by kelsey | Jan 20, 2016 | Diet, Goals, Motivation, Weight Management, Wellness/Health
New Years is always a great time for refocusing and setting those famous resolutions. I’m not a big fan of New Year’s resolutions because they typically aren’t followed long term. Many have already fallen off the wagon with their resolutions just a few weeks into January! Most often they aren’t followed long term because they aren’t realistic to follow. Weight loss is one of the more common resolutions. Controlling your weight long term can be done and does not have to be just a temporary thing! To lose weight permanently, you must make a commitment to gradually adopt a healthier way of life. Making small changes over time make it more realistic and able to stick with long term. Here are a few tips:
- Set realistic weight loss goals, such as 1 to 2 pounds weight loss/week so over the course of a month you are down 4-8lbs. Those who lose weight slowly, by eating less and exercising more, tend to keep their weight lost off.
- Eat fewer calories by cutting down on portions and/or decreasing the total amount of fat you eat.
- Do not skip meals. Eating 5 smaller meals a day helps to increase your metabolism.
- Keep low calorie, low fat snacks on hand, such as pretzels, raw vegetables with low calorie dips or fruit.
- Choose foods high in fiber such as whole-grain breads, cereals, pasta, rice, fruits, and vegetables.
- Eat a variety of foods to get all the nutrients you need.
- To ensure you are eating healthy, keep an accurate food journal. Write down everything you eat or drink. Be honest and accurate, otherwise the journal is not as helpful. The food journal will help you learn about your eating habits and help you assess the food choices you are making. You can do this online or using an app such as MyFitnessPal.
- Establishing a regular exercise routine is equally important. Aim for at least 30-60 minutes/day. Pick activities you enjoy doing to make it more enjoyable and fun!
- Stay positive! Focus on your reasons for improving your health and wellness and don’t let the little bumps along the way bring you down from achieving your goals!
-Kelsey
by Dan | Nov 1, 2015 | Exercise, Goals, Heart Health, Motivation, weight lifting
As a physician, we do our best to take care of our patients. But, we would be totally lost without our Nurses! My current team is Linda, Melody, and Chris, of which Chris has been with me the entire 21 years I have been at Brown Clinic. My team knows my patients just like me. But, they also know me! They keep me organized and on track. It would be prudent that I listen to them! There is no question, my team takes care of me, for which I am grateful. Here is my Team:
My team has heard me thousands of times encouraging my patients that they need to watch their diet, and they need to stay active and exercise. When it comes to the exercise, they all follow this advice. Linda has run several 5k races, and Melody walks…someday I will get her to try running! Chris, though, has become a running maniac! She has been doing this now for about 3 years, and she runs and goes to races a lot with Susan, a former nurse of mine, and they are having fun. After all, this is what it is all about. Hopefully in the process, you improve your health as well.
Here is Chris, then Susan, and Shelly, one of Dr. Greg Larson’s nurses. They all participated in the Hospital Hill run this Summer.
Here is Linda after participating in one of the color runs.
I have heard excuses from them, and at times still do (Ha!) about the time and effort it takes to keep trying to exercise. Chris struggled at first, and was always worried that she was too slow! Now she does not worry about her speed, but she did get a shirt that expressed her thoughts.
As her shirt states: I Run…I’m slower than a herd of turtles stampeding through peanut butter, but I Run!
Exactly! I does not matter how fast you go, or what anybody else thinks of you…It only matters that you are trying, and that you are improving your health…Improving your health to be around longer to spend time with their family. Deep down, they work on this so they will be able to spend more time being my nurses!!!! After all, I listen to everything they tell me! (No laughing!) There is no question this takes work, and that there are always other things to do that keep us busy. We need to make it a priority. It took almost 17 years to get Chris on this bandwagon, and Linda is going…I need to keep working on Melody, and eventually she will get it too. Are you listening Melody? I am not giving up getting you going more! They are all important to me, and I want them to be around helping me, and my patients, for a long time. There will always be that special bond with Chris. What can I say, she has been with me since day one of my Watertown practice. Sarah is my wife, and I have her at home to help keep me organized and on track, but I have Chris at the clinic. I love it when we can all run in a race together…and here are Chris and Sarah after the 4th of July run this Summer.
We can have fun staying active as well. Chris just signed up at Anytime Fitness so she can stay active inside when it gets cold out, but is also working on strength training as well. I was encouraging her on her first day!
Way to go Chris! Keep encouraging those people around you to keep working on taking care of themselves. There are other people who would like to have them around a lot longer too. There is no question this takes work. If it were easy, everybody would be doing it. Just remember, anything worth having is worth working for! Thank you to MY TEAM! I appreciate all you do for me! Keep moving everybody!
