Back-to-School Health Habits!

"Sensible children bring joy to their father; foolish children despise their mother." - Proverbs 15:20

With children returning to school in the next few weeks, it may be hard to keep them from grabbing the burgers, pizza, fries and other snacks in the school cafeteria, even if you pack a nutritious lunch.

Plus, after a long day of school, most kids would rather flop down to play video games than run around playing football or basketball, so it's more difficult to get them moving.

It can be challenging for parents to help their children develop life-long healthy eating and fitness habits, but parents can control how and what their children do during the school day by first fostering healthy habits at home.

Be Creative

Parents who are more creative often are successful at getting their children to eat well. Here are a few ways for parents to become more creative about making kids' diets more nutritious:

• Offer Vegetables at Different Times of the Day or Evening - Dice tomatoes and put them in scrambled eggs.
• Serve Salads with Most Meals - Use dark, leafy lettuce such as romaine with a variety of colorful, crisp vegetables such as celery, zucchini, carrots and bell peppers.
• Keep Super Foods Around - Never run out of carrots, apples, broccoli, almonds or yogurt.
• Watch It - Monitor the amounts of fat, sugar and salt that children consume.
• Include Your Children in the Decision-Making Process - When kids feel involved, they're more likely to try new things, including healthy food. Never give up. Keep trying new foods and repeat past foods to expose your kids to a variety of nutrients.

Pack It Up

Packing a good, healthy lunch doesn't have to be complicated. Here are a few tips for packing healthy school lunches:

• Reduce the Carbs - Think of ways to get protein into the lunch instead of just carbohydrates. Add a cheese stick, a small cup of tuna salad with pickles, or sliced meat and veggies in a pita pocket. Provide a cup of natural peanut butter for dipping apple slices.
• Prepare on Sundays - Fill small plastic containers with vanilla yogurt and frozen blueberries or strawberries and freeze them. On school mornings, place them in your child's lunchbox. At lunchtime, it's a cool, healthy treat. Try cups of green beans, peas or carrots, which can also be cooked, packed and frozen on Sundays. Also, pack treats ahead of time.
• Be Creative - On hot days, make a smoothie in the morning and put it in a Thermos. Include sliced cheese or turkey and almonds as a part of lunch. This sort of creative lunch keeps your child interested in the healthy food.
• Provide Fresh, Raw Veggies - Many children will happily eat baby carrots, broccoli heads and red pepper strips with a dash of salt or a healthy dip (yogurt).
• Shop for Your Child's Lunches at a Natural Food Store - This way, you'll know your child's diet will be lower in preservatives, nitrates, additives or unnecessary sugars and salts. And choose organic whenever possible. With the reported positive impact on the immune system, the usually higher cost is an investment in your child's future health.

Keep Them Moving

Children should spend no more than one to two sedentary hours staring at a screen each day. That time includes watching television, playing video games or staring at a computer screen. Unfortunately, most children spend 4-6 hours a day on these activities. Instead, try these tips:

• Have a Plan - Be prepared to offer alternative activities to TV or video games. You might consider family game night, walking the dog, family bike rides or exploring a nearby park.
• Be Active with Your Kids - What kids want more than anything else is time with their parents. To give them that, don't just send them out to play - go play with them. Take walks, ride bikes, go swimming or just play tag or hide-and-seek outside.
• Remove the Tube - Don't position your furniture so the TV is the main focus of the room. Remove televisions from bedrooms.
• Plan TV watching in Advance - Go through the TV listings and pick the shows you want to watch. Turn the TV on for those shows and turn it off afterward.
• Practice What You Preach - Your kids won't accept being restricted to two hours of TV, video games or the computer if you are vegging out for hours at a time. The best way to influence your kids' behavior is through example.

Hopefully, these tips will help you and your kids prepare for the school year while staying healthy and fit.

Kids Urged to Bike and Walk to School!

"People with integrity walk safely, but those who follow crooked paths will slip and fall." - Proverbs 10:9

Across the country, schools are encouraging families to forgo their cars to promote healthy habits, relieve traffic congestion around school buildings, help the environment and save money on gas.

Many schools reward kids who ditch mom or dad's car in favor of biking or walking. Prizes for walking or biking to school range from bottles of water to digital cameras, bike bells to bicycles. Many schools and community groups are funding the programs with grants from the national Safe Routes to School program, administered by the Federal Highway Administration. The FHA has funded programs in 40 states.

The FHA has worked with public schools and YMCA's to develop walk-to-school programs that appeal to parents and children. They have also helped to establish safe walking or biking routes and the funding of sidewalks.

Walking provides an opportunity to exercise and socialize before school, and it can have long-term impact on health. Students who exercise regularly are less likely to become obese or diabetic. And exercise in the morning can improve readiness to learn.

