Outside the Box New Year’s Resolutions for 2013

The New Year is a time for new beginnings and to set goals that strengthen you and make your life better. When making New Year’s Resolutions, the YMCA of Greater Louisville wants to remind families that resolutions should also include family time.

Here are some simple things families can do at home to improve their health while spending more time together. The following are 5 New Year’s Resolutions the Y recommends for 2013:

1. Eat Together. Sitting down together for a meal is a great way for parents and kids to share stories, talk about the school day or share their favorite part of the day. Set aside time for your family to eat breakfast, lunch or dinner at least once a week to catch up.
2. Volunteer Together. Giving back and supporting neighbors benefits everyone. It teaches children and teens to the value of helping others while meeting new people or discovering new interests. Find an opportunity in your community that the entire family may enjoy, such as distributing food at a local food bank or cleaning your neighborhood park.
3. Unplug from Technology. Limit screen time (TV, video games, computer, etc.) and instead set aside an hour to play games, go for a family walk, take a bike ride, or a trip to the park. Make some family memories outdoors!
4. Be Physically Active. It’s important for kids to get at least 60 minutes of physical activity a day. And children aren’t the only ones who need activity – 30 minutes a day for adults too. Go swimming during Family Swim at your neighborhood Y or take a family exercise class.
5. Put Extras to Good Use. Do you have extra clothes or canned goods that could benefit others in need? Clean out your pantry, closet or attic and donate extra items to homeless shelters or community outreach programs. You can get the entire family involved and demonstrate the value of giving.

What are some of your New Year’s Resolutions?

Sandy’s Weight Loss Journey with the Y

Sandy Campbell has been a member and participant in the YMCA Weight Loss Program at the Oldham County Family YMCA since January, 2012. She has seen great success through this program, and has graciously shared her views on the program, her success, and her overall attitude with us.

Sandy, how has your life changed since beginning the YMCA Weight Loss Program?

I’ve been on every diet in the world and I was mislead on how to lose weight. The difference that I have seen since January in my life is night and day. I have figured out what hungry means and my body is now in charge of telling me what I need.

When losing weight in the past, what led to gaining the weight back?

Once I had reached my goal, I thought I was done. I went back to eating more, back to the TV, and back to eating while watching TV. I didn’t really think or know much about maintenance.

What is one of the main health improvements you have seen?

I was actually told by my physician at one point that I was a Type 2 Diabetic, but my last fasting glucose was 78 and my Hemoglobin A1C  was 5.1%.

How do you keep yourself motivated?

I always have a goal in mind. My next goal is to eliminate artificial sweeteners. Also, I am not a water lover, so I am still working on that. I will never give up my creamer, though.

What part of this program makes it work for you?

I have learned to set goals that I can reach. This program’s focus on goal setting and counting fat grams is great. I was taught about the macronutrients: carbohydrates, protein, and fat. I have now found the perfect formula for me!

What would you tell someone who was thinking about joining the YMCA Weight Loss Program?

If you want back your youth, you’ve got to get yourself back. The person inside has a lot of self worth, you have to get back that self worth to compete in this world. You’ve got to want it. You’ve got to want it bad.

Any last words of wisdom?

My lifestyle has changed and I will never go back. I am throwing out my fat clothes. I stopped listening to what I wanted and started listening to what I needed.

Zumba Experience

By guest blogger, Nina Walfoort

I had foot surgery last year and spent most of the following four months on the couch and limping around in my attractive navy blue Bledsoe Bunion Walking boot. When I could finally walk in a shoe, my foot felt like a brick in a wooden box.  I was pretty sure there wouldn’t be any tennis in my future.

But I did slowly return to normal activity. Feeling did slowly return to my enlarged toes. And the best thing I did to hasten my recovery was to start Zumba classes at the YMCA.

It really does keep you on your toes. All those little steps! All that toe-tapping!  All that lunging and squatting!  I was having a ball, learning some dance moves and immediately seeing much improved flexibility in my feet.

And now the Louisville Free Public Library is including a Zumba lesson in its How-To Festival this Saturday, May 12. The festival promises to teach you 50 things in five hours including how to make beer, start a conversation and raise chickens. Go to www.lfpl.org/how-to/ for the full schedule. I recommend the Zumba demo, featuring one of my favorite YMCA Zumba instructors Becky Griffin, at 2 pm in the downtown branch at 301 York Street.

