AACI's NEWSLETTER - Winter 2008

In this issue:

A Message from Michele
Tips for Keeping Your New Year's Resolution
Beat the Winter Blues
Staying Healthy this Cold and Flu Season
Healthy Recipes
Emergency Preparedness

January 23, 2008

A Message from Michele

Happy New Year!

We hope 2008 is off to a good start for you.

For many of us in the Asian community, we enjoy celebrating the New Year twice—once on January 1 and once according to the lunar calendar. This year, Lunar New Year fell on February 7, 2008.

Lunar New Year is often a time for Asian families to come together in celebration. There are many Asian traditions around the Lunar New Year, and my favorite traditions are the ones centered around the food! In my Chinese family, we share tangerines, which are symbolic of good luck, and oranges, which are symbolic of wealth. I also love the whole steamed fish, symbolic of abundance and good fortune, and the noodles, symbolic of long life. And I have fond memories of my parents encouraging me to eat something sweet at the beginning of the day on Chinese New Year to ensure a “sweet” year!

As we all start out the new year(s), it’s a great time to focus on good health and prevention of illnesses and emergencies. We hope this edition of our e-newsletter provides you and your family with helpful information for your health and well-being.

We also hope to see you at the upcoming San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival in March in San Jose; AACI is proud to be one of two Community Partners for the Film Festival in the South Bay.

Last but not least, we look forward to seeing you at AACI’s 35th Anniversary Banquet and Community Star Awards on Friday, May 16, 2008 at the San Jose Fairmont!

Sincerely,
Michele Lew
President and CEO

Back to top

Tips for Keeping Your New Year's Resolution Reviewed by Dr. Laurie Leung Adult and Older Adult Program Supervisor

It’s now the end of February, but there’s never a wrong time to make a change for the better. If you have a resolution in mind and can't seem to get started, or if you’ve already started working on your resolution and find yourself having a hard time keeping it, here are a few tips to help you reach your goals.

• Be realistic. Make a resolution you can and want to keep. This is a crucial step toward reaching your goal. If you’re reasonable and honest, you are more likely to make the positive changes you set for yourself.

• Word your resolutions constructively. The words you choose to describe your New Year’s resolutions can have dramatic impact on success or failure. If you choose positive words that describe what you want clearly, you set yourself on a path to success.

• Create a plan. It's not enough to make a resolution on New Year's Eve then sit back and wait for it to happen. Think your resolution through and create a plan or schedule to keep yourself on track.

• Remember the reasons for your resolutions. When drawing up your resolution plan, take the time to write a list of motives for your resolutions and how you think you’ll feel when you accomplish them. If you feel you’re about to fall, look at your list, stay motivated, and don’t give up!

• Research alternatives. If your resolution involves eliminating a bad habit, come up with something in advance to replace it. Remember to keep your alternative healthy and positive!

• Tell others about it. If you keep your resolution a secret, it is easy to ignore or forget. Tell your friends and family – they’ll ask about your progress and help motivate you to accomplish your mission. When you share your goals with your friends and family, you may even inspire them to join you or set goals of their own!

• Get professional help. Consider consulting your health care professional for assistance if you feel overwhelmed or don’t quite know how to start. They might have information or access to resources that could make achieving your resolutions simpler or more efficient.

• Write in a diary. Take a few minutes every day to track your progress, you’ll find it’s easy to stay motivated because you see results in black and white. If writing’s not your thing, take pictures!

• Failure is only temporary. Expect and plan for setbacks along your journey. Stay positive, remember how much you’ve accomplished, and pick up where you left off!

• Examine and analyze. Plan a resolution review once a month or a few times a year and be truthful with your results.

• Have fun and celebrate. Remember resolutions should be something that you want to accomplish! Have some fun and you will find yourself looking forward to going to the gym, eating healthy or paying off credit cards. Just make sure that your celebration doesn’t push you back into your old habits!

To download a .pdf of Tips for Keeping Your New Year's Resolution please click here.

Resources:
University of Maryland Medical Center - University of Maryland Medical System
About.com - Exercise Motivation

Back to top

Beat the Winter Blues Written by Dr. Jorge Wong Director of Behavioral Health Services, Quality Improvement and Compliance

Happy New Year and I hope 2008 bring many cheers and fortunes. So now that the new year’s celebrations are over and we realistically look back at the enthusiastic resolutions we committed ourselves to before the end of last year, we also realize that we have not always been able to maintain those resolutions and begin to feel a bit down and blue about ourselves. Not to worry! Here are some suggestions to keep those self imposed blues away.

