This Week's Healthy SC Tips

COLUMBIA, SC (02/29/2008)(readMedia)-- The Healthy SC Challenge is the Sanford family’s effort to get all South Carolinians to do just a little more to live a healthier lifestyle. The tips are designed to encourage individuals and communities to live healthier lifestyles in three categories - nutrition, exercise and help to quit smoking. The tips can also be found on the challenge’s website, www.healthysc.gov.

Healthy Tips

Nutrition

Chinese cuisine reflects the different cooking styles, ingredients and flavorings of China’s many regions from Canton to Shanghai and Szechuan. Emphasizing rice, noodles and vegetables, Chinese food is an excellent source of many nutrients and a great option in a healthy eating plan. From a nutritional standpoint, areas of caution in Chinese dining are fat and sodium. So whether you in or carry out, keep these ordering tips in mind:

• Limit fried appetizers. Fried wontons, crab Rangoon and many egg rolls are deep-fried. Consider steaming spring rolls.

• Instead of deep-fried meat, poultry or fish in your sweet and sour dishes, ask for the meat to be grilled or roasted.

• Order plain rice and noodles rather than fried. This can cut down on fat and sodium.

• Enjoy your fortune cookie. A single cookie has 15 calories and no fat.

• Servings can be large. Share a dish, put half in a carryout container or order a half-serving.

-American Dietetic Association, www.eatright.org

Physical Activity

If you need help designing an exercise program, consider using a personal trainer or fitness instructor who is trained and certified to work with people who have health challenges. A personal trainer can come to your home if it's hard for you to get out. While this could get expensive, it needn't be a long-term investment. Once a trainer gets you started with a program, occasional progress checks to see whether you should make any changes are probably all you need. Good places to find specialized fitness classes and programs include hospital wellness programs, the YMCA, and local health clubs. Many health clubs now are hiring instructors and trainers with specialized education. But if you want to join a health club, research it first.

-www.aarp.org

Tobacco

Smokers often mention stress as one of the reasons for going back to smoking. Stress is a part of everyone's lives, smokers and non-smokers alike. The difference is that smokers have come to use nicotine to help cope with stress and unpleasant emotions. When quitting, you have to learn new ways of handling stress. Nicotine replacement can help to some extent, but for long-term success other strategies are needed. Physical activity is a good stress-reducer. It can also help with the short-term sense of depression that some smokers have when they quit. There are also stress-management classes and self-help books. Check your community newspaper, library, or bookstore. Spiritual practices such as prayer and meditation have been used with much success to deal with other addictions and are a key part of 12-step recovery programs. These same principles can be applied to quitting smoking and can help with stress reduction.

-www.cancer.org

-#####-

The Healthy SC Challenge is an outcome-based, cooperative effort aimed at encouraging individuals, communities and organizations across the state to show shared responsibility in developing innovative ways to improve the health of South Carolina's citizens. For more information about the Healthy SC Challenge, please visit www.healthysc.gov, or call 803-737-4772.

Posted Friday February 29, 2008 at 02:11 pm by Healthy South Carolina Challenge