10 Quick-Easy-And-Healthy Breakfast to-go ideas!

You have all heard how breakfast is the most important meal of the day, right?  Still some kids don't get a good breakfast in the morning.  It is hard to make time to eat in the morning when you are getting ready to go to work and getting the kids ready for school, along with all the other things you need to get done before you head out the door!  Here is a great post from http://www.superhealthykids.com/ with great ideas for fast, on the go breakfast ideas!

1. Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches.  Erica actually does this quite often. She'll make herself two sandwiches. One for her lunch, and one to eat right away.
2. Frozen muffins.  Prepare and bake muffins on the weekend.  Freeze the entire batch.  Each night set out enough muffins for your family, and they will be defrosted by morning.  Like them warm?  A quick 10 seconds in the microwave and they'll taste like they just came out of the oven.
3. Frozen waffles.  This recipe makes a TON of waffles.  Make them all, and put them in Ziploc freezer bags in the freezer.  Toast these on mornings you want to take a waffle.
4.  Hard boiled egg sandwich.  I ate these every day when I was pregnant.  I always had an egg and bread craving.  I toast two pieces of whole wheat bread. Slice a hard boiled egg and sandwich it between the toast.
5. Overnight oats.  Prepared the night before, this breakfast is supposed to be eaten cold.  Your kids can eat this to-go, but make sure you bring a spoon.
6. Single serving smoothies.  Instead of getting all the ingredients out for your smoothies each morning, prepare a large amount of smoothie once.  Freeze the smoothie in 8 ounce portions, or even a Popsicle mold.  Take out one for each child in the morning. Let it defrost slightly and re-blend, or mix when slushy.
7. Breakfast cookies! Make your favorite granola bar recipe and add loads of dried fruit and nuts, with little sugar.  Shape them into a cookie, rather than in bars.  Your kids might LOVE having cookies for breakfast!
8. Fruit Salad, or fruit kabobs.  These should both be prepared by cutting fruit the night before.  Take a bowl full of fruit salad with Popsicle sticks for stabbing or eating on the go.  Toast or bagels are always delicious with fruit salad.
9. Breakfast burritos.  Spread almond butter and top with honey or bananas on a whole wheat tortilla.  Wrap up and take with you!
10. CEREAL! Isn't this the ultimate fast-breakfast food?  It can be healthy too.  Place 1 cup of whole grain, low sugar, high fiber cereal into sandwich bags.  Add dried fruit and nuts to make it into trail mix.  Take on the road.

The Inspire Millions Challenge!

I read this post today by  Brett Klika CSCS and LOVED it!!  Let's just get up and move.. even a little will go along way!  Know the ingredients in your food.  We can do it!

Inspire Millions Challenge!

Americans are no longer chubby, portly, or overweight.

We are corpulent, obese, and rotund. We don’t move like humans are supposed to move.
We don’t eat like humans are supposed to eat. We are not just merely dying from this plight, we are suffering.
What would happen to a Cheetah if we fed it Cheetos and made it sit idle? It would get sick, it would get depressed It would develop pain, and die.
Why? Because Cheetos are not what Cheetahs are supposed to eat, and sitting idle is not what cheetahs are supposed to do.
As cruel as the above treatment may seem to an animal, many Americans live, embrace, and defend their “right” to this scenario. After all, there is a robust, nearly unchallenged industrial machine to support it. Unchallenged, until now.
This is a call to action.
A much higher calling than sculpting a six-pack, toning thighs, selling gym memberships or slinging miracle supplements.
It’s a call for our society to lift each other up off the couch and move.
It is a call to educate each other to eat food instead of chemicals.
It is a call to INSPIRE MILLIONS to stop suffering and live like humans are designed to live.
You don’t have to be a personal trainer, life coach, or physician to grab a loved one’s hand and say “let’s go for a walk”. How do you know if you are walking fast and far enough? When someone no longer needs to pull you off the couch to go for a walk. You don’t have to be a dietitian, nutritionist, or chef to select food that is actually “food” and not merely a chemically-induced taste. How do you know what “real food” is? The ingredients list should be the food itself. For meat, well, if you know what the animal’s name was prior to being on your plate, it’s probably safe to eat.

