Stay Healthy
Magazine NOV / DEC 2018
Mind, Body & Fitness
FUEL YOUR FITNESS By Jaye Kenzie
not if you’re trying to lose weight,” Johnson says.
(necessary substances in your blood and body fluids that you lose through sweat).
Working with a dietitian can help you customize your eating based on these factors. But some general guidance is smart for anyone who counts exercise as part of a heart-smart plan.
What to Eat After Exercise After exercising, aim for balance. “Don’t overemphasize protein, fat or carbohydrates while neglecting the others,” Johnson says. Protein is especially important, but she advises eating whole foods (lentils, quinoa, fish, beans) over protein powder. Carbs are key too. They don’t have to be grains — fruits and vegetables are mostly carbohydrates. Healthy sources of fat include avocado, fish and olive oil.
Your nutrition choices before, during and after activity can help you stay strong and recover better. Here’s a breakdown of what your body needs to fuel a hearthealthy workout and recovery, courtesy of What to Eat Before Exercise a Johns Hopkins nutritionist. “Hydration is really important,” Johnson says. She prefers coconut water or plain WHAT THE EXPERTS DO water to sports drinks, which contain Enjoy a Post-Workout Bowl of Oatmeal more calories and sugar. Several mornings each week you will find dietitian Kathleen Johnson going for a run Eat only foods that are familiar to you. or attending a yoga class. She drinks water “Before a workout isn’t a great time to but doesn’t eat beforehand because she experiment with a new super smoothie, starts so early. Afterward, she makes a big especially if you’re prone to gas and bowl of oatmeal with toppings of peanut bloating,” she says. butter, flax and chia seeds for added omega 3s. For more of an omega boost, swap Ideally, you want to plan your meals so out the peanut butter for walnuts. they are no more than an hour and a half Your heart needs exercise — and what you eat before, during and after physical activity can affect your performance and how you feel, says registered dietitian Kathleen Johnson, M.A., R.D., L.D.N. To personalize what you eat around exercise, dietitians consider two main things, she says: 1. How much exercise. Someone doing high-intensity interval training or weight training needs to eat more than, say, a beginning walker.
to two hours before your workouts. However, if you need to eat closer to exercise than that, grab a small snack focusing on a complex carbohydrate and protein. Think peanut butter and banana, or yogurt with granola. “If you work full-time and exercise in the evening, think about lunchtime-onward as your pre-workout eating time,” Johnson suggests. That will help you think through nutritious choices, rather than grabbing a quick bite of whatever’s handy.
What to Eat During Exercise Most people don’t need to eat anything 2. Your fitness goals. while exercising, Johnson says, “unless Someone who wants to lose weight has to you’re an endurance athlete doing a mulbe careful not to take in more calories tihour workout.” If you have poor blood than he or she is burning. “A 500-calorie sugar control, sipping coconut water can smoothie after an hour of weight training be useful — you’ll get a little sugar along is fine if you’re trying to build muscle, but with hydration and balanced electrolytes
Examples of well-balanced post-workout choices include olive oil (a healthy fat) drizzled over quinoa (protein) or trail mix containing nuts like almonds and walnuts, seeds such as pumpkin seeds, coconut flakes, and berries.
Jaye Kenzie
Stress may be a part of life, but it doesn’t have to get the best of you. Follow these everyday ways to stay calm, happy and healthy, from a Johns Hopkins expert on managing stress.
Stay connected. Maintaining, improving, and increasing healthy relationships with supportive friends and family powerfully promotes resilience. Many find that connections Coping with the News Cycle with a faith family, neighbors, and even Overwhelmed every time you read or pets, help them feel positive and enerwatch the news? This November, psychia- getic, even if children and grandchildren trist Karen Swartz will provide coping aren’t close at hand. strategies to help you deal with the stress and anxiety often triggered by current Stay Active events. Learn more about this session and others at A Woman’s Journey Baltimore, a daylong women’s health program. Experiencing stress is inevitable, but managed well, stress can promote emotional and intellectual growth and resilience as we age,” says Johns Hopkin stress management expert Frances Callahan, LCSW-C. She has mapped an easy-to-follow plan for how to manage stress—at any age.
Identify your triggers. Once you know where your stress is coming from—a relationship, kids, workload, a health problem—you can sometimes reduce or prevent the stress. After giving the matter some focused thought, you may identify practical steps to improve the situation. Even if changing the trigger isn’t possible, a shift in perspective may help mitigate stress. For example, if a friend is pushing your buttons, stepping back and adjusting your expectations may allow you to keep this close bond.
Plan your fun. To prevent the daily rush from consuming your life, plan your fun for the day, week, month, or year. Callahan recommends, “instead of channel surfing, make a date to watch a special program, alone or with a loved one. Plan a monthly game night with friends and ask them to bring goodies to share. Identify fun activities that suit you, and schedule them.”
Reframe your thinking about stress itself. Stress responses, including faster heart rate and breathing, evolved to improve our performance in stressful situations. Physical activity releases feel-good endor- Reminding yourself of stress’s evolutionphins. Taking short walking breaks several ary value may improve your performance times a day is a powerful tool for channel- and paradoxically reduce feelings of ing stress. Exercising or joining yoga, stress, in that you’re not adding “stress dance, or tai chi classes with friends also about stress” to the stress the original helps achieve step 2—staying connected. trigger aroused. Contributed by Jaye Kenzie… SH Magazine
Find your “pause” button. “After experiencing times of great change, high demand, or significant loss, it’s essential to press pause and rest. Often creating time and space for rest means saying “no” to invitations and requests for help, at least temporarily,” says Callahan. Consider spending quiet time daily: contemplation, reflection, and breathing fosters resilience and calm.
