Healthiest You Ever

“Taken altogether, the evidence certainly suggests that incorporating at least a few cups of green tea every day will positively affect your health.”

Green tea has been used as a medicine in China for more than 4,000 years. In the last decade or so, green tea’s health benefits have been more widely researched, and many believe the results have shown that it has potential to fight cancer and heart disease. Other studies indicate that it may also help lower cholesterol, burn fat, prevent diabetes and stroke, and hold off dementia.

In addition, green tea and oolong tea contain caffeine and catechins, which have been shown to boost metabolism for approximately two hours. Researchers say drinking 2 to 4 cups of green or oolong tea throughout the day may help you burn an extra 50 calories, which can lead to a five-pound loss over a year—without any other change in your diet. Obviously, adding sugar or cream would counteract the positive effects. Also, avoid green tea beverages that have high-fructose corn syrup, as they are loaded with sugar and are not good for your metabolism.

IT’S GOOD FOR YOUR SKIN TOO!

One of the latest benefits attributed to green tea is that its antioxidants fight against free radicals which damage the skin and prevent cell oxidation and damage that can make you look older than you really are. Studies are mixed on this particular green tea benefit, and some believe you have to apply it topically to experience the full benefits; however, many people have found that potent green tea extracts do have a positive effect on their skin, leaving it softer, more supple, and younger looking.

“I do yoga so that I can stay flexible enough to kick my own arse if necessary.”

Dynamic balance is not only achieved through performing maneuvers with only one support leg, it can also be achieved by practicing and sharpening how you move in a simulated fighting stance. When in this stance, or working on shadowboxing, you may find that it can be easy to lose control of your balance while learning to shift your weight in so many opposing directions. In this case it is also necessary for you to be able to recover your balance in order to keep yourself moving. The ability to keep your COM (see Week Twenty-Four) over your base of support (in this case your feet) will help to maintain balance while moving.

When performing exercises that train dynamic balance, you should perform eight to twelve repetitions and anywhere from one to three sets of each exercise.

While standing on the left leg, bring the right knee forward and up. As the hips move forward, extend the right foot out to complete the kick. Send it out and back in repetition, touching the ball of the foot back on the floor lightly between each kick. Remember, your target is the groin or midsection. This can also be done with a round kick. Turn the base foot out, lift the kicking leg knee up, and extend the kick out and back and again lightly touch the foot to the floor between each kick. Be sure you recoil the kick as this will help you stay balanced. The target for a round kick is the rib cage.

When performing exercises that train dynamic balance, you should perform eight to twelve repetitions and anywhere from one to three sets of each exercise.

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few.”

According to Alison Gopnik, author of The Philosophical Baby: What Children’s Minds Tell Us About Truth, Love, and the Meaning of Life, babies have the ultimate “beginner’s mind.” A beginner’s mind is one that embraces an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when studying a subject. It is highly prized in Zen Buddhism and Japanese martial arts.

As we grow up, our brain undergoes a pruning process that narrows our perception of life, which can lead to limited creativity and decreased ability to problem solve. This pruning also limits our ability to “be in the now,” and leaves us less open and less flexible. A baby’s brain, on the other hand, has more brain cells and fewer inhibitory neurotransmitters than adults. Their brains have an amazing, almost supersonic ability to sort through lots of excess information and remain more receptive to discovering highly rewarding solutions or intriguing, innovative concepts. A baby’s brain notices the beauty and wonder around it and lives, very much, “in the now.”

You may not be able to completely recapture a baby’s state of mind, but you can consciously choose to live mindfully, in the now, looking at new experiences and new people with a fresh eye. In other words, learn to tamp down your inhibitors, observe without judgment, and gather as much unbiased information as possible before allowing your more “mature” mind to make its usual assumptions or respond in your typical fashion.

“It’s a great art, is rowing. It’s the finest art there is. It’s a symphony of motion. And when you’re rowing well it’s nearing perfection. And when you reach perfection, you’re touching the divine. It touches the you of you’s, which is your soul.”

Rowing exercises larger muscle groups in both the upper and lower body. It is, in fact, one of the best forms of total body aerobic exercise because it involves all the major muscle groups. Also, within ten minutes of rowing, your body gets into a rhythm that lights your metabolic fire. Rowing tones the arms and builds upper-body strength. Rowing for twenty-five minutes is aerobically equal to forty minutes on a stationary bike. In a kayak or rowboat, you can get a workout targeting the core areas of your body, but if you like working out with others, join a rowing club.

