2007 December - Fitness Mantra : A Health and Fitness Blog

Fitness Mantra del.icio.us page Welcome to “FitnessMantra Weekend”, your once-a-week health news update. As always you can also stay updated with the latest in fitness news by subscribing separately to the Fitness Mantra del.icio.us feed.

OK so we’re finally there. As the last days of 2007 fly past, there’s the tendency to think that we can all somehow magically transform ourselves into totally new human beings come January 1st of the new year. After all, what are New Year’s resolutions if not a consolation to ourselves that seems to say “Don’t worry about everything you did this year; it’s all going to be different in the new year”.

2007 clock time running out And indeed, it would certainly be wonderful if that’s how life worked. If we could sleep one night as one person and wake up the next morning transformed into the health-conscious, motivated, will-exercise-daily, eat-good-nutritious-stuff-only kind of person we would all like to be. Alas, life has this cruel way of saying “Get real!”. True, one can’t expect success without having some kind of a game plan for the new year, but like they say, it’s not working hard, but working smart that often yields the best results.

So, absolutely make those health and fitness-oriented resolutions and do your very best to stick to them, but take some lessons from some news bits about how to make those resolutions actually have meaning for you. Fully 5 of the 14 stories linked today deal with resolutions and plans for the coming year that will get you fighting fit for life.

Sally Squires in Are You Ready for Your Resolutions? tackles the difficult question of which resolutions are most likely to succeed and comes up with the surprisingly simple yet practical answer:

How do you know if you’re ready? Ask yourself how confident you are that you can meet your New Year’s resolutions. “If you’re not very confident, then you’re probably not yet prepared to do it,” notes [University of Scranton psychologist, John] Norcross. But don’t use that fact as an excuse or “an invitation to procrastinate into 2009,” he adds. Instead, consider making this your New Year’s resolution: set a specific start date for the habit you want to change. Then use the intervening time to prepare and plan. [Washington Post]

In Got your game plan for ‘08?, Kathy Kaehler from MSNBC’s Fit List, gives us just 4 simple things to keep in mind while planning our goals for 2008 and of course it starts with “Set A Goal”. Keeping the trend of numerical tip-sharing alive are “7 simple diet fixes for the new year” and “Nine Traps to Avoid; Tell Us Your No. 10” both with excellent practical advice on how best to help ourselves reach and maintain our goal levels of fitness. Bulking up on fresh green stuff, keeping a vigil eye on portions, bewaring of “quick fixes” … you’ll find them all in there.

Finally the always entertaining MisFits regale us with “Fitness Resolutions? Bah, Humbug. Try These Smaller Steps Instead” in which the fitness columnists give the most practical and realistic advice of the season: Start Small and Show Up. Golden words we would all do well to remember (and not just in the world of fitness, mind you). Just a small, but focussed (and regular) effort that we commit to doing on a regular basis will work more wonders for us than all the glorious resolutions we can ever dream of making.

Stand up. Get out there.

Make it happen.

Here are the top health and fitness stories of the week:

Childhood Diabetes Boosts Risk for Kidney Problems: Children and teens diagnosed with type 2 diabetes are five times more likely to develop kidney disease later in life
Are You Ready for Your Resolutions?: If this year is anything like last, weight loss and exercise will again top the list of New Year’s resolutions
7 simple diet fixes for the new year: Fortunately, eating well doesn’t have to equal denial and deprivation.
High Blood Triglycerides Linked to Stroke Risk: High blood levels of the fats called triglycerides are associated with an increased risk of stroke
More young diabetics being hospitalized: The number of young adults hospitalized with diabetes-related conditions in the United States has risen significantly over the last decade
Should you go the extra mile?: Can you get too much cardio?
Nine Traps to Avoid; Tell Us Your No. 10: ‘Tis the season — or almost — for vowing not to repeat the mistakes we made last year.
Fitness Resolutions? Bah, Humbug. Try These Smaller Steps Instead: … as a Christmas present I’d like to offer another word, this one about making resolutions: Don’t.
Many parents of fat kids in denial: A survey found that many Americans whose children are obese do not see them that way.
Got your game plan for ‘08?: To really get fit in ‘08, you’ll need a good game plan. Here’s how to put one together:
Wine and Beer That Won’t Make You Fat or Tipsy? I’ll Drink to That!: At seven calories per gram, alcohol contains nearly double the calories found in protein and carbohydrates and just shy of the nine calories in a gram of fat.
Dark chocolate ‘not so healthy’: … an editorial in the Lancet points out that many manufacturers remove flavanols because of their bitter taste. Instead, many products may just be abundant in fat and sugar - both of which are harmful to the heart and arteries
Weight Loss Surgery May Help Less Severely Obese: People with a body-mass index (BMI) less than the required 40 could still reap heart health benefits from the surgery
Food Pyramid for Older Adults Gets an Update: The Modified MyPyramid for Older Adults still emphasizes nutrient-dense foods and the importance of fluid balance but now provides more guidance about the types of foods that best meet the unique needs of older adults and places added emphasis on physical

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Have a great weekend!

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Wired Magazine is apparently not just for the technologically inclined any more. Its new issue features something made especially for health and fitness maniacs: Ground Zero of the Obesity Epidemic? The Center of Your Grocery Store informs us that the most healthful of foods in the grocery store can be found right along the outside wall (the periphery).

grocery store calories per gram wired
[Source: Wired]

Put in just a little more thought into this fact and it soon becomes clear why this is so. Think about it: Milk, fresh fruits and vegetables, cold cuts of fresh meat … there’s one all these natural foods have in common. They all need to be kept fresh by refrigeration. Not so for all those processed foods that line up the central aisles: cookies, chips, pastries, snacks … I am sure these could survive weeks without any problem! You already know natural foods are superior for their nutrition content than any processed food could claim to have and so it’s no wonder you always find the smartest shoppers on the periphery of grocery stores.

As for the aisles?

That’s where you’ll find foods with the highest “energy density,” or calories by weight, which makes those aisles ground zero of the obesity epidemic. The Ruffles in aisle 11 pack 10 times as many calories per gram as the apples in produce.[Wired]

But beware, as I recently pointed out, Healthful Food Is Indeed More Expensive and the article (well, paragraph, really) is quick to point that out:

The wholesome stuff isn’t cheap: You’ll pay nearly seven times as much per calorie for a Red Delicious as you will for those potato chips, but your body will thank you for it.

And here’s another interesting bit of trivia that’s somewhat related to this story: it’s a myth that grocery stores keep the milk at the back so that shoppers will have to walk through the entire store to get it and hence be tempted to buy more stuff along the way. The real reason, most of the time, is that it’s more convenient to keep the large refrigeration machinery outside the store at the back and this is why dairy, meats etc. are along the back wall.

Now go on, amaze your friends with this new found knowledge and remember: keep fresh, stay on the outside wall of grocery stores (most of the time atleast!)