Students who live too far to walk or bike are asked to form car pools, use public transportation or walk part of the way. Many of the programs at various schools are "kid-generated." They are the ones asking their parents to leave early and walk or bike with them to school.

I think this is a great way to help our children (and their parents) to get more exercise each day while also helping to save money on gas and reduce auto emissions.

However, I find it difficult to understand why programs like this need to exist. When I was a child, I walked to school with friends every day. I also played school-yard games before classes began and again during PE, recess and after school. I stayed active throughout the day.

This shows how much things have changed in the last 20 or so years. More and more children are driven to school by their parents instead of walking or biking. We already know that kids today watch too much TV or spend too much time playing video games or surfing the internet. Parents should encourage their children to walk or bike to school to get more exercise (and parents should step up as role models and walk or bike with their kids).

With many public schools having to cut recess and PE classes from the daily curriculum, it's important that kids get more chances to exercise. Parents, teachers, coaches and other adults need to set an example for our children by getting more involved and becoming more active as role models.

Luckily, one organization is trying to make a change - the International Youth Conditioning Association (IYCA). I will be getting one of my training certifications with the IYCA so I can effectively and properly teach children how to become more active and make exercise fun again - the way it should be!

How To Perform Interval Training

"Intelligent people are always ready to learn. Their ears are open for knowledge." - Proverbs 18:15

There are a number of ways to perform interval training. If interval training is new to you, or if you would like to incorporate it into your weekly training plan, I've listed some suggested ways to progress along with the most effective exercises to use.


Weeks 1-4:

Warm-up for 3-5 minutes (I use a circuit of bodyweight exercises. You can also perform a fast walk, light jog, jump rope, jumping jacks or other type of exercise.)

Beginners: Perform 3-4 rounds (1:2 ratio = 60sec "hard" interval and 120sec active rest/light activity)

Intermediate/Advanced: Perform 6-8 rounds (1:2 ratio = 60sec "hard" interval and 120sec active rest/light activity)

Cool down for 3-5 minutes (I use a circuit of bodyweight exercises. You can also perform a fast walk, light jog, jump rope, jumping jacks or other type of exercise.)


Weeks 5-8:

Warm-up for 3-5 minutes (I use a circuit of bodyweight exercises. You can also perform a fast walk, light jog, jump rope, jumping jacks or other type of exercise.)

Beginners: Perform 4-6 rounds (1:2 ratio)

Intermediate/Advanced: Perform 8-10 rounds (1:1.5 ratio = 60sec "hard" interval and 90sec active rest/light activity)

Cool down for 3-5 minutes (I use a circuit of bodyweight exercises. You can also perform a fast walk, light jog, jump rope, jumping jacks or other type of exercise.)


Weeks 9-12:

Warm-up for 3-5 minutes (I use a circuit of bodyweight exercises. You can also perform a fast walk, light jog, jump rope, jumping jacks or other type of exercise.)

Beginners: Perform 6-8 intervals (1:2 ratio)

Intermediate/Advanced: Perform 10-12 rounds (1:1 ratio = 60sec "hard" interval and 60sec active rest/light activity)

Cool down for 3-5 minutes (I use a circuit of bodyweight exercises. You can also perform a fast walk, light jog, jump rope, jumping jacks or other type of exercise.)


Frequency: Start out with 2-3 intervals per week for the first 8 weeks and increase to 3-4 interval sessions per week during the last four weeks (if fat loss is your main goal).

Use a variety of interval methods to prevent boredom, overuse injuries or adapting to the exercises.

The best methods for interval training include (in order of most effective to least effective):

Hill sprints
Sprinting outside
Treadmill sprints
Strongman type exercises/medleys (car pushing, sled drags, clean and presses, farmer's walks, etc.)
Bodyweight or Kettlebell circuits (burpees, jump squats, pushups, swings, snatches, etc.)
Hybrid and weighted exercises (thrusters = front squat/push press, front squats, sandbag clean and presses, etc.)
Bike sprints
Rope Jumping
Elliptical

Remember that a "hard" interval means an exertion level of 8 or 9 out of a possible 10 (the hardest you could possibly go). Your active rest/light activity should be at a level of 4-5 out of 10. Your cool down should be at a level 3.

For a beginner, a "hard" interval at level 8 or 9 could be a fast walk or light jog. For someone who is an intermediate or advanced, it could mean sprinting 400 meters while wearing a weighted Xvest! You have to adjust intervals to your level of conditioning and increase/improve over time.

As mentioned many times before, the first and most important step to achieving your fat loss, health and fitness goals is your diet. Read my previous blog posts for some good tips and information.

Good luck!