by Dan | Mar 6, 2016 | Exercise, Family, Goals, Heart Health, Motivation, Wellness/Health
Courage is the ability to do something that frightens us, and to have strength in the face of adversity, whatever that adversity may be. For many of us, exercise brings out fears in us, and excuses! “There is no way I can do that!”, or “my body is just not designed to do that”. Find the courage to move past our own mind! Here Sarah is riding her bike in the triathlon, or I should say, restarting the triathlon. She had gone about 2 miles and had a flat tire, and had to be taken back to start line, where she got her tire fixed. Because she got help, she got disqualified. She did not let that stop her though. She got on her bike, and took off, in last place, knowing that her time would not be given, but she had trained for this, and was going to finish it regardless. That was her personal goal…and she did it. To me, that took courage. She could have just quit, and sat there, and been even more unhappy because she did not get to do it. She overcame that set back, and took off anyway.
Steve had the courage to overcome issues with his heart…serious issues…but he did not let that stop him from wanting to participate in, and complete a marathon. We are crossing the finish line at the Disney marathon, his first, and after an 8 month struggle with issues with his heart. He found strength in the face of adversity, and found the ability to do something that would have frightened many others…he too had courage!
Tom had his own issues with his heart as well. My first marathon partner. But he was out joining me in a run on those long run days to help me get through, and achieve my goal of doing another marathon. He continues to run as well…having the courage to do this, when many others would have long quit. He is another example of you “live your life”, and do what you want to do, and enjoy life, and don’t let things hold you back, or allow you to come up with excuses that hold you back. Find that courage! It is in all of us…and even though it may be located deeper in some of us than others, it is there. So this is why I remind you…find the courage to overcome your fears, and do what we as individuals are capable of! Our minds are our biggest obstacles…our bodies are ready to go, if are mind convinces us that we are capable. And we are!
Find the courage to move past that fear! Whether you are a regular to exercise or not, we all need to be moving. A body in motion stays in motion!
Take those risks! Live life to the fullest. Another future blog post will cover the topic of “risk” as well.
Be who your are! Do what is right and important for you. Have the courage to do the things you enjoy, and push yourselves into those things that you think your are not capable of doing. If you do, you will have Success in Life!
Keep moving everybody…find the courage!
Dr. Dan
Consecutive Exercise Day #: 3082
by kelsey | Mar 3, 2016 | Cooking Tips, Diet, Food, Weight Management, Wellness/Health
March is National Nutrition Month! National Nutrition month is an annual event that reinforces the importance of developing healthy and balanced eating and activity habits. “The theme for 2016 is “Savor the Flavor of Eating Right,” which encourages everyone to take time to enjoy food traditions and appreciate the pleasures, great flavors and social experiences food can add to our lives. How, when, why and where we eat are just as important as what we eat. Develop a mindful eating pattern that includes nutritious and flavorful foods — that’s the best way to savor the flavor of eating right!” [http://www.eatright.org/resource/food/resources/national-nutrition-month/national-nutrition-month]
Fruits and vegetables are a great way to promote health and wellness while preventing disease. You all know this, but the doing it part, ie-eating 5 servings/day is typically missed and the majority are falling short in this area. To celebrate national nutrition month, I have included 20 ways to add fruits and veggies to your diet. This is something we all have to work at, including myself, so pick a few of these suggestions and give them a try! Strive to get 5/day along with a balanced intake of lean meats, whole grains, low fat dairy, and healthy fats. Balance, portion control, and moderation are keys to a healthy and successful diet!
1. Variety abounds when using vegetables as pizza topping. Try broccoli, spinach, green peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms and zucchini.
2. Mix up a breakfast smoothie made with low-fat milk, frozen strawberries and a banana.
3. Make a veggie wrap with roasted vegetables and low-fat cheese rolled in a whole-wheat tortilla.
4. Try crunchy vegetables instead of chips with your favorite low-fat salad dressing for dipping.
5. Grill colorful vegetable kabobs packed with tomatoes, green and red peppers, mushrooms and onions.
6. Add color to salads with baby carrots, grape tomatoes, spinach leaves or mandarin oranges.*
7. Keep cut vegetables handy for mid-afternoon snacks, side dishes, lunch box additions or a quick nibble while waiting for dinner. Ready-to-eat favorites: red, green or yellow peppers, broccoli or cauliflower florets, carrots, celery sticks, cucumbers, snap peas or whole radishes.
