Healthy lifestyle sports and fitness winter and summer sports

1.Healthy Living Step
Check your mood and energy. Healthy living includes emotional wellness and adequate rest. How has your mood been lately? Are you experiencing any symptoms of depression or anxiety? Do you usually sleep well for seven to eight hours a night?
Consider your social network. How strong are your connections with family and friends? Are you plugged in with social or spiritual groups that enrich your life? "People have a fundamental need for positive and lasting relationships," C. Nathan DeWall, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Kentucky, tells WebMD.
If you're not thrilled with the answers to some of those questions, remember that the point is to figure out where you are today so you can set your healthy living goals. It's not about being "good" or "bad," "right" or "wrong."
With good food habits and daily physical activity you will be well on your way to a healthy life. Easy to say, but sometimes not so easy to do!
Our busy lifestyles can be hard on our family’s health. Rushing to and from school and work can make it hard to find time to be physically active. We can also slip into the habit of choosing unhealthy snacks and take-away foods or spending our free time watching TV or in front of the computer.
However, these choices can be dangerous for our health and our children’s health – both now and in the long-term. That’s why it’s so important to stop, take stock and make a conscious decision to follow a healthy lifestyle.
How to lead a healthy lifestyle
There are five simple ways for your family to lead a healthy lifestyle and get back on track:
1. Get active each day
Regular physical activity is important for the healthy growth, development and well-being of children and young people.
They should get at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day, including vigorous activities that make them ‘huff and puff’.
Include activities that strengthen muscles and bones on at least 3 days of the week.
Parents should be good role models and have a positive attitude to being active.
2. Choose water as a drink
Water is the best way to quench your thirst – and it doesn’t come with the added sugar found in fruit juices, soft drinks and other sweetened drinks.
Reduced fat milk for children over two is a nutritious drink and a great source of calcium.
Give kids whole fruit to eat, rather than offering fruit juices that have a lot of sugar.
3. Eat more fruit and vegetables
Eating fruit and vegetables every day helps children grow and develop, boosts their vitality and can reduce the risk of many chronic diseases.
Aim to eat two serves of fruit and five serves of vegetables every day.
Have fresh fruit available as a convenient snack and try to include fruit and vegies in every meal.
4. Switch off the screen and get active
Sedentary or ‘still’ time spent watching TV, surfing online or playing computer games is linked to kids becoming overweight or obese.
Children and young people should spend no more than two hours a day on ‘small screen’ entertainment. Break up long periods of use as often as possible.
Plan a range of active indoor and outdoor games or activities for your children, as alternatives to watching TV or playing on the computer.
5. Eat fewer snacks and select healthier alternatives
Healthy snacks help children and young people meet their daily nutritional needs.
Snacks based on fruit and vegetables, reduced fat dairy products and whole grains are the healthiest choices.
Avoid snacks that are high in sugar or saturated fats – such as chips, cakes and chocolate – which can cause children to put on excess weight.
Personalized Experience
At Mayo Clinic, our primary value is that "the needs of the patient come first," and this holds true for every guest of the Healthy Living Program. Your likes, dislikes, past successes, and challenges are all unique to you. By getting to know you, the Healthy Living Program is able to customize an experience to help achieve your wellness goals.
Expert Guidance
The hallmark of Mayo Clinic is integrated group practice. This means a multi-disciplinary team will focus on your care. This same principle is true of the Healthy Living Program. You will be surrounded by a full team of experts ensuring you receive a comprehensive, individualized wellness experience.
Certified Wellness Coaches
Research demonstrates the importance of wellness coaches to achieving success. Many of our offerings are supported by a Mayo Clinic Certified Wellness Coach who will be with you throughout your journey, even after your visit for ongoing support.
A balanced diet
Simple guidelines from qualified experts make it easy to have a balanced diet and nutritious and healthy food.
The 5 food groups
The best way to eat for health is to choose a variety of foods from each of the 5 food groups every day:
vegetables and legumes (beans)
fruit
grains and cereals
lean meat, poultry, fish, eggs, legumes (beans) tofu, nuts, seeds
milk, cheese yoghurt or alternatives.
Each food group has important nutrients.
The amount of each food you need will vary during your life, depending on factors such as how active you are and whether or not you are growing, pregnant, breastfeeding and more.
Vegetables and legumes (beans and peas)
Vegetables and legumes have hundreds of natural nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, and dietary fibre.
To get the most from this group:
choose vegetables and legumes in season
look for different colours:
greens like beans, peas and broccoli
red, orange or yellow vegetables like capsicums, tomatoes, carrots, sweet potato and pumpkin
purple vegetables like red cabbage and eggplant
white vegetables like cauliflower, mushrooms and potatoes.
