Military EZine volume 6

Archived Issues

August 2002Issue #6

Follow Your Dreams While You Follow the Military!™

Join us to learn how to Increase Your Energy,
Decrease Your Stress, and Go for Your
Dreams! An "as we can get to it"
newsletter/ezine with ideas, resources, stories
and inspiration so you can Follow Your
Dream While You Follow the Military™
written by military spouses for military
spouses!
Kathie Hightower & Holly Scherer, Editors

IN THIS ISSUE

Who Do We Believe?
An Update on Pedometers
Fun Products
Workshops for Military Spouses

Who Do We Believe?
Yesterday morning my husband greeted me at our coffee pot with the words, "I’ve been living a lie." Now those aren’t words you want to hear first thing in the morning even before your first cup of coffee.

Then he handed me the morning paper opened to an article titled: "Scientist finds little evidence to keep hydration advice afloat." The Associated Press article by Lauran Neergaard reports that Dr. Heinz Valtin, professor emeritus at Dartmouth Medical School, has a review in this month’s American Journal of Physiology. His research cannot find any validity to the "eight glasses of water a day" guidance. He points out, for one thing, that we get a lot of water from the foods we eat, even dry bread and cheese. He cites a University of Nebraska study that found that coffee, soda and tea are hydrating for people used to caffeine and should count towards daily fluid total. The article points out that some people, even healthy people, can drink too much water. So-called "water intoxication" dilutes sodium in the blood until the body can’t function properly.

Okay, any of you who’ve been to our longer workshops know that one thing we focus on for energy and stress management is drinking enough water to stay hydrated during the day. And we’ve talked about how caffeinated drinks like coffee and soda can dehydrate you.
Where did we get our information? From numerous articles and reports from other medical "experts," doctors and dieticians, with credentials similar to Dr. Valtin’s. So now what do we believe? Very honestly, we don’t know.

Is it just me or does anyone else feel that our world is turning around lately and getting ever more confusing? In the last few months so many of our beliefs have been called into question. We’ve heard that mammograms aren’t necessary, that hormones will hurt you, that it’s carbohydrates not fat making us fat, that beer is better than red wine at helping you avoid heart disease. Before we know it we’ll be told that a sedentary lifestyle is better than an active one. And that Starbucks Java Chip ice cream is better than whole grain cereals and milk for breakfast. (Okay, that last one is wishful thinking on my part.)

Here’s what I do know for myself. When I drink too much coffee and too little water I not only get hyper and shaky, I get headachy and low energy. Changing my former heavy daily diet soda habit to a water habit made me feel better. Is that just psychosomatic? I don’t know, but I do think that ingesting filtered water rather than all those chemicals has to be an improvement. My current habit of always choosing water instead of high calorie drinks like soda or juice has to have some impact on my weight maintenance as I don’t take in those added calories. (I always choose fresh fruit over juice so I get the fiber and lower sugar.)

I guess I’m glad that the issue has been raised. I expect it will mean further research and hopefully a clarification of what’s best for us. In the meantime, I plan to continue to listen to my body and choose water over other beverages.

My husband is one who never drank water until I started the water campaign. And really, he didn’t make any real changes until a dietician mentioned that dehydration could cause afternoon fuzzy thinking, something he’d been experiencing.

As he walked out the door this morning, he turned back to me and said, "I don’t know if I believe the article. I know that if I drink too much coffee and not enough water, I get headaches and have a hard time concentrating."

Maybe it all comes down to what my mother always said. "Moderation is the key."
(As we find out more, we’ll share it with you. If you see any new articles or research, we"d love to have you send them to us to share.)

An Update on Pedometers
Last month’s ezine shared the idea of using a pedometer to inspire you to increase your daily activity level. Based on one friend’s experience, I decided to test this out for myself. Here’s what I discovered.

I always thought that I got lots of exercise in my house just doing daily activities. My house is all stairs, so I go down stairs to start my day, another set to do the laundry, stairs to get to my car and stairs to bring the groceries up. Lots of stairs. But it doesn’t add up to the number of steps I might have imagined. On a "normal" day the max was 3000. Now of course, there’s a bit more intensity involved doing stairs over just walking. But that is still nowhere near the 10,000-step goal that my friend Linda strives for based on some articles she read in Prevention magazine.

I did some research to see if there is any real study to show that 10,000 is a fitness standard. I couldn’t find any. However, Prevention did some research with volunteers that showed results in energy, weight loss, and overall well-being when individuals managed to increase their normal daily steps by 7000 steps a day.

I like using the 10,000 steps as a goal. I find it gives me some accountability and incentive to increase my daily activity. It really doesn’t matter how many steps, if you increase from your previous level AT ALL, you’ve increased your activity. The reality is, just the awareness and effort to increase my activity from one day to the next provides benefits.
If I have low numbers in the evening now, I suggest an evening walk to my husband. We’ve had some good talks as we walk. That’s got to be better than just vegging in front of the television or going our separate ways with chores or reading.

