Healthy Life

How bad are group lunches for you?

2008-08-20T12:00:00.000-04:00

What happens to your waistline when circumstances cause you to not be able to eat your usual healthy lunches?

I’ve been asking myself this question for the past couple weeks as I’ve gone through the orientation activities at my new college teaching job.

Don’t get me wrong – it’s been great. And it’s very nice of the university to provide lunches. (Throwing that in there just in case my new bosses read this) It could be worse – they could just tell you to get lunch on your own.

But when you usually eat a homemade salad with fat-free dressing, a piece of fruit, yogurt and unsweetened tea for lunch like I do, navigating your way through all the great food provided for a group can be difficult – especially when you’re new and trying to make an impression. You want to go along with the crowd.

However, I don’t want there to be too much of an impression on my waistline.

At least they have had unsweetened tea at most of the events I’ve attended. And they have had salad, although I doubt the dressing is fat-free.

But I’ve also eaten chicken breast covered in cheese and marinara sauce, slabs of some kind of vegetarian lasagna, rolls, barbecue sandwiches and Mexican food.

All of the food has been delicious, but heavy. On the day we had the barbecue sandwiches, I must not have had my healthy thinking cap on, because I took the bun, smothered it with delicious barbecue and chowed down. It wasn’t until I got halfway through the sandwich that I realized what I should have done to minimize the damage: leave the bun off and just eat the barbecue with a fork.

That’s testimony to the fact that my head was spinning with orientation information, and my healthy eating had taken a back seat.

Oh, well. I only have a couple more events to attend, then my lunches will be my own again. I’ll just minimize the damage as much as I can and not worry about the pound or two I may gain.

At least I’m on a college campus now where I can walk it off.

A girl’s gotta have a fitness goal

2008-08-11T12:00:00.001-04:00

Here’s a girl with a goal.

Kristen Seymour, a writer for That’s Fit, recently announced that she’s taking on the One hundred Push-ups Challenge. She’s now into week three and up to 50 push-ups in a row.

You go, girl! That’s totally cool!

I’ve written a series of posts on here before about the benefits of push-ups to women. Read them here, here and here.

Sometimes I don’t think we women challenge ourselves enough when it comes to fitness. We baby ourselves, sticking with comfortable weights and not going much beyond that. I’ve caught myself doing it, and my husband has accused me of doing it.

You’re not going to improve, get stronger or break into new territory if you don’t push yourself.

My current major fitness goal is to do unassisted pull-ups by the end of the year. I’m slightly beyond two-thirds of my body weight. I’m struggling a bit with a plateau right now that I can't seem to get past. But I hit the pull-up machine every time I’m at the gym, and I keep trying. (Here’s a hint: If you can’t make a 10-pound jump, try finding a five-pound weight to sit on top of the weight stack. That way, you can increase in smaller increments, but still increase.)

Having fitness goals gives us something to strive for, a road map as we try to make ourselves better. If you stick only with what’s comfortable, you won’t improve.

There’s a saying that I like: “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten.” That’s true in fitness, and in life.

Maybe I’ll take on the 100 push-ups challenge next.

Girls, what’s your fitness goal?

Why you’re more attractive than you think you are

2008-08-08T12:53:00.001-04:00

We are our own harshest critics, and here’s proof.

According to this article, research shows that others see you as 20 percent more attractive than you think you are.

That's because when you look in the mirror, all you see are your looks, along with the circles under your eyes, that wrinkle that didn’t seem to be there yesterday, or the hair that just won’t do what it’s supposed to do.

All you see is your reflection, but none of the personality. You also see all of your flaws, which others tend to overlook -- if they notice them at all.

I used to be worse about criticizing myself. I wished my freckles wouldn’t come out in the sun, that my eyes were a more vibrant color than hazel, that my eyes were bigger or my cheekbones or jawline more defined.

Now, I see the small wrinkles, and I get mad at my hair when it won’t do what I want, which seems to be often.

But over time, I’ve learned to accept my looks the way they are, and to work with them. My eyes aren’t going to magically get bigger, and my freckles aren’t going to go away. So I put on my make-up in such a way as to maximize what I’ve got. I do the best I can with my hair, and I wear clothes that flatter my body.

I also watch what I eat and I exercise, which I think shows through. People comment on it frequently, so it makes some sort of impression. I generally meet life with confidence and a positive attitude, and most people I meet respond to that.

Have you ever had someone look at your picture and tell you it doesn’t do you justice? I have, and now I think I can see why.

Your mirror, or your photo, can’t quite capture the twinkle in your eye, the mischievous tone in your voice when you tell a joke or your melodious laugh. It doesn’t capture the way you tilt your head when you’re thinking about something, or the way you walk with your head held high with a look of purpose on your face.

Part of beauty is about your looks, your hair and make-up and your clothes. But it’s only a part. The rest of beauty is about your personality and confidence. It’s also about what you do with what you’ve got.

All your positive attributes go together to make you the beautiful person you are. So play them up -- all of them!

What do you think is your most positive attribute? What makes you feel beautiful?

Fitness doesn’t come in a pill

2008-08-06T12:00:00.000-04:00

I saw an article the other day about a “fitness pill” being developed.

First reported in the online journal Cell, scientists are moving closer to developing a pill that could deliver some of the benefits of exercise -- even for those who don’t exercise. Researchers now have two possible pills that appear able to build muscle, increase stamina and even burn fat.

The very idea of this bothers me, and it should bother anyone who works for their body and their health.

The drug is controversial because of the possibility athletes could misuse it to enhance sports performance.

Yes, that’s bad enough, but that’s not what bothers me about it. I am bothered by what the lead researcher said in a BBC story about the drug.

“If you like exercise, you like the idea of getting 'more bang for your buck,’" Professor Ronald Evans said. "If you don't like exercise, you love the idea of getting the benefits from a pill.”

Getting the benefits from a pill. This is what worries me. I am afraid this will give the already lazy, obese couch potato license to say, “Well, I don’t have to exercise. I’ll just take a pill.” Such a thing would not urge them to make the healthy changes they need to make. They would rely on a pill instead.

If the work can be transferred to humans, Evans said it may have potential for treating people with certain muscle diseases, as well as helping hospital patients, veterans and people with obesity maintain a minimum fitness level.

“In our society there is an ever decreasing amount of time for either healthy food or exercise,” Evans said.

So his answer is to encourage obese people to continue to make their health and fitness a low priority by giving them a pill.

We all have the same 24 hours. It’s a matter of priority. If your health and fitness are important enough to you, you’ll find the time for it.

As of now, the drug has not been approved for use in humans, and it may never be. I hope it isn’t. Such an idea cheapens the hard work that I do, and other people who exercise do, to make our bodies stronger and healthier.

A pill will not give you the pride of achieving a new exercise goal. It can’t replace the ability to do push-ups, or put one more plate on the exercise machine, or pick up the next heaviest dumbbell.

What do you think of the ‘fitness pill’? Will such a thing be abused?

Bigger is NOT better, Part 3

2008-08-04T12:00:00.002-04:00

I talked in my last post about knowing your Body Mass Index to help you get started on a healthier path and reverse the trend toward a fatter world.

But the BMI is not the only number you need to know to be fully aware of the state of your own health. You also need to know your total cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar.

Why are these numbers important?

First, let’s look at cholesterol. According to the American Heart Association, cholesterol is a soft, waxy substance found among the lipids (fats) in the bloodstream and in all your body's cells. It's used to form cell membranes, some hormones and is needed for other functions. But a high level of cholesterol in the blood is a major risk factor for coronary heart disease, which leads to heart attack.

The total cholesterol number breaks down into three major components, HDL, LDL and triglycerides.

HDL, or high-density lipoprotein, is known as "good" cholesterol because a high HDL level seems to protect against heart attack. However, a low HDL level indicates a greater risk of heart attack and may also raise stroke risk.

LDL, Low-density lipoprotein, is the major cholesterol carrier in the blood. If too much LDL cholesterol circulates in the blood, it can slowly build up in the walls of the arteries feeding the heart and brain. Together with other substances, it can form plaque, a thick, hard deposit that can clog those arteries.

