Take Charge Now

If you want today to be the first day of the rest of your life…
    Ok, so have you started to take charge of your life yet?  Have you taken that walk around the block?  Then two times around?  Then more?  I haven’t either, it is just too hot to be outside in Louisiana right now.  But, what I have done, and which works well at 20 below zero (you know I am from Minnesota) is to go indoors. Enroll or join up. Choose from a variety of programs. Look around for programs such as pilates, swimming, treadmill, spin class, TRX training that make the weather a poor excuse for not taking care of yourself. 
    When you continue a lifestyle that leaves you medically obese with a BMI over 30, you usually won’t continue for long.  
    Obesity-related conditions include heart disease, type-2 diabetes, blindness, kidney failure, stroke and certain types of cancer, some of the leading causes of preventable death.
    Obesity is sometimes associated with “an endocrine problem,” but 95% of the time it is a life style of poor nutrition and no exercise. I read an article last week that said that the main dietary cause of being too fat” is not in eating fats but eating sugar or foods that turn to sugar. And that eating the “good” fats can actually be healthy.
    It went on to say eating low fat foods was not the answer to losing weight but lowering sugar intake is.  When you have too much sugar or glucose in your body, it turns to fat. 
    Additionally, too much glucose is toxic and over time causes permanent damage to our body. A common symptom of too much glucose in your system (in addition to being fat) is you feel just plain crummy, with headache, blurry vision, fatigue, irritability, etc.  Poor eating and lack of exercise are both in your power to manage 
    Take charge now, see a dietary specialist for how to eat right, not the latest facebook craze, and of course, call your physical therapist, your exercise expert for your fitness and rehabilitation needs. You no longer have to have a prescription.
Tom Coplin, PT
Central Physical Therapy