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We well-come you on this Sunday, 20 July 2008

Martin's Message: Merry Everything

Welcome to the 'Fallmas 2006' edition of Well. (I'll blame the missing issue on the rush to complete my book and a Clintonesque speaking schedule). What the Fallmas issue lacks in holly, snowmen and reindeer it makes up for in content. Now might be a good time to check out the timeless 'Wells' of Christmas past, none of which is better than "Thank Yule" of Winter of 2004.

The main feature for 2006 is the publication of my new book, "Walking, Weight and Wellness", which could be the Christmas gift that changes your life.

Obesity won't go away and we look at it from different perspectives ranging from the tragic to the fatuous. There's a Christmas game featuring aggressive Brussels sprouts and some much needed wisdom from Bill Clinton. We re-visit the inspirational Team Hoyt. And, as always, I'll remind you not to miss the Grins and other regular features.

All at Speakwell: that's Bev, Nancy, Ron, Luke and Martin, wish you a terrific holiday season and, to borrow a phrase from Don Ardell, an epic and triumphant 2007.

Here's a hint for 2007, priorize your own wellness and work hard at it and do at least one thing for the wellness of the world and some of its struggling inhabitants.

:: Martin

© 2006 ph3 services :: all rights reserved

The book is now published and is flying out of the Speakwell office. A 2nd edition is already in preparation. The best way to familiarize you with the book is to list the chapters and introduction and let it speak for itself.

Preface

In the words of Cicero I want, to teach, to stir the mind and to provide enjoyment. But I want more, I want your feet on the street, the trails or the treadmill, I want you eating well and I want you feeling great. This book is a call to action and your actions will be the measure of its success.

The left hand pages of this book bring you wisdom, humor, stories, quotations, poems and inspiration and the right hand pages help you channel that inspiration into positive, life-changing programs. In Alice in Wonderland there’s a scene in which Alice asks the Cheshire Cat for directions.

Alice: Which road should I take? Cheshire Cat: Where are you going? Alice: I don’t know. Cheshire Cat: Then it doesn’t matter.

The following pages are filled with information to help you chose a way that’s right for you and unique programs to get you there. You’ll discover ‘The Power of Fifteen’, ‘Circle Canada’ and ‘Route 66’, you’ll find out the truth about walking, weight-loss and weight-control and why walking and lifestyle programs belong everywhere, from schools to the workplace, from seniors’ centers to city streets.

I pay special attention to the pedometer, an inexpensive little device, which can transform your walking program and play a big part in getting you where you need to go. You will be challenged and at times you might fall short, but that only sweetens the joy of your success, and to miss the joy is to miss it all.

One of my favorite authors, John Griffin, said, Write nothing you do not feel and believe to be true. That I’ve done, you have my word.

Introduction: You’re a Walking Miracle

People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on the earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle, which we don’t even realize.  :: Thich Nhat Hanh

I want you to look good and feel great,
I want you to be all that you can be,
I want you to walk.

‘Walking, Weight and Wellness’ provides a roadmap, which will guide you to high-level wellness. It will put back the movement in your life that our culture has stolen away. It will provide a formula to be slim and firm in a land where it has become ‘normal’ to be fat and flabby. It will provide islands of calm in a world of noise and distraction.

We are vigorous, active animals that do well when we move and badly when we are sedentary. The movement which comes naturally to humans is walking, and I want you to walk nearly every day. We are born with a 100-year warranty but we have to read the small print. The small print tells us to move on a daily basis; the small print says, walk.

I titled the introduction You’re a Walking Miracle not in any religious sense, but to remind you of the extraordinary nature of the human body/mind and what it can accomplish. The word ‘miracle’ comes from the Latin ‘miraculum’, meaning, object of wonder and to anyone who looks carefully at the human body/mind surely they see an object of wonder. It is a vast complex of trillions of interconnected cells. There are at least 10 times as many cells in our bodies as there are stars in the Milky Way. Marcel Proust reminded us that a sense of wonder comes not just from discovering new things and places, but by looking at familiar things through new eyes. I want you to look with new eyes at walking and its transformative powers. I want you to see yourself as a walking miracle.

Talking about my baby,
He’s a walking miracle.
  :: The Essex, 1963

Chapter Headings

1. Walking Can Save Your Life

Walking is do-able, you already know how to walk, walking’s free, walking can be the core around which you build your eating and activity lifestyle. Walking burns calories, clears your head, improves your posture, assists the circulation and saves your life. We’ve known all this for thousands of years, there’s a Latin phrase that says it all.

Solvitur Ambulando—Walking solves all things

2. Why Walking is the Most Popular Form of Exercise in North America

There’s plenty of pleasure in a walk, which can be social or solitary, vigorous or easy, early or late and can take place almost any time, any place any where. In the movement of walking you discover stillness and problems get smaller with each step, ideas fill your brain, stress recedes as you align your body/mind and step-by-step your spirit is restored.

3. What Research Tells us About Walking and Wellness

It’s hard to get experts to agree on anything, but there are no dissenting voices about the value of walking.

A five mile walk (about 10,000 steps) will do more
good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult
than all the medicine and psychology in the world.
Paul Dudley White, Former Surgeon General

4. Pedometer Walking

Every step you take I’ll be watching you.
  :: Sting

What gets measured gets done.
  :: Tom Peters

A good pedometer will record every step of your comings and goings, your trips to the kitchen, your movement around the office and, more importantly, the steps you take when you go outside into the ‘real’ world and walk to the store or take a life-saving purposeful walk. This chapter includes a detailed evaluation of 30 different pedometers and helps you ‘pick a practical pedometer’.

