My first memory of eating a vegetable was as a little girl when I accidentally bit into a raw potato thinking it was a freshly sliced apple! Yuck! That mistake made me avoid potatoes for nearly 20 years! I wonder if this is one reason why Americans are woefully lacking in their daily consumption of vegetables – maybe they also had a bad experience with vegetables as a kid?!

How about you? What is your current relationship with vegetables? Are you above average and eating the recommended six to eight servings of vegetables every day? Sadly, for those of us over the age of 50, less than 10% are meeting that benchmark.

Before we talk about HOW to eat more vegetables every day, let’s be reminded about WHY it’s so important. Vegetables contain an impressive amount of nutrients. Consuming the recommended daily number of servings is linked to a lower risk of many diseases, including diabetes, obesity, heart disease and some cancers. Many studies have even shown that eating the recommended number of servings each day may even extend one’s life.

If you are among the few that are already eating a plentiful variety of vegetables each day I hope this article will give you a few more great ideas of how to continue your healthy habit. And, if you are among the majority who is currently not eating the recommended amount, I hope this article will encourage you to embrace a new habit and find ways to enjoy consuming six to eight servings of vegetables each day.

You might be wondering, “What is a serving size?” Maybe the thought of eating six to eight servings of vegetables seems impossible to you – or simply distasteful. The standard for a serving is about four to six ounces. But who has a scale in their kitchen to weigh out their servings? Here are some examples of one serving size of vegetables:

• ½ cup raw or 1 cup cooked vegetables
• ½ cup cooked legumes (lentils, peas, chickpeas / hummus, lima beans, kidney beans, etc.)
• 3 cups dark leafy greens (spinach, kale, arugula, collard greens, etc.)
• ½ of a medium white/gold or sweet potato
• 1 medium tomato

And here’s a quick trick that might help you plan how you’ll get your servings throughout the day. Try the 1-2-3 approach to eating your daily vegetables developed by the Mayo Clinic:

• Eat 1 serving of vegetables with breakfast
• Eat 2 servings of vegetables with lunch
• Eat 3 servings with dinner (or 2 with dinner and sneak in one as a snack)

And rest assured that there is no measurable difference between consuming fresh or frozen vegetables. In fact, frozen can be more nutritious since they are often picked at the point of optimum ripeness and flash frozen to maintain nutrition. Please avoid canned vegetables since they are often packed with a high amount of sodium. Buy organic if your budget allows, but it’s more important to eat a wide variety of vegetables than to worry about whether they are organic.

I found many great tips for how you can easily follow the 1-2-3 approach to enjoying more and more vegetables each day. These tips also include ideas for fruit. Remember, your goal is six to eight servings of vegetables each day; feel free to enjoy several servings of fruit in addition to the vegetables – but not as a replacement to your daily vegetable minimum!

Breakfast

• Add vegetables, such as peppers, onions, spinach and peppers to omelets, hash browns or breakfast potatoes.
• If you have a blender, consider making a fruit and veggie smoothie! Or, better yet, ask the kitchen to make one for you 🙂 Simple smoothie: handful of spinach, frozen strawberries and pineapple, half of a banana, ice, and water (or almond milk).

Lunch

• Request extra vegetables in your sandwich or wrap (lettuce, tomato, avocado, cucumber, sprouts, etc.).
• Order a vegetable or lentil soup to go along with your lunch.
• Start every meal with a green salad. Build your salad with at least two cups of dark leafy greens. Consider adding lightly steamed and chopped broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and/or green beans to your salad. *Steamed veggies are easier to chew and to digest.
• Top half a baked white or sweet potato with salsa or steamed broccoli.

Dinner

• Request extra vegetables to add to your stir fry: carrots, mushrooms, broccoli, bok choy – so many options!
• Add a side of broccoli to your pasta or rice dish.
• Order a vegetable or lentil-based soup AND a salad to start your meal!

Snacks

• Ask the kitchen for some raw or lightly steamed vegetables to keep on hand for an easy snack (I love lightly steamed baby carrots, sweet potato slices, broccoli, cauliflower, green beansand so much more). Use a small amount of Dijon mustard or hummus for a delicious dip.
• Ask the kitchen for some apple slices, baby carrots or celery to dip in nut butter.
• Sprinkle some cinnamon on your apple slices!

