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The 6 Food Fuel Rules for Your Child Athlete

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One of the great things about having a blog is that I can share with my readers the experiences I am dealing with and my personal research on parenting issues and dilemmas because other parents may benefit.

Another wonderful value is the fact that I am sent plenty of resources, information and tips from brands, organizations, the government and other entities. Often times, the info and tips are insightful and quite timely.

For example, right now, my husband and I are struggling with getting our high school athlete to eat better and healthier so that he can become a more stronger asset to the team. Also, unlike training when he was in middle school, his high school cross country (long distance running) team requires that he train for a minimum of 2 hours 6 days a week and run in meets once a week. That is 6 days of running! Obviously, he will need to fuel his body properly to maintain that level of intense activity.

Heather Mangieri, a national media spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, says there are six food rules that athletes, coaches, and families should employ to help bring about that understanding. She reveals them in her forthcoming book, “Fueling Youth Athletes” (Human Kinetics, December 2016) and it was awesome to get these tips as they came just in time for me:

1. Eat meals—no grazing. Mangieri dislikes the word “snack” because it conjures up visions of chips, pretzels, sweets, or a single piece of fruit. She would prefer to replace “snack” with “mini-meal” and encourages young athletes to eat one or two of them each day between regular meals. These mini-meals should contain at least two food groups and include a source of high-quality protein. The foods should also be filling so that they help the athlete feel satisfied until the next meal. “Eating a mini-meal makes you feel as though you actually ate a meal,” comments Mangieri, “and helps to prevent grazing and picking at foods between meals.”

2. Never use food as a reward. Mangieri, founder of Nutrition CheckUp, a nutrition consulting practice with expertise in sport nutrition, weight management, and disordered eating, stresses that you should never use food as a reward for good behavior. Using food as a reward teaches young athletes to categorize foods as good or bad and can lead to negative feelings about food. While studies show using tasty foods as a reward makes them more enticing, making kids stay at the dinner table until they finish their vegetables makes them less interested in healthy food. Instead, families should use other items as rewards for good behavior, such as books, music downloads, or movies.

“Parents can help the children be successful by getting trigger or comfort foods out of the house and filling the cabinets with healthy foods and snacks that are ready to eat.”

3. Be a role model. Giving advice is easy, but youth athletes are much more likely to do what their parents and coaches do, not what they say. “Nutrition is taught from an early age in the home,” Mangieri says. “Expecting children or teenagers to eat vegetables when parents do not is unrealistic.” The mother of three active children herself, she thinks parents should not only tell their young athletes how to eat healthfully but also show them how to eat healthfully. Similarly, coaches can do this by providing the right options for recovery or by selecting eating establishments after a game that offer healthy choices.

4. Make it a family affair. If a child needs to lose weight, it is not just the child’s concern—it is the family’s concern as well. When one child is struggling with weight, singling him or her out as having a problem can leave them feeling isolated and be detrimental to self-esteem. Mangieri recommends keeping the situation positive and focusing on how the family can eat better together. Family members should work together to eat healthier and become more physically active.

5. Create a healthy environment. Mangieri points out the obvious: you can’t eat what is not in the house. If children or teenagers come home from school or practice hungry, they are likely to grab the first thing they see. So, if the cabinet if filled with chips, pretzels, and sweet treats, there is a high likelihood the kids will choose those items. Telling kids not to eat those things will not work. Parents can help the children be successful by getting trigger or comfort foods out of the house and filling the cabinets with healthy foods and snacks that are ready to eat. “This does not mean that children should be deprived of foods they like,” Mangieri explains. “If they really want ice cream, drive to the store and buy a small cone. Feed the craving without overindulging.”

6. Power down during mealtimes. Eating well includes paying attention to what you are eating, not your electronics. When young athletes are engaged in texting conversations or watching videos during mealtime, it can lead to overeating. It is hard for them to pay attention to hunger and satiety cues when they are engaged with an electronic device. Mangieri recommends that families power down the devices, turn off the television, and focus on fueling their bodies properly.

Covering weight management, supplementation, fueling, hydration, and more, “Fueling Young Athletes” addresses the issues that families and athletes most often face, such as late-night practices, inconvenient school lunch times, demanding tournament schedules and travel leagues, and lack of sleep.

Fall Cleaning: A Guide to Mindful De-Cluttering

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I am in the middle of de-cluttering my home and fall clean up and therefore I was elated to bump into this very insightful infographic on mindfulness and the value and importance of removing excess waste, papers, and other effects from your home, office, and other places you habitat for long periods of time.

I am a big believer in Feng Shui and accept the benefits of clean head space, literally and figuratively for encouraging progress, growth, prosperity. Take a look at the concepts curated in Flexispace’s on Mindful Decluttering!

”Declutter


Declutter your mind with self storage by FLEXiSPACE.

The Lazy Mom’s Guide to Easy & Fancy Kids’ Lunch

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Many moms, like me, start out the school year with these grandiose ideas for fancy lunches to pack in the kids’ lunch bag everyday. I even purchased a neat new bento box and a fancy sandwich box to keep the bread moist and to separate the meat. These wonderful ideas usually lapse about a month into the school year.

Womp Womp Womp. Never fret, my fellow overwhelmed, overworked and underapprecated moms (and dads), Helen Brown at our content partners at Mode.com curated some pretty neat articles and posts with great super simple and easy lunches for the “lazy” moms, as she writes:

 

Check out Fancy School Lunch Ideas for Lazy Moms

by Helen Brown at Mode

Should You Let Your Kid Quit A Sport? The Pros & Cons



The Wall Street Journal recently covered the sensitive topic on when is it time to let a child quit a sport or activity.

It’s a topic that my family is also grappling with and then I recalled this relevant post we did in the past on the pros and cons of forced team activity:

Involvement in team sports helps kids learn to work together, encourages physical activity over more sedentary pursuits and can give your child a sense of belonging when he’s accepted by his teammates. A child who is stuck playing a sport he doesn’t enjoy, however, may not reap the same benefits as his more eager teammates. When your child approaches you with pleas to allow his mid-season resignation from the team, your first instinct may be to deny him. After all, sticking it out through the rest of the season, even if he absolutely despises the sport or his team, is said to boost character and give your child a sense of responsibility. In all actuality, however, there are definite pros and cons to allowing your child to quit in the middle of the season, so the situation isn’t quite so cut-and-dry.

Pros

As a parent, it isn’t always easy to see the benefits of allowing your child to abandon a sport or activity before seeing the season through. There are, however, plenty of reasons why you may actually be making the right choice by allowing your youngster to abandon his post.

Letting Kids Explore Their Own Interests – Every kid has his own unique goals, tastes and hobbies, and they may be diametrically opposed to your own. By insisting that your child spend a full season on the soccer team that you love, you’re effectively robbing him of the chance to explore his own interests and to find something that works for him. Encouraging participation in another activity, even a solitary one, may be a silver lining to the mid-season abandonment of a sport.

Preserving Academic Performance – Just as adults can be spread so thinly between their many obligations that everything begins to suffer a bit, so can an over-scheduled kid. Rather than continuing to struggle under the burden of maintaining her grades while keeping a commitment to a sport she doesn’t find enjoyable, your child could have the opportunity to focus more energy on her classes while still having enough time to explore other areas of interest.

Focusing On Other Activities – If your child is involved with an activity that he truly loves and he wants to focus more of his energy on it than a sport he doesn’t care for, you may actually want to applaud the maturity and budding prioritization skills he’s showing.

Creating More Room for Family Time – Between school, clubs, sports and the busy schedule of harried parents, finding the time for family dinners, game nights or other collective activities can be a real challenge for every member of your household. Eliminating one thing from the schedule can make a noticeable difference, though. If your child is itching to quit soccer and everyone needs to spend more time together, his reluctance to continue could create the opportunity for everyone to spend more time together.

