October 10, 2022 in Blog by Dee

Why Eating Healthy Matters!

By: Michelle Kirby

You know that healthy habits, such as eating well, exercising, and avoiding harmful substances, make sense, but did you ever stop to think about why you practice them? A healthy habit is any behavior that benefits your physical, mental, and emotional health. These habits improve your overall well-being and make you feel good.  Healthy habits are hard to develop and often require changing your mindset. But if you’re willing to make sacrifices to better your health, the impact can be far-reaching, regardless of your age, sex, or physical ability.

Here are five benefits of a healthy lifestyle:

1. Controls weight

Eating right and exercising regularly can help you avoid excess weight gain and maintain a healthy weight. According to the Mayo Clinic, being physically active is essential to reaching your weight-loss goals. Even if you’re not trying to lose weight, regular exercise can improve cardiovascular health, boost your immune system, and increase your energy level.  Plan for at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity every week. If you can’t devote this amount of time to exercise, look for simple ways to increase activity throughout the day. For example, try walking instead of driving, take the stairs instead of the elevator, or pace while you’re talking on the phone.  Eating a balanced, calorie-managed diet can also help control weight. When you start the day with a healthy breakfast, you avoid becoming overly hungry later, which could send you running to get fast food before lunch.  Additionally, skipping breakfast can raise your blood sugar, which increases fat storage. Incorporate at least five servings of fruits and vegetables into your diet per day. These foods, which are low in calories and high in nutrients, help with weight control. Limit consumption of sugary beverages, such as sodas and fruit juices, and choose lean meats like fish and turkey.

2. Improves mood
Doing right by your body pays off for your mind as well. The Mayo Clinic again notes that physical activity stimulates the production of endorphins. Endorphins are brain chemicals that leave you feeling happier and more relaxed. Eating a healthy diet as well as exercising can lead to a better physique. You’ll feel better about your appearance, which can boost your confidence and self-esteem. Short-term benefits of exercise include decreased stress and improved cognitive function.  It’s not just diet and exercise that lead to improved mood. Another healthy habit that leads to better mental health is making social connections. Whether it’s volunteering, joining a club, or attending a movie, communal activities help improve mood and mental functioning by keeping the mind active and serotonin levels balanced. Don’t isolate yourself. Spend time with family or friends on a regular basis, if not every day. If there’s physical distance between you and loved ones, use technology to stay connected. Pick up the phone or start a video chat.

3. Combats diseases
Healthy habits help prevent certain health conditions, such as heart disease, stroke, and high blood pressure. If you take care of yourself, you can keep your cholesterol and blood pressure within a safe range. This keeps your blood flowing smoothly, decreasing your risk of cardiovascular diseases.  Regular physical activity and proper diet can also prevent or help you manage a wide range of health problems, including:

• metabolic syndrome
• diabetes
• depression
• certain types of cancer
• arthritis

Make sure you schedule a physical exam every year. Your doctor will check your weight, heartbeat, and blood pressure, as well as take a urine and blood sample. This appointment can reveal a lot about your health. It’s important to follow up with your doctor and listen to any recommendations to improve your health.

4. Boosts energy
We’ve all experienced a lethargic feeling after eating too much unhealthy food. When you eat a balanced diet your body receives the fuel it needs to manage your energy level. A healthy diet includes:

• whole grains
• lean meats
• low-fat dairy products
• fruit
• vegetables

Regular physical exercise also improves muscle strength and boosts endurance, giving you more energy, says the Mayo Clinic. Exercise helps deliver oxygen and nutrients to your tissues and gets your cardiovascular system working more efficiently so that you have more energy to go about your daily activities. It also helps boost energy by promoting better sleep. This helps you fall asleep faster and get deeper sleep.  Insufficient sleep can trigger a variety of problems. Aside from feeling tired and sluggish, you may also feel irritable and moody if you don’t get enough sleep. What’s more, poor sleep quality may be responsible for high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease, and it can also lower your life expectancy. To improve sleep quality, stick to a schedule where you wake up and go to bed at the same time every night. Reduce your caffeine intake, limit napping, and create a comfortable sleep environment. Turn off lights and the television, and maintain a cool room temperature.

5. Improves longevity

When you practice healthy habits, you boost your chances of a longer life. The American Council on Exercise reported on an eight-year study of 13,000 people. The study showed that those who walked just 30 minutes each day significantly reduced their chances of dying prematurely, compared with those who exercised infrequently. Looking forward to more time with loved ones is reason enough to keep walking. Start with short five-minute walks and gradually increase the time until you’re up to 30 minutes.

