Club Blog

(NewsUSA) – With the many healthy resolutions being made to kick off 2012, wouldn’t it be nice if you actually had a doctor’s opinion to point you toward the healthiest changes you can make?

A new survey of practicing physicians by EverydayHealth.com with MedPage Today reveals the 12 most popular doctor-prescribed resolutions.

Top 12 Doctor-Prescribed New Year’s Resolutions for 2012

1. Monitor your blood pressure

2. Quit smoking

3. Exercise 30 minutes a day

4. Lower your cholesterol

5. Get a diabetes screening

6. Control your portions

7. Get a flu shot

8. Take the stairs whenever possible

9. Sleep at least 7 hours a night

10. Eat whole grains, not refined flour

11. For women, perform a self breast exam every month

12. Spend more time with family and friends

Although not ranked in the top 12, the survey includes some resolutions you may welcome.

The most surprising: Don’t give up coffee. Yes, that’s correct. Coffee actually has health benefits that doctors recommend. Studies show that women who drink a cup of coffee daily have up to a 25 percent lower stroke risk than those who drink it less often. In addition to lowering stroke risk, coffee can also decrease your odds of developing diabetes, skin cancer, cavities, Parkinson’s disease, breast cancer and heart disease.

Three other noteworthy resolutions involved in Everyday Health’s survey are to forgive people, try a once-a-week technology vacation for at least two months and don’t text and drive. All great advice.

However, none of these resolutions can be effective if you can’t stay committed to them.

“About 40 to 45 percent of Americans make New Year’s resolutions, and only about 60 percent end up keeping them for at least part of the year,” says Everyday Health Medical Director Mallika Marshall, MD. “The key is not to bite off more than you can chew. Pledge to make a change that you can maintain. And try to get friends and family involved. It’s much easier to meet your goal if you have support.”

To view the complete survey, and to gain more tips and tools to live a healthy, happier life every day, visit EverydayHealth.com.

by: Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D.

No matter how many magazine articles and internet sites you read or TV and radio interviews you listen to, getting into shape for the new year always comes down to the same pointers. It makes me wonder why there are literally thousands of self-help books, hundreds of thousands of magazine articles and tens of millions of Internet sites that say the same thing over and over again. Do we really need to read the same thoughts year after year, be told the same tips every December, continuously be reminded of the value of a commitment to a healthy lifestyle? Seems so.

Therefore, not to be left behind in this silly redundancy, here are six tips I’ve boiled it all down to:
1. Be clear about your fitness/health goals, visualize them, write them down and share them with others. Be sure your goals are very small and specific, clearly measurable, easily attainable, very realistic for you and then put a time frame around your goals.

2. Find a personal or group fitness trainer who is certified to help you get your new year off on the right path. I suggest the ACE (American Council on Exercise) certification, but there are others that are also considered highly professional.

3. Re-start your nutrition and eating style if need be. This includes using the Harvard School of Public Health’s “Nutrition Source” (www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource) guidelines. Ask a friend to help you scour your home for food that’s not on the Harvard diagram and toss it. After all, it’s a new year!

4. Think of “activity and movement” more than “exercise” if you are just getting going. Whatever you do, as long as you enjoy it and are active and moving at least 30 minutes steadily five days a week, that’s a great start! Scheduling it together with friends, having fun, crank up your iPod with your favorite tunes, working with a trainer, are all ways you will insure you’ll still be at it long after Valentine’s Day.

5. Be sure you relish your results with real rewards. From a great dinner now and then, to sharp new workout clothes you feel good in, to bragging rights at work about your latest walk, hike, swim, bike-ride, cardio routine, Les Mills or Zumba class, weight training or new friends you’ve met through fitness, you deserve it!

6. Keep thinking accurately about your health, fitness and wellbeing. The link is always what you think. When you begin hearing yourself go negative, “why bother?” or hear words that sound like you are starting to convince yourself to skip an activity, it’s time to counter those irrational thoughts with the following:
A. What evidence do I have that what I’m thinking is accurate?
B. What’s a more accurate and positive way to think about it?
C. What would I tell a friend who shared the same thoughts with me and was starting to avoid healthy activity she/he committed to?
D. Why aren’t I as compassionate with myself?

So there you have it. My boiled down version of what millions of pages of Internet sites, newspapers, magazines, and media interviews will tell you. I’ve saved you hours and hours of reading and gathering information. Use that time for yourself in healthier ways.

It’s your life, a new year, so why not start it off the best way you can? But remember, it’s not where you begin that matters, it’s how you finish. Next year at this time, as we face 2013 in twelve months, imagine being in the best shape you’ve ever been in regardless of your age! You can do it. After all, you are only six steps away.

Happy New Year!

(ARA) – The colder winter months are notorious for sniffling noses, deep coughs, achy bodies and fevers. It’s cold and flu season, which means it’s a good time to reduce your exposure to germs and stock up on supplies that will help you escape any illnesses, or at least help you tolerate any symptoms.

Preventive care is key to avoiding the traditional winter illnesses of cold and flu. Here are some tips to keep those icky germs at bay:

* Hand washing is very important, so stock up on soap and antibacterial cleansers and have them ready by every sink in your house. Also consider using disposable towels to reduce the potential for germs to transfer between family members.

* Starting off healthy can help you be strong against invading viruses. You might be in need of extra fortification like fish oil or calcium, so ask your doctor about adding a vitamin regimen to your diet.

