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Sugar and Addiction Are Connected

/23 January 2024/ All MFN blog/

There has been a proven link between sugar and dopamine. Sugar consumption has been proven to produce dopamine in the body, causing feelings of happiness and euphoria. This explains why people with depression tend to eat more processed and sugary foods — because the sugar in those foods produces the dopamine that their body is lacking. Dopamine is the same chemical that is released in the body during the use of illicit drugs such as cocaine and heroin. For individuals addicted to illicit drugs, attempting sobriety often leads to extreme cravings of sugary substances due to the absence of the dopamine that is no longer being introduced into the body. For alcoholics, there is a similar issue because many alcoholic drinks contain sugar, which also produces high levels of dopamine. These cravings of sugar could obviously then trigger weight gain, self-esteem issues, and increase the risk of diabetes, as if the battle that comes along with giving up an addiction isn’t hard enough.

The Neural Response of Dopamine

Our brains produce dopamine in response to things our body thinks we need to survive, like sex, for example, as evolution has hardwired humans for procreation, causing the brain to deem sex a necessity for our species to survive. Once dopamine produces feelings of happiness and pleasure, we then obviously want to engage in the actions that produce those feelings again and again. Studies have shown that the consumption of sugar causes the same high rise in dopamine levels in the brain that hard drugs cause. Thus why addicts struggle with sobriety as their brain continues to crave the dopamine that was produced by their substance/s of choice. Substance use, as well as severe depression, can cause the brain to lose its ability to produce dopamine naturally, causing it to become even harder to give up sugar the longer one uses the substance or is clinically depressed.

Evolutionary Eating Habits

Throughout history, humans have needed to consume many calories to survive, which is no longer the case due to advancements in food technology and the way that food is produced now. Although we humans no longer need to consume high amounts of calories, evolution simply has not caught up yet, forcing us to have to rewire our brains consciously with the information we now know to be true about healthy eating choices. This evolutionary hardwiring in combination with long-term use of sugary food and drinks cause the body to develop a high sugar tolerance, which again, can lead to the aforementioned issues listed above. 

Reducing Sugar Is A Process

When a client is struggling with addiction, they often express feelings of guilt and shame about craving sugary substances in excess. Often, they feel as if they’re switching addictions, which in and of itself makes one feel bad, but they also feel that they should be living a wholistically healthy lifestyle. Don’t get me wrong, this is a great long-term goal, however, one needs to start slowly, taking one step at a time to ensure long-term success.

“Baby steps. There’s no need to punish yourself for getting sober. This is supposed to be fun, not a chore, remember?” I’ll say with a chuckle. Starting an exercise regimen already puts physical stress on one’s body that they are unaccustomed to, which, even though it is fun, causes the body to need to adapt. That, in addition to having to abstain from the substance of one’s choice, is already enough for anybody to have to cope with. This is why people always have to be told not to beat themselves up over food cravings.

Reducing sugar intake is something that should be done gradually, over time. We’ll get there eventually, after we tackle all the other obstacles. As the adage goes, “You gotta learn to walk before you learn to run.”

Tambryn Crimson-Dahn is a certified personal trainer, fitness coach, nutritionist, and addiction recovery specialist with years of experience. After having worked in the gym industry, she now owns and operates her own company, Crimson Wholistic Fitness. She specializes in addiction recovery, depression, anxiety, and overall mental health and wellness, and enjoys psychology as continuing education.

References

Healthy-Lifestyle-Nutrition-Exercise-Medicine

The Power of Why: Motivation for Better Health

/15 January 2024/ All MFN blog, Conditions/

As a movement practitioner, I love it when my clients become my teachers. One conversation with someone going through the process of changing their life and fighting challenges may prompt, lead, or sometimes shove me into examining my practice, my approach, and my connection with the people I serve. Just recently Mary, one of my clients, wanted to meet with me to discuss her progress and our conversation inspired this article.

tuberow

Best Exercises to Prevent Osteoporosis

/12 January 2024/ All MFN blog/

Osteoporosis is a disease that affects our bone system due to a decrease in bone mass, density and an increase in the space between the bones. As a result, one’s bones become brittle and suspect to breaking. There are two types of osteoporosis: type 1 and type 2. Type 1 is generally a result of the aging process and a decrease in hormones such as estrogen and progesterone. These hormones help regulate how fast bone is lost. Type 2 is a result of medications or other health issues that interfere with bone reformation. Thankfully, both types are treatable!

Most Common Areas Affected: Osteoporosis is generally found in the neck of the thigh and lower back.  A lot occurs in these areas, so, a decrease in the strength of the bone there is not a good thing.

Nutrition: Since nutrition plays a factor in everything we do, it is important to mention it for those with osteoporosis. The three things to focus on the most are: an increase in calcium, and a stoppage of alcohol intake and smoking.

