Healthiest You Ever

Because greens have very few carbohydrates and a lot of fiber, leafy greens take the body a long time to digest. They fill you up, but they have very few calories and no fat. In fact, most greens have so little impact on blood glucose that many low-carb diets consider them free foods.

Studies show leafy greens pack a powerful nutritional punch by helping reduce heart disease, lung cancer, and colon cancer. A team of researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health found that individuals who consume leafy greens daily had a 23 percent reduction in coronary heart disease. Leafy greens run the gamut in taste, from arugula—which ancient Romans considered an aphrodisiac because of its peppery taste—to iceberg lettuce, which is crunchy and sweet with a very mild flavor. Here are some potent leafy greens and their benefits:

• Lettuce. Deep green lettuce is a good source of calcium, chlorophyll, iron, magnesium, potassium, silicon, and vitamins A and E. All types help rebuild hemoglobin, add shine and thickness to hair, and promote hair growth.

• Parsley. Packed with chlorophyll, vitamins A and C, calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, sodium, and sulfur, parsley helps stimulate oxygen metabolism, cell respiration, and regeneration.

• Spinach, kale, and Swiss chard. Popeye was right all along. You’ll be strong to the finish if you eat your spinach, kale, and chard, which provide ample supplies of iron, phosphorous, fiber, and vitamins A, B, C, E, and K.

• Watercress. This delicate leafy green veggie is packed with vitamin C, calcium, and potassium. It also contains acid-forming minerals, which make it ideal for intestinal cleansing and normalizing, and chlorophyll, which stimulates metabolism and circulatory functions.

“Most importantly, a healthy lifestyle is a process. It’s a commitment you make to yourself and to those you love and who care for you each and every day.”

—Shirley S. Archer, fitness professional, Stanford University School of Medicine

At some point, if you are serious about building your strength, you will want to get a heart rate monitor. A heart monitor is essential for accurately managing your efforts to achieve certain goals or managing the balance between aerobic and anaerobic conditioning, fat loss, or cardio threshold conditioning. Only with a heart monitor can you know for sure that you have worked out at an intensity level appropriate to your goals. With monitors readily available and inexpensive, there is no reason anyone should not use one.

There are many heart rate monitors on the market. Some simply tell you your current heart rate, while others allow you to connect to your computer so you can record and download your heart rate and give you a summary for each training period. Some monitors will even allow you to set the type of workout you are going to do and then warn you when you are above or below your target heart rate. Prices range from $29 to over $500.

Once you know your heart rate, you can train in specific zones tailored to your goals for that training period. Each zone corresponds to a heart rate range relative to your maximum heart rate. Aerobic conditioning, which strengthens your heart and lungs, takes place when training keeps your heart rate between 70 percent and 80 percent of your max heart rate. Anaerobic conditioning, which improves your ability to perform very intensely for short periods of time, takes place when training keeps your heart rate between 80 percent and 90 percent of your max heart rate. Training above 90 percent of your maximum heart rate can only be maintained for short periods of time.

“A good puzzle, it’s a fair thing. Nobody is lying. It’s very clear, and the problem depends just on you.”

Link these word pairs together with a ladder of words. Each step in the ladder must be a real word and must differ from the previous word by only one letter. For example, CAT can be linked to DOG with these steps: CAT, COT, DOT, DOG. There are many possible solutions for these puzzles, but try to use only the given number of steps:

These puzzles have many possible solutions. Here are some answers, but yours might be different: EGG, EGO, AGO, AGE, AYE, BYE, BEE, TEE, TEN, HEN; TIME, TILE, TILL, TELL, BELL; SING, DING, DINE, DONE, TONE

“To make a muscle grow, you must force it to go beyond its capabilities. The most potent way to apply that force is to train to failure. Training to failure means … the muscles are forced to grow stronger and bigger.”

The intensity of your weight training relates to your effort level. This is based on training volume. The volume of your training is measured by repetitions, sets, and resistance. All strength-training exercises are defined by these factors. A moderate program consists of eight to ten exercises that include the following major muscle groups:

• Shoulders: deltoid muscles, rotator cuff, scapular stabilizers, trapezius

When it comes to counting reps to muscle failure, lifting a very heavy weight that can only be lifted a few times would be considered high-intensity training. Very heavy lifting is only appropriate for athletes and experienced exercisers. Athletes perform very heavy lifting to produce strength and power gains.

