In case you didn’t know I watched the quarter finals of ‘The Voice’ on Friday night at Pinewood Studios. I’ve only ever seen trailers for the programme and really had little idea what to expect, but Sophie had been sent tickets from the studio audience ticket service and whilst we could have been sent anything from ‘Loose Women’ to ‘Draw It’ she got lucky with these.

It was a really amazing evening and we had super seats. The show has the largest live studio audience of 1200 people and you need to whoop a lot. But given that it was a live show, there was no time for retakes or errors. It was perfectly executed and showed what planning can do to prepare you for such a big show of many stage changes.

However it was whilst we were there that I saw in action what I’ve read about and been told time and time again about how having a whole lot of passion about what you want to achieve will win hands down every time.

There were moments when the show wasn’t on air and they were changing the set or doing interviews with the contestants. During this time there is a man doing some chatting, joke telling and generally keeping us informed of what is going on. He was amusing and did his job really well. He had several signed items from the ‘coaches’. So a signed photograph from The Script, signed CD from Jessie J, Will.i.am and Tom Jones. All very lovely. But you had to win them.

You can imagine that there were a few fans in the studio for these stars and there was a lot of shouting and waving and screaming to get his attention. However for the Jessie J and The Script prizes he asked who would knew all the words to all their songs. If you were able to sing along to any song he chose, you could win the prize. (At this point I did think, “it’s only a bloomin’ photo”)

However, and this is my point that to succeed in life

You need to truly know your outcome –  I want the CD / photo

You need to have such passion that it overcome you – Knowing every word of all the songs

And that you’ll do whatever it takes to achieve the outcome – sing, live in front of 1200 people, many of whom also want what it is what you’re working for but aren’t prepared to do what you are doing to get it.

Two amazingly brave and dedicated people won a signed photo (a bloomin’ photo!) and a CD with a squiggle on it because they wanted it so badly.

If you’re not achieving what you want, perhaps you don’t know

(a) what you truly want. So go and write down exactly what it is you want to the finest detail. Know exactly where you are heading.

(b) how much you really want it. If it doesn’t excite you then you’re not passionate enough to achieve it, so all the longing , wishing and hoping won’t make it happen. If you’re not passionate enough about it ask yourself more questions. Why do I want this? How will I feel when I do achieve it? How will my life be when I reach this target? If you can’t stoke up the pure excitement for achieving it, it’s the wrong goal.

(c) not prepared to do what it takes. Remember the time will never be right, you’ll never have enough money, you’ll never know enough, it will never be perfect and you’ll always be a little bit scared. But if you don’t just DO IT when the opportunity presents itself someone else will and you’ll always wish you had.

Stop worrying. Get doing.

P.S. Even Holly Willoughby struggles with her shoes. A desperate kicking off of the Louboutin stiletto shoes between shows was very pleasing!

Are you still eating ‘diet foods’, ‘low fat foods’ or ‘healthy options’? If you are you are almost certainly setting yourself up for cravings, weight gain, mood swings and bad skin. So you can eat fewer calories for sure, but you’ll look and feel like crap in the process.

These low calorie and diet foods are almost always manufactured to be low calorie by removing the fat. When the fat is removed from food it tastes of nothing. It is completely tasteless. Compare for example a 0% fat yoghurt and a full fat one. No comparison. Infact when I bought some 0% yoghurt recently by mistake I was really surprised at how watery and insipid it was. Give me full fat Greek yoghurt any day!

So to keep the diet foods tasty the manufacturers need to add something back in, that will be sugar or artificial sweeteners. When you consume sugar too frequently you’ll get a taste for it, it will tamper with your blood sugar levels and deplete you of valuable nutrients. In addition to adding weight, raising cholesterol, rotting teeth, popping you out in spots and leaving you permanently hungry.

That’s OK you might think, I’ll chose the artificial sweeteners.  They’re low calorie and harmless. Just wait one moment! Eating a sugar substitute will still give you a taste for sweetness leaving you wanting more, but in addition these alternatives are known excitotoxins which stimulate your brain cells to death. They have been implicated in dementia and Ahlzheimer’s disease.

