Healthy Momma is Hot Momma

Come to think of it, a momma’s health is crucial to the survival of her entire family. I realized this when my right elbow became too painful for me to perform the simplest chores in the house like cooking rice. I had to struggle to prepare breakfast and pack my husband’s sandwich for lunch.

My dearest hubby had to pitch in with the dishwashing and house cleaning chores. For more than a week, I couldn’t prepare the usual healthy dishes that are a fixture on the dinner table. Worst, I was not in the best spirits to be the darling mom and wife everyone goes home to at the end of the day.

Sadly, majority of families do not realize this critical factor to their own survival. When mom is on sick bay, the laundry piles up, there is no yummy food on the table (unless daddy loves his wok as much as his TV remote control), dust gathers up to several millimeters thick and there just is that melancholy and lonely air hanging around the entire house.

Specially for moms who are also working full-time, staying healthy is of utmost importance, as not only will the family home suffer if they get sick, but more so the budget – which is unthinkable during these hard times. It is therefore, imperative that we, mommas, have to ensure that we live, eat, think healthily at all times.

For me, I started doing this almost seven years ago when I decided to go vegetarian. Now that I am fast approaching middle age, I need to get a little bit more active as well to maintain my weight and keep my entire body more fit. Women are more prone to osteoporosis, but women with sedentary lifestyles are a lot more susceptible.

Menopause is also another milestone I will soon reach. With this are a host of changes from the hormonal level to the more obvious – the appearance. While I cannot escape menopause, I now have a “battle plan” to minimize its adverse effects. The hormonal activities may be impossible to affect, but staying healthy and fit will definitely minimize the discomfort. As early as now, I am starting to mentally prepare myself already, accepting the fact that it is just a phase and I will survive it.

I intend to cover all fronts. Aside from a healthy diet and an active lifestyle, I am also making sure that I have an outlet for the stress. Of course, blogging would be one of them. Cooking and reading are also top in my list of de-stressing activities that keep me relaxed. If you haven’t noticed yet, a momma’s moods have more profound effects on her family’s performance and stability than we all care to admit.

Last but not least, being able to practice a life of faith, knowing that the Lord is there for me every step of the way, helps me face life with a positive disposition. This helps a lot in maintaining my emotional and mental health. It is a comfort to have Someone bigger than myself to help me deal with life and the cruelties it can possibly bring on.

So, mommas, whether your families think about it or not, it is important that you take care of your health for their sake. A strong and healthy momma is definitely a hot momma, don’t you think?

Downsizing a SUPER-SIZED Child

Who is to blame when a child becomes morbidly obese? Is it the genes, the food, the parents, McDonald’s? For me, when a child becomes overweight or morbidly obese, it is no longer time to blame anyone or anything. It is a time to act and to act decisively. The fact that the child has gained so much weight means that he has been left all alone with his own troubles. Early on, something should have been done already before things got out of control.

Today, 20% or even more of kids in America are obese, some of them morbidly obese. This is a serious matter, an epidemic on its way of becoming a pandemic. These kids are at risk of developing all sorts of highly preventable illnesses like diseases of the heart, hypertension, diabetes and kidney ailments – not to mention severely impaired self-esteem.

Our society has acquired the skill of transforming eating as a tool for survival into something destructive. If your child is one of the statistics I just mentioned, take action now. Stop blaming yourself because most probably, there is still time to redeem yourself.

The most difficult part is always the first step. But once you and your child are underway, things can become easier and more manageable. Before doing anything, you will have to talk to your pediatrician about weight loss in obese children. Ask the doctor for practical advice, your child’s ideal weight for his age and other technical matters.

You will have to make the child understand that lowering his weight to a healthier level is a partnership between the two of you. He is not alone in this venture and he is assured of your support at all times.

Second, he should also understand that his life and health hang on the balance - that is why it is of utmost importance to act now. In terms the child can understand, illustrate to him what is happening to his body and what he stands to gain if he successfully loses weight. These benefits can be anything from being able to engage more in sports to gaining self-confidence.

Third, lay the ground rules and make sure that the child perfectly understands. While sitting down to discuss these with him, you can work on a few, highly attainable objectives, which will obviously change as you progress in your lose-weight program. Then post these ground rules in strategic places in the house.

Based on the objectives drawn up, make a table of responsibilities – yours and the child’s so that he is clear about what you expect of him and what he can expect from you.

