Positively Healthy Exercise...your way!

Exercise is one of those necessary evils if you want to be healthy. I remember a time when all the people who were experts on this subject said you just had to exercise a few days a week for 30 minutes. Now all of a sudden these same people are saying 30 minutes five days a week for a total of 150 minutes and that’s just to maintain your current weight. Heaven help you if you want to lose weight because then your daily output of exercise needs to twice that. So now you are talking about 60 minutes almost every day of the week! I don’t know about you but I was having a hard time getting in the 150 minutes let alone 300 minutes. Now this new number really doesn’t surprise me as I have told people for years that I have to exercise 60 minutes at least six days a week to lose any weight. It should be pretty clear by now to most of you that I haven’t been very successful at maintaining the amount of exercise. Along with all the other positively healthy choices I am trying to implement this year exercising more is a big one on my list.

The biggest thing about exercise is finding something that you love and doing it. It has to be something that you can sink your teeth into or have a goal at the end so that you can see the finish line. The exercise you choose needs to be personal to you and you alone so that you can do it your way. Now remember this doesn’t have to be something you have done before because sometimes something new can come along and you immediately become passionate about it.

My daughter-in-law Faith is good example of finding what you love and doing it. Faith is learning to ice skate. She grew up in Arizona and I don’t think she had ever put on a pair of skates until a few weeks ago. I find out about this new passion when I receive a text message from my son asking me questions about ice skating. With a puzzled look on my face I text back, “Why?” Promptly he text back telling me that Faith and him were ice skating. He had remembered years ago when I coached roller skating the many times I had taken all the children I coached ice skating and was asking for advice to help her. This has become such a passion for Faith that she now has her own skates and goes ice skating every weekend. We all got to be part of this great adventure last week when we went ice skating after her birthday dinner.

Sometimes a new found love for a certain type of exercise can be found through others. Jennifer, my daughter, started running several years ago. She was introduced to running to raised money for the Luekemia and Lymphoma Society, after a nephew got sick, with her very first race being The Nile Half Marathon in San Francisco. I’m sure all of you are assuming that since her first race was a half marathon that she was always a runner but nothing could be farther from the truth. My daughter only ran for the physical fitness tests at school and she hated every minute of it.  From that very meager beginning to help others a runner was born. She now runs several races a year including the California International Marathon.

Over the years I have tried and done just about everything. Walking, running, skating, the gym and the list goes on. A few years ago I ran a half marathon that my daughter talked me into by telling me that I could walk the 13.1 miles in the four hours. I will proudly tell you that I finished in 2 hours and 45 minutes. Today I am out of practice but have started to run again as there is a new finish line waiting for me to cross. Most of my family will again run a local 5K/10K race that is fast approaching with another 5K/Half Marathon in October. At the October race last year my six year old grandson announced that he wanted to run the half marathon like his mother. After some serious talking we convinced him to start with the 5K. I have volunteered to run with him because we think at seven he is a little young to run without a chaperon on an open course. I am sure this will be the fastest time I have ever run, hopefully I will be able to keep up.*

Most people have a love hate relationship with exercise because they haven’t found that one physical activity to be excited about. It really doesn’t matter what you do as long as you get moving. Make exercise personal to you and do it your way. Take a chance or a challenge to try something new, maybe you will find a new love. Remember to start small and build up to something bigger. By exercising your way it is easy to add additional minutes every week and soon you will find that the positively healthy choices everyday that you make total the correct amount of exercise for you.

*Special thanks to my best friend Debby or Grandma Debby, as my grandchildren call her, because we wouldn't be running any races without her. She is at every race entertaining and chasing after four small children while we run. This how Debbie exercises her way!

Positively Healthy Yucky Oatmeal!

Oatmeal is one of those great and wonderful for you foods. It is a 100% whole grain cereal with lots of fiber, protein and iron. Whole grains can lower your cholesterol and is great for your health. But oatmeal tastes yucky, I mean really yucky! Oatmeal has a nasty texture and no matter what you add to it you still have a glob of glue in your bowl. For me it is one of those foods that cause a gag reflex but it is so healthy for you I have vowed to try to make this my year to learn to love oatmeal.

