Launched in Boulder, Colorado in January 2001, City Cliffs is the brainchild of Boulder resident Connie Hammis. Hammis recalls that she struggled through her own teen years, which included finding herself homeless in Denver at age 14 and briefly dropping out of high school before finding a job and re-enrolling. After a self-described “maze of self-destructive violent behavior and broken relationships” through high school and college, Hammis stumbled into the world of rock climbing, and therein found a supportive community of diverse individuals. She finished college, becoming an expert climber along the way, and then earned master’s degree in education from Harvard.

“(At Harvard,) I studied to understand and find a way to bring my expanded sense of family and community, which included the environment, to at-risk youths. Climbing is lauded for its empowering and team-building attributes, but there is much more to be gained by joining in the long-term relationships this sport can foster. This climbing program is the synthesis of that graduate work and my experience as a youth worker, an athlete and a friend,” explained Hammis.

As the executive director of City Cliffs, Hammis has created a program to help underprivileged and troubled youths have a better chance at excelling academically while also introducing them to the often prohibitively expensive sport of rock climbing.

“After-school activities reduce violence and provide healthy sources of connection. (And while) climbing challenges individuals both physically and mentally, and fosters healthy competition on all levels individually and in a team, our strongest goal (is) to improve academic performance,” said Hammis.

Accordingly, the program’s participants will spend half of their time after school rock climbing and half of their time in tutoring. In addition, they will participate in community service activities such as trail building. Through such projects, City Cliffs aims to cultivate participants’ appreciation of the desperate need to preserve Colorado’s natural environment. Participants are required to commit to the program for three years (through middle school). City Cliffs’ academic and program directors will meet with the participants’ parents and teachers in order to negotiate the commitment contract and to keep lines of communication open and clear.

“This program will be a model of educational, community, athletic and environmental collaborations,” Hammis noted. “Many programs have been designed to address grades, computer skills, gangs or athletics, but few combine these efforts to maximize resources and foster positive, peaceful relationships in ways that parallel the lives and needs of at-risk youths. City Cliffs balances the needs of participants by addressing all of these components in a challenging, fun, engaging way.”

Statistics show that programs such as City Cliffs are urgently needed in the Denver metro area and across the country. Twelve of Denver’s 21 public middle schools have standardized test score averages that fall below the 30th percentile nationally. In addition, many underserved populations struggle with providing adequate technical training for today’s business world, which requires computer literacy for success. Also lacking in such populations is contact with and meaningful relationships with adult role models who can help guide youths toward successful choices.

City Cliffs anticipates that it can help change these grim statistics. Goals for the program include a 95 percent participation rate, a one-quarter grade increase over the course of a year, improvement of reading and computer skills, and increased community awareness and concern. In its first year of operation, City Cliffs is already experiencing marked success, and financial backing is in place for dramatic program expansion in the near future.

Endurance athletes face an uphill battle in gaining weight. Performance requirements restrict them from doing so to any great degree. They may want to weigh more, but their coaches and teammates depend on them to win. There is generally perceived to be an inverse relationship between weight and proficiency in endurance activities.

Can an endurance athlete gain weight and still perform well? That depends on the athlete’s current physical condition, bone structure and what type of weight is gained. Gaining excess fat clearly has negative consequences for endurance.

Aerobic capacity is expressed as oxygen consumption per kilogram of bodyweight. Gaining fat will increase the requirement for oxygen without increasing the ability to utilize it. Excess fat produces no increase in the force that can be generated, but increases the workload.

Can an Endurance athlete be too thin? The answer is yes. The minimum healthy bodyfat for men is 3% and for women it is 12%. Below this level, negative health consequences may occur. Inadequate fat stores reduce the body’s ability to conserve heat and absorb shock. Sufficient fat is also important for hormone production, bone density and proper immune system function. Certain fats (omega 3’s), considered essential fatty acids (EFA’s), are required for proper brain and nervous system function and regulation of blood lipids, such as cholesterol and triglycerides. EFA’s may also help prevent breast cancer. In addition, vitamins A, D, E and K are fat-soluble, which means they are only able to be stored in the body fat. These vitamins essential to proper body functioning, Vitamins A and E are important anti-oxidants. These are especially important for endurance athletes who produce large amounts of free radicals during training. Vitamin D is important for strong bones and vitamin K is required for proper blood clotting.