These fake sugars, so prevalent in baked goods, crisps, sauces, sweets, chewing gum (have you found one it’s not in recently?) fizzy drinks, juices, sauces, squash, jellies, jams…the list goes on is also a reason why people who want to lose weight can’t or don’t when consuming them.

Firstly, adding a low calorie sugar to a product psychologically makes people think they can have more of it. We’re programmed to eat, we’re programmed to eat sweet stuff, so we eat more because it’s lower calorie, but two is probably more calories than one normal one… I know one lady who will eat a complete box of six ‘diet’ cereal bars because they are low calorie.

Secondly, the artificial sweeteners will stimulate the appetite but unlike real sugar where the associated calories help you to stop eating (even if it is after a few too many chocolates) the lack of calories with artificial sweeteners means that people keep on eating, unsatisfied and feeling that you are hungry and still have an appetite.

Consider this next time you reach for a Diet Coke mid afternoon and feel the need for something to eat shortly afterwards.

Thirdly, these foods encourage carbohydrate cravings and stimulate fat storage and ultimately weight gain, so what you were hoping would help you to lose weight is in fact making you gain it.

I saw this happen with client of mine in her 60s who was eating really rather well apart from her use of artificial sugars on her porridge, in cakes and her hot drinks. She refused to stop taking it but wasn’t losing weight when she should have been. She eventually stopped adding it to her foods, changed nothing else and started to consistently lose 2lbs per week. Something she’d been trying to achieve for years.

Pretty good eh?!

So to keep yourself healthy, with a complete set of brain cells, in shape and cravings free follow these simple tips.

• Avoid all foods with aspartame (AminoSweet), or any other artificial sweetener in it.
• Cut all diet drinks from your life and those of your children. It’s nasty stuff and causes all manner of hormonal imbalances, infertility and mood problems in growing children.
• Cut your sugar intake by cutting back on processed foods, chocolates and sweets.
• Add in fruits like apples, pears and berries.
• If baking, reduce the sugar by 1/3. You won’t notice the difference.
• If you crave chocolate you may well be short of magnesium, so boost with nuts, seeds and green vegetables or a supplement from a good health food shop. Or I prefer to use Phil Richards Magnesium Relax. It’s super.
• If you have blood sugar drops during the day try taking a teaspoon of coconut oil each day. If the taste doesn’t suit you sprinkle it with ground cinnamon. This will help to regulate your blood sugar levels and stop your cravings.
• Eat plates of salad and vegetables, good quality protein and fats or oils. You’ll feel better on that for sure!

For more information on how artificial sweeteners can harm you I recommend
Dr Blaylock’s book ‘Excitotoxins – The taste that kills’. 

To get in shape, feel fantastic and get all the health and nutrition information you need go to FastTrack Fit Camp where we offer it in one tidy, friendly package!

This time last week I was rocking and shouting and whooping alongside 5000 others at the ExCel Centre in London as an attendee of the Tony Robbins ‘Unleash the Power Within’ event.

Umm, ExCel Centre??!

Many people have asked me what is was like and to describe what it was all about to them.

This is impossible. Everyone who attends would have a completely different experience. To say that it was the best weekend of my life is not an understatement. That I spent most of it either crying or dancing is by the by. The experience, the effect and the feeling I have about it is enough for me to know that I am changed because of it.

The thing is though that one of Tony Robbins well repeated quotes is -

“It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped. ”

And this is afterall how I got to be there, by a decision I made 8 months ago. Our lives are merely a reflection of our decisions after all.

In August 2012, when I thought I was too busy to breathe, I found myself in distraction mode and was surfing facebook on my phone. I saw a blog post titled something like ‘how to be more productive in the morning’. That’s what I need I thought!

Within this blog was another link to a Tony Robbins audio file. I have no idea why I downloaded it. I had heard of him but had no experience of him to speak of, however I downloaded the audio and started to listen to it. Remember I thought I was “too busy”, but I listened to this audio rapt to his distinctive, gravely voice for 90 minutes. It was perfect for that moment and I was hooked. I can remember him saying -

“what’s wrong is always available, but so is what’s right”

and this struck a deep chord with me. I wasn’t thinking my life was crap, but the very concept of focussing on what’s right changed me there and then.

