Lead a Fit and Healthy Life
Parenting/Family
Getting sweaty is not feminine and other myths
01 week ago
What can we do as parents and mentors to encourage and support young girls to embrace physical fitness? I don’t know about you all, but I know for a fact that women do sweat! Feminine, girly, frilly women – they do. I have seen women in the gym – leaving sweat angels all over the place. I like to say “clean up on aisle 2″ when I see a pool of sweat and have said it for many of women. These women clean up nicely too.
What is it about girls and puberty that they start to lose interest in so many things that will help them further along in life — math, science, fitness. They lose their self esteem, confidence, belief that they can do anything. They can do whatever they are willing to work for — just like the boys that sit next to them in class.
I let the fear of being sweaty go a long time ago — it happens, we are human and my kids, seeing mom and her friends rolled up in a ball of sweat at the end of a hard workout helps the cause. Maybe that’s the key – as parents we need to show our kids that we fit fitness in, no matter what is going on. We get sweaty, sore and spent — Walk the Walk, Talk the Talk…
Studies Show that Gym Classes May Make Women Hate Exercise
Forty-eight percent of girls surveyed said that “getting sweaty is not feminine”– and almost a third of boys surveyed agreed, according to a report in the Telegraph. Fifty-seven percent of girls agreed that girls tend to drop out of physical activity because their friends do, and 76 percent of girls agreed that they feel self-conscious about their bodies; about a quarter of them feel like gym class forces them to put their bodies on display.
Apparently, the insecurity and self-consciousness continues into adulthood. A different study, released last month by the British mental health charity Mind, found that 90 percent of women older than age 30 are crippled by low self-esteem and body-confidence issues when they try to exercise in public.
Some try to get fit by exercising in the dark or wearing baggy clothing, but most tend to avoid outdoor activities entirely, their report found. Instead, 71 percent of the 1,450 women surveyed said that they were more likely to eat comfort food, 66 percent said they’d rather sleep, and 71 percent would rather find a way to be alone instead of exercise.
Life is so Short and Family so Important
01 week ago
This pic makes me smile. It’s my niece Amelia and Sis In Law, Janine. 2 people I would love to be able to spend more time with in my life. 
It’s hard when you live clear across the country. It’s definitely easier now with Skype but sad that I don’t get to be a regular part of their lives. Life is so short and family so important — Hannah’s 5 year plan to move out West is sounding more and more like the right thing to do.
But like everything else, it won’t happen sitting on my butt and wishing. It will take work, commitment and focus to make it happen. And it’s not just something I can do solo — it will take team to make it happen and that’s where the issue is. I am not sure everyone is on board with the plan.
The successful person makes a habit of doing what the failing person doesn’t like to do.
- Thomas Edison
Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Accordingly a genius is often merely a talented person who has done all of his or her homework.
- Thomas Edison
In the realm of ideas everything depends on enthusiasm… in the real world all rests on perseverance.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Long shots do come in and hard work, dedication and perseverance will overcome almost any prejudice and open almost any door. John H. Johnson
Today’s workout was a good one. Deadlifts and Pull Ups, 2 moves I love! I love when I look at the workout for the day and smile because it’s going to focus on my strengths.
Warmup
1 lap
2x–
Inchworms
Bear Crawl
10 Squats
10 Push Ups
Skill
Rolling Out Hamstrings
Roman Deadlifts
WOD
It’s a Ladder!
15 DL
15 Pull Ups
12 DL
12 Pull Ups
9 DL
9 Pull Ups
6 DL
6 Pull Ups
3 DL
3 Pull Ups
Time: 7:57 at #155/#135
And if you want to know if I am sore from yesterday’s workout, the answer is YES! YES! YES!
The Silver Fox
03 weeks ago
14 years ago today – I was in Vegas marrying my Silver Fox! The best and luckiest day of my life…
Kids are Getting Fatter!
31 month ago
Kids are getting fatter, and many will have to do some serious calorie cutting to avoid that fate as they grow up.
That’s the grim news from a new study that looks at how children have become heaver since 1971. It’s not news that the number of obese children has doubled since the 1970s, with 1 in 6 now officially obese.
What’s new is that these researchers calculated just how much less a child would have to eat on average to stop the trend towards obesity.
Let’s do the math.
According to this new study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, children and teens need to cut their calorie intake by 41 calories a day, to stop the weight gain trend. Otherwise, children and teens will weigh about four pounds more across the board.
Read more at NPR: Kids Will Have To Cut Serious Calories To Halt Obesity Trend
Road Trip with Purpose
01 month ago
by Stephy
in Parenting/Family
What a spring break it has been — Lots of beautiful weather, down time, time spent with the kids and hubby, cleaning and a road trip. I can’t forget the 2 days I spent in bed tackling whatever bug knocked me down. I am ready to get back into the routine of my life — there is something to be said about slow and steady without a ton of drama.
