Choose You Blog

Life seems to have gotten in the way of my workout schedule.  For months I was doing great.  I walked at least 3 miles several days a week and I was really toning up and feeling fabulous.  Then I got “busy.”  The word busy is in quotes because it’s one of those catch-all words for life happening and I don’t need to elaborate for people to understand.

I work from home and sit at a desk for hours without moving, so carving out specific time to workout really works best for me, but I’m not able to do that right now so I had to find another plan.

To be considered at least moderately active a person should do 30 minutes of activity five or more days a week – and in 20 to 30 minute intervals.   One thing I’m good about doing for myself is taking a true lunch break.  I have an internal alarm that goes off at noon every day and that tells me to eat something and step away from the computer.  Usually after my meal I would just relax and talk on the phone, or watch a little television.  But what I’ve recently been doing instead is using the time to tidy up my house.  I literally focus on one room or task each day and it not only makes getting active a productive activity, but my house looks pretty spiffy!

• In the kitchen, I load or unload the dishwasher, wipe down countertops and other surfaces, take out the garbage and recycling, and check the fridge for spoiled items.  I try to put a little “attitude” in my motions so my body is moving more like a cardio workout.  This is usually my chore du jour at least twice a week since kitchens can get messy so quickly.
• On another day I’ll focus on the floors throughout my home.  I sweep and mop the hardwoods and tile.  The carpet in my bedroom gets some spot treatment and a good vacuum.  My area rug gets shaken outside and vacuumed.
• Then it’s on to dusting (which I hate!).  I take everything off all the surfaces, dust the surfaces, dust all the furniture nooks and crannies, dust all the items that were on the furniture, and place it all back in its original place.  I also give the ceiling fan blades a good wipe down and dust the floor baseboards (it’s amazing how much dust baseboards accumulate in a just a week’s time and how much you have to bend and stretch to get them clean).
• And then it’s on to linens.  One day a week I strip the bed and put on fresh sheets.  Dirty clothes get washed, ironed and folded.  (I don’t know why ironing is so exhausting, but it is!)
• Of course, the bathroom always needs attention and can always be counted on for some calorie-burning cleaning activity.  Wiping and scrubbing tubs, showers, sinks, and mirrors is a great workout – and I love the way everything gleams right after it’s been cleaned.
• I have cats, so they also benefit from my desire to stay in shape.  Their food bowls get hand washed and dried each week.  Pet beds are shaken outside, vacuumed and lint brushed.  And of course, the dreaded litter box has to be dealt with.  The old litter gets dumped and the box is washed thoroughly and dried.  Then I add in a new liner and litter.  And if you don’t have cats, but have a dog, I suspect that giving your furry friend a bath each week would burn some calories!

If you aren’t at home during the day, maybe try doing chores first thing in the morning (if you’re an early riser), or immediately after work.

If you’re skeptical that cleaning is really a workout, check this out… the American Cancer Society’s “Exercise Counts” calculator

estimates that a 150 lb. person who engages in light cleaning burns approximately 240 calories per hour.  That’s not bad at all!

And I must admit that even though I know the caloric facts I just shared, I do still feel like I need to do some traditional exercises.  But, as I mentioned, I’ve been too busy to carve out gym time.  However, over and over you hear the advice to do a workout while you watch television.  The thing is, at night when I’m watching TV I just want to decompress and take pleasure in the “veg out” experience.  So this tip was tough for me and if I worked out while I watched TV it makes me enjoy my favorite shows less and resent the workout a little.

So, what I’ve been doing is only working out during the commercial breaks.  (Cleaning the house 30 minutes a day is giving me my basic workout, and the commercial break exercises are just an added bonus.)

Each 30 minutes of network programming has about 8 minutes of commercials, so if you watch television for 2 hours a night and workout during the commercials, you’ll get in another 30 or so minutes of additional exercise. Simply do arm curls with light weights, lunges, sit-ups, or whatever other activity works best for you.  (I’m a fan of push-ups and squats.)

So to put it simply, all I’ve been doing is using my lunch hour as a time to step away from my home office and get some chores done (in addition to eating a sensible meal), and then at night when I watch television I use the commercial breaks to get in some traditional exercises.

