Need Some Stress Relief? Try These

News of the financial markets have you down? Looking for a little stress relief? We collected a few online stress relievers that just may be worth wasting your time on.

• Pop Virtual Bubble Wrap
• Carve a Virtual Pumpkin
• Adopt & Play with an Online Pet
• Listen to Soothing Sounds
• Create a Virtual Kaleidoscope
• Virtual Etch a Sketch
• Meditate At Your Desk
• Find a Gallery Of Cloud Photos
• Watch Classic TV Shows Online
  

(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

Expert: You Can Eat Healthy Without Breaking Bank

MIAMI (CBS) ― One doesn't have to pay a high price for healthy food. Baptist Hospital nutritionist Susan Nowrouzi explains one can find delicious and very nutritious foods for under $1.

"They can be anywhere for 30 cents or less, to less than a dollar per serving," Nowrouzi tells CBS station WFOR-TV in Miami.

First, apples are high in fiber with vitamin C and low in calories. In addition, they cost about 70 cents per serving, and that's one of the pricier items.

Bananas have vitamin C and fiber too, plus they're loaded with potassium. They ring in at just 30 cents each, and Nowrouzi says they fill you up.

"High fiber, so yes definitely, they are filling," she added.

Canned tuna is one of the best sources of lean protein and heart healthy omega three fatty acids. Each can is about a buck - that's 50 cents a serving.

Yogurt has bacteria which is good for your gut, calcium and protein too -just 50 cents a serving.

Canned beans are power packed with protein and fiber, plus they're a good source of iron.

Canned tomatoes contain lycopene, a known cancer fighter, plus vitamins A and C. At 34 cents a serving, they make almost anything taste better.

"They're a great addition for taste for many foods," Nowrouzi says. "You can add, and they're very cheap."

Oranges are one of the best sources of the antioxidant vitamin C - 200% of your RDA; in fact, each one is about 70 cents.

Lentils are high protein with a low cost - just 14 cents a serving.

At 19 cents per serving, the benefits of carrots are clear to see, as they are packed with the vision vitamin A.

"They are antioxidants, and they're good for your eyes and your skin pigmentation," Nowrouzi says.

Just mix any three into your next meal, and you can get a nutritious boost without breaking the bank.

Frozen vegetables are also a great source of nutrition; they are usually just as healthy as fresh vegetables, easier to prepare and since they are grown and distributed in bulk, they are usually significantly cheaper.

CBS News Interactive: About Diet And Nutrition
(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

Expert: You Can Eat Healthy Without Breaking Bank

MIAMI (CBS) ― One doesn't have to pay a high price for healthy food. Baptist Hospital nutritionist Susan Nowrouzi explains one can find delicious and very nutritious foods for under $1.

"They can be anywhere for 30 cents or less, to less than a dollar per serving," Nowrouzi tells CBS station WFOR-TV in Miami.

First, apples are high in fiber with vitamin C and low in calories. In addition, they cost about 70 cents per serving, and that's one of the pricier items.

Bananas have vitamin C and fiber too, plus they're loaded with potassium. They ring in at just 30 cents each, and Nowrouzi says they fill you up.

"High fiber, so yes definitely, they are filling," she added.

Canned tuna is one of the best sources of lean protein and heart healthy omega three fatty acids. Each can is about a buck - that's 50 cents a serving.

Yogurt has bacteria which is good for your gut, calcium and protein too -just 50 cents a serving.

Canned beans are power packed with protein and fiber, plus they're a good source of iron.

Canned tomatoes contain lycopene, a known cancer fighter, plus vitamins A and C. At 34 cents a serving, they make almost anything taste better.

"They're a great addition for taste for many foods," Nowrouzi says. "You can add, and they're very cheap."

Oranges are one of the best sources of the antioxidant vitamin C - 200% of your RDA; in fact, each one is about 70 cents.

Lentils are high protein with a low cost - just 14 cents a serving.

