Carole Carson

What’s the Link between Surplus Weight and Medical Problems?

In my role as coach for the AARP Fat 2 Fit Community Weight-Loss Challenge, I ask experts to share their insight on issues involving fitness. One such expert is Dr. Michael F. Roizen, who is regularly featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show, NBC’s Today, 20/20, Good Morning America and CBS News Sunday Morning.

I asked Dr. Roizen, “What’s the link between surplus weight and medical problems?” His answer follows:

 

A large waist leads to high blood pressure, arthritis, altered body image and low self-respect. Extra belly fat also causes more inflammation than sand in your swimsuit, and that inflammation causes insulin resistance diabetes (with an average 17-year lag), heart disease and impotence (average 25-year lag) and cancer (average 35-year lag). If those health concerns weren't enough, a sizeable girth also causes problems zipping up your pants.

Dr. Roizen confirms the statistic that 80 percent of our medical problems are a function of lifestyle. The deadly quartet (heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer) is increasingly linked to unhealthy eating and exercise habits that result in obesity and a lack of fitness overall. The statistic is worrisome, but it simultaneously reassures us that we can reduce our risk by adopting a healthier lifestyle.

Michael Roizen, MD

Michael F. Roizen, MD, has written four New York Times bestsellers, including You: The Owner’s Manual, which he coauthored with Dr. Mehmet Oz. Other popular books coauthored with Dr. Oz include You: Staying Young and You: On a Diet. Michael’s writing has also appeared in numerous scientific papers, textbooks and medical books. Besides holding patents on several of his inventions and being a prolific lecturer, Michael has produced four PBS fundraising television specials. He chairs the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute. With his extensive experience in educating individuals on the care of their bodies to achieve optimum health, Michael guides and inspires individuals of all ages.

Trivia Question

Meatless Monday is a national public health campaign encouraging individuals to eliminate meat one day of the week. The campaign is designed with a number of goals in mind:

• Improve health. Eating a diet lower in saturated fat, found mainly in meat and high-fat dairy products, helps prevent heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer, the four leading causes of death in America.

• Lose weight. By eating meatless meals rather than meat-based meals on Mondays, individuals typically consume fewer calories.

• Help the environment. Consuming vegetable-based meals helps conserve fresh water and better the environment by eating food raised in a sustainable manner. Participating in Meatless Monday also helps reduce, albeit modestly, the harmful environmental impact of cattle farming.
  

Who originated the Meatless Monday campaign?

1. Vegetarians who believe that the healthiest diet is one based on plants

2. The surgeon general, in an attempt to encourage Americans to tackle the expanding problem of obesity by cutting back on calorie-laden meat

3. A religious organization whose members believe that humanity is best served by giving up the practice of eating animals

4. Presidents Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman, who encouraged patriotic citizens to forgo eating meat on Mondays to make more food available to troops overseas and to minimize worldwide food shortages

The correct answer is number 4. The tradition began with presidents Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman, who were trying to conserve food for overseas troops during a time of worldwide food shortages. If you’d like ideas on what to serve for your Meatless Monday, check out some easy-to-prepare recipes here.

What Is the Commonest Outdoor Injury and How Can It Be Prevented?

As coach for the AARP Fat 2 Fit online nommunity, I ask experts to share their insight on issues involving fitness. One such expert is Dr. Paul Auerbach, one of the world’s leading authorities on outdoor medicine.

I asked Dr. Auerbach, “What’s the commonest outdoor injury and how can it be prevented?” His answer follows:

Blisters are common outdoor injuries for people who are trying to increase their activity by walking, jogging or hiking. Follow these guidelines to prevent blisters:

1. Socks: Wear a smooth, thin, snug-fitting synthetic sock as an inner layer and a thick, woven sock as an outer layer.

2. Shoes: Make sure shoes or boots fit properly and comfortably. Fit shoes in the evening because feet tend to swell throughout the day. Allow ample time to break in new footwear. Try on your shoes with the same socks you will be wearing on the trails.

3. Treatment: The best protection for a blister is its own roof. To assist in protecting this roof, apply a small adhesive bandage or pad either at the beginning of the day on an area susceptible to blistering or as soon as a hot spot develops.

4. Protection: Blist-O-Ban bandages (by SAM Medical Products), Micropore paper tape, cloth tape, Elastikon elastic tape, moleskin, Spenco 2^nd Skin Blister Pads, Band-Aid Blister Block and duct tape can be used as barriers to prevent blister development or to protect the roof of a blister.

With a little footwear planning and care, you can avoid most blisters, and you will be able to continue merrily on your outdoor adventure.

Dr. Auerbach’s practical advice will keep us moving in comfort as we walk off those surplus pounds. With a few precautions, we can safely enjoy our “green” exercise.

