Last week I had one of those intense learning situations which always convince me that I am fully alive.
The process is often quite similar. I go in knowing very little outside my own frame of reference. I’m required to climb a steep learning curve to learn what others already seem to know. Along the way, I find ways to apply what I do know to a whole new situation, and I find my brain being bent in very interesting new ways.
I learn.
The fully alive part comes when I reflect and realize that any time I’m faced with one of those steep learning curves, parts of my mind – and my very essence – wake up and shake off the dregs of apparent hibernation.
The first month on a new job, walking into a room full of people of whom I know not one, being asked to defend a position when I cannot anticipate how to best express my views so that someone who may be important to my future can really hear what I have to say – all, in retrospect, are situations in which I felt fully alive.
And yet, I have a very strong – and I believe commonly shared – aversion to feeling dumb. Which is exactly what I feel when standing at the bottom and looking up at all I have to learn. If I anticipate that a situation might cause me to feel dumb, I might well do all I can to avoid being in that situation. Which means that I might lose out on all the learning and its subsequent fully alive feelings.
How dumb is that!
Here’s wishing you a week of feeling fully alive – even if that is preceded by a situation that feels uncomfortable in the beginning!
Sally
Monday, April 21, 2008
Monday, April 14, 2008
Monday Moment - Prevent Childhood Obesity
In the last few weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to do some teaching around preventing childhood obesity, and I thought I’d share some of that info with you all on this bright sunny Monday. In 2006, I worked on a project with Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Expanded Food and Nutrition Program which helped me get a perspective on what parents and other caring adults might do to help kids develop healthy lifestyles – especially concerning weight issues. Here are a few highlights:
· Parenting/Caregiving Styles: Being Responsive and Firm – let’s call that Supportive – is the style that helps kids learn healthy attitudes toward food and activity. A Supportive Style is characterized by offering Choices Within Limits. Kids raised in either Neglectful (neither responsive nor firm) or Indulgent (responsive but not at all firm) styles may be twice as likely to be above healthy weight and are learning eating attitudes that will not serve them well as adults. Kids raised in a Dominating Style (not responsive but very firm) may be five times as likely to be above healthy weight. Five times! Choices within Limits is definitely the way to go!
· Divide Responsibility for Eating and for Active Play: Adults should only take responsibility for deciding WHAT food is served, WHEN it is offered, and HOW it is presented. Kids need to be allowed to decide WHETHER and HOW MUCH they will eat. Adults can require that kids take a “No thank you bite” to try a new food, but should even allow a child to spit out that bite if s/he wants to. Forcing kids to eat a food is not being responsive to their wants and needs! The same approach applies to Active Play. Adults provide opportunities and monitor safety and Kids decide WHETHER and HOW MUCH they move. This is a big shift in thinking for a lot of adults who are worried that kids get adequate nutrition – but dividing responsibility can also free families of unpleasant dinner-time dramas and make way for more pleasant associations with food experiences.
· Play more! Kids need 60 minutes of Active Play every day. And adults need at least 30 minutes of similar activity. Notice I didn’t say exercise. I said Active Play! Who doesn’t like to play? Sounds more appealing than exercise doesn’t it? And if kids have the chance to play – especially outside – they’ll run, jump, climb, and do all kinds of movement that their bodies need. They’ll get plenty of exercise!
· Limit Screen Time! Take televisions, computers, and video games out of kids’ bedrooms and put them into shared spaces in your home so you can control how much time kids spend in front of a screen. Aim at a max of 1-2 hours a day. Screen time robs kids of active play time – and exposes them to something like 10,000 food ads a year in addition to all the content that may be above their developmental levels. One system is to give kids coupons for a week’s worth of viewing, playing, or computer time, and have them choose – with your guidance – how they’ll use the time you allow.
· Watch out for sweetened drinks! Drink water or low-fat milk instead! A lot of popular beverages have loads of sugar in them – which can add up to a lot of extra calories. Read the label before you choose a drink and try to visualize how much sugar might be in a container. Remember that a lot of containers hold more than one serving, but the grams per sugar are listed per serving. For example, a 20-ounce bottle of cola might have as much as 15 teaspoons of sugar in it!
· Eat fast foods no more than 1-2 times a week! In spite of the convenience, fast foods tend to cost more, be high in fat and calories, and have large portion sizes! At a fast food restaurant, we’re more likely to have fried foods and sweetened beverages. When you do go to fast food, go armed with knowledge by downloading their Nutrition Facts charts. When you’re with a child, decide before you get there what two or three choices you’ll offer, and then let the child choose between the options you present.
These are just a few highlights of what I’ve learned. There’s more to know about raising kids with healthy attitudes toward food and play. You can get more info at mypramid.gov and lots of other places on the internet or from your local Cooperative Extension office. If you have a chance to influence a child, these tips – and remembering that the child will pay attention more to what you do than what you say – can help the child learn about healthy ways to eat and play!
Have a truly nourishing week!
Sally
· Parenting/Caregiving Styles: Being Responsive and Firm – let’s call that Supportive – is the style that helps kids learn healthy attitudes toward food and activity. A Supportive Style is characterized by offering Choices Within Limits. Kids raised in either Neglectful (neither responsive nor firm) or Indulgent (responsive but not at all firm) styles may be twice as likely to be above healthy weight and are learning eating attitudes that will not serve them well as adults. Kids raised in a Dominating Style (not responsive but very firm) may be five times as likely to be above healthy weight. Five times! Choices within Limits is definitely the way to go!