At 19 cents per serving, the benefits of carrots are clear to see, as they are packed with the vision vitamin A.

"They are antioxidants, and they're good for your eyes and your skin pigmentation," Nowrouzi says.

Just mix any three into your next meal, and you can get a nutritious boost without breaking the bank.

Frozen vegetables are also a great source of nutrition; they are usually just as healthy as fresh vegetables, easier to prepare and since they are grown and distributed in bulk, they are usually significantly cheaper.

CBS News Interactive: About Diet And Nutrition
(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

Exercise Myth

I need to work out twice a day for effective workouts

• Example: cardio in a.m. and lifting at night.

Truth: You only need to come once a day!

Why? Because you will burn out easily and over train the muscles. If you feel time pressure try
interval training or circuit training more effective, short-term workouts in one session.

Get a full cardio workout in 15 minutes

If you're in a rush, consider interval training. Just 15 minutes of intense interval training can replace 45 minutes of low-level cardio, like walking.

The difference? Instead of maintaining a moderate pace throughout your exercise session, you alternate all-out sprints with rest periods.

This technique burns calories and can be potent for "everyday people, even those with heart conditions or previously inactive people," says Martin Gibala, a kinesiologist at McMaster University in Ontario.

As for timing, alternating 1 minute of sprinting with 1 minute of rest is a good plan for most people, Gibala says, but, "anything from 30 seconds to 2 minutes of sprinting with rest periods from 1 to 4 minutes in between will work."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Option: If your running sprint can't be an all-out effort (85% of your max), don't hit the track. Instead, "sprint" on a stationary bike to cut risk of injury; check with your doctor.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fitsmart
Jorge Cruise
USA Today Weekend

Obesity-Cancer Link Unknown to Many Women

By Anne Harding

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Many women don't know that obesity increases their risk of several types of cancer, a new survey published in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology shows.

Women's lack of knowledge about excess weight and the most common gynecologic malignancy, endometrial cancer, is particularly worrying, Dr. Pamela T. Soliman of M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and her colleagues say. "We need to be doing a better job of educating our patients," Soliman told Reuters Health.

Women who were overweight were four times more likely to develop cancer of the uterine lining, Soliman and her team note in their report, while obesity boosts the risk by six-fold. Obese women also are at greater risk of breast and colon cancer. Excess weight also increases mortality from many cancers, with the strongest association seen for endometrial cancer; heavy women are 6.25 times more likely to die from the disease.

To investigate awareness of the obesity-cancer link, Soliman and her colleagues surveyed 1,545 women, 28 percent of whom were normal weight. Another 24 percent were overweight, while 45 percent were obese. Ninety-one percent of the study participants had health insurance.

Just 42 percent knew that obesity increased their risk of endometrial cancer, while 53 percent knew that colon cancer is associated with obesity and 54 percent were aware that excess weight increases breast cancer risk.

The women in the current study were fairly well educated, with most having a college or professional degree, Soliman noted, and the great majority had health insurance. "Even patients who are routinely seeing their physician weren't aware that obesity increases their risk," she said.

Vaginal bleeding is a key symptom of endometrial cancer in post-menopausal women, while bleeding between periods can be a sign of the disease in women who are still menstruating, Soliman said. Seventy-five percent of endometrial cancer cases are caught early, and early-stage disease can typically be cured with surgery, she added. "It's a relatively curable disease and that's why it's so important if women have symptoms to seek care."

SOURCE: Obstetrics & Gynecology, October 2008.

We are all trying to make it through the holidays without packing on any extra weight. One of the questions, as you can imagine we get is how to cut back on some of the calories during Thanksgiving without sacrificing eating a great meal. Below are a few tips we found that can help you out. If you have any tips you'd like to share, we'd love to hear from you. Just write a comment below.

