October-Breast Cancer Awarenes Month

Hi everyone,

Did you know it’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month?

During October, individuals, businesses and corporations everywhere are raising funds, awareness, and remembering those in our lives who have been or are affected by breast cancer.

This year, I am personally more aware of breast cancer than I have ever been as I celebrate my aunt’s successful fight after having been diagnosed with abnormal cell growth in her breast, several months ago.

Chances are, you have a story too about someone whose life has been affected because of breast cancer.

So, in support of the fight against breast cancer, Richmond Balance is donating a portion of all new membership fees to the Virginia Breast Cancer Foundation. Each new member also has the option to make their contribution in honor of or in memory of someone.

There is much that we can do to help fight this global battle of breast cancer!

Prevention
Breast cancer prevention is real and important. Women should perform self-examanations monthly and report any abnormalities to a doctor immediately. Cancer is most treatable in its earliest stages, so knowing your body and being able to detect any breast differences (shape, masses, discolorizations) is crucial. Women over the age of 40 should get yearly mammograms too. Check out this page on the American Cancer Society’s webpage to learn more: http://www.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/content/CRI_2_6x_How_to_perform_a_breast_self_exam_5.asp
Diet and Exercise
Being a gym, of course we have to say something about eating healthy and working out, right? Right! But it just so happens that eating well and getting regular exercise plays a vital role in lowering your risk for all kinds of cancer.

The following is recognized as important elements in cancer prevention:

Eating lots of fruits and veggies: at least 5 servings a day!
Avoiding unprotected sunlight for long periods of time: Put your sunscreen on!
Keep alcohol consumption to a minimum: Not only good for cancer prevention but also cutting out calories that make it hard to drop pounds!
Make sure you’re getting at least 30 minutes of heart-pumping exercise 5 days a week: Come check out our treadmills-they’re really nice!

This month is the perfect time to get healthy and be part of doing something to make sure others stay healthy too. Learn more and make a difference by giving us a call at 804.343.1234

Did You Know?

For your enjoyment, a few very random facts about food, health and fitness.

There are 206 bones in the human body. 25% of them are in your feet.

A 12-ounce can of soda can contain as much as 13 teaspoons of sugar! That’s an entire day’s worth of sugar!

The first marathon allegedly took place in 489 BC, when a messenger ran from the town of Marathon to Athens to warn them of an attack.

The average person’s body holds 1.3 gallons of blood.

In one study, peppermint was shown to make people feel more energized after working out.

The best time to shop for shoes is in the aternoon; your feet swell during the day, so a pair that felt right in the morning may be tight in the afternoon

The pigment in spinach leaves can be used to make ink.

Apples are fat, sodium, and cholestrol free.

Chili

In celebration of fall (and because I like it so much), I’m posting a chili recipe. I had my first bowl of seasonal chili last week and I’m hoping to eat many more!

I know lots of people have a chili recipe that has been passed down from a family member or perfected over time. If you are this person, I admire you and hope you’ll share your secrets to perfect chili with me.

On the other hand, if you’re like me and don’t have a personalized recipe, you may want to check out the one below.Not only is this is a healthy recipe but a fast one too! The nutritional info is at the bottom.
It’s a white chili, which means it doesn’t use the traditional tomato base. Instead, it calls for white beans, chicken (or turkey), broth and a medley of spices. If your tastebuds can handle it, it's not a bad idea to throw some spice from chili peppers in too. Some studies have shown that spicy food speeds up your metabolism and can help you burn more calories.

Remember, there are no rules for making chili so spice it up, top it off with a dollop of yogurt, add some veggies or crush whole wheat tortilla chips in it. Anything goes!

Let me know what you think in the comment box below. Enjoy.

White Chili- taken from http://www.eatingwell.com/

Ingredients
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
2 4-ounce cans chopped green chiles
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/8-1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 15-ounce cans great northern beans, rinsed
4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
4 cups diced cooked skinless turkey, or chicken
2 tablespoons cider vinegar

Preparation
Heat oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onion; cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in chiles, oregano, cumin and cayenne. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Stir in beans and broth; bring to a simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes. Add turkey (or chicken) and vinegar; cook for 5 minutes more. Serve.

Nutrition
Per serving : 453 Calories; 6 g Fat; 2 g Sat; 2 g Mono; 68 mg Cholesterol; 44 g Carbohydrates; 44 g Protein; 9 g Fiber; 213 mg Sodium; 965 mg Potassium

Nifty Fitness Tracker

Made a cool little discovery today. If you go to this page on the WebMD website, you can measure and keep track of your health efforts. It’s super simple and even a little bit fun!

