Great Healthy Living Quote # 114-- Find a Remedy

Great Healthy Living Quote # 114-- Find a Remedy

#MotivationMonday
#Inspiration
#FindARemedy
#BeTheSolution
#LiveVibrant
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Healthy Eating: the Importance of Portion Control for Children

A balanced meal shown on a Kidliga dish designed specifically for children

 The statistics for childhood obesity are scary. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has stated that we are now living in a generation where parents are going to out live their children due to childhood obesity. According to the CDC, childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and tripled in adolescents in the past 30 years. The percentage of children aged 6–11 years in the United States who were obese increased from 7% in 1980 to nearly 18% in 2010.  In 2010, more than one third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese. We have to face it: we are killing our kids with food.

As parents we want to make sure our children have everything they need.  When our children love a certain kind of food we encourage them to eat more. A lot of our love is put into the food we provide our kids. It makes us happy to have our children eat food with enthusiasm.

Unfortunately, this may not be so good for their health. We are now learning that not all foods are made a like. Just eating anything is not necessarily better than not eating at all. In fact, it is really important to introduce our kids to a variety of foods and to eating a balanced meal.

This can seem overwhelming when the images our children see on TV, on billboards and the web are of foods that are high in calories, fat, sugar and salt.  We also live in a super-sized world with super-sized portions encouraging our children to eat big quantities of food. It is hard to know what the right amounts of food are, and what really makes up a balanced meal.

There are some easy steps we can take to help get control of our children’s serving sizes. Here are 6 tips to help:

1. Realize there is a difference between a portion and a serving size. When we are served a plate of food we tend to think of it as a serving but it can actually be made up of a number of servings. What we have been served is a portion. A serving is a specific measured amount recommended by the USDA for us to eat of a specific food. It is all about how many calories we burn during the day and what we need to eat to fuel our body and keep it healthy.

2. Kids do not need to eat as much as adults do. As parents we tend to think that because our children are growing they need to even eat more than we do. Not true. In fact, kids are burning less calories than they used too because they are not as physically active. They are also smaller than we are. They deserve plates and servings right-sized for them.

3. Cook more meals at home and include your kids in the process. When we cook at home we have much more control over the food we eat and how much is served. By including our kids in preparing a meal we are getting them to interact with the food they eat. This makes them more willing to try new things.

4. Be a role model. The biggest influence in how our children eat and the amounts they eat is what they see us as parents doing. Eating right-sized servings and the right variety of foods starts with us. Living a healthy lifestyle is a family affair and good for everyone.

5. Invest in some easy tools to help you with learning about and preparing balanced meals and serving up right-sized portions for your kids. Eating healthy is a journey that we want to become a way of life. We need to learn about healthy eating and practice living a healthy lifestyle everyday. Think about reading a book to your kids that teaches them about a balanced meal like Sammie and Sax in the Land of Quinoa: The Search for a Balanced Meal. Buy plates that are right-sized and have serving sizes built into them like those offered from Kidliga. Choose some fun activities for your kids that reinforce the learning like a Sammie and Sax Balanced Meal puzzle, or fun mazes and coloring pages that you can find for free online. Then think about choosing kid-friendly recipes that your children will enjoy helping to prepare as well as eat.  There are healthy children’s cookbooks you can get or you can find kid-friendly recipes for free online and make your own cookbook of family favorites.

6. Access Free Resources online and locally. There are more and more great websites to help parents with ideas, recipes and activities to help engage our kids in healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle.  Here are my favorites:

www.LivligaHome.com
www.eatright.org/kids
www.choosemyplate.gov
http://www.actionforhealthykids.org/

Supporting our kids in eating and living healthy is the greatest gift we can give them. Use these tips to help make the journey a little easier and more fun.


September is #NationalChildhoodObesityAwarenessMonth (NCOA). To get things started off right Livliga has a special Kidliga Sale all September long!  All Kidliga products are 30% OFF with FREE shipping! Use this discount code at checkout: HealthyKids30off. Our designated nonprofit to receive donations from each sale is Children With Diabetes. Please help us help kids live healthy!

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How to Make AND Enjoy Healthy Meals With Your Kids

Including kids in food preparation is a great way to get them interested in different foods

September is Childhood Obesity Awareness Month. It is a great time to focus on our kids, what they eat and how they can be active in order to live the healthiest life they can. All children should and can be included.

Preparing more meals at home is a great family activity. It is also cheaper and healthier for your family. When you prepare meals at home you can control the amount of salt, sugar and fat added because of the recipes you choose as well as the way you choose to prepare your food. Click here to read the entire article...

Re-posted from Sheila's Blog on TheEpochTimes.com.

