Family Fitness Ideas

Combine Exercise and Chores:

On small pieces of paper, write down chores and body weight exercises. Throw the papers into a couple of hats and have everyone pick one of each. Maybe Dad gets to clean the bathroom and do a set of squats every few minutes until he is finished, while one of the children is cleaning the kitchen and doing forward lunges, etc.

Organize a Family Competition:
Have each family member pick an exercise at the beginning of the week and do as many reps as they can. Then train throughout the week with the goal of improving by the weekend. The family member who has the highest percentage increase is rewarded with a prize. Keep the focus on the fact that everyone is improving.

Establish a Family Fitness Night:
Designate one evening as family fitness night. Each week, a different person designs the family workout that you will all do together (swimming, rollerblading, walking, Frisbee golf, basketball, etc.) Everyone gets to do something they enjoy, and it will help to bring variety to your workouts. 

Incorporate Exercise into Daily Activities:
Establish family fitness rules: exercise during commercials every time you watch TV, stretch before bed each night, etc.  Purchase a few inexpensive items (jump rope, resistance bands, stability ball, dumbbells, etc.) and rotate them through the house on a daily basis. Treat them as scavenger hunt finds; for example, if you find the jump rope placed in the garage, you have to use it for one minute. Next time you may find it on the porch, or in the basement.

Exercise with a Goal in Mind:
Some prefer to exercise when they are training for a specific event.  As a family, sign up for an event that everyone can participate in and train for.  Organize and conduct workouts that would help train/prepare everyone for the event.

Sources:
http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/fitness_articles.asp?id=382

Avoid Gaining Weight Over Thanksgiving

Eat Breakfast: If you start your meal feeling famished, you will have a more difficult time listening to your body and controling your eating.  Beginning your day with a light breakfast will help you to feel less hungry when you sit down to Thanksgiving dinner. 

Drink a Glass of Water Prior to Eating: This too, will help to fill your stomach prior to your meal and will therefore help you to avoid eating large amounts of food. 

Police Your Portions: Take smaller portions of food and try to avoid going back for seconds. Also, Connie Diekman, MEd, RD, former president of the American Dietetic Association (ADA) suggests, “"Don't waste your calories on foods that you can have all year long, Fill your plate with small portions of holiday favorites that only come around once a year so you can enjoy desirable, traditional foods."

Slowly Savor Your Food: Experts say that eating slowly, putting your fork down between bites, and tasting each mouthful is one of the easiest ways to enjoy your meal and feel satisfied with one plate full of food. Choosing whole grains, fruits, vegetables, broth-based soups, salads, and other foods with lots of water and fiber add to the feeling of fullness.

Space Out Your Thanksgiving Meal Throughout the Day: One suggestion is to eat Thanksgiving dinner, and then go on a walk as a family prior to eating desert. This will help you to avoid eating numerous large meals throughout the day (Thanksgiving at mid-day, and dinner that evening). 

Don’t Sleep It Off: Moving more than usual -- a game of touch football in the front yard or a marathon of shopping on Black Friday -- will help compensate for any little indulgences.

Be Realistic: The holiday season is a time for celebration. With busy schedules and so many wonderful dishes, this is a good time to strive for weight maintenance instead of weight loss.  One expert says, “Shift from a mindset of weight loss to weight maintenance. You will be ahead of the game if you can avoid gaining any weight over the holidays."

Focus on Friends and Family: Thanksgiving is not all about the food.  Try to focus less on the buffet, and more on the celebration of coming together with friends and family. 

Sources:

http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/10-tips-for-a-thinner-thanksgiving?page=2

http://weightloss.about.com/od/eatsmart/a/blturkeydaytips.htm

Uplifting Thoughts for the Future

Faith is both a principle of action and of power. It “is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if [we] have faith [we] hope for things which are not seen, which are true.” It is an assurance8 of the Spirit gained through our learning that moves us to act to follow the example of the Savior and prayerfully keep His commandments, even through times of sacrifice and trial. Faith brings us the power of the Lord, which—among other things—is manifested by a hope of good things to come, miracles that confirm our faith, and divine protection in spiritual and temporal matters.
Elder Marcus B. Nash

