Autumn 2012
In Good Health Sponsored by Koko FitClub to promote healthy living in our local community.
Building Health from the Inside Out Measuring Health with Body Comp Not into the Gym Scene? Join the Club. Good Nutrition Is a Lifestyle Choice
Editor’s Note
Fall is upon us here in New England. Don’t you just love the hot sun and the cool, dry air? Soon the leaves will be changing. It’s a great time to get out and explore the beautiful scenic trails. Grab a friend or a dog and get out there and see all of nature’s splendor—and give your body a great workout at the same time. You know, according to Dr. Henry S. Lodge and Chris Crowley, co-authors of the New York Times Bestselling book “Younger Next Year,” the human body is designed to spend hours every day foraging or hunting for food. We were not designed to sit at a desk all day and on the couch all night. We need regular exercise, like a good old-fashioned hike in the woods, if we want to live long, healthy lives. So get up and get moving on your journey to better health. See you on the trails,
Jeff Granville
Owner, Koko FitClub Acton, Harvard, Westford
Contents: 5 6 8 10 12 14 15 16 17 18 20
How Do You Measure Health? Increasing LML with Exercise Welcome to the Club Koko’s Measure of Success Health from the Inside Out Recovery Is Key Take the Koko Challenge Use It or Lose It Your Nutrition Lifestyle Are You Truly Hungry? New Foods for Your Pantry
Lori Granville Publisher
Editor in Chief
in good Health Staff editor in chief
lori granville
contributing editors
deBoraH denova-BaKer MicHael Wood Brian HoFFer cHriSTine laWicKi design & layout:
MaTT Fuller Photography:
KellY FiTZSiMMonS
contact us
HTn FiTneSS llc
285 aYer road, Harvard, Ma 01451 editor@ingoodhealthmagazine.com
In Good Health is published by HTN Fitness LLC Koko is a registered trademark of Koko Fitness LLC. The information in this magazine is provided as a service to the community. It is not substitute for medical advice. HTN Fitness LLC is not liable for errors appearing in advertisements beyond the cost of the space occupied by the error. The right is reserved to edit, reject or cut any copy without notice.
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Ranked 1 in Massachusetts for patient safety. Recipient of a Hospital Safety Score of “A” for patient safety Ranked as 4th leading hospital in the state for surviving a heart attack – 2 years in a row Ranked a Tier 1 Hospital for quality of care and affordability Recipient of Health Care’s Most Wired Award – 4 years in a row One of the first hospitals in the country to commit to electronic health records
At HealthAlliance Hospital, we believe that everyone deserves safe, affordable, high-quality care. Which is why we are proud to have our hospital ranked as the safest in the state and among the best in the nation by a leading consumer ratings magazine. Further demonstrating our commitment to bringing the highest quality care to everyone in North Central Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire. For more information about patient safety and quality at HealthAlliance Hospital, visit healthalliance.com.
LEOMINSTER CAMPUS • 60 HOSPITAL ROAD, LEOMINSTER, MA 01453 • 978-466-2000 BURBANK CAMPUS • 275 NICHOLS ROAD, FITCHBURG, MA 01420 • 978-343-5000 H E A LT H A L L I A N C E . C O M
Two great hands-on museums right here in our backyard‌ the Children’s Discovery and Science Discovery Museums inspire curiosity, exploration, experimentation and imagination. Help us celebrate 30 years of inspiring curiosity at our
30th Anniversary Gala on November 10, hosted by WBUR's Robin Young.
Purchase gala tickets at tinyurl.com/discoverygala
Two Great Museums. One Admission Price The Discovery Museums | 177 Main Street, Acton, MA (978) 264-4200 | www.discoverymuseums.org
How do you measure good health?
Think about the last time you went to the doctor for a checkup. What measurements did they take? Weight, blood pressure, pulse. Maybe they drew blood to check cholesterol. The doctor can compare your measurements to standards and advise you on what steps you can take to improve your overall health. They can prescribe medication or put you on a diet and exercise regimen to help get your numbers in check.
What about body composition? Did your doctor ever tell you what percentage of your body is made up of lean muscle tissue versus fat? Probably not, because a good body composition scale is expensive and even for medical offices is difficult to come by. Body Mass Index is often used as a proxy for body composition but since it is just a simple ratio between height and weight which doesn’t account for age, gender or lean muscle level, it can be as misleading as the scale alone as a measure of your well-being.
