Looking to be more active in 2022? Here are some tips

Photo by Julia Larson from Prexels

The American Chiropractic Association recently released five strategies to help people establish a more active lifestyle.

The release came in early January, when people normally try to become healthier and lose weight, but pandemic restrictions during the past two years have caused many people to be even less active than normal. If you have been less than active the past year or two, consider the following strategies to help you get moving again:

• Just start moving. According to Matthew Dimond of the ACA, the type of exercise is less important than whether or not a person is moving. In his words: "Make it fun."

• Be consistent. After getting started, the most important thing is consistency. “The human body—and the human mind for that matter—like normalcy,” DiMond explains. “Wherever you currently are is what your body likes to do. The initial effort can be monumental; being consistent with it will create a habit.”

• Be accountable. Consider finding an exercise partner or activities that involve other people. Such connections can often inspire, drive, and motivate people to focus on their health goals and move forward.

• Be safe. When starting to move again after being inactive, assume you will not be as physically fit as you once were. Be aware of your limits and focus on what works for you, rather than comparing yourself to others or to your previous fitness level. Also be mindful of any pain you experience. 

• Identify your motivation. Motivation can be a challenge for people who start to move after a period of inactivity. “Willpower is not enough,” DiMond says. He encourages people to define their goals in terms of “what” instead of “why.” Ask yourself what you are trying to accomplish and create measurements based on that goal. Do you want to run a 5K? Do you want to walk your dog every day or be able to pick up your grandchild? Determine your “what” and set metrics to achieve it.

“Brief periods of inactivity usually aren’t that big of a deal,” DiMond says. “However, long-standing inactivity will lead to more fatigue, tiredness, and lethargy. Depending on where you are in the lifespan, muscle fiber types can start to change, and that can be detrimental. In the elderly, less movement and decreasing load demands can have a negative impact on their quality of compact bone.”

Report finds foundation initiative to help seven Ky. communities grow healthy children is making progress, with goal of replication

The seven local coalitions that got Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky grants to keep children from developing chronic diseases as they grow into adults are making "marked progress" toward their goals, according to a report prepared for the foundation.

The five-year, $3 million initiative, "Investing in Kentucky's Future," is designed to reduce the risk that Kentucky children will develop diseases all too common to the state, such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer. The community coalitions were charged with looking at the health needs of local children and developing an intervention plan to address their most pressing health issues.

The grantees include: Partnership for a Healthy McLean County, Purchase Area Connections for Health, Fitness for Life Around Grant County, Breathitt County Health Planning Council for Children, Perry County Wellness Coalition, Clinton County Healthy Hometown Coalition, all of which focus on childhood obesity. The Bounce Coalition in Jefferson County focuses on adverse childhood experiences.

"The coalitions are reporting that the grants, research, relationship-building support and other assistance we've provided have helped them tackle the health needs of their communities' children in new and bigger ways," Susan Zepeda, CEO of the foundation, said in a news release.

A list of their accomplishments include: 17 policy changes in their schools and communities, including shared-use agreements that allow school programs and fitness facilities to be used by the community after hours, healthier foods at park concessions, and "complete streets" initiatives, which aim to make streets more accessible to walking and biking; several improvements to community and school fitness facilities; and school-based nutrition curricula and physical activities.

"For many of the coalitions, rural and urban, their work under the 'Investing in Kentucky's Future' initiative is their first community-wide effort to address the issue they've identified," Zepeda said. "Our aim is to support these coalitions in expanding their membership, formalizing their structure, gain momentum, and strengthening their partnerships with schools to create successful programs that can be replicated across the commonwealth."

Click here to see the full report, prepared by the Center for Community Health and Evaluation.

Louisville ranks next to last in fitness among 50 largest metros

The Louisville metropolitan area ranks 49th for fitness among the nation's 50 largest metro areas in the newly released 2014 American Fitness Index, reports Laura Ungar of The Courier-Journal. The ranking is published by the American College of Sports Medicine and is based on 31 indicators of chronic health problems, health behaviors, recreational facilities and physical or built environments.

The Memphis metropolitan area was the only one ranked lower than Louisville. The Louisville metro area includes Jefferson County and eight surrounding counties in Kentucky and four in Indiana.

"There surely is a lot of room for improvement," Dr. Jonathan Becker, a sports medicine specialist at University of Louisville Family Medicine and KentuckyOne Health, told Ungar. "We need to be moving more, eating less and smoking less."

The Washington, D.C., area claimed the top spot as the nation's fittest, rising above Minneapolis-St. Paul, the winner for the last three years.