According to the Mayo Clinic, triglycerides are a type of fat found in your blood. When you eat, your body converts calories it doesn't need right away into triglycerides. The triglycerides are stored in your fat cells. Later, hormones release triglycerides for energy between meals. If you regularly eat more calories than you burn, you may have high triglyceride levels.

Now, let’s look at blood pressure. The AHA defines blood pressure as
the pressure of the blood against the walls of the arteries. Blood pressure is expressed as systolic pressure over diastolic pressure. The systolic number is always stated first. The higher systolic number represents the pressure while the heart contracts to pump blood to the body. The lower diastolic number represents the pressure when the heart relaxes between beats.

High blood pressure, also called hypertension, is a serious condition that can lead to coronary heart disease, heart failure, stroke, kidney failure and other health problems.

The last important number we’ll look at is blood sugar. Wikipedia defines blood sugar as glucose in the blood. Glucose, transported via the bloodstream from the intestines to body cells, is the primary source of energy for the body's cells.

A blood glucose test measures the amount of glucose in your blood. Glucose comes from carbohydrate foods. Insulin is a hormone that helps your body's cells use the glucose. Insulin is produced in the pancreas and released into the blood when the amount of glucose in the blood rises.

Normally, your blood glucose levels increase slightly after you eat. This increase causes your pancreas to release insulin so that your blood glucose levels do not get too high. Blood glucose levels that remain high over time can damage your eyes, kidneys, nerves, and blood vessels.

My former company conducted a health risk analysis in February of this year, and I got all of my numbers. Overall, they’re good. My analysis showed I have a low risk of heart disease and diabetes, but that there are still a few things I can do to improve my health. I was pleased with my results.

Do you know your numbers? What would a health risk analysis show for you?

BIgger is NOT better, Part 2

2008-08-01T14:04:00.003-04:00

In my last post, I talked about the CDC's 2007 data for the fattest states in America. Mississippi weighed in as the fattest state, and Colorado was the leanest. But almost all 50 states have gotten fatter.

Kentucky, my home state, ranks as the seventh fattest state.

According to the World Health Organization, this is not just a problem in the U.S. The whole world is getting fatter. Globally, there are more than 1 billion overweight adults, at least 300 million of them obese.

Like I said in my last post, this is bad news. But if we are going to even begin to turn this trend around, we need to be armed with some information.

Starting with this: What is considered overweight and obese? How do you know when you have crossed the line?

The CDC defines overweight and obesity as ranges of weight that are greater than what is generally considered healthy for a given height. The terms also identify ranges of weight that have been shown to increase the likelihood of certain diseases and other health problems.

Overweight and obesity is most often measured with the BMI, or Body Mass Index. It uses weight and height to calculate a number that, for most people, correlates with their amount of body fat. An adult with a BMI between 25 and 29.9 is considered overweight, and an adult who has a BMI of 30 or higher is considered obese.

Here is a BMI calculator. Try it. Are you too fat, underweight or just right?

Now, what are you going to do about it?

A good series of 10 topics on the Workout IQ blog highlights weight loss problems and how to deal with them. The series addresses such topics as challenges to working out, having unrealistic expectations and fear of failure. It's a good starting point for those of you wanting to lose weight.

If you have calculated your own BMI and faced the results, you've armed yourself with the information you need to get started on a healthy path. It may not be all you need, but it's a good start.

And if just one or two people can take this step toward a healthier future, maybe there's hope yet for Mississippi, Kentucky and the rest of the world.

Bigger is NOT better!

2008-07-30T12:00:00.000-04:00

Each year for the past few years, when the Centers for Disease Control releases its data on the fattest states in America, I’ve felt sick. Disgusted. Appalled.

This year is no exception. How is it that we have let ourselves go so badly? And what is it going to take to reverse the obesity trend?

According to the CDC’s study of the fattest states in 2007, Mississippi tops the list for the third year in a row. Mississippi is the first state ever whose obese population exceeds 30 percent over a three-year average. Another 35 percent of Mississippi adults are overweight.

Colorado is still the leanest state – but its number of obese adults increased from 16.9 percent to 17.6 percent. Even the leanest state can’t rest on its laurels – or its love handles.

This Web site has a nice analysis, along with a map and ranked list of all 50 states.

And, where does my home state of Kentucky rank? It’s in seventh place, with 28 percent of the population obese and 66.4 percent obese or overweight.

That only leaves about a third of us maintaining a healthy weight in Kentucky. This means that as a healthy weight person in Kentucky, I’m a minority. Now, as a white female, I never thought I’d be a minority. I wish I could say I was proud, but I’m not.

In addition to all of the overweight adults in Kentucky, my state also has the third highest rate of overweight youths aged 10-17. So our children are getting fatter, too.

Fellow Kentuckians, you need to get off your fat arses and take that weight off!

I am not enough of an expert to know the answer to the growing obesity problem in America. We can start by laying off that extra soda and bag of M&M’s in the afternoon. Try some fruit or yogurt instead. We can also get up and walk now and again instead of sitting so much.

It seems pretty simple to me. So why is it so complicated?

Keep your mind healthy. Learn something!

2008-07-28T12:00:00.002-04:00

Did you know that John Adams, second president of the United States, and Thomas Jefferson, third president of the U.S., died on the same day, within hours of each other? And that day happened to be July 4, 1826, 50 years to the day of the Declaration of Independence?

Cool stuff, huh? And I learned this from a historical drama, but that drama caused me to go to the Internet and do some research on the real guys. (By the way, the drama I refer to is “John Adams,” an HBO series starring Paul Giamatti. I highly recommend it.)

I write a lot about healthy diet and exercise, but a fully healthy life also includes a strong, healthy mind. Just because you’re done with high school and college doesn’t mean learning stops. In fact, your learning has only begun.

You’ll learn new things for your job, and you’ll learn how to manage things in your life like finances. But it’s also good to learn things just for the heck of it. When you’re not in school anymore and don’t have to follow a prescribed curriculum, it’s fun to pick up something and learn it because you just want to.

It is widely believed that keeping mentally active will prevent age-related mental decline. This article quotes a 2003 study that found mentally active seniors reduced their risk of dementia by as much as 75 percent, compared to those who do not stimulate their minds.

Even if you’re nowhere near being a senior yet, keeping your mind active and stimulated will help keep it strong and flexible, the way physical exercise does the same for your body.

So how do I keep my mind active? Besides learning all I can related to my job, I learn other things just because it would be cool to know it.

My husband and I buy college-level lectures from The Teaching Company. I am listening to a lecture set now about England during the Tudor and Stewart periods. You know – Henry VIII and his three children, one of which was Queen Elizabeth I. This week, I will learn about Elizabeth’s reign, and I know almost nothing about the Stewart line that came after her, but over the next few weeks, I’ll learn about it. It’s great stuff, and I bought it simply because I was interested.

I always try to learn new things, partly because I consider myself a lifelong learner, but as a believer in the importance of a healthy life, I want my mind to stay just as healthy as my body. I’m many years yet from being considered a senior citizen, but I hope that when I do get to be one, all of this effort now will pay off then. And I won’t plan to stop learning, either.

There’s a recurring line in one of my favorite book series: “All knowledge is worth having.” I agree. It’s true at any time in your life.

What new stuff have you learned lately? How much fun did you have learning it?

Sugar substitute, sugar or honey: Which is best?

2008-07-25T12:00:00.001-04:00

In an occasional series of posts, I’ve written before about ingredients of various foods in my diet. Sometimes I’ve found out that there are things in my foods I’d rather not be eating, and it has caused me to change my habits.

I’ve written about coffee creamer and bagels. Today, I’m tackling various sweeteners – namely, sugar substitutes, good ol’ sugar and honey.

Let’s look at sugar substitutes, first as a category, then at the specific one I use in my diet.

According to Wikipedia, sugar substitute is a food additive that duplicates the effect of sugar or corn syrup in taste, but usually has less food energy. Some sugar substitutes are natural and some are synthetic. Those that are not natural are, in general, referred to as artificial sweeteners.

