Thursday, May 11, 2006
How to be Health Smart?
Have you ever walked up four flights of steps, like when we come up to this room and end up panting like me?
Have you put on 10 kg in the past ten years like I have since pregnancy – giving me a new equilibrium weight?
Do you have a child tipping the scales past her ideal weight, thus landing her in the school keep fit club? That club that used to be called Trim and Fit club or TAF club which spells FAT in reverse!
Well if you suffer these woes as I have, the answer is simple: be healthy, be Health Smart.
Today I will like to share with the secrets of how to be health smart as I have experienced it.
A Balanced Diet
This Health Smart guide, by the Health Promotion board and given to school children, names four ways to being health smart: one, eating a balanced diet; two- exercising regularly, three -staying smoke free and lastly feeling good about yourself. As we don’t smoke and generally do take on a positive attitude to life, I would skip the last two points and elaborate only on the first two on diet and exercise.
The first point is on eating a balanced diet. I cannot agree more. A balanced diet means eating the right amounts of food the pyramid way. At the base of the pyramid, we have the rice and alternatives; followed by fruits and vegetables, then Meat; lastly at the tip –fats, oils, sugar and salt. Eat most food from the base and least from the tip. That also means healthier choices: more steaming, less frying; baked potatoes instead of French fries; plain water instead of fizzy drinks.
Notice that the key word to a balanced diet is balanced and not diet. If you emphasized wrongly on the word Diet, it is spelt DIE with the little T. I admit I have attempted to diet but none so far have succeeded! Worst still, I fell ill for a whole week. That certainly puts me off faddish diets.
A huge obstacle to eating right is that Singapore is a food haven. It is hard to stand firm when you face so much temptation. My worst enemy is the buffet. Who can resist the vast array of tantalizing dishes that you can freely help yourself to?
The worst culprit on the buffet table is my favorite Desserts section: a category that belongs almost in its entirety to the dreaded tip of the Food Pyramid. Do you know that the word DESSERTS is simply STRESSED spelt backwards? It’s a momentary stress reliever when you gorge down the delightful kueh, ice-cream and creamy cakes! But you’ll get to suffer the distress later.
So to eat a balanced diet – don’t diet, make healthy choices and avoid buffets especially the yummy desserts section.
Exercise
The second tip to being health smart is through regular exercise. If you can’t resist the food temptation, the only way is to burn it off! The recommendation is to exercise 3 times a week. 20 to 60 minutes a time.
I am slightly more successful in this area. I used to do yoga at the Pasir Ris beach near my home in the morning. But these sessions got too lengthy and gossipy – well they were attended mostly by housewives like me. So I quitted and joined the community center’s aerobic class. It was tough initially to do all that huffing and puffing. Now it has become quite manageable and even enjoyable, though results have yet to show!
The trouble is of course exercising once a week isn’t enough - especially at the current food intake.
So I try to incorporate more exercise –this time with my children. Remember my elder daughter is in the keep fit club and I certainly don’t want my younger one to follow suit. I try to jog with them from my block towards the beach – at some resistance from them. We also cycle the same route. This goes down better since we can at least reach the scenic beach and enjoy the cool breeze. We often end up at the Pasir Ris playground or just flying kites or playing Frisbee.
During weekends, we also try to schedule some exercising at parks within driving distance. The Bedok Reservoir Park, Changi Beach and East Coast Park are our favorite haunts. But they inevitably end up with breakfast, which somehow negates all the calorie-burning exercise.
So you can incorporate exercise the fun way in your life by finding activities that you enjoy and by involving your family or friends. But watch what you eat after you exercise!
Way Forward
Being healthy means: We have the energy to do things, we are trim and fit; we feel and look great. Being Health Smart means eating a balanced diet and exercising regularly.
Our strategy is to eat moderately through healthy eating and avoiding buffets and desserts; and to incorporate fun ways of exercise in our daily lives.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step! We have taken that first step – the challenge is there are many more to come! So join me, as we continue in our quest to be health smart, wish me luck!
