Stay local!

Locally grown produce is more fresh. While produce purchased in a supermarket or a big-box store has been in transit or cold-stored for days or even weeks, produce you purchase at your local farmer's market has often been picked within 24 hours of your purchase. This freshness not only affects the taste of your food, but the nutritional value, which can decline with time.

Eating local means more for the local economy. For every dollar spent locally generates twice as much income for the local economy. When businesses are not owned locally, money leaves the community at every transaction.

Local food tastes better. Ever tried a tomato that was picked within 24 hours? 'Nuff said.
Locally grown fruits and vegetables have longer to ripen. Because the produce is handled less, locally grown fruit does not have to stand up to the rigors of shipping. This means that you are going to get peaches so ripe that they fall apart as you eat them, figs that would have been smashed to bits if they were sold using traditional methods, and melons that were allowed to ripen until the last possible minute on the vine.

Eating local is better for air quality and pollution than eating organic. The miles that organic food often travels to our plate creates environmental damage that outweighs the benefit of buying organic.

Buying local keeps us in touch with the seasons. By eating based on the season, we are eating foods when they are at their peak taste, are the most abundant, and the least expensive.
Buying local is fodder for a wonderful story. Whether it's the farmer who brings local apples to market or the baker who makes local homemade bread, knowing part of the story about your food is such a powerful part of enjoying a meal.

Eating local protects us from bio-terrorism. Food with less distance to travel from farm to plate is less susceptible to harmful contamination.

Local food translates to more variety. When a farmer is producing food that will not travel a long distance, will have a shorter shelf life, and does not have a high-yield demand, the farmer is free to try small crops of various fruits and vegetables that would probably never make it to a large supermarket. Supermarkets are interested in selling "Name brand" fruit: Romaine Lettuce, Red Delicious Apples, Russet Potatoes. Local producers often play with their crops from year to year, trying out other unknown varieties, such as Little Gem Lettuce, Senshu Apples, and Chieftain Potatoes.

Supporting local providers supports land development. When you buy local, you give those with local open space - farms and pastures - an economic reason to stay open and undeveloped.

Visiting a market or a local produce stand can seem to be more of an adventure than a chore, as grocery shopping can be. Hopefully, some of the reasons given above will motivate you to try something a little different, for you and your health!

~ Live Well ~
Trinity Fitness

Let's Get Physical!

What, exactly, is fitness? Physical fitness has four components:

• Cardiovascular fitness. Your heart, lungs and blood all need oxygen to work. Your level of cardiovascular fitness will determine your body's ability to use oxygen as a source of energy. It gives you the stamina or endurance to be active without gasping for breath.
• Muscular strength and endurance. This is the force your muscles can exert and their ability to keep moving without becoming exhausted.
• Flexibility. Keeping the optimal range of motion in the joint areas, making bending and stretching easy, is a measure of flexibility.
• Body composition. There should be a healthy ratio of lean muscle tissue to fat.

Here are 10 facts to help motivate you toward total fitness:

Fitness Fact 1. Studies have suggested that walking at a brisk pace for three or more hours each week can reduce your risk for coronary heart disease by 65 percent.

Fitness Fact 2. About a quarter of American adults — and an even greater number of women — are sedentary. After age 44, almost 30 percent of women are sedentary, and by age 65, the proportion increases to almost 35 percent. By the time women reach age 75, about half of all women are sedentary.

Fitness Fact 3. Only about 22 percent of American adults engage in regular, sustained physical activity for at least 30 minutes five times per week, and only 15 percent exercise both regularly and vigorously. In October of 2006, the population of the United States was 514,600,000. This means only 113,212,000 (22%) Americans are regularly exercising.

Fitness Fact 4. No matter how poor your current level of fitness, and no matter your age, you can begin an exercise routine and become fitter and healthier with each passing day. Even 90-year-old women who use walkers have been shown in studies to benefit from light weight training. Heck, I’ve seen 80 year old men pass me in a marathon.

Fitness Fact 5. Simply adding movement into your daily routine can increase your level of fitness. For example, if you park in the last row of the parking lot and walk briskly five minutes each way between your office and your car, walk up and down the stairs at your office during your 10-minute afternoon coffee break, and walk the dog for 10 minutes when you get home, you've racked up 30 minutes of exercise for the day. How easy was that?

Fitness Fact 6. Women with heart disease or arthritis actually experience improved daily function from involvement in various modes of physical activity.

Fitness Fact 7. To address all the components of fitness, an exercise program needs to include aerobic exercise, which is continuous repetitive movement of large muscle groups that raises your heart rate; weight lifting or strength training; and flexibility exercises or stretching.

Fitness Fact 8. Walking at a brisk pace (a 15-minute mile or 4 mph) burns almost as many calories as jogging for the same distance. The benefit of jogging is that it takes less time to cover the same distance and it benefits the bones; however, it may be too strenuous for some of you. Please check with your physician before beginning any new exercise.

Fitness Fact 9. It takes about 12 weeks after starting an exercise program to see measurable changes in your body. However, before the 12 week mark, you will notice an increase in your strength and endurance.

Fitness Fact 10. You will decrease your stress level and build confidence simply by getting up and moving that wonderful body of yours!

~ Live Well ~

Trinity Fitness

Take a deep breath, and relax . . .

Ever wondered about meditation? Ever wondered if you could actually sit still for more than 5 minutes to understand what it means to "be still"? Ever wondered why so many people are meditating now more than ever? What's the big deal?

A very large part of Yoga practice is meditation and because of my background I am very familiar with it. I've been to silent meditation classes for hours on end. I admit it's been a while, but I've done it and I know how wonderful it can be. It's tranformational, actually. Meditation also provides you with knowledge about yourself that you may not learn if you don't take the time to be still and listen.

I've gathered some wonderful websites to give you an understanding of exactly what meditation is, its history, how to do it and its benefits. Enjoy and happy meditating!!

Mahalo: How to Meditate
eHow.com:
How to Meditate 1
How to Meditate 2
How to Meditate 3
Discovery Health: How to Get Started With Meditation
wikiHow: How to Meditate
Pick The Brain: 4 Powerful Reasons to Meditate and How To Get Started
Amazon.com: The Beginner's Guide to Meditation How to Meditate Merchandise
Shambhala: How to Meditate
Google Books: How to Meditate: A Practical Guide
AskMen.com: Meditation
Oprah.com: Getting Started with Meditation
Learn-to-Meditate.com: Waves of light Meditation
How-to-Meditate.org: How to Meditate
Mudita Journal: How to Meditate
CNN: Meditation may lower blood pressure (July 24, 2000)
Health & Yoga: Meditation... Towards a Stress Free Life
fwbo.org: What is Meditation?

As always,
~ Live Well ~
Trinity Fitness