In the United States, five intensely-sweet sugar substitutes have been approved for use. They are saccharin, aspartame, sucralose, neotame, and acesulfame potassium. There is some ongoing controversy over whether artificial sweeteners are health risks.

The food and beverage industry is increasingly replacing sugar or corn syrup with artificial sweeteners in a range of products traditionally containing sugar. Artificial sweeteners cost the food industry only a fraction of the cost of natural sweeteners.

The particular brand of artificial sweetener in my kitchen is Splenda, made from sucralose. It is also available in generic brands, such as Kroger’s Apriva. Sucralose is approximately 600 times as sweet as table sugar, twice as sweet as saccharin and four times as sweet as aspartame. Unlike aspartame, it is stable under heat and over a broad range of pH conditions and can be used in baking or in products that require a longer shelf life. Sucralose also does not promote tooth decay.

Now for the sweetener we all grew up with: table sugar. Sugar is a class of edible crystalline substances including sucrose, lactose and fructose. Common table sugar (sucrose) is made from sugar beets or sugar cane. Sugar also appears in fruit, honey, sorghum, sugar maple (in maple syrup) and in many other sources. It forms the main ingredient in most candy. "Excessive" consumption of sugar has been associated with increased incidences of type 2 diabetes, obesity, tooth decay and gout.

The Sugar Association lists many sugar myths and debunks them with evidence.

As I read through them, some of them made sense, but I kept in mind that the Sugar Association would have a vested interest in debunking myths that would harm the sale of its product. That doesn't mean their evidence isn't true, but I like to keep in mind that they're not exactly objective.

And finally, let’s look at honey, that sweet and viscous fluid produced by bees and derived from the nectar of flowers.

Honey gets its sweetness from fructose and glucose and has approximately the same relative sweetness as granulated sugar.

Honey is a mixture of sugars and other compounds. With respect to carbohydrates, honey is mainly fructose (about 38.5%) and glucose (about 31.0%). Honey's remaining carbohydrates include maltose, sucrose and other complex carbohydrates.

Honey contains trace amounts of several vitamins and minerals, but it is not a significant source of either. Honey also contains tiny amounts of several compounds thought to function as antioxidants, including chrysin, pinobanksin, vitamin C, catalase and pinocembrin.

The specific composition of any batch of honey will depend largely on the mix of flowers available to the bees that produced the honey.

The World's Healthiest Foods site has some charts and information about the health benefits of honey. In addition to its reputation as nature's nutritive sweetener, research also indicates that honey's unique composition makes it useful as an antimicrobial agent and antioxidant.

For more information, also see the National Honey Board.

Of the three major sweeteners I’ve examined, I think the blue-ribbon winner overall is honey. It sweetens your foods naturally while delivering some health benefits. I don’t think table sugar in and of itself is bad for you – like anything else, it has to do with how you use it and what you eat it in. It’s all about moderation as part of an overall healthy diet.

As for artificial sweeteners, I think I’ll try to stay away from them. I wouldn’t say they’re the most horrible thing you could eat – and if they’re my only choice, I’ll go for it. But it falls in line with my recent efforts to stay away from things with the word “artificial” when I can.

Lately, I’ve switched to sweetening some of my foods with honey. I previously used sugar substitute in my coffee, but in my effort to use more natural ingredients in my foods whenever possible, I’ve been putting honey in it, and it tastes good. I have also been putting honey on my oatmeal for breakfast. All-natural oats topped with all-natural honey. It doesn’t get much better than that.

What type of sweetener do you use most often? Have you made any switches lately?

Emotional eating takes its toll

2008-07-23T12:00:00.001-04:00

Why do you eat?

Is it because your body needs nourishment? Or is it because you are unhappy and depressed, and you think that piece of cake will make you feel better?

Luckily, I've never been an emotional eater. I've always eaten for nutrition. If I indulge in a piece of cake, it's because I want a treat.

But I've seen people who are emotional eaters, and they are not happy.

I have known people who "can't resist" so-and-so's wife's cookies, or people who "have to do something" for someone when they have a birthday or leave their job.

In their eyes, "have to do something" means getting a large cake or a colossal cookie.

Since an emotional eater ties their gratification to food, the only way they can show their appreciation for others is also through food.

I saw an example recently of someone who is not very well thought of at his workplace who bought lunch at a sit-down restaurant for a group of nine people. Once you include appetizers and tip, the bill had to be around $100!

Funny thing is, this person will complain that he never has any money. If that's the case, how can he afford to pick up a $100 lunch bill? Was he genuinely doing something nice for the group, or was he hoping the group would think better of him in return? In other words, was he trying to buy friends with food?

I don't know for sure, and probably will never know, but I suspect it's the latter.

I've also known people on weight loss programs like Weight Watchers who just can't stop cheating. Weight Watchers and other programs like it cost money. I never have been able to understand why someone would pay money to be part of a program that they are not even going to follow. Does the emotional eating get in the way of their weight loss?Are they afraid of losing weight for some reason? Do they like being fat?

I think emotional eating comes from deeper problems than just being overweight, and that if an unhappy person loses weight, but doesn't work on their other issues, they will go right back to using food as comfort. Which mean they will go right back to being fat.

A Good Housekeeping column agrees. The author says, "If emotional eating is a challenge for us, if we suffer because of the size of our bodies and our relationship to food, then somehow we end up believing that getting rid of the fat will take away the suffering. When it doesn’t, we feel so betrayed that we eat to comfort ourselves."

She recommends an experiment: Instead of waiting to be thin to be happy, try being happy right now. Live as if you were already thin, as if you liked yourself, as if you chose to have the life you have right now.

I like that.

An entry on The Fit Shack says, "If you do not work on your inner self and find the things in your life that you are happy about now and cultivate them to create more happiness, that unhappiness will more than likely follow you even if you lose weight, and you’ll find yourself either an unhappy thin person or an unhappy person who regained the weight they previously lost."

My favorite poem, "Desiderata," ends with the line, "Be cheerful. Strive to be happy."

If you are an emotional eater, I hope you can take this advice to heart and find it within yourself to break your attachments to food. There is much happiness to be found in this world, and it lasts longer than a piece of cake. You only have to look for it.

Are you an emotional eater? What struggles have you had? How did you overcome them?

Popeye would be proud of me

2008-07-21T12:00:00.000-04:00

I’ve been eating my spinach.

I’ve been a salad eater for a long time. I spend quite a bit of time each week with knife and cutting board, slicing greens and veggies for my lunch.

I used to buy iceberg lettuce because it was the cheapest. Then I learned that it had virtually no nutritional value. So, I switched to green leaf or romaine lettuce.

But then the recent economic problems hit, and food prices skyrocketed. The head of green leaf lettuce that I used to buy for $1.69 is now $2.29.

Well, my pocketbook won’t handle that for very long, so I started looking for alternatives. I wanted to keep as much nutritional value in my salads as possible while still keeping my food budget in mind.

Suddenly, I looked at the dark greens – spinach, kale, mustard and turnip greens. I had bought spinach on occasion, just for something different in my salads, and I knew it packed a wallop nutritionally. But then I noticed something even better: the price. Spinach is $1.69 a bunch at my grocery store. Its price may have gone up recently, too, but it’s still cheaper than green leaf lettuce. So I started buying it on a regular basis a few months ago.

Since I’ve been eating spinach a lot lately, I got to thinking: exactly what nutritional benefits does it have? Well, to answer that question, I checked Wikipedia.

Spinach is a rich source of iron. According to the USDA, one 180 gram serving of boiled spinach contains 6.43 mg of iron -- three times the iron in the average hamburger patty.

Spinach has a high calcium content. It is a rich source of vitamin A (and lutein), vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin K, magnesium, several vital antioxidants and folic acid (Vitamin B9).

Spinach is an excellent source of manganese, folate, vitamin B2, potassium, and vitamin B6. It is a very good source of dietary fiber, copper, protein, phosphorous and zinc. In addition, it is a good source of omega-3 fatty acids, niacin and selenium.

This Web site shows a great chart of the percent daily value of the nutrients in spinach.