Dr. Dan
Consecutive Exercise Day #: 2956
by Dan | Oct 15, 2015 | Exercise, Family, Goals, Heart Health, Motivation, Wellness/Health
When it comes to your kids, there is no better way to teach them about life, or how to handle things, than to lead by example. Staying active, participating in sports, or exercising on your own is so important when it comes to teaching skills in life. You learn how to mange your time, to focus and concentrate on things at the time, and to not only perform for your own individual goals, but to learn to work as a team. Life is a continuous struggle, but running, walking, biking, swimming, or whatever your favorite activity may be, will help you learn how to do things better. All 3 of my kids are now in college, learning to juggle schedules, managing time, and yet still try to have fun and enjoy life. Hopefully we have taught them adequately how to do this. Teaching them not only by continuously talking with them, and showing up at their events cheering them on, but by them watching us do our activities, and compete in racing events here. As my daughter reminded me here this last weekend when she called from school: “When are you going to showcase us on the blog, and talk about how we are superstars!” Well, Megan…here you go!
Megan was our born fish! Ever since she was little, all she wanted to do was be in the water. It is only fitting that her sport was swimming. She started when she was 10, and swam all through high school, and even swims now at college on the swim club. She gets to travel to different large universities and compete. She was a graceful swimmer, and it was fun to watch her, especially the backstroke. Effortless! Swimming is not my sport…I have to think too much trying. We all have our different talents, but the skill comes in continuing to push yourself. Your only limitation is the space between your ears!
Here she is taking off at the start of her backstroke. Perseverance is the key to any sport or activity. You have to keep trying…keep working…never settle for just being OK.
You are our superstar swimmer Meg! It was fun watching all those years. Never give up on yourself…if you take on life like you do swimming, there will be no stopping you!
Molly started coming into her own in High School with running. She always wanted to be a sprinter in track, but she was deep down a distance runner. Sorry Molly…but that is where your talent truly was. She was our “jack of all trades” sport participant. Gymnastics, soccer, softball, band, cross country, track. She wanted to do it all. Eventually things had to give, and she had to pick and choose, so she did more running as far as school activity. She played softball in the summer.
She was a hard worker, and never gave in. She was proud to be the first recipient of the Godfrey Award for participation in Track and Cross Country. And so were we! A very special award for a “super star” runner.
Keep up the running Molly. Will you be the first one to run a marathon with me???? Time will tell. Just don’t give up. You have many talents …never forget that!
Nick took off in running like Megan did with swimming. He ran more middle distance in track, and they were shorter races, but yet you had to have the stamina of a distance runner.
Lots of traveling involved going to all of your Cross Country races in the Fall. You were a great example leading your Arrow teammates, and showing leadership. They looked up to you, and often times it was commented how well the Arrow boys worked together as a team.
You liked doing different things in the summer as a break also, so you did many years of softball. Lots of games and championship competition that we saw with you as well. Learning to work together as a team, and showing good sportsmanship. It was fun to watch you!
Your true favorite sport was track…you loved the middle distance…800 meters. And, you were good at it! You have to have speed and endurance. Way to go all of those years!
Many times we would be cheering you down the home stretch! It was a proud moment for Sarah and I at Track awards when it was your turn…Just like Molly, you won the Godfrey Award for Cross Country and Track! Now is that cool or what? You guys all learned to compete, to show good sportsmanship, and win or lose gracefully. That makes the 3 of you all of “my heroes”! Your High School days of competing may be done, but hopefully the tone has been set for you all to keep staying active. You have seen your mom and I doing this your entire lives. Something was bound to wear off. Just remember, in life you are always coming down different “home stretches”. There is always another goal to achieve, an accomplishment to reach, a setback to endure. Just like sports and activities. It has set the tone for you to succeed in life. Remember that! Set your sites high, and continue to work on new goals. I have no doubts that you will all succeed! We will always be your mom and dad, and will be “cheering” for you along the way! All the Way! Forever! Love you!
Keep moving everybody!
Dr. Dan
Consecutive Exercise Day #: 2939
by kelsey | Aug 25, 2015 | Diet, Exercise, Goals, Heart Health, Motivation, Weight Management, Wellness/Health
This is a repost from two years ago to highlight another success story of STRIVE 2 Survive. Our fall program starts September 8th and enrollment is underway! Benefits of the 12 week program include improved health overall=improved lipids, glucose, blood pressure, weight, etc! Everyone’s goal is different, but we have one thing in common…we want to improve our health and wellness through improved nutrition and activity. Contact us today to get signed up!
“Weight loss and improved nutrition is a tough thing. Changing your lifestyle is truly challenging and it’s even more challenging with all of the temptations we have in our society to encourage us to over-indulge! Throughout our 12 week wellness program, we tell our participants that we never expect all of our recommendations to happen overnight that instead we encourage you to work on a few things at one time and gradually those baby steps will add up to big steps and big successes. Honestly, I would rather see a slow and steady weight loss that takes longer than the participant would probably like, than a quick weight loss that is eventually gained back.
My day was made yesterday when I got an email from Denise Hoff. Denise was in our winter STRIVE 2 Survive program last year and has made some pretty incredible improvements in her health. Denise gave me permission to share her success with you all as in her own words “maybe it will motivate someone else who thinks they are too big or too old to start.”
