Butts 'n Guts

Enjoy Your Golden Years!

Our friends over at The Washington Post discuss just how some women in the small town of Cahors, France are able to not only live a longer life, but also one that is rather enjoyable as well.

Even though France may be known for it's calorie rich cuisine, fine breads, and cheese, women in the country personally promote moderation when it comes to food.

The should know. Only Japanese women live longer.

And so it goes for the rest of us. We can indeed take an important lesson from these French women. Portion sizes are what kills our diets and our fitness dreams.

Correct portion sizes are so important in fact that they can mean the difference between ten to fifteen pounds lost or gained per year.

If these trends are kept over the course of a couple of years, and weight is added, you can ultimately see how your goals can become easily derailed. 

Diabetes Prevention

Type two diabetes affects nearly a quarter of a billion people worldwide! Twenty-one million of those individuals are Americans.

What's more is that the number of Americans that already suffer is supposed to double come the year 2050.

If these numbers seem daunting, don't let them affect you. Easier said then done right?

Actually, by making some small but significant changes in your lifestyle, starting today, you can actually help yourself from becoming a statistic in the future. I know it's cliche but in this case what you sow is certainly what you reap!

Preventing diabetes starts with losing some weight. You've probably heard this one before perhaps not how well it really works.

It's astonishing but one study mentions that adults who lost five to ten percent of their initial body weight decreased their chances of developing diabetes by almost sixty percent within a three year period.

On a similar note, physical activity is also considered a great preventative measure. Sure it may help you lose some weight, but there are many other helpful (unseen) factors such as lowing your blood sugar and strengthening your bones and joints.

By starting with a healthy walk each morning you are ensuring that you start the day off smart. Check with your doctor to make sure you have their permission too!

A great resource for further diabetes prevention strategies would be the American Diabetes Association. It's is filled with great resources that you can use daily. 

Baby Boomers Fitness

Do you make up part of the baby boomer generation? In 2006 alone nearly three million boomers celebrated their 60th birthday! Were you one? Boomers in general feel satisfied with their lives. After all, they are the most active generation in history. Yet, many of them still dread that poor health may still one day play a major factor in their general well-being and effect their appearance.

This being said, and with huge capital to spend, the boomer generation are looking for ways to keep themselves actively involved with a daily physical routine. Boomers need to be aware of total fitness. They need agility and balance training, cardiovascular endurance, and strength and resistance exercises as well. Boomers cannot hope to complete all of these tasks by simply walking their dog. Their routine must be premeditated and challenging. The benefit of exercise is enormous for them.

Some people however, may prefer some sort of plastic surgery or botox treatment to combat their aging. While exercising is certainly the healthiest, safest, and most practical way to go, their has been a steady rise of plastic surgery operations over the past few years. Further, at a mall near you, one can now get a shot of botox to keep those wrinkles at bay. Because of the overwhelming demand for these treatments, and due to how expensive they cost, there has been an entirely different black market for these types of procedures as well. How well do you know the individual holding that needle? How do you if they are even genuine?

Here is a frightening botox story reported by ABC news that everyone should read! 

Exercising with Arthritis

Unfortunately, as many as one in every three adults in America suffers from chronic joint problems or arthritis. There are more then one-hundred distinct conditions that affect people young and old alike. Alarmingly, more younger adults are finding that they too have joint pain and are being diagnosed earlier in life.

Pain from arthritis may appear in the hip, knee, finger, and foot to name a few, and is accompanied by aching and throbbing. However, if you have been told that you should stay away from exercise, you have been told wrong. There are plenty of benefits that you may receive. Below, I have listed a few that everyone should take into consideration. Remember, exercise is a way of life no matter what challenges you face.

This list is comprised from the American Council on Exercise (ACE).

By including some flexibility training into your workouts greatly improves your range of motion through any exercise and decreases the stiffness that you feel in your joints. By thinking of how tight and rigid you may be in the morning after you arise or even right before bed should give you extra motivation to try some extra stretching today!

To further my above point, with a better range of motion, resistance and flexibility training helps with strength gains as well as mobility. That said, with a little commitment on your part, doing these things will allow you to accomplish difficult daily tasks with ease.

Arthritis does not just affect your joints. It also negatively affects your coordination, balance, and posture. If you suffer currently from these, you know how right I am. The good news is that fitness drastically and actively helps improve all three of these important areas.

Stress may also play a part in joint pain that you may have. The greater the stress from work or your every day life, also can affect how you behave and your overall mood. By completing regular exercise on a daily basis, you can significantly reduce stress levels and allow yourself to be in a better, happier mood.

If you have trouble getting sound sleep during the course of the night because of your arthritis, then exercise is definitely for you. Regular exercise, even something as simple as taking a thirty minute walk each day, helps induce sleep. You get to sleep faster and stay asleep.

Generally speaking, with chronic arthritis one is more likely to lead to a sedentary lifestyle simply because it reduces and limits what you may be able to do. Once sedentary, muscle mass and bone density decrease and heart disease and diabetes may become quite a problem for you in the long run. You guessed it! With a healthy regiment of a good diet and physical activity, you can lower your chances of ever having this happen!

This is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the benefits of exercising with arthritis. There are so many more that I couldn't possibly list. Go to these links that are posted above and check out what other possibilities are out there to stay active. To get you started, here is one link and then another to get you started!

Don't let arthritis control what you want to do! If you want to stay active, get out there!

Totally Flexible, Totally Relaxed

If you strain yourself when sitting down or standing up from a chair, your body is stiff and you are most likely in need of a good stretch. Think about it. When was the last time you received a good stretching session? And no I'm not talking about when you last bent over and picked your pencil up off the floor. All kidding aside though, when was the last time you really could remember your body feeling relaxed from stretching?

Unfortunately, being stiff and inflexible will undoubtedly add years to your appearance as it prohibits graceful youthful movements and fluidity. Incorporate a little stretching into your daily life. I always recommend that the best time to stretch during the course of your day would be right before bed, right after you awake in the morning, and in your shower (because your muscles will be more relaxed and more receptive to the stretch because of the warm water). But anytime will do. A few minutes here and there will do wonders for you.

After one of my online Butts n' Guts classes, I always stretch and recommend that others stretch at least one more time later on during that day. We do this because we don't want your muscles to get tight again, which will happen after a challenging workout.

We all sit, drive, work, and exercise hunching forward so keep in mind the muscles of your posterior as well. Sometime these muscles need the most flexibility but are sadly forgotten. They include the muscles of the back (especially the lower back), rear shoulders/deltoids, calves, and hamstrings found on the back of your legs.

Posture is always important and yours is no exception. Always try to maintain a straight back. You can always keep yourself in check when walking by a mirror or window display. Just simply and unconsciously check to see how your posture is when you are in a relaxed state and then adjust accordingly. Another good way to keep yourself from slouching in your car is to sit up as high as you can in your seat until your back is straight. Then adjust all of your mirrors accordingly. Now when you look into them, if you don't have the right angle you can't see correctly and will automatically know you need to straighten that back.

Check out some basic stretches here that you can start applying to your fitness routine now!