“Fruit Milk Isn’t That Gross”

Carbs are my kids primary source of food for breakfast.  Pankcakes, waffles, biscuits, toast – they might be accompanied by an offering of a protein, but that offering is not necessarily eaten…unless that protein is in milk form in a cereal they like and I like that they like. 

The food label on the side of Yogurt Cheerios or Strawberry Frosted Mini-wheats does admit to having sugar; however, the sugar content in both of those cereals is LESS than that of Raisin Bran.  Now that I’ve rationalized buying those cereals, I’ll proceed…

So in an attempt to sneak in organic fruit this morning, I made Fruit Milk.  Chopped up blueberries and strawberries, then pureed them with milk in the blender and viola – Fruit Milk.  It was purple and that made it even more interesting to the kids.

When I poured it over the cereal, there was some balking, I’ll admit.  But after they tasted it, it was determined that you can’t taste the fruit through the “fruitiness” of the cereal and they ate it all.

I’ll try it – or a version of it – mixed in pancakes next week.  While they won’t eat pancakes with blueberries in them, maybe they’ll eat it if the pancakes are purple and the berries are so finely ground they won’t notice them.

Do I like being sneaky?  No.  Do I consider this sneaky?  No.  They were told full well what was in the Fruit Milk.  While I did enjoy some recipes in Jessica Seinfeld’s book, I wasn’t introducing the veggies to them.  I was hiding them.  Fruit Milk let me show them fruits they don’t normally eat from the fridge directly, unlike bananas or apples, can be good if you are creative with them.

What’s next?  Veggie Icecream Sundae’s?  Don’t dare me.  I’ll totally do it.

No, I’m Not the Devil. I Just Want You To Eat Some Greens. Sheesh.

At the healthy eating for families workshop I presented last night, I now realize two things:

1.  I really enjoy presenting and look forwards to doing it more often.

2.  I am clearly the Devil to these people and they believe I must be stopped before I get to their pantries and expose their ugly truths.

It was in between the “So what exactly is wrong with boxed macaroni and cheese?” and the”You really don’t give your children candy bars?” that I realized I’m doing a lot better than I thought I was with my children and their eating habits.  When I was putting together the lecture, I kept going back to the fact that my children eat.  A lot.  Often.  They really won’t stop eating unless I make them or they spontaneously explode and make a mess all over my kitchen.  How was I going to professionally explain great habits when every day is a struggle in my own home?

My husband then brought it to my attention that without my attempting to instill good eating behaviors and positive reinforcers, they might very well be small blimps instead of the imps they are.  By encouraging regular veggie eating and seeing fruits and popcorn as snacks, I’m giving them the tools to at least eat too much healthfully.  They might want to eat more often than some children, but hubby’s point is that if I weren’t so conscious of teaching them proper choices, they would be choosing super unhealthy foods.

When I told this story to the moms who actually managed to attend at such a hideous hour (6:30pm – dinnerbathbed time), they couldn’t get past the part where I said I didn’t give them single serving mac n cheese.  Their ears simply stopped listening right there.  I could’ve told them the secret of the Yeti, but they wouldn’t have heard.

“But, why not?”

Other than the fact that you are serving them nothing but processed carbs and sodium?  No reason at all.  It was then those moms started looking at me like a She Devil, dressed in a very cute black jacket I found at the Saks outlet in Florida last summer.  It clicked for them then – I really do mean what I say.  I am truly suggesting you stop buying 100 calorie processed snack packs at least for a couple of weeks a month.  Spinach is a food you can sneak in via pasta sauce and butternut squash tastes great with some cinnamon and a little brown sugar.  Seriously.

The workshop showed me that there is a need for what I can do – educate moms on how to feed their children in a balanced way that brings healthy food in without making their children become the crazy kids who eat maple syrup raisin cookies for their birthday parties.  It is possible to retrain a child to at least look at lettuce and even contemplate a chicken breast that isn’t breaded, fried or browned in butter.  Just one small change per week will make a drastic difference in a year’s time.

