1. Walk or ride your bike. Taking your kids to the park or to a friend’s house? Ride your bike or walk instead. Not only do you get to spend more time with your kids, but you can also get in a great workout! If you are walking in the heat, make sure you are prepared with sunscreen, hats, and plenty of water!

2. Visit the local swimming pool. Swimming is a great form of exercise especially when it’s hot outside and you need to cool down! Do some laps in the pool or check with your pool to see if they have classes you can take. Some local pools even teach inexpensive classes like water aerobics, which are also great workouts!

3. Push mow the yard. What seems like a common chore is actually a great cardio workout. Push mowing the yard not only burns calories, but is a great workout for your legs and arms, plus your yard will look great!

4. Plant a garden. Although it doesn’t seem like a typical workout, gardening is a great way to burn calories without hitting the gym. Gardening is also a great relaxation tool that can help you reduce stress. Instead of just planting flowers, try your hand at fruits and vegetables!

5. Explore your community! Indianapolis is full of wonderful parks and trails, so take advantage of them and go for a hike. You can also go for a walk or bike ride on the Indianapolis Cultural Trail, an 8 mile path that goes throughout the city!

Staying fit doesn’t have to mean a visit to the gym everyday. Enjoy these gym-less activities during your summer! While you are outside in the summer heat make sure you drink plenty of water and wear sunscreen!

Would you like to reduce stress?  Would you like to sleep better at night and feel more energized during the day?  Wouldn’t it be nice to feel less tired and more mentally alert?  There is a remarkably simple solution to make these things happen: exercise!

Physical activity is a great way to keep your body healthy but it has several benefits for your emotional health as well.  Exercise has been shown to alleviate symptoms of depression and anxiety.  Activities like walking, running, biking, swimming, and dancing release endorphins and actually help you feel better.  It also gives you a good opportunity to get outside and with spring arriving soon, we could all use a little sunshine (see previous blog post, Blue Monday).

So, you know the benefits of exercise but still have trouble finding the time to do it?  Below are some ways to help make physical activity a priority in your life.

1.)   Make it something enjoyable!  No one says you have to get on a treadmill for an hour to exercise.  Do something you like and that fits with your life.  Take your kids to the park and play with them.  Try gardening.  Join a class that provides aerobic exercise to fun music or take a relaxing yoga class.

2.)   Make it social.  Get an exercise buddy.  Having a partner helps keep you accountable and also provides time to be with that person.  Maybe it’s something you can do with your spouse or with an old friend with whom you don’t get much time.  The social interaction that can come with exercise (either with a friend or in a class at a local rec center) is another way to boost your mood.

3.)   Be realistic.  You likely won’t have washboard abs after two workouts, and that’s okay.  Take it easy on yourself and your expectations for exercise.  Notice the positive changes you do experience like more regular, restful sleep and more energy.  Praise yourself for taking good care of the one self (physical and emotional) that you have.

For more information about HealthNet and our services, visit www.indyhealthnet.org.

Take heart — You’re not alone.

You’ve joined the “feeling unpleasantly plump” club that, according to a joint report from the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, includes a startling 30 percent of Hoosiers.

Now that the New Year is here, put “LIVE A LITTLE HEALTHIER” on your 2013 “to-do” list. Make this the year you will purpose to pitch the diets, the “all or nothing” thinking and the “no-pain, no-gain” fitness goals. Make this the year you will resolve to use common sense to move more,  eat less junk food  — and have fun doing it.

Remember what it was like when you were a kid and you thought nothing of playing tag for hours on end? That spirit still lives. You just need to wake it up. Check out these 52 Ways to Leave Your Blubber – practical, down-to-earth tips to live a little healthier in 2013!

Happy New Year from HealthNet!

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Tell us about your New Year’s resolutions to live healthier this year!

Post by Rick Reifenberg, MD

The generally accepted conversion is that one pound of stored fat is equal to about 3,500 calories. 

This could be thought of as an extra 500 calories per day for one week (7 x 500 calories is 3,500 calories) would be one pound of weight gain.  This is a formula that can be used to estimate either gain or loss of weight.

What this means is that a 500 calorie per day deficit could be created by cutting 250 calories from one’s diet along with an additional 250 calories “burned” while doing exercise.  If you could create this 500 calorie per day deficit then you could expect to lose one pound per week.  Let’s get some examples of each:

To cut 250 Calories from your diet each day you could ELIMINATE:

• One and a half regular 12oz sodas (Mountain Dew 170 calories per 12 oz, Pepsi 150 per 12 oz)
• One 20 oz regular soda is about 250 calories
• One medium order of McDonald’s French fries is 380 calories
• 26 Pringle’s potato chips are about 250 calories
• 4 slices of Wonder bread are 262 calories
• Doritos chips snack bag (46 gm 1 1/2oz) is 250 calories
• 3 Oreo cookies are about 240 calories
• 24 Tostitos nacho chips are about 250 calories  

To burn an additional 250 calories though exercise, a 200 lb person could:

• Walk for 35 minutes at a brisk (4 mph) pace
• Walk at a slow (2 mph) pace for about 60 minutes
• Do low impact aerobics (like an exercise video) for 30 minutes
• Swim laps for 30 minutes
• Do yard work (vigorous things like cutting grass with push mower) for 30-40 minutes
• Mop floors/clean and vacuum the house for 45 minutes

The general idea is that by making small changes to the amount of calories we take in and ALSO increasing our daily activity level, we can make gradual and long-lasting changes to our weight. 

