"Don't Put an Age Limit on Your Dreams"

By Jon Benson

"Don't put an age limit on your dreams." That's a quote from Dara Torres, one of my heroes and an Olympic champion. At the age of 41, she dared to enter the 2008 Olympics and swim a "kids' race," the 100 meter free. It's an all-out sprint. One length of the pool. Winner takes the gold medal.

Dara lost the gold by 1/100th of a second. That's almost too short to measure.

She won silver. She beat the American 16-year-old who was swimming just a few lanes over. She beat her personal record set when she herself was a teenager. She smashed the American record. She bested her last Olympics, and the one before that, with a time that, except for a slight start mistake would have won her a gold medal.

Let me put that into perspective: Dara lost by 1/100th of a second to a girl young enough to be her daughter. In fact, ALL the other racers were young enough to be her daughters.

Dara is not "old." She's not even "middle-aged." Those are terms that limit our ability to achieve. Dara is simply an athlete. A mom. A true woman of power. Someone who lives in the present. Dara is a champion, and there is no age requirement attached to the label "champ." Even Olympic champ.

She beat her personal best, set almost 20 years prior, and did it in the toughest arena ever created. And Dara was not the oldest Olympian this year. John Dane III, 58, crewed a boat for the Olympic sailing team. Libby Callahan, 56, became the oldest U.S. female Olympian of all time. She competed with the shooting team.

So, I ask you: What do you think you're too old to do?

Clean & Green Fast Food

By Kelley Herring

If you're having trouble hunting down restaurants that serve healthy, inexpensive, fast food, one option to try is Chipotle Grill. They currently have over 500 places throughout the U.S., and their Mexican food is top burrito. Not only do they get their meats from natural sources (including Niman Ranch) and slow-roast them to perfection, everything on their menu is made from whole foods and natural ingredients.

So when the fast-food craving strikes, consider Chipotle. And consider splitting your entree with a friend. The portions are generous. Opt for one of the restaurant's salads. (Avoid the white-flour tortillas.) Top with pork carnitas and black beans, and ask for a side of guacamole, for a power-packed, low-glycemic meal in about five minutes for about five bucks. Ole!

It's Fun to Know: Hey, Prez, How R U Doing?

If you want to get in touch with the new president when he takes office in January, you'll have to write a letter. Barack Obama will have to give up e-mail (and his treasured BlackBerry).

No, the president-elect isn't worried about being distracted by instant messages or forwarded pictures of cute puppies from the Secretary of Defense. First, there is the concern of hackers breaking into the presidential e-mail account and finding sensitive information. And second, the Presidential Records Act makes all correspondence with the president - public and private - part of the official record. No doubt his friends and family wouldn't want to be subject to such scrutiny.

(Source: The New York Times)

Word to the Wise: Vertiginous

Something that's "vertiginous" (ver-TIJ-uh-nus) - from the Latin - is (1) unstable, or (2) threatening to cause the dizzying sensation of vertigo.

Example (as used by Will Blythe in a New York Times review of What Can I Do When Everything's on Fire by Antonio Lobo Antunes): "There are novels out there as vertiginous as the dread K2, steep with degrees of difficulty that put readers into the same position as mountaineers staring at a terrifying traverse."

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These articles appear courtesy of Early to Rise [Issue #2528, 12-02-08], the Internet's most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com/.