Deepak Chopra said, “You and I are essentially infinite choice-makers. In every moment of our existence, we are in that field of all possibilities where we have access to an infinity of choices.” We all make choices everyday, some minor, some impact the rest of our lives. We can't undo the choices we made yesterday, but we can make choices today which make our lives today and in te future better, more satisfying, more enjoyable. We all have the potential to help each other!
LouAnn Good
Fitness Together Fort Myers
www.ftfortmyers.com
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Florida Weekly Best of Fort Myers
BEST WAY TO GET INTO THAT BIKINI Fitness Together Fort Myers
You're not fooling anyone with those baggy clothes. So why not do something about it and hit the beach this summer in top shape? Fitness Together Fort Myers can help by pairing you with a personal trainer who will design a workout and nutrition plan just for you. Because no two clients are alike, neither are the program at Fitness Together Fort Myers.
Details: 9671 Gladiolus Drive, Fort Myers, 337-2639
You're not fooling anyone with those baggy clothes. So why not do something about it and hit the beach this summer in top shape? Fitness Together Fort Myers can help by pairing you with a personal trainer who will design a workout and nutrition plan just for you. Because no two clients are alike, neither are the program at Fitness Together Fort Myers.
Details: 9671 Gladiolus Drive, Fort Myers, 337-2639
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Exercise and Depression
Depression
Senior Walking Fitness Helps Fight Depression, By Peter Stockwell, Apr 17, 2009.
As we get older we can feel isolated and alone. Everybody has the ‘blues’ sometimes, but depression is a different thing. You can find difficulty in sleeping, or doing your job, you can feel anxious or maybe can’t concentrate. Anyone with these symptoms could have depression. This is a common condition, one in seven people have a period of depression serious enough to need treatment some time in their lives. You must do something about it. Just trying to carry on in the hope that it will go away should not be your only option.But what to do about it? First of all see your doctor, he may prescribe anti depressants or counselling. He could well also suggest exercise, for it has been found that exercise helps a lot. You feel better, you look better, you get out and about and your self esteem rises. A fitness walking program and gentle cardiovascular program can have great benefits. The British Journal of Sports Medicine tells us that as little as twenty minutes exercise a week can improve our mental health. Any type of exercise can do it from a fitness walking program to cardiovascular exercises or even gardening and housework. I would hope that we are able to take more than twenty minutes exercise a week. It does appear that the more exercise we take the less depressive illness we have. But, of course this must depend on age and general level of fitness to begin with. Always start slow with any exercise regime.When you start exercising you must do four things:Decide which exercise you like doing.Be Positive - exercise will help your depression, so you are going to do it.Set reasonable goals - if you only feel like exercising for ten minutes, exercise for ten minutes. Don’t set yourself half an hour, give up at twenty minutes and feel a failure.Rejoice - celebrate when you have finished. You have achieved something, congratulate yourself.If you decide that a fitness walking program is the way to go I would advise walking in the country. Take one or two friends if possible. There is always something to look at and enjoy and you will, for a while at least, forget the troubles which are causing your depression.City walking is different, it can itself be a stressful activity. Crowds, traffic, shop assistants, can all cause stress and often do. But a change of scene, a day out in an unfamiliar town will make you feel more alert and, by overcoming the inevitable problems, more confident.Exercise will not cure your depression. You will have to look at the cause and address that to begin a cure. But it will help you on the road to a brighter future.
Author's Bio
Peter Stockwell is an architect, writer, walker and author of the Senior Walking Fitness Blog, helping all ages to achieve lifetime fitness.
Fitness Together Fort Myers can help you start on the road to changing your life.
LouAnn Good
Fitness Together fort Myers
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
April 29, 2008
Personal Health
You Name It, and Exercise Helps It
By JANE E. BRODY
Randi considers the Y.M.C.A. her lifeline, especially the pool. Randi weighs more than 300 pounds and has borderline diabetes, but she controls her blood sugar and keeps her bright outlook on life by swimming every day for about 45 minutes.
Randi overcame any self-consciousness about her weight for the sake of her health, and those who swim with her and share the open locker room are proud of her. If only the millions of others beset with chronic health problems recognized the inestimable value to their physical and emotional well-being of regular physical exercise.
“The single thing that comes close to a magic bullet, in terms of its strong and universal benefits, is exercise,” Frank Hu, epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health, said in the Harvard Magazine.
I have written often about the protective roles of exercise. It can lower the risk of heart attack, stroke, hypertension, diabetes, obesity, depression, dementia, osteoporosis, gallstones, diverticulitis, falls, erectile dysfunction, peripheral vascular disease and 12 kinds of cancer.
But what if you already have one of these conditions? Or an ailment like rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, congestive heart failure or osteoarthritis? How can you exercise if you’re always tired or in pain or have trouble breathing? Can exercise really help?
