Celebrate the Beauty of Youth

Want to feel better, look better, and have more energy?

Moving more and eating better is the best place to start.
Why Move More and Eat Better?

Being physically active and making smart food choices is good for our health. But that is not the only reason to move more and eat better. It can also help you:

• Have more energy
• Tone your body
• Reduce stress, boredom, or the blues
• Feel good about yourself

Tips on Moving More

Do things you enjoy, such as:

• dancing
• fast walking
• playing sports
• or group fitness classes

Tips on Eating Better

You may notice that our portion sizes in the US are quite large. The problem with this is that we tend to eat everything we are give on a plate. Eating smaller portions will help you cut down on calories and fat (and might save you money too!) Here are some sensible sizes

for foods you may not want to give up:

• french fries: a small serving, like a kid's meal size
• shrimp fried rice: 1 cup
• cheese pizza: 2 small slices or 1 large slice

Out 'n' About

You can hang out with your friends and still make healthy choices. Try these when you are out 'n' about:

• Order veggie toppings on a pizza instead of salty, high-fat meats
• Share popcorn (skip the added butter) when at the movies and order the smallest size.
• Choose water instead of soda
• Munch on pretzels or veggies at a party insead of chips and dip

You can do it!

Set doable goals. Move at your own pace. Let your family and friends help you. Allow for setbacks, and be sure to celebrate your successes. Keep trying--you can do it!

Information provided by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

December 1st is World AIDS Day!

Join the University of California, San Diego in honoring World AIDS Day on Tuesday, December 1st, centered in the Price Center East Ballroom.

Free activities run from 7am to 4pm and feature a wide array of special musical performances, art exhibitions, and theater!

A full schedule of events is available at the World AIDS Day event site.

Wellness Journalism: In Case of Stolen Identity

It’s a pity—but many people turn to fraud in order to make their killing. In the past, bandits in black had to crawl through the window to empty your wallet or steal your diamonds. Today, however, in the virtual monetary system on-line, money-snatchers have a whole new bag of tricks: they’ll steal your identity. In fact, nine million American identities are stolen every year!

S.O.P.’s (Standard Operating Procedures—one of my new favorite acronyms) OF IDENTITY PROTECTION:

• Don’t give anyone your Social Security, credit card, or bank account numbers unless you know the source and/or have initiated the contact. It doesn’t matter how good looking they are. Also, avoid giving personal information over unsecured telephone lines (such as a cell phone).
• Don't throw away papers that have important account or financial numbers listed on them without first tearing them up into tiny, confetti-sized pieces.
• Keep your credit card and ATM receipts in a safe place until you've paid the credit card bill or balanced your checkbook. The backseat of your car does not qualify.
• Don't leave bill payment envelopes in a home mailbox; these can be opened by any Tom, Dick, or Harry, or Jane. Go around the corner and put your envelopes in the blue postal mailbox instead.
• Don't send your credit card number over the Internet unless you are sure the website is secured and your computer is protected by anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall, and other security software. Seriously. Keep your security software updated.
• Don't get hooked by "phishing." On a regular basis, I have the pleasure of deleting emails from various personages informing me that “my funds have been deposited” or “my request has been approved” in some mystery transaction. While it’s exciting to receive news that I am getting money, if it isn’t from the Financial Aid office or the US Treasury, I don’t want it.
• Recognize the signs. If that 45-minute phone call to Shanghai or that $260 dollar purchase at Foot Locker isn’t yours (check your closet to make sure), suspect fraud. Review your bills, credit report, and statements on a regular basis for accuracy.
• Report any suspicious activity immediately. You have the right, and the responsibility, to protect your identity from unauthorized use.

A final word. When you've been patronizing an establishment, and are preparing yourself to leave, make sure you have your ID card and/or credit cards. Be especially conscientious if your patronage has included beverages of an alcoholic nature. It's one thing for someone to spend twelve hours scotch-taping your credit card statement back together and entirely another for you to simply frolick away, leaving your card at the bar.

