The Workout Outlook
Posted at 6:00 AM on March 24, 2010
by Dale Connelly
(40 Comments)
Another weight-loss study was unleashed on the developed world yesterday, wreaking the usual amount of havoc. The question had to do with the amount of physical activity necessary to prevent long-term weight gain. The conclusion reached after studying people for 15 years - women who don't cut calories as they age should exercise one hour per day, seven days a week to keep from gaining weight.
This comes from a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Dealmaker and trend watcher Spin Williams believes every weight gain or loss study is a marketing opportunity, so naturally he's excited. He sent this message late yesterday:
Here at The Meeting That Never Ends, we love the mind blowing ramifications of this study. It's a bombshell! Imagine - ONE HOUR of exercise EVERY DAY! On top of the normal amounts of work, sleep, household chores, community volunteering and watching essential TV shows that they already do, American women who obey studies like this will now have to add ONE HOUR of working out. And people should count on spending TWO hours when you factor in the getting dressed, showering, and complaining to each other about having to work out ONE FULL HOUR! There's not enough time in the day!That's why we think the next big trend will marry that exercise component to the daily office routine by re-introducing the time honored hunter-gatherer lifestyle. You don't hear about overweight people in hunter-gatherer societies because they don't have bathroom scales, and even if they did have scales and were willing to talk about their body-image issues, nobody around here wants to hear from hunter-gatherers. They're boring. But we should listen anyway!
Hunter-gatherers are slim because they're always on their feet and constantly on the move doing all that H'ing and G'ing. And because they use so much energy finding edible nuts and fruits and plants in the natural world and chasing down animals, they don't have time to get fat! We need to get back to that.
So here's the new trend for senior office slaves - no desk at work! Rather than have all your stuff right there, you should have to go on walkabout and if necessary, wrestle it away from a competitor. Need a stapler? Time to forage. What would a hunter-gatherer do? She'd range far and wide throughout her office building and maybe through other buildings downtown, investigating all the usual spots like the desks of younger adversaries. Tension burns calories!
Lunchtime? Chase down a squirrel! The city is full of them!
This is an economic stimlulus! We see a huge marketing opportunity to support a surge in hunter-gatherer supplies from sharp sticks to foraging baskets and knobby hardwood clubs. This is stuff we could manufacture in the USA!
Do I hear you saying that hunting and gathering is too difficult for women and men in their 50's? That's the point! Young people can have offices at work. Their metabolisms are so high, they burn off calories just sitting there, even while they're drinking pop and eating Ho-Ho's all day. Unfair, but there you go. The older you get, the better it will be for your health if you have to scavenge for everything. Hit the road, Gramma. Get off your duff, Gramps! Everything you need is out there, but for the sake of your own health, you've got to go get it.
Spin may be on to something, but I doubt it.
How much physical activity is built into your daily routine?
Comments (40)
good one, Spin - H'ing and G'ing - it might be the way to go. i bet Elinor already gets way more than one hour/day running and she does this while working lots, so i guess the rest of us should be able to also (especially retired folk like me). H'ing and G'ing might be good for me since i don't like to do an activity unless it produces something. that's why i have the goats - they keep me more active. otherwise i'd hang out in the hammock. i'm lazy.
Good Morning More or Less Active People,
I always think that I should get more exercise, but any plan to do so doesn't last long. I do have some exercise built into my day part of the year, which is due to being cheap and also because I like physical work.
I have a push lawn mower instead of a riding one and a shovel instead of a garden tiller and a snow shovel in place of a snow blower. I also get some walking in when the weather is nice by taking the dog for a walk.
Good Wednesday morning, all.
Approximately 4 days a week, I run for 70-80 minutes. On one weekend day, I typically run for 2-3.5 hours, depending on the length of the run. On rest days I often bike an hour with my 5 year old, who rides the trailing bike. He is starting to be able to contribute to the effort on long bike rides, so riding with him is not quite the workout it used to be.
I sit on an exercise ball at work (due to an injury I incurred this winter on our icy back stairs), which works the abdominal and back muscles all day. (I 'm sharing this tidbit, even though sitting doesn't qualify as exercise, for people who would like to develop "abs of steel" without having to go to the gym!)
Another busy day! Have a great day, everyone.
In a H G society I would have died or been left on an ice floe long ago. With my knees either the saber tooth tiger would have eaten me or I would have starved as the squirrel ran up the tree.
Do I get points for knowing where the stapler is?