Endurance athletes need to “strength endurance.” This is the ability to contract the muscles used in your sport repetitively for long periods of time with no diminution of force. That would result in a faster time even in marathon running or triathlons. A stronger athlete will do better on hills or against a headwind. They will also have an easier time if there is jostling in the pack during a race. If there is a close race at the end, the athlete who has a higher strength to weight ratio will be able to attain higher final speeds if all other factors are equal.

Making the choice about what weight to be at is not only dependent on what works best for performance, it also depends on the degree to which top performance is important to the individual athlete. Some people enjoy the competition, but are doing it for fun and for health.

Others may be using the competition as a way of conditioning as part of a larger plan for another sport or for his or her occupation. A police officer or professional boxer may run to develop endurance, but need more muscle to do his job. A weekend warrior type athlete may find his appearance and health more important than his competitive ranking. The build that does best for the sport may not be perceived as the most aesthetically pleasing by that person or by their significant other. A choice may need to be made about what is considered most important – aesthetics or performance.

TRAIN AND EAT TO GAIN MUSCLE, NOT FAT

Different types of activities make different demands on the body.
The body adapts by making changes to more easily accommodate that demand. The body uses different energy systems to fuel activities of different intensities. It is the intensity and duration of the activities that determines the type of training and caloric intake required for top performance.

High intensity exercise that lasts for 10 seconds or less, use Adenosine Tri Phosphate (ATP) as fuel. In that period of time, energy is produced when the bond between one phosphorus atom and the rest of the ATP is broken and energy is released. After 10 seconds, all the ATP has been used up and became ADP (Adenosine Di Phosphate). Taking Phosphorus from Creatine Phosphate regenerates the ATP. This is used up in about 30 seconds.

Events of sustained effort that last longer than 30 seconds require more energy than is available from the Creatine-ATP system. This type of activity generates more energy from a process known as anaerobic Glycolysis. Energy is produced from the breakdown of sugar molecules in a process that doesn’t use Oxygen. The sugar is found in the blood and a stored form of carbohydrate found in the muscles and liver called Glycogen. This type of metabolic process produces lactic acid, lowers the pH and produces large quantities of Carbon Dioxide. The result is breathlessness and a burning sensation in the muscles.

The longest burning energy source is the aerobic system, which breaks down fats and sugars in the presence of oxygen. That is a process that produces moderate amounts of energy for as long as the stores of fat and glycogen are available. The fat is burned systemically rather than locally, which is why spot-reduction of fat stores does not occur. In practice, the body usually uses more than one of these processes during exercise, the intensity of activity and the availability of the energy substrates being the trigger for the relative proportions of each energy source.

The more a particular energy system is used, the more the body creates adaptations to make those processes more efficient. Aerobic exercise stimulates and increases the body’s ability to deliver oxygen to the tissues. The more time an athlete spends exercising aerobically, the more the muscles become efficient at removing lactic acid. Athletes who train with short intense bursts of power develop a greater ability to store Creatine Phosphate in the muscles. That is why Creatine is a lot more effective in producing gains in strength and muscle size for people who do hard strength training and sprinting. The body will just excrete what it doesn’t need.

The muscles are made up of three types of fibers. Each fiber contracts either completely or not at all. The more fibers contract, more force is generated.

The first fibers to contract are known as slow-twitch or Type I fibers. These fibers do not contract very hard, but can continue contracting for long periods of time without fatigue. These muscles contain large quantities of Fat-burning enzymes and sub-cellular structures to use fat as fuel. They also don’t become much larger when trained.

Increases in cross-sectional area are the result of increased size and numbers of mitochondria, which are the powerhouses of the cell. Type IIb fibers are the last to contract when great amounts of force are required. The contract powerfully, but fatigue quickly and grow much thicker through increased contractile proteins when trained with very heavy weights. This type of fiber is lacking in fat-burning enzymes because they do not contract unless the intensity is very high. These types of fibers have a high concentration of glycolytic enzymes that produce energy from sugars.