You bet it can. Marilyn Moffat, a professor of physical therapy at New York University and co-author with Carole B. Lewis of “Age-Defying Fitness” (Peachtree, 2006), conducts workshops for physical therapists around the country and abroad, demonstrating how people with chronic health problems can improve their health and quality of life by learning how to exercise safely.
Up and Moving
“The data show that regular moderate exercise increases your ability to battle the effects of disease,” Dr. Moffat said in an interview. “It has a positive effect on both physical and mental well-being. The goal is to do as much physical activity as your body lets you do, and rest when you need to rest.”
In years past, doctors were afraid to let heart patients exercise. When my father had a heart attack in 1968, he was kept sedentary for six weeks. Now, heart attack patients are in bed barely half a day before they are up and moving, Dr. Moffat said.
The core of cardiac rehab is a progressive exercise program to increase the ability of the heart to pump oxygen- and nutrient-rich blood more effectively throughout the body. The outcome is better endurance, greater ability to enjoy life and decreased mortality.
The same goes for patients with congestive heart failure. “Heart failure patients as old as 91 can increase their oxygen consumption significantly,” Dr. Moffat said.
Aerobic exercise lowers blood pressure in people with hypertension, and it improves peripheral circulation in people who develop cramping leg pains when they walk — a condition called intermittent claudication. The treatment for it, in fact, is to walk a little farther each day.
In people who have had transient ischemic attacks, or ministrokes, “gradually increasing exercise improves blood flow to the brain and may diminish the risk of a full-blown stroke,” Dr. Moffat said. And aerobic and strength exercises have been shown to improve endurance, walking speed and the ability to perform tasks of daily living up to six years after a stroke.
As Randi knows, moderate exercise cuts the risk of developing diabetes. And for those with diabetes, exercise improves glucose tolerance — less medication is needed to control blood sugar — and reduces the risk of life-threatening complications.
Perhaps the most immediate benefits are reaped by people with joint and neuromuscular disorders. Without exercise, those at risk of osteoarthritis become crippled by stiff, deteriorated joints. But exercise that increases strength and aerobic capacity can reduce pain, depression and anxiety and improve function, balance and quality of life.
Likewise for people with rheumatoid arthritis. “The less they do, the worse things get,” Dr. Moffat said. “The more their joints move, the better.”
Exercise that builds gradually and protects inflamed joints can diminish pain, fatigue, morning stiffness, depression and anxiety, she said, and improve strength, walking speed and activity.
Exercise is crucial to improving function of total hip or knee replacements. But “most patients with knee replacements don’t get intensive enough activity,” Dr. Moffat said.
Water exercises are particularly helpful for people with multiple sclerosis, who must avoid overheating. And for those with Parkinson’s, resistance training and aerobic exercise can increase their ability to function independently and improve their balance, stride length, walking speed and mood.
Resistance training, along with aerobic exercise, is especially helpful for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; it helps counter the loss of muscle mass and strength from lack of oxygen.
In the February/March issue of ACE Certified News, Natalie Digate Muth, a registered dietitian and personal trainer, emphasized the value of a good workout for people suffering from depression. Mastering a new skill increases their sense of worth, social contact improves mood, and the endorphins released during exercise improve well-being.
“Exercise is an important adjunct to pharmacological therapy, and it does not matter how severe the depression — exercise works equally well for people with moderate or severe depression,” wrote Ms. Muth, who is pursuing a medical degree at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Feel-Good Hormones
Healthy people may have difficulty appreciating the burdens faced by those with chronic ailments, Dr. Nancey Trevanian Tsai noted in the same issue of ACE Certified News. “Oftentimes, disease-ridden statements — like ‘I’m a diabetic’ — become barricades that keep clients from seeing themselves getting better,” she said, and many feel “enslaved by their diseases and treatments.”
But the feel-good hormones released through exercise can help sustain activity.
“With regular exercise, the body seeks to continue staying active,” wrote Dr. Tsai, an assistant professor of neurosciences at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. She recommended an exercise program tailored to the person’s current abilities, daily needs, medication schedule, side effects and response to treatment.
She urged trainers who work with people with chronic ailments to start slowly with easily achievable goals, build gradually on each accomplishment and focus on functional gains. Over time, a sense of accomplishment, better sleep, less pain and enhanced satisfaction with life can become further reasons to pursue physical activity.
“Even if exercise is tough to schedule,” Dr. Moffat said, “you feel so much better, it’s crazy not to do it.”
Fitness Together in Fort Myers is your source for personal training and personal attention. Visit us at www.ftfortmyers.com
LouAnn Good
Personal Health
You Name It, and Exercise Helps It
By JANE E. BRODY
Randi considers the Y.M.C.A. her lifeline, especially the pool. Randi weighs more than 300 pounds and has borderline diabetes, but she controls her blood sugar and keeps her bright outlook on life by swimming every day for about 45 minutes.
