May, National Barbecue Month, is behind us, but that’s just the kickoff for the season of outdoor cooking.

Next time you’re getting ready to grill (check out this video for some expert grill preparation tips from P. Allen Smith), take a little time to review your grilling food safety procedures.

Getting all of your grilled foods to the proper internal temperature is key for summer food safety. Here’s a quick list for some grilling favorites:

You can also download this handy Safe Grilling Guide (PDF) from Home Food Safety for quick reference.

The most accurate way to determine the internal temperature of your grilled delights is by using a food thermometer.

For the record, you can’t tell if your burger is done by looking at it. [Click to share this morsel of grill wisdom on Twitter.] One out of every four hamburgers turn that delicious-looking deep brown before it’s been cooked to a safe internal temperature. Your food thermometer is your friend – use it!

1. When you think your food is cooked, place the food thermometer in the thickest part of your burger, chop, roast, breast, or sausage. Make sure the tip doesn’t touch bone, fat, or gristle.
2. Give the thermometer time to make an accurate measurement (see the manufacturer’s instructions for their recommendation).
3. Compare the internal temperature to our list above or your copy of the Safe Grilling Guide (PDF).

Once your food has reached the proper internal temperature, remember to remove it from the grill and let it rest for about three minutes before eating (for most of us, it’ll take at least that long to gather everyone around the table). That resting time ensures any harmful germs are destroyed by residual heat.

After enjoying your safely grilled meal, be sure to wash your food thermometer with hot, soapy water so it’s ready for your next meal.

A special guest post from FMH Women’s Health Navigator Trish Reggio, MSN, RN.

As we head into summer, women have many opportunities to be more active outside. Getting active is great, but making smarter food choices while enjoying the outdoors is an even better combination. Whether you’re a young mother at the pool with your children, a middle-aged woman working in the garden or mentally winding down in a yoga class, or an older woman enjoying an evening walk, balancing activity with nutrition is an important part of health and wellness.

Summer is the perfect time to plant a garden, stock up on fresh fruits and vegetables from a farmers market, or make healthy food choices in the grocery store.

Where can you find valuable information about the right balance of foods in your diet and how they fit your needs? One option is to use the MyPlate food guidance system developed by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

MyPlate just celebrated its second birthday last week and replaced the food pyramid as the gold standard.  It’s simple to use and helps all age groups make sensible and good nutrition choices. Using Choose MyPlate, you can get a daily food plan based on your age, weight, height, sex and daily activity level.

For women, good nutrition and daily exercise can help to decrease risk factors for chronic diseases, promote healthy pregnancies and healthy babies, and help you to perform at your best both physically and mentally.

As women, we are role models for our families. What we cook and serve to our families has lasting effects. By taking good care of ourselves we can better care for our loved ones.

Tips for making sensible food choices:

Grains

• 50% should be from whole grain. They hold fiber and nutrients.

Vegetables

• Choose a variety of dark green (broccoli, spinach, kale) and orange (carrots, sweet potatoes) vegetables.
• Dry beans and peas (black beans, garbanzo, and lentils) are also good choices.

Fruits

• Choose a variety of fresh and frozen fruits, but take care to avoid pre-packaged fruits and juices with added sugars.

Milk, cheese, and yogurt

• Low-fat or fat free choices reduce the calories but not the nutrients.

Fats

• Include mono- and polyunsaturated fats such as salmon, nuts and canola oil.

It can be hard to change your eating habits, but take it one step at a time. Make small goals (maybe try adding a piece of fruit to your lunch twice a week?) and reach them with support from your health care provider or registered dietitian.

Not sure how to talk to your kids about underage drinking? Join the club.

Click to enlarge image.

If you have children ages 9 to 15, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) says it’s time to start talking. Most six-year-olds know that alcohol is only for adults, but many start to view drinking more positively between the ages of 9 and 13. Some children as young as 9 are starting to experiment with alcohol. About 10% of 12-year-olds say they’ve tried alcohol. By age 15 that number jumps to 50%. [Tweet this.]

The good news is studies have shown that parents have a significant influence on young people’s decisions about alcohol consumption. In fact, about 83% of children say parents are their leading influence when it comes to their stance on underage drinking. [Tweet this.]

It’s clear parents have the power, but many are unsure how to wield it.

