Category: Exercise

Posted on

Is my doctor an idiot?

I was having a conversation the other day with a good friend of mine. We were discussing exercise, and she said that her doctor had told her to do or not do something — honestly, I forget right now what it was we were talking about.

My initial reaction was, “Doctors are idiots.”

Now, I know this is not true. Most doctors are certainly not idiots. (I say “most” because every subset of humans has got to have its share of idiots. I would guess, though, that doctors probably do have a lower than average stupid-to-intelligent ratio.)

However, I firmly believe that many, if not most, doctors only know what they’ve been taught, and because they are taught more about how to apply bandaids than to embrace a holistic approach to health, we have a high incidence of legal drug addicts in our country.

From my own experience, I can tell you that when I was severely overweight and my blood pressure and cholesterol were way too high, my doctor cursorily mentioned that I should lose weight, and then he wrote me 3 prescriptions.

Really? That was his answer?

Here I am, 65 pounds lighter with great blood pressure and cholesterol levels, but my doctor’s first fix was to give me drugs?

I suppose that after years of doctoring, he’s seen it all, and he knows that no one ever loses the weight. I am an exception to the norm — all I have to do is look around at the people my own age to know that. But, still, my doctor gave up on me without even giving me a chance!

Anyway, the point is that while my statement that “doctors are idiots” was almost certainly untrue and an over-reaction, the fact is that you and you alone are responsible for your own well-being. Your doctor can only do so much. He has become so accustomed to people who don’t care about their own health, that he will simply write a prescription and send you on your way.

And we are programmed to think this is normal: “I’m getting older, time for cholesterol and blood pressure drugs.”

Sure, that is normal. But it’s not desirable!

Once I took charge of my fitness, my doctor’s attitude changed. When he saw the weight coming off, when he saw me quitting the drugs he’d prescribed, he got a little excited by it. He’s still a little tsk-tsky when I tell him I am not getting a flu shot, but he let’s me be, because he knows that I am in control here. This is, after all, my body, not his.

So, no, my doctor is not an idiot, but he may be a bit hardened, because of most people’s lack of ability to get fit, and he may be more than a little bit brainwashed by the pharmaceutical companies who make billions from the prescriptions he writes.

But I can tell you this — my doctor sure seems to enjoy my visits more now than he did 5 years ago.

I know this post sounds self-congratulatory and maybe even a little boastful. Fine. I really mean it to be a simple chronicle of my own experience, posted in the hope that you will see that you, too, can overrule your doctor’s prescription orders, and take control of your own health and fitness.

Posted on

Low Carb: My great-grandmother knew

Let me begin by saying that I am not against low-fat diets! If a low-fat diet works for you long-term, fine with me, go with it. Low-fat doesn’t work for me, though, so my personal choice is to eat low-carb.

One of my few childhood memories is of sitting around a dinner table with my parents, grandparents, and us kids. My great-grandmother, whom we called “Grandma Olive”, was also there, and I was sitting near her. When the dinner rolls came around, she passed them along without taking one.

I asked her, “No bread for you, Grandma Olive?”

She replied, “Oh no, dear. I have potatoes. Can’t have two starches.”

I didn’t think about that much, until a few years ago, when I was doing some in-depth research into low-carb diets.

I discovered that low-carb was the first modern weight-loss program, formulated in the 1800s.

I discovered that low-carb was, in fact, the weight-loss program of choice, until the 1950s, when politics dictated that fat should be declared the villain.

The demonization of fat seems to make sense. I mean, we know that excess fat on our bodies and excess cholesterol in our blood leads to bad things, right? So — logically — we should not eat those things.

Problem is that the science didn’t — and doesn’t — back that up.

(NOTE: For more about this subject, including in-depth reporting and solid scientific support, please read  Good Calories, Bad Calories by renowned science writer Gary Taubes. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: If you can read the first 100 pages of that book and continue to consume sugar in quantity, you have some kind of sweet tooth!)

As it turns out, when we eat low-fat meals, we tend to eat a lot more carbs, our calorie count goes way up, and our body stores the excess intake as fat. That’s why there’s an obesity epidemic in the United States.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, in 1994 — the first year data is available for all 50 states —  all states had an obesity rate below 20%. In 2010, all states had an obesity rate greater than 20%! (NOTE: “Obesity” is gauged as a body mass index of at least 30. BTW, the obesity rate in 1985 was below 15% in all states that were measured.) That’s how much fatter we’ve become over the past 18 (and 27) years.

The CDC also tells us that since 1980, obesity prevalence among children and adolescents has almost tripled. That’s why we had to change the name of “adult-onset” diabetes to “Type 2” diabetes, because our high-carb diets were creating diabetics at younger and younger ages.

Yup, this is where an emphasis on low-fat eating has gotten us.

I remember when I was a low-fat advocate. I used to do silly things like buy candy on road trips, instead of protein- and fat-based meals, because I thought that was nutrition, and, hey, little or no fat! Same with sugary soft drinks. Drink up! No fat!

YIKES!

Anyway, different strokes for different folks. If you are into low-fat dieting and it works for you — remember that is key, it has to work for you — get it on! Doesn’t work for me, though, and, apparently, it didn’t work for my Grandma Olive either. She knew.

Posted on

Even after years of inactivity, there is no “I CAN’T”!

