Put a lime in the coconut and drink it all up...

One of the responsibilities of healthy living is to have the tests and check ups required to maintain one's health. Our challenge for the week beginning May 16 is:

1.   Read this entire post

2.     Make a list of the check-ups that you should have this year according to these or your physician’s guide-lines.

3.     Set target dates to participate in these check-ups.

4.     Actually schedule at least one check up and when the date arrives follow through and attend it (It is OK if the date to attend does not fall within this week. Schedule it sometime this week and attend it when it arrives to earn the bonus points).

5.     Note: If you are all up to date on all of your check ups give yourself a cheer and claim all 35 points without having to do anything.

6.   If you do not have health insurance or have a high co-pay and cannot afford the test at this time you are welcome to schedule the test far enough out that you have time to save the needed funds.

Here’s the guidelines:

Dental cleaning and exam every 6 months.

Eye exam every 2 years/ after age 45 check for glaucoma every year if you have something that needs closer monitering

Blood pressure screening every 2 years

Pelvic Exam and Pap Smear every 2 years.  If over age 30 only every 3 years 

Cholesterol screening every 5 years for women over 40 

Colon Cancer Screening for women over 50

◦ A stool test done every year.

◦ Flexible sigmoidoscopy every 5 years along with a stool guaiac test.

◦ Colonoscopy every 10 years.

◦ Double-contrast barium enema every 5 years.

◦ Computed tomographic colonography (virtual colonoscopy) every 5 years.

◦ People with risk factors for colon cancer such as ulcerative colitis, a personal or family history of colorectal cancer, or a history of large colorectal adenomas must get first colons-copy by age 50 and then re-checks as advised

Physical Exam every 1-5 years

Breast Exams

Women may do a monthly breast self-exam

Women should contact their doctor immediately if they notice a change in their breasts, whether or not they do self exams.

A health care provider should do a complete breast exam every year.

Women over age 40 should have a mammogram done every 1-2 years, depending on their risk factors, to check for breast cancer.

Eating Mindfully...

Those who know me personally, know I have a terrible habit of inhaling my food. I always use the excuse that my dad was a fireman before microwave ovens were invented, so we all learned to eat quickly in case the fire alarm rang- but truth is there really is no excuse for eating at supersonic speed.

You’ve guessed it. This week’s challenge involves becoming aware of that reflexive urge to plow through your meal like Cookie Monster on a shortbread bender. Resist it. Leave the fork on the table. Chew slowly. Stop talking. Tune in to the texture of the food, savor the flavor, smell the aroma rising from the steam, look carefully at the bright color and the beautiful shape.

Continue this way throughout the course of a meal, and you’ll experience the eye-opening pleasure of a practice known as mindful eating.

Mindful eating is about experiencing food more intensely — especially the pleasure of it. You can eat a cheeseburger mindfully, if you wish. You might enjoy it a lot more. Or you might decide, halfway through, that your body has had enough. Or that it really needs some salad.

Dr. Jan Chozen Bays, a pediatrician and meditation teacher in Oregon and the author of “Mindful Eating: A Guide to Rediscovering a Healthy and Joyful Relationship with Food said, ” “I think the fundamental problem is that we go unconscious when we eat.”

That’s why mindful eating is becoming more important. We need to be coming back to ourselves and saying: ‘Does my body need this? Why am I eating this? Is it just because I’m so sad and stressed out?’ ”

The point is focus on the act of eating, as opposed to eating and talking, eating and watching TV, or eating and watching TV and gossiping on the phone while Tweeting and updating one’s Facebook status.

Some experts have claimed “As we practice this regularly, we become aware that we don’t need to eat as much. Whereas when people just gulp down food, they can eat a lot and do not feel full.”

How do we begin? Don’t be too hard on yourself. You’re not supposed to be able to switch on your mindfulness button and be able to do it 100 percent. It’s a practice you keep working toward.

Few places in America are as frantically abuzz with activity as the Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., but when Thich Nhat Hanh dropped by for a day of mindfulness in September, hundreds of employees showed up.

Part of the event was devoted to eating thoughtfully in silence, and the practice was so well received that an hourlong wordless vegan lunch is now a monthly observance on the Google campus.

“Interestingly enough, a lot of the participants are the engineers, which pleases us very much,” said Olivia Wu, an executive chef at the company. “I think it quiets the mind. I think there is a real sense of feeling restored so that they can go back to the crazy pace that they came from.”

To help in your personal quest to eat more mindfully here are some tips:

 1. Chew Your Food More

Chewing is probably the simplest and most effective way to develop the habit of eating mindfully. Extra chewing results in less overall food intake.

25 chews per bite is recommended, but likely anything over 20 chews will provide a benefit. The most important part is that you choose a number and count your chews until you reach it. The number itself is less consequential.

To help myself remember to chew thoroughly you might want to use a smart phone app such as Reminders! to ping a few minutes before your usual mealtimes with a simple Chew 25 Times reminder.

2. Feed yourself with your non-dominant hand

Making things more difficult is a great way to force yourself to pay attention to what you’re doing. One simple way to do this is to force yourself to eat with your non-dominant hand.

3. Eat every thing with chopsticks for a week

Even if you grew up with chopsticks as your primary utensil, you’ve probably never used them to eat a sandwich or a bag of chips.

I once heard a story about a local tech company that asked a bunch of their employees to use chopsticks exclusively for a week as a mindfulness exercise. Although weight loss was not the goal, everyone in the office lost weight and several reported life changing realizations as a result of the project.

One person dropped his morning bagel habit when he realized that the chopsticks prevented him from experiencing the part of the ritual that he enjoyed the most. Apparently the taste of the bagel was not as appealing as the act of ripping it apart with his hands. Once he realized that actually eating the bagel wasn’t important to him he decided to give it up.

4. Put your fork down between each bite

Putting your fork down between bites of food is an excellent complement to the chewing habit. The act of setting your fork down forces you to focus on chewing your food rather than letting yourself mindlessly pick at your plate for your next bite. It also encourages you to slow down and attend more to the taste of your food, instead of just shoveling it down your throat as quickly as possible.

5. Take your first bite with your eyes closed

An experiment was held in a restaurant where the entire dining experience, including being seated at the table, occurred in the pitch dark. The idea was to focus exclusively on the experience of eating, without the distraction of vision.

While eating all of your meals in the dark, or even with your eyes closed, is not very practical, taking the time to taste your first bite with your full attention can help you eat the rest of your meal more mindfully. Focus on all the flavors in your mouth and how they interact, as well as the smells and textures. This will help you both appreciate your food and eat more slowly.

6. Try to identify every ingredient in your meal

Trying to taste and identify all the different ingredients in your meal is another great way to focus on the present moment and eat more mindfully. This is particularly fun at restaurants, when you didn’t make the food yourself. An added bonus of this technique is it may also help you become more creative in the kitchen.

7. Put your food on a plate

It may sound obvious, but eating out of a bag is not a very mindful practice. Get in the habit of placing even small snacks and desserts on a plate before you eat them. This will force you to acknowledge exactly what and how much you will be eating.

8. Sit at a table

Once your food is on a plate, you may as well go the extra mile to sit at a table. Formalizing your dining experience can help draw your attention to your food and your eating habits.

9. Eat in Silence

Put away your phone, turn off the t.v. Any sensation that you experience outside of taste and smell while you’re eating can distract you and make mindful eating more difficult.

While going through an entire meal in pure silence may be a bit much for most of us, designating the first 3-5 minutes of a meal for quiet and mindful practice can be an effective strategy.

YOUR CHALLENGE FOR THE WEEK BEGINNING MAY 9 IS TO TRY AT LEAST ONE OF THE ABOVE TECHNIQUES AND MAKE A REAL EFFORT TO EAT MORE MINDFULLY FOR AT LEAST ONE MEAL EACH DAY IN ORDER TO EARN YOUR DAILY BONUS POINTS.

  

Here comes the Sun!

Not sure about where you live, but here in Central Florida the weather has been gorgeous! It’s a great reminder of the importance of getting adequate amounts of sunlight for its vitamin D-boosting benefits. Recent research, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, shows that those with the lowest vitamin D levels have more than double the risk of dying from heart disease and other causes over an eight-year period compared with those with the highest vitamin D levels. The researchers cite "decreased outdoor activity" as one reason that people may become deficient in vitamin D. Another recent study found an increased risk of heart attacks in those with low vitamin D levels.

