Sunday, August 25, 2013

10 Ways to Stay Active as a Family

Despite the seemingly infinite benefits that physical activity has for your health, most people are not very active. Statistics from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) state that just over 20 percent of adults are meeting recommended physical activity guidelines for both aerobic and muscle-strengthening physical activity! Those guidelines recommend at least 2.5 hours of moderate-intensity activity, or 1 hour and 15 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity a week, plus muscle-strengthening activities two or more days a week. This trend extends to kids, too – only one in three US kids are physically active every day. It’s clear that many families also feel there aren’t enough hours in a day to spend quality time together, between work, school and other obligations, so it makes perfect sense to make your family time active time as much as possible. This way, you’re spending time together while also boosting your fitness and modeling a healthy lifestyle for your kids. When kids are involved you’ve got to get more creative … and more fun! 1. Go on a Scavenger Hunt - Make a list of challenges (find an orange leaf, get a neighbor’s signature, snap a photo of a playground, etc.), split your family into teams, set a time limit and then head off (on foot or on bike) to see who can complete the most items. 2. Have a Water Day - Tossing water balloons, splashing in a pool and running through a sprinkler in the backyard are fun ways to stay cool and active on a hot summer day. 3. Set ‘Mileage’ Goals for the Weekend - Decide as a family how many steps, or how many miles, you want to travel over the weekend, then have fun trying to reach the goal. You can use pedometers to measure steps taken while running errands, going on hikes, playing tag and more, and can challenge the family to increase your goal each weekend. 4. Wash the Car - Washing the car uses key core muscles and can be a fun, bonding experience, especially if you take time to cool off with the hose, too. 5. Family Olympics - Get together with a group of families and compete in events like hula-hoops, 50-yard dash, relay race, basketball shoot, and an obstacle course. You can even make it an annual event! 6. Family Fitness Classes - If you like a more structured routine, try a fitness class designed for families, like stroller workouts, mom/dad and baby workouts or family yoga. 7. Do Chores Together - Vacuuming, washing windows, weeding the garden, raking leaves and even doing laundry work your muscles and burn calories while teaching your kids the value of responsibility. Make chores fun by setting a time limit and turning up the music while you work together as a family. 8. Plan Seasonal Outdoor Activities - Swimming, biking, canoeing and hiking are great in the summer, while sledding, ice skating, building a snowman or skiing are fun – and great for your fitness goals – in the winter. 9. Play Together - Tag, hide-and-go-seek, hop scotch, doing cartwheels and dancing in the kitchen are so much fun you won’t even realize its exercise in disguise. 10. Try Out Family Sports - A backyard game of softball or volleyball, shooting hoops or taking a trip to a golf course give you quality time as a family while staying active. You Can Even Stay Active on Your Family Vacation! Whether you’re going to grandma’s house for the weekend, planning a trip abroad or even having a “staycation,” family getaways are another opportunity to fit in fun activities that promote fitness. While on vacation, try: walking tours, museums, zoos, theme parks, collecting seashells, jogging, walking on the beach, power walking in the airport terminal, using a hotel gym, snorkeling, hiking, volleyball, bicycling, or exploring. What Will Your Kids Gain by Staying Active? Leading a physically active lifestyle is a good habit to instill in your child from an early age because the sooner you do it, the better. Keeping kids active is a superb way to increase learning, focus and even test results. As many of you reading this have likely experienced, if your mind is feeling cluttered or you're having a mid-afternoon slump, a brisk walk or a quick workout can give you a renewed sense of clarity and focus. This is certainly true for kids and teenagers, too. There are a multitude of short-term and long-term health benefits your child can gain from regular physical activity, including: reduced risk of diabetes and pre-diabetes, improved sleep and mood, stronger bones, reduced restlessness or hyperactivity, decrease symptoms of ADHD, improved immune system function, weight loss and increased energy. What Will YOU Gain by Staying Active? The benefits that kids receive extend to adults as well, although as you age you’ll begin to reap the benefits of a lifetime of exercise in the form of better mobility, muscle mass and brain power. One of the primary benefits of exercise is that it normalizes your insulin and leptin levels, with the secondary benefits of weight loss and normalization of blood sugars. These basic factors in turn cascade outward, creating a ripple effect of positive health benefits, which include: improving your brainpower and boosting your IQ, lowering your risk of heart disease and cancer, building strong bones, lowering blood pressure, reducing insomnia, losing weight, relieving pain, improving mood, fighting depression, increasing energy, acquiring fewer colds, lowering risk of diabetes, and slowing down aging. Limiting Screen Time is a Key Part of Staying Active. Once you’ve committed to staying active as a family, you may notice that the time you all spend sitting in front of a computer or the television naturally decrease, and this is a very good thing. More than two hours a day of screen time is associated with increased emotional and behavioral difficulties, regardless of the time spent exercising. According to one study: • Children who spent more than two hours a day watching TV or using a computer were 61 and 59 percent more likely to experience high levels of psychological difficulties. • Children who failed to meet physical activity guidelines, were 70 percent more likely to experience high levels of psychological difficulties. • This risk increased to 81 percent for children who used a computer for more than two hours a day while also failing to meet recommended exercise guidelines. **So remember that it is imperative to limit your child's TV, computer, and video game time in addition to encouraging your child to spend more time doing various forms of physical activity. Source: mercola.com, 8/25/13.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Singing Happy Birthday Makes Cake Taste Better

