Phoenix Rising!

My blog posts have been few and far between over the last couple of weeks as I succumbed to a chesty cough and have not been feeling well.  I hate not being on top form and what is more, having to admit it; for some reason when you work in the field of health you believe you shouldn’t become ill and think that others will judge your knowledge & expertise on whether or not you can remain well & vibrant, day in/day out. This is obviously not the truth, none of us can feel well all the time, our immune systems fight to keep us so, but we’re all susceptible to vulnerability at times.  However, on this occasion, I have to admit that I’m now rather pleased this particular virus found its way through a chink in my armour.

I remember many years ago being told by someone that in order to construct, sometimes you have to completely destruct; and that’s what I feel has happened to me.  During the two week period, I decided to invest a little more in myself and knew that in order to do this I needed some help; admitting that we don’t always have all the answers and can’t solve everything is hard to do, but incredibly empowering; so even though I practice what I preach in terms of diet & exercise, I decided to invest in some complementary therapies to assist me with my healing.  I remember once being contacted by a lovely lady who found the courage to make an appointment to see me to address weight management issues she had been struggling with for many years; during an initial phone call, I could tell she was excited at the prospect of getting some help and was surprised when, a couple of days before her appointment, she cancelled.  She conveyed that the reason for doing so was that her partner had told her she shouldn’t need any help, that losing weight was simple and she should be able to “just get on with it”.   Her message saddened me because we can’t always know everything, we all need a helping hand and guidance to make life changes and I think it takes great courage to admit that. 

My first positive move was to book an acupuncture session with Karen & New Mills Alternative Clinic; I’ve had three sessions up to now and would highly recommend it; I feel like I’ve been completely re-wired!  Since the very first session, I’ve literally moved mountains; I’ve finished work that I’ve been procrastinating over for ages, joined associations and booked myself on courses that will enhance my perpetual learning and begun work on a new dietary & supplement regime, one that I’m currently experimenting with upon myself and which has given me more energy and vitality than I’ve felt in a very long time.  I’ve joined a new leisure centre and over the last few days my renewed energy has already seen me trying the spinning classes, having a go at a boot camp session, playing volleyball & tennis and working on a one-to-one with one of the personal trainers on a whole new repertoire of abdominal exercises. I’ve signed up to Parkrun UK and intend to do the Saturday morning 5K run in a local park, not only to be able to get to meet new people who share a passion for running, but to get back to racing, having picked up a copy of Runners World last week to search for a 10k to give me a training goal.  Knowing that I possibly wouldn’t be deluged with cards or flowers last Thursday, I decided to treat myself and booked in at the clinic for a full body massage – absolute heaven and as with the acupuncture, something I now intend to do more regularly, to take the best possible care of myself.

Phoenix Rising

Therefore, a negative experience has turned into a plethora of positives and in the process I’ve learned a lot about myself. I do believe that if we continue to push our bodies and minds without making time for rest and relaxation, we become ill; not only because our immune system may be compromised but it’s our body’s way of saying “enough”, you need to rest and I’ve given you warnings that you haven’t heeded, so now you might just have to listen up and take some time out! I’ve also learned that it’s ok to ask for help, to admit that we need guidance back to wellness and beyond; it’s a very pro-active and empowering thing to do and who knows where or what it might lead to!


Nourish Yourself!

 

Cathy x

 

A Sweet Treat

I really don’t like the snow and after a few days of not being able to get out running, I’m literally climbing the walls.  The treadmill at the gym suffices for a few days, the turbo trainer at home is tolerable and I’ve enjoyed walking much more than I normally would, but I miss the way running makes me feel; the wonderful feeling of movement, the abundance of fresh air, the soreness of hard-worked muscles afterwards, the stress relief it provides and the positive outlook it instills; for me, there really is no substitute.  So today, I’m feeling very excited as I see the white stuff melting away and feel the temperature rising; with a week of milder weather forecast, I’m determined to get out as much as I possibly can, making up for the last week.


