Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Healthy Lifestyles…Our January Activity

For our “Thursday” night meeting in January our topic was (surprise!):  Healthy Lifestyles.  We are lucky to have people living in our ward who have a variety of backgrounds and training, so finding instructors to help us was easy.
Karen B. taught us a lesson on the “word of wisdom”.  It had a lot of thought-provoking ideas and the main thing that I took from it is that so many members of the church think that just because they don’t smoke or drink alcohol, etc. (all of the “shalt nots” from the word of wisdom) they are living this principle.  But really, to truly be living the principle you need to be eating right and taking care of your health in general.  There was a quote read which talked about food being best when it is in its most natural state.  This makes a lot of sense.  I have tried to find an article similar to what she was saying, (including the quote), and this may not be it, but this is pretty close: 

“President Benson has also counseled us about the importance of maintaining a good diet. “In general, the more food we eat in its natural state and the less it is refined without additives, the healthier it will be for us” (Ensign, Nov. 1974, p. 66).”

That was from an article, “Not for the Body,”  by  Elder Harold G.  Hillam of the Seventy,  New Era, July 1992, 4 (To read the whole article, click here)

In general, I learned that I have a lot of work to do on this principle, but Karen stressed that since it is not just a temporal principle, but a spiritual one as well, I can receive divine assistance as I strive to keep it.


Jennifer R. (who did NOT want her picture taken, even though I thought she looked cute that night) is a dietician, and she did a great job teaching the nutrition portion of the class.  Unfortunately, I could not write fast enough to record all of the wonderful information she shared with us, but here are the things that stuck out to me:
  • Fiber is very important!  We should have 25-30 grams of fiber per day. 
  • Make sure your bread is made from whole wheat flour, and eat whole grain pasta.
  • Brown or wild rice is better for you than white rice.
  • Fruits are better than fruit juice because of the fiber factor.
  • We need 5 servings of fruit and vegetables a day.  A serving of vegetables is 1 cup of leafy green vegetables or ½ cup of cooked vegetables.
  • Drink milk!  We need our dairy.  However, we should have skim milk (preferred) or 1% (acceptable).
  • A serving size of meat is 3 ounces, or about the size of your palm (that’s YOUR palm, not your husband’s big palm).
  • We should have fish twice a week; be aware that canned fish has a lot of salt.
  • When talking about the benefits of an Omega 3 supplement, she mentioned that Omega 3 has blood thinning effects, so people with health conditions should consult a doctor.  (I didn’t know that!)
  • Olive oil and canola oil are the preferred cooking oils.  Don’t let the oil get so hot that it starts smoking, for this will change its properties (I didn’t know that, either!).
  • And of course, DRINK MORE WATER!
A website that Jennifer really likes is RD411.com (click here)
In fact, here are the links, by title, for the handouts that we were given:
The final part of the evening was our exercise portion.  Tiina C. is not only a ward member, but is also an instructor at an area gym.  She was kind enough to lead us through some exercises.
Here’s Tiina striking a pose for me:

Unfortunately, you really just had to be there to really catch it.  I can tell you that she stressed strength training for women and told us that you can still be soft and feminine while muscular.  She also talked a lot about doing exercise for “core strength”.  Having strong abdominal and back muscles just helps your overall stature and movement.  Also, form is everything while doing exercise.  It is about safety and not doing more harm than good.  We had a really good time, and I was able to do some squats without having my kneecaps shoot across the room.  Hooray!
Afterwards, we had refreshments.  We had a make-your-own fruit and yogurt parfait bar with several flavors of yogurt, as well as some fresh fruit:

Topped with granola made by Rachel H:

Granola
4 cups of oats
1 cup of Wheat germ
¼ cup of oil
¾ cup of honey

- Mix altogether and put on a cookie sheet pan
- Cook at 300 for 16-18 minutes
We had some muffins, also made by Rachel, on the side:

Whole Wheat Brown Sugar Muffins

½ c butter
1 c brown sugar
1 egg
¼ t vanilla

---cream together

1 t baking powder
1 c milk
2 c whole wheat flour
Chopped nuts*

Mix baking powder & flour
Slowly add milk & flour mix (a little milk then a little flour)

Bake 425 degrees
12-15 minutes

If giggling and chatting and enthusiasm are any measure, the activity was a big success.  We had so much fun we couldn’t even get out of the building on time!