A healthy lifestyle starts every morning and lasts all day long. It’s about eating right, exercising more, and taking good care of your body from morning to night. Here are 10 ways to get started.
- Get plenty of sleep. A good night sleep is extremely important. Your body recuperates during sleep. Between 7 and 8 hours is most ideal.
- Never skip breakfast. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It revs ups your body’s engine to keep it fueled well all day. Make sure to eat a healthy breakfast with whole grains or protein. This will keep you fuller longer and help with digestion throughout the day.
- Walk to school. Many children live within 1 mile of the school that they attend. This is a great time to get in 15 -30 minutes of exercise first thing in the morning.
- Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. Make sure half of your plate is filled with vegetables when eating any meal. This will help in digestion, as well as, keeping you full longer. Pick the vegetables that you like, or that are in season, steam them or gently stir fry with minimal olive or canola oil.
- Stay hydrated. But not with juice or soda! It’s important to drink throughout the day, but what you drink will determine your weight and your health. Drinking lots of sugary juices or sodas add lots of calories. Many times it could be 100’s of calories that just wait to be snug around your belly, thighs or buttocks. Pick up a nice cold water or seltzer. Make homemade tea at home with just some fruit tea bags, ice and a big jug of water.
- Mind your friends. You are known by the company you keep. If you surround yourself with negative people there is a very good change you will pick up negative thoughts and behaviors. This is not a recipe for success in health. Keep yourself surrounded by positive thinking people, with you being the ring leader!
- Make dessert a physical activity. Nothing wrong with having a little ice cream once in a while. However, why not make yourself and your family exercise for it. Walk together to the local grocery story and pick out a dessert that you could all share within the correct portions. Then walk back home and enjoy!
- Turn off the TV, phone, DVD, IPad, Blackberry, IPod. When eating any meal try and eat as a family. Bonding together will help cure some of the mindless eating that tends to occur when family members are focusing more on their electronics than their eggs.
- Xbox, Wii – no problem. You just want to sit on that couch and play video games? Why not turn your gaming into a healthy activity. On your next purchase, instead of the newest shoot up game why not try bowling, dancing or baseball as your next game. You can play the game as a family and you’ll be exercising and bonding at the same time.
- Learn to cook healthy. Check out a local community center and see if there are any low cost or free healthy cooking classes for you and your children. Empower your children to take control of their own health destiny by educating them about healthy cooking. Many times local parks and recreations centers will offer these types of classes. Be proactive about your health. The best way to start is in your own kitchen.
“I think the Live Light Live Right program is a great program for children because the staff helps the children, not only with weight issues, but helps educate the children about discipline to eat right and exercise daily. Since many children’s self esteem is low it helps for them to be around other children that have the same problem. It makes them feel like they are ok. Even though my son is chunky he has learned that he is a great kid despite his weight. Live Light has helped me and Malik grow and learn how to manage a healthy lifestyle together.”
“I was very concerned about Nazir’s health. I began to see that he was not eating well and gaining weight. My family has a history of weight issues and I didn’t want that for my son. His pediatrician was very harsh with me and told me that my son was obese. I thought I was being a bad mother, but then I realized that he was right and I had to do something. Our doctor gave me the Live Light Live Right pamphlet and once we started we never looked back. Nazir started the program at 6 years old and he is 15 years old now. The Live Light Live Right program has become a part of my family. We look to the physician’s, the nutritionist and the trainer’s for guidance all the time. As difficult as it was to hear Nazir’s doctor tell me he was obese, we are truly grateful to him and to the Live Light Live Right Program.”
“Anna-Lisa started the program when she was 9 years old. I started to see that her eating habits were not good and that she started to gain weight. She was getting food from her father that wasn’t healthy. I spoke to my insurance company and asked them to help, but they were of no help. I become very worried and asked my pediatrician if she could recommend a program to help us. The Live Light Live Right program has helped us tremendously. The exercise program has kept our daughter very active. The physician’s have helped me help my daughter. My husband and I are now on the same page in helping our family. I don’t know what I would do if we hadn’t found the Live Light Live Right Program. Anna-Lisa has taken charge of her own health thanks to the program.”
“Darieka started with the program over 6 years ago. We were referred by our pediatrician because Darieka was overweight. Darieka really likes the exercise classes. She really likes the friends that she has made. The trainer’s have taught her so much that even sometimes she works out at home. She makes us exercise with her at home! Her dad is a big motivation for her so he is always talking to her about eating right, exercising and to not drink too much juice and soda. She has recently told us that because of her participation in the Live Light program that she would like to become a certified trainer to teach classes when she gets a little older. We are really proud of her determination. We don’t know what we would have done without the help of the Live Light Live Right Program.”
“About 4 years ago our pediatrician mentioned to us that Seydi could benefit from the Live Light Live Right Program. When we had our first meeting I was quite impressed by the professionalism of the whole staff. The doctor’s were really great in explaining the disease of obesity to us, which gave us comfort in knowing that we had the ability to make changes that would help Seydi and our whole family. Our family is completely supportive of Seydi by encouraging him to participate in the exercise program and also by giving him advice as to what to eat. We have made changes as a family. This is not only Seydi’s challenge but a challenge for our whole family. With the support of the Live Light Live Right program we are able to give our son the best support. We are very grateful.”
“We have been in the program, on and off, for about 2 years. We had a lot of struggles with transportation and Saturday school hours to keep Ervin going regularly. However, since sitting down with the Live Light Team we realized the importance of keeping up with the exercise program and the medical appointments. We have made a commitment to ourselves to go to the classes and medical appointments more regularly. The program has made our whole family more aware of how important it is to exercise, to eat the right foods and how to handle stress in our everyday lives. We also learned how to read nutrition labels, which has really helped us a lot. The children in the program are also really nice to each other. We look forward in continuing with the program!”
“We have been in the program for almost 2 years. We learned that the reason why Deondre wasn’t losing weight was because the doctor’s explained that his pancreas is creating too much insulin. Not even his pediatric physician was able to give us this information. Dr. Dhuper was able to educate us as to why this was happening to Deondre. This information was invaluable to us! Our frustrations subsided and we were able to create a plan of action with the Live Light team to increase his physical activity as well as taking the correct medication. So now that we know the problem, the creation of too much insulin, he will be regulated and will be able to lose what he is supposed to lose. We really found our partners with the Live Light Team!”