Eat, Save, and Be Healthy

Did you know that Heart Disease is the number one killer in the United States?  Preventing heart disease is the campaign of “Million Hearts.”  The goal is to prevent one million heart attacks and strokes over the next few years. 

What can you do to prevent heart attacks?  Million Hearts has examined the research and found that there are five steps you can take to make a big difference in your risk.  They are known as the “ABCS.” 

A= Appropriate Aspirin Therapy for those who need it.   Check with your doctor as to whether taking aspirin will reduce your risk for heart attacks.

B= Blood Pressure Control

One in three adults has high blood pressure and half of them don’t have it under control.   Many have high blood pressure and don’t know it.  Known as the “silent killer” it has no symptoms or  warning signs.   Get your blood pressure checked at least once a year.  If it is high see your doctor and follow his/her recommendations.   If you need medication take it.   All of us can reduce our risk of high blood pressure by:

• Eating a healthy diet that limits sodium. 
• Maintaining a healthy weight.
• Being physically active.
• Limiting alcohol use.
• Not smoking.

C= Cholesterol Management  

One in three Americans has high cholesterol and 66% percent of those do not have it under control.  Knowing and controlling your numbers can make a difference in your heart attack risk factors.  Limit the amount of saturated fat,  trans-fat and cholesterol you  consume, to avoid raising your bad cholesterol levels. Using monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats in place of saturated and trans-fat can lower blood cholesterol levels. Eating a high fiber diet can also help lower cholesterol.

Being physically active can increase your good cholesterol levels.  Research has found that eating too many carbohydrates can lower good cholesterol for some people.   

S= Smoking Cessation and Stress Reduction  

Smoking greatly increases your risk of heart disease by injuring blood vessels and increasing the hardening of the arteries.  Stopping smoking can reduce your risk.  Don’t start and if you do smoke, quit. 

 Stress Reduction   Use healthy methods of dealing with stress and keep your stress levels under control.  Exercise,  eating healthy, getting a good night’s sleep, relaxation techniques and meditation are ways that can help you deal with stress so that it does not overwhelm you. 

Getting a biometric health screening can provide you with the clues needed as to determine your  risk factors.   Making changes in those risk factors can add up to preventing or delaying heart disease and stroke.     Follow the “ABCS” to reduce your risk and join the campaign.  You can find more information and join the campaign at http://millionhearts.hhs.gov/index.html  

Author:  Pat Brinkman, Extension Educator Family and Consumer Sciences, Ohio State University Extension, Miami Valley EERA

Reviewed by:  Linnette Goard, Field Specialist, Food Safety, Selection and Management, Family and Consumer Sciences, Ohio State University Extension.

References:

Materials from the following websites downloaded on February 19, 2013:

http://millionhearts.osu.edu

 http://millionhearts.hhs.gov/index.html

http://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/

http://www.cdc.gov/cholesterol

Behavior happens because it is something we have done over and over, i. e. it is a habit, OR it is something that we do because we have a reason for doing it.  Changing behavior, therefore, requires different strategies for these different types of behavior.  Researchers have studied intentional and habitual behavior and have some ideas about how we might make changes.

Behavior that is “new, untried and unlearned” happens as a result of intentions:  a person means to do it for some reason.  As the behavior is repeated, particularly if it takes place in the same context (at the same place, with the same people, etc.) the brain puts it into memory and the behavior becomes guided by habit, a state in which a person doesn’t have to think as much about it – it becomes automatic.  These habitual behaviors become triggered by certain stimuli as they are repeated, and we may find ourselves doing something that we didn’t intend to do.  The repeating of the action builds a memory that links the action with the context in which it takes place.  As a result, well-developed habits may become stronger forces causing behavior than either attitudes or intentions.

Habits have been studied in a number of situations and seem to have four qualities that make them automatic:  a lack of awareness of performing the behavior, difficulty in controlling the behavior, mental efficiency – being able to perform the behavior with little conscious thought, and performing the behavior without actually intending to do it.

Making New Year’s Resolutions work for you:

• Creating a new habit. If you want to add a positive behavior to your life, find a way to make it a habit.  This will build it into your brain as an automatic function and increase the odds of your keeping it up during the new year.  Repetition in a stable context (consistent in the way you do it, place in which it occurs, etc.) is important.  Eventually you don’t have to give it much thought and the stress of the action is reduced.  As you begin this strategy, your intentions take charge  – you will need to keep thinking about what you are doing and why until you have repeated it enough times that it begins to move into your memory as a habit.  Eventually it will become automatic and you will find yourself doing it often without thinking about it.

