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A giant “Congratulations” is in store to all of you who signed up for the Movin' and Munchin' Schools program this year! Also, don’t’ forget that your Program Summary is due to DPI by next Tuesday, June 15th. A lot of you haven’t turned it in yet, and we want to be sure that your school is eligible for the grant award from DPI and matching award from the WEA Trust.
Casey and I had the honor of visiting many of you in your schools this year and we know how hard you've worked (or played!) to stay fit and eat well. You’ve all been so supportive and encouraging of your coworkers’ and students’ healthy success too. I am so proud of you all! I’m excited too to hear what great wellness investments your schools make with the Movin’ and Munchin’ money you receive! You’ll all have to share when I see you next school year.
If you have any questions or need some guidance on filling out the one-page form, contact Jon Hisgen at DPI. You can email him at jon.hisgen@dpi.wi.gov. The program summary form is available electronically or pdf format, and can be downloaded at movinandmunchin.com.
Keep up the great work and make sure to send DPI your projects by June 15!
It’s a great time of year to get out and enjoy Wisconsin. Suzy and I, along with the Movin’ and Munchin’ event team, spent three days last week in northern Wisconsin visiting schools in Boyceville, Glenwood City, and Osceola. We loved meeting so many of you students and school employees, and we also really enjoyed exploring the local areas in our down time.
This trip north reminded me of how beautiful our state is, and especially how nice it is during this time of year. The weather is perfect. Things are green and blooming, and the bugs aren’t even out yet!
With the days getting longer too, there is more time to do outdoor activities like hiking, walking, jogging, biking, canoeing, or just rough housing in the yard after dinner. Let’s not forget that it’s also the time of year to catch a bucket full of fish and pick asparagus or mushrooms—all healthy things to munch on!
While the school year is winding down and you may not see all of the Movin’ and Munchin’ reminders as frequently, this time of year sure does make it easier to stick to your healthy goals. Try not to lose track!
On Friday, May 7, as part of their 40th Anniversary celebration, the Trust held a charity walk for its employees and other business partners. Casey and I had the pleasure of joining in their efforts for the day! The walk was supposed to take place on their walking path outside, but due to the rain, they offered an indoor, dry route as well. Each walker then made a donation toward the Madison Children's Museum, resulting in a $5,000 gift toward the museum's capital campaign.
The event was so inspiring to me. Not even the rain could dampen the spirit of the Trust's generous employees! Everyone was so excited to be exercising, working together and supporting one another, and being philanthropic in their efforts.
The Trust is a leader in promoting innovative health and wellness programs for you all Wisconsin public school employees, students, and families. Casey and I strongly believe in that cause and are honored to be in partnership with them. The 40th anniversary event at their office just showed me once again how they really do do things differently at the Trust and it was so cool to be a part of it!
Here are some fun photos from the event too.
Did you know that tea is the most commonly consumed beverage in the world after water? I personally love tea! It has SO many great health benefits.
Numerous studies have demonstrated the anti-cancer properties of antioxidant polyphenols. Some studies have suggested that tea's polyphenols may reduce the risk of gastric, esophageal and skin cancers, if you consume 4 to 6 cups a day. Another study showed that just 2 cups of tea can lower the risk of ovarian cancer by 46 percent in women. Even more studies have found that polyphenols help prevent blood clotting and lower cholesterol levels. One Japanese study found too that green tea lowers death rates from heart disease.
Black, green, white and oolong teas all contain polyphenols. In fact, tea ranks as high as or higher than many fruits and vegetables in a score that measures antioxidant potential of plant-based foods. Herbal teas don’t have polyphenols, but drinking tea of any kind still promotes good health such as relaxation and calming effects!
If you’re a soda drinker, I challenge you to replace it with tea! You will feel SO much better
In the past, I’ve talked about thinking outside the box for workouts—like mowing your lawn with a push mower. Just a few weeks ago, I also talked about the importance of tuning up your exercise equipment in preparation for the upcoming season—and specifically mentioned lawn care equipment too.
