Lifestyle Choices

Lifestyle Coaching - A Bridge to Healthy Living!

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Our County’s Health Rankings, How do We Compare?

The 2012 County Health Rankings have just been published. The Rankings serve as an annual evaluation regarding key indicators that influence our health such as education and income levels, access to nutritious foods and medical care, as well as other lifestyle behaviors which affect our health.

The University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) published these rankings which can be found at www.countyhealthrankings.org. They assess the overall health of nearly every county in the United States using standard methods for measuring how healthy people are. They consider four categories: “health behavior, clinical care, social and economic factors, and physical environment.” [Read more…] about Our County’s Health Rankings, How do We Compare?

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Taxes on Sodas?

Recently I received two emails referencing diabetes. One was from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation publishing the findings of a feasibility study of implementing a nationwide tax on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs). The other was from a client telling me about his major decrease in his A1C levels. Since we’re in the midst of an epidemic rise in Diabetes Type 2, I read both with great interest.

Studies are being done on taxing your SSBs. Taxes on sodas? Consider the cigarette tax: cigarettes were first taxed by our federal government in1862. Iowa became the first to levy taxes at a state level in 1921 and by 1969 all states were taxing cigarettes. Has this affected the amount of smokers? Yes. The greater the amount of tax increase, the greater the proportion of smokers who have stopped smoking. The same principle may apply to SSBs as well. [Read more…] about Taxes on Sodas?

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HEALTHY LIVING FOR 2012

Sometimes how to go about getting healthy seems confusing because there are so many conflicting messages. Are there general rules to follow which promote wellness? Actually there is, and to start off 2012 right I’m going to make a few suggestions:

1) Get an examination every year from your physician and dentist. They should tell you where you need to focus in order to get healthy and why. [Read more…] about HEALTHY LIVING FOR 2012