5. Virtual Walking – Circle Canada and Route 66

An introduction to the sophisticated ‘virtual walks’: Circle Canada and Route 66, which are the centerpiece of numerous workplace and school-based walking programs. Our ever-increasing access to computers has created a whole different way to translate cumulative steps into an actual, visible journey. A well-constructed virtual journey gives substance to the numbers on your pedometer and translates them into cities and scenery.

6. Weight Loss and Weight Control

• The Calorie Story
• So You Really, Really Want to Lose Weight!!

This has been a critically acclaimed section of the book, which authoritatively and accurately looks at weight loss and weight control and how each is impacted by eating and activity. The ebb and flow of calories will determine whether you’re fat, very fat, thin, very thin or in true Goldilocks fashion, ‘just right’. Calorie awareness is crucial and cannot be ignored. At school, we all heard the phrase pay attention and that’s exactly what is required of you now, not just to the information in this chapter, but to the quality and quantity of calories you allow into your body.

My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four
unless I invited three other people.
  :: Oscar Wilde

I’d do anything to look like him, except exercise and eat right.
  :: Steve Martin

7. Walking Away From Stress

Walking is our best medicine.
  :: Hippocrates (460BC – 377BC)

A brief look at the positive biochemical impact of walking.

I have two doctors, my left leg and my right.
  :: G M Trevelyan

There are many paths to dealing with stress and it’s a good idea to find a path you can walk down.

8. Workplace Walking

All business organizations have to be aware of the ROI (Return On Investment) of any initiative. The commonly accepted figure for a successful company wellness program is that it will return 3 dollars for every one dollar invested. A well-structured walking program can exceed that ratio many fold because it requires no capital outlay, other than the purchase of pedometers (which are often supplied on a cost recovery basis). The physical, psychological and social benefits of regular walking inevitably have a positive impact on an organization’s bottom line. The positive impact of walking goes beyond an ROI and delivers an ROL (Return On Life). A look at successful workplace programs and ways in which a workplace can become a walk place.

9. Where Do The Children Play?

All life should be lived as play.
  :: Plato

This chapter addresses much more than the use of pedometers and walking programs in schools. It provides an overview of the multiple factors that make it too easy for children to fall far short of their potential as young, active human beings.

10. Walking Shoes

If you want to forget your troubles, wear shoes that are too tight.
  :: The Houghton Line

It must be the shoes.
  :: Spike Lee

11. Stretch and Strength

An illustrated series of activities to develop and maintain flexibility and build strength, which will complement your walking program.

12. Beyond 10,000

Marathons and other long-distance walks and hikes.

You already have everything you
need to be a long-distance athlete.
It’s mind-set, not miles, that separate
 those who do from those who dream.
  :: John Bingham

13. Walking With a Difference

Pole walking: Elliptical trainers: Treadmills: Steppers: Walking in water; Labyrinth walking: Cobblestone walking: Power walking.

14. Life Change—Be Your Own Hero

Much of this book is about practical things, such as walking more and eating better and making changes in your life to create a fitter, slimmer, happier you. The changes and lifestyle I suggest would be easier to do if you didn’t live in a society that has engineered physical activity out of your daily life and that surrounds you with cheap food and drink at every turn. If you go with the cultural flow it is very, very probable that you will become sedentary and overweight. Remember, you live in a culture that has soft drink machines in funeral parlors; food at gas stations and celebrates every occasion from Fridays, to promotions to Christmas with thousands of calories. You need to be a bit of a hero to fight against the cultural tide of consumption. It’s a wonderful feeling to make a promise to yourself and keep it and know you’re not a puppet of the multinational marketers.

Change does not come easily and it’s worth listening to the wisdom of others and to be inspired by heroes who overcame challenges far greater than turning down a beer or walking late in the evening to get 10,000 steps.

If you find a path with no obstacles,
check and see if it leads anywhere.
  :: Alan Joseph

As Sir Winston Churchill thundered to the students at Harrow School.
Never give in. Never give in.
Never, never, never, never, never give in.

15. The Power of Fifteen

This is a powerful chapter, which provides a formula for readers who want to lose weight and get into great shape, maybe the best shape of their lives. I experimented with the caloric intake/caloric expenditure formula and found that 1500 quality calories and 15,000 daily steps produced a steady and inevitable weekly weight loss of 3 to 4 lbs. (1.3 to 1.8kg) along with feelings of increased energy and health.

To maintain overall mind/body function I turned to the Sun Salutation and found that from Mountain pose to Mountain pose (beginning to completion) was 15 moves. The Power of Fifteen was completed by the peaceful, mind altering 15 controlled 15-second breaths.

I’ve been told that coincidence is some sort of celestial pun, or maybe God’s way of remaining anonymous, but as I laid out the book with the Power of Fifteen as the closing chapter, I was delighted, but not really surprised, to find that it was Chapter 15.

Once you have achieved your target weight you can adjust the formula to include some more calories or decrease your daily step count. A “Weight Loss Phase” and “Weight Maintenance Phase” are included in the chapter.

The Power of Fifteen is a mind/body toolkit to challenge you to fulfill your personal potential as a walking miracle.

'Walking, Weight and Wellness' is available for purchase   
from our WellMart store »

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We can all check off a number of benefits which come from walking, some of the obvious ones being enhanced cardiovascular/pulmonary functioning, protection against diseases such as diabetes, osteoporosis and some forms of cancer and probably a longer and healthier life. But the list of benefits goes on and here are 10 more, some of which might surprise you.

1. We are designed to walk, which means that walking is usually an injury-free experience that we can practice almost any time, any place and anywhere. Walking can be social or solitary, vigorous or easy, early or late and provides more health benefits than any medication.

