Category Archives: Parenting

Going Healthy, Life, Parenting

Seven Tips for Raising Healthy Kids

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Every parent wants their kids to be happy and healthy. While they are small, it is easy to influence their diet and lifestyle choices, but as soon as they are in middle school and have their own peer group, your hands are somewhat tied. It is, therefore, important to educate your kids while you can about healthy lifestyle and identify some of the problems they are likely to face later in life.

1. Five a Day

If you would like your kids to like fruit and vegetables, you might want to get creative and introduce different colors and shapes, so the food is not only nutritious, but also interesting. You can create celery stick monsters and funky shaped tomatoes, encouraging your kids to eat more fruit and vegetables and get used to the flavor. Chances are that they will not like the taste of every fresh produce you give them, but they will pick some favorites that they will enjoy throughout their lives

2. Teach Them about Nutrition

While in many schools kids learn about nutrition and food, – as a parent – it is your responsibility to make sure that they are aware of the basic nutrients and their benefits. You can create a food map at home in the kitchen, or a chart with the most and less nutritious food. It is possible to get kids to realize that they can prevent some of the greatest health problems if they choose their diet carefully.

3. Get Them to Check Food Label

From an early age, you should work with your kids to help them understand what goes into the food. You might want to visit local farms to learn about how milk, yoghurt, cheese, meat, and vegetables are produced. However, it is even more important that you ask your kids to check the labeling on the food, especially sweets. Talk to them about GM produce and artificial coloring and flavoring that has no use for the body, and can increase the risk of health problems.

4. Create Your Family Vegetable Garden Together

Image via Elaine Casap

It is also a good idea – provided that you have the space – that you create a family vegetable garden, so your kids will know how food is produced, and have fun in the process. You can eat fresh and encourage them to eat fruit and vegetables. Picking the fruit from the tree or the strawberries is much more fun than reaching in the fridge. Your kids will notice that home grown food freshly picked tastes much better than that from the supermarket.  

5. Get Regular Checkups

You should be a role model when it comes to health and lifestyle, and you should take your kids with you to the doctor’s whenever you can. Apart from the times when they catch a cold, you should book a regular check up appointments, as well, so you can deal with problems arising as soon as possible. If you notice that your child has flat feet or a fallen arch while they are toddlers, you will have a better chance of correcting it. Likewise, if you notice that they might have a hearing problem, you can book an appointment with a hearing specialist to treat the issue before it causes your child long term problems.  

6. Oral and Personal Hygiene

As a role model, you should teach your kids how to brush their teeth from an early age, and encourage independence when it comes to washing, dressing, and even loading up the laundry basket. Your life as a parent will be much easier, and your child will develop a new level of confidence. Check on their routine, as when they turn into tweens and teens they tend neglect personal hygiene.

7. Let Their Immune System Develop

Image via Annie Spratt

While every parent wants to protect their kids from disease and infection, you should allow your child to develop immunity by not protecting them from the wind and rain. Let them play in the mud, don’t worry if they get dirty or fall off the bike. It is a natural learning curve, and it is best to let your child prepare for the greatest challenges in life.

As a parent, you are responsible for the health and well being of your kids. Start at an early age, and follow up their practices, leading by example. It is important that your kids take responsibility for their own decisions as soon as they are old enough, but they will need a lot of positive confirmation when they face peer pressure and junk food advertising later in life.

Going Healthy, Life, Parenting

Get Your Child Excited About Healthy Living

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healthy living, parenting, kids, healthy eating

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When we think about living a healthy lifestyle, we immediately sigh and feel defeated already about all the delicious and naughty things that we’ll no longer be able to eat – and that’s as an adult. It’s probably ten times worse being told that as a child. But as a parent, it’s your job to make it fun. You see, it doesn’t having to boring like you imagine it to be, but that’s all down to what you do and how creative you are. By no means do you have to try and make your child eat salad every day and do ten press-ups before they go to bed! – But if you’re struggling and aren’t sure what direction you need to go on – here are a couple of ideas.

Get them trying new flavors

One of the best things you can do for a child, is to encourage them to eat as many new things as possible so that they don’t turn into a picky adult that only eats chips and chicken nuggets. We all love snacks – they’re quick, accessible, and generally taste yummy, but rather than focusing on chocolate and sweets, try and implement healthy alternatives. Start with options you know they like, be it apples, or banana, or carrots, and then try and work on new things that they’ve never had before. This may be melon, or passion fruit, or avocado. Another trick to making this more exciting, is allowing them to help you prepare the food too. That way they feel involved and will be more inclined to try as they’ve been the ones peeling the skin or cutting them up. And of course, positive reinforcement always helps too.

Get them into sports

Sports are an excellent way to ensure that your child is getting active through exercise, without them knowing that that’s the intention. – Sports are fun, and for children they feel like a treat, a reward, being able to run around and let loose with their pals while enjoying a little bit of friendly competition. And all while they’re doing that, they’re getting their heart beating faster, and their blood pumping through their veins, and also burning off any excess calories they may be carrying around. Not only is it good for the physical side of health, but the mental side too. It relieves stress and releases endorphins in the brain that make you feel awesome. So take a look at some youth football uniforms and get your child decked out in the latest sports fashion to wow the team.

