Tag Archives: aiken standard

Go for a walk when you fly. Ideas for staying active when you travel.

Posted on July 8, 2013 | Leave a comment

I typically don’t travel much, but I have been on several trips in the past month or so. Since I’m a bit of an activity geek, I have been noticing the opportunities for and barriers to activity that are present when traveling by air. For the most part, flying involves a lot of sitting—on the plane and in the airport waiting for flights. But it doesn’t need to be this way.

Staying active when you travel is the topic of my Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard this week. Of course, I’m not the only one who tries to move more when I fly, both on the plane and in the airport. For example, this guy takes being active between flights to a whole new level. (Yes, he is my hero.)

While it is possible to use your time in the airport to be active, it isn’t always the first thing you think of. Even though nearly everyone does some walking in the airport, moving walkways and trains are an easy alternative to walking the sometimes long distances between terminals. Some airports are better than others at encouraging active transportation in the airport.

For example, the Hartsfield-Jackson airport in Atlanta has a train that runs between the terminals. Right next to the train is a walkway that also connects the terminals. There are signs that tell you how far you have to go (it’s a little less than 1/4 mile between terminals) and art, history, and local information displays line the walkway. Other airports do this too, and some have elaborate light and music shows to keep you entertained. Others have dedicated spaces for exercise, like the yoga room in the San Francisco airport.

Not every airport has made this level of effort to help travelers be more active, but this should change in the future. The American College of Sports Medicine has a Healthy Air Travel task force that aims to develop more opportunities for activity in airports by providing information and other resources to airport management and travelers.

You should also try to be active during your flight, too. Getting up out of your seat (when allowed, of course) or doing simple foot and leg exercises is a good idea. This is recommended to reduce the risk of blood clots that could develop during prolonged sitting. Even though the risk of these blood clots, commonly called “economy class syndrome,” may be low, moving around during a flight is still a good idea.

Between limiting prolonged sitting during the flight and walking more in the airport, my guess is that some people probably get more activity on days when they fly!

Of course, there is another whole aspect of healthy travel that I haven’t addressed: making smart decisions about what to eat for meals and snacks. But that is a story for another time…

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The Health and Fitness guide to surviving a zombie apocalypse.

Posted on June 17, 2013 | Leave a comment

So, my Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard this week is about zombies. More specifically, how a healthy diet and regular exercise can improve your chances of escaping a zombie invasion. Which is something that some people worry about.

If you aren’t worried about a zombie apocalypse you might be after seeing the movie World War Z, which opens this week.

Oddly, this isn’t the first time that I have managed to link nutrition and fitness with zombies.

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My Friend Shannon is in the newspaper!

Posted on June 10, 2013 | Leave a comment

My Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard this week is about my friend Shannon and her remodeling project. I have been writing about Shannon on this blog for some time, but I thought her story was worth sharing elsewhere.

Shannon has been trying to do what I call remodeling–losing a little weight and adding some muscle. To do this she started an exercise program and is now exercising nearly every day. She has also changed her diet, focusing mostly on eating out less, reducing portion sizes, and eating more fruits and vegetables.

It has been working!

What is interesting about Shannon is that the specifics of her diet and exercise program aren’t the reason for her success. Yes, that is how she lost fat and added muscle, but she could have done that following almost any diet and exercise program.

What helped Shannon the most is that she changed her habits. For years she didn’t exercise much and ate a diet that consisted largely of unhealthy foods. This was mostly due to convenience–it was easier to eat out and not exercise.

Changing these behaviors was the real challenge. Shannon’s lifestyle and interactions with others supported her former habits. And changing these habits isn’t easy. It means saying “no, thank you” a lot and making difficult choices about what to eat and when to exercise.

But she has done it and learned along the way that she really can make those tough decisions. And so can everyone else. The key is to focus on WHY we eat what we eat and WHY we don’t exercise rather than obsess about exactly WHAT to eat and WHAT to do for exercise.

