Healthy Living

As Americans we can drive down the street and on a five minute  drive we can pass at least 3 different fast food places. It seems like everything people do these days is centered around food and eating. When two friends hang out they meet for lunch, first dates are usually going out to dinner, when we go to the movies people have to bring snacks; These are just a few examples. Things need to change otherwise everyone will be on the path to becoming overweight and even obese. The demographic that are at risk the most however are children. Children learn everything they do from observing and who better to observe than their parents and family memebers. Teaching Children good eating habits is a very essential part of maintaing a healthy life. Childhood obseisty can be caused by genetic disorders or hormonal disorders that a person has no control over but most of the time it is caused by poor habits formed by the child and the family. Some problems that are in a child’s foreseeable future if they do not remedy their poor habits are complications such as type 2 diabetes, low- self esteem ( leading to depression), high blood sugar, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, asthma, lung problems, sleep disorders and abnormal menstrual cycles or puberty. One is used to seeing these diseases and risks attached to something having to do with an adult performing a dangerous behavior. But it is so important that people begin to realize that unhealthy eating is just and bad for themselves, their child and family as a cigarette.

Like anything else there are ways to help prevent your child from becoming this way and attaining any of those above mentioned side effects. It is simple. All you have to do is eat a well balanced diet. Cut out the junk food, the fast food. Prepare home cooked meals with all the recommended servings of vegetables and whole grains and protein. Then throughout the day encourage your kids to get involved and participate in activities where they’re being active and not just sitting in front of a computer screen. If you have a family this is a great excuse to get the family together by getting everyone around the table for dinner or maybe even getting everyone together for a family outing to the park to play a game of catch or something. Being healthy doesn’t have to be so hard, it can be fun and just what your family needs.

As were reaching the end of march everyone only has one thing on their minds….SUMMER! Summer is great. No school, warm weather, Going to the beach, laying by the pool and skin cancer. Yes, you read me right, that says skin cancer. It is all fun and games until you’re in your later adult hood fighting skin cancer. But, don’t worry you don’t have to let it get that far. There are preventative measures that you can take to enjoy your summer and to make sure you’re keeping yourself and your loved ones safe and out of harms way.

Did you know that sun burn you get just standing around at your company  or family barbecue causes more damage than you think. According to the Skin Cancer Foundation if a person has had five or more sunburns during their life time it increases their risk of developing melanoma( Skin Cancer) by twice the amount in their adult life. The Skin Care Foundation offers these helpful tips to keep you safe as the summer months approach us.

- Seek the shade whenever you can, most importantly between the hours of 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

- Do not use Ultra Violet Tanning

-Use sunscreen with SPF of 15 or higher

- Apply sunscreen 30 minutes to your entire body before going into the sun

- Reapply sunscreen every 2 hours

- Cover with clothing whenever possible, use uv blocking hats and sun glasses

-Keep an eye on your skin and check yourself for any abnormalities

By following these small tips you should be able to avoid burning this summer. Achieving a nice bronze tan is always a good look but next time you go to reach for the tanning oil instead of the sunblock think what is more important; a tan that will fade or maintaining healthy skin? The choice is yours! Stay safe!

As college students it just seems that there is so much to do and just not enough time in the day to do it. Some people may be juggling school full time, family, relationships, work, and many other unexpected tasks and issues that just seem to pop up all at the same time. So as college students what do we do to make sure everything gets done on time? We cut out sleep. This as we are told is a big No- No. Im sure everyone knows that it is not good to not get the recomened amount of sleep but, not everyone knows the harmful effects that it has on a persons physical and mental health.

Sleep deprivation will start to decrease your cognitive functions making you have slower reaction time and loss of memory. Also depression and irritiability are likely to occur if prolonged sleep deprivation is continued. Heart disease,high blood pressure, and weight gain which can lead to diabetes and acid reflux disease are risk factors that are very likely to occur from not getting the recommended hours of sleep needed.

To us, college students, we think that if we cut sleep it will be better because we will accomplish what needs to be done. However, in the long run we are actually doing more harm than good. If we continue to cut sleep we will destroy our cognitive abilities and the quality of our work will suffer, which ultimately defeats the purpose of even staying up late in the first place to complete it. Instead of eliminating sleep one should try time manage better by coming up with a strategic plan for the week and learn to not procrastinate to avoid this problem. By addressing this problem earlier on we can hopefully avoid the more serious physical health risks that can result from sleep deprivation.

When thinking about eating healthy and getting on track many people do not know where to begin. This may be because they never needed to diet before or they are just in experienced in the world of nutrition. A mistake that many first-timers will do is go into a super market a just look around for things that say Low- fat , Healthy Choice, whole grain, or have pictures of fruits and vegetables on it. If you are a person who falls into this category, have no fear we have all been there at one point in our lives.

When purchasing foods that say low fat that does not always mean it is healthier for you. In order for that product to be have a lower quantity of fat the manufactures have to tweak it a bit by adding more sodium and unwanted sugar to give it the same tasting flavor that in actuality end up hurting your diet more than the little bit more of extra fat.

Another big mistake dieters make is to think that granola is a top weight loss food. Some may argue that granola has a lot of nuts, oats, and grains that offer a lot fiber and nutrients but with that comes a very high dose of calories and fat. In just 1/2 cup of granola there are about 250 calories and about 10 grams of fat. So yes, granola can be nutritious but in very small doses.

