He calls you “Cherie” as you channel the attitude of your mom, deriding the kids for not picking up their mess and complaining how canned salmon doesn’t taste as good as it used to. You hate him for it, but wonder if you are, indeed, morphing into the woman who raised you. This, despite the years of strident teenage rebellion, breastfeeding to one up her, and steadfastly maintaining the position you do not need to put on a frigging coat.

Lovable mom, angry mom, giddy and forgetful mom, resourceful, nagging, in need of a muzzle mom. The signs she is in there are surfacing daily. Here are ten I’ve been witnessing lately:

1. You embarrass your children with your exuberance.

This takes a variety of forms: Busting out in a song from a favorite musical while shopping at the mall; dancing in front of their friends at a Bat Mitzvah (i.e slapping your butt and twisting down to the ground during Shawty got Low) or Facebooking a personal anecdote about the great lengths they took to get spruced up for a dance. “Shoshanna got her hairy, ethnic lip waxed for the first time and didn’t even scream! That’s my daughter!”

2. Repeating yourself as a manipulation tactic to get your point across.
Your own mother told you no fewer than 20 times that Kathy Lee Gifford’s doctor ordered her to eat cereal with bananas when she was pregnant because she wasn’t gaining enough weight. You repeat the pattern, and pretend you don’t remember telling your kids 20 times that Zoe Goldberg got incurable lice from sharing brushes and scrunchies at camp.

3. Losing your car keys. Losing your house keys. Losing your luggage keys. Finding your keys in the trash.

4. Visible Links in the DNA Chain: Sore feet with corns, bunions and Plantar Fasciitis, Varicose Veins, impatience with tardiness, intolerance for loud music (it’s all too loud), flab around your middle, shrinking height, poor eyesight, bladder incontinence, laughing at silly greeting cards until you cry and wet your pants.

5. Becoming very friendly with the grocery store box boy, hair wax lady, or any strangers in line with you at the movies.

6. Sharing with your man, kids and friends fascinating details about the lives of the grocery store box boy, hair wax lady or strangers you met in line at the movies.

7. Wearing age-appropriate clothing, including labels you were convinced were only reserved for your mom and her old friends. (i.e. St. John, Chico, Ann Taylor, Coldwater Creek, Eileen Fisher, Jones New York, any support hose and shape wear.)

8. Adopting expressions you didn’t know were wired into your arguing mode: Put first things first; Wait until college to try that; Not while you are under my roof; That happened because god is punishing you for how you talked to me; That’s the only sister you will ever have, so stop trying to murder her; eliminate salt; things will look brighter in the morning; It’s Monday – brush your teeth! Bart takes his kids to Europe every summer and we have to go back to the Finger Lakes?

9. Talking about health problems with your friends. Talking about insurance plans with your friends.Talking about what you saved using coupons with your friends. Complaining about traffic, the president, gas prices and bad retail service with your friends.

10. Telling kids to wear a coat so they won’t get sick, even during sweltering summers in the Valley.

Images: Brett lider; Scraps to the Future; Crazyneighborlady; James Jordan; Podmapetit; Womanobsessed;Foxyvoxy;

Osteoporosis is a big deal for women. But there’s more involved in keeping your bones strong and healthy than just eating plenty of calcium. Weight-bearing activity (exercise on your feet that works your bones and muscles against gravity) is crucial to building and maintaining optimal bone mass. Here’s why:

• Bone density refers to your reserve of stored calcium. This is what determines the strength and health of your bones.
• Bones are living tissue and need to be used to be strengthened.
• The best time to start doing weight-bearing activities is during the teen and early adult years when bones are still growing. But it’s never too late to start!
• The more bone density you have, the less negative impact there will be after menopause, when bone density begins to thin out with the loss of estrogen.
• Higher bone density means stronger bones that are less susceptible to fracture or breakage.

So ladies, listen up: here are some activities you can incorporate into your lives to build up bone mass and stay strong.

• For starters, lift things! No need to go overboard, but carry your groceries to the car and don’t be shy about picking up boxes. Just make sure you protect your back and do it safely.
• Jogging is good for building bone, and so is walking uphill, but a regular walk around the block won’t do much for you.
• Vigorous gardening and housecleaning – move a lot, stretch and lift heavy things!
• Skip the elevator and climb stairs instead.
• On your walks and hikes, wear a backpack. Fill it with water bottles and other things to add some weight, as this helps build bone.
• Weightlifting is very good for your bones. There are weightlifting techniques that help build lean muscle mass, and plenty of bone while you’re at it. Here are tips to lift weights without bulking up.
• For more active types, try jumping rope, team sports (basketball, hockey, soccer), and high impact aerobics.

