Category: The Toolbox


Boot Camp

Filed under: Fitness, The Toolbox — 1 Comment
June 3, 2010

What I’ve come to realize , is that writing blog posts is similar to exercising. If you break your exercise routine, it gets harder and harder to get back into the swing of things. The same goes for blogging. I’ve been so busy with personal and professional projects that my blogging has taken a bit of a backseat. Thanks to one of my readers who urged me on yesterday to start again!

I’d like to share with you my most recent find while surfing the web, the Canadian Living Spring Boot camp. It’s a free 6 week wieght loss program that will end June 13 so if you haven’t seen it check it out online.

This boot camp is divided into different sections, you can choose to follow it all, some, or none.

  • You can sign up for a variety of newsletters, which are emailed to you very frequently.
  • There is also a menu calendar, with suggestions for breakfast ,lunch, dinner and snacks, with recepies to follow and the calorie count.
  • There are also workout videos, prepared by a fitness expert
  • There is even a health and wellness blog which gives you the chance to win prizes.

So what do I think?

  1. I am finding the newsletters to be very informative;
  2. With regards to the menus they are easy to follow/and reproduce, you should however check with your healthcare provider to see if this is the right program for you, how many calories are appropriate for you? how can you alter the plan to suit vegetarians or vegans?
  3. With regards to the exercise program, you may want to check first with your healthcare provider to ensure that this type of program is safe for you and perhaps follow up with a fitness specialist as well to assist you with learning the correct technique as you may not be familiar with some of the exercises in the videos.

With regards to the blogging, well I have not actually got that far yet, so I will leave it up to you to tell me what you think.
All in all the idea of a boot camp to kick start your health and fitness is an interesting concept.  Sometimes we need something to get us going, to get us moving, to spark the momentum especially when we break our health and fitness routines.

Eat healthy, keep moving and be well.

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Help’s Here

Filed under: Health, The Toolbox — Leave a comment
May 6, 2010

Yesterday, I ventured into our Civic Centre to enroll the kids in community programs. What I lucked into while there was an unexpected free resource for seniors and caregivers called Help’s Here. If you’re part of the sandwich generation or a health care practioner in the Greater Toronto Area you may find this info quite useful. There are only 60,000 copies that are circulated 2x yearly, however you can access the directory online. The directory is divided into 12 chapters with information and contact numbers for

  1. Home Care–Day Programs, Assistive Devices, Care Providers, on call MD, Dental and Foot Care….
  2. Residential–Long Term Care, Nursing Homes, Palliative Care….
  3. Alzheimer/Dementia–Day Programs, Home Care, Memory Clinics, Support Groups…
  4. Community Support–Caregiver/Family Support, Hospices, Housing, Veterans Affairs…
  5. Health and Medical–Dentist, Doctors, Diabetes, Hospitals….
  6. Financial–Accountants, Drug Benefits, Estate Planning…
  7. Legal–Abuse and Neglect, Fraud, Lawyers…
  8. Moving House–Charities, Movers, Real Estate…
  9. Transportation–Ambulance, Assisted Transportation, Volunteer Drivers…
  10. Recreation–Activities, Clubs, Community Dining…
  11. Shops and Services–Grocery, Home Medical Equipment…
  12. Bereavement–Support, Organ Donations…

Navigating the Health Care System is difficult at the best of times. If you compound that with work, having to take care of children/family and the elderly it becomes a daunting almost unimaginable task. What should I do? Where do I begin? Who should I call?
Having a tool like Help’s Here on hand will enable you to navigate the complex health care system with greater ease, as they have completed a lot of the leg work for us.

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Health Canada

Filed under: Health, The Toolbox — 3 Comments
May 5, 2010

Today I thought we’d start at the top;  Health Canada.  The goal of Health Canada is “for Canada to be among the countries with the healthiest people in the world.”   Education from Health Canada is part of the equation to achieving this goal. Health Canada has provided  Canadians with many ways to stay connected and informed.

  1. They have produced an educationally  rich website with information that covers  nutrition,  including a tool to build your own food guide based on your age and sex, an interactive tool on how to read food labels, information for physical activity, injury prevention, health promotion, travel health, drugs, and emergency preparedness.
  2. They  have  a collection of videos on You Tube, with such topics including oral health, mould in the home, cell phone and health safety.
  3. You can also stay connected with Health Canada by signing up for RSS feed, which will update you on news releases, warnings, advisories and recalls.
  4. Or you can follow Health Canada on Twitter.

There are many ways to stay connected to your health.  Remember you have to be an active participant in your health.  It’s nice to see that our Canadian government has taken steps to assist you in that goal.

