WALK THIS WAY!

An article in yesterday's Dallas Morning News stated that the U.S. obesity rate is much higher than Canada's. How we eat and move factors into how healthy and fit we are.

If one is over-weight, the prospect of beginning an exercise program can be daunting. One of the best forms of exercise is one of the simplest: walking!

"Epidemiologic studies have provided strong evidence that sedentary (activities) such

as prolonged TV watching is an important risk factor for obesity and type 2 diabetes,

whereas increasing physical activity including brisk walking is associated with weight

maintenance and a lower risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes."

Diet and Physical Activity in the Prevention of Obesity

by Frank B. Hu

GET AND STAY ACTIVE. Adding a 30-minute brisk walk four days a week can almost double your rate of weight loss. You can still get benefits from exercise, even if you break it into several short sessions, such as 10 minutes, three times a day. (This is from Mayo Clinic Women's HealthSource, Special Report: Weight Control) In addition, exercise is one of the most effective ways to preserve and protect your joints.

"Walking is one of your best bets for a starter aerobic exercise."

Mayo Clinic Women's HealthSource, Special Report: Joint Health

EXERCISE BOOSTS BRAIN POWER, according to The Research Report, New Medical Findings, in The Wall Street Journal, 2-22-11:

"A growing body of evidence has pointed to aerobic exercise as a low-cost hedge against

neurocognitive decline."

This means that a walking program can effect the size of the hippocampus by 2% in a year, so walking improves memory!

Walking is one of the seven primal movement patterns; it is an exercise anyone can do without thinking. This allows the walker to access the mind...creating, problem solving, planning, and thinking while walking.

Walking calms the nervous system, strengthens bone density as you work against gravity (weight bearing exercise), and consumes more METs than lower-intensity activities such as Yoga.

Walking requires no fancy equipment...everyone knows how to walk...the exercise is an close as your front door...outdoor exposure to sunlight creates crucial Vitamin D supplementation...and has social benefits, if done with others.

Legacy Performance Center has a "Walk this Way!" program Wednesday evenings at 6:00 PM and Friday mornings at 10:30 AM, beginning April 6th. Join us and get healthy.

WELLNESS STARTS HERE!

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BEE-ing

What a treat to have Brandon Pollard, co-founder of Texas Honeybee Guild at The Legacy Performance Center last night!

Brandon was drafted by the MLS in 1996, right out of college, coming to Dallas to play for the Burn. He was at the Atlanta Olympics. He retired from soccer early: perhaps because he began to have close encounters with bees in his apartment. For days on end, one summer, they started to swarm into his open kitchen window! These experiences were not menacing. Rather, Brandon took it as a sign to which he was supposed to pay attention.

So, ten years ago, he became a Bee Wrangler!

His knowledge is phenomenal and his passion makes you want to sign up for an Adopt-A-Hive program, praying you will pass the vetting process and have the privilege of a hive to tend and watch over.

As an Urban Beekeeper, Brandon, his wife Susan, and all other urban beekeepers face a real challenge as they care for and rescue hives in a city environment. Sometimes, the safest place to tend a hive is on a rooftop somewhere. One of the roofs with the most cache is the Rose Garden on top of The Fairmount Hotel in downtown Dallas. Every week, Brandon and Susan can be seen ministering to the Fairmount Bees! For Brandon, this is such a juxtaposition of sensations: hearing the noisy traffic below, being dwarfed by the skyscrapers all around him, and reveling in the utter peace and beauty of a rose garden filled with his charges.

The more I learn about these miracles of Nature's engineering, the more I love bees! Truly, this critter that only lives for 40 days is a marvel of work ethic coupled with the aesthetic of a remarkable adaptation and co-existence with the environment.

In a Chinese experiment, it took 50 workers to pollinate what one bee would normally do and in less the time! One bee, living those short 40 days, spends her entire life making only 1/12th teaspoon of honey! Bees fly three to five miles from the hive in search of pollen to bring back! Bees can detach their wings during winter cold snaps, while tensing their muscles as a means of generating heat for the brood! Honeycombs within the hive are of different dimensions and the Queen uses her front four legs to measure each comb so she will know whether to lay a drone (male) egg or a worker (female) egg in each! She is able to lay a fertilized egg for either sex based upon the size of the empty comb! After sex with a Queen, the drones' insides rupture and they die instantly! After stinging someone, a bee disembowels itself when it pulls the stinger out of the person, thereby giving its life to save the hive if it is in danger! Bees communicate by doing a "waggle dance", which tells the others where the nectar is located!

Bees are for modern times what the canary was in the coal mines decades ago. They have much to tell us, but I fear we are not listening...GMOs, chemical treatment of soil and crops, pesticides...if it isn't good for the hive, it is not good for the people who benefit from the work the hive does on our behalf. Over 90 species of food crops depend upon the honeybee for pollination. Let's not wait to act until the shelves of our food stores are empty.

For more information on Brandon Pollard and the work he does email

texashoneybeeguild@yahoo.com

214-826-8696

Texas Honeybee Guild

Susan and Brandon Pollard

Urban Beewranglers

Bee Rescue and Relocation

Educational Outreach

Community Gardens

BEEscapes

Zip Code Honey may be purchased at Dallas Farmer's Market Friday-Sunday

"Instead of dirt and poison, we have chosen to fill our hives with honey and wax: thus furnishing mankind with the two noblest of things, which are sweetness and light."

Jonathan Swift