Eating Out?

Watch Your Cholesterol

The Cleveland Clinic offers these tips for restaurant dining for those who are watching their cholesterol.

• Avoid fried foods.  Instead choose dishes that are roasted, baked, grilled, stir-fried in water or broth, broiled, poached, or steamed.
• Ask for low-fat options such as steamed vegetables instead of fries.
• Skip toppings like butter and cream.
• If you're having an appetizer, make it a broth-based soup.
• Cut the fat off meat and opt for seafood, chicken, or lean cuts.
• Don't add salt to your food.
• Eat slowly to avoid overeating.
• Choose fresh fruit for dessert.

Source: "Health Tip: Watch Your Cholesterol When Dining Out" by Diana Kohnle, MedlinePlus, www.nim.nih.gov/medlineplus, 2/28/13

Getting enough sleep?

Exercise May Help you Sleep

Did you know?  If you're pining for better sleep, getting more exercise may help.  Participants in the 2013 Sleep in America poll who were vigorous, moderate, or light exercisers were significantly more likely to report having a good night's sleep.  Vigorous exercisers reported the best sleep, but simply taking a daily 10-minute walk improved the likelihood of a restful night.

Source: "National Sleep Foundation Poll Finds Exercise Key to Good Sleep," National Sleep Foundation, www.sleepfoundation.org 3/4/13

Cardiac Health

Yoga May Help Control Heart Rhythm

Taking regular yoga classes appears to help people with a common heart rhythm problem control their symptoms.  Yoga may also improve state of mind for people who live with atrial fibrillation, which inhibits contraction of the heart's upper chambers.

Drugs such as beta blockers are often prescribed to control heart rate and rhythm, but they are not effective for all patients.

Participants in a new study had their heart symptoms, blood pressure, heart rate, and other factors tracked for three months.  They then attended group yoga classes at least twice a week for an additional three months.  During the yoga phase, "heart quivering" due to atrial fibrillation was about half as frequent as in the prior three months.  Measures of heart rate, anxiety, depression, and general mental health also improved.

All of the patients were taking medications to control atrial fibrillation during the study.  "Yoga is not a cure in itself," researcher Dhanunjaya Lakkireddy, MD, of the University of Kansas Medical Center told Reuters Health.  "It is a good adjunct to what else these patients should be doing."

Source: "Yoga May Aid People with Irregular Heart Rhythm" by Genevra Pittman, Reuters Health, 1/30/13

Got Veggies?

Vegetables Make the Meal

Adding vegetables to a meal not only increased its appeal (and its nutritional value) but also boosted the diner's perception of the chef, a recent survey showed.  And that chef was usually the diner's mom!

Participants were asked to evaluate meals served with or without vegetables, as well as the cook who prepared the meal.  Meals that included a vegetable with dishes such as chicken, steak, or pasta received high ratings from a choice of 12 attributes, including "tasty" and "loving."  The preparer was more likely to get descriptions such as "thoughtful," "attentive," and "capable."

"Most parents know that vegetables are healthy, yet vegetables are served at only 23 percent of American dinners." said lead researcher Brian Wansink, PhD.  "That means we need to find some new motivations to encourage parents to make vegetables a bigger part of the meal.  If parents knew that adding vegetables to the plate could make what they prepare for dinner seem more appealing, or could increase their own 'heroic ' appeal, then maybe they'd be more inspired to serve vegetables."

Source: "Adding Vegetables Enhances Both Main Dish Expectations and Perception of the Cook," Cornell University 12/12

10 Reason Why You Should Exercise 30 Minutes Every Day

Regular Exercise Really Matters!

Exercising regularly benefits your whole body - physically and emotionally

Outside of the aesthetic reasons people engage in exercise, there are many other overlooked health benefits that are critical to improving quality of life and long-term health.

Daily activity that is 30 minutes in duration, completed in one session, 2 fifteen minute bouts, or 3 ten minute bouts has numerous benefits outside of weight loss and improved appearance.

10 REASONS YOU SHOULD BE EXERCISING 30 MINUTES EVERY DAY

If everyone walked for 30 minutes daily between 3-4 miles per hour it would:

1. Improves your Cardiovascular Health - Exercising delivers oxygen and nutrients to your tissues. This increased blood flow strengthens your heart and lungs making them work more efficiently. Exercising will reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.

2. Combat Chronic Diseases - Reduce the risk of type II diabetes by 58% if persons at high risk

3. More exercise means more energy - Having 30 minutes of exercise may not seem much to people, but you may be surprised how effective a 30-minute workout can be. For a quick 30-minute exercise, people end up feeling more energized throughout the day, and even until the evening. The more a person improves his or her stamina and strength, the more he or she finds it easy to do tasks every day. Even climbing stairs and carrying groceries would seem like a simple task after 30 minutes of frequent exercise.

4. Ward off viral illnesses - Exercise activates your immune system. This leaves you less susceptible to minor viral illnesses, such as colds and flu.