Wellness Journalism: Edit Your Credit!

Do you have several maxed-out credit cards? Have you ever missed a payment on an account? Are some of your bills completely forgotten?



If you ignore your credit health, it is guaranteed to come back and haunt you.

Take it from me. The ghost of credit past almost prevented me from finding a place to live this summer. Granted, some circumstances are beyond control… I like to think that the bankruptcy I filed in early 2004 after an uninsured automobile accident resulting in hospitalization and surgery (I almost lost my eye) was justified. But what was I doing without health insurance? However you flip it, banks, lenders, landlords, and credit card companies all agree: poor credit=high risk. Your credit score has the capacity to help you or hurt you dramatically. In addition to application denials, people with low credit scores accrue higher interest rates, pay higher insurance premiums, and leave bigger deposits.

When companies present you with an offer for a credit card, don’t jump up and take it. They're not handing you money. Gimmicks such as O% interest for six months and no transfer fees are specifically calculated to lure you into debt. Regardless of how tempting it may seem, it is NOT a good idea to transfer the balance of an existing card onto a new one. Friends, debt is easy to come by and hard to shake. There is no reason to have more than one credit card!

Check your credit for free at http://www.annualcreditreport.com. Systematically go through and fix any red flags. Little things count for a lot on a credit report; the folks who are inspecting your credit want to see that you pay attention to details. Even if your payments are on time, a maxed-out credit card lowers your FICO score.

Taking good care of your credit is like taking good care of your car. If you maintain it, credit will help take you where you want to go. Neglect it, and you may find yourself stranded.

Wellness Journalism: You Choose

To buy or not to buy? That is the question. In this capitalist, consumer-driven economy, we are constantly bombarded.

Reasons for picking your own pocket and dropping the extra dollar:

• Peer pressure (Let’s go out tonight! C’mon, it’s Friday! Meet us for dinner!)
• Immediate gratification (That cookie sure looks good. Cool shoes. I’d love a latte!)
• Keeping up with your pals (Do you have the new I-Phone?)

While spending money and getting stuff might be oh-so-much fun, winding up broke sucks. What’s more, if you’re OVERSPENDING, chances are you have nothing to show for it except the dent in your wallet.

I am the type of person who will see a really great t-shirt for ten bucks and buy it. Only ten bucks! That’s almost free! I will also spend ten bucks on a bite to eat, another ten on a movie, ten again on a drink, and ten on the gas it takes to get there. As I look over my transaction history, it turns out that not “ten” but hundreds of dollars have been spent on impulse. Oops.

Next time I reach for my debit card, I have one question. Be honest: do I need it or do I want it? For example, I need to pay rent. I need healthy groceries in my refrigerator. However, I want to go to the movies. I want the expensive thing on the menu. I want those jeans.

Don’t be duped by marketing strategies designed to keep you wanting more. Advertisers are experts and getting into your head and fiddling with the controls until your pockets are inside out. There is always a cheaper way to do things, or alternatives that really and truly cost nothing. Close your wallet, open your mind!

As usual, LiveWell provides handy tools to help you out. Check out these tips for plugging spending leaks and stretching your dollars.

For a clear visual image of your purchasing patterns, print up the Needs v. Wants Worksheet and the Expenses worksheet. Regardless of what you tell yourself ("Only ten bucks!"), the numbers don't lie.

Wellness Journalism: The Health of Wealth

Since every month has a mission (thanks, LiveWell!), and I am a self-professed Wellness Guinea Pig, allow me to introduce my household:

Welcome to Knoxville Street.

Inhabitants: myself (Gina, age 27), roommate/partner/friend/potential spouse (Fale, age 30), and my daughter (Kayana, age 4).

