Fitness Secrets: Strategies That Executives Love

There are two kinds of professionals in the world: those who love to eat and exercise right and those who simply don’t know how to do it. It’s not really the fault of the second type that they don’t engage in exercise often. Most of the time, lifestyles are to blame. It’s part of the accepted way of life- sedentary and fat accumulating.

Healthy executives

Andrea Brown, a 32-year old graduate of Spelman College and a senior media consultant for the soft drink giant Coca-Cola speak her mind about what she does to keep healthy:

“I eat small quantities of healthy foods. I make very purposeful food choices.”

Not only that- Brown uses stairs often and finds every opportunity to be physically active. It doesn’t take much to take the load off the cardiovascular system. Just moving about and avoiding shortcuts like escalators and elevators can make your heart that much stronger.

Use the neighborhood

Andrea’s neighborhood is near a bunch of small hills. Whenever she can, Andrea puts on her walking gear and engages in high intensity power walking. Her trips around the small hills take an average of 30 to 40 minutes at a time.

According to Andrea:

“I have a lot of hills in my neighborhood, and that walk is tough.”

Pregnant women, start moving

Denita Thompson-Maclin knew that she should start exercising when she became pregnant. The threat of diabetes and preeclampsia weighed heavily on her mind. That’s why the senior media consultant from Burrell Communications in Chicago decided to do “aqua exercises”.

“I was not exercising before I got pregnant. I thought I might as well try to do something, so I started [aqua aerobics] in my second or third month. The exercise really helps. We do jumping jacks and run in the water. There’s no way I could do that before.”

On commercial diets

If you want to engage in a diet, make sure that you review first the literature before you start munching on those pre-manufactured foodstuffs. Diets like Atkins and South Beach work for particular body chemistries only.

Sometimes, high fat diets can spell trouble for those with kidney problems. Low-carbohydrate diets on the other hand, can cause people dizziness, nausea and fainting spells. If you can, consult with your physician first and give your physician the intricate details of the new diet that you want to start.

If you get a green light on the new diet, remember that no diet can cause weight loss in one week. Be very careful of commercial diets that claim to be holders of secrets that “the government hates” or “doctors hate”.

Chances are, the government and the doctors don’t even know about the commercial diet before its launching. And even by then the government or the Food and Drug Authority would only be interested if the product had been examined and pre-approved before distribution and shipping.

The use of diet pills is also not a good quick-fix alternative to exercising. The only drug that has been approved by the medical establishment is the chemical drug named orlistat, which is now being marketed under several brand names.