More BONUS POINTS

Earn 10 bonus points by

doing a premeditated service for someone.

 

Valid Sunday, March 25 through Sunday, April 1

 

Don't forget to earn 10 points by singing all the hymns on Sunday, March 25 if you didn't get them last week.

Healthy Tidbit #7: Enjoy Good Music

Music is Good for the Brain

Music is good for the soul, as the saying goes, and most of us are familiar with its influence on our moods. There is, however, a growing understanding of music’s palliative effect on a number of brain-based conditions, including Parkinson’s disease, aphasia, and Alzheimer’s disease, whereby music seems to aid in restoring motor coordination, communication, as well as cognition.

The brain is an exceptionally complex organ, which makes treating neural conditions particularly difficult. Music, however, is an ideal complement to conventional therapies in that it is simple, non-invasive and, at least for most people, enjoyable. Experts believe that listening to music, besides making us feel good, might possibly rewire the brain and find new pathways for neural signals to travel.

According to the National Aphasia Foundation, patients suffering from strokes are encouraged to sing words rather than say them as part of their speech therapy. The treatment, known as melodic intonation therapy, is believed to bridge the divide between the left and right sides of the brain where language and music are processed, respectively.  A study published in the journal Brain found that when patients listened to music, their verbal memory and focused attention benefited. Researchers believe that music directly stimulates recovery of the damaged regions while also enhancing parts of the brain that are responsible for pleasure, arousal, motivation and memory.

If you listen to soothing music, studies show that the body's stress levels drop due to a decrease in the stress hormone cortisol. And listening to upbeat music can increase the number of antibodies in your system which are crucial to identifying and eliminating harmful bacteria and viruses.

Music seems to open up our brains for certain kinds of thinking. After you’ve listened to classical music you can do certain spatial tasks more quickly, such as putting together a jigsaw puzzle. But the effect lasts only a short time. Our improved skills fade about an hour after we stop listening to the music. It’s thought that the classical music "pathways" in our brain are similar to those we use for reasoning.

Learning to play an instrument can have longer effects on reasoning. Children who took piano lessons for several months were found to have improved their ability to work puzzles and solve other tasks by as much as 30 percent.

What we call classical—Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, etc—is different from most modern music. It has a more complex structure. Researchers think the complexity of classical music is what stimulates the brain to solve these spatial problems more quickly. Listening to classical music may have different effects on the brain from listening to other types of music.  But listening to any kind of music helps build music-related pathways in the brain.

My mom, the amazing woman she is, created this to help us keep track of our points so I am making it available to all of you! Hope it helps

GOAL	SUNDAY	MONDAY	TUESDAY	WEDNESDAY	THURSDAY	FRIDAY	SATURDAY
EXERCISE
1PT=10 MIN
NO SUGAR
3PT
WATER
1PT=8-8OZ
VEG/FRUIT
1PT=5+
SLEEP
1PT=7-9HR
BED 10:30
1PT (5FREE)
SUNDAY WORSHIP
3PT
BONUS TASK

BONUS POINTS

Earn 10 BONUS POINTS by

Singing aloud to every hymn on Sunday

(all meetings)

Pay attention to the words.  Sing the hymn as a form of worship.  Sing with purpose.

Valid Sunday, March 18 or Sunday, March 25

Healthy Tidbit #6: Exercise Efficiently

Get the Most Out of Your Workout

Experts say there is no magic to exercise: You get out of it what you put in. That doesn't mean you have to work out for hours each day. It just means you need to work smart. That said, experts agree that not all exercises are created equal. Some are simply more efficient than others, whether they target multiple muscle groups, are suitable for a wide variety of fitness levels, or help you burn calories more effectively.

So what are the best exercises? We posed this question to four fitness experts and compiled a list of their favorites.

1. Walking. Any exercise program should include cardiovascular exercise, which strengthens the heart and burns calories. And walking is something you can do anywhere, anytime, with no equipment other than a good pair of shoes. It's not just for beginners, either: Even the very fit can get a good workout from walking. "Doing a brisk walk can burn up to 500 calories per hour," says Robert Gotlin, DO, director of orthopaedic and sports rehabilitation at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York. Since it takes 3,500 calories to lose a pound, you could expect to lose a pound for every seven hours you walk, if you did nothing else. Don't go from the sofa to walking an hour day, though. Richard Cotton, a spokesman for the American Council on Exercise, says beginners should start by walking five to 10 minutes at a time, gradually moving up to at least 30 minutes per session. "Don't add more than five minutes at a time," he says. Another tip: It's better to lengthen your walks before boosting your speed or incline.

