My kids play sports and enjoy running around outside, while Mommy is more of a couch potato (computer potato?). I recently joined a yoga class, and have been walking with a friend. It’s important to squeeze exercise into our daily lives… but not always easy.

There are some great ideas and suggestions in the article below, on how to imcorporate more physical activity into family routines.

Is Your Family Active Enough?

by Denise Nero

Obesity has become a national epidemic for both adults and children. The availability of fast foods coupled with the multitude of video and computer games leads the way to an unhealthy, sedentary lifestyle. Inactivity can also lead to increased risk of diabetes and high blood pressure.

If you have a family member who is overweight or obese, don’t single them out as the only one who has to make changes. Making lifestyle changes as a family will benefit everyone and will provide loving support to the overweight member.

ARE YOU ACTIVE ENOUGH?

As a guide to healthy living, some professionals suggest a minimum of 60 - 90 minutes of active movement every day as a reasonable standard of activity for both adults and children.

It’s tough to find time for exercise when kids are back to school and the after school activities start but activity does not need to be done in one period of time. Two or three 15 minutes sessions a day is more beneficial than doing nothing. While it may be difficult to judge exactly how much active movement your child engages in, consider school fitness programs, biking, playing with friends, and helping with chores as a means of estimating the activity level of your child.

On the other hand, how much time do you and your child spend watching TV, playing video games, surfing the internet or messaging their friends? When too many non-active pastimes are available it is easy for a child to slip into a sedentary lifestyle.

TIPS FOR GETTING YOUR FAMILY MORE ACTIVE

To get your family more active follow these simple suggestions. Your whole family will benefit from greater health.

- Limit TV to 2 hours per day.
- Put homework off until after dinner so children can spend time getting active after school.
- Do activities as a family. Go for a walk, ride bikes, play a game of catch, or work together on household chores.
- Sign them up for activities they enjoy. Dance, sports or volunteer work can build self-esteem as well as a healthy body.
- Invest in some fun fitness equipment. Dance mats and mini trampolines will add an element to fun to your family fitness routine.
- Plan healthy meals. A high fat, high sugar diet will leave your child exhausted. Find recipes for healthy meals and snacks that will give them the energy to get active.
- Set the example. Studies continue to show that children with active parents will be more inclined to stay active themselves than children with sedentary families. Doing activities on your own or with your family show your children that being active is a normal, healthy way of living.

About the Author:
Denise Nero is a fitness expert and an advocate for preventing childhood obesity. She is the owner of www.fitnessandkids.com and www.online-health-fitness.com where you can find more detailed fitness information and purchase exercise equipment.

by Christine Steendahl

Another summer has quickly passed us by. The kids have reluctantly gone back to school. It stands to reason that life should be a little less hectic, right? Unfortunately, thats usually not the case. Between all of your daily Mom obligations, helping with homework and providing transportation to every extra-curricular activity under the sun, you probably have little time to devote to dinner planning.

Many times busy parents resort to hot dogs and macaroni and cheese, frozen pizza or frequent trips to a fast-food restaurant. Thats not healthy for you or the kids not to mention its pretty rough on the family grocery budget.

Kitchen time savers

There are things you can do to cut down on time spent in the kitchen. Pick one day a week and prepare several freezer friendly meals. You can even go the extra mile and package them in individual serving size containers. Doing so will provide your family with a larger variety of entre choices, on any given day.

Do you have friends that are intrigued with the idea of a one-day a week cooking spree or a meal planning service? Get together with 2 or 3 of them. Each of you decides on 2 main dishes you want to prepare. Buy enough ingredients to make the entrees for each family.

You need to plan ahead

One simple thing that you can do is keep an ample supply of fresh fruits, salad ingredients, soups and fresh sandwich fixings, on hand. Quick meals such as this are nutritious and dont require a great deal of preparation time.

If you take on the task of meal planning and want to get in the habit of consistently putting together weekly menus yourself, you may be surprised at how much time it involves. Did you know that the typical family meal planner spends roughly 3 hours per week combing through cookbooks, choosing recipes and compiling a grocery list? That translates into 156
hours, per year. Yikes!

A menu service can help

You can say goodbye to last minute thrown together meals and eliminate the stress of dinner planning for your family by subscribing to a meal planning service. This type of service is very affordable, usually costing only a few cents per day. Menus are often designed to be family friendly and easily adaptable.