Randi overcame any self-consciousness about her weight for the sake of her health, and those who swim with her and share the open locker room are proud of her. If only the millions of others beset with chronic health problems recognized the inestimable value to their physical and emotional well-being of regular physical exercise.
“The single thing that comes close to a magic bullet, in terms of its strong and universal benefits, is exercise,” Frank Hu, epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health, said in the Harvard Magazine.
I have written often about the protective roles of exercise. It can lower the risk of heart attack, stroke, hypertension, diabetes, obesity, depression, dementia, osteoporosis, gallstones, diverticulitis, falls, erectile dysfunction, peripheral vascular disease and 12 kinds of cancer.
But what if you already have one of these conditions? Or an ailment like rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, congestive heart failure or osteoarthritis? How can you exercise if you’re always tired or in pain or have trouble breathing? Can exercise really help?
You bet it can. Marilyn Moffat, a professor of physical therapy at New York University and co-author with Carole B. Lewis of “Age-Defying Fitness” (Peachtree, 2006), conducts workshops for physical therapists around the country and abroad, demonstrating how people with chronic health problems can improve their health and quality of life by learning how to exercise safely.
Up and Moving
“The data show that regular moderate exercise increases your ability to battle the effects of disease,” Dr. Moffat said in an interview. “It has a positive effect on both physical and mental well-being. The goal is to do as much physical activity as your body lets you do, and rest when you need to rest.”
In years past, doctors were afraid to let heart patients exercise. When my father had a heart attack in 1968, he was kept sedentary for six weeks. Now, heart attack patients are in bed barely half a day before they are up and moving, Dr. Moffat said.
The core of cardiac rehab is a progressive exercise program to increase the ability of the heart to pump oxygen- and nutrient-rich blood more effectively throughout the body. The outcome is better endurance, greater ability to enjoy life and decreased mortality.
The same goes for patients with congestive heart failure. “Heart failure patients as old as 91 can increase their oxygen consumption significantly,” Dr. Moffat said.
Aerobic exercise lowers blood pressure in people with hypertension, and it improves peripheral circulation in people who develop cramping leg pains when they walk — a condition called intermittent claudication. The treatment for it, in fact, is to walk a little farther each day.
In people who have had transient ischemic attacks, or ministrokes, “gradually increasing exercise improves blood flow to the brain and may diminish the risk of a full-blown stroke,” Dr. Moffat said. And aerobic and strength exercises have been shown to improve endurance, walking speed and the ability to perform tasks of daily living up to six years after a stroke.
As Randi knows, moderate exercise cuts the risk of developing diabetes. And for those with diabetes, exercise improves glucose tolerance — less medication is needed to control blood sugar — and reduces the risk of life-threatening complications.
Perhaps the most immediate benefits are reaped by people with joint and neuromuscular disorders. Without exercise, those at risk of osteoarthritis become crippled by stiff, deteriorated joints. But exercise that increases strength and aerobic capacity can reduce pain, depression and anxiety and improve function, balance and quality of life.
Likewise for people with rheumatoid arthritis. “The less they do, the worse things get,” Dr. Moffat said. “The more their joints move, the better.”
Exercise that builds gradually and protects inflamed joints can diminish pain, fatigue, morning stiffness, depression and anxiety, she said, and improve strength, walking speed and activity.
Exercise is crucial to improving function of total hip or knee replacements. But “most patients with knee replacements don’t get intensive enough activity,” Dr. Moffat said.
Water exercises are particularly helpful for people with multiple sclerosis, who must avoid overheating. And for those with Parkinson’s, resistance training and aerobic exercise can increase their ability to function independently and improve their balance, stride length, walking speed and mood.
Resistance training, along with aerobic exercise, is especially helpful for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; it helps counter the loss of muscle mass and strength from lack of oxygen.
In the February/March issue of ACE Certified News, Natalie Digate Muth, a registered dietitian and personal trainer, emphasized the value of a good workout for people suffering from depression. Mastering a new skill increases their sense of worth, social contact improves mood, and the endorphins released during exercise improve well-being.
“Exercise is an important adjunct to pharmacological therapy, and it does not matter how severe the depression — exercise works equally well for people with moderate or severe depression,” wrote Ms. Muth, who is pursuing a medical degree at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Feel-Good Hormones
Healthy people may have difficulty appreciating the burdens faced by those with chronic ailments, Dr. Nancey Trevanian Tsai noted in the same issue of ACE Certified News. “Oftentimes, disease-ridden statements — like ‘I’m a diabetic’ — become barricades that keep clients from seeing themselves getting better,” she said, and many feel “enslaved by their diseases and treatments.”
