Well it has been a busy past week, with my oldest daughter getting married and my Mom ending up in the hospital. I did find time to get in 2 nice jogs in between the time spent at the hospital and preparing for the wedding. Well the wedding was outdoors and it turned out to be a beautiful day and my Mother got out of the hospital in time to make it to the wedding. So it worked out for everyone.

After all the wedding festivities were over and the cleanup was done, Sunday turned out to be a relaxing day followed by a hectic Monday. My mother ended back in the hospital and they found that one of her major arteries to her heart was blocked and she ended up with a stent put in. She is at home now and doing great but with everything going on and lack of sleep I ended up with some kind if stomach virus.

So I have a little time to write some things down but not much to do with fitness. Hopefully with in a day or two I will be back on my feet and preparing for my ½ marathon in the fall. But for now it is a battle to try to just keep something in my stomach.

As I lay here and look out the window and see the beautiful skies it is hard not to get up and go for a long walk. Maybe tomorrow I can do that and when I do it will be just a nice long walk at first to let my body adjust to the stomach flu that I am getting over. One has to let your body get back to normal before pushing it to hard right away. So start out slow and listen to what your body is telling you and have fun exercising.

 

 Back on the running trail!

Well after weeks of no running due to baseball tourney's, practice and work, things are starting to slow just a little. So I put on my favorite pair of jogging shoes and went for a 3 mile run. It went better than I thought with little or no struggle. Maybe with all the baseball practices going on that kept me in shape.

But this time around I had a little surprise when I talked about going out for my jog, my 11 year old son wanted to jog with me. I thought why not since I was only planning a short run anyway. Boy was I surprised to find out he kept right up to me the whole time. It was fun having him along because there were times when I was jogging faster than I normally do to keep up with him. I think he was trying to prove he could do it!

Well he did a great job but the big test would be the next day. Well wouldn't you know it he wanted to go again the next day and he kept up plus we added a ¾ a mile more on to our run. His legs were tried after this run so I told him to take a few days off to let his legs recoup.

One of my fitness tips for today is, find someone who wants to do the same things you do and go out and enjoy! Having someone to workout with makes your exercise routine last longer than it normally would do to the fact you have someone else relying on you. Plus on those days when you cannot get motivated to workout you have your workout partner to get you going as well as getting your workout partner going.

If you are going to have a running partner make sure you pick one that has the same running gate as you do. If you find someone with a different running stride you might find yourself getting injured trying to keep up, our trying to slow to their pace. Believe me I know from experience that this happens. My oldest daughter and I tried jogging together and it did not work. I have a much faster pace than she does and when I slowed my pace down to match hers I found out after our jog I was a lot more sore than normal.

Then there are also days when it is just nice going on your jog all by yourself. It helps me clear my head and try different things to speed up my time. I am training for a ½ marathon in October and this way I can work on my breathing and listen to what my body is telling me.

But for now just get out and start working out doing what you enjoy and try different things to stay motivated. If it is jogging you like find different routes and this way you will not get bored with the same scenery each time you run. Plus it is better for your legs and knees because of the different running routes. This helps by not putting the same strain on your joints with the different routes. It will pay off in the long run with more energy and feeling a lot better. “Just give it time and start out slow.”

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1. Set Specific, Manageable Goals. For example, plan to exercise for 20 minutes, three times a week. Tracking your progress helps keep you on goal and by writing it down.

2. Use a Variety of Daily Reminders. Schedule your exercise sessions on your calendar like any other appointment. Pick a time that works for you. Also make sure you have your gym bag in the car, or leave your walking shoes by the door to remind you to get moving.

3. Set Up a Non-Food Reward System. To reward yourself when you accomplish one of your fitness goals - such as staying on track with your exercise for a full week or month -- treat yourself to a movie, massage, or pedicure.

4. Invest in a Good Pair of Workout Shoes. Make sure they have good cushioning and arch support and feel so good that you'll look forward to putting them on. Sales associates at many of the sports stores can help you find a good pair. Buy a pair of shoes for your style of feet. Wet the bottom of your foot and step on a peice of paper and this will tell you if you have a high, medium, or if you have flat feet. Buying the right shoe makes a big difference. 

And don't forget to replace them when the old pair starts to lose their support -- probably about every three to six months. Another option is to buy two pairs of shoes and switch off between them.

5. Find a Buddy, a Class, or a Group. When someone is depending on you and striving for the same goals, this helps motivate you. Not only that, it just makes exercise more fun.

6. Start Slowly. Most people try to do too much when they start exercising. It's OK to break up your exercise into segments throughout the day. "Even small quantities of exercise and activity add up to big benefits". Begin with 10-15 minute chunks of activity, several times daily. Just fit it in whenever you can.

