TUESDAY, March 29 (HealthDay News) — If you’re looking to lose those extra pounds, you should probably add reducing stress and getting the right amount of sleep to the list, say researchers from Kaiser Permanente’s Center for Health Research in Portland.

In fact, although diet and exercise are the usual prescription for dropping pounds, high stress and too little sleep (or too much of it) can hinder weight loss even when people are on a diet, the researchers report.

“We found that people who got more than six but less than eight hours of sleep, and who reported the lowest levels of stress, had the most success in a weight-loss program,” said study author Dr. Charles Elder.

Elder speculates if you are sleeping less or more than recommended and if your stress levels are high, you will not be able to focus on making behavioral changes.

These factors may also have a biological impact, he added.

“If you want to lose weight, things that will help you include reducing stress and getting the right amount of sleep,” Elder said.

The report, funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, is published in the March 29 online edition of the International Journal of Obesity.

In this two-step trial, 472 obese adults were first counseled about lifestyle changes over a 26-week period. Recommendations included cutting 500 calories a day, eating a diet rich in fruits, vegetables and whole grains by following the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet approach, and exercising at least three hours a week.

In addition, the researchers asked the participants questions about sleep time, depression, insomnia, screen time and stress.

During this part of the trial, the participants lost an average of almost 14 pounds. The 60 percent of the participants who lost at least 10 pounds went on to take part in the next phase of the trial. Those in the second phase of the trial continued their diet and exercise program.

Elder’s team found the right amount of sleep and stress reduction at the start of the trial predicted successful weight loss. Lower stress by itself predicted more weight loss during the first phase of the trial, they added.

Declines in stress and depression were also important in continuing to lose weight during both phases of the trial, as were exercise minutes and keeping food diaries, Elder’s group found.

Dr. David L. Katz, director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine, said that “while we often tend to look at health one condition at a time, the reality is that health is best viewed holistically.”

“People who are healthy and vital tend to be healthy and vital not because of any one factor, but because of many. And the factors that promote health — eating well, being active, not smoking, sleeping enough, controlling stress, to name a few –promote all aspects of health,” he added.

This study shows that people are more likely to lose weight when not impeded by sleep deprivation, stress or depression, he said.

“Anyone who has ever tried to lose weight probably could have said much the same from personal experience. Similarly, weight loss reduced stress and depression. This, too, is suggested by sense and common experience, as it is affirmed by the science reported here,” Katz said.

The important message is that weight loss should not be looked at with tunnel vision, Katz said.

“Improving sleep may be as important to lasting weight control efforts as modifying diet or exercise. Managing stress is about physical health, as well as mental health. This study encourages weight loss in a more holistic context,” he said.

Another study presented earlier this month at the American Heart Association scientific sessions held in Atlanta found that people of normal weight eat more when they sleep less.

Columbia University researchers discovered that sleep-deprived adults ate almost 300 calories more a day on average than those who got enough sleep. And the extra calories mostly came from saturated fat, which can spell trouble for waistlines.

The researchers came to their conclusions — which should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal — after following 13 men and 13 women of normal weight. They monitored the eating habits of the participants as they spent six days sleeping four hours a night and then six days sleeping nine hours a night (or the reverse).

“If sustained, the dietary choices made by people undergoing short sleep could predispose them to obesity and increased risk of cardiovascular disease,” the researchers wrote in an American Heart Association news release.

Ask most women what they consider their most serious health threat and the answer is likely to be cancer, especially breast cancer. In fact, in a survey conducted by the National Center of Health Statistics, 65 percent of women said cancer was their most serious health threat.The reality is that nearly six times as many women die annually from heart attacks as from breast cancer. And nearly two-thirds of the deaths from heart attacks in women occur among those who have no history of chest pain. For most, the first warning sign of a heart attack is a sudden onset of extreme weakness that feels like the flu.

And there are many other differences in heart disease in women than men, which Dr. Dennis DeSilvery, a cardiologist for over 30 years, will talk about in a forum titled, “Heart Disease for Men and Women: The Similarities and the Differences.”

 The forum is set for Thursday, April 14, from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the hospital’s Education Center.

Find out why:

• women wait longer than men to go to an emergency room when having a heart attack. And once there, heart attacks in women are more difficult to diagnose;

• one-and-half-times more women die than men within one year after suffering a heart attack;

• men’s plaque distributes in clumps whereas women’s distributes more evenly throughout artery walls, which can be misinterpreted; and

• diabetes doubles the risk of a second heart attack in women but not in men.

Favorite exercise mantras:

* Do it for those who can’t.
* There are 168 hours in a week. I’m only asking for 7 of them.
* I’ve never regretted a workout.
* Every day is a new opportunity to make new decisions.
* If you keep doing what you’ve been doing, you’re going to keep looking how you’ve been looking.
* Every day you decide to workout, you make a decision to benefit your health.

