Technology has a dual role in healthcare.  On the one side, it can be detrimental – the constant connection can contribute to stress, and excessive television and computer screen time contributes to overweight and obesity.  On the other hand, though, technology enables us to more actively take control of our health through the information available on the web and the various applications that are now on the market.  Take a look at a few of these nutrition, fitness, and health apps which can empower you to make good choices!

Fooducate – This is a free app available for iPhone and Android that allows you to scan food product bar codes and see a nutrition score.  The scores are based on an A to D scale, and come from a scientific algorithm that takes into account nutrients, ingredients, product category, processing and fortification.  If you’re confused about food claims on a product and wondering whether it’s healthy or not, fooducate is great because you can scan the barcode at the store.  It’s instant feedback before you make the purchase.  That being said, no scientific algorithm is perfect so the “score” may not accurately reflect the nutritional value of all foods – but from my personal experience, it does a pretty decent job.

Strava – Track your fitness activities with this app available for iPhone and Android.  Strava is able to track your running and cycling activities – just turn on the app before you go out for your run or ride, and it’ll record your progress.  You’ll see your distance and pace, which then can be uploaded to Strava’s website where you can store all your acitivites.  Strava’s website is a type of social networking platform for fitness, so you can create groups, follow your friends, and compete in “segments” against others.  Segments are marked distances on certain roads that are uploaded into Strava by users.  Whenever you complete a segment (whether you know you did or not), you’ll see your results compared to others who have done that segment.

I-Triage – This app is also available for both iPhone and Android, and gives you the ability to check any health symptoms on the go.  Taking a lunchtime walk and you start to experience knee pain?  Click on the prompts in I-triage to learn the most common causes.  You can also find doctors closest to your current location or any location you choose.

GymPact – If you need more motivation to workout, consider using GymPact.  You make a pact to work out so many days per week, and identify how much money you’re willing to lose if you don’t keep your pact.  If you don’t workout, you lose the dough.  But if you meet your goal, you’ll make money – funded by those people who didn’t keep their pact!  GymPact uses GPS to verify your time in the gym.  Since last year, they’ve also added integration with RunKeeper for outdoor runs and an accelerometer feature so that you can use it with at-home workouts.  Unfortunately, the GPS signals and RunKeeper integration aren’t always seamless, leading to workouts that potentially don’t get counted (meaning you risk losing money).  Definitely worth a try though!  Available for iPhone and Android.

The Carrot – This app for iPhone or website based program allows you to track multiple health goals all in one place.   Maybe you’re working on quitting smoking, exercising more, and eating more veggies – you can track all these goals in one place and see your progress on the Carrot.

My Fitness Pal – This online food database goes mobile with apps for iPhone and Android.  People who have successfully lost weight and keep it off report that food logging was a primary strategy used.  The app isn’t perfect – some food entries are user generated and may not have the correct nutritional data, and the app tends to give you too low of a calorie estimate.  However, it is great for accountability and an estimate of your daily intake.  My advice?  Ignore the calorie recommendations on the app, and instead use it for a few days to track your baseline intake.  Once you have an idea of about how many calories you normally eat, you can stick with that number to maintain your weight or reduce by about 500 calories per day to lose 1 pound per week.  You can also use the log to easily see areas where you may be struggling – perhaps you notice you need more veggies each day, or you need to switch from refined grains to whole grains – and then you can work to improve on these!

Share with us - What's your favorite health app?

Do you ever rationalize decisions that you’re making even when you know it’s the wrong decision?  I’m guilty of this sometimes.  The last instance was when I was trying to stick to a strict budget, and came across a pair of shoes on clearance that I wanted.  My rationalization?  “I know I said I wouldn’t buy any more shoes, but I don’t have a flat in the color gold so I’m just going to buy this pair so I have more options at home.” 

Now, even though they were on clearance for $5.24, I certainly didn’t “need” them – but I convinced myself I did. 

This issue is not limited to me and my shoe-purchasing behaviors.  Among many people trying to change their health behaviors but not succeeding, I often see a big stumbling block:  they often make rationalizations or excuses for behaviors that are moving them away from their goal!  They cheat themselves when it comes to their nutrition or fitness choices.

