Don’t forget to Vote for Pleasant Grove High School again today! You can vote everyday and get $3000 in our schools, just by voting!

Who is sick of being inside?  Who is sick of having their children stuck inside? 

Our elementary school is currently under construction. The workers created a dangerous and large pit in the school yard, causing our kids to not have recess outdoors for at least 2 weeks in January. Then there were “inside days” due to poor air quality, or weather! The poor teachers were going INSANE as you can imagine!!

So, we decided to have a beach party and play beach volleyball with a very light weight beach ball.  I’ve got a DRAWER FULL of these balls (since they pop, get lost, etc.) and they are pulled out in times of outdoor famine.  I asked my kids to put on some bathing suits, for the sake of the blog… but they weren’t interested.  They are getting too old to indulge me in all my ideas, I guess.

These balls are perfect! $0.50 each at oriental trading,…but I’m sure you could find them at the dollar store too.  (Or if you come visit our geocache, I’ve put some in there ) But these balls are so soft, they can hit things  (like a vase with flowers) without knocking them down, so they are perfect for indoor play.

Even the babies like to play!!

Adorable baby is my sisters!

PS I spent wasted 45  minutes this morning looking for the photos of the kids playing volleyball… and I can’t find the pictures ANYWHERE!!  You’ll have to imagine them playing in my living room, enjoying the “beach”! And they look like they are having a blast, of course!

Head over to the giveaway page for Crest products.

A few nights ago for Pack meeting, my husband acquired about 20,  #10 cans from the cannery and had the boys make stilts.  Erica, in all her jealousy really wanted to recreate the activity at home.  Except we didn’t have any more #10 cans.  So creatively, she put together a plan. 

She began by announcing everyone needed to help her eat 2 cans of peaches so she could rinse out the cans and use them.  She had Wade punch holes in the side with one of those sharp can opener puncture thingy’s.  Then she threaded some nylon rope through.

What you could do next: Have a race!  (we couldn’t cause we only had one set).  My kids in just a matter of  a few days completely wear these down.  The entire can has collapsed and folded in on itself.  But they sure had fun while they lasted!

Later today, an opportunity provided by Crest. I’m interviewing Olympic speed skater, JR Celski.  My kids had a few questions about his healthy habits.  But I need more!  Any of you have questions I could ask him?

I must pause from vegetable dips to bring to you one of my all time favorite family exercise ideas… DANCING!  Especially baby dancing!  Is there anything cuter than a toddler grooving to the music?  I’m obsessed with babies dancing.   So when Natalie (the amazing Utah County photographer) posted her little girl dancing, I had to snag it for you all!

Does it inspire you to crank the music and let your babies dance?  I wish I had some babies right now!  Anyone offering?

All the Little Babies from natalie wright on Vimeo.

Visit Beth’s baby dancing too if you need some more.

Great indoor/ winter activity for kids!  Chinese Jump rope! Only problem is, I can’t find one! Instead, I caught my Erica and her best friend tying a piece of yarn together and using it as a Chinese jump rope.  It just doesn’t have the same effect without the elasticity.

I’ve browsed three stores! Target, the Dollar Tree, and Walmart. No one has one.  Amazon has them, but then I’ll pay shipping.  $6 for the rope plus shipping.  I’m sure I could sew a long piece of elastic together from the fabric store, but I should be able to find a real one, don’t you think?

Anyway, it was reminding me of elementary school. We used to play every recess.  1978-1984. We had all kinds of rhymes and songs… of which I can’t remember any of them.  All the youtube videos only have jumping routines, but no lyrics. 

So Help!  Can you remember any of the songs, or have you seen any Chinese Jump ropes at any stores?

For more ideas on getting active in the winter, I added a link to my sidebar for Michelle’s  Active Family blog! Check them out!

Postscript:  Thanks to Susan who commented about looping rubber bands together!  I love it, and Erica is already making one:

Happy New Years Eve!  We have no plans tonight.  I don’t think I’ve stayed up till midnight on new years eve since I was 17 years old! That is true.  And tonight won’t be any different.  We’re boring like that, and we love it!

