As you may know I live in Calgary and here in Calgary we have two real problems with the affects of the sun. In the Summer we have very strong sun and lots of it with long days this far noth of the equator. In the Winter time there is also lots of sun and very low humidity leading to dry skin – and lots of skiers in the mountains.

Samara Felesky-Hunt is a registered dietitian in Calgary at The Downtown Sports Clinics. Her website is at dietitian-online.com and she wrote the following article for the Calgary Herald newspaper.

Although summer is a time to get outside, the sun can leave skin looking and feeling dry and worn out. You tan it, shave it, scrub it and exfoliate it; it gets scratched, scraped and burned. It endures pimples, bites, freckles and moles, while wear and tear may show up as lines, wrinkles, blotches, spots and sags, rashes or even adult acne.

So, this summer, care and nourish your skin. Sunscreens can protect against sun damage, but a healthy, nutritious diet plays a role, too. Fill your grocery basket with foods that are good for your complexion and feed your skin from the inside out. Read the rest of this entry »

Looking to make a change and lose some weight? I have reviewed the top diet on the internet and you can go and read over 200 comments people have made about why this diet has worked well for them, as well as some of the problems.

There are some very high costs for Fruit and even vegetables these days. One of the best ways to stay healthy is to eat lots of fruits but the cost can be terrible. If you follow a few rules then you can lower you fruit costs.

Here are some tips to help you get a better deal on fruit or really any food that is seasonal or out of the area. Now that Spring is here and Summer is coming my house has a lot more fruit but we really struggle to buy cheap fruit. Here in Calgary I find fruit is expensive year round.

If you follow these produce buying tips you should get more bang for the buck as far as Fruit and vegetables goes.

• If your urban grocery doesn’t stock much produce, seek out local farmer’s markets or community gardens.
• Don’t forget that fruit and veggies in any form — fresh, frozen, canned, dried and 100% juice — count toward your 5 A Day requirement.
• Buy in volume from wholesalers or inexpensive food outlets like Costco, and freeze your excess stock.
• Keep it simple. More exotic fruits usually cost more than common varieties. For example, oranges are more affordable than kumquats, bananas are more budget-friendly than boysenberries, apples are easier on the wallet than Asian pears, etc.
• Get clipping — collect coupons and keep eyes peeled for in-store specials.
• Buy in season. As prices can vary greatly depending on the time of year and part of the country, know what fruits and vegetables are in season. Standard economics dictates prices rise with scarcity and fall with increased quantity.
• Remember that the closer that your produce is grown to you the fresher and lower the transport costs are.

This may seem like a strange way to shop for many people but as we run into more food shortages and the price of produce thanks to high transportation costs goes up this is a very good way to make your food buying dollar go farther. The biggest change for many people is not having any fruit and vegetables at any time as most of the list stresses better for you and better produce as it is closer to you and transported less.

Well I thought tonight I would post a little about me. I am often posting tips and I am not sure how I come off to you but I have the same problems with motivation and consistency as anyone else.

I started the year really busy and it really affected my eating and exercise. I am really fortunate to have a wife that makes it very clear to me when I am eating and snacking badly and when I am missing workouts.

The last few weeks have been a bit crazy at home, at work, and within my own head, my motivation has sucked over the last few weeks. Does that sound familiar, I bet I am not the only one starting the year a bit badly.

So last week, the 5th week of the year I finally tried to snap back into a better schedule and think that I will start to posting more about my eating and workouts on this blog. Last week I started doing weights again and a couple of days ago I went for my first bike ride in a few months (the weather finally got warm enough here in Calgary). I have also started to get a lot more serious about my eating.

So if you are in the same place as me, just getting started again after a bit of a break. Then here are a few quick tips to get started today in jumping back in. Read the rest of this entry »

Right now I am in the midst of packing an moving from a house into a townhome in a town just 15 minutes out of Calgary.

The move to me seems straightforward and I am very excited. The kids will be in a good school together, we will have a bit of a more laid back lifestyle and we will have a more family like community to live in.

My wife on the other hand is struggling a little bit. There is all the moving plans, getting the kids registered for school, the idea of moving to a small town for the first time in her life and she bears the brunt of coordinating all of the expenses and hiring the movers.

We have moved a few times in the past and each time our roles are the same but the way that we deal with it is always different. One person or both of us is usually tense we each have our own coping mechanisms and in the end we are always happy with our move and how smoothly everything has gone on moving day. Read the rest of this entry »

I know most people outside of Canada will not really care about how fat or not different areas of Canada are but there is a new overweightness article that I found on MSN. In the morning I boot up the laptop and sign into MSN Messenger and it pops up a little box with some news stories. One of the stories today was about what area and cities of Canada have the most overweight and obese people. Here is a quote:

Ten years ago, smoking was the national epidemic that had the country talking. Across Canada, anti-smoking campaigns were being implemented. The bar and restaurant industry began to prohibit smoking indoors, and cigarette companies were dropped from sporting events as lead sponsors.