We decided last minute to take a road trip to NJ/NY to see my Mom. She was supposed to go to San Fran to spend Passover with my 4 brothers and sisters and family but cancelled last minute because she hasn’t been feeling well. I know it probably was a very tough decision for her to make, so we made a family decision to head there to lift her spirits and check in on her…
My Mom lives alone in NJ and it worries me. None of her kids live nearby so we don’t know what’s going on with her day to day. She’s not old in the true sense of the word but she is at the age when she should slow down to enjoy life — My mom is the type of person who if not busy, she isn’t enjoying life. It’s the way she has been all her life — over achiever, amazing determination and a bit of crazy. All the ingredients one needs for success really. She’s an amazing woman, but one that is stubborn as all hell.
We want her to move out of her house and de-stress a bit and live closer to at least one of her 5 kids. Her house is almost 100 years old, in NJ, requires alot of upkeep. All the things that she could do without at this time in her life. She keeps stalling all of us saying she is working on getting it all ready to sell — she refuses to acknowledge that she has said that to us for 20+ years! But, what can you do really — she’s a grown woman, pays her own bills, isn’t crazy in the legal sense — she is staying put until she wants to move. Period.
I’m not one to tell someone what to do — I know my Mom well enough by now and telling her what to do ain’t gonna work. I just don’t get the WHY. Why would she want to live so far from her family? Why would she not want a nicely maintained, easy place to live? Why wouldn’t she want to de-stress her life? I am hearing from many of my friends that we are all dealing with parents like this now. We are mid 30-40′s and our baby boomer parents are aging whether they like it or not. My kids want my Mom to live closer.
I am more worried about something happening and no one being around to help out — I am at least 4+ hours away and it’s not super easy for me to just drop everything and head out there to help. It weighs heavy on my mind right now — and the fact that there isn’t much that can be done to make a change in the situation. She will move when she wants to or HAS to –but not before.
A few of my brothers and sisters don’t seem to understand that about my Mom. They want to offer help but the way they are doing it only turns her away –she pretends to listen and does her own thing. My sis, Dee and I know my Mom real well — we are the youngest which afforded us certain experiences with my Mom that my older siblings did not. It has a lot to do with the way my Mom grew up. She will not be told she can’t do something — and her home and stuff represents something: probably independence. I don’t want to appear that I get my Mom because I don’t – but I do know what her buttons are and telling her she can’t do something or even what to do is definitely one of them.
I’m just sharing my thoughts – there isn’t much more I can do except keep my eye on her and do what I can to encourage her to pack it up and head on out towards us! We would welcome it.
Getting Back to Nature
01 month ago
I had a great day yesterday. The weather was perfect, I am off from work and I spent a large part of the day with my kids, outdoors being active. We went to Great Country Farms and just ran around, climbed on things — got back to nature! It was such a great day and we were all pooped at the end of it.
I can absolutely still feel the effects of the workout from Monday — my abs are killing me, but in a good way. Today’s workout wasn’t an ab workout per se, but with each movement I could feel Monday’s WOD. Goes to show you that every working is an AB/CORE one if you are doing it right!
Warmup
1 lap around building
x2
25 ft inchwork
25 ft walking lunges
25 ft broad jumps
Skill
Mobility work
KB Swings
WOD
Five rounds for time of:
- 40 Double-unders
- 30 Box jumps, 24 inch box
- 20 Kettlebell swings, 1.5 pood (russian swing)
time: 21:06
I started off doing Double Unders, but by round 2 I was gasping for air and realized that the air was just super thick, so I switched to 3:1 single jump ropes. Sometimes you have to do what you gotta do!
Get Your Kids Outside and Moving!
11 month ago
Too Few Kids Getting Outdoors With Mom or Dad
Nearly half of all U.S. preschool-age children don’t get outdoors at least once a day for parent-supervised playtime, researchers reported Monday, causing concern among experts who say early exercise habits could protect children from obesity later in life.
Many children might not be getting enough outdoor exercise because of barriers faced by single parents and families with two working parents, said Dr. Pooja Tandon, a pediatrician with the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development at Seattle Children’s Research Institute, who led the research.
…The good news, Tandon said, is that “these young children are naturally programmed to be active if given the opportunities.”
Tandon’s study, which appeared online Monday, on the website of the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine, was based on parental surveys from a national study of nearly 9,000 U.S. children, a sample size representing about 4 million children. The children, all born in 2001, were followed for several years and their parents, usually mothers, were interviewed several times, including the year before their children entered kindergarten.
Along with finding that 49 percent of children were not getting outdoors with a parent at least once every day, she and her colleagues from the research institute and the University of Washington found that those youngsters whose parents took them outdoors to play tended to be boys, children with lots of playmates and those whose parents were exercisers.
Children more often fell short of recommended exercise if their mothers were Asian, African-American or Hispanic, although the study didn’t delve into the reasons. “Being physically active is good for your brain, for your learning,” Tandon said in an interview.
Previous research, she said, has found that hyperactive kids with wandering attention do better after they have had nature breaks, which seem to make it easier to return to class, sit down and refocus.
When you Know Better, you Do Better!
02 months ago
by Stephy
in Parenting/Family
Here are 2 articles aimed at us parents! We give so much of ourselves making sure our kids have the right education, the right extra activities — how about we start with making sure they get exercise and eat healthy? Pay special attention to the 2nd article and the 4 things many of us are doing wrong when it comes to helping our kids learn to eat properly. I am guilty of those things myself — awareness is the first step in fixing it….
Proven: Kids Get Smarter Just from Doing This One Simple Thing
An extensive review of relevant research has demonstrated that the more physically active schoolchildren are, the better they do academically.
Researchers analyzed 14 studies, ranging in size from as few as 50 participants to as many as 12,000.
All of the studies involved children between the ages of 6 and 18.
Education For Parents: 4 Things You Are Doing Wrong
One of the advantages of being an adult is that you can make choices by yourself, to decide what is good about you an what isn’t! What happens if despite of your desire to change, there is something stuck, somewhere deep inside your unconsciousness, which is resisting the positive transformation? Why is that unconscious denial? No will? Bad goals? Or maybe, truth is somewhere far away in our past, dug in our childhood?
If we realize it or not, most of our habits and the following behavior are formed in our childhood. Our unconscious is a powerful “engine”, which controls our reactions, feelings and behavior! Could we influence our unconsciousness, so it could be under our control, but not vice versa?
Probably you couldn’t guess what is on my mind, and because I do not want you to get bored, I will get more specific! More often than not I meet parents that decided to lead healthier life. That is a wonderful thing, but what bothers me is their approach to their children’s nutrition! How often do you hear “ Oh, I do not eat pizza, but I am taking one for my son!”; “ I just cooked a delicious healthy dinner, but now I have to prepare some fries for my children!”; “ I love eating fruits and vegetables, but my children consider them tasteless, that is why I have to prepare some cookies for a dessert!”…
Parents are those that are supposed to educate their children. When you habituate them to be good,caring and honest to treat others well, you could try harder and teach them to respect and love themselves and their own health! It is a fact, that the habits from our childhood, accompany us throughout our entire life. A change is always possible but it is a really hard thing to do!
Do you remember how hard it was for you to give up on soda or your grandmother’s pumpkin pie? What about the pop corn in the cinema? Or the ice cream after the hard day at school or at work? Is that what you’d like for your kids? Do you want to condemn them to a similar future? Do you want them to feel the way you did, when you were trying to get rid of the bad habits? I doubt it!
If your child is eating junk, don’t blame commercials, or “the better tasting” ice-cream, pizza or you name it. The fault is all yours! Yes, you read it right-YOURS! There are always side factors, which are making an influence, but as you could educate your child to respect people, even when there are a bunch of arrogant and bad people out there, you could also teach them to love tasty, real, nutritious, healthy food!
Childhood Obesity
02 months ago
What every family needs to know about childhood obesity
A recent study by FIT — a partnership between WedMD and Sanford Health — found parents would rather talk to their children about sex, drugs and alcohol than their child’s weight issue. In fact, the study found parents of children ages 8-17 admit to avoiding the weight conversation altogether.
Until recently, many parents didn’t think childhood obesity was a problem, said Kim Lederhaus, pediatric nurse practitioner at Affinity Health System in Neenah.
“I think that a lot of times they thought that this would just kind of cure itself as (children) grew up and kind of grew out of the condition and thinned out,” Lederhaus said. “I think it’s hard because a lot of parents didn’t really know it was an issue and now it is more of an issue, and a lot of the parents might be obese themselves. For them to start broaching the subject with their child makes them also have to take on the fact they may also have the same issue their child has.”
But, simply put, childhood obesity, which affects nearly one in three children, is dangerous and is a topic that needs to be addressed for the health of children and families.
Be the Change you wish to see…with your kids!
02 months ago
Parents: Save Obese Kids by Getting with the Program Yourselves
COMMENTARY| The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, or so we’ve heard for years. It’s a generalization, of course, but most axioms that persist contain a grain of truth. As it turns out, apples and grains might just be part of the solution to nipping childhood obesity in the bud: A recent study indicates that if parents work on their weight, their kids are more likely to become healthier and, yes, less likely to be obese.
This shouldn’t be a surprise to most folks. For years we’ve heard it’s important to model the behavior we wish to see in our youngsters… it goes to follow that the same applies where their diet is concerned.
The study, made in conjunction with the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the University of Minnesota, looked at the habits and environment surrounding obese kids. Kerri N. Boutelle, associate professor of pediatrics and psychiatry from UC San Diego and Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego, notes that parents’ own weight loss “was the most important predictor of child weight loss.”
It makes sense. If parents eat more salads instead of french fries, take the stairs instead of the elevator, and keep healthy snacks instead of Cheetos in the kitchen, their kids will learn from their example. More than that, if Mom and Dad emphasize that healthy living is fun and preferable to wheezing and sitting on the sidelines while everyone else is having fun, their children are more likely to adapt similar viewpoints. They’ll see their parents as success stories, and, the way children do, will learn from their parents’ example. Unfortunately, it works with negative behaviors, too.
