Creating Healthy Habits...One at a Time.

Create a Healthy Habit....

Ever have a bad habit you wanted to change but just couldn’t seem to get rid of it? Do things like eating poorly, smoking and lack of exercise immediately come to mind? What really stops us from changing habits? There are a number of challenges that anyone looking to replace their habits will face, here are 3 R’s to keep in mind to make your habit change easy and effective.

Recognition



The first step inevitably in any change process is to become aware of the situation. You cannot change what you aren’t aware of. If you want to change your habit you must first recognize that it is one that needs changing. I suggest you write down your bad habit, describe how it’s affecting your life, and also what you want to do about it.



Replacement



The next step in changing a habit is to replace it. Many mistake this step and try to simply remove their bad habit. The result is they return to their bad habit and this time it’s even worse. Habits cannot be removed they must be replaced. Instead of just trying to quit smoking “cold turkey” try replacing the habit with healthy breathing, yoga, long-walks etc..

Repetition



The secret to successfully changing your habits is by repeating steps 1 & 2. Experts say the average time it takes for something to become a habit is between 21 and 30 days. If you really want your new program, exercise, diet or behaviour to become a habit then keep repeating the action until it becomes automatic.



Now is the time to decide if you want to keep this habit or change it. If you decide to change your habit, keep the 3 R’s of habit changing in mind.



What is the last  habit you successfully changed?

 Make this week Count....Start with one small change .Small Changes bring Big differences.
Group on implementing new  healthy habits presented on  Monday 1/14/2013 to Recovery Skills Group,
 by L. Sterling BHP
Resource:http://www.hopetocope.com/blog/post/The-3-Rs-of-Habit-Change.aspx

Smoke Out

 

 

DO you smoke?

That’s no joke!

Get smart ... check that heart.

No to need to feel Miserable….Get that physical!

Smoking Out the Truth: Tobacco Use & Behavioral Health

Based on an Interview with Catherine Saucedo, Deputy Director, Smoking Cessation Leadership Center

People with mental and substance use disorders are twice as likely to smoke as the general population, and they smoke 44.3% of all cigarettes in the U.S, according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Half of all smokers will die as a result of smoking — including those with mental and substance use disorders.
When it comes to tobacco cessation (i.e., quitting, reduction in use) efforts at community behavioral healthcare organizations, there are many myths shrouding the path to a smoke-free service population. And despite proven, cost effective, and accessible methods, there is a general sense of hopelessness among healthcare professionals that they cannot help clients quit. This is particularly problematic for community programs that aim to address an individual’s whole health through the integration of primary care and behavioral health.
To smoke out the truth, CIHS reached out to the Smoking Cessation Leadership Center at the University of California, San Francisco, which administered SAMHSA-funded State Leadership Academies for Wellness and Smoking Cessation and the 100 Pioneers for Smoking Cessation Campaign. Some of the facts may surprise you.

• People with behavioral health conditions want to quit — and they can. Their interest is equal to that of the general population (70%).
• Tobacco cessation is a high priority. Smoking is the biggest killer of people with behavioral health problems.
• Smoking bans (e.g., smoke-free campuses) have no negative effect on behavioral health symptoms or management. It can even improve mental health and can increase sobriety among people addicted to alcohol.
• It is better to quit all addictions, including tobacco, up front — not put off tobacco for later. Science substantiates that by doing so alcohol and other drug addiction outcomes improve by an average of 25%.
• Banning smoking will not affect your revenue. While some clients may threaten to leave if you ban smoking, many will welcome and commend you for it. While it is unlikely clients will leave, if they do, a number will choose your agency because you’re smoke-free.
• There is no reason to feel hopeless in the face of tobacco cessation for those your serve. Learn what you can do.

Editor’s Note: One of CIHS’ charges is to support innovative community providers participating in the PBHCI program to implement tobacco cessation efforts and to demonstrate the success of their efforts. Two-thirds of these grantees are in various stages of implementing tobacco cessation programs. The other third monitor and track patients’ carbon monoxide levels.

