A few years ago, Jenni Murray was out walking with her son and dogs when she saw a potential vision of her future. While she was strolling painfully around the park, stopping to rest at benches where she could, a woman not much larger than Murray passed them on a mobility scooter, her own dogs leads attached to the handlebars. If Murray at 24 stone (152kg) didnt do something about her weight, her concerned son said, that might be her before long. How did she feel about herself at that point?

Extremely obese, she says. I was not the fit, active person that I wanted to be. I just lumbered everywhere. Id had breast cancer and a double hip replacement in my 50s, but it was the obesity that was going to kill me. It was the final push Murray needed, after a lifetime of dieting, and a warning from her doctor that she was on the way to developing type 2 diabetes. I thought, Ive got to do something about it, Im 64 and Im not going to make it to 70. She adds, triumph in her voice, And I did make it to 70! She reached the milestone birthday in May.

In 2014, Murray had bariatric surgery and lost eight stone in a year. The broadcaster has written about her lifelong attempts, and failures, to keep her weight to a healthier level in a new book, Fat Cow, Fat Chance. The punchy title was deliberate she says, on the phone from her home in London, with the washing machine whirring in the background. Her warm voice if you have listened to her for much of the 33 years she has been presenting Womans Hour on Radio 4 is perhaps as familiar to you as your mothers.

Ive been angry most of my life about having to deal with this weight problem, she says and about dealing with the fat-shaming that comes with it. When she went to a conference and heard a young doctor speaking, it was the moment the lightbulb goes on in your head. [He said:] Isnt it curious that so many things are included in hate crime, but whats the one thing thats not? Obesity. And I thought, God, the number of times when Ive been sitting in my car about to pull away at the lights, or Ive been out on my bike, or walking my dog, and some bloke its always a bloke just walked past and said: Fat cow. Or another C-word. So many of us will have had that expression thrown at us and yet nobody thinks its hateful. Fat-shaming should, she says, be classed as hate speech.

I want young women who are brave about their obesity to understand what its like in your 60s when you cant get around

Murray knows the narrative around people who have reached the stage of obesity. Were considered to be lazy, lacking in moral fibre, we eat too much, we dont exercise enough. Its so much more complicated and it just makes me so mad that the whole thing is so grossly misunderstood. Her book takes in research in genetics, our gut microbiome, hormones, the environment, the food industry and psychology. And how, once you reach a certain weight, the idea that you can simply eat less and move more and that you can be shamed into doing this is simply not true for a lot of people. I do call obesity a disease and were only now beginning to understand how wide the number of reasons are for it.

She thinks about her two obese grandmothers and a genetic propensity for weight gain that stretches back long before them, and the fraught relationship with her mother, who was both horrified that her daughter could become fat but also insistent that she always finish everything on her plate.

Murray grew up in Barnsley, the only child of Win, who had given up her job in the civil service once she became a mother, and Alvin, an electrical engineer. Food was central from the potatoes and raspberries grown on her grandfathers allotment to her grandmothers fry-up, cooked on an open fire, and her mothers apple pie. They had come out of wartime rationing, and suddenly, Oh my goodness, we can create pleasure again. Because thats the other important thing food is not just about sustenance, its about pleasure. My granny and my mother were suddenly in a position to make beautiful chocolate cakes, wonderful treacle sponge puddings, fantastic pies. It was an expression of their love. And, of course, to refuse it was an insult.

When Murray put on weight while at the University of Hull she was the first of her family to go to university, where she studied French and drama, with the ambition of becoming an actor her mother told her she looked like a baby elephant. Murray was determined that the next time she saw her mother, she would have lost weight. A university doctor prescribed pills, which turned out to be amphetamines. Her tutor, worried about her diminishing appearance and strange behaviour, intervened. She went from 11 to seven stone, mainly by eating one boiled egg and a tomato for every meal a diet she had read about in a magazine. I didnt feel good about myself, she says. I felt ill.

For a while her weight was fairly stable she joined the BBC in her 20s, first as a local radio assistant on BBC Bristol, then wangling her way in front of the microphone, and later becoming a presenter on Womans Hour, Radio 4s long-running programme, in 1987 (she was made a dame in 2011). But in the mid-90s, with her weight going up, she embarked on the eating regime that was popular then the Atkins diet.

You do it and you lose loads of weight and you think, Oh well, Ive done that, I can start eating normally again now, and you are ravenously hungry. What you dont understand when you go on a diet like that is your hormonal system is responding by sending messages to your brain saying, Whoa, shes losing too much weight, shes starving, make her eat. More diets followed, as well as trying antidepressants, CBT and therapy and there were the half-hearted attempts at the cabbage-soup diet, and the Atkins-like Dukan diet. Why did she keep falling for them? I have asked myself that question over and over again, she says with a laugh. You just think every time, Maybe this is the answer. Instead, the crash-dieting wreaked havoc on her metabolism.

Since she was her familys main earner, Murray would spend four days a week in London for work, while her husband David looked after their two sons in the countryside. Unhappy at being away from her family, while also trying to look after her two elderly parents, Murray lived on takeaways, microwaved ready meals and too much wine. She ate for comfort.

She writes that she tried to be happy with her shape but that her cheeriness was an Oscar-winning performance put on in public, but in private I lived with a growing sense of fear and misery. What does she make of the body-positive movement, where (mostly) women, sick of being criticised for their size, choose to celebrate it instead? I wish I could be completely supportive of them, because I hate fat-shaming, she says. But I know in the long run how dangerous being desperately obese can be. I want those young women who are very brave about their obesity to understand what its like when you get to your early 60s and you cant get around, and you get type 2 diabetes.

But she also writes that she wonders whether becoming fatter was an expression of her feminism and two fingers up to a society that expects women to be thin. It was an idea she got from the psychotherapist Susie Orbachs book, Fat Is a Feminist Issue, though she says now: I dont think in my case that was it, because I hated being fat.