The takeaway

Bad habits are hard to break, but once you adopt a healthier lifestyle, you won’t regret this decision. Healthy habits reduce the risk of certain diseases, improve your physical appearance and mental health, and give your energy level a much needed boost. You won’t change your mindset and behavior overnight, so be patient and take it one day at a time. And remember eating healthy doesn’t have to be boring, get an accountability partner and share dishes. Some fitness clubs already have healthy pre-made meals. The decision starts in YOUR MIND!

Click link for 100 calorie snack ideas: http://greatist.com/health/100-calorie-snacks

October 10, 2022 in Blog by Dee

12 Reasons Why You Should Seek & Embrace Change

By: Isabella Gura

Change is a natural and constant part of life, especially in such a fast-paced world that we live in today. Not only everything around you changes, but you change as well. The problem is many of us will resist and reject it.

Change can be scary and difficult, but change is often a good thing and can be so worth it. While not all change feels good, if we can handle it and look at it in the right light, growth as well as good outcomes can come from accepting change.

The following are twelve reasons why we should seek, accept and be embracing change.

Education

Change allows you to learn new things that you normally wouldn’t have learned with old ways. Even if the change involves failure, oftentimes a lot more can be learned from failure than success.

Learning doesn’t just stop at school. It’s a lifelong process. The more we seek out change and new experiences, the more learning opportunities are presented to us. Change can force you to look at things in a new light and challenge your current beliefs, values, and knowledge. It can allow you to learn new ideas, skills, viewpoints, and information. You can also learn and discover new things about yourself.

Adaptability

Accepting and embracing change allows you to adapt better to change and become more flexible. Change can be a lot harder on someone when they resist and reject it. Accepting change makes dealing with change a lot easier.

The more we deal with change, the more used to it we become, the easier it becomes to deal with it. Rigidity and resistance can cause unnecessary stress and blind us from the good that new situations, environments, and people can bring.

Opportunities & Possibilities

Change can open up many doors and opportunities that normally wouldn’t have been there without change. Change makes many things possible. It can allow you to meet new people, enjoy new experiences, develop new skills and ideas, learn new knowledge and information, and achieve great feats.

Change can help you transform and have breakthroughs. You’ll never know what can become and what can happen until you do. The possibilities with change become endless.

Improvement

Improvement is impossible without change. Change is necessary for improvement, growth, and development to take place. Change doesn’t have to be drastic or sudden either; it can be slow and steady for improvement and growth to happen.

Seeking and embracing change not only makes sure you keep up with the times and stay up to date, but also allows you to get ahead as well. Change allows for progress to happen.

Greatness

Greatness is more likely when you embrace change. It’s easier to remain stagnant and comfortable when you are “good,” but you miss out on the potential and opportunity of becoming great whether it be with your job, your relationships, or any skill or hobby you pursue.

Many people reject change because they claim to be happy already, but with change, they have the potential to be happier. Many of us don’t know what we’re missing out of because we are okay with where we are. Lack of change and resistance to change makes it a lot easier to settle.

“Good is the enemy of great. And that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great. We don’t have great schools, principally because we have good schools. We don’t have great government, principally because we have good government. Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for a good life.” – Jim Collins

Courage

When you are openly embracing change in life, it reduces and can eliminate the fears that can come with change. When change pushes us out of our comfort zone, courage grows. We can slowly, but surely overcome our fears by embracing the change that comes from facing our fears.

And yes, those fears can include the fear of change itself. Fear is an illusion in our minds that only stop us from seeking and achieving greater things in life.

Resilience & Grit

Acceptance of change makes us more resilient. Resilience makes us stronger and more capable of dealing with life’s difficulties. You learn that when there’s a change in your life however big it may be, that it’s not the end of the world and you’ll get through it, probably even better than before. We’re more equipped and efficacious with what life throws at us because of the changes we’ve dealt with before.

Without change, you can never know what your strengths are and what you are truly capable of. What we learn about ourselves can be surprising to many of us.

Appreciate Failure & Enjoy Success

Embracing change allows you to be okay with change, whether it be negative or positive. Some of us can avoid change even if it’s positive change and it involves success. Success anxiety is a very real thing.

Many of us can feel more relaxed with less responsibility and less success because we are comfortable with how things are now. Success can be scary and uncomfortable. When we learn to accept change, we can enjoy the success and good things that come with change and stop self-sabotaging.

Allows You to be Proactive

When you accept, embrace, and seek change, it puts the ball in your court and puts the direction of your life in your own hands. It allows you to be proactive and not reactive. You are no longer a victim controlled by outside forces. You make the choices when you embrace change. Only you are responsible for yourself and your life.

