Healthy moms and dads can have a hard time finding inspiration and new ideas. Sometimes it’s
hard to get along at the gym when most of the people around you “just don’t understand” your daily struggles. Luckily, there are bloggers that can help. Today we’re going to look at the top five healthy mom blogs (dads are invited too) that will help you get your health in line. To find these, we looked at a bunch of blogs and focused on quality information, ease of use, and general uniqueness. Let’s begin! 5. Wellness Mama What started as a goal for parents to “live more naturally through practical tips” has turned into an empire started of blogs, books, podcasts, and products. Blogger Katie posts regularly about living in a clean, healthy, and natural home through recipie ideas and hacks. She’s into clean air and natural products. If you or anyone in your family have allergies, she should be your goto blogger for ideas and like-minded people. With categories like beauty, recipes, motherhood, organization, and travel, there will be information for every part of your life. 4. Bikini Body Mommy Briana Christine is the founder of Bikini Body Mommy. Having been featured on OZ, Popsugar, and the Huffington Post, this famous blogger made her start trying to lose her baby tummy. With an understanding of what it’s like to have a child, she keeps her workout short but intense to make sure you get the exercise you need. In addition to her workouts, she has also created a community of moms that help each other and build each other up. Briana’s body-positive approach to working out and weight loss helps remind her readers that weight loss is just a number and it’s how you feel that counts. 3. Different Forks First, we had living; next, we had working out. Now, we have an eating blog for you to check out. Different Forks is a “healthy eats, and a few sweet treats” blog for diverse and picky eaters. This website is a family friendly one with vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free options for all of your dietary needs. With so many good ideas, meat eaters might find themselves thinking differently about how they eat. Their use of spicy language and sharp wit will keep you entertained and interested in actually reading the “blog part” of the recipe. 2. Pretty Opinionated Offering a multitude of healthy tips, crafts for the health and beauty of you, your children, and your pets, this blog has it all. Created by Nicole Etolen, this blog has a great look and feel overall. She’s a mother to a teenage son as well as numerous furbabies. 1. Dear Crissy Last on our list of healthy mom blogs you need to read is Dear Crissy. This blog is a cooking, DIY and wellness blog. Dear Crissy looks into self-care, health and healing foods. It’s laid out simple with an easy to follow and search through design. Crissy is a mother to two from Ohio. You can expect her writing to gain inspiration from her love of Jesus, being creative, and her two children. We love her blog due to the well written and diverse nature of the topics. There’s something for every parent looking to get healthier.
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Children of this generation are growing up with technology. Unlike you or your parents, they’ve never known a world without video games or smartphones. Mix this with how much they might see you on your phone, and it’s no surprise they think technology is amazing. However, that’s not to say that it’s your fault. Rather, it’s expected.
What it can lead to though, is our responsibility as parents. In another blog post, we talked about how to sneak workouts into everyday life. Previous to that, we talked about how your child will do what they see you doing. Adding these two together, you might start together where we are going with this topic of fitness and technology. Technology Isn’t Bad Unlike the outdoors, technology can be turned off and on. It’s also the cheapest way to help kids get active. If your child goes to a daycare, you might know what we’re talking about. Songs like Baby Shark and Going on a Bear Hunt can get kids active while inside. If you need ideas, you can check websites like Pinterest for ideas or check on Google for fun classes they, or you can take! How to Integrate Fitness and Technology: When you work with a child, it’s important to realize that you’re setting up their foundation for life. Though daunting, you will be in charge of making sure that they know what’s good to eat and how to take care of themselves. Here’s a quick five-step guide on how to show them that technology can be used for good. Limit Technology Time The first step in integrating technology and fitness is to limit technology time. That might sound strange, but it’s important to get into the details. You’ll be using technology in your workouts. However, we don’t need to sit for hours watching TV in the afternoon (no matter how much we all want to.) Try to limit the amount of time you’re just sitting watching TV or playing video games. Likewise, ensure that you and your family has a place for phones by the door or in the kitchen. If you don’t have your phone on the armrest all afternoon, you’ll be less likely to spend hours scrolling through social media. Plan Time for Fitness The obvious thing to do when you want to get in shape is plan time for working out. Each afternoon or morning, try to plan aside 30 minutes to an hour for physical fitness. This will ensure that you can get in the workout, technology or not. After all, you can’t integrate technology with a workout if you have no time to get in shape! Use YouTube YouTube is a