Wow! I knew spinach was good for you, but I didn’t know just how good! I’m glad economic factors drove me to choose a food that’s cheaper on price, but not cheap on nutrients.

With all that nutrition, I just might have to stick with eating my spinach for awhile. Maybe I’ll get as strong as Popeye!

Do you eat spinach? Why or why not? Leave me a comment!

Working the chest: Pec Deck Flies vs. Dumbbell Flies

2008-07-18T13:02:00.001-04:00

I hear debates in the fitness world about the pros and cons of free weights and selectorizers. Which is better?

I was doing some dumbbell butterflies at the gym the other day, and I thought it would be fun to look at dumbbell flies versus butterfly machines.

First, a description of the butterfly machine, also called the pec deck butterfly. This Web site describes it this way:

"Using a Pec Deck machine, seat yourself in it accordingly. Perform the exercise by squeezing your forearms and elbows in together so that you virtually touch them together at the peak of the movement. Be sure to really squeeze your pecs at the peak of this movement for a one-count. Return to the start position and repeat."

When I do dumbbell butterflies, I usually lay on a flat bench. You can also do them on an incline bench. Here is a description of flat bench dumbbell flies.

"Position yourself on a free-standing flat bench, flat on your back. Have your spotter hand you each dumbbell. When you begin this movement, you want your arms to be stretched out wide to your sides with your elbows slightly bent and your palms facing inward, toward one another. When you lift the dumbbells up together, visualize hugging a giant tree trunk. At the peak of the movement, really squeeze your pecs together for a one-count. When returning to the start position, be sure to lower the dumbbells in a slow and controlled fashion."

On this Web site are cute animated diagrams and descriptions of the butterfly machine and the dumbbell flies.

This article on about.com gives a good discussion of free weights vs. machines. Some of the pros of weight machines are: they're supportive, they're easy to use, they save time and they're less intimidating. However, they can be too supportive and limit the ways you can work your body.

The pros of free weights include versatility, functionality and building whole body strength. However, they can be hard to learn, there is more risk of injury, and they can be confusing.

Personally, I think there are benefits to both types of exercise, depending on what your purpose is. The dumbbell flies are more difficult -- as are most free weight exercises -- and they make me more sore. I try to do them most often.

But some days, I just don't feel like lifting the free weights, or the free weight area is too crowded, or I'm in a hurry, so the butterfly machine does just fine. The butterfly machine is also a great finishing exercise. If I have done several free-weight chest exercises and need one more to finish up, the butterfly machine is a great one to jump on.

Which do you prefer, free-weight butterflies or butterfly machines?

Job change and the stress that goes with it

2008-07-16T12:00:00.002-04:00

I have an announcement. I have accepted a new position as an instructor at Eastern Kentucky University. I'll be leaving the daily newspaper environment soon to teach journalism classes at a great state university.

"Wow!" people are telling me. "That's great! How exciting!"

Yes, it is exciting, and I am happy as can be about this opportunity.

However, I have a feeling that soon, the stress is going to set in. All change -- even good change -- brings stress.

Stress is not always a bad thing, though. Stress is simply the body's response to changes that create taxing demands. When people talk about being "stressed out," we usually think about negative stress, or distress. But there is a positive term for stress, and it's called eustress.

According to Wikipedia, distress is the most commonly-referred to type of stress, having negative implications, whereas eustress is a positive form of stress, usually related to desirable events in a person's life. Both can be equally taxing on the body, and are cumulative in nature, depending on a person's way of adapting to a change that has caused it.

Why does change cause such stress? According to this Web site,change challenges you to let go of the past, especially the comfortable, old ways of doing things, to accept new challenges and opportunities for growth.

This site recommends that you maintain the calm of an open mind, encourage flexibility in the face of rigidity and be willing to abandon former perceptions and security blankets. Change, like stress, can be beneficial when harnessed.

I'll have to remember that in the coming months.

So, how do you cope with the stress of adjusting to a new job?

This Web site has some good tips. A few typos and incomplete thoughts (Sorry, I have been a copy editor, after all. Just getting in practice for teaching my class!), but good tips nonetheless.

According to the site, the main key to adjusting to a new job is preparation. You also need to set new habits quickly, familiarize yourself with your new environment, find a friend and establish rapport and make the new environment as "homey" as possible.

Luckily, I have taught the very class I'll be teaching for EKU on a part-time basis. Thus, I am familiar with some of the people I'll be working with, and I have a taste of what teaching will be like. But as full-time faculty, I'll have many other responsibilities as well, like advising the yearbook staff.

I am preparing for the new job now by setting up meetings with some of my new colleagues -- especially those who have done parts of my job before me -- and getting as much information and advice as I can. I am also giving myself some time between the last day at my current job and the start my new job to relax at home for a few days and begin preparing for my classes. I hope all of this will help me be ready once classes actually start in the fall.

Many of the personal items on my desk at my current work will go straight to my new office. I have three beautiful plants that will keep some green around me, as well as some items at home that were once part of an office I had before. All of this will help me surround myself with familiar things, and with a little luck, make me feel right at home.

In the midst of the changes ahead, I will keep a few habits constant in my life. My once-a-week yoga class will be a wonderful relief, as will my twice-weekly gym workouts. And my blog will be a nice, personal outlet, as it has been for the past couple of months.

With all of these resources at hand, I hope I weather the positive stress this exciting new change will bring me.

Are you going through a major change in your life? Good or bad? How are you coping with it?

How hobbies keep you healthy

2008-07-14T12:00:00.001-04:00

What do you do in your spare time? Do you sit around and watch TV or stare into space? Or do you do something that keeps your mind or body active in some way?

In other words, do you have a hobby?

I hope so, because hobbies are good for. They engage you in different ways that your typical work or other obligations. A hobby often teaches you something new. Hobbies can also relieve stress and help you cope with other less-than-satisfactory areas of your life.

What is a hobby, exactly?

According to Wikipedia, a hobby is a spare-time recreational pursuit. Hobbies are practiced for interest and enjoyment, rather than financial reward.

How does a hobby help your health?

I found a Web site that addresses this very question. According to the article, hobbies can engage you physically and mentally, and people who have a hobby are generally healthier. Hobbies that require expertise are more satisfying because developing an expertise in something requires commitment, and commitment results in a higher level of engagement.

The ideal hobby engages us on three levels: first as a diversion that helps pass the time, second as a passion where we become truly engaged in doing something we love, and third as something that creates a sense of purpose.

Who doesn’t need that?

You may be wondering if I have a hobby. Yes, I do. I have several.

I love to read. Every night before I go to bed, I wind down with a good book. I do some gardening. I have a project underway in my backyard, for which I have drawn up a diagram and made specific plans. As I’ve mentioned before, I like to exercise. I go to the gym twice a week and take a yoga class once a week. I also enjoy writing and blogging, hence the reason I started Healthy Life. I also enjoy roleplaying. I have a couple of imaginary characters that I play in fantasy settings.

My husband also likes to read, and he goes to the gym with me. He runs the roleplaying game in which I play. In addition, he is learning Latin.

What does all this mean? We are keeping ourselves active and engaged. Reading and roleplaying keep our minds active and spark our imaginations. Exercise keeps our bodies strong and in shape. Gardening makes me feel good to cultivate something living outside of myself. There’s something about digging around in the dirt, connecting with the earth and making something beautiful out of my backyard space.

When I’ve had a bad day at work, or when I just need something to do, these hobbies fill in the gap. You might or might not enjoy your career, but it takes more than that to have a healthy, fulfilling life. Hobbies give me that, and they can give you that, too.

So, what are your hobbies? I’d like to know!

Are you a lark or an owl?

2008-07-10T20:45:00.003-04:00

Do you wake up early in the morning, refreshed and bouncing with energy, ready to meet the day? Or would you rather stay up late into the night, then sleep in the next day?

"Larks," or morning people, prefer to go to bed early and get up early, whereas "owls," or night people, prefer to stay up later and sleep later.

Most of us are programmed by our circadian rhythms to sleep at night and be awake in the daytime. The circadian rhythm is a roughly-24-hour cycle in the biochemical, physiological or behavioral processes of living beings. The term "circadian" comes from the Latin circa, "around", and diem or dies, "day", meaning literally "approximately one day."