We don’t have to be hot, ripped, toned, shredded, sculpted, or beautiful. We need men, women, and children to get off the couch, stop eating poison, and get out of pain. Everyone can contribute. Do something today, right now to change the way you live or INSPIRE someone else to do the same. It may not happen overnight, it may take time. Person by person, household by household, city by city, state by state.
Working together, we can stand up and INSPIRE MILLIONS to be happy, healthy and pain free. After all, that’s how humans are supposed to live.

See more at:
brettklika.com
fitnessquest10.com

Run for Education Time!

Run For Education 
Saturday, May 14, 2011

Join us for the 6th annual Run for Education in St. Ignatius.  There is a 5k and 1.5ish mile fun run/walk. Starts at 10:00am at the high school track.  Day of the race registration and pre-registration check in, starts at 9:00am.  I hope you will join us as this is a great family event that raises money for scholarships for local high school seniors.

5K Registration fee, all ages, unless in stroller (no shirt)------- $10.00 donation (or more if you want to!)

1.5 Mile Registration fee, 13 & over (no shirt) ---------------$10.00

1.5 Mile Registration fee, 12 & under (no shirt) --------------$ 5.00

 

Download REGISTRATION FORM here!

Shirt prices are $12.00, if you want to purchase a shirt separately.  This year, shirts MUST be pre-ordered and will not be ordered after the race. 

**Everybody that pre-registers, will be entered into a separate prize drawing, so get your entries in before day of the race!

29 Healthy Snack Ideas!

I am sure we have all been here... It is 3:30 and the kids are off school and headed home and they are going to be hungry!  You are really trying to feed your family a healthy diet, so you skip the pizza bites and look for a healthy snack.  All of a sudden, your mind goes blank!  You cant think of anything too feed the monstrous appetites that are going to be running through the door any minute!  Here are 29 different healthy snack ideas to help you with that!  Print out the page and stick in on the inside of a cupboard and you will have ideas at your fingertips!

1. 1c. raw broccoli or cauliflower/ 1/4 c. hummus
2. 4 c. light popcorn/1 low fat string cheese
3. 1 sl. w.w. toast/1/4 c. sliced avocado sprinkled with lemon juice
4. 1 apple sliced & sprinkled with cinnamon/2 Tbls. raw walnuts
5. 1/2 c. unsw. applesauce/2 Tbls. raw pecans
6. 1 c. cherry tomatoes/1 low fat string cheese
7. 1 oz. non-nitrate deli roast beef/1 oz. lofat cheese slices/alfalfa sprouts
8. ½ c. warm br. rice/1/2 c skim milk/1 tsp. honey or agave syrup
9. 10 lrg. black or green olives, rinsed/1 oz. lofat cheese
10. 3 rye krisp crackers/1 oz. sliced lofat cheese
11. 1/2 w.w. Eng. muffin/1 Tbls. natural peanut butter (ck the ingredients on the label!)
12. 1 c. berries/ 1/2 c. nonfat yogurt/1 Tbls. non sugar jam
13. 1 med. pear/1 oz. lofat cheese
14. 1 med. orange/ 1/2c. nonfat cot. cheese
15. 1 c. sliced red or green peppers/ ¼ c. hummus
16. ½ c. rinsed black beans/ 1/2 c. lofat cot. Cheese
17. 1 kiwi/1 lofat string cheese
18. ½ toasted pita pocket/ ¼ c. hummus
19. 1 slice sprouted gr. bread/ 1 Tbls. nat. peanut butter/1 tsp. non sugar jam
20. 1 oz. lofat Feta cheese/ 1/2c. unsw.applesauce or sliced peaches
21. 1 slice w.w. bread/1 tsp. lite mayo/1 sliced tomato/1 oz. cheese-broil ‘til cheese is melted
22. 1 scoop unsw. prot. pwd./ ½ c. berries/ ½ c. skim milk/stevia-blend
23. 1 c. Kashi whole gr. puffed cereal/ ½ c. skim milk/stevia
24. 1 hard boiled egg/1 sl. w.w. toast/1 tsp. non sugar jam
25. 1 veggie burger/1 slice tomato/romaine lettuce leaves/mustard
26. 2 large dates/1 Tbls. nat. peanut butter
27. 1/2 lofat, low sugar granola bar/1 Tbls. sunflower seeds
28. 6 oz. can of low sod. tomato or v8 juice/1 wedge light laughing cow cheese/5 w.w. crackers
29. 1/2 c. plain nonfat yogurt/1 Tbls. nat. peanut butter, nuked and stirred into yogurt/1/4 sliced banana

Go to Dustin Maher for more ideas like these!

