The Senior Walking Fitness Blog

Hello Everybody,

To lose weight above 40, or whatever your age, you need to eat a healthy diet and get regular exercise. In my last post I looked at fruit and vegetables as part of a healthy diet. Now we come to meat and fish. There are, of course, those who do not eat meat and their decision is to be respected. For those who do, it is only right to eat meat from animals kept in the best natural conditions. They should also have been slaughtered humanely and not in accordance with mediaeval religious practices.

What is the best meat for us to eat? White meat is better than red. A report sponsored by the British government says that eating less red meat and processed meat lowers the risk of some cancers. It suggests eating a maximum of 1.1 pounds a week. This is the equivalent of a large pack of minced beef, two 8 oz steaks or four 4 oz port chops. Of course the food manufacturer’s lobby disagrees, but I think this is good advice.

These are some meats you can buy to help you lose weight.

Beef. We have already seen that it is a good idea to limit the amount of beef we eat. But as well as saturated fat and cholesterol it does contain protein, healthy minerals and vitamins. There are lean cuts available with less fat. Beef is graded into Prime, Choice and Select. The cut with the least fat is Select. This is not as tender as other cuts but is the healthy option. Beef can contain traces of hormones, antibiotics and other chemicals due to intensive rearing. Always buy grass fed beef and if your supplier can tell you the name of the farm where it was produced so much the better. If you enjoy beef eat it - just make sure it is the right cut from the right source and do not eat it too often. Contains 5g fat per 100g

Lamb. Like beef in many respects. Some cuts are high in saturated fats, but lamb also contains iron, zinc and B Vitamins. The leanest cuts are loin, shank and leg. Lamb is seldom intensively farmed - so hormones and antibiotics are unlikely to be a problem. Contains 8g fat per 100g. 

Pork. If you choose chops or loin cuts pork can be low in fat. It is also rich in vitamins and nutrients. But be careful. The meat may be infected with trichinella, a parasite which can cause trichinosis. Fortunately improved farming methods make this less of a danger than it was, and cooking to a temperature of 170 degrees Fahrenheit should eliminate the problem. The other concern with eating pork is that many pigs are intensively farmed and their meat can contain antibiotics and chemicals. Only eat organically farmed pork from known sources. Contains 4g fat per 100g.

Chicken. One of the best meats. Skinned chicken is low in fat. In the USA and some other countries the use of hormones and growth enhancing agents is banned, but approved antibiotics are still used in intensive chicken farming. Always obtain chicken meat from organically reared birds. It tastes better and you are not supporting the barbaric practice of intensive chicken farming. 3g fat per 100g.

Try to avoid processed meats, most do not help you lose weight. The catalogue of health problems they can cause is massive. Always eat fresh meat if possible.

Fish. You can certainly lose weight eating fish. But be aware that a good case can be made on conservation grounds for not eating fish at all. We are told some stocks are sustainable - for the present. This depends on location, I have given information for the North Atlantic and excluded Tuna, which is available in every sandwich bar in every city you visit. Some varieties are in trouble - soon they will all be. We should try to avoid eating Tuna. Mercury contamination can be a danger with certain types of fish. The four below are all low in mercury so should not cause any problems. Fish is good for you and it should form part of a healthy diet. Just keep to the more sustainable varieties. These are the best ones to eat.

Haddock. This has good dietary protein and vitamins and is low in fat. Most stocks sustainable, although some are in decline. 1 oz provides 31 calories.

Herring.. Contains the important Omega-3 oil and Vitamin D. One of the oily fish we should eat. Some stocks are sustainable, but not all. 1 oz provides 61 calories.

Mackerel. Another fish containing Omega-3 oil, it is one of the best to incorporate into your diet. Beware of King Mackerel - this contains unacceptable levels of mercury. Mackerel is not sustainable on current quotas in the North Atlantic, but this is being addressed by governments. 1 oz provides 45 calories.

