More than two-thirds of adult Americans are overweight or obese, according to a recent national survey. Approximately 10% of children are also above a healthy weight. Fortunately, among both adults and children, the percentage who are overweight and obese is no longer increasing.
One way to address this national public health challenge is to get Americans moving again, through both individual and societal changes. Here are nine ways an individual can be more physically active.
1. Find physical activities you truly enjoy. This is the most important suggestion of all. If you are doing something you like to do, you are not working out, you are having fun. It takes planning, but not really discipline, to make an enjoyable activity part of your day.
2. Find ways to be active in all seasons. In Minnesota, staying active in the winter is a challenge. Many women occupy the summer with gardening, yard work, walking and cycling, but these activities fall by the wayside in the winter. It is actually not hard to dress for the weather and continue usual activities or switch to winter sports. Even in my state, only a handful of winter days are unbearable.
In other parts of the country, a hot and humid summer limits most outdoor exercise to early morning. Be realistic about where you live and either find ways to be out in all kinds of weather or move your activities indoors for part of the year.
3. Be active with friends. I first started exercising as a young adult by swimming at noon with a work friend. We later switched to running when the community pool became too crowded to swim laps. Our friendship made it easy for us to get fit together.
Most of my close adult friendships have been formed because we share physical activities as well as sensibilities. For the past two years, I have admired from afar four women who walk together every morning, regardless of weather. They are always happy and animated - clearly getting together is not a chore for them.
4. Go places under your own power. Day to day, most of us feel pressed for time. Perhaps the most time-efficient way of getting more exercise is combining it with transportation. Try walking or cycling to work, run errands or get together with friends. To cover long distances, find ways to combine self-locomotion with public transportation.
Many baby-boomers who are downsizing houses would also like to downsize their car fleet as well as their clothing size. When moving, look for neighborhoods that are pedestrian and bicycle-friendly. At least one helpful website lets you analyze the walkability of any address in larger US cities.
Similarly, consider vacation spots that allow you to get around under your own power. This is not only economical but will help counteract the weight gain that seems inevitable with most vacations.
5. Get a dog and give it a great life. A great life for a dog is a healthy, active life for you. A recent study showed people who walk their dogs see more improvement in their fitness than people who walk with humans. Unlike human companions, dogs don't come up with excuses not to walk. Dogs will happily go out in almost any weather and you find out you can, too.
6. Spend less time sitting. Sitting at a desk at work, watching TV, or at a home computer occupies most of the day for a lot of people. Along with sleeping, sitting in a comfortable chair is the least active thing our bodies can do. Most calorie expenditure charts show standing uses roughly twice as many calories as sitting, and calorie expediture goes up from there with more intense activities. Be creative about finding ways to sit less; when you do sit, try using an exercise ball part of the time (even though the TV comedy The Office made huge fun of this).
Wearing a pedometer is an easy way to quantify how much you are moving around during an average day and has been shown to increase sedentary women's activity levels.
7. Increase your activity gradually. Once you've made up your mind to be more active, don't risk injury by overdoing it in the first several weeks. Remember you're in this for the long haul. Give the weakest parts of your body time to catch up to the strongest.
8. Mix things up. Humans like variety. If you involve yourself in a variety of activities, you are less likely to get tired of what you are doing and to have overuse injuries. Part of the beauty of living in a place with distinct seasons is engaging in different seasonal activities. For instance, here in Minnesota, we never get tired of cross-country skiing because, believe it or not, the winter is too short.
9. Have a mindset that exercise is a priority, not a luxury. To be healthy, we need physical activity just as we need fluids, nourishment, mental stimulation and sleep. Physical activity should be a normal part of virtually every day, not something we'll do if we have time and inclination. Each day, figure out a way to fit some sort of exercise into even the busiest schedule.
I've gathered these ideas from talking with my friends and patients, and from my own experience of being physically active throughout my adult life. Even if you have never liked to "exercise," you'll do good things for your health (and have fun) if you move more and sit less.
Sounds fun.. Thanks for the tips..
https://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=batch_download&send_id=817789614&email=7cff47bb7cdcb76fbfa15e66c81a1961
Posted by: Winter Fitness | 05/24/2010 at 10:39 PM