In case you missed this, Ping London organized a promotion of the sport of table tennis, and to mark the two year countdown to the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, by putting a hundred table tennis tables all across London’s landmarks, squares, shopping centres, offices and train stations on 24 July 2010.

Photo by Feggy Art ( Creative Commons)

Ping Pong ( table tennis ) is the world’s best brain sport, says Dr. Amen in his book, Change Your Brain, Change Your Body. It gives you body & your brain a great aerobic workout with all of the twisting, bending, reaching and lunging you need to do. It challenges your hand-eye coordination, it exercises your ability to track a ball through the air, it makes your prefrontal cortex and cerebellum work by having to plan shots and develop winning strategies. Find a local club through the United States of America Table Tennis (USATT).

Many people say I don’t have the time to workout or exercise. But these same people may find the time to just Play….Sports are more fun then just plain exercise and they can be just as rewarding especially for your brain.

Exercise needs to become a habit and the way to make anything a habit is to do it repeatedly until you are performing the action automatically and without effort. Numerous repetitions trains your brain to perform, but you need to vary your fitness plan so things don’t become routine or boring. People who have PreFrontal Cortext (PFC) problems such as ADD need lots of high-intensity aerobic activities, such as table tennis or meditation. Those with ACG ( Anterior cingulate gyrus ) problems, or getting stuck on negative thinking need to boost their serotonin levels with intense aerobic exercise as well.

Lack of physical exercise negatively affects blood flow in your body. Without adequate blood flow, the blood vessels in the deep areas of the brain also become distorted, increasing the risk of tiny strokes. As we age, these tiny strokes accumulate & shut off areas of these deep areas of the brain. These brain areas control leg movement, body movement, thinking speed and behaviors. This explains why people over 40 who don’t exercise aren’t as mentally sharp as those who are physically active.

New research has shown that people as young as 45 who have high blood pressure are more likely to experience problems with memory & thinking as well. Those with a high diastolic blood pressure ( the bottom number ) are at higher risk. For every 10-percent increase in diastolic reading, odds jump by 7-percent of having cognitive brain problems. Also untreated high blood pressure can lead to greater risk for dementia. As we age, the consequences from physical inactivity can be devastating.

The best kinds of exercise are:
- Cardiovascular, or aerobic exercise which enhances new cell growth and gets your heart pumping which in turn improves your memory.
- Resistance Training, such as Cross Fit or any type of strength resistance trainingmay prevent cognitive decline in older adults.
- Coordination Activities, such as judo, dancing, tennis & basketball, enhances thinking, cognitive flexibility & brain processing speed.
- Also its best to do a Combination of exercises, aerobic which spawns new brain cells and resistance which strengthens the connections between those cells.

Since one exercise or sport doesn’t fit all, here are some other brain enhancing sports to choose from:

• Tennis
• Dancing
• Running
• Walking – Go walk the dog!
• Golf, walking the course..
• Hiking
• Frisbee
• Swimming
• Basketball

Read more about Change Your Brain, Change Your Body >>

In Cross Fit lingo, the Workout of the Day is called a WOD. Everything has its acronyms. If you are new to Cross Fit, check out What is Cross Fit?.

Photo credit: Luis Albuquerque

Also, If many or most of the exercises are relatively or completely unknown to you, then it is recommended that you begin learning the movements for a month or two until you can either perform the common exercises or have substitutions worked out for those movements under development. This is a great place to begin for anyone with little or no experience with serious weightlifting or gymnastics.

Cross Fit is a “minimalist program” and this is reflected by the functionality and limited number of exercises and the simplicity of the equipment used compared to most commercial gyms.

I workout with certified Cross Fit trainers in my local park 3 times/week. I’ve been doing this for the last 9 months and I have noticed significant improvement in every aspect of my body, my fitness, weight loss, flexibility, conditioning, stamina and just general overall well being. It has been amazing to me how this simple, high intensity, short burst workout can transform people. I am so thrilled with my overall health & fitness now that I am a firm believer in the power of this fitness regime. I drank the cool aid and its working…

So today’s workout started with a half hour warm up which included 2 sets of stairs & lunges, some burpees, pushups, & then our yoga/stretching poses.