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In the Toolbox–Eat Right

Filed under: Food, Health, The Toolbox — 2 Comments
April 22, 2010

This week while riding the subway, I was pleasantly surprised at how many health and wellness ads were posted.  One ad in particular caught my attention, Eat Right Ontario.  So I thought I’d check it out,  and share with you  what I discovered.

First let me start  by saying this site is a gem.  It is full of good info and covers  topics like diabetes prevention, disease prevention, healthy eating, menu planning, workplace health, to name a few. This venture between The Dietitians of Canada and The Ministry of Health Promotion  not only provides a useful website but they also offer  Ontarians an opportunity to connect with a dietician via email or telephone call (1-877-510-5102) for healthy eating advice .

Wow,  now that’s what I would call  a great service right at your fingertips and in the comfort of your own home. And the best part of all, this service is FREE.

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Team Buy

Filed under: Health, Tech, The Toolbox — 7 Comments
April 20, 2010

Yesterday, I decided to take the “better way” (aka the Toronto subway) downtown to a meeting.  As I was making my way towards Yonge and Bloor I noticed a bit of commotion.  There were fellows on loud speakers and dressed up.  It looked like a rally of some sort, which I wanted to avoid, but due to construction could not.  So I marched through this group of  young people  and received a postcard.  I would have tossed it out except I was intrigued by the logo—teambuy.ca-buyers unite.

What is Team Buy?  It’s a company trying to shift the power of buying into the consumers hands. It’s “collaborative buying, leading to massive discounts”.   I love the idea, because I love a good deal.  Everyday there is a new item on for ‘sale’, they require a certain number of people  to sign up to buy the item for the sale, in order for the sale to go through.

Now let me back track a bit.  This idea of the power of buying was alluded to at the TED conference by Jamie Oliver and his food revolution.  It’s the concept that when banded together, consumers have huge buying power  and can  insist that companies provide us with better and healthier products.  I like teambuy.ca because of the potential for savings on products, food and services.  I think, however, beyond just good deals, something like teambuy.ca could facilitate the purchasing of healthy food for people.  Often, it is cheaper for people to simply buy fast food rather than a healthy alternative.  With Team Buy, there is the potential to leverage their buying model for healthy alternatives.  Talk about a win-win situation:  good deals on good healthy food.

Check out Team Buy and let the Buyers Unite!

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Share and Live Well

Filed under: Health, The Toolbox — Leave a comment
April 14, 2010

Not too long ago, my newsletter from Physiotherapy Today came across my desk. Inside was an article titled “Live Well” which I’d like to share with you today. “Live Well” is a partnership between Health Care Professionals, researchers and the community in Hamilton,  Ontario. The program provides education and exercise programs in the community.

Have a look at these excellent programs being offered :

  • CanWell- Is an exercise and education program for cancer survivors. A Nurse and Physiotherapist  provide education and consultation to YMCA staff and participants with respect to this program.
  • Y’s Choices -Is a healthy lifestyle program geared towards children and families. Offered at the YMCA participants have access to a Registered Dietician, Behaviour Specialist and Kinesiologist.
  • In Motion- Is a program for individuals who want to improve their health pre and post knee or hip replacement (it can also help people with osteoporosis or osteoarthritis) A Phsiotherapist acts as the resource person on a weekly basis.
  • Healthy Hearts- Is a program for individuals who have completed their cardiac rehab program in hospital or for those at risk for  developing heart disease. A Kinesiologist provides support to the program where participants learn appropriarte exercises and heart rate monitoring.

The response to these programs, as per the article, has been positive.  This community based health care model, where people are active and willing participants in their health care, where researchers provide their expertise, Health Care Professionals act a resources,  and the YMCA acting as the hub is the way of the future.  I like this because I believe it is the most effective way of making health care work.  As is often said about raising children “It takes a village to raise a child”, I think that paradigm also applies to the delivery of good health care.  It takes a village to heal a person.

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Reviewing a Cooking App on the iPad

Filed under: Cooking, Tech, The Toolbox — 8 Comments
April 12, 2010

Well I managed to pry my husband’s iPad from his hands for a short while so I could explore some apps.  One app I wanted to share with you was an app called Epicurious and I thought the best way to do this would be to give you a few minutes of video of me using the application.   I hope you enjoy the video.  If you are getting an iPad, this is definitely an app to put on – it’s free and loaded with 27,000+ recipes!