But the feel-good hormones released through exercise can help sustain activity.
“With regular exercise, the body seeks to continue staying active,” wrote Dr. Tsai, an assistant professor of neurosciences at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. She recommended an exercise program tailored to the person’s current abilities, daily needs, medication schedule, side effects and response to treatment.
She urged trainers who work with people with chronic ailments to start slowly with easily achievable goals, build gradually on each accomplishment and focus on functional gains. Over time, a sense of accomplishment, better sleep, less pain and enhanced satisfaction with life can become further reasons to pursue physical activity.
“Even if exercise is tough to schedule,” Dr. Moffat said, “you feel so much better, it’s crazy not to do it.”
Fitness Together in Fort Myers is your source for personal training and personal attention. Visit us at www.ftfortmyers.com
LouAnn Good
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
From the New York Times:
June 23, 2009
Well
How the Food Makers Captured Our Brains
By TARA PARKER-POPE
As head of the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. David A. Kessler served two presidents and battled Congress and Big Tobacco. But the Harvard-educated pediatrician discovered he was helpless against the forces of a chocolate chip cookie.
In an experiment of one, Dr. Kessler tested his willpower by buying two gooey chocolate chip cookies that he didn’t plan to eat. At home, he found himself staring at the cookies, and even distracted by memories of the chocolate chunks and doughy peaks as he left the room. He left the house, and the cookies remained uneaten. Feeling triumphant, he stopped for coffee, saw cookies on the counter and gobbled one down.
“Why does that chocolate chip cookie have such power over me?” Dr. Kessler asked in an interview. “Is it the cookie, the representation of the cookie in my brain? I spent seven years trying to figure out the answer.”
The result of Dr. Kessler’s quest is a fascinating new book, “The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite” (Rodale).
During his time at the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Kessler maintained a high profile, streamlining the agency, pushing for faster approval of drugs and overseeing the creation of the standardized nutrition label on food packaging. But Dr. Kessler is perhaps best known for his efforts to investigate and regulate the tobacco industry, and his accusation that cigarette makers intentionally manipulated nicotine content to make their products more addictive.
In “The End of Overeating,” Dr. Kessler finds some similarities in the food industry, which has combined and created foods in a way that taps into our brain circuitry and stimulates our desire for more.
When it comes to stimulating our brains, Dr. Kessler noted, individual ingredients aren’t particularly potent. But by combining fats, sugar and salt in innumerable ways, food makers have essentially tapped into the brain’s reward system, creating a feedback loop that stimulates our desire to eat and leaves us wanting more and more even when we’re full.
Dr. Kessler isn’t convinced that food makers fully understand the neuroscience of the forces they have unleashed, but food companies certainly understand human behavior, taste preferences and desire. In fact, he offers descriptions of how restaurants and food makers manipulate ingredients to reach the aptly named “bliss point.” Foods that contain too little or too much sugar, fat or salt are either bland or overwhelming. But food scientists work hard to reach the precise point at which we derive the greatest pleasure from fat, sugar and salt.
The result is that chain restaurants like Chili’s cook up “hyper-palatable food that requires little chewing and goes down easily,” he notes. And Dr. Kessler reports that the Snickers bar, for instance, is “extraordinarily well engineered.” As we chew it, the sugar dissolves, the fat melts and the caramel traps the peanuts so the entire combination of flavors is blissfully experienced in the mouth at the same time.
Foods rich in sugar and fat are relatively recent arrivals on the food landscape, Dr. Kessler noted. But today, foods are more than just a combination of ingredients. They are highly complex creations, loaded up with layer upon layer of stimulating tastes that result in a multisensory experience for the brain. Food companies “design food for irresistibility,” Dr. Kessler noted. “It’s been part of their business plans.”
But this book is less an exposé about the food industry and more an exploration of us. “My real goal is, How do you explain to people what’s going on with them?” Dr. Kessler said. “Nobody has ever explained to people how their brains have been captured.”
The book, a New York Times best seller, includes Dr. Kessler’s own candid admission that he struggles with overeating.
“I wouldn’t have been as interested in the question of why we can’t resist food if I didn’t have it myself,” he said. “I gained and lost my body weight several times over. I have suits in every size.”
This is not a diet book, but Dr. Kessler devotes a sizable section to “food rehab,” offering practical advice for using the science of overeating to our advantage, so that we begin to think differently about food and take back control of our eating habits.
One of his main messages is that overeating is not due to an absence of willpower, but a biological challenge made more difficult by the overstimulating food environment that surrounds us. “Conditioned hypereating” is a chronic problem that is made worse by dieting and needs to be managed rather than cured, he said. And while lapses are inevitable, Dr. Kessler outlines several strategies that address the behavioral, cognitive and nutritional factors that fuel overeating.