5. Reduces the Risk of Cancer - Reduce risk of breast cancer by 20% in white and African American women. Reduce mortality with patients who have been diagnosed with breast cancer by25%. Also, it can reduce the risk of pancreatic cancer among overweight adults

6. Improve Your Brain Power - Keeping yourself fit not only improves your body, but it also helps improve your mental functions. One of the effects of exercise is that it increases the levels of serotonin in the brain. This increase leads to improved clarity and mental function as well as improves your productivity

7. Live longer - Studies show that people who participate in regular aerobic exercise live longer than those who don't exercise regularly. E xercise keeps your muscles strong, which can help you maintain mobility as you get older. At least 30 minutes of exercise three days a week seems to reduce cognitive decline in older adults.

8. Improves your Mood - Exercise releases endorphins which promotes feelings of happiness and combats feelings of depression and anxiety.

9. Walking helps alleviate symptoms of depression - Reduce the risk of depression. Walking for 30 minutes, three to five times per week for 12 weeks reduced symptoms of depression as measured with a standard depression questionnaire by 47%.

10. Weight Management - Decrease overall bodyweight and percent of body fat

Exercising for thirty minutes straight, in two 15-minute bouts, or three 10-minute bouts everyday is a small price to pay for improving your health, reducing your risk of chronic disease, obesity and maintaining a high quality of life.

Whatever your reasons may be, the fact is that people do need to exercise frequently. Not only does this promote weight loss in the long run, but it also helps people perform better in their everyday activities. So keep yourself healthy and fit through exercise and a healthy diet.

Want to Lose Weight?

Here is the #1 Habit You Need to Break 

By Amy O'Connor, Health Magazine

There are few absolutes in weight loss science. High-carb versus low-carb diets are still the subject of endless debate. Whether snacks make you slimmer or fatter is an argument for the ages. The evidence for calories-in versus calories-burned is even being questioned.

Amid this dissonant squabbling a clarion truth emerges: Eating at night is strongly associated with being overweight and obese. That after-dark nibbling makes you fat seems to be true for people of all ages.

Two new studies ad, ahem, weight to this consensus and offer some insight into why night snacking can make you overweight.

The first measured the effects of nighttime snacking on energy metabolism. The researchers looked at 11 healthy women, who either consumed a 210-calorie snack at 10 am or 11 pm over 13 days. After the 13-day period, researchers measured the basil metabolic rate for each group.

The conclusion: eating at night changes your metabolism for the worst. Eating the snack at night decreased fat oxidation (the rate at which fat is metabolized into energy and not stored as excess flab) and boosted total and LDL, aka “bad” cholesterol.

A similar study looked at 52 volunteers with the goal of understanding how sleep timing affects weight. The result: Eating in the evening or before sleeping seems to predispose individuals to weight gain because they consumed more calories at night (a phenomenon familiar to anyone who mindlessly munches brownie bites during Homeland).

The best advice: Don’t snack after 6 pm, or—if you are a night owl—after 8 pm. And make sure the snacks you choose after dark are healthy and low-cal.

Got Inspiration?

Need a little push to get that extra 30 minutes of exercise?

Check out these quotes from the famous and not-so-famous:

• Strive for progress, not perfection.  -Unknown
• You want me to do something...tell me I can't do it.  -Maya Angelou
• You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.  -Wayne Gretzky
• If you don't make mistakes, you aren't really trying.  -Unknown
• You live longer once you realize that any time spent being unhappy is wasted.  -Ruth E. Renkl
• Strength does not come from physical capacity.  It comes from an indomitable will.  -Mahama Gandhi
• Motivation will almost always beat mere talent.  -Norman R. Augustine
• I'd rather be a failure at something I enjoy than a success at something I hate.  -George Burns
• Energy and persistence conquer all things.  -Benjamin Franklin
• Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.  -Ralph Waldo Emerson
• No act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted.  -Aesop
• Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.  -Albert Einstein
• Ability is what you're capable of doing.  Motivation determines what you do.  Attitude determines how well you do it.  -Lou Holtz
• Motivation is what gets you started.  Habit is what keeps you going.  -Jim Ryan
• I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career.  I've lost almost 300 games.  26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed.  I've failed over and over and over again in my life.  And that is why I succeed.  -Michael Jordan
• Fear is what stops you...courage is what keeps you going.  -Unknown
• The finish line is just the beginning of a whole new race.  -Unknown
• The difference between a goal and a dream is a deadline.  -Steve Smith
• Just do it.  -Nike
• In seeking happiness for others, you find it for yourself.  -Anonymous
• The secret of getting ahead is getting started.  -Mark Twain
• It's not who you are that holds you back, it's who you think you're not.  -Anonymous
• Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity.  -Oprah Winfrey
• It's never too late to become what you might have been.  -George Elliot
• Clear your mind of can't.  -Samuel Johnson