Page 8 March 27, 2014 TORRANCE TRIBUNE Seniors Stay Active as You Age (BPT) - Getting older can be a challenge. Staying on top of your health and fitness goals often becomes more difficult as you try to find enough time in the day to balance the schedules of work and life, and taking care of others. Improper nutrition, joint and muscle soreness and inactivity are additional challenges. Here are three simple tips to overcoming these challenges to continue living a healthy, active lifestyle. First, get proper nutrition. Erica Wasser, registered nutritionist and nutrition coach with Life Time - The Healthy Way of Life Company, notes that taking a multivitamin is one of the best things you can do for your overall nutrition. She also suggests limiting processed or packaged foods by making meals that will last. “Instead of cooking one chicken breast, cook three,” says Wasser. “Add one to a salad, eat one with a side of steamed vegetables and use the last in a sandwich or wrap.” Smart snacking is also important. Focus on items like Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, almonds, seeds, vegetables and hard boiled eggs and try to avoid granola bars and 100-calorie packs by prewashing and cutting vegetables and fruit and premixing bags of nuts and seeds. Settling on a routine of eating healthy, nutritious and protein-based meals and snacks will keep your energy up and your diet balanced for a healthy, fit life. Second, take notice of what your body is telling you. Are your joints sore? Does your back hurt from sitting in a chair most of the day? If so, choose exercises that will keep you fit while minimizing the impact on your joints or back and improving muscle strength and stamina. Check out the local community pool, or stop by a fitness facility with pools to see what type of aqua instruction they offer. “At Life Time, we offer aqua aerobics classes that focus on non-weight bearing cardio components and stretching,” says Wasser. “The buoyancy of water helps take pressure off joints and allows everyone to get a great, total body workout.” Wasser adds that yoga, mat Pilates and reformer Pilates can stretch your body, reducing back pain and limiting stress on joints under certain practices. Simple chair or balance ball exercises will also help build core muscle strength and stamina without taxing your body. Consider these exercises: • Sit with good posture and lift your arms above your head, at a 12 o’clock position. Visualize a clock and gently circle your arms clockwise until they reach the 12 o’clock position again. Reverse the movement. Add soup cans or hand weights for difficulty. Repeat eight times. • Sit with good posture and tuck your elbows into your sides holding your forearms and hands out at a 90 degree angle. Slowly rotate your torso to the side as far as you comfortably can, making sure to keep the rest of your body stationary. Rotate back to center and repeat to the other side. Add soup cans or hand weights for difficulty. Repeat eight times • Sit with good posture and your feet planted shoulder width apart. Slowly raise one leg up as far as you can comfortably go, or parallel to the floor. Hold for three seconds and slowly return to starting position. Alternate legs, repeating eight times for each leg If you’re used to a more active lifestyle, keep it up. Make sure you’re taking the proper supplements to help your body recover quickly keep adding intensity to your workouts so they don’t become stale. Third, conquer the inactivity battle. Don’t confine yourself to your home after a long day. Go to a local mall and window shop or people watch with friends. Join a local exercise class or start a walking and talking group in your neighborhood. “It’s important to remember that being active doesn’t have to mean completing a total body workout,” says Wasser. “Anything that gets you up and moving can significantly add to your health and fitness as you get older.” Wasser also suggests scheduling and setting up daily or weekly activities to ensure you’re held accountable. • TerriAnn in Torrance from front page brings a diverse view to the team. Jeff Gibson, Director of the Community Development Department, explained, “It is an interdepartmental effort.” Fran also told me that oftentimes businesses will invite the team to tour their company. Most businesses and corporations are pleased to be in Torrance and want to be part of the community. It is this spirit that Fran Fulton sought to honor. “When I first came in the office, I knew that other cities had a business recognition program,” said Fran. “One I had been to a lot was Carson. Carson, with the city and their chamber partnered together to have an annual recognition and I thought, ‘What a great idea!’ We have so many great companies in Torrance and businesses that are doing their business and this would be a great way for the City to thank businesses and recognize them for being in Torrance, remaining in Torrance, and for all they contribute to the community.” From that idea, Fran created the Torrance Advantage Awards. She turned to her colleagues on the board and together they closely aligned the awards with the Economic Development Plan of the City and the four categories they created reflect that plan. “We determined from the very beginning we wanted to recognize both a small and a large business in each of those categories and try to make it diverse,” added Fran. So for seven years, the awards have been held in various places of business in Torrance. The Torrance Marriott, The Doubletree Hotel, The Miyako Hybrid Hotel, Downtown Torrance, and The Toyota Museum have all hosted the awards in the past. This year, the event was held at Pacific Skies Aviation, a flight school located at the Torrance Airport. Food was catered by Grandma’s House Catering (510-520-3437), located in Torrance. Owners Mario and Rhonda Johnson specialize in Texas/Oklahoma barbeque using original recipes from Mario’s grandma Cora. Yum. Check out www.grandmashousecatering. com. Dessert of yummy cupcakes was served by BabyCakes Bakery, owned by Khryste Langlais and also located in Torrance. The winners are chosen from the applications submitted to the Economic Development Team and they thoroughly go over them and make all decisions. Some businesses are so busy that they are not aware of the awards. For this reason, the Economic Development Team reaches out to the citizens of Torrance. Do you know a company or business worthy of recognition? Step out and tell them about the awards and invite them to submit an application. Or take them an application. How do businesses get nominated and who can nominate a business? According to Fran, any business may be nominated by anyone. To nominate a business, all you have to do is either contact Fran at 310-618-5807 or access www.TorranceAdvantageAwards@ TorranceCA.Gov. So for next year, think about what businesses around town you think are great. Frankly, after speaking with Fran, I began thinking of businesses I think are super and deserve to be recognized. Fran Fulton came to California from Baltimore, Maryland in 1992 while working for a general contracting company in H.R. doing payroll and benefits. She had friends living in Hermosa Beach and realized she loved the area--so when she could, she moved from Maryland to California permanently. She told me, “I packed up a U-Haul, my cats and all my worldly possessions and moved out here…got a job, a car…I just figured if I don’t do it now – what if? I had gone to San Diego on vacation and loved California. When I was a kid my dad went to a program at Stanford for a year, so we drove all over- -so I had my taste of California.” Fran met her husband Paul in California and they live with their two sons, Nathaniel, age 10, and Nicholas, age five, in the South Bay. “They were both born at Torrance Memorial, so they are Torrance natives,” said Fran. I asked Fran if she likes her job and she immediately told me, “I love my job…for the most part it is the people. We are all here to support each other and we all do work together to get the job done. And we want to put a good foot forward. We want it [Torrance] to be a good place. I am proud of working here.” Actually, I can understand that completely because Fran’s job is exciting. She visits all sorts of businesses in the city and now wants the community to know there is a program to honor any business in Torrance. Get out there and nominate your favorite business! Or, if you are a business that would like a visit from the Economic Development Team, or if you would like to sponsor the awards event in your venue, simple call Fran Fulton at 310-618-5807. Applications are accepted all year and traditionally the awards are given out the third Thursday in March. Who knew the City of Torrance honored its businesses? This is just one more example of how our “balanced” city reaches out to everyone making business part of the community and the community aware of business. No one does it like the City of Torrance. So pay attention to all the businesses around you, large and small, and nominate your favorites for a Torrance Advantage Award. • Long Term Investor Awards winner Robert Molina, owner of Vogue Shoe & Luggage Repair. Khryste Langlais, owner of Babycakes Bakery, with Steven Griswold, owner of Griswold and Griswold Insurance. Photos by Terri Ann Ferren. Fran Fulton, creator of the Torrance Advantage Awards.
Torrance 03_27_14
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