This week the Saints and the Colts played for the super bowl championship and the winter Olympics will begin in Vancouver, Canada. I was struck at the level of physical fitness these men and women have achieved. Are the rest of us lowering the fitness bar below what is a healthy minimum?
Our lifestyles are increasingly sedentary. Our diet consists of excessive, yet nutritionally deficit, calories. Thirty percent of Americans are obese and diabetes is our fastest growing epidemic. We are starting to look like the factory animals that we raise and consume. Obese chickens that cannot support their own weight live a short 6 week life in total darkness. Hogs (grown in small stalls) and cattle (grown in feedlots standing in their own manure) look and taste nothing like their counterparts in the wild or the farm raised animals of yesteryear. Monoculture vegetables, artificially grown with synthetic nutrients and treated with doses of pesticides and herbicides, have no place in a healthy diet.
There are only two key lifestyle changes needed to raise your fitness bar. Increase your physical activity and eat less, but more healthy food. Three months ago I accidently looked in a mirror, while dressed in my birthday suit, and my jaw dropped open. The scale confirmed that I was 20 pounds overweight and it was not muscle.
It’s all about the calories! A pound of fat contains 3,500 calories. So if you are 20 pounds overweight, you need to burn off 70,000 calories. Yikes, that seems like an overwhelming task, but keep in mind that you did not store 70,000 calories at one Thanksgiving face stuffing, it took some time to reach that goal. Fortunately, you do not have to take it all off in one extreme diet makeover.
My goal was to lose just one pound per week. I would eat less but more healthy food and burn up a few more calories. To lose one pound per week, I needed to use up 3,500 hundred calories more than I took in. So my goal was a net calorie loss of 500 calories per day.
How many calories per day do you need to shed? First you need to determine your BMR, basal metabolic rate. Then you need to adjust it for your lifestyle activity level . The resulting figure is the number of calories per day you need to eat in order to stay at your current weight. Subtract the number of calories per day that you want to lose and there you have it, the number of calories per day you can eat and achieve your goal over time.
Yes, we are going to do some math. Math is the universal language of nature, so let’s talk naturally.
My BMR is 1,550 calories per day. My lifestyle activity is moderately active, which means I must multiply my BSR by 1.55.
Let’s do that: 1,550 * 1.55 = 2,402 calories that I can eat per day and stay at my current weight. If I eat more I will gain weight. If I eat less I will lose weight.
I want to lose 500 calories per day: 2,402 – 500 = 1,902 calories per day that I can eat.
If math is not your game, adopt the Weight Watchers program. They have simplified the whole process into a daily points system. I know many folks who have used this system and it really does work.
Micheal Pollan has a new book, Food Rules, which lays out simple guidelines to improve your diet and health. Two things he mentions are to reduce your intake of factory raised food and incorporate as much naturally grown food as possible in your life. Greatly reduce white flour, white sugar and fat from your diet. Start moving around more. Buy a pedometer and walk 10,000 steps per day. That will burn up 500 calories. Get a dog and take it on daily walks. Quit taking the elevator. Walk 4 blocks to the store instead of driving. Simple stuff, consistency is all it takes. The hardest part about working out is doing something every day. Fifteen minutes per day is better than the big work out that you never get around to doing.
Developing your relationship with nature requires a basic level of mobility, strength and stamina to get out and have direct experience. You do not have to get in shape before you can go out and know nature. Let getting to know nature be a part of your path to a healthy lifestyle. Walking is one of the best exercises. Consider frequent nature walks instead of trudging on the treadmill. Fresh air and sunshine is good for the body and the spirit.
Remember, it’s not just a diet; it’s your life’s adventure.
Be amazed, Denny
