Share Your Health Diary!

Becoming healthier is our goal. Sometimes knowing how to do it is not enough. Creating our own support group to encourage us often becomes paramount to achieving our goals.

IslamOnline.net encourages you to send us your personal self-designed ‘Get Healthy’ plan and to create a daily diary of implementation that will be uploaded onto your own personal IslamOnline.net Web page. You are also encouraged to post a discussion in IslamOnline.net’s discussion forum that will pose as your own personal blog for people to comment on your plan and on how you are moving along in implementing it. IslamOnline.net’s readers will be your cheerleaders and the ones who keep you on the right track!

How to Participate

1. Devise your own ‘Get Healthy’ plan based on the general information provided in this campaign. Your ‘Get Healthy’ plan should consist of a paragraph or two that includes:

1. Your plan on how to eat healthier based on your personal needs (amounts and types of foods that you will focus on, and your eating schedule)

2. Your exercise plan

3. Your sleep schedule

4. Any additional ideas you want to implement to become healthier

2. Every day send us a diary of how well – or otherwise – you have implemented your plan. Describe problems you’ve faced, successes, re-evaluations of your plan, etc.

3. Post a discussion forum to pose as your own personal blog. Go to our Nutrition board and click on ‘Create a Topic’. Your blog will be linked by us to your personal IslamOnline.net Web page. This will allow people reading your diary to comment, give advice, provide support, etc.

4. Questions that require expert advice are bound to arise along the way. As they arise, IslamOnline.net’s Health & Science staff will arrange for live question and answer sessions with qualified nutritionists to answer your questions.

5. Your plan and daily dairy should be sent to: thinkhealthy@islam-online.net. In your first email to us we will need the following:

1. The name you would like to be known by on your personal IslamOnline.net Web page

2. A couple of paragraphs explaining your personal self-designed ‘Get Healthy’ plan.

3. A link to your blog in IslamOnline.net’s Nutrition board so our staff can link it to your Web page.

This should be followed by a daily e-mail from you with your chosen name in the subject line. The daily e-mail should include a date and details on how things have been going (your daily diary). Please also feel free to send any comments to the editor that you might not want to be published.

It will be the job of IslamOnline.net’s Health & Science staff to upload this material onto your own personal IslamOnline.net Web page.

We hope this idea will provide you with a means to achieve your goals with the support of IslamOnline.net’s readers. Go ahead and plan a healthier more productive life with IslamOnline.net!

Below are a few tips you can use to devise your ‘Get Healthy’ plan

For a healthier lifestyle you need:

1. Enough sleep (six to eight hours daily)

2. A balanced diet: (in compliance with the food pyramid)

1. Eat at least 3 ounces of whole grain bread, cereals, crackers, rice or pasta every day. Make half your grains whole (whole grains means they contain the entire grain kernel).

2. Vegetables and fruits: 3 to 5 servings of vegetables daily, and 2 to 4 servings of fruit daily. A serving is:

• 1 cup of raw leafy vegetables

• 1/2 cup of other vegetables, cooked or raw

• 3/4 cup of vegetable juice

• One medium apple, orange or banana

• 1/2 cup of chopped, cooked or canned fruit

• 1/2 cup of chopped, cooked or canned fruit

3. Proteins: The Food Pyramid suggests 2 to 3 servings of cooked meat, fish or poultry. Each serving should be between 2 and 3 ounces. The following foods are equivalent to one ounce of meat:

• One egg

• 2 tablespoons of peanut butter

• 1/2 cup cooked dry beans

• 1/3 cup of nuts

4. Dairy products: The Food Pyramid suggests 2 to 3 servings each day. If you are breastfeeding, pregnant, a teenager or a young adult age 24 or under, try to have 3 servings. Most other people should have 2 servings daily. An example of one serving: One cup of milk (8 ounces) or two slices of cheese (1 and 1/2 ounces). Take it easy on the ice-cream and high-fat cheese.

5. Fats and Sweets: eat sparingly. The amount of fat and sugar you need is based on your caloric needs. Medical experts from the American Heart Association recommend that Americans limit dietary fat to 30 percent of daily calories. Here are the fat grams allowed based on daily calories:

1,600 calories - Limit fat to 53 grams
2,200 calories - Limit fat to 73 grams
2,800 calories - Limit fat to 93 grams

3. You need at least 30 minutes of activity most days of the week. For children and teenagers, they should be physically active for at least 60 minutes a day. Activity does not necessarily mean working out in a gym. Activity includes household chores, walking to work, running, gardening etc. Depending on what is available to you and appropriate with your lifestyle.