"10 Things You Can Do Now to be Healthy"

Hi Everyone,

I have been busy with life and have been absent from my blog for a while and apologize to you all.  But now it is time to get up and Go or at least get Moving!  These 5 activities are from the Wellness Council of America that help employees stay healthy and help to decrease employer costs.

1. Don't spend another dime or minute on anthing (book , clinic, TV show, etc.) or anybody (doctor, dietician, guy off the street) that even remotely suggests it or they will help you lose weight permanently. 

Nothing the medical or health fields has been proven more soundly, than the fact that focusing on weight loss is unlikely to lead to permanent weight loss or more likely to to lead to weight cycling and weight gain.

2. Just Say No!

Do not use (or let anyone else use) your weight or BMI or any other measurement of body size or composition as an indicator of health.  None of these has been shown to be strongly related to or a predictive of one's health. People can be healthy with a wide variety of weight, BMIs, Body fat percentages, etc. Many people with the same measurements can have various health problems.

3. Ask for Answers!

If you have a health condition commonly considered to be "weight-related:, (most likely candidates are Hypertension, abnormal cholesterol, abnormal blood glucose) and a health professional recommends weight loss as a solution, ask her/him the following questions.

4. Use Your Imagination!  If you do not have a health condition but you areworried that you will develop one if you don't make some lifestyle changes to loss weight, try the following:

a. Imagine that you are, right now, at the weight that you believe will be healthier.
b. Work out a plan of the kinds of lifestyle changes you think you might be able to sustain to remain healthy at that weight.
c. Implement that plan, right now, at your current weight.

Be sure your plan does not include any type of externally determined caloric intake or food restriction, since these have been proven not to work for most people.

5. Consider Moving Your Body!!! If you are relatively sedentary, consider finding ways to move your body tht feel good to you.

For the vast majority of people, fitness is a much more important indicator of health than fatness.
a. Going from sedentary to even small amounts of physical activity is a start.
b. Physical activity does not have to be done all at once to achieve significant health benefits - three 10-minute periods of exercise are as good as one 30-miutes period.
c. All kinds of movement count, including walking, gardening, dancing, sports and running after your kids.

I hope you find these guidelines a starting point and I will post 5 more next time I hit the computer.

Wellness and Fitness,
Jonathan Schauss, PT, CSCS