A thousand pardons for the long hiatus in entries to the Healthy Dose of Wellness. I've had so much going on with all of the different programs and activities, I just haven't had the time to work on the Dose. That said, let's get into it.

Obviously, the hot topic around every water cooler in the country is the dreaded swine flu or H1N1 flu virus. And, just this week, reports of the first death of an American citizen with swine flu surfaced.

Judy Trunnell was a 33-year-old teacher from Harlingen, Texas, who spent two weeks in the hospital before passing away. It is a very sad story as Trunnell was pregnant, and had her healthy baby girl delivered by C-section before she died. My thoughts are with her family during this troubling time.

Most of the media outlets have done a great job of getting the proper information out to the public in regards to symptoms and prevention. In case you have been under a rock for the last few weeks, here is a look at the symptoms according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC):
- Seasonal flu symptoms
- Fever
- Cough
- Sore throat
- Runny or stuffy nose
- Body aches
- Headache
- Chills
- Fatigue

So that is what you should watch for if you feel that you might have been exposed to the disease. Obviously, if you feel that you have these symptoms, be sure and contact a doctor to get checked out.

So then, what can you do to avoid getting sick? Essentially, the prevention tips are similar to most other illnesses. According to the CDC, swine flu has no vaccine, but there are steps you can take in your daily life to help prevent contracting the virus. These steps include:
- Use a tissue to cover your nose and mouth when sneezing and coughing
- Wash hands with soap and water. Alcohol based sanitizers also work well.
- Stay away from touching your eyes, nose and mouth.
- Avoid contact with people who show signs of illness or are sick.
- If you are sick, stay home for 7 days after your symptoms begin or until you have been symptom-free for 24 hours, whichever is longer.
- Follow advice from public health organizations in regards to school closures, avoiding crowds and other social distancing measures.

Prevention is the best medicine or so the saying goes. Just be smart and use common sense when it comes to making plans. If you are sick, stay home unless it is a medical emergency that you leave. If you aren't sick, practice good personal hygiene. I can't guarantee that doing all this will keep you healthy, but it is a good starting point.

With any luck, the swine flu will go the way of the bird flu: as a footnote. In my own opinion and experience in the media business, instances that are played up to be major events rarely pan out. With the advances in medicine in the modern world, I don't see swine flu turning into the Black Plague of the 21^st century. But, is swine flu a dangerous situation? Of course. Your health should never be taken lightly. But it doesn't need to get blown out of proportion.

The holidays have come and gone once again. If you are anything like me, then you probably enjoyed a little too many treats and probably went for seconds more than you wanted to at the family gatherings. Don't feel guilty. There is nothing wrong with enjoying the holidays. You just have to work harder to get the weight from the feasting to come and go.

The trick to shedding those pounds is eating properly and staying active. Piece of cake, right?

I recently had the opportunity to listen to a presentation on eating healthier in the New Year from Karen Sibert, registered dietician at Passavant Area Hospital in Jacksonville, Illinois. There was a lot of really good information in the talk, and I would like to share that with you in the hope it will be put to good use. So, here are the 10 Tips for Eating Healthier in 2009.

1. Eat smaller portions

- Super size this, King size that. The amount of food that we consume has continued to increase each year. With that increase, the calories we take in goes up as well. When eating at home, eat less than you normally would and save the leftovers for lunch the next day.

- Some stats to take in:

• McDonald's double cheeseburger = 440 calories
  McDonald's regular hamburger = 250 calories
• Subway 6" ham and cheese = 290 calories
  Subway $5 foot-long Meatball Marinara = 1,120 calories

2. Include at least one fruit and/or vegetable at each meal

- Don't think that your order of French fries fits under this category, they are still fried. But bringing an apple or your favorite fruit to work is an easy solution. If you can stand the taste of V8 juice, then you can fulfill the vegetable side of this tip as well.

3. Watch what you drink

- A lot of the time you probably don't think about the fluids that you are taking in on a daily basis. I know a person who drank a six-pack of Mountain Dew per day. One can of Dew has 170 calories, so multiply that by six, then that number by seven and you end up with 7,140 calories a week. That is more than half of the average 14,000 calories a week diet (at 2,000 a day). Every calorie from soda is considered an empty calorie, which means it has no nutritional value. If you are thirsty, stick with water. If you need to add a little something to make H₂O taste better, there are a lot of good mix-in packages to flavor the water or squeeze some lemon or lime juice in your glass.

- Some stats to take in:

• McDonald's large sweet tea = 230 calories (15 teaspoons sugar)
• 20 ounce soda = 275 calories (19 teaspoons sugar)

4. Move more

- Ideally, 30 minutes of cardiovascular activity, five times a week would be best. But even if you can manage three days a week that would make a major difference. Something to consider is that all the exercise after the first 30 minutes will begin to burn fat. It is also important to remember strength training. Muscle takes up less space in your body than fat, so the more muscle you have the leaner your body will look. Contrary to popular belief, exercise helps to curb your appetite, not make you eat more.

- Some stats to take in:

• After the age of 30, women lose seven pounds of muscle each decade. Fat replaces the muscle lost.
• When looking to tone your body, think low weight and high repetitions with about a 45 second rest between sets.

