per night. Your body needs time to repair itself. Lack of sleep affects your appetite. And now I'd like to invite you to book a Free 20 minute strategy session so that we can work out some ways to help you move forward & start losing your belly fat. Click the button below to book your session on my scheduler. It sounds fancy but it's not really! Hi I can’t believe that it is the 3rd week of January! Whoa, Stop. The. Bus. My big boy, J, started Grade 1.  And then I did the maths – He’ll matriculate in 2029 – what!? Today I’m sharing the final vitamin in my tablet box. I started using this vitamin back in September 2017 after I was over the pneumonia and looking to boost my immune system. If you remember I added probiotics to my tablet box back then too. I added Vitamin D. I am sure that it has made a difference to my overall health since then. It really is a remarkable vitamin. Actually, it’s not really a vitamin, it’s just referred to as one. What Vitamin D actually is, is a steroid hormone that you can get from sun exposure, food and supplements. The best way to get vitamin D is through sun exposure. It is made by our skin when we are exposed to UVB rays. Through various processes (our bodies are so clever) the body makes vitamin D.  What is vitamin D needed for? Well you may not know but it helps to prevent and cure rickets. This is a bone disease. A child that does not have enough exposure to sunlight or vitamin D supplementation could develop rickets. Adults get the same disease only it goes by another name – osteomalacia
If you don’t have enough vitamin D then no matter how much calcium and phosphorus you take in, you’ll have poor calcification of your bones. BUT if your levels of vitamin D are sufficient and you didn’t get enough calcium and phosphorus you'd still be better off. What else does vitamin D do? Along with vitamin A it has been shown to lower the chance of getting a cold. It has been used to
It has been confirmed and tested that vitamin D can help to prevent breast and colorectal cancer. Some 600,000 cases could be prevented each year if vitamin D levels amongst the worldwide population were increased. Vitamin D can cut the risk of cancer by 60%!!! Having optimal levels of vitamin D can prevent at least 16 different types of cancer; pancreatic, lung, ovarian and prostate to name a few.
Where can we get vitamin D from? The sun. How much sun? About 20 mins per day between 10am – 2pm (I know, that sounds crazy since we’ve been told to avoid the midday sun for how many years?) but it’s all to do with the angle of the rays hitting earth. Anyway, 20 mins with at least 40% of your body exposed. That’s like lying on your back with a bikini on, I guess!!!! Food sources include; oily fish (salmon, sardines, mackerel), oysters, eggs, homogenised milk. Supplements. I use Solal Vitamin D3 – 1000 IU While I was researching vitamin D, I read an interesting article on the importance of Vitamin D for pregnant women. The upshot of the article was that to prevent high blood pressure and pre-eclampsia, pregnant women need 4000 IU per day. That is 10x the RDA!!! I had pre-eclampsia with my first child, J. I wonder if my vitamin D levels were so low that it could have contributed to my condition?... Since vitamin D is actually a hormone, to know what your levels are like you would need to do a blood test. The optimal amount of vitamin D to have coursing through your veins is 50-70 nanograms/ml. If you’re treating cancer or heart disease then it can be as high as 100ng/ml. To find out your blood levels, the test you need to ask for is 25(OH) D which is 25-hydroxyvitamin D. Supplements. I use Solal Vitamin D3 – 1000 IU While I was researching vitamin D, I read an interesting article on the importance of Vitamin D for pregnant women. The upshot of the article was that to prevent high blood pressure and pre-eclampsia, pregnant women need 4000 IU per day. That is 10x the RDA!!! I had pre-eclampsia with my first child, J. I wonder if my vitamin D levels were so low that it could have contributed to my condition?... Since vitamin D is actually a hormone, to know what your levels are like you would need to do a blood test. The optimal amount of vitamin D to have coursing through your veins is 50-70 nanograms/ml. If you’re treating cancer or heart disease then it can be as high as 100ng/ml. To find out your blood levels, the test you need to ask for is 25(OH) D which is 25-hydroxyvitamin D. Share - I hope you have enjoyed this Tablet box series.  Have you added any of these supplements to your tablet box?
Let me know, I’d love your thoughts…. Lee Oh my word the days are running into each other and I don't seem to be touching sides... The information while I was writing this article for you was overwhelming. There is just so much more to FATS. But here's the low down - We all need a certain amount of fats daily. And Fat has a role to play in delivering key nutrients to our bodies. Vitamins A, D, E & K are known as fat-soluble vitamins because they need to bind to fat to be absorbed by our bodies... …If we’re not eating fats then these vitamins cannot be utilised by our bodies which could lead to deficiencies. Fat also provides energy to our body and it is an important part of every cell membrane. Fatty tissue protects our organs from trauma and temperature changes.
 Have you noticed how some people just don’t seem to feel the cold? Could be their fat storage or it could be hormones. But hormones for another day.... There are different types of fats that you need to eat. There are Monounsaturated Fatty Acids (MUFA), Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids (PUFA) and Saturated Fats.  One fat to avoid is man-made trans-fats because they have been shown to increase bad cholesterol and reduce good cholesterol. Trans-fats have been chemically altered through a process called hydrogenation…. …So when you see “hydrogenated” or “partially hydrogenated” in an ingredient list on a product, avoid it!  Now, omega 3 & omega 6 oils are part of the PUFA group. There has been a great deal of research done that clearly shows that the balance of omega 3 to omega 6 is very important to our health. Studies show that the ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 should ideally be 2:1 and no more than 4:1 The modern diet ratio is in favour of omega 6 at a ratio of 10:1 or even higher at 17:1 This high intake of omega 6 compared to omega 3 has shown in studies to be linked to;
 Aim to reduce omega 6 oils in the foods that you eat. Omega 6 is found in
 The 2 acids in omega 3 – EPA and DHA – (they have long Greeky sounding names!) have been shown in many studies to reduce triglyceride levels and LDL (bad) cholesterol while increasing HDL (good) cholesterol. EPA & DHA have also shown to reduce the stickiness of blood so clotting is reduced and heart attacks lowered. EPA & DHA also have an anti-inflammatory effect on the body and this could help with inflammatory conditions like arthritis. The benefits of taking a supplement of fish oil are far reaching, from decreasing depression and Alzheimer’s to decreasing death from heart disease, to improving body composition. Here are 10 benefits of eating a fish oil supplement –
Fish oil could help to improve lean body make up in a number of different ways. So if you are a guy with more than 15% body fat or a woman with more than 25% then fish oil could help you to lose fat. PLUS it will help to stabilise any blood sugar issues you may be dealing with. And it could help you to gain muscle faster which you NEED in order to burn fat. To find suitable fish oil you need to look at a couple of factors. EPA & DHA To reduce body fat you need 2-3grams of total EPA & DHA per day. Most store brand fish oils have a combined total of 0.3g per capsule. So that would mean you’d need to swallow up to 10 capsules each day!!! So an alternative that makes a lot of sense is to look for fish oil where the total EPA & DHA is at least 0.5g You can find ones that have up to 0.75gg which means fewer capsules to swallow. Currently my total EPA & DHA is only 0.3g per capsule. I take 4 in total each day = 1.2g I’m going to increase that! I don’t mind swallowing extra capsules. And when these ones in my cupboard have run out then I’ll be looking for a greater EPA & DHA combo.  Studies have found that foods with healthy fats like avocado pears, almonds, olive oil take longer to digest and so they keep you fuller for longer. Combining them with complex carbohydrates will keep your blood sugars stable and you’ll avoid hunger spikes and dips. In short, FATS are your friends. |
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