think about your food

Reading this recent New York Times article, and talking to Matt about it, really got me thinking.

As someone who has struggled with wanting to lose weight since leaving high school (and really, even before that) who will soon have a Master's degree in the field of Health Behavior, I've actually thought about this in my own life.

Overall I eat a quite healthy diet. I am a semi-vegetarian (I eat fish), and I am careful to eat fruits and vegetables. I don't eat fast food (maybe some fries on the run once every 6 months or so), and I have cut back drastically recently in the amount of milk and cheese that I let myself eat.

I have historically struggled with sugar though. I love sweets. I used to love to drink Coca Cola (a habit being with my husband hasn't helped), eat chocolate, ice cream has had a hold on me in recent summers, and cookies, cake, you name it - I loved it.

Days before my most recent birthday I ate an ice cream sandwich of my husband's from the fridge. After eating it, I felt disgusting. I started to reflect on what led me to pick up that ice cream sandwich, unwrap it, and eat it. There was no reason. I had absolutely no reason to eat it. And what's worse, I didn't even feel good after eating it.

It was then that I decided sugar COULD NOT have this "power" over me anymore. I decided that after my birthday, I would not eat dessert until Christmas. There have been a few minor exceptions along the way. Some very low-fat frozen yogurt, some pudding a friend made, half of a slice of pumpkin roll at Thanksgiving. I also stopped drinking soda with sugar.

Setting all these restrictions on myself has had me thinking, what the hell is the point of all those things I was eating. I know what they taste like, I know exactly what I am in for when I pick it up. I also know that there is NO health benefit to them. They don't provide long term benefit, they make you feel good for what, like, 5 or 10 minutes?

I have thought about food a lot the last few months. And I am by no means saying it is easy, I still like sugar, it tastes good to me. I am learning to rationalize it away though. I am learning to use moderation when I do choose to indulge. A friend made one of my favorite cakes recently for a party, and being that it was a Christmas party, I said ok and had a piece. One piece. Later I wanted a pop because I was exhausted and wanted a little bit of caffeine to help get me through the night, but there was no diet pop. I almost said what the hell, I am just going to have this Dr. Pepper, it's just one night. But then, I stopped and reminded myself that's another 140(?) calories. Not worth it. Instead I poured a glass of water, and went to sit down.

By no means do I think this breakthrough means that I will be perfectly in control from hear on out, but thinking about reasons for doing things, and thinking about how you feel and think about them (metacognition anyone?), is important.

So even if you don't think about taking 30 bites of a food before eating it, every time you're eating a guilty pleasure food, think about why you're eating it. Does the benefit outweigh the cost? Do you need 140 extra grams of sugar? Do you need the extra grams of fat? Do you need the second cookie - what does it give you? A moment of happiness. How are you going to feel next time you are trying on jeans?

Pledge to lose weight, help raise money for local food banks

For every pound you pledge to lose, 11 cents get donated to the food bank of your choice.

Check it out. Pay it forward.

Happy Thanksgiving

No long, drawn out, self-aware entry here. Just stopping to say how incredibly thankful I am for everything in my life. Any complaints or whining sessions are purely superficial, and just venting in the moment.

Life is good. I couldn't ask for anything more.

And thanks to all the family and friends who are always there for me. You're the best.

My Food Pyramid Results!

For the last week I have been keeping track of how many fruits and veggies I eat during the day. I wanted to see if I was meeting the recommendations of the MyPyramid site. I tried really hard to not change my eating habits this week, because I wanted to find out how I was doing on my own.

Here's a fun little graph a created to show visually how I did. 

Purple represents the fruit recommendation of 2 cups/day. 

Green represents the veggie recommendation of 2.5 cups/day. 

The peaches are how many fruits I actually ate, and the carrots are how many veggies I actually ate.

I love how this gives a visual of what my eating habits were over the week. 

Can you guess which day Matt and I went grocery shopping? Sunday

Can you guess which days I was at school all day and packed my own foods? Monday and Tuesday

Can you guess which days I ate at least one meal out (a whole other issue of it's own)? Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday

So the verdict is clear I think. I NEED to eat more veggies. And, I need to work harder to eat we rounded all week long, not just the days that I spend all day on campus. Oh, and I obviously favor fruit over veggies.

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Now, for the next week I am going to track how I do trying to even out the recommendations with my actual intake, and find more of a balance between fruits and veggies.

