Great News. A representative from Starbucks saw that Healthy Lombard included them in a post about 10 Healthier Drive Thru Meals (https://healthylombard.com/10-healthier-drive-thru-meals/) and wanted to provide a little incentive for folks to visit one of their stores.
So they sent this terrific resource for finding coupons to use.
Check it out at: http://verified.codes/Starbucks
Enjoy!
POPSUGAR says: if you’re tired of overdoing it all weekend long and starting from square one on Monday, you’re not alone. The good news is you can stick with your healthy game plan, continue to lose weight, and have an awesome weekend. All it takes is a little planning and willpower.
SELF (http://www.self.com/) hopes that things are about to get a little bananas.
While the jury is out regarding the average number of pounds one gains durning the holiday season (The New England Journal of Medicine clocks in between 1-2), it’s a pretty safe assumtion that we’ll all indulge at least once between now and New Years Eve. And by indulge, I mean take an average cheat day and multiply it by 1,000. It’s not going to be pretty.
Don’t sweat it: Just eat pancakes and cookies. Seriously. Both of these completely good-for-you recipes use the potassium-filled fruit as the star of the show so they need none of the ingredients you don’t want—like flour or other kinds of gluten.
Also great news: these recipes are dead simple. The key to success in both of them is to blend the bananas into a smooth puree before combining them with the other ingredients. It will allow for even distribution of the fruit and ensure that each bite tastes fantastic. And that’s the hardest step—well, that and making sure to save some extras for your friends and family.
Go bananas and happy holidays!
Lenny Bernstein from The Washington Post shared that you’ve lost a pound of fat. Congrats, that’s not easy to do during the holidays. But where exactly does it go when you manage to get rid of it?First, some possible answers:
A. The fat fairy came and took it. That’s why you always weigh less in the morning.
B. You converted it to heat and radiated it into the atmosphere.
C. It’s not really lost, it’s just delayed in Cleveland.
D. You released it as carbon dioxide and water through your lungs.
E. You melted it and excreted it in your urine and feces.
If you didn’t answer D, don’t worry too much. Neither did a bunch of doctors and biochemistry students whom Ruben Meerman queried before writing about all this in a short paper released in the British Medical Journal this month.
“We’re going to remove the mystery,” Meerman said in an interview from Sydney, Australia, where he lives. “Right now, most people, including doctors, have got an idea that’s scientifically incorrect. It’s literally impossible to do what they think is happening.”
Meerman is a former physicist who abandoned that career to take up “science communication,” including work for a popular Australian television show, “Catalyst.” Last year, he lost some weight and began to think about what happens on a molecular level to the kilograms of fat he was shedding.
“I had a little bit of understanding you can’t just turn fat into heat,” he said, though that turned out to be a popular answer when he started asking the question.
This WebMD Feature by R. Morgan Griffin and reviewed by Hansa D. Bhargava, MD offers that you know exercise is good for kids’ bodies. Did you know that exercise is crucial for kids’ developing brains as well?
Even moderate exercise, like walking, could make your kids sharper, healthier, and happier.
“Exercise has tremendous mental benefits,” says Joel Brenner, MD, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness. Studies show that kids who exercise get better grades, have better concentration, and get more restful sleep.
Physical activity boosts blood flow all over the body, including to the brain. Brain cells get better at connecting with each another. What’s the result?
Better thinking skills. Studies show that people who exercise more are sharper mentally. The effects may be almost immediate. One study found that kids scored higher on math and reading comprehension tests after exercising for 20 minutes.
More confidence. Studies have found that kids who do athletics are more confident. In turn, that confidence may improve their academic performance, too. Active kids tend to get better grades. Though there could be a lot of reasons for that, including brain benefits, part of it may be better self-confidence.
Better moods. Many studies have found that kids who exercise feel happier. Physical activity releases brain chemicals that are natural stress fighters. Just about any physical activity seems to help. Physically active kids are better at managing their moods and have fewer mood swings, too.
Sounder sleep. Kids who exercise regularly fall asleep faster than other kids. They also stay asleep longer. The more vigorous the activity, the bigger the sleep benefit. Getting enough sleep lifts moods, improves judgment, and boosts memory.
Your kid doesn’t have to be a track star or medal-winning gymnast to feel the brain-boosting and other benefits of exercise. Even moderate activity — riding a bike or even walking — seems to help.
“Kids should take breaks every 30 minutes or so,” Brenner says. “They can do jumping jacks or just move around.” Going on a walk or stretching will help, too. Short bursts of activity will re-energize them. After a few minutes, your kids should feel refreshed and ready to tackle more.
Later, take an after-after dinner walk as a family instead of settling in on the couch.
Get the whole family involved. If you want your kids to exercise more, you have to exercise more yourself. Practice what you preach. Get in the habit of taking weekend nature walks or bike rides. Make physical activity a part of all of your lives. Your bodies, and your minds, will be healthier for it.
Help your kids benefit from exercise:
Get an hour of exercise a day. That’s what the CDC recommends for kids ages 6 to 18. Your kids can split up activity over the course of the day. A few minutes here and there adds up.
Break up the day with physical activity. Have them get active after school before settling in for homework to help their focus. Then, let them take breaks. Just a few minutes of exercise can perk up your kid.
“Kids should take breaks every 30 minutes or so,” Brenner says. “They can do jumping jacks or just move around.” Going on a walk or stretching will help, too. Short bursts of activity will re-energize them. After a few minutes, your kids should feel refreshed and ready to tackle more.
Later, take an after-after dinner walk as a family instead of settling in on the couch.
Get the whole family involved. If you want your kids to exercise more, you have to exercise more yourself. Practice what you preach. Get in the habit of taking weekend nature walks or bike rides. Make physical activity a part of all of your lives. Your bodies, and your minds, will be healthier for it.
