How often do you think about what movement and exercise actually do for your body? No matter where you are in your healing journey, there is always something you can do that will help you to feel better and improve your quality of life. Movement is a great place to start! Here is an excerpt from my book Kicking Sick:
There’s so much good news about moving your booty and twirling your tummy. Exercise, especially consistent vigorous movement, helps normalize glucose, insulin, and leptin levels. (Leptin is the “satiety hormone” that inhibits hunger.) This normalization is a crucial factor in preventing many lifestyle-related chronic diseases, like hypertension and type-2 diabetes.
A lot of other great things happen in your body when you exercise. Your heart pumps more blood and much-needed oxygen to your hard-working muscles. Oxygen is the gas your muscles need to run. If your car runs out of gas, you’re stranded. Likewise, when the muscles don’t get enough oxygen, you’re stranded—on your couch.
Not only that, but every intricate element of your system gets a boost when you exercise. Your heart gets stronger, and its left ventricle gets larger, which is awesome because the left ventricle increases the heart’s capacity for pumping out larger volumes of oxygen-saturated blood per beat. Put that in the win column! It’s the difference between a full gas tank in a Ferrari and a low tank in a Rent-a-Wreck.
A network of capillaries brings that oxygen-rich blood to every single muscle fiber in your body, and when you exercise, they multiply. Woo-hoo! It’s like earning interest at the bank. More good news: your muscles get better at accessing the oxygen they need. When every muscle fiber has more capillaries surrounding it, like an adoring crowd of fans, the supply of nutrients and oxygen to muscle fibers increases. Can you feel the love?
