FIGHTING OBESITY WITH FITNESS, FUN, AND FOOD

Here are a couple of myths I hear:

MYTH 1: It’s hard to teach kids how to eat healthy.

FACT: Teaching kids how to eat healthy doesn’t have to be hard. Start with a simple food project and teach them a new skill. Give them room to try out new flavors.

MYTH 2: Eating healthy is too expensive.

FACT: When you choose foods that are in season, especially foods grown by your local farmers, it can be inexpensive to eat healthy.

MYTH 3: Youth Guidance has plenty of adult mentors for the kids they serve.

FACT: There are still 400 kids on Youth Guidance Mentoring & Activities Program's waiting list hoping to be matched with an adult mentor. Through our collaborative education programs, we help identify mentors for these kids.

Learning how to eat healthy and stay fit is what we do in the programs taught by Growing Healthy Kids. We engage kids in the process by having “fun with a purpose” as Ronnie Hewitt used to say to me.

Here’s the story about last Saturday's Fitness, Fun, and Food Growing Healthy Kids with Youth Guidance Mentoring & Activities Program event held at Riverside Park. Twenty great kids and some enthusiastic adult volunteers spent the morning getting fit on the fitness trail, checking out the cool things to do and see at the Vero Beach Museum of Art's Community Day, then learning how to make Fresh Corn Salsa. The food was fabulous and the young chefs had a blast learning some basic techniques for use in the kitchen, such as how to use a knife, how to slice vegetables, and creative license with ingredients. The cool thing to watch was that ALL the kids wanted to be involved, not just some of them. They ALL wanted to wear the Growing Healthy Kids' aprons that give them superpowers for eating healthy foods. They ALL were having fun with the purpose of learning how to eat healthy, one vegetable and one child at a time.

Below are pictures from Fitness, Fun, and Food. Be inspired to teach your own children about the joys of having fun with a purpose, especially in the kitchen. A very special thanks to Rebecca Hornbuckle of Veggies of Vero for supplying the farm fresh veggies for this event. The flavors of the just-picked tomatoes, peppers, and spinach were delicious. The juicy navel oranges provided very stylish decorations for our “al fresco” dining table.

Growing Healthy Kids is committed to reversing childhood obesity and improving the health of America’s children, one garden and one child at a time.  To learn how you can help, go to http://www.growinghealthykids.me/.

Respectfully yours,

Nancy Heinrich

PS - Watch for the Fresh Corn Salsa recipe in our next blog!  To learn more about becoming a mentor with Youth Guidance, just call 772-770-5040.



Nancy Heinrich get the kids excited about the fresh veggies.



Go, girls, go!



A volunteer and her mentee make squares for new Community Mural.



One participant learns how to use fresh lime juice to flavor foods.



Valerie Flanagan and kids on the fitness trail at Riverside Park.

OBESITY, DIABETES, AND MINDFUL EATING

Have you heard about mindful eating?  Just think about the words.  Eating.  Mind.  Full.  A mind full of food.  Presence of mind.  Think about what you eat.  How much you eat.  What quality of food you eat.  With whom you are eating.  Be mindful about eating. 

As I continue to search for and create solutions to childhood obesity and diabetes, I always get back to this statement:  You are what you eat.  This is what mindful eating means to me.  When you know where your food was grown and you eat the right amount and kind of foods, and you enjoy what you eat, things start rebalancing themselves.

For me, mindful eating begins on Saturday mornings when I head over to one of our two Green Markets.  I talk to my friends who happen to be the farmers growing the yellow beets, swiss chards, and Purple Cherokee tomatoes I buy.  I plan my menus around what I just bought.  Then I pair the menus with friends.  This to me is mindful eating.  Quality, not quantity.  Enjoyment, not convenience.  Balance, not greed. 

If we are going to solve the childhood obesity epidemic, we must first take a look at ourselves.   Think about what you eat.  Be mindful of what you eat and how much you eat.  Enjoy what you eat.  You have the power to prevent diseases and obesity if you just think about it. 

Growing Healthy Kids is a movement to halt, reverse, and prevent childhood obesity one child and one garden at a time.  Be part of the solution.  Your children will thank you.

Your friend,
Nancy Heinrich
Founder, Growing Healthy Kids

KIDS, DIABETES, OBESITY, AND FIBER

Every day there is a lesson.  It might be a lesson learned, occasionally a lesson taught.  Today's lesson for me was to be fully engaged in serving others. 

Teaching someone about the basics needed to know what to eat after you've been diagnosed with diabetes is a big step forward towards reversing diabetes.  The basics about what an A1C blood test is, what a "serving of carbohydrate" is and looks like, what low blood sugar is and what to do to treat it and prevent it.  Teaching someone what questions to ask their doctor so they can start reversing their diabetes, not just control it. 

Do we continue to roll the rock uphill?   Don't let diabetes be an uphill battle for you and your family.  Learn the facts.  Here's a fun fact to remember:  most Americans eat too little fiber.  Are you one of them?  What about your child?  The goal is 14 grams of dietary fiber per 1,000 calories eaten.  If you eat around 2,000 calories a day, then aim for at least 28 grams of dietary fiber.  If you are a young, active male, you probably need 2,500 or more calories, which translates to about 35 grams or more of dietary fiber a day.  With McDonald's, Sonic, and Five Guys advertising to get us all fat as pigs, it really is an uphill battle sometimes. 

An easy way to get enough fiber every day is to use "The Nancy Rule" for buying and eating bread and pasta. Even if you eat out.  Never heard of "The Nancy Rule"?  It's simple:  Choose breads and pastas that have 4 or more grams of dietary fiber per serving AND the first ingredient includes the word "whole".  Commit to this one change and see what happens to your blood sugar.   Funny thing is that when you replace low fiber-content foods with higher fiber-content foods, you'll eat less and lose weight. 

One of my favorite creations:  Veggie Shepherd's Pie

Key ingredient in my Veggie Shepherd's Pie:  chick peas

I think that all families with children need to know that this simple fact - and others - can guide them to keeping their kids well for life.  We can reverse the childhood obesity epidemic when we all eat smarter, better, and healthier.  Remember, anyone can eat healthy - and economically (more on that later).

Use "The Nancy Rule" for the 7 days and then let me know how you feel.   Talk with you soon,


Nancy L. Heinrich, M.P.H.
Founder of the Growing Healthy Kids movement to reverse childhood obesity in Indian River County, Florida and beyond

For free tips and videos about food and diabetes you can use:  http://www.healthydiabetescoach.com/. 

PS -- The Veggie Shepherd's Pie recipe will be featured in the soon-to-be released first book in  the Growing Healthy Kids' series,