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Did you know the fruit and veggie recommendations are now measured in cups/day, not "servings?" Did you know that recommended amounts vary based on your age, sex, activity level, and weight goals? To find out your recommended amounts, check out the MyPyramid site for yourself!

Examining MY "food pyramid"

As and MPH student, I spend every day learning about, talking about, and thinking about health. Recently I was using MyPyramid.gov for a work project, to look up the general fruit and vegetable intake recommendations.

Now we've all heard that Americans aren't eating enough fruits and vegetables. In 2005 about 33% of U.S. adults ate fruit two or more times per day, and about 28% ate vegetables three or more times per day.

I am not doubting that we need to eat more fruits and veggies as a country, I mean look at those around you. Very few people have a circle of family and friends in which EVERYONE eats and ideal diet. On the  other hand, I wonder how accurate these statistics are. Especially because there is so much confusion about how many servings of fruits and veggies you should be getting, and what a serving actually is.

As a student of health behavior and health education I am fairly well informed about healthy eating, but I am no expert. I don't have have a background in nutrition or dietetics. While my professional interests separate me from the general population, I was curious how well rounded my own diet is. I try to ensure fruits and veggies in my diet every day, but lately I have been noticing that I eat more fruits than veggies.

So I decided to look at my typical intakes, and see how they compare to the guidelines set forth by MyPyramid.gov. I am using MyPyramid because it is often used to teach students in school, and is known as the simple "go to" source for basic nutrition guidelines.

There is a feature on the MyPyramid site to enter your age, sex, height, weight, and activity level. A personalized recommendation list is then generated based on your current weight, or for losing weight if you are above the "healthy range" for your height and sex. Here are my recommendations based on my current weight.

Some time next week I will post how I measured up for the days that I tracked. I am going to work hard to not do anything different because of this, but to instead just stick to meals that have been typical to me recently.

Stay tuned for the results...I can't wait to find out myself!

I am terrible at blogging...

...let's see if I can change that, because it's a nice way to get thoughts out sometimes.

To recycle or to compost...

Over the last few years I have been taking steps to reduce my contribution landfills. I am by no means perfect and could still do better, but I try to do what I can.

Having an outdoor wedding and not renting plates and dishes presented a bit of a problem then. Here's an overview of the phases we went through on this topic...

Idea 1: use a large variety of mismatched dishes purchased at garage sales and thrift stores.

Plus: it would look cool, and be unique

Problem: it would take a lot of time to go buy them, wash them, get them all from the house to the tent, clean after the wedding, and with a buffet style wedding may not be ideal

Idea 2: Nicer looking plastic plates

Plus: fairly inexpensive, and we can stock enough for people to have multiple plates

Problem: I hate the idea of putting 300 plastic plates in to the garbage to sit in landfills. To recycle them we would have had to brought them back to Ann Arbor where we have free curbside, but at the time only #1 and #2 plastics were accepted

Idea 3: use 100% compostable plates, cups, and cutlery

Plus: I love the idea of these, and they make a bold statement. When bought in bulk, really not all that expensive

Problem: If thrown away, compostable products don't get a chance to break down in landfills. My mom has a brand new large composter we were going to put everything in

Then...the city of Ann Arbor revamped their recycling program! We can now recycle #1,2,4,5,6,7 curbside in a large bin. What timing!

I have done research on every product (cups, plates, bowls, and cutlery) to make sure that we are getting the best deal, with plastics that can be recycled. Next to every trash can at the wedding there will be a very clearly labeled can for plastics - which we will hose off before putting in our recycling bin. There will also be some table signage to get the idea in everyone's mind before they walk up the cans.

So in the end, recycling won! I love the idea of the compostable items, but given the cost and number of people we will be feeding, this is just a better option for us right now.

If compostable products could break down in a landfill I would be on board, but right now they are mostly a marketing scheme. They are still made of more natural materials that are not harmfull to the environment, but the packaging is a little misleading.

I have put almost as much time in to researching this as I have a lot of the other details. I think I was annoyingly obsessive about it at times, but I think I have landed on the most informed decision I can.

Couch to 5K + South Beach

On monday there were exactly 2 months to my wedding. My lovely bridal shower (see above pictures) had been that weekend, and all this had me thinking about my hopes to shape up before my wedding.