Yeah, well—I failed to adhere to my own advice because as I tuned up all of our bikes and my inline skates, I skipped over the dog gone mower. I rolled it out last week for the first time and didn’t have the greatest experience. After a few passes back and forth, half of the lawn was nicely cut grass and the other half was dust and dirt!
I stopped to look at what was going on and learned that one of the wheels was locked in the lowest position. I adjusted it up, but it just fell back down again. Subsequently, I ended up mowing my lawn pushing with one hand and lifting with the other so only the front two weels were on the groung—not a real common sense approach when using a push mower (but a pretty funny picture if you can visualize it!).
While I felt like a fool for having not checked out the lawn mower prior to when I actually needed to use it, the whole mishap made for a GREAT total body workout!
Does running sound scary to you? Do you have a hard time running down the block and back? If so, you’re not alone!
If you have never run before, it can be a really scary and intimidating activity. But it is an activity that—with patience, and persistence—just about anyone can learn.
I’ve put a lot of thought into this and came up with a one-mile run schedule. If you have never ran before in your life (or it’s been a really long time), in eight weeks, I promise, you could run a one-mile race and feel great! I challenge you to give it a try. 
You can do it,
Download Suzy's One Mile Run Plan (33kb)
The sun is shining more and more these days, and I cannot encourage you enough to take a break in your day to just get up, move a little, and grab a moment of fresh air. Who doesn’t feel better after walking outside to eat their lunch on a bench and soak up the sun (and some much needed vitamin D)?
Even if there is still too much chill in the air for you or you can’t get out of the building, remember the “up” and “move around” part. The health benefit to just getting up and moving to get the circulation going is incredible! As I’m sure you all know, the more energy you expend in a day, the more calories you’ll burn. Also, the more active you are, your metabolism rises and you’re able to burn more calories than normal while doing inactive things. I know a brief walk or a few simple stretches is not exactly a workout, but it gets the blood flowing and awakens your muscles. It also refreshes your mind!
Give it a try. And even better, grab a colleague to join you!
With spring often comes the urge to do some spring-cleaning. Devoting a day to giving your home a facelift is not only great for your home, and a relief mentally, it can be a great workout as well. I know I feel exhausted after a full day of cleaning, organizing, and rearranging, but I was curious to see just how much all that scrubbing measures up to regular exercise. You’ll love what I found! Here are the amount of calories burned for common household tasks (based on a 30-minute period):
Whether you’re devoting a day or weekend to spring-cleaning or are just catching up on the usual home and garden chores, these numbers should help keep you motivated and feeling even better about your accomplishments!
If you want to burn a few more calories, run up and down the stairs each time you go and stop and do a push up in your living room each time you go by it! I also recommend a rainy day like today for your spring tidying so you don’t miss any of the much-needed sunshine!
We just took a load of winter toys up to the farm to store and pulled out all of the summer ones to bring back to Madison. (We have a small two car garage so often use the farm for overflow storage space.) It may seem a little premature for the summer toys, but I highly recommend dusting them off now to make sure they are safe and sound before the warm weather comes to stay.
If your family's bikes, in particular, have been in storage all winter, they’ll be ready for a tune up. You’ll want to clean, inspect, repair, tighten, and lubricate each one. Also, take some time to do any little repairs of things that started being a problem last year, and do preventative maintenance so you don’t have unexpected problems come up this year.
If you’re more comfortable having an expert give your bikes a once over, your local bike shop will usually do it for little to no charge. Some communities offer bicycle tune up info sessions too. To find one of those, check with the parks and rec departments, community colleges, or bicycling clubs in your area.
Also make sure all of your family’s safety gear (helmets, knee pads, etc.) still fit properly. If they are outgrown or looking too flimsy to last another season, be sure to pick up new ones before hitting the pavement or trails.
Don’t forget to think lawn care too! You might want to give the lawnmower, weed whacker, etc. a once over before your lawn is in need of its first trim. (Mowing happens to be one of my most frequent spring, summer, and fall exercise activities!).
Be prepared this spring and summer,
In my last blog I talked about Red foods. This week I’ll talk about the most common color group: Green. Green fruits and vegetables are colored by a natural plant pigment called chlorophyll.
