Posts

Are We Raising Unhealthy Kids? How Parents Can Turn This Trend Around

I would like to welcome Deb Lowther from Adult Essentials vitamins to the blog today, to discuss the important issue of raising healthy children. Thanks, Deb!

We hear it on the news and read about it in the newspaper, the obesity rate in kids is growing, leaving them at risk for serious health problems now and as adults. As parents, it raises a lot of concerns. How can we turn this alarming trend around? How do we raise healthy kids?

It’s proven that parents who are committed to their own healthy, active lifestyle raise healthy, active kids. Our own family participates in multiple sports – from my husband who swims and cycles to myself who runs and goes to the gym to our kids who dance, ski and do triathlons. It’s an integral part of our lifestyle as a family.

So what’s the difference between our family and all these other families whose kids are at risk? What are we doing differently than other families? The difference is commitment and effort. . . . from the parents.

Commitment to Staying Active

It takes a commitment to staying active, and effort to teach kids to ride bikes, play hockey, swim, do gymnastics. It takes effort to make the time for them to play or practice, to drive them, to organize games, to get outdoors with them and have active play dates.

It also takes parents modeling an active lifestyle. Parents need to plan active family time, not just family time. Go for a skate, a bike ride, a jog, a hike as a family. Be active yourself. Active parents have a better chance of raising active kids and active families are healthy families.

 

Commitment to Healthier Foods

It’s about more than just taking vitamins, it takes a commitment to eating healthy and an effort to make your kids healthy snacks. Starting with stocking the fridge with healthy fruits and passing up the convenient processed foods at the grocery store.

I know we are all busy and it’s so tempting when it’s right there to just skip the effort this one time. It takes two second to purchase the pre-made cereal and marshmallow snacks at the store and 10 minutes to make them at home. Is the extra 8 minutes worth your kids eating the artificial chemicals and dyes found in most of these packaged snacks?

It’s one thing to see all these brightly coloured convenient snacks with familiar cartoon characters begging children’s attention on grocery store shelves, its another to see a child after child with a lunch box completely full of processed food.

Today, kids are going to school with lunches made entirely of prepackaged convenience foods. Too often their lunches consist of a cello bag of chips, a plastic tube of yogurt, a packaged soft cookies, a wrapped tray of meat, cheese and crackers and a can of soda. Most of these children are too young to have packed that lunch on their own or to be responsible for making their own healthy choices.

As parents it takes our commitment to not buy so many packaged foods and to take the time every couple of weeks to make healthy snacks that can be stored in the freezer and popped in lunch boxes on school mornings.

Parents have the opportunity to teach their children about healthy food choices and healthy activity choices. Show your kids that exercise, staying active, eating fruits, vegetables and homemade foods is a commitment to a healthy lifestyle that your family is willing to make.

We have so much opportunity to teach them healthy habits that will last a lifetime. As parents, we certainly do influence what our children eat and how they stay active when they are young. Are you raising healthy kids?

BIO: Deb Lowther is a mother of 3 young daughters who, when not running after the kids, is running in the trails! She blogs about Raising Healthy Kids and ensures her own have fun while eating healthy & staying active. You can visit her websites to learn more www.iron-kids.com & www.adultgummies.com

My @AdultEssentials Vitamin Challenge Wrap Up! Gummies Anyone?

For the past 2 months, I’ve been taking part in the Adult Essentials Men’s Blog Tour! I have to say, I was a little skeptical about the whole thing because I’ve never really been a vitamin kind of guy. In my original post, I had narrowed it down to poor taste, enormous size or laziness; and while I’d like to say it was a combination of the three, it was definitely laziness.

How am I supposed to remember to take a vitamin every single day when I can barely remember to put the same colour socks on before I leave the house for work!? I can’t lie to you all, it was tough remembering at first. Fortunately, after about a week or two I got into a rhythm and never missed a day from that point on. Here’s where my inner child kicks in. Had the vitamins not been in gummy form, I can assure you that I would have stopped taking them, just like every other time I’ve tried to start a vitamin routine. I know, it felt ridiculous even typing that but I absolutely can not stand chewing on chalky vitamins.

Ok, back to my adult side, I have been a shift worker for the past 3 years. I work a horrible 12 hour shift on a 24/7 rotation which makes sleep and nutrition almost impossible. Anyone who has ever sat in a giant office complex alone at 2am, with a stocked room full of chips, chocolate bars, pop and all kinds of other junk will understand what I’m talking about. It’s difficult to stay on top of things when you can’t control your instincts because of exhaustion.

Well, I’m happy to report that after 2 months of taking the Adult Essentials vitamins, my sleeping has improved dramatically! Given, the vitamins can’t make my kids sleep through the night (Ahem, Deb, please work on this) but my problem was always in the getting to sleep part and that has been a breeze lately.

The other thing I have noticed is that my energy levels have been much higher in the last few weeks. I can’t give the vitamins full credit because I implemented an exercise routine at the same time as I started taking them; but it was due to the challenge that I started exercising, so that should bring it full circle in crediting Adult Essentials for the motivation. I’ve been able to stay awake and alert longer since I’ve begun with the vitamin/exercise combo and my kids and I are the ones reaping the benefits of a more active Daddy!

Look At These Before & After Photos! What An Amazing Transformation!

I think it’s also important to note that I am no vitamin expert and had to do some research on the effects of each type of vitamin I was going to take before doing it. I would suggest you do the same or even talk to your doctor before starting a new regimen. I found the Adult Essentials Nutritional Info page to be very helpful in educating me on what each vitamin is responsible for doing.

In closing, I wanted to take a minute to say Thank You to Deb and Stu Lowther, who are the masterminds behind Adult Essentials and also IronKids Gummies. My dealings with them have been nothing but pleasant and I love following and interacting with them on their social media accounts. They are one of the few companies who understand that the best way to reach your target audience, is to treat them as you would like to be treated and it’s no wonder why they are so respected within the blogging community.

It’s been a blast to have been a part of the Adult Essentials Men’s Blog Tour and I’m pleased to report that they have a new customer and friend in me. If you haven’t done so already, I encourage you to go check out Adult Essentials on Twitter and Facebook. Think I’m just kissing up to them? Go ahead and start up a conversation with them and you’ll see what I’m talking about!

Well, what are you waiting for? Get out and at least try the vitamins! They’re Gummies that are good for you, People!

Cheers!

I am participating in the Adult Essentials Men’s Blog Tour. I received a supply of vitamins in exchange for my participation in this campaign. Opinions expressed belong to me and are NOT influenced in any way.