Planned and structured eating and understanding your personal food triggers are essential. In addition, educating yourself about food can help alter your perceptions about what types of food are desirable. Just as many of us now find cigarettes repulsive, Dr. Kessler argues that we can also undergo similar “perceptual shifts” about large portion sizes and processed foods. For instance, he notes that when people who once loved to eat steak become vegetarians, they typically begin to view animal protein as disgusting.
The advice is certainly not a quick fix or a guarantee, but Dr. Kessler said that educating himself in the course of writing the book had helped him gain control over his eating.
“For the first time in my life, I can keep my weight relatively stable,” he said. “Now, if you stress me and fatigue me and put me in an airport and the plane is seven hours late — I’m still going to grab those chocolate-covered pretzels. The old circuitry will still show its head.”
June 23, 2009
Well
How the Food Makers Captured Our Brains
By TARA PARKER-POPE
As head of the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. David A. Kessler served two presidents and battled Congress and Big Tobacco. But the Harvard-educated pediatrician discovered he was helpless against the forces of a chocolate chip cookie.
In an experiment of one, Dr. Kessler tested his willpower by buying two gooey chocolate chip cookies that he didn’t plan to eat. At home, he found himself staring at the cookies, and even distracted by memories of the chocolate chunks and doughy peaks as he left the room. He left the house, and the cookies remained uneaten. Feeling triumphant, he stopped for coffee, saw cookies on the counter and gobbled one down.
“Why does that chocolate chip cookie have such power over me?” Dr. Kessler asked in an interview. “Is it the cookie, the representation of the cookie in my brain? I spent seven years trying to figure out the answer.”
The result of Dr. Kessler’s quest is a fascinating new book, “The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite” (Rodale).
During his time at the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Kessler maintained a high profile, streamlining the agency, pushing for faster approval of drugs and overseeing the creation of the standardized nutrition label on food packaging. But Dr. Kessler is perhaps best known for his efforts to investigate and regulate the tobacco industry, and his accusation that cigarette makers intentionally manipulated nicotine content to make their products more addictive.
In “The End of Overeating,” Dr. Kessler finds some similarities in the food industry, which has combined and created foods in a way that taps into our brain circuitry and stimulates our desire for more.
When it comes to stimulating our brains, Dr. Kessler noted, individual ingredients aren’t particularly potent. But by combining fats, sugar and salt in innumerable ways, food makers have essentially tapped into the brain’s reward system, creating a feedback loop that stimulates our desire to eat and leaves us wanting more and more even when we’re full.
Dr. Kessler isn’t convinced that food makers fully understand the neuroscience of the forces they have unleashed, but food companies certainly understand human behavior, taste preferences and desire. In fact, he offers descriptions of how restaurants and food makers manipulate ingredients to reach the aptly named “bliss point.” Foods that contain too little or too much sugar, fat or salt are either bland or overwhelming. But food scientists work hard to reach the precise point at which we derive the greatest pleasure from fat, sugar and salt.
The result is that chain restaurants like Chili’s cook up “hyper-palatable food that requires little chewing and goes down easily,” he notes. And Dr. Kessler reports that the Snickers bar, for instance, is “extraordinarily well engineered.” As we chew it, the sugar dissolves, the fat melts and the caramel traps the peanuts so the entire combination of flavors is blissfully experienced in the mouth at the same time.
Foods rich in sugar and fat are relatively recent arrivals on the food landscape, Dr. Kessler noted. But today, foods are more than just a combination of ingredients. They are highly complex creations, loaded up with layer upon layer of stimulating tastes that result in a multisensory experience for the brain. Food companies “design food for irresistibility,” Dr. Kessler noted. “It’s been part of their business plans.”
But this book is less an exposé about the food industry and more an exploration of us. “My real goal is, How do you explain to people what’s going on with them?” Dr. Kessler said. “Nobody has ever explained to people how their brains have been captured.”
The book, a New York Times best seller, includes Dr. Kessler’s own candid admission that he struggles with overeating.
“I wouldn’t have been as interested in the question of why we can’t resist food if I didn’t have it myself,” he said. “I gained and lost my body weight several times over. I have suits in every size.”
This is not a diet book, but Dr. Kessler devotes a sizable section to “food rehab,” offering practical advice for using the science of overeating to our advantage, so that we begin to think differently about food and take back control of our eating habits.
One of his main messages is that overeating is not due to an absence of willpower, but a biological challenge made more difficult by the overstimulating food environment that surrounds us. “Conditioned hypereating” is a chronic problem that is made worse by dieting and needs to be managed rather than cured, he said. And while lapses are inevitable, Dr. Kessler outlines several strategies that address the behavioral, cognitive and nutritional factors that fuel overeating.
