New England Health Advisory

Here’s a question I want you to answer. And be honest.  How often do you exercise? I don’t mean regularly getting off the couch to manually change the channel on the TV or hoisting a quarter pounder to your mouth. I mean, physical activity that makes you huff and puff and break out in a sweat.

Like most people, you probably don’t get enough exercise. And you—like everyone else—are paying for it big time. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 68% of American adults—or 72% of men and 64% of women—are overweight or obese and 26 million have heart disease. The American Heart Association estimates that 74.5 million of Americans—or one in three—have high blood pressure, a risk factor for heart disease. And the National Institute of Health reports that 23.6 million of us have Type 2 diabetes.

What’s wrong with this picture? Many of these problems could be prevented—or our risk for them reduced—if we exercised regularly.

Exercise lowers blood pressure and our risk for heart disease and diabetes as well as colon, breast and other cancers. It helps us lose, and maintain, weight. It keeps our minds sharp and improves mood. It keeps joints and muscles flexible and strong. It may even add years to our lives.  And I mean quality years.

Skeptical?  Stanford University researchers started following runners and non-runners when they were in their 50s and older.  About two decades later, runners were less likely than non-runners to have problems doing everyday tasks like walking, dressing, getting out of a chair and grasping objects. Runners who did have difficulty developed problems about 16 years later than non-runners. Runners were also less likely to die. At the 19-year mark only 15% of runners had died compared to 34% of non-runners. The runners averaged about four hours of running each week at the start of the study; two decades later they were logging about 76 minutes per week, but they were still reaping benefits. That sounds pretty good to me.

Exercise has so much going for it that the government’s new Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommend being physically active most days of the week.  The guidelines recommend two-and-one-half hours of moderately intense exercise or one hour and 15 minutes of vigorous activity per week. To get major health benefits from exercise, we should do five hours of moderate activity or two-and-one-half hours of vigorous activity weekly.

Moderate activity includes brisk walking, gardening or water aerobics. Vigorous activity includes jogging, swimming laps, jumping rope or hiking up a hill while wearing a heavy backpack.  You can spread physical activity over the course of the day, but for best results, you should exercise at least 10 minutes at a time.

Everyone should also do strengthening exercises, such as strength training, toting heavy loads, push-ups and sit-ups, at least twice per week. Weight-bearing exercise keeps bones and muscles strong. Strong bones lower our risk for osteoporosis, the brittle bone disease. And strong muscles mean we are less likely to fall or become frail.

All of this exercise may seem like a big time commitment, but think of it this way: Heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, cancer and other health problems take time, too. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather work out than while away the hours visiting doctors; having diagnostic tests; monitoring my blood sugar; or recovering from a heart attack.  I would rather run or walk a few hours a week now than not be able to walk at all when I’m 80.

That’s why I make physical activity a priority. I have run three New York City Marathons. I have taken classes in step aerobics and spinning. I have worked with a personal trainer. These days I walk briskly for two or three miles nearly every weekday and cycle on weekends. (If it’s rainy or frigid, I walk instead.)  If we have a blizzard, I cross-country ski in the neighborhood. And because I live in New York City, I do lots of incidental walking every day—to the grocery store, the dry cleaner, the subway station (where I also climb stairs) or the post office.

Sure, there are times when I’ve skipped my workout. And I have been sidelined by a broken ankle, a torn meniscus, a herniated disc and lousy weather. But as soon as my injuries mended and the weather cleared, I got back on track. And I am better off for it.

Now it’s your turn.  It takes three to six months for something to become a habit. I promise you once exercise becomes just that, you’ll wonder how you managed without it. Ready to begin? These tips will get you started. The rest is up to you.

Get your doctor’s OK. If you are out of shape, are overweight or obese or have health issues, have your doctor sign off on your regimen and tell you what you can or can’t do.

Choose an activity you’ll enjoy. If you like it, you’re more likely to continue it.

Get the right gear. I’m not saying you should spend a fortune. But having the right shoes matters. If you don’t, your feet will hurt and you’re more likely to call it quits. Clothing that breathes and doesn’t irritate your skin will make your workout more enjoyable. If you cycle, buy bicycle shorts with cushioning. If Lycra isn’t your thing, get a cushioned liner to wear under shorts or sweats.

Go slowly. Getting out of shape takes time; so does shaping up. Each day, go a little further; each week, push a little harder. The government recommends that once you can comfortably walk 30 minutes three times a week, bump up the time you spend walking to 50 minutes. If you cycle three days a week for 25 minutes, gradually work up to six days. And stick to a schedule. Write the day and time of your workout in a calendar. If something comes up, reschedule.

