Remember that if you're awake...You're Awesome! Have a great day today!

Watch this great video and make today awesome!

March Into Wellness Week 3 Brackets!

click on the bracket to increase the size....

"Tried & True" Recipe Highlights

We have some more "Tried & True" recipes for you to try this weekend!  Thanks to all who have submitted recipe ideas. What a great way to share, try, and get excited about new healthy recipes for National Nutrition Month!

Strawberry Salad
Chopped Salad
Fresh Sliced Strawberries
1 tsp. lite blue cheese dressing
Mix together and enjoy. The strawberries mellow out the blue cheese flavor and create a more creamer flavor in the salad. You can also add chopped almonds.

Thanks Deelen for the salad idea!

**I also love making a strawberry salad with spring mix salad. There are so many ways to dress it up.
Some topping ideas: mango, blueberries, mandarin oranges, crasins, hard boiled egg, shredded mozarella cheese, sliced alvocado, sliced almonds or chopped walnuts, raspberry viniagrette or poppyseed viniagrette. You can also add grilled chicken to make it more filling. Lots of yummy combinations to try. Very quick to throw together and SO good!


Zucchini Banana Oat Bread (or Muffins)
1 1/2 C. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 C. oats
1 C. sugar
2 eggs
1 C. canola oil
2 tsp. vanilla
2 ripe bananas, mashed
3 cups shredded zucchini

Heat oven to 350 and prepare loaf or muffin pans.
In large bowl, add flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and oats. Stir together.
In a smaller bowl combine sugar, eggs, oil, vanilla and mashed banana.
Pour sugar mixture into flour mixture, and stir by hand.
Add in Zucchini and mix until well incorporated.
Bake for 35-45 minutes or until bread pulls away from sides of plan and an inserted toothpick is removed clean.
notes: I make these as muffins, and they make a great on-the-go breakfast :)

Thanks Maralie for the Muffin Recipe!

Soup Ideas
Click here for an African Soup Recipe and Black Bean Stew Recipe

Thanks Raven for sending these in!

March Into Wellness week 2 brackets!

Quinoa, Black Bean and Corn Tacos

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups cooked quinoa 
1 Tbsp olive oil 
1 medium yellow onion, diced 
3 cloves garlic, finely minced 
1 cup vegetable broth or chicken broth 
1 (14.5) oz can diced tomatoes with green chilis, undrained 
1 1/2 tsp chili powder 
1 tsp ground cumin 
1/2 tsp paprika 
1/4 - 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper 
1/4 tsp ground coriander 
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste 
1 1/2 cups frozen corn 
2 (15 oz) cans black beans, drained and rinsed 
juice of 1 lime 
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped 

Serve with: 
corn or wheat tortillas 
chopped lettuce 
Monterey Jack, cheddar or cottage cheese 
diced avocados 
diced tomatoes 
hot sauce 

Directions
Heat olive oil in a large non-stick saucepan over medium high heat. Once hot, add onion and saute until golden and tender, about 3 minutes. Add in garlic and saute 30 seconds longer. Stir in broth, diced tomatoes, cooked quinoa, chili powder, cumin, paprika, cayenne, coriander and season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring mixture to a boil, then reduce heat, cover saucepan with lid and simmer about 20 minutes, until mixture has thickened. 
Stir in corn and black beans and simmer, uncovered 5 - 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Mix in lime juice and cilantro. Serve warm over tortillas with desired toppings. 
(Recipe Source: recipe adapted slightly from a ward cookbook, recipe submitted by Kelli Price)

Thanks to Tonya Christensen for submitting this recipe! Keep submitting your favorite healthy recipes by emailing them to ucwell4life@gmail.com (feel free to include a picture as well) or through this link here. 

It's National Sleep Awareness Week!

What happens when you sleep?

While sleep needs vary with individuals, most healthy adults need between 7 to 9 hours.  During a proper night’s sleep you will have 4-5 sleep cycles. One sleep cycle looks like this:

Non-REM sleep has four stages, each about 5-15 minutes each. The first stage is a transition stage where brain waves slow down, and you can be awakened without difficulty. Next, you enter into a light sleep. Heart rate decreases, body temperature decreases, and your body prepares for deep sleep. Then, in stages three and four you enter into deep sleep. During this time your body is busy repairing and regenerating tissues, building bone and muscle, and strengthening the immune system.

