Sticks and Stones may break my bones, but Moderation will Kill you!
The body thrives in what I call a “Start-Stop-Start” environment.
Turning “on” and “off” our metabolic responses, healing, and immune responses, raising our heart rate up and down, changing temperatures, and walking on uneven ground all cause our nervous system and the rest of our body to pay attention and get in line!.
We fire up our adaptation mechanism.
Healing is a form of adaptation, as is learning, growing, exercising, and processing emotions.
Adapt or die. Moderation will kill you.
Throughout the history of humankind, we have evolved in an ever-changing environment. Kill or be killed, survival of the fit (not fittest), and the constant need for adaptation ensured that the most capable people in dealing with stress and change carried on.
Fast forward to today, and we live in very controlled environments that automatically manage our temperature, lighting, and oxygen exposure and provide a flat and hard walking surface and a well-designed seat to make us as comfortable as possible for long periods with tiny movement.
We now live in a manner opposite to how we developed to get here.
The body does not like slow and steady, constant environments.
They break down this miraculous bio-system we call a body and cause pain, chronic disease, mental distress, and decline.
How can this “Start-Stop-Start” built-in jump starter be used
for our health and healing?
- More frequent physical activity and exercise rather than a longer duration. Multiple small walks activate this process more than a long treadmill stint, and two 15-minute workouts in the day are better than a single long one.
- Temperature acclamation: forcing your body to heat up and cool down in a relatively short time by exercise followed with a cold shower, sauna then shower, hot tub then shower, and in time take it further with thermal workout gear and ice water immersion and all sorts of combinations of each.
- High-intensity training that utilizes standing upright intervals, like HIIT, peak workouts, and burst training. I call these Variable Output Exercises.
- Exercise while fasting and waiting as long as possible for your first meal.
- Building a basic rotational eating concept for your meal timing, spacing, and skipping breakfast.
- Specific breath work done with controlled intent, short duration, multiple times a day.
Try some of these. Your body, metabolism, waistline, mental state, sleep, and overall health will thank you!
Oh, and so will the people around you!
As always, I am here to help and hear more ideas if you have them! Comment and message away!
We can do better!
Dr. Don
