The Senior Walking Fitness Blog

Hello Everybody,  

By keeping to a walking for weight loss program we can avoid a lot of health problems. One of them is high blood pressure.

High blood pressure, or hypertension, affects 40 percent of the English population. Many people do not know they have it. Blood pressure measurement is a simple test and it should be carried out by your doctor at regular intervals. If you do have high blood pressure it means that your heart is having to work harder to pump blood around your body. This can weaken the heart and the increased pressure can also affect the arteries.

Pressure on the arteries can result in blockage or damage and the result of this may be a stroke.

There is no doubt that a stroke is a medical emergency. The results can be devastating for both the sufferers and their families. Stroke treatment is possible if medical help arrives quickly, but only 30 percent of victims make a full recovery.

There are two possible types of stroke.

An Ischemic stroke is when the blood supply to the brain is interrupted by a blood clot.

A Haemorrhagic stroke is when a weakened blood vessel bursts and causes brain damage.

You can also have a Transient Ischemic attack, which is a minor stroke and a warning that a major stroke is likely.

The symptoms of stroke include sudden muscle weakness, blurred vision, paralysis, abnormal feelings in one side of the body, difficulty speaking, dizziness and loss of balance. There is no doubt that you, and the people around you, will know something is wrong.

So high blood pressure is bad news and we should make every effort to avoid having it.

Lifestyle does seem to be a factor in whether of not you suffer from hypertension. It can affect older people more than the young and those over 65 years old are particularly at risk. It is related to smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, unhealthy diet, obesity and lack of exercise. These are not the only factors; diabetes, heart problems and family history are all things which may have an affect. But we should look carefully at what we can control by our lifestyle choices, as these are the easy things to adjust.

Smoking and alcohol consumption are well know for their ability to destroy our health. Give up smoking and reduce your drinking level to the equivalent of a daily glass of wine with a meal.

Obesity is associated with an unhealthy diet and lack of exercise. For your diet cut right down on salts and fats. Junk food contains a lot more of both than you may think. You should be eating lean meat, oily fish and fresh fruit and vegetables as your basic diet. There is a lot of information available on the Mediterranean diet, which is one of the best. Try it, you will find it tastes good and that glass of wine a day helps you enjoy your meal as well. Exercise is easily achieved by spending 30 minutes on a walking for weight loss program every day. You do not have to go to an expensive gym to get fit.

Such a change in lifestyle can go a long way to lowering your blood pressure and protecting you from strokes. A poor lifestyle is not the only reason people suffer from hypertension, but we can easily diminish our chances of becoming a sufferer. You just lose weight and get fit - surely worth a try.

See you soon,

27 December 20009

Technorati Tags: fitness tips, fitness walking, heart health, high blood pressure causes, high blood pressure symptoms, lowering high blood pressure, over fifties, senior walking, stroke causes, stroke treatment, walk fit, walking exercise, walking fitness, weightloss

Hello Everybody,    

You have spent months on your walking for weight loss program and healthy diet. You have lost weight and are feeling rather pleased with yourself. Quite right too, it was an effort but it was worth it. You are a Star, you really are.

Then suddenly along comes Christmas, unannounced - except by every superstore in the land from the beginning of October. But time passes and Christmas can creep up on you quite easily. So, what to do?

The answer is enjoy yourself. After all you spend 50 weeks of the year living a healthy lifestyle, or if you are taking weight loss and fitness seriously you do. To eat everything you want once a year - maybe three times if you count your birthday and Easter - will not cause a major disaster. Maybe you will even find you do not much like rich food anyway.

Of course, if you want to, you can enjoy some healthy food at Christmas. It is just a matter of doing what you have been doing all year. Do not drink too much alcohol, eat dry roasted rather than salted peanuts, eat dips instead of crisps, but not creamy or cheesy dips, beware of chocolates. This is all very well, but these few minor things will not make a great deal of difference over the short term. You may be eating out, or eating food prepared by other people. You are likely to have no control over the main meals, where the calories are, and all you can do is eat smaller portions.

Your exercise level will reduce as well. A postprandial walk is excellent, but a stroll with friends and family to the pub could well make matters worse. It is not impossible that you are so used to your daily walk that you will not want to leave it out, even on Christmas Day. If that is the case just go, nobody will miss you for half an hour and, if you are with your family, a cooling off period may be no bad thing.

I fear what has been described as your ‘Christmas Weight Maintenance Goal,’ is unlikely to be achieved. Do not worry about it. A feeling of failure is the last thing you want on Christmas day.

Just weigh yourself on 1 January and, when you have recovered from the shock, set a target to lose the extra pounds in six weeks. But do make sure you are back to your original weight before Easter, or the chocolate will send you into a wait gain spiral you hoped you had given up. I do not think of this as yo-yo dieting. I think of it as not avoiding weight loss at all costs. You are in control and you can lose or gain weight whenever you wish. Enjoy.

See you soon,

20 December 2009

Technorati Tags: easy weight loss, heart health, lose extra pounds, lose the extra pounds, nordic walking, senior exercise, walking for weight loss

Hello Everybody,    

A walking for weight loss program gives many benefits. One of which is that people who have lost weight are less likely to suffer from type two diabetes. There are three kinds of diabetes and all need to be looked at by your doctor, but type two is the one associated with obesity. Nearly 90 percent of people with this illness are overweight.

