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Wellness!

5/24/2021

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My twin daughters are in a kickboxing class at the local community college and this video was assigned to them as homework. It struck me as so simple that it is well worth the couple of minutes to review information we likely are already aware of but need continual reminders about. Moms, this is what we do -- we are the reminders, the repeaters, the consistent, kind, and friendly reviewers and encouragers!
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From the YouTube Description:

Wellness means overall well-being. It includes the emotional, environmental, financial, intellectual, occupational, physical, social, and spiritual aspects of a person’s life. Incorporating aspects of the Eight Dimensions of Wellness, such as choosing healthy foods, forming strong relationships, and exercising often, into everyday habits can help people live longer and improve quality of life. The Eight Dimensions of Wellness may also help people better manage their condition and experience recovery. This short animated video explores the Eight Dimensions of Wellness and helps people understand the practical strategies and ways they can begin developing healthy habits that can have a positive impact on their physical and mental health. To learn more about SAMHSA’s Wellness Initiative, click here.

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Sleep—What a Wonderful Word

1/22/2021

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Written by Alana Hutchins, Momivate's Director of Energy: Eating, Exercise, and Sleep
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Snug as a bug! photo credit: Gigin Krishnan on Unsplash.com
Ahhhhhh, it is finally 10:00pm, and time to sleep.  Isn’t this how we feel most days dragging ourselves into bed and crawling in between our nice soft covers. We look forward to drifting off peacefully into a rejuvenating slumber that oscillates between soothing dreams and deep-sleep oblivion? Or at least that’s how it would work in the ideal world. Often, the cadence of our slow breathing is interrupted by the sharp cry of an infant or the wail of an unhappy two-year-old. BAHH! Not again! I’m too tired to get out of bed, it’s your turn, honey. Alas, waking up with children is part and parcel of the whole parenting deal. Even if waking up with small things is part of the deal. It is not always ideal for getting a good night’s rest, but falling asleep and sleeping through the night is a skill that has to be learned just like any other activity of daily living. 
    What about those nights when there is no baby to blame and we still sleep terribly?  When the red alarm clock taunts us from the nightstand with yet another hour lost and gone to the void of could-have-been-sleeping, when instead of dreaming we are simply lying there wishing we were sleeping. Around midnight, wishing turns to stressing and all hopes of a being chipper tomorrow evaporate all together.
    We are happier and healthier when we are well rested—that is all there is to it. Here are some reasons why:

  • Our minds are clearer, our concentration and focus better. Scientists think that REM sleep helps remove information that we don’t need, it helps to take out the mental “trash” so to speak. 
  • During deep sleep, our bodies work to repair muscle, organs, and other cells and replace chemicals that strengthen our immune systems start to circulate in our blood.
  • Sleep helps us process the day, and to sort and store memories into our long term memory banks. 
  • We heal and regenerate during sleep—and children do their best growing. 
  • Heartbeats and breathing slow down, and blood pressure decreases so there is less stress on our organs during sleep. Body temperature drops and our muscles relax.
  • A lack of sleep alters levels of cortisol, leptin, and ghrelin (hormones that regulate stress, hunger, and fat production), which could cause weight gain. ​
Tips and Tricks for women who want to be pro sleepers: 

  • Be active or exercise during the day, preferably several hours before bed time, so that your body is tired enough to rest.
  • Stick to a routine with consistent bedtimes and rising times. On average adults need 7–9 hours of sleep per night.
  • Turn off all screens and blue lights at least an hour before bed time, preferably two. Keep your phone AWAY from the side of your bed. Dock it downstairs. This is also incredibly important for teens who tend to stay up late texting in bed. Even having blue light on in your room can keep you up at night. 
  • Pray, read, journal, or meditate before trying to go to sleep in order to help your body shift mental gears down. (Avoid reading the news or other stressful items because this might have the opposite effect.)
  • Keep your room cool and your blankets heavy. A weighted blanket may help you to settle in for the night. Being tucked in is supposed to mimic being enclosed in the womb and should have a comforting effect on your body.
  • Don’t eat right before bedtime. Bonus: This will also help prevent weight gain.
  • Try a pair of socks if your feet are cold.
  • Use a flat or minimal pillow so that your spine is aligned and your airway unobstructed. This may take some adjustment if you are used to sleeping on lots of pillows. 
  • Meditation can reduce insomnia by 50%.
  • Don’t sleep with children in the same room, if you can help it, and avoid sleeping with a baby or child in your bed. It is a habit that will be difficult to break later on when you want them out of the bedroom. ​
If you are doing all of these things and still having a hard time falling asleep, you may want to try a warm drink before bed, or a natural supplement like melatonin to help you relax. 

