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Anywhere Stretch For Wisdom

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Twist and Squat.

I know, shout is the right term but shouting won’t strengthen or stretch your body!  This classic Yoga pose is a winner for balance and loosening up the lower back and hips.

Called “Revolving Chair Pose”, this pose you will work on your knee and hip alignment to balance as you twist your upper body.  You’ll find this exercise in our “Wild Wisdom” program were we liken it to the Meercat – a wise and social animal who knows how to duck down out of the way when stress arrives.

Start from a standing position, bend your knees, and sit back as though you were sitting in a chair.  If you feel you are leaning forward, sit your hips way back.  You can do this by visualizing your tailbone moving toward the floor behind you, like the balancing tail of a Meercat.

Your knees and hips should be in line with each other; but as you start to twist your upper body to one side, one knee will want to pull away from the other.  Use your stealthy sense of balance, and keep your knees aligned together.  Another helpful tip in this pose: Allow your head and chest to rotate to the side at the same pace.  Be sure to switch to the other side after 30-60 seconds so your body stays balanced too!

Family Dinner

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Family DinnerIn countless studies experts agree – sharing meals helps to keep families strong.  Family dinners are often the only time that everyone sits down together in a 24 hour period and they are a great time to catch up on what is happening in everyone’ lives – from school to activities to relationships. Among the many benefits of the family meal are good habits children develop around nutrition, manners and communication with family members.  The family table can also be a place where the stresses of the day melt away while children and parents share stories and anecdotes about their day-to-day lives.

Eating dinner together as a family is something that most families strive for, but let’s face it – with our busy schedules – soccer practice, homework, late meetings, the commute  – etc. all these combine to frequently have us standing up and feeding our kids while they sit at the kitchen island.

We found an excellent resource to help make planning those family meals fun and easy. Check out this great website for great suggestions about how to make the family meal happen, how to shop for it and some excellent, no fuss, nutritious meals that everyone will enjoy.

The site features commentary, advice and a blog by family meal expert Miriam Weinstein, author of The Surprising Power of Family Meals

In her book, The Surprising Power of Family Meals, Miriam Weinstein shows how this basic human institution helps nourish and strengthen our families today.

Do you have a scheduling strategy for making family dinners happen on a regular basis?  Do you do something fun to make sure that everyone makes family dinner a priority? Do you have special recipes you’d like to share?  We’d love to hear from you.  In the meantime, we liked this recipe for Apple Turkey Burgers, a fun alternative for a family dinner night. Enjoy!

Apple Turkey Burgers

Prep Time: 20 min Cook Time: 15 min Makes: 4 Servings

Ingredients

  • 3/4 pound ground turkey
  • 1/2 cup peeled, shredded apple
  • 2 green onions, thinly sliced
  • 3/4 teaspoon lemon pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/8 teaspoon apple pie spice*
  • 1/4 cup bottled chili sauce
  • 2 tablespoons ketchup
  • 1/4 cup Apple Jelly
  • 4 whole wheat hamburger buns, toasted, if desired
  • Lettuce leaves

Preparation Directions

HEAT broiler. Spray broiler pan with no-stick cooking spray.

COMBINE turkey, apple, green onions, lemon pepper, salt and apple pie spice in large bowl. Shape into 4 patties about 1/2-inch thick.

COMBINE chili sauce, ketchup and apple jelly in small saucepan. Heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally while patties cook. Cool slightly.

BROIL turkey patties about 6 inches from heat for 6 to 8 minutes per side or until no longer pink in center.

PLACE lettuce and burgers on bottom halves of buns. Top each with 2 tablespoons sauce. Cover with bun tops. Serve immediately.

TIP

The turkey mixture and sauce can be prepared a day in advance and refrigerated, tightly covered. Broil patties and reheat sauce just prior to serving.

TIP

*Substitute a pinch of cinnamon and a pinch of allspice for apple pie spice, if desired.