Eating your vegetables raw is indeed sometimes the healthier option. However; there are also some vegetables which offer useful health benefits when they're cooked.
How much?
2 year-olds, 2½ serves a day
adults and children aged 9 and over, 5 serves a day.
One serve is ½ cup cooked or 1 cup raw.
You can include vegetables at lunch (salads, raw vegies or soups) as well as dinner. Cherry tomatoes, snow peas, green beans, red capsicum, celery or carrot sticks with hummus makes a great snack.
Fruit
Fresh fruit is a good source of vitamins and dietary fibre. It’s best to eat fresh fruit.
How much?
2 to 3 year-olds, 1 piece a day
4 to 8 year-olds, 1½ pieces a day
adults and children over 9, 2 pieces a day.
If you want to have fruit juices, do it only occasionally. Half a cup is enough. Fruit juices lack fibre and they’re not filling. Their acidity can also damage tooth enamel. Commercial fruit juices are often high in sugars.
Dried fruit also has a high sugar content. It is only suitable as an occasional extra.
Grains and cereal foods
Grain foods include rolled oats, brown rice, wholemeal and wholegrain breads, cracked wheat, barley, buckwheat and breakfast cereals like muesli.
Wholegrains have protein, dietary fibre, minerals and vitamins. In processed grains, some of these nutrients are lost.
How much?
2 to 8 year-olds, start with 4 serves a day
14 to 18 year-olds, 7 or more serves
adults, 6 or 7 serves a day depending on activity.
A serve is equivalent to:
1 slice of bread, or
½ cup cooked rice, oats, pasta or other grain, or 3 rye crispbread, or
30g of breakfast cereal ( ⅔ cup flakes or ¼ cup muesli).
Lean meat, poultry, fish, eggs, legumes (beans) tofu, nuts and seeds
These foods provide protein, minerals and vitamins. Legumes, nuts and seeds also have dietary fibre. It’s good to choose a variety of foods from this group.
How much?
2 to 3 year-olds, 1 serve a day
4 to 8 year-olds, 1½ serves a day
women and children over 9, 2½ serves a day
men aged 19 to 50, 3 serves a day
A serve is 65g cooked red meat, or 80g poultry, or 100g fish, or 2 eggs, or 1up legumes, or 170g tofu, or 30g nuts, seeds or pastes (peanut butter or tahini).
Adults should eat no more than 500 g of red meat a week. There is evidence that those eating more than 500 g of red meat may have an increased risk of bowel cancer.
Milk, cheeses, yoghurts
Milk gives you protein, vitamins and calcium. Soy drinks with added calcium can be used as a milk substitute for children over 1.
Some nut or oat milks have added calcium but they lack vitamin B12 and enough protein. Check your child’s total diet with a doctor or qualified dietician before using them.
Children should have full-cream milk until aged 2. Reduced-fat varieties may be suitable after that.
Read more on Pregnancy, Birth and Baby on introducing allergy foods to babies and children.
How much?
2 to 3 year-olds, 1½ serves a day
4 to 8 year-olds, 1½ serves (girls), 2 serves (boys) a day
9 to 11 year olds, 2½ serves (boys), 3 serves (girls) a day
12 to 18 year-olds, 3½ serves a day
adults, 2½ serves a day.
A serve is 1 cup of milk, or 2 slices of cheese, or 200g yoghurt.
If you use plant-based alternatives to milk, like soy milk, check that they have at least 100mg calcium per 100 mL.
Drinks
Apart from milk, the ideal drink for children is tap water.
Discretionary choices
Foods that are not included in the 5 food groups are called ‘discretionary choices’ or ‘extras’. Some of it could be called junk food.
You can eat small amounts of unsaturated oils and spreads. These may be from olives, soybeans, corn, canola, sunflower, safflower, sesame or grapeseeds.
Other ‘discretionary choices’ are not needed in a healthy diet. This includes:
biscuits
cakes
ice cream
ice blocks
soft drinks
cordials, sports, fruit and energy drinks
lollies and chocolates
processed meats
potato crisps
savoury snack foods
commercial burgers
hot chips
fried foods
alcohol.
These foods and drinks often provide excess energy, saturated fat, sugar or salt. They are often described as ‘energy-rich but nutrient-poor’.
They also often replace healthier foods in the diet.
In Australia about 40% of children’s food energy come from discretionary foods. This is too high for their good health.
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Diet reviews
According to Australia’s latest National Nutrition Survey, more than 2.3 million Australians (13%) aged 15 years and older say they are on a diet to lose weight or to improve their health. Weight loss is best achieved by a balanced healthy eating plan based on best evidence and expert opinion. Fad diets may or may not be based on real scientific evidence or have endorsement by the bulk of experts.
Here are some of the diets you may have heard about.
Meal replacement shakes