Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 30, Number 6, 1 June 2013 — Giving yourself a grade [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Giving yourself a grade

Have you thought about what you are doing to protect your health, lately? We often respond to demands and challenges by adopting new, time-saving behaviors in our daily routines. Usually, the demands are outside of our eontrol, like challenges at work, family needs, traffic/commute problems, child care, illness and so on. We adjust quickly by eating on the run, buying take-out foods, skipping meals and, occasionally, buying

"reward foods" to help us through our strife. These adjustments often are hard on our family budgets. However, the bigger problem is that "over the long haul" these changes do not support heahh. Thus, oeeasionally pausing to reflect on what you are doing to protect your own heahh, makes good sense. Consider your food choices. Do you eat 1 or 2 generous servings of deep-green or orange-colored vegetables, plus an additional 2 half-cups of other vegetables every day? (Total 3 to 4 half-cup servings). Also needed is 2 or 3 half-cup servings of fruit (papaya, citrus, berries, etc.) and about 5 or 6 ounces of low-fat protein foods, daily. Calcium-rich foods, to protect and grow bones, are a lifetime requirement. Our ancestors had this thing "down to a science." They started their journey into the Pacific (from

Southeast Asia) in about 1600 B.C. and, according to Isabella Abbott, they brought about three dozen plants for food, building materials and medieine to Hawai'i in about 200 A.D. By the time that first trip north to Hawai'i was made, the ancestors knew exactly what they needed for survival and heahh. Dr. Isabella Abbott lists five foods of Southeast Asian origin: taro, yam, breadfruit, bananas and sugarcane, in addition to coconut, gourd and mountain apple ( 'Ōhi'a'ai) that early Hawaiians brought to Hawai'i. For hundreds of years, the ancestors had moved from plaee to plaee in the Pacific and heeame "aces" at packing essentials for a long, one-way

trip. We ean gain mueh heahh by adopting foods from their travel cases. Are you sleeping seven to eight hours a night? Your children need 10 hours of nightly sleep. Sleep is always sacrificed even in minor

crises. We adjust, and then, a certain degree of fatigue becomes manageable. Several heahh problems start whh compromises in nightly sleep. And, you cannot "make up" for lost sleep by sleeping longer on Sunday morning. Sleep patterns change

over the life span, so keeping tabs on hours slept eaeh night is important. We are often too tired to think about exercise. However, that tiredness is probably more mental or emotional than physical. Involve someone you enjoy ... a loved one, friend or neighbor to help keep physical exercise in your life. It works. I am reminded of this at 5 to 5: 15 every moming, when two male neighbors, speaking at a normal volume, walk past my bedroom window about an hour before the alarm goes off. Finally, consider fun. Everyone needs fun in their lives. Pleasurable hobbies like fishing, hiking, bowling,

biking, traveling, sightseeing or visiting old friends fit in here. Life is to be enjoyed ... really! Take time to assess what you do to protect your body and spirit. You see, you cannot enjoy anything if you are not healthy enough to experience it. ■

OLAKINO v www.oha.org/kwo | kwo@OHA.org Y0UR HEALĪH / NATIVE HAWAIIAN » NEWS | FEATURES | EVENTS

By Claire Ku'uleilani Hughes, Dr. PH„ R.D.

Salads are a good way to get the recommended daily servings of vegetables. - KWO file phoio