The best way to save money on produce is to grow it yourself. The next best way: buy local and in-season.

Today’s “Healthy Meals on a Budget” webinar taught us how to save money on all meal ingredients, including pantry items, but I want to focus on the kind of food that I find very expensive — produce. Produce coupons don’t seem to exist, so we have to be more crafty to save money on fresh fruits and vegetables.

The cost of getting our recommended daily servings of fresh produce doesn’t have to be high. Now that the farmers’ market season is starting in Ohio, there are lots of chances to buy fresh produce for less. These fruits and vegetables are fresher than what’s available in stores. [The out-of-season stuff costs more because it's been hauled in from far, far away.] An interesting side effect of buying local is that we get to learn what fruits and vegetables are growing here in Ohio, and even try some new ones.

OSU Health Plan wellness dietitian Jenny Anderson suggested that we look for deals at the end of the day (when farmers must sell the food they brought or pack it up and haul it home), and don’t be afraid to haggle a bit.

Perhaps her most surprising piece of advice had to do with buying produce in conventional stores: frozen vegetables can be a less-expensive alternative to fresh — and healthy, too. This is good news, because frozen vegetable coupons are fairly common.

Compare the price of fresh to frozen when you’re in the store, she said. Look for things that are flash frozen, because they’re the freshest, and stay away from items that have sauce added, because they’ll likely be high in fat or sodium.

Healthy food doesn’t have to be labeled organic, either. Your Plan For Health partner WebMD has a handy guide to which fruits and vegetables are worth the extra investment.

 

Belonging to a support group has long helped people make healthy changes, Fox pointed out. For example, the success of Weight Watchers stems largely from the fact that the organization’s healthy diet plan comes with a built-in support system. That was true back when Weight Watchers members met only in person for weigh-ins and pep talks , and it’s still true now that they also meet online.

“Tech-enhanced or not, social support is good for motivation. You are accountable to someone who is not you,” Fox said. “You can find other people who share the same experiences, and you get the feeling that you’re not on this journey alone.”

The new trend in fitness is “gamification” (don’t you just love verbifying a noun?). From game consoles to smart phones, games that try to make fitness fun are popping up everywhere. The reward is often a virtual badge, an advancement in game level, or maybe the satisfaction of outplaying a friend. In the case of Nexercise, an iPhone app that I am currently using, I get real-world rewards for logging in and recording my workouts. For instance, I recently received a coupon by email for a free sample-sized health and beauty product. And I get to post my workouts to Facebook, where my mother is usually the only person to notice and give me a thumbs-up. (Thanks, Mom!)

To Fox, the problem with gamification of any activity is that people eventually get bored of the game. Ideally, such games would help us build long-term healthy habits.  But if a badge is our sole reward, what happens when we’re tired of badges? We move on to a different game with different rewards. For habits to stick with us, the healthy activity needs to become a reward in itself, she said.

Because our friends can encourage us to stick with activities, games like Nexercise that include a social component could give better results. Another such game is Mindbloom, which I recently started playing. In Mindbloom’s Life Game, players are given a tree, and each branch of the tree represents some aspect of life that we want to improve, such as health. As we pursue healthy activities, our tree grows. For the social component, we encourage friends with inspiration and activities to help their own trees grow.

Wow, that sounds kind of cutesy, doesn’t it? But it doesn’t feel cutesy to me — just sort of New Age or maybe hippie-like. And according to Mindbloom’s own statistics, more than half of its users are men, so it can’t be that cutesy.

I’m running into a problem getting friends to sign up for Mindbloom, though. As popular as online games are, I think people are wary of taking on yet another game to play. If you’re on Mindbloom and you want to be my friend, give me a holler.

Next time, we’ll talk about some of the technologies that enable fitness gaming. In the meantime, here are some hints from Your Plan For Health partner WebMD.

I’m in the new Technology Commercialization and Knowledge Transfer Office in the South Campus Gateway, where students in computer science, business, and design have converged to hack together apps for health and fitness.

