PREVENTABLE ILLNESS
Healthcare can be expensive. What has continually baffled me, however, is that people will go to great lengths to GET healthcare when they are ill, however they won't take the simplest steps to AVOID becoming ill in the first place!
As I have said before, and will continue to say, "This ain't rocket science, here!" Your knees hurt, your ankles hurt, your hips hurt, you have high blood pressure, you have joint pains everywhere, you have difficulty breathing, you have heart problems, you have late onset diabetes, (have we hit yours yet?) Well, guess what! The fact that you're 50-200lbs. overweight, haven't walked a mile in 10 years or more, and eat 3-4 times the amount of food that you need EVERY SINGLE DAY, has a LOT to do with that!
If you continuously stuff yourself with thousands of kilocalories per day more than your body needs, it will dutifuly try to deal with the onslaught. That process, continued over years or decades, however, will cause the body's functions to begin to break down. If you are heavily muscled, your legs may be able to handle some extra weight. This is functioning weight. If you pile an extra hundred pounds of fat onto a pair of knees that are designed for carrying much less of a load, and they will start to break down.
You don't need two cheeseburgers, fries, a large soda, and a tablespoon of salt if you are going to spend the day doing sedentary or minimal activities. If you are really active, and I mean REALLY active, you may be able to metabolize such a meal with minimal damage to your health. The cholesterol, other fats, and salt won't do you much good, however.
Use a little "OGG sense". He had to work his tail off to score 1000 kilocalories for a meal. You can drive up to a window and hand over a few bucks! Your body doesn't know the difference between 10,000 years ago and today. Just give it what it needs, and it will take care of you. Abuse it with excesses, and it will do its' best to survive, but will function on a much lower efficiency level.
If you need to use your hands to raise yourself out of the car or up from the chair because you packed on an extra 100 lbs that your muscles aren't able to move around, you may want to re-think that next meal. I'm not being sarcastic, mean, or facetious. I know that it sounds mean to put it this way, but it's the T.R.U.T.H.!! That is what this blog is about. "Just the facts, ma'am", as Sgt. Joe Friday used to say on Dragnet. I'm telling you the truth because there are SO MANY charlatans out there who are peddling this drink or that pill or this procedure. They want your MONEY. I am not asking for anything but a bit of your attention for a few minutes.
I really want you to get healthy..............naturally! Stop abusing your body, and it will, if not too far gone already, come back to it's naturally healthy state. It is designed to carry you through a long and productive life. GIVE IT A CHANCE TO DO ITS' JOB! If you get healthy, you won't be an unnecessary drain on the health care system, and my premiums won't go up to pay for your corroded arteries. There, if you need me to have a financial motive in order to listen, there it is. I don't want to pay for them to "Roto-router" your arteries because you CHOSE to sit on your but and eat nachos for 20 years.
Get healthy..............start..............Now.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Saturday, January 24, 2009
HOW FAR WILL WE GO?
First, let me clearly state that I am not giving medical or psychological advice. If you have medical or psychological questions, definitely address them to the health care professionals. All I'm offering here is the truth and common sense, something that seems to be lacking in the "weight loss industry".
There are places advertising on radio and TV, in print and on the web, that promise phenomenal weight loss from taking pills, or having SURGERY! I'm sure the weight loss surgery works. I have, in fact, seen it work on a number of individuals. These people had otherwise healthy bodies that were simply too fat from years of overeating and under exercising. These unfortunate people finally, after probably years of failed "dieting", succumbed to the lure of having part of their stomachs either removed, or rendered unuseable, simply to make themselves eat less! What's worse? I've seen that surgery NOT WORK! I have actually seen someone lose, probably 100 pounds in a few months after the surgery, only to see that person about 2 years later, and, to my utter amazement, the person had gained nearly all the weight BACK! That takes real committment to stuffing yourself with food and to not moving around much! To me this is incredible. You allow, no..........you PAY someone to remove or alter your internal organs so you can eat less. This is the place to which we have come. We've failed to give our bodies what they are desperate for, namely reasonable food intake and reasonable amounts of exercise! This is a no-brainer, in my opinion. You render yourself partially incapacitated because you don't have the wherewithal to turn down a second helping of food.
As long as there are "quick fix" options like this, some people will pay virtually ANY cost to avoid eating and exercising at reasonable levels. Just be sure of the motivation before someone talks you into taking such drastic action. There is another way. It doesn't cost. It doesn't hurt. There are no side effects. It is simply living within the boundries for which your body was evolved. To me, this seems like a much better option than allowing someone to slice open your belly and start removing or clamping off things that it took 2 million years to create.