Try it, and let me know if it works for you!  BTW, if you decide to try my “commercial break workout” during the Super Bowl be prepared to sweat since there are about 70 commercials during an average Super Bowl game.

Click and share this blog post on Facebook. Each time you “share” Choose You with friends Sprite Zero donates $1 toward cancer prevention awareness — and your friends learn about putting their health first!  Remember, sharing is caring!

Lynn Lamousin is a Choose You subscriber from Atlanta, GA who signed up to Eat Right, Get Active, Get Regular Health Checks, and Protect My Skin. (She quit smoking many years ago, but sometimes still dreams about cigarettes.) Her mother and brother both lost battles with cancer.

By Alpa Patel, ACS Strategic Director, Cancer Prevention Study-3

We all know that getting regular exercise is important for preventing disease and lowering the risk of premature death, but once you’ve done your exercise, how do you spend the rest of the day?

I go to the gym at least 5 days a week, but I had a wake-up call when I recently realized that I might actually be an “active couch potato” because after my workout, I spend the rest of my time sitting. That’s a major problem – considering I’m awake for at least 16 hours each day.

I clipped on my pedometer to see how many steps I get in a typical day doing only the basics: waking up, getting dressed, driving to work, taking the elevator to my office, getting up for lunch and a bathroom break, walking to my car, driving home, and sitting on the couch until bedtime. The grand total: only 1,500 steps… that’s less than 1 mile a day!

I knew that couldn’t be good for me. In fact, you may be surprised by the results of my recent study, which found that even though getting exercise is important, how much time you spend sitting – even after your workout – can also affect your risk of death.

The study included over 123,000 men and women and found that men were 17% more likely and women were 34% more likely to die prematurely if they spent 6 or more hours sitting compared to fewer than 3 hours per day. Remaining inactive for long periods of time can alter triglycerides, cholesterol and resting blood pressure, which are biomarkers of obesity, cardiovascular and other chronic health conditions.

I wanted to know how big of an impact small changes could really make, so I decided to do a little test on myself and made 5 simple changes to my daily routine:

1. I walk to my coworkers’ desks instead of sending them an instant message
2. I pace my office during lengthy teleconference calls
3. I take a 15 minute break to go for a stroll after lunch
4. I park at the farthest spot I find in the lot, instead of hunting for the closest
5. I don’t skip all the commercials on my DVR, but use some of the breaks to do chores around the house

Those changes, which took only a few minutes every hour, added up to 5,000 extra steps a day. For most people that amount equals just over two miles (just over 2,000 steps is a mile)!  That, plus my daily workout, put me right in line with the National Institutes of Health’s recommendation of getting least 10,000 steps each day.

If I can do it, so can you!  Tell me, what simple changes can you make today to take get in a few extra steps?

Click and share this blog post on Facebook. Each time you “share” Choose You with friends Sprite Zero donates $1 toward cancer prevention awareness — and your friends learn about putting their health first!  Remember, sharing is caring!

Alpa Patel, PhD is a cancer epidemiologist with expertise in demonstrating the roles obesity and physical inactivity play as risk factors for cancer. She is particularly interested in the health benefits of sitting less & moving more. Patel is currently the strategic director of a nationwide cancer prevention study aimed at understanding the genetic, lifestyle and environmental causes of cancer.

By Linda Tallau, Choose You Contest Winner

Prior to the autumn of 2010, I considered myself a very healthy person.  I was always physically active – a runner and a cyclist who had also just gotten into Zumba. From dawn to dusk, I just could go, go, go! But my health took a frightening turn on September 29, 2010.

While undergoing a routine, annual mammogram, my doctor saw two suspicious lumps in my left breast.  I tried to remain optimistic over the next few days as I went through multiple x-rays, ultrasounds and an MRI. But on a sunny Monday afternoon less than a week later, as I stood looking out my kitchen window, my physician called with the terrible news – I had lobular carcinoma in situ, a condition of the milk glands which puts you at higher risk of developing breast cancer.

I typically bring in the New Year with a bang, but I started 2011 with an exhausting regimen of medical activity.  It seemed as though whenever I started feeling better another treatment was just around the corner.  My energy level was at an all-time low, so I couldn’t do the athletics things I used to enjoy. I had no appetite, so I lost a lot of weight.  Then, to complicate matters even further, another condition led to surgery on my right foot. I needed to wear a brace for the rest of the year.

