10,000 Steps Each Day
What does it mean to be sedentary? If you work in an office and sit most of the day, but have active pursuits outside of work, where do you fall in the spectrum? A general guideline is that we should all strive to take 10,000 steps each day. Ten thousands steps is almost five miles based on the average stride length of 2.5 feet. Sedentary individuals take approximately 1,000-3,000 steps a day, which is anywhere from .5-1.5 miles.
To measure how many steps you’re taking each day, try using a pedometer. Many models are very inexpensive and they just clip right onto your clothing. For accuracy, choose a pedometer that you can program to measure your daily distance based on your stride length. (Instructions on how to measure your stride length will be included.)
If you find that you’re falling well short of the recommended 10,000 steps, don’t feel that you have to make huge…um, strides to get to the 10,000 mark. Make an effort to add a couple of hundred steps every few days and work toward your goal slowly but surely.
There are many ways to increase our number of steps. Here are just a few:
Take a walk with your partner, child, or friend
Walk the dog
Use the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator
Park farther from the store
If you live in town, just walk to the store!
Get up to change the channel
Window shop
Plan a moms’ walking get-together
Walk over to visit a neighbor
Go outside to walk around the garden or do a little weeding
Wander around your home instead of sitting down while on the phone
The weather is perfect for walking outside right now. Take advantage of it!
Jacque Butler is the owner of JB Fitness in Glenwood, Iowa. http://www.jbfitnessiowa.com/ For tips on fitness & nutrition, you can follow JB Fitness on Facebook.
Showing posts with label Fit Focus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fit Focus. Show all posts
Friday, September 17, 2010
Friday, September 3, 2010
Friday's Fit Focus
Fit to Exercise
I used to teach a post-natal group fitness class, which was fun because we were always getting to see new babies come into our group. I remember one client in particular who gave birth to a baby girl during the summer. Because she had a cesarean section, she had a two-week follow up appointment with her OB. When she got home from the appointment, she called to tell me that her physician had approved her to exercise.
“Already?!” I exclaimed. “It’s only been two weeks, and you had a c-section!” The mom elaborated that her OB told her there were two reasons she was ready to come back to class. One was that her incision looked great, had healed perfectly, and there were no concerns about it re-opening. The second—and the one I was most interested in—was that she was in excellent physical condition leading up to her delivery, which enabled a quick and full recovery. She was fit because she exercised regularly before and during pregnancy.
Please don’t misunderstand. Exercising throughout pregnancy does not guarantee that one can get back into a regular fitness routine two weeks post-partum. Typically, women are approved to exercise six to ten weeks after delivery. However, there are exceptions such as this mom. Her doctor did remind her that if any exercise is painful, she should stop it immediately. This, of course, is true for any exerciser.
Terri Isidro-Cloudas points out in an article called The Benefits of Pregnancy Exercise at www.discoveryhealth.com that “Exercising and staying active during your pregnancy can help you with some of the symptoms of pregnancy like feeling tired and sluggish, and gaining too much weight. Exercise during pregnancy is beneficial because it:
• reduces backaches, constipation, bloating, and swelling
• increases energy and stamina
• lifts your spirits and balances your mood
• improves posture
• helps build better muscle tone and strength
• promotes better sleep, and
• gives you a sense of control and self-confidence.”
Group fitness provides a great avenue for exercise during pregnancy. Expectant moms can feel comfortable surrounded by other women—often moms themselves—who are encouraging and supportive. Just be sure to find an instructor who has experience with pre-natal exercisers as there are special considerations to make your workout safe and effective.
I am inspired by women who are successful in taking care of themselves during pregnancy, and modeling their active lifestyles to their babies. It is never too early for that!
Jacque Butler is the owner of JB Fitness in Glenwood, Iowa. http://www.jbfitnessiowa.com/ For tips on fitness & nutrition, you can follow JB Fitness on Facebook.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Friday's Fit Focus
Children Learn What You Eat
There is a wonderful poem written by Dorothy Law Nolte called “Children Learn What They Live.” It’s a sort of cause and effect list that follows the pattern, “If children live with [X], they learn [Y].” It is an inspiring poem to me as a parent, and I had the pleasure of hearing the author read it at a conference once.
