Each evening as I drive home from work, running errands, or playing at the park with my son I'm faced with the dreaded question... "What's for dinner?" Ugh. Something simple. Something healthy. And something fast. But not fast food.

Whether you have one mouth to feed or a whole family of mouths, the answer to this question doesn't have to be difficult to come up with. There are many (almost too many) places to look for simple, healthy, and fast recipes that can often be made with the meat and fixings already in your kitchen.

Here is a collection of recipe web sites that The Cooper Institute staff frequently use to make meals that our families will eat:

All Recipes (www.allrecipes.com) - click on "Recipes" on the top navigation bar, then "Healthy Cooking" at the bottom of the left navigation bar for healthy appetizer, main, and side dish recipes as well as recipes for specific "diets" (low-calorie, high-fiber, low-fat, etc.).

Cooking Light (www.cookinglight.com) - healthy recipes and cooking tips (including videos) for every occasion.

Eating Well (www.eatingwell.com) - click on "Recipes" on the top navigation bar and search for meals that are everything from family-friendly to fast to perfect for two.

Food Network (www.foodnetwork.com) - click on "Healthy Eating" on the top navigation bar for a variety of low-fat, low-calorie recipes.

Health (http://eating.health.com) - click on "Healthy Eating" on the top navigation bar for healthy recipes and cooking and shopping tips.

Plan ahead and choose five to seven recipes to try over the course of a week (and shop accordingly) or browse for a recipe just minutes before you need it. 

What's your favorite resource for healthy, tasty recipes?

For more than a year, the Stand Up & Eat blog has kept you in step with the latest research findings on the health benefits of reducing sedentary living and being physically active.   We have also pointed you to new guidelines that are hot of the press.  In the coming weeks, we will do a round-up of useful resources that will help people of all ages get moving.  This week, we focus on seniors.  Check ‘em out!

Exercise & Physical Activity: Your Everyday Guide from the National Institute on Aging – is a downloadable book targeted to getting seniors up and moving more.  Packed with personal stories, photos, and sample exercise programs, this practical guide is great for any senior who thinks it is too late to get the health benefits from an active lifestyle.

Growing Stronger – is a comprehensive guide for seniors that gives step-by-step instructions for starting a strength training program.  At the end is a 12-week workbook to help readers keep track of their progress.  

Arthritis Foundation - This not-for-profit organization has numerous physical activity programs.  Yes, research clearly shows that staying active can reduce arthritis pain.  Contact your local Arthritis Foundation chapter to learn which of the following joint-friendly programs it offers:

• Arthritis Foundation Aquatic Program^(SM)  
• Arthritis Foundation Exercise Program^(SM) 
• Tai Chi 
• Walk With Ease 

Exercise for Older Adults – the NIH SeniorHealth page provides a guide for starting a physical activity program for seniors.  The great thing about this site is that there are brief video clips that elaborate on the topics presented.  Also, be sure to check out the “exercise Stories” on this page for many heart-warming stories about how becoming physically active has changed people's lives.

If you are a senior, know a senior, or are soon to become a senior, give one of these resources a look.  And come back to this blog to let us know what you think.

According to the U.S. Forest Service and the Ad Council, the time children spend outdoors has declined 50% in the past 20 years due to factors like: safety concerns, population shifts to urban/suburban areas, an increase in indoor activities (TV, computers, video games), and lack of awareness of or access to nearby nature locations.

However, study after study show the benefits to kids of physical activity, outdoor play, and spending time in nature. Reduced stress, improved medical and physical well-being, increased fitness, lower levels of obesity, and increased use of imagination, discovery, and exploratory skills are just some of these benefits.  

To raise awareness of these benefits and inspire kids to discover the joy of exploring nature first-hand, the U.S. Forest Service and the Ad Council have developed a multi-faceted campaign, Re-connecting Kids with Nature. The campaign targets kids 8 to 12 and their parents, and includes TV, radio, outdoor, and web-based public service announcements (PSAs) that show children interacting with nature. Each PSA directs kids and their parents to http://www.discovertheforest.org, an innovative web site that provides a zip code search of forests and parks as well as downloadable activities that kids can take with them. Click here to view the PSAs.

What steps will you take to re-connect your kids with nature this week?

Summer has arrived!  Yesterday – the summer solstice – made it official.  With summer comes ice cream, a delicious, somewhat nutritious (i.e., calcium), hot weather treat.  But be mindful that ice cream is high in calories.  For example, a Baskin-Robbins banana split would add 1,010 calories to your day’s total calorie intake.  For many people, that could be more than 50% of their daily calorie need!

The Stand Up & Eat website is dedicated to calorie balance.  So check out the table below to see how much physical activity you* would have to do to burn off those 1,010 extra calories compared to a 2-cup bowl of watermelon (91 calories). 

