Healthiest You Ever

“Take all that is given whether wealth, love or language, nothing comes by mistake and with good digestion all can be turned to health.”

Yogurt is an excellent source of calcium that also provides about 9 grams of animal protein per 6-ounce serving, plus vitamin B₂, vitamin B₁₂, potassium, and magnesium. One of the most beneficial aspects of yogurt comes from the use of active, good bacteria known as probiotics. Probiotics adjust the natural balance of organisms, known as microflora, in the intestines to aid digestion. To make sure your favorite brand of yogurt contains active cultures, look for labeling that says “live and active cultures,” or for words such as Bifidus regularis, L. bulgaricus, S. thermophilus, or Bifidobacterium. Here’s a tasty and healthy treat using yogurt:

Layer the ingredients in a tall cup, starting with the bran flakes, then the yogurt, and finally the strawberries.

“If a regular schedule of balance training is not maintained, even athletes will begin to find it more difficult to exhibit the high level of grace and stability that is required of them.”

Balance is the ability to maintain equilibrium against the force of gravity. It is a basic skill needed in everyday life. Although the inner ear is the balance center, in order to balance, you need strong muscles and joints. There are two types of balance: static and dynamic.

Static balance is exactly what it sounds like—holding a position and not moving. Standing on one leg and holding the other knee up (stork stand) is a static balance exercise. Begin the single-leg standing pose with the knee of one of your legs lifted up in front of you. Your opposite leg, which is going to be your standing/support leg, should be completely straight. Next, take your bent leg and extend it out in front of you as straight and as high as you can. If your standing leg is bending in order to balance you, then you are not ready to hold your leg so high and you will need to lower your extended leg a bit for the moment. As you improve and become more stable in this pose you will be able to lift the extended leg higher. Avoid lifting your extended leg beyond the point where you can maintain balance while keeping both of your legs straight. Bending your knees is compensating for a lack of strength or flexibility, so it’s more important for you to maintain the alignment than to lift your leg as high as possible. Don’t forget to alternate legs!

For many years teachers and pediatricians assumed that the correct development of movement was important to the development of intelligence in children because it challenged students mentally as well as physically. The motor skills involved in sending different left and right combinations with your hands or legs require the nervous system to recall or remember how to do these complex movements in the correct order. Many undergoing Krav Maga fitness training, in particular, have reported an increase in memory. Other people have reported being able to think faster on their feet as a result of fitness training.

Movements or exercises that challenge any skill-related components of fitness—such as balance, agility, coordination, speed, power, or reaction time—enhance one’s cognitive functioning. For example, hand-eye coordination exercises, such as tossing a medicine ball back and forth, may seem simple, but they can provide a challenge that is good for your mental agility.

Try tossing the ball while balancing on one foot. If that still feels simple, have your partner toss the ball at different angles. Incrementally changing a simple exercise challenges the nervous system and keeps individuals concentrating and focused on their performance. Every time you challenge the nervous system, you are training the brain to think more efficiently.

“Most of the time I meet my trainer at the gym and we do a lot of everything: weights circuit with cardio, football drills, sprinting with weights on the treadmill.”

As with many things in life, when it comes to weight training, more is not necessarily better. Muscles need at least forty-eight hours in between training sessions to recover and repair. (The one exception is the abdominal muscle group, which can be exercised every day.) If you’re training your entire body daily, your muscles will not have time to build new tissue. You could be overtraining. Many advanced bodybuilders divide their body parts into two groups and exercise them alternately on consecutive days. This is known as working a “split routine.”

For example, work your upper body by lifting weights one day, and then the next day focus on squats or other legwork. You could also spend one day on the elliptical trainer, and the next day working on your upper body strength. Running one day and swimming the next day would also be an effective way to give stressed muscles the needed time to recuperate. Swimming, in general, is an excellent interim activity.

“People have been practicing yoga for thousands of years because they get something out of it.”

Everyone can do yoga regardless of age, size, flexibility, or health. Many people unfamiliar with yoga think that they have to be like a Gumby toy—able to touch their toes to their nose—but this is not true. Yoga is the great equalizer. Two people can walk into a yoga class, one very flexible with no strength and the other stiff (too strong) with little flexibility. The same poses done by these individuals will tighten up the overly flexible person and loosen the stiff person. Overweight people, pregnant women, and older people can practice yoga and receive its benefits. There are many types of yoga suitable for anyone and poses can always be modified to fit an individual’s needs. Search online for yoga studios near you, and then call several to find the one that feels most right. If you have specific concerns, talk them over with the yoga instructor prior to your first class.

YOGA AS A PAIN RELIEVER

Yoga is a marvelous therapeutic tool. Many ailments and disorders can be relieved by specific postures and breathing practices under the guidance of a qualified yoga teacher. Often, people are amazed to find their backaches, headaches, and joint pain can disappear with regular practice. People with cancer, cardiac problems, and multiple sclerosis can experience relief of some symptoms and develop the ability to relax more fully and cope with stress.

“Base Ball, to be played thoroughly, requires the possession of muscular strength, great agility, quickness of eye, readiness of hand, and many other faculties of mind and body that mark the man of nerve.”

Getting active and staying active provides exercise and uplifts your mood. If you prefer team sports to those you do solo, join a softball team or organize one that includes people from your circle of friends or business colleagues. Softball teams play other players, so even as you are having fun with friends on your team you are also potentially making new friends with players from other teams. Psychologists say those who live isolated lives or without strong social networks are not as happy as those who have strong bonds, social connections, and ongoing support from friends and family.

By signing up for a league, you’ll also be responsible for showing up for league play every week and expected to do your best. That pressure might inspire you to the batting cages during the week to practice in anticipation of the upcoming game. Invite your friends out to watch you play if you need a little more incentive to play well. As you strive to get a home run or increase your strike potential, you’ll probably start working out a little more often on the side.

If you’ve had a hard time staying committed to exercising, joining one of these leagues means you’ll be burning 365 extra calories an hour, at least one day a week. That, hopefully, will help convince you that burning calories doesn’t have to be a chore and can involve bonding, friendship, and even laughter!

If you are feeling particularly anxious, herbal remedies have often proved helpful. Here are two that many have found effective:

Called “the Valium of the nineteenth century” (though it has no chemical similarity to Valium), the herb valerian (Valeriana officinalis) is a common sedative used worldwide. In Europe, it is prescribed for anxiety. Herbalists have chosen valerian for treatment of nervous tension and even for panic attacks. It is known as a safe non-narcotic herbal sedative and is often combined with other herbs to make pain-relieving remedies, as it has the ability to relax muscle spasms. Despite the fact that valerian has been widely studied, just how it works remains a mystery.

For centuries, the plant Indian snakeroot was used in Ayurvedic medicine for a range of problems, including anxiety, headache, fevers, and snakebites. Mahatma Gandhi was reputed to drink a cup of snakeroot tea at bedtime if he had had a busy day and felt overstimulated. Western herbalists valued it as a powerful tranquilizer and also used it to treat high blood pressure.

Then, in 1947, scientists at the CIBA company extracted the alkaloid reserpine from snakeroot and began marketing a drug called Serpasil for high blood pressure. This drug proved to have many unpleasant side effects, and in the 1950s, a new tranquilizer was developed from the herb. This has always been a prescription-only drug in the United States, but in other parts of the world, including Europe and Asia, snakeroot in its natural state continues to be widely used as a soothing tea and tranquilizer.