Got inspiration?

"Consistency is a mysterious pattern of behavior. It distinguishes excellence from mediocrity. Some label this principle as "paying your dues" and that's an accurate assessment. No one, no matter how gifted or talented, will achieve their potential without it.
Consistency means time is spent with a focus in mind. An achiever has something to show for his time while his counterpart doesn't. E. Stanley Jones said of this focus factor, that "some people go through life getting results; others get consequences." in other words, if you aren't focused, your energy is dissipated and your consequences occur by default.
Power is not too strong a word to describe the desired results of using consistency. Think of this form of power as being dynamic, unfolding, unseen, but real. Tap the principle, use it, and enjoy the benefits."
Copyright 2004 by Dr. William G. Covington, Jr.

Feel Stronger with This Mineral

Been feeling like a wet dishrag lately? Could be you’re low on magnesium. Magnesium is a multitasking mineral, and one of its jobs is to power up our muscles. Unfortunately, many of us don’t get enough of it -- especially as we get older. Is Frailty Inevitable?To counter age-related muscle loss and bouts of feeling wimpy, you need to do two things:
Build up your muscles. Just starting out? Try this simple chair workout video. Got a bit more stamina? Try this more advanced resistance-band workout video.
Be sure you’re eating a balanced diet and getting your fair share of magnesium. Use this tool to look up magnesium-rich food sources. Start feeling strong this week! Make these bursting-with-magnesium recipes from EatingWell:
For breakfast: Tomato & Ham Breakfast Melt
For lunch: BBQ Baked Beans & Sausage
For dinner: One-Dish Chicken & Rice
For dessert: Chocolate & Nut Butter Bites Get fit in a flash! Check out the expert-guided RealAge fitness programs in the New Year, New You Center.
RealAge Benefit: Adequate magnesium intake (400 to 500 milligrams per day) can make your RealAge as much as 0.9 years younger.

More Amazing Olive Oil News

Olive oil -- the unsaturated fat that’s great for your heart -- is making headlines again. But this time it’s for helping something a little lower down: your stomach. Research suggests that polyphenols in olive oil may inhibit the bacterium that causes most stomach ulcers. Heard of H. Pylori?Antibiotics are the treatment gold standard for Helicobacter (H.) pylori, the ulcer-causing bacterium that’s tough enough to survive the acidity of people’s stomachs. But resistant strains of H. pylori are now found worldwide. Fortunately, some researchers are seeking alternative therapies, and in recent studies, the polyphenols in olive oil showed tremendous potential. Not only could they withstand the harsh gastric juices of the stomach, but they also seemed to kill off H. pylori pretty handily -- even antibiotic-resistant strains. Find out how to tell the difference between the burn of a stomach ulcer and the heat of heartburn. Olive Oil Power BoostersTo protect the polyphenols in your olive oil and get the most out of the stuff, store it in a dark bottle away from sunlight, and don’t overheat it. (Check out how the YOU Docs suggest heating your olive oil.) Recipe CornerSqueeze more olive oil into your day with these simple-to-do EatingWell recipes:
Give sauteed veggies a lift with Herbed Extra-Virgin Olive Oil.
Kick up the flavor of salads with a quick homemade dressing. Try this easy Basic Vinaigrette.
Set out these 10-minute Garlic-Herb Marinated Olives at your next soiree.
RealAge Benefit: Eating a low-fat diet -- and eating healthful unsaturated fats when you do eat fat -- can make your RealAge as much as 6 years younger.

Changing Speeds to Go the Distance

By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS

Published: April 17, 2008

SARA HALL experienced an instructive epiphany in 2006. In the fall, she’d won the national road-running championship for 5K (3.1 miles), a distance she specialized in at Stanford. At the time, she considered herself a 5K runner. So did everyone else.

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Axel Koester for The New York Times

Sara Hall, an aspiring Olympian runner, trains at UC Riverside by running speed drills around the lap.

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This article is the second in a series that began with “A Swimmer’s Different Strokes for Success” (March 20).

