Exercise in the Modern Wellness World

Back in the day the words Diet and Exercise were always seen as equal partners in any weight loss effort. They were equal team mates much like Batman and Robin or Thelma and Louise. In recent years, it turns out that Diet is responsible for 75% any weight loss effort, so exercise is great and all but it isn’t as important as a good diet.

Why is this noteworthy?

First of all, term diet and exercise is outdated. As outdated as believing in spot reduction or that a calorie is a calorie. Knowing how important diet is gives us permission focus our efforts on meal planning and prep vs. doing an extra 20 minutes of cardio or another set of crunches at the gym.

Secondly, we cannot out run the fork. For someone who used to falsely believe I could eat whatever I wanted and work out a ton and it all be ok in the end, the cold hard truth is brutal. This rationale worked, more or less for a while, but then it stopped working and I gained weight. I was constantly living in huge swings of blood sugar swings and over exercise to constantly keep up with the huge meals. We want to live life in a balanced way, not in extremes.

Thirdly, how many overweight people do you know who exercise? Many right? Now, how many thin do you know that don’t? Just as many right? The Fat and Fit myth is on the list of things to EW Wellness Solutions be thrown out along side our outdated beliefs we could go back to eating how we wanted once we lost the final 10 pounds (you know how well that always worked out).

I am an avid exerciser. I am certified in 6 different modalities of exercise, I have about 50 pairs of exercise pants and was working out while in labor with my daughter (I thought it was Braxton Hicks). I love to workout for many reasons, however I have had to ditch the mindset of making up any caloric splurges I had or that more exercise was necessarily better if its meant I my body was breaking down or I was over training. Punishing my body through over exercise is no longer part of my internal dialogue, I know look for strength in my workouts, not to be skinny.

I am pretty busy lately. I still make time to workout 5-6 days a week, I also teach 4 days a week. I do not count when I teach as my exercise because my focus is on others. I might be moving a lot demoing to the students, but so much of what I get out of exercise is mental, I do not have the same benefits from going to a class as when I get to attend. When I am teaching, my mind is all over the place “is her form ok,” or “could I have said that cue in less words?”. The times when I get to the student, yes I work hard and I see results and all of those other great benefits, but this is usually when I do my my best thinking. These are the times when I realize a solution to something that has been stumping me lately or I have an idea. Very often this is the only hour of the day, I am not ON.

Exercise has many benefits, and it should be part of any weight loss effort, but it is not an equal
partner as diet.

Just a few of the many reasons to work out:

• Lowers blood pressure
• Improves quality of sleep
• Delays loss of muscle mass
• Improves balance and coordination
• Improves digestion
• Reduces osteoporosis
• Reduces joint stress and back pain
• Decreases risk of heart disease
• Improves heart health and decreases existing damage
• Decreases inflammation