One of the things that Ms. Nolte didn’t include in her poem, however, is what happens when children live with good nutrition. I wouldn’t expect her to have included it, of course. She focused on more philosophical issues, although healthy eating does tie in with many pressing concerns in today’s society.
We need to model a healthy lifestyle to our children, and that includes healthy eating. A few years ago, researchers made some shocking discoveries. Let me share a couple of the headlines from that time: “Children’s Life Expectancy Being Cut Short by Obesity” (Pam Belluck, March 15, 2005, New York Times) and “Life Expectancy to Drop For First Time in 1,000 Years” (Jacqueline Maley and Mark Todd, March 18, 2005, Sidney Morning Herald). This is—pardon the pun—heavy stuff. Why is this happening, and what can we do about it?
According to the American Obesity Association’s website, there is only one cause of obesity that can’t be helped, and that is genetics. The other contributors like sedentary lifestyles (thank you, TV, computers, and video games), general inactivity, and poor nutritional choices are completely modifiable. Easy? Not necessarily, but isn’t our children’s health worth the effort?
A pediatrician friend and I often talk about nutrition because I am determined to teach my children to enjoy healthy food in spite of today’s focus on convenience. Unfortunately, convenient often equals unhealthy. But my choices are become my children’s choices. Our pediatrician often comments that he gets frustrated with parents who complain that their children won’t eat vegetables, yet they quickly offer very unhealthy options as a back-up. He submits that we’re just teaching our kids that all they have to do is whine a little to get the junk they know Mom and Dad have stashed away somewhere. So, he says, offer only healthy food and that’s what our kids will learn to eat—and like. Remember the season of Survivor when the team of starving players ate cooked rats out of sheer desperation, then commented on how surprisingly palatable they were? It’s amazing how tastes change when it’s rat (or green beans) or nothing.
So, that doesn’t sound too hard…in theory. But we’re also up against marketing, which is a powerful force in America. What I call Kid Food is big business here, and it’s pretty much all junk. Look at a kids’ menu in a restaurant and you see fried chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, and corn dogs. Oh, and by the way, they’re nice enough to throw in fries with the main course. I asked in a restaurant recently if I could substitute some veggies for the fries in my daughter’s meal and the server’s response was, “Not on the kids’ menu.” Are you kidding me? And what about the food in the grocery store that targets our youngsters? Those prepared lunches, for example, offer such things as pizza rolls, tacos and nachos, and even cinnamon rolls.
Here is where we come back to Ms. Nolte’s poem. We have to resist the sweet pull of convenience-in-a-box and fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants dining or our kids are going to continue to suffer. Their lives are already expected to be shorter than the previous generation’s, and according to Belluck’s article, by as much as five years. So, if we eat burgers and fries, pizza, and fried chicken every night, that’s what we’re teaching our kids to eat. If for a snack, we munch on chips or ice cream, how can we expect our kids to ask for an apple? If we grab a Snickers at the checkout in the grocery store, we can’t respectably refuse our kids candy on the grounds that it’s unhealthy. It is not just about presenting our children with healthy food, but eating it ourselves in front of them (and for that matter, when they’re not around too).
I need daily motivation to make the right food choices. In fact, it’s more like an hourly requirement. But knowing that modeling healthy eating to my children may literally decrease her chances of developing nasty things like heart disease and diabetes, and ultimately will support a long life is just the motivation I need.
There is a wonderful poem written by Dorothy Law Nolte called “Children Learn What They Live.” It’s a sort of cause and effect list that follows the pattern, “If children live with [X], they learn [Y].” It is an inspiring poem to me as a parent, and I had the pleasure of hearing the author read it at a conference once.
One of the things that Ms. Nolte didn’t include in her poem, however, is what happens when children live with good nutrition. I wouldn’t expect her to have included it, of course. She focused on more philosophical issues, although healthy eating does tie in with many pressing concerns in today’s society.
We need to model a healthy lifestyle to our children, and that includes healthy eating. A few years ago, researchers made some shocking discoveries. Let me share a couple of the headlines from that time: “Children’s Life Expectancy Being Cut Short by Obesity” (Pam Belluck, March 15, 2005, New York Times) and “Life Expectancy to Drop For First Time in 1,000 Years” (Jacqueline Maley and Mark Todd, March 18, 2005, Sidney Morning Herald). This is—pardon the pun—heavy stuff. Why is this happening, and what can we do about it?
