The Benefits May Surprise You!
Massage for most of you is probably no more than an occasional treat you get to enjoy when someone gets you a gift certificate or when your muscles are so knotted up you just can’t take it anymore. But it is starting to be recognized as a true medicinal therapy, and because of that, I want all of my *f.a.t. (Fit After Thirty) sisters to start thinking of regular massage as a prescription for your health, rather than as a luxury.
Regular massage is truly one of the easiest and most enjoyable ways to stay Fit After Thirty! Besides, if you incorporate it into your relationship with your partner, it can serve as great foreplay, and will go a long way toward keeping the romance alive! After all, what woman doesn’t appreciate a man who pampers her, and what man doesn’t love a happy ending? Granted, there is nothing like a professional massage therapist to really work out the kinks, but a novice with a pair of strong hands can go a long way toward helping achieve some of the following major health benefits of massage:
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10 Day Guide To Looking Fit After Thirty By Christmas!
Every woman wants to look good in her Christmas day photos right? Well you’ve got ten days left to look your sexiest for Santa, or whichever one of his elves you’re crushing on this year. (eeewwww!) I’ve got ten suggestions to incorporate into the next ten days of your life to help become the prettiest *f.a.t. (Fit After Thirty) little angel you can be this year!
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Stay Fit After Thirty With The Right Attitude!
A recent study by Ruut Veenhoven of Erasmus University Rodderdam in the Netherlands, as part of a Happiness Research Program, indicates that it is just as important to overall health to be happy, as it is to not smoke. So does that mean that if you go around being cranky, negative, and unhappy you might as well be a smoker? Wow. That’s a pretty heavy statement, and quite frankly, I’m not too happy about it!
So, it’s not enough that I avoid cigarettes, consume little alcohol, try to eat healthy, take vitamins, exercise regularly and get my yearly pap smear; now I’ve got to smile all the freakin’ time?
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Check The Map And Find Out
I’m sure the Pilgrims and Indians (gasp! I said that horribly politically incorrect word) didn’t know that the feast tradition they started all those years ago would be embraced by a nation far into the future. I’m also sure they didn’t realize that nation would celebrate with food every other day of the year too, in such a big way that their ancestors (us) would be battling an obesity problem.
I thought that since we are headed into the biggest eating holiday of the year, I would show you which parts of the country will be needing to work out the most in 2009! See whether you live in a fat State, or a *f.a.t. State by clicking here.
Whether you are traveling across this great country over the next few days to celebrate, or just staying where you are, check back for some healthy Fit After Thirty turkey recipes for your post-holiday leftovers!
Go Braless For A Perky, *f.a.t. Pair!
Remember when you were a pre-teen sitting in the school library one day, seeing a National Geographic for the first time while working on your Social Studies report? Well I do. And I remember that the sagging boobs in some of the images I saw made me think, gosh, when mine grow in, I hope they look different than that! It wasn’t until a couple years later that it dawned on me that the sagging isn’t a matter of how they “grow in”, but what happens over the years after they grow in.
It stands to reason that in those tribal areas where the Wonder Bra hasn’t yet become a wardrobe staple, sagging might be exacerbated; hence the images in National Geographic, right? Well not so fast, girls. I’ve come across a couple of studies to the contrary, that seem to indicate that it’s not the lack of bra usage that causes sagging, but rather the wearing of bras that makes our little birdies fly South for the winter and never return. Hell, if that’s the case, then Britney Spears has pretty much ensured that hers will stay perky forever! (And we just thought she was acting trampy). My God, the girl’s a genius. Here’s the proof:
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Lack Of Sleep Has Major Health Ramifications
With the advent of electricity, Americans get on average, three hours less sleep per night than our ancestors did before the light bulb. Now it seems that all of the latest electronic media and gadgets are an even bigger distraction, causing widespread sleep deprivation that has a great percentage of the population hooked on caffeine and energy drinks to get them through the day.
I have always been a person who becomes a poorly functioning zombie after just one night of poor quality sleep or not enough hours of sleep. My body needs a full 7 to 8 hours, and if I get 6 I won’t be thinking clearly halfway through the next day; less than 6, my body literally starts breaking down until I take a nap. I will start to get a headache and often even a scratchy throat until I take a nap and get that extra hour my body needs. So, I am always amazed by people who can consistently pull “all nighters” because of a partying lifestyle, heavy studying, crazy work hours or motherhood.
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Walmart Water May Not Be Safe
Hey moms, I know these are penny pinching times and you may find yourself at Wal-Mart for all those weekly must haves, but pass on the Wal-Mart water and go for a different brand for now. I found an article on Yahoo News which discusses tests that were done on many bottled water brands. Two brands were not good. One of which was Wal-Mart bottled water. It had high levels of contaminants. These contaminants were things like: bacteria, caffeine, the pain reliever acetaminophen, fertilizer, solvents, plastic-making chemicals and the radioactive element strontium. Yum. Just what I want in my water! Staying up on our water consumption is great, but the last thing we want is to be doing more harm to ourselves than good! And we certainly don’t want our kids consuming all of those chemicals! Wal-Mart disputes the study, but while the jury is still out, read the full article and perhaps buy a different brand in the meantime!
Every mom knows that a million little tasks stand between us and quality time with our children. Munchkin is a company that makes my job as a mom easier. I have been a fan of their products, for awhile, using their SnackCatcher everyday for my kids’ snacks on the go. But now it’s not just their products that are getting my attention. Their Project Pink campaign has also made me take notice of some great efforts happening to aid the fight against breast cancer.
Project Pink is putting a spotlight on breast cancer prevention so that moms don’t let their own health take a backseat to their duties as mothers. When you think about it, our number one duty should be staying healthy for our kids, or none of the other things we do for them will matter!
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Good For You Inside And Out!
I’ve been hearing a lot about coconut oil lately and it always tends to conjure images of that suntanning stuff we used to slather on our bodies in our teens before going in the sun. But there is a different way to use coconut oil that results in much better outcomes for the body than frying in the sun does. Coconut oil has many health benefits that we think are worth telling you about.
Coconut oil used to be used by food manufacturers in a lot of baked goods, but along with other saturated fats, it got a bad rap several years ago, so food manufacturers started using hydrogenated polyunsaturated oils instead. We now know hydrogenated oils are one of the worst kinds of fats you can consume. So, some of these saturated oils which are still widely consumed in tropical parts of the world, with no associated health drawbacks, are seeing a resurgence in popularity in our culture. Here are some of the benefits:
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Apply Common Sense To Reduce Your Risk
October is breast cancer awareness month, so it’s only appropriate to kick it off with some important information about this deadly disease. I’m not going to talk about all of the horrid statistics, because I think the numbers are startling enough to cause fear and paranoia, and I don’t think that serves us. If you read my Mind Body Medicine interview with Dr. Jacobs, you know that my theory is that by focusing too much on things that make us think the disease is inevitable, it will program our brains to contract it.
Dr. Jacobs says the fear and anxiety around thoughts of getting a disease can weaken our immune system. Because of that, I’d rather focus on the positive. The things we have control over. I’m a huge believer in the old saying our moms and grandmas said – “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
When I look at the list of the breast cancer risks that we can control, it brought to mind my philosophy towards all things health. It’s what I call the cave woman test. I think it’s what our grandparents would have called common sense, but either way, here’s how it works. Whenever I am having an internal debate about what I want to consume to best care for my body, I think about how closely the choice resembles something people would do in cave man days, when they had no choice but to live more in line with nature.
Here’s an example of the test in action:
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