Cheers! Cheese may not be a big risk to your heart.
Roughly 10 years ago we began to see promising research that cheese, though full of animal fat, might not wreak the same havoc as other dairy products. Could our dreams be coming true? Research is now indeed robust on this topic and a good recent study adds to the coffers (as reported in the Univ. of California WellnessLetter.com this month).
When compared to butter, after a 6-week clinical trial, cheese didn’t raise LDL (bad) cholesterol levels. In fact, LDL even dropped in some. Can I get a halleluiah? And how about a shout out to all those amazing local cheese artisans who are good to their cows, and thus good to our palates?
The BIG caveat is that cheese is still quite high in calories so be careful to budget for it and savor every bite. If you gain weight, your LDLs will go up for sure. Continue reading “Getting Cheesy with Cheese”
It’s National Heart Month and it turns out, one of the worst things for your heart is “oversitting.” In our effort to be a super-humanly productive techie nation, we’ve taken a hit in our posture, lung capacity and general mood.
To stem the negative tide, it appears the software development world is ahead of the game, already doing what the rest of us are just thinking about to avoid the endless parking of tokhes (behinds). When polled, 78% of these companies said they held daily stand-up-meetings. Continue reading “Standing Room Only”
Ah, the Super Bowl. Some watch for the sport, some for the commercials. Some just come to party.
Scary but hilarious photo from the Denver Westword, Lori Midon's Weird Food News Blog. Click here to go to the actual post.
A report read by CNN’s Erin Burnett (Out Front 1/30/12) states that, as a nation, we will consume:
4,000 tons of popcorn
14,500 tons of chips
1 billion chicken wings
50 million cases of beer (not counting what gets sold in bars)
We’ll eat an estimated 30 million lbs. of snack food, all in all. That’s a normal week’s worth. In our rough math (emphasis in rough, people) it’s enough to fill the football field 8 yards (24 feet) high. Zowie!
Oh, and CNN punctuated with this fact: Antacid use goes up 20% the day after the Super Bowl.
Countless others will drift through the day somewhat bleary-eyed. What are we to do?
To keep you thinking healthy and still able to have fun on Super Bowl Sunday, here are some thoughts:
Veggie platters and whole grain chips or crackers are always welcome! If you’re headed to a party, bring your own to share. If you’re hosting, high fiber grains, low-fat dips, and baked chicken wings all help ease the damage. Google “healthy super bowl recipes” and you’ll be all set.
Drink water for every beer you down, if you partake, and maybe limit how much you purchase to thwart temptation. Once two or three have been swigged, your brain has a much harder time saying no to the next one or four. We eat and drink with our eyes not our stomachs.
Which brings us another tip… Keep the booze and snacks in a different room so people have to make an effort to go get it. Every little bit helps.
A pledge to forgo peer pressure would be nice too. Make sure your family and friends agree that fun can be had by all regardless of food or drink intake. You traditional Mamas out there now hear this: please refrain from the “eat, eat!” remarks. And you rugged dudes or dudettes? None of this, “Oh have one more, it’s only half-time!”
Finally, a good distraction from the gluttony might be to have a competition or two. Vote for the funniest ad. Count the number of times an athlete takes a knee. Count the number of handmade signs in the stadium. Do an iSpy-type list of items fans are wearing. And so on.
Remember that it’s just a game and letting loose is really okay – to a point. What’s not okay is when doing so a) becomes common practice, and/or b) puts others at risk.
Bottom line… Keep the sports in the evening and let’s take care of each other and our health goals. A little divergence is fine and special occasions require a joyful expression of who we are. Keep it safe and supportive.
All In.
Go Team!
You in Your Workplace
Today’s section on this is bigger than usual – for the subject requires it…
Go with the flow, we say. This is a bit of a, “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” prospect, but don’t give into rewarding all out debauchery. Instead, leverage the situation to everyone’s advantage.
1) Think safety first. Don’t engage employees in widget making or key roles if you know they’re compromised from the night before. It also has to be okay for them to say they’ve mistakenly overindulged. No one really plans to do so. If it’s not okay to speak up, people will mask their shortcomings and put you all at risk. Renowned business guru, Tom Peters, who wrote “In Search of Excellence,” reminds us to be 100% against “zero defects.” If people are always afraid of punishment for their mistakes, they will never be able to innovate.