I just read something last night (Covenant of the Wild) that says studies show that hunters and gatherers actually only spend 19 or so hours a week hunting and gathering. But how do you hunt and gather a house? Or HD radios?
Barb in Blackhoof, I'll bet your goats keep you plenty busy! Not everyone is as insane enough like I am to run outside in rain, sleet, cold, heat, and snow.
I used to be an outdoor writer, which made me a professional hunter/gatherer. Or more correctly: hunter, gatherer & blatherer. If you walk hour after hour in cattail marshes looking for pheasants you can drink beer till you pass out and stay slim.
A friend worked in an office managed by a domineering old shrew who considered spell checkers to be a lazy man's excuse for not learning to spell. At night she would move around the office, removing spell checkers from computers.
Now imagine if that same woman would spend each evening rearranging things from people's desks. Your phone would ring but you'd find that the right receiver was eight cubicles away. Every time you went to use a pen you'd have to spend half an hour looking for one. Your paycheck would be tied to the top of a fat hemp climbing rope that you would have to shinny up.
Actually, chasing little goats goats sounds like more fun.
That is very funny Dale. A keeper for your published collection.
Love your plan Jim. Was my parents plan for their kids. So as an adult it took me awhile to be willing to do intentional exercise, having grown up doing work as exercise, including of course a push lawn mower.
I thought saying this was going to be off topic--but I am writing this from home, not the office, while I wait for the sun to get a little closer to the horizon. I start biking to work today. Next week, Sun to Sat, I should be getting close to my 140 miles a week, if my body will allow it this year. Not sure yet. Last few weeks of indoor biking have not made my body happy, Hoping. I am only 3 miles away but I make it longer both ways, as sun and weather allow. Note biking to work is my parents work as exercise mode. I am selling my pickup next month, prep for retirement, which is now unlikely, but still will need only one car.
As a non-hunter-fisherman living in the midst of them in NE MN, I do attest they H/G's are a very boring lot. Also, in all of the travel lit I have read, it is true that real H/G's still existing today are pretty much our h/Ging ore lying around the igloo, hut. prefab house, etc.
thanks dale and spin, rub it in.
springtime is coming. shorts and t shirts. i feel like the guys on star treck with the spandex uniforms on. there is no where to hide in the spring and summer. i switch from jeans or cords and a tweedy sport coat to a pair of shorts my birkys and a hawaiian shirt for the next 6 months. if a formal meeting on the agenda the switch to long pants is a bout ass formal as it gets.
activity is easier to come by in the summer months but still the challange of maintaining the 15 pounds of overweight dunlop is harder with the added infusement of summer beer and wine opportunities. the celebration of the season seems to be a break even with the added actvity. i hate having to file away another collection of shorts because they squeeze at the waist just enough make it uncomfortable. the thought processs is always that in just another month or two i can put the fat boy pants away and get into my favorite stuff but the reality turns its ugly head and last years shorts go on top of the box with the year befores shorts.
with stairs and lawn work and coaching little league and getting to the health club on occasion i have successfully achieved paunch. the 15 lbs of dunlop ( it dun lopped right ver my belt) are most evident poolside where the pale white underbelly of this previously rippled torso paints the decline a ludefisk shade of luminesence. to get a rise out of the kids a couple of years ago i put on a speedo and pair of work boots and mowed the lawn on the riding lawn mower. the kids wanted to melt into the woodwork. my wife uses the picture she got of the jelly belly speed for her telephone ringtone picture of me. so when i call her up pops the picture of those purple speedo and that white paunch.
i was just thinking its about time to execute the swith of the tweed for the tommy bahamas. one of my favorite transitions but it doesnt come without its reality check. thanks for bracing me. maybe just one less hour of sleep would be worth it to get back to that rippled torso huh? i'll let you know how that goes. i think me and my millenium belly ahve grown accustomed each others face.
how about that my fair lady favorite.
hey i heard once the tapes of audry hepburns singing vs the dubbed in voice of marni nixon. any chance of finding a hepburn version of "wouldn't it be loverly " someday?
enjoy the wednesday rh ers
Since I feed horses, goats, chickens and cats twice a day...takes a half hour in the morning, half hour in the evening...winter chores include hauling 40-50 lb bales of hay, 5 gallon pails of water and some walking, I often work up a sweat...but does it really count? Summer is easier, of course, no hay, less time...but there is that push mower.
I often think the reason I have the animals is to get me up and about and outside...like, Barb, I might otherwise find reasons to lay-about.
BTW, speaking of animals, I want to report that the bee hive that made it through the winter, is collecting pollen already.
