How To Get A Better Night's Sleep With Young Kids

Did you know insufficient sleep can make you fat, stupid, and dead? Fast Company briefly explains why and suggests that you 'train in the subtle arts of getting to bed the right way.'

These suggestions are helpful but fail to address a subset of the adult population and root cause of their lack of sleep— parents with young kids.

If you're a parent, sometimes it's them not you, for why you aren't catching enough zzz's. Good news is the same tenets are applicable to THEM in the same context as well. Here's how and what you can do.

• Exercise - Fortunately, the gym is not a requisite for this. For both kids and adults, 'intense activity necessitates intense rest'. While your kids might not be jogging the tread mill, once kids know how to walk, they're running in no time and fast, wherever there's space and opportunity. Keep your kids active and bring them to places where they can run around, jump, and climb to burn off some energy for a better night's rest. Parks are an affordable suggestion but if it's winter, too cold, or raining, take them, perhaps, to a nearby mall with a play area. It's just as affordable as the park (ahem, free) and they can have the opportunity to socially interact with other kids as well.


• Bedtime - If you need 7 hours of sleep, subtract 7 from the time you need to be up and make sure you're in bed by then, the article suggests for adults. For kids, however, set their bedtime around the same time every night. Obviously, their sleep time won't be exact every night (just like us, they're not robots :>) but their bodies will get used to the routine and hour when you're consistent.


• Allow time - It's funny, you're not doing anything when you're sleeping, yet it takes a decent amount of effort to get there— using the bathroom, brushing teeth, changing into pajamas, to name a few— that you might actually avoid going to bed because of the process. With kids, the hassle is sometimes (often times) even greater because they're even more outrightly reluctant to do those very things. Add 10 minutes to all that, too, for bedtime stories. Like yourself, give your kids a sufficient amount of time to do the things they need to do before bed. Add extra time, if you can, for reluctancy. This is when that time-subtracting exercise might come in handy. That is, (Time to start getting ready for bed) = (Time you want them in bed) - [(Time it takes you to do all the things they need to do) + (5-minutes for reluctant fuss time)].


• Unplug - For adults, the internet and tv might keep us wired and awake, so they suggest getting unplugged for bedtime. For your kids, avoid the same that will get them wired, including consuming sugary items and jumping on the bed. Turning off the lights, speaking softer, and creating a peaceful, nighttime environment can also help.


• Ritual and routine - We are creatures of habit— both us and our kids— and the more often we do the same thing, the easier it is for us to do it and even without thinking. Create a routine for your kids by doing the same thing day in and day out for them to know what to expect. Hopefully, that way, their reluctance is minimized because they are empowered by knowing exactly what to do. Also, give them time to dance. Some or most of us, don't just plop into bed and fall asleep right away. We fix our pillows, adjust the blanket, and find a comfortable position to fall asleep. Kids are no different. You might put them in bed but give them a little time to say good night to their stuffed friends (if they sleep with them), ask the questions their curious minds need answered, and settle in before shutting eye.


• Dinner! - This wasn't included on Fast Company's list of suggestions but is really important for both kids and adults. Never go to bed hungry. While you may be able to fall asleep, your body, young or old, will wake you up if it's too hungry. Believe it or not, your body still needs energy even when it's sleeping like a log. Achieve this by eating a good dinner. Take time to actually sit down and eat together. Encourage healthy eating habits and nutrition, including engaging in conversation.

There's more to add to this list but this a good start. What helps YOUR little ones sleep better?

Share your tips in the Comments below, we'd love to hear! :>

Happy Healthy Juicy Better Night's Rest, Parents and Kids Included!

Pork Vegetable Stir-Fry - A HealthyButJuicy Original #15minuterecipe!

If you thought 30-minute meals was fast, try 15 seconds!

HealthyButJuicy kicks off its 15-second video recipes with Pork Vegetable Stir-Fry. Follow @mdesenna on Instagram for instant video-licious gratification and check back here for the detailed recipes. Dishes will be 100% HealthyButJuicy and scrumptious!



So one of the key skills you should develop when cooking HealthyButJuicy is to be able to modify recipes to your likes, tastes, budget, and what you simply have on hand. We called this dish Pork Vegetable Stir-Fry but if you don't eat or like pork, you can simply swap it out for ground beef, chicken, or turkey, firm tofu, or even meat substitute crumbles.

As for the vegetables, we used edamame and carrots (a couple of my daughter's favorites), red bell pepper, and scallions (aka. green onions). We would have added corn, which would have been a nice additional color (and another of my daughter's favorite) but we didn't have any. No biggie.

My daughter ended up not really liking the red peppers— we don't typically eat it often— but I thought it was a great addition both in terms of color, flavor, and texture. It added a bit of sweet- and juiciness and complimented the salmon that we ate with this dish well.

Re: kids and food dislikes. I am all for offering new foods to my daughter (almost 2!). Variety is the spice of life, isn't it? :> And it's important to offer variety to your kids when they're young because as we grow older we tend to be less willing to try new things or foods we think we don't like. As Ellen Satyr (a child nutrition expert) has said, sometimes it takes as many as 15-20 times for kid try a new food before s/he likes it (I remember that because I got that question wrong on a quiz in grad school :>).

Also, offering foods your kids may not necessarily like can actually help teach them some proper table manners. Instead of throwing food on the floor or across the room, my daughter now either gives the food to me to put on my plate, puts the food she doesn't want on her own plate (farthest away from her), or puts it back on the main serving dish. (Perhaps the latter isn't very proper but it's a step up from across the room. :>)

Pork Vegetable Stir-Fry Recipe

Ingredients
3 medium Carrots, diced
1-2 cups Low-Sodium Chicken Broth/Stock (enough to cover the carrots in a small pot)
4 oz. Ground Pork
2 Scallions, finely-sliced
1 Red Bell Pepper, diced
1 cup frozen, thawed Edamame
1-2 tbsp. Oyster Sauce
Oil, as needed

1. In a small pot, cook the carrots in the broth. Carrots take longer than the other vegetables to cook. Cook them to your desired consistency. We cook them until semi-firm to-the-bite, or how my daughter likes it. Skipping this step is also an option if you don't mind your carrots crunchy.
2. In a large wok or deep pan, heat up some oil (about 1-2 tbsp). Add the pork, spreading it across the pan. We're looking for a good sear to bring out the flavor.
3. Add the scallions and toss to release some of its flavors.
4. Scoop out of pan onto serving dish.
5. Add a little more oil to the pan and let it heat up a little.
6. Add the peppers and toss to coat. Cover the pan slightly to soften.
7. Toss in the other vegetables and stir-fry until everything is warmed up.
8. Add the pork and scallion mix.
9. Add a little bit of oyster sauce and re-toss.
10. Transfer the everything back to the serving dish. Voila!

Tweet or Instagram us a pic of this recipe if you try it! Tag your posts with #healthybutjuicy #15secondrecipe

We'd love to see your versions and how it turned out!

Happy Healthy Juicy Make-It-Your-Own Stir-Fry!

How To Buy HealthyButJuicy Kid's Yogurt!

What is essentially bacterial fermented milk— yogurt— has come a long way within the last five decades or so, not surprisingly along with America's tech-savvy of playing with food and its expanding waistline.

Remember Colombo Yogurt? Remember its minimal Ingredients List? Supposedly, it was one of the pioneers to introducing Americans to yogurt in the late 1920s and then was later bought out by General Mills, only to be discontinued because of Yoplait.

Yoplait! You know, the brand with that commercial where the woman is telling her friend on the phone all the delicious 'food' she's been eating while losing weight, while her husband is eaves-dropping and frantically looking in the fridge for her goodies. He missed the stacks of light yogurt right in front of him with flavor names such as: Thick & Creamy Cinnamon Roll, Black Forest Cake, Apple Turnover, Red Velvet Cake, Boston Creme Pie, Pineapple Upside Down Cake, Thick & Creamy Cherry Cobbler... Pretty much every decadent baked good you can think of in the form of yogurt.

Sigh.

According to Wikipedia:

Yogurt's popularity in the United States was enhanced in the 1950s and 1960s, when it was presented as a health food.

Sigh again. And there began the demise of yogurt. Deem anything healthy and you can count on Americans to bastardize it. (No offense, America... love you.) But now, yogurt doesn't just take a slither of an aisle but spans an entire one. So many options! Lions and tigers and flavors and sizes and prices and consistencies and packaging and nutritional profiles, o my!