The WOD is 5 rounds, each round is:

• 15x 35 pound kettle bell swings,
• 8x sitting ring pull-ups
• 200 Meter Run

Cash out at the end is 15 burpees. Approximately 15 minutes, going for time.

This is a question on the Cross Fit website:Is the WOD Enough? Should I do more?

A. Part of the crossfit philosophy includes pursuing/learning another sport or activity, and many crossfitters are also martial artists and competitive athletes in a variety of disciplines. However, if you work the WODs hard, you will find yourself at an improved level of fitness, and for lots of us, the WOD is our primary “sport.”

If you pursue another activity, you will need to balance your work/rest cycles and be sure to allow for recovery. Sometimes, you will need extra days off or to consider a WOD as “active rest” done at a lower intensity.

Have a great workout and remember, just showing up is more then half the battle…

Links related to this Workout:
More info on the KettleBell Swing
Cross Fit website

Change Your Brain, Change Your Body is a new book written by Dr. Daniel Amen, M.D., who is a clinical neuroscientist, psychiatrist, and brain imaging expert. He supports the scientific evidence that introduced the concept that your mind has a very powerful influence on your appearance, your moods, stress levels and overall health. He gives solutions to help you boost your brain functions so you can get and keep the body that you’ve always wanted.

A friend recently turned me onto this book, and I’ve found the material in it fascinating. Dr Amen has conducted over 55,000 SPECT brain scans to check on the health of people’s brains. What he has found from all of that research is quite enlightening. The notion that by healing your brain you can heal your body is quite amazing. When your brain works right, your body looks and feels better. When your brain is troubled, you have trouble with how you look and feel.

He talks about regaining control over the parts of your brain which control certain aspects, such as the Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) which is involved with focus, judgment & impulse control, or the Basal ganglia which controls pleasure & motivation & the Deep limbic involved with behavior triggers.

One thing he stresses is that in order to control things like weight management you need to determine how your brain is affecting your body. Why people have such poor results in weight loss programs is that one treatment, one program or one method don’t work for everyone.

On his website he has questionnaire to help you start the process of figuring out what type of weight management issue you have and then how to tailor your brain health regime to achieve your goals. This tool is the beginning of optimizing the brain-body connection. “Dr. Amen realizes that not everyone is able to get a brain scan to check on the health of his or her brain. So, in order to bring the life-changing information that he has learned through his imaging work to the most people, he has developed a series of questionnaires to help predict the areas of strengths and vulnerabilities of the brain.”

Change Your Brain, Change Your Body by Dr. Amen, M.D.

The Mercola Health Website is one of the best Natural Health websites, its cock full of tons of FREE advice on nutrition, health and the best natural food supplements & sources for great products and information on why these are the best you can buy. Two health professionals I know both swear by Dr. Mercola’s articles, videos, products and newsletter.

The Mercola website has over 1.5 Million subscribers, including tens of thousands of health professionals, many of whom read and trust the Mercola.com “eHealthy News You Can Use” e-newsletter

You’ll want to read it because:
• You don’t have time to sift through the 200 medical studies that come out each week, but want to live longer & healthier lives, so it shows which studies matter to your personal health, and why and how. The Mercola.com e-newsletter does the work for you, providing the key insights you need to know.

• You want all the insights on how medical and dietary research pertains to you personally — in a straightforward manner that makes sense, without scientific jargon or fluff.

• You’ll get important dietary advice in my newsletter long before you can find it anywhere else. Dr. Mercola has been a physician for over two decades, with extensive education and experience in natural, conventional and alternative health, and in that time has built a reputation as one of the leading diet and nutrition experts in the nation.

