For Active Lifestyles On The Go!
August 26, 2009 at 6:00 am · Filed under Health
Get a leg up on varicose viens.
You can battle bulging blue veins by eating dark leafy greens such as kale. The vitamin K in these veggies activates a protein called Matrix GLA that supports vascular health, a recent study shows.
Rest up before hitting the road.
Labor Day weekend is one of the deadliest for drivers. Since 60 percent of people admit to driving while drowsy—a major cause of accidents—stay safe by catching some z’s (and, of course, skipping the booze) before you get behind the wheel.
Don’t buy into the highfalutin diet hype.
What’s up with the slew of new diet books named ”hardworking people who don’t have time to diet,” there’s The Wall Street Diet, and for advice on how the rich stay thin, there’s The Hamptons Diet. If it’s a lifetime of beauty and health you’re after, The Park Avenue Diet may be for you. The Sonoma Diet promises a trimmer waist and better health in only 10 days, while The Laguna Beach Diet says it’s a guide to painless and sustainable weight loss. Though most of these plans offer smart tips, some promise unlikely results. So why not choose a tried-and-true plan like the Mediterranean diet, or one that’s even simpler? It’s called “eat less, exercise more.”
Take a load off.
You know the shooting pain that comes from schlepping a heavy purse? Here’s why it happens: “Straps compress the auxiliary vein, causing high blood pressure, numbness, tingling, pain, and weakness in the arm,” says Tim Neuschwander, M.D. In a study he conducted, adults who wore a 28-pound backpack for 10 minutes experienced an almost 50 percent decrease in blood flow through the blood vessels in their arms. “And carrying a 13-pound purse for 10 minutes may have a similar effect, since it’s resting on only one shoulder,” he says. Try lightening your load a little, or distribute weight more evenly with an ergonomic purse.
Be a little catty.
It’s been said that cats have nine lives, and new research shows they can help extend your life, too. Owning a cat could slash your risk of heart attack by almost a third. How? Your kitty may help relieve stress and anxiety—two heart disease risk factors. So help save a cat’s life and your own: Now is the purr-fect time to adopt since shelters are overwhelmed with homeless cats. Visit petfinder.org or 1-800-save-a-pet.com for a list of rescue groups in your area.
August 12, 2009 at 6:00 am · Filed under Nutrition
BOOST BRAIN POWER
Pairing vitamins C and E is smart for another reason: It may lessen your Alzheimer’s risks by as much as 64 percent, according to research in the Archives ofNeurology. Just 500 milligrams of C and 400 IU of E appear to be enough. The brain’s high fat content makes it especially vulnerable to free radicals, but these antioxidants may act as shields, says study author Peter Zandi, PhD, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. “Some studies suggest that vitamin E does its job reducing free radicals in the body, but then its capacity is depleted, Zandi says. “Vitamin C may recharge E:’
What to do now: Try taking C and E supplements, and talk to your doc about your risks for Alzheimer’s and dementia.
SAVE YOUR EYESIGHT
Vitamin C can’t prevent the need for reading glasses around age 45. But antioxidants, including C, help prevent one of the leading causes of blindness: age-related macular degeneration (AMD). More than 3.5 million Americans are thought to be in the early stages, and the disease strikes more women than men. A major clinical trial sponsored by the National Eye Institute showed that a daily supplement of 500 milligrams of vitamin C, 400 IU of vitamin E, 15 milligrams of beta-carotene, 80 milligrams of zinc, and 2 milligrams of copper reduced the risk of moderate or severe AMD-related vision loss by up to 25 percent. The antioxidants neutralize damage to the retina caused by, you guessed it, free radicals.
What to do now: If you’re at high risk for AMD (you’re overweight or have a family history), check to see if your multivitamin contains the study’s amounts of C, E, beta-carotene/vitamin A, zinc, and copper. Chances are, its C and E levels fall short, but additional supplements will do the job. (Caveat: Don’t follow this advice if you smoke; this level of beta-carotene may up your lung-cancer risks.)
