Incorporating Kids Into Your Exercise Routine

...without going out of your mind.

If you've got young kids, you may find it challenging to set an exercise routine and stick to it. You can't leave the house without them and if you don't have a sitter to watch your kids or you try exercising at home, then they run underfoot, begging for your attention.

If this sounds like you, you need some ideas on how to incorporate your kids into your daily exercises - rain or shine. After all, what better way is there to spend time with your children than teaching them the importance of good health?

On the Outside

When the weather permits, there are great ways to exercise with your kids outdoors. The most convenient might be to take a walk or run outside. For parents with toddlers, grab the stroller and head around the block a few times. Some strollers are made for running and kids love to feel the breeze and see the scenery fly by. If you have an infant, they usually love to be outdoors snuggling close in a baby carrier, while you go walking or hiking on a nearby trail.

Another great outdoor activity to do together is bike riding. This is something you can do with young or old kids. With young children, a wonderful piece of equipment for any family is a bike trailer. You can ride your bike at any speed and your children sit in the trailer enjoying the breeze. If your kids are old enough, you can each ride your own bike, developing your child's confidence and well-being at the same time.

Some of the best exercise is child's play!

During the hot summer months, if you have access to a swimming pool, take advantage! Water gives you a great chance for exercise also. Swimming is one of the best exercises for all shapes and sizes. If you don't like to swim around, just chasing your kids around the water or walking in shallow water are better than nothing.

If you have older kids, take a trip to the neighborhood park for a game ofbasketball or tennis. Or get a group of kids and parents together and play a round or two of soccer or football. Besides being great exercise opportunities for everyone, these create great memories and bonding experiences for everyone involved.

Keep It In

When the weather is cold or rainy, you shouldn't count exercise out. Instead, either get to the gym for some complimentary babysitting while you get your own workout time or try the following at home:

• Dancing. One thing both kids and parents enjoy together is dancing. Turn up your favorite dance tunes and get moving! Enjoy yourself and let loose, and don't worry about looking silly, because no one is watching! If you can't really dance, then just do some repetitive aerobic moves in sync to the music.
• Lifting. If you have toddlers, a great strength-building exercise is lifting. Lift your child up in the air as many times as you can. They love it and your body says "Thank you" with each lift. Then get on your back on the floor and place your child on your legs and lift your legs as high as you can. Repeat these moves a few times and you'll start to feel the burn.
• Watching. These days you can buy workout videos for you and your kids to do together. What kid doesn't like watching a movie? Now you can get them off the sofa and start moving to the workout together.
• Playing. An entertaining new workout for all ages is using the wii video games to get moving. With the wii system, you can play all kinds of sports, from tennis to baseball to bowling, in the comfort of your living room.

With these indoor and outdoor exercise ideas, your kids are no longer a good excuse to not work out. Now that your excuses are gone, how will you get fit?

Fight Depression With Food

Open your mouth and get ready to smile!

Depression is one of the most misunderstood conditions. While it is a frequent cause of suffering, many people who live with depression are embarrassed of their condition. Because of this, they're often hesitant to seek help.

If you find yourself suffering from the effects of depression, you don't have to suffer alone. And you may not have to take specialized medications, either. In fact, your kitchen cupboard may house everything you need to overcome bouts with depression. Read on to learn about a few foods that will help you overcome your struggle with depression on a daily basis.

Fish

As if omega-3 fatty acids didn't have enough benefits (it has been found to fight against heart disease and even Alzheimer's disease), it seems this fishy sounding, heaven-sent oil also helps ward off depressive bouts. According to a 2002 study, participants who downed a gram of fish oil every day during the study cut their depressive symptoms in half. More fish anyone? (On top of getting omega-3 fatty acids from tuna and salmon, you can also pick some up by grabbing a handful of walnuts or flaxseed.)

