As if women didn’t have enough to worry about already.
A new study conducted over a 13-year period by I-Min Lee of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston is topping the headlines today. It suggests that women of healthy weight need to exercise one hour a day in order to maintain that healthy weight as they age. I can hear women all over the country right now saying to themselves – why bother! And that minimum requirement is just for women who are of a healthy weight. What does that mean for women who need to lose weight, years of counting calories and exercising two hours a day?
Women, (and men) do not despair! This is nonsense! That right, it is not true. What basis do I have for saying this?
To answer this it is important to first understand the reason for so called “middle-age spread” (the tendency women and men have to gain weight as they age). Here it is in a nutshell – after 40 years or so of eating a diet predominantly of acid, the body starts to run out of places to store this excess acid and begins depositing it in our fat cells in greater measure. Let’s face it the typically American diet is made up of acidic foods. After years of eating this way, the average American is suffering from acute acidosis. Bottom line – we don’t have a fat problem in this country, we have an acid problem. According to Dr. Robert O. Young, renown microbiologist and author of the The PH Miracle, the human body will do whatever it takes to maintain the blood at a pH of 7.365 (slightly alkaline) which includes storing excess acid in our fat cells and connective tissue.
So what can women and men do to counteract this? Go green! Start to incorporate more green foods in your diet. A very simple way to accomplish this is to eat a salad with every meal. In addition, cut down or eliminate all the acidic drinks like coffee, tea, soda and alcohol in our diet, and instead drink a lot of water. But not just any water, drink alkaline water (water with a pH of 7.4 or above). To learn more go here.
So what about exercise? Well if the first part of this blog shocked you, this part might really shock you. Cardio is actually bad for you! That’s right. Traditional cardio is actually making your heart weaker. These are not my words, that is according to Dr. Al Sears, MD. We have all heard of marathon runners, for years touted to be in the best physical shape, dropping dead from heart attacks while running. How can this be? In order to run long distances, the body has to become more efficient. Excess weight and muscle is dropped and the heart and lungs are actually made smaller! That’s right. Running is making your heart smaller.
So how should women (and men) exercise? We can all agree that exercise is necessary for health and well-being. You can actually loss fat and strengthen you heart and lungs with just 12 minutes a day! Ditch those tiresome aerobic workouts! They’re actually making your heart and lungs smaller – and increasing your risk of disease. And jumping around for 45 minutes to an hour or more is not helping you lose weight, either! Dr. Sears has developed a program called PACE® that proves once-and-for-all that a great body and vibrant health does NOT have to be difficult, time consuming or boring.