I am continually frustrated by people I suggest a fitness program to, who try it once, then tell me, “I can’t do that.”

OF COURSE YOU CAN’T DO THAT, YOU’VE BEEN SITTING ON YOUR ASS FOR 20 YEARS!

Wow, I mean, what do you expect? Do you think if I tell you that yoga or Insanity is great and you will benefit so much from it, that you should be able to pop in a DVD or go to a class and knock it out like it’s nothing?

First, any workout that allows you to do that is not much of a workout at all.

Second, just like anything, you have to practice it to get better at it.

That is one of the hallmarks of programs like Shaun T’s Insanity. It’s impossible. I don’t care how good shape you are in, you cannot make it through an entire Insanity workout the first time — IF EVER!

The key to finally getting fit after years of inactivity is to push yourself without hurting yourself. If a workout lasts 30 minutes, and you  took breaks when you needed them, only working out for a total of 7 minutes, that’s perfectly fine. You will improve as you stick with it. Next time you’d get 10 minutes. Then 15. And so on.

This is true about weight loss, and it’s true about fitness, too: There are no magic elixirs. You have to put in the work.

When your exercise program challenges you, it is so much easier to tell it’s working. If you choose a program that you cannot finish, when you can finally finish it, it’s quite a thrill, and you know you are more fit. Simple.

So don’t tell me that you are not going to do something because you “can’t”. P90X creator Tony Horton suggests that instead of saying “I can’t” try saying “I currently struggle with.” Keep that mindset as you enter into a program that you “currently struggle with”, and go ahead and struggle your way to fitness!

Posted on

Why I prefer to work out at home

Some of you — perhaps most of you — prefer to go to a gym to get a workout.

Either you are part of an organized class that keeps you feeling accountable, or the cost of the gym membership makes you feel that you need to go, or you just gotta get out of the house to get your exercise in.

If that works for you, great. Don’t stop. Keep going that way.

But there are those of us who find going to the gym too much of a bother, a hassle, and, perhaps, just too damn expensive.

I fall into that group.

I was a gym member once and went religiously. The place was walking distance, so it was convenient. Also, I needed to work out at 4:30am, so, given the small size of the house we lived in, going outside the house was necessary to allow my wife to continue sleeping while I exercised.

I no longer work out at 4:30am, and I no longer live in a small house, so my options are open. Given those factors, I prefer to work out at home.

There are a lot of benefits to working out at home, not the least of which is the savings on gym membership. I am not sure what it costs now, but when I was going back in the 90s, I paid $35/month, and that was with a military discount.

Here are a few more reasons to work out at home:

  • You can dress how you like without feeling self-conscious.
  • You are on your own schedule, so if you miss your usual 10:00 workout because something came up, you can shift it to 1:00 or whenever.
  • You can buy a fan and point it straight at yourself.
  • You can curse all you want. This is pretty important for me, because I like to cuss out Shaun T quite a bit ;=)
  • You can ogle the pretty people on the DVD without any negative repercussions — well, unless your S.O. objects.
  • There are so many workout programs to choose from and even the expensive ones are not expensive, when you compare them to the cost of a gym membership.
  • Cold water is not coming from a community water fountain.
  • You can pause the workout if you need to.
  • You’ll be showering in your personal shower, without other people’s nastiness all up in it.

Wow, that’s a lot of good reasons to work out at home.

There is some downside to working out at home — hmmmm, can’t think of anything at the moment, but there must be — so balance it in your own mind, but, again, always remember, the best way to work out is the way that keeps you doing it!

Posted on

Muscle Spasms and Ibuprofen

Back in early November, more than 3 months ago, I started having a sharp pain in my right center rectus abdominis (that’s the 6-pack abs). It only hurt when I moved a certain way, and to call it a pain is overstating the case — it was really just an irritation. But it was there.

I looked around the internet and diagnosed the pain as a pulled ab, not a hernia. I had recently done an abdominal routine that I had not done in a while, and I did it without warming up. On top of that, I really pushed it. That was dumb, but hindsight is 20/20, so there ya go. Won’t do that again.

Well, I didn’t do that again, but i did something.

Not sure what it was, but I started having an even sharper pain in that same spot of my rectus abdominis. Again, it was simply an annoyance, but I could feel it more intensely and more often than I had before.

I thought, “I’ve done it this time!”

However, my range of motion was still not affected. While I felt some discomfort, it wasn’t the type of pain that I associate with a severe injury, so I planned to do what I always do in that case — just work through it.

Fast forward to Tuesday, when I woke up with a terrible headache. Finally, that afternoon, I decided to take 600mg of ibuprofen. I don’t like to ingest drugs of any sort — okay, outside caffeine and alcohol — but I felt it was warranted here.

The headache soon went away, and I also noticed the pain in my abs had subsided.

When I woke up the next day, the pain in my abs, which I normally felt strongly as I got out of bed, was gone!

I did some googling and consulted my friend Donna, who has some expertise in the area, and concluded that I’d had a muscle spasm in my rectus abdominis. The ibuprofen must have calmed it.

This makes me rethink my attitude toward ibuprofen.

I don’t want to make it a part of my daily diet, because I can live with sore muscles, but it does seem a bit absurd to allow muscles to continue spasming when a small dose of a fairly innocuous drug will calm them.

Live and learn.