As a result of this audio I then followed the big man (he is 6ft 7 inches) on Facebook. About 3 weeks later there was a post to say he was in the UK in October at an event called the National Achievers Congress (NAC) , also at the ExCel. I made a decision that I was going.

I am sure many of you know that I am an avid course and seminar attendee. However I normally go on my own and come back pumped up and full of enthusiasm which my poor husband has to absorb at some speed. This time though in an attempt to hear it all first hand he decided to come with me (his moment of decision).

We only went to the ExCel to see Tony Robbins and he was first on, he did a six hour presentation that had me hooked and we agreed there and then to sign up for this event in May. However, we didn’t just stay to listen to Tony, we stayed and found that attending the NAC also opened new doors to both of us. It was there that I saw Andy Harrington speak and am now part of his Professional Speakers Academy, which means that I am delivering presentations in a more enjoyable and useful way for my business. This has bought me into contact with a lot of business people outside the fitness circle which is invaluable for networking and self-development.

So, in that one decision to attend we started a ripple effect of change in our lives.

This last weekend, with Dale, at UPW at the ExCel was full on and intense. It’s 50 hours in 3.5 days and yet you never flag. On day one all 5000 of us (bar a few) did a firewalk — AMAZING! Once you can do that you can do anything right?!

Fire-walked Feet

The remaining three days are an indepth look at what drives you, stops you and makes you alive. If you have any desire to be a better version of yourself it’s definitely the place to do it. The momentum and enthusiasm from the rest of the crowd is intense. I loved it!

What did I learn?

• That I really, really miss my link to music. Since giving up teaching exercise classes I really haven’t listened to music to any degree. So the music, dancing and moving was a good reminder to add that back in.
• That you meet the most lovely people. When you’ve all had a joint experience like the firewalk you’ll talk to anyone to see what their experience was. We met some fantastic people with great ideas of how they can be an enhanced version of themselves to better their lives through the contribution to others.
• That going through such an emotional roller-coaster was so much better when shared with Dale. I cannot imagine having attended on my own and then having to try and share it with him. The joint experience was worth it alone.
• That people can achieve whatever the hell they want. The very first time I heard of Tony Robbins was at another seminar hosted by Phil Richards where he played this audio on how Sylvester Stallone got to where he is today. It’s flippin’ awesome. Never think you can’t have what you want, you just need to know what you want and want it badly enough.
• That I can play air-guitar.
• That I can walk on hot coals.
• That I love the fact that we can continually improve ourselves. Not because we’re dissatisfied with ourselves but because we like to grow, improve and develop to a higher level.
• That I am so glad I decided one Sunday afternoon in August to read a blog, that lead me to an audio that lead me to this new path I find myself on.

Whatever you want from your life, just embrace it. Enjoy it and always see the good in what you have not what you don’t have. Be freakin’ awesome!

Coeliac disease.

Really? Shouldn’t I be suffering with diarrhoea, losing weight and malnourished? Apparently not.

These most irritating of outbreaks which make me pretty ratty and leave red scars on my bum cheek (hence the modelling career is over!) are an auto-immune response to me eating gluten, and it not agreeing with me. Why it wasn’t discovered some 20 years ago when I first got it is a mystery, but it would appear it’s pretty unusual and easily mistaken for other skin complaints. Oh! and it’s usually men who get it.

It’s called dermatitis herpetiformis (DH) and has been coined “one of the itchiest skin conditions you can experience”. Yep, I’ll vouch for that. I’ve made my skin bleed from scratching the damn things and walking around literally scratching your arse cheek or your elbows ain’t pretty or ladylike!

I discovered this revelation by chance. I was reading the very wonderful book called ‘Wheat Belly’ by Dr William Davis. I was already wheat free (generally) and was catching up on the new research into the problems linked with gluten intolerance. The section on skin complaints was right at the back, (you know, when you start to skip bits just so you can finish it?!) And I was stopped in my tracks by the description of my problem. So clear and concise that there was no doubt. But a coeliac? I could understand gluten intolerant I had already suspected I was, but coeliac?

It appears that if you have this condition you will have coeliac disease. However you won’t necessarily get this condition if you have coeliac disease. I could get it tested for confirmation, but I need to be eating a gluten full diet for the skin biopsy to be effective and quite frankly after the horrendous outbreak I’ve had since having just half a bottle of beer and some oats last week I am not doing that. It seems pretty clear to me that I have it.