Will thinness ever not be the goal for women? Instead of one physical ideal, she says she wishes we could get to a point where we accept that healthy body shapes can vary she likes to draw the parallel with her three chihuahuas, all different sizes. And she is scathing about the diet industry. I hate it, she says. Its caused me more misery than any other part of my life. Yes, some people will be successful on a strict diet, but it will become a daily obsession. They will somehow cope with hormones going up to the brain saying, Youre starving, youre hungry, eat, eat, eat.

It was after presenting Womans Hour one morning that she asked one of her guests, a doctor specialising in childhood obesity, what she could finally do about her weight. He suggested bariatric surgery, and recommended she see the surgeon and renowned diabetes researcher Francesco Rubino. The minute I met him, and I began to understand what the gastric sleeve would do for me, I couldnt get there fast enough, she says.

Rubino did not blame her for her size. I cant begin to tell you how my spirits were lifted by this warm, gentle, knowledgeable scientist telling me I was not greedy or lazy, but I had a problem with my metabolism, Murray writes. She says she knows some people will think she took the easy option, but bariatric surgery (Murray, like her surgeon, prefers to call it metabolic surgery) never sounded easy with 80% of her stomach removed, it is irreversible and will restrict what she can eat for the rest of her life. She says she was deeply excited at the thought that it might work in the way that I wanted it to but also absolutely terrified. For her, it was life-changing. I can eat whatever I like, but I only eat when Im hungry, which was certainly not the case in the past, and when Im full, I stop, she says.

Has it brought her peace with her body? Ill never have peace with my body, she shoots back with a laugh, as if its a ridiculous concept. Of course not. Am I happy with my body? I cant say that. Maybe Im just not a happy sort of person. I dont know. She doesnt want to lose any more weight, at least.

During this focus on looks, I ask what has disappointed her in terms of feminisms progress. I have so many friends who have daughters who are posting themselves up on Instagram or Twitter or wherever and want to look like She reaches for the words. Porn stars? Kardashians? I look at them and think, Come on, go and do your homework, for goodness sake. Im not sure if she means homework in an academic and career-minded sense, or the history of feminism probably both. In so many ways, we seem to have gone backwards and I can only blame social media for that. I get really sad when I see how much pain is caused by the way we look.

Many women dont really get what feminism is all about until they have their first baby, and then they get it big time

A few years ago, Murray was cheered by how fervently younger women had embraced feminism, but she sounds more downbeat now. I still think were at a stage where many women dont really get what feminism is all about until they have their first baby, and then they get it big time, she says.

As for the current divisions in feminism over transgender issues, Murray is not going there whenever the subject comes up on Womans Hour, as it did a couple of weeks ago in light of the row over JK Rowlings comments, Murray is conspicuously absent. In 2017, she wrote an article, calling for a debate about, among other things, trans womens access to single-sex spaces, which brought a wave of protest (and some support) and a warning about impartiality from the BBC. But with the fault lines so deep, where does feminism go from here? She speaks very carefully. There has to be, at some point, a sensible, thoughtful, considerate discussion about it so that people understand each other. We all need to be able to talk about these things. What I hate is the idea that debate is shut down.

Murray should have been going on a speaking tour to promote her book, but it had to be cancelled because of the pandemic. She remained in London during the lockdown and only recently met up with her husband, who lives in their house on the south coast, for the first time since March. Lockdown wasnt too bad, she says being an only child, and knowing how to entertain herself, had prepared her for it. There was a practice run recording Womans Hour from her kitchen table but it didnt work, and the BBC allowed her to keep going to the studio, she says, with a smile in her voice, even though she turned 70 during lockdown. Its hard to imagine her anywhere else. Retirement, she says, as far as Im concerned is an extremely dirty word.

Fat Cow, Fat Chance by Jenni Murray is published by Doubleday on 16 July (RRP 16.99). Buy a copy for 13.59 at guardianbookshop.com

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Jenni Murray: I hate the diet industry. Its caused me misery - The Guardian

By now, most of us are familiar with Blue Zones, a term that first appeared in a National Geographic story, in which Dan Buettner identified communities around the world where people routinely live long, healthy lives.

In the story, and in subsequent books, the journalist outlined core lifestyle habitswhat he called Power of 9 principlespresent among the people in the five places.

The concept evolved into the Blue Zones Project, with Buettner providing a template that towns, businesses and individuals could follow to implement the principlesfrom eating more veggies to cultivating friendships. Naples joined the cause in 2015, when NCH Healthcare System launched the Blue Zones Project of Southwest Florida and commited to create an environment that supports the balanced lifestyle.

Although the project isnt all about diet, Buettner recognizes food has a lot to do with how we feel and function. For most Americans, an entrance ramp for a new lifestyle change is through their mouth, he says.

While working on the blueprint for the project, Buettner revisited the original communities and walked away with the idea for a cookbook that goes beyond recipes. In The Blue Zones Kitchen: 100 Recipes to Live to 100, the author pulls back the curtain to reveal the people and places that inspired his work. I wanted to harness the culinary genius of the Blue Zones and let people taste what its like to live in these places. The result? A robust roadmap for balanced eating and an assortment of recipes that prove eating well doesnt have to mean compromising on flavor.

Waking up at dawn, men in Nicoya, Costa Rica, ride their horses to work in the verdant mountains of the Costa Rican peninsula, where they spend days tending to crops and livestock. To fuel up for the hard days work, they start the morning with a hefty serving of protein-packed gallo pinto (rice and beans), alongside a basket of from-scratch tortillas and a steaming cup of black coffee.

Buettner found a bustling, family-owned cafe in the mountains that served the traditional breakfast to locals for less than $5 per serving. In his book, he describes it as the worlds healthiest breakfast.

Thats because the author found that an ideal breakfast consists of protein (which repairs and rebuilds tissues and makes you feel full), complex carbs (for energy) and antioxidants (to protect your cells from disease).

While you might not be scaling mountains, youll find that a breakfast with those three components will sustain you throughout the day.

Not ready for beans in the morning? You can find a good source of protein and complex carbs in Ezekiel bread, which is made with four types of sprouted grains that provide all nine essential amino acids, which makes it a complete protein. Combine with antioxidant-rich blueberries.