Grass Is Greener Lesson

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Skinny is truly relative. The skinniest I’ve ever been was when I returned from Southeast Asia with dysentery. I know, more information than you needed. Sorry. What you should know is that there was a large bevy of people who looked right into my green hued face and said, “gosh, you look great!” Worse, a handful of people said, “how do I get on that diet?” That handful actually meant it. Some of us would do anything, go through anything, at any cost, to feel thin or beautiful. Until all hell breaks loose.

My mother is about to undergo major surgery to remove her esophagus (cancer). The process involves bringing her stomach up to her throat to replace it. The end result is a lot like stomach stapling, or gastric bypass. A few nights ago I asked to take her to dinner, anywhere she wanted because she could go hog wild. She said, “I keep telling myself that. Live it up! For the first time in my life I can really eat anything and not worry about my pants. The funny thing is I don’t want anything. I just want to be well.”

Wrench to the heart, no? Okay, she’s my mom so the wrench is certainly bigger for me, but bear with me, in context, I’ll ask you this: How much energy have you spent on your pant size and your perceived unlikeable bulges versus the energy you spend on your true health? How dearly we grasp health when it’s on the verge of slipping forever. But when all is copacetic, and taken for granted, our flaws begin to scream out at us. The energy it takes to manage those flaws takes away from the beauty we’d have if we were fully pointed toward optimal health.

Now, I’m the first to say we can’t be perfectly healthy all the time. Indeed healthy living includes balance and managing the cards we’re dealt. But, along with cigarettes and trans-fats, I do wish, with all my might, that self-berating behavior could be banned by the FDA, to make way for an honest look, and honest effort toward truly enjoyable health, and healthy living. Could that collective energy saved, if achieved, find a cure for cancer? I think so.

So the task this week? Get skinny on by dropping your negative body image comments. Tighten your belt on a “no-self-hatred diet.” Convert that angst to choosing healthy actions that are sustainable for the rest of your life. The real truth is, by the way, weight, as a risk factor for future disease, is not the soul culprit of poor health. It’s actually a symptom of other risks that cluster around difficult behaviors – self hatred being one.  It’s a chicken-egg discussion.  Does weight cause high blood pressure or does that which causes high blood pressure also cause weight gain?  According to the Surgeon General’s report on Physical Activity and data from the Cooper Institute, it’s the latter.  In fact, as long as we’re physically active and eat well, weight can’t beat us.

Self-efficacy and peer support are two of the best tools we have to help us live healthy lives. So, do me a favor, look in the mirror today and choose one part of you that you’re willing to like without question. Praise that part, and the part of your soul that’s willing. Let it grow (the praise that is). Then, go out and do the same for someone you love — even if it’s just to tell them that they look cute today, skinny or not.

Let us know how “skinny” you get and if it opens up doors to healthier living as a result.

UPDATE:  My mom is now two years cancer-free and doing great.  Her recovery was quick and smooth thanks to her fitness going into the proceedure and she’s learning to eat a completely new way to manage the changes to her body.  The lesson?  If hard times hit, it’s good to be prepared and be sure you have lots of help along the way.

Comfort Food

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We’ve talked about ways to keep your worksite healthy – from brown bag suggestions to better snacking and vending machine alternatives.  Those are predictable things that you can control so that you can stay on track with your nutrition goals. But then how do you deal with those foods that are diet hijackers and that so often end up as a comfort food “gift” at work?  For example, you’re morning is going great and then there it is – bam! – the huge box of donuts and muffins. And in the afternoon, it’s home-baked brownies, cookies and other yummy-but-not-so-great-for-you treats that ‘thoughtful’ colleagues bring in to help you through a particularly busy or stressful day.  Before you know it you’ve added 300 calories to your day!

Here are some strategies to help.
(1) Be prepared with your own healthy snacks. You’re much less susceptible to the inevitable temptations when you aren’t so hungry!
(2) Tell your well-meaning colleagues what will really help – a reminder to stretch, encouragement to take a quick walk, a good laugh.
(3) Make a pact with your work buddies to only share healthy treats that everyone will love – and that won’t sabotage your diet plans.  Try these:

  • A bag of fresh apples – MacCoun or MacIntosh are wonderful and crisp this time of year.
  • A bag of raw almonds or other healthy nuts
  • Stringless snap peas and cherry tomatoes with plain low-fat yogurt or hummus for dipping.
  • Melon, cut and tossed with strawberries, blueberries and fresh mint.

