Walking Towards Health

While I’m at a conference looking at how we can use the internet for the better, in Toronto there’s a conference on how to use public space for the better called Walk 21. The Toronto magazine Spacing has been blogging about it on their site and I particularly like their recent post on how walking improves health and mental well-being.

“I was also particularly struck by their awareness that walking is important for sustaining good mental as well as physical health. It was a message conveyed in a plenary session in the morning by Nova Scotia researcher Catherine O’Brien, but in Canada this concept is still in its initial stages, and public health departments are only just beginning to realize that maintaining good mental health can be as important as maintaining good physical health. Apparently they are way ahead of us in Australia. For example, VicHealth funds public art projects in low-income areas that will draw people into public space, to enhance mental well-being.”

Proper Back Stabbing Healthy

A recent study has looked at the effect of acupuncture treatments compared to more “conventional” treatments for lower back pain and have concluded that acupuncture is better. The German researchers split participants into many different groups receiving differnt kinds of treatment and those who received acupuncture got better results.

“The superiority of both forms of acupuncture suggests a common underlying mechanism that may act on pain generation, transmission of pain signals or processing of pain signals by the central nervous system and that is stronger than the action mechanism of conventional therapy,” the authors conclude.

Shop on the Fringe and be Healthy

Shopping on the periphery of grocery stores ensures that you’ll purchase healthier food than if you were to go down ever aisle. Life Hacker agrees with shopping outside the aisle.

That’s where all the fresh foods are. The less you find yourself in the central aisles of the grocery store, the healthier your shopping trip will be. Make it a habit–work the perimeter of the store for the bulk of your groceries, then dip into the aisles for staples that you know you need.

All Recipes has a list of ten ways that will help in your regular food shopping including buying organic and shopping on a full stomach.

Eat good to stay good 🙂

Hope Cube

Sometimes all someone needs is a little hope. After seeing people loose hope in their struggles with cancer, poor health, or addictions George Ruann decided to do something about it.

Hope Cube is the result. It’s a social networking site for people who need support in their lives to tackle some difficult aspects of living. You can even ask open-ended questions to the community to solicit support and knowledge.

Easily get Inspired to Make Change

Previously I’ve posted about getting into the action habit and hopefully everyone is now action-orientated. I’m still trying to get into the habit. To help me get into that good habit I should be eating 11 foods that will kick start my day in the right mood, but I’m vegetarian which cuts some foods from that list. So it goes.

If you’re in a slump there’s no reason to fret as there are 16 things you can do to “get off your butt”!

Even the most motivated of us — you, me, Tony Robbins — can feel unmotivated at times. In fact, sometimes we get into such a slump that even thinking about making positive changes seems too difficult.

But it’s not hopeless: with some small steps, baby ones in fact, you can get started down the road to positive change.

Yes, I know, it seems impossible at times. You don’t feel like doing anything. I’ve been there, and in fact I still feel that way from time to time. You’re not alone. But I’ve learned a few ways to break out of a slump, and we’ll take a look at those today.