Health-and-Fitness online information.

While hatha yoga can improve overall strength and flexibility, don't count on it for optimal aerobic conditioning. Fitness experts at Texas State University-San Marcos measured hatha yoga's effect on the heart rate of 26 women (19-40 years old) during a 30-minute class of sun salutations. To condition the cardiovascular system, "people should exercise at 65-90 percent of heart rate maximum [HRmax]," says study co-author Lisa Lloyd, Ph.D. However, the average yoga HRmax was only 57 percent, compared with 72 percent for moderate walking (3.5 mph); that's not enough to improve aerobic fitness.

Obesity and physical inactivity are major public health problems in the United States. Persuasive evidence indicates that both obesity and physical inactivity are risk factors for the development of major chronic diseases and premature death. However, the optimal weight and levels of physical activity for longevity continue to be controversial, and few studies have examined adiposity and physical activity at the same time in relation to mortality. It has been suggested that higher levels of physical fitness can eliminate the effect of excess weight and obesity on morbidity and mortality, and that obesity may be a less important determinant of mortality than is fitness. A study in the New England Journal of Medicine extended their previous analyses of BMI and mortality in the Nurses' Health Study to 24 years of follow-up to address the long-term relationship between BMI and mortality and to examine whether higher levels of physical activity attenuate the association between BMI and mortality.

The study included 116,564 women, who in 1976, were 30 years to 55 years of age and free of known cardiovascular disease and cancer. In 1980 and 1982, the women were asked to report the average number of hours they had spent each week during the previous year engaging in moderate physical activity (that is, brisk walking) and in vigorous activity (that is, strenuous sports and jogging). In 1980, 1982, 1988, 1992, 1996 and 1998, women were asked to complete an eight-item questionnaire regarding the average time they spent per week walking, jogging, running, bicycling, swimming laps, playing tennis or squash, and participating in calisthenics. Self-reported weights helped to determine BMI and in 1986 the women reported direct measurements of their waists and hips.

Welcome to The Lean Plate Club, hosted by Washington Post health and nutrition writer Sally Squires . Share your tips on healthy recipes, meal plans, sugar alternatives and resisting overeating with other readers.

On Tuesdays at 1 p.m. ET , Sally, who has a master's degree in nutrition from Columbia University, leads a lively discussion for readers looking for new ways to eat smarter and move around more throughout the day. The Lean Plate Club is dedicated to healthy living -- whether you're trying to whittle your waistline or simply maintain it.

We want to hear your tips, strategies, meal plans, successes, setbacks and more. Of course Sally will be happy to answer questions and turn others over to the Club. None of this, however, is a substitute for medical advice.

Sign up for the free Lean Plate Club e-mail newsletter . The Lean Plate Club column appears weekly in the Washington Post Health section and is nationally syndicated by the Washington Post Writers Group .

Sally Squires's Recent Columns

Discussion Transcripts

A transcript follows .

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Sally Squires: Welcome to the Lean Plate Club!We've got a lot on the Plate to discuss, starting with the free e-mail newsletter which should be in your electronic in boxes right now. If you'd like to subscribe to this weekly service, just log onto www.leanplateclub.com. Look for newsletter box and click on it. (For those who have tried this in the last two weeks or so, there have been a couple of glitches with it, but it's now fixed.)

If you've subscribed to the LPC newsletter and don't receive your copy or have any trouble signing up, please e-mail me at leanplateclub@washpost.com and for a faster response, please put "trouble subscribing" in the subject line. By the way, we're approaching 200,000 subscribers to this newsletter which features links to lots of healthy recipes, physical activity, nutrition news and more.

I've just come from a U.S. Department of Agriculture briefing on the new food pyramid If so, I'd love to hear about your experiences with it and its sister site: mypyramidtracker.gov in today's chat.

In today's newsletter, you'll also discover a two finds I made this week. Share some of your healthy food finds with us today, tell us about your efforts to achieve a healthier weight, assist a Lean Plate Club member on this web chat and one of the following prizes could be yours today. (In making this offering, we are not endorsing any weight loss program, exercise regimen, book or tape. It's merely a way to show you the many resources available as you work to instill a healthier weight.)