Type IIa fibers are an intermediate type of fiber with qualities between the other two. They can actually convert to Type I fibers when subjected to extensive endurance training for long periods. Strength training for any athlete should include variability in the workloads used. Endurance athletes should primarily use lighter loads 50-70% of one rep maximum single, but should periodically work up to 80% or more for short periods. Endurance athletes will need to use higher intensities of weight training during the weight gain program and temporarily do less aerobic training.

Athletes in strength and power sports should primarily work at 70-90+% of one rep maximum single. However, they should also periodically use lighter loads for high reps to create variability so they can avoid stagnation. In addition, these athletes do need to include a moderate aerobic program to increase recovery ability and burn fat to prevent the wrong type of weight gain.

Athletes in sports requiring strength, speed, endurance and power such as Basketball players, martial artists, boxers, wrestlers and decathlon competitors need to develop all these aspects of athletic abilities and carve a nutritional path midway between the two extremes.

The type of program that would produce increases in the ability of the slow-twitch muscle fibers to contract repetitively for long period without reduction of force would use primarily high reps with lightweight. It is important to try to increase the weight while maintaining the number of repetitions. Some of the time each training year should be spent doing heavier weight and fewer repetitions, which increases overall strength. After that routine is finished and a higher repetition program is resumed, it will be with a higher weight than was used previously in those high rep sets. Varying the intensity in the program is important to avoid plateaus and over-training. In endurance training, only doing long slow distances will actually reduce your speed for races. High intensity techniques such as Interval training, Fartlek’s, sprints and Hill training should also be part of the program, to retain or increase speed in races. Comparisons of intensity in strength training are referred to by percentage of the weight the athlete can lift one time, which is known as the one repetition maximum. Intensity in running, swimming and cycling is measured by speed and percentage of maximum heart rate.

The differences in energy systems, used by the different sports have a profound influence on the percentage of fats, proteins and carbohydrates required. Athletes in endurance sports burn a higher number of calories in relation to body weight than strength and power athletes do and a higher percentage of these calories are fat calories. Strength training and training burns mostly carbohydrates. The overall calories may be higher for the strength and power athlete because they tend to be larger. Individualized eating programs are beyond the scope of this article. However, general guidelines can be presented. More specific information about calculating calorie expenditures can be found in Ultimate Sports Nutrition by Fred Hatfield Ph.D. Nutritional information about particular foods may be found in Dr. Art Ulene’s Nutrition Handbook. Dr. Ulene’s book also has nutritional software for sale to keep track of your eating program.

As indicated in the previous article, have bodyfat and girth measurements taken at the outset of any weight-gaining program. Try to do the program during the off-season of the sport, since it will be easier to do when fewer calories are burned. If there is no off-season, you may need to take a little time off to make the program work. Be sure to do strength training during the weight gain program and do no more aerobic exercise than is necessary for maintenance. The thinnest athletes may find this most critical. Always record all food and beverages you ingest each day. Recording this information will make it more likely to adhere to the program and let you know if you need to increase your food intake if weight is not being gained. Eat every 3-4 hours, but do not gorge yourself. Do not eat junk food to increase calories; it makes the system work harder. Eat a variety of nutritious, healthy food to assure enough fiber, vitamins and minerals are being eaten. Include low-fat high protein foods such as poultry, fish, and low-fat dairy products. Eggs are a good source of protein, but are high in cholesterol. You can eat one whole egg and the rest as egg whites. Eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables every day. Eat them either raw or cooked. Eat only whole grains, because refined flour and rice only provide starch, no fiber or little in the way of vitamins except those that they are “enriched” with. If you feel you need more fat in the diet, eat nuts. If you feel the need for “snack foods”, do it in moderation. You can also try dried fruits as a sweet snack. They have plenty of sugar and calories, but also have plenty of fiber and are actually more nutritious than fresh fruit. Weight gain drinks often have too much sugar or fat and may be too many calories to take in at once. Instead, you can make your own weight gain drinks using a low or non-fat protein powder, fresh fruit or fruit juice or milk or soy milk. If you have an especially high calorie requirement, add peanut butter or other nut butters, preferably non-sweetened. You can also add flax oil to your drinks.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is essential to understand your initial condition, what your goals are, and how to gain weight without sacrificing performance. Your nutritional program and exercise program must be designed to reach your goal without sacrificing your competitive edge or your health. Monitoring your progress and keeping track of your eating program will enable you to change the program if you find you are either a.) not gaining weight or b.) gaining too much fat.

