Health Risk and Healthy Tips for Children.....

Obesity increases a person's risk of illness due to diabetes, stroke, heart disease, hypertension, high cholesterol, and kidney and gallbladder disease.

5 Ways to avoid Obesity and Maintain a Healthy Weight......

• Exercise.    Walking the family dog, cycling to school, and doing other things that increaseyour daily level of activity (at least 60mins. A day)

• Reduce screen time. Don’t become a couch potato……Put down the remote and those unhealthy snacks and increase your physical activity…….

• Watch out for portion distortion. Avoid sugary beverages, such as sodas, juice drinks, and sports drinks.and choose smaller portions and go for water or low-fat milk instead of soda.

•  Eat 5 servings of fruits and veggies a day.   Fill up on fruits and veggies and you would less likely overeat when it comes to high-calorie foods like chips or cookies. 

•  Don't skip breakfast. Boys and Girls imagine you are a car. After a long night of sleeping, your fuel tank is empty. Breakfast is the fuel that gets you going so you can hit the road.

Information was obtained from:
http://www.nourishinteractive.com/parents_area/family_kids_nutrition_healthy_eating_tips
http://www.mypyramid.gov/kids/index.html

Strive for 60 minutes of exercise a day!

It's easy to get 60 minutes of exercise a day.  It doesn't matter what you do, you just have to be active.  Staying active will help you feel good and give you lots of energy. Try one of these fun activities.

• Walk your dog or a neighbor's dog
• Fly a kite
• Toss a Frisbee 
• Ask your parents to take you to a state park where you can take a nature hike
• Ride your bike
• Skate
• Rake the yard or pull weeds
• Play tag
• Have a hula hoop contest, and see who can keep the hoop up the longest
• Learn to juggle
• Jump rope
• Visit the zoo, amusement park, or museum (lots of walking)
• Wash the car
• Shoot hoops
• Play soccer
• Play softball
• Have a water balloon fight
• Put on your bathing suit and run through the sprinkler
• Go swimming (never without an adult to supervise!)
• Give the dog a bath. The bigger the dog, the more exercise you'll get!
• Do jumping jacks 
• Play miniature golf 
• Go bowling 
• Play touch football 
• Learn hip-hop dancing 

Click here to find more ways to exercise

Try this fun workout

 

Try some of these other helpful exercise tools!

• Take the fitness challenge! (Game)
• Have fun with a pedometer (Count your steps, your goal is 10,000)
• Map out a bike ride or jogging loop 
• Find out how many calories you burn while exercising
• Learn how to exercise with resistance bands (Video)

 

5 great diet tips for kids!

Here are 5 great tips to help with a healthy diet!

 

-    Try to eat 4-5 servings (roughly, a handful) of fruits and veggies each day. This will give you necessary vitamins and help you not get sick and live a long, healthy life! The more colorful, the better – examples such as dark green leafy veggies like spinach and kale are packed with fiber and essential vitamins (A, K and folate) These nutrients help with your eyes, skin, immune system, etc. Examples such as citrus fruits and berries are great because they are packed with Vitamin C, boosting your immune system as well as serving as antioxidants (aids in cancer prevention).

-    Try to make breads and pastas “whole grain” – typically says it on the packaging and the product may appear darker. These options will help you stay full longer as well as providing your body with increased essential nutrients (mainly B complex vitamins), help to prevent forms of coronary heart disease as well as aiding in healthy and regular digestion.

-       Try to drink 2%, 1% or skim dairy options instead of whole milk and full fat yogurts and cheese. This will keep your calories down but still give you an ample source of Calcium and Vitamin D for strong bones! Nutrients within dairy also aid in growth and development as well as creating and maintaining a healthy skeletal system throughout life.

-       Try to limit sweets and candy. These are considered “empty calories” and typically are converted directly into stored fat. These options can also create a short-lived “sugar high” effect as an individual’s insulin is spiked, and shortly dropped to a “low” where energy is completely depleted.

   -  Try to limit fast food options (i.e. McDonalds, Wendy's, etc.) - these tend to be calorically dense and essentially void of nutrients, challenging on your digestive track as well as packed with saturated fat and grease.

Facts concerning appropriate nutrients in the "food pyramid"

Food Journaling

Did you know by writing down what you eat each day can help you see how much you are eating?  A study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine in July of 2008 shows that keeping a food diary may help you lose TWICE as much weight.

Click here for a printable worksheet to track your grains, fruits, veggies, movement and more!

At each meal, just grab a piece of paper and pencil and write what you plan to eat or what you have already eaten. This makes it easy to see if you ate your fruits and veggies! Food journaling also helps you keep yourself in check and helps you to set goals and goal setting is important because it helps you stay motivated.

Click here for a printable worksheet to help you stay focused and motivated! Fill in each day with what you ate at each meal.

Try setting a goal for yourself. It could be that you want to eat a fruit or veggie at every meal, or that you want to drink 2 glasses of water at every meal. Whatever your goal is, help reach it by writing down the food you eat to see if you have reached your goal by the end of the week!

Some websites for the older kids to help journal are Spark People or My Calorie Counter . These websites list calories and other nutritional information to help you track your food, or, for the younger kids, you can click here and print out this worksheet.
Good Luck!