The vast majority of heart disease is preventable. In the first part of “how to reduce your risk of heart disease” we looked at nutrition and a heart healthy diet.

Today we’re going to look at lifestyle and how we can prevent heart disease.

Dr Zarrin Shaikh, Consultant Cardiolgist

Thank you so much to Dr Zarrin for coming and chatting to us.

A Heart Healthy Lifestyle Podcast Episode

How to Live a Heart Healthy Lifestyle

1. Exercise (at least 25 minutes of getting out of breath a day).
2. Reduce Stress.
3. Mindfulness and Meditation.
4. Sleep Well (7-8 hours a night).
5. Friends an\d Community.

Exercise Gives Us More than a Healthy Heart

A sedentary lifestyle is a major risk factor for heart disease. Regular exercise is associated with significantly lower risk of heart disease.

Walking 25 minutes a day can add up to 7 years to your life!

Exercise can also make you happier!

Exercise can lengthen your telomeres and help you live longer.

You need to do enough exercise...

A Lot of Heart Disease is Preventable

Today I want you to grasp this message! The vast majority of heart disease is preventable.

You can significantly reduce your risk of heart disease by eating a healthy diet and making good life style choices.

Dr Zarrin Shaikh, Consultant Cardiologist

Today, Dr Zarrin is talking about what to eat to prevent heart disease.

Next week she’ll tell us about lifestyle choices.

Protect Your Heart Through Diet Podcast Episode 4

World wide heart disease is the leading cause of death.

In the UK around 7 million people are living with heart disease.

Heart disease causes a quarter of all deaths.

This includes all “cardiovascular disease”.

In the UK the death rate is falling due to advances in medical technology. However, more people are getting heart disease due to life style choices.

Patients With Heart Disease Are Getting Younger and Sicker

Dr Zarrin tells a story about a 25 year old who she treated who had had a massive...

Mediation is a fantastic way change your way of being from “grumpy, stressed and angry” to “calm and happy”. There are heaps of benefits of meditation. Health benefits, emotional benefits and even being more productive.

People have been meditating for thousands of years. In recent years, we’ve started to study the effects of meditation.

Meditation for Beginners Podcast

Benefits of Meditation

There are so many health benefits to meditation that I’m not going to list them all.

Meditation also helps us sleep well which helps us reduce our stress levels.

Meditation has a direct impact on stress as well.

1. Stress reduction
2. Weight loss (ref https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29076610)
3. Anxiety
4. Productivity
5. Self awareness
6. Sleep
7. Health benefits: Pain
8. Blood pressure

Article of 76 positive benefits: https://liveanddare.com/benefits-of-meditation/

What is Meditation?

Essentially meditation is shutting off that “constant train of...

Letting Go of Anger and Living a Happy Life

Today I’m talking about how to change from “stressed and angry” to “calm and happy”. “Healthy living” includes our emotional well being so today, let’s make a start on how to let go of anger.

Letting Go of Anger Podcast

Why Bother to Let Go of Anger?

In “How to Break the Habit of Being Ourselves”, Dr Joe Dispenza talks about how we get “addicted to being a bad mood”. (That’s not an exact quote!)

We get hooked on whinging and complaining but it’s not good for our health.

Being angry is stressful which can contribute to bad health.

Also, it’s WAY more fun to be happy and content.

What is Anger?

Anger is an emotion. It often triggers a physiological response called the “fight, flight or freeze” response. Other emotions can also trigger physiological responses, often less obvious. (E.g. being happy makes us relax and decreases...

 Everything you need to know about the health benefits of the Mediterranean Style Diet (MSD). In today’s episode, I explain why I love the MSD. We look at the research papers that have lead to claims of health benefits. Then we have a think about how you can apply it to your life.

Health Benefits of the Med Style Diet Podcast

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 Why Do I LOVE the Med Style Diet?

• It’s super easy. Just make “healthy tweaks”.
• It can be applied to any cuisine.
• It’s supported by research.

Research show us the Health Benefits of the Med Style Diet

in 2011 the PREDIMED study (funded by the Spanish government) showed lots of benefits to the Mediterranean way of eating.

There was one study with many different papers. (Check out the links below.)