Axel Koester for The New York Times

Hall takes an ice bath after her daily exercise regimen to help with muscle recovery between training sessions.

A few weeks later, everything changed when she won the Fifth Avenue Mile in New York, a glamour event in American road racing. “Afterward, I thought, ‘That’s my distance,’ ” she said. “It plays to my strengths. I loved the fast pace. I’m not a patient runner.”

Today, Hall, 25, is laser-focused on training for the 1,500 meters (0.93 mile) in hopes of making the United States Olympic team in middle distance running.

She and her coach, Terrence Mahon, who also coaches Hall’s husband, Ryan Hall, the winner of the United States Olympic team men’s marathon trial, have increased her speed work and reconfigured how much she’s running and her intensity.

“Her work capacity has gone through the roof,” Mahon said, and she can run greater distances faster than ever before. Which makes her current regimen a good model for how recreational runners — not just the elite — can get swifter and sharper, and perhaps even decide that they have been racing the wrong distance all along.

SPEED THRILLS

“I’m not running as far these days,” Hall said, compared with the distances she ran in high school and college. That might come as a surprise to anyone who learns that her average weekly mileage remains 85 to 90 (compared with her husband’s 140-plus). A typical training week includes easy running on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday (usually twice a day). Hall, who can run almost a four-minute mile, lopes through these 30- or 50-minute workouts at a leisurely mile pace of 7 minutes. (To accurately figure her mile splits, she wears a watch equipped with G.P.S.) On Saturday, she takes a 14-mile run at a pace (5 minutes 45 seconds per mile) that is between what she runs in races and her easy days.

Then there are the fast, hard interval sessions at a track on Tuesdays and Thursdays. These hurt because they are supposed to. “You stress the body to get it to adapt” to the mechanical and physiological demands of speed, Mahon said. A typical Tuesday session includes two miles of warm-up, six miles of intervals and three miles of cool-down.

Anyone not aiming for an Olympic qualifying time should adjust speed-training mileage downward, Mahon said. “Go to a track and run a mile flat-out” and record your time, he said. Your ideal pace for a 5K race would be around 95 percent as fast per mile. Then implement what Mahon calls “over-speed and under-speed training.” In over-speed, you sprint through quarter-miles, 800 meters and other intervals at a speed faster than your 5K pace (close to your top mile time). Don’t run more than two fast miles.

For under-speed work, time your interval splits to be a little slower than your 5K pace, with shorter rest periods than those within the over-speed intervals. Total mileage can be four to six miles. Cool down with a gentle jog of about half your total interval distance.

Try sprinting one week, and running slower the next or, if you’re an experienced racer, both in separate sessions in a week. Don’t, despite its discomforts, worm out of speed work. “The most common mistake” that recreational runners make, Mahon said, “is running the same pace all the time.” Occasionally making yourself run fast, he said, “is the only way to make yourself a fast runner.”

STRIDE RIGHT

Hall kicks like a mule when she runs. She’s trying to stop. “This year, we’ve been totally focused on my form,” she said. “I tend to lean forward and I have a big back kick.” This slightly toppling stance lessens the power of her strides, and also has made her prone to being tripped up from behind during races.

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The Six Habits for a Six-Pack

Losing belly flab is a boring process. It requires time, hard work, and most important, dedication. Take the right steps every single day, and you'll ultimately carve out your six-pack. But if you stray from your plan even a few times a week — which most men do — you'll probably never see your abs.

1. Wake up to water

Imagine not drinking all day at work — no coffee, no water, no diet soda. At the end of an 8-hour shift, you'd be pretty parched. Which is precisely why you should start rehydrating immediately after a full night's slumber. From now on, drink at least 16 ounces of chilledH2Oas soon as you rise in the morning. German scientists recently found that doing this boosts metabolism by 24 percent for 90 minutes afterward. (A smaller amount of water had no effect.) What's more, a previous study determined that muscle cells grow faster when they're well hydrated. A general rule of thumb: Guzzle at least a gallon of water over the course of a day.

