The Optimise Health Blog

'Tis the season to be jolly! So you want to enjoy the Christmas season. I really enjoy home cooking and a few drinks in the village pub at Christmas catching up with my old mates. But how do you avoid becoming a fat Santa? 1. Remember you have a choice what you eat! Every time you are offered a drink or something to eat or you are bored watching the Queens Speech and reach for the snacks or are out at the office christmas party review your options and dont rely on the autopilot. 2.Bear in mind that you will have to burn off all the calories you eat - and drink . Don't forget alcohol contains many hidden calories and that your new years resolution may be set back by needing to lose a half stone in January just to get started! 3. Every time something reaches your lips think - do I really need this? This rule applies especially to seconds - wait 20 minutes for seconds to let your stomach tell you if you're full. Keep up with the fruit and veg. 4. Don't ...

Putting the information on food packaging into context is important. Food producers are less keen on advertising the bad side of what is on sale and often the labelling is misleading. I have recently started looking at food labels to find out if the food I am eating is high in fat and sugar and salt, because in order to live longer I am trying to cut back on these three dietary components. Firstly I noticed that I often made a mistake in calculating the amount of fat in the actual whole packet rather than just "a portion", as I tend to eat the whole bag of crisps once open. For example I just had a camembert and chilli jam sandwich. Looking afterwards at the cheese packaging I was surprised to see that a portion was only 9% of my daily fat intake as an adult..which made me feel better, until I discovered that the portion was 30g! I had just eaten at least 90 g of the cheese in one doorstep sandwich and hence was shocked at the amount of fat I had just eaten in one me...

NHS Direct- Mens Health Pages This website above is a good place to start if you have specific quesions about your health or need advice on some common topics - check it out.

Heart health lost early in life - Health - CBC News : 'via Blog this' Exactly what i have been going on about for years - dmage is doe while we are young and from then on... >>> Ideal heart health is being lost even before the teen years, a U.S. study suggests. To reach that bleak forecast for cardiovascular health, researchers analyzed data for 5,547 Americans aged 12 to 19. Many of them had high blood sugar levels, were overweight or obese, didn't eat enough fruits or vegetables, failed to get enough physical activity and smoked — risk factors for heart disease and Type 2 diabetes, researchers found. About 35 per cent of boys and girls in the U.S. were overweight or obese, a new study suggests. IStock "What was most alarming about the findings of this study is that zero children or adolescents surveyed met the criteria for ideal cardiovascular health," said lead author Christina Shay, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Oklahoma ...

Great Advice for what to focus on with your health in your forties Longevity in Your 40s - Longevity To-Dos for Your 40s : 'via Blog this' Dr Ben Sinclair Twitter: @menshealthtips Sinclair Health Limited

If you are in the neighbourhood come on down for a pint some fab curry and a free healthcheck at 8pm 15th http://ow.ly/1AirYL

If you are overweight there are two types of fat you need to lose though two types of regular exercise: - VISCERAL fat - around the internal organs in your abdomen (this is dangerous as it means there is likely to be fatty build up in your arteries causing Atherosclerosis Visceral fat is best lost by aerobic exercise IE getting out of breath - but you need to exercise for more than 20 minutes continuously to kick in the fat burning system and lose visceral fat - exercises like running, cycling, swimming and aerobics would cause this type of fat to be burned up. - SUBCUTANEOUS fat - under the skin, the "spare tyre" type of fat is from overeating and is laid down by the body for storage of excess calories eaten in the diet This type of fat is best lost by doing weight training ie lifting weights in a controlled way regularly which helps the muscles to grow and use up available fat reserves around them in the skin. It is worth including both weight training and aer...