Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Active Transportation
We all have places to go, people to see, and things to
do. October’s healthy habit challenge
is to incorporate active transportation into your regular activities. Headed somewhere close by? Consider walking or biking. Headed somewhere far away? Why not try public transportation? You’ll still get some walking in on your way
to and from bus stops and transfer points.
Is public transportation not convenient for you? Consider a hybrid trip where you drive most
of the way, but park a few blocks from where you need to go, so you can add on
some walking to and from your car.
Active transportation may take a little longer, but with a little bit of
planning can be a great way to increase your daily physical activity and insert
periods of natural stress relief into your busy schedule. Use the chart emailed to you to track how many trips
this month you incorporate some form of active transportation into, and kids,
don’t forget International Walk to School Day on Wednesday, October 3rd.
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| www.walkbiketoschool.org |
Monday, September 3, 2012
Healthy habits make a difference
Mom asked me to write up some thoughts on how I've managed to incorporate some healthy habits that have contributed to my weight loss this last month or so. Let me preface this by saying that I never dreamed I would be competitive with my weight loss since I don't have a huge weight loss target and my concerted efforts in the past haven't yielded the results I hoped for. I was shocked when I weighed myself to find that I'd actually gone down several pounds without purposefully trying to do so.
The specific habits that I think have helped are eating a good breakfast, but keeping it appropriately portioned, limiting excess snacking, and adding daily movement to my schedule. For breakfasts, I try to shoot for the guidelines in our Change One book: 1-2 grain servings, 1 fruit serving, 1 dairy serving. I haven't always been a breakfast person, but I've found in the past several years that it really does make a difference to eat something in the morning.
Secondly, cutting out snacks. I tend to be a snacker, whether it stems from boredom or seeing food and not having the willpower to resist. During much of August, I was helping Annelyn with some sewing projects after lunch, so I was busy and didn't grab a snack. Obviously I survived without them, which helps me realize that I really don't NEED to eat, I just want to. The key seems to be keeping busy and not watching the clock for "snack time(s)" to roll around. I'm sure having healthy snack options instead of junk food helps for those times when I do snack.
Finally, adding movement in. Most of the summer has been pretty lazy. I no longer had early morning seminary time to fill with walking laps. My membership card for the Y has been misplaced, and with the kids home from school I didn't plan regular trips to work out. When school started, I got back into the habit of walking kids to and from school. This gives me at least a mile every round trip. Seminary starts up again in the morning, so I'm planning to add my gym laps to my daily school walks. Hopefully the pounds will keep coming off.
The specific habits that I think have helped are eating a good breakfast, but keeping it appropriately portioned, limiting excess snacking, and adding daily movement to my schedule. For breakfasts, I try to shoot for the guidelines in our Change One book: 1-2 grain servings, 1 fruit serving, 1 dairy serving. I haven't always been a breakfast person, but I've found in the past several years that it really does make a difference to eat something in the morning.
Secondly, cutting out snacks. I tend to be a snacker, whether it stems from boredom or seeing food and not having the willpower to resist. During much of August, I was helping Annelyn with some sewing projects after lunch, so I was busy and didn't grab a snack. Obviously I survived without them, which helps me realize that I really don't NEED to eat, I just want to. The key seems to be keeping busy and not watching the clock for "snack time(s)" to roll around. I'm sure having healthy snack options instead of junk food helps for those times when I do snack.
Finally, adding movement in. Most of the summer has been pretty lazy. I no longer had early morning seminary time to fill with walking laps. My membership card for the Y has been misplaced, and with the kids home from school I didn't plan regular trips to work out. When school started, I got back into the habit of walking kids to and from school. This gives me at least a mile every round trip. Seminary starts up again in the morning, so I'm planning to add my gym laps to my daily school walks. Hopefully the pounds will keep coming off.
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Healthy Habits
In order to keep us focused on creating and sustaining healthy habits, we're going to have a monthly healthy habit challenge and invite anyone who wants to set a personal healthy habit goal for the month to turn that in to Becky by September 5th. I'll put the personal goals up along with the monthly challenge under the Healthy Habits tab.
At the end of the month, we'd love it if anyone who met their goal, or participated in their monthly challenge to share.
Speaking of sharing: you may notice that I created a facebook group for those of us who often find ourselves on facebook and see it as an easy and (less intimidating than blogging) way to communicate, and give tips, advice, updates, encouragement etc. to each other. I'll still put stuff up on the blog from time to time especially at the end of each month and anyone is still welcome to post to it, but feel free to post pictures, stories, thoughts etc. to the facebook group too. It's a closed group, so only members are able to see it and all posts will automatically be sent to members in accordance with your facebook notification preferences.
