there is no finish line...enjoy the ride...

What Are You Made Of?

My regular guest blogger, Dr Les Davidson and I align on most health related topics and this week is no exception.  Of the people that actually monitor their body weight, I wonder how many understand what makes up the number on their scale, and why is it important.  That’s the topic of today’s post by Dr Les.

Besides our nation being just lazy, the obesity epidemic gripping North America may be in part due to what I call, “health illiteracy”.  So many people have preconceived ideas of what “healthy” is, but in actual fact they score very low on the health literacy scale when it comes to nutrition, diet, body weight, fitness, sleep, stress, etc., and even lower on execution.

Specifically related to Dr Les’ topic of weight, I’m experiencing this “illiteracy” first hand as I train for the hardest amateur bike race in the world this August - Haute Route.   This 7 day stage race starts in Geneva and finishes in Nice France and covers 860km through the beautiful French Alps.  But it's not the distance that makes this race so grueling; it’s the 21,000 meters (68,000 feet) of climbing over the Alps that makes is so hard.  Below is the profile of the 7 days of racing facing the 600 participants of Haute Route. 

 

Given the amount and severity of climbing involved, special attention to a rider's body weight and its composition is of primary concern to every participant.  There’s a reason why cyclists pay more attention to their weight than international super models, and it has little to do with vanity.  In fact, it has everything to do with how much power a rider can produce for every kilogram of body weight.  And the relationship between power output and weight has greater sagnificance when long, steep mountain climbs are involved.

At the beginning of January, I weighed 171lbs, but to race Haute Route, I would have to shed between 15lbs to 20lbs to increase my “power-to-weight” ratio to over 4 watts/kg.  Losing weight is just half the battle, as one must also be mindful of what type of weight that's lost.  In my case, I want to lose body fat, while maintaining or even increasing lean muscle mass. 

There’s an old saying in business, “If you can measure it, you can manage it”.  So, at the beginning of February I started measuring my body fat using skin fold calipers.  By focusing on the quality and even more importantly, the quatity of food I consumed, I now weight 156lbs.  During this time I also gained 4lbs of lean muscle, so effectively I’ve lost 19lbs of body fat since January.  Since fat occupies more volume than muscle, I’ve also lost an inch from my chest, waist and hips, so I actually appear much thinner.  Below is my progression of weight loss and muscle gain since I started recording this information in February.

And here in lies the “health illiteracy” issue.

It seems in North America you can be overweight, or even obese, and no one will ever mention that you have a serious and potentially life threatening health issue.  In fact, a recent study found that over 60% of parents with overweight children considered them to be of normal weight.  But if you’re thin, as in healthy thin, people take it upon themselves to point out that you’re too thin and don’t look healthy.  Can you imagine the reaction you would receive if you told a friend that she was overweight and didn't look healthy?  The duel standard is because of three reasons:

1. Given there are so many overweight and obese people in North America, our mental model of what constitutes a healthy weight and size has been skewed over the decades.  People of a healthy thin composition are now in the minority and look different to the majority of overweight North Americans.
2. Most people are illiterate when it comes to what a healthy size and weight should be.  Just like the majority of people no longer know what represents a healthy food portion.  As a result, the bigger is better attitude prevails.
3. Finally, weight loss is generally associated with serious illnesses such as AIDS, Cancer or Eating Disorders.  My good friend Pierre LeClair who I coach was once 250lbs.  After losing 80lbs last year, he tells me people that haven’t seen him for a while ask him if he’s sick because he looks too thin, even though he’s the healthiest he’s been in decades.

This is obviously frustrating to a guy like myself that’s uber aware of my health and fitness, but more importantly, it draws attention to the fact that so many people are “health illiterate” which has negative consequences at both individual and national levels. 

Dr Les, has done a great job of framing the issue, why it’s important to understand what you’re made of, monitoring techniques, and how to bring yourself back to a healthy and well proportioned size. 

As always with much of what I share, “knowledge is power, but action flicks the switch”. 

Enjoy the ride….Rob

 

What Are You Made Of?

by: Dr Les Davidson

What are you made of? Or stated more technically, what is your body composition? Are you a lean, mean athletic machine, or are you getting a little soft?  Every year billions (with a “b”) of dollars are spent on weight-loss endeavors in North America. Beyond the obvious — looking good at the beach — is there any reason to be concerned about the composition of your body.

As a competitive wrestler throughout high school and university, the scale was a constant companion because we were grouped according to our weight classes for competition.  I learned quickly that the quality of my weight was crucial; reducing extraneous fat became an important objective. Forty years later the challenge to maintain an optimum fat to muscle ratio is still there but my motivation is less about competing and more about remaining healthy and active. In order to do that, I need to pay close attention to my body composition.

Body composition is simply a measurement of lean body mass (bones, muscles, ligaments and organs) compared to fat mass which is referred to as adipose tissue. Technology allows us to accurately measure the amount of lean mass versus fat mass. These measurements are expressed as percentages of overall weight and knowing these percentages and what they indicate is important to your health.

A certain amount of body fat is essential to insulate our body, protect our organs from trauma, provide energy, and to assist hormone production necessary for reproduction. The amount of essential fat will vary dependent on sex and age but there are recommendations for ideal body fat percentages. The table below from the American Council on Exercise is typical fat percentages.

	Male	Female
Essential fat	3-5%	10-16%
Competitive Athletes	6-13%	14-20%
Recreational Athletes	14-18%	21-24%
Average	19-20%	25-31%
Obese	25+%	32+%

 

An equally important variable is where the fat is located; excess fat found at the waist (also known as central obesity) is associated with increased risk to our health. Our waists are thickened not just by the fat we can feel but also because excess fat accumulates around the organs (visceral adipose tissue).

Historically, we believed this fat to be an inert storage of extra energy. Medical science has now come to understand that adipose tissue is a major endocrine organ that produces hormones associated with insulin resistance and general body inflammation. The conditions associated with excess fat are often discussed as separate syndromes but in reality, they are a group of interrelated issues that cascade into ill health. Insulin resistance and inflammation leads to Metabolic Syndrome or Syndrome X — conditions associated with an elevated risk of Type Two diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease. There is also strong evidence that Metabolic Syndrome increases risk for certain Cancers. Then there is the impact that excess adipose tissue has on the musculoskeletal system with increased back pain and damage to the weight-bearing joints of the lower extremities. In my office each day I see patients impacted by being overweight. It may not cause their back, hip or knee pain but it aggravates their symptoms and limits their ability to be as active as needed to regain good health.

Determining your risk:

Body weight alone is a poor indicator of body composition as it does not differentiate between lean tissue (bones, muscles, connective tissue and organs) and body fat. There is no single ideal percentage of body fat for everyone. Estimating body composition is attempted with the body mass index using the variables of weight and height (weight divided by height squared). More accurate methods using DEXA (dual energy X-ray absorptiometry) or hydrostatic weighing (calculating what sinks (lean mass) versus what floats (fat) when the client is submerged under water) are often difficult for most individuals to access. Using calipers to measure skin folds or employing Bioimpedance are affected by the skill of the person measuring and the formulas applied, but can be easily mastered with a little practice. At our office we employ the bioimpedance method. With careful attention to patient hydration and selection of the optimum formula, we have had results that match closely to results of the DEXA scan.

Another method to stratify those who have high levels of body fat ignores the percentage of lean mass and body fat and focuses instead on the amount of belly fat. Measuring your waist circumference may be a more sensitive test because, as I mentioned, Intra-abdominal or visceral fat (regardless of overall body fat) has a particularly strong correlation with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancers and other life shortening diseases. There are three ways that this measurement is used to quantify risk:

1. Waist circumference, Absolute waist circumference (>102 cm in men and >88 cm in women)
2. Waist–hip ratio (the circumference of the waist divided by that of the hips of >0.9 for men and >0.85 for women)[19]
3. Waist circumference divided into height. This has been described as the index of central obesity. (0 .5 or greater is suggested as a sign of increased risk. More specifically the range for women was suggested to .47-.54 and for men as .51-.58).

