A brisk walk with your furry friend is good for both of you, and it can help lift your spirits.
Celebrating Heart Month
Make it a part of your daily routine. If you don’t have a dog, consider walking your neighbor’s dog. Volunteering to walk dogs at the SPCA is another way to do good for others while doing good for yourself.
If you work a desk job, you know the feeling: You get off work on a cold, dark winter evening, and the last thing you feel like doing is going to the gym.
But you sit down most of the day. And we all know — if you don’t exercise, you’ll run the risk of having:
Weight gain
Heart disease
Diabetes
Some cancers
What’s an office worker to do?
Exercise at Your Desk
“Our bodies are made to move, and the more opportunity we give them to do that, the happier they are,” says Jolene Bodily, a registered dietitian at UVA-WorkMed, a UVA occupational medicine clinic that teaches working people about health, exercise and nutrition.
WorkMed’s goal? To get you out of your seat during the day. How?
With “sparks,” 10-minute bursts of exercise that can get and keep you fit. Yes, you can do these sparks in professional attire within the confines of a cubicle. In fact, sometimes your desk becomes a push-up aid, and your chair, an abdominal crunch station.
The research behind sparks began at UVA about 12 years ago. Exercise physiologist Glenn Gaesser realized many people didn’t have the time or motivation to do intense workouts for long periods of time several times a week. He recruited UVA employees for a study looking at the benefits of doing strength, aerobic and flexibility exercises in 15 10-minute chunks weekly.
Gaesser’s results? His subjects lost weight and improved flexibility and endurance.
“They saw impressive results in as little as three weeks,” Bodily says. “Our classes with these 10-minute sparks are modeled on his research, and we see the same results … as long as people do enough of them and do them to a level of intensity that is making their body really work.
“You don’t need to change clothes,” Bodily continues. “You don’t need special equipment. And you don’t need more than 10 minutes.”
Success: Climbing to the Top of Scott Stadium
Bodily remembers one student who didn’t lose as much weight during the six-week class as she’d hoped, although she saw improvements in strength and flexibility. But she did discover progress when she went to a UVA football game in Scott Stadium.
“She said, ‘We have season tickets, we go to every game, and we are in the very top of the top bleachers. For the first time ever, I did not have to stop and breathe on my way to the top.’ And she was ecstatic,” Bodily recalls. “The whole class broke into applause. She found there was a way to measure success that couldn’t be seen on a scale or a blood pressure cuff.”
Another success story involved a husband and wife taking the class together. Both were obese and struggled with the fitness tests they took before the class began, particularly one part that required stepping up and down for three minutes.
“The husband was just drained,” Bodily says. “I was concerned that he would choose to not come back to the classes. … But he persevered, and he and his wife attended every single class.
“At the end of the course, he came in for the follow-up fitness test with this big grin on his face. He marched up to the step test. He did the whole thing with a smile on his face. And as he finished, he was, again, exhausted. But he said, ‘I feel so much better than when I did this four weeks ago. It has made a huge difference in my life. Just knowing that I can do this now, when I could barely do it before, in only four weeks, lets me know I can do anything I set my mind to.’”
Office Workouts at Work: See for Yourself
You don’t have to work at UVA to learn sparks and other ways to stay healthy. WorkMed contracts with other Charlottesville-area organizations and can teach exercise and nutrition classes or set up programs for employees. Learn more and get contact information.
Don’t live in Charlottesville? You can buy Gaesser’s book, “The Spark: The Revolutionary New Plan to Get Fit and Lose Weight — 10 Minutes at a Time,” on Amazon.
Before you start an office workout: Bodily urges anyone starting a new exercise program to check with a doctor first. She offers a couple of tips for playing it safe and maximizing fitness and weight loss:
Walking is safe for most people — but get a good pair of walking shoes.
Pay attention to your body. If something hurts, stop and try another exercise.
Focus on strength training, which increases calorie-burning muscle mass and helps your metabolic rate stay high.
Enter the Contest!
Have you tried exercising in your office or getting a workout through sparks? Tell us what works for you for a chance to win great prizes.
Park your car at the back of the parking lot instead of driving around looking for a close-in spot.
Celebrating Heart Month
You’ll not only burn more calories, you’ll probably actually save time. Or do you really even need to drive? Maybe the store is close enough to your home to walk.
If you’re like me, cooking isn’t exactly a favorite pastime. If I’m going to make something, it’s gotta have few ingredients, be quick to prepare and easy to clean up. Oh, and it has to be healthy.
Heart-healthy, delicious and easy. This rotini dish is a definite crowd-pleaser.
To my delight, this recipe meets all of those prerequisites. And there are nuts in it. Pasta and nuts in one dish? Yes, please.
This recipe is made with whole-wheat rotini, so you’re getting some good fiber. The toasted almonds add a dose of heart-healthy fats and antioxidants, while garlic and roasted red peppers add immune-boosting vitamins and minerals.
I was also excited by the versatility of this recipe. You can play around with the sauce and add more cayenne pepper if you like it hot, or leave it out if you don’t like spicy. The recipe calls for 2-3 cloves of garlic, but I used 4. No such thing as too much garlic! The sauce would also make a great bruschetta topping, or a dip for toasted pita chips.
Stars: 5 out of 5
Enter the Contest!
We’re celebrating Heart Month throughout February with prizes and daily tips. Find out how you can win.
Foods containing partially hydrogenated oils, also called trans fats, are bad for your heart – and bad for everything else in your body. Don’t eat them!
I sliced the bananas length-wise before reading in the recipe that they're supposed to be cut into slices. But hey, a banana's a banana!
I don’t know where or when I developed my obsession with coconut. The smell, the taste, even the texture appeal to me – so I absolutely had to try this recipe.
On the plus side, this one gets high marks for being easy to make. It doesn’t take long at all, and most of you probably have the majority of the ingredients in your pantry already. Except for the unsweetened shredded coconut…I couldn’t find this at my usual grocer, so I had to make an extra trip to the health food store.
On the downside, the couscous came out a little dry. The recipe calls for just ¼ cup of 2% milk, but if I were to make this again I’d add more milk to moisten it up a bit. I also thought the banana/coconut concoction needed more flavor, so I drizzled some honey on top and it helped.
All in all this wasn’t bad for a low-calorie dessert. If you want to get creative, you could mix the recipe (minus the couscous) in with your morning oatmeal.
Stars: 3 out of 5
Enter the Contest!
We’re celebrating Heart Month throughout February with prizes and daily tips. Find out how you can win.
Most of us get together with friends or go on dates for activities that center on eating and food.
Celebrating Heart Month
Make it a point to try something else instead – when was the last time you swung on a swing? Rode bikes or went hiking with friends? Bowling, laser tag, kite flying, kickball, badminton – these are all fun ways to socialize while shifting your metabolism up a notch.
Your heart needs rest, too! Though often overlooked, sleep supports and promotes all your body’s functions. It’s even important for weight-loss. Yet making sure you get right amount and the right kind can be challenging.
Celebrating Heart Month
Try one of these for a good night’s rest:
Restorative yoga: One or two relaxing poses before sleep can help your body detense
Meditation: Deep, slow breathing manually dials down your energy levels
Sleepy tea: Several varieties can help calm you down
Warm baths: Relax muscles and force you to slow your pace
Eye bags: Filled with lavender, they soothe tired eyes while blocking light
Quiet: Don’t watch TV or do work in your bed – reserve your space for sleep to encourage your mind to turn off when you hit the sheets
Still Can’t Sleep?
You may have a sleep disorder, like sleep apnea, which over time can have dangerous effects. You can get an assessment of your issues at UVA’s Sleep Laboratory.