wealth of fitness inspiration. You can use the app on your phone or even on your video game consols. Try looking up trainers like Fitness Marshal or Popsugar for family-friendly workouts that everyone will look forward too. If you have something you like in particular, for example, yoga, search around to see what you can find. Think Active There are movement-based video games that you can enjoy with your family. When you feel like changing it up, why not break out some Just Dance with your children? Make it even more fun by creating a contest. Whoever wins doesn’t have to clean their dishes for the day! Find Inspiration As alluded to, technology is a great way to find inspiration for a workout. Apps like Pinterest are ripe with fitness ideas and programs. You can even find kid-friendly apps to download and exercise with. The sky is the limit when you’re using technology to be productive rather than postpone productivity! Working out doesn’t have to be something devoid of technology. If your child is like many their age, they might balk at the idea of “just going for a run.” However, no matter the age, technology can be used to get them moving. Try dancing and moving to YouTube or video games. Don’t forget to use apps like Pinterest for inspiration and check the app store for fitness apps that your whole family can use. Many people can get behind a good fitness class. With classes like Zumba and Piyo as well as Ninja Warrior Training, there is a class for everyone’s fitness style. However, Not everyone can go to a class every day. Sometimes, you won’t even have time to go for a run. That’s when you need to sneak in some workout time. Both children and adults should work to get at least thirty minutes a day to stay healthy and grow stronger.
Sneaking in a workout isn’t something you should think hard about. It’s all about small changes to your lifestyle and mind. Start with one of these tips and add in another after a few days. Changing your habits like this will help you stick to it without getting overwhelmed. We’ve gathered five things you can change in your life to sneak in an extra workout. Park Farther Away The first and possibly most obvious is parking further away from your destination. If you go to work each day, park in the back of the parking lot. When you go shopping, park in the back there too. If you take your kid to school each day, try parking a few blocks away and walking the last bit so that you can both get in some extra walking time together. Though it doesn’t seem like much, parking further out and walking can add quite a few steps to your daily count. If you have a step counter, track it yourself to see the difference it can make. Never Take Another Elevator Elevators are a great way to halt movement. Rather than use one, try walking up the stairs. If you’ve ever been to the gym, then you know that walking up the stairs is an actual workout, called the Stairstepper. Why not add that into your daily routine? If you work on the fifth floor, you’ll be able to get at least ten extra floors worth of workout by the end of the day! Don’t just let this affect your work life. If you go to the mall, don’t take the escalator. If you need to go to the airport, walk to your terminal rather than take the moving sidewalks. Similarly, if you live in an apartment building, or have to go to a meeting, always walk over wait. Walking Lunch When you take a lunch break, what do you do with the time after you finish eating? Many people take a break by talking to others and sitting on their phone. However, why don’t you try walking around your building? This is a great way to get outside and energized during the workday. If you have the ability, try to convince a friend to walk with you each day. This will keep both of you motivated and give you someone to talk to during the workout. Some people choose to take a 15-minute lunch break and a 30-minute workout within their hour-long lunch. While this wouldn’t be a hidden workout, if your office has a gym, it’s a great option to get in better shape. Replace TV Time Chances are you aren’t so busy as to not have time at the end of the day to watch TV. Rather than sit down with your family for TV time, try getting moving. You can walk to the dog or go to a fitness class. If you want time to veg out, we’re not here to judge. However, you can still sneak in a workout. Next time you are sitting down for TV, try doing something during the commercial breaks. You can do pushups for one commercial, then jumping jacks, squats, and other things until the commercial break is over. This can get you 15 minutes of a workout for every hour of TV you watch! Morning Stretch When your first wakeup, what do you do? If you are like many Americans, then you probably check your phone. However, you can change this. Tomorrow when you wake up, get out of bed and do some stretches. Adding yoga to your morning routine can help you get started with your day faster! Working out in the morning is great for your mental and physical health. It allows for the increased flow of blood first thing in the morning and let you set the tone for the day. If you don’t know what to do, look up some videos on Youtube. Morning yoga is a great thing to search so that you can get your day started right. Working out doesn’t have to be hard. If you have time for some classes, we’d love to have you. However, even if you don’t, there are ways to sneak in workouts during your day. It’s vital for both you and your family to get at least 30 minutes of exercise each day to keep healthy and strong. How Important is Staying Active During Childhood?