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Quick Tips: Six Ways to Foster Quitters

The 100 Pioneers for Smoking Cessation Campaign, an initiative jointly funded by SAMHSA and the Smoking Cessation Leadership Center, led efforts in behavioral health to discover tobacco cessation approaches that work and to share these strategies with other healthcare providers. The Leadership Center shared a few.

1. Embrace quitters. Your agency will be most successful if you work with people who want to quit, of which 70% say they do. Those that wish to quit are more likely to engage in your efforts. Educate and provide cessation tools to your clients, staff, and communities on the benefits of living a smoke-free life — it’s the first step.
2. Create simple, creative break alternatives. Instead of sanctioning “smoke breaks” for only the segment of your clients who smoke, create a break environment for all. For example, create a serenity garden where smokers and non-smokers alike each tend to a potted plan, or organize 10-minute yoga sessions or walks.
3. Adjust your mission. Most integrated healthcare providers have a mission to promote healthy lifestyles among clients. Adding tobacco cessation as one of the ways you mean to achieve this mission is an important guidepost.
4. Create or revise your agency’s smoking policy. After choosing to go smoke-free, write a policy that recognizes that while some clients and staff may smoke, they cannot do so in or near your agency.
5. Pull in all stakeholders. From the beginning, engage clients and staff who smoke, those who do not smoke, clinicians, and others in developing a new smoking policy and adopting and implementing cessation efforts. This will assuage much of the push back you’ll face.

The State Leadership Academies for Wellness and Smoking Cessation in Behavioral Health pioneers maintain a listserv with a steady dialogue on smoking cessation among people with mental illnesses and addictions. Visit the pioneers’ website to join. To join the national primary and behavioral healthcare integration conversation, join the CIHS listserv.

20 Healthy Zero-Calorie Foods

These eats may be ridiculously low in calories, but they’re loaded with nutrients that can help speed up weight loss and boost your immunity

Cucumbers

If you’re tired of fending off hunger by guzzling glass after glass of H2O, snack on cucumber slices instead. “Eating foods that are high in water can help you feel full at least temporarily by taking up a lot of space in your stomach,” notes Reinagel. Cucumbers also pack vitamins K and C, potassium, and a compound called silica, which helps to build and maintain connective tissue, like muscle, tendons, ligaments, and bone.

Citrus Fruit

Don’t wait until cold season to fill up on oranges, tangerines, and grapefruit–they may help whittle your middle. People with higher vitamin C levels have lower waist-to-hip ratios than those whose bodies contain less of the antioxidant, according to a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. What’s more, University of Arizona researchers found that those with higher levels of vitamin C oxidized 25 percent more fat during treadmill sessions than those with lower levels of the vitamin.

Celery

Celery delivers serious crunch for next to no calories—each medium stalk has about 6—but it’s not shy on nutrients. One cup has a third of your recommended daily intake of vitamin K, along with vitamin A, fiber, folate, and potassium. Celery also contains compounds called phthalides, which can relax muscle tissue in artery walls and increase blood flow, thereby helping to lower blood pressure.

Apples

An apple a day keeps your weight at bay! Just make sure to eat the skin. The peel contains most of the fruit’s metabolism-boosting fiber, as

Kelp

Don’t be squeamish about eating your sea vegetables. Kelp is loaded with vitamin K, which helps keep bones strong, along with a natural fiber called alginate, which may help block fat absorption, according to research from Newcastle University in the UK. For only 6 calories per 4-ounce serving, try mixing Sea Tangle Kelp Noodles into salads, soups, and stir-fries.well as ursolic acid, a compound that may prevent the pounds from piling on, according to a new study from University of Iowa.

Asparagus

A half-cup of cooked asparagus will set you back only 20 calories. Plus, you’ll get hefty doses of vitamins K and A, and B vitamins such as folic acid. Since B vitamins play a role in breaking down sugars and starches, eating asparagus may help regulate blood sugar and fend off type 2 diabete

Apricots

Brimming with beta-carotene, apricots can help fight cancer and heart disease as well as protect your eyesight. Eating three or more daily servings of fruit rich in vitamins A, C, and E and carotenoids like beta-carotene may lower your risk of macular degeneration, the dominant cause of age-related vision loss. When participants in a study published in the Archives of Ophthalmology ate this much fruit they were 36 percent less likely to suffer from the disease compared to those who consumed 1.5 servings or less of fruit daily.s.

Watermelon

This summertime fruit is loaded with arginine, an amino acid that may aid weight loss. Researchers found that obese mice that were fed arginine supplements burned more fat and gained more lean muscle than those that did not receive them, according to a Journal of Nutrition study.

Tomatoes

The lycopene in tomatoes can protect against prostate cancer and help keep skin looking young by eliminating free radicals that build up when you’re exposed to ultraviolet rays. Tip: Cooking tomatoes spikes levels of lycopene and makes it easier for your body to absorb the nutrients, according to a Cornell University study.

Broccoli

Broccoli may be the nation’s most hated upon veggie, but it doesn’t deserve that reputation. One cup raw contains as much fiber and vitamin C as an orange.

Cauliflower

Counting your carbs? Try boiling, mashing, and seasoning cauliflower to get a mashed potato substitute that tastes almost like the real thing. A half-cup of boiled cauliflower contains only 14 calories, but nearly half your daily recommended intake of vitamin C. (Search: How much vitamin C do I need?)

Strawberries

One cup of the summertime staple packs more than 100 percent of our daily recommended intake of vitamin C. Strawberries are also one of the most antioxidant-rich fruits you can eat. Compounds called polyphenols may protect your body from the type of cell and tissue damage that’s linked to heart disease and certain cancers.

Leafy Greens

Whatever variety you pick, you can’t go wrong with piling a plate with salad greens. At 4 calories per cup, watercress is loaded with vitamins A, C and K, and a study in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that eating 3 ounces of the peppery green daily increases levels of the cancer-fighting antioxidants lutein and beta-carotene. Spinach (7 calories per cup) is brimming with vitamin K, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, and selenium and contains a hormone that allows muscle tissue to repair itself faster, according to research from Rutgers University.

Red Chili Peppers

Add a little spice to your cooking and slim down while you’re at it. Capsaicin, the compound that gives red chili peppers its kick, has been shown to help your body burn more calories. Plus, research shows that we tend to eat smaller portions of spicy foods because of the heat.

 Mushrooms

Whether you sauté them or eat them raw, mushrooms are an often-overlooked superfood. Dutch researchers found that when you digest mushrooms, your body produces cancer-fighting, immunity-boosting metabolites.

Red Bell Pepper

Any way you slice it, red bell peppers are a great source of nutrients. A medium sized one delivers 250 percent of your daily recommended intake of vitamin C, 75 percent of your daily vitamin A needs, and 10 percent of your fiber goals. Chop them up and pair with hummus for a healthy snack.

Summer Squash

Whether you love zucchini, butternut, or acorn, all squashes are chockfull of vitamins and belly-filling fiber. But summer squash has one advantage: you can eat more of it without gaining weight. In fact, you can have two times more summer squash than winter squash for the same number of calories.

Turnip

The turnip sometimes takes a backseat to more popular root vegetables, like carrots and potatoes, but its nutritional benefits shouldn’t be overlooked. The root contains cancer-fighting glucosinolates and is a good source of fiber, calcium, and potassium.

Be Heard!

Making Good Decisions

1.  Write down the Objective.

What is it you ultimately want to accomplish.  Get a new job, move or start a business is not specific enough.  The objective should be clearly stated in a way which describes the benefits of achieving the goal.  “I want to move to a warm climate where I can engage in outdoor activities year round and simply my life with a lower cost of living.”  VS “I want to move.”

2.  Collect Facts:  Good AND Bad

Do your Homework and gather all the information, good and bad, like and dislike.  You are not making the decision here, just a sound assessment of all your options for consideration.  There is no rush to get through this critical step.  Researcher Paul Nutt states, “Only 1 in 10 decisions is urgent. Only 1 in 100 is a crisis. You have time to reflect.”   The more time you take to gather all the information, the better your decision is likely to be.

3. List Possible Consequences of Decision

Brain storm all the possible outcomes of each decision and choice.  Detach from the emotion – focus on all the possibilities.  What would happen if? How would I feel if?   Listing extreme positives and negatives at this stage is a good idea.

4. Do a Gut Check

Now that you have completed the above steps, sit in a quiet spot where you will not be disturbed and visualize each scenario you have listed.  How does you gut feel?  Is your stomach in knots?  Is your heart beating with excitement?  Pay attentions to what your body is telling you and write it down.

5. Don’t Over Think

Avoid placing judgment on what you have written down.  Be open to the fact you might not know, what you don’t know.

6.  Make the Decision

Review the good work you have completed and tabulate what choice brings you the most favorable results, along with the most positive physical gut reaction.  These facts will lead you to the best choice.  remember, the best choice is not the perfect choice.  There is no perfect choice.

7. Stick with Your Decision

Once you have made your decision, trust the process.  Follow-through to the end, because you don’t want to give up 5 minutes before the miracle.

8.  Give Yourself Permission to Navigate the Unexpected

Be sensible in the sense you must give yourself permission to navigate differently in the event of an unexpected crisis.  Obviously ‘life is happening while you make other plans’, so know that even the best thought out plan will be altered in the face of earth quakes and funerals.

9.  Review and Assess

Take time to review and assess your progress often.  This will encourage you to continue when you are able to validate positive results, and tweak your direction as needed to maintain forward momentum.

10. No Regrets

Regardless of what you expected your decision to create, congratulate yourself that you made the best decision possible with the information you had available to you at the time.  There is not a person alive, and especially some of the greatest successes in history, who hasn’t had the opportunity to learn from a decision.

Following these 10 tips allows you to follow a logical process of consequences based on completion of each task.  The answers unfold naturally for you, rather than you struggling to make something fit where it does not belong.

Submitted by L.P.Sterling C.P.R.P.

Time to Change Clocks!! 2:00a.m Sat.

It’s time to fall back. Clocks in every time zone should be reset from 2:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. in Sunday’s wee hours, affording an extra hour of sleep for all but the most hardy night owls, who instead get an extra hour of insomnia.

In case you’re tossing and turning about daylight saving time (DST), here’s why we adjust our clocks twice a year.

Note that there’s no “s” on the end of daylight saving — after all, it’s not a coupon. However, the practice of resetting clocks was in a very real way based on saving money.

Ben Franklin is widely credited for being the first to have the bright idea. As an American delegate in Paris, Franklin in 1784 reasoned that the late-rising French could save a great deal of money in candles if daylight could last just one hour longer for the half the year. His concept revolved around the simple logic that people should sleep while it’s dark and work while it’s light. We have no say over the tilt of Earth’s axis, which lengthens and shortens the hours of daylight through the seasons, but we can easily adjust the human inventions of time and clocks.

The U.S. had an on-again, off-again relationship with DST, first adopting it in 1918 as part of the Standard Time Act establishing time zones. The likes of shopkeepers and tourism boards favored it for extending daily hours of business, while farmers, postmen and others felt it was disruptive, and probably wondered why everyone else couldn’t haul themselves out of bed a little earlier. The government insisted on some consensus during World War I and World War II, when DST helped conserve electricity.

Modern DST practice is based on the Uniform Time Act of 1966, which wrote DST into law but allowed a loophole for any jurisdictions that didn’t want to sign on. Hawaii and Arizona are the only U.S. states that don’t currently observe DST. Hawaii’s nearness to the equator makes for a negligible difference in daylight hours from one season to the next, and anyone who’s been to AZ on a blistering July day knows why the state declined to extend worktime hours under the scorching sun. Adding to the logistical headache of being out of synch with other Mountain Time keepers, though, is the fact that the Navajo Nation occupying a huge portion of northeastern Arizona does indeed observe daylight saving. Suffice to say, if you’re scheduling any plans in AZ from across state lines, call ahead.