Reducing the risk:

1. Diet: You cannot exercise at the same pace you can eat so it is critical to moderate your calories regardless of the protein, fat or carbohydrate content of your food or the amount you exercise. Look for food in a natural state with no “improvements” by the food industry (such as partially hydrogenated fat, preservatives or high-fructose corn syrup).
2. Exercise: Just remember we are designed to move and not doing so compromises our health. Vary the intensity and duration and include resistance activity. This challenge becomes greater as we age because hormonal shifts make building lean mass harder and layering on fat easier
3. Sleep: Sleeping too little or of a poor interrupted quality increases insulin resistance and raises cortisol the stress hormone. (See Rob’s blog, The Sleep Mistake Many of Us Make)
4. Stress reduction: Being overwhelmed or on heightened alert increases the sympathetic nervous system activity. This releases cortisol and directly increases belly fat. Moderating our moods by eating or drinking too much is often seen in response to stressful situations.

The body has tremendous recuperative powers if it is provided with the right inputs. March is Nutrition month and I would like to encourage you to think of the importance of quantity as well as quality of your food! Exercise is critical for good health but it can’t exercise your way out of a bad diet! Don’t pursue some unrealistic and media-hyped expectation for your body.  People come in all shapes and sizes but no shape is improved by an expanding layer of belly fat.

Pay more attention to what you’re made of. This will be good for your health and you just might look better on the beach this summer!

Four Common Diet and Exercise Myths Dispelled

Is it any wonder why so many North Americans are frustrated with the barrage of mixed messages regarding their diets and the roll of exercise?   It’s my attempt to provide some clarity to many of misconceptions that guide people to their lifestyle choices, and as a result I write about and often share other articles that I feel assist in making informed health decisions for yourself and your families.

That being said, I came across an excellent article by Dr Mark Hyman that exposes four myths about health and lifestyle choices that I’ve written about in the past, but has consolidated them into one article.  Dr Hyman dispels the following common myths:

Myth 1: Diet Soda and Diet Drinks Don’t Make You Fat or Cause Type 2 Diabetes

Myth 2: Eating Fat Makes You Fat

Myth 3: Being Overweight Is Your Fault

Myth 4: Exercise Your Way to Weight Loss

As I’ve often said, “Knowledge is Power, but Action flicks the Switch.  Dr Hyman has provided clarity to 4 of the most common myths about diet and exercise, and after reading this; it’s up to you to put this information into action.

Enjoy the Ride....Rob

 

How Diet Soda Makes You Fat (and Other Food and Diet Industry Myths)

By Dr Mark Hyman, MD

How do you lose weight? Substitute diet drinks for sugary drinks. Eat low-fat foods. Just eat less of the bad foods -- it's all about the calories. We are told, "Just have more willpower."

These ideas are false. They are food and diet industry propaganda that make and keep us fat and sick. Lies by the food industry combined with bad government policy based on food industry lobbying are the major cause of our obesity and diabetes epidemic. Now, more than 35 percent of Americans are obese, and almost 70 percent are overweight. This is not an accident but the result of careful marketing and money in politics.

We are told it is all about making better choices. If we all took more personal responsibility, we could stop this obesity and diabetes epidemic. We have been told there are no good or bad foods, that the key to weight loss is moderation. And, of course, if we all just exercised more, all of us would lose weight. These myths hold us hostage. So, what doesn’t the Food and Diet industry want you to know?

Myth 1: Diet Soda and Diet Drinks Don’t Make You Fat and Cause Type 2 Diabetes

Diet soda DOES makes people fat? Really? How does that happen?

If losing weight were all about the calories, then consuming diet drinks would seem like a good idea. That's certainly what Coca-Cola wants us to believe in their new ad highlighting their efforts to fight obesity. They proudly promote the fact that they have 180 low- or no-calorie drinks and that they cut sugared drinks in schools by 90 percent.

Is that a good thing? In fact, it may be worse than having us all drink regular Coke (and the other food giants making diet drinks also push the same propaganda). A new 14-year study of 66,118 women (supported by many other previous studies) found that the opposite seems to be true. Diet drinks may be worse than sugar-sweetened drinks, which are worse than fruit juices (but only fresh-squeezed fruit juices).

The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, discovered some frightening facts that should make us all swear off diet drinks and products.

1. Diet sodas raised the risk of diabetes more than sugar-sweetened sodas!
2. Women who drank one 12-ounce diet soda had a 33 percent increased risk of Type 2 diabetes, and women who drank one 20-ounce soda had a 66 percent increased risk.
3. Women who drank diet sodas drank twice as much as those who drank sugar-sweetened sodas because artificial sweeteners are more addictive and are hundreds to thousands of times sweeter than regular sugar.
4. The average diet soda drinker consumes three diet drinks a day.

You might say that people who are overweight and just about to get diabetes drink more diet soda, but they scientifically controlled for body weight. And they found the artificial sweeteners increased diabetes independent of body weight!  This and other research shows how diet sodas make people fat and sick.

And that diet drinks may be even worse than regular sugar-sweetened sodas! How does that happen?

• Artificial sweeteners are hundreds to thousands of times sweeter than regular sugar, activating our genetically-programmed preference for sweet taste more than any other substance.
• They trick your metabolism into thinking sugar is on its way. This causes your body to pump out insulin, the fat storage hormone, which lays down more belly fat.
• It also confuses and slows your metabolism down, so you burn fewer calories every day.
• It makes you hungrier and crave even more sugar and starchy carbs like bread and pasta.
• In animal studies, the rats that consumed artificial sweeteners ate more, their metabolism slowed, and they put on 14 percent more body fat in just two weeks -- even eating fewer calories.
• In population studies, there was a 200 percent increased risk of obesity in diet soda drinkers.

I love Taylor Swift. I met her last summer. She is a wonderful person with great integrity. I don't think she knows about this research, and I hope someone shares it with her so she can save millions of children and fans from drinking Diet Coke because she endorses it.

Bottom line: There is no free ride. Diet drinks are not good substitutes for sugar-sweetened drinks. They increase cravings, weight gain, and Type 2 diabetes. And they are addictive.

Myth 2: Eating Fat Makes You Fat

The diet and food industry has brainwashed us to eat fat-free foods, which seems like common sense. Eating fats makes you fat. Right? But the science tells us otherwise -- not all calories are created equal. And even though fat has more calories per gram (9 calories vs. 4 calories of carbs and protein), eating fat can help you lose weight.

This low-fat idea was based on bad science. Our government told us in the 1970s to go on a low-fat diet and to eat 8-11 servings of rice, bread, and pasta a day. And unfortunately, we listened. This was the beginning of our obesity and diabetes epidemic. The food industry happily created a flood of fat-free foods.

But the science has proven that eating fat doesn't make you fat -- sugar does. And it is sugar, not fat, that raises your cholesterol despite what people and most doctors still believe. A 20-ounce soda is fat-free, but that doesn't make it a health food. If cookies were fat-free, then you can eat the whole bag, right?

But the fat is replaced with flour and sugar, and the result we now have is one in two adults with diabesity -- that's pre-diabetes or Type 2 diabetes -- and almost one in four teenagers with pre-diabetes or Type 2 diabetes. We did a 10-day sugar-free detox with our online community, and 600 people lost more than 4,000 pounds in 10 days!

So why does eating fat free make you fat and diabetic?

In a recent Harvard study, Dr. David Ludwig found that in two groups eating exactly the same calories, the group that had the low-fat diet (which means higher in sugars and starches) burned 300 calories less per day. Their metabolism was slower than the group eating the higher fat and higher protein diet.

If you ate the higher-fat, higher-protein diet (of exactly the same calories), it is the equivalent of running for one hour a day. In other words, if you just swap out sugars and starches for good quality fats and protein, it will be like you added an hour of free exercise a day to your life without any change in calorie intake!

