If you missed our daily postings this past week, we invite you to take some time to catch up on our prior week's news and gear up for a new week of healthy living information and inspiration.

Angelina Jolie and Britney Spears -- Is it training, or are they using a secret ingredient?

One of these guys used to date a celebrity and used to be 35 pounds heavier. Can you guess who it is?

Jacki thinks Jennifer Connelly is getting sucked into the scary skinny Hollywood culture. Take a look and see what you think.

Oprah, now back at 200 pounds, asks "How could this happen again?" Fitz weighs in.

We want everything BIG ... except our bodies. Can we have it both ways? Find out what Jacki has to say.

Squats are a great way to tone up and build a little strength. Have you perfected yours? Watch this video to find out.

Jennifer Aniston has always been a fit celeb. And at 39, it definitely shows! Can you imagine posing in nothing but a tie right before you turn 40?

Got a sweet tooth? Then this won't surprise you at all ... sugar is officially addictive. (But don't let that stop you from trying to quit it. If I can do it, so can you.)

Chasing your kids can keep you busy from dawn to dusk. But is it fitness? What do you think?

Can dark chocolate stop you from gaining this holiday season? And if it can't, what about burning off those extra calories with a hula hoop instead?

Have a great week everyone!

Personally, I don't buy it -- that the run-around that comes with parenting can serve as enough exercise or an effective diet plan. But actress Melissa Joan Hart calls being the mommy of two little boys a constant workout. Running around and caring for sons Mason, 3, and Braydon, 8 months, is how she stays fit, says the one-time Sabrina, the Teenage Witch star.

"You don't have time to eat because you're chasing them all the time!" says Melissa. Yea, not for me. I have two little boys -- ages 7 and 5 -- and for all these years, I have found time to eat, sometimes even too much. What I haven't always found time for is my own personal exercise time. Maybe lifting babies in and out of high chairs all day does the trick for this celebrity. For me, not so much. Keeping my body in shape takes a whole lot more. It takes running, walking, biking, swimming, and lifting. It takes lot of time, lots of commitment, and lots of sweat.

I wish it were as easy for me as it is for Melissa. But it's not. How about you -- does parenting keep you slim?

Source

As a mom, I work pretty hard (like all of you) to make sure that my kids not only eat a healthy diet, but that they learn how to make good choices about what they put in their mouth. Though my three-year-old still needs a little convincing, my five-year-old is really starting to get the picture. She tries new foods at meal times, knows the difference between "sometimes" foods and "all the time" foods, and looks forward to "treats" like fresh cucumbers from the garden or green peppers dipped in hummus.

After a busy day running errands last week, however, she really showed me that all the focus on nutrition was paying off. It was a grueling day of doctor appointments and car repair, and it was long past when they should have had an afternoon snack. I resorted to the bad behavior of bribing to get my cranky kids through, promising a trip to the ice cream store on the way home.

After our last errand, we passed the farmer's market and decided to stop. We picked up fresh, local cherries, raspberries, and melon to chop up into a fruit salad for dinner. After we all got loaded in the car, my daughter told me, "Mom, you don't need to get us ice cream now. We just want to eat those raspberries. Is that ok?"

Is that ok? I assured her that, yes, that was a great idea. We drove home, ate all of the raspberries before they could be put into the salad, and marveled at how, sometimes, our kids have so much to teach us.

The other day, after a particularly stressful morning, I got into my car and suddenly took stock of myself. My heart was racing, I was breathing quickly, and my head was pounding. "That's it," I thought to myself, "You need to take five minutes and get yourself together. This isn't healthy."

Stress can be hard to avoid sometimes, but chronic stress can affect not only your mental and emotional health, but your physical health as well. CNN (via Parenting.com) has 13 ways to destress in five minutes or less. These are great little activities that you can do during a stolen moment to try to recenter yourself and remember what's important. My favorites include:

• Jump rope -- it releases those endorphins that make you feel so good.
• Say your ABCs backward to take your mind of what's stressing you out.
• Play some music; studies say it's a proven mood-booster.
• Get some sunlight to give yourself a serotonin boost.

Stress in unavoidable, but with these tips and the others you can turn your mood around before that stress pulls you under.

Source

All those talk shows that host the "Who's Your Daddy?" episodes are soon to be out of commission. (What was with all of those anyway, Maury Povich?) Meijer and Rite Aid stores are going to start stocking low-cost paternity tests. I can't imagine there's a huge market for such an item, but the manufacturer, Identigene, feels that there are people that would like to solve paternity disputes quietly and economically -- without involving lawyers.