Hire a personal trainer for a while. He or she can devise a training schedule for you; show you proper form—say, for strength training; and keep you on track as you build fitness.

Set goals. They’ll keep you motivated and challenged.  If you walk or jog, sign up for a race. If you bicycle, take a weekend jaunt with a local cycling group. When I was a runner, I used to run in weekend races. As a cyclist, I have taken eight bicycle trips through the French countryside.

Rethink your views about exercise. I have always thought of my walk, jog, exercise class or bicycle ride as recess for grown-ups. It’s fun and the one time I can get away from work and family pressures. It clears my mind and helps me unwind. And knowing that it may lower my risk for lots of diseases and add years to my life are big pluses.

Yours in health,

Catherine Winters
Contributing Editor
New England Health Advisory

By Inger Pols

Sleep is one of my favorite things. Yes, I have a lot of energy and I am excited about living life fully. But at the end of the day, I love crawling into my comfortable bed, wrapping my favorite blanket around me and drifting off to sleep. I know that when I wake, I’ll be healthier, happier and ready to create a better day as a result.

But we are a sleep-deprived nation. A recent study revealed that 70 million Americans do not get adequate sleep.  Experts say we need seven to nine hours a night consistently, but many of us get about five to seven. Furthermore, while our bodies were made to recover from one interrupted night’s sleep, studies now show that less than optimal sleep for a few nights in a row can change your sleep pattern, weaken your immune system and lead to an increased likelihood of weight gain, Type 2 diabetes, heart conditions, loss of long-term memory and more. Even one off-night can increase your blood sugar levels and impair your sensitivity to insulin.

Sleep is directly linked to many mental processing functions including maintaining a positive mood (and managing irritability, anxiety, anger and depression), brain activity, learning, memory, concentration and our ability to handle stress. Many experts now say sleep is as important to your health and wellness long-term as a healthy diet and exercise.

Let’s look at what happens in a typical night of sleep.

Sleep Cycles and REM

Our bodies know whether we are awake or asleep through nerve signaling chemicals called neurotransmitters, which act on nerve cells, or neurons, in the brain. Some neurotransmitters, such as serotonin and norepinephrine, are produced in the brainstem, where the brain and the spinal cord connect. These keep parts of the brain active while we are awake. Other neurons located in the base of the brain appear to turn off the signals that keep us awake. A chemical known as adenosine is now shown to build up in our bodies and cause drowsiness; it then breaks down while we sleep. Healthy functioning of these neurons is required for normal sleep cycles.

There are five phases of sleep: They are known as sleep cycles 1,2,3,4 and REM (or rapid eye movement.) We pass through all five, building up from 1 to REM and then begin the cycle all over again. We spend about 50% of our total sleep time in stage 2, about 20% in REM and the remaining 30% spread out across the other sleep cycles. (Infants spend 50% of their sleep in REM.)

Stage 1 sleep is very light sleep, where we drift in and out, our eyes move slowly, our muscle activity slows down and we can be awakened easily. We may make sudden muscle contractions in this stage or remember visual image fragments. In Stage 2, eye movement stops and brain waves become slower. Stage 3 brings in very slow waves, known as delta waves, as well as some smaller faster waves. In stage 4, we are almost exclusively in a delta wave phase.

Stages 3 and 4 are considered to be deep sleep and it’s hard to awaken someone from those stages; those awakened don’t adjust immediately. It takes a few minutes for them to stop feeling groggy and disoriented. In this phase, kids may experience night terrors or bedwetting and adults and kids both may sleepwalk.

After stages 3 and 4 deep sleep, we enter REM during which, true to its name, our eyes move rapidly in many directions. Our muscles become temporarily paralyzed and our breathing becomes irregular and more rapid and shallow. During REM, we dream.

Each sleep cycle takes 90-110 minutes on average, with our first REM cycle typically occurring 70-90 minutes after we fall asleep. During the first cycle, the REM period is relatively short, with longer periods of deep sleep. But as we progress through the night, REM cycles get longer and deep sleep cycles become shorter. By the time we awaken in the morning, most of our time is spent in sleep stages 1, 2 and REM.

Caffeine, diet pills and other stimulants can cause insomnia, or an inability to fall asleep. Alcohol can help you fall asleep, but keeps you in lighter stages of sleep and limits deep sleep and REM. Antidepressants can suppress REM sleep cycles. Heavy smokers often stay in lighter sleep stages and have less REM sleep. They may also wake after three to four hours due to nicotine withdrawal. Temperature changes disrupt REM as well.