According to the American Obesity Association’s website, there is only one cause of obesity that can’t be helped, and that is genetics. The other contributors like sedentary lifestyles (thank you, TV, computers, and video games), general inactivity, and poor nutritional choices are completely modifiable. Easy? Not necessarily, but isn’t our children’s health worth the effort?
A pediatrician friend and I often talk about nutrition because I am determined to teach my children to enjoy healthy food in spite of today’s focus on convenience. Unfortunately, convenient often equals unhealthy. But my choices are become my children’s choices. Our pediatrician often comments that he gets frustrated with parents who complain that their children won’t eat vegetables, yet they quickly offer very unhealthy options as a back-up. He submits that we’re just teaching our kids that all they have to do is whine a little to get the junk they know Mom and Dad have stashed away somewhere. So, he says, offer only healthy food and that’s what our kids will learn to eat—and like. Remember the season of Survivor when the team of starving players ate cooked rats out of sheer desperation, then commented on how surprisingly palatable they were? It’s amazing how tastes change when it’s rat (or green beans) or nothing.
So, that doesn’t sound too hard…in theory. But we’re also up against marketing, which is a powerful force in America. What I call Kid Food is big business here, and it’s pretty much all junk. Look at a kids’ menu in a restaurant and you see fried chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, and corn dogs. Oh, and by the way, they’re nice enough to throw in fries with the main course. I asked in a restaurant recently if I could substitute some veggies for the fries in my daughter’s meal and the server’s response was, “Not on the kids’ menu.” Are you kidding me? And what about the food in the grocery store that targets our youngsters? Those prepared lunches, for example, offer such things as pizza rolls, tacos and nachos, and even cinnamon rolls.
Here is where we come back to Ms. Nolte’s poem. We have to resist the sweet pull of convenience-in-a-box and fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants dining or our kids are going to continue to suffer. Their lives are already expected to be shorter than the previous generation’s, and according to Belluck’s article, by as much as five years. So, if we eat burgers and fries, pizza, and fried chicken every night, that’s what we’re teaching our kids to eat. If for a snack, we munch on chips or ice cream, how can we expect our kids to ask for an apple? If we grab a Snickers at the checkout in the grocery store, we can’t respectably refuse our kids candy on the grounds that it’s unhealthy. It is not just about presenting our children with healthy food, but eating it ourselves in front of them (and for that matter, when they’re not around too).
I need daily motivation to make the right food choices. In fact, it’s more like an hourly requirement. But knowing that modeling healthy eating to my children may literally decrease her chances of developing nasty things like heart disease and diabetes, and ultimately will support a long life is just the motivation I need.
Jacque Butler is the owner of JB Fitness in Glenwood, Iowa. www.jbfitnessiowa.com For tips on fitness & nutrition, you can follow JB Fitness on Facebook.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Friday's Fit Focus by Jacque Butler
11 Motivators for Moms to Exercise
M odeling a healthy lifestyle to your child(ren).
A bdominals that don’t scream “POSTNATAL!!!”
K eeping only one size of clothes in your closet, thus creating more space for shoes.
E nergy to be the best mom you can be.
T reating yourself guiltlessly to dessert now and then.
H eart disease prevention. Exercise lowers the risk of the #1 killer of women and men in the US.
M odeling a healthy lifestyle to your child(ren).
A bdominals that don’t scream “POSTNATAL!!!”
K eeping only one size of clothes in your closet, thus creating more space for shoes.
E nergy to be the best mom you can be.
T reating yourself guiltlessly to dessert now and then.
H eart disease prevention. Exercise lowers the risk of the #1 killer of women and men in the US.
E xiting a room without wondering if people can see the cellulite through your slacks.
T ime spent blissfully focused on you.
I ntimate encounters with your partner with the lights ON.
M aking friends who like you even when you smell like sweat.
E ndorphins.
T ime spent blissfully focused on you.
I ntimate encounters with your partner with the lights ON.
M aking friends who like you even when you smell like sweat.
E ndorphins.
