Obesity And Healthcare Costs

Posted by random olio

Obesity and money. Two topics that can be taboo to talk about in our society. Yet they should not be. We should be able to talk about our financial future and our bodies, our health, or lack thereof. These past few years I have become hardcore about my health; what I eat and what I put into my body. I would also add that I have become adamant about what goes into my body via my mind too. I want Chris to make this print for the wall when you come in our front door:

“You are responsible for the energy you bring into this home.”

I think we are all responsible (or need to be) for what we allow into our thoughts, how we treat our bodies, and how we treat others. It all starts with respect. This article I read recently really opened my thought. It is not an article as much as it is an infographic on obesity and healthcare costs.

image from infographic

It is hard for me to even explain here, so you’ll have to click the above link to look at the charts and graphs of obesity costs. It shows me that we have our work cut out for us. How did this happen? How have we as a country become so obese? How has it become the fastest growing healthcare challenge? What are we going to do about it?

My hope is that we start by putting down our iPhones and computers. Actually bring the iPhone, I do not care, just get outside with it and start to move, and move, and move. And stop eating fast food, and processed foods, and preservatives. And start eating natural fruits and vegetables. And start caring about the energy that you bring into your home. This body has to serve us, it has to support us.

Do you think about the energy you bring into your day? Into your job? Your home? Your body?

Emotional decisions: Another cookie? New jeans?

Posted by random olio

So I just found out that yesterday was National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day. I had no idea. I did not see any details about a national day when I did my research for this blog post about Chocolate Cookies being the default cookie. On Sunday, I made the cookie recipe found on this blog post. So my heart must have known that National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day was just around the corner.

I digress. Enough about cookies. It is, however, a great introduction on an idea I just read about called: “gorging on gratification.” The idea comes from the book: “The Behavior Gap: Simple Ways to Stop Doing Dumb Things with Money” by Carl Richards. It is a great book on money and life planning. Carl is a financial planner by trade, but he talks about money in conjunction with life issues. It is a thought-provoking book since money is so intertwined with the choices we make in life. How does this pertain to chocolate chip cookies? Instant gratification. This article from The New York Times discusses Carl’s term: “gorging on gratification” and gives four ways we can delay or stop immediate gratification and keep more of your money in your bank account. I also appreciated this quote from Carl’s book on emotional decisions:

“Money decisions are emotional decisions—and making good money decisions requires emotional clarity. So try to pay attention to your emotions around money. This can be as simple as considering how you feel when you get your monthly investment statement or when a medical bill arrives in the mail. Acknowledging those feelings and being aware of their potential impact on your decisions can be important, often in ways that aren’t clear right away. I’ve found myself asking some really fundamental questions during the last several years. Who I can trust? What’s really important to me? What do I really value? How much is enough? How should I really be spending my time?” page 93

So maybe those freshly baked chocolate chip cookies are not so far from your credit card statement. Maybe self-control with cookies is not that far from self-control with money. Is it hard to control how many cookies you eat, or are they too hard to pass up? How about after you have had 5? Do they still taste as good as that first one? How about that 10th pair of jeans? Do you need them? Or are they different from the others in your closet?

Emotional clarity. Maybe that is a quality we need in all facets in our life. It is something I am definitely going to explore further!

Why are Chocolate Chip Cookies the default cookie?

Posted by random olio

Ah, what a wonderful weekend I had. It was between 75-80 degrees over the weekend, and we did all we could to be outside most of the weekend. I got a little pink, or maybe a little burnt. I do not mind. As pale as I am, I am used to the first sun of the season to leave me a little crisp around the edges. We had brunch outside, ran errands, decided to stay in Portland and do an early happy hour, I sat in the sun and read, and we extensively cleaned up our back yard. A full, sun filled weekend. It is supposed to be nice again today, but then we go back to rain for the rest of the week. I am just grateful for any amount of sunshine we can get right now!

I was also going to make Chris some of his favorite chocolate chip cookies yesterday, but then I was just wiped out after hours in the sun and hours cleaning up the backyard. Instead while parking my butt on the couch, and letting my mind wander a bit, I came to this random question: Why are chocolate chip cookies the default cookie or usually the cookie of choice? At meetings you usually get a choice of ham, turkey or veggie sandwiches or wraps. When you get a cookie it is usually chocolate chip. Why is that?

When I Googled: “Why are chocolate chip cookies the default cookie” all I got was a list of recipes for chocolate chip cookies. So I decided to look at the history of the chocolate chip cookie. This is what I found on Wikipedia:

“The chocolate chip cookie was accidentally developed by Ruth Graves Wakefield in 1930. She owned the Toll House Inn, in Whitman, Massachusetts, a very popular restaurant that featured home cooking in the 1930s. Her cookbook, Toll House Tried and True Recipes, was published in 1936 by M. Barrows & Company, New York. It included the recipe “Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookie”, which rapidly became a favorite to be baked in American homes.

