Step1
Keep a sleep journal. If you struggle with insomnia, the best place to start tracking what is happening is in a sleep diary. Note what time you go to bed, how long it takes to fall asleep and how often you wake in the night. This will help you recognize any patterns that are keeping you awake at night and stealing your energy.
Step2
Create a bedtime routine. Creating a soothing ritual you repeat every night before you go to bed will help your body recognize that it is time to go to sleep. It can be as simple as listening to quiet music, taking a warm bath or drinking a cup of warm milk before you go to bed. Repeat your ritual every night for maximum effectiveness.
Step3
Go to bed 30 minutes earlier than usual. If your insomnia has left you chronically sleep deprived, add half an hour to your sleep time until you find yourself waking refreshed in the morning. You will soon feel revitalized and full of energy.
Step4
Develop good habits. Go to bed at the same time every day, even on weekends. You will find it easier to fall asleep, stay asleep and wake up with lots of energy if you keep the same schedule all week long.
Step5
Exercise during the day, not in the evening. If you exercise for 20 to 30 minutes early in the day it will help you sleep at night. If you wait until evening, it will energize you and keep you awake.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Friday, July 4, 2008
Why are you over weight?
You are overweight for the most simple of reasons -- because you're eating the wrong foods, the wrong types of calories per meal, and you're also eating meals in the wrong patterns each day.
Think closely about what we're about to tell you, since it's going to change the way you think about dieting...
FOOD is more powerful than any prescription weight loss pills, because the FOOD that you eat can either make you THIN or FAT. You don't get fat because of a lack of exercising, that's a myth. You get fat because you don't eat the right foods at the right intervals each day.
Also, the pattern that you choose to eat your meals each day is more powerful than any prescription weight loss pills. This is true because your body is like an "engine" and it only needs certain foods at certain intervals each day, and if you don't eat the right foods at the right times then it won't burn those calories -- and you'll wind up storing those calories as fat tissue. (Hint: You need to eat more than 3 times per day to lose weight, but we'll show you the details later).
You have gotten overweight by eating the wrong foods, that much is a fact. And guess what? You can get SLIM by eating the RIGHT FOODS at the RIGHT INTERVALS each day.
It's not really any more complicated than that, and the way to start losing weight has nothing to do with starving yourself or jogging.
The reason you cannot lose weight by starving yourself (using a low calorie diet) is because your metabolism will detect any major drop in calories and it will then ADJUST ITSELF by burning fewer calories each day.
For example:
If you begin eating 2,500 calories per day then your metabolism will adjust itself so that your body begins burning 2,500 calories per day.
If you try to starve yourself by suddenly eating 1,000 calories per day then your metabolism will again ADJUST ITSELF so that your body begins to burn only 1,000 calories per day. That's why you have failed in your past dieting attempts, that's why you always seem to fail when you try and starve yourself.
Now you know the reason why you can eat 1,000 calories per day and not lose any weight while your friends can eat 2,500 calories per day and not gain any weight.
Also, virtually every person in today's society is buying mostly "low fat" or "non fat" food at the grocery store, everybody is conscious of the "fat grams" inside the food they buy. However, people are getting fatter than ever by doing this and people are not losing weight by switching to the "low fat lifestyle".
Low carb diets have certainly become popular in recent years, but such diets often leave you feeling miserable each day (since they drain most of your energy and can leave you feeling quite awful each day).
Check out these facts below...
Did you know that several popular low carb diets are so strict that you cannot even eat a large apple during the first couple weeks? It's true.
Also, many low carb diets won't even let you enjoy a 'normal' restaurant meal (ordered without any carb restrictions) for many months after you begin.
Therefore, low carb diets can leave you feeling MISERABLE each day, which is not the answer.
This inforamtion was made available by Fat Loss 4 Idiots.com
Think closely about what we're about to tell you, since it's going to change the way you think about dieting...
FOOD is more powerful than any prescription weight loss pills, because the FOOD that you eat can either make you THIN or FAT. You don't get fat because of a lack of exercising, that's a myth. You get fat because you don't eat the right foods at the right intervals each day.
Also, the pattern that you choose to eat your meals each day is more powerful than any prescription weight loss pills. This is true because your body is like an "engine" and it only needs certain foods at certain intervals each day, and if you don't eat the right foods at the right times then it won't burn those calories -- and you'll wind up storing those calories as fat tissue. (Hint: You need to eat more than 3 times per day to lose weight, but we'll show you the details later).
You have gotten overweight by eating the wrong foods, that much is a fact. And guess what? You can get SLIM by eating the RIGHT FOODS at the RIGHT INTERVALS each day.
It's not really any more complicated than that, and the way to start losing weight has nothing to do with starving yourself or jogging.
The reason you cannot lose weight by starving yourself (using a low calorie diet) is because your metabolism will detect any major drop in calories and it will then ADJUST ITSELF by burning fewer calories each day.
For example:
If you begin eating 2,500 calories per day then your metabolism will adjust itself so that your body begins burning 2,500 calories per day.
If you try to starve yourself by suddenly eating 1,000 calories per day then your metabolism will again ADJUST ITSELF so that your body begins to burn only 1,000 calories per day. That's why you have failed in your past dieting attempts, that's why you always seem to fail when you try and starve yourself.
Now you know the reason why you can eat 1,000 calories per day and not lose any weight while your friends can eat 2,500 calories per day and not gain any weight.
Also, virtually every person in today's society is buying mostly "low fat" or "non fat" food at the grocery store, everybody is conscious of the "fat grams" inside the food they buy. However, people are getting fatter than ever by doing this and people are not losing weight by switching to the "low fat lifestyle".
Low carb diets have certainly become popular in recent years, but such diets often leave you feeling miserable each day (since they drain most of your energy and can leave you feeling quite awful each day).
Check out these facts below...
Did you know that several popular low carb diets are so strict that you cannot even eat a large apple during the first couple weeks? It's true.
Also, many low carb diets won't even let you enjoy a 'normal' restaurant meal (ordered without any carb restrictions) for many months after you begin.
Therefore, low carb diets can leave you feeling MISERABLE each day, which is not the answer.
This inforamtion was made available by Fat Loss 4 Idiots.com
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Great interview with The Fonz on literacy and dislexia by Just One More Book.com
Transcript of our interview with Henry Winkler
Photo of Henry Winkler from the American Library AssociationWhat follows is the transcript of our audio interview with Henry Winkler, featured on episode 300 of the Just One More Book!! children’s book podcast.
Henry Winkler: Hi, this is Henry Winkler and I’m one of the co-authors of Hank Zipzer: The World’s Greatest Underachiever. And I have just been fortunate enough to be on Just One More Book.
Mark Blevis: According to the website ReadingSuccessLab.com, government statistics show 25 million Americans are functionally illiterate. The primary cause is dyslexia or one of its many variants.
Through their children’s book series, “Hank Zipzer: The World’s Greatest Underachiever”, co-authors Lin Oliver and Henry Winkler share the struggles and triumphs of a resourceful elementary school student as he deals with the challenges that come with dyslexia. The stories are based on Henry Winkler’s own experiences with the disorder.
On this edition of Just One More Book, I speak with actor, director, producer and author, Henry Winkler, about becoming an author and his relationship with Hank Zipzer, his struggles with reading and learning, and what we can do to help our children.
This is Episode 300 of Just One More Book.
Mark Blevis: Your career has been rooted in television and stage work as an actor, director and producer. What was it that inspired you to create Hank Zipzer as a character in a children’s book?