By the end of 2011 I was tired of being in doctors’ offices, tired of feeling crappy and frustrated that I had gained 20 pounds of additional weight.

Despite it all, I am excited about 2012 and being a Choose You contest winner. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to fly to Los Angeles to train with fitness expert, Holly Perkins. Choosing You is important, but it’s definitely a challenge trying to carve time out for yourself, especially when you’re sick. I must say though, what I went through over the previous year has given me a whole new perspective.

I know it’s a cliché, but it’s true – remaining positive and hopeful helps get you through! I’m Choosing Me this year because it would make no sense to be miserable. I have friends that have survived cancer, and are now cancer free.  But I also admire the true warriors, those that are fighting terminal cancers; who inspire me to “keep on keeping on” and to be thankful for the life I have left to enjoy. That’s something each of us can do, cancer or no cancer.

I was 53 when I was diagnosed, and the disease took me right into menopause. I may not be able to do everything I used to, but I can develop a new schedule starting from this point on.

The two-day training with Holly Perkins helped me develop a strategy to get my fitness routine back on track. There are definitely limitations – my right foot is still healing and because of my breast condition I cannot do a lot of lifting and stretching. But, I’m not letting that hold me back from learning a new routine and getting the year off on the right foot (literally).

Click and share this blog post on Facebook. Each time you “share” Choose You with friends Sprite Zero donates $1 toward Choose You— and your friends learn about putting their health first!  Remember, sharing is caring!

Did you make a New Year’s resolution to get in shape?  Or lose weight?  Or go to the gym regularly?  We all have good intentions when it comes to workout resolutions, but January crowds at the gym can be a hindrance to meeting our goals.  Plus, spending time standing in line for a treadmill or waiting to rotate in on a weight bench can be demotivating.

So, consider attacking your New Year’s resolution with an unconventional exercise routine as a complement to working out at the gym. Here’s a list of activities that offer a fun, fresh way to reach your fitness goals:

Ice Skating

Whether you revel in the flourish of figure skating or delight in the adrenaline of speed skating, the aerobic and endurance benefits of ice skating are apparent. Not only does skating improve balance and agility, the movement required to propel yourself across frozen water builds lower body strength. If the only ice you’re used to seeing is crushed and floating in your beverage, then enroll in private lessons or a group clinic at a skate center. As far as equipment goes, all you really need is a pair of skates – and they can be rented from the rink. As soon as you lace-up those bladed boots and glide around the ice a few times you’ll begin to feel what a deliberate and exhilarating workout it is.

What gets the most workout: The waist down is the big winner here, with abs, calves, gluts, and quads reaping the most benefits. To put it in terms you can picture, you’ll get gams like Michelle Kwan and buns like Johnny Wier.

Dancing

Even if you have no idea what a shuffle step or chorus line kick is, you can still get a good workout. While some forms of dancing require practice to learn intricate steps, most of us get by just mimicking what we’ve seen on music videos. Dance clubs offer theme nights that focus on different styles of music and movement. On any day of the week you have the choice of strutting to salsa, line dancing to country western, or swinging to big band. Whether alone, with a partner, or in a group, dancing is an activity that allows participants to both socialize and aerobicize. If night clubs aren’t your thing, find a private dance studio or a continuing education class to learn jazz, tap, ballet, or even belly dancing.

What gets the most workout: The rate and way you move is going to affect your workout, but when you’re dancing, it’s difficult not to break a sweat. In general, dancing increases flexibility and helps to develop and tone muscles in the abs, arms, back and hips.

Swimming

You might be thinking, “Swimming?  I thought we were getting out of the gym?” Well, we are. Don’t picture the messy, overused pool at your club. Think about the nice, warm, hardly-used indoor pool that you find at a mid- or high-end hotel. Plan a little urban retreat for yourself: book a room, order up a light dinner, and swim a few laps. If this suggestion is too extravagant for you, check into the per-visit rates of a swim club, or pull-on a wet suit and enroll in scuba lessons. No matter if your stroke of choice is butterfly, crawl, or dog paddle, swimming offers a low impact aerobic workout that spans all age groups and fitness levels. After all, the best way to get in shape for swimsuit season is by putting on the suit and actually swimming in it.