The negative scores on the index just kept adding up for Louisville, falling way below the targeted fitness index in areas such as smoking, federal aerobic-activity guidelines and the amount of fruits and vegetables consumed per day, Ungar reports. Louisville also had higher levels of disease than the targeted goals for asthma, diabetes and obesity.

"I'm not surprised, based on what I've seen," Patrice Fife, a certified fitness instructor for the Louisville Metro Department of Public Health & Wellness, told Ungar. She said diabetes in the region is "rampant." Overeating is a real problem, and people need to learn more about proper nutrition and portion control, she said: "They need to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables."

City officials and fitness advocates pointed to Louisville's efforts to improve the region's fitness, including programs that bring fresh fruits and vegetables into "food deserts," a ban on smoking ban in public places and expanded smoking-cessation classes. Louisville has also unveiled a plan to curb trans fats in local foods, expand outdoor smoke-free areas and prohibit idling vehicles when air quality is poor, among other things, Ungar notes.

Steve Tarver, chief executive officer of the YMCA of Greater Louisville, told Ungar, "It has taken decades for the Louisville region to become so unhealthy, and it will take a long-term commitment to get healthier. He said it will involve complex issues such as reducing racial and economic health inequities." (Read more)

Anthem funds program to fight childhood obesity in Louisville area

A $35,000 Anthem Foundation grant to the American Academy of Pediatrics will allow a program that fights childhood obesity in Louisville and northern Kentucky counties to continue, reports Darla Carter of the The Courier-Journal. The grant provides free YMCA memberships and fitness and nutritional guidance to families of 9- to 17-year-olds with weight issues who have been referred by member physicians. The foundation is a philanthropic arm of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Kentucky. 

Schools have big role to play in battling childhood obesity

Schools can make a powerful impact on battling the childhood obesity epidemic, but only when health and nutrition are seen as a way to improve student learning rather than take away from it.

But there can be push-back in making this transition, said John Skretta, a health advocate and superintendent of Norris School District in Firth, Ky. At the Coordinated School Health Symposium in Lexington Monday, he talked about his efforts to introduce tuna salad in the school lunch menu, with food service directors saying students wouldn't eat it. Finally, the district's head of nutrition made some herself using low-fat mayonnaise and pickles and it was a hit with kids.

To get kids more physically active, Skretta said kids in his elementary schools now take two 10-minute walks a day, which have improved test scores and gets children closer to the goal of making long-lasting choices about their health.

To help with the process, school staff are encouraged to model healthy behavior and avoid eating or drinking items that have low nutritional standards in front of students.

"If schools don't take the lead on this, who will?" Skretta asked. (Read more)

Louisville comes in third to last in fitness and health ranking of 50 largest cities

Rowing under California's Bay Bridge (Photo by City Kayak)

In a fitness ranking of the country's 50 largest cities, Louisville ranked an abysmal 48th, sitting just above Detroit and Oklahoma City.

These were some of the results of the American College of Sports Medicine's 2012 Fitness Index. Cities were assessed on preventive health behaviors; levels of chronic disease; health care access; and community resources and policies that support physical activity such as bike lanes and parks.

Minneapolis-St. Paul was ranked first for the second year in a row, scoring 77.2 out of a possible 100 points. Louisville got just 32.1 points, but it did climb up one ranking slot over 2011's assessment.

The index is gaining notoriety and "might well become the scorecard for cities looking to attract health-conscious companies and people to settle in for a spell," reports Melissa Healy for the Los Angeles Times. "It draws on parks and recreation data from the Trust for Public Land, on nutrition and health behavior collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and on federally tallied school report cards to learn about school policies that promote fitness." (Read more)

Kids needs to cut out an average of 41 calories a day to stop gaining weight

Children and teens need to cut their food intake an average of only 41 calories a day in order to stop gaining weight, a new study has found. If they don't do that, they'll end up weighing even more than they do now — four more pounds across the board, say the researchers from  Columbia University, the Harvard School of Public Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.. (Photo: iStockphoto.com)

Without reducing consumption, more than one in five children will be obese nationwide, researchers concluded. In Kentucky, 37.1 percent of children were overweight or obese in 2007, numbers by theNational Conference of State Legislature show.

While cutting 41 daily calories is significant, that number will only stop children from getting heavier. "The federal government really wants children to be slimmer than they are now," reports Nancy Shute for NPR. In order to lower the childhood obesity rate to just 5 percent, children would have to cut an average of 120 calories a day — 33 calories for preschoolers, 149 calories for grade-schoolers, and 177 calories a day for teens.

In order to do so, teens would have to jog at least 30 minutes per day or cut out a 16-ounce soft drink.

