In the present days it is quite a challenge to keep the kids interested in exercises. It is definitely a must that children get some kind of exercise everyday. With all the different yummy tasting junk food available in the market, it is yet another challenge to get the kids to stay away from eating these.The junk food that I am talkin chips, soda, wafers, cookies, pizzas, sugary sweets etc etc. These are so yummy to taste, they look very interesting, very easily available in the stores. This is like the age of fast foods . Everyone in the family is working and is always running behind something as there is always something to be completed or left out. Our children grow amidst such scenario. Also the various advertisements in the television also tempt the children to opt for those unhealthy food.I follow very simple rules to prevent my children from having junk food. The best way to avoid junk food is to not buy them in the first place. Imagine a bottle of soda sitting in your fridge. It is obviously tempting for anyone in the family to look for something to munch or drink while watching TV. If you did not have it in the fridge you would obviously be looking for something but the only thing you would get is probably crunchy carrots.

But children are children, they do look at other children in the school munching upon tasty junk food bites. I make it a point to buy my children junk food, a small pack but only once in 2-3 weeks. If my children ask for juice, they do get it but in the form of lemonade, orange juice made at home or any other fruit juice made at home depending upon the season.Ultimately it is the HEALTH of our own kids. We need to take responsibility for their food habits and help them choose the right kind of food. So let us take the first step and educating ourselves and our kids towards better health and GOOD HEALTH.

Whether it’s washing hands while singing happy birthday two times, learning to cough into the crook of an arm when no tissue is nearby, or keeping a healthy distance from others when sick, there are good habits that can help keep the cooties away and result in healthier and happy kids. Here are quick health tips to teach kids to help stop the spread of germs:

When should kids wash their hands?

Go-getting women with high powered jobs and salaries to match might appear to have it all. But results of a new study suggest that, unwittingly, these twenty and thirty somethings are reducing their chances of having children by doggedly pursuing demanding careers.Professor Elizabeth Cashdan, an anthropologist at the University of Utah, believes that the pressures that come with the superwoman lifestyle are to blame for hormonal and body shape changes that might affect fertility. The result? When it comes to starting a family, many women struggle to conceive.

In her research, published in a recent issue of the journal Current Anthropology, Cashdan found that career women were less likely to be curvaceous with the waspish waist and hourglass shape long associated with fertility and, instead, displayed the more masculine, straight-up-and-down figure that is less conducive to child-bearing.

With work stress and the drive to succeed, Cashdan says, comes a shift in hormonal balance that leads the female hormone, oestrogen, to be replaced by androgens, a class of hormones that includes testosterone and that are associated with strength, stamina and competitiveness.

Crucially, Cashdan says, this appears to affect a woman’s waist to hip ratio (WHR), a formula derived by dividing someone’s waist circumference by her hip measurement. Classic Marilyn Monroe types with large breasts and narrow waists typically have a curvy WHR of 0.7 (ie, their waist is 70 per cent of their hip circumference) which has been linked in numerous medical papers to optimal fertility. One 2004 study in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society suggested that women with hourglass figures had about 30 per cent higher levels of the female reproductive hormone, estradiol, compared with other body shapes and that, as a result, they were roughly three times more likely to get pregnant

Large-breasted and narrow-waisted women have also been shown to have higher levels of oestrogen and progesterone, other female hormones linked to fertility.

But when Cashdan analysed the WHR of women from 37 different populations and cultures, she found their average WHR to be above 0.8 – that’s less Sophia Loren or Jessica Alba and more Keira Knightley – a ratio that makes it harder to conceive.

“Although the hormonal profile associated with a high WHR may favour success in some stressful and difficult circumstances where women must work hard, there are well-known costs,” Cashdan says. “Women may suffer lower fertility and possibly lower attractiveness to men who may have an innate preference for curviness.”

Many of Britain’s leading infertility experts are unsurprised by the findings. “Certainly, at my clinics we see predominantly very successful businesswomen who do not have hourglass figures,” says Laurence Shaw, associate director of the London Bridge Fertility, Gynaecology and Genetics Centre and a spokesperson for the British Fertility Society (BFS). “They are very slim, very straight-up-and-down.”

Dr Martin Tovee, a psychologist at Newcastle University who has studied the influences on female body shape, says that it is determined by a number of different factors, but that being a go-getter could be one of them. “We know that if women over-exercise or diet obsessively, then their oestrogen levels drop and they become less fertile,” Tovee says. “So, potentially, working hard could affect fertility too.”

Super-skinny women who under-eat to stay that way have long been known to risk compromised fertility. Several years ago, Rose Frisch, an associate professor at Harvard School of Public Health, explained how too few calories and too little body fat triggers a woman’s brain to switch off her body’s ability to reproduce by gradually restricting the flow of a hormone called leptin.

There is what Frisch has described as a “razor-thin borderline” where a drop of just 3lb can tip a normal-sized woman into infertility without her realising it. She may continue to menstruate, but might not ovulate during her cycle. If body-fat falls much lower, then amenorrhoea occurs when the menstrual cycle simply stops.