Why is Vitamin D important?

Vitamin D is involved in a number of processes that are essential for good health, including the following:

•   It helps improve muscle strength and immune function.

•   It helps reduce inflammation.

•   It promotes the absorption of calcium from the small intestine.

•   It helps maintain adequate blood levels of the calcium and phosphate needed for bone formation, mineralization (incorporating minerals to increase strength and density), growth, and repair (1–3).

What is vitamin D and where can I get some?

Vitamin D is technically not a vitamin. It is the name given to a group of fat-soluble prohormones . Most people get much of the vitamin D they need through sunlight exposure. It can also be obtained through the diet, but very few foods naturally contain vitamin D. These foods include fatty fish, fish liver oil, and eggs. Smaller amounts are found in meat and cheese. Most dietary vitamin D comes from fortified foods, such as milk, juices, yogurt, bread, and breakfast cereals. Vitamin D can also be obtained through dietary supplements. Fortified foods and dietary supplements usually contain either vitamin D₂ or vitamin D₃. A person’s vitamin D status is usually checked by measuring the level of 25-hydroxyvitamin D in their blood serum.


 Am I getting enough Vitamin D from the sun?

In the winter, it's impossible to produce vitamin D from the sun if you live north of Atlanta because the sun never gets high enough in the sky for its ultraviolet B rays to penetrate the atmosphere. But spring and summer present a great opportunity to stock up on the nutrient. When the sun's UV-B rays hit the skin, a reaction takes place that enables skin cells to manufacture vitamin D. If you're fair skinned, experts say going outside for 10 minutes in the midday sun—in shorts and a tank top with no sunscreen—will give you enough radiation to produce about 10,000 international units of the vitamin. Dark-skinned individuals and the elderly also produce less vitamin D, and many folks don't get enough of the nutrient from dietary sources like fatty fish and fortified milk.

What else is good about getting daily sun?

The sunshine vitamin may protect against a host of diseases, including osteoporosis, heart disease, and cancers of the breast, prostate, and colon. What's more, sunlight has other hidden benefits—like protecting against depression, insomnia, and an overactive immune system.

Given all the upsides of basking at least briefly in the summer sun, many experts now worry that public-health messages warning about skin cancer have gone overboard in getting people to cover up and seek the shade. U.S.News got in touch with Robyn Lucas, an epidemiologist at Australian National University who led a study published in the February issue of the International Journal of Epidemiology. Her finding: Far more lives are lost to diseases caused by a lack of sunlight than to those caused by too much.

How much sun is it safe to get without sunscreen?
 It depends on how much skin is exposed and the time of day. If you're fair skinned and sunning yourself outside in a bathing suit at noon, you only need a few minutes without sunscreen. If you're already tan or of Hispanic origin, you need maybe 15 to 20 minutes. Black skin may require six times the sun exposure to make the same vitamin D levels as a very fair-skinned person.

And so what is the challenge for the week?

YOUR CHALLENGE FOR THE WEEK (BEGINNING MAY 2) IS TO GET YOURSELF OUTSIDE FOR AT LEAST 10 MINUTES A DAY. You have the continueing challenge to exercise 6 days a week but this week you also need to BE OUTSIDE FOR 10 MINUTES A DAY (And yes although you may take the Sabbath as a day free from exercise you can still go outside for 10 minutes on Sunday). You don’t have to do your 60 minutes of exercise outside. Feel free to do your hour of yoga (or whatever) in the gym and then go lay on your front lawn with the dog for 10 minutes. Or if you’d like, you can do part or all of your exercise outside. The important thing is that you get yourself outside in the daylight. Please enjoy, breath deeply, enjoy the trees and bushes and flowers. Notice the squirrels and birds. Rest your soul and soak up some vitamin D.

·       I gave this challenge last year and got a lot of complaints about how cold it still is other places. I really hope if it’s still chilly where you live you can dress as warmly as needed (modestly exposing as much skin as you can stand) and still get yourself 10 minutes of outdoor time a day.

** If you consistently cannot get real sunshine. Think carefully about taking a daily Vitamin D supplement like http://www.amazon.com/Vitamin-1000-Liquid-Natural-Factors/dp/B003BHWXWC/ref=pd_sbs_hpc_7

I think I can, I know I can, I am amazing!

