My Health and Fitness Blog

We live in a world of great excess. Everywhere you turn, it’s always an overblown obsession about the next best thing. Especially with the Summer 2008 Olympics in Beijing China going on right now, the world’s attention is focused squarely on only the most exceptional physical qualities - personified within the most gifted male and female athletes at the top of their physical games. These rare and exceptional athletes possess sculpted bodies we can only dream of possessing and display flashes of speed, power, endurance, and agility we can only dream about. The pressures to perform at peak levels and successfully deliver gold medal results can be enormous. Behind the scenes, I’m sure the male and female athletes who engage in professional sports and competitive sporting events like the Olympics take their preparatory fitness training and dietary regiments to the ultimate extreme. To acquire the perfect human physique with the exceptional muscular, spiritual, mental ability to go above and behind what ordinary human kind can achieve in normal competitive settings, Olympic athletes must push their bodies to the limits of human capacity.

But for the rest of us ordinary mortals, we can only sit back and watch the awe inspiring performances unfold on our television sets. I’m sure many of us certainly wish and dream that we had the same six pack physique and stamina of American champion swimmer Michael Phelps, the pure power and sprinting speed of Jamaican track star Usain Bolt, or the flexibility and graceful beauty of American gymnast Nastia Luikin. However, the reality is that the individual bodies and feats of these amazing athletes are extremely unique and one of a kind. Due to the perfect combination of exceptional genetics and bodily enhancements brought out by extensive training as well as strict diet and fitness practices, they are able to achieve feats most of us can only dream of.

While we should all certainly try to strive for healthy lifestyles, and practice a well balanced life comprised of a healthy diet interspersed with plenty of exercise, we should acknowledge it’s unlikely the majority of us will achieve the high level of rare physical and mental perfection found only in professional athletes. Unless you were born into the role with amazing genes or spent your entire life training for that one single event as your life long profession, most of us will have to be content with our ordinary human limitations. For the majority of people including myself, we are merely - ordinary. There’s nothing wrong with being ordinary and it’s okay to happily acknowledge that. After all, 99% of the population likely falls into this large majority group. Like all the other fellow members of this group of ordinary people, we are not blessed with perfect athletic genetics, nor were we given exceptionally tall, muscular, or perfectly shaped bodies. Most of us ordinary types were probably not born with exceptional metabolism to allow us to naturally burn off fat at amazing rates with little effort, and most of us were probably not born with the perfect bodily coordination found only in the most naturally gifted athletes. But as I mentioned, that’s perfectly okay. The vast majority of us can still live truly exceptional and healthily balanced lives, well into old age.

Unless You Are Blessed With Exceptional Genetics, A Life Of Moderation Is What Will Bring You A Physically and Spiritually Happy Life

My message is to remind readers that the vast majority of us are not perfect and that there is no sense obsessing over this lack of physical perfection. We all have a few pounds extra here and there we’d like to get rid off and we all have something about our fitness and energy levels we’d like to improve. While it’s important to practice good routine exercise habits and to adopt a well balanced diet comprised of nutritious foods, there’s little sense obsessing over our natural inability to reach the pinnacle of bodily perfection that only a tiny, less than 1% will ever reach. The never ending search for that physical ideal will only lead to non stop concern, never ending stress, and inordinate amounts of money spent on useless DVD’s, unhelpful books, pointless exercise gadgets, and expensive diet programs that lead to nowhere but a self defeating cycle of anxiety. I once stumbled upon a powerful quote that perfectly encapsulated my views on how the lofty pursuit of a healthy life can be taken to the unhealthy extreme:

“What some call health if purchased by perpetual anxiety about diet, isn’t much better than tedious disease.”

- George Dennison Prentice, Prenticeana (1860)

I hope readers will read this famous statement over a few times carefully. Never has a quote been so true. Ever since our society became obsessed with the pursuit for perfect health, the perfect body, and the perfect weight, we’ve become addicted to all the dietary supplements, pills, exercise gadgets, and surgical procedures that science and medicine can afford. Some of us spend every waking moment obsessing about our weights and what to eat and what not to eat. Instead of filling our minds with this type of constant worrying and nutritional counting, perhaps we need to take a few steps back and adopt a more wholesome, balanced lifestyle.

