Some children can’t wait to grab a ball and start shooting hoops or whizz off at speed as soon as you mention the words bike ride, but others need a little more persuasion to embrace physical activity. Exercise is hugely beneficial for adults and children and it can boost both physical and mental health. If you’re struggling to get your kids off the sofa, here are some tips to increase activity levels. 

Make exercise part of your routine

Most parents can’t wait to spend quality time with their children on the weekends. If you tend to gravitate towards movie nights, or your kids enjoy playing video games or chatting with their friends online, try and get into a routine as a family that enables you to hang out while being active. Plan a long walk and take a picnic, go for a bike ride or take a football or a frisbee to the beach or local park. You could also try rock climbing, swimming, kayaking and trampolining.

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Find a balance

If your children aren’t naturally sporty, or they don’t take an interest in physical activity, it’s important not to force them to spend all their time doing things they don’t enjoy. Find a balance when planning your time, and enable them to combine existing hobbies with new activities. It’s a great idea to introduce new sports and to adapt interests they already have to try and increase activity levels and ensure they have fun at the same time. If they’re not into soccer or baseball, for example, you could try golf, tennis, cycling, badminton, surfing or dancing. 

Look into team sports and local clubs

Many communities have sports and clubs that offer kids the chance to get involved, try new things and meet new friends. Sometimes, you can access activities that aren’t available at schools, and clubs can also tailor coaching to suit the individual. If your children are keen to join a team, ask neighbors, other parents at school and colleagues for recommendations and look for details online. Before you begin, make sure your child has the right kit. Some sports are dangerous, and they carry a risk of injuries, such as broken bones and concussion. Research shows that 283,000 children visit emergency rooms with traumatic brain injuries every year. To protect your child, it’s crucial to make sure they have a good coach and to invest in the relevant equipment, for example, a helmet. Your child’s coach will be able to provide advice about where to buy kit, and they can also give you information about the risks involved. In the vast majority of cases, the benefits of being active far outweigh the risks. 

Make exercise fun

Some children grow up thinking that exercise is a chore. If your kids don’t enjoy physical education classes, they’re probably not going to be ecstatic when you suggest doing something active on the weekends. Try and make exercise as fun as possible. Do things together as a family, play games and try to find activities that suit your child. Some kids like to be around others, while some prefer their own company. For those who like to fly solo, why not try martial arts or activities like canoeing, archery, swimming, cycling or gymnastics?

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Being active is beneficial for adults and children. If you’re keen to boost your activity levels, hopefully, these tips have given you inspiration. 

We need to talk about the big C. The word we use in hushed tones. The thing that we’re always worried about, even in the midst of a global pandemic. We’re talking of course about cancer. It’s understandable that many of us are loath to talk or even think about this dread disease. If we have a history of cancer in our families, we may feel especially sensitive about cancer. Not only will we have seen its effects on someone we love first hand, we may also have a nagging worry that it’s only a matter or time until we face our own battle with cancer.

Image by Marijana1 via Pixabay

Yet, while cancer is a genetic disease, that doesn’t mean that our fates are encoded in our DNA. Cancer is by no means an inevitability. Here we’ll look at what you can do to decrease your risk factor and live a happy, healthy life. 

Understanding is the first step towards protection

In order to reduce our risk of cancer, we must get out of the habit of burying our heads in the sand and accepting it as an inevitability. We need to educate ourselves and sort out the facts from the myths. We need to ask “what is cancer?”, “what causes cancer cells to spread?” and What makes the difference between a healthy cell and a cancerous one”? The better we understand the problem, the better placed we are to prevent and mitigate it. 

While of course we have no cure for cancer yet, there are ways in which we can prevent and mitigate it. Starting with avoiding the following...

Alcohol and tobacco

It goes without saying that carcinogens like cigars and cigarettes (the jury’s out on vaping) are strongly linked to an increased cancer risk. Moreover, those who regularly drink alcohol to excess often experience an increased risk of a range of cancers including breast, throat, liver and colorectal. 