It’s going to take some doing, but when I finally help the moms who want it, they can just say, “The Devil made me do it” when their friends ask why.

Group Your Exercise To Live Healthfully

If it was any easier, it would be the Food Pyramid.

Wait….

By the government who brought you the My Pyramid, here comes the My Activity Pyramid.  Just like its easy to read brother, the activity pyramid details how much exercise you need and exactly how much.  As follows:

Aerobic Activity:  at least 2 hours and 30 minutes of moderate intensity each week
or at least 1 hour and 15 minutes of vigorous intensity each week (exercise where it is difficult to speak).

Strength and Flexibility:  At least 2 times per week.  The strength comprises of working all major muscle groups in 1-2 sets.  8-12 reps per set.  Flexibility is this pyramid’s red-headed step child – only 10 minutes 2 times per week.

The government is kind enough to include Inactivity.  I am not so kind.  Inactivity is not on Frey Pyramid.

I’d like to point out the key words here – AT LEAST.  This is a great starting point for people who are deconditioned or under serious time constraints.  For weight loss, people need to be exercising about 60 minutes per day to include both aerobic and strength training.  And that’s most days. Truly, not a day should go by where a person experiences the government’s Inactivity.

The goal in weight loss is to somehow “lose” 500 calories per day.  You can accomplish this through burning 500 extra calories per day or by cutting out 500 extra calories of food.  In a perfect world, a person would combine these methods and cut out a handful of calories and to burn a handful more.  This equation usually finds a dieter “losing” more than that 500-calorie goal and not feeling deprived.  If you are not trying to lose weight, you are simply being heart-healthy and living healthfully, you should still aim for 30-60 minutes of exercise on most days.

The Pyramid is a good base.  No pun intended. However, a person should aim a little higher once a healthy level of fitness is established.  Mix up the cardio, strength and flexibility to avoid boredom and live better.  You’ll thank yourself for it later.

Pilates – It’s Got Your Back

As seen in Louisiana’s Health & Fitness Magazine in the fitness section: http://www.healthfitnessmag.com/articles_fitness.html

What can Pilates do for YOUR back?  Check out my article.  It explains how Pilates works to protect and even rehab your back issues.

No excuses to miss Pilates

I know.  It’s winter.  You’re cold.  It’s dark out.  You’re wearing too many layers.  There’s a myriad of excuses to suit everyone who falls off the fitness wagon.  But the reality is, your tush is still going to be attached to your body come bikini season whether you ate your way through winter or continued on the Pilates path.

I highly recommend the latter.

If you don’t want to go out to get in a Pilates session, try the twins downloadable videos at www.ultimatepilatesworkouts.com.  You can pay per downloaded workout or pay a flat monthly fee and download a set amount per period.  As an instructor, I do the monthly plan and have been able to get fresh workouts for my clients and even do some at home via the laptop.  There are workouts from mat and small ball to reformer and chair and even Cadillac.  All levels are represented and the workouts marked intermediate, actually are intermediate.  What a refreshing idea!

We all make excuses.  I wish I had one as to why I haven’t posted in such a long time other than it was the holidays, I have three kids, my dog ate my blog site….  But eventually we need to get past them and move on.  Literally.  Try moving to these workouts – they really are well-cued and easy to follow for beginners.  I’m not even getting paid to say this.  Seriously, they must be good.

Happy Pilates!

5 Ways To Live Semi-Healthy This Holiday Season

It’s the holidays.  Do you still have any sanity left?  I’m fairly certain I left mine in between Macys and Toys R Us in the ladies restroom.  You don’t have enough time, you have too many obligations and you want to eat too much to make it all better.

Please don’t.  You’ll hate yourself in the morning (the morning after New Year’s Day when America suddenly wakes up out of its food hangover from the previous weeks).  Try these few, easy suggestions to making it through the holidays – based in reality, not Biggest Loser Campus-land.