Exercises: Research shows that it takes about six months of consistent exercise at somewhat high intensities to produce enough bone mass change. With that being said, it is important to use proper exercises in a progressive fashion and make them specific to you.  Exercises should focus on the following areas of the body as they stress the overall bone structure: core, hips, thighs, back and arms. Here are my top six exercises to start your 6-month program:

Planks: 1-3 sets of 8-20 reps

planks

Supine Bridges: 1-3 sets of 8-20 reps
supinebridge

Prone Cobras: 1-3 sets of 8-20 reps
cobra

Squats: 1-3 sets, 8-20 reps
squats

Standing Tube Row: 1-3 sets, 8-20 reps
tuberow

Single leg balance: 1-3 sets, 8-20 reps
singlelegbalance

Conclusion

While osteoporosis can be a life threatening disease, it can be managed through exercise. Most people who include daily exercise are able to ward off further damage to their body and are able to do their normal daily activities of life. Performing the six exercises listed and then progressing to more challenging ones will keep a person with osteoporosis healthy!

Maurice D. Williams is a personal trainer and owner of Move Well Fitness in Bethesda, MD. With almost two deciades in the industry, he’s worked with a wide range of clients, including those with health challenges like diabetes, osteoporosis, multiple sclerosis, hypertension, coronary artery disease, lower back pain, pulmonary issues, and pregnancy. Maurice is also a fitness educator with Move Well Fit Academy and NASM.  

midlife-woman-lifting

Understanding and Conquering the Relative Insulin Resistance of Midlife – Beyond the Blood Tests

/3 January 2024/ All MFN blog/

One of the most common things my midlife clients struggle with is weight gain. “The things that worked before just don’t work anymore” is the mantra of so many during this phase of life. They visit their healthcare provider with concerns about “waking up in someone else’s body”. The doc runs some tests – thyroid levels, blood sugar studies, and insulin – and all the results come back in the normal range. “Great news!” says their doc. “There’s no problem. You’re just getting older”. End of story.

Many of you who have heard me on various podcasts know that I’m not a fan of the notion that hormone testing reflects the entirety of the Human experience as many “practitioners” would have you believe. The relative insulin resistance of midlife is a perfect example. One does not have to meet the criteria for “pre-diabetes” or metabolic syndrome for there to be real changes for which there are interventions. Isn’t the goal of medical care to prevent these things in the first place rather than just send you away until you actually become diabetic?

One does not need to meet the criteria for “pre-diabetes” or “metabolic syndrome” for there to be changes for which there are interventions. Isn’t the goal of medical care to prevent these things in the first place rather than just send you away until you actually become diabetic?

This is where understanding what’s happening inside your body during the various phases of hormonal life keeps you one step ahead of mainstream medicine. Today we will discuss the phenomenon of relative insulin resistance – the physiologic changes to energy utilization occurring in your body as a result of the normal hormonal changes of midlife – and how to mitigate the effects of these changes so that you can be your healthiest self.

Your Body on Carbs

In a nutshell, carbohydrate is consumed in the diet, digested and absorbed as glucose (among other simple carbohydrates), and utilized as fuel by the tissues in the body. Excess glucose that is not used is stored as glycogen in the liver and muscles, but also as fat. The hormone, “insulin”, is secreted by the pancreas in response to glucose entry into the bloodstream. Insulin drives glucose into the cells so that the cells can use the glucose as fuel to carry out their functions. The “efficiency” of insulin function is impacted by cycling estrogen and estrogen receptors on the surface of cells.

The two bodily systems that use the greatest amount of blood glucose are the brain and skeletal muscle – the voluntary muscles that move our bodies. During midlife, there is a decrease in cycling estrogen and estrogen receptor presence on the surface of skeletal muscle cells. As the ovarian hormonal cycles change and become irregular, there is less circulating estrogen. As a result, muscle mass, strength, and power decline along with the efficiency of the muscle’s ability to utilize blood glucose through insulin-mediated pathways.

A prominent player in cellular and insulin efficiency is an intracellular organelle called the mitochondria: the “batteries” that supply energy to cells. Below is an excerpt from my course Menopause Health and Fitness Specialist Course through MedFit Classroom that explains the science behind how skeletal muscle function is impacted by changes in estrogen and its receptors.

As we just mentioned, when blood glucose is not used as fuel, the excess is stored as fat. When the hormonal changes of midlife reduce the efficiency of glucose utilization by skeletal muscle, the result is a greater excess of unused glucose and increased storage of fat which results in changes in body composition.

Your End-Run Around Relative Insulin Resistance

There are three basic approaches to mitigating the impact of the hormonally-driven changes in how our bodies manage glucose. Resistance training (particularly weight training), nutrition, and neuroendocrine activation.