Mary Berry eat your heart out!

I get very hungry when I up the miles and often feel like something sweet, particularly during the evening or after a long run, but avoid reaching for energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods to quickly satisfy the hunger, not wanting to undo all the hard work & discipline I’ve invested.  All week I’ve been thinking about fruit cake, but when I’ve visited the supermarkets I’ve not fancied the mass-produced slabs on offer, so today, I decided to make my own.  The recipe was given to me by a friend who is an amazing cake-maker, so I don’t expect my version to be quite as good as hers, but I’m pretty pleased with the results.  I chose to include a dried fruit mix of sultanas, raisins, cranberries, blueberries & cherries, so it’s packed with nutrients and fibre and will help provide me with some of the extra energy I’m going to need.

The friend I mentioned above invited me to tea before Christmas and it was a fabulously civilised and elegant affair; the best china and the most amazing cakes, including meringues, mince pies, lemon cakes & fruit cake. It was a wonderful treat, pure indulgence and I hope I get invited again – perhaps for a summer version!  You see, I don’t believe in diets, they are synonymous with deprivation; a period of time spent feeling miserable & hungry and although I don’t advocate eating copious amounts of cake, the odd treat alongside a predominantly healthy lifestyle, won’t do any harm at all.

A very elegant afternoon tea!

So, as I sit typing, I’m waiting for the fruit loafs to cool to be able to sample same and then I’ll wrap them in foil in readiness for a powerful week of daily discipline in preparation for spring.

Le Fruity Cake

450g Dried fruit (I used sultanas, raisins, cranberries, blueberries & cherries)
225g Butter
340g Sugar
340g Plain flour
3 eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder

2 x 1lb loaf tins

 

·         Put dried fruit in pan & cover with water – boil for 5 minutes
·         Put butter in a large bowl
·         In a separate bowl whisk the eggs & sugar together
·         Drain the dried fruit and pour over the butter
·         When the butter has melted add the egg/sugar mix to the fruit & butter
·         Fold in the flour & baking powder
·         Mix well (do not beat)

Cook on gas mark 3 (150°c) for approximately 50 minutes – 1 hour

Thank you G!

 

Cathy x

Food & Mood

I’ve long been fascinated and spent many years studying the connection between food & mood; how our moods affect our eating habits and how the nutrients contained within our diet can influence the way we think and feel. 

Life events, either good or bad, influence the way we feel, we rarely remain feeling neutral during either, but often it’s the way we’re feeling that determines how we react to the event. Fear is endemic in our society, maybe not the Freddy Kruger at the window sort of fear, but the underlying, chronic and pervasive fear of a loss of security; fear that we may lose our jobs, fear that life will change and throw us a curve ball, fear for the future, for our health and for the health of loved ones.  These fears are often unfounded, but built upon wanting everything to be secure and stay the same and when it doesn’t and we feel we’re not in control of what may happen, it’s then that we may turn to food or alcohol to comfort, distract, numb and self-medicate our path to try to achieve peace of mind.  Foods high in fat and sugar make us feel better, if only for a very short while, maybe because they were the foods we were given as children to comfort and reassure or because we feel that the adverse life-event, albeit resolved, has earned us some kind of reward and we deserve a treat.

As Robert E Thayer discusses in his book, Calm Energy, “bad moods are characterised by low energy and good moods with high energy”.  When we’re feeling low, depressed or battered by some adverse life-event we have little energy, but when something positive happens to us, i.e. we win £100 on a scratch card, we’re excited, we have high energy and our mood is positive.  It therefore makes perfect sense that during the low energy, low mood period, in an effort to raise our energy levels as quickly as possible, because we all want quick fixes and don’t like feeling low, we reach for high calorie and energy-dense foods.  It’s a vicious cycle, underlying thoughts and feelings of fear and negativity lead to a bad mood and low energy which encourages us to make dietary choices depleted in nutrients that positively affect our mood; we reach for foods high in fat & sugar which only makes us feel worse long-term, promoting feelings of guilt and inevitably leading to weight gain, dissatisfaction with ourselves, a lack of control and back to a low mood and negative thoughts.