In the remote island Ikaria, locals embrace a Mediterranean diet, relying on herbs like thyme and oregano to ramp up the flavor of foods like chickpeas, which are packed with nutrients but low on flavor. Were pretty good at putting chickpeas into hummus, but beyond that, people often dont know what to do with them, Buettner says.

Meanwhile, on the Greek island, he saw the possibilities were endless. He met one woman who crafted a pastry with a filling that he describes as transcendent, with chickpeas cooked in a broth with sage, rosemary and caramelized onionsall freshly picked.

Ikarians act as hunters and gatherers, searching the sides of the roads for herbs like fennel, parsley and chicory, and gathering sea salt from the coastal rocks. They also tend seasonal gardens for items, such as lemon and tomatoes.

The perks: Not only does gardening and foraging provide a good mental and physical boost, but most of the herbs, spices and veggies found in a Mediterranean diet also have anti-inflammatory benefits. Some also target other issues, such as digestion (rosemary) and stress (oregano).

Though it wouldnt hurt to start your own herb garden, stocking up on these prevalent foods is as easy as walking into your local grocery store.

If youre eating a standard American diet, its probably shaving about six to 10 years off of your life expectancy, Buettner says, adding that the problem is that in the U.S., the food thats most accessible is typically prepackaged and processed. Those meals are packed with added sugar and preservatives that wreak havoc on our health.

In Loma Linda, California, he met a close-knit community of Seventh-day Adventists who follow the Old Testaments teachings that say people should avoid animal products deemed unclean. Instead, they stick to whole plant foods, including vegetables, fruits, grains, nuts and seeds.

In most Blue Zones, meat is eaten in small amounts and typically reserved for special occasions, if its consumed at all. Buettner found that in Loma Linda, the Adventists who completely abstain from meat, tend to live longer and weigh about 20 pounds less than their Adventist peers who eat meat on occasion.

Skimping on meat doesnt have to equate to a radical change on the dishes you eat. In fact, Loma Linda dinner tables look a lot like many other Americans, with vegetarian twists on classic dishes, like No-Meat Balls and Sweet Potato Black Bean Burgers. Even if youre having an animal-based meal, you can just add some of these things like fresh vegetables and beans onto your plateits a transition, says Deb Logan, the executive director of the Blue Zones Project of Southwest Florida.

Every Friday generations of Sardinian women gather in a small neighborhood house dedicated to making bread. The eldest brings the starter dough, which has been in her family for hundreds of years, and together the women make loaves of bread and pasta to bring home for their families. They spend the afternoon socializing around this great activity, the whole time theyre talking and relieving stress, Buettner says.

The community focuses specifically on sourdough, which the author recognized as a staple in diets across the five Blue Zones. That may be because its unique fermentation process makes it more nutritious and digestible than other breads. Plus, its said to have a lower glycemic index.

Another constant across the board? In every place, people gather to eat together.

In the States, Blue Zones fans have started creating Moais, a concept borrowed from Okinawaa Blue Zone in Japan. There, locals belong to these moais, or social support groups, which are formed at a young age and endure for life.

Lisa Gruenloh, director of development for NCH Healthcare Systems Center for Philanthropy, participated in a local Potluck Moai last summer, with about 100 other people who experimented with the recipes ahead of Buettners book release. Some of them stuck with it, branching out into smaller groups and checking in with each other periodically. A huge part of a Moai is to get people together, Gruenloh says. Its easier to stick with things when youre doing it with someone.

Link:
Journey to the Blue Zones - Gulfshore Life

As an equine nutritionist I often find myself counseling owners on how to manage overweight horses. The advice comes quite easily, because weight loss results from consuming fewer calories than are being burned. Therefore, feed fewer calories, work the horse harder, or do both. What I learned recently is this is much harder than you might think.

About six weeks ago, my daughters large pony moved out of his stall to live 24/7 in a sparse grass pasture. Now I know that grass being short doesnt mean there is nothing there. Plus, being a pony, hes pretty motivated to make the most of even the shortest blades of grass. Because this pasture offers more what I would call mental health grazing than nutrition, he has continued to receive his regular morning and evening hay meals.

About a month ago I stood back and thought I could see some extra condition on his body. I ran my hand over him, and he definitely had a layer of fat over his ribsnothing major, but fat nonetheless. His crest, which I always watch closely, had gained a little softness but not much more than normal. For his conformation type I actually thought he looked good but acknowledged he didnt need to gain any more weight.

I contemplated whether we needed to make dietary changes, but it was early May in Phoenix, and the weather was about to hit continuous triple digits. Our summers are a little like winters elsewhere in that horses here can lose weight in the summer the way horses lose weight during cold winters. Its so hot that they might not be inclined to eat a lot of forage, and the weather can be stressful. Because this pony was new to us this past winter, I had no way of knowing how he would handle the heat. With a 10-day forecast predicting every day over 105oF and several days over 110oF, I decided to maintain the status quo, thinking he would lose weight due to the heat. If not, I would reassess.

A few weeks went by and his pasture was flood irrigated, so he moved to a larger pasture that had itself been irrigated and then opened for grazing. Compared to pastures I experienced in England, this pasture still had very little grass. However, it is twice the size of the initial pasture and had more growth on it. Which brings us to last week.

I shared a photo of the pony wearing a new saddle with a close friend, who said, your pony is rotund. I argued, No the saddle is just small. But the next day at the barn I again stood back and looked at him and had to admit that fat pad at the end of his ribs had not been there a month ago. Sometimes when you see horses every day you dont notice changes. Clearly the he will lose weight in the heat plan had not worked.

I realized it was time to take action. I thought about his diet. He gets about 15 pounds (three flakes of a three-string bale) of Bermuda grass hay and 7 pounds (1 flake of a three-string bale) of alfalfa, a ration balancer, high-omega-3 oil, liquid vitamin E, salt and electrolytes, and an allergy supplement each day. The ration balancer and other supplements needed to stay, because they offer sources of essential nutrients his forage cant provide. This left me looking at the forage.