The crowd has broken up into teams, and I find myself with Hacktastic for Health mastermind Dan Rockwell and Marc Groom, a recent graduate from Ohio State who is a cognitive design engineer. I didn’t even know that we offered that degree! He says it’s a mix of engineering, design, and psychology. A good person to have on our team.

The app we are developing is called Fast Food Shocker, and it senses when you get near a fast food joint, and pings you with messages to encourage a change in behavior. I’m letting Dan and Marc do the heavy lifting on app design, and focusing on potential content — the messages that the app can give you. For instance, in “nice mode,” the app could say “You deserve better than this.” In mean mode, “You suck.”

This is going to be fun.

There’s been a run on the free food. Hackers need nourishment! There are other events at this office today, most notably the announcement of a $20 million fund for developing new technologies, and the folks involved in that event have snazzy banquet fare. We, on the other hand, have a pile of sammiches. Okey dokey.

We’ve done some research on the link between obesity and fast food, and gathered statistics on how often Americans eat fast food. We’ve also dug up some literature on breaking bad habits. Turns out the optimal time to perform an intervention on bad behavior is at the moment of decision-making. We feel good about that, because that’s what we’re trying to do!

Dan likes the idea of giving the App a human face and name: Betty. For Better Fast Food choices, Betty is your BFF.

Only 15 minutes before our apps will be judged! We are busy filling in supporting information to help sell our app to the judges. Marc has shot and edited a promotional video, starring Dan. And I drew a mind map of how our app works.

If you own a smartphone and you missed the Your Plan for Health webinar “There’s an App for That: mHealth and You,” then you really should download the presentation. Sarah Rusnak, Program Manager for the Center for Advanced Functional Foods Research and Entrepreneurship, did a really good job of surveying many health and fitness apps in a short amount of time.

Rusnak defines “mHealth” as “the use of mobile communications such as PDAs and mobile phones for health services and information.” If you’re like me, and your smartphone is more an extension of your arm than a device that you ever put down, then there’s no real need to call this particular brand of app use “mHealth.” I’ll just call it “life.”

As it happens, one of the apps she spoke about is one that my doctor recently recommended to me: Weight Watchers. Now that people can join Weight Watchers online rather than meeting in person, the company has come out with an app as well. And the point system has changed to make it easier to track what you eat. So I think I might give that one a try.

A good point that Rusnak made early on is that some apps are free, and others aren’t. Also, some apps may start out free, but then require you to pay ongoing membership fees or to purchase features within the app.

For instance, one iPhone app I really like is called bloom* (That’s a lower-case “b” with an asterisk at the end). The app is free, and all of the features are free. But there is an associated web site that offers an optional premium content package, which I haven’t purchased.

I feel like I get a lot out of the free app, which makes helpful reminders pop up on my phone at different times of the day. The daily reminder to drink water has worked — I’m drinking  more water. I can customize which reminders I want, and when I want them.

Not all of them have to do with physical health. There are hints to boost your creativity, career, finances, spirituality, and so on. All mix inspirational quotes and images with music. When you do what the reminder suggests (such as drinking a glass of water), you press a button and the app records your activity.

Next time, we’ll look at the web site Mindbloom (which turns bloom* into a game), and examine new trends in fitness gaming.

Highlights include a class called “Couch to 5K” taught by George Roulett, co-owner of FrontRunner. I’m excited about this because I do buy my exercise shoes at FrontRunner, and they are truly experts at analyzing gait, and making sure you wear the right shoes for you. I’d expect the same level of expertise in the class.  Otherwise, I’m not sure what possessed me to sign up for it, because I have absolutely no intention of running a 5K. I figure that the class will force me to learn new things, and I’m curious to hear about running from Roulett, who is himself a marathon runner.

