Raising the health bar in 2012

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Raising the health bar in 2012

By Sondra E Z Hines – January 10, 2012

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Sondra E. Z. Hines, AILT, is an adjunct professor of health & wellness and is certified to teach group fitness exercise and Zumba. Wednesday Wellness - Fitness News You Can Use is published weekly. Email: sondraezhines@yahoo.com.

It’s January and Americans are faithfully working to fulfill the No. 1 New Year’s resolution: weight loss.

The airwaves are saturated with svelte, powerhouse celebrities hustling weight-loss promises — Jennifer Hudson (Weight Watchers), Janet Jackson (Nutra System) and Mariah Carey (Jenny Craig).

According to a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine, 70 percent of American women and 90 percent of American men will eventually get fat. The Journal of the American Medical Association states that roughly 70 percent of Americans are currently either overweight or obese, including my late mother.

Although mom was elegant, intelligent, loving, funny and a great cook, she — like millions of Americans — battled losing weight. Her struggle and subsequent death propelled me to live a healthier lifestyle. In doing so, I feel compelled to raise the health bar higher in 2012 than I did in 2011.

Therefore, in honor of January being National Healthy Weight Awareness Month, I’m committing to: eating more fruits and dark green leafy vegetables, growing a vegetable garden, slashing my daily Latte to once a per week and replacing it with a healthy black or green tea (one study found that green and black teas have 10 times the amount of antioxidants found in fruits and veggies), eliminating artificial sweeteners (commonly found in bottled juices, including my favorite — pomegranate blueberry).

Qcitymetro readers, what are your health resolutions for 2012? More exercise, losing weight? Please share your thoughts.

Exercising in the cold

Speaking of exercise, the chilly temperatures are no excuse to skip working out. There are plenty of calorie-burning options for indoors, as noted by Carolinas Medical Center:

• Aerobics class/rent an exercise DVD — burns 240 calories

• Swimming indoors — burns 300 calories and is less jarring on your joints than running

• Include dumbbells or weight machines in your workout — burns 220 calories and improves balance and coordination.

• Walking inside malls — burns up to 400+ calories, depending on your weight, distance walked and speed

Health Headlines

Serena Williams hates exercising?: The 13-time grand slam holder was quoted as saying in a USA Today article:

"I mean, I don't love tennis today, but I'm here, and I can't live without it, so I'm still here and I don't want to go anywhere any time soon. It's not that I've fallen out of love — I've actually never liked sports, and I never understood how I became an athlete. I don't like working out, I don't like anything that has to do with working physically. If it involves sitting down or shopping, I'm excellent at it."

Black girls on low-carb diet: Childhood obesity rates continue to grow, especially for African American kids. New finds from The University of Alabama may help change these numbers.

Fit Tip

Don’t skip washing your hands. Shared surfaces, i.e. door handles, computer keyboards, etc. carry nasty germs and viruses. One way to combat these germs is frequent hand washing. “Many diseases are spread through hand-to-hand or hand-to-food contact. You can prevent illnesses such as colds, flu, gastrointestinal disorders, food-borne infections, infectious diarrhea and meningitis with proper hand hygiene.” Using warm water, lather well and rub your hands together vigorously for at least 10 to 15 seconds, or as long as it takes to sing the "ABC" song or "Happy Birthday" twice. (Today’s Fit Tip provided by Carolinas Medical Center.)

For more health/fitness-related tales, tips, testimonials and more, visit Qcitymetro's Health page: www.qcitymetro.com/health.