• You also get original health & wellness articles from a wide variety of other leading health professionals in all fields, such as women’s health, chiropractic, exercise and beyond; these are the top experts in their fields providing highly useful information you won’t see anywhere else

Sign up for your Free Mercola.com “eHealthy News You Can Use” e-newsletter subscription today.

The Got Mercury project creates awareness of the dangers of mercury in seafood and is one of the initiatives of Participant Media’s social action campaign for The Cove. The calculator is available at www.GotMercury.org and A simpler mobile cell phone version is available at www.gotmercury.mobi.

The GotMercury calculator will help fish and sushi eaters who are worried about mercury levels in seafood make healthier choices,” said Buffy Martin Tarbox, Campaign Coordinator for the GotMercury Project of Turtle Island Restoration Network.

To use The GotMercury calculator, a person enters their weight, fish type, serving size, and clicks the calculator button. The estimated mercury exposure is based on the most recent U.S. government advisories for mercury-in-fish.

The Cove has mobilized people around the world to call for an end to the slaughter of 23,000 dolphins every year off the coast of Japan. The dolphin meat, containing toxic levels of mercury, is being sold as food in Japan, often times labeled as whale meat.

In the U. S., eating tuna, swordfish and other high-mercury fish is the number one source of mercury exposure. Women aged 18 to 45 and children are advised to limit consumption of canned, fresh and frozen tuna and not to eat swordfish, shark, tilefish and king mackerel due to mercury contamination.

Tuna of all types is the number one source of mercury in the American diet – contributing more than one-third of all mercury ingested from fish. Of that, about 16 percent comes from canned albacore, 16 percent from canned light tuna, and about 6 percent from fresh/frozen – according to scientists’ estimates. Almost all fish from the ocean and freshwater fish contain mercury. Larger fish tend to have higher concentrations of mercury and pose more of a health threat to humans who eat fish, particularly women and children.

About GotMercury.org

Founded in 2002, Got Mercury offers its free on-line mercury calculator in English and Spanish so people can estimate their weekly mercury exposure based on their weight and the types of fish eaten. See www.gotmercury.org. Also available free of charge is a mercury calculator for mobile devices to help take the guesswork out of making lower mercury fish choices: www.gotmercury.mobi

Part of the Boot Camp regime is to write down what you eat & drink everyday. For Maximum Weight Loss, you should have No Carbohydrates after 3pm. Fat burning requires long periods of time with low blood sugar, so eating low-carb after 3pm gives your body this needed time and optimal body chemistry.

So for Extreme Weight Loss, don’t eat these after 3pm:

* No bread
* No rice
* No potatoes
* No beans
* No corn
* No pasta
* No cereal
* No bananas
* No melons
* No grapes or raisins
* No pineapple
* No sugar

Just eat protein and veggies after 3pm.

The Boot Camp staff also suggests these for faster weight loss:

* Eat immediately after the Boot Camp session, when your cells are most receptive to taking in fuel. Most of your meal will go to your muscles and not to your waist…
* If you drink caffeine, drink it before Boot Camp. Caffeine is a powerful ergogenic aid, which means it will help you burn more fat, work harder and have better performance overall.
* Eat nuts, in very small quantities before a meal to curb your appetite.
* Don’t drink empty calorie beverages. Get all your calories from good healthy food
* Avoid Alcohol. It lowers your metabolism.
* Keep a daily food log to get the best results from your efforts. When you track what and when you are eating you get a more complete profile of how your training is effected by your food intake.
* Drinking Green Tea, may help boost your metabolism & help to burn fat. Its also full of antioxidants.
* Get lots of Sleep. Adequate makes it easier to eat right and helps your muscles recover faster

Boot Camp Nutrition Priorities:

1. Eat Often. Every day eat 3 meals plus 3 snacks. Eating every 3-5 hours is best for your blood suagr, metabolism, energy levels and fat-burning.
2. Eat Light. Eat only enough to support your energy needs til your next meal or snack.
3. Eat unprocessed foods. Choose Organic Whole Foods from nature.
4. Eat Protein. Getting Protein at eveyr meal will help maintain lean tissue, elevate metabolism and keep hunger at bay.