First, let me clearly state that I am not giving medical or psychological advice. If you have medical or psychological questions, definitely address them to the health care professionals. All I'm offering here is the truth and common sense, something that seems to be lacking in the "weight loss industry".
There are places advertising on radio and TV, in print and on the web, that promise phenomenal weight loss from taking pills, or having SURGERY! I'm sure the weight loss surgery works. I have, in fact, seen it work on a number of individuals. These people had otherwise healthy bodies that were simply too fat from years of overeating and under exercising. These unfortunate people finally, after probably years of failed "dieting", succumbed to the lure of having part of their stomachs either removed, or rendered unuseable, simply to make themselves eat less! What's worse? I've seen that surgery NOT WORK! I have actually seen someone lose, probably 100 pounds in a few months after the surgery, only to see that person about 2 years later, and, to my utter amazement, the person had gained nearly all the weight BACK! That takes real committment to stuffing yourself with food and to not moving around much! To me this is incredible. You allow, no..........you PAY someone to remove or alter your internal organs so you can eat less. This is the place to which we have come. We've failed to give our bodies what they are desperate for, namely reasonable food intake and reasonable amounts of exercise! This is a no-brainer, in my opinion. You render yourself partially incapacitated because you don't have the wherewithal to turn down a second helping of food.
As long as there are "quick fix" options like this, some people will pay virtually ANY cost to avoid eating and exercising at reasonable levels. Just be sure of the motivation before someone talks you into taking such drastic action. There is another way. It doesn't cost. It doesn't hurt. There are no side effects. It is simply living within the boundries for which your body was evolved. To me, this seems like a much better option than allowing someone to slice open your belly and start removing or clamping off things that it took 2 million years to create.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Consistency, Consistency, Consistency!
Well, here at the end of January, most of the New Year's resolutions have worn off. The membership in the health clubs that peaks after January 1 each year starts to decline. What does this show? You can take it two ways. I prefer to put it in the positive light. Look how many people WANT to be healthier! It's just that they go about it the wrong way. If you can do it, a gym membership gives you a world of opportunities for great exercise. What we're talking about here, however, is using your muscles and burning up the calories that you eat. That's all.
Going to a gym takes time. Some people are embarrassed because of their appearance, so they try a few times, get demoralized and quit. Don't quit. Just change, if that gym or health club isn't working for you. As we've been harping on here, Ogg walked. Ogg ran. Ogg climbed. Ogg turned over rocks and logs. Ogg.................MOVED! He moved and he had limited intake of daily calories. All you have to do is simulate his lifestyle within your own boundries. If you can walk, walk. If you are able, run a bit. Climb a few flights of stairs. Pick things up. It doesn't have to be a barbell. Bend, stoop, sit on the ground, get up. These things all burn calories.
I saw two somewhat overweight people the other day taking a walk at lunch. That's what it takes. If they can be CONSISTENT, and limit their daily caloric intake, they will be healthier. If you walk 2 miles at lunch once, then decide, "Oh, that made me all sweaty, I can't do that at work", you might as well not bother. It doesn't have to be 2 miles uphill. It just has to be regular, and it has to burn up some of the calories that you take in. If you increase your energy output on a consistent basis, you will be healthier for it!
Well, here at the end of January, most of the New Year's resolutions have worn off. The membership in the health clubs that peaks after January 1 each year starts to decline. What does this show? You can take it two ways. I prefer to put it in the positive light. Look how many people WANT to be healthier! It's just that they go about it the wrong way. If you can do it, a gym membership gives you a world of opportunities for great exercise. What we're talking about here, however, is using your muscles and burning up the calories that you eat. That's all.
Going to a gym takes time. Some people are embarrassed because of their appearance, so they try a few times, get demoralized and quit. Don't quit. Just change, if that gym or health club isn't working for you. As we've been harping on here, Ogg walked. Ogg ran. Ogg climbed. Ogg turned over rocks and logs. Ogg.................MOVED! He moved and he had limited intake of daily calories. All you have to do is simulate his lifestyle within your own boundries. If you can walk, walk. If you are able, run a bit. Climb a few flights of stairs. Pick things up. It doesn't have to be a barbell. Bend, stoop, sit on the ground, get up. These things all burn calories.
