Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode
of Food for Thought Thoughts, if it were you
and your host, Neogentrics. How has everybody
been? It's another day here in May, and as you
already know, school is just about out with whoever
else still has any, you know, finals and stuff.
So, anyway, let's get down to brass tacks, shall
we? All right. First things first, we've had
a lot of different topics that we've covered
over the last, you know, year, two years, three
years. You know, there's a lot of stuff that
we've covered. Lately, we've been covering a
lot of major level topics such as how you need
to care for your body, why is water important,
what's been going on in the real world. I do
believe I covered the importance of sleep. and
dietary nutrients so let me go ahead and re -establish
a fact that's important since summer is around
the corner and that would be caring for your
body as i've mentioned before it's one of those
things that people don't seem to think about
or take too likely like they think oh you know
it's fine at least i eat and i drink water i
may not work out like i'm supposed to But at
least I get up and move. Well, that's great and
all, but you still have to do a little bit more
than just that. Hell, if it was that simple,
everybody would be as skinny as a toothpick,
but it's not that straightforward. Now, let's
go ahead and think about this for a minute. Caring
for your body. It's important to look after your
body to help you to stay healthy and well for
as long as you can. Very advice about caring
for your body is often conflicting and often
confusing. I mean, it can be hard to know what
exactly is the best thing for it. And each person
is different. No two people are the same. Many
people abandon any effort to take care of themselves
because it's just too difficult as a result.
However... Just because it's complicated doesn't
mean that the effort is not worthwhile. Come
on. Common sense. I should do an episode on that.
Tells us that even doing a bit more exercise
or getting a bit more sleep and not eating that
second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, or seventh
slice of cake are likely to be helpful. And the
reason I say it that way is because... There's
a lot of people out there who will eat a slice
of cake, and then eat another slice of cake,
and before they realize it, they've eaten the
entire cake, if not half of it. You know, the
application of a little science is, you know,
quite a lot more common sense than you would
think. And it can go a long way in helping you
to work out what's best for your body, and you
in the long run. So the question starts off with,
well, why the hell should I care? Or better yet,
why do you care about my body? Well... First
off, caring for your body just makes sense. It's
something that we should do on a day -to -day
basis. After all, you only get one body in this
life, and I would think you want it to last as
long as possible. Well, I guess that depends,
doesn't it? Okay, okay, okay. So, I mean, we
want to care for our body. We want to do it.
For the simple fact that, you know, flippancy
aside, caring for your body really does just
make sense. Around the world, there's a growing
chronic problem of lifestyle -related diseases
that, you know, I don't have to hear names of.
I'm pretty sure you're familiar with them. And
yes, even the coronavirus is not helping. These
are diseases that are effectively caused by the
way that we live our lives. Most, if not all
of them, are associated with not looking after
our bodies. Many are associated with just being
overweight, not exercising enough, or by putting
the wrong substances into our body as a whole.
A couple of these diseases and conditions include
onset diabetes, heart conditions, high blood
pressures, in some cases cancer, which we can
detect certain kinds and what causes them, but
other things, no. of course avoid every single
illness or condition and many are not lifestyle
related however looking after your body will
go some ways to helping you live a healthier
life for longer or help build up your immune
system so that you can actually fight them off
should they ever occur or happen to you so the
thing you need to think about here or rather
the way i want you to think is the framework
of your thinking about how you should do this.
There's a simple framework for this. This is
a guide, if you will, on a way you should approach
looking after your body. And this will help you
to think about your decisions more logically
or rather help you understand why you might want
to make certain decisions. And hopefully it'll
also explain why it can sometimes be hard to
do what you know is the right thing despite,
you know, what people say. So here's the framework.
There are three questions to keep in mind, okay?
And in any aspect of caring for yourself, I want
you to ask these three questions. One, what do
I want to do? That's pretty straightforward.
I don't think I need to explain it. The first
aspect is to your emotions, is to how you feel
and what you want to do, whether, you know, about
what you want to eat, when you want to go to
sleep, how much exercise you take. Emotions are
very primitive, but they're also very strong
and they can hold you back. Two, what is best
for me? Well, the second one here applies reason
to the situation and it asks you what you think.
This means taking what you know, that is facts,
and considering them in the light of the situation
accordingly. Something to keep in mind. Three,
what am I going to do? Finally, you need to balance
those two aspects together and make a decision
about what you actually do in any given situation.
This requires you to balance what you want and
what you think you should do in light of those
facts. Okay? There will be many times when you
want to do, or what you want to do, rather. And
it coincides perfectly with what you know you
should do. Like, you may want to go out for a
bike ride because the sun is shining. Or go to
bed early because you're tired. These are convenient
and it helps your body stay healthy. At other
times, you'll find it very tempting to do something
you know you should be avoiding. Like the example
I gave earlier. Eating another slice of cake.