* You know your limit and this is NOT it. (Meaghan)
* A body at rest wants to stay at rest. A body in motion wants to stay in motion. (Heidi)
* No hurt, no mini skirt. (Kelly)
* When your legs are tired, run with your heart. (Gabriela)
* You don’t HAVE to exercise. You GET to exercise. (Kimberly)
* Everyone has 24 hours in one day. What you do with those hours is up to you. Make the most of them! (Jessica)
* You are just one workout away from a good mood. (Cynthia)
* There are no shortcuts to any place worth going. (Stephanie, a la Beverly Sills)
* You’re stronger than you think you are! (Annette and Kristen)
* Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. (Amber K and Meredith, a la Dory from Finding Nemo)
* What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. (Jess)
* If it were easy, everyone would do it. (Ang)
* This is not the hardest thing I’ve ever done. (Kaella)
* Don’t try. Just do. (Helen)
* If you can, you must! (Clare and Jen)
* It won’t kill ya! (Elisa)
* Just get out the door. If I’m hating it, I can quit in five minutes. (Averie)
* You can do anything for one minute (or 30 minutes, etc.). (Allison and Eliza)
* I need to work some things out, leave some things behind, get over some long-held fears. I need to know that I’m strong in some ways that I’ve never really believed. (Mindy)
* Pain is weakness leaving the body. (Margaret)
* Your limits might not be where you think they are. (Margaret via IronMan Chrissie Wellington)
* Obsessed is the word the lazy use to describe the dedicated. (Alicia)
* You must expect things of yourself before you can do them. (Jen)
* If you look good, you feel good, then you’ll do good. (Taryn)
* Never let the body tell the mind what to do. (Sarah K.)
* Don’t stop when you’re getting tired. That’s when you’re getting stronger! (Maryann)
* Rule your mind or it will rule you. (Kelly)
* The body is stronger than the mind. (Elysie)
* If my 82-year-old grandma goes to the gym every day, I’ve got no excuses. (Kristin)
* Time never stops moving. This challenge will come, and this challenge will go because time never stops moving. This will eventually be over and look at what I will have achieved. (Katy)
* All I need to do is show up. (Arielle)

Healthy Eating Mantras:

* The food you eat today is the body you wear tomorrow. (Katie)
* Exercise is king. Nutrition is queen. Put them together and you’ve got a kingdom. (Katie)
* An hour a day keeps obesity away. (Danielle)

Running Mantras:

* You can’t judge a run by the first mile. (Michelle)
* For marathon runners: Run the first 10 miles with your head, run the second 10 miles with your legs, and the last 6 miles with your heart. (Sarah K.)
* If you train hard, you’ll not only be hard, but you’ll be hard to beat. (Alicia)
* You’re blessed to have legs that allow you to run. (Kristen)

2 lbs. beef, cut into cubes
Sea salt
Light olive oil
5 cloves garlic, chopped
1 cup fresh pearl onions, trimmed, peeled
3 good sized hefty gold potatoes, peeled, cut up
3 good sized carrots, peeled, sliced
2 celery stalks, sliced
1 cup dry red table wine
4 cups beef broth
A dash of balsamic vinegar
1-2 teaspoons dried Italian or French herbs, to taste (thyme, sage, rosemary, basil, etc)
1 bay leaf
Ground pepper, to taste

First- salt the cubes of beef on all sides. Turn on the Crock Pot to High. Heat a dash of light olive oil in a deep heavy pot over medium-high heat. Brown the beef cubes on all sides to sear in the flavor, using long tongs to turn the pieces. This doesn’t take but maybe five minutes, or so. Remove the beef and add it to the Crock Pot. Add in the garlic, pearl onions, potatoes, carrots and celery. Pour in the wine and broth. Stir. Add the balsamic, herbs and ground pepper. Cover and let the magic happen. The stew is ready when the beef and vegetables are tender- about 4 to 5 hours if cooked on High. Remove the bay leaf. Taste test the broth and adjust for your taste buds- does it need a tad more salt? More ground pepper? The flavors should be balanced, warm and inviting.

Serves 4 to 5.

Source: glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com

Fourth and fifth grade classes in RSU 20 recently attended a district-wide health fair called, “Tobacco Free…A Passport to Health.” Among the things they did was to sing and dance to the words below, designed to increase their self-esteem and refusal skills.

RSU 20 music teacher Amy Gardner talks with students about the song they are about to learn.

My Mind is Mine

Some people in the world

Are messin’ up their minds,

They’re messin’ up their lives with

All that JUNK! The stuff

Is in control, It’s takin’ all the

Souls of people who were once like

YOU and Me. Got to stand my

Ground. Lookin’ all around.

Pressure comes from people

Not my Real Friends.

I’m in charge of me. No one else

Can be. Smokin’ is Stupid.

Say no! (No!)

My mind is mine (5x) I respect myself.

My mind is mine (5x) I respect myself

My mind is mine (5x) I am in control. NO!!!

The second annual fair was based on the tobacco/drug unit from the Great Body Shop curriculum used in the school. During the day, students visited seven stations that focused on various aspects of tobacco and on ways to make healthy choices. Those stations were:

• Health effects of tobacco
• Addiction
• Tobacco advertising
• Second- and third-hand smoke
• Smokeless tobacco
• Empowering students through music
• Raising self-esteem through art

Elementary Guidance Counselor Cynthia Martell discusses how candy cigarettes are used by advertisers to try to start young people on the road to smoking.