What to Eat – Whole Natural Foods from Nature

1. Veggies: Eat them raw, steamed, grilled, roasted or otherwise without adding oil or butter. Eat Lots!
2. Fruits. Eat all kinds but avoid fruit juice or dried fruit because they are too calorie dense.
3. Lean Meats & Proteins. These will help you hang onto your lean tissue as you lose fat. Serving size is the palm of your hand.
4. Low-Fat or Non-Fat Dairy. If you digest dairy well, its a convenient way to get some protein & nutrients.
5. The Good Carbs: Whole Grains, Beans & Starchy Vegetables. Eat small amounts of low glycemic carbs, since every cup is about 200 calories. You need at least some carbs in your diet, since your brain uses about 450 calories per day.
6. Nuts, Seeds, Healthy Fats Eat in small quantities. Research shows that people tend to lose more weight & keep it off if they consume 1/4 cup of nuts per day.

Killer Boot Camp No No’s List – Foods to avoid at all cost during Boot Camp:

* Alcohol
* Bacon & Sausage (unless lean turkey)
* Butter, Margarine & Mayonnaise
* Whole Milk, Cream, Creamy Soups, Dressings, esp. Caesar Salad Dressing
* All Cheese, unless low fat
* All Sweets, Cookies, Cakes, Candy
* Croissants, Scones & White Breads
* Fast Food & Fried Foods
* Ice Cream, Milk Shakes & Frozen Yogurt ( unless fat & sugar free)
* Lamb & Veal
* Movie Theatre Popcorn
* Pizza

The idea of eating Plant-Based Foods for good health has been known for many centuries. In the The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted And the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss, And Long-term Health, Dr. Campbell, cites writings from Socrates, which paraphrased say that “consuming animal foods will lead to a luxurious city of sickness and disease, where lawyers and doctors will become the norm”

Plato, also said, “We will eat animals at our own peril.” Even Hippocrates, the Father of Western Medicine said that a plant based diet was the way to prevent and treat disease. Campbell goes on to describe more historical knowledge of diet being an extremely important factor in disease prevention and overall good health. And he also asks how could we as a society forget or suppress these facts?

The book is a great read and has very convincing studies and evidence and testimonials about the drug companies and the government agencies working in tandem to manipulate and deceive the public. Because of their greed, power and control issues we have been given false and misleading information for years.

Essentially, the drug companies want us to be in the dark since they can only make money on the hospitals and drugs that only treat our symptoms and they can’t make any money telling us to eat our greens & fruits to get us back to a healthy lifestyle.

The book has many scary scenarios of cover ups and plots worthy of a Hollywood thriller and you’ll go away after reading this book, knowing that they are all true.

Read it now: The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted And the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss, And Long-term Health

Also check out the China Study website

Read more about Changing Your Diet >>

By Julie Deardorff – Knight Ridder

Good health is not a singular event. It’s a lifestyle. But most people don’t know how to begin taking care of themselves. Here, in no order of importance, are our 10 favorite ways to live a healthier life.

Go fishing

Oily fish are one of the best sources of omega-3 fatty acids, which the body desperately needs to fight disease but can’t produce on its own. Omega-3s work together with omega-6 fatty acids (found in seeds, nuts and vegetable oils) to promote health. But most Americans have an imbalance – too much omega-6 and too little omega-3 – that leads to disease.

Scientists know omega-3s reduce inflammation, decrease the risk of heart disease, lower triglycerides, inhibit the development of plaque and blood clots, and reduce cardiac arrhythmia. But newer research has shown omega-3s can help with diabetes, arthritis, depression, attention-deficit disorder and breast cancer.