As a child is growing, they need to stay active to be healthy. As the technology age continues to progress, parents ask us just how important physical activity is for a growing child. Sometimes, they worry that their child isn’t getting enough exercise between sitting in school and playing with electronics. It’s a common problem that’s lead to the need for discussion. Just how vital is an activity to a child’s health? As it turns out, being physically active is vital in setting a child up for lifelong success. Children that stay active have less of a chance of getting Type Two Diabetes later in life than less active children. On top of that, being physically active can help a child or adult, to stay positive, learn more, and maintain a healthy body weight to name a few benefits. Today, we’re going to go into how important staying active is for a child by looking at the benefits of being active. Exercising as a Child Makes You More Likely to do so as an Adult When you are working with your child, the things that you teach them will last for a lifetime. This is also true about teaching your child to exercise and stay active. As a child grows and develops habits, the ones they are taught at a young age and encouraged to keep need to be healthy and overall positive to their life, such as staying active. Teaching your child the importance of staying active at a young age can help them to defeat obesity and other effects of not being productive. Staying active will assist in keeping them at a healthy body weight. If you add lessons on how to eat healthy, then you stand a much higher chance of improving the excellent life health of your child. Physical Activity Builds Strong, Healthy Bodies Keeping your body active can help its growth and development. For that reason, kids should be encouraged to take part in various sports that challenge them to grow and do more. Running will help build a strong and healthy leg muscles. Taking a ninja warrior class, for example, can help you to grow strong muscles all over your body. As an addition to this, keeping active will help your bones become strong too. Team Sports Help Social Skills Staying active isn’t all about your physical health as a child. Children that are active in groups will have a much better social and interpersonal skill set when compared to children that are left to be alone playing in their back yard or outside of team sports. If you want to reap the mental growth rewards, then you should make sure your child has the opportunity to be active in a group setting. This could be sports at the rec center or games with their school. Make sure that your child is happy but encourage them to try something new if they show apprehension about joining a team. Exercise Improves Mental Health If you’re an active adult, then you might understand the positives without much explaining. Being proactive can help your mind by releasing endorphins. These are chemicals that alleviate depression and keep you in a happy mood. Those that workout often, both children and adults, will notice fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression. This decrease in sadness will result in an overall better mood. Physical Activity Leads to Better Sleep The human body isn’t meant to sit all day. For that reason, you might not feel physically tired at the end of a workday. While mental fatigue is another issue, your body will get much better sleep after being exercised and used. Children work much the same except with more intensity. If you help a child to get their energy out, you will find that they sleep better and more than if they sit around for most of the day. Improved Academic Attendance Children in school can gain an extra boost for physical activity. Physical fitness can help you move blood, and thus oxygen, to your brain. This blood will, in turn, help you to be more aware and learn more during the day. If you make sure that your child is physically active each day, you can help them pay more attention in class, learn more, and miss less school overall. The effects of working out are more than just mental and physical. They are lifelong and beneficial in the real world. As a child is growing, they need to stay active to be healthy. As the technology age continues to progress, parents ask us just how important physical activity is for a growing child. Sometimes, they worry that their child isn’t getting enough exercise between sitting in school and playing with electronics at night. It’s a common problem that’s lead to the need for discussion. Just how vital is activity to a child’s health?