2. Walking burns calories at the rate of about 100 calories per mile (about 65 calories per kilometer). Regular walking is great for weight maintenance and can be a significant part of a weight loss program when combined with dietary restriction. (See “The Power of 15” in my new book “Walking, Weight and Wellness”).

3. Walking increases cerebral blood flow, (the blood flow to the brain). Many great thinkers, writers, scientists and philosophers used walking to ‘open up the mind’. It was Charles Dickens who said, “The length of my walking is the length of my writing.” Einstein was another famous walker.

4. Walking leads to an increase of serotonin and dopamine in the brain. This is associated with a decrease in tension and feelings of relaxation. In her well-researched book, “When Your Body Gets the Blues”, Dr. M. A. Brown of the University of Washington cites a number of studies showing how exercise stress-proofs the brain.

5. The presence of serotonin and dopamine can lead to a “walker’s high”, which is more subtle than the endorphin rush of a runner’s high. (Although a brisk walk might well elicit some endorphin release). The walker’s high tends to be a sustained feeling of peace, clear thinking and lack of tension. This means a good lunchtime walk can often set you up for the afternoon, giving you a “two morning day”. The sugar high from a chocolate bar or donut is short lived, but the walker’s high keeps on giving.

6. By decreasing stress you also decrease the levels of cortisol in your blood. High levels of cortisol are associated with accumulation of abdominal fat, or visceral fat, which is linked more strongly to various disease states than BMI. Brisk walking is right in the ‘fat burning’ zone of the metabolism.

7. Walking uses energy, but it also creates a feeling of energy, so that someone who starts a walk tired might finish feeling refreshed.

8. Exercise, such as walking, tends to suppress appetite. There is some evidence for this, particularly in males, but the research is not robust. What is clear is that under controlled conditions people who have been involved in moderate activity consume no more calories than sedentary subjects.

9. Brisk walking enhances the functioning of the immune system with increases in T-lymphocytes (T-cells), B-lymphocytes (B-cells), leukocytes and natural killer (NK) cells. This would help explain the results of a 2006 study by Dr. Cornelia Ulrich, published in the American Journal of Medicine. In the study, 115 post-menopausal women were split into 2 exercise groups, one of which did a brisk 45 minute walk 5 days a week, while the other group did a gentle stretching program. The stretching group were more than twice as likely to come down with colds during the 12-month study.

10. If you walk outside, instead of remaining indoors you will be getting a bonus, which might not have occurred to you. A well-lit home or office will typically provide between 100 and 400 lux (units of light). Outdoors on a cloudy day you will be exposed to between 5000 to 10,000 lux, while on a sunny day it can be 80,000 lux. Light recharges our personal solar batteries and, like the act of walking, leads to an increase in serotonin and dopamine in the brain. The SAD syndrome (Seasonal Affective Disorder) can often be relieved by having people spend more time outside and by using artificial light therapy. A Russian study by Pinchasor et al. Psychiatry Research (2000) found that increased exposure to light led to increases in metabolism and the burning of more calories.

Indeed it pays off in many ways to go outside, take a walk and lighten up.

Musing on recent fat facts and fat related research
Martin Collis

Oh that this too, too solid flesh
Would melt, thaw and resolve itself Into a dew.
  :: William Shakespeare

Like fat cells, stories about fat grow and proliferate in the media. Editors and commentators try to one-up each other with fat facts and stories. But, in spite of media attention, multi-million dollar research studies, doctorial dissertations, pharmaceuticals, conferences, surgery, weight-loss programs and miraculous products sold on late night TV, the fat stats keep trending upwards. Year after year Canadians and Americans get heavier, so that it’s normal to be overweight and not unusual to be obese. Body fat seems to provide a protective layer so people are immune to stories of disease, discomfort and ostracism. Many health-related scare tactics have been tried and so far they’ve all failed.

“Obesity is correlated to diabetes, depression and death.” “There’s lies, damn lies and statistics. What else you got?” “But that’s not all. There’s heart disease, stroke, hypertension, osteoarthritis, many cancers, glaucoma, asthma and gout.” “Whatever! Pass the fries.” “What about sleep apnea and sexual dysfunction?” “That’s why they have TV 24 hours a day.” “Varicose veins? Back pain? Chronic fatigue? Liver problems?” “I’ve handled tougher stuff than that.” “Fat people are discriminated against on job interviews.” “I’m not bothered, I’m on disability.”

Apparently, the thought of a sex-starved, sleepless, uncomfortable life and an early death doesn’t resonate, and maybe leads to feelings of stress, which in turn leads to more indiscriminate eating.

Other big problems are emerging from having so many big people. Planes and cars are burning more gas as their passenger load gets heavier. There are niche industries for giant hospital beds, with winches to help lift the patients, who finally need monster coffins to accommodate them when they die an early death. Patients are getting too big for CAT scan machines and doctors are refusing to do knee and hip replacements on joints which are being forced to withstand two or three times the weight for which they’re designed.

What’s surprising is that the lures of the automobile, the TV screen, computers, fast food and ‘convenience’ are more powerful than the threat of a lifetime of discomfort. The problem probably lies in the fact that fast food, entertainment and easy transport deliver immediate gratification whereas all those diseases and discomforts are somewhere in the future and might never happen. It’s a human design flaw to look for the quick fix.

The sleeper food hit of this year’s Texas State Fair: Fried Coke. Coca Cola flavored batter is deep-fried, then drizzled with Coke fountain syrup and topped with whipped cream, cinnamon sugar and a cherry.

