Winter recreation: an hour a day keeps obesity away.

AuthorStomierowski, Peg
PositionHEALTH & MEDICINE

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Winter recreation is more than a spectator sport in Alaska. Given that overweight and obesity figures are a growing statewide concern, getting out of the house or office and staying active and engaged through the winter months can be a matter of good health and emotional balance.

STAYING ACTIVE

Dr. Michael Orzechowski, who practices family and sports medicine in Anchorage, also practices what he preaches to his patients about the benefits of indoor and outdoor exercise in building strength and endurance, avoiding the obesity epidemic and slowing the aging process.

In the winter, he stays active in volleyball and fencing, two sports that enjoy widespread appeal and offer many role models in Anchorage, and he works out in two-hour sessions at least twice a week. Hundreds of medals and dozens of trophies attest to his athletic passions. He also enjoys racketball, and in the summer, hiking.

Even in winter, Orzechowski's physician assistant, Gerald Kidd, bikes to work (on studded tires) and has been known to strap on skies and navigate a few cross-country trails nearby before work, at lunch or before leaving the office at day's end. Anchorage, he says, is one of the very do-able cities for this kind of workday athletic pursuit.

"There are tons of trails here," Kidd said, especially around Alaska Native Medical Center and Alaska Pacific University facilities. Many trails aren't far from homes.

If you come to work prepared, taking a run on foot or skis for lunch, or before or after hours, is feasible. Sometimes all it takes is mapping out a strategy and sticking to it whether or not the physical results are immediately visible. For many people, that can be a challenge, but perseverance matters.

Generally it takes about three weeks, Kidd emphasizes, to develop a new habit. Many people tend to quit or interrupt a new routine prematurely because they don't drop pounds or see positive results as fast as they'd want. It's best, he recommends, to view exercise as a form of budgeting that one needs to incorporate into the daily routine for the sake of general health and balance. "If you don't budget for it," he warns, "it will catch up with you."

When he was younger, Orzechowski sought different thrills. "I don't have the need for speed anymore," he says. Some years back, he injured his shoulder in an accident while he was snow-machining with his kids. He was flying along at 50 mph when it happened, and the injury required months...

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