cleansing your body 67
Exercise: Do What You Will Do
Enjoying daily exercise is a close second to “ clean eating ” for
producing positive physical results fast. So a key component to
your Rice Dieta will be integrating daily exercise into your life.
When Ricers ask me, “ What is the best exercise to do? ” my answer
is always the same: “ Whatever you will do! ”
Enjoying what you do is always the best advice I know. We gen-
erally encourage participants to increase their activity slowly and
gradually, building up to one hour per day of aerobic exercise to
get themselves going. Once your body adapts to this daily physical
activity, you may want to increase the duration of time and give
yourself a wider variety of activities.
For many people, especially those who are not at all accustomed
to exercising, walking is the best way to begin. (Water walking
may suit you better if you ’ ve recently had physical challenges or
any orthopedic concerns.) Walking is free, available anywhere,
benefi cial to your cardiovascular system, effective at expending
calories and reducing stress, and enjoyable for those who choose
for it to be. I say the latter because few people seem to be exempt
from inertia; most of us have to make a conscious choice to get
out the door despite our borderline depression, rainy weather,
or whatever condition we allow to impede our commitment to
exercise.
Unless exercise becomes a habit, as deeply engrained as brush-
ing your teeth, our resolve can crumble at the most insignifi cant
excuse. When I have a big project with a deadline in the near
future, I am even more committed to walk an hour at least six days
per week. Otherwise, I am more vulnerable to feeling the symp-
toms of unreleased stress: back spasms, joint stiffness, and mental
fogginess or fatigue. If people need to speak with me, I have a com-
mon response: “ I ’ ll be glad to talk with you if you want to walk with
me at 8:10 a.m., right after I take my son to school. ”
If someone is trying to book an appointment with me for that
hallowed time of day, I habitually say, “ I ’ d like to see you, but
I already have something scheduled between 8 and 9:30. ” This is