I took this quiz and came up as "very much a night person." Trouble is, my current schedule requires me to get up at 6 a.m. in order to be at work at 7:30 a.m. Maybe this explains why I am perpetually tired at work! My natural rhythm and my work schedule are at complete odds with each other!

This article from the BBC says the answer to why some of us are larks and others are owls may lie in our genes. Researchers found a link between people's preferene for mornings or evenings and a gene called Period 3. If you have a long form of this gene, you're more likely to prefer early mornings. If you have the short form, you're probably an evening person.

I'm betting I have the short form of Period 3. That would explain a lot.

This site from the Medical College of Wisconsin has some interesting information about the body's biological clock and how light affects our brain.

If you're a lark, you probably don't have too much trouble with a normal daytime work schedule. If you're an owl, however, it can be more difficult.

There are ways to train yourself to be a morning person, such as putting your alarm clock across the room, getting up at the same time every day and turning on bright lights as soon as you get up.

Or, if you're like me and your natural rhythm and work schedule are at odds, you can just resign yourself to not going to bed as early as you should and being tired the next day. Naps work great for making up the difference in sleep! If you can escape to your car and take a brief power nap at lunch, it will go a long way toward helping you feel more alert in the afternoon.

Take the quiz above and see if you're a lark or an owl. Let me know what your results are. How do you deal with the differences between your natural circadian rhythm and your lifestyle?

Make your whole household healthy

2008-07-09T12:00:00.001-04:00

Committing to a healthy lifestyle isn't easy. Sometimes, it's downright difficult.

But if you don't have a supportive partner or family, it's almost impossible. One person can't do it alone when everyone else in the house is eating junk food.

I know from experience. When one partner’s favorite dinner is Hamburger Helper, and they are eating potato chips and M&M’s all the time, it’s hard for you to focus on eating vegetables, fruits and lean meats.

Healthy eating also requires expanding your palate to include new recipes, flavored in different ways with spices and oils instead of creamy sauces, and cooked in healthier ways, such as sauteeing, broiling or baking. It’s hard to do these things when your partner wants everything deep-fried and won't try healthier ways of flavoring foods.

Luckily, I have a supportive partner now, one who is just as committed to healthy living as I am.

As I’ve written before on this blog, my parents modeled healthy eating habits to us kids. Our daily snacks mainly consisted of fruits, and dinners included meat, potatoes or rice and vegetables. We drank milk on a regular basis. Potato chips, desserts and soft drinks were kept to a minimum.

The key was that the whole family supported healthy eating habits.

Exercise is also an important component of a healthy life. And it's much easier to keep exercising if your partner or the whole family is involved.

Your exercise partner can be your spouse or significant other, or it can be a good friend or family member. My stepfather and stepbrother used to go to the gym together. My husband and I go to the gym together now.

A partner can keep you motivated, urge you to exercise when you just don’t feel like it, spot you during weightlifting and encourage you to do new exercises.

An article I found here says one of the single best things you can do to help ensure your health and fitness success and give your efforts a much-needed jumpstart is to embrace your family and draw them into living healthier with you. It offers tips for getting the family started on a healthy lifestyle together.

So grab your partner and your kids, fix a healthy dinner together and then go take a walk afterward!

Are you trying to be healthier? Is your family healthy? What obstacles stand in your way?

What kind of body do you see in the mirror?

2008-07-07T12:00:00.001-04:00

When you look at yourself in the mirror, what do you think?

Do you generally like the way you look, or do you frown at your nose, your eyes, your too-small or too-large breasts, your round hips or your big butt?

A poor body image can cause you to obsess about everything you perceive is wrong with your body. It’s no secret that quite a few women have body image problems. We are bombarded with pictures of young, thin, tall models in the media. Fitness magazines show women on the covers with willowy figures and perfectly flat abs.

Body image is all about perception -- how you see yourself. Sure, media messages can affect our body image, but so can our own inner voice.

I long ago accepted my body and all of its good points and bad points. I have a bit of a pot belly. I’m not going to achieve those perfectly flat abs any time soon. I also have a bit more cellulite than I would like on my thighs.

But you know what I like? My arms and chest are well-toned and strong, much more so than they were a few years ago. My legs are strong, and my muscles are flexible. Underneath my perpetual layer of belly fat are some pretty strong ab muscles. I also practice yoga, and I am able to achieve some fairly advanced poses.

Overall, not bad. I work with what I’ve got.

I ran across a study in the American Journal of Public Health that found the difference between actual and desired body weight was a stronger predictor of mental and physical health than the body mass index (BMI). This study raises the possibility that some of the health effects of the obesity epidemic are related to the way we see our bodies.

A great women’s heath Web site says a poor body image can lead to emotional distress, low self-esteem, dieting, anxiety, depression and eating disorders. Developing a positive body image and a healthy mental attitude is crucial to a woman's happiness and wellness.

The site gives some healthy lifestyle tips that can help you improve your body image.

Healthy eating can promote healthy skin and hair, along with strong bones.

Regular exercise has been shown to boost self-esteem, self-image, and energy levels.

Plenty of rest is key to stress management.

Although body image problems are more common among women, we can’t forget the other gender. Yes, men can have body image problems, too. This article says that males with body image disorders are showing up with increasing frequency in psychiatrists' offices, and more men are abusing steroids in an attempt to build muscle.

I don’t think this trend is good for either gender. We should be worried about being as healthy as we can be, both physically and mentally, and not trying to attain some impossible standard that the media promotes.

Sure, you do want to be at a healthy body weight. And sure, you want to wear flattering clothes and have a nice hairstyle. But it’s not until you accept the reality of your body – and I mean the good points as well as the bad points – that you will be truly carry yourself with confidence and pride.

What do you like about your body? What do you dislike? What can you change, and what do you have to simply accept?

Fourth of July safety tips

2008-07-04T12:00:00.000-04:00

Today is Independence Day in the United States, and I'm taking the day off along with most everyone else.

Since many of you will be out at cookouts and picnics with your family and friends, I thought I'd pass along a few links to some cookout and fireworks safety tips.

Fireworks safety tips from The National Council on Fireworks Safety

Barbecue safety tips

Tips for a fun, festive and safe 4th of July

4th of July safety tips

Fireworks safety videos

I hope you have a safe, happy and healthy Fourth of July!

A mid-year's resolution: How I'm going to keep living healthy

2008-07-02T12:00:00.001-04:00

Since we are now halfway through 2008, it's a good time to reassess our healthy living goals for this year. As I wrote in my last post, it's a good time to recommit yourself to the goals you may have set back in January, or to set new goals for the second half of the year.

Here are some of the goals I've been thinking about during this mid-year week.

Examine my diet. I have already begun doing this, and I have written about it here in previous posts on coffee creamer and whole wheat bagels. I have a few other foods I'd like to investigate to get a sense of what I'm really eating and make changes accordingly.

Strength training. I have set a concrete fitness goal to be able to do an unassisted pull-up within the next few months. Right now, I'm lifting about two-thirds of my own body weight.

Develop this blog. My Healthy Life blog is about two months old now, which is young in the blogosphere. I am quite enjoying it so far, and I have done well with establishing a regular posting schedule and sticking to it. My goal for the rest of the year is to promote my blog and expand my audience, and get feedback from you, my readers, about what you would like to see here.

Professional development. I work at a newspaper, and newspapers have been notoriously slow to embrace online and multimedia. An online media specialist named Howard Owens laid down a challenge for journalists to become "more wired" in 2008, and I took up his challenge. This blog is one of the results. He laid out a list of ten goals to meet, and I still have some work to do. This list has inspired me more than anything else professionally this year, so, over the next six months, I will continue my "getting wired" gameplan.

Reconnect with friends. It's hard sometimes for me to find the time to send a simple e-mail to friends I haven't talked to in awhile, but we need friends as part of a well-rounded, healthy life. Thus, I would like to reconnect with some of my old friends, and renew some relationships that have languished. I have also recently found some old college friends on Facebook and MySpace, and I need to keep up with them and what's happening in their lives now.

