Wellness Program A to Z

While this can happen to the best of us, it doesn’t mean you should drop the ball altogether when it comes to staying fit. What people need to realize is that staying active and eating right are critical for long-term health and wellness — and that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The more you know about how your body responds to your lifestyle choices, the better you can customize a nutrition and exercise plan that is right for you. When you eat well, increase your level of physical activity, and exercise at the proper intensity, you are informing your body that you want to burn a substantial amount of fuel. This translates to burning fat more efficiently for energy.
In other words, proper eating habits plus exercise equals fast metabolism, which, in turn gives you more energy throughout the day and allows you to do more physical work with less effort.

The true purpose of exercise is to send a repetitive message to the body asking for improvement in metabolism, strength, aerobic capacity and overall fitness and health. Each time you exercise, your body responds by upgrading its capabilities to burn fat throughout the day and night, Exercise doesn’t have to be intense to work for you, but it does need to be consistent.

I recommend engaging in regular cardiovascular exercise four times per week for 20 to 30 minutes per session, and resistance training four times per week for 20 to 25 minutes per session. This balanced approach provides a one-two punch, incorporating aerobic exercise to burn fat and deliver more oxygen, and resistance training to increase lean body mass and burn more calories around the block.

Here’s a sample exercise program that may work for you:

* Warm Up — seven to eight minutes of light aerobic activity intended to increase blood flow and lubricate and warm-up your tendons and joints.

* Resistance Training — Train all major muscle groups. One to two sets of each exercise. Rest 45 seconds between sets.

* Aerobic Exercise — Pick two favorite activities, they could be jogging, rowing, biking or cross-country skiing, whatever fits your lifestyle. Perform 12 to 15 minutes of the first activity and continue with 10 minutes of the second activity. Cool down during the last five minutes.

* Stretching — Wrap up your exercise session by stretching, breathing deeply, relaxing and meditating.

When starting an exercise program, it is important to have realistic expectations. Depending on your initial fitness level, you should expect the following changes early on.

* From one to eight weeks — Feel better and have more energy.

* From two to six months — Lose size and inches while becoming leaner. Clothes begin to fit more loosely. You are gaining muscle and losing fat.

* After six months — Start losing weight quite rapidly.

Once you make the commitment to exercise several times a week, don’t stop there. You should also change your diet and/or eating habits,’ says Zwiefel. Counting calories or calculating grams and percentages for certain nutrients is impractical. Instead, I suggest these easy-to-follow guidelines:

* Eat several small meals (optimally four) and a couple of small snacks throughout the day

* Make sure every meal is balanced — incorporate palm-sized proteins like lean meats, fish, egg whites and dairy products, fist-sized portions of complex carbohydrates like whole-wheat bread and pasta, wild rice, multigrain cereal and potatoes, and fist-sized portions of vegetable and fruits

* Limit your fat intake to only what’s necessary for adequate flavor

* Drink at least eight 8-oz. glasses of water throughout the day

* I also recommend that you take a multi-vitamin each day to ensure you are getting all the vitamins and minerals your body needs.

I suppose that’s all I can think of for now. I should extend my thanks to a doctor friend of mine. Without him, I wouldn’t be able to write this article, or keep my sanity.

Enjoy life, we all deserve it.

There are many ways to practice wellness and stress management. A combination of proper diet, exercise, and regular relaxation are the ideal components. Surprisingly, the time invested in wellness will actually save you time, and energy, in the long run.

I want to share some thoughts on the importance of regular physical exercise for health and stress management.

In fact, many people rely on physical activity, both sports and exercise, for their main commitment to stress management. This makes sense but may not be enough for a complete stress management program. First, let’s discuss the role that exercise can play in managing stress.

The normal response to stress makes changes to the body by holding stress in the skeletal muscles, especially those muscles that would be used to fight or flee (see the first newsletter for complete list of the Flight/Fight Response.) Most people will hold some of their tension in these muscles and this can lead to difficulties with sleeping, headaches, neck and back pain, tight jaws (and dental problems), and loss of concentration (which can effect communication, learning, work performance, etc.) The body wants to run away or to fight the stressor. Physical activity through exercise can release the stress that you may be holding in these muscles. The movement can also help to create awareness regarding these muscle groups and then the use of these muscles will work off some of the stored tension. Remember: awareness is half the battle. If you are aware of tension and the specific muscle groups, you can release this tension. This is one reason that massage, body work or yoga can aid you in relief of muscle tension.

In addition to awareness, physical exercise can fatigue the muscles and force them to relax during your recovery time. In active progressive relaxation, which involves tensing and then releasing specific muscles for relaxation, the awareness and then fatigue of these specific muscles can work together for initial development of the relaxation process. Edmund Jacobson, who first described the benefits of active progressive relaxation, believed that creating this awareness and then the practice of relaxation was more than just simple physical relaxation. He stated that “there is no place for a tense mind in a relaxed body.” This suggests that by relaxing the body would lead to relaxation of a tense or anxious mind.

The problem with sports as an activity for relaxation is that many people are very competitive and the relaxation may be reduced by the stress of wanting to perform at a high level. This is great as a distraction from work stress and can help you to get your consciousness to be more in the present moment which are both stress management techniques which have merit. But you probably know the golfer-bowler-tennis player that has broken a club or racquet or demonstrated some degree of competitive rage while engaged in their sport. This rage does not demonstrate healthy stress management. If you can enjoy yourself, without hurting yourself, then the sport can be a useful distraction to minimize daily stress.

People require more than exercise for a balanced stress management program. Deep relaxations 15-20 minutes nearly daily are also strongly recommended. These are peaceful times of relaxation and recovery. These can take the place of up to two hours of sleep. These periods give energy and help enhance focus. Combined with a good diet and regular exercise these offer the best components of wellness program that help prevent stress related problems and can enhance the quality of your life.

Good Health!