14 March 2006
Have you put on 10 kg in the past ten years like I have since pregnancy – giving me a new equilibrium weight?
Do you have a child tipping the scales past her ideal weight, thus landing her in the school keep fit club? That club that used to be called Trim and Fit club or TAF club which spells FAT in reverse!
Well if you suffer these woes as I have, the answer is simple: be healthy, be Health Smart.
Today I will like to share with the secrets of how to be health smart as I have experienced it.
A Balanced Diet
This Health Smart guide, by the Health Promotion board and given to school children, names four ways to being health smart: one, eating a balanced diet; two- exercising regularly, three -staying smoke free and lastly feeling good about yourself. As we don’t smoke and generally do take on a positive attitude to life, I would skip the last two points and elaborate only on the first two on diet and exercise.
The first point is on eating a balanced diet. I cannot agree more. A balanced diet means eating the right amounts of food the pyramid way. At the base of the pyramid, we have the rice and alternatives; followed by fruits and vegetables, then Meat; lastly at the tip –fats, oils, sugar and salt. Eat most food from the base and least from the tip. That also means healthier choices: more steaming, less frying; baked potatoes instead of French fries; plain water instead of fizzy drinks.
Notice that the key word to a balanced diet is balanced and not diet. If you emphasized wrongly on the word Diet, it is spelt DIE with the little T. I admit I have attempted to diet but none so far have succeeded! Worst still, I fell ill for a whole week. That certainly puts me off faddish diets.
A huge obstacle to eating right is that Singapore is a food haven. It is hard to stand firm when you face so much temptation. My worst enemy is the buffet. Who can resist the vast array of tantalizing dishes that you can freely help yourself to?
The worst culprit on the buffet table is my favorite Desserts section: a category that belongs almost in its entirety to the dreaded tip of the Food Pyramid. Do you know that the word DESSERTS is simply STRESSED spelt backwards? It’s a momentary stress reliever when you gorge down the delightful kueh, ice-cream and creamy cakes! But you’ll get to suffer the distress later.
So to eat a balanced diet – don’t diet, make healthy choices and avoid buffets especially the yummy desserts section.
Exercise
The second tip to being health smart is through regular exercise. If you can’t resist the food temptation, the only way is to burn it off! The recommendation is to exercise 3 times a week. 20 to 60 minutes a time.
I am slightly more successful in this area. I used to do yoga at the Pasir Ris beach near my home in the morning. But these sessions got too lengthy and gossipy – well they were attended mostly by housewives like me. So I quitted and joined the community center’s aerobic class. It was tough initially to do all that huffing and puffing. Now it has become quite manageable and even enjoyable, though results have yet to show!
The trouble is of course exercising once a week isn’t enough - especially at the current food intake.
So I try to incorporate more exercise –this time with my children. Remember my elder daughter is in the keep fit club and I certainly don’t want my younger one to follow suit. I try to jog with them from my block towards the beach – at some resistance from them. We also cycle the same route. This goes down better since we can at least reach the scenic beach and enjoy the cool breeze. We often end up at the Pasir Ris playground or just flying kites or playing Frisbee.
During weekends, we also try to schedule some exercising at parks within driving distance. The Bedok Reservoir Park, Changi Beach and East Coast Park are our favorite haunts. But they inevitably end up with breakfast, which somehow negates all the calorie-burning exercise.
So you can incorporate exercise the fun way in your life by finding activities that you enjoy and by involving your family or friends. But watch what you eat after you exercise!
Way Forward
Being healthy means: We have the energy to do things, we are trim and fit; we feel and look great. Being Health Smart means eating a balanced diet and exercising regularly.
Our strategy is to eat moderately through healthy eating and avoiding buffets and desserts; and to incorporate fun ways of exercise in our daily lives.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step! We have taken that first step – the challenge is there are many more to come! So join me, as we continue in our quest to be health smart, wish me luck!
14 March 2006
# posted by CME @ 9:54 PM 
