Tag Archives: tips

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

You Are More Than Your Bad Habits!

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Summer is well and truly here (unless you live in Australia- where it’s still pretty balmy). For most of us, the urge to be the best version of ourselves is at its strongest at this time of year. We feel a sincere desire to get outside, be more social, take our kids on more days out and exercise a whole lot more. Sure, they say that summer bodies are made in the winter, but the great thing about fitness is that it’s never too early or too late to start making positive changes. But despite this overarching air or positivity and pro-activity, many of us still find ourselves faltering. It’s not because we’re lazy, indolent or flighty. It’s not because we don’t care or we don’t want it bad enough. And despite what we may tell ourselves it’s not because we’re too busy and can’t find the time (you can always make the time, even if it means getting up an hour earlier). It’s because however noble our intentions, it’s all too easy to let our habits dictate our behavior.

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We tend to underestimate the impact that habit can have on us, but as we will discuss, habit may seem innocuous enough but it can exert a powerful hold over us…

Why habit has a hold on us

John Dryden said that “First we make our habits, then our habits make us”. Argue with that if you can. We tend to shrug habits off as semi voluntary procedures that we choose to go through. But this massively understates just how powerful and damaging an effect our habits can have on us. We may tell ourselves that we’re in control of our habits or that we can give them up any time we want, but the neuroscience of habits says otherwise. Bad habits needn’t be limited to smoking, eating too much bad food or drinking too much. Sometimes they can be much more quotidian but no less damaging. Every time you shrug to yourself “I’m such a procrastinator”, “I deserve this little treat” or “one more won’t hurt”, or worse still convincing yourself that you’re stupid or worthless, you’re letting your habits dictate your behavior.

Addiction is not a bad word

Habits and addiction go hand in hand. Habits facilitate addiction and once addiction takes a hold of us, it can be difficult to break that hold. The first step is to admit that your habit has become a problem. Get out of the habit of telling yourself you like the taste of cigarettes or that you need four coffees to function in the morning. Addiction does not make you weak, not does it make you deviant or wayward. It simply means that you have a functioning human brain that’s reacting to stimuli. Treating addiction might need relying on outside help, whether it’s through trained professionals or enlisting the aid of friends and family. The good news is that bad habits can be broken.

Consistency is key!

Breaking bad habits is simply a matter of consistency. Replace bad behaviors with good behaviors and repeat them until they become habit. The neurological process is exactly the same. Don’t beat yourself up about it if you fleetingly fall off the wagon, but resolve to get back on it as quickly as you can.

Remember, you are more than just your bad habits. Have a great day!

Going Healthy, Life

The 3 Biggest Health Problems We Face

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As our lifestyles and habits change, new health problems emerge all the time. There are a lot of health issues that we’re struggling with right now that simply didn’t exist 100 years ago but changes to our way of life have created them. Understanding what these problems are and what is causing them in the first place is the key to avoiding them and living a happy, healthy life. These are some of the biggest health problems we face right now.

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Obesity

Weight issues are a huge problem amongst adults but more importantly, in children. Children are being classified as obese at a very young age which is incredibly worrying because it means they’re likely to maintain that weight in later life. There are a lot of different reasons why we’re struggling with our weight which makes it very difficult to tackle the problem. Food is increasingly confusing because, even if you avoid the mountains of fatty and sugary food you can still get caught out. Things that are advertised as low fat are often packed with sugar so they’re causing weight gain anyway and a lot of things like fruit juices that people use as healthier substitutes are high in sugar as well. The only way to really know what you’re eating is to make your own healthy food with fresh ingredients rather than relying on pre-made stuff.

As well as what we eat, the amount of exercise we’re doing is a big problem. When you’re competing with computers and phones it’s difficult to get kids outside and adults with a busy work life find it difficult to fit it into their schedules. Even if you’re just doing ten minutes of exercise and trying to be a bit more active generally, it’s better than nothing. Exercise has so many health benefits so you should try to make time for it where you can.

Opioid Crisis

Opioids have been in the news a lot over the last couple of years as doctors have come under fire for prescribing them too readily and the companies that manufacture them have been accused of downplaying the risks and using incentives to encourage doctors to prescribe them. This has led to the opioid epidemic which is having devastating effects. People that are prescribed these painkillers quickly develop an addiction to them and often turn to harder street drugs or illegally buy more pills once their prescription runs out. Now that the extent of the damage is known, opioids are controlled far more tightly but we still need to deal with the fallout from a period of over subscription.

Diabetes

Diabetes is a health problem that is often linked to weight gain. A bad diet, particularly one that is high in sugar, leads to type 2 diabetes which comes with a whole host of dangers. People often make the mistake of thinking that they’re not at risk if they aren’t overweight but you can still eat a high sugar diet without gaining loads of weight. As companies continue to produce high sugar foods, it’s getting harder to avoid. Always be mindful of what you’re eating and double check ingredients.

These health problems are beginning to spiral out of control so always be aware of the risks and make sure that you avoid them.