The study's "numbers are based on population averages; individuals' experiences will be different," Shute reports. "But the numbers show that the public health world has a lot of work to do to help children keep or reach a healthy weight."

According to a nutrition chart by the American Heart Association, children should consume an average of 900 calories at age 1 and 1,000 calories at age 2. Girls should consume 1,200 calories a day from ages 4 to 8; 1,600 calories from ages 9 to 13; and 1,800 calories a day from ages 14 to 18. Boys should consume 1,400 calories from ages 4 to 8; 1,800 calories ages 9 to 13; and 2,200 calories ages 14 to 18. (Read more)

Certified personal trainers give tips on how to revive New Year's health resolutions or keep them going

By Tara Kaprowy
Kentucky Health News

As the resolve of New Year's resolutions fades with January passing into February, fitness experts Sheila Kalas and Laura Coombs, right, offered some useful tips for how to stay motivated about getting healthy on KET's "One to One" program with Bill Goodman last week.

The first thing, they said, is to come up with a realistic plan — and trash the one in place if it's set up for failure. "One of the things that I think is a mistake is if you jump into action in January and say, 'I'm going to get up, and I'm going to work out at 6 every morning' and you're really not a morning person. Chances are, that's going to fade," said Kalas, owner and founder of Fitness Plus in Lexington.

The trick is to come up with a plan that works, along with 10 reasons for why it's imperative to stick to it this year. "That way, you're more invested," said Coombs, a certified athletic trainer.

The cornerstones of good health are a nutritious diet and an exercise regime, which, Kalas pointed out, is unavoidable. "It's OK for you not to like exercise," she said. "But it really doesn't get you off the hook from needing to do it." As such, it's important to remove the biggest barrier that stands in the way of a fitness regime: a lack of time, which is often only a perceived barrier, and can be removed if there is a commitment to devote proper time to exercise, Kalas said.

Also important is coming up with activities that are entertaining or even practical. Coombs described a "fit deck," playing cards that each describe a different kind of exercise. The goal is to draw five cards a day and perform the exercise in turn. For those uninterested in formal exercise, Kalas suggested getting a post office box to which a person would have to walk each day to get mail. She added that one of the best tools to use is a pedometer, which allows people to monitor how much they've walked that day and alter their workouts and menus accordingly.

Coombs advises being active seven days a week for 30 minutes each day, whether that involves walking, gardening or playing with the dog. "If I only have to do something three days a week, I'll do it on Monday," she said. "Then on Tuesday, I'll be so proud of myself, I'll put it off." If the exercise doesn't get done by later in the week, the tendency is to just put it off to the following week, Coombs said. Consistency of exercise is more important than the kind of exercise being done, she said.

As for eating, both Kalas and Coombs said it's important to monitor food intake carefully, particularly when it's coupled with a new exercise regime. "Beginner exercisers reward themselves for a single bout of exercise that day," Kalas explained. That person will decide, for example, that, since they've walked on the treadmill that day, they deserve to have dessert. But then they'll decide, "I'm going to walk tomorrow so I'm going to eat more tonight," Kalas said. "A lot of time there's one bout of exercise and two rewards built in."

As for what to eat, choose items that come "from the earth that are not prepackaged," Coombs said. "We have to be sensible and stop looking for shortcuts and stop looking for magic foods and magic numbers," she said. Kalas also suggested counting calories using phone applications or referring to the book, "Eat This, Not That," which suggests swapping one food for another at restaurants in order to avoid excessive calorie intake.

To get children motivated, the best thing to do is to remove sedentary activities by setting limits on TV and computers. And it's important to start introducing the importance of fitness and nutrition while kids are still young. "If the household values healthy eating and exercise, it will trickle down to your children," Kalas said.

Ultimately, when it comes to being successful at making changes, a person needs to accept responsibility for their choices and that they're "the only person that can make it better or worse," Kalas said. "If you're going to have the French fries, the only person that's going to have to burn off the calories is you."

To watch the program online, click here. For the full program archive, go here.

Kentucky Health News is a service of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, based in the School of Journalism and Telecommunications at the University of Kentucky, with support from the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky. 

Kentucky ranks 37th, Louisville 33rd in percentage of commuters who bike or walk to work

Kentucky ranks 37th in the nation for its number of commuters who bike or walk to work. Of the 51 largest cities in the county, Louisville ranks 33rd.

These are the findings of the Bicycling and Walking in the United States: 2012 Benchmarking Report, compiled by the Alliance for Biking & Walking. As well as looking at commuter numbers, it also examined how safe those commuters are and where transportation funding is being spent on "alternative means of local travel," reports Jeannine Stein of the Los Angeles Times. (Times photo by Wally Skalij)

Alaska, despite its cold climate, has the highest percentage of commuters who bike or walk to work. Boston has the highest ranking among cities. The lowest are Alabama and Fort Worth, Tex.

