SimplyFit

What can we do to train our kids so that they will make better food choices?   

#1. Show them how.  You are the one in control with what foods come into the home if you are the one doing the shopping.  Start buying foods that you know are good.  Fruits and vegetables, lean meats, whole grain breads, butter instead of margarine, peanut butter that is just peanut butter (no added sugar)  cheeses that are real cheese and not processed, chips that are baked, dairy products that are low fat, oatmeal that takes time to cook instead of instant.  

#2.  Plan ahead and be ready.   Make a menu of 7 dinners.  Cook extra to have left overs for lunches.  Freeze up part of it for future dinners.  If your family likes oatmeal, cook up a batch that will last several days.  Each morning you can fix a bowl, and then add good things like honey, raisons, apples, cinnamon, ECT.  Scramble up enough eggs, veggies and meat for a few mornings.  In the morning, heat a tortilla and have an egg burrito.  These are fast morning meals that you can do without getting into frozen processed foods. 

#3.  Have good things ready that the kids can grab easily.  Are they hooked on those frozen burritos and corn dogs?  Make your own and freeze them up. Most anything you make from scratch is much safer than boxed and frozen foods.  Yes, a fairly decent kind of corn dog can be home made.   Cut up some fruit and put it in Tupperware. Add nuts or yogurt.  Peanut butter and those little cocktail breads would be fun for the kids.  

#4.  For the problem of inactivity.  Have the kids do jobs after home work.  Jobs that take time.  Kids need responsibilities and it is a help to you.  I know, they won't do it like you. Train them and in just a bit they will do the job right.  Maybe even better than you! (I used to take my boys out on the lake during the week every summer.  Since their Dad was working, I learned to back the boat down the ramp, launch it, and get it started.  Then I trained the boys to do everything to the point that all I had to do was lay in the front of the boat relaxing!) Kids can get dinner started.  If they are not old enough to cook, they can do simple things like wash the lettuce for salad, set the table and put ice in glasses for drinks.  I have pictures of my oldest boy Nathan standing on a chair doing dishes since he was too short to reach the sink.  My second boy, Coleman was in Sunday school and the teacher had the kids tell of the chores they did at home.  On hearing and comparing what the other kid's jobs were, Coleman came to the conclusion and announced to the class "Man!  I'm a slave!"

Changing bad habits to good habits happens quickly!

Laurie Jones

Personal Trainer offering in home training/nutritional help

Lauriesimplyfit.com

simpleefit@yahoo.com

370-8228

Everywhere we turn, there is a "magic pill"...supplement or vitamin that promises if you take it, you will receive the benefit of that particular product.  For strong, healthy hair, take this!  For better eyesight, take this!   For your memory, skin, nails, internal organs, take this!  The market offers a supplement for every part of our body.  We spend lots of money and wait for the results.  Do we see results and are they true?  Or are they just in our minds? 

I have tried many different products and to be honest, do I see true results?  I don't think I do.  I have tried so many different products for my hair, promising to grow my hair and make it shiny and strong.  Do I find a difference?  I really don't think so.  I have been born with weak, fragile hair, and nothing I take makes a difference.  So, what I have decided is the best for me is to take a good quality vitamin and mineral package and try and keep my diet as clean as possible.  I know that the vitamins do work for me because if I do not take them, I bruise very easily. 

It is very easy to be drawn into the promises of a product, especially when we see we have a need.  But just to take a pill and expect miracles is putting our hope and money into products that honestly cannot guarantee their results.  Then we run into the problem that some of these products are pulled off the market when someone has experienced side effects and even death.  We all hear the commercials on T.V. about how great the drug is they are offering, how it will change the way you feel, and then the list goes on and on about possible side effects.  There was a new one I saw the other day.  It was some kind of mascara or something that will make your eyelashes grow in two months.  But when you listened to the side effects, my gosh!  Who is their right mind would use such a product? 

As a personal trainer and someone just like you, my suggestions are simple.  Take a good quality vitamin, and eat a healthy diet with lots of water and exercise.  Steer away from the things you know are not good for you.  Keep it simple and natural.  You will save in your pocket book!

Laurie Jones offering in home personal training

Lauriesimplyfit.com

GRUMPY BLOBS!!

Daily we move our bodies in many ways.  Examples are walking to the car, doing house work, moving around where we work.  This is what you would call the needed daily moves that we do not even think about.  Even if we sat all day in a chair watching TV, you would still have to get up to use the bathroom and get something to eat.  These movements are just to exist, and we need more to keep ourselves strong. It is extremely important that you keep your body moving with planned exercise, exercise that you purposely do. 

