Better for blood pressure: Cardio or weights?

Are your Parents and Grandparents committed to strength training?

Maybe they should be.

Video Link: Better for blood pressure: Cardio or weights?

10 Signs You are Getting Healthier Even if the Scale Doesn’t Move

What signs tell YOU that you're healthier?

Sometimes the scale doesn’t budge and you wonder if you are getting any healthier on your fitness plan. Well, here are 10 signs that you are!

1. You feel like taking on something new. That’s a great sign that you are getting healthier. It shows a heightened energy level and more active mentality. You are obviously ready for new challenges that you weren’t ready for before you became fitter.
2. You notice a new pep in your step. Things are becoming easier for you. Gravity isn’t pulling you to the ground as easily, and maybe your mood isn’t either. You have some new resilience.
3. Your clothes are fitting differently. Maybe your clothes are looser; maybe they are tighter over your growing muscles. Whichever way it is, be sure and take note and dress to impress. Wearing the same old stuff from your closet that no longer fits is discouraging. Wearing better fitting clothes, be they from a store or a friend, will always make you feel and look better.
4. Your medical test scores are improving. My triglycerides, cholesterol, blood sugar levels, and thyroid readings have all changed since I’ve lost weight. Even when I plateau for months at a time (frustrating!), those tests tell me I’m going in the right direction medically.
5. You start taking that one extra step. Usually the saying is to “Go the extra mile.” I say “Go the extra step.” A mile is a long way, but if you even find yourself having the energy to take that extra step, congratulate yourself. You are building on something. A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.
6. You look for ways to make other’s lives easier. If you are looking for ways to pay it forward and make other’s lives easier, then your needs are met. That’s a great sign! According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, the basic needs of a human have to be met in order to even consider outer social relationships, such as kindness and love. In my opinion, if you find yourself doing random acts of kindness, be assured you are blessed and well. I don’t think we can afford to forget the connection of mind, body, and spirit as a human whole in wellness.
7. You feel more positive and energetic. That is a natural by product of getting healthier. The body starts working better and when it does, it releases feel good chemicals in the brain, delivers energy to the cells more efficiently, and you feel better day by day.
8. Your hair, skin and nails start to look marvelous. As a result of getting the right nutrients into your body, your body will start to look better all over. Not only will you lose/gain weight on a proper nutrition plan, but your hair, skin and nails will start to look lustrous too. Have you ever had someone tell you to take a certain supplement and your nails/hair will grow? Well, they aren’t far off. Nutrients are known to feed the hair and nails, even though they are technically dead. They still come from a living hair follicle and a living nail bed. Skin is very much alive and in need of nutrients. After all, look at how much skin you have.
9. You look forward to your workout time. This is definitely a good sign. Your body is craving movement and the endorphins it brings. Endorphins are feel-good chemicals released in the brain that bust stress during and after exercise. The more you move the more you will crave moving. This will lead to a healthier cardiovascular system, leaner muscles, a brighter mindset, and weight control.
10. You crave healthier fare. If you are starting to think a fresh banana sounds better than banana chips, you are well on your way. Is your chocolate getting a bit darker these days? Are you choosing food closer to its natural state or cutting out soda and liking it? Good for you! Progress not perfection! Keep changing the little things and the bigger lifestyle change will come.

As you can see, the scale is not the final decision maker as to whether you are getting healthier on your health plan. YOU are. Look for and celebrate the little things that you find new to your life.

By Beth Donovan

Sarcopenia noted in Article, "What's the Single Best Exercise?"

Sarcopenia - (from the Greek meaning "poverty of flesh") is the degenerative loss of skeletal muscle mass and strength associated with aging.

Physical activity incorporating resistance training is probably the most effective measure to prevent and treat sarcopenia.

Natural history of Sarcopenia
Strength losses with ageing for men and women are relatively similar. They are greater for lower than upper extremity muscles. Maximum attainable strength peaks in mid-twenties and declines thereafter. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcopenia


What's the Single Best Exercise? 