Research shows that if we miss one normal REM heavy sleep cycle, the next time we sleep, we will go quickly into REM and stay there longer, to make up for lost sleep. But after a couple nights of disrupted sleep in a row, our bodies will no longer compensate and drop into REM. They will simply adapt to the new sleep cycle, shifting the sleep balance away from the healing and restorative deep and REM sleep cycles.

Spending less time in the healing deep sleep cycles affects your immune system, as your body cannot repair, restore and rebalance as it is meant to with less time in deep and REM sleep. Research also shows a number of interesting connections between health and insufficient sleep, including metabolic function and cardiovascular disease.

Sleep and the Connection to Health

In one study, after only three nights of deep and REM sleep suppression, participants became less sensitive to insulin; they required more insulin to dispose of similar amounts of glucose, but the body did not compensate by increasing insulin levels. They had reduced glucose tolerance and an increased likelihood of developing Type 2 diabetes. The study equated the decrease in insulin sensitivity to gaining 20 to 30 pounds.

Recently, a groundbreaking study showed that the body’s metabolic functions could be disrupted by only one night of inadequate sleep. In this study, participants were examined after a normal eight-hour night of sleep and also after a night of only four hours of sleep. The study revealed that “Insulin sensitivity is not fixed in healthy subjects, but depends on the duration of sleep in the preceding night,” according to Dr. Esther Donga, of the Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands and lead author of the study.

Another study monitored participants after two nights of regular sleep and then five nights of sleep restriction. After five nights of only getting four hours of sleep, the results indicated a statistically significant decrease in the heart rate variability, which can result in cardiological and non-cardiological diseases, according to Siobhan Banks of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

A recent study of insomniacs showed that sleep deprivation also increased the risk of hypertension. Those who slept for less than five hours had a 500% higher risk for hypertension than those who slept for six hours or more. Insomniacs with sleep cycles of five to six hours a night had a 350% higher risk of hypertension than normal sleepers.

Another study revealed that four nights of REM sleep deprivation reduced cell proliferation in the part of the forebrain that is responsible for long-term memory.

And a 16-year study revealed that women who slept for five hours a night were 32% more likely to gain weight (defined as an increase of 33 pounds or more) and 15% more likely to become obese versus women who slept for seven hours.  Six-hour-a-night sleepers fared a little better, with a 12% increase in major weight gain and 6% obesity increase over the seven-hour sleepers.

As I said at the beginning, I enjoy sleeping very much. I know that when I wake from a restful night’s sleep, I’ll be healthier, happier and ready to create a better day. So even though our busy lives tempt us to put off sleep in favor of getting more things done, if you want to live a longer, healthier life, make a good night’s sleep a priority—you’ll have more energy—and feel better—tackling your tasks the next day.

To your health!

Inger Pols
Editor of New England Health Advisory

P.S. In our next newsletter, out on Tuesday, I’ll look at what you can do to get a better night’s sleep!

By Inger Pols

This is part five of a series on the supplements I think every adult should take. Previous issues focused on whole-food based multivitamins, ubiquinol, fiber and omega 3. You can read them by clicking here.

The final supplement on the list is vitamin D, which is made in our bodies through sun exposure. But today, we simply don’t get enough direct exposure to sunshine, without sunscreen, to make the vitamin D we need.

Vitamin D helps with bone health by facilitating calcium absorption. It also plays an important role in many other healthy body functions. Vitamin D has been shown to improve immune health and heart health, protect against cancer, autoimmune diseases, depression and a host of other conditions.

Vitamin D deficiency is a major cause for concern as it affects multiple systems in our bodies. Vitamin D deficiency is far more pervasive than previously believed, with research now indicating virtually all adults and children have lower than optimal vitamin D levels.

The only way to know how much vitamin D you need on a daily basis is to get your levels tested a couple of months after you begin to supplement. You want to see levels of 125-200 nmol/L, or nanomoles per liter. (Sometimes test results are reported in nanograms per milliliter or ng/ml. It’s the same test, just a different measurement: Like miles per hour versus feet per second. If your test results are in ng/ml, you will want to see at least 50 ng/ml for optimal vitamin D function.)

Estimates now suggest that 5,000 International Units, or IU, of vitamin D a day or 35 IU per pound for kids or heavier people is appropriate. But some of us need more: I was recently listening to a renowned brain expert say that as a physician, he was shocked when he found out after vitamin D testing that his body required 10,000 IU a day to function at its optimal level since he lives in southern California and is exposed to sunshine all year.

