Health Matters - Fall 2011 - HWPS Newsletter

Fall Quarter 2011

201 URC 509-359-4279 www.ewu.edu/goodchoices

HEALTH MATTERS Comprehensive Health & Wellness Program The Comprehensive Health & Wellness Program is an allinclusive approach to physical and psychological well being for Eastern students.

Inside: • Campus Eating • Nutrition for Busy Students • Meet the HAWT • Health Apps • Current Events

Any EWU student taking six or more credits will participate in this program. Students have access to a basic level of ambulatory health clinic services at any Rockwood Clinic in Cheney, Medical Lake, Airway Heights and Spokane. Students also have access to counseling and psychological services (CAPS) at no additional cost. Health and wellness programing, education and other prevention resources are available through Health, Wellness & Prevention Services. Additionally, this program supports collaborative educational efforts with Residence Life, Office of Student Rights & Responsibility, Rockwood Clinics, Athletics and other campus and community partners.

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Tips to Help Students (and anyone else) Live Healthy Eat good foods: • No single food or food group supplies all nutrients.

• Be realistic & set practical goals for yourself.

• Avoid skipping meals.

• Learn techniques to help you relax during the day.

• Take healthy snacks to eat between classes.

• Reduce intake of sugar, fatty food, salt.

• Increase intake of fiber, fresh fruits & veggies, fish & poultry.

Get exercise: • Utilize the campus fitness center.

• Exercise safely to help prevent injury.

• Choose exercise that appeals to you, so you stick with it.

• Consult your physician before starting exercise if you haven’t been exercising regularly.

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Manage Stress:

• Organize your workload to use time & energy efficiently.

• Improve your environment little changes can help you feel in control & give you a lift.

• Discuss problems with the people involved or with a close friend before tensions build up.

• Seek help from counselors, teachers, etc.

Lifestyle is the key to wellness: • Avoid smoking.

• Limit alcohol and caffeine intake.

Source: www.collegelifetips.com

Classes, commuting, eating on the go, study breaks, group projects, time with friends – all of these are welcome parts of our college lives, yet they all challenge us as we work to support good nutrition and eating habits. The challenge is daily and constant for most of us during these busy academic years.

What to do? “You have to strategize,” says Katherine Grubiak, RD, dietitian at UCLS’s Arthur Ashe Student Health and Wellness Center. By that, she means you need to put some effort into eating right, eating enough (but not too much), and eating regularly.

RULE NO. 1: EAT It might sound counterintuitive, but don’t skimp on the calories you need. Going hungry will only leave you less energized and more prone to overeating later.

“You want to eat three meals and two to three snacks a day,” says Grubiak. Breakfast is key, she adds. Some studies show that having a healthful breakfast helps improve academic performance. Make it a part of your day, each and every day.

Another tip is to enjoying healthy snacks between meals. Grubiak recommends nuts, some fresh fruit, no- or low-fat yogurt. These choices will help so that you won’t be tempted to pig out when you hit the dining hall. “Starving doesn’t allow any room for smart choices,” she says.

Speaking of dinning on campus, a key move is to head straight for the salad bar. Fill up half your plate with fresh vegetables. Then pick your entrée. Gurbiak recommends dividing the empty side of your plate equally between protein and carbohydrates. In other words, try a 3oouce piece of meat (about the size of a deck of cards) and one cup of grains, like brown rice or a baked sweet potato.

A well-stocked personal fridge can keep the munchies at bay while keeping the nutrition you need close at hand.

Favorites of dietitian Katherine Grubiak, RD, include these healthy treats: • Low- or non-fat Greek yogurt, • Fresh fruit • Low- or non-fat milk-the real thing, or soy or almond milk • String cheese • Hummus & veggies

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Not a carnivore? Three-quarters of a cup of tofu or cooked beans, ½ an ounce of unsalted nuts, 2 to 3 tablespoons of nut butter, or 3 ounces of tempeh will get you your protein fix.

RULE NO. 2: SNACK Most campus dining won’t allow you to take any leftovers or second helpings with you, but Grubiak says they often allow students to pocket a few pieces of fruit and a sandwich or two.

Take advantage of that, especially if you’re on a two-meal-a-day plan. You’ll want to nosh on those takeaway items throughout the day.

Snacks are essential at night, too. Grubiak tells students that if they’re going to be up late, they’d better have some good food on hand for fuel. “That’s the biggest myth: that you shouldn’t eat after dinner,” Grubiak says. “The truth is, your body is constantly utilizing calories.”

Stock your dorm fridge with healthful and nutrition packed snacks. Grubiak also likes protein bars as they provide a steady source of energy rather than the short sugar spikes from candy bars, soft drinks or “energy” drinks. Just realize that not all protein bars are created equal. Take a look at the nutrition information and make sure what you are buying has at least 7 grams of protein and no more than 30 grams of carbs. Sugar shouldn’t be the first ingredient.

Eating well doesn’t mean denying yourself everything you love to eat. Just be smart about it. If you go out for burgers, get a small order of fries and don’t supersize your order. A good tactic is to skip the soda or sweet tea, most of which are loaded with calories. Those are already tough enough to burn off when you spend most of your day sitting at a desk in class or hunched over books in the library.

RULE NO. 3: MOVE Speaking of burning calories, work some exercise into your daily routine. Going to the gym is a great move when you can get there, but Grubiak tells students not to underestimate the good that walking will do for you. Give yourself time to take the long way to class, she says.

Use the stairs whenever possible.

Don’t feel like leaving your dorm? Grubiak recommends surfing the Internet for an aerobics video or getting a workout with a Nintendo Wii. Some students, she says, simply turn on the radio and dance around the room or jump rope to work up a sweat.

