We’re 5 days in

How are your resolutions/goals for 2010 working out? I don’t know about you but whenever I read yet another study about the benefits of exercise I feel virtuous. Until the long awaited “Candy and Diet Dr. Pepper are the fountain of youth” proclamation comes out, I have to cling to exercise and fairly healthy eating to get me to 100. When I’m 100 I am going to eat cupcakes all day long and not care if they make my butt fat. But for now, I’ll settle for one and do some running to keep my ticker going. Today’s Wall Street Journal was jam packed with info to validate my plan.

The Hidden Benefits of Exercise highlights research that shows that exercise lessens the impact of the common cold, incidence of diabetes and high blood pressure, mortality and risk of recurrent breast cancer, risk of colon cancer, risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, and can decrease depression as effectively as Prozac. And as many of us know, just doing the minimum amount of anything isn’t always enough. After studies of runners, there’s also evidence that this is the same of the recommended exercise guidelines of 30 minutes per day. Researcher Dr. Paul Williams found that the more miles runners put in, the greater their health benefits. Another interesting thing the studies showed was that as we age, runners need to add 1.4 miles a week to our mileage to fight off weight gain (that or reduce their cupcake consumption by 1.4 cupcakes per week – this is my theory).

The best way to ensure that you will get your workout done is to do it first thing in the day. I had an epiphany today about my status as a morning person. I always say “I’m not a morning person” but the truth is that I’m a begrudging morning person. I don’t jump out of bed and greet the morning, but I do get up early, by 6 a.m., and get a whole heck of a lot done in the mornings, including exercise. Exercise has to be one of those things you don’t “try to fit in” it has to be a blocked out part of your day. It has to be fairly non-negotiable. Then you have your evenings free to watch stuff like Conveyor Belt of Love.

Now as of tomorrow, you’re all morning people. Get to exercising in the a.m.! Here’s a morning song for your running mix.