Month: June 2016

Vlog – ‘Beginning the journey…’ : Script and Link

Link to Vlog – beginning the journey – in which I try to find a starting point to create a new healthy world order for myself…

A more or less transcription of the vlog is set out here with the full versions of the drawings to have a closer look at should you wish! It goes something like this:

‘I dunno about you but I find the amount of information there is around concerning the whys and wherefores of healthy eating and healthy living a tad overwhelming – I really want to find a path through, create some kind of instruction manual for my healthy self but, frankly, I didn’t know where to begin…!

Common sense suggests many things contribute to the answer – our genetics, the food we eat, the lifestyle we lead, our financial and geographical access even the mental attitude we adopt.

So I decided to attempt to distill all the many rampaging thoughts, stashes of information, facts, trivia and theories I already have coursing through my brain down about all this into an initial idea – or rather a starting point – from which to begin my explorations and investigations proper.

Trouble is this distilling process could take ages to sift through all the detritus to find the nuggets of gold so I set myself a 5 minute limit and just wrote down headline words around the subject and these are the things came to the front. You’ll be able to add hundreds more, no doubt, but as I say it’s a starting point at least! This is what came out of my head…!

Already terrifying! I shall now go and have a lie down for a while…and cry a bit I think too…

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Right, I’m back and as Alison Moyet would say, ‘I’m all cried out…’! So, how in the name of all things sane am I supposed to juggle all that?! Well, first thing, I’m gonna jettison all that pointless stuff – celebrity diets, super-model six packs and attempted perfection and comparison. Ooof it’s embarrassing that nonsense is even in my head…!

The rest I will need to organise into some sort of manageable system or I’m in danger of ping-ponging between them all – spending 5 minutes on each and not really achieving much OR worse still – ricocheting off each thing terrified and racked with guilt that I’ve not achieved any of them at all!! Spinning around like a dog chasing its tail…!!

None of this will do my health – body or mind – any good!

I always think it’s like spinning plates that we have to keep going! Giving each one a tiny swizzle to prevent it from crashing to the floor…!

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This clearly leads to madness! So, with the barriers of healthy living, I mentioned in the previous post, firmly in mind and for the true purpose of future investigations and explorations – I have tried to organise this even more – and attempted to create a visual to keep in mind all the key elements that I need to remind myself of so I can begin to understand and establish my new world health order!

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Hmmm…this puts me in mind of the phrase ‘everything in moderation’ – but perhaps the truth is nearer ‘everything in balance’.

As a final thought…if I am able to create a blueprint for a healthy, vital lifestyle is it actually going to be possible to achieve and will I be able to do the things needed to achieve it, and, ultimately will I want to…?

We shall see…’

Link to the vlog here

Vlog – ‘Introduction’ : Script and Link

Link to the vlog – Mathew Bose Introduction. In which I try to explain why I’m doing this…!

A more or less transcription of the vlog is below:

I don’t know about you but I find the billions of pieces of nutritional and health advice that are hurled at us morning, noon and night a tad overwhelming so I’m trying to find some kind of path through it all here.

I’ll be exploring all the things I find interesting relating to all things health and nutrition..and probably more besides because I love a tangent…

This will be a kind of virtual scrapbook for all the things I think are worth investigating and learning about to help me take charge of my own health care…and hopefully you’ll find some of it interesting too and perhaps even useful…!

I think the key to a good general health, in the modern western world, lies in understanding exactly what stands between us and a healthy lifestyle – which to me means one filled with relatively disease free, graceful ageing!

There are, in fact, 5 established barriers to healthier choices which are headlined as biological, time, economics, social and psychological. All pretty important and necessary to explore in their own right – and, of course, many of us have several at once!

But I think there is an overarching, super headline, to all these – knowledge. Knowledge is key to overcoming all the barriers. Knowing how things work, knowing what the effect of foods, exercise, water etc has on your body, knowing the ways to avoid unhealthy choices and so on. Knowledge is power, right? The power to gift ourselves a good healthy body and mind.

I think many people turn to nutrition because of their weight or an illness draws them into thinking about making changes. As time goes on it becomes clearer and clearer to me that imposing something, such as a diet, on your body rarely works. There may well be results within the short controlled initial period but then what..?

It is logical that we should be working in unison with our bodies and our minds, right, not bolting something on and forcing it to submission.

There is a new understanding regarding our bodies and health these days and the old ‘rules’ we were brought up on like ‘fat makes you fat’ and ‘just eat less and move about more’ are being proved to be false and useless.

So, everytime we are advised to follow some nutritional rule for our greater health I’m asking why? Eat less sugar? Yes, ok…but why? Don’t eat refined carbs? Ok, great…but why? Do some exercise? Sure, but why? And so on…because I think understanding the why to these things will make it easier to follow and achieve what is actually a lifelong, lifestyle change.

I’m also hoping to use the answers to these questions to build some kind of framework, a blueprint from which to begin to overcome these barriers and build a strong body that can heal itself and consequently change our lives for the healthier…for good.

Common sense suggests many things contribute to this. Our genes, the food we eat, the life we lead, our financial and geographical access, our mentality and so on…

If we were able to strip back everything to discover exactly what we have to do to live a full, vital, healthy life what would that look like? Is it possible to find out definitively? Is it possible to achieve even? And ultimately would we want to do the necessary things to achieve it?

I don’t want transient faddy waffle – I want actionable and practical things to do to reach my optimal health and if I find them I will bring them to you. And I hope, in turn, you’ll show me things and together we will be un-stoppably awesome.

Link to the vlog here.