These are only a couple of basic ideas, but they are a great foot to start on in order to get you on the right track. The most important thing to remember is that it should be fun, and you should be bonding with your child while teaching them the importance of healthy living. Be open and honest and explain why water is so good for our bodies, and why broccoli has so many amazing benefits. – They’ll soon learn.

Life, Parenting

Golden Style Rules For Forty-Plus Dads

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By the time you make it to your late 40s early 50s, there’s a lot you can raise a glass to as a man. You’ve achieved great things in your professional career and astonishing thing in your personal life too (such as the kids of yours). No matter what anyone says, or how easy those young and handsome Instadads, make it seem, the midway marker in a man’s life is never as bad as it seems. But there are things that need more attention than ever and your sense of style is one of the,

Don’t be one of those guys that lets his style slip to the wayside just because you’ve got everything you want in life. You’re only at the midway point. There is still loads you should want to do. There is still a way you should want to hold and present yourself as you enter the Silver Fox club, and this is your time to finesse all that.

Thankfully, the basics are all you really need to be a dapper dad. It’s things like wearing clothes that fit, avoiding double denim and only wearing sneakers that are made by a luxury brand, such as a Prada or Gucci, and ideally not in a vibrant colour.

Of course, there will be times of doubt. But when you stumble across one of these times, don’t panic. Instead, thinking WWCFD – What Would Colin Firth Do. And not just him, but Mark Strong, Clive Owen, and David Harewood, all of whom know how to dress with a certain suaveness, turning what so many perceive to be a negative (their age) and turning it into a timeless style.

And, with all that said and done, here some golden rules every middle-aged man needs to know, worship and follow:

  1. Block Out Your Colour

Don’t get us wrong. We’re not saying you should grab a black bin liner, march up to your bedroom, open your wardrobe and send every piece of colorful clothing into the forgotten abyss. No way. We’re just saying you need to be a bit more choosy with the colors you wear. Avoid all those bright colors you got away with as a twenty something and retire your time as a pastel wearer, and opt for more all-rounders. Tonal colors that can be worn with just about anything; the kind that can be pieced together or worn separately simply because their color compliments the others in your arsenal. Go for the classics too –camel, navy blue, maroon, navy blue, deep green and all those. It’s not about playing it safe, it’s about playing it suave.

  1. Make A Middle-Aged Statement

We know how tempting it is to walk into a Harley Davidson store, picking their mattes black bike and drive it through the window wearing a leather cut you picked up in charity store just to let yourself know you’re still awesome. But you don’t need to go to these lengths. Instead, make a statement by investing in those wardrobe pieces you’ve always craved but never been able to justify. It could be the sort of Belstaff biker jacket you’d be too worried about wearing on a bike, or a pair of Tom Ford brogues complete with stylish compression socks, a suit tailored to your measurements on Savile Row, or a leather-back briefcase made by an Italian designer you can’t quite pronounce. Yes, they are expensive enough to make your eyes bulge, your bank manager check your sanity and your wife to scrunch up her brow, but they’ll last forever and, if you pick the right colors, be worn more than you ever thought possible.

  1. Your Days Of Branding Are Over

If you’re wearing anything whereby the color is lost in the huge branding, you’re getting it all wrong. Superdry, Calvin Klein, Polo Ralph Lauren – anything brash whatsoever – and you’re simply telling the world you’re in a full-blown midlife crisis. You’re at an age where you’ve made it, where you don’t need to impress anyone with your spending habits or the size of your wallet. It will simply work against you. So, phase out any in-your-face designer nods and replace them with very subtle accessories that will catch people’s eye and have you recognized for your style more than anything else. A fancy watch, a glinting signet ring, a sterling silver tie pin, an Aspinals of London wallet, beautiful Oxfords or even a solid metal bangle. Little things like this will up your style game more than any branded clothing.

  1. Suits The Shape Of You

When you were young, foolish and hip enough to be the godfather of your moped gang, you were able to rock drainpipe suits, slim lapels and even slimmer ties (you could even get away with that dodgy haircut). But those days are done, so if you still have any of these in your wardrobe, get rid of them along with any hopes this fashion will come back around. Chances are it might. But you won’t be of an age to rock it well. Instead, you need to swap them for a more traditional and, dare we say, mature shape. That could mean a double-breasted number if you fancy, but it could just mean a two-button, thick-lapelled piece too.

  1. Confidence Is Your Secret Weapon

A lot of men panic when they reach forty and then have a mild stroke when they hit the halfway to a hundred mark. Don’t. You’ve got experience on your side. You know what you want, who you are, what looks good on you and what makes you tick. That’s not to say you’ve had it easy or know everything. Not at all. But whether you have a wife and kids or you’re newly single, everything they say about men being fine wines that getting better and better with age is absolutely spot on. Own it. Own your age. Own your laughter lines, rock that silvery hair and take advantage of your advantages. That confidence will be the best thing you ever wore. Fact.

6 Invest In Some Comfortable Briefs Too

Does the elastic on your briefs resemble a worn out rubber band? Do you have two pairs of boxer shorts that are not quite long enough for your legs? Is one leg hole bigger than the other? If so, then it is time to invest in some new undergarments like Zorbies. By wearing only the most comfortable briefs, you’ll feel much better for much longer on most days. Men regularly underestimate the incredible difference comfortable briefs can make.