As I have previously confessed, my spending habits have been loosey-goosey. I’m living on my high-interest nest-egg of student loans and grants. Fale is a brilliant freelance audio-visual technician and musical producer who receives unemployment checks from the government and plays a lot of golf. Until this month, we have had no official savings account, no budget, no specific goals. What we did have was a general sense of income-outcome ratios, vague goals (ex: buying a house someday), and a penchant for eating out. While we understand the importance of a tight money management system, we had been putting it off, enjoying the relative freedom of financial improvisation. But if we continued this way, we’d be asking for trouble.

When it comes to making financial management upgrades, I am dealing with a collective pattern in the household; it has its own inertia (resistance to change, for all you physics folk), and I have to expend a certain type of energy to effect change.
This effort is the initial investment. MAKE IT.

When you budget, apply S.M.A.R.T. goal-setting strategies, organize spending habits, and plan ahead with conscious awareness, you are literally “making money.” There is always room for improvement! Give special focus, attention, and thought to the pot. By doing so, you send energy into the financial dimension of wellness. This is how you nurture your piggy bank and keep it producing long into the future!

Keep your money healthy,
Your Financial Wellness in check (and balance).
Then it will not catch the flu
(Such as we see in the case of our H1N1 economy.)

Save yourselves. If you haven’t made a budget or set new goals yet, it’s never too late—not even in a month of Novembers—to get on the horse.

"My First Home for the Holidays" Foster Youth Drive!

Get some pots and pans, blankets and blenders, mops and microwaves!
It’s time for the UCSD FOSTER YOUTH DRIVE!

Support Just In Time for Foster Youth in serving 300 local youth who are leaving the foster care system this year! The “My First Home for the Holidays” campaign assists these young adults during a critical transition in their lives, warming their new apartments and dorm rooms.

There are collection sites all over campus from November 9-20, such as the Triton Center on the first floor, or collect in your area and they will come to you (even up to Nov 27th).

All sorts of new household items are greatly needed! You can also make a check or gift card donation.
For more information on campus collection sites or items to donate, click here.

Visit www.JITfosteryouth.org for more details.

Wellness Journalism: Ready, Set, Goal!

Having an organized budget is important in tracking the current movement of your money. Setting goals, however, will help determine the movement of your money over time.


I ask myself, “Self, what are your financial goals?”

The first thing I hear is, “To keep a roof over my head.”

Apparently, I am connecting my finances with stability, comfort, and dry clothes. These are immediate needs that extend indefinitely into the future. They have nothing to do with the fact that the only thing I have to my name, financially speaking, is debt. I decide to be more specific.

“Self, what would you like your financial assets to look like in ten years?”

Bingo. Now I’m rattling off a wish list: A house, maybe two, definitely something lakefront, energetically self-sufficient. A car, nice hybrid, roomy, wide field of vision. Financial involvement in several non-profit outreach organizations, charities, and/or benefits for the expansion of connected awareness in human beings. A college savings account for my four year old daughter, which becomes a new boat if she decides to opt out. A high interest retirement fund. Student loans paid down to zero.

This exercise shows me several things. Instead of making immediate steps toward the financial picture of my dreams, I am preoccupied with maintaining the financial picture of my present moment. How much can I spend this month without going bottom up? I am not thinking two, six, or even twelve months in advance. I am leaving my financial future to chance.
No longer. Thanks to Cash Course, you and I can organize a budget and set goals. We can make money like honey. Bee S.M.A.R.T.!

Here are some free tools to help you out: Savings Goal Worksheet, Monthly Goal Tracking Calendar.
Goal Figure.

UC San Diego Sports Clubs

Did you know that UC San Diego has an equestrian and ice hockey team?

And water-ski and table tennis?

Well, we do!

They're called sports clubs and they're offered by UC San Diego Recreation.

We have 25 sports clubs teams on campus; anything from snow-ski to badminton to ultimate frisbee.

There's a sport for everyone, so check out the Sports Clubs site and find out about joining a team!

Healthy College Eating

Eating healthy in college is not hard when you utilize your kitchen resources!

