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A Simple Guide to Running

by David Osgathorp

At last the winter is drawing to a close, the days are getting longer and we can start stepping up our exercise routines, whether it is for that long awaited summer holiday or for a personal goal such as the marathon. For many of us this means one thing, Running!

For those of you training for the marathon, the weekly mileage and speed training will now be mounting up as you enter the last couple of weeks leading into the big day.

For those of us just training for that ever elusive beach body running may form an important part of our regular training programme.

It can be difficult running in a major city like London. The traffic, pollution and lack of real open areas can cause problems running outside and pounding away on a treadmill just does not deliver the same feeling of achievement as running outdoors.

Here in Highgate and Hampstead we are very lucky. The Heath is an ideal place to run. The open access gets you away from the traffic and the ranging terrain can act as a great training tool for things such as hill running, interval training and sprint training.

If running is a big part of your training routine then it is important to remember a few simple things before you lace up your running shoes.

Hydration - It has been shown that 2 percentage dehydration can lead to a 30% drop in performance. This can lead to injuries and illness. When you go out running, take enough fluid to last you the entire session. It is also important to replace your fluids and electrolyte levels when you have finished your run. You can do this with sports drinks or through a simple mix of fruit juice and water e.g.one quarter orange juice, three quarter water.

The Secret to Improving Your Metabolism

Fitness offers us the opportunity of a full life with more confidence, energy and ability. The combination of good nutrition and physical fitness and the third component, emotional balance, all makes for a better quality of life.

Fat loss can be achieved by restricting the number of calories you eat, but the other important factor in weight control is the amount of exercise that you do and the effect that exercise has on your metabolism. Start to regard movement and physical effort as a privilege each time you climb stairs or walk instead of drive, garden, clean, carry items , or play with children rather than watching them. The accumulation of all these small bursts of energy throughout the day will make a big difference to your total activity during a week. Genetic or medical causes of obesity are very rare. However, some people do eat large amounts and remain slim while others, particularly long-term dieters and those who are inactive, still struggle to control their weight.

Our energy output increases during exercise, but exercise also speeds up the metabolic rate at which we burn off calories for up to 24 hours after activity. Exercise also increases the amount of muscle mass in the body, and the more muscle mass you have the more calories you use up. Muscle burns up energy 24 hours a day, whereas fat is relatively inactive metabolically-it just sits there doing very little.

Easy Weight Loss - More Tips

Finding an easy weight loss program should be at the top of the agenda for anyone that is overweight but there is no perfect system; despite some methods that are debatable however, a number of proven systems that help shed pounds healthily do exist. Being overweight is the cause of many medical conditions which require long term attention but obesity also affects the way we see ourselves as well.

How difficult or easy your weight loss program is will depend on how much you apply yourself to shedding those extra pounds. Before you decide on how you intend to lose weight you need to decide if it is for your benefit; i.e. to remain healthy, or is it because someone else wants you to lose weight.

Many factors affect how well your weight loss program will go including how much physical activity you have during a normal day, the type of food you eat, how many meals you have and when those meals are eaten. Weight loss should not be achieved at a rapid rate so do not expect to lose thirty pounds each and every month because you will not achieve this and may create physical problems that often occur when weight is lost quickly.

To keep things simple it is easier to consider that one pound lost per week is realistically the equivalent to around 3,500 calories which breaks down to losing 500 calories a day, every day whether through dieting, exercise or both. Although most people eat far too much junk food, there is nothing wrong with a little now and then, and no-one should have to give up every type of food they enjoy although some thought should be given to how much is consumed.

An Awesome Game - Lacrosse

Lacrosse has been popular on the east coast of the United States for many decades now. Recently, lacrosse is gaining popularity across the country. It is the official summer game of Canada and is played in over 20 countries world wide.

Lacrosse is well documented all the way back to the 1600’s by French missionaries who witnessed Native Americans playing the oldest team sport in North America. Native Americans called the game baggataway. The stick used to play the sport resembled the bishops cross; and so a new name was given by the missionaries. They referred to the game as la crosse.

Today, lacrosse is played by men and women, boys and girls at ages as young as 3rd grade. Upwards of 5,500 women play lacrosse at over 240 American universities and colleges. It’s estimated that 125,000 children in the United States play the game in over 4,500 programs across the country.

Seemingly complicated, lacrosse rules are slightly different for women’s and men’s leagues. Studying a lacrosse game might remind the viewer of American football, field hockey and soccer all rolled together. Perhaps the native game of baggataway influenced these younger team sports.

Basics of Lacrosse:

Lacrosse players use a stick to pass and carry a rubber ball that is around the size of a standard baseball. On one end of the stick is a head with nylon cording strung to create a pocket for the ball. Each player carries a stick and uses it to throw and catch the ball, carry the ball while running and displace the ball from an opponent. Cradling is the practice of keeping the ball in the pocket while running.

The Pleasure of Listening to Nature Sounds

To relax listening to the sounds of nature can be a wonderful and therapeutic experience. You don’t need to mediate to appreciate the connection with the Earth, though many do. Just to listen to the wonderful sounds of mother nature is really all that needs to be done.

