When I first started Live Big With Ali Vincent I met Carmen Martinez who wrote into me asking for help. Originally I was just going to spend the day with her and her family to give them some pointers, cook a little, move a little and then part ways. After talking to Carmen and then seeing wow her family reacted to her getting real with her feelings about how she felt, I knew this probably wasn’t going to be the case, I fell in love with the family.
I went to the farmers marketwith the whole family. The kids got to see a variety of new fruits and vegetables and pick out what to get as we talked about the different ways they could prepare each and help their mom out. The girls were thrilled at the idea of helping, and I believe this is where their family turned the corner. For so long Carmen was trying to do everything on her own; by doing this she took away the opportunities for her family to give to her. The Martinezes have not only gone from always having mom watching what she was eating (aka dieting), to planning, cooking and eating healthy food together. They were all getting results and dropping weight where weight needed to be lost.
I wanted to reward them as well as push then to that next level of working together as a family on the road to living a life of health and fitness. So I challenged them to an all-in-one family weight loss challenge.
Listen up parents! Making sure our preschool children get their ’5 a day’ (servings of fruits and veggies) can be easy and painless… if you are prepared. Providing our kids with a healthy foundation, helping them acquire a taste for fruits/veggies will be something that stays with them for the rest of their lives. If they get used to eating fresh produce as kids, that will often translate in to adulthood.
Working with a pediatric population, parents repeatedly ask the same questions. So here’s what I tell them.
Kids can get overwhelmed when they see large portions. Serve appropriate amounts for the child’s age. A 2-3 year-old needs one cup fruits and one cup veggies while 4-8-year-olds should consume half a cup more, respectively, per day.
Try a new fruit/veggie tomorrow. If today it’s pears, tomorrow try oranges. Mix it up and keep kids interested. Have them take a bite and if they don’t like it now, let them try it again another time. “I don’t like it now” doesn’t mean “I don’t like it forever.” Read Full Post >
No one starts a weight loss journey by jumping up and down and celebrating; that’s more of an end game. But there ARE things you can do along the way to make the process more—dare we say it—enjoyable.
Here are our top tips:
Take the eagle-eye view. It’s not just aboutnumbers on the scale. In fact, taking small steps towards an achieved result is even more important. Take pride in every small victory—whether it’s taking the stairs instead of the elevator or skipping seconds at dinner. In the grand scheme, that’s what matters most. Read Full Post >
While many of us will probably get plenty of vitamin D in the summer sunshine, there’s some potentially welcoming news for those who prefer to get theirs from dietary sources (which is always a wise idea anyway). According to new research, mushrooms produce enough vitamin D without the need for supplementation.
There are many reasons vitamin D is important to our health. For instance, adequate vitamin D levels are necessary for promoting healthy bone development, muscle strength, and reducing the risk of bone fractures. Vitamin D is also essential in helping strengthen your immune system and reduces the risk of certain types of cancer, depression and diabetes.
Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine examined 30 healthy adults who were randomly given capsules of 2,000 International Units (IU) of vitamin D2, 2,000 IU of vitamin D3, or 2,000 IU of mushroom powder (with vitamin D2). They took these daily for 12 weeks in the winter months. Read Full Post >
Medifast customers joined in celebrating a new “holiday” on May 1 called “5&1 day” in honor of the continued success of its popular 5&1 meal plan. The holiday came at an opportune time for the diet company, which also launched a series of new additions to the My Medifast community page – a section of the website dedicated to customer support.
Medifast’s executive vice president Brian Kagen told Diets In Review the idea for the holiday was inspired by Medifast’s primary 5&1 diet program. Customers on the 5&1 plan enjoy five Medifast Meals and 1 Lean and Green Meal of their choice. “We were celebrating the success of our clients and looking at the calendar and it was 5-1,” he said. “It seemed like a great opportunity to celebrate the wonderful experiences our clients have had.” Read Full Post >