To avoid eating fish contaminated with mercury (pregnant women should be especially vigilant), look for wild Alaskan sockeye salmon, which is still relatively pure. The white fish tilapia also is extremely low in mercury, according to neurologist David Perlmutter, author of The Better Brain Book. Avoid farm-raised fish because they typically are fed hormones, antibiotics and other substances your body doesn’t need, Perlmutter said.

If you can’t get your omega-3s through salmon, sardines, herring, tuna or mackerel, try ground flaxseed and walnuts.

Eat your medicine

Modern medicine likes to promote pharmaceutical drugs as the answer to everything, but we like Hippocrates’ belief that food is medicine. In particular, we’re fans of the polymeal, a feast of fish, fruits and vegetables, garlic, almonds, dark chocolate and wine.

This nutritious food combination was devised partially as a tongue-in-cheek response to the “polypill,” a cocktail of aspirin, folic acid and cholesterol-lowering and blood-pressure drugs. The polypill, created in 2003, was to be a preventive wonder drug and was touted as a way to cut the risk of heart attack or stroke in people over 55 by as much as 80 percent.

But Dutch researchers found that eating a polymeal would achieve roughly the same effect. The scientists discovered that heart disease could be cut by 76 percent and men could expect to live more than six years longer (and women 4.8 years longer) simply by eating a polymeal a day.

Two handfuls of almonds alone can reduce low-density lipoproteins (LDL), the notorious “bad” cholesterol, by nearly 5 percent, according to a University of Toronto study. A daily dose of garlic can reduce total cholesterol levels by 17 points, for a 25 percent decrease in heart-disease risk.

Get in bed

The Dalai Lama was right on when he said, “Sleep is the best meditation … not for Nirvana but for survival.”

Sleep heals both the mind and the body, but at least three of every four people have trouble getting enough z’s a few nights a week. Recent studies show more people are sleeping less than six hours a night. Occasional insomnia is nothing to worry about, but chronic sleep loss can result in weight gain, increased risk of hypertension, increased stress-hormone levels, irregular heartbeat and problems with learning, memory and the immune system.

Your sleep deprivation also can affect others; it contributes to medical errors and road accidents.

The use of sleep medication is on the rise, but drugs can be physically or mentally addictive. Instead, lay the foundation for a good night’s sleep during the day; don’t caffeinate, exercise or stimulate the brain by watching television or reading a thriller too close to bedtime.

Create a before-bed ritual as you would for a newborn, suggests Ann Dyer in the companion guide for “Z Yoga, the Yoga Sleep Ritual” (www.sleepgarden.com).

To soothe the senses, Dyer recommends “taking a hot, fragrant bath, giving yourself a foot massage with scented oil, turning down the lights and lighting a candle, changing into soft sleepwear, having a cup of herbal tea or hot milk, turning off the TV and turning on some quiet music or just enjoying silence.”

If all else fails, Dyer says, “have confidence in the power of rest.” If you let go of the goal to sleep, you’ll very likely drift off. Chill out

The telltale signs of stress – stomachaches, headaches, insomnia, memory loss, exhaustion and eating too much or not enough – are hazardous to your health. Virtually every major disease, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, arthritis, obesity and even cancer, has been linked to stress through mainstream medical research, says Dr. Vern Cherewatenko, author of The Stress Cure: A Simple, 7-Step Plan to Help Women Balance Mood, Improve Memory, and Restore Energy.
Cherewatenko offers seven steps to de-stress, including eating right, exercising, getting enough sleep, building strong relationships and practicing mindful living.

Breathing exercises are another handy tool. For those with the time and the means, the Art of Living Foundation (www.artofliving.org) offers a six-day, 18-hour workshop that teaches how to use the breath as a way to deal with daily stress. Breathing and meditation techniques also can be learned in yoga (though some types of yoga – like Kundalini – focus on it more than others).

One of the more advanced yoga poses, the supported headstand, also can be used to calm the brain and relieve stress. The headstand is also said to stimulate the pituitary and pineal glands, strengthen the arms, legs, spine and lungs, improve digestion and tone the abs. It’s considered therapeutic for asthma, infertility, insomnia and sinusitis.

