Exercise Helps Overweight Children Reduce Anger Expression

Not a new article, but still more evidence.

We as adults know that physical activity reduces stress from the first minute of activity. Makes sense that it can benefit children on an emotional and psychological level as well.

What a wonderful time to allow children to understand and channel their anger in a positive direction.

I don't believe anger is necessarily a bad thing. In fact, anger can be the very thing that motivates a person to DO something very positive. Many political and social movements have their origins in anger.

So why not direct anger toward making personal change as well.

Exercise Helps Overweight Children Reduce Anger Expression

Exercise helps overweight children think better, do better in math

Why must this shock us? The benefits of physical activity are endless, enduring and non-discriminating. Tell me who does NOT benefit from a child or an adult who engages in healthful nutritional spiritual, and YES physical habits....mmm...

I can think of only one...perhaps those who are currently benefiting from our nations LACK of physical activity and other healthy living habits...mmmm, whom do you think that might be????

Let's MOVE baby.

"I hope these findings will help reestablish physical activity's important place in the schools in helping kids stay physically well and mentally sharp," Davis said. "For children to reach their potential, they need to be active."

Exercise helps overweight children think better, do better in math

Eating Healthy: Don't fix what is working. Fix what is not.

I talk with people all day. I not only listen to what they are saying, but what they are avoiding.  It's part of my profession to listen, hear, give feedback, ask questions, guide the person toward a healthier lifestyle. It's a balancing act sometimes. Between understanding and being firm. Between being gentle and being tough.

The hardest part is what I call being the mirror. Showing people themselves. Reflecting back to them what they are saying in hopes that they see the truth. It's not easy to do and it's not easy to have it done to you. It is important however.

When we see the truth of our actions then we can make the necessary adjustments. When we see our problems with weight management clearly we can fix them. When we see what works we can use that as a tool for change.

Change is easy. We even know how to change. It's knowing what to change that is hard. We keep fixing what ain't broke thinking that is our "trying". It's not.

To me it is an example of our resistance to change itself. We want the end result of change. A lighter, healthier body. A better outlook. More energy. Lower blood pressure...Whatever, the list goes on.

Take eating better. For whatever reason. Mostly it is about losing weight, but the reason is moot.

During the week, when are lives are dictated by schedules at work and home we tend to eat OK. We moderate our breakfasts, lunches and most dinners all week. But it's the weekend that we go into with reckless abandonment.

Monday arrives. We step on the scale and poof, all the work we did to lose that 1-3 pounds the week before is gone. So we work all week once again to lose the same 1-3 pounds. we repeat the same cycle again and again. The fact remains we repeat the same cycle again during the week and repeat the same cycle on the weekend expecting a different outcome.

When it doesn't go our way we give up.

One could take this scenario and adjust it to suit, such as I'm good all day until "late night".

But there it is again. We SEE the problem. Late night eating. Weekend over indulging. Then we fix the week.  The week, the day is WORKING. It's the weekends and the nights that are broken.The problem is right before our eyes.

But we don't want to fix what's broke. we want to fix what's working. Resistance is another word for avoiding the truth.

Do we want to fix what is broken? No we don't want to NOT snack at night. We don't want to THINK about moderating ourselves on the weekends. In essence, we are resisting change.

We only want to fix what is working.

If we want to get healthier. If we want to do anything better than we are right now we have to look at what is not working and fix that. We have to see the truth. Sometimes it takes a friend, a colleague, a professional and yes your fitness trainer to hand you the mirror and show you the hard truth.

I see it all the time. Most recently I see it in business. Instead of learning and growing from what is working to fix what is not they squeeze and squash the good and avoid facing what is not. Eventually the healthy part of the business will fail to make up for the unhealthy part of the business. Eventually, the whole business will become unhealthy. All because the leaders were trying to avoid fixing what was broken by fixing what was working.

If I want a healthy business I must use what is working to fix what is not. Not the reverse.

If  I want to be healthier I need to fix what is not helping me be healthy. It's as simple as that.

Don't fix what is working. Fix what is not.

China Sports Illustrated Cheers for the Queers! 中国《体育画报》同志，冲啊！

OK this to me is great news! Sports Illustrated, Queer Athletes (I say that with complete and utter affection) AND China!

Come on! It's Sports Illustrated! The male sport magazine that still produces the "Swim Suit" edition to it's subscribers. The Playboy version of women in sexually provocative "swim" attire.

The male-bonding magazine that covered football, basketball, baseball as if they were the ONLY sports being played and only played by "real" men.

That was before audience interests and profit making ads actually opened their minds and eyes to the new and potentially profitable markets of not only other sports, but women as well.

But today I learned that CHINA is now setting the pace for welcoming the LGBT market onto the front cover of their magazine.

A HUGE 3-part article introducing China to sports connection to the LGBT Athlete. The LGBT athlete has been around about as long as sports has really. I mean, come on, the original Olympic Greek athletes competed in the nude! In front of an all male audience...Paa-lease!

Kudos to China and the Editors of Sports Illustrated and the Sales & Marketing teams that realize that not only are there great LGBT athletes, but there is a HUGE audience who wants to read about them and see all the ads that come along side.

I know it is business that is leading the charge, but for once I am in total agreement.

One step forward to acceptance and appreciation. Maybe even one step closer to the realization that someone could be gay and still be a great athlete, person, friend, neighbor and role-model!

Childhood Obesity: Should Children Go on Diets?

I'll answer that with one word. YES!

But let me explain my reasoning because I'm not saying that children should be subjected to the rigorous, unrealistic expectations, obsessive-compulsive style of dieting I see adults put themselves through every year.

