Because Nothing Should Weigh a Child Down
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Fabulous Fiber
Fiber is important for lowering your cholesterol, keeping your blood sugar normal, helping you feel full between meals, and keeping your digestion regular.
Try these tips to eat more fiber:
Pick the Fruit
Fruits are a good for getting vitamins and minerals, fiber, and even your daily water intake. Because different fruits contain different vitamins, it’s important to eat a variety of them. Here are some benefits of different fruits:
Protein Power!
Protein is important for your body cells, hair and nails, for healing an injury, and building bones, muscles, skin, and blood. You need protein in your diet along with carbohydrates and fats, and vitamins and minerals. Getting enough protein from your food is not usually a problem. But getting protein from better sources is.
What the Experts Are Saying
Live Light Live Right aligns with Robin Hood’s mission to fight poverty in New York City. The program comprehensively addresses the challenge of childhood obesity in a disadvantaged community where children’s health status is compromised by a lack of affordable, fresh food, physical activity programs, and safe play spaces. We are longstanding, enthusiastic supporters of the program simply because the Live Light Live Right program produces real results with hard data to prove it.
— Eric Weingartner, Managing Director, Robin Hood Foundation
The team at Live Light Live Right has been an invaluable resource to the community. While we try to serve the myriad of health needs of our pediatric patients, we also critically need the expertise of specialists who are extensively trained and experienced in the management of childhood obesity and its complications. Not only do we have a trusted place to direct our patients for the next level of tailored treatment, we primary care physicians also greatly benefit from the education and workshops Live Light regularly provides.
— Dr. Violetta Calibuso MD, primary care physician from Brookdale Family Care Center
What the Moms Are Saying
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 so they can eat right and exercise daily. Since many of the children have low self esteem, 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.
–Malik Hinds’ Mom
One of the Best Decisions
Brandon has been blessed for participating in this program. When he started the program in 2008, he was 8 years old and weighed 137 lbs. Putting my son in this program has been one of my best decisions because I’ve seen a lot of improvements in my son’s health and self-esteem. Continue reading →
A Mom and Daughter Lose Weight Together
When Chastity Blair Holland joined the Live Light Live Right program, she discovered a newfound love for veggies and another unexpected surprise: her mom started losing weight too! Here’s what her mom had to say about it all:
I found out about the Live Light Live Right program through a co-worker. The program has changed my family’s life tremendously. We now look at nutrition labels and incorporate vegetables. Before joining the program we never really ate vegetables, now we love to eat them. Although it isn’t a competition, Chastity and I are both losing weight since the program encouraged me to participate with Chastity in the exercise program. We have so much more energy which gives us the ability to do more and enjoy life. I really feel because of what we have learned at the Live Light Live Right program we have made life-long changes that will lead Chastity into adulthood. Now she is so much more conscious about eating healthy and exercising. We exercise at the Brownsville Recreation Center and at P.S. 165. At first, it was hard and we wanted to give up. The trainer’s motivated us to keep going and now it isn’t so hard for either of us. I love the way the trainer’s encourage the children through their inspiring words.
Eat Your Greens…. and Your Reds and Your Yellows
Vegetables are nutritious, colorful, flavorful, and can be prepared in lots of ways. They are naturally low in calories, fat, and sodium, don’t contain cholesterol, and are good sources of vitamins, minerals and fiber. Continue reading →
Carbs: The Good, the Bad and the Yummy
Carbohydrates, are they good? Are they bad? Low carb? No carb? Eat your grains. The contradictions are endless. The truth is, your body needs carbohydrates for energy! You just need to make sure you get the right kinds everyday. Continue reading →
Protein Power!
Protein is important for your body cells, hair and nails, for healing an injury, and building bones, muscles, skin, and blood. You need protein in your diet along with carbohydrates and fats, and vitamins and minerals. Getting enough protein from your food is not usually a problem. But getting protein from better sources is!
The Skinny: How to Read a Food Label
Food labels can be totally bewildering. Just because something says “low fat” doesn’t mean it’s not fattening. Confused? You’re not the only one. We’ve put together a tip sheet on how to shop smart so you go home with groceries full of healthy, nutritious ingredients.
- Start with the serving size. See how many servings are actually in the container. For example, an Arizona iced tea bottle usually has 2 ½ servings in it. Would you drink less than half the bottle and then put it away for another day?
- Calories. Check how many calories are in each serving. Let’s say there are 100 calories per serving in the drink you are about to drink. But there are 2.5 servings in the container. Multiply 100 by 2.5, and you’ll see that there are actually 250 calories in the container. This can be tricky! 1 container does not mean 1 serving.
- Fats. Try to make sure the foods you eat are low in total fats, saturated fats, and cholesterol. The Trans fat should say zero. Saturated and Trans fats raise your risk of heart disease.
- Sodium. Even though the food or drink might not taste salty to you, it can still be full of sodium. Sodium raises your blood pressure and you should not eat more than 2400 mg total in a day.
- Carbohydrates. Carbohydrates (or “carbs”) are important for giving your body energy, but try to limit the amount that comes from sugars. Sugar makes your blood sugar level rise, and turns to fat when you don’t use it. Check for anything that ends in “-ose” in the ingredients- that means sugar! Dietary fiber should be high. Fiber helps move your digestive system along and prevents heart disease and cancer.
- Protein. Most of us don’t have to worry about not getting enough protein, but try to have your protein come from foods like skinless chicken, turkey, fish, and beans, and not red meat like beef and pork.
- Vitamins and minerals. The goal is to get to 100% of what is recommended for each.