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http://blogs.glam.com/GlamSpirit/

On GlamSpirit you can also discover new ways to nourish your mind, body, and spirit.

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The Glam Team

If you’re unsure of how to get out there to start conserving nature, it’s OK. Outdoor retailer REI coordinates service projects for local areas in need, from trail building, restoration, and maintenance to park and waterway clean-ups.

It’s as easy as finding a local event and signing up: no membership fee, no monthly commitment. And volunteers are always in demand. Many trails deteriorate over time due to foot traffic and weather conditions, and erosion and mud have overtaken an unfortunate number of trails. With your help, great strides can be made to help preserve local parks and trails. And after you’ve assisted in the preservation, you can enjoy the fruits of your efforts by using the trails for hiking, jogging, or mountain biking. Plus, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that you contributed to your fellow joggers’ experience.

Along with helping your community, you’ll be getting your own benefits as well. We’re talking burning 182 calories every 30 minutes you spend planting trees, and 132 calories for every 30 minutes of removing invasive and overgrown plants. Depending on the intensity of the clean-up, volunteering could even rival your aerobics class for number of calories burned!

As if that isn’t motivation enough, many of REI stores offer extra perks. For Phoenix’s South Mountain Park trail construction, Whole Foods provides lunch and REI offers a prize draw. In Austin, Texas, help clean up Barton Creek, and Clif GreenNotes will treat you to a Ben Kweller concert after you’ve gotten down and dirty with your inner do-gooder. Many stores offer goodie bags to volunteers, and free snacks and water are usually provided – although some request that you bring your own bottle to reduce waste, of course.

Start giving back to get fit! Visit www.rei.com/map/store for more information or to sign up for a volunteer event near you. – Abby Mercure

Technorati Tags: volunteering, REI, community, conservation, nature, glam.com,

Photo Credits: iStockPhoto.com

Thursday night, the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco hosted hundreds of strong women (and some men too) for an evening of film and festivities at the Lunafest film festival premiere. The festival features films made for, by, and about women, and drew scores of guests, including four of the filmmakers themselves. A packed VIP reception kicked off the night with music, mingling, and plenty of great munchies and wines.

Dramatic spot lighting broke through the center of the darkened room to illuminate a celebrity auction for the evening’s primary beneficiary, the Breast Cancer Fund. Attendees gathered around the goods including books signed by Christy Turlington and Isabel Allende and a lilac Monique Lhuillier clutch autographed by America Ferrera.

Following the reception, guests filed into the amphitheater, filling every one of its plush rust-red seats. The ten films ranged from a touching story of a transgender female to a study of women’s wrestling in schools to a laugh-out-loud inducing animated short from the U.K.

Moderating the festivities was Sara Snow, host of Living Fresh and Get Fresh with Sara Snow on the Discovery Network. After the screening, she conducted a Q&A with directors Lisa Blackstone, Jennifer Halley, Harriet Storm, and Jessica Sison.

LUNA Fests have already brought in more than $150,000 for the Breast Cancer Fund alone.

And with 100 percent of its proceeds going to charity, there’s no telling how great its impact will be on the many non-profits it benefits. But like Breast Cancer Fund President Jeanne Rizzo notes, it’s not as much about the dollar as it is about spreading the word about prevention.

“Businesses and non-profits can work together in true strategic partnership” to further health, Rizzo says. “This collective is what will ultimately prevent breast cancer.”

Rizzo also stresses the impact of certain chemicals in our daily routines. Pureprevention.org is a good resource for learning more about the plastics, cosmetics, cleaners, and other everyday items to be wary of.

“We can’t shop our way out of this but we can shop our way into the change,” says Rizzo.

Clif Bar & Company co-owner, Kit Crawford, says Lunafest was initially created to encourage brand awareness but soon evolved into something far more significant.

“Lunafest started as this little teeny idea”, Crawford says. But she sensed its greater potential and the fests were soon being held across North America–not only informing and empowering women and offering a venue for their creativity, but benefiting causes crucial to them.

“It’s an opportunity to educate people in unique ways,” says Crawford. “To be able to spread that message across the country is amazing.”

Lunafest continues throughout the U.S. and Canada through 2009 with a variety of events benefiting various organizations like Family Of Women and Women Against Abuse.

A full list of events with details can be found at lunafest.org/calendar. And if you’re not content with merely attending one of these events, you can host one– check out lunafest.org/host-a-lunafest for how to make a difference. — Kim Lapham, contributing writer.

Technorati Tags: Lunafest, Luna Bar, women’s health, Clif Bar, health, charity, non-profit, films, short films, Glam Media, female filmmakers, women’s empowerment

A new study out of the University of Bristol in England has found that when you don’t brush your teeth, upwards of 700 different kinds of bacteria can breed in your mouth. Sure, that sounds gross. But there’s more to it than dealing with gnarly morning breath.