Im a big believer in feeding as much forage as possible, so I hate to reduce forage unless really necessary. However, the pony was now able to graze pasture, albeit short, whenever he wanted. Still, I wasnt ready to cut an entire 6-7-pound flake of hay out of his diet, because I didnt feel he needed that significant a calorie reductionat least not to start with. Reducing by half a flake would have been a good option, but I typically find that people struggle to feed half a flake, especially if the hay isnt being weighed daily. This left me with one option: Replace the alfalfa with another flake of grass hay. This would result in a slight but hopefully adequate calorie reduction.

Now, let me tell you how much this pony loves that one flake of alfalfa. He will eat it over anything else weve offered him. He is almost drooling while he eats it. You can imagine his horror the first night when he received two flakes of grass hay and no alfalfa.

My daughter feeds at the barn on Saturday and Sunday nights, and this weekend was our first time feeding without his alfalfa. After several days of no alfalfa, the ponys conviction that we had made an error was still strong. He nickered longingly at us as we approached with his hay. We dropped it in his feeder. He put his head in and looked at us in disbelief: Not you as well! he seemed to say. He walked around for a while ignoring the perfectly good grass hay. He nickered again. He looked longingly at the horses in the next paddock and what they were eating.

This is when I felt it. That pang. The sense of guilt. The nutritionist and scientist in me was gone. I was standing there as a defenseless owner looking at this cute face and hearing these loving nickers, and I thought, What harm could it possibly do to give him half a flake of alfalfa? And then I caught myself having this thought. I reminded myself what can happen if he did in fact become obese, especially as a pony. The risk of equine metabolic syndrome, the low-grade systemic inflammation, and the potential for laminitis and how cruel that condition is. I looked at him, his eyes twinkling at me, and I said, Im sorry but I cant. And I walked away.

So, I get it, I truly do. I understand how hard it is to do the right thing, but I encourage everyone to routinely step back and look at your horse, run your hand over him, perform a condition score to estimate his weight, and conduct an objective assessment of his condition over time. Ask a knowledgeable horse person (e.g., your trainer, farrier, massage therapist, etc.) for a potentially more objective opinion about your horses condition. If his condition isnt ideal or heading in the wrong direction, whether thats too fat or too thin, take action sooner rather than later. Our pony is already looking trimmer after only a week sans alfalfa. Dont fall for the guilt, those eyes, the soft nickers. Be strong and stay true to your convictions and what you know is right. If you are unsure of the right thing to do, talk to your veterinarian or a nutritionist and have them help you make a plan. Finally, if you are feeling bad about the tough love, find someone to talk to who can empathize and help keep you accountable.

Continued here:
When the Nutritionist's Pony Needs a Diet The Horse - TheHorse.com

The supermassive black hole dubbed J2157 is only one step short of the largest black hole in the universe Abell 85 which has a mass of 40 billion suns.

If the Milky Ways black hole wanted to grow that fat, it would have to swallow two-thirds of all the stars in our galaxy, quipped Christopher Onker, the lead author of the study published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

According to him, how much a black hole can eat depends a lot on how big they already are. In this case, the black hole is already so huge to begin with, which is why it can sustain the diet of one sun a day. The analysis shows that the black hole is growing by 1% every one million years.

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Wolf believes that if this black hole was at the centre of the Milky Way, it would appear in Earths skies 10 times brighter than a full moon. It would appear as an incredibly bright pin-point star that would almost wash out all of the stars in the sky, he said.

It would make life nearly impossible on Earth with the huge amounts of X-rays that emanate from the massive black hole.

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The fastest-growing black hole in the universe eats one sun a day doubling its diet from just a month ago - Business Insider India

Christina Anstead is getting back to work. The Christina on the Coast star revealed that shell soon return to filming her HGTV show. Plus, she announced a premiere date for additional season 2 episodes of her reality series, which focuses on her Southern California design business and life with her three children and husband Ant Anstead.

RELATED: HGTVs Christina Anstead Shares What Keeps Her On Track With Diet and Exercise During Quarantine

Christina on the Coast premiered in May 2019 and has become a hit for HGTV. Season 2 of the Flip or Flop stars solo show premiered in January 2020. Now, a third season is in the works.

I officially start filming for Season 3 this month, Anstead wrote in her July 1 Instagram announcement. Fans can expect 13 new episodes to air sometime in 2021, the 36-year-old revealed.

Anstead who was formerly married to her Flip or Flop co-star Tarek El Moussa had some additional good news for fans. More season 2 episodes of Christina on the Coast are set to air in August.

SO happy to announce the next 5 episodes of #christinaonthecoast will air on @hgtv August 6th and they are now all 1-hour episodes, she wrote.

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It may appear that we are social distancing but we actually prefer to stand 10 feet apart! . For the last episode of season 9, I had a goal to find the nastiest, most disgusting house I could possibly find. . Based on her face, I accomplished my goal! This house has feces, urine, rats, mice, flys, nats, termites, cockroaches and a few dead birds. . As you can see, shes standing in the original pink carpet that has been covered with furniture for 30 years. . My favorite part about flipping a disgusting house like this is the horrific look on Christinas face!!. . Are you ready to see the all new season of Flip or Flop coming out October 2020??

A post shared by Tarek El Moussa (@therealtarekelmoussa) on Jun 26, 2020 at 6:31pm PDT

RELATED: Christina Anstead and Her Ex Tarek El Moussa Come Together to Support Their Daughter in the Sweetest Way

Though Anstead and El Moussa split in 2016, they continue to collaborate professionally (and co-parent their two kids). HGTV viewers can see them in action on the upcoming season of Flip or Flop. New episodes begin airing October 15. From the sound of things, the flips will be wilder than ever.

This season has 2 of the most disgusting homes Ive ever walked and if you have seen the turkey episode, thats saying a lot, Anstead shared on Instagram. (In the turkey episode, Anstead and El Moussa bought a house where someone had left a raw turkey out on the kitchen counter for months, leading to some pretty disgusting smells.)

El Moussa confirmed that for the last house of the new season, his goal was to find the nastiest, most disgusting house. He shared a series of photos from the property on Instagram, and it looks like he hit the mark.