Overweight and Out of Shape? The Canadian Armed Forces Wants You!

Our potential enemies must be smiling that the Canadian Armed Forces have abandoned any pretense of standards for fitness and body composition in order to gain entry into the military. With two thirds of the nation overweight and most of them unfit, there were just not enough potential recruits who could pass the modest fitness requirements of 19 push-ups, 19 sit-ups, a 75kg squeeze on the hand grip dynamometer and jog 2.4k (1.5 miles) in a very attainable time. (It’s even easier for women). As noted later in this article, men in the 18 – 33 year old age bracket are putting on weight faster than any other age group.

New recruits who are overweight and unfit will be assigned to a specific training squad to try to whip them into shape. Basically, part of our military will become a tax supported fat farm.

The problem is not that your goals are too high and you fail
to reach them but it’s that they’re too low and you do!
  :: Michelangelo

People tend to rise to the level of the expectations placed upon them and if you want to serve your country in a military capacity then you should be expected to report in decent physical shape. The movie “Stripes” comes to mind when I picture 300lb (136kg) recruits in basic training.

[On a similar topic in this issue, read what happened to the Florida Police Chief who expected his officers to get in shape; he was fired.]

Starting Young

Fat does not discriminate against gender, race, sex or age and our children are reflecting the fattening of our species. As I noted in an earlier article in ‘Well’ when the fictional Pied Piper came for the children, parents were panicked into action, but so far our responses have been modest, given the statistics with which we’re faced. In a paper in the November 2006 journal “Pediatrics” based on the work of C Li, Ph. D, M.D. et al. at the University of Rochester, the childhood progression towards obesity is reported as accelerating. There is now general agreement that abdominal fat (visceral fat) is the most dangerous and most highly correlated with diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease and it was abdominal fat that was of particular interest to Li et al. What they found was shocking.

• Between 1988 and 2004: Abdominal obesity increased 65% among boys and almost 70% among girls.
• It appears that abdominal fat is increasing even faster than the more commonly reported BMI. Between 1999 and 2004 the percentage of 6 – 11 year olds with elevated BMIs rose about 25% (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey – NHANES). But the increase in abdominal obesity of the same group over the same period increased 35%.

These data come from a paper titled “Recent Trends in Waist Circumference and Waist-Height Ratio Among US Children and Adolescents”. You should be careful to notice that the big percentage increases are in the obesity groupings and not overall. However, this is a strong indication that there are significant increases exactly where we don’t want to see them. It is important to notice that these are measured data, not from a survey on the telephone.

There are many factors that lead to more and more overweight children. It is not only food that comes fast and prepackaged, but also games and entertainment. Games no longer need to be ‘made’, but just ‘played’, usually under controlled conditions so that kids can be creatively starving in the land of plenty. Safety is deemed more important than activity and games are electronic, packaged or programmed by adults. Asked where he liked to play, a nine year old replied, “Inside, where the plugs are.” For ‘physical’ play we seem to be moving towards the air-conditioned nightmares of Fantasy Resorts in Japan. Here visitors must provide ID before entering the play premises. Shoes must be removed (they carry germs) and the wheels of baby buggies are sprayed with antibacterial solution. There are more than 20 staff in identical bright yellow coveralls and a matching number of security cameras mounted in the ceiling. Pets, of course, are banned; the toys are inflatable and soft, the floor rubberized and the sand in the sandpit sterilized. The children don’t get injured, but neither do they get challenged.

The game was never worth a rap
For rational folk to play
In which no accident, no mishap
Could ever find a way.
  :: A. Gordon, 1936

A recent issue of McLean’s Magazine pointed out that you almost never see skipping games in school playgrounds any more. Likewise, numerous other physically active games and activities have disappeared from schools. Pearl Marko is a recreation therapist who has created Positive Playgrounds, a national organization to teach forgotten games like freeze tag, marbles, hopscotch and kickball. It’s rather like some of our First Nations elders trying to preserve old dialects and languages among children who learn their vocabulary from TV, pop songs and DVDs. For more on creative play, I recommend “Child’s Play” by Silken Laumann.

Many of our children are overprotected, under-exercised, calorically overwhelmed and nutritionally deficient. In a research project commissioned by the Globe and Mail newspaper and CTV it was shown that many popular children’s cereals contained as much sugar as a chocolate bar. The researchers compared the amount of sugar in a 50g (1.75oz) serving of cereal with that contained in various popular chocolate bars. For example, a bowl of Post Sugar Crisp contained more sugar than a Kit Kat bar, a Mr. Big, a Snickers bar and numerous other chocolate ‘treats’. There was little caloric difference in many of the big selling ‘kids’ cereals and candy bars. Dietician Leslie Beck says, “I think parents know that the cereals are sugary, but they don’t understand the extent. When you say, “Your child is eating the equivalent of a Mars bar for breakfast” it starts to hit home.” The pediatric endocrinologist, Dr. Robert Lustig, says that many children’s cereals really don’t deserve the name of ‘food’. “A food substitute is a better description.”

There is a move against trans-fats, which are good for shelf life, but not self-life.

Longer lives on the shelves
Leads to shorter lives for ourselves.

KFC is swearing off trans-fats, as is Disney. All this is good but won’t help much in combating obesity until we get portion size and sugar under control. Burger King, of course, offers the “Quad Stacker” with 4 slabs of beef, four slices of cheese, a bunch of bacon smothered in creamy sauce, all of which adds up to 1000 calories and 68 grams of fat. (The Quad is rumored to stand for quadruple by-pass).

