The New Year is well on its way and hopefully you are all working hard towards keeping your resolutions. The Move Smart! and Eat Smart! messaging over the past month has provided several suggestions to help keep you on the straight and narrow.

We’ve combined the January and February newsletter to launch our new newsletter and list some of the exciting new upcoming challenges. Be sure to read the Member Highlight on Jeremy Sapp and his amazing transformation, culminating in running a half marathon.

February is Heart Month.

Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) kills almost a million people a year and is the single leading cause of death in the United States. Risk factors include inactivity and obesity.

“…even light-to-moderate activity is associated with lower CHD rates in women. At least 1 hour of walking per week predicted lower risk.” -Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston

Upcoming Challenges

All winners are randomly drawn among WalkingSpree participants who meet the challenge requirements. The winners receive a $30.00 Gift Certificate from Amazon.

January Resolution 5: We hope you all lost the 5 lbs for this month’s challenge. Stay tuned to the announcement of the winner on the WalkingSpree blog in the next two weeks.

February Step into the Olympic Spirit Challenge: Starting Feb. 12th and ending Feb. 28th, you’ll be earning points for different Olympic Sports based on your steps. You will need to download the Step into the Olympic Spirit Calendar to find out the rules. Watch for it’s availability this week on the blog and look for updates in your Eat Smart! this Friday.

March into St. Paddy’s Day: Take a Virtual Walk around the Emerald Isle to find your pot of gold. Everyone who completes the walk by the end of March will be eligible for the draw for the prize.

April 10,000 steps Challenge: Spring is in the air so this is a month to reach deeper and push harder. For every day you reach 10,000 steps in April you’ll have your name entered for the draw.

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The December Walk to the North Pole Challenge was a huge success with thousands of you reaching more than 7000 steps to compete with Santa. Many of your groups reached the North Pole. The winner of the $30.00 Amazon Gift Certificate goes to Linda McKinney (greatgrammy) from WalkingSpree client Whidbey General Hospital.

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Congratulations to all the steps everyone has worked hard to achieve this past month. Remember, if you have any success stories you want to share with us. Please send us your photo of the month. Show us where your pedometer has been by sending us a photo of you wearing your pedometer and at the end of the year, your name will entered into a draw for a prize (to be determined). Please send them to blog@walkingspree.com.

Top 50 Walkers in WalkingSpree for January 2010.

Member Highlight

Name: Jeremy Sapp
Heaviest Weight: 354 lbs
Current Weight: 200 lbs
Weight Loss: 154 lbs

Three years ago, Jeremy Sapp weighed 354 lbs and was a couch potato. Today he weighs 200 lbs and ran 13.1 miles in Austin’s 3M Half Marathon in only 1 hour and 48 minutes.

The transformation started two years ago when Jeremy’s wife mentioned a wellness program the company was starting - WalkingSpree’s online pedometer program.

Jeremy recalls, “We said, ‘Let’s see how this works and what happens.’ We got our pedometers, started slowly and were very surprised at how motivating it was to see how people in the contests were doing when we uploaded with our pedometers. It was surprising to me to see how this competitive nature came out.”

They started off slowly, walking around the neighborhood in the evenings. “It was fun. It was good quality time together.”

Then Jeremy started walking around on his lunch hour. And doing more walking on the weekends, “I quickly found out how important good shoes were!”

Six months ago he decided to run the half-marathon.

“I started by jogging and picking up pace with walking. Then running a couple of miles on my long walks and just progressed to running further and further. And then I’d start running 10 to 12 miles each week either when I was on the treadmill or out on the streets.”

The result? Five thousand and five hundred people ran the marathon. The fastest runner came in at one hour and nine minutes. Jeremy finished in the top 20%, coming in at one hour and 48 minutes.

Of course, he couldn’t have done it without the support of his family and friends.

“I absolutely have a supportive wife. And we’re about to have one more in the family. My wife is going to have a baby. March 1^st is our due date…. She’s getting big, like she’s supposed to. She’s walking too!”

Jeremy dreams of walking with the baby tucked snugly in the new jogging stroller his father has purchased. And he also dreams that one day the baby will cheer him on at yet another finish line.

“I think that someday I’d like to do a marathon. I haven’t set my mind on it yet but it’s something to contemplate. Actually, we were sitting around at breakfast and we were talking about how it would be cool to do the Ironman. That would be a lifetime achievement goal to someday be able to do that. Maybe someday the stars will align and I’ll be in Hawaii with my wife and child and family and doing the Ironman.”

We want your success stories.

Success is measured by many factors. Whether it’s weight loss, or improving your blood pressure, managing your diabetes or simply reaching 10,000 steps for the first time, we want to hear about it.