 

There are a spectrum of nutrients that affect mood, even vitamin C deficiency, more commonly associated with scurvy, has demonstrated an increase in fatigue and depression and according to Dr David Benton, a leader in the field of research exploring the impact of diet upon behaviour, vitamin C influences the functioning of dopamine, a neurotransmitter in the brain that plays an important role in controlling mood & motivation.  A diet containing foods rich in vitamin C, is also a diet that is rich in other vitamins, minerals and antioxidants and one which contains a plethora of nutrients which have demonstrated a positive effect on our mood, but during times of low mood, our conditioning unfortunately doesn’t tell us to reach for the fruit bowl it tells us to head for the biscuit tin instead; spiralling levels of obesity provide us with a “weight of evidence” to support this.
 

The reality is that nothing and no-one is secure, everything changes; it’s learning to be in flow, not constantly buffered by the winds of change that’s the key.  It’s not easy to do, I’m my own work in progress, but by not buying into the emotion and not looking for short-term quick fixes to everything we deem to be “bad” in our lives, we can step back and take control of the one thing that only we can – the food we choose to eat, to help heal both body & mind.

 

If more of us valued food & cheer above hoarded gold, it would be a much merrier world - J.R.R Tolkien

Cathy x

 

Pro-Action -v- Re-Action!

One moment, whilst I step gingerly onto my soapbox …

 

 
Having missed the majority of the second episode, I’ve just caught up on ITV’s “Weight Loss Ward”; a two-part documentary about the specialist weight loss ward of the Sunderland Royal Hospital.  I watched with mixed feelings of empathy, anger and sadness as a “conveyor belt” of morbidly obese individuals struggle to reduce their body mass index to a level that they hope will then give them the opportunity to be added to the expanding list of those awaiting bariatric surgery.

The first question that comes to mind, and was actually voiced by one of those taking part, is how the hell did they get like that in the first place; those presenting at the clinic don’t just have a few pounds to lose, often they need to lose the weight equivalent to two “normal” sized individuals.  Before you answer this question … pause for a second and reserve judgement.   None of us are immune from this obesity-epidemic, although we like to think we are; the stone they effortlessly gained over six months, turned easily into two a year, became four in two years and so on and so forth – sound familiar?  I demonstrated the rapidity of how body composition can change with my own personal experience, detailed in the blog post of the 7th of December – it’s very easy and once control is lost, the downward spiral escalates and becomes increasingly difficult to resolve; 4 lbs to lose is achievable - 4+ stone can be daunting!

I do understand that when someone gains so much weight, they simply don’t know where to begin and surgery may be the only way to even get them mobile; it may well be the only choice they feel they have, their last chance before obesity-related diseases seriously affect or cut short their lives, but my anger rises when I know that education is undoubtedly the answer to prevent this from happening in the first place!   When will the powers that be realise that nutrition education needs to begin in schools to prevent future generations befalling the same fate and be available at other life stages through colleges, children's centres and adult education; with no disrespect, it’s a fact that the majority of people know absolutely nothing about nutrition – if they did, then the country wouldn’t be in this state in the first place – prevention, prevention, prevention!!  I’m sure that those featured on the programme would agree that if they had been given help, information and education about nutrition and exercise earlier in their lives, they would have been able to make more informed choices.  Help that includes demonstrating how to prepare quick and simple, nutritious food; we are inundated with TV cookery programmes, but we’re not all chefs (me included) and often don’t want, or have time, to spend hours in the kitchen; I can put a healthy, nutritious and inexpensive meal together for myself in very little time.  Information and education that explains why a diet high in saturated fat, salt and sugar will not only help pile on the pounds, year after year, but will also promote pro-inflammatory diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, arthritis and possibly even cancer – all delivered in a way people can understand and relate to - simple but effective guidance; the absence of which is leading to an obesity epidemic, with people literally becoming trapped within their own bodies, unable to enjoy the simple things in life and requiring a cocktail of drugs to manage the diseases that accompany it.    