2. Eat breakfast every day

A University of Massachusetts study showed that men who skip their morning meal are 4 1/2 times more likely to have bulging bellies than those who don't. So within an hour of waking, have a meal or protein shake with at least 250 calories. British researchers found that breakfast size was inversely related to waist size. That is, the larger the morning meal, the leaner the midsection. But keep the meal's size within reason: A 1,480-calorie smoked-sausage scramble at Denny's is really two breakfasts, so cap your intake at 500 calories. For a quick way to fuel up first thing, I like this recipe: Prepare a package of instant oatmeal and mix in a scoop of whey protein powder and 1/2 cup of blueberries.

3. As you eat, review your goals...

Don't worry, I'm not going all Tony Robbins on you. (I don't have enough teeth.) But it's important that you stay aware of your mission. University of Iowa scientists found that people who monitored their diet and exercise goals most frequently were more likely to achieve them than were goal setters who rarely reviewed their objectives.

4. ...and then pack your lunch

My personal Igloo cooler just celebrated its 19th anniversary. I started carrying it with me every day back in college. Of course, it often housed a six-pack of beer — until I decided to compete in the Purdue bodybuilding championship. (Second place, by the way.) Once I knew I'd have to don a banana hammock in public (the world's best motivator), I began to take the contents of my cooler seriously. And so should you. In fact, this habit should be as much a part of your morning ritual as showering. Here's what I recommend packing into your cooler:

— An apple (to eat as a morning snack)

— Two slices of cheese (to eat with the apple)

— A 500- to 600-calorie portion of leftovers (for your lunch)

— A premixed protein shake or a pint of milk (for your afternoon snack)

By using this approach, you'll keep your body well fed and satisfied throughout the day without overeating. You'll also provide your body with the nutrients it needs for your workout, no matter what time you exercise. Just as important, you'll be much less likely to be tempted by the office candy bowl. In fact, my personal rule is simple: I don't eat anything that's not in the cooler.

5. Exercise the right way

Everyone has abs, even if people can't always see them because they're hidden under a layer of flab. That means you don't need to do endless crunches to carve out a six-pack. Instead, you should spend most of your gym time burning off blubber.

The most effective strategy is a one-two approach of weight-lifting and high-intensity interval training. According to a recent University of Southern Maine study, half an hour of pumping iron burns as many calories as running at a 6-minute-per-mile pace for the same duration. (And it has the added benefit of helping you build muscle.) What's more, unlike aerobic exercise, lifting has been shown to boost metabolism for as long as 39 hours after the last repetition. Similar findings have been noted for intervals, which are short, all-out sprints interspersed with periods of rest.

For the best results, do a total-body weight-training workout 3 days a week, resting at least a day between sessions. Then do an interval-training session on the days in between. To make it easy on you, I've created the ultimate fat-burning plan, which appears on this month's workout poster.

6. Skip the late shows

You need sleep to unveil your six-pack. That's because lack of shut-eye may disrupt the hormones that control your ability to burn fat. For instance, University of Chicago scientists recently found that just 3 nights of poor sleep may cause your muscle cells to become resistant to the hormone insulin. Over time, this leads to fat storage around your belly.

To achieve a better night's sleep, review your goals again 15 minutes before bedtime. And while you're at it, write down your plans for the next day's work schedule, as well as any personal chores you need to accomplish. This can help prevent you from lying awake worrying about tomorrow ("I have to remember to e-mail Johnson"), which can cut into quality snooze time.

By Bill Hartman, P.T., C.S.C.S., Men's Health

"Bringing sexy back"

Running tips video by Ricardo Rodrigues

http://interactives.signonsandiego.com/sandiegoalive/

4 Ways to Baby Your Liver

Your liver is as vital to your health as your heart and lungs are. But do you know how to keep it healthy?

It can be as simple as living clean, adding crunch, and eyeing your supplements. Here’s what we mean by that.

Vital Parts
Your liver isn't just a place to filter out tequila shots. All of the blood that has visited your small intestine flows through the liver, where it gets detoxified. A big job, but something has to do it. Michael Roizen, MD, and Mehmet Oz, MD, RealAge experts and authors of the best-selling, newly expanded YOU: The Owner's Manual, have four tips for helping your liver help you.