For a guide and a list of contraindications and cautions, go to www.yogajournal.com and search under “poses.”

Do the write thing

Deepak Chopra”, medical doctor and proponent of alternative medicine, calls journaling “one of the most powerful tools we have to transform our lives,” but don’t just take his word for it. Start one. Journaling helps release and process emotions, it provides clarity and can help you find your inner voice.

“Your writings, musings and doodles are a way to talk to your soul,” writes Sandy Grason in Journalution: Journaling to Awaken Your Inner Voice, Heal Your Life and Manifest Your Dreams.

There is no best or right way to journal. Pick a medium – a spiral notebook, a blank book labeled “diary,” drawing paper, a computer – then write whatever you want whenever the mood hits. An obsessive journaler since fourth grade (I have more than 70 notebooks), I favor a portable, lined desk journal by Raika that is small enough to carry at all times.

Don’t know where to start? Write what you eat every day. (It could help you lose weight.) Write what you do. Write what you feel. Eventually, journaling will become a natural habit, a conversation with yourself. And although you might not want to go back and reread some of the darker moments you’ve chronicled (feel free to rip these pages up), your journal inevitably will preserve precious snapshots of your life.

Stop smoking

If the threat of lung and throat cancer isn’t terrifying enough, consider the health of your bank account. The average smoker spends $46 a week and $2,394 annually, a tidy sum that Northwestern University graduates Jeff Schell and Ethan Lipkind felt shouldn’t be burned away. So after a miserable road trip to New Orleans with several nicotine-addicted friends, the two nonsmokers founded Smokers’ Brokers (www.smokersbrokers.com), an online savings plan that allows smokers to invest the money that they would have spent on cigarettes in an interest-bearing mutual fund.

Members are encouraged to make deposits with the same frequency as in buying cigarettes. They can make any size deposit at any time using PayPal payments. The only condition is that funds are not withdrawn for a year in order to benefit from a potentially higher-payout mutual fund.

Since the two launched the site in October, more than 100 members have signed up, including Courtney Montgomery of Arkansas, whose nonsmoking boyfriend sent her a link to the program. “So far, so good,” said Montgomery, who likes that she can contribute one pack at a time. “It’s better than trying to do it on my own, where I would feel the need to save and make one larger deposit.”

Stop blushing

If you wouldn’t eat it, don’t smear it on your body, which absorbs chemicals like a sponge. Most people don’t realize the Food and Drug Administration doesn’t evaluate cosmetic products for safety before they’re sold. Yet many nail polishes, perfumes and moisturizers contain phthalates (pronounced THAL-ates), which can increase circulating levels of estrogen and testosterone in humans, according to the National Academy of Sciences. In June, a study linked phthalate exposure in pregnant women to abnormal genital development in boys, and the research is mounting.

The European Union recently banned more than 1,200 chemicals from personal-care products, but most still are used here. (Though L’Oreal, Revlon and Estee Lauder have promised to reformulate their products using the European standards for the U.S. market.)

A single exposure might not be cause for alarm, but the average woman uses 12 personal-care products each day, exposing herself to a total of 168 chemicals, according to a report called “Skin Deep” by the Environmental Working Group.

For more information, check out the Breast Cancer Fund (breastcancerfund.org), which researches environmental links to the disease, and the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics (www.safecosmetics.com).

Avoid the hospital

The hospital isn’t the healthiest place to hang out and not just because some serve fast food in the lobby. Medical errors kill as many as 98,000 Americans each year, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association, more deaths than from AIDS, breast cancer or motor-vehicle accidents combined.

