Healthy Diet Tips for
Busy Families

Use these healthy diet tips and learn to eat to live and you're guaranteed to avoid the obesity epidemic that's sweeping the country.

Obesity is one of the top health issues today that our nation faces, and it is on the rise. With fast food restaurants on every corner in addition to lack of time, having a sit down nutritious meal is a thing of the past for most busy families.

Adult Obesity

Adult obesity accounts for about 37% of the obesity in the nation according to a study done in 2007. Many physicians say that this is a health crisis that they are not sure what to do about in all cases. Obesity has become the focus of many newspaper and magazine articles, because of the risks that it brings to an individual. Heart Disease and Diabetes are among the co-morbidities that obesity can create. Over a period of time, obesity will put stress and strain on vital organs of the body and strain joints sometimes beyond repair.

Teenage Obesity

It may surprise you that between 16 and 33% of all children and teens are obese. Obese teens and children also have problems with Heart Disease, Type 2 Diabetes, High Blood Pressure and they also suffer with emotional problems. Most experts say that the way to prevent an obese teen from becoming an obese adult is to help them start a healthy eating and exercise program.

Healthy Diet Tips You Can Use Now

Most moms have hectic schedules and this usually means they do not have time to prepare good nutritious foods. It is easier to stop at a fast food restaurant or heat up processed foods than it is to prepare whole foods.

These healthy diet tips will challenge these unhealthy eating patterns and stop the long term negative consequences of eating fast and overly processed foods.

In today's world, it is more important to pre-plan meals and snacks so that you can better control what is eaten. The United States Department of Agriculture's Food Pyramid provides great guidelines for how to eat more nutritionally. Here's a link to the Food Pyramid.

You provide your personal info such as age, height, and weight and it will give you a customized food guide.

Healthy diet tips requires that you not only plan, but research recipes and prepare meals ahead of time, say all at once on a Sunday, then the whole family can easily heat up meals throughout the rest of the week.

Some more great healthy diet tips for daily travel is to carry fruits and vegetables in bags so that kids and mom can munch on them throughout the day. Bring along water too so everyone stays hydrated. You can carry a small cooler so that you have foods for kids to snack on all the time.

I buy plain almonds in bulk then divide them up into ¼ cup portions and store in several sandwich bags. These make it easy to grab a nutritious snack on my way out the door. I also keep a couple of these bags in my purse at all times. And, what a life saver these almonds are. You'd be surprised at how filling ¼ cup of almonds can be!

Preparing your food and snacks are excellent healthy diet tips that will definitely save you time and energy later...not to mention money too.

Eat to Live and Not Live to Eat

Taking the time and energy to prepare food ahead of time will insure that you and your children will eat to live not live to eat and will help avoid the diseases that accompany obesity.

Here's some quick and healthy meal ideas for you and the kids

• Quesadillas (cheese on a tortilla, heat on a griddle, slice, and serve). Serve these with canned green beans, and a fruit cup (canned in fruit juice).
• BBQ Chicken quesadillas (cheese, canned chicken drained or left over chicken breast chopped, bbq sauce).
• Macaroni and cheese prepared with half the butter suggested and non-fat milk. Stir in some chopped up lean ham.
• English muffin pizzas (english muffins, tomato sauce, cheese, toast and serve). You can add any meat topping you want.
• Kid's antipasto plate (lean oven roasted deli meats, sliced up cheese, sliced up olives, pickles, crackers). Just put on a plate and serve.

• The classic PB&J. My older kids love this and I use this neat little cutter shown to the right to remove the crust and slice it at the same time.
• Cottage cheese is a great fast food. Scoop and dump into a bowl. Same goes for tuna too.

These are just some of the quick and simple snacks/meals you can put together for kids on short notice. For more great quick snack/meal ideas, just check out Quick Meals for Healthy Kids and Busy Parents.

Get Active

You'll want to incorporate activity in your family's life. Get the kids out for walks, or bicycling to insure they are getting the exercise they need. Remember your childhood games???? Play tag with them, how about leap frog, hide and go seek, duck duck goose. Twister anyone? They will be ecstatic at these games and they will get your family active. My kids love Twister and as a bonus, the bright circles on the mat teach them colors!

It only takes a little effort and imagination to plan your meals and snacks, prepare food ahead of time, and get your family active.

Obesity is a huge problem in America, but it doesn't have to be for you and your family. Start following these healthy diet tips and see your whole life turn around with a more positive outlook and better yet, more energy!

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