Resistance Training

If you want your muscles to use more glucose, then you need to increase the activity of those muscles. This looks different for different individuals. If you are sedentary, then starting with walking for 30 minutes 4-5 times per week is a great start! From there, add a weighted backpack, then maybe add some hills or even hiking trails. Simultaneously, engage a personal trainer for 6 weeks and become familiar with weight training. If you are an endurance athlete, make friends with the barbell. If you are a powerlifter, explore different ways to stimulate the muscles that add cardiovascular stimulation like combining running segments with heavy deadlifts. The point is, no matter what your fitness level or expertise, there are new and exciting ways to increase the functional capacity of your skeletal muscle.

Why does this work? The Human body is an amazing machine designed for survival. Mother Nature has programmed redundancies within our physiologic systems to promote longevity. We discussed the impact of our cycling reproductive hormones on how our muscles utilize blood glucose. Fortunately, other physiologic pathways facilitate glucose entry into the muscle cells that depend less on cycling hormones, most notably, the GLUT4 pathway. GLUT4 is a glucose transporter protein that works with muscle contraction to transport glucose into the cells. So when we stimulate muscle contraction through resistance training, this activates the GLUT4 pathway to facilitate the entry of glucose into the cells to be used as fuel, leaving less excess to be stored as fat.

GLUT4 is a glucose transporter protein that works with muscle contraction to transport glucose into the cells. So when we stimulate muscle contraction through resistance training, this activates the GLUT4 pathway to facilitate the entry of glucose into the cells to be used as fuel, leaving less excess to be stored as fat.

Nutrition

We have discussed how glucose enters the cells of our tissues through pathways involving insulin and GLUT4 and how unused, excess glucose is stored as fat. In this section, we will discuss the other important part of this equation, which is the load of glucose that enters the bloodstream by way of the foods we eat.

Glycemic Index – The glycemic index is a measure of how much a carbohydrate source will increase blood sugar over 2 hours from the time of consumption. There are low, medium, and high glycemic index foods with a great description in this resource from Healthline. A lower glycemic index reflects lower blood sugar following consumption and a higher index reflects greater increases in blood sugar. This is important because the glycemic index reflects the glucose “load” on the systems (such as insulin and GLUT4) that need to shuttle the glucose into the cells. When the glucose load is greater, the systems can become overloaded, leaving more excess to be stored as fat. When the load is less, insulin and GLUT4 can better “keep up” with transporting glucose into the cells for use as fuel leaving LESS excess to be stored as fat.

By focusing on carbohydrate sources with a lower glycemic index and minimizing those with a higher glycemic index, you can effectively decrease the glucose load that insulin and other glucose transport pathways see and thus more efficiently use carbohydrates as fuel and minimize the excess that is stored as fat.

Neuroendocrine Adaptation

Adaptation is the ability of the body to adjust or “make familiar” movements or tasks that we undertake. This is a coordinated effort by the muscles, joints, metabolic, and endocrine processes all driven by the master puppeteer we know as the Nervous System!

Because Mother Nature designed Humans for survival, our ability to adapt to physical stimuli and physical tasks is powerful! When we stimulate the muscles repetitively in the same way for an extended period of time, the body doesn’t need to work as hard to manage the load or task and effectively switches into “Auto-pilot”. This is great for elite athletes where the tasks that their sports require become second nature through adaptation.

However, from the standpoint of muscle physiology, they crave something more! This is why we train differently in the off-season: to keep the muscles guessing and thus contantly adapting to become fitter, faster and stronger so that we can crush it on game day! To learn more about this incredible phenomenon, check out Neuroendocrine Adaptation: Your End-Run Around the Menopause Transition.

Key Points for Combatting Midlife Relative Insulin Resistance

  • Get moving! The first step to using more glucose as fuel and storing less as fat is to move those muscles. For the sedentary, walking, backpacking, and hiking are great ways to start.
  • If you have never trained with weights, another great place to start is a group “boot camp” style fitness class. Find one at your local gym and sign up with a friend! My favorite group class for getting started with weights is Les Mills BodyPump.
  • Any level of athlete can benefit from a 4-6 week training program with a trainer or strength coach to gain some basic skills and techniques from basic to more advanced movements depending on your fitness level/familiarity.
  • Incorporate resistance/weight training at least 2-3x per week.
  • No equipment, no problem! Push-ups and their many variations are fantastic for anyone of any fitness level to add mass, strength, and power to the muscles of the upper body.
  • Take an inventory of your carbohydrate intake and using the resources in this LINK, identify carbohydrate sources and potential substitutions that can move the needle toward lower glycemic index choices.
  • Nutrient timing is a strategy where carbohydrate intake is timed within an hour before training and within an hour after when the muscles are “looking” to fuel movement during the workout and then looking to replenish glycogen stores in the liver following a training session.
  • Most importantly, be consistent, but be patient! It’s about progress, not perfection. Every little bit you can do has benefits.

Fit Pros: Offer menopausal and perimenopausal women an individualized approach to training, nutrition and wellness as a Menopause Health and Fitness Specialist.