Salmon. An oily fish containing Omega-3 as well as Vitamin D and minerals.. Sustainability varies, but 99 percent of Atlantic salmon and 20 percent of Pacific Salmon is farmed. 1 oz provides 40 calories.

So there we have some of the best meat and fish available for those who want to lose weight and eat a healthy diet. There are a few things to consider - but take simple precautions, buy organic and sustainable, and enjoy your meal. Next I shall write about exercise - but not about how to get a six pack.

See you soon,

Cambridge UK

25 February 2011

Photo. Jeny (Filckr)

Technorati Tags: lose weight, lose weight over 40, senior fitness, senior health, senior weight loss, weight loss, weight loss over 40

Hello Everybody,

You can be fit over 40 and many people are. But sometimes it is hard to know what being fit is. If you wake up feeling good, open your eyes, stretch your arms and legs, take a deep breath, wiggle your toes and everything works you are probably fit. I would not define fitness as being over weight and being able to run for a bus. That is not fitness - it is determination. To be fit you need to be somewhere around the ideal weight for your height. There are plenty of charts on the internet which will tell you what that is. They will give a range, from underweight to about right to overweight. Where you fit into this is up to you; aim for a weight you feel comfortable with, but be careful. Being underweight or overweight can both be a health risk.

There is no secret about how be fit over 40. It just needs a healthy diet, exercise, and one more thing. The same determination to succeed you have when running for the bus. Over 40s who want to lose weight and get fit are usually of two types. Those who have kept themselves in good shape most of their lives, but are now finding that business lunches or other lifestyle changes are making them put on a few pounds. Or those who are devoted to junk food and reality television and are finding life difficult because of obesity. This is more of a challenge, but anyone can lose weight if they really want to.

Both a healthy diet and exercise are necessary to be fit over 40, or at any other time in life, but diet is the most important. You need to eat fresh fruit, vegetables, wholegrain pulses, lean meat and fish like mackerel as your basic diet. These, of course can become a variety of dishes, and recipes are easy to find either online or in books. Here are some of the best fruit and vegetables to incorporate in what should become your new lifestyle.

Oranges. Famous for Vitamin C which may or may not prevent you catching colds - depending on which academic study you read. Even if it does not help colds it is essential for other things. Vitamin C helps growth and repair of tissues in all parts of the body, it is one of many antioxidants which block dangerous free radicals in our bloodstream.

Apples. These contain antioxidants and Vitamin C. Try to buy apples in season. The improvement in flavour is dramatic.

Grapes. A good source of manganese, which protects the cells against free radical damage and flavonoids - another antioxidant.

Cantaloupes. Good for Vitamin A which helps healthy teeth and bones and promotes good vision. Also Vitamin C and potassium, crucial for heart function and healthy muscles.

Bananas. Excellent for Vitamin C and Vitamin B6 which helps the immune system produce antibodies. A rich source of potassium and manganese.

Where would we be without fruit? Probably not very healthy, so some should be eaten every day.

Vegetables are also essential. These are suitable for cooking, but of course there are many salad vegetables which should be eaten as well.

Broccoli This is said to fight cancer by making the body produce Phase II enzymes which can detoxify cancer-causing chemicals. I am a little wary of cancer busting foods, but it is enough to say broccoli is good for you.

Carrots. These contain a multiplicity of good things, including Vitamin A, Vitamin B6, Vitamin E - an antioxidant that helps in the production of red blood cells, and Vitamin K which helps blood clotting.

Celery. A cooked vegetable or a salad. This contains Vitamin C and has very few calories, so is ideal for weight loss. Like many fruits and vegetables it is rich in fibre.

Beet. High in fibre. Contains Vitamin C, potassium, manganese, and iron - essential for the transportation of oxygen and regulating cell growth.

Leeks. Much loved by the Welsh. Contains Vitamin C, potassium and beta-carotenes - which are antioxidants.

