HEALTHY LIVING NOW: Restore Your Health & Well Being

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

Do you find yourself searching for happiness and never quite reaching it? Have you come to the realization that your health is not what it should be: extra pounds, fast food, and health implications?  Healthy living is offered to help you unleash your own power to recover and harness your energy for full health benefits.  Investigate the surprising ways in which your body is connected to the afflictions of civilization.  Investigate the power of living in a more healthful way through your diet, exercise, sleep, reactions to stress, mindfulness, and more.  If your goal is to live a long and healthy life to the fullest, then you don’t want to miss this course. This course will highlight how the current pressure and stress in modern life have removed us from our biological needs and are making us ill. It is also about how to avoid this distress and find a way to happiness. This course is practical, disarming, loaded with research, and will ignite and inspire you to change and Go Wild. If you are looking to manage your stress levels, find more energy, improve your sleep, and sharpen your mental skills, join me for an experience that will help you secure a healthier, happier future. Healthy Living NOW!  

This course is appropriate for grades K-12 instructors, administrators, and parents.

LEARNING OUTCOMES: Upon completion of this course, participants will have:

1. Discovered and analyzed the catastrophic consequences of damage brought by the way we live and eat.
2. Learned how changes in civilization have altered our food sources.
3. Discovered how what we eat, move, sleep, think, and live are connected to health and disease.
4. Learned how homeostasis is affected by the wear and tear of stressful living.
5. Learned about allostasis and how the body’s stress can permanently change our brain.
6. Learned how to increase receptiveness through mindfulness training and meditation.
7. Implemented a life plan that will help to achieve total health and balance.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
Completion of all specified assignments is required for issuance of hours or credit. The Heritage Institute does not award partial credit.

HOURS EARNED:
Completing the basic assignments (Section A. Information Acquisition) for this course automatically earns participants their choice of CEUs (Continuing Education Units), Washington State Clock Hours, Oregon PDUs, or Pennsylvania ACT 48 Hours. The Heritage Institute offers CEUs and is an approved provider of Washington State Clock Hours, Oregon PDUs, and Pennsylvania ACT 48 Hours.

UNIVERSITY QUARTER CREDIT INFORMATION

REQUIREMENTS FOR UNIVERSITY QUARTER CREDIT
Continuing Education Quarter credits are awarded by Antioch University Seattle (AUS). AUS requires 75% or better for credit at the 400 level and 85% or better to issue credit at the 500 level. These criteria refer both to the amount and quality of work submitted.

1. Completion of Information Acquisition assignments 30%
2. Completion of Learning Application assignments 40%
3. Completion of Integration Paper assignment 30%

CREDIT/NO CREDIT (No Letter Grades or Numeric Equivalents on Transcripts)
Antioch University Seattle (AUS) Continuing Education Quarter credit is offered on a Credit/No Credit basis; neither letter grades nor numeric equivalents are on a transcript. 400 level credit is equal to a "C" or better, 500 level credit is equal to a "B" or better. This information is on the back of the transcript.

AUS Continuing Education quarter credits may or may not be accepted into degree programs. Prior to registering, determine with your district personnel, department head, or state education office the acceptability of these credits for your purpose.

ADDITIONAL COURSE INFORMATION

REQUIRED TEXT

None. All reading is online.

MATERIALS FEE

Go Wild: Eat Fat, Run Free, Be Social, and Follow Evolution's Other Rules for Total Health and Well-being. Course text is approximately $10.00 used on Amazon.

QUALIFICATIONS FOR TEACHING THIS COURSE:

Brenda McKinney, CEO of Vancouver, WA based BrainVolution, is a developer and dynamic facilitator of workshops that teach practical thinking and learning tools for raising student achievement with the brain in mind. She has trained educators throughout the Pacific Northwest and is a popular presenter because of her ability to motivate, make things fun, and teach practical techniques for the classroom that can be used immediately. Brenda continues to read hundreds of books and articles on the subject of neuroscience and searches for the answer to success for every student. Her work with at-risk students and those with reading problems have made her a popular speaker at the state, regional and national level.

Brenda is able to synthesize the new research and continues to address the role of how to use the latest findings to create high achievement classroom. She brings 30+ years of experience at the elementary, middle school, high school and university level as a mentor teacher, consultant, motivational speaker, university instructor, and reading specialist. Brenda has her Master’s in Education from Washington State University and is nationally certified in Brain Based Learning through the renowned  Jensen Corporation, led by Eric Jensen, a noted international spokesperson for neuroscience and education.

Brenda will inspire and motivate you with her energy, enthusiasm and knowledge. Her wisdom, techniques, and brain based approach to education will inspire you and challenge you to meet the demands of this ever changing world.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

HEALTHY LIVING NOW: Restore Your Health & Well Being

McGonigal, Kelly. The Upside of Stress. Why Stress is Good for You (And How to Get Good at It). Penguin Random House, New York, N.Y. 2015.

More than forty-four percent of Americans admit to losing sleep over stress. And while most of us do everything we can to reduce it, Stanford psychologist and bestselling author Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D., delivers a startling message: Stress isn't bad. In The Upside of Stress, McGonigal highlights new research indicating that stress can, in fact, make us stronger, smarter, and happier—if we learn how to embrace it. The Upside of Stress is the first book to bring together innovative discoveries on the correlation between resilience—the human capacity for stress-related growth—and mind-set, the power of beliefs to shape reality.

