Healthy habits Archives - Lutgard Musiime

Weight is not an indicator for health

June 8, 2022

Someone once asked me if I could tell whether someone is healthy by just looking at their size. The short answer is no. Weight is not an absolute indicator of health although it is an important factor for health. Weight has to be combined with other measures to fully assess well being.

It is common for us to associate small bodied persons with being healthy and having normal weight compared to the bigger bodied persons. I want to tell you that this can be misleading for many.

There are studies that indicate that weight is not an accurate measure for health. In one study researchers found that almost one-quarter of adults who were classified as “normal” weight, or approximately 16.3 million people nationwide, have indicators for one or more of the risks usually associated with being overweight such as elevated blood pressure or higher levels of triglycerides, blood sugar and cholesterol.

In another study researchers at UCLA and the University of Minnesota evaluated nearly two dozen studies and concluded that there was “no clear relationship between weight loss and health outcomes.” In other words, shedding pounds didn’t meaningfully lower blood pressure, diabetes risk, or cholesterol. In other words equating being heavier with having poor cardiometabolic health and being thin with the opposite is way off the mark.

Health

What should we consider?

Adopt healthy behaviors

Weight is very important in this journey of health and should never be ignored however it alone is not indicative of health, so nobody can tell whether or not a person is healthy based on their weight solely. Healthy behaviors are more important than the number on the scale. I have seen people who are relatively big but have better fitness levels and lower cholesterol levels than their smaller counterparts. Being physically active, eating nutritious foods, and quitting smoking, socializing enough to avoid isolation, minimizing stress, and managing depression are some of the healthy behaviors that will get you thriving and living longer and not necessarily fitting in those skinny jeans.

Before you run for the slimming teas hear this

Who is guilty for looking at a big bodied person and scoffing, “She/He is so unhealthy.” and you are there feeling sorry or concerned for them? Fitness in most cases is not equal to the shape. There are many big bodied people who are very fit and the numbers that are seen on the scale do not only indicate fat. Muscle too contributes to weight therefore before you go running for the slimming teas, find out what your weight is composed of and adjust accordingly. Talk to a professional and adjust from an informed point of view.

Weight is not just the calories you take in and the ones you lose, it is more complex

Weight is so complex with so many variables involved; genes, ethnicity, medication taken, the environment where you live, mental stability, financial state, how much you sleep all play a role. Concentrating on only the caloric intake can be very misleading if the rest of the factors are not put into consideration.

Together with your healthcare provider you may want to explore all these factors before you ‘kill’ yourself.

Stay away from extremes

Much as I have emphasized that weight in itself is not an indicator for health, extremes either are not good. Being underweight or overweight will land you in a place you would rather not be. Your Body Mass Index (BMI) is a good indicator for health and your weight together with your height will be used. Watch your weight and talk to a professional whenever you catch something off or anything gets concerning.

Health

In Conclusion

Weight is a contributing factor to health and cannot be ignored but we cannot use it in itself as an indicator for health. It’s no secret that both thin and fat people can develop heart-related problems but also there is a likelihood for a thin person to develop a heart related disease and a fat person does not.

Watch out for your weight but do not get depressed over it, there is more to life than the number on the scale.

See you next Wednesday.

Foods to best avoid during pregnancy

April 20, 2022

Pregnancy is a very delicate season for both the baker (mother) and the one who is being baked (child). It is easy to know the most important foods a mother must eat to ensure that both her and the unborn child come out of this season good but sometimes if not most times it is important to know what foods may do more harm than good during your pregnancy so that you can press the pause button for just a season.

Top 5 foods to stay away from during pregnancy

Organ meat

This may come as a surprise to a few of you (or even many, who knows!!!). Liver is an example of an organ meat and much as organ meats are packed with countless useful nutrients like iron, vitamin B12, vitamin A, zinc, selenium, and copper, our concern is with Vitamin A. Eating too much animal-based vitamin A is not recommended during pregnancy because of the risk on Vitamin A toxicity which can lead to congenital malformations and miscarriage especially in the first trimester of pregnancy. Do not take them out completely from diet, rather reduce their intake.

Juicing and juice cleanses

As healthy as juicing and juice cleanses are, please keep away from these during pregnancy. (this applies to the breastfeeding ones too). During a juice fast, your body is getting rid of toxins and guess where these toxins go? To the bloodstream so that they make their way out of the body. As expectant or breastfeeding mothers, this means that these toxins will also be passed on to your precious little one too. Toxins that their tiny little body cannot handle. Organic juice is just fine.

Caffeine

Lovers of coffee you will have to sacrifice for the benefit of your child in this season. Caffeine is easily absorbed into the placenta but babies and their placentas don’t have the main enzyme needed to metabolize caffeine. This means levels can build up real quick and will be really high. Caffeine has been linked to birth defects in humans so you may want to stay away.

