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Home » Power of Fitness: Vincent Lam (Transcript)

Power of Fitness: Vincent Lam (Transcript)

Here is the full transcript of Vincent Lam’s talk titled “Power of Fitness” at TEDxRanneySchool 2018 conference.

Listen to the audio version here:

TRANSCRIPT:

So good afternoon, everyone. So I want to start today off with a question. By a show of hands, who here exercises for at least 30 minutes a day, five times a week? That’s pretty impressive.

Awesome. So according to the American Heart Association, that is actually the recommended amount of exercise per week. So nearly 80% of adult Americans don’t meet this recommendation, which can potentially set themselves up for years of health problems later down the road. So as a fitness professional, one of the most common things I hear is, “I don’t have time.”

So let me tell you guys something about time. Every single one of you has 168 hours in a week, and I’m only asking for two and a half hours out of your week. And for what? To live a better life, a healthier life, or even a longer life.

These are all benefits that come with exercise. Fitness is a lifestyle. This is not a quick fix. This is something you have to incorporate into your daily regimen, just like brushing your teeth or taking a shower.

Personal Background

My name is Vincent Lam, and I started exercising as a hobby. I went on to school and majored in it in college, and now I’m doing it as a career. This is how the power of fitness changed my life.

So I have five main points I want to share with you guys today. We all know that exercise is an important part of a healthy lifestyle, but what you may not know is just how important it is. So these benefits may include reducing serious health problems, such as chronic diseases.

It may boost your brain functions, so in a sense, it can make you smarter. It can improve your mental and as well as emotional health, and make you more disciplined as a person, whether you’re in school or even at work. And lastly, it will make you more confident inside and out.

So most people exercise because either A, they want to lose weight, they want to look better, or they have health issues. One of the reasons why I started working out was because I wanted to impress the girls. But I then found out that the only people that I really impressed were the other dudes in the gym.

Health Benefits of Exercise

So over the years, that changed. Now I exercise because I love the challenge. I love the sense of accomplishment it gives me. I love watching my body transform.

But most importantly, I love inspiring and helping others. So my first main point I want to talk to you guys today is how exercise can actually reduce health problems, such as these chronic diseases listed above. Obesity, heart diseases, diabetes, hypertension, osteoporosis, and the list goes on.

So by a show of hands, who here knows or has someone with one of these diseases I just mentioned? It’s a lot. So without proper care and prevention, all of these diseases can actually be lethal.

Over one-third of the population are actually considered obese, which can lead to many of these diseases that I just mentioned before. However, this can all be prevented through proper nutrition and exercise. So when you exercise and make healthy food choices, what happens to your body? You will put on muscle, making your joints and ligaments stronger. You will be less prone to injuries. And you’ll look ten times better.

Visceral Fat and Chronic Diseases

You will also lose fat in places that you don’t want, like your arms, your stomach, your legs, your love handles. So not only do you lose fat on the outside, you will lose fat on the inside. This is the fat that surrounds our organs, and this is called visceral fat.

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Visceral fat can cause many of these chronic diseases listed above, which can be lethal. So I want to share with you guys a perfect example. My father was actually kind of overweight. He was very unhealthy. He had a very poor diet, which led to diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and the list goes on.

So over the years, he’s made better food choices. However, in these last two months, he wanted to change his life around for the better. He started incorporating vegetables into his every meal. He started eating good sources of healthy fats.

He got good sources of protein in. One thing he did take out were carbs. He took out bread. He took out rice. He took out pasta. He even took out most fruits, and the results were actually staggering. He lost over 20 pounds. He stopped taking a lot of his medication, and he even stopped taking his insulin shots.

Exercise and Brain Function

So by incorporating exercise and proper nutrition, it can reverse something as serious as diabetes. So he took out carbs because he was a diabetic. So I’m not trying to say carbs are a bad thing. You just have to make sure that you’re eating it in moderation and making smart food choices.

So my second point I want to talk to you guys today is how exercise can actually make you smarter. So when you exercise, your heart is going to pump more oxygen into your brain and throughout your body. So from experience, a lot of the clients that I work with always forget how to breathe when they exercise.

So in order to reap these benefits, you have to make sure you are breathing in through your nose and exhaling through your mouth. So when you do that, your brain and body will release tons of hormones, which will provide a nourishing environment for the growth of new brain cells. It may also act as a first aid kit on damaged brain cells.

So in a sense, it’s kind of healing your mind. If you incorporate exercise into your daily regimen, it will prepare you for mental stresses that you encounter for the rest of the day.