If you want to make your food taste better, and more thoroughly enjoy the experience of a meal, it may be as simple as performing a ritual first, according to new research from the University of Minnesota. Singing ‘Happy Birthday’ before eating birthday cake is one example, but the beauty of this finding is that it works for healthy food too. There are simple strategies you can implement today to get more enjoyment out of your food. Ritualistic Behavior Enhances the Enjoyment of Eating, Improves Flavors of Food If you’ve ever wolfed down a meal while working, driving or engaging in another task, you probably didn’t feel too satisfied afterward, and this is partly because you didn’t take the time to sit and savor your food. Along these lines, researchers conducted a series of experiments to test whether performing a simple ritual before eating makes the food more enjoyable, and in each case, the answer was ‘yes.’ • Participants who broke an unwrapped piece of chocolate in half and ate one half before unwrapping and eating the other half rated the chocolate more highly, savored it more, and were willing to pay more for it than those who ate it however they wanted. • Those who waited to eat carrots after performing a small ritual enjoyed them more than those who had no delay. • Simply watching someone perform a ritual, such as making lemonade, was not effective at improving its taste, which suggests personal involvement in the ritual process is key. How You Can Harness the Power of Rituals The researchers concluded that rituals may have such an impact because they force you to become more involved in the experience at hand: “Rituals enhance the enjoyment of consumption because of the greater involvement in the experience that they prompt.” Rather than simply eating a bar of chocolate, for instance, stopping to feel the texture in your hands, breaking it into smaller pieces and waiting to savor each bite slowly is likely to enhance your enjoyment, even allowing you to feel more satisfied by eating less chocolate. Of course, this should work for other foods, too, like a bowl of steamed broccoli or a handful of nuts or berries. It’s not so much the food that matters, it’s the ritual beforehand. So you could try shaking the nuts in your hand before eating them, or placing your berries in an attractive dish first to make them taste even better. This might also mean that as you take steps to prepare your food, such as making homemade fermented vegetables, the preparation ‘ritual’ will enhance your enjoyment of them, providing extra incentive to spend more time in the kitchen (a major benefit for your health!). This also helps explain why certain foods seem to taste so much better at certain times of the year, such as on Thanksgiving or other holidays that involve long-held traditions. This can backfire, too, though, if you’ve become accustomed to watching TV while you snack on chips, for instance. In this case, breaking the ritual may help you to break your reliance on an unhealthy food. Giving Thanks Before Eating One of the most rewarding rituals you can do before a meal is to stop and give thanks for your food. Not only might this make your food taste better, but also people who are thankful for what they have are better able to cope with stress, have more positive emotions, and are better able to reach their goals. People who give thanks before they eat also tend to eat more slowly and savor the meal more so than those who do not, lending a natural transition to mindful eating. Being Mindful When You Eat Practicing "mindfulness" means that you're actively paying attention to the moment you're in right now. In terms of eating, this means you’re focused on your food and you’re really taking the time to chew, taste and savor each bite that goes into your mouth. Mindless eating would be the opposite. Similar to engaging in a ritual beforehand, being mindful when you eat forces you to slow down and makes you feel more connected and involved in your eating experience. There are other ‘side effects’ too, as when you eat slower you give your brain time to register that you’re full, so you’ll likely eat less. Taking the time to thoroughly chew your food also allows you to absorb more nutrients from your food, helps you maintain a healthy weight, allows for easier digestion, and leads to fewer digestive issues like gas and bloating, all while allowing you to actually taste your food before you swallow… a novel concept if you’re used to eating on the run. Using Rituals to Establish Healthier Habits Rituals can be extremely powerful in all facets of your life, especially if you use them to help create healthful habits. For instance, if you want to start getting to bed earlier, washing your face and brushing your teeth can be the ritual you use to trigger your earlier bedtime. Another example would be to spend time journaling, meditating, sipping herbal tea or even changing into loungewear when you come home from work as a ‘ritual’ to de-stress from your day and switch gears into relaxation mode. Getting back to eating, a simple ritual like lighting a candle or two and setting your table can signal to your family that it’s time for a meal together. Saying grace or giving thanks before you eat, as mentioned, is another ritualistic way to enhance the enjoyment as you eat. The opportunities to harness the power of rituals are truly endless, and only you can determine which rituals will be the most meaningful and productive in your own life. Chances are you have quite a few rituals already, and taking a few moments to create more is a simple way to live better. Source: mercola.com, 8/8/13.