Denise has now lost about 17lbs and dropped 12.5″ total (waist, hips, bust, thighs, arms)…4 of the 12.5″ are off her waist! She was never a runner, but thanks to our team’s inspiration, she ran her first 5k with her daughter last weekend (see the picture!). She said they had a great mother/daughter time and as she ran, she was proud to say she was able to keep a stride and actually pass others!Denise started to run one block at a time. Her initial goal was a half of a mile, then one mile, then 1 1/2 miles, etc. She broke it down so it didn’t seem so overwhelming and set a goal of running a 5k with the encouragement and support of us and her family…she accomplished it successfully and is now looking forward to doing more 5ks! In addition to the improvement in her weight and waist circumference, her lab values have also improved as she dropped her total cholesterol about 50points, which is now well into the normal range and has kept her blood sugar and blood pressure in normal ranges also. As you can see from the timeline, these changes didn’t happen overnight, but she slowly worked at it and has achieved great success in the last 6-8 months and looks forward to continuing to work on her health and wellness goals. In Denise’s words “Thanks for being so supportive and encouraging. I hope the next time you see me, you will have to take a double look as I am hoping to look smaller and more fit.”
As we approach the start of our fall session of STRIVE 2 Survive, I hope Denise’s testimony shows you the benefits you can receive from our wellness program and our team’s education, support, and encouragement. If you see Denise on the street, be sure to congratulate her on her success! We are very proud of her!”
Fall STRIVE starts September 8th …contact us today to get enrolled!!
-Kelsey
by Dan | Aug 9, 2015 | Exercise, Motivation, Wellness/Health
I first started to run in middle school, going out for Cross Country in 7th. Needless to say, I never really liked it then, and quit. I would run on and off on my own, but very sporadic. I started to do a little more in high school, but still never went out for school sports. Then the Spring of my Junior year of high school I entered the Diet Pepsi 10k race in SF. At that point, this was the furthest I had run at one time. In that race was Dick Beardsley, and he won the race in 29:50. I remember seeing one runner out front and literally “flying” down the road. I was running with my mouth open just watching him go. Later that day when I went to work that afternoon, I saw this same guy running down 41st in SF…again, just “flying”. I later found out this was Dick Beardsley, and up and coming marathon runner. He later won Grandma’s Marathon in 1981, a few months after this race, setting the course record that still stands at 2:09:37. He later won again in 1982. He is even more famous for the “Duel in the Sun”, battling Alberto Salazar at the Boston Marathon in 1982, losing by 2 seconds! He ran a 2:08:53! Incredible time! Watching him run set the tone for me. That Diet Pepsi 10K race, and watching him, sparked an interest in me that continues to this day. This is when I first really started running. I went out for Cross Country then that Fall for my senior year, and then also ran track in the Spring of 1982. You can say I definitely had a late start. I then ran Cross Country and Track all 4 years at Augustana…all because of Dick Beardsley! He is without question my running hero! I have seen him twice over the years at different events…the first time in 2002 when I ran at the Twin Cities marathon. He autographed my race number, and a copy of his book: “Duel in the Sun”. Then again 2 years ago at the Fargo Marathon, where I got to have my picture taken with him, and two other very important people…my other training partners– Tom Beaudry and Steve Hauck. Incredible memories! But this is truly how I got started with running, and have kept going since. I am “in it for the long run”! Below are pictures of Dick Beardsley with Tom and Steve, and myself, and from my beginning days as a Washington Warrior as a senior in high school, followed by my autographed race number by Dick Beardsley. Each week I will follow with another in a series of my “In It For the Long Run”, as I chronicle my years of running…to finish up then where I am at today.
Keep moving everybody! Deep down, I bet there is someone out there that influences you, and may help motivate you! Keep them in mind as you continue on with your journey, and live life to the fullest!
Dr. Dan
Consecutive Exercise Day #: 2872
by kelsey | Jun 9, 2015 | Etc., Exercise, Family, Heart Health, Motivation, Weight Management, Wellness/Health
The first outdoor walking club get together was a success! This is a great way to get out and enjoy the beautiful trail system while getting some activity! Be sure to check out the next get together this Friday Stokes-Thomas City Park (at the Veterans Memorial)!
When: Each Friday morning at 9:00 a.m. for around an hour each week.
Cost: Free of charge
We will walk at a comfortable pace, so come and join the social aspect of being outside with friends and getting some exercise.
Dates:
June 12 Stokes-Thomas City Park (at the Veterans Memorial)
June 19 Mt. Hope Cemetary (by the front entrance)
June 26 Redlin Art Center (by the front entrance)
July 3 No Walk Scheduled
July 10 Joy Ranch (parking lot near SE side of Main St.)
July 17 Jackson Park (in the parking lot across from Cattail Crossing)
July 24 Bramble Park Zoo (by the picnic shelter)
July 31 Eastwoods Park (by the playground)
August 7 Slumberland Disc Golf Course (in the parking lot)
August 14 Stokes-Thomas City Park (at the Veterans Memorial)
For more information call Jeremy @ 882-6260