Exercise not only helps you maintain a healthy weight but also provides an excellent counter to stress and anxiety. Both can wreak havoc on your diet, causing you to binge on a bag of donuts or skip meals altogether.

RULE NO. 4: DRINK Water, that is. You want to make sure you’re getting plenty of water throughout the day. Every part of your body needs it. “Eight cups a day is the bare minimum,” says Grubiak. Her rule of thumb? Take half your body weight and drink that many ounces of water So, if you’re 150 pounds, that’s 75 ounces or about 10 cups a day Your water requirement can also be satisfied with water-heavy foods like soups, watermelon, vegetable, and beverages.

Grubiak’s final piece of advice: Take advantage of where you are in life. You are a student, you’re at college, and you’re learning. Make good nutrition a part of that learning process. Understand the foods that go into your body and what they do for –or to – you. That’s knowledge you can “chew” on way past graduation day.

Based on an article by Matt McMillen, WebMD Contributing Writer Fall 2011 | WebMD Campus

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Use These 27 Powerful Apps to Knock Unhealthy Food Out of Your Life Eating Rules has assembled a grand list of apps to help you eat more healthy. The list includes apps for -* Healthier shopping and eating * Sustainable, organic, and non-GMO foods * Eating locally and in-season * Allergy, gluten-free, and vegetarian/vegan food * Cooking and recipes * Calorie counting Here are just a few examples of what they found: Fooducate: This free app lets you scan the barcode of any product, then gives you a letter grade, the number of calories per serving, and additional relevant health-related information.

True Food: This free app from the Center for Food Safety is filled with tons of great information and resources, as well as ways you can take action.

Locavore: As soon as you start this free app, it finds your location and displays a list of local fruits and vegetables currently in season.

Is That Gluten Free: You can search their database of over 23,000 items to find out if food is gluten-free.

In addition, here's another helpful app found by Gizmodo -- The Galactic Radiation Calculator— Calculates how much radiation you're being exposed to when you fly in a plane.

Dr. Mercola’s Favorite Mobile Apps to Help You Take Control of Your Health My two favorite apps that I use virtually every day are Fitness Builder and MyFitnessPal. There are loads of exercise applications on the net but FitnessBuilder is the most comprehensive fitness database in the world. It contains the largest library of exercise images and videos, the most challenging workouts across all disciplines, access to a live personal trainer and a complete set of every fitness tool, calculator and tracking feature available. Most all of the apps I have are free but this one costs $10 for the base version and it is worth every penny if you use it as it helps you keep incredible records for your workouts so you can keep things straight.

MyFitnessPal has an easy to use interface that allows you to access about one million food items in its database, plus you can also add your own foods and recipes at any time and access them from anywhere with an internet connection. Once you enter new foods' nutritional information, it will be there for you the next time you need it.

I really love this app as it can quickly and easily allow you to see the number of grams of carbs, fats and protein you're eating. I consider myself fairly sophisticated nutritionally, but I was really shocked when I found out what the actually numbers were. This a very powerful tool and best of all it is free.

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They have upgraded versions that charge monthly fees, which do not seem to be as good a value, but that is now they can justify nearly giving this amazing $10 app away for free.

Other Mobile Apps that Help You Take Control of Your Health I really haven't used many of the ones on the list compiled by Eating Rules, so can't comment too much on them but thought we could explore them as a joint project and come up with some ideas on which ones are the best. If you've used any of them, please share your insight with the rest of us by commenting in the Vital Votes forum below.

However, on this list, I did find a few that you don't have to waste your time on as there were clearly better ones, or they just didn't measure up to high standards.

The ones I would exclude are: * Good Guide * CSPI Chemical Cuisine * True Food * Dirty Dozen * What's on my Food Genetically modified (GM) foods and food ingredients are at the top of my list of things to avoid, and here you now have two good mobile app options: The True Food Shopper's Guide, available for iPhone and Android, by the Center for Food Safety, and The NON-GMO Shopping Guide for iPhone by the Institute for Responsible Technology. This guide is also available in Spanish.

Adapted from: Dr. Mercol http://www.mercola.com/

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Health, Wellness & Prevention Services (HWPS) is proud to present the 2011-2012 HEALTH AND WELLNESS TEAM – aka, the HAWT! More Than Just Educators This dedicated group of EWU students brings health education and information to the Eastern. They are the driving force behind PINK IN THE RINK, RecSplosion, HAWT Coffee and several One Minute Clinics in the residence halls.

The leadership team comes to campus before classes begin in the fall and volunteers their time during three days of training and leadership team building. The team quickly turns their focus to orientation and opening weekend activities like move in and RecSplosion.

Once the quarter starts to settle down, HAWT members begin planning and collaborating to bring health related information to the Eastern community. You will find the team every Monday morning in the PUB for HAWT Coffee, an outreach targeting commuter students. HAWT members give short, quick sound bites of health education, resources or games. In return, students who stop by can get a free cup of coffee or a small Danish.

The primary leadership team is paid, though each member is expected to volunteer some time each quarter. Last year, the HAWT team volunteered over 600 hours! Not too shabby for a group that is generally under 20 total members.

Students at large are encouraged and welcome to attend the weekly meetings and help with events and education. Applications are always accepted!

In addition to their work bringing health-related information to campus, each HAWT leader learns important professional skills such as working in a team, taking the lead on a project or event, even working at the front desk and becoming familiar with an office environment. HAWT team leaders enhance their educational experience with “real world” learning, mentoring and skill building.

HWPS is proud to give HAWT members tools that will last a life time. Invite the HAWT to be a part of your activities this quarter. You just might learn something!

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HWPS Staff Michelle Pingree – Director Laurel Kelly – Health Educator Laurie Hays – Program Coordinator

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Issue 1 Fall 2011

For more information on food choices, portion size and other great nutrition ideas!