IMPORTANT You must have an approval letter from your Health Care

Provider - If your baby is 2 months or younger.Remember to always check with your doctor

before starting any exercise regimen.

Life wellnessLife wellness

Jack LaLanneJack LaLanne is still going strong at 95 years old. Here are some tips from the Fitness pioneer.• He still exercises twice a day in his home gym and swims a half-hour daily.

• He suggests that people should exer-cise a half hour; three times a week - “ and when you work out, don’t take rest.”

• He changes his routine every 30 days to avoid monotony. To that he adds: “ For one month, exercise real fast, and then the next month slow down.”

• “Anything in life is possible. You can make it happen.”

• “The best way to get motivated to stay in shape is to stand naked in front of a full-length mirror.”

• “Old age is someone 20 years older than yourself.”

•“Exercise is a body normalizer; The food you eat today is walking and talking tomorrow.”

•“You can’t fail when you use these two words: pride and discipline.”

Keep MovingThe American Council on Exercise (ACE) re-ports that regular exercise doesn’t give bugs a chance to stick around because it increas-es the number of killer cells (macrophage) available to attack them when they invade your body. It also makes immune cells mobilize faster so they have a better reaction time when a bug does try to strike. However, more isn’t better: More than 90 minutes of high intensity endurance exercise can make your susceptible to illness for up to 72 hours afterwards, reports ACE. If you’re already sick, light to moderate exercise is OK if you feel like it, but put off intense training until symptoms pass. If you have flu symptoms (e.g., fever, swollen glands), it’s better to rest now and move later.

Sleep MoreLonger better sleep can lower your chances of catching a cold, suggests findings pub-lished in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Science has already shown that chronic sleep loss can tax the immune system; conversely, getting enough shut-eye can strengthen your defenses against many diseases, including the common cold. Getting less than seven hours of sleep per night tripled the chances of catching a cold, compared to logging eight or more hours. And participants with sleep disturbances (e.g., waking up,tossing and turning) lasting more than 8 percent of their sleep time, were five times more likely to catch a cold.

The Cold and Flu season is here, and no matter how often you wash your hands or avoid people with colds, you can’t avoid those nasty bugs forever. Here are some advice about warding off and beating down a boat of cold or flu so you at least have a fighting chance.

Wash UpHand hygiene is still the number one way to reduce transmission of germs, but what you use to scrub up matters too. Edith Blondel-Hill, M.D., an infectious-disease specialist at Kelowna General Hospital in British Columbia, suggests choosing plain old soap and water, hands down. Here’s why: “Antibacterial soap contains antibiot-ics, which doesn’t help to kill viruses such as colds and flu, and they can contribute to antiobiotic-resistant bacteria.” She’s more forgiving of antiseptic soap. “Which kills both bacteria and viruses and alcohol gels (i.e. hand sanitizer) kill everything but don’t give bugs time to become resistant.” Still, while soap and water don’t kill bugs, they effectively remove them from your hands.

From 1970 to 2000, American’s per capita daily consumption of sugary soft drinks jumped 70 percent. And, over the past 30 years, total calorie intake has risen on average 150 to 300 calories a day — with at least half of this increase from liquid calories, primarily soft drinks and other sweetened beverages. No wonder we are in the midst of an obe-sity epidemic! One recent study of overweight and obese adults links consumption of fructose added to beverages with increased fasting blood sugar and visceral fat as well as decreased insulin sensitivity. Both fructose and sucrose raise levels of triglyceride, increasing the risk of metabolic syndrome. Other research shows that sugary foods and drinks increase inflammation and oxidative stress. The sweet stuff is a known immunosup-pressant. It contributes to aging, causes tooth decay, and has been linked to learning problems. The AHA recommends that women consume no more than 100 calories (about 6 teaspoons) of “added” sugars a day and men no more than 150 calories (about 10 teaspoons) a day. Here are some surprising sources of added sugar:• 1 cup canned baked beans: 15 grams or 3.6 teaspoons• 1/3 cup dried, sweetened cranberries: 25 grams or 6.9 teaspoons• 1/4 cup reduced-calorie French dressing: 14 grams or 3.5 teaspoons.

Also be aware that foods containing less than 0.5 grams of sugar per serving can be labeled “sugar free”. Terms like: “no added sugar,” “without added sugar,” and “no sugar added” signal a reduction in calories from sugar only — not from other carbohydrates.

Let’s talk about Sugar! Sugar

Source: ‘Food Surprisingly High in Added Sugar” by Sarah Baldauf

Funding for this project is provided by the CTF of New Mexico/Fondos por ese projecto proprcionado del CTF de Nuevo Mexico

Funding for this project is provided by the CTF of New Mexico/Fondos por ese projecto proprcionado del CTF de Nuevo Mexico/Torrance County Project Office 832.0332

FOR AND THEIR

Exercise Classes Mothers Babies Exercise Classes Mothers Babies

It’s FUN and it’s FREE!!!!

