The 20-mile Walk for Hunger

On May 3rd 40,000 people will be participating in the walk for hunger, and I will be one of them. The 20-mile Walk for Hunger begins on the Boston Common, and winds through Boston, Brookline, Newton, Watertown, and Cambridge before returning to the Boston Common.

The Walk is put on by Project Bread which is the state’s leading anti-hunger organization; Project Bread is dedicated to alleviating, preventing, and ultimately ending hunger in Massachusetts. Project Bread funds over 400 food pantries, soup kitchens, and food banks all over Massachusetts. They also runthe only statewide hunger hotline that answers 37,000 calls a year from families in need. They work with schools to offer breakfast programs, and fund summer programs so that kids get a nutritious meal when school's out.

To found all the amazing programs they have, Project Bread does the walk for hunger which has been going on for 41 years, last year $4 million dollars was raised during the walk and they are hoping to have just as much success or more at this years walk.

When participating in the walk you can raise money as a team or individually, I am on a team with a few of my cousins who have been doing the walk for the past 3 years, our team, Walk This Way, has a goal of raising $3,000. Currently we only have raised $650 so we really need to step it up. This event is a great way to raise money and awareness, as well as in getting some exercise at the same time.

If you would like to donate to me or my team you can click on the link below or talk to me in class. Every little bit helps and would be really appreciated.
http://www.projectbread.org/site/TR/Walk/General?px=1505261&pg=personal&fr_id=1110

Don't get lazy after an injury, rehab is important

Injury rehabilitation is a must after a serious sports injury or post-surgery and is an important part of recovery. Most rehabilitation protocols often include specific strength and flexibility exercises to help build strength and range of motion in an injured extremity.

It is important to strengthen after an injury, specifically if you have not used that mussel during the time of recovery. But before you start your rehab you need to make sure you are completely healed first and are ready for physical activity. You usually need to be cleared by a doctor fist before you start full activity.

If you do not strengthen you run the risk of having the same injury again or another injury as a result. An example of this would be if you hurt say your left leg, you will then rely more on your right during recover and after and if you continue to do this it can then result in tight mussels or worse.

The most common injury is ankle sprains or fractures. Below is a list of examples for an ankle stabilization program which you would usually start 2-4 weeks after the original injury.

Calf stretches: standing with one leg behind you pointed straight ahead and heel on the
ground, slowly lean forward until a stretch is felt in the calf muscle / hold 20 sec. / 3
times
-perform with leg straight
-perform with leg slightly bent

Calf raises: standing with balls of your feet on a step, go up onto toes and then lower
heels below the level of the step / perform 2 sets of 15 reps and progress to single leg
raises as able

Theraband: band wrapped around forefoot with heel on the ground
-turn ankle inwards against band
-with knee bent 90°
-with knee bent 20°
-turn ankle outwards against band
-with knee bent 90°
-with knee bent 20°

Calf raises with theraband: perform a single leg calf raise on the ground
-with band around ankle / pulling heel inwards
-with band around ankle / pulling heel outwards

Balance exercises:
-single leg balance on a folded fleece blanket or couple of pillows
hold 20-30 sec. and repeat 5 times in varying knee angles
-progress to performing with your eyes closed
-single leg balance and pulling a band across the front of the body in a diagonal
pattern with arms straight / both directions

When is the best time to workout?

So after going to the gym this morning since we had no class I was wondering when the best time to go to the gym is, so I did a little research and this is what I found out.

There is no real “best time to workout” because it is different for each person. Although after doing some looking around on the internet I found that the best time to workout is when you are most awake. If you wake up at 6:00 in the morning, you probably won’t be real awake when 10:00 and 11:00 come around at night. During your workout you want to be active, energetic, and focused. Do you have problems sleeping a little after working out? If yes, it is best to workout in the morning or during the day so that when the night rolls around you are able to get the right amount of sleep for muscle growth.

There is no certain time when people are suggested to workout, but I feel that during the middle of the day is the best time to work out. It is obviously tough for some people to exercise in the middle of the day due to many factors including work, sleep, and nutrition. Lifting should be based on your own personal schedule. To make your workouts worthwhile you must be full of energy. In order to have this energy you must be on proper sleep, food in your system, and wide-awake. Having enough energy means that you are not fatigue at all.