I hope this list of fruit and vegetables shows that as well as tasting good they are essential to our health. Anyone who wants to be fit over 40 will need to eat some fruit and vegetables every day. I shall cover meat and fish in my next post, then after that the dreaded exercise. Which you need not dread at all.

See you soon,

Cambridge UK

20 February 2011

Photo. Alistair Haimes

Technorati Tags: best way to lose weight, fit over 40, fit over forty, lose weight, senior fitness, senior health, senior weight loss, weight loss

Hello Everybody,

If you want to lose weight you have two options. One way is to lose weight short term with a crash diet or a pill. This has its uses if you need weight loss for a special event and have left it too late to do anything else. There can be health problems associated with fast weight loss, and you are likely to put the weight back on when you stop the diet. But short term it can work, just do some research into the diets or pills you consider using before you start. Some are a lot safer than others.

The better way to lose weight is to change you lifestyle. Nothing to it. You just throw away all the food you like eating and eat all the food you don’t like eating. If that sounds familiar you know why 95 percent of people on diets fail to lose weight long term. They just cannot carry on eating food they hate.

What you need is a weight loss diet that lets you live well at the same time. Doubters will say that is impossible. Maybe they have tried the Palaeolithic diet, in which they ate like stone age men, or thought they did. The problem there is that we know little about what stone age men ate, only what was available. So a stone age diet is anybody’s guess. Or maybe they tried the Shangri-La diet, named after a fictitious place featured in a book by James Hilton - why it has a diet called after it I have no idea. In this they would have been required to consume 100/400 calories daily of sugar water and/or edible oil. Did they enjoy their diets? Probably not.

But there is a diet that people have enjoyed for generations. They live long, stay slim and are devoted to their food. They are French, Spanish, Italian and Greek, it is the Mediterranean diet. Readers of this blog will know that it is my diet of choice. I promote it because it works and because I hate the thought of people consuming 100/400 calories of sugar water a day when they could be enjoying pasta e fagioli with a glass of red wine. If you are going to change your lifestyle, to lose weight, help your heart and live a long and active life, do make sure you enjoy it. Because if you don’t you will give up rather quickly. The Mediterranean diet is the one diet that can make your new eating habits seem like a summer holiday.

For those who do not already know the Mediterranean diet it consists of fruit, vegetables, olive oil, fish, lean meat, potatoes, non refined cereals and - the good news - drinking red wine. There are numerous meals you can prepare from these ingredients and many books and articles online offering recipes. Losing weight and keeping fit need not be a chore. Regular exercise helps, and walking can take care of that, but eating a diet you enjoy is a major part of living a healthy life. We are told that 46 percent of Americans do not want to lose weight. They have no idea what they are missing.

See you soon,

Cambridge UK

12 February 2011

Photo. hn(Flickr)

Technorati Tags: enjoy your diet, healthy diet, healthy weight loss, lose weight, mediterranean diet, walking fitness, weight loss

Hello Everybody,

Walking for fitness is healthy in itself and if you eat a healthy diet, like the Mediterranean diet, as well you will lose weight. Any cardio exercise, such as walking, helps the heart, tones your muscles, and burns off fat. But there is something else it does which, particularly in later life, is of great value. It helps the brain. This does not mean you can take a brisk trot round the block and then debate astrophysics with Stephen Hawkin. Unless you happen to be an astrophysicist that is. It does mean that walking slows the inevitable mental decline as we get older. Don’t think that means people over eighty. Stephen Hawkin will tell you that physicists do their most creative work before the age of thirty. For the rest of us the slowing down process does take a little longer. But it happens.

A long term study of three hundred people in Pittsburgh, by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh, has appeared in the journal Neurology. It showed that those who walked six to nine miles a week had less than usual brain shrinkage in old age - a lot less. Walking halved the risk of brain shrinkage and resultant mental decline. Researcher Kirk Erickson said. “If regular exercise in midlife could improve brain health and improve thinking and memory in later life it would be one more reason to make regular exercise in people of all ages a public health imperative.”