Implementing changes makes you more likely to reach your goals, develop your character, and live the life you want to live. When you accept change, you stop wasting time and energy complaining about changes that happen around you and instead take the initiative to make your own changes or accept the change and leave it at that.

Life Becomes More Interesting

If we take a look at movies and books, most of them have something in common. The main character or the protagonist often goes through change and transformation throughout the story. Without this, there would probably be no book or movie, and we would see the character as bland and boring and perhaps even unlikeable. The change(s) the character goes through often makes them interesting and more likable.

The changes that we go through and that we implement into our lives makes us more unique and interesting. The more experiences we’ve had, the more things we learn, and the more things we go through and get through makes our lives richer and more interesting. Those things even make us seem more interesting to others. Change can not only make life interesting; it can make life exciting. Change is exciting!

Even when it comes to negative changes in our life, the same applies. Whenever I’m unhappy about something in my life, or I keep messing up and failing, I like to think to myself that the greatest failures make for the best success stories. Change makes you a more developed and well-rounded person.

Change Can Improve Your Relationships

Experiencing change can also make you more open-minded and empathetic which can also improve your relationships with people. When you have more experiences and face difficult and adverse change, you are able to relate to people better and put yourself in their shoes because of the experiences you’ve had.

Change gives you more awareness and different perspectives of other people’s different experiences and viewpoints that you had never had before. It’s harder to relate to people who haven’t had very many experiences or haven’t faced any of life’s challenges. Those people are also going to find it hard to relate to those who have.

You’re More Likely to Follow Through with Your Goals

Even if we have goals and want to reach them, we may still be resistant to change, whether we’re aware of it or not. When we embrace change, we’re more likely to value our ideas and potential possibilities, and then follow through with them. When we value our ideas and goals, we’re more likely to believe in ourselves and our abilities.

When we accept change, we’re more likely to reach our goals.

“The only thing that never changes is that everything changes.” – Louis L’Amour

Final Reflection

The sooner you can start accepting, embracing, and seeking change, the sooner you can start enjoying life’s natural process. There are so many opportunities out there waiting for you to discover. You can’t alter the fact that change exists, but you can adjust your view and approach to live a happier and more fulfilled life.

Stagnancy is death. Change is what makes you alive. We’re either moving up or moving down. By accepting, embracing, and seeking change, we make the conscious choice to keep moving forward and continue growing and improving.

October 10, 2022 in Blog by Dee

7 Things You Can Start Doing Today to Motivate Your Teen

By: Raising Teens Today

Motivating an unmotivated teenager can be a challenge. Add on the fact that we’re in the midst of a global pandemic where our teen’s familiar routines have been turned upside down and anxiety is at an all-time high and it can be nearly impossible.

Chances are, though, your unmotivated teen is probably a tad more motivated than you realize.

Think about it. They’re probably motivated to hang out with friends, motivated to binge-watch their favorite Netflix shows, motivated to master another level of their favorite video game or motivated to sleep in until noon. Some teens are even motivated to avoid responsibility at all costs.

Their motivation may not be channeled in a productive manner, but they are motivated which means that underneath what you may deem as sheer “lack of motivation” in your teen lies a layer of ambition that just needs to be sparked.

Whether it’s getting better grades in school, tackling tasks like keeping their room clean and helping with chores around the house or applying themselves more when you know they’re perfectly capable, we all want to see our kids put their best foot forward.

Here are 7 things you can start doing today to motivate your teen.

Listen

As parents, we need to dig deep into our kid’s heart to find out what drives them, what inspires them, and what will motivate them enough to put both their mind and their heart into a task, challenge or project as opposed to simply “going through the motions.”

We also need to dive into the barrier(s) that might be preventing them from feeling motivated. We can’t do that when we’re doing all the talking, harping on them about a poor grade, yelling at them to get out of bed or nagging them about how lazy they are.

Maybe your son is feeling anxious about his grades and his ability to get into college. Maybe your daughter got into a huge fight with her best friend a couple of months ago and it’s impacting her ability to focus and stay motivated. Take the time to listen. Ask questions. Find out what’s on your child’s mind – what scares them, what worries them, what their passions are, and what makes them feel empowered. The more you tap into what your child is feeling, the more you can begin to understand why they’re unmotivated and what they need in their life to spark drive and ambition.

Believe in Your Child

You know what your child is capable of achieving. In fact, you probably know your child better than they know themselves. And, their inability to recognize their worth and their lack of desire to step up to the plate and be the best version of themselves is at the very root of your frustration.

