Health and relaxation

A recent article over at Mayo Clinic offers some great
relaxation techniques. Also, if you would like to try
some pre recorded relaxation podcasts, head over to
the podcast URL on the left sidebar of the blog,
and subscribe to "Master PR".

Eating Disorders consist of more than Anorexia or Bulimia

If you or someone you know are frequently eating large amounts of food past the point of comfort or feeling full, feel like you lose control of how much you eat, feel embarrassed or disgusted with the amount of food eaten, and feel depressed or guilty after overeating you may want to learn more information about an eating disorder called binge eating disorder. Unlike bulimia nervosa, the person doesn’t purge by vomiting or using laxatives after the “binge.”

Did you know that 1-2 million people in the United States have this disorder? It is a concerning to me because people with this disorder suffer from diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, gallbladder disease, heart disease, shortness of breath, some types of cancer, menstrual problems, tiredness, obesity and sleep problems.

If you have a problem there is help. Student Health Services located in 221 SC offers counseling and can be contacted at 863-8876. Additional information can be found at www.eatright.org www.anad.org www.nationaleatingdisorders.org
Eating Disorders Awareness and Prevention’s Information and Referral Line 1-800-931-2237

Weight...it's all around us

Walking around the grocery store, or down the hallway at school it’s amazing to see how many people are struggling with their weight. We’ve heard it time and time again from the Surgeon General that obesity is an epidemic, but what are we doing about it and how has this happened?

About 1.2 billion people in the world are overweight and at least 300 million of them are obese. In the United States, more than 97 million adults (which is more than half) are overweight and 1 in 5 adults are obese. Being obese and being overweight is not exactly the same thing. An obese person has a large amount of extra body fat, not just a few extra pounds.

So what can cause a person to become obese? Well, there are uncontrollable risk factors such as a person’s genetics. However, the majority comes from an individual’s personal lifestyle patterns such as excessive overeating, consuming more foods high in fat and less in nutritional value, and a lack of physical activity.

The keys to maintaining a healthy weight is to exercise regularly and maintain healthy eating habits. These sound like simple tasks but I’m often surprised how many people do not know how to do this. If you would like to learn more about weight managemnet Wellness Eduction offers a program called Healthquest for UVSC students and employees. Check it out at this website http://www.uvsc.edu/wellnessed/ourservices/healthquest2.html.

Eating Healthy & Enjoying It

Eating is one of the natural joys in life. Preparing and anticipating a meal and enjoying its colors, aromas, and tastes are delightful ways of giving yourself pleasure as well as taking good care of yourself. I don’t know about you, but 90% of what and why I eat is because it tastes good. I used to think that if I wanted to eat healthy, I couldn’t enjoy my food, things just didn’t have the same taste. So often we think that if it tastes good it has to be bad for us. But it is possible to eat tasty things that are good for you. It’s just a matter of trying different things and having an open mind.
Eating right is a skill and not something that just comes naturally. There are so many options out there that are unhealthy. We have created an environment of convenience and high fat, high calorie foods. But it’s a skill that’s not hard to learn, it is possible - you just have to have a game plan. The first thing is to find foods that you like. Don’t be afraid to try different fruits and vegetables, your tastes can change. Just a few years ago I couldn’t stand cabbage or peppers, now I love them. The next step is to try different recipes. Talk with friends, check out cook books, watch cooking show, experiment, and try different spices, but don’t be afraid to try new things, the possibilities are endless.
There are some things to remember when trying to cook a healthy meal. Grilling, baking, poaching, roasting, boiling, blackening, steaming, broiling, or lightly stir-frying is healthier than deep frying and sautéing. Try to keep the amount of cream, butter and salt low. Broth soups are lower in fat than creamy soups, marinara and tomato sauces are also lower in fat than Alfredo or white sauce.

Aaahhh...School Is Starting...Don't Stress...Here's How

Just because school is starting doesn't mean you need to stress out about it. There are some things you can do to help buffer against your stress.

The first step is to identify what's stressing you out...Remember there are a few different areas that stress comes from (The Environment, Physiological, Your Thoughts, & Social Stressors).

Once you done this it's time to make a change. What are you going to do different? There are three basic options for making changes, you can either eliminate the stress, manipulate or adjust it so it works better for you or you can just accept it and try and deal with it.

After you have made the proper changes it's time to organize your life. Ask yourself, where are you spending most of your time. Is it in front of the tv or computer? Is it working, or partying? Try to have a balance of all the areas. Prioritize your time, make a schedule, write in a planner, make a to do list etc.

The last thing you should try and do is take care of yourself. Try and get enough exercise, sleep, taking breaks, eating healthy, getting plenty of water and try and have a positive attitude. Remember you have control of your own thoughts so how you react to situations can have positive or negative consequences.

Chocolate Therapy

One of our therapists here in Student Health Services is introducing a new kind of therapy "Chocolate Therapy". According to Bill it’s a realization really… it is the process of relaxing, finding perspective, and taking it easy. We have not been well prepared by our culture to find out what we are all about. If someone asks, “what do you do?” we most likely will reply with what we do for work… “ I am a teacher, banker, computer tec.”

