Movement is Essential to Health
Please do not be discouraged by the NPR article below. The article cites a study that concluded people need to exercise an hour a day to prevent weight gain.
While I don't dispute the validity of the study, people need to move their bodies anyway, so please don't be intimidated by the daily hour commitment. Exercise and physical movement are essential to your health and wellness. Moving your body is another way to circulate Qi through your meridians and improve your health. Even plants stuck in the ground or in pots do a form of yoga or tai chi daily. Yesterday, I caught my african mask plant changing leaf positions throughout the day.
Even if you have a long way to go in restoring your health, you can start with deep breathing, gentle stretching and walking. Acupuncture can also give you a boost by gently stimulating your metabolism, increasing your energy level and balancing out your cravings and moods.
Fighting Fat In Middle Age Takes Hard Work
Running away from fat may take longer than you thought. (iStockphoto.com)
By Scott Hensley
If you want to keep middle-aged spread at bay, you're going to have to work a lot harder.
A study just published in JAMA looks at just how much exercise is required to prevent middle-age women from gaining weight. And it's a lot. Way more than most people can easily work into their busy lives.
The researchers tracked more than 34,000 women for 13 years. At the start of the study, the women averaged 54 years of age.
The bottom line, so to speak, is that for women who ate a typical diet and weren't already overweight, only those who engaged in moderate exercise for at least an hour a day were able to keep the pounds off as they got older.
Listen to Harvard epidemiologist I-Min Lee summarize the sobering findings:
Women who exercised less or who were already a little heavy were only able to maintain their weight when they bumped up the workouts and cut the calories they consumed.
For years, we've been told to exercise for health. In 2008,federal guidelines recommended at least 150 minutes of exercise a week. And we're not suggesting you give up. Far from it.
While that government advice on exercise helps lower the risk for chronic diseases, the authors of the JAMA paper conclude, it's "insufficient for weight gain prevention absent caloric restriction."
Well, the message couldn't be any clearer. We just don't know where we're going to find the time and energy to pour into the battle against the midlife bulge.
