Tag Archive for ‘healthy choices’ at themojocoach.com

Tag Archive for 'healthy choices'

Becoming Fit and Healthy-It’s a Family Affair

Published on August 11, 2011 in General. 0 Comments

One of the most important reasons for parents to get themselves feeling, looking and living their best is for the sake of their kids.

Did you know that in 2010, about 50% of all kids were overweight! At this point 1/3rd of their diets consist of nothing but junk food. Add to that “portion distortion”, fast/takeout food and inactivity and you’ve got a recipe for unhealthy kids.

The first suggestion I give moms (who handle 90% of food tasks) is to set a good example. There simply is no better way to get the message across to kids.

Encouraging moderate portions of well balanced meals (protein/carb/fat), variety and eating every few hours to discourage being overly hungry are a few places to start. Kids can also be included in some of the shopping and food preparation details. When they’re included, they’ve more likely to buy into the idea of its importance.

You may also want to reconsider family style eating. It’s great to stay at the table enjoying each other’s company but family style typically encourages seconds. Instead of putting all of the dishes on the table, try putting all of the dinner items on each plate and bringing only the plates to the table. If the goal is to create better habits, find ways to enjoy heaping servings of conversation, not food.

For exercise, encourage activity-again using yourself as an example. You can also encourage your child to find an activity they enjoy (if they like it they’ll do it). It can be something simple like playing outside, dancing, walking the family dog (or in my crazy case-4 dogs ) or enrolling in a team sport or intramural program at school if one’s available.

Whether in the form of better food choices, healthier habits or adding fitness to the family routine, the key is to make “lifestyle fitness” a family affair.

What do you do to keep your family fit and healthy? I’d love to know, comment and share!

Debi Silber, “The Mojo Coach”
www.TheMojoCoach.com

Going Organic With Your Fruits and Vegetables

Published on April 15, 2011 in General. 0 Comments

For those considering a more organic lifestyle, here are a few ideas to help you on your way. First, a brief explanation…

One of the greatest differences in organic fruits and vegetables lies in how the food is grown, handled and processed. Because organic foods aren’t treated with preservatives and waxes you may find that organic fruits and vegetables spoil more quickly than nonorganic varieties. Organic fruits and vegetables also aren’t sprayed with herbicides and pesticides, which leaves a residue on the food and is also something many people want to reduce their exposure to for health reasons.

Why are organic varieties often more expensive than nonorganic?

Organic farming methods are also designed to conserve water and soil while reducing pollution; making organic foods more environmentally friendly. But, while these methods encourage the growth of fruits and vegetables free from herbicides and pesticides, it often means that the farming method is more labor intensive which increases the price of the food.

If you’re interested in shopping organic and there’s a limited supply at your local supermarket, here’s where you can find local farmers markets, organic foods and community supported agriculture near you. Check out http://www.localharvest.org/ to find out what’s being grown and harvested near you.

Here are a few tips to reduce the amount of pesticides in your produce if you’re not buying organic varieties:

Rinse, gently scrub or peel the fruit or vegetable to reduce the amount of residue that may be on the skin. Keep in mind that you may lose some nutrients this way however because many fruits and vegetables contain valuable nutrients found within the skin.

These fruits and vegetables have been dubbed the “cleanest” so it’s usually safe to go nonorganic when choosing these fruits and vegetables:

onions
avocado
frozen sweet corn
pineapples
mango
asparagus
frozen sweet peas
kiwi
bananas
cabbage
broccoli
papaya

The dirty dozen:

If your budget allows for only a few organic purchases, these fruits and vegetables (known as the “dirty dozen”) are the most heavily impacted by herbicides and pesticides so it’s best to go organic with these:

peaches
apples
sweet bell peppers
celery
nectarines
strawberries
cherries
pears
imported grapes
spinach
lettuce
potatoes

As with any lasting change, it’s got to fit in comfortably to your lifestyle for it to work. Can you swap one of your current nonorganic choices for its organic version? Can you try to make an extra effort to wash your produce when you bring it home? Can you simply try to eat more vegetables…no matter what type they are?

