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Fun summer activities you can do with your family

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When thinking of the term “exercising” we often think of team sports, or something that we can do as an individual, like running. The thought of ‘family’ doesn’t really come to mind, but often our families are where we first learned the basics of exercising. Kicking the soccer ball in the backyard, doing chores around the house, riding a bike or simply going for a walk around the block. These small activities laid the foundation for many of the exercises we continue to do throughout our lives.

Although many of us share memories of doing activities like these growing up, organizations like ParticipACTION are noticing that there is now a drop off in activity by youth. According to their study, only 9% of Canadian kids ages 5 to 11 accumulate the recommended guideline of 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per day, at least six days a week.

Take steps now to combat this and it will be easier for you and your children to retain a heart-healthy lifestyle over each of your lives. There are many activities that you as a family can do together, and to help provide you with some ideas of fun things to do, we’re sharing 8 of our favorites.

Walk or a Hike

Going for a simple walk around the neighborhood can be a great activity for any age. If you’re looking for something more challenging, organizing a hike with your family can be a great way to maintain your physical fitness while seeing more of the great outdoors. Look at national parks in your area and make a day or weekend of it! Just make sure that you’re properly prepared if you do plan to go out into the wilderness.

Cycling

Families with members of all ages can definitely enjoy the benefits of cycling. The exercise can actually be better for older members of your family as it usually has less impact on the muscles and joints. Organize a bike ride around your neighborhood with your family and see the many parts of your community.

Swimming

Especially during the summer months, swimming can be a great activity for the whole family to enjoy and cool off. Many municipalities offer plenty of family time swims, as well as free swims at pools. If you’re really adventurous, take your family out for a beach day. There are a wide variety of beaches in Ontario, so get out there and explore!

Organize Family Play Times

This sounds super simple, because it is! Simply organize some fun games or sports that you can do in a park or in a backyard that will get you moving. Common games we love to play include, soccer, tag, and water fights. Want to get really creative? Invite extended family or friends from the neighborhood. They may be able to introduce your family to a new game or activity that you may not have been aware of.

Create An Activity Pack

Have some downtime with your family? Build a backpack of basic activity gear with items such as balls or other catch-and-throw objects (like a Frisbee), a jump rope, sidewalk chalk, pylons (to serve as targets or goal posts), a Dyna Band or any other equipment that suits your family’s interests. This pack will help save you on slower days.

Go To The Playground

The Playground offers endless opportunities of fun to be had. Ask your kids about fun games that they like to play with their friends during recess such as grounders, tag, hopscotch, monkey bars and 4-square. This can be difficult for some members of the family, as playgrounds aren’t really meant for adults and can be difficult to maneuver.

Yoga

Yoga is beneficial for anyone at any age. It allows you to center yourself and to stretch out many areas of your body to stay flexible and mobile. The best part is that you can do Yoga anywhere, so whether you’re at the beach, in the backyard, or at home, you’ll always have a space to do this great exercise.

If you would like more ideas on how to stay active with your family, we highly encourage you to go and check out the Participaction’s site. They have a plethora of programs and ideas to help keep you active.

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Summer Season: Heart Healthy Recipes

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With the summer season upon us, it means that many Canadians will be taking full advantage of the outdoors. Summer allows us to enjoy activities that we wouldn’t normally have the ability to do the rest of the year as the environment is often too cold.

For these reasons, Canadians tend to gravitate towards BBQing and eating outdoors as primary summer activities.

The change in climate doesn’t always provide you with the best benefits though, as foods that you reserve for summer can also bring a lot of risk to your diet. Many of us are prone to gravitating towards less healthy choices that might be higher in fat, such as burgers and hot dogs.

Here are some heart-healthy food ideas for you to consider this summer:

Heart Healthy Meals

Tilapia and Vegetables

Grilled Corn Salsa

Piri Piri Chicken

Bulgur Wheat Salad

Peachy Chicken Salad

Summer Fruit Smoothie Ice Pops

Vanilla Lemon Berry Parfaits

Tart Apple Buttermilk Cake

Recipes From Our Resident Expert, Marsha Rosen, RD
Here are some heart-healthy recipes provided by Marsha Rosen, RD (Registered Dietitian). Marsha is Mike Salem’s sister and in addition to offering private nutrition counselling, Marsha provides group lectures, seminars and cooking demonstrations.

If you have a nutrition question for our dietitian, you can email Marsha here…

Do you have a heart-healthy recipe that you would like to share? Send your recipes to info@mikeynetwork.com

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Fun Spring/Summer Activities

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Spring is here and the summer season is underway! Now more than ever is the perfect time to give your heart health a boost while having fun. To help you get moving and enjoying the beautiful outdoors, we’ve shared some of our favourite activities to do during the summer.

Walking

There are so many benefits to walking regularly for your heart health. It’s affordable, accessible, helps you to burn unwanted calories and it’s simple to master. More importantly, especially during the summer, it allows you to go places you may have never gone and discover more of the great outdoors. Most research studies suggest that from three to five hours of walking a week is the optimum for improving health.

A great summer’s day outing with walking in mind is to plan for a picnic in a park.  This is an easy activity that every member of your family can do, and can build into a range of other games and sports that more active members of your family can take part in.

