Healthy Life Lessons

Its the last week of summer here before school starts, and there is a lot of anxiety in this house.  Not from the kids though, from me! Big A now has the sleep habits of a teen, and its tough to drag her out of bed before 9am.  Mornings with the girls have always been challenging, but now even more so.  School begins before 9am so Big A will have to start setting her alarm and waking up a lot earlier.  Unfortunately, no matter what time she wakes up, she never moves quickly.  Little A, too, often goofs off and doesn't get her butt in gear, even after I've asked her to get ready a half dozen times.  They often have me losing my shit, particularly if I have a morning client or other commitment.  Getting them out the door in the morning often feels like running through quick sand. Fortunately, both girls are motivated by food.  So the new rule is that they don't get breakfast before absolutely everything is ready - they are dressed, lunches ...

I have admitted my addiction to HGTV home design shows before so you may be surprised to hear that since moving into our home almost 10 years ago, we've done almost no cosmetic work on the interior of the house. Our home is cosy and comfortable.  Its a 1,300 square feet semi, with 600 square feet of finished basement space.  It works well for us...but it could work better.  Because of the insane cost of real estate in Toronto, its doubtful we will ever move, so utilizing every inch of space efficiently is important, especially because adding an addition really isn't an option.  Built in 1998, some elements of the house are now starting to look dated...like the kitchen.  We've actually done a lot of work, but its mostly been functional/eco-friendly changes (new windows and doors, more efficient toilets, tankless hot water heater, etc.). While it would be nice to have a more updated kitchen (I don't want to be those people who do nothing to their hom...

One of the many recent media warnings that has caused confusion about nutrition and health, is the issue of salt intake.  We've always known its not great to overdo it, but then the alarm sounded and we were told that North Americans were eating way way more than is safe, and that we can blame this on many of our chronic health issues. Then we heard that salt isn't actually that bad. So which is it??? Well, from everything I've read, its the high consumption of salt and low consumption of potassium and magnesium.  This should come as no surprise since the vast majority of our sodium intake comes through processed foods, not from the salt shaker.  Essentially, those folks with the highest sodium intake are probably eating the most processed foods, and the least amount of fresh fruits and veggies and whole foods, where you find potassium and magnesium. You see, potassium lowers blood pressure and magnesium lowers risk of Type 2 diabetes.  So the si...

When my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1998, I freaked out.  I thought it was an inevitable early death sentence for both her and I.  Even before then, cancer was always something I feared.  When I heard the news, it was like my almost phobia was being realized.  I experienced extreme anxiety, as well as anger and resentment.  "Why my mother?" "Why me?" I kept wondering.  Feeling a complete loss of control, I decided to research causes and risk factors to see if there was anything my mom could do to increase her chance of survival and what I could do to reduce my chances of getting breast cancer.  Unfortunately, what I found was that so many things had been linked with breast cancer (some which are definite correlates, others which are urban legends), that I ended up hysterical, feeling like the entire world was toxic and basically breast cancer was almost an inevitability for me, and, actually, for almost every woman on the planet....

As I have gotten older, I have become increasingly smitten with all things vegetable and increasingly picky about fruit.  Apples are one of my favorite foods of all times, and I like berries and cherries and citrus.  I love plums and peaches if they are cooked, and besides that...meh! Melons, in particular, which I loved as a kid, just don't float my boat.  The rest of my brood gobbles them down like they are going out of style. Lately watermelon has emerged as a trendy fruit.  Its turning up in savoury dishes at upscale restaurants.  For some reason, this has intrigued me.  I do like sweet/salty/savoury flavour combos.  I finally decided I had to try it for myself.  After all, is there anything better than a refreshing salad in the dog says of summer?  If nothing else, watermelon is super hydrating! As it turns out, I really enjoyed this combination.  Its a great balance of flavours.  The dressing was just my own inventi...

Well hello and happy Monday morning! How was your weekend?  Ours was lovely and a nice balance of family time, errands and fun. I would have preferred, of course, if it hadn't been so hot!  Summer is close to being over, so already the start of school is looming, which means packing lunches and snacks.  If you are a parent, then you are probably always on the lookout for healthy snacks for your kids.  If so, you may want to check out these Zbars from CLIF. We've known about these bars for years since we found them in the U.S., but they're new to Canada.  The girls have always loved them, so when they offered to send some samples, I jumped at the opportunity. We got one of each flavour being offered here: Chocolate Chip, Iced Oatmeal Cookie, and Chocolate Brownie, which was perfect, because the girls hadn't tried these varieties. Big A's favorite was the Chocolate Brownie, while Little A favoured the Iced Oatmeal Cookie.  Both felt it was hard to det...

Just a few more things from the fitness conference last weekend.   First, I saw a demo of Piloxing , which, when I'd first heard about it, I wrote off as some gimmicky thing.  A fusion of boxing and Pilates, really?  I couldn't picture it.  Well, once I saw it, I realized it's pretty cool.  It looks like so much fun!  With all the punching and kicking, its not so different from a lot of the workouts I already do, but its also got a dance vibe and is done to upbeat music.  Hmm, I think next time I am in the mood to buy a new exercise DVD, I might give this a try! I did 2 spinning sessions both focused on interval training, but nothing too new to report there. For the past few years I have been eying the mini trampolines .  I've used them a wee bit in Pilates classes before, but the folks demonstrating the cardio programs using them at CAN FIT PRO every year, just look like they are having such a great time, I really want to try this....