DENNIS DANIELS is one of the fortunate few who have always earned a living as a dancer. By 20, he was dancing on Broadway in Richard Rodger's musical Rex. He went on to become a principal soloist at Radio City Music Hall, act and sing in the movies Grease and Grease 2, and play 11 different roles in the Broadway revival of Showboat in 1994. It was this last gig, at age 40, when his body began to give. Even warming up was painful. He stopped dancing, gained weight, and tried to let his body heal. Then, he found Nia.

Nia, which stands for Neuromuscular Integrative Action (and also means "with purpose" in Swahili), was established in 1983 when the fitness industry was bursting with high-impact aerobics classes and strenuous muscle-building workouts. Emphasizing creativity, self-expression, and enjoying movement for its own sake, Nia nevertheless falls more into the fitness program category than mind-body movement technique. Nia has only recently become popular as mind-body awareness programs have infiltrated health clubs (a la yoga and Pilates). There are now over 1,000 certified teachers and 22 certified teacher trainers around the country.

Some, including Daniels, say it can change your life. After one class, Daniels says, "My spirit took off. I had the best time of my life and remembered why I fell in love with dance." He was surprised that although he was out of shape, he wasn't sore after class. Inspired and revived, he sought out Debbie and Carlos Rosas, Nia's co-founders, and became a certified instructor.

DEBBIE AND Carlos had studied martial arts, but not dance, when they started Nia. They wanted to create a fitness system for a lifetime of movement. Nia draws from a variety of disciplines, including martial arts, dance, aerobics, improvisation, and self-defense. A typical class might include a few chaine turns followed by a series of karate chops and then instructions to walk around the room like a penguin. Students are encouraged to relieve stress by shouting "Woo hoo!" or "Yes!" at various times in class. Instructors use imagery to help students begin moving. "Imagine you're playing with the clouds," write the Rosas in their new book: The Nia Technique: The High-Powered Energizing Workout That Gives You a New Body and a New Life (Broadway Books; $17.95).

Nia encourages the body to follow the path of least resistance, rather than forcing positions. That is why Daniels wasn't sore after his first class. "Nia isn't about doing it right," he says. "It's about doing it right for you." For dancers, Nia can help undo the torquing and clenching used in some technique classes. "It can bring your body back to center," says Daniels.

Each Nia step is taught at three different levels. Those who are injured or interested in a low-impact workout will gravitate toward Level One, while Level Three offers a high-energy, aerobic workout. Nia can also help dancers build confidence and capacity for self-expression. Caroline Kohles, a Nia trainer and former professional dancer who is a wellness consultant in New York City, says Nia is great training for auditions. "It helps people feel comfortable in their bodies and take risks," she says.

Carrie Peters, a Nia teacher who lives in Berkeley, CA, agrees. "We are often taught as dancers to mimic," she says. "Nia is about embodying movement so that whatever you're doing, you're present."

EIGHT YEARS AGO, WHEN WE DECIDED TO PUBLISH OUR FIRST annual ranking of fit and fat metropolises, we could have just hit a few shopping malls with scales and fat calipers, scribbled some numbers on a clipboard, and called it a day. But we wanted to get people talking about what really causes obesity in America--and we wanted to get people doing something about it. So we spent months analyzing the things that affect Americans most. We looked for patterns in the amount of exercise we get, what kind of food we eat, the amount of TV we watch, and the sports we play. We read weather reports, counted pizza parlors, and pestered park departments. We even put some pressure on your local elected officials. After amassing a super-size collection of data and crunching some numbers, we released our findings that detailed the fittest and fattest--and we've been doing it ever since.

But a funny thing happened along the way. We noticed something interesting: Instead of maintaining the conventional view of obesity as a problem of individual overindulgence, a growing number of medical experts started looking at America's fat epidemic as a public-health problem, exploring connections between people's waistlines and things like the environment they live in. Eight years later, open any public-health journal or visit any research conference today and you'll find a growing body of evidence that the causes of obesity are all around us, from limited recreational opportunities to air pollution, TV watching, zoning that allows too many drive-thrus, and an epidemic of less and less time to exercise. It proved to us that the MF message is getting through. But change is hard.