• Stopping unwanted behavior. Researchers suggest that stimulus control (changing the environment) is important for changing behavior that is a response to temptation.  Because the context (or environment) in which the behavior takes place provides the cues that trigger the behavior, avoiding that environment (such as the people, the places, sights and sounds, etc.) is usually necessary.  This strategy will help because you are not exposed to the temptation and reminded of the behavior.  You are stopping it before it starts.

• Breaking strong habits. Because old habits have been put into your brain so firmly, they require conscious effort to stop. Just changing your intentions is not enough for most people to break a strong habit. It requires vigilant monitoring of your behavior and intervening after the automatic response has been triggered – stopping it after it starts.  This strategy will require more awareness of what you are doing:  you will have to be on high alert for a while.  Each time the habit is triggered you will have to take action to stop it.  You will have to pay attention to break the automatic response.  If you can put into action a new behavior when you realize that you are doing the old unwanted one, a new habit can eventually replace the old one.

Sources:

Quinn, J. M., Pascoe, A., Wood, W. & Neal, D. T.  (2010). Can’t control yourself?  Monitor those bad habits.  Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 36, 499-511.

Verplanken, B. (2006).  Beyond frequency:  Habit as mental construct.  British Journal of Social Psychology 45, 639-656.

Wood, W., Tam, L. & Witt, M. G.  (2005). Changing circumstances, disrupting habits.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 88, 918-933.

The small repeated expenses are the “budget busters” for many people.  It can be hard to know the impact of these small items on your overall expense picture without adding them up.

The eXtension Financial Security for All web site features a new calculator for estimating the annual cost of small repeated expenses.  Go to the link and enter your expenses for items such as coffee, sodas, lunches, gasoline that you purchase frequently.  The calculator will add up the items that you enter on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.  You can see the approximate annual cost.

The link to the Budget Calculator is  http://www.extension.org/pages/Budget_Calculator The link takes you to a short description of the calculator and then another link (https://share.extension.org/public/FSA/budget_calculator.swf) takes you directly to the calculator.   You can print your information or just review it online.

New year, new you?  Think that requires drastic change?  Here’s a reason not to adopt the latest diet outlawing your favorite food group.  Changing habits is a gradual process of tweaking and making adjustments in behavior. It’s not something you can turn on like a light switch.  So forgot about adopting rules will you will break before the end of the month, if not the week or tomorrow.  Instead, identify small changes that put you on the right track towards more energy and improved health.

• Replace whole and 2% milk with 1% or skim milk – you’ll save up to 70 calories and 8 grams of fat per cup
• Fill half your dinner plate with vegetables — load it up! Americans do not eat enough from this nutrient rich, low-calorie food group
• Forgo the bakery bagel for 2 pieces of whole wheat toast — boosts fiber with fewer calories and blunts the rise in blood sugar
• Replace your mocha with a latte –lattes have more calcium and much less sugar; use cocoa powder to add the chocolate flavor
• Look up calorie content of meals before visiting a restaurant — studies suggest knowing the calorie content of food empowers people to make a lower-calorie choice
• Wean from juices and eat a piece of fruit instead  — whole fruit is more satisfying than gulping down liquids
• Add beans to soups, casseroles, and stews — beans are loaded with protein and fiber, increasing satiety
• Swap your stick of butter or margarine with olive or canola oil — these oils contain fats that help lower cholesterol
• Replace fried fish and chicken with grilled or baked fish and chicken — Select fish which contain Omega 3 fatty acids like salmon, tuna, and trout and you’ve made the best choice.

Got a simple substitution or small change that’s worked for you?  Let us know!  Cheers, Julie

The nutrition science has pointed to added sugar in the diet as a problem for a long time (linking it to high cholesterol, high triglycerides, high blood pressure, and obesity), but until yesterday, there was no set amount that was recommended.  How much is too much?  2 cookies or 5 cookies a day?  2 can of soda a day?  a single poptart? (I’ve eaten 3 pieces of chocolate since I started typing this article….too much?)

The American Heart Association is the first to release specific guidelines for added sugar intake.  Added sugars supply “empty calories” and tend to replace nutrient-rich foods.  New AHA guidance recommends added sugars account for 100 calories a day for women or 150 calories for men. For the average adult, that’s roughly 5 to 9 teaspoons of sugar per day, or about 20-40 grams of added sugars.

Added sweeteners are sugars that aren’t naturally part of the food we eat.  Added sugar not only includes the white table sugar you might spoon into a cup of coffee or a bowl of cereal, but also sugar added to food and drinks before you even purchase them. Some foods high in added sugar are not surprising – soft drinks, candy, cakes, and cookies, but would you have considered some yogurts and granola?  In fact, figuring out how many added sugars are in a food can be quite a challenge!  Added sugars are not listed separately on the food label.  The term “Sugars” or “Carbohydrates” will not tell you the amount of added sugar in the food.

