George chose to walk on…

Here are some statistics that don’t lie. A measley 1.3% of trips in the U.S.A. are taken by bicycle. Compare and contrast with Holland where it’s 25%; Germany 14%; Canada is over 2%. In America we don’t find the time to ride or even walk on like so many of our NA and European neighbors. We tend to sit. Here’s what’s happening inside us as we take a seat.

Our subcutaneous fat tends to disappear as we age. Instead, we build up visceral fat. This viscistuff infiltrates our organs, bathing them in a nasty chemical stew that wrecks havoc. Liposection only removes the good, subcutaneous fat. We may look better but we’re far from better. Gotta go deeper and here’s why. Viscystuff can’t be removed safely because it’s intertwinned with organs and blood vessels. What destroys the viscy?

Muscle.

Today, my friend George built some. He walks 8 miles everyday. He does some light weights and he can’t wait to have me teach him some tricks on the TRX. He had a massive heart attack before he turned 40 – bad genes were part of his inheritance. They cut his sternum when they fixed his heart and he’s got chronic arthritic pain right down his middle. Hurts like hell, he tells me. His doc gave him two choices to alieviate his pain. Heroin (legally, of course, via pain killers) was numero uno. Number two was a bit strange. His second option was to STOP thinking about it, according to his doc.

Come on, doc!!

After laughing at the preposterous choices, George took a walk to think it over, he told me. A few hundred yards in, his chest pain dropped him to his knees. He buckled like a cheap suit. Crounching on all fours in agony, he noticed out of the corner of his eye a baby bunny chewing on some grass just a few feet away. George looked at his newfound friend and began to talk. He told the bunny how much his chest hurt and the bunnies whiskers twitched, their eyes met, and little bunny kept on chewing. He talked to the little bunny and the little bunny listened and hopped a little closer. After a few minutes of one way convo, George told the bunny he wouldn’t hurt him but he was going to get up. He hoped the bunny wouldn’t hop away on him. Bunny just kept chewing. George got up and continued to walk down his path while saying his goodbye’s to bunny. He smiled and simply walked on. About a mile down the trail, George buckled again. This time it was with laughter…

He’s been walking on, ever since. Funny what happened when he simply chose to think about something else. That bunny moment was over 40 years ago. George, you see, is an active, healthy, 80. FM, baby…

Time to start building some strength within, my friend, and strengthening your core. Remember, muscles mortal enemy is viscy. The more muscle the more mitochondria you have. This is the fat fighter. Leptin is a hormone produced by fat tissue. Normally it tells the brain, we’re done, STOP eating. However, the brains of obese folks often can’t hear leptin’s screams to STOP. So, they don’t get the message and, instead, eat on. Muscle vs. Viscy. Choose to build some muscle, my friend. It doesn’t have to be anything crazy either. You can choose like my friend George and simply choose to walk on.

Walk on…