One patient, having undergone surgery, failed to lose any weight whatsoever; why – because she simply carried on doing what she had always done – eating energy dense foods, only in smaller portions, more frequently!  The dieticians at the hospital obviously do their best to provide nutritional information, but you can’t change someone’s eating patterns and re-educate them in 15 minutes and there are simply too many people for them to deal with.  If the Government doesn’t begin to invest in those of us who are qualified and passionate about slowing the progression of this epidemic by supporting, financing and allowing us the opportunity to create programmes to educate the next generation, then this situation can’t and won’t change and specialist obesity wards will be needed in each and every hospital throughout the country; without action, the UK will undoubtedly reach and possibly exceed predictions that a staggering 55% of adults will be clinically obese in not too many years from now!   Since qualifying I've approached several schools with a view to providing nutritional education programmes, but the effort has come to nothing because there isn’t a provision within current curriculums and no funding is available – although I’m sure this has to be more economical than the estimated annual £5 billion cost of dealing with obesity, as quoted in the recent study published by the Royal College of Physicians; I’ve written and presented  sessions for free on several occasions which simply isn’t sustainable, but as Martha Stipanuk rightly states in her book on human nutrition, “the knowledge and science of nutrition is only of academic interest unless it can be applied to the improvement of the health and well-being of individuals and populations”. 

I notice that we are being bombarded with TV adverts about weight loss -as if that’s all that matters; I want to shout from the rooftops that is isn’t just about weight, it’s about body composition, it’s about eating nutritious food, abundant in vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, it’s about moving our bodies to work our cardiovascular system, which in turn promotes good mental health, optimum bone health and boosts self-esteem and gives us a sense of achievement.  Nutrition isn’t about deprivation and not being able to have the foods we consider “bad”, it’s about helping people to understand what a diet comprised mainly of these foods can do to our long-term health and armed with this knowledge they can then decide to make healthier alternative, empowering, informed choices.

 

OK, enough, I’ll step down now and pray that my passion persuades!

“There are, in effect, two things: to know and to believe one knows.  To know is science.  To believe one knows is ignorance” 

Hippocrates

Cathy x

 

New Beginnings

I wish for you a wonderful New Year filled with peace, joy, happiness & good health.

 

 

Cathy x

The present of time

My health & fitness are of primary importance to me and the benefits of my personal discipline to both reach into the corners of every aspect of my life; helping me to stay well during stressful times & enabling me to pick myself up when people or events have pulled the rug from under me.  The last few years, spent mostly studying, have been extremely testing and I truly don’t believe I could have sustained the mental strength it required without optimum nutrition and the freedom to breathe that running gave to me.  I can’t take all the credit though, it’s been my mum that was always at the end of the phone when the going got tough; often I don’t think she fully understood everything I talked about; research papers, deadlines, grades etc., but she gave me her time and she allowed me to talk and in talking I could hear myself and in so doing I found solutions and answers that always lay within but just needed a voice.   Now that is behind me and my weekends are not spent tied to a desk, I’ve devoted the last two Sundays making plans and preparing for Christmas with her; she isn’t physically able to do what she once could and so now I use the vitality and energy that my lifestyle rewards me with to do what I can to make this a special time.  There are many things that I would like to do for my mum – buy her a bungalow, take her on a guided tour of Rome and the Sistine Chapel and maybe one day I will be able to, but for now I give her my time, which I believe is one of the greatest gifts, particularly at this time of year, that we can give to another soul.