• Less weight around the middle (the dangerous fat aka “central adiposity”.)
• Less likely to get heart disease (specifically stroke).
• Less likely to get type 2 diabetes.
• Less likely to...

Welcome to the very first “Fit and Fabulous” podcast. I want you to feel fit and fabulous so you can enjoy your life. I’ll be showing you how to eat and live healthily (and lose weight if you want to.)

Fit and Fabulous Podcast Introduction

Who Am I?

I’m Dr Orlena. I’m from the UK and trained as a paediatric doctor. (That’s British for “pediatric”. We love our extra vowels!)

In 2011 I moved to Spain. Now I have 4 kids and work on line helping people to eat and live healthily.

Currently I offer one on one weight loss coaching. (If you’re interested in one on one coaching, feel free to book a mini session to see if we’re a good fit.)

What We’ll Chat About in the Podcast

I’ll be showing you how easy it is to live a healthy life!

Many Chronic Disease Are Avoidable

If we look at the top 10 causes of death world wide, there are many that are avoidable with healthy eating and living.

I call the 3 biggies (cancer, heart...

There are SO many benefits of eating a healthy diet. There are "personal mind and body" benefits and "health" benefits.

Benefits of A Healthy Diet and Life Video

Healthy Eating Reduces Your Risk of Diseases

It is heart breaking that so many people are getting unwell with avoidable diseases. The good news is that you can prevent YOUR risk of many disease by eating a healthy diet and living a healthy lifestyle (exercise and stress.)

There are many, many diseases that we can avoid but the "big nasties" are:

• Heart Disease
• Cancer
• Type 2 Diabetes
• Obesity and all the complication of obesity.

In short, you are far more likely to live longer if you eat healthy food!

You Feel Great When You Eat Healthy Food and Lead a Health Life

Once you start to work on your diet and life style, everything starts to fall into place. Your get thinner, more agile. Those "wobbly bits" disappear. You feel more confident in yourself.

Many people feel happier and more productive as a consequence of...

Whether you want to change lose weight and change the way you eat, or be less grumpy and change your way of being, you need to master your prefrontal cortex. Otherwise you'll just find yourself slipping back into your old ways.

Changing Habits Video

95% of what our brain does is subconscious. It's on autopilot.

For example, you have decided to give up flour. The prefrontal cortex, the thinking part of your brain makes that decision.

Then you find yourself eating a cake.

And then you think "Hang on a minute? What happened there?"

The answer is habits.

Your Brain and Body Like Familiar

The more primitive part of your brain, the bit that all the animals have, went "We want what's familiar!"

When you are in that situation, your neurones are reverting back to what you were used to, which is to eat cake.

This leads to a struggle within ourselves and that is difficult to overcome.

But there are ways of overcoming it.

Mastering Your Prefrontal Cortex

Here...

Thoughts of losing weight and hunger go hand in hand . No one wants to feel "deprived". But understanding how hunger works can give you useful tools to lose weight.

Hunger and Losing Weight Video

What Happens When We Get Hungry?

People are scared of hunger.

We live in this fear of not the be hungry.

But what really happens when we get hungry?

When the body gets hungry, our body begins to use its fat deposits as a fuel source. So being hungry is not necessarily a bad thing.

Tune into Your Hunger with the Hunger Scale

What I recommend is to tune into your hunger and really understand why you are eating.

Think about hunger with having a scale from 0 to 10 with 10 being I'm totally full and stuffed, 0 being I'm perfectly fine and -10 as I'm absolutely ravenous. 

You want to be eating from -2 to 2. You're not waiting until you are totally ravenous and equally not eating until you are totally stuffed.

You want to eat until you are no longer hungry - until you are...

Believe it or not, you can eat chocolate as part of a healthy diet. Nothing is forbidden in moderation! Treats, like chocolate, are allowed.

How to Eat Chocolate As Part of a Healthy Diet Video

However, just make sure you follow the basic rules:

Rule 1:  Remember the big difference between regular chocolate bars and dark chocolate. Dark chocolate is the healthier option between the two.

Rule 2: Take note of your body's sugar spikes and how to avoid them.

Rule 3: Fuel eating and "treat" eating.

Rule 4: Mindful eating

Author Bio

Dr Orlena is a health coach. She helps busy mums go from "I can't lose weight" to feeling fit and fabulous. Find out more about her here.