Teach Your Children Healthy Eating

The incidence of childhood obesity in the United States has grown considerably in recent years. Between 16 and 33 percent of children and adolescents are obese. Obesity is one of the easiest medical conditions to recognize, but often, one of the most difficult to treat. Overweight children are quite likely to become overweight adults unless they adopt and maintain healthy patterns of eating and exercise. One of the best ways to help children adopt good eating habits is to start teaching them about cooking at an early age.

Involving kids in meal preparation encourages healthy eating habits and introduces them to the value and importance of nutritious, balanced meals. Elizabeth Pivonka, a registered dietician with a doctorate, heads Produce for Better Health Foundation, the nonprofit entity behind the "Fruits & Veggies — More Matters" national public health initiative. Pivonka says the kitchen can be a great place to stir up some fun while teaching healthy habits. As a working mother of two, Pivonka understands that getting kids to eat healthy fruits and vegetables can sometimes be a challenge. "Kids can help by measuring, mixing or gathering ingredients while you cook," she says. "If kids help with the cooking, they are more inclined to eat what’s on the table. At my house, we make meal planning and preparation a family activity."

You can even start toddlers out helping you “cook” by using toy food, pots, pans, and bowls to copy what you are doing. Older preschoolers can help by measuring ingredients and stirring, and grade school kids can prepare simple non-cooked recipes or use the microwave with proper supervision. A simple microwave baked potato, cut open with a table knife and topped with cooked broccoli and cheese is fun, will empower them and give them a sense of accomplishment. Start educating your children about healthy eating at an early age. Getting them into good eating habits early on will go a long way towards keeping them happy and healthy the rest of their lives.

Take a little extra time at the grocery store with your kids educating them in the produce section. Tell them “This is the most important section of the store” and get them involved in picking out the fresh ingredients you will be eating. Make a game of trying something new and take turns picking out a new fruit or vegetable every week to try then get them involved in it’s preparation.

If you are an overweight adult yourself and are not well educated about healthy eating, start learning now and take steps on a weekly basis to educate yourself and your children. It is said that the best and easiest way to learn something new and retain the information, is to teach it to someone else. Learn about one seasonal fruit and one seasonal vegetable a week, trying one cooked and one uncooked recipe. You will be amazed at how much knowledge and experience you will gain over a short period of time. You may not enjoy all of the foods or all of the recipes you try, but keep the ones you do, and soon you will have a repertoire of healthy recipes you enjoy. Best of all, you will be teaching your children healthy eating habits and a healthy lifestyle that will stay with them the rest of their life!

Learn about the Junior Leagues Kids in the Kitchen

Are You Feeling a little Sluggish after the Holliday Food Fest?

The Holidays are over and it is time to make a Fresh start as a Part-Time Vegetarian. 

Are you experiencing eating remorse?  Did you give in to your darkest eating desires and eat way too many Meats, Sweets and Treats over the holidays?  Are you feeling Guilty about your Holiday Food Indulgences?  Do you feel the need to put your body into Depriveaty because of your Depravatey? 

Part-Time Vegetarians realize that we naturally have ups and downs in our eating patterns.  It has been part of the natural weight cycle of humans for many millenia to put on a little extra weight in the cooler months.  This extra weight is padding to insulate us from the cold and fuel for the extra work our bodies need to do (shivering) to keep warm.  Your body is perfect now and it will be perfect when you shed that extra weight over the next few months and return to Perfect Health in Body, Mind and Spirit.  The time for indulgence and feasting is over.  It is now time to gently return yourself to your Part-Time Vegetarian "Path to Healthier Eating".

The first thing you may want to do is flush out some of the extra toxins and fats you probably over-consumed, so be sure you are drinking plenty of water to aid that natural process.  Secondly, get 10 minutes of some fairly strenuous exercise 2-3 times this week and work up a good sweat.

If you are in a snowy climate, you are in luck, you may be able to shovel some snow.  Just take it slow if you are not used to a little healthy exercise and don't hurt yourself.  It can even be something as simple as 10 minutes of jumping jacks.  It may feel and look silly at first, but you may find them fun and liberating!

Be gentle with yourself and feel the health returning as the oxygen penetrates all the way down to the cellular level.  The toxins will quietly seep out the pores in your skin and float away down the rivers of your blood to be naturally processed and eliminated.  Your body will Love you back for the care you are giving it.

When it comes to cleansing and detoxification, there are many foods that could be considered "Super Foods" to aid the process.  Number one, of course, is drinking plenty of clean pure water.  Here are a few more you may want to try:

• Fresh Fruits and Fruit Juices - After water, fruits and fruit juices are your best daily choice for detoxification.  Beginning your day with a fruit and yogurt smoothie or some fresh squeezed seasonal juice will support your body to continue the detoxification process started while you were sleeping.  The fiber in fruit and live cultures in yogurt will aid in healthy digestion which is part of the detoxification process.  The natural sugars and enzymes in fruit are easy to digest, and will give you an energy boost to get your day started.  I always try to get 2-3 of my daily servings of fruit at breakfast.
  

• Raw Vegetable Juice - Vegetable juice is a great detoxifier, especially if it is raw.  Juicing your own locally grown seasonal organic produce is the best way to go. 
• Yogurt and Kefir - The "Healthy Bacteria" in yogurt, lactobacillus bulgaricus and streptococcus thermophilus, help promote a healthy intestinal tract which is the main highway to elimination of toxins and waste in your body.  Both yogurt and kefir aid in lactose digestion.  Kefir is a product which is relatively new in the American market, but has been drunk in Slavic countries for centuries. It may help reduce serum cholesterol and can possibly prevent mutagenic and oxidative damage in the human body
• Kombucha -  Kombucha is a fermented tea drink which is chock full of living probiotic organisms like Lactobacillus bacterium and Saccharomyces Boulardii along with active enzymes, Amino Acids, Antioxidents, and Polyphenols which can help restore your body's balance and vitality.  It is very potent, so I reccomend drinking only 8 ounces a day and only for short periods of time.   
• Green Tea - Some chemicals in green tea have been found to boost production of a group of key detoxification enzymes and may help some people strengthen their metabolic defense against toxins capable of causing cancer. The chemicals, known as green tea catechins, boosted production of the enzymes, which belong to the glutathione S-transferase (GST) family.  GTS enzymes are believed to be crucial to the body's defense against cancer-causing chemicals and other toxins, according to the study’s lead investigator, H.-H. Sherry Chow, Ph.D., a research associate professor at the University of Arizona. They modify the cancer-causing molecules that would otherwise damage cellular DNA, thus rendering them inert. “They actually convert known carcinogens to non-toxic chemicals, and studies have shown a correlation between deficient expression of these enzymes and increased risk of developing some cancers,” Chow said.

Continued small changes in your diet will keep you on the path to Optimal Health and Wellness.  Being a Part-Time Vegetarian means enjoying all food in the right moderation, Loving your body with Healthy Food to the degree you are able to at this point in your Life, and continual improvement in health and wellness at your own pace without guilt because you know that "Health is a process and you are in it for the long term."  I sincerely wish you all the Health, Wealth and Happiness you deserve in the New Year!

"Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day."

~ Jim Rohn

"Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live."  ~ Jim Rohn

"One-quarter of what you eat keeps you alive. The other three-quarters keeps your doctor alive." ~ (Hieroglyph found in an ancient Egyptian tomb.)

"Our Health Care system has become a Disease Care System."  
~ Barack Obama