Fitness

    You pick up the magazines each day, and you’re bombarded with health and fitness information.  Advertisements and articles that are designed to impart much needed information to the reader about the state of fitness and health in America today, and what we as responsible citizens should do.  I want you to stop, and think for just one moment.  How do you determine your current fitness and wellness levels?  Does your regular doctor as you each time you go if you believe yourself to be fit and well?  Probably not.  Nor does he give you any method for determining the status on your own.  Fitness centers abound in this country, and most are staffed with counselors who can test your fitness level.  What about your wellness level?  Are they one and the same?  They are not one and the same, yet they rely heavily on each other to keep you healthy.

    Being fit and being well are totally different conditions.  Your wellness rating is dependent upon your immune system, and what vitamins, supplements, and nutrition you provide for your immune system.  Fit people can sometimes be unwell.  And well people can sometimes be unfit.  However, when you do combine the two, and use sound principles based on clean living, exercise, and healthy eating, you attain a state of equilibrium where you are both fit and well.

    Most individuals do not take the time to completely understand the advantages of being both fit and well.  We read and absorb the information we’re given through the media and health organizations, without ever pondering if we’re receiving all the information we need, or simply the part that is profitable to be seen or heard.  Fitness gyms need your monthly fees in order to remain operational.  They have no real concern about the condition of your immune system.  Physical fitness is a condition of the body alone.   Hospitals and doctors need you as a patient in order to remain operational; they want you to know you need to be fit and well, but often leave out important pieces that affect your wellness and, therefore, your ability to be fit.

    What about eating habits?  What about vitamins?  What role does our daily intake play in our health, our wellness, and our fitness?  More than you have been lead to believe or understand.  The body’s ability to remain well under anything other than ideal conditions is a direct result of the nutrition received on a daily basis.  The mind’s ability to remain well is, again, a direct result of our nutrition intake.  For instance, the human brain doesn’t develop well without the necessary input of protein in our daily diet.  No protein, no intelligence.  No intelligence, then none of the other states is attainable.

    Our spiritual input is a determining factor when establishing our fitness level.  We all need the benefit of spiritual reflection, as a way of cleansing ourselves of the stress of our daily life.   Spirituality is a way of assuring ourselves of a renewing, and rebirth of ourselves as humans.  Fitness encompasses our body’s health, as a whole and in this respect it includes the mind. It is a condition of the whole body.  Fitness is a condition of wellness for our physical body.

Rex Shell

Beware of Diet Fads When Trying to Shed Pounds

It might be actresses such as Suzanne Sommers and Jane Fonda, or models such as Christie Brinkley or Kathy Ireland.  It seems that a number of celebrities today offer their own weight loss programs.  The programs are appealing because we see these various svelte celebrities and we want to have bodies just like them.  The celebrities are also highly likable, so we have a predisposition to be accepting of their products.

       However, did you ever stop to think whether these celebrities have any nutritional training?  Do they have medical training?  Is the information that they offer nutritionally sound?  Or is it just a good sales pitch?

      Nutrition experts Annette B. Natow and Jo-Ann Heslin, authors of the book Get Skinny the Smart Way, say that consumers should be leery of celebrity-inspired diet books.  They point out that such books are often based upon nutritional fiction and that, while the diets outlined in these books may result in short-term weight loss, they can be far from healthy in the long run.  Therefore, you might consider passing up the celebrity diet books and opting for those written by nutritional experts instead.

      But celebrities aren’t the only ones preaching fad diets.  For instance, there’s the so-called grapefruit diet which recommends consuming a grapefruit prior to each meal.  Another fad is the cabbage soup diet, which requires you to consume all the cabbage soup you can handle.  Other fads call for eating all the eggs you can…consuming only raw foods…or fasting every other day.  Such diets are not only based on nutritional misinformation—they can also be dangerous. 

       For instance, let’s take a closer look at the cabbage soup diet.  No major health organization has endorsed it.  Moreover, the American Heart Association disapproves of it, noting that it can actually harm you.  Promoters of this diet say that you can lose as much as 15 pounds a week by following it—what they don’t say is that most of that weight is water weight.   Once you begin eating normally again, you will see your weight rise once more.  Some of the side-effects of the cabbage soup diet include a feeling of weakness, stomach pains, and diarrhea. 

      Yet another questionable diet approach is what’s known as food combining.  Such a diet assumes that you are overweight because you are not eating the right combination of food.  The requirements of such a diet can seem quite arbitrary.  For instance, you might be told that you can eat a banana only in the morning.  This is rubbish, since your stomach can deal with a variety of different foods at one time.  The idea behind such a diet is to eat food with fewer calories, but there are other methods you can use to accomplish the same goals.

      Some companies even claim that you can shed pounds while you dream.  They say that, if you use their product right before bedtime, you will lose weight.  In actuality, no company can make such a claim with any degree of credibility.  It is impossible to burn a large number of calories while snoozing.  In other cases, you may be tempted to try to lose weight by consuming special milkshakes or candy bars.  In essence, these products are just milk and candy with certain vitamins and minerals added.  However, one rarely feels satisfied after consuming these products.  As a result, you may find yourself actually consuming additional calories during the rest of the day.  While you might be able to theoretically lose weight in the short-term, you’ll find it difficult to maintain the weight loss over the long haul.

        The fact of the matter is that there is a great deal of money that can be made through the sale and marketing of diet products.  As long as America has a large contingent of overweight people, companies will try to make a profit off of overeating.  It is up to you to be savvy enough to recognize a diet fad when you see it and opt for a different approach to losing weight.  You’ll find that there are really no short-cuts to weight loss.  Any successful diet program takes time, patience, and determination, along with a willingness to change your eating patterns.        

Rex Shell