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SEPTEMBER KIDLIGA SPECIAL PRICING TO HELP KIDS LIVE HEALTHY

Help us double our impact on childhood obesity. During September, all month long, as part of raising awareness for National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month we are offering our Kidliga children’s dishware at a significant savings ($29.99 instead of $59.95/comes with an award winning book) and each time you buy a set of Kidliga we are donating a set to a child participating in a healthy lifestyle and nutrition program. This way each time you buy  you are doubling the number of kids you are helping live a healthy life.

Help Us Help Kids Live Healthy!

#NCOAM

#Kidliga

#CCHLN

#healthykids

#childhoodobesityawareness
#Livliga 
#LiveVibrant 
#Kidfriendly
#SpecialPricing
#HelpUsHelpKidsLiveHealthy

 

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Great Healthy Living Quote # 113-- The Secret to Success

Great Healthy Living Quote # 113-- The Secret to Success 

 

Are you a believer in success or...failure?

#MotivationMonday
#Inspiration
#Success
#Believe
#LiveVibrant
#Livliga

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Kid-Friendly and Healthy--Yummy Banana Bread Muffins

Kid-Friendly and Healthy--Yummy Banana Bread Muffins

Muffins are an easy way to include kids in cooking. They are generally uncomplicated recipes. Muffin recipes have simple ingredients and straightforward directions. Kids love mixing, mashing and measuring. This recipe is great for all these activities.

I recently did a "recipe make-over" for my favorite Banana Bread Muffin recipe, adjusting the ingredients to make it healthier and more kid-friendly. My goal was to use less oil and sugar and add flavors kids like. I did this by substituting apple sauce for the oil and Truvia Baking Blend for the refined sugar. In addition I took out the sage and put in vanilla. It was a hit!

These Yummy Banana Bread Muffins are filling and satisfying for kids because of the whole wheat flour, fresh banana, apple sauce and plain Greek yogurt used.  And by using far less sugar they do not trigger the need for more sugary sweets as so many pre-packaged treats do. These muffins are great on their own or included as part of a meal. Here is the recipe:

Yummy Banana Bread Muffins

Ingredients-
1 cup flour, unbleached
1 cup white whole-wheat flour
½ cup Truvia Baking Sugar Blend
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt, coarse Kosher
2 eggs, large
1 ½ cup banana, ripe and mashed (3 large)
⅓ cup Greek yogurt, low fat and plain
¼ cup apple sauce, unsweetened and organic
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cooking Spray

Directions-
1. Combine flours, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Make a well in center of flour mixture.
2. In a separate bowl beat eggs with a whisk. Next add mashed banana, yogurt, apple sauce and vanilla, stirring with the whisk.
3. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture, stirring until moist.
4. Spoon batter into muffin cups sprayed with cooking spray. Fill ⅔rds full.
5. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes or until muffins spring back when touched lightly in the center.
6. Let muffins sit in tin for 10 minutes. Promptly remove muffins and serve. These muffins keep well for a few days in the refrigerator or weeks in the freezer.

Serves: 12. Serving size: 1 muffin. Calories per serving: 128.

#Kidliga

#CCHLN

#healthykids

#childhoodobesityawareness
#Livliga 
#LiveVibrant 
#Kidfriendly
#SpecialPricing
#HelpUsHelpKidsLiveHealthy

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Great Healthy Living Quote # 112-- Dream Big

Great Healthy Living Quote # 112-- Dream Big

#MotivationMonday
#Inspiration
#DreamBig
#WorkHard
#LiveVibrant
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The Colorado Flood Revisited--The Story of Resilience and Renewal

Colorado Flood Revisited- A Year Ago Riding in a Highloader to Get to The YMCA to Talk Strategy

Last year this time most of Colorado was being inundated with rain. So much rain, in fact, we experienced devastating floods. People lost their lives. Homes slid down hillsides and many people had to be evacuated. We were among those affected. You might remember my blog about it. We were lucky, though, our story was more one of inconvenience rather than devastation. But it was scary.

We were living in Estes Park over the summer because our new home was being renovated to make it accessible for our whole family. We had moved to Longmont to be nearer our warehouse for our new business. Both Estes Park and Longmont were hard hit.

On September 13, 2013 we evacuated up the side of a mountain using a fire escape route and we ended up living at a Ramada Inn for over a week in Denver and then decided to move into our house under construction. We bought inflatable beds to sleep on and used packing boxes for tables. We had no kitchen so we ate out or bought pre-packaged foods. We tried to be mindful and attentive to what we were eating. It was not easy given the circumstances. We did our best to work out regularly but it was not as consistent as it should have been. It was another two months before we had a working kitchen and our furniture out of storage. It took us a long time to unpack.

Looking back I now understand how traumatized we were, like so many. The magnitude of the Colorado Floods and the force of Mother Nature shook  our sense of stability and safety...to the core. None of us ever imagined what happened could actually happen to us.

