Take responsibility for your quality of life

We've begun a new year and 2024 is an opportunity to improve the quality of your life by taking responsibility for your own well being. Taking responsibility for your health is the first step, and nutrition is the most important factor of healthy living.

Terry Delamater, RPh, [email protected].

However, the benefits of good nutrition do not happen overnight. Months, maybe even years, are needed to take control of your life by healthy eating.

The first step is to dramatically reduce the amount of sugar in your diet. People today consume more sugar in a week than our ancestors of 150 years ago consumed in a year! Sugar is addicting and it is in everything.

So, start by doing this one thing: drink water instead of sugary drinks. Not only will you save money, but you will lose weight and lower your A1C. Keep in mind that plastic bottles release cancer-causing chemicals and are bad for the environment. The drinking fountain at Sculpt365 Health Clubs in Tehachapi is filtered well water.

Sign this article and bring it to Sculpt365 to claim your free insulated tumbler, a $49 value!

The second easy step is to reduce your salt consumption. Almost everyone can lower their blood pressure by lowering their sodium intake, even people currently on blood pressure-reducing drugs. A new study found that 70-75% of people who reduced their salt intake by about 1 teaspoon a day saw a decline in systolic blood pressure by about 6 millimeters of mercury. That's as effective as taking medication.

The next step to lose weight, lower blood pressure and prevent diabetes involves Intermittent Fasting. All of your eating in a 24 hour day is within a 6-8 hour window. It doesn't matter if you eat breakfast and lunch or lunch and dinner. I personally prefer breakfast and a late lunch because I get up at 5 a.m. to workout. Also, once I fall asleep, I wake up the next morning no hungrier than if I had eaten dinner the night before. But if you have children at home, you need to eat dinner.

Starting in the 1970s, an entire nation changed its way of eating because we were told that to be healthy and thin we needed to cut down on our fat intake.

Consequently, we consumed 5-10 times the amount of carbohydrates our bodies could really handle.

Carbohydrates are the real culprit of both obesity and diabetes because excess carbs overwork the pancreas until it is unable to produce enough insulin to stimulate the cellular absorption of glucose due to insulin resistance. So glucose cannot inter the cell and remains in the blood stream instead. Fats, however, break down into an alternate fuel for the body (ketones) without triggering insulin, which allows you to burn your fat stores. Insulin is the fat storage hormone, meaning it makes you fat and prevents you from burning it. To lose weight, reduce insulin. To reduce insulin, reduce carbohydrates.

– Terry Delamater is the owner of Sculpt365 Health Clubs and a retired Pharmacist.