 Hi, my name is Jill Bates, and I'm Jodi Bied, and we'd like to welcome you to our Wellness Wednesday webinar. Our topic this week is physical wellness, especially right now during COVID-19. So Jodi, when you think about wellness, what do you think of? What do you think of well-being, nutrition, sleep, exercise, happiness? Right. A lot of people, however, when they hear the word wellness, or especially physical wellness, this is the only thing they think about. And physical wellness is so much more than just doing exercises. That was kind of silly. You might remember seeing this. Do you remember ever seeing this, Jodi, from EHA Wellness? Yes. Yeah, those are our six dimensions of wellness. And Jodi, when you were talking, you mentioned things like sleep and nutrition and all of that. So when we talk about physical wellness, or just wellness as a whole, according to EHA wellness, there are six dimensions, emotional, intellectual, occupational, physical, social, and spiritual. And we are going to focus today on the physical aspect. We have sleep. We have our social networks and nutrition and fitness, and all of these have been affected by the COVID-19, unfortunately. Absolutely. And we're going to share just a little bit of information on all four of those topics today. And we'll start out with sleep. I think it's kind of interesting that according to statistics, there are a lot of Americans who don't get a good night's sleep. I don't know about you. Are you a good sleeper? I am. I do. Finally, I've been able to get into a routine of sleeping better. I seem to think that a routine helps me a lot, too. This is one of the statistics that Linda Kennedy has shared with us at an EHA wellness rep meeting, and she says that according to research from the CDC, being awake for at least 18 hours is the same as someone having a blood alcohol content of .05%, but being awake for 24 hours or more is equal to a blood alcohol content of .10%, which is higher than the legal limit in all states. And to think of all those mornings I drove home after a night shift of not sleeping. So loss of sleep hurts us in lots of different ways. When I don't get enough sleep, I have a lot of trouble getting things done. My mind just wonders and I can't even focus. One of the other things that I've read is that people who don't get enough sleep have trouble maintaining their weight because for some reason lack of sleep seems to affect our bodies and makes us crave calorie-high foods, especially carbohydrates. So oftentimes people who are low in sleep gain weight. And if you look at the last bullet, getting enough sleep helps your immunity. So if you don't get sleep, your immune system may suffer as well. So you mentioned being on a regular routine for sleep. Yes. I usually, I do take melatonin. I've taken that for about a year now and that helps me and at least a half an hour before I go to bed. At night I just kind of shut things down and try and just relax and not have any stimulation types of things. I think one thing that really makes a difference for me when I sleep and I especially notice this if I'm not sleeping at home is the quality of the pillow that I'm sleeping on. If I have a bad pillow, I have a real hard time getting to sleep. So, you know, when you look at some of these tips for better sleep, the very first one talks about investing in a great pillow and we all like different kinds of pillows too. So find out what works for you. Also for me a routine is very important. I read every night before I go to bed and that's just part of my routine and I read until I can't read anymore and I shut the book and turn off a light and I am asleep. So we suggest getting good sleep according to this Irish proverb, a good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor's book. Jodi and I just came from a Zoom meeting and we like getting together with our coworkers and research also shows that our odds of being happy are directly connected to our social network. If we have happy friends and if their friends are happy, we're going to be happier. So it's also been shown that your friends influence your health and in fact the people that we surround ourselves with according to this might have more influence on our health than our family history. I think this was interesting about smoking. You are more likely to smoke if you have a direct connection with a smoker, 61% more likely and even if your friend smokes, you're 29% more likely to smoke. With vaping though, I wonder if vaping goes along with that also because of the nicotine. I think it's still considered smoking so I think vaping people forget is part of the smoking world and it can have the same effects. And the next one, if your friend becomes obese, your chances of becoming obese increased by 57%. It's crazy. Hannah and I that I work with always have a good nutrition competition between us. We always try and keep each other's nutrition at a healthy level at all times and it's just nice to know you can go to work and you're not going to be tempted by your friend or your co-worker's bad eating habits. So it's huge. It is huge, yeah, because over time what we tend to do with nutrition and exercise mimics that of the people that we hang around with. So if you have a friend who does a lot of walking or goes and works out, you're more likely to do that also. And if you have good friends like Jodi does with her co-workers who eat healthy, you're five times more likely to have a healthy diet. So we're going to talk about healthy diets now and Jodi's going to kind of lead you through this. Healthy eating. It's a struggle. It's, as I say, like 70% of your weight comes from your diet and you're healthy eating and right now it's a real struggle to try and balance that out. So I decided to make some healthy snacks because of my teenage daughter's home from college. So I try and keep healthy, nutritious snacks for her, so I made some protein balls. Okay, so let's see how you put this recipe together. So, Jodi, you know how the girls get sometimes it's not so easy to do with the chestnut, the fish, the frustration, so bad it makes you cry with the stomach, she's so sad, don't smell so, don't smell so good. So, Jodi, I have to ask