Fitness Fair 2014
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Cooking Challenge Winner
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Christa Gifford, Family and Consumer Sciences, Glenbard North High School. and District Wellness Committee Chair shared with Healthy Lombard that the Nutrition and Fitness students did a terrific job creating and making delicious healthy recipes for this year’s Healthy Cooking Challenge!
The recipes were tasted by students and staff and they voted the Cheesy Broccoli Rice Bake the winner. Here is a copy of that recipe:
Cheesy Broccoli Rice Bake
3 c. cooked brown rice
1 T. butter
1/2 onion, diced
1 ½ c. shredded cheddar cheese
2/3 c. milk
2 c. finely chopped broccoli florets
1 can Healthy Request Cream of Mushroom soup
Directions:
- Spray 9 x 13” pan with cooking spray.
- In a large skillet, melt butter. Add diced onion and cook until transluscent.
- Stir in cream of mushroom soup and milk, then add cheese. Stir until melted.
- Pour cheesy mixture over rice and broccoli and stir until mixed.
- Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 – 35 minutes or until light brown and bubbly.
Yoga Diet
Yoga expert Wai Lana, who has a daily exercise program on public television shared
According to the science of yoga, we can compare our bodies to vehicles that we use to travel the path of life. The food we eat is like the fuel we put in the gas tank—the better the fuel, the better the vehicle performs. What we eat has a huge impact not only on our physical well-being, but also on our mental and our spiritual well-being. So our diet is a vital component of the yoga lifestyle.
The ancient yoga texts describe the foods that benefit our physical health and stamina, our mental clarity, and our spiritual well-being, as sweet, juicy, palatable, and easy to digest. They include fruits and vegetables, milk products, sugar and honey, grains, and nuts and seeds, as well as beans and other legumes.
Research confirms that a diet centered on the foods that comprise the yoga diet can help prevent obesity and diseases such as high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and arthritis and reduce LDL cholesterol levels. These foods also help maintain a healthy body weight, boost our immunity, and may even slow the aging process.
These foods and the countless delicious preparations made from them form the basis of the yoga diet. Because of their inherent qualities of goodness and natural health-giving properties, they are ideal for anyone wanting to live a healthier, happier life.
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Being Healthy is as easy as 5-4-3-2-1 Go! ®
March is National Nutrition Month and the DuPage County Health Department s encouraging residents to live the 5-4-3-2-1 Go!® lifestyle in order to be healthy and reduce the risk for obesity. Nationally, nearly 1 in 3 children are overweight or obese. Kids who are overweight are more likely to suffer from chronic diseases, like high blood pressure and Type 2 Diabetes. Children who are overweight are also more likely to suffer psychological effects such as bullying and depression. Fortunately, everyone can take steps toward leading a healthier lifestyle. The 5-4-3-2-1 Go!® message was created for children ages 3-5 as an easy way to remember the goals to try and meet every day in order to be healthy, but this message also applies to anyone who is striving to live a healthy lifestyle. The components of the health education message are: eating 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day, drinking 4 glasses of water per day, eating 3 servings of low-fat dairy per day, getting 2 hours or less of screen time per day, and getting 1 hour or more of exercise every day. The 5-4-3-2-1 Go!® message was created by the Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children (CLOCC) and adopted by FORWARD, the Health Department’s obesity prevention initiative. Since adopting this message, FORWARD has distributed 5-4-3-2-1 Go!® posters, stickers, flyers, and magnets across DuPage County to raise awareness and free 5-4-3-2-1 Go!® health education programs have been offered in daycares and schools across the county. For ideas and resources on how to use the 5-4-3-2-1 Go!® message in your organizationor classroom, please visit [ http://www.forwarddupage.org ]www.forwarddupage.org. 5-4-3-2-1 Go!® is a registered trademark and Copyright © 2004 Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. All rights reserved. [ http://www.clocc.net ]www.clocc.net
Lead By Example
The ”A Year of Being Well” e-newsletter shared that leaders come in all shapes and sizes, ages, and races. Someone in your home must assume the role as leader and start the process of getting healthy or continue being an example for others. People learn best through the examples of others, so it’s important that as parents and role models we demonstrate good habits for our children.
Kids will do what they see adults do. If we simply preach about instilling healthy habits but we don’t practice good habits ourselves, we’ll never succeed in helping kids eat better, get more sleep, or get more physical activity.
Being a positive role model means you have to break the unhealthy mold and make better choices for yourself, then teach your kids to do the same. Just by drinking more water, eating a healthy diet filled with fruits and vegetables, and staying active you can be someone’s hero!
