Sunday, February 10, 2013

Carolyn Fallon on Diabetes - guest posts today!

Dear Readers,
I was recently acknowledged by my peers for supporting and promoting new bloggers; fresh new faces, all pink and rosy and full of wonder about this whole blogging adventure, eager for advice, exposure, and a shove in the right direction (a nice shove!) This means a lot to me and I am flattered to be seen in this way. How timely it was to be distinguished in this manner. Today, on my 100th post, I am presenting to you a blogger who deserves a shout-out and a heck of a lot more following, Carolyn Fallon. Normally, this wouldn't be something I would address on my blog, but I am on a bit of a health jag right now and her health-based blog is quite good - good enough that I want you to take a look at her writing and give her a follow if you are health-minded as well. I was pleased to be contacted by someone with a site worth sharing. Trust me, if you contact me about guest posting and your site is crap, I won't do it. Hers isn't crap, it's great! Please give her the exposure she deserves.   -- Cindy Brown


Type 2 Diabetes Prevention Tips for Kids
Not too long ago, one of my younger cousins was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. This was a complete shock to my entire family. Although I knew she was struggling with her weight for quite some time, I didn’t think that she could actually develop type 2 diabetes. I was wrong.

Even worse are the additional consequences that can result. According to information from Syracuse’s St. Joseph’s Cardiac Hospital, if diabetes is left untreated, it can lead to such issues as blindness, heart disease, and even neurological problems! After learning all of this, my family made it a resolution to work together this year to get my cousin back on track and prevent anyone else from developing this terrible disease.
 
The first thing my aunts and uncles did was get rid of all the junk food in their houses. Instead of throwing all of it away, we gathered it all together and donated it to the local food shelter. I don’t mean to make it sound like we gave the “bad food” to the food shelter, but we felt better about donating it and letting people decide if they wanted it or not instead of just throwing it all away.

4 Nutrition Tips for Type 2 Diabetes Prevention
When it comes to prevention, one of the main factors of prevention is a healthy and nutritional diet. Below are a few tips we have used ourselves through this process of fighting type 2:
  • Make a list of different fruits and vegetables that your family likes and tape it to the fridge as a reminder to eat at least three things from the list every day.
  • Rather than choosing junk food as a snack, freeze grapes and serve as a healthy frosty treat that will satisfy that craving for something sweet! Here’s a great site with more healthy snack ideas for your kids.
  • Stay away from foods that contain high amounts of sugar, trans fats and saturated fats.
  • Eat organic whole grain foods that do not come from genetically modified crops.

Getting Kids to Eat More Fruit: Make a Delicious Smoothie!

Making fruit and yogurt smoothies has to be one of the best ideas ever to get kids to eat healthier. Smoothies not only introduce more fruit into their diets, but the live cultures that are found in yogurt give them their daily dose of friendly bacteria to help regulate their digestive systems. It also serves as a great breakfast, snack, or even a delicious dessert!

In my smoothies, I prefer to use a  flavored yogurt such as blueberry, vanilla, or strawberry. For juices, I use a variety of orange, pineapple, apple, or grape juice. Depending on which flavor of yogurt I use, I will add in different fresh and frozen fruits such as strawberries, peaches, pineapple, apples, pears, red grapes, green grapes, blueberries, kiwi, star fruit, or mango.

Here's a favorite recipe we enjoy:
     1 cup blueberry yogurt
     Handful of small frozen strawberries
     1 fresh kiwi fruit
     1/2 cup apple juice
 
Mix it all together on high speed in your blender and you'll have an icy fruit smoothie that will give kids an extra boost of vitamins and energy.

4 Exercise Tips/Activities That Families Can Do Together
Getting regular exercise another important factor when it comes to type 2 prevention and management. Here are a couple of our tips:
  • Take a leisurely bike ride to the park with the family. Pack a healthy picnic and spend the day running around and playing games together.
  • Get a bunch of the neighborhood kids together and play dodge ball, kickball, soccer, capture-the-flag, tag, etc.
  • Go swimming together at the lake, the river, or the local pool club.
  • Take a hike into the forest and see how many edible plants, animals, and types of trees your family can identify. Take a reference book along to see if you're right and remember to never eat anything you can't clearly identify.

Carolyn is a 20-something year old with a passion for life, fitness and overall well-being. She is an avid cyclist, golfer and has been known to bust some serious moves on the dance floor. Check out Carolyn’s blog at Full-On Fit! or connect with her on Twitter @CarolynFallon.

11 comments:

  1. Brilliant post – to raise awareness and offer advice – love it.

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  2. Thanks for taking time to read, Viveka! I try to be pretty diverse with my blog and help others like Carolyn get a leg up if their writing is good, even if it's not my normal "thing." Just doing one thing over and over would get boring, right? Health is a big issue.

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  3. She has a good start! The world needs more people reminding us about our health ;0) and you to remind us about our emotional wellness, Jodi.

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  4. Hi Cindy - congrats on your 100th blog! And since you have been so wonderful in helping me, I can't thank you enough for your ongoing support. You are a treasure to the blogging world. My hubs has diabetes which was diagnosed 13 years ago and served as a wake up call. He has controlled it with oral meds and diet, thankfully. His weight has gone up and down over the years, but right now he is in a good place, in the past year he dropped 70 pounds and now is trying to keep it off. He also rides his exercise bike every day. Thanks for highlighting a great blog and for sharing great advice!!

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  5. Thank you! It's such an important topic that affects so many families -- it makes me feel good to be able to share what my family has learned along the way, and hopefully the helps other families who are going through the same thing. Thank you for the compliment!

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  6. That's great, Lisa! I'm glad he is on top of it. It is a struggle for many, but diet and exercise can help to control and even correct diabetes. That reminds me, I've got to get off this computer and exercise today :)

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  7. These are great tips! Thanks!

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  8. We can all use those reminders, can't we? Fast junky food is so easy nowadays!

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  9. My daughter loves fruit. I wish she'd eat more veggies though. We aren't fast food people. My daughter has never had Burger King, etc. I want to keep it that way for as long as possible.

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