What is lean muscle level? The body is made up of skin, bone, muscles, connective tissues (ligaments and tendons), fluid…and fat. Lean muscle level (LML) measures the percentage of your body that is not fat.
It should be everyone’s goal without exception to build and maintain lean muscle tissue because it is what drives a healthy metabolism and energy level. It impacts our strength, agility and even our ability to fight disease. It is not an exaggeration to say that lean muscle tissue is the body’s fountain of youth. The higher the Lean Muscle Level (LML), the more calories our bodies will burn. In fact, pound for pound, muscle burns three and half times more calories than fat. Now don’t panic because having more lean muscle tissue does not mean you have to look like a bodybuilder. With regular strength training, you can burn calories, reduce fat and increase lean muscle tissue without getting all bulked up. Because lean muscle takes up less space than fat, you’ll have a sleeker, younger and more fit appearance. Learn more in this issue about how you can increase, measure and protect your lean muscle level.
Build, maintain & protect your lean muscle level. younger appearance. Also, muscle is more metabolically active so you burn calories at a higher rate. So when your lean muscle level is high, you can consume more calories without gaining weight. And if that isn’t good enough, a strenuous workout will not only burn calories during the workout but it will rev up your metabolism and cause your body to burn calories at a faster rate for the rest of the day.
As we age, we naturally lose muscle mass. The average American will lose 40% of lean muscle tissue between the ages of 25 and 65. Besides the obvious changes this makes to our physical appearance, this loss of muscle causes our metabolism to slow down. This is why with absolutely no change to your diet, you suddenly start gaining weight in your 40’s and 50’s. Strength training just 2–3 times per week is all you need to maintain your lean muscle level so that you look and feel years younger. When it comes to looking younger, the secret of strength training is that muscle is denser than fat so it takes up less space in your body and will give you a leaner and
Weight maintenance and a youthful appearance are great but strength training also has profound effects on your overall well being. Who wants to look young but feel old? Strength training will increase your energy and stamina, improve your flexibility and balance and minimize your chances of injury. It helps to maintain bone density and by strengthening your core, it will improve your posture and overall back health.
Benefits of strength training • Trim & Toned Appearance • Increased Strength & Stamina • Revved-up Metabolsim • Improved Flexibility • Fewer Aches, Pains & Injuries • Builds Bone Density
Like strength training, getting better results from cardio exercise means breaking old habits. Pounding away on a treadmill or an elliptical machine for an hour or more is not only boring and inefficient; it can also cause serious repetitive stress injuries and unnecessarily deplete your lean muscle tissue. By contrast, “interval training” has been well-documented in numerous research studies to be more efficient for a variety of reasons. Like strength training, it burns more calories than steady state cardio both while you are doing it and for 24 hours after you are done. And it improves your cardiovascular conditioning much faster than steady state cardio, while protecting and increasing lean muscle level. So what is interval training and how often should you do it? It is an exercise strategy that alternates periods of short intense anaerobic exercise with less-intense recovery periods. A typical HIIT session should last about 15 minutes and not more than 20 minutes. It will start with a warm-up for a couple of minutes followed by alternative periods of high intensity and moderate intensity and ends with a cool down. During the high intensity phases you should be working at 80–85% of your maximum capacity, during moderate phases near 70% and low intensity phases below 60%.
While it is ok to do 15 minutes of HIIT daily, just 3 times per week is enough to deliver great results. Doing more than 20 minutes per day can actually be counter-productive.
