HEALTH AND FITNESS

The latest heath and fitness news and updates

Molly Kimball, Eating Right

When news broke last month that some New Orleans Saints players had tested positive for taking a diuretic weight-loss supplement banned by the National Football League, inquiring dieters wanted to know: Are diuretics an effective tool for true weight loss?

The short answer: Not a bit.

Kathy Anderson / The Times-PicayuneRobert Russell stops his run to chat in Audubon Park at 5:15 a.m. in early November.

By 5:15 a.m., Robert Russell has run eight of his target 12-plus miles in the dark. Before the sun comes up, Jennifer Rigby has done about 70 push-ups, 100 crunches, 40 lunges, a mile-plus run and all that goes into a 5:30 a.m. boot camp.

While many New Orleanians are still sawing logs, others are out burning calories.

"There's a whole subculture out there that we didn't know existed. In the dark, we recognize each other by silhouette and gait," says Mary Grace Rome, who favors the pre-dawn hours for marathon training. She is one of eight women in Run Chick Run, a group that recently completed the New York Marathon.

Rusty Costanza / The Times-PicayuneAndrea Taylor's gym is the pool.

Andrea Taylor
60, retired children's librarian

• Favorite exercise: Water fitness.

• Days of exercise a week: Three or four.

• Diet do: "I follow five medical diets so it's really a challenge."

• Diet don't: "No fast foods or soft drinks."

• Guilty pleasure: "Sweets and chocolate."

• Exercise benefits: "Stress reduction, range of motion and mobility."

• Exercise philosophy: "Medical issues that keep you from exercising should be detours, not barriers, to finding the right workout. For me, it is in the water."

Jennifer Zdon / The Times-PicayuneThe Big Easy Laughter Club practice Laughter Yoga led by three-time internationally certified laughter Yoga instructor Heidi Heyns at Audubon. Heidi Heyns, top left, leads her class in a round of meditative laughter with Glenn Boudreaux, top right, Betsie Gambel, bottom left, and Barbara LeBlanc, bottom right.

Heidi Heyns leans her handmade sign against the trunk of the oak tree closest to the St. Charles Avenue entrance of Audubon Park.

BIG EASY LAUGHTER CLUB.

There is no tin can to go with the sign, no mime makeup, no musical instrument waiting to be played. Just Heyns, waiting patiently for students to gather for her free class on a Sunday afternoon.

Two of us show up, standing ready to draw attention to ourselves with riotous laughter.

Molly Kimball, Eating Right

It's like one of those bad dreams where you're naked at work -- stepping on the scale on national television.

And on-air weigh-ins are just the beginning. Contestants on reality weight loss shows such as "The Biggest Loser" and "Extreme Makeover" reveal their heart-wrenching vulnerabilities, endure humiliating criticism, and spend the better part of their days coercing their unconditioned bodies through gravity-challenging feats of cardiovascular exercise.

Kathy Anderson / The Times-Picayune

CARLA ADAMS
43, marketing director

Favorite exercise: Walking.

Days of exercise a week: Five.

Diet do: "Everything in moderation."

Diet don't: "Nothing in excess."

Guilty pleasure: "Cookies, ice cream, candy."

Exercise benefits: "I feel good in my clothes, I have peace of mind, and I can eat anything and everything."

Exercise philosophy: "With work and family, it's my one hour a day to create balance in my life."

Local walkers fight heart disease one step at a time with the annual New Orleans Start! Heart Walk in Audubon Park. Heart disease and stroke, the country's No.1 and No.3 killers, claim more than 910,000 American lives a year. Build a team with your company or family and friends.

Illustration by Kenneth Harrison

Anger. Frustration. Fear. Anxiety.

In any other year, those emotions might send you to the therapist's couch. But this year, they appear to be sending Americans to the voting booth.

Former "Seinfeld" writer Larry David, blogging on the Huffington Post Web site, recently gave voice to the excruciating anticipation over this year's presidential election.

"I can't take much more of this," he wrote. "I'm at the end of my rope. I can't work. I can eat, but mostly standing up. I'm anxious all the time ... This is like waiting for the results of a biopsy. Actually, it's worse. Biopsies only take a few days, maybe a week at the most, and if the biopsy comes back positive, there's still a potential cure. With this, there's no cure. The result is final. Like death."

Kathy Anderson / The Times-Picayune

TIMOTHY MOMENEE
31, engineer

• Favorite exercise: Boxing training.

• Days of exercise a week: "Three out of every four days. Every fourth day I rest."

• Diet do: "Vegetables, milk, eggs, fruits, nuts."

• Diet don't: Grains, meats.

• Guilty pleasure: Pizza.

• Exercise benefits: "Mental and physical well-being, stress relief, energy."

• Exercise philosophy: "To achieve the ultimate fitness that prepares me for all situations in life, as opposed to being just gym fit."

Molly Kimball, Eating Right

Free candy, late bedtime, and you get to dress like a pirate?

Halloween is every kid's dream come true. And the temptations lurking inside that pumpkin-shaped bucket of goodies are every health-minded parent's worst nightmare.

The problem is not just the sugar rush -- nor the inevitable crash. It's also the sheer magnitude of empty calories. A typical trick-or-treat plastic pumpkin can hold more than 4,000 calories worth of sugar, fat and artificial colors.

Molly Kimball, Eating Right

Our metabolism -- the measure of how many calories our bodies burn in a 24-hour period -- takes the blame for loads of stuff that's wrong with us.

Gaining weight? Must be your slow metabolism. Feeling sluggish? Again, your metabolism.

It can work the other way around, too: Those lucky few who are (seemingly) effortlessly thin? Surely it's their fast metabolism.

Forget waiting until January to make your new year's resolutions; instead think of 10 things you can do this week to start living a healthier life. You can start by choosing just one.

We asked some experts for their recommendations and here is what they said:

MARION TORTORICH
21, aerialist/acrobat

Favorite exercise: Aerial work on a sling.
Days of exercise a week: Seven.
Diet do: "Vegan raw foods."
Diet don't: "Non-vegan cooked foods."
Guilty pleasure: "Vegan chocolate-chip cookies."
Exercise benefits: "Increased energy flow all the time, constant detoxing with sweating and the ability to keep an active lifestyle going."
Exercise philosophy: "I used to think no-pain-no-gain, but as I have moved more into yoga, I think the bottom line is to listen to your body, and not to set goals, but to be present and mindful with physical exercise."

THE TIMES-PICAYUNE ARCHIVETip No. 10: If you want to improve your fitness level, you have to know your limits, so you can go beyond that. Push yourself.

Forget waiting until January to make your new year's resolutions; instead think of 10 things you can do this week to start living a healthier life. You can start by choosing just one.

We asked some experts for their recommendations.

1. Monitor your intake of bad news.

Let's face it: The news can be dismal these days.

"People raise their stress levels with their addictions to bad news. It's like a cobra coming out of a basket; it's so fascinating that you can't avert your gaze. And this keeps our adrenal glands in an uproar.

"So choose one time each day to watch the news. It takes discipline. After 9/11, people were creating post-traumatic stress in themselves by watching replays of the towers going down 50 times.

"And don't watch the news just before bedtime."

-- Joan Borysenko, sports psychologist and author of "Minding the Body, Mending the Mind"

When you put "diva" in front of a disease, you can merge education and beautification. That's the idea behind Divabetic -- Makeover Your Diabetes, a three-hour community event Saturday for women (and men) living with diabetes, as well as those at risk or those with loved ones who are diabetic.