Long Island
Childhood obesity is at an all time high. The number of children who are overweight has tripled in the past 25 years. And Type 2 diabetes, once a disease seen only in adults, is now found in children as young as age 4. High blood pressure and cholesterol levels are also showing up earlier.
Good nutrition and physical activity will make a huge difference for your child now and in the future. In recognition of National Nutrition Month, First 5 Santa Barbara County offers the following Tips for Toddlers & Preschoolers:
Making smart food choices in only part of helping your child have a healthy weight. Being active as a family is also important.
For more information and links to resources visit http://www.first5santabarbaracounty.org/
Your growing toddler needs to snack quite a few times a day in addition to eating regular meals with the rest of the family. Here are a few quick and easy snack ideas that you can put together in just a few minutes. You toddler will enjoy these yummy snacks.
Ham and Cheese Crackers
Cut up some pieces of ham and cheese and serve them with some crackers. If you want to make it fun, use a cookie cutter to cut fun shapes out of the cheese.
Fruit Dip
Caution, this can get a little messy! Cut up some fruit in bite size chunks and serve with a small bowl of yogurt. Encourage your toddler to dip the fruit in the yogurt. This is an easy way to get your toddler to eat a serving of fruit, while also getting some extra calcium and protein in his/her diet from the yogurt.
Low Sugar Cereal
I always keep a box of low sugar cereal like cheerios in my pantry. They make a great snack with a little milk, or even just a bowl of dry cereal. Dry cereal also make a great take-along snack. Just throw a serving in a Ziploc bag and toss it in your purse.
Veggies and Dip
Keep some cut up veggies in the fridge. Small pieces of carrot, peeled cucumber, celery as well as small sections of broccoli and cauliflower all make great finger food for toddlers. Make sure the pieces are very small to prevent choking or steam them to soften them up. Serve with a little ranch dressing if desired.
Peanut Butter Sandwich
A PB&J has been a snack staple for ages. Mix things up by toping the peanut butter with some thin slices of apple or banana instead of the jelly. Or try smearing the peanut butter on a tortilla. Add jelly and roll it up. Cut the rolled up tortilla into strips for a fun new way to eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Quick Cheese Quesadilla
Place a soft tortilla on a microwave safe plate. Top one half with cheese and fold the other half over it. Microwave 30-60 seconds or until the cheese is melted. Cut into wedges and let it cool a little before serving.
Quick Smoothie
Throw half a banana or some berries in a blender along with some vanilla yogurt and a splash of milk. Add a little ice if desired and blend until smooth. Serve in a sippy cup or with a straw for a quick fruit smoothie. Your toddler will love drinking a milkshake for a snack.
Give these fast, easy and healthy snack ideas for your toddler a try. By the way, these make great snacks for everyone else in the family as well - including mom.
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Christine Steendahl Is The Founder Of Dine Without Whine - A Family Friendly Weekly Menu Planner. Eliminate Your Dinner Hour Stress And Re-Discover The Pleasure Of The Dinner Hour! For A Free Sample Menu Visit http://www.dinewithoutwhine.com/info
If you're new to the world of organics, we'll lay out some definitions. According to Wikipedia, organic crops are "grown without the use of conventional pesticides, artificial fertilizers or sewage sludge" and processed "without ionizing radiation or food additives." Organic animals are "reared without the routine use of antibiotics and without the use of growth hormones." All organic food is produced "without the use of genetically modified organisms."
Joy Bauer, a nutritionist who appeared on the TODAY show, said that the choice between organic or locally grown meat and produce is a personal one, and no one can really say that one is better. Experts claim that that the 12 most heavily sprayed produce items are apples, cherries, nectarines, imported grapes, peaches, pears, raspberries, strawberries, bell peppers, celery, potatoes and spinach. Many local farms will not use pesticides or artificial fertilizers in their crops, but can't advertise their products as certified organic due to the process being extremely expensive, so ask your local farmers about their growing processes.
Organic produce, dairy and meat are available in most supermarkets, with local supermarkets such as Fairway (Plainview) or Whole Foods Market (Jericho and Manhasset) having a large variety of different organic products. Another option for organics is a delivery service, such as Diamond Organics or Urban Organic. Both of these services will deliver organic produce to Long Island, and have customers raving about their products. Diamond Organics has these awesome looking sample packs of produce that will allow you to see what they're all about, while Urban Organics offers different size boxes that you can receive as often as you would like (up to weekly), items depending on seasonal availability, and they give you a FREE box each time you refer a customer. Diamond Organics has mostly overnight delivery and Urban Organic delivers to Long Island on Fridays.
For locally grown produce, Long Island has a ton of different farms, and now that we're getting into the spring and summer, we'll see some great farmers markets (outdoor markets where farmers gather to sell their locally grown and fresh produce to the public) popping up. Here are locations for some farmers markets that you can check out this summer -
| Nassau County: | ||
| Locust Valley | Forest Avenue, across from the Post Office | |
| July through November, Saturdays, 8am - 1pm | ||
| Lynbrook | Off Sunrise Highway to Forest Avenue, in annex to LIRR parking lot | |
| June through November, Sundays, 7am - 1pm | ||
| Hempstead | Christ First Presbyterian Church parking lot, off Washington Avenue, across from village police department | |
| July through November, Fridays, 7am - 12pm | ||
| New Hyde Park | LIJ Hospital 400 building | |
| June through November, Wednesdays, 7am - 1pm | ||
| Suffolk County: | ||
| Huntington | Route 25A (Main Street), downtown Huntington Village, parking lot next to Central Presbyterian Church | |
| May through November, Sundays, 7am - 12pm | ||
| Islip | Montauk Highway (Rte 27), Town Hall parking lot | |
| May through November, Saturdays, 8am - 12pm | ||
| Riverhead | Parking lot behind Aquarium | |
| July through October, Thursdays, 11am - 4pm | ||
| Patchogue | Montauk Highway (Rte 27), 7-11/Carvel parking lot | |
| July through October, Fridays, 8am - 1pm | ||
| Port Jefferson | Town Hall parking lot, west of ferry in PJ Village | |
| July through October, Thursdays, 11am - 4pm | ||
With an endless number of diets out there, you may be surprised to find out that there is one method everyone can agree on - a food diary. It shouldn't come as a surprise that the most successful tool in weight management is behavior modification. Makes sense, right? Well, the number one tool used for this is a food diary.