The kits retails for $29.99. They include cotton swabs for taking cell samples from inside the mouth. The swabs are then sealed and sent to a lab with an additional $119 processing fee. Results can be accessed online within three to five business days.

Source

Parenting is not easy. Even the best of moms deal with tantrums from toddlers. But would you believe a statistic that says mothers and their young children argue upwards of 20 to 25 times an hour?

It sounds sensational, especially when displayed as a headline. But there's more to this study than a bunch of strife. Researchers watched 60 pairs of moms and toddlers in a lab to try out various conditions that would make the child more prone to having a temper tantrum. The mothers were told to play with their child, but enforce rules that would make him or her likely to argue.

This was done at a little over two years of age. A second phase observed similar situations six months later. The findings reveal that under strenuous circumstances, the number of arguments was up to two dozen on average. However, my only problem with this study is that it's easy to infer round-the-clock temper tantrums. In reality, the scientists purposefully set it up that way. They're quick to note that these conflicts are normal for that age -- it's just interesting to see concrete stats applied to child rearing tendencies.

Source

Does your child eat a balanced diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables? Are your kids physically active? Do they have a pet they're responsible for? These are just a few of the questions I was asked when I took the RealAge Healthy Kids Test. RealAge -- it's not just for grownups any more.

If you're honest with this test, it'll spit out some good information when you're done. For instance, it'll list all of the good habits you're instilling in your children and then it will also tell you how much the bad habits you're ignoring will age your child by the time she's in her 30s. Better yet, RealAge will help you give you some tips to help you refine those trouble spots and improve your child's health.

Source

Child-rearing is a sticky subject: one that will drive people to shout, scream and preach about the right and wrong ways to do it. I don't believe anyone has the perfect answer. But that doesn't stop people from debating it! Articles like this pose a big question for parenting. Is it effective to let a child "cry it out" for a better night sleep? Or should parents be co-sleeping with their babies?

One method points to something called "ferberizing." Many people may consider this tough love, but Dr. Ferber begs to differ. He states that leaving a baby to cry by itself is not recommended by his system. Instead, he suggests using his time chart for crying only when all other possible solutions have been exhausted. In other words, "ferberizing" should be used to try and fix severe sleeping problems with a baby.

Other people don't identify with his methods. Instead, they co-sleep with their child. Call it attachment parenting if you will, but this basically is the opposite of Ferber's system. Parents and baby share a bed, but they say parents need to have a clearly defined end for this stage. Controversies aside, this seems like an argument that can't be solved using one definite practice over another. As any parent will tell you, every child is different and should be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

Source

Are obese kids fat, or just big-boned? That seems to be the division between how parents see their kids. According to a study, over forty percent of parents whose children are extremely overweight reported their offspring to be "about the right weight." Thirty-seven percent actually admitted their kids as being overweight at all, while a startling response of "slightly underweight" was reported by others.

Is this even an issue needing to be addressed? After all, if that's how the parents want to see their children, that should be their prerogative right? Well, I'm all for parental freedom, but unfortunately for the kids, the denial of their parents could lead to adult complications later on. Diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol issues could come from growing up overweight.

They aren't necessarily talking about baby fat either. The age criteria for the kids had to be between 6 and 11-years-old. And all those evil complications weren't direct side-effects either, but rather byproducts of a chronically unhealthy lifestyle. Maybe this is just a case of parents underestimating their kid's weight. After all, moms and dads are not being malicious or anything -- some actually recognize the issue! Hopefully the others can realize what's going on before their children suffer any consequences of being obese.

Source

One of the best pieces of parenting advice I've ever received -- and now the best I have to offer -- is to give kids choices. Not just any choices, though. Just the choices where each option is a winner from the parent point of view. Take bedtime, for example. In our household, one of our two bundles of joy always resists this dreaded hour. He'd do anything to stay up a few minutes later. He'd also do anything to avoid completing his first-grade homework. So we, his parents, often present him with a choice. First we back up bedtime by 20 or 30 minutes. Then we ask, "Would you like to go to bed right now or would you like to do some homework first?" Homework always wins. And so does everyone involved. Joey gets to make an important decision and postpone bedtime -- kind of -- and we get a more cooperative boy when tucking-in time arrives.