The Future

Are people going to continue to get fatter and fatter as they have for the past quarter century, or will a combination of legislation, social engineering, education, pharmaceuticals and lifestyle change begin the slimming of North America? There are some faint lights at the end of a long tunnel.

• Many schools and school districts are moving towards increased physical education and physical activity.
• Junk food is being removed from schools and many other organizations.
• Pedometers are becoming more popular.
• Public awareness is growing through massive media attention to weight control.
• Workplace wellness programs create opportunities for healthy life-style choices.

To finish on a cautiously positive note, recent statistics from the Canadian National Population Health Survey, which has tracked more than 10,000 Canadians, suggests that, although we’re still getting fatter every year, it appears that the rate at which we’re putting on weight is slowing down. In the years between 1996 and 2001, men averaged a weight gain of about 1/2kg (1.1lbs) a year and women just under 1/2kg (1lb) a year. From 2001 to 2005 that rate of increase has been slowed by about 35%. The one group to increase weight in the final 2-year period of measurement ending in 2005 was young men in the 18 – 33 age bracket. They averaged a weight gain of more than 0.8kg (1.75lbs) a year.

Survey data such as this is interesting and keeps a lot of researchers busy, but has one major weakness; it is based on self-reported data and not accurate measurement. I have been told by more than one researcher that when it comes to reporting their weight, “everybody lies”. Speakwell web master, Ron Nye, said, “Maybe they sounded thin over the phone.” So whether we’re seeing an actual trend of decreased weight gain, or more lies, is difficult to determine. I suspect that the survey probably does reflect the beginnings of more informed eating and exercise among Canadians, let’s hope so.

For more cutting-edge reporting in this area go to the always interesting and often controversial William Saletan and some of his writing for SLATE magazine:

Sister Soda: Bill Clinton Triangulates The War On Fat »

Junk-Food Jihad: Should We Regulate French Fries Like Cigarettes? »

Please Do Not Feed the Humans: The Global Explosion Of Fat »

Let Them Eat A Junk Food Tax A lighthearted look at the taxation of junk food by Jack Knox It's inevitable: A crisis of corpulence will bring punitive taxation on unhealthy food. And that's just the beginning. Airport customs lineup. I hit the counter nervous, sweating like George Bush in a gay bar. Good thing all the other passengers are perspiring, too—that four-minute waddle from the luggage carousel was a killer, the escalator broken like that and not even a doughnut stand to refuel at. Oh, no, the customs guy is rooting through my suitcase, comes up with a plastic bag holding one, maybe two, keys of fine white powder. "What's this," he says. "Heroin," I whisper, trying to control the shakes. "Like hell," he smirks. "I know icing sugar when I see it." It was all over after that, of course. They found everything: the 7-Up in the vodka bottle, the hollandaise sauce in the shampoo container, the French fries in the hollowed-out Bible (the customs agent, a religious man, didn't like that). Took the sniffer dogs no time at all to home in on the beef jerky, the cheeseburgers, the deep-fried Mars bars. No doubt about it, I was going down. And being a typical Canadian, there was no way I was getting back up again, not without two new knees, a forklift and an oxygen tank. The customs guy smirked again. "What made you think you could duck the Twinkie Tax?" I shrugged. Forty per cent. It was worth the risk. OK, they don't really have a junk food tax yet. But the Canadian Medical Association wants one and the B.C. government is thinking seriously about it, something appropriately hefty, along the lines of that 40 per cent. What the heck, governments already use taxes to dull our taste for liquor and tobacco, and there's growing evidence that unhealthy eating poses as great a threat as booze and smokes. We are, as you know, in a corpulence crisis. A diabetes epidemic looms. Childhood obesity rates have tripled in 20 years. Two out of three British Columbians are overweight or obese and physically inactive. Three in four Canadians have enough tummy fat to raise their risk of heart disease. One in four children is unhealthily heavy. (Seven in six statisticians have trouble with fractions.) Why is Canada pink on the map? From exertion. People are getting so porky, the news stories say, that manufacturers are having to build bigger car seats for children. At the other end of the scale, as it were, we are so heavy that morticians say pallbearers can't lift the coffins anymore. Growing girth is a global thing. In the year 2000, it was estimated American airlines burned an extra 1.3 billion litres of fuel just to carry the extra weight packed on by passengers in the previous decade. China's obesity rate is twice what it was in 1992, before western-style fast-food joints became popular. A fat-friendly Mexican resort is reinforcing its beds and stocking the beach with armless chairs. Everyone from automakers to clothing manufacturers is retooling. Puget Sound ferries reduced passenger capacity after widening seats by three inches. Every once in a while, when presented with fresh evidence that the average Canadian student couldn't reach for the salt without experiencing chest pains, we get up on our high horse (which subsequently buckles) shake our heads (and a few of our chins) and threaten to fill high school vending machines with Brussels sprouts and to force the cafeterias to sell something other than sugared trans-fats with gravy. But then the kids suggest that maybe mum and dad should lead by example, and after that everyone suddenly finds something better to do, like have some onion rings. Which brings us to the punitive taxation of unhealthy food. This is just the first step. Next, the real demonization will begin. The Women's Christian Temperance Union will turn its axes on the Slurpee machines at 7-Eleven. Eventually, kids will need fake ID to get into McDonald's. Just as smokers were chased from the office a couple of decades ago, junk food junkies will be forced outside, where you'll see them hunched over, trying, in vain, to protect their french fries from the rain. Ultimately, there will be full-blown prohibition. Grow-ops will switch to sugar cane. Coke will cost as much as coke. Desperate, strung-out sugar addicts will break into cars, but get stuck in the doors. An ugly future, but how else to combat a growing crisis? Published: Sunday, October 15, 2006 jknox@tc.canwest.com © Times Colonist (Victoria) 2006

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Introduction

Don Ardell is an old friend who produces a highly entertaining, well-informed, irreverent and thought provoking newsletter, the Electronic Ardell Wellness Report (EAWR). Way back in the Spring 2002 edition of ‘Well’ we awarded the EAWR the Speakwell Oscar for our favorite wellness newsletter, in part because it was the one we read without fail.

