Steward Your Health - part 3

Our health is about more than our weight. Our health plays a role in every part of our lives - including our spirituality and our ability to glorify God and advance the Gospel.

In this final article of this "Steward Your Health" blog series, here are a few other key ways to steward our health for the glory of God:

Be intentional about drinking water 
Experts tell us we need far more than 8 glasses of water per day. It is actually more like 11-15 glasses of water. We don't naturally drink this much. We have to adjust our normal to get used to this. 

I've noticed that I don't even get close to this amount unless I intentionally try to. The way I have been learning to track this, is using a water bottle that is 2 cups. I refill this, and try to consistently drink enough water.

LoseIt app for tracking calories and nutrition
Michelle and I have been using and absolutly loving the LoseIt app on our iPhones to track our meals, calories, sodium intake, and more. It is surprisingly easy to enter foods, by scanning the bar code on most foods, and saving all foods we enter, so we can easily add staple foods we eat on a regular basis. It has been an eye opening experience about which foods are great for us, and which foods we need to avoid more. 

Why exercise is so good for us
As I mentioned in the first part of this blog series, one reason exercise is so important is that it helps sweat out excess sodium in the body to a healthier level, which protects our hearts, and also helps prevent stroke. There are many other reasons, including controlling our weight.

Watch how much caffeine we take in daily
It is important to watch how much caffeine we are intaking on a daily basis; not because we don't want to get hyper or grumpy, but because too much caffeine consistently can be detrimental to our heart.

Experts tell us to be careful to not have more than 3-400mg of caffeine per day. Here is a useful chart for seeing how many milligrams of caffeine are in various drinks. 

An 8 ounce cup of coffee contains about 100mg of caffeine, but keep in mind that most coffee mugs are larger than 8 ounces. A shot of expresso is about 75mg of caffeine, and the average can of caffeinated soda is between 50-75mg of caffeine.

Make small changes in your diet for long-term stickiness
I wrote back around New Year's 2010 about making small changes:

Cognitive scientist Daniel T. Willingham shares about this idea, "A great deal of research shows that the most successful diets are not diets.  Rather, they are lifestyle changes that the person believes he could live with every day for years - for example, switching from regular milk to skim milk, or walking the dog instead of just letting her out in the morning, or drinking black coffee instead of lattes.  When thinking about helping slower students catch up, it may be smart to set interim goals that are achievable and concrete." (Why Students Don't Like School, p 186).

Michelle and I have and continue to make many of these small changes, including switching to skim milk, not putting cream or sugar in my coffee (mainly for my teeth health), watching how much butter, sugar and salt are used as Michelle cooks, and more.

Are there any other important ways we can steward our health that you'd like to add to my lists? Would love to hear your comments below!

Steward Your Health - part 2

As part of this "Steward Your Health" blog series, so that we may live long, and live well for the glory of God and the advancement of the Gospel around the world ... part of protecting our health and our bodies is not only watching what we eat, but eating more of the right kinds of foods.

Here is a great, short list of several dozen of Mayo Clinic's most potent, foods that are healthiest for your heart:

Salmon
Oatmeal
Black beans
Almonds
Walnuts
Tuna
Brown rice
Soy milk
Blueberries
Carrots
Spinach
Broccoli
Sweet potato
Red bell peppers
Asparagus
Oranges
Tomatoes
Acorn squash 
Cantaloupe
Dark chocolate
Tea 
Grapes

Learn to love these foods, and make them your best friends! Eat plenty and often!

Steward Your Health - part 1

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. -1 Corinthians 10:31 

Although I usually write closely along the lines of evangelism, a holistic Christian understands that their health plays a massive role in how long they are around to proclaim the Gospel on the earth. 

A close friend first brought my attention to this verse in 1 Corinthians many years ago, exclaiming, "I get up in the morning, I get dressed for the glory of God and the advancement of His Kingdom. I eat breakfast, I go to work for the glory of God and the advancement of His Kingdom." There is no greater mission to live for on this earth!

With this said, I have been learning a lot about my health lately, and wanted to share some of what I am learning in a few blogs over the coming week on stewarding our health for the glory of God, so we may fully live the life He intends for us to live, and do all He desires for us to do.

One key way we steward our health, is to watch our sodium intake:

Our bodies need only about 1,300 milligrams of sodium per day that comes naturally in some foods, such as nuts, cheese, etc. Experts tell us we should keep our daily sodium intake to less than 2,300mg daily (about a teaspoon of salt per day), but the average US adult takes in closer to 3-4,000mg of sodium daily. 

Sodium is what helps the body maintain water and mineral balances and blood volume. However, too much sodium ends up saturating the blood stream and causing high blood pressure, which can lead to heart problems or stroke.

Two of the main ways we get too much sodium are processed foods and too much salt directly from the salt shaker in our cooking, or at the table.

Additional foods to watch out for, that are most full of sodium are:
Mini pretzels (1,029mg)
Cottage cheese (967mg)
Soy sause (1 tbsp, 902 mg)
Frozen pepperoni pizza (1 serving, 902mg)
Bacon (1 slice, 303mg)
Canned soups (although they would seem to be healthy, varies, but often over 1,000mg sodium. Even "heart healthy" canned soups are too high in sodium at over 700mg).

To put these sodium levels in comparison, McDonalds large fries only has 350mg of sodium! Of course, their fries have other ingredients that are unhealthy as well as sodium. 

Others to avoid frequently eating: salted chips, white bread, deep fried foods, canned foods and processed foods.

Besides cutting down our sodium intake, there are several ways to help in offsetting sodium levels in our body -

1. One reason exercise is so important is that it helps sweat out excess salt in the body to a healthier level, which protects our hearts.

2. Another interesting way is to get enough potassium. Potassium triggers excretion of sodium by the kidneys. Adults should have about 4,700mg daily, but often Americans consume 1-2,000mg less than is needed. Potassium rich foods include fruits and vegetables like bananas, mushrooms, spinach and almonds. A large banana per day will help you reach the appropriate levels of daily potassium intake to help offset sodium.