As anybody who's spent enough time in the gym to tell a deltoid from a dumbbell knows, making progress means changing your routine every once in a while. And while cities have responded to our survey over the years by increasing public space and promoting civic change, there's still a lot of work to be done.

So this year, in order to provide the most complete and thorough examination of the state of fitness in America in 2006, we decided to add a couple of new dimensions to our rankings. In addition to the factors we'd been measuring all along, we decided to look at things like motivation: Were people exercising when the weather was lousy, or were they lazing around even when they were surrounded by an exercise-friendly climate? How crowded--and safe--were the local running trails? How often were people using their gym memberships?

And most important this year, we decided it was time to really examine civic legislation and leadership. After all, if obesity is an epidemic--a public-health emergency--shouldn't we expect our city leaders to do something about it, such as require developers to build open spaces and trails (instead of jammed-in housing tracts and drive-thru-laden strip malls) or create fitness- and health-education events? In examining these factors, we awarded points to cities that have enacted anti-obesity and fitness-promoting initiatives. We also selected three of the fittest mayors in America--leaders who put the health of their citizens above all else while also doing their best to lead a fit lifestyle outside the office. Which mayors made the cut? And more important, just how fit or fat is your hometown? Read on to find out.

Well, thank you all very much for coming. I hope you feel as good as I feel. Great to be outside, isn't it? Thanks for coming today.

General Jackson, thank you so very much for opening up this beautiful running trail for me and a couple of my friends. [Laughter] I want to thank you, sir, and all the troops that helped make this run successful. And I want to thank you and all the troops and their families for their service to a great country. Thank you very much for letting us come back today.

I want to thank those on my Cabinet who are here. I see the Secretary of HUD here, Mel Martinez. Ann Veneman is here. Where's Ann? Annie, good going; good to see you. Thank you all for coming. Robert Zoellick, Trade Minister--where is Zoellick? He left. [Laughter] He didn't know he was going to get introduced.

I want to thank Debbie LeHardy for the Race for the Cure and Tara Wolf Monaco as well for helping organize this. Thank you for your--[applause]. The Race for the Cure is a fantastic event. It raises money for a great cause, and they know how to organize well. Thank you all for setting this up for us.

I want to thank my friend Paul Carrozza, who's a member of the President's Council on Physical Fitness, for being here as well. Paul is a--he's a fellow Texan. Yeah! If you're ever in Austin, you might want to stop by his store and buy a couple pairs of shoes from him. [Laughter]

I want to thank the great athletes from the Special Olympics who are here today to help us register. These athletes registered people to volunteer as well. They're going to represent the country in the 2003 World Games in Ireland. Kevin Boyd is here with us today, Lindsey Wilkes, Kevin Gafford, and Daniel Bailey. Thank you all for coming. Good luck at the Olympic Games too.

Sir, I'll be down there and get it in a minute.

I want to thank you all for agreeing not only to set a good example but agreeing to help a neighbor in need. As you might remember, part of the entry fee--or the entry fee is the willingness for you to give of your time and money to help a local charity here. And if you haven't signed up yet, I was serious about that being part of the entry fee. I think it's important for all of us who are fortunate enough to be able to run and be healthy to help others who might not be as fortunate. So thanks for agreeing to do that.

I want to thank Fresh Fields and Dasani water--make sure you drink a lot of that today--[laughter]--at least that's what Dr. Tubb told me--[laughter]--and Starbucks, for helping to sponsor this event.

It's important for those of us in the White House to live how we talk. If we're going to say we're going to live a healthy life, let's do it. If we say we care about a neighbor in need, we want to love a neighbor like we'd like to be loved ourselves; let's show it through our actions. So I want to thank you for the example.

It's really important for the White House team to exercise on a regular basis. I hope you understand at least that's how the boss thinks. [Laughter] I expect you to--I think you're--I know; I don't think--I know you're a better worker if you exercise on a daily basis. I know you'll help keep the health care costs down in America if you exercise on a daily basis. [Laughter] I know your life will be more complete if you exercise and serve a neighbor in need.

And you know, we're not here for long. But when we're here, let's make sure we give it our all. And one way to do so is to stay healthy and fit, have a great outlook in life.