If you feel you or someone you know should be included in a member highlight, please contact us at blog@walkingspree.com

Feeling like a refrigerated raisin is often not the best way to enjoy the winter season and the joyous holidays that accompany it. Here are some tips on how to deal with dry winter skin.

Your skin in winter can become dry to the point of being painful. I myself began feeling the effects of the cooler weather in early October. My lips became tender and chapped, and I had to switch to a different formula of daily facial cleanser because the exfoliating beads in my current cleanser were irritating my skin. I’ll have to limit my daily exfoliation to just twice a week. Also my hands and feet became very dry.

Indoors you’re subjected to dry heat and outdoors you’re bombarded with harsh winter UV rays from the sun and chilling winds. Yes, the sun’s rays are still just as dangerous as in summer and they will reflect off any snowy surfaces, bouncing the rays right back on to you. You’re going to need a good facial moisturizer with SPF in it.

Here are some more tips to help you combat dry winter skin:

Use a lip balm (preferably with SPF) and do not lick your lips under any circumstances. That just makes it worse. Keep your hands moisturized with a good quality hand cream.

Drink plenty of water and limit your alcohol intake. Alcohol is a dehydrator.

Buy a humidifier if you don’t already have one. It may help keep your heating bills down as well. You know, the whole heat and humidity thing. Think Amazon rainforest.

Use a shower filter. It will filter out the skin-drying chlorine in your tap water. Avoid hot water even though it feels good on a cold winter morning. It will only strip your skin of its natural oils and cause water to evaporate more quickly. Also, it pays to switch from soap which can dry the skin, to a silky body wash which will help your skin retain moisture. Pat your skin dry when exiting the shower, don’t rub. Apply a nice moisturizer to help seal in moisture.

When the humidity drops to 50 percent or less, you will need to pay even more attention to your moisturization routine. Stay away from harsh scrubs or cleansers since they will eliminate most of the skin’s oils and dry your skin out more easily. This applies to skin care products as well as cleaning products.

My favorite winter skin care tip is before you go to bed, apply a thick, rich moisturizer to your feet, concentrating on the heel area. Then put on a nice cushy pair of socks. When you wake up your feet will be soft and smooth and well-hydrated.

Not paying attention to extremely dry skin can lead to health issues and act as a welcome mat for rashes and skin infections. So take good care of your skin and enjoy your winter!

About The Author
Katrina Price is a skin care consultant and the owner of http://www.skincareteacher.com and it’s accompanying blog, http://skincareteacher.blogspot.com

There are so many ways to increase your steps that the list is endless. However, there are a few things that you can do at work, home, with your family and in the community to increase your steps. The best thing is that no major skills are required, just put on your favorite pair of walking shoes.

At Work:
Stairs instead of the elevator
Walk at lunch
Take the long way to the restroom, water cooler or coffee machine
Plan a walking exercise challenge at work – get the boss involved in the rewards
Park your car as far away from your office as you can
Walk when on the phone and using a speaker or cordless phone
Invite a fitness instructor to come into your work for a lunch hour workout

At Home:
Take the family for a walk and explore your neighborhood
Walk a dog
Avoid using the remote control and get up and change the TV channel yourself
Walk your children to school
Make walking a challenge in your family and offer rewards
Get up and walk during TV commercials
When grocery shopping return the cart to the store and avoid leaving it in the lot
Plan active weekends
Make several trips up and down the stairs for laundry etc.
Get active in the community – take dance lessons or join a team

Interval Walk:
A great way to increase your steps and the intensity of your walk is to interval train. It involves incorporating light intensity walking with a more intense walk. You determine the intensity and how long you hold each interval. For example, try walking moderately for 5 minutes and then increase the intensity for 2 minutes. Return to moderate intensity again for 5 and repeat. Try it for 30 minutes. As you improve, try walking longer or even try running. You will burn more calories, make more steps and improve your cardiovascular health.

Remember, try to spice up your walking routine and avoid making it a routine. Also let your WalkingSpree Walking Buddies know what you are doing and blog your progress. Whatever you do have fun with it.

Remember the good old days when taking off 5 or 10 pounds merely meant eating less and exercising more? I had the formula down pat – if I wanted to get into my “skinny” jeans, I just stopped the double order of onion rings and rode my bike a few extra miles. Whoosh! Off it came.

Now that I am in those marvelous menopausal years it just doesn’t work that way any more. I hear the same lament from my clients and I am sure you have experienced the same if you are a boomer woman. I feel your pain. So, what is the problem here and what do we do about it?

