Saturday, December 30, 2017

"5 Super easy Cotton-ball Crafts for kids"- Creativity and fun assured!

We love crafting as a family. Crafting is the easiest way to explore creativity and imagination power in kids and the good news is that "kids loved it". Creating something on their own endows them with a self-confidence and positivity. Crafting has various benefits for kids, such as:

It helps in the development of higher thinking ability and creativity
Great boredom buster
For pre-schooler, it helps in the development of fine motor skills
Also, promote language development and constructive response to learning.

I always prefer a pre-planning and selection of craft theme during the weekend, for the upcoming week (especially during vacation). It is best to gather all craft supplies (preferably available at home) ahead for proper execution of the selected theme.

During this Christmas vacation, we had selected "cotton ball theme". Cotton is a Soft, inexpensive and easily available material. Kids like its texture and lots of cute and adorable craft can be made of this simple material. Sharing our collection of "cotton ball crafts":

Cotton ball ice-cream

Kids love ice-cream and kids love colours and cotton ball. It will be a great idea to incorporate their all favourite things together. They will have a kind of delicious fun, that wouldn't ruin their dinner. So for making a cotton ball ice-cream,

· First, take a plain paper and colour it with crayon or paint and make a cut out of ice cream cone
· Glue cotton for scoop of ice cream
· Put the drop of colours on cotton ball for natural look
· You may use pom-pom for decoration. Yummy delicious ice-cream is ready to enjoy.

Cotton ball photo-frame

Make a unique DIY photo frame with the soft cotton ball is another simple but elegant idea to display the cherished photos of kids and family. My daughters love bunny, so I had thought why not makes a bunny cut out photo frame with cotton balls. For making it,

· First, draw a bunny on a thick drawing sheet or on a card stack, and make a cut out of a bunny.
· Then colour the cotton ball in different colours and glue them to the cutout and stick the desired photo in the middle, your super cool bunny photo frame with the cotton ball is ready for decoration. after completing the first photo frame we were so excited, so for a variation, we had tried another one with some shiny stickers and cotton ball.

Cotton ball sheep

My little D is very excited and loves to do a large part of crafting "by her selves". So for her, we had selected "cotton ball sheep craft". It is a perfect fun craft for young children because they will enjoy combining cotton balls with glue and adding googly eyes will be an extra fun. So for making this,

· Make a sheep cut out from a thick white sheet.
· Glue cotton balls on the body of sheep.
· Glue the head, legs and tail separately.
· Add googly eyes and draw nose and mouth. A beautiful sheep craft is ready.

Cotton ball Santa

Santa is a favourite of all kids. Kids love to wait for Santa and his kids. Making an easy Santa craft with a cotton ball is really fun and when they will see the end result, they will have hours of fun with this simplest craft. For making this,

First, make a cut out of Santa from construction. Do not forget to use red construction paper as a hat.
· Glue cotton balls on the face. Add googly eyes and draw nose and mouth.
· An amazing Santa craft is ready.

Cotton ball flower

Cotton balls are absolutely awesome and make some pretty flowers with them is a wonderful idea. For making it,

· Draw some pretty flowers on the drawing sheet.
· Roll the cotton between palms so that they look like a thread.
· Place and glue them spirally on the petal of flowers.
· Apply colours and glitter for decoration.
· Pretty cotton flowers are ready.

We had lots of fun and creativity while doing "cotton ball crafts". What is your favourite craft theme? Which craft do you like most? Please share with us. Until then happy crafting!

this post is also a part of #supemomcontest hosted by http://healthwealthbridge.com/ and http://kreativemommy.com/5-things-motherhood-no-one-told/

also, the post is a part of #Mondaymusings hosted by everydaygyaan.com

Sunday, December 24, 2017

#Blogchatterprojects #HealthisDiamond- 5 Easiest ways to get exercise on a busy schedule

Being physically active and do regular exercise is one of the most important things that make our lifestyle healthier. And it has been a well-known fact that exercise boosts productivity, relieves stress, helps in healthy weight management and plays a great role in the prevention of various lifestyle disorders such as diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disorders.

Despite these well-known benefits, most of us wouldn’t be able to follow a regular exercise routine. Research shows that 1 in 4 adults don’t get exercise. And hectic life schedule may be to blame. When we had multiple responsibilities as a parent, worker, or as a spouse we often find 24 hours per day simply are not enough. And as a result fitness and regular exercise get put on the back burner.

Here I am sharing some simplest ways that have worked for me and my family to be physically active every day. Hoping it may help others.