Don’s style is not for everybody, and not always for me. He is a prolific, relentless promoter of high-level wellness. One thing I like about Don’s writing is that he doesn’t play favorites and, when appropriate, will be critical of big business, the Surgeon General, vitamins, politics, religion, and even wellness conferences.

In this article he turns his spotlight on the town of Winter Haven, Florida and its fitness oriented police chief.

A Lesson Gained From The Sacking Of A Fitness-Oriented Police Chief



The sleepy town of Winter Haven, Florida got its 15 minutes of fame (or infamy) in early November when its police chief, Paul S. Goward, was fired for being a fitness promoter! More specifically, Mr. Goward, a very fit 60-year-old veteran cop, made a strong case for a fit police department in the form of a ten-point email to all the officers on the force. This sounds reasonable to me. How could this be a firing offense? Should he not have been given a raise?

Does this make sense to you? Could such a thing be a firing offense? You be the judge. Here is the fatal email message, "Are You a Jelly Belly?" obtained from the ex-chief himself.

As I look around the department, I see a disconcerting number of us that appear physically challenged with obesity and/or a general lack of fitness. This is a tremendous concern to me because the literature, to say nothing of common sense, says that if you are obese or out of shape, you are a predictable liability to yourself, your family, your partner, this department, the City of Winter Haven and the citizens of our city. Here is a list of the reasons. You generally:

1. Are a health risk and you compromise departmental readiness. You are prone to hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, back problems, hemorrhoids and a multitude of other illnesses and injuries.

2. Are a poor image representation of the profession.

3. Are not combat ready and cannot defend yourself properly against a fit suspect.

4. Are unable to successfully, without a much higher health or injury risk, chase a suspect for any great distance.

5. May have to resort to a higher level of force than a fit officer.

6. Lack energy, which impacts your initiative level.

7. Do not sleep well and are not properly rested.

8. Are actually, or appear to be, lazier than a fit officer.

9. Are not prepared to transition from a sedentary environment to a suddenly physically demanding one.

10. Are aware that you are not fit.

So, take a good look at yourself. If you are unfit, do yourself and everyone else a favor. See a professional about a proper diet and a fitness training program (we do have a workout room), quit smoking, limit alcohol intake and start thinking about self-pride, confidence and respectability. And, stop making excuses for delaying what you know you should have been doing years ago. We didn't hire you unfit and we don't want you working unfit. You owe it to us.

Don't mean to offend, this is just straight talk. I owe it to you.

Well, what do YOU think? The recipients of the message did not take it in the intended spirit, for gratitude was not the response—termination was. I believe ex-chief Goward’s initiative was an enlightened message, sensible, accurate and courageous. I think other police chiefs across the land should emulate Mr. Goward’s initiative, and be honored for doing so.

Of course, it's difficult to know what the real reasons might have been for the chief's dismissal—it’s hard to believe it actually was this ten-point call to wellness. Maybe the city manager or somebody in a high place wanted to can the chief for years, but could not make a proper case—until this.

If that's the case, he or she miscalculated. A different reason should have been found. This firing has made the ex-chief a national celebrity—and the town has been made to look ridiculous.

A columnist for the local paper, The Ledger of Lakeland, was quoted as follows: "He offered tremendously good advice, yet he was sacked." Just so. It was indeed tremendously good advice, and it should be promoted widely. A poll taken online of well over 300,000 respondents one week after the firing showed overwhelming support for the ex-chief. Asked if the 'jelly bellies' memo was inappropriate, 72 percent said "no;" only 28 percent agreed. Asked if "you think the chief should have been fired," the results were startling: only 3 percent said "yes" versus 97 percent "no."

If I were master of the universe, which I would not mind on occasions like this, I would reinstate the chief. I would also fire everyone associated with his sacking and ensure that Chief Goward got a handsome raise, a holiday named in his honor, a big parade and a bronze bust in his likeness. The latter would be mounted in front of the Winter Haven City Hall. (Martin’s comment: A typical bit of Ardellian hyperbole.)

Then I would require not just Winter Haven but police departments across the land to offer police officer mandates to be fit or get fired. Of course, as a warm-hearted, benevolent despot, I would give all officers ample time to do so and see that effective programs and trainings were made available—at no cost to the tubby officers. I would try to use positive incentives to guide officers to high levels of fitness. But, those who resisted, refused or otherwise remained fat and unfit would bear the awesome power of my righteous wrath—they would be terminated. They could find other lines of work wherein pooping out would not be a liability to the city and their families.

I think the ex-chief did the right thing and hope that he is appreciated in his next assignment.

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Police Chief Paul Goward.

Paul has been in police work for 36 years. Prior to taking his post in Winter Haven, he was chief of police in Wichita, Kansas. He has a long record of fitness advocacy—the memo that led to his sacking was not the first time he urged officers to look after themselves, fitness-wise. A regular at the police gym, Paul encouraged his staff to make the most of health enhancement opportunities afforded by the town benefit programs. Regrettably, many if not most officers did not, despite the chief's frequent mention of the importance of exercise at police roll calls and other occasions.