Henry Winkler: Well it’s interesting because an agent of mine, when there was a lull in my working at the moment, said to me, I think in 1998, “Why don’t you write books for kids about your dyslexia?” and I said “because I’m stupid and I’m lazy and I’m not living up to my potential” which is what I was told my whole life. I said “no”. And I said, and not only that, but also there really is no discussion, I’ve got nothing to say, I don’t know what to do. And so I’m not doing it. And he then asked me again, same question, in 2003. And this time I said okay. I don’t know why I said okay, I just said okay. And then he introduced me to Lin Oliver. And there we go. We had the greatest time.
Mark Blevis: That’s really interesting because most celebrities that turn to writing books do so on their own. How did you decide to collaborate with Lin? Was it through your agent?
Henry Winkler: Well, the collaboration was through this man. He introduced me to Lin. Lin not only is, you know, a gift from God, I have to say, as a person, as a phenomenal partner. But she is also one of the co-founders of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. And they have 22,000 nation-wide members and, as a matter of fact, internationally.
Mark Blevis: How does it feel to be among that company?
Henry Winkler: Oh it’s great. It’s great because I walk around her office, she sits at her computer and we fight over every single word and we just finished the 14th novel.
Mark Blevis: And that comes out in April, of course.
Henry Winkler: Yes.
Mark Blevis: Mr. Rock figures more prominently in this book as well.
Henry Winkler: Right. Mr. Rock was my actual music teacher in high school. I went to McBurney School for Boys in New York City. And he was the guy who said, “I believe in you.” Everybody else said to me, “You’re never gonna graduate.”
Mark Blevis: What does that do to an individual?
Henry Winkler: Well, that’s one of the things that I talk about when I travel around the country and I speak to groups or I speak to children. The self-image when the kids are young, when they are in the, you know, from zero to eighteen and the self-image is building. First of all, if you are dyslexic or if you have a learning challenge, kids know. They know that it’s hard for them. They know that they’re not up to snuff. They know that they’re not doing as well as 75% of the class. So then to compound it by labeling them, by putting them down, by yelling at them, by grounding them because, you know, they’re not reading fast enough, it warps their ability to grow into a healthy self-image.
Mark Blevis: Well this is one of the things that really fascinates me about your choice of doing a children’s book, because a lot of children with learning disabilities have–they struggle with reading and with keeping their attention through a book. Was there a particular motivation with going that route?
Henry Winkler: Well, I’ll tell you what, I’ll tell you what is amazing. I was, you know, I was just in England and I just did a play there. I came home 2 days ago, as a matter of fact. And I read my books at two different schools. The books are not published in the U.K. But I read my books in two schools. And there was a young boy, African-English, kid who did not read and would not write creatively. And he read Hank and he has devoured now almost the whole series. His teacher got them from Amazon. And he has started to write creatively because he completely identified with Hank. Now if that’s not one of the greatest compliments in the universe, I don’t know what is. I mean, that could literally move me to tears, this kid. And I met him.
Mark Blevis: How does that affect you in your approach to writing and approach to reading these books to kids?
Henry Winkler: It doesn’t. The approach to writing is, we write about this kid, Hank Zipzer and he’s funny first. He makes you laugh. I got a letter from a little boy in Missouri who said “I laughed so hard my funny bone fell out of my body.” So I write what I know. It’s the same way, my same approach to acting. You know, when we were doing The Fonz and The Fonz was very popular, everybody said, “Well do you feel like a responsibility?” And I said, “No, I don’t, I’m just doing what I know how to do. I just do it the way I do it and it connects or it doesn’t” because, you know what, if you try to write for a particular person, or if you try to be somebody you think they want you to be, it’s never going to be compelling.
Mark Blevis: Is that what makes the relationship between you and Lin Oliver work so well is that you get to be — well I’m thinking especially of Book One in Hank Zipzer, when he has the assignment to do and he decides instead to do a presentation with an elaborate diorama, a functioning diorama.
Henry Winkler: I did that! I did that when I was younger, I did.
Mark Blevis: Was that the response that it got from the teacher?
Henry Winkler: Well I had Ms. Adolph. Ms. Adolph was my real teacher. She was the worst teacher in the universe. I mean, you know, so I didn’t know what else to do because reading is still difficult for me. I read spy novels, thrillers, you know, Daniel Silva or Lee Child, who was amazing. But that somehow my brain, you know, just works through them and they just completely entertain me and I love it. I’m so grateful. Every book I read I have on my shelf and it has to be hard cover. And they’re like each one is a triumph for me. And that’s what I tell the kids that I talk to. I tell them, “Listen, I am an actor, I’m a director, I’m a producer, I’m a husband, I’m a dad. We have 3 children, we have 2 dogs. I write children’s novels and I’m in the bottom 3% in America academically. So if I can do it, you can do it.”
Mark Blevis: Did you read to your children when they were young?
Henry Winkler: Oh my wife read to them because reading is so difficult. And I would act out the story as she was reading it so they heard the story and they laughed when I would just act it out. And it was great. And what was so interesting is that I literally could not read to them. My eyes would get tired; I would fall asleep before they did, you know. It was horrible.
Mark Blevis: Was this before your diagnosis?
Henry Winkler: No, this was–my diagnosis came when my stepson, who is now 36, was in the third grade. And everything that they said to him, I went, “Oh my goodness. That sounds like me.” That’s what–that was my diagnosis.
Mark Blevis: What was that moment of discovery like for you?
Henry Winkler: Well the first thing I did was I got really angry. And I thought to myself, “Oh my goodness, all that yelling. All of that being grounded was all for nothing.”
Mark Blevis: What strategies did you create for yourself as a child to overcome your learning challenges?
Henry Winkler: Well mostly dinner. Mostly I had no strategy. I just–humor and food. I enjoyed a great pizza, and that made me feel, you know, good. But most of the time, I didn’t have a strategy. Only now is there even, you know, talks about strategy. When I was growing up, there was no strategy, there was just grounding. My parents grounded me. I never saw the moon during my junior year of high school. They were just convinced if I stayed in my room, if I stayed at my desk, I was going to get it.
Mark Blevis: Your message to parents is, “Give children a sense of self and do not define yourself by the way your child succeeds or doesn’t.”
Henry Winkler: That’s right and also the child should never, ever think that because we learn differently, because we learn slower or it’s harder or we can’t get it at all, like I never beat the system when it came to spelling. I can’t spell to save my life. That doesn’t define your intelligence. How we learn does not define how unbelievably brilliant you are as a human being on this earth.
Mark Blevis: So how do you as a parent and a human, as opposed to a professional, how has that helped you develop these messages and deliver them in a way that people–
Henry Winkler: Well, you know that’s an interesting question because when my kids were younger and I hadn’t figured a lot of this out yet, I said to them exactly, you know, what was said to me. So I was repeating the pattern. And like my–finally my youngest son, Max, he would listen to the radio when he was doing his homework and he would stand at his desk, he couldn’t sit down, you know, or he would lie on his bed. And I would say to him, “But you’ve got to sit at your desk and you’ve gotta have good light and you can’t listen to the radio.” And finally I saw the grades were coming home. And maybe the radio, maybe the music, was being used as a tool, that it was blocking the rest of the world out so he could concentrate on what he was doing. So I finally learned to just shut up. And then he went to USC and he writes scripts now and he directs. And he is fantastic. My daughter is a teacher. My oldest son is just starting a new business. All three of them are dyslexic.
