Secretary Spread

Have you put on some extra weight that seems near impossible to shift, despite your attempts at slimming via calorie counting and reducing?

Fat spreads like butter

I read about secretaries spread years ago, which is the putting on of weight around the areas that happen to cover the chairs they sit in for hours. If you think of fat as somewhat misshapen and melty, spreading like butter, and muscle as firm but shrinking from disuse, you can understand how a sedentary life can negatively impact body composition. 

Fat just stops being used as a source of fuel when we sit on our duffs for extended periods of time. Our bodies are made to move and work, not stay stationary while our arms, hands, and heads, are locked into position over a computer, or while our backs take the shape of the couch we recline on. 

Extreme example

The show The Biggest Loser was an extreme example of what it takes to affect seismic shifts for those that have done extreme damage via disuse or abuse of the body, that is meant to be a means of transportation and good work. We cannot put on excess weight without excessive calories; that is part one of the formula. Part two is if you eat, and consume more than you need for optimal body functioning, and don't move around enough to burn off the fuel you ingested, you are effectively putting into storage, what ought to be used up today. Those lumps and bumps on your arms, legs, back, and midsection, are telling you something important. 

On a personal note: 

I added some extra padding to my body during the dark days of shutdowns. I call it padding because the fat filled in my pants to the point of overflowing at the tops of them! My underwear and bras seemed uncomfortable, as though they were saying, I am being stretched beyond what I can endure, and I am going to snap if you don't do something, pronto! While sitting, a stranger would appear that I could grab with both hands and pull up, then down, without any pain at all: the dreaded fat roll was a constant companion and reminder that I had let slide my principles, my rules of health and wellness, in favour of consuming ice cream and chocolate, and not moving nearly as much as I was used to.

I lost all but one of my personal training clients during the dark days, because fear drove them away from fitness. I just wasn't burning calories the way I had been, and something extreme had to be implemented to jar me into shifting the weight again. 

Extreme, by my standards, and perhaps yours, is two hours of daily exercise. So many people think this is crazy talk, unattainable, and just plain yucky to contemplate, but my goodness, they can sit for hours on end, binge watching their new favourite Netflix series, while snacking on God knows what, and sipping something sugary. Ok then, keep putting on that padding, while I get fit and feel great again. 

I have committed to six weeks of weighted hula hooping, for an hour a day. Today is day thirteen and my pants, underwear and bras, are thanking me for relieving their strain. I also walk whenever I can, outside, and if outside is a little too slippery for my feet, I will mall walk or use the indoor track at the YMCA, for free. 

I simply cannot enjoy my body, without appreciating all it does for me and rewarding it by treating it kindly, and that includes exercise and mostly, 80-20, good clean eating habits. 80% of the time I eat wholesome unprocessed food that comes in it's natural packaging, and 20% of the time I select foods that rate highly on the Yuka app, that have been processed. 

Future fitness freak

You can do this too, and I hope you do! I have heard too many people say they have been told they are pre-diabetic and or have high cholesterol. The next step for them, according to medical standards, is to control the issues that are presenting themselves, via medications that usually, once started, are taken for a life time. 

Why, oh why, would you do this to yourself, dear future fitness freak, when food and exercise are the best natural medicines known to mankind? 

Get fit. Commit today. Make a plan, hire a trainer, do something to shed the weight, feel good about yourself, and move the needle in the right direction toward your health and wellness. 

Do it today 💝