Bottom Line: The key point here is that all calories are not the same. Swap out sugar and starch for good fats such as nuts, avocados, olive oil, and grass-fed animal products or wild fish. Be a "qualitarian." Focus on quality, on real food, and the rest takes care of itself.

Myth 3: Being Overweight Is Your Fault

The food industry would have us believe that controlling our weight is about personal responsibility. Tell that to a 200-pound 5-year-old with diabetes and liver failure. Our taste buds have been hijacked by the food and diet industry. We are programmed to like sweet, salt, and fat tastes.

And those slick combinations of sugar, fat and salt in junk and processed food have hijacked our taste buds, our brain chemistry, and our metabolism. These foods are biologically addictive. We are held hostage by the food industry and we blame ourselves. This is food terrorism!

How does food addiction happen?

New research shows that industrial food full of processed sugars, fats, salt, and chemicals are powerfully addictive. And sugar is the worst culprit. One animal study found that sugar is more addictive than cocaine. When rats were given the choice between mainline cocaine right into their veins or sweetened water (in fact, they used an artificial sweetener), they found that sugar was eight times more addictive than cocaine. Even the rats already addicted to cocaine switched over to diet drinks!

And what's even more interesting is that while cocaine and heroin activate only one spot for pleasure in the brain, sugar lights up the brain like a pinball machine. If these foods are addictive and drive overeating, then the whole idea of moderation just doesn't work. Hey, just have that one line of cocaine or that one hit of heroin.

We can't stop eating, but we can stop eating junk and sugar! So we have to take back our taste buds, take back our brain chemistry, and take back our bodies from the food and diet industry. How do we do that?

Bottom Line: By eating real food -- chicken, fish, veggies, fruit, nuts, seeds, beans, and a little whole grains will reset your taste buds and your brain chemistry automatically.

Myth 4: Exercise Your Way to Weight Loss

The food industry and diet industry push exercise. Even Michelle Obama's childhood obesity initiative focuses on exercise in its name, Let's Move. But it should be really called Let's Eat Real Food.  Here's why. Sugar-sweetened drinks make up about 15 percent of our calorie intake every day. But you have to walk 4.5 miles to burn off one 20-ounce soda, which contains 15 teaspoons of sugar.

You have to run four miles a day for one week to burn off one supersize meal. If you have one supersize meal everyday you would have to run a marathon every day! You can't exercise your way out of bad diet -- except if you run a marathon every day.

Drinking 32 ounces of Gatorade after a workout is a dumb idea, unless you run around like Kobe Bryant on the basketball court for 48 minutes. There are better ways to replenish your energy and electrolytes than colored sugar water with a few minerals sprinkled in. To paraphrase my friend Bill Clinton, "It's the food, stupid!"

Bottom Line: Exercise is critical to long-term health and weight loss, but you can't exercise your way out of a bad diet.

Thankfully, science is shedding light on the ideas that keep us fat and sick. Unfortunately, scientists don't have billion-dollar marketing budgets. But we as a community of thinking people wanting real information can speak out, can spread the word and turn the tide of obesity and chronic disease together.

You think you’re a healthy weight, think again?

Ask someone about their weight and you'll get varying degrees of resistance and truth to the question.  I read a statistic the other day that over 66% of women lie about their weight.  I suspect for the same reasons, men also lie about their size and weight, but that’s a topic for another post. Today, I want to talk about the importance of understanding your bodyfat as a percentage of overall weight.  We often use BMI or weight/height charts as an indicator of healthy weight, and I guess it’s not a bad guideline, but only to a certain point. 

A much better way to measure your weight and general fitness is to have a good understanding of your bodyfat content, not just your body weight.  By monitoring your % bodyfat in combination with your weight regularly, there are many things you can learn about your fitness and general health as time passes by.

The Basics of % Bodyfat and Body Composition

Your body is made up of many components; the major ones are muscle, bone, organs and fat.  And fat seems to be the one everyone is concerned about when we think of appearance, health, fitness and longevity.

Unfortunately, you can’t simply look in the mirror, stand on a scale and look up a BMI chart to tell if you are over-fat or under-fat.  Height/Weight charts are only averages and about 50% of us conform to the averages on these charts.  The charts have no way of determining what your muscle development is, or isn’t, and most people don’t know if they fit into the small, medium or large frame types.  No, the only way to determine your % bodyfat is to measure it. 

Being able to measure and monitor your % bodyfat will provide you with important information about the changes in your muscle tissue over time.  By knowing your % bodyfat, you can determine your % muscle, bone and organ mass.  For example, let’s assume a man weighting 160lbs has 20% bodyfat, then 32lbs is bodyfat and everything else is “lean mass” or 128lbs.  Of the lean mass, the component that you have most control and can change is muscle tissue.  By monitoring your bodyfat, you will have better insight into the changes of your muscle tissue.  And your muscle tissue will increase or decrease depending on your diet, activity, exercise and general lifestyle.

Unfortunately, North Americans as a population don’t get enough exercise or eat a healthy diet, which results in gradually losing their muscle tissue as they age.  So a person may actually weigh the same in their 50’s as they did in college and have significantly less muscle and more fat on their body.

A study by Brozek and Keys determined that the average male at 20 years of age has 10.3 % bodyfat and by the time he reaches 55 years, his % bodyfat increased to 25%.  This implies that a man weighing 160lbs at 20 will only have 16lbs of bodyfat and the same man at 55 will have 40lbs of fat.  That’s a loss of 24lbs of muscle, bone and organ tissue and a gain of 24lbs of added fat.  To be of healthy % bodyfat at the age 55, this individual should only weight 148lbs and carry 19% bodyfat.  It would have been better that he exercised throughout his life and maintained his muscle, bone and organ mass.  This example is for a man, but the same concept holds true for women.

This kind of change doesn’t happen to everyone.  People that have active lifestyles, exercise daily and eat a healthy diet do not lose muscle tissue or gain bodyfat throughout their lives.  In fact, people over 50 years of age can gain back muscle and lose bodyfat through a proper diet and exercise program. 

The Application of Bodyfat Information

It’s important to note that body composition changes start as early as 18 and by 25 most North Americans have already lost lean mass and gained body fat.  And that’s the ones that have maintained their correct weight.  It’s even worse for those that have gained weight.  If people monitor their % bodyfat early and often, they will see the changes and be able to make the correct changes before the weight challenge become serious and a lifelong struggle.

Another important reason to know your % bodyfat is to monitor the affect of a new diet or exercise program on muscle tissue and fat development.  Research has shown that a people that go on one of the many fad diets will generally lose muscle tissue and not fat, but in the absence of actually taking regular bodyfat measurements the dieter will never know the harmful effects if all they rely on is their weight scale.

The most effective way to reduce the proper weight is through exercise and eating a well balanced diet, while monitoring your % bodyfat to ensure the weight loss is fat and not muscle tissue.  As I train and prepare for the Haute Route bike race this August from Geneva to Nice, I’m following this process myself, as I have to reduce my total body weight while maintaining my muscle mass to ensure I have the optimal power to weight ratio to power my lighter body over the 68,000 feet (21,000 meters) of climbing during the 7 days of racing.

Yet another important use of bodyfat measuring regards people that are the proper weight, or even a little underweight according to BMI and other weight/height charts and may even look healthy, when in fact they’re actually “under muscled” and “over fat”.  The fact that their small muscles weigh so little they are often given the false impression that they are a healthy weight, when in fact they are over fat and require an exercise program to gain muscle tissue while losing the unhealthy fat.

Like the example above, the opposite is true for a person that’s particularly muscular with low bodyfat.  According to the BMI and other weight/height charts this person is considered overweight, when in fact they’re actually quite lean and if they went on a diet, they would only lose muscle tissue.  So, only by measuring their bodyfat will they know they’re of a healthy weight.

