This Week's Healthy SC Challenge Tips

First Family Encourages Healthy Changes in Nutrition, Exercise and Tobacco Use

COLUMBIA, SC – July 16, 2008 – The Healthy SC Challenge is the Sanford family’s effort to get all South Carolinians to do just a little more to live a healthier lifestyle. The tips are designed to encourage individuals and communities to live healthier lifestyles in three categories – nutrition, exercise and help to quit smoking. The tips can also be found on the challenge’s website, www.healthysc.gov.

Healthy Tips

Nutrition
Drink lemon water. Squeeze a lemon in a 6 to 8 oz. glass of purified water, and drink it after you exercise. Lemon water, cold or warm, is a great cleanser, purifier, and rejuvenator. It helps to detoxify the liver, by aiding in fat metabolism. It also aids in digestion. Drinking lemon water as your first morning drink is a simple and easy way to regularly aid your body in the detoxification and cleansing process. If you want a greater boost to your metabolism and energy level, add a pinch of cayenne pepper, and an herbal sweetener like Stevia, to the lemon water. That will quickly get your blood flowing, and boost your energy level.
www.healthybelly.com

Physical Activity
Cellulite. We all know what it looks like, but misconceptions prevail. The first thing you should know is that, in the true medical sense, cellulite is simply plain old fat. Yet it does have one defining characteristic-a dimpled, cottage-cheese, orange-peel look. Here’s why: Everybody has connective tissue that separates fat cells into compartments. While men tend to have horizontal or crisscross patterns to those compartments, women’s compartments have a honeycomb appearance, giving fat a greater chance to protrude or bulge, hence the cottage-cheese effect.

Unfortunately, too many people still hang on to the idea of quick and easy fixes. Beware of cellulite cream makers, medical procedures like liposuction or cosmetic treatments like body wraps. Another misconception is that dieting alone can zap fat. Although there are diets that make you lose weight, at least one quarter of the weight lost is muscle, which lowers your metabolism. If you return to your usual eating habits, you’ll likely regain more weight than you lost because your metabolism is slower.  So what can you do to diminish the appearance of cellulite? Experts recommend daily cardio exercise combined with two to three strength-training sessions a week and a healthy diet.
-American Council on Physical Fitness, www.acefitness.org

Tobacco
Many smokers receive personal requests to quit from family members, friends, and physicians who are concerned about the smoker’s health and/or are bothered by their habit. Although one request may not be enough motivation, each subsequent request may increase a smoker’s probability of quitting.
www.thescooponsmoking.org

Please share these tips with your friends, family, and co-workers. Encourage them to sign up for e-alerts and weekly tips at www.healthysc.gov. 
Print out the PDF version attached and post in the break room, on the community bulletin board, or on the fridge!

The Healthy SC Challenge is an outcome-based, cooperative effort aimed at encouraging individuals, communities and organizations across the state to show shared responsibility in developing innovative ways to improve the health of South Carolina’s citizens. For more information about the Healthy SC Challenge, please visit www.healthysc.gov, or call 803-737-4772.