Come join us for a fun filled hour and a half of low impact exercises, fun aerobics and relaxation. Bond with your baby and other young mothers - while strengthening and getting your body back in shape.

The Estancia Community Centerevery Monday & Wednesday10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

For more info.: Call TCPO at

832-0332

Stay HealthyIt’s a fact. Eating right, exercising regularly, and losing weight do pay off, according to new research from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Following 83,882 women in the second Nurses’ Health Study and 20,900 men in the Physician’s Healthy Study - both investigations came to this conclusion: A healthy lifestyle does provide measurable benefits — including a higher quality of life as we grow older.Source: ‘Studies Affirm Value of Healthy Lifestyle’ by Ed Edelson

Fight Childhood ObesityMore than 12 million youngsters are overweight. Experts project that by 2010, a fifth of them will be obese. Already, children who are obese are starting to develop many diseases long associated with middle age: cardiovascular disease, diabetics, gallstones, joint problems liver disease, and cognitive problems, New research in the Journal of the American Medical Association also links obesity in adolescence with higher incidence of pancreatic cancer. Soft drinks make an easy target in the obesity battle, since they offer little or no nutritive value — and often contain high-frutose corn syrup or dubious artificial sweeteners. Not surprisingly, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Sur-vey links sugary beverages to metabolic problems in teens, independent of their physical activity levels. Now a study at UC, San Francisco, suggests that sugary drinks can raise systolic blood pressure in adolescents. Encourage your children to drink plenty of water and invest in nontoxic reusable water bottles.

Source: ‘Relationship Between Insulin-Resistance-Associated Meta-bolic Parameters and Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Intake . . .’ By A.A. Bremer, MD, PhD

Let’s Talk About Belly FatMedical experts have long suspected that people with excess deep-belly fat are at an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, and ongoing research bolsters that belief.

In 2007, the National of Health reported that studies at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School in Boston show that deep-belly fat — also known as visceral adipose tissue — produces higher levels of a protein that appears to reduce insulin sensitivity regardless of age, gender or body mass index. Levels of the protein, called RBP4, were three times higher in people who were obese than those who were lean.

Dr. G. Griffing of Brentwood, MO., also states that, measuring abdominal height is more efficient and accurate at predicting the risks of diabetes and cardiovascular disease than more commonly used methods such as calculating body mass indexes, waist-to-hip ratios or measuring the circumference of patients’ waists. “Those all factor in subcutaneous fat on the arms, legs and hips, which is not as bad for you as fat in the gut. . . . And, that includes love handles on the side of the waist. Measuring a patient’s abdominal height, zeros in on visceral fat, which oozes between organs, bathing the liver in fatty acids.”

He added that most studies have found, that abdominal heights that measure more than 10 inches in women and more than 12 inches in men triple the chance of cardio-vascular disease.

Both the American Diabetes Associa-tion and the Ameri-can Heart Associa-tion endorse using thismidsection measuring technique.

Source: ‘Albuquerque Journal /Health’ by Cynthia Billhartz - Mcclatchy Newspapers

Tips For Healthy LivingStaying healthy is more important now than ever. Good health improves your quality of life and helps you maintain pro-ductive. Plus, staying out of the doctor’s office — and the hospital—will save you money. That’s important in any economic climate. What can you do to stay healthy? Here are a few basic tips to follow.WATCH YOUR WEIGHT: Keeping your weight in a healthy range can allow you to walk, talk, and even breathe more easily. And, being overweight increases your chance for developing chronic diseases, like coronary heart disease, type 2 diabe-tes and high blood pressure. What can you do to achieve or main-tain a healthy weight? Eat healthy, whole foods like whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. Replace cookies with fresh, easy-to-grab- fruit like plums and blue-berries, Avoid salty and heavily processed foods, like bagged corn chips coated with orange cheese and chocolate snack cakes. Make sure to watch your portion sizes. New research from an international congress on obesity found that the rise in obesity in the United States since the 1970s was all due to increased energy intake (calories). Now that’s food for thought. GET PHYSICAL: Exercise can help you control your weight, avoid disease, and feel better. To reap these benefits, it’s important to work regular physical activity into your day to stay healthy. Haven’t

exercised in a while? You can start small, by parking a little further away from the grocery store, or by taking the stairs to work. The U.S. Centers for Disease control and Prevention recom-mends that you get about 30 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity five days a week. “Moderately intensive” doesn’t mean you need to train for a marathon. You can meet this guideline by taking a brisk 30-minute walk five days a week.

