Healthiest You Ever

“It’s bizarre that the produce manager is more important to my children’s health than the pediatrician.”

Loaded with cancer-fighting antioxidants, kale is, literally, one of the healthiest foods in the vegetable kingdom. Together with its cousin, broccoli, kale offers strong protection against cancer and other disease. Kale and other Brassica vegetables contain a potent glucosinolate phytonutrient, which actually boosts your body’s detoxification enzymes, clearing potentially carcinogenic substances more quickly from your body. More common members of the prestigious Brassica family of vegetables include: cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, kale, collards, mustard greens, rapini, bok choy, and broccoli rabe. With so many choices take advantage of having one variety each day of the week.

Eating a balanced diet of vibrant fruits, vegetables, and leafy greens can ensure you’re providing for your health and your athletic ability.

1. Combine watercress, pineapple, oranges, lemon, strawberries, and ½ cup water in a blender and blend until thoroughly combined.

2. Add remaining ½ cup water as needed while blending until desired consistency is achieved.

VITAMINS AND MINERALS FOR PROACTIVE HEALTH

How important is vitamin C to an athlete? When was the last time you saw a top-performing athlete take first place hacking and heaving all the way to the finish line? Never! If you’re going to keep your body in top shape, ready for anything, sound nutrition isn’t the only thing requiring attention. In order to get the biggest bang for your buck out of performance nutrition, load up on vibrant fruits and veggies that do double duty.

“To all my little Hulkamaniacs, say your prayers, take your vitamins, and you will never go wrong.”

Potassium is an electrolyte that works closely with its counterparts, chloride and sodium. Over 95 percent of potassium is in the body’s cells and helps regulate the flow of fluids and minerals in and out of the body’s cells. It also helps maintain normal blood pressure, maintain heart and kidney function, and transmit nerve impulses and contraction of muscles. Studies have also shown that potassium may also reduce the risk of high blood pressure and stroke. Potassium is very important in converting blood sugar into glycogen, the storage form of blood sugar in your muscles and liver. Potassium is widely available in foods, but chronic diarrhea, vomiting, diabetic acidosis, kidney disease, or prolonged use of laxatives or diuretics could cause a deficiency. Most people excrete excess potassium in their urine. If the excess cannot be excreted—for instance, in the case of someone with kidney disease—it can cause heart problems. Some experts recommend a higher intake, around 3,500 milligrams per day, to help protect against high blood pressure.

CHOOSE FOODS RICH IN POTASSIUM

A diet low in fat and cholesterol and rich in foods containing potassium, magnesium, and calcium—such as fruits, vegetables, legumes, and dairy foods—has shown evidence of reducing blood pressure. Potassium-rich foods include fresh meat, poultry, fish, figs, lentils, kidney beans, black beans, baked potatoes (with skin), avocados, orange juice, cantaloupes, bananas, and cooked spinach.

“The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it.”

A great cross-training activity is deep water running. In deep water running, you are suspended vertically in a pool by wearing a flotation belt around your waist or torso. Although your feet don’t touch the bottom of the pool, you then simulate running.

This cross-training activity is just what the doctor ordered for the rehabilitation of injuries or overuse of leg muscles. Additionally, because there is no shock from footstrike, deep water running is a perfect alternative to a midweek easy day run or power walk. The resistance of the water gives you all the benefits of running or power walking but none of the stress or shock of footstrike associated with power walking or road running. Even though it is possible to run in the water without floatation aids, find a pool that offers these devices (such as vests or belts) for a workout at once easier on your upper body yet more specific in targeting your leg muscles.

WHY RUNNING IS SO HARD ON YOUR BODY

It is estimated that every step you take as you run makes an impact on your body equal to up to six times your body weight. This puts stress on the bones and joints, especially when just starting out. Swimming and cycling are low-impact activities; running is a high-impact sport.

“Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured.”

If you’ve ever seen a dog stretching, you know that this pose looks like an upside down V. Start on your hands and knees. Place your hands under your shoulders and your knees directly under your hips. Your inner arms face each other and your elbows are straight and firm. Let your shoulder blades come onto your back. Observe that your upper arm bones connect into the shoulder socket. Your pelvis is in a neutral position, horizontal to the floor. Tuck your toes under. Plant your hands firmly on the floor and spread your fingers evenly apart. Press your palms, knuckles, and fingers into the floor. Your hands are part of the pose’s foundation, and they must stay rooted in order for extension of the spine to occur. Inhale, lift your hips evenly, and press your hands and feet down. On the exhalation, straighten your legs and let your head drop between your arms. Press the front of your thighs back to elongate your torso. Press your hands down, extending into your fingertips. Then stretch your arms away from your hands, all the way up to your buttock bones. Let your spine lengthen from the top of your head to your tailbone, into one long line of extension. Lift your heels up, and continue stretching all the way up the back of your legs to your buttock bones. Now lengthen your heels down, but keep stretching the back of your legs up. Lift your kneecaps and firm your thighs. Your heels are stretching toward the floor. Lift your shins out of the top of your ankles as you press your heels down. Your feet are also working, spreading, grounding, with arches lifting to enhance the upward extension of your legs. Fully stretch your legs. Keep your arms as long as possible. Bending your elbows will make it difficult to transfer the weight of your body from your arms to your legs. Remain in the pose for several breaths, extending your spine on the inhalation. Then bend your knees and come down.

“It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.”

Like walking trips, biking trips can range from the flat-terrained, gentle journeys from elegant inn to elegant inn, to the more strenuous hilly tours carrying a tent on your bicycle.

One good thing about bicycle trips is that you can cover a lot of ground (or at least more than you do when you walk) on your trip and, usually, you decide how much you ride each day. Most trip organizers have a van to carry luggage, food, and other necessities, so you can ride unencumbered and, if you get tired, they’ll give you a lift in that van.

The organizers of biking trips will also help you determine what level trip you should join. Serious cyclists will want to cover longer distances and will look for hills to climb, while the more leisurely cyclist should choose trips that are on flat ground or that offer some walking (the van will carry your bike) as well as riding.

“Massage is an excellent stress management tool. It helps your body and mind to relax as it encourages the body to help heal itself.”

Shiatsu is the Japanese word for finger pressure and is sometimes known as acupressure. Shiatsu is an ancient form of massage, still widely practiced, that involves the application of pressure through fingers, palms, elbows, or knees to pressure points in the body. Pressure points are certain points along energy meridians that the Japanese and other Asian cultures have defined within the body. Pressure on these points is thought to release energy blockages that cause pain and disease, resulting in balance, equilibrium, and greater physical health. Acupuncture is based on the same principle but uses very thin needles painlessly inserted into pressure points. Although the idea may sound strange to a Westerner, much research has supported the effectiveness of both acupuncture and acupressure in the relief of pain and the treatment of certain disorders.