To my fellow Broschinskys

Hello everyone:

I want to start out by saying that I love all of you guys, a lot! And that is the whole reason I am doing this. I am creating what I want to be kind of family health blog. I want to be clear that this is a health blog, not a diet/weight loss blog. I want it to be a place where all of us can talk about healthy stuff we're doing or learning or healthy recipes we're cooking or whatever. I really, really love you guys and I want us to take care of each other. Not only do I want us to all stick around for a long time, but I want us to be able to enjoy the time we have. Please, don't take this as any kind of a veiled insult to anyone's way of life, habits, size, or whatever. I just want me and my family to be healthy. I have spent a lot of time in classroom talking about health and the benefits a healthy lifestyle can have. 30 years from now, I don't want to be sitting next to someone's hospital bed and be thinking to myself "If I would have said something 30 years ago, we wouldn't be here." I hope that doesn't sound morbid or depressing, but it makes me feel like I have a little bit of an obligation. Again, let me reiterate, I am doing this out of love for all of you.

With all of that said, let me tell you a little bit about what I would like this blog to become. Like I said, this will be a family blog. All of us will be able to access it and post entries on it. Again, I want it to be a health blog, not something about shedding pounds. Weight loss will come, but it is just a side effect of being healthy. But, being skinny does not always mean you're healthy. Reports have shown that skinny, sedentary (inactive) people have 3 times the chance of dying prematurely from heart disease as overweight, active people. Anyway, I would really like all of us to put stuff on here, no matter what it is (a delicious spinach recipe perhaps, or maybe a really enjoyable exercise you're doing, or maybe that you swore when the home teachers slipped on the ice as they were leaving, before and after pictures, goals you hope to accomplish, whatever).

TUESDAYS WITH NATE

I am kind of thinking I will make Tuesday night my night to blog something healthy on here. I have my tests Tuesday morning, so I will try to take a little break from studying Tuesday night. So, here's my suggestion for the day: Let's all try to be active for at least 30 minutes, at least 3 times this week. By active I mean you get your heart rate about 65% of its max, and your heart rate max is found by subtracting your age from 220. (For example: I am 28. 220 - 28 = 192, my heart rate max. Next, 192 * .65 = 124.8 or 125 beats per minute. So, I want to keep my heart rate above 125 beats per minute for at least 30 minutes) I realize we are all running on very tight schedules but we should really shoot for at least 30 minutes. It doesn't all have to be at the same time. It could be 10 minutes in the morning and 20 at night or 15 here and 15 there. So, give it a try and tell us about it.

So, that's it, for now. If you have anything you want to add, please feel free to do so. Or, if you have questions I may be able to answer, let me know. I have a lot of expensive text books sitting on my shelves that could be put to good use. Again, I really love all of you and I hope that we can all work on this together for some healthy Broschinskys!

Love,
Nate