My whole food multivitamin contains 5,000 IU of vitamin D3 and I get plenty of daily summer sunshine, so I don’t take a supplement in summer. But most multivitamins have shockingly low levels of vitamin D3. So even if you are taking a good whole-food multivitamin, you’ll most likely need to add some D3, unless you get time outside without sunscreen every day. And even though my multivitamin provides a good baseline, I still find that I need to supplement with an additional 1,000-2,000 IUs of vitamin D3 during the long New England winters. Unless you are in a warm weather climate, you probably will too.

If you haven’t read my full article on vitamin D, you should check it out. Before we leave the topic of supplements, I want briefly mention three other supplements that did not make my top five list that you may want to consider: collagen, probiotics and DIM.

Collagen

If you read my article on bone health, you know how important collagen is to avoiding bone fractures. You can and should get your collagen from eating good collagen-rich foods like dark green leafy vegetables. But if you find—like many—that you may not be eating enough collagen and you are not taking a good whole-food multivitamin, you may want to consider collagen supplementation.

As I shared in an earlier article, in order to maintain my weight and to prevent blood sugar issues, I try to eat small amounts of protein, healthy fats (omegas 3s) and fiber at every meal or snack. If I am ever in a situation where I am not consuming protein, I will take a collagen supplement (and a fiber or omega 3 supplement if needed) for balance. While not nearly as good as eating the right foods, in a pinch, it’s better than taking in carbohydrates (sugar) without any having protein to balance it out since carbs ingested without a protein counterbalance are stored as fat in the body.

Probiotics/Digestive Enzymes

We’ve all heard of antibiotics: They kill off or inhibit the growth of bacteria. But antibiotics also kill off the healthy bacteria in our digestive tract and inhibit our ability to digest food and to absorb nutrients. Probiotics contain the beneficial flora that your digestive system needs and digestive enzymes that work in your stomach to help break down foods. Both can be damaged by illness, poor diet and antibiotics, so if you have experienced any of those and have not taken a course of probiotics and enzymes afterward, your digestive system is likely not operating at top capacity.

Probiotics and digestive enzymes are also a must if you have digestive concerns such as cramps, constipation, diarrhea, gas or bloating or Irritable Bowel Syndrome. If you struggle with allergies or asthma, food sensitivities such as sugar or gluten, yeast infections or urinary tract infections, rosacea, acne or skin conditions, headaches or migraines, chronic bad breath (halitosis), PMS or hormonal imbalance, or achy joints, you should consider probiotic supplementation.

Depending on how long and how strong your course of antibiotics was, or how severe your digestive concerns are and what your diet is like (if it is very acidic), you may want to stay on probiotics for a while to ensure balance is restored and maintained. At a minimum, you’ll want to take probiotics and digestive enzymes while taking antibiotics and for several weeks afterward. A two to three month supplementation cycle is great for restoring balance and digestive health after any significant stress to your digestive system. Eating yogurt can help, but your body most likely needs more help than yogurt alone can provide.

Even if you haven’t had antibiotics lately or faced a digestive health concern, your system could still be imbalanced from a concern long ago. Probiotics can help restore balance if you have a heavily acidic diet that promotes yeast and causes other imbalances in your digestive pathway. I recommend a month (or two) of probiotic and digestive enzyme supplementation every year to help ensure your digestive system has everything it needs to maximize the nutrient absorption of the food you are eating.

There are many different probiotic strains and each works differently in the body, so you may need to experiment with more than one brand to find the right one. If you are facing a specific issue, research your condition to find the best strains. The right probiotic should make a difference within the first week or two. If you don’t see improvement after two weeks, try another brand with different strains of bacteria. If you are just looking to restore balance annually with no specific concerns, choose a highly rated probiotic that has bifidobacteria and lactobacillus acidophilus in the billions.

DIM or Diindolylmethane

Diindolylmethane, or DIM, promotes healthy hormonal balance through beneficial estrogen metabolism. DIM is a naturally occurring phytonutrient found in cruciferous vegetables (like broccoli, cabbage or collards), which we know are good for us, but do not eat nearly enough of. DIM can balance estrogen by blocking “bad” estrogen and promoting good or beneficial estrogen in our bodies.

For women, healthy estrogen metabolism prevents breast, cervical and uterine cancers; for men, it is required for prostate health. (Men, you have estrogen in your bodies and are exposed to it in foods and the environment as well, so it’s just as important for you!) We are going to be talking more about DIM and prostrate health in Friday’s issue.