The more I read about dermatitis herpetiformis (DH), the more I see that I have suffered with this since I was a child. Despite the recognisable symptoms of coeliac disease of diarrhoea and weight loss, I’ve had the opposite problem for as long as I can remember. That’s another clue.

Bloating, abdominal discomfort, extreme tiredness and itchiness when eating wheat or gluten foods. Yep, that’ll be me too.

So what does this mean?

Well it means no sneaky Cornish Pasty Co. pasties anymore . It also means much more label reading. For me to get rid of this ruddy awful DH condition I need to go gluten free. Maybe for as long as 4 years before it stops reoccurring. And then of course, keep that up for fear of reigniting the flame again. I’ll definitely need to get my gut healthy again and that is going to take some time too.

I now feel so pleased I KNOW WHAT IT IS! I am on a mission for gluten free food freedom! As you know I love to cook and bake and eat well. So this is a foodies dream really. It also ties in beautifully with the eating plan at Fit Camp and my love of all things health through nutrition. So watch this space.

You are about to witness a slow but sure return to a healthy functioning digestive system. A clearing up of itchy elbows and scratchy buttock cheeks and a range of new recipes to keep me happy in the kitchen.

So today…a vehicle for butter or cheese or toasting…a peanut butter and almond bread. It was divine!

Peanut butter, almond bread

If you are interested in my next and new dietary journey, follow me as I undertake to improve my health beyond anything I’ve experienced before. How exciting!

If you are interested in good health and nutrition please come along to my next talk
“Is your food healing or harming you? - The simple guide to feel-good eating.”
on Wednesday 22 May 14.00 at Wokingham Library.

Today marks 100 days into 2013.

What have you done with it? Or did it pass you by in a blur of days like they always do?

If your New Years Resolution seems a long way off and the thought of making more fills you with dread. Change the rules.

Yep. Let’s start a mid-month resolution.

Decide that for 30 days you’ll make that change you’ve been promising to yourself for ages, but keep breaking.

Too long? Too scary? How about 14 days? 7 days? Hell, why not just do one day at a time! Now there’s an idea.

Take each day one at a time to make small steps to improving yourself. Perfect. I reckon that you can do that.

So what are you going to do today?

Because I am daft for 100 day challenges I am today on my final day of 100 days grain free. It’s been a doddle actually. Way easier than 100 days of 100 burpees!

Here’s what I’ve noticed.

The Costa Coffee shops I have been to don’t serve grain free things. Well, maybe chocolate but that’s never a good thing with coffee, way too addictive.

Starbucks are a bit better, but I like their coffee less.

I don’t miss pasta or pastry (got my own almond based recipe) bread or crackers. But I do miss what I put on them.

You see I love marmalade.  Toast and butter is perfect for that.

I am also rather partial to a cheese and piccalli sandwich, but merely for the vehicle in which to contain it all.

I was the Queen of the flapjack for a long time, but only because they are sweet, not necessarily because they are oats.

I have won the battle of an insatiable appetite and regular picking at food.

I have baked grain free birthday cakes and got through Easter without any glitches.

The niggly health issues which have substantially reduced or gone completely.

• I don’t get tired mid-afternoon.
• No wacky mood swings in the month.
• No face spot break outs.
• My weight is now stable and constant.
• Improved, but not yet perfect digestion.
• Much reduced but not yet completely removed skin inflammation (dermatitis herpetiformis) that I’ve had for 20 years, but only discovered what it was after reading the wonderful book called “Wheat Belly” by William Davis.

Will I keep it up? Almost certainly. You might find me eating some rice somewhere, but the benefits and ease of conforming are so easy that I can’t see why I would go back to eating grains (especially wheat) again.

And finally, for the record. I think I’ll give 100 Day Challenges a miss for the next section of the year, preferring to work just one day at a time, constantly heading in the right direction for me.

What about you?

Lockey Farm Meat Chiller

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21682779

With this is the news I think people always do a quick mental check of their own eating habits to see whether they fit the category referred to by the report.

This research is about processed meats. Foods like bacon, hams, chorizo, salamis, cured meats, some sausages hot dogs and tinned meats.