Most notably, though, the actual class registration process is different this time, as the new LinkToHealth system has been rolled out. You log in with your Ohio State username and password (not your employee ID number as before) and you can save and retrieve the entire schedule of classes you’ve signed up for, as well as biometric screenings and other appointments. I thought it worked very well. I  hope the next big improvement is an integration with my Google or Outlook calendars, so that I don’t have to enter events into my calendar manually. Perhaps if I could export my LinkToHealth appointments as an .ics calendar file, that would be helpful.

Next up for me is tomorrow’s YP4H webinar, “Is there an app for that? Fitness at your fingertips,” which was highlighted in the March 1 onCampus Insight section (PDF). The class is only about half full, so I’d encourage you to sign up if you were thinking about doing so.

Perhaps, like me, readers of this blog are familiar with the most basic facts of adult-onset diabedes (on which the presentation mostly focused): when you eat too much sugar, your body can’t produce enough insulin to process it. Over time, this becomes a problem. But I was interested to learn more about why sugar is important to the body in the first place, and what insulin actually does.

Cara Harris, nurse practitioner and diabetes educator at the university’s Diabetes Research Center, described how molecules of insulin bind to cell membranes to open a pathway for glucose in the blood to enter the cells. Glucose is the source of our body’s energy, so this crossover of glucose from bloodstream to cells is critical for our survival. When our cells have taken up all the energy they need but there is still glucose in the blood, the glucose piles up and can cause blockages that damage blood vessels and organs.

Harris emphasized how exercise can help us in this regard. When we exercise, our cells burn energy, and take more glucose out of the blood. So lowering how much sugar we consume and boosting how much we exercise can help balance out blood glucose levels. And in recent years, researchers have found consuming fish or fish oils to help prevent diabedes and reduce its effects on the body.

Of course, attendees wanted to know how much exercise would help, and exactly which fish were good to eat, and Harris did offer some suggestions, with additional slides that were emailed to us after.

Contact the Diabetes Research Center for additional information, or call 1-(800)-678-6156 to find out if you’re qualified for either of the following studies that are currently recruiting patients age 50 or older: TEACOS, a study of a diabetes drug’s effects on heart health, and SPRINT, a blood pressure study. (SPRINT is listed as study number 1 on the description page, and TEACOS is 2b. There are other studies listed that might be worth a look as well.)

 

 

 

The talk took a full hour and was chock full of information, so I recommend that you download the presentation to get all the details. Here’s an overview:

Angela Blackstone, staff dietitian at the OSU Center for Wellness and Prevention (CWP), offered up recommendations for heart-healthy nutrition. In particular, she suggested limiting sodium in the diet as well as sugary beverages. I asked for her thoughts on diet soda vs. water, and she said that while water is the ideal beverage, a little diet soda once in a while isn’t so bad.

Ellen S. Aberegg, wellness and prevention team leader at CWP, said that exercise fights heart disease on many levels: it lowers blood pressure and blood sugar, helps us lose weight, and reduces stress.

Aside from the aforementioned exercise, Katharine Feister, health coach at CWP, recommended that we follow some other strategies to de-stress. Though she acknowledged that sometimes it’s hard to do so, we really can benefit from learning how to slow down, relax, get enough sleep. Getting organized, she said, can remove a lot of stress from our daily lives. I would follow this advice, but I’m too busy worrying about losing my car keys in the piles of paper on my desk. (See what I did there?)

Then we got a clinical perspective on heart disease, from Martha Gulati, director for Preventive Cardiology and Women’s Cardiovascular Health at the Wexner Medical Center. She discussed all the numbers that matter — from blood pressure and blood sugar to waist circumference and cholesterol. There are medical interventions for heart disease; Gulati explained how drugs coupled with lifestyle changes can help people manage heart disease. Serious lifestyle changes can even eliminate the need for a drug, she said.

Every cookbook I own has the words “fast” or “easy” in the title, so I was excited about the Heart Healthy Pantry webinar from the first slide, which declared that we would learn healthy recipes that could be prepared in 15 minutes or less.

You can download the presentation for details about reinvented oatmeal, a peanut butter and banana rollup, and salmon pasta salad.

According to Julie Kennel, Program Director for the Dietetic Internship in the Department of Human Nutrition, stocking the heart-healthy pantry means learning how to read the labels on dried and canned foods. Look for whole grains, she said, and examine the numbers for fat, sugar, and sodium. Fruits and vegetables are sometimes canned in syrup or oil, often with salt added, and many quick-cooking grains have been processed to remove key parts of the grain and are no longer whole.

There are quick-cooking whole grains out there — most notably quinoa, which I’ve covered here many times before. And there are ways to minimally process whole grains to make them cook faster. One of my favorites is cracked wild rice — just plain wild rice that’s been broken into pieces so it absorbs water faster. One of the attendees asked whether rolled oats are a whole grain, and Kennel explained that they are indeed whole. Rolled oats have just been smashed open, so that the insides are exposed to water when you cook them.

Canned lentils and beans boost protein in fast pantry meals. And here’s an interesting tidbit: rinsing canned beans/lentils removes up to 30 percent of the sodium from the contents, as well as some of the sugars that produce gas.

Other highlights: look for fruits packed in juice and fish packed in water. Canned fish has come a long way since we were kids, she added. There are many choices out there beyond tuna.

Supplement these items with fresh meat and vegetables from your fridge, and you’ve got many healthy meals ahead.

The gray days of winter are upon the Buckeye State. If, like me, you miss sunlight this time of year, you might want to download the ppt presentation from the latest YP4H webinar, “Fight off those Winter Blues.”

Lisa Borelli, Program Specialist for the OSU Health Plan, outlined the causes of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), and suggested ways to alleviate it. You may not have full-blown SAD, but there are still things we can all do to make these gray days a little more bearable.

Borelli’s suggestions for mild cases included getting exercise and following good nutrition, as well as spending time outdoors. The gist is this: try to keep up a normal, healthy routine to help your body battle the blahs. For people with serious seasonal depression, counseling and medication can help, as well as light therapy.

Personally, I find that music has a big effect on my mood. For those of you who feel the same, I wanted to share some of the songs from my current “Sunny” playlist. [For the purposes of legality, I found instances where the artists themselves had posted the songs or videos online -- sometimes for free download, too. My memory of most of these songs is that I got them for free, either through iTunes or from those little Starbucks free song download cards.]

…You’ll see a recurring theme, in that all of these songs are bouncy and happy, and are all about making the most of the day.

It’s officially mid-January, and if you’re like most people, you may have noticed that your New Year’s resolutions have fallen by the wayside. Can you see your resolutions? There they are, in that ditch at the side of the road, rolling around in their overoptimism or impracticality. Or perhaps they’re just lying there, mortally weakened by your own ambivalence and thus unable to move.

If that’s the case, drag them out of the ditch and give them CPR. It’s the least you can do before giving them a good once-over and, possibly, sending them on their way.

Now is the time to re-evaluate your resolutions, and perhaps re-resolve or un-resolve them. Did you take on too much? Jump in to a new pursuit without the necessary planning? Did you try to do something on your own that you could possibly do better if you had a partner or other kind of support? Is your goal serving you well, or could you change it a bit to make it more tenable?

To me, resolutions are not all-or-nothing propositions —  but rather something I resolve to work toward. Failure is not an option, as long as I make some progress.

There are people on campus who can help you set attainable goals and develop a strategy for reaching them. Rec Sports, for example, wants to help with your resolutions. Membership in the Faculty and Staff Fitness Program (FSFP) comes with comprehensive fitness testing, which FSFP fitness experts use to help you set your goals.

I find Lifehacker to be a great source of information for… well, life. Check out this detailed plan for ensuring resolution success, and this extensive list of free online education courses, which include classes on food and nutrition as well as many other topics to exercise your mind.

Finally, in a recent podcast from the Get-It-Done Guy, host Stever Robbins discusses how to keep resolutions alive — and out of that ditch at the side of the road — by living and working on purpose.