I went through the CHIP program for the purpose of writing stories and my health — a heart scan had revealed a serious plaque burden in my arteries a few months earlier — back in 2000 and it was nice to hear the stories of reductions in risks for heart attack, diabetes and other killer diseases again.

CHIP has had great success promoting a vegan diet — I can’t tell you the number of times during the four-week course that I actually dreamed that I was eating a steak, and then there was the time I almost grabbed a concession-stand hamburger out of a guy’s hand while I was covering a Lightning game — so I was surprised and pleased when Dr. Roger Greenlaw, one of the people responsible for bringing CHIP to Rockford, sort of strayed from the program’s straight and narrow during his presentation that day.

“I don’t personally feel that a person has to be vegan to be optimally healthy,” Greenlaw said, “but what I do believe is that we have, on the one extreme, is nachos, cheese and soda as a diet and vegan at the other extreme. People have to go as far as they need to go (between the extremes) to get healthy.”

I liked this idea because, while I don’t adhere strictly to CHIP anymore, I do still try to consume a lot of fruits and vegetables almost every day and most of my favorite recipes are vegetarian — something that makes me less than popular at the Register Star’s holiday potlucks.

The idea also fits in with something we were talking about here during a healthyrockford.com story meeting — which is that, keeping in mind that it’s not a diet but a lifestyle, a person should eat for the way they feel comfortable living.

If they want to eat anything they want when they want it, that’s fine as long as they are willing to live with the consequences, whether that is something as serious as a diminished quality of life or just realizing that they won’t be relishing the onset of swimsuit season. If they want razor-clean arteries, less chance of having a heart attack than the Cubs and White Sox squaring off in a World Series and a trimmer physique, then CHIP has a proven track record along those lines.

But, wherever a person falls between Dr. Greenlaw’s diet extremes, it should be the spot where they are happy.

The motion of raking leaves isn’t very different from the push-pulls you would perform if you were doing a chest and lats workout in the gym. In addition, a pile of leaves, especially wet ones, can be surprisingly heavy so some warm-up stretches might be in order to keep falling leaves from dropping you on the doctor’s doorstep.

Start by slowly rotating your shoulders in a windmilling fashion, kind of like an old-time pitcher winding up or one of those flying duck yard ornaments. Rotate in both directions. Follow this up by reaching across your chest — right hand as far across to the left as you can, left hand as far as possible to the right.

Stretch your hamstrings and lower back by placing one foot against a low step, keeping the knee straight but not locked out and reaching forward to touch the toe, if possible. Switch feet and repeat.

If you’re going to be lifting heavy loads, you should squat down — not bend over at the waist — bring the load as close to you as necessary to get a good grip on it and then stand up with the load.

Pay attention to keeping yourself safe and a weekend on the lawn shouldn’t leave you aching when you return to the desk job on Monday morning.

But, as daylight gets shorter again, more of our runs and rides — not to mention bicycle commutes to work — are going to be done in the dark. So it’s a good idea to give drivers at least an even shot at seeing us before we become a hood ornament.

Get lit — Light up your workout with reflective clothing — virtually every major manufacturer makes it — front and back. You could also pin cheap reflectors that you can get at any hardward store to your workout gear. If nothing else, wear white or light-colored clothing or you could carry a small flashlight. I noticed a cyclist wearing a clip-on light on his headgear this morning.

Be appropriate for traffic — Pedestrians are supposed to face oncoming traffic, so run in the left lane facing the cars. Cyclists are subject to the Illinois Rules of the Road, the same as an automobile, and should ride on the right.

Can the music — I like my iPod, but if I’m running in the dark in a place where I need to be alert for cars, it stays on the charger. Yours should too.

Find a partner — Not only is having a partner good for motivation when dark also means cold and nasty, but it means an extra pair of eyes to keep alert for traffic.

The Rockford Road Runners circuit already has two races devoted to the memories of former members who were hit by cars. They don’t need a third.

So, if you were subjected to it, one, I apologize and, two, here is what I meant to say.

The golf swing, like any other sports performance, is a matter of balance, strength and flexibility. To break it down simply, it’s a shoulder rotation around a stable head.

Almost every muscle in the body plays some role in the golf swing, but the power comes mostly from the core muscles — rectus abdominis, transverse abdominis, and obliques.

One of my favorite golf conditioning exercises — and you’d never guess from Monday’s disaster that I actually have a certification as a golf conditioning specialist – is a simple ball toss to a wall.

To perform it, you hold a ball in front of you as if it were your golf club and take your normal golf stance. Stand at a 90-degree angle to a wall and imitate your full golf swing, from backswing to follow through, letting the ball go at the time in your swing that you would be striking a golf ball. The ball should hit the wall and bounce back to you.

Perform a set of about 10 to 12 repetitions and then turn around and do the exercise in reverse (if you’re a right-handed golfer, turn around and perform it as if you were a left-handed golfer).