aBouT TaBaTa Tabata is one form of HIIT that was developed by Japanese scientist Dr. Izumi Tabata. His studies demonstrated that HIIT delivered dramatic improvements to both the cardiovascular and muscular systems compared to regular steady-rate routines. Tabata deploys a 2:1 work to rest ratio with 20 seconds of high intensity with 10 seconds of rest. Michael Wood, CSCS, Chief Fitness Officer of Koko FitClub LLC is widely recognized as one the nation’s top fitness experts. Discover his personally designed fitness programs at a Koko FitClub near you and read more from Michael on his award winning blog at: michaelwoodspg.blogspot.com
Welcome to the Club If you are one of those people who hates the idea of going to the gym, welcome to the club. You can tell the moment you walk into a Koko FitClub that it is different. The spa-like setting is a dead giveaway. It doesn’t look or smell like a gym and as you look around, you’ll probably notice someone that looks a lot like you working hard at being healthier. Then you’ll notice the Smartrainers. No, not the friendly staff member who greeted you as you entered; they are called FitCoaches. I’m talking about the large white machines that will soon become your personal trainer. These Smartrainers deliver highly efficient “circuit-based” strength training. Rather than working one muscle at a time and resting between sets, Koko Smartraining™
works multiple muscle groups on every exercise and eliminates the “resting phase” by having you work opposing muscle groups during that time. And your whole routine is on just one machine. Just plug in your personalized Koko Key, follow the instructions and in just 30 minutes, three times per week, you will be well on your way to building lean muscle tissue and a stronger, healthier you. But Koko is more than just strength training. Koko also offers aerobic training with elliptical and treadmill programs designed to burn calories and build cardiovascular health in a minimal amount of time. With Koko Cardio interval training, the proper balance of work-out intensity and recovery in short durations is carefully manipulated in 15 minute sessions. The result is that you get the same calorie burn of steady-state cardio, but in half the time. Your audio-based personal trainer, our own Chief Fitness Officer, Michael Wood, will motivate and keep you focused every step of the way. No matter what your current fitness level, Koko provides a solution just for you because we customize everything. We assess your strength level and measure your range of motion at your first visit so every exercise you do on the Koko Smartrainer™ is customized to your ability. And then every month or so, we test you again so that the
system keeps adapting as you make progress. We can actually measure your strength gain over time. The ability to track progress and show measurable results is just one of the ways that Koko is unique. The other thing you will notice right away is the vibe of the club. The staff at Koko FitClub are extremely friendly. They have been certified as Koko FitCoaches to train you on how to properly use the Koko Smartraining system. Don’t be surprised when you are greeted by name when you enter the club. Koko FitClub is extremely affordable. For about the price of just one personal training session, you get a month’s worth of personal training at Koko.
And Koko is amazingly convenient too. Have you ever heard of personal training that doesn’t require an appointment? Well, here at Koko, no appointments are necessary. Club hours vary from town to town but most clubs are staffed at least 60 hours per week and all offer after hours access so you can exercise when it’s convenient for you. Even the busiest people can find time for fitness at Koko. With over 100 locations in 27 states, Koko is sweeping the nation. Get in on the healthy ride and find a club near you.
Find a location near you at kokofitclub.com
Measuring Success at MyKokoFitClub.com At Koko, we believe measurement is critical to success in maintaining good health. It can help us to be more accountable. It can motivate and inspire us. In the case of Koko, it does both of those things, but more importantly it forms the foundation of our personal training system, feeding it with data to help customize and prescribe a program to your specific needs. We are not talking about the kind of measurement where someone makes you get on a scale and tell everyone in the room how much you weigh. Our measurements are private and way more powerful. We measure how strong you are and track your strength gains from month to month. We track how many Koko Points you have earned, calories burned, how often you work out and your Pace score. We even track your Q Score, our proprietary calculation of relative strength.
We know that after 8 weeks the average member is 19% stronger, after 16 weeks they are 26% stronger and after 24 weeks they are 33% stronger. After a full year of sticking with a regimen of 3 strength sessions per week, the average member is 44% stronger. You will probably want to print out a record of your workouts to share with your doctor at your next check-up so she/he understands why your vital medical statistics have improved so dramatically.
Track your path to success on your own, personal MyKokoFitClub web page.