Or two or three. Or, for example, not... exercise
just because you're busy remember it is important
that you don't always you know how do i put this
you don't always have to do the right thing but
you do need to at least compensate for the fact
that you're not doing it you know if you're gonna
fall in one area pick up in another area to compensate
for it you know every now and then it'll be fine
to follow your instincts you can eat an extra
slice of chocolate you can lay around in bed
all day but if you do that too often There are
huge consequences that will fall upon you. For
example, if you overeat and don't exercise enough,
you're likely to end up overweight and looking
like a jelly -filled donut. You know, I understand
that one perfectly well. I've done it, and I
had to pay the price for it, and now I'm losing
weight considerably. And a lot of these can lead
to the development of various chronic diseases,
including diabetes, which I don't have, thank
God. But by all means, you need to give yourself
a break from time to time. But don't let these
bad behaviors become a habit, because habits
are extremely, extremely hard to break. I do
believe I covered that before. If you're not
sure what I'm talking about, go ahead and look
back through my previous podcast. You'll see
it. It's there. Alright? All right, so now after
looking at your body there are three key areas
I need you to make sure you keep in mind right
let's get started with what they are the three
very important aspects looking after your body
first off getting enough rest and sleep second
eating well and three taking an exercise let's
start with the first one rest and sleep And I've
already done a podcast on sleep, on what is sleep,
how is sleep important. If you haven't heard
those, go back and listen to them. I'm not going
to dive into them too much here, but scientists
have done a lot of research on rest and sleep,
but we still don't really know why we need sleep.
We just know that when we're tired, we must go
to sleep. You know, regular periods of rest and
sleep are vital to our personal well -being,
and being deprived of sleep is extremely dangerous.
It limits our ability to do things like drive
and also, you know, makes us very, very ill.
Of course, everyone needs to sleep for slightly
different target ranges and such, you know, just
to give a few examples. Margaret Thatcher, I'm
pretty sure everyone's familiar with that name.
If not, at least the people in Britain are. The
former British Prime Minister famously claimed
that to need only four hours of sleep every night,
and more recently, there has been almost an epidemic.
Among CEOs claiming kudos for early rising. Well,
scientists, however, suggest that most people
need rather more sleep than they think. This
is in turn implies that most of us are probably
trying to get on too little sleep. And we really
shouldn't be doing this. Yes, you can take a
power nap for four hours and get up and function.
But like I said before, this is highly unrecommended.
So, but anyway. What is important is to be aware
of your personal sleep patterns and ensure that
you get enough sleep on a regular basis to function
effectively. That's the main point here. The
other fact of the matter was the food, the diet,
and nutrition that you get from what you eat.
The phrase, you are what you eat, has become
a bit cliche over the many years, but it still
has a basic fact. Most of us know that modern
diets can contain many... too many processed
foods that are either high in fat sugar or salt
and you know we should eat more fresh fruits
and vegetables as part of a healthy balanced
diet which in return will also help you lose
weight if you're trying to lose it you know obesity
high cholesterol levels high blood pressure type
2 diabetes are all common problems in the modern
day life and it's usually related to poor diets
but then the question comes what counts as a
healthy diet Now, if I'm not mistaken, I do believe
I did cover diet and nutrition once before, so
I'm not going to dive into this too much here
either. But, you know, in the reference to the
diet and nutrition, I explained what your body
needs and why. And, you know, it also shows some
simple changes to your diet can make big differences
to your life, like increasing your energy levels,
lifting your spirits, perhaps reducing the likelihood
of becoming ill. reducing your chances of being
extremely lazy you know on the face of it losing
and gaining weight is a fairly simple equation
if you think about it if the number of calories
that you take in is greater than the numbers
you use well you gain weight if you lower the
amount of calories that you intake and you burn
more of them you're just gonna lose more weight
however a closer examination suggests that the
situation is not exactly that simple because
in some people's cases it's the opposite It's
easy to lose weight by dieting, but it's also
much harder to maintain that weight loss on a
long -term basis. There are likely to be other
things going on, like the best approach is to
maintain a healthy weight and avoid dieting,
but this is not always possible for a lot of
people. And many scientists now argue that portion
control is one of the most important aspects
of healthy eating. There's also general agreements
that, you know, we need a balanced diet, though
there is not quite enough. Or rather so much
as an agreement about what exactly a balanced
diet actually looks like but You know perhaps
the best approach is to make sure that you get
enough of the essential building blocks of a
diet and Not too much of any one thing especially
So, what are the elements of a diet? Again, a
lot of this stuff I've already covered before,
so I'm not going to dive into it too much. But
like I said, I'm just giving essentials. So the
elements of a diet is, number one, protein. It's
an essential part of all diets. It's the building
block for our cells and our body, organs, bones,
muscles, and blood. There's so many different
types of protein rich food sources and you know
how your body should use these is relevant to
how that function is used. And again, you know,
I covered what is protein before. Next is the
fat. Fat is also an essential part of our diet
despite its bad press. You know, we can't live
without it and it's far from the most efficient
form of energy. You know, again, like I said,
I covered BMI, I covered what fat is and how
it relates to your body, so feel free to go check
those out later. But, you know, unlike protein
and fat, carbohydrates, usually referred to as
carbs, are not essential to our diets whatsoever.
