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Heart Disease, Diabetes and Death: Eight Reasons To Exercise NOW

1.Give illness a one way ticket to the nearest black hole

2.Hand the grim reaper a renewable rain check

3.Keep your mid-section from growing a tire and your arms from growing flaps

4.Stave off the sneeze that can break a rib (aka severe osteoporosis)

5.Stay stronger, fitter, and faster than the Joneses (as long as they're happy and healthy too)

6.Maintain your brain and the genius you're convinced is trapped in there

7.Feel better without the coffee, caffeine, and feel-good substances I'll neglect to mention

8.Prevent Jack LaLane from showing you up.

Today's Present is Tomorrow's Past

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.

The Courageous Minority

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."

Three Tips for Better Weight Control

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.

Five Reasons to Exercise and Eat Right in 2009

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.

New Year, New Body

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.

Three Ways to Avoid Brittle Bones

If you're female, postmenopausal and sedentary, you have three reasons to keep reading.Here's why: you're at increased risk for osteoporosis. Luckily, there's a few things you can do about it.

1. Gain weight: Yes, it's true. Tipping the scales will increase the load that your bones have to bear. In the world of bone making, load = growth. That said, I'm not advocating a bacchanal and binge fest. Being underweight, small-framed and light footed increases your risk for developing brittle bones. However, getting fat is not the best solution, considering the side effects (heart attack, stroke, diabetes...)So I repeat, although gaining weight will help with bone density, I do NOT recommend it. For the love of your body, don't pull out the kettle corn and start watching a Twilight Zone marathon.

2. Exercise: This, is by far, a better choice than trying to gain so much weight you can file for disability (a la Homer Simpson). Unlike obesity, exercise can stimulate bone growth without causing 50 adverse side effects. All exercise is not created equal, though. You need to make sure it's "weight-bearing." Examples include running, walking and weight-lifting, all of which put stress on your bones and lead to increased growth.

3. Eat right: Milk, cheese, yogurt, green leafy vegetables (marijuana is not a green leafy vegetable), nuts and various beans contain calcium, essential for bone formation and maintenance. If you're part cow and like to graze, you're already set up to succeed. Just go for the kale, collards and spinach. If you're not into the greens try dairy but make sure you stay away from the frozen, creamy stuff (putting it on top of a split banana doesn't make it less fattening). If your diet doesn't take you far enough, make sure to add a calcium supplement, especially if you're pregnant or over 50.

Check out these resources for more information on osteoporosis and bone health:

NIH Site
Osteoporosis in Men

The Battle of the Bulge is Scarier Than You Think

Nature hasn’t taken part in the equal rights movement—this includes an equal right to disease. According to a new study by the CDC, women in America make up 60% of all new cases of diabetes. Sorry men. According to Dr. James Anderson, a professor of medicine and clinical nutrition at the University of Kentucky, obesity is one of the major factors behind this alarming statistic. In fact, he points out that "80% of people with type II diabetes are obese" (emphasis mine).

Anderson adds that “Fifty-five percent of women in the U.S are considered overweight and 35 percent are considered obese. So basically, we’re talking about 60 million women.”

Anderson sums it up like this: “…inactivity puts women at a greater risk for obesity, which is often a direct precursor to diabetes…For every one percent of her body weight a woman gains after high school, her risk for heart disease increases about five percent. For every same one percent gained, that woman’s risk of developing diabetes increases by 10 percent. In other words, if you’ve gained weight since high school (and that’s probably pretty much everyone), your risk for heart disease and diabetes has increased.”

And how do we combat this? Simple: get off the couch, chair, bench, rock, or whatever you’re sitting on and start moving! Diabetes is serious business.

Belief is Reality

It's bad enough that the word "inevitable" is part of the English language. It's even worse if you use it often, still worse if you believe it. But what if some seemingly "inevitable" things were, in fact, evitable? Would a missing two-letter prefix be enough to change reality?

You might be too hung up by the word “evitable” to consider my question. But, there is such a word. In fact, it’s just as real as “maritorius”, “macaronic” or “mugwump.”

But we half-empty types seem to prefer uglier “realities”—things we supposedly can’t avoid. “Oh it’s just inevitable. His dad had it, his grandpa had it, his poodle has it. How can he NOT die of a heart attack?” Now, really. Let’s give belief a chance to make things right. There’s no changing age, sex or family history. Okay. But consider:

-Fat intake
-Blood pressure
-Smoking
-Physical activity
-Stress

All of these things are changeable (at least to some extent). But there’s still some of us who would rather remain helpless. It’s literally a "dogged" way of thinking, and one with consequences. Martin Seligman discovered this in the 1960's while studying conditioning in dogs. He "accidentally" discovered what he later called "learned helplessness", an extreme form of "I can't" behavior.

