Issue Date: February 15, 2009
Keep moving!
Even a little exercise does a lot.
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Not everyone can be thin, but everyone can be fit.
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If your goal is good health, you don't need to train for marathons. You just need to look for opportunities to be more active throughout the day. That's the advice summed up in my book "Move Yourself: The Cooper Clinic Medical Director's Guide to All the Healing Benefits of Exercise (Even a Little!)."
The principle is simple -- medical science indicates that even small amounts of activity, when done consistently, provide big benefits for health, longevity and quality of life. The guidelines provided in Move Yourself are based on 40 years of research and experience at our clinic and build on the U.S. surgeon general's recommendations.
The response has been gratifying. Folks who thought exercise only worked if they lost weight were encouraged to learn that the benefits are independent of weight. (Genetically speaking, not everyone can be skinny, but everybody can be fit.) Former couch potatoes have developed a more "activity-based" mind-set, doing things like gardening or cleaning the house, which get the heart pumping.
It's been said that your health can be judged by which you take two at a time -- pills or stairs. How will you be judged?
Tedd Mitchell, M.D., president and CEO of Dallas' Cooper Clinic, writes HealthSmart every week.
Want to know more about help losing weight? Click here.
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