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[RC] Weight Loss - Bruce Weary DCTo Melissa and others who have been brave enough to post about their feelings regardingweight loss, Bravo! This has turned out to be a largely constuctive examination of our struggles to "throw less shade." I thought I'd chime in with some constructive (hopefully) thoughts on the process of losing weight successfully and healthfully. The reason this is a touchy subject for many is that we draw much of our self-esteem from our physical appearance. We have been taught to do so through years of social conditioning, and it's the rare individual who is completely at peace with him/herself entirely independent of their physical appearance, although that should probably be our goal. As a chiropractor, I was blessed to have a very special mentor during my training who had immeasurable influence on me. He looked at health more deeply than the average doctor. He told me that modern medicine, with all of its wonderful capabilities, has more or less taught us that our musculoskeletal system is merely a "cart" we use to carry our organs around in, and that health and well being is measured by the health and function of our organs. When we aren't healthy, the objective is to start treating organs. To some extent this is true, and necessary. But we don't live, express and enjoy our life through our organs. The average person doesn't say, " I'm taking my liver shopping." We live life through our musculoskeletal system. We dance, work, play, lift, carry, make love, exercise, etc., using our joints and muscles. The organs are there to feed and cleanse the skeletal system so we can participate in life. This perspective really helped me to appreciate the value of what I do for patients. Patients come to me in pain, yes, but also because they can't do something because of it. Part of their treatment plan is to get them back to their specific desired activity--golf, skiing, riding, whatever. My point here is that if we recognize that we can experience and enjoy so much more of what life has to offer with a healthy, fit, pain free musculoskeletal system, we can use that as our motivation for choosing effective health habits that will bring about the changes we want anyway, but for a better reason. So that we can continue to ride, not to avoid momentary embarrassment over how someone thinks we look. So we can play with our kids/grandkids, make a living, travel, and live long enough to be a burden to our ungrateful teenagers. Losing weight is really a natural thing for the body to do. The difficulty lies in making an irreversible decision to engage in eating and exercise behaviors that will produce the results. When many people fail in losing weight, it's usually a problem with their method, not their body. One's metabolism is often the subject of debate, but, again, rarely the problem. We may have a lower resting metabolism as we age, but this is offset by exercise. As an analogy, think of a tachometer on your car showing your rpm's to be 500 while sitting at a light, while the car next to you is idling at 700 rpm's. If both cars sat still until the gas tanks were empty, yes, the 700 rpm car would empty first. Proper exercise, which raises the rpm's of both cars to, say, 3000 rpms, levels the playing field and empties the gas tanks of both cars more quickly. This is true even in people with sluggish thyroids. They just may need some extra medical help. Only 17% of Americans exercise regularly, so the prevailing public opinion that it's too easy to gain weight and too hard to lose it is coming from a group of people, 83% of whom sit still and eat too much of the calorie-dense American diet. Statistics now show that a sedentary life leads to the same mortality rate as a pack-a-day smoker. I ask patients if they have ever succeeded at anything more difficult in their lives than trying to lose weight. They always answer "yes." Then I ask them to draw on that success in their mind as they follow through with their commitment to become fitter. The fastest way to burn fat is through exercise where you can carry on a conversation without huffing and puffing. Walking is great, as most people are fit enough to do some walking. You have to walk a significant distance to do significant fat burning. Usually 3-5 miles, three times a week or more. Heidi made the point that your net weight may not change if you do exercise that builds muscle, since it is heavier than fat. I also recommend a product called "Super Cleanse" which is a colon cleanser in pill form that helps empty a sluggish colon--a common condition for many people. It's available at the health food store.You will often lose 2-5 pounds just by moving things along. It's been said that most people's health can be characterized in one of two ways: either slowly spiraling upward or slowly spiraling downward. Most of us, with some reflection can determine which situation we are in, and make the appropriate changes to achieve our. goals. Bruce Weary
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