Choose You Blog

This weeklong observance promotes healthy habits and reminds women to get active. Encouragement towards healthy eating and regular checkups are also key to National Women’s Health Week, May 13-19, 2012.

In fact, Monday, May 14th is National Checkup day!  Be sure to visit your doctor or schedule your checkup.  Getting tests for cancer are vital to the early detection of cancer and other conditions.

Choose You! For a community of support, ways to get active, healthy eating tips, and tips on when to get checked for cancer go to http://www.chooseyou.com/Make-A-Commitment.aspx.

Fitness expert Holly Perkins talks about taking small steps toward reaching your fitness goal. Find out more information about how to choose you and get active at http://www.chooseyou.com/play.

Have you heard about the American Cancer Society’s recent APB? That stands for All Play Bulletin, and this video explains why it’s time to get out, get active, and have fun during the month of May!

Help us inspire 100,000 acts of physical activity by the end of the month and post your photos and videos to Facebook.com/chooseyou. We want to see how you choose play!

Choose You is the American Cancer Society’s national movement that inspires women to put their health first and make healthy lifestyle choices, such as maintaining a healthy weight, to stay well and help prevent cancer. One of the easiest and most enjoyable ways to maintain a healthy weight is by engaging in physical activity that feels like play. Visit ChooseYou.com/play in May to learn more about how you can take charge of your health by discovering fun ways to get active.

By: Kristy Cook, Community Representative

The other day I saw a quote that read, “You know your life has changed when you look at going to the grocery store like it is going on a vacation.” I think most mothers can relate to that.

I have three boys ranging in age from four to nine. They are all very active; they like to play football, baseball, and soccer. Keeping your family busy makes bedtime a lot easier, but makes taking time for yourself difficult. So little trips to the grocery store or going to get the Sunday paper feel like my own getaway.

At the beginning of the year, like most people I made New Year’s resolutions. The first was for both me and my kids to eat healthier (I consider that one resolution). The second was for taking time for myself to do some kind of activity- – like yoga, zumba or swimming – as long as it was something I could do by myself, without a child or husband needing my attention.  Taking time for yourself- “choosing you” can be easy!

Resolution 1: Eating Healthier

Over the last couple of months I have discovered that – when both parents work full-time and you have three little busybodies – it’s all about planning.  In order to eat healthier, I had to plan better. That meant I would have to actually sit down and write a weekly menu.

It’s still a work in progress, but I definitely see the difference between when I do plan and when I don’t. When I plan, we have fresh vegetables instead of canned. When I plan, the boys eat an hour earlier, giving them fewer opportunities to fill up on snacks before dinner and more time to eat before homework and bath time.

Resolution 2: Making Healthy Time for Me

My second resolution was to do something just for me that would be healthy for my body and mind. The problem is that by mid-January, I still hadn’t figured out what “my time” was going to be. I had a gym membership, but I never used it. I live in a good subdivision, but I never walk it. I just couldn’t find that one thing that was going to motivate me to “choose me.”

Then, at an office meeting one morning in January, I learned about Determination, the American Cancer Society’s endurance event training program which gives athletes the opportunity to raise awareness and millions of dollars to fight cancer. I was able to kick start resolutions by doing a few simple things!

• Planning: By sitting down and writing a weekly menu I was able to start eating healthier. We have fresh vegetables more often versus canned, and the boys are less likely to fill up on snacks in between meals.
• Find Motivation: I learned about Determination, the American Cancer Society’s endurance event training program which gives athletes the opportunity to raise awareness and millions of dollars to fight cancer. That’s the motivation I needed!

This was exactly the type of program I needed…especially because it gives me a way to fight back against cancer, which claimed my mother’s life five years ago. I plan to run in my mom’s memory, and for the many other family members who fought the disease before her. I now run three days a week, and hope to reach that 13.1 mile goal by October 21, 2012.

What’s funny is that when I tell people I’m training for a half marathon, they ask, “How are you taking time for yourself?” My response is ‘you have to make the time.’ If I — a mom with three kids and a full time job — can find the time to “choose me” you can too! But you have to make it a priority.

By: Karen Rose, Social Media Strategist, Digital Platforms

Earlier this year, my family celebrated my brother-in-law’s 50^th birthday. The house was filled with family, food, and laughter. There was the mandatory teasing that comes along with turning 50. The men at the party ribbed him about having gray hair, about future memory loss, and about getting a colonoscopy. The conversation stayed on the colonoscopy and other medical tests for a few minutes until everyone was called to the kitchen to blow out the candles.