Most of us probably consume way too many carbs,
you know, and it's something to keep in mind
that, you know, carbohydrates, sugar, sugar,
and the way you diet matter, okay? I did cover
that. Again, in another podcast, so feel free
to go check that out. Next is high -fiber foods.
They help us to maintain healthy digestive systems,
helps boost your metabolism, and keep it regulated.
They also help your body run way more efficiently
than it's needed. I had a guest star over on
my podcast talking about fiber previously, a
couple of episodes back. So if you want to hear
that, along with some of the jokes, feel free
to go and check that out. Now, vitamins are by
definition essential to our health, and there
are 13 that we need to keep our bodies healthy.
Now, I don't remember if I did cover vitamins
before, but I'll definitely cover that later,
so you can look forward to that podcast. But
they are definitely a necessity to keeping our
body, you know, functioning like it should. And
finally, there are some minerals that are extremely
important. Nutritiously that you know such as
calcium and such to help build strong bones and
teeth that we need and again I covered minerals
and nutrients in further detail in another episode,
so These are things that you need to keep in
mind regarding your diet so that you can stay
in shape Next is exercise most people are aware
of advice that we should take exercise regularly
but They don't actually do this. And the question
that's usually arise is, you know, why is this
necessary? But, you know, I can explain that
in more detail and I'll do that next time. So
look forward to tomorrow's episode on the importance
of exercise. But what does that mean and why
is it important? Recommendations vary between
20 minutes of medium intensity exercise, enough
to raise your heart rate per day. you know, up
to three longer sessions of high -intensity activity
per week. Many people perhaps unsurprisingly
conclude that they don't have time to work out.
What should they do? Well, the common -sense
solution, however, is that any exercise is better
than no exercise, so although the recommendations
for the amount and intensity of exercise may
change, nobody has yet concluded that taking
some exercise is bad for you. However, very intense
exercise over long periods or longer periods
can have a lot of detrimental effects, especially
if you're not taking care of yourself like you
should or drinking enough water, as I explained
yesterday. Even if you can't do as much exercise
as is recommended, taking small amounts of exercise
will do you good. It is, however, important to
ease yourself gently into any exercise program.
It doesn't matter what it is. Or if you're one
of those crazy people who thinks insanity is
great, you know. If you haven't been exercising,
especially if it's been a while since you've
exerted yourself doing anything beyond lifting
the TV remote or walking to your car, you know,
it's a risk of injury. And if you overdo it,
you can run the risk of a heart attack or other
problems because you pushed your body too hard
too soon. Okay. There are a number of programs
like Couch to 5K that can help you start exercising
in a controlled way and avoid overdoing it. There's
Taibo on YouTube from the original series that,
you know, used to exist years ago. Hell, if you
were into wrestling, you can do that. You can
go outside and run. You can anything to get you
off the couch, you know, and taking care of yourself
better than you have been before. The thing to
keep in mind is doing the right thing. OK, knowing
what to do and actually doing it are, of course,
quite different things. So it's something to
keep in mind regarding your own self. Caring
for your body is like other aspects of goodness.
And if you work on developing your moral compass,
then you will be able to apply it to doing the
right thing for your body, too. And yes, of course,
sometimes your emotional response will win. And
you won't do the right thing. But with practice,
you will get better at making sure that you take
care of your body like you should. This is something
that you need to keep in mind. Okay? Well, that's
it for today, guys. I hope you enjoyed this podcast
as much as I enjoyed making it. I just want to
help other people understand that caring for
your body does matter. And if you want to live
longer and understand what's going on in the
world, especially since people are... essentially,
how do I put this bluntly, you know, passing
on every single day, you know, then do what you
need to do to ensure that you survive. Wearing
a face mask, that's great and all, you know,
staying six feet apart, that's even better, but
if you don't actually do anything, if you don't
take care of yourself, don't exercise, don't
move, and you keep yourself locked up inside
of a room, then Well, you're no better than a
dog in a cage. Okay? Alright guys, that's it
for this episode. This has been Food for Thought.
Thoughts are fit with you. And I'm your host,
Neogentrix. I'll catch y 'all next time with
the importance of exercise.