How Great Is This Time of Year!

September 21st is the official beginning of fall, but it's beginning to feel a little like it now. As a sports fan, this is without a doubt the best time of the year what with college football and Major League baseball.

The Gamecocks win against Georgia was one of the most thrilling games I've ever watched. Talk about a game of inches. You can go back and dissect that game and see so many things that could have changed the outcome. Carolina got a break on what I think was a bad holding call on Gurley's negated touchdown run. Carolina was the victim of a bad unsportsmanlike conduct call which set up Georgia's second field goal. It should have been against Gurley and the Dogs. The missed field goals by Morgan. The spot on the fourth down with a minute and a half left in the game. Man, what a football game!

And then there's the final couple of weeks of the baseball season leading up to the playoffs. There's nothing more exciting to me than a pennant race when my Pittsburgh Pirates are in it, and that's the case again this year. I feel sorry for people who don't like sports.

        I recently ran across an excellent article on the Fox News/Health website. I shared it on my Facebook pages, but in case you missed it, I'll attempt to summarize it here. The article discussed 10 different types of hunger. By realizing there are different types of hunger and determining which are real and which are triggered by psychological forces, it may help you eat smarter and control your weight easier.
        Real hunger is the most important. It is often accompanied by physical signs such as shakiness from low blood sugar, headaches, or a growling stomach. Real hunger means it's time to eat something.
        Most of us have experienced TV hunger. This is the same type of "hunger" that requires us to pay $5 for a bag of popcorn at a movie. The best way to combat this is to do something else with your hands. I play solitaire on my phone between innings of baseball games.
        Boredom hunger is a lot like TV hunger. The best way to avoid this type of hunger: Stay busy so you don't get bored.
        A combination of "hungry" and "angry" gives us hangry hunger. This happens when your blood sugar dips causing fuzzy-headed thinking and irritability. Instead of reaching for something sugary at these times, try some fruit or a few wholegrain crackers.
        Around 3 pm, you may experience afternoon hunger, or "vending machine" hunger. You can prepare for this by taking a healthy snack to work.
        Stress hunger affects women more than men, but anyone can be susceptible. When you are depressed, worried, or under a lot of pressure, the best antidote is exercise. Go for a walk, lift some weights, or pound a punching bag instead of reaching for something to eat.
        PMS hunger is strictly a female problem, but it's very real. Fortunately, the cravings don't last long. Try to wait them out. In the meantime, occupy yourself with something other than food.
        When you don't feel hungry, but you want something to eat, you're suffering from head hunger. In other words, it's all in your head. Forget about it, and do something to occupy your mind or body.
        When you walk into the break room and there's a box of donuts on the table, you may experience eye hunger. The solution to this one is simple: Get out of the break room.
        Americans love to celebrate almost any event with food which leads to celebration hunger. It's ok to eat something when you're celebrating. Just keep it under control, and make sure the celebrations are legit. Your dog's birthday doesn't count.    

       There's a new product due out in 2015 which is designed to help keep you motivated to exercise. It's a wristband called the Pavlok. Besides keeping track of steps, activity, and sleep, this device also has the ability to give away your money, shame you on social media, or even deliver a 340 volt shock if you slip into bad habits.
       Although it is now programmed to help you keep up with your exercise program, its designer Maneesh Sethi says it will soon have the potential to help with diet control and smoking cessation as well. The device will retail for $250.
       Sethi says, "Sure it might sound crazy to involve electricity, but sometimes crazy works." He should know about crazy ideas. He reportedly broke his Facebook addiction by paying a woman to slap him every time he went on it.   

      What's the biggest mistake I see people making in the gym? Good question. Glad you asked. I believe it's not varying their workouts. Too many people get into a routine and never vary it. When you do this, your muscles get programmed and you don't get the maximum benefit from your workout.
      There are many ways to vary your workout. If you do a total body workout two or three days a week, you can vary the exercises for each muscle group. Instead of doing bench presses everyday to work the chest, do incline presses one day and decline presses another or use a chest press machine or do pushups or any of several other options. The same holds true for any other muscle group you're working.
      You can also vary the weights or reps. Use a heavier weight and do fewer reps or go lighter and do more reps. Try something different, even something you don't feel comfortable doing, such as using TRX bands or kettlebells. Hire a trainer for a few sessions to show you how to use them correctly or go to the internet and do your own research before attempting them. The important thing is to challenge the muscles in a different way. You can switch up your workout every time you go to the gym or do the same routine for a month or so and then change it up.
     As for cardio, it's better not to do the same thing every day. I'm not a good example to follow. I like to run and that's what I do, five days a week. One day a week I walk, and one day I don't do anything. But really it's better to mix it up. Run one day, walk another, swim some, ride a bike, ride the elliptical machine, or run up a few flights of stairs between sets of jumping jacks. Try to get at least 30 minutes a day of cardio, five or six days a week. You can even break that up into 10 minute segments - 10 on the treadmill running or walking, 10 on the elliptical, and 10 on a rowing machine, or any other combination. Mix it up. Keep it fun and challenging, but like the Nike commercial says, "Just do it."  

      For the past several years, biceps exercises have ranked among the Top 10 most searched exercises on Google. Guys have always wanted big guns and now it seems women have gone nuts over toned arms.
      As a result of this phenomenon, the American Council on Exercise (ACE) decided to conduct a study to determine which of eight common biceps exercises is the most effective. The eight selected exercises were the preacher curl, the barbell curl, the EZ curl bar using both wide and narrow grips, chin-ups, concentration curls, cable curls, and incline curls. If you don't know these exercises by their names, you can check them out online.
      The study involved 16 male and female volunteers aged 18 to 24, and it was designed to determine the percent of muscle activation of the biceps brachii. The results were as follows: concentration curls were the most effective with 94% muscle activation followed by cable curls (80%), chin-ups (79%), barbell curls and wide grip EZ curls (78% each), narrow grip EZ curls and incline curls (70% each), and finally preacher curls ( 68%).
      Concentration curls came out on top because they isolate the biceps more than the other exercises which incorporate other muscles. That doesn't mean the other exercises are bad. They may even be more useful for functional fitness since more muscles are involved.  

      We hear a lot about Type 2 Diabetes these days. It is reaching epidemic proportions in the United States, but what exactly is it? Basically, it's a condition where the body is producing more glucose (sugar) than it can absorb in the cells. Insulin acts as a key to unlock cells so they can absorb the glucose, but with Type 2 diabetes, the cells resist the insulin and glucose builds up in the bloodstream. A reading of 126 or higher on a fasting blood sugar test indicates Type 2 Diabetes.
      Type 2 Diabetes is caused by obesity. Treatment involves lifestyle intervention, primarily diet and exercise. The preferred diet for someone with Type 2 diabetes is the Mediterranean Diet which consists of moderate consumption of fish, poultry, vegetables, cereal, fruit, legumes, whole grains, olive oil, and wine, and relatively low amounts of red meat.
      Exercise recommendations include both strength training and cardio. Type 2 diabetics should workout with weights two or three times a week on non-consecutive days, performing about 8 to 10 exercises that stress the muscles of the upper and lower body and core. For optimal benefits, three sets of 8 to 15 reps are suggested for each exercise.
      Cardio recommendations are at least 150 minutes a week of moderate aerobic exercise such as jogging, walking, bicycling, or any number of other cardio options. Cardio workouts should be performed at moderate intensity or higher.

      Here are the answers to the "myth or fact" weight loss quiz: