health Archives

Browsing Tag

health

Sanity-Saving Supper Time Tips

EAT, family meals By Jill Amery March 25, 2014 Tags: dinner, family meal, family meals, featured, health, lasagna, leftovers, Lianne Philipson Webb, nutrition, recipes, slider, Sprout Right, supper No Comments

By Lianne Phllipson-Webb, Sprout Right

In the spring as the weather improves, kids can get even busier with after school and evening activities. This can make supper time a challenge. How do you feed your hungry crowd healthy food, and quickly? Here are three sanity-saving supper time tips that will make your weekday meal prep a cinch.

Weekends are for Prepping

Make some time for your weekday meal prep. Head to the grocery store and fill your fridge with fresh fruits, vegetables and protein. Create a plan for weekday meals and prepare by washing and cutting up veggies, grilling or roasting meats.

Think BIG

Think BIG when it comes to meals and always aim to have a hearty amount of leftovers. Leftovers make great lunches for the next day and they can also form the foundation of your next supper. Cook a whole chicken (or two) instead of cooking a chicken breast and cut up the meat to make a salad or taco for the next night. Incorporate casseroles that please a crowd, and heat up great, like homemade lasagna.

A Team Sport

Involve your kids as much as possible in meal preparation. Find age-appropriate activities like ripping lettuce leaves (pre-schoolers) and cutting up raw veggies (school-age). Even toddlers can help by grabbing their own plate and fork and helping to set the table. You can have “make your own” nights, where you put out the basic ingredients and the kids choose how to put their meal together. Examples include make your own pasta night, a chili bar (with hot chili, cheese, veggies and potatoes) and make your own taco night. Getting the whole family involved at mealtime not only helps you, it helps your kids learn skills toward independence.

Do you have some favourite recipes for quick and easy weekday meals? How do you save your sanity at suppertime?

Lianne Phillipson-Webb is the founder of Sprout Right, a company that specializes in pre-conception, prenatal, and postnatal nutrition for women, as well as good food and health for the whole family. With over ten years of experience, Lianne is a registered nutritionist, author, member of the International Organization of Nutrition Consultants, and mother of two.

10 Outdoor Winter Activities for Kids

LIVE, play By Jill Amery February 12, 2014 Tags: activity, cold, exercise, featured, health, participaction, physical activity, slider, Sports, winter 1 Comment

What a winter we have had! But the cold should not keep Canadian families indoors. Bundle up, get outside and get physically active every day with one of our 10 outdoor winter activities for kids. Why? Because active play is essential to every child’s physical, cognitive, emotional and social development—even in winter. Unfortunately, one study shows Canadian kids spend only three hours per week playing actively in the winter, compared to four and a half hours in summer. (via www.participACTION.com). A part of this lack of play during the winter months is due to the four main barriers to play; safety concerns, too much screen time, unruly weather and not enough hours in the day.

How to Identify Symptoms of a Concussion

FAM, health By Jill Amery January 8, 2014 Tags: chevrolet, concussion, featured, GM, health, hockey, hockey canada, hockey helmet program, parachute, safe and fun hockey, slider 1 Comment

Chevrolet not only makes awesome vehicles, but they sponsor the Safe and Fun Hockey program. Over the last three years Chevrolet has handed out more than 35,000 free hockey helmets to parents of 5-year-olds in Canada. If your child is five and enrolled in a hockey program, Chevrolet will send you a fantastic Bauer helmet. Amazing!!!! Fitness, safety and of course Canada’s unofficial national pastime. WHEN KIDS ENJOY THE GAME EVERYONE WINS. True, right? The kids with screaming hockey parents or those who are petrified of their coach don’t really enjoy the game. And nobody will enjoy any sport if they come home with a concussion.

Veggie Sloppy Joes

EAT, family meals By Jill Amery October 5, 2013 Tags: baby food, childhood, family meal, flavor-rich, hamburger, health, joes, kids, oil, recipes, slider, sloppy, test drives, veggie No Comments

Veggie sloppy Joes are like childhood on a plate. Growing up in the ’70s, you just couldn’t escape this meaty dish. Since it’s such a comfort food, Ceri and I decided to go retro and bring back the sloppy. We’ve updated it, of course, for a more health-conscious family, substituting all that ground beef with a flavor-rich black bean sauce. This recipe was excerpted from the great new cookbook entitled How to Feed a Family: The Sweet Potatoes Chronicles Cookbook, by Ceri Marsh and Laura Keogh. As two urban, working moms, Ceri and Laura learned quickly how challenging healthy meal-times can be. So they joined forces to create the Sweet Potato Chronicles a website written for, and by, non-judgmental moms, packed full of nutritious recipes for families.

