 Fit For Life: Proactive. Reactive. Your Choice.

Saturday, May 07, 2016

Matt Espeut, GoLocalPDX Health +Lifestyle Contributor

Today, I wanted to dig deeper, and give you some more specific reasons as to why you need to start taking better care of yourself. I do a lot of preaching about the healthy lifestyle I can convert you into living if you join my program, and take my advice. It’s not for vanity reasons, or just to lose weight, but to promote your overall health. Because you can look fit, lean, or thin and still be unhealthy, (fitness competitors do it all the time), so let’s understand things correctly – first, health. Then, fitness.

Proactive/Reactive – and Diabetes.

When you start paying closer attention to what a poor nutrition plan, and a sedentary lifestyle will do to you, it will make you think about trying to be proactive and prevent things from going wrong, rather than being reactive, and trying to fix things once you are broken.

Diabetes is one of the most common, preventable disease caused by poor nutrition and lifestyle. This disease wouldn’t even exist if it weren’t for sugar, processed food, and all the other garbage that big food companies are pushing into the marketplace. But it’s too profitable for these companies, and drug manufacturers to eliminate, so it’s up to people like me to try and convince you that if you keep going down a destructive path, you, too, will become a statistic.

Read on and hopefully you too will see the light and make some positive changes in your life.

Type II Diabetes is the most common form of diabetes. There are 30.8 million children and adults in the United States, or 10% of the population, who have diabetes. While an estimated 19.6 million have been diagnosed with diabetes, unfortunately, only 11.2 million people (or nearly one-third) are unaware that they have the disease. In type 2 diabetes, either the body does not produce enough insulin or the cells ignore the insulin. Insulin is necessary for the body to be able to use sugar. Sugar is the basic fuel for the cells in the body, and insulin takes the sugar from the blood into the cells. When glucose (sugar) builds up in the blood instead of going into cells, it can cause two problems. Right away, your cells may be starved for energy. Over time, high blood glucose levels may hurt your eyes, kidneys, nerves or heart.

The Diabetic Scenario:

1. Calorie restriction, skipping meals, diet pills and unbalanced meals consisting
of mostly high glycemic carbohydrates
2. Stress response and altered hormonal levels
3. Immune response, digestive issues, increase insulin and cortisol response (2 hormones that store fat around the midsection)
4. Elevated lipogenic (fat storing) enzymes and decreased lipolytic (fat burning) enzymes
5. Muscles become sensitive to insulin
6. Fat collection in the midsection, fatigue, Type II Diabetes and Insulin Resistance

Causes:

1. Eating a diet high in simple carbohydrates, low in fat and proteins
2. Eating a conventional diet of fast foods, boxed, canned or microwavable foods
3. Eating a diet high in sugar (either from candy or enriched breads/pastas)
4. A diet consisting of mostly fruit juices (sugar water) or any form of soda

5. A diet that is low in water consumption
6. A sedentary lifestyle

Treatments:

1. Eliminate all boxed, canned, processed and microwavable foods
2. Eliminate all forms of sugars and high glycemic carbohydrates
3. Eat a diet of organic proteins and fats (fats slow down the insulin spike)
4. Get to bed by 10pm and get up no earlier than 6am
5. Begin some form of exercise routine (boot camp, preferably)

If you are proactive in preventing diabetes in the first place, it is much easier to maintain a balanced state of health in the body. Fixing diabetes can be done. It’s hard, it takes much more effort than preventing it in the first place. Same goes for losing weight, getting your cholesterol down, and being fit. If you’re fighting diabetes or other lifestyle disease, make a plan to fight your way back. If you are at high risk – diabetes in your family? – be especially vigilant. If you’re healthy – now? Keep it that way. See you in the gym.

Matt Espeut, GoLocal's Health & Lifestyle Contributor has been a personal trainer and health & fitnesss consultant for over 25 years.

Related Slideshow: The 7 Best Health and Fitness Apps

Here is a list of some of the most obsession worthy health apps.

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MapMyRun

MapMyRun is the number one selling running app for a reason: it is easy to use, offers community support if you want it, and tracks and stores your exact routes for you. If you are training for a race or a serious runner, users say that the extra perks in the upgraded paid version are well worth it.

Made for iPhone, Android and Blackberry

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MyFitnessPal

MyFitnessPal seems to be the clear favorite amongst everyone polled. It is helpful not only for the fitness tracking aspect, but everyone polled mentioned how much they loved the food/diet aspect as well. From carb counting for diabetics to recipe ideas to complement your fitness goals, users love this app.

Made for iPhone and Android

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JeFit

JeFit is another fitness app that has rave reviews. It not only tracks progress for you, but offers a huge database of workouts. While many apps offer community support, JeFit allows you to sync workouts with friends who use the app, offering a (real) virtual buddy system.

Made for iPhone and Android

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Strava

Strava gets the highest mark of all the cycling apps. While it is also great for runners, the cyclers seem particularly inclined towards the fierce competition that can be ignited by this app. You can track all of your rides via GPS, then you can compare your efforts to those logged by others in the community on the same stretch of road. You can also join ongoing challenges that can net you great prizes (in addition to bragging rights).

Made for iPhone and Android

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YogaStudio

YogaStudio gets the top vote for Yoga apps. It has a lengthy collection of full class-length videos available at your fingertips. Unlike many other apps, this one also allows you to customize your own video yoga class. All of the poses are done by qualified yoga instructors, and you can find classes suitable for all levels of yogis.

Made for iPhone only

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SimplyBeing

SimplyBeing meditation app offers the best of both worlds. You can choose to run this app as a background for your meditation with soothing music or natural sounds that run for a set amount of time. Conversely, for those of you who have trouble focusing during meditation, you can choose a soothing voice-guided meditation.

Made for iPhone and Android

Prev Next

Fooducate

Fooducate is an app all about educating people so that they make healthier food choices. Although not perfect, this app is easy to use (you can even take pictures of bar codes to instantly find foods in their database). It gives food a letter grade, tells you the pluses and minuses, and gives you better ranked alternatives. You can also use it as a weight loss tool by tracking your daily calories.

Made for iPhone and Android