Mommy Knows Best

This week's Fitbuzz- Health trend is about Probiotics. When the word "Bacteria" is uttered, people have the tendency to think the worst. In fact, a coughing kid can have  grown adults running for cover!

Pay one dollar per person for an awesome day in the Lost City of Atlantis (Parking is free)!

Let's go hiking!! Hiking with your kids can be an absolutely amazing experience to enjoy together. Here are a few thoughts about hiking together as a family:

Another one of  Orange County's hidden gems for my readers and their little ones...

Pioneer Road Park in Tustin (10250 Pioneer Rd, Tustin Ca 92782)

Today Ryu, my stepson Rocke, and I recently visited Pioneer Road Park in the city of Tustin and it was absolutely amazing!! Where do I start?! Since the temperature is getting up there, I have been trying to hunt for water feature play at our local parks and I think this one takes the cake so far in terms of its  sprinklers, water cannons, and pony water guns! Ryu and Rocke were definitely wowed by this park since they both love cowboys and the whole park's theme has to do with the old pioneer days.. from the western foliage to the covered wagons and stony covered patios.

This park was also great because it forces parents to stay engaged with their little ones because the play grounds are very spread apart and it could be easy to lose sight if your little toddler decides to roam free. Before you know it you'll be running hills, playing hide and seek in covered wagons, and walking your share for the day... what a great workout! 

Summer Fun Perks:

·       Walking Path for Stroller Workouts, or just plain exercise!

·       Basketball Courts

·       Grassy Volley Ball Court Areas

·       Picnicking Patio

·       Swings Galore

·       Covered wagons for "Hide n Seek"

·       Very Clean Restrooms will Koala Care baby changing station

·       BBQ Pit

·       Great Water Play!!

Bummers:

·       Very slippery water play area if your child is not wearing grippy sandals or water shoes -A kid slipped and landed hard on his knee since he was not wearing shoes :(

·       No shaded areas for the water play

Ahhhh.... the warmth of summer! Let this summer be a time to have fun with the family as well as a time to stay active. Tight budget? No worries, I found a few hidden gems in Orange County that my little ball of energy just went nuts over. Each week Ryu and I will be sharing our good times with you all and hopefully you will find some good times here too!

Summer has arrived and keeping the kiddos entertained through the summer has begun as well. Having fun this summer can be a little stressful if you and your family are on a tight budget but hopefully this find will help lessen that stress and turn your family's fun meter up a notch. Since my Mommy blog is all about healthy family choices, this summer fun package also comes with a little calorie burning too! What I found: Harry M. Dotson Park in Stanton. This park is a great find and gem in the rough for sure! My little knucklehead and I visited the park for about 2 hours and enjoyed every minute of summer fun.

Harry M. Dotson Park in Stanton (10350 Fern St., Stanton Ca)

Wow, this park was a great find because of the multiple areas of fun and separate areas of play for little ones and bigger kids! For starters, it's beautiful, kept clean, enclosed, and fun for cowboy and pirate adventures! It is an enclosed park that themes a cowboy saloon for water play and a pirate adventure for dry play. Another great feature for this park is that the wet play area and toddler playgrounds are covered by awnings to protect the kiddos from harsh sun rays. This park is completely free and even provides the kiddos with a free lunch during summer months.

Even though my little guy and I were having a blast, him running through the water play and me trying to catch up with him, I felt like I also got a good workout in too. Having a healthy lifestyle doesn't just have to be about lifting iron in the gym, you can burn calories having fun with the kiddos too.

Summer Fun Perks:

Free Play and Lunch!

Enclosed Play Area

Walking trail along the outer park area

Covered Picnic areas

Wet Saloon Play for Hot summer days (for toddlers and older kids)

Covered Toddler Fort Play Ground

Very Clean

Pirate Ship Play ground with an "X" marks the spot with treasure

Small Rock Climbing walls

Clean Bathrooms

Basket ball courts

Play surface is recycled rubber

Many have heard the term, "You are what you eat!" but have you ever thought that you or your child "is" who you eat with....? Let me clarify that a little more. Sitting at the dinner table together as a family is not just a chance to enjoy each other's company or find out how each other's day went; in fact, it means far more!

