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Friday, August 20: Strength for Life

Practicing good fitness and nutrition are key factors in achieving a healthy heart, body, and mind. These two components of a healthy lifestyle go hand-in-hand, lessening your risk of high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetes, as well as helping you to maintain your strength and energy so you can perform your duties as a first responder. Good fitness and eating habits will also help keep you mentally prepared for the challenges you face as a first responder.
 
During National Firefighter Health Week, start building strong lifestyle habits that include healthy eating and fitness. Keep the momentum going all year long so that you remain strong for your own sake as well as for you family, department, and community. Make the commitment to take care of yourself and practice healthy behaviors for life.
 
 
What You Can Do Today
  • Show your department that healthy cooking can be easy and delicious by preparing a heart-healthy lunch or dinner for department personnel.
  • Participate in a local health-related fundraising walk. This will not only raise funds for research to prevent cancer, heart disease, diabetes, or other illnesses, but also get you moving while giving you the satisfaction of supporting a great cause.
  • Get a registered dietician, a nutrition student from a local college, or a local chef to donate time to help make your station heart-healthy. Ask them to host a session with department members on which foods in the station’s kitchen are not nutritious and what a tasty, healthier substitute might be.
  • Incorporate walking into your daily routine. Take the stairs instead of the elevator, park at the far end of the parking lot, go for a walk during lunch, and/or take an after-dinner walk around the neighborhood.
  • Buy or borrow a book on calorie counts, or use the internet to research the nutrition content of your favorite chain restaurants’ menus. Learn which items you can still enjoy while not ruining your diet.
  • Organize a department sporting event, tournament, or even a lunchtime game.
  • Conduct a demonstration for your department on portion size control. You can bring in common items (bagels, fast food items, sodas) and show the difference between how much someone normally eats and what the actual serving size is.
  • Ask a local gym or fitness center to donate week-long passes to your department members during National Firefighter Health Week. Perhaps the gym would be willing to offer department members a discounted rate year-round or donate equipment they no longer need to the station.
  • Log in to a meal-tracking site, such as the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute’s Menu Planner or SparkPeople.com. These sites allow you to enter what you eat and see what your total calories and fat are for the day.
  • Try to add more fruits and vegetables to your diet. You can exchange high-calorie snacks for fresh fruit or vegetables with a low-fat dip. Mix in fruit with your cereal, oatmeal or yogurt in the morning and add extra veggies to sandwiches, pizza, and as your side item at a restaurant.
Nutrition Resources
 
The Heart-Healthy Firefighter Program web site has many resources for nutrition, including:
 
The National Volunteer Fire Council’s Heart-Healthy Firefighter Cookbook features over 60 recipes that prove eating healthy can taste great. With recipes to satisfy every taste, this Cookbook can be used at the station and at home. Many of the recipes were submitted by health-conscious firefighters.
 
Lillian Ricardo, NVFC Health and Safety Project Coordinator, explains why healthy eating is important for firefighters, offers ideas for quick snacks and healthier food substitutions, and provides additional tips and advice to make healthy eating achievable. This podcast was recorded in August 2009.
 
NHLBI provides research, training, and education programs to promote the prevention and treatment of heart, lung, and blood diseases and enhance the health of all individuals so that they can live longer and more fulfilling lives. Some of the nutrition-related resources include:
 
The ADA provides trustworthy, science-based food and nutrition information. The site contains resources and information regarding nutrition, healthy weight, disease management and prevention, food safety, and much more.
 
Some of the nutrition resources offered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture include:
 
This tool looks at portion sizes and the many ways portion control can help towards a healthier lifestyle.
 
FireRescue1.com’s Health and Wellness Section offers articles on a wide range of health topics relevant to first responders, including nutrition. Nutrition articles include the following: 
 
FDNNTV.com features many stories on health and nutrition, including:
 
This web site provides accurate and comprehensive nutrition analysis and makes it accessible and understandable to all. In addition to food composition data, NutritionData offers a variety of tools to analyze and interpret that date. Other resources include recipes, daily nutrition needs calculator, how to read a nutrition label, recipe analysis tool, special topics such as diabetes and heart health, and much more.
 
Medline Plus is a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health. The Nutrition Section of Medline Plus provides a compendium of resources, tools, and information regarding nutrition.
 
CDC nutrition efforts and programs cover a wide spectrum of topics, including resources, tips, and information for healthy eating, Fruits and Vegetables Matter campaign, healthy weight and eating plans, food safety and more.
 
Based in the UK, the Mental Health Foundation looks at the possible link between healthy eating and mental health. While research is still being done to determine the connection between diet and mental health, the Foundation provides many healthy eating tips, tools, resources, and recipes.
 
The American Diabetes Association breaks down the different elements of a nutrition food label and what you need to know about each aspect.
 
 
Fitness Resources
 
The NVFC’s Heart-Healthy Firefighter Program encourages first responders to get and stay healthy, including incorporating a fitness component into their health plan. The fitness section includes some ideas for incorporating fitness into their daily routine.
 
The NVFC’s Fired Up For Fitness Challenge is an interactive fitness tool that allows firefighters and emergency personnel to log their hours of activity and challenges them to reach certain benchmarks every three months for one year. As each benchmark is reached, participants receive incentive rewards. The Challenge as part of the Heart-Healthy Firefighter Program’s Adopt the Program initiative.
 
Ken Viglio of L&T Health and Fitness provides fitness tips designed specifically for firefighters. This podcast was recorded in August 2009
 
Firehouse.com provides many articles that focus on health in the fire service. A few articles related to fitness include:
 
FireRescue1.com’s Health and Wellness Section offers articles on a wide range of health topics relevant to first responders, including fitness. Fitness articles include the following: 
 
FDNNTV.com features many stories on health and fitness, including:
 
This resource from the CDC shows how easy it is to add physical activity to your life and meet the guidelines for daily aerobic activities.
 
This initiative of DHHS shows that the small steps you take towards health, fitness, and nutrition can make a big difference. There is also a locator to find state-based SmallStep programs.
 
This program provides tools, resources, and motivation to get people to walk more as the first step to a healthier lifestyle.
 
ACE provides tools, resources, and information for getting fit, including an exercise library, workouts, product reviews, calculators, recipes, facts, research, “Ask the Expert” blog, and more.
 
The Council is an advisory committee of volunteer citizens who advise the President through the Secretary of Health and Human Services about physical activity, fitness, and sports in America. Its programs promote health, physical activity, fitness, and enjoyment for all people through participation in physical activity and sports. Their programs include the President’s Challenge, which encourages all Americans to make being active a part of their everyday lives.
 
The mission of SparkPeople is to SPARK millions of PEOPLE to reach their goals and lead healthier lives. They offer free nutrition, health, and fitness tools, support, and resources. The Fitness section includes information, tools, and resources including videos, workouts, articles, calculators, questions and answers, fitness guides and more.