As we all start to recover from our holiday hangovers I have heard a lot of talk about metabolism. People say, "Gosh I wish my metabolism hadn't slowed down." Or, "I wish I had the metabolism I had when I was 16!" People talk of their metabolism like it is their long lost companion who used to stand by, preventing them from gaining weight. As if, when you were about to shove a piece of Chocolate Silk Pie into your mouth, Captain Metabolism would leap from the shadows, rip the piece of pie from your hand and valiantly consume it for you, thus saving you from the notorious "5 Pounds of Death."
Unfortunately, I do not think our metabolism is as much to blame as we might hope. And to demonstrate why, I will use this very unscientific comparison. And although it is not, on any level, even remotely scientific, I think it illustrates a point.
Let's take a look at the typical day for a teenager such as you once were. Maybe you played a sport or two. Maybe you had a job, maybe both.
6:30am: Alarm goes off.
7:00am: Alarm goes off and she actually gets out of bed, does her hair, puts on make up and grabs a quick bite to eat.
7:45am: School Starts. Every 45 minutes she is up and rushing to another class because someone thinks 2 minutes is a perfectly logical amount of time to get from class to the locker to the commons to talk to friends because we cannot text during the day because our teachers suck but we do it any way and they don't know lololol and then to class.
11:00am PE class which happens to be volleyball
12:30: Run to the car, drive qui... VERY carefully to Taco Bell for the first real food of the day, and drive VERY carefully back to school.
12:50: More sprinting from class to class.
2:45: Hurry and get ready for practice so as to have time to discuss all the important details of all the texts that may or may not have been sent during the day.
3:00: Practice!
5:15: Drive VERY carefully to work, eating a granola bar on the way.
5:30: Work, cleaning the grill, bussing dishes and waiting the occasional table.
9:30: Eat cold dinner
10:00: Start homework
1:00am: finally go to sleep after updating Instagram.
Now let's take a look at your typical day:
6:30am: Alarm goes off.
7:00am: Alarm goes off and you actually gets out of bed, do your hair, put on make up and grab a quick bite to eat.
8:00am: Arrive at work, sit in your chair, snack on the food in your drawer, and on the cookies Barbara, who is TRYING to make the entire office fat, brought in AGAIN and type.
12:30: Go to lunch.
1:15: Return to your chair and do pretty much the same thing you did that morning.
5:30: Go to the gym.
6:30: Collapse in a heap after your personal trainer kicks your ass for most of an hour after being 5 minutes late, doing a 10 minute warm up, chatting, complaining about Barbara and then starting your workout.
6:45: Prepare and eat dinner.
8:00: Collapse in a heap in front of the television because your day was EXHAUSTING. In fact, you worked SO hard you deserve a piece of pie.
10:30: Turn off the news and go to bed.
Now before I get a bunch of nasty e-mails about how that is NOT your typical day and how your worthless teeneger sits around all day doing nothing, understand I am just illustrating a point. As with anything health related there is always an exception. However, the younger we are, the more we TEND to move. What may seem like an exhausting day to us is a day off for a teenager. So instead of blaming your metabolism, take an honest look at how much you move versus how much you consume. Try eating a little less, and moving a little more and I bet our old buddy metabolism is back to the rescue!
If you have any questions about how you can move more, please e mail
tom@canyonptandf.com or comment on the article below, And visit
www.canyonptandf.com for great ways to stay active!