According to studies conducted by Harvard Medical School, the odds of being overweight were 15% lower among children who ate dinner with their families on most days and that families that ate dinner together are less likely to eat fried foods and two times more likely to eat their five servings of fruits and vegetables.

What is more, your child's health is not all that's at risk when family dinner is not a regular nightly ritual. A study conducted by Colombia University found that teens from families who almost never eat dinner together are much more likely to use illegal drugs, cigarettes, and alcohol. Another study at the University of Michigan showed that family meal time was the single strongest predictor of better achievement scores and fewer behavioral problems.

Now a days, moms are worrying about getting their kids to their next sporting event or activity, households have more than one parent working, and eating together is a struggle! Eating together is a great way to unify your family, keep your little ones out of trouble, and stay healthy together! Family matters for sure! Children who grow up with a strong sense of family are likely to become solid, healthy adults and sitting down together for dinner or any other occasion is essential to family. Here are 5 ways to include your kids for family meal times:

1. Let them have a day to pick what meal they would like to eat.

2. Let them set the table.

3. let them help prepare the meal.

4. Let them pick a topic to talk about during meal time.

5. Make them responsible for helping clean up.

Mommy can you get me my blankie.. Honey can you stay home for the repair man to fix the ice machine on Tuesday morning.... Sis can you go shopping with me this weekend.. As a mommy, wife, sister, daughter, etc. it's easy to become a one-woman circus act juggling everyone else's needs and forget about yours. I can rightfully say that having a family of your own necessitates definite mental toughness and organization to stay sane when you only have one hour of alone time. So, when life becomes a balancing act suck in your core and get to balancing with these key steps:

1. Start by setting small goals for yourself

When you set goals you hold yourself accountable. For example, instead of saying I would like to lose 15 pounds and lead a healthier lifestyle set weekly goals like exercising 3 times a week and not skipping breakfast in the morning. Setting smaller weekly goals or even daily goals will be easier to feel like you're getting somewhere. Lesson in point: Enjoy life's small victories (Yeah for me! I exercised 3 times this week and I ate a healthy breakfast everyday this week!) .

2. Create a schedule, follow it, and make sure you pencil in alone time!

Yes, yes, yes, creating a schedule and actually following it can seem not just overwhelming but not an option. As a mother to two stepsons and a super active toddler of my own, a wife, and part of a tight knit family my schedule can easily become unwound. It's important to know to keep a schedule but be flexible though. For the most part, organize your everyday tasks day by day and include things you'd like to get done too. Even if you need to, create a check off list. One of the things I think that has helped me the most before I tackle my day is to set time aside for myself every morning. Even if you have to wake up a little earlier than everyone else, you'd be amazed on just how pleasing it is to be able to start the morning exercising, meditating on what you'd like to accomplish in your life's journey, and just enjoy a good cup of coffee by yourself :). Ahhhh the peace and quiet!

3. Exercise and Meditate

According to Michael s. Bahrke and William P. Morgan, from the university of Wisconsin, a study was conducted on seventy five male volunteers to study the effects of exercise and the reduction of anxiety and stress. Conclusion: When you exercise then meditate for twenty minutes, you can significantly reduce your stress and anxiety!

4. Patience is indeed a virtue

When you become more patient with those around you along with yourself, you can identify what really matters. Chinese Proverb: " One moment of patience may ward off great disaster. One moment of impatience may ruin a whole life."

Once in a while, here and there, I wil sit in front of a nice clean white piece of paper, scratch my head, and squint as if the white piece of paper is as bright as the sun's rays while I jot down my accomplishments alongside what I would like to accomplish. It is in my nature to not just dream big but to engulf myself and stretch myself a little thin with goals and accomplishments. I believe that the amount of "Life" we get out of our own lives is dictated by the choices we make. Sometimes the best choices are not the easiest choices and jotting these things on paper helps me crawl out of my comfort zone.

