The Hardships of Being 5

#StyleMeJuly challenge Day 27: a la me at 5- y/o

The Hardships of being 5 

Healthy Tip: Eating at 5 isn't easy.  The world is full of so many delicious choices!  Delicious and incredibly unhealthy!  Unfortunately, parents can't put a stop to junk food marketing geared toward children and can't monitor what's going into little Suzie's mouth at school, birthday parties or on play dates.  What you can do is set up good nutrition habits at home.  As a general rule, don't have anything in your home that you wouldn't want your child eating.  How fair is it if you are noshing on cookies at night when they are expected to eat carrots?  Lead by example and set up healthy eating habits early.  It's going to shape their minds (and bodies!) for the the rest of their lives.

Fashionista Wannabe: Dressing at 5 isn't easy either.  When I was 5, I idolized (and still do) my sister who was 9 yrs older and a true child of the 80's.  Her hair impressively filled the entire frame of her 11th grade picture.  Meanwhile, I was stuck in animal prints, neon bright cutesy dresses and forced to sport uncool, flat hair. For today's fashion challenge, I wiped out the blazer, chunky necklace, denim shorts and Ked-like Toms to give me a blast back to the cool big sister style I dreamed of pulling off at 5.

In Molly Ringwald loving health,

Joanie   

Joanie Johnson, CHC

Motivated Nutrition

www.motivatednutrition.net

814-442-5311

"You look like the 4th of July!"

I'm just hoping this doesn't make you want a hot dog reeeeaaaaal bad!  In honor of 4th of July, I'm giving you a few hot doggin' facts. 

• The cities of Los Angeles, San Antonio, and New York consume the most hot dogs by volume every year. * 

• The average American eats 60 hot dogs a year.*  (bleh!)

• According to the National Hot Dog and Sausage council, Americans will consume 150 million hot dogs today.

• Joey Chestnut, 27, 230lbs, holds the Major League Eaters record of eating 68 Nathans Famous Hot Dogs and Buns in 10min.  He's wont the contest 5 yrs in a row.  Check out his impressive Bib Sheet!   

• Other names of for the hot dog include: frankfurter, frank, red hot, wiener, weenie, durger, coney, or just "dog" *

• The Coney Island, Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest began as a duel between four immigrants to determine who was the most patriotic in 1916. 

Me?  Oh no, forget it!  I'm a vegetarian.  I'm not going near them!  Don't over do it at the backyard BBQ and have an amazing time celebrating the 4th today!


In healthy, patriotic love,


Joanie

Joanie Johnson, CHC

Motivated Nutrition

www.motivatednutriton.net

814-442-5311

*Who knows all this stuff?!  
http://www.hot-dog.org/ht/d/sp/i/38579/pid/38579
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_dog
http://fillyourplate.org/blog/hot-dog-facts-and-trivia/
http://nathansfamous.com/PageFetch/

New Yorkers Fight against General Junk and his army of Sugar Soldiers

Last Friday, I held a workshop at PS261 in Brooklyn leading the 1st graders into battle against General Junk and his evil army of Sugar Soldiers.  (Yes, my job IS awesome!)  We learned all about the detrimental effects of sugar on our bodies and how much healthier, stronger and more energetic we are without it.  After 45 min, they were able to tell me that they wanted to drink more water, less soda and wanted their bodies to be healthy and strong.  Ok, so there may have been a little bit of prompting on my part, but they are 7 and able to grasp the basic fundamentals of healthy nutrition. 

My question is, why can't adults do the same?  There has a lot of controversy in the media over Bloomberg's proposed sugar war this week in NYC.  (Read about it here.)  Intelligent adults are in an uproar that he is trying to ban sugary drinks over 16oz.  Do you realize how much sugar is in a 16oz Coke?  7 teaspoons.  Just in case you can't put that into perspective, I measured out 7 tsp for you in the glass above.  The new AHA guidelines recommend a daily maximum of 5 tsp for women, 9 tsp for men, and 3tsp for children.  Maybe the new sugary drink ban should be lowered to 8oz instead of 16. 

Bloomberg is asking New Yorkers to take into consideration the amount of sugar we are putting into our bodies...something we have trouble comprehending on our own.  He also banned smoking in NYC restaurants and put calorie counts on our menus.  Are you going to tell me those were bad ideas?  

When did you last think to yourself upon ordering a "biggie" sized anything, "Oh my!  That's a lot of sugar!"  You didn't.  You won't.  And the ban isn't proposing a limit on how many 16oz sugar loaded drinks you can order.  Most places will probably still give you as many refills as your chemically overloaded body desires.  It just means you have to get up from the table and exercise while walking to the refill station.  Guess what?  When you order a water, they hand you an 8oz cup.  You don't get the option to upgrade.  Ironically the healthier water drinkers take MANY walks back and forth to the refill station while watching all the sugar guzzlers happily gulp away in their zombie-like state.

I'm ranting now.

When a 7yr old can make healthier choices after 45 minutes of battling General Junk's Sugar Soldiers than an adult can make after YEARS of being educated, it tells me we can no longer use the excuse we don't know any better.  The media warns us everyday about the effects of sugar, fat, high calories, etc.  Granted, they are enticing us with high fructose corn syrup dripping from an over sized bacon burger during the commercial break, but it doesn't give us the right to play the victim.  Our society just doesn't want someone else telling us our lifestyle choices are wrong.  

You can be angry and spout sugar comma induced comments, but I'm fighting for your well-being! Instead of complaining against Bloomberg's new ban because it's an "infringement" of human rights, remember that you can still drink as many 16oz bottles of sugary soda as you please.  There's no harm in bringing an awareness to the public. 

Now stop being angry and go drink a glass of water!  

Healthy hugs,

Joanie

Joanie Johnson, CHC

www.motivatednutrition.net

joanie@motivatednutrition.net