Quick Low-Fat Tips for Thanksgiving

Here are six quick and easy ways to cut fat from your Thanksgiving feast:

1. Remove skin from turkey before eating
2. Make gravy from de-fatted drippings. Allow the fat to rise to the top, then skim. If time allows, cool the drippings, which makes the task of skimming much easier
3. Replace the butter often called for in stuffing recipes with fat-free broth. If your stuffing calls for sausage meat, use chicken sausage instead of pork.
4. Make skinny mashed potatoes by replacing butter and heavy
5. Use reduced-fat mushroom soup in your green bean casserole, and use cooking spray to saute the onions.
6. Make your pies with low-fat phyllo dough as the base.
   

By Fiona Haynes, About.com

Good Vs. Bad Fats

Good Fats
Olive oil
Canola oil
Peanut oil
Nuts * good for heart, not the hips!!
Peanut or almond butter
Avocados

Bad Fats
Cream in coffee
Butter
Donuts/pastries
Cookies/pies
French fries
Fast foods
Salami, bologna and hotdogs
Cheese: sorry!

What if I eat too little fat?

Minimum:

• Ladies:
• never go under 20 grams of fat per day
  
• healthy range: 20-40 grams/day

• Men:
  
• healthy range: 35-50 grams/day.
  

Too little fat?
Ladies:

• risk for early-onset osteoporosis (common in runners). Missed periods. Thinning of hair. Always cold. No insulation from bodyfat. Dangerous…..

Men:

• can lower testosterone levels. Makes you ‘hold onto bodyfat’ so you don’t lose anymore.

I Put In 5 Miles at the Office

By MANDY KATZ

TERRI KRIVOSHA, a partner at a Minneapolis law firm, logs three miles each workday on a treadmill without leaving her desk. She finds it easier to exercise while she types than to attend aerobics classes at the crack of dawn.

Brad Rhoads, a computer programmer and missionary in Princeton, Ill., faces a computer monitor on a file cabinet and gets in about five miles a day on a treadmill while working in his home office.

“After a while, your legs do get kind of tired,” said Mr. Rhoads, 40, who started exercising in March, when doctors advised him to lose weight after open-heart surgery.

Ms. Krivosha and Mr. Rhoads are part of a small but growing group of desk jockeys who were inspired by Dr. James Levine, an endocrinologist at the Mayo Clinic. In 2005, Dr. Levine led a study showing that lean people burn about 350 more calories a day than those who are overweight, by doing ordinary things like fidgeting, pacing or walking to the copier.

To incorporate extra movement into the routines of sedentary workers (himself included), Dr. Levine constructed a treadmill desk by sliding a bedside hospital tray over a $400 treadmill.

Without breaking a sweat, the so-called work-walker can burn an estimated 100 to 130 calories an hour at speeds slower than two miles an hour, Mayo research shows.

Enthusiasts began following Dr. Levine’s example, constructing treadmill desks that range from sleekly robotic set-ups to rickety mash-ups that could be Wall-E’s long-lost kin. But the recent introduction of an all-in-one treadmill desk from Details may inch work-walking into the mainstream, as dozens of businesses invest in the hardware to let their employees walk (and, ideally, lose a little weight) at work.

Since last November, about 335 Walkstations, have been sold nationwide to companies including Humana, Mutual of Omaha, GlaxoSmithKline and Best Buy.

The Walkstation, which Dr. Levine helped develop, costs about $4,000 and comes in 36 laminate finishes with an ergonomically curved desktop. Its quiet motor is designed for slow speeds, said David Kagan, director of marketing communications at Details, a division of Steelcase.

STILL, to most, work-walking is “a freaky thing to do,” said Joe Stirt, 60, an anesthesiologist in Charlottesville, Va., who works and blogs in his off hours while walking up to six hours a day in his home office.

Mr. Stirt’s site, www.bookofjoe.com/2007/10/treadmill-works.html, is one of some dozen work-walking blogs, including www.treadmill-desk.com and treadmill-workstation.com.

