It’s that time of year again when so many Americans set health and wellness goals. Some goals include losing weight or exercising more or simply eating healthier.  However, these goals typically require a change in our behavior, which is the hard.  This  is often why so many become discouraged and lose sight of their goals before they begin to change.

Change takes time…

Don’t give up yet!!

Begin again today.

Begin again by doing one “random acts of fitness.”  What does this mean? These are purposeful acts of physical activity that we squeeze randomly into our busy days.  No gym needed!

Here are a few ideas that people have shared which I call…random acts of fitness:

• Do squats while unloading the dishwasher…dish by dish!  You will get a small strength workout for your legs at the same time you are loading the dishwasher.
• Boycott the elevators…and walk!  Its the little things that make the biggest difference!
• Use the treadmill at random times.  Every minute adds up…5 minutes here and 10 minutes there,  all count!
• March in place while waiting for microwave.
• Rotate your ankles while at computer.Feel the stretch in your lower calves..ahh!
• Lean against the wall on your tiptoes, then push your hips toward wall and squeeze buttocks tight. Firm that fanny!

Whether you’re doing a random act of kindness or a random act of fitness…it’s often the little things that make the biggest difference in our lives!  Begin again today!

Author:  Shari L. Gallup, M.S., Extension Educator specializing in Health and Wellness, Ohio State University Extension.

Today, many of our efforts to use and consume less start with a focus on saving money. But whatever your initial reason for trying to do more with less, you’ve probably come to realize that the two lifestyles, frugality and conservation, are joined at the hip. Frugality as a money choice means that you try to get the longest possible use out of your possessions, use fewer resources, and throw away less money on consumable products. Sound like environmental conservation? It is! So how can you “kill two birds with one stone” and help both your budget and the environment? Make choices that will help you go “Green².”

Ditch the plastic water bottles.
Don’t misunderstand me. I am thrilled when I see someone drinking water instead of pop. In 2006, Americans consumed an average of 167 bottles of water each. However, they only recycled about 23% of them. That means 38 billion water bottles went into landfills. It takes hundreds of years before they begin to break down. And even then, they don’t completely decompose because they are made from petroleum products. On the money side, bottled water costs $1-$4 per gallon, with 90% of the cost in the bottle, lid and label. If you are spending $5 every week to purchase a case of bottled water, that cost adds up to $260 per year for a product you can pretty much get for free from your faucet.

Maybe you’re thinking “I don’t buy water, I just reuse the bottles.” I used to be that person. And it was hard for me to let go of that mind-set. But then I started to look at the health risks associated with re-using plastic bottles. I realized I had to find a different way to cheaply store water. Plastic bottles are constructed for one time usage. If you have been trying to save money by re-using your water bottles — which get dinged up through normal wear and tear and dishwashing — realize that this increases the risk that chemicals are leaching out of the cracks and crevices of the bottle into your water. Plastic leaching has been linked to breast and uterine cancer, an increased risk of miscarriage, and decreased testosterone levels. In case you haven’t noticed, there are still beverages available at the grocery store packaged in glass bottles, such as iced tea and juice. I purchased an eight-pack of iced tea in glass bottles with screw on caps, drank the tea, and currently wash and reuse those same glass bottles for water storage. Another advantage of switching to glass? The water flows better coming out of a glass bottle; it is more fluid because the sides aren’t caving in and out from the suction of swallowing. Many people have also begun to purchase stainless steel drinking cups to reuse over and over.

Get and use a clothesline.
I think I was Amish in a previous life, because I love hanging my clothes on the clothesline. I figure why pay the gas or electric company for a service that Mother Nature will give me for free. Depending on where you live, you can get anywhere from 7-12 months of free drying time by using a clothesline. The cost savings are an advantage, but sunlight also sanitizes and freshens your clothing, bedding, and towels. Many people find it comforting to sleep on clean sheets that were dried on a clothesline. Cost savings range from $100-200 per year, depending on your climate and type of dryer (gas vs. electric). Using energy to create heat is energy intensive, so the average clothes dryer will end up costing about $1500 to operate over its life span. There are some obvious reasons why someone might not be able to use a “solar” dryer, such as people who live in apartments or in neighborhoods where outdoor drying is banned for aesthetic reasons. Those rules may need to be challenged in these days of climate change and awareness. You might consider lobbying your neighborhood association to reverse this rule.

