Editor’s Note: Since returning to walking after taking just a week off from my recently established daily walking routine, I’m really feeling it. My body is no longer as forgiving as it used to be. I’m sluggish, lacking energy, and although I never thought I’d say it, missing my morning walks. Besides the physical benefits of walking, I’m experiencing the stress release and mental clarity that accompanies a nice long walk. Jacqueline, who runs the website, The Aging Suite, suggested I add Tai Chi to my workouts. Today she tells us why Tai Chi can be beneficial, especially to women at 40.

Ok, so when you think about Tai Chi, you don’t exactly think about something someone in their 40’s is doing. You may think, it’s great for my mom and dad and even grandparents, but for me, not so much. Well, think again. Tai Chi is a great form of exercise regardless of your age. Tai Chi is a traditional form of Chinese martial arts that has been practiced in China for centuries. Its benefits and forms have spread throughout the world. Tai Chi is also a low intensity exercise; its movements are smooth, non-jarring, and work joints through their full range of motion. It is believed to have many health benefits including improving flexibility.Alright, I’m 40 or in my 40’s, and am pretty flexible, what can Tai Chi do for me? Research suggests that Tai Chi is also beneficial for younger women in helping to improve their balance and blood pressure. A 2004 article studied the effects of Tai Chi on Chinese women aged 33-55. The women in the study had not participated in other types of exercise or sport for at least 2 years and had not previously done Tai Chi. The women took The Tai Chi classes 3 times a week for 12 weeks. At the end of the study, the women’s systolic and diastolic blood pressures had decreased. They also demonstrated improvements in balance when compared with another group who had not done Tai Chi. To read the article in its entirety, check out this link at Oxford Journals.

Other believed benefits of Tai Ch include:

• Improved muscle strength

• Reduced risk of multiple falls

• Lower blood pressure

• Improvements with muscles that control posture

• Improved balance

• Improved cardio fitness

• Lower levels of depression

• Reduced stress and anxiety

To learn more about the benefits of Tai Chi, visit The Aging Suite.

Jacqueline is an Occupational Therapist and blogger. She is the Senior Editor of The Aging Suite, a site that offers tips for aging in place for seniors and their families.

Five months after officially ending the challenge, I have (for the most part) stuck to healthier, more conscious eating habits. The $25-a-week budget looks more like $35 now, but still, the end result is that I’m much more mindful of what’s in the food I’m eating and where it’s coming from.

After years of yo-yo dieting, my metabolism is shot, and so the weight I expected to lose during the process has been slow in coming off. I’d imagined being “fit at forty” and celebrating my 40th several sizes smaller than I am today. But a friend reminded me that I’ll be 40 for an entire year, and so I actually have 365 days to become fit at 40. Despite the slow weight loss, I have for the most part maintained my commitment to eating only grass fed and cage free meat, poultry and eggs. There have been a few occasions when I’ve been out and frankly, the lure of jerked chicken (read “why did the chicken cross the road” to understand) overrode any question I had about the origins of my food. But those moments have been few and far between. I’ve also kept to my commitment to purchasing products that contain no artificial ingredients, colors or preservatives. That’s meant smarter snacking, a lot less eating out and an overall healthier lifestyle.

Finally, I’m moving more. For a while I was playing tennis on a weekly basis and taking belly dancing classes (more on that in a later post.) These days I’m walking several times a week, and a new round of belly dancing madness is scheduled to start in July.

My goal for 40 is to be fit, mentally, spiritually and physically, and despite a few bumps in the road, I feel like I’m headed in the right direction. I’ve been down this road before, but this time my 40′s are waiting ahead of me with the hopes and dreams I’ve held dear for the past several years. This road – the one of health and wellbeing – is the only road that will take me to the places I want to go. And for that reason alone, I’m determined to stay the course.

How’s your quest to be fit at 40 coming along? Share your story in the comment section, or on our Facebook fan page.

At the beginning of this year I set out with a lofty goal of being fit at forty. I was determined to reclaim myself – my health, my time, my goals, in pursuit of a more authentic me. It started with my $25 good food challenge and a change in the way I shop for and relate to the foods I eat. It also meant a return to a time in my life when I was healthier and much more active. Three months into 2010 and I’m finding out that the authentic me is lazy, whiny and a tad arthritic. Nice to meet you – me – whatever.

