The next time you’re in Walmart take a look around and see what lifestyle choices can do to you and for you. Take a look at the 70 year old gentleman who walks with youth and vigor. He still has the muscle tone of a young man and seems to be defying age. Then look at the 40-50 year old guy who’s slightly overweight moves a little slower and probably looks older than he is. What is the difference? Why the vast contrast between the two? Plain and simple it goes back to lifestyle. If you followed the two around the grocery store and study their habits with the eye of a private investigator you will see the stark difference in habits.
The older gentleman who looks to defy the aging process will stay on the outside of the grocery isle’s buying fruits, vegetables, meat, eggs, and dairy. You will see him buying very few processed foods in the middle of the store. He provides his body with nutrient dense food. The kind of food that fuels and regenerates health. The middle aged man will do just the opposite. His shopping cart will be loaded with potato chips, cereal, soda, white bread, snack cakes, and macaroni and cheese. These foods contain little or no nutrients. They cause an increase in sugar, insulin and leptin levels. The results are a gradual increase in obesity and a decline in health.
If you were to follow them home and study their habits farther you will see something else. The 70 year old with a muscular build will be active. He will put on running shoes and go for a run. Not a jog but a run. He will run for 20-25 minutes with short 30 second speed burst about every two or three minutes. After the run he will lift weights or do calesthenics using body weight. This type of intense fitness training increases and maintains human growth hormone a key ingredient to maintaining youth, muscle mass, bone density and health. The slightly pudgy 45 year old guy will go home and turn on the television, sit on the couch and begin eating a bag of chips. The aging and obesity process slowly accelerates and health markers decline.
The choices are simple, it’s not rocket science. The choices we make about food and exercise impact the way we age and ultimately our quality of life. If you’re 20-70 pounds overweight and have no energy I encourage you to begin an exercise program and change your diet. Add more fruits and vegetables to your diet and decrease the sugar and processed foods you eat. Thirty minutes of exercise 3-5 times a week will be a great start. Focus on short 30 second bouts of hard exercise with 2 or 3 minutes of recovery between for 15-20 minutes. We are learning the key to a great exercise program is not length but rather intensity. Intensity always trumps length.
Get started today and improve your quality of life and your health.