Healthy Walking to Stay Fit

Walking, walking, walking... The great thing about it is that no matter what your fitness level is, most people can do it. But how can you get more out of your walking?

I get out to walk most days because I am motivated by my two little dogs who LOVE their morning jaunt around the neighborhood. I usually fit it after my other workouts, either spin class or swimming. However, if all you are doing is the walk, I recommend supercharging it to get the most out of your exercise. Adding Nordic walking sticks will allow you burn 33 percent more calories and get re-energized about your walking.


Walking with Nordic walking sticks:

• Origin: Created for cross-country skiers to train in the summer months.
  
• Equipment: Nordic walking sticks are lightweight poles that have wrist straps and pointed ends. And of course, a good pair of walking / running shoes with good support.
• How to: After donning your walking sticks (straps firmly around your wrists), with each stride swing the opposite arm forward and push against the ground with the pole, engaging the muscles in your arms, shoulders and core.
• Benefits: Since you are targeting more muscles than you would on an ordinary walk, you will burn 20 to 46 percent more calories.

Click here to learn more about the benefits of walking with Nordic walking poles.

Get out there, find your rhythm and start burning calories!

Using Changing Routines to Re-Energize Your Workouts

I can't believe that summer is over and the kids are back in school! What the heck happened. For me, the days flew by in record speed.
It was a summer of small trips with family and entertaining guests too. How did I keep with my exercise program...? Let me tell you how I did it, and how I modified it when necessary.

On my June trip to Palm Springs, it was seasonally cool so I was able to fit in a 4 mile jog one morning and tennis on the other mornings, or evenings as the case may be. What I call "fun fitness".

In San Diego I was able to do one morning jog, while my boys slept in, and on the other day I walked and rented bikes for the boys and I to explore Coronado Island (see photo).

Then there was the Goat Herder hike up Refugio Mountain with a group of friends. This has proven to be a great workout that I have repeated several times throughout the summer with various friends (sans goats).

The trip to WA was amazing with a hike in Big Sur, tons of walking around San Francisco and a great hike up Mt. Scott at Crater Lake. See all you need to do is keep on moving!

Once I was in Seattle I have a great friend who kept me challenged when it came to workouts. We did sculpting classes or step classes every morning at the gym followed by a 20 - 35 mile cycling exursion. When we went up to the town of Leavenworth near Wenatchee WA, we rode 25 miles on road bikes one day and 16 on mountain bikes the next. Never a dull moment, and great workouts!

When I found myself in Carmel, CA without a car due to an unexpected event, I had to give up my plans to explore the coastal trails. Instead, I walked my dogs all around town including nice long beach walks everyday. Lucky for me the weather was perfect! Carmel is a very dog friendly town so it was easy to visit shops or even restaurants with my furry friends.

Staying fit was the challenge this summer. If you can be flexible and willing to change up your routine when the situation calls for it, you can still get your daily exercise and enjoy healthy fun. I found that when it came time to fall back in to the normal routine, that I was ready to give 100% again. Sometimes having that little break is what we need to become re-energized for our workouts.

AGE-PROOF Your Body by Boosting Your Bone Strength

Target Exercise for strengthening your skeletal system is the key.

Exercise in general will improve many things, from balance, agility, and coordination to blood pressure, cholesterol and bone health. Almost all exercise helps lower cholesterol and blood pressure, but not all exercise will assist in strengthening the entire skeleton. That is why "target exercise" is necessary.

As you age, the risk of falling and fracturing increases, especially in the spine, wrists, and hips. One in two women older than 50 will break a bone because of osteoporosis, according to the NOF (National Osteoporosis Foundation).

What you can do: Don't give up your normal exercise routine, just add a few activities that create force or stress on the skeletal system. Try jumping rope or strength training. Those exercises stress on your skeletal system causing your body to respond by building more bone to tolerate the additional force or stress.

Do some form of exercise every day to maintain a healthy lifestyle and remember to feed your body only good healthy foods. The more organic fresh fruits and vegetables the better.

Staying Fit While Entertaining Summer Visitors

It's been a busy June with visitors from Norway, 8th grade graduation, family vacation and college touring. Wow, how to fill up a month! The challenge was to find a balance with staying fit, exercising and including a health menu to keep from gaining weight during the hectic month. It's so easy to fall into bad habits and grab the unhealthy food choices when we are on the go a lot. I was determined to keep my healthy lifestyle even while I traveled and entertained guests.

During the week my guests were with me we ate healthy meals every day, (I bought the required groceries before they arrived). I decided on the weeks meals before hand so I wouldn't be tempted to stop for fast food on a day we were particularly busy. I chose recipes that were either easy and quick to prepare, after a long day of playing tourist, or a crock pot meal that would be filling the house with mouth-watering aromas as we returned from a day out.

I have a wonderful cookbook, I have used over the years, called "Cookbook of the Year", by Don Collins. This cookbook plans your week of meals in advance (for the whole year) and even provides the grocery list for each week. I modify the meals and the shopping if I know I will have other plans for some of the days that week. He uses healthy alternatives like, chicken broth for sauteing and plain yogurt to replace sour cream.