Based on [Ansteads] face, I accomplished my goal! This house has feces, urine, rats, mice, flies, gnats, termites, cockroaches and a few dead birds, he wrote. As you can see, shes standing in the original pink carpet that has been covered with furniture for 30 years. My favorite part about flipping a disgusting house like this is the horrific look on Christinas face!!

In addition to her work as a designer and television personality, Anstead is now a published author. Her first book, The Wellness Remodel, was co-written with nutritionist Cara Clark and focuses on rebooting your life by changing your approach to diet, exercise, and mindfulness. Its inspired by Ansteads own efforts to remake her life after she faced a series of health problems and personal struggles. She hopes it helps other people learn to listen to their bodies, she told Parade.

If your instinct is telling you that something is off, thats when its probably time to try to figure it out, she said. I hope our book will offer some strategies to help you reset a bit!

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Christina Anstead Reveals She's Getting Back to Work on Her HGTV Show - Showbiz Cheat Sheet

Photo credit: Megan Faraday

From Delish

My name is Megan Faraday (@meggsmetamorphosis), and I'm 25 years old. I'm from Ontario, Canada, and I own a sign post installation company. After struggling with my weight and self-esteem for years, I decided to try a version of low-carb dieting called "lazy keto." I've now lost 107 pounds.

I struggled with my weight my whole life. I remember my mom putting me on diets from as early as 10 years old. I was constantly trying to lose weight with no success. I had gotten my weight down in high school for a short period of time but gained it back shortly after. No healthy plan ever stuck, and my weight held me back from experiencing a lot of things in life.

My weight had the biggest effect on me mentally. I had absolutely no self-esteem and had uncontrollable social anxiety. I just felt uncomfortable in my skin 24/7. I would make decisions based on my weight and what people would think of me. People made negative comments to me about my weight my whole life, and it really affected every aspect of my life and the choices I made.

In addition, I really had no energy or desire to do any sort of physical activity and knew that something had to change. Just walking up the stairs would get me winded, and I just thought: Enough is enough. My heaviest weight was 265 pounds at the age of 23. I was ready for a better life.

Story continues

I started that day and never gave up. I had said that same thing to myself a million times over and tried to do it in a million different ways, but something just *felt* different this time. They say that you have to truly want something for yourself first before you can put in the work to get it, and I can tell you that this is 100 percent true.

I decided that I would try something similar by tracking calories and cutting carbs. I started by eating 25 grams of net carbs per day and a calorie count that works for me.

I would make a lot of keto recipes, but I did not follow the standard keto diet exactly to the planI did more of a "lazy keto" diet. I've now started to reintroduce carbohydrates back into my diet, aiming for 75 to 100 grams of carbs per day. This works for me because I am still losing weight, but in a way that I will be able to sustain for the rest of my life.

I was too nervous to go into a gym in the beginning, but my friend Sarah had encouraged me to join her gym, and I started to go with her. Eventually I found the courage to go alone.

I started working out three to five times a week in the gym, doing a mixture of cardio and weight training. I still work out three to five times a week but I am able to do so much more. I can run faster and longer, and I even go for runs outside. This is something I never had the confidence to do in the past.

Exercise is also such a great way to see my progress. It's so motivating and it feels amazing to see myself progressing and conquering personal bests.

Change one: I stopped expecting the scale to go down every week. The first few times I saw the scale at a stand still or even spike up, I panicked. But that is all part of the process! Continue on and stay dedicated to your plan, and it will move.

Change two: I started drinking lots of water. Everyone goes on and on about getting your water in, but it has truly made all the difference on my journey. I drink 100 ounces of water a day, and on the days I don't, I really can feel a negative difference.

Change three: I weighed my food with a food scale. I began using a food scale instead of measuring spoons and cups, and it is so much more accurate when youre tracking. It's so easy to over-scoop and go overboard on portions in the beginning while you're learning portion sizes, so it was really helpful for me to weigh my food. I've been on this journey for 1.5 years and I still do it.

Losing the weight was one of the hardest things I have done and definitely one of my biggest accomplishments. Every hard day that got me to this point was worth it, though. The confidence that I have gained is incredible. My weight no longer holds me back from doing fun things with my family and friends.

I wish I could go back to the woman I was before this journey and tell her to love herself more, wear the cute clothes, and not to miss out on fun things just because of her size. It took me losing over 100 pounds to learn that, but that's okay too! Sometimes we need to do these things for ourselves to appreciate who we are inside and out.

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'I've Been On My Weight Loss Journey For 1.5 Years, And Using A Food Scale Still Helps Me A Ton' - Yahoo Lifestyle

Lets not beat (or beet!) around the bush: There is one bodily function that is critical to your health and provides important feedback about how you're doing, dietary-wise, to be your healthiest, yet no one wants to look at it or even think about it.

This doctorsays that what happens when you go to the bathroom, and how frequently you eliminate, is a vital message about your diet, and can even predict your risk for breast cancer. If you don't want to read more, fair warning: We are going to talk about poop. Becausewhat's happening in your toilet bowl can give you daily information that can help save your life. Remember, this is all about your health, so here goes:

Dr. Terry Mason,Former COO of Illinois Cook County Department of Public Health and a leading Urologist, wants toget into the nitty-gritty on the connection between your health and your bowel movements. While we all understand that, like any machine, what goes into it matters in order for it to run well, and we can see from what comes out of it whether things are going smoothly: Cars have exhaust pipes, juicers have pulp catchers and we humans also have a way of seeing if everything is running smoothly in our system, too, but we rarely take advantage of this data.

For our bodies to run well we need to check both the inputs and the outputs. But chances are you never think of your bowel movementsas a vital sign for health and wellbeing. Yet Dr. Mason explained why this is vital, during a recent interview for The Beet and myAwesome Vegans Influencer Series, that he wants you to check the quality, the frequency, and the consistency of what is in the bowl.

First a little background. In 2004, Dr. Terry Mason experienced everyone's worst nightmare: while running on a treadmill, he had a heart attack. Immediately medical experts committed him to a life of pills and future procedures, to help return him to normal life. Thinking back on his own medical education and realizing that he only received, like most doctors, about four hours of nutritional information while in med school, so Dr. Mason, decided to dive into the facts. Rather than live a life on pills and have to enduremultiple operations, Dr. Mason researched what he could do to avoid a life on meds. Ultimately, he found his way to a whole-food, plant-based diet. In doing so, he subsequently lost nearly50 pounds.