However, Cashdan’s findings suggest that career women can become infertile even if they don’t lose excessive weight. The very androgenic hormones that underly the women’s professional mettle are also responsible for transferring fat from hips to waist. And the more fat that settles on her belly, the lower her level of female hormones such as oestrogen. “What is at issue here is not overall body weight, but its distribution,” Laurence says. “The new study suggests that these driven women with high-achieving Type A personalities have a lesser oestrogenic state, which doesn’t favour their chances of conceiving.”

The stress of some women’s lifestyles also plays a significant role. In research at Emory University’s School of Medicine in Atlanta, Professor Sarah Berga of the department of gynaecology and obstetrics, has shown how stress often triggers a cascade of events that result in reduced levels of two hormones crucial for ovulation. Women with hectic jobs on top of busy lives, she says, are most at risk.

In one of her studies, Berga found that women who didn’t ovulate had excessive levels of the stress hormone cortisol present in their brain fluid, often due to trying to squeeze in too much work and exercise. “Your brain is hard to fool,” Berga says. “If you are under-eating, overworking and over-exercising, then the hypothalamus – the part of the brain that controls the release of hormones – keeps a running tally of what you are doing.”

Around 20 per cent of women who are infertile have problems with ovulation, and lifestyle factors, including anxiety and stress, are often to blame.

Berga found that talking therapies, such as cognitive behavioural therapy, could reverse stress levels and boost the chances of a woman getting pregnant. But, she stresses, it is not just a case of telling career women to “pull themselves together”.

“To the observer these women actually look very well pulled together,” Berga says. “Many don’t report feeling stressed and will even say that everything is just fine. But they may have unrealistic attitudes about themselves and others. Often they think that they can do more work than is realistic, and their sense of worth depends upon their achievement.”

If a woman takes her foot off the pedal, it can certainly help. Laurence says that, ultimately, her sensitivity to oestrogen is determined when her oestrogen receptors are established during puberty. You can’t change what you are given, he says, but good nutrition, a balanced exercise plan and fewer hours spent getting stressed can pay off.

“Oestrogen makes someone relaxed, calm and thoughtful, the perfect state in which to become pregnant,” he says. “It is no biological mystery that so many studies have shown men are drawn to women who are curvaceous and have a narrow waist, indications of health and fertility.”

Vital statistics

A study of 6,000 women by researchers at Northern Carolina State University found that just 8 per cent of females now have the sort of hourglass figure flaunted by 1950s film stars

A 2007 survey of 9,000 British men and women at University College London (UCL) revealed that, since 1951, the average bust size has increased by 2in to 39in and hips by a further 2in to 41in. However, waistlines have increased a massive 6.8in, meaning that women no longer go in in the middle.

Last year, Dr Devendra Singh from the University of Texas analysed 345,000 texts to confirm that the Western male’s preference for a slim-waisted woman has been generally constant throughout the centuries A 2004 survey by researchers at UCL and the London College of Fashion showed that 20 per cent of women now have a pear-shaped figure (with hips larger than their bust), whereas 46 per cent are cylindrical or straight-up-and-down.

Exercise for Children

Like adults, kids need exercise. Most children need at least an hour of physical activity every day. Regular exercise helps children

• Feel less stressed
• Feel better about themselves
• Feel more ready to learn in school
• Keep a healthy weight
• Build and keep healthy bones, muscles and joints
• Sleep better at night

As kids spend more time watching TV, they spend less time running and playing. Parents should limit TV, video game and computer time. Parents can set a good example by being active themselves. Exercising together can be fun for everyone. Competitive sports can help kids stay fit. Walking or biking to school, dancing, bowling and yoga are some other ways for kids to get exercise. An increasing number of children are obese, and if no intervention is made, 80% of them will stay overweight as adults. This can put them at risk for many medical problems, including diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and sleep apnea. Obesity can also adversely affect their self-esteem. An important way to help your child with weight loss, maintaining a normal weight and develop healthy habits is to encourage him to participate in regular physical activity. This can include participating in a physical education class in school or extracurricular sports at school or in the community.

Warming Up

To prevent injury, it is important for your child to warm up before exercising. This should include about five minutes of light activity, such as walking, calisthenics (jumping jacks, bending, knee lifts), and stretching.

Exercising

After warming up, your child should perform fifteen to forty minutes of a regular exercise each day. This can include fast walking, jogging, biking, roller blading, running, swimming, jumping rope or group activities, such as playing soccer, hockey, volleyball, baseball, basketball, or football.

You should also encourage regular physical activity as part of your child’s regular daily routine. This can include:

• Walking or riding your bike instead of driving for short distances.
• Taking a walk with a friend or walk the family dog each afternoon.
• Using stairs instead of escalators or elevators, especially if you have to walk out of your way to find the stairs.
• Parking your car at the end of the parking lot and walking to the entrance of the mall or grocery store.
• Chores, such as doing yardwork or housework.
• Family exercise: go for routine family walks or bike rides in the neighborhood or local park

Cooling Down

To prevent injury, it is also important for your child to cool dcalisthenics (jumping jacks, bending, knee lifts), and stretching.

The Importance own after exercising. Like the warm up, this should include about five minutes of light activity, such as walking, of Getting Kids to Be Active

Everyone knows that kids should be physically active and need to exercise regularly to be physically fit.

