Finding Fitness Anywhere

If you're traveling for the holidays, sometimes we get sidetracked from our regular fitness routine. For me, when I travel, I think of it as a chance to explore more parks or meet new hiking groups or take a fitness class--it's an adventure! How do you find where to go?

There are lots of free resources on the internet from the parks systems or if you want to join a group, look at meetup or facebook. If you're in the LA area, join my Heart Health Hiking group on meetup. Whereever you are, you can go to www.meetup.com and look for the keywords "hikes" or "hiking" OR look up parks under yelp for reviews from other hikers. Yesterday, I found a terrific hike with a local chapter of the Sierra Club, and it was a wonderful group of friendly people. I want to also celebrate for Rachel from yesterday's hike, who recently had her 62nd birthday and qualified for the lifetime senior membership with the National Parks system!

If you are looking for fitness classes, an internet search for your local dance or pilates or yoga studio is easy when you put in your zip code. In general, it's human nature to prefer something convenient (it improves your chance of actually doing it!) and when it's in your neighborhood, you might even find the opportunity to walk to it and get some more footsteps in! And if it's cold or rainy weather, there is always a shopping mall or museum that is big enough for you to get in some walking towards your daily 10,000 steps. You can find fitness anywhere!

How to fight the colds and flus

Great article by Dr. Mercola

===EXCERPT OF THE ARTICLE===
THE Number One Way to Conquer a Cold or Flu: Vitamin D

Vitamin D is an amazingly effective antimicrobial agent, producing 200 to 300 different antimicrobial peptides in your body that kill bacteria, viruses and fungi.

In the United States, the late winter average vitamin D level is only about 15-18 ng/ml, which is considered a very serious deficiency state. It’s estimated that over 95 percent of U.S. senior citizens may be deficient, along with 85 percent of the American public.
...

The best source for vitamin D is direct sun exposure. But for many of us, this just isn’t practical during the winter. The next best thing to sunlight is the use of a safe indoor tanning device. If neither natural nor artificial sunlight is an option, then using oral supplements is your best bet.

Remarkably, researchers have found that 2,000 IU of vitamin D per day abolished seasonal influenza. This is somewhat surprising, as it is half the dose of what most adults need to achieve ideal levels of vitamin D

Please note that this is far greater than the recommended daily allowance (RDA) advised by public health agencies like the American Academy of Pediatrics, which recently doubled the RDA of vitamin D for children to 400 IU. This new guidance still falls absurdly short of what’s needed to keep kids healthy, especially during flu season.

In order to prevent the flu, children and adults need 35 IU of vitamin D per pound of body weight. So, for example, a child weighing 57 pounds would need 2,000 IU a day of vitamin D.

Adults typically need an average of 5,000 IU per day—but some adults have to take 20,000 to 30,000 IU daily to get their vitamin D level up to optimal levels. Exactly how adults absorb and process vitamin D so differently is still somewhat of a mystery, so the only way to know if your vitamin D level is therapeutic and nontoxic is by having your blood tested.

Not all vitamin D testing is accurate, so make sure your health care provider is ordering the correct test.
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Look at your multivitamin--it is likely to have some Vitamin D, but not enough. Here's where you can get the supplement with the recommended 5,000 IU. Get started now, BEFORE you get sick this winter!