Planned and structured eating and understanding your personal food triggers are essential. In addition, educating yourself about food can help alter your perceptions about what types of food are desirable. Just as many of us now find cigarettes repulsive, Dr. Kessler argues that we can also undergo similar “perceptual shifts” about large portion sizes and processed foods. For instance, he notes that when people who once loved to eat steak become vegetarians, they typically begin to view animal protein as disgusting.
The advice is certainly not a quick fix or a guarantee, but Dr. Kessler said that educating himself in the course of writing the book had helped him gain control over his eating.
“For the first time in my life, I can keep my weight relatively stable,” he said. “Now, if you stress me and fatigue me and put me in an airport and the plane is seven hours late — I’m still going to grab those chocolate-covered pretzels. The old circuitry will still show its head.”
Monday, June 22, 2009
Polishing the Stone
Not too long ago, several would be cosmetic surgery patients got together at a New York City YMCA to hear a lecture on the latest cosmetic surgery procedures by a prominent plastic surgeon. The surgeon, Dr. Gerald Pitman, spent the first twenty minutes of his talk trying to discourage the audience from having cosmetic operations in the first place. “Ask yourself ‘Can you avoid it?’”, he asks, and “what kind of lifestyle changes can you make?” “Some people think liposuction and tummy tucks are alternatives to diet and exercise”, Dr. Pitman said, "They are not”.
We are all diamonds in this world, diamonds in the rough. We live in a culture that conditions us to be dissatisfied with our bodies and encourages us, for the sake of profit, to select products that will make us “happy” and/or “attractive”. This is rarely the result. Fads and gimmicks often leave us feeling disappointed and unhappy with ourselves. The typical result is to look for the next fad or gimmick that promises to fix what ails us.
To polish the true miracles are bodies are, we have to develop habits that will sustain ourselves throughout our lives and provide a true foundation for satisfaction and happiness. Although not always easy, it’s almost too simple: the basic elements are diet and exercise. It’s difficult to create profit from simple solutions. Feeling comfortable in our skin and responsible for our health is the cornerstone to enjoying our lives the way we were meant to do. We are all different and we will never all look the same, but we all can follow the same plan to be the best that we can be.
The key to achieving and maintaining a healthy weight and a healthy body isn’t about short-term dietary changes and on and off again exercise programs. It’s about a lifestyle that makes habits out of healthy eating, regular physical exercise, and balancing the number and quality of calories you consume with the number of calories your body uses. It’s about developing habits that make us feel good.
Make a commitment to start making regular small changes to your diet, eliminate foods that are high in fats, processed meats, and sugar. A healthy eating plan should be based on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low fat dairy products. Be sure to include lean meats, poultry, seafood, beans, eggs and nuts. Avoid heavily processed foods and foods high in saturated fats, cholesterol, salt, and the two bad “boys” of the grocery isles, trans-fats and sugars.
Moderation and balance are not dirty words. Maybe to the soft drink makers and potato chip industry. We don’t have to eat large quantities to feel satisfied. Go ahead, have some ice cream, just don’t eat a quart every night! Expand your food choices and sample all of the wonderful and exotic foods available to us. Forget apples and bananas, try mangoes, kiwi fruit, pineapple, or berries! Grill or sauté vegetables with herbs like rosemary; buy a new cookbook and experiment. Use protein sources as part of your meal instead of the centerpiece. The diets of many healthy people around the world, Asia and the Mediterranean for example, use protein very creatively in combination with legumes, vegetables, fruits, etc.
A good diet needs to be complemented with physical activity. Good exercise habits keep our metabolism and bodily systems functioning. A good diet improves our ability to effectively exercise and proper exercise is difficult without a proper diet. A well designed exercise program can help you maintain your proper weight, reduce high blood pressure, reduce risk for type 2 diabetes, reduce arthritis pain and risk of osteoporosis. It has been demonstrated that exercise can reduce the symptoms of depression and anxiety. Do you think it’s coincidence that the country with one of the highest obesity rates in the world also has the highest rate of psychotropic drug use in the world? We think not!
But best of all, a balanced and healthy diet and a well designed exercise program makes us feel good and happy with ourselves, just what all the ads promised! Make a commitment to be happy with yourself and to do something everyday that will make you a better person!
LouAnn Good is the Owner of Fitness Together, located in south Fort Myers, part of the world’s largest personal training organization. She has over 15 years of personal training experience in Lee County helping people of all ages meet their fitness goals. All personal trainings at Fitness Together are done one on one in a private training studio where there are no interruptions, no waiting for equipment, and all the attention is on you, the client. “One Client-One Trainer-One Goal”.