The perfect time to workout is a pretty wide range. The first six hours after waking up is usually not a great time to workout because proper nutrition and energy will not be through your body by that time. Anything after twelve hours of waking up is also not a great time to workout because our bodies are at that time starting to fatigue and get ready for sleep. After figuring it out, we should workout anywhere between six and twelve hours of waking up. For example if a person went to bed at eleven and woke up at seven, they would be best suited to workout between one and seven in the afternoon. Therefore it gives you a wide variety of time to exercise. Usually people don’t find it hard to train with-in those hours.

This is just a suggestion of times to go to the gym but as most of you know especially if you go to Ely gym, is easier to not go during those hours because the gym isn’t as packed and you can get more done without waiting for machines and other equipment.

Consuming Mushrooms Can Help Cut Breast Cancer Risk

According to a new study, eating mushrooms can help cut the risk of breast cancer by a great deal.

The Australian study was led by Dr. Min Zhang of the University of Western Australia and focused on women in China. The focus was Chinese women because their breast cancer rate is 5 times lower than that of other Western nations. The belief was that their traditional Chinese diet may have had something to do with that. They compared a survey of around 1,000 breast cancer patients to around 1,000 health patients.

The ages of these patients was said to be constant so they could focus on the diets alone.
What they found was that women who consumed 10 grams of mushrooms daily cut their risk of breast cancer by over 65%. 10 grams of mushrooms is less than one button mushroom, not very much at all. So getting those 10 grams shouldn’t be too hard for women to do who want to reduce their chance of breast cancer.

Another way in which was found to reduce breast cancer rates during this study was that they could reduce breast cancer was by consuming green tea.

The study has been published in the International Journal of Cancer.

Red wine carries same breast cancer risk as white wine

Drinking moderate amounts of any kind of alcohol (including wine, beer, and liquor) is associated with a slightly increased breast cancer risk.

Originally it was believed that if you drank red wine rather than other alcoholic beverages that you would not be at as much of a risk for breast cancer. After the conclusion of a new study, it gets rid of any hope that red wine is less likely than other alcohol-containing drinks to increase breast cancer risks, or that it might even protect against the disease.

"If a woman chooses red wine, she should do so because she likes the flavor, not because she thinks doing so will reduce her breast cancer risk," said Polly A. Newcomb of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, Washington, who led the research. "It might be good for other things, but it definitely is not conferring any protection against breast cancer."

To find out if this was true, the researchers looked at 6,327 women with breast cancer and 7,558 women who did not have a cancer diagnosis. Risk rose with the amount of alcohol consumed, no matter whether it was wine, beer or liquor. The heaviest drinkers -- women who reported having 14 or more drinks a week -- were 24 percent more likely to develop breast cancer than nondrinkers.

"The message is pretty simple," Allen said. "Moderate drinking increases breast cancer risk, and it seems that the more you drink the higher the risk."

So I hate to break the news to all the woman out their who might be reading this before they hit up the parties during spring break but it is now proven fact that the more you drink the more likely you are to get breast cancer.

On the plus side here are 5 Things That Could Cut Your Breast Cancer Risk
1. Limit yourself to two or three alcoholic drinks a week
2. Exercise at least three times a week (more often is even better)
3. Maintain your body weight, or lose weight if you're overweight
4. Do a monthly breast self-exam
5. Have a mammogram once a year after 40

Cancer May Soon Be World's Leading Killer

Right now heart disease is the current leading killer throughout the world. Health experts predict that soon, more people will die from cancer than from AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. Experts also expect that by two thousand ten, cancer will become the world's leading cause of death.

One reason more people are dying from cancer is because more people are smoking cigarettes in developing countries. Forty percent of the world's smokers are believed to live in China and India alone. Other things including high fat diets and reduced physical activity are also believed to be pushing the numbers upward. Areas in which the numbers will have the largest increases will be in China, Russia, and India.

Rates of breast cancer in Japan, Singapore and South Korea are now three times what they were forty years ago but for the first time in the U.S. breast cancer rates have gone down which is a step in the right direction.

The American Cancer Society says governments can do things to help prevent the increase in cancer cases and deaths. One idea is to provide poor and developing nations with vaccines that help to prevent some cancer-causing infections. One example of a cancer-causing infection is human papillomavirus. This virus can cause cervical cancer in women. Another suggestion is more support for tobacco-control programs. And the cancer society says health officials and governments should invest more in cancer research and early detection.

