Fitness tips for kids

Fitness tips for kids

Being physically active and healthy is not only meant for adults but for kids as well; modern child fitness is a backseat matter. Children are becoming victims of inactive, unmotivated, unhealthy lifestyles and their health is deteriorating day by day. Children are becoming victims of inactive, unmotivated, unhealthy lifestyles and their health is deteriorating day by day.

Normally children get bored with routine exercise. Make exercise fun by organizing games, dancing programs etc. Initiate your child to play games like soccer, softball, football, baseball, tennis, golf and even swimming. All these methods of exercise are great ways of fitness.

Ignorance of exercise and nourished diet make most of children obese. It is the duty of parents to pay attention for the fitness of their children. Exercise like running, walking, cycling and swimming in routine strengthen your child’s cardiovascular system and establishes healthy exercise habits which will affect long term health positively.

Fitness and exercise make your children’s muscles and bones strong. They learn how to control their body fat and they are less likely to become obese.

Health tips for overweight teenagers

Health tips for overweight teenagers

In this new trend of fitness age, lots of teenagers are unhappy with their present weight and most of them don’t know how to change it to stay in better shape. In your teen age if you feel extra pounds around your waist, without wasting time go for suitable Weight loss program. It is never too late to start a Weight loss program. But if ignored you may suffer from various other serious problems.
Your life style is the main reason for extra weight. When you have no exercise routine and have bad eating habits, you give invitation to excess weight.The most important tip for a teen to control weight is to avoid fatty, junk and oily foods and artificial drinks.
Add fruits, raw vegetables and fibrous in your diet that balance nutrient content in your body and lower your fats. If you are fond of some snacks between two meals then by replacing your normal snacks with frozen grapes, cherry tomatoes, baby carrot or low-fat pudding or yogurt etc you can make your eating system healthy. Drink10-12 glasses of water daily to make your digestion system healthy.
Start with some normal workouts to burn extra calories. You can join gym and if not possible, spend time in running and playing your favorite sport. You can achieve your goal if there is a perfect combination between your diet and exercise routine.

Food is your medicine

Food as Medicine
Its a well known fact that good food is the best medicine to fight diseases
For healthy life it is is important to have a wholesome diet. A wholesome diet consists of grain products, vegetables, fruits, milk products, meats and many more things.
It act as supplement, energy boosters, that helps to keep you lively and energetic for the whole day. Right food at right time, detoxifies the body without affecting the whole metabolism.

Eat well and feel good:
A person should take meal only when he feels hungry. Lunch should be taken early between 12 and 1P.M. this coincides with the peak Pitta period, Pitta is responsible for the digestion. Ayurveda recommends that the lunch should be the largest meal of the day. The supper should be lesser and lighter than lunch

Quantity of food : Generally half of the capacity of stomach should be filled with solids, ¼ th with liquids and rest kept empty for the free movements of body humors.

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Healthy eating tip 5: Enjoy healthy fats & avoid unhealthy fats

Good sources of healthy fat are needed to nourish your brain, heart and cells, as well as your hair, skin, and nails. Foods rich in certain omega-3 fats called EPA and DHA are particularly important and can reduce cardiovascular disease, improve your mood and help prevent dementia.

Add to your healthy diet:

Monounsaturated fats, from plant oils like canola oil, peanut oil, and olive oil, as well as avocados, nuts (like almonds, hazelnuts, and pecans) and seeds (such as pumpkin, sesame).
Polyunsaturated fats, including Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids, found in fatty fish such as salmon, herring, mackerel, anchovies, sardines, and some cold water fish oil supplements. Other sources of polyunsaturated fats are unheated sunflower, corn, soybean, and flaxseed oils, and walnuts.
Reduce or eliminate from your diet:

Saturated fats, found primarily in animal sources including red meat and whole milk dairy products.
Trans fats, found in vegetable shortenings, some margarines, crackers, candies, cookies, snack foods, fried foods, baked goods, and other processed foods made with partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.
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Healthy eating tip 8:plan quick and easy meals

Cook when you can
Try to cook one or both weekend days or on a weekday evening and make extra to freeze or set aside for another night. Cooking ahead saves time and money, and it is gratifying to know that you have a home cooked meal waiting to be eaten.