You can improve your quality of life in old age and it is not difficult. Six to nine miles walking a week is not much. Try to exercise every day, it will keep you fit and burn calories as well as helping your brain. A daily half mile walk to the shops or the park and the half mile walk back and you have done it. Longer is better, but however you do it try to make walking a regular part of your daily routine.

It’s good when a plan comes together and we have recently been told that the Mediterranean diet also helps keep your brain healthy. So the usual weight loss advice to exercise and eat a healthy diet can benefit your brain twice. None of this is short term. You must change your lifestyle to incorporate the Mediterranean diet and regular walking. It is known that with exercise and a healthy diet we can live longer. But a long life is not always a happy life towards its end. Now we can help make it so by delaying the mental challenges of old age. Just by eating the right food and walking to the shop.

See you soon,

Cambridge UK

9 February 2011

Photo. Arny Johanns

Technorati Tags: mediterranean diet, senior fitness, senior health, walk fit, walking fitness, walking for weight loss

Hello Everybody,

The Mediterranean diet is a healthy diet. We know that many Mediterranean people live a long healthy life and do it through eating fruit, vegetables, olive oil, fish, potatoes, non refined cereals and drinking wine. But longevity is not the only benefit of the Mediterranean diet. A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition looked at 3759 older residents of Chicago South Side and, by means of a questionnaire, found how closely each person kept to a Mediterranean diet. It was discovered that those keeping closest had the slowest rate of cognitive decline. So as well as protecting themselves against heart disease, certain cancers and diabetes they were protecting their brain and keeping alert.

We know Mediterranean people tend to enjoy a productive old age. Pablo Picasso may not be typical, but he had two wives, four children by three different women and continued producing work of genius until he died at the age of 92. An inspiration to us all. He would have eaten a Mediterranean diet. A lot of information is available to show the Mediterranean diet is one of the best available for those who want to lose weight and stay that way. But it is just one of the two elements of successful weight loss - diet and exercise.

Those who have been to Mediterranean countries will have noticed that not everybody is fit and slim. A lot more are than in the USA or UK, but there are still overweight people who eat the Mediterranean diet. The University of Athens looked at obesity in Greece and concluded that the problem was not diet, but lack of exercise. The Greeks, like most Mediterranean people, love to talk and what better place to be than a café bar where they can sit all day and discuss the way of the world. It is a pleasant lifestyle, but not one which encourages weight loss.

The slim Mediterranean people we hear about are often farmers or fishermen - those who live by hard physical labour. The younger people may not want to become farmers of fishermen but they do enjoy the climate and swim or play active sports. In some Mediterranean countries cycling is a national obsession and this keeps a lot of people fit. So even with the Mediterranean diet it takes exercise to lose weight and keep that way.

What sort of exercise? We have already mentioned swimming and cycling, jogging or brisk walking are good as well and you can go to the gym if you prefer. Exercise must be regular to be effective and 30 minutes a day the minimum you should do. Exercise should become just part of your lifestyle and not a chore - you should enjoy it, like eating your food.

The Mediterranean diet is a lifestyle change, not a fast weight loss diet. If you really need to lose weight fast there are other diets which will help you. But understand that they are a quick fix, some are not healthy and the weight you lose is likely to come back when you stop the diet. You will never slow cognitive decline with a fast weight loss diet, and are unlikely to live to the age of Picasso. For permanent weight loss and a fit healthy old age regular exercise and the Mediterranean diet is the way to go. It is good news that it helps your brain as well.

See you soon,

Peter Stockwell

Cambridge UK

3 February 2011

Photo.evissa (Flickr)

Technorati Tags: best way to lose weight, boost brain power, cognitive decline, mediterranean diet, safe weight loss, walking for weight loss