Monday, November 30, 2015

The Food Was Delicious.....Ways to Burn Calories After the Feast

Thanksgiving and the holidays may mean a bit of weight gain. Or, you may be gaining that "Freshman 15" you always hear about (generally due to eating any free food offered on campus plus eating a lot more junk and fast food than you used to, and not moving enough to burn it off).


In order to lose one pound of weight, you need to cut 3500 calories fom the food you eat for the week, or 500 calories every day.


The other way to lose weight: burn calories.


Here are some ways to burn 100 calories, for someone who weighs about 150 pounds:


10 Minutes       Jump rope continuously
                        Shovel snow
15 Minutes       Paint walls
                         Swim some laps
                         Walk up stairs
20 Minutes        Rake leaves
                          Wash the car
                          Take a slow bike ride
                          Play basketball
                         Take a brisk walk
                          Spend 20 minutes on an elliptical or treadmill




30 Minutes        Walk the dog
                          Put up holiday lights
                          Do some dancing


Wondering how many calories you're burning? See this calculator: http://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html


  • Take weight loss slowly, don't do any 'fad diets' where you eat nothing but cabbage or one that doesn't include a major food group.
  • Losing one or maybe 2 pounds a week is perfectly fine---that's between 5 and 8 pounds in a month.
  • You can eat a bit of everything. Forbidding a food is just asking you to 'cheat.'
  • Watch the way you use words---'skinny' and 'thin' really refer to people who are not a healthy weight. You're trying to be healthy, feel better, and make it easier for your heart to work, not go to extremes to be underweight. Work on a sensible body image while you're learning to eat better and move your body.
  • Make new eating habits you're not going to abandon once you've lost weight.
  • Regular soda has 100 calories and 27 grams of sugar, about 8 teaspooonsful (or more). Diet soda has 0 calories and 0 grams of sugar. If you typically drink 3 cans of soda in a day, you could cut out 300 calories a day (and 24 spoonsful of sugar!!) simply by switching to diet soda. That's 9000 calories in a 30 day month.
WOW for November 30: What does BMI mean? What is your BMI? Click here: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/lose_wt/BMI/bmicalc.htm


How many calories are in that??? Look up the number of calories foods including items from restaurants here: http://www.bing.com/search?q=calories+in+food&qs=n&form=QBLH&pq=calories+in+food&sc=8-16&sp=-1&sk=&cvid=AA919045BF3848219640C1BB99D03E1B
Here's a list of apps that might be helpful in your goal of getting healthy: http://www.healthline.com/health/diet-and-weight-loss/top-iphone-android-apps#2


Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Black Friday, Gray Thursday, Buy Nothing Day

Originally, Black Friday referred to a stock market crash that happened in 1869. It was also used to describe the crash that happened October 24, 1929, Black Tuesday.  Now it refers to the day after Thanksgiving, when a high number of sales allows retail merchandisers to be "in the black," or to make profits, even when selling some items very inexpensively. Their hope is to have customers buy other items not on sale. 





Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade has always been used to advertise items for sale the following day.


Did you know:
 
  • From a shopping standpoint, stores opening on Thanksgiving call it  'Gray Thursday.'
  • It is prohibited for stores to be open on Thanksgiving Day in Massachusetts.
  • Charlotte, North Carolina, has the most customer traffic on Black Friday.
  • Other countries also have sales on Black Friday. Most of the sales take place online, but they are present in England, Panama, Australia, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, South American countries, and Canada.
  • India has The Great Online Shopping Festival that lasts 3 days.



Canada invented Buy Nothing Day, now observed worldwide either on the Friday or Saturday following Thanksgiving. Besides concentrating on saving the planet with less waste, people also have parties to cut up credit cards, have a winter coat exchange, and steer empty shopping carts around a store. Some people also see it as a way to support retail clerks required to work on a day that most others have off--at possible danger to the clerks.

Do you shop over the Thanksgiving weekend? Could you participate in Buy Nothing Day? (For college students, that's every day).
And speaking of poor college students, here are some do it yourself ideas to make simple Christmas Gifts:

Ideas to make with items from the Dollar Store: http://www.trendsandideas.com/exciting-dollar-store-diy-projects/

Monday, November 9, 2015

What About Veterans?

Originally published November 11, 2013

A Letter to a Vet:


"Thank you" hardly seems adequate





For time away from your family



















For putting yourself in harm's way


Without question, without complaint, when your country asked



For your triumphs


For your losses



For showing the rest of the world, the best of the world






For being there


Whether it was yesterday


Or 50 years ago
















We appreciate everything you did, everything you do


We haven't forgotten


Thank you isn't enough, but , Thank You.

Sincerely, Your Country






Some brief facts:
  • There were 21.9 million vets in the U.S. in 2009
  • 1.5 million of those vets were female
  • 71% of all vets voted in the 2008 election, compared to 63% of non-vets
  • 5.5 million vets have a service-related disability
 
What do these people have in common?
  • Jimi Hendrix
  • Drew Carey
  • Ice T
  • Chuck Norris
  • Clint Eastwood
  • Elvis Presley
They all served in the military.




For a video that gives a history and other facts about Veterans Day, check this out:

Monday, November 2, 2015

Microblog: Careers With Minnesota Companies: Medtronic



Medtronic is a large medical manufacturing company based out of Fridley, Minnesota, but having corporate headquarters in Dublin, Ireland.
 
Some of the things Medtronic develops and manufactures are:
  • Pacemakers for the heart
  • Insulin pumps for diabetics
  • Spinal repair devices
  • Neurostimulators for pain relief

It's National Diabetes Awareness Month. Your WOW for 11-2-15 : T1D  http://jdrf.org/about/about-type-1-diabetes-t1d/



Medtronic has offices across the United States, Ireland, and China, and lists all jobs here:
http://www.medtronic.com/us-en/careers-7.html

Here is a list of careers at Medtronic:
Administration
  • Sales
  • Education and Training
  • Engineering
  • Finance
  • Health Policy
  • Research
  • Human Resources
  • Information Technology
  • Legal
  • Production
  • Patient Care
  • Recruiting
  • Scientist
  • Surgical Technologist
  • Telehealth
 
Applicants to any jobs with Medtronic will be most appropriate when they have some amount of medical background. Thus, an RN, Surgical Tech, Physical or Occupational Therapist or Tech, Physician, Medical Researcher, Lab-experienced researcher, or anyone with knowledge of medical terminology and procedures, will fit a career with Medtronic the best.