Flex Your Muscles This Holiday Season

The holidays are all about comfort. Macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, homemade rolls, pecan pie ,you name it and it’s on the table and eventually around the waistline.

It is also recycle your resolution time. I will go to the gym. I will lose weight. I will stop eating junk food. Those same  New Year's resolutions which somehow never became a reality.

And last but not least it is reinvent yourself time. Magazines overflow on the checkout line at your local  supermarket encouraging you to renew, make a fresh start or refresh your life. We will show you how!

If you look at recent healthcare statistics, change is not in the air when it comes to American health. One out of three Americans is obese ,and living with Type 2 diabetes is a reality for baby boomers, generation X and the millennium generation.

I recently talked with a relative about our family’s medical history which is peppered  with Type 2 diabetes. He is diabetic as well but is determined to finally lose weight and “get off insulin”. Traveling throughout China has helped because of the  forced lifestyle changes- less choices for fast food, more amazing  vegetables during each meal and walking.  All have helped him successfully  manage his diabetes  to the point that he has safely decreased the doses of some of his diabetic medications.

He walks more now. A typical meal includes vegetables of all types; some he never knew existed.  He still doesn’t  know all the names of the vegetables he eats. Tat soi ,bok choy and other greens color his plate which includes meat as a side dish. He is by no means a vegetarian and frequently comments on the efficient use of almost every part of the pig in some Chinese dishes. Meat is traditionally prepared and  not battered, fried and dredged in a  sweet sauce ala the Americanized orange chicken .

I reminded him ” it’s not  just about losing weight . You have to build muscle.” When you let go of the sugary drinks, processed foods and desserts with astronomical calories, your weight will change. When you Fiven Up Your Meals and Recipes with fruits and vegetables, weight loss happens.  

Then what? Don’t just focus on the fat and the bathroom scale.Flex your muscles .

 Skeletal muscle efficiently metabolizes glucose and exercise increases muscular glucose uptake . The more you exercise the lower the glucose levels in the bloodstream. The human body is a mean, lean energy driven machine that needs whole grains, lean proteins and fruits and vegetables to perform at peak levels. Processed foods… not so much.

Building muscle should be a simple goal but too often that last ten pounds is the concern ( borderline obsession) for many. Building muscle isn’t. Why not? It’s cheap and effective. You don’t need a gym membership or expensive exercise gear to build muscle. Exercise is free.99.  Walk, speed walk, run ,bike, jog or even hike. Exercise can help curb your chocolate craving. You can even  go barefoot (weather permitting). Walking can prevent cognitive decline  and may help diminish your risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease. Pick an activity and it will burn calories, build muscle, and strengthen bones. Even jumping jacks.

 As the conversation continued we spoke about my father who will turn eight-six years old shortly and has been actively retired for the past thirty years. He walks a mile almost every day in inexpensive tennis shoes and has done so for the past 40 years. He upped his exercise regimen at the age of seventy five to include lifting weights “to increase his muscle mass “. After he reads the New York Times every morning, he heads to the local recreation center where he greets the recreation center employees at the break of dawn as the doors open. He likes his steaks every now and then (most Texans do) but eats plenty of fruit and vegetables with evey meal .  

So this holiday season, get moving and keep moving in 2012 and beyond. Sample the high calorie foods, Fiven Up your holiday meal with fruits and vegetables and celebrate the season with your friends and family. Then go out and flex your muscles!