Bottom line: If you are trying to tighten up your expenses, some lifestyle choices you make will actually help you contribute to a more sustainable universe. How great is that?

Written by:

 Donna Green

Family and Consumer Sciences Educator

Ohio State University Extension

• Eat family meals together at least 5 times a week.
• Start each day with breakfast.
• Drink 2-3 cups of low-fat milk every day.
• Use small salad plates (7 inch) for meals.  This will encourage proper portion sizes at each meal.
• Choose physical activities that keep you active 60 minutes a day.

Quesdilla con Huevos

Great for breakfast or lunch!

• ½ cup grated cheddar or cojack cheese
• 2 scrambled eggs
• 4 (6-8 inch) flour tortillas
• 4 Tablespoons salsa (optional)

Directions:  Put 2 Tablespoons cheese and ¼ of the scrambled eggs on each tortilla.  Heat 2 quesadillas at a time in the microwave on high for 30 to 45 seconds or until cheese melts.  Top with salsa and fold tortilla in half to serve.

Makes 4 quesadillas.

Make them plain or add peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms, or onions.  Instead of using the microwave, you can heat them on a skillet or griddle until the cheese melts.

200 calories, 10 g fat, 18 g carbohydrates, 10 g protein, 1 g fiber, 420 mg sodium.

Source:  http://recipefinder.nal.usda.gov/index.php

Author:  Linnette Goard, Extension Educator, Ohio State University Extension

Rituals and traditions contribute to a strong sense of kinship that enables a family to withstand stress and disappointments. Family members feel the support that comes from knowing that they aren’t alone. The greatest value of traditions are they give the family a sense of identity, a real belonging. All of us need to feel that we are not just a cluster of people living in a house, but a family that a unit that is conscious of its uniqueness, its personality, its character and its heritage. They can be very simple or elaborate and through the years they become the things we most look forward to or the things that set structure for children early in life.
In general, families that share lots of traditions tend to reflect these 6 characteristics of strong families:
1. Commitment- family comes first. By investing time and energy in family relationships the challenges in life won’t be as great when we work together.
2. Appreciation- strengthen relationships by letting family members know that he or she is sincerely appreciated as a special individual. This goes along with showing respect and being considerate.
3. Communication- make this happen in your family by taking ti me to talk about trivial topics as well as the more profound issues. Listening is an important part of communication.
4. Togetherness- plan time to work and play as a family. Learn to say “no” to outside demands that take you away from or involve your children in too many things.
5. Spiritual Wellness is the belief that life has meaning and purpose which helps families in time of trouble. Research indicates this characteristic is very important in family stability
6. Coping with crisis and stress- develop the art of finding and focusing on something positive in each situation. Use each other’s talents and resources to work as a team to get through the hard times.
As this season is rich with traditions, why not turn off the electronics, and spend some quality time in conversation with your family? You’ll be glad you did.
Submitted by: Melinda Hill, CFLE, OSU Extension Wayne County

I was raised in a middle-class home and community. I know that is a blessing. Not everyone grows up with loving parents, discipline, a work ethic, and a nurturing community of like-minded individuals. But this advantage can also be a stumbling block when it comes to understanding other socio-economic groups. Before I started working in Extension and collaborating with social service agencies, my solution for getting out of poverty was pretty straight-forward. Work hard, pull yourself up by your boot-straps; you know the platitudes we spout when someone is struggling.

Unfortunately, it takes a lot more to achieve financial success than sheer force of will (although it can be a starting point). How do a large majority of people turn into self-supporting adults and others, not? It is a subject that seems simple on the surface, but in actuality is very complex, even volatile. There is a lot of anger simmering throughout the country right now with the recession, unemployment, and staggering budget deficits looming. People are angry at the government for not generating more employment opportunities and with poor people for draining away state and federal resources. To get a wider perspective, we need to look at the myriad factors that dictate where a person lands in life, and how much personal responsibility factors into the equation.

