Keeping Your Kids Fit and Healthy
April 13, 2007
Yahoo! Health had some great tips on keeping your kids healthy in an article called, 10 Tips to Prevent Your Kids from Gaining Weight. I love passing articles like this along because I know that I can never get enough good information and tips when it comes to healthy choices for my kids.
My kids love junk food and I’m sure most kids do. They love sweets and snacks of all kinds. My biggest challenge is keeping them healthy when there are so many occasions to eat junk, i.e. the latest one, Easter candy! It seems like we just finished off the Valentine’s candy!
If you need some inspiration, take a look at the article. It is a quick, easy read and provides 10 tips. Here are my favorite three:
- Use my “90/10 food strategy” - Emphasize healthy choices and limit (not eliminate) not-so-healthy treats. I truly believe in moderation. My children have some friends that never have sweets and then they go crazy when they have a chance to eat some. I really like the idea of a 90/10 rule for children– just enough junk to satisfy their cravings!
- Encourage a smart breakfast - We always hear about how important it is to eat breakfast and get the metabolism going early in the day, but I also find it’s pretty easy to serve a healthy breakfast. Some of our favorites are oatmeal, yogurt smoothies, fruit and eggs and whole grain toast with low sugar jelly.
- Discourage liquid calories - Chocolate milk, sodas and fruit juices are loaded with calories. I try to only offer water or skim milk.
Take a look at the full article and please share your healthy tips with us!
Are You Choosing the Right Snacks?
April 11, 2007
I saw something fun online this morning called the Calorie IQ Test. It’s a short quiz that gives you a couple of snack choices at some favorite snack stops such as the mall, Starbucks, vending machines, etc. and asks you to pick the one with the fewest calories.
For instance, if you are at the movies, should you choose the medium popcorn (no butter), Twizzlers (6 oz bag) or chocolate covered raisins (3.5 oz bag).
Well, this one is kind of depressing, because the winner is the cholocate covered raisins, but those are 410 calories! How can that be the winner?
The popcorn came in at 900 calories and that’s without the butter! I think the best bet is to have a healthy dinner before you go to the movies and avoid the snacks altogether!
Shop the Perimeter of the Grocery Store (Tip of the Week)
April 2, 2007
In the last month, I’ve read this in more than one fitness/health magazine and I’ve heard at least two of my friends talk about it… if you want a kitchen full of healthy choices, you should only shop the perimeter of the grocery store.
Think about the layout of your favorite grocery store. All the junk food is in the middle. The fresh foods are on the outside. By shopping only the perimeter, you’ll end up with bread, fresh fruits and veggies, meat and fish, eggs and dairy products. You won’t be going down the cookie aisle, you won’t pass the chips or the mac and cheese. It sounds like a great plan, but my kids would still come home from school and ask for ice cream!
Let us know if you’ve ever done this and how it worked out for your family.
About SharpMom
Hi, I'm Katie. I’ve been successfully working at home and homeschooling my kids for the past 14 years, so I figured it’s time to get out there and start sharing what I’ve learned along the way. I'm glad you're here to join in the fun!