And so thanks for joining us today. It's been a fantastic event. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Make sure you stretch afterwards, get in a good nap--[laughter]--and show up to work on time on Monday.

As someone who takes the MEN'S FITNESS message to heart, you're faithful to your cardio routine and nutrition regimen in the quest to stay lean and healthy. Being human, however, you occasionally stray from the path. That's not a problem unless it becomes a habit and your fitness efforts start to suffer. Turning things around doesn't require a total training overhaul, but rather just addressing a few common mistakes, like ignoring pain when you shouldn't or fasting at night for fear of weight gain. We'll teach you how to avoid eight aerobic and 10 nutritional blunders that commonly waylay the best intentions.

Train Your Trunk for All-Around Gains

You don't want to miss our Swiss ball/dumbbell home workout, it's easy, it's fast, and best of all, it works your core stabilizers, the foundation of your entire body. The Swiss ball belongs in your training program for a number of reasons, including injury prevention, better balance and increased endurance. Add dumbbells for resistance and you have yourself a killer, easy-on-the-wallet at-home setup.

Keep Your Battery Charged All Day

The most critical hour of your workday is 3 o'clock, that nutritional no-man's-land between lunch and dinner when your head starts to nod and your eyelids start clamping to your eyes. But energy dips aren't just random occurrences. The foods you eat throughout the day determine how you'll feel near the end of it. We have the meals and snacks that will sustain your mental and physical stamina from dawn to dusk.

The holiday super bowl from November 1 to the real Super Bowl in January is the most exciting, joyful -- and stressful -- time of the year. In order to survive the turkeys, gift-shopping, parties, rich desserts and over-flowing champagne, you should maintain your regular fitness schedule and create your own seasonal stress-busting plan. The following tips are sure to relieve your frazzled body, mind and spirit during the hectic holidays.

Take A Time Out

Sometimes you just have to remove yourself, literally, from the source of the stress to keep from blowing your top. Go into a room by yourself for a few minutes to calm down. Or take a power walk around the block. Visit someplace peaceful -- a bookstore, museum, a cozy coffee shop, or attend a worship service -- to unwind your nerves and lift your spirits. If the kids are stressing you out, give yourself a little break from them by asking a friend or relative to baby-sit for a few hours or maybe a weekend. Take a vacation, or enjoy a mental getaway by closing your eyes and imagining you're relaxing on the warm sands of a Caribbean paradise.

Get A Good Rub Down

Stress can cause headaches and knotted muscles. Ask your honey for a massage or visit a professional massage therapist (you can even go on your lunch break) to relax tense muscles.

Pump Up The Volume And Dance

Dancing is good for relieving stress and is good aerobic exercise. Crank up the stereo with your favorite fast beats and slide, salsa or jitterbug that anxiety out of your system.

Close Your Eyes And Meditate

Even if you can't flee to a quiet corner, just stop what you're doing for five minutes, close your eyes and breathe deeply. Pray, recite positive affirmations or just clear your mind and think of nothing. You'll 6e surprised how fast your tension will disappear and how that urge to choke the nearest person will subside.

Work Out Worries With A Workout

If you're angry, peeved or frustrated, rather than fuming or snapping at someone, release that negative energy with an energizing, stress-and-calorie-burning workout. A half hour on a bike or treadmill, circuit training on weight machines, pounding a punching bag or working out to a fitness tape will help get rid of some of that steam.

Put Stress Down With A Pick-Me-Up

An occasional indulgence can boost a weary spirit. Treat yourself to a huge bouquet of fragrant flowers, a bottle of your favorite perfume, or just a wee bit of those decadent chocolates -- whatever brings a smile to your face.

Read To Relax

Escape the insanity that is often life in the pages of a good, relaxing book. For emergencies, carry a pocket book of spiritual devotions or daily affirmations so that when the pressure builds, you can whip it out and read a few soothing lines.

Let It All Out

Holding in anger, fear and worry only makes stress worse, so you need to get it out of your system. For some people, it helps to go into an empty room, close the door and just scream or cry it out. For others, talking out troubles with a trusted friend or relative helps. You may even want to laugh it out. Laughter really is the best medicine, so rent a gut-busting comedy or check out a corny joke book and release those pent-up emotions with a good laugh.

Give Your Body Rest

Chronic lock of sleep not only leaves you sluggish and lowers your body's resistance, but also reduces your ability to handle stress. Make sure you get a good night's sleep so that you can be ready to handle the daily pressures. Also, a quick power nap can give your body and your mind a midday recharge.

Spend Time With The Gang

Being in the presence of supportive people can go a long way toward reducing stress. Make a date to get together with family or friends. And instead of just loafing on the couch, do something fun and active, like roller skating or ice skating, skiing, bowling, or throwing an indoor pool party.

Shop 'Til You Drop (Just Don't Overspend)

A leisurely trip to the mall or a jaunt to neighborhood shops may be just the excursion you need to get away from the daily pressures. However, you might want to shop during the off hours (early morning or midday during the week) so that you won't have to battle stressful crowds. Plus, you can work out while shopping. Walk briskly around the mall, take the stairs instead of the escalator or do arm curls using your shopping bags as weights.

Block Out "Me" Time In Your Schedule

Don't use this time to balance your checkbook or clean the fridge -- do something relaxing that you normally don't have time to do. Take a trip to a day spa for a full-body treatment, or give yourself a manicure, pedicure and facial. Curl up with a steaming cup of cocoa (or decaf coffee or tea) and play some soft sounds, either your favorite quiet grooves or a CD of nature sounds like ocean tides and chirping birds. See a new movie or rent a timeless classic. Revisit an old hobby, or better yet, do completely nothing.

Rybak's strategy for consistently maintaining Minneapolis' fit status: Lead by example. Not only does he regularly ski, run, and bike, but he has also competed twice in the Life Time Fitness Triathlon. Last year, he championed a citywide smoking ban in bars and restaurants and built the city's first legal urban mountain-bike trail in Theodore Wirth Park. This year, he plans to increase funding for more bike trails and perhaps open a whitewater park along the Mississippi River.

MF names you America's second-fattest city--now what? If you're John F. Street, you prove us wrong. Thanks in part to his Health Journey program, which grants discounted access to more than 100 citywide activities: health clubs, and gyms, Philly improved 21 spots. The Mayor's Family Fitness Challenge mentored 100 overweight families toward a healthier lifestyle last year. He even capitalized on a three-week mass-transit strike by adding walking routes and bike racks. And, despite it all, he still finds time to exercise for two hours each day.
A day after MF dubbed Houston the fattest city, Mayor Bill White initiated Get Moving Houston, a citywide program aimed at getting Houston off the list of Fattest Cities in MF by 2006. Well, Houston: You're moving. An avid bicyclist and runner, White helped Houston improve tour spots by establishing a Wellness Council, promoting a Mayor's Physical Fitness Challenge, and promoting the Tour de Houston, a bike race that raised funds benefiting Houston parks.

Women have long been aware of the benefits of exercise in reducing the risk of heart disease, osteoporosis, diabetes, and breast cancer, not to mention weight management. Ever since title IX in the early 1970s, females have been participating in sports and athletic activities in ever increasing numbers. When women engage in regular physical activity or train for athletic events, women often require specific nutritional and herbal support for optimal performance. This nutritional support varies more by sport than by gender differences in body fat, hormonal influences and muscle mass. Those issues are more relevant in terms of dosing of nutrients rather than the nutrient selected and in some cases of lower body weight, nutrient depletion caused by the exercise may have a more adverse impact in women than in men. However, it is important to recognize that in general, women have lower muscle mass, greater body fat, and less upper body strength than do men. On the other hand, this body fat can be useful in endura nce activities as fuel for continued prolonged exertion. The greatest concern about the influence of women's menstrual cycles and exercise is the risk of underweight women and/or heavy exercisers. One or both of these can lead to infrequent or amenorrhea which in turn will significantly impact bone mass and an increased risk of osteoporosis later in life. All women should assure proper nutrient and caloric intake, in particular calcium and vitamin D. For women aged 14-16, 1,300 mg of calcium per day; for women aged 19-menopause, 1,000 mg per day, and for post menopausal women, 1200 mg per day. The current recommended dietary intake for vitamin D is 400 IU daily for women aged 51 to 70 years and 600 IU daily for women over 70. If these amounts are not achieved in the diet, then supplementation is required.

You've seen them advertised on infomercials and in magazines (not this one, of course). You may have even seen them in the sporting-goods section of some department stores. They're called the Fitness Flyer or Gazelle, and Tony Little rode them all night long while reruns of Sanford and Son played two channels down.

Regardless of where you've seen them, the promises are endless: no-impact aerobic exercise, 10 great exercises on one machine, burn more calories than with a treadmill, lose fat in no time, etc. But hey, even though Little pimps them, they do involve honest exercise. The question is, just how effective is the exercise? That's what researchers at the University of Kwa Zulu Natal (Durban, South Africa) set out to determine when they compared the heart rate and calories burned by fit women exercising on either a Fitness Flyer or a standard treadmill at various levels of intensity.

Their test subjects--14 women who exercised regularly--agreed to report to the laboratory so they could be prodded and probed in the name of science and fat loss.

Flying Low | The South African scientists discovered that, with participants exercising at six different intensities, the number of calories burned was always lower on the Fitness Flyer. They concluded that while the Fitness Flyer offers the benefit of nonimpact exercise, placing less stress on lower-body joints, it also tends to require less energy to use than a treadmill. Bottom line: If you're looking for cardio equipment for the home, spend the dough and go with the treadmill.

I do about 12 hours of exercise a week, including swimming, running and yoga. Do I really need to strength train too? ... and more of your questions answered here.

Q: I'm 33, and I exercise about 12 hours a week, including Masters swimming, trail running and yoga. Given all that, do I really need to strength train? If so, what is the minimum amount I can get away with?

A: "Even though you're already really active, you're leaving out a crucial component of exercise that has far-reaching ramifications as you age" says Kent Adams, Ph.D., C.S.C.S., an associate professor of exercise physiology at the University of Louisville in Kentucky. Research suggests that endurance exercise such as jogging or swimming isn't sufficient for maintaining muscle mass; only strength training can do the job. And while weight-bearing exercise such as trail running can help maintain bone density in the spine and hip, combining this type of exercise with strength training can help even more.

Although exercise scientists have not studied the long-term effects of yoga, they speculate it doesn't provide enough stimulus to prevent the loss of bone and muscle that comes with age.

You can reap the benefits of weight training in just 15-20 minutes of total-body strength training twice a week using dumbbells at home, Adams says. Perform at least one set of eight to 12 repetitions for each major muscle group. 'The key is lifting heavy-enough weights that you come close to failure on your last repetition," Adams says. "If you're doing eight reps, it needs to be a true eight." This is especially important if you're doing just one set of each exercise.

Not only will strength training benefit you later in life, Adams says, but "it will have tremendous benefits for the other activities you love to do right now." For instance, with stronger leg muscles, you'll better absorb the impact of trail running downhill.

Q: I start my workouts with 45 minutes on the elliptical machine, and then I lift weights. But a friend said I would burn more fat by doing strength training before cardio. I tried this but felt really tired on the elliptical. Is the fatigue a sign that I'm burning more fat? Or does it mean I should go back to my original program?

A: "Go back to what you were doing," says Chicago trainer CC Cunningham, a spokeswoman for the American Council on Exercise. "If you're fatigued from the strength training, you're probably working at a lower intensity on the elliptical, so you're actually burning fewer calories and doing yourself a disservice." If you want to put more energy into your strength training on certain days, you may want to split up your cardio. For instance, do 20 minutes on the elliptical, then lift weights, then do another 25 minutes of cardio.

Q: My boyfriend says you get better toning and strengthening results by exercising different body parts on different days. I say it's better to do a total-body routine. Who's right?

A: There's no right or wrong answer. "It comes down to what works best for your schedule," says Chicago trainer CC Cunningham. As long as you hit each muscle group at least twice a week and give each muscle 48 hours to rest between sessions, it doesn't matter how you organize your routine.