7. Just Walk. One of the easiest ways for most people to work in exercise is to walk. Wearing a pedometer adds extra motivation by keeping you working toward a goal each day. This works particularly well for people who have a sit-down job or live a generally sedentary lifestyle. Although you could aim for 10,000-15,000 steps a day, many people will want to start with 5,000 steps or less, and work their way up over time. And you don't need to use weights on your arms or legs when you walk. "Your body should not be doing continuous movement with added weight to the joints".

8. Get Back to Basics. Don't think you need fancy equipment to get a great workout. I believe the gyms of the future will move away from elaborate exercise machines. Fitness trainers are going back to basic equipment like medicine balls, free weights, Swiss balls, and kettle bells.

9. Use Multiple Muscle Groups. When you work more than one muscle group at a time and use full-body movement as much as possible, it takes less time to do a thorough weight-training workout. For example, try doing squats (lower body) combined with dumbbell shoulder presses (upper body). The bonus? "Using full-body movements burns tons of calories in a short amount of time".

10. Use Whatever Gets You Going. Some of us need a little something extra to keep us exercising from week to week. For some, this could be working out with an mp3 player. "iPods are a big hit. For others, it could be listening to books on tape as you walk, or watching favorite TV shows while you use the treadmill or stationary bike. The point is, use whatever gets you going.

Here you’ll find some fitness training tips:

You do not have to be embarrassed in starting small. It is a must to not force yourself to do strenuous training exercises immediately. Also, you do not have to rush into things because you would not lose body fat or be fit healthy when you do shortcuts. The most important key is to take it slow and steady at first and gradually increase the intensity of your training session.

Some simple fitness tips for you

Try to do little things that would make you mobile and replace your completely sedentary lifestyle. Do household chores which require moving instead of just being a couch potato. Learn how to perform a simple aerobic exercise to increase your fitness level. If you have to go somewhere near, try walking instead of riding a car. Use the stairs as a substitute to riding the elevator. You will find that you are burning more calories through this which could help keep you fit. In this generation when almost everything could be done automatically, avoid being too much sucked up by technology. If you have time, try to walk or jogging around your neighborhood in the mornings because it will help your blood circulate well. Also, it will add up to your calorie burning.

How to start exercising the right way

Once you have become accustomed to this lifestyle, you can start with small workouts. You can try doing cardio or aerobic exercises at home first. There are a lot of video guides available in the market if you really want to follow strict a workout training program. You could also find a lot of resources helping you to find out what exercises you could do in the comfort of your own home. There are fitness training tips for overall body working out and there are also workouts for specific parts of the body which you would like to tone. It all depends on your goal.

Exercise can give you a lot of benefits

Later on, you could reinforce your training exercise by going to the gym and consulting a fitness trainer. It would be helpful to have someone monitoring your pounds with you so that you do not feel so alone in the endeavor to improve your health and overall fitness. A professional trainer would also remind you with the things you need to remember while undergoing fitness training and would give you more fitness tips and answer your questions about anything. At the same time, going to the gym enables you to make use of the equipment you don’t have at home, such as the treadmill, or weight machines.

There are also a lot of things you could enjoy doing in a gym and it’s only a matter of finding the most suitable fitness activities for you. Aside from yoga or dance classes, there are also abdominal exercises, boxing, Pilates, aerobics classes that you could attend. Another advantage of performing your exercise regime in a gym is that you could meet people who could be part of your support group. At the same time, it would be less of a demanding task for you if you do it with others.

Benefit from a healthy diet

Since almost all fitness training tips has been discussed, another important thing you should bear in mind is that you must support your fitness training with the proper nutrition. It is recommended to drink eight glasses of water and have a balanced meal daily. Do not starve yourself or undergo fad dieting because you need the energy from eating your foods to workout well.

There are some final fitness training tips for you

Do not stop your personal fitness program when you have already achieved the weight or the figure that you want to have. To keep in shape requires constant maintenance so you should remain diligent to your workout training plan. Staying in shape is a life long commitment. It is not something you can do for a month and take a year off. To feel great and look great stick to your workout plan and mix it up a little to keep you from getting bored with the same workout everytime.

People undergo many changes as they grow older. For example, the amount of blood the heart can pump per beat and per minute decreases during maximal exercise, as does the maximum heart rate. This lowers a person's physical ability, and performance suffers. Also, the percent of body weight composed of fat generally increases, while total muscle mass decreases. The result is that muscular strength and endurance, CR endurance, and body composition suffer. A decrease in flexibility also occurs.

Men tend to maintain their peak levels of muscular strength and endurance and CR fitness until age 30. After 30 there is a gradual decline throughout their lives. Women tend to reach their peak in physical capability shortly after puberty and then undergo a progressive decline.

Although a decline in performance normally occurs with aging, those who stay physically active do not have the same rate of decline as those who do not. Decreases in muscular strength and endurance, CR endurance, and flexibility occur to a lesser extent in those who regularly train these fitness components.