As an American Cancer Society employee, I was impressed that this group of men actually knew so much about the health screenings they needed to have at their age. I realized that this year I will be turning 47, and although I know what I should be doing, I’ve actually missed some very important screening milestones.

As many moms can attest to, soccer schedules, school activities, a full-time job, volunteer work, and laundry for a large family can take up nearly every minute of your life. My family also went through a major relocation, which included finding new schools, a new church, and dentists and doctors for everyone…. so scheduling my own doctor’s appointments slid to the bottom of my priority list. It’s easy to overlook, especially since I don’t feel sick.

I recall that during my pregnancies, I was at the doctor’s office for every recommended appointment and exam. Even though I felt fine, I was very diligent in making sure I was healthy so that my children would be healthy. Now, as I encourage my kids to eat vegetables and go outside to play to stay healthy, I realize that exercising and eating right for myself are other healthy behaviors that I’ve neglected.

I am disappointed about the number of birthdays that have passed since I’ve had my last screenings, and plan to do something about it. I need to make my health a priority again to remain healthy for my children, and ensure that I’m setting a good example for them.

This week the World Health Organization is celebrating World Health Day. This year’s theme is “good health adds life to years” and the focus is on how taking charge of your health and good health throughout life can help you to lead a full and productive life and be a resource for your family and community.

So this year, on my 47th birthday, I made these resolutions for my new year to take charge of my health:

• I will get my regular health checks, because I don’t remember the last time I had a mammogram or a Pap test.
• I will get active by making time to exercise regularly. Walking up and down the stairs to do laundry does not come close to fulfilling the recommended levels of physical activity  I need every day.
• I will eat healthier, because I owe it to myself to look and feel better.

There are different screening recommendations and certain ones a woman my age should have. I know how to eat healthy and how important it is to exercise daily. Now, I need to turn all of that knowledge about healthy living into action. Do you have similar commitments? I encourage you to take this journey with me! It’s not too late to make 2012 the year that you “Choose You ”.

I joke about my Holiday Cocktail — I’m a mixologist at heart, have been since childhood, and enjoy mixing new flavors together — as my Coping Mechanism. December is a pressure cooker month for me. A lot of people misunderstand and think I mean the alcohol is a coping mechanism, and, I fear, picture me boozey day in and day out. No, it’s the mixing. When I say Holiday Cocktail, I mean a lot of different things. It might be a marinade as much as anything else. I’m just as likely to be happy mixing things, and handing them off to others.

Finding flavors that blend together in a complementary way soothes me and makes me happy. It makes me happy in the same way singing might for someone who has a nice voice, or drawing might for someone with an artistic hand. I think, at a time, when so much seems to be in conflict — schedules, competing priorities, etc. — finding things that blend together with beautiful, harmonic smell and taste brings a sense of order and rightness to my world. See? Some things do go together nicely. Try this pomegranate lemonade.

I did the same thing as a child.

It’s one reason my children, future chemists, are lucky: I understand. I understand why my daughter was driven to drop the Kool-Aid tablet in the jello at lunch one day. She wanted to see what would happen. She is building her ability to mix and blend. Try this honey vanilla Greek yogurt with pineapple and granola.

It’s one reason my sister is lucky: while she uses her blending and mixing to create scrumptious entrees, I happily stand at the bar mixing cocktails. Here, try this Moscato d’Asti with pear infusion and rosemary. It goes nicely with the fruit.

Blending is soothing. It is the fractal in chaos.

I like flower arranging too, for the same reason. I love walking through hobby stores, fingering silk blossoms, plucking ones for height, texture, color, filler, shape…and pulling them together in a pleasing way in a vase that complements their purpose. In my bedroom sits my newest arrangement, happy golds and oranges, tall and full, with one exotic stalk of dancing lady orchids. Each time I see it I think: I made that, and that is good. I feel a nearly Biblical sense of faith in the universe.

Blending flowers or flavors can be a solitary task, or a shared one. In times of stress, I am likely to blend by myself. But, once the balance is right, and I have something pleasing, I am likely to share it. In other words, once my inner rift is healed, I am ready to be back in company again.

I create. I create things that are pleasing to the eye, nose, and tongue. That is how I cope.

How do you cope, with the daily pressures, or extraordinary ones?