The choice thing works for picky eaters too. For those who beg for cookies and candy snacks, why not head off the sweet request with a question like this:, "Do you want a crunchy apple or a juicy orange?" For the kid who complains about veggies, try this: "Do you think I should make piles of peas or bunches of broccoli for dinner? Let's face it -- kids like power. And if they can use it to arrive at safe and healthy outcomes, I see no problem with a little delegation. In fact, I sometimes leave our weekly menu planning up to Joey -- he fights bedtime and eating -- and he gets to pick the meal for each night of one week. As long as it meets our nutritional standards, it's a go. If he picks it, he eats it. He likes to be in charge.

Next time you're faced with a cranky kid, whip out some options and see where it takes you. Just make sure you're happy with each choice. This way, both you and the kiddo will end up satisfied.

New moms have it rough. No doubt about it. Everything from the physical recovery of giving birth to sleepless nights and zombie-like days can drain the best of us. It's hard to imagine good nutrition and exercise ever fitting into the hectic days with wee ones. The experts at parenting.com say it's possible, though. Here are some of their ideas for sneaking in some good-for-you nutrition and fitness.

• Start the day off right with a healthy breakfast, a quick workout, and some tunes. Breakfast quick picks include whole-grain cereal with skim milk, low-fat cottage cheese with fresh fruit, or two hard-boiled eggs with wheat toast or crackers. Workouts can be as short as 15 minutes. Try some squats, lunges, push-ups, and crunches to get the day started. Then belt out some of your favorite lyrics -- singing burns 59 calories per hour.
  
  
• Drink water throughout the day to keep your body properly hydrated.
  

Source

There is no guidebook for the first year or so of being a parent to a newborn child, although there are volumes of books that cover this very subject. You can read about it all you want, but in most cases, you have to find your own way.

Are these mistakes you should avoid in those first few weeks, months and even the first year? Sure there are, like not waking that newborn up every four hours during the first two weeks of life. Sleeping through the night? A no-no.

Newborns need food and nourishment at a better frequency than eight hours, and it's your jobs to get them there. It might make your sleep world a little hectic, but for that precious bundle of joy nearby, it's the right thing to do, according to most pediatricians. Want more? See these tips.

Source

Couples and individuals have been turned down in their attempts to adopt a child because of their sexual orientation, because they smoke and now because they're too fat? That's what happened to a 278-lb woman in Australia -- wannabe mother Kylie Lannigan was told to lose 115 lbs.

What do you think of this ruling? I can see both sides -- on one hand, obese people have more health problems than those at a normal weight. They're prone to more illnesses, have a much shorter projected lifespan and most likely don't have the energy to keep up with kids. They also most likely don't have a healthy diet or get an acceptable amount of activity, which could lead to unhealthy habits in their adopted child, too.

And yet, if someone was denied the chance to adopt because of something like their ethnic background, it provoke a zealous outrage that they were being discriminated against. So how is this any different?

Source

Divorce and custody battles can get ugly. Take this case in Florida where a father is suing for custody of his 10-year old quintuplets. One reason the father cites is that the children's mother is a strict vegan and keeps her children on a vegan diet as well.

I don't know enough about the case to form an opinion about custody one way or the other; that's up to the parents and the courts. I don't know how strict the mother's rules are and whether or not the father's complaints are valid. But it was surprising to read that a vegan diet is being included in a custody argument. I'm not vegetarian nor vegan. But when did being a vegan become criteria for good or bad parenting? As long as plenty of protein is still included, a vegan diet can be healthy for kids. (Vegan sources of protein include soy milk, beans, tofu, and peanut butter.) What do you think?

Source

If you've been a parent for more than five minutes, then you probably know that for every published parenting method out there, there's a kid who knows how to defeat it. As my kids grow, I find myself relying more and more on flying by the seat of my pants parental intuition than I ever did on any one advice book. I love, however, a great work around and when I see or hear something that I know will work with my kids, I have no shame in taking it on as my own. "No feet where you eat," for instance, is a big hit in our house and keeps my toddler from using her booster seat as her own personal lounge chair.

Here's a list of 7 quirky discipline ideas that work (for the author, at least.) I see at least one on the list that I use with my preschooler ("I can't understand you when you speak like that.") and at least one I'm going to try when we clean up after lunch today ("You can't be in the room when I'm working unless you work, too."). I've found that my own kids are much more likely to cooperate when I make things simple and fun, and involve them in the process. Many of these ideas fit that bill.

What about you? What kind of parenting tricks do you use to keep your household running smoothly?

Source