Set a schedule and try to stick with it

We lived in an incredibly busy world. And we already had tons of duties and responsibilities. With a super busy schedule, if we want to make time for exercise, it is must to set a schedule according to your choice, and other preference. Pre-plan and decide the best time for exercise in your schedule and enter into a cell phone or computer as a repeated event, definitely help in maintaining a regular schedule. Personally, I am a little old fashioned I make a handwritten plan and put it on my work table along with other important to-do lists.

During routine busy days this pre-plan schedule will help a lot to form a mental picture that how and when we will exercise on that day. This thing also helps in keeping our self-motivated even with a hectic and tight work schedule.

Make fitness routine a “family activity”

The second and most important way that has worked for me, is to make fitness routine a family activity. Previously with multiple responsibilities, I often did not get enough time and a positive mood to do exercise regularly. Most of the time I have either “I am too tired” or “I am too bored” attitude and I gave up with a thought that “it is really hard for me, and I cannot do it regularly”.

After so many plans and strategies, I had decided to make fitness routine as a family activity. Now, I do a fun 30 min workout with my girls, some days we do a family yoga and go for a walk after dinner as a family. These smallest things had made a major change and now we are enjoying being physically active as a family. Spending time being physically active not only helps us to follow a regular exercise routine; it will help us to bond and strengthen the relationship as a family as well.

Never miss a chance to be physically active

Of course, exercise is a planned and intentional movement that has done to improve physical fitness, strength and flexibility. And no doubt, doing planned and regular exercise offers plenty of physical and mental health benefits. But if you had really a tight-busy schedule and wouldn’t be able to do planned exercise, you can at least try to be physically active.

This is a smart way that helps a lot in burning extra calories and shedding off extra pounds. This thing can be done by doing simplest tasks. Such as

Taking staircase instead of lift
Focus on more walking for routine errands or after dinner and lunch
Play a sport with family and friends Take break from sitting as often as possible
Do simple yoga moves or stretches while watching T.V. or cooking
Do household chores like cleaning, dusting or engaged yourself in creative physical activities like gardening, all counts when it comes to being just physically active.

Find fitness peer support or group

Sometimes it becomes so lonely when we struggled with maintaining a fitness routine or achieving our goals. Seeking out like-minded people will help you make progress and keep you motivated for being physically active and doing regular exercise. Doing an activity with the group or other people will make fitness more fun and interesting.

Apart from taking help of family and friends nowadays we had lots of other options such as walking club, yoga camps, neighbourhood boot camps or sport-specific camps. Joining these groups or activities is another way that can make our fitness journey easier especially with a busy routine.

Maintain a balance and set a realistic goal

Last but not the least it is very important to be realistic about your current health and health fitness level. If you are a beginner it is must go on slow and gradually increase the activity level. Also maintaining a balance with moderate attitude is equally important. Most of us have either overdo or do nothing attitude, and because of this we often struggle to make our fitness routine as a part of life.

So these are the things that have helped me to be physically active even during hectic routine days. What are your strategies that help you to do exercise regularly or being physically active? Please share with us!

This post is a part of #blogchatterprojects. And I would love to say again #healthisDiamond, #healthiswealth, let’s make health is the first priority.

this post is also a part of #supemomcontest hosted by http://healthwealthbridge.com/ and http://kreativemommy.com/5-things-motherhood-no-one-told/

also, the post is a part of #Mondaymusings hosted by everydaygyaan.com

Thursday, December 14, 2017

#Blogchatterprojects #HealthisDiamond - 10 Realistic ways to eat healthy with a busy lifestyle

“To eat is a necessity but to eat intelligently is an art- Francois Rocheyoulavid”

Very well said. it is true that healthy eating is one of the major components of the healthy lifestyle. And every day thousands of people (like us) make the decision to start eating better and healthy to make their lifestyle healthy as well as happy but often faced some common obstacles to adopt a healthy lifestyle .

I also had a similar story like most of the mom, when I had struggled really hard to follow a healthy diet routine (because of pressure of multiple responsibilities)

Here is my story:

My story

Being grew up in a typical vegetarian Indian family, we had a settled meal routine as full Indian platter (Dal, rice, chapatti, sabzi, salad etc.), since childhood. And during those days, eat a healthy, balanced and nutritious diet was not a struggle for us (and I think most of us who grew up in that era, would agree with me). In fact, I had followed a good diet routine without any discomfort for long years. But my real struggle gets started after being a mommy, especially after the birth of my second child, I got too stressed with multiple responsibilities and this pressure has affected my diet routine so adversely. I wouldn’t be able to follow my timing and other things like previously. I had skipped breakfast; I had eaten only leftover food from kids. In fact, sometimes I had no desire to eat because of lack of sleep, tension and anxiety.