July 8, 2009 at 6:00 am · Filed under Health, Nutrition
To help you lose weight and go strong as you stride, work these healthy, expert-recommended eats into a 1,500-calorie-a-day plan.
Homemade trail mix
The complex carbs in this snack may keep energy up and weight down: A study from England found that women who ate muesli and fruit before exercising burned twice as much fat during a workout as those who ate cornflakes, white bread and jam. Mix 1/2 cup Kashi GoLean cereal, 1 large whole-grain pretzel broken into pieces, 3 Genisoy crisps and 1/4 cup walnuts (344 calories, 39 grams carbs).
Eggs
A 78-calorie egg contains all the amino acids your muscles need to recover post-walk. It will also help ward off hunger: Women in a study from Saint Louis University who chose eggs rather than a bagel for breakfast ate 264 fewer calories throughout the day.
Cherries
A substance in tart cherries (52 calories per cup) may reduce inflammation. Exercisers who drank 12 ounces of cherry juice, such as Eden Organic Montmorency Tart Cherry juice, twice a day for eight days were less sore after strength-training than those who didn’t have the juice, according to a University of Vermont study.
Salmon
Eating this fish may help keep you from getting winded: A two-year Japanese study found that the omega-3 fatty acids in salmon improve lung function. The fish contains more than the daily recommended 1.1 grams of omega-3s per 181-calorie, 3½-ounce serving. Try two or more servings a week.
Dry-roasted edamame
The protein in soybeans helps regulate blood sugar “to give you a consistently high level of energy on longer walks,” says Meridan Zerner, R.D., of the Cooper Aerobics Center in Dallas. Plus, edamame has 4 grams of feel-full fiber per 127-calorie lh-cup serving.
Low-fat plain yogurt
“Studies show that we lose calcium when we sweat,” says FITNESS advisory board member Leslie Bonci, R.D. One 120-calorie cup of plain, low-fat yogurt provides 40 percent of your RDA.
Spinach
All dark leafy greens contain bone-strengthening vitamin K, but raw spinach packs a whopping 161 percent of the RDA in one 7-calorie cup. Eat it in a salad to supplement each skeleton-boosting stroll.
July 1, 2009 at 6:00 am · Filed under Health
You can seriously slim down and get toned by adding hills, intervals and sculpting moves. “Your muscles will constantly be challenged in new ways for faster results,” says racewalkiug coach Judy Heller, who created the fresh walking workouts.
What you’ll need: Walking sneakers and an exercise band or tube.
1. Steady-pace walk – Burn ab fat and more!
Aim for a speed at which you re hustling but still able to speak in sentences (your rate of perceived exertion, or RPE, on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is sitting still and 10 is a full-tilt sprint, should be about 6 or 7). Depending on your fitness level, this will be somewhere between a 13 and 17 minute mile, which will keep you in the exercise zone.
Maintain this pace until you’ve reached your time goal and not only will you burn more calories, you’ll boost your heart health.
2. Hills walk – Look twice as toned
Tackling hills or stairs will sculpt your legs and butt double-time while burning big calories-58 percent more at a 17-minute-mile pace.
Start out on a flat surface for 15 minutes at a speed at which you’re hustling but still able to speak in sentences (RPE: 6 or 7).
Find a hill or some stepsm or set your treadmill to a 4 to 6 percent incline and walk uphill quickly for 2 minutes.
Walk downhill to recover, or if you’re on a treadmill, walk at a 0 percent incline for 2 minutes.
Aim to maintain your speed or go faster so that you can speak just a few words at a time (RPE: 8). Only one set of stairs? Walk up and down for 4 minutes.
Continue up- and downhill intervals until you’ve reached your time goal. Beginners can alternate between hills and 5 minutes on a flat surface.
3. Intervals walk – Get lean and melt calories
You’ll torch more fat in less time by bumping up your pace a little for manageable bursts—accelerating from a 17-minute mile to a 13-minute mile means 66 percent more calorie burn.
Warm up at your regular pace (RPE: 6) for 6 minutes. Alternate these intervals: Walk as fast as you can for 1 minute (RPE: 8), then slow down to your regular pace (RPE: 6) for 2 minutes to recover. Repeat intervals until you’ve reached your time goal.