Oats

When you need a brain boost and a mood equalizer, nothing does it better than whole-grain oats. Filled with vitamins B6 and B1 and folic acid and available on practically every shelf at the grocery store, whole-grain oats put you on the fast trek to improved mental health. At the same time, you'll also enjoy lowered cholesterol, reduced risk for heart disease, and improved immune response when your body finds itself up against a nasty infection.

Rice

With plenty of vitamins and folic acid, rice is a great way to regulate your mood over time - but you've got to stick with brown rice. Because brown rice is a low-glycemic food, it causes glucose (sugar) to make its way into your bloodstream slowly and surely, preventing you from having those miserable mood swings that come from sugar lows. Since you can slip some brown rice in practically any meal, it's easy to make sure you get plenty of the brown goodness!

When there is no food in your hand, beat depression by forcing a smile, enjoying a funny movie, spending time with loved ones, exercising, and hanging out in the sunshine for a while.

Cabbage

It may not make its way to your dinner plate too often, but if you're battling with depression, a serving or two of cabbage may be just what your mental health ordered. One of the ways it helps you fend off depression is by also fighting stress. More cabbage means less stress, less worry, less anxiety, less depression. So slip some in your salad today, and watch your stress and depression melt away!

Canola

Okay, so you probably aren't going to drink a quart of canola oil, but if you get desperate enough, you just may. Because multiple studies have shown that depression is more common in individuals with low levels of vitamin E. Since canola oil is rich in vitamin E, it's a good idea to reach for the bottle of canola when cooking up your next meal.

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

If you're struggling with depression and plan to fight it with your fork, you should also be leery of foods that can cause you to sink deeper into depression. Some of the most dangerous foods to your mental health include the following:

• food with lots of fat
• food with lots of sugar
• food and drink high in caffeine
• food with low nutritional value

In other words, your tendency to head to a fast food restaurant and top it off with a quart of ice cream won't do your mental health any good. Rather, it will do just the opposite.

Obesity: Nature Vs. Nurture

Are there answers to the great obesity debate?

For a long time, there was no question regarding the cause of obesity. It was accepted that people who did not watch what they eat and never got physical exercise were putting themselves at great risk for becoming overweight or obese. And then medical science stepped in, evaluated the various cause of obesity, and found that some people may be genetically disposed to becoming overweight or obese.

So what is the real answer? Is obesity brought on by genetics or what the individual eats and how much exercise he or she gets?

Nature

Much ado has been made recently over the finding of what has been politically incorrectly named the "Fat Gene." Supposed to indicate an individual's likelihood to wind up obese, the fat gene is at once a major scientific breakthrough and the cause of heartbreak for everyone found to have inherited this seeming inescapable fate of obesity.

However, this new finding isn't the only known reason for an individual becoming obese. There are a handful of other conditions that normally lead to an individual gaining weight, often to the point of obesity. One of the most common is hypothyroidism. When the thyroid gland in your neck isn't working properly, your body doesn't make enough of a chemical that helps control the amount of energy it uses. As a result, you don't burn enough calories to maintain a healthy weight, making it easy to become overweight or obese.

Nurture

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, obesity comes down to a simple formula: bringing more energy into your body than you're burning off over a long period of time. So when you eat more calories than you burn off during the course of a single day, you may not wind up gaining weight. But do this day after day, month after month, year after year, and you will be on the path to weight gain and potentially obesity. Work hard to burn more calories than you eat, and you should be able to maintain a healthy weight.

Regardless of any conditions that may make someone predisposed to weight gain, with enough work, many are able to maintain control of their weight. In fact, research has found that even individuals with the fat gene are given the upper hand against obesity if they're willing to spend 60 minutes a day exercising, and medication for hypothyroidism helps improve the condition and make exercise more effective.

Together at Last

Though nature and nurture put an individual at risk for becoming obese, the combination is a guaranteed recipe for obesity. So if you find yourself living with a condition that puts you at risk for obesity, the fastest way to gain weight is to ignore your condition, eat whatever you want (whenever you want), and never exercise.