The key to this more natural and holistic approach is to simply adopt a life of moderation. Believe it or not, the human body is a powerful biological machine and is perfectly able to regulate itself quite well with the right natural balance of nutrients and exercise. Instead of obsessing about what you should do and not do when it comes to your diet and fitness habits, try practicing a life of moderation. Instead of cutting everything from your diet, cold turkey, that you perceive as negative such as caffeine, sugars, alcohol, red meat, and fried foods, and living a life of sad deprivation befitting that of a monk, try consuming foods and drinks in moderation. It’s gluttony and “pigging out” too frequently that gets many of us into trouble, not the fact we consume those things in the first place. The body is incredibly adept at maintaining the perfect biological balance so long as you don’t indulge its sweet tooth in all respects to great excess. Moderation is the key to a well balanced life and the practical answer to living a truly healthy life that’s free from an unhealthy obsession about perfectionism when it comes to health itself.

Ah, to be young again. Not that I’m all that much older than the good old days - I’m only approaching my late 20’s and early 30’s. However, back when I was 18, it was much easier for me to stay in shape and keep myself healthy, while maintaining a nice, tidy flat stomach. Now that several years have past, it’s not so easy anymore. Frankly, I never thought my time would come as I always figured favorable genetics would always be on my side. After all, both my mother and father have relatively thin body types. My mom in particular is as skinny as a stick and my dad (with his chicken legs) isn’t too far behind. While there was a time period in his life when my dad did balloon up in body size due to over-eating, stress, and lack of exercise, his overall skinny genetics ultimately allowed his body to shrink back to his standard youthful size.

But genetics can only help us so much and time eventually catches up to us all. We all have different genetics and we’re born with different predilections to certain body types, with different innate strengths, inherent resistances, and weaknesses to a variety of diseases and conditions. Some of us are simply able to better maintain thinner bodies, while others are more susceptible to frustrating growth issues like big pot bellies, thunder thighs, or massively large butt cheeks. There’s nothing we can do but accept the fact that we can only work with the cards that we’ve been dealt with in life. There’s no sense moaning and groaning about our current body shapes, or pointing our chubby fingers at our overweight parents and blaming them for passing on their so-called fat genes on to us. All we can do is take matters into our hands now and shape ourselves the way we want to be. While due to genetics, losing weight in the right places may be easier said than done for some people than for others, it can be done - but it takes dedication, sacrifice, and perhaps a good dose of natural endorphin pain (from exercise and sore muscles). Remember, no pain no gain, and no guts no glory, and no risk no reward - take your pick in cheesy expressions - but they’re all true.

A Big Problem Area Of Mine - I Have A Stubborn Little Pot Belly That Just Won’t Deflate and Leave Me Alone

They come in all shapes, sizes, and dimensions. No, I’m not talking about beanie babies - I’m referring to the timeless symbol of bodily decadence - the human potbelly. Some of us even opt to give them cute nicknames and refer to them with funny euphemisms - everything from lower belly pooches, personal life preservers, spare tires, love handles, to beer bellies. But let’s not sugar coat it and forget what having a saggy or flabby pot belly really is - it’s a sign that you have excess weight and a chunk of unhealthy body fat.

While I have an overall skinny genetic predisposition, and on first glance you might immediately assume I was skinny all the way around and otherwise in shape, if I pulled up my T-shirt, you might think differently. Hidden under my shirt is a jiggly treasure trove of human belly fat - perfect for some fun loving squeezing and a show of wealth perhaps in some poorer countries, but to me, it’s a sad reminder that I’m out of shape and have been hitting the ice cream cartons and Asian carryout meals a bit too hard.

It wasn’t always like this. I used to be a very avid runner. I ran cross country in high school and consistently ran and exercised with heavy weights back in college. I even challenged myself and successfully ran a 10 mile half marathon race only a few years ago in the Cherry Blossom Run of Washington D.C. But ever since I left graduate school and started working hard in my job and eventually transitioning into my work at home routine, things have started to sag - especially my lower belly region. I may be a skinny guy from afar - but I have a baby Buddha belly in the making. I refuse to allow this to happen and have recently promised myself to do whatever it takes to get my body back in healthier shape, and ditch the excess stomach pooch. My plan is to start my aerobic and weight training today, 60 minutes every day until this extra spare tire of mine deflates.