Since then, Dr. Mason has made it his mission to help people find their way to a healthy quality life through plant-based eating, so that they, too, dont have to commit themselves to a life of pills, doctorappointments and generally not being their most active or healthy. Because who wantsa poor quality of life? The average person eats over 57 pounds of chicken a year, Mason tells us, and over 240 of meat. Yet few of us get our recommended five servings of vegetables and fruit a day. It is no wonder that so many Americans are unhealthy and suffering from heart disease, elevated blood pressure, and type 2 diabetes.

Dr. Masons conviction is that knowing your body and being your healthiest starts with eating healthy, and ends with what comes out of it. Think you are healthy? Eating a mostly plant-based diet filled with fiber can get things moving, in your bowels, your intestines, and that does a body good! (Consider that Americans need this information. Fun fact: One of Oprahs most popular TV shows ever was on the subject of poop.)

Here Dr. Mason explains that the link between diet and frequency of bowel movements and cancer. In one study,women with frequent bowel movements had a 46 percent lower risk of breast cancer than those who go to the bathroom less frequently. The act of moving waste through the body, called bowel motility, helps excrete estrogens in the waste, thereby lowering estrogen in the body, to the point that your breast cancer risk goes down. The best way to move things along,Dr. Mason says,is to increase the amount of fiber in your diet.

Fiber only exists in plant-based foods, since it is the cellular infrastructure of plants (animals have skeletons and muscles to keep them upright, plant-based foods need fiber to reach for the sun.) Fiber causes your bowel movements to be regular and less dense, so if you need to keep eating more fiber until you achieve this healthy outcome, just keep adding whole plant-based foods to your diet.

A more recent study backs up the connection between fiber and breast cancer risk. The higher the fiber quotient in your diet, the lower your breast cancer risk. One reason why is the elimination of estrogen through your bathroom habits.

The fact is a regular elimination of bowelacids is healthy, Mason explains, since toxins from the bowel can get re-absorbed into the body if they sit there for too long, and these toxins get stored in the breast, which can increase risk of breast cancer, the study showed. Dr. Mason explains that the more fiber you eat, the more frequently you eliminate your bowels, the healthier it is for your body and your lifetime cancer risk.

"It is totally normal to eliminate right after breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and some people have convinced themself they are not comfortable going in a foreign place," he says. "But if you are eating plant-based and drinking the right amount of water that should lead to regular bowel movements. And if you don't go at least once a day, add more fiber to your diet."

Dr. Terry Mason: A study revealedhow any woman who has fewer than three bowel movements a week has a four times greater likelihood of developing breast cancer.

Elysabeth: I thought everybody had bowel movements every day. No? Sorry the conversations taking a turn now were talking about bowel movements.

Dr. Terry Mason: But thats all a part of life.

Elysabeth: Right, of course. Its what you put in to get what you put out.

Dr. Terry Mason: What you put in determines when you let it out and how often and what happens is (that) when youre only having two to three bowel movements a week but youre eating two to three times a day

Elysabeth: I donthow can your system actually hold that?

Dr. Terry Mason: Well thats what we have right now. Thats what people are doing because a lot of the foods theyre eating dont have any fiber.

Elysabeth: Meat has no fiber! I just learned this. I knew it had cholesterol, but I didnt know it had no fiber.

Dr. Terry Mason: Fiber comes from the cellulose in the plant.

Elysabeth: Cant be healthy without fiber.

Dr. Terry Mason: You cant be healthy without fiber. So what happens, according to the study, these 1,481 women were in the study, and basically they looked at those women who have fewer than two bowel movements a week. An aspirator took out fluid from their breasts and they found that there were pre-cancerous changes in that fluid [called dysplasia]. And its because they werent eliminating the excess bile acids which are necessary to help break down the fats and the cholesterol in your blood.

But when youre not eliminating those every, single day it gets reabsorbed into the bloodstream and when it gets reabsorbed into the bloodstream it concentrates in the breast. They checked these bile acids and checked to see if they themselves could cause cancer and they did. Thats what the study showed.

When you go from eating the standard American diet to eating a plant-based diet and youre drinking water and now youre having a far more normal frequency of bowel movements like: You eat, you poop. Just like your kids. Its totally normal that after breakfast you should poop, after lunch you should poop.

Elysabeth: So you think people should poop three times a day?

Dr. Terry Mason: If theyre eating three times a day.

Elysabeth: Okay, noted.

Dr. Terry Mason: Well a lot of people dont because theyve trained themselves that they dont like to poop in foreign places.

Elysabeth: Please weigh in everybody Id love to know what you think about this. Yes, you also have to be comfortable in the spot.

Dr. Terry Mason: Well thats what I say. They dont like going in a foreign place and so you can always hold it but theoretically when youre eating plant-based and youre drinking the water, you will poop.

Elysabeth: Yeah and its wonderful!

Dr. Terry Mason: Yes and its important.

So eat your plants! Another option for someone with constipation is to use a fiber supplement such asMetamucil. Get your fiber! Andhead to the bathroom several times a day, for your health.To watch the full interview, click here.

Elysabeth Alfano is a plant-based expert for mainstream media, breaking down the plant-based health, food, culture, business, and environmental news on radio and TV. Follow her @elysabethalfano on all platforms.

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How Often You Go to the Bathroom Can Affect Breast Cancer Risk - The Beet

Jul 1, 2020 2:00 PM ET

iCrowd Newswire Jul 1, 2020

New report spotlights how the consumer industry can boost healthier eating around the world

PARIS, 1st July 2020 Today, The Consumer Goods Forum (CGF), together with Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Nielsen Global Connect, published a revealing report on the state of consumer health, nutrition and wellbeing around the world. How the Consumer Industry Can Boost Healthier Eating, marks the first in a series of reports from CGFs Collaboration for Healthier Lives Coalitiona global movement led by manufacturers, retailers, public health authorities and academic institutions to empower global consumers to adopt healthier lives.

