LiveWell
Supporting students in achieving a balanced and healthy lifestyle.
March 2011
Lucid Dreaming
Flying, time-travel, and magical ability!
Intuitive Eating
Connecting brain and belly
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Lose Nationally, Feed Locally
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Pound for Pound
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wellness.ucsd.edu
I’m walking through campus and an older man in a green sweater approaches me. “I have your driver’s license,” he says. This makes sense, somehow, and I respond: “That’s fine. Just turn in it to the professor after class.” I give him a friendly smile but he now resembles my high school English teacher, Mrs. Phillips. At this point, I realize I am dreaming. When you become aware that you are dreaming while still in the dream, you’re having what is called a lucid dream. Beyond providing a fascinating out-of-body sensation, lucid dreams are a forum for experimentation, exploration, and empowerment. Let’s say you dream that a large, hairy monster is trying to pound down your front door. If you know that you’re dreaming, you have no reason to be afraid. You have options. You can whip up a quick explosive device, or excuse yourself through a back door, or talk it into becoming a cute little puppy. The dream world is complex, to say the least. Through dreams you experience a great many feelings and scenarios, all real aspects of some element within the psyche. A lucid dream can begin in one of two ways. A dream-initiated lucid dream starts as a normal dream before you catch on to the fact that
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you’re dreaming, while a wake-initiated lucid dream occurs when you slip from a normal waking state directly into a dream state. Either way, you can test your environment to determine whether or not you are awake. The pinch test—”Pinch me, I think I’m dreaming!”—is not actually an effective indicator of reality; a dreamed pinch will probably feel just like a real one. However, there are some tell-tale signs that expose a dream for what it is: • Look at text or a digital watch. Remember what it says, look away, and then look back. The information will likely have changed. • Look into a mirror (if you dare). Reflections are often blurred or distorted. • Look at the ground beneath your feet, or at your hands. What you see may be quite different from what you’re used to… Intrigued? Start by writing down your dreams every morning when you wake up; this will strengthen your dream recollection. Keep your eyes closed while trying to remember the dream, and then record what you remember in the present tense. Over time you can consciously develop awareness within dreams.
Flying, time-travel, magical ability ...all yours with the power of lucidity.
et Dreams
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The LiveWell Blog (A fun read that’s guaranteed to feed your mind.)
The LiveWell Blog is updated weekly with articles and news bulletins to keep you thriving!
Productivity and time management Loving and honoring the real you Maintaining a body that is healthy, happy, and strong Balancing your budget Living green Getting the most out of career resources and opportunities Awakening to your purpose and passion Cultivating healthy relationships & much, much more!
Aim for “Intuitive Eating” by Jennifer A. Karp, MPH, RD
Hunger is a true physical sensation that motivates us to eat, whereas appetite initiates eating through the sight, smell, thought, or taste of food. Satiety is the feeling of satisfaction and fullness that causes us to stop eating, and this is regulated via hormones. Various factors can override natural hunger and satiety cues. This is where the challenge arrives—and the role played by environmental triggers cannot be over-emphasized. For example, if you finish eating lunch with a friend and s/he urges you to share dessert, you may do so out of wanting to please your friend or the power of suggestion as opposed to your true hunger level. Same goes for the waiter that proudly displays the dessert tray at the end of your meal, enticing you to order even if you would otherwise be content with having finished your meal. Free food is another compelling draw; if bags of potato chips are being given away,how many people will walk by and decline?
Stress in another trigger that can wreck havoc on our diet. Stress causes the release of hormones that drive us to choose high fat, high salt, and high sugar foods. I haven’t yet met anyone who craves broccoli and baby carrots when they’ve had an epic bad day! By taking time to appreciate and enjoy your meals, and “checking in” with yourself before, during, and towards the end of a meal or snack, you can become more cognizant of your natural internal hunger and fullness cues. Before taking seconds of a given food item, ask yourself: Is this what I really want? Is this what my body needs? Do I really just need to call a friend to vent about my terrible day? Do I need to rest? Should I go and read a magazine to decompress?
“When we ea t, we
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Perhaps it isn’t food that is needed to fill a void or abate the turmoil within. This practice is termed “intuitive eating.” Intuitive eating is defined as a nutrition philosophy based on the premise that becoming more attuned to the body’s natural hunger signals is a more effective way to attain a healthy weight. It’s a process intended to create a healthy relationship with food, mind, and body. BENEFIT FOR YOU: Purposeful eating that is driven by true, physiological hunger and not emotions or environmental triggers.
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Jennifer A. Karp, MPH, RD Registered Dietitian UCSD Recreation Dept 858.822.0372
Are You in a Student Organization?
