FITNESS
Our Fitness programs include:
- Stretch & Strengthening
- Balancing
- Breath Work
(Learning to breathe properly for a properly oxygenated body and clear mind.)
"The right amount of food and exercise...": Hippocrates' words are no less relevant today than in past millennia.
"Choose your parents wisely" is the best advice I can give my patients who want to enjoy good health and fitness without effort. Many people never have a weight problem no matter how much they eat. Descendents of farmers tolerate over-nutrition
better than descendents of pastoralists or hunter-gatherers. This can be achieved by decreased appetite, decreased absorption of nutrients, increased activity, metabolic rate or temperature, and a11 of these are probably factors in some situations.
Unfortunately, many people gain weight as soon as their caloric consumption exceeds their energy expenditure. There are dozens of feedback systems the body uses to maintain weight, but, unfortunately, the overall effect seems to work toward keeping the weight at the maximum that has been achieved. As soon as any weight is lost, the appetite increases, activity decreases, temperature drops, and the metabolism slows down.
Under these conditions of energy conservation, the body becomes amazingly efficient. Some of my patients insist that they can gain weight without eating, and in fact they may maintain their weight with very little food.
Many studies have been made of the effects of diet pills. These are stimulants which simultaneously suppress the appetite and increase the metabolism and activity level, shifting both sides of the energy equation toward weight loss. Unfortunately, all of these studies demonstrate that the weight loss persists only as long as the medicine is taken: all of the weight is gained back after the medicine is discontinued.
The only way that I know for permanently losing weight without a permanent change in habits is surgery on the stomach; this is usually reserved for "morbid" obesity which threatens the health.
The most effective way to control weight is to shift both sides of the equation by reducing caloric intake and increasing energy expenditure at the same time.
The amount of food, the type of food, and the timing of meals all affect the weight.
Any change in the type of food can result in weight loss, if for no other reason than its decreased appeal due to unfamiliarity. Fiber has no caloric content, but fills the stomach, so replacing refined foods with whole and unprocessed foods will decrease the caloric intake and increase satiety. Fat is the most calorically concentrated food, so reducing the fat content will reduce calories. Severely reducing the dietary carbohydrates results in some loss of calories as ketones, as in the Atkins diet. I have reservations about long-term use of fat-free and low-carbohydrate diets: at the least, they pose potential problems with vitamin absorption and chronic acidosis and ketosis, respectively. And a short-term diet is going to give short-term results. High-fiber diets, on the other hand, have definite health benefits.
I had the experience some years ago of cooking and eating a fat-free diet. After two days on the diet, I completely lost my taste for sweets! This made it easy to stay on the diet, and I lost weight without trying to limit the amount of food.
Calories consumed early in the day increase the metabolism, energy level and activity. Calories late in the day are stored as fat. Merely shifting the timing of meals can result in weight loss.
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