Look for ways to eliminate unnecessary calories while at the same time find ways to get more active and burn calories.  Put together, this can be a simple yet effective recipe for success.  Give it a try!

Laura Czajkowski, an interpreter at Southeast Health and Dental Center, decided to join thousands of others in Indianapolis on May 18, 2012 and ride her bike to work!

Only she didn’t stop there.  She had such a positive experience that she has committed to riding her bike to work at least one day a week ever since.  I was able to meet with Laura and ask her a few questions about her experience with riding to work.

Here are the details!

What motivated you to participate in ‘Ride Your Bike to Work Day’?
At a couple of my previous jobs I have been able to ride to work and always enjoyed it.  I saw signs around town and heard the buzz going around about this year’s event. Then I saw that IU Health was promoting the event on Pulse and had a six-week cycling challenge to encourage employees to ride more.  I decided to give it a shot.

What made you decide to keep riding your bike to work?
‘Ride Your Bike to Work Day’ really inspired me.  I had a great experience and figured I could keep doing it at least once a week.

What are the benefits you’ve gained from doing so?
Saving gas money!  I live about 9 miles from work, which is an 18 mile round trip.  Even just one bike ride to work a week saves almost $20 a month in gas. 

I feel better and stronger.  I can tell I’m gaining strength in my lower body.  The first couple of times I rode to work, I felt really energized once I got here.  I would feel more tired by the end of the day, but that’s not the case anymore.  My body has adjusted and I just feel more energized overall when I ride in. Plus it’s easier to fit in a workout when it’s part of your commute.  I don’t have to worry about coming home and trying to get a workout in.

My coworkers have encouraged me to keep going.  They continuously support my riding goal by asking how I’m doing and some of them have either rode to work or are strongly considering it.

What are some of the barriers you’ve faced with riding to work?
Construction and weather are probably the two main barriers.  If the weather is bad I can’t risk riding, and there’s a lot of construction along my way to work.  Also, if I have meetings during work, or commitments before or after work, they may prevent me from riding.  That’s why I’ve only committed to at least one day a week.  I figure it’s not reasonable for me to ride everyday, but one day a week is reasonable and I have definitely seen benefits from just riding once a week.*

Riding a bike to work is certainly not feasible for everyone.  Barriers such as distance, time, improper equipment and lack of safe routes can understandably prevent many of us from participating.

But for some of us this can work.

If you’re even considering the possibility of riding your bike to work, I strongly encourage you to try it!  If you’re nervous to do it alone, talk to some coworkers and see if riding together would be possible.

Maybe you start slower.  If the commute to work is too long or intimidating, try riding your bike to run an errand or just taking a short bike trip in your neighborhood on the weekend.  Some is better than none.  As Laura mentioned above, even riding one day a week does make a difference!

Below are some great resources for more information about cycling in Indianapolis:
Central Indiana Bicycling Association
Indiana Bicycling Information
IndyCOG – Indianapolis Bicycle Advocacy

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Do you ride your bike to work?
Do you want to start?  What barriers have you come across?
Comment below!

You’re not alone.

Join the “feeling unpleasantly plump” club that, according to a joint report from the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, includes a startling 29 percent of Indiana adults. Indiana’s adult obesity rate was at 28.1 percent in 2010, ranking it 17th in the nation. That’s down from 16th in 2009, but the state’s obesity rate climbed from 27.4 percent.

Now that spring is here, put “staying active” on your “to-do” list. Learn how much exercise you need to control your weight, and try these 20 tips for fitting more activity into your day from the Harvard School of Public Health.

You can also help others in Indy do the same.

According to Trust for America’s Health, “individuals must be given the tools they need to engage in more physical activity, since even the smallest amounts of activity can lead to major improvements.”

The communities we live in should allow greater opportunities for activity, including places for safe and affordable public recreation and increased availability of sidewalks.

HealthNet and the University of Indianapolis are partnering to bring a free and fun walking program to the Fountain Square community this spring. Fountain Square, while home to some trendy restaurants and shops, is also located in one of the poorest zip codes in the city. Students worked with HealthNet’s Health Promotions staff  to design safe, accessible walking trails. The program is set to kick off in April, and will include incentives for residents to stick with their health goals.

If you’d like to help HealthNet’s Health Promotions in their efforts to bring similar programs to other Indy neighborhoods, small donations can help a lot. Let’s make Indy a healthier place to live!