When I was about 8, I remember trying to listen to make sure my mom was still breathing. I wanted to make sure she hadn’t somehow died during her noon nap. Having heard her breathing (and or snoring), I’d go out and play.
Paranoia? Well, it’s a possibility. Then again, I had a few reasons to be worried about my mom--reasons such as stroke, high blood pressure, arrhythmias, type 2diabetes, congestive heart failure, end stage kidney failure, kidney stones and duodenal ulcers, just to name a few. As you can imagine, a body can't stand up to so many diseases for without breaking down. It was the eve of her 70th birthday when her body finally gave up. It was just a day before we had been planning to celebrate her life and there we were bemoaning her death.
In a time when a woman’s average life expectancy is about eighty, this was too short a life. Sometimes I find myself wishing I could hop into a time-travelling DeLorean, rev up to 88mph and, with a trail of flames, take my knowledge of the human body back 15 years ago when it could have helped my mom.
That won’t happen, of course, so I seek recourse in reality, helping my patients in a way I can’t help my mom. These patients are 70, 80, 90, 100 years old, ill and debilitated in very complex ways. There are limits to what I can do, but contrary to what Depeche Mode used to say, everything counts even in SMALL amounts.
Still, as the faces and fragile bodies of my patients remind me of my mom, I see the power of well-timed prevention efforts. Yeah sometimes I can fix bodies, but why should they be broken? The saying goes that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. That’s true enough but I think the analogy is an order of magnitude off. An ounce of prevention isn’t worth a pound of cure, it’s worth a TON of cure.
At work, I see people dying almost on a daily basis. What went wrong and when? My question often leads (literally) to a trail of crumbs. Cake crumbs, chip crumbs, pastry crumbs…it’s usually a lifetime of poor food choices and an inactive lifestyle. Sadly, this usually starts early. In fact, one study found that the fatty plaques that clog your arteries are evident as early as grade school!
That’s a reason to worry, no doubt. But it’s not a reason to give up. In the world of birds, the dumb Dodo birds gave up. The wise old Owls learned to adapt. There’s plenty of very basic things you and I can do to keep what happened to my mom from happening to ourselves, our children or family and friends.
It’s a simple as this: we NEED to exercise and eat right. It’s not an option. All the money ever printed won’t do a dot of good if you’re too tired, depressed, sick or dead to enjoy it. That’s why I’m doing everything I can to live healthfully and get the word out to all of you. It’s never late to make things better. And it’s never too early either.
Unemployment isn't the only thing that's happening. Just as there's a cowering multitude dusting off their tin cans and waiting for the soup lines, there's also a silent but courageous minority that refuses to wait in any line. They're forging their own way, creating destiny where destruction looms. They see the economic forecasts and refuse to live in the kind of financial climate that brings recession. In the mud and muck of this crisis, health and fitness often goes out the window pretty fast.
But that's like being in a sinking ship and throwing away the life preserver. I hear many repsonses to this, and they amount to this: Too many costs, not enough time. How, I ask? Are we too afraid to get fit? Is a high stakes economy rife with the stresses of a daily grind the worse time to invest in a program that helps us exercise and eat right? Or is it PRECISELY THE TIME and the opportunity to work off stress, slim down and stay sane?
I can't imagine anything worse than being poor, depressed, AND fat. Next comes illness, more depression and greater financial straits as bills and bulges continue to pile on. The solution is to begin taking care of your body because after all, without your health, you got nothing. As a Beachbody coach, I'm also linking my physical health to my financial well-being via Beachbody's financial opportunity.
Carl Daikler, Beachbody CEO outlines exactly why this makes sense:
"There is another story, one of hope, achievment, and enthusiasm. That story is being written by thousands of Beachbody coaches growing in number and momentum. They are the cavalry. They refuse to sit back and "take it". Instead, while the global economy has been unraveling, Beachbody...
> Recruited over 10,000 Coaches, as independent business owners
> Paid over $15 million in Coach commissions
> Increased staff by 66%, hiring over 100 people in 2008 to support the growth of the network business.
> Co-published Kathy Smith's Project: You For Type 2 with the American Diabetes Association in a combined mission to improve ADA fundraising to find a cure for the disease, help prevent diabetes and to improve the lives of people affected by diabetes.
> Donated thousands of dollars for the care and feeding of orphans in Africa and the US.
> Developed multiple ground-breaking new products for release in 2009, including the "healthiest meal of the day", Shakeology.