Introducing Koko FitCheck Coming soon to your Koko FitClub is Koko FitCheck, a new measurement tool that accurately calculates body composition using medical-grade, bio-impedance technology. It has been proven over many years to be a safe, fast and accurate method to measure body composition. Before every workout, your measurements are captured using bio-impedance via four points of the body—both hands and both feet. You stand on the unit with bare feet and enter your age, gender and height. Grab on to the handles for just a few seconds while it captures your lean muscle level (LML) and then calculates your Koko eBMI or enhanced body mass index. This eBMI was developed exclusively by Koko FitClub to help our members track progress towards their fitness goals over time. It factors in your lean muscle level, age and gender into a more accurate indicator
of health and fitness. When you keep doing your strength sessions three times per week, while eating a proper diet, your eBMI will move into the Koko Zone in no time. FitCheck is fast and discrete and helps us to deliver the most prescriptive and personalized training programs to our members. It will also arm you with ways to set and track your goals towards building a better, more fit body. Just login to your MyKokoFitClub.com web page to view your historical measurements and plot your course for success. Access to FitCheck is provided complimentary to members and will be available in all Koko FitClub’s nationwide by December 2012.
Building Health from the Inside Out
Is it possible to mine a healthy perspective even after a lifetime of unhealthy living? It is easy to see how people at the peak of ‘wellness’ can maintain a healthy mindset. Health encourages healthy actions. Healthy actions produce more health, which encourages...you guessed it, more healthy actions. It is a wonderful self-perpetuating circle of momentum, and everyone wants into that circle somehow. We want to look great; we want to feel great; and we want to stop pushing the boulder of motivation uphill with the masses. Try as we may, the strong, energetic attitude that seems to sprout organically from
that small minority can feel out of reach. We can feel stuck in the mind and body that time built. In a desperate bid, most people try to “do” something healthy in order to “be” someone healthy. From gym memberships to home equipment, DVDs to the latest food tracking app, most people are stuck on a “treadmill of trying” in order to see radically wonderful change. It’s no surprise that most of these well-intentioned actions will end in failure and disappointment…again. Old feelings win over new habits. So, is there a better approach? Before you throw in the gym towel, consider three strategies to cultivating a healthier mindset.
Health encourages healthy actions. Healthy actions produce more health, which encourages…you guessed it, more healthy actions.
SeT a larger “WHY” If fitting into your size 6 jeans again hasn’t moved you from the couch in four years, it might be time to examine your motivations. What emotion-evoking reason can you identify to get you up and at it again? Are your kids following your example? Are you approaching the age at which your father experienced his heart attack? Have you stopped feeling good about yourself? Identify exactly what you want, when you want it, how you plan to get there and, most importantly, why you need to be there. Write it all down, and visit it daily. If your “why” doesn’t completely eclipse your “why not,” it’s just not big enough.
acT ‘aS iF’ unTil Psychologists tell us that our mindsets can be dramatically altered by way of adjusting physiology and behavior. We know that our mood has impact on our posture and movement. If you feel sad, you’re likely to move slowly, with your head lower and shoulders slumped forward. If you feel angry, your heart races quickly, your breathing quickens and your muscles tense. Want to be confident and upbeat? Raise your head, lift your chest, pull your shoulders back, breathe deeply and walk swiftly. Not only is this great exercise, but it’s a natural mood booster with no negative side effects. Experiment with this as you exercise too. Sit and stand tall and confident through
each exercise, move quickly and eagerly from one exercise to the next. Smile! Mimic the movements of a bona fide health nut, and you will be surprised to realize how quickly the feelings become genuine. In other words, don’t act how you feel; act how you want to feel.
coMMiT To SHoW uP The hardest part about getting it done is always getting started. Most people underestimate the devoted commitment upfront that is needed to make a change in life. Those same people overestimate how much effort it takes to keep a good habit going once it’s rolling. It might be harder than you think to get started, but it’s easier than you think to keep going. So, hold yourself accountable for showing up in the beginning. Set and keep appointments for at least 21 days. Get an accountability partner if you have to. Once the habit is set, the healthy task won’t seem as daunting. Invest the effort and commitment upfront, and then don’t look back. You’ll be happier and healthier from the inside out. Former Beverly Hills trainer and fitness spokes-model, Deborah Denova-Baker is a certified wellness coach and co-owner of Koko FitClubs of Houma, Thibodaux and Baton Rouge with her husband, Paul Baker. Debbie is Editor-in-Chief of Louisiana FitLife magazine, an independent distributor and presenter for Lifevantage, mother of two and creator of the first “inner body fitness system,” The SuperBody Project.
Effective exercise requires recovery.