Tips for Treating Head Lice

FAM, health By Jill Amery May 18, 2013 Tags: childcare, featured, health, lice, lice squad, louse, natural remedies, natural remedy, nits, slider 1 Comment

This is one topic that most of us aren’t pontificating over at a cocktail party, but most parents will need a few tips for treating head lice in their bag of tricks. Lice (the plural of louse in case you’re a grammar nut) are a very common problem, especially for kids ages 3 years to 12 years. Girls are affected more often than boys. Lice aren’t dangerous and they don’t spread disease, but they are highly contagious and can affect the self esteem of the most secure child. As the lice bite a child’s scalp, itchiness and inflammation occur.

Signs of Head Lice

Lice eggs are called nits. These look like tiny yellow, tan, or brown dots before they hatch. Nits look sort of like dandruff, only they can’t be removed by brushing or shaking them off. You may be able to see the lice or nits by parting your child’s hair into small sections and checking for lice and nits with a fine-tooth comb on the scalp, behind the ears, and around the nape of the neck.

Treatment of Head Lice

1. We’ve heard great reports about Lice Squad. They use pesticide free products, and carefully removes the lice with a solution and comb. It takes 1-2 hours and is done in your home. You can try medicated shampoos and removal combs yourself as well.

2. Saturate their hair in baby oil and go through it with a detangler comb then lice come. When you are confident you have most of the bugs, mix vinegar in with their shampoo and let them sit for an hour.

3. Soak your hair with mouthwash and then put on a shower cap. You may need to put a towel around your neck to stop some of the dripping. Let it sit in your hair for 2 hours. After that rinse out the mouthwash and then rinse your hair with vinegar to loosen the glue on the nits. After you rinse out the vinegar, use some conditioner as a final step.

4. Mix lemon juice with baking soda. The mixture will foam up as you stir. Apply to hair. Leave on for a few hours and wash hair.

Good luck and be sure to share which method worked best for you!

10 simple ways to nourish your body

EAT, eat, family meals, LIVE By Jill Amery May 1, 2013 Tags: alyssa bauman, avocado, chia, featured, health, nourished No Comments

This may sound easy and intuitive to some and overwhelming and foreign to others, but regardless, we all want to feel our best. So if you already practice these, make these 10 Simple ways To Nourish Your Body a mainstay in your everyday. If you are new to these, then start incorporating them one at a time into your day. I promise your body will reap the benefits. It’s the small but daily decisions in your life that lead to the biggest transformations.

Here’s my top 10 hit list on how to Nourish Your Body.

1) Drink warm lemon water upon rising.

This quick flush and detox alkalizes your body and sets your digestion up for the rest of the day.

2) Eat more greens

Incorporate greens into every meal. Salads, green juices, stews, pastas, eggs, soups. Throw in the kale, chard, spinach, arugula, watercress. The greener the better. Just eat more.

3) An avocado a day keeps the doctor away

Avocados are my god. They are loaded in vitamins, minerals and fiber and contain the healthy fats our bodies thrive on. This is the fat we so need. This is the fat that speeds up our metabolism; the fat that lowers the bad cholesterol; the fat that keeps us satiated so we don’t cave at 4 pm and eat whatever is in front of us.

4) Make dinner your lightest meal (An Avocado Will do)

This allows the body to actually refresh, rejuvenate and repair during sleep. Most the time we wake up tired because our body didn’t rest, digestion takes up so much energy. Try at first eating half of what you normally do. Never eat until you are full. You have eaten to much.

5) Exercise

Move your body. Movement heals everything. If you are tired, it invigorates; if you are upset, cranky, endorphins help you overcome that mood; if you are confused, it helps gain clarity.

Do yoga, run, bike, take a class, whatever it is, it will heal.

6) Body Brush.

Everyday before jumping in the shower or upon rising, dry brush your body in swift circular motions. This flushes toxins, gets lymphs moving and is a great skin smoother.

7) Cook

When you cook your own food, you know exactly what’s in your food. You have the control of how sweet/salty it is. Once you get in the habit of cooking, you won’t go back to eating out every meal. Pack lunches; have breakfast at home. Make restaurants the occasion.

8) Notice Habits

Become aware of the little things you do everyday. Are they helping you? Are the just habitual? If they are, then break the habit and see how liberating it is.

9) Omega 3’s

Get more Omega 3’s into your diet. Their anti inflammatory properties help you now and prevent future degeneration issues. Eat salmon, flax seeds, chia seeds, walnuts, oil supplements.

10) Take Pleasure, be Passionate

Do what you love. If you don’t know, make it a priority to discover your inner smile. Ignite and feel your spirit in your every step.

Alyssa Bauman is a holistic nutritionist, health consultant, speaker and writer who is on the crusade to empower healthy eating. The more you eat well, the more you want to eat well.

