Not Sure How Much Exercise is Enough Exercise? Here’s what the CDC has to say.

We should all be exercising – but you knew that already. How much and what kind of exercise can be confusing. Here’s what I found in the June 2015 edition of the Nutrition Action Newsletter from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (note: these recommendations are for adults.)

To start improving your health do:

ü  150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity each week. You can choose from activities such as walking, water aerobics, bicycling, tennis and dancing OR

ü  75 minutes of rigorous aerobic activity each week. You can chose from activities such as jogging, running, swimming, hiking, jump roping.

To increase your health even more do:

ü  300 minutes of moderate aerobic activity each week OR

ü  150 minutes of rigorous aerobic activity each week.

The CDC also recommends:

ü  2 or more sessions a week of muscle strengthening exercises

ü  Be sure to include all the major muscle groups – legs, hips, back, chest, arms, shoulders and abdomen.

So, now that you know, what are you waiting for? See you at the gym …

Until Next Time,

Dr. Sheila

www.DrSheilaForman.com

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Another Reason Why it May Be Hard to Give Up Sugar …

Here’s something I thought was true but wished it wasn’t – sugar may help reduce stress! In a study (J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab. 2015, doi:10.1210 /jc.2014-4353.) discussed in the June 2015 edition of the Nutrition Action Newsletter researchers found that subjects who were asked to drink a sugar-sweetened beverage 3 times a day for two weeks did better on a math test designed to cause stress than subjects who were asked to drink diet drinks. He study measured the subjects stress hormone levels as well as their brain activity. The conclusion of the study was that the subjects who drank the sugary drinks had lower cortisol levels and more hippocampus activity suggesting that they experienced less stress while taking the test. Now DON’T use this as an excuse to reach for sugar when you are stressed. Use it to understand why you may want to do so and go for a walk instead. Remember there are lots of ways to deal with stress – sugar is only one of them.

Until Next Time,

Dr. Sheila

www.DrSheilaForman.com

If you'd like to join my email list, click here.

The Scale Can Be Your Friend IF You Use it Right!

In an effort to lose weight, some people choose to avoid the scale and for them that could be a good thing. If jumping on the scale causes you to feel anxious, discouraged or depressed and those feelings lead you to overeat or abandon your healthy eating plan, they stay away from the scale. But a study reported in the journal Obesity (and discussed in the July 2015 issue of Oxygen magazine www.oxygenmag.com) stated that the practice of self-weighing can be productive. After reviewing 17 studies done over the course of 25 years, the researchers concluded that weighing oneself can actually help with weight loss. So, if you can make you scale a friend and use it as tool, hop on. If not, don’t. Toss it out and use your clothes to tell you how you are doing.

Until Next Time,

Dr. Sheila

www.DrSheilaForman.com

If you'd like to join my email list, click here.