Instead of being encouraged by the fact that I got out there and played tennis for the first time in years, I was majorly disappointed that I’d allowed myself get that out of shape.  Instead of taking it one day at a time like I promised myself I would do, I immediately started doing the math in my head, figuring if a couple hours of tennis could tear me up like this, it would be years, not months before I get back into anything resembling “shape.” Meanwhile back at the ranch, my chicken withdrawals are getting more severe and business is slower than expected even though I feel like I’m working harder than ever.  My “reclamation proclamation” as I like to call it, is not going quite the way I’d planned. In fact, it’s been much easier said than done.

And then I remember I don’t have to do it all today – don’t have to make it through an hour of tennis like Serena, cook like The Barefoot Contessa, build an empire like Oprah or even be as sweet and understanding as Mother Theresa, in a day. At least not this day. Today I just have to figure out how to make these beans taste like chicken, don my ankle and knee braces for another hour of tennis, and get up the courage to make those phone calls that could help me and the business reach the next level.  And I don’t even have to do them all at the same time.

How’s your road to 40 shaping up, health, relationships and otherwise? Share your thoughts in the comment section, or on our Facebook Fan Page.

Editor’s Note:

This is a topic that is dear to my heart. You see, my mother, Marion Kane, is a food writer. In fact, she was the Food Editor of two major Canadian newspapers for a total of 17 years. So while most kids spent their evenings playing outside, I was busy dining in the finest restaurants of Toronto ordering lots of dishes to help my mum in her “tasting” ceremony which would either make said restaurant into the latest “hot spot” or else put it out of business within two weeks.

My mother, unlike me, doesn’t appear to struggle with what to eat, how much to eat, or knowing when she’s full. But still, I have managed to learn some important things from her when it comes to eating joyfully. In my mother’s house, eating is a celebration: a time set aside to painstakingly prepare and enjoy a good meal.

In my mother’s words:

We all have to eat. Most people prepare some of their own meals. Many of us are passionate about food and cooking. All of which explains why I love being a food writer: It so easily connects me with individuals of every age, colour, social status, shape and size. I’ve written about where and what Toronto taxi drivers like to eat- a story that led me to burger joints, an African take-out, South Asian eateries and a Jewish deli. I once checked our city’s cops’ top spots to nosh and, for another article, visited favourite haunts of local truckers. In a different vein, I talked to chefs who man high-end kitchens atop downtown skyscrapers for CEOs, and penned a feature about those who prepare the fare at local spas and health clubs. Food is the great equalizer and, from my experience, there’s no better way to lift one’s spirits or create a bond than sharing it with others.

My mother’s dearly departed friend, Julia Child, agrees:

“Dining with one’s friends and beloved family is certainly one of life’s primal and most innocent delights, one that is both soul-satisfying and eternal.”

A recent survey showed that Americans are eating more but enjoying it less. Just 39% of adults in this survey say they enjoy eating “a great deal,” down from the 48% who said the same in a survey in 1989. Also, the survey found that the decline in enjoyment of eating has been greater among those who consider themselves “overweight” than among those who consider themselves “just about the right weight.”

In other words, when you’re not happy with your body, you’re not enjoying one of life’s greatest pleasures- eating.

For homework, I’d like to you to write answers to each of the following questions on a piece of paper or in your journal:

Describe an ideal eating experience. Describe in detail the atmosphere, table setting, location, type of food you’d be enjoying, and whether you would be alone or with others.

Think about how you eat your meals now. Now write down some things that you can do to make your day-to-day eating experiences more enjoyable.

__________________________________________________________

Esther Kane, MSW, RCC relocated to the Comox Valley over two years ago from Vancouver. She is in full-time private practise as a psychotherapist in Courtenay. Esther has over a decade of experience counselling women and their loved ones with a multitude of presenting problems. Her main focus is helping women to become free of barriers which keep them stuck so that they can become all that they dream of being. You can learn more about Esther on her website www.estherkane.com.

This article was originally posted on www.estherkane.com. It is reposted with the author’s permission.

The irony in my resisting a positive lifestyle change is that when it comes to diet and health, I’ve been been making poor lifestyle decisions for much of my adult life. By not taking my health and well being into my own hands, that’s exactly what I’ve been doing – committing to a lifestyle – but a bad one. Why is it easier committing to doing bad for the rest of your life than committing to doing good? Maybe some of you who are wiser can shed some light on that for the rest of us. In the meantime, I’m beginning my work on doing the right thing.

