Exercise and eat good food to improve our over all health

Need Advice?

Life’s Interruptions

As we are going about our business and something new, unplanned, many times unpleasant, comes and takes us off the planned course were on, or are on – Life’s Interruptions.

What do I do when life throws me a curveball?

What do I do when things don’t go as I have planned?

--Life’s Interruptions

Ask Ruby  

Exercise and eat good food to improve our over all health. 

Dear Ruby:

Please explain to my wife and me why exercise is essential, and the benefits of eating good food as we enter midlife. I continue to tell her that we need to sustain our regular exercise routines and eat wholesome food now that we are both becoming less activity since our early retirements.    

--Ed in East Orange, NJ

Dear Ed:

Exercise is as important to a healthy body as is good food. Preventing symptoms and the associated problems of aging involves more than what we do or do not eat.  To be well prepared for midlife, we must engage in some form of physical exercise.  “Virtually all the evidence we have points in the same direction.   “Exercise makes us healthier and may impact longevity.  It is worthwhile to become more aggressive in using exercise to improve overall health.”  I must add, if we want strong bones to support our frame and firm muscles to protect our internal organs when we reach 50 (midlife) we should start our program early in life and maintain and sustain our exercise through out our life.  But, it is never too late to benefit from exercise; quite the contrary, with conditioning, we can have stronger muscles at 50 (midlife) than we did at 25. Remember, optimum results come from planned preparation, not last minute desperation. Consider the following list:

Benefits of Sustained, Regular Exercise

·        Improves circulation, reduces fatigue, creates energy, and increases our capacity for handling stress.

·        Exercise is a practical way to treat every day stress. It can reduce depression and give us a feeling of well-being.

·        Regular exercise can prolong life.

·        For each hour of physical activity, we can expect to live that hour over, and live one or more to boot.

·        Physical activity stimulates digestion and increases the absorption of nutrients.

·        Exercise helps you sleep soundly.

·        This one is for your wife: Studies show that active women have appreciably more vitamin C and iron in their bloodstreams than   sedentary women.

·        Another one for your wife:  For women, exercise can bring the hormones to a normal level, greatly reducing hot flashes.

·        The last one for your wife:  Exercise helps the adrenal glands to balance female hormones, such as, estrogen, during and  after menopause, allowing for a smoother transition.

·        Exercise is vital to weight control:  it diminishes the appetite, burns calories, build muscle, and speeds up body metabolism.

Your wife and you should make sure that what you choose is something you want to pursue and can easily incorporate into your lives.

Note: we can not eat the same amount of calories as we get older and maintain our same weight.  In other to keep the same weight we must ingest fewer calories, become more physically active, or both to derive permanent benefits, also we must continue a regular exercise program for the rest of your lives.

Dr.  Ruby Mae Chapman, Napolean & Ada Moton Chapman Institute, Life Coach