The following originally appeared yesterday in The News & Observer and Charlotte Observer as part of the papers’ series on Fat. It appears today with helpful links to provide you with more information.
Move more and eat better in 2011 using these seven simple strategies:
Note to parents of kids in organized sports and to those of you with kids in middle and high school: Your kids may not be as active as you think.
A study from San Diego State University has found that kids who play softball, baseball or soccer still don’t get their daily recommended allotment of exercise. The government says kids should get at least an hour of good, hard exercise a day; kids in these sports only get about 45 minutes, on average. Of the softball players studied only 2 percent — mostly pitchers and catchers (the only players involved in every play), I’m guessing — got in their 60 minutes.
Today, we begin an occasional peek at everyday athletes who excel, and their secret for how they do it.
Lew Hollander’s goal is to live to be 120. If the 80-year-old Bend, Ore., resident succeeds and does so at the rate he’s been going, he will race to the pearly gates with 61 Kona Ironmans under his belt.
Yesterday, I mentioned that a nice walk in the woods is a traditional way to welcome the new year. To help make it a new tradition in your life, I included a list of organized New Year’s Day hikes throughout the state. While a hike is a good way to kick off an active new year, it’s not the only way to kick off an active new year.
For me — and thousands of others in North Carolina — it’s as much a New Year’s Day tradition as black-eye peas and college football: the New Year’s Day hike. Make it a tradition for yourself as well, whether it’s to shake out the cobwebs from ushering 2010 out the door or, on a more progressive note, to get your year off to a healthy start. A walk through the woods can’t help but put you in a good frame of mind for the year ahead.