Daily Healthy Living Motivation- November 28

Make a GOAL, not an EXCUSE!

Most of the time, the obstacles we feel that are in our way are only in our minds. It is time to stop coming up with excuses, making a goal & setting your sights on making it happen!

Daily Healthy Living Motivation- November 27

Within each of us is a hidden store of determination. Determination to keep us in the race when all seems lost.



-Roger Dawson

Daily Healthy Living Motivation: November 26

~ Gratitude is one of the most powerful forces in the Universe ~

Daily Healthy Living Motivation: November 25

“Everything can be taken from a person but one thing:
the last of human freedoms - to choose one’s attitudes in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” ~ Victor Frankl

Daily Healthy Living Motivation: November 24

Happiness is nothing but total relaxation.

Daily Healthy Living Motivation: November 23

The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them.

- George Bernard Shaw, playwright

Daily Healthy Living Motivation- November 22

He who cures a disease may be the skillfullest, but he that prevents it is the safest physician.

- Thomas Fuller, British clergyman and author

Fitness Levels Decline With Age, Especially After 45

ScienceDaily (Oct. 30, 2009) — Men and women become gradually less fit with age, with declines accelerating after age 45, according to a report in the October 26 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. However, maintaining a healthy body mass index (BMI), not smoking and being physically active are associated with higher fitness levels throughout adult life.

“The U.S. population is aging and is becoming more obese and sedentary,” the authors write as background information in the article. “It is well documented that the cardiorespiratory fitness of men and women declines with age and that body composition and habitual physical activity are related to cardiorespiratory fitness.” Low fitness levels increase the risk of diseases and interfere with older adults’ ability to function independently.

Andrew S. Jackson, P.E.D., of the University of Houston, and colleagues studied 3,429 women and 16,889 men age 20 to 96 who participated in the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study (ACLS) between 1974 and 2006. During the study, participants completed between two and 33 health examinations that included counseling about diet, exercise and other lifestyle factors along with a treadmill exercise to assess fitness.

Statistical models showed that while fitness levels declined continuously over time, the decrease was not linear or steady — cardiorespiratory fitness declined more rapidly after age 45. The decline for men was greater than that for women.

The results also “showed that being active, keeping a normal BMI and not smoking were associated with substantially higher levels of cardiorespiratory fitness during the adult life span studied,” the authors write. “Being inactive and having a high BMI were associated with a lower age at which an individual could be expected to reach threshold cardiorespiratory fitness levels associated with substantially higher health risks.”

Given the high rates of obesity and low levels of physical activity previously observed in the general population, the results also suggest that more men and women will reach the fitness level designated by the Social Security Administration as representing disability at a younger age, the authors note. “These data indicate the need for physicians to recommend to their patients the necessity to maintain their weight, engage in regular aerobic exercise and abstain from smoking,” they conclude.

Super Saturday Event featuring Tony Horton!

Super  Saturday  Event
featuring Tony Horton!


Heard of P90X?

How about 10 Minute Trainer?

How would you like the opportunity to meet, learn from & workout 

with the creator of these 

body transforming workouts?

You are invited to join Tony Horton 

in Lincoln, NE 

for a Super Saturday filled with events 

for the whole family on

January 9, 2010.

For more information, call (515) 710-9483 or email ExtremeHealth4Life@mchsi.com & 

ask for Rebecca.

Not-So-Smart Choice

Smart Choice Branding Makes for Bad Decisions in Cereal Aisle

Published on October 1, 2009

By Consumer Health Advocate, Frank Mangano

Have you been noticing green checkmarks on your groceries lately?  They’re found on all sorts of foods, be them perishable or packaged.  

These happy little green check marks are the brainchild of a program called Smart Choice, a program spearheaded by a non-profit foundation specializing in health called The Key Stone Center. 

The point of the program sounds simple enough:  It gives nutrition-conscious consumers a simple way of identifying what foods are nutrition-friendly.  If there’s a green check mark on the box or bag, the consumer can rest assured it meets their exacting standards as to what qualifies as “good for you.”

But nutritionists have sounded the alarm in recent weeks with how liberal The Key Stone Center is in doling out these check marks, as they’ve been spotted on boxes of Kellogg’s Froot Loops (15 grams of sugar in one cup), General Mills’ Cocoa Puffs (11 grams of sugar in 3/4ths of a cup) and General Mills’ Lucky Charms (14 grams of sugar in one cup).

These cereals are not exactly my or anyone else’s idea of “smart choice” breakfast selections.  Everyone except the people at The Key Stone Center, apparently.

What do they say in defense of these cereals?  They call them smart choices because they have micronutrients and fiber.  That may be true, but that’s a pretty weak defense when you stop and think about it. 

It’s sort of like defending soda pop as a “smart choice” for drinking because it contains water.  Yes, soda does contain water, but if you take the totality of negative and positive things added to that water to make it soda, the negatives overwhelm the positives (e.g. empty calories, high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, added sugars, etc.).  Similarly, all cereals have elements of nutrition, yes, but not enough to outweigh the amount of good stuff that’s stripped from the cereal grain itself when it’s processed.

Smart Choice defended itself further by saying that nutritionists aren’t pointing out all the positives of their program, as most of their 2,000 products branded with “Smart Choice” labeling are fruits, vegetables and lean meats.  True enough, but to paraphrase an old proverb, a program is only as strong as its weakest link.  In other words, the Smart Choice program loses its credibility when it labels foods that are widely regarded as nutritional nightmares.

I have no doubt the “Smart Choice” program was created with the best of intentions for consumers.  But to paraphrase another ancient axiom, the road to nutritional hell is paved with good intentions. 

Be wary of health claims and neat-o labeling.  All too often, they conveniently gloss over added ingredients that are nothing more than obstacles in your pathway to true health. 

Use your common sense and don’t buy into what “Smart Choice” is selling in the cereal aisle.

(From http://www.naturalhealthontheweb.com)