empowerme

Play or exercise 60 minutes daily and work up a sweat. Try dancing, swimming, mowing the lawn, or bicycling to start. Add challenges like longer distances, weights, or an incline to pump up the intensity.

Mix Them Up. Try including fruits and veggies in food that is cooked or baked. Add a bit of color in other foods by splashing in vegetables to pasta sauces, lasagnas, casseroles, soups, and omelets. Mixing fresh or frozen berries into pancakes, waffles or muffins is another great way to make fruits and veggies a part of every meal!

Use whole grain bread and pasta to get more nutrients than processed white bread.

When watching TV, try and do as many jumping jacks, sit-ups, or push-ups as you can during commercial breaks.

When deciding what kind of bread, pasta, pita or tortilla to eat - choose 100% whole wheat!

Dance Your Heart Out! Pick any music you like, crank it up and then dance away! March, box step, bounce, spin, shake it. Dancing is a great way to burn calories and have fun at the same time!

To gain the maximum benefits from play time, engage in moderate to vigorous activity at least half the time.

Spend Valentine's Day with your family and friends, bonding, having fun and playing. This can reduce stress and is great for the heart.

Kids need one hour or more of physical activity each day to be healthy. Physical activity could be walking, dancing, playing sports or whatever is fun for you and gets you moving! Adults need exercise to be healthy too. So get your whole family moving together! 

Crab Crawl. Sit on the floor with your feet flat on the floor. Lean back and place hands flat on the floor. Lift your bottom off the floor and put your weight on your hands and feet - like a crab.  Then crab crawl around your room from wall to wall.

Pump it up. Try lifting something heavy like food cans or school books while you are sitting around. Add these weights to another activity like squats or crunches to add a challenge.

Be a good role model to the people around you by making healthy eating choices and getting regular exercise.

Try carrying around a water bottle to refill during the day. Keep a pitcher in the refrigerator so it’s cold and refreshing.

Sleep gives your body energy, like food does, so you can last through the day.

Spend time before the holidays planning healthy snacks to prepare. Make a grocery list and stick to it. Whether you are a host or guest, be the one to create healthy alternatives to the typically not-so-healthy holiday menu.

Eat vegetables and fruits every day, and limit your juice intake. The more colors in your fruits and veggies, the more variety of nutrients your body will eat!

Save a half: When you get your meal at a restaurant, visually cut the plate down the middle. Eat one half, and then ask for the rest to go. You'll control your portion and have a ready to-go lunch for the next day!

Lunch or dinner at home? Whether people know it or not fruits AND vegetables are naturally sweet. Roasting vegetables brings out their sweetness - even peppers! Great desert idea: roasted apples with cinnamon. Yum!

Go Fruity. A fresh fruit cut up with a dollop of low-fat or fat-free yogurt is a great way to start the day. Apples contain fiber and bananas contain potassium.

Eating veggies will keep you feeling fuller longer, because they are high in water content. And they only have 10-50 calories per serving.