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What You Should Know Before Taking As New York City-based nutritionist Gina To help put that into perspective, one cup Keatley explains, the vitamin is involved in of low-fat milk contains 1.2 micrograms of Vitamin B12 Supplements metabolism with every cell of your body and has a big impact on DNA synthesis. The vitamin aisle at your local drugstore is According to nutritionist Beth Warren, founder of Beth Warren Nutrition and packed with different options and it can be hard to wade through them all to find author of Living a Real Life with Real Food, B12 also helps create red blood cells. what you might actually need. What's Keatley adds that since we don't produce more, some supplements are better understood than others: While you may un- B12 on our own, we have to get it from derstand the benefits of iron, calcium, and our diets; it's produced by bacteria in the gut and when we consume certain animal vitamin D, chances are you're a little less foods, we get the B12 produced by the gut familiar with vitamin B12 supplements bacteria of those animals. and what they do. BY KORIN MILLER
The vitamin has gotten some buzz in the past decade or so after celebrities including Rita Ora, Justin Timberlake, and Madonna were reported to have tried injections to boost their B12 levels. Katy Perry even once tweeted about getting a B12 shot in her butt. So what's the deal with B12, and is it deserving of the celebrity hype? Here's what to know about the purpose of the vitamin, how to tell whether you might be deficient in it, and what to So how much B12 do I need? do if you are. Your B12 needs depend largely on your age and whether you're pregnant or What is B12, exactly? Vitamin B12 is a water-soluble micronutri- breastfeeding. Women who are 14 years ent that's found naturally in many animal old and up generally need about 2.4 mifoods that you eat, nutritionist Keri Gans, crograms of B12 a day, according to the author of The Small Change Diet, tells us. NIH. If you're pregnant, your needs go up to 2.6 micrograms a day, while you'll need There are actually several forms of B12, but all of them contain the mineral cobalt, 2.8 micrograms a day if you're breastfeedper the National Institutes of Health (NIH). ing, the organization says.
B12, while some fortified breakfast cereals have up to six micrograms. So essentially, you should be able to get more than your daily recommended intake just by having a bowl of cereal with milk for breakfast. How can I know if I'm not getting enough B12? B12 is a pretty common vitamin deficiency, impacting up to 15 percent of the general population, per the NIH. There are a few health conditions that make it more likely that you'll struggle with this, Warren says. Those include Crohn's disease, celiac disease, Graves' disease, and lupus. However, it's also possible for you to struggle with a B12 deficiency even if you don't have an underlying health condition. Strict vegetarians and vegans are also at a higher risk of developing a B12 deficiency than lacto-ovo vegetarians (vegetarians who still eat eggs and dairy products) and non-vegetarians, according to the NIH. Gans says that if you're not getting enough B12 on a regular basis, you could suffer from vitamin deficiency anemia, a condition in which your blood lacks enough healthy red blood cells. This can lead to numbness and tingling in your hands and feet, mental confusion, weight loss, and generally feeling wiped out and weak, as reported by the Mayo Clinic. If you suspect that you're deficient in B12
are packed with the vitamin at 84.1 micrograms per three-ounce serving, while liver also contains a fair amount. But again, if you're a vegan or follow a strict vegetarian diet, it can be hard to get enough B12 in your diet.
much," Gans says. "Your body will use what it wants and eliminate the rest."
If you're interested in taking a B12 supplement, it's a good idea to talk to your doctor first because B12 supplements can interact with some medications like chloWhat are B12 injections, and should I try ramphenicol (a type of antibiotic) and them? metformin (which is used to treat diabeYes, B12 injections may have had a motes) or simply may not be necessary for ment in the spotlight, but it's not really you. A conversation with your doctor advisable (or necessary) for the average should help steer you in the right direcWarren recommends that you talk to person, Keatley says. If you're not getting tion. your doctor, who can order a blood test enough B12 in your diet, injections may to help determine if that's the case. be helpful; if you are, they're unlikely to If you discover that you are B12 deficient, do anything. What's more, being defiyour doctor will determine how much cient in B12 doesn't mean you automati- extra B12 you need, as well as which supHow can I add more B12 to my diet? cally have to have regular shots since plement will work for you. Here are a few Most people get enough B12 from the some people do just fine with suppleto consider. foods they eat "without thinking about ments in pill form, Keatley says. But if you it," Gans says. She points to animal prod- have pernicious anemia (that is caused by ucts like beef, poultry, fish, eggs, and a B12 deficiency) or have any other troudairy as B12-rich items, adding that some ble absorbing B12, injections might be a foods — including breakfast cereals, good idea for you, Warren says. some non-dairy beverages (like almond and soy milk), and meat substitutes — What happens if you get too much B12? are fortified with it. "It's best to read nu- If you're taking B12 supplements and you trition labels to check," she says. accidentally take more than one in a day, nothing bad is going to happen to you. Of course, some foods have more B12 "Since B12 is a water-soluble vitamin, than others: The NIH reports that clams there really is no such thing as too