I believed it is a common scenario that happens with most of the women after being a mom. No doubt, being a mom is the most beautiful experience of any women’s life, another side after being a mom, we always had tons of responsibilities it becomes difficult to maintain a strict diet, exercise or any self-care routine like we had done before.

By the way, coming back to the recent topic, healthy eating and after having a long period of struggle, I had observed that healthy eating is all about the making small changes. And here I am sharing some realistic ways that have helped me a lot to eat healthy even during busiest days.

And before making any diet changes it is very important to win the mind game.

Win the mind game and adopt healthy eating as a way of living

When we start a healthy diet in the form any strict diet change or diet plan, it becomes really hard to follow the same pattern for a long time. After some time, we get a sense of over temptation and get back to the old habits. Instead, when we try to adopt a way of living with a positive and optimistic attitude, it is more likely that we would be better able to make these changes as a part of our life.

Advance menu planning- of course, if we want to eat healthy food during hectic weekdays, it is must to pre-plan our weekday’s menu during weekends. Adopting healthy eating habits just got easier with the help of advance menu planning. And when we cook with an advanced pre-preparation for our self and our family, we shall likely wind up eating fewer calories, reducing saturated fats and sodium and increasing the number of fruits and vegetables.

Shop smartly- build a healthy diet with smart shopping is the second important strategy that makes your healthy eating a little easier... making the healthiest food choices when shopping and eating out is a key to consuming a well-balanced and healthy diet. Healthy food choices do not only help in stay within your calorie needs; they will also help in weight management as well. make a shopping list with healthy ingredients, avoid buying unhealthy packaged foods, read labels and select the appropriate product are some simple steps that help in healthy shopping.

Healthy makeover of your favourite recipes

Select recipes according to taste preference of your family and you can do a “healthy makeover” to create a healthy recipe. In fact, the ingredient substitution talents can help transform many unhealthy recipes into healthy recipes. We can use our creativity and imagination to find other ways to create healthy recipes

Never skip the breakfast

You may be tired of hearing about how breakfast is the most important meal of the day. But it is a scientifically proven fact, that eating a healthy and nutritious breakfast not only help you get a jump start on your day with positive mood and uplifting energy, it plays an important role in the prevention of various metabolic and lifestyle disorders such as diabetes, heart diseases as well.

Add more fruits and vegetables to your diet

Of course, fruits and vegetables are the great source of nutrition and include more fruits and vegetables in your diet, will help you in eating healthy. Here are the two simple way to do that.

Start the main meal with a vegetable platter- this is another simple but effective way to include more vegetables in your routine diet. Start your main meal with an attractive vegetable platter (preferably raw) with some healthy dressing. This step allows us to fill up sooner and help in eat less in the following meal. It is a simple way to maintain our vegetable requirement for the day. It helps in adding fibre in the diet and also a great source for healthy weight management.

Healthy snacking with fresh fruits and dry fruit- no doubt, unhealthy and processed food snack is the major cause of unnecessary calorie intake and may cause obesity and metabolic disorders at the young age. Eating a nutritious and healthy snack can boost your daily intakes of essential nutrients such as fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants. Always prepare some healthy snakes to carries for on the go, is a great way to avoid consumption of unhealthy and processed foods.

Replace the white bread and white rice with brown bread and brown rice- scientific studies suggested that brown rice and brown bread both are the finest source of vitamin B-complex, fibers and proteins. While white bread and white rice made with the refined flours. Refined carbohydrates are low in essential nutrients and have been linked with the range of health problems such as diabetes, cardiovascular disorders, and obesity. So why not replace the white bread and white rice with brown bread and brown rice? It is a healthier option and helps us feel full for a longer period of time.

Pay more attention to method of cooking

Apart from maintaining nutritional requirements, it is equally important to use a healthy method of cooking. Deep frying or overcooking often destroys nutritional elements of healthy cooking ingredients. So, try to use alternative healthy ways of cooking (such as steaming or stir-frying) is a great way to keep nutritional value of cooking ingredients intact.

Do not overeat

Avoid overeating. Overeating not only causes weight gain, but it also slows down the digestion and makes you prone to serious metabolic disorders. Instead, try to eat in every three hours will help to keep your blood sugar study and decrease overeating at meal times.

These are just some small but smart changes that can make a big difference. Still, I am in the learning phase and trying to incorporate the more healthy habits in my everyday life. I would definitely to learn more from experience. How did you manage a healthy eating pattern for you and your family, while dealing with multiple responsibilities? What are your secret weapons that help you eat better during hectic days? Please share with us!