Initially, Seligman's dogs didn't start off feeling or thinking that they were helpless (hence the term "learned"). It was only after they got shocked repeatedly and couldn’t escape that they decided to give up. The twist, though, is that Seligman then made it so they COULD escape. He even showed them how to escape. Yet, the next time around the dogs just sat there. They had come to believe in the “inevitable.”

There was a way out for them, though. For the dogs it was getting up and walking to the other side of a shuttlebox. For the rest of us, it's believing that the possibility of a healthy life is something worth believing in. Then we got to get up and walk to the other side of the shuttlebox.

The Incredibly Shrinking Brain

It seems that now you can keep your brain and use it too. At least that’s what researchers are saying about exercise and Alzheimer’s disease, the number one cause of dementia and the number six cause of death in the U.S. Although the results are preliminary, a number of studies suggest the exercise can help to prevent or even slow down Alzheimer’s by decreasing the amount of cortical loss associated with the disease. Translation: staying fit may keep your noggin’ from shrinking.

No one knows exactly how this works. It’s not even clear whether exercise simply prevents Alzheimer’s, decreases its impact, or both. There may even be some mysterious 3rd variable involved—perhaps better educated people are more likely to exercise their bodies AND their brains. This could account for both higher levels of fitness and lower rates of dementia. Kind of throws the “dumb jock” myth out the window, doesn’t it?

The evidence isn’t limited to humans. Laboratory mice that hit the gym more often have been shown to develop increased growth in the hippocampus, one of the main memory centers ravaged by Alzheimer’s.

As with everything worth knowing, the answer is usually that it’s "all of the above." Exercise and education about its benefits go hand in hand, that’s for sure. But exercise can also increase blood flow to the brain and keep that 3lb oxygen glutton happy…and a happy brain is a non-shrinking one.

Those of you who exercise know that it also keeps you happier. You also have the energy and drive to and are thus more likely to do things like Read, wRite, and do aRithmetic. That’s the “Three R’s” that educators say we can’t do without. Maybe those educators are right after all.

"Just Say No" to Diabetes

Okay. The delay is over. Here I am and so are you, so let’s get started on how exercising can change your life. My first feature post here will focus on diabetes because I consider it the gateway disease—invite diabetes and you’ll have a bunch of unwelcome guests crashing your party.

I’m all for scare tactics so allow me to use one now. According to the American Diabetes Association (ADA), the prevalence of the disease went up by 14% in the 2 years between 2005 and 2007. That’s a couple of million new cases!

In total, 24 million of your family members, friends, and neighbors throughout the U.S. now suffer from diabetes. Believe me, this is one club you don’t want to join. And if you already joined, now’s the time to opt out.

Let me tell you why in just three words: steep membership dues. There’s a number of very nasty fees you’ll end up paying. These range from the 2 to 4 times increased risk of developing heart disease and stroke to the almost certain dues in high blood pressure and nerve damage. As if that wasn’t enough, some of the taxes levied against you may include blindness (24,000 cases), kidney disease (44% of members), and amputations (over 70,000/year).

So there’s the nasty news. Want to hear the good news? It doesn’t matter if you have diabetes or you’re at increased risk because everyone in your gene pool has or had it, you can do things to help yourself. Two of those things are a good diet and exercise. For more information on diet, you can check out THIS. Here I’ll focus on a few benefits of exercise for diabetes.

First, a little diabetes 101:
Too little, ineffective or non-existent insulin levels allow glucose (sugar) to stay in the bloodstream. This starves your cells of the energy they need and allows the freely floating glucose to wreak havoc on all of the body’s systems. This, in a nutshell is what diabetes does. Exercise can help to turn this around:

1. Exercise helps directly to lower glucose levels
2. Exercise also increases lean muscle which helps to pull the glucose out of your bloodstream and into your cells
3. Lastly, exercise ensures a healthy heart, mind and body. This helps to ward off the uninvited dinner guests that diabetes likes to bring with it.

So there you have it; another reason to exercise regularly. This is something all of the Beachbody programs help you to do, But if you or someone you know needs something more, you can check out Beachbody’s “Project You 2” It's a fitness AND diet program developed with and approved by Beachbody, a team of doctors and educators and the American Diabetes Association.

Off the Blogosphere...

I'm touching in briefly to let you know that moving (and everything that entails) has put me into a state of suspended animation--no internet, no email, and no blog. I've also been off of WOWY which hasn't been easy to live without. It's almost like getting shunted back to the dark ages of working out solo--no accountability and no online community. It's weird how a seemingly insignificant piece of electronic connectivity can make that much of a difference.