I have tried in the past to make oatmeal my friend and have failed miserably. Now I don’t totally hate oatmeal as I love oatmeal cookies, oatmeal pancakes and other things with oatmeal in them just not that glue that people eat for breakfast. Over the years I have tried different brands and different methods of cooking oatmeal but in the end all I could ever force down was a bite or two. One of the things that occurred to me is that maybe in the past eating a whole bowl of oatmeal was just too great of a challenge. So this time I have vowed to start small and see if little by little I can learn to love oatmeal. I remind myself that it is a proven fact that children have to try a food 15-17 times before they decide that they like it.

At my work we are all healthy foodies so oatmeal is always a staple at staff breakfasts. One of my coworkers is the official oatmeal maker for these events. She makes it in a Crockpot and everyone eats it up. There are always lots of things to top it with, imagine an ice cream sundae bar but for oatmeal. The people at my work go absolutely crazy for it. I have announced my intentions at work to find this love for oatmeal and have started on the journey. At the next event I am in line and take my one tablespoon of oatmeal along with two tablespoons of berries. I even announce, “Look I have oatmeal on my plate”, and everyone laughs because they all know how I feel about oatmeal. Down it goes in to my stomach, not bad I tell myself. I have taken the first step. One time down sixteen to go.

Not long after my adventure began one of the blogs I subscribe to called “Skinnytaste” had a recipe for baked oatmeal. It looked like coffee cake. Could this oatmeal be my true love? I could hardly wait for the weekend to come so that I could make it. When it was done I loaded the pan in my car and off to my girlfriend’s house I went for breakfast. We both decided it tasted totally different than regular oatmeal and was very good. I have since tweaked the recipe and changed things around a bit but the big thing is that I love it. I have found my love of oatmeal.

Now I realize that eating oatmeal this way might be cheating just a bit so I have promised myself that I will continue on my journey one tablespoon at a time. What is the oatmeal in your life? Could you start taking baby steps to make that change happen? Permanent life changes take time and patience. Don’t give up the first time things seem overwhelming. Remember you are only one try down with sixteen more to go. I know you can do it, just start taking those first steps toward positively healthy choices everyday!

Baked Oatmeal                                                               

1 cup uncooked quick oats

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp cinnamon

Pinch of salt

1 cup milk

1 egg

3 tbs honey or brown sugar

Optional*

1cup of any combination of fresh or dried fruit or nuts chopped

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly spray an 8”x8” or 9”x9” pan with cooking spray.

Mix together dry ingredients. Add any optional fruit or nuts* and stir gently. In separate bowl lightly beat milk, egg and honey or brown sugar. Spread oat mixture evenly over the bottom of the pan. Pour the milk mixture slowly over the oats as evenly as possible. (Above picture is Baked Oatmeal with chopped nuts and dried peaches.)

Bake 30 minutes Makes 4 to 6 servings.

 Original recipe from Skinnytaste.com

http://www.skinnytaste.com/2012/01/baked-oatmeal-with-blueberries-and.html#more

Positively Happy Valentine’s Day

If you ask my children they will tell you that I have never met a holiday that I didn’t like and I would have to agree with them. They will even tell you that my joy from holiday events can be based on the noise level in the house. The louder the event the happier I am. My small house has been home to many events with almost more people that one can fit into 1000 square feet home and I enjoy every minute of it.

Valentine’s took center stage many years ago when Christmas became to hectic for me to get the normal baking done for friends. So these friends started receiving Valentine cookies. The list has grown and changed over the years but far more friends have been added than taken away. Over the years the cookies have changed as families have changed. Now only those without children receive two of the large heart shaped cookies. Those with children receive a dozen smaller heart shaped cookies and all the fixings for decorating.