I saw two somewhat overweight people the other day taking a walk at lunch. That's what it takes. If they can be CONSISTENT, and limit their daily caloric intake, they will be healthier. If you walk 2 miles at lunch once, then decide, "Oh, that made me all sweaty, I can't do that at work", you might as well not bother. It doesn't have to be 2 miles uphill. It just has to be regular, and it has to burn up some of the calories that you take in. If you increase your energy output on a consistent basis, you will be healthier for it!
Thursday, January 22, 2009
STAYIN' ALIVE
The words to the disco hit now ringing in your head notwithstanding, that was Ogg's primary goal. Living in a harsh environment, without much between him and the elements, he had not much choice but to concentrate upon survival. Survive he did, thus here we are today, countless generations later. Ogg survived and reproduced.
Today, we don't generally have to spend so much of our waking time concentrating upon survival. If you don't go to a REALLY BAD neighborhood late at night with hundred dollar bills sticking out of your pockets, and if you don't step off the curb in front of a bus, you pretty much can survive. We have the luxury of spending our time, if we so choose, working on the quality of our life. Living today just doesn't require as much physical effort as it did, even a couple of generations ago. We don't have to cut firewood, feed and care for livestock, walk very far, do laundry in a washtub, etc. At the same time, food is plentiful. Low physical demand, plentiful food =F.A.T.!! That's just nature. The only way to avoid it is to consciously make the decision to increase your physical energy output and decrease your caloric intake.
21ST CENTURY MIND, 40,000B.C. BRAIN AND BODY
Realizing that our physical bodies have yet to adapt to our present situation is the key to staying healthy. The easy excesses of our society make it MONDO tough to do! Hey, I like Doritos as much (if not more) than the next guy! A few handfuls of things like that, now and then, and your fine. A bag of them and you added a couple of thousand calories to your daily food intake, give or take a few hundred. It's really sneaky. Calories are everywhere.........lurking..............ready to pounce directly onto your expanding ...........(you pick the body part that works for you). You have to be on the alert for these predators. They prey upon you like the bears, big cats, etc. preyed upon Ogg. If you keep your wits about you, however, you can escape them. You are home alone. You feel a little "snacky". You find yourself in front of the cupboard in the kitchen. As you open it, the Psycho shower theme music should play in your head. That bag of chocolate chip cookies is ready to dive on you! Close the door and save yourself!! Of course we're being a little silly here. The point is that you have the choice. We know, with all of the resources available to us now, what we have to do. The key is to find, within yourself, the will power to manage your health. You can do it, but you have to do it EVERY DAY. Just like Ogg had to survive....EVERY DAY.
The words to the disco hit now ringing in your head notwithstanding, that was Ogg's primary goal. Living in a harsh environment, without much between him and the elements, he had not much choice but to concentrate upon survival. Survive he did, thus here we are today, countless generations later. Ogg survived and reproduced.
Today, we don't generally have to spend so much of our waking time concentrating upon survival. If you don't go to a REALLY BAD neighborhood late at night with hundred dollar bills sticking out of your pockets, and if you don't step off the curb in front of a bus, you pretty much can survive. We have the luxury of spending our time, if we so choose, working on the quality of our life. Living today just doesn't require as much physical effort as it did, even a couple of generations ago. We don't have to cut firewood, feed and care for livestock, walk very far, do laundry in a washtub, etc. At the same time, food is plentiful. Low physical demand, plentiful food =F.A.T.!! That's just nature. The only way to avoid it is to consciously make the decision to increase your physical energy output and decrease your caloric intake.
