Fan Fest II to Feature Matt Kenseth, Jamie McMurray and the Gin Blossoms

Texas Motor Speedway, in partnership with six Dallas/Fort Worth CBS RADIO stations, will play host Aug. 19 to FanFest II, a free event that will feature special appearances by NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stars Matt Kenseth and Jamie McMurray, a concert by the Gin Blossoms and several ride-along programs. Last year’s inaugural event with Sprint Cup drivers Clint Bowyer and Martin Truex Jr. drew more than 5,000 fans.

“We received very positive feedback from fans who visited FanFest last year and we are looking to make this year’s event an even bigger success,” Texas Motor Speedway President Eddie Gossage said. “FanFest gives us an opportunity to give back to our fans as well as introduce new ones to Texas Motor Speedway, and during this economic climate we are pleased to be able to treat families to a free night of entertainment.”

FanFest II will be held from 5-9 p.m. CT in the speedway infield, primarily in the IndyCar Series (South) garage as well as pit lane. Free parking will be available in the infield.

Kenseth, the 2003 Sprint Cup Series champion, and McMurray will kick off their visit with individual one-hour autograph sessions in the tech bay area of the garage, beginning at 6:30 p.m. The Roush Fenway Racing duo also will conduct a Q&A with the fans prior to the concert by the Gin Blossoms.

FanFest II also will give visitors the opportunity to enjoy the full racing experience with rides around the 1.5-mile, high-banked oval in a Texas Motor Speedway pace car or Team Texas stock car, Texas Driving Experience Corvettes on the infield road course and a Fan Pit Stop Challenge. All the pace car rides are free throughout the event and Team Texas and TDE are donating 200 free rides for the event.

FanFest II will culminate with a one-hour concert by the Gin Blossoms beginning at 8 p.m. in the infield. The Gin Blossoms are known for their Billboard Top 25 hits, “Hey Jealousy,” “Found Out About You,” “Follow You Down,” and “Til I Hear It From You.”

CBS RADIO will have six of its popular D/FW stations – 103.7 Lite FM, Movin 107.5 FM, 98.7 KLUV FM, Jack FM, KRLD 108 AM and Live 105.3 FM – on site. The stations will be featuring several of their on-air personalities and promotional booths offering giveaways throughout the event. Food and beverages will be on sale and TMS also will have a souvenir stand and race ticket booth set up for interested fans.

Admission is free, but tickets are required.  Free admission tickets will be available at participating Minyard, Sack ‘N Save and Carnival stores, through CBS RADIO on-air promotions and at the speedway ticket office through the day of the event.  For more information click here .

yoga island offers 5 different levels of classes. Gentle Yoga focuses on stretching and learning to loosen up your body, especially beneficial if you haven’t exercised in a long time. Beginners Vinyasa I is the easiest form of true vinyasa movements, known as the 12 salutations to the sun. Vinyasa I is the next regular increment, though it should be noted that anyone, yes anyone can begin with Vinyasa I level classes.

yoga is designed to increase your internal body temperature and through sweating you also purify and detoxify your muscles and organs. The breathing ensures better circulation of your blood, leading to overall improved circulation, a lighter and stronger body, and a calm mind.

There’s also Vinyasa II which is a series of more advanced movements, as well as Prenatal yoga and private classes.

I would describe yoga as ‘relaxed exercise’, but make no mistake, yoga is a full body workout! When you attend a class, you will see individuals in almost every class that are so amazingly flexible, you may be overwhelmed, but don’t. Very few walked into their first classes that way. Even in a group setting, the instructors work personally with each student helping them to establish their own personal best and stretch to the next levels.

yoga island was recently named in the "Best Studios in Dallas, 2008" by D Magazine as reported in the newly released D Beauty issue where they were described as a delightful studio, combining quality classes with a friends-and-family atmosphere. They really do know your name.

Call yoga island at 972-724-1277 to sign up for the free class, or visit their website at www.yogaisland.com . yoga island is in Flower Mound, on FM2499 just south of FM1171.

So, forget about trying to control your healthy eating with the size of your plate and stick with the basics, including:

• Start a healthy eating program
• Stick with the program
• Consistency throughout the day
• Exercise 30 minutes each day
• Drink your water
• Smile and know that you are making positive changes!