Time has a wonderful way to show us what really matters
Margaret Peters

Cathy x

Scales of Measure

I want to share with you the following, in order to demonstrate that focusing upon weight and being a slave to the scales is definitely not the best indicator in determining the health of your body!

In January of this year I returned to MMU to complete the final two modules of my MSc, one of which was based upon body composition.  This literally means what it says, what the body is composed of, i.e. fat mass and fat free mass; fat mass is the amount of fat in the body and fat free mass is everything else, i.e. water, protein (muscle) & mineral (bone).  We were extremely fortunate to have access to a range of body composition measuring tools, one of which has the amazing title of “air displacement plethysmography”, more familiarly known as the Bod Pod; a very expensive and state-of-the-art piece of kit that measures changes in air volume and pressure to determine the fat mass and fat free mass of the lycra clad individual inside!

 

Cross-sectional view of the Bod Pod
 

I decided to base my research for this module upon how a personal commitment to a meticulous nutrition & exercise discipline would enable me to improve my physique and reduce my total fat mass; after all, if you’re going to advise others to make lifestyle changes, you must first be prepared to do so yourself! 

My first measurements undertaken in the bod pod on the 1^st of February 2012 revealed the following:-

Weight	74.5 kg
Body Mass Index (BMI)	23 (normal 20-25)
Waist Circumference	79 cm
Fat Mass	19.9%
Bod Pod Rating	Lean

Obviously I was very pleased with these results, but I wanted to see if I could improve upon them and set myself a goal of approximately 7 weeks in which to do so.  However, things did not proceed as planned and the second module being undertaken was incredibly demanding and time-consuming, so much so that I was literally working on it day and night.  Dedicating every spare moment sat at the computer, in order to meet submission deadlines meant that I couldn’t possibly adhere to my proposed plan and although I didn’t adopt unhealthy eating patterns, I didn’t dedicate the time that I would normally to preparing my meals.   My running timetable decreased to just a couple of times per week and my attendance at the gym reduced by half and as such, my energy intake decreased as I obviously didn’t require the same amount of fuel if I wasn’t training.  The 7 seven weeks passed quickly and I returned to the lab on the 21^st of March 2012 where a repeat of the same measurements revealed the following:- 

Weight	72.9 kg
Body Mass Index (BMI)	22 (normal 20-25)
Waist Circumference	83 cm
Fat Mass	22.9%
Bod Pod Rating	Moderately Lean

So, let’s take a closer look at this; due to my decreased energy intake my weight had reduced by 1.6 kg, reducing my BMI measurement accordingly; now if these were the only measurements you were using to assess your health, you would have good reason to think that this was beneficial.  However, as you can also see my waist circumference measurement, a good measure of central fat distribution and predictor of increased risk to health, had in-fact increased by 4 cm, taking it above the recommended 80 cm cut-off and my fat mass had increased by 3%, facilitating a reduction in my bod pod fitness rating. 

 

Central & abdominal adiposity - associated with the risk
of insulin resistance, the possibility of developing
type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease

This was definitely not the result I was hoping to achieve, but nevertheless the data is revealing in several ways; it demonstrates that physical exercise is essential in maintaining fat free mass, reveals how rapidly body composition can change and how ineffective focusing solely upon weight and BMI is in determining the risk of developing weight-associated diseases such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. 

Clients often ask me how quickly they can expect to see positive results from adopting recommended changes - healthier eating patterns and carrying out some form of physical exercise and I think that they seldom believe me when I tell them just a matter of weeks; I think the results from this unintentional but nonetheless valuable reverse development, reveal this to be the truth!

 Cathy x 

Food for Thought

“A human being is primarily a bag for putting food into; the other functions and faculties may be more godlike, but in point of time they come afterwards. A man dies and is buried, and all his words and actions are forgotten, but the food he has eaten lives after him in the sound or rotten bones of his children. I think it could be plausibly argued that changes of diet are more important than changes of dynasty or even of religion.... yet it is curious how seldom the all-importance of food is recognized. You see statues everywhere to politicians, poets, bishops, but none to cooks or bacon-curers or market gardeners.”