Meanwhile, 2 million patients contract an infection from U.S. hospitals or medical centers each year, resulting in 90,000 more deaths, according to estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

We know it’s awkward, but unless you’re unconscious, ask your doctor this simple question: “Have you washed your hands?” Even if he’s wearing gloves, be vigilant; they can be contaminated if caregivers have pulled them on without cleaning their hands. If the doctor comes at you with his cold stethoscope, ask him to wipe its flat surface with alcohol. Studies have shown they’re often contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus.

For answers to important questions such as, “Why do you need an advocate?” and “How do you make sure the surgeon operates on the right body part?” the Chicago Patient Safety Forum recommends watching a short film titled “Things You Should Know Before Entering the Hospital.” It’s available on DVD and videotape (www.patientsafetyvideo.com) for $29.95.

“Human error is a fact in health care just as in the rest of life,” said Martin J. Hatlie, president of Partnership for Patient Safety. For more information, in addition to the safety forum Web site, visit www.stophospitalinfections.org and www.hospitalinfectionrates.org.

Practice yoga

If you still think the 5,000-year-old practice of yoga is about leotards and pretzel poses, you’re not stretching your imagination. During the last year alone, studies have shown that yoga is an effective stress-reduction therapy for cardiac patients and more beneficial than conventional exercise for low back pain. A mind-body discipline that improves self-awareness, yoga can help with both weight loss and eating disorders. And because it promotes relaxation, it aids sleep and digestion.

Increasingly, yoga also is used to assist children. The Cove School in Northbrook, Ill., which serves children with learning disabilities, introduced yoga as part of its occupational-therapy services. In addition to sensory-based benefits, school officials believe the techniques and poses can enhance learning. And students can learn to calm themselves.

Yoga classes have different personalities, depending on the style or instructor, but all types can improve strength, flexibility, coordination and range of motion. Try different ones until you find the one that fits. For more info, visit www.yogachicago.com.

Exercise

Don’t go down this path alone. While men join pickup basketball games or assemble a foursome for a round of golf, women tend to have more trouble finding a partner on their fitness journey. This prompted Kim Murphy and Kris Carpenter, two formerly out-of-shape women, to write The Best Friends’ Guide to Getting Fit (Capital Ideas), a guide to using friendships as the foundation for establishing a consistent exercise routine.

But really, it’s not that complicated. If you’re a swimmer, join a masters group. These take swimmers of all levels, help break up the monotony of lap swimming and provide camaraderie (www.usms.org to find a local group).

Runners can join group workouts (find a list of running groups at www.cararuns.org), and cyclists can check with local bike shops to find group rides.

CrossFit Boot Camps can be found at: http://crossfit.com/

Next try a Healthy Eating Program >>

I recently took up tennis again after many years playing other sports. Playing competitively again has really inspired me to want to look and feel better all around. Tennis is certainly a sport you can play into your later years, some women at our club are well into their 80′s and 90′s and they wouldn’t dream of just sitting on the sidelines anymore then I would. So when I saw that tennis great, Martina Navratilova had written a fitness book, I just had to check it out.

I’ve always connected with Martina as a tennis champion and loved watching her play. Plus I saw her recently in an interview talking about the fact that she has rescued 19 dogs which all live with her in her house in Colorado. Some of the dogs don’t like each other and so they have to live separately in various parts of her house. No how cool is that! Anyway, now that she is well past 50 she is even more of an inspiration to me. She looks great and has more stamina and fitness then some younger players you see on the courts today. That is one reason I bought her book, I wanted to see what she was doing and why it is working for an older athlete like herself.

There are no surprizes and no “secrets” revealed like some books tout, she just writes what she thinks and how she trains and eats, very straight forward and easy to follow. Her life story and motivating words are also a driving force throughout the book. She instills a hard work ethic that too many people try to ignore. Getting and staying in shape is work but it also can become your healthy lifestyle, which is what I liked most about her book. She lives and breathes her fitness and health as part of her everyday life, as we all should do. In the long run, it’ll become easier because you’ll feel better, look better and be healthier.

