Ohhhmmmmmmmmmm!

Sorry I was pokey in getting out our next challenge but here it is:

If you meditate for at least 10 minutes a day you will earn the daily challenge points.

Many of us are stress eaters and one way to overcome our life time habits of over eating is to find alternatives to turn to during times of stress. Exercise is a great one and so is meditation.

So how do you meditate?

Simple Meditation in 5 Steps

When times are stressful everyone could stand to take a minute to stop and breathe. During meditation, you harness, calm, and essentially turn off the “thinking” portion of your mind so that you open yourself to a deeper state of relaxation and awareness. With regular practice, you become able to do this anywhere, anytime you feel the need to stop and breathe.

Simple meditation in 5 steps described in this post can help alleviate stress and countless ailments, including lowering high blood pressure, decreasing muscle tension and headaches, enhance the body’s immune system, easing symptoms of arthritis and allergies, and more. For those of us seeking calm from the storm of daily stress, meditation allows you to have greater control over not only your emotions but your reactions to occurrences (if you are quick to anger over small things, for example). With practice, you become more aware of your surroundings and what goes on in your mind, thereby preparing yourself and your body for a calmer, less reactive response.
Anyone can stand to gain from meditation, and better still, anyone can do it.

1. Make time to meditate daily.

As with most things, meditation mastery doesn’t happen overnight. Meditation is a lifelong endeavor and treatment, and its benefits are most noticeable with regular practice. You can meditate at any time of the day. Begin by setting aside 10 minutes for focused meditation.

2. Sit comfortably in a quiet, relaxing environment.

Avoid things that will distract you, like the TV, your cell phone, noisy appliances (like the refrigerator), kids, and the like. I love meditating while wearing my noise canceling headphones. I usually listen to meditations that I find at

http://www.mythoughtcoach.com/ There are several free ones on this site. Go and download one for your own use. They are wonderful! Stin (who provides the meditations) is a member of the church and I just love her voice. I actually have a membership to the site but it offers several free meditations too. If you don't listen to one of these prepared meditations you might want to play soft, repetitive music that won’t disrupt your concentration. Some people enjoy sitting in a grassy field or forest or even near a stream and letting the sounds of nature help to soothe them.

Make sure the place you are sitting or lying is comfortable. A cushion or yoga mat can help. If sitting you don’t need to cross your legs into the lotus position if this is painful; you only need to sit comfortably with your back straight so as to make it conducive to healthy breathing. You may at first need to concentrate on proper posture; try sitting on a the forward edge of a thick cushion or rolled up towel to tilt your pelvis naturally forward and imagine a thread pulling the top of your head up so your spine is straight. If lying position yourself so that your head is supported and your muscles are all in a position to relax.

Keep your hands and feet relaxed; don’t worry about position. Consider starting out with letting your hands lie on your thighs or hanging at your sides.

3. Relax.

Close your eyes and look for parts of your body that aren’t relaxed, like your neck, the muscles near your forehead or eyes, your knees, hands, spine, etc. Adjust your posture accordingly. Focus on them and imagine your blood running through that part of your body so it warms and relaxes.

4. Focus on your breathing.

With eyes still closed, focusing on your nostrils as you breathe. This sounds silly, but focusing on this single part of your body allows you to focus on how breathing feels and quiet the chattering of your mind. Imagine that with every exhalation, you’re breathing out negative emotions that are causing you pain, stress, and tension. Imagine you’re breathing in relaxing, positive air when inhaling. Preparing for meditation like this is part of the process and you’ll adjust more quickly with practice.

5. Focus on nothing.

Once you’re able to focus on your breathing alone, focus on nothing. Clear the mind by focusing on your breathing and then casting the thought of it from your mind. Enjoy the peace

What? A total of 9 servings of fruits and veggies every day?

Well ladies I'm afraid it's time to step up our efforts. To earn your 5 challenge points each day for the next week you need to eat additional servings of vegetables to bring you up to 7 servings of vegetables per day along with at least 2 servings of fruit. The US Government recommends a total of 5-9 servings of fruits and veggies so we have been doing the bare minimum. Lately I heard that a new study had been done at Harvard that said the optimal is 9-13 servings of fruits and veggies per day. Can you imagine how healthy we would be if we ate 13 servings of fruits and vegetables every every day? And goodness we would never eat any pie, ice-cream, candy or other goodies because we would be so stuffed with veggies! And don't forget although it's not the optimum choice, the US Gov says that you can count juice as one of your servings. It is clear, however, that fruit juice from concentrate is the least nutritious choice so if you opt for juice fresh is better.

