It’s an elastic-waisted pants kind of a day

acotrel says:

05:21am | 27/12/12

Why would you enjoy a lovely christmas and then go on a guilt trip about it ? All you need do is repent and say seven ‘Hail Mary’s’, and use a bit of dietary restraint for the rest of the year . Think of the starving kids in Africa.

Sickemrex says:

06:40am | 27/12/12

Or you could overindulge for a day or two, then be a bit sparing for a couple of days, then balance what you eat with what you do. Crazy I know. I should write a book.

Gregg says:

07:08am | 27/12/12

Well, it’s great that at least you have given up smoking Tory and when the day finally comes, perhaps the day that you do have a more serious health failing of some sort brought on quite possibly from being over indulgent too often or it not at least helping it, you might have a different view on life and how good it is to be reasonably healthy when you have survived your failing and realise that if you take moderation as your gospel, you can be doing so much more including even things that cost money, money that might otherwise be spent on healthcare of one form or another.

It’s OK to enjoy all those nice roast crunchy spuds, sit at a bar with the spicey wedges and sour cream/quacamole washing it down with a favourite drink etc. but all in moderation of both quantity and frequency is the key and then coupling that with activity you really enjoy be it dancing, swimming, gardening, hiking or just something that gets you off your butt regularly.

In the doco I describe below, the very first thing illustrated was how some moderate exercise before eating fatty stuff could reduce the ammount of fat your blood absorbed and they demonstrataed that by having a reporter eat a normal english breakfast of eggs, sausages and bacon and then took a blood sample a bit later and spun it up to show the ammount of fat and then that evening he went on a bit of a walk about for about 90 minutes, pushing it a bit mind you and then tucked in again for breke the next morning followed by blood sampling and results showed somewhere about just half the fat absorbed.
Maybe for you though, it ought to be a porridge/fuit/nuts and cinnamon breke and you’ll not need the evening walking.

Two other interesting things came out of the doco re exercise, well three actually, one quite basic and that was people who are working at something that has them moving about more oviously get more exercise.
The other two were from research done and involved both blood testing and field exercising and then laboratory testing at the end of a month, the first being that whereas everyone is not cut out for the gym regime, it is also fact that not everyone benefits the same from it, and in effect that will mean yep you can get some people looking trim taut toned and with those muscular looking arms and butt etc. whereas others might still look a bit ordinary even if they may be healthier though their actual aerobic capacity may not be all that much higher than when they started.

Probably, the most important revelation is that you do not really need the full on gym regime to do some good and this doctor said it is proven that just full on bursts of frenetic activity for just twenty seconds at a time, doing say three of them about five minutes apart or whatever when having your breath back and doing that just three times a week is a big help.
So this reporter come guinea pig over in the UK ( it was on SBS about three weeks ago )  had an exercise bike in his van that he had carted around the countryside for about a month as he was interviewing different people and doing things like fitting people up with mobility meters including himself and so he maintained the three x twenty second three times a week go like hell regime.

A month later after his exercise bicycling and also fitting in more exercise in general, walking stairs instead of using lifts etc., he returned to the Lab and had his aerobic capacity measured, basically no change and that was also confirmed by blood test results so before anyone starts on a gym regime they ought to get the info about that blood testing and see if a gym regime or just increased levels of exercise will raise their fitness, aside from helping to keep weight down.

What was more interesting though was that they also measured his capacity for the body to burn up food energy and that three by twenty seconds three times a week commitment in just a month had made a measurable improvement, such that it would certainly lead to the onset of older age diabetes being far less likely and that would be good for with diabetes can eventually come all sorts of other complications, not to mention medical costs of just $500 p.a for prescription medicine alone.

So, three twenty second bursts three times a week is all you need to committ to for some good.
I actually tried it one day as part of my regular walking program, just eyeing of a target a hundred metres or so ahead and then really quickened my pace, like really forcing the pace without resorting to actual running but sustaining that for twenty seconds to half a minute and yes you do feel a bit breathless and your leg muscles might feel a bit more wobbly as the heart is working harder to circulate more blood so it is easy enough to do in many ways at different levels and probably achieve some good for longer term health.

And you could have those roast spuds or wedges more often.

iansand says:

07:16am | 27/12/12

I have a sneaking, completely unscientific, theory that the major influence on longevity is your genes, about which you cannot do anything.  Everything else is tinkering around the edges for a year or two of difference.