TOP

I’ve always done things like park far from the store entrance even when there are open spaces closer in, take the stairs instead of the escalator at airports, walk when I’m waiting at airports, etc. Now I seek even more opportunities to stretch my legs.

I always get up from my computer once an hour to stretch during my workdays. Now I look for ways to add steps to the break. If I’m waiting for the computer to print, I walk around the room. I get up much more frequently to go downstairs to get more water or tea, to put a load of laundry in or take one out, to just walk outside to breath some fresh air and look at the flowers for a few minutes.
I’ve noticed it’s a bit contagious. My walking buddies will now say, "Hey, let's see if we can do more than last time." My husband says, "Well, you better walk instead of drive to the library. Gotta get those steps in." Other friends are inspired by the stories and are getting their own pedometers.

Here are some other ideas you might try. Rather than trying to carry everything in one trip, take more manageable loads and more trips. Rather than getting angry about the socks thrown on the floor – think of that extra trip to the hamper as another opportunity to get more steps into your day. Rather than sitting at your child’s soccer game, walk around while you watch the game. Rather than driving through the pick up line at school, park the car, get out and meet your child at the front of the school. How about taking a quick walk around the school and hear about your child’s day before you get back in the car and drive off? You’ll just avoid sitting in that crowd of cars waiting to exit the school lot. And you might just have a great conversation with your child. Now that’s a win/win idea.

If you want to try this out, here’s a little advice on pedometers. I read a Wall Street Journal article comparing pedometers. That inspired me to buy a relatively expensive model that would show me the total steps and miles for the week as well as the daily totals. I realize now that 20-something techies probably wrote that article. I’m a bit technically challenged so I still haven’t figured out how to use anything on here except the daily steps. And my 48-year-old eyes have trouble reading the settings. So, if you are like me, I’d recommend the simplest $20 models that just show steps.

(If you love technology and would like to know your steps per mile and weekly totals and have a time and stopwatch capability thrown in that you can use for your runs as well as your walks, get the Sportline Fitness 360. I’d be happy to sell you my $47.45 purchase for $30 plus actual postage. First come, first served on that.)
If you try this, let us know how it works for you. If we share your report we’ll send you a free Joyful Living Booklet, full of 75 ways to add more joy to your life.

Fun Products
While we work on our Follow Your Dreams While You Follow the Military™ book, we have some other products that can help you create and live your dream! To order any of these call Kathie tollfree at 866-569-5695 or email or fax in an order— see contact info at the bottom. And, yes, I can take Visa or MC (does that make us professional or what?) The easiest way to order is to go to the product part of the website, www.jumpintolife.net, and download an order form to fax or mail or call in.

Creative Living Audiotape Set:
2tapes (120minutes) on the joyful living concept & goal achieving tools, tips & resources) $12

Your Enchanted Life: A Journal of Discovery & Delight (a playbook full of exercises & action steps) $18

Simple Joys: Little Things That Make a BIG Difference (a pocket-size book with one idea per page) $6
*similar ideas in a booklet that can mail in a #10
envelope are in the Joyful Living Booklet $3

Magic Rainbow Glasses (see the good in Everything) $6

As Is pewter pins (Show the world you are already quite wonderful just the way you are – faults and all!) $25

Workshops
A Follow Your Dreams While You Follow the Military Workshop at your post/base?
We do four-hour workshops for military spouses. (These have been called different things in the past — Joyful Living, Creative Living, Jump Into Life we’ve finally settled on what it’s really About — Follow Your Dream While You Follow the Military™.) We’d love to do all day sessions or 2-3 day retreats someday too. We have LOTS of information to share.

Here’s what other military spouses are saying: "Wunderbar! I have gained worthwhile & valuable information on how to turn my dreams into reality. I wish I had a seminar like this to attend 15 years ago." –Gwendolyn A. Williams "This was the best thing that happened to me in Germany!"—Alicka Ampry-Samuel

If you know someone who hires trainers for your base (often the Family Advocacy Office or ACS), send us a name and address and we will mail a full information packet. We’d love to come to your location.
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Feel free to forward this ezine to other military spouses. We are also happy to have you use any of the articles in your newsletters providing you ask us first and then provide us with a copy for our records and celebration!

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Contact Us:
Kathie Hightower & Holly Scherer
Follow Your Dreams While You Follow the
Military Seminars
kathie@jumpintolife.net
2908 N. Warner Street, Tacoma, Wa 98407;
Tollfree: 866-569-5695;253-761-8161; fax253-759-4009

Or contact Holly directly in Memphis at 901-756-7391 or email her at schererjh@earthlink.net