Finally, when a person decides to take action and commits to a well planned exercise program, combined with a nutritious and well balanced diet, they may actually see a weight gain for the first few months as they gain heavier lean muscle tissue while losing the lighter bodyfat.  Seeing their weight increase may be discouraging to the individual causing them to give up on their new healthy lifestyle.  By measuring both weight and % bodyfat, they will see the improvements and continue with the program with a sense of encouragement.

How do I measure % Bodyfat

There are a two common methods and devices to measure % bodyfat at home. These are the Skinfold Calipers and Bio-impedance devices.  I have both and of the two, the skinfold caliper is the more accurate method.  The down side of skinfold calipers, is they generally require a second person to take the measurements.   That said, I have become a master of measuring myself after only a few tries and the readings are very accurate.

So if you really want to understand your true healthy weight, don’t just rely on your weigh scale and the BMI chart as your guide, as this method may provide you with incorrect information.  Purchase online a set of enexpensive Skinfold Calipers and take the time to make weekly, or at a minimum monthly bodyfat measurements to ensure you maintain a healthy body composition throughout your life. 

And most importantly, taking corrective action once you know your body’s composition is the key to a healthy future.       

Enjoy the Ride....Rob

Calories are NOT Created Equally

I’d like to share with you an article I recently read in Bicycle Magazine that’s excellent “food for thought” (pardon the pun).  And not just for cyclists, but for anyone that’s interested in maintaining a healthy weight.  It's often suggested that it doesn't matter if the calories you eat comes from a donut, or an apple, because a calorie is a calorie and the body doesn’t know the difference.  Nothing could be further from the truth. 

Let’s start with some basics.  There are 3,500 calories in every pound of body weight and when you exercise you burn a varying amount of calories depending on your activity and intensity. For example, I zap around 9 to 10 calories every minute when I’m riding my bike, which means a guy weighing 159 pounds like myself will burn between 500 and 600 calories on a typical one hour bike ride—roughly the calories in a 6-inch Spicy Italian Subway sub. (If you're heavier, you shed more calories; if you're lighter, you lose less.)

Most people that exercise generally overestimate how many calories they’re burning up during their workout.  And if they eat an energy bar and drink a sports drink, they’ve effectively cancelled any calorie burn.  According to Leslie Bonci, MPH, RD, director of sports nutrition at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, “Surveys show that many exercisers overestimate the calories they burn by nearly double and unless every morsel has a food label, it's difficult to know how many calories are consumed and even harder to know how much you're burning."  And it goes without saying that your average couch potato has no clue what they’re consuming and unfortunately they couldn’t care less.  In fact, the only time they take an interest is when they’re told they have heart disease, cancer, or diabetes.

As mentioned above, a calorie is a measurement of the energy in food. And for years we've been told a calorie is a calorie. According to Bonci, "Foods close to their natural state, such as fresh vegetables, fruits, whole grains and lean, whole cuts of meat, require energy from your body to chew and digest them. They create a thermic response, which means you burn calories just processing them."

Bonci and other experts partly blame the preponderance of "lazy calories" for the current obesity epidemic. "Our food is so heavily processed, it's practically predigested," she says. "That fast-food burger you eat from McDonalds has gone through so much pulverization, you barely have to chew. We're losing the ability to burn calories as we naturally would during the eating and digestive process." And many of these same foods are calorie-dense, so there's more for your body to store.

Neither Bonci nor I suggest counting calories as it takes the joy out of eating and ends up a futile venture. Instead, fill your plate with active calories, like those found in fruits and vegetables. Such foods possess more fiber and water, which means you digest them slowly, feel satisfied longer with longer-lasting energy.  Consider them as, "free foods" and eat as many as you want.

By simply changing the composition of your plate, you will lose weight without worrying about hunger pangs, counting calories, or bonking episodes if you’re a cyclist like me. Below shows what a "high performance plate" should look like. Structuring your meals this way will allow you to fill up without filling out.

The Performance Plate

• One-quarter to one-third of your meal should consist of active and semiactive calories from protein such as lean meat, skinless poultry, fish, eggs and low-fat dairy.
• One-half should be active calories from fruits and vegetables (for the fill-and-chew factor).
• One-quarter should be active and semiactive calories from whole-grain starches: brown rice, whole-wheat pasta.
• Couch Potato calories should be consumed sparingly; and if you are overweight (BMI greater than 24.8) try your best to avoid them completely.

Active Calories

• Lean meat, fish, poultry
• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Leafy greens
• Whole grains
• Beans and legumes

Semiactive Calories

• Fiber-rich cereal
• Whole-grain bread
• Low-fat dairy
• Soups

Couch Potato Calories

• Pastries, cookies, pies, cakes
• Fatty processed meats
• Chips, pretzels, snack foods
• Fast food

So being mindful of foods that are not only nutritious, but require energy to digest, you won’t have to starve yourself on one of those crazy diet programs that force you to count every calorie while depriving yourself the enjoyment of eating for pleasure as well as nourishment. 

Enjoy the Ride....Rob

I'm Not the Man I Was...I'm Healthy Now

I usually write a blog that coincides with the 1^st of January when people set their New Year’s Resolutions.  The number one Resolution people announce has something to do with their health. I generally explain the benefits of a healthy lifestyle and describe in detail the risks associated with the unhealthy alternative. This year is different.  I intentionally held off writing the same old message. 

First, I decided to write a post mid way through January, because according to statistics, 70% of all people that make New Year’s Resolutions have already abandoned their commitment to a new lifestyle and retreated back to their favorite couch in front of the TV while eating unhealthy food and washing it down with soda, beer or a glass of wine. 

Second, instead of “preaching” the benefits and risks associate with lifestyle choices, I decided to share a story written by Peter Leclaire.  I coached Peter last year and he finishing one of the hardest single day cycling races in the world.  What’s most impressive is when I started coaching Peter he weighed around 245lbs, and after 10 months of committing himself to a healthy lifestyle, Peter dropped his weight by 80lbs, to 165lbs and has become a lean, mean cycling machine.

It’s my hope that by reading Peter’s transformational story, you too will be inspired by what’s possible when you take action and make this Year’s Resolution the one that sticks for the rest of your life. 

Enjoy the Ride....Rob

 

My Journey to Health - by Peter LeClaire

Ever since Robert (AKA: Coach) asked me to write my story describing my transformational journey soon after racing Etape du Tour back in July of 2012, I’ve been struggling how to best write this. I had many ideas floating in my head where to start my story, how to fill in the middle and provide an ending with a call to action for those who like me were sitting on the sidelines.  Below is my story and I hope it inspires you to make the lifestyle changes I embraced, regardless of your age, your gender or starting weight.

My life, like many of yours, is fairly ordinary. I’m a 50+ year old guy that has time commitments of work, family, friends, etc.  I’m not an overachieving “AAA” personality with a strong take-charge mentality, but I am a passionate individual who generally loves what he does and sticks to it once started. This is especially true when people support and believe in me. This is where my story starts.

About 5 years ago I registered for my first charity bike ride, a back to back metric century (100km) in support of the Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto, one of the largest charity rides in Canada.  At this point I had never thought of a bike ride in terms of distance, only in terms of time. I was excited about being part of something bigger than myself and raising money for a great cause in addition to joining over 4000 cyclists with the same goal. What I didn’t realize was how hard it was to get my fat behind (and I mean fat) out the door and actually do some training. I had no real game plan except to put some time on the saddle. I was quite overweight and considered obese even though I was reasonably active in other sports, but it didn’t take me long to realize just how out of shape I was when I began climbing hills I found myself gasping for each breath by the time I reached the summit feeling the negative effects a poor cardiovascular system and carrying so much extra body fat. I’m happy to report that I can laugh at those days now, but at the time it was not only painful, but provided a view into my general fitness level.

I completed that first charity ride that spanned over a weekend and besides having fun, I felt an overwhelming sense of pride and accomplishment I immediately signed up for the next year’s event. This is when I realized the importance of setting a major goal for myself each year and cycling was the “vehicle” for me. Although I was still overweight, I participated in the Ride to Conquer Cancer four years in a row with the last two events being back to back 160km rides.  I erroneously felt that since I was doing all this riding I could reward myself with over abundant meals that were for the most part, unhealthy.