Desperate Times call for Desperate Measures! If you live in the Wasatch Front (Utah), you know we have had very few days this winter to play outside. If its not super cold, the air quality is so bad, health officials have said exercising outside would be equivalent to smoking a cigarette!  We have spent loads of time indoors in the last few days and its making everyone crazy!!!  So crazy, we decided to get out our aggression on each other!

During desperate high winter times, it is not only appropriate, but vital kids have a spot INSIDE that they are ALLOWED to throw a ball.   Have a room without valuables so the kids can play without you getting uptight.  I have nothing valuable, so basically, any room in our house would do.

DISCLAIMER: No child was actually hurt or injured in the process of this game!

TJ got this awesome ball in his stocking for Christmas.

It’s perfect, its soft, its squishy, its every kid here’s favorite ball.  Its the perfect ball for……….

That’s right folks, we played dodge ball!   So today, if you can’t be outside… find a soft ball, line the kids up against the wall, and start throwing!  They may jump out of the way, but sometimes, they’ll want to get hit.

Thank you for a fabulous 2009!  I love your comments, your emails, your ideas, your recipes! Everything.  I love all the friends I’ve made through blogging, and most importantly, I love that you want your children to have healthier, happier lives. 

In order, here are the most read posts of all of 2009! (mostly by google searches)

• Menu Ideas
• Divine Art of Modification
• About
• Peanut Butter Delight Face-off
• The Turkey Vs. The Cow

So, until tomorrow, where I determine our health goals for 2010, have fun for me tonight!!

I love studies that conclude that exercise does more than improve your physical health, but also your mental health!  For me, its just as important that my kids are well physically as mentally.  And that they have all the academic advantages available to them!

This recent article by the NIH (National Institute of Health)  looked at a study of 1.2 million people!  The study determined:

 fit teens were more likely to obtain a university degree later in life. Fitness at age 18 was likewise linked to landing better jobs, with higher pay or management responsibilities, up to 36 years later.

One explanation about the connection is:

"Being fit means that you also have good heart and lung capacity and that your brain gets plenty of oxygen," says study coauthor Dr. Michael Nilsson of the University of Gothenburg. "This may be one of the reasons why we can see a clear link with fitness, but not with muscular strength."

So, do your teens like to be active? Or do they prefer laziness?  Movies? Video Games?  Texting?  Without teens, I can imagine its pretty divided.  I think you would  have some kids who love to be outside doing fun and crazy stuff, and some teens who don’t!   Here are some ideas I think may help teenagers get busy!

• Provide a fun activity!   Take them sledding… get them a ski pass… sign them up for sports…
• INVITE THEIR FRIENDS!!! Are you going sledding and your kids don’t feel like going.. let them bring a friend.  This works in our house every time. 
• If they want a dog, offer to get one on the condition they take the dog for walks each day.
• Get them new sports equipment, or exercise clothes.  New things are fun to try out and even help me to get to the gym
• Gift certificates to bowling, ice skating, a dance class etc.   If they’ve been wanting to just try out something new, this is a good way to let them experiment.
• Take them to an athletic event.  Even though you are spectators, often it will ignite the desire to play the game yourself.
• When all else fails, get a wii with active games. (we Like Dance Dance Revolution)

On Thursday we went sledding!  This is a guaranteed way to get my kids off the couch.   To make this fun for kids, make sure you bundle up, and don’t stay too long.’

While I’ve been a complete sloth for 5 days, my kids have done a great job at staying active.  While I was eating crappy food and sitting around playing card games, my kids were:

Swimming with their cousins,

Running to Geocache’s…literally running. There are 5 cache’s in one parking lot, so they ran from light post to light post looking for them.. without using a GPS.

Playing Soccer (a pickup game in the back yard is way better than little league)

Hunting for Elves all over Gardner Village.  They had a great time! Gardner Village has placed various elves all over the village. Kids are supposed to find the different elves doing different things like climbing a tree, snoring, or ice skating. Then they take their completed list to the candy store for a candy stick. They ran around that village several times.

Visiting farm animals

It was a great week, with me taking a vacation from everything.  But I missed blogging, and I missed having a routine, studying, reading etc.

I finally made the Borsch I had been planning for two weeks in a row. So tomorrow I’ll post about that yummy vegetable soup, and later this week… and Super healthy, super yummy giveaway!!

