Snow Snow and yes SNOW!

So if you haven't heard already, there is snow covering a majority of the country, including right here in Iowa City! It has been a blizzard to remember. Even though, yes it was a lot of snow and classes were cancelled and airports came to a stand still, how come every seems to be so hyper about weather? Is it the news, fear of loss of control, etc.?

I always figure, if you live in the Midwest, you need to expect tornados, thunderstorms, ice, snow, rain and sleet....basically all types! The local and state government definitely have a handle to a certain degree on how to manage such an event, but the community also knows it will need to pitch in and cannot rely on somebody else to do everything for them. Emergency Preparedness is just one of the focus areas in Public Health and happens to be a passion of mine. In any event, most people have enough groceries to last them at least a week, board games and communications to keep busy and as a personal note, enough reading to catch up on to last for a Snow Day! ;)

I hope you all are safe, warm and survived this epic snow storm because one only knows there will always be more weather ahead and another day tomorrow :)

Ryan

PS - I thought the picture on the Iowa Homepage (www.uiowa.edu) was interesting because transportation is a major part of public health and was certainly shut down for the day, including the person's bike pictured.

Food Fridays!

So I have been starting to workout more since the New Year and have implemented new strategies to prevent me from treading back to my old habits/excuses of being to busy to exercise or care about my health.

One of the ways I found to help me stay fit and continue exercising was to join in on workout classes. The University of Iowa recently completed a brand new rec. center, called the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center (CRWC). The classes are free, and you sign-up for them a few minutes before they start, which makes it a first come first serve type of system. I have really enjoyed the workout classes, even if I am one of the few men in the classes. They work my butt off and I feel great afterwards, so what's not to love!

Second, I made an appointment with the Wellness Center staff for a nutrition consultation. I have never liked milk much and really only have it with cereal or desserts, and was worried about calcium intake and just overall nutrition. The best part is that this is another FREE service offered to full-time students at Iowa. I had my consult yesterday and am headed to the grocery store tonight with some great new ideas and more knowledge about specific foods I can eat to boost my workouts and overall health. Plus, the consult was ironically with an alumnus of the MPH program, which made me feel even more at home and confident I had the best resources at my fingertips.

So if your struggling or just plain trying to figure out how to maintain a healthy new you, these are some of the ways and changes I've made and hopefully with help you out :) I mean everyone knows they need to workout and eat healthy, but how many of us actually maintain that attitude...

Ryan

Monday's Garbage!

So as I was checking my favorite online Newspaper Again this morning, another "eco-friendly" or way recycling story popped up again. This time it was about a hotel in Madrid that is made entirely of GARBAGE! Not sure if this is recycling taken to the extreme but the photos are amazing and the statement is obvious. The hotel is located right next to the beach and was made to protest the dirty oceans and the garbage in them, hence the message to keep things clean. I've included a teaser picture but to check out the others visit the story here.

Hope you all are having a wonderful and productive Monday!

Ryan

ECO Hawk and Climate Costs!

This past week ECO Hawk, an environmental group I co-founded and am president of on the UI's campus, met with staff of existing College of Public Health (CPH) buildings to figure out how they can be more sustainable, specifically in the area of Recycling. Many in the CPH are excited for the new building, expected to open for classes Spring 2012, but there are also those that will not be moving and stay in the spaces they occupy right now on-campus.

The "GREEN" topic is definitely one that people are talking about and to even make it more relevant, one of our professors, Dr. Thorne was featured talking about the cost in the local newspapers. " The U.S. National Climatic Data Center has compiled data on all natural disasters since 1980 that resulted in losses greater than $1 billion. Adjusting for inflation, there were a dozen $1 billion disasters in the 1980s, 38 in the 1990s, and 46 from 200 to 2009. Of these, 39 percent involved flooding, including Hurricane Katrina" (The Gazette).

The cost and health implications (physical, mental and social) are staggering and are likely to continue. Recycling is just one way in which someone can help curb climate change but it will take more stringent and sustainable policies to make more staggering change as the decades go on.

Ryan

Let it Out! :D

So classes are about to start up next week on Tuesday and I thought to make sure we all release the last of that stress from the previous semester, that we should shake it out to this video. Definitely want to take this Ferri and dance it out! :D

Have a good weekend!

Ryan

Girl Walk // All Day from jacob krupnick on Vimeo.

Seriously, What is going on!

So I "opened up" my favorite online newspaper, Huff Post, only to find that more dead birds are being found around the world! I had to put this up on the blog, because I wanted to get your opinion on what you think is going on and how this may have implications on public health.

Ryan

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/06/birds-dying-in-italy-thou_n_805541.html

2011! SMOKING CHANGE

So the NEW YEAR is here and look it's already Tuesday and Governor's have changed hands in a handful of states and the HOUSE is gearing up to strike down the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)...the outlook is bright! ;) Seriously though, change is always going to happen no matter if there is a new year or not and it is one of those things we all have to deal with. I have gone through a lot of change in my life and is partially why I choose the career field I am in, because health care is always changing. Before PPACA, health care went through constant change. Everything from reimbursement models, quality measures, how and where healthcare is delivered, etc. If your somebody reading today and are thinking of public health and its impact on our everyday activities and health, just think of smoking. 1964 was the first time that the Surgeon General declared that smoking causes cancer, yet it wasn't until the middle of the past decade that smoking bans and culture around the health effects of smoking started to really change. Public health change can take time, other issues may take shorter amounts, either way public health is essential to our daily living. Everything from drinking water, to street signs, to the food you might be eating while reading this blog.

I hope you consider a career in public health and have taken the time to look over Iowa's College of Public Health website to read over some of the awesome things we are doing to change public health now and for the future!

Ryan

PS - The picture is from New Year's Eve :)