Not everyone needs DIM, so it didn’t make my top five list. But if you’re concerned about hormonal balance, fibers, tumors or reproductive cancers or prostate health, DIM is a supplement you should consider taking daily. (I found it quiets my hot flashes.) Generally speaking, unless cancer runs in your family, you are perimenopausal and/or you are already struggling with reproductive issues like fibroids or hysterectomy, it’s something you can wait to take until you’re in your 50s.

Research has shown that most DIM supplements cannot be absorbed; they require microencapsulation. Only one company, BioResponse, has a patented microencapsulation with extended release naoparticles, ensuring predictable absorption. This company is the only brand being used in all the published clinical trials, including those sponsored by the National Cancer Institute, so it’s the one I take and recommend.

To your health!

Inger Pols
Editor of New England Health Advisory

– Advertisement –

Put the Power of Sunshine In the Palm of Your Hand

Give yourself a boost with Vitamin D3 capsules, which will help you revitalize your life with 5,000 IUs of vitamin D.

Try it today by clicking here!

By Inger Pols

This is part four of a five-part series on the five supplements I think every adult should take. Last week’s issues focused on whole-food based multivitamins, ubiquinol and fiber. You can read them by clicking here.

The fourth supplement every adult should be taking is one you’ve likely heard a lot about: omega 3. Research shows that 99% of us are omega 3 deficient, and a recent study at Harvard directly linked omega 3 deficiency to death in an estimated 72,000-96,000 people a year. To put that in context, there are approximately 40,000 deaths a year from breast cancer. Clearly, we need to start paying more attention to omega 3.

Omega 3s help reduce internal inflammation, which is linked to almost every chronic condition that plagues us. They play a very important role in heart health: Inhibiting thickening of the arteries, lowering the amount of lipids that circulate in our bloodstream, and helping arteries to relax.

Omega 3s can reduce obesity by stimulating the hormone leptin, which regulates food intake, body weight and metabolism, and they help prevent cancer cell growth. Omega 3s can also reduce depression, improve mental clarity and focus, reduce dry or itchy skin, improve hair and nails, and help prevent autoimmune disorders and Type 2 diabetes.

Three Types of Fatty Acids

Omega 3 is an essential fatty acid. Fatty acids fall into three groupings: saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated. Each type is made up of carbon atoms with hydrogen atoms that fill in the spaces around them.

In saturated fatty acids, all of the spaces around the carbon atoms are completely filled in, i.e., saturated. As a result, they are very stable regardless of temperature. Saturated fatty acids are found mainly in dairy, red meat and chicken, but they can also be found in tropical oils like red palm oil and coconut oil. Our bodies can also make some saturated fat from eating carbohydrates.

Monounsaturated fats have a double bond between two carbon atoms and are missing two hydrogen atoms. They are called mono because of their single carbon double bond and unsaturated because not all of the spaces are filled—two hydrogen atoms are missing. Because the chain can bend at the double bond point, when you mix a large number of these chains together, it won’t be dense or compact; there will be room in between. As a result, these acids are usually liquid at room temperature and are relatively stable, though not as stable as saturated fats because they are not packed as tightly. The most common monounsaturated fat is oleic acid and examples are olive oil, avocados, peanuts, cashews, pecans and almonds. Your body can also make monounsaturated fat from saturated fat.

Polyunsaturated fats are missing several hydrogen atoms and they have two—or more—double bonds. As a result, since there is more than one double bond, they are called poly, meaning many. At each double bond, there is a kink in the chain, so they tend to be very loosely packed and remain liquid, even in colder temperatures. They are highly unstable fats and they can go bad (turn rancid) easily when exposed to heat and light.

When polyunsaturated fats turn rancid, free radicals are created and travel around in your blood causing damage to just about everything they interact with. Free radical damage has been tied to cardiovascular disease, autoimmune diseases, Alzheimer’s, Parkinsons’s, cataracts, tumors and aging. The most common polyunsaturated fatty acids are omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids. They are called essential fatty acids because our bodies cannot make them; we must get them from the food we eat.

Omega 3s can do a lot of good. But rancid omega 3s can do a world of damage. We need omega 3s, but we need to ensure that they do not turn rancid in our bodies. Antioxidants will mitigate this, so it’s important to take antioxidants regularly along with omega 3s.

Fish oil is low in antioxidants, so some people like to take krill oil as an omega 3 supplement instead. Krill oil is a very pure omega 3 source and also contains antioxidants to help mitigate any free radical damage that may occur if oils turn rancid in your body.