To create this report, CGF and BCG amassed 15 interviews from global CEOs within the retail and consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry. To gather a robust, global snapshot of todays consumer, Nielsen Global Connect and BCG in 2019 , surveyed 7,000 global consumers from China, France, Mexico, Turkey, the UK and the US, across a wide range of demographics. The result: a comprehensive study that captures powerful and telling global sentiment from both the consumer and business landscape.

Health is becoming a business imperative. By taking CEO and citizens perspectives, this report enables us to understand how companies can take action on their own and with others to have a meaningful impact. We invite everyone to join the Collaboration for Healthier Lives Coalition to build a more sustainable and inclusive economy, said Isabelle Grosmaitre, One Planet. One Health Initiatives Catalyst, Danone and Marcus Osborne, Vice President, Walmart Health, and CGFs Collaboration for Healthier Lives Coalition Co-Chairs.

KEY INSIGHTSAccording to the How the Consumer Industry Can Boost Healthier Eating Report:

Consumers have become increasingly interested in health and wellness in recent years, yet a myriad of hurdles often get in the way of intention matching action, said Olivier Lamare, Retail Leader, Nielsen. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to shift consumer habits toward the price- and health-conscious, retailers and manufacturers have an opportunity to win on transparency, price and tasteand help fuel healthier lifestyles.

Khaled Tawfik, BCG Managing Director and Partner, said, We at BCG consider Collaboration For Healthier Lives important for three reasons: the broad commitment from manufacturers, retailers, public health institutions, civic societies, and academics to contribute to a common goal of healthier consumption; its practical impact through working on the ground where people shop in the localities; and its potential to scale impact through working together, lifting and shifting what works across geographies, and digitally activating efforts to reach the younger population. Our research confirms that consumer expectations of the industry on this topic are high and we are very happy to support the CGF and its members on this important topic.

The full report is available online at CGFs Global Learning Mechanism.

Ends

About The Consumer Goods ForumThe Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) is a global, parity-based industry network that is driven by its members to encourage the global adoption of practices and standards that serves the consumer goods industry worldwide. It brings together the CEOs and senior management of some 400 retailers, manufacturers, service providers, and other stakeholders across 70 countries, and it reflects the diversity of the industry in geography, size, product category and format. Its member companies have combined sales of EUR 3.5 trillion and directly employ nearly 10 million people, with a further 90 million related jobs estimated along the value chain. It is governed by its Board of Directors, which comprises more than 55 manufacturer and retailer CEOs. For more information, please visit: http://www.theconsumergoodsforum.com.

About Boston Consulting GroupBoston Consulting Group partners with leaders in business and society to tackle their most important challenges and capture their greatest opportunities. BCG was the pioneer in business strategy when it was founded in 1963. Today, we help clients with total transformationinspiring complex change, enabling organizations to grow, building competitive advantage, and driving bottom-line impact.

To succeed, organizations must blend digital and human capabilities. Our diverse, global teams bring deep industry and functional expertise and a range of perspectives to spark change. BCG delivers solutions through leading-edge management consulting along with technology and design, corporate and digital venturesand business purpose. We work in a uniquely collaborative model across the firm and throughout all levels of the client organization, generating results that allow our clients to thrive.

About NielsenNielsen Holdings plc (NYSE: NLSN) is a global measurement and data analytics company that provides the most complete and trusted view available of consumers and markets worldwide. Nielsen is divided into two business units. Nielsen Global Media, the arbiter of truth for media markets, provides media and advertising industries with unbiased and reliable metrics that create a shared understanding of the industry required for markets to function. Nielsen Global Connect provides consumer packaged goods manufacturers and retailers with accurate, actionable information and insights and a complete picture of the complex and changing marketplace that companies need to innovate and grow.

Our approach marries proprietary Nielsen data with other data sources to help clients around the world understand whats happening now, whats happening next, and how to best act on this knowledge.

An S&P 500 company, Nielsen has operations in over 100 countries, covering more than 90% of the worlds population. For more information, visit http://www.nielsen.com.

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Boston Consulting GroupEric Gregoire, Global Media Relations Senior Manager, BCG[emailprotected]T +1 617 850 3783

NielsenGenevieve Aronson, VP Communications, Nielsen[emailprotected]

The Consumer Goods ForumLee Green, Director, Communications, The Consumer Goods Forum[emailprotected]

Keywords:CGF, BCG, Nielsen, Trends, Food, Health, Insights

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Price Outweighs Access as Top Consumer Barrier to Eating Healthy, as Revealed in a New Global Report from The Consumer Goods Forum, BCG and Nielsen -...

Today the whole world is focusing only on COVID-19 pandemic. The virus is the common topic now for every discussion, either official or non-official. But most of these talks are about COVID-19 patients and the potential drugs. And hardly anybody talk about the emotional and physical challenges that doctors on COVID-19 duty are going through, or for that matter, their health. Today, India is celebrating the National Doctors Day to acknowledge the services of doctors and their huge contribution to medical advancement. The day is also observed to pay tribute to legendary physician Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy (Dr. B C Roy), who was also the second Chief Minister of West Bengal. As we thank doctors for providing us with selfless service and health care today, lets also asked them about their health, and how are theyre managing the work and family life amidst the pandemic. Also Read - Doctors' Day 2020: Help your doctor treat you better in the era of teleconsultation

We have spoken to four doctors a cardiologist, a pulmonologist, a diabetologist and a general practitioner to get a rough idea about what doctors are doing to maintain their work-life balance and keep themselves strong and healthy amidst the pandemic. Here is what the four doctors say: Also Read - Doctors Day 2020: Expert tips for patients and physicians to get along with each other

Dr. TS Kler is the Chairman of PSRI Heart Institute in Delhi and a recipient of the prestigious Padma Bhushan Award. Prior to this, Dr. Kler has served as Head of Cardiac Sciences Department at the Fortis Flt Lt Rajan Dhall Hospital in Vasant Kunj. Lets hear from him about things he does to stay healthy and the challenges he is facing amidst the pandemic. Also Read - Doctors Day 2020: What do physicians fear and expect while treating COVID-19 patients?

