David A. Porter's Total
Physical
Fitness page
Working out consistently is probably the most
effective treatment available for managing depression, anxiety, and anger. It
can improve your sleep, lower your blood pressure and cholesterol, and prevent osteoporosis. It can
help manage your blood sugar and reduce body fat. It can improve your
confidence, your libido, and your self-worth.
References (coming soon)
Weight Training
What are your goals? This will determine wether you are going to do bodybuilding or strength training. Power lifting is another specific option to train for.
Bodybuilding-Lifting to develop large, well defined, aesthetically pleasing muscles for appearence, competition, or developing the human body as a living work of art.
Strength training - lifting to increase muscle strength, which is the amount of work a muscle group can perform, and/or muscle endurance, which is the number of repetitions a muscle group can perform before reaching exhaustion. This is typically done to enhance overall athletic performance, or performance on a physical job, or for ease of everyday activity, and injury prevention.
Power Lifting - moving the maximum weight possible for one repition., typically for competetion.
Running
In my opinion, variety is best for overall fitness- this means running long and slow, doing sprints, taking hills, including hill sprints, all the above over a variety of terrain- sidewalks, dirt roads, trails, gravel trails, plus mixing running with walking and hiking.
Nutrition
Forgot fad diets- including all of this high-protein, low-carb nonsense. (Carbs are good for you by the way). Forget about herbs and supplements which are supposed to trap fat, reduce your appetite, or burn calories. These are quick fixes, which don't work, or if they do work, the results are insconsistent and involve unhealthy methods, and typically have little if any scientific evidence to support them. There are no quick fixes, or easy ways to maintain fitness. It requires hard work, effort, motivation, time, commitment, and discipline. To maintain a healthy weight, you need to start with a few basics to apply to your eating habits.
1) Eat a wide variety of foods.
2) Eat reasonable portions
3) Eat nutrient dense foods.
4) Engage in physical activity every day
(More info coming soon)
General self care
Sleep hygiene
Sleep hygiene refers to simple, non- pharmaceutical methods to make your sleep clean- that is, more efficient.
This includes:
No Caffiene- coffee, tea, or energy drinks- within six hours of your bedtime. Caffiene is a stimulant drug with a half -life of 3-6 hours- that is how long it will take your body to eliminate half of it.
No excess ETOH ( Alcohol) - more than two beers, glasses of wine, or mixed drinks- within three hours of bedtime. ETOH has a half life of about 1hr for men, and 1.5 hrs for women. ETOH will initially help you relax and can induce sleep, but it is a dream sleep or REM ( Rapid Eye-Movement) suppressant. Dreaming is a very important and essential function- dreaming is to your mind what urinating and defecating are to your body- you don't want to become mentally constipated. When the ETOH wears off, you may awaken and have trouble getting back to sleep. Your tolerance for ETOH will also increase quickly, and if you habitually use it to fall asleep, you may be heading toward a problem with dependence- and you may also be masking an underlying sleep or mood disorder.
A sleeping environment which is warm enough, cool enough, dark enough, or light enough- whatever you prefer.
Don't bother with over the counter sleeping pills. They are antihistamines, marketed as sleeping pills due to the side effect of drowsiness. They are not for long term use, and an occasional missed nights sleep is not a major concern, generally speaking. If you can't fall asleep or stay asleep for more than a week, it is very likely a sign of something wrong. If the sleep hygiene procedures on this page don't help, it is time to talk to your physician.
Your sleep environment should only be used for sleeping and sex. You don't want to associate your bed with not sleeping, by doing activities such as reading, watching TV, tapping on a laptop.
Keep a regular bedtime and time to get up. It may take a week or so, but your body will adapt, and your sleep will become more efficient and restful.
Smoking Cessation
What works to help you stop smoking and/or chewing
In my experience, which I am qualifying heavily- I am one therapist, seeing a specific number of patients in a specific geographical location- so this is not scientific research, which is defined as use of control groups, random samples, double-blind placebo, and so on- here is what I have seen work or not work. :
Hypnosis- less than useless- a waste of time and money
Nicotine inhalers- useless by themselves
Nicotine patches - very limited value by themselves.
Zyban (Wellbutrin)- good- many people have told me the same thing when they are taking this medication to quit smoking: " it makes the ciggarettes taste like shit"
Chantix- Better - I have seen very quick results- within a week a complete loss of desire to smoke, to several months on it with no noticeable effect.
Combined methods; Best - Wellbutrin or the patch with a nicotine inhaler for cravings, and lots of support from fam and friends, and regular check-ins with a therapist or smoking cessation group.
Tips to quit smoking (more on the way)
Roll your own. It will take more time and effort.
Pick a quit day, counting down, buying your last carton, then your last pack. Keep busy- have plenty planned to do for at least a week after your quit date, and let fam and friends know who will support you.
Talk to your doctor about one of the methods above
Tips to quit chewing (More on the way) :
Try substituting a herbal tea bag- soak it thoroughly, tear it open, and put a pinch in your mouth. You can swallow it, it tastes good, won't make your breath stink, and won't give you cancer
Reason to keep chewing:
It will make you very popular with women. Chawin' tabaccy, spitting that brown gooey stinking juice into a cup that you carry areound with you, wiping your mouth with your hand as it runs down your face, getting pieces of it stuck in your teeth, the vile smell on your breath, and your rotting teeth and ulcerated gums will draw supermodels to you. The Victoria's Secrets models and Sports Illustrated Swimsuit models will all want you when they see your strength and manly virility that chawin' tabaccy can only enhance. Really. I am serious.
Caffiene, Nicotine, and Alcohol
We don't even think of these things as drugs, but they are, and they can impact our health.
Caffiene
(More info and references coming soon)
Nicotine
(More info and references coming soon)
Alcohol ( henceforth known as ETOH, which is shorthand for Ethyl Alcohol, or Ethanol) is the most widely abused drug in the United States, and the deadliest. For decades, every year, it has consistently killed more people than crack, cocaine, heroin, PCP, and crystal meth combined.
(More info and references coming soon)
Fitness links
Tough Guy Race This is INSANE- Check this out