1.  Eat Fast Food.  But not the kind you are thinking.  Do you know what’s faster than fast food?  A microwave heating up the healthy dinner you made last night.  Leftover chicken casserole is warmer, less caloric and more filling than Filet O Fish.  I promise.

2.  Put down at least one bad item you were planning on eating.  I know that the temptations are dancing around the office, home or school.  I’m not saying not to indulge, but indulge responsibly.  Eat one cookie.  Have a bite of cake.  Then walk away knowing you allowed yourself to taste, but didn’t dive into it like Michael Phelps in the off season.

3.  Sneak in the exercise.  At the mall?  In between every second gift you buy, take a walking trip through the mall at a rapid pace.  If you are buying ten gifts, that’s five extra walks around the mall.  Depending on your speed, you could burn an extra 300 calories…while you shop!

4.  Burn, baby, burn.  One day each week this season, push yourself harder than you normally would during your workout.  If you run 4 miles, do it faster or add an extra mile.  If you do an exercise tape, add a few higher impact jumps.  Just a little added effort will burn that extra appetizer you know you’ll want at the office party.

5.  Go slow.  Turn on the slow cooker in the morning.  Throw in some chicken, veggies, broth and seasoning and leave for the day.  By the time you come back, you’ll have something warm that can be eaten as is or can be accessorized for some even fancier.  Throw it on brown rice or put in on crusty French bread and you’ll have that wonderful, healthy dinner you can bring to lunch tomorrow instead of fast food.

The holidays are just that – a couple of days to enjoy being with family and then leaving them at the airport while you speed away with glee towards home and white wine…wait, that might be just me.  The holidays, however, are NOT four weeks of unadulterated eating.  Sorry.  Pull it together and enjoy yourself, but don’t stuff yourself.  Leave that to Santa.

Ho, ho, ho, people!

Question: What is the best and fastest way to go healthy grocery shopping?

Answer: Go without your family.

Sometimes when I’m feeling lonely grocery shopping without my children, I play a pre-recorded message on my ipod over and over…

“Can I get this? I want this! Why can’t I eat sugar with some sugar on top for breakfast? He touched me! Why does she get that and I don’t? I want…I need…Please, please, pleeeeeeaaaasssee????”

Kids in the grocery store are a recipe for Stuff in the Cart You Didn’t Plan on Buying. If you can, go it alone and with a list. Preparation is the key and the answer to one of the biggest issues I hear my mom clients complain about: they don’t know what to buy when they get there and they don’t have the ingredients at home.

That’s because the ingredients are in the grocery store. Taking a pre-made list with will make finding them even easier.

However, if you are with the small people whose eyes are closest to the shelves with unhealthy, nutritionally-dead food, you will be sidetracked no matter how deftly you try to avoid them. If you can create your list at home and not deviate from it once you get to the store, you’ll make the right choices. Leaving the children at home is not always an option, but giving them tasks while in the aisle with you can help keep them busy. Let them pick out the beans or choose the vegetable for dinner that night. Even I allow some democratic decisions to occur around mealtimes.

A good, recent article on healthy, affordable groceries is at http://nutrition.suite101.com/article.cfm/healthy_frugal_family_food_shopping. The only part I disagree with is purchasing canned veggies. Try to stay away from canned food – too much sodium and smushy veggies are never really good, even if it is cheaper. The big joke in my house is that everything I want is expensive from my shoes to my groceries. But I don’t plan on coating my stomach or my feet with cheap, inedible stuff. Healthier groceries do cost a little more, I agree. However, by not buying the extra garbage (how many 100 calorie snack bags do you really need? ), you will save those extra pennies to go towards the good stuff.

Fit Mom offers a service to moms that includes compiling healthy recipes from ingredients that your family likes to eat. We’ll send you the ingredient list and the recipe with its coordinating nutritional values. Just let us know at kerrie@fitmomusa.com

Happy Eating!