Type two diabetes is the result of the body becoming resistant to insulin. Insulin reduces blood sugar and keeps it to the correct level. We need blood sugar, or glucose, in our blood because blood transfers it to the cells and this is the fuel the body runs on. If we have too much glucose insulin changes it into glycogen in the cells. That way blood sugar is reduced and the correct balance maintained.

That is fine for people of normal weight, but there can be problems for those who are obese. Fat cells are more resistant than muscle cells. So somebody with more fat cells than muscle cells diminishes the ability of insulin and glucose to enter the cells.

When this happens the body gets into an alarming Catch 22 situation. It is not getting glucose into its cells, so the liver begins manufacturing glucose to provide more. This does not work because the cells are blocked with fat. Now thoroughly confused the body tells the pancreas to make more insulin to correct the out of balance sugar levels. In time this may damage the pancreas as it is working a lot harder than usual. Type two diabetes is then a possibility.

The effect of all this can be devastating. It may cause heart disease, blindness, gall bladder problems, kidney failure, diseases of the liver, even loss of limbs. Type two diabetes is very bad news indeed.

But there is also good news. We have seen that 90 percent of people with type two diabetes are overweight. Lose weight and things will improve. Sadly not for those 10 percent of people who are of normal weight, they will have to rely entirely on medication. But for the others a walking for weight loss program will help a lot. Also benefits can be obtained by losing only 5-7 percent of body weight. So there is no need for a massive amount of effort to achieve significant results.

A healthy diet and regular exercise can reduce risk of contracting type two diabetes and reduce the need for medication if you have it already. A walking for weight loss program is easy; just start slowly and work up to having a brisk thirty minute walk every day. For your diet avoid junk food, such as fizzy drinks, and fatty or high carbohydrate food. Do not snack, cut down on daily visits to the coffee shop.

What you do eat should consist of lean meat, oily fish, fresh fruit and vegetables, whole grains, low fat dairy products.

This is all rather a lifestyle change. It does not mean giving up the occasional treat, or even a daily glass of wine. It does mean making a choice. Do you want to be fit and well or do you want to risk type two diabetes? There must be just one answer to that question. Lose weight. You can do it, you really can.

See you soon,

13 December 2009

photo: freakinrad (Flickr)

Technorati Tags: best way to lose weight, diabetes obesity, easy weight loss, type 2 diabetes, type two diabetes, walking fitness program, walking for fitness

Hello Everybody,  

When it is suggested that older people should exercise there is one very good question they might ask ‘Why?’ The answer is that they may well live a longer, healthier, more active life as a result. It can also help their cognitive abilities like memory and reasoning skills. So, given the many positive aspects of exercise, it is a good idea to try and do it on a regular basis. It must be regular, for occasional exercise will do little good and may do some harm.

There are, of course, people who are unable to exercise because of a variety of medical conditions. But there are also people who could do some gentle exercise on a regular basis and who may not realise it is possible.

Osteoarthritis is one of the main reasons for loss of mobility. It affects middle aged and older people and causes pain and stiffness in weight bearing joints such as spine, hips, knees and feet. The obvious thing to do is to rest and avoid the pain. But this just makes the joints more stiff. What you should do is exercise them. It will not be too comfortable at first and it could seem a painful waste of time. But gentle stretching exercises and moderate walking will help a lot. Sadly we have not yet found an osteoarthritis cure. So, for the present, it will never be possible for someone with osteoarthritis to have a real workout or a long hike in the country. But a more active lifestyle is perfectly possible and it is well worth the effort.

Another thing that can help is to lose weight. If you lighten the load on the joints this will ensure that they do less work and slow down the degenerative process. Losing weight when you are unable to do much exercise is not easy. All you can do is try to cut down on sugars and fats and eat plenty of lean meat, oily fish, fresh vegetables and fruit. Avoiding snacking between meals is also a good idea. You will probably not lose much weight, but you will lose a bit and it all helps. It is comforting to know that older people should not let themselves get too slim anyway.

If you are moderately fit a walking for fitness program will be good for your heart, blood pressure and general quality of life. One of the problems of old age is that people lose muscle mass. It is quite dramatic, as between the ages of 30 and 80 some muscles lose up to 80 percent of their strength. For building up leg muscles walking is excellent and for the arms and upper body gentle exercise with weights will help. But if you want to combine walking with upper body exercise Nordic Walking with poles is a good way of doing so.

It is recommended that older people should carry out at least 30 minutes physical activity a day. This does not have to be concentrated, such as taking a half hour walk or lifting weights for 30 minutes, although it can be if you wish. The 30 minutes can be spread out over the day and might be housework, or gardening or carrying the shopping back from the superstore. Just try to keep active as much as possible and you will see the benefits over time.

See you soon,

Peter Stockwell

6 December 2009

Photo: Bijou Living

Technorati Tags: easy mobility, osteoarthritis cure, osteoarthritis pain, osteoarthritis relief, walking for fitness, walking for weight loss