It isn’t about minced meat, fresh farm made sausages, fresh 100% meat burgers or red meat in general.

It also states that the people who ate more of these processed meats tended  to have other poor lifestyle choices like being smokers, not taking exercise and eating fewer vegetables; and even when this was taken into account it is suggested that there was still some risk for people eating more than two rashers of bacon and a processed sausage each day.

If you are interested in living a longer, healthier life then it makes sense to ask questions about reports like this. For example I am not going to stop eating bacon. However I don’t eat bacon daily but when I do eat it, it will always be from outdoor bred pigs and organic if possible. The same goes for sausages, when I buy them they are from butchers who make them weekly with fresh meat with some herbs, spices and nothing else.

Yes, eating a lot of meat isn’t going to be the best choice for you (eating anything to excess is going to cause a dietary imbalance) however it was also noted in this report that eating some red meat is beneficial to health.

Meat contains the vitamin B12, a vitamin that is only found, in any great quantity, in animal products. A deficiency in B12 can cause nerve problems, so numbness or ‘pins and needles’ feelings. People who complain of a burning in their feet have been shown to be B12 deficient. Given the connection between our nervous system and our brains it is also not surprising that mental problems like depression can be linked to B12 deficiency.

It has been recommended that vegetarians and vegans not eating animal products should consider taking a B12 supplement considering that the vegetarian alternatives for B12 tend to not be as well utilised by our bodies. Vegetarian sources include tempeh, brewer’s yeast and some sea vegetables. This is a subject for another conversation though.

So to remain healthy and carnivorous ensure you keep to good lifestyle choices like not smoking, exercising regularly, having a good healthy work/life balance and eating a lot of varied vegetables. Eating vegetables with all meals but especially your meat meals will create a healthy balance in your body. When you eat animal products the body becomes acidic, too much acidity will lead to disease. When we eat vegetables we become more alkaline. Therefore eating meats and vegetables together provides not only a complete blend of nutrients per meal but the alkalinity of the vegetables will counteract the acidity of the meat.

Makes sense doesn’t it?

So how can you incorporate this into your own home?

• Make your own burgers from fresh minced meat. Add seasoning, finely chopped onion and maybe an egg to bind together.
• Choose sausages from a butchers rather than ‘Walls’. I use Lockey Farm in Arborfield and they make them each week in gluten free flavours too. These are the best as they are all meat and some flavouring. Lovely!
• Rather than buying expensive chicken breasts, buy and cook a whole chicken. Use the cold meat where you may normally use processed ham in salads, sandwiches.
• Mince cold, roasted meats (beef or lamb) for making into a Shepherd’s pie.
• If you relish chorizo or salami, use more sparingly with other ingredients, like a risotto or paella.
• If you really like ham, buy a gammon from the butcher and soak and boil it yourself to remove some of the salting. It’s still processed but you will have prepared it, made yourself a wonderful stock in the process and have the knowledge that it is better for you and your family than ‘Billy Bear’ ham slices.
• Pile your plate high with vegetables at each meal.
• Eat less bacon, but when you do, eat the best you can afford.
• Finally, don’t worry too much about it. Have a sense of perspective too.

I love watercress. The proper buy-in-a-bunch sort of watercress you can get from the market, not that frilly edged leaves all washed and pretty from the supermarkets.

So yesterday I managed to chuck a whole bunch of watercress into an omelette for lunch. It was a damn fine meal and as I sat there I was contemplating all the good stuff it gives me and thought I would share with you too the beauty of watercress.

First of all lets claify something about ‘green stuff’. The darker the ‘green’ the denser the nutrient content. So whilst iceburg lettuce isn’t bad, it certainly isn’t as benficial as something like rocket, or kale or watercress.

Historically watercress has been regarded as a bit of wonder-food. It was used medicinally as early as 79AD and continues to hold favour as being an incredib;y benefical food.

It is:

• Anti-inflammatory
• Anti-bacterial
• Anti-biotic
• A diuretic
• A stimulant
• An anti-septic
• A digestive
• An expectorant

It contains a lot of amino acids, vitamins (A , several B vitamins C, D, E, K) and minerals (calcium, phosphorus, potassium, iron, sodium, magnesium and copper)  in one small, peppery package!

