How to have more energy, better health and shed body fat

How to Have More Energy and Better Health Heidi Di Santo is a motivational speaker known as ‘Australia’s Energy Expert’. She is most commonly recognized through her program. Her book ‘Heidi’s Lose Size and Energize’ was released in September 2005 and is available from all good book stores. For more information visit . It was only a few years ago that I was really sick. I was covered in eczema to the point where the skin on my neck would peel like a snake shedding its skin, and I used to wear scarves to try to conceal the ugly sight. I would take steroid tablets regularly in an attempt to control it, and was constantly smothering cortisone cream all over my body. I regularly suffered from asthma and relied heavily on my Ventolin (puffer) medication. I often had hay fever, experienced sore tonsils, contracted the latest cold, and was even diagnosed with a breast lump and abnormal cells on a pap smear test. I realize now that my body was trying to talk to me to tell me to make some changes, but I just kept ignoring its messages. So its messages kept getting louder and more severe in terms of symptoms. Finally, my body won the battle and I had to do something about my health when my energy failed. I had glandular fever and chronic fatigue syndrome and I was told by the medical profession there was nothing they could do to help me other than to ‘go home and rest’. I wasn’t satisfied with this solution, so I embarked on a personal journey to get well and regain my lost energy. By questioning our modern way of life and finding a more natural way to live, I was able to regain my lost energy and overcome my lifelong struggle with chronic eczema, allergies, asthma and other illnesses. My name is Heidi Di Santo and I am writing this article because I am so passionate about sharing this life-changing information with you, because I know from first-hand experience that it works. The scary thing was that prior to my new way of living, I thought I was doing the right things by my health! I was exercising regularly, I ate ‘low fat, high carbohydrate foods’ and yet I was constantly sick. The purpose of this article is to provide you with the information that I was lacking so that you can make more informed decisions about the way you live your life. The first issue with our way of life is that we tend to treat symptoms and not problems:
PROBLEM SYMPTOM
TREATMENT
High blood pressure/high cholesterol Pills All my life I had been smothering my body with cortisone cream and using steroids to try and control my eczema and allergies. But these treatments act on the symptom and not the problem. The problem, which is a lifestyle that is not conducive to health, still remains. The only real solution is to treat the cause of the problem! When you treat the cause of the problem (a poor lifestyle), the symptoms seem to disappear. A side benefit is that you also shed body fat and have heaps of energy. Western lifestyle has deviated so far away from what is required to be truly healthy that huge changes are required and they can be divided into three areas: 1. Eating for optimum health and energy - I truly believe that the refined nature of
the carbohydrate foods we eat in today’s society is at the root of our many healthy problems. Carbohydrate grain foods are not bad for you, however the type of carbohydrate foods we have access to are. We tend to eat highly refined carbohydrate grain foods (eg bread, pasta, packaged cereals) which have a negative impact on blood sugar and lead to insulin resistance (syndrome X), which is a precursor to energy loss, obesity, cardiovascular disease and diabetes. If people want to be healthy and avoid these lifestyle diseases, they need to become aware of the type of grain foods they consume. Grainy, gritty, nutty whole grains are required. Things like quinoa, whole oats, brown rice, buckwheat kernels are fantastic options. High quality protein and good fats also have a positive impact on stabalising blood sugar. I call my way of eating ‘cave man eating’ because if a cave man could obtain it, then I eat it. It would be easy for a cave man to obtain water, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, lean protein and whole grains, so these form the basis of what I eat. It would be virtually impossible for him to obtain refined grains and cereals, chocolate, chips, salami, cheese, pastries, biscuits, cakes, white fluffy bread, scones, hot dogs, two-minute noodles, lollies, hamburgers, pies and bread rolls, so I go out of my way to avoid them. There are some fantastic recipes on how to ‘cave man eat’ in Appendix A of my book ‘Heidi’s Lose Size & Energize’. 2. Living for optimum health and energy - If someone had told me 10 years ago
that in the future I would have had all of the mercury fillings removed from my teeth, be cleaning my house without chemicals, be using natural products to wash my body, be eating predominantly organic foods (the majority of which are raw or in their most natural form), not be using the contraceptive pill and avoiding medication except in life-threatening circumstances, I would have thought them crazy. But here I am, and I feel fantastic for it. There are so many unnatural chemicals, additives and preservatives that have been added to our way of life over the past five or more decades that you have to start to question whether there is a link between them and the increasing incidence of lifestyle disease in our society. You will find many questionable ingredients in everyday foods, personal care products (for example, skincare, makeup, perfume, deodorant, shampoo, conditioner) and cleaning products. Becoming aware of them and avoiding the nasty ones where possible is the key to improving your health. This generally means avoiding packaged and processed foods. Humans are meant to eat fresh foods, not food that was grown years ago, that has been packaged and stored on a shelf for goodness how long, that is laden with preservatives to keep it from going off! If you are interested in knowing more about avoiding nasty chemicals and how they impact negatively on your health read the book ‘Heidi’s Lose Size & Energize’. 3. Exercising for optimum health and energy - Most people carry around too
much body fat and not enough muscle. Muscle is where your energy is produced and the more muscle you have, the more energy you will have. Strength training is therefore essential if you truly want to be healthy. Strength/weight training becomes even more important as you grow older. This is because an adult loses around three kilograms of muscle tissue every decade. If you are not doing weight training, your metabolism will naturally slow down as you grow older and your fat stores will naturally increase. Exercise, including weight training is an essential part of life for every one at every age. I truly believe that people need to take responsibility for their health rather than expecting the medical system to ‘fix’ their years of health neglect with a pill or potion that will often have other side effects. I’ve learned that if you don’t address the cause of the problem, which is generally a lifestyle that is not conducive to good health, the symptoms grow worse as your body tries to communicate with you to make change. So what are you waiting for? You are the one that is in control! If you would like to take control of your health, and address the cause of the problem rather that just symptoms for information about undertaking my ‘12 week challenge’. My book ‘Heidi’s Lose Size and Energize’ is all about getting healthy. When you focus on becoming really healthy, your lifestyle symptoms seem to sort themselves out, your body naturally starts to shed fat (if it needs to) and you also start to have heaps of energy. The 12 week challenge, as outlined in my book, is designed to get you to put the information in the book into action. The idea of the 12 weeks is to develop new habits for the rest of your life. It is not something that you ‘go on’ and ‘go off’.

Source: http://www.heidi.com.au/articles/harts/How%20to%20Have%20More%20Energy.pdf