“I know lots of people who are using them,” Dr. Stirt said of the treadmill desks. “But there are probably a hundred times more who we don’t read about on the Internet.”

There is even a burgeoning social network (officewalkers.ning.com), with around 30 members, that Mr. Rhoads started in March.

To the uninitiated, work-walking sounds like a recipe for distraction. But devotees say the treadmill desks increase not only their activity but also their concentration.

“I thought it was ridiculous until I tried it,” said Ms. Krivosha, 49, a partner in the law firm of Maslon Edelman Borman & Brand.

Ms. Krivosha said it is tempting to become distracted during conference calls, but when she is exercising, she listens more intently.

“Walking just takes care of the A.D.D. part,” she said.

Still, work-walking can require crafty maneuvering. When colleagues drop in on Bruce Langer, another work-walker, he pivots, then keeps striding backward while facing them.

“It’s more polite and, from a workout standpoint, it works different muscles,” said Mr. Langer, a vice president of Tealwood Asset Management in Minneapolis.

In 2005, Salo, a professional placement firm in Minneapolis, contacted Dr. Levine after fashioning its first treadmill unit. (Employees called the cobbled-together unit “the Frankendesk.”) By 2007, Salo had become a test site for early Walkstation models and now has 16.

At Mutual of Omaha’s 150-person call center in Omaha, four Walkstations have been in use since July as part of a small company study to figure out whether work-walking could maintain productivity while reducing employees’ cholesterol, weight and blood-sugar levels. Sixteen subjects of different ages, weights and fitness levels work-walk two hours a day, said Peggy Rivedal, the manager of employee health services. A similarly diverse control group works the old-fashioned way.

After leaving the military two years ago, Kirk Hurley, 40, a customer service representative at Mutual of Omaha, gained 75 pounds. In two months of work-walking two hours a day, he has lost 16 pounds.

“You don’t really feel the physical strain on your body because your mind’s occupied with your work,” he said.

Treadmill desks will not likely replace the sit-down kind any time soon. In corporate settings, they are usually in open areas where employees can just jump on. At a few firms, including Salo, they have replaced conference tables.

SOME business colleagues arrive at meetings with walking shoes in hand, said Amy Langer, a Salo founder (and Mr. Langer’s wife).

But not every employee has the enthusiasm to keep work-walking day after day. Take the trial Walkstation at Humana, a health insurer in Louisville, Ky.

After a year on site, the treadmill is in use about 60 percent of the workday, mostly for conference calls, said Grant Harrison, the vice president of consumer innovation. Many workers, he said, may “try it out, but they don’t make it a part of their daily life.”

Nor does everyone have the coordination to walk and work, said Andrew Wood, the director of ergonomics and corporate services for Muve, a weight-management consultancy affiliated with the Mayo Clinic.

“If you can’t walk and chew gum at the same time, this may not be the workstation for you,” Mr. Wood said. But it should be a piece of cake for most people, he added.

James O. Hill, an obesity researcher and the director of the University of Colorado’s Center for Human Nutrition in Denver, shares this opinion: “There are not very many people who can’t walk,” he said. “You should have a doctor’s note to not walk.”

Will work-walking free you from the gym forever? Not if you’re seeking serious weight loss or peak cardio-respiratory fitness. “Walking on the treadmill could be enough to prevent weight gain, but it’s not going to melt the pounds off,” Dr. Hill said.

Still, something is better than nothing, say workwalkers like Mr. Rhoads.

“At least a little bit of exercise will just be part of my day and part of my working,” he said. “The one thing I always do is work.”

Doctors not prescribing exercise for blood pressure

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - When doctors tell patients with high blood pressure to get some exercise, most of them listen -- yet too few doctors are doing so, a new study suggests.

Using data from a government health survey, researchers found that only one-third of U.S. adults with high blood pressure said their doctors had counseled them on getting regular exercise.