When you purchase a subscription to a service such as this, your membership will typically feature a weekly menu emailed right to your inbox. This includes seven main dish recipes, side dish suggestions and dessert ideas. As an added benefit, you receive a detailed shopping list,
categorized by aisle, which makes your trip to the grocery store that much easier. Simply cross off items already in your pantry, add any other products you may be in need of and youre off!

If you enjoy planning your own menu, you may want to consider a dinner planning service, in addition to your own choices. Why? It will still save you time, in the long run. Use the membership menu as a base. Then, search for recipes that will deliciously compliment that weekly plan.

Remember, nothing is more important than family time. Dont let dinner planning get you down. Consider the suggestions weve made and you’ll spend less time slaving over hot stove and more time with the people you love.

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For a free one week trial of a family friendly meal planning service,
visit www.dinewithoutwhine.com

1 banana, frozen in chunks
2 tbs peanut butter
1 cup milk
1/2 cup frozen vanilla yogurt (or ice cream)

Place all ingredients in blender container.
Blend until smooth.
2 servings.

1 cup tomato or vegetable juice
pinch of desired seasoning (chili powder, onion powder, basil, etc.)

Stir seasoning into juice.
Microwave and serve.
1 serving.

1 cup chocolate milk
2 bananas, frozen
4 ice cubes

Place all ingredients in blender container.
Blend until smooth.
2 servings

TIP: If you don’t have chocolate milk on hand, use plain milk and some hot chocolate powder.

by Aldene Fredenburg

It’s a cultural phenomenon - in school and homes around the country in the past few years, kids have started drinking soda instead of milk and natural juices on a routine basis. Sodas - basically colored, sugared water - have replaced far more nutritional alternatives almost exclusively with some children and teens, contributing not only to an increase in childhood obesity but to a much greater incidence of childhood caries (cavities in teeth). Perhaps even more alarming, teenage girls who opt for sodas instead of milk on a regular basis have been discovered to have sometimes irreversible osteoporosis, a condition in which calcium in the bones has disappeared, leaving bones porous, brittle, and easily broken. Another problem with sodas, from Coke to Mountain Dew, is that many of them contain large amounts of caffeine - way too much, in fact, for the physiology of a small child to handle. (Your kid can’t settle down and get to sleep at night? Before you suspect ADHD, think about how much caffeine he or she might be ingesting in the course of a day!)

Luckily, there are plenty of healthy alternatives to the sugar-laden sodas being consumed. Milk, both whole and skim, is a better choice for children who can tolerate the food, and provide plenty of the calcium and Vitamin D necessary for strong bones and teeth. For children who have allergic reactions to dairy products, calcium-enriched soy milk provides plenty of protein and minerals. A caveat - some of the “good tasting” soy milks recently added to the store shelves actually have sugars like high-fructose corn syrup added to enhance the flavor - definitely not a healthy alternative.

Fruit juices have been considered a healthy alternative for even young children for years, and if a child is craving a sweet drink fruit juice is way better than most alternatives; but not all fruit juices are created equal - some have the same high-fructose corn syrup added that makes some of the designer soy milks such a bad deal. A better choice would be a natural fruit juice with no added sugars, in moderate amounts; even the healthy fruit juices naturally contain simple sugars and a good supply of calories, so limit the amount per day, and have children drink it with other foods to slow down the absorption of the juices, thus avoiding fluctuations in energy levels.

Of course, bottled spring water or filtered water is a great alternative, and should be encouraged. Especially with active kids, dehydration can sneak up on someone, particularly in hot weather. It’s important for children to have easy access to plenty of fresh, drinkable water and other fluids to keep them sufficiently hydrated.

Information about proper nutrition for kids concentrates much more on healthy food choices, and not so much on beverages. But healthy beverages are a big part of healthy nutrition, and need to be focused on daily - healthy beverages really do equal healthy kids!

——————————————-
Aldene Fredenburg is a freelance writer living in southwestern New Hampshire, who has written numerous articles for local and regional publications. She may be reached at amfredenburg@yahoo.com.

Check out Healthy Kids Snacks’ Recipes for Beverages, Smoothies and Shakes