But still, we'd like our kids to eat yogurt because of those originally-known benefits— live cultures, or 'good bacteria'— as well as source of calcium and protein. But how and/or which to choose??

Run down the whole yogurt aisle and watch and learn which are HealthyButJuicy's top picks and why!



Agree or disagree with what you saw? Comment below your thoughts, opinions, and tastes! We'd love to hear! :>

Bay Area Kids Things To Do: Bay Area Discovery Museum!

Live in the Bay Area? Looking for something to do with the kiddies? Join us for an adventure to the Bay Area Discovery Museum! We'll show you what we did and saw. This place is great and definitely HealthyButJuicy! Packed full of fun, learning, discovering, laughing, and active climbing, crawling, running, and socialization :>

We didn't even have time to see all the exhibits. We'll definitely have to go back :)

Have any suggestion of where else we should go? Let us know in the comments below, we'd love to hear!

Link to the museum: http://www.baykidsmuseum.org

Enjoy and thanks for watching!

How To Peel & Segment An Orange

You sometimes find segmented oranges in fancy restaurants or during special events but cutting oranges this way has become a daily routine for me. Baby loves oranges! But she can't eat (or chew!) it if it still has the membrane attached, so I've been cutting oranges like ever since Baby's taken up solid food.

Oranges are a definitely HealthyButJuicy! And should be a staple in your diet. They're loaded with fiber (assuming you eat the membrane), vitamin C, and antioxidants, and will satisfy any sweet tooth without the guilt!

They're also a perfect baby food, being soft, juicy, and delicious— a sweet treat you can actually encourage your kid(s) to eat! Healthy habits do start early so it's important to feed your kid(s) with nutritious food from the beginning!

Segmenting an orange isn't as difficult as it might seem. Watch, learn, and eat 'em up! :)

Comment below what healthy foods you've been feeding YOUR kid(s) and if you've tried this technique yourself, we'd love to hear!

Enjoy and, as always, thanks for watching!

Clean Eating-Out Idea With Small Children!

Eating out with small children isn't always the cleanest— their little hands get everywhere and public tables are exactly the cleanest. One solution is to get those one-time-use disposable placemats but I find those to be terribly expensive, so here's my eco- and wallet-friendly solution.

If you have other ideas or parent tips, please share them in the comments section, we'd love to hear!

Enjoy and thanks for watching!

Study Finds Children Are Unhealthy For Our Diet

A recent study published in the European Review of Agricultural Economics found that 'presence of children in a household has a negative impact on dietary quality.'

This included lower intakes of fruits and vegetables, and higher intakes of dairy products, cereal, and potatoes.

It's time we stop feeding our kids like this:




And learn to feed them like this:




Because not only are they becoming like this:




But so are we.




Happy Healthy Juicy The Children Are NOT To Blame! We Must Do [Eat & Learn] Better!

Pretty Woman Shares Insight on How to Age Pretty

Julia Roberts has been working the media circuit as of late to promote her new film, Eat Pray Love, out this Friday. Her promotional tour includes a slew of appearances, including one on the September cover of Elle magazine.

In her interview with the fashion magazine, the soon-to-be 43-year-old comments on aging,

'We live in such a panicked, dysmorphic society where women don't even give themselves a chance to see what they'll look like as older persons.'

So how does this mother-of-three feel about injecting paralyzing neurotoxic protein [the same that causes botulism] into her face in the name of vanity? In response to Botox, she says,

'I want my kids to know when I’m pissed, when I’m happy, and when I’m confounded. Your face tells a story... and it shouldn't be a story about your drive to the doctor's office.'

Looks like this Pretty Woman just keeps on getting prettier.

Hopefully her comments will be fashionable enough to sway the over 2.5 million people [yes, women AND men] in the US that got it last year from being repeat offenders and the many more that are even thinking about, or might be influenced into, doing it.


Happy Healthy Juicy au naturel Faces that can move!

A Loving Home is Better Than None

Within this week alone, I've unintenially encountered, on three separate occasions, stories of alternative means of parenting. I wonder: Is this the next or latest trend?

