Carole Carson

New Rx for Fitness—Diet, Exercise and Prayer?

Is faith a factor in promoting good health? Is prayer good medicine? Research scientists are confirming the formerly radical notion that prayer positively affects health, although the reason why remains a mystery. Researchers are not seeking to verify a deity. Instead, they are measuring the impact of prayer on patients in controlled studies.

In studies at numerous medical centers, prayer and faith have been shown to speed recovery from depression, alcoholism, surgery, drug addiction, stroke, rheumatoid arthritis, heart attacks and bypass surgery. Studies have also shown that persons who pray have lower blood pressure and healthier immune systems than those who don’t pray.

In one study at Dartmouth Medical Center, one of the best predictors of survival among 232 heart-surgery patients was the degree to which the patient drew comfort and strength from religious faith and prayer.

In another six-year study of 4,000 men and women at Duke University, researchers found the risk of dying for persons who frequently attended religious services was 46 percent lower than for those who did not. Taking care of our physical selves by eating carefully and exercising combined with caring for our spiritual selves by praying regularly seems to be the current prescription for good health.

Maybe Reverend Paul S. Deever of Kansas was right when he said: “Prayer may be the Internet of the soul reaching around the world.” (198)

Sources: Dr. Larry Dossey, author of Prayer is Good Medicine; Dr. Dale Matthews, author of The Faith Factor; and Dianne Hales, “Can Prayer Really Heal?” Parade magazine, March 23, 2003

Soul Food—The Weigh to Thinner Peace

When we’re focused on waist management, sooner or later we must address the question of why we consume more calories than our bodies burn on any given day.

Our environment is a minefield. We have continuous access to quick meals from fast-food restaurants. Refrigerators at home and vending machines at work are stuffed with a variety of temptations. Adding a sedentary job and a disinclination to exercise regularly could explain those extra pounds.

I don’t think, however, our environment is the underlying reason so many of us are overweight. As Shakespeare wrote, “The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars but in ourselves.”

Were I to categorize my overeating, I’d begin with recreational eating. How fun it is to dine out with friends and enjoy a special meal. And I found that vacation eating is a kissing cousin to recreational eating.

“How can I resist,” I ask myself, “the hula pie?” I’m embarrassed to admit that I’ve researched which restaurant serves the best. I’ve spent hours hiking, ocean bobbing and playing tennis, so I should be able to eat what I want, right?

Another favorite is convenience eating—as I’m running errands, I realize I’m starved and buy whatever is handy at whatever store is nearby.

Comfort eating is also high on my list. Items in this category include my favorite foods, like garlic mashed potatoes and homemade bread.

Preventive eating is also important—that is, I’m about to go out the door and realize I won’t be home for several hours. I’m not hungry, but I think I’d better eat something just in case I get hungry. How crazy is that rationalization?

Craved foods represent a particular temptation. Nothing calls my name as loudly as chocolate-covered raisins sitting in a jar on top of the refrigerator do. And I can’t forget starvation eating which occurs when I exercise heavily, go too long between meals and become hungry enough to “eat a horse.”

My most common mistake, though, is to eat for energy. Geneen Roth, a regular contributor to Prevention magazine, asserts that “rest is a basic human need, like food and sleep and touch.” I run myself ragged, thinking I’ll rest when I get everything done. That moment, of course, never comes. Instead, to keep going, I fight fatigue with food.

Geneen recommends an alternative approach—to become a “steady rester.” Her approach requires us to give up the notion that each moment must be spent accomplishing something worthwhile.

Geneen also suggests borrowing the McDonald’s slogan You Deserve a Break Today. But she suggests a nonfood break-taking time to relax, putter, experience stillness or gaze out the window. A successful break renews our sense of self and well-being. Inner peace, rather than a piece of chocolate cake, is what we crave.

                I must learn to be a human being instead of a human doing. Otherwise, my next book will be titled From Fit to Fat: How I Turned Myself into a Weapon of Mass Expansion.

How Heavy Is Your Fitness Footprint?

When I hear strident voices arguing about options for healthcare reform, I picture passengers arguing about the arrangement of deck chairs on the Titanic.

 

You don’t have to be a math major to figure out that the majority of American adults who are overweight (66 percent, or 200 million citizens) are inadvertently putting themselves at risk for life-threatening, expensive-to-treat medical problems. Surplus pounds increase the risk for diabetes, certain cancers and stroke. And having even one of four factors commonly referred to as the deadly quartet (obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and high triglyceride levels) increases the risk of heart disease. Combined, they are a likely predictor of premature death.

