CureHealth Comprehensive Health & Wellness Programme
This programme includes managing health concerns relating to metabolic syndrome, especially obesity
Welcome to the first exciting step on your journey to health and wellness! Even though this programme has been developed to facilitate effective and long-term weight loss, this system has been designed to holistically address all your health and wellness needs to support attaining & maintaining optimal health and longevity.
Here at CureHealth we understand fully that just because YOU have made the decision to become the healthier version of yourself, life’s challenges and curve balls are not about to disappear. Therefore, be kind to yourself and remember that years of suboptimal food choices, living a sedentary lifestyle and difficulties with stress management won’t resolve or disappear within a few short weeks.
We recommend adhering to the 80:20 principle where 80% of the time, you aim to make better choices, including decisions relating to nutrition, exercise, sleep and managing stressful situations.
How to implement this programme:
Knowledge is really power and once you understand the basic mechanisms that are contributing to many of our current health challenges, implementing the necessary changes to counteract these will be significantly easier.
To quantify your progress, as well as ensuring that all our recommendations are executed in a medically safe manner, we strongly recommend making an appointment to see your family physician before embarking on this health journey. Please discuss the program with your physician and request that the 5 denominators of metabolic health, namely your waist circumference, blood pressure, fasting blood glucose level, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level (HDL level) and triglyceride levels are documented before commencing the program. Improvement to these factors will confirm improvement to your overall metabolic health and help to motivate you to adhere to the process!
The program has at its core seven distinct aspects relating to our physical and mental health. It is important to recognize that this is not a stepwise approach i.e. we need to address all of these principles simultaneously, but focusing more attention initially on nutrition and gut health before implementing changes to your exercise and sleep routines are perfectly acceptable.
Please click on the links provided to access the CureHealth Comprehensive Health and Wellness playlist on our YouTube channel. This playlist offers valuable information on implementing our program and could be a transformative step in your journey to better health.
Seven health aspects to address to optimize your health and wellness:
1. Optimize gut health:
Please review the CureHealth Introduction video, as well as the podcasts referring to the Gut-Mitocondrial Connection, as well as the Link between Gut Microbiota and Obesity on our YouTube channel.
We strongly recommended initiating the complete CureHealth Gut Health and Immune/Allergy Support protocol (GBSI # 1 – 9), aiming for a total duration of 3 – 6 months of being on the full protocol, depending on the severity of your health concerns being addressed.
A maintenance programme following this initial phase will be provided, again depending on your health requirements.
2. Dietary principles
We strongly recommend implementing a Carbohydrate Conscious Mediterranean type diet. Please refer to the two podcasts relating to the health benefits of following a Mediterranean diet as well as receiving tips on how to implement such a diet. Please see the videos on our YouTube Channel: Mediterranean Diet 101 & 8 Ways the Mediterranean Diet Can Help You Live a Healthier Life
We also recommend referring to the workbook on this website for extensive information on healthy food options and nutritional factors to consider. Remember the aim is not deprivation but nourishing your body with nutritious food and developing a healthy relationship with food, especially when shared with family and friends. Please click on the links if you would like to see some meal plans incorporating these dietary principles: 30-Day Low-Carb Mediterranean Meal Plan for Summer, Created by a Dietitian, 30-Day Low-Carb Mediterranean Diet Meal Plan & Low-Carb Mediterranean Diet Plan, Created by a Dietitian
3. Intermittent Fasting (Time Restricted Eating)
Following a time restricted eating pattern has many proven health benefits including addressing chronic, low grade inflammation, helping to facilitate weight loss, improving and supporting cardiovascular health as well as reversing insulin resistance.
Please refer to our 2 videos on the playlist, one explaining the benefits of Intermittent Fasting and the other giving guidance on the initiation of such an eating pattern.
We strongly recommend discussing a time restricted eating plan with your family physician before initiating such, to confirm that you have no health concerns that would make this eating pattern hazardous to your health. Children, women who are pregnant or moms that are breastfeeding should NOT follow this eating pattern.
4. Psychological factors relating to nutrition / weight gain:
Please refer to the videos on our playlist addressing psychological factors that might influence our eating patterns, the concept of food addiction and how feeling anxious can affect your relationship with food. Please also refer to the 2 videos discussing sugar addiction and the adverse health implications of ingesting too much sugar.
Psychological Factors That Shape and Maintain Obesity, Understanding Anxiety Eating: How Stress Impacts Your Relationship with Food, Sugar Addiction: From Evolution to Revolution, 11 Reasons Why Sugar Is Bad for You, Understanding Anxiety Eating: How Stress Impacts Your Relationship with Food
5. Sleep:
Please refer to our playlist to understand the undeniable health benefits of prioritizing an adequate amount of sleep per night as well as how to restore your sleep cycle to maximize your health and weight loss efforts.
6. Exercise:
Engaging in physical activities on a consistent basis have definite long-term health benefits including weight loss, increasing resting metabolic rate (especially when engaging in resistance training), lowering blood pressure and reversing insulin resistance. Please refer to our YouTube channel to access information to this regard, including a reference to the Eight best exercises for weight loss, as well as the Guide to exercise and metabolic health.
Please take into account your level of fitness and health concerns at the onset of you embarking on a new exercise program. It may be prudent to discuss an appropriate approach to physical activity with your family physician to formulate the best exercise routine, based on your medical history.
Also remember that leading a mostly sedentary lifestyle, obesity and insulin resistance all have a negative effect on your mitochondria (the powerhouses of your cells, especially the cells in your muscle fibers) and this can result in fatigue and muscle discomfort when you start a new exercise routine. Be gentle on yourself, start slow & allow enough recovery time in between times of increased physical activity. Please review the Gut-Mitochondrial Connection on our YouTube channel again to fully understand potential initial challenges you might encounter at the onset of increased physical activity.
7. Stress management:
It is unfortunate but true that our modern lifestyle inevitably results in us experiencing multiple stressful areas in our lives. Although we often are not able to escape these stressful situations, how we learn how to cope with stress and anxiety will have a very measurable effect on our health. Please refer to the Eight ways to manage stress and overcome mental barriers to weight loss to help understand our bodies’ physiological response to stressful situations and how to counteract these with mindfulness and being aware of our innate reactions to stressful situations.
It is extremely important though to promote accessing professional care to help address concerns relating to depression, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive behaviours, especially binge-eating behaviour, if you are unable to change your mood, level of anxiety or behavioral patterns through your own efforts.
Typical therapies would include cognitive behavioral therapy or habit reversal therapy. Please feel free to contact our professional psychologist Estelle Meyer at 083 676 1743 to book a consultation if you feel that professional intervention is warranted to help you to be successful on this journey.