by Неизвестный
Studies illustrate that when the brain learns the muscles will be requiring more energy on a daily basis, it kicks into gear a whole cascade of metabolic reactions that make that energy available.
And it’s not just increased metabolic rate. Forget the charts you’ve seen showing that an hour of tennis burns only 200 calories. Who would be inspired by that? Those charts miss the point entirely, which is that: (1) your body will continue to burn additional calories for hours after the exercise is over; and (2) the enhanced metabolic benefits of exercise far exceed the number of calories burned.
Exercise increases muscle mass, and that’s energy in action. A high muscle mass:
1. Increases metabolic efficiency. Food that you consume will be converted to energy to feed the muscles rather than be converted into fat.
2. Enhances immunity.
3. Looks great on you!
4. Ensures that you will be able to maintain your ideal weight without dieting. Dieting is a proven strategy for gaining weight, but that’s another story.
START
WITH WALKING
When all is said and done, walking is still the best overall exercise for the following reasons:
1. It’s easy. Walking can be done just about anywhere by almost everyone.
2. It requires no special equipment other than a good pair of walking shoes.
3. Walking works the largest muscles of the body, the front and back of your thighs.
4. The rhythmic motion of walking (especially through an area you enjoy, like a park, forest, or the beach) helps you unwind and produces a naturally reflective mood. Walking has been shown to have significant antidepressant benefits.
Tips on Walking
Intensity: Make sure you don’t get out of breath. That indicates oxygen debt.
Although it’s not dangerous for most people, it means that your muscles are not getting the oxygen they need to burn fat. Instead, you’ll be burning primarily blood sugar (glucose), which may leave you feeling exhausted instead of invigorated.
Pace: Try to work up to a fifteen-minute mile. That means in thirty minutes, you will have walked two miles, a brisk but comfortable pace for most people.
Duration: A thirty-minute walk every day is a good start. But as soon as you can easily accomplish that, I recommend you increase the length of your walk as long as you comfortably can. If weight loss is one of your goals, duration is the key, as fat burning really kicks in after thirty minutes of walking.
The Mind-Body Connection
In the endeavor to regain your youthful vitality, you need to marshal all of your resources, including the power of your mind. I highly recommend listening to a “walking” tape that will help you get the most out of your exercise period. Music alone is fine, especially if it helps “pump you up,” but there are special tapes available today that include guided visualization and embedded suggestions, as well as a new breakthrough in behavior modification known as neuroacoustic sound technology. This technology uses specific sounds and beat patterns that activate the mind to maximize the efficiency, power, and overall benefit of your walk. People using these tapes report that they walk faster and farther, and feel better than ever afterward (see Appendix B).
The Body-Mind Connection
We’ve all heard about how visualization, meditation, biofeedback, and prayer can strengthen the mind’s positive influence on the body. But the opposite is also true. The body can exert a powerful influence on the mind, for good or ill.
Chapter 4 described in detail how caffeine and tension can ultimately produce a level of stress and anxiety sufficient to cause emotional and mental illness.
Conversely, a discipline that produces ease and relaxation in the body can have a profoundly calming influence on the mind. Yoga is perhaps the most
have a profoundly calming influence on the mind. Yoga is perhaps the most complete and time-tested system for developing and maintaining flexibility, strength, balance, and deep relaxation. There is no exercise, nutritional supplement, diet, practice, or program that can come close to providing the benefits that I have received from yoga over the last thirty years. For someone getting off the frazzling, chaotic influence of caffeine, yoga can be an extraordinary blessing.
Look for a yoga course designed for where you are. Explain to the teacher ahead of time that you are a beginner. It does no good to jump into an arduous or advanced class if what you need most is range-of-motion work and stress reduction. There are a wide variety of classes available in most areas of the country. I urge you to explore and enjoy this refreshing and relaxing practice.
Onward and Upward
The upward spiral of energy and metabolic efficiency is very real and exiting.
We’re cheated out of this experience by caffeine because the drug puts us on a continual roller coaster of artificial ups and downs. One of the most common responses I get from Off the Bean participants is, “So this is what real energy and vitality feels like!”
As you achieve higher levels of fitness and metabolic efficiency from your walking program, it’s time to expand your exercise into strength training. I highly recommend that you enlist the help of a certified fitness trainer, if only for a few sessions. I believe that it’s impossible for a book to describe a safe and time-efficient strength-training program that will be appropriate for everyone.
Ideally, work toward performing a strength routine (with weights or machines or a combination) three times a week. This does not have to involve hours at the gym. Your fitness trainer will show you how to complete your training session in less than one hour, including a shower!
The advantages of strength training are by now well understood, and there’s no age limit on who can benefit. For anyone from teens to seniors, added strength enhances overall health, protects the bones and joints, increases lean body mass, burns fat, and improves self-esteem. As we age, strength is one of the most significant factors in maintaining an independent lifestyle.51
“Strength training enables individuals to maintain high levels of strength for many years and also provides individuals who have not been involved in strength training an opportunity to reverse many of the age-related deterioration processes that are observed in the muscles of sedentary people.”