External Factors – Geographical location, education, culture, family history, health, and income are huge starting factors that an infant being thrust into the world does not get to choose. Most of us were lucky at birth. We weren’t born on garbage heaps in Calcutta. This is not said to diminish the real suffering that goes on in some pockets of our country, but the poorest people in America are wealthy compared to the poor in third-world countries.

A good way to describe external factors is to liken them to a card game. You are dealt a certain hand, and you have to play with the cards you are dealt. Some people get great “cards,” such as good looks, athletic ability, and high intelligence. Those cards can be the decisive “thumb on the scale” that gives someone an automatic lift into success. Others get crappy hands, with dysfunctional parents, poverty, or physical and mental challenges among their cards. Their bad cards have to be played until they turn 18, or depending on the card, possibly a lifetime.

Luck – When something good happens to another person, it’s normal to feel a little envious of their good fortune. But what the envious do not always recognize is the enormous amount of work and risk it took to get lucky. My favorite definition of luck is “when preparation meets opportunity.” Going to school and furthering your education, practicing (anything from sports to the piano), and setting goals are ways that successful people use to get ahead. If you’re not willing to do the work it takes to succeed, you will reduce your odds of getting lucky.

Opportunity – Not everyone is offered opportunities to succeed. Some people get them and squander them. We all know of kids who go to college, party hard for a couple of semesters, and flunk out. Others go using a combination of loans, scholarships, and part-time jobs and work their butts off. How we respond to opportunities is just as important as the opportunity itself.

Choice – One of the greatest gifts all Americans receive at birth is the gift of freedom. Essentially, we have the luxury to choose how we will live our lives. Choice is a variable factor. Some decisions are made after careful deliberation; others just reflect our thought process at any given moment. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t regret some of their choices. However, I find it interesting that the scale we use to judge others’ choices differs from how we view our own. Psychologists actually have a name for it–fundamental attribution error. In your head, you believe that whatever problems you have are the result of difficult circumstances, whereas those same problems in others are a result of their bad choices.

There are so many other factors to consider it would take pages to delineate them all. In addition to the four listed above we should include abuse, lack of knowledge of “hidden rules,” laziness, attitude, maturity, work ethic, role models, discrimination, making mistakes early on that give you heartache for life, addiction, and peers.

What can you take from this? First, that life can be very random, so it is not always fair to pat yourself on the back if you got lucky. Second, poverty is a very complex issue that cannot be attributed solely to behavioral factors. And third, if you are lucky enough to be one of the “haves,” how can you use your knowledge and skills to help others? Senator Ted Kennedy, who got the good cards of wealth, intelligence, and political cache, also made some disastrous personal choices. But his philosophy–to whom much is given, much is expected—is one that we can all work to emulate.

Written by: Donna Green
Extension Educator, Family and Consumer Sciences
Ohio State University Extension

There are many television programs and DVDs that claim to have educational benefits for children.  So when investigating further into the effect of media on children, scientists researched the potential benefits that media could have.  They found that media programs are only beneficial  or educational if children are able to understand the content and follow a story line.  However, children under the age of 2 generally do not have this ability.

Further Key Findings:

• Unstructured play time is more valuable for the developing brain than electronic media. Children learn  to think creatively, problem solve, and develop reasoning and motor skills at early ages through unstructured, unplugged play. Free play also teaches them how to entertain themselves.
• Young children learn best from—and need—interaction with humans, not screens.
• Parents who watch TV or videos with their child may add to the child’s understanding, but children learn more from live presentations than from televised ones.
• When parents are watching their own programs, this is “background media” for their children. It distracts the parent and decreases parent-child interaction. Its presence may also interfere with a young child’s learning from play and activities.
• Television viewing around bedtime can cause poor sleep habits and irregular sleep schedules, which can adversely affect mood, behavior and learning.
• Young children with heavy media use are at risk for delays in language development once they start school, but more research is needed as to the reasons.

For more information on this from the APA, you can read here.