But, what you may not realize is that our kids’ motivation is directly linked to their confidence. If your child feels bad about themselves, feels deep down inside that they don’t have what it takes to get good grades or views others as more capable, they will lack motivation. Their negative self-talk is slowly eroding their self-esteem, enthusiasm and motivation.

That’s why we need to be our kid’s biggest cheerleaders. We need to believe in them and help them recognize their abilities – no matter how small. We need to find ways to boost their self-esteem – by encouraging them to try new activities and step out of their comfort zone – so they possess the faith in themselves to know they can be better and push through when life throws them a curveball.

Encourage Them to Break Big Goals Down into Smaller Ones

Teenagers have a lot on their plate. We may not view it that way – after all, what do they have to be stressed out about? But, for a large percentage of teenagers, life isn’t easy.

In fact, according to the American Psychological Association, our teen’s stress rivals ours and 34% of teenagers predict their stress will increase in the next year.

What that means is that sometimes, our teens are so stressed out that it’s hard for them to deal with what they view as overwhelming goals like getting into college, making the football team, getting into the sorority of their choice or even getting their driver’s license.

Don’t let your teen fumble. Motivate your teen by helping them chisel those big goals down into smaller, more manageable goals with actionable steps that are easier to attain. Break the goals down into short-term and long-term and write them down. (A Harvard study concluded that people who write their goals down are 54 percent more inclined to achieve them than those who don’t.) The more goals they can “check off their list” as accomplished, the more confidence they’ll have and the more motivation they’ll have to move forward.

Help Them Create a Clear Roadmap

One of the reasons teenagers lack motivation is because they lack the cognitive problem-solving skills to break down tasks and create a clear roadmap to achieve a goal. It’s not that they don’t want to try harder or succeed, it’s that they oftentimes become overwhelmed and they simply don’t know how to get from point “A” to point “B,” so they just check out.

Instead of putting your teen on autopilot and expecting them to figure it out or making generic statements like, “You need to start trying harder in school,” or “If you were more organized maybe you’d stop forgetting when assignments are due,” lay it out for them so they can see what steps they need to take to try harder in school or get more organized.

Maybe what your disorganized child needs is a great student planner, a homework schedule, a study area that’s comfortable and cool, or a couple of great organizational apps to help him get and stay organized. That’s not to say that you should do it all for them, but they may need you to show them the way initially. And, once they begin to see the fruits of their labor, their confidence will soar, which will oftentimes motivate them to pick up the reins and do it themselves.

Transfer the Responsibility

When my daughter was a sophomore in high school, her main goal was to make the most of high school and have fun with her friends. That’s not to say that she didn’t try academically. But as her mom, I knew she could do better.

After months of talking with her and urging (sometimes begging) her to do better, I decided it was time to hit a few colleges, speak with admissions officers and let her hear from them what they were looking for in a student. From that moment on, a fire was lit under my daughter to do better, to try harder, and to fight to get into a handful of colleges she had her eye on.

Sometimes, our best plan of attack is to transfer the responsibility of motivating our teens onto someone who is unbiased and tells it like it is. No sugar-coating, no yelling, no threatening – someone (other than us) who hands them the truth and says, “Here you go… what you do with this information is completely up to you.”

Tap Into Key Motivators

What motivates one child may not motivate another. Some kids are motivated by straight-up cold, hard cash. Others are motivated by the feeling of being the best (or at least better than a few others). And, some are motivated because they relish in the recognition or praise given by family, friends, teachers, etc.

Find what motivates your teen and dangle the carrot. If money is the key motivator, jumpstart their motivation by offering to buy your son a new video game he’s been dying to buy or offering your daughter a quick trip to the mall to buy a new, inexpensive top. (As long as the rewards aren’t handed to them and your child feels as though they earned it, it’s not “officially” bribery.) The idea is to help your teen feel empowered when they set out to reach a goal and received a reward for their effort.

The “high” of reaching a goal on your own is slightly addicting and empowering. The more your child feels that high, the more likely they’ll be to want it.

Focus on the Journey Not the Destination

Motivating your teen to be their best or to try their hardest won’t happen overnight. Rather than focusing on the destination, view the process as a journey. With every new challenge, goal, win, or accomplishment, your child is learning – about life, about themselves, and what they’re capable of. They’re also growing and gaining more confidence. Motivate your teen by also taking setbacks in stride. Know that they’re inevitable and take stock in knowing that helping your child become a responsible, hard-working, motivated adult is a process. After all, parenting our kids isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon.