My Health n Fitness

When was the last time you saw an animal in the wild that was obese? It doesn’t happen. Most wild animals have the eating for hunger and fuel thing down. Animals don’t get fat and obese until they become domesticated. How fat is your Dog? Do you own a “Fat Cat”?

A little over a year ago I wrote an article here about Intuitive Eating. There was a study done at BYU that found that eating intuitively could be more effective at lowering cholesterol levels, Body Mass Indexes and reducing the risks of cardiovascular diseases than many more typical diet plans.

The idea to eat when you are hungry and stop when you are full seems so much more natural. But how many of us are in tune with our bodies that we can really know when to eat, when to stop? It’s not that we don’t have the capability, but in our modern times of junk foods, abundance of foods, fast foods, food, food everywhere many of us have lost touch with the part of ourselves that is hungry. We often eat out of frustration, anxiety, loneliness, boredom. We no longer just eat because we are hungry and our bodies need fuel. Any old excuse to overindulge and eat will do.

Recently I came across another blog talking about this very thing. Craig Harper has come up with a wonderful plan about Intuitive eating that he calls The National Geographic Diet. The idea is to eat when you are hungry and your body needs fuel and to NOT eat for any other reason.

He is planning on doing a 28 day experiment and many other people have joined him. You can start anytime between now and January 1, 2007 and he will publish the results on his blog at the end of January. It will be interesting to hear about the results people get.

I may join him myself. I just have to figure out if I can hear the call of my own body over the din of the chocolate chip cookies!

Force: Force is defined as, “that which changes or tends to change the state of rest or motion in matter.” Another definition is, “that which changes or tends to change the velocity of an object.” When you are playing any game, the object may be an opposing player. Force may increase or decrease velocity in a moving object. The SI unit of force is the Newton (N).

Force must be applied to a ball or a tennis racket in order to bring about motion and/or increase velocity.

Work: Work is equivalent to the product of a force expressed and the distance of the displacement of an object. The SI unit of work is the joule (J). It is calculated as the force in Newton (N) multiplied by the distance in meters (m). One joule of work is equivalent to one Newton causing a displacement of one meter
(1 J = 1 N · 1 m).

If a person with a body mass of 85 kg exerts 833 N (9.8 N/kg) of downward force climbing a ladder to raise the body 0.25 m, the work is calculated as: 833 N · 0.25 m = 206.25 J

Some equations that can be useful

Work:

1 J = 0.7376 ft-lb

(1 ft-lb = 1.356 J)

Energy and Heat:

1 J = 2.390 cal

1 kJ = 2.390 kcal

(1 kcal = 4,184 J or 4.184 kJ)

In order to understand why it is important to lower cholesterol, it is necessary to first understand what cholesterol is. Cholesterol is a fatlike waxy substance and is produced by the liver. Although cholesterol has purposes and is important to overall health and body function, too much cholesterol in the body has damaging effects.

Cholesterol forms every cell within the body. When the cholesterol level is appropriate, it plays a life-giving role in many functions of the body. When cholesterol is at a good level it works to build and repair cells, produces hormones such as estrogen and testosterone, and produces bile acids which are proven to aid in the digestion of fat.

With too much cholesterol in the body, though, the levels build up and cause damage by clogging your arteries. This puts you at serious risk for disease such as heart and stroke. In fact, the major cause behind heart attacks and strokes is clogged arteries resulting from high levels of cholesterol.

When you eat saturated foods such as dairy, meat and eggs your cholesterol elevates. On the other hand when you eat foods such as fruits, vegetables, and grains you can maintain optimal health as they do not contain cholesterol.

High cholesterol can be avoided! With a nutritious diet, the 50% of all adult Americans with high cholesterol can regain their health and lower their risk of disease by 2%. This is done simply from reducing cholesterol by 1%.

Cholesterol can be managed for life with success! It is recommended that you visit your physician on a regular basis to keep a keen eye on your levels. As we progress with “30 days to lower cholesterol” you will learn healthy, alternative ways to manage your cholesterol without having to rely on medications.

The purpose of this ebook is to inform, educate and provide healthful options.

Understanding the Types of Cholesterol

While most people talk about “cholesterol levels” there is in fact more than one type of cholesterol. In fact, there are several different body functions and several different substances that make up our understanding of “cholesterol.”

As with some fats, cholesterol cannot be dissolved in the blood. Instead, molecules called lipoproteins carry cholesterol to and from cells. Molecules are made from an outer layer of protein and an inner core of both cholesterol and triglycerides, which is another form of fat.

Lipoproteins equip the cholesterol to move around the body. The two main types of lipoproteins are:

1) High Density Lipoproteins (HDL.)

• HDL transports cholesterol from cells back to the liver.

•HDL is either reused or converts to bile acids and disposed. This is known as “good” cholesterol. You want to ensure that your levels of this cholesterol remain high for optimum heart health, since having too low levels of HDL - even when other cholesterol levels are normal - may lead to heart problems. As you work to lower your “bad cholesterol” it is important to also take steps and to keep your HDL levels normal.

• HDL aids to ensure protection from the risk of heart attack and/or stroke. HDL consists of more protein than triglycerides or cholesterol, and aids to remove LDL from your artery walls.

2) Low Density Lipoproteins (LDL.)

•LDL carries approximately 60_70% of cholesterol around the body and are known as “bad” cholesterol.

• Studies show conclusively that high cholesterol leads to much higher risk of heart attack and/or stroke. Other factors involved in this risk are age, gender, smoking, family history of heart disease, and diabetes mellitus.

Obviously, when we speak of having “cholesterol levels” we mean more than one number. To maintain optimum health, you will need to know your levels of both LDL and HDL and will need to work hard to keep both levels in healthy ranges.

Understanding the Causes of High Cholesterol

Besides diet, other causes of high cholesterol are lifestyle, gender and the heritage of the individual.

For some, even maintaining cholesterol at the right levels and being fit and thin will still not prevent the development of high levels of bad cholesterol. Due to heart risk factors besides diet, some people require a very aggressive approach which includes cholesterol lowing medication. We will address this issue as we progress in “30 days to lowering cholesterol.”

Lifestyle issues and high cholesterol:

•When we opt for convenience in eating over nutrition, we are setting ourselves up for problems. Eating fast foods and convenience foods results in eating too many fats and salts, which can raise our bad cholesterol levels. In addition, a more sedentary lifestyle also contributes to unhealthy levels of cholesterol. If you want to see a graphic representation of this, consider renting the documentary movie “Supersize Me.” This documentary details the attempts of one man to live on fast foods and little exercise alone. The results on his cholesterol and body health in just 30 days are truly frightening.

•A visit to a nutritionist or dietician can help us all better understand eating for the right reasons and for optimal health. It is never too late to start on this path.

•Regular exercise will effectively lower cholesterol and will maintain your body strength to function best. Just 20 minutes of aerobic exercise, including walking, each day will lower cholesterol. Exercise does not have to be a large time or money commitment. Simple activities that get you moving and that you enjoy enough to repeat are almost always adequate.

Diet:

•An important consideration in eating is choosing lower fat.

•Buy cooking oils that are unsaturated. Use low fat cooking sprays to replace heavy oils whenever possible. Reduce your overall use of oils even further by using cooking techniques that require little or no oil.

Age and Gender:

•Cholesterol levels increase with age. Women generally have a lower level than men from age 50 to 55. Once a woman starts menopause, the cholesterol level starts to increase.

• While there is not much that you can do about your age, you can make sure that age does not threaten your heart health by sticking to a healthy lifestyle and diet and by getting your cholesterol levels monitored.

Heritage:

•Genetics play a key role in a person’s health and this includes the amount of cholesterol you might have.

•Find out if your family battles with high levels of cholesterol and then bring this to your doctor’s attention right away. If you have a family history of heart disease and high cholesterol levels, work harder and start earlier in adopting a healthy lifestyle and eating plan.

Every one of us must have done some sort of exercise at least once in our life. Have you ever gone beyond this story? What I meant is that, have you ever put an effort to study the enormous offstage preparations taking place underneath our skin to make it happen. I don’t think many of you will give a ‘yes’ nod to the above question. Let us use a little time to go beyond the skin and I am sure that you will give a cheerful pat to your own muscles on knowing these secrets (at least to you). Physical exercises are made possible by means of forces effectuated by the voluntary muscles of the body acting through the lever systems of the skeleton.

If you happened to be in a gym or bodywork station, you might end up with reading certain terms, which explain the maximum possible force or extension of that particular equipment. Many manufacturers of exercise equipment in the United States who continue to use the antiquated English System of measurement. Among two hundred nations of the world, the United States is the only country that continues to employ the English System (as a matter of fact, even England abandoned this system a number of years ago). Other than United States, an International System (SI) is universally accepted for measurement in the world of science and in everyday life. The basic units in use to measure the force, work, and power of exercise are Newton (N), joules (J), and watts (W), respectively.

What Happens When The Muscles Are Put To Action?

During the performance of an exercise, the recruitment of motor units for the purpose of developing force between the bony attachments of muscles may or may not yield in the shortening of the muscle and drawing together of the attachments. According to the relationship between the force brought about by activation (neural signal input) and that of an opposing force acting on the attachments of a muscle, the sarcomere movement may be either as shortening or lengthening, or there may be no change in the total muscle length. When external forces lengthen the muscle, muscle activation does not cause shortening but, instead, resists the lengthening.

The development of the muscle forces and their development and the prevailing external forces will result in muscle actions that produce static exercise or dynamic exercise. In static exercise, there is no movement about the related joints while in dynamic exercise there is an increase or decrease in joint angles. Static exercise of activated muscle is normally termed as isometric. Although, force is developed there is no movement and hence no work is performed. All the other muscle actions involve movement and are termed dynamic. The term concentric is used to categorize a shortening action and the term eccentric is used to identify a lengthening action.

The energy of physical exercise can be equated in terms of the potential energy of the biochemical substances utilized for muscular actions (essentially ATP, CP, carbohydrate, and fat), the actual release of this energy as muscle cells develop force, the heat generated, and the kinetic energy of the human body or objects used in an exercise routine or in a competitive sport.

In other words,
Metabolic Energy Release (J) = Work (J) + Heat (J)
The total energy manifested in actual performance results in work performed on the body itself, work performed on an object (such as a ball, while you are playing some game), or work performed on an opposing player (as in contact sports). Whatever energy, does not yield work turns up in the muscles and, subsequently, in other parts of the body as heat. The ratio of work performed to the energy utilized is termed as mechanical efficiency.

For example, a person who utilizes 1,500 J of energy to perform 500 J of work on a cycle ergo meter develops 1,000 J of heat in the body that must be dissipated to retain normal body temperature. Dividing 500 J of work by the 1,500 J of energy utilized (and multiplied by 100 to express as a percentage) results in the determination that the person’s mechanical efficiency for the exercise was 33.33 %.

My next post will show how to measure exercise performance.

In fruits and vegetables you can tell which of the main phytochemicals they contain by their color.

Fruits and vegetables that are orange in color, such as carrots, cantaloupes and mangoes contain beta carotene.

Those that are red in color, such as tomatoes, watermelon, and pink grapefruit contain lycopene.

Yellow fruits and vegetables such as pineapples, oranges, & peaches contain beta cryptothanxin.

Indoles can be found in the green vegetables, broccoli, cabbage, and kale.

Purple fruits and vegetables such as blueberries, grapes, and eggplant contain anthocyanins.

Allicin can be found in garlic, onions, and chives.

Do you know what is in your food? Did you ever think about what could be there and not there? How about what it is doing to you or your loved ones? Is there something good in your food other then making you not hungry? Yes there is! Your food is consisting of several awesome parts. Try looking at your food differently now. Try looking at it as a challenge and a conquest for better health and life. We laugh at vegetarians, but why? They are very healthy and happy. Vegetarians are getting more of the daily recommend dose of vegetables and fruits then the meat eating population. They are also getting more of the phytochemicals that help fight off the viruses that are in society today.

Fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, legumes are all words you may think to yourself what is that? Well they are the support system of your body. Fruits and vegetables have lots of phytochemicals in them and you can get about 100 different phytochemicals per serving of fruits and vegetables. What are phytochemicals? Well the most commonly known phytochemical is the antioxidant. Antioxidants help to protect our cells from toxic substances and free radicals. You want to keep your cells strong for the long haul of life ahead.

Cholesterol. Yes we all have it and no we don’t want to have to worry about it. Well unfortunately we all must in this day and age worry about our cholesterol. A good way to lower your cholesterol is with oats. Just by eating three grams of soluble fiber a day, the same amount found in a large bowl of one hundred percent oat bran or three packages of instant oatmeal, can lower your LDL cholesterol by at least five point six percent in six weeks. That is an awesome decrease in LDL cholesterol and can save your life.

Still worried about your cholesterol and hate the thought of oatmeal three times a day? Try cooking with olive oil. If you are unhappy with the flavor of olive oil the try canola oil. Both are a great source of monounsaturated fat; A great reducer of cholesterol. Other sources of monounsaturated oils are Peanut oil, Walnut oil, Sesame Oil, and Soybean oil. What ever you do though do not, I repeat, do not go overboard with any oil. They all have fourteen grams of saturated fat and one hundred twenty calories per tablespoon. Lets face it we are an obese society; we need all the help we can get to not add extra fat to our bodies.

