After having spent 5 days down in Saint George, I am now a full fledged Chronic Disease Self-management teacher.

I learned a lot in these classes, and how you can control your disease, even if sometimes you feel so overcome by it, you don’t know what to do. You may have a disease, but the disease doesn’t control you, you control it. I heard somebody saying that diabetics don’t like to be called “diabetics” because they aren’t defined by their disease. Rather, they have diabetes. It puts things very much into perspective. I am excited to be able to teach people who have chronic diseases and conditions, and not only teach them, but learn from them as well.

For more information about Chronic Disease Self-Management classes and training, visit the Utah Department of Health.

Self- Efficacy.

It’s a big word, and more meaning is behind it than you know.  This video by a little girl no older than 3 has more self-efficacy and self-esteem than a lot of people I know 4x her age. We all need to take a look at this and realize that you CAN do it. It’s kind of inspiring!

In a post that Nathan blogged about, he posted a link that sends you to “The No Cussing Club“

EMBRACE LIFE Always wear your seat belt.

A friend sent me a link to this AMAZING youtube video

While browsing on the internet in between classes, I came upon some interesting articles.

One is entitled “What’s really in Your Food?” that lists what is really in your chicken nuggets, made up of 30 ingredients (yikes!)

Also, I found “The Worst Drinks in America” Drink up people!

And last but not least, America’s unhealthiest Restaurants, complete with grades for those fast food places that you love so much.

Just looking at these, make me want to go on a diet.  Bleh.

A healthy twist on a classic that is a hit !

Granola Snack Bars

Ingredients
1/4 cup butter or margarine
4 cups miniature marshmallows
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup crushed graham crackers
1/2 cup whole flax seeds
1/2 cup raisins or dried fruit chopped up
1/4 cup raw sunflower seeds, shelled
1/2 cup unsweetened fine coconut

Directions
1. In a large saucepan, over low heat, melt butter
2. Add marshmallows, cook, stirring constantly until marshmallows are melted and mixture is smooth. Remove from heat.
3. Stir in oats, graham crumbs, flax seed, raisins, sunflower seeds and coconut until thoroughly coated
4. Press into a greased 9×13 pain with greased fingers
5. Let cool. Cut.

I just got an email from my Aunt saying that there is a new law. You know when police officers pull people over to give tickets, how dangerous it is for them to stand on the side of the road? Often times they get hit, and get injured, or even die. This is a new law that states you must pull a lane over away from the police vehicle and slow down (20 miles an hour under the posted speed limit). Apparently there’s a fine that varies from state to state if you don’t follow this law.

Help keep our police officers safe !!

Move over, America !

After seeing this video in one of my classes, and using it in two of my other class presentations, I have to admit, I quite like it! Take a look.:

While flying out of the Salt Lake Airport on Monday, I noticed how smokers have their own little room devoted to participating in their horrible habit of smoking. What I don’t understand is why the room that is appointed to them has no door. You walk past and still get unpleasant smells of carcinogenic filled air that has everybody making a stink face once they smell it. Just because smokers have their own area to smoke in, doesn’t mean that the second hand smoke, which is deadlier than actually smoking, stays in their area too. I haven’t seen other airports that have open smoking rooms, like Salt Lake, but then again, I haven’t traveled very much. Do airports around you have these rooms for smokers?

The National Cancer Institute lists off several side effects of second hand smoke:
“Secondhand smoke causes disease and premature death in nonsmoking adults and children. Exposure to secondhand smoke irritates the airways and has immediate harmful effects on a person’s heart and blood vessels. It may increase the risk of heart disease by an estimated 25 to 30 percent. In the United States, secondhand smoke is thought to cause about 46,000 heart disease deaths each year. Children exposed to secondhand smoke are at an increased risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), ear infections, colds, pneumonia, bronchitis, and more severe asthma. Being exposed to secondhand smoke slows the growth of children’s lungs and can cause them to cough, wheeze, and feel breathless.”  (See chart of # of deaths cause by smoking a year below)

Even though there is only one or two rooms dedicated in the entire airport for smoking, without doors, it is hard to say how far the second hand smoke travels. The National Cancer Institute says ” There is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke. Studies have shown that even low levels of secondhand smoke exposure can be harmful. The only way to fully protect nonsmokers from secondhand smoke exposure is to completely eliminate smoking in indoor spaces. Separating smokers from nonsmokers, cleaning the air, and ventilating buildings cannot completely eliminate secondhand smoke exposure.” I for one, certainly didn’t sign up to breathe in secondhand smoke, and neither should you. Learn more information at American’s for Nonsmokers Rights about your rights being a non smoker and how you can advocate to put stricter laws into place to ensure that you, and your family, have the cleanest air possible.

So for my Health 437 we had to do a video about texting and driving, but it focused around BYU students. Here is the final product of all our hard work! The main quote that we focused our video around was “There are already enough distractions in the world; don’t let texting and driving be one of them”. I will try to post the rest of the class’ videos or audio clips whenever they post them to YouTube. We also are doing photovoices (photos with a caption) that I will post up once we get done. But for now, enjoy.