Foods Alyssa can’t live with out: Coconut Oil, Raw Cacao, Her Green Go-Go Juice, Avocado and lemons.

Check out www.nourished.ca for easy, yummy, healthy recipes that will nourish your soul and your body. Sign up for monthly nourished newsletters for transformative advice and nutrition tips.

In Anticipation of Play

International, ROAM By Jill Amery February 24, 2013 Tags: health, kids, liberia, pack for a purpose, right to play, stickers, Travel, West Africa No Comments

I am packed. The technology is charged (and needs its own bag). My sneakers are ready to go. And there is only 1 pair of wedges in the suitcase (I couldn’t go cold turkey). To have been given this opportunity is astounding. In a few days I will participate in an all-female Liberian kick-ball tournament, meet representatives of other organizations that support Right To Play’s efforts in Liberia and chat with families and children in more than 5 communities in Monrovia.

The mayor of West Vancouver has sent a letter and dozens of pins and my communities are brimming with support and well wishes. Facebook. Email. Phone calls. Twitter. Personal hugs. I am humbled and overwhelmed. A few short months ago, I knew so little about the development of communities, including my own. I’m actually quite a shy person and can be reluctant to share and truly know people.

This campaign to raise awareness for Right To Play made me realize not only the incredible things that come out of play, but how a community can truly come together for a cause. I have bonded with people who were once strangers by mentioning my involvement with Right To Play. Eyes light up and all of a sudden I realize that a parent at the school lived in Africa, the passport picture photographer used to volunteer teaching sports to inner-city children and my doctor donates to Right To Play. Advice is rampant. Everyone wants to know how they can donate, and for the first time since I last performed in the theatre, I feel part of something much bigger and more impactful than I can even imagine.

Play teaches determination, leadership, how to be a part of a team, how to balance sport and school and discipline. Gender equality and sportsmanship are enhanced. Laughter abounds. And Right To Play has already truly taught me to be part of my own community. I am bursting to see the programs in action!

My final task is to pick the boys up from school and do a bit of shopping. Very exciting shopping. (Not that my heart doesn’t usually skip a beat when I see a store.) This task, however, will be a selfless one. It will be an exciting excursion for my kids when I hand them a few bills at the dollar store and ask them to choose whatever they think the children of Liberia would love. How amazing as a parent to see what my children will think kids in Africa would want!

My heart is so full and my head may explode with the lessons I have already learned. I can’t even imagine what is waiting for me in West Africa.

Let the games begin! I am ready to play and can’t wait to share the journey with you all.

Free Flu Shots and Diabetes Checks

FAM, health By Jill Amery November 7, 2012 Tags: cold. featured, diabetes, flu shots, health, shoppers drug mart, sick No Comments

At this time of year we get a bit run down and our health can take a beating. Here’s a chance for you to get Free Flu Shots and Diabetes Checks. So convenient! Shoppers Drug Mart Pharmacies in certain Canadian regions are offering free flu shots that you can book online.

The Canadian Diabetes Association is collaborating once again with Loblaw Companies Limited and its grocery stores and their in-store pharmacies across Canada to recognize Diabetes Awareness Month with special events and information sessions offered throughout the month of November.

Be well!

Beat the Heat

LIVE, rest By Jill Amery June 5, 2012 Tags: air conditioner, asthma, baby, beach, beat the heat, clothing, confusion, Danica Longair, dehydration, difficulty breathing, disorientation, dizziness, fainting, featured, frozen treats, hat, headache, health, heat, heat stroke, heat wave, hot, kid, nap, napping, nausea, overheating, overheating your baby, pets, pool, rapid breathing, Safety, safety tips, summer, sunscreen, tired, too hot, water, weakness, weather 1 Comment

Severe heat can inhibit the safety of babies and children. With global temperatures on a slow march upwards, heat waves such as this are unfortunately likely to become more frequent than their previous once-in-a-lifetime occurence. Some people adore the heat, but babies and children as well as pets and elderly relatives are vulnerable to heat strokes, dehydration and other serious heat-related ailments. Here are some tips on surviving the heat.

McDonald’s All-Access Moms

EAT, family meals By Jill Amery July 20, 2011 Tags: all-access mom, fast food, health, mcdonalds, nutrition 9 Comments

I first heard about CityLine’s McDonald’s All-Access Moms program and thought it would be intriguing to see the operations, food preparation and strategy of a huge corporation from behind the scenes. It is a rare opportunity to be granted access to the inner workings of one of the world’s largest restaurants. (And not only any restaurant – but one which arouses passionate opinions by so many people). I applied and was honoured to be chosen. With the decision to participate comes a huge responsibility to ask tough questions, consider philosophical positions and present all I learn in a professional manner.

1 2 3 4