Healthy Minute - JHMB HealthConnect

Healthy Minute
Take a Minute for Your Health
January 2016
Goal Setting
for Everyday
Success
In a garden, you plant seeds, nurture them with
water and fertilizer, work at keeping the weeds
out and trust the plants will accomplish your goal
of growing strong and productive. The same
processes can be used to plan for progress in your
life and work. “Setting goals gives direction to life,”
says Jack Ensign Addington, author of All About
Goals and How to Achieve Them. “If you don’t have
goals, you have no direction. You’re going to drift
and get nowhere.”
Review the January spotlight for 4 key tips to
set goals for 2016. After you review the monthly
spotlight, complete the Monthly Quiz and enter
for a chance to win a $25 Gift Card. Visit www.
JHMBHealthconnect.com/health-spotlights.
Offer a WellPATH Service at Your Site!
If you’d like to host a wellness service at your site, please
complete a brief Event Request Form. We will follow up
accordingly to secure a date and location. A list of WellPATH
services and the request form is available at:
www.JHMBHealthconnect.com/wellpath/request-an-event.
Prepared for you by
Winter Group Fitness
Classes Start Jan 11 - Register Today!
In Winter 2016, the
WellPATH program is
offering group fitness
classes throughout
the District. These
classes can be taken
can be taken as a
6-week session for $15.00, an 8-week session for
$20.00, or a 12-week session for $30.00. In addition,
we’re offering a coupon for 2 FREE classes that can
reduce your cost to just $2.50 per class!
This session we’re offering classes such as 20×3
Circuit Training, Body Works Plus Abs, Gentle Yoga,
TRX, and Zumba. Visit www.JHMBHealthConnect.
com/group-fitness-classes to view the schedule
and register.
January 2016
Webinars
The WellPATH Program
is proud to offer monthly
webinars focused on key
health and wellness topics. Review the Pinnacle
Training Systems webinar and complete the monthly
quiz for a chance to win a $50 Visa Gift Card.
•
Tuesday, January 12 at 6:30PM
“Healthy Resolutions” - Pinnacle Training
Systems
•
Tuesday, January 19 at 9AM & 11AM
“New Year...New You! 10 Financial Resolutions
You Can Keep” - Claremont EAP
For more details and to register, visit
www.JHMBHealthconnect.com/events/category/
workshops.
The WellPATH Employee Wellness Program is a program of the
Joint Health Management Board. Visit us on the web at www.JHMBHealthConnect.com.
Healthy Minute
Take a Minute for Your Health
Prepared for you by
Health Tip: When Does Gratitude Bring Better Health?
Adapted From the Wall Street Journal - Susan Pinker - Dec. 17, 2015
Gratitude is one of those tricky, hard-to-pin-down feelings that can be either inert or powerfully transformative. At this time of year,
when we’re constantly importuned to give thanks with gifts, cards, carols and donations, it often becomes a reflex. So when does
gratitude have psychological effects? That question didn’t get much scientific scrutiny until recently. Only in the past decade has
there been a push to determine if gratitude “decreases pain and depression, and boosts happiness,” as a recent study in Primary
Health Care Research & Development put it. The researchers found that an act of explicitly expressing gratitude lifted people’s
mood and sense of well-being.
Bolstering this finding, other targeted studies have shown that health-care workers who cataloged why they were grateful
experienced a 28% reduction in stress, and that writing about gratitude halved the risk of depression in those with a history of
the disease. Some research results seem almost too good to be true. Simply asking suicidal patients to write a letter of gratitude
reduced their hopelessness in 90% of the cases. Among fit teenage athletes, those with high levels of gratitude were more
satisfied with life in general and with their teams in particular.
Counting one’s blessings, as opposed to life’s annoyances, seems to bring with it all kinds of benefits: resilience, better health, a
rosier outlook—even a longer, more restful night’s sleep and a sense of connectedness to other people. Changing how we feel is
one thing, but changing behavior is another.
Whether the feeling or the behavior comes first, we do know that gratitude is tied to conscientiousness. Grateful people eat 25%
fewer fatty foods and have better blood pressure readings than ungrateful folks. And a new, still unpublished study shows that
feeling thankful is linked to lower Hemoglobin A1C, a sign of good blood-glucose management and thus better diabetes control.
In fact, gratitude is such a powerful catalyst for feeling hale and hearty, it’s a wonder that no one (except greeting-card companies
and religious leaders) has found a way to package it.
Which brings us back to the holidays. This time of year most of us steel ourselves for bland turkey, rich desserts and loud relatives
and forget what is remarkable in our lives. We’d probably all be better off—and enjoy the holidays more—if we followed the lead of
gratitude researchers and took a few minutes to list exactly what we’re grateful for. Better still, think it over, then say it out loud so
that everyone can hear it. - www.wsj.com/articles/when-does-gratitude-bring-better-health-1450384249
Recipe of the Month
Spinach
Cheese
Squares
Serves (4): Calories: 170,
Total fat: 6g, Saturated fat: 2g,
Cholesterol: 8mg, Sodium: 434mg,
Carbohydrate: 8g, Fiber: 2g,
Protein: 21g.
Source: Betty Crocker http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes
Ingredients
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•
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2 tablespoons butter, melted
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
(16 oz)
Directions
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2 packages (10 oz each) frozen
chopped spinach, thawed, squeezed to
drain
1 tablespoon finely chopped onion
1 cup Gold Medal™ all-purpose flour
Preheat oven to 350°F. Place melted butter in 13 x 9-inch baking dish; set aside. In large
bowl, beat eggs, stir in milk. Stir in flour and baking powder until well blended. Stir in cheese,
spinach and onion. Spoon egg mixture into baking dish. Bake 35 minutes or until center is
set. Cool 30 minutes; cut into 6 rows by 4 rows. Serve immediately.