Ending a Relationship With a Bad Coach – Bullies don’t just come in the form of your child’s peers. Whether it’s an insatiable need to bring home a win at all times or the result of pressure from other parents, some coaches can become so obsessed with performance that they treat their players badly. In such cases, quitting a sport allows your family to completely sever ties with a coach that likes to bully his team.

Cons:

There are some good reasons for allowing a child to quit a sport mid-season, and some positive things that can result from such a switch. However, there’s also more than one drawback to letting your child walk away before the season closes.

Breaking a Commitment to the Team – If your child is a reasonably skilled player, chances are that the rest of the team has come to rely on her skills to some degree. Allowing her to leave the team in the middle of the season not only leaves them scrambling to fill the position left behind by your child, but also sends the message that she ultimately does not care about their continued success. For competitive middle and high school athletic programs, this can be a serious blow.

Forfeiture of Financial Investments – When you add up the expenses of registration fees, the purchase of equipment and other team-related expenses, you quickly come to the realization that team sports aren’t cheap. The money you’ve spent will almost certainly be a total loss if your child quits mid-way through the season.

Giving Kids the Wrong Idea About Quitting – There are times when it’s absolutely okay to quit, and others when a lesson in perseverance can be a valuable one. Giving your child permission to quit a sport halfway through the season on a whim can send her the wrong message about quitting, especially if you don’t use the experience as a talking point.

Potentially Shifting to a More Sedentary Lifestyle – Team sports promote physical activity and can keep your child fit in a way that vegging out in front of the television simply won’t. If your child quits a sport while everyone else he knows is still playing, the motivation to get outside and engage in active play may be trumped by the desire to devote attention to more sedentary pastimes.

Loss of Opportunities to Learn About Teamwork – The importance of teamwork and the power of cooperative striving for a single goal is a lesson best taught by participation in team sports. If your child quits midway through his first season and never returns to organized sports, those lessons may be a bit more difficult for him to learn.

Good luck parents.

PARENTS: Here are 18 Healthy Back to School Lunch Ideas For You

Bellyitch Rewind

This school year, parents will be challenged on getting their kids to eat nutritional lunches Check out these creative lunch options I spotted that some have already created. I’m making my grocery shopping list now to accommodate some of these ideas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

source: http://www.omielife.com/, http://www.handmadecharlotte.com/  http://www.blessthismessplease.com/, http://greatist.com/, http://greatist.com/, http://www.potterybarnkids.com/. http://www.sandraseasycooking.com/

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Create A Productive Homework Station With this Guide

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Now that most school systems are in full swing, it’s also the the perfect time to get your student’s homework station ready to go for the new school year.

Lorena Canals,  maker of all natural, hypo-allergenic, functional and super stylish machine-washable rugs for bedrooms, playrooms, and beyond, offered some awesome tips for creating a great workstation for your child:

1. Create a homework routine – kids in the first through third grade perform best when they know exactly what is expected.  Have a specific place for storing backpacks and times for doing homework.  Use these formative years to set up good study habits. Kids will raise their performance to the bar parents set.

2. Utilize a homework notebook – track homework assignments in a notebook that goes back and forth between home and school each day.  Use this notebook to communicate with your child’s teachers to address issues with homework, notes that need signed, or praises for a job well done.

3. Stock-up on Homework Essentials—when you’re out purchasing your kids’ school supplies, pick-up extras to keep at their homework station/desk. Include items like pencils, highlighters, scissors, ruler, stapler, post-it notes, paper clips, colored pencils, markers, timer, loose notebook paper, and notebooks. Store supplies, aside from the paper, in Mason jars or a desk organizer.

4. Hang a White Board for Important Reminders—once kids go back to school, fall becomes a busy time with homework assignments, projects, and after school extra-curricular activities. Help your kids stay on track with a place to jot down notes with due dates.  Use painters tape to create a giant calendar to post each day’s activities and homework assignments.