Stock your kitchen to be meal ready
Try to keep your kitchen stocked with recipe basics:
1.Fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables.
2.Recipe and soup starters such as garlic, onions, carrots, and celery.
3.Healthy staples like brown rice, white Basmati rice, whole-wheat pasta, quinoa, and wild rice.
4.Whole wheat bread and tortillas for healthy sandwiches and wraps.
5.Beans such as lentils, black beans, chickpeas, black-eyed peas, kidney beans, fava beans, and lima beans.
6..Frozen corn, peas, and other vegetables to add to recipes or for a quick vegetable side dish.
7.Frozen fruit and berries to make smoothies or frozen desserts.
8.Dark greens for salads, plus salad add-ins like dried fruit, nuts, beans, and seeds.
9.Fresh and dried herbs and spices.

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Healthy eating tip 3: Eat more healthy carbs and whole grains

Choose healthy carbohydrates and fiber sources, especially whole grains, for long lasting energy. In addition to being delicious and satisfying, whole grains are rich in phytochemicals and antioxidants, which help to protect against coronary heart disease, certain cancers, and diabetes. Studies have shown people who eat more whole grains tend to have a healthier heart.

A quick definition of healthy carbs and unhealthy carbs
Healthy carbs (sometimes known as good carbs) include whole grains, beans, fruits, and vegetables. Healthy carbs are digested slowly, helping you feel full longer and keeping blood sugar and insulin levels stable.

Unhealthy carbs (or bad carbs) are foods such as white flour, refined sugar and white rice that have been stripped of all bran, fiber and nutrients. Unhealthy carbs digest quickly and cause spikes in blood sugar levels and energy.
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Healthy eating tip 6: Limit sugar, salt, and refined grains

Salt:limit your salt intake as a precautionary measure
Limit sodium to 2,300 mg per day, the equivalent to one teaspoon of salt. Most of us consume far more than one teaspoon of salt per day.
Avoid processed, packaged, restaurant and fast food. Processed foods like canned soups or frozen meals contain hidden sodium that quickly surpasses the recommended teaspoon a day.

Sugar and refined starches
Enjoy sweets in moderation, but try to cut down on sugar. Sugar causes energy ups and downs and adds to health problems like arthritis, diabetes, osteoporosis, headaches, and depression.
Avoid sugary drinks. One 12-oz soda has about 10 teaspoons of sugar in it! Try sparkling water with lemon or a splash of fruit juice.
Eliminate processed foods. Processed foods and foods made with white flour and white sugar cause your blood sugar to go up and down leaving you tired and sapped of energy.

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Healthy eating tip 4: Fill up on colorful fruits and vegetables

Fruits and vegetables are the foundation of a healthy diet—they are low in calories and nutrient dense, which means they are packed with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fiber. Fruits and vegetables should be part of every meal and your first choice for a snack—aim for a minimum of five portions each day. The antioxidants and other nutrients in fruits and vegetables help protect against certain types of cancer and other diseases.

Eat a rainbow of fruits and vegetables every day—the brighter the better.
The brighter, deeper colored fruits and vegetables contain higher concentrations of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants—and different colors provide different benefits. Some great choices are:

Greens: Greens are packed with calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium, zinc, vitamins A, C, E and K, and they help strengthen the blood and respiratory systems. Be adventurous with your greens and branch out beyond bright and dark green lettuce—kale, mustard greens, broccoli, Chinese cabbage are just a few of the options.
Sweet vegetables: Naturally sweet vegetables add healthy sweetness to your meals and reduce your cravings for other sweets.
Some examples of sweet vegetables are corn, carrots, beets, sweet potatoes or yams, winter squash, and onions.

Fruit: A wide variety of fruit is also vital to a healthy diet. Fruit provides fiber, vitamins and antioxidants. Berries are cancer-fighting, apples provide fiber, oranges and mangos offer vitamin C, and so on.

Fiber: An essential component of a healthy diet
Dietary fiber, found in plant foods (fruit, vegetables and whole grains) is essential for maintaining a healthy digestive system. Fiber helps support a healthy diet by helping you feel full faster and for a longer amount of time, and keeping your blood sugar stable. A healthy diet contains approximately 20-30 grams of fiber a day, but most of us only get about half that amount.
The two types of fiber are soluble and insoluble.

Soluble fiber can dissolve in water and can also help to lower blood fats and maintain blood sugar. Primary sources are beans, fruit and oat products.
Insoluble fiber cannot dissolve in water, so it passes directly through the digestive system. It’s found in whole grain products and vegetables.