Number Cruncher

185.

That’s the number of calories women have added to their daily diet since 1985.

83.

Number of minutes power walking needed to burn off a Starbucks Grande Mocha Frappachino.

2000.

Number of calories an average person needs on a daily basis.

1,415 calories in one Hardee’s Thick Monster Burger-thingy.

1.

Serious case of nausea after I read all these facts at http://www.standupandeat.org/index.aspx?id=tools. This is a neat site that has all the information you are afraid to learn about yourself: how many calories do you need each day to maintain your weight and to lose weight, how many calories do you actually eat, what is a REAL portion size and what is a healthy weight for me? These numbers are a lot stricter than even I gave thought to. For instance, for a woman my age (shut up), my height, my weight and activity level, I would need to eat about 1,250 calories a day if I want to lose those holiday pounds that are just waiting for me at the other end of Christmas if I’m not careful.

If you want to give yourself a wake up call before you take on the task of gobbling this Thursday, head over to this site first. www.standupandeat.org

The Blueberry Muffin Pan

Irony is an ironic thing. Happy weather person says no rain; it deluges all afternoon. Son requests me to make his lunch because the school lunch is “disgussstin’”. When I pick him up he is disgruntled because they changed the lunch to pizza. Irony makes up the little things in life that the universe throws in to shake us up.

My friend Alyson says it is pure irony that my daughter just doesn’t have the gotta-run-my-legs genes. While I spend half my day moving, creating movement for people, writing about movement or designing movement programs, Mae is content to watch. I’ve tried every form of exercise known for children to try to entice her to like something. It’s not that she won’t get exercise with a little prompting; but, she just hasn’t found something that she likes to do. She doesn’t feel a deep-seated need to do any. Which kills me.

I had this jumbo muffin pan for years. Sometimes I still rummage in my cabinets looking for it even though it was washed away in Katrina. Three years later I’m still looking for that pan even though it is not there. That’s how it is with Mae. I’m looking in her for the love of exercise that I have, but so far, it’s hibernating.

When children simply can’t find something they really enjoy doing, it is still our responsibility as parents to help them to get the minimum 30-minutes a day of cardiovascular work. We can’t force it upon them. That’s only going to lead to control issues and anger directed at you. Instead, it’s time to break out the creativity.

1. Make a fool out of yourself on the front lawn. My kids like to play Olympics – irony, again. To make sure they get their exercise in, I will tumble set, cartwheel and round off my way across the lawn. Yes, I look like a gymnastic version of a cougar at a college keg party, but it’s for my kids. Get off my back. I’m 37 years old and can still do a backbend that impresses Mae. Then she tries and the next thing we know we are running all over, exercising our hearts and enjoying one another.

2. Be willing to call something exercise that, technically, may not be. D-E-F-E-N-S-E! Mae is on her pep squad at school. They cheer behind the cheerleaders at games. No, it’s not a jog around the block or sprints on the soccer field, but it is something. She needs water when she’s finished, so she’s done something. Don’t be too picky about what qualifies to you as exercise. Their little legs tire out more easily than ours so her “Push ‘Em Back” is a calorie-burner for her.

3. Make the time and stop complaining that it takes too much time. You are just wasting time. I hear so many parents at events or Club Fit Kid or even the gym itself, who are complaining that all these activities just wear them out. All that driving. We need to take a more positive look at what we are driving our children to – better health, stronger bones and a longer, happier life. No, your 8-year-old cannot drive himself to basketball. You will have to do it. Unfortunately, by agreeing to bring the child into the world, feed it, clothe it and name it George, you have also taken on the role of health-provider. Making sure your children get the exercise they need is as important as making sure they do their homework.

By finding activities that encourage your children to enjoy exercise, they will take that love of movement into their future. Going for a morning bike ride will be second nature and pumping out push-ups like Charlton Heston will be their trick for truth or dare. After all, before we know it these little guys will be in high school and then college. Then they won’t have us to watch out for them, encouraging them to find something they love. And to shy away from the older lady in leopard at the beer tent.