Paul Auerbach, MD

Dr. Paul Auerbach, professor of surgery in the Division of Emergency Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine, is the author of Medicine for the Outdoors, Field Guide to Wilderness Medicine, Diving the Rainbow Reefs, Management Lessons from the E.R. and Bad Medicine. Paul edits the textbook Wilderness Medicine and serves as anational medical consultant on hazardous marine animals to the Divers Alert Network. Dr. Auerbach is also the chief medical officer and chair of the Medical Advisory Board for Healthline Networks, where he hosts a blog entitled Medicine for the Outdoors.

If Counting Calories Is Not for You

While many of us recognize that we are overweight and need to cut back on calories, we don’t necessarily know how this goal is best accomplished, especially given the conflicting advice from experts.

Fad diets—whether they are unrealistically limiting in food choices or nutritionally sound—seem to hit the market with regularity. The latest diet book rises to the top of the heap, only to be replaced by another fad diet a few months later. Foods such as eggs are considered bad for our health one week; the next week, they are considered an ideal source of protein.

Amid all the confusion, what’s a person to do? Ideally, we would each keep track of our caloric intake, independent of our food choices. If we needed to lose weight, we would make the appropriate adjustments. But after working with hundreds of people trying to lose weight, I am certain that some individuals (like my husband) will never keep a food journal. Like many, he will never check a calorie guide to find out how many calories are in the cheeseburger and french fries he ate for lunch. But not counting calories doesn’t mean my husband has to give up losing weight.

If you, like my husband, resist calorie counting, you can still achieve your weight-loss goal by using the half-plate rule.

Here’s the rule in a nutshell: Before eating, load the right side of your plate with salad, fruit or nonstarchy vegetables (such as broccoli or zucchini). Divide the other side between protein (such as lean meat or beans) and a starch (such as potatoes, rice or corn).

If you follow the half-plate rule, you’ll reduce your caloric intake without measuring each calorie you consume (assuming, of course, that you don’t eat a second and third helping). And this guide is handy even for calorie counters in situations where calories are difficult to measure, such as at a restaurant or in someone’s home.

The half-plate rule is an idea conceived of and promoted by Cornell University’s Food and Brand Lab. Researchers are working to discover why, what, when and how much people eat. We appreciate this useful insight because we can use all the help we can get.

"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."                    Albert Einstein

How to Know If You’re Ready to Lose Weight and Get Fit

Seven years ago, I stepped on the bathroom scale—and it broke. In that instant, I made an irrevocable decision to get fit and remodel my body by losing weight. I remember the moment as if it were yesterday. The incident was a decisive turning point: I took the fork out of my mouth, and I took a fork in the road instead.

In retrospect, the internal discussion (or should I say argument) I’d been having with myself during the prior months was coming to a head. I liked my self-indulgences and didn’t want to give them up. At the same time, I knew I needed to make positive changes because my appearance was making me miserable. The broken scale didn’t trigger my transformation; rather, it crystallized my need to change in such a way that I couldn’t return to my old habits.

If I could bottle the process by which a person irrevocably commits to make positive changes (such as lose weight, stop smoking or give up alcohol), I would indeed be a rich person. Although I can’t patent the formula, I can tell you what the ingredients are so you can tell if you are ready to get fit and remodel your body.

First, your current habits and lifestyle are hurting and distressing you. Maybe you feel bad when you have to move up a size because your clothes no longer fit or when you accidentally catch a glance of yourself in the mirror. Maybe your extra girth is causing medical problems that threaten the quality of your life or require drugs that stretch the family budget. Maybe you feel sad when you can’t take your grandchild for a walk because your joints hurt from carrying a spare tire around your middle. Maybe you’ve lost self-respect because you are unable to manage your impulses and say no to yourself. Whatever the reason, you are unhappy with the status quo.

Second, the pleasure you derive from your current habits is greatly outweighed by the pain and suffering you experience by being out of shape and overweight. The nightly raiding of the refrigerator, while satisfying in the moment, is causing you to suffer when you step on the bathroom scale or the waistband on your pants feels like a vise around your middle every time you sit down. The second and third helpings of food at the supper table make you feel lethargic, bloated and out of control. You have begun to realize that the price you pay for your indulgences is too high for the pleasure you derive from them.

Third, you realize that adopting healthier habits will lead not to a grim life of deprivation but rather to a life that is richer, more meaningful, more productive and more satisfying. You will enjoy the food you carefully choose more than you ever enjoyed your mindless eating. You will add far more joy and satisfaction to your daily life than you give up. Instead of being ashamed of how you look, you will enjoy the experience of being in your body. And you will appreciate the simple gift of life your body represents.