Whether they are overweight or at a healthy weight, regular physical activity is considered by most experts to be an essential part of a healthy lifestyle.

When most adults think about exercise, they imagine working out in the gym on a treadmill or lifting weights.

But for kids, exercise means playing and being physically active. Kids exercise when they have gym class at school, soccer practice, or dance class. They’re also exercising when they’re at recess, riding bikes, or playing tag.

Fun fitness activities to keep kids healthy and Fit!

The lifestyles of today’s youth have undergone enormous change. Television, computers and video games have replaced many of the physical activities children once enjoyed. So when we discuss our children, we often hear words like ‘obesity’, ‘heart disease’, ‘high blood pressure’ and ‘diabetes’.

Fitness seems to have taken a backseat when it comes to the modern child. Our kids are becoming victims of inactive, unmotivated, unhealthy lifestyles and their health is deteriorating.

Benefits of Exercise

Everyone can benefit from regular exercise. Kids who are active will:

• have stronger muscles and bones
• have a leaner body because exercise helps control body fat
• be less likely to become overweight
• decrease the risk of developing type 2 diabetes
• possibly lower blood pressure and blood cholesterol levels
• have a better outlook on life

Besides enjoying the health benefits of regular exercise, kids who are physically fit sleep better and are better able to handle physical and emotional challenges — from running to catch a bus to studying for a test.

The Three Elements of Fitness

If you’ve ever watched kids on a playground, you’ve seen the three elements of fitness in action when they:

1. run away from the kid who’s “it” (endurance)
2. cross the monkey bars (strength)
3. bend down to tie their shoes (flexibility

Aerobic exercise can be fun for both adults and kids. Examples of aerobic activities include:

• basketball
• bicycling
• ice-skating
• inline skating
• soccer
• swimming
• tennis
• walking
• jogging
• running

 Exercise Equals Fun

Getting America’s children to exercise has never been more difficult as the new boob-tube generation slouches in front of TVs, or sits for hours, mesmerized behind shoot-out video and computer games.

However, it is possible to foster a regular exercise pattern for children from an early age, with simple activities that are more “fun” than “exercise.

The regular interval in jumping rope pumps the heart steadily, and is an efficient form of aerobic exercise.

Biking
Biking is another excellent way to get a child to exercise. From first learning on a tricycle to the celebrated arrival of the two-wheeler, biking is something that can be viewed as an achievement, as well as an easy way to increase a child’s physical activity. Biking helps children develop coordination, balance, work the back muscle groups that aid good posture, and build up leg muscles. Moreover, biking gives children an easy way to travel to their friends’ houses and assert independence–an added incentive that will get those legs, and lungs, pumping! As nine-year old Michelle Yuen says, “I love riding my bike. It’s so much fun. I ask my mom, and then I can bike down to my friend’s house.”

Rollerblading
Bikes aren’t the only wheels that kids can use to rev up their heart rate. Rollerblading is an activity that can be done indoors, and out, and an activity the whole family can join in. Whether in an indoor skating rink, or just playing by the sidewalk, rollerblading is an activity that is fun for the children and healthy as well.

A Walk with Fido
Another exercise that can be performed daily by a child is none other than the traditional walk with the dog. Jogging, or even walking at a brisk pace, with the dog, floods the body with endorphins and a slew of other health benefits related to exercise. Bring along a stick to throw to Fido, and the workout has becomes even more intense. What’s more: walking the dog everyday is a sure-fire way to maintain regular exercise, which is much more advantageous, in the long run, than intermittent exercising.

Yoga for Kids
Yoga has taken America by storm in recent years. From celebrity yogis like Madonna to stay-at-home moms, yoga has proven to be a way to tone and “center” the mind and body. Yoga is beginning to creep into the school gym programs, too. Just as many high schools throughout the nation have begun offering yoga as a gym option, many “yoga for kids” programs have sprung up as well. Yoga aims to tone the muscle groups, aid coordination, and improve flexibility through stretching. In addition, it has been said that a key principle in yoga, correct breathing, seems to alleviate stress in children.

Exercise that isn’t Exercise
Taking the non-traditionalist approach to exercising is just as easy. Children can help mom carry the groceries or walk with her to the drugstore. Whatever the case, mixing up a regular exercise pattern for kids helps them create a healthy lifestyle.

Meal Plan Ideas for Kids

Breakfasts

• Low-sugar granola. Can be served with milk, chopped banana, or diluted fruit juice.
• Cup of cornflakes with chopped apple and/or chopped nuts.
• Scrambled eggs on toast, perhaps with plain yogurt and berries.
• Oatmeal with raisins.
• Baked beans on toast with a small glass of whole milk.

Lunches

• Baked potato with tuna.
• Shepherd’s pie and green vegetables.
• Macaroni cheese and green vegetables.
• Chicken and lentil soup.
• Pasta with ham and peas.
• Tuna sandwich

Dinners

• Omelet with green beans.
• Lamb with small new potatoes lightly roasted (not fried) in olive oil.
• Tuna with pasta bows and vegetables.
• Pita bread with chicken slices and sliced sweet red peppers.
• Salmon fillet with mashed potato and ratatouille.
• Chicken and mixed vegetable casserole.