Getting to a level of fitness can be a challenging and frustrating process with all the time demands that are placed on us. How many times have you decided that it is time to get into shape and 10 days later you are injured. No matter what level of fitness you are, injuries can happen. Life happens. You need to stop feeling sorry for yourself and keep finding a way to stay in shape. The key element to getting into shape is allowing the body to recover before you stress it again. Giving your body time to adapt to training is critical for a long and successful training program. It’s important to remember the three keys to success:
HYdraTion: Our body is over 60% water and we all need to balance our body
fluids and electrolytes for proper nerve and muscle function. When you are properly hydrated, the chance of injury is diminished and you are able to carry on to the next workout.
SPace: All athletes need to space out their high stress workouts. As a coach I would give at least 48 hours to elite athletes. As we age we may need more time between workouts. Give your body a chance to recover and rebuild and decrease the chance of injury. For the average person, intense exercise more than three times per week is too much.
ProTein: What is the deal with all this protein talk? We all know that protein is the building block to muscle maintenance and growth. Make an
effort to have protein with every meal. Almost all whole foods contain protein. Some sources like animal products and soy are complete proteins containing all the amino acids necessary for optimal dietary needs. Vegetables and grains are incomplete and should be paired with one another to form a complete protein. For example, the classic Mexican dish of rice and beans is a perfect example of how to pair a grain and a legume to form a complete protein. Eating proteins from a variety of plant and animal sources ensures your muscles are being constantly fed. Elite strength athletes need between 1.3 to 1.8 grams per 2 pounds of body weight per day.
We are not all elite athletes but we need to make sure that we are getting enough protein to support the muscles and prevent injury. Get out there and own your fitness goal. If you are already fit and working out, be smart and give your body a chance to recover. If starting a routine, get out there and be consistent and smart. Brian Hoffer is the President of Hoffer Sports Consulting. He has 25 years experience coaching swimming at the Division 1 level. E-mail him at: Brian@ HofferSportsConsulting.com
3x3x3 Challenge You know the old saying, there is no time like the present. Take the DAY Sun Mon Tues Wed Thu Fri Sat Koko 3x3x3 challenge and commit to making a healthy lifestyle change
for the next 3 weeks. Start with one small thing like reducing sugar TIME intake or exercising regularly. Do 3 strength sessions and 3 cardios per
3x3x3 Challenge
week for 3 weeks and get ready to change your life one habit at a time.
DAY
Sun
Mon
Tues
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
TIME
It takes about 3 weeks to form a habit. Make Koko your healthy new habit by scheduling 3 strength and 3 cardio per week for the next 3 weeks. It takes about 3 weeks to form a habit. Make Koko your healthy new habit by scheduling 3 strength and 3 cardio per week for the next 3 weeks.
Use it or lose it! Studies prove that your brain never loses its ability to expand and grow. The only limiting factor is what you choose to do to exercise that capacity. It doesn’t matter what you are learning, what matters is that you can keep the brain sharp by keeping it active – just exactly in the same way that you can keep your body young by keeping it active. Did you ever wonder why you can remember some memories from your life vividly while the rest is a blur?
The brain has a sophisticated system that stores important information and deletes unnecessary information. You can even give your memory a little boost by using a calendar or journal to write down important information that you need to know. When you free yourself from needing to remember these things, you actually free up your brain so it can remember something else.
SmartTeaser
Solving brain teasers is a proven way to keep your brain functioning at peak performance. The left gear doesn’t move. The right gear rolls around it. How many complete turns does the right gear make to go around the left gear once? It’s not what it looks like. The answer isn’t one!
See the back cover for the solution
Good Nutrition is a Lifestyle Choice The American lifestyle does not make it easy to stay trim and fit and healthy. Processed food is abundant, cheap, convenient and seemingly within arm’s reach all the time. Unfortunately most of the food we are eating is overloaded with sodium, sugar, fat and other chemicals and lacking in nutritional value. It is just about the perfect recipe for creating obesity –especially when coupled with a sedentary lifestyle. Most of us don’t need to go on a diet. We need to make the lifestyle choice to stop eating refined, processed foods and take the little extra time to cook meals from whole ingredients. To aid us, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently replaced the MyPyramid food guidelines with MyPlate as the official model to guide your healthy nutrition lifestyle. It offers a much simpler and more practical way to visualize the way to put together healthy meals for your family.
