“Designed To Move” – Nike Does It Again

Posted by random olio

Hope you had a good weekend! It is hard to believe it is October 1, 2012. A quick housekeeping note: I have changed the look and feel of my blog. Let me know what you think!

A while back I applied for a job with the “Alliance for a Healthier Generation.” It is connected to the Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association and its purpose is to assist with childhood obesity. Much of the work they do is with kids and schools. While I did not get the job, I continue to watch what they do, and childhood obesity is still a subject that extremely interests me. We need to have more education and understanding about how what we eat and how we move affect our health. Both can be strong contributing factors to childhood obesity.

Which is why I was giddy when I heard about Nike’s “Designed to Move” campaign. For those of you familiar with The Girl Effect, you will know what I mean when I say their campaigns are just one word: badass. You should also check out this ESPN article for more details and background on Designed to Move. Be sure to sign up for email updates and share with others on Facebook. This is an initiative we all need to be behind.

This video, as well as a conversation I had while having dinner with my sister and her boyfriend over the weekend, reminds me of my own childhood sports experiences (or non experiences). I wanted to play basketball in middle school. The only shoes I had at the time were fake “Keds.” Due to regulations with playing on a basketball court, we had to have non-marking basketball shoes to play. However, we could not afford them. Back then, few people had credit cards to put items on when you could not afford your purchase. There was layaway. Which meant we had to wait a long time to actually receive our purchase. We also did not have a car at the time to take me to basketball practice. So I never got to play.

I do not want the same outcome for my children. I want them to play soccer if they want to play soccer. I want to be able to have whatever opportunities are available, if they are interested. I want them to move, be active and challenged, and eat healthy. Every child should have the opportunities available to them to play ball, eat healthy, and be educated on their choices!

“Forks Over Knives”

Posted by random olio

It is imperative that you watch the documentary: “Forks Over Knives.” We saw it Tuesday night, and I cannot tell you loud enough that you have to watch it. It is a fascinating take on our health, food, obesity. So the first quote that hit home at the very beginning was this one:

“We pay more for health care per person than any industrialized country in the world, yet we are sicker than ever.”

Wow. That says a lot doesn’t it? We spend so much money on our health, when really we should be spending our money on buying good fruits and vegetables. Throwing away the sugar, cookies, pop-tarts, etc. My rule of thumb is to try to eat as much of my food that is alive. Fruit is alive. Vegetables are alive. They are grown through the sun. They were not made with chemicals in a lab. They were not created with artificial flavors. Anything created from fake sugars, flavors, and preservatives were never alive. Something that was alive transfers that energy to you. You want to eat that real energy. Alive = real energy = your energy.

I found this quote fascinating:

“Let food be thy medicine.” Hippocrates

Hippocrates said this. Wow. Hippocrates was born in 460 BC and died in 370 BC. He was definitely well before his time. We should start listening to him now. Food that is alive is the best way to care for the body. Which leads me to my next fascinating quote from this documentary:

“The doctor of the future will no longer treat the human frame with drugs, but rather will cure and prevent disease with nutrition.” Thomas Edison

Edison was born in 1847 and died in 1937. It sounds like we still have not seen the future. It is starting though. More individuals are finding that whole foods, vegetables, and fruits are the best way to take care of the body. Yet, we are still treating most ailments with drugs. Why? Because it is easier. It is maybe the easiest thing. Pop a pill or eat spinach? Pop a pill or have a salad? Pop a pill and have a cookie? It seems easiest to just pop a pill. What is harder is to change our habits and make eating healthy food a priority in our life. Whole foods fill our stomachs and we do not eat as much. Eating foods that do not contain natural fibers mean that our stomachs do not fill up as full, and we eat more, gain weight, and the result = unhappiness. It is a continuous process from day-to-day. Two more interesting quotes:

“He that takes medicine and neglects diet, wastes the time of his doctor.” – Ancient Chinese Proverb

“One-quarter of what you eat keeps you alive. The other three-quarters keeps your doctor alive. -Ancient Egyptian Proverb

All such great ideas. Go out and watch this documentary. It might change the way you view food and your doctor visits. It might change your life.

What Makes You Happy?

Posted by random olio

Do you ever stop and think about what makes you happy? Is there something that brings a smile to your face throughout the day? Or even once a day?

Chris brings a smile to my face. When I think of him during the day, when I see his name show up on my phone. A text, or a voicemail. It is a reminder to me that he is thinking of me. I try to return the favor. It is nice to be thought of isn’t it?

