DR. PAUL'S DISCUSSION

As many of you know, I am a huge proponent of performing most of your physical exercise outdoors in nature so you can truly “disconnect” from your “wired” world and “connect” to your “inner world”. By your “inner world” I am, of course, referring to the harmony of your spirit, mind and body.  My recommendation for exercising outside especially pertains to my Solitude Endurance Exercise (SEE) routine that is part of my protocol that I recommend you perform for a minimum of 60 minutes once a week. While I fully understand, appreciate and have even proven through scientific research that performing exercise while virtually engaged with an interactive video game (also called “exergaming”) is beneficial for our health in certain circumstances, I also believe that exercising outdoors in nature has superior health benefits compared to indoor exercise. The best news is there is now scientific evidence to support my belief. Researchers from Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry in the UK analyzed data from 833 adults and showed that mental well-being was improved while exercising outdoors in nature compared to exercising indoors.  Some of the health benefits included increased energy, feelings of engagement, joy and satisfaction with decreased tension, confusion, anger and depression.

This leads me to my next point - I have consistently urged people to perform endurance exercise outdoors in nature as a way to improve your psychological well-being and not necessarily as a weight loss strategy. Fortunately, these current research findings support my hunch.  When you exercise outdoors, you will likely “think” and “feel” better, which may lead to making better lifestyle choices or “actions”.  Therefore, instead of using endurance exercise to help burn more calories, focus on the improved mood state effects that may result that may lead to healthier lifestyle choices such as choosing higher “quality” foods to nourish your body.  In fact, there is evidence that endurance exercise may actually promote food intake making it harder to curb your appetite. But, by performing endurance exercise outdoors in nature, may offset the increased food intake by enhancing your mood and lead to better food choices. Of course, my research and that of other scientists, has also shown that endurance exercise is very beneficial for improving your bodies ability to metabolize sugar in your blood and help lower your blood pressure, two extremely important health benefits that drastically reduce your risk for heart disease and diabetes. The bottom line is that you need to adopt the understanding that performing endurance exercise outside in nature extends beyond the calories you burn while doing it and instead improves your overall mood state and reduces your risk for heart disease and diabetes. So get up from the coach and make an appointment with Mother Nature today!

Dr. Paul