Whenever you nick the inside of your mouth – whether you bite your tongue, get a canker sore, or even if your gums start to recede from your teeth, you’re opening the door to those bacteria. Once in your bloodstream, these bacteria hitch a ride on your platelets, leading to a variety of different clumps and clots that can lead to heart attack and stroke.

Technorati Tags: oral health, brush your teeth, heart attack, blood clots, stroke

Photo Credists: iStockPhoto.com

That said, the report does not go on to conclude that happy people live longer — just that they reported having fewer health problems.

So next time stress creeps into your life, heed the advice of singer Bobby McFerrin and “don’t worry, be happy.” It just might be better for you than you think.

Technorati Tags: stress relief, relive stress, Bobby McFerrin, Glam Media, GlamFit, fountain of youth, aging gracefully, healthy lifestyle,

Photo Credits: iStockPhoto

It may seem obvious that if you’re typing on a microscopic keyboard, you can’t use your hands for other needs (like driving) and you can’t be as aware of your surroundings outside of your palm. Yet, it’s that inattention to surroundings that’s causing accidents from tripping, to twisted ankles and more serious injuries caused by colliding with other pedestrians, bicyclists and cars. It’s even resulted in death.

So take a minute and think about that. What kind of text message is so important it’s wroth risking your life, of that of an innocent bystander?

And next time you want to check your messages or reach out to a friend or family member, just pull over – pull over your car, pull over your bike, or simply stand on the corner until you’re done.

Technorati Tags: most common accidents, addiction to texting, addiction to Blackberry, rule of the road, dangers on the road, GlamFit

Legendary sports moments, however, play out like the best motion picture action drama.

Sunday night’s men’s 4×100 Olympic swim relay was a legendary sports moment.

The cast of characters? If played out on the silver screen, Team France would have been cast as the bully – taunting the underdog Team USA with its top-seeded position.

Leading the pack of bullies with a swagger seen on land and in the pool was Alain Bernard, publically throwing the gauntlet, (more like a shammy given the results) and asserting, very publically, his team would not only “smash” the Americans. But that’s what they came to Beijing to do.

Enter the underdogs.

The Star
Michael Phelps - the swimming phenom attempting to earn 8 gold medals with a grueling competition lineup. Would he be able to help his team win and reserve strength for his individual events as well?

The Steady
Garrett Weber-Gale - the Olympic trials champion in the 50 and 100 meters.

The Dreamer
Cullen Jones - a competitor who’s goal isn’t to earn Wheaties’ box fame, but to use Olympic glory to help get more minority kids into the sport through community programs. His swim in the prelims helped secure the American’s a spot in the finals.

The Vindicator
Jason Lezak - the veteran anchor who had something to prove after close losses in previous Olympic swims.

And then, the start gun went off. By the time Jones touched the wall as the third leg of the race, France’s Bernard was already on his way into the pool. Lezak knew this. He also knew that this Frenchman came by his boasting honestly. He was the world-record holder in this distance.

But you never know in sports. It happens in track – a runner cramps up and can’t finish the race. It happens in gymnastics, the overall leader makes one misstep and loses the gold. And Sunday it happened in the pool – not because of any misstep by the leader, not as karmic pay-back for talking smack, but because one team refused to give in to expectations of a less than gold performance. Because despite trailing the world-record-holder, one athlete, Jason Lezak dug deep into his athletic soul and tapped into some Olympic magic.

So what is Olympic magic? It’s the same drive that allowed the US team to beat the Russian hockey favorites in 1980. It’s the same drive that allowed gymnast Kerri Strug to help lead her team to gold on a broken ankle. It’s the kind of magic that transcends pure physical talent and taps into a special place in our psyche that we all rely on to propel us past barriers we doubt we can overcome. And that’s what makes moments like this so legendary.

When Jason Lezak out-touched Bernard by .08 of a second, we cheered for the thrill of a come-from-behind win. We cheered for the underdog everywhere who exceeds expectations. We cheered because the American win gave us faith that we too, can achieve what people say is impossible, or at least improbable.

The fact that Lezak was particularly humble and team-focused after a particularly heroic effort was just icing on the cake. Or in this case maybe, the croissant.

Technorati Tags: olympics, beijing, michael phelps, jason lezak, cullen jones, garett weber-gale, men’s swimming, relay swims, come-from-behind, underdogs, Alain Bernard, french swim team, gold medal, glamfit, mark spitz, 8 gold medals, national anthem, Glam Media

Photo Credits: Getty Images, iStockPhoto, Getty Images

But half a world a way, in the suburbs of Nairobi, Kenya there’s another little story to be told, a little story about Willis and Kenneth Yoga that illustrates how you don’t have to be an Olympic trained athlete to drive beyond your personal best.

We first heard of these brothers from Bruce Northam, veteran travel writer and explorer extraordinaire. Their claim to fame? They each hold world records in soccer ball juggling. Yes, that skill of keeping a soccer ball off the ground by continuously bouncing it up off of various body parts (excluding your hands).