I prefer a more straight-forward subtle approach to weight loss or weight management. I prefer to guide them by example.

Over my years of watching parents who are obsessed with their weight, who often times are battling poor body images themselves, give their children an unbelievably hard time about their weight.

The parents go out, work, strive hard to stay thin, workout all the time and yet...their children are overweight.

Oh the horror! What will their friends think if they are being "healthy" and their children are over weight?

My first thoughts are OK so what are your own feelings about food and activity? Do you make meals fun or do you make them a battlefield?

Are you depriving them or are you demonstrating moderation?

Are you going out and working out and keeping them by the TV?

Do you rush them all around to all their after school activities and shove fast food or their meals down them?

Do your kids buy their lunches or do you prepare it "with" them?

Do you live close enough to your child's school and still drive them anyway?

I'm not saying it is easy. Raising healthy well adjusted children is NOT easy. You do have to be involved though and you do need your kids to be involved with you.

Being involved can be fun and rewarding and doesn't have to take you away from your own goals. But you might have to adjust.

It is my belief that we as parents should lead by example, guiding them by your actions and the way you go about being healthy. If your diet and your view of your nutrition is healthy than share it, get your kids involved with you.

If it's not, don't place that burden on your kids with unrealistic expectations. Share your struggles and your reasons for being healthy. Let them know your "why" without making them feel they have to adopt your "why". Allow them to share their why and their concerns.

When they are real young, you dictate was is brought into the house and what goes on their plate. When they are older give them some choices.

Take the time to prepare meals with them, sit down with them, share with them and allow them to share with you.

Then PLAY with them. There are so many active games inside as well as out. OK so you won't burn a bunch of calories, but will be active and you'll be influencing your children.

If you like music. DANCE!
If you like sports: Play floor hockey in the basement.
If you like nature: Go out for a walk, hike, snowshoe, make a snow castle.
If you like computers: Play Wii

If you like eating well, help them find ways to eat well. Explore the veggie isle at the grocery store. Hide veggies in soups, casseroles and spaghetti sauces. Use low fat dip if you need to. I know I didn't always like raw veggies either.

So do children need to go on diets?

Yes, the healthy kind.

Jack LaLanne Dead: Fitness Guru Dies At 96

I really thought this man was indeed going to live to at least 100! Then again, I thought he would be the ONE who really did live forever.

He is quoted as saying that "Dying would ruin my image", well maybe his passing just made him all the more human to us.

I am sadden by the loss of anyone. But I am amazed and motivated by who they were in this life.

Jack LaLanne Dead: Fitness Guru Dies At 96

Jack Lalanne LIVED his life well and encouraged others to do the same. He may have ruined his image by dying, but he inspired many to LIVE all of their years healthfully.

I know that he inspired mine. He was on T.V. everyday and I watched everyday I was home sick. That's back when we had only 3 channels to choose from!

University mourns the loss of student | WIVB.com

This tragedy in our WNY community hits close to home, a friend loses his life. Yet, it is one that is all too common on college campuses throughout the US. You can read between the lines. Alcohol was involved.

I knew this young man. His father coached my son in hockey for two years. My son played on the team with him, they shared the same position. He was over our house on more than one occasion.

Matt would take the time to chat with me while his buddies hung out in my son's man-cave basement. He was truly a great kid. A big, gentle loving bear of a boy.

Yet, he was like many typical teenage boys. He drank. He drank very heavily. He drank to excess. He drank 'til he vomited. He drank 'til he passed out.

The term moderation was NOT in his vocabulary. Was he unlike many of his friends? Only in that he possibly died from his excesses.

How does one teach moderation? How does one influence another to not go to such extremes? Can we? Do we, as parents, lay the law down and restrict and punish the excesses? Do we clamp down so hard that the kid rebels?

My good friend, whose family was like a second family to this young man, kept saying, "But he knew it was wrong." Wrong? Did he know? Did he realize the possible consequences? Did he?

These kinds of tragedies can make us look within. How did my behavior contribute to this? Do my actions speak for excess or moderation? Did I drink in moderation? Was my drinking merely a crutch?

As the saying goes, "We teach when we least expect."

These kinds of tragedies can make us look to place blame outside of ourselves. Why did someone let him drink that much? Who gave him the alcohol?

When I look back on my high school and college years and even the years after college I wonder sometimes how the heck did I make it through? What was it that kept me mostly out of harms way? Did I know moderation then? No, not really.

If indeed excessive alcohol lead to Matt's death, what did we miss? Was it just a fluke in his gene pool? Or was it something in our own behaviors that encouraged his excess. Did we model excess? Was Matt trying to tell us something in his behavior that we weren't picking up? Did he drink so heavily to avoid something?

These kinds of tragedies don't make sense in the scheme of things. A good kid is gone. A good kid who was headed toward good things has left us before he reached his full potential. A good kid who just didn't know that how he was living his life would one day take his life.

I don't know how to make sense of such events. I only know that my reaction to such things can either improve mine and others way of life or it can destroy our lives with sorrow, guilt and anger.

My prayers go out to Matt's family and his close friends. Right now, I pray for their comfort and peace. I pray that they may cry on the shoulders of all who both loved them and their son.

I pray that eventually they may use this tragedy to look within and maybe honor his life and death by asking themselves how might I become better by this.

University mourns the loss of student | WIVB.com

What's Your "Why"? by Sherrill A Quinn (Sherrill A Quinn) on Myspace

Really changing habits or behaviors is a journey and it's not really meant to be easy. An important part of being successful is understanding your "why", the real reason for doing whatever it is you are attempting to do.

What's Your "Why"? by Sherrill A Quinn (Sherrill A Quinn) on Myspace