For most people, a moderate intensity approach minimizes injury and produces results. Performing eight to twelve repetitions to muscular failure is considered moderate intensity. By performing between eight to twelve repetitions, you strike a balance between building muscle strength and endurance.

When you select your level of weight for each exercise, make sure that you are feeling challenged, but not overwhelmed. If you can perform 15 repetitions of an exercise easily, that’s a sign that your weight is too light. If you can’t do 8 reps, then the weight is too heavy. Always start light and increase weight in the smallest possible increments. Don’t try to force a lift. You may injure yourself.

“In 10 sessions, you will feel the difference. In 20, you will see the difference. And in 30, you’ll be on your way to having a whole new body.”

Now that you’ve mastered several Pilates exercises, it’s time to rev up your Pilates workout. When you do each move, pay special attention to the breathing instructions. When you inhale, make it a very slow, deep breath, and feel your body expand with the breath. When you exhale, do it slowly and feel your body get just a little smaller and more relaxed.

This is an isometric exercise, which means you just hold the pose, rather than moving through it. It’s tough, so here are three variations to try:

• Hard Side Plank: Put your right leg and your right elbow on the floor, keeping your left leg long, with your left foot on the floor, and your torso straight and long. Your left arm can be down along your side. Hold this position for two to five breaths.

• Harder Side Plank: Do the same position above, but balance on your right bent leg and your right hand. Hold for two to five breaths.

• Hardest Side Plank: Start in the plank position. Now, bring the right palm toward your left palm so it’s on the floor just below the center of your chest. Now turn your body as you bring the outside of your right foot on the floor in line with the palm. Stack the left foot on top of the right, with the inner edges of the feet in contact. Press the right hand down into the floor and lift the hips, making the legs and torso one straight line. Lift the left arm toward the ceiling, making the arms one straight line. Breathe and hold for two to five breaths. Come back to the plank position and repeat on the left.

Now, this is a funny thing. These days, many people think of housecleaning as beneath them, even though they are proud of their clean homes. In other words, as with gardening, they let someone else do the work. And that’s a shame, because housecleaning is, in many ways, the perfect cross-training workout. It combines cardio (especially if you’re scrubbing bathrooms or floors), resistance training in your upper body, and flexibility (because you are moving around a lot and constantly changing position). In many ways, housecleaning is like dancing—it’s constant motion. And cleaning your house yourself will save you money!

Another very effective strategy is to clean your house in 10-minute, 20-minute, or 30-minute breaks in the evening, especially if the TV is usually on. Get up during commercials and wash your sinks, or turn off the TV during that half-hour show you don’t really like and do the whole bathroom. Not only will you burn a nice number of calories, but the energy blast will lighten your mood and you’ll be happy with the reward of a cleaner house.

EXACTLY HOW IS THIS RECREATION?

If you think of recreation as a way to get physical exercise, cleaning house offers a variety of activities that can make a change in your body, including your heart and muscles: vacuuming, dusting, washing floors, scrubbing bathrooms, and washing windows. Because of differences in body size, activities, and energy output, no one knows exactly how many calories you’ll burn, but rough estimates are anywhere from 100 to 300 calories per hour, depending on your intensity level.

“Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like.”

Whether or not you use a credit card to buy goods, refraining from mindlessly participating in consumerism would probably do your spirit a lot of good—and it would be a great habit to embrace. Start today by designating one day in the week ahead to absolutely not put one foot in a store or go online to shop. No gas, no food, no latte on the way to work. Nada. Save your dough and enjoy the bounty of the planet and the blessings of family and friends.

Once you try it, and discover how freeing it can be to focus on savoring the free things in life rather than blindly or habitually consuming, you may want to go on a buying strike two days a week. And even if you only stick to one day a week (or one a month), bringing your spending habits to consciousness will make you a fully conscious, and thus smarter, consumer.

• Support socially conscious businesses. Seek out and support retailers who take care of the environment and treat employees and customers fairly.

• Support your local small businesses, as they need your support far more than multinational corporations. It also helps your local economy and offers you a chance to get to know business owners who are members of your community.

• Boycott unethical businesses. Refuse to conduct business with those that engage in immoral practices such as using offshore child labor, exploiting workers through low wages and putting them in harm’s way, or forcing them to live in hazardous housing.