Walking for Good Health

Sunday 27th February is the day of the Malta Marathon.  Probably, gauging by the number of participants, it is the largest single annual sporting event on the Island.   The fact that the Malta Marathon keeps growing year after year, that  other Marathons have spawned and that there is a very interesting and well contested long distance calendar definitely says something about a growing awareness for exercise on the island.  The President of Malta, himself a long distance runner, has embraced this culture and introduced a fun run and walk early in December for the past two years as one of the Community Chest Fund, fund raising activities.

Having said all this we cannot say that Maltese are amongst the most active persons.  A Eurobarometer survey  conducated last year shows that 17% of all Maltese do regular sports (around 5 times a week) whilst 31% of Maltese do sports or do some other physical activity at least once a week.

One of the most effective physical activities is walking, an excercise I have been doing for the past twenty years.  One of the first things we did after we got married was to get a dog which needed walking.  We had asked around and found out that Irish Setters need daily long walks. And for many years it became a pattern in our life to walk Zach our dog to different areas, getting our exercise along with the dog.  It is a pattern which I have retained. 

Not all dogs are ideal  walking companions. Some years after  Zach died  we got a springer and tried to restrart the pattern.  To our chagrin we found that springers are constant pullers and walking him is not as pleasant.

 Walking does not need any particular skill (if you are power walking you should try to do this properly, inhaling from the nose and exhaling from the mouth).  One does not necessarily need a partner or partners, or need to book a court or enrol in a gym.   All it takes are proper shoes, comfortable clothes,  and the will to start off.  However do try to have a route, ideally away from traffic, fumes and noise.

Few of us know that walking can have different purposes.  We all know about fitness walks.  This is a steady walk with bursts of brisk walking/jogging.  The brisk walking/jogging increases the fitness level.  Alternating walking at steady pace with brisk walk or jog every two minutes for about twenty minutes can be very good exercise.

Body shaping walks.

Walking up and down a hill fo ten minutes at a fast pace, but not fast enough to get out of breath  helps one shape the bottom and thighs.   The downhill part is important as well as it uses different muscles but should be done at a slower pace. They say that walking with hand weights can help one to tone the upper body.  I am not sure how many of us will try this last one as walking should remain first and foremost a fun activity.

Stress Busting Walk

In my article ‘Diet, exercise, sleep and stress’, I  wrote about the stress busting walk. Exercise can use up stress hormones and should be a priority in our lives.  Stress hormones such as cortisol, GH and norepinephrine are released at periods of high stress.  Cortisol is believed to affect the metabolic system and norepinephrine is believed to play a role in depression and hypertension.  Being active provides long term benefits for us as besides helping us control our weight, reduce our blood pressure and cholesterol, it improves our mental health, helping us to look and feel good (BHF).  Exercise does not necessarily mean strenous sessions at a gym.  30 minutes of moderate physical activity 5 times a week is a good way to get started.  Walking is the easiest exercise and can be enough to lower your stress, lose weight and have more energy.

I might be over-rating walking as an exercise and have found it to be my prefered exercise possibly because it fits in well with my daily routine.   Those of you who have real experiences with walk as a help against stress or  as a means of shaping the body, please share your experiences since these might encourage others.  Moreover those whose experience might not have been positive, please bring these out so that we can analyse them together.

Recipes for Spending Wisely

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Last Saturday I visited the Farmers Market at Ta Qali. A long awaited initiative which should help farmers and encourage them to keep up with their hard work. It is thanks to local agriculture that we can have  the freshest of produce  which is so essential to healthy eating. However  agriculture also  helps in  keeping our countryside pristine by having our agricultural land worked and  the rubble walls maintained.  It was a pleasure meeting directly with the  farmers who  were extremely friendly and forthcoming with advice on how best to cook the vegetables.

 Getting to know the farmer helps you to get to know the produce better.  There was also other produce such as gbejniet, rabbits, honey.  It was exactly what I expected, particularly the prices.  The products were of the best qualities and prices an extremely good  bargain.    In the vicinity there also were a number of vegetable hawkers who unfortunately I did not have the time to stop at.  I would assume that the vegetable prices from these would also be competitive, even though it is not their place there.   The only shortcoming last Saturday was the lack of a variety of fruit.  I only found oranges (which I grow myself and so did not need to buy) and strawberries.  This could be a reflection of our winter fruit season, where besides oranges very few fruit are grown at this time of the year.