Slow, simple steps become new, healthy habits once you have a plan. Have you been eating organic fruits and vegetables or are you ready to try? I’d love to know, please let me know!

Debi Silber “The Mojo Coach”
www.TheMojoCoach.com

‘Tis the Season to…gain weight?

Published on December 3, 2009 in General. 1 Comment

With the holidays upon us, one of the ways many of us will be celebrating is by indulging in the high fat/high calorie foods that seem to define the season.

Big dinners, cocktail parties, cookie exchanges, candy canes, chocolate, celebratory lunches and happy hours fill our days and nights during the final weeks of the year. Many of these foods signify that the holidays are here and, of course, we’ll want to indulge in all of the special foods and sweet treats that surround us. For some, certain foods bring us right back to the comfortable place where we originally feasted on them. For others, it’s simply an excuse to put our healthy eating aside until the New Year.

If this is your game plan, you may just enter the New Year with the “gift” of an extra few pounds by the New Year. Since larger clothes are probably not on your wish list, how can you enjoy the holiday season guilt free?

One way is by pre-planning your holiday eating. You’ve heard the saying “If you fail to plan then plan to fail.” That’s certainly the case when it comes to holiday indulging. There is a way to include those special foods and treats in your holiday eating as long as you have a strategy. Since you may be headed to a few holiday parties, here’s a game plan you can use.

Let’s say you’re headed for a cocktail party. First of all, you never want to arrive hungry. Over hungry means overeating so a small snack before you go can ensure that your judgment stays in tact and you’ll make better decisions once confronted with all of the holiday goodies. For example, an apple or container of yogurt (both around 100 calories) can spare you from overindulging in thousands of calories of hors d’oeuvres.

The next strategy for a cocktail party involves drinking. Pre plan the number of drinks you’ll have and stick to it. These are liquid calories which go down quickly and easily so choose wisely. For hard liquor, keep it to a drink or two, alternating with glasses of water. For wine, use the same idea or switch to wine spritzers to cut the calories in half. There’s also the option to drink seltzer, which looks like a “real” drink so no one will question you, if that’s a concern. Finally, try envisioning each drink as a chocolate milkshake. Pictured this way, you may want to reconsider having more than one!

The next strategy involves keeping your hands busy. You can hold your drink in one hand and have a plate of vegetables in the other. You also may want to try the “clutch trick,” purposely bringing a clutch bag as opposed to one with a strap. This ties up the hand that could be grabbing unhealthy appetizers! Of course, you may want to enjoy some of those appetizers so if that’s your plan, limit yourself to a few of the most delicious looking ones and enjoy them thoroughly. Give yourself permission to savor them so that each bite isn’t eaten with a side of guilt. Also, when you’ve given yourself permission to eat a set amount (let’s say three or four), you’re much less likely to binge later on because you feel good about keeping with your plan.

If the party involves a sit down meal, only eat what’s special for that holiday. For example, let’s say for Christmas dinner there’s a delicious looking stuffing on the table that you want to try along with other types of breads and rolls. Since a rolls are something you have on any regular night out, skip them to allow for a taste of that special stuffing. By having what’s unique for the holiday, you’ll feel a part of it without “stuffing” yourself!

Finally, if you’ve overdone it, apply the three to one rule. That means, for every one thing you’ve overindulged in, make the next three choices healthier and better balanced. For example, a meal that’s over the top needs to be balanced with three moderate meals. A food choice that’s high in calories and fat can be balanced with three more healthful options.

With a plan, you can enjoy the holidays without the “leftovers” on your belly, hips and thighs. By putting some strategies into place now, you can have a New Year’s Resolution that’s different from the millions of other women who will be making a pledge to lose the excess weight that they collected over the holiday season!

Too many Treats?

Published on November 1, 2009 in General. 2 Comments

First, I hope you had a wonderfully fun Halloween and that your kids enjoyed dressing up and seeing all of their friends in costume. Now that the excitement has settled, you may be faced with a huge pile of candy and wondering what to do with it. Maybe you are thinking, “They’re kids, it can’t be THAT bad for them.”