You can break that down further by taking three 10-minute walks per day. The organization also recommends two sessions of muscle-strengthening activi-ties each week, to accomplish this, you can lift small weights or do yoga.Source: Meg Jones - marketing communications senior advisor for the National Rural electric Cooperative Association

Protect Digestive & Overall HealthYour Gastrointestinal (GI) TractThe gastrointestinal (GI) tract is an engi-neering marvel. “By far the most energy you expend in your life is digesting the food that you eat,” says food educator Janie Quinn — and no wonder when you consider that your health depends on the proper breakdown and absorption of nutrients from everything your eat. On any given day, most people experi-ence some form of GI symptoms. Almost half of all Americans report that digestive problems affect their daily lives. People with faulty digestion struggle with weight or suffer bad breath, bloating, constipa-tion, diarrhea, gas, heartburn, joint pain, nausea, and skin problems. Because 70 percent of the immune system is located in or around the digestive tract, proper digestion is critical to whole-body wellness. In The GI TractThe salivary glands located beneath the tongue often start to work as soon as you see, smell, or imagine what you’re going to eat. When your teeth crush food into small pieces, the digestive enzymes found in saliva further this breakdown. As you

swallow, your tongue pushes food into the esophagus, a 10-inch stretch pipe that involuntarily moves what you’ve ingested into your stomach.

When empty, the stomach holds only one-fifth of a cup of fluid, but full, it can expand to hold over eight cups. Its stretch wall is lined with cells that make digestive fluids that continue breaking down food and with other cells that begin to absorb nutrients. Mucus coats the thick lining of the stomach wall to protect it from acid that softens food and kills harmful bacteria. The stomach releases its contents one teaspoon at a time into the small intestine where what you ingest continues its conver-sion into absorbable energy and nutrients. The amount of time this process takes de-pends on what you’ve eaten and the amount of fluid in the GI tract. (The more fluid, the faster the stomach empties - one reason most nutritionists suggest drinking between, but not with, meals.) The 22-foot-long small intestine performs the bulk of digestion, taking one to four hours to continue food breakdown and ab-sorption with the help of digestive enzymes and hormones. Bile from the gall-bladder and liver enter the small intestine to emulsify fat and enhance nutrient absorption. From here nutrients are carried in the blood steam to the liver for cleanup and storage before distribution throughout the body. Undigested material (including fiber that helps move the digestive process along), unabsorbed nutrients, and large amounts of liquid move next into the body’s waste-pro-cessing plant, the 5-foot-long large intestine. The appendix, a small finger like pouch in the large intestine, appears to produce and protect beneficial bacteria. Substantial colonies of bacteria are needed to convert undigested waste into acids, gases, and micro nutrients before this material leaves the body. Smaller, more frequent meals are easier to digest. Also, make mealtime relaxed. “Stress sends blood away from the stomach and digestive organs, reduces enzymes in the saliva, and literally shuts down digestion’” explains nutritionist Martie Whittekin, CCN.

Small, more frequent meals are easier to digest. Also strive to make mealtime more relaxed.

Chewing slowly produces more saliva, which helps protect the esophagus from acid damage and alerts the rest of the digestive system that food is on its way. Two of the biggest assaults on digestive health are too little dietary fiber and too many refine foods, says nutrition researcher Angelica Vrablic, PhD. Food borne dis-eases are the next greatest threat. Stomach acid, also critical to healthy digestion, declines with age, and indi-gestion in one form or another becomes more problematic as we grow older. Friendly bacteria in fermented foods like kefir and yoghurt assist in produc-tion of digestive enzymes and stomach acid, help turn cancer-causing toxins into more stable substances that can be eliminated form the body, and make vitamins (A, numerous Bs, and K) that are useful in digestion.Source: ‘Tasteforlife’ magazine by Elisabeth Hsu-LeBlanc

A Very Easy & Tasty Recipe - Try It!

Grilled Rainbow Trout with Wine2 whole fresh trout, cleaned and head removed1/4 cup dry white wine2 Tb. butter melted1 Tb. lemon juice2 Tb. chopped fresh parsleySalt & Pepper to taste

Preheat grill for medium-high heat. On a flat surface, lay out two sheets of aluminum foil about 18-inches long so they overlap to make one long wide sheet. Rinse the trout and pat dry. Lay the fish in the center of the foil about 2-inches apart. Sprinkle with white wine, melted butter and lemon juice. Season with parsley, salt and pepper. Fold the foil up loosely around the fish and crimp the seams to seal. Place the packet on the grill and cook for 15 minutes, until fish is cooked through.Calories:532;Carb: 1gm; Protein: 70gm; Fat: 23 gm;Cholesterol 232 mg;Sodium:420mg.