by Dan | Dec 23, 2013 | Exercise, Family, Holidays, Motivation
My girls are home from college! I don’t know who was more excited, Sarah and I, or my girls. They were racing across the waiting area of the airport to get at each other. Tears flowing by all. It has been good having us all back together again for the holidays.
The girls were very excited to see each other. It had been 4 months since they saw each in person. As a parent, it is nice to see that you did something right that they get along that well, and actually missed each other. Nick was happy to have them home too.
Mom had the tears flowing too! We will have a good month together, as that is how long they have off before going back to school. Now, we just have to get used to everybody being home at the same time. I have been going in to Anytime Fitness to workout when it has been so cold out, and everybody else is fighting to use the equipment at home. Also, nice to see everybody still thinks working out and staying in shape is important. Again, we must have done something right! Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year! Keep moving everybody!
Dr. Dan
Consecutive Exercise Day #: 2281
by kelsey | Dec 17, 2013 | Diet, Exercise, Family, Food, Goals, Holidays, Motivation, Weight Management, Wellness/Health
The holidays are in full swing, which means festive food, and busy schedules. Many families are enjoying old traditions, or making new ones. Unfortunately also during these Christmas experiences, many people find themselves experiencing weight gain. Countless family gatherings and baking Christmas goodies all month are grounds for overeating, without any time to spare for exercise. By making few simple changes over the day, the holidays do not have to mean weight gain! Here are some simple tips to try out between traveling, parties, cooking, and company.
- An Early Resolution? – Rather than waiting for New Years to start a resolution, make it easier on yourself and gradually work up to your resolution by New Years. This will also help you to stay focused and maintain weight over the holidays, so you can see faster results after. If your goal is to lose weight, maybe you will try to walk two days a week now, and by New Year’s you will be built up to walking 5 days a week!
- Stress less about Exercise- Rather than stressing about shopping and cleaning this year, think of this as a time to multitask. Housework is one of the best ways to get in a workout over the holidays. Whether it’s moving around the kitchen while you bake, or vacuuming before company…it all burn calories! Shopping through the mall crowds, standing in line, and bringing bags out to your car all are positive experiences now that you can count it as a workout, right?
- Quality Time– Rather than taking away from family time to work out, invite your family to do something as a group. Wake up on Christmas morning and enjoy some yoga together before presents, or take the kids out ice-skating or sledding after the famous Christmas dinner. Just remember, building a snowman or looking at Christmas lights will also provide memories that last longer than the memories watching a movie would.
- Think Before You Eat – Eat until you are satisfied, not stuffed. If you find yourself overeating at one meal, go light on the next. Try to fill your plate with the lower calorie items such as vegetable dishes, and lean proteins, then take smaller portions of the rich foods. Eat slowly, socialize, and enjoy every bite!
Overall, it’s the holidays and you need to enjoy yourself! Don’t restrict yourself from family time and enjoying some of your favorite holiday foods, but be mindful and plan ahead! Stay healthy this season, then after the holidays, your mind and body will thank you!
-Submitted by USD Dietetic Intern Lauren Lambert
by Dan | Dec 6, 2013 | Equipment, Exercise, Family, Goals, Motivation, Wellness/Health, Winter
The cold has been terrible right now to try and go outside and run. I can put up with a lot of extremes with the temperature, but when it gets this cold, with windchills -25 degrees or worse, then it becomes more an issue of safety as well. That does not mean you cannot find alternatives way to exercise.
This morning was the perfect time to ultilize my membership at Anytime Fitness. Warm environment, with plenty of equipment to use, and other people working out at the same time. This works great during the cold, but not everybody has this ability. There are different types of exercise equipment you can purchase that is very inexpensive, or that you can even create/make on your own. We teach this also in our Strive 2 Survive program. I have equipment of my own that I utilize as well.
I have built this up over the years, and it is equipment that either I, or someone in my family utilizes frequently. Even though we have this, sometimes you just need to do something different in order to keep the interest and the motivation there. When the weather is not like it is now, I will be outside. I love looking around at everything when working out. It takes your mind off what you doing, and it goes by so much faster. You can also go indoors at the mall and go walk around. You have a long enough route to be making laps. Just leave your money at home so you are not tempted to spend every time you do this! Whatever it takes, there is always a right time for fitness: Anytime! It is up to you as to how and where you want to do the exercise at. Good luck! Keep moving everybody!
