Juicing allows you to model good feeding habits to your children.

If you’re lucky enough to own (or borrow) a juicer, then you’re going to want to try out this special recipe and get your kids involved with making it.  Their participation will help them to see that fresh produce is a part of food preparation and quite normal to eat (or drink in this case).

This is more of a grown-up recipe unless your kids are blessed to take a shine to a variety of flavors.  Encourage them to try it and encourage different types of hard vegetables and fruits (juicers don’t like soft textures such as bananas).  They might not like it, but even just tasting will stimulate the development of more motor units in their brains (and yours too!!).

Remember kids have to experience something over a dozen times in order to develop a taste for it.

Make this for yourself and test it out.  If you need something more sweet, then add more apple to it (or a dash of honey in the final product.

Step #1 Clean and chop your produce in large chunks that can fit into the feeding tube of the juicer.

Collards, Celery,1 Beet, 3 Carrots and 1.5 apples (not seen and not peeled)

Step #2 Insert food into the juicer and turn on the machine.  Push it down with the plastic insert that comes with your juicer (not your fingers nor a spatula!)

You can see the white insert already has pushed the food down.

Step #3 Repeat the process again with the SAME veggies/fruits.  Yes, that pulp still has a little moisture, and why waste (you won’t, cause you can cook it and add as a puree to muffins, cakes or other bakery)

So, what you do is you scrape out the reservoir bowl and put it back into the juicer.  This time add a little water and push it down a little slower this time.

This is the pulp that was already juiced and ready for a second time (just pour a bit of water down with it).

Step #4 Once you’ve used all your produce and have gone through it a second time, you’re ready to drink!  Give the final product a good stir (unless you like the layers).  NOTHING you can buy comes out this beautiful.  This is an artist’s masterpiece of color, especially including the beet (it adds some sweetness and a host of other nutrients).  Please share your juicing recipe.  Enjoy!

Photos do not do this justice. This juice is full of life and color!

Move over Cindy Lauper because preschool boys have something on those girls!

Recently, I had a couple nephews over who are the same ages as my two boys.  Soon they discovered the joy of the exercise-studio-turned-rumpus-room.  With homemade rocket packs taped to their backs, they were flying, zooming around an alien landscape, attacking giant blobs (physio balls) and making out-of-this-world faces in a vertical reflecting surface.  Very curious, this alien planet.

Often just sitting back and letting them play it out is best.  I don’t think my imagination could be half as vivid as theirs. This is the ultimate in nervous system development at its best: in play and imagination.  Their bodies were moving and they were having fun.  Exercise should be fun, don’t you agree?

As for me, while they’re imagining, I can be the rocket pack engineer, especially when that tape loses its grip.  In between fixes, I can also imagine a planet of warm sudsy bubbles taking me to a deeper level of relaxation…

Listen to this sage advice from this father of thirteen (yes, you read that right) and grandfather to 47. This is my dad! Listen to what he has to offer you and let me know your thoughts.

Finally, here’s Fit Tip #5 to keep you strong and your kids giggling.  Enjoy these moves and Happy Father’s Day!

Have you seen the bottoms of your feet lately?

Dads, don’t you deserve a foot massage?  Will the Mrs. laugh at the prospect.  Well, don’t worry because I got you covered (no, I can’t make it over to do the massage, you’ll have to take care of that).

This is what I come across time and again when I evaluate people during a fitness assessment: their feet are pronated.  Essentially, that means the arches are falling inward and changing Read the rest of this entry »

In the spirit of giving dads their time in the limelight (which is still not enough time), let me offer another free, simple fitness tip that will get your body limbered up in no time.  It’s call the hip flexor stretch and you need to be stretching these muscles regularly.

Why are you tight in the hips? Read the rest of this entry »