Basically, rowing takes two forms. When rowers have an oar in each hand, it’s called sculling. When rowers have both hands on one oar, it is called sweep rowing. Rowing is a low-impact exercise but does require a degree of agility, grace, and teamwork. Rowing as a team teaches you to work together for maximum effectiveness. The boat advances more rapidly when the team members row quickly and in unison. So make some new friends, learn the art of rowing, get in a regular workout, and feel good as your body becomes trim and toned—and your metabolism ratchets up.

“I love to ride my bike, which is great aerobics, but also just a great time for me to think, so it’s like this terrific double bill.”

Aerobic exercise provides a wealth of benefits. Even if you don’t need to tone up or lose weight, it’s great for you. Each week, aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise (this means you can talk but can’t sing, or if you’re using a heart rate monitor, it is 55–69 percent of your maximum heart rate) for at least twenty minutes at a time. This will get your heart rate/circulation up and improve the oxygen flow to your body, which, in turn, will help boost your metabolism.

If you’re looking for other reasons to inspire you to exercise, here are just a few:

• Exercising regularly reduces your risk of heart disease, type II diabetes, stroke, certain types of cancer, and osteoporosis.

• Exercising regularly and burning at least 800 calories per week could have a beneficial impact on your cholesterol by raising your HDL (the “good cholesterol”) and lowering your LDL (the “bad cholesterol”) and triglycerides.

• Aerobic exercise reduces muscle tension and the amount of stress hormones in your body so you’ll feel less wound up during the day and sleep better at night.

• Aerobic exercise boosts endorphins—even before you reach that “runner’s high”—and releases additional serotonin in your brain, which helps to balance your mood or relieve depression.

• Exercising improves circulation, which not only flushes away harmful toxins that can damage your skin but also protects against fine lines and wrinkles.

“Volunteers do not necessarily have the time; they just have the heart.”

Rather than spend your Saturdays running errands, how about volunteering to help out at your local hospital. Variously called Candy Stripers and Pink Ladies, these volunteers (men are included, too) serve an important function in hospitals that are often understaffed. Volunteers can rock babies to sleep, operate the hospitality cart offering magazines and gum, fetch wheelchairs, and transport discharged patients to their cars. You’ll help out and get exercise, as well.

• Read to the blind. You can help record audio versions of newspapers, books, and magazines for the visually impaired. Check out Learning Ally (www.learningally.org) today and volunteer.

• Become a Red Cross volunteer. The Red Cross is perhaps the best-known relief organization offering medical and other types of help in times of disaster. See www.redcross.org for more information.

“Soon silence will have passed into legend. Man has turned his back on silence. Day after day he invents machines and devices that increase noise and distract humanity from the essence of life, contemplation, meditation … tooting, howling, screeching, booming, crashing, whistling, grinding, and trilling bolster his ego. His anxiety subsides. His inhuman void spreads monstrously like a gray vegetation.”

If you always have to have the television or the radio on, whether you are watching it or not, if you can’t get yourself to work or do your homework without music or television in the background (or foreground), if you’ve tried to meditate but absolutely can’t stand the silence, if you always fall asleep to the television or to music, then you’ve probably got a noise habit.

Silence can be not only therapeutic but also remarkably energizing. Finding a space each day for silence and stillness allows the body to recharge. There is nothing wrong with noise, but constant noise keeps your mind from focusing completely on anything and encourages fragmentation. You may be able to get your work or your homework done in front of the television, but it will probably take you longer and you probably won’t do as good a job.

People who live alone often like to keep noise in the background. Noise can temporarily mask your loneliness or nervousness. It can calm an anxious mind or distract a troubled mind. Constant noise can provide a welcome relief from oneself, but if it is compromising your ability to think and perform as well as you could, if it is keeping you from confronting your stress and yourself, then it’s time to make some space for silence in your life. Too much noise is stressful on the body and the mind. Give yourself a break and let yourself experience silence at least once each day for at least ten minutes. Don’t be afraid of silence. To quote Martha Stewart, “It’s a good thing.”