Jubilee Health Place

Finding a Place of Health and Fitness through God's Grace

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What’s The Cost Worth To You?

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I’m sure you’re familiar with it…the ups and downs of eating right! I speak from experience because we’ve been eating healthy, no carbs, but after 10 weeks I just plain revolted. I made a batch of brownies (although we only ate maybe 4-5…the rest I sent with our son to his work place and the guys enjoyed them!). However I didn’t stop with brownies…urgh!!! I also got some chips – lightly salted potato chips AND corn chips. We enjoyed a few for lunch and later on.

Morale of our error is don’t do what we did! I paid the consequences for several nights with my stomach being upset. It dawned on me then (duh!) that my body was revolting for eating the carbs I knew I shouldn’t eat but wanted. I should have taken the advice from my son-in-law who shared his consequences of binging on carbs after not having them for so long…an upset stomach!

So often we think we’re being kept away from the things that taste good because we’re wanting to get healthier. We’re not being kept away from them really. We’re choosing to eat other things that satisfy and nourish us. A handful of chips make you want to eat another handful. Then come the cookies you haven’t had for ages, or the delicious chocolate brownies. Okay, ENOUGH of that! I know you understand this entire process because you’re not unlike me…you’ve been there.

SO, how do we handle these times? We walk right on by the ‘sweet shop’, the ‘salty shop’, the ‘tempting shop’, and determine we’re not going to indulge for just a second of tempting taste for hours of our body revolting and yelling at us. We’re going to stay on the road to healthy eating!

It’s worth the discipline and effort. Stay the course. You’ll be happier.

Let’s continue eating healthy y’all!

Walking 4400 Steps A Day Is The New Goal

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According to Jodi Helmer, new study in JAMA Internal Medicine looked at the average step counts of more than 16,000 people and found those who walked just 4,400 steps per day were 41% less likely to die over the four-year study period compared to those who walked 2,700 steps.

Walking more than 4,400 steps helped lower the risk of all-cause mortality even further, but the benefits leveled off when walkers logged 7,500 steps. In other words, more steps did not equal better outcomes, according to lead researcher I-Min Lee, PhD, an associate epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

That is a lot better than the 10,000 steps of the past. Most of us don’t have the time it takes to walk that long. Charlene and I are out each morning and we get our walking in early. The sun is coming up later so we start a little later than we did during the hot summer. My goal is 5000 steps a day. I have my Fitbit goal set to 5000 and get the celebration signal for reaching that amount. Walking 5000 steps is about 2.5 miles for me. When home we walk on a 1/3 mile track and get our steps in. When traveling we try to get the steps in also. We just came back from Gatlinburg where we actually got a little more than our goal each day.

Walking has many significant health benefits, including lower levels of depression and anxiety, lower body mass index and waist circumference, improved glycemic control in those with Type 2 diabetes, and reduced blood pressure and lower LDL ‘bad’ cholesterol. If you haven’t been walking much start slow and work up to the 4400 steps a day to maximize your health.

Walking and Creativity

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Hilton Head Walking 700 x 400

You may have heard it before:  Walking is good for your overall well being.  It’s important for our health—besides burning calories—and the benefits gained when we put one foot in front of the other.

But that isn’t all there is to walking. I recently read an article on Leslie Sansone’s Walk At Home Facebook page that highlighted a Sanford University study on walking and creativity. How does walking help you? Does it contribute to your better health? Does it enhance your mental capacities? Does it boost creativity?

These were some of the questions Stanford researchers had when they looked at two groups of people: those who walked and those who just sat at their desk. We already know that walking is beneficial for all of us and contributes to our better health but could walking boost our creativity levels enhancing mental capacities? According to co-authors Marily Oppezzo and Daniel Schwartz, both with Stanford Graduate School of Education, creative thinking improves while a person is walking as well as shortly thereafter.

Maybe you can related if you’ve been stuck on something you’ve been working on for some time, and you even got up and paced back and forth in an effort to come up with some new ideas. Did it help? Probably more times than not, walking as you paced actually enhanced your mental ability to think.

