Supplement to Gold Country Media Healthy Living 2015 1
A Gold Country Media Publication
Friday, January 30, 2015
Super WomanLocal teacher competesin Spartan Race
Supplement to
• Celebrate your Heart• Meeting long-term diet goals• Snuff out addiction
Inside:
2 Healthy Living 2015 Supplement to Gold Country Media
Supplement to Gold Country Media Healthy Living 2015 3
By Ike Dodsonof the Auburn Journal
Auburn’s Nichole Root is a daytime super-hero.
The founder of Lolli Totts Preschool flies over fire, plods through lakes of mud
and scales 10-foot walls, monkey bars and ropes like a ninja.
She doesn’t wear a cape or hide her face, but not everyone can finish a Spartan Race — it takes a super human.
Root, a 1997 graduate of Colfax High, competed in the SoCal Spartan “Super” Race Saturday in Te-mecula, her third Spartan Race in just eight days.
It’s maddening, and even worse… “It’s absolute-ly horrible,” Root said with a laugh Monday. “No, really, it’s a lot of fun, but it pushes you.”
No kidding.On Jan. 17, Root finished the Spartan “Beast”
course featuring more than 25 obstacles across over 12 miles in just 2 hours and 47 minutes. She was fifth among 903 female racers, second in the 35-39 age group.
A day later, she crossed the muddy three-mile course of the Spartan “Sprint” despite 15 obstacles. She ended in 11th place overall with a 1:12.49 time.
Saturday’s “Super” surpassed eight miles of a Spartan battlefield with a ridiculous terrain, intense physical challenges and 20 obstacles.
These obstacles are no joke.Between the walls, ropes, mud pits, buckets of
Auburn preschool teacher competes in the grueling Spartan Race
gravel to hoist, jumps, tires, and even spear toss-ing, it’s a nightmare, but the competitors can’t get enough.
“It’s very hard, but fun, and just knowing that you did it is amazing,” Root said. “Everybody who runs Spartan Races is really nice, and they encourage you, people being active in all shapes and sizes just enjoying fitness and helping each other.”
Root played soccer in high school, but soon after gave birth to her oldest daughter, Naomi, who runs track and cross country for Placer High. Naomi is already a talented athlete, and does distance run-ning with her mom. Both participated in the 10-mile Auburn Resolution Run this month.
The two also run alongside Nichole’s husband, Robert, also a Colfax graduate and Spartan Runner. The couple are two of several area athletes to com-pete in Spartan Races.
Nichole is one of the fastest, and she makes for quite the inspiration for area preschoolers.
“I love it,” Nichole said of being a preschool teacher. “Little people are so much more fun than adults to work with.
“I get to play in high heels and glitter, nail polish and they treat me like a super star now that I do Spartan Races.”
Nichole admits the challenges are tremendous, but she’s found serenity in the reward, even if her costume is always getting muddy.
Email Ike Dodson at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter, @Ike_Dodson.
SUPER WOMAN
4 Healthy Living 2015 Supplement to Gold Country Media
Paula Hendricks, Fresh View
From laughter, walks in the park, love and chocolate, February is the official month for celebrating
American Heart Health and that very special day, Valentine’s Day.
Celebrate your heart today and every day with the following tips:
Your heart loves a good belly laugh.
Laughter is great medicine by helping to reduce stress, improve oxygen flow to the heart. It even helps burn a few calories. Watch a funny movie and see how you feel afterward. Your heart will thank you.
Exercise your heart with both slow and vigorous activities.
Exercise promotes a healthier resting heart rate and burns excess stored fat from the body, which in
turn will improve the heart’s circu-latory capabilities.
Get your heart pumping and it will help keep you moving for the long haul.
Good nutrition is cardio-protec-tive.
Eating heart healthy foods will promote longevity in life and mini-mize illnesses.
The heart benefits from consum-ing foods rich in omega-3 fats (wild salmon and walnuts) and foods rich in CoQ10, a heart healthy antioxi-dant, (broccoli and oranges).
Enjoy a small dose of antiox-idant rich dark chocolate this month as well. Your heart will soar with love.
Practice stress-free living. You know the often-quoted
phrase “stop and smell the roses?”It is a known fact that enjoying
nature, the sunshine and fresh air
are stress-relieving activities that help reduce blood pressure and benefit your heart long-term.
So does a good night’s sleep. Don’t skimp on these important
heart healthy activities. Your heart beats nonstop; it deserves a stress-free break from the daily grind.
Bring on the love. Spending time with others, en-
joying friendships, and playing with the kids and pets are great oppor-tunities to emotionally connect and that is good for the heart.
Schedule outings with friends, romantic candlelit dinners with your someone special, and walks with your pup. Enjoy a romantic comedy movie with your bestie this Valentine’s Day.
When you feel love, your heart celebrates. It doesn’t get any bet-ter than that.