This is how I have become enlightened by the small victories in life. After trying to run after goals as fast as a hamster runs around its wheel again and again, I realized that in order to become truly successful you are required to stop and smell the roses once in a while.

My son helps me with this all the time. For example, I took him to a Mommy and Me Hike and I was trying to get through the hike a keep up with the other mommies in the group and Ryu kept wanting to stop and look at everything. So finally, I quit with the battle between trying to keep up with the other mommies and my little toddler falling to his knees because he wanted to explore the ants. I realized at that point that he is new to this world and even though I've seen ants a million times in my life, he was only beginning.

This was a small and fruitful victory because my son gave me the wisdom to enjoy the little things in life with him. Easier said than done sometimes but it's truly funny how when you stop for a while you discover things you never knew about.  In othre words, enjoy your small victories on the road to your bigger victory!

Many families have rituals that strengthen unique family bonds and they can be as simple as the rituals my family has.. Friday night movie night is one example. Traditions encourage connection between family members and promote a sense of identity and belonging. Because traditions have meaning that is unique to each family in a fun and special setting, they create feelings of warmth and closeness. Traditions also promote a feeling of safety and security within the family by providing a predictable family experience. Family members have something to look forward to with traditions which gives them a sense of assurance in this ever changing and chaotic world we live in. Traditions can be either created by you or handed down from another generation.

So, all in all, make this year's Easter even more memorable by creating family traditions that will not just keep going year after year but help cement family bonds and create fun with your loved ones! Easter this year can mean even more than chocolate bunnies and just another ham dinner. Here are some Easter traditions you can get going this year with your loved ones:

1. Easter scavenger hunt that begins with a letter from the Easter bunny and includes clues for finding special Easter surprises maybe even Easter funnies inside plastic Easter eggs.

2. Family members get make a special dish to share with each other. My step son makes his special mashed potatoes every year which we call, "Rocke's Super Cheesy Mashed Potatoes."

3. Die colorful Easter Eggs together

4. Make Easter crafts together

5. Plant special flowers together to represent new life and that Spring has "Sprung"

6. Select a charity that helps those in need. Decorate a box with an open slot on top and display it where everyone at home will remember to contribute. On Easter empty the box, count the change, and send a check out in the mail to the choice of charity.

7. Everyone wear new Easter outfits on Easter Sunday

8. Place one dozen plastic Easter eggs in a egg carton and fill each Easter eggs with special activities to do together 12 days before Easter. These can be simple activities like kissing each other and saying I love you because...

9. Pray as a family before eating Easter dinner together

10. Take family Easter pictures together that you can bring out each year as an Easter decoration

"Family values are a little like family vacations -— subject to changeable weather and remembered more fondly with the passage of time. Though it rained all week at the beach, it’s often the momentary rainbows that we remember."

Leslie Dreyfous, New York Times, Oct 25, 1992

Many parents obsess over worrying about giving their children sugary foods. With Easter just around the corner the search is on! Mommies and Daddies are scrounging to compile the best Easter baskets their little ones could ever imagine for Easter morning. Magnificent candy munching, squeals of delight, and pure joy awaits with that oh sooo sweet day. So how can you find a happy medium between putting together healthier sensible options and those solid chocolate Easter bunnies without your little ones staging a sugar revolution?

I think that if I ran down the stairs Easter morning in search of what the Easter Bunny had left me and picked up a basket that was absent of any candy at all I would be pretty upset! You can't deprive your kiddos of sugary foods but you can substitute some of those sugary options with these five ideas:

1. Coupons good for: get out of a chore day, pick a family adventure, pick one of your favorite meals....(you get the idea)

2. Candy filled eggs with toy filled eggs (hot wheels and littlest pet shop or make your own)

3. Summer fun: Water balloons, swim trunks, pool toys, sand toys

4. Bubbles ( My son is crazy about bubbles!)

5. Coloring books and crayons

So, all in all, have a happy Easter and include some sweet stuff without the sugar rush!

