Indie actress Michelle Williams is spreading the gospel of yoga for stressed-out single mothers in need of a sanctuary where they can rest and rejuvenate.

The actress, who stars in the new film Blue Valentine, says that yoga helped her grieve the loss of Heath Ledger, the father of her daughter, Matilda, and gave her strength to be a single mother. As a result of her experiences, along with two local yoga teachers she’s launching a pilot program in Boston, called The Yoga for Single Moms Project. The Project offers childcare so moms can practice, and practical suggestions for a home practice specific to the needs of single mothers who just can’t get away. Want to know more?

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Whoa. Legs are tired and feeling weird. Leg days always take so much out of me. This workout asks for jumping lunges and squats but there was no jumping today. It was hard enough just doing regular lunges and squats with no weight.

• Bench Step-Up: 3 sets x 20 reps (per leg)
• Jumping Lunges: 3 sets x 20 reps (per leg)
• Jumping Squats: 2 sets x 20 reps
• Standing Calf Raise: 3 sets x 15 reps, 35#
• Seated Calf Raise: 3 sets x 20 reps

Cardio

• 5 minute cool down ~ legs were too messed up to even think about running today!

*I’ll be weighing in tomorrow to see if I’ve dropped any weight during the first 10 days of this workout program. I m

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I remember reading all kinds of diet books, from Zone-types of diet books which focus on good carbs and bad carbs, to vegetarian and vegan advocated books which encourage the overall higher consumption of any whole grain as long as it wasn’t an animal based product.

All of these books consistently recommended making slow cooked brown rice instead of instant brown rice.

They said that because the outer layers that contain a lot of the fiber and vitamins was usually stripped away on the fast cooking rice (which typically cooks in only minutes versus about a half hour or more), it was actually healthier to eat the slow cooked variety.

They also said that the slow cooked variety of brown rice was better because it had a lot less of an effect on the blood sugar than the “minute” rice variety. 

Of course, you sacrifice convenience for a healthier “slow burn” carb, but it would be well worth it as long  as one was much slower absorbing than the other.  When you are dieting or watching what you eat, it’s really important to eat foods that are slowly absorbing into the blood stream and affecting the blood sugar.

The reason is, they keep you fuller much longer.  That way, you don’t keep getting hungry after you eat, and you eat less. Feeling fuller lo

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It’s New Year’s resolutions time! Is there anything more inspiring to bring out the runner in you? But before you lace up your shoes and start ticking off the miles, plan to kick things off slowly if you haven’t been running lately. The road does not come without risks.

“Men tend to get injuries from overdoing it,” says former Olympic runner Jeff Galloway, a columnist for Runner’s World magazine and author of Women’s Complete Guide to Running, which he co-wrote with his wife, Barbara. “Women don’t push the envelope as much when they are starting out, but because they have lower bone density, they’re more prone to stress fractures.”

Anna Brickhouse, 42, has been running since she was a teenager.

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