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Using a physical activity time machine to explain the obesity epidemic.

Posted on May 21, 2013 | Leave a comment

What caused the current obesity epidemic? Is it that we are eating more now? Or are we less active than we were? Most likely, it is a combination of both. And although the typical American diet is given plenty of blame for causing people to gain weight, a low level of physical activity deserves attention, too.

One way to answer this question is to look back at what life was like about 100 years ago, when obesity was uncommon. Unfortunately, no one thought to make accurate measures of daily activity back then. But there is a way to go back in time and assess the diet and physical activity that was common 100 years ago.

In my Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard this week I wrote about an interesting study that essentially took researchers back in time to measure physical activity. The results show that we are much less active today, which certainly plays a big role in the obesity epidemic.

You can learn more about the study I mentioned here.

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Missed opportunities to promote physical activity for kids.

Posted on May 6, 2013 | Leave a comment

Most kids don’t get enough physical activity. No surprise that inactivity is associated with health conditions like obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes. But a lack of activity in children can lead to poor academic performance, too.

But we are missing good opportunities to provide kids with chances to be physically active at home and in school. This is the topic of my Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard today.

Schools are a perfect place to include opportunities to be active. Unfortunately, opportunities for activity, from PE to recess, are among the first cuts to be made when budgets are tight. Why isn’t promoting an active, healthy lifestyle  just as important as promoting math or reading or science?

A common argument is that parents should teach their children about a healthy lifestyle, not schools. I disagree. At some point, we (society) decided that parents shouldn’t have to teach their kids math or reading or science. I don’t know the exact rationale, but it likely had something to do with the fact that most parents don’t have the knowledge or skills to teach these essential subjects. Why should activity and, while we are at it, nutrition, be any different?

In fact, we have been experimenting with removing  physical activity and nutrition education from schools and leaving it to parents for some time now. Given the childhood (and adult) obesity epidemic, it hasn’t gone well. Maybe it is time to revisit providing quality health, activity, and nutrition education in schools.

If you want to learn more about benefits of and ways to promote physical activity for kids the Physical Guidelines for Americans is a good place to start. In particular, the Midcourse Report offers recommendations and solutions regarding physical activity in children.

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Read this before you go out for lunch today: Comparing fast food and casual dining restaurant meals.

Posted on April 29, 2013 | 3 comments

Everyone know that fast food is unhealthy. Of course, some fast food is better than others and it is possible to get a reasonably healthy meal at a fast food restaurant. But if you are concerned about calories, fat, added sugar, and sodium in your diet, fast food probably isn’t the best choice.

Eating at a casual dining restaurant such as Applebee’s, Ruby Tuesday, and T.G.I. Friday’s must be healthier, right? Think again! My Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard this week addresses this issue.

According to data collected by one of my students, Kyle Sprow, this is not always the case.

He compared a typical meal from McDonald’s, Subway, and  Applebee’s. The Applebee’s menu includes Weight Watchers low-calorie options  in addition to the regular menu items, so he looked at both. We chose these restaurants because of their popularity and because their menus are consistent with other similar restaurants.

He was able to compare typical fast food (McDonald’s), “healthy” fast food (Subway), a typical meal at a casual dining restaurant (Applebee’s regular menu), and healthy options at the same restaurant (Weight Watchers menu). Here is what he found:

  • The sit-down restaurant meal is likely to be higher in calories and fat than fast food. This is due in part to large portion sizes.
  • A meal at Subway may be lower in calories and fat than a meal at McDonald’s, but depends on what type and size of sandwich (and condiments) you choose.
  • The Weight Watchers menu at Applebee’s really is much lower in fat and calories than the regular menu, even better than Subway.
  • No matter where you eat, you are likely to get a lot of sodium in your meal, at least 50% of your daily recommended intake even if you chose the “healthy” options.

So, what will you have for lunch today?

 

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Candy and soda for breakfast! The truth about popular children’s breakfast foods.