​
Tips and Tricks to help children become pro sleepers:

  • Have a consistent bedtime each night that is not too late.*
  • Create a pre-bedtime routine that works for both you and your child. Our personal family routine for younger children is bath, books, brush teeth, say prayers, give hugs, sing a song, then lights out. Your routine may vary from mine, but the important thing is that you have one. Setting expectations is half the battle. 
  • If your child is having a hard time settling down, white noise may help them tune out the rest of the house. (I actually love white noise myself.)
  • No screens for at least two hours before bedtime.
  • Do not let them get in the habit of climbing into your bed for comfort. If a child is distressed at night, go to them and see what can be done.
  • Set firm expectations for getting up at night before consequences set in. “Only once” or “only to use the restroom.” Some children will get up 5–10 times if their parents allow it. 
  • Have a comfort item on hand—favorite stuffed animal or blanket for many children. 
  • Do not let infants and toddlers go to sleep with milk, juice, or formula. This can cause dental problems because the unswallowed milk settles onto the teeth and the bacteria convert the milk sugars into acid which eats away at the teeth. If necessary, give them water in a sippy.
  • Just like adults, children want to be tucked in, weighted down, or swaddled before bed. This gentle pressure is a signal to your brain to head off to sleep. 

Good luck, and sweet dreams!  
Groggily yours

*While there is no hard and fast rule, the general guide is toddlers need around 12 hours of sleep a night; children aged 3–6 years old need 10–12 hours; 7- to 12-year-olds need 10–11 hours; and teenagers need around 8–9 hours. You may feel cheated when your child consistently sleeps less than his peers, but the truth is, some kids just don’t need as much sleep to be healthy and feel their best during the day. 

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"Eat food, mostly plants, not too much"

10/10/2020

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By Alana Hutchins, Momivate Director of Energy

Have you ever wondered to yourself, 
What should I eat to be healthy? High-protein or low-protein? Low-fat dairy or whole milk or paleo? Whole grains or gluten free? Fruit or no fruit? High-fat or low fat? There are innumerable voices out there claiming different and even opposite messages, but the good news is, a lot of the basic diets have some common sense similarities. Michael Pollan claims, “the authority of tradition and common sense” to help us navigate this strange new eating world that has made a once simple activity into an entire field of scientific study and a multibillion dollar industry. 


    We live in a bleak landscape of SAD- the Standard American Diet. The SAD is generally characterized by high intakes of red meat, processed meat, pre-packaged foods, butter, candy and sweets, fried foods, refined grains, high-fructose corn syrup, high-sugar drinks, and low intakes of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, grass-fed animal products, fish, nuts, and seeds. 

    If you want to live your best and most healthful life, start to look at what God has already given you- whole plant foods. The more a food is broken down into different components and reconstructed for taste and shelf life, the less of a food it becomes and the more of a food approximation or an “edible food-like substance.” Forget the lotions and potions, powders and shakes- that’s not food, those are simply food products. If it has more than five ingredients or you don’t recognize the words in the ingredient list, then chances are, it was developed by a food scientist and not a farmer. Most of what we are consuming today is not food, and how we’re consuming it — in the car, in front of the TV, and increasingly alone — is not really eating. Many of these food facsimiles come packaged with health claims which should be our first clue they are anything but healthy.

