Exercise, Weight Loss and Fitness Information

Feb

Posted by: Curt | Under: 40's/fit, 50's/fit, Children/fit, Diet and Weight Loss, General Fitness, Health, Ladies/fit, Prime/fit, Quick Tips, Seniors/fit, Sports, Travel/fit, Youth/fit | (0) Comments

Ice Cream

One of the things I constantly remind people about in their quest to lose weight is “serving size”. If you look at the label on any packaged food, the serving size will be listed, such as “2 cookies” or “about 14 crackers”. The problem is that virtually no one in America eats 1 serving of anything. Even bread lists 1 serving as 1 slice. But no one makes a sandwich with 1 slice of bread and most people would naturally assume that 1 serving is 2 slices. If I were to make an educated guess from watching people eat, I would estimate that most people eat at least 2 servings of everything- maybe 3. That would be great if it were vegetables and fruit, but it is usually junk food or high carb, high fat stuff like ice cream. So, this really is a good idea. Knowledge is a good thing and helping people to understand just how much they really eat is important.

But here is the application- if you want to surprise yourself, measure out you food for a few days and calculate the actual calories. Just carry a small notebook with you and write down everything you eat right down to the ketchup you put on your fries (which you should skip). Pretty much every restaurant chain lists nutrition info on their website. You will probably be surprised to find out that you eat about twice as many calories as you think. That is why you can’t lose weight! From MSNBC-

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“If people don’t understand the serving, whatever number they get for fat or calories is misleading,” said William K. Hubbard, a former F.D.A. official who consulted with the agency last year.

Consider the humble chip: most potato or corn chip bags today show a one-ounce serving size, containing a tolerable 150 calories, or thereabouts. But only the most disciplined snacker will stop at an ounce. For some brands, like Tostitos Hint of Lime, that can be just six chips.

In the real world, many people might eat two or three times that, or more. Munch half a bag of Tostitos while watching the Super Bowl and you could take in about half the 2,000 calories an average person needs in a day.

Jan

Weight Lifting Makes You Smarter- Really

Posted by: Curt | Under: 40's/fit, 50's/fit, Diet and Weight Loss, General Fitness, Health, Ladies/fit, Prime/fit, Quick Tips, Seniors/fit, Spiritual/Emotional, Sports, Travel/fit, Youth/fit | (0) Comments

Hack Squats

There is an old stereotype out there of the dumb weightlifter who really can’t do anything else very well. I think that stereotype really came from people who just don’t want to workout. Actually, the reverse is true… people who lift weights become measurably smarter. Really. I’ve met many very brilliant people in the gym and they weren’t just treadmill rats, they were hard core weightlifters. In one gym I worked out in, the evening crowd included a bunch of high powered personalities. One guy was an eye surgeon, another was a lawyer, another a CPA, etc. Of course there were stupid people in the gym as well. But there are stupid people everywhere. Yet, the perception persists and I really don’t know why- maybe the high school jocks vs. geeks thing. But the fact is that even at the most basic level, people who exercise are smarter simply because they realize that exercise is important for good health.

But, that’s not even the point of the article I’m referring to. Andrew over at MPF linked an article which suggests that weightlifting actually increases your cognitive abilities.

…Researchers in British Columbia randomly assigned 155 women ages 65 to 75 either to strength training with dumbbells and weight machines once or twice a week, or to a comparison group doing balance and toning exercises.

A year later, the women who did strength training had improved their performance on tests of so-called executive function by 10.9 percent to 12.6 percent, while those assigned to balance and toning exercises experienced a slight deterioration — 0.5 percent. The improvements in the strength training group included an enhanced ability to make decisions, resolve conflicts and focus on subjects without being distracted by competing stimuli.

…

I’ve been lifting weights ever since college and I don’t think most people consider me all that smart. It’s scary to think what I would be like if I didn’t lift weights every day! Anyways, good article. Check it out.

Jan

Just for Fun

Posted by: Curt | Under: 40's/fit, 50's/fit, Children/fit, Diet and Weight Loss, General Fitness, Health, Ladies/fit, Prime/fit, Quick Tips, Seniors/fit, Sports, Travel/fit, Youth/fit | (0) Comments

Ok, this is not really an endorsement even though I really do like cheddar cheese. By the way, sharp cheeses are a great way to add flavor without adding a lot of calories.

Jan

Correlation between depression and junk food found

Posted by: Curt | Under: 40's/fit, 50's/fit, Children/fit, Diet and Weight Loss, General Fitness, Health, Ladies/fit, Prime/fit, Quick Tips, Seniors/fit, Spiritual/Emotional, Sports, Travel/fit, Youth/fit | (0) Comments

Skip this for better health!

