By Sara Grassmeyer
Wellness Coordinator
Happy New Year! With a new year comes an abundance of new possibilities like trying something new, improving your health, increasing your exercise or crossing another important event off your bucket list. As Wellness Program Coordinator for the Porter County Parks, I urge you to set a realistic health and exercise goal for 2012. All adults should be getting 150 minutes of exercise each week, or thirty minutes five times a week.
How close are you? For someone who is starting a health and exercise program, thirty minutes might feel very overwhelming, but let me help. Your thirty minutes a day can be cumulative. You can wake up in the morning, ride a recumbent bike, walk, run, stretch or work on your core. For your second ten minutes: walk around the building you work, park further from the office or walk during your lunchtime. Finally, finish your day with a walk to your favorite neighborhood spot. Longer than ten minutes? Good! When you’re comfortable and you feel like you’re ready for more of a challenge, add length, make your walking route more challenging or move a little faster. Now, enjoy!
In addition to setting and accomplishing your exercise goal this year, let’s look at nutrition. Do you know what the recommendations for fruits, vegetables, grains, protein and dairy are for YOU? If you log onto www.choosemyplate.gov and develop a profile, you will be able to track your daily caloric intake as well as your physical activity. This will help you to objectively look at your diet and see where there are gaps or overindulgences. This is something I have committed to completing on a daily basis. It is a challenge and time-consuming, but I love the reports and it has been really neat to review my meals and where I get most of my calories from.
I warn you, make sure that you are tracking your food as close to consumption as possible. The first afternoon I started entering my food, I completely forgot what I had for dinner the night before. I have gotten a lot better about tracking while/shortly after I eat… but it is tough! If the computerized system is not your style, feel free just to write down what you eat. You still will feel more accountable for your calories and the fear of writing something down (like Twinkies) might persuade you to choose a better option.
Good luck this year. Every Friday you will hear from me and the Parks about small things that can improve your overall health. If you have any questions, need motivation or want me to talk about a specific subject, please feel free to email me at sgrassmeyer@porterco.org. This blog is for you and I would love to hear from you so we can be healthy together.
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