Even now, over a week after my move, I feel like I'm still holding my breath. My family and I are still living in the eye of a hurricane, discovering socks in our utensil drawers and dishes in the clothes hampers. It's a great exercise in serendipity. It's also reminded me that moving isn't a one day event. It's a many day process.

That's the same way I've come to think of health and lifestyle changes. My experience tells me that big decisions--fitness or otherwise--fall into the same category of process. No magic bullet/pill/panacea. No one size fits all, cures-all, ends-all solution. Life is an endless string of mini-transformations. Sometimes you hit a u-turn, a hiccup here and a reversal there. But the overarching goal is that you continue in the trajectory that leads you to your goals.

For me right now, the goal is to keep up with my workouts and to find that missing drawer that contains my clean boxers. Chances are that's where I stashed the steak knives...

To the People

What I like about Beachbody is that it brings fitness to the people. You don't have to stand in line at the gym. And you definitely don't have to wait around for the 300pound hirsute hercules to wipe his sweat and slime off the bench--unless you're married to such a person (in which case you might want to invest in a squeegee).

For the rest of us, Beachbody is a great option. And I think because it lends itself to privacy and yet balances this with a kind of public connection (at a level you feel comfortable with), it's exactly what most of us need.

As a healthcare maven, I have come to the following conclusion: If Beachbody motivates just one person to set goals and get fit, it's done a service. It will have made a dent in the public health crisis. And it already has.

Sure that triumvarate of ill health-- obesity, diabetes, and heart disease--will continue its reign. But BB and efforts like it bring the countervailing forces of exercise, nutrition, and positive thinking into the mix. This can only lead to good things.

You might be wondering about the science behind all of this: HOW will BB help to turn the tide of illness and disease? AND, how will it help me? That's a great question... and... it deserves a great answer... Thought I was going to cop out with that one didn't you? I would never back down from a good question, but you'll have to wait for my next post to hear the answer.

Someone Hand Me a Respirator

So this Sunday I dedicated my workout space. My plan was simple: do P90x, take a shower, go to sleep. Well, what happened wasn't so simple. I think I ended up in a kind of walking coma after 30 minutes of non-stop pushing and pulling. After I finished coughing up my guts, Tony Horton (via the video) told me in his sweet maniacal voice that we would rest and repeat. REPEAT? This was beyond surreal.

A few bouts of nausea later, I finally finished. "Wassup now Tony, Wassup?" (taunting tone). No seriously, though, the guy is a beast. But hey, I'm on day 3 and he's on day 10,000 or something. That's gotta be like the equivalent of a triple grandmaster, 50th degree blackbelt.

Well, that's it for now cause even my fingers are a little tired. I'm just gonna end with a little message for Tony: I'm here buddy and I'm not going away. P90X is mine!

Why This and Why Now?

Let me just start off by saying that I'm no stranger to fitness. That doesn't mean that I don't have my down days or even down YEARS. That's certainly been the story for me as the intensity of my doctoral program kept me up late on the caffeine and calorie binges.

Since I graduated in May, I decided to do a kind of total body makeover. Yeah, I'm still at an ideal body mass and I don't look like I need to hit the gym with Richard Simmons vigor. I can certainly do without Richard Simmons spandex. So you might be asking why I'm part of Beachbody. What am I so worried about?

That reminds me of the Head and Shoulders commercial a few years ago. Someone asks the protaganist dressed in black (and I paraphrase) "You don't have dandruff. Why do you need Head and Shoulders for?" The other guy replies. "Exactly. I don't have dandruff BECAUSE I use Head and Shoulders." The same kind of logic applies here. I want to make sure I don't start looking like I need to exercise.

And it's not like there's no room for improvement. Relative to where I was at 25, I am one sad and sorry case. I once had a vertical leap of 42 inches, a max leg press of over 1000 lbs, and a bench press of 285. Now keep in mind that I've never been heavier than 140 lbs, which is quite normal given my genetics and the size and shape of my family members.

Nowadays, I can't climb the stairs without a respirator. I'm definitely starting to see more couch potato traits (or yam or whatever tuber metaphor you like) and I'm much weaker. The way I'm headed now, it could only get worse with that band of wicked bad genes trailing behind me. High blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, stroke, diabetes., you name it my family has it..It's the real deal, but it's not inevitable.

So given, these hard but not unchangeable facts, I've decided to act. Number one, I decided to get on the Beachbody train. Number two, I set a goal and destination. Number three, I'm taking that train all the way and I intend to arrive healthier, happier and...this is a big "and"...more financially fit than I've ever been.

I'll keep you posted on my progress. But this isn't a spectator sport. The time is now, and the thing to do is Beachbody. So get up and get with it!