Processed foods

Processed foods are high in sugar, salt and saturated fats, all of which are known to trigger the body’s inflammatory response and increase our risk of not only cancer but other chronic diseases like heart disease and diabetes. Moreover, processed meats like ham, sausage, bacon and salami have been identified by the World Health Organization as Type 1 carcinogens. While a slice of bacon isn’t quite as risky as a pack of cigarettes, it’s safe to say that any carcinogen should be avoided.

Fresh wholefoods like fruits, veggies, grains and pulses on the other hand are packed with cancer-fighting phytochemicals as well as vitamins and minerals. Pack plenty of these onto your plate and cleaning up your diet is easier than you might think. 

Sedentary behaviour

Finally, if your job and lifestyle confine you to a chair for the vast majority of the day, this may also increase your risk of cancer (as well as diabetes, heart disease and digestive problems). Some studies show that a sedentary lifestyle directly correlates with a risk of cancer while an active lifestyle including plenty of exercise has proven effective in combating it. While sitting may not quite be “the new smoking” we all owe it to ourselves to do less of it.  

Most of us find it hard to lose weight at some point. Maybe we’ve overindulged on holiday, or we’ve got a special occasion coming up. Whatever your reason is for wanting to get rid of those extra pounds, getting started can be difficult. There are hundreds of people claiming to have the secret to weight loss, or recommending products that can help. Sometimes, these can be far from helpful. However, we’ve had a look at the best ways you can motivate yourself and start seeing results. We all love to make our own Snickerdoodle Bread but we also need to know how best to keep fit when we do overindulge! 

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Move more and lose more

We all know that we should be getting at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week. It can be difficult to get started on a plan that works for you, but don’t despair. If you are going to use the gym, then find out if you’ll be better suited to classes or the gym itself. If you don’t have a workout buddy, classes are a great way to stay motivated and push yourself. There are so many different ones on offer that you’re bound to find one that suits you. Go swimming, go for a walk, or a hike or even buy a bicycle, the options are endless if you really want to lose that weight and get fit. Losing weight does not mean starving yourself, it means balancing life.

Go green

Drinking green tea is an easy way to get your metabolism going. Research has shown that green tea drinkers burn an extra 70 calories a day vs. non-drinkers. It also helps you get your daily water intake, which is great when you are embarking on a healthy regime. It has also been linked to lower cancer risks and improved brain power, as well as having many other health benefits.

Watch out for calories in any of your drinks! 

If you enjoy going for a coffee at lunchtime, stop and consider the calories in your cup. If you have full-fat milk and chocolate, you’re adding unnecessary calories to your drinks. You won’t register it in the same way you would a bowl of pasta, for instance, but it will soon show up on the scale. The same goes for sugary soda drinks and alcohol. If you switch to sugar-free or lower calorie alternatives, you’ll soon notice the difference. You can still enjoy your food, some delicious porter and york meats or even your favourite chocolate bar! 

Don’t skip your meals - vital tip! 

If you think by missing breakfast, you’re going to lose weight faster then think again. When your body thinks food is in short supply, it slows down your metabolism to conserve energy. Over time, this leads to a body that becomes slower at using calories for fuel and results in extra pounds. If you find you can’t find time for breakfast, then make sure you have an energy bar or a piece of fruit with you to keep you from going hungry.

Do you constantly find that you have a jam-packed schedule? This could even be true at the weekend when things should be more relaxed. It’s not uncommon for parents to face this problem. Right now a lot of people are in lockdown and you might have heard from friends and family members about how they have nothing to do and basically an empty day. But that might not be the case for you. You could be homeschooling your kids while working from home and keeping the house in good order which is more difficult when most people are in through the day. So, let’s look at how to manage a busy schedule the right way. 

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Set A Schedule

It seems simple but a lot of people forget this step completely. Instead, they try to manage their day without planning everything out. It can be highly beneficial to take some time and actually write down your schedule so you know what you need to get done through the day. For instance, you might have both personal and business goals. If you ensure that these are measurable, then you can write them down and this will tell you how productive you have been through the day. 

