Pool Workout!

Free-styling it to the swim-up bar doesn’t really build muscle or rev-up your metabolism. This workout will.

 Floating around on an inflatable pool chaise is fabulous. But it doesn't count toward your workout quota. How to change that, even if you’re more familiar with sipping smoothies in the shallow end than doing laps?

Olympic swimmer Kim Vandenberg shares her handy workout that you can do in any lap-lane pool and capitalize on swimming’s benefits. (We’re talking an efficient, joint-friendly workout with lots of upper-body cardio plus full-body strength, mobility, and flexibility training!)

For this one kilometer workout, you’ll use a kickboard part of the time, then run through all the strokes you (may have) learned in elementary school. It’s okay to grow into some of the tougher strokes and distances that Vandenberg recommends over the course of the summer, as you become stronger and more confident. The results for your efforts? Long, lean muscles, and a revved metabolism.

Tips on form: “Keep your chin down and your neck long, and don’t forget to breathe. Your hips and shoulders should rotate together in the same direction,” says Olympic medalist, Kim Vandenberg.

The workout

A lap is 25 yards, the length of most pools you’ll encounter. Depending on your ability, the rest between these sets can range from 10–30 seconds. You’ll need a kickboard, and a pair of goggles are a good idea.

Poolside warm up Before you dive in, Vandenberg suggests warming up on land with basic moves like arm swings, head rolls, planks, hip and knee rotations, and hamstring looseners.

Warm up in the pool (200 yards) 8 laps, alternating one lap freestyle, one lap backstroke. Breathe equally on both sides of the body to create balance. Relax your neck by slightly opening the mouth and releasing any tensions in the jaw.

Kicking with board (200 yards) 4 laps kicking freestyle with the kickboard followed by 4 laps kicking breaststroke or butterfly kick. Every fourth lap, increase your kick speed. Tip: Keep your knees as straight as possible while kicking.

Kicking without board (200 yards) 4 laps in sidestroke with your head out of the water, and one arm stretched out in front; rotate arms each lap. (Tip: Keep eyes on your hip for balance, and look ahead out over your arm every so often to stay moving in a straight line.) 4 laps on your back, kicking, with your arms in streamline position (along your sides). Every second lap, increase your speed and effort.

The Individual Medley (300 yards) Don’t be scared off. The I.M. is combination of all the strokes starting with butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle. Aim to swim 4 laps of the I.M. and repeat the sequence 3 times for a total of 12 laps. This is an endurance section, and it’s perfectly fine to build up to it as you regain familiarity with the strokes. It’s also cool to just repeat the strokes that you can do confidently.

Underwater work (150 yards) 6 laps kicking in a streamline underwater. Push off from the side of the pool, and hold your breath as far as possible. Rest 30 seconds between laps.

Warm down (150 yards) 6 laps easy swimming of your choice.

When you’re done, don’t forget to hydrate and replenish your electrolytes! 

 ~ Thanks, Lisa Elaine Held

How Old is Your Body?

The human body is truly amazing. It digests and metabolizes your food to be used as fuel, circulates your blood, and keeps you breathing — even when you’re not paying attention. It does everything s to keep you alive and healthy every day.

In addition, it creates millions of new cells every second. These new cells replace dead or worn out cells in almost every part of your body, which means even if you’re 35, there are parts of you that may only be a few days old. Cool, right?

Fast Food Burgers Contain Only 7% Meat

Americans consume somewhere in the ballpark of 5 billion hamburgers a year. To keep up with this demand, just over 4100 cows are slaughtered every hour in the U.S. When 68 cows a minute are slaughtered, mistakes are made! A study published in the Annals of Diagnostic Pathology helped to discover just how much “shifting of parts” is really going on.

The study presumed that most hamburgers are composed primarily of meat. Eight different popular fast food hamburger brands were tested using histologic methods. The burgers were evaluated for water content by weight and then microscopically to verify tissue types. An additional test known as Glial fibrillary acidic protein staining was used to test for brain tissue. None of the eight samples had brains. 

The mean water weight of the burgers was about 50%. Actual meat content in the burgers ranged from 2.1% to 14.8 percent. That’s right, the product that you are expecting to get is only 2-14% of what you really think it is!

What made up the rest of the burger? Well a variety of interesting tissue types were found. Other than skeletal muscle tissue (a.k.a. meat) were connective tissue, blood vessels, peripheral nerve, adipose tissue, plant material, cartilage, and bone. Also found in some of the burgers were intracellular parasites known as Sarcocystis. An animal is infected with Sarcocystis when it ingests material contaminated with the infected feces of another animal. Below is a graphic on the life cycle of this parasite.