Other Gaining Conditions

In addition to hypothyroidism and the "fat gene," the following conditions have also been linked to obesity:

• Brain tumor - specifically, a brain tumor in the part of the brain responsible for controlling your appetite or how much energy your body uses.
• Cushing's syndrome - this is the name for a condition that causes the body to make too any chemicals that are in control of your body's use of sugars and fats.
• Insulinoma - occurs when a pancreatic tumor causes the pancreas to create excessive amounts of insulin, a process that results in more sugar being turned to fat.
• Polycystic ovary syndrome - caused by the growth of cysts in the ovaries, this condition results in women not ovulating on schedule. Whereas the other conditions listed are clearly linked to obesity, researchers are unsure whether this comes first or whether it is caused by obesity.

Bad Breakfast Foods

A fattening, unhealthy look at some of the worst foods you can eat for breakfast.

Mama always told you that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. But if you breakfast is brimming with butter, lard, and sugar, you may be putting your body at a disadvantage. Which breakfast foods are stuck to the bottom of the barrel for nutrition? Read on to find out.

Doughnuts

You knew it was coming, so may as well get it over with. Whether glazed, powdered, or cream-filled, doughnuts were made to be delicious ways to begin or interrupt your day. What they were not created for was to be a healthy way to get your day started right. Many companies have made it their mission to create the ultimate healthy doughnut, but every attempt has come off less tasty than the original. Instead of settling for something that tastes less than the best, leave doughnuts of all shapes, sizes, and health on the shelf.

Kids' Cereals

You never want to grow up. You love your big-kid toys and your big-kid video games, and you're still eating the same cereal you were when you were in elementary school. Unfortunately, those brightly colored, sugary sweet cereals have not become any healthier over the years. In fact, researchers from Yale University state that these kid-friendly cereals that are full of sugar and artificial flavors are usually less healthy than any cereals made for adults. So if your kids are eating the same colorful cereals as you, you'll all need to change. Instead, look for something with four grams of fiber and less than four grams of sugar per serving.

Energy Bars

They're crammed full of protein and go-get-em, and they fit in the palm of your hand. So what's the problem? The problem is that alongside all that energy-boosting protein, there is also a lot of fat and calories. If you don't spend adequate time each day to get rid of these extra fats and calories, your whole body is going to feel the extra pounds piling on. Instead of grabbing an energy bar for breakfast, only eat them right before or after an intense workout. That way you're keeping your body fueled properly, but you're also burning off most of the stuff you don't want stuck to your hips.

Front Seat Foods

The mother of all bad breakfast foods is breakfast on the go. While fast-food breakfast is convenient and relatively inexpensive, it is also one of the worst ways to fill your stomach in the morning. Some of the most common options are sausage or chicken biscuits; biscuits and gravy; or bacon, egg, and cheese biscuits. Make any of these items at home and you'll be on the border of unhealthy. Pick them up at a fast-food restaurant and you're guaranteed a dose of artery-slowing, fat-producing food, served in a Styrofoam carton with a side of orange juice. And no, the 100% natural orange juice doesn't magically turn gravy into a harmless or healthy substance.

Runners Up

Think your breakfast doesn't need a facelift just because your favorite fattening breakfast treat snuck by without making the list? Think again. Here are a few other fattening breakfast foods to avoid.

• Sausage: Just as high in fat as it is in flavor, sausage can put a hurting on your good health.
• Pancakes: Whole-wheat pancakes aren't too unhealthy, but out-of-the-box pancakes doused in syrup is anything but healthy. In fact, anything doused in syrup is a bad idea.
• Ham: For all the reasons to avoid bacon and sausage, keep your salivating mouth away from ham. Tastes great, more filling for your waistline.

Fighting Allergies And Asthma Naturally

Overall, a person's lifestyle can effect their health in many ways - typically, the American diet promotes systemic inflammation through imbalances of omega-6 and omega-3 pathways. In other words, the Western diet consists of too many omega-6 fats and not nearly enough omega-3 fats. Omega-6 fats are found in almost every food you eat and are especially high in margarine, vegetable, canola and soybean oils. Omega-3 fats are found in fewer foods such as green leafy vegetables, walnuts, flax meal and oil and cold water fish (salmon). The average American consumes omega-6 oils 20 to 30 times more than omega-3 oils, and this ratio should be more in line with 2-4 to 1. Also, the American diet consists of too many processed foods loaded with high-glycemic sugars and unhealthy fats like trans fats derived from partially hydrogenated vegetable, canola and soybean oils.