"The squat, and weight training in general, are particularly good at combating sarcopenia, he said, or the inevitable and debilitating loss of muscle mass that accompanies advancing age. “Each of us is experiencing sarcopenia right this minute,” he said. “We just don’t realize it.” Endurance exercise, he added, unlike resistance training, does little to slow the condition."

"... a sedentary person’s risk of dying prematurely from any cause plummeted by nearly 20 percent if he or she began brisk walking (or the equivalent) for 30 minutes five times a week. If he or she tripled that amount, for instance, to 90 minutes of exercise four or five times a week, his or her risk of premature death dropped by only another 4 percent."

"Walking has also been shown by other researchers to aid materially in weight control. A 15-year study found that middle-aged women who walked for at least an hour a day maintained their weight over the decades. Those who didn’t gained weight."

“I think, actually, that you can make a strong case for H.I.T.,” Gibala said. High-intensity interval training, or H.I.T. as it’s familiarly known among physiologists, is essentially all-interval exercise."

“Sprinting up stairs is a power workout and interval session simultaneously.”Meaning that running up steps just might be the single best exercise of all. Great news for those of us who could never master the butterfly."

Read More:  Article Link

The Truth about Green Tea

A Health Powerhouse or Mostly Hype?

-- By Becky Hand, Licensed and Registered Dietitian

Whether you drink it as a hot beverage to ward off Old Man Winter or iced to cool off on a hot summer day, tea is an invigorating drink that people around the world consume in copious amounts. In America alone, each person drinks approximately 155 cups of tea per year! And as researchers discover more health benefits from those little leaves, tea sales continue to climb. But we're not just drinking tea; its extracts are becoming popular supplements and additions to other foods and drinks.

If you drink tea because you enjoy the taste, great. But if you're buying foods or supplements that contain tea extracts, thinking they'll help lower your risk for cancer and heart disease, speed your metabolism, or help you lose weight as many products claim, think again. Let's look at what research (and common sense) really tells us about tea, tea extracts and supplements, and what they can—and can't—do for your health.

First Things First: What is Tea?
Technically, only one plant provides the leaves to make what we know as tea: Camellia sinensis. The difference in the flavor, color, and name of the tea depends on how the leaves are processed. There are four basic types of tea:

• Black tea is the most popular variety in the United States. When you drink a regular cup of hot tea, iced tea, or sweet tea, you are drinking black tea. Black tea comes from tea leaves that were exposed to the air and allowed to fully oxidize or ferment, changing the leaves from green to black.
• Oolong tea varies in the fermentation time. It therefore falls between black and green tea.
• Green tea is less processed and is not fermented like black tea is. These tea leaves therefore retain their green color and delicate flavor.
• White tea is the least processed of all teas. The leaves are picked at a very young stage and are only dried in the sun.

Read More - Article Link: http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/nutrition_articles.asp?id=107

Quotes

Children are likely to live up to what you believe of them.
- Lady Bird Johnson

Treat children as though they are already the people they are capable of becoming.
- Haim Ginott

In order to achieve all that is demanded of us we must regard ourselves as greater than we are.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

If I accept you as you are, I will make you worse; however if I treat you as though you are what you are capable of becoming, I help you become that.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Survey: San Diego 7th on list of top 10 youngest cities

Link:  Survey: San Diego 7th on list of top 10 youngest cities

"SAN DIEGO (CNS) - You're young at heart if you live in San Diego, according to a national survey released Tuesday.

RealAge.com released a list of the Top 10 metropolitan areas where healthy lifestyles make people two years physically younger than their chronological order, and San Diego was seventh on the list. Salt Lake City was first, and the San Francisco Bay Area was second."

Windansea Beach - La Jolla

03.30.2011 Torrey Pines State Beach, San Diego, CA - Active Living Testimonials!

Jenny - Active Mom loves to surf, run, and eat healthy!
Kiwi - Pregnant, committed to exercising outdoors 5 days a week!
Linda - 59 years old, maintains an active lifestyle to be a positive role model for her kids!
Andy - Military Vet, ultra cyclist stays hydrated by drinking plenty of water!
Keith and Diana - Enjoy nature and mountain biking together!