A Program For Physical Fitness

2.   Adequate Rest

Doctors tell me the amount of rest and sleep needed for vigorous health varies with each of us. Some need the proverbial eight hours of sleep nightly, others need ten, while some need only six or seven, or even less. There was a time when I needed nine hours of sleep, but as the years rolled on the need decreased gradually and now at sixty-five I need only six to seven hours of rest.

Some years ago, Thomas Edison was showing a visitor around his laboratory in West Orange. He explained what he was then working on, and talked about his experiments. After moving around for about half an hour, he said, with a twinkle in his eye: "Now let me show you another important part of my equipment." With this, he stepped up to a curtain and drew it aside, revealing a couch. "They talk about me not sleeping," he chuckled. "This is where I relax. I come in here for an hour's sleep at least once a day."

Dr. John Harvey Kellogg of the Battle Creek Sana-tarium always kept a cot just outside the operating room door. He would begin his operations early in the morning and continue some days until the middle of the afternoon- a strenuous feat. After completing the major work he would retire to his cot and immediately drop asleep. The patient was wheeled out and the next case brought in and when the moment was ready, the chief nurse woke Dr. Kellogg and he went to work, fresh as a daisy. He lived to be 92 and was exceedingly vigorous physically and mentally until the last week of his life.

Winston Churchill, a man who has done no inconsiderable amount of work in his day, could not be persuaded until a few years ago to take a nap in the afternoon, but recently he said:

"I wish I had begun it twenty years before. It adds visibly to my efficiency."

Experience will tell you accurately, say the doctors, the amount of rest required to generate the physical energy you need to meet the demands of your day's work. That is the amount of rest you must get.

Sleep experts tell us, however, that the idea that one must get the proverbial eight hours sleep each night is the cause of much of the insomnia troubles. Many do not need that much rest, and needlessly spend sleepless hours in bed. Sleeplessness causes worry, and in turn worry interferes with sleep. This leads to fatigue, and irritability, and a vicious pattern of insomnia.

Dr. MacDonald Gritchley, an English neurologist, puts it this way: "Sleeping little matters little. What does matter is the anxiety it produces."

The best aids to sleep, say the experts, are warm milk, a hot bath, quiet music, and best of all a prayer to banish cares and worries and heartaches.

Peaceful sleep recharges the body, strengthens mind and spirit, and gives promise of a successful and a happy tomorrow.
 
I think it is definitely true, as often emphasized by health specialists, that most people dig their graves with their teeth. Most of us eat too much - at any rate too much of the wrong kinds of food.

Wrong diet, according to current research, may not only affect adversely one's physical well-being, but one's mental and emotional health as well. Dr. George Watson of The School of Philosophy at The University of Southern California, has said that tests indicate certain mental and emotional disorders may be caused by the wrong diet.

Dr. Watson pointed to the case of a young woman under extreme mental stress. Her emotional problems over a seven-year period had pushed her to the brink of suicide. While she felt her disturbances were purely mental, and regarded as "silly" the idea that proper diet would help her, she nevertheless agreed to the test. During the first month of treatment the patient's days of depression became less frequent, until they did not recur. She since has recovered completely.

In an interview reported in the April 11, 1960, issue of U. S. News and World Report, Dr. W. Henry Sebrell, Jr., Professor of Public Health Nutrition at Columbia University, world-famed authority on diet, said: "Diet is one of the most important factors in determining how long an individual lives. We like to say in public health that, while a good diet can't guarantee that you will be in good health, you can't be in the best of health unless you live on a good diet. . . Even though you never suffer acute malnutrition, years and years of improper eating - of dieting indiscretions - will add up to various kinds of damage to your body that will inevitably shorten your life.

Especially questionable is the relation to heart disease. . . Overweight, of course, is just due to bad eating habits. . . So in this way diet certainly does contribute to some of the deaths from heart disease. . . Overweight people are likely to die of heart disease."

When asked the question: "Does everyone have an ideal weight?" Dr. Sebrell answered: "If we assume that you are a normal individual, your ideal weight is probably about what you weighed around age 26. After age 26, any weight that you gain is likely to be fat and to be deleterious. So weight tables that show an increasing body weight as you get older - above age 26 - may represent the average but they don't represent the ideal."

I have found that a more or less regular daily diet produces the best results for me - maintains reasonable weight and a continuous feeling of well-being. Your doctor, however, must be your counselor, for what is best for me may not be best for you.
 
For breakfast I have a small glass of orange juice, hot or cold cereal, one multi-vitamin capsule with minerals, one six-minute boiled egg, and coffee or milk.

For lunch I usually have a bowl of soup with crackers, or a sandwich, coffee or milk, and dessert-usually canned fruit or fruit jello.

For dinner at home I eat a nourishing meal, usually about as follows - a generous serving of meat, one vegetable, a salad, and dessert - usually fresh or canned fruit, or pastry with milk.

Of course, this routine is often broken but I never fail to get back to it soon again when the discomforts and penalties of overeating begin to plague me.

It must never be forgotten, however, that diet alone is not the wisest way to get back to normal weight after a period of excesses, for often you lose physical fitness also.

The best way to achieve and retain healthy weight is, I have found, to adopt a regular program of daily exercise, and a sensible diet with a moderate restriction of fattening foods - all, of course, with your doctor's advice and approval.

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• A Program For Physical Fitness Ch 7