Initiative Takes Aim At Obesity In Children

As we starting talking about chapter 10 in class today which is all about managing your weight and finding a healthy balance I decided to do my blog today on how the U.S. is trying to curve childhood obesity. More than one-third of children in the United States are overweight or obese. With so many children being overweight in this upcoming generation this is raising fears that they could constitute the first generation in recent history to have shorter life spans than their parents.

Friday, February 20th officials of the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a joint effort of the American Heart Association and the William J. Clinton Foundation unveiled their initiative to help battle childhood obesity. One of the biggest problems many families face in fighting obesity is getting insurance companies to pay for doctor visits and other care to help deal with the problem. The initiative is designed to give children better access to health care to fight obesity. Participating insurance companies would pay for at least four visits to a dietitian and four visits to a physician each year to provide guidance to children and their parents on how to eat better and take other steps to reduce and control their weight. Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts have signed on to the initiative, along with two of the biggest insurers, Aetna and WellPoint.

Organizers expect that the initiative will provide the new benefits to about 1 million children in the first year and more than 6 million within three years.

Food Banks Toss 'Thousands of Pounds of Food' Linked to Peanut Recall

As some of you know we discussed in class the other day about the recall on some peanut butter products. Today I am going to talk about how this outbreak is affecting food banks all over the country.

Food banks are throwing out thousands of pounds of food containing peanuts recalled in the salmonella outbreak which as occurred in these past few weeks. More than 1,800 peanut products have been recalled in the wake of the salmonella outbreak linked to the Peanut Corporation of America's Blakely, Ga. plant. This brings up a real big problem for food banks because granola bars, cereals, cookies, nut mixes and peanut butter have been a basis food for pantries because of their durability and long shelf life but now all of them containing peanuts must be thrown away. With the economy struggling, the timing couldn't be worse for food banks to just be throwing food away.

The nation's largest domestic hunger-relief organization, Feeding America, says food banks across the country reported a 30 percent jump in demand in December 2008 compared with the previous year. So it is essential that they are able to get all the food they can to help the growing number of people that they help. This outbreak is not only hurting the banks food supplies but it is also hurting their staffing. Workers have to spend hours searching their stockpiles for the tainted items instead of serving those in need.

The salmonella outbreak has sickened nearly 600 people and is linked to nine deaths

When to Replace your Running Shoes

With the burst of warm weather this upcoming week it will hopefully encourage you to get outside and start running or exercising, but before you do think about the last time you got a new pair of running shoes.

Running in old or worn-out shoes is one of the most common causes of running injuries. Your running shoes lose shock absorption, cushioning and stability over time. Continuing to run in worn-out shoes increases the stress and impact on your legs and joints, which can lead to overuse injuries. Some of the signs that you need new shoes are if you start feeling things such as muscle fatigue, shin splints, or some pain in your joints, especially your knees. If you are feeling some of these things you may be wearing shoes that no longer have adequate cushioning. The easiest thing you can do to prevent these types of injuries is replace your shoes when they're worn-out.

So how do you know when shoes need to be retired? Don't use the treads of your shoes to determine whether you should replace your shoes. The midsole, which provides the cushioning and stability, usually breaks down before the bottom shows major signs of wear. A good rule of thumb is to replace your running shoes every 300 to 500 miles, depending on your running style, body weight, and the surface on which you run. If you run on roads, you'll need to replace your shoes sooner than if you primarily run on a treadmill. For walkers you are not doing as much pounding on the shoes as runners but you should still replace your shoes about every 600 miles which if you walk 4 or 5 hours a week that comes out to replacing your shoes about every six months to prevent the same injuries as listed above for runners with worn-out shoes.

Did you know snowmobiling is really good exercise?

With all this snow we have been having some people find it hard to exercise so they need to turn to other ways to get out and burn those calories and that winter fat that seams to somehow accumulate. Some people go to the gym during these cold winter months but another popular winter sport is snowmobiling. Snowmobiling is a popular winter sport and that is similar to driving or racing a car on snow. Despite the fact that snowmobiling is done while sitting on top of a motor vehicle, it can be a physically demanding sport, requiring strength and flexibility to navigate and keep the snowmobile on track.
A 190-pound person will burn about 302 calories per hour by riding, according to calorie-counting charts. A 155-pound person will burn about246 calories, and a 130-pound person will burn off 207 calories. Snowmobiling is a great form of exercising and all you have to do is just sit their and enjoy the ride through the snow covered trails.

(this is a picture i took when i was snowmobiling with my little brother this past winter in NH)