La Vida Sana • Healthy Living Program

Tracking Your Habits

7/2/2015

by Vivian Yang

Download your habit tracker here! Instructions in the document, also below.

The preceding page contains a monthly calendar. Fill in the name of the month and the dates. We suggest picking one of the healthy choices and incorporating it into your daily life by creating a SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely) goal. Every day you’re able to complete your goal, place a large X in the corresponding day. With just a little effort, your calendar will be full of X’s, marking your daily work to achieve a sustainable, healthy lifestyle. Feel free to add your own notes and words of encouragement!

What would you like to achieve in the next month?

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.

Is your goal Specific?
(Ex: walk 3 times a week after dinner)

Is your goal Measurable?
(Ex: 3 times a week)

Is your goal Achievable?
(Ex: 10 hours versus 30 minutes to an hour of walking)

Is your goal Realistic?
(Ex: do you have a appropriate location and enough time?)

Is your goal Timely?
(Ex: 3 times a week for 30 minutes, reevaluate in 3 months)

What is the small lifestyle change in order to reach your goal?
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.

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Cut Loose the Juice!

6/29/2015

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by Paula Gutierrez

It is a sad truth that while sugar is delicious it also dangerous if eaten out of proportion. Scientists, Doctors, and Nutritionists agree that eating too many sweets can lead to health problems. The Center’s for Disease Control (basically the official US government agency of health), studied how we eat sugar over the past 22 years. What did they find? The extra sugar in just on can of soda or flirt juice was enough to raise our chances of developing Heart disease by 33%. Heart disease leads to all kinds of problems like heart attacks and even death. Eating or drinking too much sugar also increases our risk of developing diabetes, in both kids and adults. Diabetes, if not controlled well, can lead to pain, amputations, eye problems and much more.

So how does juice fit into this problem?
The American Heart Association recommends that we don’t add anymore than about 25 extra grams of sugar on top of what is naturally in our food. Researches have looked at juice and seen that it is a large source of sugar. One cup of apple Juice contains 110 calories and about 26 grams of sugar – almost the same as a can of coke! Juices do contain vitamins and minerals that are healthy, however the negative effect of all that extra sugar is what makes juice more harmful than helpful.

Well that sucks, what are my drink options now?
Here are some healthy options to help fill the gap left by those tasty but dangerous juices.

Iced Tea: (not Arizona or sugary teas from the store) – Just brew a fruity leaf tea, add a slice of lemon or mint, put in the fridge and enjoy the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits!
Fruit Water: Just adding raw fruit and mint to ice water makes a healthy delicious juice alternative!
Coconut water: While not my personal favorite, it is loved by many and is quite delicious to the coconut lovers out there.
Home-made Spritzers: If you add ¼ cup of our beloved juice to 1 cup of seltzer water and Ice, you have a great drink and saved yourself 75% of the sugar.
Water: Yes, just regular water. After staying away from juices and sodas, we lose our sugar cravings and we can be satisfied with just water again.

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Dealing with Stress

6/29/2015

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by Chris Iwuchukwu

Stress is something EVERYONE feels from time to time. Stress is a normal physiological and psychological response to life’s demands. Our brain alarm systems are wired to identify and respond to certain events with a so called “fight or flight” response. However, this stress response is not supposed to last for a long time or happen very often.

Learn to recognize stress:
To successfully manage stress, you must first recognize it. Stress triggers are called stressors and could coming form:

Family
Work
Relationships
Money
Health problems, and others.

Sometimes we can recognize stressors by identifying how we respond to them. Some of the responses you may show in response to stress include:

Anger
Irritatility
Headaches
Stomach-aches
Loss of sleep.

Unhealthy reactions to stress:
You may find yourself doing one of this when you are stressed. These are unhealthy stress responses that create other problems and stress as well.

Eating too much
Smoking cigarettes
Drinking alcohol or using drugs
Sleeping too much or too little.

How to manage your stress:
There are a dozen simple steps that can help you manage your stress. Some step to reduce stress include:

Deep breathing
Meditation with and without yoga or Tai chi.
Recognize the things that you can’t change
Learn to set limits
Adequate and restful sleep; regular exercise, and good healthy meals
Change your outlook

In this issue of our Newsletter we will outline the steps to deep breathing. This should be practiced at least 3 times a day even when stressful situations are not being experienced. Helps to slow your heart rate and lower blood pressure

Deep breathing exercise:

Lie down or sit in a comfortable chair, preferably in a quiet place, free from distractions. Close your eyes and notice your breath. Is it shallow and just at the top of your lungs?
Now, slowly take a deep breath, following the air with your attention as it goes in.
Exhale slowly, taking twice as long to exhale as it took to inhale.
Every time you exhale, pause for a second to stay conscious of your breathing. Let your shoulders droop and feel yourself relax more with each breath.
Repeat this several times. Try breathing in through your nose, out through your mouth. Count slowly to 5 as you inhale, 10 as you exhale.
Now notice whether your abdomen is expanding with each breath. Practice deep abdominal breathing to help you relax further.
After 5 to 10 minutes, take a deep breath and hold it. Slowly open your eyes and slowly exhale. You should feel more relaxed and comfortable.
With practice, even a few of these deep-breathing exercises will allow you to quickly enter a state of relaxation.

For a guided deep breathing podcast, use the following link:
http://marc.ucla.edu/mpeg/01_Breathing_Meditation.mp3.

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Move Through the Day

6/29/2015

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by Kirti Malhotra

Studies show that sedentary lifestyle is one of the major risk factors of chronic diseases in America. Exercise is not only important for improving our health and wellness, but it also increases our productivity and focus. However, many of us find it difficult to find time for exercise in our busy lives. Therefore, for the next few months, we encourage you to incorporate as many of the tips below into your daily lives as you can. Being mindful of the amount of physical activity you do in a day is the first step towards living an active life!

Here are 10 tips for integrating physical activity into your day:

Take the stairs
Park in a space farthest from the door
Bike to work
Walk to your co-workers desks
Walk outside during your lunch break
Invite a friend to be active with you
Take 1-2 minute standing breaks every hour
Do 10 sit ups next to your workspace
Do the 2 minute stretching or strengthening exercises
Move periodically all during the day!

We recommend doing some physical activity EVERY HOUR, even if it is just getting up from your chair to stand for 2 minutes! Use your daily habit calendar to keep track of how many little activities you do in a day and see if you can slowly increase your activity level.

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Tracking Your Habits

Cut Loose the Juice!

Dealing with Stress

Move Through the Day

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