Overall I am fairly comfortable with my body. I definitely have some work to do, but logically I know I'm not as out of shape as I feel most of the time. I ordered my wedding dress in a size that just barely fit in February, when I was still actively losing weight. This meant that I would have to lose at least a few pounds to feel comfortable in it. As of last weekend, I had not lost those few pounds yet. Late Sunday night I decided to give myself a strict plan to follow. Here's what I'm up to...

Couch to 5K (C25K)

C25K is a program that trains people who are not physically active to run the length of a 5k race. Now I have been working out pretty regularly since January, and I am in shape enough to run a 5K, not fast but I could do it. So why I am I doing this program?

Exercise induced asthma. I have had a growing suspicion that I had this, and my allergist confirmed it. I have an inhaler to try, and it has helped in some small ways. Whenever I used to end a run I would come home and cough and wheeze for 10-15, which is not normal. My inhaler has solved this problem, but it has not solved the issue that bothers me the most. My aerobic stamina while I run is a joke. I have a hard time running slow enough for my lungs to be able to keep up, and once my lungs are pushed to their limit, I can't breathe and I have to stop and walk. After that point, each time I run my lungs last less and less time.

It's so frustrating that there was about 2 months where I didn't even want to run. Thinking about running made me feel like my chest was being squeezed, and I knew I need to a way to get past this feeling. I had read about Couch to 5K a few times for various reasons, and I finally decided to use it to try to train my lungs. It starts the first week with intervals of 60 seconds of running, followed by 90 seconds of walking. Each week you progress to increase your endurance, and there are 3 work-outs a week. I am using podcasts that someone made to go along with this program. He uses upbeat music, and tells you when to walk and run. It's pretty neat.

So far I like it because of the structure, 3 work-outs a week is easy to commit to. Also, the short intervals allow me to get a decent pace going, followed by a guaranteed recovery period. I plan to ask my allergist for a different inhaler next time I go, because I don't think this one is doing enough, but in the mean time using this plan will help me get some good work-outs in before my wedding!

The South Beach Diet

Now, as a health educator I am the first to say, diets don't work. You need to instead focus on portions and healthy eating, along with exercise.

But, I am human (and American). I eat fairly healthy on a regular basis, and I can tell a huge difference in how I feel when I am eating right and when I'm not. I also like a challenge though, and sometimes challenging yourself is a good way to bring long term small changes.

I had never looked in to the South Beach Diet (SBD) before, because like I said, I really don't believe in diets. Some people I work with have used it though, and when I looked it up and started reading, I was intrigued, and wanted to give it a try.

It starts with a 2 week diet of all vegetables, protein, and small amounts of dairy. After those 2 weeks you start to add some carbohydrates and sugars back in to your diet, and so on.

There are critics that say you gain the weight back, but seriously. Talk to any bride 2 months before her wedding, and she will say, just get me through that day.

Today was my third day of the strict first phase, and so far I doing good, and I am still enjoying the challenge. I think I am cheating a little though. I had 3 servings of dairy today instead of 2, and I am having one dove milk chocolate Promise each night for dessert, and I am not supposed to have any sugar. Sue me.

So, that's what I'm up to right now. Interning, wedding planning (really coming along), and dieting and exercising.

How are you? How has your summer been?

(The pics below are from a walk my friend Allison and I take Tuesday nights. This week we started in the Arb, walked to Gallup Park, and then through Furstenberg Park, and then back. It was a 2 hour walk, and it was amazing outside!)

On Wellness Literacy

As someone studying Health Behavior and Health Education, I have spent time learning about health literacy. In fact, health literacy is perhaps the area of my field I am most interested in.

Healthy literacy is "the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decision."

As you can see from this definition, there is no mention of ability to read. Health literacy is about more than being able to read. For instance, have you ever walked out of your doctor's office saying that you have no questions. But really, you're not sure how to take your new prescription, or why it is that you're being referred to a specialist.

Low health literacy can affect people of any race, age, income, or education level. Just because you know how to read, write, and speak a language, does not mean that you understand the issues related to your medical care. Doctors are not trained to speak at the patient's level, and when you are trained to use a certain language to speak about something, it's hard to feel like you are communicating the correct information if you don't use that language you were trained in. Basically, doctors, nurses, and health educators have a hard time letting go of words sometimes.

But outside of the medical realm, there are things that you read, hear, and process every day that affect your overall wellness.

For instance, all of the food you eat has an impact on your health. And virtually everyone knows that to be healthy you need to watch your calorie and fat intake. But does everyone know how to read a food label? Sure you may look at it and see the number of calories, but unless the serving size is the same size as the container, you have to do a little thinking about how much you can eat to take in that number of calories.

