Keeping Your “Fuel” Clean and Your “Engine” Well-Tuned Will Deliver More “Power” and “Miles”
Contributed by: Dr. David Robinson
We, as a society have still not learned that what we eat is the fuel for our bodies and that if we don’t use it, we lose it.
Americans continue to imbibe ourselves with junk, adulterated, processed foods, high fat, high sugar foods, fast foods and generally poor nutrition. On top of it, when it comes to “losing weight”, most people will turn to nutritionally limited and/or calorie restricted diets. This can be especially detrimental if you’re a COG.
What goes into our bodies is essentially the same as what goes into our cars or trucks. FUEL. Would you put kerosene into your vehicle? It would be able to run and rather smoothly. But what would the results be? There would be poor engine performance, engine wear at a much faster rate, continual breakdown and problems, and, a much shorter life-span for the engine.
Your body is not that much different. Poor nutrition, as we have begun to see with the explosion of chronic conditions, results in poor performance (a lot of which goes un-noticed, internally), constant problems and generally functioning at less than optimum. In short, eating poorly results in ruining your health, and, quality and quantity of life in the long run.
Proper nutrition is just so easy and simple it’s laughable. But it seems continues to evade us COG’s…and this evasion can be overcome.
It all comes down to CHOICE. If we as COG’s continue to make poor nutritional choices, then we will end up plagued by chronic digestive and other nutritionally associated illnesses/conditions.
The other habit-pattern that gets factored into the equation for COG’s, is exercise. Again, availability of information is widespread, and it all comes down to CHOICE.
That old saying, “if you don’t use it, you lose it” is so very true. Maintaining physical activity levels, i.e., exercise four to five times each week goes a long way in keeping us healthy. The facts on this have been in myriads of studies over the last decade.
Quite frankly, it would appear that to choose poor nutrition and avoid regular exercise is “self-abuse”. Why do things that are going to be detrimental to our body and health?! This is the quintessential question that many in the fitness and nutrition professions have been asking for decades. It’s truly amazing the health situations people get themselves into because of their CHOICES to eat garbage and not exercise. As COG’s, these factors are essential in keeping us healthy or being a primary ingredient in our dis-ease.
Granted, these are only two factors in the equation of good health, but they are, in my professional opinion, two of the most important, and, bluntly, two of the easiest to achieve.
Let’s run through a quick program, just for the heck of it.
Breakfast: whole grain oatmeal with soy or skim milk, whole wheat toast with peanut butter, 12 ounces of water, 1 cup of coffee/tea.
Lunch: tossed salad with egg OR lean meat sandwich on whole grain bread with lettuce and tomatoes OR low sodium/fat soup; 12 ounces water.
After-work fitness: Hit the fitness center for a full-body circuit training set 2 days each week and on the alternate days, 3 days each week, do 30 minutes of cardiovascular/aerobics in your target heart zone.
No fitness center? Hit the road! Walking that is. Get out there for 60 minutes and pump those arms. Do body weight strength training: push-ups, the plank, pull-ups, chair dips, etc. Use the same schedule as above.
Dinner: Keep it real. Lean meats with whole rice/grains or whole potatoes, veggies, salad, water and only do desert 3X each week.
Don’t forget to add in a multi-vitamin, multi-mineral, whole green foods supplement each day.
WOW! That took all of 13 minutes to pound out on the key board! And it will take as little time to make it a part of your daily “habit-patterns”.
Is it all worth it? That’s another CHOICE. The way I look at it is, we as COG’s should not make excuses, justification or rationalizations for avoiding these healthy habits. Our lives are a one-way ride. Let’s make the best of it in these near-antique “models” with optimum performance and optimum health for optimum quality and quantity of life!
COG, Dr. David Robinson is a former Chiropractor, a Certified Personal Fitness Trainer, author and freelance writer. He may be reached through www.DrDavidRobinson4Health.com