After about 90 minutes of sleep onset, you enter into REM sleep. REM stands for “Rapid Eye Movement” because at this time your eyes move rapidly. This is when you dream. Brain activity is heightened and brainwave activity to similar to wakefulness. However, paralysis occurs as well, so REM sleep is sometimes referred to as paradoxical sleep. 

Learn more at:  http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/excessive-sleepiness-10/sleep-101

There are many benefits to a proper night's sleep!

• better ability to manage stress
• helps cognitive function (memory, learning, judgment, decision-making)
• allows body to repair and regenerate
• boosts immune system 
• more energy and alertness
• combats feelings of depression and fatigue

Did You Know?

• Sleep helps you learn more effectively! Many of us think that we are being more productive working late into the night, but we would actually be more productive if we had a proper night’s sleep. Sleep allows our brain sorts new information into memory banks, solidifying information and skills that you learned during the day. As this video clips says, sleep “clears our hard drive” so to speak, so that we are ready to learn more. Although this video is targeted towards students, it is excellent information for us all to remember!

• Sleep is important for safe driving!  “The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has estimated more than 100,000 auto crashes annually are fatigue related.” (sleep foundation)
• Sleep may play a role in weight loss!  Dr. Michael Breus explains, “Exactly how lack of sleep affects our ability to lose weight has a lot to do with our nightly hormones...Ghrelin is the ‘go’ hormone that tells you when to eat, and when you are sleep-deprived, you have more ghrelin. Leptin is the hormone that tells you to stop eating, and when you are sleep deprived, you have less leptin.” (Webmd)

Interesting clip from 60 Minutes: "Science of Sleep" 

10 Tips to a Better Nights Sleep

1. Stick to a consistent sleep schedule.

2. Practice a relaxing bedtime ritual.

3. Avoid naps, especially in the afternoon (keep naps brief, 20 minutes or less)

4. Exercise daily (aim to finish any vigorous exercise 3-4 hours before bedtime)

5. Evaluate your room. Optimal sleeping conditions are free from noise, light (especially be careful with blue lights in your bedroom from computer and TV screens), and have cooler temperatures (60-67 degrees).

6. Avoid heavy meals in evening. Complex carbs and dairy food are good light evening snacks. Try to finish any snack at least an hour before bed.

7. Don’t drink anything within two hours of sleep.

8. Lower the lights. This signals to your brain to produce melatonin.

9.  If you can’t sleep, go into another room and do something relaxing until you feel tired.

10. Have a “winding down” time in the evening.

Tips collected from:
http://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-tools-tips/healthy-sleep-tips
http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/sleep-benefits-10/slideshow-sleep-tips
http://www.helpguide.org/life/sleep_tips.htm

Happy Sleep Awareness Week! 

Remember sleep is an important part of health 

& get a good night's sleep tonight!!

Tried, Tasty, and True....New Healthy, Recipes for You!

In honor of National Nutrition Month, let’s try some new, healthy recipes! Submit your favorite recipe(s) & we will share them here on the blog.  Expand your recipe collection by trying out your co-workers “Tried and True” recipes this month (and earn 5 quarterly points)!

Then come sample your co-workers favorite healthy recipes at our upcoming TASTE TESTING event!  All registered participants will receive a free copy our of “Tried & True” Recipe Book and will be entered into a raffle to win some fun prizes. Let’s make nutrition fun again!  

Submit a recipe and/or register for the Taste Testing HERE. Registration ends March 19th.

Tried & True Taste Testing

March 24th

12:00 pm

1600-1601 HJB

Ready for the 'Madness' to Begin???

Here are the Week 1 Brackets!
Good luck to all the teams!

March Into Wellness Challenge

March Into Wellness Challenge

Just in case you have not registered for our quarterly challenge....

Step 1:  Get Registered!                                              

◘ Find your team of five players (preferably from within your office)

◘ Come up with a team name

◘ Select a team captain (they will be responsible for your reporting your team’s points)

◘ Register your team at  https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Rhi5cVx96FHaiDAaIHysT

QltONWwyU19KGBsHnBOTxQ/viewform

Registration begins February 19th and closes February 26th. 

The “madness” will start on March 3rd!

Step 2: Earn and Keep Track of your Individual Points!

◘ Individual team members will earn points by completing daily wellness activities, and record them on their individual tracker cards.

Step 3: Tally your Team Points!

◘ Each week team members will total their individual points to come up with their teams weekly score.  (Similar to the Destination Challenge!)

