Your Genes and Your Jeans

"Our children are the future," says every political figure up for election this year. But in your heart and mine, we are sure the opposite is true: Our parents are the future.

You look at your mother's belly and think, "Why bother?" Then you open the next bag of Chips Ahoy. You remember sitting in the hospital during Dad's quadruple bypass last year and shrug. Bottoms up!

"It's in my genes," people tell me all the time. Heart disease, diabetes, stroke, cancer, Alzheimers. "I might as well enjoy life, because we've all got a death sentence."

Well buck up, Ms. Pessimist! Your genetic code is a lot like your house's electrical wiring. You may be "wired" for certain conditions, but it's up to you whether you switch the genes on or off. Don't want Aunt Maybelle's diabetes? Take a walk. Research shows you'll switch on the gene that helps convert food to energy and prevent weight gain and insulin resistance. Don't want to sit for three years in a nursing home post-stroke like your Uncle Joe did? Put the dimmer switch on that LDL-building genetic code with some crazy dancing or a morning in the pool.

Physical activity turns on the genes that promote health and longevity. It turns off the genes that create inflammation, hardening of the arteries and a host of other conditions that diminish the quality and quantity of your life. Exercise is medicine (and a whole lot cheaper than your copay).

By the way . . . the Holidaily is coming! If you haven't already, send an e-mail to me now to optin@radiantfitness.com. If you don't "opt" you, I won't "opt" you. NEXT MONDAY will the LAST Monday Motivator until 2009.

And . . . Next Tuesday the final 2008 Belly Dance classes begin. Keep sane, upbeat and trim during the holidays--join us for class. The quickest way to sign up is to hit the paypal link at the Radiant Fitness website right now.

Finally . . . economic crisis got you down? Susan Unes has another take and some practical advice at the Radiant Fitness Yoga blog.