It’s a beautiful, sunny day here in San Jose and I just finished cardio interval workout in my backyard. It was fun, simple and used only a jump rope, so I thought I’d share it with you.

I warmed up on my stationary bike inside my house for about 5 minutes, then grabbed my jump rope and some water and headed out the door. Here’s what I did:

Jump rope- 2 minutes
Body weight squats 45 seconds–rest 15 seconds
Jump rope- 2 minutes
Fast lateral shuffles * 45 seconds–rest 15 seconds
Jump rope- 2 minutes
Toe taps on my back porch step 45 seconds–rest 15 seconds
Jump rope- 2 minutes
Walking lunges 45 seconds–rest 15 seconds

* I shuffled laterally about 15 ft right then left as fast as I could
** These are fast alternating toe taps on a step–think of a soccer player tapping a soccer ball

I repeated this routine 2 times through, cooled down a bit and then stretched.

If you’re a beginner, simply shorten the jumping intervals as well as the calisthenic intervals.

I varied my jump style when I was jumping rope so that I didn’t get bored or jar my knees too much, and I drank water about every 5 minutes or so during the rest period. If you don’t have a jump rope, you can just do the jump roping movements without a rope, or jog/skip around your back yard. BTW: I highly recommend adding a jump rope to your exercise equipment arsenal. It’s a great cardio and bone building exercise! You can get inexpensive jump ropes at Perform Better.

This workout took me a little over 20 minutes from start to finish and the time just flew by! Changing your activity every few minutes (and varying the intensity) really helps make the time go by quickly AND you burn more calories than if you just hopped on a treadmill and walked at a moderate pace.

Make it a great day!

Yours in health,

Becky

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After my last post about Vitamin D, I received a comment from a reader that I wanted to share with you.

I don’t know how many of you click on the comments area, so I asked permission to re-print her comments here. Here is her story…

I had an experience with Vitamin D deficiency that I wanted to share with you. I was struggling to get my blood pressure under control. It was consistently too high in spite of eliminating salt, losing some weight and consistently exercising. My doctor tested me for Vitamin D deficiency and we found it was quite low. Four days after I started supplementing with Vitamin D-3, my blood pressure was in the normal range and consistently remains there without blood pressure medication. I was thrilled!

Debbie S.

Wow. Powerful stuff, huh?

Now, please don’t run out to your health food store and starting swallowing large amounts of Vitamin D supplements just yet. That’s not the point of my bringing this topic up. In fact, you need to be careful with Vitamin D, or any fat soluble vitamin for the matter, because ingesting too much could be harmful. Unlike water soluble vitamins which will be excreted in your urine if you ingest too much, excess fat soluble vitamins are stored in your body. So, you always want to be careful when adjusting your supplement intake. That is why I recommend you talk with your health care practictioner to see if adding additional Vitamin D to your supplement regimen makes sense. My point with this post and my previous post is simply to make you aware that there is research out there that is indicating additional Vitamin D may be beneficial. It’s a good conversation starter at your next check up!

So, to recap, these are the take home messages about Vitamin D:
-It’s hard to get enough from food.
-Current RDA for Vitamin D is 400 IU, but most experts are recommending it be raised to 1,000 IU.
-Research shows there are significant health benefits of Vitamin D supplementation in some populations.
-Many individuals may be deficient in Vitamin A and they don’t even know it. A simple blood test can detect whether you are.

Thanks again to Debbie S. for sharing her story!

Have a great weekend,

Becky

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I’ve been reading so much about this lately, that I think we’ll see a change in the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for Vitamin D within the next few years. Currently the RDA is set at 400 International Units (IU). This is probably the amount in your multivitamin. Some researchers are calling for the level to be increased to 1,000 IU.

Why? They’re finding that increasing blood levels of Vitamin D can have very positive health benefits. Boomers, take note, as many of the health benefits concern things that those of us “north of 40″ deal with!

More notable health benefits:

-Decreased discomfort in arthritic joints
-Better cognitive function
-Improved function of your immune systems
-Decreased risk for Type 2 diabetes
-Improved bone health
-Decreased risk for breast, colorectal and ovarian cancers

Studies suggest that up to 58% of us may be deficient in Vitamin D. How do you know if you’re deficient? Ask to be tested the next time you visit your health care practitioner.

It’s hard to get enough Vitamin D from food (often dairy and cereal products are fortified with it though). Your body can synthesize it’s own Vitamin D if you get enough exposure to sunlight, but that isn’t possible for all of us all year around. Supplements will most likely come into play for individuals wishing to increase blood levels of Vitamin D. Most researchers suggest supplementing in the form of Vitamin D3.

It’s never safe to add large doses of supplements without first consulting your doctor, but I’d recommend you do ask about whether supplementation would be beneficial for you at your next office visit. The benefits look mighty encouraging and well studied.

I’ve already talked to my internist and have started adding additional Vitamin D3 to my supplementation program.

Yours in health,

Becky

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