This post is a part of #blogchatterprojects. And I would love to say again #healthisDiamond, #healthiswealth, let’s make health is a first priority.

Thursday, December 7, 2017

#Blogchatterprojects, #HealthisDiamond- Three common obstacles to adopting a healthy lifestyle and How to overcome them?

Leading a healthy lifestyle is a something that everyone wants to achieve. However, the pathway to good health is not as easy as sound. And most of us had some common circumstances.

Such as,

“Oh! I had tried to get up early, I had set the alarm with a plan to hit the gym or for the morning walk, I done my all possible effort to maintain a regular physical activity schedule, yet somehow the best laid plans go awry”.

“I had made a New Year resolution to shed off those extra pounds by eating healthy and regular exercise, but deadlines and obligations get piled up, I am barrelling from one thing to the next without time to catch my breath”

“I had planned a strict diet schedule this weekend with lots of veggies and fruits, it is just the middle of the week, and I am feeling down on myself and losing motivation to eat healthy”

Do these situations sound familiar? All these circumstances are so common and most of us faced them during routine hectic life schedule. These kinds of situations create a barrier to leading a healthy as well happy lifestyle for most of us.

Personally, I had faced these kinds of obstacles so many times (still, the battle is on, I am trying to overcome them, with my best possible efforts). These things felt like a failure and most of us felt that “living a healthy lifestyle” is really heard.

But now when we had a strong motivation to make health as a first priority and we do believe that #healthisDiamond, it is must to understand these common obstacles and how to overcome them?

Time

We lived in an incredibly busy world. We always had tons of personal, professional, social responsibilities. And during routine hectic life schedule, sometimes finding time for a healthy lifestyle can feel almost impossible,

Sometimes, it is really hard to carve out the time for all the things that really matter to you or you actually want to do that. So, yes! It is true that Lack of time and pressure of multiple responsibilities is the major obstacle that creates a barrier to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. And like all other moms, I also had faced the same issue especially after being a mommy.

Solution

v Of course, we have to learn some time management strategies for carving out a good time for eating healthy and maintaining a regular exercise schedule.

v Pre-planning and prior scheduling is the best thing that helps a lot, pre-plan your whole week with a moderate attitude.

v Use your in-between time slot smartly with small steps such as take staircase instead of lift, do some easy yoga moves while watching TV or cooking.

v Always focus on enjoying each change you have made and make some time for it, but it doesn’t have to be as miserable as it’s made to be getting the results.

v Go on slow and replace one unhealthy habit with a healthy one at one time. Try to make these changes a part of your life with positivity.

v Surround yourself with positive people who already following a healthy lifestyle and try to learn from them, that how they are managing all things together.

These are the smallest things that will help a lot in removing the first obstacle. Right now, I am working on all these things gradually. And with the help of these tactics, I am getting desired results.

Get bored easily

Of course, living a healthy lifestyle requires certain changes, rules and regulation. It needs a constant motivation to do right things, at right time. And most of the people did not find it interesting and get bored with a strict schedule. This attitude becomes a second major obstacle that put a barrier between you and healthy lifestyle.

Solution

v Being creative and add some interesting flavour to your healthy lifestyle routine is must to keep the spirit alive. And we can do it by making some simple changes such as:

v It is not necessary that healthy diet should be always a boring and tasteless diet; you can do a healthy makeover of your favourite dish by adding some healthy ingredients. Also, with the help of changing the method of cooking (steaming or baking instead of deep frying) could make a major difference.

v In the same way, for regular exercise chooses the activity that you enjoy. Make variation in your workout routine; take the help of family members and friends to make it interesting. Always explore the new options for exercising.

These things will definitely help to get rid of boredom and you would be better able to follow a healthy lifestyle with a positive attitude.

Overloading information (but not correct direction)

With the latest technological development, we had an abundance of information about living a healthy lifestyle. Each day we heard about the “latest diet plan for fast weight loss” or “latest gadget “to lose weight fast, with this overflowing information, it becomes nearly impossible to know what is right and appropriate for us? I think this is another obstacle that creates a state of confusion for most of the people, who had a strong desire to live a healthy lifestyle but did not have correct knowledge and direction to follow it.

Solution

v Educate yourself and avoid follow the blind advice from your friend, neighbours and other non-reliable sources is the best thing that can make our path a little easier.

v Keep remember that “each one has a different body type and the diet and exercise that may have worked for someone, may go against you”.

v Do not hesitate to ask for professional help if you are too confused and have no idea about how to begin? Also, if you already had any pre-existing disease condition, it is always advisable to take a professional medical advice for avoiding any serious consequences.