2. Interval training. Whether you're a beginner or an exercise veteran, a walker or an aerobic dancer, adding interval training to your cardiovascular workout will boost your fitness level and help you lose weight. "Varying your pace throughout the exercise session stimulates the aerobic system to adapt," says Cotton. "The more power the aerobic system has, the more capacity you have to burn calories." The way to do it is to push the intensity or pace for a minute or two, then back off for anywhere from two to 10 minutes (depending on how long your total workout will be, and how much time you need to recover). Continue doing this throughout the workout.

3. Squats. Strength training is essential, the experts say. "The more muscular fitness you have," says Cotton, "the greater the capacity you have to burn calories." And our experts tended to favor strength-training exercises that target multiple muscle groups. Squats, which work the quadriceps, hamstrings, and gluteals, are an excellent example. "They give you the best bang for the buck because they use the most muscle groups at once," says Oldsmar, Fla., trainer David Petersen. Form is key, though, warns Petersen. "What makes an exercise functional is how you perform the exercise," he says. "If you have bad technique, it's no longer functional." For perfect form, keep feet shoulder-width apart and back straight. Bend knees and lower your rear, says Cotton: "The knee should remain over the ankle as much as possible." "Think of how you sit down in a chair, only the chair's not there," suggests Gotlin. Physical therapist Adam Rufa, of Cicero, N.Y., says practicing with a real chair can help. "Start by working on getting in and out of a real chair properly," he says. Once you've mastered that, try just tapping the chair with your bottom, then coming back up. Then do the same motion without the chair. Gotlin sees lots of patients with knee pain, and says quadriceps weakness is the cause much of the time. If you feel pain going down stairs, he says, strengthening your quads with squats may help.

4. Lunges. Like squats, lunges work all the major muscles of the lower body: gluteals, quadriceps, and hamstrings. "A lunge is a great exercise because it mimics life, it mimics walking," only exaggerated, says Petersen. Lunges are a bit more advanced than squats, says Cotton, helping to improve your balance as well. Here's how to do them right: Take a big step forward, keeping your spine in a neutral position. Bend your front knee to approximately 90 degrees, focusing on keeping weight on the back toes and dropping the knee of your back leg toward the floor. Petersen suggests that you imagine sitting on your back foot. "The trailing leg is the one you need to sit down on," he says. To make a lunge even more functional, says Rufa, try stepping not just forward, but back and out to each side. "Life is not linear, it's multiplanar," says Rufa. And the better they prepare you for the various positions you'll move in during the course of a day, the more useful exercises are.

5. Push-ups. If done correctly, the push-up can strengthen the chest, shoulders, triceps, and even the core trunk muscles, all at one time. "I'm very much into planking exercises, almost yoga-type moves," says Petersen. "Anytime you have the pelvis and the core [abdominals and back] in a suspended position, you have to rely on your own adherent strength to stabilize you." Push-ups can be done at any level of fitness, says Cotton: "For someone who is at a more beginning level, start by pushing from the kitchen-counter height. Then work your way to a desk, a chair, the floor with bent knees, and, finally, the floor on your toes." Here's how to do a perfect push-up: From a face-down position, place your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Place your toes or knees on the floor, and try to create a perfect diagonal with your body, from the shoulders to the knees or feet. Keep the glutes [rear-end muscles] and abdominals engaged. Then lower and lift your body by bending and straightening your elbows, keeping your torso stable throughout. There are always ways to make it harder, says Rufa. Once your form is perfect, try what he calls the "T-stabilization" push-up: Get into push-up position, then do your push-ups with one arm raised out to the side, balancing on the remaining three limbs without rotating your hips.