Dr. Carla DiGirolamo is a double Board-Certified Obstetrician/Gynecologist and Reproductive Endocrinologist who specializes in the care of reproductive age and mid-life women. Carla completed her residency training in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Brown University Medical School/Women and Infants’ Hospital and her Reproductive Endocrinology training at the Massachusetts General Hospital at Harvard Medical School.

mid age man exercising at the beach

Exercise and Prostate Cancer

/22 December 2023/ All MFN blog/

The rising rate of prostate cancer necessitates developing better methods to prevent and treat prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is the third leading cause of cancer death among U.S. men, according to the American Cancer Society. The country’s 3.3 million prostate cancer survivors account for 21 percent of all cancer survivors.

There are many reasons why a cancer patient should stay as active as possible through cancer treatment and recovery. I will begin by pointing out a few studies that show how exercise can benefit cancer patients. These studies demonstrate how exercise can reduce certain side effects from treatment, increase energy, decrease stress, and improve quality of life.

There is evidence to support the use of exercise in prostate treatment. Exercise plays a role in the all-around improved physical and mental health and therefore should be considered in the treatment plan. We know that exercise can decrease recurrence for some cancers and the role it plays in weight control, which is correlated with some cancers. For prostate cancer specifically, data indicates that obesity increases the aggressiveness of prostate cancer, and thus mortality. Men receiving androgen deprivation therapy are at higher risk for depression. Exercise reduces depression.

Studies do have their limitations. Some use self-reported data about lifestyle and exercise. Moreover, there may be a low number of minority participants who may often have higher cancer rates. The following are a few of the published studies, which confirm that exercise should be included in the treatment plan for prostate cancer patients.

Studies have suggested that patients with high levels of physical activity had a lower rate of disease progression and also reduced mortality from prostate cancer. Ying Wang, PhD, a senior epidemiologist in the Epidemiology Research Program at the American Cancer Society in Atlanta, and colleagues analyzed data on 10,067 men diagnosed with non-metastatic prostate cancer between 1992 and 2011. Men with prostate cancer, which hasn’t spread may have longer survival the more they exercise. A study demonstrated that men who were the most physically active had a 34% lower risk of dying from prostate cancer when compared with men who were the least physically active. Men who either maintained or increased their exercise level also benefited. Prostate cancer patients who kept up a moderate to high level of physical activity also had better survival prognoses compared with their more sedentary counterparts. Those men who were more active before diagnosis were more likely to have lower-risk cancer tumors and a history of prostate screenings. They were also leaner, more likely to be nonsmokers and vitamin users and they ate more fish. Wang concludes, “Our results support evidence that prostate cancer survivors should adhere to physical activity guidelines, and suggest that physicians should consider promoting a physically active lifestyle to their prostate cancer patients.”

Androgen Deprivation Therapy leads to numerous side effects, which can be decreased through exercise. Side effects of ADT include loss of muscle, increase in fat mass and osteoporosis. Risk for diabetes and heart disease also increases. Brian Focht, reported at the November AICR convention, that functional ability increased dramatically as did quality of life for those that exercise, and side effects of ADT were reversed.

Exercise can decrease blood sugar levels, which lower insulin levels and also helps to lower inflammation. There does appear to be a positive association between insulin levels, inflammation and prostate cancer risk.

The evidence for physical activity in reducing anxiety and depression, while increasing general-well being is fairly substantial. Improving well-being can have a dramatic beneficial effect on sexual function. Consistent exercise will also help to lower insulin, blood sugar, and improve overall cardiovascular health, all of which have positive impact on erectile dysfunction and libido ().

In 2016, Rider and Wilson studied the connection between ejaculation and prostate cancer, which was published in European Urology. Men that reported higher ejaculatory frequency were less likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer . This study showed a beneficial role of frequent ejaculation particularly for low-risk disease.

Some doctors have traditionally told patients to rest during this time but Favil Singh’s research confirms the importance of getting fit prior to surgery. Singh’s research published in the journal Integrative Cancer Therapies has shown that a regular dose of physical activity prior to surgery helps the recovery process. This reduces time in the hospital.

Singh stated “This is the first time we’ve been able to demonstrate the benefits of ‘pre-habilitation’ for prostate cancer patients. It is safe, side effect-free and can be done while undergoing chemo or radiotherapy. Just two sessions a week of resistance and exercise training for six weeks can make a difference to recovery.”

Often, there is a waiting period in between diagnosis and surgery. If fitness level can be improved before surgery the patient, then the patient goes into the surgery stronger and may have a better recovery.

The American Cancer Society and American College of Sports Medicine recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise each week. This advice is a good goal for those who have been inactive. Unfortunately, in my view this is insufficient for a significant number of cancer patients. Having worked with cancer patients for over 20 years, I believe that this recommendation needs to be changed. It is impossible to include aerobic exercise, strength training, and other exercise methods in the current recommended time frame.

