Healthiest You Ever

Nuts are high in fat, but they contain minerals, fiber, and nice amounts of protein. All nuts and seeds are small powerhouses. They are so powerful, in fact, that just having a serving of nuts five times a week can significantly reduce your risk for heart disease. However, nuts are high in calories and should be eaten in moderation; think of a serving as a tablespoon or two. Look for nuts that are unsalted; it’s not important whether they are roasted or unroasted. Nuts are great sprinkled on foods high in vitamin C, such as fruit and vegetables, because the vitamin C increases the body’s absorption of the iron in nuts.

“Strength training will build that essential lean body mass to rev up your metabolism and help stop those extra pounds from creeping on.”

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

Once you’ve mastered squats while holding a ball, you can easily add diagonal reaches and rotations to strengthen even more muscles.

For diagonal reaches: As you go down in the squat, rotate your torso to the right side, reaching the ball down at a 45-degree angle. As you come up, bring the ball back up diagonally across your body at a 45-degree angle to the left. Be sure to perform the same amount of repetitions on both sides. This exercise builds strength in the lower, middle, and upper body as well as strengthens the ligaments and tendons on the inner and outer knee.

For rotations: Place your feet further apart with the toes turned out slightly. Come to the bottom of your squat and hold it. That is the static part. Holding a ball with your arms stretched out in front of you, rotate your torso right and left. Your eyes will follow the direction the ball goes. This builds muscular endurance in your lower body and increases dynamic strength in your trunk. It also develops stability in the inner and outer ligaments and tendons of your knee.

Complete an average of two to three sets with ten to twenty reps per set, and if the exercises become too easy, use a heavier ball and adjust your reps as needed. To keep upping your muscular strength, increase the weight of the ball over time, and speed up your repetitions.

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.

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“You have a choice. You can throw in the towel, or you can use it to wipe the sweat off of your face.”

Nothing keeps sustained energy up like slow-releasing carbohydrates. Root vegetables are the best friend of any distance cyclist on a mission for better times and better health!

1. Combine spinach, yams, apples, carrots, and 1 cup water in a blender and blend until thoroughly combined.

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

WHY ATHLETES EAT FRUIT

The recommended diet for athletes includes lots of fruits and vegetables, which might seem to be a contradiction because many fruits contain fructose, a simple sugar. These are natural sources of carbohydrates, and are low in simple sugar, and they contain fiber, which slows down the absorption of the sugar. Foods with added sugar are the ones to avoid.

“Before you’ve practiced, the theory is useless. After you’ve practiced, the theory is obvious.”

To do a sage twist (Bharadvajasana) sit sideways on a chair. The right side of the body is next to the back of the chair. Plant your feet flat on the floor with heels under knees. If your feet do not reach the floor, bring the floor to you by placing a book or two under your feet.

Hold onto the topsides of the chair back and bend the elbows wide apart to stretch and open your rib cage, making more room for the breath to enter. Press your buttock bones down into the chair seat as you inhale and lengthen the sides of the body up. Exhale and gradually revolve the body around the spine, toward the back of the chair. With every inhalation, create lift, extension, and space in the body. After three or four breaths carefully unwind and return to center. Repeat on the other side. The benefits of the sage twist on chair include the following:

“For instance, the bicycle is the most efficient machine ever created: Converting calories into gas, a bicycle gets the equivalent of three thousand miles per gallon.”

Riding a bike is a great way to get a hard workout in a short amount of time. You can ride indoors and out. Of course, riding outside will give you lots of fresh air, which will help you feel healthy and refreshed. If you are riding again for the first time in a long time, do so in an area where you can relax and familiarize yourself with the gearing and braking systems. They may seem complicated at first, but once you understand how they work, you’ll breeze right through them. Your body will initially have to adjust to cycling, so limit your first few rides to shorter periods of time and build up to longer rides gradually.

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ROAD BIKING AND MOUNTAIN BIKING?

Road biking takes place on the road, and allows you to travel long distances with speed. Mountain biking is more technical and requires a sense of adventure and a secure sense of balance. Although the name implies it, mountain bike riding does not mean you are limited to riding on mountains. To ensure you have the proper frame size and fit on a bike, talk to your local bike-store expert or bike club. As far as seat positioning goes, your knees should have a slight bend (15 to 20 degrees) when you are in the down phase of the pedal stroke, and your hips should not sway from side to side when you pedal.

“That the birds of worry and care fly over your head, this you cannot change, but that they build nests in your hair, this you can prevent.”

• You find yourself worrying about things that are extremely unlikely, such as suffering from a freak accident or developing an illness you have no reason to believe you would develop. (Think Woody Allen and his imaginary brain tumor.)

• You have trouble falling asleep because you can’t slow down your frantic worrying process as you lie still in bed at night.

• When the phone rings or the mail arrives, you immediately imagine what kind of bad news you are about to receive.

• You feel compelled to control the behaviors of others because you worry that they can’t take care of themselves.

• You are overly cautious about engaging in any behavior that could possibly result in harm or hurt to you or to those around you, even if the risk is small (such as driving a car, flying in an airplane, or visiting a big city).

If even just one of the worrywart characteristics describes you, you probably worry more than you have to. Worry and the anxiety it can produce can cause specific physical, cognitive, and emotional symptoms, from heart palpitations, dry mouth, hyperventilation, muscle pain, and fatigue to fear, panic, anger, and depression. Make a list, right now, of ten things you can do to reduce your stress. Also, list all those worries and then assess the real possibility that each will come to pass. Often we worry needlessly, and life is just too short!