Keys to the car and Freedom – Dr. Rob America’s Fitness Doctor®

Do you remember the first time you drove a car?  How nervous you might have been but so excited to drive for the first time! Freedom! It was the late 70’s and my uncle had this triple black Cadillac Eldorado Convertible.  You know the kind, shiny black paint, long front end, chrome bumpers, big chrome grill, 4 round headlights, chrome and fins on the back fenders, no top, and a big bench seat up front……with absolutely no seat belts!  Oh ya, and the transistor radio with the big buttons.

I started that big V-8 engine, Vrrooooom!  Checked the mirrors, put it in gear, hit the accelerator and off I went! Nervous, excited, exhilarated, and a little sacred all at the same time.  But that wind in my face, the music on the radio and the freedom to go and do what I wanted to do.  I will never forget that experience.   I felt those exact same emotions when I realized I was making all the right steps to lose the weight, pealing the layers of fat off to reveal the muscle hidden underneath.  Freedom from the weight.  Freedom from the embarrassment.   Freedom to use my body.

When you stop and think about it.  There are steps to drive that car.  There are the driver’s education classes you have to take, permits you have to get, and tests you have to pass.  But once you do all the steps, and practice driving the car you get better and better at driving that car.  You do all the things that it takes to operate that shiny black car without ever thinking about it.  You do it everyday and it is pure joy, it is habit.

Well, the information on this website is like handing you the keys to that shiny car that is your new body.  If you practice all the steps everyday soon they will become a habit.  You won’t even give a thought to all the things that you do to have that healthy body.  Like drink plenty of water, eat healthful foods, exercise daily, and get plenty of rest.  You will just do it and it will bring you sweet freedom.

Stopping Inflammation; another reason to eat Healthful Foods

Do you remember my uncle’s shiny black car in the story?   Yep, I knew ya did!  Well that car had an engine in it and that engine took fuel to run it so he could go to the places he wanted to see.  Well when the engine processes the fuel thru the act of combustion it gives of by-products collectively called emissions.  Some of those emissions like water vapor are not so bad, but others like carbon monoxide are, and these emissions destroy the environment we live.

Well the trillion or so cells that make up our bodies each have an engine in them and theses engines are called mitochondria.  Mitochondria take the nutrients from the foods that we eat and in turn, turn it into usable energy for the body.  Well, in the process of generating this energy by-products are given off called free radicals.  Some of these free radicals play an important role in cleaning up damaged cells in the body and others actually cause destructive processes to take place in the internal environment of our bodies.

Left unchecked these free radicals cause inflammation in the body and this is referred to as oxidative stress.    Our bodies require an internal “catalytic converter”, just like in a cars exhaust system, to clean up these dangerous, inflammatory causing free radicals, and they are called antioxidants.  Antioxidants clean up the free radicals created by the mitochondria during the production of energy so the mitochondria can continue to produce energy efficiently and keep our bodies healthy.  We get these antioxidants from the healthful foods that we eat on a regular basis and by supplementing our diet with vitamins and minerals.

If you have a very poor diet, then you will have a build up of excess free radicals, and too many free radicals will lead to internal inflammation of the body.  When the body becomes overrun with too much inflammation, chronic disease will set in inevitably.

Our bodies have other cleansing mechanisms, which are designed to clean up the waste products in the body, and the liver plays a major role in detoxification of free radicals.  But when our bodies systems become overloaded with excessive levels of free radicals from oxidative stress, inflammation sets in and not far behind the inflammation is chronic disease.

“Fitness is the Footprint of Life.  Follow It!”

Dr. Rob Kominiarek, America’s Fitness Doctor®