Mark Blevis: I’m going to take a guess here and assume that a lot of people who have learning disabilities like dyslexia are not going to be forthcoming about it. Maybe they’re a little bit shy about it or embarrassed about it.
Henry Winkler: Yeah I see.
Mark Blevis: And Hank Zipzer–
Henry Winkler: It’s embarrassing, I guess, for them, huh?
Mark Blevis: Exactly. Hank Zipzer wears it well. He wears it with confidence. It’s just–it’s part of who he is.
Henry Winkler: Yeah, his glass is completely half full.
Mark Blevis: Is that the Henry Winkler since the diagnosis? Is that where that motivation comes from?
Henry Winkler: Yeah I think so.
Mark Blevis: After you were diagnosed with dyslexia, did you learn any strategies or develop any strategies for dealing with it?
Henry Winkler: I didn’t do anything. I didn’t go looking for anything. What I did was over the years I–you know what, I’m proud of this. I taught myself to speed read. You know, when you–when I listened to the radio there were always the commercials for Helen Wood or Evelyn Wood speed reading course, you know. Learn to read like–President Kennedy could read like seven newspapers in an hour because he was able to speed read. And I taught myself how to do that. And I thought that was amazing.
Mark Blevis: How has Stacey, your wife, being a child welfare advocate, influenced you as an author and spokesperson for dyslexia?
Henry Winkler: Oh, I don’t have an answer to that question. I mean I’m proud of her, we did it together. I’ve worked with kids when I was in high school. You know, I was a counselor in an after school center. So I’ve been doing–I’ve been working with children my whole life. And we went together to a facility here one Christmas party when I first met her in 1978. And she said we can’t do this once a year and she exploded into a child advocate. I mean, she and a friend helped create the Department of Children’s Services in L.A. It did not exist before Stacey Winkler.
Mark Blevis: Do you think that there’s enough resources available for children now to help them?
Henry Winkler: No, listen–you know, the children don’t vote. So we talk a lot about kids, but we don’t do a lot about kids. When a child becomes really, really important when they are of voting age. That’s the long and the short of it. Because we talk about how, you know, the child is like the future and all that. And it all sounds great. And then we cut the lunch program or the breakfast program which is sometimes the only meal a child has during the day. And trust me; you cannot learn when you’re only thinking about mashed potatoes and meatloaf.
Mark Blevis: Book 14 comes out in April. “Hank Zipzer: Enter at Your Own Risk.”
Henry Winkler: Now that is a super-sized book.
Mark Blevis: Super-sized?
Henry Winkler: Yeah, I didn’t even know there was such a thing. It is double the size. And what I love about it is that it is a scrapbook also. And it literally is his life. You know, Lin and I wrote his first lists, you know, when he was in kindergarten, his first play, his first poem. And then we also added my report cards, my personal report cards, pictures of our dogs, so that the reader could also see Hank Zipzer’s good friends who write him.
Mark Blevis: He has really good friends.
Henry Winkler: He does. I love his friends. They take such good care of him - Frankie, who’s African-American and Ashley, an American-Asian.
Mark Blevis: And they understand him.
Henry Winkler: They understand him, they don’t judge him. They try to take care of him; they try to talk him out of his misadventures. Then when he gets deep in his adventures, they figure out how to get him out of them. He’s got great friends.
Mark Blevis: Are those the friends that you had growing up?
Henry Winkler: No. Those are the friends that I wish I had.
Mark Blevis: Installment 14, episode 14, is that just the beginning of Hank Zipzer or is there an end in sight? What can we expect?
Henry Winkler: Well, we have–you know, when I first met Lin and we went to lunch and we came up with Hank. And then Eston Newburg, who is my agent at ICM, sold, you know, sent it to all these children’s publishers. And a lot of people said no. People didn’t, you know, they don’t take celebrity authors seriously. They think that, you know, that they’re not going to follow through, you know, that they’re just doing it as a lark. And Debra Dorfman at Penguin Putnam … said to me “yes” and gave us a contract for 4. And now we have a contract for 16.
Mark Blevis: An additional 16, or 16 being–
Henry Winkler: No, 16 in total. But they have already asked us to go further. I think that we have actually sold over 2 million books, which I think, in terms of children’s books, is amazing.
Mark Blevis: Do you and Lin think that she’ll continue the series?
Henry Winkler: Yeah. We have fun doing it, you know. And as long as we come up with stories, sure.
Join the conversation about great children’s books by clicking on the comment link in our show notes for this podcast at JustOneMoreBook.com. While you’re there, be sure to check out all of our podcasts including reviews and interviews.
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Photo of Henry Winkler from the American Library AssociationWhat follows is the transcript of our audio interview with Henry Winkler, featured on episode 300 of the Just One More Book!! children’s book podcast.
Henry Winkler: Hi, this is Henry Winkler and I’m one of the co-authors of Hank Zipzer: The World’s Greatest Underachiever. And I have just been fortunate enough to be on Just One More Book.
Mark Blevis: According to the website ReadingSuccessLab.com, government statistics show 25 million Americans are functionally illiterate. The primary cause is dyslexia or one of its many variants.
Through their children’s book series, “Hank Zipzer: The World’s Greatest Underachiever”, co-authors Lin Oliver and Henry Winkler share the struggles and triumphs of a resourceful elementary school student as he deals with the challenges that come with dyslexia. The stories are based on Henry Winkler’s own experiences with the disorder.
On this edition of Just One More Book, I speak with actor, director, producer and author, Henry Winkler, about becoming an author and his relationship with Hank Zipzer, his struggles with reading and learning, and what we can do to help our children.
This is Episode 300 of Just One More Book.
Mark Blevis: Your career has been rooted in television and stage work as an actor, director and producer. What was it that inspired you to create Hank Zipzer as a character in a children’s book?
Henry Winkler: Well it’s interesting because an agent of mine, when there was a lull in my working at the moment, said to me, I think in 1998, “Why don’t you write books for kids about your dyslexia?” and I said “because I’m stupid and I’m lazy and I’m not living up to my potential” which is what I was told my whole life. I said “no”. And I said, and not only that, but also there really is no discussion, I’ve got nothing to say, I don’t know what to do. And so I’m not doing it. And he then asked me again, same question, in 2003. And this time I said okay. I don’t know why I said okay, I just said okay. And then he introduced me to Lin Oliver. And there we go. We had the greatest time.
Mark Blevis: That’s really interesting because most celebrities that turn to writing books do so on their own. How did you decide to collaborate with Lin? Was it through your agent?
Henry Winkler: Well, the collaboration was through this man. He introduced me to Lin. Lin not only is, you know, a gift from God, I have to say, as a person, as a phenomenal partner. But she is also one of the co-founders of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. And they have 22,000 nation-wide members and, as a matter of fact, internationally.
Mark Blevis: How does it feel to be among that company?
Henry Winkler: Oh it’s great. It’s great because I walk around her office, she sits at her computer and we fight over every single word and we just finished the 14th novel.
Mark Blevis: And that comes out in April, of course.
Henry Winkler: Yes.
Mark Blevis: Mr. Rock figures more prominently in this book as well.
Henry Winkler: Right. Mr. Rock was my actual music teacher in high school. I went to McBurney School for Boys in New York City. And he was the guy who said, “I believe in you.” Everybody else said to me, “You’re never gonna graduate.”
Mark Blevis: What does that do to an individual?
