PropertyInvesting.net: Property Investment Special Reports

26: No health - No wealth

02-05-2005

In Special Report 25 - I touched on probably the most important factor in attaining great personal wealth in your lifetime – it’s “Staying alive!”  

 

You simply cannot increase you earned income and asset value without staying alive! Staying fit and healthy and leading an active vibrant lifestyle is the key component of building great personal wealth for you and your family.

 

No health – no wealth.

 

You might also consider that you have a duty to yourself and your family to stay fit and healthy – in order to be around to guide your investments and build wealth - for the financial security of your immediate and extended family.

 

For example, if you increase your personal wealth by say 20% a year (this is compounded), and you live for 30 more years instead of 15 more years – your terminal personal wealth will be 15.4 times greater ! That's 15.4 times more to leave for your family - minus inheritance tax of course !

 

So healthy eating, lots of exercise and positive thinking are of huge economic concern to you and your family! It pays to keep healthy and fit!

 

Now, although I am a Doctor – a Doctor of Science that is – I am not a medical doctor. What I have done though is considerable reading on the subject of health and put these learnings into action for myself. There is plenty of hype about special diets and ways of staying fit and keeping one's weight down – what I am giving now is some pragmatic advice you might try. I’ve given this advice to a number of friends with success – and it certainly works for me. It’s based on some fundamental scientific research work and some general concepts. For your consideration only.

 

The advice is a bit of a mix of specifics based on common sense, experience (trial and error), the South Beach Diet, Atkins Diet, Vitamin advice and general health literature and advice. The different dietary books you can buy are all good in their own right – that said, what I find is - they can be complicated to absorb and remember – so I have simplified. I will not be going into lengthy justification - if you want the detailed justification, you can spend days reading these books and much expense on finding out more! My advice is pragmatic, free and common sense. 

 

I also believe General Practicianers normally treat the symptoms of illness without having the time to give advice on the root causes. Many illnesses can be avoided with a good diet and vitamins.

 

So here is my special advice - see whether it helps you:

 

What to eat:

• Eggs
• Nuts – particularly almonds, brazil nuts, and peanuts with their skins
• Fruit – particularly the dark and deeply coloured ones
• Vegetables – particularly the dark and deeply coloured ones
• Avocado, Berries, Broccoli, Citrus fruit (orange, grapefruit), tomatoes
• Fish (particularly oily fish -like Sardines, Mackerel, Salmon, Herring, Anchovies, Tuna)
• Fish oil
• Meat - chicken is particularly good
• Cheese (high in vitamin D)
• Rice (only in small quantities)
• Dark chocolate (in moderate quantities)
• Coffee (in small amounts)
• Tea is better than coffee, green tea even better
• Butter in small qualities only
• Olive oil - as much as you want
• Water – at least two litres a day
• Red wine  - up to two glasses a day
• White wine - although good, not quite as good as red wine

 

What to avoid eating:

• Bread (MANY people are allergic to gluten, or wheat, in any case, it upsets most people!)
• Milk (this makes you stomach churn and go frothy - it's also not natural for human to drink cows milk!)
• Onions (makes you stomach frothy)
• Yeast (makes your stomach frothy and starts fermenting!)
• Cream
• Milk chocolate
• Salt (far too much salt in processed foods - this keeps them from "going off")
• Sugar (ditto above) 
• Wheat based foods like pasta - cut down to a bare minimum
• Beer in large amounts
• White spirits
• Cigarettes
• Potatoes
• Oats
• Maize/corn
• Poly-unsaturated fats, processed fats
• Iron and copper
• Margarine, shortening, corn oil, sunflower oil
• Processed and cured meat (sausages, ham, salami, bacon, cold cuts)

This diet should help you keep your weight under control and reduce the amount of carbohydrate and food that can cause dangerous free radical activity (see below).

 

Vitamins to take during the day:

 

Vitamin supplements are particularly important for adults over the age of 40 years – this is to reduce aging effects. Years ago, men and women did not normally live over the age of 45 – it’s a fairly recent phenomena. We were never meant to last until 85 years old – so to prepare for this long road ahead, fairly high dose vitamins are advised by many nutritionists (reference to many convincing books on Anti-Aging and Vitamins). Enclosed below is a table of suggested vitamins. Since I started taking vitamin C, E, multi-vitamin and Aloe Vera – I have not had a cold or virus for 1½ years – whether this is a fluke or not, I don’t know. But I feel good and confident I won't get a cold - everyone around me seems to have them, but I don't seem to pick them up.   

