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There’s a giant myth in teen health and teen fitness. People think to accomplish these, as well as college health, you need to workout for 90 minutes, do tons of sit ups, etc. However, this is the old way of thinking. College health and teen health can be easily had with small changes. First off, to achieve teen fitness and college health you don't need to eat like a robot or workout like a madman. Let's get that myth out there. To get teen health, you need to be healthy. To get college health, you need to live a healthy lifestyle. Teen health isn't as complicated as people think. TIP ONE: To get teen health and college health, concentrate on eating healthy before dieting. Teen fitness doesn't come by eating chicken and spinach every few hours. Small, healthy meals spread out throughout the day will do wonders for teen fitness. I'm not recommending Fritos, pizza and Burger King for teen fitness and college health, but I am suggesting concentrating on eating healthy. Small changes before big ones will make a work of different in teen fitness. For example, you can easily save hundreds of calories a day by making small changes. Teen health is a problem because of many things, including dieting. Imagine college health with small changes. Switch your Big Mac to a McChicken without cheese or mayo. Change your large fries to a medium, and your large Coke to diet. You just saved around 600 calories. Teen fitness and teen health can't come easier than that! TIP TWO: Lift weights to lose weight for college health and teen health. The only thing in your body that burns calories is muscle. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn. Teen fitness would be a lot better if teens got off the treadmill or elliptical and lifted weights. College health would be better if students did more squats and lunges than jogging or biking. I'm not saying college health and teen health will be accomplished by doing heavy sets with terrible form. However, you can achieve teen fitness easier with using free weights (or, if worse comes to worse, machines). TIP THREE: To get better teen fitness and college health, shorten your workouts. That's pretty easy. How can you shorten a workout and make it just as good for fat loss? Shorten your rest, and you will be well on the way to teen health and teen fitness. College health and teen health will be a lot better with exercises like squats, jumping jacks, and jump rope. When is the last time you did 50 jumping jacks? I promise you, if you try it you will be much more tired than if you did the treadmill. If you're at the gym longer than an hour, you're there for too long. Teen health, teen fitness and college health can still be achieved with shorter workouts. But please, make these workouts with weights! Matt Elder is the co-owner of http://www.GenerationYfitness.com , the world's only website designed just for high school and college students. The site is exclusive to members, but is completely free. |
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How healthy are your teen's food habits? As a parent, when you send your teen off to school, do you know exactly what his/her diet consists of? Most parents answer I don't know to both of these questions. Once your teen reaches his/her young adult years it becomes more and more difficult to track their food habits. You no longer pack their lunch to school and it seems like between getting dressed and taking an hour in the bathroom each morning, your teen never has time for breakfast anymore. One of the biggest bad food habits which teens are accustomed to today is skipping breakfast. Skipping breakfast often has a negative effect on your teens metabolism, which in the long run can create weight control issues. Leaving the house without breakfast also impacts your teens mood and school performance. Breakfast gives your mind and your body the fuel it needs for the day; hence we call it the most important meal of the day. Another bad food regimen for teens is snacking. Whether at home or at school teens tend to grab chips, cookies, or any other snack food over fruit or vegetables. When your teen is in a lunch line and he/she has an option of grabbing a chocolate chip cookie or an apple, which one do you think your son/daughter will chose? The obvious and often right answer is a cookie. The third bad food habit which teens are known for is fast food consumption. Believe or not, teens today often have very busy and hectic schedules. Between school, extracurricular activities, and part time jobs, teens are often on the road most of the day. Their schedules force them to miss regular meal times and rely strictly on fast food restaurants. With all of these bad food habits, what is it that a parent can do to improve their teenager's diet? If you are at home every morning with your teen, try to entice your son/daughter to sit down with you for a few minutes and eat a bowl of cereal or whatever it is that you know your teen loves to eat for breakfast. Also after school, which is the time when most teenagers snack, be sure that you have some fruit peeled on the table. Sometimes teens will avoid fruit because they simply don't feel like washing it or peeling it. Last, try to eliminate the amount of junk food that you have at home, when your teen does not have a bag of chips to grab, he/she might opt for something healthier. Lauren S. Johnson writes health articles about fitness and nutrition. Some of her favorite passions include studying the medicinal benefits of herbal remedies for antidepressant,diet pills, and hoodia gordonii |
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If you discover that your teenager or child is addicted to cigarettes, it can be a frightening situation to deal with. As an adult, you realize the harmful effects of smoking and how devastating the deaths and sicknesses that can occur will be for your child. We never want to see anything bad happen to our children and smoking is one of the worst habits to pick up. But before you jump all over your child, stop and think through some strategies to help your teen stop smoking. The worst thing you can do to encourage your teen to stop smoking is to yell, scream, or demoralize your child. This will have the opposite effect of what you want. Teens already have a problem thinking that their parents do not understand them and if you go nuts when you find out the problem, in the mind of your child this will only solidify that you do not understand them or their position. This is not to say that punishment will not be necessary, particularly if you have clearly stated that smoking is not acceptable behavior in your home, but if you want your child to successfully stop smoking, punish with love and respect. The first thing you need to do is talk to your child about the reasons to stop smoking. It can be difficult for teens to recognize that all of the terrible effects they have heard about smoking can actually happen to them. You may want to have them talk to a smoker that you know, one who perhaps has some of these health problems, about the long-term effects. Remember, teens live in the now and they have a hard time thinking about the future. Right now, it is cool to smoke and they might not care about the future risks. It is your responsibility as a parent to convince your teen that they need to stop smoking for their own health. That is one easy to do. Once you have overcome that hurdle, give your teen the support that they need to stop smoking. Assure them that you realize it will not be easy. Many teens think they can stop smoking whenever they want. This is not the case and they are often discouraged when they find that they are truly addicted! Tell your teen that they will probably fail in their first attempts to stop, but that the important thing is to keep at it. Assure them of your support! You may need to consider outside counseling to help your child stop smoking, especially if you have never had a serious addiction. It can be hard for teens to relate to their parents, particularly about a hard-to-kick habit like smoking. Talk to your school and see if there is a counselor you can use. Or, consider talking to your pastor if you attend church. The most important thing you can do to help your child stop smoking is to be consistent and loving! Even though you are angry or embarrassed, if you are committed to helping them quit, you must be loving! Give support and be there to pick them up when they fail. This is the best way to help your child stop smoking! Michael RussellYour Independent Stop Smoking guide. |