Not a Sprint, but a DASH!

Brace yourselves, this is a long one! But stay with me…

I was thinking to myself the other day, why do I really want to ‘DROP IT’? I am told that African men like ‘ample women’ (not my personal experience though….LOL) so why would an African woman like me want to lose them extra curves -as I typed extra curves I just got a picture of me ala Michelin tire – and I almost fell out of my chair laughing at myself – forgive my humor please.

Anyway back to the topic – It’s a new year, and I am just coming off my Jumpstart 2014 program (I’ll tell you how that went next week) I was trying to refocus and reenergize myself in my journey towards a healthier weight/size etc and one way I have come to reenergize myself is to ask the ‘why’ question. Why do I want to be healthier?

Why do I want to lose some weight?

Why do you want to [fill in the blank]?

I have found that I can only maintain my momentum on any project I undertake when I keep my motives (my ‘why’) front and center. I wrote about my whys in the initial blog post – you can read it here http://dropit4life.blogspot.com/2013/08/on-your-marks.html

 

So, as I begin a new year somewhat less obese than when I started my journey, it will be too easy to park on my current success and forfeit the ground I have gained on this journey. Recall that I started out at over 156kg! And I must confess that every day is a battle – a battle to not overeat, to eat the right things, to avoid eating after my 6pm cut off time, to step away from the chocolate bars and pastries, to get myself off my bed in the morning an work out…in one year it really has not gotten as easy as I thought it would be (this is me being truthful) and I do have failures but I have learnt not to dwell there and slip back to old habits. If I have learnt one thing, it’s this: its one day at a time. 

 

Back to the topic at hand - as I reflected, I own that the major reason why I really want to ‘DROP IT’ is the fact that at that size my health was simply….dreadful. The major health risk I suffered and want to focus on today was high blood pressure. My clinic nurse would always highlight my blood pressure in red when checking me and I was on a myriad of expensive blood pressure medicines (money that could have better invested was being spent on medication for an illness that was largely a result of my chosen lifestyle – when you think of it like that it sucks, right?)

One of my biggest fears is returning to my old habits and being unable to keep the weight off – in essence becoming again what I fought so hard to change. From what I have read, the real work is keeping the weight off after you have lost it. Look at this Huffington Post article http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kristin-kirkpatrick-ms-rd-ld/maintaining-weight-loss_b_942701.html (I do not personally agree with everything in the article but it succinctly paints the dire picture I want to convey. This determination to DROP IT 4 LIFE is the reason I started blogging and have become manic about health information. This is not a 5 year program, it is my lifestyle. Like a recovering alcoholic I have to watch it each day.

So in search for information to maintain my momentum that I heard about the “DASH Diet”. When I say DASH I don’t mean a race (Winnie, that dig was at you dear…LOL). DASH is actually an acronym for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, and according to WebMD it’s good for your heart, and could help reduce both high blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

This diet simply says you should:

• Cut back on salt
• Eat whole grains like oats, cereals etc
• Load your plate with vegetables both for nutrients and fibre
• Get your 5 day [servings] – I mean fruits (you do know how to determine your 5 a day, don’t you?)
• Opt for lean meat and fish
• Don’t deny yourself a moderate portion of nuts and legumes (like beans, lentils etc)
• Reduce the quantity of fats and oils to take in (or cook with – eg deep frying)
• Sweets are a treat, not a staple. So please if you can’t stop them, reduce your intake to the barest minimum (I will advise cutting out all processed sugars entirely though – that thing is just poison! Opt for healthier alternatives like honey, or even low calorie sweeteners like ‘equal’ or ‘sweet n low’)
• Never deny yourself potassium rich foods like banana’s, sweet potatoes, avocado, cooked spinach. These really do help reduce your blood pressure

The goal of the DASH Diet from what I gather is to help you maintain a healthy weight while increasing your calcium, magnesium and potassium and fiber intake; reducing your consumption of saturated fats, and keeping sodium intake to the minimum. Sounds easy right? I’m optimistic and will give it a try. I find it really appealing because it does not really call anything taboo (including the dreaded bread J) and it fits my current lifestyle of healthy eating. PLUS a lot of the types of food it advocates we eat are easy to find and not overly expensive. If you have followed this blog for some time you will recall the meatballs and couscous recipie I shared about a month ago, I think that's a good idea for a DASH compliant meal - I think couscous has a good amount of couscous. Below is a picture submitted by Mrs Godiya who tried the recipie with amazing results.

If you check the internet you will find many DASH Diet recipes and meal plans – so I won’t go on and on about that here. But I will submit the picture following as my attempt at a DASH compliant meal. Its scrambled eggs with ham (made with skimmed not whole milk and onion powder rather than salt). I made this a couple of weeks ago and it was really yummy.

One thing I will add though, my rules of thumb will always be (and what I practice)

1.      Do all your heavy eating early in the day – preferably before 3pm – so no nibbling on that piece of beef by 10pm or eating that bowl of beans by 8:45pm. Then give yourself a cut off time after which you eat no longer (my cut off time is 6pm)

2.      Portion size still matters (from what I can see the DASH Diet does not advocate an all you can eat fest)

3.      Spice it up!

In ending, can I say that race is not so much a sprint but more of a DASH?

I am determined to DROP IT all off 4 LIFE, to keep it off and enjoy my healthy life.

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