Steve--I was once gone from school for three days to a workshop. They hired a new sub for me, one who had just singed up, new in town. By noon of the second day the kids were all in the principal's office in anger. She pulled several things, one of which was to tell students what I was teaching was wrong and was not what I was supposed to be teaching in my various writing and or writing/lit classes. So the second day she taught the kids the memo form and told them to write memos to me about what was wrong with me as a person and a teacher (we had never met). Anyway, in the midst of all of that, she rearranged all of my materials and supplies in my desk and closet.
She later proved to be a terrible problem all over town, until she got shut down by the courts.
Ah, I can start out.
Good day all.
I notice that you play Dave Moore regularly, although he hasn't made any new recordings for along time, Dale. I'm glad that you do this because I never get tired of hearing him. I hope he will make a new recording before too long.
Clyde: it was exactly that kind of teacher that God gave students thumb tacks (to leave on teacher's chairs).
Jim: I couldn't agree more about Moore. "Breaking Down to 3" is one of the greatest folk albums ever recorded. His "God Moves on the Water" (from an earlier recording) is extremely moving. A huge talent.
Oh man, you must keep "From His Window" in the play list. My face is all wet. This would be a good pair with "Cat's in the Cradle".
When I say push mower, I don't mean a push mower like the one we had when I was a boy. I am refering to a power mower that is pushed. I like to do physical things, but I'm not ready to start using the older type of push mower.
Mike in Lake Elmo -
I'm in complete agreement on that, and I'm grateful to Sue for reminding me that the song was in our library.
Jim and Steve, we have a Dave Moore concert in the pipeline, just recorded last month in Minneapolis. Mike and I are thinking we should have another day or two where we present a bunch of recent concerts in a clump, just like we did on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
Care to suggest a day, week or month?
Are you kidding, Cynthia? I say anything that works up a sweat counts, you're heart's pumpin'.
Funny Spin should send this just now - my assignment today is to come up with some kind of exercise routine THAT I WILL DO. Could be a combination of walking, dancing, yoga, trampoline, even ping pong if you jump around and dance to the music (we play to keep the ball in play rather than score points). And then the aforementioned things like gardening, shoveling, lawn mowing (we're like you, Jim, so far).
LOL at dunlop, Tim, and hunter-gatherer-blatherer, Steve.
wow, Tim - that's quite a phrase you turned "the pale white underbelly of this previously rippled torso paints the decline a ludefisk shade of luminesence." pretty funny!
and Steve - chasing baby goats is more fun than almost anything. at this stage, one need not chase. they are so curious that when i'm in the pen with Alba and the little ones, they swarm around my legs and sniff and poke. and Alba does this little chuckle noise to them to warn them to be careful, but they don't know fear. we had them outside of the pen yesterday and they ran all over the barn - lunging, hopping, then sprawling with all legs spread-eagled. then up just as fast and running again. it's a joyful time. thanks for indulging me :-)
Dale, it is good to hear that you have recently recorded Dave Moore.
I supose you could tie the plan for a bunch of concerts to a holiday of some kind like Earth Day or April Fool's Day. You could just call it a celibration of spring and fit it in at a good time for you and Mike.
Steve--I do mean the hand push lawm mower.
Had a fum moment riding in. I posted on here and then got set up to ride (never wear warm enough gloves the first morning). I grabbed my cheap little fm radio and turned it on to see if it had enough battery to get me in. It did. So put in in my ears and rode off listening to a flute version of "Hear Comes the Sun" not really thinking about the music. The song ended and there was NOT Dale but John Birge talking in my ears. Threw me. John Birge always plays a looser mix on his morning show, but hitting a moment when he was playing Goerge Harrison was a bit of disjuncture for me.
Being not one of the prvileged many in the Cities who can listen to HD radio, I will be back to listening to classical, which is fine of course. And I like John Birge's morning show alot too.
Was a good ride in by the way. Fun to be moving again.
Life is pretty sedentary at work (except when I am in the play therapy room), but I try to be more active at home. Our town of 16,000 has a great community center with a vast array of exercise equipment, pools, tennis, raquet ball, and basketball courts, climbing wall, etc. but do you think I can get there? We garden and have animals and a kid at home, but I know that the time is coming when I'm going to have to start a regular exercise schedule. Any suggestions regarding motivation to get started and keep going?
Clyde Good for you to be biking. My memory is fuzzy, but long ago I think the morning classical show was hosted by someone pretty stuffy, but he had a thing for Bonnie Raitt. So you'd get Haydn followed by "They want me to rock them like my back don't got a bone/ I need a man to rock me like my backbone was his own." That song was a real favorite.
