This Week's Healthy SC Challenge Tips

The Healthy SC Challenge is the Sanford family's effort to get all South Carolinians to do just a little more to live a healthier lifestyle. The tips are designed to encourage individuals and communities to live healthier lifestyles in three categories - nutrition, exercise and help to quit smoking.

Nutrition
Your mother always told you that breakfast was the most important meal of the day. Believe it or not, research shows that she was right! Breakfast means "breaking the fast," or refueling your body after going without food all night. Food is the fuel that keeps your body going, and refueling at breakfast helps you perform and feel better.


To Replenish Blood Sugar: Because it's been eight to 12 hours since your last meal or snack, your body and brain need more food to replenish their blood sugar, or glucose. Eating breakfast provides fuel after a night of fasting and improves your brain's ability to function. Morning is the time of day when you have peak energy demands, yet you have the lowest energy reserves.

To Energize the Body: Eating breakfast energizes you, enables you to be more productive in the late morning, and helps you feel less tired throughout the day. It gives you more endurance and strength, muscle coordination, better concentration and memory, as well as better problem-solving ability.

To Perform Better at School and Work: Studies have shown that when children have breakfast, they are more alert, participate more fully in school activities, and they usually are on their best behavior. They have longer attention spans, score better on tests and improve their grades, are tardy or absent less often, and make fewer visits to the school nurse. They also are not as easily distracted and are less fidgety, irritable or tired. This applies to adults in the work place, too!
-Janis G. Hunter, HGIC Nutrition Specialist, and Katherine L. Cason, Professor, State Program Leader for Food Safety and Nutrition, Clemson University

Physical Activity
Whenever you miss a few workout sessions (more than a week), you may need to resume exercising at a lower level than before. If you miss a few sessions because of a temporary, minor illness such as a cold, wait until you feel normal before you resume exercising. Or if you have a minor injury, wait until the pain disappears. When you resume exercising, start at one-half to two-thirds your normal level, depending on the number of days you missed and how you feel while exercising. Whatever the reasons for missing sessions, don't worry about the missed days. Just get back into your routine and think about the progress you will be making toward your exercise goal.
-www.prohealth.com

Tobacco
Smoking can accelerate the normal aging process of your skin, contributing to wrinkles. These skin changes may occur after only 10 years of smoking and are irreversible.

How does smoking lead to wrinkles? Smoking causes narrowing of the blood vessels in the outermost layers of your skin. This impairs blood flow to your skin, depleting it of oxygen and important nutrients, such as vitamin A. Smoking also damages collagen and elastin - fibers that give your skin its strength and elasticity. As a result, skin begins to sag and wrinkle prematurely.

Smoking doesn't only cause wrinkles on your face. A 2007 study found that smoking is associated with increased wrinkling and skin damage on other parts of the body, including the inner arms. In addition, repeated exposure to the heat from burning cigarettes and the facial expressions you make when smoking - such as pursing your lips when inhaling and squinting your eyes to keep out smoke - may contribute to wrinkles.
-Lawrence E. Gibson, M.D., www.mayoclinic.com