Did you know the benefits of Nuts? They are surprisingly good for your heart. Macadamia nuts are the best for you as far as monounsaturated fats go. Walnuts are the lowest on the scale for monounsaturated fats. Apparently replacing saturated fat with polyunsaturated fats found in nuts reduces your risk of heart disease.

Omega three fatty acids found in fish oils are superb at lowering blood fats such as triglycerides. Omega three fatty acids also help reduce blood pressure and may ease the symptoms of arthritis. You should eat fresh fish two to three times a week, however do not take fish oil supplements with out talking to your doctor first.

Vitamin E, is the great protector. Vitamin E helps to fight cancer, heart disease, and cataracts. Now that is one tough antioxidant! Spinach! I know why Popeye ate his spinach, because it is a powerhouse in the antioxidant family. Not to mention it has every nutrient out there. It is a great source of folic acid, which can reduce the risk of neural tube birth defects. It also protects against cervical displaysia which is a condition that precedes cervical cancer. Women! You must eat your spinach. Women who eat spinach daily are forty three percent less likely to suffer from a stroke, then those women who only ate spinach once a month or less. Now I don’t care those numbers are hard to beat. Eat your spinach ladies and live long happy lives. Women you also need to eat your squashes, which are high in beta carotene. Those of us who eat fruits and vegetables high in carotene reduce our risk of cataracts by thirty nine percent.

Here is a great tasting healthy breakfast that takes about 20 minutes. Serves 4 and the preparation time is about 10 minutes.

Ingredients:

• 12 egg whites
• 2 15oz. can of black beans
• 4 fat free/low fat flour tortillas
• 1 cup of lite salsa
• ½ cup grated low fat yellow cheese
• ¼ cup chopped chives

Preparation & Cooking:

Preheat the oven to 200oF. Warm the tortillas in the oven for ten to fifteen minutes. In the meantime, drain and rinse beans and heat on stovetop or in microwave. In a separate pan, warm the salsa on a medium-low heat. As the beans are warming up, scramble the egg whites in a nonstick pan.

Cover each tortilla with the black beans, spreading out the beans to cover the whole tortilla. Top the beans with half a cup each of the warm salsa. Finally, top the salsa with the scrambled egg whites, grated cheese and chives. Serve while hot and get fired up for the day!

Healthy Hint: As an alternative to egg whites, use scrambled tofu mix to top this tasty breakfast

If you ask around, most people are on one form of a diet or another. But while losing weight may be a popular goal, for some it’s an absolute necessity. Becoming overweight or obese starts with a few extra pounds that quietly turn into 20 extra pounds, and then 40, and so on. With the extra weight comes an increased risk of heart attacks, diabetes, and some cancers. Other related health issues include:

• Sleep apnea
• Fatigue
• Liver disease
• Urinary incontinence
• Depression or anxiety
• Premature aging
• Early death

In addition, factors like stress, heredity, and lack of activity can cause further damage. Weight loss is the most significant way to reverse and eliminate these health concerns. This can be done through exercise, eating a balanced diet, and taking supplements to increase your metabolism. Of course, you should check with your doctor before beginning any exercise program. However, you can get moving today by taking short walks or bicycle rides around your neighborhood. A diet that involves all food groups will help you fight fatigue and arm your body for battle against destructive elements. Through the use of supplements, you will also increase the rate at which body fat is burned and maximize the benefits of physical activity.

You may be unsure whether or not your weight is a legitimate problem. To find out, you can use the Body Mass Index (BMI) guidelines. Your BMI is a number that will help you analyze your current health situation. Your personal BMI uses your weight and height to estimate your body composition, which directly correlates with your body fat. A BMI of less than 20 is considered low. A low BMI may indicate an underweight status that can be just as serious as being over weight. A BMI of 20-25 is considered to be good, while one greater than 25 is considered high for most people. A BMI of 30 or more places you in the obese category. To calculate your BMI, use the following formula:

BMI = Weight in Pounds X 703
( Height in inches ) x ( Height in inches )

For example, to calculate the BMI of a person who is 150 pounds and is 5’6” (or 66”) tall, you would do the following:

BMI = 150 X 703 = 24
( 66 ) x ( 66 )

Don’t let the needle on your scale advance a single notch. Everyone can learn to enjoy life to the fullest by taking control of those things that can be controlled–your weight, your reactions to stress, and your lifestyle. There are many activities and products that can help to improve the condition of our heart, lungs, muscles, and other systems. My ebook series, A Balanced Approach to Health, will introduce you to ways to eliminate the health risk of obesity for you and your family, explain ways to objectively and scientifically determine your current level of health, and much more.