Carol J. Michaels is the founder and creator of Recovery Fitness® LLC, located in Short Hills, New Jersey. Her programs are designed to help cancer survivors in recovery through exercise programs. Carol, an award winning fitness and exercise specialist, has over 17 years of experience as a fitness professional and as a cancer exercise specialist. Visit her website, carolmichaelsfitness.com

References

Steven C. Moore PhD, et al, Association of Leisure-Time Physical Activity With Risk of 26 Types of Cancer in 1.44 Million Adults. JAMA Intern Med. 2016; 176(6): 816-825.

Lynch B.M., Dunstan D.W., Vallance J.K., Owen N. Don’t take cancer sitting down: A new survivorship research agenda. Cancer. 2013, Jun 1; 119(11): 1928-35 Medicine

Kristina H. Karvinen, Kerry S. Courneya, Scott North and Peter Venner, Associations between Exercise and Quality of Life in Bladder Cancer Survivors: A Population-Based Study, Cancer Epidemiology and Biomarkers Prevention May 2007, 10.1158/1055-9965

Gopalakrishna et al, Lifestyle factors and health-related quality of life in bladder cancer survivors: a systematic review. Journal of Cancer Survivorship, 2016 (5): 874-82

Vallance, J., Spark, L., & Eakin, E.. Exercise behavior, motivation, and maintenance among cancer survivors. In Exercise, Energy Balance, and Cancer (2013) (pp. 215-231). Springer

Cannioto et al., The association of lifetime physical inactivity with bladder and renal cancer risk: A hospital-based case-control analysis, Cancer Epidemiology, Volume 49 August 2017

Cramp F, Byron-Daniel J. Exercise for the management of cancer-related fatigue in adults. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2012; 14(11): CD006145.

Booth FW, et al., Lack of exercise is a major cause of chronic diseases. Compr Physiol. 2012 Apr; 2(2): 1143-211.

Stephanie Cash et al, Recreational physical activity and risk of papillary thyroid cancer among women in the California Teachers Study. Cancer Epidemiology, Feb 2013,37(1): 46-53

Hwang, Yunji MS; Lee, Kyu Eun MD, PhD; Park, Young Joo MD, PhD; et al, Annual Average Changes in Adult Obesity as a Risk Factor for Papillary Thyroid Cancer: A Large-Scale Case-Control Study, Medicine, March 2016, Mar; 95(9): e2893

Cao Y, Ma J. Body mass index, prostate cancer-specific mortality, and biochemical recurrence: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Cancer Prev Res (Phila). 2011; 4: 486-501.

Galvao, et al. Combined resistance and aerobic exercise program reverses muscle loss in men undergoing androgen suppression therapy for prostate cancer without bone metastases: a randomized controlled trial. J Clin Oncol. 2010 Jan 10; 28(2): 340-7.

Galvao, et al. Exercise can prevent and even reverse adverse effects of androgen suppression treatment in men with prostate cancer. Prostate Cancer Prostatic Dis. 2007; 10(4):340-6.

Winters-Stone KM, et al. Resistance training reduces disability in prostate cancer survivors on androgen deprivation therapy: evidence from a randomized controlled trial. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2015 Jan; 96(1): 7-14.

Giovannucci EL, Liu Y, Leitzmann MF, Stampfer MJ, Willett WC. A prospective study of physical activity and incident and fatal prostate cancer. Arch Intern Med. 2005; 165: 1005-1010.

Storer TW, Miciek R, Travison TG. Muscle function, physical performance and body composition changes in men with prostate cancer undergoing androgen deprivation therapy. Asian J Androl. 2012, Mar; 14(2): 204-21.

Focht, Brian C.; Lucas, Alexander R.; Grainger, Elizabeth; Simpson, Christina; Fairman, Ciaran M.; Thomas-Ahner, Jennifer; Clinton, Steven K., Effects of a Combined Exercise and Dietary Intervention on Mobility Performance in Prostate Cancer, Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. May 2016:48(5S): 515.

Rider J, Wilson K.et al. Ejaculation Frequency and Risk of Prostate Cancer: Updated Results with an Additional Decade of Follow up, European Urology. December 2016, volume 70, issue 6

Singh F. et al. Feasibility of Presurgical Exercise in Men With Prostate Cancer Undergoing Prostatectomy, Integrative Cancer Therapies (2016). DOI: 10.1177/1534735416666373

Wang et al, Recreational Physical Activity in Relation to Prostate Cancer–specific Mortality Among Men with Nonmetastatic Prostate Cancer. European Urology July 2017 online bit.ly/2tXMK6Y

holding sandwich

Fueling Tips for Single and Double Workouts

/20 December 2023/ All MFN blog/

As one coach aptly stated, “Too many athletes show up for training, but they don’t show up for meals. They might as well not show up for training.”  So true! Pre-exercise fueling makes a big difference in terms of how well athletes can enhance their performance. Food eaten within the hour before exercise does get put to good use, helping athletes train harder and longer. (It also helps curb the post-exercise hunger and sugar cravings that can easily end up as overeating.)

