Team(at)Work

I’ve been out in the “Real World” now for almost 5 years (holy COW, how did that happen?!), and I’ve worked in a few different settings. I like to think that although I still have a lot to learn, I’ve figured out a thing or 2 about making a job something I look forward to doing. One reoccurring theme is Teamwork. As a self-proclaimed “NON-athlete,” the opportunity to be a part of a team makes me excited and interested.

How does someone “Join the Team” at work?

• be reliable- deliver on the things you promise, show up on time, and be prepared
• get to know your neighbor- I don’t just mean introducing yourself to your coworkers or sharing your tape dispenser on occasion; I’m talking about genuinely getting to know the people that you work with. Chances are, you will be spending a lot of time with your coworkers, especially when you get your “big kid job” You might as well enjoy them, right? Have lunch in the break room and talk about hobbies and interests. Perhaps you’ll find a new fishing buddy! and also along those lines…
• take it outside- if your coworkers occasionally get together for fun activities, join them! Whether it’s a rec league sports team or trying out a new restaurant, getting together for fun can continue to help build camaraderie and trust in the workplace.
• be flexible- especially if it makes a difference in a group project. Be willing to go the extra mile on occasion and step out of your norm for the benefit of all.
• participate- you get paid to do a job, so be sure you’re doing that and more.
• be committed- if you truly cannot be even remotely interested in the work you do or the place you work, it might be time to find something new. I got to fulfill my dream of being a “lunch lady” in college, and I learned so much just by being open-minded and committed to the work I was doing. I couldn’t believe how passionate those women were about each child that came through the line and each fruit cup served- truly inspiring and heart-warming.
• R-E-S-P-E-C-T- if you want it, have it. simple as that.
• use your ears AND your voice- be an active listener, meaning that you are just listening rather than thinking about all of the things you want to say. Speak up appropriately and contribute to the idea or conversation.
• there’s only one trophy- remember that you all succeed or fail as a TEAM. Give credit where credit is due, and stay humble.
• have their backs- Support is a biggie. And just like respect, it goes both ways.

Now I realize there will likely be aspects of any job that you find a bit more challenging and off-putting… but you can choose to make your way through those things with a positive attitude.

So…is your name on the Workplace Roster?

UND Students Stay with the Same Friends When They Party!

89.1% of UND students stay with their same group of friends when they party.

This is a social norm that has begun to spread across campus. If you are anything like me, your initial reaction might have been along the lines of “… Okay? …” This social norm can be a little confusing if you are not aware of what protective behaviors are related to drinking. It might seem odd that we’re telling you about students drinking, but what it is really saying is that UND students are being safe when they party!

Staying with your friends when you go out drinking is what we call a protective behavior. It’s important to always have people you know and trust around so that they can lookout for you if you ever need help, or are too drunk to recognize a dangerous situation; and you can do the same for them. Essentially, what we’re doing is using the “Buddy System.”

However, staying with your friends is not the only protective behavior out there…
There are many other actions you can take to keep yourself safe when you drink. A few of these include:

1. Setting limits on how many drinks you will have in one evening;
2. Limiting your drinking sessions to certain days and times;
3. Eating before and during drinking;
4. Avoiding risky or heavy drinking situations;
5. Spacing out your drinks and alternating in non-alcoholic drinks; and,
6. Making a pre-determined plan about how to get home at the end of the night that does not involve driving yourself.

These are just a few things to keep in mind the next time you go out drinking. Hopefully, this is helpful in explaining why it is good that students stay with their friends when out partying.

New Earth Day Infographic & Blog from MyPlate!

New Earth Day Infographic & Blog from MyPlate!.

15 Things you Should Know About Strength Training!

#1: Lifting wimpy weights gets you nowhere. To get stronger, you need to “overload” your muscles with weights that you don’t handle on a daily basis.

Studies show people sell themselves way short when picking their weights—they tend to be 30 to 50 percent lighter than is necessary to build strength and muscle.

 

#2: Strength training is the best activity you can do to build bone and reduce fracture risk.

Studies show former athletes who included weight lifting as part of their workouts have much stronger bones as they age. This translates into a 50 percent lower chance of fracture in men, and a 20 percent lower fracture risk in women.

#3: Strength training improves hormone balance and reproductive function.