What gets the most workout: The water acts as a cushion for your body allowing you to engage in a cardiovascular workout without the jarring effects of a high impact sport. Regardless of whether you’re swimming laps or treading water, your body gets a workout from top to bottom. The main areas to benefit are abs, arms, gluts, hamstrings and quads; and it’s also excellent for building stamina and muscle tone. Another plus: the humid air around the pool helps to shake out some of the congestion and coughing experienced in the cold winter months.

Bowling

Don’t scoff at the suggestion of bowling as exercise. There are muscle-building and calorie-burning benefits to the sport. Now you shouldn’t be fooled into thinking you’re going to get a high-powered aerobic workout, but you will be getting anaerobic exercise that focuses in on building size, endurance and strength in specific muscles in the arm, back and gluts. Bowling can either be a solo sport or a group activity; played either way, it builds mental concentration and healthy competitiveness. Just be sure to stay away from the concession stand— beer and pizza can send your hard work into the gutter.

What gets the most workout: Since it is a purely anaerobic exercise, development of proper technique in your stance, approach, and release are important to receive the maximum benefits. Bowling can strengthen the back and gluts, and when played competitively it builds mental concentration.

Volleyball

Unlike the other activities we’ve outlined, volleyball requires gathering players and dividing into teams. Don’t fret if you haven’t played since junior high phys ed — the rules and moves will come back after your first game. If you have visions of flailing wildly and accidentally elbowing a teammate, then practice a bit before entering into a game. All you need is a ball and a wall. Bounce the ball against the wall, extend your arms (hands cupped and palms up), and practice hitting it back against the wall with your inner wrists and forearms. You can also practice setting up the ball by throwing it above your head and keeping it aloft by tapping it with your fingertips. When you’re ready to play with a team consider joining an intramural league.

What gets the most workout: Volleyball is the perfect sport for body toning. Serving, volleying, and spiking, work your arms, shoulders and back muscles. Running and jumping to recover balls works your leg muscles, and your abs even get some exercise from all the twisting and lunging that is necessary to reach the ball and place it in proper position over the net.

Click and share this post on Facebook. Each time you “share” Choose You with your friends on Facebook, Sprite Zero donates $1 toward cancer prevention awareness – up to $450,000!

Lynn Lamousin is a Choose You subscriber from Atlanta, GA who signed up to Eat Right, Get Active, Get Regular Health Checks, and Protect My Skin. (She quit smoking many years ago, but still dreams about cigarettes.) Her mother and brother both lost battles with cancer.

My French fry obsession has been well documented on this blog.  What hasn’t been documented is how long it would take me to work off the calories if I did succumb to the salty call of crispy golden brown fried potatoes.

I just came across this chart that documents:

how many minutes it takes a 160-pound person to burn off a large order of fries (400 calories):

I actually weigh less than 160 pounds so that means I would have to do even MORE minutes to burn off the 400 calories because the lighter you are, the less calories you burn during exercise.

So, I think I’ll definitely stick with my Faux Fry recipe because even though I love to walk and I exercise several times a week, I can’t see myself walking 2 hours a day just to counteract a lunchtime order of large fries.

Click and share this post on Facebook. Each time you “share” Choose You with your friends on Facebook, Sprite Zero donates $1 toward cancer prevention awareness – up to $450,000!

Lynn Lamousin is a Choose You subscriber from Atlanta, GA who signed up to Eat Right, Get Active, Get Regular Health Checks, and Protect My Skin. (She quit smoking many years ago, but still dreams about cigarettes.) Her mother and brother both lost battles with cancer.

I love to shop.  But sometimes during the holidays, I hate to shop.  Usually the shopping blahs hit when I have a person on my holiday list who is difficult to buy for.  After all, there’s nothing more exhausting than aimlessly wandering a shopping mall – or the pages of an online retailer’s website.

So this year I’m doing myself – and my loved ones – a favor and I’m selecting gifts that promote healthy living.  Good health is something we all need – so it’s the perfect fit!

Here are a few ideas for ways you can give the gift of healthy living:

• Buy an indoor grill.  It’s less clean-up than an outdoor grill yet still offers the benefit of cooking lighter versions of fatty meats.  Plus, it’s a great gift for anyone!

