Program ends, but quest to live healthier goes on
POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. >> Looking back over my 12-week intensive heart-health program, DutchessUlster American Heart Association’s BetterU, I’m struck by this good news: The No. 1 killer of American women is mostly preventable.
According to the American Heart Association and the Centers for Disease Control, the No. 1 killer of American women is heart disease. One in five women will die of it. But, say the experts, nearly 80 percent of cardiac events can be prevented.
Here’s the bad news: Too many American women aren’t taking steps to prevent heart disease. According to Centers for Disease Control statistics, overweight and obesity — a major risk for heart disease — keep trending upward. More than 71 percent of all adults are overweight or obese, including two out of three American women.
Losing weight is difficult. Keeping it off is even harder — this many of us know from experience. My experience in the BetterU program has shown me an easier path: Start with exercise, instead of a diet, then create a food plan that works for you.
Sustainable weight-loss and improving heart health mean a lifestyle change. It means, first and foremost, making exercise a priority. We have to find an exercise routine that we like and that fits into our busy lives. We have to commit to it.
A sustainable, healthy food plan is just as important, but, from my experience at BetterU, I’d say the food plan can develop more slowly.
A “food plan” is not a diet. It’s a plan for what you are going to eat, and how you are going to eat, for the rest of your life.
That sounds almost impossible, but it can be simple.
First of all, it’s really pretty simple to figure out what’s healthy to eat and what’s not. All of our BetterU teachers concur: Vegetables, beans and legumes, fruits, lean protein, lowfat dairy, whole grains, nuts and seeds are healthy. Drinking plenty of water is healthy.
Sugar, desserts, sugary soda and saturated fats are unhealthy. Eating excessive carbohydrates (including too much pasta, potatoes, bread or rice) is unhealthy. Too much fruit juice, naturally high in sugar, is also unhealthy.
So, a good food plan might be as simple as this: Eat three meals a day of the healthy foods; eliminate, or at least minimize, the unhealthy foods; and eliminate snacks, or have only one small, healthy snack a day.
If that sounds tough, it is. Old habits die hard! But is it worth dying too young, or suffering all kinds of disability and illness, to hold onto them?
Our BetterU program wrapped up on Friday, Nov. 9, at a big “Go Red for Women” gala, a fundraiser and luncheon at The Grandview in Poughkeepsie. (The BetterU program is part of the “Go Red for Women” campaign, the American Heart Association’s signature program for women’s health.)
After primping and styling, picture-taking and touring the silent auction, we sat down in all of our red splendor and listened to some inspiring last words.
One of our members, my workout buddy Sue Pagones, told the moving story of her mother’s early death from heart disease and of her own resolve to get healthy.
Mara Schiavocampo, the keynote speaker, a television news personality, had just published a book about recovering from obesity. Her message was especially meaningful to me because she rejected the idea of “moderation in everything.”
“I had a relationship with certain foods,” said Schiavocampo. “It was an abusive relationship!” She said she had to abandon certain foods altogether, like sugar and flour.
Desserts are my downfall. I just can’t eat them in moderation. One small ice cream cone once a week? No way! Two or three cookies at a soiree? Keep dreaming! Once I start, I can’t stop.
Sometimes recovery from overweight and obesity is not a matter of will power. It’s a matter of identifying your own binge foods and eliminating them altogether.
Understanding certain foods (especially sugar) as an addictive substance has not been a part of the BetterU program, but it has been scientifically researched. There’s controversy about it, but for me, sugar seems addictive. Sometimes the answer is not moderation, but abstinence. I can identify the foods I binge on (the ones with which I’m in that “abusive” relationship) and eliminate them.
But I can’t do it alone. The thing that’s helped me the most is having a diet buddy to call every night. Knowing I have somebody to report to, and that I’m not going to eat anything in secret, makes a huge difference. After only two weeks of eliminating sugar from my food plan, I lost four pounds.
It’s not easy. In fact, it’s really hard. But it’s simple.
This article brings the BetterU heart-health series to a close. I hope some readers have found it useful. Going forward, I’ll be writing articles about health in the Hudson Valley. If there’s a health issue you’d like to hear more about, please write to me at CSeupel@freemanonline.com.