Category Archives: Health

Finding An Alternative To Fad Diets

01/27/2020 R.C. Liley Leave a comment

We’re used to living our lives at a million miles per hour, and we expect results quickly. This applies to everything from finding a product online and ordering a coffee to go to losing weight. The trouble with rapid weight loss is that it’s often unsustainable. While fad diets may seem like the solution if you’ve over-indulged over the festive season, there are alternatives that are much more likely to help you achieve your long-term goals.

Fad diets have become incredibly popular, and this is largely due to the fact that they promise swift results. Fad diets usually contribute to rapid weight loss, and this often involves restricting calorie intake, cutting out food groups and dropping pounds without having to exercise. On the surface, fad diets like the Keto and Paleo diets may seem like a great idea, but it’s wise to proceed with caution. Eliminating food groups can contribute to nutrient deficiencies and make you crave foods you enjoy, and drastically reducing calorie intake can leave you hungry and increase the risk of sudden weight gain once you come off the plan. Ninety-five percent of people who lose weight on fad diets regain those pounds within 5 years.

Rather than resorting to fed diets, which can impact your mood, your health and your bank balance, it’s a good idea to take the advice shared in this infographic on board. Aim for a nutritious, balanced diet, which champions fresh produce, whole grains and vitamin-laden fruit and vegetables. Plans like the Mediterranean diet are proven to help weight loss and improve health at the same time and they produce sustainable results. People who live in Mediterranean countries are less likely to develop life-threatening diseases.

Before you reach for a diet book or think about giving up all your favorite foods for good, why not take a closer look at the infographic below?

Infographic Created By University of Southern California

Going Healthy, Health, Lifestyle, Parenting

The Smart Box: Introducing Healthy TV Watching Habits To Our Kids

01/23/2020 R.C. Liley Leave a comment

healthy, tv, kids, parenting, watching kids — Picture – CC 0 Licence

When we consider the ways of keeping our kids healthy, it’s not just about the obvious things like eating right and exercising but it’s about encouraging healthy habits in life. We can look back and realize that we made certain mistakes or instilled unhealthy habits because we do them ourselves. A very good example is television. The latest Infinity Dish statistics show how television plays a role in almost everyone’s life. Perhaps there were a few times when you needed a break so you put your children in front of the television but this has now spiraled out of control and now you’ve got couch potatoes for kids! But when we look at the idea of watching television there are ways for us to encourage some healthy habits.

Being Aware Of Questionable YouTube Content

It’s something that we think is pretty harmless, especially for toddlers. When we put on a kids YouTube channel that plays nursery rhymes we may not realize that there is a lot of unhealthy and questionable content out there that individuals are trying to sneak into the videos. We should monitor our children’s living habits but we should also think about the streaming services we use. If you have a Firestick it’s so easy to install apps that have various questionable shows and cedars. A VPN (Virtual Private Network) is something that might help and if you’re wondering why would you use a VPN for Firestick it is a good way to keep yourself anonymous so you’re not easily targeted with specific content. Using a VPN can also be useful when travelling abroad, as some of your child’s favourite shows may be blocked by the local internet. For this reason, if you’re traveling to a foreign country like China, make sure to have a reliable service like ExpressVPN China at hand to ensure a fast and secure connection without encountering any common restrictions. Whether you are at home or abroad, once we get into certain viewing habits the algorithm kicks in and so we are suggested more and more questionable content, so having a degree of privacy can be important.

Turn The Television Off

It sounds obvious, but the television becomes a background to our lives. Turning the television off when visitors come by, eating meals, or doing other tasks means that you don’t rely on the television to become a babysitter of sorts. Our children can easily become distracted by what is on television and when our children are young, this is the perfect opportunity to make sure they don’t rely on this for the rest of their lives. This can mean a lot of harsh lessons for ourselves when we are used to watching television. But when you live by the rules yourself it’s far easier to enforce them. It’s a good idea to impose certain time limits. For example, if your children have started school, two hours should be the maximum. And when you start to schedule their day after school it gives you an opportunity to incorporate other important skills.

Choosing Educational Content

This is such a difficult topic to get our heads around. It’s easier when your children are preschoolers because there’s a lot of shows out there about counting and giving your children certain nuggets of knowledge. But as your children get older it can be harder to monitor this. Not allowing your children to plan their own weekly viewing schedule can seem a little bit on the harsh side but when you allow a certain time limit consider incorporating things that you think are educational into their TV watching time.

Television can be a good thing, just as long as we approach it with the right balance.

Going Healthy, Health, Life, Parenting

How Healthy Are Your Kids?

01/22/2020 R.C. Liley Leave a comment

The world has never been more unhealthy than it is at the minute. Why do you think so many supermarkets and brands are promoting healthy living as much as they can? The world evolved from one that used to put cocaine into sugary drinks, to one that promoted sugary drinks and fatty foods to parents and families, to one that’s desperately trying to reduce it all. Although the world will never go back to putting drugs into a popular fizzy drink, there is the risk that kids aren’t being raised right. They’re being raised on a diet of junk and technology, which is why there are now more obese children than there have ever been in the world before. Kids health is just so important, and your children’s health should be at the top of your list of things to focus on. There are so many things that can go wrong with the human body if it isn’t properly nutritioned and exercised, and there are emerging health issues that are now far more common. So, how healthy are your kids? Let’s explore it a little bit more.

healthy, kids, parenting, fatherhood, health, growing up — Image Source

Junk Food & Technology Diet?

This applies to children who are a little bit older. The junk food and technology diet is one that most teenage boys are living on at the minute. As soon as they get over the age of ten, their likes and dislikes change. All of the sudden they don’t want to play with toys and do what you say, they want to be their own man who is locked away in their room all day. But it seems that children are now getting younger and wanting this. So, to keep them away from junk food diet, you simply need to cook amazing healthy food. Show your children that healthy food is not vegetables and salad leaves, it can be burgers and pizza when cooked right! Make sure you’re planning days out every weekend that gets the whole family outdoors, and try and get your kids involved in a local sporting team. The more you guide them towards a healthier lifestyle, the more it’ll be the norm for them as they get older.

Small Health Issues

Everyone has a little something wrong with them, but when it comes to your kids it can get so worrying. However, there are now so many treatments and cures for small health issues that mean the future generation is going to live longer than ever before. But those small health issues need to be addressed, and one common issue children get is with their hearing. Grommets ear, ear infections, and backed up ear wax can all lead to long term hearing problems. Learn more about what would be required if your children did need the support of a hearing aid. Make sure you’re always looking out for signs that children don’t show obviously. Loss of balance and asking you to repeat yourself all of the time are two obvious signs!

Food Aversions & Allergies

This is so common among children, and it’s one of the reasons why so many have a poor diet. It can easily be solved however, simply by working at it week by week and introduce foods that they like!