A Fine French Whine

If you were to read a book in your free time about parenting, you’d come across topics like nutrition, discipline, potty training and school bullies. And those are good things to know about. Important even.
But there are other issues to be addressed. I’m working on an outline for my own parenting book. The title is not yet set, but some ideas bandied about are, “Stop pulling your hair out, you’re leaving a mess on the floor,” “How to communicate to small people who pretend not to hear you” and “Yes, technically, it is only noon, but the French drink wine with lunch, right?”.
The book will be a tool for parents who want to bypass the generalities of parenting. There already is plenty of information about baby food, test taking and allowances. We need a book that addresses the issues that concern parents most – concepts like what color nail polish is appropriate for your four year old or exactly how much pool water can a toddler swallow before he pukes. We are talking, in short, about The Parent’s Real World, complete with temper tantrums and fights with best friends. Here are a few chapter concepts:

Communicating or Threatening?
As important as it was not to leave 45 messages on a boyfriend’s answering machine when you were single, it is equally important not to be too verbose with your children. They are not listening to you at first anyway.
Simply state what you would like clearly and quietly. For example, “Stop pushing popcorn kernels into the sofa.” If need be, repeat yourself once. Then, if the little ones still are not listening to your request, add: “Fine, I will then give your toys to Angelina Jolie to disperse among the orphans of Cambodia” and watch the kids scamper to do your bidding. Selfish children? No. Merely selective listeners.

Emergencies
Fire and forgetting milk in the trunk of your car are always emergencies, with or without children. Parents will encounter other issues equally terrifying.
An example is poo-poo in the bathtub. Seriously icky, yet unavoidable. You should have gloves located in every room of the house. Poo-poo can happen at any time, in any location and in any shape. Particularly when your children are naked. Unfortunately, a primal response your children will exhibit is to want to eat it. This is unacceptable. Demonstrate to your children where poo-poo is properly disposed.
Another hazard is the large bug when your designated bug-killer is not at home. While you yourself may not squish bugs, you will want your children not to be squeamish. So fake it. Act like everything is cool. I recommend getting your largest Tupperware bowl. Carefully place the bowl over the bug and leave it there, saying, “Daddy will really want to see this bug! Let’s leave it for him.”

Other Parents
Let’s clarify a few things first, for the whiny-whinier whine-heads. Unless you can afford a 24-hour live-in, you don’t have time to yourself. You won’t until your children are old. We are all stressed out with thousands of things to do and working mothers and stay at home moms are equally as busy. Each should respect the other. The Mommy War is a fabrication of the media.
That’s just the way it is.
The most important chapter in my parenting book will address dealing with other parents. There always will be parents who truly believe everything they do is more complicated, more difficult and much better than anything you do, whether it’s loading the dishwasher or organizing children’s outings. Poke your fingers in your ears and ignore them.
And remember Frey’s First Law of Parenting Physics: For every parent, there is an equal or better, more well-dressed parent with shinier hair. This is not to say you should stop trying, but that you should just go about your business happily in workout clothes and a ponytail if you don’t have time to change. People in California do it every day.

I know there are lots of media outlets – books, articles, DVDs, etc. – giving parenting advice by qualified professionals. But some of these so-called doctors of psychiatry don’t get into the true heart of the matter. They don’t address where to find cookies at 7:00 am the morning of the holiday you volunteered for in 1992. They pretend that their kids brush their teeth twice a day every day. I once read an article about trendy strollers entitled “You Are What You Push.” It led me to understand I am a Target Model XWU2003. But I know I am so much more than that. In my heart I am a Stokke Xplory.

And that would make a good title for my book. If I ever get to it. I’ve been soooooo busy lately with room mothering, working, picking up the dry cleaning … and, of course, raising perfect children.