A poor diet and lack of exercise promotes weight gain and increased body fat storage, especially around the midsection. Central (intra-abdominal) fat cells produce chemicals (cytokines) that promote systemic inflammation similar to omega-6/omega-3 imbalances. Together, these factors induce a systemic environment prone to inflammation and disease including heart disease, diabetes and various cancers in conjunction with other conditions like allergies and asthma - those suffering from seasonal allergies and chronic asthma are predisposed to inflammatory reactions producing symptoms such as runny noise, watery eyes, sneezing, post-nasal drip, bronchial congestion, coughing, wheezing and difficulty breathing.

Here are some tips that you might want to consider and speak to your healthcare provider about. It is important to speak to a qualified healthcare provider regarding dietary, exercise and supplementation before commencing. Various supplements can interfere with prescription or over-the-counter medications, as well as various medical conditions.

Some basic tips to help fight allergies and asthma

1. Lose the midsection - Generally, a waist circumference measured at the belly button, more than half your height in inches is a red flag. Example: a 64 inch (5'4") tall person should have a waist measurement less than 32 inches.
2. Eat Right- eliminate processed foods including fast foods and beverages (sodas sweetened fruit juices). Eliminate high-glycemic sugars and white flour, and stay away from high-fructose corn syrup and trans fats (partially hydrogenated oils). Eat a well-balanced diet including whole foods, grains, nuts, plenty of fruits (especially berries) and vegetables, and quality proteins and fats.
3. Stay away from wheat, barley and rye, if allergic to gluten.
4. Drink green, white and black teas.
5. Exercise: incorporate an aerobic and weight training exercise plan based on your particular ability and medical situation.
6. Use a natural nasal spray that contains saline and xylitol (see below).Take a broad-spectrum multiple vitamin and mineral supplement.
7. The following supplements may prove beneficial in reducing inflammation and relieving various allergy and asthmatic symptoms: If you are taking medications, check with your doctor or pharmacist for possible interactions before taking any supplement.

• Vitamin C and bioflavinoids (500-1000 mg - 2 X day)
• Quercitin (250-500 mg - 3 X day)
• Boswellia or boswellic acid (300 mg - 3 X day)
• Fish oils (EPA/DHA) - (1000 mg - 3 X day)
• Flaxseed oil (cold pressed) - (1 tbsp - 1 X day)
• N-acetylcyteine or NAC (500 mg - 3 X day)
• Butterbur - make sure that this product is UPA-free (unsaturated pyrrolizidine alkaloid) - (50-75 mg - 2 X day)

Nasal Spray: I recommend using Activated Nasal Mist by Now Foods to help reduce nasal and sinus irritation.

Of course, seeking the help and guidance of a qualified healthcare provider who specializes in functional medicine, is always recommended because one size does not fit all; however, the above suggestions may prove beneficial.

Dr. Sardone

Health Benefits Of Green Tea

It's difficult not to gush about green tea.

More than a decade's worth of research about green tea's health benefits -- particularly its potential to fight cancer andheart disease -- has been more than intriguing, as have limited studies about green tea's role in lowering cholesterol, burning fat, preventing diabetes and stroke, and staving offdementia.

"I believe in green tea based on everything written about it," says Katherine Tallmadge, RD, LD, a nutritionist and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. "Green tea, white tea, black tea -- I like all of them."

Still, real-world evidence is lacking; most of the consistent findings about green tea's health benefits have come out of the lab.