8. Place colorful fruit where everyone can easily grab something for a snack-on-the-run. Keep a bowl of fresh, just ripe whole fruit in the center of your kitchen or dining table.
9. Get saucy with fruit. Puree apples, berries, peaches or pears in a blender for a thick, sweet sauce on grilled or broiled seafood or poultry, or on pancakes, French toast or waffles.
10. Stuff an omelet with vegetables. Turn any omelet into a hearty meal with broccoli, squash, carrots, peppers, tomatoes or onions with low-fat sharp cheddar cheese.
11. “Sandwich” in fruits and vegetables. Add pizzazz to sandwiches with sliced pineapple, apple, peppers, cucumber and tomato as fillings.
12. Wake up to fruit. Make a habit of adding fruit to your morning oatmeal, ready-to-eat cereal, yogurt or toaster waffle.
13. Top a baked potato with beans and salsa or broccoli and low-fat cheese.
14. Microwave a cup of vegetable soup as a snack or with a sandwich for lunch.
15. Add grated, shredded or chopped vegetables such as zucchini, spinach and carrots to lasagna, meat loaf, mashed potatoes, pasta sauce and rice dishes.
16. Make fruit your dessert: Slice a banana lengthwise and top with a scoop of low-fat frozen yogurt. Sprinkle with a tablespoon of chopped nuts.
17. Stock your freezer with frozen vegetables to steam or stir-fry for a quick side dish.
18. Make your main dish a salad of dark, leafy greens and other colorful vegetables. Add chickpeas or edamame (fresh soybeans). Top with low-fat dressing.*
19. Fruit on the grill: Make kabobs with pineapple, peaches and banana. Grill on low heat until fruit is hot and slightly golden.
20. Dip: Whole wheat pita wedges in hummus, baked tortilla chips in salsa, strawberries or apple slices in low-fat yogurt, or graham crackers in applesauce.
http://www.eatright.org/nnm/handoutsandtipsheets/#.UyHnjs47Bw0
-Kelsey Raml, MS, RD, LN
by kelsey | Mar 1, 2016 | Etc.
In two weeks, we will start another session of STRIVE 2 Survive! I always like to highlight a few of our success stories and previous participants to show what STRIVE can do for you! Laurie Danforth and her husband Mike participated in STRIVE 2 Survive and found great value in it. If you are on the fence or wondering if you should join us, check out Laurie’s feedback below. We hope you will consider it and let us help you improve your health and well-being through improved nutrition and activity! If you have any questions or want to learn more, please email us at strive2survive@brownclinic.org or call 884-4226. Fall STRIVE starts March 15th and enrollment is currently underway!
- What pushed you to join STRIVE? After sending our last child off to college and becoming empty nesters we decided it was time to change our eating habits. Mike wanted to lose a few pounds so I suggested we do S2S and do it the right way.
- What was your goal? (weight loss, cholesterol, B/P, healthy eating, etc.) My goal was to develop better healthy eating and to maintain of improve lab values.
- Have you met your goal? Yes until the kids came home for the summer then our eating changes some but I always have S2S on my mind and look for healthier ways to fix meals.
- If so, what are you doing to maintain? Looking forward to 2 of the boys returning to college to help with our change of habits when had adapted to.
- How did STRIVE help? Brought awareness to foods and their contents and also the ability to prepare foods differently to make them healthier. The frequent e mails and updates on the web also help.
- What is your motivation to continue? My competitiveness to keep my lab values where they were after being diligent of changing habits. I challenge myself to make sure they stay in good healthy ranges. I also feel much better after changing my diet habits.
- If you could tell anyone about Strive to Survive, what would you say? By all means join the program. Don’t think of it as a “diet” but a way of changing your daily eating habits along with exercise. It is not all about weight loss but eating healthier and making changes to adding or increasing exercise. I lost inches and improved lab values but did not lose much weight, all with feeling better. (Side note–Laurie didn’t have much to lose, so she focused on toning, lab improvement, and overall health improvements)
- Do you feel that the program has a lifetime change for you? By all means.
- What do you think they biggest highlight of the program is? Learning how to label read and prepare foods bought at the grocery store to change habits. It is much cheaper and healthier to buy foods at the grocery store for weight loss versus buying a program of mixes and shakes that may produce rapid weight loss. I know with this program I was making healthy choices that were not inadvertently affecting my lab values.
- Would you tell a friend about us? I have told friends about this program and encouraged them to join. The cost of the program is far less than “buying” weight loss with the many advertised programs out there.