Willis holds the world record for bouncing the ball with his head only. How many times in a row do you think he did this to claim the title? 500? 5000? Nope. Willis bounced the same ball on his head 55,000 times in a row. And it took him 7.5 hours to do it. That’s 7,333 bounces an hour. One-hundred-twenty-two bounces a minute. Or approximately two bounces a second. And you think your endurance training is tough?

Kenneth holds the record for juggling a ball with one leg while seated – 35,000 bounces in 5 hours. While this might seem like a strange skill to cultivate, it actually made a lot of sense for Kenneth who, at 10 years old, was bitten by a puff adder – one of the most toxic snakes around. Damage from the bite left his leg covered in untreatable open wounds for 18 years until a doctor figured out a way to save his leg.

Now, the point of this story is not really to sing the praises of overcoming adversity. Or that hard work can get you a world record or to the Olympics. It’s more to remind you that you, too can have fun challenging yourself.

So if you’re caught up in the Olympic Spirit, why not hop off the couch for a quick run, a walk around the block, or to see how many pushups you can do? You’ll probably find that even the littlest goals – like trying to bounce a ball just one more time, are worth pursuing.

Technorati Tags: Olympics, Olympic spirit, Kenya, Beijing, world records, goals, personal best, Bruce Northam, travel writer, explorers, soccer, soccer balls, soccer juggling, GlamFit

One research team announced that watermelon can help cool you down at a picnic, and potentially rev you up in the bedroom. And if that’s not enough to satisfy, a different study claimed that the best way for men to prevent performance issues is to practice, practice, practice.

Many articles about the watermelon study positioned the juicy fruit as the new Viagra. But experts don’t want to misrepresent their findings. What the study (which was paid for by the U. S. Department of Agriculture) did find, was that watermelon rind and flesh contain an amino acid compound called citrulline that helps relax blood vessels and increase flow to the extremities — including a man’s penis.

Experts don’t yet know how much citrulline is required to have a positive effect on men’s arousal or errections, but they do caution men not to expect the same results as gained from medications like Viagra.

The second report, published in the July issue of The American Journal of Medicine found that like any body part, the more you use your sexual organs, the better shape they’ll be in. More specifically, when men have sex, more blood flows to their penises which is thought to help maintain a healthy sexual response. Researchers are excited themselves about this news as it also has implications for rehabilitating those coming back from prostate cancer.

So to put a little more sizzle in your summer nights, keep active! And if you want to add some new watermelon recipes to your diet, that probably wouldn’t hurt either…

Technorati Tags: watermelon, Viagra, prostate cancer, sexual dysfunction, errectile dysfunction, healthy sex life, active sex life, blood flow, improve circulation, www.glam.com, GlamFit

Photo credits: iStockPhoto

Not surprisingly, when news like this breaks, it’s followed by an avalanche of supportive emails posted on websites, left on message boards, and discussed across the blogosphere and corporate water coolers. Conversations range from reminiscing about the celebrity’s contributions, to sympathetic support and advice from those who’ve been touched by the same illness, to rallying cries for more research to beat this nefarious disease.

Also not surprisingly, the media follows these celebs, posting photos of them at public events – trying to voyeuristically assure us that these public figures are still with us, they’re living symbols of fighting what ails them, they’re human – just like us.

And while images of Kennedy sailing in his annual Memorial Day race the week he was released from the hospital and photos of Patrick Swayze courtside at a Lakers game are inspiring for many, they create an unrealistic view of illness, treatment and recovery to others.

Jan Hoffman recently published an article in the New York Times that examines this exact issue. “When Thumbs Up Is No Comfort,”

I personally believe that seeing public figures going public with their illness tends to have more benefits than not. It raises the public consciousness of disease. It makes people stop and think about how they’re taking care (or not) of their own bodies. It helps remind people that celebrities are actually real people, not demi-gods. And it reminds people that we’re all mortal.

But Hoffman’s article is something everyone should read. It raises the concept that just as there’s no one-size-fits-all strategy for dating, getting the right job, or raising your kids, there’s also no one way to support a loved one who’s sick.

It raises the point that while symbols of fighting disease and positive attitude can help one heal, there’s another side to the equation that’s equally important – allowing a patient to feel pain, frustration, even despair as they feel betrayed by their body and a life change they didn’t ask for.

So before you offer words you think are comforting to someone, read what Hoffman has to say. And take the time to ask your ailing friend, colleague or loved one how they’re feeling about things.

Some people don’t want a cheerleader when they’re sick. They just want someone who understands what they’re going through from their perspective.

Technorati Tags: Ted Kennedy, brain tumor, brain cancer, brain surgery, Duke, Duke University Medical Center, Patrick Swayze, Cynthia Nixon, Sex and the City, breast cancer, pancreatic cancer, New York Times, Jan Hoffman, GlamFit

Photo Credits: Splash News, Splash News, iStockPhoto