Check out this book after you watch the link provided in the assignments. This one is groundbreaking, and I encourage all of you to read and learn about this new definition of stress.
 

Nielsen, Desiree, BSc, RD. Un-Junk Your Diet. How to Shop, Cook, and Eat to Fight Inflammation and Feel Better Forever. 2014. Skyhorse Publishing. New York, N.Y. 2014.  
n Un-Junk Your Diet, Nielson teaches readers about anti-inflammatory eating in a way that's engaging, funny, and approachable. This book begins with a call to action to help shake up perceptions of what food means to our bodies and illuminate all the ways that marketers co-opt healthy eating messages to coerce us into choosing food that is unworthy. In addition, an in-depth look at the fundamentals of nutrition—with a splash of myth busting—strengthens readers’ abilities to resist the latest nutrition headline and continue making healthier choices.  I love this book because it will take you step by step helping you eliminate junk food. This is one that you read in sections and then have specific steps to help you get started.
 

Ramsey, Drew, MD & Tyler Graham. The Happiness Diet: A Nutritional Prescription for a Sharp Brain, Balanced Mood, and Lean, Energized Body. Rondale Press. New York, N.Y. 2012.  
Using the latest data from the rapidly changing fields of neuroscience and nutrition, The Happiness Diet shows that over the past several generations small, insignificant changes to our diet have stripped it of nutrients – like magnesium, vitamin B12, iron, and vitamin D, as well as some incredibly special fats – that are essential for happy, well-balanced brains. These shifts also explain the overabundance of mood-destroying foods in the average American's diet and why they predispose most of us to excessive weight gain. After a clear explanation of how we've all been led so far astray, The Happiness Diet empowers the reader with simple, straightforward solutions.  This book is used for the course, The Happiness Diet. This informs, shocks, and will get you started on a new lifestyle and what to eat for a healthy, happy brain!
 

Ratey, John, MD. Go Wild. Eat Fat, Run Free, Be Social and Follow Evolution's Other Rules for Total Health and Well-being. Little, Brown, and Company. New York, N.Y. 2015. 
This work presents scientific evidence behind why maintaining a lifestyle more like that of our ancestors will restore our health and well-being. It is being used as the text for this course.
 

Ratey, John, MD. SPARK. The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. Little Brown and Company. New York, N.Y. 2013.

Did you know you can beat stress, lift your mood, fight memory loss, sharpen your intellect, and function better than ever simply by elevating your heart rate and breaking a sweat? The evidence is incontrovertible: aerobic exercise physically remodels our brains for peak performance. In SPARK, Ratey embarks upon a fascinating journey through the mind-body connection, illustrating that exercise is truly our best defense against everything from depression to ADD to addiction to menopause to Alzheimer's. SPARK is the first book to comprehensively explore the connection between exercise and the brain.  This book is used for the course, Exercise and the Brain. This popular course shares in-depth how exercise affects the brain and the body and why you need to start an exercise program now.
 

Rath, Tom. Eat, Move, Sleep. How Small Choices Lead to Big Changes. Mission day. Arlington, VA. 2013.

The author has assembled a wide range of information on the impact of eating, moving, and sleeping. Written in his classic conversational style, Eat Move Sleep features the most proven and practical ideas from his research.
 

Roizen, Michael, MD. This is Your Do-Over. The 7 Secrets to Losing Weight, Living Longer, and Getting a Second Chance at the Life You Want. Scribner. New York, N.Y. 2015.  
It’s never too late to get a second chance. You do not have to let genetics or bad choices of the past dictate your health outcomes. In fact, you have the power to change your health destiny—no matter how you’ve lived before. In This Is Your Do-Over, Roizen, a four-time #1 New York Times bestselling author and renowned Chief Wellness Officer of the Cleveland Clinic, provides the tools you need to halt bad health and start living at your peak vitality. In this book, he addresses all the areas that contribute to total-body wellness, including nutrition, exercise, sex, stress, sleep, and the brain.  I really enjoyed this book. It is so practical and has tons of ideas to get you moving forward. Just perfect if you need a boost and a make-over after being inspired in this course.
 

Sacks, Stephanie, and Kathie Madonna. What the Fork are You Eating? An Action Plan for your Pantry and Your Plate.  2014. Penguin Random House Company.  New York, N.Y. 2014.  
In What the Fork Are You Eating? - a practical guide written by certified chef and nutritionist Stefanie Sacks - you learn exactly what the most offensive ingredients in our food are and how you can remove (or at least minimize) them in our diets. Sacks gives you an aisle-by-aisle rundown of how to shop for healthier items and create simple, nutritious, and delicious meals.

This one is a favorite of mine. Everyone interested in how to do the best you can with processed food needs this book. It is a great follow up to The Happiness Diet.
 

Schaub, Eve. Year of No Sugar. Sourcebooks. Naperville, IL. 2014.  
I found Schaub's book use wit and warmth to shine a much-needed spotlight on an aspect of American culture that is making us sick, fat, and unhappy. You will laugh and you will also agonize along the way as the family tries to avoid sugar.  Something to think about for all of us.