Physical activity is a crucial component of a healthy lifestyle. It has numerous benefits ranging from prevention of chronic diseases to improved brain, bowel and muscular function. Physical activity helps prevent muscle and joint pain and dysfunction.  These benefits can positively impact your wallet. Time off work, muscle and joint rehabilitation and medications can be costly. Exercise can be done relatively inexpensively.

Physical activity can help prevent chronic diseases such as: heart disease (cholesterol and blood pressure control) , stroke, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and colon and breast cancer. It increases your metabolism, burning more fat and aids in losing weight. It reduces stress, anxiety and depression and improves your mood and energy levels. Activity helps promote digestion and regular bowel movements. It helps build and maintain bone density, as well as improve brain function in older adults. And of course activity helps with balance, cardiorespiratory and muscular fitness, which may help prevent injury and lead to a longer and higher quality life.
There are so many benefits, we just have to put in the time. Consistency is key with exercise, not the type or intensity(to some degree). Invest in your health: go for a walk at lunch time, take the stairs at the office, bike to work, stick to your exercise routine. Find something you enjoy, that will make it easy. Take a friend or your children.

Dr. Nelson

Most of us aren't perfect and fall off our workout routines at some point during the year. Then January rolls around and we want to hit the gym again after an extended hiatus. Most of us also know that this is usually a short lived venture. But why is it? Why do we fail at something that keeps us health and feeling good. There are many reasons of course and you can probably name most of them already: not enough time, too much early and/or loss of ambition, too many people at the gym, too cold/stormy for running, no immediate benefit. The list goes on. One reason that I will focus on is doing too much too early.

Once we commit to going back to our workout routines there is usually excitement involved. Getting back into shape, feeling better and looking great are all motivating. Most people fail in not acknowledging that returning to a workout routine is more of a mental change than a physical challenge. Habits take 3 weeks to form and I would argue longer for something such as a workout because they generally happen every other day. Weekends away or other activities can easily interrupt forming the workout habit. Benefits aren't seen immediately and post workout soreness can be immediate and intense. There can also be a little shame or disappointment as we don't pick up at the same weight that we did in the past. There are techniques to get around these challenges and they vary in strategies.

First of all set goals, short term, long term, specific and general. Include all of these types as they are important for long term adherence. Plan workouts and goals in advance in your physical and/or electronic calendar. Chart your weights, don't go in haphazardly, have a plan for type of exercises, sets, reps and weights. Be kind to yourself. Our bodies change, and they can change back, but its an organic process. Switch things up if you need too, lighter weights, different exercises. Try free weights, machines and body weight exercises until you settle in to the routine you like the best. If your workout patterns change, update your goals. Eat healthy and drink lots of water, you will reach your goals faster and with less soreness. A little trick I use is topical Magnesium oil to stop post exercise muscle soreness, spray it on the muscles you exercise and wash it off 30 minutes later in the shower. Finally, know your distractions. If you make excuses to not workout, what are you doing instead? Watching TV, facebook/instagram/twitter? If you find your patterns you can undo them.

And most of all have a good time.

Dr. Nelson

     Maintaining a health weight is important for many aspects of health. There are main differing points of view on the definition of a healthy weight. One reason is that there are many ways to measure a healthy body weight. BMI is a simple measure of height vs. weight but isn't particularly valid for muscular people. Body composition is a better measure but skin fold testing is rarely done outside of personal training. Body composition can be measured by electrical current and is included in some scales, however hydration levels can create inconsistency. And some people just have a gut feeling that they are in at unhealthy weight. But that's all for another time, including the reasons for maintaining that healthy weight.

      This post is about losing weight. It doesn't matter if your goals are motivated by health or vanity. You have decided to lose some amount of weight. I have a bachelor degree in kinesiology and plenty of personal experience in many types of exercise so of course I get questions about exercise and weight loss. There are many great benefits of exercise and weight loss is one of them, but, and this is a big but, it doesn't guarantee success. Many people who exercise end up eating more. Depending on your cravings, will power and an underestimation of the actual calories burned during your workout, you may actually wipe out all of the weight loss benefits of exercise. Running 1 mile will, roughly speaking, burns between 100-150 calories depending on your speed, weight and efficiency. A little more for men, a little less for women. How many calories were in that can of coke or beer you had after your workout, or even with lunch or dinner? 150-200? In my opinion it is much easier to eliminate excess empty calories than to tack on an extra mile in a workout. 

     Alcohol is particularly troubling because of it's effect on metabolism. Your body can burn alcohol for 7 calories per gram. More than sugar and protein at 4 calories per gram and less than fat at 9 calories per gram. Alcohol is not useful for anything other than those calories and the byproducts of metabolism cause a hangover. Your liver has to process alcohol, but your liver also works on many other metabolic pathways. Your liver is critical in many forms of sugar metabolism: fructose processing (a form of sugar naturally in fruit among other things), storage of glucose as glycogen and maintenance of blood glucose levels. Nonessential amino acids are synthesized in the liver and ammonia, a toxic byproduct of protein metabolism, is converted to urea.  The liver is responsible for a large amount of fatty acid metabolism as well. Your liver has all the protein machinery present to convert alcohol into fatty acids, which then go into your blood stream and to surrounding muscle and fat cells. So not only are you taxing your liver with extra work, which may slow down the good metabolic processes, you are also giving it a lot of energy to create the fat you are trying so hard to lose.

     In the ideal world you can employ all 3 strategies: Exercise, eat well and save alcohol only for special occasions. But if you can't do all 3 at once start with nutrition and reducing alcohol consumption.

Dr. Nelson