If you’re like me, perhaps you’re ready for some falling humidity levels and cooler temperatures. City/county/regional parks are all around and just waiting for you and your loved ones to discover. An interactive park finder is below:
https://mapofplay.kaboom.org/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&location=Indianapolis%2C+IN
When you look in the mirror, do you like what you see?
Is your body image positive or negative? If your answer is negative, you are not alone. Many women in the United States feel pressured to measure up to a certain social and cultural ideal of beauty, which can lead to poor body image. Women are constantly bombarded with “Barbie Doll-like” images. By presenting an ideal that is so difficult to achieve and maintain, the cosmetic and diet product industries are assured of growth and profits. It’s no accident that youth is increasingly promoted, along with thinness, as an essential criterion of beauty. The message we’re hearing is either “all women need to lose weight” or that the natural aging process is a “disastrous” fate.
Learning to love what you see in the mirror
And don’t forget your kids!
Parents’ attitudes about appearance and diet can affect their kids’ attitudes.
We all want to look our best, but a healthy body is not always linked to appearance. In fact, healthy bodies come in all shapes and sizes! Changing your body image means changing the way you think about your body. At the same time, healthy lifestyle choices are also key to improving body image.
More information on About body image
Perhaps you’ve not thought lately about jump-roping as one of your exercise tools. Jump rope use is much easier with the newer designs. One of our new “SWAG” items for the Healthy Horizons Fall Rewards Program 2016 is a fabulous cable-style jump rope that is adjustable to your height and comes with its own bag. Perhaps this video will help trigger memories and inspire you to try this sport once again.
Use of Meetup, an on-line tool, can help match others to your fitness interests locally. Use of the link below will allow you to research each group to see what’s out there and select among the many options. Happy hunting!
Whenever I attend a get-together and there is that lovely glass pitcher of iced water infused with sliced fruit, it always seems so much more inviting than the water cooler water. I have found easy-to-make fruit infused water recipes at the following website:
http://wellnessmama.com/3607/herb-fruit-infused-water/
These are simple combinations of all that is fresh around us. Enjoy your hydration!
It’s almost that time of year where tomatoes and zucchini will be so plentiful, we’ll be showing up to work and they’ll be on the give-away tables. I am so excited, as I have missed the bounteous harvest living elsewhere in … Continue reading
| Suggestions for Overcoming Physical Activity Barriers | |
|---|---|
| Lack of time | Identify available time slots. Monitor your daily activities for one week. Identify at least three 30-minute time slots you could use for physical activity. |
| Add physical activity to your daily routine. For example, walk or ride your bike to work or shopping, organize school activities around physical activity, walk the dog, exercise while you watch TV, park farther away from your destination, etc. | |
| Select activities requiring minimal time, such as walking, jogging, or stairclimbing. | |
| Social influence | Explain your interest in physical activity to friends and family. Ask them to support your efforts. |
| Invite friends and family members to exercise with you. Plan social activities involving exercise. | |
| Develop new friendships with physically active people. Join a group, such as the YMCA or a hiking club. | |
| Lack of energy | Schedule physical activity for times in the day or week when you feel energetic. |
| Convince yourself that if you give it a chance, physical activity will increase your energy level; then, try it. | |
| Lack of motivation | Plan ahead. Make physical activity a regular part of your daily or weekly schedule and write it on your calendar. |
| Invite a friend to exercise with you on a regular basis and write it on both your calendars. | |
| Join an exercise group or class. | |
| Fear of injury | Learn how to warm up and cool down to prevent injury. |
| Learn how to exercise appropriately considering your age, fitness level, skill level, and health status. | |
| Choose activities involving minimum risk. | |
| Lack of skill | Select activities requiring no new skills, such as walking, climbing stairs, or jogging. |
| Take a class to develop new skills. | |
| Lack of resources | Select activities that require minimal facilities or equipment, such as walking, jogging, jumping rope, or calisthenics. |
| Identify inexpensive, convenient resources available in your community (community education programs, park and recreation programs, worksite programs, etc.). | |
| Weather conditions | Develop a set of regular activities that are always available regardless of weather (indoor cycling, aerobic dance, indoor swimming, calisthenics, stair climbing, rope skipping, mall walking, dancing, gymnasium games, etc.) |
| Travel | Put a jump rope in your suitcase and jump rope. |
| Walk the halls and climb the stairs in hotels. | |
| Stay in places with swimming pools or exercise facilities. | |
| Join the YMCA or YWCA (ask about reciprocal membership agreement). | |
| Visit the local shopping mall and walk for half an hour or more. | |
| Bring your mp3 player your favorite aerobic exercise music. | |
| Family obligations | Trade babysitting time with a friend, neighbor, or family member who also has small children. |
| Exercise with the kids-go for a walk together, play tag or other running games, get an aerobic dance or exercise tape for kids (there are several on the market) and exercise together. You can spend time together and still get your exercise. | |
| Jump rope, do calisthenics, ride a stationary bicycle, or use other home gymnasium equipment while the kids are busy playing or sleeping. | |
| Try to exercise when the kids are not around (e.g., during school hours or their nap time). | |
| Retirement years | Look upon your retirement as an opportunity to become more active instead of less. Spend more time gardening, walking the dog, and playing with your grandchildren. Children with short legs and grandparents with slower gaits are often great walking partners. |
| Learn a new skill you’ve always been interested in, such as ballroom dancing, square dancing, or swimming. | |
| Now that you have the time, make regular physical activity a part of every day. Go for a walk every morning or every evening before dinner. Treat yourself to an exercycle and ride every day while reading a favorite book or magazine. | |
Content in the “Personal Barriers” section was taken from Promoting Physical Activity: A Guide for Community Action (USDHHS, 1999).
How and Why You Should Warm Up Before A Run
Wednesday, May 22, 2013, 12:00 am
Once we get revved up to run it’s tempting to shoot out the door at top speed. But heading out of the gates at full speed—without a proper warm-up—is a recipe for disaster, and injury.
Follow this three-step method to warm up wisely.
1. Walk. Walk gently for three to five minutes. Lots of people write off walking. But it’s actually the ideal low-intensity activity to ease your body out of sitting mode and into workout mode. The motion of walking takes the muscles, tendons, and joints through a range of motion that’s similar to what it will go through in running, explains exercise physiologist Janet Hamilton, coach of Running Strong. This not only brings up the temperature of the muscles and the core, but it enhances the blood flow to all the muscles you’ll need for running and sends your brain the message that it’s time to go. Walking is especially helpful for runners who are coming back after an injury.
2. Add strides. Do five to six 100-meter strides. Strides (also called “pick-ups”) flood the muscles with blood, recruit your fast-twitch muscle fibers, and help your body transition from walking to running mode. Here’s how to do them:
3. Do dynamic stretches. Static stretching, where you hold a muscle in an elongated, fixed position for 30 seconds or more, is now discouraged pre-run, as it’s been linked to injury. But dynamic stretching, which uses controlled leg movements to improve range of motion, loosens up muscles and increases heart rate, body temperature, and blood flow to help you run more efficiently.
Try this routine, which targets the muscles used for running. Start slowly, focusing on form; as the moves get easier, pick up speed. Use small movements for the first few reps, and increase the range of motion as you go.
http://www.runnersworld.com/run-nonstop/how-and-why-you-should-warm-up-before-a-run
