Did you fall off the wagon with your wellness goals this summer due to summer festivities and lack of activity? We can help you! Two weeks from today, we’ll be kicking off our fall is an exciting way with our fall session of STRIVE 2 Survive. Our first session starts September 4th at the County Fair Banquet Hall at 5:30pm. Be sure to check out our website for more details and contact us today to get signed up! It’s never too late to put YOU first to achieve a healthier lifestyle!
It’s hard to believe summer is close to an end which means school starts again and we get back into helping people get healthy inside and out through STRIVE 2 Survive. The last two mornings, I have had the opportunity to visit with the folks at KXLG radio and Jeff Anderson with 1480AM to promote our program. A common question people ask about STRIVE is what kind of success we have seen. Since we are not a program like the Biggest Loser that focuses on total weight loss in a short amount of time, we measure our success by cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugar improvements as well as weight, body fat percentage, and waist circumference improvements. We actually want to see a slower and steady weight loss rather than a fast, large weight loss as the person who has the slow and steady weight loss will be more apt to keep it off in the long run. Under our “info” tab, we have highlighted many of our participant’s success, but I thought I’d include it here as well to help show the success of our program in regards to disease prevention and wellness.
Female Participant (Age 30-35): lost 19 lbs, improved her cholesterol by 45 points and triglycerides by 95 points, also lost 2 inches off her waist!
Female Participant (Age 50-55): lost 13 lbs (lost 42 lbs total over the last 6-8 months by working with Kelsey), lost 5.8% body weight, improved blood sugars and cholesterol, lost 2 inches off her waist!
Male Participant (Age 55-60): Lost 36.8 lbs, 10.75% of his body weight, improved total cholesterol by 10 pts (was already in a normal range), triglycerides by 65 points, dropped blood pressure into normal range from hypertension range, lost 3 inches on his waist, and reduction in his body fat percent and fat mass!
Female Participant (Age 35-40): Lost 21 lbs, 12% of her body weight, improved her total cholesterol by 66 points, LDL cholesterol by 61 points, blood pressure to a more normal range, dropped 3 ½ inches off her waist and her BMI into the healthy weight category from overweight, along with greatly improving her body fat percent and fat mass!
Female Participant (Age 60-65): lost 3 lbs, but improved her cholesterol by 50 points and dropped her LDL by 40 points!
Male Participant (Age 65-70): lost 10 lbs, improved his total cholesterol and LDL by 25 points, dropped sugars 20 points and went from prediabetic to under the range, and lost 2 ½ inches on his waist!
We are so excited to start the fall with another great group of people all working to improve their health and wellness. It’s a perfect time to put YOU first!! Contact us today to get enrolled!
-Kelsey
Wow, is it just me or has summer flown by! It’s hard to believe that school will be starting in a few weeks and everyone will be getting back into the swing of things with school year activities. We are excited to start our fall off in a great way! Our fall STRIVE 2 Survive program is set to start Tuesday, September 4th. Our first meeting at the County Fair Banquet Hall at 5:30pm, however we encourage you to pre-register to ensure your spot!
STRIVE 2 Survive was initially started by Dr. Dan when we worked in Clear Lake and has evolved over the years to become a very well-rounded, multi-discplinary approach to wellness and promotion of healthy living. We meet 6 out of the 12 weeks (the weeks you don’t meet you get a take home lesson) and lab work and body composition testing are included at the beginning and end of the sessions to provide a variety of measurements for you to track progress.
STRIVE 2 Survive has had many success stories that include improved lab work, weight, strength, blood pressure, and overall health and well-being. Our program applies to all who have a heart beat, so if you are wanting to learn more about eating healthy, activity, health, and wellness we’re here for you!
For more details, be sure to check out our calendar, program details, and STRIVE participant feedback under the “INFO” tab on our website. You are also welcome to contact us through the contact link, email (strive2survive@brownclinic.org) or call us at 886-8482 to for more information and to reserve your spot!
