Battling Obesity

During any exercise and diet regimen, losing the first few pounds is often very easy. That’s good because it’s a great motivator when you see results right away. But as you lose more, the rate of loss, and the speed with which you see visible effects, slows down. It’s hard to keep going when you aren’t seeing the benefits.

But don’t lose heart. It’s natural that initial efforts at a certain level will get you only 80% of the way there. The other 20% is going to come harder. That’s just the way things are. There are techniques that can help you get that last 20% - and, more importantly, keep 100% of the results over the long term.

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Though stereotypes are dissolving with each generation, there are some that persist - in part, because they are based on real differences between men and women.

While some women can and do achieve the upper body strength of some (even very fit) men, the overwhelming majority of males have a natural advantage in this area. Male aesthetic values, the source of which isn’t clear, reinforce this and so they tend to work on upper body more than some other areas, relative to women’s efforts.

Women, in part out of a desire to be seen as attractive, will focus exercises more on buttocks and legs. But here they also have a slight natural advantage for some exercises. A woman’s pelvis tilts at a different angle than a man’s. This effects the style and efficiency of squats, for example. Women will benefit by tilting the feet outward with legs further apart, while not needing to squat so low.

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Few subjects in health or diet ever get put to a final rest. Present studies often contradict earlier ones, until no one knows what to think. One of the few areas that almost all serious studies seem to agree on is the relationship between exercise and the immune system.

No reputable researcher will claim that exercise will repair a weakened or diseased immune system. Nonetheless, a broad spectrum of studies confirm that moderate exercise can help sustain and strengthen it, even when the effects are indirect.

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Individuals under 20 are naturally more flexible, have higher metabolic rates and more energy than those older. But they, too, need to exercise (in appropriate ways) to avoid injury and build strength and endurance, avoid obesity and stay fit.

Particularly today, when there are so many electronic alternatives, young people may exercise less than they should. It’s during the formative years that individuals lay the groundwork for what later become healthy or poor habits.

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Aristotle helped define the standards of fitness 2,500 years ago when he taught that a thing that suits its purpose well is fit. Fortunately for us, the cardiovascular system, lungs, skeleton, muscles, endocrine system and all the other amazing components of the body function for our purpose: to live well.

Exercising aids fitness in numerous ways, each involving one or more of those systems.

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By Dan Patterson

Here’s a sad truth that arguably a large contribution to the obesity problem in the U.S.: Americans watch a lot of TV. Here are some interesting statistics from TVTurnoff.org:

* The average American home has the TV on for 8 hours a day
* The average American watches 4 hours and 35 minutes of television each day
* The average American household is 2.55 people, but the average home also has 2.73 televisions

Statistically, we have more TVs per household than we do people in this country! We have very quickly become a lazy, entertainment seeking people. No wonder we have such a large problem with people being overweight and obese. This is no news flash, but when you’re just sitting in front of the TV you are contributing to an overall sedentary lifestyle - a lifestyle that is proven to be prime ground for becoming overweight and obese.

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By Dave Draper

It takes courage to seek out a gym and walk through the front door expecting a throng of obnoxiously confident and shapely bodies to evaluate your hips and biceps. Your nifty home gym in the garage, basement or bedroom becomes most attractive suddenly, limitations and all.

Gyms come in all shapes and sizes: squares, rectangles, L-shaped, U-shaped, upper level, two stories. Go to the cities and they’re on penthouse floors; go to the suburbs and they cover acres, with ball courts, pools, restaurants and golf facilities. Each gym has its own personality largely based on its ownership and operating team, the neighborhood in which it resides and, subsequently, the folks it attracts. Like a mate, there’s a gym for everybody.

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By Irene Levy

Seasonal fitness is very common with the general weekend warriors and serious fitness gurus. In fact, seasonal fitness provides variety as a host of new and exciting routines opens up to each and every one of us with changes in the weather. A great example is outdoor exercising. Not only is this influenced by the seasons but also geographically. In the west you can just about workout outside every day (some exceptions for rain of course). On the east coast you can certainly choose to run in sub 30 degree weather but most will choose not to do so. We like to think of this as the attraction factor. The attraction factor is critical as it helps to setup and thus manage one’s enthusiasm towards repeatable exercising and adherence to your overall life fitness goals.

How often do you see the Television Ads where the healthy ads always seem to be on location somewhere near Los Angeles? It’s not by chance it’s a fact that everyone thinks of California as the healthy state (Florida is right in there as well of course!). The land of the creative and fortunate to have been born/raised or moved to the sunshine have almost too many choices for outdoor activities year round. Sometimes this leads to being overwhelmed and it can create a failure to start or implement a fitness program.

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