# They feel they would look better and feel better weighing more. Also, in some sports, being large is considered an advantage. However, most people instinctively feel there is an inverse proportion between weight and speed. How the change in weight affects performance depends on many factors. Which sport does the athlete practice?

# What is the initial size and physical condition of the athlete?

# How much weight has been gained and how fast was it gained?

# How much of the increased weight is muscle and how much is fat?

# Did the athlete continue to practice his or her sport?

# Was strength training performed, if so was the program sport specific?

# Was endurance and flexibility training included in the program?

While all sports depend to some extent on delivery of force to an object, an opponent, the ground, or the weight of the athlete’s own body, some depend less on strength and power and more on speed, endurance or agility as determining factors of the winner. Sports such as the marathon, badminton, lawn bowling, Long distance swimming, tennis and archery are all considered events where size and strength are not a major factor. Indeed, many would argue that large size is a handicap in those sports rather than an asset.

Everyone has seen an athlete who had taken time off from training and ate or drank too much, gained weight and lost speed. People always attribute the decreased performance to the weight being gained. Actually the relationship between body weight (mass) and speed (velocity) is more complicated then that.
Decrements in performance can be related to decreased conditioning and strength, and inadequate practice of the skills of the sport. In this case, the weight gained was fat and the athlete had suspended the training program. Try to gain only muscle unless your bodyfat is very low.

The final speed attained by any object, expressed as vf, is dependent on its initial speed and direction (vi), acceleration, and how long the acceleration is applied (t = time), as expressed in the equation vf=vi + t(Dv/t) or as vf=vi + t(a). Acceleration (a), the increase in speed over time, is also expressed as Dv/t. Acceleration requires force to be applied to the object in the direction the object is desired to travel. F is the force applied to the object. The equation F = ma expresses the relationship between the force applied, the mass of the object and the acceleration. If one divides both sides of the equation by the mass, it is shown that, acceleration is equal to the force divided by the mass of the object (F/m = a). If the same amount of force is used on objects of unequal weight, the heavier object will have less acceleration. That is why an athlete who gains weight without gaining strength will experience less acceleration and have a slower final speed. It would seem obvious that more bodyweight results in less speed. However, if one could increase the force applied to a greater extent than the increase in weight, there would be an increase in speed.

In sports where collisions are part of the game, momentum will carry the day over pure speed. If M is momentum, m is mass and speed is v, than M = mv. As you can see, there are many variables in determining performance. Momentum also plays a part in the jostling that occurs under the net in basketball or in the pack during a marathon.

Finding Your Optimum Weight For Performance

The trick to finding the best weight for speed is strength to weight ratio. That is one reason many athletes endeavor to reduce their level of bodyfat. Fat is excess baggage that reduces speed and increases drag. However, losing too much weight, or losing it too fast results in loss of muscle mass, functional strength and speed.

However, if strength increased the same amount for every pound of muscle gained, and that strength increase could be converted directly to increased speed, the worlds’ best sprinters would all be very large and muscular. Anyone who has watched the Olympics can see that is not the case.

Is there a point of diminishing returns for strength gained versus the increase in muscle mass? Force needs to be applied where and when needed and in the amount required to optimally perform the function desired. Undirected force simply is wasted or even counterproductive. If the strength and flexibility of the muscles performing a function are out of balance with the muscles performing the opposite movements, injuries will occur. If the muscles that stabilize the body for a particular function can occur are weak, the strength is poorly translated into speed and is often misdirected. All strength training must take this into account. In addition, changes in body mechanics occur with increasing muscle size and at some point become less optimal. It is also important to continue practicing the skills of your sport when increasing strength and size so the neurological system can adapt to the changes.