Balancing Act: Omega 6 Versus Omega 3

Let’s go back to omegas 3 and 6. We need both of these essential fatty acids, but in today’s food supply, omega 6 acids are used heavily in processed foods. Vegetable oils such as corn oil, sunflower, soybean, cottonseed and safflower oil contain at least 50% omega 6 and very little omega 3. In addition, factory farming reduces the amount of omega 3s in meat, fish, eggs and vegetables.

I’ve read that a chicken that is free to eat its normal diet of grass and bugs will lay an egg that is a perfect balance of omega 6 to omega 3. However, the traditional vegetarian grain-fed chicken will yield an egg that is more like 20:1 omega 6 to omega 3. Nature undisturbed knows to work in perfect balance, but our changes in farming have disrupted that balance and left us with an overabundance of omega 6.

Ideally, we need a 1:1 ratio of omega 6 to 3, but our bodies can still cope fairly well with up to a 4:1 ratio. Unfortunately, the typical American diet is more like a 20:1 and can be up to a 50:1 ratio of omega 6 to omega 3. This is one reason it’s so important to supplement omega 3s. Not only do we need them in isolation, but we need them to balance our omega 6 intake.

An imbalance of omega 6 and omega 3 will prevent all of the wonderful health benefits I mentioned at the beginning of this newsletter. In addition, an unbalanced ratio that favors omega 6 over omega 3 can lead to weight gain, sterility, high blood pressure, digestive concerns, blood clots, inhibited immune function, inflammation and even cancer.

Three Omega 3 Essential Fatty Acids

How do we get omega 3s back in balance? I recommend you eat a varied whole food diet to get the three types of omega 3 essential fatty acids: ALA, EPA and DHA.

ALA or Alpha-Linoleic Acid is found in dark green leafy vegetables, flax and hemp seeds, walnuts and vegetable oils. EPA or EicosoPentaenoic Acid is found in cold-water fish like salmon, tuna, cod and mackerel and in seaweed. It can also be found in grass-fed beef and free-range (non-vegetarian fed) eggs in smaller amounts. DHA or DocosaHexaenoic Acid is found in the same foods as EPA.

Eating abundantly from these food groups will ensure that you have ample healthy fatty acids and a good balance of them in your body. If needed, the body can convert ALA to EPA or DHA, though the conversion process is slow. While we probably cannot overdo our dark leafy green vegetable consumption, supplementating ALA at high levels has been shown to have some adverse effects on the body. So when taking omega 3 supplements, EPA and DHA ae generally recommended.

Increasing omega 3 consumption overall is important, but so is ensuring that we have a healthy balance of omega 6 to omega 3 at every meal. I try to pay attention to my omega 3 food sources, as well as restrict my consumption of omega 6 heavy foods, but given modern farming practices and the overabundance of vegetable oils in foods, I still feel the need to take an omega 3 supplement with every meal to ensure I stay in balance.

I prefer fish oil pills because they tend to be more stable and they are more portable, but my daughter hates pills and takes the oil. Today, fish oil often has a citrus flavor and is no longer a challenge to swallow, especially when mixed into a drink. Choose a brand that screens for impurities like PCBs and mercury and keep it in the refrigerator or away from heat and light. If it smells funny or changes color, throw it out. Making sure your diet is rich in antioxidants is also a good way to prevent potential damage from oil that’s gone bad.

One caveat: Omega 3s can exaggerate the effect of prescription medications that are trying to do the same thing. For example, if you are on blood thinning medications like Coumadin, Plavix or even aspirin, you should discuss omega 3 consumption with your physician because it can be a blood-thinning agent. While omega 3 can be a helpful part of insulin and diabetes management, it can raise fasting blood sugar levels, so if you are on blood sugar medications such as Glucotrol and Glucotrol XL, Micronase or Diabeta, Glucophage or insulin, talk to your doctor as your dosage may need to be adjusted.

To your health!

Inger Pols
Editor of New England Health Advisory

Most of us know we need to start—or increase—our fitness efforts, but many of us have difficulties getting started. In addition to weight management, exercise improves your mood, increases energy, reduces stress, helps you sleep better, boosts self-esteem, supports hormonal balance and reduces risks of chronic diseases and conditions including heart attacks, osteoporosis and breast cancer.

A recent study on mature women showed that just to maintain their current weight, the women needed to exercise for an hour a day; to lose weight would require even more time. In our busy lives, finding an extra hour can be a challenge, even if we have the desire to do so and the willpower to stick with it.

