WEEK TWENTY-SEVEN
DIET AND NUTRITION | MONDAY
“The avocado is a food without rival among the fruits, the veritable fruit of paradise.”
—David Fairchild
Eat Avocados
Avocados are incredibly healthful for you. In addition to being packed with important vitamins, avocados are able to lower bad cholesterol, decrease your risk for cancer, and prevent heart disease because they include oleic acid (a monounsaturated fat) and healthy fatty acids, and they are high in magnesium and potassium. Research has also shown that these tasty fruits help the body absorb nutrients from other foods eaten with them. Just keep in mind that an avocado is high in calories—each fruit contains approximately 300 calories and 35 grams of fat. Here’s one particularly nutritious, low-calorie suggestion:
MEXICAN OMELET FOR ONE
To make this a more muscular Mexican omelet, add 2 tablespoons of black beans for added protein.
¼ cup Egg Beaters
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons salsa
1 slice fat-free Cheddar cheese
½ sliced avocado
1. Coat a skillet with nonstick spray. Add Egg Beaters to skillet and salt and pepper to taste. Cook on medium high for 3 minutes.
2. Flip eggs and add salsa and cheese to the center of the eggs. Fold omelet over and cook for another 2 minutes, then flip and cook for an additional 2 minutes. Serve with ½ of a sliced avocado.
PER SERVING (WITHOUT AVOCADO): Calories 225 | Fat 17g | Carbohydrates 4g | Protein 14g | Sodium 428mg | Fiber 1g
STRENGTH | TUESDAY
“I told Warren if he mentions Prop. 13 one more time, he has to do 500 push-ups.”
—Arnold Schwarzenegger
Do Some Good Old-Fashioned Pushups
Pushups are a great way to strengthen your pectoralis major, anterior deltoid, and triceps (chest, shoulder, arms). Kneel on all fours on the floor. Walk your hands forward until your hands are slightly wider than shoulder width apart and your torso resembles a slanted board. Engage your abdominal muscles. Maintain neutral alignment. Straighten your arms and push your body up through your palms. Keep your shoulders relaxed. Maintain neutral alignment.
Inhale to prepare, exhale as you push up. Inhale, return to start. Place a towel under your palms to elevate palms and reduce pressure on your wrists. Another option to reduce pressure on your wrists is to hold onto dumbbells that rest on the floor. Avoid dropping your head. Your pushup should not resemble a nose dive. Avoid locking your elbows when you lift. Lower as low as possible.
If that’s a tad too hard, try standing in front of a wall. Place your hands on the wall slightly wider than shoulder width apart. Bend elbows and lower body toward the wall. Straighten arms as you push through hands.
Another option is to kneel on all fours. Lower your chest toward the floor by bending your elbows. Adjust the amount of load by shifting more or less weight from your knees into your hands.
Work your way up to a full body pushup. On floor, instead of working from a slanting board position, extend your legs long and rest on the balls of your feet, so your body resembles a plank.
Add resistance. Assume same body position. Place one end of a rubber exercise band (used to create resistance) under each of your hands and around your back. Push up against the increased resistance of the rubber exercise band. Lower with control.
MENTAL AGILITY | WEDNESDAY
“It’s important to make being active a part of your life, not a segregated activity that requires a big change of routine.”
—Jack Raglin, PhD, Kinesiology
Stay Mentally and Physically Active to Maintain Mental Acuity
In 2005, Ohio State University researchers reported that older people who exercised regularly were more likely to maintain the mental acuity they needed to do everyday tasks like follow a recipe and keep track of the pills they take. Some of the recommended mental activities for older people included crossword puzzles, trivia games, Scrabble, card games, and projects, such as fixing appliances and cooking.
A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) in 2001 investigated the benefits of keeping active both mentally and physically during leisure time to prevent Alzheimer’s. A group of inactive adults between twenty and sixty years of age was compared to more active peers. Researchers took into account all variables and still found that the risk of developing Alzheimer’s in inactive people was four times that of active people.
There are several games in this book, but you can also find a myriad of puzzle books in your favorite bookstore. There are also a number of websites that offer games you can play online, and join others also playing the games. Why not have friends come over to play Scrabble or Bridge, and if you have to learn new skills, all the better!
ENDURANCE | THURSDAY
“If you focus on results, you will never change. If you focus on change, you will get results.”
—Jack Dixon
Increase Your Workout Intensity
Moderate-intensity exercise gets your heart pumping, but not in an overly stressful, breathless way. This kind of exercise helps you develop endurance. High-intensity exercise is tough; you breathe heavily and are overloading your heart and muscles. You need a mixture of both kinds of intensity to stay fit. When you push your intensity levels, your body responds by becoming stronger and burning more calories.