What is the optimal amount of muscle mass for a given sport? That depends on the sport and on each individual athlete. Every sport has different requirements for strength, speed, endurance and coordination. In addition, each athlete has individual variations in the physical parameters that make up an athlete’s suitability for a particular athletic event. These include; height, body proportions, joint flexibility, joint stability, muscle fiber ratio’s, neuromuscular efficiency, insertion points for muscle attachment to the bones, lung capacity, body fat percentage just to name a few.

Weight Classes, Performance And Health

Some sports have weight classes or weight limits, such as boxing, wrestling, martial arts, and rowing (crew). For the most part, athletes strive to have a fairly low level of fat and high level of muscle, while making weight for these sports. Unfortunately, some athletes and coaches seem to believe that the lower the weight class, the greater will be the advantage for the athlete. Sometimes an athlete may be more effective in a higher weight class then they are currently competing in. At a certain point, too much muscle or water is lost and performance suffers. The proof of the suitability of a particular weight class for an individual is in comparing the performances and overall health between the different weight classes.

Even in Olympic Weightlifting and Powerlifting, there is a limit to the effectiveness of more muscle mass and more strength. At a certain point, going up another weight class will result in placing lower in competition, even though the athlete is lifting more weight.

Athletes will use extreme measures to gain weight or lose weight. Wrestling is notorious for fast weight loss using dietary and fluid restriction, diuretics, laxatives, saunas and “Sauna Suits”. On the other side, people trying to gain weight will overeat, restrict aerobic exercise and take Anabolic Steroids to gain weight. These practices can damage your health or even kill you. In the case of Steroid use, they are also illegal and will disqualify you from further competition.

In most non-weight class sports, the process is the same, although less formalized. These comparisons should also take into account any other variables such as differences in training, nutrition, stress and injuries.

A proper strength-training program is essential to most athletic pursuits and is especially important when gaining weight. Each sport places a different emphasis on strength, speed and endurance for particular areas of the body.

Excess muscle mass in areas not central to the functions of an athlete’s sport may reduce speed. The areas that require extra strength need to be trained harder than other areas, which should receive only enough work to enhance overall fitness improve balance.

Athletes in power and speed events need to produce more force per contraction and greater speed of contraction than endurance athletes do, but for shorter periods of time. The type of contractions and the period of time that must be performed in their event will determine what type of training should predominate.

Weightlifters, Track and Field Jumpers and throwers need to contract rapidly and powerfully, but only for a few seconds. However, the shot-putters and javelin throwers do not need to propel their own bodyweight, there is no weight limitation. The High Jumpers and long Jumpers need to find an optimum strength to weight ratio to achieve the best possible height or distance.

Short distance runners, swimmers and football players need to contract rapidly and powerfully repeatedly for less than one minute. Middle distance runners 400 to 1500 meters need to contract less rapidly, but for several minutes. Football lineman, Wrestlers and practitioners of Judo and Jiu-Jitsu need to contract both rapidly and maintain near static contractions for multiple bouts of time ranging from 10 seconds to 2 minutes.

to be continued…

First of all, obesity is not created equal. From the Leptin view point, there is obesity with increased and with decreased Leptin levels. The ones with increased Leptin level are associated with very low sensitivity to Leptin and they represent the majority of all cases. However, in 10 to 15% of all obesity, Leptin levels are below normal, for example, it is true for Pima Indians. So, no matter what the reason — low level or low sensitivity — when Leptin does not work properly, obesity occurs.

Weight loss, no matter what the reason, results in decrease of Leptin level : when obese individuals were reduced by 15% of their initial body weight, the serum Leptin level decreased by 50%.

This can be the reason why dramatic weight gain is inevitable after food restriction is over. That’s why many diets fail. It is interesting, by the way, that in anorectics Leptin level quickly increases during re-feeding, much faster than body weight recovery. Some think this might be the reason why successful rehabilitation is so difficult in anorectics: their bodies perceive higher Leptin levels as higher fat content and resist furtherfeeding.