Let me share some frightening statistics from the International Journal of Pediatric Obesity (a problem so large that it has its own Journal!)

Childhood obesity is the greatest health risk our kids face today
By the year 2010 (that’s next year) it is expected that 50% of all children will be overweight
This is the first generation where kids have a lower life expectancy than their parents

We’re spending billions of dollars on healthcare and our kids are unhealthier than ever. What’s going on here?

One thing that’s going on is that the average American child’s diet consists of one third junk food. Snacks, candy and other prepackaged foods, desserts filled with far and sugar make up a large portion of their daily intake. And I’m not just talking about special occasions like Halloween and Christmas. This is every day. All day.

The “food” that kids are eating is nutrient void but dense in calories. The lowest quality calories that you can find. These are the choices that are placed at a child’s eye level in the grocery store, and not by accident. Ads for these high-sugar, high-fat, low-nutrition foods air during your children’s favorite TV shows. The commercials for these foods are filled with bright colors, music, action and the promise of something special.

An additional issue is that, as a nation, we are suffering from “portion distortion”, and this includes our children. They are learning to super-size, and purchase “economy size” and “value sized” meals themselves. They are constantly being bombarded with unhealthy food choices and learning that “bigger is better.”

And then the problems of low-quality, high-volume eating are compounded by an increasingly sedentary lifestyle. Think back to when you were a kid. Chances are you played outside with the neighborhood kids after school until it became dark. Kids today come home from school and many of them spend the rest of the afternoon and evening in front of the TV or a computer screen.

So here’s a troubling equation for you:

Sedentary Lifestyle + High Fat/High Sugar Foods + Huge Portions =

Overweight Kids

Now some kids have the opposite problem, instead of being sedentary, these kids have no down-time at all. They’re being shuffled from one activity to the next day in and day out. What are they eating during all of this “shuffle time”? For many moms, the easiest solution is either grabbing fast food to eat on the run, or grabbing some snacks for the kids to eat in the car. See where I’m going here?

In our well-meaning attempts to give the best to our children, we push the limits until the only possible way to get everything done is to cut corners. These corners frequently impact the food choices we make (for ourselves and our kids) when our lives become hectic and out of control.

So another bad news equation (we seem to be on a math kick!):

Overbooked Kids + Overstressed Moms + Convenience Foods = Overweight/Overstressed Kids

Let me give you an embarrassing example of overplanning gone horribly wrong.

Before I understood the importance of a sane lifestyle, downtime and reduced stress, I had my kids enrolled in anything I could sign up for. From the minute they finished school until the minute they were all sleeping, every minute was planned. We had to be at a game, practice, or event every evening, often doing homework in the car on the way. Very often I’d have at least one of my four children crying because they just wanted to be home playing.

One day, I grabbed some chicken nuggets to “feed” them during our shuffling. As we drove from one activity to the next, I started flinging chicken nuggets over my shoulder to my kids in the middle and back rows of my SUV. I was in a panic because we were running late, and the kids were crying because they were tired from all of the running around, and my aim was so bad that no one could “catch” their dinner as it flew past! When I finally took a moment to think about it, I cringed at my behavior.

That was my daughter’s last day of soccer practice. She doesn’t miss it and we haven’t veered back into that overplanned life since.

Take a look at how your lifestyle impacts your kids and see if it’s contributing to the development of unhealthy habits. Consider making changes that make healthy choices and a sane lifestyle part of the plan for everyone in the family. From stocking the snack cabinet with healthy choices, to making a plan to sit down as a family for a real dinner on a regular basis, to planning activities that get you all away from the TV for a few hours, you can make sure your kids start off on the right foot building a healthy lifestyle.

Do you have some examples of how you have worked to build healthier habits into your family routine? Any tips for keeping the holidays fun without an overload of treats? Please comment or drop me a note to share your thoughts – I always love to hear from you!