Before you even begin to count past limited successes, short lived healthy behavioral changes, tabulating the times you broke your promises to lose weight, stop smoking, and exercise regularly, remember that you are only human. Humans are fallible. Humans are not perfect…and that’s what makes us human. Yet as humans, it is how we perceive events, and attribute value and meaning to these events, that gives us the motivation and willingness to keep doing what we do. It does not mean that because of our humanity we have to give up on improving and refining our efforts to achieve our set goals. Significant behavioral change, simply stated, is ‘hard to maintain’ without a consistent support and reminder system. Did you know that more than 60% of all resolutions fail within the first few months? Individuals tend to overestimate their own abilities when in a state of elation and hopefulness.

Conversely, individuals tend to underestimate their own abilities while in a state of depression and hopelessness. To maintain any proposed changes, whether behavioral, attitudinal, or emotional you need a support and reminder system. A support system will help keep you on task and it is best done with partners in crime. Therefore enlisting one or two others to adhere to the same regimen and goals will help create and sustain the effort each participant puts forth. A reminder system will initially provide cues to you and your partners of the goal or goals you are all aiming to achieve. Once you each begin to see your own results, intrinsic motivation will serve as constant and encouragement. Support and reminders can be in the form of committed accomplices in the change process, friends and family outwardly expressing their support to you, or having visual cues such as inspirational pictures, phrases, log book or journal to record your progress, and other visual aids that will frequently steer and remind you of the goal(s) you set out to achieve—recall the cereal TV commercial where the woman hung her yellow polka dot bikini on the door to remind her of her summer goal, or the youth who puts up posters of athletic idols with the hopes of become them, or individuals who have lost a significant amount of weight and keep their former large sized clothing to remind them of their accomplishments.

As humans we need to remember that starting a new change is easier than maintaining it, especially when we are in a great mood and positive state of mind before we started. The middle of any ‘long term’ process is difficult to visualize, accept and maintain because we often lose sight of the light at the end of the tunnel. Remember that achieving significant and lofty goals such as running a marathon, obtaining a graduate degree, becoming the U.S. President, beginning and maintaining a healthy diet and exercise program, and even finding your dream job, are never impossible goals. It requires dedicated commitment, focus, support, sustained internal and external motivation, and the understanding that it will take many, many little steps to accomplish a large step. Finding a support and reminder system during this middle stage is very important to stay the course. Once you goal is near completion, you will have realized that successful people are mindful of each little step taken, and that each little step does take you closer to the goal.

We do not have to give up at the sign of first encountered obstacles to our long term goals. It's also important to remember that it is perfectly acceptable to seek professional assistance. We need to understand that obstacles are also opportunities for improvement and learning when we first set out to do something. The goal is to develop a simple and effective strategy to maintain and remind us of where we are going. Enlisting and developing support and reminder systems will improve our chances of success. And the more we learn and improve, the higher our chances of success. Don’t give up! Don’t get down and blue! Get some buddies, make a commitment together, enlist support systems, develop on-going reminders, and set short-term realistic goals. Once completed, set another short-term and realistic goal. Before you know it, you will be nearing your end goal and realizing that you have accomplished many goals in between. Good luck and never stop trying!

Back to top

Staying Healthy this Cold and Flu Season: Good Health Habits for Prevention Excerpt from Center for Disease Control and Prevention Reviewed by Dr. Lynn Liu Medical Director, Primary Care Health Clinic

The single best way to prevent seasonal flu is to get vaccinated each year, but good health habits like covering your mouth when you cough and washing your hands often can help prevent respiratory illnesses like the flu.

• Avoid close contact. Avoid close contact with people who are sick. When you are sick, keep your distance from others to protect them from getting sick too.

• Stay home when you are sick. If possible, stay home from work, school, and errands when you are sick. You will help prevent others from catching your illness.

• Cover your mouth and nose. Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when coughing or sneezing. It may prevent those around you from getting sick.

• Clean your hands. Washing your hands often will help protect you from germs.

• Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs are often spread when a person touches something that is contaminated with germs and then touches his or her eyes, nose, or mouth.

• Practice other good health habits. Get plenty of sleep, be physically active, manage your stress, drink plenty of fluids, and eat nutritious food.

Resource:
Center for Disease Control and Prevention. November 16, 2007, Coordinating Center for Infectious Diseases (CCID), National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD). February 11, 2008. Fact Sheet.

Back to top

Healthy Recipes Reviewed by Ms. Trisha Lam Nutritionist

Before the board meetings and soccer practice, after the school plays and e-mail, we need to find time to eat. Sure fast food is cheap, easy, and the kids love it, but we all know a cheeseburger and fries is not the answer every night.

We’ve come up with a few recipes, perfected by our own wonderful staff, which should provide you with some healthy and delicious alternatives to the greasy bag you pick up at the drive-thru window.

Please click here for Patrick’s Gỏi Cuốn (Vietnamese Shrimp Spring Rolls)

Please click here for Sharon’s Caldo de Pollo (Mexican Style Chicken Soup)

Please click here for Mike’s Quick and Easy Beef with Snow Peas

Back to top