Perfect Posture

Posture ranks right up at the top of the list when you are talking about good health. Our challenge for this week is to practice perfect posture for at least 10 minutes a day. You can practice perfect sitting posture for half the time and perfect standing for half the time! And for every day you remember to practice for 10 minutes you earn the 5 Weekly Challenge points. You will think this is an easy challenge- heck you can do it while grocery shopping. But I have tried to keep perfect posture for an entire grocery shopping trip and it is HARD!

Posture is as important as eating right, exercising, getting a good night's sleep and avoiding potentially harmful substances like alcohol, drugs and tobacco. Good posture means your bones are properly aligned and your muscles, joints and ligaments can work as nature intended. Not only that you can look pounds thinner just by improving your posture! (practice in front of the mirror and you will see that this is true!)

Good posture means your vital organs are in the right position and can function at peak efficiency. Posture also helps contribute to the normal functioning of the nervous system. Without good posture, you can't really be physically fit.

Surprised? Well, you're not alone. The importance of good posture in an overall fitness program is often overlooked by fitness advisers and fitness seekers alike. In fact, the benefits of good posture may be among the best kept secrets of the current fitness movement. The good news is that most everyone can avoid the problems caused by bad posture...and you can make improvements at any age.

Better Posture Made Simple

Follow these simple steps to quickly improve your posture.

1) Bring your feet parallel, not turned out, and about hip width apart. Bringing your feet parallel engages the muscles in the front of your thighs and keeps your hips, knees and ankles in proper alignment.

2) Reach up through the top of your head, feeling your spine lengthen, getting tall.

3) Bring your pelvis to a neutral position. To find this neutral position, place your hands around your hips, then tuck your tailbone slightly until your pelvis is directly over your thighs, so there is no bend in your hip joints, and there's less sway in your low back. As you tuck your tailbone, you should feel your abdominal muscles engage a bit.

4) Draw your shoulders back and relax them down, bringing your hands in line with the seams of your pants.

5) Level your chin, keeping your head directly over the spot between your shoulders, not forward or back.

Here are some easy ways to check your posture at home:

Stand facing a full length mirror and check the following:

1) Your shoulders are level

2) Your head is straight, not tilted to the side

3) The spaces between your arms and your sides seem equal on both sides

4) Your hips are level, not sloped to one side

5) Your ankles are straight and not turned in or out.

You can also have someone look at you from the side and check the following:

1) Your head is stacked over your body, not jutting forward or pulled back

2) Your chin is parallel to the floor, not tilting up or down

3) Shoulders are in line with ears, not drooping forward or pulled back too far

4) Your hands are in line with hips, not forward or back

5) Your knees are straight, not bent or hyper-extended

6) Your lower back is slightly curved forward, not too flat or curved too much, (creating a swayback)

To earn 5 Challenge points a day practice these points of posture for at least 10 minutes everyday. (Note: Yoga, Pilates and other core strengthening exercises can help you to improve your posture)

Challenge for Week #5

Our Challenge for Week #5 is to take a Multivitamin every day. For every day that you take a multi-vitamin (or separate supplements if they help you meet your daily minimum requirements) you can award yourself 5 points.

Don’t hesitate to set up a reminder for yourself… maybe an alarm on your cell phone.

Do you really need a multivitamin?

Well maybe not...You probably don’t need to take supplements if you eat wild, fresh, whole, organic, local, non-genetically modified food grown in virgin mineral and nutrient soils, and not transported across vast distances and stored for months before eaten… work and live outside, breathe only fresh unpolluted air, drink only pure, clean water, sleep nine hours a night, move your body every day, and are free from chronic stressors and exposures to environmental toxins.”

Hmmm maybe you do need to take a multi-vitamin after all! Here are 4 myths about Multivitamins as taken from an article by Dixie Mills M.D.

Myth #1: All multivitamins are created equally

I know that in these difficult economic times, many of us are shopping at discount markets. But it’s my belief that vitamins are just like so many things in life- you get what you pay for. Cheap multivitamins are often poor quality, low on nutrients, and full of unnecessary additives.