Each week here at EcoSalon, the editors choose a post from the archives that we think you’ll love. The original post can be found here.

Image: glitter feet

Not every gal is game for the hand sores, muscle aches and exhaustion that come with rowing your boat fiercely down the stream. You also have to be a whiz at time management, since crew cuts deeply into school and work schedules with its ridiculously early wake up calls to run, row and build endurance for hard core sculling.

No rest for the worthy, it’s off to the rowing machines (aka ergs) in the afternoon to pump up arm, core and leg strength and increase your SPM (strokes per minute), sometimes followed by a grueling night run after dinner. Like military boot camp, it’s all about one buff girl being part of a well-oiled machine. Anchors (and personal time) away!

It’s no wonder everyone who feels the burn, bellyaches. So why commit?

“The pros, I would say, are being in the best shape of your life from the intense workouts, being mentally strong and making great friendships,” shares Richard Tzeng, head coach of the girls’ crew team at Saint Ignatius College Preparatory in San Francisco, CA, which is recognized as one of the best programs in the country. “The cons are it can burn you out. You come home from practice so tired that you can’t do homework, and it takes a level of commitment to keep up with school work and the time the sport demands.”

Still, if you are able to stay afloat, rowing could be your ticket to college. If you’re very good at the sport, you might even score a free ride. This option is especially attractive to frustrated Californians who are finding it challenging to get into cash poor state schools, even with a 4.0 GPA.

More colleges are adding nontraditional women sports like rowing to satisfy Title IX requirements for gender equity in federally funded institutions.

Among them is Ohio State, which hiked women’s rowing to varsity status nine years ago. The team has deep pockets – $900,000 annually – to grant 20 scholarships, including 16 with 100 percent of tuition covered. Still, because of the high demands of the sport, there often aren’t enough high school rowers to go around, according to recruiters, who sometimes solicit complete novices on campus who have never sat in a shell.

Even if you rowed your last year of high school and never made a splash (like many newbies) you can still attract the coaches and recruiters. But Tzeng points out that you have to genuinely like the sport to keep your spot on a team.

“I coach girls to love the sport the way I love it, and if you do it primarily to get into a school, then you won’t last one year in college,” he says.

Last year, his rowers went on to schools like Harvard, Georgetown and Stanford. A coxswain went to Cornell. They also got into top state universities. Some schools like UCSB have crew clubs and don’t offer scholarships but CAL has a powerful women’s crew team with a stunning house in Oakland and a summer camp program to train interested girls.

At one time, recruits came strictly from New England prep schools, but according to the New York Times, rowers are being reeled in from drier parts of the nation with no history of rowing, as well as from overseas. Ohio State’s top varsity rowers have come from Germany, Russia, and the Netherlands.

Beyond the college degree, rowing gets a taped thumbs up for reforming onetime couch potatoes who suddenly find themselves going out for runs instead of watching reruns of NCIS. Wonders never cease. And for some high school girls, the military structure and rigor of being up at dawn and having to get your homework done before hitting the sack, leaves little down time for midweek distractions that have some parents unglued, namely obsessions with make-up and fashion, boy troubles and mood altering drugs.

If all of these factors don’t float your boat, you might just want to stick to the landlubber’s volleyball and soccer, and start saving up for college. But remember, that course too, might prove a bumpy ride.

Images: A. Blight, Ohio State, Luanne Bradley

Strike a pose? Sure. Unleash enough sweat to fill a small Dough Boy? Hey, if it reduces that fleshy upper thigh mass, I’m in. Tolerate a melange of putrid stench for 90-minutes? Hmm. That’s where this ever blossoming lotus needs to draw the line.

I recently returned to heated yoga after a three-year hiatus and was quickly reminded of why I’m so Bikram challenged. I have an acute sense of smell, not just strong mind you, but someone known by authorities as a woman who can detect a fire two counties away. Five minutes into the grueling repetition of nearly impossible contortions, I inhaled the unpleasant aroma of a moldy bathroom towel. Unfair! It was all downward dog from there.

Next came the rank cologne of stinky male body odor (I’m not sexist but my keen animal sensor knows Martians emit far fouler scents than Venetians).

But the coup de grace: Freshly applied Wella Balsam conditioner. The signature chemical properties of the popular hair product truly put me over the edge, conjuring memories of my days as a cubby reporter interviewing a 6-foot bulimic in the Chicago North Shore whose hair was shellacked with Wella.  I have the inexplicable urge to gag the moment I whiff that stuff, and it is seriously inappropriate to vomit in Bikram because it introduces a smell which could take years to eradicate from the hallowed hot haven of enlightenment.

Yes, I shed three pounds the week I was Bikram-bound, despite my friend Denise’s argument that “you don’t lose weight doing it.” And it can be said, I was a proud human pretzel during the class, too, glad I could still resemble a bendable Barbie, crouching lower than Shawty (and slowly standing back up while my knees creaked) and wrapping one profusely sweating leg around the other leg, evoking the image of the buff master in white trunks on the poster in the front room.

Still, I can’t get past the smells. As I lumbered to my car in the cold of night, feet slippery in flip-flops with soaked hair greased back like a scary landlady clad in a floral moo moo, I too was a smell for sore nostrils, like a Barbie abandoned in the bathtub for a few days, plastic absorbing that bathroom bacteria, reminiscent of that moldy towel I had to tolerate during class. I was never so happy to take a shower.

The next day I returned to a tap dancing class after a two-year hiatus and was instantly reminded of the reason I had left. That awful, clattering noise!

Image: Ron Sombilon Gallery

Summer sunshine and gorgeous weather make for the ideal conditions to get moving – whether hiking, running, biking with your family or simply taking your dog for a walk. But working out in the heat, always comes with a side of sweat, and all too often sweat-stained clothing make laundry a tricky task. How do you get rid of those embarrassing and icky yellow pits without reaching for chemical bleach or another harsh formula?

You can stick it to sweat stains with an easy DIY removal solution. In a spray bottle mix one cup of water with one cup of ammonia. Spray directly onto yellowed areas or dip an old rag into the formula and dab it onto the stains. Let the solution do its sweat-removing magic for 10 minutes.

Then wash your soon-to-be-white-again workout whites as usual. When you take them out of the washer you’ll love how clean they finally look and you can put them back on and start sweating all over again.

Image: ceiling

When the weather’s nice, it seems almost criminal to travel via car or stuffy bus. Jumping on a bike and cruising down the street with the breeze blowing through your hair-now, that sounds like a better way to celebrate the sun. Unfortunately, my bike is a rusted mess, with shoddy brakes and practically flat wheels. I’m in need of a new one, which means I need to do some research. Buying a new bike is an investment; not only are your safety and comfort at stake, but should you buy the wrong one, that’s hundreds of dollars (or even thousands, depending on the model) down the drain. Whether you’re looking for a bike to commute with or just something to get you to the market down the street, there are necessary steps everyone should take pre-purchase.

Ask yourself this first: why do you want a bike?

Have you walked into a bike shop recently? There are roughly one bajillion bicycles to choose from, so before you set foot inside, figure out why you need the bike. Chances are, you’ll choose from one of four different types. Be sure to talk to a professional about each before making a decision. He or she will have a better idea of the needs each specific model can meet.

• Mountain: This bike’s perfect if you want to bike on rough, uneven surfaces (i.e., not pavement). The bouncy, wide tires absorb shock well, and the heavy frame provides more stability. It does all right on regular roads, but only for short distances.
• Road: Road bikes are much lighter than their mountain counterparts and have big, skinny tires that allow for faster speeds and longer distances. They’re perfect for city commuting, taking long bike trips, and fitness riding, and the handlebars (either drop-bar or flat-bar) are designed to move through traffic better.
• Lifestyle: A couple of bike types fall into this category. Cruisers have retro designs (think bright colors and big handlebars) and are good for quick rides. Comfort bikes let riders sit more upright and have padded seats. They’re often similar to mountain bikes or hybrids, but, like their name implies, modified for extra comfort.
• Hybrid: Hybrids have tall, skinny tires and tend to have lighter frames than comfort bikes. Like comforts, their handlebars let riders sit taller. They work well in city situations.

Get advice from a bike shop employee.

Employees are there to help you, not intimidate you; if you’re being disrespected or made to feel stupid for being a bike newbie, go to another shop. Ask as many questions as you need to in order to feel comfortable with a purchase. There are many things to consider, like the size of the bike, general maintenance, and necessary equipment, that you might not know about. A professional will help you choose the right size and show you how to adjust seat height for optimal riding, give you tips on maintaining and fixing your bike, and show you all of the essential accessories (helmet, headlight, rear reflector, bike lock, etc.).

Be prepared for a little sticker shock.

When I first looked into getting a new bike, I balked at some of the prices. Even the cheapest ones fell somewhere between $350 and $500. I considered getting a used bike instead, but as a beginning bike enthusiast, I realized that was a mistake. If you’re a newbie like me, I’d advise you to get a new bike as well. Other than the fact that bike technology’s constantly improving and newer bikes are generally built better, you get more out of them-warranty protection and access to bike shop specialists being two of the more important advantages. A used bike could come with mechanical problems that, as a beginner, you won’t know how to fix. You can get it on the cheap, but expect to pay more for tune-ups and repairs later.

As for bike-shop versus big-department-store shopping, consider this: bikes at bike shops are put together by skilled employees, whereas department-store bikes are put together by people who don’t necessarily know anything about bikes. As with used bikes, department stores are usually cheaper, but you also get what you pay for. But if that’s your only option, just do as much research as you can beforehand.

Take the bike for a road test.

So you’ve consulted a professional and found what you consider to be the best bike for you. Now comes the most important part: take it for a spin! Even if the bike’s perfect on paper, you won’t know how much you’ll like it until you hop on the seat and go around the block a few times. Don’t be afraid to ask the bike shop employees if you can test it out; it’s what they expect. Would you buy a car without driving it first? The bike is a means of transportation, too, so make sure you can ride it comfortably before buying.

Switching out the car or bus for a bike once in a while is beneficial in numerous ways. Not only can it improve your physical health and mental wellness, but it helps the environment as well. While it might seem like a costly investment up front, think of the money you’ll save on gas and bus fare in the future. Clearly, bikes do a lot more than take you from point A to point B. And by learning about bikes and the rules of the road before you get to that starting point, you’ll minimize any potential bumps along the way.

Article by Vicki Santillano for DivineCaroline. First published May 2010.

Related DivineCaroline posts:

• 2010′s Newest Green Cars
• Get a Retro Workout with Childhood Toys
• When it Comes to Running, Is Barefoot Better?

Image: xddorax

You many not get abs of steel, but according to a new study recently published in The Journal Environmental Science & Technology, your mood and sense of personal well being can be lifted after five minutes of “Green Exercise.”

Green exercise, the Journal explains, is activity in the presence of nature. The study reveals that every green environment provides an important health service; being outdoors improves both self-esteem and mood, and that the presence of water generates even greater positive effects.

The research used meta-analysis methodology (a statistical technique that reviews quantitative research) to analyze 10 U.K. studies involving 1252 participants. Ten studies undertaken by the University of Essex over the past six years were selected for inclusion. Detailed research questions related to physical activities (duration and intensity), types of green places, and participant characteristics (age, sex, health status) were used.

Among the activities observed were cycling, gardening, walking, fishing, boating, and horseback riding in various environments such as the countryside and farmland, forest and woodland, urban green, and near water.

The Profile of Mood States (POMS) was used to quantify changes in mood, and measurements were taken immediately pre and post-activity or intervention. The study was created by Jo Barton and Jules Pretty from the Interdisciplinary Centre for Environment and Society at the University of Essex in the U.K.

Their findings suggest that attention should be given to developing the use of green exercise as a therapeutic intervention (green care), that planners and architects should improve access to green space (green design), and that children should be given opportunities to learn in outdoor settings (green education). Employers, they say, could encourage staff in stressful workplaces to take a short walk at lunchtime in the nearest Green Space to improve mental health, which may in turn affect productivity.

So the next time you need a boost, look for a park, a few trees, a pond, or even a Green Roof and take five.

Image: mariachily

Meat: It isn’t what’s for dinner if you want to be thinner – on and off the red carpet. Yes, a rigid diet is a great way to feel in control, and it shows up in vegetarian lifestyles just like all others.

The most disciplined in our culture are Hollywood celebs du jour like Kristen Bell, who swears by vegetarian diets (and daily workouts) to get that perfect body. It is not just a lifestyle for this segment, but a career. A one-time vegan, Bell says she reaches for a spoonful of peanut butter or a few Morningstar Farms veggie sausages for that protein fix.