The good news is that we don’t need to work out for an hour in one session: We can break it into smaller blocks. And doing something is better than nothing, so even small efforts will make a difference in your health and well-being. This week, I’m going to give you some tips that I use when coaching that can help make your workouts work better for you.

Tip #1: Set a Goal and Measure Your Progress

Knowing what you are working toward will increase your effectiveness. As in everything else, what is measured and monitored gets done. Begin by setting an overall goal for your fitness plan. Be clear on what you want, for example, losing 25 pounds, training for a 10K or building enough endurance to be able to be comfortably active with your grandkids. The more specific you can be, the better. If your goal is to get fitter, define what that means to you.

Set a mini goal before each workout. Your first time, it may be as simple as walking without stopping for 15 minutes. That becomes your baseline and you can adjust from there by adding 5 minutes to your workout each time or running a mile a few seconds faster.

Be realistic with your goals, and yourself: If you didn’t sleep well the night before or you are fighting a cold, your goal may be just to complete the same workout you did the time before. And that’s OK. But if you are feeling good that day, decide how you can push a little.

Make a log to track your progress. When I was training to cycle from Banff to Jasper in the Canadian Rockies, my first cycling vacation, I kept a log of each training ride that included how far I rode, how long I rode, the time of day, the weather conditions and how I felt. Tracking that let me see how I was improving and how my performance was impacted by wind, time of day and my mood. This let me get smarter over time about how to train and when to push.

Tip #2: Know Yourself and Leverage Your Strengths and Passions

We all have different times of day when we feel most energetic and creative: Don’t resist your natural patterns. If you are forced to adopt new body rhythm patterns, you can do so over time, but it will take a little extra effort, so it may be harder to stick with.

Follow your passions to keep exercising from feeling like a chore. Go back to things you loved as a child like bike riding or tennis, or take up a new activity you have always wanted to try like golf or rowing. If you love watching Dancing with the Stars, try a ballroom dance or Zumba class.

But don’t feel you have to take on things that don’t appeal to you just because they are effective for others. If you hate the gym, don’t join a gym! If you don’t like exercising alone, find a class, team or group. Create a program that you will look forward to, not dread.

Tip #3: A Little Help from Your Friends

Studies show that people who join the gym with a buddy stick with their fitness efforts longer. It may be the accountability factor or the social factor, or most likely, both. If you take a class or play on a basketball team, the fun and social aspect will keep you committed and motivated beyond the pure physical benefits.

If you decide to workout on your own—at a gym, in your home, or outside—try to engage a partner or friend to either join you or to hold you accountable. For example, if you join a gym, get a friend to join too; while you may not work out “together,” you can plan to go several times a week at the same time. If you decide to walk your neighborhood after work, find someone to join you.

If you are using an exercise machine in your house and there is no way for someone to participate along with you, get creative. Find someone else that’s doing the same routine, and meet once a week to compare progress. Set some goals or challenges for each other and know that on Monday when you meet for coffee she is going to ask you if you met—or exceeded—your goal.

Tip #4: Schedule Your Workout

Life gets crazy at times and often the first thing to suffer is our workout time. Sometimes we feel selfish “indulging” in time for ourselves when there is so much else to do. Other times, people demand we prioritize other things. But taking care of yourself by working out ensures you will be around a lot longer to take care of others. And after you work out, release stress and improve your mood, you will be a better partner, parent or friend. So don’t let the workout slide.

Instead, schedule your workout just as you would a meeting or a dentist appointment. Mark the time in your calendar in ink and consider it unchangeable. If you think about everything you have to do in a day, there really is very little if anything more important than taking a little time to get or stay healthy. And you’ll feel so much better! Let it be known that you are unreachable during that time; you’ll find the world will still be waiting for you when you are done.

— Advertisement —

Don’t Let Aches and Pains Hold You Back

Do you dread those everyday aches and pains so much that it keeps you from exercising in the first place?

You don’t have to let those aches and pains stop you anymore.

It’s possible to eliminate muscle aches and stiffness immediately after working out. And you can help rebuild your muscles at the same time.

What you have to do is immediately put back things you use up during exercise.

Find out how to stimulate new muscle growth and help ease the aches and pains of your daily routine.

http://www.on2url.com/app/adtrack.asp?MerchantID=166930&AdID=490592

—

Tip #5: Find Your Motivation

When you are working out and feeling like you want to stop, or you are avoiding beginning your exercise, try to remember your initial goal and motivation for starting your fitness program. The more you focus clearly on that outcome, see it in your mind and feel how good it will feel to achieve that and be living that life, the easier it will be to find the strength to continue. Also remembering how good you feel when you’re done can help get you going.

