Yesterday morning I awoke less than refreshed. It was just one of those nights that I have very seldom, thankfully, where I slept poorly. The thought of charging off and into my day gave me the vapors, so I called on an old friend to do the job of giving me a spark-you guessed it , exercise. Now I wasn’t that keen on exercising either, but in the deep, dark, recesses of my brain, I’d remembered that exercise had always helped in the past. Time was short, so I did a routine that took me all of 11 minutes: 36 body weight squats, 30 push-ups, 36 alternating lunges, 20 push-ups, 36 more squats, 10 push-ups, then 18 alternating lunges. It was over before I woke up; my heart was banging in my chest, I had a good sweat going, and it got my head right. I did it in my living room, only using an area about 8×8′. I had a much better start to the day, although I did crash a bit in the afternoon. I was very pleased with myself because I felt so much better. Exercise doesn’t have to be fancy or technical, or need special equipment-it just needs to be done.
A couple of items of note from Dr. Oz’s website: eating blueberries with milk or yogurt seems to block some of the antioxidants from being released. Put the blueberries in oatmeal or something like that. Also, pumpkin seeds, aka pepitas, have shown great promise in preventing metabolic syndrome, a precursor to diabetes. They’re tasty too (unsalted).
Stay well, John R Blilie, M.S.