     In the so-called Western diet, food has been replaced by single nutrients, and common sense by confusion. The professionalism of nutrition, or “nutritionism”, for the past fifty years has made America anything but healthier, quite the opposite. Americans are sicker and fatter than ever. This belief system assumes that the key to understanding food is the single nutrient, disregarding the fact that natural foods are a symphony of complex compounds and chemicals that science has yet to all discover, never mind understand how they act in concert with one another. Layer on top of that the complexities of a traditional diet, and trying to sell health as a single macronutrient (think “High-Protein) is laughable. 

    The real food, the food your great grandmother would recognize as food, sits quietly on the perimeter of the grocery stores, with its naturally bright coloring and unassuming packaging. I can hear you saying now, but what about protein shakes and power bars- those are healthy right? “Good” for you food is a spectrum and a power bar might be better than a bag of chips, but your safest bet is nuts and a piece of whole fruit as a healthy go-to snack. 


     In other words, try to eat a Whole Foods, Plant based diet. Think beans, legumes, fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Potatoes with the skins on, lentil curry, fresh salads with olive oil and vinegar, hummus with crudités. No more counting calories, or grams, or desperately trying to remember the difference between Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids. Vitamin supplements just turn into expensive urine and they are in NO WAY a substitute for fruits and vegetables. Consuming a diet rich in whole plant foods is the best way to avoid chronic diseases in the future including diabetes, obesity, heart disease, cancer and even autoimmune diseases. Eating does not have to be complicated, simple is usually best, but it will take more time to plan ahead and prepare than just grabbing a Cliff bar or downing an energy shake. A landmark study known as the China Project, combined with laboratory findings—conclusively demonstrated the dangers of a diet high in animal protein and the amazing health benefits of a whole food, plant-based diet. You say, yeah I’d like to be healthy but I’m not going vegan, that’s just too hard! Life can get crazy, so if you are hitting your whole-foods plant-based diet 80-90% of the time, you are doing awesome and keep up the good work! You will receive 80-90% of the benefits.
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    You might also say, yeah but I still have baby weight I want to lose and all the sources I read say to eat a diet low in “carbs” and high in protein. Isn’t losing weight healthy? This approach to weight loss, based on the ketogenic effect, or keto diets for short, involves cutting way back on carbohydrates, to 50 grams a day or less, to help the body achieve a state of ketosis, in which it has to burn fat (rather than sugar) for energy. This diet, like most diets, does work to help control weight gain and even induce weight loss in the short term, but it is hard to stick with long term. Most people will regain a lot of the weight they lost as soon as they go back on carbs. It is an issue with any fad diet, but it seems to be extra common with ketosis. Stop looking at short term effects rather than your long term goals of remaining healthy over a life span and look twenty years down the road to a life free of heart-disease and cancer. There are other dangerous side effects that can come from approaching the keto diet the wrong way including fatigue, decreased performance, head-aches, diarrhea, and even halitosis (bad breath.) Think of meat as a side dish or garnish, rather than the principal component of the meal. 

    When you are in the supermarket try to avoid food products containing ingredients that are unfamiliar, unpronounceable, more than five in number, or include high-fructose corn syrup. For that matter, all diets out there pretty much agree that sugars, including corn syrup and high-fructose corn syrup, are unnecessary foods and should be reduced as much as possible or eliminated completely. 

     Unfortunately there is one fairly obvious problem with all this advice: Americans don’t primarily eat food that comes in a box with a long list of “health claims” because we actually think it is healthier than a home-cooked meal. We do so because it is convenient, often cheaper, and we are addicted to high-fructose corn syrup, salt, and saturated fat laced in almost every food product. There is no silver bullet for changing our lifestyles and improving our health. It takes commitment, a dedication of monetary resources, hard work, and a certain amount of self-denial. On the upside though, measure that against reclaiming the pleasures of eating real foods, becoming your healthiest and most energetic self, and taking control of your own table.

SOURCES CITED:
 In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan, 2008
 The China Study by T. Colin Campbell and his son, Thomas M. Campbell II, 2004
​PHOTO CREDITS: Alana Hutchins
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