Tag Archives: healthy living

6 Fun Ways to Get Healthy as a Family

Today’s post is from a guest who shares the same passion with anyone who wants to get healthy and stay healthy for life. I’m one of those people, and I’m happy to have Jennifer McGregor share her well-written post on getting healthy as a family.

Whether a family or just one person, Jennifer offers solid advice for all. Enjoy the read and hopefully we’ll see another article from her on here again. Thank you, Jennifer, for sharing!


If you’ve tried to start practicing healthier habits in the past, you may have realized that it’s hard to eat clean when your kids refuse to consume anything other than pizza and chicken nuggets (or ice cream and chocolate, of course), and it’s challenging to get regular exercise when you’re barely home for five minutes in between rushing to meetings, practices, and play dates. Good news: Getting healthy is much easier when done as a family. Here’s how to get healthy as a family and have fun while you’re doing it.

Create a Family Scoreboard or Goals Chart

Kids love games, but gamifying your health journey can be just as fun for adults. With a bright, colorful family scoreboard and a points system for rewarding various activities (such as choosing a healthy snack over chips or cookies) and reaching goals, your family’s new
healthy lifestyle can become a fun competition. If your children have specific health goals, such as brushing their teeth three times each day or reducing TV time, these goal-oriented printables can make any healthy change fun.Jennifer McGregor_Get Healthy as Family_Stock Photo

Plan Fun Fitness Games to Keep Your Family Active

Getting more physically active doesn’t have to mean regimented, choreographed exercise routines. Swimming is a great option for all children, but it is especially great if your child has ADHD. Regardless of the season, there are great options for diving in. Plan a surprise trip to the indoor pool at your local recreation center in the fall or winter, or book a night at a local hotel to take advantage of the indoor pool for the evening. Plan an outing to a local river or lake for some swimming fun in the summer. Exercise isn’t always a miserable sweat session.

The idea of a daily family trip to the gym might not be appealing, but how about a game of balloon volleyball in the living room? You can also use fun fitness games to get your kids – and your spouse – off the couch. Plan these activities ahead and your whole family will have something to look forward to.

Get Everyone Involved in Meal Planning

One reason kids tend to resist healthy diet changes is because they feel as though the choice is being forced upon them. Take your kids to the store or the farmer’s market and let them choose some of their own fruits and vegetables. Then, let them participate in preparing meals. Make it a contest to see who can come up with the best (or worst) recipe. They might think of some scary combinations, but they’re more likely to try new things when they have a sense of ownership. Plus, you’ll get to spend quality time in the kitchen – mess or no mess, it’s sure to be a fun time.

Adopt a Dog

Did you know that dogs have been proven to reduce stress, heighten mood, and even improve cardiovascular health? A fun-loving canine can be the perfect motivation to get your family on their feet! The best part is, you can exercise her together and it won’t even feel like work. A spirited game of fetch, an evening walk around the block, or even a family hike are all great workouts that everyone can look forward to. Plus, your kids are a lot more likely to stay active with a constant play companion at their disposal!

Run a Household Chores Race

A healthy lifestyle isn’t just about exercising and eating right. Your environment plays a role in your health and well-being, too. If your living room is cluttered and your kitchen a mess, everyone is likely to be more stressed. Stressed family members lead to arguments, and it becomes a vicious cycle of endless bickering that ultimately helps no one.

Not to mention, a home that’s not clean is a home that is more likely to harbor germs, bacteria, and dust that can make your family sick. Do your family a favor and get everyone involved in keeping the house clean and tidy. Divvy up chores and offer a prize to the family member who finishes the race by getting their chores done first.

Conversation Starters and Feel-Good Jars Boost Emotional Health

It’s important to have dinner together as a family, but what makes that time so important is that it provides together-time for discussing your day and supporting each other. When a family member has a tough day at work, dinner time is often when the day’s hassles are discussed. Likewise, achievements at school or work are proudly boasted at the dinner table.

Make this special family time even more fun with conversation starters or feel-good jars – jars filled with slips of paper with vague statements that you must build a conversation around or a jar that each family member helps to fill by writing something positive about another family member each day. Use the time to invent silly stories or help a child or spouse cope with an especially difficult day. All of these discussions contribute to your family’s emotional health in a positive way.

Getting healthy can be a tough journey all alone. But getting healthy with your whole family can be tons of fun when you embrace the joys of family and togetherness and get everyone in your home on board with your journey to health. By making healthy habits fun and exciting, you’ll turn getting healthy into an enjoyable adventure.

Jennifer McGregor has wanted to be a doctor since she was little. Now, as a pre-med student, she’s well on her way to achieving that dream. She helped create PublicHealthLibrary.org with a friend as part of a class project. With it, she hopes to provide access to trustworthy health and medical resources. When Jennifer isn’t working on the site, you can usually find her hitting the books in the campus library or spending some downtime with her dog at the local park.

