Wellness Tips - Week #1
Brought to you by Wellness Month :)
Happy Wellness Month! Each week in October we'll be sharing some wellness tips, healthy recipes, and local wellness events! Enjoy!
On your mark, get set... STEP IT UP!
For those of you participating in the Step It Up Challenge 2.0, you should have already received your pedometers, if you have not received one please see your local office manager!
If you missed the sign up but would still like to participate, please contact Katie Wilson or Ashley Abraham!
- Week 1 Goal: 60,000 steps!
While we're on the subject of Step It Up...
Check out these 5 great reasons to walk:
- The psychological power of walking can’t be beat, including stress reduction and increased self-esteem! - Walking offers some surprising psychological benefits. If you’ve ever gone out for a walk in a huff and come back feeling more calm and collected, you know firsthand that walking can help reduce stress. Studies confirm that walking benefits your mood — and may even ward off depression as well as an antidepressant does! Walking may give you a mood boost by releasing your body’s natural happy drugs — endorphins. And if you always tell someone about your walk after you’re done (do it!), you’ll be full of pride at your accomplishment, which helps increase your self-esteem.
- You can lose weight by walking just 30 minutes a day. All you have to do is skip one TV show! - Walking is one of the best exercises for losing weight — it’s relatively easy to do (and easy on the joints), it’s free and you have to do it every day anyway! To start walking for fitness, try to begin with a 20-minute walk every day. If that’s too much, start smaller. But do set a goal of building to 30 minutes a day, every day. In a 12-week study of significantly overweight women, those who walked for 30 minutes, five days a week, lost weight at a rate similar to women who walked twice as long — 60 minutes, five days a week. Once you’ve built up strength and stamina, you can increase your pace and lengthen your walks for greater cardiovascular benefits.
- Why should you become a regular walker? Lower blood pressure, better sleep and more energy, to name just a few reasons. - Regular walkers have fewer heart attacks and strokes, lower blood pressure and higher levels of HDL (healthy cholesterol) than non-exercisers. And the reason is simple: Daily physical activity — including walking — can lower blood pressure and LDL (lousy cholesterol), decrease the risk of many cancers and improve immune system function. Plus, it improves quality of sleep and keeps you energized. Yet another amazing perk: For every hour a person walks, she adds an hour to her life!
- Get motivated and have an easier, more fun walk. All you need is a pedometer and a pal. - Tracking your steps with a pedometer is key to walking success, says Michael F. Roizen, M.D., the Cleveland Clinic’s chief wellness officer. People who love their pedometers logged a reported 2,000 more steps per day! There's a way to make your workout feel easier too. Simply ask someone to join you. With a walking buddy, you’re bound to enjoy your workout more — and feel it less. A study of university crew team members showed that when they did indoor rowing workouts in synchrony, they experienced less pain.
- Can’t resist that snack craving? Chocoholics experience a major dip in cravings during and after a 15-minute walk. - Why would you want to avoid chocolate? While dark chocolate (with at least 70 percent cocoa) is good for your heart, too much chocolate overcomes the good. And cravings in general are usually bad news for people trying to lose weight. Ninety-seven percent of women and 68 percent of men experience food cravings, and craved-for foods tend to be calorie-dense, fatty or sugary foods, with chocolate being the most commonly reported. Walking reduces cravings for nicotine and other drugs. More recent findings show that it can also curtail a hankering for chocolate, both during the walk and for about 10 minutes afterward. Says Professor Adrian Taylor of the University of Exeter, the scientist behind the study, the findings suggest that walking helps people lose weight by curbing cravings for sugary snacks.
Bonus Reason #6 - If you're participating in the challenge, you have the chance of winning prizes all month!!
Wellness 'Hack' #1
When you feel like you need something, but can't figure out what it is, it's water. It's always water.
- Figure out how much water your body requires daily by using this simple equation: Your weight * 2/3 (or 67%) = Ounces of water required daily
Now adjust this number based on how often you work out by adding 12 ounces of water to your daily total for every 30 minutes of activity.
- So someone that weighs 175 lbs and works out 60 minutes a day requires 141 ounces of water daily (175 * 67% = 117; 60 minutes of exercise = 24 ounces (12oz per 30 minutes), 117+24 = 141 oz)
Tips for Reaching Your Daily Water Goals
So now that you know how much water you should be drinking everyday, let’s talk about how to make sure you actually get enough. Drinking over 100 ounces of water may seem impossible at first, but with these easy tips you can reach your goal in no time.
- Drink 2 cups (16 oz) of water before every meal: Science has proven that drinking 2 cups of water before every meal helps you to eat less during meal time and lose weight. If you do this three times daily – at breakfast, lunch, and dinner – you have already consumed 48 ounces of water.
- Morning and Night: Get into the habit of drinking one glass (16 oz) of water when you wake up and another 8 oz glass before you go to sleep every night. This will add another 24 ounces of water to your daily intake. The easiest way to do this is to keep a glass or container of water at your bedside, that way as soon as you wake up and start your day, you can begin drinking water.
- Keep Track By Your Container: One thing that has proven to help people consumer enough water daily is to buy a special container for their water, like this one or this one, and set a goal of how many times they will fill an finish the container. For example, if you buy a 16 oz container and need to drink 80 ounces of water a day, your goal would be to drink 5 of those daily. Need to drink more water? Try a larger container.
- Infuse Your Water With Flavor: Water doesn’t have to be boring and infusing your water with fruit, herbs, and other flavors can make it much easier to reach your daily goal. Try adding cucumber, strawberries,lemons, limes, and fresh herbs to create flavorful water. This fruit infusion water pitcher is a great way to always have great tasting water on hand.
- Bubbles: Consider carbonated and sparkling water in addition to regular water. Many people find that adding sparkling water and 0 calorie flavored water makes drinking water throughout the day more fun. Find yourself drinking lots of expensive sparkling water? Consider buying a sodastream and make your own delicious sparkling beverages at home.http://www.slenderkitchen.com/how-to-calculate-how-much-water-you-should-drink-a-day/
Don't forget to sign up for a Flu Shot!
Coming to an office near you on Wednesday, November 4th!