You can only perform at your best if you are well-fueled on a daily basis. Yet too many athletes wonder what (and if) they should eat before exercise. Rowers want to know what to grab (if anything) as they roll out of bed and head to the boathouse. Triathletes ask about how to fuel for their second workout of the day. Runners want a pre-exercise snack that will not cause intestinal distress.

No one pre-exercise food is best for all athletes. Hence, you want to experiment to learn which foods settle best in your body. Here is some guidance for planning effective pre-exercise fueling.

First, take steps to train your gut (not just your heart, lungs, and muscles).

I’ve talked to many athletes (particularly in running sports) who purposefully choose to not eat within hours of exercise as a means to avoid gastro-intestinal (GI) upset. While this may seem like a good idea for the short term, it’s a bad idea if you want to optimize performance for the long run.

The intestinal tract is trainable and can digest food during exercise that lasts >30 minutes. (The gut shuts down during short, intense bouts, so plan to eat 2 to 4 hours in advance of those workouts!) To train your gut, start by nibbling on 50 to 100 calories of crackers, pretzels, or any simple-to-digest carb within the hour pre-exercise. Once your GI tract tolerates that snack, titrate the calories up to 200 to 300—maybe a packet of oatmeal, a granola bar, or an English muffin (with some peanut butter on it for longer-lasting energy). Experiment with a variety of fruits (applesauce), vegetables (sweet potato), and grains (leftover pasta) to learn what works best for your body. You are an experiment of one.

For some athletes, GI distress can be caused by the inability to thoroughly digest specific types of carbohydrates called FODMAPS (Fermentable Oligo-, Di-, Mono-saccharides And Polyols). Common sources of FODMAPs include garlic and onion (found in the spaghetti sauce & garlic bread often enjoyed the night before a big work-out), as well as apples and raspberries. For more in-depth FODMAP information, visit www.KateScarlata.com.

Meal timing matters. When you eat matters as much as what you eat.

Too many athletes eat backwards. That is, they undereat during the active part of their day, only to consume a huge meal before going to bed. Two standard excuses for skimpy daytime fueling include:

  • #1: “I look forward to a big dinner. That’s when I finally have time to relax and reward myself for having survived yet-another busy day.”
  • #2: “I want to lose weight. I can stick to my diet at breakfast & lunch, but I blow it at night. Evening eating is my downfall.”
  • If either scenario sounds familiar, think again. You are going to consume the calories eventually, so you might as well plan to eat them when they can be put to good use.

Morning exercisers want to eat part of their breakfast (granola bar & latte) before they workout and then the rest of their breakfast afterwards (oatmeal, banana & PB). They then want to plan an early hearty lunch at 11:00ish and a second lunch/hearty snack at 3:00ish. The goal of the second lunch is to both fuel the upcoming workout and curb the appetite for dinner so they can then be content to eat a lighter dinner—and likely better sleep than if they had stuffed themselves with a big meal.

Athletes who do double workouts really want to eat a hearty early lunch to refuel from the morning session and prepare for the second (afternoon) session. They’ll have 4 to 5 hours to readily digest lunch before they train again.

You might need to plan time to eat.

Busy athletes who juggle work and/or school plus double workouts often complain they have no time to eat. Sometimes that is true and sometimes they choose to sleep a few more minutes (leaving no time for breakfast) or keep working on a project (leaving no time for lunch). Those are both choices. They could have chosen to make fueling more of a priority.

If you struggle with finding time to eat, plan ahead and schedule lunch time in your daily calendar, or set an alarm for snack-time before your 4:00 pm workout. Maybe you can convert your afternoon coffee into a latte, grab a banana, or eat an energy bar while driving to the gym or reading email? Anything is better than nothing.

If you go from work (or school) to afternoon workout, the extra-large lunch will offer fuel for an energetic afternoon workout. Alternatively, plan to have a 3:00 Second Lunch readily available (apple + cheese+ crackers; half or whole PB & J sandwich; yogurt + granola + banana).

Any fuel—even cookies or candy—is better than exercising on empty. You’ll even perform better after having enjoyed a sweet treat as opposed to having eaten nothing. (Research suggests sugar/candy eaten within 15-minutes pre-exercise can actually boost performance and not simply contribute to a sugar “crash.”)

Final thoughts

For athletes, every meal has a purpose. You are either fueling up to prepare for exercise, or you are refueling afterwards to both recover from the work-out and prepare for your next session. Fueling properly takes time and energy. You need to be responsible! Do not brush off meals and snacks as if they are optional inconveniences in your busy day.

Proper fueling requires time-management skills, particularly for students and athletes doing double sessions. You want to schedule time (rest days? weekends?) to food shop and batch-cook so you can have the right foods in the right places at the right times. You (almost) always find time to exercise; you must also find time to fuel properly.

