Get Your Silly On!
“Life isn’t always going to be the party we’d hoped for, but while we are here, we might as well dance.”
“What actions will you take to shower yourself daily with things to help you find a better way to live?”
These two quotes come to us from a writer, comedian and artistic soul, Judson Laipply. He emphasizes that life is about change and rolling with it can be fun. Stay grateful for the fun and your life with roll smoothly.
Are you all about the Veggies or the Fruit?
In a white paper written by Brian Wansink and team (Cornell Food and Brand Lab) we find that veggie lovers behave in a very different manner than fruit lovers, which I call “Fruitys” because I am one. Give me berries over Brussels sprouts ANY day!
Seriously, though, the differences are good to know when strategizing your plan for eating well.
Vegetable lovers tend to entertain guests more frequently, cook more nutritious meals and try new recipes more frequently than fruit lovers. They are less likely to eat dessert and more likely to drink wine with dinner. They’re also more likely to eat spicy food.
So for veggie lovers: Learning how vegetables can enhance a meal, how they can impress dinner guests, how they can make recipes taste different, how they can be used with interesting spices, and how they can complement the right wine all make good strategies for increased veggie consumption. Read More
Chocolate is good in many ways but too much of anything can be a bummer on your system. We crave cholcate because it works on the pleasure center in our brain. Who wants to fight that? Those of us who crave just a little too much! Curbing the craving can be done, I assure you.
British researchers at the University of Exeter found that when people fit 15 minutes of walking into the middle of their day they ate less chocolate throughout the days as those who didn’t walk. Why does a walk reduce cravings?
Prior to the Exeter study we knew that cravings could be curbed by exercise but we didn’t know if curbing actually led to a change in real behavior. In other words, do we stop eating when we no longer crave chocolate?
Indeed we do. Well, we didn’t stop eating it altogether but we ate half as much as those who didn’t walk. All progress is good. Do the math… If you walk past the Hershey’s kiss bowl on Sally’s desk, oh say 10 times a day and you bow to your candy ball-and-chain, chances are you might eat five kisses.
That’s 100 calories.
If you’re eating that maybe 4 days a week, that’s 400 calories times the 48 weeks a year you work. Add it up and you get 19,200 calories or 5.5 pounds (not to mention that it adds up to 10 lbs of kisses over a year and Sally will shell out $60 on you alone – Sally needs to rethink her plan too!).
Cut your kiss intake in half and you’ll not only save 2.25 extra pounds but you’ll also have the added benefit of more oxygen to the brain, plus the calories you might burn in 15 minutes of brisk walking. That could actually completely counter the kisses in total. It’s a win-win!
Do the crawl!
Here’s an Olga exercise you can do inside to get that heart rate up if the whether doesn’t cooperate. Read below for instructions.
You in Your Workplace:
Dish the dish! Or at least stash it. Start a campaign to have people remove their candy dishes from sight or altogether. Brian Wansink of the Cornel Food and Brand Lab says we eat with our eyes not our stomach. If you can at least put the dish in drawer, it will be less tempting.
See you on the brisk PATH Ahead!
Olga Crawl Instructions:
Some people call this exercise the gorilla crawl (well, maybe only Olga cllas it that). Some call simply call it a crawl. The idea is to race along a hallway or across a gym floor as quickly as you can on your hands and feet. Go for 30-60 seconds, rest 10-30 seconds and go again. Repeat 3-5 times.
If you’re really adventurous, you can flip over so you’re in Table Pose with your hips facing the ceiling, knees bent and hands behiond you. Crawl in the direction of your head. We call this the crab walk. Alternate between crab and gorilla and you’ll feel it the next day for sure! Pair the crawls with other Olga exercises from our blogs or some jump roping or stair walking to complete 15 minutes of brain-power exercise.
Last week we asked you to think of the value of your health. I challenged you to consider cost in terms of food.
When people say healthy eating is expensive, I don’t believe it. The USDA studied the cost of produce per serving in 2004. Obviously prices have change some since then but here’s what they found:
“Among the 154 forms of fruits and vegetables we priced, more than half were estimated to cost 25 cents or less per serving. Consumers can meet the recommendations of three servings of fruits and four servings of vegetables daily for 64 cents.”
Why do we struggle then? Because it’s easier to buy the $.99 menu item at a drive-up then it is to buy a $1.89 pound of broccoli and prepare it for a sit-down meal.
Spring is here and renewal is in the air.
The American Heart Association is looking for you to renew your commitment to your heart this week. If you can say you meet the following, you will live a long, healthy life.
These are the Heart Association’s seven markers for optimal health and they were recently tracked over 20 years in a large population study just released (JAMA, March 14, 2012, Vol 307, No. 10). Read More