What to look for in a multivitamin

Be sure the multivitamin you choose has some or all of the following characteristics.

Pharmaceutical grade

Contains the most bioavailable forms, including chelated minerals

Contains naturally-sourced nutrients

No preservatives, sugar, or artificial flavoring, filler, dyes, or coloring

(For further guidance check out this article on choosing a multivitamin.)

Many inexpensive multivitamins contain forms of nutrients that are difficult for the body to break down and utilize, whereas professionally formulated brands combine naturally-sourced nutrients and chelated minerals so your body can digest and use them more readily. Some multivitamins contain preservatives, sweeteners, fillers, and artificial colors or flavoring, while others leave these additives out.

I sometimes liken multivitamins to salads. Most of us would agree that salads are good for us. But a salad of lettuce from a bag, sprayed with chemicals and topped with dressing made with high-fructose corn-syrup is far different from one made with organic spinach, topped with olive oil, lemon juice and walnuts. The bottom line is that salads are made with different quality ingredients, and so are multivitamins.

Myth #2: If you eat a healthy diet, you don’t need a multivitamin

Whether by choice or happenstance, we’re inevitably exposed to any number of factors that can make it difficult to get all of our body’s nutritional needs met — even with a healthy diet. Studies show that in today’s world, most of us are simply not getting the basic nutrition we need to prevent disease, let alone achieve optimal health.

Of course, vitamins are no substitute for a healthy die! But there is also evidence that some scarcer key nutrients are more reliably obtained from supplements. Research suggests that vitamin K, for example, is better absorbed from tablets than from food. Iodine is another crucial micronutrient that many women lack. Vitamin D and omega-3’s are simply not ample enough in the food chain to fully protect us from degenerative diseases. A good multivitamin–mineral complex will cover these gaps, particularly when you are under a lot of stress, on a special diet, or have food sensitivities.

Myth #3: Multivitamins are a waste of money

Think of multivitamins like a little extra money in your health bank account. A quality multivitamin–mineral complex can help preserve healthy brain and nervous system function, spark the body’s energy production, support tissue repair, protect immune function, regulate a healthy sleep-wake cycle, balance hormonal pathways, and so much more. A good one is never a waste of money, whether you’re a teen or a nonagenarian!

We don’t stand alone on this idea, either. Research by the Lewin Group — a health services consulting firm The Wall Street Journal calls “the gold standard of health policy analysis” — has applied accounting methods to determine that key essential nutrients are well worth the pennies per day they cost because they reduce sickness and chronic disease in women and dramatically decrease total healthcare expenditures on services like physician visits and hospitalizations.

Myth #4: Multivitamins are dangerous

Yes, if we take certain vitamins in extremely high doses or in the wrong forms, some can be dangerous to the body. But let’s be realistic: even drinking water in extreme amounts can be harmful! Vitamins and minerals work in harmony in the body, so looking at large doses of a single isolated vitamin or a multivitamin without minerals is not compatible with what is found in nature and is not the same as taking a well-balanced multivitamin. This is another reason why choosing a professionally formulated multivitamin is a good idea.

If you look closely at what’s behind this myth, you’ll see that studies reporting negatively on multivitamins generally target population groups with serious health issues to start — like cancer or heart disease, or lifestyle habits linked with higher risk, like cigarette smoking. Other studies are poorly designed and do not control for what type of multivitamin its participants are taking, how often they’re taking it, or their lifestyle factors.

The concern about interaction between multivitamins and certain prescription drugs, such as anti–clotting medications, is a very real one. But many nutritional factors can influence the way prescription drugs work in the body, even eating broccoli — at least, in theory! If you’re receiving appropriate monitoring, taking a quality multivitamin–mineral complex, including omega-3’s, should not be a problem for you. We always encourage partnering with your healthcare professional to decide what works best for you.

Myth #5: Your body can’t absorb multivitamins

If this were true, why would there be well-known precautions about their interactions with certain drugs? Or why would people having surgery be asked to stop taking them (if they contain vitamin E) two weeks prior to surgery to minimize bleeding? Your body absolutely absorbs multivitamins — but there is a difference in how well you absorb and use multivitamins depending on the quality of the formulation.