Enjoy my hobbies. Among all of my other goals, I want to keep enjoying my hobbies. The main two things I do in my free time are gardening and roleplaying. I hope I don't get so busy doing everything else that I neglect these hobbies.

The first half of 2008 has had its ups and downs, and I hope that by sticking to the goals above, I can have a better second half of the year.

One of the cores of living a healthy life is consistently growing, changing and improving. These goals will be my blueprint for the next six months to make my life as healthy as it can be -- physically, mentally, professionally and socially.

What are your mid-year's resolutions? What's your blueprint for the rest of the year?

A mid-year’s resolution: Vow now to keep living healthy

2008-06-30T12:00:00.001-04:00

Today is the last day of the sixth month of 2008, which means the year is half over. Six months down, six to go. Wow, time flies so fast!

This is a good time to reassess your goals for this year. Did you make a New Year's resolution? Take another look at it. How are you doing with it? Are you sticking to your plans? Did you falter?

Whatever your resolution may have been, if you have faltered, it's not too late to get back on track.

Do you have other changes you wish to make in your life? Make them now. Don't wait until next year.

If you take a look at your goals for this year and feel down on yourself because you have failed to meet those goals, don't despair. Remember, 2008 is only half over. You still have six months to go!

Resolve to make the last half of 2008 better than the first!

So, what's your mid-year's resolution? I'd like to know. I'll give you some of mine in my next post.

Bagels: What’s really in them?

2008-06-27T12:00:00.000-04:00

This is my second in an occasional series of posts where I will examine the ingredients in one of the foods I eat on a regular basis. In my first post on coffee creamer, I mentioned that I do pretty well with staying away from too many processed or high-fat foods.

But still, as I examine the ingredients in the foods I eat, I am discovering that I can do better. And that's what living a healthy life is all about. Always doing better.

This time, I'll take on bagels. I specifically eat Thomas' Whole Wheat Bagels. I really like the texture and taste, but what about the ingredients? What am I really eating?

I searched Thomas' Web site, and I found the product listings for all of their varieties of bagels and other foods, including the whole wheat bagels. However, they did not have their ingredients, nor their nutrition information, listed. To find that, I have to look at a package of bagels.

First, let's look at the nutrition facts. One bagel has 240 calories, 2 grams of total fat, of which 0.5g is saturated, 400 mg sodium, 49 grams of carbs, of which 7 grams is dietary fiber, and 10 grams of protein.

Next, the ingredients, in the order in which they are listed.

Whole wheat flour. From Wikipedia: a powdery substance derived by grinding or mashing the wheat's whole grain. It is used in baking, but typically added to other "white" flours to give nutrition (especially fiber and protein), texture, and body to the finished product. The word "whole" refers to the fact that all of the grain (bran, germ, and endosperm) is used and nothing is lost in the process of making the flour.

Water. Good ol' H20. I hope I don't need to define this one.

Flaked wheat. The only place I could find definitions of flaked wheat specifically were in reference to brewing beer. From How to Brew, unmalted wheat is a common ingredient in wheat beers. It adds starch haze and high levels of protein.

Wikipedia does have an entry on wheat, which is defined as a staple food used to make flour for leavened, flat and steamed breads; cookies, cakes, pasta, noodles and couscous; and for fermentation to make beer, alcohol, vodka or biofuel.

Sugar. An ingredient we're all familiar with. Here's what Wikipedia says: Sugar is a class of edible crystalline substances including sucrose, lactose, and fructose. Common table sugar (sucrose) is made from sugar beets or sugar cane.

Yeast. Most of us are familiar with yeast, and we at least know that it is used to make bread rise. Thus, it makes sense that it would be in bagels. But what is yeast? Wikipedia defines it as a growth form of eukaryotic microorganisms classified in the kingdom Fungi ... The yeast species Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been used in baking and fermenting alcoholic beverages for thousands of years.

Wheat gluten. From Wikipedia: Wheat gluten is a made from the gluten of wheat by washing wheat flour dough with water until all the starch dissolves, leaving insoluble gluten as a gummy mass, which is subject to further processing.

Wheat bran. From Wikipedia: Bran is the hard outer layer of grain and consists of combined aleurone and pericarp. Along with germ, it is an integral part of whole grains, and is often produced as a by-product of milling in the production of refined grains.

Salt. We all learned about this one in baby chemistry class -- sodium chloride -- and most of us have it in the kitchen. I still found the Wikipedia definition interesting: Salt is a dietary mineral essential for animal life. Salt flavor is one of the basic tastes, and salt is the most popular food seasoning and a key preservative. Salt is also the only rock eaten by humans.

The only rock eaten by humans? Hmmm ... I was not aware of that.

Cornmeal. From Wikipedia: flour ground from dried corn. Steel ground yellow cornmeal has the husk and germ of the maize kernel almost completely removed. Stone ground cornmeal retains some of the hull and germ, lending a little more flavor and nutrition to recipes.

Mono- and diglycerides. These came up on the list of ingredients in my previous analysis of Coffee-mate creamer.

To review the definitions, a monoglyceride consists of one fatty acid chain covalently bonded to a glycerol molecule through an ester linkage. A diglyceride consists of two fatty acid chains covalently bonded to a glycerol molecule through ester linkages. Both are common food additives used to blend together certain ingredients, such as oil and water. They can come from either animal or vegetable, derived primarily from soybean and canola oil. They may also be synthetically produced.

So as I mentioned in the coffee creamer post, I have no idea whether I am eating a real or synthetic product in these bagels, nor where these mono- and diglycerides come from.

Preservatives (Calcium propionate, sorbic acid). First, here’s how Wikipedia defines preservative: a natural or synthetic chemical that is added to products such as foods, pharmaceuticals, paints, biological samples, wood, etc. to prevent decomposition by microbial growth or by undesirable chemical changes.

The ingredient label on the bagels lists two preservatives specifically. The first, calcium propionate is defined as the calcium salt of propionic acid. Okay, so what’s propionic acid? It is a naturally-occurring carboxylic acid, which in its pure state is a colorless, corrosive liquid with a pungent odor.

Um … corrosive liquid with a pungent odor? I’m not sure if I feel comfortable putting such a thing in my body.

The other preservative listed, sorbic acid, is a natural organic compound used as a food preservative. Sorbic acid and its mineral salts are antimicrobial agents often used as preservatives in food and drinks to prevent the growth of mold, yeast and fungi.

Guar gum. Guar gum, also called guaran, is primarily the ground endosperm of guar beans. The guar bean is an annual legume grown mostly in India.

DATEM. I added all caps to this one because it is actually an acronym, for Di-Acetyl Tartaric Ester of Monoglyceride. It is an emulsifier primarily used in baking to strengthen the dough by building a strong gluten network.

Citric acid. If you eat citrus fruits, such as oranges, you’re familiar with citric acid. It is defined as a weak organic acid. It is a natural preservative and is also used to add an acidic, or sour, taste to foods and soft drinks.

Maltodextrin. From Wikipedia: a polysaccharide used as a food additive. Maltodextrin is easily digestible, being absorbed as rapidly as glucose. Maltodextrin can be derived from any starch, usually rice, corn or potato in the U.S.

If you type this term into Wikipedia, you are redirected to an entry for dextrin, which is way too full of long chemical names. This disturbs me a little. I shouldn’t have to work that hard to understand what I’m eating.

Algin. Wikipedia redirects you to the entry for alginic acid, which is a viscous gum that is abundant in the cell walls of brown algae.

What? I’m eating algae!?! Eeeewww!

Soy lecithin. Wikipedia defines lecithin as any of a group of yellow-brownish fatty substances occurring in animal and plant tissues, and in egg yolk. Lecithin is an integral part of cell membranes, and can be totally metabolized. There are studies that show soy-derived lecithin has significant effects on lowering cholesterol and triglyceride, while increasing HDL ("good cholesterol") levels in the blood.

Okay, so this ingredient doesn’t sound quite as bad as some of the others.

