New Life Day 18

AHA!

RealAge Benefit

Learning a new game that requires brainpower can make your RealAge 1.3 years younger.

This tip fits in perfectly with my family! We are incurable game players -- crosswords, Sudoku, cryptoquotes, cards of all kinds--so this tip affirms we are doing something right while enjoying ourselves in a little brain challenge.  Good for us!

Since starting Plan A, I have continued to do the workplace walk-abouts, wake-up walks, and weekend walks.  Sadly, the pounds -- the ounces, even -- are not exactly falling off.   It's time to beef up the plan a bit, so here are my latest additions:

1.  Remember to take a vitamin and calcium supplement every day.  I'm a horrible pill-taker -- hate 'em -- so I haven't been very successful in making this a daily habit.  I'm trying to find a surefire way to remember to do this everyday.  First thing in the morning doesn't work for me.  Suggestions are welcome.
2. Add a free-weight workout to my repetoire.  Ten-fifteen minutes at least 4 times a week to hopefully tighten up the flabby arms :-).
3.  Lengthen the walks.  Make the weekend walks count by walking at least 30-45 minutes. Step up the pace for the workplace walks.

Off we go to what promises to be fabulous weekend.  Hope yours is too.

New Life-Day 12

I'm 11 days into Plan A -- workplace walkabouts, weekend walks, and weekly wake-up walks -- and I won't say it has gone like clockwork, but I have accomplished what I set out to do and that has me feeling pretty darn good!  I notice I have snacked less at work, partly because I am making myself get up out of the chair regularly, and because I'm more aware of what I'm eating.  I think I'm ready to take the next step in this project, but not sure quite where I want to go with it.  I'll think on it over what promises to be a spectacular Labor Day weekend and be back next week.  Enjoy!

Check out the tip below (from the Real Age website):

High-Calorie Catastrophe
When you overdo it and down a day's calories in one sitting, your body's inflammatory processes go into overdrive. But here's a way you might counter it: Drink orange juice.
In a recent study, people who had eaten a supersized fast-food breakfast experienced a much milder inflammatory response in their bodies when they drank OJ with the meal.

Whatever you do, don't pair that overindulgence with a soda.  Drink orange juice! When researchers compared the effects that three different beverages had on the way bodies process big, fatty, inflammation-triggering foods, sugar water was the worst of the bunch. It seemed to exacerbate the inflammatory response. Plain water fared somewhere in between orange juice and sugar water, but it has the added benefit of being calorie-free. There's also something in OJ that relieves joint inflammation, and it appears to be more than just vitamin C, in addition to tons of vitamin C.