Do you ever cheat yourself?   You might decide to make a not-so-healthy choice rather than what you know deep down will help you achieve your goals – and then try to justify it to yourself!  Or you convince yourself that some form of immediate gratification is better than the long-term success of reaching your wellness goal. 

Here are some common examples and some solutions that you can put into place!

Behavior:  Grabbing fast food for dinner rather than making a homemade meal
Rationalization/Excuse:  “It takes too much time to cook a healthy meal, and I don’t get fast food that often anyway…”
Solution:  Don't cheat yourself and your body.  There are plenty of healthy meals that you can put together in under 15-30 minutes at home.  Here are a few ideas:

• Stir fry – Cook chicken, lean beef, or tofu in a skillet or wok with a small amount of olive oil.  Remove from pan and add lots of vegetables (mushrooms, snap peas, asparagus, bell peppers, zucchini/summer squash, onion, broccoli, eggplant…).  When vegetables are tender, add protein (chicken/beef/tofu) back in.  Add some low sodium soy sauce or teriyaki sauce.  You can serve as-is or over instant brown rice.
  
• Eat breakfast for dinner! – Try scrambled eggs in a whole wheat wrap topped with some salsa.
  
• Rice & beans – Cook instant brown rice.  While rice is cooking, combine a can of black beans and a can of diced tomatoes with green chiles.  Add cooked brown rice and mix together.  Portion into bowls and topped with some sliced avocado.  Start to finish time?  15 minutes.
  
• Salad – If you keep fresh salad greens in the fridge, you’ll always have a base for a meal.  Combine the greens with other veggies of your choice.  Add a source of protein – you could grill a chicken breast if you have the time (or pre-cook some on the weekends), or top with some canned beans, tuna, or frozen cooked shrimp that you’ve defrosted in running cool water.  You can also add fresh or dried fruit and/or a healthy fat (like nuts or chia seeds) and you’ve got your dinner!
  

Behavior:  Coasting through your cardio session.
Rationalization/Excuse:  “I can’t push myself harder than this…I won’t be able to do it…”
Solution:  This is an especially big struggle for new exercises, but can often affect regular gym-goers as well.  Don’t let your mind tell you that your body can’t do something (unless of course you have an injury or true physical limitation that affects your body’s abilities).  Your body is actually pretty incredible.  Do you ever notice how most people can push themselves harder when working one-on-one with a personal trainer?  It’s because we know what your body is capable of, even when you don’t. 

This is a big hurdle to get over, but start by challenging yourself to some intervals or a faster speed in your next session.  Do you always walk on the treadmill at 3.3 mph, every other day?  In your next session, try to keep a 3.5 mph pace.  Do you try jogging but give up after a minute?  Challenge yourself to 1 minute jogging,  4 minutes walking – and see if you can maintain those intervals for your session. 

You need to challenge your body in order for it to adapt and get better.  Give it a try!

Behavior:  Reaching in the candy jar, going to get a “treat”, or ordering that dessert (even when you’re already full)…
Rationalization/Excuse:  “It’s only a few extra bites – and I deserve it!”
Solution:  A few extra bites add up quickly over the course of a day, week, month...etc.  Just 100 extra calories a day (about 2 regular oreos or a few bites of pizza) translates to over 10 pounds of weight gain in a year!

Not to mention, we often rationalize unhealthy choices by coming up with some way that we deserve it.  Now, occasionally perhaps this is truly applicable – maybe you just ran a half marathon or it’s your birthday, and you want to have a piece of cake to celebrate.  By all means, dig in and enjoy one slice.

But most of the time, this rationalization comes from other areas of our life. 

• “I studied hard, so I deserve it.”  
  
• “I’m dealing with a lot…I deserve a treat for myself.”
  
•  “I had a stressful day, so I deserve it.”

Food is fuel for our bodies – and while unhealthy treats are certainly fun to eat and taste delicious, they don’t fuel our bodies and maintain our health in the best way.  We shouldn’t associate hard work, stress, sadness or other emotions with deserving some type of food. 