Wakefield is said to have been making chocolate cookies and on running out of regular baker’s chocolate, substituted broken pieces of semi-sweet chocolate from Nestlé thinking that they would melt and mix into the batter. They did not and the chocolate chip cookie was born. Wakefield sold the recipe to Nestlé in exchange for a lifetime supply of chocolate chips. Every bag of Nestlé chocolate chips sold in North America has a variation (butter vs. margarine is now a stated option) of her original recipe printed on the back.”

Ah, Nestle Toll House. Just thinking of the yellow bag reminds me of my grandma. She always made the recipe on the back of the bag of chocolate chips, and at the time (I am not sure if it is still the case today) the recipe called for Crisco. I never thought anything of it. Now I am grossed out thinking of all the many batches and batches of cookies I ate that were made with Crisco. I use butter today. My mom used margarine, mostly because I think it was the least expensive. She also made a variation of the chocolate chip cookie in bar form, what she called: “Congo Squares.” It is interesting to think my grandma = Crisco, my mom = margarine, me = butter. I guess you do not always do things they way you were raised.

Massachusetts has even named the chocolate chip cookie the state cookie. I love them, and I eat them, but how did they become the cookie of choice? What is your default cookie?

EmpowHER Blogger Network

Posted by random olio

I recently became affiliated with the EmpowHER Blogger Network. EmpowHER is a Social Health Community for Women. I highly recommend taking a moment to explore their website. You will find many women bloggers writing about women’s issues, health and wellness, exercise, eating, weight, etc. While there are lots of pages of things I might not be as interested about (on diseases, or not so happy topics) I am sure that many folks find the resources on the website helpful to them. I wanted to share their website for those of you that might be interested, as I follow their exercise and eating healthy topics.

Exercise and healthy eating is NOW important to me, but it has not always been. I grew up in Indiana, where I might have mentioned in a past blog post that corn should have been listed as the state vegetable. There is a small amusement park/area in Indiana called: Indiana Beach. They have a tagline of: “There is more than corn in Indiana.” I am not sure I believe them! Well, truth be told, I grew up hating my vegetables. It took at least until I was twenty-five years old and married before I would start to enjoy eating any vegetable (thank you, hubby for making them so yummy). I started to enjoy vegetables because of how he prepared them, and also because living in Oregon there are a vast variety of vegetables that grow local and are fresh and easily accessible to obtain, especially with our many farmers markets.

Lots of things have happened in my life since my vegetable breakthrough, I will not go into those now, but I will tell you that what has resulted from all those things is an excitement for eating healthy and for consistent exercise. Friends that knew me from a younger age are still shocked at my transformation with food. I now willingly ask for vegetables at restaurants, crave them, and know that they are benefiting my health. Changing my diet has changed my mood, my energy level, and driven me to be motivated to stay in shape and be healthy. As I have changed my diet, I have also gotten into running. I try to run at least 6 days a week, it has been a great stress release from the day. The other idea on my list to try is boxing, this article about women boxing workouts on the EmpowHER site has inspired me to see where I can start boxing in my area. Here is another good article from their website on 5 Ways to Exercise Everyday.

Take a moment to explore their website!

Do you have self-control and willpower?

Posted by random olio

A week or so ago, I finished reading: The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do To Get More of It by Kelly McGonigal. It is a good book that makes you think about when you use self-control and willpower and when you choose otherwise. I have been fascinated with the concept of willpower lately, and why some of us have a ton of self-control and others do not. Kelly explains why this happens in her book.

One of the stories she shares about willpower talks about Valerie and her mother. Valerie’s mom has been diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer’s and could no longer live by herself. Valerie and her family made the decision to have her mother moved to a long-term care facility. Valerie felt responsible for visiting her mother everyday and since her other siblings did not live nearby, Valerie was left in charge. The situation made her very angry. To deal with her frustrations, on the way home from the care facility each night, she would stop by the nearby grocery and eat cupcakes and other sweets to feel better about herself. Valerie learns about a breathing technique in one of Kelly McGonigal’s Harvard classes, that teaches an individual to release their feelings while doing this breathing technique. Here is what shifted for Valerie after trying this specific technique:

“In time, the grocery store ritual lost its appeal and was replaced with a moment-by-moment willingness to feel whatever came up throughout the day. Valerie was even able to bring that same willingness to her visits with her mother, letting herself feel her frustration instead of telling herself she wasn’t angry at her mother. It didn’t change the situation, but it took away some of the stress.” p. 221

What I love about this experience is that while Valerie used the breathing techniques to release feelings and frustrations about the situation she is in with her mother, we can all shift our thoughts (whether through breathing exercises or shifting how we think about situations) so that we make sure to feel and process our feelings as we go through our days. For the example with Valerie, she cannot really change her situation, but she can change how she approaches her situation, and the choices she makes when she leaves the care facility each day. Guess what?! Valerie also stopped going to the grocery store and eating sweets. Releasing her feelings allowed her to be with her situation and she did not have to eat sweets to cope.

Are there things in your day that you could approach differently and feel as you go through your day, so you are completely present with how things truly are?