> Celebrated the physical transformation of literally thousands of customers and coaches who sent in their photos and videos to show that our programs really work, and a healthy approach to diet and fitness is the best approach.
And we're just getting started."
1.Eat all the time. Have you ever seen a fat hummingbird? Chances are, the answer is “no” unless it has some kind of metabolic disorder. The vast majority of hummingbirds are three things: slim, constantly moving, and constantly eating. We can certainly learn from these tiny, frenetic animals. Eating (small snacks) 5-6 times a day instead of gorging on three big meals actually puts the body into hyper-drive. Metabolism revs up and calories get burned. The opposite: long periods of fasting (as in "3 square meals") makes the body into an energy miser. It goes into starvation/conservation mode and begins to store fat. That’s the body’s natural answer to the question “hmm, I wonder when my next meal will be?”
TIP: Eat small meals (e.g. an apple and some string cheese) every 3 hours until about 7PM.
2.Turn on and tune up your mitochondria. At the cellular level, energy comes from power-packed mitochondria. They’re mostly located in muscle tissue and their main role is providing energy for lifting a dumbbell and/or that triple decker whopper you’re eating. As we get older, we begin to lose mitochondria and, thus, the ability to make food into energy. The unfortunate result is that the body stores up that unused food as fat. TIP: Exercise to increase mitochondria. You’ll have more energy and less fat.
3.Don’t stress out, workout. There are about 100 ways to gain weight and stressing out is one of the top ten. Don't stress out about it, though, because turning this around is simple. Instead of stressing out do some physical activity. You'll gain muscle which helps you to burn calories. This is especially important because as we age, muscle begins to shrink (a condition known as sarcopenia). So if you’re over 40 exercise is doubly important. While you're combatting the muscle wasting, the exercise also helps you to feel better and decrease stress hormones that can lead to weight gain. TIP: Workout to look and feel better
In summary, follow the way of the hummingbird, nature’s marvelous athlete. Eat (nutritious food) constantly and don’t stop moving.
1. Because 2008 was soooo 1999. All those things that weren’t good for you in the previous year should go out of fashion like Aqua-net plastered bangs. Just apply the rule for handling clutter: if you don’t need it, don’t want it and can’t use it, throw it away! That goes for bad habits too.
2. Because Jack Lalanne (the Juiceman) said: “if a man made it don’t eat it” and “if it tastes good, spit it out.” Now I wouldn’t be so extreme. Even Jack Lalanne can’t put down a good hummus dip, a slice of watermelon, or a nice juicy buffalo burger. Point is, though, most people can change their eating habits and the new year is a natural time to do it.
3. Because you are what you eat. Okay, this is very much like point number two but it’s THAT important. The new year is time to feel clean and lean. You’re going for the trim polished look of a celery stick. You don’t want to look deep fried and oily and you wouldn’t want Jack Lalanne to spit you out.
4. Because when the boogie man goes to sleep he checks the closet for Chuck Norris. And Chuck Norris WILL get on your case if you don’t start some kind of exercise program.
5. Because, at the age of 70, while shackled and restrained, Jack Lalanne propelled himself using his own two hands and two feet for 1.5 miles through the ocean while pulling 70 boats with 70 people in them. Alright, if you’re under 70 you just can’t let Jack show you up like that.
By the way, the pic at top right isn't me, it's Jack Lalanne. I'm personally not too fond of one piece jumpsuits, even the glorified yellow jammies Bruce Lee used to wear.
I'm nearing the end of p90x phase III and it's been a lesson in pain. The pay-off is that after a few months of dedicated butt-kicking, I ALMOST crave the lactic build-up at the end of the plyometrics routine.
It definitely hasn't been easy. But hey, deep fried Thanksgiving turkey is served on a silver platter, not p90x. I admit though that sometimes I wish I could join that turkey for a dip in 220 degree peanut oil. Some nights my fingers were so cold I could hardly push the play button. But 15 minutes later my jacket and shirt would be on the floor and the 50 degree room would feel like a sauna.
Then there was the mini-trip to Hawaii. My freeze-conditioned body wasn't ready for 80 degree nights that were humid enough to cut with the Kenpo routine's "high sword, low hammer" move. Still, sweating, jumping, and panting in "paradise" within view and ear-shot of the ocean isn't something to complain about.
Those of you "just thinking" about getting fit, stop thinking. Intentions don't make you fit. My advice for the New Year: Stop circling the pool. Just jump right in, the oil, I mean...the water's fine. Just be ready to say "Thank you sir may I have another?" In the end, your body will be doing the thanking.