I think I can say that my real transformation started two years ago when I was in France on vacation and had the opportunity to ride with Coach’s step brother Gerry Patterson who has been blogging about his cycling adventures and guided tours throughout the South of France. I contacted Gerry through his blog and we scheduled a guided day ride. The only thing I knew about our outing was that we were going for an 80km ride in the hills behind Nimes. I mean really, how tough could it be. I had a vision of a pleasant cycle through the rolling French countryside, but the reality was a far cry from what I had imagined in my head.  How naive was I? As much as I struggled that day, and I mean struggled as it was probably the hardest physical thing I had done in my life up until that point, it was an epiphany. Gerry was telling me about completing his first Etape de Tour race, or riding up the famous Mont Ventoux and it dawned on me that I would love to do a big mountain climb like that one day. I couldn’t believe I was actually thinking this because I’m the same guy that hated climbing any hill and used to ride out of my way just to avoid them.

The biggest part of my transformation was to set a big goal, and after listening to Gerry talk about his riding and racing adventures I proceeded to sign up for what would become the biggest physical challenge of my life, the L’Etape du Tour 2012 – Act 2. For those who don’t know, this was an actual Tour de France stage, but for amateurs. This particular race was 202km and located in the high Pyrenees Mountains.  It was the hardest stage of that year’s Tour de France.

It would be an understatement of colossal proportion to say this was a huge undertaking and probably something in my physical condition that bordered on impossible.  In fact, there were many times I thought to myself that I must be nuts to attempt such a physically demanding event. I knew I couldn’t do this alone and needed some guidance and structure to my training if I was going to accomplish this monumental task, and I had no idea how I was going to get it. Talk about setting an audacious goal.

It was at this time that I was introduced to Robert Armstrong by Gerry. Robert was looking for someone to train as he often does from time to time.  Gerry mentioned that I had signed up for the Etape du Tour race and recommend I contact his step brother for some training tips, as he coached him to his first Etape de Race.  Well be careful what you wish for, because I received more than a few coaching tips.  I think it was when I mentioned my weight to Rob that he realized I needed more than just a few coaching tips.  In fact, my challenge was a total life makeover.  Rob didn’t want to kill my dream of participating in this great race, but he said there was no way I could finish in my current condition and he was genuinely concerned for my long term health.  Rob didn’t charge me for his services, so he spent a long time qualifying my interest and personal commitment to the transformation plan and it wasn’t an easy process.  He told me that most people fail because they embark on these journeys for all the wrong reasons.  I basically had to convince him that I was worth his time, and I must have done a good job, because he took me on.  So as I said above, be careful what you wish for, because although Coach was supportive, he showed me no mercy.

Even though his training program was communicated via email, because he lives in Calgary and I’m in the Toronto area, I felt his encouragement every day. If this was to work he said, there has to be complete honesty between the two of us. Coach sent me new dietary principals that I had to follow without question and he expected I follow it to the letter before we even started on the cycling training program.  He told me things about myself that were hard to hear, but it was the wake-up call I needed.  Commitment to my general health, given I was obese was far more important than riding a bike in some race in France.  But cycling was also the catalyst to get me to the end point. He explained the many health reasons why getting my size under control from my current weight of 245lbs back to my senior high school weight of 170 lbs was important.  I just thought he was nuts when he suggested I could lose 80lbs in 9 months.

Changing my diet was difficult at first because it was based on the healthy foods I rarely ate, like Vegetables, Fruits, Salads, and a healthy balance of Carbohydrates, Protein and Fat.  He also said no alcohol until I was back to a healthy weight.   These were tough choices indeed.  Changing from a lifetime of self abuse based on bad food choices and avoiding sugars like soda pop & concentrated fruit juices, processed convenient foods, as well as simple carbohydrates was very difficult. These were all the foods that contributed to my weight gain and provided me with the comfort I desired.  This was a significant change, but after his big speech about commitment to each other, it was tough to let him down, but more important, I wasn’t about to let myself down.

The next step was making exercise a daily priority. Coach set up my program in 4 week periods. It started with approximately 7 hours of structured training per week, which progressively got harder and longer as the winter season wore on.  This was not to say that I didn’t grumble to myself more than a few times and that I was exhausted and tried to convince myself that couldn’t do this.  Every time that happened I focussed my thoughts knowing the big picture goal: a new me with a new healthy body with a newer outlook on life. Many of my friends witnessed my transformation right in front of their eyes as the excess fat started to melt away. As much as I was seeing and feeling the positive effects of Coach’s training program and dietary principles, I still remained focused on the big goal ahead, which was getting scarier by the minute as the Etape de Tour got closer and closer.

Since reducing a significant amount of body fat by the time the outdoor season arrived (by March/April I was weighing around 180), my overall riding significantly improved and my ability to climb hills was easier than I ever experienced. In addition to my new found energy, my wife was tossing out all my oversized clothes.  I had gone from a size extra large in everything I owned, to a size medium. I couldn’t remember the last time I wore a medium in anything, but there I was wearing a new skin tight cycling kit 2 to 3 sizes smaller than I did a short 6 months before. I finally started to look like a real cyclist.  That being said, the other challenge I had to get used to was accepting my own self identity.  Every time I pasted a mirror or caught my reflection in a window, I didn’t recognize the skinny guy looking back at me.  And it wasn’t just me, many of my long time friends that I hadn’t seen for months didn’t recognize this new person that remotely looked like the fat guy they once knew. 

I found it strange that when I was obese, no one ever told me I was too fat, but now that I’m a very healthy size, with a BMI of 24, people will tell me all the time that I’m too thin.  I think we have so many overweight people in our country that used to look like me, we’ve lost track of what a healthy person should look like, because having a healthy weight is no longer “normal” in this country and people feel it’s ok to point out that you don’t look like the rest of the fat population.

2012 was a big year for me. In late 2011 I finally met the woman of my dreams whom I was to marry in July prior to going to France for Etape. It wasn’t a bad way to spend a honeymoon and do some cycling at the same time. My wife got to proudly watch me complete my goal of competing in Etape de Tour and only 3 days later climb the epic mountain of Mont Ventoux with a new friend John who was gracious enough to open his home to us for a few days. Thanks to Gerry for taking me out on that ride a couple years ago for without that single act of generosity, who knows who I would be today. You never know where that turn in the road takes you.

As I mentioned earlier, it’s imperative to set goals to keep yourself motivated. I love my new life of opportunities and I plan to stay this way.  I continue to train under the guidance of Coach Rob and have already seen further improvements in my fitness levels.

So what’s on my agenda for 2013?

I’ve signed up for another stage race in France which takes place in Lac Annecy on July 7th. I’m going to climb the epic mountain of Alpe D’huez (13.7km, 8.1% grade, 21 switchbacks, 1071 meters of climbing).  And if that isn’t enough, I plan to ride the famous mountain in the heart of Provence, Mt Ventoux, not once, but three times in the same day from the three different start towns. And finally back home I’ll do a couple 160km+ races. 

I share the list above not to brag, but to highlight the opportunities that are available to me now that I’ve taken control of my health and made it a priority in my life. I can truly enjoy my passion for cycling. I’ll never go back to my unhealthy self.  Take it from a guy that was obese and take control of your life, set a goal that scares you to hell, build a plan that includes someone to support and motivate you and most importantly, take action.  As the Nike slogan goes, “Just do It”.  Coach would often say to me,“Knowledge is power, but action flicks the switch”.  Well, I think by now most everyone knows what’s required to live a healthy lifestyle, it’s not rocket science.  Flick your switch and you too can enjoy an exciting life that isn’t held back by any physical limitations. 

Best of health.....Peter LeClaire.

