{"id":2765,"date":"2017-08-21T16:14:56","date_gmt":"2017-08-21T21:14:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/?p=2765"},"modified":"2017-08-21T16:14:56","modified_gmt":"2017-08-21T21:14:56","slug":"sandwich-in-some-healthy-habits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/sandwich-in-some-healthy-habits\/","title":{"rendered":"Sandwich in Some Healthy Habits"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today when the moon gets sandwiched between the earth and the sun seems like the perfect opportunity to sandwich in some healthy habits. I’m sure you’ve seen a million warnings in the past two weeks about protecting your eyes during today’s eclipse. You probably prepared by purchasing some special viewing glasses or creating a pinhole viewer. That tiny bit of preparation will protect your eyes as you view something spectacular.
\n

\"eclipse\"
Eclipse
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\nMaking tiny changes in preparation for better health as you age can be just as easy and have a big impact over time. If you look at everything you think you should be doing to live a perfectly healthy lifestyle, it may so overwhelming that you don’t ever get started. Statistics indicate that the majority of us fall in this group. The CDC reports that only 20% of Americans meet physical activity recommendations and a 2016 study indicates only 3% of us live a healthy lifestyle.<\/p>\n

It is important to note that you can improve your health by making small changes over time. A study published July 13, 2017, in the New England Journal of Medicine found that “Improved diet quality over 12 years was consistently associated with a decreased risk of death. A 20-percentile increase in diet scores (indicating an improved quality of diet) was significantly associated with a reduction in total mortality of 8 to 17%….” In other words, it didn’t take 100% improvement in diet to result in a significant reduction in mortality. And mortality is the extreme. Just imagine how much small changes can improve your everyday energy level, stamina, strength, flexibility, mental acuity, mood, and comfort level.<\/p>\n

So often we look at eating well and working out as all or nothing propositions. When all seems like more than we can handle, we go for nothing. Knowing that even small changes can make a difference seems to indicate we should look at healthy habits more like a savings or investment account with benefits that grow slowly, but surely.<\/p>\n

What do small changes look like?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Drink water 95% of the time rather than soda, diet soda, energy drinks, sweetened coffee drinks, lemonade, sweet tea, hot chocolate, or any other sweetened drink.
\nEat an orange for breakfast rather than drinking orange juice.
\nEat plain, unsweetened yogurt topped with fresh fruit rather than flavored yogurt.
\nChoose eggs and whole grain toast for breakfast rather than cereal and milk.
\nSnack on raw, unsalted nuts rather than the salted, roasted version.
\nChoose black beans over pinto beans.
\nOrder a side of mixed vegetables rather than a choice of potato most of the time.
\nReserve dessert for special occasions.
\nSnack on fruit rather than candy.
\nPop your own popcorn using a tiny bit of olive oil spray.
\nGet salad dressing on the side and limit to 1 tbsp.
\nBuy frozen vegetables rather than canned when you can’t get fresh.
\nCook with olive oil.
\nTake leftovers for lunch rather than eating fast food.
\nSubstitute baked fish for one serving of red meat each week.
\nEat less prepared meat.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sandwich in some activity<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even if you don’t have an hour to spend in the gym, you can increase physical activity during your daily routine.<\/p>\n

Stretch every morning.
\nWalk to lunch.
\nWalk a few flights of stairs before catching the elevator.
\nDo stair stretches before you head upstairs to shower.
\nRegularly park on the far side of the parking lot.
\nDo some yoga breathing at your desk.
\nCarry your own boxes.
\nWear ankle weights on Saturday.
\nDo tricep curls with your cast iron skillet before cooking.
\nFind a video workout you can do at home when there’s no time to go to the gym.
\nCombine lifting light weights with warrior poses and lunges.<\/em><\/p>\n

Make sure to rest<\/strong><\/p>\n

Get the electronic lights out of the bedroom.
\nAllow plenty of time for sleep.
\nPlan some down time each week.
\nDo something fun each week.
\nDon’t skip vacations.<\/em><\/p>\n

As you can see, nothing on these lists sounds like a big deal. Everything is easily doable. In fact, it’s hard to believe that these changes can make any significant difference in your health. The great thing is, they can. Simple changes like these when made for an extended period of time can have many positive effects. Why not sandwich a few into your day?<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/media\/releases\/2013\/p0502-physical-activity.html<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.mayoclinicproceedings.org\/article\/S0025-6196(16)00043-4\/abstract<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.nejm.org\/doi\/full\/10.1056\/NEJMoa1613502<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today when the moon gets sandwiched between the earth and the sun seems like the perfect opportunity to sandwich in some healthy habits. I’m sure you’ve seen a million warnings in the past two weeks about protecting your eyes during today’s eclipse. You probably prepared by purchasing some special viewing glasses or creating a pinhole … Continue reading “Sandwich in Some Healthy Habits”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1],"tags":[1109,106,1848,1850,1852,1705,1851,1849],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2765"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2765"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2770,"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2765\/revisions\/2770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}