George Orwell - The Road to Wigan Pier

 

Nourish Yourself!

Whilst on the crosstrainer in the gym Friday evening, the amazingly enthusiastic and energetic Jamie Oliver was cooking up some wonderful culinary delights on the TV in front of me, recipes from his 15 minute meal repertoire; this was not only helping to divert my attention away from the workout time remaining, but was also making me feel incredibly hungry!  He makes it all look so easy and exciting, that I decided I would invest time and effort into trying out his recipe for a grilled mushroom sub.  I located the recipe from his website and set off to Tesco’s on Saturday morning, armed with my shopping list of ingredients; I changed the salad ever so slightly and halved the recipe, but basically adhered to the formula in order to try to attain the same gastronomic success.  Aside from the basic ingredients, i.e. ciabatta, cheese, pancetta and salad dressing, my meal contained the following:-

Mushrooms

Garlic
Red onion
Watercress
Cucumber
Radish
Red Pepper
Tomatoes
Walnuts
Cornichons  
Lemon
Pear
Olive oil

I’m pleased to report that it was a delicious, culinary work of art containing a palette of rich & vibrant colour bursting with nutrients!  Well, maybe that’s a bit over the top, but from the list of ingredients you would have to agree that it was a nutrient-dense masterpiece!  I must confess that my obsession with food is based upon the nutrient-density of the ingredients and how they may benefit health & well-being, but this quick and easy meal definitely dispels the myth that eating for good health is based upon dieting & deprivation!  Aside from the aesthetic attributes, although it feels good to prepare delicious food for others, there is something all the more special about taking the time and making the effort to do it just for yourself.

 

In order to nourish others, you must begin by nourishing yourself!

 

Cathy x

Untrodden Paths

Last night I promised myself that I would get up early and run this morning and as maintaining this blog is encouraging me to be a more pro-active person, I felt compelled to stick to my guns and ventured out into the early morning rain.  Not having decided beforehand which direction to take, without thought I took a right turn and headed out off-road on a route which usually forms the return journey of a well-trodden, familiar circuit.  I’ve run this route more times than I can remember, but going in the opposite direction really threw me and it felt very unfamiliar; I’d never realised or appreciated that my usual homeward run this way was slightly downhill, but in the reverse direction, quickly realised it was quite the opposite!  This prompted me to think about how, when we begin to make lifestyle changes, whether diet or exercise related, initially the changes can seem so daunting, quite literally an uphill struggle, that we feel we just want to turn around and go back to what’s comfortable and familiar.   

New paths are often clouded with doubt, but persistence pays off!

Deciding to make any kind of positive lifestyle change is the first step toward personal transformation; sticking to a new path is undoubtedly a challenge, requiring patience and persistence, but if we didn’t have challenges then we wouldn’t strive to achieve our full potential and we do know, that once trodden a few times, we very soon become well acquainted with the once unfamiliar path and prepare ourselves, once again, to progress to new, exciting and yet more challenging levels of life.

If you find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere
Frank A. Clark

Nourish Yourself
Cathy x

Knowing -v- Doing!

Five transformational lifestyle basics:-

ü  Make sure you eat at least 5 portions of fruit & veg every day

ü  Try to drink approximately 1.5 litres of plain water each day

ü  Make time for a healthy breakfast, even if all you can manage to eat or make time for is a piece of fruit

ü  Try to eat at least one and possibly two portions of oily fish per week , tinned varieties are fine (salmon, mackerel, trout, sardines, pilchards, kippers)

ü  Perform some kind of physical exercise for 30 minutes at least 3 times per week, preferably every day

I can literally hear you groaning at the advice I’ve just given above, because yes, I know you’ve heard it all before, it’s nothing new and everyone knows it – don’t they? 