Good information, Wrong interpretation

A good friend of mine once said that people can only hear the information that supports their own belief systems.  We see this all the time.  It’s why there’s polarizing opinions when it comes to topics like politics, or the existence of a God.  Regardless of the information, people will only hear what justifies the continuation of their own beliefs, even when the actual facts beg to differ.

I thought about this as I read the results of a recent study published by the British medical journal, “Heart”. This study was recently featured in articles within the Wall Street Journal and the Globe and Mail.  The study suggests that people that run too fast, for too far, for too many decades, may find themselves running to their early and ultimate “finish line”.   

My 87 year old father running in Greece

In the shadow of a national health crisis, where overweight and obese people represent the majority of the population, and citizens with chronic illnesses such as Diabetes, CODP, Cardiac Disease and various forms of Cancer are reaching epidemic proportions, I’m concerned that a health illiterate public will interpret the results of this study as an excuse NOT to exercise.  They will read the headline in the paper that says, “One Running Shoe in the Grave”.  As a result, this will fuel the belief system of many that if daily exercise isn’t good for runners, so why bother exercising at all. 

In actual fact, the study involved 52,600 subjects that were followed for three (3) decades, but what was glossed over was the fact that the runners in this group had an overall 19% lower death rate than the non-runners, and within the running group only the runners that ran longer than 40kms/week and faster than 13km/hour lost their mortality advantage. 

We’ve seen the impact of this kind of reporting from the past.  A study from a few decades ago suggested drinking a glass of red wine a day is good for your heart health.  Now we have a culture of social alcoholics who justify two to three drinks a day because it’s good for their heart health, when in fact nothing could be further from the truth.  Let's be clear, alcohol should not be part of a person's health habbits.

We live in a world where people have limited attention spans and are bombarded with catchy buy lines and punchy sound bites; the headline of this running report should have read, “Long term study suggests that life-long runners enjoy a lower death rate than non-runners”.  Just like the headline of the wine report should have said, “Study finds that consuming more than one drink a day for women and two for men, leads to negative health consequences”. 

We now have a population that takes little to no interest in their personal health until they’re told by their doctor that they have a serious, possibly life threatening chronic disease and that's the moment they decide it's time to practice positive health practices.  And the sad part is many of these situations are entirely preventable. 

How are we supposed to motivate our children to be active and make healthy life choices when they watch their parents make poor choices?  Media that report the findings of studies like this recent running study have a responsibility to be mindful of the role they play in the health of the public.  Our hospitals and long term care facilities are full of people that got there because they were inactive and made poor lifelong health choices. 

This study contains valuable information for a very small number of aging runners that push the performance envelope in their training and racing.  These runners should consider the consequences of these findings and adjust their running programs accordingly. 

Finally, I’d like to report that my father who is pictured above turns 88 next year and has been walk/joggng 8kms to 10kms every day, (or about 56+km a week) for years and only stopped racing marathons when he turned 79.  While he stills enjoys excellent health, most of his friends and family that lived a sedentary life, are either ill, immobile, or dead.  I guess he and the many seniors like him are the exceptions to this study.

Enjoy the Ride....Rob

Painful Lessons!

For those of you under the age of 18, read no further because this probably doesn't concern you yet, but it will eventually. 

I think it’s safe to say that the rest of us "older" types would love to hang onto our youth for as long as possible.  Look at me, I have this crazy goal of breaking world cycling records for the "over 100" age catagory set by Frenchman, Robert Marchand.  While the young want to be older, the older will do just about anything to remain young.  Just observe how much money people spend to maintain their youthful appearance, or simply remember how you felt the last time the bar tender asked you for ID to confirm you were of legal drinking age.  I can tell you, this hasn't happened to me in decades, but while riding a bike with my smooth shaved legs, behind cool-lookin glasses, under a helmet, it's always a boost to my ego to see the reaction of a cyclist that can't keep up when he realizes that I'm a couple decades older than him.

As a result of our quest to remain young, or at least act younger than the numbers on the calendar indicate, we attempt some pretty crazy activities that should only be considered in our more agile and flexible youth. 

This week, Dr Les describes how he found himself pushing the age and ego envelop by attempting to relive his youth while being towed behind a boat at high speed with very predictable consequences.  He's offered some learned lessons from this experience that we should all consider so we don’t suffer his fate (well maybe everyone, except me).  But because he knows there’s people out there like me that will completely ignore his sound advice, he’s provided an excellent summary of how to recover from unnecessary injuries so we can get back to our active lifestyles, and enjoy some of that lost youth we once took for granted. 

Enjoy the Ride…..Rob  

 

Painful Lessons!

By Dr Les Davidson

Learning is a lifelong process. It is often deliberate, but can also occur by chance. There are three basic ways that we learn:

1. Direct instruction: A passive process where the “sage is on the stage” used in schools and universities (teaching) and at church (preaching).
2. Inquiry based: An active process where we ask questions and learn through the answers, often recognized as the Socratic Method.
3. Experience based: This is learning by trial and error. It is an active process of making mistakes and often failing. It is usually the most difficult and painful way to learn.

Other than seven years of post-secondary education, most of my learning is experience based: making mistakes and experiencing failure. Interestingly, this is thought to be one of the best methods for learning and retention. So why then do I seem to need repeated lessons?

My most recent lesson began on the last warm, sunny afternoon of the season with a poorly executed jump on the wakeboard. I should have known better than to tempt fate. After wakeboarding the day before, I said to my wife Kerry, “That was an awesome last ride of the season- I feel sixteen!” I have a long history, whether when skiing, playing rugby, mountain biking or wakeboarding, of feeling invincible then pushing my limits. I justify the pain by telling myself (and everyone around me) about how great I feel and how well I performed.

I wasn’t planning on riding the wakeboard again that late-summer day. I was a bit fatigued and satisfied with my efforts from the day before. But the joy I get from skimming over the waves along with some friendly competition with my 16-year-old son trumped any sound judgment. I landed a bit forward and as I caught myself, I felt my left hamstring give a sharp tug. I needed help removing the board and getting into the boat! I had torn a portion of my lateral hamstring. The next couple of weeks doing chiropractic adjustments on my clients were tough!

Enough with the self-flagellation! I would like to share the lessons I learned from being on the opposite side of the treatment table.

Life Lessons:

1. Listen to your inner voice. I knew I shouldn’t have attempted the big wake as I wasn't riding well but I ignored that voice inside my head!
2. Live with humility. I admit to being a show-off.
3. Live with gratitude. Be thankful to be blessed with good health and be pain free. It can change in an instant. I’m sure many of you can relate. Unfortunately, we don’t get a rewind button in life.

Lessons of Healing:

Intellectually, most of us understand the principles of healing, but following through on the principles can be a challenge. Here is what I tell my patients.

1. Your body does the healing. Drugs, surgery, acupuncture, massage, chiropractic adjustments or therapeutic modalities still rely on your body’s inner wisdom for healing. Most of us would like to download this to our health care provider.
2. It takes time to heal. We are busy and injuries are inconvenient but healing takes time. Give yourself time to rest and recover.
3. Healing is an adaptive response of your body. For example: a chiropractic adjustment corrects joint dysfunction and stimulates the nervous system. After an adjustment, we want to feel instantly better but the healing occurs from the adaptation to the adjustment and not at the exact moment of adjustment (although there might be immediate relief).
4. Healing is a holistic process. Being injured will drain your energy, challenge your emotions and leave you feeling disconnected. The more supportive and nurturing your environment, the more resources your body can marshal for healing. Even though injury may involve a specific tissue or region, having a high level of overall health and a supportive group of family and friends will promote faster healing.

Strategies:

As a health care professional, I recognize that there are many things that patients can do to promote recovery from an injury. In other words: What you do for yourself between visits does matter!