She is among a growing cast of leading ladies (Demi Moore, Alicia Silverstone, Natalie Portman) and regular weight-conscious folk who have become mindful eaters not only for environmental and moral reasons, but to achieve that flat, bikini belly and 3-inch gap between the upper thighs. It works quite well but isn’t the vegetarian ideal.

Fountain-of-youth finder Moore says she is lucky she prefers iron rich, leafy spinach to chocolate, explaining why she looks 20 when she is approaching 50. But for most women, a focus on a strict veggie diet to reduce calories rather than to maintain good health has its pitfalls in terms of getting adequate daily nutrition.

“There is a caloric intake everyone needs, usually around 1200 to 1800 – depending on the height to weight ratio and if someone isn’t hitting that amount they are suffering from a caloric deficit and cannot function properly on a daily basis,” says Reese Dimacali, CPT/NCSF, a Bay Area trainer and nutrition consultant. “To be healthy you need everything, fiber, carbs and protein, which are fuel sources for our bodies and you are causing trauma to the body without that balance.”

Dimacali finds the healthiest vegetarians are not the new crop of green beings trying to look like models and rock stars but well rounded people who take it seriously. They research what their body might be lacking by giving up animal proteins and fats, and supplement their diets with protein shakes, whole grains, legumes, nuts, fish oil, pills, bars, rice and beans, soy and rice milks or other nutrition to boost energy and vitality.

“I studied at U.C. Santa Cruz and there were always rail thin vegetarians lying on the beach, not working out,” says the trainer. “I never saw them going on runs. You don’t have to work out to stay thin if you are only eating salads and spinach because losing weight is 80 percent eating, not exercising. It takes a lot of greens and cabbage soup to get the calories up to what is needed, and that is why they are usually so lethargic.”

In other words, if you aren’t a conscious vegetarian, you aren’t inclined to move your body the same way as the vegan with a cause. As Diets in Review points out, the way of the vegan and vegetarian is not a diet, but a lifestyle, one that requires awareness and responsibility. The site also links this choice to a deeper respect of the environment, saying “while there is a not a link to Veganism and activity, Vegans generally tend to eschew fossil fuels, and this translates into increased walking or utilizing public transportation methods, which in turn increases physical activity.”

Today, there is a cornucopia of websites, such as Vegan Nutrionista, which can walk you through the food pyramid for maintaining good a good intake of grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes and oils  – and staying fit as a result. When we talk to teens about their bodies, we focus on health and not weight to prevent eating disorders. We do this for a reason.

Vegan Nutrionista’s Food Pyramid:

With adults going vegetarian, as well, we need to emphasize the prolonging of life and lifting of spirits that often comes with avoiding sweet, salty, preserved processed foods and chemicals found in much of the animal kingdom. A muscular, buff body is sure to follow – ask any wise yogi! Very few of the masters clean their digestive systems to look hot in skinny jeans; but they still do. And so will you, as long as you feed your carnivore-designed system with what it requires.

Images: Celebrity Diets, Examiner

They chow down the same foods we healthy middle-aged women eat: Quinoa, lean proteins, fresh organic produce, water from chic reusable Sigg bottles. They drive hybrids and raise funds for good causes, shun the direct sun, and sometimes even wear secondhand fashion (couture, of course).

But tinsel town celebrities my age, like Demi Moore, who is featured on the cover of W Magazine this month, are not like me or any of my healthy, naturally beautiful women friends. No, unlike the mere mortal soccer moms I rub shoulders with at book club gatherings and parties, Demi shows no signs of age or wear and tear. Where is the emerging turkey neck Nora Ephron wrote about? Where are the sagging eyes? Where are the cottage cheese thighs?

“Her body of work has been notable in no small part because of her notable body,” writes Moore cover story author, Kevin West, adding that, “hers is an undeniably striking version of midlife.” He assures us the striking former brat packer has changed at 47, evidenced by tiny lines when she smiles, but she has not gone under the knife.

“It’s their job to look amazing,” observes my astute 13-year-old daughter, Sydney. She tells me if it were her full time job, she would be flawless, too. Methinks my teenager looks pretty flawless now, but she would be happier with perfect hair and no blemishes, stuff that completes you when you are 13.

