Love Your Own Heart

As busy caregivers, parents often place themselves last. We may skip exercise and opt for convenience foods or more processed foods to get dinner on the table fast. After awhile, these habits catch up with our bodies. The excessive sodium, sugar, and unhealthy fats in these foods can lead to serious health problems later down the road.

In honor of American Heart month, let's take a look at ways we can make our diet heart-healthy.

  • Avoid trans fatty acids. These are often found in packaged foods like cookies, pastries, crackers, etc. Read the nutrition label to make sure the product is trans fat free.

  • Choose healthy fats: eat more avocados, nuts, seeds, and olive oil.

  • Eat Omega-3 rich foods: these be found in fatty fish, walnuts, flax, and chia. Add walnuts to salads, chia to yogurt, and grind flax into oatmeal or pancakes.

  • Add more plant based proteins to your diet including beans, lentils, legumes, and nuts. Try going meatless one day a week. Visit Meatless Monday for recipe ideas.

Children cultivate their taste for food early so let's steer their palate towards healthier choices while they're young! More tips on heart-healthy eating can be found at the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

New Year's Resolutions

Is losing weight one of your New Year's resolutions? Perhaps you or even your child need to shed a few pounds. If so, shifting the focus away from "weight loss" to making healthier choices will likely get better results.

Healthy eating isn't obsessing about calories, carbs, and fat. When children and teens think of foods they have to limit, feelings of guilt, insecurities about their bodies, and sneaking food can result. Instead, talk about the healthfulness of food and the benefits in academic and athletic performance, mood and energy levels, immune system functioning  and sleep.

Ellyn Satter, registered dietitian, family therapist, and author of Child of Mine: Feeding with Love and Good Sense says to encourage children to eat at set mealtimes without restriction to the amount. Children naturally have an ability to regulate their intake and they need to get in-touch with this aspect of themselves. They may overdo it initially, but stick with it and they will learn to trust their ability to eat-to-appetite. Her rule of thumb: Parents decide the what, when and where of meals. Kids decide how much they eat. Visit Ellyn Satter's website to learn more about her positive approach to eating.

The Benefits of Gratitude

On a particularly trying day when I was delving in self-pity, my daughter chided, "you are not practicing gratitude Mama! Look at these blankets you have to keep you warm. We have so much food in the kitchen for us to eat. We are healthy!" It was a loving reminder to practice something I know is good for me. Gratitude isn't just a tool to make one feel better on hard days though. It's a practice that is actually good for your health. Research has shown that practicing gratitude can help us feel happier, reduce anxiety and depression, help us sleep better, strengthen our relationships, and promote forgiveness. Grateful people are more likely to "pay-it-forward" and children who practice gratitude are noted to be more kind.

An easy way to get started on a gratitude practice is journaling. Notice not just the big things but the small events you appreciate. Someone held the door open for me when I had a lot in my hands. A parking spot appeared right where I needed it. Rain! Focus on feeling thankful for a person rather than a thing. Look for the unexpected surprises and savor them. They elicit a deeper sense of gratitude.

Prefer a journal that is more portable? Try an online gratitude journal like www.thnx4.org .

Happy and Healthy Holiday Season

  

The slippery slope begins just after Halloween, nibbling on leftover candy the uh, Switch Witch “took away.” A traditional Thanksgiving dinner offers an astounding 4,500 calories in one meal! Holiday parties at school or the office are filled with treats laden with sugar and fat. Is it any wonder the average American gains 1-2 pounds during the holiday season?

Here’s a few tips to make the holidays a little healthier for the whole family:

Don’t skip breakfast. Some skip breakfast to “save up” calories for later however it can leave you feeling hungrier and more likely to indulge on foods higher in sugar and fat. Eat a nutritious breakfast such as eggs, whole grain toast and fresh fruit or steel-cut oats with nuts and dried fruit.

Stock the fridge with nutritious food. How about designating a kids drawer in the fridge? Fill it with cut vegetables, fresh fruit, hummus, guacamole cups, plant-based yogurts, and other healthy snacks that are at eye-level and easy to grab. This is especially helpful on days when you are busy cooking.

Eat a healthy snack before a holiday party. If your kids are like mine, they’re more interested in playing at a party than eating so feeding them beforehand is a must. For parents and teens watching their caloric intake, it’s easier to exert self-control if you’re not starving.

Bring a healthy dish to the party. Not sure if there will be healthy items at the party? Bring one to share. If you have a selective eater in your family, pick something he or she is guaranteed to eat.

Add more vegetables to your holiday dinner. Vegetables up the nutrition and flavor without the extra calories so sneak them into the meal. Add kale to stuffing. Mashing some cauliflower in with the potatoes lowers the carbohydrate content and goes undetected. How about preparing a side of roasted vegetables and a salad to accompany the meal?

Even with mindful planning and eating, the comfort foods may be difficult to resist so enjoy in moderation and plan some activity to offset the extra indulgence.  A brisk walk, or a game of family catch or tag football, is just the kind of fun family fun to a balanced Thanksgiving.

Wishing you all a happy and healthy holiday season!

 

  

Mindfulness

If asked what we want for our children, most parents would say,  "Happiness." Undoubtedly, we want our kids to get a good education, have good friends, and succeed, but more than all that, we want them to be happy. Mindfulness is a tool that can help children (and parents) experience more happiness.

What is mindfulness? It's a moment-by-moment observation of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment. We simply notice these thoughts without labeling them as good or bad.

The benefits of mindfulness are manifold. Studies have shown that practicing mindfulness reduces depression and stress, while increasing well-being. It improves the ability to focus and learn, essential in a classroom environment. Mindfulness helps us pause before reacting impulsively, allowing us to make thoughtful responses.

How do we start a mindfulness practice?

Sit on a cushion or chair, back straight but not stiff, hands gently placed on your legs. Observe your breath as it goes in and out. Your mind will wander and that's ok. Just bring your attention back to your breath. 5-10 minutes of mindfulness is plenty for a beginner. Younger children can start with one minute. Set a regular practice then increase your time.

Sites to learn more about mindfulness for children: