Being more physically active is rewarding for everyone, resulting in better energy levels, improved mood, and reduced joint stiffness and pain. And you don’t need to do such strenuous activity that you wear out your body parts and create pain, either now or a few years down the road. Did you ever notice that your friends who took up marathon running all needed to have their knees replaced about ten years later? And then it’s their hips! If you are new to this game, you don’t have to go full-out immediately and potentially hurt yourself. (You’ll notice we’re not using the E-word here. Too much negativity associated with it.)
We are not talking about doing more planks, or crunches, or lunges (unless you really enjoy doing them). Instead, the point is to do some motion that is rhythmical and has you breathing a little harder than normal. To judge the pace, it shouldn’t be so strenuous that you can’t talk normally. Find something that you enjoy doing and want to keep doing for the long run. Try walking. Jogging. Running, if you like. Swimming. Dancing. Exercise class. Marching in place in front of the TV at night or first thing in the morning. Some people like a social experience while exercising and prefer to do group classes. Others just want a buddy to help keep them accountable and to partner with on walks, hikes, or bike rides. Exercising in the morning is more likely to be accomplished, with fewer events interfering with the timing, but some people are late-night exercisers who do in-home activities while reading or watching television. Do whatever works for you. If you plan and set the stage for success, you will do it.
If you plan to do the activity first thing in the morning, lay out your workout clothes the night before, or pack your gym bag. You want to remove excuses for not being active. Just like with your eating plan, you want to set the stage for success.
Strength training is crucial to maintaining a youthful body. It protects and helps build muscle and denser bones, boosts your metabolic rate, and even keeps your genes younger by protecting the ends of your telomeres. Research has shown that even super-elderly people (in their eighties and nineties) can benefit from strength training. A landmark study done at the Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University showed that after eight weeks of strength training, very elderly people had improved their posture and energy level and were able, in many cases, to get rid of their canes or walkers.1
Yoga and Pilates can improve your flexibility and balance, as well as strength. Classes can be good ways to take advantage of these activities, or you can find videos online or on demand from your cable provider, or borrow them from your public library. T’ai chi is another great way to improve your resistance to falls (even though I was told by my instructor that it does not truly improve your sense of balance, which is an inner ear issue).
I’d like to share with you my favorite ways to be more active and physically fit to illustrate that a successful plan is one where you choose the activities that you look forward to doing. (This is not a prescription, just an example of some of the variety that you can choose from.) I enjoy walking and jogging on a home treadmill. I don’t have to go anywhere to do it, and I can easily take a shower afterward. Music motivates me to move, and I don’t feel like I’m “exercising.” I’m just increasing my energy level and having fun. I also love swimming. There is something about the water that is almost like meditation for me. I love the peacefulness and even the sound of the water. I don’t go particularly fast, but it is something I love to do and will keep doing. I also do strength training. I started out by following the guidelines in the book Strong Women Stay Young, by Miriam Nelson, PhD (strongwomen.com/fitness). Then I heard about a program that required working out only once or twice per week for 30 minutes. It involves working a range of muscles using weights that are as heavy as you can manage for 6 to 10 reps within 2 minutes. You move the weights very slowly up and very slowly down (SuperSlow or The Power of 10). I personally saw dramatic results very quickly. It made it easier to do all my regular activities and made me feel like my body was twenty-five again (or maybe even better than it was at twenty-five). I train with a trainer, because if I have an appointment, I will keep it. I have been following this program for over fifteen years and still love it. I have no aches and pains, which is recommendation enough for me. At times I did group exercise classes that I enjoyed, especially one that involved dance routines set to music.
That is my story. Yours will be different. Just decide what you like to do. You don’t have to go to an expensive gym, unless that happens to make you feel good and motivates you. Or you can find a reasonable gym that is close to your home and has a price that fits into your budget. You might find that your cable provider has a channel with exercise classes that you can follow on your own schedule and in your own home. Perhaps you can jump rope in your basement or your garage (less likely to damage anything that way). That is completely inexpensive and doesn’t require extra time to go somewhere. Walk around your neighborhood or on your local school’s track for a half hour. At the office, you could get up and walk to a colleague’s cubicle rather than texting or e-mailing him or her. A 15-minute walk around the office in the afternoon banishes the afternoon blahs, which can have you nodding off at your desk. At night, you could march in place while you are watching television—march through a half-hour program, and you are done with exercise for the day. Do what fits into your schedule, and do something you enjoy. Love to dance? Go to a club, or dance in your room at home. Like competitive sports? Play basketball, volleyball, golf, or tennis. Live in a cold climate? Cross-country or downhill skiing, ice skating, or even curling can keep you active in the winter. Get a dog; walk the dog. Get some friends to walk with you in the park on a regular basis.
Unless you are a creature of habit, you may want to mix things up to keep it interesting. If you do cardio on a machine at the gym, you can watch TV, listen to tunes or audiobooks, or maybe read the newspaper or a book, if you are steady enough. But don’t be caught in a trap with only one thing to do. You want to have a variety of ways to stay active so you have a backup plan if you get bored with your choices.
One good habit can lead to more good habits. Buying the right foods for Med-DASH makes it so easy to choose healthfully. Preparing extra meals when you cook makes it easy to pull out a last-minute meal to reheat. Laying out your workout clothes the night before makes it easy to fit in a workout in the morning. Tracking how many servings of each food group you eat during the day tells you what you need to have for dinner. And choosing to focus on your actions instead of the outcome helps you develop the right habits for long-term healthy living.
Tracking or journaling seems to be especially powerful. In one study, people were asked to write down everything they ate for one year. That was the only advice they were given. At the end of the year, they had changed their eating habits to a healthier plan overall and had lost weight. Just because they started tracking what they were doing. The Med-DASH tracking forms available for download at dashdiet.org/forms are very simple to use; each day, you check off the number of servings from the different foods groups. This is particularly effective with the Med-DASH plan because it is based on getting servings from all the food groups. You can quickly see if you are missing certain foods and need to either add more servings from certain food groups at dinner or plan to adjust the next day. Immediate feedback.
The Med-DASH plan is an eating pattern and a lifestyle. To protect your health for the long run, you want to develop habits that you can sustain. I maintain that counting calories is not sustainable. It makes food the enemy that keeps you constantly on guard. Planning to eat a variety of beautiful, delicious foods is exciting and motivating. Let’s make friends with food and enjoy eating.