Your PlaTe SHould include: 50% FruiTS & vegeTaBleS Fruits and vegetables are nutrient-dense, low in calories and high in fiber. 30% coMPleX carBoHYdraTeS Avoid white, highly refined or processed foods and opt where possible for whole grains. 20% ProTein A quarter of your plate should be protein which should come from a variety of plant and animal sources.
QuicK TiPS: Fat is an imperative nutrient which helps make you feel satisfied, makes food taste good and aids in digestion. But use in moderation and avoid foods high in saturated fat and low in nutritional content—a.k.a. junk food. Minimize sodium intake to less than 1500 milligrams per day. It is easy if you avoid processed foods and add salt to taste when you serve your meal rather than while you are cooking it.
For more information go to www.ChooseMyPlate.gov.
Are you hungry or just addicted to food? The average American eats too much processed food. It is not surprising because most processed food is scientifically engineered to be pleasing to our taste buds with high concentrations of salt, sugar, fat and other chemicals. And since taste buds acclimate to what we eat, the more processed food we eat, the more we crave it. Healthy, whole foods lose their appeal and our cravings for junk food grow. And not only do our taste buds get addicted to these chemicals, too but many studies have shown changes in how the brain reacts to these chemicals too. It is really important to understand that having cravings is not the same as being hungry. The good news is that taste buds generate every 24 hours and so in a matter of a few weeks, you can reset your taste buds and retrain your brain to eliminate your unhealthy cravings and enjoy the hunger satisfying taste of whole foods. The first few days will be the hardest—just like kicking any addiction—so it’s important to have plenty of your favorite healthy alternatives on hand while you are making the transition so that hunger doesn’t hijack your re-training efforts. Before long, you will find that the more you eat fruits, vegetables and whole foods, the more you will crave them. I started with breakfast. For as long as I can remember, I have had a
couple of slices of toast and a cup of tea for breakfast. I have always struggled to eat enough fruits so my new breakfast is a small bowl of berries, a few walnuts and a sprinkling of my favorite granola or dry cereal. I go with about 2:1 berries to cereal. I don’t even use milk. Within a few days of this new breakfast, I have become addicted to it. When I wake up and find I’m out of raspberries because one of my kids chowed them all down for an afternoon snack, I feel really annoyed. Well, l’m happy that my kids love fruit, but I’m annoyed that I have to fall back and eat toast. I find this absolutely amazing. A twenty year habit of eating tea and toast for breakfast out the window after just a few days. The reason? My body feels better when I eat a bowl of fruit. I’m more regular. I have more energy. I just feel better and that is hard to argue with. Pick one unhealthy thing that you crave and find a healthy substitute. You’ll be surprised what happens. Lori Granville is a Marketing executive, a mother of three, co-owner of Koko FitClub of Acton and editor of In Good Health, where she shares information from her quest for good health.”
Just say no to sugared drinks. Would you sit down for a snack and eat a spoonful of sugar like this? A 12 ounce can of soda has 10 teaspoons or 20 cubes of sugar and 150 calories. The AHA recommends 100 calories per day for women and 150 for men from sugar so think twice before cracking open your next can of soda. There are virtually no nutrients in soda or sports drinks—just empty calories. About the only thing going for sugary drinks is that they have water in them. So save the calories and the crash that will most certainly come from flushing so much sugar through your system so quickly and just drink water. It will quench your thirst without impacting your waistline.
Satisfy your sweet tooth with fruit. Fruit contains a lot of sugar. But it is also loaded with anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals and a host of phyto-chemicals with disease fighting properties. Humans are one of only a couple of species that have a so-called sweet tooth that can distinguish the taste of sweetness.
In our evolution this is believed to be to designed to attract us to the many benefits it offers. In addition to all the nutrients, fruit is loaded with fiber which helps maintain a good digestive balance and slows the absorption of the sugars into our bloodstream so that you don’t get the same energy highs and lows you can get with other sugars.
