Energy Express from Creators Syndicate

A Red Alert for Women Who Want to Reduce the Risk of Breast Cancer for 02/19/2008

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Living a healthy lifestyle — eating real food, exercising regularly and happily — can reduce your risk of breast cancer. This isn't news. But what will be news to many women is that eating just 2 ounces of red meat a day can significantly increase their risk of breast cancer, especially if they are finished with menopause. Eating 3 ounces of processed meat a day (i.e. cold cuts) was ...

Updated: Tue Feb 19, 2008

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How to Catch Your Breath, Enhance Your Energy and Fall Asleep Easily for 02/26/2008

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

When you think about living a healthy lifestyle, what pops to mind? The joy of exercise. Smart eating. A strong, compassionate heart. Tight, rippling muscles. (Dream on.)

What about breathing? Yeah, what about it? It's automatic, part of the autonomic nervous system of our wondrous bodies. Breathing is like blinking, we learned in science class. It just happens, without our needing to th ...

Updated: Tue Feb 26, 2008

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Better Balance 101: Learn to Slump Before You Fall for 03/04/2008

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Falling down can actually kill you.

That's what David Brinkley, Dr. Robert Atkins, Kurt Vonnegut and George Burns all had in common, according to balance expert Betty Perkins-Carpenter, author of a book with the catchy title, "How To Prevent Falls" (Senior Fitness Productions, Penfield, N.Y.). All four of them suffered a fall, didn't break anything, but died soon after from a t ...

Updated: Tue Mar 04, 2008

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Can You Afford to Eat Healthy? Can You Afford Not to? for 03/11/2008

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Researchers at the University of Washington recently discovered something that people who go to Whole Foods have known for years: Eating healthy isn't cheap. The study compared the prices of healthy foods (rich in nutrients and low in calories, such as whole grains, fresh fruits and veggies, fish, lean meat) with high-calorie processed foods. It found that in the last two years, the cost of hea ...

Updated: Tue Mar 11, 2008

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Fitness 101: For a Dandy Gym Workout, Focus and Balance for 03/18/2008

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Getting to the gym is the first step. But what other steps do you take when you get there?

Many people like to do their cardio on a stair climber, and that's a perfectly good choice. It's a great way to strengthen the muscles of your lower body: your quads (the major leg muscle above your knee; go ahead and give 'em a squeeze), hamstrings (opposite your quads on the back of the leg; tigh ...

Updated: Tue Mar 18, 2008

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Time to Spring Into Action: Four Steps to a Healthier You for 03/25/2008

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Spring has sprung. Hooray! The birds are chirping, the buds are popping, and Mother Nature is breathing new life into things that looked dead and gone just a few weeks ago.

And that's the take-home point for today: when the seasons shift and change, so can you. In the winter, many of us tend to shut down and pile on the pounds. In the spring, we awaken and say, "Who shrunk my jeans? ...

Updated: Tue Mar 25, 2008

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Feeling Squeezed? Four Ways to Save Money on Your Workouts for 04/01/2008

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Times are tight, getting tighter. Here are four fast ways for you to save some money without sacrificing your regular exercise routine. The tougher the stuff you have to deal with — layoffs, shaky mortgages, troubled kids, soldiers in war zones — the more you need to take time to chill, to sweat and to focus. Who said, "When times are tough, the tough go walking?" I did.
Updated: Tue Apr 01, 2008

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It's Earth Day! Turn Yourself Into a Heavenly Body for 04/08/2008

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Every day can be Earth Day, if you plan it correctly. Plan it? Planet? Don't you just love the English language?

Earth Day — a revolution in consciousness celebrated April 22 by more than a billion people — barely struggled into existence in 1970, founded by the late Sen. Gaylord Nelson of the great state of Wisconsin.

According to the official Earth Day Network websit ...

Updated: Tue Apr 08, 2008

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Fitness 101: How to Care for Simple Sports Injuries for 04/15/2008

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Class is in session. Put on your certified-organic thinking caps. Sports injuries — the dark side of increasing spring and summer play — can happen to anyone, at anytime. It's your duty as my devoted reader who wants to avoid the Organized Health Care system as much as possible to learn some of today's basic fitness first-aid rules.

Why? Because informed self-care builds conf ...

Updated: Tue Apr 15, 2008

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Can't Exercise Because of Allergies? Nasal Washing is the Way to Flow for 04/22/2008

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Dear Marilynn: My allergies are awful this time of year. I live in the Southwest and can barely go outside, let alone walk my usual 3 miles a day. The medicine my doctor wants me to take are worse than my symptoms; they dry me out and stuff me up. A friend of mine swears by her Neti pot. She uses it once or twice a day and told me she doesn't need her pills anymore. What do you think of using a ...