This annual event has turned into a five day love fest of baking. It takes two days to bake, one day to frost, one day to package and at least one day to deliver. And while this sounds like a lot of work I love every minute I spend doing it and the delight all my friends get from receiving them. Many times my cookie deliveries are a drop and run. They are left hanging on doors, in mail boxes and with other family members. The other interesting part is that the cookies have always been left without a note because I assume that everyone receiving them would know who they were from. Since my method of delivery is rather haphazard it has created several funny stories over the years.

One of my favorite stories is about my friend Bob. He has been part of my extended family since our children were little and to my boys he is like an Uncle. Bob prepares taxes as a side business to his regular job and is my tax man. For years I would drop off my tax documents and his valentine cookies in a locked box outside his business. This went on for several years. One year his wife, Heather, was at the office when I was going to drop off the cookies so into the tax office I walked. His wife just looked at me with this strange look as if she had never seen the cookies before. What I found out was that all those years Bob had been eating not only his cookies but hers. Now she knows to ask where her cookies are when she sees my tax return at the office.

The next story is about my friends Diana and Kerry who are both very special to me. They are also part of my large extended family. Now they live about 20 minutes away so the first few years their cookies were left on the door to be found when they returned from work. The second year I delivered the Valentine cookies the cookies came up in a conversation Diana was having with Kim, Diana’s daughter. Diana proceeded to tell Kim that she wasn't sure where the Valentine cookies came from each year. Kim looked at her mother and said, “Susan.” While Kim knew that the Valentine cookies came from me she also knew that I was the only possible choice. 

It is hard to express the amount of happiness and joy I get from these Valentine cookies. I look forward to making them weeks before the actual day comes for the baking to begin. For some of those on the list this has unfortunately turned into the only time I see them each year. Many of these deliveries turn into nice visits and time to catch up. If the delivery is a drop and run I know the cookies will bring smiles to my friends faces when they are found. Being happy is one of the healthiest things you can do for yourself. Where was there happiness in your life today? Find what makes you happy and do it often. Make finding happiness and joy in your life a positively healthy choice everyday.

"Did anybody die?" A positively healthy question.

I read a great book years ago called Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff….and it’s all small stuff by Richard Carlson. One of the great things I learned from the book was that most of the time we cause our own stress. Now that doesn’t mean that someone else didn’t start the stress initially it’s more that we keep feeding it and making it grow. The important thing to remember is most stress is really a matter of how you look situtations and the things happening around us not really what happened.

Most stress starts as just a moment in time but it is how we react to that moment where the stress comes in. Remember you are in charge of how you react, you and you alone.  You can choose to make the situation something big or something small. How long you react to the situation is also under your control. The big question to ask is whether there is another way to look at the situation that would make it less stressful.

I have already told you that I am a pile person and while I really love it when my house is clean with everything neat and tidy I also hate defeatist jobs. Housekeeping has got to be one of the most defeatist jobs in the world and my house shows it. Just as soon as you finish the mess begins again. If your children are like mine their rooms always look as though a bomb has gone off. I drove myself crazy trying to motivate and make them clean their rooms. Then one day I realized that I was the only one getting stressed about it, none of my children were. Was I creating my own stress? I gave that a lot of thought and I realized I was. From that day forward I  decided to look at their rooms differently. Then one day I realized that God had created doors. I walked over to one of the bedroom doors and closed it. It was a miricle, in an instant the room was clean. Then I walked to the next door and the same thing happened. Doors closed, problem solved, stress gone.

I have a saying I use all the time when looking at situations when stress starts to creep in. I ask myself, “Did anybody die?” If the answer is no then I know that it could not have been too important. This helps ground me and remember what is really important in my life. No one dies because the grass didn’t get mowed or the bathroom cleaned. Sometimes that cannot be said of a friend you have put off visiting or spending time with. Are you putting things off because of how you view the world around you? How much of your stress could you eliminate by looking at things differently? Stop reacting to your stress and start controlling it by making positively healthy choices everyday!