Simple Tips to Healthy Lifestyle

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As you all know, this year we are focusing on a campaign about being healthy, especially for urban Mama. It has been a a year long campaign that we have been transforming ourselves to a better and healthy mom, injecting the healthy virus around the forum and to all our members.

But what is healthy means, really?

Many would probably say that being healthy means that we just don't get sick easily. That's true, absolutely true. But that doesn't mean just because genetically you don't fall sick easily, you should no take seriously about going out there and do some workouts. Being healthy and fit means striking the right balance between healthy eating and regular physical activity. And for a long-term healthy lifestyle, you will need to find a consistency to balance this out. Start now if you haven't, and let the kids pick up the habits. They will appreciate it as they grow older.

Here are a few simple tips to help you and your children live a healthier life:

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• Prepare dishes that are low in fat and sugars. Buy low-fat milk, yogurt and cheese, as well as cereals low in sugar. Also, try baking or grilling dishes like fish and poultry, instead of frying them. Extreme diet may not be necessary, you should be aiming for balance-diet instead.


• Keep an eye on portion sizes. Serve smaller portions to avoid overeating. If the kids want more, they can ask for a second portion. Also, avoid making children eat everything on the plate if they say they are full.


• Turn the TV off and go outside. Put electronic devices away for a moment and go to the park, ride a bike, run or walk. Children should engage in moderate physical activities for 60 minutes a day.


• Get enough sleep. A recent study found that a child is 9% less likely to be overweight or obese for every additional hour of sleep he or she gets each night. Children who are five yeras or younger need 11 hours of sleep per day; children between 5 and 10 need 10 hours per day; and children older than 10 need nine hours of sleep.

Speaking of sleep, we have discussed plenty of it in the forum on baby's sleeping hours. As adults and parents, we tend to lose some sleep but yet expected to function day to day nonetheless. There are many myths that we took as a fact and live on it. Here are a few of them:

Myth 1:  Getting just one hour less sleep per night won’t affect your daytime functioning.
You may not be noticeably sleepy during the day, but losing even one hour of sleep can affect your ability to think properly and respond quickly. It also compromises your cardiovascular health, energy balance, and ability to fight infections.

Myth 2:  Extra sleep at night can cure you of problems with excessive daytime fatigue.
The quantity of sleep you get is important, sure, but it’s the quality of your sleep that you really have to pay attention to. Some people sleep eight or nine hours a night but don’t feel well rested when they wake up because the quality of their sleep is poor.

Myth 3:  You can make up for lost sleep during the week by sleeping more on the weekends.
Although this sleeping pattern will help relieve part of a sleep debt, it will not completely make up for the lack of sleep. Furthermore, sleeping later on the weekends can affect your sleep-wake cycle so that it is much harder to go to sleep at the right time on Sunday nights, hence, Monday morning becomes so dragging.

Ahhh.. that explains it! That's why I used to hate Monday so much! Well, I still hate it, just not because it's dragging, but because it means I have to be away from my babies again. The 'pain' of a working mama :)