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Journey of a Diabetic Part 3
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It’s good to blog my daily exercise routine. It forces me to be consistent. Today I managed a six mile run. That is a total of 11 miles in two days. So, with that mileage behind me, tomorrow will be swimming and weight-lifting.
I am about to end my self-imposed sabbatical and by the middle of the month I may return to regular work. What’s different this time is, my work will be per diem or part time, I will take control of my time from now on. Which is something I deserve after working like a dog for many many years. Though I am single, I took upon my self to take care of my extended family and after putting most of my nieces and nephews to college and all of them, thankfully, are employed now, it is but proper for me to stop the daily grind and begin looking after myself. So I am cutting work and I am taking another college degree. I have to pursue my nerdy desires.
Which is in agreement with the philosophy of this website. The sport of being healthy isn’t limited only to physical. It encompasses everything - spiritual, mental, social, financial, moral. I think I made it clear from the beginning that this site won’t teach you how to be sexy or attractive to the public. Or how to be rich. Or how to be a good manager or shrewd human being. Those things come about naturally when you work on them. I think the sexiest and the most beautiful and successful person is one in harmony and in balance. And that comes from the inside, not outside.
That is my goal in life. I won’t talk about how to lift weights or how to get the ripped body or how to be a cool dude with everybody. Lord knows how many sites can probably teach you exactly that. And with all the infomercials around us, I bet majority already know how to ‘muscularize’ and ‘sexitize’ their bodies. Go ahead if that’s what you want. As for me, I am just here to talk to you about being naturally the best you are and how, in the best of your ability, you can overcome the pernicious problem of being unhealthy.
And the best way to discuss it is through what I do with my own self. There is nothing artificial here. I won’t sweeten a thing.
I may sound like a repetitious cymbal but I once again reiterate what being healthy is all about.
1. Eat properly
2. Exercise
3. Reduce stress/Be happy
4. Be safe
These are the main rules that are already established and are known by almost everyone .These are the same rules that are extrapolated in many forms by people who are the ‘gurus’ of healthy lifestyle. If you break down all their programs offered to address poor health, obesity, inactivity, they are all based on these 4 principles.
When it comes to eating there are those who promote :
A. Less carbohydrates, more proteins
B. More proteins, less carbohydrates
C. Limit self to pure vegetarianism
D. Limit self to increased protein only
For exercise, there are also different schools of thought:
A. Focus on weight lifting, body sculpting
B. Focus on cardio-vascular
C. Focus on sports
D. Combination of many
E. Pure yoga, pilates and other new exercise routines.
F. There is the latest trend called muscle confusion.
For relaxation many health experts recommend:
A. Yoga
B. Rest
C. Travel
D. Socialization
E. Massage
F. and many others
Just like many other exercise fads that come and go in my lifetime, any of the programs and routines offered by anybody will always work. From Jenny Craig to Nutri system to e-diets all sprouting on the internet, all promising good results, and they all do - while you are in those programs.
The question is - what can make you keep your gains beyond your ‘discharge’ from these programs? This is the same question bugging me everyday when it comes to treating my patients. Sure I can make them better, sure I can make them exercise to achieve a certain level of strength/endurance, sure I can make them nearly independent and functional, that is, as long as they are in my program.
Once I discharge them, some of them will be consistent with their home exercise programs and keep their gains while the others, oh well, they keep coming back and back and back, in a see-saw kind of decline and improvement.
This is the very issue, the main, main issue this website is trying to answer. What I am trying to answer is - how can one be able to consistently follow his regimen daily to maintain or improve his health without an outside intervention?
Saving Medicare: Taking Control of one's Health
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So Medicare is beginning to curve a bigger pie in national debate nowadays. It is getting so contentious that politicians lose votes depending on their position related to it. The real problem, as we all know, is not only Medicare. It is the whole health care system.
I have been in health care business for more than 20 years. I’ve witnessed its peak and now its lowest point. And because I have been part of it, I often wonder how it fell under. Who are the culprits?
Any health care plan is designed to insure that its subscriber receives medical/health care if s/he gets sick. Like any other insurance, with contributions and premiums, it is meant to provide comfort and peace of mind. But with Medicare, something wrong happened along the way. First, the cost of care became exorbitant largely due to high degree of technological advancements, Research and Development, expensive litigation and lawyers catering to lawsuit-driven consumers - these are just a few of the contributing factors to its high cost. As one Doctor puts it, what will happen if lawyers and Doctors and politicians and all other health care practitioners see trillions of dollars available out there? Of course they will spend it.
And it is very easy to blame doctors and lawyers and chief executives and politicians for all the health care woes but as I delve deeper into this, I also see the patient or consumer a part of the problem. Through the years, an increasing amount of people live with total disregard to good health because they have a false self-assurance that their health benefits will ‘take care of everything’ if they got sick. That is a dangerous belief. We have arrived at a point where who owns and guides our health is not ourselves anymore but some outsider. We have lost our control because drugs and surgery and therapy took the helm of our lives.
We have given up our ‘Self‘ as the main judge, juror and executioner of our health. We have lost control over our lives. The fact that ? of the US is obese is a sign that most of us have stopped owning our lives and allowed junk food, over-indulgence, inactivity, doctors, prophets of easy-fix, imbalanced lifestyle dictate us. Even now, we seem to think that the resolution of our health care crisis rely heavily on Washington.
Imagine this, if all Americans will try owning their health, if they, from now on will live healthy lives barring accidents and genetic predispositions, we will not even be talking about health care crisis in our future. To me, health insurance is only needed when absolutely needed. I will probably get so angry with myself if I suffer from a health condition because of my own negligence, over-indulgence, lack of discipline or lack of knowledge. To own our health, we must first learn what it takes to have good health. The next step is to have enough determination to achieve or maintain the best health possible within our means. The third step is to get habituated to the notion that there is nobody out there who will determine the course of our lives, especially our health except ourselves.
From wikipedia:
...As an example of the problem, according to theAssociated Press, the average wage couple jointly earned $89,000 annually in 2010. Upon attaining eligibility for Medicare and retirement in 2011, they would have paid in $114,000 in Medicare payroll taxes total. But their expected average medical services, including prescriptions are expected to cost $355,000, about three times what they paid in. When the last of the Baby Boomers retire in about 2030, 80 million people will be expecting coverage; the ratio of tax payers supporting the system is expected to drop from today’s 3.5 for each person, to 2.3.[75]...
...The fundamental problem is that the ratio of workers paying Medicare taxes to retired people drawing benefits is shrinking, and at the same time, the price of health care services per person is increasing.[57][58] Currently there are 3.9 workers paying taxes into Medicare for every older American receiving services. By 2030, as the baby boom generation retires, that is projected to drop to 2.4 workers for each beneficiary. Medicare spending is expected to grow by about 7 percent per year for the next 10 years.[59] As a result, the financing of the program is out of actuarial balance, presenting serious challenges in both the short-term and long-term.[48][51]...
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