How do you avoid a hamburger that is not even made of meat and that can give you parasites? Well, you can avoid eating Factory Farmed meat. Find a local, sustainable, farmer, who raises cattle in grass pastures and organically. Grass fed meat is healthier, less susceptible to disease, and pastured cattle are raised in a much more humane way.

10 Alternative Uses for Vinegar

Vinegar’s uses go well beyond dressing your salad.. In general, white distilled vinegar is a fantastic all-round  household cleanser, effective for killing most mold, bacteria, and germs due to its level of acidity.  1. As a hair conditioner. Mix one part apple cider vinegar with three parts water and use as the final rinse after  you wash and condition your hair for extra shine. You can also replace conditioner with this step. The vinegar  smell will go away once your hair is dry.  2. To clean touch screens and flat screen computer or TV monitors, dampen a microfiber cloth with a 50-50  mix of distilled water and white vinegar and wipe gently.  3. To get rid of limescale in your kettle, pour in a half-cup of vinegar with water, swish around and leave for an hour or overnight and watch it come right off with a sponge. Rinse kettle well before using again. 4. Dump half a cup of bicarbonate of soda down a clogged drain followed by a cup of white vinegar.  Leave to sit a few minutes then pour hot water down drain. 5. For streakless windows, white vinegar in a spray bottle works like a charm. For best results wipe off  with crumpled up newspaper. 6. Make your own facial skin toner by mixing one part apple cider vinegar with three parts filtered water.  Keep in a glass bottle, shake, and apply to your face with a cotton pad after cleansing. 7. Apple-cider vinegar can be happily substituted for aftershave; simply splash full-strength vinegar on face. 8. Mix a teaspoon of vinegar with a teaspoon of honey in a glass of water for a sore throat. 9. Use white vinegar to get rid of household smells. For example, place a glass of apple cider vinegar in  fridge for two days to deodorize. 10. Remove the glue left by sticky labels by rubbing with vinegar. ~Thanks to greenme.it

EWG's 2013 Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce

DIRTY DOZEN PLUS^TM

Apples

Celery

Cherry tomatoes

Cucumbers

Grapes

Hot peppers

Nectarines - imported

Peaches

Potatoes

Spinach

Strawberries

Sweet bell peppers

Kale / collard greens +

Summer squash +

CLEAN FIFTEEN^TM

Asparagus

Avocados

Cabbage

Cantaloupe

Sweet Corn

Eggplant

Grapefruit

Kiwi

Mangos

Mushrooms

Onions

Papayas

Pineapples

Sweet peas - frozen

Sweet potatoes

For the second year, the Environmental Working Group has expanded the Dirty Dozen™ with a Plus category to highlight two crops – domestically-grown summer squash and leafy greens, specifically kale and collards. These crops did not meet traditional Dirty Dozen™ criteria but were commonly contaminated with pesticides exceptionally toxic to the nervous system.  You can lower your pesticide intake by avoiding (or purchasing organic/pesticide free) the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables and choosing the least contaminated produce.

Loving the Green Smoothie!

There’s a reason beyond calories and nutrients that green foods are better for you than pretty much anything else on the planet: they’re like eating love.

Green is the color of the heart chakra, and the color of healing and unconditional love. In other words, just add some green to anything you’re eating that might not be totally aligned with your best self (like a bowl of ice cream) to reinstate some balance.

This month’s smoothie is a blend of powerful ingredients that support your mind and body on the highest level.

Every ingredient serves the same purpose—they all have alkalizing and anti-inflammatory properties that help prevent degenerative disease.

Kale carries potent powers. Per calorie, it has more iron than beef, contains more calcium per calorie than milk, and has magnesium, which is necessary for calcium absorption. Being a top superfood, it even has omega 3s and protein.

Celery and cucumber are high in water content (ideal in summer months). Medicinally, the oils in celery are said to calm the nervous system, while cucumbers boost energy with B vitamins.

Ginger, an Ayurvedic favorite, is known as a multitasking healer, from aphrodisiac to a digestive aid.

Green apple, lemon, and coconut water all provide a sweet and tart balance to the veggies, with green apple providing skin-clearing quercetin, lemon for cleansing, and coconut water for electrolytes. Blend it up, and feel the love. 

Recipe: The Green Love Smoothie

Blend and enjoy!

3 organic kale leaves
1 organic celery stalk
1/2 organic green apple
1 inch fresh ginger
1/2 small lemon (including the rind)
1/2 medium organic cucumber
1 cup coconut water

~ Thank you Jennifer Kass