A ONE, and a TWO!

Last winter I fell on some ice and screwed up my left knee and hip.

It took a few month to heal since the bone was damaged, not the muscle.

In the meantime I gained about 40 pounds due to lack of exercise, (As in NONE) and put on 40 pounds which brought my weight up from an ideal of 190 to 230!

To make matters worse I now have arthritis in the left hip and this further hinders my attempts to exercise and lose those extra pounds.

But I know I have to ............. or else! (I don't want to spend the rest of my life being a fubby chucker!)

The answer? Why exercise, of course!!

All my friends, relatives, know-it-alls, and people I have never met before, and will never see again, tell me that what I need to do it exercise.

Not only will I take off those unwanted pounds but a workout (even if it's only a good walk) will have all sorts of other benefits.

(What everyone fails to realize is that I'm in a Catch 22 situation here! I have to exercise to help with the pain from the arthritis in my hip but the arthritis in my hip makes it very hard to exercise! See what I mean?)

Anyway, I ran across a piece on the benifits of a mild workout and found out all the ways that I could improve my life, have better sex, be more popular and become the person everyone wants to be seen with just by a few kneebends, sit-ups and stolls! No kidding kids, that's all it takes!

What else will it do for me you ask? Can exercise really boost your mood? Vanquish your stress? Improve your sleep? Make your brain bigger?

Apparently yes!

Exercise makes us happy........ Serotonin is a chemical in our brains that regulates our mood, appetite and libido, makes us less sensitive to pain and regulates our sleep cycles.

When we exercise, our brains use serotonin more efficiently, which boosts our mood and alleviates depression. We sleep better, have more energy and generally feel happier.

Another neurotransmitter that’s activated by exercise is acetycholine, a chemical that’s robbed from the brain by Alzheimer’s disease, which is one reason why exercising regularly may delay the onset of that disease.

Rigorous exercise, the kind that gets your heart rate up, floods the brain with endorphins, the “feel-good” chemical.

Walking isn’t enough to activate this hormone, but running is, which is where the term “runner’s high” comes from. (Alternating between jogging and walking can help you ease into running.)

Exercise lowers our stress levels.

This may seem like a contradiction, but when we first start exercising, our brains experience a rush of stress hormones, called glucocorticoids.

So why is that good for our stress levels?

Because, in the long run, exercise trains our brains to better deal with stress.

In studies, animals who exercise are less anxious in stressful situations, are more likely to find a solution to a problem, such as a maze, and are less likely to lose track of the goal.

Exercise makes us smarter. Walking three hours a week for only three months makes so many new neurons that you can measure the difference in brain size.

That’s because exercise increases our levels of neurotrophins, chemicals that promote the creation of new brain cells.

Exercising regularly also enhances our memory and ability to learn new tasks, whereas stress impairs neurogenesis and can impede your ability to learn.

Anyone that has been through a divorce or lost a loved one can tell you how hard it is to remember or learn new things during a stressful period. It’s believed that a combination of reduced neurogenesis, cell loss and changes in remaining cells can disrupt the thought processes.

Of course, this takes time to happen, so usually it’s only prolonged stress that has major effects on the brain.

Luckily, regular exercise can combat these negative effects, boost your brain power and make you feel happier to boot.

So what it all comes down to is this, bunky!

There are very few "wonder drugs" around, but exercise seems to be one of them!

Now if I could just find a way to take it painlessly!

Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don't want you to know!) and is available as an E-Book H E R E ! and as a paperback H E R E !

Visit the blog "Perspective" at http://allans-perspective.blogspot.com