Chamber luncheon focuses on health and wellness
The topic of discussion at Thursday’s Shelby County Chamber Connections Luncheon was “Simplyfing: A Healthy Lifestyle in a Busy World."
Neika Nix Morgan, a corporate health specialist with St. Vincent’s Health System, spoke about how everyone should commit to wellness and a healthy lifestyle and gave tips for how to make it happen.
Held at the Columbiana First Baptist Church, Morgan told how she majored in communication and minored in nutrition and wanted to write and help people understand about health research.
“It’s hard simplying health in our busy world,” she said, “but you’ve got to just take the first step.”
Morgan said the three main areas of focus are sleep, diet and exercise. When we sleep, our body is actually busier than when we are awake, and without good sleep, everything else in our life can fall apart and lead to heart disease and high blood pressure.
“Being awake for 16 hours straight decreases performance as much as if your blood alcohol was 0.05%,” Morgan said.
To prepare your body for a good night's sleep, set a specific bedtime, eliminate devices including smartphones and laptops from the bedroom, keep the room temperature around 68 degrees, exercise at least four hours prior to bedtime, do not eat at least three hours before bedtime, no caffeine after noon, write out a to-do list before bed and for your best sleep, replace pillows every two years and mattresses every seven years.
Morgan also spoke about the benefits of a well-balanced diet.
“There are no such things as bad foods,” she said. “Just eat everything in moderation.”
Some action steps for healthy eating include eating six small meals per day, eating every two to three hours, incorporating protein, fat and carbs with each snack or meal, eat plenty of fiber, drink half of your body weight in ounces of water each day and keep caffeine consumption to less than 200mg day.
She gave five suggestions to make a daily routine easier:
- Don’t skip breakfast. Even if eating on the go, make healthy choices like yogurt, oatmeal, fruit and cheese.
- Make it convenient. Keep snacks at your desk and take healthier frozen meals to work.
- Use smaller plates. Using a 10-inch v. 12-inch plate leads to 22% less food consumed in one year.
- Prepare in advance. Schedule time during the weekend to plan, purchase and prepare for the week ahead.
- Don’t eat and work. Set work aside when you can focus completely on your meal.
Morgan discussed the benefits of exercise and how it increases oxygen uptake and circulation. It creates feel-good chemicals, endorphins and melatonin for sleep.
Life is busy, but to make exercise a priority, try scheduling workouts and aim for collective 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise each week. It doesn’t have to be 30 minutes per day, but Morgan suggested fitting it in as your schedule allows.
“If you don’t take care of yourself, who is going to take care of you?” she said.
Sitting at a desk for hours a day or staring at a computer screen can lead to tight, tense muscles. Stretching 10 to 15 minutes each day is a good way to help your body to relax.
“Our cervical spine has too much stress from sitting at a desk and looking at a phone,” she said.
To alleviate stiffness and joint pain, Nix suggests rotating your neck and shoulders, rotating your spine while sitting in a chair, stretching the arms out to the chest and the back, stretching legs while seated and taking deep breaths.