BeWise Classes for the New Year

Want to be healthier?  Want to achieve a healthy weight? Ready to achieve your New Year's Resolutions?

Check out our class page: BeWise Classes to register for our NEW 6 WEEK BeWise WEIGHT WORKSHP and to know when our BeWise Zumba classes will be!!  Join us at the West Valley Library!

Healthy Holiday Eating

How do we stay healthy during the holiday seasons full of treats?  Check out the tips and websites below to learn how!

10 Tips to creating healthy, active events:

1. Make healthy habits part of your celebrations.  Food and beverages are a part of an event, but they do not have to be the center of the occasion.  Focus on activities to get people moving and enjoy being together.

2. Make foods look festive. Decorate foods with nuts or seeds or use new shapes for vegetables.  Add a few eye-catching fruits to a favorite dish, serve up a new recipe, or add a sprinkle of almonds or green onions to add just an extra something.

3. Offer thirst quenches that please. Make fun ice cubes from 100% juice or add slices of fruit to make water more exciting.  Create a "float" by adding a scoop of low-fat sorbet to seltzer water. 

4. Savor the flavor. Take time to pay attention to the taste of each bit of food.  make small changes in your old recipes or try dishes from another culture to liven things up.  

5. Use ChooseMyPlate.gov to include foods from the food groups for your party. Offer whole-grain crackers, serve a spicy bean dip and veggie tray, make fruit kabobs, layer yogurt and fruit to create a sweet parfait.  Use whole grains and veggies to make a savory, healthy salad. 

6. Make moving part of the event. Being physically active makes everyone feel good.  Dancing, moving, playing active games, wiggling, and giggling add fun to any gathering. 

7. Try out some healthier recipes. Find ways to cut back on sugar, salt, and fat as you prepare your favorite recipes.  Try out some of the recipes on choosemyplate.gov. 

8. Keep it simple. Have others participate by contributing a prepared dish, helping with the clean up, or keeping the kids active and moving.

9. Shop smart to eat smart. Save money by offering foods that fit your budget.  Buy in-season produce when it costs less and tastes better.  Plan in advance and buy foods on sale. 

10. Be a cheerleader for healthy habits. It's never too early for adults to set an example.  Keep in mind that children follow what the adults around them do - even at parties.  

Source: Choosemyplate.gov - Click here to see PDF form of tips.

Want to learn more?  Check out the American Heart Association's Holiday Healthy Eating Guide by clicking here!  It has more helpful hints and recipes!

Looking for more Healthy Thanksgiving recipes?  Check out the following cite by clicking here!

What healthy holiday recipes have you tried?  Comment below!

BeWise Class: Meal Planning on a Budget

Have you wanted to know how to eat healthy on a budget?  Want some good holiday eating tips?

Join us for the LAST BEWISE CLASS THIS YEAR on Thursday, November 15 from 10:15-11:15am.  

We will be learning how to meal plan on a budget and include some healthy holiday tips since no one was able to make it last week!  Join us for some fun and learning!!  You won’t regret it.  Bring your friends and family as well!  This is our LAST CLASS IN MIDVALE at the Copperview Recreation Center (8446 South Harrison St (295 W) Midvale, UT 84047). See you there! 

Ways to Shave Calories

When it comes to healthy weight management, small steps add up. In fact, little changes in eating and activity level have a more positive impact on health than drastic ones. This is because you are more likely to stick with smaller changes over time. Extreme diets and intensive exercise regimens may work well at first, but they rarely last over the long term.

Healthy weight is all about balancing food intake with physical activity. Most of us could improve our energy balance by shaving just 100 calories a day off our usual intake. It’s not difficult:

• Lighten up your favorite coffee drink with non-fat milk and sugar-free syrup.
• Trim all fat from beef, pork and chicken. Remove the skin from poultry.
• Dish up slow-churned, reduced-calorie ice cream in place of regular.
• Enjoy raw vegetables with salsa or fat-free ranch dip instead of chips.

Small Changes Add Up
Here are more great ideas that will cut calories from your daily intake, possibly without your even noticing:

1. Downsize Your Dishes. Use smaller plates and bowls to help you eat less. We tend to fill up the dish we’re using and then eat it all. Our brains also think we are getting more when the same amount of food is placed in a smaller dish.
2. Savor Your Meals. Eating slowly helps you consume only what your body needs to feel satisfied. Eating too quickly, in less than 20 to 30 minutes, leads to overeating and feeling uncomfortably full afterwards.
3. Leave Some Food on Your Plate. This is especially important if you grew up in the “clean plate club.” By leaving even a few bites, you can focus more on your internal signals of satisfaction and less on eating food just because it is there.
4. Don’t Eat Out of a Bag or Box. When you eat out of a package, you are likely to keep eating until it’s all gone – no matter how many servings the package actually contains. Pour one serving into a small bowl.
5. Choose Your Glass Wisely. Here’s another place where our eyes play tricks on us. When glasses are short and wide, we tend to fill them with more fluid and to drink more. Use a slender glass for any beverage except water.
6. Rethink Your Drinks. High-calorie beverages like soft drinks, juice drinks, energy drinks, specialty coffees and alcohol add calories just like solid foods. Whenever possible, replace these drinks with plenty of water.

Source:
http://www.eatright.org/Public/content.aspx?id=6849

BeWise Free Healthy Lifestyle Class: Healthy Holiday Eating Celebration

Are you ready to kick off the holiday season? Then join us this Thursday, November 8, 2012 from 6pm-7pm for our FREE BeWise Holiday Party! We will have music, food, and fun learning activities! Get some healthy holiday recipe ideas and learn some techniques on how to survive the holiday season filled with treats and parties.

If you would like to help others in need. Help us support the Utah Food Bank by bringing a can of food to donate (optional). 

Everyone is welcome to come so invite your friends! We will be at the Copperview Recreation Center in Midvale (8446 South Harrison St (295 W), Midvale, UT 84047). Those who live in Midvale, Sandy, and surrounding areas should take advantage of having a closer class! See you there!

Stress Management Technique: Laugh!

Hello ladies! A few weeks ago at our stress management class, we talked about laughter as a stress management technique. A good laugh can actually be very beneficial! Here's a look at the perks to laughing in relation to stress management:

Short-term benefits
A good laugh has great short-term effects. When you start to laugh, it doesn't just lighten your load mentally, it actually induces physical changes in your body. Laughter can:

• Stimulate many organs. Laughter enhances your intake of oxygen-rich air, stimulates your heart, lungs and muscles, and increases the endorphins that are released by your brain.
• Activate and relieve your stress response. A rollicking laugh fires up and then cools down your stress response and increases your heart rate and blood pressure. The result? A good, relaxed feeling.
• Soothe tension. Laughter can also stimulate circulation and aid muscle relaxation, both of which help reduce some of the physical symptoms of stress.

Long-term effects

Laughter isn't just a quick pick-me-up, though. It's also good for you over the long haul. Laughter may:

• Improve your immune system. Negative thoughts manifest into chemical reactions that can impact your body by bringing more stress into your system and decreasing you immunity. In contrast, positive thoughts actually release neuropeptides that help fight stress and potentially more serious illnesses. 
• Relieve pain. Laughter may ease pain by causing the body to produce its own natural painkillers. Laughter may also break the pain-spasm cycle common to some muscle disorders.
• Increase personal satisfaction. Laughter can also make it easier to cope with the difficult situations. It also helps you connect with other people. 

Sources: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/stress-relief/SR00034
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWHpcKXt-qQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YQpbzQ6gzs

In addition, a few women asked for us to find some funny videos to get a good laugh so here you go, enjoy! J