Here’s what you do:

1.Put in your personal criteria (gender, age, weight,)
2.Enter your current level of fitness
3.Select your goal (ie. Lose 1 lb. per week, maintain your current weight)

Once you’ve filled all that in, click calculate. You’ll see your results in a column on the left. It will have calculated your BMI, necessary caloric intake (based on your fitness goal), and will tell you your ideal weight and heart rate range. How cool is that?

Step 2.
This is where you check out the column on the right. You’ll see two categories, “Add a Food to Your Plan” and “Add an Activity to Your Plan”. These tools let you measure the amount of calories per food item and also give you an idea of how many calories you are burning. All you do is enter the food and/or activity and the number of calories pops up. I was impressed with the number of options in the activity box. You can calculate how many calories you’re burning while cleaning your house, sitting at your desk, or running a mile. Handy, right?

Last thing on the page are two scales that look like speedometers. The green one measures your calories from food and the orange one measure the calories from fitness. There’s also a little bar that show where you are on your daily caloric intake and lets you know how many you have left. Read: lets you know how many more scoops of ice cream you can have.

So try it out and let us know what you thought! You can leave your comments below.

Happy Fall!

Fitness in the US vs China

When was the last time you actually played at a park? Not just sitting on the bench and watching your kids while you write emails on your BlackBerry but actually climbing up the tiny ladders and spinning on the merry-go-round.

…Chances are, it’s been awhile. Because playgrounds are for kids, right?

Maybe not. In China, the government initiated a Nationwide Physical Fitness Program that encourages both children and adults to participate in at least an hour of physical activity every day. Part of the program included building new public fitness areas and centers. Some of the areas include outdoor venues specifically designed with stationary exercise equipment.

Playgrounds for adults. So cool.

The cultural contrast between working out in China and working out in the United States is an interesting one. I’m no anthropologist, but I’ve spent some time living in both China and the U.S. and I’ve noticed a few things:

1.Some of us (maybe most of us?) Americans prefer to hide while we’re exercising. Unless we’re running down the road with our $100 Nikes and Ipod, we generally prefer a well air conditioned gym, fancy pool, or scheduled yoga class. God forbid we do Pilates on our front lawn in front of the neighbors, right?

2.In China, its likely (and culturally acceptable) to see dozens of people walking around early in the morning, stretching on the streets or shamelessly using special exercise equipment built specifically for outdoor venues. Tai Chi an ancient martial arts form that focuses on balance, relaxation, and coordination is commonly practiced in parks, on sidewalks, and on streets.

So maybe we’re not going to do any crunches in front of Ukrop’s but the idea of using what’s around us to contribute to a healthy lifestyle is a good one. So get on a swing and reset your record for “how high you can go”. You might be surprised.

Nutrition Facts are more than calories

Do you ever find that you know exactly how many calories are in a food you eat but you can't name one other thing about that food? I cannot tell you how many people I have come across that are like the calorieking database. Nutrition Facts panels have a lot more information than just how many calories are in the product. Here are some other things you may want to key in on:

1. Serving Size
Just because a product has fewer calories listed than another product does not mean that it really is a lower calorie product or even that it is equivalent to another product. For example, a granola cereal may state that it contains 200 calories and another puffed rice may say the same. However, when you look at the serving size, the granola cereal may have 200 calories in only a 1/2 cup portion while you could have 1 cup of the other! Of course it would be easier if foods from the same group had standard portions, but since they don't, be aware of the differences.

2. Fats
A healthy diet consists of 20-25% of your calories from fat so choosing nonfat foods all the time would not be a healthy choice. Low fat foods are ideal -- you get a little bit of fat to help you absorb vitamins and minerals but you are also cutting back on the saturated fat from your diet. There of 4 types of fats -- monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, saturated, and trans. The first two are the fats that you wan to get the 20-25% of your daily calories from. The saturated and trans fats should be kept to less than 10% and less than 1% respectively. Why are they so bad for you? Saturated fat can increase your LDL (bad cholesterol) and trans fat goes even farther to lower your HDL (good cholesterol) and raise your LDL. When it comes to trans fat, food labels can be very sneaky. If a product has less than 0.5g trans fat in a serving, a label can claim that it is trans fat free! That may be okay if you only eat a serving of this food every once in a while but when your diet only allows for approximately 2g a day, there really is no room for this. You can figure out which foods contain trans fat but don't list it in the nutrition facts by reading the ingredients list and looking for the words "partially hydrogenated oil". That is a red flag that there are trans fats in the product and it may be a good idea to put the product back on the shelf and find an alternative.