So mowing the lawn with a push mower would burn off the calories of two cups of watermelon in 11 minutes.  But you would have to mow the lawn for 2 hours and 11 minutes to wipe out the calories added to your diet by eating a banana split. 

Which summertime dessert will you choose most often this summer?

* Based on a reference person who weighs 175 pounds.  If you weigh less than this, you would need to exercise longer and if you weigh more, your exercise time would decrease.
 

One of the goals of Stand Up and Eat is to encourage people to consume fewer foods/beverages with added sugars. Foods with added sugars are often calorie dense and nutrient poor. What exactly are added sugars? Added sugars are sugars and syrups that are added to foods or beverages during processing or preparation. They differ from naturally occurring sugars such as those that occur in milk and fruits.

Foods that contain most of the added sugars in American diets are:

• regular soft drinks
• candy
• cakes
• cookies
• pies
• fruit drinks, such as fruitades and fruit punch
• milk-based desserts and products, such as ice cream, sweetened yogurt and sweetened milk
• grain products such as sweet rolls and cinnamon toast

But, there are many other foods/beverages with added sugar, including some of these summertime favorites:

• ketchup, barbeque sauce
• pork and beans
• salad dressing
• lemonade, bottled tea

How do you know if a food/beverage has added sugars? The Nutrition Facts label lists how many total grams of sugar the food contains, but does not list added sugars separately. The amount listed includes sugars that are naturally present in foods (such as the fructose and sucrose in fruit, or the lactose in milk) and sugars added to the food during processing or preparation. So, you need to read the ingredient list on the food label as well as the Nutrition Facts. Some sneaky names for sugar that you may see in the list of ingredients include:

• corn sweetener, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup
• fruit juice concentrates   
• honey
• invert sugar
• malt syrup, syrup 
• molasses  

How much added sugars should someone consume each day? The Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005 do not provide specific recommendations for added sugars but rather advise Americans to choose and prepare foods and beverages with little added sugars or caloric sweeteners. The Guidelines do, however, suggest that Americans on a 2,000-calorie-per-day diet, who divide their discretionary calorie allowance equally between solid fats and added sugars, limit consumption of added sugars and sweeteners to 8 teaspoons (32 grams) per day - less than the amount in one 8-ounce can of soda (approximately 39 grams of sugar). According to data collected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Americans consumed 30 teaspoons per person per day of added sugars and sweeteners in 2005. This finding suggests that Americans, on average, need to scale way back on added sugars and sweeteners!

For a list of the amount of added sugars in over 2,000 common foods, click here. What will you do this summer to reduce your intake of added sugars?

Bill and Will are 32-year old identical twins. Bill works as a computer programmer and Will is a third-grade teacher. They grew up in a household where healthy eating and being physically active were everyday habits. They are passing on these healthy values to their young children.  

Currently Bill and Will both exceed the public health physical activity recommendations of at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity exercise weekly. Bill prefers to bicycle four days a week for 45 minutes while Will jogs with his golden retriever for 30 minutes six days a week. 

Given their genetic oneness and a lifetime of healthy eating and active living, Bill and Will should have the same life expectancy, right?

Maybe.  According to a new study, it’s possible that Will could live longer.

Huh?

Look again at their occupations. Bill sits at a desk all day writing computer code. Will on the other hand spends most of his day wrangling 9 year-olds. New research¹ suggests that sitting time is linked with increased risk of dying prematurely of cardiovascular disease and all-causes combined. And it’s a dose-response association.  That is, the more you sit the higher your risk. So even though Bill and Will do the same amount of physical activity – a great health protector – Bill may not live as long as Will because he spends more time sitting each day. 

Bill is not alone. As shown in an earlier blog, most adults and children spend most of their waking hours in sedentary activities. Perhaps he could lower his risk if he did his programming from a walking workstation.

If you regularly exercise, give yourself a pat on the back.  Now push yourself away from the computer, stand up, and take a brief walk around your cubicle, your apartment, your home, or your neighborhood.   Your life could depend on it.

¹ Katzmarzyk PT, Church TS, Craig CL, and Bouchard C.  Sitting time and mortality, from all causes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.  Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.  2009;41(5):998-105.

Gary Olsen, Higher Education

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has created a campaign to empower "tweens" (ages 9 to 13, specifically) to look for and use the Nutrition Facts on the food label. In an effort to combat childhood obesity, the FDA hopes that Spot the Block will teach kids to:

• Check out the serving size. Remember that one package isn't necessarily one serving! Use the serving size to discover the total number of calories and nutrients per package.
• Consider the calories. When looking at a food's calories, remember: 40 is low, 100 is moderate, 400 is high. Pay attention to the calories you eat throughout the day.  The Nutrition Facts label is based on a 2,000 calorie diet -- but your calorie needs might be different. To find out what your "target" calories per day are, visit www.MyPyramid.gov. Go to My Pyramid Plan.
• Choose nutrients wisely. Pick foods that are lower in certain fats, cholesterol, sodium, and sugars, when making daily food choices. Nutrients to get less of (trans fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, sugars): 5% Daily Value (DV) is low. Nutrients to get more of (potassium, fiber, vitamins A & C, iron, calcium): 20% Daily Value (DV) is high.

