It always takes me by surprise every year when I walk into the stores and see the Christmas decorations so early. The shelves are stocked even before Halloween comes around. But by middle of November as we approach Thanksgiving, it is a reminder that we’re getting into the thick of the Holiday season.

With this comes the inevitable stress of dealing with everything, especially in this weak economy. A good outlet for this stress is to take some time for yourself and exercise your body. This could be something as simple as going for a 10-minute walk. Of course, you can do a longer workout, especially if you’ve worked up to it. But just to keep it on the simple side makes it easier to get out there and do it.

After dinner, just put on a pair of walking shoes and get out there for a short walk. Do this a couple of times per week, or more, and it could easily turn into a habit. If you decide to upgrade your shoes to something more comfortable, or just need some new ones to walk or run in, consider the Nike Air Zoom Structure Triax. This is a nice, lightweight pair of shoes with good cushioning and flexibility. With everything going on in your life, you owe it to yourself to take a time out and get a little exercise in!

Are you gearing up for a 5K or 10K race? These are popular race distances to run since they are short and fast. And because the pace is going to be faster than that marathon you’ve been thinking about, it’s important to get some speedwork in your workouts.

Speedwork is important to add in to your workouts to increase your endurance and pace for that upcoming race. I like running to a local track on some workouts, which for me is less than 2 miles away. Once I’m on the track, I’ll run a small combination of 200s and 400s, then run back home.

If you don’t have access to a track, you can get the same benefit with different variations of speedwork. You can pick a starting point on your run, then pick up the pace for the next couple of minutes, then slow down again for a recovery. A variation of this would be to run faster up to certain location and commit yourself to that point without slowing down. If you’re able to time this split, then check it against the next time you run this same workout for comparison.

On Monday this week, I went in for my first echocardiogram, a test using ultrasound to check out the heart and diagnose any cardiovascular disease. This was a recommended test by my doctor when I saw him the week before.

The electrode sensors were attached to the chest which help to record the activity during the test.  The test itself can measure the size and shape of the heart as well as pumping capacity, among other measurements.

It was surely interesting to see the heart in motion on the video screen, watching the valves open and close with every beat.  It’s amazing to realize that the heart is continually in motion, efficiently pumping blood to the rest of the body and responding to any increases in activity, or exercise.  The doctor’s office called me back today, 2 days later telling me everything looks normal.  That’s great news!

This morning when the time came to have some cereal, I spotted an unfamiliar box among the collection of familiar favorites. Organic Weetabix was in the front, so I took it out and gave it a try. The colorful yellow package got my attention, but the cereal itself comes in large-size biscuits. Not the usual pouring of cereal in the bowl and having at it. Turns out, my son bought this box, something a little different from the other cereals.

I took out a biscuit, broke it up, added some milk and it turned out to be pretty good after all. These whole grain biscuits include fiber and wheat germ. Each one has only 1 gram of sugar, which is considered a half-serving. Of course you can add sugar, but I tried it without today. Weetabix was a nice, healthy start to my day today.

Pomegranates sure have come a long way just recently, When I was a kid, in the back of my yard was an old neglected pomegranate tree. We never watered it, but it usually had some fruit on it at any given time. It was never harvested by us to eat. Instead, we’d occasionally pick the fruit and use them for anything from one-time baseballs to exploding stain bombs. Just pulling one of these apart, taking the seeds between your fingers, and pinching the juice at your friends was part of the fun. It left a lasting impression in the form of a stain on your white t-shirt that was hard to get out.

But now, the pomegranate is in the spotlight with its various health benefits. In fact, it was ranked recently as one of the healthiest of fruit juices. This is in part to its excellent antioxidant properties; it has most of every type of antioxidant. It also plays a role in protecting against some cancers as well as being healthy for your heart. So, if you haven’t tried it, it’s time to give some pomegranate juice a shot!