The good prices of theFarmers’ Market bring me to the subject of budgeting which  I have been tackling  on a particular radio programme on RTK with Christine Delicata  for some months now. It is surprising how many people are finding budgeting a challenging chore.  It is not just an issue that we cannot control our inclination to keep up with the Jones’.  Our expenses have increased dramatically whilst our incomes have only increased minmially if at all.

It is very difficult to offer a budgeting recipe which fits all families.  This is because familiy needs, sizes, income and circumstances vary.   Our problems with budgeting can be eased in two manners, either by reflecting on our our habits/ lifestyles and priorities and see what we can address or by improving our spending habits.

My promotion of seasonal cooking was inspired by issues of affordability as much as by the fact that nutrients in food and the taste are  at their best when fruit and vegetable are in season.  Cooking what is in season should result in more satisfaction in the kitchen, as whoever would be cooking would feel  that the  ingredientshave been sourced properly, that  cooking is sustainable and probably  more affordable.

 Another lifestlye  issue which we could improve is waste.  Buying from supermarkets  especially if in large groups usually results in buying in excess of what is actually needed.  We also have lost the knack of our grandparents to resuse left overs, the bread pudding, the different pies, soups, milkshakes (for fruit), sauces, cakes and stews.

Buying seasonal, controlling waste, being thrifty might not always suffice.  So I end up with a quick recipe for better budgeting.

Ingredients:

• Pen (or pencil)
• Paper
• Time when you can reflect

Method:

Write down all the weekly expenditure for the past four weeks

If you are sure that these are typical, multiply by 13 (if you receive a pay every 4 weeks)

Add the monthly expenses (mobiles, higher purchase fees, etc) and multiply by 12

Add the  annual expenses (insurances, school fees, etc)

This should result for the gross annual expendure

Divide by 13 to get the expenditure picture between different pay days

Reflect on this picture and distinguish between the essential  and non essential.

Contrast to your income and establish if your lifestyle is affordable.

Ideally you should allow for some savings and also to put aside something for a rainy day

If the lifestyle results in an unsustainable picture, you should start trimming on the non essential

Consider every expenditure item as an expenditure which can be controlled, eg smoking, playing in a lottery, children’s birthday parties

Monitor for as much as you can.

Constantly refine as you start appreciating what is really essential to our lives

Exercise to complement your diet

Last week’s article on the Malta Today, referred to the Health Survey published by the Malta Standards Authority in January, 2010.  The survey seeks to correlate BMI (the body mass index) with the food intake, types of food and amount of exercise the participants carried out.

At times, what we drink is not given as much importance as what we eat, however this could also be detrimental to one’s figure (and BMI) as food. In many of my articles I have been advocating eating well, that is limiting fats, sugar, cholesterol.  I have also been emphasising the need to eat healthy snacks if we are to eat in between meals such as for our work lunches.

Slim dieting on its own will very often not suffice to  help those who wish to reduce their weight. Neither is exercise alone going to drastically change the waistline.  The Health Survey in fact shows that between 18% to 20% of those who do more than  30 minutes of physical activity 3 to 4 times a week are still obese.  Good eating habits and exercise must go together. We all have to find the right type of exercise for us which suits our lifestyle and the time we have available.  Then once you get used to it, it becomes so much a part of you. 

Walking early in the morning works best for me.  For some of us it might be the gym.  This should be chosen carefully, ideally close to home (or work if one will go straight from one to the other).  Different gyms have different orientations, there are those oriented towards building muscles.  These would have more free weights and similar items for pumping iron.  Other gyms would be more focused on cardiovascular training.  Make sure that the gym you choose has enough equipment for its patrons. There is nothing more frustrating than having to wait your turn for the thread mill. Make sure that if you enrol in a gym, you can keep up with the committment.  It is better to take up a short membership, say three months, rather than a year and see how you fare.

Walking or jogging are becoming  immensely popular (particularly closer to summer when many of us make a greater effort to shed some extra kilos).   Do not take off to jogging if you have never jogged.  Start with power walking and if you feel inclined to something faster, start increasing gradually.  Choose your route so that it is safe, interesting and ideally away from car pollution.

Some of us start jogging to give it up some months later.  One way how this can be overcome is to join an athletics club.  All clubs encourage  runners of all ages, jogging with a group is fun and one can learn to build up gradually and eventually even participate in races, marathons, etc.

Another trend which is gaining popularity is joining fitness classes.  There’s something new every year.  Some years ago it was aerobics, then step, then it was pilates, today it is zumba classes which are more trendy.   

Let us share our experiences of exercise habits, those we started and kept up, what helped us maintain the routine or those we started but did not manage to continue.  Maybe some of us can insipre someone else.

What exercise are you doing this year?

Karen Mugliett

28/1/11