“If you can’t walk a quarter of a mile in five minutes, your chance of dying within three years is 30 percent greater than that of a faster walker.” I was stunned when I read that introductory sentence in an article concerning the importance of exercise. And so I introduce you to perhaps the most significant segment of the Prescription for Life plan: exercise.
He was a little pudgy, but his slacks were neatly pressed and the buckle on his leather belt was real silver. I will never forget that day he showed me his exercise room. I’d been told how wealthy he was, about his house and cars and vacation spots. But until I actually saw his wood-paneled exercise room and his fancy mirrors and the pile of fresh towels stacked beside the water fountain, I couldn’t imagine all the exercise equipment he had—anything money could buy. Every piece of exercise apparatus you would ever use was in place, and it all still looked new.
I asked him what his exercise routine was, and he said, “I don’t really have a routine.” “Really?” I questioned—a little surprised. The more we talked, the more I realized he exercised maybe once a month. Oh, he exercised a lot more when he initially bought the equipment; he was a good enough businessman to realize he needed to use the equipment because he had spent so much on it. But that was three years ago. I didn’t say a word, but I kept thinking that even with his wealth, he couldn’t buy health. It reminded me of Psalm 49:8–9: “No one can ever pay enough to live forever and never see the grave” (NLT). He couldn’t buy a single extra day of life.
You can’t buy health, but article after article in the medical literature substantiates that exercise has a powerful effect on the longevity and quality of your life. The quality of your life is so much more significant than the length of your life. All of us have seen individuals who are “alive,” per se, but the quality of their lives is not optimal, and for many it is even terrible.
There is a difference between having a “physically active lifestyle” and a “personal exercise program.” Being physically active rather than being completely sedentary is important, but having your own personal exercise program five to six days a week brings so many more rewards to your health. One of the best strategies for healthy years is to develop a lifestyle that includes exercise. Unless you develop an exercise program, your chances of getting to an ideal weight and eating properly are slim.
Don’t Sabotage Your Exercise with Snacks
You burn around a hundred calories per mile whether you walk that mile or run it. Let’s say you run three miles a day. That would be three hundred calories burned off. Even a light snack would counterbalance those three hundred calories very easily.
There is no way you are going to exercise enough to cover the extra calories you might be tempted to eat just in the form of snacks. Let me give you a few examples.
Assume you weigh 175 pounds and your exercise consists of walking. If you eat one slice of toast with jam on it, you will have to walk for 22 minutes to burn off the 125 calories. If you ran, it would be less: 13 minutes. One morning, you decide you would rather eat a 240-calorie donut instead of toast and jam. You will have to walk 42 minutes or run 18.
Then after dinner, you decide you want just one cup of ice cream. That’s about 275 calories. That’s another 48 minutes of walking or 20 minutes of running to burn those calories. An apple (70 calories): walk 12 minutes, run 5 minutes. And finally, one of your favorite candy bars. For the 270-calorie Snickers chocolate bar, you will have to walk the same as for the ice cream, 48 minutes, or run 20 minutes.
If there wasn’t more to exercising than just burning off extra calories, it would never be worth exercising.
The Hidden Benefits of Exercise
A hidden benefit of exercise is that it convinces your mind you are serious about your overall healthy lifestyle. If you are putting thirty to sixty minutes a day, five to six days per week, into your exercise routine, you are very serious about your overall lifestyle decision. Dedication to exercise convinces your mind that you intend to stay at an ideal weight, that you are serious about what you are going to eat and what you are not going to eat. It’s a great reinforcement.
Exercise may not be something you look forward to every day. Sometimes it can be a chore to go to the gym, or to get on your treadmill, or to go to a park or track so you can run. But the big reward comes when you feel so much better afterward.
I will never forget when Jack LaLanne celebrated his ninetieth birthday. He had been an exercise guru back before many people were intentionally exercising. I can still picture him when he was interviewed on television. Three people were talking about all he had done to get Americans into exercise programs over the years.
When he walked out on the stage, he held up his arms and flexed his biceps for all to see. He looked to be about seventy, not ninety. After he sat down, the interviewer asked him how old he was. He smiled as he said, “None of your business.” He was then asked what exercises he did on a near daily basis, and he went into detail about his core muscles and weight lifting and what he did to get his heart rate up to a certain level. One of the interviewers stated that it was so great seeing someone his age who enjoyed his daily exercise routine. His response was priceless.
“Enjoy it?” He leaned forward in his seat like he was about ready to reach out and hit her. “I don’t enjoy it one minute. I hate exercise. I do not like getting up and going to the gym to work out. I hate it.” He paused and smiled. “But I do like the great feeling I get when I’m through.”
To me, that answer says it all. Exercise may not be something you like doing, but you are committed to doing it. It is like going to work. You may not want to go in on a particular morning, but you do it. And you like it when you receive your paycheck. Same way with exercise; commit to it and stick with it. You will indeed enjoy a great reward for doing it. Plus, it’s a great paycheck.
The medical literature gives conclusive evidence that there is a direct relationship between one’s weight and whether they exercise. The consensus is that the more one is physically active, the less body weight they have. Physically active people weigh less than people who are not active. Many studies show that if you use exercise as part of your weight-loss program and then quit the exercise, your weight will go back up.
I remind you of a study mentioned earlier. Remember the Brown University study in which one group of overweight women dieted only and the other group dieted and exercised? The group that dieted and exercised lost almost twice the weight in comparison to the ones who dieted without exercising. If you don’t remember any other report, keep this one in the forefront of your mind when you think about losing weight.
Developing the Right Program for You
Your exercise program will be of your own design because everyone is different physically and may choose different exercise routines. The Prescription for Life plan is a general one that anyone can plug in to. If you are obese or sedentary, it may be all you can do to begin walking for thirty minutes a day. It doesn’t matter so much where you start as that you start. So start walking.
You may be able to lift only a two-pound weight over your head three times before your muscles give out. You may have trouble getting your leg over the seat of a stationary bicycle, and once on, you may be out of breath in three minutes. Start where your body will let you. And your goal will be to eat the right foods and exercise in conjunction with each other to get the weight off. The day will come when you will be halfway to your ideal weight, on a treadmill at a brisk walk, checking your heart rate to get it above the 80th percentile of the maximum rate, and you will look in the mirror—and smile.
Weight loss. Exercise.
Exercise. Weight loss.
You may not be overweight one ounce, but if you’re not exercising you are missing out on one of the greatest health benefits you can have. Not exercising costs you more than you would ever imagine. The great majority of people have no idea the passive damage you bring on your body by not being active. Inactivity is one of the key causes of physiological aging.