SAMHSA highlights the following recommendations to prevent your child from drinking alcohol:

• Be aware of factors that may increase the risk of childhood alcohol use, including:
• Social transitions like graduating to middle or high school or getting a driver’s license
• Social and/or emotional problems
• A family history of alcoholism
• Contact with peers involved in troubling activities
• Be a positive adult role model.
• Stay away from alcohol in high-risk situations. For example, never drink and drive.
• Get help if you think you have an alcohol-related problem
• Do not give alcohol to your children
• Support your children and give them space to grow
• Be involved in your children’s lives. Know where they are, what they’re doing and who they’re with.
• Set limits, but encourage your children’s growing independence.
• Set clear rules and enforce the rules you set.
• Help your children find ways to have fun without alcohol.
• Help your children avoid dangerous situations such as riding in a car driven by someone who has been drinking.

Want to reach out to your kids to reinforce your message while they’re out with their friends? Try a text message like one of these:

• Be careful tonight. If your friends offer you a drink, just say you promised me no.
• I want you to have fun 2nite, but be safe. Love, Mom/Dad
• Just because your friends drink, doesn’t mean you have to. I’m here if you need anything.
• Resisting peer pressure is tough, but you can do whatever you set your mind to.

June and July are shaping up to be eventful months for our parking garage expansion project. Beginning this week and running through the end of July, prefabricated modular sections of the new garage will be arriving on campus. Each 60- to 70-foot section will be delivered on a 90-foot truck using our construction entrance off of Seventh Street. We’re expecting about 10 truck deliveries each day between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.

These trucks will be staged off-site and come to the hospital campus one at a time. A crane will lift each section of the garage off of the truck and place it in position. Construction crews will assemble the section of the deck closest to the hospital first to provide a support structure for the elevator and stairwell (already under construction, you can see it toward the right side of the photo below). Once this part of the deck is complete the other two areas will be assembled concurrently.

While we expect the prefabricated sections of the garage expansion to be in place during the last week in July (weather permitting), crews will spend approximately eight months working on sealing the deck, installing lighting and the elevator, and other finishing work. The garage expansion is on schedule to be complete early next spring.

We had hoped to have the new light at the intersection of Seventh Street and Emma Smith Drive operational at some point during the month of May, but some issues with the programming of the established signal at Seventh Street and Toll House Avenue prevented us from meeting that goal. The new signal is ready and waiting to be activated, but we need to wait for the City of Frederick to take care of these programming issues with the older signal before the two signals will work together. As soon as we’re sure the two signals will work in tandem we will activate the new light.

Our pledge is to keep you informed. As always, if you have feedback for us, please feel free to leave a comment right here on our blog, reach out to us on Facebook, or talk to us on Twitter.

For the fourth year running, the Washington, DC area (including DC, northern Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia) has been named the second-healthiest in the nation according to the American College of Sports Medicine‘s (ACSM’s) American Fitness Index (AFI) [Tweet this!]. We’ve been locked in the runner-up position since falling out of first place between 2010 and 2011.

ACSM developed the AFI program in 2007 to provide evidence- and science-based measurement of state health and fitness at the community level.

“We have issued the American Fitness Index each year since 2008 to help health advocates and community leader advocates improve the quality of life in their hometowns,” said Walter Thompson, Ph.D., FACSM, chair of the AFI Advisory Board. “As urban areas attract more and more residents, it’s imperative for cities to create a built environment, fund amenities and form policies that get residents active and encourage healthy lifestyles.”

So how did our area get to be number two (out of the top 50 population centers in the country)?

According to the 2013 AFI report (PDF), the DC area meets or performs better than the following national target goals:

• Lower percent of days when mental health was not good during the past 30 days
• Lower death rate for cardiovascular disease
• Lower death rate for diabetes
• Higher percent city land area as parkland
• More farmers’ markets per capita (find one near you!)
• More park units per capita
• More recreation centers per capita
• More swimming pools per capita
• Higher park-related expenditures per capita
• Higher level of state requirement for Physical Education classes

The DC region performed worse than 20% of the target goal in these areas:

• Higher percent with diabetes
• Fewer acres of parkland per capita
• Fewer park playgrounds per capita
• Fewer golf courses per capita

To be fair, most of the community and environmental indicator data (pools, dog parks, ball diamonds, golf courses, etc.) was available only for the city of Washington, DC. If the suburban data was added, we could possibly reach a higher score.

Setting those potentially-skewed factors aside, one area where our region has room for improvement is diabetes. According to this report, about 8% of the population has diabetes. Compare that with the national goal of 6.4%. This study seems to suggest people in our area with diabetes tend to manage their condition well; our death rate per 100,000 for diabetes is just under the goal level.

