FITNESS AND STRENGTH

This is a slight deviation from my usual, but nevertheless a subject close to my heart.

There was a period in my life when I only worked out sporadically, I gained weight and got out of shape. I didn't feel terrible, but I didn't feel good either. This period of my life was an anomaly in the overall scope of my life. It was basically the period between the day my father dropped dead from a massive heart attack (he was a smoker) and the day my mother died from a terminal illness. The process of orphanhood is a bitch.

So, I took care of my Dad's post mortem issues and I took care of my Mom's issues. I made a lot of hard decisions, but I did the right thing for both of them all the way down the line.

What I didn't do was the right thing for ME. I was overwhelmed by a time I didn't expect, and one which hit me hard. I let myself go downhill, and I never will again.

As a child growing up in Austin, Texas I was a tomboy and super athletic. I ran, roller skated, cycled, swung on a trapeze in our backyard, climbed trees - you get the picture. As a teen, I ran track and was a super fast sprinter, and I played two-below tag football in the street with the boys. I was a tomboy, but I loved guys then and now, and I knew the best places to be with boys were in the street playing ball, and working on cars in my Dad's garage. :)

As a sprinter in track, power is all important (not endurance so much). This means strength (read:  "muscle"). You have to come off the line at full throttle and keep pedal to the metal all the way across the finish line; or, in a relay, pace yourself in the box until the baton slaps into your palm and then take off like a jet rocket. So, I was powerful for a girl, because that brought me success on the track.

Then the day came when I won an all-important relay race in a meet. My foot caught on a grass runner in my lane (dirt track) and I started to fall right *after* I crossed the finish line in first.

If the baton goes down in a relay race you DQ (disqualify). Would it be a DQ if I dropped it right after crossing the finish?

No, but you and I just had time to think about it, and at that time, I didn't. I was falling at a very high speed, and I was competitive as hell. So, I did the only thing a real competitor would do:  I protected the baton to protect the win. Winning that race was going to win the meet for us - and there were socio-economic politics at play as well (we were blue collar kids, and the other girls weren't).

I pulled my right arm up into the air as I fell and the left one instinctively went with it - totally counter-intuitive to what you do when falling. I hit the dirt with both knee caps at speed, and then dragged both elbows through the hard dirt. I still have a scar on my right elbow from that fall.

The baton remained in the air the entire time, and when two of the other contending teams tried to claim I DQ'd, the ref just shook her head and smiled, and told them that not only had I already crossed the finish line before I began to fall, but the baton was still in the air as I lay on the ground.

It was a hard belly flop to take, and I paid with battered knees and an ultimate loss of a half second off my times afterward (that's a death sentence to a sprinter - a half second might as well be an hour). So, my track "career" in high school was effectively dead; but my love of fitness and athletics wasn't.

I was still a physically active teen, and into my early twenties I got even more into cycling and weight lifting. I was lean and fit, and very healthy.

Then my Dad died, my Mom began to give up, and it all went quickly to Hell in the proverbial hand basket.

I was the same person I had always been on the inside, but I was trapped in a physique I never thought I would have - an unhealthy one. Oh, I wasn't sick and dying, but I couldn't continue that way, or I would have been.

Then after my Mom died, I snapped out of it - big time. I wasn't going to drop dead like my Dad did, or give up and get sick and die like my Mom. I'm an athlete in my heart, and I was going to be an athlete in my actions again.

Forget about will power, diets, quick fixes or anything else. If you want to be fit and healthy you have to decide to be - deep down, in your heart of all hearts. It's a decision you have to make every day - and it's not hard to do that. In fact, you can revel in it and it will elevate you day in and day out. It is a decision that will make you proud of yourself over and over again.

It means making changes to your habits:  eating habits and exercise habits. Not eating like a truck driver (in terms of portions) and most of all - not lying to yourself about your food or your exercise. The best way to be honest with you is to journal what you eat (and how much) and journal your exercise.  This is the most effective way to make and keep lifestyle changes, and it isn't hard or time consuming. There are inexpensive websites to help you do that journaling. I use calorieking.com. Again, it can make you proud of you every day. What a feeling that is!!

This doesn't mean you have to "give up" things. It does mean eating healthily overall and maybe relegating the chocolate cake to a special occasion (or eating a small piece of it very slowly for maximum enjoyment).

To paraphrase someone else (and mine is a much better quote, I think):  *Nothing* tastes or feels as good as being fit feels. Everything else that is great about life is so much better when you are FIT.

Notice I said "fit" - because if you have fitness, you'll have health, and you'll be trim and you'll look your best. Period. This is why I hate "diets" and "programs" where the goal is to lose weight or have a "bikini body". Pfff. Too many of those people are skinny, shapeless and FLABBY (and not healthy). No thanks!

Finally, I have this to say:  strength training is essential to health. This can be weight lifting like I do, or it can be Pilates, or resistance band training, or yoga - BUT, you must do something to build muscle. Cardio is essential, too; but, too many people do that ONLY. Not good. Cardio conditions your heart and lungs, but strength training does also, and it does so much more. I do both, and you should, too.

You can do sufficient cardio in 20 minutes a day of interval sprints on a bike (or something similar) and be done. Strength training can be done in a compact full-body workout only 3 times a week and you're golden. What both of those things will do for you can save your life - both in terms of length and QUALITY.

Here are the benefits of strength training:

•    Boosts production of human growth hormone by 3-4 times to SLOW THE AGING PROCESS.

•    Training your largest muscles (butt and legs) in particular (squats, lunges or equivalent exercises) stimulates your body to release hormones that build muscle strength everywhere else. This gives you tremendous stamina and very strong bones to stand on.

•    Every pound of muscle you gain BURNS AN EXTRA 50 CALORIES PER DAY. By the way, a pound of muscle is about 1/3 the size of a pound of fat - this means you might weigh more on the scale, but actually be trimmer (think skinny jeans, girls). Don't just look at the scale, get out your tape measure!

•    The loss of lean muscle as we age can be HALTED AND REVERSED with strength training. This muscle loss begins at age 30!! You can stop it and turn it around.

•    Strength training REDUCES ABDOMINAL FAT, and you don't even have to train your abs to do that - all strength training accomplishes this.

•    Strength training elevates your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) - the amount of calories your metabolism burns off while you do nothing, including sleeping - elevates it PERMANENTLY as long as you continue to make strength training part of your weekly schedule. The RMR accounts for 60-70% OF DAILY CALORIE BURN. Burn fat 24 hours a day!

•    Muscle burns up to 25 times more energy than fat does (AND it takes up less space - what a deal!)

•    Strength training reduces blood pressure. This is in part due to the fact that all the muscles in our body assist our heart in pumping blood back from our extremities to our heart. You can think of all your muscles as "little hearts" working away to pump that blood. Stronger muscles do more work, which means your heart can do less, and your blood pressure will ease off. Your resting pulse rate will also slow to something much more healthy.

•    Strength training strengthens bones, tendons and ligaments. Strong muscle, tendons and ligaments means fewer injuries, and better agility and stability. Strong bones means you can kiss osteoporosis in old age GOODBYE!

•    Strength training boosts the immune system.

Yes, folks, all of the above is true.

I restored my health, and am still in the process of restoring it. I made a decision to do that. It isn't about will power, or pills, or programs, or diets.

It is about:  i) the proper type and amount of fuel you put into your body (along with treats from time to time for the enjoyment of things); ii) challenging your body to do the work it was built to do - both in terms of cardio and strength; and, iii) making the decision for all these things because you really do want it.

I decided I wanted it. I hope you decide that, too.

Here's to your health!!

Polla Filia,
J.F.