New Year, New You reaches week 3

Congratulations to our Week 3 winners: Presbyterian God Squad (United Presbyterian Church) and Orange and Black Attack (Jamestown College). We need to make a correction to week 2. We are giving the prize money to a different team each week. So, week 2 winners are the Y’Nots (YMCA) and Free Birds (JRCC). The overall lead in the small businesses is Mid Life Crisis and in the big businesses it’s Goodrich.

The Wellness Challenge for the week of Feb. 11 through Feb. 17 is a little different. Instead of getting points each day for a healthy lifestyle behavior, you will get points if you “KNOW YOUR NUMBERS” (meaning heart health risk numbers). Participants can earn up to 16 points for knowing their numbers. Your health readings should be recent, meaning within one year for blood pressure and glucose and within one to three years for cholesterol (if your numbers are normal).

If participants need to schedule a cholesterol screening to get their numbers, they can still submit points for the numbers until the end of the program. Both Jamestown Hospital and Central Valley Health will be holding screenings over the next few weeks. To register for a screening, call Central Valley Health at 252-8130 or Jamestown Hospital at 952-4891.

Knowing your numbers is not the same as having “perfect” health readings. If your numbers are not optimal, start making healthy lifestyle choices and work with your health care provider to control numbers if necessary.

Normal readings are as follows:

Blood pressure, less than 120/80 mm/Hg; total cholesterol, less than 200 mg/dl; LDL (lousy) cholesterol, less than 130 mg/dl (ideally less than 100 mg/dl); HDL (healthy) Cholesterol, greater than 40 mg/dL; Triglycerides, less than 150 mg/dl; and fasting glucose, normal range 70 – 100 mg/dl.

Once you know your numbers you can take the “Big 5 Health Check” on WebMD.com Just type “http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/tools/health-check-5/default.htm” into your Web browser and you’ll find it. It takes about 10 minutes to complete and will provide you information about your major health risks including heart disease risk. If you do not know your body mass index, you can calculate it by using an online calculator at the CDC Web site: http://www.cdc.gov/ nccdphp/dnpa/bmi/. There are separate calculators for adults, teens and kids

There is one upcoming education class offered through the Becoming a New You program. The cost is only $5 and the class is open to the public. Call the North Dakota Extension Service to register at 252-9030. The class title and time is: “Stress Makes you Fat (Really!)” to be held on Tuesday, 2/17/09, at 6:30 pm at Jamestown Hospital.

Weight Loss Tip for the week:

If you have a significant amount of weight to lose, set a weight loss goal of 10 percent of your body weight instead of trying to achieve an ideal body weight. A weight loss of 10 percent (15 – 20 pounds for most people) will reduce your risk of disease, make you feel better and is a reasonable goal. Many dieters experience a sense of failure because they set their expectations for weight loss too high. Experience success with every pound lost!

A few acknowledgments: Thank you to Orriginals for donating the awesome artwork and screening for the T-shirts! Thank you Farmer’s Union for the financial support to make this a successful challenge!

(Walter is the wellness coordinator for Jamestown Hospital)

Tags: new you, fitness, health, community