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Get Healthy De Soto

…having a long-lasting positive impact on the health and safety of the De Soto community by encouraging healthy lifestyle choices, through programs promoting physical activity, healthy nutrition, weight control and disease and injury prevention.

Here’s to you, Dad!

Father’s Day is Sunday. Have you sent Dad a card yet? Elicited the help of your mom and his sister to plan a weekend away? Don’t worry; there’s still time (as long as you’re not relying heavily on the postal service).

This Father’s Day, please celebrate the men who have made a difference in your life. Also, be considerate of those who have lost their dads, uncles, and male role models. It’s a difficult time for many.

Father’s Day is also a time to gently remind the men in your life that you’d like to keep them around. Talk to them about going to the doctor for that achy knee or making the appointment for their colonoscopy that their physician recommended last year. Nope! There’s nothing particularly pleasant about it, but if women must endure mammograms, it’s the least you can do.

Take care of each other. Those who have lost their dad can tell you more about just how important it is.

And check out this video about a dad staying connected to his son and helping other dads do the same thing. He mentions in the video that, “It wasn’t the fishing”. With my passion for fishing, I disagree, but you’ll understand Dwight’s comment when you hear it. I do too.

Celebrating Walther Park

Want to have some fun in Walther Park? The park turns 60 this year, and we’re working with the library to host a fun run. (You can fun walk if you want.) This isn’t like an ordinary race though.

If you want to know what working with the library means, here you go!

You’ll have an opportunity to learn a bit about the Walther Family along the route. Not only that, but learning can help you with your finishing time! That’s right. There will be a quiz at the end of the race. Depending on your knowledge and performance on the quiz, you can shave some time off your finishing time. This means your brain can improve your chances of winning a prize.

The top two males and females will receive a bowl (pictured above) made by local artisan Terry Eiler. He does beautiful work and donated these to support the race. Even if you don’t win a bowl, all participants will get a commemorative medal in their race bag and all the fun that goes with a local run about town.

This 5K and 1-mile fun run will be Saturday, July 17, 2021 at 8 AM. Registration is just $20 until July 1, 2021. Registration on or after July 1 is $25. Registration for kids 12 and under is $10 until July 1 and $15 after that.

Thank you for all of your support, and remember that amateurs are not just welcomed; they’re embraced!

Register Now
Proudly sponsored by Twin City Toyota!
and Impact Nutrition!
and SMCI!

Men’s Health Month

Can you believe it is already June! Kids are out of school; graduations have swiftly passed; and the pools are open. Since it is June, it’s time to take a moment to focus on men’s health.

For reference, one hundred years ago, men lived longer than women by an average of one year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But today, women live about six years longer. Furthermore, men are 60% more likely to develop heart disease than women and 44% more likely to get cancer. This can be attributed to the fact that men are less likely to adopt preventative health measures, more likely to engage in risky behaviors, and more likely to go long periods without seeing a doctor.

Let’s start with the low-hanging fruit:

Men tend to not seek the advice of healthcare professionals. (Maybe there’s a correlation between this and their inability to ask for directions.) Think about this for a moment. Superman didn’t need a doctor! And just like Steve Rogers, men in our society are expected to be tough, fearless, and…well, superheroes. As popular as our superheroes are though, they might actually be contributing to our problem relating to men’s health.

Our culture has created an expectation for men to be strong like superheroes and rarely show weakness. This attitude can make it unacceptable to go to the doctor because that shows weakness.

A survey conducted by The Cleveland Clinic confirmed this trend, finding that 40% of men go to the doctor only when they have a serious health issue and never go for routine checkups. This number is far lower than women’s frequency of doctor visits.

Men also tend to exhibit a fear of diagnosis. According to a piece in the Huffington Post, about 21% of men admit to avoiding the doctor because they’re too nervous to find out what might be wrong. Ignoring your medical problems will not make them go away.

How do we combat this?

It takes time, but we need to create a culture where men can be superheroes who get all their annual screenings! Let’s work together to turn this trend around, so men don’t find it embarrassing or emasculating to seek out medical help.

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Mental Health Challenges

Almost 20% of adults in America experience a mental health challenge. We’re a terribly stressed society. One way to improve your mental health is to accept reality as it is though. Sometimes in life we end up in situations that we just can’t change. Acceptance is all about fully accepting your reality in situations that are beyond your control. This doesn’t mean you approve of the situation, are giving up, or that it isn’t painful. You are still allowed to (and should!) feel however you feel, but by accepting that it is what it is, you give the problem less power over you, and you can begin to move forward. And practicing this acceptance has been shown to reduce feelings of shame, guilt, and anxiety.

One way to cope is through the use of coping statements. These are sentences that remind you that different, healthier ways of thinking are possible. Repeating them (think mantra) can help you get through difficult moments – you can focus on just one or make a long list of your own. Some examples are:

  • It is what it is.
  • I can’t change what has already happened.
  • I can accept things the way they are.
  • I can only control my own actions and reactions.

If it helps, write your coping statements on Post-It notes and put them in places where you will see them multiple times a day, or set an alarm on your phone with a coping statement to pop up with a reminder every now and again.

When you’re fighting against reality, the first step in accepting reality is gaining awareness that you’re resisting it. It may seem like this would be easy to spot, but there are actually a lot of subtle ways that people push against reality. If you’re feeling bitter or resentful, wishing things were different, or thinking about how life isn’t fair, you might be fighting reality.

Learning to spot that, and to practice your coping strategies, takes…well, practice. It’s a great way to deal with difficult situations that we just can’t control. It takes time though, and don’t be hard on yourself if you fail. Start small with simple situations, and build from there. For example, curse the moon when traffic is at a standstill. Then, take a deep breath, relax your shoulders, and say, “this isn’t something I can control.” It might be awkward at first, but don’t let that stop you.

If you have a grandmother or mother of a certain age, she might have taught you this very skill when you were small and you didn’t even realize it. For example, sirens can be stressful for people. My grandmother always had us say a prayer for whoever was driving and might be riding in the emergency vehicle when we heard sirens. It was a way for a little kid to process that anxiety and help us realize that we couldn’t do anything about it other than pray. Pretty simple, right? If you look back over the course of your years, you might find similar instances of this sort of acceptance of reality. Reinstitute those! It make make you healthier.

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Contact

[email protected]
314-471-3681

Mailing Address

1002 Rock Rd.
DeSoto, MO 63020