It’s not just for aesthetics either as I’m really not vain at all. While most people would agree that a body with a flat stomach generally looks better than one that exhibits signs of being overweight, I’m more concerned about the long term future health implications. Despite my parents’ generally skinny genetics, my dad and some of the other male members of his family have had difficult histories of battling conditions like diabetes and various cardiovascular diseases caused by living unhealthy lives. I’m determined not to relive the same mistakes of the past.

The Risks, Dangers, and Truths About Having Belly Fat

While some people will say that’s it’s more important to love your body, be comfortable in your own skin, than it is to perpetuate the benefits of having a certain body type, I disagree. Losing that belly is not just about looks, the sex appeal factor of having a flat stomach, or avoiding the embarrassment of having a belly fold that just hangs out, it’s also the important health benefits gained by not having it. Ultimately, body fat is simply excess energy stored in the body for use later. If the fat is not consumed through physical activity, the deposits have a tendency to accumulate over time. The way fat is distributed in our bodies has a serious effect on the types of diseases and conditions we may grow susceptible to. It’s a pretty well known and researched fact that people with apple shaped bodies (chubbiest in the belly area) have a greater risk of diabetes and heart disease than those with pear shaped bodies (fattest in the thighs, hips, and butt region). It’s no coincidence that those with apple shaped lower bodies tend to be at greater risk of these risky conditions than those with more favorable silhouettes. While the apple shape tends to hit men harder, women are certainly not immune as old age and menopause will gradually shift their body fat buildups towards the belly area as well.

The type of belly fat that is most hazardous to our health is not the subcutaneous belly fat that sits right underneath the excess skin that bulges out, or the flabby part our friends and family physically squeeze and tug on to annoy us. The most dangerous part in terms of health risk is the visceral fat, which lies deep in your belly and surrounds your internal abdominal organs. It’s the visceral fat deposits that are the primary triggers of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, breast cancer, and other serious metabolic insulin and hormone related ailments.

How To Battle the Belly Bulge and Keep The Stomach Fat Off

As we age, our body metabolism naturally slows down, making it easier for fat to accumulate. It’s unavoidable and a part of life so there’s no sense trying to stop it, but there are ways to slow down and perhaps manipulate the fat accumulation effects through proper diet and exercise. Belly fat is simply excess fat that has been built up and stored in our bodies. To get rid of it, you’ll need to force the body to consume up the excess energy to reveal the flat abs underneath.

The great news about stomach fat is that it is the first type of fat to disappear once you engage in a concerted effort to lose weight through improved diet and better exercise. While maintaining a healthy diet comprised of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and everything else your mom told you to eat when you were little, is important, perhaps consistent exercise is the most effective method of all. The solution to getting rid of that excess belly fat is through a combination of aerobic exercise and weight training. While some may rely only on running and other aerobic forms, research has shown that strength training greatly enhances the fat burning process.

1) Aerobic Exercise - Aerobic exercise is simply any type of physical activity that can get your heart rate up and make you sweat for a length of time. Aerobic exercise is important because it helps the body burn calories and fat. If you want to reduce that big belly, you must burn off your excess calorie stores. Strenuous physical activities like treadmill running, elliptical walking, stair climbing, swimming, and basketball fit the bill. Contrary to what my golf enthusiast dad says or thinks, golfing and putting a little ball, while riding around the course on a golf cart is not considered aerobic exercise - there’s a reason why plenty of aging male golfers still maintain their Santa Claus-like bellies.

Ideally, you need to exercise at least 60 minutes every day, 7 days a week. However, taking Sunday off has been recommended by some fitness instructors to give your body time to rest. For those new to aerobic exercise, 30 minutes of running per day may be appropriate to start. Personally, my planned workout regiment is to run on the treadmill for 30-60 minutes every other day, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and to lift  weights on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.

2) Weight Training - Strength training must be used in concert with aerobic exercise and is an important component of the fat burning process. Currently, too many men rely solely on lifting weights alone to burn fat. But without the addition of aerobic exercise, their efforts may ultimately prove to be futile. You don’t need to bench press hundreds of pounds to accomplish this. Any type of weight lifting, whether using dumbbells or press machines can help you grow muscle.