If you find yourself rationalizing these extra bites, take a step back.  Ask yourself if you’re truly hungry and if this is a healthy choice to fuel your body.  If it is, then go ahead and eat.  If it’s not a good choice but you are hungry, perhaps you need to be sure that you have healthy snack options on hand at all times to avoid the temptations of other treats. 

And if you’re not hungry, ask yourself why you’re getting ready to eat something.  If there’s some type of emotional connection there and you’re using the “I deserve it” rationalization, try to figure out other non-food ways that you can use for this purpose.  Ladies, maybe you want a mani/pedi once a month.  Guys, maybe you want to enjoy a Sunday playing golf or football with friends.  Or it could be something as simple as an hour to relax with a book or a magazine!  Think about strategies that would work for you, and use them.

Share with us:  Do you struggle with any of these common rationalizations?

Aren’t the Olympics such an exciting time?  The greatest athletes from all over the world come together attempting to perform their best and represent their country – there is something both exciting and humbling about it.  What are your favorite events to watch?

I love the track and field events and the weightlifting events.  As someone who will probably never place first in a race or lift some crazy amount of weight in a clean and jerk, I’m amazed at the feats these athletes accomplish.  All their hard work, practice and determination come to light in this major event.  And it’s really exciting that this year, one of my husband’s friends from college, Ruben Sanca, is in the Olympics for the 5000 meter (5K) race!

Ruben previously went to the University of Massachusetts Lowell and was on the track team with my husband.  Ruben immigrated from Cape Verde to the US when he was 12, and has dual citizenship in both countries.  He is representing Cape Verde at the games as one of the country’s only 3 athletes in attendance. 

Ruben is crazy fast.  He and I both competed in the same half marathon once – the 2011 New Bedford Half Marathon (nice course if any of you ever decide to do that race).  Ruben came in 1st place with a time of 1:05:25 – that’s a 5 minute mile pace for 13.1 miles.  I came in 2,203rd place with a time of 2:25:36 – a solid 11:15 minute pace, which is actually pretty fantastic for me – but I think it’s safe to say I won’t be making the Olympics anytime soon.  To give you an idea, his pace would be like my all out sprint that I could hold for maybe a minute.  And he does it for an hour.  I’m amazed by him and all the other athletes out there that can push their bodies to this level.

With that, we at Inspired Wellness Solutions wish Ruben as well as all the other athletes that have worked so hard to be at the Olympics the best of luck as they compete!

Happy National Running Day!  Today, the world celebrates the love of this amazing form of aerobic exercise.  If you currently don’t have a steady exercise routine, running is a great way to start being more active.  It can be done anywhere and at any time of the day, and only requires a good pair of sneakers!

Wondering why is running so great for you?  Consider the following… 

• It’s a cardiovascular champion!  Running will have your heart beating fast in no time.  It strengthens the heart and increases the capacity of blood circulation.
  
• You’ll burn some serious calories.  Minute for minute, running is one of the best calorie burners out there.  A 160 pound person will burn about 600 calories running for an hour at 5mph.  This isn’t a super speedy sprint – 5mph equates to 12 minute miles, a pretty comfortable pace that beginners can aspire to reach.
  
• It helps your bones and muscles.  Weight bearing exercises like running help put resistance on our bones, and can thus maintain their strength of your bones.  Running also increases the strength of the muscles in your legs, hips, and core.
  
• There’s quick adaptations (at the beginning, at least!).  You will be amazed at how quickly your body can adapt to running when you get started.  No doubt it will be tough at first – you might feel your lungs burning a little bit, your muscles might ache, or you might find you have a little back ache from getting used to the posture for running.  But your body will quickly experience what’s called ‘neuromuscular adaptations’ that help you become more adept at finding a good rhythm for you.  Soon things you once deemed “impossible” will be in the “possible” realm.
  
• Runner’s high! There’s truth to this common phrase.  Exercise releases endorphins and can alleviate symptoms of depression and anxiety.  Plus, tackling running goals that you set for yourself can give you a sense of pride and accomplishment.

So today, I challenge you to get out there and run!  It might be for a half mile or it might be for 5 miles – just get out there and do what you can.  If you’ve never run before, start by alternating small segments of running with longer segments of walking.  As you continue to exercise regularly in the future, you can drop the amount of time walking and increase the amount of time running.

