Healthy Eating

Song : ‘Red Red Wine’ – UB 40

DEBS – Diet, Exercise, Balance, Stress Management.

The acronym DEBS (nothing to do with mashed potato!) will appear often as a reminder of these four areas that are crucial to living a long, healthy life. This post will focus on healthy eating.

Healthy Eating

Food should be simple and easy. Food is what we need to grow, stay healthy and to live. But food has become a complication for many of us. Should we eat keto, vegetarian, vegan, paleo… the list of different diets goes on and on.

From my discussions with Centenarians, the majority don’t overindulge in food, they use food as sustenance and nutrition to keep their body energised and healthy.

I am trying to change my mindset about food, particularly as I want to live a long and healthy life. I would prefer to think sustenance, nutrition, healthy eating, and moderation with the treats I enjoy. My treat is a bubbly or red wine and hot chips. Others prefer chocolate, decadent desserts, cakes, biscuits or fried foods. I don’t want to completely give up my favourite things (unless for health reasons) especially if I am going to live to be a Centenarian. But moderation is the key (this is what I keep telling myself!)

Often the scales tell us we are a bit overweight so we interpret that as unhealthy and that isn’t necessarily true. In fact a better way to monitor your health is your BMI or BODY MASS INDEX. By measuring your BMI it shows if you are within a healthy weight range. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommend a BMI of between 18.5 and 24.9 as normal. There are a few exceptions such as athletes, and for people aged over 65 (that’s ME, YAY!) a slightly higher BMI of between 25 and 27 is recommended to protect against osteoporosis.

To find out your BMI you can search online, for example, The Heart Foundation has a great BMI calculator you can access on a smartphone.

A great way I monitor my BMI is at my local Priceline Pharmacy. They have a machine in store that is FREE and easy to use. It gives you a health check that includes blood pressure, weight, BMI, body fat, diabetes risk, and heart age, with the results sent to your email. They also send you information on ways to improve your health and it’s all FREE.

My last BMI check at Priceline shows I am overweight for my age. I hope to be in an healthy BMI range by Spring. I like to count calories so I know that to lose weight steadily for my height (5ft 1 ish) and age (65 years) I need to eat about 1200 calories per day. The weight recommendation for myself is 56kg, which is a sensible weight for my age.

One way I have found to stick to a healthy eating plan is through meal preparation for 3 or 5 days at a time. By meal-prepping, I have food in the fridge ready to grab and heat up when I am hungry. Also it’s great to have snacks prepped as well so if you are feeling a bit peckish, you can grab a healthy snack instead of raiding the biscuit tin. There are examples of meal-prepping on YouTube or Google. I started by watching a YouTube video by Liezl Jane Stydom, she also gives the calorie value of the meals. I followed her very simple meal plans for a while until I got the hang of it and now I just prep healthy foods that I like to eat best. I also lost 6 kilos while doing the meal prep but sadly put the weight back on.

So I am setting myself a goal to lose 6kg by September. Attached is my last health report from Price Line and I will get a new health check each month.

Another Youtube channel I often watch for meal-prepping ideas is Downshiftology. There are hundreds to watch on Youtube including healthy meals from all different cultures such as Indian, Chinese, and Japanese. There are also Vegan ideas, and food prep for different health conditions such diabetes and thyroid.

Some examples of healthy snack foods to have prepped include:

• Boiled eggs
• Tinned tuna or salmon
• Home made or low calorie ready made dips
• Cut up carrot, celery, capsicum, snow peas
• Cut up fruit salad or a piece of fresh fruit
• Cut up strips of left over lean chicken or steak steak
• Slices of lean deli meats such as turkey or chicken
• Edamame
• Fruit with a few nuts
• Jug of water with lemon or fruit pieces

Supermarkets now stock pre-packaged foods such as chicken with cheese and crackers or ham with cheese and crackers. Some are low in calories and great if you just haven’t had time to meal prep. There are also some ready-made salads such as Caesar or Greek. They are a bit pricey, but can be convenient.

It is up to us as individuals to decide what is important to us in the gift of life we have been given. We can choose to aim for a long life where we make moderation a goal, rather than consistent overindulgence.

To conclude, as we age towards becoming a healthy Centenarian, it is important to keep a regular check on weight or BMI. If you have slipped back into an unhealthy weight range or BMI (like I have), go back to Google or Youtube and look at healthy eating ideas that suit your lifestyle. Try to make it a way of life! And Keep it simple!

‘Till next time – Keep on rockin’ and rollin’ towards 100.

Kim