We’ve got some exciting news!  The Get Healthy Clark County website has a new and improved look!!  We hope that this new look makes it a little easier for you to find the programs and information that you need. 
 
All of the great information and programs that were on the site before are still there; they just might be in a new place.  All of our online programs can be found under Community Programs in either the Get Moving or Eat Better sections, but to make it a little easier for you, here are the direct links to each programs homepage.
 Walk Around Nevada 

  Nutrition Challenge 

  Get Healthy Meal Planner 

  Kids Challenge  

We hope you like the new website and we encourage you to explore the new website at
www.gethealthyclarkcounty.org and bookmark it for future reference!

The summer is slipping away at a rapid pace and if you have kids or you are a teacher , that leaves you thinking about the coming school year. There is always a lot to be done when it comes to getting your child ready for the upcoming school year and you might feel the last thing you have time to worry about is packing healthy school lunches.  Kids get bored of the same old thing so here are some ideas for how you can mix up lunch. Food is art….so let’s get creative!
Try PB Spirals. Take a whole wheat tortilla, spread on some peanut butter and add sliced banana. Drizzle a little honey.  Roll the tortilla and cut into bit size pieces.
Take chunks of chicken, add a little BBQ sauce, fill whole wheat bun with BBQ chicken.
Bored of a regular sandwich, try a wrap. Add turkey, lettuce and tomatoes to a whole wheat tortilla. Roll tortilla and cut in half.
Try a handful of whole-wheat crackers with four one-inch cubes of low-fat cheddar or Swiss cheese,  a serving (about a third of a cup) of egg salad made with a hard-boiled egg and a tablespoon of regular mayonnaise, and a cup of reduced-sodium V-8 juice.
For sides to go with these items try cups of fruit, celery sticks, baby carrots, or string cheese.

The Healthy, Hunger- Free Kids Act of 2010 PASSED and achieved a rare, bipartisan consensus on the senate floor! We would like to thank all of you who contacted Senator Reid and showed your support. Your efforts were heard! You can look forward to healthier school lunches for our children and eventually the removal of junk food from school vending machines. This is a huge step forward to changing the health of our future!

 http://bit.ly/bMIbJa

We know we’re supposed to get moving…walk, bike, run, swim, and play! But what about muscle-strengthening activities? What does that even mean? It means exercising your muscles against a resistance. This resistance  could come from lifting weights or from your own body weight such as doing pushups or leg squats. Without muscle-strengthening activities in your workout plan, you start to lose muscle and bone density in your older age. Strength training can stop bone density loss and rebuild some lost muscle. The earlier you start to focus on strengthening your muscles the better! Do muscle-strengthening activities at least twice a week.
Some examples of strength training activities include:
•  Lifting weights
• Working with resistance bands
• Doing exercises that use your body weight for resistance (i.e., pushups, sit ups)
• Heavy gardening (i.e., digging, shoveling)
• Yoga
 

It is BBQ season and grilling is in the air! Check out Mary Wilson, RD and her tips on healthier meat choices at the grocery store.
http://il.youtube.com/user/SNHealthDistrict#p/u/17/Hi6v5KOLzG8

You have determined that you need to start eating healthier and you know that means more fruits and veggies….but how? Many times before you have made this pact with yourself to start eating better but for whatever reason it never quite happened. What can you do different this time around?  Here are a few simple ideas:
1.       Buy fruits and veggies. If they are not in your fridge or pantry there is no way they can make it to your mouth. The first step to eating right is having the right tools.  Those tools are fruits and veggies.  Put them in your shopping cart. Buy them when you go out to eat. Select items that incorporate fruits and veggies. Choose a salad. Add extra  veggie toppings. Substitute for the cup of fruit. If you buy it, you are more likely to eat it.

2.       Buy what you like.  Select fruits or veggies that you like to eat, not ones that you think you should eat. If you don’t like blueberries but you buy them because you heard they are super healthy, you will most likely not eat them or hate every bite. There are so many varieties of fruits and veggies so buy the ones you like because you will enjoy eating them.