• Live clean. Reduce your personal pollution so there's less to filter out. Drink filtered water, eat unprocessed foods, choose veggie protein over red meat, and practice safe sex. And yes, keep the mojitos to a minimum. (For a teetotaler drink that's just as festive and tasty, try this Green Tea and Mango Splash.)
• Add crunchy veggies. Cruciferous produce (like broccoli and cabbage), B-rich foods (like whole grains), and high C items (like citrus fruit and leafy greens) assist the liver's detoxifying process. (Here's what else cruciferous veggies do for your health.)
• Consider a supplement. Lecithin (egg yolks and soybeans are good sources) and zinc (look up food sources here) support liver function, and you may want to consider supplementing your diet with them if you don't get much naturally. Herbs like milk thistle and dandelion may help liver function, too, but consult your doctor before taking them.
• Don't take too much vitamin A. If you do, you risk liver problems, including cirrhosis. (Learn more about the dangers of vitamin A overload.)

Energy Bars 101

Energy bars, granola bars, snack bars, nutrition bars, diet bars, protein bars, meal-replacement bars . . . whatever you call them, the bar you want depends on what you want it to do for you. The ingredients, calorie counts, fat grams, and vitamin and mineral values are all over the map, so to get what you need, you have to know what to look for. Here's a cheat sheet.

Fuel a Long Workout: Energy bars were originally invented to deliver a massive concentration of carbs to fuel marathoners during a run or replenish them afterward. Yes, you could carry a potato in your pocket, but a bar that's high in complex carbs and fiber (at least 3 grams) will wreak less havoc with your blood sugar, and the benefits will last longer. Look for one like the Oatmeal Raisin Walnut Clif Bar, which has about 70% of its 240 calories coming from carbs. Plus, it has 8 grams of fiber.

Help Build Muscle: First, look for 15 to 35 grams of high-quality protein -- from whey, soy, casein, and/or egg whites -- to give your body the building material needed to repair muscle fibers. Skip bars containing "hydrolyzed proteins" made from mysterious animal parts. Next, check the fat, especially the saturated fat. You want the least sat fat possible, and definitely no more than 3 grams. One good choice: Trim Advantage Protein Bar -- Mixed Berry Smoothie, with 21 grams of protein but only 1 gram of saturated fat.

Replace a Meal: The built-in calorie and portion control of meal-replacement and diet bars can help you lose weight, say researchers . . . as long as you really do replace one meal with one bar. As for nutrients, most meal bars have plenty of carbs and are usually low in fat, but check their protein: You need 50 grams or more a day, depending on how active you are. Some low-cal meal bars don't have much protein. For instance, Slim-Fast Meal Options Breakfast & Lunch Bars (140 and 150 calories, depending on flavor) have only 5 or 6 grams of protein. For about 100 more calories, you can get three times the protein (15 grams) in a Trim Advantage Meal Replacement Bar.

Have a Healthy Snack: Think "small is beautiful." A snack bar should be smaller than a meal-replacement bar, and you need to watch the fat and sugar (stay below 18 grams). Steer clear of those made with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), which brings with it all sorts of health and weight-gain issues. Some snack bars are as calorie-packed as a candy bar, so it's worth searching out a truly low-cal one like PowerBar Pria 110 Plus. The various flavors weigh in at only 110 calories.

•All About YOU: Brain Pills

Aspirin, vitamin E, the B vitamins, ginkgo biloba, vinpocetine . . . which vitamins and supplements really do give you a mental lift when you need it?

RealAge experts Mehmet Oz, MD, and Michael Roizen, MD, give you the straight story on this and lots of other need-to-know aging issues in their new book, YOU: Staying Young. Here's their take on "brain pills."