Nancy Clark MS RD CSSD counsels both fitness exercisers and competitive athletes in the Boston-area (Newton; 617-795-1875). Her best-selling Sports Nutrition Guidebook is a popular resource, as is her online workshop. Visit NancyClarkRD.com for info.

grateful

Gratitude: The Gift of Being Present

/18 December 2023/ All MFN blog/

The holiday season can be a wonderful time for gathering and celebrating with family and friends, but it can also be a source of much added stress.  You may be fretting about any number of circumstances like: how to manage your weight or chronic condition like diabetes during all the “feastivities”;  choosing the perfect gifts and worried if you can afford them; missing a loved one who can’t be with you or who has passed away; or perhaps you feel unwell or someone close has been diagnosed with a disease.

Whatever personal challenges you are experiencing, research shows that grateful people are happier and healthier; can make better decisions; and are more joyful(1).  It’s a skill anyone can learn and benefit from and best of all, it’s free!  

How it Works

An attitude of gratitude bolsters the feel-good neurotransmitters (brain chemicals) dopamine and serotonin.  Feeling thankful and appreciative also boosts the love hormone oxytocin so we feel more connected while it decreases the stress hormone cortisol(2).   

Our day-to-day lives are so busy that we often rush from one task to the next one without being mindful.  Living in the fast lane thrusts us into a chronic state of stress, consistently raising cortisol levels that end up damaging our body cells, organs and systems.  This is a major reason why stress is the silent killer that we all talk about but don’t take seriously enough.  

Slowing down, taking a few deep breaths and being grateful moves us out of the sympathetic state or fight or flight mode and into the parasympathetic state of rest, digest, heal and repair.  This is where our body and mind can relax and rejuvenate so we can sleep better and experience more energy and vitality.  And who doesn’t want more healthy energy?!

Count Your Blessings

When we focus on what we have instead of what we don’t have, it puts us in a positive frame of mind.  We become more content, satisfied and fulfilled.  The ability to notice, appreciate and savor life’s moving parts grows gratitude for better physical and psychological well-being(1,3).

Grateful people count their blessings and look at their lives and experiences as gifts(1,3). We can shift our perspective and explore: “What is this difficult situation trying to teach me?”  “What am I grateful for in this moment?”  

When my family and I were recovering from chronic Lyme, we were all thankful for each other, the support of family and friends and for having the resources to pay for exorbitant out-of-pocket medical expenses.  Gratitude played a starring role in our healing.

Mindfulness

Practicing mindfulness is an effective way to plug into the feeling of gratitude.  Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn defines mindfulness as “paying attention on purpose in the present moment, non-judgmentally…as if your life depended on it”(4).  

When you think about it, all we really have is the present moment.  Unfortunately, we spend a lot of time and waste precious energy worrying about the future or commiserating over the past.  Focusing on the present moment helps us connect to each other, our thoughts and our own lives so we can become the best version of ourselves.  Each day we have the opportunity to do and be better. 

Cultivate Gratitude

When we are mindful we can be amazed by the power of breath, the body’s ability to heal itself from an infection or injury, the beauty of the blue sky, a pink sunrise or sunset, the miracle of a baby being born, the unconditional love of a pet, the plants and trees that clean the air and provide oxygen, the water that runs out of a faucet or down a cool Rocky Mountain stream… the possibilities are limitless.

Better Health 

Scientific studies show that being thankful and appreciative is associated with less physical illness, fewer aches and pains; lower levels of stress, anxiety, and depression(3, 5); and fostering new and lasting relationships(6).   

Being grateful also expands our scope of cognition so we can be more flexible and creative with our thinking and make better decisions.  This makes it easier to cope with stress and adversity(1).

Unwrapping the Gift

When we are grateful and thankful, we tend to be kinder and more generous.  Gratitude makes us feel good, so we want to do it again and again.  The best part is that it’s easy to get started and can feel the benefits quickly. Research shows that you can start feeling better in as little as 2 weeks by writing in a Gratitude Journal(1). 

Here’s How

Grab a notebook, pad or smart phone and each evening before bed, write 3 things you are grateful for.  Write novel blessings, trying not to repeat the same ones, because the possibilities are endless.  Practice this for 2 weeks and see what happens.  

The best time to get started is now, in the present moment. Today, tell someone how grateful you are for them.  You will be sharing a great gift.

Cate Reade, MS, RD is a Registered Dietitian, Exercise Physiologist and Functional Medicine Practitioner candidate on a mission to improve functional mobility and health span utilizing the power of lifestyle medicine. She has been teaching, writing and prescribing healthy eating and exercise programs for over 25 years. Today, as CEO of Resistance Dynamics and inventor of the MoveMor™ Mobility Trainer, she develops exercise products and programs that target joint flexibility, strength and balance deficits to help older adults fall less and live more.