-Kelsey
I usually leave the activity talk on this blog up to Dr. Dan, however lately I have had a lot of questions and discussion regarding activity with my patients that I thought I’d discuss a little bit on here as well. As many of you know, it’s hard to tackle wellness with just diet or just activity, thus to be most successful you really need to work on both! Often times, people will tell me that they are super busy during the day and their job requires them to be on their feet so that counts as exercise. Having a job where you’re on your feet is better than a desk job as we naturally burn more calories standing than sitting, however that doesn’t necessarily mean it counts as moderate activity.
At least 150 minutes of moderate activity is recommended each week. We recommend it by week as it can be spread throughout your days (example 30 min Monday, 40 min Tuesday, 60 min Wednesday, etc)…and it just has to be 10 minutes at a time! Moderate activity has been shown to be beneficial for our cardiovascular health as well as aiding in disease prevention and weight management. The difference between moderate activity and your daily chores and work duties is that moderate activity gets your heart rate up high enough to result in these benefits. You can certainly check your heart rate and figure out your range, however the easiest way to determine you are reaching that moderate level is by using the talk test. Moderate activity involves getting your heart rate up high enough that you can talk (in between breaths), but you are unable to sing. If you are able to sing and talk as you normally would, then your heart rate is not at that moderate level.
Here are some examples of moderate activity:
Just remember that every bit counts so if you are only able to do little bits of activity throughout your day, that’s better than nothing! The key is to keep moving!!
-Kelsey
Body Mass Index or BMI is a part of our regular assessments when you come in to see me, the doctor, or participate in STRIVE 2 Survive. It’s part of our assessments as it’s a fairly reliable indicator for fatness in most adults and it tells us where you’re at on the spectrum in regards to your height to weight ratio. BMI is calculated from your height and weight and is an inexpensive measurement tool compared to other measurements for body fat such as underwater weighing or the bod pod. BMI does not not take muscle mass or bone structure into consideration thus it’s not always the best measurement for everyone. It is not as beneficial with athletes and the elderly.
There are several categories which help us determine where you are at at the spectrum of underweight to obese. The categories include:
Those people with very low or very high BMI’s are at highest risk. Even though BMI is used as an assessment tool, it’s just one factor that contributes to the big picture of your overall health and wellbeing. As I said earlier, we use BMI in STRIVE 2 Survive, but we also get body fat percentage, fat mass, and muscle mass by using our body composition analyzer scale. Other measurements we find valuable are blood pressure, waist circumference, and lab work such as the lipid panel and glucose. A higher waist circumference can be an indicator of heart disease as those who carry their weight in their mid section (apple shape) are at higher risk for heart disease compared to those who carry their weight in their buttocks and thighs (pear shape).
If you would like to calculate your BMI and learn more about this measurement, check out this website for more information: http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/.
If your BMI is not desirable and you’d like to work on improving this, eating healthy, practicing portion control, and engaging in daily activity are tools for success. With STRIVE 2 Survive we like to look at the big picture of wellness which is why we get the variety of measurements pre-program and post-program. Sometimes we get frustrated with the scale as the number doesn’t always want to move like we want it to, but we have to remember that our positive lifestyle changes can be improving things inside too!
-Kelsey
Lately, I have had several people tell me that they enjoy reading our blog or that they found a specific post really intriguing or valuable to them. Dr. Dan and I really enjoy spreading the word about health, wellness, nutrition, and activity and we enjoy the feedback from you! Many of you get our posts directly into your email, some learn more through our Facebook page, and many just browse our site on a regular basis. No matter how you decide to connect with us, please know we appreciate you! You are the reason we are so passionate about our work with STRIVE 2 Survive and promoting healthy lifestyles! We typically write about relevant topics related to our lives, the news, etc, however we certainly can write about anything you desire to learn more about! If you have questions related to wellness, health, nutrition, or activity please share them with us and we’ll be sure to get them answered through our blog! You can contact us by commenting on the posts, emailing us, calling us, or writing us on Facebook.
Our program continues to evolve and improve as time goes on and we base alot of our improvements on our participant’s feedback and requests. We are so excited to be starting our fall program September 4th and are eager to work with another great group! We already have a list of participants excited to start, so if you are interested in learning more and getting enrolled, be sure to contact us!
Thanks for giving us purpose to continue sharing our passion about wellness with you!
-Kelsey