Henry Winkler: Well, that’s one of the things that I talk about when I travel around the country and I speak to groups or I speak to children. The self-image when the kids are young, when they are in the, you know, from zero to eighteen and the self-image is building. First of all, if you are dyslexic or if you have a learning challenge, kids know. They know that it’s hard for them. They know that they’re not up to snuff. They know that they’re not doing as well as 75% of the class. So then to compound it by labeling them, by putting them down, by yelling at them, by grounding them because, you know, they’re not reading fast enough, it warps their ability to grow into a healthy self-image.
Mark Blevis: Well this is one of the things that really fascinates me about your choice of doing a children’s book, because a lot of children with learning disabilities have–they struggle with reading and with keeping their attention through a book. Was there a particular motivation with going that route?
Henry Winkler: Well, I’ll tell you what, I’ll tell you what is amazing. I was, you know, I was just in England and I just did a play there. I came home 2 days ago, as a matter of fact. And I read my books at two different schools. The books are not published in the U.K. But I read my books in two schools. And there was a young boy, African-English, kid who did not read and would not write creatively. And he read Hank and he has devoured now almost the whole series. His teacher got them from Amazon. And he has started to write creatively because he completely identified with Hank. Now if that’s not one of the greatest compliments in the universe, I don’t know what is. I mean, that could literally move me to tears, this kid. And I met him.
Mark Blevis: How does that affect you in your approach to writing and approach to reading these books to kids?
Henry Winkler: It doesn’t. The approach to writing is, we write about this kid, Hank Zipzer and he’s funny first. He makes you laugh. I got a letter from a little boy in Missouri who said “I laughed so hard my funny bone fell out of my body.” So I write what I know. It’s the same way, my same approach to acting. You know, when we were doing The Fonz and The Fonz was very popular, everybody said, “Well do you feel like a responsibility?” And I said, “No, I don’t, I’m just doing what I know how to do. I just do it the way I do it and it connects or it doesn’t” because, you know what, if you try to write for a particular person, or if you try to be somebody you think they want you to be, it’s never going to be compelling.
Mark Blevis: Is that what makes the relationship between you and Lin Oliver work so well is that you get to be — well I’m thinking especially of Book One in Hank Zipzer, when he has the assignment to do and he decides instead to do a presentation with an elaborate diorama, a functioning diorama.
Henry Winkler: I did that! I did that when I was younger, I did.
Mark Blevis: Was that the response that it got from the teacher?
Henry Winkler: Well I had Ms. Adolph. Ms. Adolph was my real teacher. She was the worst teacher in the universe. I mean, you know, so I didn’t know what else to do because reading is still difficult for me. I read spy novels, thrillers, you know, Daniel Silva or Lee Child, who was amazing. But that somehow my brain, you know, just works through them and they just completely entertain me and I love it. I’m so grateful. Every book I read I have on my shelf and it has to be hard cover. And they’re like each one is a triumph for me. And that’s what I tell the kids that I talk to. I tell them, “Listen, I am an actor, I’m a director, I’m a producer, I’m a husband, I’m a dad. We have 3 children, we have 2 dogs. I write children’s novels and I’m in the bottom 3% in America academically. So if I can do it, you can do it.”
Mark Blevis: Did you read to your children when they were young?
Henry Winkler: Oh my wife read to them because reading is so difficult. And I would act out the story as she was reading it so they heard the story and they laughed when I would just act it out. And it was great. And what was so interesting is that I literally could not read to them. My eyes would get tired; I would fall asleep before they did, you know. It was horrible.
Mark Blevis: Was this before your diagnosis?
Henry Winkler: No, this was–my diagnosis came when my stepson, who is now 36, was in the third grade. And everything that they said to him, I went, “Oh my goodness. That sounds like me.” That’s what–that was my diagnosis.
Mark Blevis: What was that moment of discovery like for you?
Henry Winkler: Well the first thing I did was I got really angry. And I thought to myself, “Oh my goodness, all that yelling. All of that being grounded was all for nothing.”
Mark Blevis: What strategies did you create for yourself as a child to overcome your learning challenges?
Henry Winkler: Well mostly dinner. Mostly I had no strategy. I just–humor and food. I enjoyed a great pizza, and that made me feel, you know, good. But most of the time, I didn’t have a strategy. Only now is there even, you know, talks about strategy. When I was growing up, there was no strategy, there was just grounding. My parents grounded me. I never saw the moon during my junior year of high school. They were just convinced if I stayed in my room, if I stayed at my desk, I was going to get it.
Mark Blevis: Your message to parents is, “Give children a sense of self and do not define yourself by the way your child succeeds or doesn’t.”
Henry Winkler: That’s right and also the child should never, ever think that because we learn differently, because we learn slower or it’s harder or we can’t get it at all, like I never beat the system when it came to spelling. I can’t spell to save my life. That doesn’t define your intelligence. How we learn does not define how unbelievably brilliant you are as a human being on this earth.
Mark Blevis: So how do you as a parent and a human, as opposed to a professional, how has that helped you develop these messages and deliver them in a way that people–
Henry Winkler: Well, you know that’s an interesting question because when my kids were younger and I hadn’t figured a lot of this out yet, I said to them exactly, you know, what was said to me. So I was repeating the pattern. And like my–finally my youngest son, Max, he would listen to the radio when he was doing his homework and he would stand at his desk, he couldn’t sit down, you know, or he would lie on his bed. And I would say to him, “But you’ve got to sit at your desk and you’ve gotta have good light and you can’t listen to the radio.” And finally I saw the grades were coming home. And maybe the radio, maybe the music, was being used as a tool, that it was blocking the rest of the world out so he could concentrate on what he was doing. So I finally learned to just shut up. And then he went to USC and he writes scripts now and he directs. And he is fantastic. My daughter is a teacher. My oldest son is just starting a new business. All three of them are dyslexic.
Mark Blevis: I’m going to take a guess here and assume that a lot of people who have learning disabilities like dyslexia are not going to be forthcoming about it. Maybe they’re a little bit shy about it or embarrassed about it.
Henry Winkler: Yeah I see.
Mark Blevis: And Hank Zipzer–
Henry Winkler: It’s embarrassing, I guess, for them, huh?
Mark Blevis: Exactly. Hank Zipzer wears it well. He wears it with confidence. It’s just–it’s part of who he is.
Henry Winkler: Yeah, his glass is completely half full.
Mark Blevis: Is that the Henry Winkler since the diagnosis? Is that where that motivation comes from?
Henry Winkler: Yeah I think so.
Mark Blevis: After you were diagnosed with dyslexia, did you learn any strategies or develop any strategies for dealing with it?
Henry Winkler: I didn’t do anything. I didn’t go looking for anything. What I did was over the years I–you know what, I’m proud of this. I taught myself to speed read. You know, when you–when I listened to the radio there were always the commercials for Helen Wood or Evelyn Wood speed reading course, you know. Learn to read like–President Kennedy could read like seven newspapers in an hour because he was able to speed read. And I taught myself how to do that. And I thought that was amazing.
Mark Blevis: How has Stacey, your wife, being a child welfare advocate, influenced you as an author and spokesperson for dyslexia?
Henry Winkler: Oh, I don’t have an answer to that question. I mean I’m proud of her, we did it together. I’ve worked with kids when I was in high school. You know, I was a counselor in an after school center. So I’ve been doing–I’ve been working with children my whole life. And we went together to a facility here one Christmas party when I first met her in 1978. And she said we can’t do this once a year and she exploded into a child advocate. I mean, she and a friend helped create the Department of Children’s Services in L.A. It did not exist before Stacey Winkler.
