The Senior Walking Fitness Blog

Hello Everybody,  

We all look for the best weight loss program and there are many to choose from. But first we must decide what we want and how possible it is to achieve. Age comes into things as well as how much you weigh. Young people are able to pump weights, run cross country, swim impressive distances and play team sports. Older people can do all these things if they want to, but they will find them more difficult and may prefer to go fishing instead.

We might want to lose just the few pounds we put on over Christmas or tackle life threatening obesity. But whichever we need to do it is possible. Of course the more you weigh the longer it will take to get slim, but it can be done. First of all look at the time scale. Do you need to lose a lot of weight quickly? It is achievable, but you may well put the weight back on again afterwards. If you need to slim at short notice, for a party, a holiday, a wedding or some other special occasion, you can do it.

There are lots of diets available to help you lose weight fast. Just check them out and do the one you feel most comfortable with. But do not buy a wardrobe of clothes for the new slim you, until you have looked at your lifestyle. Because without a lifestyle change your new clothes will not fit for very long.

You have become fat because you have been eating too many carbohydrates, sugars and fats and not exercising enough. It may have happened quickly as a result of comfort eating, a gourmet holiday in New York or reality TV addiction. Perhaps it happened slowly over many years. However you did it you must stop what you were doing wrong and start doing things right. I am not suggesting you give up all good food or your favourite TV program. Just look at how much you are eating and how much exercise you are getting. You will need to reduce and improve what you eat and increase the amount of exercise you take. That is the lifestyle change. Not too difficult if you really want to become slim and fit.

Cut down on carbohydrates, sugars, fats, fizzy drinks and alcohol. Have a look at the Mediterranean Diet and read about it. Walking is the easiest way to exercise. Just walk for half an hour a day and you will become fit and slim naturally, whatever your age. But it will take a while.

Crash diets are fine for quick results. But the best weight loss program has to be the one that makes you lose weight and stay that way. Then you really can buy a wardrobe of new clothes.

See you soon,

Peter Stockwell

23 February 2010

Photo. Benwmbc (Flickr)

Technorati Tags: best way to lose weight, best weight loss program, easy diet plans, fast slimming, walk to lose weight

Hello Everybody,

Nobody wants weight loss surgery and for older people it is particularly bad news. It is the last resort and those who have it are often at their wits end. They have tried everything and it has failed. There is, of course, more to it that just failing to lose weight. They may well have been suffering from stress or depression and perhaps other illnesses as well. A person who needs weight loss surgery is often not greedy and idle, they have a real problem. But don’t forget that fat people started thin and, if they can control their weight gain early, they may well avoid escalating into obesity as they get older. It’s worth trying.

So if you are getting heavier and are not sure what to do about it here are a few tips.

Exercise: This is essential for all weight loss. A walking for weight loss program is the easiest way for most of us to exercise. After all everybody does some walking every day, unless they are in a really bad way. If you can take a daily half hour walk you are well on the way to losing weight.

Diet: Don’t worry too much about special diets, or crash diets or any other type of diet. Just try to eat more healthy food. Cut out starches like white bread, fatty foods, sweets, sweet biscuits, and fizzy drinks. Eat granary or wholemeal bread, five medium portions of fresh fruit and vegetables every day, lean meat and oily fish like mackerel. This is something of a change in lifestyle, but it will reduce calories and you will be better for it. There are also plenty of tasty dishes using these ingredients. You can even have a glass of wine a day and not feel too bad about it.

Do not be ambitious. Of course losing weight is your ambition but don’t try to lose 10 pounds in 3 days. You didn’t put on 10 pounds in 3 days (I hope) so why expect to lose it in that time? Take it easy - aim for just a pound a week. If you lose two pounds that’s a bonus. How many calories less do you need to lose a pound a week? You must eat 500 calories fewer each day. You may think that is a lot. Not really. One slice of Starbucks’ classic Victoria sponge cake or a Starbucks butter croissant and coffee are each about 500 calories. Of course Starbucks is not the only coffee shop and they can all do the same damage. Anyway, just give up your daily slice of cake or, if you can manage it, your coffee and croissant and you are there. Give up both and you are on the way to losing two pounds a week. Easy.

Get a buddy: Losing weight by yourself can be a lonely business. If you have a friend to walk with or to share your new lifestyle it helps enormously. You can celebrate your success together and agree that failure is not an option. Even a little bit of friendly rivalry gives you something to aim for.

Set a target: Losing one pound a week is fine, but how much do you hope to lose in six months? One and a half stone is very achievable. Pencil in a celebration for when you get there. You will not only have lost weight, you will know how to control your weight gain. Weight loss surgery will be most unlikely. You have earned your party.

See you soon,

19 February 2010

Photo. Solstice Sol (Flickr)

Technorati Tags: best way to lose weight, fitness blog, obesity, senior fitness, walking for weight loss, weight loss surgery

Hello Everybody,

Obesity is a pandemic and we really must do something about it. Part of the problem is that people just do not understand the risks of being overweight. Those who do often misunderstand the information they receive and what they should do about losing weight or prevent obesity.

Many adults have heard they should eat five portions of fruit and vegetables a day. But what is a portion? It is 80g - about the size of an apple.

Over two thirds do not know how much exercise they should take each day. It is a minimum of half an hour.

Two thirds do not know the maximum recommended intake of alcohol. Four units for a man and three units for a woman. But what is a unit? It is half a pint of beer, a small pub measure of spirits or a standard pub measure of sherry or port. A small glass of standard strength wine is one and a half units. All rather a lot to keep in ones head on a night out with friends. A card giving this information, small enough to slip in a wallet, might be a good idea.

The British Government, in a move that looks like desperation, is now targeting the middle aged in what it calls its Change4Life campaign. Leaflets are being distributed and a short advertisement will appear on TV. Sadly the whole thing is so dumbed down that the annoyance and stress induced by silly voices and inflatable puppets in the advertisement could result in comfort eating and increased obesity. There is a slogan - ‘Swap It, Don’t Stop It’. See what I mean? But there is nothing wrong with the theory, just the presentation. Things suggested for losing weight or to prevent obesity include:

‘Food Swap: Fill up on healthier food, like fruit and veg instead of food that is high in fat or added sugar.

Toast Swap: White bread has very little fibre, so swap your white toast for wholemeal or wholegrain.

Spritzer Swap: A good way to cut down on alcohol calories is to have a smaller glass of wine topped up with soda water.

TV Slap: Think about the sports you enjoy watching on TV and get out and give them a try.’

All a good start, and we hope your favourite TV sport is not F1 Motor Racing.

Obesity is in part a blue collar problem. A construction worker spends his day at hard physical labour, in theory he should be slim and fit. But he eats a full English breakfast, a sandwich lunch and drinks several pints of beer after work. At weekends he treats his family to a meal at McDonalds and may well go to the pub afterwards with his mates. He is living proof that you cannot lose weight by exercise alone. Any football match crowd of working class males will be predominantly overweight.

Of course there are plenty of obese white collar workers, but there is a trend. An unskilled labourer will, on average, live to 72.7 years of age. A professional such as a doctor, chartered accountant, or qualified engineer will live on average to 80.00 years of age. There are factors such as housing and health care to consider, but the bad diet and tendency to smoke of manual workers definitely reduces their lifespan.

I do not think that for a lot of working class males a government advertising campaign will do any good at all. Obesity is a lifestyle choice and that’s all there is to it. But for those, of whatever coloured collar, who do want to begin a walking for weight loss program or any other type of exercise program and to choose a healthy diet to go with it, the information should be there.

I commend the British Government’s attempts to prevent obesity, even though it has not produced that card for my wallet. It would just be rather nice if, in its advertising, it did not assume that everybody who is overweight is stupid.

See you soon,

16 February 2010

Photo. Ball Gut Photo Guy (Flickr)

Technorati Tags: best way to lose weight, obesity diets, prevent obesity, preventing obesity, walking for weight loss, weight loss

Hello Everybody,

Why do fat people stay fat? Surely they have the motivation to lose weight. Life for the obese cannot be easy, the breathlessness, the difficulty finding seats and climbing stairs, the health problems. Why put up with it?

We know that some obese people have health problems and deserve our sympathy and support. But what of the others? They seem to be in a state of obesity denial. The British Information Centre for Health and Social Care tells us that in the UK between 1995 and 2004 obese men increased from 13 percent to 24 percent and obese women from 16 percent to 24 percent of the population. One in four young people between 11 and 15 years old were also considered obese. These are old figures, but it is doubtful if the situation has improved today.

Looking at matters internationally in the same period. The USA was first on the list with 30 percent of the population obese. Mexico and the UK were fighting for second place at around 24 percent. France and Italy, both countries famous for their food, were at 23^rd place with 10 percent obese people and at 25^th with 9 percent respectively. France and Italy consider food part of their culture and view it with national pride. Mediterranean food is good food. Sadly fast food outlets are now appearing in Paris, Rome and elsewhere and both countries will soon be moving up the list.

From these statistics we can conclude that there has not been a remarkable outbreak of stress, depression, hypothyroidism and insulin resistance (all things causing clinical obesity) in the USA, Mexico and the UK. A more likely explanation is that people are eating a lot of the wrong kind of food and not exercising enough.