As it turns out, being physically active is vital in setting a child up for lifelong success. Children that stay active have less of a change of getting Type Two Diabetes later in life than less active children. On top of that, being physically active can help a child or adult, to stay positive, learn more, and maintain a healthy body weight to name a few reasons. Today, we’re going to go into how important staying active is for a child by looking at some of the things that it helps to prevent/helps to do. Exercising as a Child Makes You More Likely to do so as an Adult When you are working with your child, the things that you teach them will last for a lifetime. This is also true about teaching your child to exercise and stay active. As a child grows and develops habits, the ones they are taught at a young age and encouraged to keep need to be healthy and overall positive to their life, such as staying active. Teaching your child the importance of staying active at a young age can help them to stave off obesity and other effects of not being active. Staying active will assist in keeping them at a healthy body weight. If you add to lessons on how to eat healthily, then you stand a much greater chance of improving the life long health of your child. Physical Activity Builds Strong, Healthy Bodies Keeping your body active can help its growth and development. For that reason, kids should be encouraged to take part in various sports that challenge them to grow and do more. Running will help to build strong, healthy leg muscles. On the other hand, taking a ninja worrier class, for example, can help you to grow strong muscles all over your body. As an addition to this, keeping active will help your bones to become strong too. Team Sports Help Social Skills Staying active isn’t all about your physical health as a child. CHildren that are active in groups will have much better social and interpersonal skills that children that are left to be active in their back yard or outside of team sports. If you want to reap the mental growth rewards, then you should make sure your child has the opportunity to be active in a group setting. This could be sports at the rec center or games with their school. Make sure that your child is happy but encourage them to try something new if they show apprehension about joining a team. Exercise Improves Mental Health If you’re an active adult, then you might understand this positive without much explaining. Being active can help your mind by releasing endorphins. These are chemicals that alleviate depression and keep you in a happy mood. Those that workout often, both children and adults, will notice less symptoms of anxiety and depression. This decrease in sadness will result in an overall better mood. Physical Activity Leads to Better Sleep The human body isn’t meant to sit all day. For that reason, you might not feel physically tired at the end of a workday. While mental fatigue is another issue, your body will get much better sleep after being exercised and used. Children work much the same except with more intensity. If you help a child to get their energy out, you will find that they sleep better and more than if they sit around for most of the day. Improved Academic Attendance Children in school can gain an extra boost for physical activity. Physical fitness can help you move blood, and thus oxygen, to your brain. This blood will, in turn, help you to be more aware and learn more during the day. If you make sure that your child is physically active each day, you can help them pay more attention in class, learn more, and miss less school overall. The effects of working out are more than just mental and physical. They are lifelong and in the real world. If you do a google search of, “Why should children play pretend,” you will get thousands of answers. One common theme it that it’s great for their future and their growing mind. Children learn all the time. When they play pretend, they can explore and create with their ideas and passions. Many times, it’s a “monkey see, monkey do,” game of house or princesses. Other times, it can be more abstract; for example, when they create their own world. However, the common theme is that they are using their mind and imagination. The point of this discussion today is how your involvement is important. If your child comes to you to play pretend, you might not feel like it. Sometimes you’ll tell them to find their sister/brother or that you’ll play later. Other times, you might suggest something that is more fun to you like a board game, video game, or outdoor game. However, it’s important to go along with these play sessions. Here’s why. Further Your Bond You have a growing bond with your child. The best way to develop this bond is by doing something with them that will make them happy. Think about your adult relationships. When someone wants to make you happy, they do something that you like. Children work a similar way, though they are inherently more selfish than an adult. If your child wants you to play with them, it’s a great way to grow your bond. It’s also a sign that they like you and want to have fun with you. Unlike an adult, they don’t always show their appreciation through selfless acts. More often than not, it’s by showing you something that they like. Taking time to play along with your children will show them that you understand and that you want to have fun with them as well. Inspire Yourself Playing pretend isn’t just good for children. It’s a great way for adults to relax and use a more creative side of their minds. As we grow, we are often pushed to stay away from our creative sides through school, work, and general life. However, using the creative side of your brain can be great for your mental health. How can you do that? If your child wants to play with you, try a game of “the floor is lava” or “rocket to the moon” to encourage physical activity while also playing pretend. Using your creative skills to pretend you are on the moon, that you are a dog, or that you are swimming will help to stimulate many parts of your mind that are left alone while working or cleaning. This gives other parts of your mind and break and can help you work better when you do get back to work. Pretend to Calm Down When was the last time you were stressed? If you’re someone who meditates, you might have taken a few minutes to calm yourself down and look at the situation from a new perspective. However, most people will keep working through it. Another option, play with your child. Playing pretend is a great way to calm down and forget why you were upset. Sure it doesn’t solve the problem. However, it does give you a chance to look at it with fresh eyes after you are done playing. Your child will learn, however, subconsciously, that there are alternatives to staying stressed all the time. Also, getting your mind off the problem is the perfect way to find the solution to it. How many times have you solved a problem right when you’ve given up? It’s not luck. It’s that you were finally calm enough to look at the situation without, or with fewer, emotions. Playing pretend doesn’t have to be something that you do to make your child happy. It can be something you do with your child to have fun. Playing pretend is a great way to encourage your child to grow while also helping yourself with inspiration and stress management at the same time. When was the last time you took your kid on a rocket to the moon? Many parents have the understanding that a five-year-old doesn't understand a lot of complex ideas and values. However, this is a misunderstanding. Five-year-olds are very capable of holding values and executing them in their daily lives. Here are five values that we think five-year-olds should learn and understand.