So if you go and get the Latin beat and want more, come to the YMCA classes at your local branch if you are a Y member. And don’t forget, our schedules are available at ymcalouisville.org.  We have dozens of great instructors and classes at all hours. Come downtown on the weekend. The light-footed one in the back of the class is me!

Choices by Tom Whortan

It is happening again, I look up and realize that I do not like some of the choices I am making. I know, the bad choices are so much easier, grab fast food instead of cooking something healthier, plop in front of the TV instead of interacting with the family or walking the dog, watching 15 minutes more TV instead of reading to your child at bedtime.  Choices, we have so many of them every day and honestly I am not sure we ever really think about how important the little ones are over time. How many people would agree with the statement “I would love two weeks every year to spend with my kids or spouse” imagine what we could accomplish in those two weeks, how valued they would feel. Well 15 minutes every day adds up to two weeks every year.  I can find that two weeks, can you?

Most of us have seen the Cola commercial where the guy asks “and?” after each thing that happens in his life and something even cooler happens. But that commercial misses the most important “and” question he (and we) should be asking. The one we ask of ourselves, “and what can I do for him/her/them?” Instead of waiting for the next cool thing, why not be the next cool thing? It really is just about choices, choosing our attitude, actions and behaviors.

We all get the big choices and how important they are. Getting married, having kids, accepting a job, joining a church, we can list them and we all get that they matter to us, our families and those close to us. But those little choices we face every day, do we really pay attention to what they do, how much they add up to mean. If it is true that “we are what we repeatedly do” then those daily choices become our habits, they make us who we are.  Here are some questions about those little choices:

• Did you tell your spouse (significant other, etc….) how much they mean to you before you left this morning?
• When was the last time you hugged your kid this week, just because?
• Have you thanked someone for doing something they should have/would have done anyway, just because it will make them feel appreciated?
• Did you let someone in the traffic line even if you were in a hurry?
• Called your Mom lately? (Not just for Mother’s Day)
• Got a best friend?  Told them they are important recently?
• When was the last time you did something to benefit someone who could not help you in any way?
• How did you treat that person at work today, you know the one that really does not fit in, ignore, ostracize or were you pleasant?
• Do you smile at the cashier and say thank you for ringing up your purchase?

Ok, you get the idea. Choices we all make them, every day. Sometimes I even make the right one, how about you?

Guest post by our Southeast Family YMCA Executive Director!

Wow, January is over now. What an amazing experience working at a Y is for the month of January. The volume of people in and out of our facility is tremendous with new folks joining and other members committing to life changes.

What a wonderful opportunity our new and old members present to us. The YMCA of Greater Louisville has 3894 over 8000 people that are now part of our family. Those people chose to join this YMCA, chose to trust us with the responsibility to help them accomplish a change or improvement in their life. Let’s face it, everyone has a reason for joining or continuing to be a member of the YMCA. If you are joining you have a need or dissatisfaction that you think the YMCA can help you solve. For each of our staff and volunteers the responsibility of being that “solution” is very important to us.

We go about that in a variety of ways:

- We continue to be told via both surveys and anecdotal comments that we have the friendliest staff around and that is not an accident. We do want the environment here to be friendly, welcoming and genuinely supportive. But it is not just a staff thing, our members have in large part created that as well. Watching new folks embraced and adopted into the group is gratifying to see; it reflects the environment here.

- We are following up in writing, electronically and on the phone with all of our new members to check on the progress they are making. Also, we are encouraging each new member to have an individual appointment with a member of our staff team in an area they are interested in such as: aquatics, wellness, group exercise or family programming. These meetings will help set realistic goals and help our staff do a better job of following up in a personal and meaningful way. We really do want to help every one of our member achieve and succeed.

- New member survey’s and member satisfaction survey’s are a tool we really rely on to learn how people feel about the experience and what we can do better to help our members reach their individual measures of success.

Hopefully we can see continued success and many of our newest members will be with us for a long period of time and what we do the YMCA can help them.