For example, put as one of your responsibilities the preparation of nutritious meals which he can eat at home and bring to school. On his part, he should eat these meals and stick to them.

Aside from the responsibilities, draw up a rewards system, in which he can have a trip to the cinema for sticking to his diet this week, or the revocation of his TV privilege if he strays away from it. You know your child best to be able to draw up a system that works for him. The only thing to remember is to make him aware of the fact that every success he has is highly appreciated.

Other practical things you can do are the following:

 Join the child in his exercise sessions.
 Commit to rely on home-cooked meals rather than fastfoods.
 Avoid stacking the pantry with unhealthy food.
 Schedule a regular weighing to track his progress, which should be properly documented in a line graph.

It is never too late to act on your child’s weight problem. Downsize him now and watch him transform into a healthy, happy, confident child – the way every child should be.

Fussy Eaters

Most mommies have a first-hand experience with a fussy eater. Getting a kid to eat well and to eat a lot takes more than a few tricks to make it happen. Sometimes, we mommies should be inventive, resourceful, diplomatic and down-right ruthless all at the same time, to be successful in teaching our kids to eat and eat right.

Our present health situation is dismal at best and totally tragic at worst. The growing obesity epidemic and our penchant for anything sweet, oily, sodium-laden food that can be served really fast is quite phenomenal. There has never been a society more dependent on fastfood than today. Thus, it is a responsibility of each mom to train her kids to eat healthy while they are still young. Unfortunately, for some, this is as difficult as teaching a dog to use spoon and fork.

As a vegetarian and a marketer of plant-based immune boosters, I have successfully transferred my preference for healthy foods (to a certain extent, at least), to my two sons. But that did not happen overnight. It took me years of discipline and firm policies on eating healthy before they came to appreciate the fact that they cannot just stuff anything into their mouths anytime they want. I do not see any end to this training, though, as long as they are still living with me. It is a daily thing for me to monitor what they eat and to plan what I should serve them

I want to share a few of the tricks I employed to make this happen, in the hope that other mothers and their kids would benefit.

First, it is wise to introduce as many flavors, tastes and textures of food as early as possible to a baby, so that it will get used to these and will not find them yucky when it is older. One good way of achieving this is by mashing, chopping or grating veggies. When my babies started eating solid foods, I would patiently mash anything that can safely be eaten and digested by a baby. I kept their meals varied so that they got used to a lot of flavors and tastes.

Second, I taught my kids the importance of timing in eating. Sweets, soda drinks or junk foods are not to be eaten before mealtimes. This is an understood policy and my kids know this very well.

This rule also comes in handy when they do not seem to like the food prepared for them, and they have ice cream or a piece of cake for dessert. They know that they cannot have those treats unless they eat a proper meal. The dessert, then, becomes their motivation to eat their meal first and eat a considerable amount of it.

Third, I make sure that they have greens everyday or at least four times a week. The fact that they see me and my husband prefer vegetables over meat, has ingrained in their young minds that veggies are essential. I did not try to put them on a vegetarian diet like me, but I have made vegetables a major part of their daily food. Now, my older son, aged 11, prefers vegetables and fruits over meat.

This meant incorporating vegetables into their favorite dishes. I am also an avid cook so this skill comes in handy in preparing, sometimes inventing dishes that they will like. Since they were accustomed to different tastes of food, I do not disguise any vegetable now that they are bigger, except when I add them to meat balls or something like that. Now they munch on broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, mushrooms or potatoes. Spinach is not an abominable thing to them.

Fourth, incorporate nutritious ingredients into a favorite dish or the main course of a meal (for the older kids), regardless if it was ever heard of before. I have come up with a few tricks to achieve this. One is, I come up with tasty sauces with a hint of honey. The sweetness of the honey overrides everything else and my kids end up eating their beans and leafy vegetables.

I also have a list of versatile, nutritious ingredients that can make dishes really tastier and are real health boosters. Some of these are mushroom, pineapple slices, tuna, carrots, broccoli, and a whole lot more. Whenever possible, I include these in the dishes I cook.

These are only a few of the things that moms can do to train their kids to eat healthy. Every effort made towards this is an investment towards a healthier life for them. I would appreciate hearing from you as well. Your coping mechanism in this department is surely worth listening to.