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5. Use Magazine Files for Organizing Projects—instead of a pile of papers stacked on the kitchen table, use magazine files for organizing the important stuff. Label the files with “slips/homework to sign” or “homework to complete.” A file system helps to eliminate lost permission slips and homework. Encourage your kids to empty their backpack folders as soon as they get home and file or toss papers right away to keep the mess away.

6. Invest in a Good Chair & Lamp—help make your kids’ homework space one that is conducive to studying. This can easily be done with a simple desk, ergonomic chair, and a good lamp so your kids have plenty of light making it less of a strain on their eyes. Insure the space is free from distractions do your kids can concentrate on homework activities.

7. Add Some Colorful Artwork—if your child’s designed homework spot is decorated in their own personal style they’re more likely to spend more time there doing homework. Create a wall of empty frames that can hold a smaller piece of original art. As your child starts bring home art projects, feature them inside the frames on the wall.  Switch their artwork out monthly and store old projects away.  Surrounding themselves with a collection of their personal work will enhance creativity that will flow into their writing assignments too.

Good luck!

photo: Lorena Canals’ Rugs online and at stores nationwide ($249-$299). Visit their website at www.LorenaCanals.usand check them out on InstagramFacebookTwitterPinterest and YouTube.

QUIZ: Find Out If You Identify as a Man or Woman More

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Do you believe in gender fluidity? A hallmark of today’s debates over gender identity is the notion that one’s sex dictates preferences, behavior, dress and attitude. Gender influences the way others see and treat a person. Parents are guilty of dressing and talking to their children based on societal-based construct. It’s natural and artificial. Nature and nurture, I believe.

I recently took an online psychological personality  test which offers to detect your true gender based on answers of a series of questions. I fully expected it to determine that I am all-woman but nope! Apparently, I’ve been a man all these years and didn’t know it! Of course, it was just for fun but it was still an interesting sociological experiment to do on a Sunday evening.

I’ve embedded the contest here. Give it a try.

 

Labor Day by the Numbers (INFOGRAPHICS)

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This weekend, a lot of families will be getting together to grill, chill and celebrate the American worker. Some will be heading to the beach and others catching their fave blockbuster movie.

Budweiser released a national study to ascertain how the nation will be spending the holiday. In its Labor Day USA Survey, the company, via its data resarch partner  Learndipity Data Insights uncovered:

  • Barbecuing vs. movie watching:  Will more Americans light the grill or hit the theaters?
  • Hamburgers vs. hot dogs:  Will burgers or wieners take top billing in 2016?
  • Domestic (Budweiser) vs. Imported Beer:  Which brews will quench thirsty Americans?
  • South vs. Midwest vs. East vs. West:  What U.S. region will bring their BBQ A-game?

Based on a representative survey of 2,000 Americans (ages 21+), asking respondents about their eating, drinking, and leisure plans for Labor Day 2016, here is a summary of the results:

BARBECUING VS. MOVIE WATCHING:

  • A big win for barbecue lovers:  214 million Americans (67%) plan to fire up the grill this year while 115M Americans (36%) plan to watch a movie at a theater or at home.
  • Other top Labor Day activities include having some quiet time (35%), doing an outdoor activity like hiking (27%), attending a party (26%), and shopping (23%).

HAMBURGERS VS. HOT DOGS:

  • Across the U.S., 150M Americans (70% of barbecue-goers) expect to bite into a juicy burger compared to 109M hot dogs eaters (51%).
  • New trend:  Barbecued chicken (40%), now edges out steak (37%) and ribs (32%) on Labor Day plates.

 DOMESTIC BEER (BUDWEISER) VS. IMPORTED BEER

  • 98M Americans (44% of barbecue-goers) will drink an ice-cold domestic beer likeBudweiser, while only 49M (22%) will drink an imported beer.
  • At a Labor Day BBQ, those drinking domestic beer like Budweiser are perceived as more “genuine and approachable” (70% agree for women, 59% agree for men) compared to those drinking imported beer (36% and 29%, respectively).