Genetically caused Leptin insufficiency in humans is rare and leads to severe obesity. In the human gnome, the locus for Leptin is situated close to locus for red hairiness, and indeed, two obese red-haired subjects with mutation around the Leptin locus in the gene, have been described. Only this and a very few other cases of the identification of Leptin gene mutation in humans have been described so far.

Does this mean that Leptin therapy is only for those few or can it include the 5-10% of obesity with low circulating Leptin levels? It is not clear. There is hope that for those with a high level but low sensitivity to Leptin (this represents the majority), higher doses of exogenous — injected or infused — Leptin should do.

In 2008, the Nature journal reported about unpublished results of ongoing clinical trials. Under-skin injections of 0.3 mg of Leptin for every kg of body weight for 6 months resulted in 8 subjects’ weight loss that totaled an average of 7.1 kg (1.7 kg in placebo group). Sounds promising?

Not so fast. “Leptin may not be a miracle pill,” says Dr. JoAnn Manson, Harvard Medical School. Actually it is no pill at all (maybe not yet). One of the problems with Leptin is in the delivery method. Given once a day as an injection into the abdomen (intraperitoneal) it is generally ineffective. Subcutaneous permanent infusion as we had the chance to see, is more effective but much less feasible as you can imagine.

The most effective way is injecting Leptin directly into the fluid that circulates inside the brain and spinal cord (intracerebroventricular injection) though one will probably have to have a really good reason to commit to this kind of therapy since it means permanently having a tube injected between the vertebrae and penetrating nervous tissue to reach the internal duct.

Another problem is that over time, adults seem to lose their responsiveness to Leptin.

On the other hand, researchers are in the process of filing for a patent on the new, long-lived form of Leptin.

There is hope in the prospect of gene therapy that is just starting to be investigated in animals. This hopefully will repair mistakes in Leptin production. As to the reduced sensitivity, it is not completely clear yet how this problem can be approached, but Stanford medical school has recently reported that the newly identified protein may overcome Leptin resistance

However, all these theories are in the beginning stages. Who will be eligible? Is weight loss the goal or just the corresponding diseases (co-morbidities) are? One thing is clear. Do not expect your doctor to prescribe you a course of injections soon. Leave the bottle of supplemens called Leptin on the shelves. On the other hand, Leptin is so fashionable that I would not be surprised if supplement manufacturers fail to grasp the opportunity to exploit these circumstances. When you see anything claiming Leptin-like effects — do not believe your eyes! Not quite yet!

Note: Always check with a physician before treating your own ailments.

Aloe Vera
This is a succulent with thick fronds and is filled with a gelatinous substance that has analgesic (pain soothing) qualities. It helps heal burns, bee stings, and fly bites by taking the irritation and pain away.

Some naturopaths offer aloe vera in liquid form for relief of colitis, digestive problems or dyspepsia. A tablespoon or two every two to three hours is the recommended dosage. It has proven effective without the side effects of drugs or antacids which have a lot of aluminum in them.

Aloe vera juice or gel is considered safe and has no adverse effects.

THE CASTOR PLANT
Five drops of castor oil every morning is a natural treatment for allergies, rhinitis, bronchitis, bronchial asthma, and eczema. It can be taken by a dropper on the tongue followed by water, or added to juice. After 60 days, the treatment changes to a couple of times a week. Some alternative health professionals even use castor oil to bring down the swelling of sprains, and for tennis elbow.

The liquid is applied to the injured area. Plastic wrap covers this, and on top of that is a clean wrap to keep the oil in place.

CHAMOMILE
Many people know of the claming effects of chamomile tea. It is also helpful for cases of anxiety and insomnia. However, it is also effective as a foot soak for calluses. It can be used as a poultice to relieve aching muscles.

For common nausea, chamomile and peppermint tea is recommended.

CAYENNE
Got a cold? Try a half a lemon and a quarter teaspoonful of red cayenne in a cup of hot water. Add a spoonful of honey to sweeten it.

ONION POULTICE
If you bang yourself and have a black and blue bruise, an onion poultice might just be what you need. Crush the onion. Put it in a piece of cloth.