Instead, look at the ingredients listing.  Some of the most common added sugars are corn sweetener, corn syrup, dextrose, glucose, high fructose corn syrup, honey, maltose, malt syrup, molasses, sucrose, and syrup.  How many are listed?  Is the sugar a main ingredient (one of the first ones on the list)?

The most common naturally occurring sugars are fructose and lactose, found in fruit and dairy products.  Fruit and dairy foods with naturally occurring sugars deliver nutrients while still satisfying our craving for sweetness. For example, fruits have essential vitamins and minerals as well as protective agents known as phytonutrients (e.g., carotenoids and lycopene); dairy products contain calcium, protein, and vitamin D.

Any easy way to cut back on added sugars: replace soft drinks and other sugar-sweetened beverages with water, milk, and a small amount of 100% fruit juice.  Or exchange your signature coffee drink for a cappuccino or regular coffee.

For more information, check out this article from CNN.

Cheers, Julie

Recently, most of us have had many opportunities to consider the financial condition of our economy and how that impacts us.  For some of us, this is the time to change the way we have been managing our money.

But, altering our behavior is not easy.  In fact, changing money habits can be especially difficult. How we’ve always handled money feels familiar, comfortable, and predictable – not only to ourselves but also to those around us.  Family and friends often expect us to act and respond in certain ways and may even have vested interests in having things continue as they are.  Because family members and friends may feel uncomfortable when they see us trying to make changes, they may set up barriers – either subtle or obvious — to prevent change.  We may not be clear about how to implement change – what is a better way to manage?  Change is not easy or straightforward.  We may try things that don’t work so well for us, or we may get discouraged when our attempts fall short of what we desired.  One good source of information and suggested ways to start new money management practices is the following site:  http://www.extension.org/personal_finance In addition to the suggested practices and practical advice by experts found at extension.org, the research below provides guidance on setting and accomplishing financial goals.

Research sheds some light on how we might be most successful in changing financial behavior.

The first step in changing our money management is to set a goal – what do we want to achieve and by when?  Research studies have pointed to three main keys to increasing success in accomplishing your goals.  The first point is that goals should be  clear, narrowly focused, accomplished without much difficulty, and completed relatively soon (naming a specific date). Tip #1:  Set goals that are specific in terms of what you want, how much it might require of time, money and any other resources, and when you want to have it.

The second key to being successful in reaching your goals is to know why you have chosen the goal.  In the terminology of some psychologists today, “you need to own your goal.”  In other words, a goal should come from you for your purposes and NOT be handed down by someone else. It must fit with who you are and what you need and want, being realistic about your time and money resources, of course.

The goal may also have to be planned with others in your family or household. Everyone involved needs to be considered and everyone needs to feel ownership in, and commitment to, the goal in order for it to be accomplished.  Tip #2:  Set a goal that is one you want to achieve and know why you want to achieve it.

Having your goal defined and being sure you know why you have set it are two important contributors to goal success. The third key factor is having a specific plan to reach your goal. The action plan will need to have dates attached to it, so that you know when you will start, when you will reach certain milestones along the way, and when you will fully accomplish your goal.  Sometimes there are dates imposed by circumstances outside yourself, such as holidays, vacation dates, birthdays, graduation dates, weddings, etc.

The other important part of action planning is to recognize that you will have some distractions and temptations to use your time or money for things other than achieving your goal. These opportunities to spend now rather than save for the future come to everyone and most of us find it hard to avoid these temptations.  These enticements may prevent you from reaching your goal on time. It is easy to become discouraged when these things happen. However, if you plan for ways to avoid or recover from these disruptions, you can quickly get back on track. Tip #3:  Establish a target date and create a detailed plan of action to follow that will act as a guide to achieving your goal, including ways to overcome obstacles or temptations that could interfere with completing your goal.

References

Koestner, R., Lekes, N., Powers, T. A., & Chicoine, E. (2002).  Attaining Personal Goals:  Self Concordance Plus Implementation Intentions Equals Success.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83 (1), pp. 231-244.

Prochaska, J., Norcross, J., DiClemente, C. (1994) Changing for Good, New York: Avon Books.

Seiling, S. (1999) “Behavior Change and Money Management” in McKinney, C., Seiling, S., Little, F. and Varley, I.,  Pathways to Money 2000+, Section 1, pp. 18-23.