Not too long ago, several would be cosmetic surgery patients got together at a New York City YMCA to hear a lecture on the latest cosmetic surgery procedures by a prominent plastic surgeon. The surgeon, Dr. Gerald Pitman, spent the first twenty minutes of his talk trying to discourage the audience from having cosmetic operations in the first place. “Ask yourself ‘Can you avoid it?’”, he asks, and “what kind of lifestyle changes can you make?” “Some people think liposuction and tummy tucks are alternatives to diet and exercise”, Dr. Pitman said, "They are not”.
We are all diamonds in this world, diamonds in the rough. We live in a culture that conditions us to be dissatisfied with our bodies and encourages us, for the sake of profit, to select products that will make us “happy” and/or “attractive”. This is rarely the result. Fads and gimmicks often leave us feeling disappointed and unhappy with ourselves. The typical result is to look for the next fad or gimmick that promises to fix what ails us.
To polish the true miracles are bodies are, we have to develop habits that will sustain ourselves throughout our lives and provide a true foundation for satisfaction and happiness. Although not always easy, it’s almost too simple: the basic elements are diet and exercise. It’s difficult to create profit from simple solutions. Feeling comfortable in our skin and responsible for our health is the cornerstone to enjoying our lives the way we were meant to do. We are all different and we will never all look the same, but we all can follow the same plan to be the best that we can be.
The key to achieving and maintaining a healthy weight and a healthy body isn’t about short-term dietary changes and on and off again exercise programs. It’s about a lifestyle that makes habits out of healthy eating, regular physical exercise, and balancing the number and quality of calories you consume with the number of calories your body uses. It’s about developing habits that make us feel good.
Make a commitment to start making regular small changes to your diet, eliminate foods that are high in fats, processed meats, and sugar. A healthy eating plan should be based on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low fat dairy products. Be sure to include lean meats, poultry, seafood, beans, eggs and nuts. Avoid heavily processed foods and foods high in saturated fats, cholesterol, salt, and the two bad “boys” of the grocery isles, trans-fats and sugars.
Moderation and balance are not dirty words. Maybe to the soft drink makers and potato chip industry. We don’t have to eat large quantities to feel satisfied. Go ahead, have some ice cream, just don’t eat a quart every night! Expand your food choices and sample all of the wonderful and exotic foods available to us. Forget apples and bananas, try mangoes, kiwi fruit, pineapple, or berries! Grill or sauté vegetables with herbs like rosemary; buy a new cookbook and experiment. Use protein sources as part of your meal instead of the centerpiece. The diets of many healthy people around the world, Asia and the Mediterranean for example, use protein very creatively in combination with legumes, vegetables, fruits, etc.
A good diet needs to be complemented with physical activity. Good exercise habits keep our metabolism and bodily systems functioning. A good diet improves our ability to effectively exercise and proper exercise is difficult without a proper diet. A well designed exercise program can help you maintain your proper weight, reduce high blood pressure, reduce risk for type 2 diabetes, reduce arthritis pain and risk of osteoporosis. It has been demonstrated that exercise can reduce the symptoms of depression and anxiety. Do you think it’s coincidence that the country with one of the highest obesity rates in the world also has the highest rate of psychotropic drug use in the world? We think not!
But best of all, a balanced and healthy diet and a well designed exercise program makes us feel good and happy with ourselves, just what all the ads promised! Make a commitment to be happy with yourself and to do something everyday that will make you a better person!
LouAnn Good is the Owner of Fitness Together, located in south Fort Myers, part of the world’s largest personal training organization. She has over 15 years of personal training experience in Lee County helping people of all ages meet their fitness goals. All personal trainings at Fitness Together are done one on one in a private training studio where there are no interruptions, no waiting for equipment, and all the attention is on you, the client. “One Client-One Trainer-One Goal”.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
The Interval Path to Feeling Better and Looking Younger!
Tired of feeling old and run down? Want to look and feel younger? Then turn up the intensity and try interval training. Interval training is a great way to increase oxygen demands and slow down the aging process. Interval training is a workout technique that consists of short burst of intense exertion followed by a short period of active recovery. The brief period of high intensity forces the body to adapt in ways that slow the aging process.
So how do you get started? Easy, keep it simple choose two exercises for instance push up and jumping jacks. The push up will be considered the high intensity interval which you will perform as many repetitions as possible within a 1 minute time frame. After the 1 minute of pushups is performed you will stand up and execute 30 seconds of jumping jack which is considered the “active recovery”. Active recovery is an exercise that is performed at a low intensity to decrease your heart rate slightly from the previous exercise without stopping. This is an example of a strength/cardio interval workout which is great because you incorporate strength training with or without weights into a cardio derived workout. Interval training is a great tool to use when trying to lose weight. By performing the strength training aspect you are building more lean muscle while burning fat at the same time. Building muscle is a vital component of any type of prolonged weight loss program. By building muscle you are increasing your metabolic rate which will allow you to burn more calories throughout the day. So just by building more lean muscle you will be able to lose fat faster and keep it off.