I was buying popcorn the other day, and I just started eating kettle corn. I wanted to see how many calories I was getting myself into though. I looked down, and thought, this is outrageous! How can lightly flavored popcorn have this many calories. I started to walk away, but decided to take a second look. I knew I had to be missing something.

As it turns out, I was looking at the number of calories that 1 cup of unpopped corn is. The popped amount was far smaller, and closer to what I expected. That's not to say that it got easy from that point on, figuring out the serving size was beyond what I felt like dealing with.

Now in all fairness, if I stop and think clearly about this popcorn label, it takes me about a minute to figure out what it all means. But what if you read at a 4th grade level? What if you have limited numeracy? Staying well in today's world is not as easy as many doctors and even health educators would have you believe.

Media literacy also impacts everyday health literacy. What I mean by this is, if you don't know how to decipher what is credible and what is bullshit in the media, your functional health literacy will likely decrease. You will likely fall for fad diets, or believe that a miracle pill will help you lose weight, or that a new supplement discovered in the jungle will cure cancer. And even if you wanted to go search for more information for yourself, do you know how to tell if a website it credible. And even if that website is full of credible information, will you feel overwhelmed by how little white space there is on the page or how many technical words are used.

I could go on, but I suppose my main concern stems from how incredibly simple and difficult it is to stay healthy in America. And in the public health field, all the attention going to health literacy is focused on the doctor/patient interaction. There is so much more to health literacy though, and only focusing on the medical side will not reach far enough.

Let's not condemn all who make the wrong choices, let's find ways to better present information so they can understand how to make the right choices. Let's put restrictions on health products and claims not reviewed by credible scientists. And let's integrate functional health literacy in to school curriculums.

If only it were so easy...

Video about Public Health

Still not sure what it is that public health is all about? Videos are always a fun way to learn, check this out!

Summer to-do list!

I have been looking forward to this summer for months! On this first day of my summer, I have decided to make a list of things I hope to do between now and September. Some will be serious goals I want to achieve, others will be things I just want to try out, and anything in between. As I think of new things, I will likely add them. And of course, I will blog about the progress, including as many pictures as I can!

1. lose 15 pounds
2. take a pottery class
3. attend some summer fest events (why have I not already?!)
4. create a mosaic to be wall mounted
5. read at least 2 fiction books I have not read before
6. read at least 2 non-fiction books
7. try golfing
8. Watch The Office (I can't believe I've been missing out all these years!)
9. go geocaching at least once a month
10. hang out with friends - a lot
11. cook one new recipe a week
12. overhaul my resume to reflect my grad school experiences and what not
13. take the Ortonville girls to Dominick's
14. ride my road bike - more than the once or twice I've done the last few summers
15. get a decent tan
16. have a great night with all 3 of my bridesmaids before my wedding
17. finish P90X
18. get married
19. have an awesome honeymoon in San Francisco
20. ...to be determined...

What I spent my semester doing...

Prior to starting school last fall I posted an overview of the field of public health that I am focusing on, health behavior and health education. Now that I am less than a week away from the end of my first half of grad school, I thought I would share the projects I am working on this semester. They are VERY hands on, and should give a better sense of what my field is all about.

Two courses will be covered, the other three aren't nearly as interesting.

HBHE 641: Materials and Methods

This course is basically about how to evaluate and create effective and appropriate health education materials.

Each group was given a community agency to work with, and my group worked with Allegiance Health, the hospital/health system located in Jackson, MI. Allegiance heads up the Health Improvement Organization of Jackson County, and they were looking for a campaign to promote physical activity, healthy eating, and stress management.

My group decided that we want to focus on promoting local resources and finding ways to make healthy choices that make sense for your life.

We started with the idea of a print campaign. We wanted to take photographs of Jackson residents modeling healthy behaviors. As a tying slogan we had the idea "ReThink" health. For instance, we wanted to promote things like playing in the snow with your kids as a way to get physical activity.

After pitching the idea to our contact at Allegiance, we decided to add a website to the campaign. For each of the three topic areas we provided educational material, as well as links to and information about local resources.

Enough with the words though, here's the result...

