The Blog

by Tim Kissman

Good news for cyclists came out of the state legislature in August. A bill sponsored by Sen. Michelle McManus, R-Lake Leelanau, gives a little more clarity to the right of way entitled to road cyclists. That’s right—a right of way.

As an avid cyclist who rides at least four days out of the week on the road, nothing is scarier, more aggravating, nor futile than having motorist refuse to yield space when passing. I used to chalk it up to ignorance, or just a lack of attention, but the more I ride, the more it happens and I can’t help but think that some drivers just don’t care that cyclists have a right to be on the road.

“There has to be a change of attitude between motorists and cyclists,” said McManus at a meeting of the Tri-County Bike Association, where she answered questions from cyclists about the legislation for more than an hour. “There has to be more education.”

SB 1224 establishes guidelines for bicyclists to safely use Michigan roads. Under the bill, cyclists can ride on the road two abreast of each other. They must ride in the right hand lane, except when they are passing another bicycle, turning left, avoiding obstacles, riding on a one-way street or going straight when the right lane is a turn lane.

The bill states that a cyclist lawfully riding on a sidewalk or crosswalk has all of the rights of a pedestrian and also gives appropriate instruction for parking a bicycle on the sidewalk, highway or street.

This essentially means that cyclists are entitled to ride on the road. And, for goodness sakes, give a wide berth when passing. By wide birth, and I think I speak for all cyclists here, I mean that a pass should be as far to the left as safely possible. Not, as it is in some cases, inches from a rear view mirror.

No matter how fast a cyclist pedals, they’ll never be as fast as a car, nor survive an accident. If you’re driving on the road and see a cyclist, or runner for that matter, slow down and give them space. While it hasn’t happened to me, I’ve heard other cyclists tell of frustrated drivers throwing objects out of the car at a bike, honking the horn or cutting sharply in front of a rider to prove a point.

Why? Being active and doing what you love to do shouldn’t be as dangerous as it is.

“I appreciate the problems that [cyclists] experience,” McManus added. “I had a lot of input from cyclists and learned a lot about the cycling community while drafting this legislation.”

Now, if we can get all drivers to take the time to learn about the risks of riding a cycle on the road, we would definitely be heading in the right direction.

If you’re looking for a great workout sign up for an area tennis class—it’s fun!

by Mike Fessel

As the weather starts to cool outdoor activities, it might be a perfect time to dust off that tennis racquet and head indoors for what could easily be one of the most cardiovascular beneficial sports in the world. Fitness and tennis, you see, go hand in hand—or should I say hand and feet. After all, if the feet aren’t moving then the hand won’t get that racquet to the ball.

It takes a lot of different body parts to play tennis. Your eyes have to see the ball, telling your brain to move those feet. That’s when the core is put into motion, the knees bend and the shoulders turn, then the arms make the swing. If you practice a lot, that swing turns into a great shot against your opponent.

There’s so much movement involved in this game that many call it the sport of life. Children generally begin playing when they’re four years old and, if they continue with the game, can play for their entire life. Our senior players are a great example. We have 80 year olds competing for national titles at United States Tennis Association tournaments. No matter how old you are, the movements that make up tennis always stay the same.

What’s great about this sport, too, is the workouts. There isn’t a lot of difference in training between amateurs and pros. Besides the talents that a pro would posses, we all run and move using the same muscles and we practice the same drills. The pros just move a lot faster and hit the ball a lot harder.

Simply playing the game with friends, or at your local club, or as part of a group, you will keep fit. It takes a tremendous amount of energy to move around a tennis court for a full game. Many times you don’t need a racquet, or expensive gear, to play. Call ahead to your tennis club and inquire about using their racquets and balls. Beginners and experienced players alike will find that the unique repetitious nature of tennis drills increase flexibility, movement, strength, coordination and ability.

So make plans to try tennis this fall. It’s a great workout and a game you can play for life!

New Year’s resolutions always seem to be a problem, don’t they? They always seem to start out with such steam, only to flame out later. But don’t get discouraged! This is the year where it could all change for a couple of lucky readers.

