Let’s talk about maintenance, the coronavirus, how to get fit for life, getting things done, and where your fat goes:
Happy Leap Day! Thank you for all your prayers and good thoughts, as my hip is healing quite nicely. Just a few more weeks on crutches and I’ll resume walking on both legs. In the meantime I’m back to working full-time and exercycling and weight lifting at the gym three times a week.
MAINTENANCE
We all have cars that have systems which tell us when our car needs servicing, and our computers notify us when certain programs need upgrading; so what does your body tell you when it needs “servicing?” Usually it’s a red light in the form of pain or extreme discomfort, which means it’s past the point of a tune-up. What is more effective and less painful is listening to your body before it starts complaining and schedule maintenance session.
Everyone is different, but how you take care of yourself with adequate sleep, proper nutrition, regular exercise, a proper diet and postural awareness will determine when you should get some bodywork and your spine aligned. You know how good it feels to have all your muscles relaxed and the nervous system working 100%, but the muscle aches and joint stiffness are the yellow lights telling you it’s time to get re-aligned. Do something about it and call to make an appointment today, either office.
HOW TO PREPARE FOR THE CORONAVIRUS
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/02/26/how-to-prepare-for-coronavirus/?arc404=true
(What goes with the coronavirus? Lyme’s disease.)
THE KEYS TO A CONSISTENT PHYSICAL PRACTICE (getting fit for life)
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-keys-to-a-consistent-physical-practice?utm_source=pocket-newtab
SHOW UP. MOOD FOLLOWS ACTION. By Brad Stulberg
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/show-up-mood-follows-action
When You Burn Fat, Where does it Actually Go?
By Mary Beth Griggs Popular Science
When you dig into your meal or grab a quick bite on the way to work, the food you eat goes toward fueling your body. As your favorite (or not so favorite) foods pass through your digestive system, your body absorbs nutrients and uses them to power you through your daily routine. The remaining waste heads out through your bladder or intestines. It’s a good system.
But what happens if you get busy and skip a meal, or have to exert more energy than you devoured at your last snack session? Thanks to fat—which you’ve saved for just this occasion without even thinking about it—your body is ready. Fat acts like a battery, ready to provide energy for you when you need it the most. But what actually happens when you dip into those strategic reserves?
What is a fat cell?
Humans have two kinds of fat cells, brown fat cells and white fat cells, the latter of which are far more common. (For more information about brown fat, check out our Fat Month article about the difference between the two types of cells.)
Fat cells in humans develop primarily during childhood and puberty. After that, the number of fat cells in your body remains relatively stable. These cells make up adipose tissue, and they can send out hormones into the body to help regulate everything from metabolism to body weight.
Because we generally have a set number of these cells, gaining weight doesn’t typically involve making more. Instead, individual cells expand as the digestive system breaks down and stores food for later use, then they shrink when the body turns to the fat cell in a moment of need—whether you’re running a marathon, hiking a mountain, or wandering aimlessly around your neighborhood.
What happens when you burn fat?
So what happens during that shrinking process, when you actually lose some fat? Contrary to popular beliefs, all of the fat used by the body doesn’t get turned directly into energy, it doesn’t magically transform into muscle, and it doesn’t exit with your other solid waste.
But it has to go somewhere. That’s the beauty of the conservation of mass. Much as some people might want it to, fat can’t just disappear. The fat inside your adipose cells is stored and then sent back out into your body as triglycerides. These go through a series of chemical reactions to convert into energy, but the process isn’t 100-percent efficient. Our bodies are good, but they’re not that good. Along with the energy to lift your leg or hoist your bag onto your shoulder, the process of using up fat stores creates byproducts: water and carbon dioxide.
Where does it go?
Some of the water produced as the body consumes fat exits in the usual way, through your urine and sweat. But a 2014 study in the British Medical Journal found that most of the byproducts of fat (including all that carbon dioxide) leaves the body through the respiratory system.
Yep, you read that right. You breathe out the byproducts of most of the fat that you burn, the CO2 from that process mingling with the CO2 produced by your lungs as they process oxygen. It’s something to think about while you hit the gym or walk on a track: getting rid of fat can be exhausting, but it’s as natural as breathing.
This article was originally published on January 9, 2018, by Popular Science.
THOUGHTS FOR THE MONTH
“Write it on your heart that every day is the best in the year. He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
We’re usually not aware of what’s working until it stops working. The worldview is based on loss vs. a worldview based on gain. Look at your body, your relationships and your occupation, and decide which worldview you would like to embrace today.