But that does not answer the question. Why do fat people stay fat? There are a number of reasons.

Fast Food. This is the main reason. Fast food is everywhere, kids love it and grow up to become adults who love it. Fast food is bad food. It contains fats, starch and sugar in abundance and the portions are massive. Eat fast food and you will get fat and stay fat.

Peer Pressure. If everyone in your neighbourhood is obese why be the odd one out? You will be told diet and exercise don’t work, so just enjoy life and eat up. That is probably what you will do. You will become fat, and so will your kids and you will fit into your neighbourhood really well.

Fresh Fruit and Vegetables. Most fast food has very few fresh fruit and vegetables included. Sandwiches with salad will have one tomato cut up to serve half a dozen customers and a pinch of lettuce. An apple in a fast food outlet will cost three times the price of an apple in a Superstore. There is no incentive to eat fresh fruit and vegetables, so you don’t.

Too Much Starch. Bread is fine, but a lot of bread is not fine. Lunchtime sandwiches, although often sold as having healthy fillings, will pile on the pounds. But, once again it is quick and easy to eat sandwiches every day.

Lack of Exercise. Fat people do not exercise. They got fat through not exercising and sure as eggs is eggs they are not going to exercise now. So they are in a circle - they are fat because they do not exercise and they do not exercise because they are fat. If they are going to do anything about their obesity they must break out of the circle.

Now that you know why fat people stay fat the solution should be easy. Stop doing the things that make you fat, resist peer pressure and do the things that make you lose weight. Start gentle walking exercise every day, eat more fruit and vegetables, cut down on fats, sugars and starches. You will see results and with results will come motivation to lose weight. But most important of all, stay a long way away from fast foods.

See you soon,

14 February 2010

Photo. Fast Food Critic

Technorati Tags: best way to lose weight, can't lose weight, help losing weight, motivation to lose weight, walking for weight loss

Does quick and easy weight loss work and is it safe? It is quite possible to lose a lot of weight quickly and this may be what you want to do. Perhaps for a wedding or a holiday, or maybe you are just tired of being overweight. But there is fast and fast. Losing ten pounds in three days is possible. The problem is that you are starving yourself and on day four will start eating again with renewed enthusiasm. If you really do need to lose ten pounds for that wedding you can do it and there are diets available to help you. But be aware that prolonged extreme weight loss is not safe and is difficult anyway. You may lose a lot at first, but then your weight loss will slow down. That is when you will feel you are not achieving anything and are likely to give up.

The best speed for weight loss is one or two pounds a week. This is sustainable and you will feel a lot better losing weight this way than with panic diets. You just have to start sooner if you want to slim for a special occasion. Exercise should be part of your weight loss program and this is easily achieved. But there are some things not to do.

Skipping meals. Do not skip meals. You trick your body into going into famine mode. This will slow down your metabolism rate in order to burn fewer calories. You then store what calories you have as fat and burn muscle for energy. Giving up breakfast is worse. Your body has already starved for ten or fourteen hours and you are starving it more. It is, of course, likely you will eat extra at your next meal to compensate anyway.

Exercise. You need exercise as part of your weight loss program whether you walk or take other types of exercise. All exercise is good but there are times when it is better than others. We know that before breakfast your store of carbohydrates is almost depleted. Without stored glycogen to use as energy your body will find it by burning fat.

If you exercise in the evening you will have eaten during the day and so your exercise routine will be less effective. Of course if evenings are the only time you can exercise do it anyway. Without exercise you will not sustain weight loss.

It is better for you to eat five or six small meals a day than three big ones. This may not be possible, but if you can do so it will spread the calorie intake more thinly.

As I have said quick and easy weight loss is possible as a short term fix. But what you really need is a lifestyle change. If you just increase your fruit and fresh vegetable intake, eat lean meat and oily fish and take thirty minutes exercise each day you will lose weight. It will not be fast but it will be sustainable and in due course you will be the weight you are trying to achieve.

See you soon,

09 February 2010

Photo. The Vault Restaurant

Technorati Tags: fitness exercise program, heart health, how to lose weight quickly, lifetime fitness, over fifties, quick and easy weight loss, walking for weight loss

Hello Everybody,

If you have looked in the mirror, and decided to lose weight before you look again, you will have wondered what is the best way to lose weight. You will need to change your diet and get daily exercise. But what sort of exercise? There are many ways of doing it. I recommend walking but is walking really the best way to lose weight?

Let us look some of the options.