21ST CENTURY MIND, 40,000B.C. BRAIN AND BODY
Realizing that our physical bodies have yet to adapt to our present situation is the key to staying healthy. The easy excesses of our society make it MONDO tough to do! Hey, I like Doritos as much (if not more) than the next guy! A few handfuls of things like that, now and then, and your fine. A bag of them and you added a couple of thousand calories to your daily food intake, give or take a few hundred. It's really sneaky. Calories are everywhere.........lurking..............ready to pounce directly onto your expanding ...........(you pick the body part that works for you). You have to be on the alert for these predators. They prey upon you like the bears, big cats, etc. preyed upon Ogg. If you keep your wits about you, however, you can escape them. You are home alone. You feel a little "snacky". You find yourself in front of the cupboard in the kitchen. As you open it, the Psycho shower theme music should play in your head. That bag of chocolate chip cookies is ready to dive on you! Close the door and save yourself!! Of course we're being a little silly here. The point is that you have the choice. We know, with all of the resources available to us now, what we have to do. The key is to find, within yourself, the will power to manage your health. You can do it, but you have to do it EVERY DAY. Just like Ogg had to survive....EVERY DAY.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
EXCUSES
There are no limits to these. Let's see........."I'm too far gone. I have pain. I have physical limitations. I'm too busy. I have kids to raise. I have long work hours. I need results FAST....the list will go on to infinity. It is so easy to find an excuse not to get up off of the couch. I know. I go through the same thing. There's no magic bullet here. Energy in.......Energy out. This is becoming a mantra. It's hard to change for the better. Your ancestry works against you. If Ogg had an unlimited supply of food piled outside the cave just for the taking, do you think he'd be out climbing trees to get bananas? Pursuing some hapless game animal to bring home for a trophy? Not on your life. He'd be sitting on his paleolithic butt, getting fat, just like we do. He would be denying what his body was designed for, just like we do now!
We are virtually no different physically from our ancestors who inhabited this planet up to about 10,000 years ago. That is the wink of an eye in evolutionary terms. We, however, have that "pile of food" stacked up for the taking at every grocery store on every corner, every drive through fast food place, every "birthday treat table" at virtually every workplace.
You can take control, however. Don't waste this beautiful machine that you inherited. Just move. Just start becoming, at least, AWARE of your caloric intake. Keep a log or a diary for a month. Write down everything you eat. Every soda, every sample from the wholesale warehouse while you are browsing, every potato chip...everything. You will amaze yourself at what you eat! There are lots of formulas for calculating your necessary caloric needs. I put a gadget on this site for basic metabolic rate. You can try the one I've been successful with, too. I allow about 13x my body weight in daily basic calories, then add to the allotment if I do some physical exercise. If you weigh 200 lb., for example, you can try to keep to about 2600 calories as a base, factoring in some light movement, just daily living stuff. I'm not saying that this will work for everyone, but it does for me. This is a way that I can manage my caloric intake and my energy needs to try to keep a little bit of a deficit in calories each day. This results in a slow, progressive loss of body fat, without being hungry, without feeling weak or unable to be physically active. Play with it a bit and find what's right for you. Keep an "Ogg image" in your mind. "WWOD?" "What would Ogg do?", or more correctly, what would Ogg NEED to do to get these calories?
There are no limits to these. Let's see........."I'm too far gone. I have pain. I have physical limitations. I'm too busy. I have kids to raise. I have long work hours. I need results FAST....the list will go on to infinity. It is so easy to find an excuse not to get up off of the couch. I know. I go through the same thing. There's no magic bullet here. Energy in.......Energy out. This is becoming a mantra. It's hard to change for the better. Your ancestry works against you. If Ogg had an unlimited supply of food piled outside the cave just for the taking, do you think he'd be out climbing trees to get bananas? Pursuing some hapless game animal to bring home for a trophy? Not on your life. He'd be sitting on his paleolithic butt, getting fat, just like we do. He would be denying what his body was designed for, just like we do now!
We are virtually no different physically from our ancestors who inhabited this planet up to about 10,000 years ago. That is the wink of an eye in evolutionary terms. We, however, have that "pile of food" stacked up for the taking at every grocery store on every corner, every drive through fast food place, every "birthday treat table" at virtually every workplace.
You can take control, however. Don't waste this beautiful machine that you inherited. Just move. Just start becoming, at least, AWARE of your caloric intake. Keep a log or a diary for a month. Write down everything you eat. Every soda, every sample from the wholesale warehouse while you are browsing, every potato chip...everything. You will amaze yourself at what you eat! There are lots of formulas for calculating your necessary caloric needs. I put a gadget on this site for basic metabolic rate. You can try the one I've been successful with, too. I allow about 13x my body weight in daily basic calories, then add to the allotment if I do some physical exercise. If you weigh 200 lb., for example, you can try to keep to about 2600 calories as a base, factoring in some light movement, just daily living stuff. I'm not saying that this will work for everyone, but it does for me. This is a way that I can manage my caloric intake and my energy needs to try to keep a little bit of a deficit in calories each day. This results in a slow, progressive loss of body fat, without being hungry, without feeling weak or unable to be physically active. Play with it a bit and find what's right for you. Keep an "Ogg image" in your mind. "WWOD?" "What would Ogg do?", or more correctly, what would Ogg NEED to do to get these calories?
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