• Prepare a snack basket filled with nuts, dried fruit, fresh fruit, whole-wheat crackers, and other healthy snacks.  If you can’t find single-serving packs to tuck inside, also include small plastic containers so the healthy treats can be enjoyed on-the-go.

• Create an exercise basket.  Buy a gym bag and fill it with a t-shirt, water bottle, and high-fiber protein bars.

• Give a gift subscription to a wellness, exercise, or healthy cooking magazine.

• A pedometer is an inexpensive device that records the number of steps taken.  Buy one for everyone in the family and have a contest to see who walks the farthest each day.

• For technology lovers, buy a smartphone app.  There are apps to track exercise and healthy eating, and to help people quit smoking or remember to take their medicines on time.

What healthy gift ideas are you planning to give – or hoping to get – this holiday season?

Click and share this post on Facebook. Each time you “share” Choose You with your friends on Facebook, Sprite Zero donates $1 toward cancer prevention awareness – up to $450,000!

Lynn Lamousin is a Choose You subscriber from Atlanta, GA who signed up to Eat Right, Get Active, Get Regular Health Checks, and Protect My Skin. (She quit smoking many years ago, but still dreams about cigarettes.) Her mother and brother both lost battles with cancer.

I’ve become obsessed with the thought of using a pedometer.  I just read that if you walk 10,000 steps a day you’ll burn between 2,000 and 3,500 extra calories per week. I mean, that’s a lot of calories!  I already walk for exercise – so I put on my workout clothes and walk several miles in my neighborhood –but my intention would be to use the pedometer just to measure the amount of steps in my daily routine.

My biggest question when I learned about the 10,000 steps recommendation was, “How long does it take to walk 10,000 steps?”  Basically, how much walking does that equal?  The size of your stride is going to factor in, but in general people walk 100 steps a minute.  So if you are on your feet and walking 100 minutes a day that should equal 10,000 steps.

It sounds easy(ish) but I’m a little afraid to see how sedentary I really am.  I work on a computer all day – from home – so I sit for hours at a time.  But, the pedometer has been ordered and I figure it can’t hurt to at least try to get in these steps each day.

I’m competitive by nature so I can see myself getting up to manually change the television and walking laps around the dining table just to get a few more steps logged.

If you’re reading this and you use a pedometer, please post any advice for me that you might have!

Click and share this post on Facebook. Each time you “share” Choose You with your friends on Facebook, Sprite Zero donates $1 toward cancer prevention awareness – up to $450,000!

Lynn Lamousin is a Choose You subscriber from Atlanta, GA who signed up to Eat Right, Get Active, Get Regular Health Checks, and Protect My Skin. (She quit smoking many years ago, but sometimes still dreams about cigarettes.) Her mother and brother both lost battles with cancer.

I love the way the movie The Proposal begins, Sandra Bullock’s character is energetically cycling through a lush wooded landscape. But when the camera pans back you see that she is on a stationary bike in her home and the scenery is on a video screen attached to her handle bars.

Her character is a work-obsessed career person who doesn’t like to waste a minute of the day, so she doesn’t want to spend the extra time it would take to cycle outdoors. Instead, she would rather pretend she was outside by watching a video.

I have to tell you, I am just the opposite of her character when it comes to working out. I’m a fan of fresh air and I’ll do anything to get outdoors; but, if you find yourself spending too much time inside, here are some ways to escape the gym that you might want to try:

• Walk to places you would normally drive. You’ll see things in your neighborhood that you never noticed from the car.  Plus you’ll feel more connected to your environment.

• Dust off your bike.  Take a ride through the park or take advantage of the bike lanes in your neighborhood.

• Run a 5k.  Check your local paper for races and get to the start line.

• Sign-up for boot camp.  Climb steps, do push-ups, and jump rope in the great outdoors.

Now that fall temperatures are rolling in, it’s the perfect time to get outside for a workout.  What’s your favorite outdoor activity?

Click and share this post on Facebook. Each time you “share” Choose You with your friends on Facebook, Sprite Zero donates $1 toward cancer prevention awareness – up to $450,000!