Well, I made a positive decision this morning and promised myself that I would follow my own advice, to the letter, for the whole of the coming week.  You may think that because I do this for a living, that I never forget to drink the water or to make sure I achieve 5+ a day, but I too have to be constantly vigilant to ensure I make all the above a part of my own personal daily discipline.  We all have busy lives and days filled with things to do and then before you know it, its evening time and you’ve had very little water throughout the day; no wonder you perhaps feel tired, sluggish and maybe even have a headache or you’ve got home from the office and convinced yourself that you’re too tired to exercise or go for a 30 minute power walk, when in actual fact you’re only mentally tired and not physically so and would feel so much better if you made the effort and I realise the oily fish isn’t everyone’s favourite, but because it has such positive effects upon both our physical and mental health, surely its worth remembering, isn’t it?

So, you may think that you already “know” all of the above, but in the words of Anthony Robbins, “if you ain’t doing it, then you don’t know it”.  So, I hope you’ll join me this week in trying to achieve at least one and possibly all of the above each and every day and this time next week we’ll not only look better but feel better for having made some small and yet empowering, positive lifestyle changes.

 

“Find yourself, motivate yourself, commit yourself"

Norman Vincent Peale

Nourish Yourself!
Cathy x

Give me Sunshine!

This wonderful, life-giving autumn sunshine we’re so lucky to be having at the moment has inspired me to want to write about vitamin D; but before I do, I wanted to share with you these pictures, taken from the top of Sitch Lane, Birch Vale.  Most of you who know me will be familiar with the fact that I love running, but when you run alone, you tend to do the same routes time after time, without challenging yourself; so this last week, I set myself a goal to run to the top of Sitch and down the other side into Hayfield.  I’ve done it twice now and I absolutely love it, it’s quite literally like being on top of the world!  I must be honest though and admit that I very nearly backed out the first time; having got to the bottom of the hill, that little voice kicked in that said – “you’ll never do this, best carry on the low road and do what you normally do - play it safe” – so irritating and I very nearly listened and took its advice, until I reminded myself that it was only a thought and I’m not my thoughts – although sometimes I think I am! 

 

Anyway, back to vitamin D; this fat-soluble vitamin, strongly associated with the health of our bones, has recently become quite a hot topic with studies revealing increasing prevalence of a widespread, global deficiency.   Our natural source of the vitamin is sunshine; vitamin D₃ or cholecalciferol is formed in the skin when exposed to sunlight and very little exposure is needed to provide us with our recommended daily, adequate intake.  Natural food sources include oily fish and eggs, other foods such as margarine, bread and fruit juices may be fortified and have vitamin D added to them.   A spectrum of emerging evidence is linking this vitamin to a range of health benefits aside from the role it plays in calcium absorption and the promotion of bone formation, including enhanced immune function, reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, possible prevention of some forms of cancer and improvements in mood & depression.  In fact, research suggests that deficiency may be exacerbating the symptoms of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and increased synthesis of vitamin D in the skin during the summer (providing we get some sunshine that is) is the reason we feel happier during the warmer, sunny months.

Now, back to the running; when I first started, many years ago now, I was probably carrying around about two stone more in weight than I am now; hence I did a lot of my training very early in the morning so that no-one would see me!   Over time, I began to lose the excess weight, have loads more energy and I was able to finally discard the sweatshirts I insisted on tying around my middle to hide my backside!  So when you see someone out running and they make it look easy, remember that they may have been doing it for many years and didn’t start out like that and also remember to send the runner who perhaps looks as if they may be struggling a little, some positive and encouraging thoughts, because when they were putting on their kit and tying their laces, they overcame that little voice that said they should sit on the sofa instead!   So if there’s something you want to do to transform yourself, you too can thank the voice for its opinion and decide to get out there and shine instead!

 

Nourish yourself!

Cathy x