RealAge Recommends
Do these pills, supplements, and vitamins give you a stronger memory? Here's the short answer from the RealAge docs:

Aspirin: Yes. Research shows a 40 percent decrease in arterial aging, a major cause of memory loss, for those who take 162 milligrams of aspirin a day. (Learn at what age daily aspirin makes the most sense.)
Vitamin E: Yes (from food). People who consume the highest amount of vitamin E are 43 percent less likely to get Alzheimer's. And you can get all the E you need by eating just 3 ounces of nuts or seeds a day. Look up other food sources with this online tool.
B vitamins: Yes. The RealAge docs recommend 400 micrograms of folic acid, 800 micrograms of B12, and 40 milligrams of B6 per day, because B vitamins help your neurotransmitters work efficiently.
Ginkgo biloba: If you want to. No large studies support its use, but it has promise. The docs recommend trying 120 milligrams daily, as long as you don't have a blood clotting disorder or aren't anticipating surgery. Discontinue if you don't notice any benefits.
Vinpocetine. No. There's not enough evidence that this supplement (from a periwinkle plant) helps. Plus, it could reduce blood pressure too much.

What are the 14 Major Agers? Order your copy of YOU: Staying Young and find out!

Tune Up Your Brain

You know those seemingly endless hours your parents made you spend practicing the piano or learning to play the violin?

Time to say thank you, because all that practice did more than tune up your recital skills. It may have made the language areas of your brain more efficient, too. If you never took music lessons, here's why you should start.

Music and Lyrics
Researchers recently asked a group of musicians and nonmusicians to listen to -- and reproduce -- tone sequences. (Answer these seven questions to find out how reliable your hearing is.)

Your Brain on Music
Not surprisingly, the musicians performed better on the task. But this was a surprise: As the musicians reproduced the tones, scans of their brains showed major activity in areas linked to language, leading researchers to conclude that building music skills may bolster language areas of the brain as well. In other words, studying music is like doing push-ups for your brain! (Here's another way to give your brain a workout.)

Did You Know?
Just listening to music has health benefits, too. Here's an example.

RealAge Benefit: Learning a new skill that requires brainpower can make your RealAge 1.3 years younger.

Try It: Always wanted to tickle the ivories or strum a hot guitar? Feed your inner rock star and tune up your brain at the same time with these step-by-step video lessons -- designed for total beginners: Easy Piano, Easy Bass, Easy Guitar Deluxe, and Easy Drums

Mind over Matter.

What does that means?

Do not think too hard :-)

Well, if you think about things that you do, and how they become reality, you know that they are fruits of your thoughts.





Physical body example:





If you are running very fast, and think that is very hard. Automatically you are sending the message (hard) to your body and eventually you have to reduce your speed.



Running TIP:


Run 45 min on your aerobic zone and safe the last 15 min to challenge your self by increasing your speed to a race pace(5km, 10km...)and tell your self that you are willing and able to maintain the speed all the way through the 15 min.
Honnor your disconfort, and relax your breath.
Allow the speed to flow instead of pushing it.
SMILE!

Stay tall and focus on maintaining your core strong and engaged.



Cool down for more 10 min very easy.


You will break the pattern!

Book reading: Thinking body, dancing mind.

SEH 5km Congratulations

Congratulations to all participants at the SEH 5Km and 50m dash.

This year was my daughter 1st race ever.

of course I was a very proud dad.

RESULTS

Sofia Flor Rodrigues 18 month 35 sec and 98 c medal contender.

Keep posted for pictures and feel Free to post your results.

Ricardo Rodrigues
Wellness Specialist

•Not Your Average Nut

For boosting heart health, this nut's got one up on olive oil.

That's right. Walnuts are better than olive oil at combating the harmful effects that saturated fats have on arteries, which may make walnuts the mightiest nuts of all. Here's what makes them special.

When you eat a meal high in saturated fats, it causes your arteries to narrow and stiffen. And although you may have the best intentions of shunning nacho cheese and bacon-wrapped hamburgers, everyone slips a little now and then.

So here are a few things you can do to minimize the impact of the nasty fats on your arteries.