* Get plenty of sleep. A lack of sleep can wear down your energy and immune system, leaving you more susceptible to viruses and germs. Make sure you have a comfortable pillow so you don’t wake up sore or spend the night tossing and turning. And if you struggle with letting your brain relax, a white noise machine or fan running on the lowest setting can calm you down.

* Keep the house clean. Wash door handles, the phone and even the handles on your appliances frequently to avoid the transfer of germs. Keep a good supply of sanitizing cleaners on hand to help speed up the cleaning process.

* Get the flu shot. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends everyone over the age of 6 months gets a flu shot. The nasal spray flu vaccine is also now available for people who qualify.

As you’re making a list of all the supplies you’ll need to help prevent your family members from getting sick, make sure you look for discounts and coupon codes online at sites like CouponHeaven.com. Many stores listed on this time and money saving site offer discounts on vitamins, health supplements, cleaning supplies and even pillows, which in the long run can save you a good amount of money.

If you do end up catching a virus, stay home from work to prevent the virus from spreading to your coworkers, and try to get plenty of sleep and liquids to help build your strength back up.

Don’t let the seasonal flu or cold keep you from enjoying the winter months this year. Spend your time discussing the fun you had sledding down a tubing hill or cross country skiing through the quiet countryside – rather than talking about fevers, aches and pains.

by: Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D.

In .28 seconds I found 64,800,000 tips—honestly—on Google on how to “survive” the holidays. Sixty-four MILLION tips on how to “survive” the holidays! What in the world has happened to us? Have we gone mad? C’mon now. We need more than sixty-four MILLION tips on how to “survive” the holidays? When did the media create this insanity?

Focus on friends not food, make time for fitness, get plenty of sleep, serve others, create a “to-do” list, don’t compare, get plenty of vitamin D3, drop your expectations, forget Norman Rockwell, don’t dread it, be honest with yourself, avoid the pressures of family get togethers, set manageable daily goals, don’t drink too much, avoid the “shoulds,” don’t pressure yourself, yada, yada, yada. Do we really need to be told this stuff year after year, in sixty-four million different ways?

The message from the media is that the holidays are draining, emotionally depleting, exhausting, stressing, anxiety producing, and downright unhealthy. Are they working for the drug companies or something? Well, pharmaceutical companies DO advertise in the media, so maybe there is that connection. Even the American Psychological Association gives tips such as identifying your stressors that are triggers. What stressors? Does the APA really believe there are stress monsters waiting to pounce on unsuspecting, innocent, minding-their-own business holiday “survivors”? Utter nonsense.

Fortunately, there are 268,000,000 hits on Google for the “joy” of the holidays. Whew. For a moment, I thought I was abnormal since I enjoy the holidays, find nothing at all stressful in the beauty of the season, the decorations, the celebrations, the excitement, the music and the general feeling in the air.

So what’s with these stressed-out, nervous, angry, grief-filled, depressed, over-eating and under-exercising “survivors”? What are they surviving?

Here’s the secret. They are surviving their own thoughts, the thoughts they ingest from media “commercialization,” and nonsensical, irrational and inaccurate thoughts and self created beliefs they focus on about how “tragic and difficult” a time this season of the year is. It’s none of that, unless you believe it. Then you can make the holidays anything you want. You can even believe Martians will fly out from under a treadmill in the gym. Why you’d want to believe that though, I wouldn’t hazard a guess. Same when it comes to erroneously thinking the worst will happen, filling your mind with totally inaccurate thoughts about how horrid of a person you are, giving the worst case meaning to events in your life surrounding the holidays and feeling sorry for yourself that “everyone else” is having a better holiday than you. Here’s yet another tip—don’t believe everything you —- think!

Want a joy-filled, fun, peaceful and loving experience over the next month or so? Understand that your mood and the events around you are not at all, in any way, connected. You can create any positive mood you want, regardless of your actual life-situation. Any mood you want, REGARDLESS of your actual life situation.

Thoughts are just thoughts. You create them, you control them, and you can change them. And get this—you can do all that without an “illness” requiring a “diagnosis” and signing up for tranquilizers, anti-depressants or mood stabilizers—that have little evidence really matters anyway for mild to moderate normal upsets.

If you are reading this, you are probably a member of one of San Diego’s finest health clubs, the Sporting Club of San Diego and the La Jolla Sports Club. That means you already have at your disposal the longest-lasting, most effective method for helping yourself create happiness, joy and positivity—exercise. It will help you clear your mind from that negative, erroneous thinking you slip into with the encouragement of the media who wants you to believe the holidays are so “stressful.”

With moderate to intense exercise, you reset your thinking, your mood, your biochemistry, your brain cells, and your health. Stress is not something we “get” nor is it inherent in any event—it is created when we think about life events in specific ways that may anticipate “awful, horrible, terrible, catastrophic” outcomes that we absolutistically demand must not occur, or see—view—life events through a lens that defines situations as unusually negative and harsh. Again, don’t believe everything you — think. Exercising can help you catch your breath, take a moment to reset your irrational thinking, challenge what evidence you have for such nasty thoughts, and identify alternative ways for thinking about a holiday gift, a party, a get together, an invitation, or whatever you were troubling yourself with.

The holidays are days. Filled with activities, events, situations, people, or not. Think of them in a way that leaves you happy, or believe the media and suffer—you can’t do both. Thankfully, that’s the choice most of us have—we just need to be reminded of it.

Keep up your workouts and, truly, happy holidays ahead!