Find online articles, recipes and herb to better your health.
 |
If you hate to exercise, it might be because you haven’t found the right activity for you. Grant Leitma, Ph.D., leads you through a series of simple questions to help you identity an exercise plan that matches your personality type. And just like that, you’ll know exactly what to do to make exercise a little more fun and a lot less dreadful.
Vibrant Life editor Heather Quintana previews an article about how being out in nature can benefit your brain. The new mental health issue of the magazine gives you ways to stay sane in a very stressful world. Read more about Escaping to the Outdoors Is Good For Your Brain …
When it comes to world-class athletes, there’s a proven principle: plants can fuel people through the most demanding sports on the planet. Consider ultramarthoner Scott Jurek, a vegan since 1999, who set a U.S. record in 2010 for running 165.7 miles in 24 hours. Primarily plant-powered Tour de France bicyclist, Dave Zabriskie, set the record […]
If you know you’ll be walking quite a bit during the day, don’t choose these shoes.
More important than matching your shoe to your outfit is matching your shoe to your activity. Learn how to choose proper footwear for the road ahead.
Motivation is the key to maintaining a lifelong exercise commitment. What will it take for you to make a permanent lifestyle change?
Start by taking a good, long look in the mirror. Do you see the weight of everyone else’s problems? Your spouse’s job-related stress pads your thighs, juggling the daily day care and work commute jiggles under your arms, or possibly the pressure of your own career thickens your waistline. Maybe losing a few pounds would boost your self-image. Perhaps the weight you bear can’t be measured in pounds, but in the heavy expectations of being the woman you think you should be–bright, successful, self-sufficient, and at all times beautiful. Take time to focus on how you feel. Perhaps your stress is entirely your own, visible as the perpetual purple rings under your eyes and the tension you feel throughout your body. Now close your eyes, and imagine the ideal you–a woman who is physically and emotionally fit.
One of the toughest things anyone can do is start a fitness program after not being active for some time. Once you make the commitment to yourself, where do you go and what do you do? You know that aerobic exercise is good for your heart and burns extra calories, but the last time you went running, it was painful. And you only want to tone up, not have big giant muscles like something on an ESPN workout program.
Sure, it’s more difficult to get back into an exercise routine after a long layoff–or even start one when you’ve never worked out regularly before. Once working out is a regular part of your life, it’s easy to stay in the habit of keeping fit and healthy. But the battle’s not over. Even the most diehard fitness buffs occasionally fight workout burnout and boredom.
Picture this scenario: It’s lunchtime, and you’re taking a brisk walk with a coworker. You know the exercise will help you think more clearly and concentrate better when you get back to work.
Between 50 and 70 million Americans suffer from headaches each year. Many of those headache sufferers often turn to medication or retire to a dark room waiting for the pain to go away. However, other headache sufferers are finding relief by taking a proactive approach. Before headaches strike, they engage in aerobic exercise.
Their results are impressive: people who engage in aerobic exercise get fewer headaches, their headaches are less severe, and they have less of a need for serious drug-therapy programs. “People who regularly walk briskly or jog have reported dramatic improvements in their headaches,” declare Dr. Alan M. Rapoport and Dr. Fred D. Sheftell, founders and directors of the New England Center for Headache in Stamford, Connect-icut, and authors of several books about headaches.
Read more about Why Exercise is the Best Medicine …