Whenever you start looking for cause/effect relationships, you invariably run the risk of getting it wrong and possibly backwards. But in this study there is a pretty good case to be made for eliminating as much junk food from your diet as possible since the correlation is so strong. It is possible that depressed people just eat more junk food. But with what we know about how diet affects every area of our lives, it is very likely that whole, natural, healthy foods benefit our brain function. So with that in mind, check out this article over at MSNBC Health and pass it along to your friends and family who might be struggling with depression. My experience is that changing your diet and adding exercise to your daily regimen has a powerful effect on mood as well as physical well-being. For a good 6 meal per day diet, check out this page…

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British and French epidemiologists analyzed food and mood data from 3,486 men and women (average age 55) in the Whitehall II study on London-based office staff. Each participant answered a food frequency questionnaire in which they were asked how often they had eaten a designated portion size of a food during the previous year (set responses ranged from “never” to “six or more times per day”).

That data was then converted to a daily intake and two dietary patterns were identified: the “whole food pattern” (defined by a high daily intake of vegetables, fruits, and fish) and the “processed food pattern” (characterized by high consumption of sweetened desserts, chocolates, fried food, processed meat, pies, refined grains, high-fat dairy products, and condiments). Five years later, all the participants answered a short questionnaire designed to measure symptoms of depression in the general population.

Jan

10 Suggestions for Happiness in 2010

Posted by: Curt | Under: General Fitness | (0) Comments

Well, it has been about 2 weeks since I have been able to post anything due to a server/IP problem at the hosting company. Very frustrating! We’ve found a work-around, but hopefully the issue will be resolved soon.
At any rate, here is a list of 10 things you can do to increase your happiness (From MSNBC). Some of them are really very simple and just require a slight change in lifestyle- some of them are things you already know and just need to remember to do.
Here is one that I found to be very true since I’ve been scanning all the old family slides and digitizing them to put on DVD’s for other family members. Lots of fun!
…
Flip through old photos
When you’re feeling down, break out your kids’ baby albums or pics from your favorite vacation. It may actually make you feel happier than a square of Godiva chocolate would! That’s what researchers at the United Kingdom’s Open University found after they examined how much people’s moods rose after eating a chocolate snack, sipping an alcoholic drink, watching TV, listening to music, or looking at personal photos.
The music and chocolate left most people’s moods unchanged; alcohol and TV gave a slight lift (1%), but the winner by a long shot was viewing pictures, which made people feel 11% better. To keep your spirits high at work, upload your favorite pics to your computer and set them as a rotating screensaver. Or splurge on a frame that flips through digital photos.

Dec

10 Strange Long term Health Clues

Posted by: Curt | Under: 40's/fit, 50's/fit, Diet and Weight Loss, General Fitness, Health, Ladies/fit, Prime/fit, Seniors/fit, Supplements, Travel/fit | (0) Comments

Some of these are pretty weird, but there is science behind them. MSNBC has the whole list, but here are a couple-

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Older adults who couldn’t identify the scent of bananas, lemons, cinnamon, or other items were five times more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease within 4 years, according to a 2008 study in the Annals of Neurology. The researchers believe that the area of the brain responsible for olfactory function may be one of the first impacted by Parkinson’s disease — somewhere between 2 and 7 years prior to diagnosis.

Prevent it: Take fish oil supplements. Omega-3 fatty acids can boost your brain’s resistance to MPTP, a toxic compound responsible for Parkinson’s.

Multiple studies show that linear wrinkles in one or both lobes may predict future cardiovascular events (heart attack, bypass surgery, or cardiac death.) A crease on one lobe raises the risk by 33%; a crease on both lobes increases it by 77%, even after adjusting for other known risk factors, found a study in The American Journal of Medicine. Though experts aren’t exactly sure, they suspect a loss of elastic fibers may cause both the crease and the hardening of arteries.

Prevent it: Keep your heart healthy in other ways: Slim down, and lower your cholesterol and blood pressure.

Dec

Coffee and Tea may reduce diabetes case

Posted by: Curt | Under: 40's/fit, 50's/fit, Diet and Weight Loss, General Fitness, Health, Ladies/fit, Prime/fit, Quick Tips, Seniors/fit, Sports, Supplements | (0) Comments

Coffee

This is good news and bad news- the good news is that there is pretty convincing evidence that coffee and tea consumption reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The bad news is that millions of people who do get diabetes consume lots of coffee and tea. So the reasons behind the evidence are unclear. Like with most things, there is probably more than one factor at work. It’s possible that coffee and tea drinkers have different life-style traits that influence the effects of caffeine or the other ingredients in coffee and tea. It’s also possible that coffee and tea drinkers burn more calories from the effects of the caffeine. But all in all, at the very least, we can put aside the warnings of years gone by that they are bad for you. In general, unless you are very sensitive to caffeine, there is no problem with drinking coffee and tea. So, if you like coffee and tea, enjoy. But please don’t use this as an excuse to over eat and not exercise. There is no doubt at all that the best way for most people to avoid developing diabetes is with a good diet and exercise.

