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Living a healthy lifestyle includes NO smoking.  But what if you don’t smoke but others around you do?!?

The facts are Secondhand smoke causes cancer

Secondhand smoke is classified as a “known human carcinogen” (cancer-causing agent) by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. National Toxicology Program, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a branch of the World Health Organization.

Secondhand smoke causes other kinds of diseases and deaths

Secondhand smoke can cause harm in many ways. In the United States alone, each year it is responsible for:

• an estimated 46,000 deaths from heart disease in non-smokers who live with smokers
• about 3,400 lung cancer deaths in non-smoking adults
• other breathing problems in non-smokers, including coughing, mucus, chest discomfort, and reduced lung function
• 150,000 to 300,000 lung infections (such as pneumonia and bronchitis) in children younger than 18 months of age, which result in 7,500 to 15,000 hospitalizations annually
• increases in the number and severity of asthma attacks in about 200,000 to 1 million children who have asthma
• more than 750,000 middle ear infections in children
• Pregnant women exposed to secondhand smoke are also at increased risk of having low birth- weight babies.

(Source: American Cancer Society)

If you are conscious about your health – you don’t want to be exposed to second-hand smoke but I’m sure you also don’t want to be stuck at home because people smoke in most bars and night clubs.  That is why you need to check-out Let’s Be Totally Clear.

As a consumer, you have a lot of power – you should exercise that power to support Smoke-Free Establishments and encourage stronger smoke-free air laws that protect all Louisianans from secondhand smoke and help others in your community understand the dangers of secondhand smoke exposure.

You are at risk when exposed to secondhand smoke but the people constantly at risk are those who work in bars and casinos that can still allow smoking due to current local and state laws – bartenders, waiters, casino dealers, maintenance workers, entertainers, DJs and musicians. Let’s be totally clear: all Louisiana employees deserve protection from secondhand smoke

Join Let’s Be Totally Clear on Facebook

Questions:
* Do you prefer breathing clean, smoke-free air versus toxic secondhand smoke?
* Do you hate going to bars or going out to hear live music because of all the secondhand smoke?
* Are you a musician, bar or casino worker who wishes Louisiana would protect all workers from secondhand smoke exposure?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then Let’s Be Totally Clear is for you and your involvement can change things!

The layers of reasons why people in the U.S. and here in our own city of New Orleans live unhealthy lifestyles are many and rather complex.  I’ve been dwelling on them for a couple of weeks now – you could almost say that I have been losing sleep over it because it’s such an intricate matter.

Billions of dollars are spent on education, research, lobbying, and regulations in order to reverse the current health trends in this country…so what are the major reasons why we still have the same (and increased) problems with obesity, diabetes, heart diseases, etc.

Is it a matter of education, accessibility or poor decision making?

I haven’t found the answers or solutions to explain why…but I narrowed it down to those three components.

Education

There are still plenty of Americans who don’t know the difference between good unsaturated fats and bad saturated fats or appropriate caloric and salt allowance; they still can’t read food labels.  They don’t get the negative effects process foods have on our health. Many folks also still don’t get all the benefits of daily exercise, taking a multi-vitamin, getting adequate sleep and stress management.

To some extent, it’s hard to understand this fact because of how readily available all of this information is…it’s on the news, TV shows, magazines, newspapers, blogs, radio…pretty much everywhere.  But it is a reality that for some people; the concept of living a healthy lifestyle which includes a balanced diet and exercise is completely foreign.

Accessibility

Accessibility is an entirely different issue.  We really don’t have to look very far for an example and the difference accessibility makes.  Let’s for example look at Uptown compared to the Bywater (Upper 9thWard)  and Lower 9thWard.  The comparison of accessible fitness establishments and grocery stores in the Uptown area compared to the Bywater and Lower 9thWard is astounding.

Nationwide, USDA estimates that 23.5 million people, including 6.5 million children, live in low-income areas that are more than a mile from a supermarket. Of the 23.5 million, 11.5 million are low-income individuals in households with incomes at or below 200% of the poverty line. Of the 2.3 million people living in low-income rural areas that are more than 10 miles from a supermarket, 1.1 million are low-income.

If you have no accessibility to healthy options…or your neighborhood isn’t safe for walking or sports and there are no fitness facilities or you can’t afford a membership to a gym – what are you suppose to do?  This is definitely the type of initiatives and problems that the Tulane Prevention Research Center is tackling with support of the Federal Government and the local Government.  Hopefully, they will get  more support from the local Government once our new Mayor, Mitch Landrieu,  is sworn in.