Print ads (click each ad for a larger view):

The website we created can be viewed here. This is purely a mock-up, and there is no guarantee it will be used by the organization. As a group we decided what we wanted the website to contain, how we wanted it to look, and wrote all of the educational material. Our professor paid for a web designer (a U of M senior who does this as a hobby), to work with us to create the website. In addition, every group had a budget of $200 to create the project. Ours was spent on hosting a focus group to test our materials, providing a thank-you gift for Jess, and a few dollars spent on printing the ads to present in class. This class was amazing.

My internship this summer will actually be with this organization, and I will be focusing my work on materials creation, so I may get a chance to continue work on this project!

The next course will covered in a different post, I'm sure the suspense is killing you ;)

Insomnia

I can't sleep. Every few months I make the mistake of thinking about wedding stuff right before I go to be. Then I can't turn my mind off, and I lay in bed thinking about 10,000 things.

I'm almost to the end of what I can entertain myself with online...I've been sitting here a while. So I thought I'd share the latest wedding plan.

Bridesmaid dresses.

Christa, Angie, Jessica and I went to pick these out last weekend. Sadly Laura doesn't get to try things on, as she is in Japan, so we have to hope that it will work out and look good when she gets here.

Christa and Angie will be wearing this dress (but we're taking the bow off)...

And Laura and Jessica will be wearing this dress (but we're adding an ivory sash to the waist line)...

The Great Snow Wall of Dicken Drive

A few nights ago I decided I wanted to go play in the snow. I wanted build something I could put the Olympic rings on, Matt wanted to build a giant wall.

We both got what we wanted.

Saturday evening Matt, Jess, Jon and I bundled up and headed out side. With three shovels, two recycling bins, and a plastic storage bin, we set out to work building a wall. The first three blocks of height went up so fast that we decided, let's do one more.

At four blocks of height I was at eye level with the wall at one low point in the ground. The adrenaline still running, the guys decided to add one more level.

As the wall came together I decided I had the perfect canvas for my Olympic rings. Matt and I went to Meijer to something to create the black ring, and low an behold, they had black food coloring. It was meant to be.

Sunday "morning" after my first cup of coffee, Matt and I headed outside with 5 cups holding water and food coloring, 3 paint brushes, and a bicycle tire. Matt held up the tire so I could trace the rings with the end of a paint brush, and then we set to it. Neighbors drove by staring, in some cases stopping and rolling down their windows to let us know how much they liked it.

It was an awesome feeling. And then the sun came out.

For the first time all winter I wanted it to stay dark and cold, because sure enough, it got so warm the the food coloring mixed in to the snow too well, and it faded so much the rings were barely visible.

Tonight when the sun goes down I plan on adding another layer of food coloring, it looks the weather tomorrow will be more cooperative. Either way, it was fun while it lasted.

January has come and gone...

...I am supposed to be studying right now. But I get distracted easily...

So far 2010 has been decent in my world. I've gotten a handle on a lot of those things that for years I said "I wish" about. For instance, I am getting up at a real-person time everyday, and going to bed hours earlier than I used to. I am working out 6 days a week, and loving it. I feel great. I am counting calories 5 days a week, and other than the occasional cup of coffee I bring all my food for the week with me to school and work, as opposed to buying it out.

The problem: I am doing nowhere near as much as I should be for school. And it's starting to get worse because I have three classes with group projects that are really starting just about now, and the meetings for these projects is cutting into my "homework" time. It doesn't help that I have work on Saturday and Sunday, as well as grocery shopping and other household tasks to take care of.

I've hit a point where if I want to stay on top of the things that I am so excited about right now (getting enough sleep, working out, eating healthy) that something is going to have to give. So, have decided to leave my job a littler earlier than I had originally planned. I was going to leave before final exams so I could focus on studying, plus I will start a full time internship right after that anyway. But I have made the very difficult decision to part ways by the end of February. This was not an easy decision to make, and I still don't like that I have to do it, but it's just what I need right now.

In other news, I have lost 2 inches off my waist in the last month! I am so excited, it's great motivation to want to keep going. I never really weighed myself before starting, though I know the general range I was in. I'm not as concerned about "weight" really though, as I just wanted to get more toned and reduce my body fat. Maybe next month I'll brave the scale....

In wedding news, I have picked out my dress, and we have picked our honeymoon locale. Matt's not allowed to see the dress, so be be on the safe side I'm not posting any info here, but if you want to see it, post a comment and I can email or facebook it to you.

As for the honeymoon, we will be going to San Francisco! I have always wanted to go to California, and I have heard great things about SF.

Well, I should probably get to the actual studying I sat down to do, since I do have an exam tomorrow...