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Dont Say No, Say Yes!
National Nutrition month and Lent both greet us in March. We tend to look at this as a time to give things up and resist our human temptation. Lets look at it, instead, as a time to add healthy eating habits. Here are some that have been offered to me over the years as dos, not donts.
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My 11-year old daughter and I recently made a trip to the dermatologist. He was giving her the requisite avoid the damaging rays of the sun by always wearing sunblock lecture. Take, for example, your mother. Look at the skin on her hands, arms and shoulders. See how its dark, dry, wrinkled, freckled. (Yes, I thought, it looked like my mothers.) Thats because when she was young and out in the sun we didnt have sunblock to prevent skin damage. We didnt know its devastating effects and the risk of skin cancer. What the dermatologist didnt need to say was So now that we do know, Wendy, why do you still not protect your skin from the harmful rays?
Okay, summertime brings long, sunny days which are great for exercise. But, lets face it, Washington D.C. summers are HOT and HUMID! What is the best way to exercise in the heat?? Avoid it. . .the heat, not the exercise. And wear sunscreen! Here are some tips for preventing heat injury.
Now, who is at the greatest risk of suffering ill effects from exercising in the heat? (If you have math phobia, skip this next part!) One way to find out is to calculate your weight/surface area ratio. This may sound complicated but it isnt. Its based on the simple idea that, because heat is dissipated by the evaporation of sweat from your skin, the more skin surface area you have (relative to your body weight) the cooler you can stay. So, to calculate your ratio:
D is your personal W/SA ratio. In general, the lower the ratio, the greater the heat tolerance. That is, high Ds are at greater risk of heat injury. (Distance runners tend to be in the 60's, defensive linemen tend to be in the 80's.) Using this ratio, we find that children and heavy individuals are at the greatest risk of suffering heat injury. In general, men are at greater risk than women. In addition, unfit individuals, who put greater demands on their hearts at a given exercise intensity, and older individuals, whose sweating response is diminished, are also at increased risk.
But, keep in mind that anyone can feel the effects of cramps or excess heat. If you experience any nausea, dizziness, blurred vision, or muscle cramps, stop exercising and get cooled off. That extra mile, extra inning or extra set is not worth it. These are the signs of heat stress which can lead to heat exhaustion and heat stroke if allowed to progress.
So, be smart about being active during the hot summer months. Heed the hot weather hints, and pay attention to your bodys warning signals. Summer is a great time to get out of doors with family and friends. Have fun, and usher a fitter you into the fall.
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My anatomy professor, initiating a discussion of brain pathways, once asked us to intentionally think of two things at the same time. I tried really hard to think of two distinct things in the same moment, but I couldnt do it. The best I could do was switch very quickly between the two thoughts. The instructors point: our brains are designed to attend to only one thing at once.
I have been observing people trying to do two things at once a lot lately. Some obvious examples: driving while on cell phones, walking or running while listening to headphones, interrupting one conversation for another when it beeps in on call waiting, riding the stationary bike while reading the newspaper. I have observed myself in this same practice: doing one thing but planning another, pushing a swing but talking on the remote, sitting in worship and wondering whether my announcement was clear (please dont tell Pastor Jim!)
Perhaps this is human nature. To be our best we are driven to do more and more. Since there is a limit to our time, we need to fit more into each moment The problem is: when we divide our attention, were not our best at anything. Were not being effective. We are creating anxiety or false expectations for ourselves. And we send the message to those with whom we relate that theyre not worth our time or full attention! (not to mention the many accidents and almost-accidents caused by oblivious car phone chatters)
Now, since this is a health and fitness column, I feel obligated to leave the cell phones and address myself to those distracted exercisers. Unfortunately, most of them are not getting very much exercise. As they shuffle or pedal along engrossed in the news, a novel or a report from work, neither their heart rate, respirations or body temperature is likely to reach a level considered sufficient for training. Their body is not getting much, if any, fitter - though they probably think it is. And then they wonder why it is they put in all this time at the gym and dont see any results? After all, they are doing their obligatory exercise.
My advice to them comes from the old t-shirt adage "work hard and play hard." Fitness, like anything else you want to excel at in life, is about intensity and focus but also about boundaries and limits. The trick is focusing our full attention and intensity on working and playing - but not both at once. This is where assigning priorities and setting limits enter to tell us when it is time to switch.
As Wayne Muller puts it in Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal and Delight in Our Busy Lives*, We need to stop when it is time to stop, not when we are finished, because we are never finished. If we keep going until we think were finished, we run over into rest time, or leisure time, family time or exercise time. Our obligations smother our rest. We imagine ourselves to be spending family time as we work from home and suppose we are recreating as we listen to training tapes during a run. But there is no rest in this, and certainly no joy. God offers us rest as a gift, requiring only that we stop to recognize and claim it. After all, God wants us to be happy, not exhausted.
So, work with a passion to prepare for the meeting, sell the most software, greet the customers most congenially, flip the best burgers, push the swing the highest, clean up the paints again, drive them to practice with extra time to kiss them goodbye...and then stop. If you are not finished, dont worry. There will be time later to continue being your best. And later, when youre not stressed and exhausted, you may be even better. Then, enjoy that rest: sleep or eat, run or walk, chat or read, sing or be silent. Be rejuvenated, and do it without guilt, because its a gift.
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Having had a significant birthday in June, Ive gone through some feeling oldspells recently. A couple of shoulder surgeries, sore knees and several other ailments have sometimes kept me from being as active as Id like. I watch my kids jump and tumble, pivot and stretch, sprint, collide and spring back up. And I have to admit: I just cant do that any more. These words come hard to someone who could always do that.