1. Hormones, hormones, hormones. Aren’t you tired of hearing about these pesky little critters – and - experiencing the havoc created when they are out of balance? Hot flashes, night sweats, migraines, and of course weight gain are but a few of the problems associated with an imbalance of estrogen and progesterone. The ovaries produce estrogen, and as the production starts to fall, our bodies start to look for it elsewhere. Fat stores are one of the places the body accesses estrogen. So if your body is struggling to maintain hormonal balance, body fat becomes very valuable, and the body holds on to it for dear life.

Solution: First off, get yourself to a health care professional to get your hormones levels checked. There are a myriad of replacement therapies, and every woman is different, so there is not a one size fits all remedy. Keep in mind that very often, since we continue to produce estrogen, low progesterone is the culprit. Natural progesterone creams are widely available and easy to administer. But do get a level or you may do yourself more harm than good.

2.Stress. Adrenaline and cortisol, the “fight or flight” hormones, are released in our bodies in response to a physical or psychological threat. When the threat passes our bodies are meant to return to relaxation and go on with life. This worked well for our ancestors with the occasional bear attack. But stress today tends to be continuous and chronic, so these hormones stay in our system. Our bodies interpret prolonged stress as a famine, and store every spare calorie as fat.

Solution: Stress of some kind is a given in most of our lives. It is important to identify where your stressors are and do your best to reduce or eliminate the cause. If that is a problem, then learning some stress coping techniques, such as deep breathing, meditation, time outs (for yourself or you kids!), mini-vacations – anything that will give you peace and/or comfort. Girlfriends are especially helpful in this area. Use them!

3. Diet. Combine a high stress life style with a low fat/ high carb diet and weight gain is inevitable. Irritability and anxiety cause you to crave and eat sweets, starchy foods (some would say comfort foods) and caffeine, which results is a temporary elevation in energy and mood. However, this is short lived, your blood sugar plummets because of the insulin surge and you crash! And on and on you go. Yo-yo diets also contribute to the stress put on the body and really wrecks your metabolism. Again, the body goes into starvation mode and hordes most of the calories you consume.

Solution: Now I do not believe that carbohydrates are evil, but there are ones that you should eliminate or significantly reduce if you want to get off the weight gain merry –go-round. Carbs are measured by glycemic index with white bread topping the charts at 100. The higher the glycemic number the faster the sugar goes into your bloodstream and the faster you crash. So, cutting out white rice and foods made with white flour such as muffins, pretzels, bread sticks, bagels and pasta will go a long way toward improving your diet. Fruits and vegetables are your friend, the wider variety the better. And protein helps to keep you satisfied longer so you do not get those nasty cravings.

4. Lowered metabolism. As we age, we lose muscle tissue – about ½ pound a year after the age of 28-30. Muscle is where fat is metabolized, so the less muscle you have the slower your metabolism.

Solution: Yes, we do lose muscle as we age, but the good news is – no matter how old you are – you can regain that muscle and increase your metabolism. Weight training is an essential component to your exercise program, so start to add that into your regimen. If you are totally clueless about how to do this, consult a fitness professional. If you are already engaged in an exercise program and have hit a plateau – it is time to step it up. Going longer and harder one or two days a week will help to jump start your metabolism. Also, try a different exercise routine that recruits different muscles so you will surprise them. When our bodies get used to a certain type of exercise and intensity, they will maintain, but will not make any progress, whether weight loss or increased fitness is your goal.

5.Insulin resistance. The low fat/high carb/processed food diet mentioned above causes your body cells to be resistant to insulin. Insulin delivers glucose to cells and cells have receptor sites to let in the insulin. If receptor sites are less, the glucose “hangs around” waiting to get in and is ultimately stored as fat.

Solution: Insulin resistance does not affect everyone – actually about 25% of the population is prone to this condition. If you know you are one of them again, cut down on those high glycemic carbs, eat a protein and a carb together to level off blood sugar, and eat smaller more frequent meals.

All of these elements could be an article or even a book in themselves. Indeed, volumes have been written. You now have at least an idea of how to overcome the weight gain nemesis that can wreck havoc with our physical and psychological well being during the peri menopausal years and onward. One last suggestion that is enormously helpful – get support! However that looks for you – girlfriends, church group, mothers, aunts, neighbors. We can all do it – with a little help from our friends.

About The Author
Mary Pearsall, WalkingSpree coach, is an ACE (American Council on Exercise) Certified Personal Trainer, Lifestyle Fitness Coach, Licensed Practical Nurse and Master Phone Fitness coach. Her mission is to assist her clients to achieve their health and fitness goals and to make exercise a part of their lives forever.