you, how long do those balls last in your fridge? Just over 24 hours. Just over 24 hours, yeah, I made those and they look wonderful and they look easy to make and they look like a kind of food that anyone would enjoy eating. There's another resource for healthy recipes. This gal is actually our former administrator's daughter. She has a website that is called Substitute Teacher and she posts short little videos on making healthy substitutions within real common recipes so that it makes them healthier for you. I think this might be a fun place to go and get some ideas. Jodi, do you have anything that you especially do right now to maintain good nutrition at home? No, not really. I just always try to make sure I have plenty of vegetables. I've gone, you know, of course I can green beans last year and some vegetable soup and that has came in very handy while through this, but I just always like to have lots of vegetables available with the protein for the meal. One of the other things that my husband and I do is that we eat a lot of fruit also and I've mentioned EHA wellness before. One of the things that they recommend are two fruits and three vegetables a day and we try to do that. We try to live that. So, keep that fresh produce on hand and I know Jodi said she's been, you just planted some potatoes. Is that right? Potatoes, bratishes and peas, snap peas is what I planted this year. So, if you're into gardening, that is a great way to have a boost for your health and also it's a great boost for your physical health and it's a form of exercise. A lot of people make excuses about getting exercised, but you just need to do something. Doesn't make any difference what it is. But our bodies were meant to move and there are so many benefits to moving your body. You can read the list here, I'm not going to read it to you. The last one says it improves your sleep and I know I sleep better on those days that I get lots of exercise. It helps you think better and just makes you healthier overall. So, how do you build movement into your everyday activities? Well, this may sound kind of silly, but when I brush my teeth, I do squats or I stand on one foot for 30 seconds and then I sit on the other foot for 30 seconds because that way I'm working on my balance but I'm also getting my teeth brushed at the same time. So, I don't know, is there a way that you build movement into your everyday activities, Jodi? No, I'm just active in my yard in my house, helping with the ranch and bottle feeding calves and just everything outside. I always make sure I'm outside two or three times a day. Yeah, we just had a nurses meeting as I mentioned before and a couple of the gals who have younger kids say that they've been outside being active with their kids, playing ball or working on the farm or doing things outside. One of the things that I do is keeping track of my progress with an activity tracker. I love it. I count my steps every day and I have a goal, I set a goal for myself and I make sure that every day that's humanly possible that I reach that physical goal. And you want to make exercise fun, you want to do something that you'd like to do. So other than working, what do you do for fun exercise? I like to go kayaking when the weather is more suitable for it and we have a creek in our pasture in our land. So I like to do kayaking. I like to ride my bike when the roads are passable in our area. And I always walk. I like to walk and I can't wait for asparagus and mushrooms to be out and about. I think just being outside is one of the best things that you can do to lift your mood plus that's a great place to get some exercise. I've seen a lot of people out working in their yards and I know people are really eager to start planting flowers. That's a form of exercise. That's a great way to get exercise. But we also have to think of ways that we can get exercise when we can't go outside because there might be rain in the forecast or it might be really, really windy or something. So I did find a few resources online. One of my favorites, current favorites, I just found this last week is YMCA360. And these are free health and fitness videos that they have in there in a number of different categories that you can see there. There's yoga, there's activities for kids, pilates. If you're really into boot camp type exercises, they've got 12 videos there. They've got a boot camp for beginners. One of the sections that I really especially like because I think it's appropriate for anybody who's watching this is the one for older adults. And it's not just for people who are in their 70s and 80s. If you are a person who hasn't done any kind of formal exercise before, I would really suggest some of these videos. I've been doing them myself and I think they're great. They're right around a half an hour in length and many of them are a combination of stretching and warm up and then weights or resistance bands or something. I even did chair yoga and that was really, really fun and it was a great way to do a different form of exercise that wasn't familiar to me. Have you ever done yoga before, Jodi? Yes, I have. I've done yoga several times as a class and it's awesome. Well, here's another site that I found on this EHA wellness resource. They have yoga with Adrienne and she has lots of yoga classes there including yoga for beginners and that's where I would be, yoga for beginners. So take advantage of some of these and check them out. I think you'd have a lot of fun with them. So probably the key for being physically well is just balance. Would you agree? Absolutely. Everything in perspective and balanced. Right. And remember that you don't have to do everything at once. Martin Luther King said you don't have to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step. Try increasing your intake of fruits and vegetables. Try establishing a routine before you go to bed. Make Jodi's recipe. Try some healthy eating. Check out one of those videos. And always if you need some help with some ideas for being physically fit, make sure that you reach out to either Jodi and me. There are emails. Thanks for joining us. Any last words of wisdom, Jodi? Stay healthy. Okay. Stay healthy. See you later. Thanks.