This Week in Food, Health, and Fitness

This week, read about how attractive-looking stairs might encourage physical activity, inspiring masters athletes, the truth about light bikes and performance, a surprising way to shave 1-minute off a  40k  cycling time trial, a terrific free cookbook featuring inexpensive meals, and more.

Dali Stairs PhiladelphiaTime to Celebrate the Stairs!

Would you take the stairs instead of the elevator more often if stairs were prominently displayed and inviting? This week NPR Health featured New York City’s Take the Stairs Campaign, which calls on architects and designers to make stairs more attractive, and urges New Yorkers to take the stairs for these reasons:

  • Walking up the stairs burns almost 700% the number of calories burned standing in an elevator
  • 2 minutes of stair-climbing/day burns enough calories to eliminate the 1 pound the average adult gains each year
  • In one study, men who climbed at least 20 floors a week (about 3 floors a day) had a 20% lower risk of stroke or death from all causes
  • Stair-climbing can raise good cholesterol and improve cardiovascular health

Unfortunately, stair entrances are often hard to find, sometimes behind doors labeled as fire or emergency, and even when discovered can be uninviting concrete structures. Contrast that with the sedentary option (elevators), that have shiny and inviting doors that open with a finger touch to good lighting, carpeting, and music (well, most of us could probably do without the music!).  The New York campaign is part of a bigger movement called Active Design, a behaviour change strategy that involves making the healthy choice an attractive and easy one.

Here’s another fun stair design to encourage physical activity (piano stairs), based on the idea that that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour.

Inspiring Masters Athletes

A few stories on impressive masters athletes this week. . .

  • Jo Pavey, a 40-year-old mother-of-two (one a 10-month old!), won Commonwealth bronze in the 5,000m track race.
  • The 77-Year-Old Fitness Guru. Henry Hawk is 77 and still obsessed with fitness. But lately he’s also been focusing on a new passion project: helping spinal injury patients move again. (Outside Magazine).

Read about more inspiring masters athletes here.

Cycling News – Looking to Ride Faster?

A couple of surprising stories in the cycling world . . . bike weight might not make that much difference, but shaving your legs might (although probably not on uphills . . . )!

  • Bike weight and the myth of ‘fast’ bikes. Spending a lot of money to lighten up your bike may not be saving you as much time as you think.   Jim Gourley explains the common overestimation of how much bike weight matters for most riding. (Velo News)
  • Will Shaving Your Legs Improve Cycling Speed? Ask a cyclist why they shave their legs, and you’ll get answers ranging from “better for massages” to “skin heals better after a crash.”   Specialized wind-tunnel testers revealed what might be another important reason: to increase speed.  As shown in the video below, they estimate that shaved legs may  save up to 70 seconds over a 40 km time trial.

Good-and-cheap CoverCookbook Shows How To Eat Well On A Food Stamp Budget

Check out this beautiful cookbook, featured on NPR Food, designed by Canadian Leanne Brown.  Brown designed the book to help people in SNAP (a US Government Nutrition Assistance Program) learn to cook inexpensive, nutritious, and flavorful meals. The Cookbook is free and can be downloaded here.

 More links of interest this week:

______________

Photo Credits

See More Issues of This Week in Food, Health, and Fitness

Share This:
Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedin

Copyright © 2024 www.sheilakealey.com. All Rights Reserved.  Premium WordPress Plugins