There you go. Lots of great ideas and ways for you to add more vegetables to your meals. We’d love to hear from you if you have other tips and tricks. And if you are new to eating six to eight servings of vegetables each day give us a call at 240-406-1265 so we can encourage you and celebrate your success with you!

What do you think of when someone says “I am going to do my cardio”? Most of us think of going for a run, a brisk walk outside, jogging on the treadmill, riding a stationary bike, jumping rope, rowing on a machine, using the elliptical, or some other exercise that repeats the same thing over and over again.

These typical cardio exercises utilize mostly the lower half of your body while requiring a large amount of repetitions. They usually only move your body in one plane of motion (i.e. front-to-back or side-to-side). They are notoriously boring. You find your body doing the same motion over and over again for 20, 30, 45, or even 60 minutes. Your body will quickly adapt to this type of exercise so you’ll get less and less out of it over time. To improve at this type of exercise, all you can do is either increase the level of resistance on the machine or do the activity for a longer period of time. This type of cardio is what fitness professionals refer to as LSD. No, not the hippy drug of the 1960s, but rather “Long Steady Distance”.

And people wonder why their joints hurt?!

People who participate in LSD cardio training end up in pain, and oftentimes wind up with a joint replacement (or two or more!). Repetition to that extent is the cornerstone of what is known as “Repetitive Strain Injuries”. The good news is that these types of injuries can be avoided.

Am I saying NOT to use cardio exercise machines? No, not at all. However, I am suggesting that it is wise to use them in moderation and in combination with other, what I call, TRUE CARDIO exercises. It’s time to find a better way to do cardio that will provide the desired health benefits without the repetitive injuries! So what is this approach to better cardio and how does it work?

TRUE CARDIO is (1) when you use every ounce of your being in every moment of the exercise, (2) while moving through all three planes of motion, (3) switching back and forth between upper body and lower body movements, (4) using moderate weights for high repetitions (5) with little or no rest between exercises. One should continue this type of exercise for 30 to 60 minutes to achieve ultimate fitness. TRUE CARDIO changes your life, your body, your strength, and your confidence. You find out just what you are made of and just how much you can handle.

So what if you are currently training for a 100 mile bike race or a marathon? Are you damaging your body or on the road to a joint replacement? That is a loaded question, but with an easy answer. You are not damaging your body if, and only if, you are participating in cross-training that is tri-planar and does not mimic your endurance sport AND if your nutrition supports the repetitive nature of your training AND if you give adequate attention to recovery between training sessions (i.e. massage, Normatec, cryotherapy, epsom salt baths, etc.).

People who focus on a single dimension, repetitive cardio type of exercise often have a short-lived time of excelling at that sport. TRUE CARDIO is for the long haul and will result in longevity of physical activity and fitness level. The best recipe for fitness longevity is to mix up your exercise at various stages and ages in life AND to give proper attention to muscle recovery between training sessions AND to commit to TRUE CARDIO training.

TRUE CARDIO is safe for people of all ages and stages of life.

TRUE CARDIO is inclusive of all ability levels.

TRUE CARDIO is really fun when in a small group or when training with a friend / loved one.

If you want to learn how to perform TRUE CARDIO just come into Launch and we will show you what it’s all about.

Give Launch a call today to schedule your free TRUE CARDIO fitness assessment. We provide free physical therapy consultations as well and we would be delighted – 240-406-1265

We all want optimal performance at work, at sports, and at life. It sounds cliché that a good night’s sleep would help with this. That’s because it’s not all about good sleep. Optimal performance is also about exercise, nutrition, socialization, and good healthy habits. If one area of life is lacking, the others can be affected too. In this article, we will focus on the importance of good quality sleep but please remember that balance across all aspects of total wellness is also important.

If you regularly have difficulty falling asleep, maintaining sleep, or staying awake during the day, this might be an indicator of a sleep disorder that needs to be investigated by a specialist. Barring any material sleep disorders, let’s look at the well-researched methods that improve sleep hygiene. There are many solutions to address poor sleep, but for the most part, one’s focus should be on the key tried and true methods.