First, there was the article in the August issue of Marie Claire, which admittedly has some of the best articles on love and relationships. The [true] story is about a single, divorced woman who has and a child with her two gay best friends. Well, only one of them donates the sperm, but, together, they are all raising the 'baster' child.

Then, I caught glimpse of this new tv show, called '{Strange} Sex', on none other than the network that brings you the Duggers, Gosselins, and 'I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant', good ole' TLC. The episode features this self-proclaimed high-self-esteemed woman and two guys in a polyamorous relationship, where she has a kid with one of them, but they raise the kid together, as they all live together. The episode ends with the three parents meeting a new potential love interest, who might join the group, as 'poly' isn't limited to just three [plus baby].

Then, as a supporter of Team BritBrit, I cracked open the August issue of Cosmopolitan, a read I don't recommend if you want to boost or even maintain your faith in men. The article discusses how more and more women are not depending on being in a relationship to attend to their biological clocks ticking away; instead, they're purposefully inducing themselves into single parenthood.

[T]he idea of “family” has changed drastically over recent years, and people have a more flexible view–whether it’s kids being raised by unmarried couples, gay couples, or single parents. “A large number of us have also witnessed our parents go through a nasty divorce or had absentee fathers, so that intact nuclear family just isn’t the model anymore,” says Mattes [the director of Single Mothers By Choice]. The result: single motherhood is a growing trend.

The whole thing is pretty fascinating. The first two stories remind me of Full House [funny but unconventional and, at least on screen, it worked, if the sappiness wasn't debilitatingly nauseating], the last makes me come up with Jay-Z. The idea of an 'intact' [whatever that means] nuclear family being the ideal is a rigid one. Love is love and is unbounded and fruitful, whether it be from 1, 2, 3,...


Happy Healthy Juicy Parents with Love!

Feeding our kids.. better, let's try.

A woman is out to lunch with her child and is ordering her meal—salad complication. When she finishes ordering, she then explains/apologizes, but her son won't be getting anything.

She uses some lame excuse— he's a picky eater [proceeded by..] he only eats these giant black&whites cookies, which she points to and which she conveniently picked up for him on the way over. [Story 1].

. . . .

Not everyone has the time, or money for that matter, to afford to eat lunch out at a sit-down restaurant. Subway dining or noshing is an alternative many in the city tend to practice, even parents...

A mom strolls her child in the subway around noon-ish and comfortably sits in the two-seater at the end of a car. There is a paper bag nestled on the top of the stroller— a convenient place many stroller parents stash their nosh while on the go. She reaches her hand in and pulls out some fries, along with a whiff of McDonald's that permeates the stagnant air. She hands a fry to her daughter and snacks on some herself— it's lunchtime. Apparently, it's also branding time. [Story 2].


(She looks hooked, doesn't she?... oops.)

. . . .

It's (almost) 10pm and the woman sitting next to me does know where her child is because, after a slight yawn, her little one asks, 'Mommy, where's my cheese doodles?', in the cutest of voices no less.

Mommy responds, 'I don't have any cheese doodles.'

As if Mommy did.not.just.say.that, the 3 year old calmly repeats: 'Mommy, where's my cheese doodles?' Then taps Mommy's big purse bag, in case she had a slight lapse in memory.

Mommy repeats, 'I didn't buy any cheese doodles.', opens her bag, and stands by her word. And that was that. No cheese doodles were consumed. Should Mommy have had the so-requested cheese doodles, however, another story would have resulted. [Story 3].

. . . .

With parenting, comes great responsibility. Are they safe? Are they getting what they need? Are they healthy?

The thing about parenting is that we can only do so much. In just but a few years of life, kids go off to school and playdates and whathaveyou and become subject to things outside the guidance, rules, principles, and culture of their parents/guardians. Nonetheless, however, parents and guardians still hold, for the most part, most of the accountability of how their children are raised.


The above three stories are real and in each there is value we can gain from.

Story 1: Mother eats healthy but doesn't feed her son so.
Response: Props to Mother for eating her greens but enabling cookie-monster tendencies in her son is uncalled for, nutritionally unwise, and preventable. A) Children don't have money or much means to get food on their own. B) Children need to eat. C) Children will [have to] eat what they are given when they are hungry. Share some salad, Mom.

