There might not be an area of nutrition and biochemistry that’s more fought over than cholesterol. On one side you have the skeptics who say that cholesterol isn’t the big, bad wolf that many experts would have us believe. On the other side, you have those who think that cholesterol is killing us all and that we need drugs to fix this…right now! People populating the middle ground are hard to come by.

I am by no means an expert in this area. But I tend to fall closer to the skeptical side than the ‘we need drugs’ side. There is certainly a correlation with high cholesterol and cardiovascular disease but I do not believe that it is causitive. For one, cholesterol is absolutely essential to human survival. No cholesterol in the body means no cells means death. And the amount of cholesterol absorbed from foods is negligable, so eating eggs and red meat isn’t going to kill you because of the high cholesterol levels in each.

The point of this post is to illustrate that it is not a cut and dried debate. We shouldn’t blindly believe our GPs or pharmaceutical companies. In fact, I have heard off the record reports that these companies actually encourage prescription of statins by GPs when they really aren’t needed. Oh, the almighty dollar!

Educate yourself. Arm yourself with knowledge! Then make a decision based upon something other than ignorance. Here are a few sites that you really need to visit:

• Cholesterol – you can’t live without it!
• Cholesterol Myths
• The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics

Food is fuel.

Some tastes better than others. Some is better for you. These are not mutually exclusive. You can have good tasting food that’s good for you.

We have weird associations with food. We use it as reward. We use it for comfort. We use it to fight boredom. None of these practices treat food properly. I say again: food is fuel.

Much like choosing standard or high octane fuel for your car, the quality of food you consume has an affect on your performance and your health. Don’t fool yourself: garbage in results in garbage out.

Here is a list of foods that you might think are healthy but really aren’t all that good for you:

• bread (refined carbs)
• rice (refined carbs)
• pasta (refined carbs)
• fruit juice (more sugar than Coke)
• potato (dense cabs)
• dairy (inflammatory)

Here is a list of foods that you might think you should avoid but are actually beneficial:

• eggs (yes, the yolk too)
• red meat (but not everyday)
• avocado (it’s good fat)

I actually got some time off over the Festive Season. Time to spend with my family and also time to spend alone doing one of the things that I like to do most: read. I managed to get through five books in the 10 days I had off work. Not a bad strike rate.

After I read a book I decide if it’s something that I’ll read again, something that a friend will appreciate or something to be passed onto to a charity organisation to raise some funds. As I get older I find that my criteria for keeping a book is stricter. I simply don’t want the clutter in my bookshelves. This lead to a cleaning frenzy over my break. It extended to my CD and DVD collection and even into my wardrobe. At the end of a few days I had amassed a pile of stuff that needed a new home (most went to or is on the way to a charity organisation).

Why am I writing about this? Well, it seems to me that we spend a whole lot of time and effort doing things that are unnecessary, collecting things that are unnecessary and thinking things that are unnecessary. I found the act of assessing my collection and removing the unnecessary to be very cathartic. I think this can extend to other aspects of my life that need a little bit of tidying up. (Perhaps this is just part of my Virgo nature – although I don’t believe in that stuff.)

So, my question to you: is there clutter in your life that you can remove and be better for it? At home; in your relationships; in your communications; your ’stuff’; your habits…

A while back I read a book by Richard Kich titled “The 80/20 Principle”. It’s a business book but the underlying premise may just be relevant to your fitness training. The 80/20 principle is “the counter-intuitive yet prevalent fact that 80% of results flow from 20% of causes”. So, perhaps your fitness training results follow the same principle. If this is true then we should all be looking to understand this principle in more detail. Then our results would improve, our time would be better spent and we might just be a whole lot happier to boot.

Number 1 – Understand what it means to eat sensibly

Educate yourself on sensible nutritional practices. A correct understanding of the importance of all nutrients – protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals – in your diet cannot be understated. To fully take control of your diet you must also be aware of the affects of certain foods on your metabolism, hormones, blood sugar and other vital bodily processes.

There is a lot of literature out there and not all of it is helpful. Often taking a commonsense approach is best. You will often instinctively know which foods are healthy and which are not. In the same way, you will often be able to weed out the fad diet books from those that make sense, are scientifically proven and can help you.

Don’t get caught up with fad diets. They don’t work! That said, be aware that some books with ‘diet’ in the title actually provide the kind of information you need. Take a look at “Enter The Zone” by Barry Sears, PhD. and “The Paleo Diet” by Loren Cordain, PhD., these are two of the best nutrition books around. Keep an open mind and learn as much as you can.

Number 2 – Set yourself some goals

Set yourself some sensible goals with regard to your health and fitness. The key word here is sensible. Read more »