5. Use the buddy system

- Everything is easier when you have a partner. Find a friend, neighbor or loved one to meet at the gym or go for a walk around the neighborhood. You need to be careful of one pitfall of the buddy system. If your buddy wants to take a day off, it's fine every once in a while but it can't become a regular occurrence.

- Some stats to take in:

• Miriam Hospital/Brown Medical School and University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth research shows that people lose more pounds when they have a partner in the program. People by themselves did not lose as much weight.

6. Set realistic goals

- Know where you're at right now and where you want to be at the end of a certain time period. But, you should also pick a weight that will be acceptable if you don't reach the goal weight. Sometimes people are only able to lose "x" amount of weight, and their weight loss plateaus. Don't get frustrated and fall off the wagon. Be proud of how far you've come.

7. Think healthy, not skinny

- In today's culture, we're bombarded with images of runway models selling every imaginable product. Half the ads you see are digitally altered and/or shot in a way to make the spokesperson look younger, thinner or sexier. When you lose your weight, you don't want to look like a POW.

- Some stats to take in:

• According to the National Institute of Mental Health, the mortality rate among people with anorexia has been estimated to be about 12 times higher than the annual death rate due to all causes of death among females ages 15-24 in the general population.

8. Rate your hunger and fullness every time that you eat

- Growing up I was always told to eat everything on my plate before I could have dessert or leave the table. Not a foreign experience for most people, I would imagine. But, your parents aren't giving the best advice in this case. Yes, it is a good thing to eat your vegetables (read #2), but eating everything on your plate can leave you walking away feeling stuffed. It takes about 20 minutes for your brain to receive the signal from your stomach to stop eating. In that 20-minute window, a lot of food can come down the pipe. The key is to eat slowly and give your stomach the chance to say "Enough, I'm done." Don't be afraid of leaving leftovers. They make great lunches. Also, before you sit down to eat think about how hungry you really are and let that play a factor in how much you eat during the meal.

9. Eat smaller amounts throughout the day, instead of 1 or 2 large meals

- By eating 4 or 5 smaller amounts during the day you will help stimulate your metabolism, which will help to give you more energy. If you find yourself feeling snackie while at work, keep a box of 100 calorie snacks in your desk or measure out 100 calorie portions of your favorite food into Ziploc bags. Doing this will prevent you from going into a meal and overeating.

10. Be nutrient dense, not calorie dense

- Foods like fruits, veggies and whole grains will give you more nutrition and less calories than a candy bar or soda. Make the switch to whole grain pastas and bread. Incorporate fruits and vegetables into your daily meals. Limiting the amount of empty calories that you take in will help trim down your waistline.

- Some stats to take in:

• According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the average Haitian consumes 2,090 calories and under 50 grams of fat per day.
• According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the average human on Earth consumes 2,800 calories and about 75 grams of fat per day.
• According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the average American consumes 3,770 calories and 150 grams of fat per day.

For questions and comments, please contact Tim Klobe, Brown County Community Wellness Program Coordinator, via email at tklobe@illinois.edu.

Do you say yes enough?

Now I'm not talking about saying "yes" to simple questions like "cream or no cream?" I am talking about more complex situations or opportunities. Things that can make your life richer or expose you to new thoughts and ideas.

Jim Carey's new movie, Yes Man, really got me thinking about this concept. In the film, Carey's character, Carl Allen, must say yes to everything for an entire year as part of a self-help program. So, how often in life are we confronted with situations where a "yes" or "no" can have a profound effect on our lives? Now, I know that decisions like this don't occur every day, but I think that it is safe to say that it's possible for them to pop up at least once a month.

The situations don't have to necessarily be as complex as joining a monastery. It can be something as simple as "Do I help my elderly neighbor shovel the snow off their driveway?" If you always say "no," how can you grow as a person? How can you make a difference? I know that change is something most people fear in their lives. Heck, I have no room to talk about being open to change. It is just part of human nature. There is an inherent fear of the unknown. But just as much as there is fear, there should also be curiosity. No one can predict the future. So, of course things could go bad with your answer, but on the flip side things could go just fine and maybe even make things better. As the cliche goes: no risk, no reward.

Nothing I am saying should be anything new or earth-shattering, but it is something that should be considered in your day-to-day life. Don't limit yourself. Don't be satisfied with your own little world. Don't be afraid to make a change. To steal a page from Pay It Forward, those small deeds like helping your neighbor shovel snow can have a ripple effect with your neighbor doing a good deed for someone else and so on. I know that it sounds cheesy, but every action has an equal reaction. If you don't believe me, check the physics (at least I think that was the subject I remember hearing about that in high school), either way there is science behind it.

Saying "yes" can open your mind to all sorts of new experiences. Any person who says they know everything there is to know is full of you know what up to their eyeballs. Every single day, you can learn something new. A new experience can be simply going to a restaurant in town that you haven't eaten at before. While trying a new eatery is fairly benign, taking up an offer to socialize from a person whose company you don't particularly enjoy offers the most reward. There is so much you can learn from another person's experiences and life, so why wouldn't you want to open yourself up to that opportunity? Sure the person could be boring or annoying, but if you can get past those character traits who knows what you might find.

So the next time you find yourself pondering "yes" or "no," think long and hard about exactly what you are saying "no" to. Opening the door to limitless possibilities only takes three little letters: y – e – s.

For questions and comments, please contact Tim Klobe, Brown County Community Wellness Program Coordinator, via email at tklobe@illinois.edu.