 

“It’s Never Too Late to Change Your Life”

It’s that time of year!  We’ve all noticed that our gyms are busier than usual.  Our facilities are packed with new members who are looking to start a healthy lifestyle. I speak to many members who are looking to hit the gym hard and drop those pounds as quick as possible.  It is important to remember that when starting your workout regimen that you keep your mood positive.  I can tell you first hand that it is hard not to discouraged when you work out hard all week and then see that you have only dropped a pound or two when you weigh in.  STAY POSITIVE!  It’s not all about losing the pounds, it’s about creating an active lifestyle.  The hardest part is getting started! So grab a friend, and a bottle of water and get moving!  It’s time to start a new, healthier you!  Check out the Y’s website to see how we can better assist you!

Biking to Work

I knew it was time to make a change.  For the past few years I’d successfully developed the habit of working out five days a week.  My time at the Y is excellent for relieving stress, I really enjoy the time I get to spend with my workout partners.  The benefits of a regular workout regimen were positive.  There was only one problem.  Lifting weights had become my workout of choice.  My muscles were getting stronger but my heart wasn’t getting to play along.  Even though I recognized the importance of a healthy cardiovascular system I wasn’t willing to sacrifice my time lifting for time swimming or running.  With only so many minutes in the day I wanted my workout to be devoted to weight lifting, not plodding along on a treadmill.

Discussing the need for a taxing cardio workout became a regular conversation between me and my workout partners.  The conversation changed when I learned my friends took the plunge and began biking to work in order to incorporate a cardio workout.  It was an excellent solution.  Biking to work was not only good for the heart, it was economical and utilitarian.  And for those who care, it was green!  If they could do it, I could too.

Initially the idea of biking to work was exciting.  I was going to join the ranks of the brave folks that take to the streets, powered only by their effort and endurance.  What an honor to join such an elite group of health seekers.  I would later learn biking to work is perhaps much more about being crazy than it is about being brave.

Deciding to ride to work is noble but not so practical if you don’t own a bike.  No worries, early Saturday morning my family set out with me in pursuit of a bike.  I naively entered a bike shop to look at the shiny bikes perched upon their racks.  They were shiny and sleek.  I really wanted one.  Soon I proposed the question to my friendly salesman, “how much?”  The beginner bike John directed me to was “only” $600.  Admittedly I hadn’t bought a bike since I was a teenager and even then it was by no stretch of the imagination a fancy road bike.  My wife encouraged me to consider alternatives, you know, in case I didn’t stick with it.  I was shocked that she would assume I wouldn’t be riding 5 days a week, back and forth to work, for the rest of my life.  I was committed to this new lifestyle.  Quickly I added up in my head how soon I would begin saving our family money by not driving to work.  The bike would pay for itself in just a few months.  Respectful of my wife’s wisdom we left the fancy bike shop and visited some used bike stores.  This actually was a much better option for me.  Louisville has many excellent used bike stores where you can get very nice, used bikes at affordable rates.  My problem, I wanted a shiny bike, not a used one.  I admit it was pride.  It was never my intention to buy a biker outfit and look like a sleek, trim rider, but I really did want a shiny road bike.  We returned home without a bike.  The reality of my situation began to sink in, if I really wanted to ride to work I was going to have to compromise and start out with a less than shiny, used bike.

My thoughts of riding to work began to drift; maybe I didn’t really need to ride.  I could find a different way to incorporate some cardio exercise into my day.  The biking dream was coming to a close until I shared my plan of riding to work with my father-in-law.  In what was a most serendipitous moment my gadget and toy-laden father-in-law told me I could borrow his bike.  We brought the bike down from the attic.  There it was in its shining beauty; a road bike that literarily had the word “Glory” written on the frame.  It was meant to be.  Glory and I were meant to be together.  My excitement returned.  I couldn’t wait for Monday morning to come.  I had instantly become a bike commuter!  Or so I thought.

Returning to the bike shop was different this time.  I needed to buy my safety gear, air pump and new pedals.  New gear in hand and $200 poorer I was now ready to ride.  My confidence was boosted when John took the time to give my “new” bike a look over to ensure it was road worthy.  John told me that my bike was a good bike, that was of course, music to my ears.  Returning home I couldn’t wait to get out in the neighborhood to become acquainted with Glory.  It was raining.  I didn’t care.  It was a good day.

