Today I received an email from my Aunt with some unbelievable photos of microscopic parts of the human body, like red blood cells, and the inside of the lung.
Her email reminded me of an article I read on sports nutrition awhile back, which said that "people underestimate the power that nutritious food has on their bodies."
I can understand that, we've heard so many conflicting theories on what to eat, what not to eat, that we tend to doubt the validity of just about all health information that is published or broadcasted to us today. Add to that the enormous amount of advertising that is done on diet pills, powders, drinks, etc, etc., ad infinitum! So what to believe??
Despite all of that, there is a general consensus on most aspects of what it takes to be healthy and maintain a normal weight. The problem is that we do tend to underestimate the importance of the nutrition aspect.
Maybe these photos from my Aunt Joann will remind you how intricately your body is made, and how complex!
For all of these body parts to work together correctly, they need nourishment, movement, oxygen, vitamins, and minerals. Eating right and exercising provides that. A deficiency in any of those areas creates imbalance, and perhaps illness or disease.
Have fun looking at the pictures! I hope you like them!
ANITA
 Villi in the small intestine increase the surface area of the gut, which helps in the absorption of food. Look closely and you will see some food stuck in one of the crevices. Taste bud on the tongue -- the human tongue has about 10,000 taste buds that are involved with detecting salty, sour, bitter, sweet and savory taste perceptions. 6-Day old human embryo implanting itself onto the wall of the womb. Of the 100 billion neurons in your brain, Purkinje (pronounced purr-kin-jee) neurons
are some of the largest. Among other things, these cells are the masters of motor
coordination in the cerebellar cortex. Toxic exposure such as alcohol and lithium,
autoimmune diseases, genetic mutations including autism and neurodegenerative
diseases can negatively affect human Purkinje cells. This image of warped lung cancer cells is in stark contrast to the healthy lung. Split End of Human Hair. Here's what it looks like to see a close-up of human hair cell stereo cilia inside
the ear. These detect mechanical movement in response to sound vibrations. This image is of a purple, colour-enhanced human egg sitting on a pin. The egg is coated with the zona pellicuda, a glycoprotein that protects the egg but also helps to trap and bind sperm. Two coronal cells are attached to the zona pellicuda.
 Blood Vessels Emerging from the Optic Nerve. In this image, stained retinal blood vessels are shown to emerge from the black-colored optic disc. The optic disc is a blind spot because no light receptor cells are present in this area of the retina where the optic nerve and retinal blood vessels leave the back of the eye. Alveoli in the lung: this is what a colour-enhanced image of the inner surface of your lung looks like. The hollow cavities are alveoli; this is where gas exchange occurs with the blood. They look like little cinnamon candies here, but they're actually the most common
type of blood cell in the human body - red blood cells. These biconcave-
shaped cells have the tall task of carrying oxygen to our entire body; in women
there are about 4 to 5 million RBCs per micro liter (cubic millimeter) of blood and
about 5 to 6 million in men. People who live at higher altitudes have even more red blood cells because of the low oxygen levels in their environment.p.s. I was reading some fitness articles tonight (see below). The second article is for you "wanna-be psychiatrists" -- it tries to answer the question, "WHY DO PEOPLE DO WHAT THEY DO?" with some thoughts on human behavior theory.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Missing Link for Weight Loss Success
By: Nicki Anderson ---click on Nicki's name to see her book on Amazon! Over 25 years ago, I lost 50 pounds. I was never athletic, and in fact, never paid any attention to what I ate. If it was there, it was consumed.
Obviously, not a healthy combination. However, once I lost my weight, which took about a year, I then realized the importance of eating well and moving more. The nutrition program I was on was actually very healthy and taught me so much. Fast forward to 2009, weight loss has become big business and as trainers, we've been put in charge of it.
I find that most of the clients coming in to my studio seeking weight loss are not really sure what they really want. If weight loss were what they REALLY wanted, they would be a healthy weight. I think you can agree that many clients that claim they want to drop 15, 20 or 30 pounds really don't want to do the work that translates to, "My goal?? Not so much!"
I have often had to tell my clients that I can't help them unless they are clear on what they want to do. In other words, what these clients want and what theyâre willing to do is often incongruent. "Yeah, I want to lose 50 pounds, but I don't have to sweat, do I?" Or, they tell you they want you to kick their butt and when you do, they never come back.
