It’s American Heart Month, Start Walking!

February is all about the heart.

We all know about Valentine’s Day. 

But you may not know that February is also American Heart Month.

It’s a time when we nationally recognize that heart disease is the number one cause of death for Americans — but more importantly, that we can help prevent the disease by eating right and getting more exercise.

This year, the timing of that message couldn’t be more perfect for all of us in San Diego County.

Why? Well, because we’ve been talking a lot lately about health and wellness.

In fact, we’ve made improving employee health and wellness one of our countywide resolutions for 2012.
In December, the Department of Human Resources (HR) and I unveiled the County’s new “Employee Wellness Program” and the new website dedicated to that program.

We talked about events, tools and activities — things you’ll be hearing a lot more about in the future — that will help us create a culture of health and wellness, such as quarterly fitness challenges, walking clubs, a spring health and wellness expo, health screenings, Weight Watchers at Work and “lunch and learns.”

Last week, HR rolled out the “10,000 Steps Challenge,” a 12-week walking program designed to get us all up and walking with a goal of 10,000 steps (roughly five miles) each day. We also released a new CTN.org video (Yup, that’s me walking!). And this morning we released our latest “Live Well Minute,” about heart health.

Some of our departments have already started rising to the challenge.

The County Communications Office announced that its members are “walking” to San Francisco, individually tracking their weekly numbers to make the 500-mile trek.

And HHSA’s Behavioral Health Services division announced that they were walking to New York, collectively pooling their miles to walk the 2,800-plus distance.

Of course, while February’s American Heart Month is concentrated on improving heart health, our aim is larger.

Our employee health and wellness program is really an extension of the ambitious regional health initiative we started in 2010, “Live Well, San Diego!”

That initiative aims to not only fight heart disease/stroke, but also cancer, type 2 diabetes and respiratory illnesses.

And walking is a great first step (so to speak) to winning that fight.

Folks, I know that changing habits can be hard, even intimidating.

Who has the time? Our days are full!

But I’m also here to say you can start small. You don’t have to walk to San Francisco or New York, or even 10,000 steps a day.

Take a walk around your building. If you’re here at the County Administration Center where I work, we’ve got eight floors of stairs you can walk without ever leaving the building. Personally, I try to walk to Horton Plaza every day I can.

The important thing is to start; to get on the road to better health and wellness.

I think it was Lao-Tzu, the great Chinese philosopher, who said, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

So start walking!

Meet the Trivia Contest Winner!

Happy New Year! I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful holiday season with your families and friends.

As promised, I’m back to announce the winner of last month’s holiday movie trivia contest and to give you the answers (just in case you were stumped).

As always, I was very impressed by how many of you got all the answers. I did throw you a slight curveball this year by not asking any questions about “Diehard.”

Yes, it is a holiday classic!

And a number of you were tripped up by the first question, which asked why Phoebe Cates’ character in Gremlins hated Christmas (I’ll explain below).

But, first, I want to announce that Michelle Smith, an imaging technician in the Assessor/Recorder/County Clerk’s office, was the winner — which meant I got the chance to visit Michelle and her office mates, deliver cookies and serenade them with not just one, but two Holiday songs.  CTN.org captured our visit in the video above!

And now, I’ve kept you waiting long enough; Here are all the answers to the quiz. Thanks for playing! Hope you had as much fun as I did.

1. In the 1984 comedy Gremlins, why did Phoebe Cates’ character hate Christmas?

a. Because her father died at Christmas when, dressed as Santa Claus, he broke his neck while climbing down the family’s chimney. (This was the tricky one for many of you, who correctly answered that her father died — but incorrectly said he fell off the roof!)

2. In 1993’s “Nightmare Before Christmas,” why does the Pumpkin King, Jack Skellington, kidnap “Sandy Claws?”

a. So Jack can take over Christmas and be Santa.

3. In “Scrooged,” what slogan does Bill Murray’s television network use to promote its holiday programming?

a. “Yule love it.”

4. Who played Santa Claus in “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians?”

a. John Call

5. The movie posters for “Home Alone,” which showed Macaulay Culkin with his hands on his face, screaming, was based on what famous painting?

a. “The Scream” by Edvard Munch.

6. In the “Family Man,” who does Nicolas Cage’s daughter, Annie, think he is?

a. An alien — from the mother ship.

7. In “A Christmas Story,” what was the name of Ralphie’s neighbors who own the dogs?

a. The Bumpuses.

8. In “It’s a Wonderful Life,” what movie was playing at the theater in Bedford Falls?

a. “The Bells of St. Mary.”

9. In “Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer,” what was the name of the elf who wanted to be a dentist?

a. Hermey.

10. In National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, what did Clark want to buy with his Christmas bonus?

a. A swimming pool.

11. In “A Miracle on 34th Street,” does Kris Kringle say he sleeps with his whiskers on the inside or outside of the covers?

a. Out. “Cold air makes them grow.”

12. In “Elf,” what does Buddy identify as the four main food groups for elves?

a. Candy, candy canes, candy corn and syrup.

It's Holiday Trivia Time!

Well, it’s that time of year again — the holidays are just around the corner, New Year’s is coming — and it’s time for Holiday trivia!

Last year I dedicated the entire trivia contest to holiday movies, and it was so popular I thought we’d do it again.

Once again, I’ll be visiting the office of this year’s trivia winner with cookies and a holiday song. And, CTN.org will capture my visit on video and we’ll post it on Insite.

Here’s how to play: Send in your answers to Gig.Conaughton@sdcounty.ca.gov. The person who sends in
the first email with all the right answers wins!

The deadline to respond is 5 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 8. I’ll be back in a month with all the answers and notes from my visit with the winner.

