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Don’t Give Up Exercising

By On · Add Comment · In calories, exercising, fat, insulin resistance, lose weight, metabolism, physical fitness, The Six Keys to Optimal Health, type 2 diabetes

A message that I try to get out in my book, The Six Keys To Optimal Health, is that exercising for purely aesthetic reasons is a sure to lead to frustration and disappointment for many. It’s the best way to guarantee an abandoned physical fitness program when things don’t turn out the way you’ve fantasized. I think a much better approach is to exercise for the myriad of physiological or health benefits you will surely enjoy if only you can keep up the effort.

I think what happens is that people want to lose weight and “get ripped.” Nothing wrong with either of these desires. But what happens when it doesn’t occur over night, or in a few months? Well, many people end up frustrated, and say, “This isn’t working.” They then come up with all kinds of implausible excuses why it’s not working for them: genetics, slow metabolism, or the old, “I work out all the time, but I never seem to lose weight.”

Well here’s good news this week out of the University of Michigan: Fat metabolism speeds up in just one exercise session. That’s right! Just one workout and fat burning increases. This lowers your chance of developing insulin resistance–the hallmark of type 2 diabetes–and increases your ability to burn fat in the future. How? Exercising increases the ability to store fat in the muscle tissue as triglycerides, which makes it available for quick energy; much quicker than the fat filled adipose tissue we store around our bellies, butts and hips.

So even if you find that you “never seem to lose weight” no matter how much you exercise, just know that despite what seems to be slow going, you’re doing yourself a great physiological and health service by working out regularly. If what you say about working out all the time is true, then you might need to be honest with yourself and cut the calories you’re ingesting everyday in the form of food, booze or soda. But you can be sure that your metabolism is working faster and burning fat more efficiently if you are exercising. And even if that’s the most you get out of it, you are still doing your body a world of good.

Exercise Extends Life

By On · Add Comment · In exercise, Exercise Testing and Research Lab, exercising, fitness, fitness scores, Jim Fixx, live, longer, physically fit, quality of life, running
Breaking News: People who are physically fit live longer than those who are not. Does this seem obvious? Maybe not. How many times have I heard, “Jim Fixx (the Godfather of running for fitness) died of a heart attack, so fitness can’t really matter all that much.” Well, now we have evidence to prove otherwise.

A new study lasting for over 20 years and following 15,000 U.S. military veterans showed that men who exercised regularly and were “highly fit” died at half the rate of men categorized as having “low fitness”. And men who were considered “very highly fit” had a 70% lower risk of death than those who had lower fitness scores. Furthermore, going from low fitness to high fitness is not that hard, either. According to Peter Kokkinos, director of the Exercise Testing and Research Lab at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington, and lead author of the study, “All you need is between two and three hours of brisk walking a week. You can spread that out between four and six days a week.” He goes on to explain that by simply walking briskly for 30 minutes, 5-6 days a week would be enough to push an older or middle-aged man from the “low fit” to the “very highly fit” category in a matter of months.

One of the more interesting finding of the study was that this health benefit was independent of race or income, an idea that I push heavily on this post as well as in my upcoming book, The Six Keys To Optimal Health. In fact, this is the first major study that looked at both black and white men equally. Participants in the study were between 50-70 years old and were encouraged to exercise until they were tired. They were monitored for an average of 7.5 years. The study was controlled for factors of income and access to health care.

OK, I know this doesn’t seem surprising to some of you. Exercise is good for your health–we all know that. But now we know for sure that it not only improves the quality of life–through less pain, increased energy, heightened stamina, better sleep patterns, more stable moods, better sex drive and increased endurance–but also prolongs the amount of time one gets to enjoy that improved life. In other words, by simply exercising, you can not only feel great more often, but you can play harder and longer. Now isn’t that what life should be about?

Start With the Basics – Health First

By On · Add Comment · In bodywork, Centers of Disease Control, exercising, health, health care system, health practices, health theory, magic bullet, medical doctors, mentally balanced, nutritious foods, rest, toxins

Our health care system is in a shambles – so says the director of the Centers of Disease Control, Dr. Julie Gerberding. Her solution: start from the ground up – train medical doctors in health theory and practice, and not just the treatment of diseases.

Bravo! I’ve been pushing this agenda for the last seven years. In fact, my upcoming book – The Six Keys To Optimal Health – runs precisely on that premise. It makes no sense to me to neglect basic health practices and hope that, in the future, a magic bullet will be waiting to save us. That’s a big fat fantasy. Dream on.

If you are not eating wholesome nutritious foods, not exercising regularly, not getting sufficient rest, not working out the stress and tension of your body with regular bodywork, not keeping mentally balanced, and regularly ingesting toxins – like prescription and over the counter medications, recreational drugs and cigarette smoke – then you’re flirtin’ with disaster. And…guess what? It’s going to continue to tax an already overloaded and overpriced medical system. Michael Moore can make 5,000 films and presidential candidates can campaign on the Universal Health Care platform till kingdom come – if the people of this country don’t start with the basics, then it ain’t gonna get any better – just worse. Nuff said.

It’s Never Too Late

By On · Add Comment · In exercising, health, healthy habits, heart disease, lifestyle habits, premature death

It’s never too late to start thinking about your health. So says a group of researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina. Adopting healthy lifestyle habits, even in middle age, can decrease one’s risk of developing heart disease and premature death.

A study has shown that by practicing healthy habits – eating five or more fruits and vegetables every day, exercising for at least 2 1/2 hours a week, keeping weight down and not smoking – the risk of developing heart disease decreased by 35% and premature death by 40%. Researchers began tracking 16,ooo Americans between the ages of 45 and 64 in the late 1980s, and they found that people who did not practice healthy habits in the beginning of the study, but picked them up four years later, caught up to the people who were practicing healthy habits from the start.

No surprise here but according to the article “men, blacks, people with less education and lower incomes, and people with high blood pressure or diabetes were less likely to follow the health guidelines from the beginning or adopt them later in life.” I find the same thing in my practice. I just don’t understand why men wait so long to take care of themselves. Oh well, you can only lead them to water.

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