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Just do
. . . . . . something!
Staying
fit during the summer festival months
[AUG.
10, 2000]
If
you are like me, you might find it difficult trying to stay fit
while you are eating those delicious snacks at the county and state
fairs. On top of that, it is mandatory that you eat at all the
summer picnics you can get to. And before school starts, you have to
have a few get-togethers that you  know will be real food feasts with
family and friends. So how can you possibly stay in shape while
devouring all this? I don’t know! I do plan to run a series on
this topic in the near future. ... Hopefully I will meet an expert
in the field by then, because what I know about this subject could
fill up a very small thimble. I have researched the topic a little,
and this week the LDN tackles the overwhelming task of getting in
shape and striving to stay fit.
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It
all started for me this past spring when the weather started getting
nice. Being a California kid, I probably go to the shorts a few
weeks earlier than the general populace. I love that time of the
year and look forward to dumping the winter sweaters deep into the
far reaches of my closet. It even takes my wife a few weeks to
figure out what I have done. By then, she’s so excited by the
spring weather; I can usually get by with a few closet faux pas! At
any rate, I grabbed a couple of pairs and decided to try them on.
What a big mistake!
I
looked into the mirror and was appalled by what I saw. I know
basketball coaches are famous for all the banquets that they attend,
but apparently my full calendar of them was coming back to haunt me.
There was something hovering over the belt line of one of my
favorite pairs of bermudas. My gut and my hips were disgusting; in
fact, I almost hurled right at my image in the mirror. I am sure I
had seen myself all winter and had not done one single thing to stop
the "eating monster" inside of me. However, on that day, I
made a decision. I was at least going to try to get back into shape.
Or if I couldn’t get back into shape, I was going to try to get
into better shape than I was in.
The
best thing to do when one finds himself in the kind of predicament
that I found myself in would be to hire a personal trainer. You can
tell a personal trainer exactly what you would like to accomplish,
and then they set up a program that will help you accomplish your
goal(s). Since I didn’t have the available funds to hire a
professional, I was left to my own devices. A scary thought under
the best of circumstances.
I
have watched hundreds of walkers, joggers and runners go by my house
the last 20 years, but I secretly hoped that I would never become
one of them myself. And one day late in the spring I joined their
ranks.
It
is not easy getting up somewhere between 5:30 and 6:30 a.m., but if
you want to exercise during the coolest part of the day (especially
during the summer) you have no other alternative.
(To
top of second column)
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The
next step was trying to decide how far to run or for how long. It
was my good fortune that at about the same time I was becoming
disgusted with myself I began to come across some articles on
fitness.
In
the summer edition of New Man magazine, Dr. Don Colbert gave what
appears to be good advice regarding the topic of exercise. Dr.
Colbert lists eight keys to weight loss, and the most significant
one seems to focus on physical activity. He suggests that people
need to exercise three times a week for 30 minutes or four times a
week for 20 minutes. He added that in his opinion, the best form of
exercise is brisk walking. As slow as I run, my jog would probably
be hard pressed to qualify for his definition of brisk walking! Dr.
Colbert also pointed out that people should never overexert
themselves.
He
talked about what you should eat and when you should eat it. For
instance, he mentions that breakfast is much more important than any
other meal, and that eating late at night is the perfect combination
for gaining weight, not losing it.
Like
many of our loyal readers probably are right now, I was surprised to
find out all of this information. About everything he was suggesting
was just the opposite of what I had been doing. No wonder I was
gaining weight. I had done exactly the things the good doctor warned
against, and I had been practicing that lifestyle for years. No
wonder I kept putting on the pounds. And no matter what type of
exercise I was doing, it was overridden by eating all of the wrong
things at all of the wrong times, especially at night.
Who
knows how much damage I was doing to my heart and lungs? I no doubt
was hurting my arteries, muscles and bones as well.
But
perhaps the hardest act in stopping the snowball rolling downhill is
just to take action. When you decide to take control of a situation
like this, at the very least, you stop the accident. I was
determined not to get any bigger.
Tomorrow
Jeff will share his inspiring experiences losing…???
[Jeff
Mayfield]
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