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People who drink the most coffee and tea, even decaffeinated versions, can dramatically lower their risk of diabetes, researchers reported on Monday.

Their study does not answer why this might be but strengthens the findings of earlier studies showing the beverages may prevent type-2 diabetes.

“Every additional cup of coffee consumed in a day was associated with a 7 percent reduction in the excess risk of diabetes,” Rachel Huxley of The University of Sydney in Australia and an international team of colleagues wrote in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Dec

Strength and Diet

Posted by: Curt | Under: 40's/fit, 50's/fit, Diet and Weight Loss, General Fitness, Health, Ladies/fit, Prime/fit, Sports, Supplements, Youth/fit | (0) Comments

Or big and ripped, or as Andrew over at MPF calls it “the holy grail of fitness”. The basic idea that has been floating around for years is that you can’t gain size and strength while at the same time lose fat and get lean- at least not without pharmaceutical help. That is sort of true, but not completely. Years ago, in my bodybuilding days we used to do the bulk up, diet down plan for getting ready for shows. One thing I noticed over the years is that each successive competition got easier to diet for and after the show, I stayed just a little bit leaner. So while there are some basics to gaining strength and and/or dieting, our bodies are extremely good at adapting. You aren’t going to make your best gains in size and strength while dieting, but you can still make gains. One time, about 10 years ago, I was getting ready for the Mr. Georgia and dieting fairly strictly. I was also still squatting and deadlifting at my max levels even while losing weight. So there is a balance and it isn’t easy to find, but when you do find it, it is great.

So to my mind the Holy Grail of Fitness IS a system that effects a good amount of fat loss–or perhaps, more accurately, control of fat–and, simultaneously, good gains in strength and muscle mass. Compromise. True, you’re not going to get HUGE and, depending on how you eat, you’re probably not going to get SHREDDED, but you’re going to look and feel good.

Dec

The Benefits of Exercise for the Mind and Spirit

walking in the woods

We often think that when it comes to diet, exercise and health that the latest is the greatest. We also tend to think that no one before us could possibly have the insight and clarity that our current generation has. But that is of course a fallacy and falls under the category of “chronological snobbery” as CS Lewis calls it. So here is a quote from the famous 19th century preacher Charles Spurgeon-

He who forgets the humming of the bees among the heather, the cooing of the wood-pigeons in the forest, the song of birds in the woods, the rippling of rills among the rushes, and the sighing of the wind among the pines, needs not wonder if his heart forgets to sing and his soul grows heavy. A day’s breathing of fresh air upon the hills, or a few hours, ramble in the beech woods’ umbrageous calm, would sweep the cobwebs out of the brain of scores of our toiling ministers who are now but half alive. A mouthful of sea air, or a stiff walk in the wind’s face, would not give grace to the soul, but it would yield oxygen to the body, which is next best.

So head out and get oxygen! It will be good for you body, mind and spirit.

Nov

A Guide for Healthy Food and Eating

Grilled Fish

WebMD has an article about an address Michael Pollan gave to a gathering of scientists and doctors at the CDC back in March. In the talk he gives 7 words and 7 rules for food and eating. He also notes that there are some ironies about American eating habits that we should pay attention to. Although he makes little mention of the importance of exercise, I feel the need to remind you that exercise has huge benefits that diet alone cannot make up for. But, all in all, he has some really good advice. When guys in the gym asks me about supplements and protein powder, I always tell them to simply save their money and buy good real food.

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As part of an effort to bring new ideas to the national debate on food issues, the CDC invited Pollan — a harsh critic of U.S. food policies — to address CDC researchers and to meet with leaders of the federal agency.

“The French paradox is that they have better heart health than we do despite being a cheese-eating, wine-swilling, fois-gras-gobbling people,” Pollan said. “The American paradox is we are a people who worry unreasonably about dietary health yet have the worst diet in the world.”

In various parts of the world, Pollan noted, necessity has forced human beings to adapt to all kinds of diets.

“The Masai subsist on cattle blood and meat and milk and little else. Native Americans subsist on beans and maize. And the Inuit in Greenland subsist on whale blubber and a little bit of lichen,” he said. “The irony is, the one diet we have invented for ourselves — the Western diet — is the one that makes us sick.”

Snowballing rates of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease in the U.S. can be traced to our unhealthy diet. So how do we change? Read on here!

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