6. Abdominal Crunches. Who doesn't want firm, flat abs? Experts say that when done correctly, the familiar crunch (along with its variations) is a good choice to target them. For a standard crunch, says Cotton, begin lying on your back with feet flat on the floor and fingertips supporting your head. Press your low back down and begin the exercise by contracting abdominals and peeling first your head (tucking your chin slightly), then your neck, shoulders, and upper back off the floor. Be careful not to pull your neck forward of the rest of your spine by sticking the chin out; don't hold your breath, and keep elbows out of your line of vision to keep chest and shoulders open. For his part, Petersen teaches his clients to do crunches with their feet off the floor and knees bent. He says that with feet kept on the floor, many people tend to arch the back and engage the hip flexors. "Crunches can be excellent, but if they're not done correctly, with the back arching, they can actually weaken the abdominals," Petersen says. To work the obliques (the muscles on the sides of your waist), says Cotton, take the standard crunch and rotate the spine toward one side as you curl off the floor. "Twist before you come up," he says. "It's really important that the twist comes first because then it's the obliques that are actually getting you up." But keep in mind that you won't get a flat stomach with crunches alone, says Cotton. Burning belly fat requires the well-known formula: using up more calories than you take in. "Crunches work the ab muscles; [they're] not to be mistaken as exercise that burns the fat over the abdominals," he says. "That's the biggest myth in exercise going."

7. Bent-over Row. Talk about bang for the buck: This exercise works all the major muscles of the upper back, as well as the biceps. Here's how to do it with good form. Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, then bend knees and flex forward at the hips. (If you have trouble doing this exercise standing up, support your weight by sitting on an incline bench, facing backward.) Tilt your pelvis slightly forward, engage the abdominals, and extend your upper spine to add support. Hold dumbbells or barbell beneath the shoulders with hands about shoulder-width apart. Flex your elbows, and lift both hands toward the sides of your body. Pause, then slowly lower hands to the starting position. (Beginners should perform the move without weights.)

Technique

These seven exercises are excellent, efficient choices, the experts say. But with just about any strength or resistance exercise, says Petersen, the question is not so much whether the exercise works as how well you execute.

"Done with good technique, all exercises do what they're supposed to do," says Petersen.

The trouble is that poor form can change the whole exercise, putting emphasis or even strain on different areas than intended. This can hurt, rather than help you.

So especially if you're a beginner, it's a good idea to seek the advice of a fitness trainer - whether it's a personal trainer or a trainer at your gym -- to be sure your form is safe and correct.

BONUS TIME

Earn 10 bonus points for

watching NO television for one day!

Valid Sunday, March 11 through Sunday, March 18

Healthy Tidbit #5

Fiber is Good For Us

Sure, you've heard that fiber is good for you, but do you know why? Four key benefits come from eating a diet rich in fiber. 

1.      Fiber slows the rate that sugar is adsorbed into the bloodstream. When you eat foods high in fiber -- such as beans and whole grains -- the sugar in those foods is absorbed slower, which keeps your blood glucose levels from rising too fast. This is good for you because spikes in glucose fall rapidly, which can cause you to be hungry soon after eating and lead to overeating.

2.      Fiber makes your intestines move faster. When you eat whole grains rich in insoluble fiber, it moves faster through your intestines, which can help signal that you are full.

3.      Fiber cleans your colon -- acting like a scrub brush. The scrub-brush effect of fiber helps clean out bacteria and other buildup in your intestines, and reduces your risk for colon cancer.

4.      Fiber helps keep you regular. A high-fiber diet helps you have soft, regular bowel movements, reducing constipation.

Most of us haven't a clue how many grams of fiber we get from our diets in on a typical day. Yet for many Americans, this number should be doubled.  A recent American Dietetic Association position paper reported that most of us don't even come close to the recommended intake of 20 grams to 35 grams of fiber a day. Americans' mean fiber intake is about half that --14-15 grams a day.

It's Bonus Time

Earn 10 BONUS POINTS by

attending the temple or

visiting the temple grounds.

Valid Sunday, March 4 through Sunday, March 11.

Health Tidbit #4

Hello! This article contains two graphs which give an easy representation of nutrient-dense foods, however, I could not get them to copy into email. Hense, you may want to send the attachment and view it that way. These foods may be good to consider when thinking of new foods to try this week for our 10 bonus points. Kale, who knew?