For me, the right thing looks like reducing the amount of animal protein in my diet. It’s committing to buying and preparing only ethically raised meat and poultry when I do consume animal protein. And I’ve also decided to stick to a reduced monthly grocery budget. Having done it over the past month I’ve realized that I waste a lot less food and take less for granted. Another step in the right direction is returning to a time when I always gave thanks for my food. At the dinner table when we were growing up, my father would ask God to “bless this food to our bodies, and our bodies to your service.” It was a simple but powerful prayer, one that I’ve gotten away from saying as an adult.

So as I begin the process of permanently folding my new lifestyle changes into my daily life, I keep reminding myself that success in the long run comes, as with everything else in life, one day at a time. I don’t have to think about being healthy and living healthy for the next (hopefully) 50 years, I just have to make those little decisions today that add up to making the day a good one. Then repeat, one day at a time.

For the past 3 weeks I’ve been able to buy healthy, whole, unprocessed foods, on a budget of approximately $25 a week. I promised to make my eating more about health and wholeness and less about carbs and calorie counting and I did. And, miracle of miracles, I have not stepped on the scale once in the past month. Was it a piece of cake? No. But it wasn’t that hard either. As is the case with most life challenges we undertake, I’ve discovered a few things along the way.

• For one, I’m very fortunate to live within a few miles of a farmers market, Trader Joe’s and a vegetarian food co-op. I’m very aware that being in close proximity to these places makes healthier, conscious eating, much easier. That realization is helping me not to take that fact for granted.
• Putting limitations on how much and what I could eat, made me much less wasteful and much more thankful.  I realized that, when it comes to food anyway, I’ve been confusing my needs with my wants for years. My “little” $25 budget is how millions of people live out of necessity every day. In fact, in most of the world, $25 a week for food is a luxury. Putting myself on a budget reminded me of just how blessed I am in that I have access to three squares and clean drinking water every single day.
• From as far back as I can remember I’ve allowed an over-emphasis on what and how much I’m eating to control my life. Calorie counts and fat content have become more important to me than where my food is coming from and what impact it will have on my health and the environment. At 39 1/2, if I don’t get a grip on that now, who knows when I ever will. Last week when I demolished those chicken thighs with 5 days left in the week, I was forced to sit with the fact that I do not manage food the way most people do. Getting a grip on what I should and shouldn’t do when it comes to food is key in my quest to be fit at 40.

The experiment might be winding down, but my revised way of thinking about eating healthier and more consciously is just beginning. At the end of the week I’ll update you on how my last week went and I’ll share my plans for moving forward.

If you’re involved in your own Fit at Forty challenge and would like to share it with our readers, send your story to contribute@womenatforty.com.

On Wednesday morning as I sat down to eat yet another bowl of oatmeal, I thought, “I can NOTeat another bowl of oatmeal.” You see, sadly, unlike my longstanding relationship with chicken, I have no addiction to, or affinity for, oatmeal. Especially when it’s not drowning in brown sugar, cinnamon or the fake little chunks of apple or peach they add to those handy pre-packaged individual-serving size- bags.  No, now that I’m getting my oatmeal au naturale, it’s become an acquired taste I have yet to acquire. But the sweet potato, that was something I could work with, and work with it I did. A little bit of seasoning and a pat of butter, and that little root vegetable became the highlight of my chickenless-by my own doing-beanfilled week.

Next week, I’m putting off the grocery shopping until Monday and preparing my meals (at least the ones involving chicken) on a daily basis in the hopes of keeping the I-must-eat-all-this-chicken-at-once monster at bay. Wish me luck!

Image source: Ehow.com

Grace is a blogger and Women at Forty’s Senior Editor. She shares her weight loss challenges and experiences weekly in our Health & Beauty – Fit at Forty section.

The easiest way to explain my obsession affinity for chicken is to quote my (vegetarian) sister, “It’s in your system.” I like it stir fried, baked, stuffed, grilled, stewed, curried, browned…basically, if you cook it, I’ll eat it. You know how they talk about people being carbohydrate addicts, why don’t they ever mention the protein addicts? I know they exist because I am one. I went years without eating red meat, and could live without it now. The same goes for most other meat, but anyone who knows me knows how much I enjoy cooking and eating chicken. So when I baked my six very small chicken thighs (did I mention they were very small) and told myself they’d last the entire week, not even the dog believed me.