To help three individuals move toward a “healthy and fit” lifestyle, Weight Watchers of Western Michigan, Inc. and Healthy & Fit Magazine officially announce the 2007 Healthy Lifestyle Challenge!

Three readers will be selected as our “Healthy Lifestyle Challengers”. For six months each person will follow the Weight Watchers program, through weekly meeting attendance, to achieve weight-loss success, and will also receive personal training sessions from the YMCA of Greater Lansing and Iron Quest Fitness, as well as shoes from Playmakers, for FREE. Along the way, their successes and challenges will be featured monthly in Healthy & Fit Magazine.

At the conclusion of the challenge, to celebrate their success, each person will be treated to a makeover from Dr. Marcy Street, of Doctor’s Approach Dermatology and Laser Center and Med Spa, receive a professional photo shoot from Adams Modeling, an d will be featured in a personal success feature story published in the magazine.

Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?

For six months you could be put to the test for an ultimate lifestyle change that will create a new and improved you!

Here’s how to enter. Visit www.healthyandfitmagazine.com for a link to the contest’s registration form. You’ll need to fill out your personal information, complete a 200-word essay on why you deserve to be selected as a “Healthy Lifestyle Challenger” and submit a current photo of yourself. E-mail or mail the registration form, with your photo, to Healthy & Fit Magazine email address: ads@healthyandfitmagazine.com or by mail to Healthy & Fit Magazine, PO Box 26, Mason, MI, 48854. All entries must be received, or postmarked, by December 10. Winners will be notified by December 15.

So get that New Year’s resolution ready for 2007 and fill out your form. You could be one of our lucky readers to be selected for our Healthy Lifestyle Challenge. Enter today to get on the right track to a healthy lifestyle with Weight Watchers and Healthy & Fit Magazine.

by Richard Pojeta

Measuring your body composition shouldn’t require a post-graduate degree, yet today’s health clubs are throwing more acronyms at us then ever before. What do they all mean, and which are important for you to understand? Let’s sort through the science and the jargon and get to the facts regarding your body composition measurements!

BMI – Body Mass Index. According to the Centers for Disease Control, calculating your Body Mass Index is the easiest way to measure obesity. The BMI is a simple mathematical formula that only takes into consideration your body weight and height. Scoring above 25 on the BMI scale indicates obesity. Unfortunately, BMI does not factor in a person’s muscle mass or body fat percentage, so a very muscular athlete can mathematically be obese according to the BMI scale.

BF% - Body Fat Percentage. Measuring your body fat percentage goes beyond a simple mathematical formula. Several methods can be used, including measuring skin-folds, bioelectrical impedance, hydrostatic (underwater) weighing, and the most accurate method: autopsy. Unfortunately, we can not live through an autopsy, so we must rely on the other methods. The body fat measurements are accurate to within +/- 4%, depending on the proficiency of the clinician and the methods used. Health clubs and exercise laboratories can easily measure your body fat percentage; some methods may include a fee, depending on the facility you visit. According to the American College of Sports Medicine, a healthy body fat percentage for men, ages 25-35 is 12-18, for women ages 25-35 is 18-25.

LBM – Lean Body Mass or Fat Free Mass (FFM). This is a measurement of the amount of muscles, bones, organs, and fluids that are in your body. Your lean body mass is the portion of your body that is considered to be metabolically active, since fat is simply an insulator. When your body fat percentage is calculated, the remaining body weight represents your lean body mass. For example, a 150 pound person with a BF% of 22% would have 117 lbs of lean body mass (22% body fat equals 33 lbs of fat, with a remaining 117 lbs of lean mass). Increasing your lean body mass through resistance training will also increase your metabolism.

