Exercise

The big, semi-dreaded E word!!!

Although I have a slender frame, and my body metabolizes food way too quickly, giving me an "athletic" look, I am actually a frequent couch potato and computer junkie.  Not fair, right?  Wrong!  Not exercising means I am not optimizing blood flow to my heart, skin, and most importantly brain, meaning I'm not getting all the oxygen and nutrients that would make me my most creative and beautiful and youthful.  Although yard work is helpful, it may not provide enough movement to get things going.  Yes, skimping on the exercise does in fact mean you will age quicker and be less than you could be.  Read Dr. Amen's Change Your Brain, Change Your Body for a fuller explanation.

Now that I've read half that book and been figuring out what kind of life/lifestyle I want in the years to come, I've decided to get serious about being healthy.  Seriously this time.  Food and fitness for the everyday is rather like far-fetched New Year's resolutions for me -- I think they're great, but putting them into action is unlikely.  However, if I find good science/longitudinal research to back why a certain activity would be to my benefit, then I am far more likely to take the new information and act upon it.

FOOD:  Proportions -- though a great guideline -- is old school!  When it comes to eating right, what needs to be remembered is that you need to have at least 5 color groups of fruits and veggies a day: green, red, purple, white, yellow, orange.  (Blue colored fruits belong with purple.)  The key to happiness and fighting cancer/disease risk is variety.  By having said variety, you allow these elements to combine in ways that make more powerful restorative properties.  Fortunately you don't have to think too exotically to make this system work.  Just look at the item's skin/flesh.  A red apple has a different chemical makeup than a green one, as does yellow vs white corn.  Also eating foods that match your brain's biggest needs will help you on your way faster, such as kidney beans assisting the function of my basal ganglia, helping me to confront stresses better.  I'm not perfect by far yet, as I'm still averaging 2 meals a day instead of 4+ smaller meals, but there has been improvement once I started thinking in color.  I'm also taking yummy calcium chews and prenatal vitamins with DHA to help with my nutrition.  (Not an announcement, as I've been taking them for a little over a year.  Love how my body feels and functions when I do -- a day without I can feel a big difference.)

EXERCISE:  Like food, the key is variety.  When you repeat the same exercises over and over again, the body economizes.  Proteins are stolen from adjacent muscles to serve the ones being used the most.  Which means you don't gain muscle.  When you do a variety of exercises and athletic functions, changing things up constantly helps the body create more muscle building instead of muscle redistributing, if you will.  This is why in our military our top corps often train using multiple variables per exercise, such as doing push-ups balanced on basketballs; more muscles are better used and finessed.  While I'm not wanting to have a body-builder's kind of body, I would like to optimize how my form works and looks.  When I used to do dancing during elementary and fencing in high school, I had GREAT shows of creativity and potential.  I see myself now as nice but could be a whole lot more thrilling.  So this month, I have decided to work on my mobility and mind by practicing belly dancing and pre/post natal yoga  (once again, not an announcement; it's just more pleasant on my body).  Like foods, there are different exercise needs for different kinds of brains.  I picked ones that fit with my kind of need.  What I discovered with the dvds I acquired cheaply over Amazon, is that all these slow moving forms tax and strengthen you in very different ways than doing the same thing quickly.  So it's been pretty neat.  Success so far has been exercise 4 out of 5 days straight, about 30 min. each.

Results thus far are miniscule, but I can sense the minute changes as having happier/healthier impact.  I'll report back later as to how this continues to work.