Snacks

• Cup of plain popcorn (home-made).
• Fruit and unsalted mixed nuts.
• Cream cheese on oatcakes and grapes.
• Smoothie made of milk and red berries.
• Unsweetened nut butter (almond is popular with children) on toast.
• Sliced carrots and celery with avocado dip.
• Fresh fruit salad with oat pancake.

Diet Advice for Kids

Talk to your child about the benefits of eating well and looking after their body. Health is generally not a priority for children so focus on other issues that are important to them. 5 A Day for Kids

One trick that often works for both fruits and vegetables is to find foods that your kids already like to eat, like smoothies, muffins, yogurt, etc., and find recipes that allow you to add fruits or vegetables to them, like banana .

The easiest way to get some fruit into your child is to switch from soda and fruit drinks to 100% fruit juice. Although eating whole fruit is better because it also has fiber, 4-6 oz of 100% fruit juice for children 1-6 years old and 8-12 ounces for older children is an easy way to ‘eat’ 1-2 servings of fruit.

Tips

• let your kids pick the fruits they want to eat when you go shopping
• mix fruit pieces in with yogurt or serve them with a dip
• make fruit smoothies
• offer a fruit salad, with a mix of watermelon, grapes, strawberries, etc. as a dessert or snack
• make a snack mix with raisins, nuts and cereal
• add chopped fruit, especially berries and bananas, to your child’s cereal
• try dried fruits
• mix in some chopped fruit with jell-o

Fruit isn’t usually the big problem though. Getting kids to eat their veggies is usually the bigger challenge.

Creative ways to get your kids to eat more vegetables can include camouflaging them in with other foods, like chopping up and mixing vegetables in with pasta sauces, lasagna, casseroles, soup, chili, omelets, etc. or adding veggie toppings to pizza. You can even find recipes for things like banana raisin pancakes, carrot beef meatballs or zucchini cookies, that your kids might enjoy.

It might also help to:

• offer chopped veggies with a dip, like ranch dressing
• serve vegetables as a stir-fry
• let your child help prepare the meal
• start a vegetable garden at home so your kids can eat the vegetables they grow or visit a farm or farmer’s market.

What about popcorn? Although often thought of as a grain, it is really just popped corn, which is a vegetable, right? Maybe. But popcorn is usually thought of as a starch or gain and doesn’t count as a serving of vegetables.

Getting kids to eat well, and especially eat fruits and vegetables is a challenge for many parents. To help prevent your child from becoming a picky eater, you should:

• start early by offering a large variety of foods to your toddler
• make mealtimes fun and don’t try to force your kids to eat things they don’t want
• look for creative ways to offer your kids fruits and vegetables

If all else fails, consider offering a multi-vitamin and talk to your Pediatrician.

Fruits and Vegetables

First of all, get your kids to help creating menus, shopping, and preparing food. They are generally more apt to eat when they have made some decisions about the meals. You, of course, can guide their decisions. Look for children’s cookbooks, which have kid-friendly recipes and basic cooking lessons.

In the summer, try to get your children interested in gardening. If they can see super sweet cherry tomatoes, strawberries, corn, or baby peas growing, then harvest them, that may get them more interested in vegetables and fruits.

You can try sneaking fruits and veggies into the foods you make, but I think it’s a better idea to try to get them gradually used to eating more fresh foods. I know that sounds like a challenge, but their taste buds need to be ‘trained’. Kids’ taste buds are far more sensitive than adults, and many kids have a very strong negative reaction to bitter flavors, making foods like spinach, brussels sprouts, and asparagus really unpalatable.

Nutritionists say that most children need to actually see a new food four to five times before they’ll even try it, so keep introducing those fruits and veggies. In our house when I was growing up, we had a rule: you had to taste every thing on your plate just once. Back then, I would NOT eat brussels sprouts or asparagus, even though I do like them now. Here are some more ideas:

• Try to focus on the sweeter ‘good for you’ foods, like strawberries, mandarin oranges, cherries, tomatoes, sweet peas, and corn.
• You can add some finely chopped fruits to gelatin salads, add some pureed sweet peas to guacamole, and serve tiny vegetables, like baby carrots and baby corn, with appetizer dips.
• I like using pureed fruits in desserts – even though they’re desserts, you are getting some nutrition into your kids.
• Finely chop carrots and mix them into spaghetti sauce.
• Make some fruit breads – banana bread, pear bread, and apple bread are all good.
• vegetables to the sauce. You can get some minced veggies into tuna or chicken salad as well.

First-Aid Essentials for Child Safety

Natural excitement and curiosity are normal and healthy parts of development, but they present special challenges for child safety. Children don’t usually spend much time thinking about how to stay safe and healthy. That’s mom and dad’s job. While scrapes and bruises are also a normal part of childhood, there are more serious threats, such as poisoning and burns. Keeping key first-aid supplies handy for common injuries is a great first step in a child safety plan.