First of all I was inspired and encouraged by the creativity you all showed in picking a visual to help you on your path to Healthy Living- Awesome!

So last week we all worked on "Seeing Ourselves" to healthiness, and this week we will work on thinking ourselves to Healthiness. 

About 8 years ago I completed a marathon with my oldest daughter. Our goal was to finish and hurrah we did it! Funny thing is neither of us is really a runner, and we actually both went from not running at all to a marathon in just a few short months. 

And with all those months of training and all those hours and hours of running I actually never learned to love to run nor did I ever feel a runner's high. I just had it on my bucket list and wanted to prove something to myself by doing it

But one funny thing I learned while training was the power of my thoughts. I NEVER once wanted to do a training run. I would often find myself during the day thinking "Oh I'm so tired. I need to run 12 miles today. I don't want to do it. Oh I'm dreading it. Oh I wish I could skip it." And what I finally learned to do next was just silly. I would purposefully say to myself in my mind... "No actually I love to run. I can't wait until I get to run today. It's such a stress reliever. It's going to be awesome. When can I get to it? I just can't wait." And even though I didn't really think ANY of those things sincerely I would actually find my attitude improving by pretending to think them and methodically going through the thoughts in my head.

So what is this week's challenge?  To think some positive thoughts. I'd like you to go to 

http://www.billionclicks.org/

and read Hillary Week's material on thinking positive. You may even want to purchase one of her inexpensive clickers to help you count your positive thoughts. I promise you are going to find great power in thinking positively.

And our specific challenge for the week is to Compose 5 positive statements about yourself and your healthy living, and read or recite them to yourself every morning and every night for the week. For every day you accomplish this you earn the 5 bonus points. 

And really ladies. You are strong. You are beautiful. You are a woman that honors your body and enjoys being physical and healthy. You exude energy and wellness and happiness. You are amazing!

Let's Get Visual

I realize that since this is a healthy living competition we may all be focused on various personal goals. Perhaps you want to be able to run 30 minutes without stopping. Maybe you want to lose pounds or inches or both. Maybe you want to eliminate sugar from your daily diet (with just occasional treats), perhaps learning to drink more water is your focus.

Our challenge for this week is to do something visual about it. I'd like you to make some kind of visual reminder to help you reach your personal healthier living goal.

A few ideas might be:

1. If you have inches or pounds to lose get 2 jars and some kind of tangible markers to put in it (quarters, buttons, stones, seashells). In the first jar put how many -- inches, pounds or whatever you hope to lose and you will move one marker into the second jar each time you lose one. Sad of course if you have to move any of the markers back!

2. Find a photo to post of your heaviest or most out of shape self and your thinnest or most in shape self. Tack it to your mirror or refrigerator or somewhere else your gaze often falls.

3. If drinking water is your goal get a large cup or bottle that holds ALL the water you want to drink daily so you can more easily see and track your progress.

4. If a certain level of fitness or exercise is your goal make some kind of chart to track your progress. I had one girlfriend that literally ran from North Carolina to Los Angeles. She found out how many miles that was and made herself a little chart where she colored in each of the many miles she ran until she met the total. She was there!

5. Make yourself a puzzle. Google an image of something you have been really wanting (manicure, new pair of shoes, movie tickets to a film you want to see etc.) and cut the puzzle up into a number of pieces. When you reach health living milestones you set for yourself, award yourself a piece until you have completed the puzzle and allow yourself the real reward.

6. There are a couple of really interesting websites. The first one is at

http://www.mybodygallery.com/index.html

This is an interesting site where various people have downloaded photos of themselves at various heights and weights and sizes. (not all modest- Sorry!) It is a tool to help you discover what size, shape and weight you truly desire to be at.

7. A second tool that is really fun and I'd love it if you'd all take the time to use this one is

http://makeovr.com/weightmirror/

This tool allows you to upload a full body photo of yourself and once you have, you can use a sliding tool to see what you will look like plus 20 pounds or minus 5 pounds etc. A great visual tool.