BARBECUE LOVE:  SOUTH VS. MIDWEST VS. EAST VS. WEST

  • Surprise!  Eastern states have the highest percentage of Labor Day barbecue plans (70% of all residents).
  • The Western U.S. (67%) tops the South (65%) and Midwest (63%) for second place (email us for state results).

Here are the results simplified in an infographic!

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Here Are The Best Labor Day Sales & Deals

This Labor Day Weekend is also a great time to get deals on home goods, like mattresses and appliances. 

WalletHub recently released a pair of reports to celebrate the upcoming holiday weekend. 

WalletHub’s Best Labor Day Salesi report provides a roadmap to savings, if shopping is your preferred form of relaxation. 

And the Labor Day 2016 By The Numbers report helps to educate and entertain consumers with fun facts on all aspects of the holiday – from hotdogs and history to financials and 5Ks. 

You can find a handful of highlights below. 

Tablets, dishwashers and strollers – The best items to buy in September compared with the rest of the year.

 35.5+ Million – The number of Americans who will travel 50 miles or more from home during the upcoming Labor Day weekend (5th straight year travel volume has increased).

 $1.4 Billion – Cost associated with Labor Day weekend travel congestion caused by infrastructure problems.

 16.2 – Average number of vacation days taken by American workers in 2015 (23% of workers earn no paid vacation time). 

10 Best Labor Day Deals: 

  1. Kenmore Built-In Dishwasher – 46.15% off

  2. Samsung Smart TV 55’’ – 50% off 

  3. Celebrity Power Media Chair – 43.80% off

  4. Serta Coralee Queen Mattress – 66.88% off 

  5. Lenovo Ideapad Laptop i3 Processor – 40% off

 6. Kenmore French Door Refrigerator – 42.50% off

  1. Lenovo Flex 4 14” 2-in-1 Laptop – 27.39% off
  2. Haier 4K Ultra HD TV 65’’ – 40% off

  3. NordicTrack E 7.0Z Elliptical – 40% off

  4. Rocker Recliners – 33.33% off  

Good luck deal hunting!

Eco-Friday: 4 Mindful Labor Day Travel Tips to Follow

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Labor day is supposed to be about celebrating the worker and all of the efforts or organized unions and labor to get worker’s rights. So it is fitting that many the holiday to also relax.
Traditionally, schools return after labor day and therefore, many families will be hitting the road for last minute beach trips and visits to family that are far away. In the interest of do no harm to the planet, Harmless Harvest, the company behind the first ever “Fair For Life” certified coconut water, shared some mindful travel tips that help minimize travelers’ carbon footprint this Labor Day weekend:
 
 IT’S COOL TO CARPOOL
Labor Day weekend is an opportunity for families and friends to hop in a car and go on a quick getaway. Opting to take one car (instead of several) significantly reduces greenhouse emissions and makes for an entertaining round of carpool karaoke.
 
 SNACK SUSTAINABLY
Choose snacks that are close to how nature intended them and produced by companies that care about their ingredients. Harmless Harvest is a coconut water company that practices sustainable farming methods, which have minimal impact on the planet. Choose wisely, stay hydrated and drink up!
HARMLESS LODGING
You may not realize this, but hotels are large energy consumers when it comes to energy and water use (e.g. lighting, air conditioning, laundry). Instead of booking a room at a hotel, consider packing a tent and going camping instead. You’ll reduce your impact on the environment and be closer to nature.
SHARE A BIKE
There are few better ways to sight see than by bicycle. Leave your personal bike at home and rent from a local bike shop. Not only will your ride emit zero pollution, your family and friends will also get a great workout!  Because in the end, what’s good for you is also good for the planet.

Harmless Harvest Coconut Water is constantly thinking about ways to support the environment. The company is revolutionizing the impact the beverage industry has on the planet with its ecosystem-based business model. They produce the best-tasting coconut water around and are leading the efforts in educating consumers on ways they can reduce their impact on the environment.

So gather your friends and family, pack your tents, and plan a “greener” Labor

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