Chocolate therapy is perhaps the realization that said response is pretty lame. We deserve to exist outside of work. What we do should be an expression of who we are not what we use to pay the bills. It is my hope that I can offer a means to discover to who we are and who we are becoming. If you'd like more info about chocolate therapy or want to see it live in action come to his workshop on the 15th in Center Stage.

Don't we all deserve a little chocolate!!!

You Have it in You

It's so interesting that all of the images that we are exposed to are not even real. The magazines, internet, television & movies are all people who are done up, worked on and made into fake images. It doesn't help our self-esteem or our self-image. The Dove company is on a mission to find out how to help those struggling with their self-esteem. So, what's the truth about beauty? Dove recently set out across 10 countries and interviewed 3,000 women to find out.

•Only 2% of these women describe themselves as “beautiful”
•About 3/4 of them rate their beauty as "average"
•Almost 1/2 of them think their weight is "too high"
And the truth doesn't stop there.

Go to Campain for Real Beauty @ www.campaignforrealbeauty.com to see an actual video about how they touch up a model. Also, read the Dove Global Study for a closer look at all the responses - and discover how perceptions of real beauty truly vary around the world.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

The Holidays should be a fun time but they can also bring stress and anxiety and that's why it's important to relax and take care of yourself. Here's some tips to surviving the holidays...

1. Take time for yourself. Although spending time with friends & family is essential, it's also important to have at least five minutes to relax.
2. Don't set unrealistic exercise goals. Aim to exercise 20 minutes a day instead of an hour.
3. Create new, more active traditions. Instead of throwing a dessert or cocktail party, try snowshoeing or ice-skating as an alternate holiday event.
4. Drink plenty of water. Although the cold weather may make you less inclined to grab a glass of water, it's just as important in the winter as it is during the summer.
5. Spread out meals. Don't feel like you have to eat everything at once. Try eating dinner early and then taking a walk before sitting down for dessert.
**UCWHP

HAPPY HOLIDAY FROM WELLNESS ED!!!

Alcohol & You

What do you know about alcohol?

Alcohol affects our brain’s pleasure-reward system by pretending to be a neurotransmitter. It tricks the brain into generating pleasure-reward feelings from a harmful chemical instead of a real experience.

If a teen continues drinking, the brain changes and adapts to the presence of alcohol and soon the teen needs more and more alcohol to create the same amount of pleasure. Getting their next drink becomes more important than family, grades or even sports.

Because the teen brain produces an abundance of dopamine, it can go rapidly from liking, to wanting, to needing alcohol, programming it for alcoholism. Alcohol can also damage the brain’s ability to sense pleasure from normal, healthy things and experiences – leaving a young person feeling “flat” about things he/she previously enjoyed.

If you'd like more info about how your drinking affects you visit
e-CHUG @ http://interwork.sdsu.edu/echug2/UVSC.

Podcast

Ok, the podcast should work now on that last post about Yoga Podcast.

Caffeine Craze

Thirty-one percent of U.S. teenagers say they drink energy drinks, according to Simmons Research. That represents 7.6 million teens, a jump of almost 3 million in three years.

Nutritionists warn that the drinks, laden with caffeine and sugar, can hook people on an unhealthy jolt-and-crash cycle. The caffeine comes from multiple sources, making it hard to tell how much the drinks contain. Some have B vitamins, which when taken in megadoses can cause rapid heartbeat, and numbness and tingling in the hands and feet.

How much caffeine do energy drinks contain? A University of Florida study found that some products, although served in cans two-thirds the size of a standard can of Coke, contain two to four times the amount of caffeine as that Coke. Energy drinks are unregulated in the United States, but the authors of the University of Florida paper suggest warning labels for them.

And now energy drinks are moving toward bigger cans with some products raising the caffeine content to gain a competitive edge, said John Sicher of Beverage Digest. The biggest, so far, is 24 ounces.

To find out how much caffeine is in your drink visit www.energyfiend.com

Yoga Podcast

Well, Here it is, the first yoga podcast, and the first podcast of this blog ever! Tell everyone you know about this, and leave a comment about it too. click Here to watch.

Sweet Tooth

So Halloween is fast approaching and that means lots of candy and lots of sugar!!! One myth about sugar is that it will make you gain weight. Eating sugar won't necessarily make you gain weight but it is a source of empty calories. Sugary foods (such as candy) make people hungrier and crave high calorie foods, which cause weight gain.

Also, sometimes it's hard to figure out how much sugar is in different foods, and it's often difficult to try and imagine a gram so to find out the exact amount of sugar in something, divide the grams of sugar by 4; that will tell you how many teaspoons there are in the food. This will give you a better visual of the amounts of sugar that are in foods. Happy Halloween!

Walking This Fall

Did you know? Walking a mile in 15 minutes burns about 85 calories. This is good news for weight maintenance. Paired with healthy eating, walking can help you achieve energy balance - where the calories you eat are balanced with your daily activity. Do you want to shed a few pounds? Work your way up to 60 minutes of walking a day or add other physical activity. Here are estimates of calories burned by 15 minutes of other common autumn activities:

Vacuuming the house: 60
Bagging autumn leaves: 68
Playing softball: 85
Ice skating: 119
Playing touch football: 136
Rock climbing: 187.
Visit www.caloriesperhour.com to calculate calories burned by your own favorite activities according to your age, height, and weight.