Whether you are having money issues or not, you might want to rethink how you celebrate the holiday season. Have you grown discouraged by the commercialization of a religious holiday? Would you like to make the holidays more meaningful and less about consumption? Then you may want to change your mind set about gift-giving. Most Christmas gifts usually only provide momentary happiness. As soon as something becomes yours, its value is diminished by use and familiarity.

How about accumulating memories instead of stuff? Do any of you with children really want more toys to trip over and store? Do the adults out there need more ties or shirts? Why not take some time over the holidays to go out into the community and do things as a family? I guarantee your kids will cherish and remember those outings much more than a toy or an article of clothing. And it doesn’t have to be expensive. There are many fun things going on in the state over the next few weeks that are free or low cost.

How about a drive around your community to look at the Christmas lights? Take some hot chocolate in a thermos and popcorn to snack on in the car, and roll down the windows a little to feel the fresh, cold air. If the weather cooperates and it snows, head over to the nearest sledding hill for an afternoon. If you don’t own a sled, they are pretty inexpensive to purchase, or you may be able to borrow one from a neighbor. An old inner tube is one of the most fun ways to descend a hill, and not quite so difficult to navigate if you have older joints or a more “mature” body.

If you can afford to spend a little more for a day’s outing, you might want to drive to Cleveland to check out “Snow Days” at Progressive Field (home of the Cleveland Indians). The Indians organization is turning the ballpark into a winter wonderland with a snow tubing hill, ice skating rink, walking trail, and fire pit. The tubing hill, called the “Batterhorn,” is over 60 feet high and refreshed with snow made daily. The park will be open for five weeks from Thanksgiving thru New Year’s Day. Cost is as low as $5 per person, but check out the Indians website for specific information on times and charges.

Many zoos celebrate the holiday season with lighting displays. They are literally transformed with millions of light and images. Grandparents may want to take their grandchildren, or even buy passes for the family as a Christmas gift so the zoo can be enjoyed all year long. Bowling is a fun and active way to spend an afternoon in January when it is too cold to be outside for long periods of time.

No matter what your family’s age range, try to schedule some holiday togetherness. You can never get these years back, the present becomes the past and it is gone. Think outside the box and make your gift choices interactive, memory-making, and meaningful.

To get you primed for this holiday paradigm shift, log onto the Ohio Department of Aging website and type “depression stories” into the search box at the top right of the screen. When the page loads, scroll down to the Christmas link and read about stories of what holidays were like during the depression. I’m sure you will be as moved as I was when you read the recollections of Christmas from some of our older senior citizens. Below is a story submitted by Carolyn Davison, age 86, Columbus:

“Our Christmases were so exciting! Christmas Eve, we would go down to the market after it closed, pick up a tree they had thrown away, and decorate it that night. What family fun for my brother, sister, me and my mom and dad! It always was beautiful in my childish eyes. We had no gifts under our tree until the day after. The morning after Christmas, we went down to Montgomery Ward on Main Street and Mother and Daddy purchased our gifts at sale price. In those days, the day after Christmas was really honestly marked down good merchandise before Jan. 1 inventory. I remember one year I wanted a certain doll so bad, but of course we couldn’t afford it. The day after Christmas, we went down to Montgomery Ward and yes, there was one of my dolls still for sale, marked down. My mother grabbed her up and hugged her and actually cried. She had been marked down enough for us to buy her. My daughter has her in her treasures.”

Written by Donna Green, FCS Educator, OSU Extension, Erie County

• Eat breakfast everyday.  Try a whole-grain cereal like raisin bran with skim or 1% milk.  Or, whole-wheat toast spread with jam.
• Teach kids that healthy foods taste good.  Make macaroni and cheese with skim milk and low-fat cheese.
• Choose whole-grain foods like whole-wheat bread, oatmeal, brown rice, or whole-wheat pasta more often than refined-grain foods like white bread, white rice and white pasta.
• Snack on fruits and vegetables.  Keep a bowl of fruit on the table, bags of mini carrots in the refrigerator, and boxes of raisins in the cupboard.
• Don’t keep a lot of sweets like cookies, candy or soda in the house.  Too many sweets can crowd out healthier foods.