Processed foods

At all times we need to emphasize the consumption of nutrient-dense foods other than energy-dense foods and processed foods are a good source of the latter. For the benefit of both you and your growing little one, you will need increased amounts of many essential nutrients, including proteins, iron, folate e.t.c.

Also, consumption of processed foods during pregnancy can increase your risk of excess weight gain, gestational diabetes, pre-eclampsia and complications which can have long-term health implications for you and your child.

Raw or under-cooked meat

If you are the type that loves their steak medium, be careful during pregnancy. Eating undercooked or raw meat increases your risk of infection from several bacteria or parasites, including Toxoplasma, E. coli, Listeria, and Salmonella. Cook all meat and poultry thoroughly taking care that there is no trace of pink or blood. Take particular care with poultry, pork, sausages and minced meat. These bacteria may threaten the health of your little one, possibly leading to stillbirth or severe neurological illnesses, including intellectual disability, blindness, and epilepsy.

The foods listed here are not an end in themselves. Their intake may be paused now but that does not mean they have been stopped for good.

To every pregnant lady, may your journey be smooth and enjoyable.

See you next Wednesday

Nutrition

Anyone can start 2022 in a healthier way.

January 12, 2022

The new year is a good place to start if one is looking to make some good habits to use throughout the year.

Anyone, absolutely anyone can start 2022 in a healthier way. The new year is all about setting new habits to be one’s best self and this is what we are here to do today.

What are some healthy choices for meal plans?

Planning meals is the best way if not the only way for one considering a healthy meal. It does not matter if the meal is for a weaning baby, adolescent male, lactating mother, or elderly female. When we are talking healthy, we are not referring to a grassy diet, healthy meals can still feature your favorite foods.

A healthy eating plan:

Emphasizes vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and fat-free or low-fat dairy products.
Includes lean meats, poultry, fish, beans, eggs, and nuts.
Limits saturated and trans fats, sodium, and added sugars.
Controls portion sizes.

We eat in a variety of places including home, work, restaurants, name it. As a result we have more control of the food choices available in some places than we have in others. I will tell you the place you will have the most control is home-cooked meals for which you have the most control. It is therefore important to take the time and plan ahead to make sure you have healthy options available.

Do you want start your year in a healthier way? Let us start here;

Have a healthy mindset

It all starts with the mind. A healthy mindset enables you brainstorm your favorite meals, and think of ways to make them healthier: whether by swapping out a less healthy component for a healthier one in your recipe, switching up the cooking process, or incooperating vegetables and healthy fats in your meals, having healthy meals shouldn’t be a problem with the right mindset.

Looking for how to develop this healthy mindset? Read this, it will help.

Organise your kitchen

Things get easier and more enjoyable when better organised. Creating space in the kitchen will make it easy for one to love to cook healthier meals while you can see every ingredient, all the produce as well as foods that are about to go bad so that they can be utilised in time. It is the best way to get excited about a healthier meal and let alone prepare one.

Pantry Staples: A Master List of Everything You Need — It gets easier if you can see most of what you need to use if your meals are to get healthier

Plan your meals

Meal planning is one knowing what they will eat ahead of time. Planning meals helps one create a healthier routine that become part of one’s life for good. Planning meals also makes it easier for one to incorporate healthier options in food like whole foods, healthier snacks like fruits and nuts as well as healthier cuts of meat to mention but a few.

I made a detailed blog about meal planning and just incase you missed it, find it here and thank me later.

Make time to cook

Having and making time to prepare your own meals or supervise someone cook will guarantee you a healthier meal for you and your family. You will successfully cut out the convenient food options which are far from healthy many of the time because they have a lot carbs and oils. Try to use as much previous preparation as possible to save as much time as possible. We live in a busy world.

Do not forget to use those kitchen tools, get some quality ones if you can because one thing for sure is that it will make cooking easier and more enjoyable.

Philips XXL Airfryer Review 2021: It Cooks Large Meals Quickly & Cleans Easily — An air fryer is a good quality cooking tool for you to start 2022 in a healthier way.

Look for inspiration

We are in an era of social media where everything is handed down easy in exchange for your data. Once in a while look up healthy interesting cooking options and look for inspiration. Get your inspiration ready and move your way up the healthier ladder.

Recipe Book Stand Holders — Cook Books Holders — Eatwell101 — Explore

Do you have some ways you are making sure you start and stay healthier in the new year? Share with us and who knows, we could learn a thing or two from you.

