Full-meal satisfaction By Be Fitter Pauline Lim

I wanted to share a strategy I just discovered for myself: whenever I eat a Be Fit meal at the hospital cafeteria, I always feel unbelievably satisfied afterwards. I realized that it's because I get to see all the food on my tray at once-- it looks big and appetizing.

At home I rarely see all the food in front of me at once; I eat one part at a time, often overeating each part because I don't want to "say goodbye" to it and move on to the apple or whatever.

Today I decided to try assembling all my lunch into one magnificent pile in front of me, and it worked! I had to eat the apple and drink the milk before getting seconds on the other stuff, and by that time, I found I didn't need it. I was full and satisfied, and what's more, for the first time in many days, I didn't overeat!

Happy Halloween and Happy World Diabetes Day? By Debra Hollon, MS, RD, LDN

Just a few days ago we wrapped up the candy packed holiday of Halloween. (Hopefully due to Be Fit, PORTION CONTROL was part of your plan). Now on to World Diabetes Day. You’re probably thinking, what is World Diabetes Day? November 14 has been set aside to help bring attention to the growing issue of Diabetes around the world. This year’s theme is "Understand Diabetes and Take Control".

Why should you be interested?
It has been estimated that every 10 seconds 2 people develop Diabetes. Most likely this means that you or someone you know is being impacted by Diabetes in some fashion.

What can you do?
Here at Mass General, we will be hosting a Diabetes Fair in the main corridor of the hospital on Thursday, November 12th from 9-4pm. Part of this event includes blood glucose finger sticks. In past years, we’ve found people with high blood sugar who didn’t know it until this test! Stop by to learn more about how you can reduce your risk for developing diabetes.

Be aware of the common symptoms of Diabetes:
Click here to learn more http://www.worlddiabetesday.org/files/docs/WDD09-poster-1.pdf

Sports Medicine Corner with Danny Murphy, C.S.C.S.

ANKLE SPRAINS

Ankle sprains are common injuries in sport but can easily happen to anyone. All it takes is one wrong step off a curb or landing the wrong way on your foot. Your ankle rolls, twists, or turns in some awkward direction and you’ve done it. You just sprained your ankle.

There are different kinds of ankle sprains depending on the direction your ankle rolls. We will look at the most common- inversion ankle sprains. An inversion ankle sprain happens when your foot rolls inward further and faster than the body can tolerate causing damage to tissues on the outside (or lateral) aspect of the foot.

The tissues that are most often damaged during a sprain are the ligaments. In fact, the word “sprain” should always refer to ligament damage. The word “strain” refers to muscle damage. These terms are often confused and used interchangeably.

There are three levels of ankle sprain listed in order of severity and ranked by degrees. A first degree, or mild ankle sprain, involves stretching of the surrounding ligaments. A second degree, or moderate ankle sprain, involves a partial tearing of the ligaments. The third degree, or severe ankle sprain, involves a complete tear or rupture of a ligament and can even involve an avulsion fracture (the ligament pulls off a piece of the bone). Ouch! It is common to have muscle strains around the ankle as a secondary injury to sprain.

Symptoms of an inversion ankle sprain include pain and swelling along the front and outside of the ankle. With a second or third degree sprain, many people may report hearing or feeling a “pop”. Pain and swelling will increase with the seriousness of the sprain although sometimes there is no pain with a complete tear because the nerve has been severed.

Early treatment for an ankle sprain is to ice immediately for 15-20 minutes every hour until swelling is controlled. If the injury causes you to lump, crutches may be recommended. However, if your ankle is hurt to this degree you should go see a doctor to have the injury properly diagnosed. A third degree sprain can involve a bone fracture and will most likely involve x-rays, crutches and possibly even a walking cast.

Rehabilitation of the ankle should start by restoring range of motion when pain and swelling allow. Once range of motion has returned to normal, balance and strengthening exercises can be added to the rehab program in order to prepare the ankle for daily activities and eventually sports.

The best thing you can do for an ankle sprain is to prevent it from happening. A well designed lower body workout that involves balance and stabilization at the ankle joint will train the ankle to deal with the forces involved during a sprain and may even allow the body to react before injury occurs.

Get your Kids Involved! By Steve Power, Be Fit Trainer

In addition to training adults, I teach gym classes at the health club for Boston Children's School and MGH Children's Center. As many of you have probably heard, childhood obesity is on the rise. I've included a link below to an article that talks about kids and diet, but as you know, exercise is important too.

If you have kids, one great way to get workout points is to do some activities with your children. Some suggestions include walks, follow the leader (hopping, skipping, jumping), raking leaves to make a scarecrow or old-school calisthenics like jumping jacks, push-ups and squat jumps. Not only will you have fun spending time with your kids, but you'll be getting your workout in and setting a good example to boot!