Apart from these major 3 obstacles, most of us faced some common psychological issues like feeling deprived. Having a lack of constant motivation and unable to maintain an ideal balance while living a healthy lifestyle. And all these things can be solved with a proper analysis and a little pre-planning.

So, at the end of this post, I would love to know about your experience. What are the obstacles you had faced while trying to live a healthy lifestyle? How had you overcome them? Please share with us!

This post is a part of #Blogchatterprojects.

And I am sharing my project with “Health is Wealth”, #HealthisDiamond theme.

Friday, December 1, 2017

#Blogchatterprojects #HealthisDiamond- Here is Why Putting Your Health First Should be a Priority?

“Good health and good sense are two of life’s greatest blessings”- Publilius Syrus.

Very well said, it is true that good Health is the most precious gift of the god, and it is not just about the freedom from the disease condition, it is about an overall well-being of the person. With good health, we can make the full use of our life compared to those who live with various disease conditions.

According to the Who, “Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”. There is the number of reasons, why good health is so important. (And I know you all already know that it is just a quick reminder)

With good health:

We can live longer
We can enjoy our life to fullest
Defenately we will look good and feel good.
We will have better mood, increased energy and more productivity.
We will have better immunity and less chances of repeated infection.
We will have lower chances of various chronic and lifestyle diseases like diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular diseases.
We will have reduced medical bill expenses. We would be able to cope with routine stress much better

Of course, we all know these great advantages of being healthy. But, despite these well known facts, sometimes “Health”, has become one of the most ignored aspects of life. Many people learn its importance after a major wake up call.

I was one of them.

“It was almost 9 years ago, when I was expecting our first child. During second trimester of pregnancy, I had a sudden and severe onset of preeclampsia symptoms (high B.P., swelling and oedema, and high protein in urine). My doctor has told me, that my body is not good enough to carry the baby up to full term. Despite repeated hospitalization and close monitoring, I had IUD (intrauterine death of foetus) in 7^th month. This was the most painful experience of life. I had lost my all hope and faith from the god. But After an initial recovery from my child loss, I had realised that “good health” is one of the most important thing in life. After lots of reading and various major lifestyle adjustments, I got the gift of motherhood. During these difficult journey, I had learnt an important life lesson that

“Your body is your most priceless possession, so go take care of it.”

However I had learnt the most important life lesson after this tragic experience. But, when we have a closer look to various disease statics, results are not so welcoming.

Have a look on this statistics:

· According to data’s, the burden of chronic diseases and lifestyle diseases is rapidly increasing worldwide. Almost ½ of the total chronic diseases are attributable to CVS, obesity, and diabetes. These diseases are showing a worrying trend, and not only because they already affecting a large proportion of the population, but also because they have started to appear earlier in the life.
· Scientific study shows that with rapid economic development and increased westernisation of lifestyle in past few decades’ prevalence of lifestyle diseases has reached alarming proportions among Indian in the recent years. No doubt, health awareness is the need of the hour with the increasing complex challenges towards us in the 21^st century.

Not only these data’s and statistics are shocking, the same thing I had observed on the personal level too. Being a physician and as an individual I had observed that “diseases especially chronic and life style diseases such as Asthma, arthritis, diabetes, hypertension and heart diseases are the major factor that creates a constant state of worry for most of the families. These diseases not only affect a single individual but put a negative pressure on whole family as well. The burden of these diseases, affect physical, mental, emotional, social and economic state of diseased individual. These diseases are main reason, that most of the people wouldn’t be able to enjoying their life at fullest.

After observing and analysing these facts, I always had a strong desire to motivate people, to make “health”, is one of the high priority in life. And when blog chatter has launched their blog projects and asked me, to choose any theme which I wish to use as subject for raising awareness among people. I was overwhelmed, and I had taken this golden opportunity to share my thoughts as #healthisDiamond project.

As we all know, taking necessary precautions and awareness are always better before the disease strikes. Through my blog chatter project, I want to raise awareness about the healthier life style that, of course includes eating healthy food and regular exercise. This thing will help in lower the risk of CVS and other life style diseases and in long term, it will increase optimism, productivity and contentment. My project will include these 4 topics:

· Why health is so important? Here are some incredible reasons, why “HealthisDiamond”?
· 10 Obstacles standing between you and a healthy life style
· A Complete guide to eat healthy with a busy lifestyle (20 realistic ways)
· A complete guide to exercise regularly with a hectic life schedule