#56 — Gratitude; Sugar, New Workout, Logging, Variety.

SPINNING NEWSLETTER #56 — Gratitude; Sugar, New Workout, Logging, Variety.

GRATITUDE: I try to read as much health and fitness content as I can and then use this newsletter as a way to summarize which of that I think might be of interest to you. Usually that material is a fitness tip, or new scientific study but another article recently caught my interest because it says something important about happiness, a key component of wellness. A recent article by Yoga writer Frank Jude Boccio talks about the importance of gratitude in our lives.

I have been thinking some lately about how a sense of entitlement can grow into a pervasive anger at not getting what we want in life. Boccio suggests that a key ingredient in happiness is gratitude for what we do have, and most of all for the vast and complex interconnectedness of life that provides us with so much.

He says, “On the surface, gratitude appears to arise from a sense that you're indebted to another person for taking care of you in some way, but looking deeper, you'll see that the feeling is actually a heightened awareness of your connection to everything else. Gratitude flows when you break out of the small, self-centered point of view—with its ferocious expectations and demands—and appreciate that through the labors and intentions and even the simple existence of an inconceivably large number of people, weather patterns, chemical reactions, and the like, you have been given the miracle of your life, with all the goodness in it today.”

It is easy, as Roger L'Estrange, the 17th-century author and pamphleteer, said, to "mistake the gratuitous blessings of heaven for the fruits of our own industry."

It is easy, human, for us to notice what goes wrong more often than what goes right.

The path to happiness may be in paying more attention to what we do have than what we don’t and then reflecting our gratitude for those blessings.

I want to tell each of you that I am grateful to you for the pleasure, inspiration and energy you bring me each day. Thank you. /Bill.

SUGAR: Some long time ago, I made a commitment to reduce fat in my diet. I actually did pretty well at it but as kind of a psychological trade-off, I gave myself a break on sugar. At the time, I though, “Really, what harm can it cause?” Well, it’s increasingly clear that sugar is really bad:

∙ Sugar can create a reaction similar to an addiction. Excess consumption of sugar can make you want more.
∙ Sugar (carbohydrate) is your body’s preferred fuel so if you have an excess of sugar, your body will burn it as fuel instead of fat when you exercise.
∙ Sugar in excess stores as fat.
∙ Sugar is not filling, and can easily lead to the consumption of excess calories.
∙ Sugar calories replace needed nutrition.
∙ Sugar suppresses the immune system.
∙ Sugar promotes inflamation.
∙ Sugar suppresses human growth hormone, muscle growth.
∙ Sugar creates toxic compounds which advance the aging process.
∙ Sugar raises insulin levels, causes your pancreas to overwork, and can result in diabetes. Eating sugar increases your blood sugar level causing the pancreas to release insulin which clears the sugar from the blood. Overusing this system can cause the pancreas to just give up.

Some amount of sugar (carbohydrate) is needed by your body as fuel. But it is best in the form of complex carbohydrates and in moderation. Avoiding simple, processed, sugar is part of a healthy diet.

A NEW WORKOUT:

∙ Begin by standing on a comfortable surface, where you have plenty of room at each side.
∙ With a 5-lb potato bag in each hand, extend your arms straight out from your sides and hold them there as long as you can. Try to reach a full minute, and then relax.
∙ Each day you'll find that you can hold this position for just a bit longer. After a couple of weeks, move up to 10-lb potato bags.
∙ Then try 50-lb potato bags and then eventually try to get to where you can lift a 100-lb potato bag in each hand and hold your arms straight for more than a full minute.
∙ After you feel confident at that level, put a potato in each bag.

Thanks, Cindy Raabe.

FOOD LOGGING / MY FITNESS PAL: Two of my readers took up my suggestion to try MyFitnessPal.com and wrote to me to report on their experience. See what they said...

“Thanks for the suggestion in your newsletter. I have tried some other online food journals, and they are not as user friendly (and free!) as this one. Also, it has an amazing amount of food selections and nutritional information already built in. It is very seldom that I eat something that I need to build in. Even if I have restaurant food, I can usually find something already entered in that is close enough. I couldn’t believe that even the local yogurt I eat was already in there! The exercise portion is not as nearly built up, though.”

Thanks Christine and Kevin. Your experience very closely matches mine and I appreciate you sharing. If you haven’t given MyFitnessPal a try yet, I suggest it.


VARIETY: One of the most common mistakes I see in the gym each day is to recognize the same people doing exactly the same thing day-after-day. I applaud the persistence of these people but I wish they’d find some variety. That kind of repetition is boring for both your body and your mind. Doing the same thing over and over leads to staleness, fatigue and failure to sustain an exercise program. Our bodies adapt to repetitive exercise. As they become more efficient, they burn fewer calories doing the same thing.

Properly designed Spinning classes, design different kinds of work at different times with cycles rotating throughout each year and month. During some periods we emphasize more base building, in others more interval type intensity. Doing the same thing all the time - whatever it is - only leads to staleness.

In addition to variations made within the context of the Spinning program, you should also change up your cardio workouts by adding other cardio activities, add running, or some new class. (Keep coming to Spinning, please. But try some other stuff too.)

Also, don’t just do cardio. Add some strength work several times a week.

Thanks to Clayton Kennedy for suggesting this topic, and several others to follow.

MY ASPEN TEACHING SCHEDULE:
Alternate Monday's 9:00AM at Southeast.
Every Monday 5:45PM at Southeast.
Every Thursday 5:45PM at Merle Hay.
Every Saturday 7:30AM at Hickman.

RESOURCES:
Check out all the schedules at http://www.aspenathleticia.com/group-fitness/schedules/
Recent past issues of this newsletter are available at http://billroachblog.blogspot.com


Thank you!
Bill Roach
Star 3 Lifetime Certified Spinning Instructor
Certified Personal Trainer, National Academy of Sports Medicine
Aspen Athletic Clubs
bill.roach@mchsi.com