Some members of the green group, including spinach and other dark leafy greens, green peppers, peas, cucumber, and celery contain lutein. Lutein works with another chemical, zeaxanthin, (found in corn, red peppers, oranges, grapes, and egg yolks) to help keep eyes healthy. Together these chemicals may help reduce risk of cataracts and age-related macular degeneration, which can lead to blindness.
Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and other vegetables in the cruciferous (cabbage) family may help to lower your risk of getting cancer. A review of research published in the October 1996 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association showed that 70% or more of the studies found a link between cruciferous vegetables and protection against cancer.
Leafy greens, such as spinach and broccoli are excellent sources of folate, a B vitamin that helps reduce risk of birth defects.
Examples of the green group include:
| Green apple | Artichoke | Asparagus |
| Avocado | Green beans | Broccoli |
| Brussel sprouts | Green cabbage | Cucumber |
| Green grapes | Honeydew melon |
Kiwi |
| Lettuce | Zucchini |
Green onion |
| Peas | Green pepper |
Spinach |
Soon enough we will be able to get these fruits and vegetables straight from our local gardens and markets too!
Normally we tell everyone to get up and get moving, and Suzy and I are go-go-go types of people who can never sit still. The last few weeks however, have been an eye opener for me as I had arthroscopic knee surgery on the 27th. I’ve had to have a healthy dose of patience and that was not easy for me. Especially in the first few days after my surgery, I pushed it a little too much and my recovery was likely delayed as a result.
Injuries are a part of life, and unfortunately they happen, probably more so to those who live exceptionally active lifestyles. While the goal is to ultimately avoid injuries all together, the important thing to remember, which I’m trying to teach myself as well, is to listen to your body and listen to your doctors. If you need a break to heal, allow yourself that time. You’ll be thankful and (more active) in the long run!
Since its nutrition month, let’s talk about nutrition! Sometimes it’s helpful to remember which foods are great for us and why, if we group them into simple categories, like color.
Red fruits and vegetables, for example, are colored by natural plant pigments called lycopene or anthocyanins.
• Lycopene in tomatoes, watermelon, and pink grapefruit, may help reduce risk of several types of cancer, especially prostate cancer.
• Lycopene in foods containing cooked tomatoes (e.g., spaghetti sauce, and a small amount of oil is absorbed better than lycopene from raw tomatoes).
• Anthocyanins in strawberries, raspberries, red grapes, and other fruits and vegetables act as powerful antioxidants that protect cells from damage. Antioxidants are linked with keeping our hearts healthy, too.
Examples of fruits and veggies in the red group include:
| red apples | cranberries |
pink grapefruit |
beets |
red cabbage |
cherries |
red grapes |
red peppers |
pomegranates |
red potatoes |
radishes |
raspberries |
rhubarb |
strawberries |
tomatoes |
watermelon |
|
|
I’ll talk about another color group of foods next blog!
Fitz's Olympic observations
- Favorite Event:
- What else?! Long track speed skating, particularly the sprints, which (in my opinion) are more fun to watch and compete in. From an admittedly biased perspective, I believe speed skating is the truest sport in the Olympics, meaning the clock does not lie, the best man (or woman) on that day wins. While that can be said for some of the other sports such as bob sled, skiing, etc, I honestly believe no other winter athletes train as hard as speed skaters do!
- Favorite Athlete:
- Long track speed skater Trevor Marsicano because of his story and the kind of person he is.
- Favorite Moment:
- My sentimental favorite moment from these games is when Canadian figure skater, Joannie Rochette, who lost her Mom unexpectedly just two days before the games, finished with her personal best score. I thought that took incredible courage and demonstrated true talent and commitment to the sport.
- Most Heartbreaking Moment:
- Dutch long distance speed skating sensation Sven Kramer when he was disqualified for not changing lanes almost 2/3 of the way through his 10,000 meter race. He had actually shifted to the outside lane skating down the backstretch, but his coach signaled him to get back to the inside track quickly before going into the turn. He obliged, jumping over the cone, and went on to win the race by four seconds, but was disqualified and devastated as a result!