One: Determination Determination is vital for a child. It's at this time in their life they're learning how to do things, and failing on a constant basis. However, they should be taught to keep trying. It's important to teach them to try, and try again until they succeed. Determination will ensure that as they get older and things get tougher, that they don't give up. How do you encourage this? If your child is working out with you, and copying your pushups, you should praise them. However, if you notice they're not doing the proper form, you should praise them, but encourage them to do better. Simply praising them will not encourage them to keep improving. Two: Honesty If you read our recent post about children copying your actions then this value will make a lot of sense to you. Children do what they see their parents do. This truth means that if you tell white lies or fib, your child will too. The issue arises when your child doesn't know the difference between a simple white lie and lying to a parent. For example, you work out with your friend every day. However, you don't want to work out today so you tell them you are sick over the phone. Your child hears you and asks if you're sick. Since you aren't, you explain to them the difference between white lies and normal lies. While your child understands the difference between lies and truths, they don't understand the difference between types of lies. Three: Justice As a child, I remember my parents saying that life isn't fair. While I understand and respect where they were coming from, I don't agree. Telling a young child that life isn't fair can send them the wrong message. Rather, you should work the teach child to be fair and just in everyday decisions. For example, when something goes wrong, you should help them to understand why or fix it. If they are accidentally mean to someone, you should make them make amends through apologizing or working together with the person. These small actions can lead to a mature and value filled adult. Four: Love Love is perhaps the easiest thing for a young child to understand. For that same reason, it's also the easiest to show and teach. Go on mother or father and child dates to show how your child should expect love to be. Your child will pick up what love means by simply watching you interact with other people. If you want to see what they think now, just ask them! See what they think love is and what you can do to reinforce or improve their thoughts. Five: Kindness In a world filled with turmoil, the easiest way to help your child get an advantage is to teach them the value of kindness. Again, this value is something that they will pick up by watching you. For example, if a homeless person approaches you and they want food or money the way you respond will affect the way your child thinks. If you respond kindly and give them an apple or a dollar, your child will notice. On the other hand, if you respond with anger, hostility, or a lie they will notice that as well. While we might initially think that the homeless person could be lying, it's important to show our child that we value kindness over mistrust. Your child will see the action and come to understand that things in the way you do. Children are much smarter than adults give credit for. We often think that they don't understand or see many of the things that go on when the opposite is true. Think about your actions and how a child could perceive them. If you have a young child of your own, think about the values that you are teaching them now and how those will follow them for the rest of their life. Most children’s favorite time of the year is summer. It’s the time of the year when they aren’t sitting in a school all day. It’s hot, the days are long, and they have tons of free time. Kids can get bored. If you remember your summers, you might remember having tons of fun for the first month, but them nothing to do after that. With the modern inventions of Netflix and video games, summertime boredom can be replaced with binge-watching TV. However, should it?
If only there were a way to let kids feel like a ninja assassin, create a video game, or pretend to be a warrior. That’s where the magic of summer camps comes in. A summer camp is great for balancing the school-free months of the year with activities that enrich both the mind and body. Kids can learn about new things, develop new talents, and uncover great life interests. Where do you start when looking for one? In the past few decades, we have seen an explosion in the summer camp market. Children have more option than ever before on how to spend a summer. There is a type of camp for every child. However, with so many options, it can be hard to pick the right one. Sometimes even knowing where to start can be a challenge. Today, we’ve created a guide on how to choose the right summer camp for your children. Discover and Set Expectations Before you can choose a summer camp, you need to determine what you and your children are looking for. You should sit down with your children and ask questions. Start with what they are looking for in a summer camp. Next, there are a few things that you will need to talk about as parents. For example, how much is the cost, what is your goal, are there certain perks you cannot do without? Write all of this down so that you can save time later and find the option that best meets your needs. Narrow Your Focus Once you’ve set and listed some ideas and expectations, it’s time to look at what types of summer camps you have open to you. As you read through and eliminate these, you will be able to determine what is best for your family.
Research the Remaining Options Once you’ve worked with your child and family to determine which of the above work for you, it’s time to do research, keep in mind your budget and specific needs while you look at the local and regional camp options for your family. Don’t be afraid to call around and ask questions. See if you can bring your child for a visit, especially if it’s a more extended or night camp. Eventually, you will have the best option for your family chosen and ready to go. Did you know that Bodies in Motion offers a summer camp? Check out our site or call to learn more about how our day camps can get your child moving and active! |
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