Hard Realities vs. Hard Arteries: The Road to Recovery

In the previous essay, turning back the clock ten years, I examined how a fairly high cholesterol score and a no-nonsense nutritionist scared and shamed me into admitting dietary ignorance, especially my tendency for "fat food for thought."

From Resistance to Recovery

After a month of shock and grief, fits and starts, fasting and fantasizing, I finally began a realistic plan to change my basic eating patterns. For example, I began putting Weight Watchers margarine on just half my English Muffin. Actually, I started reading grocery labels for sugar and starch, but especially fat content.

Did you know that each gram of fat has nine calories? Are you limiting fats to one-fourth of the calories in your diet? Fat chance, huh. Don't be a meathead. Excess fats slow down digestion. You're left feeling sluggish. Fats also delay key chemicals getting to your brain. And too much fats, especially the saturated variety, can give your body the unwanted cholesterol that contributes to heart disease.

I also reduced the sugar in my system. It wasn't easy going from grape to grapefruit juice. (Actually, I cut the grapefruit juice with some OJ.) But fresh fruit started tasting really sweet and delicious, which meant this old dog could learn some new treats, if not tricks. Instead of my nightly pastry, now I salivate anticipating my small bowl, at ten o'clock, of no sugar cold cereal, fresh fruit and skim milk.

After two months I realized I was no longer dieting, nor was I feeling deprived. It had been a battle, a real hand-to-mouth struggle, but I had evolved a new way of eating. the old oral order was finally overthrown. I could even enjoy tuna fish without mayonnaise. By instituting portion and quality control, I was free to make healthier choices - smaller servings of a greater variety of fresh fruit and vegetables, cereals and pasta, skinless chicken, grilled fish and dish water...I mean skim milk products. Those coronary terrorists - pastry, cheese and butter - were sent into exile. I even lost ten pounds in two months. I'm still not sure where all that fat was hiding.

A Run For Your Life

Once you've modified your eating habits and have lost some weight, perhaps the critical factor in maintaining these changes is regular aerobic exercise. Aerobic exercise not only burns up carbohydrate calories but also also uses stored fats for fuel. Research studies indicate that hunger is decreased with moderate aerobic activity, and aerobic exercise may raise your metabolic rate for burning calories. So what's aerobic? Brisk walking, jogging, cycling, swimming, dancing -- any rhythmic, repetitive exercise involving motion and large muscle groups that challenges the respiratory, circulatory and cardiovascular systems. Aerobic exercise should be demanding, not exhausting. It shouldn't leave you totally breathless, or too "high."

Speaking of high, in closing, let me share some thoughts on the physiology and philosophy of life on the run. Many people don't just pursue an aerobic running "high" but, also, a consuming runner's fantasy -- the quest for endless endorphin's and guilt-free consumption. Be careful. Don't get sky- high or pie-high.

Physical exercise is not the panacea for a nightly run to the pizzeria. Did you know that it takes 11 miles of running to burn off the calories in a Big Mac, large fries and a chocolate shake? And according to author and New York Times health columnist, Jane Brody, unless combined with a sensible diet, the benefits of exercise to blood cholesterol levels is minimal.

Calm Me Down

Actually, I suspect both endorphin enthusiasts and simple carbohydrate cravers are seeking a mellow, chemically induced state. Exercise physiologists now label the aftermath of vigorous exercise as less of a high and more of a "runner's calm." The aerobically generated morphine-like endorphins slow down and inhibit excess activity in the brain.

As for sugar, starch and pastry junkies, they're stimulating the chemical serotonin for that mellow, if not stuporous, state. Of course, after an overdose of Twinkies you eventually feel guilty and depressed. Regular moderate exercise - four to five times/week - has the opposite emotional effect.

For me, getting into an exercise routine was not too different from establishing a new eating regimen. It took a couple of months before I was jogging or walking 2-3 miles daily. In three months, this new wellness lifestyle brought my cholesterol profile scores down to the low-normal range, and I've kept the weight off. I know I've gone from deprivation to discrimination when I greet, not eat, my chance for high fat with the words, "fat chance!"

And finally, in addition to eating right and exercising regularly, of course...Practice Safe Stress!

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Mark Gorkin, "The Stress Doc," Licensed Clinical Social Worker, is a nationally recognized speaker, workshop leader and author on stress, reorganizational change, anger, team building, creativity and humor. He is also the internet's and the nation's leading "Psychohumorist." The Stress Doc is a columnist for the popular cyber-newsletter, Humor From The Edge -- HUMOR FROM THE EDGE HOME PAGE . Mark is also the "Online Psychohumorist" for the major AOL mental health resource network, Online Psych -- ONLINE PSYCH: THE STRESS DOC and Financial Services Journal Online --  . And he is an offline writer for two mental health/substance abuse publications -- Treatment Today and Paradigm Magazine. His motto: Have Stress? Will Travel: A Smart Mouth for Hire! Reach "The Doc" at (202) 232-8662, email: Stress Doc@aol.com. The  Stress Doc's website was selected as a USA Today Online "Hot Site" and designated a four-star, top- rated site by Mental Health Net.