Be Fit. Eat Healthy. It's your choice!

http://www.boston.com/news/health/articles/2009/09/30/90_of_high_schoolers_lack_proper_diet/

Hitachiman

Fall is in the air and Be Fit 19 is underway. The staff from Be Fit are energized and ready to rally the new teams of Be Fit 19; a fantastic group of motivated teams!

SO motivated in fact, that we decided there’s no better group to help us re-ignite the Be Fit blog…

As you can see, this is our first post in more than a year and we need your help to keep it going!

How can you help?
Post a comment and share how the program working for you. Or, email a few paragraphs to Erin Marley at emarley@partners.org to post. Share your tips for success. Or, blog about roadblocks you're encountering and start a conversation, giving other Be Fitters a chance to weigh-in with support and suggestions.

The Be Fit blog can be a resource, a dialogue & more.

So, what better way to start than to introduce Hitachiman! He comes to us courtesy of Nicole Orlando and The Misfits.

Hitachiman has a taste for adventure and his latest escapade is Be Fit – now tell us about your Be Fit journey today!

The Walking Challenge and Beyond by Be Fitter Berney Graham

I completed the Be Fit program several years ago. With outstanding trainers and nutritionist, regular workouts and a changed attitude towards eating (I learned to eat and not diet! Revolutionary for me :) I lost 10 pounds.

In the year to follow I had to rearrange my life to include regular exercise and joined a health club in my area. I work out at least four times a week and I lift weights three times a week. I never lifted weights before my Be Fit experience and it has made all the difference.

Last year and this year I joined my son for three day hikes in the White Mountains going Hut to Hut in the Appalachian Mountain Club system. Both trips were major adventures; a 30lb pack and all the mountains one would ever want to climb.

This year I joined the Stair Climbing Challenge and by the end of the 8 weeks I was climbing over 100 flights a day. I was much stronger on my 3 day Hut to Hut journey this year. That was great training!

This year I was on my trip into the White Mountains as the Walking Challenge began and this too has been a lot of fun. Now I’ve lost 8 more pounds. Yea!

Last weekend our son announced that this spring beginning in March he will hike the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. What an adventure he is about to embark upon!

The program and the challenges have continued to inspire me to stay in shape!

Thank you Be Fit!

A Be Fit Thank You by David Guthrie

Just a thank you to Be Fit and all it has done to change my life.

I have been through Be Fit; my 2-year anniversary weigh-in was 2 months ago. I weighed more than I had at the beginning of my first Be Fit session. My measurements were all up. In fact I was a little embarrassed by it.

I instantly decided to go back to working out and eating right etc. I was good for a week, maybe 2. I was going it alone and still smoking. Then I stopped going to the gym (again).

Then I got Chantix and started to quit smoking, gradually. I would go all day, at work, without smoking. I was still smoking at home, though. I had gone back to the gym and couldn't really do much, due to smoking. I, again quit going to the gym.

I had cut smoking almost entirely out by the end of Feb beginning of March. I only had a few per day. Still wasn't helping the breathing situation. On April 6 I put my last cigarette out at about 12PM. I have not had one since, nor have I had the desire to. Thank you Chantix!!

Last week I started back at the gym. I would go for a quick and easy cardio and workout, just to get my body used to it, slowly and easily. I went 3 days last week, after work. Felt good and since I was not smoking I could get the cardio without feeling I was dying after only 3 minutes.

Today I hit the workout full force. I was able to run for 6 minutes at 4.5 miles per hour and only lowered my speed because I was in a little pain. I maxed out at about 5.5 mph for about 1 min 15 seconds at a 4.5 incline. I was a bit psyched about it. It was, actually a triumph for me as I was never able to run even 4.0 mph on a 2 incline for more than 30 seconds before I felt I was dying. As good as it felt, though, it felt kinda weird celebrating in my head, when I see people running double that speed for much longer times. It was a moment of celebration for me though.

I was also able to get a good upper body strength training in, using dumbbells only. I am trying not to use machines for upper body training. I breezed through that with no problem as well. I was always able to breathe, something relatively new to me, and it felt good.

After working out, I bumped into Erin and asked her to forward me the Be Fit logs. I found it a pain in the neck to keep those logs, but toward the middle, I was shocked by the improvement I had made. I am, again keeping track of my progress by logging everything again. I am hoping this will help me to keep at it. My goal is to go every week and add just an extra point or 2 trying to outdo myself. I guess I’m competing against myself.

This year, I will be celebrating my 40th birthday, and I would like to be in the best shape of my life by then.

Thank you Be Fit for giving me the tools to do this and for never giving up on me. Every time I come back to the gym I never feel, for lack of better wording, ashamed of my regressions or quitting. You're always there to welcome me back and I truly thank you for your encouragement at all times.

As always, good luck to all Be Fitters: Past, Present and Future.
Be Fit Dave