 The Top Tips For First-Aid Essentials

1. Your local poison control number. Almost 80 percent of reported poisoning cases involve children, and most of those are among children age 5 and under. Haller recommends placing the phone number for your local poison control center in your medicine cabinet and on your refrigerator, and programming it into your cell phone. “The centers are open 24 hours a day and have a nurse on call who can tell you exactly what to do after you describe the situation,” Dr. Haller says. According to the Centers for Disease Control, in a life-threatening emergency situation, dial 911. If the victim is awake and alert, you can call your local number or the national hotline, 1-800-222-1222.
2. Pain relief medication. Child safety choices include acetaminophen (Tylenol) and non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin) or naproxen (Aleve). Monitor children’s dosages carefully. For instance, if they’re sick with a cough and congestion and you’ve already given them a medicine with acetaminophen (like a cold remedy), you don’t want to give them another dose of Tylenol at the same time.
3. An assortment of bandages. A two-inch-square sterile gauze pad can clean almost any wound, says Haller. In addition, have adhesive-free dressings, other sizes of sterile pads, or a roll of gauze for minor burns or kneecap scrapes. Tape and strip bandages in a variety of sizes work for cuts and blisters, and an elastic wrap like an Ace bandage is effective for sprains.
4. Soap for clean-up. “For most wounds, cleaning with soap and water is good enough,” says Haller. Always wash a wound before dressing it. You might also want to have an antiseptic solution or towelettes handy, and rubbing alcohol, which Haller says makes a good disinfectant.
5. Antibiotic ointment. Choose today’s gold standard, Polysporin, or the old standby, bacitracin. For a large open wound on a frightened young patient, you can put the ointment on the bandage pad, instead of directly on the injury.
6. Tweezers. Essential for the removal of splinters or dirt particles from a cut or puncture wound, tweezers should be wiped with alcohol before using. If possible, have both a pointed tip and a slanted tip pair.
7. Itch relief. Choose a few different formats to cover all itchy bases. Calamine lotion is still a soother for poison ivy and the like. Over-the-counter (OTC) hydrocortisone cream is great for dermatitis-type skin rashes and irritations, while an OTC antihistamine like Benadryl (a cold symptom and nasal allergy mainstay), is handy for an itchy initial reaction to a wasp or bee sting. If your child breaks out in hives and has any throat swelling, signs of a serious allergic reaction, call your doctor immediately.
8. “Instant” ice packs. These disposable packs don’t need to be kept frozen and are literally a snap to use to reduce swelling after an injury.
9. A tooth-preserving storage device. Should one of your child’s permanent teeth get knocked out by accident, a product like Save-A-Tooth will hold and protect it on your way to the dentist, improving the chances of it being replanting.
10.   A sterile eye wash. This is handy to flush out any dirt or foreign particles that get into the eyes.

Toss for Child Safety
Here are a few medicine chest items that can be cleared out to make room for the top child safety items:

• Ipecac (a poison treatment). “Ipecac is not recommended anymore,” says Haller. Not only can ipecac cause a number of side effects, it can also make the damage of certain harsh poisons worse. Each poison affects the body differently and needs a different treatment approach.
• Neosporin. This antibacterial ointment may cause redness or inflammation and has been largely abandoned in favor of Polysporin or bacitracin.
• Aspirin is not recommended for children, unless specifically directed by your physician, because of the risk of a condition called Reye’s syndrome.
• Expired products. Check your medicine cabinet every three months and get rid of products that have reached their expiration date. “It’s not that they become toxic, but that the components break down, so they’re simply no longer effective,” Haller explains. “If you notice that your product is only past the date by a week or so and you need it right then, go ahead and use it. Just make a mental note to replace it soon.” This advice goes for both over-the-counter and prescription items.

ots of words can describe kids. “Naturally exuberant,” “naturally active,” and “naturally curious,” are three phrases that Ken Haller, MD, associate professor of pediatrics at Saint Louis University School of Medicine, chooses to use.
 
Here are a few medicine chest items that can be cleared out to make room for the top

Child safety items
Ipecac (a poison treatment). “Ipecac is not recommended anymore,” says Haller. Not only can ipecac cause a number of side effects, it can also make the damage of certain harsh poisons worse. Each poison affects the body differently and needs a different treatment approach.Neosporin. This antibacterial ointment may cause redness or inflammation and has been largely abandoned in favor of Polysporin or bacitracin.Aspirin is not recommended for children, unless specifically directed by your physician, because of the risk of a condition called Reye’s syndrome.Expired products. Check your medicine cabinet every three months and get rid of products that have reached their expiration date. “It’s not that they become toxic, but that the components break down, so they’re simply no longer effective,” Haller explains. “If you notice that your product is only past the date by a week or so and you need it right then, go ahead and use it. Just make a mental note to replace it soon.” This advice goes for both over-the-counter and prescription items. Taking time to ensure child safety is important. With a carefully thought-out shopping list and a trip to your favorite drugstore, you can easily outfit your medicine cabinet for most of life’s little bumps along your child’s road to discovery.

Family Fitness

Fit families are healthy families who have an active lifestyle.  Frequently, they enjoy the things they do together, and the things they do together foster better communication and closer relationships than watching TV does.