That’s right, it’s my 27th birthday today and in celebration, I wanted to share with you 27 simple tips for overall wellness.  Some of these are tips coming from the RD/personal trainer side of me, while others are just items I’ve come to learn along the way.  Enjoy these feasible changes that anyone can incorporate into their life – and I hope you’ll choose to do so!

1)      Carry a water bottle.  It makes it easier to keep yourself hydrated throughout the day, and it’s cheaper and better for the environment than buying bottled water.

2)      Visit local farmer’s markets.  They’ll have fresh produce at great prices that hasn’t traveled thousands of miles to get to you.

3)      Look at the glass half full.  Optimism isn’t a false sense of reality; it’s choosing to make your reality a happier place.

4)      Model healthy habits for your children, both for nutrition and fitness.  They do look up to you as a role model, even though they might not always show it.  The photo below is a good friend of mine and his daughter stretching together!

5)      Keep your brain in tip-top shape by reading often.

6)      Skip fad diets.  If you see products that promise you’ll lose “x pounds in y days”, cure your chronic diseases, or eliminate hunger – they’re lying. 

7)      Move your body!  Avoid sitting too much - get up during the day, even if it’s just for a few minutes, to move around.  Schedule regular exercise into your days.

8)      Choose a new fruit or vegetable each week to try.  You’ll have fun looking at ways to prepare something and might discover a new favorite.

9)      Get regular check-ups and have your blood pressure and cholesterol checked.  These issues, when caught early, can often be addressed with simple lifestyle changes.

10)    Cut down on sugar sweetened beverages.  Most don’t provide any good nutrition for our bodies, and can easily be replaced with water. 

11)   Find a stress management technique that works for you.  Try boxing, running, meditation, journaling, knitting, getting a massage, or any other activity that might help you calm down.

12)   Choose natural whole foods over processed foods.

13)    Travel often.  Whether it’s day trips to new places around your home state or flying across the world, traveling opens your eyes to new things and makes you feel more fulfilled.  That's Iceland, Maui, and Prague in the photos below.

14)   Stop the negative self talk.  Love your body and appreciate everything it does for you, regardless of your weight.

15)   Wash your hands often.

16)   Create a reasonable budget for yourself or your household.  Incorporate a mix of saving and spending.  Being able to save up for something and pay for it upfront makes it that much sweeter knowing there’s no debt to come home to.

17)   Brown bag your lunches.  It’ll allow you to create healthier meals and will save you a lot of money compared to eating out everyday.

18)   Bike or walk to errands in a reasonable distance from your house.  It saves money, reduces your carbon footprint, and increases your weekly physical activity.

19)   Don’t worry needlessly about minor mistakes and other people’s opinons.  In Bernard Baruch’s words, “those who matter don't mind, and those who mind don't matter.” 

20)   Smile and laugh.  A lot.  As you can see below, I tend to have no trouble with this ;) 

21)     Get outside a lot.  Fresh air and sunshine can always improve a bad day.  Be sure to wear sunscreen.

22)   Teach your kids about where food comes from.  When I ask a child where we get milk, I love when they can answer “a cow” instead of “the store.”  Visit a farm and let them see the animals or pick some produce (strawberry season is right upon us)!

23)    Focus on experiences with your loved ones rather than materialistic pursuits.  You’ll come away with many more memories and much less useless crap.  

24)   Make the switch from refined grains, like white bread and white rice, to whole grains like wheat bread and brown rice.

25)    Make family fitness fun.  Go on outdoor hikes, family bike rides, jump on a trampoline, or compete in a “Just Dance” competition on Wii. 

26)    Eat fish.  It’s got lots of omega-3 fatty acids for heart and brain health.   

27)     Sign up for a race.  It might be a 5K, marathon, triathlon, cycling event, swimming race – anything.  You’ll be amazed at the sense of pride you feel when you complete it! 

Cheers to happy, healthy living!