I’ve always had a CO Detector in my home, and even insisted on my daughter having one in her sorority house room. Bluntly, you never know the quality of the furnace, hot water and gas systems in an old place that someone else maintains. For that matter you may not know the quality of the system in your own relatively new home!

A few years ago I was out of state on a business trip when my family was awakened around 2am by our CO Detector. Grabbing the kids out of bed and calling 911, they were advised to immediately open a couple of windows and get outside quickly. The kids were wide eyed, all standing out on the front lawn wrapped in blankets and my wife was embarrassed when the big red fire truck and ambulance rolled up in front of our home and a half-dozen firefighters jumped out!

She explained how the CO Detector was beeping so they took their equipment inside and advised her that she had done the right thing by calling. They said the CO was coming from our upstairs furnace which was in the attic so they shut it off. It was a couple of hours before they considered it safe for them to return inside. Now when it’s cold enough for the furnace to be running, standing outside is the last place you want to be at 2am in your pajamas!

We got an HVAC company out that morning and learned that the furnace had a cracked heat exchanger and had to be replaced NOW! The heat exchanger captures the heat from the hot flue gas and transfers it to your home’s ductwork. If the heat exchanger fails, it will leak those flue gases into the house. Every time the furnace heats and cools the heat exchanger will expand and contract, stretching the metal in and out. This eventually leads to metal fatigue and can split open the metal. Just imagine taking a piece of metal and bending it back and forth several times, it will eventually crack and break off.

Our home was only 8 years old at the time! Yep, out of warranty so we had to spend several thousand dollars, unexpectedly right before Christmas, and it had to be done. Thank goodness for our CO Detector. Carbon Monoxide can lull everyone in a household into a permanent sleep.  CO is colorless, and odorless and works very fast in high concentration. A concentration of 1500 PPM can kill in 15 minutes and you may not notice the effects until it’s too late. This makes the furnace the most dangerous appliance you will ever own. Cracks or holes in the heat exchanger in most residential furnaces cannot be repaired.

Check your CO Detector and Smoke Detectors now. If you don’t have one, go to the store to get one, NOW!  Prices range from $30 to $60 and they’re readily available at Lowes, Home Depot, Walmart, Target, and others.   Click here for more information on buying a Carbon Monoxide Detector from Lowe’s How To Library.   Though there’s a variety of units, remember, they all do their job, oh, and they all need to replaced every 3-7 years depending on who you listen to.

1. The rich give away more. On average, in 2004 the average household gave away just 2% of it’s income to charities. Households with $500,000 or more in investable assets gave away 6%, and households worth $5 million gave away 6.1%. Wow. I’m thinking major tax write offs here. How can one declare himself a charity again?

2. They are more likely to own their own business. On average, 12% of Americans own all or part of a privately held business. In the wealthiest 10% of households, 41% own their own business. So to be truly wealthy, own your own successful business.

3. They borrow strategically. The rich are less likely to have credit card debt then the rest of us. I knew there was a reason to cut up those credit cards! Only 22.4% of the rich are likely to have credit card debt compared to 44.4% of the rest of us. This is one of the best lessons we can pass on to our children preparing to start their lives. Be careful with credit cards, and pay them off monthly. Maxing out credit cards is a sad trend that appears to be getting worse.

The wealthy are also less likely to have any installment debt, such as car loans (25.6%), than the rest of us (45.2%). Maybe they understand the concept of interest just a bit better than we do.

What they do have is mortgage debt. 55.5% of the wealthy have a primary mortgage, compared to 44.6% of the rest of us. Another 15% of them carry additional real estate loans (2nd homes, investment properties, etc) compared to 4.7% of us.

4. They don’t blow a lot of money on cars. The median price for a wealthy person’s automobile collection is $25,400. They may buy nice cars, but their automobiles account for just 2.4% of their net worth, compared to 8.8% for the rest of us where our median price is $11,800. There’s something to be said for having one nice car that will get you from point A to B. I’ve seen some high value homes where their driveway looks like a parking lot from Sanford and Son (and old sitcom starring Redd Foxx as a junk dealer). Conversely, we’ve all seen lower value homes with expensive luxury cars in the driveway.