But of those who did get such advice, 71 percent followed it -- and had lower blood pressure than their counterparts who remained inactive, the investigators report in the journal Ethnicity & Disease.

"The blood pressure reduction was ... unexpected, as this was not a trial to determine whether exercise would reduce blood pressure," lead researcher Dr. Josiah Halm, of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine, said in a statement.

Doctors, he said, should be encouraging exercise as a way to manage high blood pressure, even if they think they do not have time for such a conversation.

"Clinicians will always decry not having enough time to counsel, but a method of using a prescription pad with exercise recommendations as suggested in the study will help solve this quandary," Halm said.

The findings are based on a federal health survey that included 4,686 U.S. adults with high blood pressure. Of these participants, 33 percent said their doctor had told them to exercise regularly to help lower their blood pressure.

Among people who'd received this advice, Halm's team found, 71 percent said they'd heeded it -- and their blood pressure was several points lower, on average, than men and women who had not taken up exercise.

This does not prove that exercise was responsible for the lower blood pressure. However, the researchers point out, other studies have found that exercise does cut elevated blood pressure, even in the absence of weight loss.

Halm and his colleagues suggest that doctors think about exercise as a prescription, and actually write down on a prescription pad the type, intensity and duration of exercise each patient should try.

SOURCE: Ethnicity & Disease, Summer 2008.

Exercise: The Best Medicine, By Sally Squires/ The Lean Plate Club

“Walk two miles and call me in the morning.”

That’s what doctors could soon prescribe if the new leaders of two major medical groups have their way.

“We’re trying to get every physician to prescribe exercise,” says Robert Sallis, a California physician who recently became president of the American College of Sports Medicine. “Physicians have a moral responsibility to inform patients of the danger of inactivity and the health benefits of being more active.”

That’s also the message from the new head of the American Medical Association.

“We are in lockstep with them on that concept,” says incoming AMA President Ronald M. Davis, who is also the director of the Henry Ford Health System’s Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention in Detroit. “We need to get doctors to prescribe exercise more and we need to get patients to follow that advice.”

More than half of Americans fail to get the 30 minutes of physical activity recommended daily to provide health benefits, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

So many Americans are inactive that some experts have coined a new term for it: sedentary death syndrome. The condition helps cut short an estimated 250,000 lives annually, according to Frank Booth, professor of physiology at the University of Missouri. Research suggests that people who are sedentary spend about $1,500 more annually on medical bills than do their more active counterparts.

“There are also studies to show that they miss more work and are not as productive,” says Sallis. Research shows that regular physical activity improves health by cutting the risk of heart disease, stroke, colon cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure. Even brief bouts of activity several times a day can help control weight and relieve arthritis, anxiety and depression.

“Exercise is medicine,” Sallis says. “We know that it works very well. We just don’t have the proper way to administer it.”

That’s where the doctors come in. Sallis is leading the charge to get doctors and other health professionals to ask every patient at every office visit about their exercise habits.

It isn’t just activity that doctors are being asked to encourage. Harvard Medical School and the Culinary Institute of America recently teamed up to teach physicians to cook more healthfully for their own personal consumption.

The theory is that by teaching doctors how to cook, they may be more likely to encourage their patients to do the same. Harvard also is considering establishing teaching kitchens in hospitals. The goal would be to take patients who have recently been diagnosed with diabetes, heart disease or other nutritionally related conditions, and show them how to make healthier meals.

September Snack Ideas

Don't defeat the purpose of going to the gym by having a poor diet. Follow these nutrition tips and snack ideas to help stay in shape.

Think outside the box.
Avoid boxed foods and go for the fresh stuff.

Eat breakfast.
There's a reason for it being the most important meal of the day. Eating breakfast speeds up your metabolism. Oatmeal, egg whites, and smoothies are great suggestions. Even if you're in a rush, grab a piece of fruit to have something in your stomach. This will make you less likely to overeat at lunchtime and also give you the energy you need to get through your work day.

