Maintaining Proper Posture

One hundred and fifty years ago, daily living required us to perform tasks that worked our entire core equally. This resulted in equally toned front, back, and side torso muscles. Therefore, good posture occurred naturally. Now youth and adults are required to do repetitive movements such as small strokes on a keyboard. As we sit at computers all day, our shoulders hunch over causing the front of our shoulders and chest muscles to shorten while the back of our shoulders, neck, and back muscles all elongate. Having our legs bent under a desk then shortens our hip flexors and psoas muscles which pull our lower back out of alignment. All of these things affect our posture.

So how do we maintain good posture (or gain good posture)?

First, we need to exercise. All exercise is great, but weight-bearing physical activity not only helps build muscle, but also helps improve bone density which will help improve posture. Be sure to add in core exercises as well. For sample core exercises, visit ACE-fitness http://www.acefitness.org/workouts/5/

You can also begin making small changes such as adding short stretching breaks throughout your day. Or consider replacing your comfy chairs with stability balls!

The NuVal Nutritional Score

Do you think it is confusing to read nutrition labels? Or that it is difficult to find healthy food options?

The NuVal Nutritional Score can now help you find healthy food options with a quick glance. Look for a double hexagon icon next to the price on the shelf. Within the icon, there will be a number indicating a ranking from 1-to-100. It is simple to determine how healthy the food is, the higher the score the higher the nutritional value!

The next time you go shopping look for this great dietary tool. Until then, learn more about the NuVal Nutritional Score here: http://www.acefitness.org/calculators/nuval-calculator.aspx

Healthy Recipes

Do you want to eat better, but don’t know where to start? Are you tired of the same 5 meals you eat over and over again? Do you think eating healthy is expensive, takes too long, and the food is disgusting?

If so, visit these sites below for some great healthy recipes. You will discover that cooking healthy food is simple. There are hundreds of DELICIOUS, healthy recipes to choose from!

Ace Fitness, http://www.acefitness.org/healthyrecipes/default.aspx

WebMD, http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/guide/health-cooking-recipes

Mayo Clinic, http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/healthy-recipes/RecipeIndex

American Heart Association, http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/GettingHealthy/NutritionCenter/Recipes/Welcome-to-Delicious-Decisions_UCM_301068_SubHomePage.jsp

Global Campaign Against Non-Communicable Diseases

On September 19, 2011, the U.N. general assembly approved a global campaign against non-communicable diseases. Non-communicable diseases are illnesses that are not contagious. These diseases are often considered chronic diseases. Examples include diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancers and chronic respiratory diseases. It is estimated that non-communicable diseases (NCD) accounts for 36 million out of 57 million deaths annually.

NCDs are often times preventable by lifestyle changes such as improving physical activity. In order to achieve the goals of this campaign, they have developed plans on the global, regional, and national levels. Yet, we as individuals must do our part. Begin today to reduce your risk of non-communicable diseases such as exercising and eating right.

Ways Parents Can Help Prevent Childhood Obesity

This is the last week of the National Childhood Obesity Awareness month. Have you taken the time to improve your physical activity this month? Did you start a new tradition on “Day of Play” when Nickelodeon went off the air to encourage physical activity?

Many parents want to help, but don’t know how. Here are some tips to help them help combat childhood obesity.

• Be a good role model!
• Volunteer to be a leader of one of the many after-school programs focused on physical activity.
• Begin making little changes. For example, when it is your turn to bring the snack to the soccer game make sure it is something healthy.
• Teach kids how to set and achieve goals.
• Remember you choose what your kids eat, and your kids choose how much of it they will eat.
• Let kids use their own hunger cues of knowing when they are full.
• Talk with your kids by focusing on health and not weight. Kids come in many different shapes and sizes, but everyone can improve their health.

Sweat is Sweet!

The sweet thing about working out so hard that you sweat is that you burn extra calories for 14 hours after you exercise!

A research study examined the caloric expenditure of 10 men as they lived inside a metabolic chamber for two days. The first day was a rest day so the participants did very little throughout the day. They did simple things such as eating, sleeping, washing their hands, etc. The second day they did the same thing except they included a 45-minute vigorous bike ride. During the bike ride, the participants burned an average of 519 calories. In addition to those calories, they also burned an average of an additional 190 calories over the next 14.2 hours.

To ensure that your workout rewards you with “extra-calories” burned, be sure to engage in vigorous exercise. If you are exercising at a moderate intensity, you may not see these same results. Vigorous exercise should feel hard, but not to the point of exhaustion. You should be sweating and your heart rate should be elevated.

Examples of vigorous exercise include: jogging, water jogging, clogging, in-line skating, and most competitive sports. Just be sure you don’t counter your sweaty work-out with something sweet like a piece of cake!

National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month

More than 23 million children and teenagers in the U.S. are overweight or obese (ACSM, 2011). To help raise awareness about this epidemic the U.S. congress and President Barack Obama, has declared September as the National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month.

On September 24, 2011, Nickelodeon will go off the air for the 8th year in a row in support of the cause. People everywhere are asked to participate in a “Day of Play”. Some suggestions on what you can do include:

• Play a game of football, soccer or your favorite sport
• Host a family charity run/walk event
• Hold a jump-rope contest
• Tackle a ropes course
• Compete in a dance-off
• Roller skate at a local rink
• Organize a bike-a-thon
• Take a martial arts lesson
• Climb a rock climbing wall

To learn more about this visit, http://www.healthierkidsbrighterfutures.org/home/