Family fitness takes some parental commitment, leadership, and imagination, and you may have to listen to a lot of grousing and whining to start with, but the entire family will benefit as a result.  Five factors that affect your family fitness plan are cost, convenience, family-friendly environment, fun, and success.

Cost

Family fitness doesn’t have to be expensive.  Sure, you can drop a couple of hundred dollars or more taking the family skiing. But you can find a slope and sled down it on plastic trash bags for free.  Most communities have free or low-cost family activities at community centers or parks.  Check your local newspaper or parks and recreation department, and use your imagination to come up with activities your family can do together that don’t break the bank.

Convenience

Families are busy, and convenience is essential to a family fitness plan.  If you have to go through a lot of hassle or travel a long way on a regular basis, you won’t follow through.  Plan activities that you can do in your own backyard or neighborhood, like play Frisbee. You can also stay home to rake up leaves and jump in them, or make snow angels in the winter months.  If you join a club or team, make it one that’s convenient to get to, and one the entire family can be a part of. Joining a bowling league is a great way to keep the family involved.

Family-Friendly Environment

When you join a club or plan an activity, make sure your whole family is welcome.  It’s not much fun to look forward to an outing, and then discover that your kids are the only ones there.  You want an appropriate environment for young children, too, where they will be safe and not exposed to “adult” language or behavior.

Fun

Fun is the key to successful family fitness.  If everybody has fun, you’ll all want to do it again.  Ask the kids what kind of activities they enjoy.  You could even let them choose some family activities and help with the planning.  Have a family meeting, and come up with a list of activities your family wants to try. 

In addition to making sure your family fitness activities are fun, you can make sure your family fun activities center around fitness.  Take everybody miniature golfing for a birthday instead of having a cake-and-ice-cream party.  Celebrate Independence Day by going on a 10K walk together (which you’ll have to train for together).  Walk around your neighborhood at Christmas and enjoy the lights, or sing carols.  Bring fun and activity together as often as you can, and you and your kids will begin to associate an active lifestyle with having fun.

Success

Every member of your family needs to feel successful at whatever activities your family chooses.  They don’t all have to be good at the activity as long as they enjoy it and feel good about themselves doing it.  Family fitness can become an unhealthy competition that leaves less athletic family members feeling like failures, and that can defeat the purpose.  Choose activities that everybody can participate in and enjoy at least moderate success at.

When our families pursue fitness together, we benefit in other ways, too. Your kids will remember and treasure family camping trips, going swimming together, and having family snowball fights.  You’re building good health habits and good childhood memories at the same time, and the whole family is having fun doing it.

10 Family Exercise Tips

It’s 6:30 on a Friday night. You and your family just polished off a large pepperoni pizza and box of breadsticks. You’re ready to relax – watch a movie, take a bath or anything to celebrate the end of another week. As your family begins to scatter in all different directions, you glance outside and realize the day is far from over. Amongst groans, you persuade everyone to go outside for a walk.

Family Walks

This is the scenario Barbara J. Moore would like to see more of. She is the president of Shape Up America!, a national initiative designed to promote healthy weight and physical activity in America. The organization publishes a booklet called 99 Tips for Family Fitness Fun. In it, Moore says exercising as a family is a central focus. “Walking is a perfectly acceptable physical activity,” she says. “Strategies should be developed so that parents plan to go walking with their kids.”

Moore says family walks are traditional across Europe, but it’s not emphasized in the United States. “It’s something we need to think about more because of the problem with obesity in children and certainly in adults as well,” she says. Moore agrees families are often busier in today’s society, but she says it shouldn’t be used as an excuse not to exercise.

Two Problems, One Solution

Barry Kipnes was a physical education teacher and basketball coach in Massachusetts for more than 30 years before he retired a few years ago. Over the years, Kipnes noticed a decline in the amount of time families spend together. He knew about the obesity epidemic in America among adults and children and thought there had to be away to address the two problems together. “I thought we could choose fitness and activity as a vehicle to bring families together,” he says

He wrote a 31-page pamphlet entitled, Family Workout Booklet to show families how to adapt a family fitness program. Most of the booklet is devoted to show families how to set up a fitness program of their own. “It’s not just to say the words,” he says. “I want the family to find a common bond to exercise together.”

A Word About Cost

Michael Spezzano is a national health and fitness consultant with the YMCA. He says places like the YMCA cater to the family, but family fitness doesn’t necessarily have to involve a health club membership. “It doesn’t have to cost anything,” he says. “It could be going to a local park or playing a sport together. It could be going on hikes or biking. It’s just spending time together.”

Family fitness classes can work, but the class needs to be designed with the family in mind, Spezzano says. For example, he doesn’t suggest families take children into an adult-oriented exercise class. Instead, families should look for parent-child classes that have incorporated the family fitness element.

More says many families face the dilemma of being too busy to be active with kids, but the issue is too important to be ignored. She says children learn from example and parents need to take the initiative to make exercise a habit for the entire family. “This is a critical issue,” she says. “This is a health issue for kids and it’s a health issue for adults. Strategies need to be developed.”

Best Tips to a Healthier Family

1. Parent-child classes: Check out your local park and recreation department or fitness facility for family-fitness classes. Parent and child fitness classes like yoga and kickboxing are popping across the country. If you can’t find one, talk to someone at these facilities and let them know you’re interested. It could lead to one being created.