And then there are the images of the destruction. The force of the water ripped tall trees from their roots, rivers permanently changed course and entire roads collapsed and were washed away. There are now fields of boulders where there were once pastures of flowers. You can still see a car lodged in a tree along the road to Estes Park.

For the longest time I could not go back to the summer place we stayed in. I didn't want to relive the devastation and destruction. A place I loved and had spent 40 years enjoying had had its eyes gouged out. Where there was a road there was now debris, boulders and a deep crevasse. How could I ever see beauty again?

The Colorado Flood Brought Such Devastation

Then the very Mother Nature that had caused all the damage taught me a lesson. It took me until June to go back. Admittedly it would have been hard to visit much sooner because the road had been washed away. Some of the road has now been repaired so we can at least get there.

The scourge to the land is still very visible. But if you take a closer look you see new life sprouting up everywhere. Mother Nature has kept going. She sees cataclysmic events as opportunity for new growth. There is no holding her back. She just keeps going. As she goes, she grows.

The people of Colorado, just like Mother Nature, have persevered, shown their resilience and gone about renewing their lives. It has been remarkable to witness and experience.

Personal observation has shown me that resilience and renewal are key factors in our ability to be healthy in our mind and spirit. Mother Nature is our guide.

The Colorado Flood Revisited--The Story of Resilience and Renewal

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6 Essentials for First Apartment Kitchen Set Up for Healthy Eating

The key to heathy eating is investing in kitchen essentials that make cooking at home easy and enjoyable
 (photo by LivligaHome).

My daughter, like so many young adults at this time of year, is moving into her first apartment. This is a big deal. First apartments are one of the big rites of passage we have. It is exciting and scary at the same time. As a mom who cares about healthy eating I, of course, immediately thought about her new kitchen and how it could be set up for a healthy lifestyle and healthy eating. When you are starting from scratch with a new kitchen it is a great moment to think about how to set yourself up for health and to prioritize the tools you need to make home cooking easy and enjoyable.

1. First things first…when you buy your first set of dishware, make sure it is right-sized, not over-sized. The great thing about right-sized plates is they easily fit in your cabinets and dishwasher (if you have one). Don’t forget to pick right-sized glassware too.

2. In your apartment, make sure there is a designated area for you to sit down and eat a meal. Of course, the table and chairs may well be multi-purposed but when you eat it should be cleared off and set for a meal. Being mindful when we eat and eating in an area that is visually attractive plays a big part in healthy eating.

3. Color is also a big factor in how we feel. As we know from the colors we choose to wear, they can have a significant influence on our mood. If you can paint your walls, think about painting your kitchen and eating area in colors that make you feel good but not colors that stimulate you because of their intensity like hot reds, yellows or oranges…leave those colors for other areas.

4. Choosing your dishware with the influence of color in mind is also important.  White plates do not give you enough contrast with the food you eat so you tend to put more food on your plate. Plates with some non- stimulating color are ideal (think blues, greens, plum or other calming colors).  Check out Livliga dishware as an example.

5. Equip your kitchen with cooking basics to make meal preparation easy and enjoyable. Here is a good list to begin with:

good knife                   set of measuring cups                       set of measuring spoons
saucepan                     colander/strainer                               skillet
stockpot                      tea kettle                                            can/bottle opener
cork screw                  cutting board                                     set of mixing bowls                        vegetable peeler         salt grinder                                         pepper grinder
spatula                        slotted spoon                                      spoon
grater                          cookie/baking sheet with sides          oven mitt/pot holder
loaf pan                      dish towels                                         sieve
whisk                         French press for coffee/tea                 storage containers
tongs                          sponge with scrubber                          pot scrapper

6. Stock your pantry with survival basics, this includes having canned items that you can make a healthy meal from as back up when you don’t have time or are two tired to go to the grocery store.  Here is a survival basics list:

oatmeal                       nuts (pecan, walnut, almond)                                 olives
diced tomatoes           low sodium broths (chicken, beef, vegetable)        tuna
chicken                       canned fruit (mandarin, peach, pear)                     sea salt
pepper                        olive oil                                                                   vinegar
cooking spray            Dijon mustard                                                          lowfat mayo
whole wheat pasta     capers                                                                       anchovies
garbanzo beans          panko bread crumbs                                                 parmesan
                                                  
herbs: basil, bay leaf, chili powder, cinnamon, cumin, dill, granulated garlic powder, herb de Provence, nutmeg, oregano, paprika, parsley, crushed red pepper, rosemary, tarragon, thyme, turmeric

Idea for quick & healthy “pantry” sandwich:
Tuna fish sandwich with Wasabi mayo

Idea for quick & healthy  “pantry” salad:
Tuna fish salad

Idea for quick & healthy  “pantry” pasta:
Pasta Puttenesca

Idea for quick & healthy  “pantry” soup:
Gazpacho

Idea for quick and easy  “pantry” burger:
Tuna burger

Cooking at home is a great way to live a healthy lifestyle. It is so much easier to control what you eat. In order to be able to do it with ease and enjoyment it is important to set yourself up for success. These 5 essentials for first apartment kitchen set up should be a great first step to healthy eating and many wonderful meals ahead.

