National Get Outdoors Day is an annual event to encourage healthy, active outdoor fun. Prime goals of the day are reaching first-time visitors to public lands and reconnecting our youth to the great outdoors.
There are all kinds of programs being offered at different locations, or you can just Get Outdoors on your own. If you have a state or national park nearby, it’s a good day for a field trip!
Need another reason to Get Outdoors? “Recreation is a powerful antidote to stress.”
Teenagers live in a world that is more stressed than ever before. They get overloaded with pressure at school, conflicts at home, relationship problems, and career choices. Many have to deal with divorce, moves, financial struggles, jobs, and blended families. When stress builds up, teens cope however they can. They may drink, drive aggressively, get high, overeat, go shopping, spend hours on the computer or playing video games, or take out their frustration on others. This is why we see increased bullying, isolation, depression, obesity, eating disorders, inappropriate sexual activity, violent outbursts, cutting, intolerance and hate crimes, suicide, and many other destructive choices. Kids need new and better choices. They need help unwinding and handling pressure in positive ways. Recreation is a powerful antidote to stress.
~ Reason #2, Top 10 reasons for National Get Outdoors Day
Teach a friend or family member a physical activity that you know.
- Did you letter in golf or softball?
- Are you the next Tour de France contender?
- Have you danced on stage or in competition?
Share your knowledge and expertise with a friend or child. Your enthusiasm can help someone else learn. Just be patient with a beginner.
- It’s cheaper.
- You’ll be using fresher food, thereby eating foods when vitamins, minerals, and flavors are at their peak.
- You know what you’re eating.
- You’re in control.
- You won’t get stuck with a lot of choices you don’t want.
- It’s creative.
- It’s a way to share family time (get the kids involved).
- It’s social.
- It slows down the whole wonderful experience of eating. You enjoy the process rather than the goal-oriented approach to filling your gut.
- You will have an investment in what you’ve made.
- Like everything else, the more you do it, the better you become at it.
- It can be fun.
- If you bring home takeout, you tend to eat it faster.
- No one would ever eat standing up after making a wonderful meal.
- You will conquer your fear of being a cooking failure.
- It can be an adventure.
Marilu has been championing this for a long time – what we eat affects our behavior. What children eat affects their behavior. A recent study published in The Lancet (Britain’s leading medical journal) showed that a “restricted diet” can positively impact kids with ADHD.
“Restricted diet” is their term. We know that it’s possible to eat amazing, delicious meals prepared from fresh, natural foods. Limiting chemicals and preservatives, animal-derived foods, sugars, and other health robbers is not all that difficult. The early stages of the diet in the study were more restricted, as are all attempts at identifying allergens and symptom-inducing foods.
If your child has been diagnosed with ADHD (or ADD), ask your health care provider about trying dietary changes to reduce your child’s symptoms. It may not be the only solution, but it may help.
The full article is linked at the end of this quotation.
Kids with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, are normally treated with behavioral therapy and stimulant medications. A new study suggests that a highly restricted diet can be just as effective at reducing symptoms in a majority of children with ADHD.
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“There’s no question that foods have effects on people’s mood, sleep and energy,” says Dr. David Schab, a psychiatrist at Columbia University in New York. However, he adds, the current state of knowledge about what foods are problematic and which kids are susceptible is still too limited to be of much use for doctors or their patients.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 9.5% of school-age children in the U.S. have ADHD. That adds up to more than 5 million kids who could potentially benefit from a symptom-reducing diet.
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Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder exhibit a range of symptoms. Many have trouble staying focused on a single task and become bored or distracted quite easily. Others are unable to sit still, stay quiet or be patient. Some kids have a combination of these symptoms, plus others, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.
In the study, published last month in the Lancet, 100 children with ADHD symptoms who were 4 to 8 years old were divided into two groups. Half were allowed to eat only a small number of foods for five weeks; their diets were customized from a short list of ingredients that included water, rice, turkey, lamb, lettuce, carrots, pears and other hypoallergenic foods. The rest of the kids were counseled (along with their parents) about healthful eating but allowed to eat whatever they wanted.
At the end of the study, 64% of the kids on the limited diet showed significant improvement on a variety of standard rating scales. Though the initial scores for all of the kids in this group put their ADHD symptoms in the moderate-to-severe range, after the diet intervention their symptoms were classified as either mild or nonclinical.
~ Jill U. Adams, special to the Los Angeles Times, March 14, 2011
Our children (just like us) may want to eat not out of hunger, but out of the lack of control they feel somewhere else in their lives. You may want to check out your own habit of eating out of stress. Children pay attention to everything we do, even when we wish we weren’t doing it.
~ Marilu Henner, Healthy Kids: Help Them Eat Smart and Stay Active–for Life!
School lunches stand to get a little bit better soon.
The House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday that would upgrade the fare for federally subsidized school meals, clamp down on junk in school vending machines and make it easier for tens of thousands of poor kids to get free meals.
The Senate unanimously passed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act months ago. Now, with the House vote, it’s on to President Obama for his signature. That’s pretty much a sure thing because the changes have been a top priority for the administration.
For a rundown of what’s in the bill, see this summary from the office of Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the education and labor committee.
Full article here.
This bill isn’t a perfect fix – it’s a leap along the road to that end, though. Our friends at Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) are still working toward further improvements. The original House bill had better requirements for vegetarian protein alternatives and dairy alternatives, but the House chose to adopt the Senate bill in order to accomplish something (rather than nothing). Read more about that here.
Did you know that the number one day that teachers call in for substitutes is the day after Halloween?
It’s because of the candy. Kids are hyped up on sugar from the night before (and sometimes from candy for breakfast), and they’re tired from the excitement of the night before. They have almost no focus … and then they have a sugar crash, and they get cranky and sleepy. What teacher wants to deal with that?
Do your kids – and their teachers – a favor. Ration the candy. Trade their candy for something way more interesting to them – a new toy, new music, some sports equipment. Let them choose 10 pieces to keep and throw the rest away. Just don’t send your kids to school on a sugar high.
Think about what you’re giving to trick-or-treaters when they come to your door on Halloween. If you believe in your healthy lifestyle, you’ll want to share it with the children in your neighborhood. Without giving them toothbrushes (unless you’re a dentist; then it’s kind of expected).
No candy doesn’t mean no fun. Our neighbor kids love coming to our door (we’ve developed a bit of a reputation) to see what cool stuff they’ll get this year. Leftovers from one year are recycled to the next year (we just bag them up and stick them in the box with the decorations), so there’s no waste, and no tempting candy for us to deal with, either.
- Check the local dollar store for inexpensive toys. Party favors often come in packs of 8 for $1; sometimes you can do even better. Discount stores often have sales on inexpensive toys and party favors, and sometimes have a special dollar section.
- Purchase items that come in larger quantities, and break them down into individual gifts – balloons, crayons, colored pencils, etc.
- Look for toys that work for a variety of ages, or buy several different kinds of toys, and pay attention when you’re handing them out.
- Shop online at places like Oriental Trading to get a whole bag of stuff for a reasonable price. (Note: do it now.)
- Order custom printed pencils now, and you’ll have them in time for Halloween.
Toys our neighbor kids love * plastic sunglasses, bubbles, rubber bats (the rodent kind), those truly obnoxious slide whistles, and temporary tattoos. In our experience, even the teens prefer toys to coins.
Our next class is all about making your family happy. And “family” means all those people you cook for – spouse and children, roommates, in-laws, co-workers, partners or significant others, neighbors, friends. When they don’t think they want to eat healthy meals, and you love them enough to want them healthy – for a long, long time – what do you feed them? This class will show you.
The Family Class starts Monday, October 11, and runs through Friday, October 15. Coach Beth Miriam – wife and mother of two – will help you redefine and realign family meals.
Sign up now to get tips and tricks for making your healthy meals enticing and inviting, no matter who is around the table.
Do you cook for other people?
Do they think your food is a little weird?
Are you looking for ways to jazz up your meals?
Our next class is all about making your family happy. And “family” means all those people you cook for – spouse and children, roommates, in-laws, co-workers, partners or significant others, neighbors, friends. When they don’t think they want to eat healthy meals, and you love them enough to want them healthy – for a long, long time – what do you feed them? This class will show you.
The Family Class starts Monday, October 11, and runs through Friday, October 15. Coach Beth Miriam – wife and mother of two – will help you redefine and realign family meals.
Sign up now to get tips and tricks for making your healthy meals enticing and inviting, no matter who is around the table.
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