If you do the math you’ll see that if you eat two thighs per serving for both lunch and dinner you’ll have chicken for exactly a day and half. Which brings me to this week’s lessons:

Lesson number one – The next time I blow a considerable percentage of my meager $25 budget on free range chicken (my total for this week was $25.67) I’ll cut it up into bite sized pieces the way it’s done in many Asian dishes. That will stretch it over a longer period of time. Hopefully.

Lesson number two – Know your weakness, be honest about it and plan for it. Superman has his Kryptonite, I have my chicken. Next time I’ll only cook an individual serving at a time because as much as I love chicken, I’m not eating it raw and no matter how much I’m fiending for it, I won’t cook a batch up at midnight.

Lesson number three – if you eat all the good stuff at once, you’re back to beans for the rest of the week. Chick peas anyone?

The other thing I realized during this week’s grocery run was how much force feeding and injecting chickens fatten them up! It’s pretty shocking when you think about it. The free range chicken wasn’t nearly as large as the other chicken. And has anyone noticed that chicken just doesn’t taste the way it used to – specifically the fast food kind? Are our taste buds maturing as we get older or is the chicken just not cutting it anymore? Anyway, I’ll be back at the end of the week for an update on the now chicken-less remainder of my week. Bon Appétit!

Grace is a blogger and Women at Forty ‘s Senior Editor. She shares her weight loss challenges and experiences weekly in our Health & Beauty – Fit at Forty section.

The bubbly stomach and a little bit of boredom have been the main downsides to my challenge so far. There have been evenings when unable to eat everything in sight (because I’d have nothing left to eat for the rest of the week) I’ve been forced to figure out what’s driving my desire to snack incessantly instead of taking the easy way out and giving in to the urges. The process sometimes leaves me frustrated and angry, but having to work through those feelings have been a step in the right direction.

The positives of the challenge have been plentiful. I’ve found it pretty easy to stay within my budget even with the meat purchase. And forcing myself to stay within my $25 budget has reminded me to use what I have and use it wisely. For the past two weeks I haven’t had to don a gas mask and discard fermenting fruit and vegetables from my refrigerator, having eaten what I’ve bought with little to no waste. I’m also cooking more and planning meals more efficiently as a result of the challenge. I’ve even got my dog eating a bit healthier by preparing some of his food from scratch and buying dog treats without artificial ingredients. Side note – he too was grateful I gave the beans a rest this week.

I’m looking forward to next week’s trip to the farmers market. I’m surprised at how excited I get about shopping with a purpose and on a budget. Halfway through the challenge and I’m thinking that this might be a change I want to make for the long term. See you Monday for the next update!

Share your thoughts on  being Fit at Forty in the comment section or on our Facebook Fan page.

Grace is a blogger and Women at Forty editor who lives outside of Atlanta, GA. She shares her weight loss challenges and experiences weekly in our Health & Beauty – Fit at Forty section.

I made a sort of vegetable-bean-beef stew thingy to stretch the meat over several meals and I still have tofu, beans and vegetables left from last week. Just two weeks in, I can see that the real challenge here is not staying within the $25 budget, but not getting bored with what I’ve been preparing. Another thing that’s becoming really clear is that packaged foods, even the ones that claim to be all natural, have so many added ingredients that it boggles the mind. While looking for plain old tortilla chips over the weekend I found only a couple of brands that had 5 ingredients or less. What’s all the other stuff for anyway? And does everything have to have artificial color – what color are tortilla chips supposed to be?

I’m also learning to eat and like what I have on hand. Remember as a kid when you used to eat what your mom made for dinner, or you didn’t eat at all? Somewhere along the way we started confusing our wants with our needs. I don’t know about you, but doing that has gotten me into trouble in the past. Learning to be content with what I have now, is the biggest lesson I’m learning from my little experiment.  On Friday I’ll let you know how long this contentment lasts. Bon Appetit!

Share your thoughts on  being Fit at Forty in the comment section or on our Facebook Fan page.

Grace is a blogger and Women at Forty editor who lives outside of Atlanta, GA. She shares her weight loss challenges and experiences weekly in our Health & Beauty – Fit at Forty section.