Fun Fall Fact: A seasonal favorite, a pumpkin pie slice has 314 calories and 14 grams of fat - and that’s without the whipped cream!

Substance Abuse Fair

Come check out our Substance Abuse Fair on October 18th & 19th in the Hall of Flags from 10-2pm. There will be lots of info about what to do if you have a substance abuse problems, educational material about how to detect violence and other community resources. For more info visit our website @ Wellness Education

Eating with the Seasons

UVSC's Wellness Education Department is adding emphasis to student dieting this year. Instead of fishing for our favorite foods that may be out of season, we're encouraged to eat with the abundance that's naturally chosen for us this time of year. That way, we get the nutrition that is provided through ready and ripe sustenance. The following is a handy list created by the Wellness Center to help plan our meals accordingly.

Fall: Since we're facing the change from warm to cool, we should turn towards the foods most commonly associated with this season: carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, onion and garlic. Think of the foods that are most warming.

Winter: Since the weather is getting even colder, we should lean even more on those warming foods. "Remember the principle that foods that take longer to grow are generally more warming than foods that grow quickly." This is when we should be relying more on meats for vegetables for our energy source: fish, chicken, beef and lamb, as well as the fall suggested veggies and eggs.

Spring: Since this is the warming season when vegetation is beginning to flourish, it is a great time to take advantage of what that offers us. Springtime's rewards are leafy vegetables like spinach, lettuce, parsley and basil.

Summer: When you're being beat down by the harsh sun, nothing is better than cool foods (and I'm not talking about Otter Pops). I'm talking about amazing fruits like strawberries, watermelon, apples and peaches. Great vegetables like summer squash, broccoli, cauliflower and corn are also in season, as well as the great herb cilantro.

Dieting is something to be taken into consideration as rumors fly around about college students in the U.S. being overweight. Take some consideration into your diet, and not only can we defy this rumor, but we can spice up our lives and health.

Tips on Eating Out

Never fear, all you need is this simple document, Diet and you will be good to go when you eat out, or go to a party. Enjoy

Improve Your Game

Do you ever come home after a good game of ball or tennis or football and realize that you are going to be sore the next day even after stretching? If so, you aren't alone. Many people workout and train for specific sports, but the regular weekend warrior has nothing wherewith to train, except something they may have seen his buddies do. Take a look atthis video and maybe you will get a better idea of some core strengthening excesises you might not know.

Wellness Workshop

Feeling anxious over midterms? Overwhelmed by homework? Try these relaxation tips by Hypnotherapist Bruce Jackson, given at the Wellness Education workshop on Wednesday Sept. 20, 2006. Jackson said, “This world will make you nuts, if you allow it to.” He said that we can detect stress in our bodies by: moods, heavy breathing, feeling fatigue, getting extra sleep but not feeling rested, low immune system and digestive system not working properly.

Due to the stress caused in our lives by school, work, and other demands, we don’t have time for ourselves. Jackson suggested we should “claim our time” in the morning and in the evening. He said that we should get up 10-15 minutes early (I know this is a hard feat considering we do not get enough sleep due to our hectic schedules), and do something we enjoy such as: read, set goals, plan the day, and tap into our spirituality.

At night we need to turn off the TV, computer, and cell phones, and “get ready for bed” by thinking about the day, making a list of things we are grateful for, reading, and doing other “quiet” activities. The quickest way to relax is to do breathing exercises (you wonder why yoga enthusiasts are so calm) by sitting down and taking three deep breaths. Students can do this before taking an exam, the beginning of class or at work. Anytime is a good time.

Another way we can relax takes 10 or more minutes:
Sit with hands on legs and eyes closed. Take deep breaths, and feel the breath go through your body. Think of a relaxing color (he suggested blue or green), and imagine the color going through your body, from your toes to your head, and begin to feel yourself relax.

After your body is in a relaxed state, imagine yourself walking along a beach, feeling the sand in your toes, and then envision two palm trees with a hammock. Lay in the hammock, and feel it conform to your body, giving support to your neck and spine (this is the most comfortable hammock you have ever been in), and then start to sway.

Keep imagining for several minutes. When you are ready to get out of your hammock, walk by a bright, neon waterfall (color of your choice), and then slowly bring your focus back to reality by imagining your color again going through your body. Give this place a name, preferably a calming name, so you can go there anytime. If there isn’t time to do this exercise, one can just ponder on their place briefly.

Wellness Education will be giving another workshop on eating disorders in November. For more information on Wellness Education, you can visit their office in SC 222 (in the Student Health Center), or check them out on the web at www.uvsc.edu/wellnessed

Health Risk

How healthy are you? find out by completing a comprehensive fitness test. The cost is $15 for a full HRA. You must make an appointment. Sign up online HERE
Dates are

26th from 12 to 2pm and

27th from 10am to noon