I asked Paul what prompted him to write the fateful email to his 80-member police force. He explained that, while he had thought about the matter for some time, it was an article entitled "Fit for Duty: How to Train For the Real Deal" in the September edition of Law Enforcement Technology that sent him into action. Written by Carole Moore, a career police officer, the article began by acknowledging the cliché of the fat cop "that won't go away: His belly spills over his leather gear, dimming any chance of a quick, accurate draw. His uniform looks sloppy and poorly fitted. And he can barely squeeze behind the wheel of his patrol car, which is littered with empty fast food containers and cardboard coffee cups."

Wow. That was even MORE politically incorrect than the chief's email message. Did she get fired, too?

Officer Moore said that while Hollywood may play this stereotype for laughs, "In real life, out-of-shape officers pose a danger to both themselves and others." Comparing law enforcement work with military service, Moore noted how the two professions require similar skills. However, "overweight, out-of-condition soldiers don't show up on the Army's rolls." Why? Because the Army appreciates the fact that "those who can't pull their weight create a liability that reverberates throughout the entire organization."

No wonder the chief was called to action. I feel like sending a post to police officers myself, but alas I don't have the credibility of Officer Moore or ex-chief Goward, so I won't. Still, the article does show the merit of the ex-chief's initiative.

The chief told me he's been swamped with requests to do interviews on CNN, FOX and so on, but is already tired of the fuss and wants to move on, preferably in police work.

If I were mayor of a big city and had a police chief who was not promoting a fit officer corps, Mr. Goward would have to look no more. I would make him an offer he couldn't refuse!

I just hope someone who IS a mayor somewhere does the same.

Be well. Look on the bright side of life.


Donald B. Ardell, Publisher
ARDELL WELLNESS REPORT
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The Ardell Wellness Report is a quarterly health promotion newsletter designed to entertain, inform and stimulate. It features ideas associated with a satisfying, exciting AND healthful existence. If you enjoy the daily "Don's Reports," you will love his weekly AND quarterly newsletters. The Report addresses all the 14 areas promoted at this site under the three self-management domains. Don's newsletters will be an antidote to the mediocrity of prevention, sickening normalcy and prescriptions from experts that tend to perpetuate "learned helplessness.

Subscribers receive FOUR published editions a year, plus the weekly electronic newsletter called the electronic AWR. At present, 300 plus editions of the E-AWR have been sent to subscribers. The Report has been produced quarterly since 1984; a subscription costs $30US for four issues mailed quarterly in the U.S.—$40 outside the U.S.

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Our lives begin and end the day we become silent about things that matter.
  :: Martin Luther King

On Friday, November 10th I had the priviledge of going to hear Bill Clinton speak. He couldn’t disguise his tiredness, but, like a great heavyweight champion, he answered the bell with a memorable speech. A day earlier it had been confirmed that the Democrats had won a majority, not only in Congress, but also in the Senate. Many of the margins and majorities were razor thin and one couldn’t help but be aware that this man, who had campaigned hard in 27 key states, might single-handedly have prevented a great country going in the wrong direction for at least 2 more years. One passionate person can make a difference.

Clinton admitted his tiredness, saying, “If I should keel over up here, cut me a little slack.”

Mr. Clinton was eloquent and pragmatic on the major topics of poverty, global warming and energy. He pointed out that shortsighted traditional thinking, far from saving money, can be very costly. He spoke of a problem, which began in his own administration and was never handled well or appropriately. Pakistan was a Muslim dominated nuclear power whom the USA supported as a counterbalance to India, another nuclear power, with ties to Russia and the old Soviet Union. USA poured tens of billions of dollars into the Pakistan military, but only paltry amounts to assist social infrastructure, health care and education. As a result, the impoverished rural and poor urban schools had to charge fees for children to attend school, which many families had no way of paying. The only free schools were the Madrassas, set up by Muslim fundamentalists, so millions of children were given an indoctrination instead of an education and the seeds of hatred were sown. Stephen Lewis has pointed out that similar problems are occurring in Africa, where repressive repayment schedules mandated by the World Bank have forced impoverished countries to make people pay for education.

Mr. Clinton has all the numbers, but it is as a storyteller he excels. I’ll share two stories about the importance of not having a closed mind and about maintaining the freedom to make a non-traditional response.

Real Freedom Begins Inside Your Mind

In the late 1990s, Mr. Clinton was making good progress brokering an accord between Israel and Palestine and 1998 was the first year in which not a single Israeli was killed by a Palestinian bomb or rocket. Things looked promising when Ehud Barak became prime minister of Israel and there was ongoing communication with Yasser Arafat.

Then Israeli politics reared its ugly head. The right wing conservative, Netanyahu, felt that Barak was too soft on the Arabs and looked likely to replace him. However, Netanyahu was not a member of the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) and not eligible to run until he obtained a seat. To pre-empt this, Barak dissolved parliament and called an election. In place of Netanyahu, he faced another conservative, the old war hero Ariel Sharon. In a political move, Sharon decided to make a public and provocative visit to the Temple Mount, as it is known to the Jews, and Al-Haram al-Sharif to Muslims. Because of the tensions involved, this disputed area had been avoided by politicians for over 25 years. The move was obviously designed to win votes from conservative Israelis and to provoke Arafat.

Clinton talked to Arafat and told him not to respond aggressively because it was all about internal Israeli politics. Arafat said he had to respond. Then Mr. Clinton suggested Arafat choose a beautiful Palestinian girl and go alone with her to meet Mr. Sharon and present him with a bouquet of flowers. Mr. Sharon would be surrounded by secret service and police and the contrast between the peaceful Arab with flowers and the aggressive Israeli would be a photographic shot seen around the world. But Mr. Arafat was trapped into thinking he had to react. He told Bill Clinton that not to react with force would be “to lose dignity”. Clinton said, with a smile, that he knew plenty about loss of dignity, and that in fact the simple, peaceful response would be more dignified. But Arafat was a prisoner of decades of confrontational thinking and felt that he was not free to choose a path less traveled. Intifada resumed and, many years later, no resolution is in sight.