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Healthy eating tip 7: Protein are essential
Protein in food is broken down into the 20 amino acids that are the body’s basic building blocks for growth and energy, and essential for maintaining cells, tissues and organs. A lack of protein in our diet can slow growth, reduce muscle mass, lower immunity, and weaken the heart and respiratory system. Protein is particularly important for children, whose bodies are growing and changing daily.

Try different types of protein. Whether or not you are a vegetarian, trying different protein sources—such as beans, nuts, seeds, peas, tofu and soy products—will open up new options for healthy mealtimes.

Beans: Black beans, navy beans, garbanzos, and lentils are good options.
Nuts: Almonds, walnuts, pistachios and pecans are great choices.
Soy products: Try tofu, soy milk, tempeh and veggie burgers for a change.
Avoid salted or sugary nuts and refried beans.
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Healthy eating tip 2:Its how you eat

1.Take time to chew your food and enjoy mealtimes: Chew your food slowly, savoring every bite. We tend to rush though our meals, forgetting to actually taste the flavors and feel the textures of what is in our mouths. Reconnect with the joy of eating.

2.Listen to your body: Ask yourself if you are really hungry, or have a glass of water to see if you are thirsty instead of hungry. During a meal, stop eating before you feel full. It actually takes a few minutes for your brain to tell your body that it has had enough food, so eat slowly.

3.Eat with others whenever possible. Eating with other people has numerous social and emotional benefits—particularly for children—and allows you to model healthy eating habits. Eating in front of the TV or computer often leads to mindless overeating.

WATER—a vital part of a healthy diet

Water makes up about 75% of our bodies and helps flush our systems of waste products and toxins. Yet many people go through life dehydrated—causing tiredness, low energy and headaches.Caffeinated beverages, in particular, actually cause the body to lose water. Fresh fruits and vegetables, on the other hand,contain plenty of water and can help with hydration, especially when you are looking for an alternative to your eighth glass of water for the day.

AVOID: Fruit juices, which can contain up to 10 teaspoons of sugar per cup; avoid or dilute with water. Canned fruit is often in sugary syrup, and dried fruit, while an excellent source of fiber, can be high in calories. Avoid fried veggies and those with dressings or sauces—too much unhealthy fat and calories.
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healthy eating tips

HEALTHY EATING TIPS

Some famous greek philosopher once said,"Leave your drug in the chemists pot if you can heal your patient with food".
Healthy eating is not about strict nutrition philosophies, staying unrealistically thin, or depriving yourself of the foods you love. Rather, it’s about feeling great, having more energy, and keeping yourself as healthy as possible– all of which can be achieved by learning some nutrition basics and using them in a way that works for you.

"Eat smart -it's not just about what you eat but how you eat",learning the habits of healthy eating can improve your health by boosting your energy, sharpening your memory and stabilizing your mood.Your food choices can reduce your risk of illnesses such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, as well as defend against depression.

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1.Stay at ease:Focus on finding foods you love and easy recipes that incorporate a few fresh ingredients. Gradually, your diet will become healthier and more delicious of your diet in terms of color, variety and freshness—then it should be easier to make healthy choices.
2.Start slow and make changes to your eating habits over time: Trying to make your diet healthy overnight isn’t realistic or smart. Changing everything at once usually leads to cheating or giving up on your new eating plan. Make small steps, like adding a salad to your diet once a day or switching from butter to olive oil when cooking.
3.Every healty food choice you make counts:You dont have to completly eliminate the food you enjoy to have a healthy diet.You shoulld feel good and eat good and healthy food to stay healthy.

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Health and nutrition

HEALTH AND NUTRITION

One can attain good hralth only by taking good nutrition ; What you eat will determine how long you will live, how obese you become, how often you fall sick, how physically fit you are, and a host of other vital factors. Nutritious food also helps you in maintaining your body weight.

Four essential nutrients required by our body are:

1.Carbohydrates

2.Fats

3.Protein and

4.Water

1.Carbohydrates: Carbohydrates are the main form of energy . Your body has the easiest time digesting carbohydrates like starch and sugar. Carbohydrates are broken down into individual fructose, glucose, units and so they are easy to digest.

2.Fats:They are essential for body to perform many corporal functions. Even saturated fats are indispensable because they help in strengthening your immune system and they are also good for liver and lungs and help calcium absorption.

3Proteins: Proteins are the building block your body uses to create new muscles tissues and repair any injured tissues.

4..Water: Water helps in washing out the dangerous toxins that your body takes in, from the air you breathe, the food you eat. Water also cushion the joints of your body. Water also carries oxygen and nutrients into all your cells and also helps in regulating the temperature of your body.

5.Vegetables and Fruits provide maximum Nutrition:

Different colored fruits and vegetables signify different nutrients. So, it is always advised to go for different colored fruits and vegetables to have all the required nutrients. Yellow and orange items typically are high in beta-carotene and dark leafy vegetables are high in Vitamin C. Cooking vegetables in oil also drains the nutrients present in vegetables. So, its always better to go for a quick steam with just a slight bit of water rather than boiling. Remember that it hardly matters how healthy your items are, if you drown them in oil.

6.Vitamins

Following are different tpes of vitamins:

Vitamin B1, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B3, Vitamin B6 ,Vitamin B12

Vitamin C ,Vitamin D ,Vitamin E, Vitamin K

Vitamins are organic substances in food, which are required in small amounts but cannot be synthesized in adequate quantities by the body and therefore have to be provided from the environment.

Contrary to popular belief, deficiencies of vitamins still occur in affluent countries, for example deficiencies of folate, vitamin B and Vitamin D and C.

These are particularly common in people on fad diets, veganand alcoholics.

Deficiency diseases are more prevalent in developing countries.

Following is a brief introduction to vitamins and their sources:

Vitamin A: Retinol. Carotene compounds responsible for transmitting light sensation in the retina of the eye. Deficiency leads to night blindness.

Dietary Sources of Retinol

Liver (richest natural source)

Milk

Butter

Cheese

Egg yolk

Fish and Liver oils

(Retinol or carotene is added to margarine in Britain and other countries.)

Yoga and its benifits

Introduction

Yoga is a way of life, an art of righteous living or an integrated system for the benefit of the body, mind and inner spirit. Yoga as an art originated, was perfected and practiced in India thousands of years ago. References to yoga are available in 'Upanishads' and 'Puranas' composed by Indian Aryans in the later Vedic and post- Vedic period. The main credit for systematizing yoga goes to Patanjali who wrote 'Yoga Sutra', two thousand Years ago. He described the principles of the full eight fold yogic discipline and composed the treatise in brief code words known as 'Sutras'..

Yoga and its Benefits

Yoga, derived from the Sanskrit word for "union", is a practice that uses posture and breathing techniques to induce relaxation and improve strength, and its health benefits may surpass those of any other activity. Whether you practice yoga to relax, stretch, breathe, meditate, or simply because it's in fashion, you may not realize the numerous health benefits of yoga

Benifical effects of Yoga on your mental health
1.Yoga benefits mental health by helping him or her relax, and it is an effective form of psychological therapy. Yoga reduces anxiety and stress, resulting in better health, better mood, and better concentration throughout the day. Yoga has been used to help treat a wide variety of emotional and mental disorders, including acute anxiety, depression, and mood swings.
2.Children can benefit from yoga. Those with attention deficit disorder and hyperactivity can learn to relax and get control by using yoga breathing and yoga asanas.
3.Yoga has been used to help heal victims of torture or other trauma.

Benefical effects of Yoga to Your Bones, Muscles, and Joints
1. Yoga keeps your body strong, as it involves all the muscles in your body to hold and balance yoga asanas (poses). The various yoga postures strengthen your feet, legs, hands, abdominals, lower back, legs, and shoulders.
2.Breathing exercises and streching improve your flexibility, helping joints, tendons, and muscles stay limber. People suffering from osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis will see a noticeable improvement in their stiffness, pain, and other arthritic symptoms by practicing yoga poses and postures.
3.Yoga boosts your endurance, especially the more athletic forms of yoga such as ashtanga yoga, power yoga, vinyasa yoga, and Bikram yoga. Rigorous yoga practices follow a specific sequence of poses (asanas) that become more challenging as you progress. Unlike the more gentle hatha yoga, the forms of ashtagna yoga, power yoga, vinyasa yoga, and Bikram yoga require you to keep your body in constant motion between poses, resulting in a strenuous cardiovascular workout and improved core strength.
4.Hatha yoga can relieve chronic back and neck pain, since the poses and postures gently stretch and strengthen your back and neck muscles.
5.Yoga is also prescribed to help heal various injuries, including repetitive strain injuries, knee and back injuries, pulled hamstrings, even minor skin burns.