BMR – Basal Metabolic Rate or Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR). Your basal metabolic rate is the number of calories that your body will burn each day while at rest. For example, if you were to be lying in a hospital bed and only fed through a feeding tube, with minimal exertion, your body would require this number of calories (your BMR) to keep you alive and all of your organs, bones, and muscles functioning properly. As you add resistance training to your exercise regimen and increase your lean body mass, you can actually increase your BMR or ‘speed up’ your resting metabolism. There isn’t a pill on the market today that can truly increase your resting metabolism; most of those pills only speed up your heart rate. Your BMR value can be calculated using your lean body weight and your body fat percentage, or measured using various clinical tests. To measure your basal metabolic rate contact a fitness professional.

As Lisa Gnass pointed out in December’s “To weigh or not to weigh”, do not place too much weight on the scale. Simply measuring your weight loss does not accurately represent your success. Diets that focus on the scale lead people to actually lose lean body mass as well as fat mass. When you lose lean body mass, you will actually slow your metabolism, because when your LBM goes down, so does your BMR. In the long run, a slower metabolism will cause your weight to rebound and most likely that extra weight will just be fat. Hence the term “yo-yo dieting.”

My advice to you is to focus on your body fat percentage, lean body mass, and basal metabolic rate. By increasing your LBM which in turn will increase your BMR, and decreasing your BF%, you will build a strong foundation to make your “weight-loss” permanent.

Despite warnings from health officials, many Americans are still not aware of the flu as a potentially life-threatening disease, according to a recent survey by Kiwanis International, a global organization of volunteers.

Nearly half of the 1,052 Americans polled in the survey do not think the flu is dangerous, and the majority of them (65 percent) are not planning to be vaccinated. Of those not seeking a flu shot, the most popular reason is that they do not want to get sick from the shot — a common myth that health and service organizations aim to discredit.

“We hope that through education and encouragement, Americans will be empowered to take action against this contagious infection,” said Nelson Tucker, president of Kiwanis International. “By spreading the word about the importance of vaccination, Kiwanis hopes to foster healthier future generations.”

The survey also found that 63 percent of respondents think washing their hands is the best way to protect against the flu, while only 25 percent think the flu shot is most effective. In reality, getting vaccinated early is the most effective way to help prevent the spread of flu — which is why Kiwanis, together with Novartis Vaccines, has launched a nationwide program to promote flu education and vaccination. “THRIVE” (Tackling Health Risk of Influenza with Vaccination & Education) aims to help protect those at high risk from complications of the flu virus by increasing the number of people who get vaccinated.

While many may think the flu is simply a bad cold, it is actually a potentially serious disease that can be fatal for those at high risk. In fact, each year in the U.S. more than 200,000 people are hospitalized from flu complications and about 36,000 people die from flu.

In the 2003-2004 flu season, more children died from flu complications than from the chicken pox, whooping cough and measles combined. Because of
this increased risk for children, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its guidelines to recommend that all children aged six months to five years get vaccinated against the flu.

Flu season can begin as early as October and extend through May often peaking in January or February. For more information on THRIVE, visit http://www.kiwanis.org .

by Lynn VanDyke

What’s interesting about weight loss is that many people think that it’s just a process that begins when you make changes to lose weight and ends when you’ve lost all the weight.

However, if you’re not continuing with the changes that you’ve made, you might find yourself back at the original weight that you were. Instead of going up and down on the scale, here are ten secrets that you can use to keep your slim figure.

Weight training works – Studies have shown that people that have more muscle mass will burn more calories, even at rest. Because of this fact, you will want to incorporate some weight training into you maintenance plan so that as you increase your calorie intake, you’re able to burn them off without any gain.

Food journaling - When you write down what you eat, you will be able to control the amount of food that you are eating. Even if you only write down your food intake for a few days a week, keeping an eye on how you’re eating can help alert you of problems before they become pounds.

Daily exercise – When you want to keep the weight off, exercise will need to become a part of your life. However, this doesn’t mean that you need to workout for hours each day. Try to fit in thirty to sixty minutes of exercise each day to keep extra weight at bay.

Allow yourself treats – Life isn’t about deprivation, so neither should your new figure. When you’ve lost weight, you have learned about how much you needed to eat in order to cut back on calories. Once you’ve learned this, you can also learn to have a treat every now and then, enjoying it instead of overindulging in it.