3.       Have a plan. Fruits and veggies are not going to automatically make their way into your lunch sack or dinner plans. Plan for when you can use them and how. Add them to your lunch, make a  fruit smoothie in the morning, add veggies to your pizza or sandwhich.  There are so many ways to incorporate them into your day!
Sometimes we feel if we’ve not eaten a whole garden that day, then we have not eaten healthy.  Which is unrealistic and untrue. Give yourself some credit! If you even ate one more fruit or veggie that day than you normally would have; feel good about that! Buy what you like and make a plan and then count it as a success when you have followed through!

To learn more about how to incorporate fruit and veggies in your diet check out our Nutrition Challenge at www.gethealthyclarkcounty.org

We’ve heard from a couple of our national partners who have indicated that our advocacy efforts in Nevada directed towards Senator Reid on the Childhood Nutrition Reauthorization seem to be making an impact. However, while they seem to be making an impact, the Childhood Nutrition Reauthorization bill is still yet to be scheduled for debate in the Senate, so we need to keep up our efforts!
Please consider contacting the Senator about the Healthy, Hunger- free Act of 2010 to tell him that you support healthy school lunch and you feel childhood obesity is important to Nevadans! Don’t forget to ask your family, friends and colleagues to consider contacting him as well.

To Call: 1-866-SEN-REID (1-866-736-7343)
To E-mail:  www.reid.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm (Or go to reid.senate.gov and click on ‘Contact’)
To Mail: Senator Harry Reid; 528 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

http://blogs.gethealthyclarkcounty.org/blog/gethealthyclarkcounty/2010/06/01/improve-school-nutrition/

These cleanse diets have been around for many decades but more recently have sprung up again as a popular weight loss method. Like all fad diets, it might bring a quick fix but the effects do not last and often times can do more harm than good. Of course weight loss is inevitable when you stop eating and drink very few calories but that doesn’t mean it is a good thing. Chances are the weight you’ll lose is water weight and lean muscle — not the fat you want to get rid of. These cleansing diet plans are deficient in all the essential nutrients: calories, vitamins, minerals, protein, carbohydrates, fiber, and fat. Rarely do these plans have any sort of fitness included in the regimen. Perhaps because exerting any added physical effort while essentially starving yourself would really be dangerous.
There is no scientific evidence that suggests that we need a detox program to cleanse our bodies. Our liver and other organs do an extremely great job of “detoxifying” our bodies from undesirable substances without any human intervention needed.
Fasting or cleansing plans are not recommended for anyone. There’s no evidence that purging your body of “toxins” improves your health or helps you lose weight long term. Focus on the proven evidence that shows eating healthy and being more active bring about a lifestyle change those results in weight loss.

Childhood obesity is one of the most pressing health problems facing our nation’s youth.  It is important to feed our children healthy foods not only at home but at school too. School is the place where our children spend a large portion of their weekday; shouldn’t we be concerned that they are eating healthy food at school? Right now you can have a voice in ensuring this happens! We want to improve school lunch and we need your help!  

The Senate Agriculture Committee has approved the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, which invests new money in childhood nutrition programs, establishes national school nutrition standards for all foods sold in schools and, for the first time in nearly 40 years, increases the reimbursement rate for the National School Lunch Program, helping schools to meet new nutrition standards and provide children with healthier school meals. The Senate Ag. Committee identified $4.5 billion in offsets from other programs under their jurisdiction to pay for their proposal.
We need your help to urge Senator Reid to move the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 to the Senate floor as soon as possible. By contacting Senator Reid today, you can help make improvements to school nutrition programs in time for the beginning of the next school year. 

Please send your letters, e-mails or call the Senator’s office and simply let him know that you want him to move the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 to the Senate Floor as soon as possible! 

To E-mail:  www.reid.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm (Or go to reid.senate.gov and click on ‘Contact’)
To Call: 1-866-SEN-REID (1-866-736-7343)
To Mail: Senator Harry Reid; 522 Hart Senate Office Building; Senate Office Bldg; Washington, DC 20510
Tell Senator Reid you want to see improvements in school lunches! Ask him to move the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 to the senate floor ASAP so we can improve the nutritional quality of childhood nutrition programs in our state and the rest of the nation.