When you lift weights and exert pressure on your muscles, you essentially wear and break down existing muscles cells, forcing the body to rebuild itself and grow stronger muscle mass to compensate. Muscle mass helps to burn off fat and developing it is a must. For the women out there who are afraid and worried about developing huge unsightly muscles, don’t worry. Biologically and physically, your bodies are unable to bulk up to the extent that male bodies can. Women simply lack the higher testosterone concentrations found in male bodies that permit the enhanced muscle growth potential. In case you’re wondering, most of the female body builders out there that do bulk up significantly almost always consume special supplements and body enhancer substances to promote this type of extraordinary masculine growth.

3) Healthy Diet - I’m most definitely not an expert on eating a healthy diet and it’s an area I wish to greatly improve on. But a healthy diet is obviously comprised of nutritional foods like fruits and vegetables, which contain important complex carbohydrates and fiber. There really is no magical diet that can help you lose weight, although certain food products, like fish, contain important nutrients for healthier living. Try to lay off the simple carbs like white bread and refined pastas if possible. Remember, to shrink your caloric intake. To lose the belly, you’ll need to consume less overall calories than you burn off.

4) Spot Toning and Crunches - This is probably the least important and least effective way to lose belly fat. Doing crunches and the exercise technique in which you repetitively suck in your belly numerous times to tone it, should only be practiced after all the above steps have been performed. Doing spot toning and sit ups to strengthen your belly won’t reduce the stomach size unless you lose weight. Excess bellies are simply excess fat that is covering up your internal abdominal organs. To get rid of that, you must engage in aerobic and strength training. Crunches only help to condition it further but should be the last step to a six pack ab, not the first.

Good luck on your way to a nice flat stomach. I hope to reduce mine in the near future as well. Looks like it’s time for me to hit the treadmill and the weight machine again.

There are different types of bodily pain that we may experience in life, and there are different approaches to diagnosing and treating them. Acute pain is usually easier to define as it’s oftentimes preceded by some form of identifiable trigger - such as slipping on an icy surface and twisting an ankle, or having a failing appendix that is causing sharp pain on one side of the body. But chronic, soft tissue pain is a much more difficult type of problem to accurately pinpoint and define. With acute pain, the uncomfortable sensation usually results from the aftermath of either a specific injurious event you can point to, or it arises from the effects of a failing organ of the body. Since my childhood, I’ve fallen down, scraped my knee, bumped my head, and bruised my arms and hands numerous times. Each time the bloody scratches and bruises hurt, but the wounds were always quickly treated with antiseptics and patched up with Band Aids, resulting in full recovery. While oftentimes quite intense, the experiences of acute pain were usually only temporary.

On the other hand, chronic pain is substantially harder to diagnose and treat, and the cause - significantly less concrete to define. Oftentimes, the patient is left wondering what he or she can possibly do to make the pain go away. Case in point - ever since I was a teenager, I’ve had to live with a chronic soreness and stiff pain in my neck, shoulder, and upper back region that simply won’t go away. To this day I still don’t know what caused it - as the pain is always present, and has a tendency to periodically fluctuate in intensity. With this type of soft tissue, almost phantom-like pain not arising from any specific injury (based on what I know), the diagnosis and treatment process is often much more elusive and non-apparent. As evidenced by the fact that it’s been literally a lifelong pain in the neck for me, I’ve simply had to get used to living with the inconvenience to the best of my ability. Sometimes with these types of things, all we can really do is practice an active lifestyle that will minimize the chronic pain as much as possible, and try our best to adopt physical and mental habit changes to better manage it.

Describing The Chronic Pain and Un-Curable Soreness In My Shoulder and Neck Region, and How I’ve Dealt With It Over Time

As I gradually approach my early 30’s and reflect back in time about my problem, I think the pain started during my mid high school years. However, I didn’t fully recognize its presence until college when the stress of studying and bad sitting posture brought out by constant hunching over while preparing for exams finally exacerbated the pain into full realization. Since then, I’ve sought the attention of main stream physicians and alternative medical witch doctors of sorts for my neck and shoulder pain. Frankly I don’t think the numerous doctors and nurses I’ve spoken to over the years ever took my complaints of pain very seriously. After all, it’s not like I was screaming out in agony or clutching a specific body part that was badly damaged. In fact, describing the painful sensations and tingling soreness I felt was a challenge in of itself.