Thankfully, I have also recently read the words and heard the stories of some pretty amazingly active folks who are, lets say, not getting any younger either. For instance, I read in the USA Weekend about Jack La Lanne, the originator of the t.v. exercise program. On his 70th birthday he swam 11/2 miles, shackled, towing 70 boats in Long Beach Harbor. Now, at almost 86 years old, he still works out 2 hours per day when hes not at speaking engagements preaching the benefits of reasonable but vigorous exercise and sound nutrition.
I watched good ole Cal Ripken (some say over the hill at 42(?)), blast a home run and garner MVP honors in his last all star game. Hes retiring because the call of family and community service work (including his own foundation) is stronger than the drive to beat himself up on the diamond daily. And what a touching image it was: Cal, sitting with his son watching the end of the all star game from the dugout.
I read an email reply my daughter received from Michelle Akers, female soccer player of the century. Only 35, she has struggled through multiple shoulder surgeries and caused the medical community finally to name the illusive illness (chronic fatigue syndrome) which plagued the end of her career. Now, much of her energy is dedicated to her foundation which is bringing soccer to young people all over the world. And, she is a devoted Christian.
These people have a couple of messages for me. The first is, Do your best with whatever you have left. Its sometimes unfortunate and often difficult to come to terms with the increasing physical limitations and injuries that come with the wear and tear of age. Maxine Gass, program director at COGS some years ago and friend to so many of us, once told me When you reach 50, its just patch, patch, patch. So true! But patches in place are important reminders that our bodies are not as we knew them in our teens and twenties (or 30's and 40's). We may need to adjust their care and feeding and lower our expectations a bit. Specifically:
The other message I gather from Jack, Cal and Michelle is that years and gray hair need not diminish the spirit. While they are gracefully passing the baton to younger championship athletes, they are continuing to use their celebrity to inspire future generations and give back to their sports. For them, I cant do that anymore is followed by, But now Im even more energized by doing this. With this attitude, it seems to me, what they've got left will always be enough.
By the way, when USA Weekend asked Jack La Lanne What should people do first thing in the morning? His immediate response was "Count your blessings." Pretty healthy advice, if you ask me.
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What ever happened to down time? ~ unscheduled time when there were no camps, no scheduled activities, when there was time to be creative, sit and think, stare at the clouds?? Anna Quindlen, Newsweek columnist, writes, "I mourn hanging out in the backyard. I mourn playing wiffle ball in the street without a sponsor and matching shirts. I mourn drawing in the dirt with a stick." She concludes, "We have deprived them of the gift of boredom."
That started me thinking: what did I used to do with those long summer days? when I complained to my Mom that I was bored, and she told me to go out and play? I played with my friends, my neighbors, even my brother - because none of them were at camp either. I remember the games we used to play: simon says, red light green light, freeze tag and tv tag, 4-square, jump rope, hop scotch, hide and go seek, kick ball, dodge ball, spud, 500," wiffle ball, capture the flag...the list goes on and on. The beauty of those games: very little or no equipment, very few rules, not much team choosing, almost no time constraints - the game ended when we were called in for dinner. No one kept score, recorded a win-loss record or awarded trophies.
As we face the lazy days of summer, my kids tell me theyre bored. I suggest they go out to play one of these games. They look puzzled. My kids have never played them. I havent taken the time to show them. How could I have failed to pass along these pieces of childhood lore? These survival skills for the summer doldrums? Well, I rationalize, its hard to find time amid camps, trips to the pool and family travel. Were too busy! Yes, busy!
Hmm, I wonder whether its worth my time (and theirs) since we are so busy. What did I learn from those games anyway? Well, theres jumping, running, stopping and turning on a dime, throwing, catching, dodging, estimating the trajectory of a hopper, avoiding the tag. Oh, and theres diplomacy and compromise, taking turns, friendship, fairness, rules, plays, teamwork and team spirit, sportsmanship, winning and losing. And, I never wore a knee brace, iced an injury or had a personal trainer.
I wonder if we have forgotten how to play those games, how much fun they were, and how much we learned. Before they go back to school, Im going to give my kids some time to be bored. Then, Im gonna tell them to go out and play ~ and play with them!
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Spring is coming! Our kids are streaming back to the playing fields. No one is happier about this than I am. Youth sports have so much to offer our kids – physically, emotionally, socially – as long as theyre not side-lined by injury.
Did you know?*
Two important factors which contribute to the growing youth injury problem are, ironically, opposites: lack of fitness and overtraining. For some kids, the only significant exercise they get is in organized sports activities. Theyre not in shape to play. So, we need to make conditioning as important as competition in our youth programs. (Good advice for the weekend warriors, too.) The key is making conditioning like a game or hidden in practice drills and skill sessions.
For other kids, whether self driven or facilitated by an over-achieving (often well-meaning) parent, the problem is too much training. They play multiple sports per season or the same sport every season starting at very young ages. They participate in 5 or 6 consecutive hours of training and playing most days of the week. They play too many minutes, pitch too many innings, put too much impact on growing bones and fragile joints, and theyre still in elementary school. This isnt play. Its work!
Unfortunately, there is a third and growing category of injury in youth sports: emotional abuse. It comes from coaches, parents and players. Ive seen it first hand: players ridiculing or threatening other players, parents forcing their kids to play or humiliating them when they dont play well, coaches with a win at all cost mentality who regularly berate players and officials. Just what do kids take away from that kind of youth sports experience? Unfortunately, a lot. None of it good.
Yes, spring is almost here. By all means, get outdoors and play! But let's remind ourselves and our kids:
That way, we'll keep injuries of all types from spoiling the fun. How do you know if its fun? When your kid begs, Please, can I play again next season?
* National Youth Sports Safety Foundation, Inc. (www.nyssf.org)