And for that occasional office ‘potluck,’ try this rich and satisfying low-fat, slow-cooker version of lasagna – Pesto Lasagna with Spinach and Mushrooms. Your co-workers will thank you!

Day Dream Believer

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Zoning Isn’t All Bad…

There is a difference between being spacey, and drifting off to a far away refuge in your brain.  Big difference.

Have you got a task in mind that you’ve been putting off?  I always have one I especially hate.  There are so many tasks that the one I hate gets filed away for later, and later, and later still.  But oddly enough, one day, all of a sudden, I just seem to crank up the nerve without a thought, and, POOF, it’s done.  I’ll sit there for a second after and say, “well, (sigh) that wasn’t so bad.  Why in the world did I wait so long?”

I’ve discovered the answer, I think.  The truth is that it WAS hard and all the steps leading up to the point of completion mattered.

Once a to-do item is stuck in your brain, it’s there until you cross it off.  Like it or not, that nag is taking up real estate in your problem solving center.  Day after day, as you shower, drive to work, stand on the sideline of your kid’s game, or space out during a boring meeting, and so on, its churning.  The machinations move ahead whether conscious or not.  You really are the master of your fate (to borrow from Henley’s Invictus).  You are always building toward resolution while zoning or while intentionally seeking solutions (either from your own coffers or from a listening shoulder).  In other words, I believe, in being the captain of your soul, you take care to do your very best even in the tiny recesses of your brain.  That’s why solutions pop out seemingly from nowhere.  The problem is, the recesses work a little slower than the fancy frontal cortex.

If I’m right, it makes sense that we could put those deeply rooted problem solving skills to work sooner than later…  How so?  By evoking the skill of day dreaming.  No really!  Research is robust on the subject.  Call it guided imagery if that feels better.  The bottom line is that we do better when we “see it” (our goal), which allows us to feel it and then do it.  Thinking, feeling, doing: the 1-2-3 natural progression of taking action.  Create the success story you’re striving toward, before a problem sinks to the recesses.  Believe in it, and your soul will marshal your brain to follow.  Lighten up as you go, for…

“It matters not how straight the gate!” (more Henley)

So… What are you putting off in terms of your health and well-being?  An overdo annual well-visit or screening; that elusive exercise plan; or, maybe that tough conversation with a co-worker. Dream it up, and, Poof!  It’s done.

For more on Day Dreaming and it’s merits, visit our friends at My Optimum Health and search “daydream” to read a fun article called “Penny For Your Thoughts”.

And…  Let us know how day dreaming your desired outcomes and solutions has helped you.

First Anywhere Stretch

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Stretch & Strengthen Monday:

Anywhere.  Any time.  Almost anyone.  That’s the stretch we’d like to offer you.

In fact, we plan to present you with a weekly stretch and/or strengthen exercise that you can do in a matter of seconds.  If you add it up, over time you’ll have a library of many exercises you can do to improve your health one step at a time, and all told could keep you busy for hours!

I’ve already given you one idea which is to lift your arms over your head and then bend to the side (see earlier post).  The funny thing is…  That post ended with the directive to “exhale” and two of my colleagues read that as the emphasis.  It’s true a good sigh or exhale is truly important, no matter what came before it.  And, if you can preface that fabulous exhale with a stretch…. all the better.  After all, you have to INHALE to an exhale; and that, my friend, is balance!

So this week, let’s consider every heavy sigh an anchor to a new stress management tool.  When you sigh, stop and rewind.  Do it again, but before you do, stand up (if you’re not already).  Take a deep breath in and lift your arms up over your head (see picture).  Exhale and gently bend to one side (even if it’s just a millimeter, that’s okay).  Inhale and come back to center.  Exhale and bend to the other side.  Keep your hips and shoulders forward (square in front of you) as you bend sideways.  Inhale back to center.  Exhale and drop your arms to your side.

