Category Archives: Habit Change

Pedometer Prep

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by Ann Votaw, CHES, MA

While researching pedometers for a corporate walking program, I’ve determined three factors: (1) cheap translates into useless landfill plastic (often branded with your company logo), (2) batteries must be easy to change, meaning the chamber must open with a regular-sized screwdriver, not a watchmaker’s tool, and (3) reset buttons must do their job within this century and with minimal effort.

A $12 New Balance pedometer, purchased last year at Target, exhibits all three annoying qualities of flimsy construction, poor access to battery chamber, and a reset button I must stab with a pen using diamond-forming pressure. I imagine how well this bad boy would hold up in a work-site wellness challenge, participants constantly asking for instructions or replacements.

So far, my favorites include the Weight Watchers PointsPlus Pedometer and the Omron HJ-113, both which match nearly every footfall and reset at midnight. (Unfortunately, I needed battery-changing assistance for the Omron at my neighborhood Radioshack because the screw was so tiny.) The PointsPlus is not as accurate but is the most convenient in that the battery chamber opens with a coin, the reset button does its job, and the numbers appear upside down — allowing the user to see steps right side up.

In the days that follow, expect a table depicting my suggestions. On-line searches reveal the Omron brand as a customer favorite as well as Fit Solutions SW-200 Yamax Digiwalker Pedometer, which I purchased on Amazon for $19.50.

Easy battery change is crucial as most die within three months. To my surprise, many health fair pedometers offer no way to get inside, likening them to carnival goldfish — enjoy them while they last.

Most free on-line walking programs range from six- to eight- weeks. My goal is to find the most accurate, inexpensive, and user-friendly step counters. I want participants to work out with well-functioning equipment, anywhere from eight weeks to eight years after the challenge.

Vegetable Stalk-er

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This 26-inch brussel sprout stalk is too tall for the picture. I bought it today for $8 at the Farmer's Market along with these beautiful cranberries. The rosemary is from the local grocer and went into a lunch of pork loin, sweet potatoes, and ... brussel sprouts.

by Ann Votaw, C.H.E.S.

On the way home from the Farmer’s Market today, I turned heads while holding a 26-inch stem that looked more Sci Fi than brussel sprout.

Yes, its true! The green buds, named after the city in Belgium, are picked off tall rubbery stalks before they reach us in grocery stores. Such a shame! If we bought them looking like instruments of impalement rather than little guys with scrunched-up faces, children might find them cool. Perhaps, kids and adults would better appreciate this relative of the cabbage family if we sold sprouts in Mother Nature’s unusual packaging. How neat would it be to pass an upright jug of upright stalks rather than dreaded mini heads wrapped over foam backing? 

I bought this beauty today for $8, which seems expensive, but a package of about 15 sprouts can cost up to $3 here in Manhattan. As you can see, there are quite a few more than 15. Plus, I can incorporate the greenery into my holiday decorating.

Brussel sprouts are high in fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, and folic acid. Each bud is a colon cancer-fighting machine that can be steamed, boiled, roasted, or sautéd with olive oil and garlic! A good batch of sprouts exhibits firmly closed leaves and a robust green color, sometimes with purple highlights, like this one.

Why dance tango?

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by Ann Votaw, C.H.E.S.

After my fabulous LivingSocial purchase, $49 for eight tango classes and four social dances, I am entangled with Argentinian tango. I feel my love affair was ordained by Al Pacino, the high priest of tango scenes, who recently sat near me at Café Luxembourg in Manhattan. No joke!

Tango brings out the Pacino in me, and step names – gancho, parada, sacada — trip off the tongue, a glorious vocalization of tango’s smooth and quick steps. As a former musical theater dancer, I am particularly drawn to tango’s wine-like qualities: Rather than becoming rancid, tango dancers get better with age, as suggested by Pacino’s scene in Scent of a Woman!

Recent studies note that tango may relieve certain neurological disorders, including Parkinson’s. Explanations include tango’s use of dynamic balance, walking backwards, and movement at various speeds. As part of a healthcare movement to integrate arts and wellness, tango – like other forms of dance – could be a useful way to coordinate mental, social, and physical well-being.

A Royal Northern College of Music study went further, surveying 110 tango dancers in the Netherlands and Germany. The researcher, Gunter Kreutz, sought answers to several questions, including “Why do people dance tango Argentino?” Reasons included: (1) stress reduction, (2) fitness, (3) emotions, and (4) intimacy.

I feel all these components when I tango. Had I been more on my toes, I would have asked Al for a dance, assuming he doesn’t mind towering women.

I have a totally gross disease

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For a health counseling project, I have been documenting my lifelong relationship with nail biting (NB), also known as onychophagia. Now, I am giving myself an intervention, horrified at my inner monologues.

They run something like this: “I’m not hurting anyone,” “It’s just something I do,” and “I can quit any time I want, like for weddings and fancy events.”

Not only am I a junkie, my preferred drug — fingernails – is grosser and less hip than glue or crystal meth, Andre Agassi’s drug of choice.

In short (no pun intended), I am completely alone in conquering my body-focused repetive behavior. NB is completely unsupported by the media; there are no subway ads presenting the multi-cultural faces of onychophagia; and there are no celebrity NB golf events. My disease has no Mary Tyler Moore, awareness week, support group, or After School Special.

No one cares that my saliva may contain dangerous levels of enterbacteria. No one cares that NB is under-researched and more likely to reflect childhood NB rather than adult NB. No one cares because all the time and attention goes to swine flu vaccines and obesity. Trust me, I’m more dangerous.

In one study, researchers at Atatürk University in Turkey collected saliva from 25 nail-biting children and 34 non-nail-biters. E. coli, Enterobacter aerogenes, Enterobacter cloacae and Enterobacter gergoviae were found in 76% of the nail biters versus 26.5% of the non-nail biters. Gross.

Finally, my innocent habit is in the same family as skin biting and hair pulling, also known as trichotillomania. In rare cases of trichotillomania, people die from eating their own hair, also known as Rapunzel Syndrome.

Thus my reasons for intervention. Although my cause has no red ribbon or Oprah show, I alone try one of nail biting’s most successful cures: habit reversal training. Instead of biting my nails, I will drink a glass of water.