It's no secret that obesity in the United States is a problem. American society struggles and has become branded by an environment that promotes a sedentary lifestyle with T.V., video games, computers, dishwashers, and microwave ovens to name a few. Complementary to a sedentary lifestyle comes increased food intake and communities oversaturated with drive thru fast food restaurants.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC), during the past 20 years there has been a dramatic increase in obesity in the United States. What is worse, according to the CDC, results from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) indicate that an estimated 17% of children and adolescents ages 2-19 years are obese. Obese children and adolescents are at more risk for health trouble during their youth and as adults. For example, the Bogalusa Heart Study indicated that during their youth, obese children and adolescents are more likely to have risk factors associated with cardiovascular health such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and type 2 diabetes than other children and adolescents. Although there are many contributing factors to adult and child obesity changing a sedentary lifestyle to an active one can reap some immediate benefits!

So how can you and your family get the recommended 1+ hour of daily exercise when it seems like in this new technology driven age, pulling your son or daughter away from Yo Gabba Gabba is like pulling teeth and stepping away from the computer gives you withdrawals? The answer lies in changing your mindset for exercise altogether. It's great to be able to pump some iron and run laps around the track but that requires setting aside chunks of precious time. Ever think that chasing your little one at the park might burn some of those extra calories? That's right, you can choose to have an active lifestyle and choose to have that healthy lifestyle with your kids! So let's rethink exercise and calorie burning while making it a family affair. Below are some family activities to get in that 1+ hour of family exercise and the best part of it all is that you don't have to search far and wide because these are activities that are in your OC backyard!

1)New Life Fitness

A family friendly gym where families can come and workout together, learn about nutrition together, and meet great people while having a blast!

2) Mommy Makeover (but Dads can come too!)

An organization dedicated to promoting healthy families and fun too.

www.meetup.com/hotmommymakeover

3) Go for strolls after you finish eating Dinner

After finishing dinner, take the family out for a brisk walk to catch up on how the day went and keep metabolisms active.

4) Between your family's favorite show sneak in exercise (Commercial Breaks)

Make it a family ordeal to sneak in sit-ups, push-ups, or taking turns for an active game of Simon Says (for example: Simon says jump, or Simon says hop down the hall). You can even dress up the names. For my son I use Nick Jr's, Dino Dan- Dino Dan says run like a dinosaur...

5) On Rainy days you can set up an indoor obstacle course

On rainy days at our house I'll set up an obstacle course where we take turns running, jumping, hopping, and skipping and set a timer to finish. (This can get competitive!)

6) Go to the Park

Our family loves Irvine Regional Park located in Orange! This is a huge park with a lake where you can do all sorts of activities such as feeding the ducks, family paddle boating, walking, hiking, train rides, visit the animals at the zoo, there are even slides and swings!

7) Play sports together

We have a basketball court in front of our house so sometimes after dinner we all play basketball together.

8) Play in the backyard with your dog

My dog Po loves it when we all go out to the backyard to play a game of fetch with him. Not only that, my son goes nuts when I hold him and run while our dog chases after us.

9 ) Play a game of Tag or Hide and Seek

This can be done indoors or outdoors.

10) Go for a family Hike

My family and I love to hike. A great family friendly hike is Oak Canyon Nature Center located in Anaheim Hills.

Eating a healthy breakfast is a great family activity to do together because breakfast is the most important meal of the day especially for growing little ones. ....If you don't believe it, then you will after reading this article! So why eat breakfast? Here are some of the hard facts:

This is Ryu and Po (we named our dog Po from the movie Kung Fu Panda since he is all black with some white patches- he basically looks as if he could be a little panda bear!) at the park yesterday.