Jacque Butler is the owner of JB Fitness in Glenwood, Iowa. http://www.jbfitnessiowa.com/ For tips on fitness & nutrition, you can follow JB Fitness on Facebook.
Friday, August 6, 2010
Friday's Fit Focus with Jacque Butler
Eating Well in a Nutshell
When people ask me questions related to health and wellness, most often the subject has to do with food. It makes sense; not everyone exercises, but everyone does eat. And I’m glad there is interest in nutrition because—and I know I sound like a broken record to those who know me—diet is 80% of weight loss and management. We really are what we eat.
Here are my most basic and general tips on eating well. (In weeks to come, we’ll drill down into the specifics of this stuff.)
1. Surround yourself with nutrient-dense foods. Don’t buy the junk. We are a society that thrives on convenience. If what’s convenient, meaning right there in your fridge, is healthy, that’s what you’ll most often eat. And there’s nothing easier than grabbing an apple from the fridge.
2. Stop making excuses. You can find a reason every day to “make an exception” and eat junk. It’s someone’s birthday (cake), it’s the Fourth of July (hot dogs and chips), it’s the last day of school (ice cream), it’s my vacation (free for all), the kids have a game/dance/karate/piano (Pizza Hut delivery), Girls’ Night Out (chips & salsa and margaritas), etc. All of those exceptions add up to a diet full of junk…and weight gain.
3. Eat mindfully. I’m not saying our diets must be perfect all the time. But I do suggest really thinking through the cheats. Is it worth it to you…really? Is the food you’re about to eat truly delicious? How much do you need to satisfy the craving? Are you eating more than that? If the answer to the first two questions is yes, then go for it. But pay attention to the second two questions as well.
4. Portion control is really important, but when you’re eating truly nutritious food, you can eat a lot! There is practically no limit to how many fresh, raw veggies you can eat, so go for it!
5. Drink water! Thirst gives many of the same signals as hunger, so if you’re well hydrated, you won’t feel as hungry. Additionally, water is what our bodies need above everything else. Being well-hydrated will increase function in many areas.
6. Eat small meals throughout the day. You must fuel the metabolic fires! This will also help you avoid the super hungry/super full cycle. Feeling generally satisfied throughout the day feels good.
7. Avoid sugar. We are conditioned to believe fat is the culprit, but in fact our bodies need healthy fats. We don’t need sugar. As my former trainer bluntly put it, “Sugar makes you fat.”
This is barely skimming the surface; there will be more details to come!
Best in health & happiness!
Jacque Butler is the owner of JB Fitness in Glenwood, Iowa. http://www.jbfitnessiowa.com/ For tips on fitness & nutrition, you can follow JB Fitness on Facebook.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Friday's Fit Focus with Jacque Butler
Who am I??
I am really excited to be writing a weekly article for all of you MOPS. What a great community! But you may be wondering who I am, and why the MOPS powers-that-be asked me to spout off each week about healthy living. Here’s a synopsis of my background, and then the interesting stuff will start next week.
My degree is in Human Growth & Development and my pre-kids career was in healthcare, first as a child life specialist, and later as a patient relations director in a Houston hospital. During that time, I discovered fitness and became certified to teach group fitness. I had my first baby in 2003, and when she was 9 months old, I purchased a fitness franchise in Houston called StrollerFit and earned a specialty certification in pre- and post-natal exercise. In 2006 I had baby number two, and then in 2007, I purchased a second StrollerFit franchise in Cypress, a suburb of Houston. In 2008, I trained for and competed in a natural figure competition, and placed second. This is when I really started learning more about nutrition, and became inspired to study for my personal training certification. After moving to Iowa and having baby number three in 2009, I became a certified personal fitness trainer and started JB Fitness, a personal training studio which also offers group fitness and nutrition guidance.
I have a passion for fitness and healthy living, but it hasn’t always been this way. I have struggled with my weight my entire life. I was a healthy, active kid who was also overweight. You know the chubby kid on stage at the dance recital? That was me, and I was very aware of it. While my parents struggled to get my brother to eat at meal time, they were gently reminding me that I didn’t “need to eat it just because it’s there.” In high school, I was athletic and that helped me maintain a healthy weight. Then in college, I gained a significant amount of weight from inactivity and a poor diet. After graduating, I pulled it together, started exercising daily and watching my food, and lost about 45 pounds. That’s when I became a group fitness instructor.
