Hang on...let's back up!

We are getting a bit ahead of ourselves. I feel I would be cheating everyone if we went straight into the war without a bit of training.

One of my clients asked me this morning after 80 or so lunges, "How long am I going to have to keep working out?" to which I replied, "Well, if you keep working out...a whole lot longer than if you didn't".

Right then and there I flashed back to the first time I opened my textbook and read the first page. It defined Total Fitness as an optimal quality of life including mind body and spirit (I paraphrased). These 3 things can be seen as a synergy of sorts as a change in one of these aspects affects the other two. For instance, how you feel emotionally can often affect your physical performance and even physical health. Conversely, physical illness can adversely affect the other aspects in much the same way. This is what we are going to build on.

Mind: Attitude is everything. It is a direct reflection and expression through words and body language of how we feel about our present environment. Behaviors and attitudes are very closely linked, as in "I feel bummed so I will eat cereal all day" (yes, that is from personal experience). Think of this kind of like cause and effect. Boredom also plays a HUGE role in attitudes and behaviors but...later.

Body: The physical part of you. The outside, as it were. This is what we are working to keep going. We start from the inside out. Think of your heart (cardiac muscle, not the metaphoric) as the first part of the physical you. For intents and purposes, without your heart you achieve room temperature. We should focus first on your heart and steadily work our way out.

Spirit: This is the abstract part of you. The "I think therefore I am" part. I, personally, try to be a spiritual person but this goes beyond religion. Our sentience cries out for a reason to be so we should work to believe in something but we should also work to believe in OURSELVES. Seriously, sit back and imagine a soul. Give more to your consciousness than a series of rapidly firing synapses and mathematical formulae for continuing to breathe in and out. Imagine that what really holds your molecules together is the belief that you are part of something far greater and unimaginably more worthwhile than going to work and buying a large television. ::sigh::

So, based on these things, this is square one. This is where we begin.

Terrifying Facts

1. 40% of the entire U.S. population leads a sedentary lifestyle. This means that 120,000,000 people do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING all day long.
2. Billions of dollars are spent treating a vast array of illnesses and afflictions stemming from inactivity that could have been completely prevented in the first place by simply walking for 30 minutes a day. These range from Type I and II Diabetes to Stroke to Coronary Heart Disease.
3. Coronary Heart Disease is THE NUMBER 1 KILLER of human beings in America well above drunk driving and cancer.
4. Stroke is the number 3 killer, one of the leading causes of disability and is preventable.
5. One in four adults has hypertension (high blood pressure) that could eventually lead to stroke, heart attack/failure and kidney failure.
6. In 2001, 3.8 million children ages 6-11 and 5 million adolescents ages 12-19 were overweight or obese.

Now, for the good news
1. Fitness and physical activity are on the rise in schools and communities all over the place and are listed as priorities by the government.
2. The CDC is issuing guidelines for healthy physical activity and diet for adolescents in schools.
3. Diets rich in soluble fiber (oatmeal, beans, citrus fruit, apples, et al) have been shown to do a lot cheaper what that Lipitor nonsense does expensively.
4. I am here to make this process easier and far more pleasant.

More later...