Make Time Now So You Can Have More Time Later!

What Free Time?

   Yes, I hear you yelling, “What free time?” Leisure time is a thing of the past. I have to work all day and study all night. I barely have time to sleep.

   You indeed have free time…free time to watch television…free time to watch your Facebook friends publicize every moment of their lives, and don’t forget you have time to read the stream of status updates on Twitter. Certainly, you have some type of spare time. If not, you should make time. It’s your health!

Why am I so worried about your free time?

   You guessed it right! Exercising in your free time can lead to a longer life. Unfortunately, people in developing and developed nations as the United States are becoming increasingly physically inactive. With the improvement of technology, more people are sitting all day instead of doing physical labor. With longer commutes, people are riding in cars instead of walking and biking to work. A study published this month reports that leisure time physical activity is associated with a reduced risk of premature death compared to no physical activity.  Other interesting facts in the study include:

•  Physical activity equivalent to brisk walking up to 75 minutes a week was associated with an increase in life expectancy of 1.2 years in comparison to no physical activity
• Physical activity equivalent to brisk walking for at least 150 minutes a week (the recommended amount) was linked to a gain of 3.4 to 4.5 years
•  A physically active normal weight person was associated with a gain of 7.2 years of life relative to an inactive very overweight person

How do you make physical activity an everyday routine?

   You make time for everything else; now is the time to take care of you. Even First Lady Michelle Obama finds some spare time to work out.  Mrs. Obama says, “I have a pretty well rounded routine that incorporates cardio, some weights -- but nothing heavy, nothing dramatic -- and plyometric and things like that, which is a lot of body movement. You're using your own body weight to get the exercise in." If she has the time, then you can definitely make the time.

She makes time!!!

How do you find motivation to exercise when you just don’t feel like getting off your couch?

   Just think about how you will feel after the workout. You will feel rejuvenated after working off all the stress! Another way to motivate yourself is to post a blog telling people you’re going to lose weight and record your exercise daily. You’ll make it happen because you don’t want them to think you’re a quitter.

Key takeaways…

   If you already participate in at least 150 minutes of moderate to rigorous physical activity a week, pat yourself on the back and know your hard work is not in vain! Job well done on increasing longevity! On the other hand, if you are not physically active (even if your goal is not weight loss), participation in physical activity is vital to increasing your life expectancy.

   So before you pick up that remote to watch the next episode of The Walking Dead, get out and go for a brisk walk. Just some simple exercise can make you live years longer. If you are not self-motivated, then do it for your family who will love to see you here as long as they can.

Citation: Moore SC, Patel AV, Matthews CE, Berrington de Gonzalez A, Park Y, et al. (2012) Leisure Time Physical Activity of Moderate to Vigorous Intensity and Mortality: A Large Pooled Cohort Analysis. PLoS Med 9(11): e1001335. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001335

Domonique Watson is a first year doctoral student in the Biostatistics/Bioinformatics Department at Emory University. Even though she does not have much leisure time to write (because her goofy two-year-old son consumes all her spare time), enjoyed writing this blog and thinks she may do more blogging in the near future.

Mobile telephone food journal-Just take pictures!

 Image from seek4media.com

Have you ever used a food diary to make healthy eating choices or to lose weight? We know that keeping a food diary helps us stay more accountable to our health plan, but we would surely be happier if we could make do without having to use cumbersome traditional paper-based food diaries.

Mobile apps that act as food journals could very well be your knight-in-shining-armor. These days there are numerous available apps once downloaded to your mobile that can serve as online food diaries. Some that even allow pictures of foods to be taken and sent to a dietitian partnered with the mobile app. But, how reliable are these apps?

According to a recently published study in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, a new mobile telephone food record has been successfully tested. The study set out to test how much easier would it be for adolescents to capture a useful image of their food and what is their ease of using a mobile telephone food record, in general and after training. The adolescents in this study, aged 11-18 years, used their cell phones to capture an image of their meals (including snacks) before and after eating.

Current problems with food recall especially among youngsters include estimating how much one ate and drank and being able to compare it to the suggested portion sizes. Catherine McCarroll, Registered Dietitian and Coordinated Program Director, Division of Nutrition at Georgia State University says, “from my experience working with both healthy weight adolescents and above average weight adolescents, it is difficult to obtain accurate food records with this age group.  Parents are not a reliable source of information since adolescents typically are not with their parents for one or more meal and snacks per day.”

According to the study, a majority of the adolescents (79%) found the mobile telephone food record easy to use and the longer they used it, the more likely they were to continue using it. Training the adolescents to use the food record on their cell phones made them more agreeable to take images of the food before snacking.

The authors of the study suggest that successfully testing the mobile telephone dietary food record is valuable not only to adolescents and to others, but also benefits health care professionals such as Registered Dietitians. The study lends valuable information to the further development of the mobile telephone food record. Dr. Mildred Cody, PhD, RD, Professor Emeritus, Division of Nutrition, Georgia State University says, “use of a familiar mobile, multi-purpose technology that can take pictures of the food and record other notes, such as information on where the food is consumed and other information relevant to the individual's situation, has potential to improve both record-keeping compliance and diet recall detail.”

While the mobile telephone food record is further being developed, such studies lend support to a user-friendly food record soon within our reach. At the end of the day, adolescents are more likely to accept tools that fit into their lifestyles. When it comes to staying in shape, technology is helpful and interactive products more acceptable.  As Evelyn Leo, Diabetes Educator and Registered Dietitian summarizes, “using a phone camera to take pictures of foods may improve accuracy of food recalls for a population accustomed to using technology in their everyday lives.” 

What’s in it for you?

Not only youngsters, but as a consumer you stand to gain from using a mobile telephone food record because:

• It is easy to use. You need not be tech-savvy
• It will literally be available at your finger tips
• It is reliable having undergone successful testing
• A pictorial food diary would most likely be preferred over using a paper-based food diary
• Frequently using it after undergoing training will make you more efficient in recording your food intake 
• You will be able to send valuable dietary information and receive feedback from your dietitian
• You will be a true eco-friendly citizen saving paper otherwise used for paper-based food diaries!

Mobile telephone food records seem promising. We might soon joyfully bid adieu to keeping old-fashioned food diaries.

About the author: Nida Shaikh, MS, RD, LD

A self-confessed chocoholic, outdoor enthusiast, half-marathon distance runner and an ambidextrous Registered Dietitian currently pursuing a doctoral degree in nutrition at Emory University.

Reference: Six BL, Schap TE, Zhu FM, Mariappam A, Bosch M, Delp EJ, Ebert DS, Kerr DA, Boushey CJ. Evidence-based development of a mobile telephone food record. J Am Diet Assoc. 2010 Jan;110(1):74-9.