2) Beyond safety , plan a day of work that is out of the ordinary, that doesn’t require deep thinking or precise motor skills. Use their talents in new ways. This is also a great time to plan a charity event, a 5k or health fair. Get as many people involved in the event planning as possible. If they know others are counting on them they’ll be more careful the night before.
3) Think of using the “athlete” metaphor and them being at the top of their game. Host a wellness day that inspires them the way athletes can. Maybe have a mock Olympics with goofy exercise stations and competition. Offer exercise classes they can try out, and maybe a little massage. If they know the day is coming, again, they may be less likely to overdo it the night before.
Bottom Line… Don’t give them the day off. Prove to them that being healthy and reasonable is worthwhile. Maybe they can’t help being tired from staying up past 10 pm. But they can help being useless. Your culture can set a friendly tone that makes them want to chose “responsible” above all else.
Nineteenth century Chicago architect Louis Sullivan coined the phrase in this context:
“It is the pervading law of all things organic and inorganic,
Of all things physical and metaphysical,
Of all things human and all things super-human,
Of all true manifestations of the head,
Of the heart, of the soul,
That the life is recognizable in its expression, That form ever follows function. This is the law.” (source: Wikipedia)
When a “thing” is “functional” it can be described by Random House dictionary as having or serving a utilitarian purpose; capable of serving the purpose for which it was designed.
The body was designed to move, and to move efficiently. Our current lifestyle, wrought with desks, makes movement difficult so it’s up to us to put the function back in our form!
Take the time to learn some exercises you can do in a mere 5-10 minutes throughout your day to get oxygen to the brain and muscles, and to keep your form in tip-top shape for its true expression. Functional exercises work to keep us strong and poised in our bodies as we perform everyday, utilitarian tasks.
If you haven’t done a functional exercise other than a standard push-up or sit-up in a while, you’ll notice, at first, that it’s hard to balance or lift or twist without a creak here or a pop there. Ease your way back into your form by lifting, twisting or stretching only to the point of slight discomfort, not pain. Done carefully, slowly, those creaks will subside leaving you strong and supple. Continue reading “Form Follows Function in the Body”
Actually, we have over 550 wellness leaders about to spearhead the launch of our new PATH Adventure, “Brainstorm” – a wellness challenge focused on health and the brain.
Sitting Still Is Not An Option: Making a commitment to getting people moving - including each other!
Over the last two days, we met with more than 300 of these leaders, gathering to “brainstorm” healthy living tips and tools. They’ll take these tips back to their worksites and help a whole bevy of Vermont school employees march into spring with a fit and fortified character. All doing their part to keep Vermont one of the healthiest places to live!
The two days marked our 18th anniversary of these meetings and our 21st year in Vermont. Exciting times. Workplace wellness has never been stronger.
Recent surveys from Mercer, Towers-Watson, and others show that most employers want to offer wellness programming. According to Employee Benefits News (EBN), 91% of employers with more than 5,000 employees offer web-based wellness programs and on average spend $375 per-employee on incentives. Continue reading “Hundreds of Wellness Leaders and Counting”
Knowledge really is power – the power to eat well.
To emphasize, a great longitudinal study out of southern Italy with 25,000 participants found that those who were barraged with information about healthy eating were very likely to actually eat healthy. A “Duh” moment, you say, but here’s a key factor about research:
“Repetition makes an impression on the dullest of minds.” – Oscar Wild.
Whoa! I’m not saying you’re dull. People get irritated when yet another study comes out saying eating well matters. And, because people are so distracted by countless life stressors, we have to be a broken record to get through!
Furthermore, people are different, each a work of art. For nutritional research to have weight, it must be repeated in a myriad of settings, across multiple populations. Experts have to prove themselves regardless of innumerable confounders. Continue reading “Good Nutrition is a Work of Art”
Whether it six-pack abs or firm thighs you seek, order it up and one of umpteen different health magazines will serve it to you on the printing press any given week. And… You can reach that goal in just four and a half weeks, or 30 days, or one month — wait, isn’t that all the same? Yes, Virginia it is. So, are they telling the truth? Weeellllll….
Any new routine done properly over 30 days will indeed have a positive impact. This week’s “Six-Pack Abs” workout from Women’s Health magazine is a mixture of quality core exercises. If you do them 2-3 times a week for the next month, says the article, you’ll “notice a flat-out hot difference.” HOT! Sweet. Doing these exercise can’t help but make you stronger, true, but hot? Hmmm. Continue reading “Get XYZ in Just Four Weeks?!”