There you have them. Insofar as I can tell, these three conditions, when present, can propel you into beginning your own fitness remodeling project. Are you ready? If the answer is yes, start making the positive changes today.

"It's not that some people have willpower and some don't. It's that some people are ready to change and others are not."                    James Jordan, MD

What Is a Holistic Approach to Weight Loss?

A delightful part of my job as coach for the AARP Fat 2 Fit Community Weight-Loss Challenge is interviewing experts who share their insight on issues involving fitness. One such expert is Dr. Kay Judge, a board-certified internal medicine specialist who brings her interest in traditional and holistic medicine practices to her patients. (See her full biography below.)

I asked Dr. Judge, “What is a holistic approach to weight loss?” Her answer follows:

“We all know that ‘calories in versus calories out’ is the key to weight loss. But the human body can be more complex than a mathematical equation. If one is having a problem losing weight, then a holistic approach to weight loss may be beneficial. Holistic medicine recognizes that the mind, body and spirit all play a role in creating good health. Ask yourself the following questions:

1. Am I eating to fulfill a need other than hunger?

2. Are there certain people or environments that cause me to overeat or underexercise?

3. Do I derive comfort or pleasure from eating? Does eating reduce my stress?

4. Am I eating foods that nourish my body?

5. Do I participate in activities that are good for my body?

6. What is missing from my life that food is replacing?

Answers to these questions will point you in a direction that can create a lasting solution to bringing your body in balance holistically.”

These questions can trigger self-insight and can be reviewed again and again, especially when overeating threatens to derail our fitness goals. The questions also address the underlying motivations and rewards that keep us from realizing our fitness goals. Thanks, Dr. Judge, for sharing your insight.

Biography of Kandeel “Kay” Judge, MD

Dr. Kay Judge received her medical training at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, Michigan. Kay is the coauthor of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Secrets of Longevity (November 2009). She currently practices internal and holistic medicine at the Sutter Downtown Integrative Medicine Program in Sacramento, California.

Kay spent five years in India, where she discovered a passion for alternative treatment including meditation, yoga and ayurvedic medicine. Kay helps her patients find the balance between mind, body, emotions and spirit so that they can attain their fullest potential. She gives health recommendations based on a combination of conventional (Western) medicine, health and lifestyle modifications and alternative treatment options.

"Keeping your body healthy is an expression of gratitude to the whole universe--the trees, the clouds, everthing."                        Thich Nhat Hanh        

On the Road Again? Six Tips for Staying Fit

Although it’s easier today than it was 10 years ago, staying fit while traveling is still a challenge. At home, I don’t keep a small refrigerator stocked with liquor and snacks next to my bed. But my hotel room has one, and the Snickers candy bar calls out my name around ten o’clock each night.

And when I breakfast at home, I am not surrounded by glazed doughnuts or luscious pastries too beautiful to eat. Nor does my evening meal tempt me with two or three of my favorite foods in quantities that even a lumberjack would have trouble polishing off.

Since I prepare most of my food at home, I am aware of the caloric content of my meals. But how do I calculate the calories in a macaroni and cheese casserole where the steamed macaroni is first coated with bread crumbs and then deep-fried?

Since I’m determined to eat healthfully and exercise while traveling, I’ve been forced to develop ways to cope. What I’ve discovered through trial and error is the importance of planning. Here are six strategies that I’ve found useful:

1. Travel: If I am leaving from home, I pack my own lunch and include extra fruit to snack on during the day.

2. Accommodations: I check to see if the hotel has a swimming pool or fitness center, and I pack the appropriate sports clothes and shoes.

3. Meals: At restaurants, I choose seafood or lighter-fare entrées that are prepared simply and without sauce. I ask the waiter to double the vegetables and skip the french fries. If I am eating with someone, I’ll share an order because I know that most restaurants serve twice the amount of food I need.

4. Exercise: I use the time waiting for a flight departure to walk around the terminal. I also check with the hotel staff to learn local (and safe) walking routes nearby. If I’m stuck in meetings all day, I walk during the lunch break. If I’m traveling by car, I stretch and move around at rest stops.

5. Water: After I clear security at the airport, I fill my water bottle so I don’t mistake thirst for hunger.

6. Popcorn: If my hotel room has a microwave, I bring packages of microwaveable popcorn so I can enjoy a healthful snack during the late afternoon hours when my energy declines and my craving for sugar rises.

Traveling is always an adventure. Sometimes everything works out beautifully, and my schedule matches the printed itinerary. Other times weather conditions interfere, flights are canceled and airplanes (and sometimes automobiles) require unexpected repairs. Having a plan for coping, however, minimizes the stress when dealing with the unexpected and keeps me walking straight ahead on my path to fitness.