- Two notes on this:
- Skating an extra inside turn probably saved him about 6/10 of a second so even if he had stayed in the outside lane, it would have been a dominating performance. While I’ve never seen a coach falsely tell a skater to change lanes, I can see how it happened.
Each lap the coach looks up at the scoreboard to get the split time and then puts that number on a smaller score board that they hold up for the skater as they skate down the backstretch. By the time his coach, Gerard Kempkers, had the split number on the board, Sven had already started coming down the backstretch. He came out of his turn really wide and was already in the outside lane. As a result, his coach assumed that Sven had just finished an outside turn and needed to go inside.
So I can see how it could happen, and I have a lot of respect for Kempkers as he coached the American distance skaters while I was sprinting. He has been around a long time and is very good. Nonetheless, it was horribly unfortunate and devastating for both the skater and the coach as they now have four years, if not a lifetime, to revisit that moment.
- Close Call:
- While many sports are decided by 1/100s of a second, the US Women’s curling team was centimeters from writing an entirely different story at the 2010 Winter Games.
In conjunction with my last blog on nutrition label confusion, I thought I’d talk about portion control, which can be equally as confusing! To manage your weight sometimes you don't even need to change what you eat at all; you just have to get how MUCH you eat under control!
Here are some great tips to help get a grasp on portion control:
| 1. | Compare to common items. A good serving size for protein is about the size of a pack of playing cards. A serving of pasta, rice, or potatoes is about the size of a fist. Eat as many vegetables or as much salad as you like! |
| 2. | Don’t eat it all! It's much easier if you can serve yourself the right amount in the first place, but if you have been served too much, mentally divide your plate into what you will and won't eat before you start. If you’re at a restaurant, box the leftovers up before you start eating. |
| 3. | Higher calories means smaller portions. For higher calorie foods you love, serve enough to get the flavor without piling on the calories. For example, use one tablespoon of mayonnaise instead of soaking a whole sandwich in it, or one scoop of delicious chocolate ice-cream, not a whole bowl full with caramel, fudge, and whipped cream. Allow yourself three bites of any dessert only IF YOU REALLY WANT IT. I always love to share desserts with my friends too, which controls the portion size! |
| 4. | Don’t skip the protein. It helps keep blood sugar balanced and keeps you satisfied for longer. Instead of eating just fruit for a snack add a little low-fat cheese, hard-boiled egg or yogurt. Even though you’re adding calories, you will avoid getting hungry so quickly. |
| 5. | Measure it. Weighing and measuring everything you eat is a bore and can seem obsessive, but if you are not sure how much you are consuming it can really help until you get used to maintaining portion control. If you measure out one serving size of cereal, for example, you will be amazed at how little you find in your bowl. It becomes easy to see how calories mount up during the course of the day! |
For more information on portion control, and especially for weight loss, I’d highly recommend viewing this great slide show at the the Mayo Clinic Web site.
Be careful, and you can do it!
It really is as easy as 1-2-3! Results of a study released last week showed that children who (1) eat dinner regularly with their family, (2) limit TV time to less than two hours per day, and (3) get at least 10.5 hours of sleep each night can reduce their risk of obesity by 40% compared with children who don't follow these routines (not to mention they’re a lot more fun to be around!). In this national study, researchers analyzed data on 8,550 children from birth to 4-year-olds, making this some incredibly strong evidence!
While each routine on its own is a great habit to instill in our youth, the study found that children who practiced two of these healthy lifestyle behaviors were slimmer than those who adopted only one behavior, while kids who implemented three of the healthy habits were by far the least likely to be overweight. Obviously, adopting these routines can be a powerful way for families to encourage healthy weight in their children. And what I absolutely love is that they are so easy for most families to adopt! Several of them are even worth Movin’ and Munchin’ miles .
For more information on the study, visit: TIME, It’s a great one to share and even send home with Moms and Dads.
