Healthy Living

Pay it Forward for Mother’s Day!
Eat your veggies! Go play outside! Turn around all that good advice your mother has handed out over the years, for Mom’s own good. The blogosphere is full of fun and healthy suggestions for all occasions, and this blog is no exception. Take Mom for a walk! Bake her healthy muffins and yogurt parfaits! (I…
Daffodils – Fight back against cancer!
How quickly a year goes by and once again our friends at the Canadian Cancer Society and their thousands of supporters are wearing a daffodil pin to remind us of an ongoing battle. Based on 2011 estimates: 40% of Canadian women and 45% of men will develop cancer during their lifetimes. An estimated 1 out…
Planning for “Heart” Healthy Communities this February
Do you walk to the store or drive? How many times in the last week have you taken your kids to the park? Would you bike to work or does the thought of combating traffic leave you cold? All of this is impacted by decisions at the municipal and community level. When it comes to…
Let’s Talk About Prevention – Let’s Promote Mental Wellness
Today is Bell Canada’s ‘Let’s Talk Day’ – a day to encourage conversations about mental health in Canada. The Vancouver Sun editorial yesterday also dealt with the role we all play in reducing the stigma around mental illness. And it’s about time that we started paying attention to this issue – given that mental illness…
Envision a Smoke Free Lifestyle
We all know the health benefits of quitting smoking or not starting, but the My Smoke Free Lifestyle Contest has made people think about the social and economic benefits as well. Whether it’s for yourself, your friend or children, whatever your reason – it’s always a good time to go smoke-free. Quitters Unite did the…
Premiers Urged to Tackle Largest Drivers of Healthcare Costs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Vancouver, BC, January 11, 2012 – Today in an open letter, members of the BC Alliance for Healthy Living encouraged Provincial and Territorial leaders gathering in Victoria to commit to action on the prevention of non-communicable diseases, which are the largest drivers of health care costs and often avoidable causes of premature…
A Glimpse of Life with Dementia
What would you do if one day you had trouble counting change to buy a newspaper, or became disoriented on a familiar route behind the wheel of a car? Would you think it was Alzheimer’s disease? Jim Mann from Surrey, B.C. was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease when he was just 58 years old, and at…
Knowing your neighbours can improve your health
What are you doing to celebrate the holidays? If it includes a block party with your neighbours then you can count eggnog and cookies as a healthy option! The most recent newsletter from the Vancouver Foundation outlines that the top concern of people in Metro Vancouver is the lack of connection in our communities. This…
Love your Bones!
November is a time to remember many special loved ones who have fought the good fight on many fronts. As it is also Osteoporosis Month in Canada, I am reminded about many family members and friends who gallantly lived or are living with this most debilitating and threatening disease. So to honour them and share…
My Vote is For Healthier Small (and Big) Communities
If I was to ask you to think about the health of rural communities, what would come to mind? Would it include: hale, hearty and healthy – farmers, fishers, foresters and otherwise pioneer-types chopping wood and working the land or sea? Well, that would fit the stereotype. But the reality today isn’t the quaint portrait…
I bike, I skate, I vote
Leaving the skateboard park the other day, my son turned to me and said: “Mommy, I want to talk to the mayor.” “Oh really,” I said, trying not to smile too hard. “Yah, Mama, I want a skateboard park in my neighbourhood. So we don’t have to come all the way up here. Me and…
Sick of hearing about Vancouver? BCAHL WANTS YOU!!
Are you sick about hearing about the traffic woes of downtown Vancouver? Eco-Density, smart growth, to add bike lanes or not, or local versus big box retail? These issues echo through the Vancouver Sun on a daily basis, but they are not the same reality for all British Columbians. What happens when you try to…

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