June 3, 2009 at 6:00 am · Filed under Health
If you have put off pumping iron, get to it. According to experts, you burn calories faster after a strength-training session than you would after a cardio session. And researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham found that lifting weights 3 times a week for 25 weeks caused women to lose an average of 4 pounds of body fat.
June 2, 2009 at 12:55 pm · Filed under Nutrition
The fat-busting benefits of green tea boil down to disease-fighting compounds called catechins. One study of 240 Japanese men and women found that when subjects drank green tea containing 583 milligrams of catechins per 12-ounce cup, they dropped more weight – and inches – than those who ingested tea containing only 96 milligrams. Max your results by steeping your bag of green tea as long as possible. The darker the hue of your brew (and how bitter it is), the more catechin-rich the cup.
June 1, 2009 at 4:26 pm · Filed under Nutrition
A study published last year in the journal Hepatology found that feeding fructose-laced water to rats increased their risk of obesity. Ditch the artificially sweetened juices and sodas and get your fructose from fruit – a form that researchers say could be kinder to your waistline.
May 13, 2009 at 2:50 pm · Filed under Nutrition
Kick off every meal with half a ruby red or 8 ounces of grapefruit juice – you could speed up your weight loss. Subjects of a 2006 study in the Journal of Medicinal Food who ate half a grapefruit before each meal lost more weight after 12 weeks than those who didn’t (3.5 pounds versus less than a pound).
April 7, 2009 at 1:41 pm · Filed under Health
- READ FOOD LABELS. At the supermarket, instead of just throwing items into a basket, take a minute to read the labels. Look for high-fiber cereals, granola bars, popcorn, crackers, chips, and pasta. They will fill you up and digest more slowly than foods with less fiber.
- WRITE DOWN EVERYTHING YOU EAT. Nothing stops me from over-eating faster than looking at a list of everything I put in my mouth that day. It reminds me that things like drinks and peppermints count. Everyone thinks they don’t have time to keep a food log, but it’s pretty easy to throw a journal and pen into your bag. No matter where I am, I can just pull it out and take a couple of seconds to jot down what I’ve eaten.
- SET SMALL WEIGHT LOSS AND EXERCISE GOALS. When I first started jogging, I would aim to increase my time by just 10 minutes. At the start of my exersice program, I set a reasonable weight goal. Once I met my goal, I rewarded myself with things like new workout clothes. And then I was able to make a new goal. This allows me to continue to challenge myself long after I acheived what I never dreamed possible!
- DON’T CUT OUT ALL HIGH FAT, HIGH CALORIE FOODS. I know that if I deny myself too long, those cravings will just become stronger. Instead, I allow myself to eat the foods I love: muffins, cookies, and ice cream. But I decrease the portion sizes and make sacrifices in other areas of my diet to compensate for the calories. I mentally plan ahead if I know I’m going to be faced with my favorite cheesecake over the weekend. If I decide in advance how much I’ll eat, then I am able to enjoy every bite without feeling guilty afterward.
- EAT FRUITS AND VEGETABLES FIRST. I treat meats and starches like the side dishes. The end result is I consume fewer calories and still feel very satisfied. If possible, I buy fresh produce instead of canned or frozen. My body thanks me for the fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants – and I feel great!
April 1, 2009 at 11:39 am · Filed under Nutrition
Veg Out
Good news about the fifth most common cancer in women: Certain compounds in produce may lower the risk of pancreatic cancer, reports a study in the American Journal of Epidemiology. Scientists examined three flavonols – kaempferol (found in spinach and cabbage), quercetin (in apples and onions), and myricetin (in red onions and berries) – by 183,518 people over 8 years. They found that those who ate the most foods containing these flavonols were 23 percent less likely to develop pancreatic cancer than those who ate the least. Scientists aren’t sure why, but flavonols have been found to prevent damaged cells from reproducing and to kill off cancerous cells, lead study author Ute Noethlings, Dr.P.H., explains. It’s unclear how many servings of flavonol-full foods reduce risk, but strive for at least five servings of produce per day.
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