As New Orleans continues with her re-building efforts, we have an opportunity to make sure every neighborhood; no matter the level of income of the residents, has accessibility to a proper grocery store and health and fitness facility.

Poor Decision Making

Although tackling the accessibility issue is a major undertaking – I somewhat believe this particularly issue of constant and repeated poor decision making is more disheartening.  The culprits of this issue normally have both the education and access but choose to make the wrong choices.

We’re sadly talking about people who don’t take care about themselves and therefore choose to live unhealthy lifestyles.  People who either work too much, “are too busy”, don’t care, party too much, and are full of excuses as to why they can’t take care of their health.

In reality, these are the people who have no excuses but choose to kill themselves instead of prolonging their lives by making healthy decisions.  How do you get someone to care about their health who knows about all the risks they are putting themselves in…but still don’t want to change?

I don’t necessarily have any answers or solutions…I just wanted to share what is starting to keep me up at night. What are your thoughts on the matter?

Yesterday we attended the Lakeview Christian Center Wellness Fair 2010…and we were pleasantly surprised by how well organized the event was.  Parked outside of the Center was the Elmwood “On the Move – Driving to Fight Childhood Obesity” Bus.  This unique program is designed to give school children ages 9-13 an opportunity to learn about health and fitness in a non-competitive environment. Inside the bus is a fitness center designed for children – check the Elmwood Fitness Center Website for more information.

Inside the Lakeview Christian Center we were welcomed by a staff (church members) who were excited, and happy to see us and tell us all about what was available for us to see and take part in.  They had 36 vendors that made up the Wellness Fair to include a station to get your Blood Pressure taken for free and Cholesterol screening from The Blood Center: Blood Mobile & Free Cholesterol Screening. Also in attendance was Salire Fitness, BestRD Wellness (nutritionist), Advance Medical Care and Wellness, DHH/OAAS/Adult Protective Services, Elderly Protective Services, Louisiana Chiropractic Center, Alzheimers Association of GNO and the American Cancer Society to name a few.

From 10:00 am to 3pm they hosted some wonderful free seminars for attendees which included: Tulane hospital discussing Childhood Obesity & Type 2 Diabetes, Rose Dermatology discussed Skin Cancer, and LSU Radiolody has a seminar of Mammogram, When and & Why.

We spoke with Pete Schefferstein the Church Administrator and Wellness Fair Organizer to find out more about the Fair and why the Lakeview Christian Center decided to put on this event. As it turns out, Pete used to be quite an unhealthy fellow – as he puts it “a typical New Orleanian” and his wake-up call came when his doctor told him that he was close to being diabetic and unless he made some changes, he would have to take medicine for diabetics.

Speaking with Pete was an eye opener.  To hear him say that for him; not being able to bend down to pick something up, or not being able to walk up a flight of stair or walk around the block and that living with all the discomfort of bad health seemed perfectly normal was very surreal. It’s hard to comprehend that some people have never known or experienced living a normal “healthy” life.

However, when his doctor told him if he kept going the way he was he would be diabetic – Pete decided to change his lifestyle.  Since then, Pete has lost over 100 pounds.  He enlisted the help of his son who designed a program for him based on the Men’s Health TNT.  After losing 40lbs, Pete was finally able to use a treadmill.  Pete was exercising for the first time in his life.

Pete said to us “When you’re overweight, you don’t really realize how much everything is such a chore – like bending down to pick something up, traveling…how embarrassing it is to ask the stewardess on a plane for a buckle extension”

Since losing the weight and making life changes/establishing a new healthy lifestyle, Pete became more aware of the members in his church community who also needed help and assistance.  He commented on how difficult being overweight is on the families in the community; “People are losing jobs because the can’t perform their duties.” That’s when the Lakeview Christian Center became involved in helping their community become healthier.  Every six weeks they run a Biggest Loser Challenge to encourage members to get involve, participate in learning new things about nutrition and exercise and support each other in losing weight.

They bring in other members of the community who are nutritionists, trainers, nurses and doctors to speak on health issues.  It’s really fabulous what the Lakeview Christian Center have started and how they are supporting their community.

Kids ReThink New Orleans – in healthier and more efficient ways than the grown-ups did.

You may or may not have heard of a group of New Orleans school kids called “Kids ReThink New Orleans.” This diverse group of forward-thinking students has been ReThinking how to make New Orleans schools healthier since Hurricane Katrina.

“Give us fresh, tasty food,” explained ReThinker Daizha Sanders in a 2008 Press Conference.