Do you know how to read a food label? I certainly didn’t always know how to, and I run into a lot of people that are confused by them too. Even if you know the basics, there are a few common mistakes to watch out for. Here are 4 particularly tricky things to look out for:
| • | A REALLY common mistake people make is to assume that a small item contains one serving just because the package is small! If you eat a bag of trail mix from a vending machine, for example, it might contain 2.5 servings. So you have to multiply the numbers by 2.5 to figure out how many calories and the amount of sodium and other nutrients you are actually eating. Sports drinks and juices are also prone to using this trick. Just because it’s one bottle, don’t assume the ingredients will be reported as only one serving! |
| • | Just because a label says that a food is “reduced fat” or “reduced sodium,” does not mean that the food is necessarily LOW in fat or sodium. It only means that the amount of fat or sodium has been reduced by 25% from the original product so be sure to still check the line details! |
| • | Be careful not to confuse the “% DV for fat” with the “percentage of calories from fat.” If the % DV is 15% that doesn't mean that 15% of the calories comes from fat. It means that you're using up 15% of all the fat you need for a day with one serving. |
| • | The amount of sugar on a label does not always mean that the sugar has been added. Milk, a perfect example, naturally has sugar (called lactose). But that doesn't mean you should stop drinking milk because it is overflowing with so many other important nutrients that your body needs! But if you scan the list of ingredients and see “high-fructose corn syrup” or “sugar” close to the top of the list, it probably means refined sugar has been added to the product and it may not be a healthy option. |
Once you’ve mastered the art of reading food labels, try to teach it to children as well. We don’t want to become obsessive, but it is good to spread the knowledge!
Just over a week to the Opening Ceremonies in Vancouver! I’m looking forward to catching as much of the action as I can, especially the speedskating of course.
Speedskating has traditionally been THE most successful Winter Olympic sport and I don’t see them slowing down anytime soon (which is amazing given the small number of skaters we have here in America). In Vancouver, once again, we will have at least a handful of skating team members that have a very legitimate shot at coming home with medals!
As a competitor, you try to put yourself in a position to win at The Games, and then do what you can to be “on” on the day that it counts. There are almost always a number of athletes that could win on any given day because the difference at that level is minute (I won by three hundredths of a second after skating a total of 1000 meters). There is no such thing as a guarantee. Our skating team has a bunch of athletes that COULD medal, so we’re more than likely going to see some of them succeed. From a viewer’s perspective, it’s a game of odds.
And make sure that you don’t make any pre-judgments about the athletes based on size alone. Many people think that speedskating is all about pushing hard and having big legs—not true! It’s all about leverage and using your body weight and getting your ankles, knees, hips, and shoulders in line at the right time to create pressure and torque. That’s the only reason a guy like me could compete with guys that had legs twice the size, and were quite frankly bigger and quicker and stronger than I ever could be. It’s a great equalizer of a sport!
Even though I’m staying put here in Wisconsin during The Games, I still feel a great connection to the activities and many of the athletes. I’ll be making the rounds talking with area businesses and schools and doing some TV appearances too. Great perks. I truly enjoy this aspect of my life now! It’s a lot of fun… and a lot less pressure!
Go USA!
I was having a conversation with friends recently about “bucket lists” and I thought that it was a great topic to discuss in my blog here. It doesn’t matter if you’ve seen the movie or not, we should all have our own personal bucket or life list!
If you don’t already have one, set some time aside to create one for yourself and vouch to not put off your dreams for "someday." The easiest way to get started is to ask yourself: “If I had one year left to live, what would I be sure to do?” And then don’t wait until you have one year left to live—get started crossing things off the list now!
If you’re interested, a few things on my list:
| • | Climb a mountain |
| • | Start a running club for women (checked that one off last year!) |
| • | Learn how to ride a horse, jumps and all (which I am so excited to say that I will be doing later this year for a charity event!) |
| • | Become a mom (one I so fortunately can check off) |
It's never too early or too late to start writing and then living out your list! Your items can be serious or silly, easy or hard, large or small. It's whatever you dream about! I’ve discovered that most accomplishments on people's lists are more personal.
