Health Nut My story Part 3 Exercise

Too many people confine their exercise to jumping to conclusions, running up bills, stretching the truth, bending over backwards, lying down on the job, sidestepping responsibility and pushing their luck. Unknown
If it weren't for the fact that the TV set and the refrigerator are so far apart, some of us wouldn't get any exercise at all. Joey Adams
Physical activity is an excellent stress-buster and provides other health benefits as well. It also can improve your mood and self image. Jon Wickham

Note:  This post is not meant to be medical advice.  It is only my experience about diet and exercise.  Before you try anything new or stop what you are doing, check with your doctor first.                                                                  

This is post # 3 in my "Health Nut" series and tonight I want to talk about exercise and what a part it had in my life--what I expected from it, benefits I did and didn't get and even harm I may have done to myself.

I have exercised since I was young. I don't remember exactly when I got the idea that if you want to lose weight you need to exercise, but I believed it wholeheartedly. Every time I tried to lose weight I developed an exercise program to go along with the low calorie, low fat eating program I was on. For 30 years I was a chronic dieter--and exerciser. I would starve myself, following an eating plan given to me by the doctor or that I found in a magazine. (In the early days it was believed that one should reduced their calorie intake to 800 a day.)

When I was young and healthy I would take the weight off fairly easily. Little did I know that I was slowing down my metabolism a little during every diet. The body is designed to do that to preserve one's life in a famine. So when I would resume eating normally the weight would come back with reinforcements along with the guilt and insurmountable self loathing. I eventually reached a point I couldn't continue with the diets but I continued exercising hoping that it would magically do the trick.

I have learned something very important. Exercise will not make a girl skinny. Certainly a person can see an initial weight drop of 10 to 20 pounds when they start an exercise program but it rarely goes beyond that. The body puts a halt on the weight loss to protect itself. It's like.. if slightly pudgy office clerk takes a job bucking hay, even though he ate well, he might tone up and lose some flab right away but he won't continue with that because if the hard work made him lose weight continuously then he would waste away, so his body adjusts the metabolism to to stop the fat burn. In that light I realize that my excessive exercising also contributed to the demise of my metabolism.

I believed in the simple formula of calories in and calories out. Many diet gurus and even doctors still believe in that today. Fitbit shows how many calories you burn in a day like that is important information. All I had to do is to line up how many calories I eat with how many I expend in exercise and like magic I will get skinny, right?. It's is not that simple. If the calories are a chocolate bar it will spike the insulin level; to get rid of the high glucose the body turns it into fat, but if the calories are a handful of almonds the body treats the calories differently. Our complicated bodies are always adjusting hormones and metabolism to protect itself and keep us as healthy as possible. It's like the body fights weight loss on every corner.

Over the years I did calisthenics, isometrics, jazzercise, biking, swimming and walking as well as exercise machines and exercise classes and gym memberships, And aerobic dance-- I loved that but hated walking--I hated walking so much I forced myself to walk more! After all the doctors and Oprah said it's the best form of exercise for us, right? I had two total knee and one hip replacements because this heavy girl forced herself to walk; (I believe today that my body was telling me that the walking was harming me, that's why I hated it.). Before the surgeries, I was unable to stand so I exercised on the floor or in bed or in a chair. To not exercise was unthinkable and to do any less than an hour 5 times a week was cheating.

I am not anti-exercise. I still do it today but some days it's just a few stretches, and other days it's working in the garden. Or I may go after the punching bag or stair stepper. Heck heavy house work counts as exercise! I no longer believe that a 90 minute routine benefits me in any way. Exercise is very good for your whole body--brain, heart, lungs, skin, muscle, mood and bones. I believe the life time of exercise I practiced is one of the reasons for my good health with low blood pressure and resting heart rate. In fact, not exercising can send a person down the road of ill health. Perhaps exercise can aid weight loss by supporting a healthy and strong body, but IT WILL NOT MAKE US LOSE MEANINGFUL WEIGHT over the long haul! Anyway it didn't for me. So Exercise because it's good for you and because it makes you feel good. But be kind to yourself and don't expect it to do what it wasn't designed to do..

Petunia Oil 8 x 10

Sorry. To console you I am going to share my baby pig! Stay tuned for more installments in Health Nut.