Brandon Hurd of the Waldo County YMCA and Barbara Crowley RN of Healthy Waldo County ask students about ways to protect yourself from secondhand smoke as posted behind the students.

Linda Hartkopf, the school health coordinator in RSU 20, said, “The timing for the fair is perfect. Recently, reports were released about tobacco usage among Maine youth. The numbers are alarming and climbing. The State of Tobacco Control 2009 report shows that between 2007 and 2008, self-reported rates of smoking in Maine adolescents and teens rose from 14 percent to more than 18 percent, which is the first increase since 1997, when the rate was more than 39 percent. We look forward to providing students strategies for making good, healthy choices around tobacco.”

Dave Cross, the District Tobacco Coordinator, tells students about the dangers of smokeless tobacco.

Carrie Walker of Searsmont runs her leg of a relay race wearing a weighted vest and carrying weights to feel how smoking affects a person’s lungs.

Waldo County General Hospital is offering an American Red Cross CPR and standard first aid class that is open to the public. The class will be held on Saturday, March 26, from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the Hospital’s Education Center on Northport Avenue in Belfast and will cover adult CPR and first aid techniques.

Lonie Brown, a certified American Red Cross Instructor, will conduct the course which is ideal for day care providers, care givers or any interested persons. Participants will receive a certification card upon successful completion of the class.

Call the hospital’s education department at 338-2500 extension 4154 to register and pick up the CPR book. The fee is $55 and should be paid when picking up class materials.

In 2007, a small University of Virginia study of 34 students yielded some interesting results about friends and physical challenges. Participants stood at the base of a hill wearing a weighted backpack. Some of them were all alone. Others were paired up with a friend. Researchers then asked them to estimate how steep the hill in front of them really was. The students who stood with a friend estimated that the hill was less steep than students who stood alone did. And the longer the friends had known each other, the less steep the hill appeared to them.…

 
We could easily apply these findings to a wide range of workouts. Simply being with a friend can make the physical challenge of exercise seem less daunting to you—especially if you’re doing it with one of your best friends. This actually makes me think back to my Grand Canyon hiking trip last year. Surprisingly, I never viewed the multi-day excursion (also with weighted packs!) as very challenging, despite the grand scale of the trails we climbed. Could that be because I took the journey with my very best friend of almost 7 years?…

 
Besides making exercise seem easier, here are three more reasons to try working out with a buddy—at least occasionally.

1. Working out with a buddy makes exercise more fun. As long as you’re a somewhat social person, I think this is true. Whether it brings out an inner competitiveness that helps you work harder and pass the time, or helps you maintain a lighthearted attitude about Zumba class (at least you two will feel like fools together), exercising with a friend can help freshen up your routine when you’re feeling bored.
2. Working out with a buddy lets you multitask. My aforementioned best friend and I both exercise regularly, although usually not together. Often, when we’re craving friend time and need to catch up, we do so by working out together: running, walking or hiking. We also tend to do this when one of us needs to vent, so talk about multitasking: spending time with friends, getting things off your chest, reducing stress (via that connection and the exercise), and meeting our fitness goals. That sounds like a win-win-win-win to me! Bonus: Being able to carry on a choppy conversation is a good indicator that you’re working at the right intensity level!
3. Working out with a buddy provides accountability. While I don’t think it’s wise to always rely on someone else to stay motivated yourself, it can work in a pinch. I tend to be motivated to work out most days. But when I’m not, I’ll call up a friend. Then my workout is more like an appointment that I have to keep because I don’t want to cancel or let the other person down. This is a great technique to try on occasion, but I also think it’s important to make a habit of finding ways to stay motivated on your own—without always needing to rely on someone else.

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 red onion, diced

2-3 teaspoons red curry paste (Thai Kitchen makes a good one, available at Hannaford), to taste

1 teaspoon cumin

2 stalks of celery, chopped

1/2 head white or purple cabbage, shredded

2 large carrots, peeled, sliced or chopped

1 large sweet potato, diced

2 apples – 1 tart, 1 sweet – cored, peeled and chopped

1/4 cup raisins

1 14-oz. can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

3 cups broth, more if needed

 

 

To add in later:

 

 

1 cup light coconut milk, more if needed

Sea salt and black pepper, to taste

A squeeze of fresh lime  to taste

Chopped fresh cilantro, to taste

 

 

Pour the oil in the bottom of the Crock Pot.Add the garlic, onion and spices. Stir to coat. Add the rest of the ingredients in the first list. Stir briefly to combine. Cover and cook on low heat for six hours or until the vegetables and potato are tender. I stirred the curry once during the afternoon to make sure all the veggies were moist and mingled.

 

 

Before serving, add in the coconut milk, seasoning and lime. Add some chopped cilantro. Taste test and adjust seasonings, balancing the sweet tartness with the fiery creaminess. If you need more liquid, add broth or coconut milk.

 
Cover and heat through an additional 15 minutes or so. Serve spooned over rice.

 

 

Makes 4 servings.