Who doesn’t want a healthy heart? Don’t neglect this vital organ. Take these simple do-it-yourself tips to heart:

1) Get your cholesterol count. Look at HDL, LDL and total cholesterol numbers. It is not about one component but instead, the full picture.

2) Calculate your waist/hip ratio: the higher the ratio, the greater your risk for heart disease.

3) Don’t let homocysteine accumulate, it’s toxic! Take supplements to convert homocysteine to non-toxic forms.

4) Increase your fiber intake: Fiber will bind to cholesterol in the intestines and excrete it.

5) Avoid hydrogenated oils and trans fat because these elevate cholesterol and are atherogenic! Throw out the margarine, cookies, crackers, baking products and vegetable shorting that contain these harmful ingredients.

6) Restrict sugar intake.

7) Choose lean protein, fish and vegetable proteins often. Organ meats, pork and processed meats are to be consumed rarely.

8) Move often! Get your heart rate kicking by partaking in aerobic excercise 3-5 times a week for 20-30 minutes at moderate intensity. Try a salsa class or hit the ski slopes!

9) Supplement with a multi-vitamin, fish oil, bioflavanoids, Pantethine, CoQ10, Carnitine, Vitamin C, Niacin, Magnesium and more! (note: It is not necessary to supplement with everything listed - an individualized protocol should be followed depending on your own personal situation).

10) Eat garlic and fenugreek. They both lower LDL and total cholesterol.

11) Donate blood to remove excess iron in the body — while at the same time giving love to someone in need!

12) Practice loving yourself-up! Nourish your body with positive messages. Wipe out negative self-talk and learn to love and accept yourself daily.

13) Build healthy relationships at work, in your family and with the people behind you at the supermarket checkout line. Make connections with others and learn to embrace life through the people you meet along your journey.

14) Tap for heart health using The Emotional Freedom Techniques. Download the free manual to learn this useful technique or hire an EFT practitioner like Alison Held to guide you toward personal freedom.

15) Practice the whole brain posture for heart health. This is an excellent position to eliminate stress, anger, resentment, forgiveness or any unhealthy emotions that might be limiting you from being your best-self. The whole brain posture is one of the most common Psych-k balances.

16) Hug yourself and others for a healthy heart. When you hug someone, make sure you are aligning your heart to their heart (many people hug the other way which can give a negative charge….change that negative to a positive!)

Today is National Wear Red Day! By wearing red you will show your support in the fight against heart disease. Approximately one in four women get heart disease (see today’s NIH press release that shows a decline to the previous 1 in 3) - staggering statistics! Why are these numbers so high - is it diet? lifestyle? Or is there something more to it than this?

The Standard American Diet is truly SAD. Most of us consume artificial, chemical, hormone-filled foods. The doctors tell us to eat less fat and sugar to reduce our risk of heart disease and this is not bad advice! The problem is that education is lacking and truthful facts get twisted by the media, food industry and corporate giants. Less fat becomes fat-free and less sugar somehow manifests itself into aspartame and splenda!

On today’s Go Red website there are several recipes featured. A picture of a delicious berry tart is displayed that makes me think, “Oh wow, if I’m trying to prevent heart disease I can have a big piece of that every night & it will help? Cool!” When I click through for the full ingredient list I see what is wrong with this picture!

The Berry Topped Pudding Pie contains a fat-free and sugar-free pudding mix, fat-free milk, fat-free frozen whipped topping, 1/2 a cup of sugar, and some other ingredients thrown into the mix. Talk about major deprivation when it comes to fat! Yet sugar is obviously o.k. for heart disease because I’m getting not only the 1/2 cup of white table sugar but also plenty of sugar in the fat free items (after all, those fat-free items need something added to make our taste buds happy!). I do not see much mention of whole, clean foods….I ponder why?

This campaign has plenty of excellent education, the reader just must be savvy enough to throw out the nonsense and embrace the quality material. For instance, getting your cholesterol in check and incorporating daily activity are some excellent steps in prevention. Evidence-based facts are presented through research articles and you can even take their heart health check-up.

Don’t have any red to wear (or you’re already dressed for the day!)? Carolyn Leber Public Relations shares a great alternative - light a red candle to show your support in this cause.

Much research (which I did not find on the Go Red site?) supports the fact that negative emotions will increase the risk of heart disease. When our heart “aches” it is not just because of poor food, environmental toxins, genetics or lack of movement. Our emotional state surely is connected to our physical body and this is just not fancy woo-woo speaking. Stress (that can come up due to lack of finances, relationship problems, career obstacles, etc) will impact our physical body. In addition, the thoughts that come up around these events may have an even greater impact.

Take all this to heart! Yes - improve your diet, get to know your family health history, exercise regularly, improve your cholesterol ratios, etc. But also change your thought patterns (two of my favorite techniques that I use with clients are EFT and Psych-K) so your outlook is bright and there is less impact on your physical body when negative things happen. Learn how to relax, take deep breathes and listen to the beating of your heart. Go Red - if you love it, it will love you back!

Alison Held
Nutritional Consultant & Health Coach
Healthful Direction

The typical American diet (lots of take-out; saturated fats; high animal protein, full of artificial flavorings; excess refined sugar, etc) promotes inflammation. According to Richard M. Fleming, M.D., “Inflammation is caused when the immune system sends out immune cells to fight an infection or excess quantities of toxins in the blood.”

Everyday our immune system is working diligently and overtime to fight off invaders. When our immune system becomes overworked, we create a raging fire known as inflammation. The Greeks were the first to use the word inflammation and termed it as, “a fire within the body.”