For more nutrition tips, check out the article "10 Tips for Easy Weight Loss," written by Gloria Tsang, Registered Dietitian and founder of the largest nutrition network, www.HealthCastle.com.

Snack Ideas
Here are some healthy snack suggestions. The best part? Each snack is under 200 calories.

• 1 sugar-free Eskimo Pie bar

• 1/2 English muffin with 1 Tbsp tomato sauce and 1 oz low-fat mozzarella cheese

• 6 gingersnaps or vanilla wafers

• 6 cups reduced-fat microwave popcorn sprinkled with 2 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese, cajun seasoning, or spray margarine

• 30 frozen grapes

• 5 graham crackers with 1 Tbsp jam

• 2 slices whole wheat toast with cinnamon and sugar, 1 Tsp lite whipped butter

• Fruit Smoothie: Blend 8 oz skim milk or non-fat yogurt with 1/4 cup strawberries, 1/2 banana, 4 ice cubes, and 1-2 Tsp sugar or Equal (as needed)

• 3 stalks of celery with 1/4 cup hummus

• 1 small baked potato with chives, lite sour cream, salsa, and/or spray margarine

September Exercise Tips

Here are some tips from our Fitcorp experts on how to look better and feel better.

Have a workout buddy.
Having a gym partner helps you stay motivated. Spending time with friends or family also makes the routine more enjoyable, making the quality a lot better.

Listen to your body.
Working out is not a competition with other members in the gym. If you are in pain, take a break. Don't overexert yourself to the point of potential injury. Even if you've had the same routine for weeks or months, pay attention to your body if it needs to rest.

Play mind games if you get bored.
For some people, running long distances can get monotonous. Play little games with yourself, like sprinting for 100 steps and then slowing down for the next 100. Continue this game for a good portion of your run, and the intensity of your run will be a lot higher. Not to mention, time will fly by! Mental games can help with any form of exercise. Running, rowing, and biking are great examples.

Multi-task.
Walk while talking on your cell phone. You would be surprised at how many calories you can burn when you're not even paying attention!

Make exercise a priority.
Too many people blame their lack of exercise on not having enough time. Make time! Setting a regular time for fitness will make it much easier to stick to.

Change your routine up.
After a while of doing the same exercises, our muscles get bored because they don't have to work as hard. Change your program every six weeks, and don't be scared to try new exercise activities you may enjoy. Group fitness has a wide variety of classes that work different muscle groups, like Yoga, Pilates and Kickboxing. Our new Zumba dance class is another fun way to burn tons of calories.

Girls Protected By Hormones During Adolescence, Study Suggests

HealthDay News, by Ed Edelson (Apr. 21, 2008) — The first signs that men are at higher risk of heart disease than women appear during the adolescent years, according a new study that tracked boys and girls through their teens.

This is not what we would have predicted," said Dr. Antoinette Moran, chief of pediatric endocrinology and diabetes at the University of Minnesota Children's Hospital, and lead author of the report in the April 22 issue of Circulation. "Because boys lose fat and gain muscle in adolescence, while girls add body fat.

At the start, 11-year-old boys and girls were similar in body composition, blood pressure and blood levels of lipids (fats). As expected, the percentage of body fat decreased in the boys and increased in the girls over the adolescent years.

Yet the study of the 507 Minneapolis school children found that between the ages of 11 and 19, levels of triglycerides, a type of blood fat associated with cardiovascular disease, increased in the boys and dropped in the girls. Levels of HDL cholesterol, the "good" kind that helps keep arteries clear, went down in boys but rose in girls.

Blood pressure increased in both, but significantly more in boys. And insulin resistance, a marker of cardiovascular risk, which was lower in boys at age 11, rose until the 19-year-old men were more resistant than the women.

But excess weight is of major importance in both sexes, Moran said. "Being overweight or obese can cancel out these relationships and cause increased cardiovascular risk for males and females," she said. "Any protection that the young women had was wiped out by obesity.

