“I don’t wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has got to get down to work.”

– Pearl S. Buck, American Author, 1938 Nobel Prize for Literature

It’s Monday.  It can be a good day for you or a bad day.  You decide.

Not a great week.  No swims.  Ate kinda crappy on the weekend.  I didn’t include Sunday because I never workout on Sunday unless it’s a walk with my family.

New week comes Monday and I will have more structure and discipline. 

In a recent study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine it was found that even though exercise alone doesn’t always result in weight loss, there are plenty of other reasons to exercise.

58 sedentary overweight/obese men and women participated in a 12 week supervised aerobic exercise program and here’s what the researchers concluded:

“Despite attaining lower than predicted weight reduction, these individuals experienced significant increases in aerobic capacity, decreased systolic and diastolic blood pressure, waist circumference and resting heart rate.  In addition, these individuals experienced an acute exercise-induced increase in positive mood.”

“These data demonstrate that significant and meaningful health benefits can be achieved even in the presence of lower than expected exercise-induced weight loss. Less successful reduction in body weight does not undermine the beneficial effects of aerobic exercise.”

 – via abstract here.

Bottom line:  Exercise is still good for you even if you think it won’t help you lose weight.  There’s a lot more to health than just your weight. 

[Can’t see the poll? Go here to vote].

Interesting.  Based on their findings, those who ate mostly whole foods (fresh fruits, veggies, fish, etc.) had a 26 percent lower risk of depression than those who ate mostly processed, fatty foods.

What does it mean?  It means eating whole foods is going to be better for you than eating processed junk all the time — and for more reasons than just decreasing your risk for depression. 

Look, I know depression is a complex and serious issue.  I know there’s more to getting rid of depression than just eating healthier.  But the bottom line is that there is a link and eating healthier may help. 

Studies have shown that eating plenty of healthy foods and getting regular exercise can combat a lot of stress, anxiety and depression. 

I can only speak for myself, but when I’m eating good and getting a lot of physical activity, I’m just happier and more pleasant to be around. 

Try it.  It might work for you too.

Read more about this study here.

When was the last time you had mushrooms?  If it has been a while, you may wanna grab some.  They’re good for you!

I don’t remember liking them much as a kid, but now I want them every night.  I don’t know how else to prepare them, so I usually just slice them and cook them in a pan and add them to grilled chicken. 

If there’s leftover, I’ll throw them in an omelet the next day with other veggies.  Any other ideas on what else to do with mushrooms?

Any way, the bottom line is that mushrooms can be pretty good for you.

“Laboratory reports and animal studies show that compounds in mushrooms may do everything from bolster immune function to suppress breast and prostate cancers to decrease tumor size.”

“Mushrooms, from the humble button to the giant portobello, harbor large amounts of an antioxidant called L-ergothioneine.”

[via here].

Mushrooms can be a nice fit into your regular rotation of go-to veggies.

Happy eating!

“He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else”

– Benjamin Franklin

Reach your goals.  Have a great Monday!

October 25 - 31, 2009

Totals:

Swim: 30 mins.  My only swim was today.  Just lazy.

Bike:  2 hrs 35 mins. 

Run:  2 hrs 16 mins.  Longest was 5 miles on Friday.

Strength: 30 mins. 

A decent week and the foot is feeling much better.  Not really any structure to the week yet.  That will improve.  Just trying to regain some fitness.  

Happy Halloween!  We have a little 8 month-old bunny cruising around our place today.  Enjoy your Halloween treats!

It feels so good to be running again and I can’t wait to get up to more mileage. Now I gotta figure out how to motivate myself to get to the pool…