Saturday, May 9 is the world’s largest food drive – sponsored by the National Association of Letter Carriers and other partners, it’s also the easiest one for you to contribute to.
Just leave non-perishable food by your mailbox, and your letter carrier will pick it up, take it back to the post office for sorting, and deliver it all to a local food bank.
This is a good opportunity to clean out your pantry. As long as it’s not in a glass container, and it hasn’t expired, they’ll pretty much take it. If it’s raining, put the food in one of those plastic shopping bags you have sitting around.
Grab a partner and get dancing this weekend! Have a little fun!
This song is a blast from the past… a good one to get you UP and MOVING!
If you’re not excited about dancing (with or without a partner), use the music for a kickboxing routine.
Alcohol addiction develops slowly. Many casual, social, and weekend drinkers don’t realize they’ve developed a problem until years into their addiction.
Chronic alcohol consumption causes damage to body organs such as the brain, heart, stomach, pancreas, and especially the liver.
Consumption, especially at high doses, can cause extreme mood swings, unrestrained behavior, and impaired motor functions. Even basic walking is difficult, not to mention driving.
Almost half of all driving fatalities are alcohol related.
Late stage chronic alcoholics are so dependent on alcohol that they can die just from abstinence.
Dan Buettner first got interested in longevity as part of his interactive, educational “Quest” program, when he traveled around the world trying to answer difficult questions with a team of scientists linked through the internet. Then he wrote the 2005 National Geographic cover story “Secrets of Living Longer.” That story led to this book. In interviewing some of the world’s oldest people, he’s learned some of the secrets of healthy aging – not just living long, but living long well.
Buettner and his team of scientific researchers studied four populations in this book – the centenarians (yikes! they’re all over 100!) of Sardinia, Italy; Okinawa, Japan; Loma Linda, California; and the Nicoya peninsula of Costa Rica.
Each population has a chapter detailing research such as age verification and family trees, regional history, geography, and a social/cultural study. The centenarians were interviewed about their daily and lifetime habits, but Buettner also managed to establish deeper relationships with many of his subjects, joining them for family meals, daily work, social gatherings, and more. Each population also has specific longevity secrets – a few practices that can be adopted for your own life.
The final chapter of the book is a summary of the lessons we can learn from these longevity populations, as well as from the centenarians themselves. These lessons include lots of natural movement, cutting calories, eating mostly plant foods, drinking red wine (in moderation), seeing the big picture, downshifting to relieve stress, participating in a spiritual community, making family a priority, and surrounding yourself with people who have similar values. Each of these lessons has several strategies so you can incorporate the lesson in your own life.
The Blue Zones is easy to read, filled with anecdotes and personal histories. It also makes healthy living seem easy and attainable.
The book is not completely aligned with the Total Health Makeover®, however, it certainly supports many of our dietary guidelines and THM basics. One of the big messages of the book – health is more than diet and exercise – is something Marilu has taught since the publication of her first book on health, The Total Health Makeover. The lessons and strategies of The Blue Zones may be a way to introduce more people to healthy living, and even to THM.
One of the best ways to get a jump on your day is to start thinking about it the night before.
Before you go to bed tonight, spend 30 minutes preparing for tomorrow:
check your calendar for tomorrow’s events (business meetings, kids’ sports, etc)
know what you’ll eat for breakfast
pack as much of your lunch (and your kids’ lunches) as possible
check backpacks, briefcases, totebags, and purses (lunch money, permission slips, flash drives, power cords, library books, homework, USB cables, textbooks, uniforms, instruments, sports equipment … this list can go on forever, can’t it?)
lay out your workout clothes if you work out at home; pack your gym bag if you work out somewhere else – don’t forget your shoes
lay out your clothes (and your kids’ clothes) for the day
put your skin brush on the bathroom counter or scale, where you’ll see it first thing
fill your water bottle
You’ll sleep better tonight, you’ll have a jump start on your morning, and it will make the whole day go easier.
Summer is almost here, and warm weather means showing off your arms. Get started now, and your biceps will look great in just a couple of weeks. And you’ll be ready for the beach!
This photo looks nothing like biceps or exercise. It’s just a little visual to keep in mind as you get those biceps in shape. In case you need a reason to keep lifting that weight.
Sit on the edge of a bench or chair, with your feet a few inches wider than your hips.
Hold a dumbbell in your right hand, and place your right elbow against the inside of your right thigh, just behind your knee. You’ll be leaning forward from your hips. The weight should hang down near the inside of your ankle.
Place your left hand on your left thigh. Exhale and bend your right arm, curling the dumbbell three-quarters of the way up toward your shoulder. Think about the muscles you’re using.
Hold for a beat, then inhale slowly, lowering the weight, and repeat. Do a complete set (10 to 15 reps) on one arm, then switch to the other.
This bicep curl really helps isolate the muscles by keeping your back and shoulders totally out of the equation. Don’t lean back for help when you are lifting the weight, and don’t swing the weight.
Dom DeLuise: Marilu Henner pays tribute to her friend and ‘Cannonball Run II’ costar
The first time I saw Dom DeLuise on the set of Cannonball Run II, he was wearing a nun’s habit. It was 116 degrees out and there he was in a nun’s habit. When I first got there, I couldn’t believe that I was meeting all of these people who I’d gone to see in the theater as a little girl: Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Frank Sinatra, and Shirley MacLaine, who was my idol. But there was something about Dom — even surrounded by all of those famous stars — he managed to be the center of attention because he just was so damn funny.
Cinco de Mayo (Spanish for “fifth of May”) is a regional holiday in Mexico, primarily celebrated in the state of Puebla. It is NOT Mexican Independence Day (that’s September 16). The holiday commemorates the Mexican army’s unlikely defeat of French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, under the leadership of Mexican General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín.
Outnumbered two-to-one, the Mexicans defeated a much better-equipped French army that had known no defeat for almost 50 years. This victory was significant in helping to fortify and preserve the countries of both Mexico and the United States.
At the time, the French army, under the direction of Emporer Napolean III, was trying to take advantage of two situations: Mexico’s debt to France, and the preoccupation of the United States with its Civil War. The French moved in to collect Mexico’s debt by force (and thereby takeover the Mexican government, and gain political advantage in the region). Mexico’s victory meant that the French were no longer able to supply the US Confederate Army against the Union, and so that helped tip the balance toward a Union victory. After the US Civil War was settled, US troops moved to the Texas/Mexico border, where the US supported Mexico against France.
Cinco de Mayo celebrates freedom and liberty, two ideals that Mexicans and Americans have fought together to preserve ever since.
Eat at a Mexican restaurant today!
Meals to try:
taco salad with chicken or beans instead of beef
fajita with grilled veggies
the grilled veggies and grilled chicken from a fajita (no tortilla)