2. Swimming: Find out when open swim time is at an area pool. University, high school and community swimming pools usually have open swim times for the public. The price is usually minimal and swimming is a good exercise for the entire family.

3. Join a gym: Many fitness facilities will allow older children in the weight room or on the exercise equipment with parent supervision. Make sure to join a family-friendly facility, which usually has parent and child activities.

4. Martial arts: Check out the area martial art facilities and sign up to learn karate, judo, etc. as a family.

5. Let your kids help make the decision. Children are more likely to participate in something if they are involved in helping pick it out. Instead of telling them what you’re going to do as a family, let them help make the decision.

6. Cycling: It’s time to dust off your bicycles and find an area riding trail. It’s inexpensive and provides great exercise.

7. Walk: It sounds simple, but walking is really an easy activity families can do together. Walk around the neighborhood or go to an area park. If you get ambitious, try hiking.

8. Television: Use the television to your advantage by buying a fitness DVD. There’s plenty on the market to choose from and you can do it as a family.

9. Hold one another accountable. Create a chart to track your family’s progress. If it’s out in the open where everyone can see it, you are more likely to encourage one another to succeed.

10. Reward yourself. Set a goal and once you achieve it, do something to celebrate. For example, if your family makes a pledge to exercise five out of seven days for the next 12 weeks, reward yourself once you reach the end. But remember to reward your family in healthy ways. Spend the night at a hotel with a pool. Plan a special hiking trip. Go to a hands-on museum.

Health and Nutrition – How to Eat Healthy

Nowadays, more people are overweight and facing other serious health problems. One of the major causes of encountering these health issues is with the type of food they eat or their pattern of eating. As they converge upon the demands of their daily routine, it could be their work, school, business, etc., they will come to the extent of listing out their nutritional well-being as one of their top priorities. And the common reason for that is they are always on the go, and can’t spare time to think long about what food should they eat. They will end up consuming more processed food since they could easily grab and eat those. You will see a lot of people sitting in the fast food chain or cafeteria and just keep on ordering without giving much care with the quality of food they are eating. If you are one them, then you should start keeping an eye to your health and nutrition to avoid serious illnesses or diseases. In this article we will let you understand the importance of eating healthy and setting up your goals to a healthy living.

If you’re accustomed to healthy diets, the lesser y.ou are prone to diseases like heart problems, cancer, diabetes, etc. Healthy diet means you should know how to eat healthy because this is one of the most effective ways to fight overweight and obesity. Moreover, eating the right foods is also entailed with the right combinations at the right time. Getting into a healthy eating program will lead you to a year-round wellness no matter how challenging your time is or the lifestyle you have. With so much health and nutrition programs you see everywhere especially from the internet, it will be harder for to figure out which nutrition diet is true and effective. Here we will provide you the best health diet program ever which have been proven effective and guarantee you healthy living.

Now you are asking what are the right foods to eat? Here we will give you some healthy eating tips. You should eat unprocessed starchy carbohydrates, fibrous carbohydrates, lean proteins, low-sugar fruits and healthy fatty food which contain omega 3 that is good for the heart. Some people have misconception of eating food rich in carbohydrates as a one factor of gaining weight, but the fact is you need it because this is the main source of energy. The important thing to remember here is that you need to know what are the right carbs and they are what we call unprocessed carbs and fibrous carbs. Furthermore, eating lean proteins is vital in building and maintenance of your body such as your internal organs and the commonly your muscles. If you think all fatty foods are dangerous, that’s a fad. Your body needs healthy fats which helps your heart healthy. The trick here to choose the healthy fat and avoid eating food which contain dangerous fat.

If you are ready to learn the truth, our health and wellness program will guide you to a lifetime. We will provide you easy dieting tips, and the interesting part of it is you are going to eat often. We will teach you the balance of eating lean proteins, unrefined starchy carbohydrates and fibrous carbohydrates. In addition to that we are going to teach you the right times to eat, and you will eat more each day and become healthier than ever and combat obesity at the same time. If you are aspiring to keep your metabolic furnace hot and you must eat in order to do so. Isn’t it sounds great? If you are very sick of starving yourself, then we will give an end to that. You will surely enjoy our nutrition diet program. The New Body Blueprint ensures you will be casting off dangerous, unhealthy pounds, beating your cholesterol, protecting your heart, building your immune system, overcoming your depression, and staying lean and healthier more than what you wished for.

Getting Kids to Drink Healthy Juice

It is no secret that drinking fruit juice provides numerous health benefits. While juice is healthy for people of all ages, it is often most important for children. Natural, sugar-free fruit juices can help prevent the risk of obesity, and it can also support brain growth and development. In addition, the vitamins and nutrients found in fruit juices, especially juices from super fruits such as acai, noni, goji, and mangosteen, can help support overall physical and mental well-being. Unfortunately some parents find it difficult to encourage children to drink juice instead of less healthy beverages such as soda or sports drinks. Thankfully there are a few tried and true methods for getting even the pickiest of children to drink juice.