Brilliant yellow pee — what’s that about?

When you take a “rich” multivitamin and notice your urine fairly glows in the dark, have you ever wondered if maybe those vitamins just simply went right through you?

Women often ask us about this phenomenon, and we’re happy to explain. What makes your pee yellow is a fluorescent component of riboflavin (vitamin B2) called the flavin ring. As it passes along the body’s metabolic pathways riboflavin plays many important roles and undergoes biochemical changes. Several of riboflavin’s molecular metabolites retain the fluorescent flavin ring which, when excreted, gives your urine that special glow!

The ease with which nutrient forms are digested, absorbed, and metabolized by the body is sometimes referred to as bioavailability. Pharmaceutical–grade vitamin and nutrient tablets are regularly run through tests that measure precisely how long they take to dissolve in the stomach and intestines. The optimal nutrient forms are those that better absorbed and metabolized than others. Calcium supplements made from ground–up seashells, for instance, aren’t absorbed and used as well as alkalizing mineral–salt forms such as calcium nitrate and calcium and calcium ascorbate.

Challenge Week #3

Your Challenge for Week #3 is to eat at least 1/2 cup of beans or legumes every day. Beans are incredibly nutritious and very inexpensive--a great thing to add to your diet. And there are many more ways to eat them than in Chili! Try 1/2 a cup of black beans folded into a morning omelette, 1/2 a cup of your favorite type of bean sprinkled on top of a green salad or even 1/2 a cup thrown into a fruit smoothie. Please forward any favorite bean recipes to the group as we are having a beanie week!

Why we should eat more beans?

Beans are a great source of nutrients and a wonderful addition to a healthy diet. Studies have shown their many health benefits, including the prevention of diseases like cancer, helping to maintain healthy weight, being high in protein, having good amounts of fiber; furthermore, there is just such a great variety of beans to eat, and they taste great too!

Beans have been shown in various studies to lower the risk of health conditions such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and even cancer.

Beans are greatly nutritious foods. They have beneficial phytochemicals as well as antioxidant properties. In general, darker colored beans, such as those red and black in color, have stronger antioxidant properties.

Technically speaking, beans are a type of legume, which also includes foods such as peas and lentils. Beans are relatively inexpensive, and can be afforded by most. Beans are high in protein, and those who are concerned about a lack of protein in vegetarian diets can ensure adequate intake by consuming beans. Generally, a quarter cup of any type of legume has roughly the same amount of protein as an ounce of meat.

Perhaps one problem with eating beans is the intestinal gas which they seem to create. These can be tackled in three possible ways. Firstly, beans can be cooked with spices and herbs, for example cumin, garlic, fennel seeds, rosemary, lemongrass, coriander and turmeric. Using a digestive enzyme supplement may also help.

Thirdly, one could soak the beans for 12 to 15 hours before cooking. The soaking water should then be poured away, the beans rinsed and new water be added for cooking. This process helps to remove or reduce the compounds in beans which cause the intestinal gas

Week #2 Challenge

Our challenge for this week is to stretch for at least 10 minutes per day. You can include this as part of your daily exercise minutes or do it in addition to your minutes but begin to include daily stretching in your physical routine. For every day that you stretch at least 10 minutes you can claim 5 bonus points. And yes you can stretch on Sunday too- for a total of 35 possible bonus points.

If you have been inactive for any length of time, chances are you have lost a percentage of the range of motion associated with your joints. This range of motion is commonly referred to as flexibility. Each joint has a natural range of motion specific to the joint and the individual. Many factors can determine the range of motion of a joint such as age, sex, activity level and genetics. Activity level is by far the most influential when it comes to sustaining a healthy range of motion within each joint.

How We Lose Flexibility

As we age, flexibility diminishes within the joints through lack of stretching and physical activity. There are also other physical changes that affect the flexibility of a joint. They are:

Increased calcium deposits

Increased dehydration in connective tissue

Adhesions and cross-links in connective tissue

Changes in the chemical structure of the tissues

Fibrosis, whereby fibrous tissues replace degenerating muscle fibers

Benefits

Stretching is a physical activity that elongates connective tissues, muscles and other tissues. The benefits associated with stretching include:

Reducing muscle tension and relaxing the body

Improved coordination and freer movement of body and limbs

Increased range of motion in the associated joints

Prepare the body for physical activity

Preventing injuries from tight muscles during physical activity

Creating a mind body connection

Promoting circulation

Reduce the risk of back problems

Reduce muscle soreness after exercise

Ten tips on how to stretch

1. Do everything slowly.

2. Hold the stretch for at least 10 seconds prior to exercise (warm-up) and for at least 30 seconds post exercise (cool-down).