There are advantages to both types of programs, Cunningham says. If you do total-body workouts, you only have to lift weights two or three times a week. However, your workouts will be longer than if you split up your routine, and you may not have the time to perform more than one exercise per muscle group. If you divide your routine, you may have the motivation to perform two or three exercises per muscle group and push harder. "You might feel fresher and get more variety," Cunningham says.

There are several ways to split your routine. For instance, you could alternate upper-body and lower-body workouts. Or you could even split your upper-body routine into two days, performing back and biceps exercises one day and chest, triceps and shoulder exercises the next.

Q: I'm 47 and unfit, and I started taking water-aerobics classes four months ago. Every 15 minutes, we check our heart rate, and mine varies from 190-210 beats per minute. This is quite high, yet I'm barely winded. The instructor insists I'm counting wrong, but I don't think so. With my heart rate so high, am I in danger?

A: If you feel certain your count is accurate, see a physician. You may have a medical condition that is causing an abnormally high heart rate. However, it's more likely that your count is inaccurate, says water-exercise researcher Mary Sanders, M.S., an adjunct professor at the University of Nevada, Reno. "In several studies, even trained instructors were unable to accurately assess their own heart rates," Sanders says. "In water it is even more difficult to take a heart rate manually because of water currents."

Nine out of 10 women report taking concrete steps to prevent bone loss, including consuming calcium supplements (55 percent) and exercising (54 percent). However, fewer than half of these women realize phosphorus is also important for bone health. Without phosphorous, calcium's effectiveness is limited. Even among women diagnosed with osteoporosis or osteopenia (i.e., low bone mass), only 21 percent were aware of phosphorus' health benefits.

Clinical studies have shown calcium supplemention without adequate phosphorus may actually lead to bone mass reduction. Research published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition found that when calcium intake increases without a corresponding phosphorus increase, total phosphorus absorption falls and the risk for phosphorus deficiency rises. In 2001, a New England Journal of Medicine study using calcium phosphorus and vitamin D produced a 43 percent reduction in fracture risk within 18 months.

"Calcium and phosphorus work together like bricks and mortar," says Dr. Machelle Seibel, professor of obsretrics and gynecology at University of Massachusetts Medical School and medical director of Inverness Medical, Inc. "You need the appropriate amount of each to truly build a strong bone structure." One should consume 1,000mg to 1,300mg of calcium and 800mg of phosphorus daily.

Unlike vitamins and minerals, the thousands of phytochemicals in plants don't seem to have any nutritive value, but they apparently protect the body against cancer, heart disease and other illnesses.

The best-known phytochemical is beta-carotene, the vitamin A precursor found in carrots, sweet potatoes and greens; it is believed to prevent oxidation of free radicals, which can turn cells cancerous. Broccoli, cabbage and other members of the brassica family contain sulforaphane as well as indoles and isothiocyanates, which appear to fight various cancers. And a majority of studies have linked the allyl sulfides in allium vegetables such as garlic and onions with lower rates of gastrointestinal cancer, according to the journal Phytomedicine.

If all this puts you in the mood for pasta primavera, skip the high-fat Alfredo sauce and go for the classic red stuff. Tomatoes are teeming with phytochemicals, as many as 10,000 of them. Leading the pack is lycopen--the nutrient that gives tomatoes their color--which has potent antioxidant properties. One Harvard University study showed that men who consumed large quantities of tomato-based foods had about half the risk of prostate cancer as those who consumed very little. And a report in the American Journal of Epidemiology stated that those who ate the most lycopene-rich foods lowered their risk of heart attack by 50 percent. (If you were scared by a tomato as a child, you can also find lycopene in apricots, guava, pink grapefruit and watermelon.)

Even the oil in your tomato sauce can be good for you. Vegetable oils--the best natural source of vitamin E--also contain alphalinolenie acid, which the digestive process converts into inflammation-fighting, heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids. Add dill to the sauce to boost monoterpenes, and skip your post-pasta espresso for polyphenol-rich green tea with limonene-containing lemon--all of which have been associated with lowered cancer risk. Trading a slice of chocolate cheesecake for a fruit cocktail of grapes, strawberries and raspberries (a good idea in any case) provides ellagic acid, a tannin that may block enzymes needed for cancer cells to reproduce.