It’s been a great long while since I posted anything about kids and exercise.  Getting them off the couch in winter (or any cold weather) is more of a challenge, than when the sun is shining.  Lets be honest though, its usually not their fault. They would be happy running around in their underwear in a snowstorm, if I would let them.  I however was meant to live in Southern California, where you can play comfortably outside all year long.   Then OF COURSE I would be outside with my kids more often.

But yesterday, I had a reason to get moving.  We got a coupon for a free family day at our rec center pool (indoor pool that is). It expires soon, so we headed out.  The great thing about swimming  in a public pool during fall and winter, is you have the pool to yourself.  Even on Saturday afternoon.

I wish I could say I swam with them. That’s what a good mother would do.  But as soon as I get wet, I get so cold that I want to go home.  I like to blame that on my thyroid.  So instead, I brought my big, awful GRE study guide, and hung out on the side of the pool, book open, pretending to study, but really people watching.

Did you know 5% of children age 2-5 were obese in 1980, and today that number has grown to 12.4%!  While I don’t like to spend much time on this blog focusing on the problem, this blog post (sent to me by Lisa) offered many solutions!

Runnerdude said, “Another big culprit is our busy, non-stop lifestyles providing much less time for meal planing and preparing meals at home where you have better control over content and portion size.“

Are we too busy as a family that we don’t have time to make a decent meals for the ones we love?  If so, some things need to be cut from your life.  I am currently guilty of this one.  (which may get worse because I did not do well on my first chemistry test!)   On busy days, I simply don’t take the time to prepare healthy food for my kids or myself.

Second solution:

Exposing kids to a variety of fresh foods and eating them with your kids will help. Kids watch what you do. If they see you eating healthy foods, they’re more apt to eat healthy foods.

Couldn’t agree more!  Kids should be exposed early and young to a variety of foods!

And here is my favorite one:

Take a walk with your kids each afternoon before dinner (even if it’s only 15 or 20 minutes). This also provides you time to talk to your kids about their day.

I am going to do this!  I think this is the best way I can get away with my kids and connect with them after we are away from each other all day.  There are so many things at home that distract me.. the phone, email, dinner, etc. that my kids don’t get my full attention.  If I can’t spare 15 minutes to walk with my family, then we really have too much going on!

Remember: Teach healthy habits to your kids young.    Kids overweight by the age of 8 will most likely become overweight adults.

Related articles:

Childhood obesity with Jared

I’ve been training with my friend Eliece all summer to run a half marathon.  But mid-way through the summer I began getting some awful pain in my hips.  So its been a tough road to get to today, but we did it! It was great fun.

We ran the Spanish Fork Half Marathon.  My time was 2 hours, 22 minutes! The same exact time I’ve had for a half marathon 3 years in a row!  But this was a tougher course (more uphill) and I was sore for most of it.  Eliece pulled a sweet; 2 hours, 4 minutes!  Way to go Eliece!!

The best part:  We have some pretty good luck when it comes to contests and drawings, and I won a Garmin Forerunner 305!!  Worth $200!  I’m so excited to start using it.

So what is the best food to fuel such extreme exertion?  The natural way to get the most energy and recover from exercise is a good mix of protein and carbohydrates.  Carbs are vital for energy to get through any workout.  They are readily available to turn into energy during exercise.  Protein and fat on the other hand can be stored for long periods of time and takes more effort to convert into energy.  So our first energy source comes from the (good) carbs we eat.  Post workout however, we use protein to rebuild the muscle tissue that has been torn, leading to better recovery.   So here is my list for all you super active families:

• Yogurt (perfect mix of protein and carbs)
• Sandwiches (whole grain bread and lean meat, tuna, or egg)
• Smoothie or protein shake (using yogurt, fruit, juice, protein powders, raw eggs…J/K)
• Energy bar/ granola bar (check labels for healthy ingredients and avoid HFCS and hydrogenated fats)
• Cottage cheese and fruit
• Chicken and rice
• Oats made with skim milk
• Apples with natural peanut butter or slices of cheese
• Hard boiled egg with a side of fruit
• LOT’S OF WATER

Any pre-workout meal larger than 240 calories will generally not be absorbed and will remain in digestive track to give you problems during the event.