National Women’s Health Week and WOMAN Challenge
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Since this is National Women’s Health Week I’m going to make some of my posts related to it this week.
I decided to try the ‘WOMAN Challenge’ too! I mentioned this in my last post. The goal or ‘challenge’ is to try to walk 10,000 steps or get 30 minutes of moderate exercise every day. It lasts for 8 weeks. And you ‘walk’ a virtual path across the U.S. as you do it.
It was supposed to start Sunday, on Mother’s Day, but since I was out of town visiting I wasn’t able to walk much. I did get out my pedometer and got it working right (I hadn’t really used it yet although I’ve had it for a while). As it was later in the day I was only able to get about 800 steps counted on it. That should make it easier to improve over the next 8 weeks!
The Challenge has teams that people can join for support and encourage each other. I started a team and if you want to join it either contact me and I will add you or here are the instructions to join it yourself:
First you have to register at the site, then go to ‘Find a Team to Join‘ , then scroll down to Missouri, click and then choose the “Ideas For Women .com” team.
I’ll be posting my progress with it here too. Hopefully I won’t embarrass myself too much!
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Related Posts:
- Happy Mother’s Day!
- Exercise for your heart with WOMAN Challenge
- The importance of strength training exercise for women’s health
May 11, 2008
Happy Mother’s Day!
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Happy Mother’s Day!
Today is also the start of National Women’s Health Week! This is a “nationwide initiative, coordinated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office on Women’s Health (OWH) to encourage women to make their health a top priority and take simple steps for a longer, healthier and happier life”.
Some of the steps the initiative encourages women to take are:
- Engaging in physical activity most days of the week
- Making healthy food choices
- Visiting a healthcare provider to receive regular check-ups and preventive screenings
- Avoiding risky behaviors, like smoking and not wearing a seatbelt
If I have the time I will focus my blog posts this week around National Women’s Health Week, but I will be busy the next couple days and may not be able to all week.
Also, there is a ‘WOMAN Challenge’, which is a virtual walk across the country (U.S.) as part of an eight-week physical activity challenge. Basically you are supposed to try to walk 10,000 steps or get 30 minutes of moderate exercise every day.
They have sort of virtual teams to participate in it together. Do any women bloggers out there have a team? I went ahead and started my own, but if someone else has one I could join I might do that instead. Or – if anyone wants to join my team – please let me know!
Update: Here’s the instructions for joining my team: First you have to register at the site, then go to ‘Find a Team to Join‘ , then scroll down to Missouri, click and then choose the “Ideas For Women .com” team.
More information is here: WOMAN Challenge
I signed up for the cross country route which starts in San Francisco. Of course since its virtual, anyone from anywhere can join.
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Related Posts:
- National Women’s Health Week and WOMAN Challenge
- Exercise for your heart with WOMAN Challenge
- The importance of strength training exercise for women’s health
May 9, 2008
Friday Favorites – May 9,2008
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Happy Friday everyone!
My favorites this week include the following:
Thirstiness
Elderly lack strong thirst signal – I’ve heard this before, but its really important to spread around. Apparently as people get older they “become easily dehydrated because their thirst signal can be diminished”. I need to print that out and show it to my mom, I don’t know if she drinks enough and I worry about her.
However, I have to raise one point. The word “elderly” implies weakness and frailty, the proper word here would have been “elders”, I believe. Read here to learn more from Time Goes By: Are You Elderly?.
Real Costs?
Costs of Allergy Treatment – Ruth raises some interesting points here. I have really bad allergies, and the costs of allergy medications can certainly add up. For many people allergy shots would probably cost less and be more effective. I wonder though if doctors tend to discourage them? I see all the free samples from drug companies that allergists have around. I’m sure the drug companies would rather see prescriptions written than allergy shots given.
And then there are the hidden costs. For me, I don’t sleep as well, can’t see or breathe well, I’m less productive, irritable, etc. Of course there are people with worse health problems. But I think allergies definitely cost society as a whole too – lost productivity, etc.
Missed Calling?
Dr. Val interviewed Mike Huckabee recently: Governor Mike Huckabee On Losing Weight and Staying Fit. Now please don’t misunderstand me – I don’t support Huckabee positions on I think anything. And I can’t believe I’m actually going to say something positive about him. But based on that interview, he seems he understands weight loss pretty well. Maybe Huckabee missed his calling and should have stayed out of politics altogether?
People as Garbage
Read this quote: “Ethically, what is the correct thing to do when medicine encounters a difficult problem? Stablize the patient until a solution can be found? Or throw people away like garbage?“.
He’s right isn’t he? Yet we really don’t put that principle in practice. Currently we let people die and then, well, ‘throw them away like garbage’. He goes on: “Centuries from now, historians may marvel at the shortsightedness and rationalizations used to sanction the unnecessary death of millions.”. He’s most likely right there too. Read the rest at Fight Aging.