Besides the well known acute increase in testosterone that men experience from lifting, training leads to better regulation of the hormones related to hunger and energy use. It also improves estrogen metabolism, and balances stress hormones such as cortisol.

#4: Strength training improves quality of sleep so that you wake up fewer times during the night and can go to sleep more easily.

The reason is that training reduces inflammation and supports circadian rhythms. It’s been found to benefit both good sleepers and those with insomnia.

#5: Working out makes you more successful at work and school. Studies show college students who train get better grades, and professionals who lift make more money.

This might be because exercise builds confidence and self-worth. Of course, it also enhances appearance, which is known to correlate with wealth and professional success.

 #6: Strength training helps you be your own champion. It’s the perfect way to kickstart other healthy behaviors.

You start lifting and you get more in tune with your body, which makes you want to eat better so you fell energized when you wake up in the morning. You become one of those people who everyone looks up to because you seize the day.

#7: You can strength train anywhere—you don’t need a gym.

Try bodyweight exercises, sprints, or stairwell runs when you don’t have weights handy.

#8: Strength training has a dramatic effect on insulin health and blood sugar function.

By building muscle, you increase both the receptivity of the muscles to insulin and their demand for glucose. This contributes to better body composition and diabetes prevention, and savvy doctors are pairing weight training with a high-protein diet to cure diabetes.

#9: Strength training is most effective for reducing body fat when you pair it with a smart diet that leads to a reduction in energy intake.

#10: Strength training primes the nervous system so that you react faster and have a quicker first step.

It will reduce your risk of tripping and falling and will increase your chance of avoiding a dangerous situation when behind the wheel.

#11: Strength training has repeatedly been shown to correlate with lower risk of a number of cancers. Might be because your percentage of muscle tissue is a primary predictor of survival from cancer.

Better hormone balance also plays a role. For instance, teen girls who exercise experience the greatest reduction in breast cancer risk later in life because physical activity optimizes estrogen metabolism.

#12: You can’t lose fat from an area like your abs by doing crunches. Same goes for thighs—you don’t directly lose leg fat from squats.

What happens is you build muscle in your abs by doing total body lifts, and in your legs by doing squats. This makes them look firmer and leaner. To lose the fat that covers up the muscle, you train the whole body and optimize your diet.

#13: Kids of all ages (well, over age 6) can train. Workouts should be age appropriate and carefully monitored by a coach with experience training youth.

Strength training can set kids up for a lean, healthy life and ease the awkwardness of puberty by improving coordination and the experience of being in a changing body.

#14: Strength training makes your brain work better. This means you’ll be smarter, but you’ll also feel happier and have less risk of depression.

In fact, exercise may be just as good as antidepressants for treating mild to moderate depression.

#15: You don’t need a grand plan to start strength training but you do need some simple technique and programming tools. The UND Wellness Center offers a free session to our guests called Intro to Weight Training.  With this you can learn the basics of weight training and start to apply them in your daily workout routine!

Information taken from http://www.poliquingroup.com/ArticlesMultimedia/Articles/Article/1163/Fifteen_Things_I_Wish_Everyone_Knew_About_Strength.aspx?fb_action_ids=10154065908420534&fb_action_types=og.likes

 

Running with Lynn Show

Good morning UND! It’s looking like a cloudy day with a high of 45.

I think it’s time for a movie where we all jump out of our seats. So the “movie of the week” this week is The Quiet Ones. This horror flick will send chills down your spine, so bring a buddy and remember its just a movie.

And now its time for another installment of  “Wow! I did not know that!”

Did you know the great English dramatist and poet William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-on-Avon on April 23, 1564. He wrote such plays such as Hamlet (and no it’s not about a little tiny pig). The next play, The Merry Wives of Windsor, was written at the request of Queen Elizabeth I. Shakespeare produced such masterpieces as Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, and The Tempest.
And now you know.
have a great day everybody

Time Management is Possible

Time Management is Possible

My name is Antonia and I am a procrastinator. Phew! It feels better to have that in the open. Acknowledgement is the first step towards change, as they say. Now that I’ve said it, I know that many of you are fellow procrastinators and even those who are not – get distracted at times. As the spring semester begins to wind down, and the assignments and tests begin to pile up, time management becomes a timely topic of interest (see what I did there) and necessity. I want to share with you some tools, tips, and tricks that I have found very helpful.