Little babies that start laughing and cannot stop. That makes me happy. Laughter in general makes me happy. When you watch a genuine moment between two individuals, whether two co-workers are making a connection, or you see someone at the store helping another person.

Seeing someone passionate about something makes me happy. It could be when you hear someone sing and it sends chills throughout your body, because you feel the sound of the music and their voice together and it moves you. When you see a couple dancing, and you can see and feel their connection.

Smiles make me happy. You know the kind where their eyes are crinkled and you know that it is real, genuine happiness. When you nail it in a work meeting, or you someone else brings their game to the table and you are just in awe of what they are capable of and what you know you can learn from them.

Hugs. Hugs make me happy. They ground me. I love this quote from this recent Daily Om:

“Many of the happiest people on earth are also those coping with the most serious challenges. They have learned to make time for those simple yet superb pleasures that can be enjoyed quickly and easily. Cultivating a happy heart takes no more than five minutes. The resultant delight will be neither complex nor complicated, but it will be profound and will serve as a reminder that there is always a reason to smile.”

laugh as we have always laughed…on side of Portland building

What makes you happy?

Does Exercise Makes You Smarter?

Posted by random olio

I recently read this article in Fast Company titled: “Working Out Doesn’t Just Make You Stronger, It Makes You Smarter.” There are great infographics involved that help to tell the story. The article really made me think. I am not that old, but I do remember what it was like to grow up without a television. I am not going to go on and on about how I had to walk 5 miles to school (I did not have to), but I will tell you that times have changed and I do not think it is a good thing. We used to be outside, get dirty, play in creeks, ride our bikes, the list goes on. We did not sit in front of the television for hours during the sunlight portion of the day. We used our bodies, worked our muscles, got scraps and burns and war wounds. We were ACTIVE!

These days between televisions, video games (um Angry Birds can suck you in for hours), and not to mention iPads kids have so many excuses for not going outside. Their brains are highly wired for the mechanical. Yes, they learn lots of great problem solving skills, competition, and how to find their way around a computer, game, and app. What I worry is that they have lost their creativity. Whatever happened to getting lost in the woods and playing tag? Does that bore the minds of today’s youth? It sort of scares me. The statistics in this quote from the article are shocking:

“Children–who should be buzzing about with so much energy that we have to ask them not to exercise–aren’t moving around that much anymore. (Ironically, part of the problem is the diminished role of phys ed in many public schools.) Only one in four children get 30 minutes of daily exercise, and by the time they’re teenagers, only 12% are getting their daily recommended amount of physical activity.”

Only 12% of children get the daily recommended amount of physical activity. Only 12%. What are we going to do to change this? As mentioned in the above article, exercise stimulates brain cell growth. I like that. It is a quick reminder that we need to move to think better. I believe it. I feel more clear and less sluggish when I have worked out, when I have moved. I am sharper, clearer, and ready to tackle the issues in my thought.

Parting words from the article today: “Fitter Body, Fitter Mind.”

Goodbye Photoshop, Hello Reality!

Posted by random olio

My senior year in college I did an independent class with my friend, Whitney. We developed the curriculum for our studies that quarter. The focus: The Objectification of Women in Media. We wanted to research, learn, and dig deep about what women and girls were really looking out when they looked at women in the media. Our main focus was on advertising – specifically in magazines. Jean Kilbourne was an author and filmmaker we followed; I definitely recommend reviewing her work. We went to a woman’s conference where she spoke. We did interviews, peer groups, and sessions with freshman women. We lived and breathed advertising and we learned a lot. To this day I cannot look at an ad without picking it apart.

Which is why I love this change.org petition to Teen Vogue (why is there even a Teen Vogue?) to show their models in their real form without Photoshop. They had already petitioned Seventeen magazine with this result:

“We’re really excited, because Seventeen didn’t just promise one un-photoshopped spread a month, they went even further by promising not to change the faces or body size of their models, to listen to readers’ feedback and to celebrate beauty in all of its diverse shapes, sizes and colors.”

Rock On! I love that women and girls are starting these petitions. We should live in a world that celebrates women for their real beauty. For what they look like when they wake up in the morning. For living and being proud of our curves, flaws, and differences. By having magazines print photos with models in unrealistic ways, it makes girls and women think that they will never achieve that level of beauty. The fact is they will never achieve it, because many times it is not possible. Even for the model in the photo.

We need to advertise, publish, and present images of reality. The good, the bad, and the flawed. We are all perfect just the way we are!