Wednesday. Spending this evening with Christ - we're going to Mark's open mic at the Blue Star Wine Bar in Wicker Park. He and I have several songs we do together - his favorite, The Look of Love. I adore teasing that man. He is proper and staid and always a gentleman, still reeling from a bad breakup and not ready to date. So we just hang out and have a blast enjoying each other and our mutual love of the music, food, talking about artsy movies, books, and more. It's perfect and yet, I'm never satisfied without making him squirm a bit. Today I told him to work up a love song to sing me tonight. Sarah=always pushing boundaries. Told you I was trouble!
Today I read two really interesting articles, both about exercise, in the NYT that I'll share with you. The first entitled Does Exercise Make You Overeat? The second, How Exercise Can Prime The Brain For Addiction. In both articles there was good and bad news. In studies, it was discovered that exercise can quiet the part of the brain that asks for food. We've always heard about the whole endorphin effect of exercise and it makes sense that the sense of well-being that comes after a workout would replace nagging cravings. No surprise there, right? What was surprising was the group of people in the study who experienced the exact opposite effect - for them exercise excited the part of the brain that asked for food! For them, the positive effects of exercise were negated by increased calorie consumption. So, huh? What to think? It seems that a bunch more research needs to be done to understand this better. Preliminarily, it appears that the kind of exercise you do, your current fitness level and other factors may determine the brain's response. If you are young and lean and your workout is high octane, then chances are you'll experience the appetite dampening effect. If on the other hand, you're venturing off the couch, starting exercise after a lifetime of lethargy and your workout consists of an easy 20 minute walk, then it's highly possible you might be appetite stimulated. But really they don't know yet what the deciding factors are. We need to watch this unfolding story.
The second article was astonishing with implications well beyond addiction. It seems that exercise stimulates brain growth in a very significant way. You've probably read, as I have, the emerging research that encourages people, who want to stave off dementia, to step up exercise as a way to stay mentally fit. Even though there is probably merit in learning a foreign language, taking up a new musical instrument, or doing Sudoku puzzles as a way to stay mentally young, turns out it just might be physical exercise that promises the biggest benefit. The article talked about the increased capacity for learning from exercise. It was discovered that people who acquired addictions after commencing a workout regimen, actually had a much harder time giving up the addiction. People with active addictions, who then started working out, found it easier to give up the drugs.
So, the researchers propose, the animals that had been running before they were introduced to cocaine had a plentiful supply of new brain cells primed to learn. And what they learned was to crave the drug. Consequently, they had much more difficulty forgetting what they’d learned and moving on from their addiction.
That same mechanism appeared to benefit animals that had started running after becoming addicted. Their new brain cells helped them to rapidly learn to stop associating drug and place, once the cocaine was taken away, and start adjusting to sobriety.“Fundamentally, the results are encouraging,” Dr. Rhodes says. They show that by doubling the production of robust, young neurons, “exercise improves associative learning.”
Not intuitive, right? The reason? - exercise increases (in
their studies doubles!) the brain cells in the hippocampus - the part of the
brain responsible for associative learning. Associative learning is what we do
when we learn to associate a new thought with its context. It's the kind of
learning you do when you challenge and break destructive patterns and learn,
for example, how to be sober. The author of the study, Dr. Justin Rhodes
concludes, "“Exercise is good for you in almost every way. But it
is wise to bear in mind," he adds, "that, by exercising, you do
create a greater capacity to learn, and it’s up to each individual to use that
capacity wisely.”
So, if your hippocampus is stimulated by new cell growth
because you're running miles a day, and you then decide to pick up a new
addiction, the addiction will be very sticky and hard to shed - your brain will
make a positive connection with the new habit and devote resources to reinforce
it. I worry about young girls who decide they're too fat and who become
fanatic gym rats. If subsequently, they decide to over-diet or take drugs or
adopt any other new destructive habits, yikes! On the other hand, a couch potato
pot head who decides to make positive changes could really benefit by hard
exercise!
Exercise. Loving it. 7AM this morning found me on the
elliptical again putting in 3500 steps and listening to fabulous music. When I
start the day that way, it's almost easy to get in the 10,000 steps which
equates to about 4-5 miles of walking. Soon, I'm going to turn up the heat and
kick this thing up a notch. 10,000 steps will be just a backdrop to my fitness
- a given, the minimum I do. Stay tuned for Sarah The Athlete.
Between WW and serious exercise, I'm going to be taking excellent care of
myself. My goal by the end of 2012 is to have shed much of the excess weight
(would love to think "all" but that may not be realistic). I will be
able to do fifty man pushups, I'll be muscle-y and my hippocampus will be
bursting with new brain cells! Yeah! If you were here with me I'd butt your
head with mine! (Ouch!)
Your challenge today is to read the articles and think about
your own exercise regimen. It seems exercise is no longer just a lovely thing
we should do to tone our bodies. More and more, the research urges us to
exercise or suffer decay. Exercise or go senile. Yesterday, a fellow I spoke
with, pondered how I find the time to write this blog every day. Truth is, it
takes me less than an hour to write, edit, find a picture and publish the post - I'm a fast typist and verbose. I was slightly offended that he seemed to think
it was an indulgent waste of time.We do the things we need to thrive - writing
grounds me and nurtures my spirit. I hope each day you have something similar,
something that makes your life juicy. I should have told him that the hours he
spends watching television are hours for me spent creatively. The hours we
carve out of the day to take care of ourselves are really crucial! - the most
important hours of the day! (Here comes the nag.) If you say you don't have
time to exercise, are you being honest with yourself? Is there an hour of
television you could forfeit? Just saying!
Peace,
Sarah
Picture is a brain cell!
NADGB
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