The title may sound terribly melodramatic, but skimping on sleep is a well known health hazard. Review the risks, then take the recommendations on how to get better sleep to heart.

Via: YourLocalSecurity.com

Learn more about getting better quality sleep: High Quality Zzzzs

Can’t get the sleep you need at night? Take a nap!

This National Physical Fitness and Sports Month, challenge yourself to include at least 30 minutes of physical activity every day.

Did you know that regular physical activity increases your chances of living a longer, healthier life? It also reduces your risk for high blood pressure, heart disease and some types of cancer. Yet here in Maryland, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports only about 65% of adults get enough physical activity (PDF) [Tweet this statistic.] . In fact, the same data show nearly ¼ of all adults get no physical activity in their leisure time. For high school students, just 16% are considered physically active and only 15% participate in daily physical education classes.

Being active can be a walk in the park.

The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommend that people:

• Aim for 2 hours and 30 minutes of moderate aerobic activity each week. Moderate activity includes things like walking fast, dancing, swimming, and raking leaves.
• Do muscle-strengthening activities – like lifting weights and using exercise bands – at least 2 days a week.

Wondering where you’ll find the time for all of this activity? The CDC created these schedules (PDF) to make it a little less daunting.

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

If you haven’t been active in a while, please check in with your primary care physician before starting any exercise program. You don’t want to kick off a new healthy habit only to be sidelined with an injury.

Not sure how to tackle muscle strengthening exercises? Check out these videos from the CDC. The two sets show you how you can strengthen your muscles at home or at the gym.

If you’re apprehensive about adopting a more active lifestyle, the exercise experts at FMH ProMotion Fitness+ (formerly Medical Fitness) are standing by to help. Recently relocated to a new space with brand new equipment at FMH Crestwood, ProMotion Fitness+ offers its members personal attention and guidance from degreed exercise physiologists and nurses. The program can help you stay safe as you establish a more active lifestyle and help you get the most out of the time you spend exercising.

No matter what shape you are in, together we can rise to the challenge to get more active during the month of May!

Concussions – injuries to the brain generally caused by a blow or jolt to the head – have been getting a lot of attention lately. The guidelines and recommendations, particularly as they relate to children and teens, seem to change almost annually.

Dr. Robert Wack, Medical Director of the FMH Pediatric Hospitalist Program, sees two clear trends emerging from the research community and national organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the American Academy of Neurology.

“First, the amount of head trauma considered a significant risk for concussion is becoming less and less with each guideline revision,” Dr. Wack says. “In other words, even minor head injuries have been found to cause measurable neurologic impairment associated with concussion.”

Gone are the days when coaches (at any level) took a quick glance at a player who’d just taken an accidental elbow to the head, figured if he or she didn’t lose consciousness it couldn’t be too serious, and put the player back in the game. Today, the rule of thumb is “when in doubt, sit them out.”

“The amount of time to recover from any concussion is growing longer and longer, due to the more detailed measurement of subtle neurologic problems and how long they persist after the initial injury,” Dr. Wack says. “Current guidelines are two weeks without contact sports, and that may become even longer in the near future.”

These two trends, plus the pending litigation about head injury risks at the professional level, mean big changes are coming for both the recreational and the scholastic athlete. While there’s no way to know precisely what those changes will be, Dr. Wack says we can expect them to follow these trends.

“Be sure to ask your doctor about the latest findings if your child has the misfortune of a head injury,” Dr. Wack recommends.

Concussion Symptoms

According to the AAP, symptoms of a concussion can be subtle or obvious, beginning immediately after the injury or showing up hours or days later.

Symptoms of a concussion include the following:

• Headache
• Nausea or vomiting
• Dizziness or balance problems
• Double or blurry vision
• Sensitivity to light
• Sensitivity to noise
• Feeling dazed or stunned
• Feeling mentally “foggy”
• Trouble concentrating
• Trouble remembering
• Confused or forgetful about recent events
• Slow to answer questions
• Changes in mood—irritable, sad, emotional, nervous
• Drowsiness
• Sleeping more or less than usual
• Trouble falling asleep

Tomorrow is national Bike to Work Day and the Frederick MARC station is our official local  pit stop.

If you’ve never thought about biking to work (and your commute doesn’t require a trek down a major highway where bicycles are prohibited), check out this infographic for some great reasons to consider a two-wheeled trip to the office.

Via FitnessforWeightLoss.com