Soy flour (trivial amount). Wikipedia takes you to the main entry on soy. If you scroll down, you see this: Soy flour refers to defatted soybeans where special care was taken during desolventizing (not toasted) in order to minimize denaturation of the protein.

I found that a little confusing, so I went to Soy Foods. It says soy flour is made from roasted soybeans that have been ground into a fine powder. Rich in high-quality protein and other nutrients, soy flour also adds a pleasant texture and flavor to a variety of products.

So, what's my verdict after examining all of these ingredients? Some of them aren't so bad, but there are some other strange things in these bagels that make me think twice about eating too many of them. My habit has been to eat half a wheat bagel covered with natural peanut butter (which has one ingredient: peanuts) for breakfast. Perhaps I'll try instead oats. That is, plain oats from the big canister, not the packaged, flavored stuff. The ingredients in oats? Whole grain rolled oats. Simple and pure.

Do you eat bagels? Check the ingredient list and see if any of these show up in the brand you eat. What do you think, now that you know what some of them are?

How do you handle emotionally unhealthy people?

2008-06-25T12:00:00.001-04:00

In my previous post, I highlighted some of the traits of emotionally unhealthy people, and discussed how 20 percent of the people in your life can take 80 percent of your time and emotionally energy.

In this post, I’ll talk about some of the strategies I’ve used for dealing with the emotionally unhealthy people in my life.

A healthy life includes emotional balance, and emotionally unhealthy people can throw off that balance before you know it. If you arm yourself with a few of these strategies -- or others that you have come up with -- you'll have a much better chance of keeping your own emotions in check.

The best strategy for dealing with an emotionally unhealthy person is to minimize contact with them, or if you can, cut contact altogether. Don't force yourself to interact with the emotionally unhealthy person any more than necessary.

However, if we could always use that strategy, there would be no need to defend ourselves against emotionally unhealthy people, would there? That would be too easy.

Here are some others for those times when you are forced to deal with these types of people.

Minimize their influence in your life. Put them in a little box in your mind. They belong there, and only there. Don't let them sneak into other parts of your life.

Let them have all the attention they want. Or at least, pretend to. If you are in the same room with an attention hog, it may be best to just let them have it. If you try to compete with them, you'll likely just escalate the situation. Keep your facial expression polite and neutral, nod or comment when appropriate, but don't give them anymore than that. Believe me, if they are an attention-seeker, they'll fill in the rest.

Seek respect elsewhere. If you know an emotionally unhealthy person who expects, or perhaps even demands, respect from you, but doesn't return it, realize you are never going to get the respect you deserve from them. Don't beat your head against the wall about it or let it upset you. Seek someone else out with whom you can form a respectful relationship.

Don't argue with them, even if you know they are wrong, and even if they are treading in your domain of expertise. If you know their fear of failure or being wrong overrides their desire to learn from you or find the correct solution, arguing with them is a bad idea. It just makes both of you angry, and it won't solve anything.

Along with the strategy above, if the emotionally unhealthy person in your life is a know-it-all, let them show off. If it's clear they are not going to learn from you, or anyone else, don't waste your energy trying. Find someone you can influence and concentrate your efforts on them. It will be much more rewarding.

If they are the type who asks for your ideas then argues with or rejects them, don't expend a lot of energy trying to come up with the best or most original ideas. If you are asked to give a list of ideas to your boss, unfortunately, you have to do it, but you don't have to give all of your effort. Just give enough to satisfy his or her request, and no more.

If they ask you a question, but don't really take the time to listen to you, give them short answers. When they ask something like, "How's work going?" don't launch into a long, detailed explanation that you know they are going to interrupt anyway. Just answer with something like, "Oh, about the same as usual. You know how it is." Then let them take over the conversation again, just like they would have anyway.

Establish your boundaries and stick to them. If you work with someone who wants to get more personal than you wish, you are under no obligation to respond. Even if it's a boss, you can say, "That's a boundary issue, and I'm not comfortable discussing it."

Have another outlet. Find another person or place where you can express yourself the way you want, such as a partner, a blog or a hobby. If you find another outlet to express yourself, it makes it easier to get through your encounters with the emotionally unhealthy person because you are not dependent on them for your own self-esteem and expression.

Shut the person out of your mind once you are away from them. Don't get away from the emotionally unhealthy person after a peaceful encounter, then spend the next two hours ranting and raving about them. This can be difficult not to do, as you may have pent-up emotions that you have been holding back all day, but the emotionally unhealthy person doesn't deserve that much of your mental energy. If you must vent, pick three things you want to say about the person, say those things, then move on.

Do something for yourself. It will help restore your emotional balance if you have something planned for yourself after your encounter with the emotionally unhealthy person. You'll feel much better!

Emotionally unhealthy people can hurt you

2008-06-23T12:00:00.004-04:00

I am lucky enough to have many wonderful people in my life who love and support me. My husband, my family, most of my co-workers and most of my friends don't really give me cause for complaint.

But there are those few people in my life with whom I don't think I'll ever be able to establish a healthy, mature relationship. For a long time, I wondered if it was me, but after observing them with other people, I think it's them. I don't think they are able to have a healthy adult relationship with anyone.

Why? Because they are what I call emotionally unhealthy. They are the people who react in strange and unexpected ways to you simply being yourself, leaving you quite unsure of what just happened.

If you’re trying to live a healthy life – one that includes self-examination, learning and growth – these emotionally unhealthy people can harm it by causing you extra stress, draining your mental energy and screwing up your emotional state.

It's like the Pareto principle, also known as the 80-20 rule, which says that for many events, 80 percent of the effects come from 20 percent of the causes. When applied to the people in your life, it means that 80 percent of your emotional stress comes from 20 percent of the people. Consequently, 80 percent of your time and energy also goes into managing and dealing with that 20 percent.

I've had some experiences with emotionally unhealthy people, and they certainly cause 80 percent of my mental stress. Here are some of the unhealthy traits they can show.

They have to be the center of attention. Sometimes they become childish and petulant if they don’t feel like people are paying attention to them.

They seek acceptance and respect, but they don't return it.

They have to win an argument at all costs, sometimes even saying things that are “below the belt” to do so.

They are know-it-alls. They have to show what they know, but don’t let you contribute your knowledge.

They always have to be right.

They ask for your ideas, then argue with them.

They want to influence you, but won't let you influence them.

They ask you a question, but then don't take the time to listen to your answer. As soon as they think of something else to say, they interrupt.

They change the rules. As soon as you think you’ve established something about them and learned how to deal with them, they change on you, leaving you confused.

They have bad boundaries. They either use you to fulfill some emotional need that is outside the purview of the relationship, or they take everything you do and say personally and make it about them.

If you have people in your life with these traits, instead of allowing them affect you in unhealthy ways, you need to devise strategies for putting boundaries on them so they don’t suck away your mental energy and harm your emotional well-being.

In my next post, I’ll explore some of the strategies I’ve used for dealing with the emotionally unhealthy people in my life.

Do you have emotionally unhealthy people in your life? In what ways do they harm you? What traits do they show?

Coffee creamer: What's really in it?

2008-06-20T12:18:00.004-04:00

They say you are what you eat. If that's the case, I've been inspired to examine the ingredients in some of the items I eat or drink on a regular basis.

This inspiration comes from a couple of other blog posts I've read recently. Scott Kustes of Modern Forager urges us to eat real food, and Mark Sisson of Mark's Daily Apple discusses foods that contain high fructose corn syrup.

After reading these posts, I caught myself looking at the ingredient labels of various foods around my kitchen. I feel like I do pretty well with focusing my diet on vegetables, fruits and meats. For the most part, I stay away from too much processed or high-fat foods. But in our highly-processed world, it’s hard not to let a few creep into my kitchen.

But still, these posts made me wonder if I was doing all I could to help my body be healthier. Sure, I keep the fat and carbs pretty low, but what about all that weird stuff in my foods that I can't pronounce? As Scott says, real food doesn't need an ingredient label.

So what about the ingredient labels on the foods I eat? I plan for this to be an occasional series of posts where I'll take one of the foods in my diet and try to define as many of the ingredients as I can. And then see what I can do about decreasing my intake of those foods or eliminating them altogether.

