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Father's Day Advice: If you’re like many dads, you think you’re doing your right by staying in shape and eating well. And you are! Exercise and a healthy diet are great ways to lose weight, reduce stress, boost the good cholesterol and, bonus, maybe even your sex drive. But did you know that there’s a darker side to exercise and weight watching? It’s called “overcompensation,” which means taking healthy habits to the extreme. Men who overcompensate often adopt overly-zealous diets, become obsessed with physical performance, and fixate on body image—or a part of it, pecs, abs, and/or gluts. Worse, overcompensation can tug, even drag, you into a vicious cycle -- toward addiction: the more you do, the more you need to ramp up your workouts and/or restrict your diet, perhaps completely cutting out carbs, fat, or animal products. Eventually, you need ever more of the natural brain chemicals stirred up by exercise and hard-core dieting to get your “fix.” Sound like some misguided soul featured in a magazine article? Look around – and in the mirror – could be you or one of your gym buddies. The latest studies show that overcompensation leads to eating disorders in men and the problem is now an epidemic. In fact, men are checking in for eating disorders treatment in numbers double those of three years ago. Here are five smart exercise and diet tips for smart dads: 2. Build “off” days into your workouts. Your body needs rest to repair its tissues. Foregoing that time off sabotages your goals and can actually lead to aches, sprains and other injuries At its worst, there is a condition in which overexercise causes muscle fibers to break down, release protein into the bloodstream, and poison your kidneys. Take your child to the ball field instead. Just like Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams, your kid will always remember the game of catch, and you just might enjoy it yourself. 3. Don’t aim for an ideal body type. If you reach toward the unreachable, you’ll be reaching for trouble. Accept and enjoy your body type – it is what it is and you are who you are. You can certainly refine and tune your body and feel proud of your efforts. Just know when you’re crossing the line from body-focused to body-obsessed. 4. Understand that chronic or fad dieting can lead to binges. When you starve yourself (eat less than 1,000 calories a day), your body responds with an arsenal of biochemicals to get you to eat again – it’s a holdover from our days in the cave when lack of food meant imminent death. When you drastically cut back on food your body will cause incredible cravings and urges that no amount of “willpower” will overcome. These cravings may well lead to binge eating. A binge is defined as eating a large amount of food in a relatively short period of time. Binges are out-of-control eating, the opposite of healthy dieting (Forty percent of binge eaters are men, by the way!). Better for your body – and for your children—to model healthy, sensible eating patterns. 5. Accept the fact that aging is inevitable. You can maintain great health at any age. But as you grow older you will slow down. Fact of life. A softer “six-pack” or a slower stride doesn’t mean that you’re “losing your edge.” Your body, slightly slower but still supple, is your Olympic Gold Medal, awarded to you in recognition if being a mellower father, a wiser dad, the kind your children will remember with fondness and humorous stories of their own. There’s no better legacy you can pass on than being at ease with yourself and accepting of your body. Here’s to a kinder and gentler Father’s Day! Copyright © 2007 Trisha Gura
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