- Look at making changes rather than dieting – When you’re looking to lose weight, the ‘sprint’ approach isn’t going to be a long term fix. You need to permanently change your eating habits in order to ensure that your weight stays at its new position.

Learn to make favorite recipes healthier – If you have a favorite cheesecake recipe; why not learn how to make it lower in fat and sugar? This way, you can still enjoy the foods you love.

Get support – You don’t have to join a weight loss club to do this, but telling your friends and family about your goals can help to get everyone into supporting your efforts. When you do this, people will start to recognize that family gatherings should have healthy options as well as not always revolve around food.

Keep the stress away - Many people eat when they are stressed, but when you’ve lost weight, you want to avoid this kind of trigger. Instead, figure out ways that help you deal with stress. What can you do instead of eating to help calm down and relax?

Watch your weight – Studies have shown that those that regularly monitor their weight tend to keep off weight better than those that don’t. You don’t have to get on the scale every day, but weighing in once a week can help alert you to when you might need to rethink that second slice of pie.

Recognize a slip up and forgive yourself – When you start to get angry about mistakes, you can backslide into old eating habits. You will have times when eating right will be more difficult, but you will persevere. Acknowledge that you made a poor eating choice (or several) and then forgive yourself and eat better at the next meal. There’s no need to punish your self.

Keeping the weight off can actually be more difficult than losing it in the first place, but when you’re committed to keeping trim, these tips will make sure that you do.

Lynn VanDyke is a master trainer and fitness nutritionist. Her strength training and fitness site is ranked within the top 1% of all websites. She has authored the wildly popular ebook, Melt the Fat. It is yielded as one of the best fitness and nutrition ebooks available.

by Lynn VanDyke

What’s interesting about weight loss is that many people think that it’s just a process that begins when you make changes to lose weight and ends when you’ve lost all the weight.

However, if you’re not continuing with the changes that you’ve made, you might find yourself back at the original weight that you were. Instead of going up and down on the scale, here are ten secrets that you can use to keep your slim figure.

Weight training works – Studies have shown that people that have more muscle mass will burn more calories, even at rest. Because of this fact, you will want to incorporate some weight training into you maintenance plan so that as you increase your calorie intake, you’re able to burn them off without any gain.

Food journaling - When you write down what you eat, you will be able to control the amount of food that you are eating. Even if you only write down your food intake for a few days a week, keeping an eye on how you’re eating can help alert you of problems before they become pounds.

Daily exercise – When you want to keep the weight off, exercise will need to become a part of your life. However, this doesn’t mean that you need to workout for hours each day. Try to fit in thirty to sixty minutes of exercise each day to keep extra weight at bay.

Allow yourself treats – Life isn’t about deprivation, so neither should your new figure. When you’ve lost weight, you have learned about how much you needed to eat in order to cut back on calories. Once you’ve learned this, you can also learn to have a treat every now and then, enjoying it instead of overindulging in it.

- Look at making changes rather than dieting – When you’re looking to lose weight, the ‘sprint’ approach isn’t going to be a long term fix. You need to permanently change your eating habits in order to ensure that your weight stays at its new position.

Learn to make favorite recipes healthier – If you have a favorite cheesecake recipe; why not learn how to make it lower in fat and sugar? This way, you can still enjoy the foods you love.

Get support – You don’t have to join a weight loss club to do this, but telling your friends and family about your goals can help to get everyone into supporting your efforts. When you do this, people will start to recognize that family gatherings should have healthy options as well as not always revolve around food.

Keep the stress away - Many people eat when they are stressed, but when you’ve lost weight, you want to avoid this kind of trigger. Instead, figure out ways that help you deal with stress. What can you do instead of eating to help calm down and relax?

Watch your weight – Studies have shown that those that regularly monitor their weight tend to keep off weight better than those that don’t. You don’t have to get on the scale every day, but weighing in once a week can help alert you to when you might need to rethink that second slice of pie.