Monday morning finally came.  I woke up early to ensure plenty of time for a healthy breakfast followed by plenty of time to digest.  Preparing for the first ride was invigorating.  My dream to bike to work was finally going to happen.  I dressed appropriately.  Work clothes in my back pack.  I donned my helmet, gloves and safety vest.  I admit I didn’t look like the sleek riders I admired but I was more concerned with not being hit by a car than I was looking like Lance Armstrong.  I kissed my wife and said goodbye.  Kim said a prayer for me.  As I rode up the street in my neighborhood my heart began to pound with excitement, I was really doing this!  I turned out onto Westport Rd to begin my 12 mile ride to Downtown.  It was still very early, and the road was nearly empty.  Picking up speed I made my way up the gears.  With each click of the chain on the sprocket I felt more confident.  I didn’t have a speedometer but that was ok, it felt like I was flying.  Why had I waited so long to experience this great pleasure of biking to work?  Despite the adrenaline I felt great peace.  That is, until I shifted the chain right off the gear!  Oh no, I hadn’t accounted for riding down the street with no power.  Reality set it, I was just an amateur, what was I doing biking to work?  I was still on Westport and not even a third of the way to the office.  Pulling over I found it was not too difficult to get the chain back into its proper place.  In a few minutes I was riding again, slightly humbled.

Transitioning from Westport to Frankfort Ave. I was again feeling excited and confident.  Moments later, there I was on the side of the road, fixing my chain again!  Lesson learned – I didn’t know Glory as well as I thought.  Thankfully that was the last time I shifted the chain off the gear.

Turning from Frankfort to Story Ave. I was being to feel the sense of accomplishment.  Downtown was nearby, I was still alive and enjoying the ride.  E. Main took me to 2nd St.  And soon I was turning into the Y garage.  12 miles for a first ride was a very long ride!  And it was behind me.  What a thrill.  After a full work day it was time to go home.  I realized I wasn’t ready for another 12 miles that Monday.  Thankfully TARC is very bike friendly.  I parked my bike on the front of the 55 and headed home.

Since that first ride I’ve commuted several times to and from work.  I still enjoy the ride.  After several months of riding, I’m still learning.  And I figure I’ll be learning how to be a good rider for many years to come.  Unfortunately I’ve learned Louisville is not a bike friendly town.  It would do us all a lot of good to change this over time.  In a small way I feel I’m contributing to a better community by riding.  Less pollution, less congestion and a healthier me; these are all good things.

I’m glad I made the change to incorporate cardio into my days.  I still enjoy lifting weights and my heart really enjoys when I ride to work.  The next time you see a bike commuter on the street, please be patient, please be safe and be sure to say hi, it might be me!

Planning for Success in the New Year

As we are all gearing up for the start of the holiday season with Thanksgiving next week, we do so knowing 2012 is right around the corner.  Here at the Y, that means we’ll see an influx of new members ready to challenge themselves to sustain a healthier lifestyle.  As a Wellness Director, it’s inspiring to see so many new faces being active and pushing past their comfort zones.

However, we also see the inevitable decline in attendance during the months of March and April.  I believe this is a result of new members either coming without a plan or setting unrealistic goals for themselves.  One way those who are trying to take incremental steps to a healthier lifestyle can accomplish this is by developing a set of SMART goals.  SMART is an acronym for the following:

Specific – Going into a new program, one should go a little farther than saying “I want to exercise more.”  What will you do and how often?  An example of this would be “I will walk three days a week for 30 minutes.”

Measurable – At the end of the week or month, you should be able to look at what you’ve done and know if you reached your goal.  In the previous example, one can easily oull out their activity tracker and see if they met that goal.

Attainable – In looking at your life, is the goal you’re setting possible?  Setting a goal that will conflict your other responsibilities is setting yourself up to fail.

Realistic - This is one most fall prey to.  Many of us watch a certain TV show in which participants often lose 15-20 lbs a week.  Human nature is to think “if they can do that, so can I.”  However, those contestants are in a very controlled environment.  For those of us in the real world, 1-2 lbs a week is a realistic weight loss goal.  By the same token, if you’re currently inactive, saying you’ll work out 6 six days a week probably isn’t going to happen right away.  It’s important to start small and go from there.

Timely – Your goal should have a time frame attached to it.  If you’re looking to lose some weight, give yourself a realistic deadline in which to do it.

If you’re someone that plans on getting back in the swing of things after the chaos of the holiday season, think a little about what you want to accomplish and how you plan on doing it.  If you’re unable to come up with a clear plan on your own, schedule a wellness appointment once you’ve joined the Y.  Our trained staff is here to help you.

Happy Holidays from all of us at the Y and we’ll see you in January!