 

The number of supersized children is also worrisome: nearly one-fifth of our nation’s 4-year-olds are obese. Since 1980, the number of overweight children has doubled; for adolescents the number has tripled. The long-term effects of childhood obesity (elevated blood pressure and cholesterol, joint problems, type 2 diabetes, gallbladder disease, asthma, depression and anxiety) will require intensive medical intervention. Researchers predict that this may be the first generation in the past two centuries to have shorter lives than their parents.

 

Given this context, those debating the merits of various payment plans to reform our current “disease management system,” as Dr. Andrew Weil labels it, seem to be ignoring the reality that the ship is sinking.

 

Granted, we need to make medical care more accessible and affordable and reduce unnecessary costs. But far more importantly, we need to place people in lifeboats. We need to figure out how to reduce lifestyle-related diseases that trigger the need for expensive medical care in the first place. We need to lighten our fitness footprint.

 

I coined this term to describe the impact of our personal lifestyle on health and life expectancy, along with the global impact on the environment. A healthy body on a healthy planet is the goal. But this goal can be achieved only if we reverse the unchecked epidemic of obesity. As waists become thicker, footprints become heavier.

 

Measuring and taking stock can be life-saving. When I stepped naked on the bathroom scale one morning and it broke, I knew I had to lose weight. What I didn’t know was that 183 pounds on a 5-foot-2-inch frame placed me in the 90th percentile for heart disease, cancer and stroke—plus a few other conditions that had yet to show up on tests. (Evidently, most of the calories I burned were ones spent digging my grave with a fork and spoon.) After changing my lifestyle and losing weight, my forgiving body scored in the normal range, and I (and my insurer) avoided thousands of dollars in medical expenses.

 

Until that point, I failed to connect the dots. I failed to see the connection between my lifestyle and the very real complications that would eventually play out as life-threatening medical problems requiring expensive medical treatment. I also failed to see the connection between my food choices and their impact on the environment. My ignorance could have cost me my life, hence my passion for encouraging others to take stock before it is too late.

 

Measuring your fitness footprint is the first step in achieving a healthy body on a healthy planet. Here are three areas to assess:

 

• Health Risks: How does your lifestyle influence your blood pressure, body mass index, body fat and risk of a heart attack, a stroke or diabetes? Are you increasing your risk of life-threatening medical problems by indulging in a sedentary lifestyle or too many burgers and fries? Are your medical bills contributing to the estimated $147 billion Americans will spend on weight-related medical care? To calculate your risk for cancer, diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis and stroke, go here.
• Longevity: How does your lifestyle influence the length of your life? Do you eat fresh fruits and vegetables daily? Are you connected in a meaningful way to others? Do you exercise on a regular basis? How much alcohol do you drink? Do you smoke? To calculate your physiological age and how long you can expect to live given your current lifestyle, go here.
• Food Choices: How does your choice of food impact the environment? What we choose to eat is critical because the production and consumption of food may account for one-third of the total global carbon emissions. According to ecological measures, we need all the farms we have now plus many more on nearby planets if we are to sustain our current habits. To calculate the impact of your food choices, go here.

It’s not difficult to lighten your fitness footprint. You can begin by making a few simple, ecologically friendly food and lifestyle choices part of your daily routine.

Follow the seasons when choosing foods and, when possible, purchase produce from local growers. Make creative use of leftovers so food is not wasted. Pick one day a week to enjoy a meatless meal. Stop eating when you are no longer hungry rather than when you are full.

Integrate movement into your day, whether that means pacing the floor when you talk on the phone or taking the stairs instead of an elevator. Support community groups that are working to create foot-friendly communities through the construction of trails, parks and bicycle paths. Recycle your tennis shoes and carry a reusable water bottle. When possible, go outdoors and exercise with a positive friend. Stay socially connected and laugh a lot.

It’s been over 97 years since the Titanic sunk. I hope the acrimonious debate about medical care doesn’t take that long. Fortunately for us, we don’t have to wait for its conclusion before we begin our own healthcare reform. While there’s still time, we need to lighten our fitness footprint so we are nimble enough to scramble into a lifeboat.

When in Need, Pour Yourself a Drink

Of water, that is. Drinking water is an appropriate response to many of life’s impulses and cues.

 

Hungry? Drink water.

Thirsty? Drink water.

Tired? Drink water.

Dining out? Drink water.

Dining in? Drink water.

Rising? Drink water.

Retiring? Drink water.

Bored? Drink water.

Hot? Drink water.

Dehydrated? Drink water.

Irritable? Drink water.

Celebrating? Drink water.

Foggy? Drink water.

 

Get the idea? Water is good for us. That statement isn’t surprising since about 70 percent of our bodies are made up of water. Some experts consider water the most important factor in losing weight and keeping it off. Limiting liquid calories from sugar-sweetened drinks is an effective tool for losing weight or to avoid gaining weight, according to Dr. Benjamin Caballero of Johns Hopkins University writing in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

 

And here’s more good news: water is affordable and well within our reach.

