LASERS AND THE LIFE COACH - CHAPTER 3

To eat or not be eaten.

Chapter 3 Eat your way to faster Laser sailing.

Eat your way to faster sailing?

Eat your way to better health?

Eat your way to better cholesterol, blood sugar, heart, arteries, brain, weight and less cancer!

Take this in two parts. THE FIRST PART is just the general move to vegetarian diet plus fish. This has been noted in places around the world where health is better and people live longer. The Seventh Day Advertises have long been noted for general health and longevity with vegetarian diet and exercise. The sugars need to go. Sugars give a fast push to blood glucose which is not a good thing. Artificial sweeteners are suspect in the long run, so get along without them?

Saturated fat and trans fat need to change to unsaturated fat, like olive oil, corn oil, canola oil. People that are more worried about getting all the essential amino acids, allow some lean meat like chicken and turkey. Whole grain where ever possible.

Probably the strong influence of the industries associated with dairy, meat, cattle, pigs, hamburger, hot dogs, ice cream and candy, the good old American way, has helped suppress this information, but now with the march of obesity and diabetes across the general population the news is out.

THE SECOND PART would be the the overall sailors weight. To weigh more to hold the boat down in windier conditions, then build muscle mass. See Chapter Two.. Strength Building.

To loose weight to be faster down wind and the live healthier and longer life, then do “the first part” plus cut down on the calories taken in. Give up the extra fat. Consider the plan to take in 6 small meals a day to avoid the drastic drop in blood sugar from long times between eating, and the binge eating that often begins with the sugar drop. Count calories because calories count. Push the exercise. So now we have you concentrating on fruits, vegetables and legumes.

Diets rich in Omega 3 fatty acids may help promote emotional balance and positive mood. Studies have shown that people eating more fish have better memory and less dementia. Omega 3 fatty acids are present in fish and thought to be at least part of reason so many fish eating places turn out healthy. Fish also turn up the problem of too much mercury. More Omega 3 in wild salmon, mackerel, and tuna. Maybe you can just work your way through types of fish, but often fish oil supplement is recommended. Then Omega 3 is present in canola and soy bean oil.

Animal studies have shown that 30 % reduction in the food that is given to animals lead to healthier and long lived individual animals. Translate that to human and we have the problem of how much to reduce the food intake. Not to starve, but to live longer and healthier. The people of Okinawa that seem to live the longest and healthiest have a convention of stopping eating when 80% full. The suggestion is at least stay thin. Laser sailors ought to be faster downwind anyway.

So what are the suggestions?

1. Shift toward vegetarian diet.

2. Continue with fish of the Omega 3 type.

3. Fish Oil supplement.

4.Take in less calories.

5. Get thin.

6. Think-- stop eating before full.

7. Eat slow.

8. Don’t skip meals.

9. Get the sugar out.

10. Stay with unsaturated fat.

11. To gain weight, strengthen muscles.


REFERENCES– “Road Map to 100" by Walter Bortz II, MD. ‘The Longevity Prescription” by Robert Butler MD. “Change Your Brain, Change Your Body” by Daniel Amen MD.

“Prime-Time Health” by William Sears MD.
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LASERS AND THE LIFE COACH CHAPTER TWO

LIFE COACH CHAPTER 2

Get strong. You can sail often and longer to gain stamina and suppleness, but to gain strength you need to stress the muscles. Maybe best 8 to 12 times the most load you can manage. Then repeat that two or three times with a rest day in between. (8 to 12 reps with 2 to 3 sets).

More muscle makes bones stronger. More muscle burns more energy and helps to lower blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar. More muscle and strength reduces the risk of falling and helps balance.

Muscle fatigue results in more secretion of human growth hormone and builds muscles and stimulate the brain to create more brain cells. More muscle more brain.

Sign up for the gym, go to the YMCA, exercise at home. This is a big job. You can spend full time at it. So you need to work out a plan that will fit your life, but work out something that will increase your strength.