When is your peak season? Are you in it? Or are you feeling the aftermath? Mid January is often a demanding time for our friends in schools: end of a semester, exams, new semester beginning…
They call lapses in healthy eating, “Overeating Flare-ups,” or that which happens as a result of hectic times, travel, injury, emotional distress, and so on. The society MO is to call ourselves lazy or weak for getting off track. Our friends at MIT say, quit that! Let’s be realistic and learn from the flare-up, then move on — put an end to all that brow-beating.
We don’t blame ourselves for a skin, asthma or allergy flare-up. We wouldn’t judge a flare-up of any other condition for that matter. But, have an extra serving of dessert and the sky is falling; never mind the hearty road blocks or difficult circumstances we might be facing.
Remember that we are confronted with 200 food choices a day (Mindless Eating – Cornell Food and Brand Lab). And honestly, how many of those choices are easy, healthy choices? Overeating flare-ups are fully endorsed by our environment, like a pusher ready to pounce. Even in my favorite health food store the impulse items at the checkout counter, though organic, are still candy and chips.
“…we are young, and we have been distressed; but our concord hath withstood our troubles, and fixes a memorable area for posterity to glory in.”
On this day in 1776, Thomas Paine published the pamphlet Common Sense that bolstered the American Revolution with rich wisdom. Though he was talking about our nation, his words are timeless when looking at all that is new today.
Your New Year’s Resolutions are new and young, and they will be tested (most ardently by you, but also by friends and family, work and the world in which we live). The gift of Paine’s words here is to remember that every win counts – you can and will withstand your troubles. And as you do so, every step in the right direction is irreversible and unalterable. Mark each healthy accomplishment down (no matter the size) as part of posterity, celebrate and go forward with greater resolve. Continue reading “Your History and Common Sense”
Last week we took a very contemplative look at the coming year. Not just in terms of “resolutions” per se, but more in terms of pure inspiration.
Thanks to the amazing “at-our-fingertips” world in which we live, there was a deluge of ideas and blue prints on the web, as one would expect. We read them all and, honestly, they all had at least a modicum of wisdom or wit.
Then came an alert from Journal Watch on depression. A first glance released a sigh of resignation in that 2012 could be no different after all. People are still full of angst and malaise seemingly without an inkling of reprieve given the climate of our culture. But perseverance always pays off. Reading further we found that clinical science is opening a window and letting in the fresh air of common sense.
A year in review confirmed the elevation of the placebo to a true clinical power and positive thinking is no longer considered a namby-pamby add-on but rather an essential partner in fighting health woes. Those who believe their meds will help, honestly feel increased help. Those who attempt to live their lives fully, relegating their potential disabilities to simple accoutrements, feel no more constrained than those who are unencumbered. The final word is that expectations matter. Now that science proves it, clinical practitioners and patients must avail themselves of such tools as they face the slow but steady climb out of anxiety-land.
Thus, on the order of outlining a strong blue-print toward the positive thinking placebo, we loved these four ideas from famed philosopher Deepak Chopra:
Embrace uncertainty – “When you see that everything contains its opposite then there is space for creativity.”
Embrace impermanence – letting go and enjoying what’s here and now can be quite a relief.
Cultivate relationships – other people matter. We can’t say it enough. Chopra says “networking is motivated by me and my while relationships are about we and ours.”
Unleash your imagination – if you can imagine it, “in some realm it is possible.” There is always “another horizon to work toward.”
In short, to quote a silly little placard in our office (again), “Dream Big, Worry Small.”
Unleash it, baby!
For You in Your Workplace:
Now is a good time to ask people about their goals for the year – with their imagination unleashed. Let them explore wildest dreams! Give them time to map out ways of getting there. The idea of “positive thinking” at work can be tricky as it still holds that namby-pamby stigma. To stay clear of confusion make sure people stick to a focus on the excitement of the potential and concrete steps they may want to take to reach their work and health goals. By broadcasting their goals and steps on a bulletin board, others can help encourage them. As people reach benchmarks, be sure to celebrate even in small ways.
Keep us posted on how it goes – share your stories with us on the PATH Ahead.
Roughly 10 years ago we began to see promising research that cheese, though full of animal fat, might not wreak the same havoc as other dairy products. Could our dreams be coming true? Research is now indeed robust on this topic and a good recent study adds to the coffers (as reported in the Univ. of California WellnessLetter.com this month).