Across the country, 12 percent of all trips are on foot (10.5 percent) or by bicycle (1 percent), though from 2000 to 2009, the number of cycling commuters increased by 57 percent. While numbers are growing, safety is a concern. In the 51 largest cities, 12.7 percent of trips are by foot and 1.1 percent are by bicycle, but 26.9 percent of traffic fatalities are pedestrians and 3.1 percent are bicyclists.

Despite the risk, the report makes a connection with biking or walking and health. It points out cycling and walking levels fell 66 percent between 1960 and 2009, while obesity levels increased by 156 percent. The picture was more grim when it came to children. Between 1966 and 2009, the number of children who biked or walked to school fell by 75 percent, while the percentage of obese children rose by 276 percent.

Despite the physical benefits of the activity, states spend just 1.6 percent of their federal transportation dollars on bicycling and walking, amounting to just $2.17 per capita, the report found.

Instead of biking or walking, people are still relying mostly on their cars. The report found 40 percent of trips in the United States in 2009 were shorter than two miles, but Americans used their cars for 87 percent of trips that were 1 to 2 miles in distance. When it came to trips up to 1 mile long, Americans still used their cars 62 percent of the time.

The report was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, AARP and Planet Bike.

'Most sedentary' designation sparks Lexingtonians to stand up; Herald-Leader coverage is an example to follow

Lexington's recent designation as the most sedentary city in the country by Men's Health magazine has got its residents talking, exercising and sharing their stories.

First, the city had a tongue-in-cheek Sedentary Parade with stationary floats and non-marching bands. Then, the Lexington Herald-Leader invited readers to share their stories about how they stay active to disprove the designation. The stories were published online Wednesday (with this couch potato illustration).

They include stories of people who have lost weight and run in marathons. It also includes the story of Robert F. Wachs, a 79-year-old man who has walked 4,500 miles in the last four years. "Once a month or so, I walk to downtown Lexington to get a haircut and then walk back to my home. This is a seven-mile round trip," he wrote.

The stories are accompanied by a calendar of upcoming exercise opportunities in the area.

There are also several features under the Stand Up Lexington heading, which include in-depth stories of how Lexingtonians are getting fit. They range from a woman sharing her weight-loss story on her blog to a badly injured trucker who is now participating in an Ironman triathlon. (Photo of Brennan Donahue by H-L's Tom Eblen)

The Herald-Leader has offered a good example for how a newspaper can provide an outlet for readers to share their stories, dispel an unflattering designation and inspire others to get active. Other newspapers across Kentucky could do the same with a variety of health-related topics.

New fitness program in Clay County designed to get kids moving

Every fourth- and fifth-grader in the Clay County schools will receive a pedometer as part of a new fitness program designed to combat childhood obesity.

"The goal is to motivate students to be more physically active in a county where one research project found that 47 percent of children were overweight or obese," the Lexington Herald-Leader's Bill Estep reports.

The program integrates physical activity in lesson planning in subjects like math and geography. "It does that through challenges to walk enough steps to get to Houston, for instance, with lessons about the geography or history of places along the route," Estep reports. "We want to see some changes," said Deann Allen, instructional supervisor for the school system.

The program is a venture between the system, Kosair Children's Hospital in Louisville and Manchester Memorial Hospital. Kosair is paying for the pedometers, expected to cost about $15,000. A similar program was started in Louisville last year. (Read more)

Monthly magazine for children in K-3 promotes healthy lifestyles

Every Kentucky student in kindergarten to third grades is getting a free subscription to Fit4Fun, a reader that, through entertaining means, encourages children to lead healthy lifestyles.

The publication is a joint effort of Wordsworth Publishing Group and the Kentucky Children's Health & Fitness Fund. Though an agreement with the state Department of Education, it is distributed to all 797 public elementary schools and kindergartens in the state.

"We believe every child can grow up happy, healthy and productive," said Jan Winter, founder and president of Wordsworth. "We want children to learn to make all kinds of smart decisions, and we partner with parents and schools to make sure they get consistent messages." The publication is supported by donations and sponsorships.

Each issue, which has 32 to 40 pages, features content that encourages imagination, playing, learning and growing. The playing component focuses on "fitness for life" and the growing component teaches children about nutrition and food awareness. Topics covered include dental health, science and technology careers, bike safety, diversity, scientific method, Kentucky history and facts and responsible media consumption.

The online version is free and the website features a teacher's guide with plans to help with instruction.