“We want as little highly processed food as possible.  High processed food is bad for us and it makes us sick. Keep preservatives, chemicals and highly sweetened food to a minimum.”

Read the blog post: Thou Shalt Not Spork behind the video on Center For Ecoliteracy

And they’ve been nationally recognized by media outlets such as Nick News and Rachael Ray.

“We just got back from a speaking engagement at the Georgia Organics Conference – four Rethinkers gave presentations on their work making school food more healthy, local and delicious,” said Mallory Falk, who is part of the ReThink staff.

“On the mental health side, we’re exploring the concept of restorative justice.  We believe that holding circles where the community can come together and discuss a conflict is a much healthier, more healing process than many traditional forms of discipline,” she explained.

With a Nationwide Obesity Epidemic; we owe it to this amazing group of kids to help them out because they are doing something to not only help themselves but create positive chance in New Orleans.

Rethink Benefit at Dante’s Kitchen

What: Benefit to support the great work that Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools

When: Tuesday, March 2^nd

Time: 6 pm to 8:30 pm

Where: Dante’s Kitchen 736 Dante Street, New Orleans, LA 70118

For details and to reserve a ticket, please visit http://www.therethinkers.com/food-benefit/ or contact Jane at jane@therethinkers.org.

Be Fit Nola will continue to follow and blog about the work of this remarkable group of kids.

You can read more about the ReThinkers projects, including their 12 Recommendations for Public School Cafeterias on their website

Last night I attended an event for the LGBT Community Center 2010 Weight Loss Challenge at Oceana Grill.  (Oceana is a sponsor of the contest) Although you will not find any items on the Oceana menu that is under 700 calories, the Oceana Executive Chef – Chef Louis Brown prepared a special menu for the contestants.

The menu was as followed:

Appetizer:

The Famous Oceana Crab Cake Seared and served on top of Creole Mustard.

Entree:

Baked Ahi Tuna in fresh herbs layered over angel hair pasta tossed in a lemon garlic sauce, topped with fresh bell peppers.

Dessert:

Fruit medley

The seared crab cake was heavenly.  When Chef Louis presented his crab cake he explained how searing the crab cake in olive oil instead of putting them in a batter and frying them made a difference of 610 calories.  The seared crab cake only had 112 calories – as opposed to 722.

That was another great part of the meal, Chef Louis, as you can imagine, is a very busy man at Oceana but he took the time to explain each dish to the contestants, answer questions and share pointers.  He really drove home the importance and value of eating white meat and white fish (fish that turns white when cooked) such as what was part of our main course – Ahi Tuna.

Chef Louis opted to bake rather than sear the tuna, the spices he used and the parmesan cheese topping really did the trick.  Chef Louis chose to serve angel hair pasta since that is the lightest pasta option the restaurant carries.

For dessert the contestants and guests enjoyed a fruit medley.  Not one person sitting at the table got up feeling hungry and everyone was pleased and satisfied.  The point was well made that just because you are eating healthy and watching your calorie intake – that does not mean you have to be dissatisfied with what you are eating.

I wish Oceana Grill would choose to have these items on their regular menu…so others who live in New Orleans and come to visit could enjoy a healthy meal under 700 calories.

This was my first time meeting the contestants and hearing their story.  They are truly an inspirational group.  I plan on doing a Question and Answer session with each contestant so you can find out about them and learn from their story.  This contest has been a real commitment for all the contestants who have lost a combined weight of 50 pounds or 13% overall body weight.

The next event for the contestant that is open to the public is an upcoming panel discuss on March 9^th at the LGBT Community Center.  I will post more information about it in the next couple of days.

I’m not that old and I didn’t grow up on a farm…yet I remember the saying “If you don’t have your health; you don’t have nothing at all.”  I remember my dad telling me that. He wasn’t or isn’t a sick man but he is a self-employed man; he owns a construction company. His health is very important to him because without his health/ability to put in a hard day’s work – he doesn’t make money.

The saying also definitely applied more in the old days – when most people did some sort of physical labor as the primary way to earn a living. If people were sick or injured, they couldn’t perform their work duties and they didn’t get paid.  The incentives to be healthy were far greater (survival) and by default of performing physical/manual labor people were more active.  Times have changed.  Technology has changed the way we earn a living and most people in developed countries can perform their job while being overweight, out-of-shape, and plagued with chronic diseases, etc. Most people don’t care about their health.  It’s obvious when looking at the results of studies. Louisiana ranked 41 out 50 on the 2009 Well Being State Ranking. #1 being the best – 50 the worst. From Gallup and Healthways Well Being Index (Click on the image for larger image)

Merging decades of social and clinical research, development expertise, health leadership and behavioral economics, Gallup and Healthways collaborated to develop the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index (WBI) – the first and largest survey of its kind, aggregating data from 1,000 calls a day, 350 days a year. The Well-Being Index is already the largest behavioral economic database ever created and, over the next quarter century, will generate more than nine million individual responses.