Source: Waneen Spirduso, The Physical Dimensions of Aging.
The wonderful part of the upward spiral is that it is self-motivating. You feel so good that you just want to continue doing the things that support your new life.
It’s also self-perpetuating. The more you do, the more you are capable of doing.
As your body improves, so does your mind. Recent studies have found that highly fit adults tend to have better cognitive (learning) skills compared to sedentary people matched for age and education.52, 53 Part of that may be due to increased circulation to the brain, or the maintenance of certain neurochemicals
or hormones.
Maximize the Rejuvenating Benefits of Sleep
In Chapter 3, I described the deep healing and rejuvenating benefits of sleep.
Everyone knows from their own personal experience what it feels like to be truly rested. But most of us cheat on our sleep hours because of the pressure and deadlines we’re under in our lives. You may find that after you quit caffeine, for a period of time it seems like your body needs an unusual amount of sleep. For one thing, you may have difficulty staying up late, because you won’t have caffeine to keep you awake. Additionally, your body will require more sleep as part of its recovery from the sleep deprivation caffeine has caused. If you allow yourself to benefit from increased sleep hours during your first few weeks off caffeine, your body will more rapidly complete the high level of repair necessary in your organs and nervous system.
If you do not sleep soundly or awaken feeling tired, you may find that simply getting off caffeine solves your problem. If you need additional help, try the following suggestions to help produce a deep, restful, rejuvenating sleep.
1. To improve sleep dramatically (an
d rejuvenate the body), exercise regularly. Remember, the genes that control every cell of your body have not changed at all in more than 20,000 years. That means your body is still designed for hunting and gathering and a very high level of activity. When you sleep, the brain queries the muscles to find out how much rest the body needs. If the muscles say, “Gee, boss, we haven’t moved all day,” the brain will set the sleep cycle differently than if the muscles are tired. I’m not saying that you have to be exhausted to get a good night’s sleep, but well-exercised muscles send a sleep and repair message to the brain so that you enter a deeply restoring level of sleep.
Note: It is best not to exercise strenuously right before bed.
2. Develop regular sleep habits. Researchers from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Arizona have demonstrated for the first time that sleep regularity (going to bed at the same time each night) can significantly enhance sleep quality in healthy people who are not sleep deprived.54 In their study, two groups of students were asked to sleep at least 7.5 hours each night, but one of the groups was instructed to keep a regular sleep schedule. Compared to the sleep-only group, subjects in the regularity group demonstrated:
A. Decreased daytime feelings of fatigue
B. Greater and longer-lasting improvements in alertness C. Greater sleep efficiency (they fell asleep faster and stayed asleep through the night).
Importantly, these benefits were realized after only four weeks.
3. If you wake up earlier than you wish and feel like going back to sleep, here are. some suggestions:
• Make sure you can sleep for another ninety minutes. That will enable you to complete another sleep cycle. Going to sleep for thirty or forty minutes may result in your feeling more tired and cranky upon awakening.
• Try reading or meditating. Both will quiet the mind and keep busy thoughts from intruding when you’re getting sleepy again.
4. Take the TV out of the bedroom. Some people use TV to fall asleep and keep it droning in the background while they sleep. The noise will keep you from deep sleep and may wake you up in the middle of the night.
5. Developing good sleep habits starts with the setting. You create the ambience for sleep and your body follows that train of association. Make your bedroom a place of retreat and privacy where you can forget the cares of the world.
6. If you can’t fall asleep, read a nonfiction book, not an action thriller.
Eventually, your brain will slow down if it’s not over stimulated by an exciting novel.
7. Eight hours of sleep beginning at 10 P.M. do more to restore your body than eight hours starting after mid night.If you sleep from 10 P.M. to 6 A.M., you’ll have more energy and vitality than if you sleep from 1 A.M. to 9
A.M.You’ll get more done in the early morning hours than you will late at night after an exhausting day. Try it for yourself both ways and you’ll see the difference!
8 Try to eliminate noise. I’ve found that a HEPA filter (high-efficiency particulate air filter) doubles as a white noise machine, effectively covering up the disruptive noise of traffic, barking dogs, and the neighbor’s stereo.
Heavydrapes are also a sound investment, again doing double duty by reducing
both noise and light.
9. Invest in a good pillow. You spend many hours asleep, and you deserve a pillow that’s just right for you. Many people also have favorite pillowcases, and some enjoy different materials, like flannel in the winter and satin in the summer.
10. Women: If you go to sleep easily but wake up in the middle of the night, you may be suffering from an estrogen/progesterone imbalance. Check with your doctor to have your hormones tested using a saliva test.
11. Don’t use alcohol to wind down at the end of the day. One glass of wine with dinner is normally fine, but excess alcohol will disturb your sleep cycle.
Typically, you’ll fall asleep easily but awaken in the night. Getting back to sleep can then be difficult.