Start With Exercise 

You might want to think about exercising at the start of the day. The benefit of doing this is that you will be able to make sure that you are able to kick your body into high gear and be filled with energy. This should get you through any trials or tribulations that you may face, particularly before the afternoon. You should also make sure that you avoid drinking coffee in the morning. A lot of people think that coffee wakes you up, but this isn’t technically true. Coffee actually impacts your natural mechanism for waking up and causes you to rely on an artificial one. It can completely alter your sleeping pattern which is the last thing you want. 

Take Shortcuts  

You might also want to think about taking shortcuts to ensure that you have more time throughout the day. Obviously, it’s important that you do eat healthily to ensure that you keep your energy levels high and your body in the right shape as well as your mind. However, this can be difficult when preparing food takes so much time. That’s why you might want to think about using a food preparation delivery service. There are numerous possibilities like this available on the market and you might want to consider the benefits of Blue Apron vs Home Chef. 

Breathe

Finally, you do need to make sure that you are staying calm and this can be quite difficult. Particularly, if your schedule is overwhelming. The trick is to take a little time for yourself through the day. Make sure that you find a way to relax and unwind. 

We hope this helps you find some great ways to manage a busy schedule more effectively and ensure that you are getting the most out of your day. In doing so, you can make sure that you don’t feel overly stressed and you do keep a high level of productivity. 

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It's not always easy being a parent, especially when our children become teens, and they start to act out in difficult and unusual ways because of their growing independence and fluctuating hormones. 

Thankfully, we can learn as we go along, and while we might make mistakes, we can try to make up for them later. We can benefit from the advice of other parents too, as well as parenting podcasts that can bolster our learning. 

However, it's important to remember how fragile our teens are. It's important to remember that our words can wound them, affect their self-esteem, and cause them to act out. So, while we will sometimes say things we later regret, it's useful to know what these things might be at an early so we can stop saying them. By doing so, we can protect our teens and our relationship with them now and in the future.

Here are three things you should stop saying to your teen.

#1: It's not that bad

When your teen comes to you with a problem, you might be tempted to say, 'it's not that bad." But while the problem might not seem bad to you, for your teen, it could seem like the end of the world. You see, there are problems teenagers experience that, for them, are very serious. It could be something to do with their grades, with their attempts to fit in at school, or with a negative word somebody had said to them when they were sitting in the dinner hall. Minor things to us can be exaggerated for our teens, and these can lead to feelings of stress, depression, and teen anxiety. So, don't minimize how your teen is feeling. Listen to them, try to understand their concerns, and try to support them if they need that extra help.

#2: Why can't you be more like…

Our teenagers are never going to be perfect. They will sometimes do and say things they shouldn't, and they will sometimes struggle within certain aspects of their lives. When we aren't happy about the way our teens are behaving or performing, we might compare them to ourselves or to others, and set our teens standards that we want them to follow. But here's the thing. Teens already compare themselves to others, especially at school, so their self-esteem is already a little rocky. So, when you compare your teen to others, you might compound their feelings of worthlessness. 

And here's another thing. Your teen is unique and special, and that is a good thing. While it's okay for you to correct their behavior, you should think twice before pushing your teen to be something they're not. Instead, you should honor their individuality and help them to express that in positive ways.

#3: Because I said so

As a parent, you're perfectly in your right to protect your teen. But if you're going to lay down a rule, and if you're going to stop your teen from doing something, explain why. The response of 'because I said so' is only going to get their back up and that might cause friction between you. Instead, talk to your teen, share your worries and concerns, and explain the worldly dangers that you want your teen to avoid. 

Thanks for reading!

When it comes to your appearance, it is never too late. Even if you feel like you’re over the hill and well on your way into middle-aged obscurity, there are still plenty of ways that you fight back. 

There are no quick fixes for authentic beauty. But there are ways that you can turn back the clock and get the look you’ve always wanted. Here’s how to radically overhaul your appearance in six months or less. 

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Boost Your Skin Antioxidant Levels

If you look at the skin of a person who eats a regular western diet under the microscope, you find that it is pretty much devoid of dietary antioxidants. But when you compare it to somebody who eats plenty of beans and greens, you see the opposite. Their skin is teeming with the stuff. 

Antioxidants in the skin are essential for a couple of reasons. The first is that they help protect it from damage, supporting collagen production, and fighting off the harmful rays of the sun. The second is that antioxidants in food actually help the skin to shine more. People who eat a healthy diet tend to have a beautiful, natural glow, caused by all the pigments in the foods that they eat. 

Clean And Straighten Your Teeth

The next thing to do is focus on your teeth. Some people are lucky enough to be born with straight teeth. But many of us are not. What’s more, as we get older and our guns recede, crookedness becomes even more apparent. 

Dentists at orthodontistemontreal.com, however, point out that people don’t have to live with their natural teeth if they don’t want to. There are now all kinds of options, including Invisalign, that can quickly correct the appearance of their smile, often in six months or less. Straight teeth not only make you feel more confident, but they also reduce your chances of tooth loss and decay in the future. 

Take Up A Physical Activity That Helps You Feel Less Stressed

Here’s a fact that will increase your anxiety levels: being stressed makes you age faster. Sadly, evidence continues to accumulate every day that how we feel in our daily lives impacts the rate at which we age. People who care for elderly relatives, for instance, see a shortening in their telomeres - the caps that protect their DNA. The shorter these are, the less time that they can expect to live. 

Taking up physical activity, however, helps you to fight back against this process and improve the health of your body in a fundamental way according to ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. By exercising, you can reduce the amount of stress that you experience and replace it with something positive that boosts your health. 

Stop Eating Junk And Drinking Alcohol

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Sorry to be a party pooper, but if you want to improve your appearance in six months, you need to give up all the junk food - and the prosecco. 

Alcohol is damaging to skin because it harms the capillaries that provide it with nutrients. And junk food causes massive inflammation under the surface of the skin, making it look red and blotchy. 

You’ve finally decided to embrace the sustainable side of life and grow your own food. Congratulations! It’s an exciting time to start your garden. If like many other families, you are going into lockdown and self-isolation, gardening can be the best thing to do to support your local healthcare community. Indeed, if you can eat the food that comes from your garden, you are less likely to need to make frequent visits to the shops. As a result, at-home gardeners are less likely to become spreaders, and that is a good thing. 

Except that you’ve had that fantastic vision of growing fresh and juicy tomatoes and zucchinis, but you have no idea how to cope with the needs of a garden. What do you actually have to do to make the most of your veggie plot? 

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Gardening is so stressful

You have to prepare the soil before planting. You need to remember to water your veg every day or every other day – depending on the weather. Besides, looking after your precious plants is a lot of work. Oh my God, you say, have I bitten more than I can chew? 

Don’t panic. Yes, gardening means being active and organized in the garden. However, it doesn’t have to be stressful. In fact, gardening sits right on top of the list of the most relaxing DIY hobbies. Why so? Because it’s a great way of doing something productive in your spare time.

Additionally, there’s a tremendous sense of reward when you can finally harvest your veggies. Approach the task with an open and curious mind so that you can learn from it. You can also repurpose some of your DIY skills. For instance, if you enjoy woodwork, you can build an organic compost bin. If you love journaling and lettering, why not create signs for your plot? 

What do I do with all my veg?

When you’re used to cooking meat or fish or a meat-free alternative at almost every meal, it can be daunting to cook without a main source of protein. But here are some more vegetarian meal prep ideas that can help you to find peace in the kitchen. You can combine your harvest into a delicious cauliflower taco bowl, for instance. Success guaranteed! Everybody loves taco bowls, and your family will not even notice the absence of meat. Introducing more vegetables into your diet is easy if you’re willing to think creatively. 

I’ve got far too much! 

You only needed one zucchini today. But you’ve picked almost a dozen in the garden. What are you going to do with those? There are only so many storage tips you can use. Ultimately, if you don’t cook your fresh zucchini soon, they’re going to rot. However, you can find ways to preserve them using these ideas. You can blanch your greens and freeze them safely for later use. Additionally, you can also can most vegetables in a glass jar, ready for winter. 

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Growing your veggies for the first time is exciting. There is so much you can do! However, if you don’t want to lose your cool, you need to approach your veg garden with a strategic mind, making the most of the space and the harvest.