Lynn Lamousin is a Choose You subscriber from Atlanta, GA who signed up to Eat Right, Get Active, Get Regular Health Checks, and Protect My Skin. (She quit smoking many years ago, but still dreams about cigarettes.) Her mother and brother both lost battles with cancer.

One of my best friends is a breast cancer survivor and in the past I’ve participated as one of her team members in the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk.  In the years that I couldn’t join in the walk, I contributed by making a donation.

One thing I noticed is that Making Strides should be nicknamed the “Pun Run” because many of the team names are very clever.  The event is held because of a serious subject – breast cancer – but for some people the best way to deal with a serious subject is to share a smile.  In this case, a smile over a punny team name.

Some of my favorite silly names over the years have been:

• These Boobs Were Made for Walking
• Breast Intentions
• BUSTin’ Loose

And these more thoughtful ones:

• Stride for the Bride
• Newlywed and Newlywell
• Team Sure of a Cure

Making Strides is more than a walk – it’s a fundraising event to help save lives. The dollars raised through the Making Strides events assist the American Cancer Society in their mission to help people stay well, help people get well, and help in the fight against breast cancer.

To find a walk in your area, donate to a team, or form a team of your own, visit the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer website.

Click and share this blog on Facebook. Each time you “share” Choose You with your friends on Facebook, Sprite Zero donates $1 toward cancer prevention awareness – up to $450,000!

Lynn Lamousin is a Choose You subscriber from Atlanta, GA who signed up to Eat Right, Get Active, Get Regular Health Checks, and Protect My Skin. (She quit smoking many years ago, but still dreams about cigarettes.) Her mother and brother both lost battles with cancer.

I know it sounds like an oxymoron, but I’ve figured out how to workout without doing a workout. This is on my mind because I was just reading that each year over half a million Americans die of cancer and at least one-third of these deaths are partially linked to physical inactivity, poor diet, and carrying too much weight.

I’m kind of stunned by this because those are all things we can modify if we choose to change them – and personally, I am trying hard to change them.

I really hate going to a gym, so here are the no workout workouts I’ve devised for myself that may help you, too:

• I love to shop (purses are my passion!) but instead of just dashing in for a new bag I stay for a while and do some “mall walking.”  I literally walk from one end of the mall to the other.  When I hit the end, I walk back and then head up the stairs to another level and do the same thing.  Mall walking is pleasant because I can window shop, it’s temperature-controlled, and I have access to water fountains and bathrooms.

• I’m a fan of taking the stairs.  I always try to bypass building escalators or elevators and use the stairs instead.  (My calves, thighs, and tush have all thanked me for this!)

• “Walking my errands” is something I do all the time.  (Of course, if you’d rather “bike your errands,” that works too.)  I live within a couple of miles of my bank, the post office, and the library.  So I bought a little backpack (during one of my mall walking trips) and I walk to these destinations as needed.  (BTW, remember to practice roadway safety.  Walk on the sidewalk or use the bike path, whenever possible.)

• No matter my destination, a super-simple habit I’ve gotten into is parking at the back of the parking lot so I have further to walk. Plus, it’s easy to find a spot in the last row and I cut out all that time I used to spend circling around and searching for a space up front.

• When I first bought my house I hired a lawn service, but it got to be a bit expensive.  So, I bought an inexpensive push mower and decided to get some exercise while I saved myself a little cash.

• While I watch television I stretch and workout with hand weights.  If you have a stationary bike or treadmill those are also great activities to do while you watch TV.

• I always try to think of “chores” (i.e. cleaning the house) as an opportunity to get moving.  It’s amazing how much of a workout you can get from sweeping, mopping, and scrubbing.

One thing to remember is that when you’re working out, you should aim to be active at least 30 minutes or more a day, 5 or more days a week.

Do you have any suggestions for other double-duty workouts?  How do you fit activity into your daily schedule?

Click and share this blog on Facebook. Each time you “share” Choose You with your friends on Facebook, Sprite Zero donates $1 toward cancer prevention awareness – up to $450,000!

Lynn Lamousin is a Choose You subscriber from Atlanta, GA who signed up to Eat Right, Get Active, Get Regular Health Checks, and Protect My Skin. (She quit smoking many years ago, but still dreams about cigarettes.) Her mother and brother both lost battles with cancer.