Exercise: What Happens If I Don't Exercise Regularly

One or two in ten thousand, having been genetically blessed, will go through life overweight and deconditioned and somehow manage to avoid these precursors to more serious disease. But your really don't want to play Russian roulette with your health, do you? There are some things you just don't want to hear from your doctor. Unfortunately, if you do not exercise regularly and watch your calorie intake, here are a few things that you will hear sooner or later.

Elevated tryglycerides. Triglycerides, like body fat, are a necessary part of life, a major source of energy and the most common form of fat found in your body. Within normal range, they are part of a healthy body. It is when they go above the normal range that triglycerides cause problems. Although we know elevated triglycerides are connected to an increased risk of heart disease, by themselves, triglycerides do not cause symptoms. The problem arises in that elevated triglycerides are often linked together with other of the disorders such as diabetes, liver disease, metabolic syndrome etc. That is a concern.  The good news is that triglycerides are normally easily controlled when you choose healthy foods, exercise and  lose weight and get fit.

Elevated LDL or low density lipoprotein. LDL is essential to good health in normal range but, when elevated LDL, narrows arteries and vessels. If this was in the plumbing of your house, you would be using Drano or calling for RotoRooter. It is clogging your arteries and one day the blood will quit flowing. I think that is all that needs to be said about that.

Low HDL. This is your body;s RotoRooter. Sometime called 'good cholesterol', high-density lipoproteins (HDL) functions to transport fatty acids and cholesterol from the body to the liver where it can either be discarded or re-cycled. The hypothesis is that HDL removes LDL and VLDL from the arteries thus preventing or minimizing the likelihood of blockage or hardening. That has yet to be scientifically demonstrated but we do know that whatever the reason may be those with a high level of HDL have far less heart disease and clogged arteries.  There has been no better way found to increase HDL than getting yourself fit with regular exercise and a healthy diet.

Hypertension or high blood pressure. Blood pressure is a measure of the force blood exerts against the walls of your arteries. It is taken at two points: It is measured when the heart beats. Refered to as systolic blood pressure (SBP), this is the highest or first number recorded. The second number recorded is called the diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and it taken between beats of the heart or when the heart is at rest. The DBP measures the force that remains against the arteries after the heart has completed a stroke. Hypertension increases your risk for stroke, anuerysims (the big bubble you get in your water hose just before it blows), heart failure and kidney failure.  Studies have shown significant improvement in blood pressure with as little as 5% of body weight lost.

Elevated blood glucose. A fasting blood glucose level of 100 to 125 is considered to be an elevated level of blood glucose or an impaired fasting glucose (IFG). Elevated blood glucose is considered to be a heart disease risk factor independent of of co-factors such as smoking, weight or blood pressure. Chronic fatigue, blurred vision, dry mouth and frequent uriniation may indicate elevated blood glucose. Do not ignore these signs if you have them.  The good news is that you don't have to look forward to all the consequences of Type II diabetes.  There is perhaps no other disease more preventable or manageable by diet and exercise if addressed early than Type II.

Abdominal Visceral Fat and total Body Fat.  How serious is excess fat? It costs the American economy 130 billion dollars a year. And a more personal level, those who are obese spend almost twice as much for doctor visits as the more fit population and three times as much for medications. But to make it more personal, they are three times more likely to develop diabetes and have an overall mortality rate almost twice that of the fit population. Obesity is associated with several types of cancer, high blood pressure, gall bladder disease, impaired immune system an a plethora of illnesses in consequence, elevated cholesterol, various forms of heart disease and numerous joint problems. Exercise, including resistance training to improve muscle and increase you metabolism along with healthy eating will lead to weight loss and a cure for excess fat. Aside from the fact that fat is, for the most part, metabolically inactive and pretty much literally dead weight you carry around; thus placing an extra workload on you heart, excess fat also causes pathological dysfunctions that directly effect your health, quality of life and life expectancy.

Can You Eat Your Metabolism Into High Gear?t

Can you eat your metabolism into high gear? You have all read the ads that claim to show you how to lose weight by eating more.  But can you really eat so much that it makes you lose weight?  You wish! The answer is no. There is always more danger in a half-truth than in a complete falsehood and all this about eating to keep your metabolism fired up

Minor Changes Equal Major Losses

You think PMS can be ugly? Wait until you run into someone under the influence of DMS (dieting misery syndrome). How will you know if you meet them? Trust me, you will know.

The problem is that someone convinced them that starving themselves was a neat way to manage their weight. Get this clear. Dieting is not a weight management program. What we popularly call dieting is in fact a self-inflicted mini-famine full of sound and fury signifying nothing that is going to have a lasting effect on anything except your relationships. So-called dieting is about the most efficient way known to allienate everyone with whom you come in contact and yet never attain a permanent healthy weight.

Weight management is not about punishing yourself with changes that shatter your life and the patience of everyone you meet. In fact, weight management is just the opposite. It is a fun and easy adventure in good eating and good health. To manage your weight, you need only make small, easy-to-live-with changes that can be maintained over time.

To manage your weight, take control of your daily calories in and calories out. If you are over weight, have no overriding medical conditions and are not losing weight, there is only one explanation. Regardless of what you may think, you are eating too much - period. This isn't rocket science or it would have gone over my head. If you don't put the calories in, the weight will come off. To be precise, it will come off at the rate of one pound for every 3500 calorie deficit you create.