Come to think of it, if you had to, you could even do this while seated – just remember to sit up straight.

Doesn’t it feel good?  Come on, admit it!  It takes no more than 30 seconds and it will make you one hundred percent better prepared to face your next task.

Stay tuned for more exercises that have a big payoff.  In the meantime, let us know how you fit this stretch into your daily routine.

Serving Up “5-A-Day”

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You see it everywhere – nutrition information based on ‘a serving’ of food.  So…what exactly is ‘a serving’? The serving size of a food product can be confusing.  You’ll read “Serving Size” on Nutrition Labels and then again on the Food Pyramid and each has related but differing meanings. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion sets the standards for servings in the Food Pyramid.  Manufacturers set the standards on labels and quite often the two shall not meet.

When it comes to fruits and veggies, we can all agree however.  The USDA sets a serving size for fruit or vegetables to be equal to about one-half cup chopped, or one whole medium sized fruit or veggie, or one cup for leafy greens. One serving of sliced fruit is equal to one-half cup; however a single piece of fruit, such as an apple or an orange counts as one serving. Those disparities sometimes make it tough to estimate an accurate measure of a serving.  For more clarification check out this cool site, where servings and cups are sifted out.

So how did the USDA decide that one-half cup is a serving size?  The decision was based on the portion sizes that people typically eat, ease of use and the general nutritional content of fruits and vegetables.

Our advice? Pay careful attention to the serving size on nutritional labels as they can be sneaky.  Compare labels to the following reasonable portion guides:

  • 1 medium piece of fruit or vegetable (baseball sized) is about 1 cup
  • 1/2 cup dried fruit is equivalent to 1 cup of fresh fruit
  • 1 cup (8 oz.) 100% fruit or vegetable juice is equivalent to 1 cup of fruit or vegetables
  • 2 cups of leafy greens are equivalent to 1 cup of vegetables
  • 1/4 cup (1 oz.) nuts is one serving

And while you’re thinking about how to get your 5-a-Day, keep in mind delicious, nutritious beets are in season! We found a dozen awesome recipes for them on the Cooking Light site.  Check it out HERE!

Sources:

Wikipedia
About.com
Nutrition Insights. “Serving Sizes in the Food Guide Pyramid and on the Nutrition Facts Label: What’s Different and Why?” USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion. March 1999.

“Dietary Guidelines for Americans.” USDHHS. Updated October 2006.

Smile

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“Smile though your heart is aching…”  Or scared, or over-worked, or worried, or angry, or…

Sitting down to dinner as the “season premier” of Dancing with the Stars came on, I was feeling sorry for myself about my current load of stresses.

Soft-rock crooner Michael Bolton was getting his critique from the judges when Carrie Ann Inaba told him he was concentrating so hard that he was stuck in a frown and a slouch.  “Ooo, me too” I chuckled.  The solution she offered?  “Smile.  When you smile your breath changes and your whole posture opens up.”

That’s nice, I thought.

Wait, rewind.  That’s more than nice, that’s positively unassailable.  That’s one degree of change that could ripple through a person’s entire system with a huge payoff.  A smile causes airways to open, which causes a deeper breath, which sets off a yearn to stand up straighter for even more air, which brings more oxygen to the brain, which begets fluid concentration, which leads to relaxed composure, which ends in successful execution, which creates a bigger smile… and boo-ya, the crooner wins.

I’ll be the first on the block to want to take out the overly cheery stranger who judges my expression as sad and then demands in a sugary pitch, “smile, it isn’t all bad.” Why this pushes my buttons I can’t precisely pinpoint, except to guess that the act has to be worth the payoff.  I really want to smile for the helpful progression Inaba’s judging evoked, offering me a world of possibility.  I don’t want to smile for the stranger who is judging what they know not of and leaves me with regret or guilt over my presumed lack of appreciation.