• Eat a handful of walnuts. In a study, arteries stayed more relaxed when walnuts were added to a high-fat meal. They did an even better job than olive oil of helping blood to flow unrestricted. Researchers credit the alpha-linolenic acid in the nuts with helping keep arteries flexible.
• Take a 45-minute walk a couple of hours after you indulge. Physical activity partly offsets the blood vessel dysfunction caused by eating a high-fat meal. Read more about this research.
• Top off your meal with a tiny piece of dark chocolate, some hot tea, or a bit of pomegranate juice. These items are rich in compounds that help your arteries relax. Read more about chocolate's effects on blood vessels and what makes a sensible serving size.

How much do you know about fats? Take this quiz to find out.

RealAge Benefit: Eating only healthful fat can make your RealAge 3.4 years younger.

RealAge Smart Search: Welcome walnuts into your life with these healthful recipes.

Exercise Has Profit Potential

Taking time away from work to squeeze in some exercise? Good for you -- and your company.

That's right. The less time you spend sitting on your bottom, the better your -- and your company's -- bottom line. Here's how and why. (see below ↓)

Fit and Confident
Researchers suspect that the boost in confidence and energy that people get from regular exercise may spill over into their careers, giving them an edge. So not only does exercising keep your weight in check, but it also may give you a better shot at reaching your personal and professional goals.

Run Up Your Sales
But it may require more than a 10-minute walk at lunchtime to be a real go-getter. In a study of entrepreneurs, the business owners that ran regularly were the ones who enjoyed personal and professional side benefits. Not the runner type? Strength training also was linked to better personal-goal progress (although pumping iron didn't affect company performance).

Introduce your body -- and bottom line -- to the quickest, easiest workout on the planet: The RealAge 20-Minute Workout.

How do your finances affect your health? Take this quiz and find out.

RealAge Benefit: Exercising regularly, expending at least 3,500 calories of energy a week, can make your RealAge 3.4 years younger.

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Obese Employees Cost Companies More

By: Tamara Schweitzer

A new study suggests that investing in wellness programs may pay off on the bottom line.

Maintaining a normal body weight may no longer be just a matter of personal health. New research shows that it pays for companies to promote healthy lifestyle choices among its employees. According to a recent study out of Duke University Medical Center, obese employees cost companies more money than their fit counterparts—in lost workdays, higher medical costs, and more workers' compensation claims.

In conducting the study, researchers looked at the records of 11,728 employees of Duke University who received health risk appraisals between 1997 and 2004 to determine if there was a relationship between body mass index and the rate of workers' compensations claims (body mass index, or BMI, takes into account a person's height and weight and is considered the most accurate indicator of obesity). The researchers found that obese workers filed twice as many workers' compensations claims as workers who fell within the recommended BMI range.

Obese workers averaged 11.65 claims per 100 workers, compared to 5.8 claims per 100 for non-obese employees. As a result, obese employees had seven times higher medical costs, for an average of $51,019 per 100 employees. The most common causes of injury among obese workers were falls, slips, and attempts to lift something.

"We all know obesity is bad for the individual, but it isn't solely a personal medical problem--it spills over into the workplace and has concrete economic costs," Truls Ostbye, co-author of the study and professor of community and family medicine at Duke, said in a statement.

The study also found that obese employees lost 13 times more days of work, than their leaner counterparts, averaging 183.63 days lost per 100 employees. Ostbye says that the results of the study should be a wake-up call to employers.

"Given the strong link between obesity and workers' compensation costs, maintaining healthy weight is not only important to workers but should also be a high priority for employers," Ostbye said. "Work-based programs designed to target healthful eating and physical activity should be developed and then evaluated as part of a strategy to make all workplaces healthier and safer."

When considering the best options for fitness programs, small business specialist Barbara Weltman stresses the importance for companies to promote wellness programs among all employees, not just overweight ones. "Any program that you adopt can't be discriminatory," Weltman says. "You have to encourage all employees to take advantage of it."

While small businesses tend to be cost-conscious when it comes to paying for health coverage, Weltman says that the study suggests that investing in wellness programs could ultimately help companies save money. "The cost of wellness programs," she says, "may pay off for businesses in terms of reduced health care premiums."

