Health Swap: It's A Tuesday Night - My Heart Is Troubled

Why is my heart troubled? Read on to see what the heart trouble is about....

The 'Game On' challenge suggest that you make new changes to your life style. Once you have decided to make a change you receive points for this change. If you decide differently about the goal you set you are penalized by losing four times the amount of points you earned earlier. So, before making a change I definitely want to think twice before making a commitment. With this in mind I have decided to begin slow in hopes of accomplishing a higher goal. Yes, this is major, I have decided to give up my evening snacking! It is the one thing I was not willing to give up. Of course, I have already changed my thinking on what an evening snack entails. For example, I do not eat ice cream, chips or junk food in general. That part has already changed to low-fat pop corn, yogurt or what ever else may be available. What I am speaking of is no snack after dinner, healthy or other wise. I will start by eliminating my snack only on Tuesdays and Thursday evenings, in hopes of eventually adding Monday and Wednesday. This will not be an easy habit to break but a necessary one. I have known for some time that eventually I would need to reconsider my "HOLD" on my right to snack in the evenings. I recently read that one of the reasons we crave snacks in the first place is because our bodies are actually craving water. The suggestion was given that you should have water or flavored no-sugar-added water when you desire to snack. After a time your body will get the message right and you will know that your body is actually asking for a drink, not calories.

Can you guess what day today is?

TUESDAY - My Heart Is Troubled,
today I must start my commitment.

My husband and I still enjoy Dunkin Donuts. Saturday is our day to hit Dunkin Donuts for our cup of coffee and our weekly treat of a donut. (Yes, you can portion control a donut. It is called a donut hole). Now that I think about it - we were portion controlling Dunkin Donuts years ago. When we lived in Japan, we would go to Dunkin Donuts every Saturday for coffee and we would split a donut. It was not because we were so worried about calories but because we were worried about money. Twenty years ago we paid $10.00 for two small cups of coffee and one donut. What fond memories that brings back.

My daughter 20 years ago in Japan.

Pre-Packaged Foods Win Out

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention developed a five year plan to help inform adults of their need to eat more fruits and vegetables to combat diseases. After five years the report has been released, it is reported that we received an "F" in the area of changing our eating preferences. In general this information probably does not affect most of us because we cannot worry about what everyone else may or may not be eating and sometimes we do not even care what we are eating. http://www.enviromentalnutrition.com/

For anyone who works in a hospital, nursing home facility, or any other health organization, it may mean a little more because we see it everyday. It is estimated that the care for our elderly is going to double or more for the generation coming up. Our choices of healthy habits and the change in the family unit as a whole are changing, leaving more people needing care from outside agencies. Maybe it does effect each of us more than we care to think about.