She also promotes “functional fitness” as a means to keep in shape which includes cardiovascular and strength training so your body can handle a wide range of physical challenges. Functional exercises, like “Pilates” improve your stamina and balance as well as posture and also strengthens your core muscles which is key to keeping fit as you get older. As someone who used to do heavy weight training, I can appreciate now only using more basic tools such as the stability ball, balance board and exercise bands.

She also has a no nonsense approach to nutrition. Eating whole foods and plant-based foods and juicing are her main diet choices. She outlines some great recipes and vegetarian proteins, emphasizing the fact that “protein is important, but it isn’t as huge a staple as most athletes make it out to be.” She says protein should complement a meal that is plant-based with fresh veggies, whole grains and fruit.
All in all, I really enjoyed her book.

Promotional Copy about her book

Known for her superb conditioning, Martina Navratilova is a marvel of fitness. She easily outruns many women who are half her age, still plays tennis competitively, and engages in all the other sports she loves: basketball, hockey, skiing, and more. Everywhere she goes, people ask her: Why can you still move the way you do? How do you stay in such good shape? What’s your secret? In The Shape of Your Life, this amazing athlete shares through personal anecdotes the simple strategies, tips, and small lifestyle changes that will enable anyone to tune up their body, mind, and spirit.

In her 6-step program readers discover: tips on achieving the focus and mental ability of star athletes, advice on creating an environment-emotionally and physically, that supports readers, health and personal goals, a healthy food plan with delicious recipes-emphasizing natural foods, including raw foods and juices-that help the body release toxins, drop extra pounds, and feel more vibrant and youthful, fun, unique, cutting-edge exercises that can be done anywhere and will make readers appreciate the power, strength, and beauty of the body, novel ways to recharge and energize mind and body.

Shape Your Self: My 6-Step Diet and Fitness Plan to Achieve the Best Shape of Your Life

By Gabe Mirkin, M.D.

Can you explain why a study from The University of Sherbrooke in Canada showed that exercising three times a week improved insulin sensitivity in younger women but not in older women? (European Journal of Applied Physiology, October 2005) Insulin sensitivity measures the ability of your cells to respond to insulin. When cells fail to respond adequately to insulin, blood sugar levels rise too high, and you are more likely to suffer diabetes, obesity particularly in the abdomen, high blood pressure, heart attacks, strokes and nerve damage. Inability to respond to insulin is the most common cause of diabetes in North America. Exercise helps your cells respond to insulin because exercise empties muscles of their stored sugar. Empty muscles can absorb sugar from the bloodstream whenever you eat and prevent blood sugar levels from rising too high.

Thirty-five percent of adults in North America will become diabetic because they eat too much and exercise too little, because being fat fills your fat cells with fat, which blocks insulin receptors and prevents your body from responding to insulin. Insulin prevents your blood sugar from rising too high, particularly after you eat. So when your cells do not respond adequately to insulin, your pancreas produces very large amounts of insulin, which constricts coronary arteries to increase your chances of suffering a heart attack, stimulates your brain to make you hungry and causes fat to be deposited in your belly.

The only places that you can store extra sugar in your body are in your liver and muscles. When you eat, sugar passes from your intestines, into your bloodstream, and then into your muscles and liver. When your muscles are full of sugar, sugar can only enter your liver, and your blood levels rise too high. This causes sugar to stick to cells. Once stuck on a cell, sugar is converted to sorbitol which damages the cells to cause blindness, heart attacks, strokes, kidney damage and all the other side effects of diabetes. This study showed that younger women could exercise intensely enough to empty their muscles on a regimen of three times a week, but older women could not.

So most older people need to exercise every day to deplete their muscles of stored sugar. Younger people can exercise less frequently and to get the same results, as long as they exercise very vigorously during their three sessions per week.

Dr. Gabe Mirkin has been a radio talk show host for 25 years and practicing physician for more than 40 years; he is board certified in four specialties, including sports medicine. Read or listen to hundreds of his fitness and health reports at http://www.DrMirkin.com