So as fitness professionals, how can we play a positive role with clients that need to lose weight but have suffered from years of failure? Be up-front with them. Tell them the reason they've failed and that most likely their goals were unrealistic. Tell them that unrealistic goals typically don't make sense for their life and what they really want. I may lose some people by not promising they can lose 50 pounds in a month if they just train with me, but I'd rather maintain my integrity and strong business following.
Weight loss is a by-product of living healthy, we know that but for some of our clients, "thin" is not their destiny so they figure if they canât be thin, they may as well be out of shape and forget the whole thing. We need to educate and inspire our clients to the contrary.
It's our responsibility as a trainer to provide them with the necessary insight; resources and education that helps them understand healthy living results in a healthy weight, an appropriate weight, not necessarily "skinny." We need to help our clients readjust their thinking about what healthy is and encourage them to focus on the important things such as their energy level, strong body, lowered blood pressure, etc.
We also need to instill the importance of positive self-talk. Many of these clients have been beating themselves up for a long time for their perceived imperfections. We need to motivate them and in turn teach them how to motivate themselves.
Weight loss is a challenge, no doubt. When we look at the money spent on weight loss products and the growing obesity numbers it doesn't make sense. There's a lot of speculation out there but, as a trainer, I can only do so much: be honest, offer them motivation, education and compassion.
They, however, must do the workouts and understand that weight loss is a journey, not a destination. If that's their belief, once they reach their destination they're back to bad habits. Healthy living is forever and a healthy life is a healthy body. That's a message I'm comfortable proclaiming.
Nicki Anderson, an SFR Premier Consultant, has owned and operated the award winning Reality Fitness, Inc. Personal Training studio since 1991.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Health Behavior Theory: The Health Belief Model
Lisa Elsinger, MEd & Rachel Hazuga, BS, CSCS
Fitness professionals are continually looking for ways to encourage people to begin exercise and maintain consistency in their fitness regimen. However, we know that more than 50 percent of those who start exercising will discontinue within 6 months.
Concepts from health behavior theories and models can contribute to our understanding of people's decisions to start and either continue or discontinue exercising.
Behavior theories attempt to explain why people act as they do. Research in health behavior is concerned with understanding the determinants and process of health behavior change. We can use research results and integrate components of health behavior models into fitness program planning, with the goal being to foster long-term commitment to exercise.
We will briefly discuss the Health Belief Model and its implications for fitness professionals.
The Health Belief Model was originally constructed to attempt to predict who would participate in screening tests and prevention programs for disease. This model focuses on people's likelihood of taking action to prevent disease based on their attitudes and beliefs.
Key parts of the Health Belief Model are:
- Perceived susceptibility: whether people believe they are vulnerable to contracting a condition (disease)
- Perceived severity: their opinion on the seriousness of the consequences of the condition
- Perceived benefits: opinions on the effectiveness of various strategies to reduce their susceptibility (How effective will exercise be in reducing my risk for disease?)
- Perceived barriers: perceptions of any negative consequences of taking recommended actions
- Cues to action: Events such as physical symptoms of a health condition, or environmental influences such as media publicity that may motivate people to take action
- Self-efficacy: peopleâs confidence in their ability to accomplish the necessary actions
Using the HBM in its simplest form, fitness professionals can assess clients' beliefs about their risk of illness and/or injury; propensity toward considering exercise as a way to help reduce these risks; tailor risk information based on the individualâs characteristics; help people develop an accurate perception of their risk; correct misinformation; explain the actions that might reduce risks and what the potential positive results may be; provide pertinent how-to information and use progressive goal-setting to help keep people on track; and offer ongoing reassurance and reinforcement for continued participation on your exercise programs.
The HMB is most useful for participants whose major concern is avoiding illness. A single theory will not address all variables that contribute to a person's behavior, and each health behavior model has its limitations. Research has shown that the fear factor approach, telling people how much they are at risk for an illness, has not been very successful. The perceived threat must come from within, and our role as fitness professionals is to foster success in behaviors that can reduce health risks while promoting self-efficacy and positive attitudes toward exercise.
We encourage health and fitness professionals to pursue learning about health behavior theories and models. Through expanding our educational horizons, we will contribute to the fitness industry's progress and fulfill our mission of improving people's quality of life.
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