Nelson Mandela

A huge factor in wellness is the absolute certainty that, whatever the situation, you are free to choose your own response. That is what sets you free and makes you well. This was exemplified by Nelson Mandela. Mr. Clinton talked of watching his release from prison after 27 years of incarceration. There was a long walk to the prison gate on the other side of which he’d be a free man. In a subsequent personal conversation, Mr. Clinton asked Mr. Mandela about his feelings regarding those who imprisoned him. “Tell me honestly, didn’t you hate them.” Mandela’s reply was that thoughts of hatred sometimes occupied his mind, but as he walked towards the prison gate he realized that if he was still filled with hatred outside the prison, he would still not be free. He chose to let go of any feelings of revenge and bitterness. He invited some of his jailers to his inauguration and installed some of his oppressors in his cabinet.

Wellness is a lot more than 10,000 steps, banning transfats and going to the gym, it’s the absolute certainty that you are free to choose your response to any situation.

Be well.

"The Land of Smiles"

This 'Thailand Adventure Tale' is written by Jonathan Willcocks. "Jono" is one of Speakwell's speakers. He is a professional educator, motivator, adventurer and coach. He is also the founding director of Pinnacle Pursuits, an international award-winning and Western Canada's premier experiential adventure-based learning and leadership company. Pinnacle Pursuits is managing a large educational-based program for 80 families over the Christmas holidays in Thailand, so he has been visiting and researching this wonderful country regularly over the past year as he develops the plans for the program. This "Adventure Tale' is only one of many from his Thailand travel journal. For more information on Jonathan and his stories, please visit www.JonoWillcocks.com.

Click the picture to download the .pdf of Jonathan's adventure

My experience in Thailand had a profound impact on my thoughts and feelings about life and humanity. Thailand is a country that could teach so many people and other countries the power and importance of living life with a positive outlook and giving thanks for all our blessings ­ a culture, that just by being the way it is, lives fully, and teaches others about the power of hope, love, peace, celebration, and gratitude.

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Invictus by William Ernest Henley; 1849-1903 Out of the night that covers me, Black as the Pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed. Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years Finds, and shall find me, unafraid. It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.

Detail from photograph of the parish church and graveyard at Stoke Poges in Buckinghamshire, taken by Sir John Benjamin Stone (1838-1914), in August 1909. This is the parish church which inspired Thomas Gray's (1716-71) poem, 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard'. The poet is buried in the church graveyard.

Selected verses from Gray’s Elegy Let not Ambition mock their useful toil, Their homely joys, and destiny obscure; Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful smile The short and simple annals of the Poor. The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, Awaits alike th' inevitable hour:- The paths of glory lead but to the grave. Nor you, ye Proud, impute to these the fault If Memory o'er their tomb no trophies raise, Where through the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault The pealing anthem swells the note of praise. Can storied urn or animated bust Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath? Can Honour's voice provoke the silent dust, Or Flattery soothe the dull cold ear of Death? Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire; Hands, that the rod of empire might have sway'd, Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre: But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page, Rich with the spoils of time, did ne'er unroll; Chill Penury repress'd their noble rage, And froze the genial current of the soul. Full many a gem of purest ray serene The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear: Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air. Some village-Hampden, that with dauntless breast The little tyrant of his fields withstood, Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest, Some Cromwell, guiltless of his country's blood. Their lot forbad: nor circumscribed alone Their growing virtues, but their crimes confined; Forbad to wade through slaughter to a throne, And shut the gates of mercy on mankind, Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife, Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray; Along the cool sequester'd vale of life They kept the noiseless tenour of their way. Yet e'en these bones from insult to protect Some frail memorial still erected nigh, With uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture deck'd, Implores the passing tribute of a sigh. Their name, their years, spelt by th' unletter'd Muse, The place of fame and elegy supply: And many a holy text around she strews, That teach the rustic moralist to die.

Few people know how to take a walk. The qualifications are endurance, plain clothes, old shoes, an eye for nature, good humor, vast curiosity, good speech, good silence and nothing too much. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ideas not coupled with action never become bigger than the brain cells they occupied. Arnold Glasgow

Action is the antidote to despair. Joan Baez

There are no shortcuts to anyplace worth going. Beverly Sills

Sometimes your best is not enough, you have to do what’s required.  Winston Churchill

The human body is a machine, which winds its own springs. J.O. de la Mettrie

It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. Albert Einstein

You’ve come too far in life to take orders from a cookie. Stephen P. Gullo [Thin Tastes Better]

If God had wanted us to walk He’d have given us two legs and made us to stand erect. Anonymous

I could have missed the pain, but I’d have had to miss the dance. Tony Arata [The Dance—Sung by Garth Brooks

The inspirational quotation below is often attributed to Goethe in its entirety. In fact, it was written by W. H. Murray in a 1951 book, The Scottish Himalayan Expedition. Murray closed his message with a couplet loosely translated from Goethe’s Faust. Until one is committed There is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, Always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), There is one elementary truth, The ignorance of which kills countless ideas And splendid plans: That the moment one definitely commits oneself, Then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one That would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision Raising in one's favor all manner Of unforeseen incidents and meetings And material assistance, Which no man could have dreamt Would have come his way.  William Hutchinson Murray

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Goethe