Dr. Gwenn’s Huffington Post Blog
Fostering healthy eating and fitness is often a wrestling match of Olympic proportions. In one corner, our kids highly motivated but under trained in the rules of health. In the other, the tag team of activity and food which can change as fast as a chameleon from working for the health of your child to a pure health enemy.
Shopping for groceries the other day, my kids noticed this product that made us all stop in our tracks:
Bloomberg posted yesterday that the New York school system is going to eliminate whole milk from their cafeterias to cut calories. 4.6 billion calories and 422 billion grams of fat will be eliminated from the menu by this plan. A good plan for the kids involved. Well, at least a good start.
Each January, people of all ages resolve to be more fit, eat healthier and dabble in some new and exciting hobbies that have been shelved for far too long. Living by the food, fitness and fun construct is what actually fuels our souls and isn’t such a bad way to live if we have some moderation and restraint for each area.
Childhood obesity is a challenging problem. As difficult as it is for a parent to acknowledge that their child is overweight, it is even more daunting for that parent to figure out how to even being to talk to the child about loosing weight.
We’ve always cared about the environment and have been a “go green” family at heart but have become more so as our girls have become older and come to the “go green” concept in their own way through what they’ve learned in school.
Did you know that people who strive to be happy actually live healthier and more disease free lives? One of the best ways to accomplish this is to give back to others within our own communities.
Teaching our children about the value of community and the need to be involved helps them learn the importance of being part of something greater than themselves and how to be giving individuals. What’s cool is that it doesn’t take that much time, energy or money but pays forward for ourselves and our communities for years to come.
With back to school time upon us, this is the perfect time to focus on friends and think about the impact we make on our friends and they make on us, and to help our kids understand what we mean when we say things like ‘find friends that are good for you’ and ‘weed out friends that are bad for you’.
When was the last time you had some “me time”? It’s an important part of life for all of us – adults and kids – but a rare commodity these days with our busy lives. This month we’re going to take the first step towards remedying that by focusing our attention on “me time” for the entire family.
It could easily be the start of a new Dr. Seuss book: “Your health…here, there and everywhere!”
You could read that one line so many ways:
Your health happens here, there and everywhere.
Your health involves places here, there and everwhere.
Do you know the details of your health – here, there and everywhere?
You need to be healthy here, there and everywhere.