Being outside in a forest, mountainside or near a river is preferable where one can savour the sights, sounds and smells of the countryside but that’s not so easy in today’s hectic world.

Even if you did manage to ‘get away’ there are no guarantees that you can avoid unwanted sounds such as aircraft, trains, cars, barking dogs and noisy children. The weather may also decide to dampen your spirits.

However for a quick pick me up, or a complete chill out listening to pure nature sounds on a music center, computer or mp3 player can be almost as good as being there.

How effective are anti aging skin products?

People’s preoccupation with anti-ageing skin care products that claim to make you look younger is not surprising; it is not unreasonable to want to continue looking youthful for as long as possible when you consider how much longer most of us are living! We achieve this with beauty products that synthesize the production of the protein collagen; with around a quarter of our skin protein being collagen, the importance of this substance has not gone unnoticed. Collagen is a member of another family of substances that aid in reducing the signs of ageing. called antioxidants, they help flush out toxins from the body and help reduce the signs of aging.

Probably the best known of these anti-oxidants is vitamin C although no-one really knows just how much we should have each day. Vitamin C formulated skin care treatments suffer with a particular problem of oxidizing on contact with the air which causes a problem for users and manufacturers.

More stable skin care treatments are now available that are almost as efficient and actually cost less to manufacture. These new anti-oxidant products are not quite as good as vitamin C although other naturally occurring compounds, vitamin E and lipoic acid can achieve the same effect.

Focus On Your Strengths And They Will Grow

Identifying your strengths and focusing on your positive skills will help build you up. Turn off the negative self-talk and direct that energy into your good experiences. -Healthy-Woman.net Editor

Whenever you are feeling discouraged or hopeless it is helpful to assess your strengths. This allows you to turn things around and not let your present mood dominate. When you look at your strengths, what do you see? Is it your intellect? Do you feel proud of how you treat other people? Are you able to make people laugh? Do you have persistence through an obstacle?

If you see someone left out in a group situation do you try to include them? There are many wonderful qualities you may not think about much but that you have. If you go through the categories of loyalty, knowledge, care, focus, etc. you will be able to look at yourself more objectively. This can help you to pull out of a foul mood or challenge self-defeating statements.

Try to spend an hour looking at your strengths rather than reviewing your shortcomings, weaknesses and flaws. Write down a few things you are proud of about yourself. It can be an adverse situation you overcame, an act of kindness you showed another person, your role as a mentor towards someone etc. Read it over a few times and put it on your nightstand so you can look at it before bed each night this week before you fall asleep.

Managing Time By Yourself

Time by yourself is a precious thing. Whether you feel that you don’t have enough of it or you’re on your own too much, there are ways to manage your alone time positively. - Healthy-Woman.net Editor

Alone time can be difficult for many people. If you are a parent, alone time seems to never occur and it may be something you crave. In family life, there seems to never be enough of it. Whether you are a working parent or non-working and just trying to keep up with your kids’ schedules, a feeling often grows that there is no “me” time and there are endless responsibilities.

When you do take time for yourself as a parent, there can be guilt. Instead of meeting a friend for lunch, that time could’ve been used for setting up playdates, cleaning up the playroom, freezing a few dinners or setting up the summer camp schedules. Do you find yourself having thoughts like that when you could be enjoying yourself and having “adult time”? You need some downtime for yourself and without that you won’t have the energy and vitality you need to even be helpful. Being with friends is an important time for your own development, sharing of emotions and recharging. We all need to get nurturance and if you stay in the giving mode, burn out can occur.

Benefits Of Wellness Programs At Work

Most of us spend the majority of our day at work usually chained to our desk. Wellness programs at the office offer many benefits to both employees and employers. - Healthy-Woman.net Editor

Have you looked to see if your employer is offering any wellness programs at your job? This can be in the form of a lunch-time yoga class, after-work fitness class or a seminar presented on stress reduction. Sometimes employers will have an in-service or even Saturday morning program.

Many companies now are learning the benefits of offering these on-site to reduce employee sick days, burn out and many other reasons why people miss work. This also makes people tend to not need a “mental health day” off from work to recover from stress.

If your employer isn’t offering any programs, you can show him some articles that outline the benefits. One motivation employers have is the reduced cost of health insurance which can really sky rocket. A second benefit is that employees that are less stressed have reductions in reacting to other co-workers with anger, resentment or other flare-ups. This decreases enmity and leads to team work, cooperation and less office gossip.

Slow Down And Live In The Moment

Feeling squeezed from all directions? Spreading yourself too thin? Can’t remember the last time you really stopped to smell the roses? Here are tips on how you can start to slow down. - Healthy-Woman.net Editor

Do you feel that you are always busy and trying to do too much? Do you find when you are doing x that you think about y? Are you ever present to the experience you are involved in? If you realize that you aren’t experiencing life the way you once did, this can be a warning sign to slow down so that your life won’t pass you by.

Here are some tips to take when you are trying to squeeze everything into a day or you are pre-occupied by thinking about what you forgot to do, need to do or shouldn’t have done!

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