Fast forward to 2008, there is a new national concern, – a more silent, yet equally as deadly epidemic – obesity. Although smoking remains the number one preventable cause of death among Canadians, obesity is a close second. By now, the majority of us are aware of the hazards which extra fat can cause, so why are more than half of Canadians either overweight or obese? According to Statistics Canada, a shocking 59 per cent of Canadians are currently overweight or obese – that’s almost 6 in 10 adults who carry around extra weight every day.

Although the number of Canucks who are overweight or obese is high, some communities are on the right path to a healthier lifestyle – and smaller pant size. We’ve got the lowdown on Canada’s fittest and fattest cities – how do you measure up?

The article is interesting although it does not list my chosen home of Calgary. There is also the BMI info that we are so use to seeing in one of these articles. Have I mentioned enough times how much I hate the inaccuracy of BMI calculations?

There is probably the same kind of info for US cities but I have not seen it myself. The shocking thing about this article is that the number of people in Canada looks to be well over 60% of the entire population.

I am very excited. The weather has gone good again and here I am in Calgary with temperatures around 25 Celcius today, thats in the 80s for those of you south of Canada.

This morning was my first ride in of the year in a T-shirt with no jacket on. It feels like a national holiday. I think I am going to take the long way home today and enjoy this nice day after a long cold winter.

Hopefully this weather inspires me to post a little more, my pace has slowed these last couple of weeks.

Well spring seems to have finally arrived here in Calgary and not a moment too soon. There has been a lot of snow and late snow at that across Canada and the northern US.

Many people have been trying to follow through on New Years resolutions and others of courese did not bother. Well here we are at the beginning of May and as the month starts we look down to see a bit of flab, or the muscles don’t look as firm as we would like or even our eating amy not be up to our wished for standard.

Don’t despair it is not to late to be ready for Summer.

I know that I pushed myself harder then usualy back in February and March to get ready for our family vacation to Hawaii and was pretty happy about the changes that I made. Really all you need to do is make a few short term goals. Read the rest of this entry »

Fitness, Health and Earth day seem like maybe they are not very well linked at all but I think that there is a case to be made that being greener is a lot healthier way to live.

Being the father of two your kids we have been bombarded this week with Earth day events and stories from school. I remember when I was growing up the whole recycling concept was just picking up steam and a few years later in Vancouver we had curb side recycling, something that my adopted city of Calgary does not yet have

Anyway being green, I believe, is a lot more global then it used to be. Sure we in North America are the greatest consumers of all kinds of products but  around the world our influences are being felt here are a few ways that I can think.

Nice bright fruits and veggies – I can get a banana or an apple any day of the year from the supermarket. One of the many ways that farmers in other countries make my food more appetizing is to use pesticides and fertilizers to make the fruit look better in the supermarket. Not good for the environment or even me personally. Read the rest of this entry »

What gets you motivated to workout, or to eat well? I know that sometimes this is a struggle for me and if I create a habit that makes exercise a part of my day automatically then it will happen.

Today is a very snowy day in Calgary (how many times has that come up on this blog?) and I know that my normal daily schedule tomorrow is going to get thrown off. I like to get on my bike and ride to work but there is no way that I can ride in a foot of snow and will take the bus instead.

Eating is the same way. I have a plan in the morning of exactly what goes into my lunch bag and I know right now that I will be having oatmeal for breakfast, bringing an apple and orange for snacks as well as a coke and chocolate bar and I will be having chicken left over from tonights dinner Read the rest of this entry »

This morning my wife bought my daughter and son a couple of jump ropes, the problem was they were really long ones that are to be held by two people.

It is a snowy day today in Calgary and so of course the kids wanted to jump rope so we pushed the table aside in the living room and the kids learned to jump rope. It was tons of fun and of course pretty good exercise.

Did you know that a 160 pound person would burn 760 calories in an hour jumping rope? This is the same exercise output of running 6 miles in an hour. I am not sure how good a shape you would have to be in to do this and the coordination that you would need to jump rope for an hour but jumping rope is the speed secret for boxers and other athletes.

Jumping rope is not only good for your coordiantion but it uses the muscles in your arms, shoulders, legs and glutes and is great also for improving your balance. Another great thing about jumping rope is how easy it is to do. Nowadays with 10 foot ceilings in houses it is easy enough to jump rope indoors all winter.

Try jumping rope and see how exhausting but fun it can be as an alternative exercise for you.