Personal Pizza

Makes 1 serving

1 English muffin

1 Tbsp tomato or spaghetti sauce

2 Tbsp shredded mozzarella cheese

1. Split the English muffin into two halves.

2. Spread sauce evenly on both halves.

3. Sprinkle cheese evenly on both halves.

4. Broil in toaster oven for one minute or until cheese melts.

The College Student’s Guide to Eating Well on Campus ©2000 by Ann Selkowitz Litt, with

permission from Tulip Hill Press.

Nutrition Information

Per serving:

Calories 234

Fat 7g

Protein 13g

Carbohydrates 32g

For more yummy recipe ideas...
http://www.k-state.edu/lafene/recipe_easy.pdf

http://www.healthycollegecookbook.com/recipes.php

http://www.mnsu.edu/shs/healtheducation/bmc/

Wellness Journalism: Got Money?

According to American author and speaker Jim Rohn, “Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.”

That being said, I myself am in desperate need of a financial makeover. For years, I have been flying by the seat of my pants, spending by the hairs on my chinny-chin-chin. Deep down I know I can do better for my wallet. This is Financial Wellness month, and thanks to the LiveWell CASH COURSE curriculum, tips and resources abound. I have all the support I need. I am stepping up to the plate.

Won’t you join me?

My name is Gina and I am a new addition to the wellness team here at UCSD. My mission, as the official blogger, is to create a working relationship with you, the official reader. I am a living, breathing, thinking human being—see? We have so much in common already. And we both engage in frequent monetary exchange.

I balance a rather complex financial picture. Rent, electricity, gas, food, phone, gas, recreation, cable, internet, credit card, gas, frozen yogurt. I have absolutely no clue as to the exact sum of my expenses. Since I live off of grants and student loans, my income is a lump sum that lasts as long as I make it. Therefore, as far as BUDGETING AND FINANCIAL PLANNING, I am starting at square one. I’m off to see the THE BUDGET WIZARD.

I’ll be checking in weekly with my personal account: useful, quirky, real-life notes on financial rehabilitation, and direct links to comprehensive cash information on the web. Remember, money is fluid, and so are you. Whatever steps we take, you and I, in the direction of better money management, will pay off.

Invest in yourself this month; you are worth every dollar!

Intergroup Relations

The Intergroup Relations Program serves as an intergroup relations resource center for the UC San Diego campus, providing programs and services relating to hate/ bias prevention, mediation of student intergroup conflict, and issues that affect UCSD's campus climate.

We achieve our mission through the following methods:

• Education
  


• Problem resolution
  


• Campus climate assessment
  


• Collaboration with UCSD departments and other universities
  
  
• Check out the workshops offered by iGroup:

Exploring Social Identities
Our social identities are complex and intertwined; these dimensions of self work together to shape how we see the world and our place in it. This workshop empowers participants to reflect upon and deepen their understanding of their own social identity and social group affiliations.

Not on Our Campus! Identifying Hate and Bias at UCSD
There's a misconception that hate/ bias incidents do not occur within the university environment. This workshop challenges these beliefs via a documentary made at UCSD, "Hate Free Zone." Following the film, participants exchange in dialogue and receive information about hate/ bias resources on campus.

Overcoming Personal Prejudice
Effective leaders strive to understand their own limitations, including personal bias and prejudice. In this workshop, participants learn how to recognize prejudices they may not be aware of on a conscious level, and understand where these beliefs and attitudes come from and how to overcome them.

Roommate Conflict: Cultural Implications for Reconciliation
This workshop deals with interpersonal and cultural conflict between roommates in various living arrangements. When not addressed, these conflicts can have adverse effects on students' adaptability and performance. We'll also provide practical solutions for dealing with emerging conflict and potential problems before they arise.

What's Race Got to Do with It?
This workshop presents excerpts from the documentary, "What's Race Got to do with It?," chronicling the journey of a group of students enrolled in an intergroup dialogue course on race. The students share their personal stories with candid dialogue about identity, privilege, oppression, prejudice, and pride. Participants engage in their own facilitated dialogue following the documentary.