 Enjoy! And Live Vibrant!

Re-posted from Sheila's Blog on TheEpochTimes.com.

Download Our Free eBook:
Healthy Lifestyle & Weight Loss

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Great Healthy Living Quote #111-- Perplexity is the beginning

Great Healthy Living Quote #111-- Perplexity is the beginning

#MotivationMonday
#Inspiration
#Perplexity
#Knowledge
#LiveVibrant
#Livliga

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My 100-Mile Journey Turned into a 110-Mile Success

The Journey: for 7 days I cycled each day to reach 100 miles as a birthday week challenge for me to achieve (photo by LivligaHome).

My seven days are up. I took on a challenge a week ago to cover 100 miles on my bike. I had never done anything like this before.  The most I had ever cycled in a day on a bike was 25 miles and that was a one-time deal. I did participate in The Buffalo Classic fundraiser bike ride once, cycling their shortest route. All this is to say traveling 100 miles in a week was an extraordinary journey for me to take on. To read the entire article click here...

Re-posted from Sheila's Blog on TheEpochTimes.com.

 

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Please Help Livliga Be A Martha Stewart Made In America Finalist!

Please Help Livliga Be A Martha Stewart Made In America Finalist!

Okay blog friends and readers--

I have something fun and potentially big to ask of you! Livliga, specifically our wine glass, is a nominee this year for the Martha Stewart Made in America contest. We would like to see, with your help, if we can get to be a finalist. Here is what you can do: Over the next 6 days, the nominations with the most social shares will have the opportunity to earn one of 200 wildcard finalist spots. All finalists must be selected by Tuesday, September 9th at 11:59 PM. So, can you help? Please share our link: http://www.marthastewart.com/americanmade/nominee/91148/design/livliga on facebook and twitter and ask everybody else you know to do the same. Let's see how big a rumble we can make across the world of social media!

Thanks for helping! Let's have some fun!


Enjoy! And Live Vibrant!

Sheila

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5 Tips To Avoid Over Snacking

5 Tips To Avoid Over Snacking (photo by LivligaHome).

Hot summer months are ripe for over eating. Our kids are out of school, often bored, and have constant access to snacky foods. With 17% of US children now living a life of obesity there are many ways to change unhealthy habits and encourage healthy eating.

Snacks can have a big impact on our children's health and weight. Taking steps to make it easier to provide healthier choices for our ourselves and our kids is key. Since parents are the role models for thier kids, we need to model healthy habits too. With a little planning and prepping we can make snacktime a fun and healthy experience.

Here are 5 Tips To Avoid Over Snacking:

1. Pre-plan and pre-organize your snacks. Make sure there are plenty of colorful cut up vegetables and healthy dips in the front of your refrigerator.

 2. Avoid buying packaged snacks. Instead package your own to grab-and-go with to the pool, sports activities, travel, picnics or a friend’s backyard barbecue.

 3. Think about when you want to eat snacks during the day and set a specific time when you and your children will enjoy them. This way you avoid grazing throughout the day.

 4. Be in control of your snacks or appetizers. When invited to a friend’s house or spending hours at an after school sports event, offer to bring the snack, that way you can be in control of what you eat. You can choose to provide a healthy alternative.

 5. Drink a lot of water. It is hot outside and we need to drink more water. Sometimes our feelings of hunger are actually because we are dehydrated. Before you choose to eat a snack…or any meal, always drink a glass or two of water. Encourage your children to do the same. Everyone will feel fuller and will avoid dehydration as well as over snacking.

Don't forget some healthy summer reading with Sammie & Sax! Buy our hardback in English or now enjoy our updated adventure book as an ebook in Spanish!


Help Kids Live Healthy!

#Sammie&Sax
#summerreading
#FREEebook

#Kidliga

#CCHLN

#healthykids

#childhoodobesityawareness
#Livliga 
#LiveVibrant 
#Kidfriendly
#HelpUsHelpKidsLiveHealthy

This article originally published on the EpochTimes.com

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Great Healthy Living Quote # 110- Be Daring, Be Different

Great Healthy Living Quote # 110- Be Daring, Be Different

How will you assert your integrity of purpose?

#MotivationMonday
#Inspiration
#BeDaring
#BeDifferent
#LiveVibrant
#Livliga

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