People who are fit at age 40 and continue to exercise show a lesser decrease in many of the physiological functions related to fitness than do those who seldom exercise. A trained 60-year-old, for example, may have the same level of CR fitness as a sedentary 20-year-old. In short, regular exercise can help add life to your years and years to your life.

5 Ways to Stay Young

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Who owns the Road

I have something to get off my chest. I just got back from a nice long jog, or not so nice because of the traffic that I jog against. For some reason people think they own the road and that roads were only made for cars or trucks. I pay taxes just as much as the person driving that car or truck.

As I run along the country side I get people that will not move over at all and go by me at speeds of 60 miles per hour and more. I do my best to get on the shoulder as much as I can, but sometimes the roads do not have much of a shoulder to run on. I try to pick the less traveled roads so I don't have to deal with a lot of traffic, but I still come across a lot of traffic. Today I had one person in a car throw a cigarette butt at me. I wonder by me jogging on the side of the road that it is making that persons life so bad that they had to do that!

But yet we hear everyday that how obese our country is but nobody wants to do anything about it. Instead we complain how much our body hurts and knees hurt. Well if we get out and start moving around it might help a lot of those aches and pains. But our country would rather take a pill for this and a pill for that because it is a lot easier.

We just had a biggest loser contest at work and it all went well the first month and then the people started complaining about how hard it is and that they are not losing anything. People have to realize that it took them how long to put this weight on and that it is not going to come off overnight. We had this contest go on for 3 months and it was pretty sad when it got over because everybody went back to their old habits. I try to tell them to keep up the good work and the exercise habits they picked up but they tell me I don't know what I am talking about because I don't have a weight problem. Well I wonder why I tell them because I have been working out for over 25 years. But they don't want to listen to that, they just want to eat what they want and complain about how bad they feel.

Now back to the subject I started on in the first place which is car traffic. Why can't people be happy for someone when they see you jogging, biking, or whatever it is you enjoy doing. When I see someone jogging I think that is a great thing because I do not know what that persons history is. Maybe they are doing it for health reasons or maybe just for the love of it to prevent health problems. I am 5 months from my 50^th birthday and feel great!

So the next time you see someone jogging or biking on the side of the road, move over and give them some room and be happy they are doing something for their health.

No State Meets Healthy People 2010 Goals

According to data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), no state met the Healthy People 2010 objective of 15 percent, and 30 states were 10 or more percentage points away from the objective. The Healthy People 2010 (HP2010) national health objectives include one to reduce the proportion of adults who are obese to 15 percent.

These latest figures from the CDC demonstrate that obesity continues to be a significant public health problem. The Healthy People 2010 (HP2010) national health objectives include one to reduce the proportion of adults who are obese to 15% (objective 19-2) (1). Obesity is defined as a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or above. BMI is calculated using height and weight. For example, a 5-foot, 9-inch adult who weighs 203 pounds would have a BMI of 30, thus putting this person into the obese category.

This analysis estimated the 2007 obesity prevalence among adults, by state, from self-reported weight and height data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). No state met the Healthy People 2010 objective of 15% and 30 states were 10 or more percentage points away from the objective. State-specific obesity prevalence ranged from 18.7% to 32.0%.

Among 2007 BRFSS respondents:

• 25.6% were obese.
• 26.4% of men and 24.8% of women were obese.
• The obesity prevalence ranged from 19.1% for men and women aged 18--29 years to 31.7% and 30.2%, respectively, for men and women aged 50--59 years.
• By race/ethnicity and sex the obesity prevalence was highest for non-Hispanic black women (39.0%) followed by non-Hispanic black men (32.1%).
• The obesity prevalence was higher in the South (27.3%) and Midwest (26.5%) and lower in the Northeast (24.4%) and West (23.1%).

CDC conducts obesity prevention programs and activities in many different settings and with a wide range of partners, including state and local health and education departments and communities across the country. For example, as part of CDC’s Nutrition and Physical Activity Program to Prevent Obesity and Other Chronic Diseases, the Washington State implemented a community intervention that promotes environmental and policy changes to help encourage healthful nutrition and physical activity behavior. Changes include widening sidewalks, connecting systems of paths for pedestrians and cyclists in a community, and creating community gardens.

CDC also works with employers and work-site health experts to translate evidence-based recommendations from the Task Force on Community Preventive Services (2) on work-site interventions for preventing obesity into business practice. One product from this collaboration will include a return on investment cost calculator to assist businesses in making the case for initiation and maintenance of wellness programs, especially those that promote weight management. In addition, an interactive website will provide guidance for the creation, expansion or customization of work-site obesity programs. These tools and products will enable employers to more easily implement the evidenced-based recommendations.