 

Please note – many nutritionists believe that the "over 40 years olds" suffer from massive vitamin deficiency. We’d have to eat ten oranges a day to get enough vitamin C! And there is no way elderly people could get enough vitamin E from vegetables and oils by eating a normal diet. Our stomachs cannot absorb the required amount of vitamins to prevent aging as we get older and the ability to take up vitamins decreases.

 

In summary – most of these vitamins build up anti-oxidants which attack dangerous "free radical activity". These free radicals are introduced from pollution, chemicals in the environment, through general aging of cells, from some fats and most processed foods. The radicals affect our immune system and make us more susceptible to infection, disease and poor health. Taking vitamin supplements and eating fresh fruit and vegetables and unprocessed foods also helps build up the immune system and prevent free radical attack on healthy cells.

 

Suggested vitamins

Vitamin	Dose	Units	Remarks	Priority
E	200	IU	2 times a day best	10
C	1000	milgr	2 times a day	9
Beta Carotine	15	milgr		8
Folic acid	1500	microgr	Smokers dose	9
B12	500	microgr		7
B6	25	milgr		7
Chromium	200-400	microgr	Organic	8
Zinc	15-30	milgr		7
Calcium	800	milgr		7
Magnesium	400	milgr	magnesium chloride	7
Selenium	100-200	microgr	1-2 shelled Brazil nuts	9
Glutathione	25-50	milgr	C, Sele., Avoc, Waterm, Grapef	7
coQ-10	30	microgr	Tabs, or E, C, B	7
Ginkgo	120	milgr	40 milligram 4 times a day	8.5
Garlic	1	clove	1 clove a day	8
Fruit and Veg	lots	all	Darker the better	8
Carrot or Spinach	1	carrot	raw a day	7.5
Tea	5	cups	brew for 3 mins, not too hot, with meal	8
Fish Oil	3	capsules	MaxEpa	7.5
Soybeans	1	cup	Soymilk, or 3-4 ounce Tofu	7.5
Olive oil	lots			6

Exercise and weight:

 

Fat retention around the body puts pressure on the body's organs such as the heart and respiratory system. It also makes it more difficult and tiring to move around – which creates a sort of vicious circle effect. Just consider - if you weigh say 10 kg more than you should do - this is like carrying around ten bags of sugar all day - try and and see - it's very tiring!

 

There are two main ways to lose weight – the first is to eat less – with focus on less carbohydrates (bread, pasta, potatoes, sugar, soft drinks etc). The other is by being more physically active.

 

One reason why processed foods are so bad is that they are enriched with "cooked up" carbonhydrates that immediately get digested and absorbed into the body – if you don’t burn them off straight away through being active and exercise, they will pile on – and convert to fat.

 

So what’s all the fuss about exercise? Well, exercise helps build up muscle mass – and tone the muscles. Since muscle burns far more energy than fat – at rest – when your muscles are a bit bigger – you will loose fat quickly. For instance, the simple action of walking develops those powerful leg muscles – if they are 20% bigger after a few months, they will burn 20% more energy and you’ll start to lose the fat around your waist! The key thing is that it’s not actually the amount of energy you burn during the exercise itself, it's more the amount of energy your burn after the exercise!  You can lose weight by lightly pumping a dumb bell weight whilst watching TV – you can continue to be a couch potato as long as you pump a bell weight at the same time! You’ll not only tone up your tummy muscles, flatten your waistline and give your heart some exercise, you’ll also lose weight after the event because your muscle mass will go up. Your overall tone will improve, you’ll feel better, have a stronger back and feel like you can achieve more.

 

As a rule, I like to do 50 minutes walking a day – it tones up the muscles, and gets the blood flowing. It is proven to improve one's powers of concentration and helps to produce a deep sleep. Stretching will also help tone the muscles. Cycling, jogging, running, football, tennis, squash – they are all good forms of exercise. My main point is – if you build walking into your normal day, you won't have to do any other exercise to stay fit and health – it's easy stuff! If you do high impact sports - be careful yuou don't injure yourself - and make sure you look after your joints!

 

So why do people feel so bad when they diet? One of the reasons is because fat is toxic - and when you lose it, the toxins leave your system and make you feel mildly depressed. That's one reason why so many people feel awful and come off their diets. Best to steadily loose weight through exercise and good dietary habits - give yourself a treat every now and again. And drink plenty of water.

 

So just to remind you why we are so interested in all this. We’re not going to make serious money unless we stay fit and healthy. We're not likely to enjoy life unless we are fit and healthy. We cannot build huge wealth and high income property portfolios without being in the business for some considerable time – particularly if one does not want to risk all the assets all the time. So to quietly build huge personal and family wealth – you need be in good health. Take care of yourself – good health – good wealth!

 

 

I hope you find this special report both relevant and helpful. Any feedback, please send to  enquiries@propertyinvesting.net

 

 

 

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