Many variables contribute to getting a good night’s sleep. My goal is to present a few ideas that tend to work best and to encourage you to give them a try. Some of these approaches may or may not work for you. That’s ok. Often, you may just need to give a new practice more time to settle in and make a positive difference. Don’t quit too soon! Try to avoid skepticism as you test and explore these new approaches as this often blocks success. Give it some time and have fun finding which routines work best for you!

Importance of Enough Sleep

The last thing you need is a long lecture on why enough sleep is important. You may be thinking, “Dr. John, just get to the techniques that will help me learn how to sleep better.” But before I give you the techniques, there are a few key things I want you to know. Are you aware that good quality sleep can improve one’s reaction time, vigor, mood, alertness, typing speed, short- and long-term memory retention, basketball shooting accuracy, tennis serve accuracy, sprint speed, and generally improve your overall quality of life?

You may have heard that you should strive to get 7-8 hours of sleep a night. Most of us don’t hit that mark. Even if we do lie in bed for eight hours, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s good quality and a deep, restful eight hours. If you don’t regularly get enough rejuvenating sleep, I urge you to prioritize making some changes to your nighttime practices. Prioritizing your health over other things that may be keeping you from getting enough quality sleep will yield amazing results. You will have more energy, more mental clarity, higher productivity, less sickness and a more positive outlook on life. Give it a try!

Phases of Sleep

Each night you take a rollercoaster ride through the different phases of sleep. Though you’re unaware of what goes on while you’re snoozing, your brain and body are in an active state. Each stage of sleep plays a different role in how you feel the next day. Sleep has been traditionally divided into four categories: awake, light, deep, and REM sleep. Each one plays an essential role in maintaining your mental and physical health.

AWAKE TIME is spent in bed just before and after falling asleep. It includes brief awakenings during sleep as well. During LIGHT SLEEP your muscles will relax and may even jerk. Your heart rate and respiration slow down. Your temperature drops and you begin to transition into and out of deeper sleep cycles. Waking up is easier during this phase.

During DEEP SLEEP your blood pressure drops, and your body promotes muscle growth and repair. The brain flushes your waste and shows long and slow brain waves. Waking up is more difficult during this phase. You’re more disoriented or groggy if awakened. Finally, during REM SLEEP your respiration and heart rate increases, temperature regulation is switched off, and vivid dreams may occur. This phase has benefits for memory, learning, and problem solving. You will typically fluctuate through the four phases of sleep in 3 to 5 cycles during the night. Generally, optimal sleep shows the following pattern: 2-5% Awake, 45-55% Light Sleep, 13-33% Deep Sleep, and 20-25% REM Sleep.

Techniques for Better Quality Sleep

Here we go…we’ve gotten to the techniques! There are many techniques which lead to better quality sleep. Here are my top ten approaches to improving sleep quality. For the most part, these are the core principles that help promote good sleep hygiene. Try to instill some of these new sleep habits and you will reap significant rewards.

1. Regular intervals of physical activity – Causes your body to crave and require more sleep.
2. Increase parasympathetic nervous system activity – Mindfulness, deep breathing, and meditation increase relaxation.
3. Consistent wake and sleep times – Helps improve the natural circadian rhythm of our bodies.
4. Exposure to bright light during daytime hours – Sunlight causes your pineal gland to naturally secrete melatonin.
5. Limited exposure to blue light – Blue light (phones, monitors, TVs) is known to interfere with quality sleep.
6. Stop eating three or more hours before sleep – Eating before bed stimulates your metabolism.
7. Limit caffeine intake – Caffeine is a stimulant which can negatively affect sleep.
8. Temperature – Lower sleep temperatures help your body better process nutrients and reach the REM phase.
9. Mattress type – Generally a medium firm density mattress is best but your requirements may vary.
10. Sleep position – The human body craves movement, and needs regular changes in position.

In the end, a good night’s sleep actually has more to do with what we do when we’re awake than when we’re asleep!

Contact Dr. John Jowers at Launch Physical Therapy & Fitness Coaching if you have questions about improving your sleep hygiene. I encourage you to also consider the benefits of physical therapy and fitness coaching, both of which will help improve your sleep quality. Call (240) 406-1265 TODAY to schedule a free consultation. We’d be honored to serve you!