Avoid Drowsy Driving and Arrive Alive
The week of March 2-9 is National Sleep Awareness Week and the DuPage County Health Department is reminding County residents about the dangers of drowsy driving and why the proper amount of sleep is required to avoid accidents.
It is important to understand that driving drowsy can be as dangerous as driving drunk. According to the National Sleep Foundation, Americans freely admit that they drive when they are sleepy, and with the upcoming time change on March 9, more Americans are apt to be sleep deprived due to one less hour of sleep that night.
The Health Department suggests that you stop driving if you exhibit these warning signs:
- Difficulty focusing, frequent blinking and/or heavy eyelids
- Difficulty keeping daydreams at bay Trouble keeping your head up
- Drifting from your lane, swerving or tailgating
- Inability to clearly remember the last few miles driven
- Missing exits or traffic signs
- Yawning repeatedly
- Feeling restless, irritable or aggressive
Toddlers show progress in battle against obesity
ON February 26, 2014, Mike Stobbe, Associated Press wrote: Toddler obesity shrank sharply in the past decade, a new study suggests. While promising, it’s not proof that the nation has turned a corner in the battle against childhood obesity, some experts say.
The finding comes from a government study considered a gold-standard gauge of trends in the public’s health. The researchers found that obesity among children ages 2 to 5 decreased — to 8 percent, from 14 percent a decade ago. That would represent a 43 percent drop.
But the only decline was seen in preschoolers, not in older children. And some experts note that even the improvement in toddlers wasn’t a steady decline, and say it’s hard to know yet whether preschooler weight figures are permanently curving down or merely jumping around. Continue reading
Fitness February Fair – A HUGE Success
Wow – what a great event. We had 26 interactive tables for folks to visit, healthy, upbeat demonstrations on stage every 20 minutes, and six well-deserving Health Heroes. It was an exciting and motivating event. To see more, check out the Fitness February Fair photos at: http://healthylombard.com/?p=1275
February is Hearth Healthy Month
The Shaklee Corporation in its Health and Wellness Update has published several great article about how to keep your heath healthy. The one below caught my eye and I thought it would a good article to share.
| Weight Is a Heart Issue - What is being overweight? |
| Overweight and obesity are both defined by Body Mass Index or BMI (which is a ratio of weight to height). A BMI between 25 and 30 places someone in an overweight category and 30 or higher is considered obese. |
Why control your weight?
The classifications of overweight and obese are not simply labels; there is a dramatic increase in the likelihood of disease as people increase their BMI, such as:
- Coronary artery disease (CAD)
- Certain cancers
- High blood pressure
- High cholesterol and triglycerides
- Osteoarthritis
- Sleep apnea
- Stroke
- Type 2 diabetes
Even having a few extra pounds greatly increases the risk of heart disease. In a 14 year study, it was shown that moderately overweight (not obese) individuals have an increased risk of heart disease. 50 percent for womeni and over 70 percent for menii
The cost of being overweight
Obesity itself is not what causes the harm; it is the diseases that are associated with obesity that cause the harm. The costs of these diseases and syndromes are enormous, and that doesn’t even begin to calculate the personal, physical, and emotional problems associated with increased BMI.
- Obese people are expected to live 2-4 years less than someone with a healthy weight; the extremely obese (BMI over 40) have 8-10 years taken off their life expectancy. ii
- More than one-third of adults in the U.S. are considered overweight and another one-third are obese.
- The medical costs associated with obesity are estimated at over $150 billion dollars.
- Obese people cost an average of $1,429 more in medical services per year than someone who is normal weight.
Smoke Free Initiative Training Information
Film & Sitka Salmon Tasting
“Know your fisherman, know your food!” Sitka Salmon is your Illinois connection to family fishermen in Sitka, Alaska. If you are committed to purchasing high-quality, sustainably harvested salmon and other fish, please join us. You will learn about Sitka’sCommunity Supported Fishery and will also be able to taste Sitka’s amazing salmon. During March, Sitka Salmon Shares will donate a portion of all Chicago-land share sales to Prairie Food Co-op. Admission is free, but RSVPs are appreciated. Fill out the form below let us know if we should expect you!
- Date: Sunday, March 2
- 2:00 – “End of the Line” film
- 3:15 – Wild Alaskan Salmon tasting & Presentation by Nic Mink, founder of Sitka Salmon Shares
- Location: Helen Plum Library Auditorium at 110 West Maple St, Lombard
- Cost: FREE, but RSVPs are appreciated.
To register, click here.