Things you do to maintain work-life balance: As far as maintaining work-life balance is concerned, my formula is simple, have a positive attitude towards life and then everything becomes easier. I dont take unnecessary worries, worrying too much is a pathological reaction. If you keep worrying about things, your performance decreases, your decision-making abilities become poor. On the other hand, when your mind is free from worries, you think rationally in any given situation that may help you deal with any problem in life. Similar is my attitude with COVID-19, which a big challenge for everybody. Yes, the chances of getting exposed to the virus are much more for doctors and health care workers as compared to others, but you have to take that challenge. I have been going to the hospital throughout the lockdown period without taking a single day leave. Im a cardiologist and there are always patients who need urgent care and they cannot be left alone. There are always emergency cases. We are also offering telemedicine options for those who dont need hospitalization. In my family, there are only four us my wife and our two sons. My wife is also a doctor and she is also playing a huge role in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. My elder son is an engineer and my younger son is also a doctor and he has been posted in the COVID ward. As there are three doctors in the family, the evening discussion is mostly on COVID nowadays. And we all understand the demands of our job as a doctor and our responsibilities towards society. In fact, I keep telling my colleagues that we dont have any excuses at all to be scared of COVID or not to go to the hospital and see patients. If our patients need us, we have to go and see them.

Things you do to keep your heart healthy: I walk at least 10 km a day. I use an app called health application that records how much I have walked daily, every month and every year. So, based on the figure shown in this app, last year I walked 3842 km, which is more than the distance from Srinagar to Kanyakumari. You can do exercise any time whichever convenient for you but I prefer the morning time. I get up at 5 am in the morning and by 5:45 am I am out in the park. Exercise to me is a passion, its my addiction. I also do yoga regularly. We organize a regular yoga programme in my home, three days a week. When it comes to diet, I eat a lot of green vegetables and fruits. I am a non-vegetarian but I keep non-veg consumption very low. Neither I smoke nor do I allow anybody in the family to smoke in my home. The rest, be happy, stay positive, and help others, this can make a lot of difference in your health too. Helping others is actually good for your overall health. Your generosity will not only bring about a change in others life but I believe that it produces some special hormone in your body which gives you a lot of satisfaction, improves your mental wellbeing and make you strong in life.

Dr. Anoop Misra is the Chairman of Fortis-C-DOC Centre of Excellence for Diabetes, Metabolic Diseases and Endocrinology. He is also the Chairman of National Diabetes, Obesity and Cholesterol Foundation (N-DOC), and Vice President of Diabetes Foundation (India) (DFI).

Things you do to maintain your work-life balance: I maintain a strict discipline so as to compartmentalize time for work and then personal life and do regular exercise to enable augmentation of clear thinking and generate ideas. Another thing that I do to keep a balance between my work and family life is planning my day ahead. Much of my days planning is done while listening to music or exercising outdoors. Also, I always try to think of ways to increase the efficiency of the workforce, so as to achieve daily objectives in a shorter time and save time for home. Everybody should have some me time to relax, it allows your mind and body to repair. For me relaxation time in the evening is sacrosanct; I avoid phone calls during this time.

Things you do to keep your blood sugar levels under control: There are simple things that I do keep sugar and blood pressure under control, and keep my heart ticking regularly. In short, to keep myself fit. There is no magic mantra in following these rules. And I would like all people to follow the same to avoid diabetes, hypertension or heart disease; and those who are patients, to manage the conditions effectively.

Dr. Nikhil Modi is a well-known Pulmonologist with experience of more than 13 years. Presently he is working as a Consultant in the Department of Respiratory, Critical care, and Sleep medicine at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, New Delhi.

Things you do to maintain your work-life balance: First and foremost work comes first in any situation and so I make sure that I am available whenever my patients need me. At the same time, your family is also important and so I try to spend as much quality time as possible with them, whenever I dont have any emergency case. Also, those times spend with your family also act as a stress buster. Thats why it important to give equal importance to work and life. But in this situation, our patients need me more than my family and I am committed to my work.

Things you to keep your lungs healthy: When it comes to keeping myself fit and my lungs healthy, it starts from early morning with exercises like yoga or walking, followed by a healthy and heavy breakfast. Since doctors are quite busy these days, I dont get much time for exercise but whenever I get time, I do some sort of exercise. When youre going in a place where you have to see patients who are infected with COVID-19, you have to be strong from inside too. Frequent small meals also help provide the nutrients your body needs to keep the immune system strong. The most important thing to keep your lungs healthy is to stay away from smoking and pollution. If you can do yoga and deep breathing for at least 10 minutes daily, its the best you can do to your lungs.

Dr. Pulin Kumar Gupta is currently associated as Professor (Medicine), Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Delhi.

Things you do to maintain your work-life balance: These days due to the COVID-19 pandemic, theres no fixed timing for our work. I leave for the hospital at 8 and but then you dont know when our work will end. If I am able to reach home early like 7 in the evening, I always spend some time with my kids, have dinner with them, or play an indoor game. Thats how I try to maintain my work-life balance. Since I am on COVID-19 duty these days, I also take all the necessary precautions like keeping my shoes outside, changing my clothes immediately after reaching home, and taking a bath. For the safety of my family, I stay in a separate room and avoid doing certain things that I used to do before the pandemic like kissing my kids.

Things you to keep yourself healthy: A healthy diet is a must to stay healthy and its more important now. My diet includes lots of protein, like boiled eggs, paneer, and soybean. I also eat 30 gm of almond and lots of fruit. There is very little fat in my diet. I drink turmeric milk twice daily in the morning and at night to boost my immunity. I also make sure that I drink plenty of water and limit alcohol intake. In the evening I walk on my treadmill for about 45 minutes daily. In the hospital, during lunchtime I play table tennis with my colleagues. Thats how I try my best to keep myself healthy during this pandemic.

Published : July 1, 2020 10:48 am | Updated:July 1, 2020 11:12 am

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Doctors Day 2020: Four pandemic heroes share how they maintain their work-life balance and keep themselves h - TheHealthSite