It is also a food that is high in sulphur. Sulphur rich foods (like eggs, onions, garlic) are necessary for cell building, blood cleansing and healthy skin and hair.

After the seaweed kelp, watercress has been shown to contain more iodine than any other food. Iodine is very important for good thyroid function. Isn’t that a nicer way to improve your thyroid gland than taking medicine or hunting down seaweed?

Using watercress will benefit you in so many ways that to list them here would be tedious, but suffice to say that if will help with all manner of issues from stomach/ digestive problems, lowering inflammation thereby loweing choelsterol, coughs and colds, improving the menstrual cycle, alkalising the blood, improving indigestion and reliving stress, freshening breath (raw leaves) to name but a few.

So how can you include watercress in your diet more?

• Chop raw leaves into your normal salad concoction.
• Chew raw leaves from the garnish (I always eat the garnish!)
• Chop and add into a casserole or bolognese just as you are about to serve.
• Chuck into a stir-fry in the last minute of cooking.
• Make into a soup (see below)
• Add to smoothies or your juicer for a healthy kick start.
• Add chopped into an onion omelette.
• Use as a garnish alongside parsley or coriander.
• Mash into potatoes with butter.

Or knock up a very quick soup.

Watercress Soup

50g butter or coconut oil
3 shallots,peeled and chopped (onion will be fine too)
300g (about 3-4 bunches) washed, roughly chopped watercress
1 litre stock ( I used the water I boiled gammon in, but you can use any flavour)
½ can coconut milk
Ground black pepper

Melt the butter in a large saucepan and gently cook the shallots and watercress for about 10-15 minutes, gently turning them in the butter every few minutes or so.

Add the stock and cook gently (no need to boil) for about 10 – 15 minutes.

Blend with a hand blender or in a food processor.

Add the coconut milk, taste for seasoning.

If you are already thinking, “ugh, I can’t stand the stuff!” — consider that when it is chopped finely and used as garnish or in salad with other leaves, you really won’t taste it. Honest! Just make sure you mix it through the other leaves well.

So, what are you waiting for?! Get out there and get some watercress into your life!

Oh yeah! It’s chip week!!

One thing we Brits can do well is a chip. The problem is we have to endure them fried in vegetable oils that have been heated and cooled over and over and over again and that’s just not any good at all. You can read all about that in my previous Heart Health Blog.

Had soggy chips? These are the ones cooked in vegetable oils. Crispy chips are much more likely to have been cooked in animal fats (think Christmas Day roasties cooked in goose fat!)

So, how should you cook a chip or two in honour of this week? Easy — like your Granny used to. In beef dripping or lard.

Chunky cut potatoes, shallow fried in lard, dripping or for the vegetarians – coconut oil. Alternatively you can roast them in the oven in the same way.

Go ahead and enjoy a chip meal this week!

I am all in favour of this, we need to make sure people aren’t ill unneccessarily or dying for the sake of some good information. And that is really where I have a problem with this campaign. The mantra still being touted is to increase wholewheat grains and reduce cholesterol and fats in the diet.

This isn’t really the answer and some refinement of the message and the reason why would be much more useful.

Here are some interesting facts about fat consumption in 1910.

Did you know that the lifetime risk of type II diabetes was 1 in 30? The lifetime risk today is 1 in 3 (according to the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta.

Also that butter consumption in the USA was 18lbs per person per year. In the year 2000 butter consumption went below 4lbs. When butter was consumed liberally, mortality from heart disease was below 10%. Now the mortality from heart disease is 40 to 45%.

Whilst butter was being liberally consumed, pork lard (from outdoor reared pigs) was also the number one choice as a cooking fat. It was the best source of vitamin D and an excellent source of palmitoleic acid, a mono-unsaturated fatty acid that kills bacteria and viruses.

Our main consumption of cooking fat today comes from the highly processed soybean oil. It has 70% of the market and no vitamin D. The importance of vitamin D to our health cannot be overstated. There is a rising incidence of children with rickets as their bones are too soft and weak to support their growing bodies. Don’t even get me started on sun exposure…that’s another story for another time!