Steve - wish I could remember who that was! ...I think Lynn Warfel is back on classical, but just early early weekends; if she gets in a different time slot I'll be listening to some classical again, too -- just love her sense of humor.
Steve--I know who you mean. Having discovered classical music in Chicago where there was then a commercial classical music station that was very stuffy and pretentions about music, I am always gratified by the tone of the classical music DJ's and the whole set of music on MPR.
Renee--one of my big motivations is the private time. I do a semi-meditation during some of my bike riding. It gives me a respite from things, my time to think and pray and clear myself for dealing with the real world.
Tim,
I enjoyed your story-- Thanks for sharing! The things we do to embarrass our children! Hah... our son takes it all in stride-- oh, we can still get him good but he knows it's all for fun. (Got him a couple weeks ago when he forgot to bring a billfold so we *had* to go with him to buy compression shorts and made quite a fuss with him in the 'Mens underwear' section of Target!)
"Not enough" physical routine is built into my day anymore... trying to get better at that...
Enjoy the day everyone!
You scared me when you referred to the "late, great Cam Waters." I was afraid he'd passed on, but a check of his website revealed no such information. Have a happy day!
In 30+ yeasrs of listening very heavily to MPR classical, only two DJ's have bothered me any little bit at all, one right now wears me out now and then, but he strokes a sore point in my psyche. I used to travel and try to find classical music elsewhere. When I found it, it was more often than not the DJ's and the program I know on MPR picked up on other stations. Or it was stuffy ones who had to over talk the music. The breaking point for me is if they think the music is fun and uplifting and all that instead of an educational process or a program to improve me and others.
clyde, the new deal is the mp3 where you can choose which 148 albums/cds yu put on there. hit random mix and go on with your day. they are down to 15 bucks now and the ability to carry your own favorites is very nice. miles davis, loudon wainwright iii and the bach cello concertos
nobody knows how to put together a mix for you like you. and then when you try to figure out which 10 go to make room for this months mix gives you a strong appreciation for the stuff you love. you don't think about it normally you just appreciate it then you have to choose frank sinatra or thelonius monk. it helps you know you a little better. it doesn't work with the 64 gig mega mp3 buts gret on that postage stamp sized 15 dollar one.
enjoy the season of getting that ride in. glad your body is holding up.
ben i love the vision of the compression shorts in target. you gotta have a little fun in life. my kids give me flack for talking to strangers in the line at the gorcery store or at some gathering where some new person is just standing there and you can strike up a converstaion. my kids always point out that no one else does that and i point out that all those people miss out on meeting all the cool people we get to meet. if you initiate a conversation with someone who is creeped out by talking to strangers the vibes come across pretty quickly and you can abort but more often than not it is a highlight of the hour not a buzz kill.
michele glad to know there are other cam waters fans out there. i'm glad hes not dead yet too.
steve i don't jump in and respond to your stuff as often as i should but i really enjoy you as the new contributing guru on the blog. keep it coming.
renee, how about if you report in here daiy as to your daily excersize participation. i'll bet we could harass you for rthe first couple of months to make it become a habbit and get you over the hump. when do you plan to start what do you want to set as the target. we will ask you to check in with the report every day or sufffer the ire of the rh blog trash talkers.
would that help?
Argh ... I can't win.
After years of trying and being shamed by society for smoking, I finally managed to quit that. However, the effort did put some pounds on me, so now society is shaming me about that. Shame on me forever, I guess.
tim--I do have an mp3 player--8 gig holds all of my music except the classical. Also, by the way, gets fm. I am planning to use it some. I need to get a good carrier for it first. I use it when I am painting.
Painting question: I produce more art than we can have on our walls. I do not want to get into the business of selling it; maybe after I do retire I will try to get into art fairs. And I do not want to give it away; too many pieces of weak art have been given to us and I do not want to be a nuisnace about my art. Anyway, do you have a way to store your art not on walls? It is going to be tricky since so much of minei is pastel with its delicate surface.
Tim-What a wonderful and sinister idea! I'm little Miss Accountability and I would try to avoid harassment like the plague! Let me think on this and get something planned.
JohnP--just be thankful it has not shamed you into wearing three inch heels as it does women today.