New Foods to Add to Your Pantry. Carboyhdrates often get a bad rap for being a contributing factor in the rise of obesity in America. In reality, carbohydrates are a critical macronutrient and provide the human body with energy to live. But all carbs are not created equal and while it’s true that white bread, white rice and sweets should not be staples in your diet, there are a lot of really good carbs that should. Fruits, vegetables, and whole grains are what you need to reach for and Quinoa should be high on your list. Quinoa, the so-called “Ancient Grain,” is actually a seed that comes from a plant in the same family as spinach. In addition to being a great source of unprocessed carbohydrates, like soy, quinoa is one of only a very few plant foods that contain a complete form of protein that has all of the essential amino acids. The nutritional value of Quiona is very high, and its is experiencing a resurgence in popularity. The United Nations has named 2013 the International Year of the Quiona. A one cup serving contains 8 grams of protein and 5 grams of dietary fiber – compare this to 5 grams of protein and 4 grams of fiber in brown rice. It is also rich in iron, magnesium, calcium and essential fatty acids. The best thing about Quinoa is that it’s easy to prepare and tastes great –even the kids will love it. It’s a great substitute for rice or pasta and can be
served hot or cold. You’ll find it near the rice in your grocery store.
Quinoa TaBouli Salad ingredienTS: 1 cup water 1/2 cup uncooked quinoa 3/4 cup fresh parsley leaves 1/2 cup thinly sliced celery 1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions 1/2 cup cucumbers 1/2 cup finely chopped tomatoes 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 tablespoon honey 1/4 teaspoon salt & black pepper PreParaTion: 1. Bring water and quinoa to a boil in a medium saucepan. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Spoon into a bowl; fluff with a fork and let cool. Add parsley, celery, onions, cucumbers, tomatoes and any other vegetables you have on hand. 2. Whisk lemon juice, olive oil, honey, salt, and black pepper. Add to quinoa mixture, and toss well. Enjoy.
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www.eyewearbygiorgio.com Onsite Optometrist: Dr. Heidi Frank | 978-256-6565
Located on eight acres of lovingly created gardens on a wooded hillside in Harvard, Massachusetts, the Healing Garden is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing therapeutic services, educational programs, and a healing environment to people affected by breast cancer. In this serene setting, without reminders of the disease and medical interventions, clients can begin treatments feeling calmer and more relaxed. The center was inspired by the late Virginia Thurston, a Harvard resident, who found solace in the healing properties of her garden after her cancer diagnosis. After
her death in 1999, her husband Bill, wanting to help others with cancer, worked with Betsy Tyson-Smith, a psychotherapist who had worked with Ginny and the idea for the Healing Garden was born. The center launched in 2001 with a mission to give people with cancer the tools needed to take back their life. The support they offer extends to family, caretakers and friends. In fact, the beautiful grounds of The Healing Garden are open to the Public Monday-Friday from 9AM–5PM. Office hours are Monday-Thursday from 9AM-5PM.
Services are focused on high-quality, evidence-based psychological and physical support in a safe and comfortable setting. Lana Heino Roman is the Care Coordinator who works with each client to select the offerings appropriate for the stage of the disease, medical treatments, and personal preferences. Contact Lana at Lana@healinggarden.net
You are a person, not a disease, and you can live well with cancer, and beyond. Healing Garden Services
Classes
• Mind-body medicine for relaxation and restoration of the body’s energy flow
Some classes are open to the public. For example, “The Deep River Sampler” runs Wednesdays from 6:30-8:00pm starting on Oct 17th. Learn the art of slowing down, accessing the wisdom of your inner knowing and finding purpose in everyday life. Call 978-456-3532 to register. Find more classes at www.healinggarden.net
• Education about choices that contribute to health, such as offerings on nutrition, stress management, and exercise • Expressive therapies for self-expression and processing/releasing emotions • Modalities that help clients regain control of their lives, both during and after medical treatments
The Virginia Thurston Healing Garden 145 Bolton Road Harvard, MA 01451 Phone: 978-456-3532
If you’re one of those people who hates the idea of going to the gym, welcome to the club!
Koko FitClub makes getting in shape simpler, faster and more enjoyable than you ever thought possible. You’re guided, tracked and measured at each session. No boredom, no wasted time, and no “gym scene.”
Like us on Facebook & Save $50 Valid towards annual memberships.
www.facebook.com/KokoFitClubActon ACTON
342 Great Rd.
HARVARD
285 Ayer Rd.
WESTFORD
274 Littleton Rd.
978-263-9348 978-772-5656 978-692-5656