Happy Holidays!

1. In the 1984 comedy Gremlins, why did Phoebe Cates’ character hate Christmas?

2. In 1993’s “Nightmare Before Christmas,” why does the Pumpkin King, Jack Skellington, kidnap “Sandy Claws?”

3. In “Scrooged,” what slogan does Bill Murray’s television network use to promote its holiday programming?

4. Who played Santa Claus in “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians?”

5. The movie posters for “Home Alone,” which showed Macaulay Culkin with his hands on his face, screaming, was based on what famous painting?

6. In the “Family Man,” who does Nicolas Cage’s daughter, Annie, think he is?

7. In “A Christmas Story,” what was the name of Ralphie’s neighbors who own the dogs?

8. In “It’s a Wonderful Life,” what movie was playing at the theater in Bedford Falls?

9. In “Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer,” what was the name of the elf who wanted to be a dentist?

10. In National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, what did Clark want to buy with his Christmas bonus?

11. In “A Miracle on 34th Street,” does Kris Kringle say he sleeps with his whiskers on the inside or outside of the covers?

12. In “Elf,” what does Buddy identify as the four main food groups for elves?

Livin' Well, San Diego!

This week, our Health and Human Services Agency gave the public a tremendous update on “Live Well, San Diego!”  the ambitious, region-wide, 10-year health and well-being campaign we kicked off a year ago. 

I know many of you didn’t get the chance to watch the Board hearing, or see the terrific video produced by our communications staff, but I hope you can take the time to review them when you can. 

The “Live Well, San Diego!” plan really is ambitious and important. Our aim is to encourage healthier choices and to increase the safety of our communities. 

Our County has accomplished a lot in the first year of this ten-year plan and it is always worth acknowledging and celebrating our milestones and successes. 

Here’s just a few of the accomplishments outlined yesterday: 

• We’ve worked with 211 San Diego, the region’s information line, to allow people to apply for CalFresh food stamps and Medi-Cal over the phone 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
• Through grant money, we launched an $8.4 million prevention and education campaign to reduce the stigma and discrimination of mental illness.
• We expanded the numbers of County seniors and children on CalFresh food stamps.
• We’ve expanded free fitness classes and health programs available in our 33 County libraries.
• We’ve worked with the San Diego Association of Governments to promote pedestrian and bicycle-friendly communities.
• We’ve worked with six school districts to promote and increase physical activity for kids.

 “Live Well,” started as a health initiative — “Building Better Health,” which aims to fight the three behaviors, poor nutrition, inactivity and tobacco use, that contribute to four chronic diseases which kill more than 50% of Americans: heart disease/stroke, cancer, type 2 diabetes, and respiratory illnesses. This is called the 3-4-50 principle. 

Frankly, we don’t just want to help people eat better, realize they need to get up and walk more and quit smoking. 

We also want to improve our systems - how we deliver health services. We want to empower residents to take responsibility for their own health and encourage smart choices. We will look for opportunities to support and create policies that create healthy environments. 

And many of us — County employees — want to lead by example, to serve as role models for the region and show how we can all live better, longer, healthier lives by pursuing wellness and good health. 

So, Live Well, San Diego!

It’s not just a “Social” Revolution

Every day here at the County, we Tweet out news on Twitter and post information on Facebook. We’ve been doing that since early 2009.

But last month, when the entire region was suddenly blacked out, our County’s social media took on a whole new importance.

Frankly, the latest emergency, which was the first aside from H1N1 that we’ve dealt with since we started using social media, proved that all of us should be following the County’s Twitter and Facebook posts.

Our county is no stranger to disaster or disaster response, but the September blackout was a scenario that I don’t think many of us had imagined.

Without warning the lights, TVs, computers, businesses, offices and homes of five million people suddenly stopped working.

Information is the first thing all of us immediately want whenever an emergency occurs. We want to know, “What’s going on?” and, “What do I need to do?”

Well, with all the electricity off, you were hard pressed to find any information Sept. 8, even though we and other agencies were working hard to disseminate it.

If you had a battery-powered radio, or were sitting in your car, you could listen to updates from KOGO AM 600, the region’s primary disaster information radio station.

But there was another really important conduit of information.  Everywhere that cellular phones were working, people were able to receive immediate updates from our County’s Twitter and Facebook pages, through smart phone applications or through text messages (you can receive County tweets as a text message on your mobile phone by texting “follow SandiegoCounty” to 40404.)

We tweeted 16 messages and posted seven Facebook updates in the earliest hours of the blackout, between the time the lights shut off just after 3:30 p.m., and when Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Horn and San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders held their joint press conference at 8 p.m. in the County’s Emergency Operations Center.

We told folks that the EOC had been activated; the blackout was expected to last a long time; traffic lights were out; the Highway Patrol was conducting traffic control and that residents should not call 911. We sent out food safety tips and updates from SDG&E. We also provided live tweets from the press conference with the latest info about what happened and what was being done.

By the end of the first 24 hours of the emergency, we had tweeted out 123 updates, letting the public know that schools would be closed, certain water districts needed to conserve water, that County and City employees were expected to come in to work, and other important information.

This year has been an eye-opening testimony to the growing power of social media all around. Political experts have universally agreed that social media helped organize political dissent in Egypt’s and Tunisia’s “Arab Spring” democracy movements. In August, the Pew Research Center released a study finding that 65 percent of adult Internet users reported being part of some social networking site — an increase of 61 percent from 2010 and more than double the 29 percent that was reported just three years ago.

The bottom line is social media systems aren’t just social. They’re powerful communications tools too, especially in emergencies. And, more and more people are using them and you don’t want to be left out.

If you’re not following the County’s Twitter and Facebook pages, you should be.