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THE LASER SAILOR AND THE LIFE COACH

  

    The Laser Sailor and the Life Coach.. Chapter One.

In the picture is our local Laser PRO on the left and your “Life Coach” on the right.

We old folks need to be introduced to the idea of “Coaching”. Most of us are familiar with the Football Coach and the Basketball Coach. We called them Coach Jones and Coach Smith. We are familiar with the teacher, instructor, trainer, mentor, leader, captain, professor, doctor, lawyer, accountant, insurance agent, financial advisor, minister, police and judge. They all give advise.

Now we have the sailing coach, parenting coach, physical coach, family coach but/and what is the the “life coach” thing?

Slowly we have been learning about exercise, diet and a lot of other little things that add up to a long and happy life – but they don’t seem to be getting much attention, so maybe we have a need for someone to put it all together for you. Soooo, if you are interested, Laser sailors, here is your LIFE COACH. It will come in multiple chapters. Perhaps better to call it “life instructions”, because we will not be looking over your shoulder and making comments or reviewing your last actions like a real coach should be doing.

What has all this to do with Laser sailing? A smarter, stronger, and happier person is a better Laser sailor, maybe? What do you think? And if you live longer, you might sail more?

Start with exercising. Maybe the most important and most widely disregarded. As long ago as 1971 the German Ernst Van Aaken MD reported marked decrease in cancer in veteran long distance runners. (Figure out that connection?) Easier to understand how running and exercise helps reduce weight, reduces type two diabetes, lowers cholesterol, lowers blood sugar, prevents heart attacks. Stimulates stronger bones and keeps joints moving. Running stimulates the release of “happy hormones” that make people happier and maybe smarter. (The runner’s high after 30 to 60 minutes running.) Exercise simulates formation of new brain cells, something that a few years ago we thought didn’t happen at all. (You had so many brain cells at a young age and only lost cells after that.)

So RUN if you can. Walk if you can’t. Ride a bike if you must, or swim or dance or mix up the bunch. Apparently the body was meant to move and it does better if it is doing it. Do as much as you can. Start out slow if you need to and gradually increase. How much? As much as you can fit into your life. Skip the elevator. Take the stairs. Park further away at Walmart. When waiting, get up and walk around. Turn off the TV.

Maybe do the pedometer thing and go for 10,000 steps (4 or 5 miles). The 10,000 steps come from some Japanese suggestion. Not a bad suggestion, but not set in stone.

Laser sailors will hike longer, work the waves better, sail happier.

When you get past the age of 25 or 30 years, things and strength will start going down hill, but if you keep moving, it will not go so fast.

Listen to your body– if you walk/run and feel tired and sore , rest a little. If you get sore knee, foot, etc – switch to the bike which pounds less, or swimming which unloads the weight while you still use all the muscles. Back to run/walk when the soreness is gone or continue the other activity if you enjoy it more..

Get with your exercise.

Coming later in other Chapters–eat or not eat, think, friends, community, reduced stress, laugh, share, forgive, tolerate, learn, behavior modification, and goal setting.                                                                                                                                                                   
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LASERS LOOK OUT FOR THE FLIP UP

We have had two Lasers with holes punched under the roll lip where the flip up on the Seitech Dolly rests. Maybe some one sat on the boat on the dolly with the flippers up? Maybe the cockpit filled with water and that punched it through..

I called Andy Levine at Tackle Shack near St. Pete. He handles the Laser things over there. Has he had any trouble? Oh, yes. When he sets up the dollies for the new boats for charter, he doesn’t put the flippers on. If some one buys them after, he hands them the flippers, so they can put them on if they want.

I have taken my flippers off and will do the same for the LESC youth foundation boats. The repair of the holes is not difficult, but you have to lay down on the ground, or turn the boat over to see the damage, or be looking for the leak into the hull.

Will hanging on the strap deform the hull. I will see. There are no hard spots, so I think it will be fine. The strap is just behind the centerboard trunk, so there is some support.

Does anyone else have some experience?
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