Renee--one of my ex-students is going to start bike ring now and we are going to compare miles everyday and such every day on facebook. She is 10 years younger than I am and just starting out, so she is going to aim first for 1/4 of my miles a day and the raise the fraction over the summer.
tim--my wife is on a personal basis with half of the clerks in Kato. I have so much trouble hearing in places like target check out lines, that I avoid people like you. But you are right; go ahead shame your kids. My wife has always done the ordering at the coffee place in B & N because I cannot hear well there either; cannot track sound I want to hear against much background noise. But with her physical deterioration, I just started doing it. I know they think I am a slug because their dear hobbled friend Sandy has done the ordering while I sit there. Yesterday, I went up to order: they had the ice crusher going, were grinding coffee, and two people were having a shouted conversation over me and all of this noise. The young lady kept trying to shout at me to communicate, which made it worse. When it quieted down I explained to the young lady why I cannot hear and hwy I had not been ordering. So we agreed, and she will exqaplin this ot the others, that I will write down wheat I want in case the machines start grinding next time.
Michele and Tim,
Well I wish I could bring you better news, but I'm sorry to say Cam Waters did indeed pass away last December. It's true that his website doesn't reflect the sad facts, but a Google search leads elsewhere.
You can see the Strib article here.
We're proud to be playing Cam's music on Radio Heartland.
barb in blackhoof--this is in memory of your mother and mine:
My Mother’s Washing Stick
Boiled to pudding ivory, broken spindle from a chair,
On the back, back porch used Mondays out of mind.
Lost through time. Why do I unexpectedly care?
The clothes of the family, always needing to be clean,
Most pre-soaked, all sweaty, stained, and grimed.
Dumped load-by-load in the wringer washing machine.
Into water boiled by wood we cut and stored,
Larded with soap rendered from animals we had known,
Water toted from well and into stove-top boiler poured.
Not by a simple step or two, but by labor of us all,
Clean clothes were earned, not from a dryer pulled.
But out of all of this yesterday I did recall,
Her precious washing stick, long worn to fit her hand.
For hours with it into the wringer she would guide
Hot heavy clothes into cold rinse water on its stand.
Tediously she cleaned them all load by load.
Twice or more the rollers would wring out water.
Water, soap, and bluing on her hands showed.
Why suddenly unbidden flashed her washing stick into my mind?
Mrs. Stewart’s Bluing always there on the back porch windowsill?
Smell of soap, slightly rancid, the home-made kind?
Not any demon of guilt in me rose its head,
Nor any blame from me of how I was raised,
But to something, something my heart was being led.
Two Germans of the soil, by them I was raised.
Two years ago she died, years before that my father,
Rarely to speak of love, and only seldom praised.
Sometimes I know the wringers caught her fingers.
Love said in hard work, and everyday small risks.
Little of this in my memory had lingered.
Until I did envision, without thought, her worn out washing stick.
She too was eventually boiled to soft pudding white.
After close to ninety years even her mind was worn sick.
From age to age we think the common things alter.
New rules are written for how a family works,
So many are sure their parents did falter.
But for us three those two did provide,
A sense of place in time, a will do to what needs being done,
An inner voice that is almost always a guide.
Her washing stick was not meant to be a measure
But by it I can chart out what is often forgotten,
What it took to make our lives of greater leisure.
Clyde - just absolutely breath-taking poem. thanks. i read it hurriedly, because Dodger is out there wanting to push and she seems comforted if i'm near. Dream and Alba like their privacy. not Dodger.
thanks - and can i print this off to show to my Mom??
i'll check back later. gave myself 10 minutes in the house. now i'm out again.
barb in blackhoof--forgot she was till alive. Print it off and use itas you wish.
I am writing apoem about a cow giving birth. Be awhile yet.
I generally find classical music to be stuffy, but I do think that it should played and I like listening to it some times. I think more room is needed for other kinds of music on MPR and the MPR classical music stations should share some of their time with other kinds of music.
thanks dale for keeping the info accurate. i am real sorry to hear about cam but i guess that is all part of the deal huh. keep him in the mix for michele and i and all the other cam fans out there.
clyde, i have the hearing problem the same way but to a lesser extent it sounds like. frustrating but workable if you time your trips to the counter.
great poem . you don't see the aba pattern very often. i like the options it offers.
the pastels are best stored in a drawer laying flat with tissue paper as a buffer between one and the next (or glass) i have drawers that i picked out of an art room that was being demolished. no frame just the drawers. if you wolud like to see if that would doi it for you let me know and i will dig them out and meet you at the coffee shop in st paul next time it is convienient.
renee. lets go where is the program? lets get on it girl.!!!
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