12. Take a bath before bed; relaxingly warm but not overly hot. Add your favorite bath oil or gel and soak your cares away.
13. Use a deep relaxation technique or audiotape. Tapes are available that combine soothing music or nature sounds with an effective guided relaxation voiceover (see Appendix B).
14. Try one or more of the following just before bed to help induce sleep: • Melatonin: A natural hormone produced by your brain that sets your sleep/wake cycle. Start with a very low dose (0.25 milligrams) in a sublingual tablet twenty to thirty minutes before bed
• Sedative herbal extracts: Valerian, hops, passion flower, and white zapote. Try a dropperful in a cup of hot, soothing tea.
• Kava: Kava is an herb from the South Pacific shown to help relax tense muscles.55 Kava is also excellent for decreasing anxiety.56 Take a 200milligram dose of kava extract standardized to 70 milligrams of kava lactones.
• Calcium citrate: 600 milligrams about thirty to forty-five minutes before bedtime.
• Magnesium citrate: 300 milligrams about thirty to forty-five minutes before bedtime.
• A mug of herbal coffee with milk: The natural potassium and calcium will help you relax, and you’ll feel warm and full.
• A cup of sedative herbal tea: Look for suggestions in Chapter 9.
• A mug of hot milk and honey: The calcium helps you relax, and the honey is soothing.
15. If insomnia still persists, you may want to try certain prescription medications such as amitriptyline (Elavil) or doxepin (Sinequan). These are often prescribed to promote Stage 4 sleep. Note that these are not sleeping pills, but antidepressants. In low doses, these agents appear to enhance Stage 4 sleep, and if you are suffering from fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue, your physician may suggest using one of them. I don’t recommend prescription sleeping pills, as these drugs interfere with deep sleep and dreaming.
In this book, I have often referred to evolutionary biology, what I call the “long view” of human history. The value of this approach is that it puts so much into clear perspective. Today, for example, there are dozens of conflicting theories as to what is the optimal diet. There is also widespread disagreement regarding exercise and other lifestyle factors. But the evolutionary biologist steps back and says, “How for was the human organism designed? What have we been doing for the last 1.6 million years?” That line of inquiry cuts through all the theories and conjecture because you realize that we are, in every respect, natural creatures tied to nature in profound and powerful ways.
The fact that we have invented electric lights does not mean that sleep is no longer important for health and wellness. The fact that we have invented automobiles and television doesn’t mean that we can become sedentary and not suffer terribly at some point. Sure, we have invented sugar, hydrogenated fat, caffeine, artificial colors, white flour, modified food starch, margarine, and a long list of chemicalized “foods,” but that does not mean that these things are harmless when consumed day after day.
For 1.6 million years (possibly much longer), we ate nothing but whole, natural foods. We drank nothing but pure, clean water. We slept all night and kept active through most of the day. Those are the conditions for which we are designed, and to a great extent, our effort today to regain and maintain optimal health come down to duplicating these simple behaviors as closely as possible. The good news, of course, is that with exercise technology, nutrition science, and brain research, we have incredible tools that our ancestors never had. This secret is to take advantage of what can truly be the best of both worlds.
Conclusion
Thus we come to the coffee paradox—the question of how a drug so fraught with potential hazard can be consumed in the United States at the rate of more than a hundred billion doses a year without doing intolerable damage—and without arousing the kind of hostility, legal repression and social condemnation aroused by the illicit drugs.
The answer is quite simple. Coffee, tea, cocoa, and the cola drinks have been domesticated.
—Edward Br
echer and associates, Licit & Illicit Drugs
A Question of Balance
We are all very familiar with the idea of balance. We apply the concept to the color tones of our television sets, the bass and treble settings of our stereos, our tires, decor, and stock portfolios. But the balance that undoubtedly affects us the most, that determines to a great extent how well and how long we live, is the balance of our bodies and minds. In medical terms, this balance is known as homeostasis. It’s the state of wellbeing characterized by a sense of peak functioning—physically, mentally, and emotionally.
And this is a state we all desire. It’s the feeling that we are moving through life with a sense of control instead of being caught in an endless stream of events to which we must continuously react and adjust. Homeostasis is critical to life and survival, and so our bodies and minds are quite good at restoring balance. It is the essence of the self-regulating, self-repairing miracle that we are.
Our bodies have intricate and sophisticated systems for restoring and maintaining homeostasis: biological clocks, a complex system that continuously monitors and adjusts the pH of the blood, a vast array of hormones, coenzymes, and feedback information loops all designed for one thing: balance. The body as a whole is kept in balance because each individual system, and ultimately every one of our 75 trillion cells, is maintained in a balanced state.
Stress is the force that disturbs balance or homeostasis. Obviously, some stress is necessary and unavoidable. Accomplishing anything involves a measure of stress, and most of the time we know when we’re out of balance and we know what we need to do to get it back. At the end of a particularly hectic day, we might use exercise and relaxation to wind down and restore our sense of peace.