Apply this directly to the bruise and leave on overnight. This will reduce the hardness, pain, swelling and discoloration.

Important note:

As with all herbal and folk remedies, it is important to check with a medical doctor to make sure your symptoms are not for something more serious.

This information is provided as a resource and not meant to suggest they are a cure-all or to take the place of medical advice. Folk remedies can help, but if they keep someone from seeking treatment from a doctor, they can be life threatening.

Do you suffer heart palpitations? One doctor recommends placing an ice cube in the mouth. It should work within minutes. However, if the palpitations continue or are accompanied by chest pain, call for emergency help.

What’s so bad about stress? Stress makes us more alert, true. But it also means poor sleep, memory and concentration. It also results in the ’short fuse’ when dealing with friends and family. To help bring the equilibrium of stress and relaxation back to normal, try these tips:

Vitamin C helps support the adrenal glands and reduces the effects of chronic stress. Eat lots of uncooked fruits and vegetables such as kiwis, grapefruit, mangoes, broccoli, cabbage, beans and dark green leafy veggies.

The B vitamins are needed for calm nerves and mental stability. Avoid the insanity of an overwhelming schedule with whole grains like oatmeal and couscous, green vegetables, beans and seeds, fish, eggs, nuts and nutritional yeast. The good news is that these foods also make you feel full for a longer time, which means you’ll be less tempted to waste your bucks on junk.

Magnesium is the most critical mineral for coping with stresss. It’s important in a wide array of chemical reactions in the brain and for the immune system. The last thing you need in your studious life is to get sick, so fill up on watermelon, seafood, dark leafy green veggies, bananas, dates, figs, beans, buckwheat, oats, millet and organ meats. Constant stress depletes this mineral from your body and it’s easy to become deficient on a dorm food diet.

Calcium is a mild tranquilizer for the nervous system. Use stress to your advantage and build your bones and hair at the same time with milk, yogurt, lean meats, eggs, nuts, beans and seeds, seafood and dark leafy greens!

The things which help to set your body off balance include caffeine and alcohol. These also take the glow away from your skin, and drain away your B vitamins and calcium. If you need to stay awake to cram, how about a cold splash of water on the face or a bit of stretching to get the blood circulating instead?

Excess sugar gives you momentary energy, but it robs your body of B vitamins. It also brings mood swings, low blood sugar, and can make you feel restless, tired and depressed.

Too much salt in your Ramen noodles (more than 5 grams a day or 1 teaspon) can cause a sodium/potassium imbalance and stress your kidneys. Potassium is another mineral important to proper brain and nervous system function.

Stress doesn’t have to be a bad thing. A healthy attitude towards problems and avoiding last minute dashes for the assignment deadline will help decrease pimples and increase your academic grade anyhow, so eat up our tips for anti-anxiety!

Touted as the “hottest party” on BU’s campus, the Women’s Center got down and dirty with special guest Michele Carmody and her treasure chest of sex toys. What was the special occasion you ask? Why, come on—it was in celebration of “Masturbation Awareness Month!”

Students were encouraged to bring “alotta cash” for the plethora of “toys” that would be sold. And of course, they were expected to check their closed minds at the door. Sexual expression will have none of that.

For the faint at heart the University promised that it would closely “monitor the activities” and provided “participants with copies of New York state law regarding obscenity.” It expected the organizers to abide by the laws.

How can something so crude be so condoned? Free speech. “As a public university, Binghamton must abide by the federal and state laws regarding freedom of expression and speech as guaranteed under the United States Constitution, even though some members of the community may find these activities offensive and inappropriate,” in a statement from the University.

But Candace de Russy, a Trustee at the State University of New York has got a good point. “This is yet another sad example of vulgar and debased campus academic and moral standards. If Binghamton’s president is so concerned with rights of free speech, she should exercise her own such freedom and join me in criticizing this outrage.”

Yes, I’ve started to do homework again.

During his first week back to school this year, my Middle School aged son, who just officially became a teenager and promised me he wouldn’t become evil like his older brother, came home telling me his Language Arts teacher was teaching the class how to “Write Small”.