Mark Blevis: Do you think that there’s enough resources available for children now to help them?
Henry Winkler: No, listen–you know, the children don’t vote. So we talk a lot about kids, but we don’t do a lot about kids. When a child becomes really, really important when they are of voting age. That’s the long and the short of it. Because we talk about how, you know, the child is like the future and all that. And it all sounds great. And then we cut the lunch program or the breakfast program which is sometimes the only meal a child has during the day. And trust me; you cannot learn when you’re only thinking about mashed potatoes and meatloaf.
Mark Blevis: Book 14 comes out in April. “Hank Zipzer: Enter at Your Own Risk.”
Henry Winkler: Now that is a super-sized book.
Mark Blevis: Super-sized?
Henry Winkler: Yeah, I didn’t even know there was such a thing. It is double the size. And what I love about it is that it is a scrapbook also. And it literally is his life. You know, Lin and I wrote his first lists, you know, when he was in kindergarten, his first play, his first poem. And then we also added my report cards, my personal report cards, pictures of our dogs, so that the reader could also see Hank Zipzer’s good friends who write him.
Mark Blevis: He has really good friends.
Henry Winkler: He does. I love his friends. They take such good care of him - Frankie, who’s African-American and Ashley, an American-Asian.
Mark Blevis: And they understand him.
Henry Winkler: They understand him, they don’t judge him. They try to take care of him; they try to talk him out of his misadventures. Then when he gets deep in his adventures, they figure out how to get him out of them. He’s got great friends.
Mark Blevis: Are those the friends that you had growing up?
Henry Winkler: No. Those are the friends that I wish I had.
Mark Blevis: Installment 14, episode 14, is that just the beginning of Hank Zipzer or is there an end in sight? What can we expect?
Henry Winkler: Well, we have–you know, when I first met Lin and we went to lunch and we came up with Hank. And then Eston Newburg, who is my agent at ICM, sold, you know, sent it to all these children’s publishers. And a lot of people said no. People didn’t, you know, they don’t take celebrity authors seriously. They think that, you know, that they’re not going to follow through, you know, that they’re just doing it as a lark. And Debra Dorfman at Penguin Putnam … said to me “yes” and gave us a contract for 4. And now we have a contract for 16.
Mark Blevis: An additional 16, or 16 being–
Henry Winkler: No, 16 in total. But they have already asked us to go further. I think that we have actually sold over 2 million books, which I think, in terms of children’s books, is amazing.
Mark Blevis: Do you and Lin think that she’ll continue the series?
Henry Winkler: Yeah. We have fun doing it, you know. And as long as we come up with stories, sure.
Join the conversation about great children’s books by clicking on the comment link in our show notes for this podcast at JustOneMoreBook.com. While you’re there, be sure to check out all of our podcasts including reviews and interviews.
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Sunday, June 15, 2008
Decreasing Inflammation by freshdiet.com
Excess weight gain is caused by inflammation within the fat cell. Left uncontrolled, this inflammation makes it increasingly difficult to stop the accumulation of body fat and reduce excess weight. When fat “goes bad” (i.e. becomes inflamed) powerful inflammatory hormones called eicosanoids trigger systemic inflammation throughout the body increasing numerous health risks related to heart, brain and immune function, just like a viral infection. We call this type of systemic inflammation “Silent Inflammation” because you cannot see it or feel it. Despite our inability to sense its presence, Silent Inflammation significantly increases the risk of chronic health disorders like problems with the heart and blood sugar levels. This explains why cutting calories and increasing exercise alone are not enough. First and foremost, you must control inflammation within the fat cells.
PS. Do some reading on turmeric. It has amazing anti-inflammatory and anit-oxidant qualities. It is known to make cancer cells "commit suicide."
PS. Do some reading on turmeric. It has amazing anti-inflammatory and anit-oxidant qualities. It is known to make cancer cells "commit suicide."
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Drug Companies Are Killing You Legally While Robbing You Blind by Dr. Joseph Mercola
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported that drug overdoses killed 33,000 people in 2005, second only to car accidents in the category of accidental deaths. In 1999, the number was 20,000, and in 1990, 10,000 died.
As this excellent commentary in Better Body Journal points out, the huge increase in people dying is not because of a heroin or crack epidemic. These deaths are largely due to prescription drugs.
Consider that 46 percent of Americans take at least one prescription pill daily. Are these drugs really solving all your problems? If so, then why is the pharmaceutical industry growing every single year, with some of the biggest profit margins of any industry?
Big Pharma spent $12.7 billion promoting its products in 1998. The amount has vastly increased since that time. Do you ever get the feeling that you’re being sold many of these drugs just to make you think that you’re sick with something?
A good portion of the drugs that make up the multi-billion dollar industry of pharmaceuticals are simply doing nothing, if not making us worse. For example, a recent study suggests that anti-depressants only work for the severely depressed. If you’re not in that category, then you might as well be taking a sugar pill.
In most cases, Americans are taking more drugs than they need. How about stopping the problems before they start? Take a step back and look at your life. Do you actually have problems, or do you only think you have problems because of a drug commercial?
Sources:
Better Body Journal May 16, 2008
Better Body Journal May 17, 2008
As this excellent commentary in Better Body Journal points out, the huge increase in people dying is not because of a heroin or crack epidemic. These deaths are largely due to prescription drugs.
Consider that 46 percent of Americans take at least one prescription pill daily. Are these drugs really solving all your problems? If so, then why is the pharmaceutical industry growing every single year, with some of the biggest profit margins of any industry?
Big Pharma spent $12.7 billion promoting its products in 1998. The amount has vastly increased since that time. Do you ever get the feeling that you’re being sold many of these drugs just to make you think that you’re sick with something?
A good portion of the drugs that make up the multi-billion dollar industry of pharmaceuticals are simply doing nothing, if not making us worse. For example, a recent study suggests that anti-depressants only work for the severely depressed. If you’re not in that category, then you might as well be taking a sugar pill.
In most cases, Americans are taking more drugs than they need. How about stopping the problems before they start? Take a step back and look at your life. Do you actually have problems, or do you only think you have problems because of a drug commercial?
Sources:
Better Body Journal May 16, 2008
Better Body Journal May 17, 2008
Monday, June 2, 2008
Symptoms of Heat Stroke from the Doctors at MedicineNet.com
What is heat stroke?
Heat stroke is a form of hyperthermia (abnormally elevated body temperature) with accompanying physical and neurological symptoms. Unlike heat cramps and heat exhaustion, two less-severe forms of hyperthermia, heat stroke is a true medical emergency that can be fatal if not properly and promptly treated.
The body normally generates heat as a result of metabolism, and the body is usually able to dissipate the heat by either radiation of heat through the skin or by evaporation of sweat. However, in extreme heat, high humidity, or vigorous exertion under the sun, the body may not be able to dissipate the heat and the body temperature rises, sometimes up to 106 degrees Fahrenheit or higher. Another cause of heat stroke is dehydration. A dehydrated person may not be able to sweat fast enough to dissipate heat, which causes the body temperature to rise.
The population most susceptible to hear strokes are infants, the elderly (often with associated heart diseases, lung diseases, kidney diseases, or on certain medications that make them vulnerable to heat strokes), and athletes, or outdoor workers physically exerting themselves under the sun.
What are heat stroke symptoms?