1. Rest: Complete rest may be necessary in the initial hours or days after an injury.
2. Reduce inflammation and manage the pain: Initially you may need pharmaceuticals. During the first four days after the wakeboarding incident, I used 6 doses of Naproxen, an over-the-counter non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication. I also recommend that you introduce more natural methods such as icing the injured area, using the naturopathic lotion Traumeel, and supplementing with Omega3 oils and Vitamin C.
3. Compression or support: The use of tensor bandages, casts, kinesio-tape or prefabbed supports can aid the injured tissue. For me, wearing a neoprene compression short and using a tensor bandage helped.
4. Pro-inflammatories: Decrease or eliminate your consumption of pro-inflammatory foods such as alcohol and sugar.
5. Choose a consistent and comprehensive treatment plan: It is important to have a thorough examination and diagnosis. Communication between your health care providers is important. I informally discussed my injury with a friend who specializes in sports medicine and then increased my chiropractic adjustment frequency. Acupuncture, massage and interferential current also helped my soft tissue injury.
6. Active rest: Active rest is the initial return to activity when you move the body to promote circulation. Circulation brings nutrients to the injured tissue, reduces the swelling and removes the waste associated with repair. This can be accomplished with aided walking - using a cane or crutch or walking in the pool, as I chose to do.
7. Replace your activity: When I treat a patient who finds their preferred activity painful, they usually do one of two things - persist with the preferred activity or do nothing. Movement is such an important component of healing that you have to find an alternate way to be active until you can return to pain-free participation. I started with pool running, then added swimming and now am back to riding my indoor bike.

And finally,

I learned that my questions, challenges and fears about injuries are just the same as the people that I treat in my clinic each week. Dealing with symptoms similar to what many of my patients experience has increased my empathy for them. In the final analysis, however, it is evident that I have more patients than I have patience!

Adding life to your years.... Dr. Les

Travel to the "Bizarro World" using your healthy "Auto-Pilot"

When it comes to health, diet and exercise I think I live in the “Bizarro World”, where everything is opposite to the normal world.  It’s a world where exercise is done every day for more than one hour, and taking an unscheduled day off is considered cruel and unusual punishment.  The reason my Bizarro World is so normal for me is because my priority and attention to my health, fitness and wellness is set on “Auto-Pilot” for more than 3 decades.  Unfortunately, the majority of North American’s have their Auto-Pilots pointing in the wrong direction.  And it’s such a mystery why so many people are surprised when they receive bad news about their health. 

In addition to exercising every day, my Bizarro World’s auto pilot also directs me to shop for food in the outside aisles of the grocery store where the real food is sold, while in the “Normal World”, people shop the inner aisles where they find unhealthy processed foods, snacks and soft drinks.  My auto pilot also prevents me from ever eating at fast food joints like McDonalds, Burger King or Wendy’s, while in the Normal World, their auto pilot directs them to frequent these unhealthy fast food joints on a regular basis, with giving little consideration for the future health outcomes.  And we wonder why our healthcare costs are so out of control.

Many months ago I wrote a Blog Post about the emerging science of “Behavioural Economics” and how making small changes in lifestyle can put you a Healthy Auto Pilot.  This past weekend’s Globe and Mail had a great article on this very topic, which I’ve copied below in its entirety for your convenience. 

Having your auto pilot pointed in the right healthy direction is so important to your long term health.  Research has found that most decisions that have a long term impact are not the result of careful deliberation, but are formed through a dysfunctional Auto Pilot that repeats the same unhealthy practices over and over again for decades.  Since most degenerative diseases are the result of years or decades of repetitive choices, it only makes sense that you adjust your auto pilot’s direction towards the Bizarro World and enjoy the associated long term health benefits.

Enjoy the Ride....Rob

Can we nudge ourselves to better health?

The Globe and Mail - October 5, 2012

Eat less, move more, stop smoking, cut down on booze. Public health campaigns have been drilling these messages into our heads for years. Even so, Canadians are failing to ditch their bad habits.

The reason, according to a growing body of research, is that we spend much of our days on autopilot. Instead of making conscious decisions each time we commute to work or buy lunch, we hop in the car, see a fast-food sign and order fries.

Automatic behaviours make life more efficient, freeing up cognitive energy for important tasks. But according to a new study published in the journal Science, our mindless choices are literally putting our health at risk.

The authors suggest that instead of just providing health information, public health initiatives should target the knee-jerk behaviours that are making us fatter and sicker.

“We now know that much of our behaviour is not driven by deliberation upon the consequences of our actions but rather, is automatic, shaped by our environments, often without awareness,” says Theresa Marteau, lead author of the study and director of the behaviour and health research unit at Cambridge University.

She and her co-authors note that subtle changes in the environment, which require little or no conscious engagement, may nudge people to make healthier choices.

For example, when elevator doors are programmed to close slowly, more people take the stairs. Cafeteria customers are more likely to choose fruits and vegetables when salad bars are easier to reach. And drinkers tend to consume less alcohol when it is served in tall, narrow glasses instead of short, wide-bottomed tumblers.

Since many behaviours that increase the risk of disease offer pleasure, Marteau says, health initiatives should take enjoyment into account. She notes that young children are more willing to consume vegetables when the packaging features cartoon characters, and more likely to eat lentil stew if it is called “teddy bears porridge.”

Much of the global burden of disease may be preventible, she adds. The World Health Organization estimates that rates of Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease would be cut by 75 per cent and cancer by 40 per cent if people stopped smoking, reduced alcohol consumption, improved their diets and got more exercise.

Behaviour change is the holy grail of preventive medicine – and the subject of recent bestsellers such as The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business and Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness.

The latest evidence from neuroscience, psychology and behaviour economics suggests that our actions are guided by two interacting systems: a reflective system, in which we work toward goals, aware of our motivations and actions, and an automatic system, in which we act without reflection, responding to external cues while our thoughts are elsewhere.

Automatic behaviours are often at odds with our conscious goals, Marteau and her co-authors explain. What’s more, they tend to kick in when we’re under stress or faced with a task that requires attention. In one experiment, participants asked to memorize a string of numbers were more likely to choose chocolate cake over fruit salad when forced to make the decision in the middle of the exercise. (That may explain why we grab chips from the vending machine instead of multigrain crackers when we’re working on deadline.)

Although people can consciously change their behaviour, “this requires using our scarce cognitive capacity,” which may then be deflected from the complex situations we face every day, Marteau says.

Howard Leventhal, a professor of psychology at Rutgers University, confirms that external cues may prompt healthier behaviours. But he cautions that when a person leaves the environment designed to encourage healthy choices, the approach stops working. “People don’t internalize it.”

Public health campaigns should engage the reasoning process that individuals use to embed a preventive behaviour into their daily routines, he says. For example, a person with Type 2 diabetes could make a habit of parking farther from store entrances to incorporate short walks. Ideally, he says, the patient’s new automatic behaviour would be reinforced by initiatives to create healthier environments, such as making nutritious foods more readily available.

Marteau acknowledges that a multi-pronged approach is probably the most effective way to achieve widespread behaviour change. But campaigns designed to nudge the public to adopt better habits can only go so far, she and her colleagues suggest. In an earlier report in the British Medical Journal, they argue that policy makers may need to increase regulation around such issues as junk food advertising and the glut of unhealthy products on the market, to counteract the powerful cues that trigger our unhealthy behaviours.

Smoking is one example, Marteau says. While smoking cessation treatments may be effective, she points out, “they are more successful when there are fewer places where tobacco can be bought.”

Don't "Live a Little"...learn to "Live a Lot"

Most people would be happy just to say they made it to 100 years of age and still be able to walk and remember their name. Not Frenchman, Robert Marchand. No, just making it to 100 is for pussies. This guy is setting world records on his bike. First he set the one hour cycling record in Switzerland by covering over 24 kilometres in one hour, a record that was sanctioned by cycling’s international governing body, the UCI. Now he set a second official record for a person over 100 years of age by covering 100km in a time of 4:17:27. 

