We all know that the key to life is balance and variety.  We have up times when we chill out and let life drift by, and then we have downtimes when we get stressed out about inconsequential things. But we all have a chance of feeling fulfilled. If you’re on a stand-up board or into any ocean paddle sport then in my opinion you’re half way there… and by ‘there’ I mean that you’re taking control and giving yourself the chance to enjoy this life and our planet.

Getting that work life balance is essential. A key player in achieving balance and dealing with the highs and lows is nutrition. We all want that dream lifestyle of health, time and relaxation, and nutrition is incredibly important in achieving this. However, this area seems to be a minefield of misinformation. We have nutrition ‘for sport’ and for a ‘particular event’, we have nutrition for ‘weight loss’, ‘weight gain’ and for ‘ultimate health’. Everyone claims to be expert holding the key to being ‘healthy’. If we take a look at the term healthy, the word doesn’t just mean you are physically fit or devoid of disease. It’s mental and social health as well. All these things and emotions and physical manners are balanced out by what we stick in our mouths. It amazes me that people don’t see the profound effect that nutrition can have. Ask yourselves this: If I make 2-3 million red blood cells every second, what do I want those blood cells to be made out of? A piece of organic grass fed beef or a take away burger and fries?
I’m a big believer in looking to the past, looking at what we ate when lifestyle disease was scarce, when heart disease and cancer didn’t exist in the forms they do today. If we take a look at the origins of paddle sports and cultures that formed them, they were amazing in their physical prowess and presence. The characteristics of the Polynesian race included thick hair, oval features, happy buoyant dispositions and splendid physiques.

Raw like sushi
The health and beauty the indigenous tribes showed earned one region, the Marquesas Islands, the title ‘The Garden of Eden’.  The islander’s diets where based around seafoods, many of which were shellfish.  The octopus, the sea crab and the sea cucumber were all eaten raw.  All native tribes used an underground oven of hot stones for cooking the non raw elements of their diets; the Hawaiian Islands presented one unique difference in the method of preparation of their Taro (the potato of the tropics).  They cook the root as do all other tribes, but having done so they dry the taro, powder it and mix it with water and allow it to ferment, usually for 24 hours or more.  Fermented foods carry healthy bacteria into the gut where 80% of the immune function lies.
In all of the groups studied, those living on native foods with liberal intake of animal life of the sea had excellent health. When the seafood’s were quite limited in the diet, health suffered. The conditions were particularly prevalent among all groups near ports where Western traders introduced western commerce food such as tins, preserves and sugar. Any culture that gained access to these foods had a significant rise in all the major disease states, which includes cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes and obesity.

Triggers of weight gain and obesity
High carbohydrate diets (processed or whole foods)
Adrenal Fatigue (too much stress)
Hormonal Factors (foods, products and pharmaceuticals)
Cravings and satiety (difference between feeling full and feeling satisfied)

High carbohydrate diets: These are one of the biggest influences on fat storage because of the impact of the hormone insulin; we usually think of the word insulin in association with the term diabetes, which is correct.  But this hormone is the only fat storing hormone in your body and is only needed when you eat carbohydrates (sugar).  Rice, pasta, fruit and vegetables are all sugar based.  These foods all drive up insulin levels which promotes fat storage in your body.
People that eat too much carbohydrate and therefore produce too much insulin usually store excess fat on the love handles and on the upper back just below the shoulder blade.  The easiest way to shift this fat is to lower your carbohydrate intake reducing your starch intake.

Stress:  Stress has a big influence on fat stores.  People suffering with a lot of stress tend to store their fat around the belly or adrenal area.   The reason being, fat is an essential component in making hormones (e.g. adrenaline).  A stressed person needs and runs on a lot of adrenaline and the glands which make it are sat above your kidneys.  The best way help with weight loss is to decrease the stress in your life and schedule in restorative time.  This will have a meditative effect and help with your body’s stress coping strategy.

Hormonal factors: These can have a heavy influence of weight management, particularly in women.  Oestrogen is a potent fat storing hormone in the area specific to the hips and thighs due to the situation of the hormonally sensitive reproductive glands. Excessive intake of this hormone can increase weight gain in these areas.  Oestrogen mimicking compounds like xenoestrogens, found in plastics, phytoestrogens, and in plant based foods, are particularly high in soy foods, pesticides, herbicides and oral contraceptives.

Cravings and satiety:  Cravings aren’t all in your mind, they are down to the foods that you eat. We have access to so much processed food that’s cheap that’s cheaper than live food (that either grew from the ground or had eyes). It is essential that you feed your body live food, food that makes you feel energised.  Live food will make you feel this way.  Dead highly processed food will have the exact opposite reaction.  It will make you feel lethargic, tired, fatigued and ill in some cases. So anything in a tin stick in the bin, anything in a packet, sack it!

RYAN’S TOP DIETARY TIPS
Avoid and/or reduce:
Grains and grain products, wheat, buckwheat and spelt flour, breads, pastries, pasta, rice, cereals and cereal bars, potatoes, fries & crisps, sweet potatoes, milk chocolate, ice creams, sweet deserts, soft drinks, commercial fruit juices, low fat yoghurts / drinks.
Avoid:
Aspartame, saccharin, acesulfame K sucralose.
Look for:
Grass fed meats (beef, lamb, venison), Free range pork, Pasture raised poultry & eggs, Natural ocean/river caught fish, Whole food seasonal fruit & vegetables, Full fat dairy (non-homogenised), Cold pressed oils (coconut, olive & flax), Celtic or Himalayan salts.
Hormonal disruption:
Avoid soy products (phytoestrogens)
Avoid plastic packaging (xenoestrogens)
Organic foods only (pesticide disruption)
Avoid hormonal contraceptives
Food and practises to help support stress:
Proteins / fats and CHO eaten at every meal and every snack (if snacks needed).
Eat plenty of organic vegetables combined with traditional fats – butter, lard, coconut & olive oil.
Ensure regular use of natural, unprocessed salt.
Fruit consumption should be limited – focus on low GL fruits up to 10% of your diet.
Steps to help with stress reduction:
Take time out to eat – engage parasympathetic responses that aid relaxation and digestion.
Create habit of earlier sleep patterns – be in bed by 10pm when possible.
Try not to over schedule personal or family life.
Plan in some personal, restorative time each day.