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The “Goody Drawer”

Filed under: Fitness, Health, Kids, The Toolbox — 3 Comments
March 31, 2010

Years ago my husband bought me this hot pink fuzzy DVD set with every season of Sex in the City. He thought I would enjoy the series  seeing as I had never seen an episode, given that we don’t subscribe to cable.  I have to admit I really enjoyed the show.  It’s funny and very well written.  Most recently I re-watched the episode where the girls are describing their “goody drawer” which got me thinking about my goody drawer.  Well for starters, I don’t own a night stand, rather what I have is a goody shelf.  I know the suspense is killing you to find out what is on my goody shelf.  Well if you’ve read my past posts, you should have guessed by now that my goody shelf is filled with health related items.

Most recently I added Pumped Magazines from the Heart and Stroke for my children.  If you have children you may want to check out this magazine. They are downloadable  from their website or you can order them directly from the Heart and Stroke. The magazines are full of good health info geared toward children. My children really enjoyed the comics, games and activities.

The other downloadable magazine that I recently added to this health goody shelf was the Gotta Move magazine from the Government of Canada Physical Activity site.  Like the magazine from the Heart and Stroke, the Gotta Move is full of information and it is fun for kids.

I think there is real value in having a “shelf”  or “space” filled with goodies of a health nature for the kids.  Over time, it becomes an indispensable resource that you can draw on to provide some focus on these types of important issues.  Let’s face it, with the bombardment of entertainment that our children are exposed to, building a resource of entertaining, but useful, health related “goodies” is critical to teach our kids about life-long health.

If you have your own “goody” shelf ideas, I’d love to hear about them!

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Stroke and “Wii-hab”

Filed under: The Toolbox — 2 Comments
March 17, 2010

I was thinking about my experiences and observations as a  physical therapist, what I learned in school, what I learned from courses, what I learned from other health care practitioners.  All of this “learning”, but when applying this knowledge to clients, it’s like a different jigsaw puzzle as no two people are alike.

So what are  the latest pieces in my puzzle box?

1. The brain can rewire itself  through repetitive movement as per the Time magazine article I referenced in a previous post.

2. Constraint Induced Movement Therapy has shown promising results in improving function after a stroke and

3. The use of the Wii to aid in stroke recovery.

Yes, you read that last one correctly.  I am talking about the video game system from Nintendo.  Much has been written about the use of the Wii for stroke recovery and most recently an article reports that it is safe and feasible to use, there were no side effects.  That is great news, but unfortunately, in the same breath the article cautions that it is too early to recommend its use until further research, which is a puzzling statement given the obvious benefit being realized by a low-cost tool.

As a therapist,  I understand the need to follow best practices, but I am also acutely aware that we are dealing with the quality of life of individuals.  The science appears to promote neuro-plasticity.  Given that repetitive movement appears beneficial to stroke recovery, I think that using the Wii as a cost-effective adjunct to appropriately selected clients would be beneficial to improving quality of life.  Equally important, is the fact that it’s a fun activity and typically if it’s enjoyable it is more likely the individual will be an active participant.

For me,it’s not a question of whether exercise works, but  rather how long a “repetitive” treatment period patients would need to see lasting and significant improvements.

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10,000 Hours to a Healthier You

Filed under: Fitness, Health, Tech, The Toolbox — 12 Comments
March 7, 2010

Last week I added brain exercises to my daily routine to protect my mind against cognitive decline. I borrowed my children’s Nintendo DS and popped in the Brain Age game (which they were kind enough to lend to me), and started with the testing to determine the age of my brain.  Yikes I really needed to get exercising.  I really enjoyed the activity and have seen quick results as the cobwebs are being brushed away.

I began to wonder, what could one do if they don’t have accesss to the Nintendo DS and I came upon Lumosity.  What Lumosity provides are brain game.  Here is what their website provides as info:

  • Shown to improve memory and attention
  • Detailed feedback and improvement tracking
  • Fun and easy: full workout in less than 10 minutes/day

If you don’t have access to something like the DS, Lumosity is a good online tool.  When you exercise both the body and the mind what do you get?  Well according to research it is possible to rewire the brain, and this process is called neuroplasticity.  For more detail, give this Time magazine article a read.  This interesting “rewiring”, both through physical and mental exercise reminded me of a book I recently read.

The book is titled Outliers, written by Malcolm Gladwell.  In that book, Gladwell’s observations are that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert at something.  According to Gladwell, there is no short cut to success.  It takes time and effort.  I fully agree.  I think that this extends into the rewiring of our brains to adopt a healthy lifestyle.  You need to exercise both body and mind.  If you contiually practice and repeat over and over a particular good habit, it will stick over time.

That is why diets and New Year’s gym resolutions easily fall by the wayside.  Building off of Gladwell’s 10,000 hour premise, I posit, you need 10,000 hours to become an expert in your own health.  There is no easy way to it.  Yes, we can take baby steps that are easy to do (like a pedometer for example), but it all takes time and effort.

Tomorrow I will…..continue logging my hours!

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