If you want to lose almost a pound a month, keep your calorie intake just where it is and take just over a one mile walk each day. If you want to lose a pound each week, then walk five miles a day. O.K.! You probably aren't going to do that but what if you walked a mile twice a day and left off a couple of chocolate chip cookies or a couple of hard candies each day and two sweet drinks a week? You would get about the same calorie deficit. How easy is that?

Here is the real secret of weight management: Until you have a well established pattern of healthy eating, keep a food and activity diary. When you move, or swallow something, write it down. If you are overweight, you are moving less and/or eating more than you think.

Be careful how you reward yourself for good behavior. A super size trip to Burger King and you will have to walk 21 miles just to get back even. An innocent hunk of cherry pie (it is fruit, isn't it) will cost you a 5 mile hike.

Weight Management Tips

Managing your weight is easy once you get the hang of it. Here are a few simple rules.

1. Rule number: Save some of the elephant for tomorrow. The French eat a diet of very rich food but manage to stay trim. How do they do it? Research - we paid for this, disclosed that they quit eating when they are no longer hungry. Americans quit eating when the food is gone. Hello?

2. Don't skip breakfast. One more time: Do Not Skip Breakfast. Start your day with a meal that consists primarily of complex carbohydrates. They help stabilize your blood sugar, hold off hunger attacks and provide the energy you need to get the day underway. Carbohydrates (which, by the way, gram for gram have exactly the same calories as protein and a whole lot less saturated fat) are a much more readily available source of energy for your body than protein and fat.

3. Have specific times of the day when you eat and eat only at those times. If you are eating balanced meals of wholesome food, you will not starve between meals - you probably won't even get very hungry. The number one cause of snack cravings is feeding on high glycemic foods; e.g. sweets and, for the most part, white foods in general.

4. Have specific places in your house where you eat and do not eat anywhere else. Eating in front of the TV should not be one of those places. Never, never; never. Period!

5. Divide your daily allowance of food into five or six small meals and/or snacks. It will keep your blood sugar stabilized and prevent cravings.

6. Eat high fiber foods such as whole grains, leafy vegetables - esp. cabbage, broccoli, greens, celery etc. Not only will your colon will love you but the food digests more slowly giving you a feeling of satisfaction for a longer period of time.

7. Until you can 'eyeball it' measure your food. Yes, use a measuring cup. You use it for cooking is it that much harder to use it for serving? You eat a lot more than you think. Go to mypyramid.gov. and print off a personalized eating plan. It will give you a balance diet, the number of servings you need every day from the various food groups and a guideline to serving sizes. When you put in your information, remember that an hour of exercise a day three time a week is not the same as an hour of exercise every day. Divide your weekly exercise time by seven.

8. Watch what you drink. Don't sabatoge your eating plan by drinking high calorie beverages. One glass of soft drink, sweet tea, cool aid, high fructose sweetened fruit juice (read the label) a day will add about a half-pound a week to your waist.

9. Drink water. Drink lots of water. Drink lots and lots of water. You would be suprised how often that hunger pain is a thirst pain misunderstood. The average person loses 10 cups of water at day just doing average activities - now you know the reason for the 6-8 glass rule. If you are eating fruits and veggies as you should you will get the rest of the water replaced from them.

10. Do not put bowls and platters of food on the table where the temptation is to have 'just a little more'. And just in case you are tempted to go back to the kitchen for more, it is a grand idea not to prepare anymore than the actual number of servings you should be eating. You will spend less time with your doctor and less time at the grocery. Your body will love you and your pocket book will love you.

And your bonus for the day is...

Keep a little "Anytime Soup" on hand (it freezes well) for those days when you 'just have to eat or die'. Here's the recipe:
One head cabbage
One large onion
One or two bell peppers
A few stalks celery
One or two cans diced tomatoes
A few clove garlic (optional - but not at my house)
Enough fat free chicken or vegetable broth to cover a couple of inches above veggies.
Salt and pepper to taste. If you will add a little apple cider vinegar or rice wine vinegar before adding the salt you will find that you use less salt - always a plus. Cook up a pot and store it in serving sizes in the freezer.

This is a great soup for between meal snacks or for those times when you are sure you are going to die if you don't put something in your mouth. A half-cup is a snack. A cup is a big snack. A bowl is a meal.

In a pinch, you can pull a bag out of the freezer, heat it up and serve it as a meal. Put a dollop of low fat cream cheese on top and serve it with a slice of whole grain toast or a few whole grain crackers

Will Calories Make You Fat?

Will calories make you fat? That almost seems like a trick question with and obvious answer. Apparently the answer isn't as obvious as it seems. I saw an article on the internet recently that made the claim that "calories don't make you fat." My first reaction was "Try to get fat without them."

Although the author of that piece apparently did not know enough of what he was talking about to give a rational explanation of that claim - I think he actually thought he was correct - there is a sense in which the statement could stand as true. Calories per se do not make you fat. It is an excess of calories that makes you fat. But it is still calories that make you fat.

The author seemed to be confused about the fact that a calorie is simply a measure of available energy. That much is correct. But if you are going to look at it that way, you need to finish the equation and consider that fat is simply excess energy in storage. In fact, that is just what fat is. So will calories make you fat? As long as excess calories, or excess energy - if you want to insist on that definition, is stored as fat, Yes! Calories in excess will make you fat.

The question is: What is excess? How do you know when you are putting in more energy than you are using? Come on, now. You have a mirror. You can see the stored energy. Don't fuel your moped like it was a stock car.