My chronic shoulder and neck pain could be best described as a tiresome, aching muscle sensation that greatly worsens and is felt to a greater degree whenever I tilt my neck around in wide circles or bend it to stretch it. When I roll my neck around in wide circles, the muscular motion sends out painful sensations from the rear base of my head hairline, down my neck, and into the surrounding shoulder area. The worst pain is felt when I tilt my head towards my shoulder blades. When I do that, I experience a sharp and painful numbing lightening burst - an almost electrical joint of numbness that shoots down my arm and into my elbow funny bone area, causing a tinging sensation that frequently results in temporary loss of use of the afflicted arm. The numbing feeling is much more pronounced on my left arm and left shoulder than my right arm and right shoulder. My suspicion and self diagnosis has always been that perhaps my neck muscle was somehow pinching a stray nerve when I twisted my neck in certain positions.

Other than seeking out the advice of professional doctors who offered little in the way of diagnoses or treatment solutions beyond advising me to exercise more and eat a healthier diet comprised of fruits and vegetables (no new information here), I’ve also tried out alternative medical treatment options as well. During college, since my school health insurance covered it, I sought out the services of a health center acupuncturist, a health practitioner trained in the Chinese art and skill of using super thin needles to stimulate special Qi (pronounced “Chi”) inspired pressure points to incite special healing points in the body. While the seemingly magical acupuncture needles that the health practitioner stuck in my ears (of all places) did seem to soothe and generate a strange warm sensation in my head and upper shoulder region, the pin pricking sessions never cured my pain. They merely warmed and soothed the pain away momentarily, like a nice massage. However, the chronic pain persisted, unfortunately.

Unable to cure myself of my chronic neck and shoulder pain, I’ve learned to live with it as best as possible. Currently, I believe my chronic shoulder and neck pain is heavily influenced and exacerbated by increased stress and lack of exercise. While my perpetual soreness sensation never really goes away and is always present from the moment I get out of bed to the moment I go to sleep, the pain is substantially worse when I am overly stressed or confined to non-mobile positions for long periods of time. Back when I was in college and later law school, I studied tremendously and spent a great number of hours hunched over a library study desk until the wee morning hours in a rather stationary pose. Because of pressing academic deadlines and constant stress over the need to study for exams, those times were especially difficult and harsh on my neck and shoulder pain. Back then, the pain would often grow so bad that I’d have to pop a few over-the-counter pain pills just to keep my mind focused and off my aching shoulders. What started out as consuming 1 or 2 extra strength Tylenol’s ultimately turned into 2 or 3 Tylenol’s along with another 2-3 Advil’s at the same time. The pain killers effectively lessened the pain for a few blissful hours, but the effects were always temporary.

Unable To Cure My Mysterious Chronic Neck and Shoulder Pain With Medicine, I’ve Turned To A More Holistic Solution That Involves Improving My Sleep, Diet, and Exercise Habits

Despite my best efforts to treat the problem, I was merely masking the symptoms with over the counter drugs. My chronic neck pain continued long after graduate school and didn’t subside until I started working a less stressful line of work. Since I started running my own home business from the comforts of my own house, my academic and on the job stresses have greatly diminished. I’m sleeping a lot more consistently again, now that I no longer have to get up extremely early in the morning to go to a so-called real job. I also feel like I’m eating healthier now that I can prepare my own meals and choose what I want to eat for lunch and dinner, instead of having to settle for fast food sandwiches at work. Working from home has also allowed me to exercise more, giving me time to run on the treadmill to get myself back in shape. While the pain still lingers on in the recesses of my neck and shoulder, the decline in stress levels and the healthier life I’m living now have resulted in a noticeable decline in neck pain.

Along the way, I’ve learned a couple things about this chronic lifelong pain of mine. Looking at the times in my life when my chronic neck and shoulder pain ache increased, and reviewing the times in my life when the pain subsided, I think it’s safe to say that my diet choices, exercise regiment, and sleeping schedule have a huge impact on the severity of my pain. Whenever I swim now or run several miles on the treadmill, I always feel much more relaxed afterwards. While still ever present, my neck and shoulder aches and pains seem to momentarily subside after some healthy physical activity. Perhaps it’s the endorphins, the natural boost in adrenaline, or just the placebo psychological effect of physical activity and attempts at healthier living practices, but they help nevertheless. Until I can finally find a cure for my chronic shoulder and neck pain once and for all, I will continue to adopt practices that will allow me to better control and manage my disability. At least for now, I think I can accomplish just that with some simple changes to my diet and fitness lifestyle. Such changes may benefit those of you with similiar chronic ailments as well. It definitely beats popping pills all the time.