I like food. I want to make sure I get all my fruits and veggies in a day. But that’s hard on a college budget and schedule. What I do now is have a soy milk smoothie with banana and blueberries in the morning. I think smoothies is one of the best ways to get a wallop of fruits and veggies in one shot.
On my wishlist this week is a real juicer. I want to be able to throw a whole apple or other fruits and veggies. My blender is just not cutting it anymore. Literally.
image source: feelhomeimprovement.com
Fruits and veggies are crucial to being healthy and 2-3 servings a day just isn’t enough. So my advice is buy some frozen fruit, a blender and get creative!
Do you get enough K? Chances are you don’t because college students especially don’t eat enough fruits and veggies. You get potassium from every food group except the the sweets at the tip of the pyramid. But Americans only get about half of our daily values.
Potassium is key to water balance in the body but it’s neat because potassium is shown to lower blood pressure.
Some of your best sources of potassium include:
• bananas
• potatoes
• tomatoes
• most fruit and veggies
• here is an article about sources of K
So grab an extra banana when you’re at the caf and get some K!
Some say that 40 is the new 30. What if that could actually be true? What if a 40-year old body was actually 30?
It’s possible if you take care of yourself. Managing things like diet, exercise and risky behavior can enhance your quality and QUANTITY of life.
There is a way you can measure this, take the quiz called my RealAge and find out how old your body really is. It takes 10-15 minutes to finish but I feel it does a pretty comprehensive anaysis. After your done taking the quiz it will tell you what your bodies age is, what you’re doing right and what you need to work on. From there it gives you several resources and ideas on how to improve your quality and quantity of life.
After I took the quiz I was surprised to find my RealAge is 14.5!
Give it a try here!
I try not to let snow ruin my commute to school in the winter via bike. In case you fall into that category as well, here are some tips and the reason for this weeks wishlist! item.
First of all, once the snow and ice is here, it’s time to put away the road bike, skinny tires and break the cross, mountain or junker bike. I make sure I got some nice knobby tires on and deflate them to about half or 3/4 of what the tire says is the maximum. This will give you a nice cushy ride but also one that really grips into the snow.
Which leads me to ice and my wishlist! item. A set of studded mountain bike tires. I would throw these on in a heartbeat once the snow is packed or their is ice on the roads. Like a car’s tire, you can buy winter tires but they fail once your on ice. But once you buy studded tires (knobby tires with hardened steel cleats) you get little ice picks to prevent slipping as you ride merrily to class during a blizzard. Everyone driving their cars slipping and sliding will be jealous.
image source: hucknroll.com
What is Airborne? Airborne is a tablet you pop in your drink and it cures your cold. Right?
Not!
Basically it’s a vitamin. Sure the vitamin is useful and promotes health. But it’s water soluble which means that once you absorb your limit it just leaves your body through urination. Basically you are throwing your money in the toilet. You get essential nutrients through your normal diet and probably don’t have to supplement it with expensive tablets.
Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa.
Seven days to cross Iowa by bike.
Oldest, longest and largest bicycle touring event in the world.
I am doing it, and so is 10,000 other cyclists.
I will be riding with Team Livestrong.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIkNup2_S8U
I will try and update you through my blog how fundraising is going.
Sound interesting, check it out yourself!
Need a way to stay fit over the winter but don’t want to brave the cold? I would suggest get outside as much as possible (see my earlier post) but if you can only work out when it’s still dark out then go for a swim. It’s great resistance training and gets your lungs pumping (see earlier post).
What’s great about swimming is it’s a low-impact sport. So your joints and muscles will be thanking you.
You can go swimming at the Winona Family Y or the pools on campus.
I always love getting socks for Christmas!
This year I am hoping I will get some smartwool socks. I already own a couple pairs but I love wear them too much.
What’s great about wool is that it’s odor-free, won’t shrink, the material is renewable, and it works great in any temperature!
Check out Woolology for more great reasons!
Smartwool took woll to the next step because they knit their socks like normal cotton socks. No more itchy uncomfortable wool socks, smartwool feels like slipping on my normal cotton socks.
Image source: moosejaw.com
As the sun dips below the horizon earlier and earlier every day now we seem to start hibernating habits. We stay inside because of the cold and eat more, because of stress that comes with school and…what else is there to do. People even begin symptoms of depression over the fall and winter months.
All I have to say is GO FOR A WALK!
Any day that is remotely sunny I will try and spend as much time outside even if it’s freezing. I can feel my mood instantly improve on my 20 minute walk to school.
The reason for the change of mood and behavior is directly correlated to the amount of sunlight we get.
We have a hormone in our bodies called serotonin. What it does is affects our mood because it’s a neurotransmitter. Sunlight helps create it. So when summer to exist, we aren’t spending as much time outdoors and there isn’t as much sunlight, thus lowering our serotonin levels.
We have another hormone called melatonin. This is the hormone that tells us when it’s time to sleep. Sunlight reduces the effects of melatonin, but when the sun goes down melatonin levels raise and it makes us sleepy. This is usually helpful but when all of a sudden we lose sunlight we feel groggy more often.
So get out there and get some sun!
Mayo Clinic does a great job describing this process through Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). You probably don’t have SAD but the process and symptoms are similar.
Next on my Christmas list this year will be ‘The Stick‘. It’s super simple (and cheap) but offers a great way to massage your muscles before or after a hard workout or race. The idea of massaging muscles is that it helps your muscles repair better, recover faster and can remove some pain associated with exercise.
Image source: shoprunningfit.com
What The Stick does is give the athlete a way to massage oneself thus avoiding the rare expensive trip to a massage therapist. The Stick allows you to get a massage whenever and wherever!
Here is an article that goes a little deeper into the function of massages and The Stick: The Stick for cyclists