Fit for Food Day

Please join UCSD recreation for their 6th annual food raising event to benefit local families in need. Bring 8 canned good items, or equivalent dry goods and enjoy your choice of fitness or yoga workouts.

Help out your neighbors during the holidays and get a great pre-Thanksgiving workout to boot!

Date: November 21

Fit For Food: Super Cycle, 9:00 - 10:00am

Fit For Food: Kick Box, 10:15 - 11:15am
Fit For Food: Pilates Core, 11:30am - 12:30pm

Fit For Food: Zumba, 12:45 - 1:45pm

Fit For Food: Hatha Yoga, 2:00 -3 :00pm

For more information visit

http://recreation.ucsd.edu/main/search.html?cs=act&qs=fit+for+food&submit=Search&op=sch

Pilates Band Workshop

Intensify your workouts with the Pilates Band WorkshopThis workshop takes traditional Pilates mat exercises and adapts them using resistance bands. Challenge your strength and flexibility while still maintaining traditional Pilates forms. You will feel new and different muscle recruitment while doing the popular mat exercises.

Date: Sunday, Nov. 15

Time: 10:00am- 12:00pm

Location: RIMAC - Activity Room 1
For more information visit:

http://recreation.ucsd.edu/flife/index.html?op=dtl&cs=act&id=47077

Thirsty for something exciting?

November is Water Awareness Month: Join us in an exploration of our food and water challenges!

...featuring the film, “FLOW.”

FREE FOOD, WATER, ART, MUSIC!

Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Price Center East Ballroom
5:00pm- 6:30pm: Open house, Appetizers
6:30pm: Flow Film Screening
8:00pm: Panel Discussion

Conserve water and sustain life!

Featuring 100% local and organic produce
See AQUAholicsucsd.com for more details

CommunicateUCSD! Workshop Series

CommunicateUCSD! Workshops help sharpen the most important tool in your box: communication!

Express to Success (ETS) develops your confidence and skills in public speaking, interpersonal communication, and leadership. From the drive-thru window to a job interview, from a phone call with mother to a class project, your ability to express yourself has infinite impact in all areas of life.

Increase your potential for success!

Graduate and undergraduate students can choose sessions that align with their interests and schedules. Complete the track and receive a certificate of completion at the Express to Success (ETS) Leadership Banquet Thursday, May 13, 2010.

Here's how to participate:
• Register online.
• Download the workshop schedule (PDF) or pick one up from the ETS office, room 3520, 3rd floor of the Price Center East (map). The schedule lists workshop times and locations.
• Attend at least 12 workshops to complete the program.
• At each workshop you attend, have the instructor or ETS representative sign your workshop schedule.
• Submit your signed workshop schedule to the ETS office no later than Friday, May 7, 2010.

For more information, contact Grace Bagunu, (858) 822-1356

FINANCIAL WELLNESS: good idea.

November is Financial Wellness month. Get your money straight! CashCourse is a comprehensive curriculum that offers a myriad of tips, tricks and tokens that will help you on your way.

THE FIRST STEP TO RESPONSIBLE, PRODUCTIVE MONEY MANAGEMENT IS CREATING A BUDGET.

Handling your finances without a budget is like wearing a blindfold into a museum. It makes no sense. Understanding your budget will help you organize your spending, saving you wads of money in the long term. It will prevent you from running yourself into the red, or digging yourself into a monetary ditch.

Make it easy on yourself. See the BUDGET WIZARD.



Something to think about:
Patterns of money management: can they be improved upon? Or are you settling for less? Sometimes the thought of changing habits is most daunting, but it’s all in your mind. In the real heat of the moment, making the right decision can be easy, quick, and fulfilling. Make Financial Wellness a part of your usual operation. With a simple plan of action, you can take steps to create financial wellness every day!