◘ Teams will keep track of their points by filling in their Team Tracker Chart weekly. (Will be provided after registration—example tracker attached)

◘ Each Friday the team captain will submit their team’s score at ucwell4life@gmail.com

Step 4: Follow the Brackets!

Your team will be competing against other participating teams to move up in the brackets. New bracket results will be posted each Monday morning via email as well as on the Well4Life blog at www.utahcountywell4life.blogspot.com. No team will be eliminated, but rather moved to another bracket.  Winners of each bracket will be qualified to move up in the bracket, win some cool prizes, and gain office glory and fame.

Points

1 Point

I had 1 serving of vegetables today.

I had 1 servings of fruit     today.

I did physical activity for 15 minutes today.

I did one act of random kindness today.

I took 15 minutes of “me” time (to meditate, read a book, journal, yoga, relax, etc.)

I ate breakfast today.

I chose water over a sugary beverage today.

I swapped a sugar sweetened beverage for water.

I flossed my teeth today

2 Pointers

 I had 2 servings of vegetables today.

I had 2 servings of fruit today.

I did 30 minutes of physical activity today.

I took the stairs today instead of the elevator.

I did 2 “Take 10” walks today at work.

I read an article on the Wellness blog. 

I brought a healthy lunch from home today.

I drank 3 8oz glasses of water today.

I slept 7-8 hours last night.

I tried a new fruit or veggie.

3 Pointers

I tried a new healthy recipe.

I had 3 servings of vegetables today.

I had 3 servings of fruit today.

I did 45 minutes of physical activity today.

I made all my grains whole grains today.

I wrote down 3 things I’m grateful for today.

I stretched, did yoga, or meditated for at least 15 minutes today.

I said hi to at least 5 people today.

I drank 6 8oz glasses of water today.

I tried something new today.

Positive Attitude Development Week 4: Gratitude and Humor

Gratitude and Humor

We wanted to thank everyone for their attendance and participation! We enjoyed researching and teaching on this subject. Here is a summary of the class this week:

Gratitude: A feeling of thankfulness or appreciation

What are you grateful for? Your house? clean water to drink, cook, and bathe in? How about a toilet that flushes? 100 people: A World Portrait has compiled statistics to demonstrate what the world would be like if it were a village of just 100 people. The statistics are astounding! Check it out here.

A really great article that pulls together a lot of great research on gratitude was published by Harvard Health Publications called In Praise Of Gratitude. Some studies that were cited in this article included:

• A study in which participants wrote a few sentences each week. One group wrote things they were grateful for, the second group wrote about things that aggravate them, and the last group was assigned to write about events that affected them (with no emphasis on positivity or negativity). After 10 weeks interesting results came back. The gratitude group was more optimistic, exercised more, and also had fewer visits to physicians. [Emmons and McCullough]
• Another study looked at the effects of  writing and personally delivering notes of gratitude to someone who had not been properly thanked for their kindness. The results of the study immediately raised the happiness score of its participants for extended periods of time. [Seligman]
• A study done at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania found that managers who express gratitude to their employees see a jump in the amount of work that gets done.

Some "Ways to Cultivate Gratitude"

• Write a thank you note
• Thank someone mentally
• Keep a gratitude journal
• Count your blessings
• Pray
• Meditate

Humor: A comic, absurd, or incongruous quality causing amusement

Last week we learned about how humor is a great way to reduce stress. This week we took a step back to look at humor and its many benefits in a more broad perspective. 10 Reasons Why Laughing is Good For You explores many different benefits of having humor in your life. These include:

• Decreases Stress
• Helps Coping Skills
• Improves Blood Pressure and Flow
• Provides a Burst of Exercise
• Manages Pain
• Boosts Social Skills
• Reduces Aggression
• Lowers Blood Glucose Levels
• Energizes Organs
• Boosts Immune System

An important equation to remember: SMILE + FROWN = SMILE. Smiling and laughing is contagious. Check out this video!  

How to Incorporate More Humor Into One's Life:

• Count your blessings
• Move toward laughter
• Spend time with fun people
• Bring humor into conversations
• Share something silly about yourself with a friend
• Don't forget to laugh at yourself
• Find humor in something serious

http://www.personalsafetynets.org/toolkit/tips/bring-more-humor-and-laughter-your-life

http://www.positivelypresent.com/2010/04/laughter.html

Here is a website with some clean and funny jokes!

**It is important to note that humor when used in the proper way can provide many health benefits, but when it is used improperly it can be even more detrimental than the situation.**