The few large-scale human studies that have focused on green tea's impact on heart disease and cancer are promising, but many of those were conducted in the East, where green tea is a dietary mainstay. The outcomes are likely influenced by other lifestyle factors such as high consumption of fish and soy protein, says cardiologist Nieca Goldberg, MD, a spokeswoman for the American Heart Association and medical director of the New York University Women's Heart Center.

But Goldberg agrees with other health professionals: green tea has important antioxidants and compounds that help in maintaining good health.

Green Tea's Powerful Antioxidants

Green tea's antioxidants, called catechins, scavenge for free radicals that can damage DNA and contribute to cancer, blood clots, and atherosclerosis. Grapes and berries, red wine, and dark chocolate also have potent antioxidants.

Because of green tea's minimal processing -- its leaves are withered and steamed, not fermented like black and oolong teas -- green tea's unique catechins, especially epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), are more concentrated.

But there's still a question of how much green tea you need to drink to reap its health benefits. EGCG is not readily "available" to the body; in other words, EGCG is not always fully used by the body.

"We must overcome the issue of poor bioavailability [and other issues] in order to get the most out of their benefits," says Tak-Hang Chan, PhD, professor emeritus in the department of chemistry at McGill University in Montreal. Chan has studied the use of a synthetic form of EGCG in shrinking prostate cancer tumors in mice, with success.

Green Tea vs. Cancer

Marji McCullough, ScD, RD, the American Cancer Society's strategic director of nutritional epidemiology, says human studies haven't yet proven what researchers like Chan have discovered in the lab: green tea's EGCG regulates and inhibits cancer growth and kills cells that are growing inappropriately.

"Epidemiologically, one of the challenges is finding populations that drink enough green tea and have for a long time," she says. "With cancer, it's always difficult to find the exposure time," or the point at which cancer cells begin to develop.

Still, it's difficult not to be intrigued by a few human studies that have shown that drinking at least two cups of green tea daily inhibits cancer growth.

One of them, a study conducted in Japan that involved nearly 500 Japanese women with Stage I and Stage II breast cancer, found that increased green tea consumption before and after surgery was associated with lower recurrence of the cancers.

Studies in China have shown that the more green tea that participants drank, the less the risk of developing stomach cancer, esophageal cancer, prostate cancer,pancreatic cancer, and colorectal cancer.

Finally, a recent analysis of 22 studies that probed the correlation between high tea consumption and reduced risk forlung cancer concluded that by increasing your daily intake of green (not black) tea by two cups may reduce the risk of developing lung cancer by 18%.

Is Green Tea Good for Your Heart?

It seems to be, but there are conflicting results of a few epidemiological studies conducted in the East and West.

In a study that involved 500 Japanese men and women, researchers found that drinking at least four cups of green tea every day may be related to the reduced severity of coronary heart disease among the male participants.

A Dutch study of more than 3,000 men and women found that the more tea consumed, the less severe the clogging of the heart's blood vessels, especially in women.

As Goldberg suggests, lifestyle and overall diet are critical to the outcomes of these studies.

But green tea's antioxidants are dilators, she says, because they improve the flexibility of blood vessels and make them less vulnerable to clogging -- and antioxidant-rich blueberries and pomegranates do the same.

"I think people should know these are important studies, that everyday foods that are an option may actually have health benefits," Goldberg says. "I think green tea, because of its antioxidant value, may have heart benefits, but it's not something we regularly prescribe to people, because there isn't as much evidence as there is in exercise's ability to improve heart health."

Green Tea and Weight

Green tea and its extract have been shown to fight obesity and lower LDL "bad" cholesterol -- two risk factors for heart disease and diabetes -- but in very limited studies. One study in the Netherlands and a study in Japan showed that green tea did both.

In the Dutch study, participants who drank caffeinated green tea lost more weight, but even those who typically drank the decaf variety saw a decrease in their waistlines and body weight. Researchers speculated that the caffeine helps with fat oxidation.

In the Japanese study, 240 men and women were given varying amounts of green tea extract for three months. Those who got the highest amount lost fat and weight and had lower blood pressure and lower LDL "bad" cholesterol.