Diabetes on Your Mind

The health consequences of type 2 diabetes go straight to your head.

You're twice as likely to perform poorly on a reasoning test if you have diabetes than if you don't have the disease -- even if you're fairly young and rather newly diagnosed.

It's no news that diabetes affects cognition and memory in older people. But now we know the disease also affects reasoning skills in middle-aged people who've had the disease for only a few years. How's your memory? Test it with this online tool.

More than 6 million people in the U.S. have undiagnosed diabetes, and the havoc it wreaks on blood sugar levels can affect your kidneys, your heart, and a bunch of other major organs. So it's a good idea to visit your doctor regularly to be screened for diabetes, especially if you have risk factors. Do you know what those are? Take the RealAge Type 2 Diabetes Quiz to find out.

If you already have diabetes, keep a tight handle on it. Doing so can minimize the impact it has on all your body parts.

RealAge Benefit: People with diabetes who adopt an aggressive disease-management program can make their RealAge as much as 8 years younger.

RealAge Smart Search: Find more news about type 2 diabetes with RealAge Smart Search.

•Too Skinny to Be Fat?

True or false: You can have a normal weight and BMI and still be "obese."

It's true. Even if you're no bigger than a minute, you could still be at risk for cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome if your fat mass is greater than 30 percent of your body weight. It's called "normal-weight obese syndrome." Here's how it works.

Overall weight and BMI are a good start when estimating health risks, but they don't tell the whole story. What's more important is how much fat you have relative to your overall weight and where that fat is on your body.

The higher your percentage of fat mass -- and the more fat you have bunched around your middle -- the more proinflammatory cytokines you have racing around in your blood. What's so bad about that, you ask? These chemicals signal inflammation, and the more inflammation you have in your

What's metabolic syndrome? Here's a definition.

body, the greater your health risks. Cytokines also affect the way your body uses insulin and contribute to hardening of the arteries.

Once the inflammation ball gets rolling, your risk of obesity, cardiovascular disease, and metabolic syndrome go up. Which helps explain, in part, why skinny people can still get heart disease and may pack on pounds after a certain age.

To lower your percentage of body fat, use the triple threat: cardiovascular exercise, weight training, and a balanced diet. No time to exercise? Use these double-duty moves that blend exercise with everyday activities.

And don't throw out your scale or ignore your BMI altogether. They still provide important information about your overall health. Check your BMI and waist-to-height ratio with this online tool.

Get your waist back! Try YOU: On a Diet, a realistic waist-management plan from RealAge Drs. Mehmet Oz and Michael Roizen.

When You Snooze You . . . Win!

Corporate culture has it wrong: When you snooze, you win!

A daytime doze is a stress buster and heart protector. Just 30 minutes midday, three times a week, is all you need. Middle-aged working men who did just that cut their risk of a fatal heart attack and other heart problems by a whopping 37 percent. How about women?

Although the study focused on working men, women would probably benefit as well. Naps are a great stress reducer. You've heard how stress can damage your health, but how it causes heart disease remains unclear. Blame the stress hormones that course through

your veins when you are under pressure. Researchers think these hormones may damage organs, glands, and blood vessels. Or bad influence could be at fault, because stress can drive you to unhealthy behaviors like smoking, overeating, and skipping your workout. Learn more about preventing heart disease.

What is clear about stress: Pressure-cooker jobs increase your chances of accumulating risk factors for heart disease, such as obesity, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.

So for sweet dreams and a more relaxed (and happier) you, do as the Spaniards do -- take a siesta! Can't nap on the job? Catch some midday ZZZs on the weekend. Just be sure to set an alarm clock -- sleep too long and you'll have trouble sticking to your regular bedtime.

Want better sleep? Here are four ways to boost shut-eye.

RealAge Benefit: Getting 6 to 8 hours of sleep per night can make your RealAge as much as 3 years younger.

RealAge Smart Search: Find more ways to reduce stress with RealAge Smart Search.