5. Almost all of them are homeowners. Among the top 10% of the wealthiest, 95.8% are homeowners, compared to 67.7% overall. And an additional 40% own a rental property or 2nd home compared to 11% overall. But even their real estate doesn’t make up the majority of their net worth, only 10%, with second properties adding up to 7%. Most of the wealthy’s net worth comes from smart investments. 46% of their net worth comes from stocks and bonds, IRAs, mutual funds, managed accounts, and alternative investments.

So you want to be rich? Save your money, and invest it wisely. Stay away from high interest credit card debt and auto loans. Buy a second vacation home or rental property. Buy your cars smartly, and give to charities.

When you’re too swamped to hit the gym, just put on your walking shoes in the morning. According to an Indiana University study, surprisingly, a few short walks per day can keep you fitter than one long sustained workout.

Most health and fitness experts have traditionally suggested walking for at least 20 minute every day. Researchers asked 20 people with borderline high blood pressure to walk on a treadmill at 2.5 to 4 miles per hours for 40 minutes. On a different day, the subjects walked on the treadmill for four 10- minutes periods over the course of 3 1/2 hours. The exercisers’ blood pressure dropped significantly in each case, but the effect lasted 11 hours when they broke the workout up and 7 hours when they walked continuously.

Blood pressure is reduced progressively after each short round of exercise, explains the study author. So when you don’t have time or desire for a sweaty run, stay healthy by fitting a few walking breaks into your day.

Check in next week as we begin a series on walking Flower Mound, the benefits, tips for success, walking groups, and an introduction to the many trails around our community that continue to be expanded.

1. WITHOUT anyone watching you (they may think you are GOOFY)….) and while sitting where you are…at your desk, in front of your computer, or at the kitchen table, lift your right foot off the floor and start making clockwise circles.

2. Now, while doing this, draw the number “6″ in the air with your right hand.
Your foot will change direction. (If it doesn’t we don’t know what to tell ya)!

One Think Tank theory is that this effect is due, in part the normal difference in height between hand and foot.That difference, in conjunction with gravity and the earth’s rotation, is enough to affect the body’s highly sensitive limb rotation mechanisms. If you eliminate this difference (for instance,by lying down and holding your right leg and arm at about the same height),your right foot will be unaffected. However, if you reverse this height difference (for instance,by positioning your right leg above your head and your right hand nearer the floor), the effect will be even more marked. This is probably because,with this posture,your head is in a silly position too.

Now if you believe that nonsense, there’s no need to read on.

Theory 2 makes a relationship between brain motor control and extremities. Probably closer on track.

Theory 3 ties it into a deeply ingrained reflex, such as those that allow a dog or horse, for example, to move all 4 legs in perfect sync when running, thus similarly helps us out in other situations. Perhaps without those coordinations, we might have trouble maintaining our balance, or even walking.

FYI, it’s very easy to do with opposite sides of your body, ie left foot and right hand, or right foot and left hand!

Volunteers who chomped on sugar free gum for 25 minutes every hour for three hours after lunch reported having fewer sugar cravings.

“The sweeteners may quell your desire for something sugary, while the act of chewing prevents you from munching mindlessly,” explains study author Marion M. Hetherington, Ph.D.

Now how do they keep your jaws from getting sore after chewing that much!!!

Prevention magazine recommends Yoga. Just 30 sessions gave patients a leaner look with less back pain. According to the report, over 1 Million Americans practice Yoga to reduce back pain.

Of course we recommend you contact the wonderful instructors at yoga island. They’ve been doing just that for Flower Mound area residents now for over 3 years. Owner Sloane Park was recently selected as the Yoga Ambassador for the Lululemon Athletica chain’s newest store opening soon in the Shops at Highland Village, coming soon to Flower Mound.

If you’ve never tried Yoga and are interested in learning more, yoga island is conducting a Free Beginner’s Workshop on Saturday, Sept 1st, 2007 from 1:30-3:00pm at their studio on FM2499. Visit their site or call them at 972-724-9642 for more information.

Also ask about their Free “Eat Like a Yogi & Detox Workshop” on Friday, August 31st at 6:30pm. They will share the latest news regarding Nutrition, how to eat healthy in a toxic world, and teach you how to successfully complete a 21 DAY DETOX Program.

Link to yoga island

Link to MSN Article

Link to Australian Study