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Consider healthy gifts this year
O'Fallon Progress (December 12, 2002)
As the holidays approach, consider giving your loved ones a gift that
will help them help themselves.
First consider that the United States faces increasing rates of obesity
and diabetes, heart disease remains the leading cause of death and lung
cancer continues to kill more than 400,000 people a year.
With increasing emphasis on individual health responsibility, including
reducing weight and smoking, the holiday season should be filled with
fruit-stuffed stockings and low-fat holiday means -- minus the typical
after-meal cigarette.
But how does one tell a loved on to "put the cookie" or "cigarette
down" and receive more than just a roll of the eyes? Presentation,
presentation, presentation - wrap your wish in a gift that will give them
the motivation to cut down and try to improve their health, according to
Neil Perlman, M.D., a Chicago internist.
Body fat calculators are a helpful way to measure progress for someone
involved in a weight-loss program, but also trying to increase muscle
tone. Pedometers that measure not only one's steps, but also pace, heart
rate, and mileage are a useful gift for the goal oriented recipient. MP3
players are decreasing in price and size, but increasing the variety of
music used in fitness activities, allowing for an easy, convenient musical
selection.
A new smoking cessation device could provide that extra motivation
needed to quit for good. Doubling as a watch, this new device plays the
role of the smoker's concerned physician keeping track of the number of
cigarettes smoked and the amount of money saved. The "QT Watch," available
online at www.QT-Watch.com also
provides tapering goals and motivational messages as the program
progresses.
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