Reams of research proves that working your smile muscles, whether fake or genuine, makes a positive difference in your whole body.  In an effort to be less judgy, I’ll admit the stranger is right to a degree.  Having the control to direct the smile toward your goals and your focus (and away from the obscure though well intentioned syrupy cringe), however, goes one step further in terms of meaning and staying power.  By the way, a genuine, involuntary smile (the most healing of all) is almost always preceded by a planned or voluntary smile.  So it’s also true that we often “fake it to make it.”  Do so with focus, focus on even the smallest step toward that which will make you happiest of all, and you may just feel a change that could stick.

“You’ll find that life is worthwhile if you smile.”

(“Smile” song lyric by John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons, music by Charlie Chaplin, performed most notably by Nat King Cole.)

The Healthy Lunchbox

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Preparing nutritious lunches for you and your family can be really fun. The key is to focus on variation. Assembling lunch can be half the fun. Make it a Sunday routine where everyone helps chop or bag.

Here are ten ideas for a healthy lunchbox so you don’t have to think:

1. Fold up a whole wheat burrito wrap with cooked and seasoned ground turkey and some low fat shredded cheese. A minute in the microwave and voila!
2. Instead of bread, slice mini pita pockets, fill with tuna or chicken salad made with green grapes and walnuts. Whether it’s bread or pita, however, make sure it’s high fiber and whole grain!
3. Use lettuce leaves to roll-up turkey and low fat cheese slices, include a container of low fat mayo or mustard.
4. Buy small “takeout” containers at the dollar store. Last night’s leftover casserole disguised as “takeout” will making eating more fun.
5. Make colorful fruit kebabs using green and purple grapes, strawberries and cantaloupe. You can also make savory kebabs using cubed cheese, cherry tomatoes, and other chopped veggies (chop and assemble them on the weekend so they’re easy to grab throughout the week).
6. Dipping is a blast – prepare sliced veggies, fruit or whole grain pretzels and include a separate container of “sauce” like peanut butter, light cream cheese, low fat yogurt or cottage cheese, applesauce, or salad dressing.
7. Make your own trail mix. Use nuts, healthy whole grain cereals, and dried fruits.
8. Slice an apple and include peanut, cashew, or almond butter for spreading.
9. Add sliced banana to mini rice cakes to make mini sandwiches called “coins”.
10. Instead of plain hard boiled eggs, make deviled eggs with light mayo and a slice of crumbled turkey bacon mixed in, add chives on top.

We’d love to hear of some ways that you keep lunch interesting – share your recipes with us!

With the weekend here, Sunday is a great time to shop, chop and prep for the rest of the week. Happy Friday and we’ll see you next week.

Back to School

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Back to chaos! Here in the Northeast, the days are getting shorter and the weather is turning a bit cooler, even some of the leaves are starting to change. We’re getting cozy and scenic, and busy! As so many of you jump back in the hubbub of school and work, I’m thinking about a whole different kind of change. Teachers and parents tell us that Fall is a big adjustment time that derails them from their health goals. With lots of fruits, veggies, warmth, and daylight, summer living is health in a neat little basket. Back to work, less light for evening walks, fewer veggies calling out your name, everyone wanting a piece of you, and there again is Sally’s leftover birthday cake in the staff lounge. It’s a complete 180o from where you’ve been.

This year let’s take a pledge toward a new approach. Keep the excitement of the change of seasons; keep the energy of getting back to the parts of the chaos that you love. Then stop, take a deep breath and stretch. Seriously. One degree of change at a time. When you feel the icky chaos creeping back, take a deep breath, reach your arms over your head, exhale and gently stretch to one side. Release and repeat to the other side. I’m not kidding. You can’t get rid of the chaos. It’s been the same story, different day, for decades. You CAN get rid of the cringe that builds up into the eventual knot in your neck. Exhale, stretch, release. Be gentle and it certainly can’t hurt. So take my new PATH pledge: “I WILL exhale.”

What are you wanting for yourself in dealing with the “icky” chaos this Fall?

p.s. To the teachers and other school employees we represent in Vermont (VEHI), Maine (MEABT), and New Hampshire (NH SchoolCare) — here’s to a great start to the new school year!