Red's Health Tips

Blog 11JAN12 – Results Matter – Day 8

Today started great and ended on a frustrating note.  I weighed in this morning at 195.0 pounds.  That’s 8.4 pounds lost since the first of the year (10 days).  I’m pretty happy with that amount.  It’s the least I’ve weighed in months.  I woke up and was running right after my feet hit the ground.  I didn’t have time to do any measurements – I’ll do that tomorrow morning.  I’m not expecting much – maybe an inch at most in my waist.

My mid-morning was spent listening to my granddaughter compete in a spelling bee.  She lost with three people remaining.  I was proud of her.  I came home and got my electronic book draft prepped for submittal to Lulu.com.  I had to leave for a funeral mass before I could submit it.  I got home and submitted it a couple of hours ago.  It got bumped for not meeting the formatting requirements for conversion of a .doc to an .epub.  I have a couple more thoughts that I’ll try in the morning.  It’s not a big thing, but I’ve spent a lot of hours editing and formatting for .epub conversion.  I’ll master it and move on to my next publication.

Week 2 of my 28-day program begins with a balance of vitamins and minerals.  Too many of us are deficient in one or more vitamins and also in one or more minerals.  Typically most people are deficient in vitamin D3.  Many people are deficient in magnesium.  Many people take the wrong kind of chemical in their vitamin choices.  For instance, calcium carbonate is the most common (least price) calcium compound around.  You find it in most calcium supplements.  However, calcium carbonate cannot be absorbed without food.  If you take it alone, then it goes right through your body and is excreted without any benefit to you.

Calcium citrate is probably the second most common calcium compound found in the stores.  It is absorbable in an empty stomach.  You need magnesium to help the calcium absorption.  Without magnesium you get much less calcium than you would otherwise.  Assuming that you have enough magnesium and calcium, then you need vitamin D3 to get the calcium into your bloodstream.  A deficiency in vitamin D3 doesn’t allow you to absorb the calcium.  It is excreted from your body.

Assuming you get the calcium into your bloodstream, you must have enough vitamin K2 (both MK4 and MK7) present in order to get the calcium to your bones.  If you are deficient in vitamin K2, then the calcium goes to your arteries – not where you want calcium deposited.  Most people are deficient in vitamin K2.  Most people would say to get a good multivitamin and take it every day.  I haven’t fully studied multivitamins (I intend to shortly) to determine the good, the bad and the ugly.  I know that most contain only one of eight different chemicals that make up vitamin E.  I know that most do not contain vitamin K2 (with both MK4 and MK7).  I know that most people don’t take a multi-mineral supplement.

More on vitamins and minerals as we go through this week.  This week you will find a focus on antioxidants to fight inflammation and oxidative stress/damage.  You get some antioxidant protection with vitamins, but you get most from the food you eat.  Antioxidants come in many shapes and forms to attack the different shapes and form of free radicals.  One antioxidant doesn’t fight all types of free radicals.  Free radicals are generated daily by your body through normal biological processes.  They are absorbed in your skin from the lotions, toothpaste, shampoo, etc that you use.  They are absorbed in your digestive track from foods, pesticides, artificial flavors, artificial colors, preservatives, etc.  You generate free radicals from the air you breathe and the exercises you do.  You generate free radicals in responding to every day stress.  You need to reduce the stress in your life and learn to manage it.

Free radicals are constantly attacking your body.  Left unchecked, your body will eventually degrade and you will develop illnesses, tumors and other diseases – plus put on lots of weight.  Foods you eat generate inflammation – omega-6 fatty acids for one.  You need to reduce your omega-6 fatty acid intake.  You need to get good quality sleep each night.  You need to add fiber (soluble and insoluble) to your dietary choices.  You need to begin (if you haven’t already) an exercise program – not to lose weight, but to get healthier than you are now and to be healthier than the average 90 year-old when you reach 90 years of age.  And you need to start taking prebiotics – not probiotics, but it’s OK to take those also.

Let me rehash, very quickly, the focus of week 2.  Vitamins and minerals – antioxidants for inflammation – antioxidants for oxidative stress – reduce omega-6 oils – increase omega-3 oils – reduce stress – improve the quality of your sleep – increase your exercise – add fiber to your diet – and, add prebiotics to your diet.  I’ll cover this topic in more detail each day this week.

You can tell already that Week 2 is much more involved than Week 1.  Week 1 had you getting your mindset straight and aligning your subconscious mind to work for you.  Week 2 is taking actions to work on various systems of your body which will result in countering any obstacles that can cause you to retain or gain fat.

Every thing you did in Week 1 is to be continued – as if you were still in Week 1.  It’s not a program where you do mindset and subconscious stuff for one week and then you move on.  You must control your subconscious mind in order to make the transition to a new lifestyle easier and achievable.  Every thing you will be doing in Week 2 will be carried on for the remainder of your life – as will Week 3 and 4.  You are making a lifestyle change – you need to change what you were doing that resulted in your current state of health and weight.  Some of these changes will be very easy to do and to maintain.  Some will be different than anything you have done before.  They still aren’t hard, but just different.

Red O’Laughlin

Your Prosperity Professor

281-437-8114 H/W   281-687-1188 C