I’m writing this blog post from my second home in Arizona, where I have ridden over 1500kms in the past 15 days as I begin my preparation for the next year's Haute Route race from Geneva, Switzerland to Nice France. Every time I come down here from my home in Canada, I’m always shocked at the poor health of so many Americans, by evidence of the number of obese people. Given the alarming condition of the majority North American’s (Canadian’s included), just completing a 100km ride would be a near impossibility for most, but to ride it in Mr. Marchand’s time of a little over 4 hours is only a dream.  And it's such a mystery why we have out of control healthcare costs!

As much as racing in next year’s Haute Route is a lofty goal to be sure, it’s only a small step in a much larger target and Mr. Marchand is making my ultimate goal a whole lot more difficult, because instead of going after one record when I turn 100, I now have to break two. He has set the bar higher because now in addition to breaking the one hour record, I also have to beat his 100km record.

I was having a conversation with a friend the other day about Mr. Marchand accomplishments and we were identifying the many things you have to get right in your life to accomplish what he’s doing at his age. First, he has some good genetics at work here, but good genes will only get you so far, so what are the other things, let me list just a few:

• You have to remain active all your life to be able to ride 100km at 100 years of age.
• You have to eat a nutritious diet throughout your life that consists of fruits, vegetables, leafy greens, high quality protein, healthy carbohydrates, while avoiding the foods we know are bad for us.
• Drink a healthy amount of water every day.
• Don’t smoke (that's obvious) and don’t drink an unhealthy amount of alcohol (1 drink a day for women and 2 for men)
• Get enough sleep and rest
• De-stress your life
• Keep your mind active, for without a sharp mind, you'll never be able to manage even the simple things like keeping your balance, or structure a training program to accomplish the kind of physical activities Mr Marchand is capable of.
• And finally, have a passion in your life that keeps you young. Clearly, Mr. Marchand’s passion is cycling and it’s giving him purpose, and probably one of the main reasons he’s still so active.

This represents a partial list of the most important elements necessary for a long and healthy life that many will consider somewhat restrictive or even boring. In fact, I’ve been told on a number of occasions that I should “live a little”, especially when I’m at a party and I refuse to drink the same volume of alcohol as others. My goal isn’t to “live a little”, but to “live a lot”! I’m only 56, so I have another 44 years to train and prepare for my attempt at Mr. Marchand’s records. Racing next year’s Haute Route race is considered the world’s toughest cycling sportive and is what I equate to as, "living a lot".  I certainly don't want age to be the thing that prevents me from being like Mr. Marchand.

The important thing to consider about long term health is that what you do today will affect you 20, 30, or even 40 years from now.  Most people that reach their 60's, 70's and 80's in poor health, generally achieve this state as the result of poor lifestyle choices that manifest into one of the many degenerative diseases. 

The purpose of this post is to share an inspirational story of a 100 year old man that’s “living a lot” and it proves that it’s not by accident that’s he’s capable of these amazing accomplishments. For sure, you can’t do much about your genetics, and some people are just luckier than others. I may be one of those people (I hope); given my father at the age of 87 is still very active and does his daily 10km run/walk. But there are so many more variables that you have total control over if you apply discipline and dedication to make it happen.

Remember, you don’t stop exercising because you’re old; you get old because you stop exercising.

Enjoy the ride....Rob

 

Haute Route....You must be crazy! Seek the “Freak”

Over the past 33 years, I’ve riding enough miles to go from the earth to more than 2/3 the way to the moon, competed in 7 Ironman Triathlons, run enough miles to circumnavigate the planet twice and swim the equivalent distance from LA California to Hawaii.  Believe me when I say I’ve been called “crazy” more than a few times about my commitment (some will call it an obsession) to athletics.  And I wouldn’t want it any other way.   

One of my biggest fears is to be categorized as “normal” by today’s standards.  I could provide you with the health risks of being considered part of the majority, or normal, but that’s for another day. 

In my last blog post I described the six (6) rules that will increase the quality of your life, and rule #6 was to find your passion and keep it fuelled.  I love listening and seeing someone that’s totally passionate about something in their life.  Check out this video of my good friend Bob Willet’s son Nolan, doing some basketball drills.  This is what passion looks like.

  

To get to this level of proficiency (he’s now 14 and even better) he has to practice every day until his fingers bleed; push through that pain and then do some more.  A normal person without this kind of passion will never understand his level of commitment.  If it hasn’t already happened, someday, somewhere, someone will call Nolan “crazy” to dedicate this amount of time and effort to his sport, but what they will never understand is this is Nolan’s passion and the pain associated with the volume of training to become this good is what he considers fun.  

Let me illustrate how I’ve fuelled my passion for athletics for over the past 30 years.  A passion which honours me the coveted title of being a “nut case”.  In my early days of running, when I thought 10km was a pretty good distance, I used to think marathons were reserved for those crazy freaks that were borderline masochists, but after racing a number of them myself, these “crazy freaks” began to look pretty normal....Time to refuel my passion.

When I read about this bike race called the “Race Across America”; whereby the cyclists rode non-stop across the USA taking only brief stops for sleep.  I thought to myself, “Now those guys are definitely crazy”.  So I decided to ride my bike from Toronto to Ft Lauderdale, Florida, and raised money for Leukemia Research (a disease that took the life of my mother at the age of 56).  When co-workers, friends and even family heard what I was planning to do, many called me “crazy”, and I liked the fact that I wasn’t “normal”.  But after doing the ride which saw us average over 160km every day for 16 days in a row, it too seemed normal....Time to refuel my passion.

I happened to be turning the channels on my TV in the fall of 1982 a year after my bike trip to Florida when I witnessed Julie Moss crawl across the Ironman Triathlon finish line on ABC Wide World of Sports.  I thought to myself, what kind of passion and determination does a person require to force themself to crawl across the finish line when every cell in their body is telling them to stop.  Clearly Ms. Moss was a certified “crazy freak”.... and I knew right there I wanted whatever it was that made her go.   

 

After a while, I was curious to learn how crazy someone had to be to train for and race an Ironman.  So I taught myself how to swim and placed 10^th overall in my first Ironman attempt.   I was thought my place as a crazy Ironman was secure.   And I did 6 more just to be safe.  Now that so many people have done the Ironman, my “crazy” status is once again in jeopardy, not to mention my need for a new goal to refuel my passion.  

So after riding my bike across the USA (north to south) two more times in an effort to raise money for cancer survivors, I was once again looking for something to refuel my passion.  Last year my stepbrother Gerry Patterson who lives in the south of France, emailed me a link to an event that makes the Ironman look like a warm up (if that’s even possible).  It’s called Haute Route (“High Road” in English) and it’s as close as I will ever get to sport’s ultimate sufferfest Nirvana, the Tour de France. 

 

Haute Route is considered the toughest and highest amateur Cyclosportive in the world. It is a seven (7) day bike stage race from Geneva to Nice through the highest roads of the French Alps; the very same roads that have been made famous by the professional cyclists of the Tour de France for the past 100 years.  Haute Route covers 780km and the cyclists climb an unthinkable 21,000 meters (or the equivalent of 2.5 times the height of Mt Everest).  Talk about refuelling the passion.  Doing something like Haute Route is clearly CRAZY, even by my standards, that's why I LOVE IT!

There’s an old saying that, “Pain welcomes company”.  Well the kind of pain and suffering being served up by Haute Route welcomes a whole team of crazy people.  So my step brother Gerry and I have formed a team of 9 riders that are every bit as crazy as he and I to join us. Follow this link to Gerry’s Blog to meet the other members of our team, who will join 600 other people that have the same passion for the sport of cycling in next year’s race.

The point of this blog is not to encourage you to sign up for next year’s Haute Route, or play basketball like Nolan Willett.  No, it’s to encourage you to find your passion like Nolan, or my step brother Gerry, or the other countless number of people that started with a small passion and over time gave it fuel.  Never stop seeking that freak within you, while feeding your passion with bigger goals and objectives that makes you feel alive.  And when someone asks you why you do it, or calls you crazy, you know you’ve arrived; you’re no longer normal, which means you’ve finally found the “freak” within. 

Enjoy the Ride..... Rob