Healthy Lifestyle Changes--Even If They Kill Me
Too few calories is no healthier than too many calories, and will actually derail your body's metabolism. Caloric intake on the very low side for a consecutive number of days will down shift your body's metabolism to starvation mode, meaning that the body burns as few calories as possible to prevent itself from starving. Sometimes, if such a eating plan continues, the body will actually consume its own protein, including heart muscle.
And speaking of muscle, that's something we want to try and build up for ourselves; the more muscle mass in the body, the more calories required to move those muscles. We don't have to look like Arnold to achieve this miracle of calorie burning, either. Just converting our body's makeup from mostly fat to a little less fat will make a difference; our metabolisms will begin to burn a little faster. One pound hand weights while walking increase the calories required to perform the activity.
My goal of thirty to ninety minutes of physical activity a day is also what the new federal government guidelines urge to prevent obesity. I guess so! As I begin to increase my daily physical activity from that of walking to and from the coffee pot several times a day to actual aerobic activity, I am taken aback to discover that ten minutes of the latter leave me winded and with a sheen of sweat. The minimum goal of thirty minutes looks a long way off, and I can't even begin to imagine what one does for ninety minutes of physical activity daily!
Being a rational person, I realize that my poor physical condition belies my need for more physical activity, so I continue to plug along. My doctor is a happy man, although I suspect he knows when I say I am doing thirty minutes of daily exercise, I have greatly exaggerated the truth much the way an alcoholic underestimates his intake. But my blood pressure is in the safe zone even if my cholesterol levels haven't moved one way or the other.
My kids, although never anything but supportive of me before my decision to alter my lifestyle, seem energized by my slow changes. And even though my weight loss has not yet been significant, I walk a little taller, take the stairs less breathlessly, and can see that spark of spirit in my eyes again.
Ponce De Leon and modern science have been looking in all
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