In 1911 Proctor & Gamble introduced ‘vegetable shortening’ to the American housewives. This trans-fat was declared as the answer to all their problems from cost, taste and health. Crisco adverts were deliberately anti-animal fats. This hydrogenation process was new and had been developed by an English company trying to make candles out of artificially hardened fats. Proctor & Gamble bought the patent and transferred it to the food industry ultimately pushing harmful trans-fats on the unassuming public for many years.

So why is this so bad? Well until this time heart disease didn’t really exist, there was no name for it, obesity was rare and diabetes as I’ve shown was not the common disease it it today. What then has caused this unstoppable increase in girth, blood sugar and heart attacks? The answer? An introduction of vegetable and seed oils and over use and over processing of them. Isn’t is strange how when we were consuming animal fats our weight and blood sugar was manageable and now we are encouraged to eat ‘heart healthy sunflower oil’ cooked foods we are the sickest we have ever been?

In 1948 for example vegetable fat consumption was 28lbs per person, per year. By 1976 it was 55lbs. As obesity and diabetes became greater public health problems,  consumption of highly processed vegetable fat, including trans-fatty acids were climbing steadily and our intake of animal fats declining.

Despite the declarations from the British Heart Foundation website, eating natural saturated fats and cholesterol rich foods will not raise your cholesterol levels and having a high cholesterol level will not increase your risk of heart attack.

So what are the risk factors?

• Eating too many processed foods containing vegetable oils.
• Having too many refined grain and sugar based carbohydrate rich foods (cereal, bread, pasta, bagels, fizzy drinks, chocolate, sweets, crisps, snacks, crackers etc) will make you fat and increase your risk of diabetes and heart disease.
• Smoking will increase your risk.
• Chronic stress will increase your risk.
• Don’t take drugs. Cocaine has been shown to seriously impact the heart.
• Feeling out of control of your life (no support, poor career, bullying partner or boss, dissatisfaction with one’s life – all increase stress levels and lead to heart disease)

So how can you avoid it?

• Don’t smoke.
• Use high quality animal fats or coconut oil to cook with.
• Avoid heat treated vegetable and seed oils in processed foods, crisps, fast food, takeaways etc.
• Don’t fall for the marketing rubbish about ‘heart healthy’ or ‘cholesterol lowering’ margarines, spreads, cooking oils. It’s marketing. That is all.
• Use cold pressed olive oil on your salads.
• Reduce your consumption of sugar and processed grain based foods like bread, pasta, pizza, sweets etc.
• Eat more vegetables.
• Do exercise that you enjoy.
• Have a support network of friends or family, church/club or group members that you can be part of.
• A little alcohol regularly is not a problem. If you are overweight, drink ½ a bottle of wine each night, drink to get drunk or save your drinking for the weekend binge. That is a problem.
• Choose to be happy despite whatever other other crap is going on.

One final story…

In 1955 President Eisenhower suffered with a heart attack at the age 64. His cholesterol was 165 ml/dl at this time. He was put on a very highly publicised low fat, low cholesterol diet. This poor man was told to lower his cholesterol and eat dry toast and drink decaffeinated instant coffee for breakfast and eat only one egg per week. However, guess what? His cholesterol continued to climb on this regime until it reached 259 ml/dl the day he left office. He had several more heart attacks and eventually died of heart disease.

This is one of many hundreds of stories of people who when told to follow a ‘heart healthy’ diet, end up getting more ill and more at risk of what they are trying to avoid.

I use a lot of eggs, grass fed butter, duck and goose fats, coconut oil, lard in my roasting and cooking. You know what? It tastes good! It doesn’t make you fat and it’s healthy. Enjoy!

This 100DC will have several components.

• A fitness component.
• A ‘life’ thingamajig
• A health doo-dah.

Fitness component is 100 reps. The idea is that each day I drop a burpee and gain a press up. Today I did 90 burpees and 10 full press ups. We’ll see how that goes! I knew I could do 100 burpees a day for 100 days. That was a matter of grit and promise. But press ups? We’ll see!

Life thingamajig. This first one is take a photo for 25 days of something that is in the wrong place. Like this…

And also a pic on my walk in the same place each day until May 18.

A health doo-dah…hmm, well I think I’d better start by listening to my own advice and drink more water. I am pretty rubbish at that. Two litres a day it is.