10 Ways to Get Kids to Eat Healthier

I just came across a pretty good article by ACE (American Council on Exercise) and thought I would share the highlights with you. This is from their Jan/Feb 2010 Fitness Matters Magazine.

In summary, here are the 10 tips published by Dr. Natalie Muth to help you encourage your kids to eat better:
1. Model Healthy Eating: Eat healthy foods yourself! Be enthusiastic about it!
2. Eat Together: Family meals are generally more nutritious and provide an opportunity to talk about food and model healthy behaviors.
3. Increase Exposure to Healthy Foods: Continue to reintroduce foods that your children have previously shunned. Children learn to eat (and enjoy) what they are exposed to most often.
4. Let Them Choose the Portion Size: This gives children a sense of empowerment, and they often choose appropriate portion sizes. As parents, it is common to dish too much food onto your child's plate and encourage them to finish their plate. Instead, let your child become intuned to their internal hunger cues.
5. Share the Control: As mentioned above, do not make your child clean their plate. Additionally, do not offer them a dessert reward if they finish a particular item, as this can lead the child to dislike that item even more.
6. Refuse to be a 'Short Order' Cook: Instead of feeling the need to cater to what each child wants for dinner, make sure there is at least one healthy food the child likes at each meal time. If they do not want to eat it, excuse them from the table and let them know that you will save their dinner for them if they become hungry later. This also helps children become more accustomed to eating previously rejected foods.
7. Limit Television Time: TV watching is linked to poor nutrition, mostly because of the numerous commercials for unhealthy products (such as sugary breakfast cereals, soft drinks, candy, salty snack products, and highly processed foods).
8. Exploit Similarities: Once a food is accepted, find other foods of similar color, flavor, or texure to introduce your child to. (ex: pumpkin pie --> mashed sweet potatos --> mashed carrots)
9. Make Eating Healthy Fun: Teach your child about plants by planting a small garden. Allow your child to pick out one new fruit and veggie at the farmers market to try at home.
10. Skip the Food Fights: The more a parent pressures their kid to eat a certain item, the less likely the child will be to develop a taste for it. Kids resist pursuasion. Instead, try your hardest not to put up a fight because that will make this food item a bigger deal than it needs to be. Just follow the tips above and reintroduce that food again at a later time.

I hope you find these helpful, I thought it was a pretty great article and wanted to summarize it for you!


Have a HEALTHY day!
~ Fit Britt

Online Personal Training by Fit Britt!

While the website is not at 100% yet, nor do I have it linked from my blog quite how I'd like yet, the fact is my HFPN Pro site is up and running for Online Personal Training! And, as promised, all training and consultations for the month of January will be FREE!

Click here to check out the site!

Inquire by filling out the 'contact me' box in the bottom left corner.
I have a 2-page questionnaire for you to fill out, and then I can work on designing your individualized program, complete with pictures and descriptions of each exercise!
Coming soon, there will also be opportunities to purchase fitness equipment at a discounted price!
Already you can purchase various supplements as well as an exerspy arm band device similar to the bodybugg that I've blogged about (scroll down to item #1).

Let Fit Britt help you achieve your 2010 resolutions and cross them off your list once and for all!

Have a HEALTHY day!
~Fit Britt

It's Time to Brag (and get accountability)!

We've made it through a full work week in 2010 plus two weekend opportunities to be healthy and active! Are you willing to share your New Years Resolutions? Let us know your goals and how things have gone thus far! Perhaps you've come up with some tips that might be helpful to others! Maybe you've experienced some struggles that I or other followers can assist you with.
Publicly posting your goals will help you stay on track and give you an excellent support system to encourage you and share experiences along the way. Please add your comments below!

The last post was all about goal setting. One very important point to mention is that you MUST accept that there will be set backs! There will be mornings when the comforter wins over the tennis shoes and the chocolate cake is victorious over the bowl of fruit. THAT IS OKAY! You need to find a lifestyle that is manageable to continue living and enjoying, while continuing to progress towards your ultimate goal. This should not feel like a punishment. With that said, don't punish yourself if you miss a workout one day... or even a few days in a row. You have not failed. What is most important is to resist the urge to say "I'll start again next week." NO! If the day is not over yet... there is still a chance to fit a healthy morsel into THIS day. If it is the end of the day, start fresh in the morning... don't wait for the calendar to flip to a new week... a new month... or even a new year. Each day, each hour is an opportunity to start again.

Please! Share your goals and progress thus far!
If you are looking for additional assistance or direction, I should have my new online personal training site up within the next day... so stay tuned for details on FREE online training and wellness consultations for the month of January! (notice: I posted this last week and I'm posting it again in order to hold MYSELF accountable!).

Have a HEALTY day!
~ Fit Britt

Will You Achieve Your Goals in 2010?

Happy New Year! I hope this year brings you much health and happiness!
This is certainly a time of year that we all reflect on our lifestyles, habits, and our future goals.
I'm going to take a huge leap and assume that most of you have even made some sort of goal regarding your health or fitness level for 2010. Allow me to provide some information and encouragement which is an integral part of all goal setting, and certainly works well for health and fitness:
Is your goal SMART?
All goals need to have start dates, end dates, and plenty of details to keep you on track along the way. In other words, your goals should be:
Specific - instead of saying "I will exercise more this year," be specific! Once you reach your final goal, how many days a week or hours per week do you want to be working out? Likewise, be more specific than "wanting to lose weight" ... how much weight do you plan to lose?
Measurable - all goals should have a measurable component. Minutes exercising and pounds on the scale are easily measurable. So are health goals like lowering blood pressure, cholesterol, etc. Some goals you may need to get more creative with... lowering stress for example... perhaps create a 1-5 scale that you can use to analyze your stress level occasionally.
Action Oriented Write your goals out in sentence (paragraph if needed) form and add specifics about HOW you will achieve your goals.
"I will exercise two hours a week by going for a 30 minute walk four times a week."
"I will lose 1 pound a week by keeping track of my caloric intake and making sure that each day I have a deficit of 500 calories."
"I will decrease my stress level by going for a 10 minute walk every time I feel anxious, going to a yoga class at least once a week, and making sure I allow myself one hour each day to do something that I enjoy."
Realistic It is certainly easy to get a little carried away with goal setting. I encourage you to aim high, but keep it realistic! If you don't run, don't set a goal of running a marathon next month... give yourself 6 months to a year to train. Likewise, your end goal should be something that you have to build towards... so if you are already able to walk 30 minutes a day - four days a week, you'll want to set your sights a little higher!
Timely A very important component of your goal setting... make sure you have an end date! What good is a goal without a deadline pressing upon you, keeping you accountable?

Finally, set your main goal to be your "long term goal" and create at least three "short term goals" to help you take the appropriate steps along the way. Here are a few examples:

1. Long term goal: I will lose 20 pounds by June 1st by creating a 500 calorie deficit each day (and thus losing an average of 1 pound a week).
Short term #1: In January I will sign up for a calorie tracking website and keep track of how many calories I consume daily. I will also start walking 15-20 minutes most days of the week.
Short term #2: In February and March I will focus on continually increasing the number of minutes that I walk each day (to one hour) while continuing to control my caloric intake.
Short term #3: In April and May I will increase the intensity of my activity by jogging for portions of my 1-hour walks.

2. Long term goal: I will eat 3-5 servings of vegetables a day by April 1st.
Short term #1: For the month of January, I will focus on sampling one vegetable each day (various colors), in order to discover my preferred veggies and cooking methods.
Short term #2: For the month of February, I will focus on eating two servings of vegetables each day, and by the end of the month I will also be drinking one V-8 each day.
Short term #3: For the month of March, I will make sure to eat a serving of vegetables with lunch each day and fill half of each dinner plate with vegetables.

Whatever your goal... make sure it's SMART!

A few more tidbits to help you on your journey:
- Check out my last post linking to a 3 month - weekly exercise program from the American Council on Exercise.
- Stay tuned to http://www.fittbritt.com/ to receive FREE online personal training for the month of January! (Hopefully coming next week!)

Have a HEALTHY 2010!
~ Fit Britt

ACE’s Kick Start Workout : A Week-by-Week, 3-Month Exercise Program

One of my certifications is through ACE: The American Council on Exercise. I received this email the other day and thought that I would share it with you guys! It looks great especially for someone starting a new workout program, and from what I can tell, it's free!

It also appears to be compiled by a gentleman I knew working in DC!

Let me know what you think and if you have any questions along the way with the exercises, etc.

ACE’s Kick Start Workout : A Week-by-Week, 3-Month Exercise Program