Demand Choice!
Rachel at Women’s Health News wrote about how the Oklahoma legislature passed a bill that would require women to have an ultrasound performed prior to obtaining an abortion: Forced Ultrasounds for Abortion in Oklahoma – Because Your Government Can Demand That An Object Be Inserted Into Your Vagina. No comments from me are needed – the post and discussion speaks for itself.
Some quicks links:
Socrates in the classroom develops students’ thinking and changes the distribution of power – our schools really need to teach critical thinking skills.
Tel Aviv University finds connection between mental fitness and multi-lingualism – another good reason to at least try to learn another language and for your kids to learn one too.
Prions show their good side – “normally functioning prions prevent neurons from working themselves to death“.
I haven’t had time to read this yet, but it looks interesting: How Boys Become Boys (and Sometimes Girls).
Have a great weekend!
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Related Posts:
- Allergies – increasing all around the world
- Friday Favorites – Friday the 13th edition!
- Friday Favorites
May 8, 2008
Overcoming Underearning: Book Review Part 1
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This week I had time to read chapter one, which is still kind of introductory. She talks a bit about having ‘financial independence‘ – I’d sure like that! But who wouldn’t?
Then we (the reader) are supposed to think about what it is we want. Or what our goal is. Since the book is part workbook – there is a space there to write your goals in. She then tells us the goals she had in mind for us (again, the reader) when she wrote the book. I won’t list them all here. What stood out to me though was “replace a bake-sale mentality with a grander vision” and to explore what is blocking you from being more successful.
Those are two things I definitely need help with. On one hand I do have a ‘grand vision’ but its kind of buried beneath the ‘bake-sale mentality’. I don’t know why that is.
She suggests having one or more people to do the exercises with. I don’t have anyone – except you people reading this! I don’t know if I want to share everything in a blog – but maybe I can share bits and pieces.
She talks a bit about inner voices. Both the negative ones you shouldn’t listen to and your “authentic voice” you should listen to.
The chapter ends with a quiz to determine if you are or are not an underearner. I knew I was before even taking it, but the quiz confirmed it.
I noticed the book has lots of really good quotes interspersed on the pages. My favorite from this chapter was:
“Life is not about finding yourself.
Life is about creating yourself.”– George Bernard Shaw
Next week: Part 2
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Related Posts:
- Overcoming Underearning: Book Review Part 9
- Overcoming Underearning: Book Review Part 4
- Book Review: ‘Overcoming UnderEarning’ Part 11
May 7, 2008
‘Vitality Compass’ Challenge!
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I took the ‘Vitality Compass’ quiz that Healtbolt’s Liz and Liberty challenged me to!
Over at Bluezones, which I mentioned in a previous post: Longevity around the world, they have a Vitality Compass quiz that you can take. It asks various questions and then tells you your:
- Biological Age
- Life Expectancy
- Healthy Life Expectancy
- Blue Zone Years
– Your body’s age given your habits
– The age you are expected to live to
– The age you are expected to be healthy to
– years your life has accrued
So how did I do?
Biological Age – well, I’m always kind of shy about my age (although if a person cared to dig around a bit they could figure it out) so I’ll say this much, its 5.2 years less than my chronological age! I guess that’s not too bad.
Life Expectancy- 94. I was kind of hoping for 100. I noticed one thing they didn’t ask was how long close relatives lived. It seems most women in my family have made it to at least 80, so I figured I probably had that much anyway. Still, 94’s not bad.
Healthy Life Expectancy – 85. I wonder how they calculate that?
Blue Zone Years – 11.6
Some issues/concerns with the quiz:
– I don’t remember how much I weighed 2 years ago, I guessed.
– the part about how many days I felt sad or worried. That’s hard to answer, honestly most days I might feel a twinge of sadness or worry about something, but I don’t know if that really counts. I wish they were more specific.
– the angry thing too. How angry is angry? I hardly ever get so angry I yell. I was pretty upset last week when one of our cats broke my glasses. But I got over it.
– mild physical activities (they don’t give a choice of 1-3 days either) and rigorous exercise were hard to answer accurately. I try to use a treadmill 4 times a week though.
When I retook it and changed eating to 4 servings each of fruits and vegetables, 0 to sweets and fast food (I haven’t had fast food in ages, but I now and then eat something sweet), and increased my nut consumption to the maximum I gained a little more time. Not as much as I would have thought though.
I was told I should eat more fish. I can’t eat fish high in omega 3’s like salmon very often anymore, I feel kind of sick when I do. And to engage in more group social activities. I don’t really have time or people to do that with. Does online interaction count? Maybe they should have asked if we blogged – and knocked 10 years off our lives if we say ‘yes’!
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Related Posts:
- 12 Things You Can Do To Set a Healthy Example for Your Kids
- Overcoming Underearning: Book Review Part 1
- Health
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