· Divide Responsibility for Eating and for Active Play: Adults should only take responsibility for deciding WHAT food is served, WHEN it is offered, and HOW it is presented. Kids need to be allowed to decide WHETHER and HOW MUCH they will eat. Adults can require that kids take a “No thank you bite” to try a new food, but should even allow a child to spit out that bite if s/he wants to. Forcing kids to eat a food is not being responsive to their wants and needs! The same approach applies to Active Play. Adults provide opportunities and monitor safety and Kids decide WHETHER and HOW MUCH they move. This is a big shift in thinking for a lot of adults who are worried that kids get adequate nutrition – but dividing responsibility can also free families of unpleasant dinner-time dramas and make way for more pleasant associations with food experiences.
· Play more! Kids need 60 minutes of Active Play every day. And adults need at least 30 minutes of similar activity. Notice I didn’t say exercise. I said Active Play! Who doesn’t like to play? Sounds more appealing than exercise doesn’t it? And if kids have the chance to play – especially outside – they’ll run, jump, climb, and do all kinds of movement that their bodies need. They’ll get plenty of exercise!
· Limit Screen Time! Take televisions, computers, and video games out of kids’ bedrooms and put them into shared spaces in your home so you can control how much time kids spend in front of a screen. Aim at a max of 1-2 hours a day. Screen time robs kids of active play time – and exposes them to something like 10,000 food ads a year in addition to all the content that may be above their developmental levels. One system is to give kids coupons for a week’s worth of viewing, playing, or computer time, and have them choose – with your guidance – how they’ll use the time you allow.
· Watch out for sweetened drinks! Drink water or low-fat milk instead! A lot of popular beverages have loads of sugar in them – which can add up to a lot of extra calories. Read the label before you choose a drink and try to visualize how much sugar might be in a container. Remember that a lot of containers hold more than one serving, but the grams per sugar are listed per serving. For example, a 20-ounce bottle of cola might have as much as 15 teaspoons of sugar in it!
· Eat fast foods no more than 1-2 times a week! In spite of the convenience, fast foods tend to cost more, be high in fat and calories, and have large portion sizes! At a fast food restaurant, we’re more likely to have fried foods and sweetened beverages. When you do go to fast food, go armed with knowledge by downloading their Nutrition Facts charts. When you’re with a child, decide before you get there what two or three choices you’ll offer, and then let the child choose between the options you present.
These are just a few highlights of what I’ve learned. There’s more to know about raising kids with healthy attitudes toward food and play. You can get more info at mypramid.gov and lots of other places on the internet or from your local Cooperative Extension office. If you have a chance to influence a child, these tips – and remembering that the child will pay attention more to what you do than what you say – can help the child learn about healthy ways to eat and play!
Have a truly nourishing week!
Sally
Monday, April 7, 2008
Monday Moment - Knowing When to Quit
In the last couple of days, I’ve been re-learning a lesson I should have learned long ago – knowing when to quit.
And how have I been learning this lesson? Ah… experience… A favorite adage of mine is that good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes quite frequently from really bad judgment!
My bad judgment came on Saturday – a direct result of glorious spring weather. One patch of vivid yellow crocus urged me to scrape away the wintry debris from my garden beds, and then there was another patch of purple, and then there were daffodil stems growing up through last fall’s leaves, and one thing led to yet another.
For a couple hours, I raked, hauled, and thoroughly enjoyed myself. The sun was warm, moving felt good, and results were richly rewarding. I was on the last bed with maybe six feet left before quitting for the day. I was getting tired. I knew I’d used muscles that don’t get a full workout at the pool, on my bike or on my walks, so I anticipated a little self-righteous soreness.
And that’s when I wish I’d known when to quit. I bent to pick up a limb and felt a pinch in my lower back. That old sciatic nerve apparently wanted to get my attention. It worked! Ow! If I’d quit five minutes earlier, my last couple of days would have been a lot more comfortable!
The good news is that I’ve felt this pinch before and know that with rest, a little heat, a little gentle work in the pool, I’ll soon be able to bend and twist with the best of them. Mine is a temporary set-back that won’t continue to bother me for long. The bad news… well, in the meantime, I’m just very careful about how I sit and how I move.
And I try to figure out other arenas of my life where knowing when to quit might be beneficial. Like maybe now!
May you know when to quit – and when to persist – in the coming week!
Sally
And how have I been learning this lesson? Ah… experience… A favorite adage of mine is that good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes quite frequently from really bad judgment!
My bad judgment came on Saturday – a direct result of glorious spring weather. One patch of vivid yellow crocus urged me to scrape away the wintry debris from my garden beds, and then there was another patch of purple, and then there were daffodil stems growing up through last fall’s leaves, and one thing led to yet another.
For a couple hours, I raked, hauled, and thoroughly enjoyed myself. The sun was warm, moving felt good, and results were richly rewarding. I was on the last bed with maybe six feet left before quitting for the day. I was getting tired. I knew I’d used muscles that don’t get a full workout at the pool, on my bike or on my walks, so I anticipated a little self-righteous soreness.
And that’s when I wish I’d known when to quit. I bent to pick up a limb and felt a pinch in my lower back. That old sciatic nerve apparently wanted to get my attention. It worked! Ow! If I’d quit five minutes earlier, my last couple of days would have been a lot more comfortable!
The good news is that I’ve felt this pinch before and know that with rest, a little heat, a little gentle work in the pool, I’ll soon be able to bend and twist with the best of them. Mine is a temporary set-back that won’t continue to bother me for long. The bad news… well, in the meantime, I’m just very careful about how I sit and how I move.
And I try to figure out other arenas of my life where knowing when to quit might be beneficial. Like maybe now!
May you know when to quit – and when to persist – in the coming week!
Sally
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