Kid's Missoula Marathon

I am trying to get the word out to the parents/guardians about this years' Kids Marathon in Missoula!  This is the 5th year the Missoula Marathon has been going and it is such a success!  It has done so well that is has been featured in Runners World, as the Best Overall Marathon and won this years' State of Montana's 2011 Tourism Event of the Year award!  That is amazing achievement for only have been going since 2006!  Included in the Missoula Marathon & Half Marathon, is a Kids Marathon.  Don't worry, kids don't have to run 26.2 miles all at once!  What they do is print out a log sheet and keep track of the miles (or part miles) they run up until July 8.  They will want to run 25 miles by then, and on Saturday, July 9, they finish their marathon with a 1.2 run on the course in Missoula!  It is a great way to break a huge accomplishment into smaller parts!  I would LOVE to see St. Ignatius represented by having lots of kids participating!  Go to Run Wild Missoula for more information!  Also, email me to let me know your child(ren) is participating!

Are you at risk for diabetes?

Do you have diabetes?  Do you really know?  What is your fasting blood sugar reading?  Yesterday, Tuesday, March 22, was Diabetes Alert Day and I thought it would be important to cover a little about this silent epidemic, as it is affecting more and more people everyday, young and old.  Did you know one in three adults are at risk for type 2 diabetes?  And our children are gaining on the adults!  Even more astounding statistics, according to the American Diabetes Association, is there are nearly 26 million children and adults that have diabetes and 79 million more have prediabetes.  It costs over $174 billion dollars a year to treat this disease!   It is hard to believe, isn't it? 

Lets look at some risk factors:

• Are you overweight?
• And do you have a second risk factor such as inactivity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, poor eating habits, smoking, gestational diabetes, or if you are of a certain age, race, gender or if you have a family history of diabetes?

What exactly is diabetes?  It is diagnosed when your fasting blood sugar is 126 mg/dl or above.  Prediabetes is if your fasting blood sugar is between 100-126 mg/dl.

Some signs of diabetes: 
Type 1 (insulin dependent)

• Frequent urination
• Unusual thirst
• Extreme hunger
• Unusual weight loss
• Extreme fatigue and Irritability

Type 2 (insulin and/or pills for medication)

• Any of the type 1 symptoms
• Frequent infections
• Blurred vision
• Cuts/bruises that are slow to heal
• Tingling/numbness in the hands/feet
• Recurring skin, gum, or bladder infections

*Often people with type 2 diabetes have no symptoms! 

How do we help prevent or delay diabetes?  You should increase your physical activity.  Gradually at first, if you are new at it, and try to aim for at least 30 minutes per day, five days a week.  If you are overweight, start to work on losing weight.  The good news, you don't need to drop a huge amount of weight to start seeing positive changes!  Make a goal of losing 5-10% of your current weight to start getting the health benefits. 
Also, start eating healthier by reducing your portion sizes (Americas portion sizes are out of control!), and eating a diet with low saturated and trans fats and low in calories.  Easy way to do that? Fill the majority of your plate with veggies! 

Take this risk test provided by the American Diabetes Association to see if you are at risk for prediabetes.  If you suspect you may be prediabetic or diabetic, see your doctor right away to get on a plan.  If you don't think you are, see your doctor anyway, just to make sure! Remember, most Type 2 diabetics don't even know it until it is almost too late!

For more information visit http://www.diabetes.org/

Are you getting enough color?

Sorry I haven't gotten to post anything lately!  We just got back from a trip to California and Arizona that was about 3 days too long! :)  As I was at Disneyland, walking around, I noticed how the majority of people are truly overweight!  The statistics are right, 63.1% of adults in the U.S. were either overweight or obese in 2009, according to the latest Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index.  It was quite represented at Disneyland and also in the majority of the towns/cities we visited in California and Arizona.  Scary stuff.  I immediately put me and my family on a junk food detox and a healthy eating and exercising plan.  It will start tomorrow, so we will see how it goes over when I break the news tonight! 

Everybody, now and again, needs to look at their eating habits and notice if they are getting enough veggies in their diets.  I linked a great article about "taking the color challenge".  Check it out and see if you are getting enough color in your diet.  And no, a bag or four, of pink cotton candy does not count!

Click here to read about getting enough color in your diet!