Welcome back to Carol’s Corner. Hope the start of your week is fantastic. I wish I could say the weather is getting better, but no such luck. I don’t think we’re gonna have much of a spring this year. I am just tired of being cold. So let’s get my pictures taken care of and then we will get busy finishing( I hope) our long exercise segment. Was excited to see these pants match so many things in my closet. They match this blouse perfectly. My “Name This Outfit”, continues without a break in the action. I call today’s ” Psychedelic Kaleidoscope”. I had to ponder for awhile what I was going to call this one.

I really love all the colors from today’s ensemble. Just so many happy colors. The FitBit combo works just right.

Today was my much needed nail day. Just had to show you a close up view of the amazing job my nail tech did for me today. I give her total Carte Blanche ( hope that’s right) on what she does. I am totally in awe of this one. I love love love it. So that’s the picture and fashion portion for tonight. Now let’s see if I can get this finally done. So here goes.

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IN A WEIGHT-CONTROL PLAN

Along with appropriate dietary intake, physical activity is an important part of maintaining a healthy weight, losing weight, and keeping extra weight off once it’s been lost. Physical activity also helps reduce abdominal fat and preserve muscle during weight loss. Adults should aim for a healthy, stable body weight. The amount of physical activity necessary to achieve this weight varies greatly from person to person.

The first step in achieving or maintaining a healthy weight is to meet the minimum level of physical activity in the guidelines( discussed in previous segments). For some people this will result in a stable and healthy body weight, but for many it will not. My personal view is that we should strive for much more than the minimum level. The benefits of doing more than the minimum are many as discussed previously.

1). The health benefits of physical activity are generally independent of body weight. The good news for people needing to lose weight, is that regular physical activity provides major health benefits, no matter how their weight changes over time.

2). Adults should strongly consider walking as one good way to get aerobic physical activity. Many studies show that walking has health benefits and low risk of injury. It can be done year-round and in many settings. And of course those of us who do indoor walking with Leslie Sansone and other’s, know we can get full body workouts with them, an added bonus.

People who are at a healthy body weight , but slowly gaining weight should increase their level of physical activity( toward the equivalent of 300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity) or reduce caloric intake or both. By regularly checking body weight, people can find the amount of physical activity that works for them. This is why I am of the opposite mind on weigh-ins with the scale. I still weigh myself twice a day(naked), so I know what I need to do, and if I stopped weighing myself, I would be right back where I started, so for me personally, I find this to be extremely important.

Many adults will need to do more than the minimum (150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity) as part of a program to lose weight or take it off. Those people need to increase their activity and/or reduce their caloric intake. Some may need to do the higher level (300 minutes a week or the equivalent of) to meet their weight-control goals. Combined with restricting caloric intake, these adults should gradually increase minutes or the intensity of aerobic physical activity a week, to the point at which the physical activity is effective in acheiving a healthy weight.

It is important to remember that all activities-both baseline and physical activity “count” for energy balance. Active choices , such as taking the stairs rather than the elevator, or adding short episodes of walking to the day, are examples that can be helpful in weight control.

For weight control, vigorous-intensity activity is far more time-efficient than moderate-intensity activity. For example, a person who weighs 165 lbs(75kg) will burn 560 calories from 150 minutes of brisk walking at 4 miles an hour( these are in addition to the calories normally burned by a body at rest). That person can burn the same number of additional calories in 50 minutes by running 5 miles at a 10 minutes- per-mile-pace. Running is not an option for me, but for others, it may well be.

I am going to give you the link to this publication again. Toward the bottom of the page you will find 3 real life examples of getting and staying active. I ‘ll let you read them on your own. Also at the end of this you will find examples of ways to meet the minimum physical activities guidelines as well as examples of ways to do even more.http://www.health.gov/paguidelines/guidelines/chapter4.aspx

That finally brings us to the end of our series on exercise. I hope you have found this to be both informative and useful in your own journey into weight loss, health, and physical fitness. As usual I would value feedback both positive and negative, as well as anything you might need me to do in future issues.

I’d like to leave you with the above. Because it really does have to be a permanent lifestyle change. Of course there are times that we will veer off course . Life happens, circumstances happen, but when they do, forget what’s past, just continue to move forward. Restart your engine and forge ahead, never looking backward, only looking forward. You can do it. I have faith in you. Together we can make 2015 a year of fabulous successes. Let’s do this together!! Till next time, God bless.

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