First, I'll take on coffee creamer, specifically Coffee-mate Original powdered creamer. The reason I pick this one (and here's the disclaimer so the folks at Coffee-mate don't get mad at me) is because I put it in my coffee at work, five days a week.

First let's look at the nutrition facts. As you can see in the nutrition label, which I've pulled from Coffee-mate's Web site, a serving size is 1 teaspoon, and it has 10 calories, 0.5 grams of total fat -- all of which is saturated -- and not much else in the way of nutrients.

All of this comes from the ingredients, which I will look at in the order in which they are listed.

Corn syrup solids. From Wikipedia: Corn syrup is a syrup, made using cornstarch as a feedstock, and composed mainly of glucose. … Its major use is in commercially-prepared foods as a thickener and for its moisture-retaining (humectant) properties which keep foods moist and help to maintain freshness.

I further found an entry on The Fit Shack that says corn syrup solids are manufactured from corn syrup liquid through a process that removes 97 percent of the water from the liquid.

Vegetable oil (partially hydrogenated coconut or palm kernel, hydrogenated soybean). From Wikipedia: Vegetable fats and oils are substances derived from plants that are composed of triglycerides.

As for the “partially hydrogenated” part, Wikipedia says: Triglyceride-based vegetable fats and oils can be transformed through partial or complete hydrogenation into fats and oils of higher melting point. The hydrogenation process involves "sparging" the oil at high temperature and pressure with hydrogen in the presence of a catalyst, typically a powdered nickel compound. … Partial hydrogenation results in the formation of trans fats, which have increasingly been viewed as unhealthy since the 1970s.

So, by ingesting this coffee creamer, I’m drinking nickel compounds and trans fats. That doesn’t sound healthy.

Sodium Caseinate (a milk derivative). If you search for this term, Wikipedia redirects you to an entry for casien: Casein (from Latin caseus "cheese") is the predominant phosphoprotein that accounts for nearly 80 percent of proteins in milk and cheese. … Casein is often listed as sodium caseinate, calcium caseinate or milk protein.

I have to wonder why a product described on Coffee-mate’s own Web site as “The original rich and deliciously creamy non-dairy creamer” has a milk derivative in it. I am not lactose-intolerant myself, but what does such a product do to people who are?

Dipotassium phosphate (moderates coffee acidity). From Wikipedia: Dipotassium phosphate -- also phosphoric acid, dipotassium salt; dipotassium hydrogen orthophosphate; potassium phosphate, dibasic -- is a highly water-soluble salt which is often used as a fertilizer, food additive and buffering agent. It is a common source of phosphorus and potassium.

So I’m putting a product that is also used as a fertilizer in my coffee? Ick!

Mono- and diglycerides (prevents oil separation). This requires a search for two different terms on Wikipedia: A monoglyceride, more correctly known as a monoacylglycerol, is a glyceride consisting of one fatty acid chain covalently bonded to a glycerol molecule through an ester linkage.

A diglyceride, or a diacylglycerol (DAG), is a glyceride consisting of two fatty acid chains covalently bonded to a glycerol molecule through ester linkages. … Mono- and diacylglycerols are common food additives used to blend together certain ingredients, such as oil and water, which would not otherwise blend well. … The commercial source may be either animal (cow- or hog-derived) or vegetable, derived primarily from soy bean and canola oil. They may also be synthetically produced.

So I have no idea where the mono- and diglycerides in this particular creamer came from. Are they real? Synthetic? Also, if oil and water weren’t meant to blend together, should we be forcing them to do so?

Sodium aluminosilicate. From Wikipedia: Sodium aluminosilicate, also referred to as sodium silicoaluminate, is a chemical with the formula AlNa12SiO5 and CAS 1344-00-9. It is an aluminosilicate compound with sodium cations, taking the form of a white crystalline solid.

All this definition told me is that sodium silicoaluminate is an aluminosilicate compound. No, really?! I had figured out that much from looking at the word. So I clicked on the term aluminosilicate and found this: Aluminosilicate minerals are minerals composed of aluminium, silicon, and oxygen.

I’m still not sure this tells me anything. And since I’m not sure what it is, I would rather not put it in my body.

Artificial flavor. Note that the ingredient list does not say what this artificial flavor entails. But if you type the term “artificial flavor” into Wikipedia, you are redirected to the entry on flavor, and specifically to the part about flavor creation, where you read this: Most food and beverage companies do not create their own flavors but instead employ the services of a flavor company. … The flavor creation is done by a specially trained scientist called a "flavorist." The flavorist's job combines extensive scientific knowledge of the chemical palette with artistic creativity to develop new and distinctive flavors.

Hmmm … so a flavorist has decided now my creamer should taste, and has added who-knows-what to it. So, again, I have no idea exactly what I am putting into my body.

Annatto color. From Wikipedia: Annatto, sometimes called Roucou, is a derivative of the achiote trees of tropical regions of the Americas, used to produce a red food coloring and also as a flavoring. Annatto is produced from the reddish pulp which surrounds the seed of the achiote.

This last ingredient doesn’t sound too bad. At least it comes from a natural fruit. But the entry does say it can cause allergies in some people. Personally, I can take it or leave it.

So what's my verdict after defining all of these ingredients? I'm not so sure I really need that creamer in my coffee. In fact, for the past few days, I've been leaving it out of my coffee. There is a little more bitterness to the coffee’s taste, but it's something I can get used to, especially if it means leaving these unnatural ingredients out of my body.

I consider the loss of coffee creamer a worthy sacrifice to live a healthy life.

So how do you take your coffee? Creamer? Milk? Black? Will knowing what these ingredients are change your mind about putting powdered creamer in your coffee?

Defending my healthy choices

2008-06-18T12:00:00.005-04:00

On my recent vacation to Washington, D.C., I had endured a turbulent airplane landing, my stomach was upset, and I didn't want anything greasy or fried.

All I wanted was a salad. Only crisp, cool, soothing vegetables and salad dressing would do it.

I wasn’t trying to make a point or show off how healthy I was being. I just wanted a salad.

However, one of my travel companions commented on my salad. As she ate her hamburger and fries, she explained how she didn’t like salads because they took so much work to cut up and so long to eat.

There have been times when I have been a little offended when someone feels the need to point out, or even put down, my choice to have a salad. Luckily, that day, I was too hungry to care what she thought. I simply nodded at her and kept eating. And boy, was it tasty. It was just what I needed to fill my stomach and settle it down.

But later, when I reflected on it, it made me wonder if my action made her feel guilty in some way. I can see why my action might have been interpreted as some sort of example or statement, especially if she somehow felt she hadn’t made the best choice for herself.

I’ve had other occasions when people feel the need to point out my choices of salads, fresh or steamed vegetables or fresh fruit.

It is at times like this when I call upon the nine qualities of a healthy life, which I wrote about in my last post.

Since I was not feeling good as a result of the air turbulence and not having any food in my stomach, I tuned in to what my body needed, and I was honest about it. I needed pure foods, not grease or fat.

I also called on my defiance. Although those hamburgers and french fries looked really good, and it would have been easy to say, "I'll have them because everyone else is," I did not give in.

I also was defensive. Not with words, because I was too busy stuffing lettuce into my mouth. But I was defensive with my actions. The fact that my response to her comments was to simply keep eating what I had chosen was my message that I was confident in my choice.

In most cases, I’m not trying to be self-righteous or snobby in my healthy choices. I’m simply doing what I feel is best for myself. If others wish to take an example from it, that’s fine. If they wish to comment on my choices in an effort to defend their own, that's when remembering the nine qualities comes in handy.

If you want to make a healthy food choice, you should do so, no matter how it makes other people feel. What's important is how it makes you feel.

Maybe, just maybe, if you are seen as an example of what it means to be healthy, it will make a difference for someone around you. If you can influence just one person with your good choices, you have done your part to make the world just a little healthier.

And if you can't, well then, you can still influence yourself. And that's what really matters.

What examples do you have of times people commented on something you were eating? How did it make you feel? How did you respond? Leave me a comment!