The Many Meanings, the Many Benefits.
February 3, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Thanks, Carole, for always having an answer to my questions! So while I knew it’s Spam, when making reference to the brand name of canned meat, (which was derived from SPiced HAM) and learned yesterday it’s spam when writing about generic brands of canned meat and SPAM when referring to the stuff that shows up on my site or in your mailbox and is an acronym for “Sales Promotion and Marketing.” I think Mitch works hard to make sure the Sales and Promotion Marketing he sells, doesn’t end up in one’s SPAM file. Hmmmmm. What a conundrum.
Thanks, Suzanne, for a great article called The Only Exercise You’ll Ever Need: Walking. It’s focus is a 51 year old Rick Genter who lost 186 pounds by changing his eating and getting started on a walking program. Once unable to walk very far, he built up to a 30 minute walk every day during his lunch break and found that he LOVED it in the way a runner gets a high. He now actually walks 7 miles to work each morning, and 7 miles back home! He lives, by the way, in Boston, so like the mailman, weather is no excuse for him. Just another example of how we don’t need to join a gym, buy a treadmill or hire a trainer to get fit. We just have to put one foot in front of the other and repeat most every day! At 195 pounds, Rick has maintained his weight goal for 9 years and says the biggest reason is walking.
I’ll end today’s entry with a quote the article began with.
“I have two doctors, my left leg and my right leg.”
–George Trevelyan, in 1913 about the benefits of walking
What the $#*)(#$&*()&%#?
January 24, 2012 by 2 Comments
Thanks to always motivating, Carol, for sharing this training “tip” from Biggest Loser’s own Bob Harper. Then I am off to start my day of workouts and I’ll be #*@)#*@#&@$&$@ if any of them are gonna get the best of me! How bout you?
“Biggest Loser”trainer Bob Harper would like to get you back on the health-and-fitness path. And he’d like you to do it by talking to your food. And to your treadmill. Actually, he would like you to scream profanities at them.
Welcome to Bob Harper’s ” … You ” diet. (You know what the expletive is, people, but we are not allowed to write it out on our website, so use your imagination.)
The rules of this diet-and-fitness regimen are very simple. In fact, they are the rules that Harper says he uses when he is tempted to indulge in a piece of chocolate cake, or skip a workout and sleep in. Instead of giving in, he gets mad — and then he starts cursing like a sailor. He suggests you do the same.
Let’s listen in as Harper takes a break from filming Season 13 of “The Biggest Loser” to give us an inside peek at the renegade techniques he uses in this never-to-be-published diet:
“If your friends are eating that chocolate cake and you know it’s not the day you are supposed to have it, say ‘ … that cake!’”
Put on your swagger jacket and let rip, Harper says. That cake doesn’t have any power over you. That’s an inanimate object sitting on a plate that can be tossed in the garbage with a flick of the wrist. How can something so insignificant have any power over big ol’ you?
Though it sounds like Harper is joking around, he’s deadly serious. Such verbal self-coaching, while unconventional, will help you break the spell that the chocolate cake, French fries or any other indulgence might hold over you, he said.
“It empowers you,” he said. “Just say, ‘No! I’m not going to sabotage everything that I have been working so hard on for that piece of cake. Is that piece of cake worth it? No!’”
This self-coaching also work in reverse — use it to get your workout game on, he said.
Let’s listen again as Harper gives an example of how he revs himself up to hit the treadmill when he just doesn’t feel like it.
“That treadmill is going to get the best of me? No. That treadmill is not going to get the best of me. That treadmill doesn’t even have a heartbeat. I’m not going to give you another thought. I’m going to take advantage of you. I’m going to ride you and then not call you the next day! … you, treadmill!”
Harper said such measures, while extreme, can work if people put some emotion into their words.
“Try it,” he said. “It’s empowering. And it’s fun.”
For more from Bob, Biggest Loser, tonight…8pm or set your DVR!
Just How far IS A Journey of 10,000 Steps?
January 23, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Yesterday, at the beach, Mitch and I had a chance to suck up some vitamin D and some peace as well. It was so beautiful, I couldn’t help but wonder why we have so many houses and condos for sale! To all of those who ask “but don’t you miss the change of seasons?” I answer…nahhh, not really!
As we took a walk along the beach, before heading back home for big football, Sunday, I found myself thinking about the 10,000 step a day rule. How far IS 10,000 steps? Sure, I have tried wearing pedometers, but I never find them to be accurate, and I truly had no idea how many steps I take when I walk the beach, the dog, etc. Yesterday I counted my steps back from our nice walk, and came up with about 600, so times it was about 1200. That is just barely 1/10 of the 10,000 steps that are recommended daily to maintain our weight and fitness. While it is obviously different for everyone, depending on the size of their feet and their walking stride, 10,000 feet is approximately 5 miles. For weight LOSS, 12,000-15,000 is the recommendation. To build aerobic fitness levels, make 3,000 or more of those steps FAST!
Certainly we can trade our walking in for another form of cardiovascular exercise, but keep in mind, you may need to do more or work harder to truly accomplish the equivalent of those 10, or even 15,000 steps you are aiming for.
Today is the best day I know to get those feet going. If you are in a warm weather climate, there is nothing like getting some vitamin D right along with your fitness. If you are in a climate that doesn’t allow for outdoor walking, there is always the mall…or even the good ol’ gym. Today is NO EXCUSE Monday. With the holidays WELL behind us now, 3 weeks into the new year, excuse time is long over. Walking. It works!
