Blaze Driscoll

Everyday there is more proof that resistance training, commonly referred to weight lifting, is beneficial to our health far beyond simply looking better.  Several benefits that come to mind immediately are, bone density, strength, and balance.  Sure, heading to the gym to pump some iron will help you burn calories, build muscle and improve your appearance but the health improvements don’t stop there.

First, start pumping iron if you want to keep Alzheimer’s at bay, say scientists.  A study found lifting weights can improve cognitive function in those aged between 65 and 75.  According to this study, weight lifting can help to stave off dementia.  Check out this video of senior citizen working out.  We can find a huge amount of data to support the fact that resistance training stimulates your brain as much as it stimulates the muscle.  In fact, I have told many of my clients that they should be as mentally tired as their body after leaving the gym.  If you are focusing and concentrating on making your body do a specific movement you will build now neurological pathways that will aid later in life with better coordination, balance and of coarse strength.

Second, self image is important to all of us and can take a significant downturn after breast cancer surgery.  According to this article, weight training is not only safe for breast cancer survivors and may make lymphedema flare ups less frequent, but it appears help women feel better about their bodies.  A common misconception is that weightlifting needs to be done at the gym taking up hours of your day… the truth is… you can spend just ten minutes a day at home, dressed in street clothes, to achieve the same results as the vast majority of gym members.

Third, weightlifting releases hormones that help fight depression.  These are the same hormones that are released when we laugh.  Interestingly, these are also the same thing that happens when we take medication.  It is the same thing that happens when taking cocaine.  According to this article from the Wall Street Journal, exercise can be as useful as medication… in fact, recently a study found that over two thirds of people taking anti depressants received little or no benefit from the drug.  If you can get more benefit from ten or twenty minutes a day lifting weights then taking an expensive and potentially harmful drug it should be a complete no brainer.

With the benefits you receive from progressive resistence trianing you can improve you mental health as well.  warding off deression, dementia and improving your self image are three terrific bonus’ from hitting the gym.  There are many more benefits too, that are just too numerous to mention in a blog.  With a return on your investment of less then thirty minutes a day, it’s a wonder everyone isn’t doing it.  The key is the develope a habit that is engrained into you subconscious that is as routine as brushing your teeth or taking a shower.  Keep following my blog for more short but useful posts on how you can get more results, spending less time to improve your over all health.

So, you’ve already blown your new year’s resolution.  Don’t worry, you’re not alone, maybe no one put together a plan for you, so, you did it yourself… and set your goals a bit lofty.  Or possibly, you ate too little, worked out too hard… found yourself sick–missing your new resolutions due to illness.  Now you are feeling guilty for not being strict, rigid and follow your plan perfectly.  The problem… your work-outs and meal plans were not designed with longevity in mind.  Too often our goals at the beginning of the year are to “lose weight fast” or “lose thirty pounds it thirty days”.  These empty promises soon leave with no motivation, no goals, no plan… just an empty wallet.  So by the first of February you have resigned to the fact that you just can’t do it.  Well I have news for you… you can still do it.  Set your goals to achieve long term success and chunk it down to yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly and finally daily.  Once you give yourself some flexibility to adjust your daily goals to still be reaching your weekly or monthly goals you will find long term success.

Ask anyone who has lost weight permanently they will tell you, with 100 percent certainty, that setting long term goals with a flexible daily plan is the only way to get the real results you are after.

Granted, the title of this blog should be, “The One Thing You Need to Know for Permanent Weight Loss” or “How to Lose Weight Quickly and Keep it Off!”

Wow, sounds like some kind of wonder drug.  It isn’t popping some miracle pill, it’s exercise.  Click here to check out what Harvey McKay has to say about improving your leadership skills though good old fashioned exercise.  And of coarse there are many other benefits from exercise one of my favorite benefits is the fact that the more your improve your physical fitness the more you improve the speed in which you do everything… if fact, there has been research done that indicated that most people who workout for thirty minutes a day will do everything faster though out the day to the point they gain thirty minutes in a fourteen hour day.  OK, there goes the old excuse that we don’t have time to workout.

Our brains control what our bodies do, and our bodies nourish our brains.  It is a “I help you, you help me” situation.  The latest developments in neo science shows incredible connections to how much exercise will improve our brain power, PBS aired a terrific program about brain fitness.  Exercise also trains our brain to make movements quicker and better.  Our balance improves.  Our reflexes improve.  Even our eyesight can improve.

We already know that exercise can help us lose weight.  Most everyone experiences a significant reduction in stress.  We can even stop the aging process.  By simply working out for thirty minutes a day we can get these benefits and much, much more.  Talk about a return on your investment… thirty minutes a day can add years to your life, give you the edge to advance at work, home and play, make you look better, feel better and be smarter.

I found this article interesting, Dee Depass, reporter for Star Tribune, recently wrote about working out after being cleared from her doctor to resume normal activity again.  I know from my own experience how important it is to get back to working out after physical set backs… and it is a bit humbling.  Sometimes it feels like you are starting from beginning again.

As promised from my previous posts, this post brings it all together.

It’s funny, today Mayo Clinic released that they have a new diet… the only diet by Mayo Clinic… surprisingly called the Mayo Clinic’s Diet.  The basis of the diet is behavioral changes.  That is no big surprise, ask any successful dieter and they will tell you, it is a series of life changes and it all begins with simply eating less then you burn.  I hope we have drilled that home by now.

If fact, I recommend to follow the recommendations of the Mayo Clinic Diet.  If you attend one of my seminars you will hear me discuss the core principles of the Mayo Diet, plus, you will experience the technics to imbed the book’s suggestions into your subconscious mind.  Put the tools of the Mayo Clinic Diet on cruise control.  (Set it and forget it.)

If you do that you will lose weight quickly, and keep it off Permanently.  My weight loss CD, has many of the suggestions from Mayo Clinic already on it… and I produced that CD years ago.  To order it, go here.

It isn’t any wonder that Mayo has chosen the very same topics as pro body builders have been using for years.  It because they work.  In fact, the book is just a bunch of old tried and true principles that have been working for years… and that is why I love it.

So, here it is, figure out how many calories you burn a day, then eat less then you burn by eating when you are hungry, quitting when you are full.