CONFESSIONS OF AN AVERAGE AMERICAN

CONFESSIONS OF AN AVERAGE AMERICAN

I have a confession:  I am an average American when it comes to diet and exercise.  Most of us, me included, get so caught up in our daily activities and responsibilities that what we eat and how much we exercise is just an afterthought. Leaving diet and exercise as an afterthought is extremely dangerous to our future health.  We may feel fine now but chronic disease will catch us in the end if we don’t pay attention now.

I was not a very athletic active child.  I was born sick – multiple allergies and asthma.  I was in and out of the hospital most of my early years for asthma and almost died several times.  Those kinds of health problems definitely do not inspire one to be athletic! ☺ I felt like I couldn’t breathe half the time.

So, exercise has never come easy to me.  It’s not something I love to do or look forward to doing.  I’ve never been on a sports team.  I was a cheerleader in high school but it wasn’t a super athletic or active team.  Just like most of us, I have to purposefully make myself exercise.

I have been a nurse practitioner for 16 (17 in May!) years now and have counseled thousands of people on nutrition, weight loss and exercise.  Some succeed and change their lives forever and some fail.  In all of them, I have seen reoccurring themes that I have also seen in myself that must be changed.

The first reoccurring theme that I have seen is the “all or nothing” mindset.  We start a diet or exercise regimen and are 100% committed for a few weeks or months. Then, if we fall off of it for a day or two (or week), we feel like failures and stop it all.  We either do everything or we do nothing.

An “all or nothing” attitude is extremely dangerous to our health!  When it comes to your long-term health, ANYTHING IS BETTER THAN NOTHING.  If you drink an extra glass of water every day, eat one less candy bar, use 1 teaspoon less sugar in your coffee, walk around the block once, or take the stairs at work, that is one step closer to better health.  Anything is better than nothing at all.

I confess that I love chocolate, sugar, bread and pasta!  I will never be able to give them up forever.  I know this fact so why beat myself up for eating them and feel guilty all the time.  I’m just human and an average American.  I acknowledge that I cannot be perfect all the time.  But, I have to try to be perfect some of the time (and probably most of the time!) in order to be as healthy as possible.

This statement may seem radical and crazy; but I give you permission to eat the foods you love some of the time.  Don’t feel guilty.  Food is something to be enjoyed.  Enjoy!  Just keep it to a minimum and eat healthier most of the time.  My personal goal is, on Monday-Friday, I try to eat only whole foods – lean proteins, nuts, legumes, fruit and vegetables and drink water.  On the weekends, I cheat in moderation and try to limit that to one meal a day.  I’m from the South and love sweet tea so I sometimes indulge in a sweet tea on the weekend as well!

The second reoccurring theme that I have seen is the “I’m too busy” mindset.  We are all caught up in work, kids, church, volunteer work, etc., and we use up every minute of every day doing “something” until we fall into bed at night.  We can’t possibly find time to exercise, can we?!

I am an average American and I have spent hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars on gym memberships and exercise equipment.  I usually get too busy to go to the gym a few months into the membership and the exercise equipment just sits.  I bought a very expensive elliptical machine that I literally never used for 3 years! Ha!

At the end of 2010, I read about high intensity burst exercise programs.  They are short and sweet but you get more “bang for your buck”.  I committed to one of those programs in January 2011 and used my elliptical (finally!).  I committed to a 20 minute workout 2-3 times a week first thing in the morning.  The way I see it, I have no excuse and nobody else has any excuse not to be able to exercise 20 minutes 2-3 times a week!  And, I have stuck to it and I have seen amazing results in my metabolism. 

I have now added in doing some stretching and weight lifting (only what I can do at home) 2 days a week.  And, most importantly, I keep this bare minimum of exercise as a fixed part of my schedule, no compromise, and look for opportunities to do more exercise.  If it’s a beautiful warm day on the weekend, I get out and ride my bike for an hour.  I sometimes take a line dancing class.  I meet friends to walk the loop (instead of go out to eat!).  You have to AT LEAST do the minimum but more exercise is always better!

Here’s the program:

1.      Do exercise program as soon as you get up before eating or drinking anything other than water.  Drink water while exercising if possible.

2.      Start your activity (elliptical, treadmill, recumbent bike, walking, jogging, riding bike) and warm up for 3 minutes.

3.      Exercise as hard and fast as you can for 30 seconds (anaerobic).  You should feel like you can’t breathe and talk at the same time and couldn’t possibly go another few seconds

4.      Go back to normal aerobic speed for 90 seconds.

5.      Repeat the 30 second/90 second rotation 7 more times (total of 8 rotations). 

6.      Extend the last 90 seconds for another minute (2 ½ minutes total) and slow down and cool down during that time period.

7.      After exercising, wait 30 minutes to 1 hour before eating.  You get more benefit from the exercise program if you drink a protein smoothie afterwards and avoid sugar for at least 2 hours. 

Please do not start any exercise program without consulting your medical care provider first.  Also, be mindful of your current fitness level.  I had not exercised in a while when I started.  I decided to do 4 rotations and increase by 2 rotations every 2 weeks.  After the first time, I almost passed out.  I literally thought I was going to have to call out for help! 

When it comes to exercise, the reality is:  MOVE IT OR LOSE IT.  The more we do the healthier we will be.  So, try to do more than what I’ve listed above each week if you can.  However, even a little exercise is better than no exercise.  So, if you can only make the 20 minute 2-3 times a week commitment, still do it.  You get extra health benefits from the above program so it should really be the bare minimum of exercise that you do each week.

Please don’t feel guilty about being an “average American”.  I’m one too.  We all have to start somewhere and anything is better than nothing at all.  My goal for myself and for all of my patients is for us to live healthy active lives with no physical limitations or prescription drugs until the day we die.  If you already have some physical and health limitations, any step you take in changing your diet and exercise habits will decrease those limitations and help you feel much better. 

Your health is one of your most precious commodities.  You only get one body.  Once you wear it out you can’t trade it in for another one.  Don’t throw it away!  Start something today!

Sincerely,

Tabetha L. Smith, FNP-C, Average American

 

©Insight Family Health Center, January 2014