1)      Plan Ahead- If at all possible; do not wait until the day before to complete a task that should be done over many days or even weeks. I once waited to complete an interview for a paper two days before it was due. Think about adding your tasks to your phone/computer/tablet’s calendar, so that you get reminders a week before they’re due.

2)      Make a List. When you look at all of the things you have to accomplish, put them down in writing. When you wrote down all the things that you need to do for a day, prioritize by thinking about what you really need to accomplish and what can wait. When you have your list, place it somewhere you can see it; somewhere you cannot forget it. I have been known to place it on the television screens so I would not watch a show until I had finished my list.

3)      Find a Study time & remove all of your distractions. Are you most productive in the morning or the evening? Does this depend on the type of project you are working on? For example, I am most creative late in the evening but I can complete more mundane tasks in the morning hours when I have more energy. Know what works best for you and set that time aside for studying and homework. To stay focused, try apps like Stay Focused or Self Control that lock you out of certain time sucking websites so you can be more productive.

4)      My fourth and final step is possibly the most important. Are you ready for it? Just Do It! That’s it. Just get it done. Running away from work only accomplishes one thing: creates a larger pile for when you get back. If you plan ahead, make lists, and set a study zone and time, you’ll be better equipped to get things done. If you’re saddled with a particularly burdensome task, think about why you are doing it and how it will benefit your future success. Use those positive thinking skills! You can also use the Pomodoro technique and take short breaks throughout your work sessions. The semester’s coming to a close, and those assignments are piling up. Don’t panic. Take a breath. You can do this.

If you’d like more tips, tricks and helpful apps to manage your time more effectively visit the Student Success Center in the Memorial Union, or try these links:

 

http://und.edu/student-affairs/student-services/

https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/get-started/inside-the-classroom/8-ways-to-take-control-of-your-time

http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/professors-guide/2009/10/14/top-12-time-management-tips

http://www.doit.wisc.edu/news/top-time-management-apps-tools/

 

 

KNOW the facts

What do you know about alcohol use?

Do you know what the standard drink size is for beer, hard liquor, and wine?

Can you name 3 factors that influence your Blood Alcohol Content, or 3 protective behaviors?

If these questions are difficult for you, you may not be as informed on alcohol use as you could be. What does it matter, you say? Well, Cash Cab is coming to YOU on UND’s campus, April 28th through May 2nd, and knowing facts about alcohol is the only way for you to WIN! So brush up on your knowledge of alcohol use, stop by the Health & Wellness Hub for more information on alcohol, and look for the Cash Cab golf cart driving down University for your chance to show what you KNOW!

Sleeping Your Way to Skinny

Sounds appealing, right?

Although mixing in a mid-day nap won’t actually make you skinny, recent research studies point out there is a definite correlation between lack of sleep and weight gain. I am sure that many of you are not frequent readers of USA Today or the Annals of Internal Medicine. So, let me share with you what they recently brought to my attention regarding sleep and weight loss.

A single sleep study was performed on seven healthy, lean, young adults and the results are astounding. After just FOUR consecutive days (Finals week ring a bell, anyone?) of being permitted to sleep approximately 4 hours a night, the fat cells’ ability to use insulin properly dropped by 30%! Consequently, the cells became insulin-sensitive, resulting in the formation of less leptin.

What does this mean? TWO KEY WORDS: Insulin and Leptin… do these words mean anything to you? You may be thinking, “Why on Earth would they?” But, what if I switched those two key words to HUNGRY and FULL?! One of insulin’s many jobs is to trigger the release of leptin in your body. Now you may not have realized this until now, but I am telling you leptin is your friend. What that wonderful little hormone does for you is flip that hungry/full switch on and off. Low levels of leptin tell your body it’s starving and increase your appetite, which is why it makes perfect sense that a decrease in leptin has an association with increase in food consumption and weight gain. So, when your stomach is roaring during your test after pulling that all-nighter even though you just treated yourself to Mickey D’s breakfast as a “reward” – it is actually your body saying, “Hey, maybe you should have gotten some sleep last night!”

What’s also important to recognize is that in addition to your body’s inability to accurately sense if you’re full due to those low leptin levels, those who are tired have an increased appetite as well as a slowed metabolism due to their lack of sleep. When combined, these effects are ultimately setting you up for a downward spiral.