Recognize a slip up and forgive yourself – When you start to get angry about mistakes, you can backslide into old eating habits. You will have times when eating right will be more difficult, but you will persevere. Acknowledge that you made a poor eating choice (or several) and then forgive yourself and eat better at the next meal. There’s no need to punish your self.

Keeping the weight off can actually be more difficult than losing it in the first place, but when you’re committed to keeping trim, these tips will make sure that you do.

Lynn VanDyke is a master trainer and fitness nutritionist. Her strength training and fitness site is ranked within the top 1% of all websites. She has authored the wildly popular ebook, Melt the Fat. It is yielded as one of the best fitness and nutrition ebooks available.

by Christain Cullen

Do you feel like you eat the ground running in the mornings? With rushing to shower, get dressed, fight traffic, and get to work, you may decide that you don’t have the time to slow down for breakfast, or at least a nutritious breakfast. You may not feel hungry early in the morning. You may feel like skipping breakfast will help you lose weight. However, what most people do not know is that skipping breakfast is bad for your health and bad for weight loss.

Eating breakfast is good for many reasons, but especially so for those trying to lose weight. The main benefit in eating breakfast is that it speeds the metabolism, which is necessary for weight loss. If your dinner time was at 6 p.m. the night before, you do not need to wait until lunch to eat making it 18 hours without a meal. That huge span of time is bad for your health.

Skipping breakfast will often make you so hungry that you will overeat at the next meal. Although it seems odd to think that you must eat in order to lose weight, studies have shown that successful weight loss is associated with those who eat breakfast rather than skipping it. Other studies also show that eating breakfast increases your ability to focus on tasks at work or school.

Eating breakfast does not necessarily mean that you have to cook a huge time consuming meal. Depending on the type of diet you are following, you can choose a quick high fiber cereal. If you are cutting carbs, you can have a high protein breakfast such as scrambled eggs and ham. Either way, you need to have vitamins and minerals in your breakfast to help your body get off to a good start each day.

Having that good start will also elevate your mood throughout the day. This can be critical if you are trying to keep a positive attitude about losing weight. By making a good choice in the morning, you will feel better and be more likely to make good choices about food throughout the day.

Make sure that the breakfast you choose is not high in sugar. Yes, the sugar will lift your energy, but it will only last a couple of hours before dropping you and making you feel as if you need to eat another sugar-packed pick-me-up snack. Although it is better to eat something, make sure the breakfast you choose is the best choice possible.

Since breakfast revs up the metabolism, it helps your body burn fat more efficiently throughout the day. For both young and old, it is important to get off to a healthy start each morning. If the body is kept running smoothly, it will be more likely to maintain a healthy weight.

Be careful not to fall into the opposite trap of eating a huge breakfast in order to skip other meals later. If you binge at breakfast to skip lunch, you will not be allowing your body to work at its best. For a healthy, efficient metabolism, the body needs regularly spaced meals to keep the furnace burning. Whether the diet calls for 3 meals or relies on 5 or 6 small meals, breakfast is a key to starting the metabolism each day. Just remember it should not be the only meal of the day.

If you have skipped breakfast for a while, establishing the habit of eating breakfast may be difficult at first. Practice makes permanent, though, so start by making sure you eat breakfast every morning. Try to make the time to sit down at the table to eat instead of running out the door with a muffin. If you sit this time aside, you are making your diet and health a priority and putting yourself in a winning position for weight loss.

DISCLAIMER:

Please take note that this information is not presented by a medical practitioner and is for educational and informational purposes only. The content is in no way intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Christain_Cullen

The obesity and chronic illness crisis is a big issue in the United States—too big for any one organization or group of people to solve on its own. However, as hundreds of individuals and groups at the YMCA of Lansing proved recently, a sense of community and a common goal can motivate Americans to take small but significant steps toward a healthier lifestyle.

