Health

I always hold open doors for moms with strollers. Now I was never a let-the-door-shut in your face kind of person, but when I see a mom coming up to a door with a stroller and coffee/cell phone/diaper bag/toddler in hand, I high tail it to the door to open it up for them. Why? Because I’ve been there.

Today Reebok launches RealFlex, the latest design in feel-great footwear. With 76 independent sensors on the bottom of each shoe, RealFlex technology works with your stride, providing all the benefits of barefoot running without putting undue pressure on your joints.

A 16-year-old from Toronto is the latest wunderkind to prove that however lofty your life goals may be, somewhere, a teenager has already achieved them. Marshall Zhang, a student at Richmond Hill's Bayview Secondary School, may have created a new drug cocktail that will help fight cystic fibrosis, a progressive, fatal genetic disease that eventually results in difficulty digesting food and breathing.

Few things in life are as fine a balance as sleep, and it's tough to get it just right. Too little sleep has been linked to all kinds of chronic problems, from unflattering eye bags to obesity, diabetes and premature death. And now it turns out that either too little or too much sleep can unduly age your brain, and even speed up the onset of dementia.

Goals. I've set myself a big one, a challenge for a not-particularly athletic mother of small children: complete a triathlon. But I'm starting from scratch and will need about a year to prepare. As I ease my way into training, the big goal seems to stretch farther and farther away. It becomes a maybe-triathlon, a haze on the horizon. "I don't feel like getting up for a run," I say to my husband. "So stay in bed," says he. "But if I don't get up every time I don't feel like it," I say, "I'll never go for a run."