So with all that being said, here's September's Healthy Habit Challenge:
Eat a Nutritious Breakfast (containing at least one serving of fruits or vegetables and 2 of the other 3 food groups (dairy, grains, meat or other protein). (*Tip: for information on serving sizes, visit the "portion sizes" link under the "Links" tab at the top of the page).
Keep it low in fat by making good food choices like using egg whites, low fat dairy products, using beans or nuts for protein instead of high fat meats and filling up on fruits and veggies. For some healthy breakfast ideas visit http://www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org/healthy-breakfast-ideas.
Track your progress on the special calendar you were emailed and let's see who can master the Healthy Breakfast Habit.
At the end of the month, we'd love it if anyone who met their goal, or participated in their monthly challenge to share.
Speaking of sharing: you may notice that I created a facebook group for those of us who often find ourselves on facebook and see it as an easy and (less intimidating than blogging) way to communicate, and give tips, advice, updates, encouragement etc. to each other. I'll still put stuff up on the blog from time to time especially at the end of each month and anyone is still welcome to post to it, but feel free to post pictures, stories, thoughts etc. to the facebook group too. It's a closed group, so only members are able to see it and all posts will automatically be sent to members in accordance with your facebook notification preferences.
So with all that being said, here's September's Healthy Habit Challenge:
Eat a Nutritious Breakfast (containing at least one serving of fruits or vegetables and 2 of the other 3 food groups (dairy, grains, meat or other protein). (*Tip: for information on serving sizes, visit the "portion sizes" link under the "Links" tab at the top of the page).
 |
| http://www.womenshealthmag.com/nutrition/breakfast-recipes |
Track your progress on the special calendar you were emailed and let's see who can master the Healthy Breakfast Habit.
August Weigh-In
Great Job Courtney on keeping up your weight loss routine. You're blowing the rest of the field away at the moment, so all you other competitors have something to shoot for. Amy also made a big jump on the leaderboard, but I noticed a few people who seem to be headed the wrong direction. This contest is an endurance race, so there's still plenty of time (4 months to be exact) to pick up your game, and if you feel like you're in a slump, maybe call up Courtney and ask him what his motivation or other secrets are.
Keep it going everyone!
JACK signing off . . .
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Notes on the Medal Count
With JACK's Olympics officially over, it's time to take a look at the final medal count.
Chalise, Dillon and Rachel tied for the lead in over all medals with 9 medals apiece.
Chalise also won the most gold medals with 5.
Dillon, Becky, Sam, Judy and Charles were close behind with 4 golds each.
Alma, Patrick, and Alyssa all deserve a shout out as well for accumulating 5 or more total medals throughout the contest.
Lyndsey was our golden girl who can boast the fact that all 3 of her medals were gold, and Rachel showed us that silver is beautiful too, with a total of 6 silver medals. However, all participants are to be commended for earning at least one gold medal.
Hopefully you all had fun with JACK's olympics. May the olympic spirit stay with you long after competition has ended.
Chalise, Dillon and Rachel tied for the lead in over all medals with 9 medals apiece.
Chalise also won the most gold medals with 5.
Dillon, Becky, Sam, Judy and Charles were close behind with 4 golds each.
Alma, Patrick, and Alyssa all deserve a shout out as well for accumulating 5 or more total medals throughout the contest.
Lyndsey was our golden girl who can boast the fact that all 3 of her medals were gold, and Rachel showed us that silver is beautiful too, with a total of 6 silver medals. However, all participants are to be commended for earning at least one gold medal.
Hopefully you all had fun with JACK's olympics. May the olympic spirit stay with you long after competition has ended.
Heptathlon Medal Ceremony
Sorry this one is a week late, but better late than never right?!
And the winner of the heptathlon is:
Judy with a total of 174 points!
Gold medals are awarded in order of points to:
Judy
Charles
Chalise
Michelle
Jeff
Dillon
Silver medals go to:
Mark
Rachel
Alyssa
And last but not least, Bronze medals are awarded to:
Courtney
Becky
Way to go everyone!
And the winner of the heptathlon is:
Judy with a total of 174 points!
Gold medals are awarded in order of points to:
Judy
Charles
Chalise
Michelle
Jeff
Dillon
Silver medals go to:
Mark
Rachel
Alyssa
And last but not least, Bronze medals are awarded to:
Courtney
Becky
Way to go everyone!