3. Fiber
Listed under total carbohydrates, you can find two types of fiber -- soluble and insoluble. Some packages just list total fiber but others break it down into these two categories. Fiber is found in foods that contain fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and nuts. It is a fibrous substance that adds bulk to your food and will help you to stay full longer as it slows the digestive process. It is a great thing to have in a snack to hold you over until the next meal but not such a great option if you eat it pre-workout. Since it does delay digestion, it can cause stomach discomfort as your body will be trying to digest and work out at the same time. So, in summary: choose fiber whenever you can except when going to work out within the next hour or two.

4. Ingredient List
This is right below the box of nutrition facts. Here you will find the list of ingredients in the product in order of their amount (in weight) from greatest to least. This is a great place to check out what you are really eating. If you are looking for a wheat bread, you want to make sure that the first ingredient is 100% whole wheat. If you are looking for a cereal and want to know how healthy it is, see how close sugar is to the beginning of the list. If it is the 2nd or 3rd ingredient then you know that most of the calories are coming from sugar and not whole grains.

While there is much more that a nutrition panel can tell you, these are a few highlights that you would want to focus on. Yes, it does take a little more time in the grocery store to look at the food labels, but once you know what is a good choice, you won't have to read it the next trip.

How Much Protein do I really need?

I'll just start with the facts: protein can be confusing. The Atkins diet greatly contributed to the idea of a high protein, low carb diet and you often hear athletes talking about protein and protein shakes all the time. The answer about how much you really need is basically that it depends. It depends on you -- one answer does not fit everyone. The dietary guidelines recommend that adults eat 0.8g/kg of body weight. Ok... now in pounds that is about 0.4g/lb. When I computed this for myself, I found it to be fairly close with the estimate -- about a 4g difference between estimating with pounds versus kilograms. This may surprise you that the amount of protein you need is probably not even close to 100g a day. Most Americans get almost 200% of the amount of protein they need. However, there are some exceptions to when you need more protein in your diet. If you are seriously looking to put on muscle in the gym, body builders often aim for 1g/pound but it may be more reasonable to stay closer to 0.5-0.8g/pound.
So, maybe you are thinking you are eating too much protein or maybe not enough. To evaluate your protein intake, you need to take a look at what you are eating. Protein is not just found in meat although it is one of the best sources. Generally, 1 oz. of meat is equivalent to 7g of protein. Meat is classified in the mypyramid recommendations as "meat and beans". Also in this group is seeds, nuts, eggs (whole and egg whites), and of course as the name suggests, beans. Based on the 2,000 calorie diet that most people need, it is recommended to consume 6 oz. equivalents of this group. The ounce equivalents of the meat and beans group differs for the non-meat foods but mypyramid.gov/pyramid/meat does a great job of outlining how much equals an ounce. It may surprise you that there are other sources of protein in your diet that contribute quite a bit of protein to your daily total. Milk has 8g in each cup and pasta has 7g in one cup. If you notice that you are eating too much protein, look at the rest of your diet. Does your lunch consist of a deli sandwich with an inch of meat on it? If so, it is possible that your diet is lacking in fruits and vegetables. Cut back on some of the meat, load up on veggies, and also only eat half the sandwich. Instead of that other half, try eating some fruit on the side. Is your diet lacking in protein even though you eat meat? You can increase your protein intake by choosing higher protein items of the same foods you already eat. For example, select Greek yogurt over the regular style. Many brands pack 15g of protein into one serving. You can also try pastas like Barilla plus that boasts of the extra protein in each serving.
If you are still questioning what a day's worth of protein looks like, here is an example:

For a 140 pound woman who is moderately active, she would need 56g of protein.

Breakfast:
1 cup light yogurt
1 banana
1/2 cup granola cereal

Snack
1 cup grapes
1 mini bagel with jelly

Lunch
2 slices wheat bread
2 oz. turkey
tomatoes, onion, lettuce, green peppers, and avocado
1 cup strawberries
1 oz. wheat pretzel twists

Snack
3/4 cup baby carrots
2 tbsp. hummus

Dinner
2 cups romaine lettuce with tomatoes, cucumber, and onion
2 Tbsp.light dressing
1 cup wheat pasta
1 cup sauteed zucchini and summer squash with diced tomatoes
2 Tbsp parmesan cheese

Snack
1/2 cup frozen yogurt

For more information on good sources of protein or if you are meeting your needs, feel free to
e-mail me with questions.