When Fitness is a Lifestyle!

I hope everyone is doing well! This may be the most important newsletter from me you will ever read. Everyone is concerned about the stock market and their own personal retirement accounts. I am here to tell you that all the money in the world will not make up for the lost time because of poor physical condition and excessive body weight. If you do not take care of yourself, you don’t need to worry about retirement: you will need to worry about an early grave…
Webster dictionary defines invest as: transitive verb
1 : to commit (money) in order to earn a financial return
2 : to make use of for future benefits or advantages <invested her time wisely>
3 : to involve or engage especially emotionally <were deeply invested in their children's lives>

Let’s contemplate the second definition. We all invest for future benefits. Why else would we go through college, buy a house, save for retirement? Staying in good physical, emotional and spiritual shape is the best investment of all.

The top 3 causes of preventable death are:

1.Tobacco Use (Smoking)
Worldwide, tobacco use causes more than 5 million deaths per year
• Current trends show that tobacco use will cause more than 8 million deaths annually by 2030.
• Cigarette smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States
• In the United States, cigarette smoking is responsible for about one in five deaths annually, or about 438,000 deaths per year.
• An estimated 38,000 of these deaths are the result of secondhand smoke exposure.
• On average, smokers die 13 to 14 years earlier than nonsmokers.
• For every person who dies of a smoking-related disease, 20 more people suffer with at least one serious illness from smoking.
• Cigarette smoking increases the length of time that people live with a disability by about 2 years.
• More deaths are caused each year by tobacco use than by all deaths from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides, and murders combined.

2. Poor Diet and Physical Inactivity
According to a study by the CDC of national costs attributed to both overweight (BMI 25–29.9) and obesity (BMI greater than 30), medical expenses accounted for 9.1 percent of total U.S. medical expenditures in 1998 and may have reached as high as $78.5 billion ($92.6 billion in 2002 dollars) (Finkelstein, Fiebelkorn, and Wang, 2003).  Approximately half of these costs were paid by Medicaid and Medicare. The primary data sets used to develop the spending estimates for this study included the 1998 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) and the 1996 and 1997 National Health Interview Surveys (NHIS). The data also included information about each person’s health insurance status and sociodemographic characteristics.

Table 1, Aggregate Medical Spending, in Billions of Dollars, Attributable to Overweight and Obesity, by Insurance Status and Data Source, 1996–1998

 State-Level Estimated Costs of Obesity

3. Alcohol Consumption Long-Term Health Risks
Over time, excessive alcohol use can lead to the development of chronic diseases, neurological impairments and social problems. These include but are not limited to:
• Neurological problems, including dementia, stroke and neuropathy.
• Cardiovascular problems, including myocardial infarction, cardiomyopathy, atrial fibrillation and hypertension.
• Psychiatric problems, including depression, anxiety, and suicide.
• Social problems, including unemployment, lost productivity, and family problems.
• Cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, liver, colon, and breast.
• In general, the risk of cancer increases with increasing amounts of alcohol.
• Liver diseases, including:
      o Alcoholic hepatitis.
      o Cirrhosis, which is among the 15 leading causes of all deaths in the United States.
      o Among persons with Hepatitis C virus, worsening of liver function and interference with medications used to treat this condition.
• Other gastrointestinal problems, including pancreatitis and gastritis.

So, while many of you are worried about how much money you will have when you retire.  One should really be thinking, “Will I even live long enough to reach retirement?”

Everybody perceives that bad things happen to other people. I can promise you that if you neglect your body, it will eventually neglect you. How much does it really cost to stay in shape? If your budget is a little tighter now, don’t quit working out!! Stop going to happy hour and eating at crappy restaurants that serve hot wings and beer!!! If you have lost your job, keep working out, pay extra attention to your food, and do not increase your alcohol consumption.

Alcohol is a depressant and WILL NOT HELP YOU FEEL BETTER ABOUT YOURSELF!!!! If in this time of need your food choices are bad, you will feel lousy. If you did lose your job, take this time to get into the BEST SHAPE OF YOUR LIFE!!! Not to sit and feel sorry for yourself. Show your family and friends that you are a fighter and a winner…When you interview for a better job, you will look better, feel better and be more confident. Here are some of the benefits of exercise...
Regular physical activity can improve health and reduce the risk of premature death in the following ways:
• Reduces the risk of developing coronary heart disease (CHD) and the risk of dying from CHD • Reduces the risk of stroke
• Lowers both total blood cholesterol and triglycerides and increases high-density lipoproteins (HDL or the "good" cholesterol)
• Lowers the risk of developing high blood pressure
• Helps reduce blood pressure in people who already have hypertension
• Lowers the risk of developing non-insulin-dependent (type 2) diabetes mellitus
• Reduces the risk of developing colon cancer
• Helps people achieve and maintain a healthy body weight
• Reduces feelings of depression
• Helps build and maintain healthy bones, muscles, and joints
• Helps older adults become stronger and better able to move about without falling or becoming excessively fatigued

If you have taken a break from taking care of yourself, break time is over.  An object in motion tends to stay in motion.  Sitting on your **s will keep you sitting on your **s. 

Client of the Month

Gary is 55 years young. He and his son (24 years old) took a 10-day hunting trip to Alaska. They were dropped off in the woods with only what they could pack in (about 50 pounds). Gary started training for this in August of 2007. He started at 22% body fat and got down to 12.6%. Gary weighed in at 195 pounds in the beginning of his training, and left for his trip a lean 175. We wanted him to be as light as possible, while increasing his strength and endurance. The pictures will show you the terrain that they encountered. I am proud of what Gary has accomplished, this is the second time I have trained him for this type of adventure. Gary has a great work ethic and spent a week with his son in the beautiful mountains of Alaska. I am sure that is a memory that they will never forget. This is what Gary sent me after getting back from his trip…

Hi Brian,

I made it through my trip to Alaska. It was physically the most difficult hunt of my life. We climbed and hiked from dawn to dark which is 11pm up there. In fact one night we didn't get back into camp until 2am. I'm cut, scratched, sore, tired..... You prepared me well and I got it done. On the day I harvested my Dall sheep ram my son asked me on the way up a very steep slope before I got my ram if it was really worth it. I told him that he was seeing the total package. I was giving all that I had.

I'll send pictures later.

Thanks for your help. I could have never accomplished this trip without your help.

Gary Caldwell