Healthy Living
The Healthy Living section is meant to provide personal tips, messages and relevant news regarding a range of topics from healthy eating, exercise, to taking care of your body. It is our goal to keep Native America alive and thriving and in order to meet this goal we must take care of our bodies.
Also, healthy eating and exercise can improve your academic performance! Some areas we hope to address are useful and holistic information about exercising, fun work out options, healthy eating on a low budget, healthy snack ideas, and simple yet healthy food recipes.
20-20-20 Rule
As students and employees we spend most of our time working on and looking at our computers and phones. The time spent hunched over staring at the screen can lead to pain in our shoulders, necks, head and eyes. To help alleviate the physical discomfort from being on our computers, I want to share with you the 20-20-20 rule I learned a few years ago. Every 20 minutes you spend looking at a computer, look 20 feet away for 20 seconds.
Here are some other tools to keep you healthy and focused while working. If possible, set a timer on your phone to help you remember to look away when you are busy working on your computer. Also, to help alleviate neck and shoulder pain, place your computer at a level which meets your eyes in order to keep you from bending your body to look down at your screen. Be sure to stand up and walk around outside or inside to refresh your mind. Walking around is a great thing to do while working as you allow your body to stretch and the blood to circulate throughout your body. One more suggestion as your study/work is to drink plenty of water and eat healthy foods (more on healthy snacks to take to school/work to be posted) To read more about computers and their effect on your body, below are a few links to various news articles:
1. http://healthland.time.com/2012/09/13/computer-eye-strain-explained-and-how-to-avoid-it/
2. http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/how-bad-for-your-eyes-are-computer- screens/2014/01/17/985b90cc-7c98-11e3-93c1-0e888170b723_story.html
3. http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/12/health/upwave-computer-eyes/
Healthy snacks to take to school
With many of us going back to school it’s important to keep our bodies fueled for participating in class discussions and studying outside of class. While it might be tempting to grab a bag of chips or candy to quiet our hunger, it is important to reach for the healthier option. Remembering to care for your body by eating nutritious foods and drinking clean water will sustain the health of your body along with helping you save money. Carrying a lunch pail with you full of food you will eat during your day can allow you to snack healthy and defeat the college diet of processed foods and quick meals.
To keep your food cool and safe from being smashed in your backpack, carry a lunch pail or a small cooler with an ice pack. Most lunch pails can be clipped to your backpack or bike or carried in hand and are reasonably priced. Once you are finished eating your food, the lunch pail can be compacted to fit inside your backpack. Click the links below to see examples of lunch pails that are small and lightweight. To help you drink plenty of water throughout your day, carry a water bottle with you which you can fill at any water fountain on campus or restaurant if you ask J. Check your university’s book store for water bottles as well as nearby stores like thrift stores, Walmart, and Target.
Examples of Lunch pails: click here
Here are a few ideas for snacks:
Apple: whole or sliced. If you have a lemon available or a bottle of lemon juice, squeeze some juice on the slices to help it from browning
Any fruit of your choice. To keep the fruit from bruising in your bag, put it in a hard container or slice the fruit and put in a baggie
Celery and PB, add some raisins if you want
Apple sauce-no sugar added
A mix of nuts of your choice and dried fruit or packaged trail mix, not the chocolate, candy coated mix
Whole grain and nut crackers carrot and raisin mix, the combination is tasty
String cheese, keep cool in a lunch pail
Yogurt, keep cool in a lunch pail
Fig newtons with peanut or other nut butter, put nut butter in a small container for easy transportation
Tuna packet. There are many flavors of packets of tuna found in grocery stores (e.g. sweet and spicy, lemon pepper, etc.)
Water
Please share some of your healthy snacks you bring to school, work, or on the go.
While this link is geared toward children, adults can benefit from the snacks listed here.