Not sure how to vary your workouts? Here are some good components to keep in mind when designing a interval workout.
Speed: Increasing the speed of a run/walk or exercise is a great way to boost the intensity, but stay within your limits especially working with weights don’t try to do too much or go too fast and cause injury to yourself or others.
Resistance: The more resistance/ weight involved the harder the exercise will become therefore the more energy needed to perform the movement. Easy resistance techniques would be running uphill, using your body weight to perform basic exercise, run into the wind, swim against the current, and adding weights is also another easy way to increase the intensity of any exercise. Once again safety is the number one priority so stay within your limits and stay injury free.
Upper/lower split: The idea behind this is mainly weight training derived. The concept is to work an upper body muscle ex: Back (bent over rows) followed by a leg exercise ex: Quadriceps (leg extensions). The reasoning behind this split is to allow one muscle group to rest while still working out the other. This is a great technique for those who would rather do their strength training and cardio training separate.
Duration: The interval of you workout can vary depending on your fitness level and goals. You can do any type of intervals you choose as long as one is “different” than the other. In this case different means a different type of strain on the body as we discussed above, any change in speed, resistance, or muscle type of any sort would be considered “different”.
Also keep in mind that this is a great way to exercise with a partner or group that will keep you motivated and accountable. So if you’re tired of the same old routine and want to kick up the tempo give interval training a try and you will be on your way to feeling and looking younger.
Jamie Swagler is a certified Personal Trainer at Fitness Together. Fitness Together, located at 9671 Gladiolus Dr., #108, is part of the world’s largest personal training organization. All programs are specifically tailored for every client and conducted in a private training studio. Their motto is “One Client - One Trainer – One Goal”, www.FTFortMyers.com.
Tired of feeling old and run down? Want to look and feel younger? Then turn up the intensity and try interval training. Interval training is a great way to increase oxygen demands and slow down the aging process. Interval training is a workout technique that consists of short burst of intense exertion followed by a short period of active recovery. The brief period of high intensity forces the body to adapt in ways that slow the aging process.
So how do you get started? Easy, keep it simple choose two exercises for instance push up and jumping jacks. The push up will be considered the high intensity interval which you will perform as many repetitions as possible within a 1 minute time frame. After the 1 minute of pushups is performed you will stand up and execute 30 seconds of jumping jack which is considered the “active recovery”. Active recovery is an exercise that is performed at a low intensity to decrease your heart rate slightly from the previous exercise without stopping. This is an example of a strength/cardio interval workout which is great because you incorporate strength training with or without weights into a cardio derived workout. Interval training is a great tool to use when trying to lose weight. By performing the strength training aspect you are building more lean muscle while burning fat at the same time. Building muscle is a vital component of any type of prolonged weight loss program. By building muscle you are increasing your metabolic rate which will allow you to burn more calories throughout the day. So just by building more lean muscle you will be able to lose fat faster and keep it off.
Not sure how to vary your workouts? Here are some good components to keep in mind when designing a interval workout.
Speed: Increasing the speed of a run/walk or exercise is a great way to boost the intensity, but stay within your limits especially working with weights don’t try to do too much or go too fast and cause injury to yourself or others.
Resistance: The more resistance/ weight involved the harder the exercise will become therefore the more energy needed to perform the movement. Easy resistance techniques would be running uphill, using your body weight to perform basic exercise, run into the wind, swim against the current, and adding weights is also another easy way to increase the intensity of any exercise. Once again safety is the number one priority so stay within your limits and stay injury free.
Upper/lower split: The idea behind this is mainly weight training derived. The concept is to work an upper body muscle ex: Back (bent over rows) followed by a leg exercise ex: Quadriceps (leg extensions). The reasoning behind this split is to allow one muscle group to rest while still working out the other. This is a great technique for those who would rather do their strength training and cardio training separate.
Duration: The interval of you workout can vary depending on your fitness level and goals. You can do any type of intervals you choose as long as one is “different” than the other. In this case different means a different type of strain on the body as we discussed above, any change in speed, resistance, or muscle type of any sort would be considered “different”.
Also keep in mind that this is a great way to exercise with a partner or group that will keep you motivated and accountable. So if you’re tired of the same old routine and want to kick up the tempo give interval training a try and you will be on your way to feeling and looking younger.
Jamie Swagler is a certified Personal Trainer at Fitness Together. Fitness Together, located at 9671 Gladiolus Dr., #108, is part of the world’s largest personal training organization. All programs are specifically tailored for every client and conducted in a private training studio. Their motto is “One Client - One Trainer – One Goal”, www.FTFortMyers.com.
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