If you’re not already a regular exerciser, you could start with a volleyball or a soccer ball (deflate it a little so it doesn’t come rebounding off the wall and smack you in the face, you just want it to bounce once or twice before you catch it). After you progress, you will want to use a small medicine ball — you shouldn’t need anything heavier than a four to six-pound ball.

Perform three to four sets of 10 to 12 repetitions in each direction two to three times a week in the off-season and you should see an improvement next year.

One more thing, make sure the wall is something strong like cement or brick unless you need another home repair project.

Not surprising when you figure that the concept of what constitutes a serving size is way out of proportion to reality, but that’s another story.

And it’s not that my occasional salty chips fix now costs 75 cents a crack instead of 40 as much as it means I have to pay attention to that serving size.

Instead of something like three-fourths an ounce of deep-fried corn and salt (oh, the tragedy), it’s now one and three-fourths — translating into about 120 more calories, more total fat and more sodium, assuming I eat the whole bag.

So, if you’re like me, what can you do?

Well, barring some weird situation, no one is probably forcing you to eat the whole bag at one sitting. A rubber band around the package will keep a second serving fresh for another day.

Here are a couple of other things you could do:

Bring your snack — you control the serving size — from home and pick a healthier option unless you just h-a-v-e t-o h-a-v-e that salty snack. Either way, you’re better off.

Make sure you’re not confusing hunger with thirst. When you get the urge to hit the snack machine, first drink the biggest glass of water you can stand. Doesn’t have to be all at one gulp, but drink it all. Then wait 10 minutes.

If you’re still hungry, go eat something. If you’re not still hungry, you were only thirsty. You’ve satisfied that thirst and you haven’t ingested one single calorie.

This allows them to make sure they are training at a safe level and to push themselves to a great workout at the same time. Generally, effective training takes place between 55 percent and 90 percent of one’s maximum heart rate, depending on your objective. But training at the high end, say in the 75 to 90 percent range, all the time would break down even the toughest exercisers fairly quickly.

The easiest way to figure your maximum heart rate (there are more complicated and more precise ones) is to subtract your age from 220. For a 50-year-old, that’s a maximum heart rate of 170.

Knowing their maximum heart rate, then, allows them to find a percentage of that number and train at a level that allows them to train for long periods of time while still making fitness gains. They use the monitor to keep themselves at that level.

As their body adapts over time and their fitness improves, they will be faster and stronger but that heart rate will stay just about the same and they will have less chance of injury.

You need a flat bench and a medicine ball that you can handle. A ball between two and eight pounds will work.

Hold the ball in either hand and lean back at one end of the bench as if you were going to perform V-situps. When you are stable, flutter-kick your legs up and down as you toss the ball back and forth between them. You can do it if you start slowly and gradually pick up speed as you get better at it.

MacIsaac did it several times during his workouts in between other lifting. When I remember to do it, I usually try to do three sets for as long as I can.

One warning would be that, because of the spinal flexion and the extended legs during the exercise, I wouldn’t recommend it for anyone with low back issues or post menopausal women.

That’s nothing unusual for us, my wife and I have been running for years. What was unusual was how we felt.

Despite running on a road that was never flat for more than two steps in a row, I realized about halfway in that we were moving pretty well without really feeling the effort. The answer was simple, we were enjoying the new scenery — several deer crossing our paths included — too much to pay attention to how hard we were running.

You don’t have to travel five hours north to experience the same thing, though.

If your running times have hit a plateau and just won’t budge, try a different route or several different routes and turn off your stopwatch. Run just for the heck of it.

Even if your times don’t improve when you get back to training, you’re apt to take renewed pleasure in the workout.

The reason is simple. I haven’t been all that thrilled with my results after returning to running almost a year ago following damaging my Achilles tendons while playing softball.

The central point of Chi Running is to land each step more on your midfoot and push off with your toes, avoiding letting the heel land. The idea is that the traditional heel-strike-to-toe roll actually works like a brake to slow you down, and that the more is better mentality that goes with it leads to almost certain running injuries.

So far, I’ve been able to get into the Chi Running technique just by lifting my knees a little higher, shortening my stride and concentrating more on leg turnover.

The result has been faster half-mile times — 4:40s compared to low 5:00s — for three-mile runs and putting more distance on my hill runs around Sinnissippi Park. Chi Running also supposedly lowers your rate of perceived exertion.

In any event, re-learning running is working so far. I hope the times come down even more as I get better at the technique.

You take two free-weight plates of equal weight and press them together between your hands out in front of your chest. You’re not allowed to wrap your fingers anywhere around the edges of the plates and it’s a really good idea to hold them out far enough to save your toes in case of a mishap.

Then you just hold them together for as long as you can.

I started him out with five-pound weights and it didn’t take long until it became a competition. His best was a shaky minute and 33 seconds. Mine was a minute and 53.

Round two is scheduled for his workout this coming Monday.

The Men’s Health article ( I saved it as I often do when I see exercises I like) says the exercise builds the chest, biceps, shoulders and abs, and will help strengthen your grip. It suggests trying it at “the end of an upper-body routine or a chest workout, or in place of cable crossovers.”

Have fun.