UPHEALTHING - it's the new big thing (for a littler you!)

Princess Bride is my favourite movie, I’ve watched it dozens of times and still laugh every time. One of my favourite lines is “…get some rest, if you haven’t got your health, you haven’t got anything”. If you haven’t seen the movie, treat yourself and you’ll see why this is so funny.

But apart from being funny, it’s also the truth. As someone who has discovered what life can be like without a debilitating immune disease, I value being able to move without pain, and will do what I can to make sure I stay this healthy for as long as possible.

It is typically human to not think about our personal future. We all know, at some level, that the lifestyles we lead have an impact on our later lives, but most of us think “we’ll deal with it when the time comes”.

What we don’t realise is the time has already here for most of us. Almost all of us, in this western world, will already have signs of the diseases that are most likely to kill us: clogged arteries, fatty liver, cholesterol build up and inflammation and high blood sugar.

Since the 60s and the invention of fast food and hyper-processing we haven’t been doing so well with our eating patterns. We’re fatter than any generation ever before and the impact of obesity and overweight is taking years off our lives and years off our functional health.

BUT, we can halt – and even reverse – the damage that bad diet is doing and add years of healthspan to our lifespan.

So how to tip the scales back to having a longer, healthier life?

I call it “uphealthing” and the good news is that it doesn’t have to be difficult and it doesn’t have to mean changing your whole diet lifestyle. It’s a matter of adding and substituting.