The study found that walking—either outdoors or indoors—boosted creative inspiration. They concluded that the walking itself was the main factor, not so much the environment in which they walked. Another of their experiments found that walking indoors or outdoors produced twice as many creative responses compared to a person staying seated at their desk. Creative juices flowed for those sitting yet the ‘walkers’ had increased creativity.

Many well-known CEO’s have practiced the creativity increase when they’ve held some of their meetings ‘on foot’. Steve Jobs was one to have walking meetings as well as Mark Zuckerberg.

We definitely agree with Marily Oppezzo when she concluded that physical activity is important and sitting too long in unhealthy. They discovered that walking can increase your creativity and thinking ability.

So, do you need a new idea? Do you need some inspiration? Get out into God’s world, enjoy the beauty He’s created, and expect that He’ll give you some new creative ideas as you walk, walk, walk.

EXERCISE OR EXTRA PIES?

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Hope you laughed at the picture above, because it IS funny; HOWEVER…

For some folks the thought of exercise is gross and they’re just not ‘into’ it. For others, they relish the idea of burning those calories. Still others know the importance but just don’t want to put out the energy.

Hey, let’s face it—exercise sometimes isn’t fun, but that doesn’t mean it has to be something you avoid. Exercise is GOOD for your body—good for mine, too. Jack and I continue to tell each other, we want to keep walking so we can KEEP WALKING. Our main form of exercise at the moment is walking. We walk close to 2 miles every morning (while we catch those silly Pokemon critters). We also have stairs in our house, so every time we’re heading to the garage, we’re going up and down stairs. We want our legs/feet/muscles to keep working for us. We won’t get to the place of not using them because then we won’t be able to use them.

No matter what stage of losing weight you’re in, or if you’re maintaining, exercise is GOOD for your entire body. You’ll be pumping more oxygen into your lungs, and rejuvenating your whole body with even a little exercise. Plus, you’ll lose some weight, but not if you don’t begin. You can start with doing a little, then gradually add more to your routine. You will build up your stamina and be able to do more throughout your day.

Okay, that’s the PEP TALK. Now it’s time to put the words into action…one step at a time, one foot in front of the other. Let’s GO. We’re going for the exercise not the extra pies.

I know you can do it!

Dieting-A Life Change

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Charlene and I are on a diet again. This time we have our mind renewed to the necessity of getting the weight off. We are operating under the grace of God and relying on His power to diet. A diet is a major change in life. It is a life change. It has totally changed how we eat and we have to adapt. So far so good.

Losing weight requires we make changes, which aren’t so comfortable. I think the healthiest diets are ones that require the most change. We can’t just eat what we were in smaller portion sizes. There is nothing healthy just eating less, except for the fact you may get the weight off. That’s healthier itself. However, some foods are just not that healthy and isn’t the goal of a good diet to get healthier and lose the weight?

We are cutting out the unhealthy foods. This means a life change—a major change. It’s surprising what we eat and snack on that really isn’t helping our health. We are making the changes and not looking back. It means having to get very creative when traveling and planning ahead. We don’t go to our favorite restaurants and that’s okay. We are ready to make the changes needed to get the weight off, keep it off, and get healthier in the process. And we are burning fat as we walk the trail each morning.

 

Helping Knees By Getting The Weight Off

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As we get older, our old knees begin showing signs of wear. I know both Charlene and I have to take special care of our knees. Not too long ago I could hardly walk on my right knee and it got so bad I had to go to the doctor. She said it was inflammation and my knees were fine except for the normal wear older people get.

One thing I know is being overweight does not help our knees. Marc Lindsay says, “The more you weigh, the more stress is placed on your knees during exercise. Over long distances, even 10 extra pounds can make a big difference. If you’re using walking as a way to lose weight but still haven’t reached your goal weight, consider making changes to your diet and adding more strength training to your routine to shed more weight. Doing so helps take your performance to the next level, improves your endurance, and helps you stay injury-free.

Charlene and I are getting our weight under control. We are back on the diet trail to get the weight off from thick to thin. We are getting out there first thing in the mornings before it gets too hot and walking. We both wear knee support for extra protection. So hope to see you on the trail.