Q: I’ve been using a personal trainer for a while and have seen good results from working with them. I’m considering stopping due to the costs involved and I’m concerned with what will happen when I stop.

The educational process is important when learning any new skills! Yeah, I have great memories of my dad, running alongside me “encouraging” me as I struggled to keep the bicycle and myself upright! It was so much easier while the training wheels were still there!

Really, though, little in aviation can compare with the joy of that first solo flight! After several hours of intense work with an instructor by your side, that fateful day arrives.

“OK, Dr. J, I think you are ready! Just do as you were taught and fly three take-offs and landings in the traffic pattern and then come back to the ramp. See ya!”

Easy for him to say, I thought, as he closed the cabin door. I maneuvered the plane into the takeoff position on the runway. Knowing in this case that time could be the enemy, I pushed the throttle forward and the plane began its takeoff roll. Once airborne, I’ll have no choice but to land, I figured! Off I went!

My mind was filled with my instructor’s words. Climb straight to 500 feet, make a left climbing turn to 1,000 feet, enter the left down wind and fly straight and level, begin the base turn when abeam the landing point, reduce power, flaps, etc., line up on final, let it settle, flair, hold it, hold it, hold it. “Chirp,” tires hitting the runway. I’m alive, I made it, I made it!

Oops, keep the plane straight, “clean up” for takeoff and do it again, and again! I’m a pilot! Sure I never went any farther than a half mile from the airport, but becoming a pilot may be the biggest step I will ever take. I can’t remember how it felt to solo that bicycle, but I sure remember how that day, flying three small circles around the airport, felt. It felt good! The smile on my instructor’s face when I climbed out of the plane that day reflected my own, and I’m sure, for a moment, he remembered his first solo, and the feelings we now share!

You’ve had good results with your trainer. You are ready and it’s time for you to solo with your personal fitness. Discuss this with your personal trainer so they can help with the transition. You already have the skills you need. Your confidence will grow as you realize you have really been the one doing it all along.

Maintain what you have been taught and use it as a foundation for continued improvement. Perhaps you can see your personal trainer from time to time to review how you are doing, as I still do with a flight instructor, and to see what advice they may have for your continued success! Good luck!

I recently heard that being slightly overweight has some health benefits, and that overweight people tend to live longer. Is there any truth to that?

There are many variables at work here that influence the answer. The term “slightly overweight,” in studies of weight and disease, usually means a BMI between 25 and 29.9, with obese beginning at a BMI of 30.

As discussed in an earlier column on BMI, I believe the boundaries are blurry at the edges and have to be considered on an individual basis. Additionally, the interpretation of the data has varied from study to study.

In a large study completed in 2006, it was concluded that being slightly overweight increases the risk of death. Then in 2007, another study said it was better in terms of mortality to be overweight.

There are many confounding factors, and it is very hard to account for all of them in reaching absolute answers.That said, since I do have plenty of opinions, I will be happy to give you mine!

All things being equal, being fit is the most important thing. Fit is better, no matter what the weight. I think it’s a lot easier to be fit, and to maintain fitness, if we are in the less than overweight BMI range. I think that fit, trim people get fewer serious diseases.

If you do get a serious disease, it’s better to be overweight as that gives you more reserve to withstand the wasting effects of disease, such as with Alzheimer’s and cancer. I believe the odds favor avoiding disease by being trim and fit, rather than risking disease and then having a better chance to live longer with it.

Some of the reasons that studies are confusing is that the wasting effects of some diseases make the statistics appear to show that it’s bad to be thin, when really it’s the disease that causes the person to be thin, as with AIDS. In addition, think about quality of life. Medicine can prolong life long after the thrill of living is gone. Those “long-lived” individuals can make the statistics appear that overweight people “live” longer.

Being overweight is closer to being obese than being normal weight. All research studies agree that obesity has a higher morbidity and mortality than normal weight; therefore, I lean toward the conclusion that overweight is less healthy than normal weight.

Language and how we think

Language is an interesting tool. Did you know that how we speak the language we know shapes how we think, as well as how we think shapes our use of the language we know? (Interestingly, the particular language we know also creates a unique interactive paradigm with our world.)

Look at this phrase, which is often found in diet ads: “You can eat anything you want!” What exactly does that mean? Does it mean you want to eat everything and anything? Does it mean you can eat an unhealthy diet, and lots of it also?

Many people would feel it does mean that. I think the reason is most people view phrases from the perspective of how it supports their frame of viewing the world. Not what it means, but rather what they want it to mean.

I eat anything I want. What does that mean? It means that I want to eat healthy foods in an amount that is in balance or equal to my energy requirements. I hope you can eat anything you want, and with the help of this column, your wants will help you reach your health and fitness goals!

(Send your questions for Dr. J to calorielab@gmail.com or leave a comment. If your question is used by Dr. J, CalorieLab will send you a $25 Dining Dough restaurant certificate — limited to U.S. residents. More Dr. J posts can be read in our archives.)

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This entry was posted on Thursday, February 14th, 2008 and is filed under Body mass index, Dr. J will see you now, Exercise and fitness, Motivation and mental. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed. Permalink.