The Well-Being Index and associated City, State and Congressional District Reports provide the only measurement today for total well-being. Beyond medical condition and access to healthcare coverage and services, the Index also questions respondents about economic, professional, emotional and social circumstances. With Well-Being Index data, it’s possible to quantify and establish a correlation between the places where people work and the communities in which they live and their well-being.

Some more results were released today.

The County Health Rankings—the first set of reports to rank the overall health of every county in all 50 states—were released today by the University of Wisconsin’s Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation at a briefing in Washington, D.C.  The 50 state reports help public health and community leaders, policy-makers, consumers and others to see how healthy their county is, compare it with others within their state and find ways to improve the health of their community.

Each county is ranked within the state on how healthy people are and how long they live. They also are ranked on key factors that affect health such as: smoking, obesity, binge drinking, access to primary care providers, rates of high school graduation, rates of violent crime, air pollution levels, liquor store density, unemployment rates and number of children living in poverty.

Poorly ranked counties often had multiple challenges to overcome, including:

• Two- and three-fold higher rates of premature death, often from preventable conditions.
• High smoking rates that lead to cancer, heart disease, bronchitis and emphysema.
• High rates of obesity which can put people at risk for diabetes, disability and heart disease.
• High unemployment and poverty rates.
• High numbers of liquor stores and fast-food outlets but few places to buy fresh fruits and vegetables.

Read More from the Press Release

Now, if only Gov. Bobby Jindal would have a look at this study and stop his plans for cuts to health care…

Here’s a look at the results for Health Outcomes.  For the Greater New Orleans area St. Tammany Parish was #1, Jefferson #16 and Orleans and St Bernard 59 and 62 respectively.  Interesting disparity between those…any thoughts of why? (Click on the map for larger image)

And the results for Health Factors: For the Greater New Orleans area St. Tammany Parish was #1, Jefferson #5 and Orleans and St Bernard 47 and 59 respectively. (Click on the map for larger image)

For greater details of the overall rankings and finer details check this out.

I normally don’t write posts this long…but this is serious – we have to start going to back to the mentality: If you don’t have your health; you don’t have anything at all.

I can talk about New Orleans getting healthier…but I won’t allow someone else to cast a shadow on my town about it!!  You know you are truly a New Orleanian when you’re ready to police the Internet and defend her honor!!

We started Be Fit NOLA to educate, motivate and raise health and fitness awareness in the Greater New Orleans area but our second purpose was also to show the world that New Orleans is much underrated when it comes to being recognized as a healthy and active place to live.

My ear is to the ground for everything health and fitness related for New Orleans and this is how I came across this blog post “New Orleans – Transforming “The Big Easy” into “The Big Healthy”” on EmpowerHer.com

Here are some excerpts:

Statistics show that even prior to the August 2005 Hurricane Katrina devastation, the people of New Orleans, La. faced some of the poorest health conditions in the country. I do not intend to put a damper on this week’s celebrations, but want to raise awareness of the plight that still faces “The Big Easy.”

According to a post Hurricane Katrina survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, life has not been “easy” at all with, “more than one in ten adults or 13 percent ranking their overall health as fair or poor.” The statistics were even higher among the economically disadvantaged with 19 percent of them ranking their health as fair or poor. The Kaiser statistics showed the percentage for the uninsured and those on Medicaid and Medicare were even higher

The results also showed that, “chronic conditions were also widespread, with over four in ten or 41 percent of adults saying that they had been told by a doctor that they had hypertension, diabetes, asthma, other breathing problems, or other chronic health conditions.”

Like most environments, overall health and mental health statistics go hand in hand. The Kaiser findings reported “mental health challenges were also evident for adults, with about one in twelve or eight percent ranking their mental health as fair or poor.” The survey found about one in twenty adults reporting symptoms of depression and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

The author of this post, Joanne Sgro is a Television Fitness Expert, Certified Personal Trainer and Sport Nutritionist…and she lives in Arizona.  She did attempt to end her post in a positive note:

While a rebirth calls for a celebration and New Orleans or “Hollywood South” has so much to celebrate– individuals still have an obligation to celebrate responsibly.