A recent study found that more than a third of children and adolescents in the United States are overweight or obese.

The study points toward the importance of hormonal factors in cardiovascular disease risk, Moran explained. "We knew that women had extra protection from cardiovascular disease, and we knew it disappeared after menopause," she said. "This adds further weight to the role of hormones by looking at the other end of the age spectrum.

One possible lesson of the study is that it is never too early to start protective measures against heart disease, said Dr. Stephen R. Daniels, chairman of the department of pediatrics at the University of Colorado.

Studies have used autopsies of young people who died in accidents to show that by the late teens, the kind of lesions we know cause heart attacks and strokes are in the process of developing," Daniels said. "So, in some ways, our best opportunity to prevent heart disease is to look at children and adolescents and start the preventive process early.

Fighting obesity in the years before adulthood is essential, he said. "Some changes that occur may be due to what is built into the difference between the sexes," he said. "But if you add overweight and obesity, you can increase risk through that mechanism.

More information
Facts about childhood obesity are available from the U.S. Surgeon General.

Source: Antoinette Moran, M.D., chief, pediatric endocrinology and diabetes, University of Minnesota Children's Hospital, Milwaukee; Stephen R. Daniels, M.D., chairman, pediatrics, University of Colorado, Denver; April 22, 2008, Circulation

August Snack Ideas

Even if you work out hard, you still need to eat well to see results. Follow these nutrition tips and snack ideas to help stay in shape.

Be good in the grocery store.
Tomatoes, seafood, skinless white-meat poultry, eggs, lean beef, and skim or low-fat dairy products are great things to throw in your cart. Buy whole grain bread and pasta. Also load up on produce since all veggies- except avocados- are fat-free. Berries and grapes help fulfill your suggested daily fruit intake, as well as help fight cancer and heart disease.

Eat less but more often.
Eating six small meals throughout the day is much better for you than eating three large ones. It will keep you energized and also help digest your food more easily.

For more nutrition tips, check out the article "10 Tips for Easy Weight Loss," written by Gloria Tsang, Registered Dietitian and founder of the largest nutrition network, www.HealthCastle.com.


Here are some healthy snack suggestions. The best part? Each snack is under 200 calories.

• 1/2 large bagel with apple butter, jam, and/or 1-2 Tbsp fat-free cream cheese

• 1 large plain rice cake with 1 Tbsp peanut butter and jelly

• a slice angel food cake topped with 1/2 cup strawberries and fat-free Cool Whip

• 1 soft flour tortilla with 1 oz melted reduced-fat cheese

• 3/4 cup bran-flake cereal with 1 cup skim milk and 1/4 cup blueberries

• 1 cup fresh vegetables with 1/4 cup dip: (low-fat sour cream mixed with a packet of dry Ranch salad dressing)

• 1 cup 60% reduced-fat Chex Mix

• 1 oz reduced-fat spread on 4 whole wheat crackers

• 10 baked tortilla chips with 4 Tbsp fat-free bean dip and salsa

How Exercise Changes Structure And Function Of Heart

ScienceDaily (Apr. 23, 2008) — For the first time researchers are beginning to understand exactly how various forms of exercise impact the heart. Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators, in collaboration with the Harvard University Health Services, have found that 90 days of vigorous athletic training produces significant changes in cardiac structure and function and that the type of change varies with the type of exercise performed.

"Most of what we know about cardiac changes in athletes and other physically active people comes from 'snapshots,' taken at one specific point in time. What we did in this first-of-a-kind study was to follow athletes over several months to determine how the training process actually causes change to occur," says Aaron Baggish, MD, a fellow in the MGH Cardiology Division and lead author of the study.

To investigate how exercise affects the heart over time, the MGH researchers enrolled two groups of Harvard University student athletes at the beginning of the fall 2006 semester. One group was comprised of endurance athletes -- 20 male and 20 female rowers -- and the other, strength athletes -- 35 male football players. Student athletes were studied while participating their normal team training, with emphasis on how the heart adapts to a typical season of competitive athletics.