Crispy Sweet Potato Sticks

2 pounds sweet potatoes

1 ½ teaspoons vegetable oil

Cut sweet potatoes into sticks.  Toss with oil in a bowl.  Spread out onto baking sheet.  Bake about ½ hour at 375 degrees F. or until browned and tender.  Sprinkle with a little lemon juice if desired.

Makes 8 servings.  The oil adds approximately 1 gram of fat per serving.

Author:  Linnette Goard, Extension Educator, Ohio State University Extension.

It looks like this:

•Grateful
•Wise
•Creative
•Optimistic
•Appreciative
•Understanding
•Curious
•Frustrated
•Irritated
•Anxious
•Defensive
•Judgmental
•Depressed

Our emotional well-being is an important part of who we are and what we accomplish on a daily basis. When we find ourselves on the lower part of the “mood elevator”, our outlook on life and the effect that we have on those around us is not as productive or positive as it is when we are on the upper part. Larry Senn is the founder of the Senn Delaney group and gives the following tips from the Harvard Business Review to recognize and focus behavior towards a positive outcome. What I realize is that there is actual documentation that how I feel dominates not only my perspective, but those around me. Think about ways to apply the following tips in your daily life.

1. Become aware of your state of mind and use your feelings as your guide to the quality of your thinking. Make a conscious effort to notice where you are on the Mood Elevator. Use your feelings as indicators of the quality of your thought. Don’t let unhealthy thoughts become so normal you don’t notice them.

2. Take better care of yourself. Our physical state plays a role in our thinking. When we get tired and worn down we are more vulnerable to lower-quality thinking and lower moods.

3. Know your thoughts are unreliable when your mood drops. Our thoughts are often unreliable when we are in a lower state of mind. If possible, delay making major decisions until you move a few floors up the elevator. If you can’t wait, try to respond as you would if you were driving on an icy road: use caution and do not overreact.

4. Maintain your perspective through gratitude and a sense of humor. Taking the time to think each day of some things you can be grateful for is a powerful mood tonic. When you have perspective, you can see your momentary problem, challenge or issue in the context of all that you have going for you in life. Humor and lightness help you handle your serious challenges in a better, wiser state of mind.

5. Be aware of your leadership shadow. One reason to be aware of where you are on the Mood Elevator is that moods are contagious. The central finding of my doctoral dissertation on organizational culture published over 30 years ago was that an organization’s culture and climate is most greatly influenced by the shadow of their leaders. The biggest shadow we bring to work each day is our state of mind or mood. It is also the biggest one we carry home at night. That should be food for thought for all of us.

Melinda Hill is an OSU Extension Family & Consumer Sciences educator and may be reached at 330-264-8722.

My family’s heritage is farming. Although only a handful of my extended family still farms for a living, we all look forward to the annual apple cider pressing. Everyone has their duties…the youngest cousins wash the apples in a large, metal tub (a fun but wet job!). Clean apples are cut and spot-checked by older cousins and aunts and then piled in a wooden press that has latest many generations. Whoever is feeling strong will hand crank the press, and the sweet cider runs out the bottom and into a large bucket. The liquid is strained through cheesecloth to remove any large chunks of pulp, and container after container is filled using a very sticky funnel and some steady hands. (We don’t sell any cider, as it’s not pasteurized.) It’s a great family tradition and way to enjoy the taste of fresh, fall apples. Here are some other suggestions for using apples this fall:

• gently cook apples and pair with pork loin (or roast them together in a crock pot)
• mix chopped apples in chicken or tuna salad with low-fat mayo
• place sliced apples in your favorite sandwich
• bake apple oatmeal bread
• apple compote (ready in time for Thanksgiving)
• bake whole apples stuffed with cinnamon, dried fruits and/or nuts, and a touch of brown sugar
• chop and simmer to make homemade, no-sugar added applesauce
• slice and pair with feta on top of spinach salads

The All-Recipes website has a listing of the type of apple that is best suited for each type of recipe.

Cheers, Julie