I now treadmill 40 minutes seven days a week. Speed 2.0-2.2 mph. Burns about 200 calories per session. When I misbehave and have a personal pizza (390 calories) I can feel better about it by two treadmill sessions. I originally started this to lower my blood pressure, which it does, but I have an hypothesis: there is evidence that atherosclerosis is an inflammatory response to high blood sugar (thus explaining the comorbidity of diabetes and heart disease, and why statins reduce heart disease; they are an anti-inflammatory). Walking and running both reduce heart disease and diabetes risk. My guess is that regular exercise burns through a lot of blood sugar.
When I started doing this, I found it something I dreaded. ("Dread the tread.") Now, I don't mind it, and it gives me more energy when I am done. Lowered blood pressure is good for all of you; but the relationship between high blood pressure and ED suggests that a cost of a treadmill will pay for itself in reduced Viagra prescriptions.
I was just diagnosed with benign hypertension. I went in for migraines and my BP was through the roof... as in high enough the Dr. said ordinarily she'd send me to the ER, but that because I was phobic, she was worried that might actually be more dangerous. So I'm finding the right cocktail of drugs now, with a prescription for more exercise and weight loss. I'm also pre-diabetic, and I'd like to reverse that.
ReplyDeleteFortunately, because of family history, I've stayed away from sugar for a while now. The real hurtle for me is carbs. I like potatoes and pasta... a lot.
My plan is to exercise portion control, especially on carbs, and get out for at least a mile walk a day for now. We'll see what that does. I'd like to eventually resume hiking. A good medium-difficult hike can burn 500 calories an hour. I was thin back when I did that regularly, and gained all this weight when I stopped.
Same hurdle: pasta and potatoes, especially McDonald's French fries. Substitute lean meat for pasta. A nice steak can almost make you forget the pasta, potatoes, and pie, and make the broccoli tolerable, sort of.
ReplyDeleteI'm fortunate in that I like vegetables, including broccoli. The only vegetable I don't like is cauliflower, which is a shame because that's a popular carb substitute. But it isn't any substitute for good mashed potatoes, no matter what anyone says.
ReplyDeleteCauliflower rice is a very tolerable substitute for rice. You can't really taste the vegetable, especially under curry. I suspect it could be pureed into an adequate mashed potato sub.
ReplyDelete