Echocardiography studies -- ultrasound examination of the heart's structure and function -- were taken at the beginning and end of the 90-day study period. Participants followed the normal training regimens developed by their coaches and trainers, and weekly training activity was recorded. Endurance training included one- to three-hour sessions of on-water practice or use of indoor rowing equipment. The strength athletes took part in skill-focused drills, exercises designed to improve muscle strength and reaction time, and supervised weight training. Participants also were questioned confidentially about the use of steroids, and any who reported such use were excluded from the study.

At the end of the 90-day study period, both groups had significant overall increases in the size of their hearts. For endurance athletes, the left and right ventricles -- the chambers that send blood into the aorta and to the lungs, respectively -- expanded. In contrast, the heart muscle of the strength athletes tended to thicken, a phenomenon that appeared to be confined to the left ventricle. The most significant functional differences related to the relaxation of the heart muscle between beats -- which increased in the endurance athletes but decreased in strength athletes, while still remaining within normal ranges.

"We were quite surprised by both the magnitude of changes over a relatively short period and by how great the differences were between the two groups of athletes," Baggish says. "The functional differences raise questions about the potential impact of long-term training, which should be followed up in future studies."

While this study looks at young athletes with healthy hearts, the information it provides may someday benefit heart disease patients. "The take-home message is that, just as not all heart disease is equal, not all exercise prescriptions are equal," Baggish explains. "This should start us thinking about whether we should tailor the type of exercise patients should do to their specific type of heart disease. The concept will need to be studied in heart disease patients before we can make any definitive recommendations."

Their study appears in the April Journal of Applied Physiology. Baggish and senior author Malissa J. Wood, MD, of MGH Cardiology note that collaboration with the Harvard University Medical Services, led by Francis Wang, MD, was instrumental in the success of this study. Additional co-authors of the report are Rory Weiner, MD, Jason Elinoff, Francois Tournoux, Michael Picard, MD, and Adolph Hutter, MD, MGH Cardiology; and Arthur Boland, MD, Harvard University Health Services.

Adapted from materials provided by Massachusetts General Hospital.

August Exercise Tips

Here are some tips from our Fitcorp experts on how to look better and feel better.

Less is more.
Make your workouts shorter but more frequent. Working out for 30 minutes per day for five days is recommended over two 75-minute workouts.

Make realistic goals.
Starting your exercise routine with the lofty goal of working out every day never works and is actually discouraged. Four or five times a week is most recommended because it gives your muscles a chance to recover. Start off small with two or three workouts a week, and work your way up. The same goes for food. Give yourself one or two "cheat" days and be self-disciplined the rest of the week.

Get outside.
Fit in a walk everyday- even if it's only for 10 minutes- to negate the central heating, poor ventilation and stress at work. Getting some fresh air will put you in a better mood and even help you sleep better at night.


Be consistent.
If you're trying to get rid of extra pounds, don't let more than two days pass without engaging in some type of exercise. Being consistent with your exercise schedule keeps your metabolism high, helping you burn fat.

Stretch.
Stretching is one of the most important, and most often ignored, aspects of exercising. Be sure to stretch before your workout to warm up your muscles, as well as after your routine. Hold stretches for between 30 and 90 seconds. Always stretch to the point of tension, never to the point of pain, and always remember to breathe. Stretching prevents soreness and injuries, as well as improves your flexibility.

Drink lots of water.
This seems like a no-brainer, but it is crucial to stay hydrated during a workout, especially in the hot summer months. Drink water or a sports drink an hour before your workout, throughout your workout, and after your workout. Water intake depends on many factors, like the duration and intensity of your workout and how much you sweat. As a general rule, we recommend drinking one glass with each meal, one glass between each meal, and extra glasses following exercise.