3. Breathe normally and relax while holding the stretch to the point of pain.

4. NEVER, EVER do any bouncy stretching, always hold and relax.

5. Focus on the muscle you are trying to stretch and then try to lengthen it.

6. If a particular muscle group is tight, then stretch it in stages. Stretch as far as you can, then relax it and stretch again. This is most important during cool-down.

7. Move slowly out of the stretch.

8. Remember to stretch both sides of the body.

9. Increasing the range of movement around a joint will help the blood flow to the muscles surrounding the joint and increase circulation that will carry away any lactic acids that may build up in the muscle.

10. Do more stretching in addition to just warming-up and cooling-down. As we get older our muscles shorten naturally, and it is vital for everyone that stretching becomes part of your normal everyday life. Gyms that offer stretch-classes or Yoga, where the aim is to permanently and progressively increase your flexibility are well worth considering if time and money allows.

* We Spencers are a super inflexible bunch but my son Sean claims that even we can become much much more flexible with daily stretching. Here is a site with some ideas of stretches you might begin with. And yes Yoga, Tai Chi and Pilates classes can count as stretching minutes!

http://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net/cybertherapist/stretching/allstretches.php

Challenge For Week #1

Our challenge for the week is to eat at least one serving of green leafy vegetables every day. You can eat them raw in salads or green smoothies or cooked. 1 cup is 1 vegetable serving of greens. My favorite way to eat greens is in my daughter-in-law Alli's green smoothie. Here's her recipe:

1 banana (frozen is best)

1/2-3/4 bag of spinach (I also like to use Kale)

6 large frozen strawberries

1 T. Agave nectar

6 ice cubes

1 cup cold water

Blend and enjoy! Looks weird but tastes like a glass of fresh! Serves 2!

Eat Your Greens!

A nutrition professor once said that it was common for our ancient ancestors to eat up to six pounds of leaves per day. He imagined them walking along from one place to another, just picking and eating leaves as they went. Can you imagine eating a grocery bag full of greens each and every day? Few of us even eat the minimum USDA recommendations of 3 cups of dark green vegetables per week. And yet, these veggies deliver a bonanza of vitamins, minerals, and

Health Benefits

Dark green leafy vegetables are, calorie for calorie, perhaps the most concentrated source of nutrition of any food. They are a rich source of minerals (including iron, calcium, potassium, and magnesium) and vitamins, including vitamins K, C, E, and many of the B vitamins. They also provide a variety of phytonutrients including beta-carotene, lutein and zeaxanthin, which protect our cells from damage and our eyes from age-related problems, among many other effects. Dark green leaves even contain small amount of Omega 3 fats.

Perhaps the star of these nutrients is Vitamin K. A cup of most cooked greens provides at least nine times the minimum recommended intake of Vitamin K, and even a couple of cups of dark salad greens usually provide the minimum all on their own. Recent research has provided evidence that this vitamin may be even more important than we once thought (the current minimum may not be optimal), and many people do not get enough of it.

Vitamin K:

Regulates blood clotting

Helps protect bones from osteoporosis

May help prevent and possibly even reduce atherosclerosis by reducing calcium in arterial plaques

May be a key regulator of inflammation, and may help protect us from inflammatory diseases including arthitis

May help prevent diabetes

Vitamin K is a fat-soluble vitamin, so make sure to put a dressing containing some oil on your salad, or cook your greens with a bit of oil.

Almost Carb-Free

Greens have very little carbohydrate in them, and the carbs that are there are packed in layers of fiber, which make them very slow to digest. That is why, in general, greens have very little impact on blood glucose. In some systems greens are even treated as a "freebie" carb-wise (meaning the carbohydrate doesn't have to be counted at all).

So that is your challenge. Eat at least a serving of greens every day! I hope this is a habit that you will continue for your whole life!