Reserve The Zone for a Healthy Meeting! Student organizations or other student groups can have a healthy meeting or event in the Zone. It can be set up for a lecture/presentation, movie, board style meeting, social mixer, yoga/meditation or other low impact physical activity, Wii fit games, crafts, and more. To see the reservable hours and more information, visit: http://zone.ucsd.edu/programs/reserve.shtml
Please contact Sarah at sraifsni@ucsd.edu. *Indicate date/time requested; name of your organization or group; purpose of event; and set up needs. *The Zone cannot be reserved for regular meetings. *All requests must be made at least 2 weeks in advance.
Join Our Pound For Pound Challenge! Are you ready for a worthy Challenge? Join our UCSD Triton team as we take on the Pound For Pound Challenge! For the third consecutive year, Feeding America and NBC’sThe Biggest Loser will partner with General Mills and Subway to encourage Americans to lose or maintain weight through the Pound For Pound Challenge. For every pound pledged, the Pound For Pound Challenge will donate 11 cents (enough for one pound of groceries) to Feeding America San Diego. This year, for the first time, when you sign up for the Pound For Pound Challenge at www.pfpchallenge.com, you can immediately join the “UCSD Tritons” – and throughout the program, we can track our team’s progress and feel good about the difference we’re making! You can also find the UCSD Tritons Pound for Pound Challenge on Facebook. Team rankings are calculated by the total amount of people per team, so join UCSD faculty, staff, students, alumni, and community members in making UCSD Tritons number one! You choose the number of pounds you want to pledge to lose, or if you’re already at a healthy weight, you can pledge to take action to maintain a healthy weight, and help us earn more donations to feed the hungry.
Be healthy and help the community! Pound For Pound, we can fight hunger! Feeding America provides low-income individuals with the fuel to survive and thrive. As the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief charity, they supply food to more than 37 million Americans each year, including 14 million children and 3 million seniors. For more information visit www.feedingamerica.org. For questions or more information, please contact: Jerry Phelps UCSD Office of Student Wellness tritonwellness@ucsd.edu
Did you know... napping can help improve your memory, productivity, and energy levels? Find a soft couch and take a nap at these places on campus.
Top 5 Nap Spots
1. Geisel Library
Check out the bottom level of Geisel Library!
2. Price Center West Ballroom Lobby Soft chairs!
3. Sun God Lounge
Quite a lot of traffic, but the perfect place to nap when you are waiting for class
4. JK Wood Lounge
Warren college Quiet place with lots of chairs
5. Treehouse Computer Lounge
Very few people, really soft couches
Eat it RAW
(or, as Mother Nature intended). We live in a culture of cooked food, where “slaving over the stove” is thought to produce a square meal. But with all the fancy frying, roasting, grilling and baking, we’ve forgotten the awesome power of food in its raw, natural state. When it comes to sheer nutritional value, nothing compares to raw food. Raw food retains all of its life-giving properties, whereas cooking denatures the proteins and destroys many of the enzymes that benefit digestion. Processed food costs your body a great deal more energy to break down and scour for nutrients. As your raw food intake increases, you feel more satisfied and have more energy on smaller meals—because it has the best balance of water, nutrients, and fiber to meet your body’s needs. What does a body do with a wealth of health and energy? For one thing, it heals itself. A raw food diet has, in many cases, been known to stop or reverse the advance of many chronic diseases, including diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. It can relieve constipation, heartburn, gas, and other digestive malfunctions. The increased physical vitality also helps to protect you from ordinary colds and flu. Start where you are by adding more raw veggies, nuts, and fruit to your diet. Carrots, zucchini, spinach, broccoli, sprouts; almonds, cashews, dates, pecans; apples, bananas, pears, grapes…each has wonderful flavor and texture. Experiment with different combinations! In addition to your health, eating food raw also saves you time and money. And as an added bonus, consider: no burns to the hand or mouth, no kitchen fires, less preparation, and easier to clean up. Bon appétit!
Meet the UCSD Registered Dieticians! Christine McNamara, MPH RD Student Health Services (858) 534-8089
Visit Christine for nutrition counseling. It’s free for registered students! Visit here for information and to schedule an appointment: studenthealth.ucsd.edu/nutrition.shtml
Becky McDivitt, RD
Housing, Dining, and Hospitality 858.534.9587 rmcdivitt@ucsd.edu Learn about eating healthfully at on-campus eateries on Becky’s blog: realdealnutrition.blogspot.com
Jennifer Karp, MPH RD UCSD Recreation and FitLife jakarp@ucsd.edu
Meet one-on-one with Jennifer to address health and nutrition history, nutrition related labs, nutrition goals and creation of a nutrition care plan. For more information, visit
recreation.ucsd.edu/fitlife/nutritional-services.html
Tasty Tuesday
Watch Cooking Demonstrations! Learn New Recipes! Sample Delicious Free Food!
Tuesdays at 5:00pm In The Zone
Words of Wellness
Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. --world health organization
Office of Student Wellness Student Services Building 5th Floor, Suite 562 (858) 822-7618 wellness.ucsd.edu The LiveWell Magazine is published by the Office of Student Wellness Edited and written by: Christine Feng, Gina Tang, Maleenee Beuhler