- If people are in doubt of joining, what would you tell them? Give it a try!
-Kelsey
by Dan | Feb 28, 2016 | Exercise, Family, Goals, Motivation, Wellness/Health
We all need encouragement for things in our life at some time or another, and who better than to receive this from than your own family. We are missing Molly and Jeff in here, but the rest came along when Steve and I did the Disney Goofy. After all encouragement means “the action of giving someone support, confidence, or hope.” We all need it to keep going with our goals, especially our exercise goals.
When Steve could not run his first marathon at Fargo because of issues with his heart, he was there to support and encourage me. I ran it because I had been trying to help him participate in his first marathon. I still don’t know who was more disappointed, Steve because he could not run, or me because I could run, but without Steve! But we had each others back, and Steve was able to start running again, so we could do Disney together! He never gave up!
We all have challenges along the way that make it tough for us to keep going, or to stay motivated. Rely on your family and friends to help keep you going. They need help too! We can all be there for each, and in the process, have some fun, and create memories to last a lifetime!
Our run club may be small, but we are a close knit group. Here is a shot of the originals, completing a half or full marathon at Fargo. We all hung around to cheer each other on, and then got to show off our medals together. We create even tighter bonds amongst each other, and those friendships go a long way. Here Jill and Paula celebrate after the SF half marathon.
We may all be runners, but we are also friends. We care about each other, and the running has only created stronger bonds of friendship. Bonds of encouragement for each other! This can carry on to not only running but other forms of exercise. Here in our Fun Fit class Rich and I are encouraging Susan as she is completing her lifting routine.
Susan used to be one of my nurses, but now is one of my exercises “partners” in this class. We can still dish out things to each other, but bottom line, we are pushing each other as well, and challenging not only ourselves, but each other. It always helps working out with a group. I have also gotten to know Rich really well in this class, and we both work our butt off, and push each other. The motivation is higher when we are both there, not in a competitive kind of way, but to help encourage each other to keep going…to not quit, and especially to not quit on ourselves!
When it comes to exercise, I have stated this in numerous posts in the past. The perseverance, determination, drive, attitude…all of it gets better by encouragement! This last quote I think sums it up very well!
Enjoy Success in Life, and encourage others, and they will encourage you! Keep moving everybody!
Dr. Dan
Consecutive Exercise Day #: 3075
by kelsey | Feb 25, 2016 | Etc.
As many of you know, our focus is to promote lifelong healthy habits and not just a quick fix. There are all kinds of fad diets out there that will give you the quick fix, but we are focused on your overall health (inside and out!) and want to give our participants in STRIVE 2 Survive and patients, the education and tools they need to live a long and healthy life. Below is a glimpse of the results we see. This female participant lost about 22lbs in the 12 weeks, 15% body weight and greatly improved her lab results, waist circumference, and fat composition…all with the help of our program. She didn’t do anything crazy such as eliminate food groups, skip meals, only drink shakes, or over-exercise…she basically started watching her diet more closely and kept a food log of her intake, made healthier choices by reading labels and being more aware of the choices out there, and exercised about 30 minutes every day. Seeing her cholesterol elevated at the beginning of our 12 weeks was a motivator for her and she wanted to work hard to improve her weight and her cholesterol to prevent disease later in life. When we were visiting about her results, the biggest thing that stood out to me was that she said she knows she can stick with this. She didn’t do anything drastic that she can’t keep up with the rest of her life. If you want to learn more about our wellness opportunities and our 12 week program, be sure to give us a call or email! Our spring program starts March 15th!
|
Initial
|
Final
|
|
|
|
| Weigh In |
165.2lbs
|
143.4lbs
|
|
|
|
| lbs lost |
|
-21.8lbs
|
| % lost |
|
|
|
0
|
-15.2%
|
|
|
|
| Lab Work |
Initial |
Post |
| Total Cholesterol |
259
|
201
|
| LDL |
146.6
|
110.8
|
| HDL |
92
|
81
|
| Triglycerides |
102
|
46
|
| Glucose |
89
|
88
|
| BP |
128/80
|
122/82
|
| Waist Circ. |
33.5
|
29.5
|
| BMI |
28.8
|
25
|
| % Body Fat |
40.1
|
32.7
|
| Fat Mass |
66.2
|
46.8
|
| Fat Free Mass |
99
|
96.8
|
| Water Mass |
72.4
|
70.8
|
| BMR |
1377
|
1283
|
-Kelsey
