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Thursday December 16, 2010

Menopause brings with it a wide range of changes to a woman's body. Without doubt, exercise is the menopausal woman's best friend in a way that it allows to control your body and emotions by using your internal resources. To learn more check out this week's article focusing on Exercise: menopausal woman's best friend.

In fitness
Namita

To minimize muscle wasting, it's crucial to follow a varied routine of resistance training - remembering to work with a challenging weight. It can sometimes be tempting to use a light weight, but this will only slow down your results. Weight training is crucial to help prevent the brittle bone disease. As we get older we start to think that lifting heavy is too dangerous, so we go down the easy road of lifting light, but lifting light isn't going to help against muscle wastage. You have to challenge yourself when it comes to training to slow down muscle decline as we age. Keep stimulating your muscles from different angles to keep your results on track. You can do this by using different types of equipment, mixing your workout with barbells, dumbbells, resistance bands, medicine balls and even bodyweight exercises. The trick is to keep your body guessing.

Change your thoughts

A man once telephoned Norman Vincent Peale. He was despondent and told the reverend that he had nothing left to live for. Peale invited the man over to his office. "Everything is gone, hopeless," the man told him. "I'm living in deepest darkness. In fact, I've lost heart for living altogether."

Norman Vincent Peale smiled sympathetically.

"Let's take a look at your situation," he said calmly. On a sheet of paper he drew a vertical line down the middle. He suggested that they list on the left side the things the man had lost, and on the right, the things he had left. "You won't need that column on the right side," said the man sadly. "I have nothing left, period."

Peale asked, "When did your wife leave you?"

"What do you mean? She hasn't left me. My wife loves me!"

"That's great!" said Peale enthusiastically. "Then that will be number one in the right-hand column—Wife hasn't left. Now, when were your children jailed?"

"That's silly. My children aren't in jail!"

"Good! That's number two in the right-hand column—Children not in jail," said Peale, jotting it down.

After a few more questions in the same vein, the man finally got the point and smiled in spite of himself. "Funny, how things change when you think of them that way," he said.

Change your thoughts and you change your world.

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"The tragedy in life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.
Benjamin Mays

Sun-dried Tomato Bread

Makes: 4 small loaves

Ingredients:

• 675g or 1 1/2 lb or 6 cups strong white bread flour

• 25g or 1 oz or 2 tbsp caster sugar

• 25g or 1 oz fresh yeast

• 400-475 ml or 1-2 cups warm milk

• 15ml or 1 tbsp tomato puree

• 75ml or 5 tbsp oil from the jar of sun-dried tomatoes

• 75 ml or 5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

• 75g or 3/4 cup drained sun-dried tomatoes in oil, chopped

• 1 large onion, chopped

Directions:

1. Sift the flour and sugar into a bowl and make a well in the centre. Crumble the yeast, mix with 150ml of the warm milk and add to the flour.

2. Mix the tomato puree into the remaining milk until evenly blended, then add to the flour with the tomato oil and olive oil.

3. Gradually mix the flour into the liquid ingredients until you have a dough. Turn out on to a floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Return to the clean bowl, cover with a cloth and leave to rise in a warm place for about 2 hours.

4. Knock the dough back and add the tomatoes and onion. Knead until evenly distributed through the dough. Shape into four rounds and place on a greased baking sheet. Cover with a dish towel and leave to rise again for about 45 minutes.

5. Preheat the oven to 190 degree C / 375 Degree F / Gas 5. Bake the bread for 45 minutes, or until the loaves sound hollow when you tap them underneath with your fingers. Leave to cool for a few minutes on a wire rack before eating warm.

Nutritional Information (Per loaf):

• Energy: 971Kcals/4087KJ

• Protein: 24.9g

• Fat: 36.5g

• Saturated fat: 6.85g

• Carbohydrate: 145g

• Fibre: 7.3g

• Sodium: 353mg

Exercise: menopausal woman's best friend

Menopause brings with it a wide range of changes to a woman's body. Without doubt, exercise is the menopausal woman's best friend in a way that it allows to control your body and emotions by using your internal resources. 

Each time that you take exercise, your adrenal glands are stimulated to convert the male hormone androstenedione into oestrogen. A minimum of four 30-minute exercise sessions each week will help to keep your body producing a little oestrogen.

As you become older, your cardio-respiratory fitness, your strength and your flexibility all begin to decline. For people who remain active, however these things decrease at a lower rate (an average of five percent per decade after the age of about 20, as opposed to nine percent per decade).

Long-term exercise also means that you will have stronger bones and a lower risk of osteoporosis than non-exercisers. Although every woman is different, most of us lose 25 - 35 percent of our bone mass by the time we reach the age of 65. Bone loss begins around the age of 35, proceeds slowly up to the menopause, and then accelerates during the five to seven years after the menopause, when oestrogen levels are low.

Regular exercise may also have a significant effect on our mental agility by increasing the amount of oxygen supplied to brain. In a comparison between sedentary older women and older women who exercised regularly, after four months the latter group processed information faster in tests. Exercise can also prevent our reaction times from slowing down.

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