Biking

Dust off that bike that’s been sitting in your garage all winter and use it to explore. Biking (depending on how far you go) can be one of the next easiest activities to do. During the summer there is so much to see, so hop on that bike with a friend or loved one and see what your city has to offer.

Make sure to stay well-hydrated while on your biking adventures. You’re more likely to be going further distances, so make sure that you have plenty of snacks and water with you to stay properly energized.

Swimming

This is simply a no-brainer. What better thing to do when there’s sweltering heat than to go to the local pool and cool off during the hotter days of the summer. Many municipalities and city’s have pools that are open to the public; some of them are even free to use! Check out what facilities are available in your area and plan for a day to get a nice tan and to cool off.

Make sure to bring plenty of sunscreen with you when you go to a pool. Often people will apply and then will jump in the pool. This, unfortunately, takes off of that layer of protection that you just put on and leaves you vulnerable to getting a very bad burn. Make sure to re-apply each time you leave the pool and plan to sit in the summer sun.

Low-Activity Sports

If you’re playing a sport it doesn’t always have to be an activity where you’re completely sweating the entire time. Look to join activities that are fun, active and won’t leave you feeling fatigued. Some of our go to’s are Tennis, Golfing, Lawn bowling and simply throwing around a frisbee.

If you need some ideas for other summer activities, we recommend checking out the Participaction website. It has a library full of activities that you can do either by yourself or with others, to keep active.

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Consider these tips before or after a workout

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This week’s Fitness Post is brought to you by personal trainer Igor Klibanov from Fitness Solutions Plus.

Are you stretching enough? The truth is that what makes sense for one person may not make sense for another. The same is true with stretching.

If you’ve been to my talk called “exercise for different body types”, you’ll know how our trainers assess our clients to determine whether they should stretch or not.

Whether you should stretch before or after exercise and how is only complicated by the fact that there are 4 different types of stretching:

  1. Static passive. This is the most common form of stretching. Think about putting your leg out and reaching forward. It’s static (meaning that you’re not moving), and it’s passive (meaning that you let an external force, like gravity pull you into position).
  2. Static active. Think about how figure skaters skate with one leg up in the air (doing a standing split). This is static (means they’re not moving), but active (because they’re using their own muscle force to get into position).
  3. Dynamic passive. Think about swinging your leg forward and back. It’s dynamic (meaning the limb is moving), but it’s passive, because you’re letting an external force (in this case, momentum) take you through the range of motion.
  4. Dynamic active. It looks similar to dynamic passive, but it’s done under much more control, in which case you’d be using your own muscle force to move the limb.

I hesitate to make generalizations, since one-size-fits-all isn’t optimal (or can actually injure you), but before exercise, you should do dynamic stretches, and after exercise, static stretches.

There are exceptions to this rule, however. What if you have certain muscles that are tight to begin with? In that case, it makes sense to do static stretching on those muscle both before and after.

Oh, and here’s a side note: just because a muscle feels tight doesn’t mean it is tight, and stretching that muscle will do more damage than good. We look at your range of motion to truly identify if a muscle is tight or not. Often muscles can feel tight because neighboring muscles in the body are weak, so they’re taking the load of the weak muscles.

When we’re working with clients, to determine whether they should stretch, what type of stretching, and how much, here are all the factors that go into our consideration:

  1. Present range of motion of different joints (tighter people will need more stretching. For people who have lax joints, stretching will actually increase their risk of injury).
  2. Demands of daily life. Are we working with a desk-bound employee or a gymnast? The desk-bound employee will require less range of motion than the gymnast.
  3. Previous and current injuries.
  4. Goals. If your goals include improved flexibility, we’ll be stretching you more than if your goals include weight loss.

As you can see, it’s not quite as simple as saying “do these stretches”, and you’ll be healthier for it. Not the case. For some people (we see this especially in women), stretching may create more laxity in already lax joints, and increase risk of injury.

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A Spring Chocolate Cake

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Servings: 32 pieces
Preheat oven to 350º F.

Ingredients

QUANTITYINGREDIENT
1 1/2 cupswhite sugar
2/3 cupcanola oil
2eggs
2 tsps.vanilla extract
2 2/3 cupsall-purpose flour
2/3 cupcocoa
2 tsps.baking powder
2 tsps.baking soda
1 tsp.salt
2 cupsboiling water

Instructions

  1. In a large bowl, beat sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla for 4 minutes.
  2. In another bowl, sift together, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
  3. Add flour mixture alternately with boiling water to the sugar mixture.
  4. Beat well after each addition.
  5. Pour into an oiled and floured 9 x 13 pan.
  6. Bake for 40 minutes or until the cake springs back to the touch.
  7. Yield: 32 pieces (118 calories and 4.5 g fat each)

NOTE: cut pieces smaller for fewer calories and less fat per piece

Recipes From Our Resident Expert, Marsha Rosen, RD
Here are some heart-healthy recipes provided by Marsha Rosen, RD (Registered Dietitian). Marsha is Mike Salem’s sister and in addition to offering private nutrition counseling, Marsha provides group lectures, seminars, and cooking demonstrations, and is a sought-after contributor to health-related publications.

If you have a nutrition question for our dietician, you can email Marsha here…

Do you have a heart-healthy recipe that you would like to share? Send your recipes to info@mikeynetwork.com

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