Archive for the ‘Parent’ Category
Sunday, June 7th, 2009
This blog post contains my first giveaway. Read on to learn what product made me excited enough to want to share it with my readers. THREE readers will win this mystery product.
I woke up this morning, itching to move. I’ve been working so hard this week and didn’t work out. I started to write that I didn’t have time to work out but that’s not really true. Anybody can squeeze in a quick workout if she really wants to. It’s just a lame excuse. Even with everything I have going on, I could have woken up a half hour early and done something athletic. Instead, I chose to stay in my bed this week. I am going to call it like it is.
So I didn’t work out this week and woke up today feeling like sloth. I lay in my bed, trying to decide what I wanted to do. I thought to myself, what is my favorite form of exercise? I like to vary my workouts. I enjoy spin classes, step classes, pilates, elliptical, weights, sculpt classes, boot camp… but what would I do if I could do any workout?
I got up, pulled on my sneakers, and went for a jog outside. The sun was shining on my face and the street felt amazing under my feet. As I trekked up and down the hills in my neighborhood, I let my mind wander. I first went through and organized everything I needed to do in the coming week. And then my mind was clear. I listened to my music and just enjoyed the outside.
And this brings me to my giveaway. I was listening to the music using a pair of Sennheiser PMX 70 Sport Headphones given to me by somebody in the company. Usually, when I run, I start to become annoyed with my headphones a mile or so in. Either the sound isn’t exactly right or the earpieces begin to hurt my ears. When I first saw these headphones, I was skeptical. The headband goes around the back of your head and not over the top. It seemed weird but let me tell you- it felt great. The headphones were really comfortable and the sound was amazing.
In the name of trying to get all of you to go outside and run… I am giving away three pairs of these great headphones. For more information on them, go to www.SennheiserUSA.com.
So- what do you have to do to win them? Just leave me a comment and tell me about your favorite workout. Three respondents will win a pair of these great headphones. Don’t forget to leave your e-mail address or Twitter ID so I can contact you if you win!
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Tags: exercise, giveaway, headphones, running, weight loss, workout
Posted in Parent, Uncategorized | 24 Comments »
Monday, May 4th, 2009
Kids should be taught to eat a variety of foods from an early age. Children who are exposed to various foods during childhood are more likely to learn to enjoy those foods in adulthood, even if they don’t like them while they are young.
The mistake parents often make is giving up on a new food after just one trial. It typically takes at least six to eight exposures of a new food before children will accept it. Sometimes it can even take ten to fifteen trials before children develop a liking for a new food. Eating a variety of different foods ensures your children are getting all the nutrients they need to grow.
Tips to Introducing New Foods:
1. Lead by example. Try new foods yourself.
2. Don’t let your children know that you don’t like certain foods. If you tell your children that you hate broccoli, it is unlikely that they will give it a fair chance.
4. Institute Dr. Dolgoff’s “Two Bite Rule”. Children must try two bites of each new food they are served. If they don’t like the food, they do not have to eat the rest. However, they do need to eat two bites of it each time it is served. It is likely that with time, your children will learn to like it. It is advised to wait at least one week before serving the same food again.
4. Do not force feed your children. Two bites is all you should insist they eat.
5. Continue to encourage your child to try new foods, different tastes and textures.
6. Introduce new foods with a variety of other foods, such as a casserole or a stir-fry dish, which may disguise a particular taste they may not like.
7. Don’t expect children to eat all foods offered to them; encourage tastings at first.
8. Select foods that are healthy and are already varied, such as multi-grain breads or cereals.
9. Serve a variety of foods from an early age. For example, expose your toddler to fish (besides shellfish) early on so he develops a taste for it from the beginning.
10. If your child still does not like a particular food after twenty or more tastes, you may move on. Your child may truly dislike the food.
~Reminder~
• Parents decide on what foods will be eaten and when meals will be served.
• Serve meals at the same time every day, if possible, to create patterns.
• Eliminate distractions during meal times. Turn off the television and computer. All attention should be focused on the meal.
• Expect rejection to new foods; continue to try again.
Did You Know?
Children are much more sensitive than adults to four sensations: Sweet, Sour, Bitter, and Salty. Children have five times more taste buds than adults.
Exercise for this week:
Bring the kids to the supermarket for a special trip. Walk through the fruit and vegetable section and have them pick out a new fruit or a vegetable that looks fun and interesting, such as a mango, pomegranate, papaya, apricot, escarole, swiss chard or Chinese eggplant. Then go home and research together on how to prepare the food item of the week!
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Tags: child, children, diet, healthy, kids, nutrition, obesity, parenting, picky, picky eater, weight
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Friday, May 1st, 2009
In the quest for an ‘ideal body’, mothers are putting their daughters’ self-images at risk. Dieting in normal-weight women is rampant in our culture. It seems that everybody wants to be supermodel thin. But at what cost? Women need to understand that in their own pursuit of perfection, they are teaching their daughters that ‘good’ is not ‘good enough’.
