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Early studies showed fat was the culprit for high cholesterol and plaque buildup in arteries, but the real villain in this case is sugar. Sugar is responsible for so many health conditions, not to mention lots of fillings and dental work. If you find your child gets unruly after eating sweets, it’s another good reason to get your kids off sugar and find ways to make eating healthy a treat.

Getting your child to eat healthy may not be easy, but it’s worth it.

Check the labels on the food you serve. Often sugar is one of the top ingredients. That doesn’t mean you’re out of danger. Manufacturers got wise to that type of shopping and instead of using one type of sugar, they use several types of sweeteners so all of them are further down on the list and you don’t know just how much sugar there is in the food. What’s the best way to fight this and make sure you control the sugar? Make the food yourself. Some people make a menu and shopping list one night, shop the next and cook the week’s meals, plus a few extra to freeze for later, on the weekend. That way, you don’t have to spend the time shopping or worrying whether sugar is hidden.

What your child drinks is just as important as what he or she eats.

Are you giving your child soft drinks? If so, stop!!! It’s nothing more than sugary flavored bubble water that’s high in calories. Fruit drinks are just as bad, since most only contain a little juice and lots of extra sugar. Even real fruit juice is high in sugar and can cause a spike in blood sugar, since the pulp/fiber in the whole fruit actually slows it. What’s the best option? Plain water is good, but if you want to make it fancy, make it fruit infused water with fruit slices in it. Kids love it.

Snacks without added sugar don’t have to be difficult to create.

Who doesn’t love a slice or two of apple with some chunky natural peanut butter. A bag of homemade trail mix is also good. Get some small snack size bags and put individual servings of mixed nuts in the bag for another healthy snack. Whether it’s young kids or teens, a bowl of fruit that’s already cut up is just an invitation for snacking. Slice up a watermelon or cantaloupe and set out a bowl so it’s ready for snacking.

• Joining your kids in giving up sugar is a great idea. Did you know that too much sugar speeds up the aging process? That can’t make any adult happy!
• Your children will be healthier when you reduce the amount of added sugar in their diet. Sugar negatively affects the immune system and lead to more illness and infections.
• Sugar negatively affects cognitive thinking. One study shows that when sugar was removed from children’s diets at one New York school, the academic ranking went up 15.7%.
• Don’t worry if your child eats some cake and ice cream at a birthday party occasionally, just don’t have it as a constant part of their diet. We have loads of recipes to help cut back on sugar.

For more information, contact us today at Evolution Lifestyle Fitness

I love the fact that we have something for everyone at Evolution Lifestyle Fitness in Raleigh, NC, whether the person is six or sixty. You can get the kids involved, while also working out yourself and bringing an aging parent in for exercise that can help keep them more independent. Our online fitness program can make it even easier to keep the family fit. Fitness should be a family affair. That scheduled workout and healthy meals can prevent long hours spent at the doctor’s office, while creating a family bond that lasts for years.

Healthy meals can be created by everyone in the family.

Today, meals are often eaten on the run or in the car or food is brought home in cartons and consumed in front of a television or computer. You can change all that and still have plenty of time. Kids can learn how to eat healthier and even help you create healthy meals on the weekend that are warm up ready during the week when it’s lunch or dinner time.

Kids can help and it makes healthy eating more fun.

If you want kids to snack healthier, make sure there are nutritious snacks available. Even younger children can help make snacks for the day or week. Ants on a log, celery stuffed with peanut butter that’s topped with raisins, is the perfect example of a snack kids can help make. Even a five year old can put those “ants” onto the log and add to the healthy snack. Older kids can help with all the food preparation and even provide some great ideas for healthy and delicious meals.

Keeping active can mean family fun time.

Kids learn what they live. If you and your family spend free time being active. Taking family hikes, biking, roller blading and even shooting hoops together will not only create a firm foundation for an active lifestyle, it will help make family memories that last a lifetime. Even working out together can be fun. You’ll not only be helping your children, you’ll be helping yourself in the process, too.

• It’s not easy to be a parent today. There are often a lot of demands on your time. Whether working out together or preparing healthy meal options, doing it with the children can make give you quality kid time and be a great teaching moment.
• Whether your teen is an athlete or not, he or she will benefit from a program of exercise. It helps build the body, while boosting confidence.
• Studies show that children who exercise regularly have improved cognitive skills and behavior that helps them both in and out of the classroom.
• At Evolution Lifestyle Fitness, your whole family can get one free private personal training session or a full week of group training. Take advantage of the opportunity and experience it yourself.

For more information, contact us today at Evolution Lifestyle Fitness

Our children in Raleigh, NC, aren’t getting enough sleep. It’s an epidemic that first hit the adult population and now has invaded the young. It’s especially important for the student athlete or physically active young person that wants to succeed in their sport and is often the key to a winning performance. When you sleep, part of the brain and body is extremely active and the jobs done during REM sleep makes a difference both mentally and physically.

A recent poll found that 87% of America’s teens are sleep deprived.

There’s a lot of reasons teens are sleep deprived. Sometimes, it’s just the schedule. As teens move through puberty, their circadian clock makes a shift and they get sleepier later. Since school starts just as early and they can’t get the sleep they need. Smart-phones and electronic devices play a role, too. Making your child put down his or her smart phone an hour before bed ensures they’ll get approximately 21 more minutes of sleep. The busy life schedule with sports, social commitments and even the internet can keep a teen awake. Too much light in the bedroom from TV, cell phones and computers reduce the amount of melatonin, the sleep chemical in the brain. Even the attitude toward sleep, where being active is valued higher than sleeping and some sleep disorders can add to a cycle where the lack of sleep causes the teen to be more active and less apt to fall asleep.