Check out Spot the Block's videos, music, games, downloads, and food label basics at www.spottheblock.com.

My brother and sister-in-law climbed a mountain on Saturday. Mt. Hood to be exact. The highest peak in Oregon at 11,246 feet. That’s Jeanie on the summit in the photo above.

They burned a lot of calories in the process.  Rich – approximately 3,300 calories – Jeanie - about 2,500 calories.  And all before breakfast. 

How did they get to the top?  The same way a couch potato becomes a walker – or runner – or cyclist – or mountain climber. By,

Setting a Long-Term Goal - As we have stated in an earlier blog on goal-setting, good goals are personal, realistic, specific, and measurable.  Rich and Jeanie have had their sights on climbing a mountain together for years.  So their Mt. Hood goal was something they both wanted (personal), it wasn’t Mt. Everest (realistic), and by standing on the summit they clearly knew that they had attained their goal (specific and measurable). 

Using Short-term Goals as Action Steps – They had very different ways of preparing. Jeanie worked out with a personal trainer 3-5 days per week. Each week, he would crank up the weights or change up the routine all with the goal of getting her stronger for the climb. Rich, on the other hand, used the different phases of training for a triathalon and a week of stair-climbing with a heavy pack as his stepping stones to building the stamina he needed to reach the peak. Click here for a Stand Up & Eat worksheet that will help you set better long-term and short-term physical activity goals.

Problem-solving and Persevering – This was their third attempt at climbing Mt. Hood in 16 years. The first attempt was aborted due to bad weather on the mountain. The second attempt was thwarted because of flight delays and missed connections. This time they picked a more optimal date weather wise and they put a couple of days between their arrival in Oregon and their summit day.  They could have easily given up their goal when things didn’t work out the first two times but they figured out ways around the obstacles and ultimately reached the peak. Here is a worksheet that can help you overcome physical activity roadblocks.

Getting and Giving Support – Both Jeanie and Rich are self-motivated. But I am pretty certain that they would not have reached their mountain climbing goal if they hadn’t had each other to lean on, talk to, problem-solve with, and be encouraged by. While exercising together is not their bag (they have two pre-teen daughters and hectic jobs that disperse them in different directions each day), it can be a way others get support for their physical activity efforts. Here is a link to a worksheet that can help you find the right physical activity partner.

Climbing a mountain requires a level of physical activity that goes way beyond exercising to burn calories or to get health benefits.  The point is, regardless of whether you want to simply get moving or you want to scale a mountain,  the steps to attaining your goal are the same – set good long and short-term goals, be a problem-solver, and ask for help along the way.

During these tough economic times Americans are cutting costs - everywhere. While some cuts may not directly affect one's health like less traveling or delaying a move, others do. Cuts like eating out less and less money spent on sedentary activities (e.g., movies, video games) might actually improve one's health. But cuts to healthy activities (as described below) can backfire by increasing future doctor visits and money spent on healthcare.

But, Americans are doing it anyway... in a survey of 1,000 people conducted by the American Heart Association:¹

• 57 percent said the economy has affected their ability to take care of their health.
• 32 percent have made a change in the last six months to save money, such as delaying preventive care appointments, not taking medications or skipping the dentist.
• 25 percent of those with gym memberships have cancelled in the previous six months.
• 42 percent plan to make changes in the next six months that may impact their health, such as buying fewer fruits and vegetables.

So what's a struggling person to do? Learn ways to cut costs AND continue healthy behaviors! Here are some ideas:

• Walk - it's free; find a route near your home or workplace (www.mapmywalk.com) to fit in some moderate-intensity walks each day.
• Eat more meatless meals; beans and nuts are cheaper than chicken, beef, and fish.
• Mow and rake your own lawn and clean your own house; it takes time, but it's good for your budget and your health.
• Brown-bag breakfast and lunch whenever possible; restaurant foods are overpriced and overportioned; tasty sandwiches, salads, and sides are easy to make at home.  
• Walk or run errands - literally; even if you don't live near the store or post office you can still park somewhere in-between the places you need to go and walk or run instead of driving to each store; it'll save you on gas and give your body its needed exercise. 
• Buy whatever produce is on sale at the store each week; in season produce is fresh, tasty, and affordable.

What are your healthy cost-cutting ideas?

¹Americans skimp on healthy activities in bad economy. http://americanheart.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=737. Accessed June 1, 2009.