Exercise and Your Life
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This past week I had a motivation problem with getting myself psyched up for exercise since I just seemed to be too busy to get on my treadmill. There was an issue at work that I needed to stay a little longer than I anticipated. Then the car had problems where I spent the entire day at the dealership (being promised that it would only take a few more minutes). My daughter needed to be shuttled to the collage campus as well as to the store to buy more stuff. I was trying to get the lawn mowed around the rain drops and my sister called to ask if I could come with her to a local town meeting. 
All of these things were just excuses I thought and I was going to beat myself up over them since I wasn’t getting in the half hour of rigorous exercise that I had originally scheduled. Then I started to rationalize that maybe I was getting in some exercise and I didn’t even pay any attention to it because it wasn’t done on a treadmill. Well I did cut the lawn on Thursday and it took over an hour of my time. On Wednesday, I walked around the dealership lot 3 times which used up a couple of hours and was about a mile and a half. Sunday was the college campus day and I must have walked at least three or four hours that day. I know since my legs started to tighten up.
The reason I mention all of these things is that some days or weeks don’t just workout (no pun intended) for you when it comes to structured exercise. Walking is a good way to get your blood moving and can be listed as exercise for the day. Having sweat pour off your face is not the only way to get your exercise fix. Don’t be so hard on your self as I’ll take the John Lennon quote “life is what happens while your busy making other plans”. Things just happen and for those that have exercise routines, you just need to go with the flow sometimes.
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Monitoring 10,000 Steps Program with a Pedometer Helps Type 2 Diabetes
Doctors have been telling patients with type 2 diabetes that increasing physical activity can help them lose weight, lower their blood pressure and reduce complications associated with diabetes.
Two recent research teams reported some modest improvements in fitness for individuals who utilized a Steps program in which a pedometer is used to track their activity during the day. A pedometer attaches to the waistband of the pants and keeps count of each step taken. High-end models can report distance in miles, speed, heart rate and caloric burn.
In one study, 125 obese men and women with type 2 diabetes walked an average of 4,364 steps daily at the beginning of the study, following an outlined program. The participants attended weekly meetings for the first month and discussed goals for improving fitness, went on group walks and shared ideas on how to overcome obstacles.
After the first month the participants were on their own to walk as much as they could. At the end of four months, the group met again.
After 16 weeks the group had basically doubled their activity level, with some reaching 10,000 steps a day.
The majority of the participants increased their physical activity level, saw a small reduction in blood pressure, waist size and body mass index (BMI) according to the research reported to the American Diabetic Association.
In the second study, conducted by Vanderbilt followed 87 men and women with type 2 diabetes.
Half the group got pedometers and instructions to increase their steps per day by 1,500 each month or 10%, whichever was greater. The other half got a standard talk on exercising more and eating healthfully.
Step counts on the pedometer peaked at 9 weeks with approximately 7,500 steps.
They reported some success in the group, noting that some individuals were able to reach the 10,000 steps per day goal.
The researchers reported that they felt that the addition of a pedometer to a diabetes management program was useful in some patients. Shop for pedometers at Bodytrends.com.
By Bodytrends Health and Fitness
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You’re Not a Kid Any More So Stop Eating Like One
The rate of obese people in the world keeps increasing and childhood obesity is at epidemic proportions and there is little that is being done to stop it. Adults that grew up their entire life sitting in front of a television and ignoring any type of exercise except for the family gathering on the 4th of July haven’t a clue when it comes to proper nutrition. Fast food joints pray upon the schedules that we all try to fit in and we’re slowly killing ourselves.
A typical family where both parents work have 2 nights a week where they feed themselves by take-out food. The fare consists of hamburgers (usually from a fast food eatery), pizza, Chinese food, hero sandwiches, hot sandwiches (usually from the same place they got the pizza 2 days ago), fried chicken and or ribs or at least something barbequed. There is absolutely no regard for calorie intake nor does nutrition even get a mention. The idea is simple and their thought process is this; I’m hungry, it taste good, I want the taste to continue so I super size it.
Parents from the 40s, 50s and 60s don’t understand the damage they did when they insisted upon children “cleaning their plates” because some child was starving in another country. I guess this came from the children that went trough the great depression and didn’t know when their next full meal was coming. So that mentality stayed with the next generation (baby boomers) and the theme continued. The problem was that most of the families of the 40s, 50s, and 60s didn’t have the amount nor availability of fast food places that we have now. Plus there was no flat screen TVs. video games, DVD players and DVR recorders so kids used to play outside and get some exercise. The amount of calories consumed which we don’t blink an eye about is more than twice the recommended amount needed for daily nutrition.
To stop this cycle of madness, food needs to be treated as reverently as the time we put into our nightly television choices. Families need to educate themselves and understand the role that nutrition plays in everything in their life. Lack of or bad nutrition choices leads to an increase in weight which then evolves to poor health. This costs the nation millions of dollars in increases in healthcare costs and hospitalization. Time lost on the job effects economy for the lack of production. The absolute lack of knowledge in this area has the butterfly effect on the world.
You don’t have to die early by contracting fat related diseases like diabetes. Learn to cook properly. Try to get a handle on calories and exercise and mostly become aware of what you’re doing to yourself and your family. You can find out some great information on nutrition at the center for disease control and prevention. You can make the change if you really want to.
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