by kelsey | Aug 26, 2014 | Cooking Tips, Diet, Weight Management, Wellness/Health
With everyone getting back into the groove of school this week, it means children are going back to the cafeteria. The importance of talking with your children about nutrition is crucial to their health. Children need to be able to make healthy decisions on their own. There are several steps a parent can make when helping their child go back to school.
Look over the menu: Review the weekly or monthly school menus with your child and decide which meals they like and dislike. For the days your child decides to eat at school help them distinguish the healthier choice, like choosing fruit instead of a cookie. Studies have shown letting your child help in the decision-making process makes them more likely to follow through with the decision.
Packing your own lunch: Make sure you’re packing meals with enough nutrients to power your child through the rest of their school day. Let your child be a part of the lunch packing process whether if it is making the sandwich or packing fruits into a bag. Pack food your child likes, because if they don’t eat it at home they are not likely to eat them when you’re not around.
Follow up at home: Make sure to follow up their lunch with an equally healthy dinner. Having a well balance meal at every meal is very important. A child who eats healthy at home is more likely to make healthier choices when they are on their own.
Tips for Packing Healthy School Lunches:
- Plastic bags and containers will really help with portions while making a sack lunch.
- Keep in mind that they will not be eating right away and to keep the refrigerated foods cool to keep from spoiling. For example, dairy products such as yogurt, will need a cool pack.
- Pack the lunch the night before with leftovers from dinner to save time in the morning.
- Make sure to include the child while making lunch and give them healthy choices to choose from.
- Try to choose less sugary drinks, like skim milk instead of chocolate milk or crystal light instead of a high sugar juice.
Keeping the lunches safe by keeping all the food at the correct temperatures. Pack cold items in an insulated lunch box with a frozen pack. Keep warm soups in a thermos, make sure the thermos is clean and use very hot water.
Sandwich Ideas
Whole wheat bread with deli meat (try to avoid bologna, pepperoni, and salami)
Peanut butter and jelly sandwich
Bagel with cream cheese or peanut butter
Crackers and cheese
Pita with hummus
Ham and cheese rolled up in a whole wheat tor-tilla
Crackers and cheese
-Kelsey
by Dan | Aug 24, 2014 | Equipment, Exercise, Goals, Heart Health, Motivation, Weather, Wellness/Health
Today was the 30th Annual Lake Kampeska Hy-Vee mini triathon. It was originally scheduled for the second saturday in July, but we were stormed out for that day, and it was postponed to today. Weather started out great, but as the morning went on the wind picked up. We were done with the majority of it before it got too strong. Here is our bikes in the transition station…Sarah and I.
It is a broader view of the transition station, and the finish line. It started to get warm by the time we were getting done, but the weather overall was still very nice. And it was not raining! It was a good turnout again. We all start with a 1/4 mile swim, followed by a 14 mile bike ride around the lake, and then finish with a 5K run.
One of our memeber of the Watertown Area Run club, Jill, set out her things at the transtion station. Talk about organization! You want to have everything set and easily accessible so you can change shoes, and gear for each of the phases. The time for the finish is from the start to the finish line. There is no break in time for the transition stations. You want to move as fast as you can in between because the clock is still moving. Most of us can be proficient in 1 or 2 of the events, and have a weak event for the 3rd phase. My weak phase is the swim. Thank heaven for the Reiffenberger stroke in the swim…stand up and run like he…!
Keep moving everybody!
Dr. Dan
Consecutive Exercise Day #: 2522
by kelsey | Aug 20, 2014 | Diet, Exercise, Goals, Heart Health, Motivation, Weight Management, Wellness/Health
It’s hard to believe school is back in session and fall is approaching quickly. We are always sad to see summer go as it seems to fly by faster every year, but I am excited for my favorite season (fall) to get here and to start another session of STRIVE 2 Survive! I always like to highlight a few of our success stories and previous participants to show what STRIVE can do for you! Laurie Danforth and her husband Mike participated in STRIVE 2 Survive and found great value in it. If you are on the fence or wondering if you should join us, check out Laurie’s feedback below. We hope you will consider it and let us help you improve your health and well-being through improved nutrition and activity! If you have any questions or want to learn more, please email us at strive2survive@brownclinic.org or call 884-4226. Fall STRIVE starts September 16th!
- What pushed you to join STRIVE? After sending our last child off to college and becoming empty nesters we decided it was time to change our eating habits. Mike wanted to lose a few pounds so I suggested we do S2S and do it the right way.
- What was your goal? (weight loss, cholesterol, B/P, healthy eating, etc.) My goal was to develop better healthy eating and to maintain of improve lab values.
- Have you met your goal? Yes until the kids came home for the summer then our eating changes some but I always have S2S on my mind and look for healthier ways to fix meals.
- If so, what are you doing to maintain? Looking forward to 2 of the boys returning to college to help with our change of habits when had adapted to.