Symptoms of heat stroke can sometimes mimic those of heart attack or other conditions. Sometimes a person experiences symptoms of heat exhaustion before progressing to heat strokes. Symptoms of heat exhaustion may include nausea, vomiting, fatigue, weakness, headache, muscle cramps and aches, and dizziness. However some individuals can develop symptoms of heat stroke suddenly and rapidly without warning.
Different people may have different symptoms and signs of heat stroke. But common symptoms and signs of heat stroke include:
• high body temperature
• the absence of sweating, with hot red or flushed dry skin
• rapid pulse
• difficulty breathing
• strange behavior
• hallucinations
• confusion
• agitation
• disorientation
• seizure
• coma
How do you treat a heat stroke victim?
Victims of heat stroke must receive immediate treatment to avoid permanent organ damage. First and foremost, cool the victim. Get the victim to a shady area, remove clothing, apply cool or tepid water to the skin (for example you may spray the victim with cool water from a garden hose), fan the victim to promote sweating and evaporation, place ice packs under armpits and groins. Monitor body temperature with a thermometer and continue cooling efforts until the body temperature drops to 101-102 degrees. Always notify emergency services (911) immediately. If their arrival is delayed, they can give you further instructions for treatment of the victim.
The most important measures to prevent heat strokes are to avoid becoming dehydrated, and to avoid vigorous physical activities in hot and humid weather. If you have to perform physical activities in hot weather, drink plenty of fluids (such as water and Gatorade), but avoid alcohol, coffee, and tea which may lead to dehydration. Take frequent breaks to hydrate yourself. Wear hats, and light colored, and light and loose clothes.
Heat stroke is a form of hyperthermia (abnormally elevated body temperature) with accompanying physical and neurological symptoms. Unlike heat cramps and heat exhaustion, two less-severe forms of hyperthermia, heat stroke is a true medical emergency that can be fatal if not properly and promptly treated.
The body normally generates heat as a result of metabolism, and the body is usually able to dissipate the heat by either radiation of heat through the skin or by evaporation of sweat. However, in extreme heat, high humidity, or vigorous exertion under the sun, the body may not be able to dissipate the heat and the body temperature rises, sometimes up to 106 degrees Fahrenheit or higher. Another cause of heat stroke is dehydration. A dehydrated person may not be able to sweat fast enough to dissipate heat, which causes the body temperature to rise.
The population most susceptible to hear strokes are infants, the elderly (often with associated heart diseases, lung diseases, kidney diseases, or on certain medications that make them vulnerable to heat strokes), and athletes, or outdoor workers physically exerting themselves under the sun.
What are heat stroke symptoms?
Symptoms of heat stroke can sometimes mimic those of heart attack or other conditions. Sometimes a person experiences symptoms of heat exhaustion before progressing to heat strokes. Symptoms of heat exhaustion may include nausea, vomiting, fatigue, weakness, headache, muscle cramps and aches, and dizziness. However some individuals can develop symptoms of heat stroke suddenly and rapidly without warning.
Different people may have different symptoms and signs of heat stroke. But common symptoms and signs of heat stroke include:
• high body temperature
• the absence of sweating, with hot red or flushed dry skin
• rapid pulse
• difficulty breathing
• strange behavior
• hallucinations
• confusion
• agitation
• disorientation
• seizure
• coma
How do you treat a heat stroke victim?
Victims of heat stroke must receive immediate treatment to avoid permanent organ damage. First and foremost, cool the victim. Get the victim to a shady area, remove clothing, apply cool or tepid water to the skin (for example you may spray the victim with cool water from a garden hose), fan the victim to promote sweating and evaporation, place ice packs under armpits and groins. Monitor body temperature with a thermometer and continue cooling efforts until the body temperature drops to 101-102 degrees. Always notify emergency services (911) immediately. If their arrival is delayed, they can give you further instructions for treatment of the victim.
The most important measures to prevent heat strokes are to avoid becoming dehydrated, and to avoid vigorous physical activities in hot and humid weather. If you have to perform physical activities in hot weather, drink plenty of fluids (such as water and Gatorade), but avoid alcohol, coffee, and tea which may lead to dehydration. Take frequent breaks to hydrate yourself. Wear hats, and light colored, and light and loose clothes.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
How to use your garden for the exercise you need By Dan Hickey
I love to garden on Sundays, a day that my wife prefers to hike, bike, or take long walks. Often I do both. I garden in the morning, spend the afternoon with her, and return to my garden chores later in the day.
On many Sunday nights, I slump on the couch exhausted, wondering how to drag myself to bed. "I'm so tired," I groan, feeling the weary muscles in my back, arms, shoulders, and legs. "No wonder--you've been exercising all day," my wife replies.
I think back on my day. Exercising all day? No, I wasn't exercising. I was gardening for a good part of it.
While chores such as hauling topsoil, weeding, mowing, and raking exhaust my legs, arms, and shoulders, to think of it as exercise seems laughable. After all, I enjoy gardening, and it's free. Isn't fitness supposed to cost money? Don't I need to go to a gym? Well, what my body--but not my brain--knew all along was that 45 minutes of gardening burns as many calories as 30 minutes of aerobics.
Gardening is the world's best-kept exercise secret, as I found out (albeit the hard way). But that's changing. Recent medical studies have documented what backyard enthusiasts have known for years: gardening is good for us.
It's taken me almost half my life to discover a fabulous gym outside my door. Turning compost is essentially lifting weights. Raking is like using a rowing machine. Pushing the mower is similar to walking on a treadmill. Our exercise machines are post-hole diggers, shovels, rakes, push mowers, and wheelbarrows. Our running track is the yard and garden.
If you garden on a regular basis, you're probably getting a healthy dose of exercise. By following the simple guidelines outlined here, you'll ensure that you're getting the maximum health benefits. As with any exercise program, beginning gardeners should start slowly and build up endurance. If you haven't been exercising at all, see a doctor before starting. Also, veterans and beginners alike benefit from simple stretching routines before gardening.
Gardening as Exercise
The health benefits of gardening are impressive. Gardening uses all the major muscle groups--the muscles that do most of the calorie burning--in the human body.Your legs, buttocks, shoulders, stomach, arms, neck, and back all get a workout. Gardening also increases flexibility and strengthens joints. Most gardeners have experienced the burning sensation of overworked legs and arms, but what we haven't known until recently is how much, how often, and at what intensity we should garden to get health benefits.
Recent research indicates that 30 minutes daily of moderate exercise such as gardening lowers blood pressure and cholesterol levels, helps prevent diabetes and heart disease, and prevents or slows osteoporosis, possibly prolonging your life. longer. That's all good news for gardeners.
On the other hand, strenuous exercise for relatively inactive people may pose risks. A recent study of 21,000 male Harvard University alumni showed that risk of heart attack among sedentary people was more than 100 times greater during strenuous activity than during light or no exercise. The risk during strenuous activity was only 2.4 times greater for people who exercised at least five times a week. In the Harvard study, gardening was one of the top exercise activities reported by the group of moderately active men.
The greatest reduction in risk of coronary heart disease occurs between those who do almost no exercise and those who exercise moderately each day. It is important to note that most heart attacks--96 percent--don't occur during strenuous activity; however, the 4 percent of people who do have a heart attack during strenuous activity are sedentary or have heart disease. The bottom line--moderate exercise is better than doing nothing, and for most people probably better than strenuous exercise.
How much is enough? Researchers now say you can break up the exercise sessions into short bursts (at least 8 minutes) of moderate activity throughout the day. Although each short activity has minimal health benefits, as long as those exercise sessions total 30 minutes, you'll profit. For example, if you weed for 10 minutes in the morning, push a mower for 10 minutes in the afternoon, and chop wood for 10 minutes in the evening you get similar health benefit as you would doing 30 consecutive minutes of comparable activities.