So, as finals approach, shoot for 7 to 8 hours of sleep! It will not only help your ability to focus and retain information, but also assist in maintaining healthy weight and prevent you from feeling hungry all the time.

Stay tuned for upcoming tips on how to develop healthy sleeping habits in my next blog!

Running with Lynn Show

Good morning UND

It’s looking like a sunny day with a high of 40.

The movie of the week is Bears. “In an epic story of breathtaking scale, Disneynature’s new True Life Adventure ‘Bears’ showcases a year in the life of two mother bears as they impart life lessons to their impressionable young cubs” -Disneynature 

Mother nature never looked better on the big screen. Watch this amazing nature movie at the River Cinema.

And now another episode of “Wow I did not know that.”Did you know?”
Did you know the Titanic had a sister ship, the Olympic? The ships were constructed around the same time, with the Olympic starting first. The Olympic was launched in 1910. She served as a cruise liner until pressed into service during WWI as a troop carrier. She was retired in 1935. So now you know.

Yesterday was Titanic Remembrance Day. When: Always April 15th.  Titanic Remembrance Day is dedicated to the memory of the Titanic, and to the over 1500 souls that died. On that day in 1912, the Titanic sank into the icy waters of the North Atlantic ocean.

Have a great day everybody.

 

Meet Lynn! 

 

Make goals for National Money Smart Week

Set your goals for National Money Smart Week!

Last week was Money Smart Week.

It’s like January 1st for your finances! A week where we can all reflect on our money saving – or not saving – habits, loans and other debts, and budgeting skills. Then, we can make a resolution; not the “I’m going to hit the gym for 3 hours every day for an entire year and never come near to chocolate,” kind of goal. But a SMART goal. One that is Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely!

What’s the point of making a goal if you can’t accomplish it? At UND Financial Wellness, we believe when this method is followed, the likelihood that you will accomplish your goals will increase greatly.

Let’s first do some brainstorming. Where in your financial life do you need a tune up? Perhaps you know nothing about your student loans or how you are going to pay for school. Or, while it may be hard to believe from looking outside, summer is just around the corner. Have a plan for summer employment or summer classes? Maybe you are scrambling to find money for groceries and to pay rent at the end of the month. Whatever it is, you know your struggles – don’t hide them, use this week as a time to make changes!

Specific

When you determine this goal, make sure it is specific. A goal such as “I want to pay for more of my school instead of using loans,” has little merit. While the overarching idea is spot on, it lacks specifics to make it accomplishable. You can’t fix every financial problem in one sitting; instead, take one problem and create a solution. To revise the previously stated goal, let’s try, “I will pay half of my tuition out of pocket.”

Measureable

How about a measurement? If you are trying to pay for half of your tuition, what is the dollar amount? To revise this goal, “I will pay $2000 out of pocket for my tuition,” Setting your goal so that you can measure it is vital to tracking your progress and success.

Attainable

Now that you have a specific goal that can be measured with simple math, ensure that the goal is attainable. When trying to pay $2000 out of pocket, don’t plan on picking dollars off the money tree in your backyard. Determine if this goal is attainable. For the tuition goal, does this require some extra hours of work in the summer or applying for scholarships? Include this in your goal so you have the means to accomplish this. “I will pay $2000 out of pocket for my tuition by working 40 hours a week this summer.”

Relevant

We can have all sorts of financial goals. Some people may hope to travel the world or own a house. For our goals for Money Smart Week, we want to focus on something relevant to our lives. As students, our financial resources are likely tighter and many of our goals are focused on necessities. Purchasing a large house or planning an extravagant trip may not be relevant to our lives at this point. Instead, a goal focused on what is pertinent to our life, such as tuition, is most important.

Timely

Finally, make your goal timely. To check up on your progress and ensure success, set a deadline. For example, “I will pay $2000 out of pocket for my tuition by working 40 hours a week this summer and saving $500 each month from May to August.”

Now that you have the steps to make healthy decisions, determine what it is that you want to change in your financial life, and take a stab at it! Track your progress and revise for your circumstances! If you need help, feel free to make an appointment:  http://www.UND.edu/financial-wellness

Good luck and Happy Saving!

 

*Blog written by Kaitlin Bezdicek.  Kaitlin is a student at UND and a peer educator for Financial Wellness.