After a long work out at the gym many people aim to refuel their bodies and many cases this is with a protein shake. Today most gyms have juice bars that are located right inside the gyms allowing for easy access to purchase. But beware, that hour and a half that you just killed yourself running on that treadmill might just go down the drain if you are not careful with what you order at the juice bar. Some of the smoothies and drinks offer can be up in 700-800 calorie range. Why such high calories you may be asking? This is because in order to give many of the drinks better flavor they use yogurt and fruit juices which pile on the calories fat and sugar. When ordering your best bet is to skip the yogurt, ask for frozen fruit, crushed ice, water and the protein and supplements of your choice. This will allow you to avoid the unwanted junk standing in the way of your goal.

Remember when trying to be healthy do not be fooled by everything at first sight, take your time read the facts and see what you are really putting into your body!

Is it true that everything you really ever need to know about life you learn in kinder-garten? When I first heard this I thought to myself this can’t be true. As humans we go to school for about 20 years of our lives and are always being told that the reason we have to go is to better our education, but if you’re thinking anything like how I am, I’m thinking, “I just spent all this money on college when everything that I need to know about life I learned years ago?”. Seems too good to be true.

Even though this idea proposed by Robert Fulghum seems far fetched it does make sense when it comes to healthy living. When you were a kid your mom was always telling you things like “eat your fruits and veggies!”, “go play outside” , ” Keep your hand out of your mouth” and last but certainly not least ” an apple a day keeps the doctor away”. These basic little commands that we heard from our parents and elders almost everyday went through our ears and out the other almost immediately as soon as we heard it. Being kids we do not pay that much attention to our health. We are more concerned with having fun and goofing off. But out parents were right, those basic commands are essential components in keeping individuals healthy.

Eat your fruits and veggies!” – Eating the required serving sizes of fruits and vegetables provides our bodies with the right amount of vitamins, minerals and nutrients that it needs to keep us healthy and strong.

” Go play outside!” –  Playing outside everyday whether it is basketball, hop-skotch, soccer, baseball, tag or red-rover all these games allows kids to stay active and move their bodies. These activities are essentially  just a fun way  to exercise. The benefits of exercise is shown to help reduce body fat, blood pressure, stress and diabetes.

“keep your hands out of your mouth” – By keeping your hands out of your mouth you are essentially keeping the germs out of oyur bodies and not allowing an easy entrance way into the body.

“Eating an apple a day keeps the doctor a way” Apples supply you with a good source of vitamins but also a good source of fiber which helps regulate the digestive system and helps to keep this system clean and functioning.

The never ending holidays that are in the winter months can do serious damage to a persons diet if they are trying to lose weight or simply just remain healthy. And with Valentine’s Day just around the corner, everyone has one thing on their mind…Chocolate and sweets. Believe it or not you can still indulge in sweets and not do any serious damage to your diet. The typical things that people love to eat on this day are chocolate cakes, brownies, box of chocolate, chocolate covered pretzels, sugar cookies, red velvet cake and so much more. These desserts and sweets are not only high in calories but they are also high in fat. If you are like me, someone who loves dessert, we don’t have to cut sweets out of our diet completely.

One of my favorite things to make for this day are chocolate covered strawberries and bananas. The trick here is to use dark chocolate rather than milk chocolate. Dark chocolate is better for you than milk chocolate because it contains antioxidants that benefit your body. The milk in milk chocolate is believed to be the reason that the antioxidants do not get absorbed in the body. All you need to do to make this treat is melt down the dark chocolate and then dip the fruit or drizzle the chocolte onto the fruit and then put them onto a nonstick sheet and place in the fridge for them to cool.

Another clever idea which I like to do is make a heart shaped angel food cake. Angel food cake is a relatively low calorie dessert and has little to no fat. If you want you could also drizzle a little bit of dark chocolate on the cake to help satisfy your chocolate sweet tooth. Here is a recipe for low calorie, low fat angel food cake, Hope you enjoy!

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/angel-food-cake-i/detail.aspx

There is no doubt that this flu season is in full swing. This flu season is one for the records. According to the NY times the weekly death rate for this flu season is well above the epidemic curve line. Everywhere you turn people are getting sick and the death count is definitely on the rise at the early beginning of this season. You may be asking yourself what are things that I can do to keep my self healthy during this season. You are in luck!

#1 GO GET YOUR FLU SHOT!

#2 Wash Your hands constantly

By washing your hands a lot you will help reduce the spreading of the germs from person to person. Germs are on everything you touch, so make sure you make it a point to keep hand sanitizer ready.

#3 Take vitamins that help boost your immune system ( vitamin C, etc..)

By taking vitamins the help boost your immune system you are helping to improve one of the most important system in the body. Your immune system is what fights off the bad invaders that come into your body. So, by giving it a little boost you are helping yourself keep foreign bacteria, germs and other stuff out of your body and reducing the chance of sickness

#4 Get the recommended eight hours of sleep.

Getting the recommended amount of sleep is another crucial part in fighting off the flu. If you do not have enough sleep then your body will become run down. If your body is run down it does not have enough energy to supply your immune system, which will leave your body and health vulnerable.

If you follow these four simple tips you should be safe this season. No one wants to be sick this time of year so get your vaccine, take your vitamins, get sleep and most importantly wash your hands!

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