34 out of 58 attended; 56.62%
Thought for the Day – Eric volunteered “snow thanks”, for the lack of the predicted snowmageddon
Guest:   Debbie Gillard, guest of membership recruiting machine David Birkenstein
Announcements:
Patti – Please bring donations to support veterans to the meeting next week.
Barb – Rotarians raised $619 for Kids Against Hunger last week at the meeting and at Little Ricky’s
Gina – Selling raffle tickets for KAH - $20 each, or 6 for $100
Mark – Seeks 400 items from all KAH sponsors for the WYO to place in goody bags to be given away
Dirk – Seeks donations to the Northern Illinois Rotary/NEIU Social Work Scholarship Challenge – the first $10,000 will be matched dollar for dollar Click here for a one-page flyer with more details
Happy Bucks:
Rich – The 111th anniversary of Rotary International
Bernie – (remarks unintentionally omitted)
Wes – (lack of) snow thanks
Robert – 3rd anniversary  
Dig and Grin:
Rodger volunteered a joke
Speaker: C. Murray Ardies, PhD, Professor Emeritus; Exercise & Health Sciences
                Murray was invited by Dirk, as both are associated with Northeastern Illinois University. Murray gave a good presentation despite being heavily medicated due to complications from a hip transplant last week. Murray has spent years studying the relationships between diet, exercise and chronic disease. His newly published book investigates the biological basis of prevention of chronic disease, mainly heart disease and diabetes. Chronic disease in the USA comprised 70% of the deaths, and 75% of the health care costs in the USA from 2010 to 2012.
                The reason boils down to the fact that Americans eat too many calories and exercise too little. Since the 1960’s, our sedentary lifestyles and eating habits have caused us as a group to become more overweight and obese than past generations. Minimum exercise recommendations by major health organizations are woefully inadequate. Gaining weight, and not sugar or calorie intake alone, causes diabetes. Lack of exercise cause inflammation and heart disease. Exercise is a learned habit. We should all increase activity levels throughout the day to prevent chronic disease.
                Current adult exercise recommendations from the CDC are here: www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/basics/older_adults/index.htm