Health Tidbit#4: Eat Nutrient-Dense Food

Mmmm…Nutrients

Nutrient-dense foods are foods that have a high level of nutrients compared to the number of calories they contain. These nutrients include vitamins, essential fatty acids, fiber and minerals.

Adding these foods to your diet will ensure that you are eating healthy foods as opposed to empty calorie foods that will only promote fat storage and weight gain. Nutrient-dense foods aren't difficult to find. You will find that the more you are able to learn about the food you eat, the more you can use specific foods to assist you in your overall health goals.

Nutrient-dense Vegetables

Some of the most common vegetables available are considered nutrient-dense. These healthy vegetables include but are not limited to, asparagus, bell peppers, cabbage, celery, eggplant, green beans, leeks, mustard greens, potatoes, spinach, sweet potatoes, turnip greens, avocados, broccoli, carrots, cucumbers, garlic, mushrooms, onions and squash.

Let's look at the nutritional values for asparagus to get an idea of just how nutrient-dense these vegetables can be. Asparagus is great for maintaining heart health, is a natural diuretic, and contains enzymes that aid in digestion. One serving (1 cup) contains more than 100 percent of the recommended daily value of vitamin K, more than 60 percent of the recommended daily value of folate, and more than 30 percent of the recommended daily value of vitamin C. This leafless green veggie also contains vitamin A, tryptophan, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, manganese, dietary fiber and several other vitamins and minerals.

Nutrient-dense Fruits

Nutrient-dense fruits are also commonly found in most grocery and produce stores. Examples include apples, avocados, blueberries, figs, kiwi, papaya, plums, raspberries, bananas, cranberries, grapes, oranges, pineapple, raisins, and watermelon. Additional fruits that have high nutrient content include apricots, cantaloupe, grapefruit, lemons, limes, pears, prunes, strawberries and tomatoes.

Bananas are a good example of a nutrient-dense fruit as they are loaded with vitamin B6, potassium, fiber, manganese and vitamin C. The combination of vitamins and minerals found in bananas is great for promoting heart health, protecting eyesight, soothing ulcers and promoting proper digestion.

Nutrient-dense Meats and Seafood

Even meats, many of which are reported as having high levels of fat, can be nutrient-dense if you select the healthiest varieties. Healthy, nutrient-dense meats include lean organic beef, chicken, turkey, calf's liver, lamb and venison. Nutrient-dense seafoods include cod, salmon, shrimp, halibut, scallops and tuna.

A single 4-ounce serving of beef (broiled for optimal health), for example, contains more than 100 percent of the daily recommended value of tryptophan, more than 60 percent of the daily recommended value of protein, and almost 50 percent of the recommended daily value of vitamin B12. A serving of lean beef also contains high levels of zinc, selenium, vitamin B6, iron, phosphorus, and a number of other vitamins and minerals. Choose organic beef to avoid hormones and other additives

Top 10 Super Foods

1. Collard, mustard & turnip greens – Nutrient Score: 1000
2. Kale – Nutrient Score: 1000
3. Watercress – Nutrient Score: 1000
4. Bok Choy – Nutrient Score: 824
5. Spinach – Nutrient Score: 739
6. Brussels sprouts – Nutrient Score: 672
7. Swiss chard – Nutrient Score: 670
8. Arugula – Nutrient Score: 559
9. Radish – Nutrient Score: 554
10. Cabbage – Nutrient Score: 481

Dr. Fuhrman's Micronutrient Scores

Joel Fuhrman, M.D., author of Eat for Health, created rankings of foods according the nutrients they pack--vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, etc. According to Fuhrman, here are the top "superfoods", along with their Aggregate Nutrient Density Index (ANDI) scores:

Important to note: Researchers are learning more about specific antioxidants and nutrients every day, so just because your favorite fruit or veggies isn't on this list, doesn't mean it's not a good choice. Instead, let this list guide you to eat more of a variety of fruits and veggies, but don't let it steer you away. For instance, I love kiwi fruit, and I don't see it here. Oddly, studies have shown that kiwi--ounce for ounce--is a highly nutrient dense fruit. So, go figure. This list, like most research, is an opinion. But I still find it fascinating, if not informing.

Are you surprised by anything on this list (I'm a little stunned by the fact that olive oil seems to have the same nutrient count as ice cream!)?