Joshua Steckler, the owner of Push Fitness, a personal training studio located in Schaumbur specializing in weight loss, muscle toning, and nutrition. He suggests that if you’re looking for any last-minute gift ideas, don’t forget the gift of fitness.
Here are some great ideas for the fitness inclined, or as a hint for anyone you’d like to see become more active.
Now keep in mind, there are lots of gimmicky fitness gifts out there, but these gifts will help anyone get the most out of their workouts.
Workout shoes. A properly fitted pair of shoes that are specific to the task at hand are a must if you want to excel at your particular sport. If you’re a runner, make sure you buy running shoes specific to your gait and cushioning needs. For strength training, a minimalist style shoe that makes your foot work more naturally might be a better option. Every activity or sport has an ideal shoe type that goes along with it. If you have questions on shoe styles, a gift certificate to a shoe store specializing in fitting the right shoe type to a specific body and sport may be the way to go.
Mobility tools. Everyone wants to feel good while they move. Back tightness, knee pain, and overall stiffness can often be lessened or alleviated with proper stretching and activation of weak muscles. A simple tool that we use with our clients to improve mobility is a foam roller. Nothing more than a dense cylinder 6″ in diameter and 36″ long, this tool gives you an ideal surface to apply pressure against tight muscles, allowing that muscle to relax back into proper muscle tone. Once your body is moving properly, you can perform at your best — both in and out of the gym.
Ellie Krieger shared the following information in the Health Section of the December 2014 AARP Bulletin:
I love food that’s both deeply satisfying and healthful—and I think we’re going to see more emphasis on that in the year ahead. I also think we’re moving more toward foods from our grandparents’ era. All this means that not only will we continue to embrace quinoa and kale, but we’re heading toward a wider array of superfoods in 2015.
Here are some other predictions.
Move over, quinoa—farro is going to be huge. A nutty, nutritious, ancient grain related to wheat, it will be showing up on more restaurant menus.
Instead of goji berries from Asia, dried cherries from the U.S. will be the homegrown superfruit. Dried cherries have been overlooked, but they’re just as nutritious and even more delicious. Dried cranberries are in the same camp.
Make way, kale—Brussels sprouts will also be on your table. They’re being used in more modern and fresh ways by chefs nationally. You can even roast the leaves individually so that they’re crisp, like kale chips.
Instead of throwing away part of the vegetable, we will be eating the whole plant, including the stems, leaves and roots. For example, we’ll learn to sauté beet greens and chard stems, and add celery leaves to salads.
In addition to hummus spread, everyone will be embracing avocado spread. It is showing up on lots of menus, spread on bread instead of butter, with sweet and savory toppings. People will be looking for more sources of healthy fats. —Dietician Ellie Krieger is the host of Healthy Appetite on the Food Network. Her latest cookbook isWeeknight Wonders: Delicious Healthy Dinners in 30 Minutes or Less.
Virgin Heath shared in its 2014 Survey on “The holidays’ impact on employees’ health happiness (& what it means for employers) that it looks like the stress – not to mention all that turkey and eggnog – is weighing on employees’ health.
Sixty-two percent said eating healthy is the hardest aspect of well-being to maintain during the holidays, with 71 percent of respondents saying they eat unhealthily between two and five days a week.
Employees are also have trouble finding time to exercise and aren’t logging enough sleep. Fifty-one percent and 46 percent, respectively, said these were the aspects of well-being they found hardest to maintain during the holidays. Fifty-nine percent of respondents said they sleep poorly and 51 percent said they skip exercising between two and five days during the holidays.
Encourage your employees to maintain their healthy habits during the holidays, and all year long. With exercise, sleep, and proper nutrition all proven to have dramatic impacts on people’s performance.
and cognitio
The Shaklee Corporation shared the following information in a recent blog on brain health:
Many kids ask their math teacher why learning a particular mathematical concept or skill is important. When helping kids out with their homework, many parents may wonder the same thing. Now scientists are unraveling the earliest building blocks of math — and what children know about numbers as they begin elementary school seems to play a big role in how well they do everyday calculations later on.
The findings from the National Institutes of Health have specialists considering steps that parents might take to spur math abilities, just like they do to try to raise a good reader. This is not only about trying to improve the nation’s math scores and attract kids to become engineers. It is far more basic, such as how rapidly can you calculate a tip? Do the fractions to double a recipe? Know how many quarters and dimes the cashier should hand back as your change?
About 1 in 5 adults in the U.S. lacks the math competence expected of a middle-schooler, meaning they have trouble with those ordinary tasks and are not qualified for many of today’s jobs. “Experience really does matter,” said Dr. Kathy Mann Koepke of the National Institutes of Health, which funded the research.
One of the objectives in the IAPO Obesity Action Roadmap is to “increase consumption of healthy food and beverages in relation to consumption of unhealthy food and beverages that have minimal nutritional value, such as sugar-sweetened beverages and calorie-dense, low-nutrition fast foods.” More
A Rethink Your Drink 2014 campaign was kicked off with Illinois Governor Pat Quinn declaring February, 2014 as “Rethink Your Drink Month” in Illinois. More
In the fall of 2013, IAPO developed its first ever legislative agenda for the spring 2014 session of the Illinois General Assembly. Included on the agenda was the Healthy Eating Active Living (HEAL) Act, which placed a penny per ounce excise tax on sugary beverages with revenues going to community prevention (50%) and the Illinois Medicaid program (50%).
For quick and fun ideas on how to participate, view the IAPO Rethink Your Drink Toolkit.
Rethink Your Drink Tools and Resources
Join us by hosting educational events in your community and/or sending out educational messages about the health impacts of sugary beverages and how people can take steps to rethink their drinks and reduce consumption of sugary beverages through policy and environmental strategies.
