When it comes to diet, most people think of it as deprivation. Diet is restriction, boredom, it is prescribed by some so-called expert (how many books have you bought on the subject and yet got nowhere?). Sadly, most of us have lost our way, we’re unable to trust ourselves what is right and good for us. We’re no longer self-sufficient, foraging Neanderthals, neither are we evolved enough to be linked up to some magic tube that feeds us all the right stuff in the just right amount, with the benefit of no thinking and planning necessary. So this gives some of us considerable anxiety. What is right and how do you do it?
Exercise is diet. No way around it. The easiest diet there is around, I might say. Take it from me. I have ditched my car. Not an easy choice. I am not telling you to do the same. In some places, commuting is the only way out of Sleepyville. So you just get out of the car earlier and walk a bit longer to your destination. The proverbial 20 minutes a day are a joke. But you could go for a sprint a day. A high intensity 3 minute workout is apparently just as good. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17177251 Imagine the time you have left over to do all the cooking from scratch! I ran this morning. I enjoy it, that’s why I do it. Then, just to get my hair cut, run errands (!) I walked into town, did what I had to do and had a look around. After that the long trek back (10 km, if that helps) Good, that’s done.
The next specifically smart diet is this: avoid having anything in your kitchen cupboards that make you weak in the knees, especially after a hard day, whatever a hard day means to you. Physical exertions has made me weak in the knees, and I have nothing in the cupboards that I can take off the shelf and put in my mouth, pronto. Nothing there that doesn’t need to be prepared and cooked. I am patting my back. Well done, I have painted myself into a very healthy corner. No goodies, no car, and quite a way to walk to the nearest shop. So that diet is done and dusted.
So lets recap: exercise will lower your blood pressure naturally. At the moment I feel like the aforementioned foraging Neanderthal, but you don’t have to go as far! ‘Aerobic fitness is a measure of how good your heart and lungs are at getting oxygen into your body and is an excellent predictor of future health’ says the presenter of Horizon: The Truth about Exercise. The 3 minute sprint will do it for you. Then do diet again: have nothing in your cupboards that seduce you to fudge your healthy living. Treats now and again are allowed and welcome. Even I do it and enjoy it tremendously. But only once in a while. Aerobic fitness brings on the right weight brings on the right lower blood pressure naturally. What more do you want and need to do? Nada!
