Markers-of-Health
2021-6-24__ What defines true healthfulness? Do you consider yourself to be healthy? How do you know that you are? The health and wellness space is a confusing place in my opinion not to mention and over crowded one too. The definitions aren't clear and the road map guiding us to our destination has too many routes. So how do you know? Well let me help you along in your journey towards health betterment and what tools to use to assess your health status.
A good place to start initially is cleaning up your dietary practices and removing the biggest offenders that cause inflammation, raise insulin and block your body's fat burning mechanisms. Without a doubt you must remove toxic seed oils from your life. Cooking more often at home and most often with animal based fats is the sweet spot for improving metabolic health and lighting up your fat burning fires. Second to that would be total removal of all grains and refined flours from your plate. And finally, kicking out processed sugars and fake sugars is a win win for health betterment and weight loss.
For those of you that actually read my blog know that a healthy plate is made up of high quality protein, fats and the least toxic plant foods. Snacking is no longer a part of your daily routine and hopefully you are eating two meals per day and dropping the occasional 24 hour fast when you feel good and ready too. This is where health betterment begins. Reducing food frequency and increasing the quality of your plate will not only lower insulin levels over time but also dramatically improve body composition.
Ok, so what else? Well quite simply let's lift up that shirt and take a look at that waistline. Do you have belly fat? And if you do, how long has it been hanging around? Excess abdominal fat translates into insulin resistance. You could be moderately insulin resistant or very insulin resistant. Regardless, you need to change your food strategy in order to lower insulin and get your body functioning the way the gods intended it to-burning body fat and utilizing you fat as fuel.
Another benchmark that will help you determine you level of health is a simple test you can request. An easy, non-invasive and not too expensive test that will assess your overall health and cardiac risk is a CAC scan. The cost is generally around $150. Essentially, it's a cat scan of the heart and many studies show that your CAC score can predict death from all causes better than death from coronary disease. Basically, it provides a glimpse of disease progression . A score of 0 is excellent, a score between 1 and 80 is concerning which means it's time to take some action and finally a score between 81 and 400 is life threatening so act now!
There are lots of fun blood tests that you can order through your doctor or from a lab online that I will be talking about in a future blogs. Trust me, you do not want to be a victim of our sick care system. Instead, take ownership of your health and understand how to interpret some of these important markers of disease progression and insulin resistance. Living a healthy lifestyle is not complicated nor expensive, but it does require sacrifice, discipline and awareness. I prefer spending my days in the sun, participating in activities that I love amongst family and friends versus hanging out in exam rooms, hospital beds and rehab centers. It all starts and ends with the quality of your plate!
to you health! xo paige