References

  1. Emmons, R & McCullough, M (2003). Counting Blessings Versus Burdens: An Experimental Investigation of Gratitude and Subjective Well-Being in Daily Life. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology.  www.greatergood.berkeley.edu.
  2. Gottfried, S (2016). www.saragottfriedmd.com/thanksgiving-what-gratitude-does-to-your-brain/
  3. Hill, PL et al (2013).  Examining the Pathways between Gratitude and Self-Rated Physical Health across Adulthood.  Pers Individ Dif. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23139438
  4. Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D. www.psychalive.org | videos
  5. Cheng, S et al. (2015) Improving mental health in health care practitioners: Randomized controlled trial of a gratitude intervention.” Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25222798
  6. Williams, L & Bartlett M (2015). Warm thanks: gratitude expression facilitates social affiliation in new relationships via perceived warmth. Emotion.  www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25111881
senior-couple-walking

The Walking Games

/13 December 2023/ All MFN blog/

Walking is the most readily available form of physical activity that most people can do regularly.  As the days turn darker and the temperatures drop, the innate enjoyment of walking outdoors can make regular walking harder as we spend more time indoors. 

The solution? Walking Games. 

These are strategies to bring enjoyment and engagement to indoor physical activity.  Further, these strategies also sneak in some added of brain health benefit with added cognitive challenge and an emotionally enhanced experience beyond what people expect from “walking.”

Brain games alone are not enough.  They can provide some cognitive benefit, but for most of human history, we solved intensely meaningful problems directly related to survival while moving, not sitting on a couch playing a low-stakes brain game or working on a crossword puzzle. 

Likewise, any exercise is good for brain health.  But when you add cognitive challenge to exercise, the benefits multiply.  Conceptually, it’s as simple as considering the difference between the treadmill and a trail for walking.  The latter requires using sensory information to consciously choose where and how to take each step.  

The strategies below are designed to create a “think and move” experience, all while enhancing the emotional response to movement. 

Walking Game 1:  Alphabet Walk

  • Mark off a rectangular or oval space with cones, water bottles, shoes, pillows, or anything else readily available.
  • Within the space, walk to trace letters on the floor with your feet.  Use names of favorite movies, books, musical artists or names of friends, family, or pets or perhaps names of travel destinations.  

The highly variable direction of movement makes the walking more beneficial and the use of letters of cherished names adds cognitive benefit and enhances the emotional state while walking by keeping favorite pop culture offerings or loved ones front-of-mind while moving. 

Walking Game 2:  Balloon Tap Walk

  • Blow up a balloon and gently tap it as you walk to keep it up by “air dribbling.”  

The need to track the unpredictable action of the balloon will result in variable walking speeds and co-coordination of eye-hand movements. 

Walking Game 3:  Balloon Wall Dribble

  • Blow up a balloon and face a wall. 
  • Tap the balloon into the wall and keep tapping it into the wall, adjusting body position slightly side-to-side to move with the balloon.  

Optional add-on for balloon exercises: Use a light-colored balloon and a dark-colored marker. Write letters or numbers on the balloon.  Use it to perform any of the following (in increasing order of difficulty):

  • Call out the letter or number most visible when tapping the balloon.  
  • Call out words in the same categories introduced above in “Alphabet Walk”
  • Using the numbers, designate a left and right hand for even and odd numbers, then tap the balloon with the corresponding hand. Or, perform simple math like addition or subtraction.
  • Combine use of letters and numbers. For example, call out favorite musical artists for letters and use the left-right/even-odd hand tap for numbers.

Walking Game 4:  Bounce, Catch…or Fetch

This can be done strolling slowly through any indoor space or standing still.  Use a ball, a pet’s toy, a pillow, or any object which you can bounce and/or toss and catch.  Bonus brain points for using something without an “easy” shape as it requires more manual dexterity to catch.  And if you drop the object, you get some extra essential life skill movement by fetching it from the floor.  

Wrap Up 

The reason people become less active when spending more time indoors is that the usual ways of moving more indoors are boring – no one is realistically going to take a walk around their house.  However, moving consistently is important to our physiology and our brain health regardless of the weather or season.  

Using these and other similar strategies that you think of can make staying active when spending more time inside more appealing, and that is the key to making it happen more regularly.  You can be an inspired leader to the people you serve when you make things enjoyable, more engaging, and as a result easier to do (so they no longer have to force themselves to do them.)

Brain Health Education for Fit Pros

All physical activity is good for the brain, but the inclusion of specific elements such as coordination, reactivity, partner interaction, attention and memory challenges integrated with physical activity make it even more beneficial. MedFit Classroom’s Alzheimer’s Disease Fitness Specialist course blends current science with common sense to present cutting-edge ideas to optimize the impact that fitness can have in the lives of those you serve who are concerned about or diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

Article originally printed in canfitpro magazine.

His “800 Pounds of Parents” directly inspired Jonathan’s prolific fitness career. He is a multiple Personal Trainer of the Year Award-Winner (ACE, IDEA, and PFP Magazine), master trainer for the American Council on Exercise (ACE), creator of Funtensity, brain fitness visionary, blogger, international speaker and author. He is the author of MedFit’s Alzheimer’s Disease Fitness Specialist online course.