Getting healthy and fit in real time, in real life…

 
Before I begin this week’s article, I wanted to take this opportunity to pay tribute to my fellow bloggers. I have learned a lot about maintaining a proper diet, doing regular exercises, taking on new challenges and, perhaps of greatest importance, to have no more excuses.

 
As my fellow bloggers continue to write about the above subjects so well, I have concentrated my last two blogs on the maintaining of good mental health or how: “a happy being is a healthy being.” or “a happy bean is a healthy bean.”

Have you ever been knee deep in concern about something when you have been blindsided by something else so hilarious that you are instantly transformed from being a piece of the Newfoundland iceberg that sunk the Titantic to the breathtaking Shannon waterfalls that you find outside of the beautiful mountain community of Squamish?

At first blush, you might feel guilty for breaking faith with the gods of worry. But perhaps there is a higher power attempting to keep life in perspective for you. These people are not gods though. They are our relatives, friends and even strangers from the other side of the world. No sales pitches. No contracts to sign. Simply humans wanting to share a smile with other humans. You have to like the idea.

 And this instant stress reliever is as close as your email mailbox.

By this time, my son has supercharged his Toshiba lap top for another season and is officially launched into his 4^th year of Business at SFU. From his previous 3 years, he knows that it is best to assume that the pressure to pass, let alone to do well, will be relentless and never ending until he is otherwise advised. Make no assumptions and take no prisoners.

An ideal candidate for the sending of instant stress relief!

 Of course the degree of success of the intervention depends on several factors:

1. Mood of the receiver at the time. On the verge of panic and absolute mental meltdown usually enhances the ‘surprise’ effect of the communication resulting in an 8 to 10 reaction level to a joke normally rated at a 5 to 6.
2. Low blood sugar level and degree of light-headiness could invoke an 8 to 10 reaction to the same joke.
3. The more outrageous the content, the better.  Example: Emails predicting the Toronto Argonauts to win this year’s Grey Cup.

 This crisis intervention is accessible all the time and costs the same as monthly internet fees.

Can we say that about psychotherapy?

 Next week: Chicken Catching: The Original Shoulder Muscle Building Exercise.

 Have a week of good health.

Rick

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So I know that I had said that since my food cravings were increasing, I would be running and doing more of an intensive workout.  Well that did not happen this week.  I did keep up with my 1 hour and 15 minute walks but that was it.  I just could not get myself into the gym this week.

Luckily my midnight raids to the kitchen for potato chips have stopped and my insatiable appetite has abated somewhat.  I think my night out at “The Kettle of Fish” met my appetite needs.  At the restaurant I enjoyed some Salt Spring Island Mussels and I tried Sablefish for the first time.  While I was proud of myself for going for the seafood and not the steak, I am pretty sure that I canceled out any nutritional benefits with the sauce that was served with the fish.  I could feel the butter linger on on my tongue as I savoured the dish.  Don’t get me wrong, it was delicious and I would definitely try it again, but this does bring up the issue of all the things that they put into food when you go out to eat.

So I have tried to start cooking at home (shocking, I know).  Contrary to popular belief, I can cook.  I have started to get more adventurous and I am trying to cook some of my favorite seafood dishes at home.  This weekend I cooked some scallops and pancetta and I am pleased to say that it wasn’t that bad.  I am also going to try and cook some mussels at home.  I have recipe that I would like to try.  It has a little bit of an Asian flare to it.  It requires some lemon grass and some other spices, so it should be quite interesting.  Once I try it out, I will share with you all how it went.

I would also like to try cooking sablefish at home.  I recently went to the grocery store and saw the price of the fish and thought may be I should start off with something cheaper in case I totally screw it up.  While I can cook, I have a long way to becoming a gourmet chef and I really don’t like to mess up on really, really expensive ingredients.

Does anyone have any good seafood recipes that they would like to share?  Specifically those for mussels and scallops?  Those that don’t require any alcoholic beverages and those with a little spice to them would be greatly appreciated!

Grass Roots!

My medical history has been one of the ‘break-and-leave-time-to heal’ variety and I consider myself fortunate to be free of more serious ailments that afflict many members of our society. So far. I do have a family history of heart disease and this has been my wake up call to pay attention to diet and exercise.

On more than one occasion I have looked for research groups that collect data from people in my situation – healthy but with heart disease lurking in the background. I am convinced that there are answers to be found ‘out there’ if only we knew where to look. I’m not looking for clinical trials, just an ‘amass the data and see what the statistics on lifestyle issues boil down to’ approach!  So who is doing the ‘looking’?

I was pleasantly surprised to recently learn of the BC Generations Project and I took the opportunity to enroll. This program is in its infancy – still waiting for the opportune political time to be announced by the Federal and provincial governments – but they have begun recruiting people. The goal in BC is to establish a database of 40,000 people (300,000 federally) between the ages of 35 and 60 and follow this cohort for the next 25 years. The program is being run from the Diamond center, opposite Vancouver General Hospital.

The initial commitment is filling out a questionnaire and donating body fluids. The process takes about 1 ½ hours, and for that you are compensated with a $10.00 gift certificate at Safeway, meant to offset any parking costs. The program is not meant as an additional medical screening: you will be given the data on physical measurements taken – body mass index, bone density etc. – but none of the lab tests done on the specimens.

 All results are strictly confidential – you become a barcode! This is a painless way of contributing to grass roots medical research and I would recommend that everyone take part. And they don’t measure your trunk flexibility!

Ok, kids (<35!), sorry you can’t play, but perhaps you will be the beneficiary of the knowledge gained from this study.

A dedicated web-site is being set up but in the meantime more information can be obtained through the BC Cancer agency: http://www.bccrc.ca/ccr/BCGP_home.html

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