Nutrition, Recipes

6 Healthy habits to ride with in 2021

January 25, 2021

Am I the only one who feels like this has been the shortest January lived so far? Very dramatic yes but too short for a January. Oh and less cruel I must say. For me at least. But regardless we move.

This first month has been packed with lots of activities and it could be the reason I feel it is short that one could forget it is the first month of the year. There is always something about the flip of the calendar, there is always a renewed energy to reinvent and re-strategize certain things in life although this year I have heard so many people say they will go slow about it given the way way 2020 turned out. Being an ambassador for healthy living, let me share 6 habits that I would recommend to ride with in this year.

1. Look out for the seasons

Who has heard the notion that eating healthy is expensive? A friend of mine confessed that he would love to eat fruits everyday as recommended but they are just expensive and he cannot keep up. Well guess what, it is just about time you stopped buying expensive health foods that you cannot keep up with and start buying seasonally. An apple a day keeps the doctor away true but if you know you can afford to spend 1000/= for just one apple daily, how about finding out what fruits are in season that time. Is it bananas, mangoes or pineapples? When things are in season, they tend to be more affordable so you will not feel the strain of eating healthy. If peas are not in season and the prices are not favorable, what alternative legume is in season? Buy that and wait for the peas to bounce back. It usually does not take long. One way of knowing whether a particular food item is in season or not, you will see a difference in the prices on the market to what you expect them to be.

2. Embrace variety in your meals

The habit of eating the same exact thing everyday needs to stop, even when this is a healthy choice. Variety is the key of health. Having the same thing every day, week on week is never going to help you reach peak energy levels. I understand that at times this is what we have most available to us but I also cannot ignore the fact that it could be the most convenient choice in terms of cooking. The way this can be beaten is by planning way in advance. This is something we call meal planning where you sit and brain storm on the meals that you plan to have the whole week for yourself together with your family. Variety can be as simple as having beans on Monday with potatoes and dodo to having beans in groundnut paste with rice and Sukuma on Tuesday. When you plan in advance, it helps you to be well prepared rather than trying to figure out what to cook after a frustrating day at work.

3. Look out for interesting healthy recipes

Making healthy meals does not require complicated recipes. The trick is to make the recipe very easy until it becomes a default. Very many times when you talk about recipes, very many people are quick to say that they do not have an oven so those recipes can not work for them. Well just to help us understand, a recipe is a set of instructions that describes how to prepare or make something, especially a dish of prepared food. So looking out for interesting healthy recipes can be as simple as looking at someone cook a particular dish in a different way than you cook it or even trying to cook something a little different from the way you normally do. Some time back I visited a friend and saw the way she cooked her posho (ugali). She added butter and salt as she cooked it and boom I had discovered a new recipe. A healthy one at that because this person had added value to the ordinary dish that I have eaten for most of my life.

4. Band wagon dieting needs to take a rest

Put up your hand if you are currently on a diet because you have seen it being overly advertised online or because your friend said this is the wonder diet to get rid of your tummy.

Many people have fallen victim of attempting to do diets that are not tailored to their nutritional needs only to be disappointed later when it does not work or even harmful to their own health. There is a lady I know who was recently diagnosed with scurvy ( a disease caused by a deficiency of vitamin C, characterized by swollen bleeding gums and the opening of previously healed wounds ) and this is because this lady was convinced to do the keto diet as it it would be her ‘wonder drug’ for the tummy she had that had refused to go ever since having her twins. Unfortunately this lady decided to take up this diet and even did not consult a professional and ended up doing it wrong hence falling victim of scurvy. If you must subscribe to a diet, at least reach out to a professional to give you an informed guide.

5. Break a sweat doing something you enjoy

The pressure to stay fit and have a ‘perfect’ shape is real and unfortunately very many people begin an unending journey of things they do not exactly enjoy only to fall out in just a matter of weeks. I for one have been a one embarrassingly unfit human but each time I would try to do exercises, I would give up on day two because by this day every part of my body is screaming in pain. After so many failed attempts, a dear friend of mine suggested that I should try to do dance routines since I love to dance. From the very first day I tried, I knew that this relationship would last. My fitness has greatly improved and it is something that I do without even trying so hard. So how about you look for something you enjoy doing and you shoot two birds with one stone.

6. Your body is not their body

Last but not least, the pain of comparison is not worth it. We have seen people want to alter their bodies for the perfect bodies they have seen on Instagram. I am sorry to break it to you that the bodies you see online are not all a result of healthy eating or exercise. Many of them are a product of filters and body shapers. Let the goal here be to adopt healthy eating habits and lifestyle and like they say, the rest will fall in line. Do not forget to have routine medical checkups rather than waiting when the body is falling apart.

May this year be a year of rediscovery in terms of our healthy life styles. We can make healthy fun and enjoyable