 

If you agree that water is good for us, I suggest we tip our glasses and have a drink or two to celebrate.

 

 

 

 

"Water is the only drink for a wise man."                            Henry David Thoreau

 

Get Fit in Six Minutes a Week?

Dr. Martin Gibala, PhD, chairman of the Department of Kinesiology at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, is researching the astounding effect of interval training. His studies suggest that “six minutes or so a week of hard exercise (plus the time spent warming up, cooling down, and resting between the bouts of intense work) had proven to be as good as multiple hours of working out for achieving fitness.”

This research challenges the longstanding idea that hours of exercise are required to achieve fitness. Even more impressive is the theory that intense interval training helps with weight loss.

Dr. Gibala’s findings have been confirmed by other researchers who found that intense, short exercise sessions improved heart health, even among individuals with heart disease.

But to realize the benefits, the six minutes of interval training need to be intense—demandingly intense, even uncomfortably strenuous. Exercisers must exert themselves flat out for six minutes with nothing held back.

Still, the idea of achieving fitness with a minimal expenditure of time has enormous appeal. So when I read the latest research praising the benefits of interval training, I thought I’d consult John Hendrickson, a local expert. John is a certified member of the National Academy of Sports Medicine, a certified personal trainer and a certified post rehab conditioning specialist through the American Academy of Health, Fitness and Rehabilitation Professionals.

I wanted to see if John’s real-world experience made him similarly enthusiastic and also to learn how to add interval training into ongoing exercise routines.

John surprised me by reporting that long before interval training was popular, he incorporated the concept into his tennis clinics and personal training sessions because of the benefits his clients reported. (His clients, by the way, range in age from 15 to 75.)

Here are my questions and John’s answers:

Q. What is interval training?

A. Interval training refers to exercise at a very high intensity followed by exercise at a lower intensity in repeated patterns or sets.

Q. What are the benefits?

A. Interval training improves fitness and balance, increases speed and stamina and reduces recovery time.

Q. How can interval training facilitate weight loss?

A. When you follow high-intensity exercise with low-intensity exercise in repeated patterns, you increase metabolism, thereby increasing the calories that are burned during and after the exercise period.

Q. Is interval training an efficient way to exercise?

A. Structured correctly, interval training can blend strength, cardio, agility, flexibility and speed exercises into one 20- to 30-minute workout. The routines I’ve developed are both fun and challenging. Best of all, they pack a great punch in a short period.

Q. Is tennis an interval sport?

A. Yes, especially when played as a singles player. When I teach tennis, I structure the clinics as interval-training workouts. I introduce controlled, balanced drills followed by higher-intensity drills that focus on balance, cardio, agility and speed.

Q. Before we undertake interval training, are there any safety issues that we should be aware of?

A. It’s prudent to warm up before starting, set realistic goals and make sure the program matches your abilities. Start slowly and build up to the maximum intensity and duration. Monitor your heart rate during the intense drills and bring your heart rate back to normal during rest periods.

If you are pressed for time, you might want to press yourself as hard as you can for six minutes at least once a week. This way, you can achieve the same level of fitness that others take hours to achieve. Which style of exercising will you choose?

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.

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

Ten Small Changes Produce Ten Large Rewards

If the thought of reinventing a whole new persona is daunting, make these small changes to reap giant-sized rewards. Reassure yourself that you don’t have to be trapped by old habits. With a little effort and attention, you can create healthy new ones!

1. Eat an apple instead of a candy bar or a bowl of ice cream; the nutrients will nourish your body, and your pants will fit better.

2. Wake up with a plan for the day; you’ll accomplish more and be satisfied when the day is done that your time was well spent.

3. Forgive everyone as you go through the day so you don’t waste energy carrying a heavy bag weighted down with resentments.

4. Daydream a few minutes each day to unleash your creative energy and untether yourself from practical concerns.

5. Purge surplus possessions to create an uncluttered environment.

6. When you deal with individuals who live on the dark side of life (people who look for a coffin when they smell flowers), imagine yourself encased in an impenetrable clear plastic bubble and enjoy a good belly laugh. Besides being good for you, your laughter will drive them crazy.

7. Make decisions when you are in a positive, productive state and not when you are tired, hungry, angry or lonely.

8. Throughout the day, take a few moments to stand up, straighten your posture and breathe deeply.

9. Incorporate play into your lifestyle so you stay lighthearted.

10. Ride easy in the saddle so you can adjust to twists, turns and stumbles. No matter how carefully you plan, events seldom materialize as expected. Sometimes the outcome is better, sometimes worse, but rarely what you expect.