On Sunday, Terry and I participated in the North Shore Tour de Cure.  This event is put on by the American Diabetes Association and helps raise funds to support diabetes education and research.  We were especially excited to participate in this event since my 7 year old cousin, Ben, has Type 1 diabetes.  He’s got such a great spirit about it, so we thought it would be awesome to raise money that will go towards hopefully someday finding a cure for diabetes.
We decided to participate in the “Gran Fondo” – a 100 mile century bike ride course.  Now, I suppose when I decided to tackle my first bike ride longer than 20 miles, I probably should’ve a) chosen a shorter distance, or b) chosen a flat course.  Of course, that’s not necessarily my style – I love a challenge.  Though I got a little nervous when I read the course description as follows:

“Some said the 2011 route wasn’t tough enough.  Some said it wasn’t epic enough.  Some said we didn’t climb enough. That has all changed for 2012.  The 100 mile Gran Fondo is unique to the North Shore Tour de Cure and this year we will up the ante as the Gran Fondo heads north to the big hills of Southern New Hampshire for a truly epic event.  Bring your teammates and the climbing gears!”

And then got even more nervous when I saw this course route…

Tried to put nerves aside but was definitely feeling anxious the day before!  The night before the event, Terry and I decided to get a hotel closer to the start so we wouldn’t have to get up at 4AM to make the drive to the north shore.  We ate a nice pasta dinner at the restaurant and then hung out watching TV while I got our snacks all ready for the next day.  We knew we’d need some good sources of quick digesting carbs during the ride, so we packed up things like dried cranberries, gummy lifesavers, fig newtons, and pretzels.  Plus we threw in some slim jims for a little sodium boost (these are my favorite for a quick salty snack on a really long ride).

Alarm went off at 5:30 and we were up, dressed, and ready to go in 15 minutes.  Grabbed some bagels on our way to the start, checked in, did some last minute bike checks, and before we knew it, the time came to start.  The ride started at 7AM – the pics below are from just a few minutes before the start; we're ready to ride.  And yes, I got made fun of throughout the ride for my long socks (which you can't see) and that gray sweatshirt, but it was a tad chilly when we started and I like to be warm!  I did toss the sweatshirt around mile 16 when it warmed up though.

Here’s my quick recap of the miles:

• Mile 0.3:  Already way outpaced by everyone else, haha!  I knew I’d be slow, but thought there might be some other people who were going slow too.
  
• Mile 16:  First rest stop.  Felt great and kept a much quicker pace the first 16 miles than I thought I would.
  
• Miles 24-37:  Or as I call them, HELL.  As you can see from the course route I posted earlier, these were some insane hills.  I am awful at climbing hills.  This led to me going all of 3.8 miles per hour up some of them and hoping I wouldn’t start rolling backwards.
  
• Mile 50:  Almost started to cry.  Saw another hill after I thought we were all done.
  
• Miles 65-75:  Back and shoulders started to get sore, but the terrain leveled out and the riding felt much easier on my legs.
  
• Mile 78:  At the rest stop before the “bail out” option where you could ride down a side street and cut your route to 79 miles.  We were going slow, and I knew we wouldn’t make the cut off time, but the SAG wagon guys told us that we were keeping good pace and we should keep going.  So we decided to keep on the 100 mile route!
  
• Mile 83:  Hurt my knee.  Don’t know if I did something specifically at that point or if it just caught up to me from all the earlier climbing, but at this point every downward stroke on the bike just created shooting pain to my knee.  The next few miles were very slow because of this.
  
• Mile 90:  Last rest stop.  Support vehicles were being cut off, so we were given the option of continuing on unsupported or take the ride back.  Because of my knee, Terry urged me to take the ride.  While I normally would’ve pushed through a little pain, this was bad enough that I decided I should take the ride because I didn’t want to end up getting stranded miles from the finish!  Terry went on to finish unsupported (which as it turns out, after we made this decision, the guy from the other SAG wagon decided he wanted Terry to have support and feel comfortable the whole way so he volunteered more of his time that day to follow him into the finish – what an awesome guy!).
  
• Mile 100:  Terry finishes!

All in all, it was a very challenging and tough day for me but very rewarding!  Of course, I was upset that I didn’t make it all the way to 100 miles, but I figured 90 miles is still pretty darn amazing and kept my knee from getting hurt further.  I’m happy I decided to push myself out of my comfort zone for this event, and it made it more worthwhile being for such a great cause.