I have yet to meet a woman who is completely happy with her body. My friends are beautiful, intelligent, successful women who spend a large amount of time talking about dieting and complaining about their bodies. What messages are their daughters picking up?
It is one thing for an overweight mother to go on a diet to prevent future health risks. It is another thing for a size eight mom to diet down to a size four. Body size has a strong genetic component. It is very likely that a size eight mom will have a size eight daughter. And don’t we want our daughters to feel great about themselves? If they see us dissatisfied with our bodies, they will be dissatisfied with their own bodies. All this diet talk from normal-weight women is not healthy.
When a normal-weight woman tries to diet down to an unrealistic size, she normally winds up gaining weight. Weight regain rates in adults are extremely high, often approaching 80%. Maybe not immediately, but within a year or so, the weight usually returns. Weight regain is even more likely when the dieter starts out within the normal weight range. Not all bodies are meant to have such low levels of body fat. We can’t fight our own body physiology. It is a losing battle. Yet thin women continue to engage in it day after day.
I was at an eight year old’s birthday party recently with a group of beautiful, thin (but not super-skinny) mothers. I listened to them talk about dieting, unaware that their children were in earshot. One little girl asked her mom (a size six at most) why she didn’t eat any birthday cake. The mom nonchalantly replied, “Ugh. I am trying to resist it because I have to lose some weight.” I am sure that little girl looked at her slim mother and then down at herself and thought, “Do I need to lose weight?” And if she didn’t think it now, she will surely think it before long.
Women have to give up this futile fight for their daughters’ sakes. Dieting in normal-weight women will not result in long-lasting weight loss and is extremely detrimental to their daughters. Moms need to think about how their negative body talk and constant conversations about dieting sound to their little girls. We need to do all we can to support positive self images in our daughters. Berating our own normal bodies is not helpful. Instead, we should focus on teaching our children to make healthy food choices from an early age. We should model healthy exercise behaviors from the beginning. And we should keep the focus on heart health, not the size of our thighs. We need to celebrate all the different shapes that women come in. The best way to teach your daughter to love her body is by showing her that you appreciate your own.
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Tags: body image, child, daughters, diet, dieting, health, mother, nutrition, parenting, self-esteem, weight loss
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Tuesday, April 7th, 2009
An overweight woman is putting her child’s health at risk! This simple fact should help motivate women to lose weight.
Women in America are more overweight than ever. But even more disturbing, their children are too. In fact, according to the CDC, this generation of children will be the first to die younger than its parents. It is not just mom’s health at risk. Women are usually shocked to learn that a child with two normal-weight parents has a 7% risk of being overweight. If one parent is overweight, the risk jumps to 40%. And a child with two overweight parents has an 80% risk of being overweight.
Moms can significantly lower their children’s risks of obesity by losing weight themselves! Children model their parent’s behaviors. Every mother knows that nothing is more attractive to a child than what is on mom’s plate! A child who sees that mom doesn’t value eating a healthy diet will learn to eat junk. On the other hand, when a child sees mom enjoying healthy foods, like fruits and vegetables, he will want to eat those foods too.
My own children taught me this lesson last summer! I was sitting in my kitchen with a mango. But not just any mango- a perfectly ripe, juicy mango. “What a treat,” I exclaimed as the juice ran down my face. “This is really the best.” The next thing I know, my kids had jumped onto my lap, begging to try it. Truthfully, I didn’t want to share- it was that good! But I gave them some and thus began my kids’ love affair with mango. It all has to do with how you react to the food yourself! Now, when I sit down with a new healthy food, I make sure to let my children watch me enjoy it. More often than not, it prompts them to want to try it too.
The same goes for exercise. Children of mothers who exercise are significantly more likely to enjoy exercise themselves. If moms don’t exercise or exercise begrudgingly, kids learn that exercise is a chore. But if kids see their mothers looking forward to working out, they want to join in too. My kids are thrilled when I let them join me on a morning run or an afternoon bike ride!
Mothers always want what is best for their children. We need to remember that our weight directly influences our children’s weights. It is not selfish for a mother to take an hour a day to exercise. In fact, in a sense it is selfish not to! Reminding mothers that they must lose weight to help their children is often all the incentive they need to begin, and continue, their weight loss journeys.
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Tags: child diet, Child Obesity, child weight gain, diet, exercise, mothers, obese baby, obese child, obese toddler, obesity, overweight child, overweight mother, overweight parent, overweight toddler, overweight woman, parenting, weight gain, weight loss
Posted in Parent, weight loss | 3 Comments »
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