Here’s how to celebrate your heart
Paula Hendricks
Supplement to Gold Country Media Healthy Living 2015 5
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6 Healthy Living 2015 Supplement to Gold Country Media
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Make a Serious Commitment to a Serious Change! We’ve Got Your Back!
The biggest hurdles to sticking to a new diet are convenience and flavor. Who wants to eat food that doesn’t taste good or is hard to make? You and your
family are more likely to stick to your commitments if the changes you make suit your schedule and your palate.
Here are three easy changes you can make to your diet today:
Hydrate YourselfWater reigns supreme as the health drink of choice among nutritionists and
dieticians. Most diet plans include the following crucial advice: Stay hydrated, but avoid sugary beverages.
In addition to all of the critical functions water performs in your body, staying hydrated will help you feel fuller so you eat less over the course of the day.
But water doesn’t have to be tasteless to bestow benefits. There are many virtually calorie-free ways to dress up water and add a hint of nutritional value: Add slices of strawberry or cucumber, wedges of lemon, lime or orange, chunks of watermelon or several sprigs of fresh mint or basil. Refrigerate until you’re ready to drink. Or get hydrated with green tea, which is loaded with antioxi-dants.
Snack on Bold FlavorsWhether you’re on the go or at home, snack time can be a dieter’s downfall.
Rather than buying full-sized bags of high-fat snacks like chips, which are easy
Three easy changes you can make today to meet your long-term diet goals
to binge on, opt for single-serving snacks that are wholesome and full of flavor. For example, olives in ready-to-go cups are a fuss-free way to punch up the flavor profile of a meal or snack.
Single-serving black pitted olives in a cup can be just as satisfying as a serving of chips, but they’re gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free, cholesterol-free, trans-fat-free, GMO-free and vegan.
Make Friends with Fat
A major mistake many dieters make is trying to cut all of the fat from their diet. Fat is a neces-sary component of any healthy diet. Monounsaturated fat, polyunsaturated fat and Omega-3 fatty acids should comprise the majority of the fat you eat. Great sources of healthy fat include olive oil, salmon, tuna, avocado, olives, seeds and nuts. Olives and avocados are fruit, so they also boost your fruit intake.
Try tossing olives, canned tuna or avocados into a salad; sprinkle almonds or walnuts over oatmeal; swap commercially made salad dressings and marinades with good-quality olive oil and flavorful herbs and spices.
To make your commitment to healthy eating a long-lasting one, be sure the changes you make are sensible, sustainable and, above all, delicious.
Supplement to Gold Country Media Healthy Living 2015 7
By Deleste Magda of The Auburn Journal
The New Year and resolutions go hand in hand, and one of the big resolutions for many smokers is to finally give up cigarettes.Millions of Americans make the resolution to quit smoking; pharmacists and smoke shops can attest to this. Tucker Jacob, general manager of Gold Country Va-por at 175 Elm Avenue in Auburn, said he has seen an approximate 10 percent increase in new custom-ers during the first few weeks of the month.“It is the time of year for resolutions,” Jacob said. “We don’t sell any tobacco products and there has been a high spurt of customers for our vapor prod-ucts and electronic cigarettes.”He said smoking has evolved over the generations from a simple pipe tobacco habit to a multi-million dollar business where you can purchase a variety of flavors from local stores for electronic cigarettes. “People are no longer limited to only buying pack-ets or rolled tobacco products that do not have
Snuffing out addictionSmokers look to the New Year to kick habit and employ a variety of smoking cessation methods.
the best taste and having to deal with the effects,” Jacob said. “People are now able to modernize this long standing enjoyment with new equipment that puts them in the driver’s seat more than ever before and can help them kick the lethal habit.”According to the Center for Disease Control near-ly 48 million Americans aged 18 years and older smoke. Of these, fully 70 percent – nearly 34 million smokers—want to quit. This year 1.3 million of these smokers will quit successfully. Why do tens of millions want to quit but only a fraction actually succeeds? The answer is that most people just don’t know how to go about quitting.Charmaine Moller, a local Auburn pharmacist, said many talk to their doctor about quitting and explore the smoking cessation products available.“We have definitely seen an increase in Chantix,” Moller said. “It is a smoking cessation medicine used together with behavior modification and coun-seling support to help you stop smoking.”Barbette Sheperds, a life coach and owner of LifeSteps: Sheperds Counseling at 381A Nevada Street in Auburn, said it’s not easy to quit smoking
and studies have indicated that cigarettes are more addictive than heroin, and the first three weeks after you quit are said to be the most difficult, according to the American Cancer Society.“The more support we have the more likely we are to follow through with our resolutions,” Sheperds said. “If you stumble along the way to giving up smoking, don’t punish yourself -- just try again.”
8 Healthy Living 2015 Supplement to Gold Country Media
