Strengthen Your Bones

Building and maintaining strong bones is essential for  happy and healthy golden years. And the good news is that is never too late. Here are some things you can do to strengthen and maintain your bone health:

1.  Increase your Calcium. Calcium is essential to building and maintaining strong bones.When you do not consume enough calcium, your body takes it from its stored supply, causing your bones to become porous and weak. Good food sources for calcium: milk, cheese, dark leafy greens, sardines, tofu, nuts, white beans, oats and blackstrap molasses. 

2. Increase your Vitamin D.  In order for the calcium in these foods to be absorbed, your body also needs lots of Vitamin D. Fortunately, one of the best ways to get Vitamin D is from the sunlight. Unfortunately, sunscreen and advanced age limit our ability to synthesize this vitamin from the sun. So, once again, food sources can be a good source: sardines, salmon, eggs, cheese, tuna to name a few.

3. Ensure you eat foods with Vitamin K. Vitamin K also seems to play a role in strengthening bones, and can be found in leafy greens, spinach, broccoli, bok choy and Chinese cabbage. 

4. Avoid caffeine. Four cups of coffee or more per day may increase risk of bone fractures.

5. Exercise. Especially weight-bearing and muscle-strengthening exercises. Running, jumping rope, walking, hiking, climbing stairs, dance, pilates, yoga, weight training, resistance bands, cycling and swimming are some good exercises for strengthening your bones. 

The Mayo Clinic has a very useful article that spells out the daily vitamin and exercise requirements for maintaining good bone health. 

Cellulite

Oh to still have skin as smooth as a peach.  Cellulite, the curse of as much as 90% of women, is caused by fat cells that have bulged around fibrous connective tissue, producing a dimpled skin surface. But is there anything that I can do about it without relying on invasive procedures?  Turns out perhaps there is a way to get rid of cellulite by strengthening  and hydrating your body's cells and the body's connective tissues.  Here's a list of things that just might help:

1. Avoid excessive alcohol and smoking. 
2.  Eat lots of leafy greens and fruit.
3. Avoid junk food, processed food, and artificial additives.
4. Limit sugar and salt.
5. Drink lots of water to hydrate and flush toxins.
6. Brush skin with a body brush to stimulate blood and lymph flow as well as to encourage new cell growth.
7. Exercise, a combination of cardio and weight-training.

Take a Hike

Wanting to exercise more and improve my fitness levels, I have been trying to devise ways to reach that goal without having to sign up for cardio classes, which because I don't enjoy them end up being torture sessions that I find excuses not to attend. That's where hiking comes in.  I love hiking because it offers cardiovascular benefits and usually involves being in nature.  With so much to look at I find I am distracted from the physical exertion, making a workout so much more pleasant. We are lucky enough to live near lots of hiking trails so I am incorporating this into one of my regular fitness activities.  Not only is it good for my physical health, it also works wonders for my well being. 

Dance

I'm so happy to know that dancing has so many benefits, because it's no secret... I love to dance!

Dancing does wonders for:

1. Flexibility - the greater your range of motion while dancing, the more your muscles can flex and extend.

2. Strength - dance strengthens by forcing the muscles to resist against a dancer's own body weight. Jumping and leaping uses lots of strength in major leg muscles, preventing osteoporosis as well as keeping the joints lubricated, which helps prevent arthritis.

3. Endurance - regular dancing, and especially vigorous dancing, increases endurance; and elevating the heart builds stamina. Dancing also helps improve our cardiovascular system and lung capacity. 

4. Balance - dancing allows us to master balance in numerous positions, strengthens our stabilizer muscles while protecting our core and possible injuries. It also improves our coordination and srengthens our reflexes.

5. Well-being - a stress and tension reducer, dance improves our overall sense of well-being. It raises our endorphin levels, which helps depression and guards our immune system. Dancing is expressive and helps to encourage harmony betweeen the body and the mind. It's soical too if you dance with others.

6. Circulation - dance gets the blood flowing thereby improving our circulatory systems.

7. Memory - memorizing steps, routines and dance patterns improves memory.

8. Weight loss - dancing burns calories: 5 to 10 calories per minute, depending on the intensity and spped of our dance steps.

9. Cholestrol levels - dance raise HDL (the good cholesterol) and lowers LDL (the bad cholesterol).

With so many different types of dance, there is no need to ever get bored. I'm going to make dance one of the main ways I exercise. Now where did I put my disco music... just kidding, it's already right by the CD player, along with all my other dance music!

Climb the Stairs

It's always a challenge to fit enough exercise into my regular routine, especially working full-time. So it was a welcome revelation to realize that there is a wonderful fitness tool close at hand ... the stairs. My workplace has an air-conditioned stairwell with 9 floors, 2 flights of stairs between each floor making a total of 18 flights. 

And to take advantage of this, all I need to do is change into flat shoes... I have a pair of running shoes in a drawer in  my office... and I am ready to go. So how easy will it be to climb stairs once a day, whenever I am at work? Easy! The hardest part will be to remember to do it, especially if it's a hectic day... so I will set a time to "do the stairs" and make it a part of my regular routine.

When I read about the benefits of stair climbing it made even more sense to take advantage of this quick and easy way to add some exercise to my daily plan. The positives are pretty great. Besides helping you lose weight, improve your fitness tone, strengthen your calves, thighs, tummy and bottom; it also has the following to recommend it:

1. It's free and accessible.

2. It's weight-bearing, so you build bone strength.

3. It is low-impact and therefore safe for the knees.

2. It provides a fairly intense workout that quickly increases your heart rate, improving cardiovascular fitness.

3. It's an efficient way of burning calories, and the more you weigh, the harder you'l work and the more calories you'll burn.

Exercise doesn't have to be complicated or expensive to provide benefits. Nor does it need to be inconvenient, taking time and energy to get to a gym or fitness class. All it takes is resolve to do it!

If you'd like to join me, there is lots of information about stair climbing out there. I came across a helpful Australian site filled with stair-climbing information to help you get started.