Dr. Dan
Consecutive Exercise Day #: 2264
by kelsey | Dec 4, 2013 | Cooking Tips, Diet, Family, Weight Management, Wellness/Health
I hope you all had a very Happy Thanksgiving! My family had a great time together eating, laughing, and making fond holiday memories! Since black Friday shopping has turned into Thursday night shopping, we were able to take the little kids (my nieces and nephew) to the Children’s Museum in Brookings on Friday. If you haven’t been there yet and you have little kids (kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews, neighbors, etc!) be sure to check it out! It is a great place to spark children’s imaginations and educate them about a variety of things from music, mechanics, art, history, reading, etc. My favorite place in the museum is the grocery store and it was evident my nieces and nephew really loved it too! The picture shows me helping my nieces check out their items they “purchased” in the store. This is a great way to teach young children about healthy eating as involving them in the process of grocery shopping and meal making will help them learn and understand the importance of healthy eating better than just telling them what to do. Teaching our children at a young age about healthy eating will help them achieve a healthy weight and have overall healthy habits throughout their lives. This is much of what we educate on in our Strive Kids wellness program. I feel it’s really important to not only educate, but involve the kids in learning activities to help them apply what they are learning. And most importantly, it’s essential for us adults to practice what we preach…so when you are asking your child to eat fruits and veggies, do it with them! When you prepare your grocery list and go shopping, include your kids in the process, and lastly, let them help you in the kitchen with meal prep!
Our Strive Kids program started in October and it is an on-going wellness program focused on improving the health and wellness for kids of all ages. If you’d like to learn more about our wellness services for kids, please contact me today!
-Kelsey Raml, MS, RD, LN
strive2survive@brownclinic.org
605-884-4226
by Dan | Dec 2, 2013 | Exercise, Family, Goals, Heart Health, Holidays, Motivation, Wellness/Health
This week had a lot of things going on, both personally, and community wise. My mom celebrated her 80th Birthday, the 28th of November, Thanksgiving day! We had gotten together a week prior because is was easier for us all to get home to celebrate. Here we all are!
…All of us, except my brother from Sturgis. We all had been out there the week prior, but not for a good reason. His wife of 32 years had unexpectantly passed away. We never know when our time is. We tried to celebrate this day for my mom, but our hearts were still all wondering how he was doing.
The kids and grandkids all had a good time helping her celebrate! Besides having her birthday on Thanksgiving day, Watertown had its annual Turkey Day run/walk. There were almost 400 people there!
As they stated at the start of the race: “Before we go stuff our face, we must first run a race!” It was a good day, and a great turnout! Here we all are at the beginning of the race taking off.
Then, friday night was the annual Lighted Parade through downtown Watertown. This too was a good turnout, will many pretty amazing floats! We walked alongside the float and handed out candy to the kids as we went.
As our float states: Wishing you Health and Happiness this Holiday Season! Take care of yourselves! Keep moving everybody!
Dr. Dan
Consecutive Exercise Day #: 2260
by kelsey | Nov 12, 2013 | Family, Motivation, Wellness/Health
My great-grandma Mary was a great role model for my family as she showed us that no matter what your age was you could always learn new things and keeping active was key to longevity. Many of you who know my family probably remember Grandma Mary. Grandma Mary lived to be a few months short of 95 years old and she lived independently until she was about 94 years old. She was truly one of a kind as she never missed any activities in our family, never missed Sunday church, and would jump on the opportunity to learn new things. At her age, it would have been very easy to throw in the towel and give up, while letting others cater to her needs, but she had a spirit to live that was in-stopable. Her son, my grandpa Marshall (my dad’s dad) had the same personality and it really showed through with his battle with cancer.
You may wonder why I am even sharing these stories with you as they do not relate to food or nutrition, but in reality a spirit to live and the desire to make those small efforts at healthy living is key to success! We don’t expect you to take everything we recommend or talk about and do it all at once, but focus on one thing at a time and remember something is better than nothing!
It’s easy to come up with every excuse in the book to not exercise and not eat healthy, but we need to throw the excuse book out the window and focus on small changes or modifications and remember something is better than nothing! If you know you need to increase your fruit intake, start by adding one serving to your daily intake. If you know you need to get more exercise, start by adding a 10 minute walk to your day’s routine. Push yourself to learn new things and stay as active as you can be as this will not only help improve your health, it will help you live a long and healthy life like my Great Grandma Mary! Start by doing some reflection and prioritize your tasks and goals. The sky is the limit!
-Kelsey