"These activities need to be of at least moderate intensity," says Dr. William Haskell, professor of medicine at the Stanford University Center for Research in Disease Prevention. "A person has to do more than putter around a flower bed." Haskell defines a moderate activity as the equivalent of a brisk walk (3-4 mph).
Although gardening is great for improving your overall health, Haskell advises combining moderate activity such as gardening with a program of regular aerobic exercise such as climbing stairs, cycling, jogging, or swimming. That's because aerobic exercise utilizes large muscle groups (usually the legs) over an extended period of time, and as its name implies, makes you breathe harder. Aerobic exercise offers additional health benefits-improved lung functioning and increased heart strength and efficiency-that you won't get from moderate exercise like gardening.
Take Off Weight
If you're looking to lose a few inches around your waistline, or simply to maintain your weight, gardening is a wise choice. It's fun, relaxing, and enriching and happens to be healthful when done regularly. And study after study shows that if you enjoy the exercise activity, you'll probably stick with it.
Your daily weight loss depends on how many calories you consume and burn. It's a simple formula: If you burn more than you eat, you'll lose weight. Again moderation is key. Make sure that you're eating sensibly and reduce the amount of fats in your diet, then gradually increase your activity in the garden. Always check with your doctor before starting any weight-loss program.
Many gardening chores burn fat. Of course, the number of calories you burn depends on the type and intensity of activity and your weight. For example, a 200-pound man will burn more calories than a 170-pound man, even though they're both doing the same activity.
To lose 1 pound of fat, you must burn 3,500 more calories than you consume in any given period of time. A relatively inactive person with stable weight would, without any changes in diet, need to burn an extra 500 calories (3,500 divided by 7 = 500) a day in order to lose a pound in a week. The key, of course, is to eat less and do more. Gradually increase your activities while reducing your calorie intake. Studies indicate that a daily diet of 1,500 to 2,000 calories is best, and that losing a pound a week is sensible and more likely to be permanent than more drastic weight-loss regimes would be.
Dynamic Gardening
In order to maximize the exercise benefits from gardening, focus on the major muscle groups, advises Jeff Restuccio, author of Fitness the Dynamic Gardening Way (Balance of Nature Publishing, Cordova, TN, 1992; $12.95). Restuccio recommends simple techniques such as bending your knees while raking or placing a crate that requires you to step up and down as you move from one flower bed to the next.
"If you have ever raked, hoed, or weeded a garden bed, you already know that gardening is a good workout," Restuccio says. "But if you think about it in terms of human physiology, no one has ever shown us how to garden."
Turn garden work into garden exercise, he advises. The Tennessee-based author and martial arts expert recommends exaggerating movements to achieve maximum range of motion and changing gardening stances in order to use different muscles. For example, when raking put your left foot forward, and use your left hand on the lower handle. Then switch the right foot forward, and switch your hand positions as well.
Remember, sore muscles aren't proof that you've exercised. More often, stiffness and pain indicate inadequate or improper stretching and warm-up, or overuse of muscles. After gardening you should feel tired, not achy. Take time to stretch, and avoid marathon sessions turning compost, raking leaves, or shoveling snow. Above all, don't forget why you garden. Simply be aware of the duration and intensity of your gardening so that you accrue the maximum health benefits.
Maximizing the Health Benefits of Gardening
Use a push mower instead of a rider. This a great way to get exercise once or twice a week. If your lawn is too big to cut without a rider, set aside a portion of your lawn for a push mower.
* Plan a daily gardening activity . Of course, people living in colder climates need to be creative. If you use a snow thrower, shovel a portion of your driveway. When buying seeds or other easily carried items at a garden center, park your car a mile away and walk.
* Vary your activities . Don't let one activity consume you, or you'll pay for it later. Break up strenuous gardening chores with more moderate and enjoyable activities. For example, break up a session of post-hole digging with some quiet weeding or transplanting.
* Count the minutes . Make sure the total daily time of garden activities adds up to 30 minutes. Each activity should last at least 8 minutes. If you've been inactive, build up to the 30-minute total gradually.
* Dig holes . Digging and shoveling are big calorie burners (250 to 350 calories per half-hour). Each depends on the muscles of the legs and stomach, arms and shoulders, and neck and back.
* Make a compost pile . If you've been thinking about starting a compost pile, now there's another good reason to do it. Turning compost burns 250 to 300 calories per half-hour.
* Listen to your muscles . Pay attention to the muscles that are working for you, as well as to your exertion levels. If you can increase your range of motion or safely add weight or resistance to a garden activity, give it a try. But whatever you do, don't use your back.
Calories Burned During Common Gardening Activities
The following chart gives the calories burned during 30 minutes of the activity for a 180-pound person. Generally, a person who weighs more will burn more calories than the amount shown here. Likewise, a person weighing less burns fewer calories.
Typical calories burned in 30 minutes of:
* Sleeping 36
* Sitting quietly 40
* Watering lawn or garden 61
* Mowing lawn (riding) 101
* Trimming shrubs (power) 142
* Raking 162
* Bagging leaves 162
* Planting seedlings 162
* Mowing (push with motor) 182
* Planting trees 182
* Snow thrower (walking) 182
* Trimming shrubs (manual) 182
* Weeding 182
* Clearing land 202
* Digging, spading, tilling 202
* Laying sod 202
* General gardening 202
* Chopping wood 243
* Gardening with heavy powertools 243
* Mowing lawn (push mower) 243
* Shoveling snow 243
* Double digging 344
* Shoveling heavy snow 364
Dan Hickey is a former editor of National Gardening.
Photography by NationalGardening.com
Copyright 2000, National Gardening Association. All rights reserved.Gardening and Lawn Care for the do it yourselfer.
Next »
On many Sunday nights, I slump on the couch exhausted, wondering how to drag myself to bed. "I'm so tired," I groan, feeling the weary muscles in my back, arms, shoulders, and legs. "No wonder--you've been exercising all day," my wife replies.
I think back on my day. Exercising all day? No, I wasn't exercising. I was gardening for a good part of it.
While chores such as hauling topsoil, weeding, mowing, and raking exhaust my legs, arms, and shoulders, to think of it as exercise seems laughable. After all, I enjoy gardening, and it's free. Isn't fitness supposed to cost money? Don't I need to go to a gym? Well, what my body--but not my brain--knew all along was that 45 minutes of gardening burns as many calories as 30 minutes of aerobics.
Gardening is the world's best-kept exercise secret, as I found out (albeit the hard way). But that's changing. Recent medical studies have documented what backyard enthusiasts have known for years: gardening is good for us.
It's taken me almost half my life to discover a fabulous gym outside my door. Turning compost is essentially lifting weights. Raking is like using a rowing machine. Pushing the mower is similar to walking on a treadmill. Our exercise machines are post-hole diggers, shovels, rakes, push mowers, and wheelbarrows. Our running track is the yard and garden.
If you garden on a regular basis, you're probably getting a healthy dose of exercise. By following the simple guidelines outlined here, you'll ensure that you're getting the maximum health benefits. As with any exercise program, beginning gardeners should start slowly and build up endurance. If you haven't been exercising at all, see a doctor before starting. Also, veterans and beginners alike benefit from simple stretching routines before gardening.
Gardening as Exercise
The health benefits of gardening are impressive. Gardening uses all the major muscle groups--the muscles that do most of the calorie burning--in the human body.Your legs, buttocks, shoulders, stomach, arms, neck, and back all get a workout. Gardening also increases flexibility and strengthens joints. Most gardeners have experienced the burning sensation of overworked legs and arms, but what we haven't known until recently is how much, how often, and at what intensity we should garden to get health benefits.
Recent research indicates that 30 minutes daily of moderate exercise such as gardening lowers blood pressure and cholesterol levels, helps prevent diabetes and heart disease, and prevents or slows osteoporosis, possibly prolonging your life. longer. That's all good news for gardeners.
On the other hand, strenuous exercise for relatively inactive people may pose risks. A recent study of 21,000 male Harvard University alumni showed that risk of heart attack among sedentary people was more than 100 times greater during strenuous activity than during light or no exercise. The risk during strenuous activity was only 2.4 times greater for people who exercised at least five times a week. In the Harvard study, gardening was one of the top exercise activities reported by the group of moderately active men.
The greatest reduction in risk of coronary heart disease occurs between those who do almost no exercise and those who exercise moderately each day. It is important to note that most heart attacks--96 percent--don't occur during strenuous activity; however, the 4 percent of people who do have a heart attack during strenuous activity are sedentary or have heart disease. The bottom line--moderate exercise is better than doing nothing, and for most people probably better than strenuous exercise.
How much is enough? Researchers now say you can break up the exercise sessions into short bursts (at least 8 minutes) of moderate activity throughout the day. Although each short activity has minimal health benefits, as long as those exercise sessions total 30 minutes, you'll profit. For example, if you weed for 10 minutes in the morning, push a mower for 10 minutes in the afternoon, and chop wood for 10 minutes in the evening you get similar health benefit as you would doing 30 consecutive minutes of comparable activities.
"These activities need to be of at least moderate intensity," says Dr. William Haskell, professor of medicine at the Stanford University Center for Research in Disease Prevention. "A person has to do more than putter around a flower bed." Haskell defines a moderate activity as the equivalent of a brisk walk (3-4 mph).
Although gardening is great for improving your overall health, Haskell advises combining moderate activity such as gardening with a program of regular aerobic exercise such as climbing stairs, cycling, jogging, or swimming. That's because aerobic exercise utilizes large muscle groups (usually the legs) over an extended period of time, and as its name implies, makes you breathe harder. Aerobic exercise offers additional health benefits-improved lung functioning and increased heart strength and efficiency-that you won't get from moderate exercise like gardening.
Take Off Weight
If you're looking to lose a few inches around your waistline, or simply to maintain your weight, gardening is a wise choice. It's fun, relaxing, and enriching and happens to be healthful when done regularly. And study after study shows that if you enjoy the exercise activity, you'll probably stick with it.
Your daily weight loss depends on how many calories you consume and burn. It's a simple formula: If you burn more than you eat, you'll lose weight. Again moderation is key. Make sure that you're eating sensibly and reduce the amount of fats in your diet, then gradually increase your activity in the garden. Always check with your doctor before starting any weight-loss program.
Many gardening chores burn fat. Of course, the number of calories you burn depends on the type and intensity of activity and your weight. For example, a 200-pound man will burn more calories than a 170-pound man, even though they're both doing the same activity.
To lose 1 pound of fat, you must burn 3,500 more calories than you consume in any given period of time. A relatively inactive person with stable weight would, without any changes in diet, need to burn an extra 500 calories (3,500 divided by 7 = 500) a day in order to lose a pound in a week. The key, of course, is to eat less and do more. Gradually increase your activities while reducing your calorie intake. Studies indicate that a daily diet of 1,500 to 2,000 calories is best, and that losing a pound a week is sensible and more likely to be permanent than more drastic weight-loss regimes would be.
Dynamic Gardening
In order to maximize the exercise benefits from gardening, focus on the major muscle groups, advises Jeff Restuccio, author of Fitness the Dynamic Gardening Way (Balance of Nature Publishing, Cordova, TN, 1992; $12.95). Restuccio recommends simple techniques such as bending your knees while raking or placing a crate that requires you to step up and down as you move from one flower bed to the next.
"If you have ever raked, hoed, or weeded a garden bed, you already know that gardening is a good workout," Restuccio says. "But if you think about it in terms of human physiology, no one has ever shown us how to garden."
Turn garden work into garden exercise, he advises. The Tennessee-based author and martial arts expert recommends exaggerating movements to achieve maximum range of motion and changing gardening stances in order to use different muscles. For example, when raking put your left foot forward, and use your left hand on the lower handle. Then switch the right foot forward, and switch your hand positions as well.
Remember, sore muscles aren't proof that you've exercised. More often, stiffness and pain indicate inadequate or improper stretching and warm-up, or overuse of muscles. After gardening you should feel tired, not achy. Take time to stretch, and avoid marathon sessions turning compost, raking leaves, or shoveling snow. Above all, don't forget why you garden. Simply be aware of the duration and intensity of your gardening so that you accrue the maximum health benefits.
Maximizing the Health Benefits of Gardening
Use a push mower instead of a rider. This a great way to get exercise once or twice a week. If your lawn is too big to cut without a rider, set aside a portion of your lawn for a push mower.
* Plan a daily gardening activity . Of course, people living in colder climates need to be creative. If you use a snow thrower, shovel a portion of your driveway. When buying seeds or other easily carried items at a garden center, park your car a mile away and walk.
* Vary your activities . Don't let one activity consume you, or you'll pay for it later. Break up strenuous gardening chores with more moderate and enjoyable activities. For example, break up a session of post-hole digging with some quiet weeding or transplanting.
* Count the minutes . Make sure the total daily time of garden activities adds up to 30 minutes. Each activity should last at least 8 minutes. If you've been inactive, build up to the 30-minute total gradually.
* Dig holes . Digging and shoveling are big calorie burners (250 to 350 calories per half-hour). Each depends on the muscles of the legs and stomach, arms and shoulders, and neck and back.
* Make a compost pile . If you've been thinking about starting a compost pile, now there's another good reason to do it. Turning compost burns 250 to 300 calories per half-hour.
* Listen to your muscles . Pay attention to the muscles that are working for you, as well as to your exertion levels. If you can increase your range of motion or safely add weight or resistance to a garden activity, give it a try. But whatever you do, don't use your back.
Calories Burned During Common Gardening Activities
The following chart gives the calories burned during 30 minutes of the activity for a 180-pound person. Generally, a person who weighs more will burn more calories than the amount shown here. Likewise, a person weighing less burns fewer calories.
Typical calories burned in 30 minutes of:
* Sleeping 36
* Sitting quietly 40
* Watering lawn or garden 61
* Mowing lawn (riding) 101
* Trimming shrubs (power) 142
* Raking 162
* Bagging leaves 162
* Planting seedlings 162
* Mowing (push with motor) 182
* Planting trees 182
* Snow thrower (walking) 182
* Trimming shrubs (manual) 182
* Weeding 182
* Clearing land 202
* Digging, spading, tilling 202
* Laying sod 202
* General gardening 202
* Chopping wood 243
* Gardening with heavy powertools 243
* Mowing lawn (push mower) 243
* Shoveling snow 243
* Double digging 344
* Shoveling heavy snow 364
Dan Hickey is a former editor of National Gardening.
Photography by NationalGardening.com
Copyright 2000, National Gardening Association. All rights reserved.Gardening and Lawn Care for the do it yourselfer.
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