Green Tea Straight Up

Taking weight loss supplements that contain green tea extract probably won't hurt, unless you have liver problems.

But the best way to get the most out of green tea -- even if your main goal is losing weight -- is to drink it.

"Taken altogether, the evidence certainly suggests that incorporating at least a few cups of green tea every day will positively affect your health," says Diane McKay, PhD, a Tufts University scientist who studies antioxidants. "It's not going to cure anything and it shouldn't be consumed as a drug, but it can complement the rest of the diet."

McCullough bears the same reminder: eat your fruits, vegetables, grains, seeds, and nuts -- and go ahead, drink as much green tea as you want.

"I don't think it can hurt to drink it. I'd focus on dietary sources rather thansupplements because there are several compounds in green tea that might need to be consumed together. We just don't know yet," she says.

By Julie Edgar

Protein Packed Diet

The who, what, when, where, and why of a high-protein diet. Thinking of hitching your wagon to a new weight-loss craze? In case you haven't heard about the pros of a protein-rich diet, listen up! Adding some protein (quite a bit of it, actually) can help you lose a little weight. But how does it really work, and is it for you?

The Protein Plan

A high-protein diet's main goal is to help you lose weight. Whereas the typical diet consists of 10 to 15 percent of all calories coming from protein, a high-protein diet demands as much as half of your calories come from protein. As a high-protein diet changes your eating habits, it can also change your metabolism.

If you stop eating sufficient carbohydrates and other nutrients, your body can stop burning food for fuel and will instead begin to use your own fat as fuel. This can result in rather rapid weight loss, which sounds pretty good to anyone looking for a quick fix. Unfortunately, this fast and furious pound shedding isn't experienced without some side effects. Irritability, heart palpitations, kidney trouble, headaches, and other problematic symptoms can all result from a diet high in protein and low in other nutrients.

The Protein Participant

When followed for short periods of time, a high-protein diet is usually safe for otherwise healthy adults. However, anyone with kidney or liver disease should avoid high-protein diets, as they put excessive stress on the body's waste removal system, a system that is already damaged due to kidney or liver disease.

High-protein diets are also not ideal for people with high cholesterol or are already at risk for heart disease. Since some foods packed with protein also come with a fair amount of cholesterol and fat, adding even more of these foods into your diet isn't a good idea.

The Protein Predicament

While a high-protein diet may help you lose weight, it is doing it with the same problem that many diets have. Instead of encouraging a healthy, well-rounded diet filled with various foods, a high-protein diet leans heavily on protein-rich foods. As a result, other foods, such as those that are high in carbohydrates, become neglected. Though reducing carbohydrate intake in most people is fine, a drastic reduction in the consumption of any vitamin, mineral, or nutrient is never good for your body.

If you're set on going with a high-protein diet, be careful not to neglect other foods in the process. That way, you'll be more likely to get the results you seek without damaging your body along the way. You should also consult a dietitian to find out the most efficient and healthiest ways to up your protein intake. After all, your goal is to lose weight - not your good health!

Finding the Protein

Looking for a nice piece of protein that will help in your quest for a thinner you? Look no farther than your local butcher! Just remember these tips to make sure your protein won't work against your waistline.

Tip 1: White Poultry Is Good Poultry. Few foods provide the same protein punch as a good piece of chicken - at least not for the money. Just make sure you go for the white meat. Dark meat may be juicier and tastier, but it also comes with added fat. You may also want to cut off the skin, as it has some of that undesirable saturated fat.

Tip 2: Steak Should Be on the Menu. The ultimate protein-rich food is steak. When chosen properly, a lean piece of steak tastes fantastic and gives your body the protein it craves. When chosen poorly, a fatty piece of steak will give your body the protein you seek, but it will be marred by unwanted fats.

Tip 3: A Fish a Day. People in Asian countries have long touted the health benefits of fish. One of the perks of eating fish is the great amount of protein in each bite. Combine that protein with the fact that fish is usually very low in fat, and you've got a protein source that will never do you wrong!