Keeping yourself fit and strong can be simple or intense, according to your own personal goals.  Simple exercise can be walking a mile or so, swimming a few laps, mild bicycling, ect.  Intense exercise is miles of running, swimming, biking, and hard weight lifting.  Simple exercise will aid you in keeping yourself loosened up and will help in weight maintenance if you are not taking in extra calories.  Intense exercise will cause you to build your muscles stronger and will cause you to lose weight (unless you go home and pound down a box of cookies!) 

We are all growing older.  When we are young, we are active playing, going to school, and hanging with our friends.  As we grow older, sometimes we work so much that our days are filled to the top of the hour with things that have to be done, or at least we think they have to be done. At this point, we stop exercising our bodies and move into the "simply existing" exercises.  We start becoming weaker, and the fat moves in.  It's like we start to turn into one big walking blob.  At this point we usually do not feel good, start visiting the doctor more often, get put on medication, and it's a down ward spiral from there.  We are constantly stressed over life, our emotions are up and down, depression sets in, and we think "Is this how I'm going to be for the rest of my life?"  We become short with the people we love, impatient with ourselves, and the people around us think we are grumps.  We have become grumpy blobs!!

Plan a simple exercise routine, and change your diet to healthy foods.  With in one month you will see a change in yourself.  Mentally, emotionally and physically you will feel much better, and seeing the results is what will keep you motivated.    

Just like everything in life, keeping yourself fit and strong is a choice.  Weigh it out...exercise to become stronger, or inactivity to become weaker. 

The body will follow the mind.  Take control and make the good choice.

Laurie Jones

Offering in home personal training/nutritional guidance

Lauriesimplyfit.com

Breaking bad habits.  Oh, if we could only break those bad habits, how much more free our lives would be.  Since this is a fitness column, ofcourse, I must write about the bad habits of eating that sabotauses our fitness goals.  But first, let's look at other bad habits we can relate to.  

What would we consider a bad habit?  I believe it is anything that gets in our way of living a complete and happy life.  Biting your nails may bring you comfort of some kind.  It's not killing you, and it calms you down.  But if it gets to the point that you start hiding your hands and are embarrassed, then it's a bad habit interfering with your happiness.  So then you must consider the pros and cons of biting your nails.  Does this habit bring me temporary relief?  Yes it does.  But, what about afterwards when I have to hide my hands from others?  Even from myself?  What about all the beautiful polishes out now that I could paint my nails with?  Bad habits at first bring fast and temporary relief, but then we pay later.

Now we will apply this to our eating habits, and yes, I would say that much of what we eat, how often, and when we eat is out of habit.  How many times do you go to the frig simply out of habit?  How many snacks do you eat out of habit and not out of hunger?  We all struggle with these issues. 

I have found that when consciously breaking a habit, at least for me, it takes just a few days.  I love Mochas, extra hot.  And, I still get them.  But, I could easily fall into the habit of having them everyday.  I noticed I develop a craving for them.  So, the first day I decide to break that Mocha habit is hard for me.  2^nd day a little easier, and by the end of the week, I am back in control.  (Funny thought...are we ever really in control?  What an illusion!)  Now, here's the other side.  I believe I'm back in control, so, I decided to have one on Monday.  Tuesday I don't really desire another, but my best friend calls me and says "coffee?"  And, ofcourse, I cannot resist sitting at the coffee shop chitter chattering with her, so I now have my 2^nd Mocha in two days. Here comes Wednesday, and now I'm starting to, once again, crave them.  My mind and body is trying to get me back in the Mocha habit...

...article to continue next week

Laurie Jones

Offering in home personal training/nutritional help

WEB ADDRESS: lauriesimplyfit.com

Having struggled with my own weight and being successful in keeping it off for over 30 years gives me the experience, knowledge and compassion to know what works. Being certified in Personal Training over 10 years has given me plenty of hands on experience one on one. I do not believe in crazy diets, the promises of super supplements, or costly equipment. Getting fit can be accomplished with minimal equipment in the privacy of your own home. My goal: to get my clients to their goal. I seek to impart belief that no matter what their age or circumstances that they CAN achieve their fitness goals and become strong and vibrant in body, mind and soul. To create a challenge, develop passion within. To push on, be their best, and to see their goals achieved.