A new beginning in this wonderful, talented city will have it flourishing; and hopefully with more attention to health.

What gets me is if she had really done her homework for this post she would have come across Be Fit NOLA.  Had she come across Be Fit NOLA and read the content of our posts she would have known that New Orleans IS paying attention to being healthier.

I know how the internet and blogging works.  You use what’s hot in the media right now (key words like New Orleans, Super Bowl and Saints) and you write about it as it relates to what your area of focus is because that will help with your SEO and traffic.  I have no problems with that…but do all your homework before casting a shadow on our city.

I left this comment on the post:

I’m the founder and CEO of a new site and company called Be Fit NOLA (www.befitnola.com) and I think this post is off mark. I understand you are using results from surveys taken post Katrina and since you don’t live here – you can’t understand how quickly progress and change is happening in New Orleans. One month, three months and six months in this city brings in 2-3 years worth of change. The success of the Saints has been all through the year…not just with the Super Bowl. The joy, happiness and renaissance movement happening in New Orleans is affecting everyone and creating major change.

We started Be Fit NOLA to not just educate the people of New Orleans about health and fitness but the world about what is available in New Orleans when it comes to health and fitness. There is so much people don’t know about this city. So please look a little deeper into what’s going on in New Orleans before casting a shadow on the city.

I definitely welcome your comments!!

The Saints have won the Super Bowl!!  It was an amazing game…the world’s top football athletes went head to head…putting it all on the line to make their team victorious but only one team had 100s of thousands of fans believing in them: The New Orleans Saints.

To have faith – to believe in something bigger than ourselves and to be united in said faith and belief is the world’s most beautiful and powerful phenomenon known to men. The Saints’ victory in Super Bowl 44 is unprecedented; no other Super Bowl in 44 years has meant this much to a team, fans and a city (and State).

The Saints played an almost flawless game…no turnovers, basically no penalties, and they were aggressive – willing to leave it all on the field. They won their first Super Bowl and broke records in the process.  They didn’t just win this game.  They dominated this game.

This victory is also a reminder of what happens when great leadership is backed by selfless top performances by star athletes; by team work.  People working together is more effective and powerful than the efforts of any one individual because as a whole, we are stronger than as individuals.

A big part of the New Orleans Saints team are the fans and an entire city.  We Believe.  The power of believing can’t be measured, bottled up or quantified – but we all know it played a role in last night’s victory. Our thoughts, our energy and our desires create our realities.  Hundreds of thousands of people wanted, desired, prayed and energized the same thoughts – thoughts of victory.  A victory was delivered!!

The same power of believing is being applied to the Renaissance now embracing our city.  We have unity, hope, faith and desires to become the greatest city in the world.  Together, as a team, we will make that happen.

Now, you must also believe in yourself.  Believe in your dreams; believe in making them a reality.  Believe the energy and magic of New Orleans is here for YOU! Believe you can be more than you have ever imagined possible.  Know that the more you believe in yourself; the more each of us will accomplish.  Everything is possible – each of us must keep on believing.

This post is out of the ordinary for Be Fit NOLA but I wanted to write it because how much I believe in New Orleans and each person that lives here. We believe the people of New Orleans can accomplish anything; the citizens of this city can become the healthiest people in the world. We can also continue to re-build a green city, a safe city. We Believe.

Be Fit NOLA is a resource to help you be and stay healthy – we are a preventive care resource…we promote living a healthy lifestyle through proper diet, exercise and stress management in order to prevent the development of illnesses and sickness.  If you do get sick, we are not a health care resource or provider but thankfully the State of Louisiana has you covered.

From Stay Healthy Louisiana

The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals recently launched http://www.healthfinderla.gov, a comprehensive online resource that allows users to compare cost and quality of services offered by hospitals, nursing homes, and public and private health care plans. The site also helps you compare retail prices for the 100 most commonly prescribed drugs.

I visited the site and was pleased by how well organized, informative and helpful the site is.  Just like GNOCommunity.org which I covered in this post; this is another well thought out site that is designed to properly serve the community (State).

As you know, we have been encouraging people to take part in the Pound for Pound Challenge because we believe it is such a wonderful opportunity to do something good for yourself, while at the same time, do something amazing for your community.

How exactly will you be helping your community? Watch this video and learn more about Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana and how the donation from General Mills for every pound you pledge to lose will help people in need.

As of this post, 18,686 pounds have been pledged by 578 people for New Orleans.

Be Fit Nola Interviews Second Harvest Food Bank from BeFitNola on Vimeo.