To improve your fitness level, you need to work your body harder than it is used to working, which means you need to overload or increase the intensity and/or duration of your exercise regimen. Research has found that your body adapts to the stress of working harder by becoming stronger. For example, if you walk 2 miles five days a week, eventually walking those 2 miles will get easier, and you’ll be able to work longer or faster or both. Your heart becomes stronger and more efficient using this overload principle, but you can also apply this principle to the other components of physical fitness, including muscle strength, muscle endurance, and flexibility.
By systematically overloading your muscles in both strength and endurance (lifting more weight or lifting weight for longer), as well as in flexibility (stretching further and more extensively), you will also be able to make gains in those fitness elements. Lifting weights and stretching in a regular strengthening program allow you to create a body that is more capable and fitter than it was before. The harder you exercise, the higher the levels of both fat and sugar that you’ll burn.
FLEXIBILITY | FRIDAY
“By embracing your mother wound as your yoga, you transform what has been a hindrance in your life into a teacher of the heart.”
—Phillip Moffitt
Stretch Your Back Muscles in Child’s Pose
To do the child’s pose (Balasana) kneel on all fours, with your hands under your shoulders and your knees under your hips. Inhale and on the exhalation draw your buttocks back to rest on your heels. Press your hands on the floor, extending into your fingertips, and stretching back through the sides of your body to the hips. Let your forehead rest on the floor. While in the pose, inhale, and feel the expansion of your waist and lower back. Exhale and observe the contraction of your ribs and lungs as the breath leaves your body. Stay for several breaths and then come back up and release the pose.
If your head does not reach the floor, place a folded blanket under the forehead. If your buttocks do not meet the heels, place a folded blanket between your heels and blanket for support. Walk your hands to the right for several breaths and then to the left. This stretches one side of the body at a time, and is particularly beneficial for scoliosis, where one side of the body is convex and the other is concave. The benefits of child’s pose include the following:
• It increases circulation in the lower back and abdomen.
• It stretches the back muscles and the spine.
• It eases lower back discomfort.
• It’s a good resting pose to do in between strenuous postures.
RECREATION | SATURDAY
“There is nothing so American as our national parks.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
Spend Your Saturday Supporting Our National Parks
Did you know that many of America’s parks are in crisis with deteriorating roads, trails, and visitors’ facilities? Some parks are operating without adequate funding. Pollution and traffic congestion exact a toll on these national treasures. If you live near, visit, or simply want to help a national park, here are three government websites you can visit to make a donation or volunteer your services:
• www.nps.gov/getinvolved/donate.htm
• www.nationalparks.org/take-action/
Your local parks also need help, as does the environment in general. Here are several ways you can improve your local outdoor environment:
• When you’re enjoying public parks, keep an eye out for ways you can spruce them up. For instance, if you see litter don’t just let it bother you; get out there and pick it up! Offer to plant flowers, shrubs, or trees.
• Adopt a bench at a local park. Use a plaque to memorialize your local company founder, or someone special on the job who has passed on. Attach the plaque to the bench’s back support.
• Adopt a section of a highway. Keep it clean and beautiful. Organize a group to help you pick up trash along your designated section of the road. It goes a long way toward keeping America beautiful.
REST | SUNDAY
“The television, that insidious beast, that Medusa which freezes a billion people to stone every night, staring fixedly, that Siren which called and sang and promised so much and gave, after all, so little.”
—Ray Bradbury, The Golden Apples of the Sun
Opt for Less Media Saturation
Digital cable, satellite dishes, streaming movies over the Internet, smartphones, MP3 hookups in the car, wireless Internet connections—ours is a technological world, and it can be pretty seductive. Some people can’t resist the pleasure of watching a movie on their laptop while curled in bed, or having the highest of high-end stereo equipment, or exploring the world through the Internet for hours at a time. If you have a media habit, you certainly aren’t alone. According to statistics compiled by a group called TV Free America, 98 percent of American households have at least one television, and 40 percent have three or more TVs! The television is turned on in the average American home for seven hours and twelve minutes every day, and 66 percent of Americans eat dinner while watching TV. Almost half of Americans (49 percent) admit they watch too much TV.
Like anything else, technology and media are fine … in moderation. But also, like anything else, too much of a good thing soon becomes a bad thing. If your media habit is taking up more than its fair share of your time and you are sacrificing other, equally important or more important parts of your life because of your media fixation, then it’s a bad habit.
Seek balance in your media habits. Set boundaries. Don’t let Internet surfing or channel surfing keep you from sleeping enough, eating right, or getting up out of your chair and getting some exercise.