Annie Fox's Blog...

Thoughts about teens, tweens, parenting and this adventure of living on Earth in the 21st century.

Annie Fox, M.Ed., is an internationally respected parenting expert, award-winning author, and a trusted online adviser for tweens and teens.

Guest blogger: Keeping Kids Healthy – Type 2 Diabetes Prevention

December 10, 2012

by Carolyn Fallon

Carolyn is a 20-something year old with a passion for life, fitness and overall well-being. She is an avid cycler, golfer and has known to bust some serious moves on the dance floor. To learn more about Carolyn, please check out her blog.

I never paid attention to the topic of Type 2 Diabetes. All of that changed when my little cousin was diagnosed. As I have recently started on my own journey to live a healthier life, it has become even more important to me that I help all my cousins learn how to be healthier. Because the two most common causes of Type 2 Diabetes are obesity and lack of physical activity, I’ve been helping my cousins get on a healthier track through tips on nutrition and exercise.

Dietary Habits
The typical mantra is that anything that tastes good tends to be bad for you. Although this may seem true, it doesn’t have to be! My cousins love their junk food. To prevent them from feeling totally deprived of the things they liked, I found creative ways to allow them to indulge in these foods in small moderation. I’m also helping them find ways to make healthy foods taste yummy too. Here are some popular changes I made that will work for you and your family too:

– add grilled vegetables to any meal and you get great flavor and large variety

– add fruit to meals. (Cut ’em into fun shapes!) By getting my cousins involved in making smoothies, etc. they were way more accepting of fruit in general.

– switch from white flour bread to whole grains-products

– use mashed cauliflower instead of potatoes

– use spaghetti squash instead of pasta noodles

There are so many ways you can get kids to start eating healthy if you are willing to get a little creative.

Get moving!

Get Moving!

It’s so important to get kids in the habit of being regularly active. My cousins tended to spend a majority of their time in front of the TV. To get them excited about exercise, I had to get creative. I found ways to make being active seem like a game instead of just getting exercise. Now we are…

Jumping Rope – A fun activity that many kids enjoy, and can be done alone or with others. We like to do jump rope competitions, or do large-group jump rope games too.

Swimming – Check out the public pool at your local YMCA or community center. Then get in the water with the kids! We do “Olympic trials” for the different kinds of strokes and we also play fun, calorie burning games like Marco Polo and water volleyball.  Swimming often appeals to overweight kids because the buoyancy of the water takes the weight off of their joints. It also helps to build cardiovascular strength and endurance, which is good for all age people!

Running or Jogging Most kids love to run. They may love it more if you make it competitive. My cousins and I like to do timed-races against each other, or our own time. We also play games that involve running, such as tag, Capture the Flag, soccer, kickball, etc.

Doing Yoga Many kids find yoga to be a rewarding activity that helps them become more flexible and promotes endurance. My cousins were hesitant to try it, but once they got started, they really liked learning the different poses.

Be proactive! It’s scary to think that my little cousin is facing Type 2 Diabetes at such a young age. According to St. Joseph’s Hospital Cardiac Center, potential complications can include such things as eye problems or blindness, heart disease, stroke, neurological problems, and more. With so many possible serious consequences,  it’s important that today’s families work together for better health that will help prevent the spread of this epidemic.

Filed under: Parenting,Tips — Tags: , , , — Annie @ 4:18 pm
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Guest blogger: New Country, New Life

by Jessica Oh, 16 year old high school student.

This personal essay, by Jessica Oh, was submitted to my teen website TheInSite.org.  If you’ve got some expressive writing you’d like to share, fiction, or non-fiction, poetry or whatever, please send it in, I’d love to read it! And maybe your words will get featured on my site.

Got that right!

There she was standing alone in the corner while everyone talked among themselves. She was not loquacious enough to fit in. All she heard was rambling going through one ear to the other. Petrified she was, she finally decided to smile at a little girl from across the room. However, the little girl made her feel alienated. She got glares from every inch around the room when the teacher introduced her. It was such a different view coming from another country. Hearing the different language soak into her brain, she was frightened. The room was filled with little kids running around enjoying themselves, excluding her. She just wanted fit in, she just wanted someone to talk to, and she just wanted a friend. Even though she would probably not understand one single word that came out of their mouths, she would casually act along. However, who would want to be friends with a girl who came from another country with no sense of their language or their culture?

Her life was perfect as it was until a trembling announcement was made by her parents, “We are moving!” She feared this day would come but tried as hard as she could to make it go away. When they made the announcement, it hit her like a bee sting. Right there and then, she knew her whole life would collapse right in front of her. The solid ground that was the foundation of her life was shaking and the buildings were crumbling. Her heart was torn apart, she was devastated. She never knew what it felt like to be betrayed and depressed. Not only was she moving to a new house but moving to a new school, new country, and new everything. She was moving half way around the globe and her parents expected her to be fine? Tears fell from her left cheek and then her right. She would have to make new memories and her old memories would be long gone. She thought, ‘but what can I do that can change their mind?’ However, she had to face the fact that there was nothing, absolutely nothing she could do to alter their mind. She sluggishly packed her belongings and took whatever she could but had to leave the memories behind.

Read the rest of what happened to Jessica as she faced the challenges of being a stranger in a strange land…

Filed under: Parenting,Teens — Tags: , , , — Annie @ 4:13 pm
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Sometimes you’ve just gotta get out

December 1, 2012

David and I work at home. We’re in the house a lot. In our offices. In our minds. Ensnared deep within the inter webs. That’s why I sometime feel an intense need to break out of IN for some quality time OUT… way out.

Today the need was great. It’s been raining… a lot. But David and I had a window between 1- 3 pm to escape before the next edition of the Pineapple Express (aka atmospheric river) slammed into San Anselmo. So we laced up our hiking boots and headed for the hills. A five mile drive brought us to the Pine Mountain Road trailhead, a 1.5 mile hike brought us to Carson Falls. Here’s what awaited us…

Is this Middle Earth?

Trees blanketed in moss

Carson Falls, putting on a show

Impressive from any angle

C'mon, admit it. This is cool!

It was a great Saturday adventure. And the rain kept its word by not starting up again until after we came home. Which, by the way, feels like the perfect place to be right now. See, it’s not that I don’t enjoy being inside. It’s just that sometimes we have to unplug and get out.

Filed under: Parenting — Tags: , , , , , — Annie @ 7:25 pm
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