So for this next week to earn your 35 bonus points you must:

1. Make some type of visual to help you with your weight loss goals

2. Post on the blog and tell us what you've made. We'd love to see pictures too, if that's possible!

Good luck and let your vision of your healthier self guide you!

Sandee

Contact, Remind, Encourage!

Your challenge for week #1 is to make some kind of positive contact with your healthy living challenge partner EVERY DAY and be creative about it. Yes you should contact her and she should also contact you—seeing each other in person or talking on the phone can count for both of you but other than that you should each be making at least one contact per day. I want you to become a strength and support to one another. Some ways you might make contact:

1. Send an upbeat and encouraging text or e-mail

2. Chat on the phone about your commitment to healthier living

3. Arrange to exercise together

4. Put a positive comment on her myfitnesspal.com wall

5. Say something encouraging on her facebook wall

6. Mail her something fun (you can count this the day you put it in the mail)

7. If you live near each other put a sticky note on her door, mailbox or windshield

8. Draw a message in chalk on her front walk

9. Find a healthy recipe and e-mail it to her.

10. E-mail an encouraging photo or cartoon

11. Loan her your favorite work out DVD

12. Meet for a healthy breakfast or lunch

13. Leave an upbeat voicemail on her cell phone

14. Have someone in her family put upbeat stickies from you on the bathroom mirror, the fridge door, the kitchen cupboards etc.

15. Make up a fight song or chant just for your duo

16. Make team t-shirts, soda cups, hats etc.

17. Plan a celebration for when you earn a certain # of points

18. The sky’s the limit- just make some kind of happy, creative, daily contact!!

For every day this week that you make positive comment with your partner you can claim the 5 daily bonus points-- 35 points if you remember all 7 days.

And don't forget to weigh and measure yourself tomorrow! Good luck- e-mail me with any questions!

Getting Your Numbers Right

There are many things we can measure and track in our efforts to be healthy, happy people. Besides just tracking our total calories each day, we can also track fiber grams, carbohydrate intake, sodium levels or iron and other specifics.

Our personal health needs can point us in a direction of concern. I know for myself that because I don't eat beef or pork, and because I have suffered from anemia in the past I need to be careful about my iron intake. You may have a keen interest in other areas due to your own health and needs.

Our challenge this week involves using some of the tools on myfinesspal.com you may not have previously explored.

If you go to the Reports tab and choose nutrition you can pull up reports for the last 7, 30 or 90 days. This information tracks your intake in a variety of areas. To discover if you are getting the needed elements or not is easier for some categories than others. For example if you pull up your personal report for Iron intake, you can easily see what percentage of the daily recommended requirement you have had each day.

For other categories such as sodium intake or fiber intake the information given is the total grams each day. You would need to consult your doctor or do a google search to discover what the recommended amount is for your age etc.

I am really not trying to make your brain explode from number overload (I am a Math hater) but I would like you to do the following for this week's challenge.

CHOOSE A CATEGORY FOR WHICH YOU HAVE A PERSONAL HEALTH CONCERN. RESEARCH THE IDEAL INTAKE FOR THIS CATEGORY. FOR EACH DAY THAT YOU MEET THE DAILY REQUIREMENT FOR THIS INTAKE (but do not go excessively over) YOU EARN YOUR 5 BONUS POINTS.

*I am guessing I am going to get some questions about supplements. It is controversial whether artificial supplements are fully absorbed or utilized by the body. The ideal is always to obtain what our body needs from fresh natural whole foods. Ultimately your personal lifestyle and dietary needs may require supplementation in some categories. However, for the purpose of this challenge I would like you to choose a category of nutrients and spend this week attempting to fulfill the daily required level through eating whole and natural foods.

PLEASE E-MAIL WITH ANY QUESTIONS!

** Oh, Oh, I forgot about another tool you just MUST start using. Go on Myfitnesspal.com

1. Click on the Home tab

2. Click on the Settings tab

3. Click on Diary settings

4. You can now choose whatever nutrients you are interested in tracking. These are the items that will show every day as you enter the food you have eaten. It makes sense in setting it up to track and show the nutrients you are most interested in your daily reports.

5. Also note that at the bottom of that same page you can set your account to be viewed by whomever you like. It might be helpful to allow your partner or another supportive person to be able to view your daily input of what you've eaten so that they can be of even more help to you!