(Photo from Pixabay by Rudy Anderson)

The Squatty Potty: You’ve Been Pooping Wrong

My thoughtful wife gave me poop better for Christmas 2 years ago. For the first time ever on that glorious Christmas day, I upgraded my poop posture with this cool new toy stool (ha ha, get it?) and, holy crap, I’ve never been so relieved!

squatty potty, poop, health, colon, weight loss
Figured I would spare you from a photo of it in use. 🙂

The Squatty Potty has been providing every day relief since, with the only exception being when I travel. If I didn’t need to carry more items, I’d make it my carry-on item so I never had to go without it. They do, however, have an inflatable Porta-Squatty which I’ll have to look into.

squatty potty, healthy, colon, health, poop

The Squatty Potty is an ergonomic stool that elevates your lower half into a squatting position right over the toilet. Squatting is the natural posture for humans to poop, and it allows you to either stand over the toilet in a full squat or mimic the posture while sitting on the pot.

TheScienceIsSimple_Squatty Potty

Why not just find any old stool to do the same thing? You could, and I tried on vacation once, but there was a slight stability issue. The Squatty Potty is designed to allow natural squat posture while remaining sturdy so you don’t slip, and it fits around your toilet for easy storage. A regular stool would get in the way and, if there are any boys in the house, become victim of tinkle sprinkle. Hey, it happens!

When we simply sit on the toilet, our colon becomes kinked. This is why you can sit there for 20 minutes playing on your smartphone and never feel fully relieved.

squatty potty, healthy, colon, health, poop

But, when you pop a squat, literally, the colon is free and open to rid your body of all collected waste. For me, this equals much less of a bloating feeling and a flatter stomach. This just might be the fastest way to safely lose weight!

When I first started using it, I just raised my feet up on the platform and sat on the toilet. This alone proved quite effective at making me poop better. But then I did a little research on their site and found that the intended method to get the full effect is to stand over the pot in a squatting position. Basically, keep your rear in the air.

Sure, there were a few balance issues at first (please note: tight-fitting shorts/pants are not recommended!), but once I figured out the correct positioning, I found even greater poop elimination than when I sat using the stool. If you don’t already, keep a plunger nearby. Just saying.

TMI? Well, it is a post about a handy tool used to squat for a better poop, what do you expect? Plus, being a parenting site, I assume many parents read this; aren’t we all pretty immune to poop talk? I mean, we discuss the day’s “cloggers” during dinner.

Other than getting used to performing the full stand and hover squat, or the awkwardness of having your kid coming in a staring, I can’t find anything to complain about with the Squatty Potty. It’s simple, easy to clean, doesn’t get in the way, and best of all, is the most natural cleansing method I can think of. You’ll even end up using less toilet paper when squatting since things are more…err, open.

With the Squatty Potty, you can get in and out of the bathroom with the feeling of full relief. No need for laxatives or other drugs to help move things along, which apparently is used by many Americans.

squatty potty, healthy, colon, health, poop

Have you heard of or tried the Squatty Potty before?

Does poop talk gross you out? If so, sorry, but it’s a necessary part of everyday life, and now it’s a less time-consuming part!

Click Here to get your own non-laxative, completely natural cleansing product known as The Squatty Potty!

Want something a little more classy to stand on as you poop? They also offer Squatty Potties in Bamboo

Squatty Potty-Bamboo

….or Natural Wood. These are classy enough for the White House!

Squatty Potty-Slim-Natural-Wood

Full Disclosure: All opinions in this post are 100% my own. My wife purchased the Squatty Potty as a gift for me and I have not been compensated in any way. That said, there are affiliate links that, if you click on them, I might earn a few cents. So, please click them, I like cents!

‘Sleep Smarter’ for a Healthier, More Successful LIfe

I’ve been reading the early release copy of Sleep Smarter I told you about last month, and, wow, sleep is some powerful stuff!

Sleep Smarter-Book-Quote-One

For the longest time, I was under the impression that since I exercise every day and cool all of my meals using fresh, whole foods, that I was good to go in the health department. But, little did I know that the sleep I easily shrugged off by thinking the 5 hours I sometimes got was perfectly acceptable was actually working against all of my other healthy habits.

Sleep Smarter-Book-Quote-Three

Isn’t this quote eye-opening? See what I did there? 🙂

As I make my way through Sleep Smarter, I continue to learn the power sleep has on our entire lives. So many answers about why I would still feel weak, tired, stressed, and worn out after leading such a health-regimented routine have been revealed. From brain health to performance to recovery and even your level of success; sleep is potent stuff!

There are only a couple days left to pre-order the book to not only learn the 21 Essential Strategies to Sleep Your Way to a Better Body, Better Health, and Bigger Success, but to earn some awesome pre-order bonuses.

Just one book pre-ordered will get you:

  • $25 Thrive Market Gift Card + 1-Month Free Membership
  • Free one year (10 issue) subscription to Men’s Health or Women’s Health Magazine
  • Free Sleep Smarter Video Series ($49 value)

Have friends and family that you love and care for? Of course you do! Pre-order 5 books and get:

  • $25 Thrive Market Gift Card + 1-Month Free Membership
  • Free one year (10 issue) subscription to Men’s Health or Women’s Health magazine
  • Free Sleep Smarter Video Series ($49 value)
  • FREE bottle of EASE topical magnesium ($30)
  • 5 entry tickets to win a new intelliBED (Bed valued up to $4,399)*

It only gets better with the more books you order. Don’t wait, save yourself some cash with the pre-order price and get the priceless gift of better health and happiness in return.

After you order, please let me know so we can share what we learn in the book together! Now, go get your sleep on!