“Life is good, if we live in such a way to make it so.” This was a part of an inspirational message I read many years ago. What the message calls “a good life” comes as a result of the way we do things, of the words we choose to say, and even of the kind of thoughts we choose to have.
No one needs to feel alone on the road of life, for we are all invited to come unto Christ and be perfected in Him. Happiness is the purpose of the gospel and the purpose of the redeeming Atonement for all men.
Benjamín De Hoyos

Our spiritual journey is the process of a lifetime. We do not know everything in the beginning or even along the way. Our conversion comes step by step, line upon line. We first build a foundation of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We treasure the principles and ordinances of repentance, baptism, and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. We include a continuing commitment to prayer, a willingness to be obedient, and an ongoing witness of the Book of Mormon.  We then remain steady and patient as we progress through mortality. At times, the Lord’s answer will be, “You don’t know everything, but you know enough”—enough to keep the commandments and to do what is right.
Elder Neil L. Andersen

It would be easy to become discouraged and cynical about the future—or even fearful of what might come—if we allowed ourselves to dwell only on that which is wrong in the world and in our lives. Today, however, I’d like us to turn our thoughts and our attitudes away from the troubles around us and to focus instead on our blessings as members of the Church. The Apostle Paul declared, “God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” I testify to you that our promised blessings are beyond measure. Though the storm clouds may gather, though the rains may pour down upon us, our knowledge of the gospel and our love of our Heavenly Father and of our Savior will comfort and sustain us and bring joy to our hearts as we walk uprightly and keep the commandments. There will be nothing in this world that can defeat us.  My beloved brothers and sisters, fear not. Be of good cheer. The future is as bright as your faith. President Thomas S. Monson

lds.org

Learning How to Budget



1. Gather every financial statement you can:  This includes bank statements, investment accounts, recent utility bills, school loans, and any information regarding a source of income or expense.

2. Record all of your sources of income: Record this total income as a monthly amount.

3. Create a list of monthly expenses: This includes housing payment, car payments, auto insurance, groceries, utilities, entertainment, dry cleaning, auto insurance, retirement or college savings and essentially everything you spend money on.

4. Break expenses into two categories-fixed and variable: Fixed expenses are those that stay relatively the same each month and are required parts of your daily living. They will be a set monthly amount within your budget.  Variable expenses are the type that will change from month to month and include items such as groceries, gasoline, entertainment, eating out and gifts to name a few. This category will be important when making adjustments.

5. Total your monthly income and monthly expenses: If your end result shows more income than expenses you are off to a good start.  If you are showing a higher expense column than income it means some changes will have to be made.

6. Make adjustments to expenses: If you have accurately identified and listed all of your expenses the ultimate goal would be to have your income and expense columns to come out equal.  In other words, all of your income is accounted for and budgeted for a specific expense.  If you are in a situation where your expenses are higher than your income you should look at your variable expenses to find areas to cut.

7. Review your budget monthly: It is important to review your budget on a regular basis to make sure you are staying on track. By taking the time to compare your actual expenses versus what you had created in your budget, this will show you where you did well and where you may need to improve.

http://www.readyforzero.com/resources/budgeting-tips/

First Trimester Pregnancy

First Trimester (week 1-week 12)

During the first trimester your body undergoes many changes. Hormonal changes affect almost every organ system in your body. These changes can trigger symptoms even in the very first weeks of pregnancy. Your period stopping can be a sign that you are pregnant.

Other changes may include:

• Extreme tiredness
• Tender, swollen breasts. Your nipples might also be more prominent..
• Upset stomach with or without vomiting (morning sickness)
• Cravings or distaste for certain foods
• Mood swings 
• Sensitivity to odors
• Constipation (trouble having bowel movements)
• Need to pass urine more often
• Headache
• Heartburn
• Weight gain or loss

As your body changes, you might need to make changes to your daily routine, such as going to bed earlier or eating frequent, small meals.  Fortunately, most of these discomforts will most likely go away as your pregnancy progresses, and there are those who will have no discomfort at all.  If you have been pregnant before, you might feel differently this time around.  Each pregnancy can be different depending on the individual woman.