On the website 43Things.com—where 1.2 million people have posted their personal lists in the past three years—according to The New York Times, the top goal is losing weight. If that makes your list, there has never been a better time than now to check it off!
Start writing! Talk soon,
The New Year has taken off in a hurry and we should all be well on our way to upholding our New Year’s resolutions—right? Starting to make good in January is one thing, but believe me, I know that maintaining it is another matter entirely.
An article I read stated that up to 45% of Americans make a New Year's resolution. Of those, 45% are still going on their resolutions after 6 months. In other words, only about 1 in 5 of us find it within our power to keep our resolution. Personally, I think that the main reasons for failure, particular with fitness and weight loss goals (which let’s be honest, are what most of us hone in on!), is that we set too large and often too vague goals.
If you’ve committed to losing weight, for example, you’re much more likely to stick with it if you follow a strict workout plan. Instead of simply thinking to yourself that you want to workout 4 or 5 days per week, take the time and come up with a solid 12 or even 24-week workout plan. Write down what days you are going to exercise, for how long, and what activities you are going to do each day. If this seems too strong of a commitment for you right off the bat, start by scheduling a 30-45 minute time slot into each day just to walk. The health benefits of doing that are astronomical! Resolutions need to be small enough to handle, yet detailed enough to abide by.
I suggest that, while it’s still January, you take a look at your resolutions and make sure you know how you’re going to stick with them for the year, and hopefully even a lifetime!
I fully intend on making 2010 the best year yet!! And what an awesome first week it was!
On Friday, Casey and I and the Trust crew had a busy, but GREAT day. We started in Lodi at the elementary school with a bike drive in partnership with DreamBikes. We thought if we received even 5 or 10 donated bikes for nonprofit DreamBikes and their employees from the Boys and Girls Club to fix up and sell, it would have been well worth our efforts. But the students and community of Lodi wowed us!! By 8 a.m., they had donated 68 bikes! The students and parents just kept pouring in! It was amazing!
After the bike drive, we went inside and warmed up with a Movin’ and Munchin’ event for Lodi’s elementary school students. They were so much fun and had so much energy!
From there, we caravanned to Wisconsin Dells for another Movin’ and Munchin’ event! Wisconsin Dells has been a leader among Movin’ and Munchin’ Schools for several years now, so we were thrilled to be able to really honor them!
The generosity and enthusiasm of people, especially children, never fails to amaze me! It is so energizing! Let’s all keep the energy and enthusiasm going—And thanks again to Lodi and Wisconsin Dells for having us!
Over the holidays, I came across an old pair of snowshoes we've had around for quite some time. I dusted them off and took them out to the farm, and I was able to hike all over the place! I trekked up to several of my deer cameras and was able to get through areas of deep snow that I wouldn't have otherwise been able to. I had so much fun that I went back and put Sawyer (now almost 3) in our Baby Bjorn and snowshoed him around for an hour. He is a natural outdoorsman already, so of course, 
loved it as well. It's always great to have male bonding time too!
What I particularly like about snowshoeing, and why I mention it here, is that it offers a wide range of options for exercise intensity. You can poke along on flat terrain over packed snow at a slow pace, just like a leisurely walk. Or you can really challenge yourself and tread through deep snow and up and down hills at a strenuous pace—more like a great Stair-Master session! Each intensity range offers fantastic cardiovascular benefits, as I could tell from my few jaunts around the farm.
I also found some data on just how great snowshoeing can be for you from exercise physiologists at UW-La Crosse. A study was conducted of the effects of snowshoeing on men and women who were breaking trail over flat and varied terrain at an average speed of about 3 MPH. They found that this exercise compared very favorably to running at 6 MPH, cross country skiing at 5-8 MPH, cycling at 14-16 MPH, or swimming at 75 yards per minute. So in short, snowshoeing proves to be a great workout!
Whether it be snowshoeing or another activity, I suggest trying something new this year (or something you haven't done in awhile) and bring a family member or friend with you too. Remember that there are SO many ways to get in a workout, and many of them don't require a gym membership!
Keep on Movin'!
