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Still in front of the computer? Here are more reasons to take a break and go for a walk…
Walking can help:
• Prevent depression, colon cancer, constipation, osteoporosis, and impotence
• Lengthen lifespan
• Lower stress levels
• Relieve arthritis and back pain
• Strengthen muscles, bones, and joints
• Improve sleep
• Elevate overall mood and sense of well-being.
How do you know if you are walking fast enough and often enough to reap the benefits?
It is recommended to walk for at least 30 minutes a day and walk 5 days per week. While walking, you should be able have a conversation but still keep up a steady pace. If you are winded and can’t catch your breath, slow down and keep a steady pace.
Read all of the tips and more on walking in the AARP article, The Benefits of Walking.
Are you walking? Walking provides not only great exercise for your body but it also can serve as a stress reliever.
Do you ever feel sluggish or not motivated to do anything? Next time this happens, go take a walk. It can revitalize your day and help reduce stress. It can also serve as a great way to catch up with a girlfriend or enjoy the changing seasons.
If you are still not motivated, then look at this list from the AARP that lists the benefits of walking and see if any of them catch your attention.
Walking can help:
• Manage your weight.
• Control your blood pressure.
• Decrease your risk of heart attack.
• Boost “good” cholesterol – the level of high-density lipoproteins (HDL).
• Lower your risk of stroke.
• Reduce your risk of breast cancer and type 2 diabetes.
• Avoid your need for gallstone surgery.
• Protect against hip fracture.
Tips on walking excerpted from the AARP article, The Numerous Benefits of Walking.
Let’s get walking…
Having a cold is just plain lousy – it’s miserable to have a runny nose, coughs and sneezes. Be sure to drink plenty of fluids and keep your skin well moisturized with an extra dose of Striking Serum layered with Striking Creme. And to help beat the blahs and to give yourself a little TLC, we’re sharing some of our favorite comfort foods.
Cold season is here and when you feel lousy, you want comfort as well as healthy choices. Fitness Magazine highlighted some great choices that should help soothe your cold and keep your diet on track. Each one of these snacks is packed with cold-fighting vitamins, minerals, and amino acids that may help make your cold less severe.
Our traditional favorite – Chicken Soup!
It may be cliché, but Chicken soup is the perfect comfort food when you’ve got a cold! Drinking plenty of hot, nurturing fluids is essential when you’re feeling run down and research at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha showed that chicken soup helps control the production and spread of inflammation and congestion-causing neutrophils (white blood cells).
Recommended serving size: 1 cup
Calories: about 190
Soothing Ginger Tea with Gingersnaps
Ginger helps relieve congestion and has a soothing, spicy taste. To make a throat-calming, congestion-busting tea, steep chopped raw ginger in boiling water for about 10 minutes. Make your teatime a little sweeter by adding a teaspoon of honey to the brew and two crunchy gingersnap cookies on the side. We think this is good on a rainy day, too!
Recommended serving size: 1 cup of tea with 1 teaspoon honey and 2 small gingersnaps
Calories: about 85
Fresh Clementines or Satsumas
Easy to peel, fresh, sweet and tangy all at once, they are a great source of Vitamin C – just two fulfill 100 percent of your RDA of vitamin C.
Recommended serving size: 2 clementines
Calories: about 138
Open Those Sinuses Vegetarian Chili
A spicy veggie chili made with onions, garlic, kidney beans, tomato paste and a good dash of chili peppers not only warms up a cold-afflicted body, it may also have medicinal properties! Onions and garlic have antiviral effects, beans have good-for-the-immune-system B vitamins, and the spices can actually help clear sinuses!
Recommended serving size: 1 cup canned vegetarian chili
Calories: about 160
Tuna Salad
Packed with glutamine, an amino acid that helps step up your immune system’s efficiency, tuna is a great pick when you’re sick. Research at the University of Oxford showed that athletes who ingested glutamine after workouts were less likely to get an upper respiratory infection than those who didn’t; for regular folk, glutamine could have the same beneficial effects. Mix your tuna with a tablespoon of low-fat mayonnaise and serve it on 6 whole-grain crackers for a healthy mini meal.
Recommended serving size: 1 6-ounce can of tuna packed in water with 1 tablespoon low-fat mayonnaise and 6 whole-grain crackers
Calories: about 290
Excerpted from FitnessMagazine.com, January 2006.
http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/recipes/snacks/healthy/6-smart-snacks-to-feed-your-cold/
It could be just around the corner or already here, but here are some tips on the Top 10 Steps to a Healthy Menopause excerpted from MenopauseRx.com.
#10: This is not your grandmother’s menopause
#9: Know what’s happening physically
#8: Menopause can affect sexual function
#7: Talk with your clinician about menopause
#6: Focus on what’s important to you
#5: Menopause treatments are safe and effective
#4: Don’t accept a “one size fits all” treatment plan
#3: Know how hormone therapy works
#2: What to expect from your hormone therapy
#1: Stay fit and healthy
To read more on each tip visit their website and the post on Top Ten Steps to a Healthy Menopause: http://www.menopauserx.com/topten.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEMomMWe5v0&feature=player_embedded
Heart disease is the #1 killer of women. Learn more at www.goredforwomen.org and www.americanheart.org.
This Friday is National Wear Red day. This is a day to speak out by wearing red to recognize National Heart Month and heart disease prevention. For more information, visit Go Red for Women.
February is American Heart Month. This is such an important month for women because heart disease has been described as a silent killer. This is a month to listen and learn about how heart disease can be prevented and to know the early signs to keep yourself and family members protected. The American Heart Association is a great reference site to visit to learn more.
During the month of February we will be adding posts about information on this important topic so check back and read more.
The North American Menopause Society has launched a new newsletter for menopause called Menopause Flashes that can serve as a resource for answering questions and finding resources on menopause. There are so many questions regarding hormone therapy; what is fact and what is fiction? You may have read about hormone therapy in advertisements, online or talked to friends about it. But what is really true and what is not?
There is a great link on this month’s Menopause Flashes that answers questions on hormone therapy by listing the facts and fiction about the topic. To find out what is fact vs fiction go to: http://www.menopause.org/MF200912two.aspx. It might answer some questions for you that you have been wondering about.
For more information on NAMS (North American Menopause Society) visit their website at www.menopause.org.