The True Definition of Beauty

In 2011, Dove® released the findings of its largest global study to date on women’s relationship with beauty—The Real Truth About Beauty: Revisited. The study revealed that only 4% of women around the world consider themselves beautiful, and that anxiety about looks begins at an early age. In a study of over 1,200 10-to-17-year-olds, a majority of girls, 72%, said they felt tremendous pressure to be beautiful. The study also found that only 11% of girls around the world feel comfortable using the word beautiful to describe their looks, showing that there is a universal increase in beauty pressure and a decrease in girls' confidence as they grow older.

“I plead with you young women to please be more accepting of yourselves, including your body shape and style, with a little less longing to look like someone else. We are all different. Some are tall, and some are short. Some are round, and some are thin. And almost everyone at some time or other wants to be something they are not! 

But as one adviser to teenage girls said: “You can’t live your life worrying that the world is staring at you. When you let people’s opinions make you self-conscious you give away your power. … The key to feeling [confident] is to always listen to your inner self—[the real you.]” 8 And in the kingdom of God, the real you is “more precious than rubies.” (Julia DeVillers, Teen People, Sept. 2005, 104.)  Every young woman is a child of destiny and every adult woman a powerful force for good.”-Jeffrey R. Holland (“To Young Women,” Ensign, Nov 2005, 28)

Being daughters of our Heavenly Father is what makes us beautiful.  At times, it is easy to lose this perspective due to the standards that the world has set for beauty.  We must remember that as we strive to emanate with the light of our Savior Jesus Christ, others will be drawn to our true beauty: our divine self.  

“Be a woman of Christ. Cherish your esteemed place in the sight of God. He needs you. This Church needs you. The world needs you.”-Jeffrey R. Holland (“To Young Women,” Ensign, Nov 2005, 28)

Recognizing Abuse

“Satan uses your abuse to undermine your self-confidence, destroy trust in authority, create fear, and generate feelings of despair. Abuse can damage your ability to form healthy human relationships. You must have faith that all of these negative consequences can be resolved; otherwise they will keep you from full recovery. While these outcomes have powerful influence in your life, they do not define the real you.” -Richard G. Scott (April 2008 General Conference)

Signs of Abuse

• Monitors what you're doing all the time
• Unfairly accuses you of being unfaithful constantly
• Prevents or discourages you from seeing friends or family
• Prevents or discourages you from going to work or school
• Gets very angry during and after drinking alcohol or using drugs
• Controls how you spend your money
• Controls your use of needed medicines
• Decides things for you that you should be allowed to decide (like what to wear or eat)
• Humiliates you in front of others
• Destroys your property or things that you care about
• Threatens to hurt you, the children, or pets
• Hurts you (by hitting, beating, pushing, shoving, punching, slapping, kicking, or biting)
• Uses (or threatens to use) a weapon against you
• Forces you to have sex against your will
• Controls your birth control or insists that you get pregnant
• Blames you for his or her violent outbursts
• Threatens to harm himself or herself when upset with you
• Says things like, "If I can't have you then no one can."

Healthy vs. Unhealthy Relationships

Signs of an unhealthy relationship include:

• Focusing all your energy on your partner
• Dropping friends and family or activities you enjoy
• Feeling pressured or controlled a lot
• Having more bad times in the relationship than good
• Feeling sad or scared when with your partner

Signs of a healthy relationship include:

• Having more good times in the relationship than bad
• Having a life outside the relationship, with your own friends and activities
• Making decisions together, with each partner compromising at times
• Dealing with conflicts by talking honestly
• Feeling comfortable and able to be yourself
• Feeling able to take care of yourself
• Feeling like your partner supports you

 *Sometimes a relationship might not be abusive, but it might have some serious problems that make it unhealthy. If you think you might be in an unhealthy relationship, you should be able to talk to your partner about your concerns. If you feel like you can't talk to your partner, try talking to a trusted friend, family member, or counselor. Consider calling your bishop or a stake president to get the support you need and to explore next steps.

“If you are currently being abused or have been in the past, find the courage to seek help. You may have been severely threatened or caused to fear so that you would not reveal the abuse. Have the courage to act now. Seek the support of someone you can trust. Your bishop or stake president can give you valuable counsel and help you with the civil authorities. Explain how you have been abused and identify who has done it. Ask for protection. Your action may help others avoid becoming innocent victims, with the consequent suffering. Get help now. Do not fear—for fear is a tool Satan will use to keep you suffering. The Lord will help you, but you must reach out for that help.”-Richard G. Scott (April 2008 General Conference)