When trying to get children to drink juice, the most important technique is to simply make sure it tastes good. No kid is going to willingly drink something healthy if they think it tastes terrible. Parents can find countless recipes for healthy juices that are geared towards children. Not only will such recipes make juice that supports the needs of growing children, but the juice the recipe makes will satisfy the tastes of children. When looking to purchase pre-made juices, search for brands that have lines designed especially for kids. These types of juices are often made from the super fruits but have additional ingredients to make the juice taste sweeter.

Another method for getting children interested in drinking juice is to involve them in juicing at home. There are many brands of home juicers currently available on the market. Because there are so many options, there is sure to be a juicer to fit any budget. Parents can use a juicer to make juice from nearly any fresh fruit they can buy. Not only are homemade juices healthier because they are made from fresh fruits and do not require preservatives found in many pre-made juices, children can also enjoy these juices more because they can help make them. Many children enjoy helping in the kitchen, and they will enjoy drinking the juice that they helped make.

The role of vitamins cannot be denied in the proper growth and development of children. We all study the issues and problems that specific vitamin deficiency can cause and probably have learnt that vitamin A is good for the eyes, deficiency in vitamin C causes scurvy and deficiency in vitamin B causes beriberi. But not many of us know that a vitamin deficiency can cause many other issues as well.
There are some studies that show that adequate amounts of vitamin B6 or pyridoxine are required to allow for normal brain development in children. Vitamin B ensures that brain chemicals like serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine are synthesized so that normal development of the brain can occur. A study proved that pyridoxine is more helpful than the most common stimulant that is used for brain disorders in certain cases. However, the issue is that these results were no significant and have not been replicated enough for it to be considered standard ADD treatment.

The American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry state that a megavitamin therapy that involves vitamins in excess of the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) can help with learning disabilities and hyperactive children. This is why. ADD and ADHD are probably caused due to low levels of the chemical dopamine. This is the brain neurotransmitter that allows people to feel good. It also activates the frontal lobes in the brain. Since the frontal lobe is the seat of most feelings, sensory perception and executive functions, it can be expected that when dopamine levels are low, they will cause a person to be unfocused and distracted.

To make dopamine, the enzymes made from DNA convert tyrosine and phenylalanine into L-DOPA in the presence of folic acid, Vitamin B3 and iron. A second enzyme converts L-DOPA into dopamine if adequate vitamin B6 is available. This dopamine converts to norepinephrine in the presence of vitamin C.

Dopamine deficiency can be cause by the environment, inadequate nutrition intake, food and air allergies, stress and genetic predisposition. And therefore given that the vulnerability of getting dopamine deficiency is high in the current environment of pollution, stress and junk food, it is pertinent that an adequate amount of vitamin be ingested for prevention and possible cure of child ADHD treatment.

Though an herbal remedy, such as BrightSpark, for ADD is also an option that you could choose among others like naturopathy and medication, intake of vitamin does not harm anyone. However, what should be kept in mind is that excessive amounts of vitamin intake should be done under the supervision of a trained physician or a nutritionist.

Clinical & Child Psychologist

Behavioral problems in children are common these days. The children throw tantrums, or do not listen to their parents, or do not pay adequate attention in studies, they do not eat properly or do not like to take the balanced diet and so on. Sometimes they love to throw stones on animals or they bully other children who are younger than them or they defy the authorities.

If this is the case then it may be a serious problem leading to conduct and opposition ally defiant disorders. We should keep an eye on them and if they are highly aggressive then we must seek psychological treatment for it. Such treatments include, ignoring, time outs, reward management, withdrawal of reinforcements etc.

If your child is throwing tantrums, ignore their behavior. If you are saying him or her even that “do not behave like this” then you are giving them negative attention. And the child knows that if he does that behavior then he would get attention from the authorities. So best technique is to not to give any attention to them. Similarly, if the child does not listen to you, give him a time out.

Time out is the technique of sending the person to the safe but uninteresting place where he has to sit their without doing any activities eg: asking your child to sit in the corner of the room facing the wall. You have to specify them that your time starts when you start facing the all, withholding all the activities. Then know the interests of your children and try to manage it terms of rewards eg: If your child likes chocolates then give him chocolates only when he gives the desired behavior.

Similarly, you can give tokens or stickers etc. to be exchanged for the rewards, defined beforehand. eg: One token could be exchanged with one “parantha” or two tokens could be exchanged for one favorite T.V. show, seven tokens could be exchanged for an outing and so on.

Actually, the selection of the technique depends upon the analyses of behavior according to the ABC model.” A” means antecedent so it is the cause of the behavior. “B” means behavior itself and “C” means the consequences resulting from that behavior. The basic conceptualization is that if we remove the causes itself we can improve or modify one’s behavior eg: if two children are talking in the class then changing the environment itself i.e. changing their seats. This is called as environmental manipulation changing the cause of the behavior and manipulating it. The another method is to change the behavior itself, eg: giving them something that interests them more than talking .The third step is changing the consequences itself e.g. talking behavior followed by a time out. Thus understanding the basics of behavior we can manipulate the antecedents, behavior and consequences. These practices could be applied with the help of a psychologist to modify those behavioral problems.