Healthiest You Ever

Because organic foods are not subjected to pesticides, they retain more of their natural nutrients and fewer free radicals. This helps maintain cellular health, which in turn helps your body burn foods more efficiently, effectively boosting your metabolism. If you have to economize, opt for organic fruits and vegetables whose skin you eat (apples, pears, peaches, grapes, cherries, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, green beans), as well as meat, eggs, and milk. Farmers’ markets are great resources for organic foods, but you can also look in the phone book or online to find local farms or distributors of organic foods.

When choosing organic produce, look for labels marked “certified” organic. This guarantees that the produce has been grown according to the strict standards set forth by the National Organic Program, including inspection of farms and processing facilities, detailed record keeping, and testing the soil and water for pesticides to ensure government standards are met. Labels reading “transitional organic” mean the food was grown on a farm that has recently converted or is in the process of converting from conventional to organic farming practices.

PESTICIDES AND HERBICIDES ABOUND

Every year, the conventional U.S. agriculture industry goes through more than 1 billion pounds of pesticides and herbicides. Only 2 percent of that actually kills insects; the remaining 98 percent goes into the soil, air, water, and food supply—including the nonorganic fruits and veggies you eat! Buying and consuming organic produce is one way to circumvent this health hazard.

“When I get my heart rate up, I get good exercise and I think it’s good for a lot of things, plus it’s not hurting my hips right now.”

As noted in Week Three, your target heart rate is the training zone that is safe and effective for you to improve your cardio respiratory fitness. Now that you’re exercising more and building your strength, flexibility, and endurance, it’s time to reassess your target heart rate and adjust it upward. Using the formula provided in Week Three, compute your maximum heart rate using the higher figure (65 percent for those who exercise regularly). This would represent a 10 percent increase, which should now be your new goal. Heart rate is an accurate measure of exercise intensity as long as you’re a healthy adult. It’s easy to estimate your target heart rate.

Let’s say you are a forty-year-old woman who is following the suggestions provided and is working hard to get in shape. Your maximum heart rate would be 220 minus 40 (your age), which equals 180. Your beginning heart rate (when you first began following the exercise programs suggested) would have been 55 percent of 180 or 99—likely the point at which you began to sweat and felt strained. However, now that you’ve bolstered your strength and endurance, upping that to 65 percent of 180 or 117 will provide the boost you need to go to the next level. Remember that you also need to measure your heartbeat: 85 percent of 180 equals 153. You likely began targeting 99 beats per minute, and you should be able to increase that number; however, don’t exercise so hard that your heart rate exceeds 153 beats per minute.

“There’s an old saying about those who forget history. I don’t remember it, but it’s good.”

Hate forgetting things? Feel like you have absentmindedness a little too often? This smoothie is designed to get your brain back on track with rich sources of vitamins and minerals that stimulate and rejuvenate brain functions.

1. Combine spinach, cucumbers, celery, tomato, and 1 cup of tea in a blender and blend until thoroughly combined.

2. Add remaining 1 cup of tea as needed while blending until desired consistency is achieved.

THE MANY HATS OF SPINACH

In addition to being a rich source of iron and folate (which actually aids in iron absorption), this amazing veggie holds a wealth of vitamins A, B, C, D, and K that provide cancer-fighting power against liver, ovarian, colon, and prostate cancers. By including just 1 cup of this powerful veggie in your daily diet (raw), you can satisfy over 180 percent of your daily value for vitamin K and almost 400 percent of your vitamin A intake!

“American consumers have no problem with carcinogens, but they will not purchase any product, including floor wax, that has fat in it.”

Fat is an important component to your diet. Many vitamins are “fat soluble,” that is, they need fat to be absorbed by your body. Fat also provides long-lasting energy and helps your body produce hormones. In fact, athletes need fat in their diets, preferably two servings a day from fat-rich plant foods. There are many good fats that you should include in your diet. Leading the list is olive oil, a great source of monounsaturated fat, as well as avocados. And don’t forget about the good fats in certain nuts (almonds, walnuts, pecans). Certain fish, notably salmon, contain high levels of omega-3 fatty acids, considered very good for the heart. Even butter, a source of saturated fat, has beneficial lauric acid and is believed by many to be superior to margarine, which contains trans fats.

Trans fats, which come from partially hydrogenated oils, are present even in products whose labels declare them to be trans fat free because federal regulations allow that statement if the amount is negligible. Tend to view a product with partially hydrogenated oil as the tenth listed ingredient differently than one with it listed second. There is evidence that no amount of trans fat is healthy in your diet.

Take in fat, but make sure it’s the right kind: monounsatured or polyunsaturated, the kind you get from olive oil, canola oil, and omega-3 fatty acids in fish and leafy green vegetables. Stay away from saturated fat and trans fats.

“A few well-designed movements, properly performed in a balanced sequence, are worth hours of doing sloppy calisthenics or forced contortion.”

As with the other Pilates’ exercises, everything you do strengthens your core. The stronger your core, the more you are able to execute more complicated exercises, loosen up your joints, and improve your overall flexibility. The following exercise is particularly good for strengthening and limbering up your hips, legs, and hamstrings.

Start in a plank position, which looks like the up position of a pushup. Be sure your torso is long and flat, and your abs are contracted. Your arms are strong, but your elbows aren’t locked. Now lift your right leg, toes pointing down. Don’t lift your leg too high; it should just go high enough so that you feel a contraction in your butt, but your hips should stay level. Then bend your knee and bring it in toward your chest, once again without changing the line of your hips. Extend your right leg again and then lower your foot to the floor. Repeat on the left side and do this five times on each side.

“It is difficult to realize how great a part of all that is cheerful and delightful in the recollections of our own life is associated with trees.”

If you’ve got a tree in your yard strong enough to support a tree house, get the children in your family involved in helping you create the overall design, shopping for the wood and nails, and helping you build it. Not only will your children love you for creating something that will surely give them many pleasurable hours of fun and memories to last throughout their lives, but you’ll create a special space to share with them the child in you.

HELP A CHILD DEVELOP A HOBBY

Young children, especially boys, it seems, love to play with cars, trucks, boats, and airplanes. If you’ve ever watched a seven- to ten-year-old child operating a remote radio-controlled car (also called an RC car), you probably noticed that sooner or later a group has gathered, much to the child’s delight, to watch the fancy vehicle maneuvers that he orchestrates through a hand-held controller. Some middle school and high school science teachers have used RC cars as tools for teaching radio-control robotics and programming. Encourage your children to express their interests and develop them into hobbies. You’ll enjoy helping them while they are young, and you’ll be even happier if, as young adults, they decide to pursue meaningful careers in academic disciplines such as science.

Chamomile tea is widely known for its relaxing properties as well as its apple-like aroma, and is known to soothe the nerves and restore vitality. Contemporary herbalists also recommend chamomile for fever, digestive upsets, anxiety, and insomnia. British researchers recently discovered that chamomile stimulates the immune system’s white blood cells. It’s particularly recommended for use at the onset of a cold or the flu and its warming and soothing properties promote sleep, the greatest curative of all. Drink a cup or two of tea for relaxation, or at night to promote sleep. Caution: Generally speaking, chamomile is one of the safest herbs available. However, if you are allergic to ragweed or have ever suffered anaphylactic shock, avoid this herb.