Posted on April 16, 2013 | 1 comment

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, right? A healthy breakfast can help kids pay attention and do better in school. In adults, a good breakfast can reduce hunger and help with weight control. That’s probably not new.

You may be surprised to learn that many  popular breakfast foods for children—and adults—are anything but healthy. In fact, many of these choices more closely resemble candy and soda than a healthy start to the day!

This is the topic of my Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard this week. It was also a project that one of my students, Brittney Austin, worked on this semester. While some of the results clearly showed that some breakfast foods were essentially candy, like frosted Pop-Tarts which have nearly as many calories and as much sugar as a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.

In other cases, the comparison is more complicated. For example, Sunny D orange drink contains only 5% juice but has as much added sugar as a Coke. It is essentially orange soda without the bubbles. But when you consider that 100% orange juice has as much sugar as the Sunny D, maybe the “orange soda without bubbles”  isn’t so bad.

But it is! While it is true that the sugar content is essentially the same, the real orange juice also contains vitamins and minerals. And  even though some “juice” drinks have added vitamins and minerals, the real juice is still better. Here’s why: children who drink the artificially sweetened juice flavored drinks may become accustomed to the unnaturally sweet taste and find that they don’t like naturally sweetened juice or whole fruit. So even if the nutrients are the same as real juice, the “juice” drinks can lead kids away from eating fruit—a bad outcome!

Take a close look at what your children eat for breakfast. Is it a healthy meal or candy and soda in disguise? And take a good look at your own breakfast. It may not be much better!

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Don’t be an April Fool! Weight loss myths revealed.

Posted on April 1, 2013 | Leave a comment

Diets don’t work!

Exercise will make you gain weight!

This supplement will melt fat away while you sleep! 

Unfortunately, claims like these are not an April Fools joke. They are repeated so frequently that diets and exercise are avoided by many in favor of supplements to promote weight loss. Also unfortunately, they aren’t true. My Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard this week busts these common weight loss myths. Here is a bit more about each.

1. Diets don’t work! This is a common claim, usually to explain why most people who lose weight end up gaining it back. But diets do work. Almost every diet leads to weight loss in the short-term and some lead to  long-term weight loss. I have written about selecting the “best” diet and why the diet you pick isn’t the most important predictor of weight loss previously. And it is possible to lose weight and keep it off. But it is difficult, as this article explains so elegantly. Difficult, not impossible.

2. Exercise will make you gain weight! This is another popular myth about weight loss.  The good news is that exercise does work to promote weight loss. In fact, weight loss by exercise alone results in greater fat loss and preserves muscle compared to weight loss by diet. It’s true. But you probably shouldn’t try to lose weight by exercise alone. The best results will come from combining diet and exercise.

3. Melt fat away while you sleep by taking supplement X! This sounds great, which explains why Americans spend billions of dollars on dietary supplements each year. Unfortunately, most of these supplements have not been researched either adequately or at all to determine their effectiveness or safety, or they have been shown to be ineffective, as shown here. A conservative conclusion is that there are no supplements that have been shown to safely promote long-term weight loss.

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Simple ways to start your New Year’s resolutions

Posted on December 31, 2012 | Leave a comment

New Year’s resolutions can be easy to make, but difficult to follow through with. This is due, in part, to the fact that some of the most common resolutions—losing weight, starting an exercise program, eating healthier, and quitting smoking—are some of the most difficult behaviors to change.

It is also because the process of making these changes can be complicated. If you want to lose weight you need to decide which diet you will follow, which may require buying specific foods or learning to prepare meals in a particular way. If you plan to eat out you will want to learn which foods fit with your diet. Maybe you will be counting calories or tracking points. That all takes time and practice, which might delay you from getting started.

Fortunately, there are some easy ways for you to jump-start your New Year’s resolutions. In my Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard this week I share a few simple steps you can take to get started. This can give you time to figure out the details and learn new skills to help you succeed in the long run.

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