Going to the Gym. This is fine for some, and certainly can be an enjoyable social event. There are many types of exercise available in a gym that you cannot do at home. But be aware that high impact exercise can have a bad effect on the joints, bones and muscles of the over fifties. So choose what you do carefully. The cost might be high, but having paid to join there is an incentive to carry on and get your money’s worth.

Exercising at Home. I think of this as the hardest of all. Not only can it become boring and easy to give up, but you may even increase your weight by snacking afterwards. You are always close to the fridge. However if it is the only way you can exercise do it. Avoid the snacks and it will help you lose weight.

Cycling. This is excellent. If you can cycle on a regular basis you will get good aerobic exercise. It will combat heart disease, high blood pressure and type- 2 diabetes. An hour’s cycling will burn off 300 calories - the equivalent of a chocolate bar. It improves leg strength and in older people helps balance, which in turn makes them less likely to fall and sustain bone fractures. Of course, a fall from a bicycle may be more dramatic than a fall on an icy pavement. So I would not recommend cycling to people who are really elderly and unfit. Also a bicycle costs money, it may be a good investment and better for you in the long run than a coach trip to see the Lion King, but bicycles are not cheap. Some people just cannot afford them.

Swimming. This is another good way of exercising and can be enjoyed well into old age. The support water gives the body allows for safe, easy exercise with less stress on joints and muscles. It improves cardiovascular conditioning, increases muscle strength and reduces the risk of osteoporosis. Also swimming can be a social form of exercise and most pools have a coffee shop where you can go to meet friends and make new ones. The cost of a daily swim is not high and I recommend it. The downside of course, is that you need easy access to a swimming pool. For some people this is not possible and so swimming may not be an option.

Walking. I think walking is the best and easiest option. I would say that wouldn’t I, but let us look more closely. Walking, so long as you do enough of it each day, is an aerobic exercise that gives all the benefits of improved fitness. It combats heart disease, high blood pressure, type-2 diabetes and some cancers like the other forms of exercise. But you do not need to pay for a gym, get bored at home, buy a bicycle or have a long journey to a swimming pool. If you want to socialise join a walking club, if you like stress get a dog, if you like your own company you can have it. I will not say walking costs nothing. You will need to buy a pair of boots and maybe some other clothes.. But once you have your kit you have it for a long time. So for me the best way of losing weight really is walking. Try it.

See you soon,

Peter Stockwell

05 February 2010

Picture.  Keating Art

Technorati Tags: best way to lose weight, count your calories, lifetime fitness, Senior walking fitness, walking fitness program, walking for weight loss

Hello Everybody,

I never really knew what the baby boomer generation was. But now, as we are hearing so much about it, I found out that in most countries it is the people born between 1945 and 1965. I am a little surprised by the dates. I understand a baby boom in 1946 - after all it had been a long war. But then there would have been a hiatus in 1950-1953 while young men went off on a military adventure in Korea, causing a baby slump. Where are the baby slumpers? And if we carried on booming for so many years why stop at 1965. The Summer of Love in 1967 would, no doubt have produced its very own baby boom. But that is all by the way.

An average, officially dated, baby boomer in his or her 60s will find the health problems of older people approaching fast, if they have not already arrived.

In Great Britain 69 percent of the baby boomer generation is overweight. This causes the usual problems of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and some cancers. There is also osteoporosis in older people, particularly women, which can result in broken bones.

Nobody can avoid getting old - if they live long enough that is - but many of the illnesses of old age can be delayed, if not eliminated altogether. Illnesses resulting from obesity and smoking are two of the main killers of older people. So if these can be addressed many baby boomers will live longer happier lives.

Begin by giving up smoking. It is difficult and tedious, but dieing of lung cancer or a heart attack is not much fun either. Then consider your weight. To reduce it you will need to eat a more healthy diet and get more exercise. That is all there is to it.

Try to do 30 minutes exercise a day, every day. This is easily achieved with a brisk walk, but swimming, cycling, tennis or even gardening are all good. Whatever you do make sure you do it each day. Cut out eating junk food. Reduce saturated fats, sugar and salt. Aim for five portions of fruit or non-starchy vegetables a day. Avoid red meat and if you enjoy alcohol drink a maximum of one glass of red wine a day.

You will not become slim and fit overnight. If you lose a pound a week you are doing well. Just keep at your exercise and weight loss program and you will lose weight steadily. Of course there is no guarantee that after doing all this you will always be healthy. But you will be a lot slimmer and more active than that overweight 69 percent of the baby boomer generation. That is well worth achieving.

See you soon,

02 February 2010

Photo. Redcorn Studios.

Technorati Tags: baby boomer generation, baby boomer years, best way to lose weight, senior exercise, walking for weight loss