Category Archives: Healthy Living

Splash Into A Safe Summer Giveaway {$100 Visa Gift Card & Eucerin Prize Pack}

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Can you believe that it’s already the end of June!? I hope you all are enjoying your summer so far. I hope you are also taking care of your skin while you are outside. Eucerin has shared some great tips for keeping your skin protected that I wanted to pass on to you all:

· Apply sunscreen 15 minutes before you head outside. Don’t forget places like the tops of your ears, nose, eyelids, lips, back, hands, feet, shoulders and backs of thighs. Be sure to reapply your sunscreen or a lotion with SPF every 2 hour or more frequently, and if you’re swimming at the pool or beach make sure to use a water resistant, broad spectrum sunscreen.
· Wear sun protective clothing – Did you know fabrics have an ultraviolet protection factor (UPF) rating that measures their level of UV protection? These fabrics provide more protection than other clothing due to the tighter woven fabric. Look for clothing with a UPF rating of 30 or higher.
· Wear sunglasses to help protect eyes and sensitive skin around them from ultraviolet light
· Wear a hat – A wide-brimmed hat can shield your skin from the sun’s harsh rays. 
· Use Daily lightweight moisturizers that have SPF to protect skin even on cloudy days –  Eucerin Daily Protection Lotions are lightweight SPF moisturizers that provide head-to-toe sun protection. SPF 15 Body Lotion helps protect against daily UV exposure while SPF 30 Face Lotion moisturizes and protects with UVA/UVB sunscreens.
· Stay inside or seek shade when the sun’s rays are the strongest – between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.  A beach umbrella or portable shelter can help protect your skin from the heat and sun’s rays.

Hope those tips will help you keep your skin safe this summer! Don’t forget that you can get a couple samples of Eucerin Daily Protection body lotion by taking the Skin First pledge on their Facebook page.

GIVEAWAY:

One reader will win a Splash Into A Safe Summer prize pack that includes:

$100 Visa Gift Card

Sun Hat to help protect your face and the top of your head.

Eucerin Daily Protection Moisturizing Body Lotion Sunscreen SPF 15 (13.5 oz.)

Eucerin Daily Protection Moisturizing Face Lotion Sunscreen SPF 30 (4 oz.)

HOW TO ENTER:

{Do any or all of the following, leave a separate comment for each you do}

1) Tell me what you do to keep your skin safe in the summer (or what you will start doing)

2) Like Making Time For Mommy on Facebook

3) Like Eucerin on Facebook

4) Follow @aliciamarie112 on Twitter

5) Follow @EucerinUS on Twitter

6) Share this giveaway on a social network

7) Subscribe to this blog via RSS or email (look in upper right hand corner)

8) Enter another one of my giveaways (found here)

9) Comment on a non-giveaway post (found here)

10) Follow me on Pinterest

Giveaway ends July 20, 2012 at 11:59pm Central time. US only and must be 18+.

(Disclosure: I was compensated for posting this as a Eucerin Skin First Ambassador. This giveaway is not associated with Facebook in any way.)

Breakfast: Thinking Inside And Outside The Box

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The following excerpt is taken from the new edition of Food Fights: Winning the Nutritional Challenges of Parenthood Armed With Insight, Humor and a Bottle of Ketchup (American Academy of Pediatrics, March 2012) by Laura A. Jana, MD, FAAP and Jennifer Shu, MD, FAAP. For more information about Food Fights, please visit www.HealthyChildren.org, the official American Academy of Pediatrics web site for parents.

It’s easy to see how breakfast has come to qualify as one of the nutritional challenges of parenthood. Whether it’s your own parental time constraints or your child’s busy schedule, getting the whole family ready to set off to child care and/or school in the morning, play dates, or any of a whole host of other common early-in-the-day commitments, breakfast is often neglected. If the words “slow” and “leisurely” don’t exactly describe your morning routine, we’d like to suggest that you commit a little extra time and effort to protecting the nutritional integrity of your child’s morning meal. Whether you opt for a simple breakfast or a more elaborate one, any effort to make it nutritious is better than no breakfast at all. Whether that means a glass of low-fat milk and a piece of wheat toast or an all-out feast, the following breakfast-made-easier tips will hopefully help you rise to the occasion and overcome some of the most common barriers to a healthy breakfast.

Schedule Accordingly. While we’d like to remind you that sitting down and sharing family meals is beneficial, we’re willing to bet that sitting down to a leisurely breakfast with your kids each morning simply isn’t realistic for most of you (or us, for that matter). What is realistic, however, is making sure you carve out enough time to allow your child to eat without pressure. Especially for infants and toddlers, this includes factoring in enough time in the morning’s schedule to allow for both assisted- and self-feeding.

Fix Breakfast Before Bedtime.In other words, plan ahead. As with just about all other aspects of feeding your child, a little advance planning can go a long way toward having a wider range of healthy foodson hand. Simple examples such as hard-boiling eggs ahead of time orhaving your child’s favorite cold cereal dished out the night before to pair with some presliced fresh fruit can mean the difference between time for a balanced breakfast and running out the door without it (or, as is often the case, with some commercially packaged and far less nutritious alternative in hand).

Grab-and-Go Breakfasts. If the reality of your schedule is such that you and your kids routinely run out the door with no time to spare in the morning, then try stocking up on a variety of nutritious foods that you can pre-prepare and prepackage for healthier grab-and-go convenience. In addition to hard-boiled eggs, consider other fast favorites like sliced apples, homemade muffins, or a bagel with low-fat cream cheese.

Make Sure Sleep Is on the Menu. Applying the age-old adage, make sure your child is early enough to bed that she rises early enough to allow time for breakfast. No matter what their age, tired kids tend to be cranky, and cranky kids are far less likely to sit down for a well-balanced breakfast. Not only that, but sleep has proven itself to be a crucial ingredient in children’s overall health.


Broaden Your Horizons. You’ll certainly want to keep safety in mind when figuring out what’s age-appropriate to offer your child for breakfast, but don’t let yourself be constrained by artificially imposed labels to determine what is good to serve for a morning meal. Think protein, think fruits and vegetables, and think outside the box when it comes to expanding your breakfast horizons beyond just breakfast cereals and milk.

Look for Child Care and School Support. Be sure to check out what breakfast options your child’s school or child care provider offers. With much-deserved attention now being paid to the food our children eat in out-of-home settings, you’re more likely to find balanced breakfast options on the menu, and your child may well be more receptive to eating them if all of his friends are eating alongside him.

(Disclosure: I was compensated for this post. This is a guest post and all thoughts and opinions belong to the author.)