This Week's Healthy SC Challenge Tips

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

COLUMBIA, CHARLESTON & GREENVILLE, SC -August 14, 2009 – The Healthy SC Challenge is the Sanford family’s effort to persuade 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
People sometimes think that a good way to lose weight is to just skip meals.  They believe that fewer calories consumed is automatically better.  Well the thinking of ‘less calories’ is on the right track, but the skipping meals is mightily not.  When meals are skipped the body begins to go into starvation mode, meaning that yes fat is taken and burned to give you energy, but the stomach also begins to slow down its digestion process the longer you wait to eat between meals.  The stomach then is not able to metabolize food (and gather nutrients from that food) as rapidly; meaning that the next time you eat your body will not metabolize the food as well as before (aka – burn as many calories).  Do this once in a while, no problem.  If you do this for days or quite often, your stomach function will begin to dysfunction and you may gain some abdominal pains. 

For best results for great metabolism and function of your stomach, eat small snacks/meals throughout the day often.  Don’t skip meals unless you have to.
– www.exercise.lifetips.com

Physical Activity
You know exercise is good for you. You look for ways to incorporate physical activity into your daily routine, and you set aside time for longer workouts at least a few times a week. But if your aerobic workouts aren’t balanced by a proper dose of strength training, you’re missing out on a key component of overall health and fitness.
Despite its reputation as a guy or jock thing, strength training is important for everyone. With a regular strength training program, you can reduce your body fat, increase your lean muscle mass and burn calories more efficiently.

Use it or lose it. Muscle mass naturally diminishes with age. If you don’t do anything to replace the lean muscle you lose, you’ll increase the percentage of fat in your body, says Edward Laskowski, M.D., a physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn., and co-director of the Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine Center. But strength training can help you preserve and enhance your muscle mass – at any age.

Strength training also helps you:

* Develop strong bones. By stressing your bones, strength training increases bone density and reduces the risk of osteoporosis.
* Control your weight. As you gain muscle, your body burns calories more efficiently – which can result in weight loss. The more toned your muscles, the easier it is to control your weight.
* Reduce your risk of injury. Building muscle protects your joints from injury. It also helps you maintain flexibility and balance – and remain independent as you age.
* Boost your stamina. As you grow stronger, you won’t fatigue as easily.
* Improve your sense of well-being. Strength training can boost your self-confidence, improve your body image and reduce the risk of depression.
* Get a better night’s sleep. People who commit to a regular strength training program are less likely to have insomnia.
* Manage chronic conditions. Strength training can reduce the signs and symptoms of many chronic conditions, including arthritis, back pain, depression, diabetes, obesity and osteoporosis.
– www.mayoclinic.com

Tobacco
Are you one of most smokers who want to quit? Then try following this advice.

1. Don’t smoke any number or any kind of cigarette. Smoking even a few cigarettes a day can hurt your health. If you try to smoke fewer cigarettes, but do not stop completely, soon you’ll be smoking the same amount again. Smoking low-tar, low-nicotine cigarettes usually does little good, either. Because nicotine is so addictive, if you switch to lower-nicotine brands you’ll likely just puff harder, longer, and more often on each cigarette. The only safe choice is to quit completely.

2. Write down why you want to quit. Do you want to-
* Feel in control of you life?
* Have better health?
* Set a good example for your children?
* Protect your family from breathing other people’s smoke?

Really wanting to quit smoking is very important to how much success you will have in quitting. Smokers who live after a heart attack are the most likely to quit for good-they’re very motivated. Find a reason for quitting before you have no choice.

3. Know that it will take effort to quit smoking. Nicotine is habit forming. Half of the battle in quitting is knowing you need to quit. This knowledge will help you be more able to deal with the symptoms of withdrawal that can occur, such as bad moods and really wanting to smoke. There are many ways smokers quit, including using nicotine replacement products (gum and patches), but there is no easy way. Nearly all smokers have some feelings of nicotine withdrawal when they try to quit. Give yourself a month to get over these feelings. Take quitting one day at a time, even one minute at a time-whatever you need to succeed.

4. Half of all adult smokers have quit, so you can- too. That’s the good news. There are millions of people alive today who have learned to face life without a cigarette. For staying healthy, quitting smoking is the best step you can take.

5. Get help if you need it. Many groups offer written materials, programs, and advice to help smokers quit for good. Your doctor or dentist is also a good source of help and support.
– www.cdc.gov

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.