Story 2: Mother noshes on [double] fried & flavored starch.
Response: Mother, what you eat is [to some extent] your business, but do you have to endorse the multi-billion dollar business and train your child's taste preferences with its fuel [aka. fries et al.] which will later then fuel its already ridiculous profit margin? Children need nutrients. Food [naturally] with vitamins, minerals, and fiber, they're all a good thing. O, and parents, they need nutrients too.

Story 3: Mother doesn't enable and child doesn't fuss.
Response: OMG, I know. It is actually possible to not feed your child crap and without headache too. Because the child knows about cheese doodles, though, implies Mom's bought them for her before, but hey, as always, everything in moderation.


It's not about perfection— which doesn't exist — or restriction, for that matter. It's about..


Happy Healthy Juicy Child Nutrition & Their Future!

Scandal may be juicy but healthy it is not.

The latest ya ya to hit the circuit is Sarah Ferguson, who's no stranger to dishonesty in the public eye. Toe-sucking was not involved this time around but slobbering over piles of ca$h unfortunately was. Ferguson was caught on video accepting $40,000 (USD) downpayment of over $700,000 from an undercover reporter in exchange to "open doors" to her ex, the Duke of York.

The whole thing is completely ridiculous and nauseating.. oops, I mean, unsettling, as is she.

Here's why:
The woman is known for frivolous spending and lavish lifestyle.
On top of her $20,000+ yearly stipend after divorce, she has been actually successful in using her [former] marital status to earn a very decent living. For example, she was the spokesperson for Weight Watchers for a decade, earning an income of $1 million dollars *per year*— and that was just one of her gigs.

Where did the money go? Paying off debt along with continuing to not just think but act as if she were still royalty.

For those in her defense claiming the difficulty of going from extravagence to something less so..? Boo hoo hoo. Poor her? Tough. If she really wanted all that then maybe she should've done more to save the marriage that granted her such things. I'm just sayin'..

What's even worse is that she's affiliated to children, and not just her own.

"I hate grown-ups and I love children. Thank you very much," she said upon accepting an award for her children's charity work recently.

On one hand, whether it's genuine or not, at least she's doing something respectable for others– note, however, no leak of misdeed has yet been reported.

Aside from charities, she also proclaims herself as such: "The bottom line is, at the end of the day, you know what, I am a foghorn for silent whispers, I am a children's book author, I am Sarah Ferguson, I am a mum, and I am so very proud of that." That was at the BookExpo America at the Javitz Center, to where she escaped England and promoted her new children's series.

She's also been previously quoted as saying, "What I love most about being a mother is loving, nurturing and teaching my girls. We are an incredibly close and honest family." Take that as you will.

At the Expo, some of the reaction was a bit startling. One author in attendance said, "We're writers. What matters is what we write — not who we are." What this guy obviously doesn't know is that it does. It's as if to say Twi-hards are only interested in the [fictional] characters and storyline of Edward and Bella, and couldn't care less about Rob and Kristen in real life. I'm sure they wish.. It's as if to say, 'Who cares if Chris Brown beat Rihanna to a swollen mess? All that matters is that he makes music.' The consumers are children and their teachers [inc. parents] for pete's sake. Is this a person we want our children to learn from?? (yes, that's 2, count TWO, question marks.)

Yet, another agreed, adding, "Her book and her name is more important than what she may have done, or I guess did, since it's on a video. It probably will hurt her more in England than here. Maybe the Queen will do something. But here, the publicity might even help her books."

Well, there is the saying, 'There's no such thing as bad press.'

The way it works is that now, because of this SCANDAL (mind you), there's all this media attention on her and what she's now doing. Interest is piqued and thus wallets are now potentially apt to open for purchase of not just newspapers and magazines but the books she's authored as well.

What I'm saying is this: On Amazon, there are over 800,000 (and counting) books categorized under 'Children's Books'. Endorse and support someone who might be just a tad more deserving, and don't fall for the marketing spawned out of dishone$ty. You probably work hard for your $$, do you really want to $hell yours out to someone who, well, doesn't really?


Happy Healthy Juicy Honest Reading Kids!