It comes down to the perception of perfection, and in achieving it, stars are spoonfed support from trainers and personal chefs. Most turn to plastic surgery, even prematurely, like America’s sweetheart Meg Ryan and highly respected eco goddess Daryl Hannah. In both cases, the surgery changed the lovely features we knew, while their bodies maintain the taut physiques of teens. In all cases, the goal is achieved. Defy age. Look young.

One looming exception is Meryl, but even the consummate thespian had to shape up to play a mature hippie in Mama Mia and Alec Baldwin’s ex and Steve Martin’s lover in It’s Complicated.

Still, Streep, now in her 60′s, is probably aging more naturally than any other major star. She doesn’t succumb to surgery and I haven’t noticed her photographs being altered through Photoshop, the favorite weapon in the arsenal of Hollywood anti-aging defenses. Streep doesn’t maintain a public persona outside of her appearances, stays out of the sun and avoids alcohol. Those are pretty good defenses, too. Bon Apetit, Meryl!

While I’m certain Demi stays gaunt for her industry, the W cover shot is not the body of a 47-year-old mother unaltered. My 47-year-old friends look amazing, but none of them have bodies like that. It’s the body of her daughter Rumer, perhaps.

The cover was as surprising as the Self Magazine issue featuring American Idol Kelly Clarkson, who didn’t actually slim down the way the magazine suggests on the cover, but erased those pounds thorough digital post-production. And how ’bout that ad featuring Ralph Lauren model Filippa Hamilton, who was deemed too fat at 5’10″ and 120 pounds and had to be drastically Shopped to cut the mustard?

While the option of doing digital makeovers is the choice of each publication, the star still pays a price in terms of credibility.

I feel compassion when I realize society demands its idols be, well, objects to idolize. Air brushing and retouching are just a few of the finishing tools employed in the land of make believe, the land the media fully endorse because we fully buy into it. But at the end of the day, it just makes us feel sad. We can’t possibly live up to these images of perfection, and frankly, neither can the stars.

The alternative: finding a way to accept ourselves as natural beauties who do the best we can to stay healthy and fit and happy and productive – and admire how we are able to thrive in a world with so much adversity, sickness, hunger and negativity.

The Demoiselles website did a recent feature profiling celebs moving in the direction of self-acceptance, even unlikely candidates such as Kim Karshashian, who posed for the cover of Life & Style Weekly completely unretouched.

When asked by the magazine why she is so open about her body (i.e. showing herself receiving a cellulite treatment on her reality show), Kardashian said she was tired of people pretending they’re perfect and covering up things when in reality we are who we are.

“You can try to improve that, but the reality is, nobody’s perfect.” she declared.

But maybe we are perfect, Kim. Maybe we are perfectly flawed.

This is the latest installment in Luanne’s column, Life in the Green Lane.

Images: W Magazine, Plastic Sergeant, Sony pictures, ABC News, Life & Style Magazine, Luanne Bradley

Osteoporosis is a big deal for women. But there’s more involved in keeping your bones strong and healthy than just eating plenty of calcium. Weight-bearing activity (exercise on your feet that works your bones and muscles against gravity) is crucial to building and maintaining optimal bone mass. Here’s why:

Bone density refers to your reserve of stored calcium. This is what determines the strength and health of your bones.
Bones are living tissue and need to be used to be strengthened.
The best time to start doing weight-bearing activities is during the teen and early adult years when bones are still growing. But it’s never too late to start!
The more bone density you have, the less negative impact there will be after menopause, when bone density begins to thin out with the loss of estrogen.
Higher bone density means stronger bones that are less susceptible to fracture or breakage.

So ladies, listen up: here are some activities you can incorporate into your lives to build up bone mass and stay strong.

For starters, lift things! No need to go overboard, but carry your groceries to the car and don’t be shy about picking up boxes. Just make sure you protect your back and do it safely.
Jogging is good for building bone, and so is walking uphill, but a regular walk around the block won’t do much for you.
Vigorous gardening and housecleaning – move a lot, stretch and lift heavy things!
Skip the elevator and climb stairs instead.
On your walks and hikes, wear a backpack. Fill it with water bottles and other things to add some weight, as this helps build bone.
Weightlifting is very good for your bones. There are weightlifting techniques that help build lean muscle mass, and plenty of bone while you’re at it. Here are tips to lift weights without bulking up.
For more active types, try jumping rope, team sports (basketball, hockey, soccer), and high impact aerobics.

Image: glitter feet