If you are overweight especially in the abdominal area you most likely suffer from some sort of inflammation. Therefore if weight loss is on your mind this January (new years resolutions!) you might want to rewire your dieting strategy to one that focuses on reducing the fire throughout your cells.

Many of us don’t know we are inflamed until we reach the state of dis-ease. Most, if not all disease, is connected to high levels of inflammation in the body. It’s time to take preventative measures so that you prevent disease and promote healthy within.

Signs of “fire” that many times can’t be physically seen or felt are:

• Pain
• Heat
• Fever
• Loss of function
• Arterial Swelling
• Rashes
• Redness

When you do feel inflammation, it can manifest as pain in a joint. For any sort of discomfort like this, I suggest trying the Emotional Freedom Techniques. I’ve had great success with my clients using these techniques.

One of the best indicators for inflammation is the C-RP blood test. There is also a high association between C-RP levels and LDL (the bad cholesterol). Chances are if you’ve got high LDL, you’ve also got high C-RP (inflammation)! It is also common for inflammation to originate in the gut so taking a good look at one’s gut-health is very important (this can be done through other tests). I work with my clients to understand this blood work and use advanced therapeutic methods to get to the root of the results.

Our diet plays a major role with inflammation and so does physical activity. Processed foods; large amounts of dairy and animal products; vegetable oils; refined sugar are some trigger foods. Pro-inflammatory substances like insulin; estrogen and triglycerides circulate throughout the body under this state.

To lower your inflammation your diet must be altered so that you lose weight and increase your exposure to antioxidants.

Some of my favorite foods to help reduce inflammation are:

• Garlic (anti-bacterial)
• Brazil Nuts (high in selenium)
• Cruciferous Veggies (cancer fighting)
• Root veggies (think squash, sweet potatoes and onions!)
• Apples (high in fiber)

If working out is also on your resolution list for 2008, you are on the right track. Increasing circulation throughout the body (which can be helped through movement) will indeed cut down on inflammation.

Other common causes of inflammation can be:

• Food Allergies
• Environmental Allergies and Pollution
• Injury
• Trauma
• Infections
• Parasites
• Stress
• Digestive problems

In 2008 stop looking to quick-fix diets to solve your weight problems. Instead look to the root cause and focus your attention to where it really matters.

The other day I was searching around the internet for some material on food diaries. In my efforts I stumbled upon the Ten Commandments (of Weight Management). Below you will find the commandments from www.dailyfooddiary.com and beside my commentary.

1. All diets work. All diets are meant to fail. – Yes, this is true. All diets do work but they do not work for every body. All diets are meant to fail - dieting is just a temporary state - lifestyle is the overall aim. Most diets do not keep lifestyle in mind.

2. What’s good for your health is good for your diet. – All food and drink that is good for your overall well-being should be incorporated into your diet. Unless you have a specific health condition, don’t listen to the diets that tell you to cut out a vegetable or fruit. For instance: nightshades are not good for those with arthritic conditions but that doesn’t mean everyone needs to avoid them.

3. To be successful a diet needs to be balanced and offer variety. – Your diet should be in harmony like a beautiful symphony. If you eat grapefruits everyday for 365 days your body will be tipsy and start craving what it’s missing. You might falsely mistake the craving for chocolate when in fact it’s the mineral magnesium that you need!

4. The best diet would be simple: low cost, readily available foods, easy to prepare. – Why slave away in the kitchen? We live in a fast-paced society and the way we eat and how we prepare our foods needs to somehow fit into this way of being. With that said, we must be smart in how we choose to eat, cook & buy our foods. Buying from the bulk bin is low cost; steaming foods keeps nutrients more intact; & a stir fry is easy to prepare and includes much variety.

5. Don’t try to fake out your body! Eat real food. — Get rid of the artificial sugars and butter substitutes. Throw out the concept, “fat free.” Real food is full of healthy fat, sugar & butter. Enjoy it in moderation!!!

6. Knowledge is power. Know what you eat. – Educate yourself by learning the truth about where your food comes from and what nutrients your body needs to thrive. Hire a nutritionist or coach to steer you clear of false promise diets. Learn about lifestyle and get dialed into the most optimal way to “diet.”

7. You didn’t gain the weight overnight, so don’t expect to lose it overnight. – Patience is key in any weight loss plan. Men will typically lose weight faster and as we age it is harder to get the fat off of our bellies. Visualize yourself as a lean, healthy being. Jump start your metabolism by drinking lots of water and cutting out refined carbohydrates.

8. Don’t drink you calories. — It’s o.k. to throw in a shake every now and again (if and only if it’s high quality nutrients - like grass-fed whey or a raw smoothie) But don’t let the shakes be your primary source of nutrients. You will lose weight on a liquid diet but you’ll gain it back just as quickly when your body realizes just how deprived it is. Stop starving yourself and live a little.

9. Walk more. Get your body into motion! Start off by walking to the mailbox daily and then extend it to a 3-5 mile brisk walk. Get the oxygen flowing and feel alive in your body.

10. To change your set point you must change your mindset! Be honest with yourself. — Our beliefs guide us to who we are. If you have a negative core believe like, “I’ll never be my ideal weight” you’ll always be held back and resist getting to your goal. Use affirmations or try EFT and Psych-K to “rewrite the software of your mind.”

Alison Held
Nutritional Consultant & Health Coach
www.healthfuldirection.com

If you are in search of tips, advice, opinions and commentary for living a healthful life, you have come to the right place!

Living healthfully means attending to the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual body. True nourishment may be found in our food, beverages, relationships, career, physical activites and spirituality.

My upcoming entries will be fun, engaging and informative so that you, the reader, can make smarter selections and wiser health decisions based on your individual lifestyle and needs.