Why is a food diary so effective? An important step in any weight management program is to understand your eating habits and what triggers excessive eating. Everyone is overweight for different reasons - the quantity or type of food that we eat, mood triggered eating or maybe your work style encourages poor eating choices. When you use a food diary, you can easily identify why your eating style is what it is. Your food diary is like a finger print, unique to you. In this article, you will learn to use a lifestyle diary which addresses not only what foods you are eating but why you are eating them.
Why Use A Food Diary?
How To Use A Food Diary
The food diary is one of the most powerful tools in weight management, but it is also one of the most resisted. A food diary can be seen as tedious and cumbersome. Carry your diary with you at all times and immediately write everything down as soon as you eat it, leaving nothing out. Remember, the one tiny cookie and that handful of popcorn definitely counts! Don't think that at the end of your day, you'll be able to remember every single thing that you put into your mouth since you woke up. It's the times that you don't want to write down that are the most important. The only person that you're hurting when you're not honest on your diary is yourself.
Include the following categories in your food diary:
Location: Where was the food eaten? The car? Your desk? Your dining room table? You want to track where you're eating to see how it's connected to your food choices. For instance, if you are eating in the car, we can pretty much guess that you're not eating with awareness.
Time Started / Time Finished: Most people who are overweight eat too fast. By tracking the time that you start and finish eating, you can become more aware of if you take time to savor your food or if you scarf it down in a matter of minutes. Small frequent meals are better then a few large ones throughout the day. By graphing the times of day that you eat, you can easily see whether you aren't eating often enough or that you skip breakfast too much.
Position: You might be wondering why we care what position you are in while you eat. Well, can you truly be aware of your eating if you're walking? Ideally, you should be sitting down when eating.
Company: Have you ever noticed that you always make poor eating choices when eating with certain people? Or on the reverse side, maybe you make great eating choices when eating with certain people. It's important to know how your company effects your eating.
Type of food: If your goal is to lose weight, you need to know what you're eating and be very specific. Don't just write "chicken" but write "fried chicken breasts". It's the little things that add up. Don't forget about condiments, sauces, etc. If you try a sample while strolling through the aisle at the super market, you need to write it down.
Quantity of food: In being specific about what you ate, you also need to be specific about how much you ate. Did you eat 1 or 3 chicken breasts? Was your roll about the size of a yo-yo or a softball? Be very specific in describing portions, using weight, volume or inches to describe your food, if possible.
Calories / Fat (Optional): Because the food diary is already time consuming, you may choose to skip recording calorie and fat content. It's up to you.
Activity: Ideally, you shouldn't be doing anything else when you eat. If you have other distractions such as the TV, the phone or the computer, it takes your mind away from the task at hand.
Level of Hunger: We want you to be in tune with your hunger cues. Rate your hunger on a scale of 1 - 10, with 1 being full and 10 being famished. Eat when you are hungry and stop eating when you're full. However, don't get to the point where you are so hungry that you make bad food choices. If you find that your poorer eating choices are a result of extreme hunger, then you may want to try more frequent, high fiber meals or increased water intake.
Mood: This is an important one. Our food choices are very often a result of our emotional state, not necessarily our hunger. By tracking your moods, you can see connections between how you feel and what you choose to eat.
Use your diary as a strategy to encourage better eating habits. There's nothing to be gained by trying to look good on your diary. Be honest and your diary will lead you to better health.
--submitted by by Petra Beumer, M.A. Clinical Psychology, Life Coach
Why do we eat when we are not hungry? Using food to feel better is very common and causes unwanted weight gain, feelings of guilt and a sense of losing control. I have done it for years! I didn't want to feel my feelings at the time which were loneliness, not feeling connected after having moved into a new city, and boredom!
Instead of writing my feelings down in a journal or simply feeling them fully, I ate. And I gained a lot of weight. That was 25 years ago. Since then I have been able to change my behavior over time by addressing the true underlying emotions that triggered my emotional eating.
Emotional overeaters need to learn to separate hunger from other needs. Ask yourself: What am I really in need of right now? How am I feeling? What challenges do I face? Am I angry? Am I lonely? Am I sad? Am I bored? Am I feeling unappreciated?
It takes courage to honestly assess what's going on inside you. Looking at your true feelings will help you to break the vicious cycle of eating instead of feeling.
Focus on your overall well-being. Eliminate chronic stressors and negative influences in your life. Seek professional counseling if necessary. Add positive things to your life like Yoga, meditation or try a new hobby. Give yourself the gift of self-love and treat yourself with kindness and patience. If feelings of sadness or hopelessness persist, seek the help of a health professional.
Discover when you feel most alive and energized. Follow that path. Trust your intuition. Laugh. Put things in perspective. Drink fresh water. Read inspirational self-help books. Trust that you can handle all your feelings. In time eating will become less and less important, you'll see!
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