Both young children and teens suffer when they’re sleep deprived.

You can understand how children or teens might have a difficult time waking up in the morning when they’re sleep deprived and probably already know they’re prone to hyperactivity and a short attention span. There’s a noted lack of coordination and clumsiness, which isn’t good for the student athlete. If you notice your child has more frequent colds and infections or problems with memory, anxiety or depression he or she could be sleep deprived. Many of the same symptoms are true in teens, but add to that poor decision-making, risk-taking behavior and slower reflexes.

The performance of teen athletes also suffers.

Whether it’s trying to decide whether to run with the ball or pass or focusing on the direction of the tennis ball, lack of sleep can jeopardize the performance on and off the field of a student athlete. One study shows that it definitely affected the ability to make split-second decisions. Lack of sleep also can slow post-game recovery time by decreasing the production, contribute to low energy and production of glycogen and affect speed, accuracy and endurance.

• Adequate sleep is just as important as working out and healthy eating for the student athlete.
• Studies show that teens may need even more sleep than younger children, whose requirements average 9 hours and 15 minutes a night, even though maturity allows their body and mind to remain alert later into the night.
• Sports greats Serena Williams and Lance Armstrong both focus on getting more sleep. Armstrong endorses it on his website and Williams notes she goes to bed at around 7 p.m.
• At Evolution Lifestyle Fitness we can help get your student athlete ready for the peak performance.

For more information, contact us today: evolutionlifestylefitness.com

There are lots of different skills required for athletics. While your kid may seem to be the most nonathletic individual you’ve ever met, there may be a hidden athlete under that veneer. All children take time to mature and develop. While they may not be athletic right now, that doesn’t mean that they can’t develop strength, endurance, flexibility and balance. Those are all the traits necessary for an athlete.

How do you define an athlete?

While not all parents look to their child to be the natural athlete that could make a pro football team without much training, being an athlete is more than that. It’s developing the mind and the discipline to become good at an endeavor that requires physical prowess. Athleticism can be defined many ways. It might be the ability to catch a ball, outrun a tackle or sink a basketball. It can also be the ability to run great distances, lift heavy loads and ride a bike faster than another. Every child has the ability to participate and do their best in some athletic capacity.

It’s determination, desire and direction that makes an athlete.

Learning to set goals and being held accountable for achieving them is one of the biggest benefits of becoming an athlete, but also one of the pre-qualifications for continuous superior athletic performance. Athletes love what they’re doing, often because they were good at it. Boosting a child’s belief in their abilities, providing them with a program to develop fitness and making it fun can help any child be more athletic.

Exercise can improve strength, endurance, flexibility and balance, plus so much more.

With practice and active participation the neural pathways in the brain develop to improve the body in a number of ways. It improves hand-eye coordination and other motor skills, but it also boosts cognitive thinking, problem solving, focus and other essential mental functions. It boosts the size of the hippocampus, which is directly involved with memory and learning, while also aids in the development of new brain cells. Even if a child is never a pro athlete, he or she will benefit from a program of regular exercise.

• A shy child can get a boost of self-confidence and self-esteem from participating in a program of regular exercise.
• While it might not produce an Olympic athlete, a program of regular exercise can improve social relationships and teamwork.
• No matter what a person’s age—regular exercise can help reduce anxiety and depression. It’s a great outlet for reducing stress, even for children.
• Early training in physical fitness can lead to a lifelong goal of healthy living and put your child on a path of good health.

You can build memories and help develop a love of fitness by exercising with kids on vacation. Does that mean you’re actually going to do jumping jacks at the rim of the Grand Canyon or have everyone drop and give ten visiting the nations capital? Absolutely not. It means you plan an active vacation, even if it is a staycation. Find ways to include things that are active and help build endurance, strength, flexibility or balance.

There’s an opportunity to double the benefit of an active vacation, getting ready for it and the vacation itself.

Are you going to Disney World or other big amusement park. That takes energy to walk the whole day. If that’s one of your vacation plans, use it to help your kids get fitter. It takes a lot of walking to see the parks and enjoy each minute there. Being tired and cranky can spoil everything. Start nightly walks and extend them until they last an hour. Over the weekend, consider visiting local parks, conservation areas and walking trails to build their endurance. When you let the kids know what you’re doing, it not only builds enthusiasm, it makes them want to get into shape.

Pack up the bikes and enjoy some freewheeling at a national park.

Taking a biking vacation is a fun way to get exercise where biking isn’t risky. Bike paths in most parks, both local and national, don’t require the vigilance it takes when biking on local roadways. It can be fun and relaxed without the stress of worrying about oncoming cars. Pack healthy snacks and meals to eat along the way and it’s the perfect healthy vacation.

Hiking through wooded areas can be quite rigorous.

There are many areas for hiking. Some of those are for the novice and some for the advanced. Again, getting ready for the trip can be part of the experience. Get maps of hiking trails and revue them with the kids. Some will be more difficult or longer. Review the trails with the kids and if they choose a more difficult trail, it’s perfect for training to get ready for them.

• Kayaking and rafting can be an active vacation that will exhaust everyone. It doesn’t matter whether you’re fit or not, spending a day on the water fighting the current is exhausting, but so much fun.
• Swimming and water sports can be both fun and active. Even though you might want to envision spending a day at the beach snoozing on a lawn chair, you know better. It’s a real energy drainer and an active sport.
• If you’re vacation is really a staycation, find local conservation areas to walk, local museums and even some fun activities that are active, like rock climbing, roller skating and rock walls.
• Raleigh has a wide variety of sports and activities that will help boost your kids health. The adventure, courses, the vast 180 miles of trails, sports complexes and many water activities can provide a vacation year around for those who can’t take a formal vacation.