Be Thankful and Serve~

Wellness Wednesday

Tomorrow is a day that Americans give thanks for the blessings in their lives and in the communities where they live.  I am very thankful for the opportunity to give time at the Thanksgiving Throw down at the United Methodist Church where the Boys Scouts & Girl Scouts served a thanksgiving meal to anyone who wanted a warm meal. There were over 350 people served that evening.  It is gratifying to see young people smiling and serving their community. 

With the weather in the 20`s I shivered as I entered the building.  I found myself passing people in coveralls and standing in the foyer of the church for warmth waiting for the meal to be served. It was quit humbling to see so many people in need. As I entered the basement of the church I could smell the aroma of Turkey baking. I saw sweet little faces waiting for the meal to be served fidgeting in their seats. Several people smiled and seem grateful for the warm church basement and a meal. The Girls and Boys Scouts wander around the room serving hot coffee to the group with genuine kindness. 

Watching a mom with her three children tugging at her shirt asking “when do we get to eat?” made me ask myself, why is this mom here, why doesn’t she have enough to feed her children?  There are so many in need in our community. Moving throughout the room chatting with the people made me appreciate what I have even more.  The group included the homeless, men living at the mission, families without enough food, mothers with children, impaired elderly folks, young /teenage children.  

I have told my husband how much I admire Mother Teresa and want to emulate that kind of love and real compassion for our community.  Being a part of this caring event was a good start giving back to this community.  We (my husband and I) will be ringing the bells this season as well as giving to Toys for Tots and however else we can serve and make a difference.

Below are a few places you can start giving today:

*Salvation Army: donate your time to ring the bell, or donate food items

*Muncie Mission: donate your time to help serve a meal. Donate food/money/clothing

*Toys for Tots: donate toys

*Feed My Sheep: donate time, food, or money

*Second harvest food bank: donate food items, money

*Nursing homes: donate your time to visit the residents

There are many ways to help the community during this holiday season, find out how you can serve.

Eat what you want, just less of it.

    Eat what you want, just less of it.

Know the nutritional value in what you eat; and once you learn how much energy and sweat it will take to burn off that treat, you'll have a much harder time eating it. With Thanksgiving upon us, I will choose not to have seconds!  It is all about choices: input vs. output!

Do you ever wonder how much you’d need to exercise to burn off that pumpkin pie? Think about it; a workout that requires half an hour of your time to burn the 200 to 300 calories that took less than a few minutes to eat!

Take a look at a few examples from Montgomerydiet.com site that will surprise:

To burn off common, seemingly small treats, such as one chocolate chip cookie, one serving of potato chips, one candy bar, one soda, a bowl of ice cream or a couple of mozzarella sticks, you would have to do aerobics for thirty minutes. That's considered a good, average workout to burn off treats such as medium movie popcorn, the typical regular sized smoothie, most regular sized frozen chocolate drinks, a small Dairy Queen Blizzard, a small McDonald's McFlurry, or a medium order of fries or onion rings, (each of these items average up to 800 calories) you would need up to an hour and a half on the elliptical! Yikes! Think about it before you put it in your mouth…how much will this cost me in the gym?

 “Knowledge is everything!” If you're interested in an appetizer such as a blooming onion, an order of cheesy fries, and cheesy bread from your favorite pizza place, or a southwest eggrolls, plan to walk briskly for 6 hours!! 

Do you know that the Wendy’s Apple Pecan Chicken Salad is 520 calories? Just because it has the word “salad” you would assume it is healthy…

Remember, the choice is yours!

To find out how many calories you are burning, go to the following link and simply enter your bodyweight and the average time you spend doing one of the exercises/activities and click on Compute Calories Burned.

http://www.internetfitness.com/calculators/calburncalc.htm