Like my life, this list is a work in progress. A few months from now, I’ll dig it out and update it simply for the fun of learning and exploring new opportunities. What’s on your list?

"Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it."                        Mahatma Ghandhi

Welcome to the Brave New World of Fitness Technology

Although I’ve been slow to adapt to some of the latest gadgets and tools (I needed three lessons to master my programmable microwave), I love the ones that I’ve successfully incorporated into my life.

For instance, I love the speed of e-mails. Thanks to the Internet, access to the latest news on any topic is at my fingertips, and research is not limited to the local library. And thanks to small cameras that sit on top of our computer monitors, my family in France and I can view each other when we talk on the phone. Equally amazing is the fact that we can talk as often or as long as we want since the cost of international calls is negligible.

Home entertainment has also come into its own. The screen in my living room is as good as the screen in any movie theater I’ve been to. And now that I’ve mastered the microwave, I can make bowls of popcorn in a jiffy.

Of course, there’s more technology to explore than the advances I’ve just mentioned. If you’re ready to use technology to beef up your fitness efforts, here are some cool tools:

FitTV: You can watch on-air programs, and through the Discovery Channel network, you can order specialized fitness programs through the video-on-demand service under the Health on Call section. You can also learn about the latest fitness gadgets and find recipes that trim calories.

YouTube: You can access workouts from popular trainers. If you enter fitness in the search engine, you’ll find about 50,000 results (to give you an idea of the range of options). And the price is right: free.

iTunes: You’ll find tons of fitness content here. You can download audio workouts to an iPod or iPhone. And you can find video and audio podcasts under the Health: Fitness & Nutrition section.

Netflix: Thought this service was just for movies? Think again. Netflix offers DVDs from many fitness gurus, including Jane Fonda, Denise Austin, Richard Simmons and Leslie Sansone.

ExerciseTV: If you are a digital cable subscriber, you have hundreds of workouts to choose from, ranging from yoga to Pilates to cardiovascular routines.

Wii: No discussion of technology would be complete without mentioning the Wii fitness games (baseball, tennis, bowling, etc.). These games are so much fun that you need to put the kids to bed so you won’t be interrupted.

If you need help mastering some of the new technology, consider hiring a student from your local high school or junior college. You’ll be amazed at his or her knowledge (and patience) as you learn how to join this brave new technologically sophisticated world. And there’s an added benefit: continuous learning improves the health of your brain. Welcome to—and be brave in—this new world.

A Fountain of Youth—for the Brain?

A decade or two ago, memory loss, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease were inevitable clouds threatening to darken the senior years for many. But recently, a number of studies have challenged the notion that mental deterioration is an inevitable part of aging.

Just as we learned that the physical deterioration we associated with aging is in large part a function of lifestyle, we’ve learned that the amount and kind of mental deterioration associated with aging is also related to lifestyle.

Memory loss is not inevitable, and the risk of Parkinson’s disease, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease can be reduced through the daily choices we make, particularly with regard to exercise.

With increasing consistency, researchers assert that regular aerobic exercise, such as brisk walking at least three days a week for 45 minutes, improves the odds of maintaining memory and executive control functions, such as planning, scheduling and multitasking.

Researchers have also confirmed that learning new skills and playing games that require concentration, spatial learning, memory and processing speed also help maintain brain health.

And those of us who love coffee get an added boost. Researchers assert that caffeine improves mental processing and memory skills. Longterm coffee drinkers also have a lower incidence of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

Adding mental and physical exercise to one’s routine, along with drinking a few cups of coffee each day, are positive steps we can take. What do we need to avoid?

First, we need to avoid being overweight. Surplus weight can lead to diabetes, which affects memory and other mental functions.

Second, we need to keep our blood pressure in the normal range. Researchers can’t explain why hypertension results in memory loss or mental deterioration. But even if we don’t understand the mechanics, the conclusions remain clear. If necessary, we need to treat hypertension as part of a program to maintain brain health.

Here’s the bottom line if you want to preserve your memory, protect yourself from dementia or simply stay sharp:

• Exercise 30 to 60 minutes each day

• Maintain a normal weight

• Keep your blood pressure under control

• Enjoy coffee (if it doesn’t overstimulate you)

• Challenge yourself through learning and staying engaged

The essence of who we are is dependent upon the functioning of our brain, and the implications of these research results are clear. Although we cannot keep the days from passing or change our genetic inheritance, we can adopt healthy habits today that will improve the odds of maintaining a healthy and normally functioning brain tomorrow.

"Age is an opportunity no less than youth itself."                            Henry Wadsworth Longfellow