As for the exercise, I did my early morning routine of spin class at 6:00 AM for a few of the days, that way I was home before my guests got going for the day, and on the other days, I planned sightseeing with lots of walking or a vigorous hike in the back country. (see hiking photo) I thought it was important to show my guests all aspects of our beautiful area. We all stayed healthy by eating healthy meals combined with daily exercise.

If you are expecting company this summer... it's a great idea to refresh yourself on tourist activities and kid friendly fun. As my Norwegian relatives brought along their daughters age 6 and 8 years, we needed to provide rests and full child related activities too. I incorporated a visit to the Ty Warner Sea Center and a boat ride harbor tour on Little Toot (where the girls each received authentic shipmate caps). They found out a lot about our coastal area and how important it is to be conscious about our environment.

I hope you find this information helpful if you have visitors coming for the summer months. Have a great summer... look for some healthy, quick and refreshing meals for the summer.

Eating the "Right" Kind of Protein Can Help You Lose Weight

In my endless search for ways to be healthy, stay young, and maintain my youthful vitality, I came across an article on how eating high quality protein will actually curb your appetite, improve cardiovascular health and more. It's reminiscent of my Low Carb diet days, but now researchers have determined that there is validity to this way of eating. What research says is that to net the health-promoting benefits of protein, experts recommend lean, high quality choices: fish, skinless poultry, lean meat, egg whites, low fat dairy, and legumes. These newer findings simply suggest the impact of protein on health is more far reaching than health experts first realized, and that perhaps protein is a key player in keeping the heart healthy, the blood sugar level, and appetite and weight all under control. If weight loss is your goal, plan on incorporating a little more of the high quality protein into your meals. Click here to read more.

Multiple Benifits from Good Posture

Who could have guessed that there could be so many benefits from having good posture. I never wanted to look like so many older women who have the slumped forward look, but it is more than just an outward appearance to have total health and a youthful presence. Start by straightening up to stave off neck and back pain, and to boost overall health. Here are some of the benefits from having good posture:

• Better Digestion. Good posture tones your core muscles, which support your digestive organs. "if your core musculature is slack, your body stabilizes abdominal organs by packing fat around them, which heats the organs and reduces their function." says biomechanist Katy Santiago, director of the Restorative Exercise Institute in Ventura, CA
• Fewer Headaches. In a recent study, Italian researchers found that office workers who were instructed to correct the position of their heads and necks every two hours reported having 40% fewer headaches each month.
  
• Enhanced Detox. "Posture dictates how well blood and lymphatic fluid flow," Santiago says. If you have fewer kinks, your body releases toxins efficiently.
• Stronger Bones. When you are properly aligned, your bones support your mass and weight bearing keeps them strong. When you have poor posture, your muscles and connective tissue end up doing some of the supportive work.

A helpful tip for aging baby boomers to try that will help get your back and neck properly aligned is the Rhomboid crunch. This exercise will strengthen the rhomboids (the muscles that connect the shoulder blades to the spine), which corrects the tendency to round the upper spine forward. It opens the chest and promotes deeper breathing.

Rhomboid Crunch - 1. Stand up straight with your feet directly under your hips. Hold a broomstick under your buttocks with your arms straight, hands shoulder-width apart, palms facing forward, and thumbs facing out. To avoid puffing our your ribs, pull your rib cage toward your spine.

2. Slowly lift the bar as high as you can without moving your hands wider than shoulder-width apart. Don't lift your shoulders up toward your ears, concentrate on opening up your chest and bringing your shoulder blades together behind you. Hold for ten seconds, then release.

How To Get Great Work-Out In The Pool

I recently made the jump... into the pool! It has been YEARS since I last did a swim work-out, but I have been hearing about the great results people are getting from their swim routine. This also a great way for aging baby boomers to stay young increase fitness and cardiovascular health. No jarring on the bones and joints, and it can be quite a stress relief as you get into your zone. If you want an even better work-out, try the following helpful tips by Mark Schubert, head of the U.S. National Team and seven-time Olympic swimming coach.

• Keep Your Heart Rate Up - to around 80% of your maximum heart rate for as much of your work out as you can. To ensure you are staying in the "zone" stop after every 10 to 15 laps to count your pulse, using the pool clock, counting for six seconds then tack a zero onto the number. Vigorous swimming can burn up to 680 calories, based on a 150 pound woman.
• Play with Pool Toys - by incorporating kick boards, hand paddles, swim fins or those foam buoys you place between your legs. Not only will you burn more calories, but it these toys will help you tone arm and leg muscles, too.
• Change it up - by breaking up your laps into what pros call a ladder. Start with one lap, then two laps, three laps, four laps, five laps, six laps, and back down with, five laps, four laps, three laps, two laps, and finally one lap. Give yourself a rest of 15 to 30 seconds between each segment.
  
• Get Racy - Swimming fast burns calories better, but you don't have to speed through your whole workout to get the benefits. Try doing one length easy, then one length fast, two easy then two fast and so on. This is also a good way to work up your stamina.
  
• No Rest For the Weary - No more than 10% of your water time should be spent loitering in your lane. Try cutting your rests in half or limit your rest to 10 second pauses between laps or intervals.