Have you ever lost your voice after cheering a little to loudly for your favorite football team?  Did you ever wake up with a sore throat and wonder why?  Vocal health is something that most people take for granted until they have a problem.   Just as we eat a well-balanced diet and exercise to stay healthy, maintaining proper vocal fitness is essential to overall well-being.

When used properly, vocal chords (technically called vocal “folds”) are muscles that vibrate together in a rhythmic pattern to produce sound.  If an injury occurs to the vocal folds, they are not able to vibrate normally, which results in hoarseness, reduced volume, or complete loss of voice.

Maintaining vocal fitness is something that everyone can do!  It only takes a minute or two to drink an extra glass of water or turn on a humidifier.  Prolonged irritation of the vocal folds can result in permanent damage.  Although this is rare, if you experience vocal hoarseness or other abnormalities that last longer than two weeks, it is best to consult your primary physician.

What promotes a healthy voice?  Here are some quick and easy tips that everyone can easily do:

If you are interested in more information about vocal fitness, here are a few wonderful resources:

American Speech and Hearing Association: 

http://www.asha.org/public/speech/disorders/voice.htm

National Institution on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders:

http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/voice/takingcare.html

Valerie J Connor, MA CCC-SLP

Fall is my favorite season. Unfortunately in Illinois it is a hit or miss to experience all that Fall has to offer. In any case, I decided to post a poem by John Keats (1820) that captures the essence of Fall:

To Autumn

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
   Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
   With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
   And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
      To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
   With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
      For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
   Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
   Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep,
   Drows’d with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
      Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
   Steady thy laden head across a brook;
   Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
      Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
   Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
   And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
   Among the river sallows, borne aloft
      Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
   Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
   The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
      And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

Keats, J. (1820). To Autumn. Retrieved from http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/autumn

Fall is upon us as the leaves change colors, the nights become shorter, and more importantly, people are yelling at their TV screens on Saturdays and Sundays as football is back on the air. You may also be one of the many fortunate people to attend one or more games during the season. This may mean participating in a tailgate or two prior to kick off. Now when you think of tailgating you likely are not thinking low caloric/fat foods such as water, plain fruit, and fresh salad, but instead high caloric/fat foods such as beer, hot dogs, brats, and mayonnaise based salads. However, pulling off a healthy tailgate can be done with a little bit of creativity. Initially, I will discuss a healthy breakfast tailgate (many college games start early on Saturday) and then an afternoon/dinner tailgate.

When there is an early tailgate, most people would expect eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits, and some cold orange juice. Well, I like to form my own twist to a traditional morning tailgate by making:

-A “fresh egg delight scramble” which includes egg whites and about 1-2 egg yolks, cooked spinach, quartered cherry tomatoes, onions, peppers (green, red, and yellow make it pretty), and mushrooms. You can sprinkle some low-fat cheese on there for some extra flavor

-A fruit salad that incorporates fall fruits- apples, pears, oranges, and bananas with a splash of freshly squeezed lemon juice to keep the fruit from browning

-Homemade biscuits made with skim milk and half of the butter the recipe calls for. Believe me hardly any one notices the lack of butter as the biscuits are fluffy and moist

-My husband loves using the grill, so we grill up some turkey sausages. Yes, there are turkey sausages that are low in fat and sodium such as Yorkshire Farms Morning Maple Turkey or Healthy Choice Turkey Sausages

-For beverages we serve ice cold water with fresh fruit slices (be creative as you don’t have to limit yourselves to limes or lemons, but use peaches, apples, pears, cucumbers) and lite Sangria (for those who like to have an adult beverage before or during a game)

For the later games, I like the “build your own” concept.  We have tried a taco bar where we provided 6” flour and corn tortillas and provided shrimp, chicken, and/or vegetables for our guests. The fixings were low-fat refried beans, brown rice, tomatoes, onions, fresh guacamole, and low-fat cheese. People loved these as they were fun to make and little as you could only pack so much on a 6” tortilla. You can try the same with a sandwich bar or even a salad bar (seriously people love different types of salads)

We also tried a pot-luck in which we told our guests that had to bring a homemade dish and if it was not already had to make it “light”. Many of our guests were from different countries, so we had healthy food from around the world- Indian, Asian, Mediterranean, African, and Central/ South American. This was fun as we learned about each other’s cultures and they learned how to make a heavy dish light in calories and fat.

In the end it would be quite easy to slap some burgers and hot dogs on the grill before a game, but why not make it fun and healthy?  GO TEAM!!!

My kids are back in school, for some this would be a joyous occasion, but not for me as now I have to pack their lunch every day. I do not mind packing lunch, but there are times both my kids and I are spent with ideas, especially when we are trying to decide what to have for lunch the night before. Typically my kids resort to a turkey and cheese sandwich or whole-grain waffles or a jelly sandwich, but even then five days a week of rotating between those become boring. Their side choices even become monotonous as it generally is yogurt and a piece of fruit. I wish I could be more creative and make fun little sculptures or designs on their bread as I have seen done (of course the websites of these awesome designs I cannot find) or just get them to explore other options for a sandwich besides whole wheat bread (yes the kind that actually contains more than 1 gram of fiber per serving) and turkey or jelly and also different types of sides. So, what do I do?

Well, the only thing that seems to work for what the family will have for dinner: a Mommy/Child school lunch menu. This is the first year we have tried this menu, so who knows what month my kids will become tired of this hour long activity. This is how I set it up, every Saturday my kids and I sit down and we plan out for the week what they will have for lunch. I take care of the main dish and they take care of the side dishes. Sometimes there are disagreements about what they will have as a main dish, so it is settled by having 2 main dishes listed and different colors to differentiate between which kid is getting which dish. I know I should just say, “It’s X’s turn to decide on the main dish for Monday”, but oh well. I also tell them they have to make a rainbow every week for the sides they choose and if they get stuck we start listing off all the fruits and vegetables that are red or orange or yellow, etc. until they agree on a fruit or vegetable they are willing to bring.  To me, this is a fun, educational opportunity for my kids as they are learning why the main food groups are good for them, especially the variety they are eating. In any case, if you are not already doing something like this, try it out and let me know how it works for you and your family. Here’s to no more running out of school lunch ideas!

Beating Back to School Stress

                As the school year begins today for much of the Nation’s elementary and high schools, students, teachers, and parents are likely to experience an increased amount of distress across the mind-body-spirit continuum. So, I thought I would offer some easy-to-use remedies that you might consider as you begin your respective school years.

This is just a brief list of ideas to think about, but they ideally will help you avoid and/or defeat distress so that it does not impair your level of desired functioning as you get your respective school years underway.

Mark Maule

Health and Wellness Instructor