The Fruit Bowl vs. The Cookie Jar

The best thing we added when we renovated our kitchen was not the flat paneled cupboard doors that require minimal effort to clean, not the warming drawer for late arrivals, or even the wine cabinet for, well for me. It was the $8.99 oversized fruit bowl positioned front and center atop our kitchen counter. Keeping it filled with a variety of colorful fruits, vegetables and dried fruits is a grocery shopping priority. It's content's change based on the season, what's on sale or if we're burned out on a particular fruit. The bowl gets high marks for originality when it's filled with local produce from the farmer's market June-September or after a visit to Blok's Orchard for fresh apples and peaches.


The cookie jar was the kitchen center piece when I was growing up. My mom hand painted a circus elephant (seriously) cookie jar in a ceramics class. It was also the featured attraction at my Grandma Kuilema’s house. It sat next to the bread box filled with homemade banana, and brown sugar, raisin, cinnamon swirl bread, which in turn, sat next to the lemon gum drop jar. The thing about a cookie jar is you always need to keep it filled, and if you keep it filled, it's frequently emptied. You get the point. The only thing on your kitchen counter should be healthy foods. Substitute a fruit dish for your cookie jar.

To be completely honest, when my children arrive home tonight they will notice right away that the fruit bowl has been refilled which is a signal that I went grocery shopping. They will then start a search and seizure for any new "alternative" snacks. However, the healthy option is the focal point in our family kitchen and my hope is that it makes a lasting impression on what's most important to their health.

Get Your Z's

Are you ramping up your training miles this month?  If so, it's the perfect opportunity to remind you of the role adequate sleep has on your sport's performance. Are you setting the alarm clock for an early morning run, heading out after work or fitting in both as the daylight grows?  Listen to your body.  Training too much, too fast, in the absence of proper rest is a recipe for a fatigued workout, injury and illness as your immunity wears thin. When you sleep, your body releases growth hormone which helps repair the damage caused by training and allows you to grow stronger. The average person needs 7-8 hours of sleep every day. In fact a little extra may actually boost both your athletic performance & your immunity. A recent study completed on Stanford basketball players showed that extra sleep time resulted in significant improvements in their athletic performance. They experienced faster sprint times, increased free throws, increased energy and improved mood during practice and games. If you’re looking for a cost effective, easy way to improve your race times, stay sharp and get stronger, go to bed an hour early, or if you can spare the extra ZZZ's, sleep in!

Everybody: Limit "Seat of Your Pants" Activities

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, children average 53 hours/week using electronic media including TV, cell phones, IPods, video games and computers. Their television viewing averages 3 hours/day and this practice gets worse with age. According to the Alloy Media Marketing’s 9th Annual College Explorer Survey, the college class of 2013 spends 2.5 hours/day in front of the TV, 2.5 hours on the cell phone and 20% of their waking hours on the computer. If you've ever watched this group in action you know they are capable of doing all three simultaneously. Rasmussen completed a similar survey on adults, yet only 23% self reported themselves as spending too much time on their Blackberry, laptops and television. Conversely, 75% of them claimed their children overused electronics. Who's fooling who here?

We need to address the fact that social media is a growing "seat of your pants" activity.  Relatively few calories are expended hitting the send or receive button.  Hand to mouth exercises add high calorie junk foods and soda to our nation’s growing weight problems. What can you do? Set time limits for yourself and family members. Take stretching, walking and water breaks every 20-30 minutes if you are working on a computer project for an extended period of time.  Perform light exercises during commercial breaks. Make it a house rule that snacks and beverages are only consumed at the kitchen table. Snacking combined with electronics can easily get you to the bottom of the bag without even realizing it.  Finally, make sure electronics don’t encroach on your sleep time. Research has repeatedly demonstrated that people who short themselves on rest have more difficulty controlling their weight.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that parents limit children's television viewing time to 2 hours/day. Vicky Rideout of Kaiser describes electronic media as having become so entrenched in our kid’s everyday lives that it’s "a part of the air they breathe". I appreciate her parting comment: "Anything that takes up this much time, we really do need to think and talk about it".