Healthy kids with healthy habits

 Every parent wants their child to be healthy. Of course they do, maybe not everyone knows exactly how to go about this, but every loving parent wants their kids to enjoy the best health possible. This is no easy task because we as parents are not the ones who decide what are children are going to eat and drink. Now yes we do have a very big say in the matter but in the end of the day we can’t force our kids to eat their vegetables and if we try it will most probably backfire on us. So how do we develop healthy habits for our kids? First we need to know, what are the habits we would like to teach our little ones?

1) Drink water – this is one is the top of the list. I know for myself that if I don’t stay well hydrated I have less energy, get frustrated faster, have less patience, am less focused and feel all in all stressed about nothing. I find a lot of times that when one of my boys is particularly winey or upset about little things a cup of water does wonders.

How do we get our kids into the habit of drinking water? What I and my wife have always done is just to always ask them if they are thirsty, in order to teach them to be conscious of their bodies need for water. Show your kids how they can get themselves a cup of water, this makes them feel big, it will save you from having to get them a drink every time and as long as you don’t have carpeted floors your floor will an extra rinse every now and then.

2) Eat your veggies – like all habits it helps to start when the kids are young, but at any age you can always start. I think the best way to get your kids to eat vegetables is to simply cut up some and put them on the table before every meal. Kids anyways love finger food and if they always have cut up fresh cucumbers, carrots and sweet red peppers on the table when they are waiting for dinner they will most probably start eating them.

If you are a new parent and your child is still eating nothing more than baby food then soon is the perfect time to start. When a child starts teething it’s a great thing to give them a cold fresh cucumber two or three inches long sliced in half to chew on, but keep a good eye on them that they don’t gum off a peace that they can choke on.

3) Healthy snacks – this is a real tuff one because kids will always want what their friends are having and not the dried fruit that they are getting at home. But my best advice is to try and make banana chips, raisins, dried pineapples and apricots your childes snack of choice and you may see that their friend are asking them for what they have. Buy plain flavored potatoes chips with no added flavors and preservatives and not all the other snacks that can be loaded with MSG. give your kids sliced apples and pears for snacks and be creative freeze orange juice for natural ices in the summer time.

TEACH BY EXAMPLE – develop healthy habits within yourself and within your home and your children will develop them as well.

Please feel free to comment and add any additional healthy habits and how to pass them on to our kids.

Two great herbs every one should have at home

Chamomile- would be the number one herb but there is one problem with it and that is that there are, not many but there are people who are allergic to it so you need to keep that in mind. but it is a great herb with many uses. It is great for calming the nerves and helping with sleep. Chamomile tea can be drunk to help ease stomach aches and calm coughs. You can use Chamomile topically to help heal skin irritations and cuts. I just recently treated my son’s eye infection with no more than chamomile tea applied to the eye with a tissue (this was repeated many times for two days). I have read that it could help with pain for teething babies but I cannot attest to this myself. You can buy Chamomile tea at any super market and most people already have it in their house all they need to do is use it.

Mint- Either peppermint or spearmint they both have the same basic uses. My favorite herb for when I have an upset stomach. Also it is great to help invigorate the senses. Mint can also be used topically to slightly numb irritated skin and even muscular pain.

The first part of my book on home gardening

    In the past man was more in touch with nature. As is still today in many none western societies most people grew a good amount of their own foods in their own small garden or vegetable patch, kept their few fruit trees that would provide them with fruit in their seasons. They would toil the earth and bring forth from it vegetables, grains and legumes.  They would hope and pray for the rains that would wet the earth and help their plants to grow and give fruit. They were good to the land and the land was good to them. They would pick and eat their produce when it was ripe and ready to eat. They would eat a large percent of their food fresh from the earth.

    One cannot deny that modern medicine has done absolute miracles for mankind. The life expectancy of mankind is growing and infant mortality is decreasing. Diseases that plagued the world in the past are being vaccinated more or less out of existence. Technology has enabled us to look into the living human body in order  to locate the exact of disease and has provided us with means of healing the body which would have been completely unimaginable a hundred years ago.

    But with modern medicine and technology came the other less desirable aspects of our modern society.

    Faster and more efficient modes of transportation as well as accurate and easily acquired time keeping devises brought about a much ridged schedule as well as an aspect of everyday stress over a matter of minutes.

    Many of our modern comforts have robed us of our daily requirement of physical exercise. Our body must have exercise in order to work at its maximum potential. The movement helps our blood flow and helps keep our bones strong. Exercise also plays an important role in keeping us balanced mentally.

    Due to the increased amount of man power needed to fill all the new job positions that were created by modern society, as well as the growth of the world population. There came the need to produce large amounts of food. Thus was born what can be called the industrialization of agriculture, farming and food production. The product of which is the microwavable TV dinner.

    Every stage of food production nowadays is being affected by this industrialization. Genetic modification of crop cells to make them more withstand able to pesticides. The pesticides themselves which are there to increase crop yield. The Replanting of the same crops on the same soil, using inorganic fertilizers, thus robbing the soil of its minerals. The use of antibiotics and hormones in crops and livestock. The processing of the foods to make them last longer on the shelf and make them more appeasing to the eyes and taste buds, by using preservatives. added colors and flavors.