- How did STRIVE help? Brought awareness to foods and their contents and also the ability to prepare foods differently to make them healthier. The frequent e mails and updates on the web also help.
- What is your motivation to continue? My competitiveness to keep my lab values where they were after being diligent of changing habits. I challenge myself to make sure they stay in good healthy ranges. I also feel much better after changing my diet habits.
- If you could tell anyone about Strive to Survive, what would you say? By all means join the program. Don’t think of it as a “diet” but a way of changing your daily eating habits along with exercise. It is not all about weight loss but eating healthier and making changes to adding or increasing exercise. I lost inches and improved lab values but did not lose much weight, all with feeling better. (Side note–Laurie didn’t have much to lose, so she focused on toning, lab improvement, and overall health improvements)
- Do you feel that the program has a lifetime change for you? By all means.
- What do you think they biggest highlight of the program is? Learning how to label read and prepare foods bought at the grocery store to change habits. It is much cheaper and healthier to buy foods at the grocery store for weight loss versus buying a program of mixes and shakes that may produce rapid weight loss. I know with this program I was making healthy choices that were not inadvertently affecting my lab values.
- Would you tell a friend about us? I have told friends about this program and encouraged them to join. The cost of the program is far less than “buying” weight loss with the many advertised programs out there.
- If people are in doubt of joining, what would you tell them? Give it a try!
-Kelsey
by Dan | Aug 10, 2014 | Exercise, Family, Goals, Motivation, weight lifting, Wellness/Health
There is no debate…exercise takes work. But, you can make it fun. It is also a good way to spend time with your family. We just went on vacation for a few days to Minneapolis, and everybody but Molly went with us. Sarah, Nick, Megan and I all went for a run each morning. We then spent the rest of the day doing lots of walking at Mall of America and other adventures. When we got back, Megan and I went into Anytime Fitness to get our weight workout in.
Anytime Fitness is having a selfie contest this month, so we decided to have a little fun with this. The caption I had with this was: Coach Dad…work your “bun” off! We did a lot of laughing, plus got our workout in. Megan will be going back to school in Virginia in 10 days. We are not going to be having many of these times left.
So relax…spend some time with your family, have fun, and you can still workout. Set the tone parents…your kids will follow. Keep moving everybody!
Dr. Dan
Consecutive Exercise Day #: 2508
by Dan | Aug 3, 2014 | Exercise, Goals, Motivation, Wellness/Health
I hit another milestone yesterday…Consecutive exercise day #2500! Safe to say it is now habit. Nothing was as tough as that first year. Now it is part of my daily routine. I still have to think of it everyday, and make plans to exercise. The exercise has taken many places, and on many adventures, meeting many new people. It has been a challenge, but much more fun than work. I tell other people too…if I can do it, so can you!
So, here is your chance to start. I am pointing at you…calling you out! Get out and move, and see what making exercise a part of your day will open the door for many other perks and advantages. Give it a try! Keep moving everybody! I have a streak to continue!
Dr. Dan
Consecutive Exercise Day #: 2501
by kelsey | Jul 30, 2014 | Cooking Tips, Diabetes, Diet, Eating Out, Food, Weight Management, Wellness/Health
Everyone is busy and on the run with life happenings so eating out tends to be a part of our lives. We all know that eating out is not the best for us as we don’t have control over how the meal is prepared, ingredients, and portions like we do at home. Despite this, we all still eat out and most of us enjoy it as it means we don’t have to do the preparing, cooking, and cleaning up afterwards…and it’s typically a social activity as well! Restaurants are taking notice of our nation’s desire to improve our health and wellness and there are more healthier options on the menus today, but there are still some very unhealthy ones as well. Below are some tips to help you eat out the healthy way:
- Go for a smaller portion of the meal such as half of the meal, lunch portion, or appetizer size portion.
- Look for key words such as baked, broiled, grilled, or roasted. Stay away from descriptive words such as crispy, creamy, crunchy, and crispy as those typically mean fried and more fat added.
- Substitute the fries for a salad (dressing on the side and use sparingly) or if available a second serving of cooked veggies or fruit.
- Get a to-go box right away before you start eating and package half of your meal in the box and eat at another meal at home. If it’s on your plate, you’ll be more apt to eat it, so put it away right away so you aren’t tempted and you are more apt to practice proper portion control.
- Share! It’s ok to share an entree with you friend, spouse, etc to help you practice better portion control.
- Look at the options ahead of time online or using your smart phone. Many restaurants have their nutrition information included in their websites or you can use the Calorie King app to explore the options and make a healthy choice when dining out.
- If eating out is a rare occurrence, it is ok to splurge, but keep in mind it should be a special occasion and only every once in awhile, not every day or every week as those extra calories will add up and cause weight gain quickly!
- To help balance out the extra calories consumed when eating out, be sure to get your activity in and engage in at least 30-60 minutes/day!
-Kelsey
