Working Out Also Reduces Osteoporosis

Yes...you read that headline correctly! It's been shown that working out (and doing resistance training in particular) helps maintain bone density. In fact, resistance training can even modestly increase bone density in women in many cases.

Increasing bone density therefore actually reduces the risk of osteoporosis! There are some amazing side benefits of exercise that we're still learning about. And these benefits are often inter-connected! So what are you waiting for? Dust off that BOWFLEX in your garage and get after it!

Aerobic Exercise

A few more mind vitamins for you from BodyWiseFitness.....I need to focus on these as much as anyone.

Aerobic exercise such as a half hour of rapid walking five days a week, has been shown to cut the risk of catching a cold nearly in half in postmenopausal women.

People who workout have more energy than nonexercisers, according to researchers at the University of Georgia, based on a review of 70 studies. That boost, on average, beats the effect of stimulant drugs.

Benefits of Doing Aerobics

According to Bodywisefitness, half-hour aerobic sessions three to five times a week have been shown to cut symptoms of mild to moderate depression nearly in half. One study suggests that exercise can be as effective as drugs in treating major depressive disorders.

Brisk walking for just an hour or two a week can reduce the risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women by nearly 20 percent. And for those who already have the disease, walking three to five hours a week may reduce the chance of dying from it by as much as 50 percent. So......anybody ready to do some aerobics?

Some Reasons To Get Off The Couch

Here's some true facts that you may already know....but swallow these little mind vitamins anyway! They're good for you!

1. Physical activity helps you lose weight by burning calories, boosting resting metabolism, and buffering you from bone and muscle loss that can result if you diet alone.

2. High levels of physical activity can decrease your risk of colon cancer by 40 to 50 percent.

3. Exercise helps you get better sleep. In one study, people who walked more than six blocks a day had 1/3 fewer insomnia problems than their less active cohorts.

4. Walking 30 minutes five days a week can increase your life span by one and a half years. Running can add up to four years according to a 2005 study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. It's never too late to increase longevity.

Starting An Exercise Club

I recently read about a great idea for not only losing weight.....but staying fit and keeping it off. A group of friends simply start (or join) a weight loss club. The idea is that 5 or 6 people agree to meet at a regularly scheduled time for an aerobic activity: swimming, ice skating, walking, etc.

The example I read about was an exercise club that called themselves the, "Vanilla Coffee Club". The six members meet every Satursday at 8:00 am at a local ice rink and take a 30-minute skating lesson together. Then they skate (aerobically) for another 35 to 45 minutes for the exercise. Afterwards, they all go to Starbucks and enjoy a "sugar-free vanilla coffee".

Could you and 6 of your friends agree to start such a club? What a great idea!!

Six Small Meals A Day

For those of you that are eating 5 or 6 small meals a day to keep your metabolism optimized to burn calories, here's some suggestions gleaned from various sources:

1. Load up on produce at the market -- especially spinach, broccoli, oranges, and grapes.
2. When purchasing meats, stick with lower-fat cuts of beef such as sirloin. Also look for organic chicken and turkey -- high in protein but low in fat.
3. When buying diary, go fat-free in your milk, yogurt, and string cheese. And don't be afraid of eggs.
4. Don't forget water-packed tuna instead of oil-packed…..and buy only fat-free salad dressings.

Sample Maintenance Routine

After dropping a lot of weight, how can you best maintain a proper weight? Here's a few good ideas pulled from various sources.

• Rise early in the morning and eat something (such as a hard-boiled egg) to kick-start your metabolism. Then ride your stationary bike for an hour or workout to Denise Austin's Fit & Lite early morning show on Lifetime.
  
• Eat fruit at lunch daily but vary the type of fruit to keep things interesting. This keeps your palate and your body intrigued.
  
• Bake or steam your dinner. Baked chicken and steamed squash (for example) is easy and can be prepared in thirty minutes or so.
  
• Purchase a food scale and place it on the kitchen counter near the stove and oven……and don't forget to use it regularly!
  

A Portion Controlled Diet

We’ve posted before about portion-control but the best way to enforce portion control is to write it into your written weight loss plan. You can join a gym (like Bally's or 24 Hour Fitness) where they'll help you with a customized plan -- but if portion sizes aren't chiseled in stone on the plan….you're likely to cheat.

Health-clubs also offer nutritional counseling which is helpful (and affordable) at only $10 per week. Also helpful is keeping a food diary (click the title of this post to redirect to a good food diary). Think of your written weight loss plan and your food diary as bookends. You can benefit tremendously from having BOTH in writing.

Unexpected Benefits of Losing Weight

After I dropped 55 pounds, I experienced several unexpected benefits of the weight loss. For example, my spring-time allergies and sinus problems weren't as severe. I think my body was better able to fight colds as well because I didn't get sick nearly as much either. And of course there were fewer back-aches as well.

And one that I'm a little embarrassed to admit……regularity! Yep and not just regularity….but clockwork regularity! My exercise regimen also helped with blood circulation and I received several comments about my improved skin-color. Before that, I had become pasty-white. Yuck!

Thoughts On Low Carb Dieting

Of all the low-carb diets, the Atkins plan is the most famous. While most people don't want to swap pasta and bread for a diet of all-meat and green vegetables, there's a sensible median in this equation. You don't want to eat bacon every day and get clogged arteries, but it's wise to eat more greens and green vegetables and avoid high-sugar veggies like beets and carrots.

Two low-carb plans that have good track records are the Kimkins diet and the Atkins-like plan advocated on www.lowcarbfriends.com

Medically Supervised Liquid Diets

If you live in a large city, chances are good that one (or more) of your local hospitals has a "Weight Management Center" which offers medically supervised diet assistance. Adults that have been clinically diagnosed as "obese" can often enter such a program and begin a liquid protein diet that may last for 8 to 18 weeks.

The goal of such hospital-based diet programs is safe (but rapid) weight loss. Patients are then counseled to transition to a 1,500 to 1,800 calorie daily diet. Cardiovascular training (or resistance training) is almost always a part of such a program. If this might work for you, contact your local hospital or health-care professional for more information.