    As a result of the new fast pace life people want food that is fresh tasty and ready without need of lengthy preparation. The problem with this new fast food is that they a robed of much of their essential vitamins and minerals and are loaded with preservatives, food colorings and flavors that are harmful to the body.

    Stress lack of exercise and poor nutrition are now being seen as some of the causes of the new diseases that are plaguing the modern western world. Examples of such diseases are diabetes, obesity and cancer.

    In addition to all the physical effects that the industrialization and modernization of the food production. There is one more effect that it has had on modern man that may be even more important. This is the loss of feeling for the deep symbiotic relationship between man and nature.

    Most people don’t give much thought to where their food comes from. They buy it in the super market and that is all. We don’t think about where it came from or when it was picked.

    Of course in the past there was always rice, grains and other legumes that were dried and stored and shipped all over the world. But the idea that the food we eat came from the ground and the gratitude to that Great Spirit that brought the food into being from a small seed more apparent and strongly felt.

    Perhaps that is one of the reasons why today we have such problems as waste and pollution which are destroying our beautiful earth. Could it be that we have forgotten that the earth is what gives us our sustenance and that by destroying the earth we are destroying ourselves.

    So to that when we lose touch with that connection that we have with the earth we loose touch with a certain connection with ourselves and our place in the cosmoses.

    Home gardening is not going to be the solution to all of these problems. Most people don’t have the ability to grow all or even ten percent of their food. But home gardening is one step that everyone can take, each on his or her own level, to improving physical and mental health as well as spiritual connection with the earth and nature.

Canadian Awareness Network: How to safely detox fluoride from your body

Canadian Awareness Network: How to safely detox fluoride from your body

If I lived in Canada I would read everything this guy has to say but this one is for all of us no matter where you live

How I treat an ear infection

My wife gets a call yesterday, from the daycare center that our second son who is three years old is complaining that his ear hurts. Now I am very proud to say that no one in my family has had to take anti-biotic medication in three years now. For those that have small children in daycare and know how sicknesses get around it is clear that it’s not just by accident. I have three kids in daycare and preschool, a nine month old, a three year old and a five year old. I do not think that there is ever a time that I am not giving herbs to at least one member of the family for some acute symptom.  So the fact that my three year old woke up this morning feeling fine and will be back to school tomorrow is not a first time amazing occurrence. So what did I do well it was a simple combination of three things that I repeated consistently about every hour.

1)we gave him a herbal syrup made up of elder flower and berry, chamomile, yarrow, linden and catnip(if you do not have a syrup like this you can buy the dry herbs and make a strong tea and add some sugar)

2)I applied a topical oil made up of olive oil(if you prefer almond that’s fine but i did not have any in the house) and essential oils of lavender and tea-tree. I would put it all over the outside of the ear and gently rub it down along the back of the jaw bone to the neck.

3) I heated up fresh garlic in olive oil and applied it to the inner part of the outer ear, not even as deep as you would go to clean the ear.

Repeat these three things every hour or two and you could have your child feeling better in no time.

al My wife gets a call yesterday, from the daycare center, that our second son who is three years old is complaining  that his ear hurts. Now I am very proud to say that no one in my family has had to take anti-biotic medication in three years now. For those that have small children in daycare and know how sicknesses get around it is clear that it’s not just by accident. I have three kids in daycare and preschool, a nine month old, a three year old and a five year old. I do not think that there is ever a time that I am not giving herbs to at least one member of the family for some acute symptom.  So the fact that my three year old woke up this morning feeling fine and will be back to school tomorrow is not a first time amazing occurrence. So what did I do well it was a simple combination of three things that I repeated consistently about every hour.

1)we gave him a herbal syrup made up of elder flower and berry, chamomile, yarrow, linden and catnip(if you do not have a syrup like this you can buy the dry herbs and make a strong tea and add some sugar)

2) I applied topical oil made up of olive oil (if you prefer almond that’s fine but i did not have any in the house) and essential oils of lavender and tea-tree. I would put it all over the outside of the ear and gently rub it down along the back of the jaw bone to the neck.

3) I heated up fresh garlic in olive oil and applied it to the inner part of the outer ear, not even as deep as you would go to clean the ear.

Repeat these three things every hour or two and you could have your child feeling better in no time.

Also I do give NSAIDS like Tylenol to my kids when they are really uncomfortable.

I hope this is useful to you all I know how hard it is when our little babes are no feeling good.

So I do give NSAIDS like Tylenol to my kids when they are really uncomfortable.

I hope this is useful to you all I know how hard it is when our little babes are no feeling good.

Gaining a little weight

I recently noticed that some of my pants are getting a bit too snug around the waist. Now I eat pretty healthy and am very active so I know that the problem must be a new bad habit that i have recently taken up. What I think the big problem is that is giving me a few more inches is that I work late hours on the computer and I get hungry so I have been having late night snacks. But that’s it no more after dinner I will eat nothing but fruits and veggies.

Wish me luck