Wellness Warrior
The Wellness Warrior Award is given to individuals across campus who are nominated by their peers for leading by example and inspiring through action to create a healthier lifestyle.
Be Well is excited to announce our fourth Wellness Warrior Award recipient- Kim Denton, a faculty in the College of Social Work. Kim, has been with the University for 8 year and enjoys hiking and working with animals on her farm.
Kim says, “It is important to nurture ourselves daily. I am inspired by all of the amazing people that I get to spend time with.” This is very evident in her enthusiasm to engage her department. Almost on a daily basis, Kim makes her rounds in the building gathering people to go on a walk with her. She also shares healthy recipes and health and wellness information with her co-works when she can. Her colleagues are very motivated by her example and are inspired by infectious energy.
Congratulations Kim, and thank you for being such a motivating model of health and wellness.
Making the healthy choice is not always the easy choice. To nominate someone who you feel is deserving of the Wellness Warrior Award please fill out this nomination form.
Move More
Physical Activity is a simple concept that can sounds overwhelming sometimes. Simply speaking physical activity is an active motion that includes gardening, playing catch, yoga, walking, working out, swimming, running a marathon, and everything in between. The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion recommends that adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity in a week. Moderate intensity is defined as one that requires some effort and noticeable increases heart rate. In layman’s term, you can talk but can not sing while doing the activity.
No matter our current level of activity, to meet this guideline all we need is a goal and some determination. Start by creating a simple SMART goal.
SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely. Meaning it is important to make the goal something within our reach but also something that will challenge our current status. An example of a goal would be, “I want to walk more!” What constitutes walking more? If i walk for 10 seconds does that meet my goal or do i want to walk for 10 or 30 minutes? However, an example of a SMART goal would be, “I will increase my daily steps by 100 steps using my Fitbit within two week!” In this example, we know exactly what counts as part of our goal and what doesn’t. We do not leave any room for self-doubt or uncertainty.
Anything, no matter how small it may seem, is better than nothing.
Eat Better
The 2nd session of the Be Well Lifestyle program is schedule to begin Tuesday October 25th. If you are interested in participating please contact Yusof Al-Wadei at bewell@utk.edu to RSVP. Space is limited
Be Well Lifestyle, is a 6-weeks program that reviews current recommendations, provide support for personal goal setting, and group motivation to succeed. Participants will be loaned Fitbits to track physical activity levels and assist in developing personal goals. Sessions will meet on Tuesdays at 12:00 PM in the Student Health Center.
Be Mindful
Use technology to De-stress. Breathe. Relax.
On-line Resources:
- Wildmind. This website offers resources for what it calls “Buddhist Meditation”. The articles are straightforward, and the techniques offered are consistent with the strategies we work on in Koru. They also offer an on-line course that might be interesting to try if you wanted to take your practice up another notch. http://www.wildmind.org/
- Meditation Oasis. You can find links to a variety of guided meditations here that may be useful to your practice. There are also a number of articles on meditation and how to deal with a variety of difficulties that may arise. This site also has online courses you can take. http://www.meditationoasis.com/
- Jon Kabat-Zinn talk. This is a link to the talk that Kabat-Zinn did for Google. He does a great job talking about the benefits of mindfulness. If you’re wondering why you would want to go to the trouble to learn this stuff, take the time to watch him explain. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nwwKbM_vJc
- Mindful.org. This website hosts an initiative that celebrates being mindful in all aspects of daily living—through Mindful magazine, their website and social media.
Apps:
- Calm.com. Need a little calm in your life? You’ve come to the right app FREE
- Insighttimer.com. The basic app is FREE and the added benefit of this timer is the “groups” feature, plus there is an ample selection of free guided meditations embedded within the app. In addition to the timer, guided practice, and progress tracking features, you are able to connect with like-minded folks around the world across common group interests. FREE
- Breathe2Relax. Breathe2Relax is a portable stress management tool which provides detailed information on the effects of stress on the body and instructions and practice exercises to help users learn diaphragmatic breathing. FREE
- Stop Breathe Think. This app / website www.stopbreathethink.org is brought to you by Tools for Peace, which aims to develop more kindness and compassion in schools, universities and non-profits through mindfulness training, among other initiatives. This app/program builds greater awareness as a personalized trainer for mindfulness meditation. FREE (with in-app purchases for extras)
- Meditation Helper. This app is a meditation timer which has a variety of settings to personalize including bell sound, length, etc. and even keeps a log of practice with reminder prompts. FREE
List created by Dr. Michelle Cooper, Student Counseling Center, for Yoga Fest 2016.
Be Different. Be Well.
The Wellness Wednesday Newsletter is a bi-weekly release in which Be Well will share events, information, and resource to support healthy lifestyles. It will serve as our communication with our campus community as we try to make the healthy choice the easy choice.