Six Weeks Until Summer: Protect Your Skin

protect your skin

Don't Feel the Burn 

Even people who rarely burn are still at risk for sun damage and skin cancer from chronic sun exposure. Summer is a prime time for sunburn, and it's time to get prepared.

Five or more sunburns during your lifetime may double your risk for skin cancer, regardless of when they
occurred. Sun damage from UV rays also leads to skin damage and wrinkles.

Sunscreen is an easy and fast way to protect yourself from the burn. There is now both an abundance of sunscreen choices as well as education on sunscreen choices. It's important in choosing a sunscreen that is broad spectrum to cover both UVA and UVB rays. The two types of UV rays both damage skin but in different ways.

UVA penetrates deeper into the skin and causes damage.

UVB damages skin closer to the surface and is responsible for sunburns.

Dermatologist recommend choosing a sunscreen that is SPF 30 or higher. Coverage with sunscreen should be on all possible sun exposed areas.

Other helpful tips include:

1. Apply sunscreen 15 minutes before sun exposure
2. Re-apply sunscreen after 2 hours of sun exposure
3. Re-apply sunscreen after swimming.
4. Minimize sun exposure during the hours of 10 am - 4 pm

Maintain Exercise Focus

Education 

Lack of knowledge is one of the easiest to correct problems when starting or pursuing an exercise plan. Being properly prepared is essential. A well-planned program is needed to begin, and a clear vision of goals is also required.

I believe that gym membership is an important tool for anyone who is invested in a healthy level of fitness. A gym offers many options for equipment, group classes, and if desired personal training.

I've been a member of 24 hour fitness for sometime and have used many of the benefits listed above. Another benefit for 24 hour fitness member is their newsletter which has many tips and motivational pieces. The table below contains good tips on exercise across all of the age groups.

Week 4 

Week 4 until summer is coming up. Stay tuned for week 4's tip! 

Be a Weekend Warrior Parent

We're now in week 5 of the six weeks until summer countdown 

The goal for this week is to step up the exercise. Stepping up the level of exercise can mean a different things to different people. It could mean exercising more frequently or exercising with greater intensity or maybe both.

I want to point out an often discounted idea that exercise can be fun. The fun angle is especially important when it is family exercise. It is very important to me as a father of a young child to be a role model for an active life. Childhood obesity as well as adult obesity continues to rise, and a sedentary life is the path of least resistance for many.

Exercise doesn't have to always involve a gym or a group of adults. Exercise can be a brisk family walk, a game of backyard tag, or any other active fun family game.

Keep yourself and your family in the exercise game.

Biggest Loser Survey Shocks and Saddens

I just read an article recapping  responses from a recent survey of people who responded to a Biggest Loser contest.  


10,000 people responded to the contest survey. The results while not surprising were to me still very worrisome. In spite of all the health promotion educational campaigns both local and national, unhealthy habits still remain a persistent problem. Here are the major highlights from the contestant responses

1. Gym membership - 56% have no gym membership
2. Fast food - 81% eat fast food occasionally or 2/3 times per week
3. Exercise - 51% do no exercise at all
4. Water drinking - 46% drink no water during an average day 
5. Knowledge gap - 46% said they didn't know what to do to get healthy 

Six Weeks till Summer: Eat Breakfast Every Day

Make a healthy breakfast the start of your day

Breakfast in Weight Management 

Breakfast is probably the most important meal of the day. There are a a number of good reasons to resist the urge to skip breakfast especially if you're on a path to lose weight and be healthier. 

Eating food at the start of the day fuels up the body and reduces hunger later in the day. Without breakfast, a large appetite increases the risk for over-eating or picking less healthy, higher calorie choices. 

Eating breakfast keep metabolic rate and energy up. More energy earlier in the day means more activity and in the long run, more calories burned. 

Motivation to eat healthy starts early in the day. Take some time to blow up past ideas of breakfast and try some new choices. I've written before about vegetables at breakfast as a way to start the day healthy. 

Eating breakfast is the healthy habit for May in Cooking Light. The Cooking Light resource center for 12 healthy habits has more information, recipes, and tips to help convert you to a breakfast eater. 

Be the Boss of your Weight Loss

I heard an interview with David Kirchhoff on Bloomberg radio yesterday. Kirchhoff is the CEO of Weight Watchers and has personally dealt with obesity.

His interview was compelling and rational. The most important concept shared by him was the concept of creating habits that lead to success and preparing ahead for dealing with dining out.

Weight Watchers is a great program that has motivated many people and led to life saving changes.

Check out Kirchhoff's new book, Weight Loss Boss 

 Amazon Affiliate link 

Concluding Thoughts for Season 13 Biggest Loser

What if they picked a Biggest Loser and nobody cared?

The article above raises an intriguing question and also summarizes my feeling on this whole season. I think the finale show reflects the feelings that many BL fans including me had about this season. After all the drama and quitting, we didn't really like most of the players and really didn't care how they did. 

I suspect the finale was scripted based on that reality. The one hour finale was short and to the point. We got very little sappy, video clips from earlier in the season. At-home contestants were virtually silent. The finalists got a little bit more face and talk time, but it was still short.

Producers to contestants: Be quiet, wave a lot, smile a lot, and let's get this over with.

I think the raw numbers post  highlights those who excelled at the finale. It's wasted time to dwell on the topic any longer. The true question for season 13 contestants is

Now What? 

Will you continue on course towards better health?

Will you participate in the BL community and be an inspiration?

Six Weeks 

It's six weeks until the official season start for summer. I'll begin with the next post talking about six habits for six week to get you off to a healthy start when summer begins.

 

BL Season 13 Raw Numbers

Season 13 Percent Weight loss

How did they do? 

The big question in my mind for this season 13 biggest loser is whether or not this season's contestants did as well as past seasons. 

The drama and the quitters from this season really swallowed up a a lot of positive feelings that I and I think many people have about BL. 

So, hard facts can help give perspective on how these folks really did. Percent weight loss is a key measure that is used throughout the game. Jeremy and Kim both meet or exceed the finalist average percent loss from the prior two seasons.  The stats aren't so good for the at-home players. Only five out of the fourteen at home players surpass the prior two season at home player loss.   

Body Mass Index 

Body mass index (BMI) is a fair measure of obesity and is another stats that can help give perspective for 

season 13 accomplishment. Both men and women had starting BMI scores on par with past seasons. I did remove Rulon and Arthur from the season 11 calculation since both men had massively high BMI scores that were way above even the morbid obesity score norm for most starting men players. 

The remaining men (three of the men this season quit) did finish out with an average in line with prior seasons. The women started in line with average but didn't make the grade at the end. 

BMI 25-29.9 overweight 

30-39.9 obese 

40-50 morbid obesity 

> 50          super obesity (not good!) 

Season 13 Body Mass Index

Perspective 

I don't want to diminish the accomplishments of folks for this season. Contestants lost a lot of weight and made major life changes for their health. Most shifted from morbid obesity to overweight, and a few have achieved normal BMI scores.  

Biggest Loser Season 13 Quick Post on Finale

Jeremy Britt Season 13 Winner

I only caught the final three weigh-in last night. As I mentioned in finale of the unlikable, I figured either Jeremy or Conda would get the final prize.

Jeremy did crush it from the time he left the ranch to the weigh-in. He lost an additional 49 lbs. Kim and Conda both lost less than 20 lbs. The low loss for Kim is not surprising. She didn't have much to lose. Conda on the other hand still appears to have a distance to travel to reach a healthier weight.

Congrats to Jeremy, I wish him well.

I'll be viewing the whole finale episode as I have time this week and compiling the stats.