The first thing that went through my head was, “Oh, no, when ARE they going to stop with the Penmanship nonsense.” Having always had terrible handwriting, penmanship was always my downfall. To me, it was formula art. To me, good penmanship was not a measure of intelligence. It was just pretty. It was always hard for me to make a decent first impression because my script is practically illegible. Both of my children seem to be afflicted with the same elementary school curse. In our family, we type notes to each other. It’s not unusual to see a computer generated “Be Back Later. I’m at Joe’s” note taped to the door.

“Penmanship?” I asked. “In seventh grade?”

“Oh, no, Mom,” Steven said. “She’s teaching us how to write about small things instead of keeping our topic large. She calls it Writing Small.”

I was relieved that it wasn’t a penmanship lesson and that the teacher was going outside the box to teach my son and his friends a writing technique.

I learned more about this at Open House when she explained this concept to the parents in detail.

On the board, the teacher had the children brainstorm. She started with World Peace as her topic. She said this was too much to attempt writing about, so she had the students reduce it. Her topics below World Peace were World War I, then the Battle of the Bulge, then air raids, then the atomic bomb. She seemed to be getting smaller and smaller, reducing her scope at each step. Then she directed them toward personal wars. The last item on the World Peace list was fighting with a sibling over who gets “shotgun.”

I immediately jotted the idea down in my notebook. I also scribbled other things down that she said. My son is going to be doing a lot of writing this year. I’m a happy camper.

The teacher sent the students home to do an assignment. She gave them a choice from six topic trees she had listed on the board, all similar to the World Peace list, and told them to write a short, specific paragraph about the smallest thing at the end of the list. She limited them to three sentences about this single item.

My son chose the Autumn List. He showed me his list and at the bottom was “a leaf falling off a tree.” I left him alone to write, and I thought he came up with something good. He wrote three specific sentences using specific words, and his writing drew a great picture in my mind.

Unfortunately, on the day it was due, when he read it aloud in class, the teacher liked it, but she insisted he turn it into a first person piece where HE was the leaf. I thought, in my realistic point of view and as a writer, this was directing him down a silly road. He felt the same way. I made a few jokes about how wonderful it was to have a leaf in the family. I asked him if he’d be “leaving” us and made some bad puns. Objectively speaking, his original was extremely good and stood on its own. However, he’s in it for the grade at school, so he did what he was told. The first person rewrite was a decent paragraph, but it sounded kind of dumb to both of us.

I’ve started looking at topics I’m writing about , trying to reduce the scope of the topic just as my son has been doing. It’s a very effective exercise.

Last night I told my son I wanted to write an article about how his assignments help me write. I was having trouble getting started. My son said, “Write small, Mom. Write about a leaf.”

One day Amy and her father went on a walk and all of a sudden they heard a noise like a cry! They saw a goose being attacked by a fox, so they ran and scared the fox off, then took the goose home and helped him. They called the doctor and he said it would probably be about one week until he would be better. So until he’s better, they put him in the barn in a cage. Amy hated to see the bird in the cage.

One day, it got out somehow and started to fly around the barn. When Amy came in to check on him, she almost fell over. So she called her parents to come and see it, so they did. The next day, they let him go. Then the flock started flying south again.

The Reuters news service reported last week that “nutritional risk…increased when the number of regular medications was at least three,” according to Dr. K. Lancaster who helped conduct the investigation. Medications such as anti-depressants can cause dry mouth or slow gastric motility, an effect that may be more pronounced in the elderly compared to younger patients.

Many medications activate liver enzymes which may have additional effects on appetite. Patients who take 5 or more medications are at greatest risk for weight loss, Dr. Lancaster told Reuters.

There may not be a causal association between lack of appetite and prescription drugs side effects, Dr. Lancaster stressed. Other factors such as reduced fluid intake and decreased nutrients due to poor eating habits could also explain the oral and gastro-intestinal complaints that were recorded by the researchers, according to the Reuters report. Appetite drive is usually diminished after a few days of fasting in most people.

Sudden, dramatic loss in weight that is not regained is unhealthy because it usually means that body proteins are being broken down, resulting in reduced organ masses and possibly severe heart disease.