Each of the three times I’ve been pregnant, I’ve gained significant weight: 62, 48, and 67 pounds, respectively. I was especially active during the middle pregnancy, teaching fitness classes. In fact, I taught a class the day Allegra was born, and still I gained 48 pounds. After each pregnancy, I took the weight off through hard work and conscientious nutrition.
I know what it means to struggle to lose weight. I know how difficult it can be to make the right choice nutritionally. I know what it means to be busy, and have to carve out time to exercise. But I’m here to tell you this: It’s worth it. I’ve been very overweight—200+ pounds—and I’ve been quite thin—size 2—and everything in between. Being a healthy weight and in good physical condition beats eating junk food any day. There is no comparison.
But you have to be honest with yourself. You can’t make excuses. You have to decide this is how it’s going to be. If you can’t muster the power to do it for yourself, do it for your kids. We are all mothers of young children. They watch what we do and what we eat, and they emulate us. They think we’re AWESOME, and they want to be like us. (Now, at least!) If you show them what living a healthy lifestyle looks like, the chances of them living one is better. There is no better gift you can give your children. It’s the gift of longevity.
I am really excited to be writing a weekly article for all of you MOPS. What a great community! But you may be wondering who I am, and why the MOPS powers-that-be asked me to spout off each week about healthy living. Here’s a synopsis of my background, and then the interesting stuff will start next week.
My degree is in Human Growth & Development and my pre-kids career was in healthcare, first as a child life specialist, and later as a patient relations director in a Houston hospital. During that time, I discovered fitness and became certified to teach group fitness. I had my first baby in 2003, and when she was 9 months old, I purchased a fitness franchise in Houston called StrollerFit and earned a specialty certification in pre- and post-natal exercise. In 2006 I had baby number two, and then in 2007, I purchased a second StrollerFit franchise in Cypress, a suburb of Houston. In 2008, I trained for and competed in a natural figure competition, and placed second. This is when I really started learning more about nutrition, and became inspired to study for my personal training certification. After moving to Iowa and having baby number three in 2009, I became a certified personal fitness trainer and started JB Fitness, a personal training studio which also offers group fitness and nutrition guidance.
I have a passion for fitness and healthy living, but it hasn’t always been this way. I have struggled with my weight my entire life. I was a healthy, active kid who was also overweight. You know the chubby kid on stage at the dance recital? That was me, and I was very aware of it. While my parents struggled to get my brother to eat at meal time, they were gently reminding me that I didn’t “need to eat it just because it’s there.” In high school, I was athletic and that helped me maintain a healthy weight. Then in college, I gained a significant amount of weight from inactivity and a poor diet. After graduating, I pulled it together, started exercising daily and watching my food, and lost about 45 pounds. That’s when I became a group fitness instructor.
Each of the three times I’ve been pregnant, I’ve gained significant weight: 62, 48, and 67 pounds, respectively. I was especially active during the middle pregnancy, teaching fitness classes. In fact, I taught a class the day Allegra was born, and still I gained 48 pounds. After each pregnancy, I took the weight off through hard work and conscientious nutrition.
I know what it means to struggle to lose weight. I know how difficult it can be to make the right choice nutritionally. I know what it means to be busy, and have to carve out time to exercise. But I’m here to tell you this: It’s worth it. I’ve been very overweight—200+ pounds—and I’ve been quite thin—size 2—and everything in between. Being a healthy weight and in good physical condition beats eating junk food any day. There is no comparison.
But you have to be honest with yourself. You can’t make excuses. You have to decide this is how it’s going to be. If you can’t muster the power to do it for yourself, do it for your kids. We are all mothers of young children. They watch what we do and what we eat, and they emulate us. They think we’re AWESOME, and they want to be like us. (Now, at least!) If you show them what living a healthy lifestyle looks like, the chances of them living one is better. There is no better gift you can give your children. It’s the gift of longevity.
Jacque Butler is the owner of JB Fitness in Glenwood, Iowa. www.jbfitnessiowa.com For tips on fitness & nutrition, you can follow JB Fitness on Facebook.
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