During America On the Move Week at the YMCA, more than 356 people participated in activities and events designed to inspire them to take small steps toward improving their health and quality of life, and collectively they took 8,942,837 steps from Sept. 23-30. They contributed to a national total of 9,318,471,692 steps taken at Ys around the country—far exceeding the YMCA’s goal of 1 billion steps for the week. Taking 9.3 billion steps is equivalent to walking the circumference of the earth 187 times. Or walking between New York City and Los Angeles 1,860 times. Or completing 177,481 marathons. Or completing 33,073 Ironman® triathlons.

“With 60 million adults—or 30 percent of the U.S. adult population—and 9 million children obese or overweight, increased physical activity for our children and families is critically important,” said Scott Goldstein, YMCA of Lansing Operations Director, “Now more than ever, American families are looking to the YMCA to provide new and innovative ways to help them lead healthier lives, as we’ve done for more than 150 years. The YMCA Activate America™ initiative and its American On the Move Week at the YMCA national event continue to inspire Americans to make important lifestyle changes to improve their health and well-being.”

More than 1,100 YMCAs across the country and in Puerto Rico opened their doors to their communities, members and nonmembers alike. Participants at the YMCA of Lansing branches tracked the number of steps they took during the week at home, at the YMCA and elsewhere. Events held at the YMCA of Lansing throughout the week included an open house and a inter-branch competition to find who took the most steps: during the past week, the YMCA of Lansing tracked both the number participants and the collective number of steps taken by individuals who participated in activities either at home, at the YMCA or elsewhere.

“Small, consistent changes can add up over time to big rewards and we are proud that the communities nationwide are embracing America On the Move through their local YMCAs,” said James O. Hill, Ph.D., America On the Move co-founder. “What better place than the YMCA for individuals, families and communities to take these small—but crucial—steps. We hope that the YMCA participants and all Americans will make small changes and take steps to a healthier way of life throughout the year.”

America On the Move Week at the YMCA is a part YMCA Activate America, a national initiative that is rallying YMCAs across the country to further enhance their service and support to kids, adults and families who want to live a healthy lifestyle but struggle to do so. As a part of YMCA Activate America, YMCAs are also deepening their commitment to communitywide efforts to promote healthy living and intensifying their collaboration with other community partners to magnify their impact.

America On the Move Week at the YMCA builds upon a national partnership between the YMCA and the America On the Move Foundation (AOM) and aims to motivate and mobilize thousands of Americans to take small steps towards a healthier lifestyle. AOM research shows that achieving energy balance is an effective approach to healthy weight management. Adding just 2,000 extra steps and eating 100 fewer calories each day are enough to help most Americans prevent the current average annual weight gain of 1 to 2 pounds.

PepsiCo and its SmartSpot brands are a national sponsor of YMCA Activate America and the national presenting sponsor of America On the Move. The Smart Spot symbol is the first-of-its-kind designation that makes it easier for consumers to identify PepsiCo products that can contribute to healthier lifestyles.

In addition to the national partnership with AOM, the YMCA of Lansing is making a local, public commitment to intensify our role as a leader in supporting healthy living within our community. Specifically, the YMCA of Lansing is offering a “Fitness for Teens” program at each branch with funding from the YMCA’s annual giving campaign, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Michigan, Capital Region Community Foundation, AP Capital and Pepsco.

By Christen Pyle

The reason why many of us do not keep up our healthy diets is simply because we are too busy. Eating ends up becoming secondary to all of the other functions we must perform in our lives. While working at the computer or running our children from place to place, it is often easy to just “grab something quick” to shovel into our mouths before moving on to the next task at hand.

Here are some simple tips for helping to ensure that you and your families maintain a nutritious diet.

Plan your meals and snacks in advance. Though it sounds like yet another job you do not have time for, meal planning really only takes a few moments weekly. You can do this while making your weekly shopping list. Simply go through each day in your mind and plan what your family will eat for each meal and between meals and add the items to your list. Jot it down as you go. These few moments actually end up saving you time in the long run because you will already know what you will be cooking and eating in advance. There will be no scrambling at the last minute to prepare a meal and no unplanned trips to the store for missing ingredients or side dishes. This also saves you money because you will not buy unneeded items that will go unused.

Shop frequently. Ensure you shop weekly (if you can) so that you have fresh fruit and vegetables in the house at all times. When the food runs low it often leads to fast food as the alternative. When you bring in your groceries cut up carrot sticks, celery, and any other fruit and vegetable snack food you bought immediately and place them in zip lock bags. Now it makes it easy for these to be the foods you grab when you are hungry. Often, we’ll grab whatever is accessible to snack on. If fruits and vegetables are not on hand or will require preparation, we could end up grabbing a candy bar instead. Again, this really only take moments to do and the rewards are worth it!

Keep your fruit out in the open in a fruit bowl so it is visible to you and your family. If your fruit is stored away in the crisper drawer of the fridge it will be “out of sight and out of mind.” On the contrary, if you’re hungry and walk by a banana, you just may decide to snack on that rather than the cookies that are stashed away in the cupboard.

When shopping, buy little or no junk food. If you don’t have it, it won’t be eaten. Replace the cookies and cupcakes you normally buy with something else such as Jell-O, a vegetable tray and dip, or whole-wheat crackers.

When storing your fruit, keep the apples away from the other fruits. Apples actually emit a gas that speeds up the ripening and thus rotting of other fruits. So, though most types of apples will keep up to 4-6 weeks, they can cause your other fruits to rot prematurely.

Gradually change your dinners to include fewer starches and more veggies. Replace the macaroni and cheese with whole grain rice. Rice can become delicious by simply adding a bouillon cube or two to it while cooking. Replace the French fries with roasted potatoes. Replace mashed potatoes with baked sweet potatoes.

Stay hydrated with water. Water is the single most important thing we take into our bodies. It cleanses us and keeps everything running properly. If you have little ones that will only drink juice, cut their juice with water. Start off by giving them 50% of each and then lesson it each time until they are taking just a “shot” of juice for flavoring. Juice has recently been found to not be as good for us as we once thought. A cup of juice contains the same amount of sugar that is in a cup of soda. If you are eating fruit, you get the fiber you need to process the sugar but when you drink juice, you get all the sugar and none of the fiber. So drink water and eat fruit! Send your children to school with mini water bottles rather than juice boxes. The cost is the same or cheaper. And flavor your own water with a lemon or orange wedge if you need some taste.

Take it one day at a time when changing your diet. First off, do not “go overboard” when changing your family’s eating habits. If you do too much too soon and everyone is starving, your new lifestyle will not last and nobody will be happy. Second, ensure that what you are eating tastes good as well. Experiment with different recipes. Prepare vegetables that your family likes. If they hate cauliflower, make broccoli instead. If they will only eat broccoli with cheese, than so be it. Broccoli with cheese is better than no broccoli at all.

As they say in the diet world, “It’s all about healthy choices.” Make your food choices conscious. Before taking a bite think about what you’re putting into your bodies. If there is a healthier alternative available use it! Instead of ice cream, indulge in frozen yogurt. If you must have chips with your sandwich, buy the baked potato chips. You’ll be amazed at how this little bit of effort will affect your family’s health and overall well-being. Everything we take into our bodies affects us. Cutting out the junk food and taking in more fresh fruits and veggies can also make us more alert, relieve depression, and give us more energy overall. Give it a try for a few weeks and assess how everyone is feeling. You may be surprised by just how wonderful the results are!

Christen Pyle is a personal coach and work at home mother. Her education is in transpersonal psychology and before having her daughter and retreating to her home office, she worked as a mental health counselor, employment coach, recruiter, and office manager. She now runs several home based businesses and the website The Untrodden Road, http://www.untroddenroad.com, that offers free listings of work at home opportunities and businesses for others who want to telecommute in order to spend more time with their children, because of a disability, or simply feel the need to live by their own clock. She also offers personal and employment coaching both online through Kasamba.com and via e-mail.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Christen_Pyle