But there will be days when even that is not enough. When you are working out, it will be easier to push to new levels if you also draw on other motivation techniques. Find what works for you, whether it is just inspiring music, a bet with yourself or creating scenarios to encourage you to continue on.

As a spinning instructor, I see lots of competitive people in my classes. (Spinning, or indoor cycling, is a form of high-intensity exercise that involves using a stationary exercise bicycle in a classroom setting.) It is easy to inspire them with race situations where they are competing for the podium or to beat their best time. If that works for you, use your competitiveness to make some fun scenarios in your workout to make you work harder.

For non-competitive people, I use a lot of visualization to encourage increases in effort. As you accelerate and push for your interval, imagine a group of runners or riders ahead of you that you need to go around.

Or imagine you are in one of those charity rides/races and there are hundreds of people you need to pass because the road is full of riders. As you go around each one, ride for the cause that that race represents. Imagine yourself passing—or climbing that hill—to beat cancer or heart disease, for yourself or for the loved one you lost to them who cannot be here to ride.

It doesn’t have to be serious, though; sometimes motivation can be just pure fun. An elderly woman in one of my classes once confessed to me that every time she took an interval, she imagined racing her husband—the loser had to clean the bathrooms. In all her years in my classes, in her mind, she never lost.

For endurance situations, I often think of Terry Fox, the Canadian who decided to run across his home country to raise cancer awareness after his leg was amputated. He ran the equivalent of a full marathon for 143 days in a row until he had to end his journey because the cancer returned.

When I am tired after running a few miles, I think about that: A full marathon every day for 143 days, all on one leg. That inspires me to keep going. When Terry was asked how he kept going, he once said that he told himself just one more telephone pole. So think OK, just one more telephone pole, one more set, one more …

Tip #6: Pace Yourself and Be Realistic

We often get excited upon starting a new plan and take on too much too soon. You didn’t gain that weight overnight: In most cases it was small choices each day that built up over time. An extra 500 calories a day would net 3500 extra calories a week, or a gain of about 50 pounds in a year, assuming no change in exercise.

Most of us aren’t gaining 50 pounds a year, so more likely it’s the extra 100-200 calories here and there that just add up slowly over time. Generally speaking, you cannot escape the calories in/calories out equation, though it is really important to note that 500 extra calories of fiber and vegetables will not have the same impact in your body as 500 extra calories of cookies and bread.

You can’t lose more than a pound or two a week safely and keep it off long term. If you keep your food habits the same, to lose a pound a week, you’ll need to burn 500 extra calories a day. But physically, you can’t run an hour the first time out, nor can you serve and volley after your first tennis lesson.

It takes time, but that’s OK. Making the commitment and sticking with it is what matters. Creating a solid fitness foundation that you can build upon will serve you over the long haul: Trying to take on too much too soon will burn you out or result in injury and leave you on the sidelines.

Tip #7: Change is Good

We tend to find something that works and stick with it. And while that’s good, our bodies quickly adapt to what we do regularly. Intensity progression and cross training can yield great benefits. If you take a set of 10-pound weights (or whatever would be appropriate for your fitness level) and do three sets of 10-12 repetitions, the first time you do it, you’ll probably be sore.

If you continue to lift the same 10-pound weights in the same three sets over time, after awhile, it will not be hard any more. Eventually it will be easy. What burned the first time and built some muscle, no longer has any muscle growth because the body has adapted to it. When lifting, we know you need to progress and either increase sets or increase weight.

It is also true for your other workouts: Your body will quickly adapt to the same hour-long spin class or 18 holes of golf and it will not be a challenge anymore. Varying the intensity will allow you to continue to progress while doing the same thing, and cross training will force your muscles to work in different ways.

Throwing something new at your body through cross training has many benefits physically, including helping you get stronger, faster and fitter. But it’s also good for the soul. Trying new things and being a little uncomfortable challenges us; succeeding at them helps us grow and builds confidence and self-esteem.

Getting out of a training rut and mixing it up will keep you from burning out and will make your training fresh and new. And most of all, it keeps working out fun! And if it’s fun, you’ll stick with it longer.

To your health!

Inger Pols
Editor of New England Health Advisory

P.S. Don’t let your aches and pains stop you from getting the exercise you need! Discover how to stimulate new muscle growth and help ease the aches and pains of your daily routine. Click below!

http://www.on2url.com/app/adtrack.asp?MerchantID=166930&AdID=490592

—