Updated: Tue Apr 22, 2008

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How To Step Up & Pep Up Your Walking for 04/29/2008

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

I saw a middle-aged woman on the walking path the other day, dressed in tights and a sweatshirt putting in her time. I was happy to see her out in the sunshine, breathing fresh air, but then I noticed she was barely breathing at all. Her head hung down, her shoulders drooped, her gait was slow and slightly uneven.

Yes, she was putting one foot in front of the other, and yes, all exercise ...

Updated: Tue Apr 29, 2008

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How To Step Up & Pep Up Your Walking for 04/29/2008

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Yes, she was putting one foot in front of the other, and yes, all exercise ...

Updated: Tue Apr 29, 2008

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Take A Hike!: How To Use Outdoor Adventure To Explore Your Inner Life for 05/13/2008

Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Eileen McDargh used to think her ideal vacation was spent in a lounge chair, poolside, at some hoo-hah fancy resort; hot showers, cold drinks, a stack of books to read and a suitcase full of designer clothes to wear.

That's over now. McDargh -- an international business and leadership expert, an author and a 59-year-old grandmother -- fell in love with wilderness hiking some years ago and rece ...

Updated: Tue May 13, 2008

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Don't Let Cramps Put a Crimp in Active Lifestyle for 05/20/2008

Tue, 20 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

There's nothing like a muscle cramp — also known as a charley horse or a spasm — to capture your complete attention. You know the feeling ...

You're running across a tennis court and suddenly it feels like someone is jabbing a fork into your calf. Or you're swimming your laps in the pool, and your toes curl up and cramp so badly you have to quit kicking and head for dry land. ...

Updated: Tue May 20, 2008

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For Fun, For Fitness, For a Fabulous Vacation, Go Cycling! for 05/27/2008

Tue, 27 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Have you ever taken a bicycle trip? I don't mean a quick ride to the grocery or an afternoon pedal through a park. Those are fun fitness-related activities, and as your most personal trainer, I encourage them both.

But the kind of bike trip I'm talking about and wish for all of you takes place over days. Three, five, seven days, even two weeks or more. Just you and your bicycle and the o ...

Updated: Tue May 27, 2008

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Is Wii Worth It? Is Faux Fitness Better Than Nothing? for 06/03/2008

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

I am a wee bit afraid of the impact of Wii — the very popular video gaming system that just came out with a Fitness version — highly publicized, well received, a breakthrough product.

Suddenly, kids who didn't know one end of a basketball from another are wildly enthusiastic about jumping jacks. The popularity of Wii devices — and other active games, such as Dance Dance ...

Updated: Tue Jun 03, 2008

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Go Nuts! A Tasty Crazy Way To Better Health for 06/10/2008

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

I'm of the generation of women who grew up with a fear of pecans. Nuts were way too high in calories, too dense a source of fats, and they tasted too good. Decline the delicious peanut and the heavenly hazelnut, or watch your thighs explode.

It was a nutty way to behave, and I am making up for it now. Walnuts on my beets. Almonds in my red snapper sauce. Peanuts whenever possible, but ra ...

Updated: Tue Jun 10, 2008

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Summer Shorts for 06/17/2008

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Let's Hear It For $5 a Gallon

It's hard to believe there's an upside to higher gas prices, but there is. Finally, gas is so costly that people are starting to drive less, and walk and bicycle more. It's called exercise, and any way you cut it, or cause it, it's a good thing for our nation's health.

Chew on this: If the price of gasoline went up an additional $1 a gallon, o ...

Updated: Tue Jun 17, 2008

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You Can Improve! Four Secrets To Happier Golf for 06/24/2008

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

(This column is dedicated to the astounding Tiger Woods. Too many torques of the knee can bring anyone down. That's the dark side of repetitive competitive sports. Good luck with your surgery.)

Golf is a marvelous sport — and a maddening game.

"Golf is of games the most mystical, the least earthbound," the novelist John Updike once wrote, "the one wher ...

Updated: Tue Jun 24, 2008

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It's Your Workout; Define It And Design It for 07/01/2008

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Bob has a belly the size of a seedless watermelon. Bettina can't haul her groceries upstairs. Barack can't shrug without five body-language experts debating it on CNN. Bob wants to lose weight, Bettina wants to gain strength, and Barack wants to take the stress out of running for president. All three are exercising regularly … kudos! But their goals are different, and their exercise prog ...

Updated: Tue Jul 01, 2008

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